More Story Time - Yay!

I can't get enough of Hazel. She is one awesome little girl. She's talking a lot and sings E-I-E-I-O in Old MacDonald Had A Farm. It's pretty much adorable. She says beep for nose thanks to Jason for saying "beep" every time she'd poke his nose. She loves nostrils, her's or yours, it doesn't matter. The other day in the car I thought she was plugging her nose because her voice was awfully nasally. I turned around to see what was going on and she wasn't exactly plugging her nose, she just had a pointer finger up each nostril. 

 She still loves to climb in things, no matter how small they are.

Clara has really been into making things in the kitchen. On this day, she mixed oats, sliced almonds, water and cinnamon. She ate a bunch of it. It wasn't awful, but it was pretty bland and dry. At least it was healthy!

These are the outtakes from Karen's wedding. I had a hard time finding shoes and ended up buying three different pair just in case. I'm pretty sure Jason was glad these didn't make the cut. They were really cute, but yes, very high.

When we went to return those shoes, I decided last minute to drive by the Gilbert Temple. We had never been by the site and I was surprised how big the temple is and how far along they are. It will be fun to see it finished.

For Cinco de Mayo, we went to a party at Debbie's.

I think the highlight was the giant Nacho Libre pinata. It was awesome.

The little kids at Margo's baby blessing.

After the funeral in Snowflake (more on that later), we went to lunch with the in-laws (Connie, Maricel and Lacey). Afterwards, we got to go see Len and Maricel's new house.  

Clara loved playing with her cousins and sliding on her knees on the wood floors.

After that, we went and walked around the temple. I'd highly recommend that after a funeral. It was soothing and peaceful and easy to contemplate my thoughts with an eternal perspective. Hazel clearly did not want to be held by Clara.

Clara went ahead of us and was sitting on the bench like this when we came around the corner. She said, "Are you looking for a little girl? I haven't seen any little girls go by here."

Lily came with me and watched the girls while I went to the viewing and the funeral. It was so awesome having her with us. Too bad she can't come on all our vacations.

We stayed and played for a few minutes at Michelle's before driving home.

 

I love it when Clara and Hazel hunker down together. It doesn't matter that they are 4 years apart, they are sisters which means Clara is the protective older sister and Hazel is the admiring younger sister.

Clara had her music recital at the beginning of May. Lily and my parents came to support her. I'm glad she has a good support system. She has really enjoyed her music class and she did so well in the recital. She did, however, dance to most of the songs. The funny thing is, no one else was dancing because THEY WERE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE DANCING. I'm so glad I got it on video. It's pretty awesome and she got a lot of comments afterwards. Oh, my dear little performer.

Woo hoo! I'm almost caught up to our California trip which was a week ago. But of course life doesn't slow down and wait for me to blog, so I'm guessing by the time I blog about that trip, we'll have more blog worthy material. 

To Be Like You

The longer I'm a mother, the more I appreciate what my own mother taught me. I think this is mostly because I'm realizing these are things that make my mom extra special to me since not everyone had/has a mom like mine. Here are a few of my favorite things my mom taught me (whether formally, by example or both). These are things that are important to me and I hope I can pass on to my children.

Alternative Medicine - We didn't go to the doctor much in our house. My mom was educated on natural and homeopathic solutions and cures for common sicknesses and would explore those options first. I appreciate that more even now that I'm a mom myself. I don't like the idea of always medicating myself or my children and because of my mom, I have found a happy medium in my life. My sisters and I were talking about how glad we are for a mom that taught us that since we have a lot of friends who don't know about alternative options. Sometimes I take the things my mom taught us for granted, assuming everyone's mom taught them that. Times like this make me realize that's true and I am blessed to have learned that from my mom.

Confidence - Not so much in the "I'm so cool and everybody loves me" sense, but confident in the person I choose/strive to be. I learned to change something instead of complain about it and then be confident in my decision. I didn't get much sympathy if I complained about something I could change. She taught me to develop my own opinions and be confident in them and not do things just because someone else was doing it or just because a doctor told me to do it. She taught me to speak up and ask questions and educate myself so I could be confident in my decisions.

Healthy eating habits - We didn't really eat processed foods growing up. My mom prepared our meals from scratch and we rarely went out to eat. Fast forward a few decades and I am so glad that fixing meals for my family from scratch using whole grains and lots of fresh fruits and vegetables was a natural transition from the meals I ate from my mom. I didn't have to learn how to cook when I got married nor did I have to learn the basics of healthy eating. Of course there's always room for improvement and I'm constantly learning and education myself about healthy eating. I'm always looking for ways to improve our eating habits, but I'm grateful for a solid foundation I was given growing up.

Independence - My mom has always been very independent. She doesn't depend on other people and doesn't wait around for someone else to do the things she wants. For example, my dad was gone a lot for work and that never held her back from making memories with us. She took us on vacations across state lines and camping by herself. Just like my mom, I love it when my husband can join us, but if he can't, it doesn't stop us from going. However, I'm not sure I can do the camping thing by myself. That might be beyond my realm of independence. Mostly because I'm a big chicken (unfortunately, I did not inherit my mom's bravery).

Service - My mom serves a broader group of people than probably anyone I know. She is busy just like the rest of us but always makes time to serve and help others, especially her family. Even now that I'm an adult with children of my own, I am heavily influenced by her when it comes to service, both by being the recipient and having her encourage me to not make excuses when I have a chance to help. I have had opportunities to serve multiple times in the last few months. Even without that, it's been a really busy few months. I have had a lot of really good reasons not to accept and/or volunteer for the opportunities that crossed my path and most people would have accepted it as a good excuse. Each time I have thought, Ugh, I don't have time for that right now. But because of the example I have, I know service isn't always convenient. In fact, it's rarely convenient. These days people will excuse their way out of opportunities to serve not realizing that part of service is sacrifice, but just like any other sacrifice, we get something better. I did the service and each time my energy and time was blessed to more than compensate for what I had sacrificed.

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers (just a week late), especially my own mom that has influenced so much of the type of mother I try to be every single day.

Crying for no reason

It's been a long week. Friday night after the kids were in bed, Jason left to go talk to our friend/mechanic about the work that needs to be done on his car and I laid in bed and wanted to cry for no apparent reason. I am emotional in general, but I don't usually cry for no reason. Actually, I don't think I've ever cried for no reason. So then I wondered why I felt like crying for no reason and it dawned on me that most people probably don't cry for no reason even if they say/think they do. Lots of little not-cry-material moments accumulate and as a whole, create a reason to cry. It's been a busy week, things have gotten a little crazy at one of my clients, I've been working a lot, Jason's been working a lot, I might have had a miscarriage* and then I missed Karen's birthday and in talking to her, I realized I saw another friend with a May birthday and didn't wish her a belated birthday (Happy Birthday Erin!). I hate being a rotten friend. So while I wouldn't really cry over any one of those, all together it made me want to cry. In the end I didn't cry because I got sidetracked and started thinking about this instead of crying. And by then I was done feeling sad and cleaned the kitchen before falling asleep on the couch. Good thing Jason is strong and can still carry me.

*This really wasn't bad at all. For the record, my cycles are 4-6 weeks, so being a week late is never a reason for me to believe I'm pregnant. However, I have been exhausted this week. Like sleeping 8-9 hours (way more than normal) and still feeling tired, which only happens when I'm pregnant. On Thursday, I felt so sick and tired I laid on Clara's bed for over an hour while the girls played. I dozed off for a few minutes right after I laid down which is very out of character for me. I don't usually nap. It was really weird and I told Jason I thought something was wrong with me. On Friday, something else happened that made me think there is a chance I was pregnant. It was mostly not sad because a.) we are not trying to get pregnant, b.) I had no clue and no excitement attached to the thought of being pregnant (if I even was) before Friday and c.) if I was, it was only a few weeks. It was a tiny bit sad because we make cute babies, our kids are awesome and unexpected and unplanned surprises aren't always a bad thing.

Random Thoughts from 5.4.2012

Jason went camping last night and I was excited to watch a movie and finally get my laundry folded. I put the kids to bed early and fell asleep just after 8pm. I woke up just after 11pm and was too tired to fold laundry, but not tired enough to go back to sleep. So I worked for a few hours. I was looking forward to being able to impress Jason with the laundry being folded, but someone's gotta make some money. Especially since we've had a rather expensive week. We replaced my lap top power cord,

our kitchen faucet (I'll show you before and after once it's installed, but this is the one I finally picked out after weeks and weeks of indecisiveness) and one of our A/C units (the whole thing, which, I'll have you know, is not cheap... but I'll also have you know we got a great deal and I would highly recommend the A/C Doctors).

