2014 :: week 39 (better late than never)

September 21

I've been cross-stitching in the evening to justify all the television I consume. This little boat took me a few episodes of Downton Abby to complete because I am slow, but also because there are a lot of stitches!

September 22

We made a family trip to the grocery store after dinner. The kids had fun squishing each other in the cart. We picked up some cookies from the bakery for our FHE treat to round out the night.

September 23

Will took several selfies to keep our picture streak alive Wednesday. Our relief society soup and bread activity was that evening, so I was making soup while Will was taking these pictures.

September 24

Lauren and I spent some time at the Johnson County Museum Wednesday morning while Will was at school. I enjoy it when I get to spend some one-on-one time with my girl. She loved working the register and stacking the ice cream cartons in pallets in the grocery area. As a former grocery store employee I found it really amusing. We had a great time, Lauren was perfectly pleasant until it was time to leave. I had to carry her out kicking and screaming.

September 25

One of the perks of having Dad work from home is getting to play in his office. A few years back I bought a bunch of pinto beans for a preschool activity. We keep them in our office closet and occasionally TJ gets them out and lets the kids play with them. For some reason they can't get enough!

September 26

I have a series of pictures similar to this one. Lauren refuses to nap, but if we go anywhere in the car between the hours of 2 and 5 pm it is very likely that she will fall asleep. We go somewhere during those hours almost every day, which makes the frequency of this occurrence really annoying.

September 27

Saturday we went to the Overland Park Fall Festival. Will was incredibly excited to see the marching bands. Of course, the only picture I snapped of the kids watching the bands had a non-performer walking on the side. There were four high school marching bands and about thirty politicians which made for lots of music and candy. Also, the Royals had clinched a playoff spot the night before, so there was a lot of blue in the crowd.

2014 :: week 43

October 19

Anthony left for a week in DC immediately after church on Sunday. Off all the travel Anthony does, Sunday travel is by far the worst. TJ travels a fair amount, luckily travel on Sunday rarely happens. The kids and I walked down to the park to pass the time outdoors. We've had some unseasonably warm days recently. The kids swung for quite awhile and I enjoyed the warm sunshine. Lauren likes to (loudly) sing while she's in the swing and sometimes Will joins in.

October 20

We've missed story time at the library for the past three weeks. Monday we finally made it and it was the perfect theme for our kids--"Be Royal." Will loves the Royals and Lauren thinks she's a princess. There were a few stories about royalty and a few stories about baseball. They loved the crowns they made that they decorated with Royals logos. I feel like this picture also demonstrates the personality differences of these two. Lauren walked right in and sat down between two kids she didn't know. Will sat by me for the first 15 minutes until he finally started to edge his way over to the group and even then he stayed on the periphery.

October 21

Lauren is 3! Because the third Tuesday of the month is always our RS meeting (and coordinating the meetings is my church assignment) and Anthony was out of town, I knew we wouldn't be able to celebrate in the evening. I invited a few friends to meet us at the park for cupcakes before I took Will to school. A fun group of friends came and the all three of us enjoyed playing, eating treats and visiting with friends.

October 22

We went to the Plaza for lunch on Wednesday.  I wanted to do something fun and I had been wanting to take a picture of the kids with the blue fountains so to the Plaza we went. We played around the fountain and adjoining field for awhile, then got lunch at Firehouse Subs. Of course Will had to go to the bathroom really bad AFTER we had carried our food across the busy street. Despite the emergency bathroom break, it was a fun outing.

October 23

Thursday was my terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. It was truly awful. There had been bits of tension throughout the week, but Thursday is when things got ugly. My patience was thin because I was tired.  I was tired because for some reason the kids have started waking up in the night again. No one slept well the night before and I really wanted the kids to take a quiet time so I could take a nap. They were uncooperative in a variety of aggravating and obnoxious ways. I took this picture because it illustrated an especially frustrating sequence. Lauren pooped in her pull-up, somehow picked up the poop while I was cleaning her, and then when I opened the door to take the diaper out this picture frame fell and glass shattered all over the ground. Thankfully my mom was able to help me feel better about myself and my sub par parenting skills. I'm aware that my problems are small compared to most people's, but while I was living it, Thursday was the lowest I've felt in a long time.

