Sometimes at night, I find myself wandering from room to room, half asleep, trying to find a kid free spot to lie down.  The other night, Nina crept into our bed and squished herself up against me.  She was so sweet, but after awhile I couldn't handle the wiggles.  So, instead of putting her back into her own bed, which would be the logical thing to do, I left her in my bed and went to go sleep in her bed.  An hour or so later, Nina came back to her bed and nestled in near my feet.  After a few minutes of enduring more wiggles, I left and returned to my bed.  An hour or so after that, Weston started screaming...so I went into his room, and being too tired to sit up in a rocking chair, I fed him while lying on his floor, drifting in and out of sleep.  After who knows how long, I finally made it back to my own bed once again...just in time to wake up :)   Remember those days, when I would go to sleep around 11:00 at night, close my eyes, get all snuggly in my covers, listen to...oh yes, nothing...just complete silence, and sink into a deep, blissful, uninterrupted sleep, and lie there in my own bed, my very own bed until 11:00 in the morning?  Oh yes, such memories.  Trying to sleep when you are a parent of young kids is kind of like trying to sleep when you are camping....you dread it....and you barely sleep at all.  And then comes the glorious dawn of a new day!  Nothing says joy and rejoicing like two super cute girls jumping on your bed at 6:30 in the morning, pulling off your blankets, yelling "Get up Mom!  Get up Dad!  Get up!  Get up!  Get up!"  And every morning, you fight it. You think, oh maybe if I just ignore them, they will stop...but they never do.  Or, maybe if I turn on a movie, they will let me sleep a bit longer...but, they want their breakfast.  Or, maybe if I tell them to STOP and go to their room, they will actually leave and play barbies for a bit...but they just keep on coming back.  So, my advice is to just give up...and just get up.  Embrace your cuties with all the love you can muster after four hours of miserable sleep.  Smile.  Be grateful that everyone made it through another night of this glorious adventure called life.

Things I am grateful for today:

I am grateful that Miri peed all over me and not on the couch or our nice chairs.  I am grateful that Miri peed all over me and not in the car.  I am grateful that Miri peed all over me and not on the carpet.  Yep, I am trying really hard to look at the bright side of things today :) 

I am grateful that no one got hurt from the flying glass shards of Weston's baby food jar.  Nina gave him the jar so he could feed himself the peas (bad idea)...next thing you know, Weston throws the jar to the ground, sending glass shards all over the floor and mashed peas all over the walls.  But, nobody was hurt :)

I am grateful that I mopped the kitchen floor today.  I didn't clean the bathrooms, I didn't finish the laundry, I didn't pay the bills, I didn't organize my piano music, I didn't clean off the piano.  In short, I didn't accomplish lots of things that have been on my to do list for weeks now...but I did mop the kitchen floor!  Wahoo!

I am grateful for my cutie girl, Nina.  We watched Spirit today...the cartoon movie about a wild horse.  She broke down in tears when they pulled the horse away from the other horse he fell in love with.  She begged me to turn it off!  "It's too sad!" she cried.  We skipped to the end of the movie to see if everything ended happily...and it did!  I also chuckled throughout the movie because Nina kept mixing up the words Indian and Alien.  She kept calling the Indians, Aliens.  Oh boy.

      
       

Chris and I survived a week of being sick.  We are all back to normal again now. :)  Fortunately, we were all feeling better for Valentines Day.  Chris took the day off work and we traveled up to Mayer (the heart of Arizona) to have lunch at the Big Bug Station.  The Big Bug Station has the best sandwiches this side of the Mississippi (probably):  thick, fresh slices of homemade bread with loads of meat piled inside, cheese, lettuce, and, tomato....it's quite simple, yet out of this world amazing!  After lunch, we checked out our favorite thrift store, right next to the cafe. Chris found himself a perfectly fitted suit in great condition for $10!  This is rare, since Chris is so short and small.  He was super excited!  After lunch, we stopped at an old friend's house from the Spring Valley Ward (a man who had been baptized while we lived there).  He wasn't home, but we brought construction paper, tape, and scissors and heart attacked his front door.  We then made the trip back home to the valley and stopped at the Outlets to check out some deals.  I thought it might be fun to go shopping together on Valentines Day.  Well, it turned out the girls couldn't handle being in the Van Heusen store.  Nina had chosen to wear plastic costume high heels and they were hurting her feet, leaving her in a highly emotional state and Weston was tired and fussy (Miri was great!).  So, Chris left the store with the kids and we ended up taking turns doing our shopping.  After purchasing a few items of clothing, we returned home, made valentine cookies and delivered them to a bunch of neighbors.  Several neighbors were very surprised that we would actually get out and do that on Valentines Day.  They were all pleasantly surprised!  All in all, it was a busy, but fun Valentines Day!

