Week Nine Part II

Week Nine also consisted of a refreshing break from the Northern Utah freezing weather. We took a drive down south to Zion National Park. We packed a basket full of goodies and our bathing suits and were on our way. We left Thursday morning with one goal: Find a hotel with a pool. Simple enough right?

 WRONG! Believe me, we, ok, Rich - did a little bit of research on places to stay before we went, but in the end we decided we'd wing it and find a place when we got there. In case you're ever going to Zion's in the winter, don't plan on swimming. All the pools are OUTDOOR. With FRIGID UN-heated water. Sure they have little heated spas... outside... The girls were so excited to go swimming that Rich and I determined that we could not fail in the venture to find an inside pool, whatever the cost. After visiting and calling many hotels, motels ect, we ended up driving BACK to Hurricane which is the town through the canyon from Zion. Luckily, there was ONE hotel that had an inside pool! We actually stayed at the hotel across the street which was a LOT nicer and cheaper. They had an outside pool and had a deal with the hotel across the street that their customers could use the other's inside pool in the winter if the other's customers could use their pool in the summer... Make sense? Anyway, done deal. We settled into our room, got on our swimwear, went for dinner and then ended the night with a swim. The girls were in heaven. I was in heaven in the hot tub.

I didn't realize how much I needed this break until we were sitting by this little river with the sun shining down on us, the girls playing in the sand, throwing rocks, birds chirping. I felt a sudden recharge of my soul (which I believe only comes from relaxing by a beautiful body of water). It was like my whole being was filled with sunlight and happiness. It was sunny... but this was an inner sunshine that I had been missing. Ah, warmth, water, family and no schedule to keep.

Friday was our day for exploration. We went on some hikes, played on rocks (another requirement of Jane for the trip - there must be rocks to climb) and played lots of hide and seek.

 You know your child lives in snow country when the first thing she does when playing in the sand is make a sand angel. While growing up, we always made mermaids and fish.

We just played, and played....

And held hands. Usually while running.

And when the girls got tired and were ready to conk out we went for a drive. Yeah, that's snow. We drove up to Brian Head - and while the girls slept we drove and enjoyed the view, hopping out every once and a while to take in some views over the man-made view-spots.

We stopped in for dinner at the only restaurant in Brian Head. Rich wasn't hungry and just wanted to sleep. So us girls went in and stood in line which was about 15 people long. Suddenly, Jane needed to go potty. We got out of line and by the time we got back the line had grown to about 50 people. We decided to go to the little grocery store/shop which was connected to the restaurant/hotel. We got ourselves some microwavable dinner and cooked ourselves a nice little meal right in the store (i love when they have microwaves!). We went and sat ourselves in the lobby and ate. It sounds all nice and pleasant, but actually, that was the most stressful part of the trip. Besides my girls being tired and touching/rearranging everything in the store and the sauce from the dinner spilling all over - it just was one of those "it's the end of the day just get the kids in bed" kind of times. But we still had to drive back to Zion which took FOREVER. Seriously, I think it took two hours, felt like 5, but was probably only a little over an hour. It didn't help that we had to pull over twice for Jane to take a pee on the side of the road. That girl has a bladder the size of a peanut. Sigh.

Saturday morning we went swimming again. We had to take full advantage of the pool. Then we got ourselves cleaned up and checked out. We were planning on making one last hiking trip in Zion but thought it best we get on the road. We stopped in Cedar to see my brother Gary and his family and then made one more stop. Not every trip ends with a new dog. But this one did.

Meet Bear. The best, sweetest, most mellow tempered lab I've ever known. I have fallen fast and am in doggy love. So is Mazy.

Week Eight & Nine

Week Eight contained Jane's first trip to the dentist. We decided to try our local dentist whom Rich and I go to instead of jumping straight to a pediatric dentist. Jane did very well with her cleaning. She didn't really like the bright light shining in her eyes but she loved getting all the "bugs" off her pretty little teeth and she especially liked the little goodie bag she got at the end. It had a toothbrush, toothpaste, floss.... you know - boring things only a kid would find exciting. A month later she still treasures her undersized tube of paste and that one-time flosser she used 30 times.

 

Unfortunately, Jane has cavities on the "eating surface" of her back molars. Two to be exact, one on each side. She has super deep .... what are they called? Whatever the center of the tooth is called that is like a canyon in your tooth. She has super deep canyons where food gets shoved in there and you literally cannot get it out, even with extra good brushing. So, she would have to come in for a second visit to get those canyon cavities taken care of. That's where week nine comes in. 

WEEK NINE

This visit? Not so awesome. When Jane would get immunizations from the Pediatricians office she would call them "pinches." Without knowing this, our Dentist told her when she came back he would need to give her a little pinch in order to get the "cavity bugs" out. It was downhill from there. She talked about coming in and getting a pinch and seemed like it was going to be ok... but once we got in there and he pulled that needle out..... oh boy. She was having nothing to do with that. We tried three different times. Finally he gave up and referred us to a pediatric. That visit went a little better. Because there were no pinches. It was just another checkup where they counted teeth, took more x-rays ect. But Jane did get to watch a movie on the ceiling and she thought that was pretty awesome. She also got another little baggie of goodies. So now she has 2 extra toothbrushes, pastes and flossers (nevermind the flossers I bought that are the same... these are special and must be held sacred). The one thing I am grateful for that came out of this experience is that Jane has an overzealous desire to keep her teeth clean and get all the bugs out every night. Sometimes I get lazy and want to skip flossing her teeth but she won't have any of that. She loves to brush and floss.  But what she loves even more then taking care of her teeth, are her friends, and playgroup.
 

We have  6-8 kids who come to playgroup every Monday morning. I get to have it at my place once every 2 months. They learn about a letter, color or shape and they all love it. Ally loves when it is at our house because then she gets to join in. I am convinced Jane was meant to have multiple siblings. She thrives on noise and organized chaos caused by lots of children. And I actually like it quite a bit too.

Week Five, Six, Seven

It's been so long I can't even remember what week I should be on. Blogging/picturing my year week by week is my 2013 resolution. Knowing I would not be 100% successful I allowed with that goal some slack - so, in reality - I'm doing really great!  With that being said, let me see if I can picture the last few weeks for you.

Week Five

This is Ally's current stack of sleep necessities. She notices when any of them are missing and will pout until they are retrieved, or a promise of retrieval is given. Luckily, if we can't find one, all I need to do is explain that we'll have to find it tomorrow and she's ok. No sleep lost. Phew. She is also ok to put MOST these aside if she is sleeping with Jane. Yes, they have taken to sleeping together in Jane's little crib size bed. It is quite cute, but she must have her pillow, puppy and one blanket. It makes for crowded sleeping quarters.

This was also the week of the great snow ball fight. The neighbor kids ganged up on each other and had some pretty sweet hits. They tried to gang up on me but quickly learned that with some expensive camera equipment in my hand, such thing was not going to happen. See Jane hunched over? That's her definition of defense.

 But what you should have seen, and what I should have caught on video was the neighbor kids attack on Rich when he got home for work. I am not kidding, it was like a scene from the movies. There were 6 kids all throwing snow balls and jumping on him and he defended off each snow ball and child with amazing talent! He blocked snow balls with one hand and threw kids into the snow with the other, and kick boxed with his feet at the same time, for - seriously, 3 full minutes! In his work clothes! I think he may be a secret superhero, it was really incredible. I had already put my camera away by then. I still regret it.

I also had the privileged of photographing a tiny baby this week. He was really stinky and pooped on my blankets 3 times and peed twice, once on me. Other then that, the shoot went well! ;)

Week Six

This week I had my camera on flowers a lot. I am in the midst of stocking my Etsy shop with lots of gorgeous blooms. Here's one of my new favorites.

