Happenings

Well it seems like life has been moving like a whirlwind around me while I just move in slow motion.  You know in You've Got Mail when Meg Ryan says, "Do you ever feel like you've become the worst version of yourself?" While I don't think that's true in my case, I do think it's very possible I've become the most tired version of myself.  There's so many little things happening everyday that I just want to hold on to and remember, or even just think about for a minute. But those little things get squished out by something more pressing and urgent happening that moment.  Can't I just have a complete thought in my head once in a  while? You know, be able to think something all the way through for once? It's like my brain can only hold 20 jelly beans at a time and every minute a new one pops in and bloop - one gets pushed out because my brain can't possibly stretch any further.  How's that for an analogy?

And I think at least 20 times a day I have good ideas and intentions that never come to fruition  because other things come up that are more urgent. Like eating. or showering. or feeding. or sweeping. or making a menu. or starting dinner. or breaking up toy-wars. or dressing little people.  You get it. Not that I loathe these tasks at all. Quite the contrary actually.  It's just that while I'm so busy being busy I still feel like there's so much more I should be doing to be a good, quality-time-spending-mom that I'm not doing.  Anyway... why did I start rambling on?  If I were talking instead of typing you'd hear that I don't have a complaining tone to my voice right now. I really am not complaining.  I truly LOVE that I have three little sweet people that I get to be at home with every day.  I am so glad that it's my job to teach them and not someone else's.  Being a mom just all feels so much bigger than me and what I'm capable of sometimes.  

I think it's time for me to start taking my happy pills again (fish oil, prenatals, etc).  I feel a bit on the crazy side.  Postpartum hormones are just whacky sometimes.

ANYWAY... I don't know where all that word upheaval came from. Moving on!

Here's some of our latest to remember:

1. Macie had her 4 mo check today.  She's doing good with exception of her weight. In the past two months she's dropped from the 77th to the 37th percentile.  The dr. just said to keep an eye on her and take her back in 2 weeks for a weight check. 

She went through a feeding hiccup where she would hardly eat. She's started eating again but she's ultra efficient... as in, she will only eat for 5 minutes. I'm going to try to get my milk supply up and double my drinking efforts (water of course...)
For length she's in 87th percentile  and head is in 68th. 

She's still sleeping like a champ at night - about 9 pm until 7 or 8 am, with a late sleepy feed at about midnight.
Still taking the binky like a champ, but she's stopped taking a bottle.  
And she's discovered her hands. I love catching her wide-eyed, staring at her hands in front of her like they're some strange creature not attached to her body.

2. And she rolled over for the first time a couple weeks ago!

just after rolling over...

 

brothers cheering her on to roll back over...

3. Lincoln  tested out of Kids on the Move (early intervention) coming in at about 30th percentile (not sure if this was speech overall or just articulation?) He would have graduated out in a  month anyway at his 3rd birthday, but it's nice to know he's made so much progress.  

His speech pathologist came for the last time today.  Her name is Alyssa and she has been great with him in the short time that she's been with our family.  Today she brought cookies to frost with him and she was working on sequencing today (first get a cookie, then frost the cookie, then sprinkles, etc and seeing if he could put the steps in order).

He's up to about 4 or 5 word sentences and his vocabulary has expanded so much. I haven't taken a good count so I would just estimate by saying he has somewhere between 200-300 words? Maybe?

 

4. We also had him tested at the  Alpine school district (they take over for kids who are age 3 and up).  He also didn't qualify for any kind of assistance there (preschool or one-on-one help), which is a good thing.  It's wonderful that he's made so much progress, but at the same time, it would be fabulous to receive help knowing that he still has a ways to come up to snuff and would definitely benefit.  Then again I think about one year ago when he hadn't even made any two-word combinations yet! I feel so blessed that he's caught up so much since his ear tubes.

5. I've started sewing for a lady who owns a costume company (Speedy Stitches) and it's been great so far.  I just pick up a handful of sewing projects to work on throughout the week and take them back completed and pick up more.  This is only my second week, but it feels good to be getting back to my sewing roots. This week I have a Jedi tunic, Snow-white tops and a corset to sew.  Who knew there is such a demand for things like this?


