Candy Cane

Mommy Therapy Entry #2:
I went upstairs to get ready for the day. Clara was enjoying an episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and Abigail was still upstairs fast asleep. "20 minutes," I thought to myself, 20 minutes and then I'd be back downstairs. Clara wouldn't even notice I was gone.

Now let's rewind like a week or so. We had a late night. We were trying to get the girls home because it was past bedtimes. Clara is in complete and utter melt-down stage. Then, someone offers her a candy cane. It tempered the melt-down long enough for us to get out to the car. I broke a small piece of it off and gave it to her to eat in the car on the drive home. That, however, was not good enough. The super-ultra melt down then resulted. She wanted the whole candy cane. The result was kicking, screaming, hysterical babbling that no one can understand, the works. This candy cane is my nemesis. However, I remained resolute and let her scream the whole way home. I figured a melt-down and a sugar high would've just made everything worse. 25 minutes later when we finally closed the door to her room after putting her to bed, (and she was still crying over this candy cane) I breathed a sigh of relief.

Now fast-forward to this morning. I go upstairs to get ready, and return 20 minutes later. My nemesis has returned. Clara has found the candy cane. She shredded the plastic and decorated the carpet with it. The candy cane is devoured and evidence remains all across her face, hair, and the couch. Seriously? How on earth did she manage to find the candy cane, unwrap the darn thing, and eat it in the 20 minutes I was gone? What child can eat a candy cane that fast?

There is so much candy cane slime in her hair it is literally standing up on its own!

I can't decide if I am more frustrated by the fact that she made a mess, or the fact that she was sneaking. I know she knew she was being sneaky, because whenever she wants something she will come and ask, unless she knows she's not supposed to have it.

Oh well. I think I've decided that I don't want any candy canes in the house this Christmas!

Whew! I feel much better. Thanks again for letting me indulge:)

"Yeah, I know Mama."

Me: Clara, you are so cute.
Clara: Yeah. I know Mama.

*Door closes and in walks Clara after some daddy-daughter time.*
Clara: Mama, where are you?
Me: I'm upstairs Clara.
Clara: *Gasp* OH MAMA! I'M COMING MAMA! I'M COMING!

Clara: Um Mama, Popcorn Song.
(We sing Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree.)
Clara: Um, Mama, Weezy Spider Song.
(We sing the Eensy Weensy Spider.)
Clara: Um, Mama, Star Song.
(We sing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.)
Clara: Um, Mama, ABC Song.
(We sing the ABCs.)
Clara: Um, Mama, bird and flower song.
(We sing In the Leefy Treetops - both verses.)
*Note: This little routine is ALWAYS in the same order, and occurs several times daily.*

*Joe burps loudly.*
Me: Honey, you have to say "Excuse me." Even Clara knows that. Clara, what do we do after we burp?
Clara: We LAUGH! HAHAHA!
*I look sheepishly at Joe.*
Me: I swear she really does know what to say!
*Several minutes later: Clara burps loudly.*
Clara: Excuse me, Mama! EXCUSE MEEEEE!
*Oh sweet victory!*

I love being a mom!

Baby Powder

So, I'm not sure if this is just me, but it seems that there is something about raising a two year old that somehow reveals your true identity. In my case, I usually discover yet another item that can be added to a fresh list of "character attributes I really need to work on." I hope that someday I can be that mom who is always happy, always creative, always put together, always patient, etc. But usually, today is not that day.
So, in an attempt to divert moments of frustration in a more constructive direction, I'm taking a different approach. Thus:

