Sunday, September 21, 2008

You really frost my cookies!


Well, I really do all the cookie frosting. Sheridan eats all the frosting, and Jack will only frost a cookie if he gets to eat it. Despite that, we had a fabulous time frosting some pumpkin-shaped sugar cookies from a neighbor (a fun, do-it-yourself kit that was PERFECT for the kiddos!). I highly recommend it.

It is SO huge


And still almost 3 months to go...And yes, that is my real belly.

On a completely different note, my children and I survived church today. Why might we not have? Because Tyler wasn't with us. He was sitting by the Bishop since he's just been called as the 2nd counselor to said Bishop (which Bishop is actually only 2 years older than me and was from Kent before he came out here for school...weird). For those of you who don't know, the Bishop of an LDS ward is "the father of the ward" and is responsible for the welfare of the people within the ward and making sure that things are all well. Tyler's been asked to be his no2 man--it mostly involves sitting up front and looking serious and handsome (in Tyler's case), attending a bazillion meetings through the week, esp on Sunday, and stress :) Nah, he gets to work closely with a lot of people at church, something he really thrives on. I, however, get to try to keep 2 crazy munchkins under control. Sheridan noticed Daddy up front at one point and amazedly proclaimed "Daddy!" To my utter delight, she then went back to feeding her bear the gooey remainders of her string cheese. Jack just wanted to "Go see Daddy and help him out with his work." That was very cute, but he was a tad difficult to contain during the last 10 or so minutes of church.
In brighter news, Sheridan actually went to nursery today...as with every other time we parents aren't with her, she screamed bloody murder. This time, however, she decided to go to sleep rather than deal with reality. I felt like a crummy mom...but the kid has to learn to go sometime and I am running around doing my calling during the rest of church, so we've come to an impass. Any suggestions?

Saturday, September 13, 2008

The Garden State

Should really be called the beach state. Seriously, folks, New Jersey has a bad reputation as a nuclear dumping ground, a toxic dirty place full of gangsters and gamblers. Sure, that stuff may be true for some of the state (I don't really know, haven't thoroughly checked out all those rumors), but I do know that out west, we don't understand "The Jersey Shore." Unfortunately, all of my pictures of the Shore are to-be-developed on a disposable camera (taking your digital to the beach is a bad idea, since the sand usually gets into the workings and gums it all up). You'll have to imagine how cute my kids were there, but this was Jack's general reaction to it all...
Ahhhh, the shore! It is much warmer than most of the west coast ocean. MUCH warmer. Around 70 degrees, while we were there! We spent an average of every other day at the beach (yes, those far away from the coast call it "The Shore", but those close to it call it THE BEACH). Sheridan was HILARIOUS. We walked from the parking lot and got to the sand. She looked at all the sand, threw herself forward in it, and started luxuriating in the sand. It's a little walk to the water (several hundered feet), and she threw herself into the sand every few feet. She is following in her brother's footsteps in adoring the sand (although he ingested far more last year than she did this, and he did have a tendency to cover his entire wet body--eyelashes included--in sand). Sheridan is even more a water baby than she is a sand baby. We COULD NOT keep her out of the water for more than a few minutes. We'd get back up to the umbrella and she'd already be headed back into the ocean. She didn't care that the waves knocked her over and soaked her face. She just wanted to be IN it! Fortunately, Tyler and Grammy were good sports and chased her when I lost all energy (which doesn't take too long with my HUGE belly). Jack also adored the beach. He started putting his face under water and was getting into body surfing! He still loved the sand (though not so exubrently!) and enjoyed building castles and digging huge holes.

We also saw some of the sights. Atlantic City is home of THE Boardwalk. Our favorite to visit is in Ocean City, which has family-friendly blue laws (ie, no liquor). The kids LOVED riding the rides--ok, Jack loved the rides. Sheridan started out loving the rides and then FREAKED OUT and wouldn't go on any more unless I was with her. We had to pretend that the flying elephant was Rocket from Little Einsteins and "pat, pat" patted to make it go. Jack got to ride on the fire engines (the same engines that his Pop rode on when he was a kid at the Boardwalk). We ate some TASTY water ice and pretzels. Both kids liked the ferris wheel and the merry-go-round.
We visited lake Absegami, which is a lake Pop used to visit as a kid. The water has a high iron content, so it often looks brown...scary. It was beautiful and blue while we were there (although a little cool and windy), and the kids LOVED it--they didn't get knocked over from ocean waves! We had some barbequed burgers and dogs. I haven't had burgers cooked over charcoal in so long and they were delicious!
We also spent a lot of time with FAMILY!! Tyler's oldest sister and her 6 kids came down. My kids LOVED hers! They had a great time playing and running and imagining. The older kids were invaluable help while Sheridan was running around the ocean, the house, and the yard. We got to finally meet the newest Vigue addition, Lily. She's a sweet little 6 month old. Again, my kids loved her. Sheridan would often stand amazed by her and say "baby, baby" over and over, pointing at Lily and handing her toys...or playing with her toys. Lily was good prep for our upcoming little one!


We had a great time with Tyler's parents and sisters. We certainly do not get to spend enough time with them (it's probably a good thing, since Tyler's mom is a sugar-pusher and I gained some serious weight on a 2 week diet of donuts and ice cream!). We're so glad they put up with us for so long!

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Missing: Daddy

Well, this is not an update of our Jersey trip, those pictures are on my handsome husband's computer which is with him in Seattle for the moment. He got to attend the BYU/UW game while I got to listen to it on my radio. I get to hang out with the kids and wake up with them at 6:30, he gets to sleep in until he feels like getting up (I can't REALLY complain since he gets up with the kids every morning that he's at home and I get to sleep in until he has to go to work). He gets to shmooze and eat at restaurants and drive a nice rental car and I get to make my kids Mac and Cheese or Dino Nuggets (don't worry, they're not really dino, they're chicken) and try to eat leftovers myself. I don't like leftovers. 

Really, though, what stinks the most is that WE MISS TYLER!!! Jack was nearly in tears tonight while he was talking to Daddy. He refused to relinquish the phone, even when Tyler had to go shmooze at the restaurant. Sheridan has been calling for Daddy when it's time to go to bed...not because I don't always put her to bed (more often than not, I do) but because she still hopes for Daddy to rescue her from bedtime. And I just miss talking to my husband and laughing about the various crazy things the kids did in the course of the day, or laughing at the way Henry is trying to elbow his way out of my belly, or laughing at Tyler (he's a pretty funny guy). Fortunately, he doesn't go out of town tooooo often, and he'll be home in hours. And I'll get to sleep in again!