Therapy Post

Today has been 'one of those days' and so I'm utilizing this blog for a therapy post.

It is late, I'm tired and sleep deprived... so I'll probably feel dumb posting this later, but for right now, as I'm being kept up by a defiant two year old, it is what I'm going to do to make myself feel better.

I don't know what it was about today that made it so crummy, could have been:
-that I woke up with an upset stomach (didn't I just get the pleasure of food poisoning!)

-that both girls were cranky and not listening well

-that the hour I had to take a nap while my dough rised was ruined by one little girl who refused to go to sleep (until right before I had to get up to finish the rolls)

-that I spent ALL afternoon getting rolls ready for the bake sale that, 1. didn't turn out right and 2. I didn't get finished in time to deliver them for the bake sale (the WHOLE point!)

-that I spilled every possible thing on the floor while baking all day!

-that the girls destroyed the house while I worked all day in the kitchen

-that I was just exhausted from two consecutive late, late nights

-that I realized I had forgotten to drop off Sarah's preschool tuition that morning

-that I had to wake the girls early from their nap

-that the girls whined and fussed all the way to help dad pick up some cells from a nearby lab

-that I was late getting dinner delivered for my dinner swap group

-that the girls spilled water ALL over the car, and the dinners on the drive to deliver the meals

-that it was a battle to get Abby to eat anything

-that Abby broke a hand mirror in the bathroom

-that Ryan has to work late in the lab, so I have to miss my "book club" tonight

-that I laid in bed with Abby for an hour and a half only to have her NOT fall asleep at bed time

-or that I just wasted a hunk of dough because I took all day to get to it and it was all dried out

-or that I'm sitting on the couch when I should be cleaning up my very messy house, but have a lil' night owl next to me who just wants to snuggle...
and I feel guilty that I don't want to and just want her to go. to. bed!

Wow... that is a long list... and then I sit here and think for a minute. 

I am so blessed.

Lately I have been an emotional wreck, in fact I opted to not read my "book club's" selection this month because emotionally I didn't think I could handle it (it was about the Rwanda Genocide)
I think about all of the sweet, dear people in my life who are facing so much worse than spilt water in the car in their lives. Sometimes I feel like I can't handle all of the sad things that are happening to those around me (and I'm not really affected by it directly, but I just get so sad for them). I hear stories in the news that just make me want to cry. There is so much heartache in the world, and here I am letting the small stuff get to me. *sigh*

I'll blame it on hormones, or sleep deprivation... or the lack of chocolate in the house.

I don't even know where I am going with this, or if anyone is even reading this still...
I guess the only thing that I can do is to make a list of some of the stuff I am grateful for.
-my family

-a call from my sister when I was at the peak of my stress day (the moment I realized my rolls were blah and timed poorly)

-that I have two very sweet little girls... hope they don't look back on their childhood and only remember days like today where mom is blitz and can't control her temper

-that I have music in my home, a talented husband and lil girls who love to sing all day long

-crumbs on the floor, dirty dishes in the sink (or everywhere really)... because it means we have food on the table to eat

-dear sweet friends who do so much for me

-having my mom respond to my text with a phone call... it was so nice to hear her voice after a day like today

-for this glass of egg nog... yum!

-for the sweet lil' words of a two year old, "Mommy wait! I love you. Snuggle on the couch?"

-that I still have at least four weeks until the baby comes to finish all of my crazy projects
-for a sweet note from my hubby apologizing for having to work late and not being able to help out tonight

-that I didn't have heart burn for three whole days after my bout of food poisoning...silver lining

-that the cold/cough I had a few weeks ago ended quickly and didn't turn into bronchitis

-that tomorrow is Friday and I don't have to go anywhere or do anything if I don't want to

There are so many things that I am grateful for... but my eyelids are feeling heavy and my heart is feeling lighter from unloading a little. I'd say this was a therapy post that did its magic.

Here's to tomorrow and a day that will be much, much better. 

Now to convince this lil' Abby bug that she is tired too...

Preschool Thanksgiving Celebration

I really love the preschool Sarah goes to. 

I had the hardest time make the decision which school to send her to, and I'm so glad I chose Arsenal.

The classroom is "closed" to parents and siblings (as most classrooms are). They do have an observation loft, so I can go and spy on the kids whenever, but I don't get to spend time in the classroom with Sarah.

