Coming back to reality is hard sometimes....ugh

We had such a fantastic get away for Thanksgiving that it was a little hard coming back. No extra people to watch the kids, no extra play mates, having to cook again etc. You know what I mean. I still can't believe I forgot my camera, but my brother snapped this great picture of Miles. Thanks Russ!

Lows of the trip
*Miles pooped his pants 3 times within 1 hour of getting to SG. That must be some sort of record right?
*Gwen decided that while she was on the trip, her wake up time would be 5 or 530.
...That's all I've got for lows. Like I said, it was a pretty great trip.

Highs of the trip
*Besides the 3 accidents mentioned above and 1 more poopy accident Sunday morning, Miles kept his pants clean and dry all week! That includes nap times and night times. AMAZING!
*Gwen was a little angel. Even more smiley than usual and she charmed everyone she came in contact with. That was nice.
*Got to help my sis with a painting project
*Got to play games with the fam, always a good time.
*Had a short but sweet visit with my Grandma and she told me about her mother, who I am named after. That was special for me.
*Miles got royally spoiled by G&G Crosby at the grand kids sleepover. They went to see a movie, went to "Anti-gravity" (like one big trampoline type place), roasted hot dogs and marshmallows, made crafts, ate goodies, had a fishing pond for prizes, etc etc etc. He was totally in heaven.
*Got to see a bunch of extended Crosby family on Thanksgiving day. This doesn't happen too often, so that was neat. Of course Thanksgiving day had all the trimmings and we had a fantastic time stuffing ourselves and letting the kids run loose.
*Got our Honolulu Grill on, as usual. So good. So fattening.
*I got to meet up with friends from high school and that was a highlight for me. Richie was sweet to always be willing to take the kids while I went and got a cupcake with the gals or went shopping. :)
*We had more time off than we're used to so we were able to break the trip up, both ways and spend some time with Richie's folks too! That was so nice.

Now that it's past Thanksgiving, it is officially ok to put up Christmas decorations and listen to Christmas music in our house. I'm a Thanksgiving nazi and I make sure it gets all the attention it deserves, but as soon as the 4th Friday of November rolls around, I'm all over getting into the Christmas spirit. I've had the Christmas tunes on all day and we've been decorating and baking since we got back. Hooray!

Today I....

Sometime between 12am and 230am: Got up with Gwen again and decided to take the poor croupy baby to sleep with me on the couch.

2am Richie leaves for his concrete job. Yup, you read correctly. 2 am. Thankfully this is not a normal schedule.

3-630 am wrestle with Gwen on the couch, the bed, and finally she settles for her pack n' play. We take numerous trips outside to breathe the cold night air. Miles even joins the party sometime around 330 completely wet, despite his pull-up. How did he manage that??

630 am Richie comes back from grinding concrete, showers and gets ready to go teach seminary all day. We wish each other luck.

730 am finish breakfasts and get the kids dressed, teeth brushed, hair done etc. We do a little mini school in our hallway. (We recently joined a joy school group, so now on most mornings Miles and I have "little school" where we review calendar etc. He loves it!)

845 am Gwen goes down for nap #1 and I put a movie on for Miles. I leap at the chance to get a shower. Miles comes in 2 minuets into my hot shower. "Mommy, Potty!" Stop the shower, dry off, help Miles go potty, finish my shower.

10am I'm almost done getting ready when I peak in on Miles in the living room. He looks ashamed. "When was the last time he pooped?" I think to myself. And then my entire soul fills with dread as I remember that he hasn't really pooped in almost 3 days, not counting the accident he had the previous morning. "Miles come here. Did you poop your pants?" And he runs away and tells me to go away. That seals it. I know what I'm in for.

1015am Clean up poop. I wish this was unusual. It's not though. I get so mad that I spank him twice. Yup, you heard me right. I spanked him! Twice!! Call child protective services on me if you'd like, but in my book he's lucky I didn't make him stand outside in the cold, stark naked for the next hour.

1030am Gwen wakes up prematurely. Feed her while I try and do something productive with Miles. We make a turkey and put what we're thankful for on the feathers. I think I'm such an awesome mom for doing this and Miles will totally appreciate it. I was wrong again.

11am Saw an idea on pinterest and decide to get ambitious and try it out. We put all the magnetic letters in the tub and then I let Miles "fish" for them with a magnet attached to a string and a wooden spoon. Success!


