Saint Patrick's Day

For Saint Patrick's Day we had playgroup. The mom in charge this month made a TON of four leafed clover cookies. Everyone else brought frosting and toppings. We planned to decorate in the church, but there was something set up already. All was well though because it turned out to be a relatively nice day... With the exception of some wind... There was a lot of green, both on kids and cookies. The kids had a blast decorating and eating... and so did the moms. I think I'm not alone in saying the cookies were soft and perfect! Xiana ingested enough green dye for it to be evidenced in the toilet the following few days. Then the kids rolled on the grass, ate green candy canes, and kicked a green ball around. Aris is one strong little girl:) And matching dresses were just the beginning of the fun. For dinner I made corned beef and cabbage (which is one of my favorites) and green cake with green frosting. Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Ella's Birthday

Ella had a family dinner this year instead of a big blow out. Instead, she opted to have a few of her closest friends go to the salon and have a day of beauty. It's both exciting a little sad when kids start to have more selective and mature parties. At any rate, we still had a family dinner and so the girls and I went (Brian was home with the stomach flu that Xiana and I had had earlier in the week). It was a beautiful night... The food was delicious... Mark bbqed ribs and pulled pork. The cupcakes were also pretty tasty... though Xiana only tried the frosting as usual. And Ella appreciated all of her gifts. All in all it was a nice evening with a fire, food, family, and fun.

Cousins

Cousins sure do make life fun. I know I've said this about a trillion times, but it is WONDERFUL to have so many cousins close for Xiana. My family is oh so spread out so having cousins (via Brian's clan) close is awesome. Hunter had a wrestling tournament at Reed so the kids and parents showed their support by playing all the live long day. There was minimal grumbling and a great deal of playing outside :)
And little Harlee who has never been very little and continues to not be little (keep in mind she is exactly two years younger than Xiana) is a walking machine. She was trapped in her stroller for much of the day and when we offered to take her across the street for snacks she was beyond enthusiastic.
She frolicked in the grass and Xiana didn't shy away from being her older wiser tour guide.
Later, back at the ranch Xiana and Ekco put on a star performance for us. Gotta love that karaoke machine! And yes, I do realize that every picture in my house looks like a mess... I swear it is almost always clean. Apparently I get to choose, camera or cleaning:0 Also, nevermind the pjs and sticker on her head, it's only afternoon by this time.
Ekco continues to dazzle us with her fabulous voice. We also went to the movies, went out to lunch, dinner, and went to church: a fun and busy weekend.

We have a closet!

I will admit... I had no idea what building a closet would entail. Lucky for me, Brian had it completely under control. I didn't understand what his plan was, but if I've learned anything whilst doing 10 million house projects in the last year, it's to trust that he will be able to make it work. He should have been a carpenter. First, the carpet had to be taken up. Then he had to scrape the ceiling. I didn't particularly understand either step. Why not just leave the popcorn ceiling? Why not just staple into the carpet? Well, apparently that is NOT how things are done.
I will also admit that I have been nesting like a maniac and I have had a significant amount of anxiety about my clothes being in the baby closet and nowhere for the baby clothes. Had I known that Brian would be able to just whip the closet out I might have had less stress for a few weeks (okay months).
Unfortunately there wasn't reinforced ceiling places (yeah, that is the correct terminology... okay okay, MY correct terminology, I can't quite remember what Brian called it, but I do have pregnesia!) So anyway, he had to climb into the tiny space referred to as an attic and put reinforcements up there in order to build the wall.
So he did and then he built the skeleton (again, my own terminology, but I swear that is what this step reminded me of... the skeleton of the house. It's hard to believe that all the walls in the house are built this way.)
Then he put up the dry wall.
Then he taped spackled and sanded the wall.... my contribution to these steps of the closet building was to was 15 loads of white dust covered laundry and dedicate 5 hours to cleaning the dust off of every surface in our entire room.
He did a few tape do-overs, but I think we can now safely call him an expert.
Then he textured his new wall (and yeah, and built one in the back where the old swamp cooler was). He truly is an expert texturer. I have painted 2000 square feet and he has textured close to as many....
Then my next contribution... I painted it.
Then he installed the guts of the closet, replaced the carpet and carpet pad...
Put in the shelves with only one hiccup.... we didn't consider walking into the shelves, but he worked it out.
Put up the kick boards...
And voila! We officially have a closet that fits ALL our clothes and shoes!
And it is awesome!!!! And it took him no time at all. Thanks babe!

