Don't Get Me Wrong!

I think sometimes I can sound unhappy with my life... HA! Funny!
I am thankful, really, for all the crazy days that my life offers me.
Amuse me...
Just think for a moment what it would be like, in the midst of these crazy days, if perchance
you were the kind of girl that DID NOT grow up solely wanting to get married and have babies :) Not that I was that kind of girl at all...
K, so I WAS! That doesn't mean I don't love where I'm at now.
Some days I put the kids to bed and I sit down and I say to myself,
"Holy _____ (insert whatever, I use crap or crud, but I'm trying not to so Kalea doesn't start saying it) how did I become this person? The person with the dirtiest faced, runniest nosed, craziest haired child at the whole freaking Stampede, the person with the screeching, writhing toddler who is in a death-defying back-bend so it's impossible to fold her into her carseat, the person who sometimes rolls her eyes at or raises her voice to her husband in public, the person who doesn't really care to take a shower some days because she's just too dang wiped out and who's going to see me if I'm at home all day anyways, etc etc..."
This does not negate all the joy that I have in my life.
Really, I'm so blessed and I am SO grateful that I have people willing and/or able to put up with me and all my dramatics, and there ARE dramatics, just ask Steve.
I just didn't expect to be this person at all and most days I am pleasantly surprised that I can handle even 5 minutes of it.
That said, let's look at some of my "fun" pictures!


Kalea helping to wipe the diaper cream out of Brynlee's hair... On the bright side, it helped loosen up some cradle cap that just wouldn't go away! There's always a positive, no?

Kalea looking about 6mths preggers :P It's always tops or bottoms for this girl, rarely both when we're at home. Brynlee has learned "If you're happy and you know it clap your hands" which is why her hands are in her face. Cute right? See, it's not all goobers, puke and poop, it's fun!

Monday Monday

I love the Mamas and the Papas...
It always feels like Monday is the day that we "recover" from the events of Sunday. This Sunday was pretty busy for us though, so today it feels that way even moreso than usual. We were actually ready for church EARLY?!?! We sat in the CHAPEL not the gym! We made it through sacrament and the first talk and the intermediate hymn! PROGRESS! Steve and I both ended up outside in the hallway, Kalea running wild down the hall and Brynlee falling asleep :) I love holding my sleeping baby- she has to be really tired to actually fall asleep in my arms, so it was nice. Kalea was a bundle of energy. Nursery is such a lifesaver. We made it to all of Sunday School and even participated by reading! Steve was holding Brynlee when he was called on to read and it was hilarious because she woke up slowly as he read and then started to clap fiercely and say "yaaaaaaaaaay" cute! I like the things we're studying right now,(David's temple and all that good stuff), and appreciate the way Bishop Hudson teaches the lessons, he really does his homework and makes things a lot more interesting.
After church we came home and put the girls down for an hour before heading over to Jon and Fern's to BBQ. It was nice to let the kids run wild and get to sit and visit. It was great because as soon as we got home, both kids went to bed!
This gave Steve and I a great chance to talk and figure out how we want to implement a few new things into our regular routine with the kids and on our own. Does anyone else find it hard to sit and read/study/discuss scriptures together as a couple? We have always been on again/off again when it comes to this. Mostly I think because we tend not to be home together all that much when the kids are sleeping, especially lately. Our bedtimes are different on certain nights, etc... So last night we decide we're going to start making a real effort to do that. Funny because after that Steve asks where I want to read and I say just flip it to something interesting... Ha, this never happens to me, but Steve flips open the book without looking, points to a passage and starts to read "Choose ye this day whom ye will serve..." Coincidence? Maybe, but it made us feel like we're making a good choice! We actually had a great study together. We stayed up entirely too late, but it was SO worth it, and I feel like I actually slept better.
Bring it on Monday! LOL

I'm So Glad When Daddy Comes Home!

For serious, this last week has been BAH-RUTAL! So I was over-joyed when Steve called me Monday night and whilst on the phone I get this knock on the door and guess who walks in? It was basically the best surprise of my life thus far- I am hoping there are some to top this in the future. Tuesday I went out to do a job with Steve in Rocky Mountain House- it was SO fun, I basically sat down and had an afternoon of great conversation with this older lady while Steve worked- I did however, did help take things out of boxes and assemble them, Steve's such a slave-driver! LOL It was good fun, and nice to have a day of just he and I. Thanks Mom for watching our girls so short notice! Kalea and Brynlee were pretty happy to see Steve when they woke up this morning, haha little did he know...