Mommy Therapy Entry #1:
I struggle with how to entertain my children when things really need to get done. I don't like simply putting them in front of a movie because then they'd probably be watching TV all day. Coloring only works for so long, they can't really read to themselves yet, and when it's 20 degrees outside playing outdoors isn't the best option available. I'm still figuring out how to make this work.
Anyway, this year our garden did pretty well. We had a very nice harvest and were able to can quite a bit of our own food, which just felt awesome. I love growing herbs. I've had this basil plant drying in my kitchen now since October, and I thought it was finally time to get the leaves and seeds off the plant and stored away. I was in the kitchen working with my basil, Abigail was content in her swing, and Clara was playing in the family room with her toys. As I stood there at the kitchen counter stripping away the leaves from the twigs, I was suddenly struck with a the thought that I should go and check on Clara. As I turned around and walked into the family room, this is what I found:

Baby Powder.
I didn't say anything to her as I stood her up and brushed her off. I got the camera, snapped a few pictures, and then went to get the vacuum. Clara watched quietly as I cleaned up the mess. When I turned off the vacuum, Clara came over to me with her head down and said, "Mama, I so sorry. I so sorry Mama."
Wow...that was the most pleasant disciplining experience I've had in a while.

There are also a couple other upsides to the story:
1. At least she didn't decide to play with the Desitin instead of the baby powder.
2. Now my carpet smells delightful.

Thanks for letting me indulge. I feel much better;)

4 Months Old!

Abigail's 4 month well visit was last Monday and I wanted to jot down her stats before I forget.

• Height: 26.5" = 90%
• Weight: 15 lbs 7 oz. = 97%
• Head: 50%

She is such a happy baby. She sleeps well and eats well and has a smile that will melt your heart.

She rolls over pretty regularly now. She's really good at rolling from her back to her tummy, but we haven't quite perfected rolling from the tummy to the back.

Abigail is a little social butterfly. She does not like being alone. She loves being held and talked to and she loves it when we sing to her. She has no fear of strangers yet and will grant a dazzling smile to anyone who will talk to her.

The hardest thing with Abigail is getting her to go to sleep (which really isn't even that bad). Because she is so social, she doesn't like being left alone in her crib. I'm tempted to move her into Clara's room because I really think both of them would enjoy being together, but we'll see. I think I might wait until Clara is just a little bit older and won't try climbing into the crib with her.

Abigail fit into our family so naturally, it is hard to imagine that it was just Clara for a while.

Thanksgiving Goodies!

Ok, so I normally don't do this, but since it is Thanksgiving, I'll make an exception. We started a tradition in our family to make orange rolls on Thanksgiving morning while we watch the Thanksgiving Day Parade. It's something we've really come to enjoy. I was so proud of how yummy the orange rolls turned out that I thought I'd share the recipe.

Orange Rolls!

Dough:
Ingredients:
6 c. flour
1.5 Tbsp. Instant Yeast
1/2 c. sugar
2 t. salt
1/2 c. melted butter
2 eggs
2 1/4 c. hot milk (OR 2/3 c. powdered milk + 2 1/4 c. hot water)

Directions: Mix yeast, milk, sugar, eggs and butter (make sure the butter and milk aren't too hot otherwise they'll kill the yeast.).
Add 1/2 of the flour and the salt. Mix thoroughly and then add the rest of the flour. Dough will be sticky.
Mix for 10 minutes and then let rise to double.
Roll out into large square.

Filling:
Ingredients:
1 stick of butter, softened
1 c sugar
zest of an orange peel (I don't have a zester so I just finely grated the peel.)
(opt. 1-2 drops orange oil - I love essential oils, especially in cooking, and it just gives a nice extra flavor.)

Directions: Mix the orange peel (and oil) with the sugar in a small bowl, and set aside. Butter the dough square with the stick of butter. Then, sprinkle sugar and peel mixture over dough, distributing evenly (I actually took a dough scraper and spread it around with that to make it even.).

Roll up the dough from the top to the bottom. When done rolling, use a sharp knife and cut rolls every 1 inch and place on a greased cookie sheet.
Bake at 375 for 15-20 minutes. Set aside to cool.