Our sixth anniversary followed the next day.  Wow!  Six years!  It feels like it has been fifty!  Haha...in a good way!  I can't imagine my life without my sweetheart Chris.  We are truly the best of friends.  Living away from both of our families and our close friends for most of our marriage has made us rely and depend on each other on a whole new level!  I love him completely!
Our anniversary day started out a bit hectic.  Chris volunteered to help our neighbors move out in the morning.  We were thinking it would be only 30 to 45 minutes of work...but it ended up being more like 4 to 5 hours.  Good ol' Chris...always the first to volunteer to help people move :)  The people were super nice though, they brought us over a pizza to thank Chris for all his help.  The day was crazy, but we had a fun night.  After putting all the kiddos to sleep, Chris and I made sushi!  We filled our sushi rolls with avocado, carrot, cucumber, imitation crab, and cream cheese.  It was so good.  We then watched Austenland, a total chick flick.  And the party is still not over because Chris gets the day off tomorrow for President's Day!  Wahoo!  Long weekends are great!    

Nina is the princess and the pea. (Well, maybe more like the person who set up the princess' bed at night.)  Nina likes to stack her blankets, spread out upon her bed, one on top of the other.  She had up to 9 blankets stacked the other night!  Then, a few hours later, after falling asleep upon her 9 blankets, she threw up.  I think only the bottom two blankets were spared.  I tell ya, I've been washing blankets, sheets, pillows, clothes, hair, faces, constantly over the past several days.  I wash a blanket just in time for it to get thrown up or pooped on all over again.  Our poor little family has been sick with something over the past several days.  It started with Miri throwing up the first night, then Nina the second night, then Miri again the third night, then Chris and me the following nights, then Weston today...will it ever stop?  We will get through this though!  The girls are already back to being their oh so chipper selves...leaving Mommy sick and wasted, lying on the couch, hoping they don't get into too much mischief. I think Chris and I have both lost over six pounds each in the past several days.  Horrible. 

Nina is so funny.  She is our little drama queen...but wait a second...we have two little drama queens!  Lately, when Nina starts crying and throwing a fit, she will try to calm herself down.  She will bury her face in her hands, breathe heavily, and start saying: "I need to calm down...I need to calm down...I need to calm down."  She will say it over and over again as tears stream down her face, and as her voice breaks in and out. It is so sad to watch, but I am glad that she is recognizing on her own when she is out of control. 

Family Home Evening the other night was all about LOVE.  We talked about some of the loving, nice things we had done that day.  I asked the girls to name one nice thing Mommy had done that day. Nina piped up: "Mommy ate all her vegetables!"  Good job, Mom!  Did the whole lesson on Love really sink in?  Probably not, but they'll get it with time :) 

On Saturday, we went to the Mesa Temple.  Temple trips are not as peaceful and lovely as they should be in our family.  Oh no, it is quite the journey we take each month.  Once inside the temple, all is well...but getting to and from the temple and the time spent taking turns watching the kids outside the temple is an experience in and of itself.  Poor Chris had a heck of a time on Saturday watching the kids outside the temple.  Miri pooped her panties while playing on the temple grounds.  Chris rushed her, along with Nina and Weston, into the visitor center bathroom.  He strapped Weston to the Baby changing table and helped Miri wipe her legs and panties off.  Not only was Weston screaming his head off, but Miri was also an emotional wreck.
  He got her cleaned off and the bunch of them headed back outside.  Thinking the worst was over, they resumed playing on the grass.  Not long after, Miri pooped her panties again.  And once again, Chris rushed them all into the restroom, this time trying to hold Weston, while cleaning Miri off with his free hand.  Once again, everyone was in tears.  By this time, Chris was done.  When I came out of the temple, Chris looked shellshocked and broken.  I tried to help him find the humor in it.  "Oh yes dear, someday we are going to look back on this day and laugh about it!"  I don't think that day will come for quite some time. 

Weston started army crawling today!  Watch out everybody!  Weston is on the move!  I think Miri is a little bit worried about the now mobile baby.  He started coming after her Barbies, but before he could reach it, she pulled it away and ran off. 

I was hanging up some clean clothes in the closet yesterday when Miri came up to me and said: "Hey Mom, can I hang with you?"  I smiled, "Sure, let's hang together!"  Soooo cute :)

Nina watched me carefully this afternoon as I put some lip gloss on.  She wanted to be just like Mommy...  so, I put a little bit of it on her lips.  She was so excited.  She walked around smiling and saying, "Look at my shiny lips!"  Even several hours later, when we put her to bed, she said, "Look at my shiny lips!" She couldn't stop smiling.  

Nina and Miri are such good little friends.  I love watching them play!  Today, they built a blanket fort all by themselves outside on the patio.  They had a blast. They played Barbies.  They played with hangers.  They colored together.  They giggled and danced together.  Right now, I am watching them play "house" with their foam letters in the bathtub.  The letter K is Daddy, and the letter F is Mommy.  Uh-oh, apparently "mommy" just got hurt...Miri comes to the rescue with the letter R.  Oh boy, now the letters are all dancing across the edge of the tub :)  Soooo cute.  I love my girls.  They are so blessed to have each other.  I can't even imagine what my life would have been like without my sister.  Even though we had our bad moments, we were and are the best of friends.   I wish the same for my girls.

       

Saturday morning, 7am:  Nina and Miri came bursting into our room yelling "It's light outside!  It's light outside!  Food, Mom! Food! Food!"  Chris and I, not ready to fully wake up, came up with, what we thought was a great compromise:  How about we turn on a movie for you downstairs and when it's over we'll come down and make some food.  So, we left the girls downstairs all to themselves and continued to sleep in till 8:30.  Bad idea on our part.  We woke up to Miri happily skipping into our room with black smears all over her face.  She came up to the bed and offered Dad an Oreo cookie. We asked her where she got the cookie?  She hesitated to tell us as Nina came running up the stairs.  We asked Nina if she had gotten into the Oreos.  She said no, but the black crumbs all over her face and teeth told otherwise.  Uh-huh....how many cookies did you eat?  Nina raised all her fingers.  Ten?  Ten cookies?  Dad ran downstairs and found Oreo crumbs all over the living room floor, the cushions torn off the couch, and a Family Size Oreo package, completely empty.  Empty!  They must have eaten a combined total of up to 30 cookies!  Needless to say, we did not go for our traditional Saturday morning donut trip to the store.  Rather, the girls spent a lot of quiet time in their room, followed by several hours of cleaning the house.  They had to pick up all the Oreo crumbs on the floor and wash the Oreo smears off the furniture.  Nina cried, "there's just too many crumbs!  I can't do it!  There's too many of them!"  Ya!...because you ate like 30 Oreos!!! 

I feel like I am reliving my childhood at times.  Nina is starting to let me play songs on the piano now.  (Until recently, every time I would sit down to play she would get up on the piano bench, pull my music down, and pound the keys.)    Don't get me wrong, I am no stranger to being bugged while playing the piano (thanks to my sweet older sister Katie :), but Nina and Miri are ruthless....until recently.  Now, when I play, they dance around the house and sing.  I am reminded of my own Mom playing the piano in our antique room as we danced around.  Mom would pound those piano keys with such energy and spunk:  she would play everything from Broadway to Janeen Brady to Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy.  Joyful noise would fill the house!  Ahhh, such happy memories.  Thank you Mom:)

Let's all welcome the newest addition to the Barbie neighborhood:

BellePancha

She was previously known as Rosemary...but Nina bestowed upon her a more excellent name:  BellePancha. I just can't help but laugh.  What a great name.


At breakfast, I asked Nina to help get the cereal box out for Miri.  She informed me that she could not because she only has two hands and one of them was holding a spoon. Ooookay? Then put the spoon down and help your sister! She eventually did put the spoon down and help.   She's such a good big sister and Mommy's biggest helper!  It's amazing how helpful a three year old can be :) 

Meltdown of the week: I gave Nina saltine crackers with peanut butter on top.  She somehow managed to get peanut butter goop all over one of her fingers. AAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!   Nooo!  Not peanut butter on your finger!!!!   Oh no!!!  (The drama from these girls is just ridiculous sometimes.)

The girls have been waking up at 2am every morning, wide-eyed and ready to play!  We've tried putting them to bed later, but nope, they still wake up at 2am.  They sneak out of their room and play with their barbies under the bathroom sink.  I have no idea how long this goes on before the giggles get loud enough to wake me up.  I then pour rain on their parade and drag them back into their beds, crying as if I was the meanest mom in the world!  How dare you Mom!  Last night they both jumped into our bed at 2am wanting to sleep with us.  Too tired to care, we both said, sure.  I ended up squished between the two wiggly girls.  They were quiet, but they couldn't lie still for about 45minutes!  I finally came to my senses and said enough is enough!  I pulled them out of the bed and put them back in their room, crying of course as if I was soooo mean.  :(