New zoo

I wrote this post twice on my tablet, and it ate it twice. So I've been mad at it. Maybe my laptop will work better.

On our first Saturday in AZ, we went to a new zoo. Okay, it was new to the kids. I went there when I was a kid. I kind of expected the worst, because it was a post-lunch trip, which can and often does lead to melt-downs. But the kids dealt with everything pretty well. We played in the petting zoo while we waited for Nana and Jim to join us. There were signs everywhere to "beware the goats". We didn't have any problems with goats. We did have a deer try to eat Alex's hat and shirt though. We fed the animals and petted a llama or alpaca. Not sure which. It was very soft though. Then we had lunch at the bbq restaurant. It was right next to the aquarium, so one wall was a wall of glass with fish and sharks swimming around. That was pretty cool.

Since it was rather warm out, we decided to hit the aquarium part first. We went through all the fish buildings and the kids really liked it. Even Elizabeth was enthralled. My favorite were the little otters. They were tiny- like the size of squirrels. And they chirped. And they were very cute. 

We walked over to the giraffes and I took a break to feed and put to sleep a very tired cranky baby. The kids went up and fed the giraffes. Claire later told me that one was nice and one was mean. I'm not sure what she meant by that. We walked around and saw lots of the other animals. I didn't realize until we left but we totally missed the big cats- the lions and tigers. They have several tigers and at least one lion, and because it is a smaller zoo, they are closer. It is always the big attraction at this specific zoo. But kids were very tired and cranky, so we left.

We got to spend a lot of time with my sisters this trip. Teene took some time off work and we spent a day at our house and a day at her house. We went to a fun park. Amy works evenings so we saw her most mornings and hung out together when we could. Nana was working but we got to enjoy some time with her as well.

On Thursday evening, I took dinner over to the Woods' house. It was just Angelique and Veda, but it was really nice. I hadn't been able to get a hold of Veda, but we just took a chance and went over. It was a fun evening. We also got to spend most of sunday with them, but that wasn't nearly as much fun, just because Veda was getting ready to go out of town and there were other people around. But I did enjoy the time I had with her. 

Other fun happenings while we were gone: Elizabeth started to crawl. She's a regular mover now. She is still pretty choppy, so it's funny to watch her. She will look at where she wants to go, then look down and crawl, then look up and correct her course. 

Overall, we had a really fun trip. Towards the end, we were definitely ready to come home. I think this may have been the last really long trip. Alex was very homesick. Claire didn't really care, but Alex was a mess. Every time I said "let's go home" from somewhere, he would said "Our home? I want to go to our home." It was hard to explain that it was kind of my home because I lived there when I was younger. I enjoyed the time I had to spend with every body. It's hard to believe we haven't even been home a week yet. I feel like we've been home forever, but I do still have suitcases that are not unpacked and cleaning to catch up on. Surprisingly, the dogs don't stop making messes just because I am not home to clean them up. Amazing I know. Short hair is definitely on the list for our next dog. 

Phoenix Vacation pt 1

I haven't posted my goals for this year yet, but I wanted to blog about my vacation a bit first. I have them written, just not posted.
Anyway, last Wednesday the 11th we flew out of St. Louis to Phoenix. Probably the best part of my day was driving to the airport. Claire was being a chatter-box as usual, just talking about everything and anything. She was obviously seriously excited. At one point Alann said to her "Claire, can you just be quiet for two minutes? Just stop talking for two minutes?" (Trust me, I have this thought and have asked the same question often.) She got quiet for about 2 seconds and then said in a really quiet voice "But I need to talk." We bought started laughing. Yes my dear, you do seem to need to talk. That's okay, we love you anyway. Alann was kind enough to devote part of his day to sitting in the airport with us while we waited for our flight. It makes it easier when he can do that. I can go to the bathroom or take the kids to the bathroom or to get drinks without lugging all the extra stuff with me. Our flight was rather uneventful. The kids were pretty well behaved. The stewardess even let it slide that they were seated next to each other and sharing a seat belt for take off. Technically, Alex was supposed to be in my lap. I've had other people yell at me before if one of them isn't cooperating. We got in pretty late and just worked on getting dinner and getting the kids settled in.
Thursday I got up and ran! yay me! I was feeling pretty awesome. Aunt Amy was home with us for part of the day. We did some grocery shopping and got lunch together. Aunt Teene came over and hung out with us for part of the day and we had a good time. Naps were ridiculous. Claire was the amazing rubber band kid. I swear she peed like 5 times in an hour long period.
Friday was a laid-back day. We visited with Nana and tried valiantly to get schedules back on track. The kids have been a little crazy because we either haven't been home or people have been here during bedtime and so they won't go to bed on time. Plus it's a different bed and they are sharing a room. They seem to have gotten it together though. Naps are still difficult but they are going to bed at the same time pretty easily. Claire actually took a nap on Friday, she was so exhausted from everything. But other times they just talk to each other despite Alex's obvious need for sleep. So she usually gets removed so he can go to sleep. I don't mind them talking to each other and comforting each other, but they need to be sleeping! The first night Claire did have issues with Alex waking up. She came stumbling out of her room crying when he woke up crying. It was pretty sad. And she didn't really understand where I was in relation to her so she didn't know where to go. But we got it under control and they are sleeping through each other's noises now. I suppose it's just like when you get married. It takes a while to adjust to having someone else making noise and moving around while you are sleeping, but you get used to it. Speaking of sleep, I have not been sleeping well at all. I need to go to bed now so I can maybe get some sleep tonight. I hope. I want to run tomorrow, but in true pregnant while visiting fashion, my ankles are swollen and sore, so that's probably not a good idea.

