May I have a shot please?

Eleanor went to see the doctor yesterday for her 3 year check-up. She was very excited to get a shot...yes, you read that right, a shot. She told everyone in the doctor's office that would listen, "I'm getting a shot!" She watched Emily get 3 shots over the summer, so I think she figured since she was going to the doctor, she would get a shot, too. At one point she happily exclaimed, "I'm going to get a booboo, just like Emily!" After the nurse took Eleanor's blood pressure, Eleanor told us with a big smile on her face, "I got my booboo!" She didn't need any shots yesterday, not until she is 5...we'll see how excited she is about them then.

Monday news

Another day of laundry done...very exciting, I know! I did learn a few minutes ago that My Life Monday starts back up again next Monday, that's exciting, right? You do look forward to hearing about my life don't you?...well, I know my mother does. The only other news I have is that Zach does not go anywhere anymore without carrying a spoon. I try to pry the spoon out of his hand after he eats, but he has quite a strong grip and he will.not.let.it.go! Matt and I conclude that he's so hungry all the time that he feels the need to be ready to eat at a moment's notice.

Camping with dad

Matt, Zoe, and Emily went on a canoe/camping trip last night. Emily wasn't planning on going, but Matt and I decided she would have fun if she went, so we packed her things and at the last minute when she was holding onto the canoe for Matt while he was loading it, I said goodbye to her and told her she was going. She cried, screaming that she didn't want to go, but when I saw her this morning she said, "I didn't like it, I LOVED it!"...which I guess is what Matt told her to tell me, but she really did mean it. I dropped them off yesterday around 5pm and they canoed to their "secret hideout" which is about an hour away. According to Matt, Zoe and Emily set up their own tent. He would show them what to do and then he would take it apart for them to do. They ate dinner and then they roasted marshmallows for a treat.
Emily said the boring part of the trip was waiting for Matt to pack up this morning.
Zoe and Emily love the movie "Parent Trap" (both old and new versions), so I think as in the movie, the father/daughter campout before school starts has officially become a tradition for them.

They're keepers today

The kids and I left our house this morning at 9:45am and got home at 4:30pm. Zoe and Emily had swim lessons and then we went shopping. The kids were GREAT today. Every once in awhile people will come up to me in a public place and tell me how well behaved my kids are. Usually I think they're mistaken, especially the time a lady was telling me how good my kids were in a restaurant as Eleanor was standing on her chair, dancing to the music. But today if someone would have said something about my well-behaved children, I would have agreed. It was a good shopping day. So, here are 13 things we bought today...



1. Stamps
2. Backpack x2
3. Lunchbox for Emily
4. Box of crayons x3
5. crayon holder x3
6. waterbottle x3
7. craft toy x3
8. A puzzle for Zach
9. Easy Ups (Dora, yay!)
10. Diapers
11. socks x2
12. Sneakers x2
13. A birthday gift for my mom

If someone knows who created the Thursday Thirteen theme, I'd be delighted to know.

I really like the girls' new crayons and holders. I like how the holders zip up so Zach can't get into them, and if the holder gets knocked over the crayons won't spill out. I wish the crayons and holders would look this neat and wonderful all the time!

Perfection isn't always the best, right?

I'm feeling better about Emily's hair today. It's not perfect, but it does look cute and she likes it, although this morning she asked me if it has grown any yet. Thanks for your encouraging comments!

Delete hairdresser from my duties

Zach discovered the fun of playing "ring around the rosies" this morning. He did it over, and over, and over again with Eleanor. Luckily, Eleanor enjoyed it just as much as he did.

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Emily has wanted her hair cut for a few weeks now, so I decided to cut it this morning. I thought it wise to cut it myself and save some money, but now I'm wishing I would have paid money to have someone else cut it. I did a great job on the left side, but the right side doesn't look as good, and the back could use some more work. Emily wanted her hair shoulder length, but when I got done, it was chin length. Lucky for me, she likes it. By the end of the evening, Emily was tired of me looking and playing with her hair. I'm not sure if she's going to let me do some touch up work on it, maybe in a few days.

