I am thankful for...

our trip to Utah,



for a mom who loves my children as much as I do and gives to everyone so unconditionally,



for Aubrie and Ellie's first time bowling,



for my Aunt who helped take care of Grandma so we could spend time more time with mom,




for my hilarious husband who keeps it light and fun,




that Grandma and Grandpa live in Utah now,



for the 3 to 1 adult to kid ratio and many willing, helping hands during the trip that allowed it to be a TRUE vacation for me,



for my new sister Julia -- what a sweetie,




for the beautiful lights on Temple Square and the early ringing in of Christmas,



for lots and lots of laughter and fun memories!

What a perfect Thanksgiving! Thanks everyone. I love you.

While I was scrubbing bathrooms...

Cleaning Day at my house often seems to be two steps forward, two steps backward. No wonder I can't ever get my house clean! Apparently she was trying to get a video out of the cupboard and pulled the entire thing over. Notice the dirt in the carpet. My bathrooms are beautiful though! Life truly is an adventure with these precious children!

Where did the last 5 months go?

My little Teyah turned 5 months today! I am sad that her tiny baby stage is over. It's amazing how fast it goes. I remember with Aubrie I couldn't wait until she did this and that, but I learned they just don't stay little for very long. With Teyah, I just don't want her to get bigger because I want to enjoy her baby sweetness.



She is already getting up on her hands and knees and scooting a bit! Yikes. I'm not ready for her to be mobile yet. She also rolls all over the place. She's becoming a good sitter and can sit for sometimes 5-10 minutes before tipping over. I will like it when she can sit unassisted though.




Teyah's sleeping through the night situation seems to be getting worse and worse as time goes on. I think the biggest problem is me though. I need to stop feeding her at night, but I have a hard time letting my babies cry it out, and when I try to give her a binky and soothe her instead, she knows there's something better and gets very upset. Hopefully, while Dave has the week off of seminary for Thanksgiving, he can help out with that!



Teyah is still my little petite girl. She is much smaller than the other girls at this age. Amazingly she can still sometimes wear 0-3 month clothes! As you can see in this picture her 3-6 month clothes are still quite big on her. I think the sweater is a 6 month one but it's nowhere near fitting her. Her hair seems to be coming in very light. Teyah remains to be a total sweetheart baby and VERY easy-going. I can't imagine life without her!

Beauty Parlor During Naptime

When we thought she was sleeping, Ellie yelled down the stairs that she had a potty accident. Dave went up to find not only did she have some wet clothes, but some lovely nails and also a mess. Our tenderhearted Ellie backed into the corner, stuck out that bottom lip, and was so repentent and sad. It took everything in me to try to be serious to teach her a lesson, and not just bust out laughing! She was so sweet. All night she kept saying: "I'm just little. Only Mommy and Daddy paint fingernails and toenails because they are big." It was cute to me that she really was just going for some pretty nails and not a huge mess. Nail polish remover took it right off the toilet. No harm done but a fun memory!

Halloween Extras

Before closing this Halloween chapter of our lives, I'd like to say a few random things:

We went trick-or-treating at Mall of America (it sure beat the 40 degree temps and blustery wind gusts). I love Mall of America!

I sewed the Dorothy and Glinda costumes! This is kind of humorous to me. I haven't sewed anything from a pattern since I was 10 years old. I stewed over where to get the costumes. They were either super cheapo, ugly for $20, or cute for over $55. I just decided I could make them how I wanted them to look, and I could do it for a lot less than $55. And I figured it was a good experiment to see if I could remember how to follow a pattern. I am amazed that I could remember! It was like riding a bike. This confirms to me how important it is to learn to do things when you're a kid because it sticks with you. Thanks mom for sending me to sewing lessons when I was 10!



Originally, I was going to make the Dorothy and buy just a pink princess costume for Ellie and call it Glinda. But, as I was about to put my credit card number online for it, Aubrie told me "that does NOT look like Glinda because Glinda has HUGE sleeves." I totally didn't realize it, but she's right. Aubrie told us she wanted to be Dorothy months ago, but I didn't start making them until about two weeks ago. This has been consuming my life and my house has suffered! Yikes!

