A boyfriend/girlfriend weekend

Lovey took me away this weekend for a boyfriend girlfriend getaway. We left Becca & Mary-Gail in our niece, Amy's, very capable hands, and headed up to Park City Friday evening. Becca & Mary-Gail were ridiculously excited when they heard AmyCakes was going to sleep-over and play with them all weekend long; I recall Becca's exact words were, "Oh yeah! It's gonna be so much fun!" And Mary-Gail said, "Have fun on your date night."

We did have fun. We ate supper at the pub at the top of Main Street. Lovey had the buffalo burger, and I was craving the fish'n'chips. Neither of the dishes disappointed. We checked into the Marriott, I unpacked us (I don't like "living" out of a suitcase no matter how short the stay), and we snuggled in for a late-night movie.

Saturday started off especially wonderful because we slept in! I did feel a tiny ping of guilt after realizing that I was grateful to be alone with Lovey for the whole weekend - sans kids and dogs - but that "ping" was short lived. We got ready for the day, ate a late breakfast, and then headed to the outlets for some shopping. Lovey & I picked up some much needed clothes for Becca & Mary-Gail (i.e. pants! The girls are growing so tall that all their pants are floods!), and then Lovey made a fatal announcement: he wanted to go to Banana Republic.

We (I) spent the next 2 hours shopping in Banana. Lovey gasped when he saw my arms loaded with clothes, and warned me that the limit in the dressing room was 5. Whatever! I pulled him into the dressing room with me, and gave him his assignment: to remove the clothes from the hanger and then re-hang the clothes after I tried them on. (That's what my mom, sisters, & I do when we go shopping together, and now Lovey was in charge of that responsibility). Lovey was remarkable, and remarkably patient! And so full of complements as well as a few criticisms of the clothes I tried on. I nearly kissed him (actually I did) after I tried on each item! He made me/makes me feel like a million bucks.

And that's about how much money I spent in Banana Republic. I bought serveral shirts, sweaters, and a dress. The pants were awkward and the only style that fits my curves well is the "Jackson Fit" and there weren't very many pants in that style. I mean, really, I have like a 6 pairs of black slacks already - I seriously don't need another one (that's what Lovey reminded me when I tried on another pair of black slacks). Plus, Lovey said that after my surgery things will fit differently so we should wait and come back...I don't know if I want to come back after my surgery...

Nevermind that; here's to a fabulous weekend with my boyfriend. Thank you Lovey. And thank you for continuing this annual tradition of getaways! (October 2007; December 2008 PC; June 2009 PC)

Clothes for Becca & Mary-Gail: 2 hoodies, 2 dress shirts, 4 pairs of jeans, 2 leggins w/lace, 4 long-sleeved shirts, and a 1o-pack of socks! Whew!

My loot: Lovey took me to Banana Republic and let me run wild...

Becca gives the BEST responses: Oh my goodness! For me? I love it!

Lovey couldn't wait until Becca & Mary-Gail's birthday to give them the clothes he picked out: the jeans and hoodies. And Becca & Mary-Gail were so excited to get a present from Daddy.

Isn't he (and our girls) just the cutest ever?

Jesus is a God of Miracles

In my family we've been the receipents of many miracles, from full recovery of brain aneruisym, 2 open-heart surgeries, miracle of getting pregnant, 27-week micro-preemie twins - it's been amazing. Mary-Gail gave her 1st Primary talk in church on Sunday, August 22nd, and the Primary's theme for August happened to be "Jesus is a God of Miracles." Could anything be more fitting? When we came home from church I requested an oncore and Mary-Gail obliged.


Don't cha just love my little miracle?

And here both of my miracles right before we left for church on Sunday, October 24th - the day of the Primary Program. All the little Sunbeams stood up and recited the First Article of Faith, the first fundamental belief of our Gospel:

"We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost."

They tapped danced all morning long in their "sparkly princess shoes"

What's for breakfast?

Chocolate-covered Hostess Donettes -what else?

Miss Independent

Rebecca LaRae, 3 11/12 years old, has consistently been able to zip-up the zipper on her jacket for a week! Oh my heavens - ths is h u g e for her. Becca always wants to do things by herself, and now she can zip up her own jacket. Hooray for Becca!

Her expression says to me, "Like it ain't no thing!"

When I asked Becca if I could snap her picture she, of course said yes, but insisted she stand in front of her 'Mr. Bones' that she and Mary-Gail colored at school.

You girls make me laugh

Mary-Gail said to Lovey last night, "what do you want to be for Halloween Dadda?" (nevermind that Halloween is 3 days past). Lovey exploded with laughter. Mary-Gail looked confused by her Daddy's response, so she asked him again, "huh Dadda? what do you want to be for Halloween?" Lovey said that he was going to be a Mr. FedEx Man, and Becca responded, "ah no - not a Mr. FedEx Man!"

Mary-Gail looked me and asked me what I wanted to be for Halloween. I told her I was going to be an old peddler woman. And Becca echoed, "ah no - not an old peddler woman." I asked Mary-Gail what she was going to be for Halloween. "A witch {pronounced wea-ch} And I'm going trick-or-treating and I'll get lots of candy....more than I did last year." Lovey was mid-drink and almost shot water out of his nose when he heard Mary-Gail say "more than I did last year." I was laughing too and said to Mary-Gail and Becca, "You girls make me laugh," and then we three had a back-&-forth battle of "no you do; no you do; uh-ah, you do."

Tonight Mary-Gail feed her chatter-teeth some iceberg lettuce because "the teeth are hungry because they chatter, chatter, chatter all day and need energy...and lettuce is goood."

(Mary-Gail's chatter teeth getting more energy. please overlook my dirty counter tops)

And the Halloween song that continues to be sung - I love it!

