Happy Cinco de Mayo

You may wonder what happened to Happy Thanksgiving, Happy Holidays or Happy New Year, but this spring we will be expanding our home by two feet. It is yet to be determined if those two feet will be boy feet or girl feet, but judging from our past record, I think chances have us at another girl (Due May 5, hence the title of this entry).
As for the last few blog entries, sorry there haven't been any pictures with the fun-filled adventures, the camera was missing, but yesterday Sarah wandered into our room holding it asking me to take her picture, so we are back in business as soon as I have more exciting pictures to take! (My expanding stomach definitely does not count). All else is well (except for Greg who is at present sick in bed) and aside from an oil slick that Ellie caused in the kitchen yesterday we have no turbulence to report.

greased lightning part 2

Ellie has moved on in her hairstyling prowess. Today, rather than putting things in her own hair, she opted to put them in Sarah's. You know, I thought that Vaseline was the worst possible thing that she could put in hair, and for a while I thought that is what was in Sarah's hair, until I discovered her tube of eczema cream. Yeah, it's worse. It's like vaseline mixed with special moisturizers for extra dry skin. Umm, not the easiest thing to get out--on the plus side, though, her pigtails stayed in really well today!

HAIRCUT :)

Today I cut off most of the remains of Ellie's last disastrous haircut. YEAH!! After months of trying to cover up the bald/thin spots, she now has a short, but even haircut--Oh what joy fills my heart! Overall, Ellie's behavior has been improving, but her emotions have been raging out of control. She is so funny. The smallest things can set her off one way or the other. For example, not getting to say the prayer on breakfast, someone opening the garage door before she can push the button, not getting to wear sandals when it has snowed outside, or having to go to bed at a decent hour can send her to tears faster than you can say "cry." On the other hand, finding a penny, getting a piece of candy, going to preschool, or talking to her dad on the phone can keep her in high spirits for hours. I am loving the highs, but am wondering what this emotional rollercoaster is going to be like when she becomes a teenager and has hormones! YIKES!

It's an Ellie Day!

Well, it has been a while since I have had two posts in one day, but today has been an especially busy day for Ellie. Usually, Ellie spends Tuesday mornings at a neighborhood preschool, but it has been postponed because my neighbor's daughter was sick. So instead, Ellie expressed her creative self in other ways. First, when I thought she was eating breakfast, Ellie climbed up into the spice cupboard and emptied a couple bottles--especially potent was the Salad Supreme. Then, when I was on a phone call, she went into the family room, emptied two shelves of our bookcase of their contents and ripped out pages from a couple of books that she apparently found inappropriate to have in our home. This afternoon, we went outside, and she came out without shoes on, so I sent her back in to get some. When she hadn't reappeared after a minute, I went inside to find her making butter sculptures in the kitchen. When I was changing Sarah's diaper, I came downstairs to find the kitchen smelling lemony fresh, and the floor a veritable ice skating rink since Ellie dumped a good portion of my Costco-sized bottle of dish soap on the floor. At least I thought it was just on the floor until I just ran a load of dishes in the dishwasher. Apparently she decided to "help" with the dishes because we had quite the pile of suds built up around the floor when it got going. I think this the first time I have actually seen a dishwasher overflow from using dishsoap. Thank you Ellie for the memorable day.

NOVEMBER?!

I can hardly believe that it is really November--Wow! Becca has finished her first term of school and came out with straight 4s with the exception of a 3 in penmanship, which she inherited from her mother. We also had a great Halloween. The girls dressed up as Cinderella, Belle (Beauty & the Beast) and Sleeping Beauty and enjoyed being princesses for the day. They looked more like eskimoes when they came back from their trick-or-treating, though. It was really cold and they had rather pink noses when they came inside. But, they have thoroughly enjoyed their candy (as has Greg) and the sugar high that comes with it.

Happy Halloween!