Aubrie did NOT want me to be the bad witch because she didn't want me to be scary. I kept pushing for it because it's such a simple costume. She told me I should be the "Wizard's wife"! We had a great Halloween, but I'm glad it's over so my house and sleep can recover. I'm also grateful the creepy decorations will be removed from the stores, so I don't have to worry about Aubrie pulling my pants down as she buries her head in my rear end hiding from them!

Happy Halloween!

The Trick-or-Treaters!

The Loot!

The Pumpkin!

The Cowardly Lion!

The Good Witch of the North!

The Ruby Red Slippers!

The brains behind the costumes, and the cutest Dorothy ever!

The Wizard of Oz crew!

Talkin' Teyah

Rainy Monday

My fantastic rainy Monday started at 3 a.m. with a stomach flu. Glued to the toilet, I heard the baby crying, ready to eat. 'Is it possible to nurse an infant while it's coming out both ends?' As a mom, multitasking is essential, but I'm not sure that's even physically possible.

'Hmm. She won't take a bottle...I try not to wake Dave up at night since he's teaching early-morning seminary now (he wakes up at 5 a.m.).' "Dave! Sorry to wake you up. But, I'm kind of in need of some backup tonight. Can you give the baby a binky till I've puked the last 12 pounds of my baby weight off?"

I quickly go through my day's agenda in my head. 'It looks like my workout regime isn't going to happen in the morning like promised. What a surprise. Does throwing up count as exercise? Aubrie's dentist appointment is the only thing that MUST happen. How long is it going to be until I'm cleaning up the kids' bodily fluids when they get this fabulous virus? Oh boy. I've got Joy.'

....

Later at the dentist I chronicled a new rule: "Take the bouncy ball prize away from your kids before entering the restroom." I stared down at the toilet weighing my options as Ellie cried her eyes out. Ellie started yelling for the whole dentist office to hear, "MY BALL WENT IN THE TOILET!!!!" I guess there's no chance of pretending it didn't happen. I realized I had no choice but to roll up my sleeve and get to know the inner-workings of the commode. I think that's the first time my elbow's gone swimming in toilet water.

Ahh. It's only 1 p.m. I wish I could go to bed and not wake up till Friday. Where's my fairy godmother when I need her? Oh, gotta go change my clothes. The third baby spitup on my entire wardrobe is warranting a change. I'm soaking wet. Mmm. And I'm smelling stinky diaper...

So you think you can dance?

Does she have a future in interpretive dancing?

What I've been doing during my Twilight

I'm pretty sure I turned into a vampire as I read the three Twilight books. I suddenly thought I didn't need to sleep anymore, because I stayed up until 3 a.m. a couple nights to read. Plus, I don't think I was hungry while reading them because I didn't cook any meals either. These books definitely cast a spell on me and made my husband 'concerned' that I was more into 'nerdy' things like vampires than giving him attention.

I didn't like the fact that I was so addicted to the books, and I couldn't do anything else. But I truly loved them. I loved the way the author Stephenie Meyer developed the characters so that I felt a strong connection. I enjoyed seeing how she developed as an author in each book, with more subplots, twists and turns by the third book. I read all three of them for the first time in less than 2 weeks.

For those of you who haven't read all three books stop reading this blog entry now because I don't want to spoil anything for you!

At times Bella would totally drive me insane, but I have to say I also kept feeling like I could relate to her. Not me now necessarily but me at a handful of different times in my life. I think she loves Edward the best that she knows how, but I don't think she is capable yet of loving him in the unconditional way that he loves her. I also think she needed to have her relationship with Jacob to be able to understand love better and to know that Edward was what she really wanted. And I can relate how awesome it feels to have someone love you in a way that's totally unconditional.

I loved that these novels could be clean and give the message that even though hormones might tell you one thing, it's important to control yourself and wait until after marriage. An awesome message -- even though it is coming from a vampire. Some of the dialog is heartwarming and fun.

And I'm feeling thirsty for more! I forgot how fun it is to read fiction.

The Scarecrow's gift

My brain had mushed. I think it had not been flexed in so long it matched the jello-like state of my post-preg belly. I didn't realize my brain would need to be put back into shape just as my body. But, I think it was longer than 9 months of pregnancy that my cranium had not been exercised, so there's a larger margin to catch up on here. I think for years of speaking to small children all day and being overwhelmed by the daily duties of diapers and dishes, my brain hasn't needed to work. I could feel it shutting down on me (Baby Brain).