Infamous Xiana-isms

• Xiana came into the computer room with her tutu and ballet slippers on exclaiming, "Now we have to do the amazing part!!!!" She is so theatrical.
• When at the grocery store there was a man in overalls and Xiana said, "look at that farmer."
• She is obsessed with playing "sweetie." I never realized how much I call her sweetie until she developed this game of make-believe where she is the mom and (insert other person here) is the "sweetie" aka child. She can play this game for hours, making breakfast, dinner, going sledding, to the ocean, etc. She cons my dad into playing it all the time and one night played it until she went to sleep (having a slumber party at grandma and grandpa's house). My dad said that before she went to bed she asked,"can we play sweetie again when we wake up?" Grandpa assured her that they could and, true to form, when she awoke the first words out of her mouth were, "let's go play sweetie."
• My sil Tosh watched her for me one morning and when I arrived to pick her up she said, "me and Rowan had a pot luck in his bedroom!"
• She continues to love Sunbeams and primary. A few weeks ago the primary secretary subbed for her class. She later told me, "she is so intelligent and she knows her scriptures so well. She answers all the questions. Last lesson was about creation and she was the one teaching the class!" It makes me very proud. I'd like to think that reading scriptures every night is paying off... in reality I owe a lot of gratitude to the Living Scriptures!
• I came to pick her up from my parent's house and she asked, "do you wanna see the super awesomest thing?" She then proceeded to fall straight back on the bed. She later attempted the same trick on the floor with less awesomeness.
• While driving down the street she suddenly said to me, "wouldn't it be so cool if you were Kylee's mommy?"
• Another reoccurring game is that of her and her husband. She has to pick out her outfits for her dates with her husband, or tell a story about her husband. One day I told her to put her socks on and she said, "I don't want to wear any socks because my husband doesn't wear any cause he is still a beast and his name is Isaac." Later I overheard her and Ekco playing downstairs. Their conversation went like this... X: did you hear I have a husband now? E: no. what's his name? X: Ken E: "oh, I loved you in your movie. You did a great job acting. X: thanks, I heard you and your husband went out on a date. How was it? E: great! This discourse continued through the duration of the weekend. They planned their outfits for their weddings, the ball, their dates, etc. It was quite comical.
• Did I mention she loves playing "sweetie"? She asked me what I would like for breakfast the other day while she was mommy and then proceeded to give me a plate with a fork saying, "here's your breakfast sweetie. It's pancakes with real maple syrup and I cut it in pieces for you."
• She had been asking my parents if they had seen her "little guy" anywhere. Apparently she was asking for him for weeks. My dad found her ET doll and immediately realized that was what she was looking for. He called to let us know that he had found it. I relayed the message. She said, "Oh great, I have been worrying about that."
• famous last words :"this jump is gonna be fantastic!"
• She also loves to play the piano and have my parents sing the hymns. One day she asked my mom if she would play so that Xiana could sing. She was holding the hymn book which my mom asked for. Xiana adamantly refused. Mom said, "I can't play the songs without the book." Indignantly Xiana insisted, " I can't sing the songs without the book!"
• She told me a story the other day and finished with, "It's cracking me up... I have tears in my eyes."
• Her favorite color is purple and she tells anyone who will listen.
• She told me, "I am going on a date with my husband... it's gonna be a play date."
• At the aquariums at Scheels we found a fish that looks just like Nemo. She screamed into the glass, "Hi Nemo! I saw your movie!"
• My favorite reoccurring line I hear while she's playing is, "dangit, I can't find my make-believe (fill in the blank)." Apparently those make-believe items are great hiders.
• While leaving Walmart one afternoon she was exuberantly singing a made up song entitled, "I have Fun in Everything I Do." I daresay it's true.
• After a primary lesson on the Holy Ghost she began expressing thanks for Him in her prayers and talking about Him quite regularly. Then she assured me, "mommy, we can hear the holy ghost in our hearts."
• She keeps asking when she's going to get a step mom. I told her she isn't because her mommy and daddy aren't getting divorced. Then she asked if her daddy was Ekco's step dad. Pretty ironic.
• Again while playing make believe I heard her telling her doll, "I realize that we are in a dream."
• One evening before dinner she kept asking me for a snack. I kept telling her no because it was almost dinner time. She called me a dagnut. She then asked, "do you know what a dagnut is?" "no," I replied. "It's a mean person that won't let their kids have a snack before dinner."
• The last few nights in her prayers she's said, "thank you for the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints."
• She saw a flag this morning waving in the air and said, "look at that mom, it looks like one of the spicy candies (peppermints)." I said, "no sweetie, that's an American flag." She said, "oh, like American Idol!" Don't worry we had a lengthy conversation about America after that. She then assured me that Abraham Lincoln was the president. She does have a Lincoln fascination.
• She was asked to say the prayer in primary and she marched up there and did it all by herself. When I picked her up from class that day I was told that she isn't on their rolls yet. I explained that I had just discovered that she is still in the Wingfield ward, head of household according to church records. Her teacher replied, "well, if anybody could do it, it's Xiana."
• She choked on a cadbury egg and threw up (it was quite scary). After everyone was calmed down she said, "I smell my nose and it smells like throw up."

