Worms and Chains

For family home evening last week we made a family chain. We only went so far as great-grandparents and still managed to create a pretty hefty chain. We explained that everybody has a mommy and a daddy and how it all works. We also explained that when Brian and I get married that will connect the two family's chains we had already created. She had fun, but she does not have a ton of patience thus far.
For our activity we made pudding and crushed oreos to look like dirt. I bought some gummy worms to put in the dirt and Xiana had a blast. She helped with every step of the process.
The finished product is so appetizing!
We are such posers with worms in our mouths!

Spring!! ...er, um, I mean... winter!

Xiana and I are very skillful playdo artists. We made fruit!
It looks good enough to eat, don't you think?
We also made all kinds of snakes and then went online to learn about various snakes. She was really interested. I know that she's only 2, but I really need to get her involved in a pre-school. She loves learning so much and she talks about school every day. She says, "remember when I go to preschool and my teacher sing songs and tell me to sit on my chair and we eat snacks and she tell me things." She really misses it. Her day care at UNLV was so involved. They planted a garden, and looked at bugs and learned about different things each week. After life settles down for us a bit, that is one thing that I am going to invest some time into.

So my dad turned the sprinkler system on and, despite the fact that it was maybe 60 degrees, I couldn't resist letting Xiana run through them. It. was. cold. But she had so much fun and given my affinity for water and fond memories of running through freezing cold sprinklers the first chance I got, I simply could not tell her no.
So she ran through the sprinklers, came in, got warm, and changed out her sopping clothes. Then we woke up in the morning and it had snowed!

Bridal Shower

My dear friend Alicia threw me a bridal shower complete with bridal shower games. It was really a lot of fun. I dare say people who detest these hokie games enjoyed themselves. This was particularly clever: each group was given toilet paper and a time limit and they had to come up with wedding dresses. I'm so glad I was selected to be dressed because I would never have thought of ANY of these creative ideas!


My mother-in-law and sister-in-law... we hid in the other room so nobody could copy us!



And the lucky winner is..... I think that it should have been me by default, but alas...
Seriously... we were equipped with accessories too!
The finished products!
I was spoiled with kind gifts, delicious food, and excellent company! Meanwhile Brian went out to the shooting range with his brothers, friends, and my dad... They enjoyed themselves almost as much as me!

While it is exciting to be moving into a new ward, it is also sad to leave the old. I am so thankful that I have established relationships with the wonderful ladies in the Wingfield Hills ward. I plan on keeping them! Our play groups, girls nights, and phone conversations are irreplaceable. Although, I will say that I am thrilled to be attending church with Brian... as a family. It is beautiful! Xiana asked me, "does Kylee have a mommy with her daddy?" I explained to her that they don't live together and she said, "my mommy and daddy are gonna live together with me." It still melts my heart.


Thank you to all who attended and contributed to this shower. It really means a lot to me. (especially Dawnette and Debbie who drove 3 hours here and then 3 hours back.... it was very thoughtful!!)

Doctors

For Brian's bachelor party, they spent the day shooting (my dad included) so Kylee came over to hang out with Xiana. They really do play so nicely together. I rarely have to intervene with the two of them. This day, they played all day long without a single altercation. I was spying on them from the kitchen and saw them taking turns playing doctor. One would lie on the floor and the other would say, "let's take your temperature... oh no! you have a fever. Better give you a flu shot. Let's listen to your heart" and then they would switch. "now I the doctor." It was really cute.
They also did some grocery shopping, cooked some food, vacuumed, and fed their babies while pushing them around in their strollers.
And we had some time for play doe.
Then the party started....
They asked me to watch Sesame St. so I put it on and neither of them watched it. Then they asked for Happy Feet and the same thing happened. I had movies on in every room and they didn't watch any of them. Abotu midway through my bridal shower Xiana came to me and said, "Me and Kylee wanna watch Beauty and the Beast in grandma grandpa's room." I relented even though I assumed it would be like all the rest of the media attempts of the day. I was wrong. This is how they sat for the next 90 minutes crying only once when another kid shut the door to the tv.

