The day after Valentine's Day

You would have thought it was Christmas morning with how excited Madi was yesterday. Actually the entire weekend was a big countdown till V-day. The excitement was contagious though. Knowing that Madi was super excited only made me want to make it an extra special day. I honestly wasn't planning on doing anything for Valentine's Day, since our preschool party was planned for today. But I sure tried my hardest to have some fun. I attempted heart shaped pancakes for breakfast (turned out more like odd shaped circles), crafted valentines during "school time", made heart shaped peanut butter/banana sandwiches for lunch, did heart sorting and graphing during quiet time, let Elle and Madi watch Dora/Diego and Max & Ruby Valentine specials with popcorn in the evening, and daddy brought home a special dessert after work! The girls were in heaven! I know I said this at Christmas time, but Madi really is at such a fun age for celebrating holidays. Everything is so special and exciting to her and she'll make a huge deal out of something so little. I love it!

Our little preschool party was this morning. Madi again woke up ecstatic, "Mom, Mom- today's our PRESCHOOL PARTY!!!!" All the girls had a blast- decorating mailboxes, passing out valentines, eating lunch together, frosting and decorating sugar cookies. We even squeezed in some singing, reading, and conversation heart graphing.

Poor Elle, she never makes it into any pictures these days (she's not always posing like Madi is- Elle actually usually avoids the camera). I meant to get one of her and Abby at the party but it just never happened. But I did get one of Elle licking the frosting off her "cook cook". Not the greatest picture, but at least I have some documentation from the day after Valentine's Day!

Oh, and one more exciting thing to note- it got up 64 degrees on Valentine's Day! Woot Woot! I can feel spring just around the corner!

Catching up- last week

My daily journal writing goal isn't going as well as planned. The days are slipping by and I'm already forgetting what in the heck I did. I've been spending a lot of time getting a stake youth choir organized for Youth Conference at the end of June. We'll be singing in the Kirtland Temple and I was put in charge of organizing the program- including choosing the music, inviting selected youth, scheduling practices, and conducting the choir. I had to ask for a little bit of help on the last one. I do love to sing, but I don't read music and have not a clue how to conduct a choir! Should be fun! :)

Other things from last week. . .

Last weekend we had our first house guest since moving back into our townhouse. Adam Kelly flew in on Saturday and left early Monday morning. He was interviewing at a fire department in Virginia Beach. Oh how we would love to have him and Lora move out here! It was fun having him here- the girls absolutely adore Adam.

I also had my last photography class Saturday morning. Sadly, I left feeling less than satisfied. I didn't feel like I learned the type of things I was hoping to learn. And I don't feel like it helped my pictures improve at all.

Last Monday I ordered my blog book for 2009. I had a 20% coupon too (coupon code NEWBLURB for those of you in the process of making one) and got $30 off my book! I've gotta get caught up on the rest of my books- I'm now currently working on Elle's 1st year book. My goal is to have it finished before she turns 2. These books are super tedious and take me forever to finish!

Last Tuesday I taught preschool- just had Madi and Kate. Nothing puts Madi in a better mood than school- I love how excited she gets about it. Then right before nap time, Elle fell down our entire flight of stairs. It probably took a half hour for my heart to stop pounding. But aside from a bruise on her forehead, she had no other injuries. Incredible. I really felt blessed- especially since Spencer had taken the car that morning. Our stairs are super scary and she could have cracked her head open, needed stiches, or worse. Elle and I spent a lot of the afternoon snuggling (mostly for my sake).

This was taken on a different day, but after Elle's incident, all "playing" on the stairs has been banned!

Last Wednesday I took the girls to the Rio for "Shake your Sillies Out" music time. Of course Elle stayed glued to me, but Madi had a great time dancing in the front, making new friends, playing with the parachute, and learning new songs. I love how brave she's gotten.

Last Thursday I taught preschool again- had Kate, Madi, and Tess. They are such adorable little friends. I always have such a good time teaching this little group.

Last Friday I toured the preschool I think we'll be enrolling Madi in for the fall and observed for a little bit. Even though it'll only be 3 half days a week, it made me a little sad thinking about Madi leaving the house, growing up, and going off to school. In just a year and a half she'll be in full day kindergarten! It really does fly by and it hit me hard that I won't be her main teacher after this year.

Snow Day

It still cracks me up how DC totally shuts down when we get a good snowstorm. Anyone from snow country would laugh in our faces. As crazy as I think it is, I completely love living somewhere that closes schools, businesses, and anything government employed for a few inches of snow and icy roads. Wednesday night we got our first snowstorm of the winter season. I'm not a big fan of snow and cold, but I do love a good storm. And the best part about it was that Spencer didn't have to go into work the next day. He did work from home, but him just being here makes everything so much better. The girls act better, they eat better, and they argue less. Why is that?!

Another pro of snow: it makes our ugly dead forest a lot prettier!

Highlights of our snow day:

* Playing out in the snow with the girls. We didn't last long- mostly cause Elle wasn't feeling that great, but it sure was fun while it lasted! Madi's at a super fun "play in the snow" age- she would have stayed out there for a couple hours if I would have let her.

* Being able to go out with Madi during Elle's nap (part of winter that's so hard for me is not getting out enough).

* Ordering pizza and renting "The Social Network" for a date night in with Spencer.

Madi's Debut

Madi had her first public singing performance today. Her little sunbeam class (which consists of 5, but only 3 regularly come) was the "special musical number" during sacrament meeting. I thought it was only going to be her and Tyler up there, but luckily Dresdin made it back this week and went up to join them. Madi and Tyler were the only ones singing, but they definitely didn't lack volume. They did AWESOME!!

I put Spencer on secret recording duty. He said you're not supposed to record in the chapel but I'm a rebel and begged Spencer to record it discretely... just so that I could listen to it later. He only managed to catch the last part of it- still cute though and I'm glad I have it.

L-R in the video: Madi's teacher, Dresdin, Madi and Tyler

After church I asked Madi, "How do you feel?" She responds, "I feel GREAT!! I feel great because I did great in sacrament meeting!"

18 months

Weight: 23.6 lbs (40%)

Height: 32.5 in. (76%)

Elle's now totally entered the do-it-myself, stubborn, and very opinionated stage. It's frustrating while completely hilarious at the same time. For example, I put Elle's shoes on the other day, then then went to redo her pigtails. As I finished with her hair I looked down to find that her shoes had been changed to opposite feet. She had to do it herself!

At 18 months:

- Elle has finally mastered the spoon. She's been using a fork independently for awhile, but now is good with a spoon too. And of course she doesn't like anyone to feed her- except during her second breakfast that she has every morning on Spencer's lap.

-She loves throwing fits when things don't go her way. Luckily recovery time is pretty quick.

-When Elle gets hurt she does the hold-your-breath cry (she's done this almost her whole life). She holds her breath for the longest time. I can't count the number of times I've had to blow in her face and tell her to "BREATHE!!"

- She's great at washing herself in the tub. It's quite adorable too.

- She's talking so much more now and starting to combine words.

- Two favorite words are "NO" and "MIIIIIIINE". Most answers are "no" but when she does want something or agree with a suggestion, the answer is usually, "uh huh" or "hm"

- She loves saying all our names and listing the people in our family. She'll say: "Madi (without pronouncing the "d"), an Daddy, an Ellie." Then she'll thrown in "MOM" and laugh at me.

- For dog she says, "Ruff", her giraffe is "Raff". For m&m's she just says, "M".

- Madi is the first person Elle asks for every morning.

- Elle loves her bed!

- She's a stomach sleeper all the way and sleeps just like her mama. When it's time for bed or nap she practically jumps out of my arms to get into her crib with her "raff", blankie, and binky. She immediately lays down, puts her binky in, tucks her arms underneath her body, kicks her legs back and forth a few times, and usually goes right to sleep.

- Tells me "poop" when she's in need of a diaper change. She's asked to use the "potty" a couple of times this month, but every time I tried to put her on it she'd freak out.

- Loves to pull bread out of the wine cooler and bite the bag.

- Elle's favorite toys are still babies and books, but she does love drawing, building towers, playing dress-up and kitchen.

- Elle's really gotten into imaginative play this past month.

- She takes such good care of her babies- always rocking them and saying, "Nigh nigh baby" Tucking them into bed, and saying, "shh, shhhh, shhhhhh" when they cry.

- I love watching Elle read stories- she "reads" with such excitement.

- If Elle sees a picture of a little girl who looks remotely like Madi she'll get all excited and yell, "Madi, Madi!" while pointing at the picture.

- She's already had 3 weeks in nursery. She's doing ok- I'm sure the adjustment will be a lot faster than it was for Madi.

- Chucks her binky whenever she sees food she wants or when she's really into reading a book.

- Elle detests brushing her teeth (the 12 that she has). I seriously pin her down every night before bed to do it. She cries the entire time.

- She's a pretty good nose blower and loves wandering into the bathroom to blow her nose.

Survival Season

This picture has nothing to do with this post other than to say: we miss summer!

Winter's always rough for me- I sleep more, exercise less, and don't eat as healthy. On top of that, my hair is getting darker and my skin is getting paler ... it's all just depressing! My hair is desperately needing something. Spencer cut it a week or two ago- a good 5 1/2 inches!! He initially refused to assist me, but I begged and begged him to cut it. He finally gave in-it was a good temporary fix, but I need to do something.