A quick recap

We've had so much going on lately with lots of visitors.
The Sunday before Thanksgiving, we had Craig and Sarah and Brooklyn drop in for a quick visit. Claire loved playing with Brooky.
For Thanksgiving, we had the missionaries over and Alann's boss and his family. It was a lot of fun. We smoked the turkey and the kids actually ate dinner with us this time. Last year they slept through it. We had some fun times hanging out with Mike and Tracy and Claire had fun playing with their kids.
Entirely too quickly after that, Mark and Debbie came to visit. We had a quick visit to Indianapolis to visit Alann's grandparents and we met up with Steph and Danny and their kids. Alann tried to take us to Chicago instead of Indianapolis, but we made it there eventually. Claire had a good time playing with Andrew, though I'm not sure he enjoyed it as much as she did. We went to the children's museum again and the kids had so much fun they were exhausted by the time we left. We drove home Sunday and Grandma and Grandpa stayed for the rest of the week and the kids just loved it. First thing in the morning, Claire would come see me and then immediately go downstairs to find Grandma and Grandpa.
While we had free babysitters, Alann and I decided to go on an anniversary overnight. We booked a hotel room in St. Louis and had a fun time. Our hotel was connected to a casino, so we spent some time over there. We came out about even. Alann was definitely the better player than me. The worst part was the smoke. Ugh. It was so thick in there. It was gross. I haven't had that much secondhand smoke in a LONG time. Then the next morning we ate at Cracker Barrel for breakfast and they had a smoking section too. It was awful. I hadn't worn my coat to the casino since everything was indoors, but I wore it to Cracker Barrel and it smelled awful too. I thought St. Louis had passed a new ordinance banning smoking but apparently we were in the wrong county or something.
After Grandma and Grandpa left, a short week later we had a visit from Aunt Amy. Claire was again so excited. She loves going to the airport. Every time we go, she reminds me that she doesn't have her suitcase. Then we have to talk about how we don't have tickets and can't get on the plane. Anyway, we didn't do anything too exciting while she was here, but we did make cookies. Claire keeps talking about that. Alex warmed up to Amy eventually, though he still wouldn't let her hold him. The day after she left, Claire painted her another picture to take home with her. She didn't quite understand that she wasn't coming back to our house.
I did get to book some tickets to Arizona. We are very excited. It's funny. I booked them so close to the travel dates that Southwest sent their normal "your trip is right around the corner" email the same day I booked them. I made the mistake of telling Claire as soon as I booked them. She has been asking constantly about going to see Aunt Amy and flying on the airplane. So I took a calendar and drew on the day that we are flying a little airplane. And I tried to explain that each day was a square and we would mark one off every day. She colored on all the days. So I took a highlighter and colored today. I told her when we colored the plane, we could go. She took the highlighter when I wasn't looking and colored the airplane. Then she tells me that we can't get on the airplane without our suitcases and we haven't packed our suitcases. Luckily, we can't get on the airplane at night, so she quits asking when the sun goes down. I tried to tell her we had to open presents first. She told me we didn't need presents. Oh the things she comes up with sometimes. She does tell me what we need to pack though- her panties, clothes, jammies, and snacks. We've got the important stuff covered.
So now we have Christmas coming up, and then we are going to Phoenix for a few weeks in January. I don't think I blogged about this. A few months ago I wanted to book tickets to Phoenix. Southwest was having a decent sale. I looked at Christmas or January flights and it just didn't work out. I almost forgot about the sale, got up to book flights, and my credit card wouldn't go through, despite having space. I was so upset. I prayed about it and it still didn't work. I took it as a sign that I must not be meant to go. It was really depressing. But I trusted that the Lord would take care of us no matter what. I got an email last week that Southwest was having a 50% off sale. I didn't book it. Then I got another 50% off sale notice this week. After talking to Alann, we decided that it must be right. I booked the flights for me and the kids. (Ok, kid. I only have to pay for Claire right now.) For $300, I got the same flights that would have cost me almost $700. I am quite grateful. We haven't been out to visit since March. I'm definitely looking forward, even if it's very quickly coming up.
Now that the kids' Christmas presents are taken care of, I'm hoping to make them some backpacks for the flight. Claire has one, but it's very small. It's actually a harness disguised as a backpack. But I can't fit too much stuff in it. Every time we fly I try to, but it just doesn't hold enough toys to keep her occupied. So I'm hoping I can get some backpacks made for them before the flight. It shouldn't be too difficult, I hope. I already had a backpack for alex planned, so I've got the pattern and all the hard thinking stuff done. It's just finding the time to actually make them.

At the Children's Museum in Indy.

Riding the "train" at the Children's Museum with her new BFF Shannon- Alann's cousin.

Being a transformer.

The water table.

Alex's FAVORITE spot. He loves water.

He really liked this box for some reason.

At Beth's Wedding

Me and the pretty bride.

Happy kids

"helping" make brownies

Funny face

I feel like not much has been going on, but a lot has happened lately.

After our trip to Indiana, things calmed down a bit. The next weekend my best friend from college got married, so we headed out to Columbia for that. That was a fun little date for us. We got a sitter. It was nice to have some time to ourselves. We always drive around Columbia when we are there, but so much has changed that it isn’t the same town anymore.