October 24

Friday I put together Lauren's Halloween costume. She told me she wanted to be an elephant. I found a few tutorials online and made them work for us. Lauren enjoyed watching me work until I wouldn't let her use the scissors. Then she antagonized me, tripling the amount of time I thought it would take me to finish.

October 25

Dad's home and we're all excited! And relieved! We had a busy day of pumpkin-patching, celebrating Lauren's birthday, trunk or treating and watching the Royals game. When it was time for bed both kids insisted on having Dad carry them up.

2014 :: week 42

October 12

Melanie was in town visiting my parents for a few days, so we spent some extra time at my parents too. Will loves to play games more than his parents and was quick to enlist a new recruit. Lauren found the purple purse she has over her shoulder in my parents give away pile (Melanie and Mom were going through some of the odds and ends that accumulated in the guest bedroom when they moved last year). She says it is her "favorite purse ever."

October 13

Aerial action shot of Will hitting the ball. He likes to go through the Royals' lineup and is quick to correct me if I make a mistake. He has the batting order memorized, as well as the players' positions and numbers.

October 14

The kids had their first dentist appointments Tuesday. I was a bit apprehensive about how things would go, but both kids did great. Not only did they have no cavities, they also were very good at keeping still and listening to the dentist and hygienist.

October 15

The Royals are going to the World Series and everyone is excited! Everywhere you go people are sporting their KC gear. We are pretty excited too.

October 16

The few weeks when the leaves are changing but haven't yet dropped are when our neighborhood looks the prettiest. I love walking and driving under the canopy of leaves.

October 17

Here's a behind the scenes look at our family photo shoot. We got our pictures taken at Black Hoof Park on Friday evening. It was a gorgeous night, but I couldn't believe how fast the sun went down. We promised the kids we would play at the park after pictures (didn't want to before in case they got dirty) but by the time we were done the sun was almost gone.

October 18

We trade babysitting with some friends and this week it was our turn to go out. We saw Meet the Mormons and got some dessert afterwards. Our friends have a dog and Will was a bit nervous about him before he went over. Apparently he spent the first 30 minutes he was there sitting next to the dog's kennel and then enjoyed playing with him most of the night. Will has been going through a nervous phase, so it was nice to see him face a fear and realize he doesn't have to be anxious about everything.

2014 :: week 41

October 5

Sunday was a relatively relaxing day. We lounged around the house, watched General Conference, baked bread, visited with family via google hangout, ate dinner with my parents and watched part of the Royals game. Will was excited because Sunday was the first Royals' playoff game he could since the Wild Card game (that didn't go so well in the early innings he got to watch).

October 6

Lauren appears to be going through a bit of a growth spurt and has outgrown most of her shoes. Monday afternoon we went to Target to see if we could find something. The selection wasn't the greatest, but a pair of Cinderella jelly slippers caught Lauren's eye. They aren't my style, but they seem to epitomize the essence of who and what Lauren is right now, so I let her get them. Also, they were significantly marked down. She wears them constantly and when she isn't wearing them she wants to know where they are so she can wear them.

October 7

The kids and I picked up a pair of fake spiders while running errands and the kids could hardly wait to scare their dad with them. He played scared pretty well. Later in the week they did scare me for real when I walked into our dark kitchen and stepped on one with my bare foot.

October 8

I made a batch of play dough for the kids and it was a hit with Lauren. "Making snakes" kept her entertained for quite awhile.

October 9

I got an email from our cable company about being eligible for a free advanced screening of the movie Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. It sounded fun so I signed us up and on Thursday evening in the pouring rain we drove to the Plaza to watch the movie. We all really enjoyed ourselves. The movie exceeded expectations, the kids were good, and I won a raffle (copy of the book, magnet of the movie poster and notepad). It was Lauren's first theater experience and first time drinking Stawberry Fanta--she was a fan of both. The screening included a free small popcorn and drink as well.

October 10

Friday was another gray day. The kids colored on the kitchen floor for awhile in the afternoon.

