Root Beer Floats

So I finally convinced Autumn to clean up all the toys she got out by bribing her with a root beer float. It was really fun, because Autumn did a really good job cleaning up the toys, and I cleaned up the kitchen from making tortillas, and then just the two of us sat at the table having our root beer floats.

First off Autumn is so cool. I had a bowl of green beans that I hadn't finished eating from earlier, so I brought them to the table. Autumn wanted to know if she could eat some of the green beans too, while we had our floats, I of course told her yes.

She commented, "floats are better than candy with the soda and ice cream mixed, but they're not very healthy"

Then we talked about as long as you are exercising and eating healthy foods a lot of the time it is okay to have stuff that isn't healthy, then Autumn had her brilliant idea.

Autumn: "Mommy, I wish that you and me were still mommy and Autumn, and papi and Prairie, but that we all had the same names, and that this [root beer floats] was our vegetables, then it would taste so good!"

Waking Papi up

This is the girls waking up Papi for church today. He got to sleep in until noon!

The Difference of 23 months

Prairie in her carseat 2006

Prairie in her infant carseat March 2008

Today we were in the backyard to eat lunch and play for a while. I was looking through our storage closet realizing we really need to clean it out. Prairie's infant carseat was back there, and it is expired (for those of you that don't know, carseats do expire 6 years after the year they are manufactured, there should be something printed on your carseat, and it is really important not to use carseats past their expiration).

Anyway we are going to throw it away but I wanted to take some pictures of it because Prairie and Autumn both used the same carseat, but I made carseat covers for each of them, so they each had a unique carseat.



I went with green, because I didn't know if Prairie was a boy or girl, and I wanted to make sure I had something that was gender neutral. I really really love the fabric I used for the sun cover.



When I got the carseat when I was pregnant with Autumn it was hand-me-down, Ben and I were both in school and had to make things as cheap as possible. But I really hated the cover so that is why I even had the idea to do a cover for the carseat.

Autumn in her infant carseat in November 2003

Prairie playing in the backyard today

Prairie and Autumn eating their lunch in the backyard. When it is warm enough we eat our lunch outside almost everyday.

Swimming

Autumn and Prairie in their "swimming pool"

So while I was making dinner last night this is what my girls were doing. I told Autumn I didn't want her taking her clothes off, but we can see how well she listens. Then I told her that Prairie needed to keep her panties on because she was potty training (Autumn and convinced her briefly to run around nude and go "swimming"). Well then it was quiet for a while and I went back to their bedroom to find Autumn pulling a swimsuit onto Prairie. She got it on backwards but she and Prairie got the swimsuit on without my help. Then they were using the aquadoodle mat as the swimming pool.

Prairie with her backwards swimming suit on

this is what happens when you wear your swimsuit backwards

Prairie swimming by herself, I really need video of this to do it justice, but our camcorder is out of commission right now

It is so much fun having a 22 month old and a 4 years old They play together all the time. They are so cute together. They have races on the stairs. They love it when we wedge the twin mattress on the stairs and they use it as a slide and Autumn ties ropes to the railings and then scales the slide using the ropes. They are so much fun to watch, and their imaginations are amazing.

Autumn and Prairie playing on the stairs

Autumn and Prairie have been eating at the picnic table this week, so that Prairie can go potty easily during meals if she needs to, they love it

If I don't know what Prairie is doing or can't hear her, this is usually what I find her doing. Sitting quietly somewhere reading books. She really loves reading books. She is on the bunk beds here. We know that she wants to sleep there, but we aren't ready for that yet. Plus Ben hasn't built the ladder and the rail for the top bunk, so Autumn can't even sleep up there yet.

Prairie chill-laxing on the bed reading books

My Sewing Blog!

So I have actually been updating my sewing blog, so this is my official announcement of my sewing blog, that will have pictures of projects that I complete in 2008. This is a nice way for me to see that I actually did complete projects, because I do spend so much time sewing. I thought others might be interested in seeing what I spend so much of my "free" time doing. So go check it out www.emilywsews.blogspot.com
(also I have a link to this blog on my sidebar, it is the "Emily's sewing blog" link)

Easter Festivities

So we made sugar cookies in the shapes of eggs, sheep, bunnies, and easter baskets. Other than this activity we didn't do any of he traditional easter activities, like easter egg hunts, coloring eggs. Ben hard boiled some eggs sunday morning, for us to color in the evening, but alas they are still sitting on our kitchen counter. The girls had a lot of fun frosting the cookies, and I had far too much fun eating them.

Potty Training

Well I decided that Prairie and me were both ready for potty training, now that we have started I am not as convinced, but I am going to stay in all this week to give it a fighting chance. She really is doing a good job, its just that I read this book that said you can train most kids in 4 hours, well it is definitely taking longer than 4 hours, but she is wearing panties, hates getting them wet, holds it if she starts to have an accident, and knows to go to the potty. The big hold up is that she is having a really hard time relaxing on the potty. So I will have to update everyone in a week or so and hopefully it will be good news. That's what we are up to this week. Lots of movies in the kitchen (tile floor) kids wearing just panties running around, and lots of juice to encourage more pottying.

Autumn sayings

Ben was working late on a saturday night, so I took the girls to McDonalds so they could do something fun. The were eating burgers and playing on the indoor equipement.

me: Autumn 10 more minutes and it is time to go
Autumn: ok mommy, how about 12 minutes ? (smiling an adorable smile)
me: ok fine (like the I totally think you are cute, so I am giving in)
Autumn: Yay! (she then pauses, before running off) Is that more than 10 minutes?
me(laughing) : yes :)



Driving in the car

Autumn: my tummy is all empty!
me: you must be so hungry!
Autumn: yeah i'm really hungry, its [all the food] is pee and poop!




Driving by Seven peaks

Autumn: By the time it is summer, Jennie will be gone to texas, and she won't be able to go Seven Peaks with us, and I really wanted her to
me: does that make you sad
Autumn: it makes me so sad, I wish she would move right now so i won't be sad



After watching The Prince of Egypt

The other day Autumn borrowed the movie The Prince of Egypt from her aunt Jennie. After watching it for the first time she came out to the kitchen to talk to me. She was very very disturbed, in fact she started crying about it. It really really bothered her that the brothers weren't nice to her, and she just couldn't understand why things would be like that. She broke down and was sobbing about it. I tried to talk to her about it, and how she must love Prairie so much, because she would never want to treat her sister like that. She is really into sending letters right now, so I asked her if she wanted to send them letters, she then burst into a new set of tears and said "mommy, they only live in disneyland!". Somehow she has grasped that cartoon characters aren't "real" people, but she thinks that they all live in disneyland, since she knows that you can see the disney princesses in disneyland.

Another Catch Up

A LOT has happened in the last 3 weeks for us. First off my grandfather passed away on February 20th, so on the 21st me and the girls drove up to Idaho and stayed there for 6 days for the funeral and to spend time with my mom. I'm really not that sad about it. I feel like I have already mourned my grandpa, because he had Alzheimer's, and hasn't remembered me for about 6 years. I am glad that he won't be suffering anymore and he can be with his wife. It was really nice to see all of my Ricks family members I hadn't seen for a long time.


We got some time to hang out at my Aunt's house, and we also go to see Ben's little sister, Lindsey, and her husband Dustin. The girls are both in love with Dustin.

Prairie playing with Dustin's bear

the newlyweds, Lindsey and Dustin, in their adorable apartment

Jennie reading books to the girls at my Aunt's house

Autumn playing the Wii with her aunt Jennie and uncle Janardan at my aunt's house

cutie Prairie, she really likes sleeping with no clothes on, our little nudist

While I was in Idaho Ben started his new job as a therapist for Provo Canyon Schools at the Orem campus which is a residential treatment center for girls. It has been a little more intense schedule wise than we were expecting. The previous therapist was fired and Ben started basically the next day. Instead of being treated like a brand new therapist and only getting 2 clients, which is what Provo Canyon generally does, he has had to just completely take over the other job of 8 clients and has gotten a new one since he started. He still hasn't been trained on how to do all the paper work, and in addition to jumping right in with 9 clients, he is supposed to catch up on all the work the previous therapist had left undone when he was fired. It has been a little frustrating, but Ben thinks that he is almost caught up. He has been working late nights, like until 1o or midnight and on the weekend to try to get all caught up. He has been working sooooo hard. He has been a little overwhelmed. Once he is actually trained on everything he has to do, and has had enough time to catch up on everything, I know he is going to love his job. He already loves having his own office, and big bonus we are on salary!

The other piece of news is that we got a new couch, as in new to us, in fact it is very old. It is 40 years old according to my Grandma. It is a couch that my Grandma had specially made for her family, and my dad and his siblings grew up on it. I just want to say that the colors are perfect, if anyone remembers my wedding, or if you didn't know me then, those are exactly my wedding colors. My bridesmaids had dresses the same color as the light green, and scarves of the dark green. So I am TOTALLY excited about this couch, and am already planning to recover my loveseat to coordinate with it. The big dilemma: we now have 2 very long couches in our front room and a loveseat, is it too much furniture? We really love the other long couch, but we love all the hodgepodge couches that we have. So right now we have a pretty full living room, luckily we have a very large living room.