Amber feeding Samantha

This was way back from last June (2009) Amber was about 2 1/2 and Samantha had just turned 1.  Amber get up and fed Samantha her applesauce.  I missed it before when Amber was sitting on Samantha's tray feeding Samantha. This was the second bowl of applesauce she fed Samantha, or that Amber ate too.   Amber sometimes is like a little mother herself and other times she will knock Samantha down just to see her fall. 


You can see our back yard all dug up out the window.  I am really glad it is grass now. 

Amber a.k.a. Bluelicious

Have you ever read the book Pinkalicious?  It is about a girl who is in love with the color pink, she helps her mom make cupcakes and then she turns pink from eating too many pink cupcakes.  My girls love the book and Amber recently has picked up the book and it is the one we read over and over again lately. 

One day Amber wanted to make cupcakes.... and then she was inspired by the book....  but instead of pink, she wanted her favorite color... BLUE!  (Amber always wants blue everything... blue cup, blue plate, blue spoon, blue drink, blue candy, blue M&M's, if there is a choice she wants BLUE!)

The cupcakes didn't last very long.  I barely got a picture of them before they were gone.

Amber was pretty proud of her cupcakes... blue cupcakes, blue frosting, AND blue sprinkles!

Amber tired out stiring them, then frosting them, then putting sprinkles on.  She instead just ate the left over frosting.  She was much more blue than she is here.

And who could resist a bluelicious cupcake?

The other girls had several too, I even had one.

She wanted to make some more, but I already used all our blue coloring paste.  I will have to get more.

An Unfortunate Event

Yesterday was gymnastics for the girls.  They go to a place that is about 15-20 minutes away and the class is an hour long.  Normally I just hand out in the parking lot until they are done.  I try to bring something to do to pass the time.  Many times Amber sleeps and Samantha just wants to be unbuckled and she sits up front with me. 

As we were sitting there yesterday, with the car off, it was kind of getting cold so I turned the car back on to turn the heater on for a few minutes, and the car wouldn't start.  It just clicked and nothing.  The clock was still working at this time and it was almost time for the girls to be done.  They had about 20 more minutes. 

I looked in my purse to get my phone to call Robert and then remembered my phone was on my bed.  Ooops!  I waited for Emily and the girls to come back to the car to sit with the little girls so I could go use the phone. 

I went into gymnastics to use the phone... "We don't have a phone, we all just have cell phones.  Maybe you could ask someone else."  I thought, well that is just really nice.  Thanks for your help.... I pay you $80 each month and I can't use your cell phone?  Whatever! 

I go to the business next door and they kindly let me use the phone where I called Robert.  I figured he would be on his way home by now... but he was still at work waiting to talk to his boss.  He assured me he would be there as soon as he could. 

We waited... by now the clock on the car isn't working so I really have NO IDEA what time it is.  I am afraid that is will get cold... I don't have a coat, Amber doesn't either. 

Robert finally gets there, decides to change the battery out, figuring that is it.... he goes to Checker Auto 5 different times buying different tools and things to help.  He would get back to the car and then the tool he got wouldn't work, or he needed a different size or different extension. 

If you know Robert, he isn't always so good under pressure/stress.... at one time a wrench went flying through the air to the field behind the parking lot.  I heard alot of onomatopoeia's as Emily would say.... but I think they were mostly just sounds of frustration and annoyance of things not working.  We didn't even have a flash light.  We were not prepared at all.

Finally at about 7:30 everything finally worked out and my car started again.  I was SO happy.  The girls were getting cold, I was freezing myself and everyone was starved.  Emily normally doesn't wear her coat, but she got cold and put her coat and even put the hood on and zipped it all up.  The older girls had coats, but the younger ones didn't.  Samantha did have her blanket naturally.  Samantha kept signing and saying "eat" I had to keep telling her, I don't have any food.  The girls were bored being in the car... sometimes they would fight, other times they were too loud and active for the car.  We got home and had dinner a little before 8:30 and then kids were in bed around 9.  Their normal bed time is at 7:30. 