Tonight was a great night! The kick-off event was carving our pumpkins and the girls loved cleaning them out - which was a tough decision because they really wanted to both carve and paint them. Well, as push-over-parents we decided it would be OK to carve them first, and then let the pumpkins get covered in paint.


Ellie was quick to decide on a fairy princess. Unfortunately and due to a complete lack of artistic talent her vision became just a fairy wand. She was stilled thrilled and we were somehow able to keep her clean - right up until we were taking pictures when she leaned into the purple paint. Bless her heart!

Becca set off through the cookie cutters and after rummaging through them for a few minutes decided that heart would be great - particularly when covered in red paint. It certainly must have something to do with the red shirt. I had told Becca she could paint her pumpkin as soon as her bed was made, so of course she waited until Greg came home and coerced him into helping.

At Least

Thanks, Michelle for the great idea of the "At Least" game. Here is the list I made after Ellie's little mess yesterday:

At least nobody drank the Windex

At least it didn’t get in Sarah’s eyes

At least we don’t have to go to the emergency room

At least I have already called Poison Control about Window cleaner, so I don’t have to today

At least my kitchen floor is now streak free

At least I have chocolate in my house for moments like this (Thanks Michelle for this reminder)

At least I have a kitchen to clean

At least I have my family

At least Ellie’s love of cleaning products has the potential to turn into a love of cleaning

At least we have the gospel

"something good"

Yesterday morning was the first time in a while that I have been able to see the humor in Ellie's antics. Not that she hasn't been her normal, havoc causing self, I just haven't really been up to putting a humorous spin on it as of late. But yesterday she made me laugh. I was cleaning the upstairs and Sarah was in the playroom, but when I went in to check, Ellie was not with her sister. Here is the conversation that followed:
Me: "Ellie, where are you?"
Ellie: "Downstairs."
Me: "What are you doing?"
Ellie: "Umm . . . something good!"
Me (while walking quickly downstairs): "What good thing are you doing?
Ellie: "I'm, um, getting a drink."
Me: "No you're not, I'm in the kitchen, and you're not here."
Ellie: "Oh....oops."
Me: "What are you really doing?"
Ellie: "Umm...something not very good."
By this time I had found her in the laundry room with a bottle of eyeglass cleaner dumped on the floor. While I was cleaning that up, she climbed up into my cleaning cupboard and sprayed Windex all over the floor in the kitchen. Sadly, Sarah decided to come downstairs just then, and slipped on the wet tile. When I went to clean up that mess, she slipped on the other puddle in the laundry room--not her lucky day.

How now brown cow?

On our way up to Jackson Hole we took several pit-stops to help ensure a more peaceful, pleasant ride. One such stop occured next to a cow pasture. Greg rolled down the window, mooed at the cows and received a whole hearted moo in response. Becca, who sat in the back seat dumbfounded exclaimed, "Daddy, I didn't know you could speak cow!"
The entire trip was wonderful. We had a great time looking at wildlife, hiking, driving through Yellowstone, (although we gave up on Old Faithful just moments too soon), and just relaxing by the fire. All in all it was a great trip.

Two weeks later...

I can't believe it has been two weeks since I posted. With funeral preparations and thank-you notes, General Conference and birthdays, life around here has not been without event, but I haven't been able to put into words the feelings and emotions that have abounded over the last few days.
The girls have been their typical energetic selves, with comments and actions to warrant blogging, but we have been so busy that I'm afraid some of the adventures will be lost forever, but here are a few of my favorite stories that have been missed.

GRANDMA'S FUNERAL
Grandma was certainly loved. Her viewing was supposed to go from 6-8p.m. on Sunday night, but people arrived an hour early, and the line continued until 10:00 making for a nearly five hour viewing. The next morning at the Stake Center, every chair was set up for the funeral, and people were sitting on the stage, standing against the wall, and waiting out in the hall--it was packed. All of the grandchildren and great-grandchildren sang for the funeral, and the day after we sang, I asked Becca what she thought of performing in front of so many people. She told me that there were a lot of people at the funeral, but she was only singing for one--Grandma Welling.