So when the Fall & Thanksgiving Celebration came up today, I knew that Ryan, Abby and I all needed to go so that we could play with Sarah in her wonderful classroom. 

Here are Sarah and Abby enjoying some Banana Muffins that Sarah's preschool made for our breakfast. They were yummy, great job Sarah!

Abby of course went crazy in the dress up area.

Sarah had fun helping her sister in and out of various princess dresses.

I wish I would have taken more pictures of her classroom. It is set up so cute. There is a secret loft the kids can climb up into and read stories, or just lay down on the pillows. All of the toys are labeled and organized so the kids can learn how to read the words and how to clean up properly.

There are also oodles and oodles of art supplies. Sarah really wanted me to paint a picture with her, but they didn't have the paints out because of the younger siblings that were there (thank goodness!). So we used some markers and had fun making a fairy tale scene with a castle, dragon, princess and horse. 

Sarah had so much fun with us there. It was great to spend time together as a family and get to play in this wonderful classroom. 

Thanks Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Nesbitt for having us for breakfast!

Lil' Seamstress

As many of you know, I'm working on some felt ornaments for an advent calendar in our home. It is based off of an advent calendar that my mother made when I was young and holds a great deal of sentimental value. What I didn't realize it held, was a lot of hard work and time. Those lil' ornaments take so much time to make! So every day and night I've been working on them trying to get them done so I can move onto something new. 

The only reason I'm getting caught up on the blog is because I am burnt out and needed some sort of distraction (other than facebook, pinterest and email...ha!)

Well, this lil' miss loves to sit by my side and "watch" me sew. I'm terrible, I get grouchy and tell her to go away and put on a show to distract her. But that doesn't always work. She was really interested in what I was doing. So I took the advice of my mother and friend and gave her some fabric and a needle.

She wanted to make an owl (the ornament I was working on at the time) but I knew that would be too difficult. So I drew and "S" in pencil on her fabric and let her go to town.

I never expected her to do so well. 

The only thing I did was tie a knot at the beginning of each letter, do one stitch and then when she was done I would tie off the letter. 

It is not perfect, but I am so impressed with how well she did on her first sewing attempt ever.

The back had knots and thread that wasn't pulled all the way up, but the front looks so good. 

Now she keeps bugging me to sew Abby's name on some fabric. I think I'm going to have to make a little sewing kit for this lil' miss for Christmas. She loves it!

Great Job Sarah!

No its not you...

Its the pictures. Almost all of these are blurry.

I love them anyway... and figured the G'mas won't mind them one bit.

(one day I'll have a camera that will do auto-focus with my 50mm lens...*sigh*)

Yes, the girls are in their jammies, I have no clue what time of day it is.

So maybe the blurriness is just an artistic portrayal of how I was feeling this day. Ha!

The little animals that the girls are playing with are from the most recent conference Ryan went to (we didn't go this time). They are a squishy foam (like a stress ball). The girls love them, especially Sarah. Unfortunately, the material isn't child-durable. The limbs and ears have all but torn off, super glue works awesome, but I don't know how many times I can super glue it before it is a solid mass of crusty, super glued foam. We'll find out I guess. 

Thanks for bringing back the perfect surprise from your trip Daddy!

Princess Duties

I'm really starting to wonder how we ended up with such a girlie lil girl. 

Abby is quite the princess. If I don't close her closet in the morning then she rummages through it and puts on whatever dress she can reach. The frillier the better. 

This has resulted in going to the doctor's in princess costumes, tutus, petticoats and even nice sunday dresses. Usually she still will have "normal" clothes underneath, but the constant ooo's and ahh's from older adults only encourage her obsession with looking the part.

Here are some of Princess Abby's daily activities.

Caring for orphans.

Responding to royal fan {e}mail.

Unexpected surprises.

And {of course} lots and lots of twirling and dancing.

It is a tough job raising a princess.

At least I have lots of support from Disney and Barbie movies to make sure I get it right. 

I love you my lil' Abby. You'll always be my princess.

Halloween Festivities (finally)

I know... November is already half way over... and I am just barely getting to Halloween. 

*sigh*

Sorry Grandmas (and whoever else happens to stop by)

Anyway. We had a little bit of craziness surrounding our Halloween. 

The Saturday before Ryan was invited by some of the Dorris Duke Fellows to go pick pumpkins at a pumpkin patch. Ryan always feels guilty because they are constantly inviting him to things, and he always declining the invitation (granted, most of them are to dinner at bars or happy hour... but still, he feels bad).

