Princess Tea Party

Bella loves planning birthdays almost as much as I do. She decided almost a year ago that she wanted a tea party birthday. A couple of weeks before her birthday we were having Joy School at our house and as the girls were doing their craft project around the table they were talking about Bella’s upcoming birthday. One of the little girls who was at Bella’s princess party last year when Snow White came asked, “Who’s coming this year?”. My ears perked right up because I wasn’t planning on any “special visitors” this year. The girls then started talking about what princess they thought might come to the party and how they couldn’t wait. I had to quickly grab my phone and send Aunt Trina a text that she’d better get her princess attire ready.

And who should arrive for the birthday girl’s tea party – why Princess Ariel.

The girls with their tea party hats and necklaces Ariel helped them make.

Both Chuck and I have almost thrown the giant castle from last years birthday away numerous times, but for some reason neither one of us did. Luckily we didn’t because Bella asked if we could bring it back out for this years party.

Bella with the tea pot cake Chuck and I crafted. I LOVE fondant!

The girls were super excited Ariel was going to eat cake and ice cream with them.

And that she stayed for presents.

Thanks Ariel you were wonderful!

Signs of a “Good” Mom

Before I had kids I pictured this as a sign of a “good” mom. Staying up late, creating a huge disaster, roping the hubby into helping with the projects. Now I know this is just the sign of a “crazy” mom!

This is the picture of what I know hold as the standard of a “good” mom. Letting go, realizing lots of what I worry about doesn’t matter one little bit, living in the moment, forgetting the to do list, soaking up the priceless expressions on my kids faces, being busy with the “best” things not just the “good” things.

You see, there was a time when there would have been no way I would have let Bella pick out these balloons for her birthday party. She was having a Princess Tea Party, not a Strawberry Shortcake party and we certainly didn’t need the Get Well balloon and the colors weren’t right, but this is what she picked out all by herself and she was happy as could be. The lady blowing up the balloons even called me over to inform me that I had a Get Well balloon in the stack. I told her it didn’t matter just blow it up. Yep, learning to let go of the things that don’t matter can be fun!

 

Then this happens and you realize for all your efforts to be a “good” mom you’re still going to fall short sometimes!

The morning of Bella’s Joy School Birthday Party I was running around trying to help Ariel get ready, putting up the decorations, etc. Mind you, Joy School starts at 9:30 so that’s a lot to get done in a little time frame. Well, this is what happens when you just let the kids do whatever so you can do your thing. Jenna got into Aunt Trina’s bag and found the Destin, using it as lotion all over her face. She came wondering out of the bedroom looking like this literally two minutes before the first guest arrived. Luckily, Chuck pulled up about the same time so he was able to fix this mess! Life is never dull at our house!

Famous Like …. Who?

There are some conversations that are so funny you just have to record them so you can look back and laugh all over again. One such conversation occurred at our dinner table this evening.

While we were gathered around the table talking, Chuck commented that when he picked Bella up from ballet her teacher told him that Bella was doing an amazing job in her new class. The following conversation then took place.

Samuel: “Bella, maybe you’ll be a famous dancer.”

Bella: “What does famous mean?”

Samuel: “It means your on the news or something. Mom, what else does famous mean?”

Me: “Everyone knows your name”.

Chuck: “Lots of people like you.”

Samuel: “Yeah Bella, maybe you’ll be famous like Hammurabi.”

Everyone: “Like Who?”

Samuel: “Like Hammurabi. He was a king and made up laws and all the people liked him.”

Chuck using his phone to bring up Wikipedia: “Ah, I knew I’d heard that name before. He was a king of Babylon and did establish a set of laws.”

At that point I wanted to give ourselves a high five because the most famous person my son could name was Hammurabi – no other crazy celebrities came to his mind. Looks like the strict rules on TV watching are paying off – at least for now. All too quickly I know we won’t be able to hold back the crush of worldly influences like we can now. But we’ll enjoy it while we can and learn a bit of history from our 1st grader in the mean time!

14 Years and a Little Get Away!!

Chuck and I had a fabulous 5 day get away a few weeks ago – that’s right 5 Whole Days without the kids! We haven’t taken a trip with just the two of us since Samuel was born so we were so thankful to Grandma Jerri Lynn and Aunt Trina for watching our kids so we could take this much needed adventure. Grandma stayed at our place with the 3 oldest and poor Aunt Trina got Jenna.

 

The reason behind our little get away – a football game. Now I could care less about seeing a football game especially a University of Utah game (sorry Utes fans). We are Aggies in this family after all! But, I just wanted to spend time with my wonderful husband and could care less what we did. And besides we were getting ready to celebrate 14 years of marriage so why not make any excuse for an adventure together. So I feigned excitement for the initiation of Utah into the PAC 12 conference.

Now this trip did start out a little rocky. Chuck got a speeding ticket in the tiny town of Beaver Dam and according to the cop we were lucky he didn’t haul Chuck off to jail for excessive speeding. Yes, excessively speeding in the minivan. And we thought we were distracted drivers when the kids were screaming in the back. Obviously adult conversation without constant interruption is more distracting! Chuck wrote a letter to the judge outlining the reason for his speeding (trying to run away from the kids – just a joke when you read this in years to come kids!) and we were lucky that she agreed to let him take an online defensive driving course for a mere $225 as opposed to the $440 fine– can I just say ouch! And as I’m writing this Chuck just found out that the course is 4 hours – double ouch!!

To top off the day, we went to check into our hotel in Vegas that night and we didn’t have the right paperwork. We had to drive all the way back to Mesquite and it was already late. At this point I was thinking no wonder we don’t get away more often!

 

Our first day in California we went to Griffith Observatory. We saw an amazing show. I left the theater feeling a little like the scripture where Moses says, “Now, for this cause I know that man is nothing, which thing I never had supposed.” It was amazing to see pictures of our galaxy and countless other galaxies planets and stars.

 

You can see downtown LA from the structure of the observatory.

We picked up Chuck’s high school buddies from the airport and spent the evening in Santa Monica. I love the sound and feel of the ocean. Chuck really has an amazing group of friends and I love their wives. We had such a fun time with these couples.

We went to Disneyland! Yep, Disneyland without the kids is a whole new experience. It’s a lot of fun, but not magical. Do you know how quickly you can travel if you aren’t pushing several strollers loaded down with all the supplies you need when you have 4 little kids? We were all amazed at how quickly we could get around the whole park.

We went on all the rides our kids are too little for.

And some rides we rode a few too many times.

Causing some people to get ill and need to take a rest while breathing very deeply.

We went to the beach dressed in our Ute attire and got lots of comments from USC fans.

We walked in the sand and waves and gathered seashells. Some unfortunate soul, who wanted to get to the game 3 hours early, dropped his cell phone in the ocean and had to try and buy a replacement. I wasn’t too sad that we arrived at the game just in time for it to start.

We had the unfortunate luck of sitting just in front of a lady who was so drunk the guy she was with literally had to drag her to her seat. Then, you guessed it, she started throwing up all over the place just as the game was getting ready to start. I thought I might lose it myself at that point! So we evacuated our seats and went across the aisle to the bleacher seats as security hauled her out of the stadium. This set up actually was more comfortable as we had plenty of room and could move around.

Some people were really excited about the game even though the Utes lost.

Before we drove home Chuck and I went to the LA Arboretum. Isn’t this what you picture when you think of California. Tall palm trees and blue sky – I love palm trees!

I love flowering trees.

And to top it off we saw the site where Fantasy Island was filmed.

During this trip I remembered what good friends Chuck and I really are. Sometimes that gets lost in the day to day bustle of taking care of young kids. There’s no one I would rather spend time with than this guy of mine!

Happy 14th Anniversary – I Love You!

Weekend Adventures

Grandma and Grandpa Gillette were here for a few days this week. We always love when they come to visit us.

We like to take them hiking in one of our favorite spots – Snow Canyon. This particular hike was making Grandpa Paul a little nervous. He was convinced one of the kids was going to fall and he sure didn’t want to call the emergency medical personnel more than once this weekend (see butterscotch story below!)

We also went on a family bike ride. Don’t you love Bella’s cute shoes! Grandma Jerri Lynn got them for Bella’s birthday that is coming up next month. They light up and everything.

The trail by our house is beautiful for a family biking adventure – we get to see this view everyday!

Saturday evening we went to the Rodeo Parade. It was hot!

And we managed to lose this little one for a few minutes! We were trying to get our spot staked out and suddenly Chuck realized Jenna was missing. We were frantically looking all around because it was crowded and there were people everywhere. Finally a woman behind us asked if that was out baby wondering down the sidewalk. Jenna apparently just went on a little stroll by herself. I hate the gut wrenching feeling of displacing a child for a few minutes.

The kids collected a lot of candy. We have been working on creating our Family Flag and as part of that we asked the kids to come up with a few ideas to describe what we like to do as a family. One of the first things they said was, “Get candy at parades”. Not quite what we were looking for, but they are right we do like parades and candy!

