Sunday Quiet Time

I find myself sitting here on a Sunday evening in a completely quiet house wondering, what should I do? I can't remember the last time I had a quiet evening by myself in my own house. Andrew took the kids to see his parent's, but I stayed behind because I'm playing a musical number at a baptism in a couple of hours. I was looking through some of the pictures on my camera and thought I should put some of them on here.

I have decided that when you become a mom they should offer classes, like "How to build anything with Legos." Andrew can build anything with Legos...dinosaurs, bulldozers, bicycles, you name it...Andrew can make it. The problem is that when Andrew's at work and Jordan brings the Lego bucket to me, I think "Oh no, what's he going to ask for this time." Most of the time he's happy with what I come up with, but there have been a few occasions when Mommy doesn't get it right and he has a melt-down. As you can guess, Andrew constructed the above picture of an "Animal Train."

I told Andrew the other day that in the dictionary for the word "Munchkin," there needs to be no definition, just a picture of Megan. She is definitely a little munchkin. This is her new hang-out spot...in my rag box, under the counter, between the garbage can and the wall. As you can see, she thinks she is so funny when she goes to sit in there.

I was having a little problem with Jordan running the other way when I told him to come to me. I remembered Alison having a similar problem with her kids when they were little and how she had a family home evening about obeying. For our activity, I had Jordan run to me when I would say the word, "obey," and we made a game out of it. He had so much fun and it actually does work when we're at the park now. I just feel a little weird when I yell out "Obey," like he's a dog or something.

Jordan got a little carried away with his painting the other day, which is a little surprising since usually he doesn't like being messy. He likes to paint my old symphony music that I had saved for scratch paper. One time he got a hold of some music that I actually did need for a fireside I was playing in. My stand partner got a kick out of it.

A couple of weeks ago I ended up sleeping in Megan's room every night because Andrew was congested and his snoring was keeping me awake. After I stopped sleeping in there, Megan had a really rough night and was crying out in the night. I realized it was probably because I wasn't in there anymore and she was lonely. I put her baby in bed with her and that did the trick. She just needed a friend!

We got a book a while ago from the library about mommies and one of the pages says, "My mommy cuddles me." Lately, every morning when I get Jordan out of bed he asks, "Mommy cuddles me?" He gets his blankie and gives me mine and we just lay there together for a few minutes giving kisses and cuddling with eachother. It is precious time that I look forward to every morning.

Well, I just got a call from the Relief Society president. A sister in our ward could use a visit, so I'm off. I think my quiet time was well spent...what do you think?

Teddy Bear Picnic

Today was the long awaited day of the annual teddy bear picnic my mom throws every summer for the grandkids. Every year it gets a little more elaborate and I always leave wondering what else my mom is going to come up with next year. My dad was joking with me and said that maybe next year she'll just hire the circus to come. It would be a lot less work and a lot less money.

It's starts out with us walking in the woods on the property where bears are lining the trail and we come upon a picnic all set up for us. We then had a lot of different activities including story time, crafts, a treasure hunt, puppet shows, lawn games, a pinata, bear bingo....like I said, every year it gets a little more elaborate. Here are some pictures from our fun day.

Jordan was so excited to find his treasure in the tack room. Something funny that happened during the lawn games was there was a game that had a little pirate head and all of the sudden it disappeared and was nowhere to be found. A little while later my brothers spotted Jordan walking sneakily to the playhouse with some toys in his hand. They followed him and sure enough, he had a stash of toys, including the pirate head, he was stowing in the playhouse. I guess he was just making some treasure of his own. It really didn't surprise me because I've caught him trying to sneak toys down his shirt out of the nursery. Looks like I have a little clepto on my hands.

The best part about today was that Marianne flew in for the weekend to be there. She can only stay for a couple of days because she has to get back for a chemo treatment next week. It was so fun having her here. Megan took a nap in her arms and I loved seeing my sister rocking my baby in her arms. It was a moment I tried to burn into my memory bank.

I love that Marianne is laughing in this picture. It was such a fun day and I wasn't surprised when I put Jordan to bed tonight that the story he wanted to read was, "The Teddy Bear's Picnic." Thanks for the fun day Mom. You made a lot of children very happy today!!

Here's a video of us walking in the woods at the beginning.

Potty Training Drama

There has been a lot of drama this week in the Stout household over the matter of potty training. I found some dinosaur underwear at the store and knew that Jordan would love them. Well, he did love them....just a little too much. There were 6 pairs and the problem was that he wanted to wear all 6 pairs. I would put a pair on...he would look in the mirror....take it off...bring me another pair...I would put them on...over and over again. By the end of the day my back was sore from bending over, but I just went along with it because I had finally gotten him out of diapers....or so I thought.

The next day, however, he was back in a diaper and refused to wear the dinosaurs because he just wanted to carry them around. He even threw a fit because I would not let him bring all 6 pairs with us when we went into the store.

Even Megan managed to get involved in the drama. As I was putting Jordan down for a nap one afternoon I could hear her upstairs whining and crying about something. When I came upstairs I discovered her struggling to put a pair of Jordan's underwear on. I helped her out and she looked very pleased with herself. She just kept looking down at them and would get a little smile and look of delight on her face. At this rate, maybe she'll be out of diapers before he is!!!

Evan and Sarah's Wedding

Yesterday was a very special day because I now have another sister. It was a beautiful celebration, with a couple of stressful moments, like when Jordan got away from me at the luncheon and threw a cupful of candy into the baptismal font while the Elder's were filling it, or the time I discovered him running down the gravel road without any shoes on at the reception. With that being said, the kids did better than I expected and we had a wonderful day. Congrats Evan and Sarah! We love you guys!!!