GENERAL CONFERENCE--(or should I say Merry Christmas)
On Conference Sunday, we went to Greg's parent's house. We ate a delicious turkey dinner and sat down to watch the last session of Conference. I suppose the tryptophan in the turkey was a little too effective to keep me alert enough to pay attention to the speakers and to my daughter. While we were happily lounging in front of the television, Ellie, who obviously didn't get enough of the sedative, was busily pulling out all of Lorna's Christmas decorations. She pulled all of the mini-lights out of their strings, dumped a bag of confetti equivalent, pulled all of the keepsake ornaments out of their wrappings, and to add that final touch--as if she hadn't done enough--she found the glass ornaments and smashed them into tiny pieces with her fingers. Somehow she managed to come out of the ordeal without a scrape, which is amazing considering the fact that she was playing in shattered glass, and even more amazing because I didn't inflict any bodily harm to my little stinker :) Somehow, we got it all cleaned up with only a few minor cuts ourselves, and Ellie offered her grandma several heartfelt apologies at my bidding.

OTHER NEWS
Aside from the usual day to day issues, I also turned 30 on Saturday. I think one of my most clever gifts was from the Kearls. I received a giant bowl filled with Halloween treats with a card at the bottom that said: "Now it's time for your Halloween SCARE" and when I opened it up it said, "Happy 30th Birthday"

All in all we are doing pretty well. We are getting ready to leave for Jackson Hole tomorrow morning and we can't wait! I am sorry I didn't have my camera for the Christmas wonderland that Ellie created, but I promise to take pictures while on our trip!

Grandma

My sweet, wonderful grandma died earlier tonight. And what a saint she has been through her entire life. I am so grateful, for her sake, that she is free from her poor, sick body, but I also mourn for those of us she left behind. Life just won't be quite the same without her around. She was truly an angel on earth.
But, amidst my troubled heart, my kids have kept life in perspective. As the end drew near, I forwarned my girls that I would most likely cry more than they were used to when Grandma was gone, but whe I first heard the news, my first reaction, aside from shock--I have been dreading the phone call for so long, it hardly seemed real when I heard--was happiness for Grandma's release. I passed the news on to my girls and Becca immediatly asked, "Mom, why aren't you crying? You said you would cry." I told her that she would certainly have a chance to see the tears, but was definitly amused by her candid response.
The other reality check I had was when we were getting ready for family prayers. Becca was praying, and I told her that instead of praying for Grandma, we should probably pray for Grandpa and the rest of the family, since we are all so sad right now. Becca replied, "Well, I am kind of sad, but it's a good thing Grandpa is still alive. He gives me treats, so I'm still pretty happy.
Watching my girls' simple faith, knowing that we will be together as a family again, and since their concept of time is so poor, it is really more accurate in the eternal sense, that we will be together again soon makes me a little bit stronger at this selfishly-sad time.

Fall Family Fun

Well, fall is here and we are loving every minute of it. The weather is cool and crisp, and we are spending as much time as we possibly can outside. I think that fall has to be my favorite season with the following as a partial list of some of my reasons why:

• Football Season--I love going to football games; dressing in the school colors and cheering for my favorite team
• Raking and more importantly JUMPING in autumn leaves
• Apple Picking and apple baking--pies, cobbler, crisp, applesauce, apple cider, YUM!
  
• School Starting--Not that I want to get rid of my kids, there is just something exciting about the beginning of a new school year.
• Hiking through the mountains to see the changing leaves and kick up some crunchy leaves
• Pulling out the cold-weather clothes
• Taking the kids to the pumpkin patch
• Hay rides
• The sweet crisp smell of the air
• Harvesting the garden (meager as it may be)
  
• My birthday
• Hunting for Monarch Butterflies on their southern migration
  
• Swinging in the Apple tree
• Watching a movie outside on the "BIG-BIG" screen
• Picking out Halloween costumes
• Going to a Farmer's Market
• Carving Pumpkins and roasting the seeds
• Making Homemade Doughnuts
• Watching the wind blow the dried leaves up into the air
  
• Listening to songs about the fall--"See you in September" and "September Morn"--who could beat Neil Diamond?
• General Conference
• Fall Picnics
• Canning--This one I have mixed feelings on--I really like canning, but it is a little tough with my three little "helpers" under foot.
  

Eau de Toilette

I am currently stuck between a rock and a hard spot...or should I say a messy and a gross spot. Ellie is still in the last-second I HAVE TO GO POTTY NOW stage, and Sarah is in the "cool--a small body of water just my size--perfect for playing and drinking" stage putting me in the which is worse stage: continually cleaning potty-training accidents because there is a lock on the toilet, or discovering my daughter slurping from a toilet-dunked wash cloth. YUCK! I have done my best to keep the bathroom doors closed, but it is a futile attempt. I caught Sarah playing with a wash cloth, cup, and wad of toilet paper in the toilet just today, and once I even loudly told Becca to "stop playing in the toilet" when she was using it, thinking it was in fact Sarah.
When Ellie was Sarah's age, she too had a bathroom fettish, but rather than taking water out, she was more interested in putting things in. For example, one day she managed to stick ALL of my hot curlers in my bathroom toilet. Greg had to take the toilet off to get them back out, and then tried three times to put it back together before we finally called a plumber to fix it. So, although taking water out definitely has the gross factor, our budget is grateful for the fact that she hasn't tried putting anything in...yet.

"Poopsicle"

Yesterday as we were running around doing errands, Ellie had an accident, so I changed her pants in the back of the car, and continued on my merry way. One of the tasks at hand included going to the grocery store to get some dry ice since we were taking popsicles to to Becca's soccer game. All went well, but as I was getting ready for bed I realized that I had left the dry ice in the car. I didn't know what implications leaving dry ice over night in the car would cause, so I quickly grabbed the ice and dumped it in the kitchen sink. This morning after breakfast, Greg was taking his dishes to the sink, when he discovered what I will term the "underpantsicle." Somehow, Ellie's underwear had fallen into the sink when I brought the dry ice inside, and landed in a pan I had left overnight to soak. By the time we discovered it, the entire pan was a solid ice block, with a pair of Strawberry Shortcake big-girl-pants cryogenically frozen in the middle. The moral of this story? Unless you want to preserve your potty-training experiences for future generations, please be careful with dry ice.

Born to be Wild

Ellie woke up yesterday with this adorable hair-do and I think it was just a forewarning of what was in store for the day. I had people coming over, and decided I should focus my efforts on getting the house picked up. When the main floor was straightened I went upstairs to make sure that everything was still tidy. The first thing I noticed as I started up the stairs was a distinctly tropical scent wafting down toward me. A gooey squishy feeling between my toes gave me my first indication that the delightful aroma eminated from a spilled bottle of coconut-scented shampoo that was now being used to "clean" the carpet. I wiped off my foot and made a mental note to come back and clean the soapy puddle. As I turned the corner, I saw a bright yellow mural welcoming me upstairs. Ellie had used sidewalk chalk all over the walls--not terribly difficult to clean, just a little time consuming. I heard Ellie playing in the toy room with Sarah, so I decided to start cleaning up the newly discovered mess. When I had scraped up as much shampoo as I could, I decided I should probably get cleaned up myself. I went into my bathroom and discovered another Ellie masterpiece. She had placed my watch in a glass of water (fortunately it still seems to be working), used the handsoap to "clean" the mirrors, and then drew a beautiful picture for me on a check I needed to get cashed.

I got myself, and most of the bathroom cleaned up before anyone arrived, but when Ellie came downstairs to say "hello" I realized that I should have looked at her before cleaning up the rest of the house. After all the time I had spent working on taming her "fly-away" hair, she now looked like a dog that had escaped mid-bath. The front of her hair looked like a soapy toupee, and the rest had obviously been brushed with a shampoo-laden brush. I decided there was nothing I could do at that point, and after a half hearted attempt to improve ther hair, just let her run around with her new do.

