Childhood

Sometimes I think its a crime we can't remember our early childhood. It is true I don't want to remember some parts, but I wish I could remember what it was like to have a great imagination (I think I had one anyway) or what is was like to play with my brother, or sisters. I really don't remember that much. There are a lot of pictures of a lot of fun things, but I can't remember them with my own memories and after nights like tonight I wish I could because then  I could hope my kids would remember nights like tonight.

I am getting tired of going swimming at night because the Rec Center is so crowded and we go in the morning for swimming lessons anyway, so this morning instead of just going to lessons Tia and I played during Kylee's lesson and then we all played together for a bit and showered and came home. So, with swimming not on the adventure list tonight it was time for new fun. I have been wanting to make binoculars out of toilet paper tubes for a long time, but keep finding reasons not too. Well tonight was the night. After we sent our dad back to work, we finished folding laundry and started making them. Kylee was so excited she asked all day when we were going to make "sungoggles." Anyway, Kylee, Tia, and I all made our very own pair of sungoggles. The girls tried their out around the house while I finished mine. When we were all done I was just going to take them on a walk, but when we got outside I asked Tia where she wanted to go and she said, "park!" She gets so excited it really is hard to say no, so I didn't. I caved.

Instead of taking our normal route thought once we crossed the street we head through the 'forest.' (the green space with like 4 trees in it) Where we say a giant monster, so we ran. Then we went on the rocks because it couldn't follow us on those. Then we kept tramping around until we got to the park. Where climbed up to the highest tower to take a look around. We climbed that tower and slid down a couple of times before climbing the other mountain and running across the bridge, going through the tunnel and going down the slides over on that set of playground toys. Then we wanted to visit our dad at work, so we ran home. One of the adventures on the way home was when we let Tia be the leader. She lead us up a small hill to the pool building across from our house. Then we followed along that till we came to a door. She really wanted to knock, but I said no. Then we 'skied do the mountain.' What we actually did is slide our feet though the tiny bit of snow on the sidewalk incline leading up to the door. However, they thought it was great. When we got home we used the potty, got the 'enemy book' (really a book we needed to return to the library), and mom grabbed some secret supplies.

Then we headed to the library. Once there I let them take this little path that is against the building. They thought that was so cool because most times they have to stay on the sidewalk. Then we returned the book. Checked in with the boss (Gaupo), and then went to hunt for the next book we needed. Then we talked to the librarians, colored, played on the computer, said bye to dad once, went on the elevator, decided to pull out the treats mom brought, and then got a drink, said a final good-bye to dad and left.

It is amazing what a pair of toilet paper tubes stapled together can lead to. This night flew past. It was so fun. Kids are amazing. I love hearing Kylee narrate what we are doing. I love seeing Tia learn to pretend and doing her best to do it. I love playing. I love that our dad loves showing off the things we do and wants us to have our snack with him, not off somewhere by ourselves. I love that Gaupo gets to work in a place we can visit and have fun at. Sometimes the small stuff is all that matters. I love my family. They are AWESOME!!

Kylee and Tia rocking their sungoggles.

Friday? Saturday? I Don't Know What Day

As we were coming home from our night on the town, Gaupo asked, "Does it feel like Friday to you." At first I said "No, it feels like Saturday." Then I said, "I guess it feels Friday, or maybe not. I don't know what day it feels like." Today has been a good  day. We got a lot of things done and listened to a very good, but still waste of time presentation for a whole house water purifier. Oh my lanta, it was so long. I do think they probably have a good product but man the presentation took FOREVER! The reason we did it was for an Amazon gift card, but I am kind of wondering about the sanity of that decision. Oh well, water under the bridge. Also, maybe that very thing is what led us to the wonderful family togetherness adventure of tonight.