Well, I'm feeling somewhat revived. Here are a couple reasons for this:

1. Blogging. It was less than a year ago that my husband proudly stated he reserved the blog name owenfamily and started messing around with it. I confess I didn't even know what a blog was and truly didn't care too much. Suddenly, I felt frustrated that he had set me up for one more thing to be added to my "to do" list. Another thing that was never done. But, in recent weeks I've started to truly enjoy making my brain work by writing this blog and remembering that I actually do know how to write. Oh yeah, this is basically what I studied in school!

2. Reading. I've put down the stale parenting books and have been reading fiction. According to my husband, this is "chewing gum for the brain", but I have to disagree. It makes my brain analyze the fiction as I were back in a college lit class. In fact, I keep envisioning myself in a lecture where the professor is discussing symbols, tragic flaws, etc. I have even been writing analyses papers in my head. (This is part of the reason why you will soon be getting my book report on the Twilight Series.) OK, so I'm turning a bit nerdy here, but it's helping the brain wake up.

3. Listening. I borrowed my friend's 'Wicked' soundtrack. My kids actually allow me to listen to it in the car (a rarity because usually it's ONLY 'Old McDonald,' etc.). By having uplifting music running through my head rather than children's rhymes, I feel a sense of fulfillment. I've actually never seen the play 'Wicked' so it's been fun trying to make up plotlines in my head.


Now that I'm writing this, I realize how embarrassing it is to confess that these simple brain exercises have brought me so much joy and satisfaction. How have you stay-at-home moms exercised your craniums and kept them in shape?

Quotable Ellie

All in a day, Ellie had some cute ones:

Ellie: "Mommy, mommy. I heard a loud noise in my room!"
Mom: "That's OK, honey. It's just the wind blowing the house."
Ellie: With the most frightened look ever, she said, "Down?"
Mom: "No, it's not blowing the house down!"

-----------

Ellie came upstairs crying and shortly after Aubrie followed with great excitement.

Aubrie: "Mom! Guess what I prayed for Ellie because we were outside and the wind scared her. Does that mean I was good like Enos?"

Mom: "That's great Aubrie, but why were you guys outside without telling me?" ... Long discussion about stranger danger and the need to tell me when they go outside so I can check on them (we don't have a fence).

Aubrie: "But, does that mean I get a prize for praying for my sister?"

Ellie: "Do I get a prize because strangers didn't get me?"

-----------

Ellie asked me if I would turn the pony website on for her. How is the word website part of my 2-year-old's vocabulary?

A Big Day!

All three of my kids had a growing big day today! Teyah rolled over! It actually happened while trying to take these pictures.

Can you believe how big and cute she is? She turns three months in a couple days!

Ellie had her first ever dance class. She has been extremely excited -- which is funny because she doesn't wear her emotions on her sleeve like Aubrie. But then, she got to class and was a little shell shocked through it all. I don't think she spoke a word or changed emotions from her big eyes and expressionless face. And she stayed almost frozen in one place the whole time. It was hilarious. This picture below pretty much sums it up. It's so interesting how your children come with such different personalities.

Aubrie had her first day of official preschool today (we've been doing Joy School). She had a great time, but basically her only comment was: "Mom, why am I going to that preschool?" I told her to prepare her for Kindergarten. Then, a bit later while saying the lunch prayer she said, "Please bless that I can be ready for Kindergarten." While considering the book All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, that prayer plea has a lot of significance!

On another totally random note...The Barbie she's holding in the picture made me think of it. The other day she told me she wished she didn't have freckles because they aren't pretty. I told her they were very pretty, and she disagreed, saying her Barbies are beautiful, and they don't have freckles. Yikes! What do I do now? She's only 4! I don't know where this is coming from.

Chicago - unedited

OK, I usually leave the blogging to Jeni, and I just focus on making the money, but I have to step in to elaborate on the Chicago trip....as I was very proud of the fact that we totally gamed the Chicago Go Card system ($50 for a 1 day pass to basically every attraction in Chicago). For those of you who have traveled with me on vacations, I am usually a drill sergeant when it comes to packing in the fun into every second of the day. Chicago was no different, and my little "troops" were obeying marching orders pretty well. I apologize for giving a travel log, but here's a travel log. It went something like this.