Frosting:
Ingredients:
1 stick of butter
1 cream cheese package
powdered sugar to desired thickness
appx. 3-5 Tbsp. juice from the orange you zested

Directions: Mix all ingredients together until smooth. Add a little red and yellow food coloring if desired. Wait until rolls have cooled and spread generously over the top.
****

I know this looks like a lot, but it really isn't that bad at all. So delicious! I would highly recommend them for Christmas.

Okay one more recipe. This one I was way too proud of.

Dutch Apple Pie
recipe from A Taste of Home

2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup quick cooked oats (I didn't use quick cook, came out great)
3/4 cup butter, melted
2/3 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons of corn starch
1 1/4 cups cold water
3 cups diced, peeled apples (about 3 medium)
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:
Crust and topping:
In a large bowl combine the flour, brown sugar, oats and butter. Set aside 1 cup for the topping. Press the remaining mixture into an ungreased 9 inch pie plate. Make sure to push the mixture up the sides a bit too.

Filling:
Combine the sugar cornstarch and water in a saucepan until smooth. Bring to a boil. Cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla, cinnamon and apples.

Pour into pie crust, top with reserved topping mixture. Bake at 350 for 40 - 45 minutes, or until crust is golden brown. Cool on a wire rack.
*****
Enjoy! Don't you just love the holidays?!

Things to be thankful for!

I have so many things to be thankful for!
Here are just a few (these are not in order by the way - these were just as they came to my mind):
1. The Gospel of Jesus Christ.
2. My wonderful, handsome husband who works his tail off everyday.
3. My beautiful, healthy, happy girls.
4. Our wonderful home.
5. Our awesome neighbors and ward.
6. Our gorgeous view from our home. Utah is a really beautiful place.
7. Family that lives close by. I love that my girls know both pairs of grandparents and lots of aunts and uncles!
8. Talents in progress - things I am learning to do that keep me humble:)
9. The Scriptures - I love learning new things each time I read them.
10. Prayer - what a wonderful thing it is to communicate with our Heavenly Father!

Sunday Best

Just love these pictures. Clara was sad a few Sundays ago so we were trying to cheer her up by taking pictures of her pretty princess dress.

Grandpa's Pumpkin Patch and Halloween!

Every year Joe's dad grows these amazing pumpkins and then lets the grandkids come and pick out which ones they'd like. So cool. These pumpkins weighed more than both my girls combined!

So many neighbors commented on the awesome pumpkins. My visiting teacher even said that she brought her boys to our house so they could see some "real pumpkins!"

The Princess and the Cheetah.

Abigail was not happy that I put her down to take these pictures! Clara was being really good.

Dancing with Princess Aunt Shanni. Clara was just in awe of her!

So tired!

I love Clara's face in this one.

Trick-or-Treating and my grandparents house.

Hayride at the Ellis'. Grandpa's tractor pulled us around the neighborhood. So fun!

Scripture Scouts!

Clara's favorite thing to listen to in the car is Scripture Scouts. In fact...it's the only thing we listen to in the car. Any time I put on anything else, Clara will start jabbering away so loud that it's hard to listen to what I put on for me - it usually just ends up as extra noise. So Scripture Scouts it is!

A little while ago we were listening to the Book of Mormon stories and they were talking about the Golden Plates. Clara often likes to comment on what they are talking about and said, "Mama, Golden Plates!" Then she expects me to respond to her comment so I usually say, "Yep the Golden Plates." Then after I made my comment, she thought for a moment and said, "Mama, Golden Plates, and golden cup, and golden spoon, and golden fork!" She was so proud of herself for putting it all together.

Awesome job sweetheart:)

Abigail's Blessing

So I just realized I never did a little blurb about Abigail's blessing!
She was blessed on the 4th of September. It was a gorgeous day. We had a lot of family there and it was just a really wonderful thing. Thanks to everyone who was willing to be there and support us!
Joe did a beautiful job on the blessing. I loved that he talked about the significance of her names and how they would help shape her into a servant of the Lord.