Before our water presentation started Gaupo gave the girls the choice of going rock climbing or ice skating. Kylee and Tia both chose to go rock climbing. We told them after they tested our water then we would go. Well as I mentioned the presentation took FOREVER! However, we decided not to back out. So we headed out. On the way we entertained ourselves with some of our favorite songs. Monkey's Jumping on the Bed, and Monkey's Swinging in the Tree. When we got to the rec center the line for rock climbing was of course very long, but Kylee was determined that this is what she wanted to do. Well after waiting for a while Gaupo went up and asked the guy if our girls could just climb without harnesses (bouldering). He said yeah, so we cut up to the front and gave them a try. Tia wasn't as interested, although she is always the one who wants to do it when it is closed. Oh well, Kylee LOVED it. She climbed and climbed and climbed. Then she asked if I was going to, but I said I didn't think I could do it without a harness. So, I asked the guy in charge and he said that I could do that or I could get a harness and he would belay me. I asked "Ummm isn't there a line?" He said, "Oh, they are all part of a group they have to go one at a time." Well, I was exited because I had resigned myself to the fact that it was a kids climbing night, but it wasn't. Hahahaha. I got to climb. It is true I have never climbed outside although I think it would be fun, but I do love indoor climbing. There is just something about that pulling, pushing, and reaching your destination that is just awesome. So, after I climbed we let Kylee climb once more. Then we let Tia ride the elevator and went to get some food.

Kylee said she would like a hamburger, so we went to Wendy's. Oh how I wish eating out wasn't bad for you because it really does taste good. The girls love eating "fancy." Kylee even wanted to tell the person what she wanted, so she ordered her own food. I did have to clarify a little, but she did speak nice and clear. Both girls ate really well.

Guapo and Kylee. These two are soooo related.

Tia and Me. Yeah we are cute.

After dinner we headed home and got the girls to bed. Gaupo is doing homework and I am doing this. I know it probably doesn't sound like much of a night, but boy was it fun to be together. It was awesome to watch Kylee climb. It was fun to let Tia finally ride the elevator. It was great to eat out together and not have too bad of manners. It was fun to drink fancy drinks and sit in a booth together. I have pretty much determined that fun is made by the people having it. It can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be. I think my family is the best and I am so glad we can have fun and enjoy being together.

Here is all of us on V-Day. We all matched. You can't really tell from the picture, but we did. It was super fun to be all matchy-matchy.

Murphy's Law and Thursdays as of Late

I know my usual update day is Tuesday, but I was reading the last book in the series I have been reading and so I didn't. The sad thing is I didn't even finish that night. For some reason, that book took me a long time to finish. I must have been reading every word or something, because it took me almost 11ish hours to finish. Oh well, it is done and now I am onto life again.

Murphy's Law Day
Truly I don't know exactly what Murphy's Law states, but I term it to me if it can go wrong it will go wrong. Tuesday was a day that was filled with that kind of thing. Let me tell you about it.

1st: I stayed up kind of late with my book the night before. Nothing super late or crazy, but still a little late. Gaupo didn't have to go to work until noon, and my kids didn't really get to much sleep the day before is should have equaled a great day to sleep in. NOPE, my kids were up early and raring to go. Then we did a workout and wouldn't you know it instead of being able to blast through it we had to make quite a few stops because Tia kept getting into the bathroom or having to use it. Then we tried to make a breakfast that would be simple and quick to eat, so that we could get to swim lessons. NOPE. Kylee ate so slow. It is not that she is a truly slow eater she just usually does so much talking that it slows her down a bit. That was the case with this day. Finally she finished her breakfast, so we could get ready go. We were lucky enough to get to swim lessons on time. Tia goes to babysitting while Kylee has lessons, and wouldn't you know it she didn't want to go. It still tears at my mother heart strings when my kids cry when I leave. I just want to say "oh, its okay come with me I don't want to be away from you anyway." However, common sense steps in and says, "you take her to the pool and you will be forever trying to keep her out of the water which will cause screaming, wailing, and all other kinds of horrible scene making things. She will be fine. Just go." I listen to my brain in these cases because well its right it really would  be pretty bad. So after swimming we go home. On the way home Tia falls asleep and I decided to let her sleep, so she ends up getting like a 30 min power nap. I was hoping that sleeping would help her take a better nap, but I was so wrong. Tuesday was the day Tia learned to open doors. So, I got her all tucked down for nap, but because of the nap earlier, so not tired and she kept coming out. I tried to get to stay in: I warned her, I sat outside the door, I sat inside the door. Finally, I pulled out the big guns. I changed the handle around and locked the door. I know it sounds terrible, but I didn't know what else to do. Anyway, she did end up taking a good nap and so did Kylee. Then I tried to make dinner, so that there would be something everyone liked and wouldn't you know it they didn't. I don't know why they didn't but they just didn't like it. After dinner we did get to the pool again, and we did have a good time. When we got home to do baths it was suppose to be quick, but the girls kept splashing and stuff so though the baths were short the clean-up not so much. Finally they were in bed and did go to sleep and I got a shower. Then I tried to finish my book, so that I could start being into life again, but wouldn't you know it I didn't even get close. Oh well, good thing there was Wednesday. I write this not to complain because really the day was good and I enjoyed watching Tia sleep during her power nap, and it was nice to get things done. I enjoyed reading my book and going swimming. Dinner for us adults was okay. So, it was a really good day, but I was just amazed at how it seemed so like a Murphy's Law day.