9:58 - Battled through the sea of Iowa football fans to get to our 1st destination point - Shedd Aquarium (right next to the Iowa football game at Soldier Field)

10:21 - Dropped off the "troops at the aquarium, while I raced back through the sea of Iowa fans back to Navy Pier.

11:06 - After parking the car and sprinting around to get Circus, Children's Museum, Boat tour, and Carnival tickets I took a boat taxi back to the aquarium to meet the troops

1:08 - Concluded our tour of the Aquarium. The girls loved the glass floor aquarium with sting rays swimming below....and also the pizza we shoved down our throats at lunch

2:56 - Rapped things up at the Field Museum. The place was massive, and we saw almost every square inch of the place.....the kids were ready to call it a day at this point, but we proceeded onward!

3:38 - Chased down a Trolley tour bus who luckily gave us a ride to the Navy Pier

4:08 - Ran for the Carnival rides. Rode the Carousel which was "way too fast" which caused Aubrie to scream for her life.

5:05 - Squeezed in an hour long Children's Museum visit while mom got us some fast food to take on the boat

6:25 - All aboard the Skyscraper Boat tour!

7:58 - 2 minutes to spare until the SICKEST Circus of All time!

The Chinese Circus (Cirque Shanghao) was insane....it wasn't a circus where you clap and say, "oooo and "awe". Half the time all I could do was laugh out loud and say, "dude that was sick!" There was the Quadruple Jointed Contortionist ladies, the 10 people who road a single bike at once, the Unicycle tightrope dude, the crazy chair stacking lady, and a bunch of other crazy stuff.

For those of you scoring at home: In less than 10 hrs, we hit 7 major attractions, with 3 kids 4 and under, one of which who was potty training....Nice work troops!

Chicago!

My sister Lauren flew in for the long weekend, and we played hard in Chicago. Talk about seeing the city in a day! My favorite part was going to Cirque Shanghai. It was amazing. There are no pictures that could describe the amazing acrobatic tricks they do and how exciting and fun it is to watch. My jaw dropped through it all, and it must be the best $25 I've ever spent. The kids loved it too. Aubrie often talks about how she wants to be a tightrope walker when she's bigger, and she got to see it in real life for the first time.

We LOVED having Lauren with us and she was the biggest help. I will be surprised if she still wants to ever have children after this weekend. In fact, I'll be surprised if I ever want to have another child after this weekend! More on the drama later. This post is to talk about how fun we had, because we really did. My only disappointment was we didn't make it to the broadway musical 'Wicked' because they were sold out. I'm glad we went because I appreciate Chicago as a really cool city now. Last time we went (in December) I swore I never wanted to go back ever again, and I swore to Dave that I would NEVER move there. It was the coldest I had ever been in my whole life. But in the summer it was beautiful, and Saturday was one of the most perfect days I've had in a long time.

August 28, 2007

Dear Mother Nature,

I'm writing to you from one mother to another. As you know, when you have a newborn, your sleep is disrupted throughout the night. Your hands are busy during the day with your older children, so those few minutes at night when your baby is actually sleeping, the pillow is heaven. Almost every night for the past couple weeks, you have been sending horrific storms to my house. That is just not nice. Because with the house shaking from 70 mph winds, the electricity out (which means no a/c), and thunder cracks that jolt my 2-year-old to a tremble and panic, this mama has been gettin' no sleep. I've been sick for going on three weeks, and I can't overcome it with a 2-year-old's nails clutched into my neck all night or having to move the entire family to the basement at 3 a.m. due to tornado warnings. Please, oh please, mother nature, could for just once, the weather in Minnesota be just a little more average.

Sincerely,

A sleep-deprived mother

P.S. I've included a couple pictures of your handiwork last night. Our beautiful sunflowers were downed, our glass picnic table and umbrella were thrown and twisted. Our Adirondack chairs that were stacked against the house, were blown across the yard. Thank you for not causing any major damage or harm to my children.

A night on the town

We ventured to downtown Minneapolis with some good friends this week to listen and dance to some Salsa music.

The concert was held in the courtyard of the Mill City Museum. The courtyard was preserved so that you can see what the old Mill looked like.

The girls danced and danced and had a great time!

Right outside of the museum is this view of the Bridge Collapse. (You'll be able to see better if you click on the pic to make it bigger). In the center of the pic, you can see some green twisted metal, and that's what's left of the bridge, the rest is in the water or has since been removed. You can see the large flood lights that the workers have been using so they can work around the clock still trying to find victims.

And, on a happier note, I thought I'd throw this cute pic in of a worn-out baby. Daddy was putting his basketball shoes away when he realized they are about the same size as Teyah!

The big 2-month-old

Teyah had her two-month check-up today, and she was 11 lbs 1 oz and 23 inches! That means in two months she's gained 3 lbs and almost 3 inches!! How do you grow 3 inches in two months! That's crazy! She was also quite proportionate being in the 50-75 percentile for weight, 75th for length, and 50-75th for head. Surprisingly, this is our first child without a 95 percentile head! Teyah is the sweetest, easiest baby. She already likes to stand (as you can see from the pic). How are we so lucky to have a beautiful, healthy, happy baby!?

Thanks for your helpful words

While walking out of Target today, I was pushing the cart with the baby in her carseat and trying to hold Ellie's hand so she wouldn't get hit by the cars. Aubrie was trying to hold Ellie's hand but she was refusing and causing a scene. We made it across the street and the lady who was stopped at the stopsign rolled down her window and yelled "You are SO busy!" I turned around with a fake half smile and somehow made it to my car without further issues.

I've been thinking about this statement all day. What exactly did she mean by that? Was she patronizing me because I had spent an hour at Target doing nothing more than shopping the red sticker sales? Was she trying to be sympathetic? I've received a billion and a quarter "you have your hands full!" Was it her way of saying the same? Perhaps she was meaning I've been busy in the bedroom?

Whatever she was trying to say, her comment truly was icing on the cake for a moment when I was feeling overwhelmed with my children. Why would she make the effort to shout out her window something that really didn't make me feel better?

Have any of you received 'helpful' comments in your adventures with your kids?

Last week on our flight home, Dave was helping our niece get on her flight so I had to go through security and board our three kids on the plane by myself. Now that was an adventure! I was juggling 3 kids (one, who of course can't walk), 2 carseats, 2 bags and a stroller! Then, to make matters worse, the gate agent handed me four tickets that were totally scattered across the plane and said "the flight's completely booked, I guess you'll have to figure it out when you board."

I decided to just sit down in a seat on the plane and ask people to take one of my random seats that I had been assigned. One of them was a first class ticket. The first lady to come saw me sitting in her seat and said "what seat are you supposed to be in?" I explained and offered her the first class ticket. (Audible sigh), "Now I have to walk all the way back to the front of the plane."

I wish I could have replied, "that's OK, I'll walk up there and sit, and you stay in this middle seat and take care of my three kids!"

2 blessings, 1 wedding, and the beach

Boy, do we know how to pack it in! We traveled (by plane, thank goodness) to Utah for my brother Spencer's wedding. The wedding was beautiful and perfect. We love our new sister Julia! Check out their wedding video here. (Also, if you click on the "Event" tab you can see excerpts of Lauren's Junior Miss Pageant). Ellie attached herself to Julia while we were there. The day of the wedding, she didn't want to leave her side. She cried when she couldn't be in every picture with Julia. She wanted to hold her train on her dress everywhere she went. Later, to keep her occupied during the reception, she was coloring and after every picture she'd run over to Julia and show her. Thanks for being a good sport Julia!

While in Utah, we blessed Teyah. My sister's baby Spencer, who's just 9 days older than Teyah, was blessed too. How cool to have so many special events all at once! Teyah's blessing was beautiful.

Then we flew to California, rented a minivan and camped at Carpinteria beach for Dave's family reunion. Well, we didn't really camp. I opted for Motel 6. I figured I earned the right since we have a nursing baby. The girls had a week of heaven in the dirt and sand. Now, I'm so grateful to be home with clean kids!

The plane ride to Utah was a nightmare, which makes me realize we did the right thing by flying instead of driving. Dave got a severe headache and threw up three times. It was a late flight and the girls didn't sleep. It was very turbulent. Ellie cried and cried because her leg hurt. They both cried because their ears hurt. (Ellie actually held her ears and said she couldn't hear out of her ears. I thought that was impressive articulation for being just 2 and 4 months). I was struggling to keep everyone functioning. Oh, the joys! We survived though.