My Least Favorite Role

I'm up again with a sick little Em. Poor girl. She has gotten sick a lot more than the others, probably thanks to being number three. She seems especially prone to fevers. It makes me nostalgic for the days when I was a mom of one with a baby who never got sick. At least that I can remember... It also makes me remember how sick my poor kids were when we went out for Scot and Tara's wedding. That was my first real experience with sick children. Maggie was terribly ill for three days. And then everyone got a twenty-four hour bug after that. I remember little Kate was barely a year and got it in the night. After her first couple bouts, she was so exhausted she would stand up, throw up, and fall back asleep in near fluid motion.

Dr. Mom is definitely my least favorite role. I hate trying to guess if it's serious enough for a doctor's visit. I hate the not sleeping and trying to quarantine germs. And most of all, I hate seeing my sweet baby feeling miserable.


Luckily the weekend wasn't all bad. For one, we found Little Belle. She had been missing for quite some time and Kate had been getting rather worried about her. She was in the umbrella stroller, of course.

And because our small mid-west town knows entertainment, we got to celebrate Kansas Day in style with this group, the "Doo-Dads," (not to be confused with a term for random stuff), as well as a martial arts group (which I erroneously kept referring to as ninjas), and a competitive jump rope team, the only one in Kansas mind you, the Jumpin' Jacs, who, as it turns out, also do birthdays....I know a lucky, soon-to-be 29-year-old.

Emily couldn't help but jam, despite the fever.

No really. I know she looks sullen, but she was swaying to all the music and clapped enthusiastically after each number.

I think this was better than the NYC guitarist (whose name I cannot remember), definitely better than Mr. Stinkyfeet (though he had a way with the crowd, I couldn't get past the name), but you'll have to ask Mike if it was able to surpass the cowboy poetry reading he and his dad went to a few months back...

January 23rd

19 years ago today, I was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

7 years ago today, Mike made me celebratory enchiladas to celebrate my baptismal anniversary. (He was working for that first kiss. And he's sweet like that.)

90 years ago today, my grandpa, Sylvan Dean Wanlass, was born. My favorite memories with him are summer days, walking to the library and stopping for slurpees or ice cream. I was always impressed how he could gulp his down without getting brain freeze.

(I couldn't find the binder with his picture, but if I find it tomorrow, I'll post.)

I celebrated today by setting off the smoke alarm with the steam from my shower, thus ruining Emily's nap and my quiet time. Rats.

Happy birthday Grandpa!! I miss you.

Looking at Fish and Other Simple Pleasures

Today was a nice day.

Mike tucked me back into bed while he was getting ready to leave for seminary. I let him because that Emily-girl was up in the night and I was holding her hand for nearly an hour. Through the bars of her crib. In the cold, dark night without a sweater. I know I should tell her to grow up all ready, but it's nice to be needed. And it really is nice to be tucked in.

Emily woke while he was gone, but I tricked her into going back to sleep next to me until 8:30. It's kind of sweet once in a while to wake up next to a warm Emily. Really sweet. So I enjoyed it and we had a lazy morning.

The girls and I spent a good long time at W-lm-rt* looking at the fish and buying a few necessities.

Kate played with my hair while I was wasting a few minutes on the computer and whispered sweet nothings like, "I like your hair" and "You're so pretty, Mommy." So are you Kate, so are you.

Maggie sang me praises at dinner: "I love the yummy sandwiches because they have meat on them." "Can I have more of these delicious potatoes?" and "You always make the best dinners, Mom." I do, don't I? Except the days I don't make them...

I even got three hours to myself to meet with the lovely ladies at church and discuss food storage and upcoming Primary events. I should assess how we are doing on the water supply. Apparently a two-week supply for five people is a mere 70 gallons.

All this more than made up for the fact that we missed story time (and we are religious about it) and I forgot my wallet at home when I was at said store and didn't realize until we were checking out, which meant dragging the kids in and out of the car an extra time while we ran home for it.

