Grumblings of a Tired Mommy

With three small children a mother rarely finds  the blessed opportunity to take a nap. Rarely do children take naps at the same time, or take naps at all. Today with my dear sweet 7 week old asleep and my ever so stubborn 2 yr old napping - I knew I had to seize the opportunity myself to take a little snooze. But WHY WHY WHY is it beyond a 4 yr olds comprehension to understand the words "leave me alone!"?  

She woke me up 3 times to ask if she could paint. I told her every time she could paint after I was done with my nap. On the third time asking, I told her I wasn't done yet because she kept waking me up. To which she smartly replied "i've only woke you up 3 times"! I looked at the clock and realized that only 40 minutes had passed since my napping attempt began.  I told her to give me 5 more minutes and then I would come help her get some paint. "Ok I will count to 5 - 1,2,3,4,5 - it's been five minutes!"  So then I had a very brief lesson on the difference between 5 seconds and 5 minutes. Counting to 60 five time was beyond her capabilities...she was getting frustrated and I was already there. I finally yelled "LEAVE ME ALONE. FIND SOMETHING ELSE TO DO!!!!!" 

She left the room and left me feeling extremely guilty for the tone of voice I used on her. But I heard her sifting through the drawer looking for the crayons and just as the guilt was fading away and I was fading into dreamland, I feel her breathing again on the back of my neck. "Mommy...." Too annoyed and too tired to lift my head to talk to her again I said "whaty......"  To which she demands I turn my head to look at her. So I finally do and she asks "what is this?" She's holding a bottle of white out. I knew the white was kept in the very top shelf of the kitchen cupboard... "where did you get that?" I asked her. She confirmed she had gotten it from the same location. I explained that it's not to play with and to put it away. She HAD to know what it was used for. I told her it was for covering up mistakes you make when writing and asked her again to put it away. 

She left the room again and bounded down the stairs. I then began to dream up all the different places I was going to find the white out if I stay in bed any longer. I tried giving her the benefit of the doubt, thinking she would be a good listener. But then I knew better. She is just four afterall....  My nap was over before it began!

***And as I am just finalizing this post, here she is pulling on my arm "Mom, can I paint?" AHHH!!!!!!

UPDATE - she is now painting and hasn't bothered me for 10 minutes. It's a record. If only I had gotten the stupid paints out an hour ago!

Week 17

Better late than never, right? This week went from blazin' hot at the beginning to blustery cold by the end of the week.  It was fun to be outside most of the week, and nice to stick inside by the end of the week.

I was so happy with this picture because I got eye contact from all 3 of them! Aliza looked cuter in others ones, but this was the only one all three of them were looking. It only took 7 weeks of trying to get finally get a decent picture of all my princesses. 

I did a little mini photo shoot for this boy from church. He is having his Eagle Court of Honor next month and his mom wanted some nice pictures of him in his scout shirt. 
Charlotte sitting on the front porch while the other kids played in the water.
Carmen playing in the pool. It was in the 90's the beginning of this week. 
Last year CBS came to Mtn. House to do a story on how "underwater" we are due to the housing market. It's been a long running joke ever since that we all wear snorkels out here. In fact the theme for the 4th of July parade this year is Underwater in Mountain House.  So, this past week they came back to do a follow up story on how the housing market is starting to improve here.  They came to a mothers club activity to do some interviews. This guy kept filming me nursing Charlotte. I don't know when the story will air, but be on the look out! I might be on CBS nightly news. 
This was an activity for Earth Day. The kids all painted pots and planted flowers. Too bad it was so windy the rest of the week, the flower pots got blown over and broke the next day. 
Aliza took it very seriously!
Sprouts in the garden!!! Carmen has diligently watered the garden everyday and was so excited the morning she went to check on the garden and she found sprouts growing! I think these are radishes...
I didn't lighten this picture up so it's hard to see Charlottes purple lips. This week she got thrush and the medicine stains everything purple! Everyone kept asking me if she chewed on a pen! Who lets a newborn chew on a pen?!?! She also is starting to smile! This is the first time I captured it on camera. 
Yesterday we took the girls to the temple for Family Home Evening. It was great because the temple was closed so we were really the only ones there. We got the royal treatment at the visitors center. We watched a few movies about obedience and Heavenly Fathers plan. It was really nice to feel the spirit and share it with the girls. They loved it there. Also, without any prompting from David or I, they both wanted to wear dresses there. I thought that was so cute!
Yesterday was David's 30th birthday. We had this yummy ice cream cake from Cold Stone. We always admire them in the freezer whenever we go there, and I finally got one!

Week 16 - Project 365

Ok, so I think I have given up on taking a picture EVERY day, but I am certainly more aware of opportunities to take pictures and constantly looking for the unexpected things to take pictures of, not that that always happens. 

The weather has finally turned warm and we've been able to get outside to play. The girls brought the soccer ball to the park on friday and kicked it around it little. It was fun to see them play. 

Aliza climbing at Questa park. We rotate parks each month for our park day. This is a park we don't go to very often, but it's very fun. Just no shade! 
On Friday our family went out to eat for my birthday to Texas Steak House. Carmen and Aliza LOVE the peanuts there and love that you can just throw the shells on the floor!
Saturday was my 29th birthday. I share my bday with one of my best friends, Melinda. So our husbands planned a fun evening for us. The day started with breakfast in bed and my present, a GPS. Then I got to go shopping at Kohls, and spent more than I should have. Then I picked up a babysitter and we met our friends at Magellan's to eat dinner. After dinner we played games at the Farley's place. It was a fun time!

Dancing Beans! The girls had their 2nd dance class this past week and got to wear their tap shoes this time.  These are Aliza's dancing feet.
I love this picture because you can see Carmen holding onto Aliza, taking care of her. You can see how shy Aliza is being, she rubs her eyes when she is being shy. And you can slightly see this bandaid OVER Carmen's tights. She slipped in her tap shoes on the way into class and scraped up her knee. 
I also love this picture, although blurry, because you can see on Carmen's face how much fun she is having!
When I was little we practiced writing our name with pencil and paper. I guess these days you practice your letters on the computer! Carmen typed all the letters as I told her which ones to type. She found them all by herself. We both were very proud. 
To Aliza's delight it was finally warm enough to put on her swimsuit and play in the water. They played outside this day in the water hose and later on the neighbors blow up pool. We are so glad the warm weather is here. Although, after turning the AC on today for the first time, we aren't so excited. 
In Sunbeams today Carmen learned to be thankful for the birds and insects. Her teacher gave them each their own container of ladybugs!! Carmen was very excited about her new pets. I later found the empty container in the playroom. I guess the ladybugs were let lose to have free reign of the house...
David and Carmen planted a garden in our backyard. They planted carrots, lettuce and radishes. This is an experiment to see if we can really do it. Next year we will plant more things if it's a success. 
Aliza in the backyard. She sure is cute in the picture, but at the time she was tattling on Carmen for something. 

Charlotte is one month old - 5 wks today

    Charlotte turned 5 wks old today, so I thought it was time to have another post about her. She has been a lot of fun to have in our family. Having #3 has posed it's challenges. Like being out numbered, not having enough room on my lap or enough arms to put around each of them. Or that Carmen has to sit in the way back of the van so I don't get to have those fun conversations with a 4 yr. old as easily, being sleep deprived, constantly having to tell Carmen to leave her alone, always reminding myself that I have three kids and not to forget one of them, having to bring the baby on dates again, worrying about leaving her with a babysitter...and many other challenges that I'm sure I'm not even aware of yet. I don't think a day has passed yet that I haven't had the thought "I'm done, we are not having anymore kids!"

    But, I know that Charlotte has been sent to our family from our Heavenly Father and she is going to be such a blessing to our family. She has already been such a joy to have. Watching my older girls interact with her is priceless. And not many other things make me happier than snuggling a new baby. Even in the middle of the night when I begrudgingly awake to feed her, it only takes minutes for my mood to change to a state of gratefulness that she is mine. And during those quiet hours when feeding her in the darkness of the night, I know she is all mine and no one else can bother us. 

Week 15 - Project 365 - Continued

This is a continuation of my previous post.  For some reason I couldn't post them all on the same post...I always intend to write out long stories and my deepest thoughts on each picture, but I never seem to be able to. I'm lucky if I get them posted each week. You moms know how it goes, as soon as you sit down at the computer all heck breaks lose and you are interupted once again. 

The girls really loved this project.

The finished products. They were all eaten within 2 hours of dying them. Carmen ate most of them, I think six of them.  I never knew she was such a fan of hard boiled eggs! 
Dying the eggs - the girls had so much fun doing this. Next year I will have to boil way more eggs to keep them busy longer. They were done in no time flat and we didn't have any more eggs. 

This is what happens when BUNNY has to be taken away to go in the washing machine. She just can't survive without her "blue" bunny. Even though it's pink, she calls it the blue bunny. Maybe because it's so dirty that it sometimes gives off the appearance of being blue.
Playing in the rain puddle in our backyard. It was so entertaining!
Aliza ready for her first dance class. 
Once she got there she was VERY shy and not sure what was going on the entire time. 
I told Carmen to help Aliza - I have NEVER seen such sisterly love between the two of them as I did during this class. I wished I had my video camera to get it on tape. Aliza relied entirely on Carmen for comfort and understanding during the class. And Carmen stood beside her with her arm around her and helped her the entire time. And if Aliza started to cry even just a little, Carmen was right there comforting her. It was so sweet and did bring tears to my eyes. If only they could always be like that...

Week 15 - Project 365

So, blogger is taking forever to load my pictures. I have about 10 more I want to get loaded for this post, but it's taking way too long! Enjoy these for now.

Aliza showing off her eggs that she decorated. 

Aliza at our church egg hunt. She was still pretty shy this time, but managed to get a few eggs. 
Carmen checking out her stash of candy.
Let the sugar high begin!!
David playing Light Bright with the girls. Carmen got this for her birthday.
We had such a wonderful Easter and feel so blessed for our Savior and His life and death. We know that He lives and that Heavenly Father does have a plan for each of us to live with Him again. We are grateful for those who helped make our Easter so enjoyable. We have wonderful friends and family close by, and our thoughts were with those who we couldn't be close too yesterday. I will try to get the rest of the pictures loaded later. 

Week 14 - Project 365

Bear with me this week...I have a lot of pictures. I guess I am coming back with a bang to my project. This was a busy week. Carmen turned 4 last week and we did a lot of fun things. These pictures are totally backwards in sequence. One day I will get the hang of uploading them correctly.

On Carmen's birthday we had her friends over for cake and ice cream and to ride bikes in the court. It was a very spontaneous party, yet way low stress. I think I will do it like this every year from now on!

She had to blow the candles out in the garage because it was so windy outside. So this picture has the lovely lawn mower in the back. And no, she didn't turn 5, but insisted on having 5 candles on the cake! So, I guess it's "one to grow on". 

This is the computer she HAD to have. She saw it in the back of the car and asked for it everyday before her bday. I kept telling her she had to wait until her bday to get it. I really wanted to return it to the store because we had bought her a Leapster instead and she didn't need both. But since she had peeked, she HAD to have it. 

Opening more presents

Showing me that she turned FOUR and wearing one of her new outfits.

Aliza actually let me take her picture this day. She has become very camera phobic. (i hope that's not my fault!)

This is the sassy attitude I've been getting from Carmen lately. She crosses her arms and puts her head down like this and says "hmph!".

David with Carmen at the Mountain House Easter Egg hunt. All she got was stickers, who wants lousy stickers...I'm not bitter at all. 

Carmen with her friend Eden before the egg hunt.

Our family has the tradition to ride the carousel on your birthday. Neither of the girls were all that thrilled to ride it this year. They were in a funny mood that day. 
This day the girls came downstairs and when I saw them I about peed my pants!! Carmen had drawn glasses on both of them with a marker!! I took the picture before Carmen did the same artwork on Aliza, but Aliza was sporting glasses as well. Even after I told Carmen not to draw on themselves anymore. The marker ended up in the trash! It was all I could do to keep from laughing. In fact, I couldn't stop myself, I laughed pretty hard about it. 
Carmens new haircut!!!!!!!!!! Finally, after MONTHS of begging the child to cut her hair, she finally did it. And once I had her in the chair, I told Julie (our haircutter friend) to cut it SHORT! We weren't going for a little trim this time. I love the cut on her, it's so cute, but has somehow made her even sassier!
I also got mine cut and colored. It's fun to have a new style. Since these are out of order, this is the after shot....
...and this is the before shot.
I have more pictures I could post this week, but I will stop myself here. This really is getting fun to do, but it's very time consuming. And the second I get on the computer, all heck breaks loose around here. So, Aliza and Charlotte are napping and Carmen is at a Tea Party for one of her friend's bday - so the house it quite for the time being. Enjoy!