Bedtime Story

Once upon a time, in a land not so far away, there lived a Gingerbread Family. They lived happily in a plastic bag, waiting for the day when a little child would enjoy their crisp taste and savor every bite. They looked forward to the small, clean bites that would fulfill their destiny.
One day, the Gingerbread family was given to a little girl named Emily. She happily ate them, knowing that their willing sacrifice meant her happiness. But Emily got distracted, and left some of the family members in the plastic bag on the floor. Confused, the Gingerbread Family looked around. And who did they see? Not sweet little Emily, who ate a Gingerbread Man like they're supposed to be eaten. Instead they saw the Gingerbread Monster!

The Gingerbread Monster didn't cleanly bite Gingerbread Men--she sucked and sucked on them until they slowly dissolved then she wiped their remains everywhere! She ravaged their little family, leaving some of them limbless and other smeared on the bathroom floor! It was a Gingerbread Man's worst nightmare!

When she was finished, the Gingerbread Monster smiled, drooled a little gingerbread juice and crawled away.

The End.

Stealing is a crime...

We've had some things stolen since we moved here. First was my phone which I dropped on the sidewalk in front of our house. A nice homeless man found it, took it and then when my dad called, charged my dad a $10 ransom for it. We paid the "ransom" and got it back, but I disinfected it before using the phone again.

Then was Matt's bike. He left in a hurry one day and forgot the bike lock. There went a couple hundred dollars.

Next it was my wallet, which I lost last week. We were at the library and I was carrying Nathalie and our library bag, wallet in my hand, when Emily started having a meltdown. I put my wallet in my back pocket, picked Emily up and walked out to the car. Somewhere in the 200ft between the library and the car, my wallet fell out of my pocket. I went to the library the next day and nobody had returned it. So......I've gotten a new checking account, insurance cards, coupons, driver's license, credit and debit cards and temple recommend. But that was $60.

But you know what theft makes me the most mad? Our PUMPKINS! We had two pumpkins--one orange, one green. I was waiting for them both to be orange and I was going to make homemade pumpkin pie and pumpkin bread and yesterday I noticed that they were both gone! That just RANKLES me. UGH!

Splish-splash, I was taking a bath

We have water-babies. Bath time is a highlight at our house. In fact, the other night Nathalie was hysterical because she was hungry (it'd been 3.5 hours--yeesh!). I told Emily she could take a bath while I fed Nathalie. Emily hopped into the tub and I settled on the floor with Nathalie. As soon as Nathalie realized that Emily was taking a bath and she wasn't, she refused to eat. When I put her in the bathtub, she shrieked with delight! What a funny baby! Yummy octopus!

"Wrap me up, Mommy!" Emily's favorite way of getting dry.

Heavy Equipment

The city has been widening our street and Emily has been fascinated by the front-loader tearing up the street. (Why they're doing this in November instead of August, I don't know.) We watch from a distance and they don't leave the front-loader on the street while they're gone. But.....they're using the same front-loader in the park across the street to make some basketball courts. So the other day we went to the park, found the machine and and touched it!

Also, the other day, the girls and I were taking a walk. We live a 15-minute walk from the hospital and it's a nice neighborhood so we were walking in that direction. Emily is always on the lookout for firetrucks, ambulances, police cars, planes, motorcycles and....helicopters. All of a sudden she heard the helicopter. We found it in the sky and I realized that it was heading toward the hospital to land. When I told Emily this, she jumped in our stroller and I took off running. Thank goodness it was our jogging stroller! The girls thought it was hilarious that I was running that fast, but we were able to make it to the hospital. The helicopter had landed and unloaded and the pilot was just drinking coffee, waiting. He let us come to the helicopter, touch it and look inside. It made Emily's day!!!

Sweet moment

The other morning, Emily and I had just been through a medium-size tantrum. She was still teary and I was feeling a little ruffled. I was sitting on the couch talking to Emily and holding Nathalie, when Nathalie started to nuzzle into my neck for a moment. She does that a lot, and I always love it but I especially loved it then because of Emily's tantrum. So I smiled, and then kissed Nathalie. Emily looked at me and said, "You love Nathalie."

I said, "Yes, I love Nathalie. But I love you too."

"She is your favorite Nathalie."

"Yes, she is my favorite Nathalie. But YOU are my favorite Emily."

"You are my favorite Mommy."

That was some pretty darn good sushi!

Thought I'd write this little post......4 years ago yesterday, Matt and I went on our first date. He picked me up in his awesome truck covered with mud, I was adventurous and ate sushi for the first time at Asuka in Provo. 4 years ago tomorrow, we started dating and kissed. Despite what he claims, he kissed me!

It must have been some pretty darn good sushi!

Crackle crackle!

Nathalie is a happy baby. She loves to be with people and seeing new things.

That's her usual expression. She's easy to please.

Nathalie in a tree.

Whenever we walk through the leaves, I have to say "Crackle crackle" with Emily. Leaf crunching is our favorite pasttime lately and Emily has delighted in the leaf piles around our neighborhood.

Whenever I sit Nathalie on the ground, she tries to eat leaves. Emily decided that sounded fun.

This sweet leaf pile we found. I had to drag Emily away when it got dark and when we went back the next day, it was gone.

Emily liked being up in the tree. Babydoll had to sit up there too, of course.

My little....marathoner?

My grandma tells the story that when she was about 7 and her little brother was 4, she and her mother were sitting upstairs reading. Her brother came up from the basement and said, "Well, don't ask me who started the fire in the basement!" Of course, her mother and my grandmother ran as fast as they could down to the basement, stopping to grab water from the kitchen and thereby saved the day. I'll bet my great-grandmother remembered that moment forever.

Emily has lots and lots and lots of energy. We try to go outside a lot, but on days we can't, she gets really crazy!! While I think her energy is (almost) always wonderful--she's going to be the first woman President, I can tell--I have a hard time figuring out ways for her to use ALL that energy so she isn't quite as active at home.

Yesterday she flooded the bathroom right before Matt and I went on a date. Today she put diaper cream all over herself and then stripped Nathalie naked and put it on her too, all while I was in the bathroom. When I put Nathalie down to sleep, she flooded the bathroom again. (Our bathroom floor is nice and clean now!)

I'm telling you this because I think people look at me and think, "Wow, that mom is a bad parent. She needs to keep better track of her toddler." If only they knew! I can't keep up with her! I've dropped my bags and Nathalie's carseat to sprint after Emily before she runs across the street. I've run with Nathalie's carseat and the bags before Emily runs out of Kroger. I've carried Nathalie's carseat, the bags and Emily to the car so she can't get away! In other words, she is always one step ahead.

Nathalie has a lot of energy too, which could is good and bad. We call her our "wiggle wiggle worm" because she's literally moving ALL THE TIME. When she starts crawling and walking, I will be busy. But at the same time, she and Emily ADORE each other and will have lots of fun playing together. Does anyone else have kids like this? She's not a bad child--she's happy and eager to please. She just has lots of energy. Any ideas for winter? My town doesn't even have a McD with a playplace, so we usually go to WalMart to run. What are some fun, energy-expending activities?