Everyday things

I bought some much needed velvet (!) curtains for my dining room. The morning sun is so hot we couldn’t sit at our table for breakfast (or early morning LEGO’s after cartoons) and it made the kitchen very hot as well.

Brent so sweetly hung them for me and they have made a world of difference.

Currently our yard is full of weeds and nothing else. For my birthday coming up, i hired a yard designer to plan the front and backyard for me! I am lucky! I haven’t seen his designs yet... but i am excited to have more in our yard than dust and brambles. 

We took a little trip to a water conservation garden in West Jordan to see some plants that don’t need much water. It was quite fun to see all the plants even if the girls complained a lot about being hot.

We have been eating snow cones a good bit/ the girls are actually a bit tired of them- but i love them. My favorite has been a caramel flavored snowcone and good old cotton candy.

All of our weeds! And our beautiful house. We are lucky. We have been sitting outside in the evenings while the girls scooter around or spray each other with the sprinkler and it is so beautiful to see the sun in its golden hour. It brings me a lot of happiness. 

Ps Lucy has boycotted her car seat. Like a freaked tantrum when i try to do her seatbelt. Also, brushing her teeth has become SUCH A BATTLE. It is so frustrating as a parent to me when my kids put up such a stink to me helping them be healthy and safe. 

It seems like some sort of religious metaphor- God trying to help us be safe and us refusing...

Hiking and anxiety

We hiked Deseret peak as a family and it was SO BEAUTIFUL the trees reminded me of growing up in North Carolina which made it even more enjoyable- along with all the shade. There were a lot of flies though...  we liked it so much, we came the next day and Brent and Ella and cousin Kaden made it all the way to the top. 

 Me and Lucy did not make it. But she did fall asleep while i was carrying her piggy back ride down the mountain and was VERY EXCITED to watch toy story four on my phone in the car while we waited for Brent and the kids to return. I feel some guilt about Lucy watching a movie instead of exploring, but we did just spend 3 ish hours on the mountain and she was pretty well spent. So I’ll just appreciate her excitement and not think about it!

 A bit unrelated, but i am feeling a lot of anxiety about school in the fall. Ugh. As I’m sure so many parents are. The Utah governor just required all school kids must wear masks- which i totally understand but feel anxious about how that can hinder The teaching and be such a nuisance In general. Ella is SO looking forward to first grade and i don’t want her to miss out if i decide to home school (which i could seriously never do in reality- cue more anxiety. I’m sure there is some distance learning that will happen- which i am bummed about but grateful for.

You know, in writing all this i realize i actually have a lot. We have our health and the opportunity to learn in some way. also, a reminder to me that kids are stronger and more resilient than i give them credit for.

Speaking of- i am writing this in the middle of the night after being woken up to the very weird experience of Ella waking up and squatting to pee in the air vent in her room.

Yes, you read that correctly.

Don’t mention it to Ella or she will be embarrassed. :) and I’m assuming she won’t remember in the morning. But it WAS BIZARRE. She never has bed wetting troubles or anything of the sort so it was very left field.

Xo

My Baby is 6

Sweet Ella turned six back in May and it was a great birthday- I was so pleased. She had a lot of big plans and wanted to plan and decorate everything practically herself - the little planner she is! and I was pretty nervous the reality wouldn't match her expectations, especially during the quarantine situation. But it was a wonderful birthday!

She got a hoverboard! and had purple and black cat decorations. She's pretty obsessed with cats.

Decorated her own birthday cat themed birthday cake (which may I say, we home made from the Cake by Courtney blog and it was fantastic).

 We went to Grandma Billie's house for the rest of the birthday and it was a kitty themed extravaganza as only a grandma is willing to do and it was so fun.

She loves her mom-daughter time, she loves organizing and decorating, she's a picky eater and picky about her clothes= she knows what she likes and leans toward cool rather than cute stuff. She loves journals and pens and notebooks. She's great at crafting and designs and likes doing things herself. She tells jokes! and wants to pull pranks.

Happy Birthday Brent

I am looking through a lot of old photos right now as my icloud storage is full, my google drive storage- full. I have an external hard drive and I need to figure out if I should put everything on there- but what if the hard drive breaks or fails?! I've heard of that happening and it sounds devastating. Cloud storage has gotta be the way to go. So now I'm working out Amazon drive- the storage that comes with Amazon Prime. So.. it gives me a tiny headache. 

Last week was Brent's 32nd birthday! That handsome devil. He's such a good guy to me and I'm grateful.

We went to the Salt Flats, an hour and a half ish away and it was pretty cool. But maybe a bit underwhelming I hate to say. It was salt almost as far as the eye could see up to the mountains. There were a few other people there, but not very many.

 

Quarantine-ing is tricky. I love not having certain times to be any place. and I do think Ella and Lucy are becoming better friends!! But, my body image is kinda suffering. And I go up and down in my emotions. Ella's birthday is coming up on May 19th and she is feeling worried that her birthday won't be fun. Frankly, I'm nervous it won't be either. I feel like she has high expectations and can be picky and sometimes nothing can deliver for her. I'll do my best. 

fyi I just finished reading the book, "Maybe You Should Talk to Someone" about a therapist and her patients and it was really interesting.