The View From Here

Monday, August 27, 2012

this little miss turned two

Woke up early (we hit the yard sales!) to birthday decorations.

Opened one present because it was hard to wait until four when dad and McKay got home.

Her very own chapstick, and plenty of it. She loved it. She often asks people if they have chapstick and she loves mine, so I knew it would be the perfect gift.

Happy girl. Yeah, I feel a little bit weird that I got my baby chapstick, knowing that she would eat all of it. Anything for this birthday girl!

Donuts from Daylight here in PG. So yum! And chocolate milk, of course. Another one of her favorite things.

Her siblings were really helpful with opening presents. Baby "rella" and this "punzel" barbie were a big deal for this girl.

Then. . .off to Chuck E. Cheese! It's hard to have Layla and McKay two days apart, but one nice thing about it is that on the years that one of them has a friend party, or "theme birthday" as McKay calls them, the other doesn't and so we get to do something fun as a family. And all you parents know that nothing is more fun or exciting or special for kids as Chuck. E. Cheese. Plus, it's easy, so I'm a fan.

Riding the rides. She's a little young for the games. . .okay, a lot young actually.

But she still liked the little rides, and especially liked driving in the race car game. She kept wanting to play that one.

Luckily no one was scared of the characters this year. Layla kept wanting to see Chuck E. again after he came out once. She's way braver than Elle was at her age.

Really great prizes, especially love those braids.

Time for cake.

Brian has been giving me a hard time because I wanted to make Layla a chocolate zucchini cake. (Jenn, mine didn't taste anywhere near as good as yours. Sad.) I stand by my decision. She loved it.

I can't really express how much happiness this little one brings to our family. She is definitely a little light around here. I love how independent she is. I love how well she understands and expresses herself. I love how much she loves her older brother and sister. I love that she can play by herself and how much she loves books. I love how she thinks the kitchen floor is a stage and sings at the top of her lungs at least once a day. I love how she is still my baby, at least for a little bit longer. I just love her.

Happy Birthday, baby girl!

Sunday, August 19, 2012

thoughts on a sunday

jam session

Heard outside while doing yard work from Elle: "Um, Layla is sticking her hand in a spider's web and eating it."

Does my girl have pica??? What with licking the sidewalk, gnawing on rocks, and devouring chapstick at every opportunity I am beginning to wonder.

McKay's new phrase of choice, "That's so epic." There is a ton of stuff that happens around here that's epic. Who knew. I think someone's been hanging out with the Allred boys :)

We had quite a scary event occur on Saturday. We were all outside and Brian was cleaning the guinea pig cage. Smokey and Sparkles were out on the grass in a little dip where the irrigation box sits in the lawn. Elle was doting on Sparkles and Smokey was left alone in the hole. A few seconds passed and we looked in the hole and Smokey was gone! No one saw where he went so McKay began crying, Elle was running around panicking and Brian and I began to search the wild outdoors for a black and white guniea pig. McKay was getting pretty upset and had the idea to say a prayer. He knelt down and said it and we kept looking. I said my own prayer, not that we would find him, but more that McKay's prayer would be answered. It was! I was searching through thick ground cover under a bush and saw sneaky little Smokey hiding. It was pretty eventful, and I'm glad McKay was able to learn a few lessons from the experience.

Brian and I got new callings. I teach the 11 year old girls in primary- which I think is going to be really fun. So far it's been great. It's fun to just have it be girls and get them ready for young women's.

Brian's calling is a little more prestigious than mine. Yep, I never thought I'd be the wife of the second counselor in the sunday school presidency! When he was asked we were both a little surprised because honestly, we have no idea what the sunday school presidency does. . .as a whole!. . .let alone the second counselors responsibilities. No one can really tell us what he'll do either. He's hoping he'll get to ring the bell. He'll be such an awesome bell ringer!

Brian thinks he hit the jackpot, calling wise. At leaset he'll still probably be able to escort Layla to nursery. Hehe.

Layla's been sick this week. High fever, goopy eye, fussy-pants. There were a couple days when I felt like I had a colicky newborn on my hands. It was no fun. She seems to be on the mend, I hope. I'm kind of tired of getting up at two a.m. although it is nice to snuggle and rock my baby alone. . . just not in the middle of the night.

Elle is getting more comfortable playing with friends. It's kind of funny, but whenever the neighbor girls come over we pretty much let them do whatever they want because I want it to be a good experience so Elle will like it and keep wanting to play.