*Besides the fact that I like Target better (doesn't everybody?), I grew up in a Price Club/Costco family. Price Club was the original membership club and eventually merged with Costco, who was started by some guys that left Price Club to start their own warehouse store. My dad has managed for Costco since it's Price Club days, thus I always hesitate to admit that I frequent a competitor (Walmart owns Sam's Club) as it makes him (and me) a tad uncomfortable. But hey, I live in a small town in the mid-West. I have to hit it about once a month. And I must admit, it has grown on me. Ours rarely have the lines most are famous for. But don't worry. We hit Costco too.

Sunday Services

Last week, as we were getting ready for church, we got the message that, due to icy roads, church was canceled. Maggie immediately remembered a Friend magazine article called "Pretend Primary" that we had read about a little girl named Sophie who has to stay home sick from church. In the story, the little girl decides to pretend to have church at home. Kate especially loved the story and we had to read it several times.

Maggie was thrilled to have her own chance to pretend church. She quickly lined up her stuffed animals on a bench, dragged over a bar stool to use for the podium, and pulled chairs over for her and Kate to sit in front of everyone, as if they were on the stand. She didn't miss a detail. At first she had a weight to use for the microphone, but she insisted on keeping it tilted and her wrist got tired, so a block was a better fit. She and Kate started giving talks before I could even sit down on the "pew." They each gave several. I pulled out my phone and recorded some of them. (I was trying to hold out a little longer on the smart phone wave, but my parents surprised me with an i-Phone for Christmas and I am loving it. And no longer have to fight envy of Mike's. Anyone want to facetime?)

They have the process down, I would say. The talks ranged in topic from sacred to secular--the funniest was a reading of Fat Cat by Dav Pilkey. But no matter the subject, each talk ended with an amen. Even through my chuckles, I was moved by my sweet little girls and their budding testimonies and love for Jesus Christ and His church. And pretty impressed with their speaking ability, if I do say so myself. Enjoy! (Just to warn you, parts are pretty quiet, so you will probably need to turn your volume up. And sorry about the quality. Blogger uploads at very low quality. I should upload to vimeo or something.)

As you can see, the speakers at church today had a lot to live up to.

My Life Is a Party

Here's my case:

1. If I want a tic-tac, I can usually find one on the floor, thanks to an impromptu January Easter egg hunt organized by Maggie.
2. Balloons are also easy to come by. There is at least one bouncing around most rooms in my house.
3. I am frequently handed a homemade "invitation." Unfortunately, I can't read any of the pertinent information.
4. There are some sweet dance moves to be seen around these parts. Not to mention acrobatics.
5. Homemade confetti abounds.

Why is your life a party?

Ready for Christmas

The stockings are hung, or rather on the floor by the tree, and all that jazz.

A lot of people pull out the tree the day after Thanksgiving and take it down the 26th of December, but we are more the trickle in, trickle out type. Sometime early in December, Mike put up the beautiful nativity painting he bought me the Christmas after Maggie was born. A couple other decorations made their way up from the basement (the girls dug some of them out). And most of our traditions were fulfilled.

A beautiful nativity display started to get us in the Christmas spirit the first weekend in December. We've gone the past few years and this year, like in times past, the church building where it was held was decorated beautifully with white lights and yards of white fabric and ribbons. There were tons of different nativities and creches and a live nativity as well. And the music was gorgeous. It was the first time we were able to get there for the concert. I hope next year the girls and I can make time to participate.

The next weekend was Kate's birthday and our church Christmas party. It was called "A Night in Bethlehem" and they set up the cultural hall to look like a marketplace with tents and youth pretending to be vendors. You had to pay your "tax" (canned goods for a local food pantry) and then you could enter the gym by crossing little bridge. You then had to grab a woven or wooden tray and begin collecting food for your family from the different "vendors." There was roasted turkey, cheese cubes, olives, cut fruit and veggies, quick breads, and rolls. Then you took your simple fare and found a place to spread your picnic blanket and ate as families. The kids loved that everyone was eating with their hands. Emily, especially, was in heaven. All the food was already on the floor, so there was no need to drop it off her highchair before digging in. And best of all, she could eat off anyone's plate she wanted. She would grab handfuls of food and stuff her mouth, then sit back against Mike like a big fat man before going for her next mouthful. It was hilarious. Sure, there was some spilled water (Maggie kicked over at least two cups), but it was worth it. The kids really had fun. And we got to watch a lovely slideshow of the Primary children acting out the nativity. Jen Fields, who is in our ward, put that together.

