Honestly someone tell me what to do with this child...

This morning we baked chocolate chip banana muffins. Olivia was running between the kitchen to help, and the living room to watch Super Why. She kept eating the dough so I banished her to the living room. A few minutes later she comes waltzing back into the kitchen talking to herself, "If mom says no, that means fight harder!"

I was seriously hoping I just heard her wrong. But when I told her no more dough until I filled all the muffins, she said, "See!? Now fight harder!" I wish I knew who she was talking to, it was like she was leading an imaginary army. She didn't even really do anything. I told her if she stuck her fingers in the bowl again she wouldn't be able to have any muffins when they were done. She defeatedly retreated back to Super Why.

Well...

That's our third little peanut. I'm about 12 weeks along. Due on Dec. 9th... so we'll have a baby Dec. 16th if the pattern continues.  Am I ready for three kids? Let's just say I'm really glad pregnancy is 9 long months. I'm excited for another person to join our family. I'm really kinda bummed that he (calling it a he until we know different, just sounds better than it) is coming in December. I can't think of a worse month to have a baby in Erie, PA. I have honestly considered begging Aaron to fly me and the kids to AZ from Jan - April. It was just such a long winter this year. I can't imagine doing it with a newborn baby. But I won't stress myself about that yet. And in that top 3D picture... don't you totally think you can see boy parts??? .... I also think I see eyes and a little mouth that Aaron tells me that's not what it is... so what do I know. But here's to hoping. And of course we make pretty cute girls so we won't be disappointed if it's another sister. But Olivia has already told me it's a boy, since we have enough girls in our family. Guess we'll find out in a few more weeks... or not. I do like surprises. 

I'm going to miss this?

Last night I was ripped from a peaceful sleep to the sound of, "MOOOOOOOOOM!!! MOOOOOOOOOOMM!!!! MOMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!" I go running into her bedroom expecting some sort of disaster. Instead I'm greeted by two wide awake children, perfectly happy and fine. Olivia proceeds to ask me,"Uhhmm... Mom? Mommy?... uuhmmm.... when it's March can we have brownies and candy on my birthday?"

SERIOUSLY!!! And then they were thirsty. Which they probably were since we stopped serving beverages with dinner to cut back on bedwetting (which has helped btw). So got them each a small sip of water. And I can NOT fall back to sleep. I was awake for 3 hours after this. And I got to thinking, all those older ladies of grown kids who tell me I'm going to miss this must have some serious memory problems.

I promise you I am not going to miss:
 1:00am wake up calls
Children causing ruckusses anytime we leave the house (ruckusses I tell you!)
Getting a chunk of my shoulder bitten off by an insane 18 month old
Potty training
Wiping butts
Cleaning the same mess a million times a day
Being climbed all over and jumped on anytime I sit down
Taking at least 10 minutes to make any transition at all.

.... I could go on. I'm sure there is plenty I will miss about them being little. These things I will not. Plus more that I was able to think of at 3:00am but have now left my mind.

*I hope this post comes across as light hearted as I meant it. I do love my children and everything that comes along with them. Even all the crazy stuff... otherwise what else would I blog about?

never quite thought about it that way

"Mom some day I want to marry a boy. Because boys are so cool. They can just pee anywhere they want. They can pee on the ground... on a tree... I want to marry a boy."

Hopefully her standards come up a bit with time.

Our Random Silly Saturday

There were about 50 million yard sales in Erie today. We tried to go to about all of them. There were a few community ones we went to. We spent about $8 and got an HP printer/scanner/copier (working, with manuals), a play tea set, two strawberry shortcake dolls, stuffed animals, a winter carseat cover thingy, and one of those viewfinder toys with a bunch of little disc things to put into it. I had one as a kid and I LOVED it! I'm so glad Olivia has one. Oh and one random detail I don't want to forget. The girls have this boa that I think Olivia got for her birthday. Abigail is now obsessed with it. She wore it all around the yard sales. A pink feather boa. It was adorable. Anyway... after the yard sale the kids were pretty much done. Tired, thirsty and grumpy. So we came home for some juice and potty. I had really wanted to go to the Zoo Parade today. But we spent too much time at the yard sales. When I was reading about the parade, though I saw some department store downtown by the parade was celebrating it's 125th anniversary. I thought that was pretty awesome that a store has been around and in the same family for 125 years! And they were giving away free lunch to celebrate. Aaron really didn't want to go. And once we got there he really didn't want to get out of the car. It was a bunch of really old people sitting around picnic tables in the back of the store... people that can probably remember the day the store opened (okay I know not really, but probably close!). But I made us go anyway. And I'm glad we did. Free hot dogs, soda, and popcorn. And it was beautiful weather. It was nice to just sit outside... in lovely downtown Erie. Surrounded by the locals. ;)

Oh and all this was after we went to Old Navy before 7:00am. That little adventure was just the girls and I. All in our pajamas. It was pretty crazy. At least a few people were running to bins they had set up for sizes. Olivia was like, "Mom those people are running! We need to run too!" It was total mob mentality. She started going crazy grabbing flip-flops like a mad woman. It wasn't nearly that crazy, but she was having fun. There was a limit for 5 per customer so I got 2 pairs for myself, 2 for Liv, and 1 for Aaron. Then I felt bad and got Abigail her own pair that wasn't part of the sale, but still only like $2 or something. And they were giving away fruity pebble bars. Just adding to the randomness. So that was breakfast.

Olivia and Abigail also like to pretend they are dogs lately. In the car Olivia started calling Abigail, Alfred. Apparently that's Abigail's dog name. Olivia's is Martha. And right now Olivia is playing with the dolls pretending they are on the jungle cruise at Disneyland.

random.

sleep deprivation and motherhood

Olivia wets the bed like every single night. I am determined to be more diligent about doing something about it. Tonight I realized I basically reward her every time she does it. I come in, change her sheets, lay with her for a few minutes and then sneak out. Well hello! She definitely knows what she's doing. So now we'll try limiting her liquids after 5:00. And I'm going to wake her up and take her to the bathroom before I go to bed. And hopefully that will fix it.

Because right now it's 3:30 am. And I fell asleep after midnight because I couldn't fall asleep last night. I know the kids will be up by 7. I hate nights like this. I can't even tell you how grumpy it makes me.

And another thing that makes me grumpy... Erie's weather forecast. http://www.wunderground.com/US/PA/Erie.html

It will disgust. There is a little dark rain cloud every SINGLE day as far as you can see. With highs in numbers like the 50's. Honestly, this is MAY! It's been raining since Sunday, which isn't even that long... and it's already wearing on me. Today it was like 43 degrees. That's just crazy! It will be June in like 2 weeks. We did have a few nice days, and I'm glad we made the most of them... I just miss AZ in times like these. 100 degrees sounds really nice about now. Nothing a hose and an otter pop can't fix.

Alright let's see if I can squeeze a couple more hours of sleep in before my day really has to begin.

Still Small Voice

Olivia and I were driving to the grocery store. Out of seemingly no where she asks, "Mom what's a conscience?" I told her it was a little voice that told us right from wrong. I told her we usually call it the Holy Ghost, or the Spirit. If we listen closely we can hear it tell us what to do, and tell us what is right. I was feeling pleased with myself and this spiritual bit of knowledge I was teaching my daughter. A few moments later I hear in a soft whisper from the backseat, "Cuuppcaaake.... cuuuupcake.... get Olivia a cuuuupcaaake." And then in a louder voice, "Hey Mom! Did you hear that? *back to a whisper* cuuupcaaake.."

She really is too smart for her own good. I had a good laugh. And we did enjoy a cupcake together at the grocery store.

random rambling

Really a lot has been going on since Easter. I just haven't felt like blogging. Well I did feel like for like 5 minutes the other day - it happened to be the day that blogger was having a bad day. And then I lost my motivation. When certain things happen in my life, I feel like I need to blog about it because it's the type of thing EVERYONE blogs about. Like, we went to Palmyra, NY. I should be putting up tons of pictures, and telling you all about it right? And then we got to spend a week at my mom's which was lovely. And I really should have posted something great about my mom, and mother-in-law and Nanny, on Mother's Day. But I didn't blog about any of that so I started to feel like I could never blog again because I missed so much. Silly logic, I know.

And now I don't really have anything to say. Just wanted to update. Olivia has said some funny things, but I forgot to write them down and I can never remember. This morning she was playing with her doll house. She had all their furniture outside of the house on top of another toy. She told me that they were having a "yard sale". For some reason that just cracked me up. Her Aunt Allison would be so proud! :)

Aaron start his first rotation on Monday. It has been a glorious two weeks having him home. I am really going to miss him. It didn't take long to get used to having him around so much. In fact thinking about tomorrow and him having to leave in the morning is starting to depress me. It will be good to get back into a normal routine though.

Today we got a flat tire on the way to church. It was 47 degrees. And pouring rain. Aaron saved the day and even got us to church before the sacrament. My hero. I felt bad. I couldn't stop laughing about it. I know I wouldn't be laughing if I was the one out there freezing my rump off. But the situation seemed pretty funny from my nice toasty spot in the car.

Easter Pictures

We had a  wonderful Easter this year. My mom sent the girls' those cute baskets. I should have gotten better pictures of them. They were really cute. The girls woke up to Easter Bunny footprints on our couch! And hidden baskets and eggs. Then we went to church, took naps, and then enjoyed a wonderful dinner at Aaron's cousin's house. It was really a perfect day! And I just love these pictures. Glad Aaron embarrassed me and asked someone to take a picture outside the church building.