Hannah's Sweet New Ride

Hannah's been begging for a bike lately, especially since her friend Ammon just got a new one. She asked her grandma for one for her birthday. Ask Grandma, and you will receive. I think I want one just like it!

And because these girls are so cute, I just had to take pictures of them while I was getting a couple of Hannah riding her bike.

My Christmas present, 3 months early

Do you remember when video cameras used to look like this 20 or so years ago?? One of my best friends growing up had a video camera like this that carried VHS tapes. This thing was huge and bulky to carry around. I realize that they still have cameras this big and even bigger for movies, but personal video cameras have changed quite a bit.


Meet my new video camera (which also happens to be my Christmas present that I got a bit early so we could take it to Disneyland with us).
It's the size of a cell phone, and there are no tapes involved. There's a tiny chip that is placed on the side that stores all of my videos. I love modern technology! If there's one piece of electronic equipment that I don't mind spending money on, it's cameras. Pictures of my kids are important to me, because that is what I will have left to look at when I'm old and gray and missing my tiny ones. But anyway, it also takes still camera shots, but as you can tell from my previous posts with blurry pictures, it doesn't take the best pictures. In fact, seeing blurry pictures now is like someone screeching their nails across a chalk board (SO ANNOYING) to me. I'm used to my nice Nikon camera and its perfectly clear pictures, but unfortunately I can't lug that thing with me everywhere because it's huge. So this will be a nice substitution for now, until I can get a video camera and a still camera in one that has awesome pictures and video. This thing takes awesome videos, and it's even water proof for all those times I will be scuba diving in the Great Salt Lake. That was a joke. Won't be doing that anytime soon, but it might be fun to take under water next year when Hannah really learns to swim well.

I wanted to test out my new camera, so here are a couple of videos of the girls.





Why don't babies ever do what you want them to do on camera? Oh well, they're still adorable.

I think I've dealt with enough poop......

to last me a life time. Want to hear my FIVE (yup five) stories of poop that I've had to deal with in the past few weeks? If you have a queasy stomach, don't read on.

In case my girls read this when they're older, I don't want them to be embarrassed, so I will just use the letter B to represent the baby. This way, you don't know which one it is. It could be one or both of them that I'm talking about.

Story #1:

This was the first incident, which also happened to be the reason behind writing the "Chaos" post that I wrote a little while ago. So B and Hannah are taking a bath together. B poops in the tub (pretty typical thing to do as a baby). Hannah starts freaking out. I pull Hannah out first because she's freaking out that she's going to get poop on her. I turn around to get B, and I'm too late. She's stuck a piece of poop in her mouth. I grab her, rush her to the sink and start rinsing out the poop from her mouth. It's all over my hand and I'm about to barf because it stinks and it was just in my baby's mouth.

Story #2:

I'm changing B's poop diaper when Hannah slams the bedroom door on the other B, which then makes her wooden door sign fall off and land on B. B is crying, so I run over to her to make sure she's not hurt. I forgot that I had already unfastened B's diaper, so when I come back to her to finish changing her diaper, she's playing with the poop and has it smeared on her face and hands.

Story #3:

I pick up B, only to realize that she has poop squirting out of her diaper and onto the floor. Then the poop squirts out even more and smears onto my shirt.

Story #4:

I take B out of the tub to get her dressed. I leave her (naked) to get the other B out of the tub. When I come back in the room, B is under her crib. She comes out and I put a diaper on her. I smell poop, but I'm not sure where it's coming from because her diaper is clean. I just put it on, for crying out loud. I look under her crib, and there lay a nice sized turd.

Story #5:

Hannah goes poop in the toilet. I helped her wipe her buns, but both of us forgot to flush it. You can imagine where this story is going, right? So, while I'm getting B dressed, the other B is in the bathroom. I go find her, and of course she is twirling the poop around in the toilet like she's mixing some sort of turd stew.

Reading these stories actually makes me laugh now, but while I'm going through it, I am so grossed out. And I'm a little worried that my kids are going to get worms or something. Do you see why my life is chaos? Shame on me for letting this happen FIVE times.

