Oh, the stench!

We had big plans to take Ada to Kangaroo Zoo tonight, but they were foiled by Ada. She threw a huge tantrum when I put her down for a nap and threw every possible toy on the floor. It was the messiest I'd ever seen her room. After a few hours I opened her door to start waking her up and smelled a foul stench. I figured it was diarrhea because she'd had that a few times in the last week. When she finally woke up and walked out, there was something all over her clothes. I went into her room and found several piles of vomit on her floor. Since her room was so messy, there were toys covered in it and it was all over her bed. I just about died. It was one of those times where you just freeze because you don't even know where to start. When I walked back out, she looked like she was about to start dry heaving, so I ran her into the bathroom and lifted up the toilet seat. I told her to throw up in there, but she turned and puked in the bathtub. After cleaning it out, I stripped her down, put her in the tub (she did have a messy diaper too), and attempted to clean up the mess. I picked up her clean toys, washed some that were covered in vomit, and threw some away. I scrubbed her carpet and threw her bedding in the washer. Luckily, Tyler came home a bit early with some Sprite and Propel. He was kind enough to make dinner while I finished cleaning up and bathing Ada. She seemed perfectly normal after her bath. She scarfed some Saltines and drank her "special drinks from Daddy", and then we put her in her pajamas and let her watch Nemo. Hopefully that's the last of it. Luckily she only had applesauce and carrots for lunch. Although it made for a disgusting display on her floor, I'm glad she didn't eat tomato soup or spaghetti.

Kangaroo Zoo would have been much more fun.

Ada Bada

Looking like Richard Simmons

Cutie

Gross black frosting Tyler put on her pancake

Kangaroo Zoo

Going down the slide

Not liking the giraffe costume

Sleepy head

Holding Goofy, her new Elmo

Stylin'

Make-your-own pizza. Can you guess which one is Tyler's?

Baby Kate

Three months old

Just out of the tubby

Nighty-night

What a cutie

Superbaby!

Death grip

Cute socks

Readin' with Mom

Adorable smile

Tryin' to sit up

A much-needed date

Tyler's test is finally done! Yay! We celebrated on Saturday evening at Tucano's at The Gateway while my parents watched the girls. It's very similar to Rodizio Grill, but I didn't think the quality was as good. I did like the salad bar better though. It was so nice to get out and do something alone. We then went to Old Navy because I'd heard they had $1 Halloween tees. Those were mostly gone, but we did find some KILLER deals on clothes for the girls. All the clearance stuff was an extra 50% off, so we got four shirts, a skirt, jeans, capris, and two hats and spent a grand total of $22.60! I couldn't be happier. It was the best night I've had in a long time!

The single life

Well, it's just been me & the girls all week. No, Tyler's not out of town; he's just been leaving for work before 7:00 a.m. every day and returning home at almost 11:00 p.m. I've seen him for maybe a 1/2 hour every night. Tomorrow he has to take a Fundamentals of Engineering exam and he's been studying like crazy. Most of the stuff is new to him, so he's had a lot to learn. He'll be gone all day tomorrow taking the test, and then I'll finally have my husband back! The only reason that Ada has seen him at all this week is because the last three nights when Tyler's gone in to kiss her goodnight, she's still been awake. Little rascal! Being alone means I have to be the one to kill spiders, I have no help wrestling Ada to the ground to force her pajamas & diapers on, and I have nobody to watch the World Series with! But I can't complain because I know Tyler's had it a million times harder. At least he's taking a little time off tonight to go to a Halloween party. Good luck, sweetie!

Only for you, Kimmy!

5 Shows I Love to Watch:

1. I really only watch sports these days

2. What Not to Wear

3. SNL
4. David Letterman
5. American Idol

5 Favorite Restaurants:

1. Macaroni Grill
2. Paradise Bakery
3. Cafe Rio
4. Mimi's Cafe
5. Applebee's

5 Things that Happened Yesterday:

1. Finished a book
2. Went to book club
3. Listened to The Shins
4. Gas dropped below $3/gallon
5. Ada had one of her daily infamous fits and TRASHED her room