As far as job prospects go, I was working for Leapforce, and was quite happy. I enjoyed the work, I made some awesome Swagbucks (because I had lots of search terms and I could watch SBTV in the background, something I always forget to do when I am just surfing the web), and then my contract got terminated out of the blue.  They just sent me an email one day saying that my quality was too low and I wasn’t performing as they expected. This was a bit of a shock to me. I started in the beginning of June and got terminated in the beginning of August. I did 18 hours in June (my first month) and only about 9 in July because there was never any work. August was looking awesome, I was getting an hour a day, and then bam, terminated. I still don’t really understand why. Every way I had to measure my quality was good. My tasks per hour were fine. I didn’t have a lot of revisions, which meant that I agreed with the other raters as well. So I don’t really know. I sent them two emails asking for proof or records that show any secret tests they ran on me, and I haven’t even gotten a response. So, so much for that. If I recommended it to you, forget it. Not worth the time or possible sudden termination if it something you are counting on for income. I have to say, I was a bit adrift for a bit there. I’ve now been fired twice in my life. And I’ve only had 4 real jobs (jobs that didn’t end based on seasonality anyway). The first time it was a company layoff, and I was WELL paid for a receptionist. This time really hurt, especially because they haven’t responded at all. Plus I felt good doing something to help our family finances (other than manage the outflow of course). My etsy shop is more for fun than profit.

Now I have a new job. Alann hired me to be his Online Marketing Director. Basically, I’m in charge of keeping his online presence up for his company. I only get paid when Provident finishes a project, but that’s okay. It’s something. And if it brings in business for the Management side of it, than it’s good for us anyway.

As far as Alex goes, he had his 15 month checkup. He is 25 lbs, I don’t remember height but the nurse remarked he was tall. He is a lot like Claire. He doesn’t talk much, but he understands a lot. He says ow and loud and milk. He gives lots of kisses, and is in a biting phase which is not fun. He’s a very sensitive boy, and if he thinks he is in trouble, he starts crying. So I have to be careful in discipline with him. A sharp tone usually just makes him cry. He follows Claire everywhere, but is blissfully content to play by himself too. On the rare occasion that he is awake and she isn’t, he will happily play with toys by himself. He moves from toy to toy. He loves the kitchen set and loves to cook there or in the kitchen with my pots and pans. I’m glad my cast iron pans are nice and seasoned because my other non-sticks are getting a little scratched from being played with. I would buy some cheap thrift store pots for him to play with, but I don’t think he would go for it. He also loves cars and says “vroom!” I’ve got an awesome Christmas present in mind for him involving cars. I bought a set of hair clippers so I can cut Alex’s (and maybe Alann’s) hair. He hates the scissors, and won’t really sit still for it. But he did a good job with the clippers. Now I just need to perfect my method and lengths. I cut off all his curls and most of his summer blond. It made me a little sad, but I know it is still there. His hair has already lightened up a lot with the little we’ve been out this week. And the curls are getting going again too.

foos. It’s funny to hear her talk to the dogs. She calls them Nee and Ta-er. She tries to tell them to get off the stairs if we are going down to the basement. They don’t listen. She loves to open the door and let them in or out. She also loves to feed them. Alex is starting to get in on feeding animals too. I can see when they start getting regular chores, feeding the animals will be on there. She is starting to be a really good helper too. She helps me unload the dishwasher (not a problem since most of what we use is plastic these days). I usually remove the utensil drawer and anything heavy or breakable and then she pulls the rest of the dishes out and brings them to me. She helps set the table for meals and is working on clearing the table.  She of course still LOVES to help cook. Her favorite phrase is “by self!” meaning she wants to do something all by herself. Drives me insane sometimes, but that’s a two-year old for you. She often picks out her own clothes and dresses herself. She did a really good job sitting for her most recent hair cut and I was able to cut about an inch off. It looks like I cut a lot more, because it is lighter now and curls a lot more. Just like her mama. It curls like crazy when it is shorter. Or humid. She is currently in LOVE with princesses and My Little Ponies. I can’t decide which  she likes better. She has some princess posters in her room now. Today while we were at Sears she saw a Princess bed set on one of the little beds. She had to get in it and pretend to sleep with the princesses. But Alann started her watching My Little Ponies: Friendship is Magic series and she LOVES it. Pinkie Pie is her favorite. It’s an amusing enough show, and it doesn’t bother me any so I let her watch it. She already loved horses, and now it’s even more. She has started playing with the bucket of ponies that we have (most from when I was little). She has also started playing more imaginatively lately. She makes up stories for her games now. She was playing the other day with her princess castle and her princesses and some cars. I don’t know what the story was, but I did hear her talking, than I saw one of the cars kiss one of the princesses. When she plays ponies, she has a mommy pony and a daddy pony and a baby pony. I also taught her Red Rover at playdate last week, and she plays that with her animals now. She doesn’t really understand the rules, but has fun playing.

So that’s about it. As always I have 500 sewing projects and no time to do them. Someday the kids will be in school and I can sew to my hearts’ content, right? Yeah right. By then I’ll have other things to do I’m sure.

Trip to Indiana

I am ready for things to get back to normal- normal schedule, normal sleep, Alann being home. It's been a stressful few weeks.
Last week, the kids and I took a trip to Indiana with Grandma for her family reunion. Alann couldn't come with us because he had to work. I had fun when I was able to enjoy myself, but it was so stressful dealing with the kids that I wasn't able to enjoy myself too much. I started a conversation with one of Alann's aunts and never got to finish it. I just always felt like I was being pulled away from everything. It was good, but it was one of those vacations that was so short and yet SO incredibly long.
Tuesday we went to pick Grandma up at the airport. Claire was so excited. But the trip started out bad. Some days, the kids want to eat lunch at 11:30. This was not one of those days. So we left the house at noon with empty bellies. I gave them snacks en-route, which necessitated a stop at the rest stop 3 miles from town to wipe chocolate off of Alex (chocolate chip granola bar). As we were pulling into the pick up area the first time, Claire suddenly says "suitcase! I don't have my suitcase!" She apparently thought we were going on the airplane. It was pretty funny. We got to the garage and it was closed. Again. This is the second time I've been to the airport and the garage at the terminal is closed. They expect you to go park far away and ride the shuttle back. We did it when we were the ones leaving, but since we were just picking up, we drove down to the cell phone lot (like 10 minutes away!).  By then, the kids were getting cranky. Alex had about a 30 minute nap on the drive over, but that was it. So I looked up a close food place and went over and grabbed some lunch while we waited for Debbie. As we started heading back, she texted to say she had landed and was getting baggage, so we went back to the pick up area and got her. The kids still had only eaten a few fries. So Debbie fed them a little but Claire was too excited to eat and Alex was just cranky from lack of sleep. We got home and tried for naps. It was a failure. Alex flat out refused and since he was up, Claire decided she needed to be up. We also had a late night to bed because of the over-tiredness on Alex's part and excitedness on Claire's.
Wednesday, we had to go pick up the car. I dropped the van off to get the thermostat replaced because I figured a 5-hour car trip was probably a good reason for it to overheat. With the thermostat broken, it doesn't tell me when it overheats, it just does. So now that is fixed and I don't have to see "maintenance required" every time I get in the car. So we loaded up and left after lunch. I was hoping the kids would nap in the car. Ha. What a joke. Alex fell asleep shortly after we left, but we needed to get gas, so when we stopped, he woke up. And was up. Claire never fell asleep. (Day 2- bad or no naps). We drove out to Grandma Dodson's house and visited for a bit. The last part of the trip, Alex kept grabbing at his ear and crying. So we stopped to get some ibuprofen because this was the only trip I haven't packed medicine for, and of course wind up wanting it. I never actually gave it to him because it stopped bothering him after we got out of the car, but I was glad we had it when Claire got hurt. So we hung out with "GG" for a while and chatted. Claire made an instant friend with her cousin Shannon. Okay, technically, she's Alann's cousin, but she is closer to Claire's age. So the kids played and had fun for a while. Then we went over to Deb's cousin's house where we were staying. The kids were pretty tired, but hung in there while we got settled in. Our sleeping choices were a twin bed, a crib, a cot, and two pack and plays. The crib was set too high for either child, so I pulled the mattress out and made it up on the floor for Claire. I brought her pillow and sheet and of course her blanket. I hoped she would just lay down and pass out. Alex got the pack and play. We all went to bed at the same time (pretty late). Claire was up ALL NIGHT. She bounced around from her bed to Grandma to me. Finally she fell asleep in my bed in the wee hours of the morning. I'm pretty sure the sun was already up. It was a long long night.
Thursday we went to the Children's Museum. The kids had a ton of fun. Claire ran around with Shannon all day. Alex's favorite part was the water table in the "5 and under" room. He would have stayed there all day if I had let him. I pulled him away and took him to another part of the room so I wouldn't have to deal with the screams when we just left the room entirely. Then we rode the carousel. Claire was disappointed because the horse didn't jump. Only about a third of the animals jumped (went up and down), and they were all filled. And then we headed back to the house. I was hoping for naps in the car again. They were too wound up and stayed awake the whole drive back to the house. It was about 45 minutes or an hour I think (long enough for a decent nap). So we put them to bed late and thus commenced the trip to the hospital episode. (Claire's staples are doing pretty good. They actually feel loose, like I might brush them out when I wash her hair. We have an appt Monday to get them out.) So, day 3 without naps. The kids slept hard that night, thankfully. Claire wouldn't go to sleep in her bed again, so I let her sleep in my bed until we went to bed, and then I moved her to the pack and play (which was set farther from the dangerous object so if she climbed out, she wouldn't get hurt again). She looked a little confused when she woke up, but was okay with it.
Friday, we went to the "big pool!" It was a pretty nice pool actually. It had lots of slides and a great shallow area with lots of stuff to play with for little kids. (Much better than the Warrenton pool, that's for sure.) We spent a few hours there, and Claire didn't get sick this time. We were really careful about hydrating though. It helped that the lifeguards cleared the pool every hour or so, so we would go back to our stuff, get a snack, a drink. I gave her whatever she wanted- Capri Sun, gatorade, juice, water. And Alex didn't get a sunburn. So it was a win all around. We had a lot of fun there. Then we headed back to the house and cleaned up. We all showered and washed the nasty pool water off. Then finished packing up. The kids and I left to come home because Alann was leaving for Chicago on Monday and the kids get crazy if they don't see Daddy for too long. I knew it would be a disaster to try to be gone much longer and then have him leave. So I drove all the way home by myself. It wasn't too bad. The kids passed out in the car (thankfully!). They slept for about an hour and a half. I was getting sleepy, so I pulled over to nap a bit while they did. I only got about 10 minutes before Alex woke up, but it did help. Then we hit the road and drove for another half hour or so until Claire woke up. We stopped to get dinner and the kids would not eat. By the time dinner was over, I felt like a total failure mom. Looking back, there wasn't even anything really wrong with the dinner. The kids didn't want to sit. They had been sitting for several hours already. I knew that going in. I think what really got to me was this one lady in the restaurant. Claire ran into her several times, and each time I would tell her to say sorry and she wouldn't and she just kept running around and the lady just kept looking at me with this sympathetic smile and it just made me feel really down for some reason. Like I had the bad crazy kids and everyone felt sorry for me. So then we go out to the car (and it's a thousand degrees out there!) and try to get the kids buckled in and Claire starts swinging on the back of the driver's chair like a monkey. I tell her to get down, she doesn't, I tell her again, she doesn't, so I reach over (I'm trying to fight Alex into his seat) and swat her butt and she lets go and falls down. So then she looks at me with tears in her eyes and looks so sad and says "Mom, no hit me." And I just lose it and start crying and she's crying and Alex is crying. And I just felt awful. So I apologize and tell her I'm sorry and I shouldn't have hit her (it wasn't hard, just enough to get her attention), and we finally load up to go and then they decide they want milk and it was seriously a 20 minute endeavor just to leave the parking lot. So most of the rest of the trip home I'm feeling pretty awful. We stop at another rest stop and I let them run around and play a bit before we leave and I get two bug bites. I haven't had any all summer. It was just insult to injury. And we get home and it's late and the kids are excited and have a hard time falling asleep, again. (Day 4 of short naps and rocking Alex to sleep because he is overtired.)
Saturday, Alann and I ended up running errands with the kids. So no naps, again. Day 5. I'm trying to get my lesson ready and Alex will not got to sleep unless I hold him and I was just so frustrated. Then Sunday we get to church and at the end of Sacrament meeting, the Bishop announces that we are all meeting combined for the third hour, so I don't have to teach. Apparently, the other YW teacher didn't know either. Luckily, Alex napped in his stroller during Sunday School, so he wasn't terrible. What is it about Sundays that always make kids crazy?
Monday, Alann left for Chicago for a week. He's working a filler job for his dad's company. During naps I made a big mess getting ready for my lotion class on Tuesday. After naps, we went out to go shopping and eat out so we wouldn't have to deal with the mess. We were out really late. The kids were pretty good, but the last stop they were pretty out of control. So another night of holding Alex until he fell asleep. At least Grandma was here to read books to Claire.
Tuesday we took Grandma back to the airport. Luckily it was after naps. We left late and I was worried that Deb wouldn't make her flight. So I said a prayer. And her flight got delayed. And apparently later canceled. Sorry about that Debbie! I just didn't want you to miss it! After we dropped off Debbie, we hit the mall and I let the kids play in the play place for a while. It is still sweltering out here. So air-conditioned play area was great. Then we rode the elevator to go back up stairs. Claire really really really wanted to ride the escalator. But we had the stroller, so we couldn't unless we left the stroller and I didn't really like that idea. Every time we passed it she said "please mom, ride that. Me, Mom, Ai (Alex) please Mom." It was pretty cute. Next time we will have to ride the escalator. (She is starting to use sentences more, but when she does, she says the same thing several times. Usually it's along the line of "please mom have juice in see-cu (sippy cup) juice please mom please." I guess she's afraid I don't understand? Or maybe she is imitating the fact that I have to ask her 10 times to do something?) Then we hit the grocery store because we were out of things like milk and eggs and produce. And so another late night drew to a close with me holding Alex as he fell asleep.
Wednesday we actually got naps and to bed on time, and today has been good too. Of course tomorrow, we are going to playdate to pick blackberries and then swim. I'm guessing late or no naps. And Daddy should be home sometime tomorrow. So late to bed. Someday, the kids will catch up on their sleep and stop being so grouchy. So yeah, I am looking forward to a more normal schedule.