She may be taking her time with the girls, but she has already found a best friend in Ben from down the street. They play really well together and hug each other when they leave. It's cute.

This week I refinished the mirror in our entry way. I haven't done a project like that in a long time and it made me remember how much I like to refinish things.

McKay registered for first grade this week and met his teacher. He was so nervous about it, but it went well and she seems nice and she loves Star Wars- it's actually the theme of their room- so of course that helped him feel comfortable.

I cannot believe I have an almost-seven-year-old first grader! I am dying a little bit.

I can't lie though. I am quite excited for the structure and routine that comes with school. And six hours a day without my boy?!! I am crying and laughing at the thought simultaneously.

In an effort to do something fun the last week of summer, we had the Allred cousins (youngest three) over for a late night. We had nachos for dinner, and they played outside and made birds nests out of grass. Then we watched the new Muppet movie and had treats and popcorn. It was a fun night and I'm glad we did it before summer ended because I'd been meaning to all summer.

McKay is now completely head over heels in love with the Muppet movie. We watched it three days in a row until I finally insisted we take it back. They both thought it was the best movie ever and we've all been singing the songs all week.

Brian got good news this week from work. He is now in the call schedule! This means his hours will increase, and he will take call which means he will be working some nights, weekends and his share of holidays. He is not thrilled at this, but I am thrilled because we thought he might be bumped down to part time in September, so this is a welcome surprise. A blessing, for sure.

Poor Brian has not had much time to run, due to his super early mornings at work. He's actually gone at night a couple times, but he hates that.

He was able to run the Hobblecreek half this weekend with his dad. We went down to see them finish, but missed them by like ten minutes. They must have been super fast!

Layla has quite an advanced vocabulary for her age. Sometimes it's surprising, even to us. Like tonight at dinner when she looked over at Brian and said, "Chill out daddy." We don't ever say chill out. Where did she get that?

We are huge fans of Baby Signing Time, thanks to Jana who gave us the music. The girls especially love listening to it and Layla asks for it all the time in the car. She calls it Baby Baby. Anyway, there is a song about washing your hands that says, "I wash my hands, everyday." Layla now thinks that washing your hands is called wash your hands everyday.

Speaking of music, I havent' mentioned in awhile how obsessed Ellery is with Taylor Swift. . .still. She knows that Taylor lives in Tennessee (actually, I don't know if she does, that's just what I told her). The other day she said to me, "Mom, I want to go on my mission to Tennessee." I can only guess why.

Lisa and I went garage sale-ing last Saturday. I know a lot of people are not into garage sales. I know people think it's weird (like husbands especially) but I really love it. We found so many treasures- a dehydrator for $2, seven pairs of like-new Gap shoes for Layla, a set of early reader books for our library! It is so satisfying and fun.

While washing my new dehydrator in the tub with bleach, I put the jets on and we went downstairs to make lunch. Ellery went up to see if I was upstairs and came running down with a frantic look on her face. I guess I shouldn't have left the jets going for so long. It was exciting and it was all I could do to keep Layla out of the tub. She was dying to play in those bubbles.

Layla went poop in the potty right during the bubble explosion. It was a random act, really. She happened to be naked, like she often is, and I could tell it was coming. I plopped her on and she tired and said she was done. She was disappointed that nothing was there as she peered inside the toilet. She tried again, this time with some pushing demonstrations by me, and she produced! She was so excited and so were Elle and I. We danced and cheered. I know Brian will die that I put this on here, but I had to. Look at her and how proud she is! Sorry.

Another thing I'm totally loving right now is Olioboard. Anyone doing this too? It's a website where you can design a room and/or make inspiration boards. I love it.

I am busy planning an Angry Birds birthday party. Layla turns two on Saturday and McKay the next Monday. Oh last two weeks of August, what did I do to deserve you? Busy, busy around here!

Happy Sunday!

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

PC 2012

WALKING MAIN:

Moose hunting on Main Street with rock candy suckers.

FIRST EVER FUEHRER FAMILY TALENT SHOW:

Poems, songs, dances, instruments, jokes- it was a great show!

SWIMMING:

Always a favorite part of Park City. Cute little Gemma Mae.

Many in the fam gathered outside to watch these musicians put on a show. McKay got to be Stinky Pete, or something like that, and they dressed him up and he was part of the show!

BUBBLES: