The Gambler

I have gobs and gobs of catching up to do, both in posting and reading all y'all's posts.  Sorry for the hiatus, but an unexpected funeral (I guess they all are, aren't they?) in Southern Idaho followed by moving into our brand new (to us...it's actually 45 years old) house does that to a nine month pregnant girl, doesn't it?  In the meantime, however, here's some random thoughts to keep you company.

So, I was driving home from errands today and The Gambler by Kenny Rogers came on the radio (first off, how random is that?  You just don't hear old country songs like that anymore).  Immediately, I thought of my dad.  Throughout my childhood, and even now, my dad will repeat The Gambler's lyrics like a poem just for the heck of it.  It's funny...one wouldn't think that children would be enamored with lyrics about a hard-living, smoking, whiskey-drinking old gambler, but we always were.  Today, when the song came on, I told Ezra (one of my dad's particularly faithful followers) about how Grandad loves this song and watched him as he tried to follow the grown-up lyrics with his little boy look of deep concentration.  There was something very Full Circle about it, if you know what I mean.  I love the little moments like that one...the moments where you realize that being a parent is teaching your child to love something you love, something that someone you love loves too.  Cliche as it may sound, it just makes everything so worth it.

When the Cat's Away the Mice Play

Sorry for the extraordinarily long delay in blog posts, but to say I've been busy this month is practically the understatement of the year.  I figured I best do a post now while I have half a minute, or else the opportunity would be missed altogether for another couple of weeks as I'm heading out to Idaho for my much-missed Grandmother's funeral on Tuesday.  As soon as I get home (literally, that same day), we'll begin the much-anticipated move over to The Big House.  Goodness, I don't remember a 3rd trimester being this busy since...well...Scarlett's.

Before I begin my usual uber-post, however, I'd like to show y'all a little ditty I found early this morning on one of my favorite blogs, Cardigan Empire (thanks Heather!).  Enjoy!


Girls With Glasses from Brooke White on Vimeo.

And now back to our regularly scheduled blog post...

A bit ago (the entire last month is a blurry haze, so excuse my lack of date details), I had the super-fun chance to head up to my sister, Stephanie's house in the greater Chicago area for something of a Girls Weekend (my very first ever non-kid trip since Ezra was a mere babe).  My other sister, Liberty, was there for it (although she, lucky girl, got to stay for a full 11 days!), along with my mom and (briefly) her two twin sisters.  I don't have any photographic proof, however, since I left my camera with Spencer and the kids, although if one of said lovely ladies wants to send me some of theirs, I wouldn't complain any *hint, hint, wink, wink*.  So...off to Northwestern Indiana I went while Spence watched the miniature mob and played housewife.  The entire trip was a frenzy of laughter, shopping ($7 embellished tees at Banana Republic!), fattening foods, and two separate trips to a small local candy factory to re-stock up on sugar.  Thank heavens for sisters.

While I was off gallivanting with the girls, Spencer, luckily, lived up to his reputation as uber-dad (I left the camera with him for a reason ;).  Here's a few of the things they got up to sans-mommy:

(note: I can't be held accountable for any outfits and/or hairstyles applied to my offspring during my absence (especially the fact that Georgia is wearing the exact. same. dress. in every picture...no joke).  In fact, I'm not sure it's such a great thing to have photgraphic proof of unapproved outfits out there on the vast World Wide Web, but c'est la vie.)

Science City at Union Station

Fireman Scarlett

Ezra with his long-lost twin brother

I'm not sure why Spence took these next pictures, but he had fifty bazillion of them, so I'm assuming it must've been for a valid reason.  I suspect it was to show off Union Station's cool ceiling.

The water table was a big hit with all three 


The Crown Center

Everybody with me now...
Under the sea
Darling it's better
Down where it's wetter
Take it from me

Root Beer Floats

 Apparently, even Daddy isn't immune to the occasional
Mischief-Making...

(What does it say about the mischief-maker in question when he basically signs his name to his work?)

Camping at Clinton Lake

My fashion statement of a daughter

(in case you're curious, she finishes off the ensemble with jeans, striped socks, and sandals)

Talkin' to Mom.  How sweet is that?

(I love how Ezra is still attempting to match, even when I'm not around to help.  That's my boy :)

  

Breakfast of champions

(for the record, they basically rejected the eggs soon after this picture was taken.  shocker, I know)

I was going to post Easter pictures too, but I'm, frankly, exhausted and I don't even want to think about what I have to do to get ready to leave for Idaho on Tuesday morning.  Not to mention this post has turned ginormous on me.  That's what happens, though, when you have an uber-husband like I do.

I love you, Honey.  Thanks for being such an amazing father to my children...even if you do let Georgia wear the same dress three days out of five.  The mere fact you attempted to do the girls' hair everyday more then makes up for it.  love you.

Faux-Post

I have a heck of a lot to catch up on on here.  I have a heck of a lot of cleaning to catch up on in my house too.  We're not even going to go into detail about the mountains of laundry that are currently waiting to be rotated, hung, and folded (how, in heaven's name, does one man and three small children create more laundry in the five days I'm out of town then we typically do in at least a week and a half?!?).

However, I've currently decided that my mouth hurts and I'm not going to do anything much for the rest of the afternoon...except laundry (the lack of clean little girl panties makes that a necessity). 

Let's just say that root canals (especially the big hairy-scary kind) really, really suck.

For now, this is all I have to contribute to the blogosphere.  I promise I'll post more later.  If I don't do it soon, I fear I'll drown in my own moving mess and won't surface for another month.

The curls are back...and other girly stories

The curls are back and dad's gonna be in trouble

 Hey-la-day-la the curls are back.

Now sing that to the tune of The Angels' My Boyfriend's Back.

I'll wait...

When I saw the girlies playing outside today, that was the first thing that came to mind  (it's the first real humid and extra-warm day of the season).  Every winter Spence and I wonder if the girls are losing their curls.  They're still there during the cold, dry months, but just looser and less obvious.  But, like clockwork, every spring they come back in full force to prove us wrong.  Here's the proof:

 

 

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Scarlett recently decided to try her hand at climbing the window panes.  She was a little too successful for her own good.

Also, we're really mean parents.

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The girls decided that this was the best way to turn themselves into butterflies.  Lucky for us, this was the Friday before General Conference weekend, so we didn't have to take them to church with faint pink lines still on their faces.  They're extra-lucky I'm not showing you the clothes-off  pictures for posterity's sake.  They did a wicked purple and blue number on their tummies.

 

That is all.

Enjoy your weekend!

The un-blog-worthy stuff

If I seem a little negligent of the blogging world lately, it's because I have been.  I've had so much going on, yet very little of it seemed blog-worthy.  Here's a bit of what's been happening lately...

First off, after two solid months of house-hunting (with innumerable months of internet-browsing and open house-visiting beforehand), we finally put an offer on a house we love and had it accepted last weekend.  We have the inspection scheduled for next Tuesday and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that everything runs smoothly with it.  Here's hopin' that everything will go as planned and we'll be able to start moving in May 10th.  That will leave me with less then a mere month and a half  before baby #4 is due (not to mention I have a tendency to go early).  Which brings me to my next point...

I'm 28 weeks pregnant today (7 months for all y'all not familiar with baby lingo), entering the ever-exciting (not really) third trimester.  My, how time flies when you're having fun (again, not really).  All joking aside, though, I can't really complain too much about this pregnancy.  I'm so eternally grateful to be having this baby that I'm willing to put up with a whole lot of pregnancy crap.  It's been a little physically harder on me then they usually are (although nothing beats my first; that one was so, so physically draining), which I suspect has something to do with the fact I have to regularly drag Ezra kicking and screaming to his bedroom for time-out, tussle with Georgia while attempting to force some sort of clothing on her ever-naked body, and chase after Scarlett who refuses to stay attached to me in any environment (unless, of course, I'm trying to do something on the computer or consume nutrients of any kind).  It'll be insane trying to move into a house while 34 weeks pregnant, but that's ok.  I've done it before when we moved cross-country while pregnant with Georgia (I had her just over a week after moving into our rental house) and I'm sure I can do it again.

An extremely unflattering 28 week self-portrait

The kids have all been fairly difficult lately.  Ezra and Georgia have just seemed more tired and temperamental then normal and I'm not sure why.  I don't know if they haven't really adjusted to day light saving yet or if they've had a bug I haven't picked up on or what, but it's gotten old reeeeal quick-like.  Scarlett is pretty much the same little sassy energizer bunny as normal, although now you've got to throw in the terrible twos for good measure.  She's also having 3 times as many potty accidents lately.  I think she's just hit that lazy phase that most toddlers do when they decide they've got a handle on this potty-training thing and don't need to hurry to the bathroom after all.  Throw in some general laziness and high levels of tolerance with wet panties and you end up with five accidents a day.  In good news, though, I've started bribing...errr..."rewarding" her with chocolate for staying dry and it seems to be helping a bit.  Scarli's also still waking up multiple times a night and it's got me worried for when the new baby comes.  It's nothing big, she just thrashes around and throws off her blankets while calling for me and I have to go in and resettle her, but I'm not sure what to do about it.  I suspect possibly nightmares since she often doesn't even really wake up while she's doing it.  It's exhausting enough right now just being beached-whale pregnant, but throw in a newborn and it might be enough to push me over the edge.  Suggestions?

That's about it around here.  I've been working on some random crafts.  Maybe I'll take pictures of them when I get up the motivation and finish with a big one in particular.  I have also been doing some schizophrenic nesting.  I don't productively nest like normal women, oh no, I have to do random unnecessary things like wash every wall in my dining room and pick out the blessing outfit for baby 5 months in advance.  Thanks for your patience in my blogging funk, oh loyal readers, stick with me and I'll have excited stuff approaching in the next few months (moving and birthing and birthdays, oh my!).

Tschüs! 

(which, despite not having taken a German class for 7 years, is still the goodbye I say in my head)

Salmonella, anyone?

I was planning on posting about Mardi Gras (it was March 8th, also International Women's Day, incidentally), but that turned out to be a total flop.  Ezra whined about his mask for a good solid hour (Why did we put a stick on it instead of striiiiiing?  Why isn't it stiff enough to stay up on its owwwwwn?  you get the idea), my (2) king cakes were under-cooked, and nobody felt like dancing around with beads on (except for Georgia, who will dance anytime, anywhere...but she, unfortunately, was naked for most of the time and generally unfit for pictures).  Then, I ended up doing pretty much nothing for St. Patrick's Day since we were driving home from Oklahoma for a good chunk of it, so that one crashed and burned too.  Instead you get random Scarlett pictures.  Enjoy!

 Scarlett was such a great little helper while I was making french toast for dinner tonight.  Other then the one slice of bread she attempted to soak and toss onto the griddle by herself (it hit the floor instead...I suspect it still got used inadvertently), she didn't really make much extra work.  I just couldn't help but watch her endlessly stirring the batter and realize how grown up she really is getting.  I guess it happens to them all, right?

Nothing like a little raw egg and milk.  yummy.

All About Ezra

Poor little blog.  I feel like I've neglected you so...

Anyway, I've been meaning to post about Ezra for the last couple of weeks.  Not that anything particularly exciting has been happening with him, I just feel like he consistently gets a bit neglected in my little corner of cyberspace.  So, today's contribution is all about Ezra Emil...

Ezra has really grown up lately.  He's just...mellowed, somehow.  As many of you know, Ez has always been my most high maintenance child.  I love him to pieces, but he's just very emotionally volatile, stubborn as a mule, and extreeeemly independent.  As he's a little grumpy all to often, I'll occasionally refer to him as my little raincloud.  We still have daily shrieking-and-floor-writhing tantrums and he'll still whine for an hour if I attempt to mix his butter and jam on the same piece of bread, but it seems as if in the last while, he's just gotten a little bit easier to handle all around.  I think getting his tonsils out last August has helped quite a bit because he's more well-rested now combined with just getting older in general.  His independence has started to help, instead of hinder, our day-to-day routines.  Overall, I'm really enjoying this stage of things.

Ezra's currently attending preschool and is absolutely loving it (he always has been a structure junkie).  He has a bestie there named Simon and they're inseparable.  They consistently refer to each other as Simey and Ezie, insist on walking out to the cars together, and will even allow themselves to be convinced to wear their coat if the other one has it on first.  I had a parent teacher conference the other day and his teacher just loves him.  No one can ever believe he's anything other then perfect at home because of how well-behaved he is at school :P

Ezra dressed up on President's Day

 

Ezie (red shirt) and Simey (white shirt in the front) painting their Mayflowers

Ezra's super-excited for the new baby and it's so adorable.  He's old enough to really get it this time around and loves to feel my stomach move and talk about what it's going to be like after he's born.  He's even started stockpiling some of his prized possessions for when the baby is born (I've had to explain multiple times that a newborn probably wouldn't appreciate his lego car/blue ikea plate/Dr. Seuss book quite as much as him for the first couple of years).  When I first asked him what he thought we should name the baby he said he couldn't think of any boy names and left it at that.  Like a week later, out of the blue, Ezra solemnly informed me we should name the baby Hiccup since "it's the only boy name [he] knows" (for those of you not in the know, Hiccup is a boy on How To Train Your Dragon).  I didn't have the heart to inform him that his well-thought-out boy name isn't really much of a name at all.

Ezra is one of the pickiest kids I've ever met in my life (and I'm not just saying that because I have to cook him dinner).  He's uber-sensitive to textures, tastes, and smells...all of which play a big part in mealtimes.  We (only semi-) joke that Ezra is on a one-ingredient diet as he'll basically only eat absolutely plain foods with only butter as an occasional topping (so no sauces, soups, casseroles, sandwiches, or anything else one might typically eat for a meal).  Even with all that, however, I feel like, finally, we've come to an understanding of each other.  I know what Ezra likes and will eat and he knows what's expected of him at mealtimes.  We've had the "3 Things" rule for nearly a year now and it works most of the time.  Basically, he has to have 3 different things on his plate for both lunch and dinner (and, much to his eternal dismay, his drink doesn't count).  He can choose those three things off of what's on the table, but that's it.  I make it a point to have a few things that I know he'll eat so he doesn't completely starve, but if I reeeeally want him to try the main dish (which is almost always his biggest issue), then I make sure that there aren't three sides on the table.  Except for milk, he won't touch most dairy and meats are always hit and miss (and even then have to be basically plain and/or grilled), but he likes most fruit and a fair amount of veggies, so we're doing ok.  Overall, we've found a happy-medium.  He might put odd things on his fajitas like fresh carrots and cucumbers, but if it works for him, it works for me.

Ezra's independence has become a really nice personality trait over the last year.  He dresses himself every morning with very little or no help from me (thank heavens it's his natural inclination to match!) and can help make himself breakfast if I ask him to.  He's starting to pick up his toys more (which has always been a huge battle) and he's always willing to help out with his younger sisters by turning on lights they can't reach, accompanying them down to the scary basement, and fetching their shoes for me.  He likes to help me unload the dishes and will often help me put away laundry.  He's extremely meticulous in pretty much everything, so while it might cause some fights with his sisters and means everything he does takes forever, he usually does things right the first time.  We've gotten a reward system set up (all the kids get to put pom-poms in a mason jar and when it's full we do a fun family activity) and it really helps encourage him to help out a little more willingly. I don't think I ever realized that a tangible form of positive reinforcement would work so well for him.

Ezra has a strong natural faith.  He'll pray for something in complete faith and then recognizes the answer to his prayer soon after, all on his own.  His most recent prayer was to help him be more obedient so they could fill up the pom-pom jar faster.  He insisted the next night that Heavenly Father had helped him obey all day long.  As faith is something I've had to work very hard at, I love to see that little seed of faith burn so brightly in his nature.

I know I've mentioned it a dozen times on here before, but Ezra LOVES to dance and has a huge list of songs he insists on groovin' to regularly.  A few of these include Mika's We Are Golden, Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash, OK Go's This Too Shall Pass and  Here It Goes Again, I Gotta Feeling by the Black Eyed Peas, Enrique Iglesias's I Like It, and I Wanna Be Sedated by The Ramones.

Well, that's about all I can think of right now.  I know it's very long and probably way more about my kid then you really wanted to know, but it kinda, sorta makes up for months of neglect, right?  Hope you enjoyed (or at least the grandparent and aunties of y'all ;)!