Week Seven

I don't decorate for any holiday except Christmas. I am such a bahumbug. I don't even think Valentine's Day IS technically a holiday. Not even the bankers get it off. But, we do try to have a nice dinner somewhere or have a special date of some sort and I do try to get the chocolates that go on sale the day after. This year, we "celebrated" v-day with the girls on the 13th, because we had a special date night planned for the 14th. During the day the girls and I wrote "love notes" on paper hearts and hid them around the house for Rich to find. In the evening, Rich sent a text saying he was on his way home from work, so without Rich knowing what was waiting him, we lit the candles (the girls thought this was super cool), finished preparing his favorite dinner (pizza) and waited. In the dark. The girls thought the best surprise would be for daddy to walk through the front door to a glowing dinner in the kitchen. The sad part is.....without us knowing, he had to make a few stops on his way home from work. So.... finally after much too long the girls got hungry and we enjoyed the candlelit dinner by ourselves. It really is quite comical. I finally called Rich to see where he was to get a better gauge of timing. In the end, Rich still entered a dark house, found a candlelit dinner and enjoyed some pizza. Even if it was cold. He was surprised, but the girls were even more surprised when we turned on the lights and found a fist full of love-ly balloons and a single red rose. I guess those couple stops were worth the wait. :)

But wait, it gets better! One the morning of Valentines Day Rich decked out the table with the balloons, Valentines treats, genuine valentine cards and "princess" party hats for each of his girls. I do have to mention mine was corrected to "Queen" with permanent black marker. Treats for breakfast? The girls were in high-heaven!

 Ally has some pretty awesome Witch hair in the mornings.

That evening Rich came home with a bouquet of the prettiest red tipped yellow roses. We got a sitter and headed to the American Heritage Center for dinner catered by Elements, followed by a "magic" show.

Ok, seriously, this post has taken me 2 hours to write and my kids have had enough of me being on the computer. I'll have to catch up later! :)

Week Four

Last week was full of fun little things. Firstly, Jane really wanted to take bath. This was fine, but I told her she needed to wait until Ally woke up. Ally is a lover of bathes. Really, Jane just wanted to play with her rubber duckies (that she recently rediscovered she owned) in the bath. So, while she waited we made her duckies a little pool in the bathroom sink for them to float around. Then it was Jane's snack time. She finished her snack then ran to the bathroom. Not 30 seconds later she calls, "mawww-ahhm" with a "come see what I did" tone. I walk in and she, in that 30 seconds mind you, got fully undressed and climbed into the sink which still had her duckies pond in it. She was so proud of herself. I had to decide in a split second whether to get "disappointed" or not. "Stay right there Jane, I'm getting my camera!" - We had a fun little photo shoot.

One of the many great things about having children, is watching them do unto others as you have done unto them. Sometimes. When doing the girls hair in the mornings I typically spray it with water, comb and put elastics or whatever in it. They have taken to doing my hair lately, but on Saturday, they found an even more willing subject. The wooden rocking horse. That horse was dripping with water from the spray bottle and has never had such silky straight, un-knotted hair in it's existence. By the end of the beauty do - the horse had every headband and clip we own on it's mane. Ahh, a much better subject indeed.

Midweek after lunch when the girls were apparently feeling snacky, Jane decided to hold a tea party. She got out drinks, napkins, plates, utensils, smurf (special guest) and even her lucky purse. This was just the beginning. By the end, we had expanded the towel to add a second bath towel to accommodate the larger amounts of snacks provided. She had every snack available, including their mac 'n cheese they hadn't quite finished from lunch. Having girls is a lot of fun.

Saturday was a day I was looking forward to/dreading for 5 months. It was our Sisters Conference, which is held every January. They are always wonderful, but the planning for months on end can be daunting and scary. It always turns out wonderfully but is always nice to have over with. This year was no exception. Our Relief Society Stake Presidency spoke intermingled with musical numbers. All were beautifully done. The light luncheon afterwards was delightful and delicious. We had the Stake Presidents wife, who is an artist, construct a lovely mural of this oak tree, seeing as our theme was about the Harper Island's "Island Oaks" whose story I'll have to tell later. Every sister in the stake could find their name written on the trunk, roots and branches of the tree... it was amazing and so very well done.

