The Abominable Thumbsquatch

They said it didn't exist, but I believed and now I have photographic proof.

Blessings and Bowling

We had a fairly eventful weekend. Saturday was B's birthday party at the bowling alley. B invited a few friends, plus his cousins, Grandma C and Uncle A. B is particularly happy with his imaginex dinosaur from Grandma. He has been trying to scare P with it, but she has no concept.

Speaking of P, she was blessed yesterday by her Daddy. His recorder didn't work, but between Aunt J and I we wrote most of it down. P looked adorable in her blessing dress. She was a good baby and didn't cry while being blessed. Afterwards we had a delicious dinner at Aunt J's. Ruth Scott ribs, mashed potatoes, peas, rolls, jello and pecan pie, YUMMY!!!

Mom and A left this morning to head back to Utah. They are taking the scenic route along the coast and northern NV.

Election 2007

We only have 3 issues to vote on this year, but I think they were fairly important. The first two are statewide measures.

Measure 49 is to modify Measure 37. Measure 37 was landmark because it allows landowners to get around all the land use legislation that came into effect since the 70's. Anyone that has owned land that long will not be restricted by current laws. Measure 37 passed overwhelmingly. Since then, the democrats have really been chafing to cut it down to size. Measure 49 does clarify some aspects of 37, but it also limits development to 3-10 houses. That seems to be in direct contradiction to Measure 37, whose purpose was to get around restrictions like that. It'll be interesting to see what happens.

Measure 50 is particularly maddening because it involves a constitutional amendment that adds a tobacco tax into the constitution. The tax is supposed to provide funding for children's healthcare. It bothers me for several reasons. First it is misuse of a constitutional amendment, something like this should not be in the constitution. Secondly, they are taxing a dwindling population and we all know what happens when government creates another entitlement. They will pull funding from somewhere else to keep the program going. Thirdly, as I get older I'm more and more bothered by government getting involved in healthcare and other entitlements. I've definitely developed a libertarian bent. I need a new label though because libertarians are mostly known for legalizing drugs, something I disagree with :)

I did vote for one tax increase, a local ballot measure to increase our property taxes. Our library has been closed on Saturdays for several months now and it has been killing me. I wish I could separate out the funding for that. I had a really really hard time deciding on this one. I'm afraid I ended up voting selfishly and the whole idea of voting for increased taxes goes against everything I believe in. My ballot is in the mail though so we'll see what happens. They do have to have a 50% turnout, which is why it failed the last election.

Spelling

E has been spelling forbidden foods for a couple years now so that L won't know what she is talking about. Yesterday he started to catch on. He asked me for C-H-I-S (chips). I think it is still somewhat disconnected because I told him yes and he seemed surprised when it turned out to be chips.

It's Official

P's sleeping through the night! She really is an amazing sleeper. She naps really well too. Makes me think reflux was the big culprit in the other three sleeping so bad. She is getting really smiley lately. It is so fun to have her getting more interactive.

We had some big ticket purchases yesterday. J bought a planer and a jointer so he can redo the cabinets. It'll be nice to have cabinets that don't look like they belong in a trailer park. He's going to use Cherry. He bought me a leaf blower too. I finally succombed after being envious of my neighbors for years. My aching back convinced me when I raked last week.

I got sucked in by an infomercial yesterday and ordered a Shark Steam Mop. I'll post about it when it arrives. Luckily I can send it back if I don't like it. It looks like it cleans super fast and easy. I've been wanting one for a long time.

I spent about an hour and a half yesterday trying to figure out the name of a book. I read it years ago and it was driving me crazy. I requested a book from the library (Lincoln's Dreams), but it wasn't the right book. I finally figured out it is called After the Fact by Fred Saberhagen. Thank heavens for the internet, the repository of endless amounts of information.

We will be blessing P this Sunday, so stay tuned for a post on that.

Music, the Spice of Life

E was watching Ice Princess yesterday. She really wanted me to watch it with her, so I did. After a while, when I felt like killing myself in numerous ways, I got on the computer and started listening to my Evanescence album. The whole feel of the movie changed as I watched it while listening to my music. It really gave me a sense for how much music can manipulate emotions. I've noticed this before, it just happened to really strike me this time.

Our Little Clown

L gets away with a lot simply because of how hilarious he is. I've taken numerous pictures of him lately with some type of food spread all over his face. He has this really gross habit of licking water out of the gutter. Today he brought a ball of mud into the garage, stomped on it and when I yelled at him he tried to pick up the mushed remnants with his fingers. Maybe I should get him a pig pen.

P slept through the night again last night. She has got to be the most unpredictable of the 4. If I had to guess according to her "pattern" she'll probably be up at 2am tonight. I'm working on getting her to suck her thumb right now. I can stick it in there when she is going down for a nap and she'll suck on it, but she doesn't have any volitional control yet. I'm hoping that'll come within the next couple of weeks.

E has been complaining the last couple of days about her substitute teacher. He told them they were a terrible class (according to her), but today, her teacher said he left a note saying how good they were. I almost wonder if I need to go in and observe her classroom. At the very least I'm going to talk to her teacher.