And here's one of my favorite quotes by our dear old President Bush that goes along with this.....

preschool

The past couple of weeks have not been my favorite. Back in August, Hannah's two best girls friends moved away. I felt really bad for her because I know that she missed her friends. Every once in awhile she would say to me, "Mom, I don't have any friends," with a really sad face. She does have friends. She's got her little friends at church and she's got a ton of boys that live near us that she plays with. She hasn't had a girlfriend over in awhile to play Barbies with, though. I was looking forward to her going to preschool and making some new friends. The preschool that I was trying to get her into didn't get back to me until 2 1/2 weeks into September (I was really annoyed with them). She didn't get into that preschool because there were too many kids that signed up, and I was really bummed. I had even bought her a back to school present and new school clothes. Then on top of being annoyed with that, all of my kids have been sick for the past 3 weeks and all three of them got ear infections this week (So yup, been to the doctor 3 times in a week and I may need to go again). The babies also got some sort of eye infection, which has now been passed to me. So we've all been a bit grumpy over here.

Anyway, there are a few women from church who are doing a preschool, which is what we did last winter. I was afraid that it was too late for Hannah to add to the bunch since they started two and half weeks ago, but the women were so kind to let her join.

She's all over her sickness, and today was her first day of preschool. She had a great time, and she loved the present that I got her (a necklace and matching ring). She's even sleeping with them tonight. Besides the fact that my babies are still sick and my eye hurts, today was a great day.

The Bangs Family

Last week I cut Bailey's bangs. She has the perfect hair for bangs because it's straight and it grows forward. Then yesterday, Hannah and I also got our bangs cut. I was really nervous because I haven't had bangs like this since I was 9 years old. At first, I hated it. It's growing on me, though. And I like the fact that it's something different. I get bored of the same hairstyle over and over.

Hannah just got some side bangs. It doesn't matter what I do to her hair, she always looks cute. I cut Brynn's bangs too, but they don't really look any different. This picture of her is actually before I cut her bangs, but I couldn't leave her out so I had to post a picture.

Now I just need to get Scott some bangs........

Before:

Before:

After:

(And I had to add this one of Brynn, too, because I think it's cute that every time she goes into Hannah's bedroom, she ends up with bling around her neck. She loves necklaces.)

Peanut Butter Playdough and Sausage Casserole

Yes, there are two of my favorite things, and if you've never made them before, you are in for a treat! I've known about both of these things since I was a kid because my mom made them for me, and now I pass them down to my little ones, who also love them.

Playdough is so much fun for kids, but you know what makes it even better? Edible playdough that is filled with peanut butter goodness. Here's the recipe:

Mix:
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup corn syrup
1 1/4 cups dry milk (comes in a box)
1 1/4 cups powdered sugar

It's really sticky at first but once you get it all mixed together, take the dough in your hands and try rolling it into a ball. It becomes less sticky, and you can play with it and eat it at the same time! It is a little greasy but so good! Ah, brings back good memories of being a kid!!







Second comes the sausage casserole. I could eat the whole pan of this by myself, but I refrain from my piggy ways. If you like sausage and chicken stock, you'll love this!

Recipe:

-1 pound ground sausage (if you like spicy foods, get the spicy sausage. If not, just get the plain. Either way is delicious!)
-1 envelope of Lipton Chicken noodle soup (comes in a box usually with two envelopes, but you only need one envelope)
-3/4 cup of rice

Cook the sausage in a skillet until it's cooked all the way through. Meanwhile, follow the recipe on the box to make Lipton chicken noodle soup in a different pot (I think it's just 3 cups of water added to the envelope and then boil it for 5 minutes). Then put the cooked sausage, chicken noodle soup, and rice all together in an 8X8 casserole pan. Cover it with foil and cook at 350 for 30 minutes. After it's cooked, stir the casserole and let it sit for about 5 minutes. So delicious and so easy!!!




(P.S. Please excuse the blurry pics. I'm using a new camera, of which I will post about later).

Goals-#2, #3, and #4

Ok, so I mentioned in my previous post that I wanted to have goals for myself, to make my life less chaotic and to make myself a better mother.

Yesterday we went to regional conference (it's a church thing, for anyone who may not know). I was wrestling with my kids the whole time and didn't get much out of it because I wasn't really able to listen. However, I did get one thing out of it. Sister Julie Beck, the General Relief Society President spoke. She said that we are doing better than we think we are, but we can do better. One thing she mentioned was that a lot of young mothers these days are on the computer way too much. Because of this, they end up neglecting their children. One reason I didn't want to get a facebook account was because I didn't want to ever do that to my children. I am one to tell you that once you sign into facebook, sometimes you don't sign off for an hour or so later (although I'm pretty sure I've never done this while my kids were around-it's not possible to be on the internet that long with three little rugrats). Despite the fact that I didn't want to get a facebook account, I caved and got one anyway. The first year I had it, I didn't get on it that much. The past few months, though, I've gotten on it more and more. Just the past few weeks I've found myself on it 2,3,4....times a day. It's very addicting. Just like anything else that's addicting, this is not a good thing. To me, it's fine to surf the internet for a little bit if your kids are gone or asleep, but it's when you start neglecting them to "add a comment" or to read someone's status update that it becomes bad. I was on facebook the other day and Hannah was begging me to play with her, and I kept telling her in just a minute. I was really busy, apparently, reading updates and looking at pictures of people I haven't seen in years. Poor Hannah. I've snapped out of that little funk, though, after I heard that talk from Sister Beck. My next goal (besides making myself physically satisfied) is to stop getting on facebook/surfing the net while my kids are awake. I will still check my email every once in awhile during the day and anything else that I need to check, but I won't surf the internet. I did good today. Didn't look at facebook once while my kids were awake. I did look at it once while my kids were asleep, though. I feel that it is so important to take care of my little ones, and websites like facebook, myspace, and even blogger can be a distraction. This time in their lives is crucial to their futures.

Goal #3- I like making dinner, but I hate thinking of what we're going to eat for dinner every night. Sometimes 4 or 5 o'clock rolls around and I have no idea what we're going to eat for dinner......"I guess it's going to be a pancake night." To make myself a little more organized, I started a calendar with everything that we are going to eat for dinner that week. Then I go food shopping and buy all of the ingredients that I'll need for the week. So far, it's turned out nicely. Dinner feels much less chaotic, thank you very much.

Goal #4- I'm still coming up with a hobby to do for myself. I really don't have time during the day. By the time the girls are in bed, it's time for P90X, cleaning, and a little relaxation. Someday I'll find something for me...hopefully someday soon.

And so the countdown begins to Disneyland! Thirty-nine more days!! I think I'm a little more excited than Hannah is!!

Commentless

So here's the deal. I'm going to continue writing, but I'm going to take off the comments. Thank you to everyone who has ever left a comment on this blog. They really have meant a lot to me. However, sometimes I feel like my motivation to blog depends on how many comments I get. Silly, I know, but it's the truth. The fact that I haven't been getting tons of comments lately plus the fact that my life is extremely chaotic makes me want to just get rid of the blog. However, I want to keep this blog for me, and I know there are people who want to see what we're up to as well. So, we're going to try it like this for awhile and hopefully I will just blog whenever I have an extra minute. I'd love for you to continue reading if you want. And if you ever want to write me a comment or a note, just email me. I'd love to hear from you.

maralar@hotmail.com

Hopefully I'll blog more from here on out!!

If you want to make a comment on the last post, you are more than welcome to. I just changed it so you can comment now.

Chaos

This video is what Scott and I get to deal with every night at dinner. It's adorable but incredibly loud.

My life is such chaos right now. Ever since the girls have been able to move, I feel like I'm being pulled in a million different directions. I'm running right to get Bailey from eating the crumbs off the kitchen floor. I'm running left to get Brynn to stop pulling Hannah's hair. Then I'm running again to stop Bailey and Brynn from pulling on the computer power cords, the dvd players (of which they've already broken one by pulling really hard on dvd slot), turning off and on the tv over and over again, all while Hannah is crying because she can't watch her favorite cartoons. I swear that child gets beaten up by her little sisters. She is constantly getting pinched or her hair pulled out in clumps (actually we all are).
(This is how the girls have to watch TV these days. Otherwise they turn it off or end up breaking a dvd player.)