I kept telling Robert thank you.  Then Amber said, "Dad couldn't fix the car so I helped him."  Of course then I needed to Amber thank you too.  I am really glad that I have a car that works now and that Robert came and rescued us. 

It did make us realize how unprepared we are.... I had no flashlight or tools in the car.  Blankets would have been nice too.  I am thinking I need to put something together and maybe take that car kit that is under my bed and put it in my car.  lol  It would work better there.  I doubt I will ever be stranded on my bed and need the car kit.

I am glad yesterday is over.  Emily said, "this is the worst day in the whole world!" That doesn't say a whole lot since she often says things like that anyway. 

As Seen on TV

For Christmas, Santa brought the girls a Touch N Brush... one of those tooth paste dispensers that are suppose to be clean and mess free.  "You can even do it with one hand.... They stick anywhere... "  Well I am not sure I agree with it. 

Like the commercial asks, I was tired of the messy tooth paste goop all over the sink counter, then Emily would refuse to use the toothpaste because it was all messy and gross so I would have to open yet another tube just for her... which then end up being used by Lindsey and Lauren because they don't want to use the messy one anymore.  The touch n brush was on my list to try out in hopes to make brushing teeth cleaner. 

I am not sure that it really worked.  I do think that it has helped... but I still find tooth paste on the counter, walls, faucet, mirror, and sometimes the floor.  Emily does seem to still use this even when it is a bit messy.  This is the second time it was messy.  I have washed it twice now, and I am sure if I go in the kids' bathroom and look, it will be in need of cleaning again.  (It is a PAIN to clean, and after cleaning sometimes makes your tooth paste all watery/bubbly.  Maybe I am cleaning it wrong?)

Then the second thing we got, around Christmas time was the draft guard... I am not sure what it is really called.  It is two sided and you put it under your door and it is to keep out drafts, keeping cool air in or out, good for winter and summer.  It can also be used on your windows that are drafty. 

DON'T try it!  It doesn't work.  Or at least for us, it gets all hung up on the door, you can't get the door shut or open because it gets stuck.  It works for about 5 door open/shut motions and then it has a problem.  We used it on our front exterior door.

We saw it at Bed Bath & Beyond and decided for $10 we would give it a try.  I do think it might work on our basement door, there is no weather strip or guard there like an exterior door has.  People will ask, "did you cut it to fit your door? Did you slide it under the door?" as if we just installed it incorrectly.  I have played with it and played with it... I even thought about putting those 3M sticky (removable) tape on the door to keep it there, or sewing it to make it smaller or tighter, but I can't seem to really make any good improvements on it. 

Just in case you were wondering about either of these products....  now you know how I like them. 

75 free prints

If you are anything like me, I have tons and tons of files and folders on my computer and on CD's with digital photos yet to be printed.  I was excited to see Shutterfly is offering a promotion right now where you can get 75 free prints, all you have to do it pay shipping... which was $4 for me.  If you don't have an account you need to set one up... accounts are free and then you need to upload your photos and then order your prints.  I think it ends on Feb 24th, so hurry and get your prints. 

http://www.shutterfly.com/

code for 75 free prints FEBPRINTS

I just ordered my Oct 2009 photos and they had another promo that ended on the 17th for 75 prints, so I got my Nov 2009 photos too.  I feel much better now!

I remember when...

As I was looking at a book with Samantha and trying to teach her to thump her chest and make gorilla noises, I remembered something.  When Emily was about her age, we went to church in WA with my parents.  There was a (Nigarian I think) man there that was part of the ward with very, very dark skin...  Emily kept saying gorilla and thumping her chest.  It took me awhile before I realize what she was talking about...  and where the "gorilla" was that she was talking about.  I was pretty embarressed, but would have been more so if anyone else knew what she was talking about. 

A few exercising set backs...