AZ vacation

The rest of our vacation back in March. yeah, I am behind the times. Some of this was written early, some now. so if it's weird, just blame that. Also, my shift key is weird, and doesn't always work. Trust me when I say I hate that it doesn't work, and I know it looks dumb, but I don't always catch it.

Our AZ trip was fun, but it was also pretty stressful. I was kind of wishing we had stayed in CA longer, because on the rather short plane ride to Phoenix, Alex picked up a bug. I'm assuming that's where he got it, because he was totally fine in CA on Tuesday, we went to Phoenix on Wednesday, and Thursday, the plague started. I call it the plague because he gave it to everyone who changed his diaper. He threw up several times over the course of the day, and then started exploding on the other end. It was a rough, rough week. It continued for days. I felt nauseous all night Friday or Saturday (don't remember which), Amy got it, Alann got it really bad when he finally made it out to Phoenix. It was the worst. I ended up taking Alex to the ER about a week after it started, just to make sure he was okay. He was, just a virus of some sort. But it made for a stressful trip. Maybe if we had stayed in CA for another day or two, we would have missed whoever gave him the bug. But that's life with a baby, right? Now for the fun stuff.
 
Thursday, we had breakfast with Nana and Jim. It's so hard to deal with Claire in restaurants sometimes. She spent most of the meal climbing on me. It was frustrating. She didn't behave very well the night before either. I'm sure she was just overwhelmed. She isn't home. We have eaten out a lot lately. We have tried to instill good restaurant manners in her, even when we eat at home, but she is two. It's easier at home because we have the booster seat that buckles, so if she gets out of hand, just buckle her down. Maybe I should go get a booster for AZ. It's not like we won't use it. (We did the next day. It was a lifesaver. I don't know why I didn't do it last time.) We came home, Alex took a nap, and then the craziness began. He woke up screaming from his nap. I was in the middle of something, so let him cry for a minute. I went in to get him and he was covered in throw up- in his hair, all over his face, all over the bed. Into the bath he went. He was so mad. He just wanted me to hold him. He cried the whole bath. He woke up Claire, who started crying because she was upset that Alex was upset. I had to hurry and clean up so we could go get our hair cut. I was hoping it was just something he ate. On the way to the salon, he threw up again. As I was leaving, I contemplated grabbing the extra clothes bag from the flight. I didn't and should have. I also put my house keys in my purse, then walked out and locked the door without it. It was frustrating. Claire got her hair cut (mostly just a trim and her bangs). Then I sent Claire and the naked Alex to Target with my mom while I got my hair cut. We came home and made dinner and Alex threw up two more times. He also has had some extra diapers, if you get my drift. I was really stressed out. It's hard being a single mom. We were talking to Alann on the video chat and I was trying to call the Woods to get Alex a blessing. I put Alex to bed and then a bit later put Claire to bed. I was so distracted I didn't change her diaper first. big mistake. I did another load of laundry the next morning because of it. Rick finally called me back at about 10. Alex was sleeping and seemed okay, so we didn't have him come over. I also called and talked to Veda and she said it sounded like a virus. Thankfully, Friday he didn't throw up at all and only had one bad diaper. So I'm hoping it was quick. Claire doesn't show any signs of being sick either.(Update, Claire never did get sick but Alex had diarrhea for a week. We went to the ER on Thursday of the following week to get him checked out, but they said "probably a virus". He got better a few days later.)
Friday was pretty good. Though I did more laundry thanks to the unchanged diaper, Alex didn't throw up. Amy came over and we went out to Scottsdale to visit my Grandma. It was a fun hour or so. Grandma was so impressed with how big Alex was. She didn't believe me that Claire was only two. That made me laugh. During naps, Amy helped me go through the barbie/spider box. We threw out everything that was trashed and saved what we could. I'm going to need to ship a box home, that's for sure. We made dinner together and just spent some time together. It was a lot of fun. The kids went down pretty easy and I realized I had nothing to do- kitchen was clean, toys picked up, Alann was on a campout. So I blogged and just chilled on the couch.

