A New CAR. . .

(I cannot hear or say or see that phrase without hearing Rod Roddy's voice in my head)

. . . only it's not new, just new to me. Still, I'm pretty excited to be joining the minivan club. Seriously, I am. If you're one of those moms who remains unconvinced let me ask you, what is better than heated leather seats, a six-disc CD changer, fold FLAT 3rd row seating, lots of room in the rear, a back up camera, AND power sliding doors. Not much. It's heaven! At least compared to my 10 year old Saturn Vue. LOVE that car by the way. It's just that it's dying, so it's time to move on.

On Sunday I was actually sad I didn't have anywhere to go and thus had no excuse to drive my car. On Saturday I practically invented a reason to go to Ikea (30 min away). SATURDAY at Ikea! Maybe I'm crazy, but it was worth it. And I am positively giddy with the thought of taking a road trip to St. George to visit my parents. Can't wait! It'll feel almost luxurious (if you think I'm exaggerating, then you've never been on a hwy in my Vue, now Ben's Vue). Plus Claire and Paige cannot touch each other! Yay! I don't even care that we don't have 3 kids yet. I will drive that minivan with pride til we do, and enjoy all the extra room in the meantime.

*the picture above is not of my actual car, but it is of the same year, model, and color.

Daddy Daughter Date

Paige's school held a fifty's themed Daddy Daughter Date Night last night. Ben "asked Paige out" yesterday morning and she was so excited about it all day. She kept talking about how she was going to get to dance with her Dad and how Claire and I were going to stay home.

I helped her get all dressed up with clear lip gloss and glitter in her hair (she was very happy about that) and pretty soon she was running for the door. Impatient, she turned around to find Ben, still tying his shoes, and said, "let's go, Handsome!". So funny.

Here she's trying to pose. . . she's 4 going on 14.

The cute couple.

They had a lot of fun. Ben said it was very well done with good food, a DJ, a balloon net, and a photobooth (they came home with a cute picture in a frame they decorated themselves). Ben taught her how to twist and how to "swim". Paige wanted to swing dance and insisted Ben throw her through his legs. I was actually jealous when they came home and told me all about it!

Next year I'll at least go and take pictures.

P turns 4

Four!

She thinks she's SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO big. A "little adult" as her preschool teacher puts it. She just can't wait to grow up!

She woke up early this morning, got excited about the balloons and donuts and the 'you are special today' plate that I set out the night before, hurried downstairs, flung open Claire's bedroom door, flipped on the light, and said, "Claire, wake up. It's my birthday!". I heard it all and groaned from my nice cozy warm bed.

Since we have church at 9am we all promptly got up and headed to the kitchen for sprinkle donuts and milk.

After which, Paige got to open a couple of gifts from us.

The first was a children's book about the human body, which Ben picked up from Costco. Paige is very interested in how things work, and since they'd already exhausted the only other anatomy related book we own (a children's book about the human skeleton), Ben was excited to get it for her.The second was a digital clock for her room.
Tonight, the birthday girl is going to get another gift from me: a little lesson on how to tell time and when she will be allowed to get out of her bed in the morning (7am). I hope she likes it.

Happy Birthday, Paige! We LOVE you!

Build-A-Bear, take 2

It'd been a year since Paige's first trip to Build-A-Bear (when she built the world's tackiest frog), so we'd thought we'd go again and try to make it a Valentine's tradition. She did a little better this year, if only because she chose an actual bear.

See that dress? It has an awesome rhinestone choker that's attached. High heels? Really? And don't get me started on the glaring pinkness of it all.

I think this is one family tradition that I won't be sad to let die. . .

Ice Castles

My oldest friend (a lovely term she used to describe me once; not as in age, as in length of friendship) and I took our 4 girls up to Midway on Friday to see the ice castles in town square.

It was really cool! And my pictures don't do it justice because I still shoot in auto (I'll learn someday) but here are some of them.

Paige and Mae

Me and my girls

I love the light showing through from behind in this one.

These castles were huge and really impressive especially when you know that they're made of ice and only ice. They grow the icicles and build the castles; it changes every day based on the weather and how fast they can grow and add more. A couple of the guys were up on top working on them while we were there. So cool.

V-day Cookies

This is what we did tonight (and what I did all day - from making the dough, to buying candy for decorating, to rolling out and cutting out and baking dough, to running back to the store when we ran out of butter: an essential ingredient in buttercream frosting...). I wanted to do this because I remember decorating cookies for Valentine's Day when I was a little girl, and I loved it! Paige displayed the same laser-like focus as she did for decorating her gingerbread house. She decorated 13 cookies and wanted to keep going but I had to force her to stop because it was a half hour past her bedtime.

Originally I planned to give them to the women I visit teach (the cookies wrapped up on the real plates are for them). The plates look like this underneath all those cookies:

I cut the vinyl out on my Cricut with the "home accents" cartridge. The plate is $1.97 from Tai Pan.

But obviously we have too many cookies for just the 3 ladies I visit (none of whom have children to gobble them up - the cookies that is.). So I asked Ben if I could wrap some up for the families he home teaches. His reply was something like this, "No. What's the point? No one's going to eat any. They're just going to dump them in the trash."

???

Is this true? Did I just waste my entire day? Doesn't anybody out there like sugar cookies? I mean, you can pick off the red hots and the conversation hearts . . .

Thanks!

Okay, I haven't made any decisions about this yet, but I wanted to thank you all for your sweet comments and your suggestions about my living room. They are all much appreciated! I really liked Tiffany's suggestion to do something to the picture frame mats. I hadn't thought of that before and when I read her comment, I was like, "Aha! That's what it needs!" I have something in the works. We'll see how it works out. I may still paint the mirror too. I haven't made up my mind about any of it really. My mom is going to be in town in a few weeks, so I may just wait for her to help me :) I have problems when it comes to committing to decor; she often gives me the shove I need to just do something. Thanks again ladies!