In the last 3 weeks the girls have been sick off and on...  then I got sick too.  Each time one of the girls would throw up, I of course knew I was next and then I felt sick all day/night knowing that I was getting it too.  I didn't get it until the end of this last week.  Each day I thought I was getting it I wouldn't exercise so I have missed tons of days when I should have or could have excercised.  Then of course there were those days I did exercise and then had to clean up Amber's messes too as I mentioned before here.

Today I thought I would get back into the routine of things...  I put in my favorite excercise DVD and turned it on.  Amber noticed this and said to me, "Oh, you are going to play your excercise game again?  I will help you so you can win!  We can both win!"  It takes my video awhile to get through all the intro which of course they won't let you skip.  As it was playing I tried to put Samantha down for a nap.  She must have known how fun my excercise game was and wanted to help me win too.  She ended up NOT going down for her nap.  I figured it would be okay if she stayed up... I put her on the couch with her blanket.

I thought about just skipping again, but I didn't do it yesterday due to a sick daughter and husband too.  (Again I felt a bit sick myself.)  I started in on the warm up, and Amber did too.  Then Samantha was helping me out as well.  Amber today got her own weights, which were just building blocks.  That was nice so we didn't have to fight over my 5lb weights. Amber even gave some to Samantha to use.

We got through the warm up, the circuit one-weights and cardio and I just started the ab work out for circuit one.  I was laying on my back on the floor and Amber says, "I will help you with this mom," as she plops down and sits on my belly.  I am not sure if it made them harder or easier, but I continued with all my crunches and then the other ab excercise was much harder with Amber on my belly.  Amber got off and we continued with circuit two, right into weights.

During the first set during my curls/lunges Amber pushed Samantha out of her way with her weights (which were really plastic blocks) right into my weight while I was coming down from my curl.  Samantha started to cry...  I paused to DVD....  cuddled Samantha for awhile and then put her to bed. 

Amber got bored after that with my "game" and she played her own where she pulled out buckets of toys in the area I was trying to do jumping jacks or lunges...  which made it hard.  Right at the end of the cardio of the circuit three the phone rang.  It was the school saying Emily was in the office and had been throwing up. I paused the DVD yet again... got Samantha back out of bed and put on a different pair of pants, threw my sweaty hair in a pony, dressed Amber and drove to Emily's school. 

 I did finally finish my DVD, and I was glad when I was done...  Again, I was thinking.... is all this worth excercising?  And I am suppose to have MORE ENERGY after excercising?  LOL

Sick House

It seems that we keep getting the stomach flu which brings on throwing up, or as my girls call it, "the throw ups" and they aren't very fun. 

It started about 3 weeks ago when Emily was sick in the middle of the night, then Lauren was the next morning which made her miss church.  Then that next weekend Amber was sick, then Lindsey, then Samantha, then Lindsey again, and again, and Samantha too, then Lindsey, and Samantha again, and I got it, then Samantha threw up again, then Lauren threw up last night, and now Robert is throwing up today. 

We are just sharing this thing back and forth... it is crazy!  I want to complain and be mad as Robert has been laying in his bed most the day and texting me to bring him things... and I am mad and want to complain because when I was sick... I was home with the girls, had to get them to school and home from school and then also take care of the little girls.  I am so jealous that he is just feeling awful by himself in his bed.  I wish I could have done that. (The day that I was sick, Robert did see the twins off to school while I laid in bed wishing I didn't have to get up.)  I even took the girls to gymnastics that day, although I called and had Robert pick them up because I needed to be closer to the bathroom.  He did take the older girls to dinner that night and to parent teacher conferences which I was grateful for, but I was still home feeling yucky with the younger girls. 

Sometimes it is just so hard being a mom...  sometimes it is no fair either!

When Robert goes out of town....

Why is it then when Robert goes out of town things seem to grow crazy?  He went to Houston, leaving Tuesday night and returned Sunday afternoon.  Early Wed. morning Lindsey was throwing up...  Samantha was throwing up on Friday morning, and Lindsey again on Sunday morning. 

