Just us

This was our very first Christmas that was just us, and Chuck's sister Megan. We ate diner by candle light on Christmas Eve (a tradition from Chuck's family). Julia Child's lemon chicken, roasted red potatoes, stuffing, green beans, a light soup, french bread, and lots and lots of "bubble juice" as Fiona calls any thing with carbonation.

It was kind of weird not to have the mass chaos of all the aunties and uncles and kids etc. But I did stop up to my neighbors to enjoy their chaos for a moment... I think now that I spend so much time at home alone with the girls, I crave being around lots of people.

We decided that this time off of work for Chuck would be a good time to start the co-habitation of the girls... up to this point Daphnie had been in our room. I was super nervous about it... I wish I could say I have all the kinks worked out... but alas from about 7:00 to almost midnight Chuck and I find ourselves trying to get one or both of them back to sleep (the writing of this post has been interrupted twice thus far). But it ain't all bad...lately I have been trying to be present... you know like in the moment and enjoying it without thinking of what you still need to do or what happened last Saturday...etc.etc. So when I can actually be in the moment I enjoy my late night babies and the fact that I can hold them and rock them and hear their sweet little voices and soft breathing. 

Just look at those luscious cheeks!

Christmas morning was great... I had been trying to build Fiona up for it for weeks. But she opened one present... a hot pink electric keyboard from Grandma and then she didn't want anything to do with anything else. I ended up unwrapping all of her presents and just showing them to her and she was less than thrilled. However, since Christmas morning she has thoroughly enjoyed all of her new toys which are much more age appropriate and challenging for her.

I just wanted to post this pic because I love her little outfit.

I am in the process of uploading some videos of the festivities to YouTube... so be sure to check out my account for all the live action footage :)

The 23rd as many of you may know was my birthmas. I am now 29 years old. Maybe I will go do something crazy this year... just maybe.  

Stressful Sundays

I was under the impression that the sabbath day was supposed to be full of peace and rest. Not true if you are a Mormon in charge of primary kids. 

I currently team teach five year olds with Chuck. They are cute and sweet yada yada yada BUT they seem to have an attention span of about 2 minutes... so you can imagine that after an hour being quiet in sacrament meeting, listening to talks that don't make any sense to them they are not ready to sit quiet and still in a huge room with all their friends. Despite my best efforts to maintain some sort of classroom order (because that is what the primary presidency and other teachers expect of me), they just wanted to jump around, laugh and talk about belly buttons.

If we are going to make them stay at church for that long they should be able to run around and play. I am sure some would consider that breaking the sabbath day.... I remember getting yelled at as a kid for running in the gym when church was over. People would say "No running in God's house." I wonder if God would have a problem with little kids running and being happy and playing in His house. I submit that he would not. I mean Jesus told us to be like little children. So why do we spend so much time each week trying to make them act like little adults? Someone gave a lesson in sharing time a few weeks ago about being good... she noted that "wiggling your feet in church was BAD" Are we seriously trying to shame kids for having the wiggles. Movement is important for young kids growth and development.

I seriously want to bring a bag full of toys and games next week... have a two minute lesson and then just play. 

Number two review

I am just recovering from my second bout of strep throat in the last month. That makes, one cold/nasty thing, one mastitis attack, and two cases of strep in only a short month and a half. Honestly I have never been sick so many times in my life in such a short period of time. It has made things interesting at best and horrible at worst with a new born in the house. I can only blame myself for a few reasons... one because I committed the cardinal sin of stopping my antibiotics before they were finished (I will never do that again!!!) and second because sometimes I don't know how to stop moving around and take a break. My doctor told me I have exhaustion... she told me to get some sleep (sometimes easier said than done) But Chuck has been helping me get some extra ZZZZZ's and Daphnie is getting better at sleeping through the night.

Speaking of Daphnie, she is delicious. She is soft and plump, smells like heaven (and sometimes a fine baby cheese), she makes the cutest faces when she cries, has the most tiny mouth... and makes a little poutty lip that kills me.

Funny how different the baby experience is the second time around. Daphnie really helps to slow things down around here in comparison to the Rambunctious Rhino Rumble that is my toddler. Which makes me feel really torn. I love playing with Fiona, she says funny stuff, and laughs, cries, dances, eats my food (sometimes) and enjoys a good book almost as much as I do. BUT Daphnie likes things nice and quiet and to be held near constantly. It's hard to know if I am giving each child what it is that they need, because right now they need really different things, and I am only one person and can only do so much.

I still scratch my head every time I try to imagine my mother in law with a house of eight kids. What a women.