The rest of the week, we mostly hung out with family as much as possible and stuck close to the house. I was glad we didn't have any big plans, since Alex was sick.
Saturday was the big day with my sister's wedding. It was also pretty stressful. At lunch, one of the dining chairs broke, as Alann was starting to sit in it. As he jumped up, he pulled a muscle in his leg. Then the nausea started, which we attributed to the muscle. But later it became the plague from Alex. Anyway, my sisters came over after getting my big sis's hair done, and I was supposed to go with them to finish getting ready for the wedding. Alann finally said "yeah, you can go" which I was grateful for. (As in- I'm well enough to care for the kids, not that he just wouldn't let me go.) I got to hang out with my sisters and get ready for the wedding. That made me quite happy. As we were at the place getting ready for pictures, I get a text from Alann- "the tv fell on claire." Um, what? I call, babies are crying in the background, he is frazzled. He wasn't thinking clearly when he sent the text. He told me later that his thinking was "she needs to know what's going on but I need to evaluate first so a text will make her leave me alone". Um, no. The tv (at least 15 years old- a big fat clunker tube) sits on a two-drawer dresser. While Alann was elsewhere, Claire had opened the drawers and climbed up into them (this is pure speculation of the events. But from what he saw and I saw her doing before and after, this is what we think happened). Then the dresser and TV toppled forward. I am thankful in several ways for this event. 1) Alex had followed Alann instead of being right behind Claire like he often is. 2) Somehow, Claire ended up with only the TV on her legs. Alann described it as "she was on her tummy, head closest to the couch, TV across her legs". There are at least 6 feet between where the couch sits and the TV. Again, we aren't really sure what happened- maybe she jumped and knocked it over in the process. But I think Alann summed it up best- "her guardian angel swooped down and pushed her out of the way". The kid didn't even have bruises. I couldn't help but think about the stake conference I had been to two weeks before with Jeffrey R Holland. He had left an apostolic blessing on the children in the audience that Christ would walk with them and protect them. I can honestly say I believe that is what happened in this instance. And I am so grateful for that blessing. It was such a comfort to hear it at the conference. I worry so much about Claire being a dare devil and not thinking before she leaps, literally sometimes. She has no fear about actions. Anyway, then Alann wasn't feeling well, but managed to make it to the wedding with the kids. We were able to stay through some of the reception too, which was good. I think we pushed it as far as we could- both from the kids and Alann's standpoint. But it was a lot of fun and despite the stress, I was grateful that he especially was good enough to put aside his personal feelings of illness enough to let me enjoy the day.
Sunday we hit church, spent some time with my sisters, and packed and got ready to go and Monday we made the final trip home. It was a long long long vacation, but it flew by. The kids and I were gone for 22 days. But it was fun. Maybe we will do it again sometime, but without the plague and TVs falling and such.

CA- some more

Saturday was pretty laid back. We hung out, played a lot, played outside, and just had a fun day. We also went shopping a bit. Debbie generously bought me some fun shirts and a cute new summer dress.
Sunday was a good day. We went to Stake Conference with Grandma and Grandpa. Elder Jeffrey R Holland of the 12 Apostles was speaking. It was a really really good conference. Elder Holland gave an excellent talk. I can't even express what I was feeling. Several times, I was just overwhelmed. My testimony was definitely strengthened. I am glad we were here for this. It was something that I needed. At the end of the conference, Elder Holland gave an apostolic blessing on those in attendance. It was definitely something I needed. There were definitely some minor miracles that happened- Alex was really tired. He started fussing a lot when Elder Holland started talking. But as he started giving the blessing, Alex finally fell asleep. I was able to concentrate on the blessing, which was great. He slept as we got in line to shake Elder Holland's hand, as we stood in the crowded hallway, as I passed him to Grandma to hold so I could deal with Claire, and as we walked up to him. I shook his hand, then Claire, and Grandma and Alex were behind us, then we started to pass by. As soon as Alex heard Elder Holland talk, he popped awake, and not just opened his eyes. He sat up and looked straight at him. Elder Holland shook his hand too. It was almost like Alex knew there was something special going on, and he didn't want to miss out. It certainly wasn't his voice, because there had been lots of talking. It was very interesting.
The rest of Sunday we just hung out. (Please forgive if there are random non-capitalizations. I'm pushing the shift key. It's just not always doing it. I'm trying to fix them all, but I may miss them.) We did get to chat with Sarah and Craig and Brooklyn for a while in the evening.
Monday was interesting. We went to Walmart to get supplies for Debbie to cater a funeral. The kids started falling asleep in the car, so we took them home and put them down while she finished her errands. I should have just left them in the car. I put them to bed and Claire got right back up. Then Debbie was gone most of the afternoon for the funeral. After kids went to bed, Debbie and I set up a sewing party. I put my bridesmaid dress in her very capable hands while I worked on a few other things. I took the easy parts. =) I am SO glad I didn't try to make it work myself. I would not be nearly as happy with it as I am. We ended up putting some straps on. I found some exact matching satin at Joann's. The straps aren't really to be seen or hold the dress up, they are covered by my jacket, but they make it a little more modest and are there more for "wardrobe malfunction" control than anything else. I'm just concerned that the kids will flap the jacket open or something. While Debbie was working hard on my bridesmaid dress, I lengthened a skirt and dress. One skirt, I added some lace to the bottom. It was long enough, but this made me more comfortable with it. The cute dress Debbie bought me on Saturday needed some help too. We got some cute pleated lace at Joann's. I took out the original hem (gained two inches) and then added the lace to the bottom. It looks great, I think. It's cute, light, and perfect for casual wear, or church. I love it. (This was another idea of Debbie's. I need to run all my alterations by her first.)
Tuesday was packing and cleaning up day. Weds we flew to AZ. It was a pretty good flight. It was short, which is good. The kids were well behaved. They napped in the car, which was unfortunate because they didn't nap after we got home. Oh well. Take what you can get I guess. We went grocery shopping, had dinner, then put the kids to bed.

