The last store Alex will ever see the inside of

Yesterday Kate, Archie, Alex and I decided we needed to get out of the house. The new addition, Heidi, makes it so that we can't all fit into one car anymore for our adventures, with the plethora of car seats and all. Luckily, Grandma was willing to babysit pint size so the rest of us could have some fun.

We perused the fabric store for a few projects I'm thinking of starting, I was enjoying myself and dreaming off all the fun things that could be made from all the beautiful fabric and things. Everything was going relatively well for awhile, and then I realized that I was the only one having fun. Alex and Archie decided they both wanted to escape the shopping cart, and when they were denied that pleasure they started to hit, pull hair, grab and in general bug each other. A few mini tantrums later (handled very well by Kate) we were finally making our exit when I realized that Alex didn't have her shoes on. In fact they weren't even in the cart. This led us on an expedition back through the store looking down every isle for her shoes. When we finally did find them she proceeded to throw the newly purchased fabric and bag out of the cart, then seconds later, strip off her jacket and throw it out of the cart. Luckily we made it to the car before her shirt and pants could follow.

Most of the time I can't help but laugh at the crazy and ridiculous things that Alex does. This being one of them. But sometimes, I'll admit I just want to cry.

Barrel of Monkeys

Heidi at 3 weeks. Hit her teenage years early, with a full face of acne.

I'll admit it.

I hate Barrel Of Monkeys.

Today while I was sorting through and trying to arrange her toy room (our living room), I happened to injure myself with one of those darn awful monkeys.

I dragged the top of my foot over it in such a way, that I'm afraid I have permanent nerve damage and will never regain feeling on the top of my right foot.

Despite this, when Tyler offered to throw them away once and for all, while I whimpered and complained, I just couldn't do it.

The thought that someday those monkey's might bring Alex a little bit of simple joy, and imagining the smile on her face when she finally figures out to use them correctly, prevented me from doing away with the little devils.

Does this make me a really great mom, a pack rat, or just a crazy person?

Alex wanted to lay down by Heidi. And no, I never clean Alex's face.

The one picture I got in Boise before the battery died.

A road trip and a wedding

My memories of the weeks following Alex's delivery pretty much consist of me laying in bed watching entire seasons of Dr. Quinn daily. I don't think I saw the sun for a month, or did anything remotely fun for about 3. Part of this was due to c-section recovery, and part of this was because we lived in a terrible dark basement, It was cold March, and I really didn't have any friends to hang out with.

The weeks following Heidi's recovery have been awesome!!! Part of this is due to being able to have a natural delivery, and part of this is due to the fact that I realized life doesn't need to stop once new baby arrives.

This weekend Tyler was going to Boise to Test for their Fire department, and it happened to be at the same time as my beautiful cousin Julia's wedding. So at the last minute, (after wresting with whether to be prudent and stay home alone with the kids, or try out Heidi on her first road trip at 2.5 weeks old) I decided to be brave, grab both kids and go along! I probably wouldn't have gone, but my fantastic brother and his wife decided to come along as well and help me out with the kiddos while Tyler was testing.

The drive to Boise on Friday was great! We ended up leaving later in the morning, and had to stop every 2-3 hours for Heidi, but other than a few tantrums on Alex's part, it went quite well. We arrived at my Aunt and Uncle's house after about 9 hours of driving (instead of the estimated 6) and had a great time eating food, talking to family and swimming in their wonderful swimming pool. Their property is situated on a hot spring and so their outdoor pool is about the temperature of a mild hot tub, which is just about perfect. Alex and Tyler LOVED it!!!! (check it out......www.roystonehotsprings.com)

Saturday Tyler left early to test and didn't end up joining us until that evening. The girls and I got to spend the whole day hanging out with my super fun cousins, some of whom I haven't seen in 10 years! I had a wonderful time catching up with everyone and was so glad we ended up going. Alex was thrilled with the fact that their cat had just had a litter of kittens, and so she spent most of the day trying to get someone to take her outside, or bring a kitten inside. Of course she picked the two busiest people to cling onto, the bride, and the mother of the bride, and was hardly content with anyone else until Michael and Danielle showed up and saved the day. Michael was a pro with Heidi, carrying her around everywhere and was even able to quiet the screaming little girl while I got ready for the wedding. Danielle was like Alex's second mom, following her around, feeding her, teaching, and playing with her. If you can't tell, I am so grateful they showed up and thankful they are always willing to come play with us and visit.

