Cousins!

My sister-in-law, Ashley (my brother Joe's wife) came to visit this week. Truthfully, it wasn't the most ideal trip for her. First, Joe accidentally booked her and Boston's return tickets for a week later than his making her trip two full weeks long. Then, just a few hours after Ashley's flight left Columbus, Joe received an email from his company informing him that his trip was being cancelled altogether. Yep, Ashley was on her own.
Ashley spent a few days in Salt Lake before spending a week with us. I loved having a girlfriend around. We stayed up late every night (although she stayed up even later since her kids threw up nearly every night - adding to the excitement of her trip).
And for the kids, all kinds of excitement:
-Boston got to go to school with Darek.
-We went to Blast Off on Wednesday where they played in the ball pits
-An open gymnastics gym on Thursday with trampolines and foam pits
-Leo's Place on Friday for pizza and playing
-And a friend's house on Saturday; this has actually been one of the greatest things ever: a few of my neighbors and I are doing a baby-sitting co-op where every other Saturday we all drop our kids off at one person's house so that we can go to the temple or on dates. LOVE IT! This Saturday (after we dropped the kids off) Blayne and I gave Ashley a tour of the wonder that is Idaho Falls and then we went out to eat.
 
 
 
 

My little Valentine

Darek had his first Valentines' Day party at school today!
 

Winter fun

I should've realized by now that there's a huge difference between the way I picture how things will go in my mind and reality.
Saturday was absolutely beautiful. We haven't taken our kids outside to play in the snow at all, so we thought it would be perfect. We borrowed a sled from the neighbors and I thought Darek would be in heaven going down hills and being pulled by his dad. Nope. All he wanted to do was pull the dumb old sled behind him along the shovelled sidewalk. And after 15 minuted he wanted to go inside.

The two minutes Darek sat in the sled being terribly annoyed.
 

Mia's turn.
 

Reality.
 

This is Darek, "going to work." He gets Blayne's wedding ring, an old watch, and a "briefcase" and comes to tell me he's going to work. He leaves the room for a few minutes and then comes back in the room to tell me "I'm home!" And I cheer and hug him. It really is a cute game.
 

What's a Hexagon?

Darek walked up to me last night, opened his hand, and said, "Look Mama, a hexagon - six sides." And sure enough, it was...

This is what he was holding:


I about died! Not that it's useful information, but it was so cute - thanks Sesame Street.

We went to a Gymnastics gym today that had open hours for young kids during the day. The kids LOVED it. They had trampolines and foam pits and mats of all different shapes and sizes.

Games

One of Darek's favorite games is "Go to sleep with me"; it's second to "Get Me" which is just chasing him down the hall. It's amazing that he can pretend to sleep so well, but getting him to sleep for real is a nightmare!
 

 

The daily bathroom mess. I either need to get up early enough to get ready before Mia's up, or let her scream outside the bathroom door while I get ready. Neither sounds very appealing, so instead I pick up the contents of my bathroom drawers and cabinets every single day.
 

It's been a busy week:
-we had playgroup at our house; Darek's had lots of friends over to play (we've been helping some other moms get a break :); Darek smashed Mia's hand in the door and we went to get x-rays (it's fine but majorly swollen and bruised). And just to make sure that things stay tricky I realized that I had somehow thrown a dirty diaper into the washing machine with a load of laundry (I realized it when I was pulling the clothes out to put them in the dryer - awesome surprise); Darek emptied out our garbage can onto the living room floor so that he could play "Garbage Truck" with one of his toy trucks; Mia has peed on the carpet more than once (everytime I change her diaper, she's off like a rocket as soon as I get her diaper off - I'm going to have to start sitting on her). And the general disorder of our house continues. But since I've become resigned to it, I'm a much happier person than I was a few months ago. Just another day in Paradise, right?