Tomorrow is picture day. They are offering CD's with copyright permission now. It is just as cheap to get that as the picture packages. I think it is awesome especially since I can print out what I want at home. No more wasted pictures. Who knows how the pictures will turn out though. B really needs a hair trim and E's teeth are hilarious right now. I really should get L in for portraits soon, he's at such a cute age right now.

Last night, my friend, Jenn hosted a baby shower for me. It was so nice to get out of the house and do something fun like that. I even did pretty well on the games. I got a ton of diapers thank heavens. I love the fact that we have lived here so long and I feel like I really belong. I definitely do not want to move more than once or twice. We'll have to move at some point to get in a better location, otherwise I'd be content to stay here.

First Day of Church

I finally decided I had been inactive enough this week. It's been almost two months since I've been to church. Mostly I was hoping to avoid germs, but it was nice to nap in the afternoon. P did very well. She took her whole nap in her carseat and drank her bottle well during RS. E and B had the primary program practice. It was fun to see all the babies that were born the same time as P. I can't believe how different babies can look. P is definitely the cutest :)

I gave up on getting P to nap in her crib for her evening nap. That child is stubborn. I swaddled her tight and put her in her swing and she slept great. It'll be interesting to see how she does tonight. Previously she was exhausted by the time we hit 10pm, but I have heard that overtired babies don't sleep as well. Maybe she'll sleep great tonight.

E's Schedule

I found a paper on the counter this morning that I had to share. E wrote down a schedule last night for her day today. Enjoy!

8:00 Make sure Mom is awake
8:00 Wake up
8:00 Put on clothes
8:01 Go and get a bar
8:01 Throw raper away
8:02 Eat
8:05 Go and play in the garage
8:10 Start watching tv
9:00 Count to 100
9:30 Skip to 100
9:35 Write to 100
10:00 Write to 100 by five
10:30 Clean my room
11:00 Draw a picture for mom and dad
11:30 Play house with Brigham or checars (not sure what that is)
12:00 Eat lunch, dog dog
12:30 Watch tv
3:30 Piano lessons
3:30 Play handstands and gimnasticks
4:00 Watch tv
5:00 Still watch tv
5:30 Play in garage
6:00 Play
6:30 Eat dinner

Yippee!!

P slept through the night last night. 10:30pm till 7am. She hadn't been napping that well during the day so maybe she was just exhausted, but I'll take it. She's getting closer to sucking her thumb and that will make it even easier.

Steph

Sleepy

I Give Up

Elder Eyring gave me enough of a guilt trip this weekend that I decided I need some type of journal. Since I sit at the computer a million hours a day already I might as well do something useful.

So, here is our life....

E is doing really well in school and is just as talkative as ever. I was reading a book the other day while the kids were playing outside. She stood there talking to me for 1/2 hour. I was barely responding to her, but that didn't put her off. I finally felt bad enough that I put my book down. Most of what she talks about involves school. Her class is pretty bad and apparently they get in trouble a lot. They have to lay there heads on their desks for one of the punishments. She definitely inherited my sensitivity to conflict so it is pretty hard on her. She said it makes her feel pretty sad when the class gets in trouble. She is really excelling academically. I'll have more specifics after PT conferences tonight, but apparently she is one of two kids that gets to spend 20 minutes in the library everyday while the other kids get extra help.

B is adjusting to school so much better than we had hoped for. It helps that he has a really amazing teacher. I think Ms. O is one of the best teachers at the school. It is great that he has a good start. He had one of the worst bike crashes I've seen last week. I thought he had just scraped his hands and knees, but then I looked at his face. The poor boy had a scrape all the way across his right check and an enormous bruise across his cheek and upper lip. His face was pretty swollen that night. He was so traumatized that he fell asleep on the couch. It is amazing how fast he got over it though. The next day he was back to riding his bike. Thank heaven for bike helmets.

L is also doing some adjusting to his new little sister. He watches way too much tv, but I really don't care right now. He especially loves Dora. He could probably watch that all day long. He used to love Wonder Pets so we were going to have the kids dress up as Wonder Pets for Halloween. Now that he doesn't care, E and B will be Superman and Supergirl and I'll have L wear B's old Batman costume. I figure he doesn't really care what he is so I can dress him however I want.

P is doing great. She's definitely our best baby yet. She loves eating and sleeps great and best of all doesn't have reflux. She's been smiling for a few weeks now, but has been getting more interactive the last few days. I especially love it when she coos. None of the other three cooed at this age. J has been doing her night feeding most nights so I can get a full nights rest. Since the rain has started we let the kids play in the garage to get their energy out. They can be loud and crazy out there instead of inside. L particularly likes to ride his bike around and listen to music.

I have a new favorite CD. There was a song on the premiere of Moonlight that I really liked so I figured out where it came from. It is on the CD Fallen by a group called Evanescence. It is nice to discover a new group to listen to. It has been awhile since I've bought any music. J has been listening to a ton of music since he got his Ipod for his birthday so he's been buying more music lately. That Ipod is pretty cool. I might buy a Shuffle for myself for when I start jogging again.

I've been doing a ton of reading, it helps time to pass since we are stuck at home so much. Here are some of my favorites lately: Empire (Orson Scott Card), Passage (Connie Willis), Abhorsen trilogy (Garth Nix), and The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini).