A Week in the Life {8/20-8/27}

Monday we said "Goodbye Daddy!" Adam headed off to his first week of work. The girls and I had fun together around the house, watching movies, playing, and just hanging out. It was pretty boring without Adam but we managed. We took a walk up to Adam's school to see how long it would take us for Family Night. It's less than a mile from porch to the entrance of the school! So nice to be so close.

Tuesday we basically did the same thing, just hung around and played with each other. I ran two miles per my training schedule. Hannah was trying to get my attention at some point today and she kept saying "Mommy, mom, mom, Mommy, hey mom," while I said "hold on Hannah I'm busy." Finally she stood in front of me, spread her arms out wide and sang (to the tune of Bohemian Rhapsody) "MAMAAAAA OOOOOOOHHH." She cracked me up.

Wednesday I got up and ran 2.5 miles, then we walked up to Adam's school to drop him off for work. When we got home, it started POURING rain. I'm not kidding, we missed the rain by MAYBE five minutes. It rained the whole rest of the day, so it was pretty fun. We went to the library and read a lot. At midnight, Hannah came in to our room, soaked and naked. It seems she decided to take a walk in the rain in the middle of the night and when she got soaked to the bone she came in, took off her PJs and crawled in bed with me. I got her dressed and sent her off to her own bed. What a crazy chick. The front and garage doors have chains on them so she can't get out of them (yet) but the back yard she can unlock easily. Grrrr.

Thursday  I ran 2.5 miles and walked Adam to school again. After 13 miles this week of running and walking my body needed a break. We went to McDonalds to play with some friends. I was the only non pregnant one and was feeling pretty good about myself :) I had to go shopping so I left quick and got some things for book club. I made some yummy brownies and at dinner I told Hannah "If you eat all your dinner I will let you have a brownie." She came back with "If I eat all my brownie, I will get to play with your ipod." Yeah, that sounds like a good deal (not at all, it sounds like a win win for Hannah lol).  Book Club was so much fun! We read The Fault in our Stars by John Green. We had a lot of new people which is always awesome. I also thought the discussion was great.

Friday was not so great. Hannah has been acting up a lot since we were in Hawaii. She refuses to take naps, or go to bed when she is supposed to. I have been exhausted by this, and Friday I decided to take a nap. I put her in her room, put Paige down, and went to lay down myself. I woke up 20 minutes later to Paige crying. Apparently, Hannah had woken up Paige. Now, in order to be understood I must first say that when Hannah goes down for a "nap" (although she hasn't slept in weeks) her first attempt is to ALWAYS have a potty accident. This is super frustrating for me, since I KNOW she doesn't need to go and she is forcing herself. How do I know this? A) I take her potty before each try to take a nap B) She didn't use a pull up once with my mom but she did for weeks before Hawaii and now weeks after. C) She will have an accident to get out of things like time out, naps, etc. She will have an accident if she is mad at me, she will have an accident if I withhold privileges. All this has happened since Hawaii when all the struggling I did for three years was undone in a single week of getting to do whatever she wanted. Things I have tried to do to get her to stop doing it: Make her clean it up every time, make her pick it up with her hands, make her sit in it, take away toys, take away privileges, spank her, yell, be patient, shower her in cold water, make her wear freezing cold underwear ("I like my frozen panties..." really.), make her wear a diaper. I have done everything. Well Friday I finally had it and I just snapped. I couldn't talk to anyone, I couldn't be around my kid, all I could do was lay in my room (as soon as Adam got home of course). I cried and cried and cried until I went to the relief society activity then I ran away from home for a few hours.

Saturday I woke up, went running, and then took Hannah to get our Bountiful Basket. I took her to the park hoping to make her tired. I played with her all morning hoping to get her tired. We ran around, played in the back yard, did cards etc. Did it make her tired? No. Just me. At nap time she of course went as always and quickly came out, then had an accident. Not only that but she was yelling and misbehaving. I snapped. I just left. I said, "Bye Adam" and took off. I was gone for about two and a half hours. What did I do? First of all I went to Marshalls to get new cheap sunglasses and ended up finding my exact pair in black (not ideal but I'll take it). Then I wandered around Walmart for two hours while people probably wondered what the woman with the swollen eyes was doing staring at the pull ups for a half hour was doing. I came home when it was about time for my kids to be asleep and started researching how much sleep should a three year old have. Did you know that between three and four a child should be sleeping 12-14 hours? That means Hannah should be sleeping up to FIVE MORE HOURS during the day for health and growth. Five. She gets MAYBE 9 hours, you know, when she's not out dancing naked in the rain at midnight and playing around the house at 4am. I went to sleep shortly after that feeling numb and discouraged.

I knew today would be a bust too. She'd already broken me. I stood at the top of the stairs for 20 minutes trying to will myself to go down before climbing into bed fully made up and dressed for church. I wasn't going to go. But then I had to go because I couldn't NOT go. While I was complaining to my friend Brittany she said "Nobody can give you advice because nobody has ever had HER." It's true. I've been told by people in my family who live far away "be consistent, be strict, don't give in." I want to shout I AM!!! I AM!! I AM!!! I work myself to the bone for apparently 16 hours of the day worrying about her, teaching her, sometimes even dragging her to safety. As sweet and kind and smart and wonderful as she is she is stubborn, she is belligerent, and she is driving me crazy. Only my friends who live close by who know Hannah and truly love her really see how stubborn she is. I don't know what to do. I've lost my mind. It depresses me to think that I'll never be able to leave for a week of vacation again or I'll suffer the wrath of Hannah. It depresses me that I can't do anything, that I am so angry at my child. It depresses me to be so frustrated at someone I love so much. It depresses me to write these things because I don't want people to feel badly of her, or of me. I'm tired of feeling like such a craptastic mom. I'm tired of feeling like nothing I do for her matters. I'm just tired.

 This was a couple weeks ago but I just got this picture this week

 Goof

 Hannah found an ice tray so we made ice then the girls played with the cubes outside. 

 Playing in the Rain. 

It was one of those kind of weeks.

A Week in the Life {8/13-8/19}

Home again, home again....

The 7 hour trip back to Las Vegas was exhausting. We were pretty anxious to get back after two weeks away from home. When we got home, I did some shopping and surprise surprise--our air conditioning was once again out of refrigerant (third time in a month). We loaded up on all our food, and the AC guy came quick, this time, he filled up our thing with refrigerant and dye to see if we have a leak. He came back again the next day to find the leak and unfortunately he thinks it's somewhere in our walls possibly...it sounds $$ so we try not to think about it right now...

Tuesday I took the girls to Storytime to get back into a good routine. I felt pretty busy as I was catching back up on life. I think I did a million things and accomplished nothing. Adam took care of the lawn with Hannah, then we went to McDonalds with Tayden. We also had some house guests, friends of my mom who were driving by through to California

Wednesday is kind of a blur. I did some Yoga, which I'm trying to get into to strengthen my core as I train for my half marathon in November. Adam went in to set up his new classroom but ended up not being able to. A new job popped up, which he has wanted for a LOOOOONG time so he contacted his administrator and applied for the job. We'll see. As of this moment he is a third grade teacher, a Falcon, but he may soon be an ECS (educational computer strategist) at a middle school near by. I hope he gets it! It would be a promotion, although he'd no longer be a teacher which would be sudden and weird. Paige is walking like a pro these days and knows she is cool stuff. I also started reading George Orwell's 1984 which terrified me to my bones and actually prompted me to make this blog private once again.

Thursday we went to Storytime with Adam for the last time before school starts. I can't even begin to explain how much I've loved having him home all summer. It has been so fantastic. The other day Adam said "So THIS is what it means when people talk about teachers having summers off." Haha. He is not looking forward to his break ending either...for one last hurrah we took the girls bowling and out to eat at Olive Garden. The girls did great, and we had a yummy endless pasta meal :)

As you can see, Paigey is becoming quite the little reader. She loves books and insists on touching each page and turning them (sometimes the opposite way). Did we reach our goal of reading 100 books? Yes we did. Did we take a picture of each of them? No, sadly the girls got tired of taking pictures with the books (and I got tired of taking them. I'll post the full list, along with the books we read at the end of August (there are still books we hope to get to).

Friday night I had a date with four handsome little boys. We do (or did) a babysitting coop between five families every month where one couple would take all the kids and the other four would go out. Well, that party kinda died since four of the couples are pregnant and IN OCTOBER! So since none of us are up to watching 7 kids and 4 infants we are taking a break or something. It was awesome while it lasted though!

Saturday was a busy day, in fact, the whole weekend was busy. I woke up early and ran three miles...it's week one for my half marathon training, and went to pick up our Bountiful Basket and grab some milk and eggs. I came home, put away the food, and started making some freezer meals. I made five freezer meals then we needed to clean the house so we cleaned. By this point, I needed a nap. After the nap, I made a salad and we went to our friends house for a BBQ. I love our friends.

Sunday both Adam and I taught lesson 16 in the Teachings of the Prophets manual so we prepared our lessons together. After church it was all about naps, visiting teaching, delivering freezer meals, and hanging out. We also had guests come stay with us over night.