There's not a whole lot to report as of lately. It rained ice last night. It was loud. Then we woke up to a frozen tundra of ice covering everything, including our car. The entire car was literally blanketed in a cocoon of ice. Just our luck, we couldn't find our large scraper- no clue where that thing ended up! So out Spencer went into the ice, with only a miniature scrapper the size of a small spatula. The ice was so bad that Spencer had to chisel out each door just to get them open. Luckily it was in the high 30's today, so by early afternoon the ice was melting and cracking off the rest of the car. We don't get much snow here (and I'm completely ok with that), but I probably should do something about finding our ice scrapper.

Aside from being indoors more than I'd like, not being able to go running, and dealing with two occasional drama queens, each throwing at least one major tantrum everyday, life is fabulous. Really, this all sounds glum but it really isn't that bad. Elle turned 18 months yesterday (post almost finished) and had her check-up today. She got four shots (we're still trying to get caught up from being gone all summer) which of course made her inconsolable. But once she regained her composure, the first thing she asked for was Madi (so sooo sweet). The nurse held out a couple of stickers to Elle for being so brave. She took two and tells me (in Elle language) one was for Madi. Madi was at preschool and obviously very missed.

I'm trying really hard to stay sane during these winter months. Its survival season! I'm dying to go somewhere warm and exotic with Spencer, which unfortunately will have to wait- a car purchase has to come first. My baby sister also got engaged last weekend (her missionary got home Dec 30th!) so we'll be heading out to CA the end of March for her wedding on April 9th. It's not the exotic vacation I had in mind, but definitely something I'm looking forward to. I couldn't be more excited for Karlee!

As for pictures, I've got nothing. Pretty sad since I'm taking a photography class right now. Maybe I'll have some after this weekend- we have a field trip downtown DC this Saturday. It's supposed to like 20 degrees for the high though, so we'll see how I function. I'm finally starting to understand how my camera works. Yay! Hopefully better pictures will come soon.

Since I hate to leave a post with nothing to look at, here's a couple that went unblogged from the summer (summer pics always make me happy):

Sliding down the hill at the Santa Barbara Zoo

Playing at the beach (what I would give to be at the beach right now)

Madi Loved Aunt Corinne and Uncle Morgan's baby python!

My little Sunbeam

Madi had her first day of primary yesterday. Serving as the primary chorister, I got to be in there and see how she did. I dropped her off outside the primary doors as I went in to get ready for music and help set up. She looked like such a big girl waiting there in line with all the other big primary kids. Then she came in, sat down, was pretty quiet, but not as reverent as I would have liked. I was annoyed. While one of the counselors was giving announcements I was trying to get Madi's attention, giving her the "death stare", mouthing for her to fold her arms. It didn't work. She kept putting her feet up on the seat next to her, flashing her Dora panties in the process. Her teacher had to continue reminding her to put her feet on the floor and keep her dress down. At the end of sharing time I went up to her teacher to apologize for Madi's irreverent behavior, which of course was dismissed with the "it's totally normal" comment. I guess I was just annoyed because we'd "played" primary several times during the week. Spencer was the teacher, I was the chorister, and Elle was the distracting classmate. Madi passed each practice with flying colors. So I was a little bummed to see less than the behavior we had practiced. While I was whispering with Madi's teacher, one of the counselors leaned over and told me she could tell that I was stressed about Madi's behavior. Then what she said was exactly what I needed to hear. She told me that while I'm the chorister I need to forget about my parental responsibility and treat Madi just like I would any other primary child. I need to praise and interact with her just like I do all the other primary kids. She laughed and told me how she saw one little girls panties every single Sunday. It's true, if any other kid was doing what Madi was doing I wouldn't have thought twice. She was being quiet, not distracting anyone else- just a little wiggly. I felt bad for being so hard on Madi. Spencer said it right in the car- "everyone wants their own kid to be perfect." I do have to give a shout out to Madi though for being the loudest singer during our opening song of "I am a Child of God." I couldn't have been prouder.

Madi celebrated her half birthday last Tuesday. She was so excited about it! She now tells everyone, "I'm not three anymore, I'm three and a HALF! I'm excited too- cause we're that much closer to 4. I'm crossing my fingers that 4 will be an easier age. These past few months have been a struggle for me. She's just so much stinkin drama and the tantrums are like none I've ever seen- screaming and crying uncontrollably while gasping that she can't breathe. Yelling things like "I don't like you!" On one hand I want to record all the annoying, stressful stuff she does to let her know what it's gonna be like when she has a daughter someday, but then on the other hand maybe I should let her believe that she's the perfect little angel that I always grew up thinking I was.