October 11

We went on a hayride with a group of friends this evening. It was a gorgeous evening to be outside enjoying nature. We rode around the park and roasted marshmallows. Will brought along his bat and ball and TJ pitched to the kids until it got too dark to see. I was shocked at how early it got dark. Guess I'm in denial at how far into fall we are. Also, if it looks like Will isn't looking through his glasses much it's because they are pretty dirty. I try to clean them daily, but am constantly amazed at how filthy they get.

the craziest and most exhausting kc sports week ever

We bought tickets to the Chiefs game back in August. In the meantime Anthony got a work assignment in DC for the following morning. In order for him to make it to his meeting in DC and attend the game he had to leave our house at 4am, less than 5 hours after we arrived home from the game. We were both a little nervous about how tired we would be over the upcoming week what with having a such a late night Monday, such an early morning for TJ and a week alone with the kids for me. Little did we know that the football game was only the first of four late nights courtesy of victorious Kansas City sports teams.

Tuesday evening the Royals were playing the A's in the American League Wild Card game, the Royals first playoff game in 29 years. At the end of the 7th inning I called Anthony in DC to say goodnight. We were talking while we were watching the game and planning on getting off the phone and going to bed as soon as the game was over. We ended up talking on the phone for over 2 hours until almost midnight (1am for TJ) as the Royals came back from behind and won!

We were pretty tired the next day. Tired, but excited. And Will re-enacted the sequence of Eric Hosmer's triple, Christian Colon's stolen base and Salvador Perez's walk-off hit at the bottom of the 12th many, many times that day and in the days since. No, we did not let him stay up to watch the game, but he did watch the replays over and over.

Thursday the Royals played the Angels, again going into extra innings. This time it was even worse because the game was in California. Friday, same thing. I was dragging and planned on going to bed around 11pm. Once again the game was close, went into extra innings and the Royals came out on top.

It's been an exciting (and exhausting!) week watching the Kansas City teams play and win. Last year I enjoyed watching and cheering for the Red Sox as they won the World Series, but it's a new kind of fun to have the team that you've rooted for for so long to actually do well. Here's to hoping that the Royals keep us busy for the next few weeks!

2014 :: week 38

September 21

It was hard to capture, but Lauren was very animated as she led us in two songs she had sung in nursery earlier that day. Lauren loves to sing and she loves being in charge so she was having a great time. Her current favorites are "Popcorn Popping" and "Book of Mormon Stories."

September 22

Will got new glasses! He picked out the frames himself. He really wanted blue because all his favorite sports teams are blue--Royals, Red Sox and BYU Cougars. His prescription only changed slightly but these new lenses seem to have improved his vision. His (baseball) hitting has really improved since he got the new glasses. In this picture Will is practicing writing letters in his work book, which he often does while I am making dinner or working in the kitchen.

September 16

We got a new furnace installed on Tuesday. It was such a relief to get it in and to have the search and decision-making over. A few weeks ago we had a plumber come fix a leaky toilet and broken valve (which we have since learned we probably could have done ourselves). When he went into our basement to turn off our water he noticed some condensation from our AC leaking into our furnace and suggested we get it checked out. We did and found out that in addition to some rusting, the heat exchange was cracked. This is dangerous because it can cause carbon monoxide to leak into our house. Because our furnace was 18 years old it made more sense to replace the entire furnace instead of just the heat exchange. Over the past two weeks we meet with several consultants from various HVAC companies who told us a variety of conflicting things that we HAD to get done with prices ranging from $2500-$9500. I hate spending money so it has been a stressful few weeks with the decision hanging over our heads. We feel good about the choice we made and are so relieved to get the new one in before it gets cold. Oh, and that we didn't turn on our furnace this winter and die from carbon monoxide poisoning.

September 17

And so it begins, the trees in our yard have begun to shed. At this point it is mostly acorns. Occasionally, when the wind blows it sounds like someone is throwing a handful of rocks at the back of our house when half a dozen or more acorns fall off and hit our deck at once. Every other day we sweep them off the porch as the acorns are hazardous to small feet who "forget" to put shoes on when they go out back.

September 18

I found a small bike at a garage sale while out walking Thursday afternoon and ran home as fast as I could to get some money so I could buy it. I've been looking for a bike that Will could use to practice riding all summer and really wanted to get a 12 inch bike. I was about to cave in and buy a bike online, so I felt like this was a tender mercy because I was feeling stressed about money after all the unplanned expenses we've had this past month (furnace and car repairs).

September 19

On Friday we had lunch with the Diggins. The kids had a fabulous time playing together. It was the first playdate we've had in awhile where there were no fights and everyone shared, took turns and generally got along. Of course I had to ruin the good feelings we had as we were driving home when I shut Lauren's fingers in the window. In my defense she kept yelling "All the way closed!" while her fingers were stuck, so I kept hitting the up button over and over thinking she wanted me to close it all the way. Apparently she meant, she wanted it all the way OPEN as her fingers were stuck inside. Other than a nice blood blister and some Mommy-guilt everyone has recovered.