Oh, Hilary, I'm working on a source list but just in case you're waiting on this: the couch was on sale, off the floor from a Thomasville showroom in Las Vegas. And the rug is my carpet. Boo. When we bought the house the previous owners had covered over the original hardwood with carpet. We haven't taken it up because the wood underneath is damaged in parts and it's down to it's last layer and can't be refinished anymore. We're currently looking into replacing the flooring though. I'll be sure to keep the blog updated when we do!

Valentines

My mom sent a valentine's kit to Paige so that she could make handmade valentines for her preschool classmates. Paige was so excited! And I was so excited because Honey had done the hard part (cutting out oodles of stuff on her Cricut); all we had to do was glue the things together.
This is what Paige and I did while Claire napped Sunday morning when we had to stay home from church - both the girls were getting over colds and Ben was off at drill.

Then last night for our FHE activity, Ben helped Paige write her name on the backs while I tied each heart person to a little sucker.
Thanks Honey!

Claire's New Best Friend

Claire has suddenly and inexplicably become attached to her little Baby Orajel toothbrush. She asks for it frequently by sticking her finger on her upper teeth and gums and "brushing" vigorously. She is so happy when I give it to her, and carries it around like a little trophy attached to her pointer finger. It was the first thing she "asked for" this morning.

Silly girl.

I may have let her take it to Costco on Saturday. Don't judge.

Meditation

In my last post I mentioned that when it comes to prayer time, Claire is much more reverent than Paige.

Here's a little story (that is now very popular with my family) to illustrate the point:

Several weeks ago in Sacrament Meeting Paige was having a particularly hard time sitting still. When it came time for the Sacrament, we reminded Paige a couple of times to sit still and to fold her arms for the prayer. Half-way through the prayer she was up on her knees, turned around on the pew, trying to get the attention of the people behind us. Again, I told her to sit on her bum and be reverent for the prayer. . .

She promptly spun around, sat on her bum, crossed her legs Indian style, pinched her thumbs and forefingers together, extended her arms, closed her eyes, lifted her chin, and said, "oooommmmmmmmmmm."

15 Months

Length: 30 3/4 inches (61st %ile)
Weight: 21 lbs (22nd %ile)
Head Circ: 48 cm (91st %ile)

Claire is walking, as you know, and is getting braver every day. She's still in the cute arms out for balance stage. She still prefers to crawl if she's in a hurry.

She loves to eat and will accept a snack almost anytime it's offered. And she hasn't gotten to the super picky stage yet. For which I am very grateful.

She's slowly warming up to cow's milk (since I started adding a little instant breakfast) but isn't ready to quit nursing yet (we're down to morning and night). Or maybe I'm not ready? Who knows. We both will be by 18 months :)

Claire is still a champ at going down for naps and bed at night (although not when we're traveling). Sleeping 11 hours at night. Too bad she goes to bed at 7 pm and wakes up at 6 am. I can't break her of that either. She's stubborn! 6 is EARLY for a night owl like me. Luckily Ben gets up with her most mornings and let's me catch a little more sleep.

It looks as though she might drop a nap soon. But as long as she's waking up at 6 am, I'm encouraging two!

Claire knows the sounds for 10 animals. She knows: cow, horse, dog, cat, goat, sheep, snake, tiger, bear, and bee. Paige loves this skill of Claire's and has been instrumental in rounding out her repertoire.

Her overall vocabulary hasn't really increased much lately (she says mama, dada, paige (paysh), papa, hi, bye (which often sounds like "die"), ball, baby, puppy, no, yes (yeshhhh), uh-huh, thank you (da do) . . .) but she'll try to repeat almost any simple word that I ask her to.

Claire and Paige now play together. REALLY play together. Until Paige gets pushy and Claire starts crying that is. But nothing sounds sweeter than hearing them squeal in laughter together.

Claire has discovered Blue's Clues. She will frequently point to the blank tv screen and ask, "Boo Cue?". Don't worry, it really doesn't hold her attention for long.

I mentioned that she is stubborn, and I meant it. She knows what she wants. And it looks as though she may soon rival Paige for highest decibel ever reached by the human voice. Those loud Reed genes are dominant.

She's still a cuddle-er. Though a little less so. She's pushing away sooner than she used to.

She has her own babbling language that she seems to expect me to understand :) I've been answering back as if I know what she's saying. Mostly she likes this. Sometimes she gets frustrated because I obviously don't know what she's talking about.

She LOVES to sing songs with actions. Do NOT say the word popcorn in her presence unless you are prepared to sing "popcorn popping" and act it out at least 3 times in a row. She knows, and does, all the actions herself too. Her favorite part is "it wasn't really so" to which she vigorously wags her pointer finger back and forth while saying "no, no, no, no, no." She also likes "wheels on the bus", and the "itsy bitsy spider", of course. We've recently added "the wise man built his house upon the rock" to the routine. Are there any other great action songs I'm missing? I would really appreciate a little more variety!

She also likes books. But the regular variety don't hold her attention for long. She prefers the "lift - the - flap" ones. Again, any recommendations? We have Dear Zoo, Where's Spot, and several Karen Katz ones. They are all great, but we could definately use some more.

She gets very excited to brush her teeth.

And she loves to pray. She started folding her arms and bowing her head all on her own one night when we were putting Paige to bed. She now insists on a prayer whenever we sit down to eat - breakfast, lunch, and dinner. She's much more reverent than Paige.

She is very attached to her mama.

And I am very attached to her.