Bailey has sort of become the "bully" of the girls. Not because she means to, but because she's bigger and stronger than Brynn. Brynn teases Bailey by holding out a toy or food for her to grab, but then she pulls it back just as Bailey is about to grab it. Bailey usually ends up getting it, though, which then makes Brynn angry. Because Bailey can pull herself up and can move more fluently, she ends up stepping on Brynn or sitting on her. Brynn's only defense is to bite. She's bitten Bailey's bare buns before, and yesterday she bit Bailey really hard on the arm in the bathtub. Poor thing. I felt so bad for her. I was expecting fighting between the girls, but not this early!

Brynn still scoots everywhere she goes. Sometimes I feel really bad for her because even though she's quick at it, she's not as quick as Bailey or Hannah. I'll leave the room for a few minutes. Hannah will follow and then Bailey will follow her. Poor Brynn is usually crying because she's left alone. By the time she scoots herself to me, I'm usually leaving the room again. Here's a cute little video, though. She came out of Hannah's room the other day, scooting along with these behind her. It reminded me of someone who comes out the bathroom with toilet paper stuck in their shoe.

It's not just the girls that cause chaos, though. My house is chaotic as well. I look around and think, "I can never get this ruddy thing clean!" Food and toys are everywhere! There are crumbs all over the floor and splatters of food on the kitchen wall........milk spills and sticky spots that I have no clue where they came from. GROSS!! I just can't stay on top of it. I've had to put a gate up in our kitchen entry way because the girls will go in the kitchen and eat the food off the floor before I get the chance to sweep it up.

And then I look at myself in the mirror and think, "Wow. I look like I live a chaotic life." Not feeling cute much these days. I don't take care of myself the way I would like to. As I've mentioned before, I usually have my hair pulled up in a ponytail (mostly because I don't like it to get pulled out by my girls) and I often don't bother to put on makeup. Since I quit the gym in May, I've gained a couple of pounds too. It doesn't surprise me. I ate like an absolute pig this summer. I guess my metabolism has slowed down with age.

It's not just the way I look, though. It's also the fact that I feel like my identity these days is just that I'm a mother. There's nothing else that identifies me. There's nothing wrong with being a mother (in fact, I love it). I do my best to be the best mother I can be. However, I don't really have any talents or hobbies that I'm interested in right now. I really feel that this is something that I need in order to be a better mother. I need to find something that I enjoy doing. I think sometimes stay at home mothers put so much of their time and energy into doing their best at taking care of their wee ones, that they forget to take care of themselves. Who in the heck am I right now? What do I like to do? I don't even know. My current "likes" are changing poo diapers and chasing after my kids all day.

So, here's what I want to do. I need to make goals for myself. The first goal I've got going on is to get myself back where I want to be physically. I started P90X, thanks to a friend who let us borrow it. I've started eating healthy again too (P.S. Why does healthy food have to taste so nasty? Why can't vegetables taste like chocolate?). There's just something about working out and eating healthy that already makes me feel more confident.

The second thing I need to do is find a hobby. I tried teaching myself the piano a couple of years ago, but since we've moved it's been in storage. One of my favorite hobbies is dancing, but I'm not sure where I can take a dance class at or if I could find time to do it. Hmmm.....what to do. I'll find something.

I just want to end with this reiteration. I think it's so important to take care of yourself as a mother. We need time to ourselves too. I hope this doesn't sound selfish, because if it ever came down to it, I'd do anything for my little stinkers. But I do think that in order for me to be the best mother that I can be, I need to remember who I am as a person. And I need to make my life a little less chaotic. I'm still trying to figure out exactly how to do that.

In the meantime, here are some pictures of my delightfully delicious monsters. Oh how I love them. I could just squeeze them and kiss them all day long.

Although you can't see it, Bailey is putting a bow in Brynn's hair. So cute!