This Crazy Week

I have been meaning to post for days now, but I have had a very hectic week. I spent all day Monday and Tuesday preparing for our Young Women New Beginnings program. It was a lot of work. It was exhausting, but it turned out pretty good. We had 3 of the 4 incoming beehives there with parents and most of our current young women there. We did a cooking show theme with one of my counselors putting together a fruit pizza using the value colors and talking about what each value means. We also, of course, introduced the new beehives and I did an overview of the YW program. Anyway, it was short and sweet and now it's done. That's the main thing. :)

Anyway, I took Wednesday "off" and just hung with the kids and didn't really do much. Then Thursday and Friday were spent getting ready for my friend's baby shower that I threw at my house this morning. It was also very nice. I love doing brunch showers. They are so easy and most people are available mid-morning on a Saturday. I made my grandma's souffle, muffins, and a fruit plate. It was pretty and delicious. I got lots of compliments on the food. We didn't play any games, just visited and opened presents. Even though only about half of the people I invited came it felt full. I guess that's the perk of having a small house. Anyway, again, now it's over. Whew! Now if I can just get through my YW lesson and presidency meeting tomorrow I will be ready to relax for a few days and enjoy my mom's visit next weekend!

In other news, I got a new toy! I bought this elliptical machine last weekend at the Icon Fitness scratch and dent warehouse. I love it! It has been really great being able to hop on for 15 minutes during the lulls in my day. It makes me feel like I finally have a fighting chance at making regular exercise a reality. I truly enjoy exercising (most days), but it is just so hard to get all ready and go to the gym during a time that Ian is actually home. Having the elliptical in my living room, although not great for my general home decor, reminds me to use it. If it was in the garage I have a feeling I wouldn't use it as often. Out of sight, out of mind, you know? So, yeah, so far I love it!
Finally a new picture of Miss Talia. She is such a doll. She wasn't particularly happy when I was trying to take this picture, so no smile, but her smiles are truly precious. I am loving dressing her up and then getting her to smile at me. I am planning on getting a picture of her with her brothers next time she wears this outfit.
In the midst of all my crazy running around this week, it was freezing cold. Like high of 10 degrees kind of cold. And my preschool carpool buddy was sick, so here's hoping for a slightly less hectic and warmer week!

A Whole Handful!

I officially have a 5 year old! Weston's birthday was on Saturday. We had a very fun weekend starting with a full day on Friday. Weston got to pick his birthday outing and he chose the Treehouse Museum in Ogden. We had never been there and he has been asking to go since he saw ads for it on PBS. We have some friends in Ogden, so we invited them to join us. The Treehouse was a blast. Lots of fun kid exhibits (and I only lost Davin for about 5 minutes). :) After the museum we all went to lunch at Weston's pick, McDonald's, of course. I enjoying having someone to chat with while the kids played.

Next we headed to the Icon Fitness scratch and dent warehouse to look at some ellipticals. I ended up buying one, but more on that later. We ended our Ogden excursion with a visit to my Auntie B's house! My cousin Jessica was there too and it was nice to just relax and visit. The boys were so excited to play with Auntie B's doggies. I had a nice, quiet drive home while the kids all slept. I made Weston's birthday dinner Friday night. He requested spaghetti with butter and mizithra. I love that kid.
Saturday morning was the big Transformers party! It was actually a relatively simple party. It also ended up being small, but I thought it was just perfect. I also kind of enjoyed having the kids all just dropped off. I thought it would be harder without the parents staying, but it really wasn't. We started the party with some snacks and an episode of the new animated Transformers cartoon. Then we played games. First we played ring toss where the kids tossed the ring to a blanket with prizes laid out on it. Whatever prize the ring landed on (or bounced off of) the got to keep. Next they played bean bag toss with the awesome autobot symbol bean bag toss board Ian made and won tootsie rolls. Finally we played musical cards. The kids walked around in a circle on the pictures of different transformers. Whoever was on the one that got called when the music stopped got a fruit by the foot.
Finally it was time for cake and presents. Weston was a champion candle extinguisher this year and enjoyed being sung to. He also was super excited to open presents. He got lots of fun things. Thanks everyone! Ian and I bought his a bike, but we totally forgot about it and it was over at our neighbor's house hiding, so it didn't get here until the very end of the party, but Weston was pretty excited about it. We lucked out with a sunny 45 degree day, so Weston got to take his bike outside and practice riding it a little bit.
Saturday afternoon Weston went and ran errands with me. We bought the movie Hercules. The boys watched it while they ate their pizza for dinner. I would say it was a successful birthday. We sure love our cute, precocious Weston. He's just growing up too fast!