"Fun" w/Our Munchkins (this is only from today)

• Stampede Kids Day: Kalea enjoyed her first cinnamon sugar covered donuts and is just as addicted to them as the rest of us! She also got to come face to face with the barnyard animals who she imitates everyday. However, she is not a huge fan of touching them, which was pretty entertaining. Brynlee LOVED petting the horses, we know this because she was flailing limbs excitedly and laughing the whole time. It was great, the kids were great and we got a good workout hauling them and their stuff around the grounds for 3hrs.

• Home: The girls fell asleep before we left the grounds, so we were hoping to get them home and into bed before they woke up, we didn't and that is what I partly blame (the series of unfortunate events) the rest of our day, on...
  
  1. The Great Whining of Kalea: Where to begin? It was incessant, never-ending and NOT music to our ears. It also landed her in time-out more times than I even care to recall.
  2. The Great Tackling of Brynlee: I must preface with this part, Kalea enjoys playing with her toys in the basement. While Steve was trying to get a catnap in this afternoon, Kalea came up to the mainfloor diaperless and holding a paintbrush. Clearly I ran downstairs to inspect the damage, no harm no foul, grab the diaper and get back to the kids. As I reached the top of the stairs I hear Brynlee doing her annoyed "get away from me big sister" cry and I look to where the kids were and Kalea has tackled Brynlee from behind and is smooshing her face into the floor and then the edge of our ROCK fireplace. I screeched "Kalea Noooooooo" and she ran to hide, but Brynlee, Brynlee had that horrible silent face of pain. The silence before she let out the blood curdling scream was indescribable. I don't think I've ever waited that long for the cry to actually happen, but when it did, it could break glass. Steve ran down the stairs and quickly returned Kalea to her bedroom- and yes we do swat our 2yr old when she does stuff like this, read "The Strong-Willed Child" and then judge our parenting style if you must. Then he came back downstairs to make sure Bryn and I were okay. I was so horrified I couldn't even cry, it was a weird weird headspace to be in and I hope not to be in that place again for a long LONG time. Bryn's face is fine, she had a bump but after icing and cuddles, she is mostly left traumatized with a red line across her forehead.
  3. The Great Flooding of the Bathroom: You'll hear in a second why Kalea was there, but when we did our "kid switch" I went upstairs to supervise Kalea while she took a bubble bath and found her playing Noah's Ark. I mean the water was seeping into my hallway carpet. So I threw down some towels, raised my head to the heavens and said "You've got to be kidding me" and went to sit down on the toilet seat... And we'll continue the story further down our list :D
     
  4. The Great Pooping of Both Kids: We'll start with Kalea. Hilarious child that she is, sometimes she will not lay down for a diaper change, it's a wrestling match. But sometimes it's because she's not finished, and really there's no way to tell because asking her questions while she's eluding being captured for said diaper change basically is like asking your walls to tell you how their day was. So Steve wrangles her and starts to wipe, etc... and just when he's taking the yucky diaper away, well, more yucky starts coming out... Have I ever mentioned the girl that Steve becomes when dealing with feces? It's pretty hilarious. That was the first fun poop of our day. The next came while Kalea was stuck in her room after The Great Tackling of Brynlee. Usually she lays by her door and hollers at us to come let her out, this time it got eerily quiet. Steve went upstairs to survey the situation and as soon as he opened the door Kalea hands him a WAD of poo-filled baby wipes. Basically she stuck her wipes in the back of her diaper and tried to wipe. I mean, we have to give her props for trying to sort it out on her own right? Steve threw her in the bathtub with a load of bubbles and I hollered "kid switch" so he could eat dinner and go to his install. Well after dealing with "The Flood" I hear Steve calling me in his girlie freaked out voice- the one he only does when he's dealing with feces. I run downstairs to find him standing with Brynlee in an outstretched football hold. She has a weird brownish/greenish colored glob of something on her back and Steve's opposite arm is streaked with the same brownish/greenish glob and he also has a brownish/greenish glob of something falling from his hand. I HAVE NOT LAUGHED SO HARD IN A LONG TIME! It was the laughter of a crazy person, really. I collapsed in a heap of laughter while said globs were falling from Steve's outstretched appendages. Brynlee was happy as a lark, Steve was very concerned and I was just a heap of laughter. It was priceless. Once I got myself together I proceeded to help Steve get cleaned up and strip Brynlee of her grossness as well. Then Steve showed me the amount of poo in the Bumbo and the laughter started again. I didn't know it was possible for so much of that to come out of an infant?!

So that was Steve's grand welcome home from the kids. I suppose if I hadn't been laughing hysterically I definitely would've been crying. I am glad today didn't happen when I was on my own and I am SO happy Steve got a taste of what he's missed while he's been away. Is that bad?

When I've Had Too Much

Kalea had a "moment" last night that involved smashing a toy in Brynlee's face, repeatedly. I just happened to be on the phone with my Dad when it happened. I had to hang up. It was one of those times when you have to wonder, "What the heck am I doing, this kid just doesn't get it?!" I'm lucky I have the Mom I do, she came right over and found Kalea in her room, and me crying at the kitchen table, Brynlee survived unscathed. She sent me out to get the groceries I needed and to take a break. I am so SO blessed to have her.
After lengthy prayers last night and a few more tears, I am sure the Lord was listening. Sunday is the day that we listen to/watch "churchy" stuff almost all morning while getting ready for church. It's good background noise that somehow makes the morning less chaotic. This is what I needed to hear most last night, and what I am SO grateful to have found this morning.

Scary

So I watched Dateline or 20/20 last night... BAD IDEA WHEN STEVE ISN'T HOME!!!! It freaked me out so bad, so SO BAD. Every stupid little noise I heard gave me a mini-heart attack. While I was watching it I realized I had left the back screen open and front door unlocked and I happened to be in the basement. Seriously. After watching for a good 45mins I decided I had to turn it off, I didn't even care to know what happened anymore, I just wanted to be in my bed. Lesson learned.
In other news...
I love that Brynlee is crawling all over the place, it's so fun! I also hate that she's crawling all over the place. She is quite the hoover vacuum, making sure not to miss anything Kalea has dropped on the floor. Then again, at this rate, with all the chasing and bending down to pick stuff up I might drop a few pounds! HA! It's a lovely dream!
What else?
We ventured out to Midnapore Lake on Friday. It was gorgeous and Kalea had so much fun splashing and playing with Hayden, and the big kids. One thing that is not so fun about Lake dates is the lack of actual relaxation for the Momma's. I was a bit more vigilant with Kalea than usual just because of her weird aversion to water since her little incident in Saskatoon. Which brings me to one of my gripes. Why is it that there is always an obnoxious older kid wherever we go? One that always ALWAYS says things to the little kids like, "Come into the deeper water with me!" Hello Satan, thanks but no thanks. Kalea would've gladly followed her if I hadn't been standing right there to tell her no. Pain in the bum.
Gripe #2, why does Kalea insist on drinking water from various sources that she shouldn't? Case in point, she will slurp puddle water, bird bath water and at the lake she slurped gross lake water. Does she think it tastes good? As opposed to the icy water that I packed in her sippy that is fresh and clean and contaminant free? Gross, I could throw up just thinking about it right now! Anyways, we are trying to keep ourselves entertained and I am trying not to go crazy while Steve's away.

It Starts Like This, But Really Has Nothing to do With the Rest of This Post

My brain is so fried.
I got out all the usual fixin's for a good ham sandwich.
I even had a beautiful ciabatta bun to put everything on.
Then I slathered some margarine on one end and realized, WHAT THE HECK AM I DOING???
People, I eat mayo & mustard on my ciabatta bun.
This could have been tragic and ruined my lunching experience.
I did not let it do so.
And yes, my ciabatta bun was beautiful.
I have this problem with thinking food is beautiful, but it is, it.just.is.
If you were to look at me right now, you would know that I think food is beautiful and that it's a problem.
So much of a problem that I may in fact start running.
Scratch that I have started- on my parents' treadmill.
But I may start venturing outside...OUTSIDE.
Also, for those of you wondering where the recent pix of me are, haha good luck!
With the love of food being so great I have decided to not take nor post photos of myself.
I know, disappointing.
My facebook pic is about as close as you'll get right now.
Taking that pic was a huge ordeal.
As Steve and I were driving back from Saskatoon, I was bored and decided to do self portraits.
Let's face it, even at this stage in life, it's not a roadtrip without an awkward pic of both of us :)
After a few snaps Steve asked what was taking me so long.
I replied, "I'm trying to find a good angle but my face has NO angles right now!!!"
We both laughed, it was hilarious.
I'm not looking for sympathy comments either.
I have done this to myself and therefore I'm responsible to fix it.
So until it's reasonably fixed this is all you get.

