Kiersten’s Blog

Sometimes I wonder if I’ll ever enjoy church again.  Maybe when my kids are out of the house.  London’s in her breakdown-and-cry-and-whine-and-scream-about-everything mode again.  Ashton, well, he’s just crazy.  Sitting for long periods of time (or any time at all) is just not something he EVER does.  Three hours of sitting still in the same room?  (We have sacrament meeting, sunday school and Relief Society all in the chapel).  That’s just not okay for him.  Or me, really.  He’s okay if I’m constantly stuffing food down his throat, but frankly, I’m not that rich.  So today we ended up with two kids that were not much fun.  The primary sang a song that London knows well and sang all day after church, but refused to sing with the primary during church.  I escorted a crying child up to the stand, where she stood and cried the whole time.  Then, of course, when they were done and we were back in our seat, she threw a fit because she wanted to sing that song with the other children on the stage.  I tried to explain to her that it was too late and she could sing another song on Mother’s Day, but that wasn’t good enough.  So we went on a happy walk outside.  She screamed while I dragged her around by her arm.  While this was all going on, Taylor was wrestling with Ashton, trying to keep him calm when all he wanted to do was crawl like a banshee up to the front of the chapel and climb the stairs.  I’m so glad London goes to primary right after sacrament meeting.  I keep telling myself that Ashton only has about 24 more Sundays before I can send him away to the nursery.  I can’t wait!

Now they’re both in their respective rooms sleeping like little angels in their 18 month size pajamas.

You probably haven’t noticed, but I have never taken a picture of our garage.  All the before and after shots were of the house.  That’s because the garage still looks like before.  We haven’t cleaned it.  There are cobwebs.  The ceiling still has stains, as well as popcorn.  It’s really not that exciting.  And it was full of junk.  Not only was it full of junk, it was full of unorganized junk.  Today Taylor took care of that problem (I mean the unorganized problem.  He would take care of the junk problem too but he’s afraid of throwing away my treasures because he doesn’t want my wrath.  Even so, it’s still not completely organized, but it’s definitely more so than it was before).  It’s amazing what that man can do in a matter of an hour or so.  Now we can actually fit our car in the garage!

Growing up, we NEVER parked our car in the garage.  My parents still don’t park their car in the garage and they have a 2-car garage.  That’s why I was amazed the first time I went to Taylor’s parents house and they had 3 cars parked in their 3-car garage.  Now they have 3 cars and a motorcycle and a bunch of bikes and surf boards and kayaks and tools and food storage and . . . I could go on and on.  It’s pretty amazing.  Anyway, my point was, we have a 1-car garage and now we can fit one car in it.  That amazes me.

Taylor and London ready to race McQueen

This evening we attended our first ward activity since we moved here.  It was a pinewood derby.  We got a kit a few weeks ago and made the car one Family Home Evening.  London, of course, was really excited about it.  She painted it and added stickers for windows and doors.  She even wrote “McQueen” on it because that’s what she decided to name the car.  She didn’t care that the car wasn’t red.  She said that it was the blue Lightening McQueen.  There were some really cute creations at the derby.  There were no rules as far as how to make the car, just as long as it went down the track.  People let their imaginations fly.  One person made a monster truck that took up two tracks.  There were prizes for creativity and other things and there was also a prize for the fastest car (of course) and the slowest car.  The only rule was that it had to cross the finish line.  There were a couple that didn’t quite make it that far.  We lucked out and won in the slowest car category!  London was pretty excited to be a winner.  She got a medal and 2 dinner passes at Souplantation.  It was an enjoyable activity, especially since we won!  Ashton was a bit of a pain, just because it was past his bedtime and when he’s tired, he’s CRAZY!  So he was crawling around trying to eat popcorn off the floor.  Nice.  It was nice to get out and get to know people in the ward a little better.

Sometimes I wonder if the whining will ever subside.  It’s not just the whining, it’s also the fits.  It’s usually the whining that escalates to fits.  Today was one of those days where there was lots of whining and screaming coming from a little girl in my house.  I wonder what the neighbors think on days like today.  Anyway, one of the fits was started because London wanted to go outside.  I told her that I didn’t have a problem with her going outside and playing.  She just needed to put her shoes on.  Once we got over the initial fit of her wanting me to go outside with her but I couldn’t because I was feeding Ashton, she threw another fit because she didn’t want to go upstairs to find her shoes.  Luckily I knew that earlier she had taken off a pair of shoes while downstairs.  I reminded her of this and told her to go find them.  I clued her in to where the first one was.  Again, she threw a huge tantrum because she couldn’t find the other one.  I couldn’t help but take this picture because it shows where the shoe was the whole time, and where she was standing.  Um, open your eyes!  I think it’s funny that she loves the look and find type books and she does well with finding those hidden objects, but when it comes to seeing something right in front of her, it’s completely impossible.  I’m sure glad today is over.