Abigail means "Joy of the Father," and I love the story of Abigail from the Bible.
Grace is the divine help and strength that we receive through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
Ellis means "Messenger of God."

Names are important because they remind us of who we are and what are responsibilities are, such as when we take the Sacrament and actually take the name of Christ upon us. Seeing this pure little baby made me so grateful for the Plan of Happiness our Father in Heaven has designed for us.

What a wonderful thing to celebrate with those that we love!

Letters, Sleep, and Memorization

Here are some fun things I want to remember:

1. I have been working with Clara on letters and numbers lately. Whenever she gets put in timeout, she has to count to ten before she can get out. We count literally everything - coins, toys, scoops of flour, bathtub bubbles...you name it. We work on letters on a daily basis, one letter at a time. Whenever we work on a letter we post it on the fridge so she can look at it for a couple weeks. A few weeks ago she went up the "A" picture and pointed at it and said, "Alligator." Yes! I thought, it's probably working! "Good job Clara!" I praised. "That is the letter A." "A?" she asked a little bit confused. "Yep the letter 'A'," I confirmed. She thought about it for a second, looked at the picture again, and then it was like a lightbulb went off in her little brain. She then turned to me proudly and said, "Mama, A, nine, ten!" When I laughed, she just looked at me like, "Why aren't you telling me I'm awesome?" Wow, how I love that little girl.

2. Abigail has been sleeping in her own room now for a few weeks. For the first little while I wasn't sure if it was good thing or a bad thing. There were certain periods of the night when she just wasn't tired, or the binky would fall out every few minutes. When this happened, either Joe or I would get out of bed, walk down the hall, put it back in her mouth, walk back and by the time we'd gotten back in bed it'd fallen out again. Desperately praying for a way to get her to sleep so that we could get some normal sleep again, I suddenly was impressed with the idea to start putting her on a schedule. DUH! I thought to myself. With Clara I'd been so good about getting her on a sleeping schedule during the day so that she would be tired enough at night to sleep through the night. And if you are wondering, yes, the Lord even listens to the prayers of a frazzled, sleep deprived mother. When she started sleeping through the night after just a couple days of the new schedule I was ready to scream "Hallelujah!" Sleep is good.

3. After listening to Elder Scott's talk from Conference we decided that we need to do better at memorizing important passages of scripture so that they can be "recalled" to our memory in times when we need them. We decided to start with the Articles of Faith. I was a little embarrassed at how many I'd forgotten. I started working on the first Article with Clara. She has it memorized, but she likes it when I say it with her. Whenever we finish saying it, she looks at me and says, "Again Mama?" So we say it again and again, until I try and work on the second Article with her, by then she is usually ready to stop. There are some much harder words in the second one too. It is amazing to see how much so loves and cherishes those fundamental truths and doctrines of the Gospel - that we believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.

Abigail is her father's daughter

Does anyone see why this pose would make her Joe's child? Way to show of those guns! The girl loves to flex.

Clara's Impeccable Taste

This was Clara's ensemble of choice the other day. You've got to admit - the child's got style.

Look at those Cheeks!

 MMm mmmm....don't you just want to kiss em? Delicious!

Clara's new expression

This has got to be one of my favorite new faces that Clara makes. The girl is so expressive, and she constantly makes us laugh with the new expressions she comes up with.

Once Upon a Time

Once upon a time there was a two-year-old named Clara. Clara loved to wash the dishes.

Even though she was small she would pull up a chair to the sink whenever there was work to be done and eagerly get to work.

She was very good at rinsing all the dishes and piling them up near the dishwasher so they could be loaded.

Occasionally, she would even be brave enough to try and wash a pan.

The reason Clara was so good at doing the dishes was because she had a magic dish-washing wand. Everything she touched with it just magically became clean.

Then one day, as Clara was washing the dishes, she decided it would be a good idea to give herself a bath as well so that she wouldn't need to take one later. It would save a lot of time.

So, she took her magic dish-washing wand, waved it over the top of her head, and wallah!