Good thing we still have a newborn who hasn't grown up too much yet. :) Here are a couple cute pictures of the princess. She is wearing new outfits almost every day now so I have to take lots of pictures again. My friend, Ireland, made her the cute knit flower hat.

You've Got Mail

It's always fun to get mail, but when you're a kid it's extra exciting since you don't usually get anything at all. And it usually means it's your birthday or some other fun holiday. Weston has been so excited to check the mail every day for the last week since his birthday is coming up. He has been getting birthday cards and packages. Yesterday he got enough birthday money to buy the Optimus Prime toy he has been wanting, so last night I took him to Toys R Us. Luckily they had the toy he wanted. They also had an Optimus Prime costume in his size on sale, so he got that too. I think it's safe to say we are into Transformers right now.
When we got home from school yesterday there was a package on the doorstep. It was a birthday present for Weston. I let him choose if he wanted to open it right away or wait until his birthday. He chose to open one of the presents in the box and save the other one. Luckily he chose to open the cool Star Wars pancake molds that my parents sent. Ian made us Star Wars pancakes for dinner last night! They were really cool and yummy too. :)
And finally, of course, here are a few new pictures of our cute, smiling Talia.

Stay tuned for the 5th birthday extravaganza weekend!

Sparkly Flowers

I love that I have a girl and I get to accessorize her with sparkly flowers. I forgot about this adorable headband my mom gave me with a super cute dress. The dress was hanging in the closet (it doesn't quite fit yet) and the headband was hanging on the hanger. I pulled it off and put it on Talia on Monday. It is so cute! I also put her in a new 3 month onesie. It was big, but not too ridiculously huge. :) I can tell she is getting bigger and so I'm trying to let her get as much use out of her 0-3 month wardrobe as possible. Plus I miss putting her in new clothes. Anyway, here are a few pics of the cute kids and the cute headband.

In other news I had my first counseling appointment yesterday. It went well. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but mostly at this first visit we just talked about what was going on and she was getting to know me and about my family/situation. I think I'll do at least a couple more sessions with her, but not anything long term (unless of course I take a major nosedive). She really liked the idea of getting an elliptical for exercising at home since exercise is a natural antidepressant. She also recommended a book to read and said she would be teaching me some techniques for relaxing and re-centering in the middle of life when I get frustrated or anxious. It was good to just talk about my feelings and get some validation, you know?

Yesterday morning my blow dryer died, so I had to buy a new one because I can't survive without one. Sad? Maybe, but it is what it is. I had a couple other errands to run too, so I got to go out and do some shopping after FHE. It was a lot of fun. I seriously love Target. I spent $20 and I got 2 Star Wars coloring books, 2 Transformers board books (for prizes for Weston's party), 3 small rolls of Valentine wrapping paper (gotta love the dollar spot!), a sweater and turtleneck for Weston, a thermal shirt and a pair of jammies for Davin, invitations for my friend's baby shower, and a pack of dessert plates for Weston's party. I decided to try buying my new blow dryer from Sally's since they have more salon brands. I used it this morning and so far it's pretty great. Very lightweight and quiet.

Today it snowed. Boo. Now I have to come up with an alternative combined YW/YM activity. We were supposed to go to Temple Square tonight, but with the snow I don't think we will. Any ideas? The theme for the month is Repentance. That's kind of a hard one to tie in with indoor soccer, so I need a better idea than that. Perhaps we will watch some of the new DVD about the year's theme and pop popcorn. If we have time then we can play Catch Phrase. I love that game. Not sure how it ties into Repentance, but we can make it work. Sigh.

Smiling

Talia has started smiling at us! This is such a great milestone. One of my favorites. That and sleeping through the night. :) Anyway, here are a few (not really great) shots I took today.

Random Stuff

Time is a funny thing. It can drag so slowly and fly by at the same time. I swear every day this week has felt so looong, but at the same time I can't believe tomorrow is already Thursday! In the next couple weeks I have Weston's birthday/birthday party, YW New Beginnings, and I'm throwing a baby shower for my friend. They are all sneaking up on me. We went and bought the invitations for Weston's party today. Man, I hadn't been to Target in awhile. It was fun. I really did need most of the stuff I bought, but we also got a couple Transformer books at the dollar spot and the boys got a pair of foam swords (as if we need more of those, but they always pick them!). I got a new nail polish that I plan on putting on tonight. Talia got free formula and vitamin D drops. :)

Talia has these bouts of fussiness at night that are so annoying. I hate to listen to a crying baby, but if she is going to cry while I hold her then she can cry in the bouncer or her crib. I still just wish she wouldn't cry. That would be nice, huh?

Anyway, I had a planning meeting with the young women on Tuesday and it was great. Why? First of all because I had all of them there (which in and of itself is a minor miracle)! Second because they had lots of ideas and we have plenty of things on the list to plug into the calendar through May. We also got the ideas for the combined activities we are in charge of written down and agreed on. Best of all we were done in an hour! Now if we can get as good of a turnout at New Beginnings I will be a happy girl.

You know what else makes me happy? Free formula. Talia isn't even on formula yet, but I try to stockpile as many freebies as I can. This baby has been the best yet. I signed up for the Similac Strong Moms program online and they sent me the 2 sample cans. Then they sent me this Gold Club member card, so I went and put that membership number in online. Since then I have gotten two rebate check coupons for $20 each (which pays for all but one dollar of the full size box of formula) and a coupon for a free full size simple pac. Sweet! I hope they keep sending me these!

Yup, all free!

I can't remember what day these were taken, but here are a few pics of our life at home.

Dealing

Thank you everyone for your love and support and advice! I know I'm not the only one to struggle with these feelings, and that really does help. Talia and I both had a better night last night. I'm feeling a little more rested and capable today. I have a visit with a good friend planned for this afternoon. She always cheers me up, so that will be fun. And bonus, her husband is a chiropractor, so I am going to see if he will adjust me too. I have been getting headaches a lot which doesn't help me deal with my life.

My mom bought a plane ticket to come visit me in February too. It's nice to have that to look forward to. I guess if you whine and cry and have a mental breakdown you get a visit from your mom (in case you were trying to figure out how to get your mother to come visit you). :) No, but really, having my mom around makes me feel like there is someone to take care of me instead of me taking care of everyone. I can't wait for her to come!

Ian had to work late last night, so we didn't get as much time to talk as I would have liked, but I did get the ok from him to deal with this however I think will be best. I've always felt like I'm a little bit of a crazy person (who doesn't sometimes?), but I think I am going to find a therapist to talk to. I'm hoping that a few sessions will help me understand and deal with this better. My sister pointed out that a therapist might also be able to give me some good tools to help me cope.

I also want to buy an elliptical machine for my house. I know that sounds weird, but I feel tons better when I exercise. However, the logistics of getting to the gym with 3 kids at home are an obstacle. I really like the idea of being able to hop on there and get some endorphins going whenever I have a free 20 or 30 minutes.

Finally I am going to try to be more specific and open about the things I need from my counselors in my YW presidency. Tonight for our activity we are going to plan the mutual activities until summer. I'm hoping that will help me feel more prepared and less like I'm constantly scrambling around to plan and execute mutual nights. Also that means if I need to step away for a little bit there will be a plan in place for someone else to take over.

Today my head is above water. Hopefully I'll learn to keep it there.