5 Things I Look Forward To:

1. Tyler's test to be done

2. Losing weight
3. Kate to get off antibiotics
4. Abby coming home

5. A piano

5 Things I Love About Fall:

1. Wardrobe change/cooler weather
2. College football
3. Halloween
4. Thanksgiving
5. Changing leaves

5 Things on My Wish List:

1. A cruise
2. Live by all my sisters
3. New TV/entertainment center
4. Unlimited clothing budget
5. Lasik

Walloped

BYU looked like crap last night. TCU looked awesome. They looked better in every aspect of the game. Their receivers made the tough catches, while BYU's couldn't pull them in. Their special teams coverage was better. Obviously, TCU's D was better. They certainly prepared for the game better. I think they prepared better for the Cougars than they did for Oklahoma. They said they'd been looking forward to this game since January. JANUARY! And they said they'd bring a defense that BYU had never seen. Their preparation surely paid off.

This is what I hope happens: I hope Utah beats TCU, and then I hope the Cougars annihilate the Utes in Salt Lake City. That way, TCU won't be undefeated in conference and Utah will have their hopes especially high. TCU will be on the road against Utah, and I don't see them preparing for any other team quite like they did for the Cougars. Of course, I won't be mad if Utah loses to TCU (or any other team for that matter), but I really hate TCU and don't want to see them with an outright conference championship. Hopefully the Cougs can regroup and finish out the season on a high note.

Lewis, save yourself the pain

With the change in the weather, I am especially ready to wear all my cute pants. My gut, on the other hand, has other plans. Lewis (the name of my gut) would prefer I wear all my old, ugly ones. Somehow between the end of high school and the time I got married my pant size shrunk. It took me a long time to realize it (since I wasn't trying to lose weight), so I have lots of pants that are too big for me. I'm glad I still have them because otherwise I'd still be wearing MATERNITY pants, but really I just don't like them much. I can wear my cute pants if I put a rubber band through the button hole, but that gets old fast. It makes me feel pregnant again. Frankly, I still look pregnant. Something has to be done about Lewis.

Lewis has been around my entire life. I've always been skinny, but my gut has always been disproportionately big. I've never been able to be rid of him, so I've just come to accept the fact that he's here to stay. My sisters gave me a 10-Minute Abs video for my 20th birthday. I did that stupid thing every morning that summer, but it had no effect on the size of Lewis. My sisters would joke that he looked like a doughnut sitting on my tummy, my belly button being the hole. Well, after two kids he now looks more like a bundt than a doughnut (pardon the awful analogy; I really couldn't think of anything better). He's just too big for my liking (and my wardrobe). So I've finally decided to do something about it before he's past the point of no return.

First, I decided to break out the ol' 10-Minute Abs again. I've been doing it every day and it really is a good workout. I've also been trying to do Wii Fit every night. I haven't been as faithful with that, but I'm confident that as I get into a routine it will help immensely. I know that Lewis will never leave me completely (barring drastic surgical measures), but I would sure love to have that doughnut back again.

Happy 1/4th!

Little Kate is 3 months old today. That time has sure flown by. She's just as sweet as ever. She's almost consistently sleeping 7-8 hours each night now. So nice! My biggest complaint right now is the number of blow-outs she has. She's still on antibiotics (and will be for at least two more months), so I think that's a main contributor. She has at least one blow-out a day, which makes for lots of stained clothing. The sound of her pooping cracks me up. It could seriously be used as a sound effect for a motion picture, like for someone who's taken too many laxatives or something (gross, yes). At least I always know when to change her diaper. Here are a few tidbits about Kate:

*She loves to smile. Her smiles are the best! Her lips don't just slightly curl up; her mouth opens wide and her whole face lights up. She shrugs her shoulders and her eyes squint and move to the side. It's the cutest thing I've ever seen. She loves to look at herself in the mirror and smile. Even when I suck boogers out of her nose she smiles!
*She's always kicking her legs. Ada was the same way, but I think Kate is worse. I could only find one type of socks for Ada that she couldn't kick off her feet, but Kate can't even keep those ones on.
*She's super content, especially when she's being held. She never makes a peep at church and I've held her through several other meetings without any problems. She still has her fussy times, but overall she's an angel.

She's such a good, sweet, happy child and I love her so much!

Muchas gracias

Tyler surprised me on Monday by saying that he would make dinner on Wednesday. I kept trying to think of a reason why he'd do this (Did he have good news to tell me? Bad news?), but of course I obliged. So yesterday he made delicious chicken pillows, and there were enough for us to have leftovers tonight! Thanks, hon, for your willingness to help out. I can't think of a better way.