CA Pictures- version 1

on the plane

Alex is escaping!

Playing rocks with Grandpa

Playing piano with Grandma, and singing

Swinging at the park

So much fun!

Chilling with Grandma

More piano playing. We get a concert pretty much every day.

Day 4

Last night was a really rough night. I hate when kids are sick. You can never tell what is going to happen. The first night here, Alex woke Claire up and we were up for 3 hours. The second night, they slept all night. I wasn't even mad at them for getting up before 7, because I was wide awake at 6 and ready to get up. Last night- failure. This time, Claire (who inevitably is getting the cold) woke Alex up at about 1130. She just started crying in her sleep. I tried to comfort her, make her stop crying, but she woke him up. Then I had stereo crying. Grandma arrived with some milk for Claire, which calmed her down. I got Alex some formula and he went back to sleep. But then, a short time later, Claire woke up again. This time, Alex slept through it. Claire slept the rest of the night in bed with me. It seemed to comfort her. She would wake up every hour or so, crying. I would rub her back and she would go back to sleep. I assume her throat hurt. (mine does). I had given her meds, but they just weren't working. Alex slept the rest of the night, but decided to get up at 530. And so did Claire. I gave them both more milk and tried to put them back to bed, but we were up before 6. Luckily, Grandma was nice enough to watch them for a few hours in the morning so I could catch some more sleep. Gotta love Grandmas.
We went to the park again after lunch. Claire had a good time running around, but there were more older kids there so she wasn't as free-spirited. She really wants to play with the other kids. That's her favorite part about the park I think. That's what she talks about. "kids kids!" Every time she sees kids, she gets excited. I need to look into an early preschool program or another playgroup or something. We didn't get as much alone-time on the slides and stuff. And Alex kept trying to eat wood chips. So he spent most of his time in the baby swing, so he couldn't touch anything. But they were tired out and took good naps after that, which was after all the point!
During naps, I tried on my bridesmaid dress so Debbie could look at it and help me decide what to do about it. It's a nice dress, it fits well, but it doesn't cover quite as much as I want, and I'm afraid the kids will rip off my jacket or make it flap around. The options were limited when I bought it. She had some good suggestions, so I went to Joann's and found ribbon and satin in the exact color I needed. We will see what we come up with. I also found some lace to add to a hem of another skirt I have, to make it just a touch longer. It is long enough, but I would feel more comfortable if it was just a bit longer. Then I hit JCPenney- big fail. I went to Target after that. Target never fails to provide. Basically, we decided to either add straps to the dress (it's strapless), or find a nude cami with sleeves to wear under it to cover my shoulders. I have a jacket that would cover that. I bought a few shirts to try too, just so that we don't have to go out again. If nothing works, I'll return the shirts. Debbie thinks the sewing option is the best. I'm leaving it in her much more capable hands.
side note- I love Joann's. I miss it. Just the smell is enough to make me smile.
Side note 2- Outside Target, there was a very LARGE sign saying "no solicitation! We want to provide a distraction free shopping experience. We do not endorse/allow solicitations of any kind, despite the issue!" (Or something to that effect.) Right next to the giant sign, was a man collecting donations for something- I think it was a homeless shelter of some sort.  I had to laugh. Really? And people were giving him money. When he asked me as I left, I just thought "I love that you are right next to the sign that says no solicitations, that's awesome!" (Personally, I don't tend to hand out money to people on the street. I let Claire put change in the salvation army buckets at Christmas because I do want to instill a giving nature in her, but I also use my best judgment. Salvation Army buckets I know are legit. Random man at the Target in Redlands CA? Who knows? Since I don't live here, I don't know if it was a real homeless shelter or not. If I am going to give alms, I want to make sure that it is really going where it says it will.)
After I got home, we played with the kids and had dinner. Claire insisted that Grandpa give them baths. She didn't even want me to go up the stairs with them. Then we video-chatted with Alann, which was fun.
I watched Despicable Me after the kids went to bed. Claire saw part of it, but then it was bedtime. I liked it. It was cute. I can't really tell why it is PG. I guess the violence.
So here's hoping for a smoother night. I've medicated them both, and Alex seems to be getting better anyway. It seems to be a short-term cold, thankfully. I'm feeling better too.