My life is always eventful... never dull in anyway really.  My visiting teachers (ladies from the church, they check on you to see if you need anything... kind of built in friends that often teach a short lesson about Christ) came over for a visit on Friday.  I knew they were coming but as the moment arrived I had forgotten about it.  I had to still go get Em.  Luckily Robert's mom was still here when the real havoc broke loose.  I had called her (Rober't mom) down to watch the girls while I took Lauren to the dr. for her molluscum removal.  As I was talking with my VT (visiting teachers) all my girls where here which also makes it crazy.  One of the girls yelled from upstairs that Amber was naked and she had tried to dress her but Amber wouldn't let her.  This normally wouldn't be such a big deal but some of the kids of my VT were here playing too.  Lauren brought Amber down with some clothes and I got her dressed.  Then Lindsey comes to the door with a muddy foot... she had been to a friends house and on the way home had stepped in mud, her boot was stuck, her foot came out and then stepped in the mud with her socked foot.  She was wanting help... My wonderful MIL (mother in law) helped out with that one.  Then Lauren asked if she could get Samantha who was now awake... I said yeah, and then Lauren yelled down that Samantha had thrown up... her fruit that she ate was everywhere...  thanks again to my fabulous MIL who then went to take care of that.  What a day!  I am not sure if they will want to come back.  At least my house was semi clean since I had cleaned it on Thursday for the most part knowing that I would be gone on Friday when I normally clean house.

This reminded me of one time when Robert took the older girls to a ward campout.  Amber was throwing up and had been for several days before they left, and she just got worse it seemed.  I took Amber who was almost 2 and Samantha who would have been less than 2 months old to the after hours clinic at the dr.  Not to mention the part of getting both carseats in the back of Rob's mustang since he had my car.  After we went to after hours (and paid the co-pay) they sent us to the ER.  At the ER they were doing all these things that I wished I could of just held her but Samantha was hungry so I was holding her trying to pacify her for awhile so I could nurse her.  Finally after the IV was in Amber fell asleep so I then nursed Samantha or tried.  I think I was too upset or she was too so it just didn't work really.

I think we finally got home at like 2 or 3 in the morning...  I was hoping Rob's night at the ward campout went better for him than my night had gone.  I remember leaving Samantha in her carseat where she was asleep and putting her car seat in my room.  Amber was asleep too and I put her in her crib and crashed in bed until Samantha's next feeding.

Of course now that Robert is back, things seem to be more normal.  Why do things seem to all come loose when he is gone and not when I am gone instead. Oh yeah, that's because I never go anywhere....  at least Robert is home for awhile before he has to go again.  He does travel less than he use to, so that is a good thing. 

An example of Samantha

This is perfect after I talked about all the things Samantha is doing... the independence she thinks she has getting into and now out of her high chair as well. 

Last night I was putting girls to bed, I was talking with Lauren and then Samantha came in her room with her blanket.  I had to do a double take when I looked at her.  I had last seen her in her high chair where I gave her a cup of pudding.

I guess she was done with her pudding....

then climbed out of her high chair onto this chair...

she grabbed her blanket and then came to find me.

The only thing I could think of to do (after of course showing her to the girls and Robert and then taking her pictures) was to give her a bath.  I did tell her yesterday that we would have a bath today.  I guess she was making sure I would really give her a bath.  Silly girl.

Aww, much better now!

Simply Samantha at 20 months

Samantha is getting such a cute little personallity.  I love it so much.  Although it is a reminder each day that she is growing up.... my baby is almost gone, and yet in many ways she is totally gone.  Samantha loves to do what the other girls are doing.  She loves to dance with them or play monsters or horses with them when they do.  Last night the girls were putting a box on their head and walking around like that.  I had the box and ready to put it in the recycle bin and Samantha pointed to her head and kind of grunted suggesting that it was her turn.  The things she does crack me up and often suprise me too. 

I forget how much she watches others and how she knows much more than I think she does.  I brought in like 6 or 7 bags of groceries.... mostly cereal, crackers, lunch meat, dishwasher tablets, mac and cheese, and toilet paper.  (All of which were coupon items that were on sale I might add...)  I noticed that Samantha was in the cupboard under the sink, which she does often.  I told her to get out and shut the door.  She did.  I continued to put away groceries or at least the perishable things.  Later when I took the bags downstairs to the basement to put in my "store" as the girls call it, I was putting things away.  I got to my dishwasher tablets and noticed there were only 4 of them, and I had 5 coupons so I bought 5 of them (after all they were only like 49 cents a box after my coupon).  I looked through all the other sacks and put everything else away.  I was confused on where that last box went of tablets.  I then remembered that Samantha was under the sink which is were I keep my dishwasher soap.  I went upstairs and looked, and sure enough Samantha had been helping me put things away and she must have gotten a box of the electrasol and put it away. 

Samantha doesn't seem to miss much really.  For sometime now she has been taking her dirty diapers and throwing them away.  Last night we also had some little fun size m&m packages working on colors and eating them too.  Samantha grabbed the wrappers and then put them in the garbage.  Once upstairs in the loft  she even took garbage and put it in the garbage in the bathroom up there, which isn't a garbage I would have thought she knew about. 

A draw back to the garbage putting away is what else she use to throw away.  I was noticing about 4 months ago or so that all our little bowls are missing.  We use to have tons of them and now we only have the new Ikea bowls, which are a different design then the older ones we had.  I thought it was weird because I hadn't seen the bowls upstairs or in the kids rooms or bathrooms or basement.  Sometimes I will notice we are missing dishes and then find them in the kids room or in the loft or something like that.  Then I caught Samantha one day throwing away her silverware and her plate.  Later I had noticed a bowl in the garbage and more silverware.  I suppose I know now where all the kids bowls and kids silverware went to.  I haven't seen her do that in a long time.  I showed her they go into the sink so she is better now. 

Samantha is my best cleaner upper, if that is such a word.  She will sing the little "clean up, clean up, everybody everywhere, clean up, clean up...." song.  I am not sure if it was on Barney or some other kids show.  I sing it a little but not much when we clean up, but Samantha always sings it when I ask everyone to clean up.  Unfortunately it seems everyone needs to go to the bathroom, get a drink, change their clothes, or the famous just a second excuse and it is just Samantha and me cleaning up.  If Samantha drops something on the floor she will pick it up and put it in the trash too, like a dropped fish cracker or banana peel.  My other kids look at it and then look around to see if anyone saw and then the move away from it.  Even in the loft they will shove things in the couch cushions or even behind it.  What lazy slobs huh!

Samantha also has discovered problem solving... she will come to me and tell me, blanket and then take me upstairs to her bed where he blanket is hanging out the crib slats but still stuck.  Then she will tell me again, blanket and point to her stuck blanket.  She will also move chairs or furniture around to get what she wants.  She often dumps out a bucket of diapers to use the bucket as a stool to get up on the couch to crawl over the arm and slide down the front and then repeat it several times.  She once also took a little kids chair to the bathtub.  Some of the girls were in the tub and she wanted in there too, she kept trying to take off her clothes and was saying bath to me.  I told her she needed to wait until Lauren got out and then she could get in.  Samantha scooted that little kids chair up to the side of the bath and climbed right in the tub, clothes and all.  I heard Lindsey and Lauren yelling about it.  I was suprised when I saw what Samantha did, but thought she was pretty clever too. 

Samantha has quite a vocabulary too.  She use to call her blanket kitty but now it is just banket without the l. She calls herself Mantha, Mimy for Emily, Lindsey is Liny, Larn is Lauren.  She names and points to many body parts like eye, nose, bum, back, feet, hair...  she also knows lots of articles of clothing too and loves her boots and says that often and brings them to have help putting them on.  She loves shoes in general and loves to wear them, even if they are not hers.  We have to watch her when we have friends over, she will put on their shoes and take off with them and then lose them. 

She signs some, but not as much as Amber did.  She will sign and say more, banana, cracker, water, milk, book, ball, down, up, fish, stinky (which is poop), thank you, shoes, eat,  and she will sign helicopter but doesn't say it.  Anytimes she sees a helicopter on tv or in a book or outside she immediately signs it.   She will also say "some" like saying I want some.  After I give her some food at her high chair (which she now will climb up into by herself which is kind of scary and dangerous) she will say "thanks (mumble mumble) mama" which is Thanks for dinner Mom, which the girls almost always say at dinner time.  Samantha says it all the time even if I just give her a cracker.  It is very cute.

I have found her many times at the computer.... guess she has seen someone spend some time there, and she will just peck away at the keys.  I now shut the laptop (that is what we use now since our other computer broke last year) so she can't get to the keys. 

Another funny thing she does is clean up the left over food of others.  After a meal or snack of anyones, that is left on the table she will get up on the chair and then eat what ever is left or try to if it is gone.  She will eat the crust from the sandwhich or the last yogurt or pudding in the container.  Once I put Lindsey's sandwhich on the table, told Lindsey it was there.  I was doing dishes, Lindsey came in and was mad asking where it was, I was angry back and told her it was the plate with the sandwhich on the table.  She still couldn't seem to find it, then I went over angrier, and then noticed it wasn't there, Samantha has stolen it off the plate and was eating it on the chair.  Samanth is almost as good as a dog for the table scraps.

Samantha's favorite things right now are the dora doll that was in Amber's 3rd birthday cake, her blanket (that use to be Amber's) with the tag, and a small white cat statue.  She will try to sleep with the cat.  We had I think 3 of them, and we are down to one.  Two have broken when dropped on the tile.  Samantha will accept other blankets with tags if they are kind of fuzzy like fleece but she won't take them if she sees her favorite one around. 

I am sure I am missing something about Samantha... oh yes 2 more things.  She recenlty has decided it is better to be naked, so she will try to take off her clothes if possible.  Her footed pajamas with the zipper are good ones for her to escape from.  Often I will put them on her at bedtime, go do something else, next thing I notice she is naked.  I have started putting a safety pin under the zipper so she can't unzip it. 

She is also a total momma's girl.  At night when she is crying, I normally go in there.  I just figure I can stand the lack of sleep better than Robert can, after all I might be able to sneak a nap in or at least try to, but Robert can't really do that at work very well.  Once in a while when I am really tired or have been up with other girls or with Samantha already then I ask Robert to go.  Recently that is never a good idea, she will keep crying even though he is in there with her holding her and comforting her.  She just keeps crying for me.  I go in there and take her from Robert and she settles right down.  Last night she was awake, I was trying to put Amber back to bed so Robert had gone in with Samantha a few times.  I then went in with her next she settled down long enough for me to brush my teeth and change clothes.  Robert went back in there with her, and he said when she saw him coming, she just stopped crying and laid back down.  I guess she has me wrapped around her finger...  I will have to send him in more often I suppose. 

I thought of something else too, Samantha will give things to people that they belong to.  She will give Amber her special security shirt or milk and say, dare go.  I noticed I say that alot.  Just this morning I turned the light in the bathroom for Amber and said, "there you go."  I guess that is where she gets it.  Samantha says that all the time now when she is giving things to people.  She also says, lets go  which I say all the time too.  We get out of the car, "Let's go" or we are getting ready to go pick up Emily, "Let's go." 

Robert was out of town last week from Tues evening to Sunday afternoon.  We were out running around and I stopped and got some corndogs for the girls at Artic Circle for dinner.  Before I could even pass them out Samantha was yelling, "hot dog."

I know I am forgeting some good stuff.  If I think of something else I guess I will just have to add it.  Not that this isn't already so long.  I don't want to forget this stage... since I don't think we will ever visit it again with our own kids.  I wish I could just freeze all the kids at this age and keep them there.  They love you, they don't talk back to you, they want to please you...  it's great.  It is even worth the lack of sleep sometimes.  I can't even get mad at Samantha really, she is too cute and too young to really do anything to make you mad.