Sometimes

I wish I could vent about every stupid little thing that is keeping me up tonight...

But it's probably best to just say as little as possible.
Tonight I'm just happy to be home with Steve and my girls, and thankful to have parents kind enough to have taken such good care of the girls while we were away.
We worked hard all weekend and have lots to get done at home now.
I'm in a "re-organizing" type of mood right now.
So much so that I'm already trying to figure out how soon I can get the girls sharing a room so I can make Bryn's room my "craft/office" space...
Oh and I almost forgot! This little piggy is 8mths old- can you believe it?! I sure can't.
Brynlee is just as busy as ever at this stage. She is now crawling all over the place and she can even do "downward facing dog" like Kalea likes to do. We're sure she's well on her way to catching up to Kalea in hitting milestones early. I just can't believe that my baby is not such a baby anymore :( It's sad but exciting all at the same time. She's downing babyfood and watching everything that Kalea does- and not just watching, but completely absorbing it. I can see the wheels turning in Bryn's head and it scares me that soon enough I will be chasing 2 busy and too curious for their own good toddlers around the house...
On that note, I should get sleep while I can!

Procrastination & Me...or I

Well it's time for another hilarious story brought to you by my crazy self!
Grab some popcorn folks, this one's good :D

Some time ago Steve and I discovered that our bedroom door only opens from the outside. The inside knob only turns, but never catches the latch, so in essence it is useless.
I know from sad experience that it is possible to become locked in our bedroom- luckily though the time it happened to me, Steve was downstairs with the kids and I only had to page the downstairs phone like, 20 million times before he noticed that that annoying sound wasn't coming from one of his stupid techno-crap songs he was blasting while he entertained our kids with all sorts of ridiculous "rave" moves ie. crazy flailing limbs.
Moving on...

Last night Steve went to bed early. He said he'd wait for me to come to bed before he actually went asleep asleep. Ya right. I get to our room and quietly close the door behind myself. Take note, the latch doesn't usually catch when I close it from the inside.
It was 10ish and I hopped into bed. Steve said "Luv you" rolled over and proceeded with his slumber. I in turn rolled over and went to sleep.
Which brings us to 1:30ish a.m.
Steve hears a loud thud- Kalea falling from her bed to the floor- no cries or anything, just the thud we have become familiar with. So being the good Dad he is, Steve decides to get up and put her back into her bed- so she doesn't freak out when she wakes up and realizes she's rolled underneath her bed. What a good guy.
He gets to the door, puts his hand on the knob and turns... and turns... and turns...
This is about the time I notice some weird noise and say "Hey, where are you sneaking off too?" to which he replies, "Nowhere. What the heck did you do?"
Can you see where this is going? Yup I did it. I locked us in our room. Funny thing is, Steve used to have a drill under our dresser- his spare and apparently a bedroom is the best place to store it? Well it would've come in handy, but when we ripped the deck apart he let me use it to help unscrew some things :D Great!
He was ticked. Like "I'm not talking to you" ticked.
So obviously I had to find us a way out of this situation. I was laughing pretty hard. He asked what time it was... 1:37 a.m. thank you very much.
My first thought was the old credit card trick... no luck.
My second thought was, pop the pins out of the hinges. The top one came out no problem, the bottom one seems to be stuck there for life.
Then we hear moans and whimpering. Great. I feel bad, until my "A-Ha" moment.
In a drawer next to my bed was a pair of tweezers that have seen better days. I handed them to Steve and voila, a magical flat-head screw driver was born. So at 1:55 a.m. we were free'd from our prison. And I of course recited one of my favorite historical quotes:
Free At Last! Free At Last! Thank God Almighty We're Free At Last!
To which Steve emphatically rolled his eyes and again said, "I'm not talking to you", and proceeded to put princess Kalea back into her bed.
The End.