The rest of the day went smoothly until dinner. We had invited one of Greg's home teaching families over for dinner, and as I was busily making the last minute preparations, Ellie had once again decided to express herself through the medium of chalk--this time on the stair wall. She also took a bunch of stickers to decorate the fire place, but I think the highlight of her mischievousness was something I didn't discover until today.

I decided to make some grape popcicles for Becca's soccer team. I made the first batch and stuck the remaining punch in the fridge. This morning I got up early to make some more popcicles, but the punch was not in the fridge. I looked all over the kitchen, wondering if I had accidentally put it somewhere else, but to no avail. Then, as I stopped to think about what could have possibly happened to it, I remembered that at about 2:30 in the morning, I had woken up to find Ellie walking up the stairs. I realized that I had probably found my culprit, and started looking in places that only "Ellie's mom" would think to look. I eventually followed a purple trail down the stairs and into Greg's office. and have spent the morning destickifying my house (I don't think that is a word, but it is the only word that describes what I did) but don't worry--I made sure to keep Ellie in plain sight the entire time.

Monkey See-Monkey Do

Here we go again...

Well, Sarah has apparently been spending a little too much time with Ellie since Becca has started school. My little "angel child" who has up until now seldom given me much grief (aside from the poopy problems mentioned in previous posts) managed to cause her fair share of mischief today. After school today, Becca had a couple of friends over for lunch. When one of the moms came to pick up her daughter, I visited with her at the door for a couple of minutes when I heard a crash in the kitchen. She left and I found Sarah up on the counter with the cabinet door open and the pencils, crayons and other miscellaneous school supplies strewn on the counter, chair and floor. Sarah just giggled when I found her, and when I put her safely back on the ground, she even helped me pick up the mess. Then, later in the afternoon, as I was making a futile attempt to get caught up on the laundry, I heard Sarah giggling in the kitchen once again. I found her once again on the counter--this time the pencils and crayons weren't scattered quite as far, but she had also discovered that postage stamps are great "stickers" and crayons make great accessories to a fish bowl--I don't know if the poor betta will ever be the same. As evidenced by the picture, she was unbelievably proud of herself.

I thought perhaps that the mischevious side was a one (or two) time thing, but since Sarah was a little slower eating her dinner than the rest of the family, I started working on the dishes while she finished up. I looked over once and saw that she was building the leaning tower of tortilla, and knew she was finished eating but decided that as long as she was happily entertained I would let her enjoy herself while I kept working. Instead, I created even more work for mhyself. Within thirty seconds of building the tortilla tower on top of her cup, she decided that it would be much more effective to build it right on her head. The tortilla, corn, rice and bean "LEGOS" stuck much more solidly to her hair than they did the cup, and she was elated. This picture is of her modeling her masterpiece. Unfortunately, when she stood up most of the tower slid off her head and onto the floor...but you get the idea :)

The Wheels on the Bus

Today Becca got to ride on the bus for the first time. Everything went smoothly on the way to school. She sat on the front row, and made it to her class without incident. However, the way home was a little different. The bus is supposed to drive down our street and stop two houses away, but as I sat on the corner and waited for Becca, she pulled up in the neighbor's car instead. When I asked Jenny how on earth I missed a giant school bus going down the street she told me that the bus driver is new and dropped the kids off on the wrong street. Fortunately, she saw the bus, and went to get her daughter. When she got there, Becca was being tearfully ushered across the street in the wrong direction, but by the time they drove to our house she was fine. When I asked her what happened she said simply, "they took me to the wrong stop."
I must say I am immensly grateful for a good neighbor who was keeping tabs on my daughter, and hopefully tomorrow things will go a little more smoothly.

School Days!

