funny ana-isms

One of my favorite things about having a toddler are the cute and funny things they do and say. Ana is no exception. Here are a couple from yesterday.

*We have Welcome gnome that we got when we were married and sits by our front door. (see picture)

Ana walked out onto our landing and started playing with it. Dave went out and told her to put it down and come inside. She started whining and said, "But I want to bring Jesus inside."

*Last night, she was in bed. I was laying next to her and I wouldn't let her go past my feet or else she could climb down. She was whining about it. She put her hand up to her ear like a phone and said,

"Daddy? I wanna go past Mama's feet..... Yeah, I'm upset."

*This one is just sweet. We were playing outside on the swings. She was holding a kitty who was meowing and wiggling. She said, "Its okay kitty." Then she propped it up on her shoulder and started singing, "I am a child of God."


My mom and I were discussing last night how a lot of people struggle with two-year olds. I absolutely love this age. My mom did too. Ana and I have fun all day long. Of course, we also have frequent time outs and frustrations (especially about bed time), but mostly we have a good time.

A good morning

I haven't been able to work during the mornings this week so it has been fun playing with Ana. She has been my little buddy every day so far, kind of like it was when I was in school and able to see her more during the day.

So, yesterday she asked me to read some books with her. These are the books:


They are all about 7 pages long with one sentence per page. We were laying down together on 'mommy and daddy's' bed for at least a half hour reading these books. She loves them. I was surprised by how long she was holding still and staying interested. I actually read EVERY book you see in that picture. Erin said it's something like 51 little books. It was fun and nice to not be stressed at all about needing to get anything else done.

Even though I will not get paid as much for this week it has been a great time with Ana. She has even been pretend calling me on her hand phone (she just holds her hand up to her ear) to tell me to come home from work and such. She called me last night on her hand while Erin was putting her to bed - she said, "Yeah, I'm upset."



Cute kid.

mornings

I really love mornings. One of my favorite morning sounds is Jack giggling at Ana, who has climbed in his bed. Usually, Ana has already run into my bedroom to announce, "Jack wake up!" She loves making him happy in the morning.

I love the quiet of the morning before the kids wake up. I love lying awake in bed with Dave feeling warm and cozy under the covers. I love the feeling of a new day.

I am definitely the most productive when I first wake up, and if I don't start doing things right away, chances are I won't be productive. We are into a routine of late sleeping that has been so hard to break, even though Dave and I have tried. My ideal morning would consist of me getting up before the kids, reading scriptures, running and getting breakfast before Dave leaves for work. I would love that. Some day. This week I've just decided to enjoy my time with Dave in the evening and save my chores til the morning, when I feel much better about it. Its made such a difference.

President Obama

Didn't have work this morning so I watched this in some of my extra time-


It was kind of fun to see. I like the openness that can happen post election. Especially the husband-wife comments.

Here is the clip that came first


This was the closing clip

a few good things

If I stay up too late, I often reach a point when I get worked up so much about something that I have this downward spiral of negativity and I can't get to sleep. So, here I am. Dave told me to cheer up and go to sleep, which he did, and I really want to sleep too. So, I thought of a few good things to cheer me up and since Dave wouldn't remember even if I attempted to wake him up, I will share them with my blogging world.

*I love the little person Ana is becoming. Today, we were outside and I, of course, was wearing sandals. I told her that my feet were getting cold and she leaned over and wrapped her warm little hand around my big toe. "Is that better Mama?" And you know what? It was.

*A friend of mine recently asked me about happiness in marriage. As I thought out and typed a very long response to her question, it gave me a new resolve to be a better wife. I feel very lucky to have the husband I do.

*Thanksgiving and my family holiday party is this week. I'm very excited for both. I love the Holiday Season and can't wait to decorate the house and finish up my Christmas shopping.

With those few good things in mind, I think I can go to sleep now...

almost there

Jack is almost crawling. He's been up on his knees for about 10 days now, and today he started trying to move his legs. He just needs to get his arms going and he's got it. He'll be crawling by 6 months for sure!



Ana is almost potty trained. She still has an accident almost every day, and I still have to remind her to go if its been a few hours. And she still wants a potty treat. But for the most part she does really well.

Also:
*the dishes are almost done for the night. I'm not feeling well tonight, so Dave loaded the dishwasher. I think I'll save the hand dishes for the morning.

*almost all the laundry is put away for the week. There is one stack that isn't because I don't reach the closet shelves very well.

*I am almost done making our living room curtains. I did all but the hem 2 weeks ago and still haven't taken them down to finish.

My Dad often says, "close only counts in horseshoes and hand-grenades." But tonight, close counts quite a bit. I feel pretty good about our "almosts."

yesterday

Yesterday this little girl was sick. She woke up at 7 throwing up, and threw up a couple more times before falling asleep on the floor at 11. She slept until 2 and felt better after that. Today she is back to normal.
There's something special about the comfort sick kids look for. She's usually very busy and independent. But yesterday morning she just wanted to sit on my lap. She'd get down occasionally, but then would climb right back up. When she curls up on my lap and wants to be near me, I am filled with love for that little person. I suppose that's how our heavenly parents feel when we turn to them to be comforted. They must be filled with love for us as well.

Make me famous

So, my new goal in life, now that all my secondary applications are done, is to be famous. By famous I mean have a picture I take selected for a jones soda label. I think I will be merging my weekly photo and my jones quest into the same feature here.

What should I call it? Weekly Jones? Please let me be famous? My baby can fly? I actually chose Jack flying for my first picture to submit. It seems like something they might choose.

I need your help. Each week when I post the photo I will also post a link like this one that links to my picture on the jones website. So, if you love me, or even like me a little bit, you should go and vote for it. Really. Help me be famous and I wont forget you.

Here is the picture-


CLICK HERE to vote and tell everyone how famous I should be.

*Note* Jones soda only allows one vote per computer.

200

This is a landmark post. I’m not giving anything away. I’m not writing more things about me. I’m just writing.

I’ve always liked writing. Especially hand-written things. I love hand-written letters – both sent and received. I have filled more than 15 journals. When I was about 7 or 8 I wrote a little story called, “The Train Without a Track.” It was a little inconsistent, but I had my dad type it up and I illustrated it and bound it and I still have it. I’m proud of it and protective of it. I’ve started countless “cheesy church” novels and I’ve gone through phases of poetry and song lyrics. I have never liked to read aloud what I have written. I suppose it’s because, though I don’t profess to be a good writer, I put my heart into it anyway and I don’t want it to be hurt.

I’m not a great writer. In fact, maybe my only talent is that I love to do things, even if I’m not what others might call “talented.” I love sewing, but I’m not a great seamstress. I love running, but am not a great runner. I love singing and playing the piano, but I’m just about average in both. And I love writing, even if I’m not a great writer.

I’ve really enjoyed blogging. It’s a little place of my own. Nothing really grand or adventurous happens here. Just life. And I like writing about it. My sister in law and a few other family members have started this novel writing thing. It’s been a long time since I wrote that much. One night last week, Dave and I sat down to come up with a story line and I started writing. But I just haven’t returned to it. I suppose it’s because what I really want to write is what I write about everyday here. My front porch looking in. I think it’s good to slow down and just write about everyday stuff. So often I rush through a post about random stuff that happens. But my favorite posts are always the ones full of inspiration and simple happiness. I want to take more time to be inspired, find more joy in everyday life, and write about it. Because everyday has something worth writing about.

Sunset

Time for another photo of the week. Man, I need to start posting more or all my posts will be weekly photos. The first two pictures were cropped differently and the third is the original picture with no editing.






I like the smoke from the factory looking at it full size.

Its 1:00 pm

Right before Dave went back to work, Ana climbed up on his lap. She snuggled into him pretty close. He told her he had to go back to work and she said, "come right back, daddy." It was very tender. Jack had been sitting on my lap and kept looking at Dave and smiling. Dave is such a great dad! Anyway, he did have to leave, so Ana climbed up on my lap instead, and Dave left for work.

