Patience

I have been struggling lately with being patient. Let's be honest, I've been struggling with a lot of things lately. I have not been very pleasant to be around. And I apologize for that. I've been lonely and bored and tired and frustrated. But that is no excuse...because these little faces deserve better than I have been giving them.

But I must be doing something right if someone is reading scriptures to her puppy, right?

I promise to start working on developing more patience.

I won $100!

Several years ago, my dad offered $100 to any of his kids who could beat him in a triathlon before he turned 60. I've come close a couple of times, but never quite pulled it off. I haven't done any tris in 4 years (since before I got pregnant with Emily) but I wanted one last chance to try and win my $100 since he turns 60 in Feb.

So last weekend, I took my chances at the Ogden Valley Triathlon. It's a longer distance than any other tris I've done, but it was the last chance I had to try to beat my dad before Feb.

It was hard! But I finished the race. And I beat my dad. By about 10 minutes!

My wetsuit zipper broke during the swim and created a huge drag and I had a panic attack in the middle of the lake, so I thought my chances of beating him were down the tubes at that point.

But I recovered on the bike portion and put in a good bike time.

And made it through the run.

And finished about 10 min ahead of my dad. :)

I'm glad I did it even though it was HARD!

Projects

Emily loves to do crafts and projects. Here she is making a butterfly.

If only I could think up stuff like this for her to do more often...

The finished butterfly!

11 Months

Our little Zach-man is 11 months old this month. It's hard to believe that he's almost ONE!!! Crazy. The other day I put him in a hoodie and jeans and with his new haircut he just looked so stinkin' cute and like a little boy rather than a baby.

At 11 months, Zach has mastered the army scoot and gets around quite quickly. His favorite thing to do is scoot himself over to Emmy's kitchen, dump out all the plastic food and dishes and drop them around on the hardwood floor. He also loves to open cupboards and drawers and then shut them again and again.

He has recently started protesting baby food and only wants to eat whatever is on my plate. I am trying to wean him, and we're down to one nursing session per day, but he still doesn't drink great out of a cup so I worry that he doesn't get enough fluids.

He is still not sleeping through the night and often gets banished to the basement. I don't go in and feed him or anything when he wakes up and cries, and he usually will go back to sleep after a few minutes or so, but sometimes he will cry for an hour or two in the middle of the night...that is when he gets sent to the basement.  He loves to wake up very early (like 5 a.m.). Ugh! I hope that someday I will sleep again.

But he is hard to stay mad at for very long because of this stinkin' cute smile and big blue eyes.

He also loves to screech when he is happy, especially in the bath. He loves to babble and use his voice.

He hates to stand up. When I try to stand him up, he lifts his feet up. Ha! He is perfectly content to sit or scoot around.

I love my boy!

Haircuts

I have been dreading this day for a long time, but Zach's hair was just looking way too moppy and something needed to be done about it, so I took him in to get a haircut. I may have almost cried when they started chopping.

He was so good though and so excited about that little red car he got to sit in. Emily got in on the fun too.

I asked them to keep it long on the top and not chop off all his curls.

He looks so handsome! He was such a good boy during his haircut.

And Emmy was so excited about the balloon she got afterwards.

Now if only I could learn to cut their hair myself and save myself a mint, that would be great! But they do love going to the haircut place.

Preschool

Awhile ago I decided not to put Emily in 3-year-old preschool. Mostly because I think it's too pricey and because I thought 3 was a little young to do preschool. I thought I'd just do 4-year-old preschool the year before kindergarten and call it good.

A couple of months ago though I was kind of bemoaning my choice not to put her in preschool. She and I have really been struggling with each other lately. She has been quite defiant to me, ornery, and really mean to Zach.

I started to think part of the problem was that she was bored. I can't handle entertaining her all day, and I definitely can't handle thinking of things for her to do all day. I don't believe that kids should be entertained all day, I think it's important to discover and imagine, but I also think they need some guidance in their activities.

Anyway, I was overjoyed when a new family moved into our neighborhood with a little girl exactly Emmy's age. Her mom talked to me about doing a little neighborhood preschool/playgroup with our girls and 2 others from the neighborhood as well.

So we're going to do it 2 days a week, and each of us moms will take one week a month. Today was the first day.

Emily was excited to take her backpack (and insisted on wearing all those bracelets), but she was still a little nervous. She struggled a bit at first, but by the end, she was having a good time. I really hope this will be good for her and help her to be more social and be nicer at home. And I think it will help me to have some structure and to be more patient with her as well.

She had a good first day, and was so proud of her painting. (She also insisted on riding her scooter to preschool).

And the day before preschool to celebrate the last day of summer we went and enjoyed some yummy snow cones! (I may or may not insist that we drive past 3 stands to go to the "good" one!)

I am sad for summer to be over, but I am excited for Emily to have a little more structured activity and socializing during her day because I can't provide that all by myself. (And I'm really excited that I get a break for a couple of hours a week (on the weeks it's not my turn to host!)...that may sound awful, but I really need it, and I think it will help our time together be a lot better.) Plus, since I only have to host once a month, it will be easier and more fun to plan the activities for Emily and her friends.

My crazy children

My kids are crazy. At least they are cute too! Emily found my stash of ribbons and enjoyed decorating herself with them...

Zach is scooting all over the place and I frequently find him in "interesting" places...

More dressing up from Emily...

And more mischief from Zach...

And this little jumping bean loves to jump...

My sanity may be gone for awhile, but at least I'll have funny memories of these little stinkers cuties.

Flood

The day before we were supposed to leave on our vacation, we noticed that our basement was wet in several areas! In fact, in one room there were plants growing out of the carpet! Gross! We kind of freaked out and didn't know what to do. After talking with some neighbors, they suggested calling one of those flood restoration companies. Luckily, our insurance covered the repairs, so while we were gone they came and ripped everything up to let it dry.

This is what we came home to...

Then, the following week our water softener AND our water heater decided to leak all over the place. I guess you could say "luckily" everything was still ripped up so we didn't have to rip it all out again.

So after fixing the water heater, water softener, and our sprinklers (which caused the original flood) our basement is mostly fixed now. Now we just need to put all the furniture, etc. back. Oh the joys??? of home ownership. (Sometimes I hate being a responsible adult.)