The wedding was beautiful and I loved the decorations. I can't even describe it, but it was just beautiful. I remembered to take my camera, but didn't check the battery until we arrived, only to find it was dead. Fortunately there were lots of lovely people with cameras who I hope will send me some pictures (Camille, wink, wink).

After the wedding we went back to the house and hung out late into the night. I have such a great family, they are so fun and hilarious. I just can't say enough wonderful things about them all. It was just what I needed, to get together and reconnect with everyone.

The grandness of the weekend was just bright enough of overshadow the horror of driving home on Sunday. Alex would not be content with anything, Heidi cried the last hour home, I had a head ache and Tyler was exhausted (from graciously taking late night Heidi duty AND early morning Heidi and Alex duty. I know, I'm a terrible person to make him do both). But we made it, and we would, and will, do it again. We were planning on taking a detour to see Craters of the Moon National Park, but decided at the last minute to wait until we had a backpack and could hike around with Heidi. Thank goodness we decided not to add 3 hours to our journey, I don't know if everyone would have made it back alive.

Freezer Jam

(This is where I found Alex after I turned by back today. We have given up on trying to keep Alex out of Heidi's things. So far the only thing we have even been moderately successful with is keeping her out of the bassinet, although not for lack of her trying, mostly because it is to tall.)

Yesterday at the store I saw Strawberries were on sale. 98 cents a pound. The day before we had run out of the last batch of homemade jam, and so I pounced.

When I married Tyler, I was introduced to the beauty and wonder of homemade freezer jam. Once you experience Susan's jam, you just can't go back to the store bought kind. A few months ago at a relief society activity I discovered a slightly different recipe for this freezer jam that only required 1.5 cups of sugar. It was so deliciously fruity, I was hooked.

While unloading the groceries Tyler commented that I had either started an all strawberry diet, or I was up to something. I guess 8 pounds of strawberries is a lot.

This morning I decided that the girls and I would bond while we made our preserves. The cuteness I had imagined lasted about 5 minutes. Thats about when Heidi dozed off, and Alex stopped being content as a strawberry thief.

She was a great helper. In fact when I asked, nay, insisted she go play with her cars, she refused. She wasn't going to leave me alone with so much work to do.

The delicious jam got made. Thanks to Alex the walls, the carpet, the table, and even Heidi I later discovered got jam on them. It was fun. A tad bit stressful, but fun. I think I'll do the next batch alone.

(This is how I found Heidi after I got off the phone with Tyler. It's nice how well the girls play together.)

2 weeks old already!

(Heidi at a few hours old)

(Heidi, now 2 weeks old)

Somehow I earned an enormous blessing about when Heidi was born. Up until that time Alex slept until 6:30 or 7 everyday, which was great! But starting about the day we came home from the hospital, Alex has been sleeping until 8 or 8:30 EVERY MORNING! Heidi has not been so considerate and regaurdless of what I try, wakes up every 1.5- 2 hours at night. This is why I am so greateful that I get to catch a few extra Z's while Tyler tends Heidi and Alex sleeps late into the A.M.

(Alex helping Daddy plant sunflower seeds)

Alex was born into a quiet world. I don't think she even saw another kid until Nicholas and Christian came to visit when she was 3 months old. Most of her life until we moved back to Utah, was spent hanging out with me in various basements and living rooms, just the two of us.

(Alex's hands after covering herself from finger tips to elbows in peanut butter, while no one was watching)

Heidi on the other hand will never experience this quiet world. Alex wakes up just as I'm finished with the 5th feeding of the day, and demands to hold Heidi first thing. Then directly after breakfast she heads from her booster seat straight to Heidi's bouncer chair and proceeds to 'mother' her for a few hours. This consists of placing every blanket she can find over Heidi's legs, piling all her toys onto Heidi's lap, smothering her with kisses and admiring her fingers and toes. Once she gets bored of Heidi, she moves onto her own dolls, which she wraps up in blankets, takes for rides on the rocking chair or rocking giraffe, throws off the couch, and occasionally puts into timeout.