Hanging in CA

We are on day 3 of our 21 day adventure! Not sure how much I talked about it before hand, probably not much because I haven't been blogging as much as I should. But, me and the kids are taking an extended vacation. It all started because my sister decided to finally get married. =) So we were planning on doing another trip like our trip in Dec- me and the kids go out for a week or so, then Alann comes out for the weekend. Then when I was going through the worst of my blues, Debbie suggested that we come visit with them for a while too. So we figured since we were already going to be out this way, we would just visit in CA and then go to AZ.
We left MO on the 1st. We had an afternoon flight. I had everything packed and ready and we actually left pretty close to on time. Alex took a short nap in the car. Claire naps after lunch, so she didn't nap. We had planned to eat lunch with Alann at the gate, but by the time we got through baggage check and security, it was time to board. Baggage check took FOREVER! This time, the lady told me that Southwest is not responsible for any damage to the car seats. I asked if that had changed, and she said no, it had always been that way. I think that no one really knows the policies. I've had so many different things told to me as "the policy" that directly conflicts with each other. So if you ever have a problem, call the number, don't believe what the people at the airport say. And then ask to talk to the supervisor. Just to make sure. (By the way, we still haven't received any money or a letter acknowledging the receipt of our broken car seat. We bought a new one because poor Alex was just so uncomfortable in the infant seat. So now we are just waiting for the promised check to pay us back.) Anyway, we finally got our boarding passes and went over to security. We knew we would have lots of stuff, so I told the lady behind us that she could go ahead. I only saw one lady. She wasn't with anyone else. So I figured it wouldn't be a problem. She was apparently with a lady in a wheelchair who had never flown before or didn't bother finding out the rules or something. So she ended up taking forever. She had stuff in her bag she shouldn't have, and we waited about 10 minutes for her stuff to clear the belt. Then it was our turn. We had about 7 trays worth of stuff, plus the stroller. They needed to test our liquids. I had two options- I could open the ready to feed formula bottle and let them test that and Claire's bottle of milk, or they would test everything else, and pat me down. So I opened the formula. I was like, really? I have two babies- you want to pat me down to make sure I'm not bombing the plane? Are people really that depraved that they would steal babies or use their own babies as a cover? So it took another 15 minutes to get us all through security. We checked the gate and they were deplaning the last flight, so ready to board in 10-15 minutes. Alex had pooped, and they both needed clean diapers anyway, so we rushed to the potty, changed diapers in record time, then pretty much boarded the plane. We got over there after pre-boarding was done. I was telling Claire that we needed to wait until they called families (because we had a B boarding ticket) and some poor deluded lady nearby told me that she thought I missed it. I told her that no, families board after A group, which she agreed was ridiculous. We boarded and ate a small lunch before take off. Claire was tired, and laid on the floor a few times during the flight. Alex was also very tired, but wouldn't nap. We had a baby in front of us and a grandma and grandpa behind us. So the kids were fairly well entertained. We watched some shrek and played a bit. That was the first flight. We flew to Phx and changed planes. We had a two hour layover, and our flight was delayed. It was rough. We ate dinner and walked back and forth and back and forth. It was weird being in Phoenix and having it not be the destination. I knew the airport, but couldn't leave. Well, I could have, I had a boarding pass, but then I would have had to do security again. no thanks. And there wasn't really anything out there either. So we finally got to board, took off, and Alex fell asleep almost instantly. The flight was pretty much empty. Alex slept the whole time. Claire was really close to out of control, so I was grateful to only have one of them to deal with.
Grandma and Grandpa were coming in from Florida the same day, and a few hours after me. So we got picked up by Alann's uncle Bill. We got to the house and got things set up. The kids went to sleep and seemed okay, then they both ended up being awake a lot. Alex woke Claire up in the middle of the night and we ended up being up for several hours. Claire kept climbing out of her pack and play and it was just nuts. I finally got Alex back to sleep, and Claire ended up sleeping in my bed.  It was a rough night. The next day was a little better. Alex has a cold, but seems to be healing quickly. Claire still seems healthy, but I've got the cold. We had a better night the second night.
Today we went and played at the park for a while with Grandma. Claire had a blast. She ran around with a bunch of kids and did the slide and swing. She was trying to play with a pack of older kids. She chased them around. They ran to the top of a hill and she went to. They were rolling down the hill. She tried to figure it out. She laid down on the ground and then started scooting instead of rolling. It was hilarious. I went up to help her figure it out. I tucked her arms in and gave her a push, but she kept stopping herself and didn't really want to do it. Alex played a bit on the slides and climbed the stairs some too. We came home and both took naps. After dinner, we went to a farmer's market. It was nice. I love farmer's markets. I love all the fresh produce. We watched a taekwondo demonstration. Claire thought it was great. Every time they broke something, she would say "more!" They bother went down pretty easy. I'm heading to bed now to so as to try to beat this darn cold.

Pictures from Phoenix

Making cookies with Teene and Amy

At the Aquarium

chilling at the aquarium

I'm a fish!

"whoa!"

Aw aren't we sweet?

Loves the carousel

This is the day he learned how to splash.

Aunt Teene taught Claire how to play fort.

Alex was not in here willingly. Claire forced him. Everytime he tried to leave, she drug him back.

Being cute at Great Grandma's

"I'm singing with a cane, just singing with a cane!" Yes, she did think it was a microphone. Still not sure where she saw a microphone at.

Then we played the push-over game.

Everyone had a turn.

Taking pictures!

Or talking on the phone. Whatever.

Hey, only Alex isn't looking! I'll take it!

My mom's desk- also makes a handy book nook.

She was obsessed with sitting in small things during the trip.

And there you have our phoenix trip in a condensed version.