Thursday's as of Late
Normally I try to keep my life as unscheduled as possible. That is my way of guaranteeing to myself I wont be late, or stressed. True it doesn't usually work like that, but I like being home and doing whatever it is I want to do, so the goal is to not over-schedule. Well sometimes it happens and as of late our Thursdays feel a little over-scheduled. Reading this you will probably think "that isn't even close to busy," or "just wait till they get older," or "wait till you have more kids." Well for me none of those things are pertaining to my life right now and so it feels busy and we can always get more busy true, but that is not my goal. So, here is what our Thursdays as of late look like.

6:30- Alarm goes off. I always want to sleep longer, so after about five minutes I get up pray and read my scriptures. My goal: get this done before I hear the kids wake-up. Then I am suppose to go get ready, but usually I crawl back into bed for just another 5 minutes. Then I get up and get ready.

7:15ish- go get the girls. Or more lately find out where they are and assess the damages. They are most of the time dressed and generally speaking their beds are made too. So, then I have to undress Tia so I can put her eczema cream on. Then we do hair and then we put on Tia's lotion and then get dressed and go downstairs. Then I quickly get breakfast made.

7:45ish- have scriptures and prayers.

8:00ish-have breakfast.

8:35-rush to get my swimsuit on. Throw the last minute things into the backpack. Take last minute potty trips and head to the Rec Center.

8:50-Get to the Rec Center and check -in. Take Kylee to babysitting while Tia and I go get ready for swim lessons.

8:55 to 9:25- swim lessons. I was hoping that someone would teach Tia to swim, but I don't think that is going to happen unless I want to fork out a lot of money. So, we will finish this session, but then I think I will try and teach Tia myself.

9:25 to 9:40-Tia and I play in the pool together. We do (for the most part) whatever Tia wants. It is actually kind of fun to have this one on one time with her.

9:40 to 9:55- Get Tia showered, dressed and checked into babysitting. While checking Tia in I pickup Kylee. Then we go get her ready to go to swim lessons.

10:05-Kylee's swim lessons start and I head to the lap pool. I swim 4 laps of each of breath stoke, back stroke, free-style, and what I call chicken-star-rocket. I also through in some extra free-style laps as I am kind of trying to prepare for the Triathlon in May.

10:25-I am usually done swimming by this time and go and watch the last 10 minutes of Kylee's swim lessons.

10:35- Kylee's lessons are over. I usually get into the pool again and we practice floating on our back while holding onto the barbell. If I can convince her to kick while doing it great. Then we do whatever Kylee wants to do.

10:50-We hit the showers. Kylee and I get showered dressed.

11:10-We get Tia from babysitting. (Just as a side note today she had an accident on one of the babysitters laps. The other babysitter in there was laughing as she told me about it. I feel bad because that hasn't happened in a long time, but oh well. I was also informed they left her alone in the bathroom and when they went back in she was flushing the toilet with her hand in it! Gross I know, but it isn't just them she tries that all the time at home. Totally gross, but it must feel cool or something. I don't know.)

11:25- HOME!! Glorious HOME! It always feel so good to finally get back home. We play for a little bit. I clean-up the last of the breakfast dishes and do a couple other things then play with my kids.

12:00-Lunch. We are all so famished from swimming that this is the best lunch period of the week. No complains, not my bribery needed we just eat and drink and it is wonderful.

12:50-Pickup toys and get ready for naps.

1:00-Tia down for a nap.

1:07-Read Kylee a chapter in her chapter book. (We are currently reading books from the Magic Tree House Series.)

1:15- Kylee down for a nap, and mom time begins.

I usually take a nap too because that crazy morning kind of wears me out and I hate being grouchy and feeling tired.

Those are the updates I felt like posting. Probably not crazy exciting to you, but hey its our life and its what we do.

Play While the Sun Shines, and When the Snow Fall

This week has been great. We have had tons of fun playing. I should probably have gotten some work done, like cleaning my house and the like, but you know what sometimes you just have to play. Especially in the winter because you know bad weather will eventually hit again and then you will have all the time you need to do housework again. (Too bad the weather never gets that bad for me. Its a good thought though.)

Last week it really started to warm-up here, which is great because we really kind of needed the snow to melt a little bit and have some warmth. So, it warmed up on Wednesday enough to go play outside, but I have really found I like going to the kickboxing class on Wednesday and we also really love the Library, so we did that instead of playing outside. I was then afraid that I had missed all the good weather, but it held out. On Thursday, we decided no workouts just play. We kind of took our time getting ready for the day. We read plenty of books, then had breakfast, got ready, and then we went to the PARK! Yes, that is one of my favorite things about Colorado. I love the the park is even a fathomable opportunity. It was wonderful. We swung on the swings, played on the slides and toys, built castles, and then repeated. It felt so good to feel the warm sun. Oh it was such a beautiful day. The girls loved being able to go to the park. Later that day, we went out to our backyard where the snow hadn't melted yet and built snow cakes, and attempted an igloo. We also threw ice chunks against the sidewalk, and marched in the snow that has filled out pool. Oh, the day was so gorgeous you just couldn't pass up some outdoor time.

I believe these were actually Wednesday, when we waited for Gaupo to get home.

Tia helping Kylee up the hill.

These two were pretending to sleep on the slide.

Climbing up. It looks like Tia is trying to help. These two are so silly.

Making a train to slide down.

Kylee and Tia swinging on the big kids swings.

Standing in my attempt of an igloo.

Friday the weather turned a little bit, but our personal ray of sunshine Aunt Kitt came to visit. Man do we LOVE having her close. I feel like a Kitt hog, but I don't feel bad enough to try and share her with anyone else. Kitt arrived at our house right before the girls took naps. It is true that that never really leads to super great naps, but you know its better than just getting them down and really messing up naps. Plus, there is still naptime and I get to spend the whole thing chatting with Kitt. I don't know if she ever gets tired of visiting, but I know I don't. It is so fun to have another adult to talk. We also used naptime to whip up a bunch of Muddy Buddies. Kitt is still trying to be gluten-free, and I feel like she should have a treat, so we always try to make something fun. Kitt's visit was also super grand because she offered to babysit for us while we went on a date. Jason told me last Sunday (a miracle I know) to see if I could get a babysitter for 1 hour. Well, when we learned we got a super-dee-duper babysitter we took a little longer than that. We went and had a romantic dinner at A&W. Okay, so not so romantic, but boy was it good. I sometimes have a hard time going out to eat because I think that I make food that tastes better than anything we buy, but during the winter I can't make a good burger. Boy howdy, was that burger and fries good. After our dinner, we went to Wal-Mart to scope out some things we thought we needed. Luckily we ended up with nothing. Its luckily because usually when we go to Wal-Mart we spend WAY to much money. After that we called Verizon to see if we could get a plan that would allow us unlimited minutes. After much questioning, talking, and more questions and more talking we think we have the right plan for us. I am so excited to not have to worry about minutes. For our next activity we went home and had ice cream with Kitt. I had just bought some Tillamook ice cream, so I didn't feel the need to go out for ice cream. Then we chatted and watched some shows with Kitt and called it a night.

Saturday started out with a workout. I know seriously a workout, but it's true we did and you know what it was actually kind of nice. It set a really great mood for the day. After the workout, we had breakfast and then Gaupo started homework. Kitt and I cleaned up breakfast and then the girls really wanted to watch a show, so Kitt and I also both got cleaned up. Once cleaned-up, we ran some errands. We went to the store to get some tomato juice for enchilada sauce. Then we went to Lucky's for some grapefruit. Then to the car dealership to pick-up a front license plate holder for Kitt. Once home again it was time for lunch and naps. During this naptime we played games. We played 3's for awhile and then we played Sports on the Playstation. It was really fun. When the girls woke-up they even got to play a little too. Then we went downstairs for a bit to play and then I made dinner. During that time Kitt was trying to decide if she should go home that night or not. She ended up not, but we got her license plate holder on, and dinner in her just in case she decided to leave. When she ended up not going home, she went to a YSA activity while Gaupo finish homework, and I made bread. Then when she got home we played Start the Party, and Sonic Racers. It was really fun. Then after more visiting we decided to call it a night.

Sunday we had to tell Kitt good-bye. I really wanted her to get stuck here, but alas she had to go home. Oh well, it was probably more conducive to getting work done that way. Church was good, and the afternoon was relaxful-ish as well. That night we had some new friends over for dinner. The Tuitupou's. It was really fun. They have a 2 kids ages 1 and 2. It was fun to have all the kids play together and enjoy dinner and some conversation. I really like having people over and getting to know them better.

My cuties all dressed-up for church.

Yesterday I went running for like the first time in I don't know probably like 2ish weeks. I have been exercising just not running. It was harder than I thought it should be, but when you kind of have a cold and eat junk food all weekend you can't expect much else. However, it was really good to run a little. Then when we got home the girls really wanted to go sledding in the snow. So, I quickly got all of us in our snow clothes and went out to the sledding hill. The best thing about not having kids in school, and not working is you can do things when it seems like no one else can. It was great we had the whole hill to ourselves and the girl enjoyed it. When we got back from sledding, I decided to shovel the drive so it wouldn't be so hard later. Then it was time for speech, lunch, and naps. During naptime I had presidency meeting. Then we played downstairs, had dinner, and FHE. Then the girls went to bed and me and Gaupo got stuff done. We did our monthly budget, payed bills, got extra credit in school, planned the months meals, and watch some Hogan's Hero's.

Today has bee great. Last night it snowed like a foot plus. So, Gaupo went and started shoveling the driveway while I got the girls in their snow stuff. Then we all went and 'helped' finish the driveway. Then we went sledding. The snow was so deep we really couldn't do it very well, but it was fun to be together. When the girls got in we let them watch a show while we made breakfast of pancakes and of course hot chocolate. Kylee pretty much thinks if she goes outside to play in the snow it should be followed by a show and hot chocolate. After breakfast, we headed to swim lessons. I am really glad Gaupo was home to take us. It isn't that I couldn't do it, it is just he is so much more confident with it. Kylee loved swim lessons although, she didn't really want anything to do with the boy teacher that was there, oh well she still did well. Then we came home did baths, read books, had lunch and the naps. I even took a little rest. I hope it doesn't come back to bite me tonight, but I am trying to give my body what it needs to get over this cold. After naps, we played a little and got some laundry folded and dinner made. After dinner was cleaned up and the last of the clothes folded we watched a movie. Kylee really wanted How to Train Your Pet Dragon, but we just saw that so we watched a short movie called Gift of the Night Fury, and then some Thomas. Tia loves Thomas. After the shows, we went downstairs and played. Then it was time for bed. What a great day and week.

Kylee and Tia helping shovel the driveway.

Kylee giving Tia a ride.

Tia pulling Kylee.

Both in the sled waiting to head for the hill.