September 20

Saturday we spent in the temple with our friends Lori and Vince. Lori and I work together on the RS activities committee, but we got to know them better over the summer as they came to temple prep class. They asked us to be their escorts as they went to the temple for the first time to receive their endowments and then were sealed to each other. It was a great day!

2014 :: week 37

September 7

I really want to learn how to make good rolls. Roll making is something that has intimidated me for years. A few months ago we had a relief society activity where each step of making a roll was demonstrated. The past few Sundays I've been practicing and am getting better (I think).

September 8

Anthony's team at work won an award for innovation in government. Maybe he can get on here and share about it because I'm not exactly sure what they did. His face is the picture behind the "now" on the "Register Now" button.

September 9

This is the view from our front porch most evenings if Will has his way. Tuesday was the last nice day this week. It's gotten progressively cooler each day.

September 10

 When Lauren eats a popsicle it's a messy affair. No shirt and a bib.

September 11

Lauren turns 3 next month. She is really blossoming and I feel like a lot of changes are just around the corner. One of those changes is the transition to a big bed. She often asks to sleep on the big bed in her room, and if I'm going to get serious about potty training she's going to have to be able to get out of bed herself, so I've been letting her try to take naps on it. She's got her crew with her (Penguin Baby, Red Sox Santa and Bunny).

September 12

The kids and I met up with my friend Amber and the girl she nannies at Monkey Bizness. It was the perfect day for Monkey Bizness--we wanted to get out of the house because it is pretty cold and we are currently without a heater but it's too cold and wet to enjoy planning outside for long. The kids jumped and climbed for a solid 1.5 hours. Will reminded me of Miley while he played on the swing and I struggled to stop chuckling about it.

September 13

Saturday night the Single's Ward in our stake put on a dinner to raise money for the Red Bag Christmas Program, a local organization that provides Christmas gifts to foster children in the KC area. We enjoyed visiting with the Chase family while we ate and then listened to a short program. The Christmas decor paired with the cold weather has reminded me that summer really is over, fall is here and the holidays are just around the corner.

2014 :: week 36

August 31

Now that the weather is cooling off we've started going on more walks in the evening. Watching Lauren run stresses me out. With every step she takes it looks like she is about to trip and fall. She barely lifts her legs off the ground. It's only a matter of time.

September 1

Monday morning our ward had its annual Labor Day picnic. Anthony brought a bat and ball, and as soon as he and Will started playing kids came over and started to play with them. I took this picture when things were just getting started. Will told us that it was the best Labor Day picnic ever. Everything is a best or worst. Not a lot of middle ground in his life.

September 2

Will had an eye appointment Tuesday and had to get his eyes dilated, which he had been dreading for days. His eyes have improved in the past year since he started wearing glasses. His prescription has changed slightly, and will be getting a new pair of glasses in the next week.

September 3

Wednesday was a stressful day for me for a variety of reasons: we found out we had to replace our furnace, Anthony was in DC, it was really hot, and the kids were super whiny to name a few. After dinner I couldn't take it anymore and told the kids we were going outside until bedtime. We pulled some weeds, played with sidewalk chalk and rode bikes. 

September 4

Sometimes I have to bribe/reward the kids to get what I want. Thursday I really wanted to go to the gym and I wanted it to go smoothly. Often when we go one or both of the kids complains about having to go in the first place, not getting to swim or not playing in the explorer room long enough. After I worked out and picked them up from the child watch I set the timer on my phone and told them if they left when it was time to go without complaining I'd give them an applesauce. I didn't have much faith that they would comply, but they actually did!

September 5

Will is getting increasingly independent. Though they aren't too fancy, he makes a pretty good PB&J.

September 6

Saturday morning got off to a rough start. I had a hard time falling asleep the night before so I was groggy and slept in later than I usually do. When I checked my email I realized Will had purchased a season of Caillou on amazon prime for $24.99. Anthony came to the rescue, called the customer support line, and got our money back. We needed to get out of the house so we headed to the Lenexa Spinach Festival. It was a beautiful day to be outside. Will "fished," as he has for the past several years...but this year he actually caught something!