A few minutes later, Ana climbed down onto the floor and I went into their room to change Jack's diaper. When I came back:

Now, Jack is asleep too. As tired as I am, I can't bring myself to lay down for a nap. I love quiet time, and I need to clean house. But I'll enjoy the peace and quiet, nonetheless.

Its 6:30 a.m.

Ana woke up at 4:30 this morning and needed to go potty. Usually, if she wakes up in the night, I just lay next to her in bed for 30 minutes or so and she's back asleep. Well, at 5:30 Dave's alarm clock went off and she said, "what's that?" and then started crying really hard. That, of course, woke Jack up, who had peed through his pjs, so I had to change his clothes. So, we were up. She is now watching "Little Einsteins" and I think a nap will be in order today.

Ice cream comments

We were eating ice cream tonight after family home evening. Ana suddenly stopped eating, put down her spoon, and said, "Daddy is AWESOME!!" It was really cute an unprovoked. I had never even heard her say awesome before.

Weekly Photo

The exposure and depth of field isn't exactly like I would have wanted it but it did motivate me to learn a couple new things on my camera which is what this is all about anyway.

5 months

Jack is 5 months old. I can hardly believe its going by so fast. One things is for sure: He loves his sister! The other day I went to put him in the bath with her and he was kicking and squealing and smiling because he was so excited. Ana loves to make him laugh. She was hopping and splashing in the tub and he couldn't stop laughing. I had a hard time keeping a hold of him.

Whenever she does something silly, he just laughs and laughs. She was jumping on the bed the other day and this was his reaction:
This morning she really wanted to hold him, which she did for a while, but it ended up like this for probably about 10 minutes. (It would have been longer, but then she needed to go potty.)

Dave and I are trying to get our kids on an earlier schedule, so we've been waking Ana up at 7:30 this week. (She usually wakes up at 9:30, which means she doesn't go to bed until 10.) So, now I have 2 extra hours to fill with just me and Ana. Not much keeps her attention for very long, accept the Little Einsteins, so its been a challenge. Yesterday, she ate breakfast, played with playdough, colored with markers, made a mess, cleaned up a mess, took a bath, fixed hair, and ate a snack - all before lunchtime! She fell asleep on the floor at 3:00, but I didn't want her to nap so she'd go to bed early, so I woke her up. But then the rest of the evening she was wild! And she still didn't go to sleep until 9. whew! But I did make her this little instrument, which we turned into a guitar this morning. Dave was home until noon this morning, so they were playing and dancing around. It was so cute!


Any more ideas of how to keep a 2 year old happy would be great!

Yeah, that's my shirt

It was a good time.

Ana's artwork

Ana drew this today:I asked her what it was and she said, "a guy" which is what I figured. I thought it was pretty darn good for a 2 year old. It makes up for the fact that I spent 20 minutes scrubbing liquid foundation out of the carpet this morning. (It did all come out, thank goodness.)

Quick Holiday Thought

It goes straight from Halloween to Christmas in all the stores. Sometimes they actually have both seasons out at the same time. What happened to Thanksgiving? Is it weird to anyone else that the Thanksgiving season is completely overshadowed by the gimmegimme candy time and then Christmas decorations?

Happy Halloween

We had a really fun Halloween. I fixed Ana's hair really cute, but didn't get a good picture of the little princess. She had a lot of fun though. She even said "Trick or Treat" really well. Jack was a superhero. This is a funny picture of him. We went to the ward trunk or treat and then we went to a few houses, including Grandma's. I'm so glad I convinced Dave to dress up. I always love dressing up and so I'm glad we all got into it.




And this is Ana twirling in her costume. This was just before coming home, so her hair was a little messy and her shirt was a mess, but she loves her new princess skirt.

Happy Halloween!!

Jack was a superhero for Halloween today. This is a picture of him preparing for takeoff.


Here he is in flight*


Ana got a ton of candy and was loving it. She was still not too good to share with her fellow princesses.


For more pictures of the kids look HERE at Erin's blog. You can also see more pictures of me being a geek there too. She made me - mostly.

*No children or superheros were harmed in the taking of this photo. Not even close. Really.