Jekyll & Hyde

I've been meaning to post about how good Ada has been lately, but the past few days she's turned a 180 on me. In her defense, I don't think she's feeling all that well. She's getting some new teeth and she's been pretty emotional. She has a runny nose too. I guess I'll get the bad out of the way before I start with the good.


For the past few days, I've been trying to get Ada to go outside so we can go on a walk or play on the playground. She refuses. She takes her clothes off and makes it virtually impossible to leave. I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that last time we played on the playground, an unknown little boy kicked her in the face repeatedly until she started crying. Anyway, today I was just ready to get out and go SOMEWHERE. We got a ShopKo ad in the mail, and they're having a huge sale on toddler & infant clothes right now. So after much pressure and lots of time (I had to bribe her with candy just to get her to let me change her poopy diaper), we got in the car and went to ShopKo. Things started out fine but quickly turned sour. Let's just say that she was running around the store making a scene. I somehow managed to find an outfit for her and a pair of pants for Kate, but it was absolutely ridiculous trying to buy them. I was trying to hold Ada and push the cart at the same time. Ada was screaming and bucking in my arms, trying to get down. It was not pretty. I got out of there as quickly as I could, forced her in her car seat, and took off. Luckily Kate was an angel. I wouldn't have been able to handle two crazy children. That was the worst store experience I've had. Ada hasn't been much better at home either. We're not sure what to do with her. The only good part about her being so emotional lately is that she's also more cuddly.


Now that all that is out of the way, let's get to the good. Before she started feeling unwell, we could tell that she was getting a little better at obeying and controlling her temper. She had less tantrums and therefore less time-outs. She usually did what we told her to. She was lots of fun to be around and talk to. I hope that THAT Ada comes back soon. Here are just a few funny things she's done/said lately:

*When she gets mad, she changes everything we say into the opposite. "No, I'm not a pretty girl!", "It's not green, it's yellow!", "It's not my star wand, it's Daddy's star wand!", and my favorite, "I'm not a girl anymore!" She loves to add 'anymore' to the end of things when she's mad.
*When playing with objects of different sizes, there's always a daddy, a mommy, an Ada, and sometimes a Baby Kate. The biggest, of course, is always the daddy, etc. She can play with refrigerator magnets, crayons, game pieces, or anything else and she uses a high, squeaky voice to make everyone talk.
*She was looking through my scriptures the other day and found the pictures in the back. When she saw the Nauvoo Temple, she said, "This temple is a house of God."
*She loves to change the lyrics of songs just to be silly. Ex: "The eensy weensy spider MONKEY!..." She also loves it when we say silly words that rhyme ("Stinky pinky!"). She thinks it's the funniest thing in the world.
*One day she stood up in the bathtub and said, "There's a fruit snack in my bottom!" She loves potty humor. Oh dear. I can't say that I disagree though.


Ada is growing up so fast. She's totally a little girl. I do love having her around. She's becoming more and more my little pal. She's too much fun.

I love these kids!

Presenting...

My list of Things That Must Go. (I hope nobody takes offense to any of these. Just my opinion. Different strokes for different folks, ya know?)

1. Dogs. I know everyone and their dog (hee hee) loves dogs, but I've never been a fan. I was terrified of them when I was little, and one chased me around the block once while my family watched laughing. Since we've moved to this house, I've especially been bugged by dogs. The previous owners had a dog, and even though we got the carpets cleaned before moving in, I still find dog hair! Gross. Also, two of the houses behind us have dogs and I get sick of hearing them bark at inconvenient hours. Although last night we were entertained by one of them squeezing under the fence to go play with the other one.

2. Trying to force little kids to use their right hand when they show signs of being left-handed. I'm a lefty, so this really bugs me. Just let the poor kids do what's natural.

3. Pluralizing words with an apostrophe in front of the 's'. Drives me nuts!

4. Separating one-word names into two. Ex.: Cold play, Radio head

5. Heat vents right below sinks. I'll probably be changing my tune in winter when the heat is on, but my feet are always freezing because I can't wash my hands or do the dishes without my feet being blasted with cold air.

6. The BCS.

That is all.