Preschool

This month Kate was in charge of preschool. The kids had a blast playing in the fort Tyler made the night before.
They also made rainbows...
Went on a nature walk...
And collected pine cones. Ekco got to join us with her friend Nikki because she MOVED!!! She lives in Fernely now which is bittersweet. It is wonderful to have her so close and not have to travel so far to see her. Also, it is fantastic to have her be in her own room, in our ward, and get to visit family here. But... it's kind of sad too because it's nice to have a forced vacation every couple of weeks. Brian and I decided we will make an effort to make it to Battle Mountain at least every other month.
The girls scurried along to get a glimpse of the muskrat/otter/beaver (depending on who is relaying the story).

Glitter!

While cleaning out the closet my dad came across a little activity box which he placed on the counter. Xiana eyeballed it for a week or so before she persuaded Grandma to get it out and "make" with her. My mom said that she figured it out quickly and actually showed her how to use the tools to make the butterflies and flowers. She then sprinkled everything (including the table, chairs, and floor) with glitter. She was so proud of her little bouquet and it turned out darling.
Plus, my mom said that it occupied a good portion of her time that day which is a win win. Anything that will capture Xiana's attention for a while is great! When we returned to their house for dinner that night Xiana was extremely proud to show her daddy what she had created. It's such a relief knowing that she is in such good hands while I'm at work. I am a lucky mommy to get to work and still know that Xiana is being stimulated and provided for!

Snow Day... in March

We have had some serious weather this Spring. I guess we shouldn't be all that surprised as Spring snow is pretty common in the Northern Nevada area. Brian had to work the night shift to plow snow which worked out perfectly for me because I had my glucose screening that morning which isn't much fun without a toddler...let alone with one. I came home that morning and found them both outside. Brian was having a snowball fight with the neighbor boy and Xiana was rooting him on having an absolute blast. I'm happy to get the moisture, but it is kind of bizarre to go from high 60s to blizzard....

Pizza Tour

For playgroup this month our fearless leader (Natalie) arranged for the kids to go on a tour of Round Table pizza complete with the making of their own mini pizzas. It was a great success. Everyone had a wonderful time and the girls that led the tour were fabulous. There was also an excellent turn out.
This was the first stop. The guy working the dough had massive plugs in his ears... like think Africa style lobes. Xiana was freaked. She watched him make the dough through the glass but burst into tears when she discovered they would actually be entering the room. "I don't wanna see the pizza man!" She exclaimed through her tears. I told her she did not have to go in there, but she did have to stop crying. It brought me back to her first couple years of life where she was petrified of all males and burst into tears when our waiter would come to the table. Poor little girl. Brian said he's glad that she's afraid of boys that look like that :) She was cautious throughout the rest of the tour and exclaimed more than once, "the pizza man can't even see us in here."
They got to see how the pizza sauce is made...
And she was the lucky girl that got selected to actually turn on the oven... I'm sure it had nothing to do with her being the cute little petrified of the pizza man girl.
Then they put out dough with sauce on it and let the kids pile on their cheese and toppings.
It was very cute.
Xiana, being a true connoisseur of olives, piled them on!
Her pizza very much resembled that of a grown up's pizza. What can I say? She knows what she likes!
After eating pizza, the kids got to have their faces painted.
And they each got a balloon.

The staff was extremely patient and kind with all the kids. They ran pretty wild after they were done with all their activities. The tour guides simply commented on how fun it was to show them around and how they wished they could do that daily. It was a great day. Xiana talked about it the whole next week. Plus, they gave all the kids a coupon to return and get a free personal pizza. What fun!