She does say the sweetest things. Just a few that I remembered to write down:

" I love you Mommy. I'm so glad you're my mommy. A lot of kids don't have great mommies."

Madi: "Did I cry out last night?"

Me: "Ya, three times!"

Madi: "I try really hard not to cry out. Tonight I'll put my blanket over my head and just say a prayer."

"I'm so sorry mom. I'll never do it again."

(getting stuck between our front and glass storm door, and knocking down a ceramic picture of the temple- luckily breaking nothing).

Me: "Madi how'd you get so smart?"

Madi: Flashing the most adorable smile Madi pats her head and says, "My cerebellum helps me remember."

Madi: "Mom, let's read this sad story." (A Christmas book that I always bawl through).

Me: "No, it's too sad, I don't want to cry right now."

Madi: "It's ok, I'll just get you a tissue."

Madi: (looking through the Ensign) "Mom! Mom! Look! I see someone we know."

Me: Getting excited someone close to us has made it into the Ensign, turn to see who Madi's looking at. I then notice she's pointing to Jesus.

Madi: "It's Jesus! He teaches us."

Other things about Madi:

* She loves the smell of books. It still cracks me up when we're reading and she'll lean forward to smell the book.

* She just recently started taking showers instead of baths- this was a big step for Madi who's always been petrified of the shower. I'm sure she'll still take baths, but it's good to know that she's starting to conquer some of her fears.

*She's obsessed with Beauty and the Beast right now. My parents got her the movie for Christmas and she's already quoting it.

* Just in the last month or two Madi now comes out of her room in the morning instead of calling, "It's wake-up time" and waiting for us to come get her.

*She'll now try different foods as long as we tell her it's "Dora food"- like Dora lasagna, Dora pasta, Dora pizza, etc. (all these foods Madi refuses to eat otherwise)

* We started an m&m jar two months ago after my last post of frustrations. My good friend Lindsey Bell left a comment with an idea I thought would work. I changed the bubble gum to m&m's (just cause I'm too lazy to craft up some cool bubble gum machine with gum balls) and it's actually been awesome (thanks Linds). Madi's super close to earning her "prize".

* We're currently working on not crying out in the night (lots of nights with crazy nightmares turned into our daughter just crying out for the heck of it- then screaming until we'd come in). With a bribe of putting 5 m&m's into her jar in the morning if she doesn't cry out, and an even bigger bribe of earning bunk beds after going a month straight with no cry-outs, Madi's now had 3 successful nights (not going to say anymore for fearing of jinxing something).

* She's obsessed with playing doctor, and is confident that that's what she's going to be when she grows up.

Happy 1-1-11

Happy New Year! I'm sad for this week to be over. The good thing about New Years is that it gives me a week to recover from Christmas. After Christmas was over I sat and stared at the tree with only pine needles covering our tree skirt underneath. I was sad. Our tree didn't seem as pretty anymore, I felt weird playing Christmas music, and I definitely was not ready to go back to real life. Luckily it was a slow work week at Spencer's office and he was able to work from home 2 of the 4 work days. Then this weekend was perfect- with temps in the 50's we were able to hit up the park, go for a walk, and play outside. Nothing puts me in a better mood than nice weather.

Spencer and I spent a perfect New Year's Eve here at home- alone. We ordered pizza, rented a movie, planned out our goals for the year (my idea of course that Spencer was nice enough to go along with) and stayed up long enough to ring in the New Year!

Aren't my new jammies adorable! :) Spence got em for me for Christmas- they're my first pair of "real" pjs and super comfy- one of my favorite gifts!

The girls were good to us and slept in this morning. Even Elle slept (or at least was quiet) till 7:45am which was a total shock since she'd gone to bed at 5:45pm (14 hours!!! She's never done that before!) I was grateful for the gift of sleep and was able to have a super productive day. Spencer and I got all the Christmas decorations put away, took down the tree, cleaned the house, and just got back from our first date night of the new year (returns, dinner, and car shopping- so romantic!).

I'm not a big fan of setting "New Year's Resolutions" (for some reason New Year's goals get forgotten so much quicker than other goals I set), but this year feels different. Maybe cause I have a lot of things I really want to work on and now seems like the perfect time to start. I really want to get back into regular journal writing. My goal is to write something down everyday about my day- what I did, how I felt, something that drove me crazy, how I coped, etc. It doesn't have to be long, just something. The days I blog I don't have to do a journal entry. I will be recording the rest of my goals for 2011 in this journal.

I have a lot to be grateful for- 2010 was a good year to my family. I'd have to say the best things of 2010 were law school graduation, Spencer passing the CA bar, getting hired at an awesome firm, and moving back to an area we know and love. We don't have big plans for 2011 yet, but one thing I'm really looking forward to this year is starting classes at Washington School of Photography- my first class is next Saturday!