Sugar and Spice

What are little girls made of?

Gotta love accessories.  

My friend Rachelle made that tiny little bracelet.  Daphne likes to put it on her almost every day.

We call this look "Strawberry Shortcake"

 I love how babies look in white.

Little Ballerina

My cute piano student Lucy picked this one out.  It's one of Daphne's favorites.

Daphne thinks Sydney is a living baby doll.  She loves to pick out her outfits (the more changes a day, the better) and she even loves changing her diaper.  She gets a little peeved with me when I do it myself.  

What are little boys made of?

 This picture makes me laugh because Hayden put the helmet on wrong and it looks like Darth Vader is wearing a pioneer bonnet.  

Isn't it amazing how different boys and girls are?  

Oh no they didn't...

Any post with a title like that, and a picture of 4 bottles of Resolve can only mean disaster.  It started when I noticed a lid to a sharpie on the counter.  Just the lid.  When the lid of a sharpie is by itself, it means that somewhere is a sharpie without a lid.  I looked all over the kitchen and the downstairs area for the missing sharpie, but it was nowhere to be found.  

It wasn't until I went upstairs that the mystery was solved, and my worst suspicions confirmed.  This is what I found on the carpet in the boys room, and through the entire upstairs hallway leading to each bedroom and into the Master bedroom.

And there on the floor next to the graffiti was the missing pen.

You have got to be kidding me.

"find a happy place, find a happy place, find a happy place . . ."

(name the movie.)

Well, we knew right off that Hayden was involved, so he got a spanking from Dad and was sent straight to bed.   But later after most of the kids were asleep, Dallin pointed out that most of the circles on the carpet were too round to be drawn by Hayden's 2-year-old hand.  So after closely investigating the circles, we could see that it was a team effort instigated by Hayden and then elaborated by Sean.  

Poor Arthur has spent $35 on cleaning supplies, and probably around 10 hours over the last few days, scrubbing the marker out of the floor, and steam cleaning the carpets upstairs.  Four bottles of resolve later, the hallway and our bedroom carpet are cleaned.  The worst is yet to come because the boys room is still awaiting the Arthur treatment.  He has to scrub it really, really hard to get the marks out.  I've left some space for him to record what he's been thinking about as he's been scrubbing:

Arthur's Comments:  @#$%&!

And that's about all we have to say about that.

Say "Aaaaaahhhh"

Arthur took last week off work to give me some extra time to recover.  A nice thing they have at Sandia Nat'l Labs is that Arthur gets a week of personal time each year that he can use if his spouse is sick or just had a baby or there is a death in the family, or whatever.  So usually the week after my mom leaves, Arthur takes his personal time and I get a little more time to recover before it's just me and the kids.

But he came down with a really bad case of Strep Throat on Tuesday.  Then Daphne got it, and then I got it, and I'm taking the little boys in tomorrow to be tested.  So far, Dallin & Sydney are the only ones left standing.  We are throwing away toothbrushes and writing names on cups to minimize the spreading of those mouth germs.  So far the doctors have all told us that newborns are not typically susceptible to Strep Throat, so we are hoping she stays healthy!

I waited too long to see a doctor and as a result, I got to spend 4 hours of my Saturday in Urgent Care to get my throat swabbed, and get my prescription.  Fun, fun, fun.  Daphne was really cute though--when I told her I had to get my throat swabbed, she asked me if I needed to sit on her lap while she held my hands and my forehead (since that's what I did for her when she got tested on Thursday.)  I told her thanks, but I figured I could probably hold still by myself.

So we have a house full of sick people, and a mom who is not getting very much sleep.  Not a great recipe for happiness.  On the upside, Arthur didn't have to take his personal time after all, and at least we should all be healthy & germ-free when we travel to California later this month.  :)  

Boys' Bedspreads

This is a project that has been years in the making.  I started collecting old jeans way back when Arthur and I were first married, with the intention of making a denim quilt from them.  Well, until last year, they were all in a box, still waiting to be cut up.  In fact, at one point I almost just donated them all to Good Will just to be rid of them.  But I thought it would be fun to do Americana colors in the boys room with Norman Rockwell pictures as sort-of the theme.  (stuff like these:)

So last year, a friend of mine helped me cut up all the jeans.  (Thanks Amanda!!! If you check up on me once in awhile, you'll be happy to know your time wasn't wasted!)  And when my mom was here, she helped me cut up the rest of the fabric, and get the first one pieced together.

So I'm happy to report that the first bedspread is finished!  

Until now, the boys have all just been using a hodge podge of ill fitting blankets.  They probably don't care very much about matching, but it bothered me every time I walked by their room and glanced at their beds.

Dallin was super excited to have a new bedspread, and even helped make his.   He helped lay out the pieces and also did a lot of ironing!  And I love looking at it up there on his bed.  It feels so good to finish something!