To top off the evening we went for a picnic at the park. It was so nice for Chuck and I to sit back and watch all the kids just play together. Even little Jenna was trying to join in the fun. Jenna is a fighter though and soon she had bugged and pushed another little boy until he started to hit her. I got up to take care of the situation since the boys mom was very preoccupied, but realized I didn’t have to solve the problem because there was Isaac who had jumped to the rescue and was telling the little boy to stop hitting his sister. Very sweet – older brother defending his baby sister – although really Jenna tends to be able to hold her own most of the time!

Labor Day

Grandma and Grandpa spent Labor Day weekend with us. The kids were super excited to throw Grandma a surprise 60^th birthday party. They helped make cupcakes, pick out party decorations and they each bought something they thought Grandma would like at the Dollar Store. Bella even made Grandma a special necklace. We had a yummy BBQ and delicious homemade ice cream.

Saturday morning we decided to take the kids to a splash park across town. Who would think a couple of roundabouts could have caused such confusion! We had 3 cars and somehow Grandpa managed to get lost in the roundabout, got on the freeway, came back, circled around and went the wrong way again. We were waiting for him off the side of the road wondering where he could have possibly gone. Luckily we spotted him going the wrong way and took off in hot pursuit while Trina waited in her car by the side of the road. The one time we really needed our cell phones and Grandma had left hers at home! We were all laughing hysterically, but Grandpa didn’t seem to find it as amusing!

We eventually made it to the splash park and the kids had a blast.

Monday we went to Pine Valley on a fishing excursion. It was cloudy and cool, which felt wonderful this time of year. It did sprinkle on us and we were glad we had the big shade umbrella to provide shelter from the storm.

I know if Grandpa is with us we will always catch at least one fish. He is the master fisherman after all!

Samuel with his rainbow trout.

We also went on a little hike. Bella tried to cross the stream on every tree limb that was down. It was so beautiful and green. I just love Pine Valley!

Curse the Butterscotch!

We had a scary afternoon at our house today as sweet Bella chocked on a butterscotch candy.

I had just picked Samuel up from school and when I walked in the door Bella asked if she could have a butterscotch candy. She popped the candy in her mouth and was standing by my side when all of a sudden she started to choke. At first she wasn’t making much noise, but was in obvious distress. The situation then escaladed as she was sticking her finger in her throat trying to dig out the candy. I grabbed Bella and hollered for Chuck’s mom and dad to help me (I was so thankful they were here!).

It was a little chaotic at this point because Bella started screaming at the top of her lungs, so at least we knew she was breathing even though she looked ashen white. I think we all need to brush up on our first aid skills because what followed next, at best, could be described as shear madness as we all three were trying various methods to dislodge the butterscotch. Once Bella started spitting up blood Luann said we needed to take her to the emergency room, which is clear across town. I finally decided I just better call 911 because the local emergency personnel are very close.

I really wanted to cry, but it’s amazing how you can pull it together when you really need to. The 911 operator was wonderful as she calmly walked me through what to do. One of the first things she said was don’t hit her on the back – Oh great, we had all taken a turn hitting her on the back. Then she asked who was screaming – it was Bella – and she told me I needed to get her to calm down because it was going to make the situation worse. I told Bella she needed to stop screaming and she quieted, but still had tears flowing and was so white. She told me to lay her on the ground and tilt her head back and wait for the ambulance to arrive. Bella then asked me if they were going to cut her belly open. The poor thing was so scared.

At this point Samuel was huffing around saying he was hungry and someone needed to get him his lunch. Honestly, I wanted to scream - Hello! Can’t you see we’re having a crisis here!! Luckily Luann told Paul to make him a sandwich before I could even react. Then I just thought to myself, what have I done wrong that my boy is demanding a sandwich when his sister is lying on the ground in distress? Somewhere my mothering has gone awry!

As I held Bella’s head and looked into her scared eyes and tear streaked face it hit me that I have been worrying a lot lately about things that really don’t matter. There’s nothing more important than my family and taking care of these precious kids of mine.

The ambulance got here quickly and the guys were wonderful. They checked her oxygen levels, which at first were low, but then the number quickly rose. They listened to her breathe and rubbed her throat. Even though Bella still felt like the candy was in her throat it had passed by this time.

After they left, I sat on the couch and held Bella in my arms. She was still very white as she told me she was never going to eat butterscotch candy again. Then she told me she had thought she was going to die and that she really didn’t want to die. I just wanted to hold this sweet girl of mine in my arms and never let her go.

Isaac asked me several times throughout the day if Bella still had blood coming out her mouth. That scene obviously made a big impression on his little mind. Then tonight Samuel said he had not been scared because he knew Bella was going to be fine. That confidence could explain the reason he needed a sandwich during the middle of it all! I’m just thankful Paul and Luann were here and that everything turned out just fine.