 

Week THREE

This last week.... hmm.. what happened this past week? Seriously. I'm drawing a blank. I know Monday morning was playgroup for Jane, I went to play basketball Wednesday evening, let Jane and Ally play at the church Wednesday morning with friends, Thursday morning was a temple trip with Ruth Hall (Jane and Ally's resident Grandma), Saturday we went into town as a family then Mom/Dad, Dallas/Fam came over for dinner, soon followed by Plowmans for games, and Sunday Rich spoke in Sacrament meeting then immediately left for a fishing trip and that evening I had a ward RS orientation, but really, besides all that I feel as though I'm leaving something out. It will come to me.

Today I worked on product photography and Jane decided she would help me! I have been using both my old and new camera, finding my old to be much better for certain things, and trying to level the learning curve with the new. Jane wanted to take pictures. It took a minute for her to understand the concept of looking into the viewfinder. Her world of pictures has only been on electronics that show on the screen what you're shooting. It was fun watching her learn, explore and develop. She did quite well arranging flowers and taking their photos.

I hope Jane discovers early a passion for something in life, and that I am willing to give mine in helping her develop and pursue her talents.  I do not mean that I hope she finds at an early age something she will love and do for the rest of her life - but I hope she is courageous enough to try new things and in turn discover and learn more about her self. She was so cute getting excited about doing something she saw mommy doing and was proud of the results. I love this little bug.

week TWO

This last week was filled mostly with counting inventory for my Etsy shop over at my parents place. For some reason the week seemed to fly by and before I knew it, it was over. Saturday was upon us and we had tickets to the movie Monsters Inc 3D (thanks mom!) that needed to be used. Although we planned on Rich using them for his monthly "daddy-daughter" date, he insisted I take Miss Jane. It was nice to spend some one-on-one with her. We went all out getting ourselves drinks and popcorn and we even had the whole theaters to ourselves. This was a bonus because then we didn't bother anyone with Jane's incessant "why's." Why is he sad? Why is he doing that? What is she being funny?" We also didn't bother anyone with our constant potty breaks. Drinking soda will do that to a little bladder. After the movie was over we chased each other around the theater. Before leaving we made one more potty stop then headed to the Brigham City DI to see if we could score any goodies. What's a mommy-daughter date without some shopping anyway? There were all sorts of things Jane thought were worthy of taking up space in our home, but we got out without most of them. At one point she started carrying around a large plastic kitchen thing. She's apparently very strong. Strong willed that is. Luckily we already have a kitchen so I was able to persuade her to put it back. It was funny.... guess you had to be there.

January Family Letter

Our little family is doing well. We are especially grateful for our many blessings and comforts of life as we look out the window at the brewing storm outside. We loved spending time with family over the recent holidays. Thanksgiving and Christmas are so fun when you're spending it with family. Thanks mom/dad for opening your home for all us to gather and mingle. January, although brought on with much excitement and new resolutions is always a smack in the face as it brings back the reality of everyday life. Rich is now the Executive secretary to the Bishopric and I am still in the Stake Relief Society Secretary.  Right now is a busy time as we prepare for our Stake Women's Conference. Other then that, life is same old same old :)

loves to all, and happy new year!
the Wellsville Whites - Rich, Serra, Jane, Ally

week ONE

This first week brought with it a new year, a fresh start and lots of family time. I love the holidays. It is always  family filled and it warms my heart and refreshes my soul. I tried my darndest not to make a whole lot of unrealistic goals this year. So, in trying to be realistic, my top goal was to be a better wife and mother. To be more specific, my goal with relation to my family is to remember to always put them first before my other goals and expectations of myself.  I am often saddened by how the days slip by like sand between my fingers. By how fast my children are growing before my eyes.

My children are indeed my greatest joy (I accidentely typed "job"-- ain't that the truth too!). I love them both  to my very core. I want them to succeed, to always be as happy as they are now. To always know peace. To be better then I have ever been. Thank you Richard White for helping my create two beautiful girls who are delicious to my heart.