(Heidi's first bath, the moment of calm before she started screaming)

Heidi's life is far more interesting in the first 2 weeks, than Alex's was for the first 6 months. I can't believe it's already been 2 weeks! It seems like much longer, but at the same time like it's flying by. This weekend we got to spend a lot of time with Kara and Devin, playing croquette, jumping on the trampoline, eating yummy food, going to the park and laughing a lot. At the end of the day I walk away thinking that there is no possible way that they had even half as much fun as we did. Alex LOVES the trampoline, and I loved watching her goof off with her Aunt and Uncle. It's been a great 2 weeks!

Alex learned the word Gun today.

We live on a fairly busy street. So much so that I'm afraid to let Alex play in the yard (front or back) supervised or not, for fear of her being run down by a car. Practically everyday we hear sirens and see firetrucks and ambulances driving by our front window. Yesterday Michael and Danielle came to visit while Tyler was studying at school. We were all lounging in the living room when I heard some sirens and told Alex to look out the window. Sure enough we saw a cop car driving rather quickly down the street. I told Alex to keep looking as there would probably be an ambulance following soon, but what actually came next caught us all by surprise.
As I'm sitting contently rocking my little baby, I see a man run through our front yard out of the corner of my eye, and then I hear Danielle say "He's got a gun!" Followed by more sirens and then through our open kitchen door I hear "GET DOWN, GET DOWN!" In my mind, in those 10 seconds I'm thinking "Some lunatic is running from the cops and going to have a shootout in our driveway, my side door is open, which he is going to barge through at any minute and hold us hostage because for some reason he is trying to climb over our neighbors shed, hence the 'get down'." I tell Michael to close the door as I'm trying to hunch down by the window to protect us from gunfire, while simultaneously look through the window to see whats happening.
Within minutes there are about 10 cops standing around a guy laying face down in our neighbors front yard, cop cars EVERYWHERE and a fire truck and ambulance blocking the road. Some witnesses park in our driveway and Michael goes out to get the story. Turns out some guy was majorly speeding on a bullet bike and caught the attention of some cops who tried to pull him over, with little success. By the time they reached our neighborhood it seems he had quite the little chase going on, and the cop car zooming by our window was a cop trying to get ahead and cut him off. So the guy either crashes or ditches his bike and tries to go on foot, which is where our front yard comes into play. The cop who had driven ahead parked right by our house, got out when he saw the guy on foot and ran to head him off, with his gun drawn. The culprit was tazed and ended up being taken away on a stretcher.
This was when Tyler called to be picked up from school. He ended up getting a ride from Kara because of the plethora of vehicles blocking our driveway. Crazy!

As I am writing this, Alex is sitting in the rocking chair, with her baby doll in her lap, legs held in the air, asking for a wipe so she can clean the poop off of her baby's bottom. I gave her the wipe, which she proceeded to use the on the baby, and then to clean the rocking chair.

Priceless

I don't know if it's because I've had a lot more time to just sit and listen to what Alex says lately, or if she suddenly grew up in the last 2 weeks and has really figured out how to express herself. Probably a mixture of both. Here are a few of her gems...

- Alex's doll broke and I told her that Daddy would help us fix her doll later. Alex was already pretty sad and started to cry, then she said "Daddy run away again." In the most pitiful voice. (Daddy has never run away, I don't know why she chose that assortment of words)

- While putting her baby doll into Heidi's bouncer chair I overheard her say "Time to buckle up sweetheart!!" This was almost immediately followed by "Time out baby! no make mess."

- Yesterday Tyler and I were talking about the incentives the German government gives families to have kids. Tyler said "Ok, lets go to Germany" apparently Alex was listening in on the conversation and pipped up "Alex come too?!" Tyler said "Ok, you can come." Then Alex responded "Alex get socks first" and then ran to the bedroom, got her socks, took them to Tyler and then went hunting for her shoes.

- Last night we were all enjoying each others company on the couch and Alex tooted. I asked her if she had tooted and she said "Yeah, Ali... somebody tooted. Alex or the baby." I think Archie is finally off the hook now that we have a new scapegoat, as he is usually the one who gets blamed for the messes etc. that Alex makes.