Drawing

Most of my life I've been a pretty artistic person.  You wouldn't know that if you've met me anytime since high school, but it's true.  Ben also has his artistic past.  I always hoped our genes would make for some artistic kiddos. 

And with Lily, it always looked promising.  The girl demands art time every day.  Paints, crayons, markers, pens, pencils, colored pencils, etc.  There is a reason why we're painting our walls with semi-gloss.  So I've been on the lookout for when her pictures started to look like what she told me she drew.  I'm actually surprised it has taken this long (considering how often she gets artsy).  But here it is in all of its glory!  A picture of Mommy, Daddy, her half-baked little sister, a ball (if there isn't going to be a Skyler in the picture he'll be happy to know that at least it was a ball that replaced him), and our friends.

Skyler has almost zero interest in art.  As proof, I give you the picture above.  Do you see those few faint purple lines?  Yeah, that's the most drawing I've seen from him in a long time.  Every Sunday when Ben would pick Skyler up from nursery, he'd be handed a picture that Skyler "drew."  It would always be a blank picture with the only color coming from his name in the corner.  A few weeks ago Ben asked his awesome nursery leaders why he never draws.  They told Ben that drawing time comes right after snack time and Skyler's always the last one done eating because he gets second or third helpings.  Now this is no surprise to us.  It's not uncommon for Skyler to take an hour to eat a meal (much to my impatient dismay).  They told Ben that by the time he's done eating, coloring time is over and it's time for bubbles.  In his nursery class last year he would scarf off whatever his classmates had abandoned on the table and he would even dumpster dive into their trash can for any leftovers.  Oh, Skyler.  You are the biggest lunchmouth I've ever met and you've been that way since you were born.  I know I want you to keep your cheeks forever, but I know they're not going to be so attractive when you're 16 and trying to impress some girl.  Just a heads up. 

My New Maid

Lily asks me all day long how she can help me.  Usually I translate her use of the word "help" to actually mean something she'll do first and then I'll have to redo.  For example, yesterday we made a cake.  I let her pour in the sugar.  Usually she's a super sous chef, but yesterday she poured half the sugar all over the mixer and got it on the floor.  I'm usually a little reluctant to let her help.

But lately I've been trying to repent of my ways and give in to her pleas.  I think it's great she wants to help me.  I think it's great she wants to work.  And both of those are admirable traits to have so I shouldn't let my own hesitations keep her from becoming a helpful person (especially with another baby on the way). 

So she has been assigned 2 new chores: window washing and dusting, both of which she rocks at.  Yes, I assign her to wash 4 or 6 windows at a time and 1/3 of the window cleaner in the bottle will be gone and her microfiber cloth will be drenched, but you have to start somewhere, right? 

Our house isn't huge.  It's about 2,200 square feet, but it's enough for me to keep up with, especially since I've been potty training Skyler by day and painting the downstairs by night.  Having an extra set of hands around the house has been fabulous.  And hands that are helping and not destroying are always welcomed around here.

So if you see any dead birds who have kamikazed at our windows, you'll know who to blame.  :)

Why I'm Glad I Blog

Yep.  It's swimsuit season around these parts.  Last week it was in the 80's and we washed the car a.k.a.  the best activity ever for the kiddos.  This was me at 20 weeks.  Halfway done!

This post may seem a little weird, but I've thought about writing this up for a long time.  So bear with me, even if it seems like a weird subject to blog about.  This is me stepping up on my soap box.

Not a day goes by (well, except perhaps the last couple of days that have involved potty training Skyler.... ugh) without me saying, "Why do they have to grow?"  I love how my kids' brains work.  I love laughing at and sharing my experiences with all of you.  But more than anything else, I love remembering them. 

I can't believe that I have a hard time remembering what some of our days in Rexburg were like.  Things cross my mind like, "What was that person's name, again?"  My brain has turned to mush and I can't rely on it like I thought I would be able to.  I remember Lily having milestone moments when she was a baby and thinking, "How could I ever forget this moment?"  But I did. 

But it didn't matter.  Because I recorded it on a blog. 

Sometimes for fun I'll go back and read some of my earliest posts and crack up as if they're brand new experiences because I've completely forgotten about them.  And I totally melt over all the pics of Lily and Skyler as babies.  Seriously, when did they stop being babies?

Some of my biggest regrets as a parent have been when I've neglected to record something.  Half of Skyler's first words were curse words.  Of course he didn't realize that he had a potty mouth, they were just everyday words in a toddler accent.  It was HILARIOUS.  I wish I could have recorded that. 

I wish I would have caught all the times that Lily has kissed Skyler's boo boos better so that he didn't have to run all the way over to me.  I wish I could record every single time Skyler cries so that he will understand the justice I feel when he also happens to have a child who earns the "World's Most Emotional Child" award, too.  I wish I would have shared more experiences about Ben and how he completely eats the kids up. 

But sometimes it really is too late.  Sometimes I don't record it while the memory is fresh.

So if you think blogs are one of those fads that will fade through time, that it's really just something you feel socially obligated to do because everyone else does it, take it from me that it will be something that you will treasure years down the road.  I was kind of weirded out about blogs back in the day, but then one random day I decided to start one and I still consider it to be one of the best decisions I ever made.  So if blogs go out of style in 5 years, I'll still be here.  And when I'm an empty nester, I'll be so grateful that I stuck to it.



This Week

She writes her name by herself.  The next thing I know, she'll be dating.  Ugh.  I never realized it until I became a mom, but you only get your kids for 18ish years.  That's definitely a "Duh" statement, but it's less than 1/4 of your life.  Lame-o.

Things we've done this week:

• Filled our 50 foot raised garden bed with 13 cubic yards of soil.  By ourselves.  With lots of shouts of "No, you do NOT throw dirt back out of the garden box!" to Lily and Skyler.  If we would have had that much delivered to us we would have paid over $300.  Since we borrowed a friend's truck and went to a place 3 minutes away (5 truck loads heaping over the cab, mind you) we only spent $105.  Woot. 
• Got Skyler to the doctor after he had been battling a cold for 2 1/2 weeks.  It was his 3rd visit during this sickness.  He finally got an antibiotic after not sleeping or eating for those weeks.  He managed to lose 4 pounds, too.  Don't worry, though.  His cheeks are still there.
• Put 3 paint samples up on the walls of our downstairs.  They're all wrong. 
• I started prepping for Baby Girl's nursery.  Even though we bought neutral bedding when we were getting ready to have Lily, I have still felt the need to give each kid his or her own theme.  Lily: baby animals.  Skyler: dogs, balls, and bones.  Baby #3: flowers.  I've started painting for the first time since high school.  I now regret letting Lily watercolor with my good paint brushes because she's managed to lose them and now I'm stuck painting 2 foot flowers with Lily's cheapo watercolor brush. 
• Forced myself to nest.  With Skyler, the nesting phase never hit me.  I'm worried that this will happen again so I'm dedicating my entire 2nd trimester to "fake nesting."  My to do list on Pinterest keeps getting longer, too.

Lily's quotes of the week: (After hearing an ambulance go by) "Uh oh.  Somebody needs a band aid."
And 2nd, (after waking up during a thunderstorm in the middle of the night) "Daddy!  There are flashlights outside!"

Skyler's super gross quote of the week: (after coughing up a bunch of phlegm) "Mmmmm!!!  It tastes yummy in my teeth!" 


Spiritual Conversations With a 3 Year-Old

When I was about to pop with Lily, I was really, REALLY, REEEEAAAALLLYYY fed up with being  pregnant.  I was constantly dizzy, exhausted, in pain, and stretching by the day.  I walked (what seemed to my pregnant mind) about a half-marathon each hot summer day to start labor.  Nothing.  Finally, Ben offered to give me a blessing.  In it he said that Lily hadn't arrived yet because she still needed strengthening and training from the other side for her important mission on earth. 

I decided not to complain about my pregnancy woes after that.



My dad has a theory that babies can't talk right away because the veil isn't as thick for them as it is for us.  Maybe it's true, maybe it's not.  I won't say either way.  But, I have had a lot of very interesting conversations with my children that make me think, "You know things I haven't even taught you yet." 

Tonight I was singing to Lily what she calls the "Indian Princess Song."  I have no idea what it's real name is, but it's a song that Ben's mom would sing to Lily every time she's visited and Lily requests it before every nap and bedtime.  It's about a shy little Indian girl who falls in love with an Indian warrior who dies in battle.  And.... it's left at that.  So Ben's mom would always add her own part about how (thanks to the temple) they were both able to be baptized and sealed together forever.  This has sparked Lily's interest in baptism, marriage, and sealings. 

Oftentimes we'll end up telling her about how she'll get to marry her prince charming in the temple someday.  We talk about how we're sealed as a family and name off all of the relatives we can think of.  We talk about how we'll get to love each other forever and ever.  We talk about what baptism is.

Tonight when I was done singing, we had this conversation:

L: I'm going to get baptized someday.  Not now.  But later.
H: Yep.  You will when you're 8. 
L: And I'm going to choose the right so I can get married in the temple.
H: That's right.  I'll go to the temple with you.  And so will Daddy.  You'll marry a really good guy.
L:  (Looks like she has a secret to share)  Did you know that he's going to come back someday?
H: Who's coming back?
L:  Jesus.  He's going to come back someday. 
H:  You're right.  He's going to come back.  And hopefully you'll get to see Him.  I bet you will. 

Sometimes I think that I should just let them do the teaching.

It's A......

Our pre-ultrasound guesses:

Ben: BOY
Heather:  BOY
Lily: GIRL
Skyler:  GIRL (although once out of the billion times asked he said he wanted a brother, and one other time he said he wanted me to deliver a new mommy..... ouch??????)

So who was right?  The Babies or the Parents????

The babies of course!  We are having a little girl!!!!!  And I am not-so-secretly thrilled!

Oh the ruffles!  The dresses!  The bows!  The inch long gelled curls!  Aaaaahhhh.... so excited!


Let me say that ultrasounds and I have a bad history.  That is, I can't understand a thing they're showing me to save my life.  So, since Ben and I were soooooo convinced that this was a boy I was looking for, well, boy parts.  And then there "he" was in all of "his" glory: one leg, another leg, and something very clear in between.  Immediately I thought, "Oh well there we are.  It doesn't take a professional to know what THAT is.  We are DEFINITELY having a boy."  Just then, the sonographer said, "Those are really healthy looking kidneys."  Ummm... kidneys?  Whoops.  Sorry, Baby Girl. 

And may I give a shout out to my sister, Becca?  I think she deserves some awesome recognition.  She has managed to correctly guess the genders of all 9 of the 9 grandbabies born on my side of the family.  That is seriously amazing.  I don't know if I'll ever do another ultrasound again.  I'll probably just ask her what I'm having.  She should become a sonographer with her skills.

And since we're on the subject of finding out that we're having a girl, I wanted to share a story about Ben.  When we were pregnant with Lily we were also "100% positive" she was a boy.  On the way to get our ultrasound Ben said, "It had BETTER BE a boy."  The doctor said Lily was a girl and Ben immediately melted into a puddle on the floor.  When we left the doctor's office Ben drove us straight to Wal-Mart and landed us in the baby department.  Immediately his arms were full of dresses and I said, "Uh, why don't we just buy one for now?"  I saw his negotiating face come on and he said, "How about 3?"  I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one excited for more girliness in this family...  :)