1130am Both kids are wanting to take a bath. Works for me, it's a nice time killer. Miles has to have 2 time outs during bath time because he keeps taking toys away from Gwen. Get kids out, lotioned and clothed. We play toys. Miles gets bored quickly, so we build a fort (a blanket thrown over the card table) and read some books inside. I am almost through an entire page before Miles loses interest and walks out.




1230 pm Lunch time! Put Gwen Down. Put Miles on potty. He poops in the potty!! Enter Parade! I make a big deal out if it and he gets to take something out of his time out box and eat a piece of candy. Wahoo!!

130pm. Nirvana. Both kids napping, I'm eating lunch and watching Office re-runs again. Just about to get to work on a Christmas present when Gwen wakes up. Poor thing sounds like a seal. Breaks my heart. And oh, what's this? A new tooth coming in? Yikes.

330 pm Gwen plays by herself on the floor like a champ while I make headway on the previously mentioned present.

4pm Miles wakes up from naps and informs me that in addition to being "wet" and "gross", that he has a "little poop" in his pants. He even shows me with his fingers how big he guesstimates the poop to be. "Really?" I think. "How much poop can one kid have in him?" His estimates were off, to say it delicately. I'm past mad. I give up. I don't even tell him that it's gross and yucky. Instead I throw out the underwear, clean him up, take both kids into their room and start crying.

430pm Miles quickly notices how sad I am, comes up to give me a hug and strokes my face softly and says, "Alright mommy?" I tell him I'm just sad right now. So he pats my back and says, "Come here mommy, it's ok, calm down." (only it's all in Miles-ese, so it's way cuter) He leaves momentarily and comes back with strips of toilet paper he's ripped off and wipes me eyes and gives me more hugs. I tell him mommy just needs a little time out right now. So I head to my room to relax and he comes in with more "tissues" and snuggles.

530pm Hail the conquering hero! Richie's back and had a great day of lessons. He assesses the situation and immediately takes Miles to go get some pizza. Bonus points for picking up a movie to watch later tonight!

6pm I'm currently sitting here all by myself because Richie took the kids out for a drive so that I could take a nice, long, hot bath. Best husband ever?? Yes sir.

How was your day? :)

5 years ago...

5 years ago Richie and I went on our second date and had our first kiss. We went to a "star show" at the observatory on campus so Richie could get extra credit for his astronomy class. It didn't last as long as we were expecting so we strolled around campus and decided we'd go rent a movie. I don't know why we ended up choosing "The Pajama Game", but I have always liked that Richie was "man enough" to watch musicals with me. We haven't watched many musicals lately, so when we decided to watch this movie again to celebrate the anniversary of our first kiss, we were having a hard time handling all the cheesy-ness. But no matter how cheesy this movie is, we agreed that "steamed heat" is still one of the best numbers out of any musical we've seen. Fosse at his finest, fo reals!! Enjoy! ( I watched it on the blog and it's at some weird angle, it kind of cuts a guy off, so if it drives you nuts, just look it up on youtube)

Shenanigans

We celebrated Halloween a lot this year, and it was so much fun!! In fact, we made a fall "to-do" list like we did for the summer, and we've already completed almost all of it! Maybe we should have been more ambitious.... Anyway, here's the rest of the Halloween celebrations!

Here's one of the pumpkins we carved at an Elder's Quorum activity. Miles thought it was so cool that we put candles inside of pumpkins. Yeah, we're pretty rad parents I guess.

Down the street from us a little strip mall (and by little I mean 3 or 4 stores) was having free Halloween festivities so we took them up on the offer! They had awesome pumpkins on display, people handing out candy and coupons everywhere, cookies and apple cider and the witch from Snow White! Both Miles and Gwen were terrified of her. Her costume was very realistic. She read some Halloween stories and gave Miles an apple, and then they were on speaking terms.


We went to our friends annual Halloween party! I don't know why I didn't get more pictures, but here's a really flattering one of Richie carving another pumpkin. :)




On the actual eve of Halloween we did our traditional meal of pumpkin brains! Yummmmm! Sloppy Joes served in a pumpkin makes for a pretty dramatic dinner. Still all Miles wanted to eat was the bun and some fun jello.



Then we got dressed in our costumes and did a tiny bit of trick-or-treating down our street to our neighbors. I think we were the only trick-or-treaters they got so they were thrilled! Then we drove over to the Christensen's so they could spoil our kids some more. :) Miles thought it was so much fun, which made is so much fun for Richie and I. He ran from house to house and repeated his lines (trick-or-treat and thank you) dutifully and with little prompting. Richie kept Gwen wrapped in his coat all night. It was chilly! Richie was in heaven with a snuggly little baby.