Too bad this story ends with Clara needing a real bath. Her magic dish-washing wand just hadn't quite done the trick.

A Tender Mercy

A few days after Abigail was born she started projectile vomiting everything she ate. It'd been almost 12 hours since she'd kept anything down so I called the doctor. They said if a few things didn't change in the next little bit I was supposed to take her to the ER. This was on a Sunday so Joe and Clara were at church. When they got home at 4:00PM Joe gave her a blessing. It'd now been almost 15 hours since she'd kept milk down. In the blessing Joe said that even though Abigail was small she had a faith in Christ that would heal her. The Spirit was overwhelming and I am so grateful that Joe honors his priesthood. By 5:00PM Abigail nursed again and kept down everything she ate. Since the blessing there have been no issues with her eating and she has actually gained an incredible amount of weight. It is truly humbling to look at this little person and know how strong her faith is - a great reminder of the truths found in Moroni 9.

The New Addition

Here are some pictures of our sweet little Abigail. I am so sorry it has taken me so long to get these up!
A few things about our little Abigail:

• She is the sweetest little baby! She is so pleasant and calm.
• She is an excellent sleeper (only waking up once or twice at night - such a blessing!).
• She has quite the appetite! She is nursing really well and had reached 8 lbs. 11 oz. by one week old.
• She has very stunning blue eyes, and though her hair is dark it isn't as dark as Clara's was. There are traces of blonde in there so we wonder how much lighter it will get.

So if you are curious:

On the night of the 20th I was feeling a little overwhelmed because I was nervous about my induction scheduled for the next morning. I just wanted to make sure the Abigail was ready to come. Around 11:30PM I started having regular contractions (btw this was a normal occurrence - nothing that got me too excited, but I was still hopeful.). We went to bed that night, the contractions got more intense, and then around 3:30, since I wasn't sleeping anyway, I decided to get up and shower. By 4:30AM I woke Joe up and told him it was time to go to the hospital. The contractions were coming about 3 minutes apart. We left for the hospital by 5, and arrived by 5:30AM. Since I was scheduled for an induction the morning of the 21st anyway, they ushered me right into a labor and delivery room - no waiting in the triage! At 7:30AM my contractions actually started to slow down to 5 minutes apart. The nurses asked if I'd like some pitocin to get things going, and I decided to go for it since I didn't really want a 12 hour labor. I got the pitocin by 8AM and went from 3.5 cm to an 8 by 9AM. At 10:07AM our beautiful little baby was born. It was a wonderful, very calm labor and birth - so much better than how things had gone with Clara. This one actually made me think I could do this again!

What a wonderful thing it is to be a mother. Clara absolutely loves her little "A-Bee." She is a very good big sister that loves to help give Abigail baths and help change her diapers. The cutest thing is when she watches her and then will walk over and kiss her on the head.

Happy Birthday Clara!

I can't believe that my baby is 2! Clara's Birthday was on Friday, July 15th. What a joy it is to be a mom. Clara our little buddy.

I didn't go hog wild in the party planning department because I wasn't sure if we'd have another baby by then. However, I did splurge a little on her gift - a Bitty Baby from the American Girl Doll collection. She has been sleeping with it every night, reading to it, feeding it, and wheeling it around in a brand new stroller that her aunt Erinn gave her.





This girl can't get enough of horses so we decided to take her to Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point and let her go wild. The pony rides were by far her favorite.


It was a very simple, but fun day.

Just a quick update: No baby yet! We were so relieved that Abigail decided not to make an appearance on Clara's birthday (despite the fact that I was having some good contractions the night before!). I am at a 3 and my doctor is scratching his head as to why I'm still pregnant.

If she hasn't come by this Thursday they are going to induce me, so we'll see what happens. I really hope she decides to come on her own! Clara was the same way - I was literally 36 hours away from being induced and she made up her mind to come. I guess they just get a little too comfortable in there!