Visit with Oma and Cousin Peyton

We had so much fun with Oma and Peyton coming to visit us. Despite some sickness and ER/hospital visits, the week was fun for the girls. Me...I don't know how fun it was for me, but I'm still glad it happened.

We made it over to Central Park to play in the water, and over to Pixie Woods to ride the train, carousal and boat there. Then everyone got sick...so we've been laying low at home and are slowly on the mend. I think next week we'll be able to play some more and hopefully make it to Jelly Belly before Peyton and Oma leave us.

I just wanted to mention how grateful I am to so many wonderful friends and family. I went to bed each night this week feeling so grateful to many wonderful people who have helped me this week. Each of you mean so much to mean and I don't know what I would have done without you to help me juggle three little girls and a sick mother. So many prayers were answered for me through each of you. THANKS!!!

It's so great being a Mom...

Last night I was pondering how wonderful it is to watch my children grow and to see them learn new things. During General Conference we were reminded to cherish the stage of life that you are in - little girls don't stay little girls forever. And it's so fun to spend time with little girls.

We spent most of yesterday cleaning the house and getting ready for my mom to come visit. While cleaning, Carmen and I had a conversation that went like this -

C - What color is Oma? (that's my mom)
A - She's the same color as you.
C - But some people are black...
A - You mean their skin?
C- Yeah, and all over, even on their hair!
A- Oh yeah, they are called African Americans.
C- Why?
A -That's the way Heavenly Father made them.
C- But where is He?
A- In heaven?
C- Where's that?
A- Sigh....and the conversation went on and on

David has been out of town this week, and Saturdays alone are the worst!!! So, we decided to go to the store to buy some ice cream and Carmen wanted watermelon. She fell asleep on the way to the store, so I laid her in the cart to sleep while I shopped. I didn't think it would work, but it did. And I didn't have anywhere to put my groceries. Aliza kept throwing everything out that I asked her to hold. Anyway, I ended up at the cashier with a cart full of JUNK, which I often do when David is out of town...shame on me! Carmen was asleep on top of my purse, it was her pillow. She was very upset when I woke her up trying to carefully get my wallet out from under her. She didn't cry, but screamed all the way home because she wanted pretzels!!! But she did just barely fall asleep as we turned the corner to our house. I made the loop around the block to make sure she was really asleep.

I guess over all the screming, I hadn't heard Aliza. When I go to get her out of the car, I found that she had thrown up all over the car!!!! (which we happened to clean out just this morning) So I got her out and cleaned off. Got the groceries out of the car. Got the car seat out of the car and got sleeping Carmen out of the car. Inside, I stripped Aliza down to her diaper and got her some juice. I started putting the groceries away and found that the ice cream was melting quite a bit. I quickly stuffed it in the freezer and went to putting the other things way. When I opened the freezer again, out came the melting ice cream and splattered all over the floor. I cleaned that up and went to take the car seat apart to throw the cover in the washing machine...as I'm struggling in the garage with the car seat Carmen woke up and decided to get the pretzels herself. I found the empty bag by the fridge and the rest of the pretzels spilled all over the couch.

It's so great being a mom! And hopefully when my mom gets here she will realize the house was clean, but only lasted a few hours!!!

A lot of Excitement

This past week two exciting things happened. The first one - CENTRAL PARK IS OPEN!!! This is a new park just a block away from our house. It has some really cool equipment, a sand area and water features. The kids can play in the water - it's so fun! We've been waiting since December for the park to open. Everyday we would drive by, Carmen would ask "is the new park done yet". And everytime I would say no, the gate's not open yet. But it finally happened and we are so excited.

The second exciting thing was we got the slide on our swing set!!! We finally got far enough to be able to put the slide on. It was pitch dark outside by the time we got to that part, or else I would have a pictures. The girls and their friends have alreay played on the swings today, but tonight David and I worked on it to be able to get to the part to put the slide on. This has been quite the project, but now it's almost completed. The rest is mostly cosmetic things to make it look finished, but in my eyes it's good enough to play on!!! The first picture is Aliza on the swings in our backyard and the other picture is Carmen at the new park.