Plus we had to pay for some A/C repairs at our rental. While I don't enjoy spending that kind of money, it doesn't stress me out like it used to. I actually feel terribly grateful that we were able to pay for it. You see, at the beginning of the year, I was feeling a little anxious about financial uncertainty. I prayed for opportunities to help us prepare for what might lie ahead. In one week's time, I got two new clients and an irregular client called me for help. Just a few weeks after that, I was contacted by some friends asking for help while one of them took her maternity leave. So I worked and we saved and although there are plenty of other things I would have liked to use that money for (like, to save, duh), I am extremely grateful the money was there. I was a little overwhelmed that my specific prayer had such a specific answer so quickly. I learned the hard way that's not always how things work, especially when finances are involved, but for whatever reason, it worked that way this time around and I am overwhelmed with gratitude for it.

Now lest you feel sorry for me having to spend my hard earned money and our life's savings on these necessary evils, know that I also bought myself a new camera this week. It's the one I've been wanting (dare I say coveting?) and Ryan, my personal informant for electronic deals, tipped me off to a deal that seemed too good to be true. Through a 3rd party link, the camera was showing over $300 cheaper than going to Adorama's site directly. In fact, the price this other link was showing was the same price as a used camera from their site. After researching Adorama and feeling comfortable with them as a company, I took the plunge. Now I just need to purchase a lens. And a memory card. Minor details.

So yeah, The Penrods have spent about 2 months of their regular monthly expenditures (including the mortgage!)  in one week. Yay!

Back to my wild sleep schedule... so I was up working and doing mindless things on the computer until about 4:30am, which is when I finally fell back asleep. It's a vicious cycle and one that's hard to break.

I don't usually tell Jason what I want for holidays. However, we were shopping a few nights ago and I decided I miss him wearing cologne. A lot. He used to wear it all the time and then we were so poor we couldn't even afford to think about it. Smelling what he wore when we were dating brought back a lot of good memories. Now that we have some wiggle room in the budget, I decided that's what I want for Mother's Day: cologne for Jason (update, he didn't buy it for me).

I miss Jason. Six months after we got married, I started traveling for work. I'd be gone for a week at a time. It was rough. I always thought I'd die and not get to have his kids or grow old with him. It got easier and eventually, I got pretty desensitized to being without him. When I had Clara, he was still in school and working a lot so we'd leave for a week at a time and go on vacation without him since he wasn't around much anyway. I didn't even think twice about packing up and leaving for a week. But over the last year or so, that has all started to fade. We are apart less, especially over night. I miss snuggling up to his warm body in bed. I miss his lame jokes. I miss making him laugh. I miss his help with the girls. I miss his goodnight kiss. And I miss having him near me, even if  he's just lying next to me asleep.

I've been thinking about time. It seems people always say how fast time flies. I kind of agree with that (more so when I'm working). They also say, "It seems like just yesterday... {insert any event in history here}." So that's where I feel like I'm a little different (crazy?). My mind doesn't just think back to a certain point in time and feel like I'm there again. My mind goes back through all the details of what has happened between then and now and that leaves me feeling like it was not just yesterday, but 100's and 1000's of memories ago. I don't think, Oh, it seems like just yesterday we got married. I think Wow, in the last 8+ years, we have worked, changed jobs, both graduated college, both started our own businesses, gone on trips, including San Francisco, San Diego, Utah, Seattle, Mexico, etc., got pregnant three times, had two babies, bought three houses, sold one house, became landlords, moved, sold a car, bought a car, went camping, enjoyed staycations, etc.. And those are just the major things. Think of the thousands of little memories, like playing games, swimming, playing in the irrigation, going on walks, baking, laughing, singing, dancing, living!, etc. So then I see that it's clearly impossible for that to happen in a day, and yes, we did need 8 years to accomplish that, which means I feel like we got married about 8 years ago, which we did. Maybe this is my way-too-logical self coming out in full force, but that's how my brain works.  I do think one benefit of this is that I don't get really sad when I think of my kids being little. Instead of thinking how quickly time goes by, I think of all the memories I have from that time. Sure my kids are growing up fast, but look at all the memories!

Story Time

The worst part about getting so far behind on my blogging is missing the simple little stories of every day life. So here's an attempt.

Too bad my grated skin is the same color as grated romano cheese. Too bad because I was really looking forward to adding the cheese to my dressing.

 Debbie cleaned my floors the day of Karen's shower. Wow, right?

 For a while I made oatmeal crepes for breakfast. Clara loved getting a little sugar for breakfast.

Our friends Rob and Heather were in town a month or two ago so we had a little get together. I am so grateful for such good friends. I have such neat friends and I am glad we still get together at least a few times a year when the out-of-staters come for a visit.

One day it appeared to be giant day at the Ranch Market. First up, giant cucumbers.

 Next up, giant cauliflower (we ate that thing for a week).

Arizona has such beautiful skies. I love sitting in my front yard or on the porch at sunset.

Clara had another parent program. This one was for the African Savannah habitat and it was so awesome. I especially loved their little outfits. The little "room" was a veterinarian hut, complete with glasses, stuffed animals and giant shots.

I went to pick up the girls from Kathryn's one day and stayed for a wedding. Lucy and Clara made their black skirts and then were the flower girls for Elsa. Don't you love the stunning neon yellow wedding dress?

Hazel got her first trim on 4.28.2012. She didn't really have a mullet yet and the back looked okay if it was laying down. But when it wasn't, she looked a bit homeless. Jason was gone so Clara was my photographer. I told my mom about it. She said, "Why'd you get rid of her curls?" To which Clara said, "We didn't! We saved them!" She was referring to the little lock of hair I saved from her first hair cut. Ha ha.

I've been experimenting with my hair. My hair is so fine and I've never been able to feel good on the days I don't wash my hair (which used to be rare). Now by using lots of product, "washing" with just conditioner and using my dry shampoo, I can go a few days without it and I think it looks better.

Margo loves me. This is just from one of her visits to my house.

Right Where I Want To Be

Last week we experienced a nice little storm, lots of rain and lots of wind. It was unexpected and storms like that don't come here often during this time of year. I immediately stopped the housework, opened the curtains and cuddled and read books on the couch with Hazel and Clara. I was so happy knowing of all the places I could have been at that moment, I was exactly where I wanted to be.

This Magic Moment

I love weddings. And do you know what's better than a wedding? When two of your favorite people marry each other. Jason and I have had several people ask us how we knew Karen and Dan would be so good together. We joke that we didn't know, we just selfishly wanted them to get married so we could all hang out together. The truth is, the first part of that was a joke, but not the second part. We are so happy for those two. 

The rehearsal dinner was on Friday night. The shirt Jason is wearing is the same shirt he was wearing the first time I saw him. What a romantic. 

Aren't these giant flowers awesome that they made for the wedding?

Seriously?

We were just messing around taking pictures that night and Clara wanted to be in this picture with Karen and her parents. Little did we know it'd be foreshadowing for the wedding day.

The wedding was the next day in Peoria. Karen looked beautiful, which was no surprise. I was so grateful to have my mom there to help with Hazel since Jason, Clara and I were in the wedding. That meant I didn't get to take many pictures, but I'm hoping to steal plenty of pictures from Karen once she gets her pictures from the photographer. 

Clara was one of the flower girls and spent some time pouting during the pictures when she realized she can't be in every picture. Poor girl loves to have her picture taken and loves to be the center of attention.  She sat off to the side with a pouty-I'm-about-to-cry face when they were taking pictures of Dan and Karen. When they were done, they invited her into a few of them, which made her super excited. I told her she can be in all the pictures on her wedding day.

Peace I leave with you

This past Sunday my emotions took a trip from one extreme to the next. From life to death. I saw first hand how peace manifests whether it's happiness or sorrow that we experience.

First up, this little darling was given a name and a blessing by her proud daddy. I don't know that any event surpasses the joy of a new baby. Beneath all the stress and chaos that newborns can bring, there is always underlying peace. So sweet, so fresh from Heaven and so precious.

After the luncheon/dinner, I left for Snowflake for the viewing of Laschelle Schneider. There was so much sorrow and sadness. My heart just hurts. I will miss her and that's coming from someone who only got to see her every so often. What about her family and friends that will notice her gone all the time? What about those that have to face every single day without her cheerful countenance? Some things seem unfair. Some things are really hard to understand. Yet, beneath the heavy hearts, there was also peace. I know and they know that God has a plan, a plan of happiness no less, and that families are eternal.

Hazel Catch-up

4.7.2012: Walking - Apparently my little darling would rather crawl the rest of her life than walk when I encourage it. On Friday (April 6), we were visiting with my neighbor and she crawled away from me (after I had tried to get her to walk), stood up in the middle of their sidewalk and took 4-5 steps. She fell down, and hopped right back up, took 3-4 steps and repeated that about 4 times. Oh goody, a stubborn one.

4.24.2012: Hazel finally decided to walk. She's known how to walk for a while, but waited until she was ready. When we got home from Suzanne's, she just started walking around the house and hasn't really stopped. It's so cute watching her wobbly legs and loose hips waddle side to side.

Talking - She repeats so much of what we say, but says thank you (which is mostly recognizable by her intonation and nothing else), dog, bark (when asked what a dog says, she doesn't bark, she says bark, ha ha), ball, ma ma, mommy, da da, no, snack, nap, yeah, night night, moo, do (as in the solfeg do - whenever Clara practices her music, Hazel walks around and says "do do"), gama (rare, she usually just calls my mom mama), gampa (rare), annie, eeshe (could be please or cheese), banana, kitty (her intonation on this is very dramatic), apple, sister (more like di-der). She says "hello" which is more of a deep "lo" and holds things to her ear. For a while she'd get things, put them to her ear and say, "Hi, Daddy". She also babbles. I think my favorite thing she says is "yeah" because while she's saying it, she opens her eyes really big, raises her eyebrows and nods her head. She also started screaming several weeks ago to try to get what she wants. I worked with her for a few days and taught her to sign "please" if she wants something rather than scream. It's worked like a charm. Although sometimes she thinks signing please means she'll get whatever she wants. The other day just before her nap she got really frustrated. I don't think she wanted to take a nap (usually she'll say please for a drink of water to stall, but this time she would sign please every time I got by her crib) and she started frantically signing please, eat, more and then hit her head (not hard, just hit it with her hand).

Books - Hazel has been really interested in books lately. Before she loved to look at them and turn the pages but I usually couldn't read a whole book to her. Not even the short little board books. Now she asks for them before her naps, before night time and sometimes just when she sees one on the floor. She especially loves Mr. Brown Can Moo and knocks on the book like clara did.

Eating - She is such a good eater most of the time, which I never take for granted. We eat healthy and she eats what we eat. If she didn't, I think I'd have a hard time with that. A few weeks ago we had pizza on wheat flatbread. She wouldn't touch it but had seconds of the steamed broccoli, steamed carrots and cucumbers. She usually eats a ton, but just like most of us, she goes in waves so if she isn't eating much for a few days, it doesn't bother me.

Tantrums - Hazel is a really great baby. She is happy, easy going, sweet and curious about life. But if she has her heart set on playing in a certain drawer and you peel her away, she will lose it. She whips her head back, kicks her legs and screams. And just for the record, she has a giant head, so I've learned how to avoid contact with that weapon of hers. I have been focusing on mitigating this behavior, so the worst of it lasted just a short time. Or at least I hope so.

Grandma - Hazel loves my mom. Well, I think all kids love my mom, but Hazel loves her more than she loves me. Or so it seems. She goes straight for my mom whenever she sees her, screams if my mom walks past and doesn't pick her up, cries when my mom leaves our house or we leave her's and cries if we drop Lily off and she doesn't get to see Grandma. However, there have been two times she has wanted me over my mom. 1.) When she was hysterical after seeing Kevin (she seemed to warm up to him a bit more last time we saw him) and 2.) when she had a pretty hard fall on the back of her head. I don't mind that Hazel generally prefers my mom over me, but it sure made me feel a bit smug knowing that when she's at her very worst, she prefers me. :)

Comparing - I know you're not supposed to compare your kids, but it's fun to me to see how Clara and Hazel are alike and how they are different. They don't look much alike and they have very different personalities. At this point, their two closest similarities are they are awesome and cute. Clara has such a loud, fun personality. Hazel does not. She is much more subtle with her humor and not quite as animated. She is, however, very witty which makes me smile. Tonight I picked a bell pepper out of the pan and ate it. When I went to give her some, she refused it. I pretended to nibble on the piece I had for her and offered it to her again. Instead of turning her head away from it again, she went forward and when her mouth was just an inch or so away, she pretended to nibble on it just like I had.

She has not put things in her mouth from the floor for a long time. However, she must be teething again because this week she kept putting things in her mouth. Once I found her chewing on 6 (SIX!) of Clara's little clear hair rubber bands. That same day she had a rubber piece of Clara's computer in her mouth. And maybe I shouldn't tell you about the nasty things she put in her mouth outside. Or maybe I should so you can be sick to your stomach. Item number one: bird poo. She scratched a pile of it and put her finger in her mouth. A few days later she put the shell of a bird egg that fell onto our driveway in her mouth. Jason asked me if I just don't watch her anymore. Both times I was just a few feet away from her and didn't get to her quick enough, especially since I'm not used to her doing that so until this week I haven't felt it essential to hover over her to stop her from doing this.

Hazel gets SO excited when Jason comes home from work. She screams and yells, Daddy! She usually kicks her legs and goes a little crazy. If he walks past her to set his stuff down or changes his clothes, she instantly starts crying.

She will not look at me when she has done something she shouldn't and I'm trying to talk to her about it.

All these pictures are from the last month or so, in no particular order.

This is shortly after we turned her around in the car. She was SO happy for days.

Hazel loves to climb into things. This cubby is the worst since a fall backwards would land her right on the corner of the tile bench around the fireplace. This picture is a good time to announce (per Gracie) that Joseph married Hazel. They really are fond of each other and I love watching them interact.

 She is so very observant. She knew exactly where make up goes.

I'm not exactly sure why I love this picture, but I do. Maybe the yellow and turquoise? Maybe her cute little profile? Maybe her perfect little face and her even more perfect cheeks?

She pretty much refuses to eat without a spoon or fork. Although that doesn't mean she doesn't use her hands to help shove food into her mouth.

Another plus (the only plus?) of not folding laundry for months is it gives Hazel somewhere to play. Here she's trying to put her shirt on. I didn't have the heart to tell her sleeves go on our arms, not our legs.

She is still very busy and destructive. She loves taking everything out of my purse and carries my camera case around like it is her purse. And doing it on a box she's climbed onto makes it even more thrilling.

See? She climbs into everything - even if she doesn't fit.

She's recently decided she's much older than 16 months and climbs onto chairs. Usually she faces the right direction. Usually.

I don't buy cereal. I think it's a waste of money and I can't stand how much sugar is in it. However, there was a coupon at Costco for Lucky Charms. I decided to buy them for mornings we might be running late and for church since I don't really have snacks for church. My great idea totally backfired on me. I gave Hazel a bowl, she got a spoonful of cereal, noticed a marshmallow in the bowl, picked it out with her other hand and began to eat every last marshmallow out of her bowl without touching a single piece of the actual cereal. Then she dumped her whole bowl of milk out. Now she gets dry cereal and the first time, she screamed and begged for more after she picked all the marshmallows out. She signed "more, please" over and over and over trying to get more. I discovered that if I say no, explain that she can have more cereal if she eats what's on her tray and ignore her, she'll eventually eat the rest of the cereal after she's done whining for a few minutes.

In church, it was worse. Or maybe it was just quieter so it seemed worse. When I wouldn't let her eat just the marshmallows out of the bag, she threw a major fit and we had to take her out. Note to self: Lucky Charms are a really bad idea.

Hazel loved the boiled eggs from Easter. Let's call this picture "Now you see it, now you don't" because you better believe she shoved that entire egg into her giant mouth.

A few weeks ago I was scanning stuff for work when Hazel woke up a bit earlier than normal. Usually, I'd leave her in there to see if she's go back to sleep, but that morning I decided she could come hang out with me. She just sat on the chair and was cute and played and talked on my phone.

T-ball was not Hazel's favorite thing. She wanted to get down, crawl onto the field, go visit Clara and her team, etc. Having my parents at many of the games made it easier since we all know how much Hazel looooooves my mom.

She gets so excited to hear music  and bops her head and marches. Before she started walking, she'd hang onto something and march in place.

This post was too long to edit - forgive my mistakes. :)