The third weekend in December, we finally went and picked out our tree from the boy scouts at the  neighborhood farm store parking lot. We love picking out our live tree and love that our tradition is so easy to maintain. It takes us about fifteen minutes.

And this past weekend, we got to carol again with good friends and enjoy a family Christmas music party. The girls performed "Picture a Christmas" for their cousins, while their dad accompanied. Nothing better than Christmas carols with friends and family in my book.

Last year, we made a Christmas countdown calendar (Hello Kitty style) with different, but simple, Christmas-y things to do all month long. This year, we were even more low-key about it, but we still tried to do a little something most days. Besides those mentioned above, we made gingerbread houses (easy-style, because my sweet neighbor gave me a kit...I only missed making the gingerbread a little). We cut a few snowflakes. We made treats for friends and Mike's co-workers. (I think these nuts are the best because they are super easy and make the house smell lovely, though I do half almonds, half pecans.) We sang Christmas songs. We wrote Christmas cards. We watched Christmas movies and read Christmas stories. (But not The Gift of the Magi. It makes me cry too much. I reject the idea that Christmas songs and stories need to make you cry. Like, I don't even think it should be legal to play that Christmas shoes song on the radio. It's probably caused accidents.) And each day we put a little ornament on an advent calendar Mike's Grandma Kay made.

We even had a little snow Thursday, though most of it's gone now. The girls loved it though. Kate was relentless until she was out in it. I think she and Maggie were outside that morning at 7:30, which is minutes after they awakened.


Maggie has been wrapping random objects around the house and having us open them the past week. I think there are still a couple of her offerings under the tree. And Emily has been inspired by Handel's Alleluia chorus and started singing along last night. But the sweetest thing

Before bed, we watched Joy to the World, as we do every year, and opened our pajamas and Mike's sibling gift. (The kids loved the handwarmers Sabrina made and the cotton candy and puppets from Kathy and fam.) But the sweetest part was the kids playing Mary all month. Especially Maggie.

And now, it's 6:30 and I am expecting little kiddos to wake within the hour. They went to bed easily and slept really well, surprising, considering their excitement level.

Yep, I think we are ready for Christmas. I better get the wassail on. But before I do, a query: Is anyone else's Christmas Eve tradition cleaning? It seems a pretty steady one around here.

Kate's Belle Party

I don't really know where December has gone. I can only say, I knew it would go that quickly. The week after Thanksgiving was spent getting back into the swing of things and sending out invites for Kate's Belle Party, 'cause did I mention? Kate's THREE! The next week was party prep, along with the usual stuff, and then partying! The third week was mostly spent just getting by, because I had a two-year-old I was watching ten hours a day along with my crew. (Luckily, that was just a short-term gig, though he is a sweet boy and the kids were really sweet with him.) And this past week was Christmas cards, Christmas cards, and a bit of wrapping and baking. Somehow, along the way, we've fit in some Christmas-y festivities to get in the mood of the season. But more on that later.

Kate with best friend Sophie

Now for a few pics from my sweet little Kate's first friend (and cousin) party, though it goes without saying that cousins are friends too. I pretty much followed the pattern I created with Mag's Cinderella party, but, of course, we had to do Belle as Kate just loves Belle. (I don't know if I've ever mentioned her Belle family, made up of varying sizes of Belle figures--Big Belle aka Mama Belle, L'il Belle aka "my Belle doll from my date with Daddy", and Tiny Belle, pictured with cake below. I think I need to invest in some princes at some point though, because all the princess figures in this house are having to rough it as single mamas.)

I'm actually not a huge party person. I like them, but don't love them. I most enjoy having one-on-one time with people and find I sometimes struggle to feel like I've given everyone ample time at parties. I think that also has to do with having the kids and parents to try to touch base with. Maybe that gets easier with practice. I think I've already decided we will just do parties every other year (but you've seen I'm not doing a great job sticking to this so far).