Sean's and Hayden's are up next.  All the pieces are cut, so I just have to assemble them.  In all my free time.  Hopefully it won't take me five more years.

Independence Day Festivities

It seems like we're usually traveling around the 4th of July.  

For obvious reasons, we stayed here this year.

Mom left Saturday morning.  I cried as usual.  We miss her but Dad & the other kids at home can't live without her forever.  Thanks for sharing her for the week!  

However, we had Natalie, Brian and Kyrie visiting also, so it was nice to still have family around, especially for the holiday. The kids had so much fun with their cousin Kyrie, and can't wait to visit her and go to DISNEYLAND with her sometime soon.  (Hayden thinks we are going to Disneyland tomorrow.  He thinks that every single day.)

Daphne had so much fun with another girl to chum around with.  Uncle Brian & Aunt Natalie got the girls these matching outfits for Independence Day.  They also got Red, White and Blue shirts for the boys, which was great because I love to have the kids decked out for 4th of July, but that didn't make it on my to-do list this year.  So thanks to Nat & Bri, everyone still looked patriotic.

Mmm, homemade chocolate ice cream.  Everyone had a turn cranking the handle, and then we swapped it for the electric mixer when the hand-crank novelty wore off.  :)

The kids put on a little parade in our backyard.  

This is them saying, "Happy 4th of July!!!!!"  

I love Kyrie's face in this picture.

Sparklers

Me and Natalie.  

I almost didn't post this picture because I'm embarrassed about being in my pj's. But Natalie said it was legit since I just had a baby, so there you go.

Sydney's shirt says, "Little Firecracker."

Here are Natalie, Kyrie, and Brian getting ready to hit the road again.  Brian just finished Officer Training in Rhode Island, and is now stationed at Camp Pendleton as a Dentist for the Navy.  So they literally drove from sea to shining sea!  I thought it was pretty cool that they got to do that at this time of year when we celebrate the independence of our great country.  

Best of luck, guys, in this new chapter of your life.  And thanks for stopping here!  

We are so thankful for the freedoms we enjoy in this country.  We recently watched the HBO series John Adams, and I was really impressed with what sacrifice those freedoms came.  I feel so grateful for those brave men and women who gave so much of their lives to secure our nation's independence.  And I feel so grateful to live in this land.

God Bless America! 

A bit more of Sydney

Me and Sydney just minutes after her birth.  So happy she's here!!

Sydney with her Daddy

I'm so glad the delivery is over.  I was induced this time--it was an elective inducement because since Hayden came so fast, I wanted to make sure we made it to the hospital this time. (We did make it to the hospital with Hayden, but it was a little too close for comfort.)  I think I wouldn't choose to be induced again.  It was really stressful for me to actually know when I would have this baby, and knowingly walk into what I knew was coming.  I think for me, it's better to just be thrown into it.  I will say, however, that this "pre-delivery-drive-to-the-hospital" was the most pleasant of all since I wasn't contracting and wondering if the baby might just come in the car.  We just drove there early in the morning, no traffic, kids at home with a friend, and the only thing to worry me were my own anxieties.

After about four hours during which I was receiving the needed antibiotics, and they started me on pitocin, they broke my water, and then things went more quickly.  Sydney came a couple hours after that.  No epidural for me this time--not a big fan since I got spinal headaches after Sean's birth.  I  did receive something through my IV, which wasn't helpful at all.  I could feel everything, but they just made me louder.  Like I was drunk or something.  kind of embarrassing. So next time, I've decided I'm just going for it completely natural.  It'll be my best birth ever, I can feel it.  And it won't be for a good few years, so don't get too excited.

This is one of my favorite things--a new baby sleeping on my chest.

This little girl is VERY LOVED.  She never has lack of people to hold her.  The first few days, I felt like all we did was pass little Sydney from one sibling to the next to the next.  They would line up on the couch and each want a turn.  On Sunday when the family came home from church, I heard the garage door open, and in less than a minute, all of the kids had run upstairs as fast as they could line up for their "Sydney turn."  Hayden frequently plops himself down on the nearest chair and says, "I need to have a hold him."  (We're still working on the feminine pronoun for Sydney.)

I'm so lucky that my mother is able to come help out when we have a new baby.  She's the best ever!  She made delicious meals, did my laundry, made sure I got naps, took the kids to the park, and to see Toy Story 3, and helped me get moving on some bedspreads for the boys' room that I've been meaning to make for about five years now!  (I will post pictures when they are done--I'm getting very close!)

My angel mother with our newest angel.

Sydney's first photo shoot:

My sister Jenny made the darling quilt and did the applique on the onesie.  Aren't they perfect?

 I'm SO grateful for these five little Garietys.