I'm a Mean Old Witch with a hat;

And I ride on my broom with my cat - meow!

My chin is pointy and my hat is too,

You better watch out, cause I might scare you...

...1-2-3- BOO!

Last Call

Tuesday at work one of the gals commented that her young son stayed up late watching a movie and didn't want to go to bed afterwards - he wanted to watch another one. I piped in - "We've been there." So, what do you do when your little ones have a serious all-out-breakdown when you say "no" to them? You circumvent the situation. Here's what Lovey and I do...

"LAST CALL." That's right: "Last Call." Becca and Mary-Gail know that when we say "last call" it's over - the movie, dinner, being crazy, reading books, whatever. "Last call" is our code name for done, finished, no more. However, we mostly use "Last Call" for reading books. I'll read with the girls until 7:45 pm and then I say, "Last Call," and the girls echo - "last call!" Becca will choose her last book, and Mary-Gail will choose hers, and they'll go find Lovey to join us. Lovey is in charge of reading the last 2 books. He makes it very clear to the girls that "this is the last book ever in the whole creation of reading books in tonight's nighttime-night," and then he'll have the girls rehearse to him what they do after he finishes reading the last book. The girls repeat the same thing every night, almost always in unison: "go potty, sing songs, say prayers, and go to bed."

Each night I watch Lovey reading to our girls, and my smile grows bigger (hard to imagine) and my heart swells with love for their interaction with each other. Lovey makes the high voices for the girls in the books (very comical), and he makes a great voice for the troll in The Three Billy Goats Gruff book. Animation is key for our little readers. Tonight I marveled at how similar Mary-Gail and Lovey are. Among other things they both love to read laying on their stomachs. Just thinking about that makes my back go into spasms. Becca and I prefer to sit up straight. So interesting that Mary-Gail looks like me, but has Lovey's family names and has his personality (easy going, carefree); and Becca looks like Lovey, but has my family names and has my personality (OCD, control-freak). I'll have to share how Lovey & I determined "who was who" when the girls were born...later

This is my favorite - Lovey shares a secret with Mary-Gail.

Aren't they just terribly cute?

I voted

...and surprisingly I voted Republican. Good thing the "I voted" sticker isn't partisan.

While I vacuum...

...they read. Vacuuming is my favorite chore - can it really even be called a chore if I enjoy it so much? Anyone who has a Dyson knows what I'm talking about. We've had our Dyson since our days in Charleston, SC, and the vacuum still works. That's amazing! I did have to have it serviced and have the temperature gauge replaced last year though; the repair man said I vacuumed for too long of a stretch of time. Clearly he doesn't understand the joy of having thoroughly clean and sucked-up carpets.

Enough about my vacuuming obsession and my Dyson - this post is about Becca & Mary-Gail. While I vacuum, they read. This day Mary-Gail chose to read, Snow White. She was so entertaining that I snatched the camera and snapped away. Mary-Gail was telling the story, and Becca was filling in the missing pieces, "No, no, Mary-Gail. You forgot about the Huntsman." Mary-Gail wanted to cut to the part with the Wicked Queen in disguise as the "old peddler woman" (can you believe they wanted me to be the "old peddler woman" for Halloween - what?!). We read this story all the time and I still get a kick out of watching their expressions when Snow White takes a bite of the poisoned apple and falls in a deep sleep - or dead, according to Rebecca..."and only true loves kiss will break the spell."

Welcome to November!

It's Becca & Mary-Gail's birthday month!

This month is such a special one;

It's birthday time for you!

We'd really like to celebrate

This happy day with you!

Zip-a-dee-ay and heigh-dee-ho

Here's something we can do...

We'll sing a song that we all know,

"Happy Birthday to you!"

(Children's Songbook, pg 283)

Rebecca & Mary-Gail turn 4 YEARS OLD on the 27th!! They have been talking about their birthday since March. And everyday they say to me, "Cy said our birthday was in March. But it's not; our birthday is in November. Hurmph!" Mary-Gail carries around her music box, which she calls her "cake" and asks, "who wants a piece of my cake?!" Then she grabs a pretend piece of her cake (music box) and hands it to you. Yesterday she put the pretend piece of cake in my mouth and it was delicious!

Last month we went to the girls' school's 25th birthday party. R Kids celebrated with cupcakes, face painting, games, balloons, and little prizes. What a blast! JoJo and Jed were there too with their littles, and it was fun to see all our kids play with their little friends from school. Mary-Gail was so excited about the birthday party invitation: it was a 15-layer birthday cake topped with two sparkling candles (the picture was drawn by one of the children at R Kids). Mary-Gail exclaimed, "this is going to be my birthday cake!" Oh boy...15 layers high? I already feel like the little fairy in Sleeping Beauty who can't make the cake for Princess Aurora. I'll have to pull out my magic wand (aka Carly & JoJo) to make it happen ;O'

Becca & Cy do the actions to their song

(Mary-Gail wanted to cuddle with me...awh!)

Mary-Gail gets her face painted...

...a flower

And Becca gets her face painted...

...a flower too, but here she's showing off the massive scratch on her cheek

(she was very proud of the scratch because she got it while she was helping Tony & me cut down our trees and stack the limbs in the truck)

Taylor Bug got a flower

And JoJo painted Cy's face...

...with a snake. Cy is thrilled!

Gage had his face painted with a snake, too

Kids in motion
Becca was "in the air" all night long!


Reese w/her friend Kennedy...

...they were best friends at R Kids

Cy with his friend, Sam

Becca deals a blow to Gage

I l ove these kids! Becca was so excited and full of energy that she just kept jumping up and down. Jed said to me after they finished singing, "Who's the pogo-stick?" No wonder Becca has killer, rock-hard calf muscles.