Pump it up!

Brian's niece (my niece in 2 1/2 weeks) celebrated her birthday at Pump it up. I can't decide whether the kids or the adults had more fun... it's close! It was a wonderful place to celebrate. Ella even got her own crown and throne (although I will say we could have done without the micro manager-wanna-be-party-planner who was literally taking presents out of her hands in an effort to speed things up). We had a fantastic time! Oh, and so did the kids!
I know I've mentioned it before, but I am so grateful that Xiana now has cousins her age close by. Kylee (left) is here almost every weekend and she is Xiana's best friend these days. Haylee (right) is just a hop skip and a jump away. When they first met they did the typical play next to each other, not with each other toddler thing, but these days they have become fast friends. The whole lot of them play well together.
In each room there is an obstacle course with two sides so that you can race. Everybody ended up with rugburn or some other injury before the day was over. Brian and his brothers raced hard. I attempted to beat Brian a few times, but he cheats. (actually he beat me fair and square all but once when I was climbing up the ladder and he pulled my feet dropping me to the ground... and not catching me! :)
This particular bout Eric crushed Brian.
Here are all... or at least most of the kids.
I really tried to get a focused shot of Brian going down the slide. I made him go over and over again, but this is the best I got. I guess it's because he is just too speedy for my camera.
Here's Ekco heading down like a water slide. She must have had fun because I scarcely saw her the entire day... she was running around with her cousins and friends.
It's amazing that the littlest kids (ie Xiana) can make it up and down these slides all by themselves.
This is the bounce house with basketball hoops. In the past when I've come to places like these, this house has been a popular spot, but nobody seemed very interested in it so Xiana and I had it all to ourselves for a while.
This is the first obstacle course. During the instructional video I ran out to my car to get my camera. When I got back Brian informed me that I needed to take my ring off. I thought he was crazy because it was not going anywhere. Then... I lost my watch in this obstacle course. After they cleared the room we searched for it and fortunately found it... right where Xiana's feet are in this picture. When we went in the next room Brian made me take ALL my jewelry off and give it to his mom for safe keeping.
Inside one of the courses... these places are really imaginative.
Ecko joined us in the basketball house for a bit which was a lot of fun.
One quick snap shot of the two of us... before we were dripping sweat and blood.
In case the vast amounts of entertainment weren't enough, they also had balls, carts, and little gym pads to play on.
It was also really nice to have Ali here. It was her spring break. I know all her nieces and nephews adore her. She is really a lot of fun!
The birthday girl! Ella is such a sweet easy-going kid. I think she had a wonderful birthday!

St. Patty's

Or zebra day... whatever!!!
My sister-in-law Dawnette made Xiana these awesome bows for St. Patrick's day. I was so excited because we had a pot luck play group to go to that day. Unfortunately, that was the day of our house inspections (have a I mentioned we bought a house? no... well I will get around to it soon...) so we didn't get to go. I couldn't resist the bows though so I got Xiana all dressed in green and then we didn't go anywhere. Oh well! At least she didn't get pinched!
That morning I was explaining to her that if you don't wear green then people get to pinch you. Right then I could hear my dad getting out of the shower. I told Xiana, " I don't think Grandpa is wearing any green. He might need to be pinched." I could hear my dad cracking up wheezing with laughter in the bathroom. And Xiana did, indeed, pinch him.
That afternoon Brian too me to Capriottis for lunch which was a true labor of love since he hates the place... but I love it!

Honest deductions

• Xiana has reached a stage where she makes deductions based on prior knowledge. It is spectacular! Every morning when she wakes up she yells, "mommy" until I come get her out. And every night when she goes to bed she explains that in the morning she will yell mommy. One evening my parents were watching her and when my dad put her to bed she was explaining that she would call for me in the morning. My dad teasingly asked her if she was going to call for the kitty cat. "no," she scoffed, "kitty cat no have hands. And kitty can't don't talk."
  