Sad, but cute

When I asked Eleanor what happened after Emily chased her down the hall and pushed her (I assumed that is what happened from the noise) Eleanor replied in tears, "Emily threw me away!" It was so cute that I silently laughed while I comforted her...while Emily was laughing hysterically out loud. She thought it was very funny that her sister thought she was throwing her away.

Playing, organizing, and teaching

Zoe and I had the opportunity to volunteer at a local theater last night and then we stayed to watch the play "Fiddler on the Roof". I collected tickets with another lady and we let the people know which side of the theater they would be sitting. Zoe handed out programs with a friend. It was worth working half an hour before the play to watch it for free, plus get free popcorn, candy, and drinks. The play was fun to watch, especially since I knew two people in the show. Zoe enjoyed it as well. I had done volunteer work at this theater before with our church youth group, but that was when I was pregnant with Emily, so it has been awhile. I hope to do it again soon.

I started and finished Zoe's first grade scrapbook today. I save papers that I want to put in her scrapbook throughout the school year and today I put the papers in plastic covers and put them in a 3 ring binder. Now she can start second grade and Emily can start kindergarten without me stressing that I still need to organize things from last year. Yay!

Emily and I had an interesting conversation today about marriage. It started out by talking about houses. She asked how we got our house, so I told her that Matt and I bought it, and I said that she and her husband could pick out a house someday. In a disgusted voice she tells me that she is NOT in love with anyone. But then she was curious how people decide to marry each other and she asked about me and Matt. I told her that we met at church, Matt asked me out and we saw a movie, we had fun so we spent more time together, and we liked spending time together and liked each other, so we got married. Then Emily got concerned and asked, "But what if the boy likes me, but I don't like him." I told her she didn't have to marry anyone she didn't like and she announced that she would NOT marry someone she didn't like. Then she wondered how she would meet someone to marry. I told her they could meet just about anywhere, and I mentioned that maybe a friend of hers would introduce her to someone, and I named a few friends of hers at church. She told me that she would get married before a certain friend at church because her friend only comes up to Emily's neck, and then another friend only comes up to her forehead, so she wouldn't get married before Emily either. I told her that her friend that comes up to her forehead is older than her, so her friend might get married before her, and then Emily said that Zoe would get married first. I of course then took the opportunity to talk about marrying in the temple and she would need to find someone of our faith to marry if she wanted to marry in the temple. It was good that Zoe was listening as well. It's nice when these teaching moments come up in a conversation :-)

TGIF

I've been thinking all morning that it is Thursday, so I was going to post a "Thursday Thirteen" list, but guess what?...it's FRIDAY! When I realized it was Friday, I thought about the babycenter site because today starts my 17th week of pregnancy. So, the food our baby is compared to this week is a large onion. I guess that would be an onion bigger than an avacado.
Speaking of food...Zoe and Emily are hungry. They don't seem to get hungry until I am doing something that I don't want to stop doing. I just asked them why that is and Zoe says it's because they get bored watching me doing what I'm doing. So, when they're bored they get hungry...yeah, that is why we eat sometimes. They were very content a few minutes ago playing paper dolls while I was doing the dishes. I would have gladly stopped doing the dishes to get them something to eat.

Zach has had enough of the girls having their own chairs in the living room, but not him. He took matters into his own hands by bringing Zoe's old "blue's clues thinking chair" from the bedroom down the hall into the living room to sit on. It fits him very well.

What comes next?

Since I found out I am pregnant, I have been checking out the babycenter site to get an update on the development of our baby. You would think that by baby #5 I would have this all memorized by now, but I don't. I don't remember my babies in the past being compared to food so much, but our baby has grown from the size of a sesame seed, to a lentil bean, to a raspberry, to a kidney bean, to a grape, to a kumquat, to a fig, to a lime, to a jumbo shrimp, to a lemon, and now is the size of an avocado...at least for a couple more days. I must admit that I've become addicted to the knowledge of what food our baby will be compared to. Although I've delivered 4 babies, I'm a little nervous to find out what size food our baby will be compared to at 40 weeks. Getting a picture in my head of delivering a watermelon might put me over the edge and force me to opt for a c-section.