I do love inviting people into our home and I do love having friends and neighbors feel comfortable here. It's a little work, no matter how simple you try to keep it. But it is worth it to me. It is undeniably fun to make little kids feel special. Kate was so thrilled when she saw the invitations we had made with a picture of her in Belle costume on them. She went to bed holding one.

We started the party with coloring pages as children arrived, mostly in royal attire. Then, we started on lunch. I wanted to do hors d'oeuvres for our luncheon, since Belle is French, but tried to keep the fare simple. I think the kids (and adults!) enjoyed their cheese cubes, carrot sticks, grapes, and pigs-in-blankets--thanks again for putting those together, Mike, if you read this! I out-did myself by making place cards and labeling juice pouches of pink-lemonade ahead of time, but my preparation only partially accomplished my goals of keeping kids in their seats and eliminating my fears of spilling, since some kids are big drinkers and then wanted to have some extra lemonade in a cup in addition to the pouch and would get up to let me know that. :) They were all extremely cute though and I will say kids love stuff with their name on it. (Don't we all?) The name cards (index cards with stickers stuck on) were a big hit.

Next, it was cake time. As you will notice this cake is nearly identical to the cake I made for Maggie. You may also notice that pretty much all the cakes I make are a variation on a block (if I'm being fancy) or are cupcakes or plain circle or sheet cakes. I have decided I am not much into cake-decorating. I just make myself live up to whatever standard I have already set. (I am now locked into first year block and third year castle cakes.) I have, however, gotten wise and started to buy the decorating can of cup-cake frosting for the details, so I don't have to worry so much about the consistency or if the ziploc bag will break or the best way to get the frosting into the bag. Emily's fiesta was my first branch out into that and it worked so well I used the rest of hers and bought another can for Kate's. It kind of hurts the teeny bit of foodie in me, as well as my frugal side, but it is worth it. (It is also worth mention that there is a difference between gel food coloring and icing tubes--I didn't know the former existed on Mike's twenty-fourth birthday and wrote "Happy Birthday" in gel food coloring. Once I reexamined the packaging, it explained a lot.)

Anyway, the kids made me feel pretty good about my meager cake-making skills, especially since it was leaning. (My cakes usually are.) My nieces Rachel and Sarah especially ooed appropriately and couldn't believe I made it. I hope no one was too disappointed that we just used the cake for decor and ate cupcakes, so Kate could blow out the castle again the next day, her real birthday, and dig into her cake to her hearts delight.

Kate was adorable about all the attention when we sang to her. She covered her eyes in the middle of the singing with a shy grin on her face and wanted my help to blow out the number three candle. (The next day she had no problem blowing it out over and over again, as many times as she could get her dad to light it!)

After dessert, we read a Belle story and played Pin the Book on Belle. I was actually at a loss how to make the game happen, because due to internet issues, I couldn't get online the entire week before the party to find an outline to print poster-size. Thus, I had no choice but to produce my own sketch, based off a coloring book illustration. This poster of Belle is probably my proudest artistic accomplishment of my life. In addition to not being a partier or cake decorator, I am not an artist. It just shows the power of a mother's love. Thank goodness motherhood helps me find hidden talents, in addition to illuminating and sometimes exacerbating my weaknesses.

Kate and Maggie enjoyed coloring the poster together before the party and Emily enjoyed playing with it after the throng had subsided.

Last, Kate enjoyed opening her gifts. She was so excited and overwhelmed she kept making this funny muffled squeal. It almost sounded like she was in pain rather than excited and I started to worry that maybe I shouldn't have done a party and should have made things more low-key. But she was definitely happy. After the party, she kept watching the video of everyone singing to her that her Aunt Jenn filmed for us. So the party has continued to bring joy in the memory. And it was good Maggie could look at old pictures of her third birthday to keep from feeling sorry for herself.

I love my adorable, Kate. I love her spunk. I love her energy. I love her big blue eyes and her darling grin. I love her tight hugs. I love her enthusiasm. I love her sense of humor. I even love when she's got on one of her fake scowls and is trying to be grumpy.

Kate, I love you. And even though I'm proud of you for figuring out how to do a thumbs-up in honor of turning three, I miss you pointing back at me with your pointer instead or trying to hold your other fingers down while you get your thumb up. You are too cute. I'm glad you're mine.