This little guy is hilarious.  The weather has been so nice lately that we have to go outside and play.  London was running up and down the hill in the back as Ashton and I watched from the patio door.  He wanted to join in the fun (after having been set on the grass and paralyzed because he was afraid to move on the grass).  He tried everything he could think of to get out of the open door.  He just could not figure out how to climb over the threshold.  He tried walking over, but got stuck once his feet landed on the metal grooves.  Then he tried on his hands and knees but didn’t know what to do so that he didn’t have to touch the ground once he got outside.  He tried various strategies for about 15 minutes before he made it outside.  Once he had been outside for about 30 seconds, he crawled right back in the house and the process started over again.  Finally I carried him out on the patio and let him play.  But he didn’t want to crawl around there either.  I guess cement feels a little too much like sand.  He would have been fine had he been wearing socks and gloves.  Apparently he’s a little sensitive to strange textures on him.

On a side note, we went for a walk with the wagon today and London found a snail.  She didn’t realize it was a snail.  She just thought it was a cool shell.  Once it was in her hand, it started crawling out of the shell, which she thought was very cool.  I’m surprised she didn’t freak out like she does when she sees a fly.

I saw a tutorial a long time ago for a dress for a little girl made from one of her daddy’s old button-up shirts.  I thought it was such a cute idea and I really wanted to make one of my own.  So I started saving Taylor’s shirts.  I finished my first dress yesterday using this tutorial and you can bet I’ll be making more.  I’m excited about the options I can explore with this idea.  And I have a lot of shirts to work with, as I’ve been collecting Taylor’s and I just got a few from his brother the other day.

Today at lunch, London was eating popcorn.  She showed me an unpopped kernel and then a popped kernel and said, “This one changed into this one.  Do you know what that’s called?  Metamorphosis.”  In case you forgot, she’s 4.  That’s right.  And she said “metamorphosis” perfectly.  I asked her where she learned that word and she said she just knew it.  Funny girl.  I think they were talking about insects last week in pre-school.  She got her daddy’s brains for sure.

I love my living room

When I was in college, we had a few times where we would have get-togethers or sometimes even class at a professor’s home.  Being a music major, we spent a lot of time with the same students, as well as taking a lot of classes from the same handful of teachers.  Some of these teachers became somewhat of adopted parents for some of us.  It was always fun to “party” at their house.  Especially as a group of young college students living with roommates in apartments, it was a breath of fresh air to get out and spend time in somebody’s home.  I know things are a little different here, but on Friday, Taylor invited his music theory class to our home during their class time.  We had breakfast burritos with them and they jammed on their instruments a bit.  It was kind of nice to see how the tables have now turned.  I get to invite students into my home now.  I love having a home where we can do things like that.  Tonight we had one of Taylor’s co-workers and his wife over for dinner.  They had us over when Taylor first started his job, so we were long overdue to re-pay the favor.  I really love that we have a home where we can entertain.

My little chunk is becoming bigger and bigger.  I can’t say that he’s becoming chunkier.  In fact, it seems like he might be thinning out a little.  But maybe that’s just me hoping.  Today when I put his diaper on him for bed, I used one of the new diapers I bought the other day, which happen to be size 5.  He’s not even a year old.  And it’s not too big for him.  London never wore that size.  In fact, if she were still wearing diapers, she would probably still be in size 4.  That’s what she was wearing when she potty trained at almost 4 years old.  But no, my 11 month old baby has surpassed his 4-year-old sister.  I knew the day would come.  I just didn’t know it would be so soon.

It’s been over three weeks and London just can’t seem to stay healthy.  We took a trip to urgent care today to get a prescription for antibiotics.  She has another ear infection.  It’s the second in less than 2 months.  Poor girl.  She has had a fever all day today but she won’t take tylenol so I can’t really help her much.  Taylor was the only one to go to church today.  London will miss school again tomorrow and she missed it on Friday because she was throwing up again the night before.  I sure hope things clear up for her soon and I really hope that all of the rest of us stay healthy.