• She also came to the conclusion this week that, "I no yike boys!" I know I didn't teach her this, but she adamantly insists upon it. The first time she told me that she didn't like boys she quickly followed it with, "is daddy a boy?" "yes" "is grandpa a boy?" "yes" " is Garrett a boy?" "yes." I could see the musings in her mind just as she provided me with a disclaimer that she "yikes some boys."
• Along those same lines, yesterday, at church there was a woman bearing her testimony and crying. Xiana asked, "why that girl sad?" I explained to her that the woman was feeling the spirit and it made her feel touched so she was crying (this is a conversation we have had repeatedly). The explanation seemed to stick until she said, "who the spirit?" I explained that the spirit was Heavenly Father and Jesus' way of helping us feel their love. She asked, "who Jesus?" and I said that he is our brother. "Me have a brother?!" she exclaimed... "I no yike boys. I want a baby sister!" Again, she provided a disclaimer, "but I like Jesus."
• Her cousin was coming over to play so that the boys could go shooting for Brian's bachelor party and Xiana asked, "Kylee coming over to my house all by herself?" "yes" " her a big girl?" "yes" "her can drive herself?" Ohhh, I hadn't realized that she meant that Kylee was transporting herself. I explained that we don't drive until we are 16. She immediately proved me wrong evidencing her own driving in the mountains every time we go... can't argue with logic!
• We got home after dark and I was showing her the moon before heading into the house. "Oooooo," she marveled, "we better find the cow!"
• She confidently explained to me one day that her friend Leeya is not a baby anymore because "her can talk to me... her my friend, her not a baby!"
• I told her not to climb on the tall bar stools and she asked, "why?" I told her she wasn't big enough and she could get hurt and bruise her head (which would be the 4th on her forehead for the day). She immediately said, "oh, I can climb it when I get older?"
• Brian taught her that when she interrupts she needs to say excuse me... now when we are driving and having a conversation she sits in the back seat and says, "scuse me, scuse me, scuse me, scuse me" until you listen to what she has to say which is usually nothing, she just hates to be ignored... I wonder where she got that characteristic.
• I had to take her to the doctor because she had an eye infection and this is what caused the entire nursing staff to be entertained with laughter for the duration of our stay... "Heyyy, there's my movie! I have this movie. Ohhh, there's a scary guy, but the crocodile a nice crocodile. He not scary. The frogs can talk in this movie. This my movie. Hey, that boy sit in my chair. Tell that boy to move out my chair. We at the doctor's office? why we here? I yike this movie." Then they called us into the the exam room. "hey, that girl have a puter like my puter. I have a little puter like your puter. Who that girl? what that girl wearing on her head? I have a stethoscope like your stethoscope. My stethoscope no fit on my head. I a doctor. You a doctor? where my movie go? what kind of waiting room? Where the doctor? who the nurse? I a big girl. I sit on the chair all by myself. Why there paper on that table? I don't want to lie down on that table. Me no sit on that chair. It hurt to lie down on that table? Why there paper there? Who that boy? him a doctor? that doctor scary. no, him nice. Why he put that light on. Him listen to my heart? me a doctor too...." and so on but I'm sure you get the point. She didn't stop talking for a split second the entire time we were there. The doctor was wonderful and the staff were thoroughly entertained. All in all I would say it was a successful trip to the doctor's office.
• And finally... I'm not sure where she got this from, but lately when I put her to bed, or if daddy gets out of the car, or when we leave his house for the night, or pretty much at all farewells she states, "oh, I'll never see you again!"
  

Play time

What would we do without it?

Reno weather is funny... it went from this (above) to this (below) and then back to this (above)
Play group this month has been a ton of fun. We went to jump man jump (bounce house heaven for kids and parents alike) You'd think that this ladder/slide would be way too steep for a child of Xiana's slight frame. Alas, you would be wrong. In fact, there was nothing here that she couldn't do. There is something extraordinarily fulfilling about being able to let your little toddler run free, unassisted, to bounce to her heart's delight.

The following week play group was at the church where our ingenious leader of the month set up an array of race tracks, cars, and balls. The kids had an absolute blast!

And once again so did the parents.