Today was Becca's first day of school. Since you only start kindergarten once, I decided to make today special. The first of my "special" experiences started last night when I went to iron Becca's sweater. I guess the iron had a little something on it, because when I finished ironing it, I held it up to the light to examine my work and noticed that it no longer appeared white, but rather a yellowish-brown. I stuck it in some Oxy-clean to soak and then rewashed it just before bed.
I must have been really tired, because for some reason I thought it would be smart to stick the sweater in the dryer before going to bed. There were a couple of towels that I had already dried still in the dryer, so I just tossed the sweater in with them to help it dry quickly--planning to get up when I heard the dryer and quickly go over it with the now-clean iron. I guess I was more tired than I thought, though, because I didn't wake up until Sarah did at 1:00 a.m. She was obviously not feeling well, and couldn't sleep. I stayed up with her until 3:00 when she finally calmed down and went back to bed. Then, at 3:30 Ellie climbed up on my bed complaining of a bad dream. She tossed and turned keeping me awake until 4:00 when I finally decided that enough was enough and I should just get up and start this special day. Somewhere between doing laundry and cleaning out the summer contents of Becca's backpack last night, Ellie went into Becca's room and pulled out every article of clothing from her dresser. I didn't think that having to clean up mounds of clothes that she didn't mess up would be a very good "First day of School" morning, so I quietly went about picking up her room. When all was tidy, I went downstairs to once again iron Becca's sweater. Upon opening the dryer, I discovered what looked like the sad remains of an entire ream of paper. How it got in there I have no idea. The towels that were already in the dryer were dry and there was no sign of anything out of the ordinary when I put the wet sweater in, but when I pulled it out it looked like an old hand-me-down sweater decades old. The paper had pilled all over the sweater and it looked awful. I decided to give it one more shot, and threw the sweater back in the washing machine one more time. When it was clean I decided to let it air dry and then just iron it while it was still damp. The end result was that it stayed clean, but had a bit of a "cooked" smell. Becca noticed the smell but wore it anyway, for which I was grateful, since it only took me about four hours to get her outfit ready, all things considered.
I wish I could say that the sweater really gleamed as much as it does in this picture, but sadly it is just over exposed. I had to really hurry to take the picture because the camera battery died and I only had about thirty seconds to charge it before we needed to leave, so I could only get a couple pictures before it died again.
But, all in all, today was a great day. Becca had a wonderful time at school and what more could I want?

Farewell to Summer

Monday, Greg and I celebrated our seventh anniversary. We didn't have what you might call a "romantic" day, but we had a great time. We started the morning by taking the kids to the zoo. The girls had a great time, and when we threatened Ellie that she would have to wait in the car if she didn't keep her sandals on, we even had success with keeping all three children fully clad. This was Sarah's first interactive trip to the zoo. She ran from exhibit to exhibit, squeeling with delight at each new animal. After the zoo, we went out to lunch, where Ellie successfully turned her white t-shirt into a coral-colored shirt thanks to a little help from the fry sauce. Then, that night, we took the two minute drive up the canyon for a fun family night with the extended family. We were the first to arrive, and Ellie was a mud-slicked mess by the time everyone else made it up, but we had a great time and really ended the summer with a bang.

Too "CUTE" for Words

In keeping with our Sunday tradition, we ate dinner with Grandma and Grandpa today. When we arrived, Grandpa Steve told Ellie "You are so cute, you're full of cutes. Go look in the bathroom mirror and see if you can find your cutes." Ellie galloped happily down the hall, but when she didn't return quickly, I went a-hunting.
When I discovered her, every exposed part of her body was covered in liquid hand soap. I reminded her that we only use one squirt of soap on our hands, and asked her what she was doing. She replied, "Grandpa said I was covered with 'cooties' and I was just washing them all off."
I told her that Grandpa said "cutes" not "cooties" and she said, "Yeah, cuties, but don't worry--they're all off now."

Well, we all thought her 'cutes' multiplied at that experience, but a few of them did get "washed off" after dinner when I was helping with dishes and Ellie decided to try the Advil. Fortunately for everyone involved, apparently Ibuprofen is too foul for even Ellie to eat and she could only get one down before giving it up.