I'm so sad Adam goes back to school this week :( we've loved having him home and there will be a hole in our heart now.

A Week in Paradise (and other places {7/30-8/12} Part Two

After our incredible week in Hawaii, we flew home to Las Vegas where Stacey picked us up (Scott had dropped us off, we love the Packards) and we drove home for about 30 minutes, packed and checked the mail, then we were back on the road to Utah to pick up our girls.

Do you think the girls missed us? Nope. Not one little bit. We found Hannah asleep in the upstairs hall (she is a night wanderer) and took her to her bed. She slept through that. Then we picked up Paige who had the cutest reaction, just a sweet smile and a squeeze, wanting to see each of us but almost acting like she was having a realistic dream. At 2am after traveling about 7000 miles in a week we finally crashed.

The next morning, we got up, did some laundry, played with the girls and drove to Island Park for a few days at the cabin.

The cabin was a lot of fun as always. We watched some great movies together, got to know Sean's "special friend," Lindsey a little bit better and we absolutely love her.

We went on a boat float. It was initially supposed to be the two couples and Megan but Hannah wanted to go so bad. It was a three hour boat float but she was soooo excited! She was an angel during the boat float and had so much fun....HOWEVER, at one point she jumped on me to give me a hug and my AMAZING, BEAUTIFUL OSCAR DE LA RENTA (ten bucks at TJ MAX) SUNGLASSES went flying off my head into the Snake river. Megan looked for them to no avail. A passing boat looked for them to no avail. I still to this moment am pretty heartbroken. I found the exact pair on Ebayfor 30 dollars. No, I'm not going to replace them...that is 40 dollars plus shipping on the same pair. But I searched for WEEKS for the perfect sunglasses and finally found ones I absolutely adored and they are gone forever. Hannah was pretty upset too. As soon as it happened she started to cry and say sorry and that I could share her purple heart sunglasses which don't fit my head and cover about 25 percent of my eyeball...but I couldn't be mad at her for having an accident, and she wasn't being naughty so I forgave her and lament the loss of my sunglasses still.

We went to see Annie get your Gun at the Playmill Theater in West Yellowstone. It is one of my favorite things to do in the summer and I was SO EXCITED. The production was fantastic and I hope to go again next summer or very soon after that. Adam and Megan both got serenaded in comedic ways since we were on the front row.

After the cabin we had to say goodbye to our family. The girls will surly miss my parents. Especially since they got candy for every meal and Hannah got used to the absence of "no," but hey, what are grandparents for, right?

 Goodbye Sunglasses :(

A Week in Paradise (and other places {7/30-8/12} Part One

Hawaii was... indescribable.

I'm going to skip the details of the time before and after Hawaii for the most part and focus on our glorious vacation!

Tuesday the 31st we drove the girls to St. George and dropped them off with my parents. I seriously have the best parents in the world. Not only did they agree to babysit my kids for a week, they also came to St. George so we could fly out of Las Vegas for cheap. We hung out for a bit in St. George, then said goodbye. I had to get out of the hotel room as fast as possible so I could have a good cry in the hall. It was hard saying goodbye to the girls (for me). They weren't phased.

We got to the Las Vegas airport and waited for the Turney's they were also flying out of Vegas because the tickets were so good. They arrived about midnight and we hung out at the USO eating snacks and getting excited for the trip. We boarded about 1:20AM and tried to sleep as comfortably as possible on an airplane. I think we each got about 4 hours of sleep on the 6 hour flight.

Wednesday at 6AM we got to Hawaii. It was dark, so I couldn't yet see the beautiful island. We got our cars and headed to Denny's for breakfast. The resort was fantastic. Seriously, it is the coolest way to do Hawaii. We were right on the beach at the Ko Olina beach club.

 Sisters

View from our room. Seriously. 

We had things to do to get ready for the week but our first stop was the Aloha Stadium Swap meet. I regret not getting more there but we didn't really know what to look for as we'd only been in Hawaii a few hours. It's only open on Wednesdays and Sundays. After that, we headed to Costco and Safeway to get our food for the week. Kris was very organized with a shopping list and weekly menu so it was fast. The rest of the afternoon was spent playing in the ocean, swimming in the many pools at the resort, and just walking around with our toes in the sand! 

Thursday was probably my favorite day...I started the day (after ten hours of sleep!) with a morning run on the beach. It was so beautiful! We took a drive up the middle of the island, past pineapple fields and jungle to the temple. The temple was incredibly beautiful. We spent some time at the visitor center, then the 3 couples and Kris went to do sealings while the two youngest and Terry went to do baptisms. It was really special, not only to see the temple but to serve in it as well. At the visitor center we watched a film about the church coming to Hawaii, about the temple, the Polynesian Cultural Center, and BYU Hawaii. It was really impressive. 

The Polynesian Cultural Center was a highlight of the trip. I felt the spirit testify of Heavenly Father's love for each of his children, and I gained an appreciation for the amazing culture of the islands. It was done really well, with shows, demonstrations, hands on activities...we even had a tour guide. That night we ate at a traditional Luau and watched the night show Ha. I would do the P.C.C. over and over again! 

 Making fish

 Dancing at the Luau for our anniversary

Friday was a beach day. Thanks to Terry being in the military, we got to hang out on a private beach (Bellows). We had boogie boards, body surfed, laid in the sand, and burned (note, the only one who DIDN’T get burned was me, the fair skinned Irish girl. All the quarter and half Mexicans burned. Irony)

It was the prettiest beach I’d ever played at. While I took a nap on the beach, Adam swam with a turtle! Lucky guy. We also stopped by the Pali Canyon lookout. It was a beautiful, but windy, view. 

Saturday, we started off by going to the Dole Plantation. It was beautiful, and interesting…but I don’t think I’d go there again. We ate yummy pineapple whip, but my favorite part of the Dole plantation, was the oyster we picked out. For our anniversary, Adam had me pick out an oyster which held two pretty, pink pearls (TWO!) I felt extra lucky to get two pearls. We had them set in earrings which I love. What a perfect memory for our anniversary and to remember Hawaii.

The best part of Saturday was a hike I discovered when researching our trip. It was called the Manauwili Falls hike, a 3.2 mile hike (roundtrip) to a waterfall, which we jumped from into a cool pool. The hike was incredibly beautiful. I kept waiting for dinosaurs to pop out and chase us through the jungle! The jump off Manauwili was a little scary, even though I didn’t do the tall jump. I will do this one again when we go back for sure! 

Sunday was our 6^th anniversary! We found a ward to attend near Pearl Harbor. It was cool going to church in Hawaii and it really set the spirit for Pearl. We did the audio tour, which gave me a lot of knowledge and understanding of December 7^th 1941 and the huge significance that was the battle at Pearl Harbor. Adam said he was choking back tears through the audio tour and movie, but I was alright until we took the boat out to the Arizona. As I stepped off, a thickness surrounded me and I couldn’t breathe. It was so obviously sacred ground that I couldn’t speak. I tried to read all the names of the dead, I saw the oil still leaking from the ship (about two gallons a day, estimated to leak another 50 years), I saw the ship containing the bodies of over 900 still trapped inside. It was an incredible experience.

After Pearl, we went back to the resort and Adam and I spent some time alone walking on the beach and enjoying the beauty of Hawaii, talking about the last six years and our daughters, just being together. Later that evening my cousin Dave came over (he is working in Oahu for the summer) and it was so cool to see him in Hawaii and hang out! 

 Monday was a little random. We didn’t have a solid plan, so the three couples and Terry split from the group and did two more hikes. One was Diamond Head which had the most spectacular view of all the hikes; the other was Mauna Waterfall, which was shorter, muddier, and more beautiful than the first hike. We ate at a really good burger place (I forget the name) and came back to the resort. We hung out in the pools and had these two Hawaiian men bust open a couple of coconuts for us! Again, we spent the evening walking around together and enjoying the sunset.

Tuesday, our last day, we went out with a bang. We started by snorkeling at a private “local” area with a guide, thanks again to the military connection. It wasn’t as commercialized as Hunauma Bay so we got a private little trip. I swam with a sea turtle and even petted it. Adam and Addison went off on their own for a bit and so they saw over SEVEN! They even chased them a bit haha. 

We went back to Bellows beach again and rented some Kayaks. It was pretty hilarious watching us try to make it past the waves and actually get out on the ocean but we did it! It was so amazing to be out in open water on a kayak! We all stuck together pretty much and it was so fun! Kris held up her hands so we thought we had 10 minutes left but really we had 30 so we missed out on the last twenty minutes L but it was incredible. We also spent some more time swimming in the water, then we got some famous Hawaiian shaved ice. That night we came home and everyone was pretty exhausted. I didn’t want to miss the last sunset so I went for a walk by myself and listened to IZ sing “Somewhere over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World” on the beach while I tried to capture every moment and lock it in my memory.

It was the greatest trip ever. I can’t wait to go back again someday. It seems almost like a dream at this point.