Signs of growing up

Today Emily wanted me to play Strawberry Shortcake dolls with her, but I was eating lunch and then I wanted to put away some laundry, so I told her no. Then she asked Zoe, but Zoe was busy eating lunch. Emily asked us several times and she kept getting the same answer. Zoe held up 4 fingers and asked Emily how many fingers she was holding up, and Emily said 4. Then Zoe came back with, "Good, we know you can see, so that means you can SEE that we are eating, so we're not going to play with you right now."

Emily lost her first tooth this afternoon. She was freaking out a bit before it came out when it started bleeding, but she was very happy when it fell out.

Baby Talk

Zach and I had our first conversation this morning. It went like this:
Me: "Hi!"
Zach: "Hi!"
Me: "How are you?"
Zach: "Good."

Zach is starting to love getting his picture taken. When he sees the camera, he smiles with a scrunched up face and says, "cheeeeeeeeeese". It's very cute.

Thinking about school

Zoe and Emily have had several toys go into timeout lately, so this afternoon Eleanor brings her Dora backpack out into the kitchen and puts it on the counter as she asks me if her backpack can go into timeout with Zoe and Emily's toys. She was very delighted when I told her she could. I guess she was tired of feeling left out.

The school shopping has officially begun. Zoe and Emily start school on September 5th. My mom and I took Zoe, Emily, and Eleanor shopping. We wanted to bring Eleanor because she gets so upset when she gets left behind, we figured she would be good, but we both banned her from our next shopping trip.

Emily had her last immunization shot this morning. We thought she was getting two, but she only needed one, so that was good news. Emily of course would have preferred no shots at all.
I brought some paperwork and her immunization record to her school to give to the receptionist. We were talking for a minute when a man that works at the school came into the office. He looked at the kids and then asked Eleanor if she was starting kindergarten. I thought he was joking around, we laughed. He asked Eleanor if she knew who her teacher was yet and Eleanor told him that mommy was her teacher. Then he looked at Emily and wondered if she was going into the 1st grade. The receptionist told him that Emily was going into kindergarten and the man couldn't believe it. He told Emily that she was very tall and most of the kindergarteners are Eleanor's size. I think they're bigger than Eleanor, but this just reminds us that Emily is going to be a tall girl. We should find out who Emily's teacher is going to be next week. Emily is very excited to start school!

After I read the kids a bedtime story this evening, Eleanor and Zach got out books of their own to read. It was cute when they were both reading to us.

Getting to know you

Last night at Enrichment meeting (our ladies' meeting at church) we had a getting to know you night. There were items placed on a table, we had to pick an item and talk about a memory from our childhood or life that the item reminded us of. I picked a jump rope (which I knew my girls would love to use) and talked about loving to be outside as a kid, jump roping, playing hopscotch, playing tag and hide and seek. It also reminded me of a few accidents I had outside as a kid. Like when I was crawling behind my sister when she was ice skating and her blade hit me above the eye and cut my eyebrow, where I have a scar. And when I was running cross-country in 5th grade and I broke an extra bone in my foot, that it took my parents about 6 months to believe that something MIGHT be wrong and they FINALLY took me to the doctor.
It was fun to hear everyone's stories and to talk with other women after the activity. My mom and I stopped at Friendly's before going home for an evening snack. Yes, we had refreshments at the activity, but we couldn't end our night out too soon :-)

I received an e-mail from a friend the other day and instead of sending my responses back to her via e-mail, I'm going to post them here...

1. First Name? Joey
2. Were you named after anyone? No, but my middle name was inspired by one of my uncle's middle name.
3. When did you last cry? This afternoon
4. Do you like your handwriting? No
5. What is your favorite lunchmeat? Turkey
6. Kids? 4 plus 1 on the way
7. If you were another person would you be friends with you? Yes
8. Do you have a journal? Yes
9. Do you use sarcasm a lot? No
10. Do you still have your tonsils? No
11. Would you bungee jump? No
12. What is your favorite cereal? Raisin Bran, but it makes me sick if I eat it during the first trimester of pregnancy.
13. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off? No
14. Do you think you are strong? No
15. What is your favorite ice cream? Gifford's chocolate
16. Red or pink? Red
17. What is the least favorite thing about yourself? Lazy
18. Who do you miss the most? My sister
19. Last thing you ate? cheesestick
20. What are you listening to right now? the air conditioner
21. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? navy blue
22. Favorite smell? smells of Christmas...Christmas tree, goodies baking
23. Who was the last person you talked to on the phone? Matt
24. The first thing you notice about people you are attracted to? handsome face
25. Favorite drink? Uno colada at Pizzeria Uno
26. Favorite sport? Softball
27. Eyes? Yes, I have two...they are brown
28. Hat size? Um...that's a good question
29. Do you wear contacts? No
30. Favorite food? Lobster
31. Scary movies or Happy Ending? Happy ending
32. Last movie you watched at the movies? TopGun
33. What color shirt are you wearing? green
34. Summer or Winter? Summer
35. Hugs or kisses? Hugs
36. Favorite dessert? strawberry cheesecake
37. What books are you reading? Book of Mormon
38. What did you watch on tv last night? Nothing
39. Favorite sounds? silence, children laughing and singing
40. Rolling Stone or Beatles? Beatles
41. The furthest you've been from home? Washington

What a day...

Zoe has had a rough time on Monday mornings for the past two Mondays. Last Monday was understandable since Emily was going to spend the night at my parents' house, so Zoe was jealous, but I don't know what the reason was this morning. By late morning, Zoe had disowned me. She said I wasn't her mother anymore, I was Emily's brat mother. She threatened to run away, which had Emily concerned, but I told her she would be missed and I continued on with the laundry. By early afternoon, Zoe was back to her happy, I love my family self, but what a challenging morning it was!

I love telling Eleanor it's Family Home Evening night because she gets VERY excited. Today she exclaimed, "yummy!" when I told her. To her, Family Home Evening = treat. Emily picked cupcakes for the treat. I wanted to feed Zach his cupcake, but he was having none of that! So, here he is feeding himself like the rest of us, but getting it everywhere except in his mouth, unlike the rest of us.

Well, Eleanor got it in her mouth, but not much got past her lips and teeth.

After we eat, the kids are banned from the kitchen until the floor is cleaned.

Zach needed to be entertained while the kitchen floor was being cleaned.

(sigh)Another successful Family Home evening accomplished.

Getting back into the swing of things

I'm feeling better these days, so I made up a new chore chart at the beginning of the week for Zoe and Emily. It is much easier to get them to do dishes and clean up toys when they know they are working for ice cream. So today they got their ice cream after we went for a swim at the pool.

Matt is fixing the seats in his canoe, so he took one out of the canoe today. Zach thought it was the perfect sized ladder for him...

Sports fan

Matt and I went out to dinner this evening. The restaurant we went to was very crowded, so we ended up sitting in the bar area. The Red Sox were playing on the tvs around us. Matt was watching the big screen tv behind me and started talking about how the players look on the bigger screen. He was watching the game, but the tv I could see was really too far away to watch. Would you have been annoyed that your husband was paying more attention to the tv than to you? Not me...I moved beside him to enjoy the game with him. I'm actually more of a sports fan than Matt is. I was watching a group of people talking at a table near us and I thought, I would much rather sit and watch a baseball game than talk with a bunch of people. I had a very enjoyable evening sitting next to Matt, watching a game, and eating delicious food. We left at the bottom of the 6th inning, but I would have been very content to stay there until the end of the game.

Forgetting something?

It's much more helpful to me when I make macaroni and cheese for there to be a cheese packet included in the box.
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A fun day at a local fair was had by our kids the other day. The day went better than I had expected, which was nice. The rides are always the best part of the fair.





Zach was very good about sitting in his stroller.

Zach and Eleanor were exhausted when we got home!