6.  We took the boys to see Wreck It Ralph the other day and we LOVED it.  And it was so windy when we got home from the theater so we grabbed our kites and took them to the school to fly! I really can't remember the last time I flew a kite. You can't help but be giddy when flying kites.  It only got caught in the trees  three times and stuck on a roof once. Luckily it didn't drift over on to University Parkway. :)

It was so windy we were able to run all the line out.  Can you see that tiny kite way up there?

 Lincoln's turn

7.  And can I hear an amen for the warm weather this week? I know, everyone's talking about the warm weather, so this sentence is a bit generic. But for reals, this winter has been cold and long in my book.

We finally brought the boys back up to their bedroom to sleep tonight!  It turns out the back half of our house (an addition) is super energy-inefficient. And on top of that it turns out we need a new furnace and better duct work (ha).  Ever since winter has been around the boys' room has been freezing at night, even with the space heater running all night. And the boys were sleeping with 4 blankets each to stay warm.    

So since the beginning of January they've been sleeping in the guest room in our basement where it is actually warmer then their room.  Odd right?  Anyway, this week has been so wonderfully warm that we moved them back up and they were so happy they were dancing a jig! Literally.

8. And the wonderful news is that we have been approved for Utah County Weatherization (wohoooo!) so in about 8 - 12 months when we get to the top of the list, weatherization guys are going to come do a  big weatherization heat-blowing test on our house and make improvements on it that will help immensely for next winter. This really has been a huge blessing and relief for us!


 9.  Ben turned 33 last week!  We went to dinner Saturday night (sans kids) with some friends to Pizza Pie - Ben's favorite. Then Sunday morning (his actual birthday) the boys and I surprised Ben with balloons, a happy birthday sign and sung "Happy Birthday" in Portuguese (tradition).  Then we had a smallish party for him on that night with family.

 Macie & Marm

Ben and his (quite dry) chocolate cake.  The boys put the candles in. :)

10. Oh and I've had one consultation at the orthodontist (Trapnell) and I have another one on Monday (Graf).  Braces may very well be in my near future... it's a good thing I'm already married and Ben is stuck with me, braces and all. Mwah ha ha.  
The good news:  I may only need them for 12-18 months  AND  it's looking like braces will cost much less than I originally anticipated (and we have funds in a health account that we didn't know about that can now only be used for dental and vision).

The bad news: I'm afraid that I may come out with horse teeth.  My teetch are crowded so the solution to that is to bring the teeth out (expansion) and some filing on my bottom teeth.  And I fear, too, that as soon as we indulge in braces for me that something BIG will come up that we need that health money for instead.

And that about wraps up this short novel. Peace!

daily dose: pretty nails

First time with painted nails!  I'm not sure that color could be any more hot pink (er actually it probably could). But hey, it was either that or fire engine red, brown or grey?  I'd say I chose wisely.

The boys were out again in their delightful 50 degree weather riding bikes and us girls sat in the window watching them and painting nails, not making dinner. 

And now, because she all but eats her hands, the paint is half way gone from her nails and probably in her stomach. Que sera.

daily dose: flying kites

Logan made a paper bag kit in kinder yesterday and he wanted to help Lincoln make one too.  Sweet boy. The boys went out to celebrate the fact that it was a whole 50 degrees outside and to test out their kites.  Pip and I stayed inside nice and warm :)

 

 (that's supposed to be a green ninja on Linc's bag... not a clown. yes, I drew that.)

Macie's Blessing

Short and simple - 3 kids has been a doozy around here.  It's amazing how the unnecessary things (ahem, like blogging) just fall off the wagon at times like this. Dang.  Ah well!

SO... here's a post that I started writing um... well I don't remember when.  And I finally took the pictures to go with it. So before that invisible window of time passes and it becomes too faux pas to blog about it any more, here's Macie's blessing!!

We blessed Macie way back in November when she was just a tiny week old.  Crazy? Perhaps. But we're glad we did it.
 
Why? When Macie was born (Nov 9th) my parents came to stay with us for a couple weeks and help around the house and with the boys (oh and to do ridiculously large amounts of electrical/home improvement upgrades... thanks again Dad!).   We originally thought we'd wait until she was 1 or 2 months old for her blessing, but we decided very last minute to have her blessed while my parents were still in town so my dad could participate.

It was a Friday night when we decided that we'd bless Macie on that Sunday.  We just tried to keep it small, sweet and simple.
The only problem? We had no dress to bless her in.  In fact, up until that point (the first 7 days of her life) she'd only been wearing snuggly sacks and jammies.  

Could I have bought one? Yes, indeed I could have and that would have been wonderful.  BUT, from the time I knew I was having a girl I knew I wanted to make her blessing dress. I'm just sentimental like that.  I knew exactly what I wanted, but I didn't want to make it until she was born so I could alter it to fit her really well.  So we went ahead with our plans to bless her, hoping and crossing my fingers that I could get the dress done in 1 1/2 days and that it would turn out ok.

So Friday evening and all day Saturday every minute that wasn't spent breast feeding or helping my boys was expended on Pip's dress.  Luckily it all turned out great, just what wanted, with no major errors and I was so thankful for that!  

Because we wanted to keep it simple, we just kept the blessing to the family. But then Saturday night at 9 pm Ben decided he would like a couple friends to stand in the blessing circle with him the next day. So he extended a late invitation to a few more people.

Sunday morning was rushed because Macie and I woke up 45 minutes later than we were supposed to.  And this was our first Sunday taking all three kids to church. And this was my first time fitting into regular church clothes, post baby, still looking and feeling 5 months preggo and all achy, swollen, etc. 

BUT regardless of the last-minute blessing dress, the late-morning stress and our lack of mental preparation, it turned out to be a sweet relatively stress-free day overall. (Of course I'm sure it seemed low stress for me because I had wonderful moms helping around me :)   I am so glad we blessed her at that time, even if she was just a tiny 1 week old.  

It was so nice to have my Dad participate and to be surrounded by family and friends that day.  I am mostly thankful that Ben was able to give her a name and a blessing and what sweet blessing it was. My favorite part of the blessing? When he blessed her to be able to teach her brothers love and kindness and patience. :)

Here are some pics from Macie's special day:

booties crocheted by my mom

and I embroidered her name into the hem of her dress

After the blessing we just had a baked potato lunch back at our house. The wonderful part is that I was surrounded by three moms and three other ladies who pretty much put it all together.

Amy, Mom and Kaye

Andy, Gav, Merc and Optimus Prime

Group shot (minus Dave and Jera who left momentarily and Trisha and Warren who left right after the blessing)

Todd and Riley

Aunt Desi and Pip

daughter, mom and grandma

Nana and Papa J

Big bro Lo

Marmie and Gamps

Aunt Andy

Food! (and Dave Cook :)

And my sweet Macie girl on her big day...

She was so sweet the whole day and didn't make a peep during her blessing. And bonus - she didn't even spit up or blow out in her dress, wohoo!  

Everyone left in the afternoon to go home and I didn't want the sweet Sunday to end and I didn't want to take her dress off.  She has brought such a sweet spirit into our home.

Here's the specs on the dress:

I went anit-pattern to get a good fit on her tiny body. I used a pair of her jammies and her smallest dress she had as a guide for the bodice.  And lucky for me - I breathed a sigh of relief when I tried it on her and it turned out to fit her 8 lb, scrunchy newborn body really well. 

The fabric is stretch taffeta  (it was the closest I could find to dupioni silk, lots of texture with a bit of sheen). I think the dress came in at around $8 including buttons.

 4 box pleats across the front, a fixed sash and a crushed flower attached.

And much thanks goes to my mom for hemming and sewing the snaps and buttons on. And to Jera and my friend Lauren for advising me on  the sleeves and bodice construction!
 
The sleeves were the most stressful part for me! Not because they were hard, but because it was a mental challenge.  The last sleeve I had sewn was in my advance clothing construction class at BYU-I and my final project was a fully lined corduroy jacket and for the life of me I could NOT get those blasted sleeves set in nicely. Pucker, pucker and more puckers. I think I tried 3 times, 3 different techniques before running out of time and giving up and turning the project in unfinished. Curse that jacket. I think I sold it at a garage sale a few years ago. Still unfinished :)  And since that day in 2004  sleeves have haunted me.
This was a great ice-breaking project for me to sew to get back into my clothing construction roots. The sleeves ended up being a breeze.

 

 I embroidered the rest of her name and the blessing date on the hem later that night after the blessing

Back view:
snap closure disguised with buttons, three box pleats and the perfect long length that i love

and it's not pictured but the dress is lined as well, sewn in at the neck line and bodice side seams.

It seems so silly but making Macie's dress was really something that meant a lot to me and it truly was a tender mercy from Heavenly Father that it all came together in a day.  It was a happy day.