So this was something he could say yes to the family coming to. The only set back was that the farm was 45 minutes away, and they wanted to meet up at 2-3pm to pick pumpkins, and we had our ward trunk or treat that night at 5pm (which we had signed up to bring Chili to). 

So... we still decided to go, promising ourselves we'd only stay for half and hour and leave with plenty of time to get to the ward party. 

It was cold and rainy... so the only pictures I got were in the barn with the baby animals.

Sarah saying "hi" to Tic Tack the calf.

Abby said "hi" too.

Sarah petting the donkey.

Well as you can guess we didn't leave in time. We didn't even get a pumpkin. 

The girls did however get covered in mud and their boots and pants were soaked up to their thighs. 

Oh, and Abby was completely soaked because she fell over into a huge mud puddle. 

But, it was still fun getting to meet some of the other fellows and feeling somewhat social. 

So, we rushed home and threw our costumes on and got ready to go to the ward Trunk or Treating party.

Here are Snow White and Sleeping Beauty.

The Snow White costume (all but the cape) is courtesy of my mother and her amazing sewing skills.

I did the sleeping beauty one, and it definitely has its faults. haha 

Prince Phillip and Sleeping Beauty.

Oh Ryan, you are such a good sport. 

Thanks for taking on the roll of the sexiest Disney prince out there.  

The whole family.

 Yes, I don't match, but I thought it was a clever costume. 

I should have gotten a picture of my backside, but I was a magic 8 ball. 

On the back I had the blue triangle, and my answer was, "It's a Boy"

If you notice, Ryan and I have hurried looks on our faces. That is because we are about half an hour late and my friend (who didn't want to go in by herself) was waiting in the car for us to get there. 

We showed up just in time to catch all of the ward heading up for dinner, missed the trunk or treating by seconds. It really was sad. I felt so bad that I made my friend and her daughter miss it. 

But we enjoyed some chili and pie and then walked around and did cute Halloween games with the kiddos.

Sarah eating a cookie off of a string.

Yup... that is the end of the pictures. 

Halloween night was kind of crazy. 

It was cold and started raining about an hour before trick or treating began. 

This unfortunately made it miserable for the girls, Abby's cough kicked up and we had to banish her to the car, and Sarah's skirt was so long and got wet and heavy she didn't want to trick or treat anymore. So I walked around for a bit with my friend and her daughter and finally let Sarah just kick the skirt and then she had lots of fun hitting up the few houses by ours for candy. 

We ended up with far too many treats (of which the adults at home happily inspected) and lots of cute memories of our two princesses trick or treating. 

One cute thing about Abby's first real trick or treating experience is that every time she would get candy she would say, "Thank you much" first time we've heard her say this, and it was darling.

Till next year halloween!

Sweet Sister

All I have to say is darn these pregnancy hormones.

I'm constantly being turned into an emotional blob, that melts into a puddle.

Like when reading about my sweet neice's baby blessing, and the loving and tender emotions surrounding her mother's love.

Or feeling so proud of another niece for performing so well in a piano recital...

Or from a call from a thoughtful sister or sister in law just to see how I'm feeling and keeping me company (on the phone) from a long day filled with just kids.

But lately, the most common recipe for an emotional Liz blob is my sweet, sweet Sarah.
She is becoming such a wonderful big sister and I love her so much, and am so proud of her. I tell her this often, but my heart aches for her to know how much I really mean the words I'm saying.

The other day we were eating some left over mac n' cheese and apples, and there was really only enough mac n' cheese for one good serving. I still split it into two bowls and hoped apples and whatever else I could rummage up would make up the difference. Both girls immediately scarfed down their bowls. Abby finished first and politely asked, "More mac n' cheese, please?" I told her how it was all gone, she looked to her sister who still had two or three bites left. Then Sarah, very slowly, snuck two fork fulls from her bowl into Abby's, "Look Abby! You have some more mac n' cheese."

 And that is where the tears come in. So sweet and loving. She was starving (probably more so than Abby, based on what she'd eaten earlier, or hadn't rather) but saw how sad Abby was feeling and did her best to help. Thank you Sarah for being so sweet and loving (don't know where it comes from), it makes me want to be a better mommy.

So... I stick to bogging myself down with ridiculous craft ideas and trying to maintain my ever cluttered home. Its the only way I'm going to survive the remainder of these crazy hormones.