Thursday, March 12, 2009

Mommy's peace and quiet time......or NOT!

Tonight I wanted some peace and quiet time away from the kids so I decided to take a hot relaxing bath. Unfortunately, it wasn't as relaxing as I had hoped it would be. Here's how the story goes....

Since the girls were entranced in a TV show in the kitchen, I decided to sneak into the bathroom and start my bath. I locked the bathroom door because I knew my girls would be in and out of the bathroom for some reason or another and I wanted to be left alone. I also didn't want to take a bath with Brooke, who seems to have made it a habit to join my every shower - some of which is my fault based on convenience to get her bathed quickly or because there is no other adult home when I'm taking a shower and it's a way of keeping watch of her, but also because she LOVES baths and every time she hears water running, she wants to get in! Anyways, so I started my hot bath and had just sank into it when the girls must have realized what I was doing. Next I hear Brooke standing at the door trying to turn the knob and when she realizes that she can't open the door, she starts banging on the door and throwing a fit. I tried my hardest to ignore it, but it just got louder and louder. Then I was thinking, "why isn't Chris stopping her - he knows I wanted some peace and quiet" - but I soon realized that he was on a phone call and couldn't really deal with her at that moment. So, I turned the water back on to hopefully drown out the crying and eventually she settled down and moved onto something else. Yeah!! But no, it wasn't over yet. The next visitor at my door was Maddie, who wanted to tell me what Brooke was doing. She proceeds to say through the door, "Mommy, you know what Brooke was doing just a minute ago? She was throwing a fit - she wants to take a bath with you mommy, you need to let her in!!" So my calm response to that was "Maddie, mommy wants to take a bath all by myself and quietly, could you please leave the door and go play!" So, for the next few minutes, I was all alone with no noise, but again, it didn't last long. At that moment, Maddie was back at the door asking me when I would be done so that she could take a bath. I proceeded to tell her I would be done soon and she needed to be patient. But of course, patience isn't one of her virtues either and she was back again asking me when she would be able to take a bath and if I had used up all the hot water. So at that moment, I just decided it wasn't worth it...it obviously was a bad decision and I just needed to GET OUT! I guess I have learned my lesson that if I want a peaceful and relaxing bath with absolute quiet - I need to wait until the kids are in bed!!!

Sunday, March 8, 2009

A visit from an old friend

Jenni, one of my best friends, came to visit us this last week. It was so good to see her as it has been over two years since we've last seen each other. Jenni and I grew up together in church and she and I have always been very close, but her mission work has moved her to other states and even out of the country several times! In fact, she is about to embark on a wonderful and exciting chapter in her life - moving to Cambodia for three years to work with the Rapha House, which is a safe home for young girls rescued out of sex trafficking in Cambodia. So, we were for sure excited that she made a quick trip over to visit us before she leaves. This was Jenni's first time to see Brooke, who just took to her like she was her favorite aunt or something! The other two girls had seen Jenni several times, but were too young to really remember her that much. However, it only took a few minutes before they were sitting on her lap giving her hugs and telling her stories. During Jenni's stay, she and I really got to reminisce on our childhood and the stupid and silly things that we did...how we used to have specific sayings that only her and I thought were cool - most specifically "You Go", which still makes us laugh. We remembered how we would watch certain movies and rewind specific parts that we thought were cute or more specifically the boy was cute in, like 8 Seconds and the Sandlot. We even revisited some of our childish ways when we learned the dance sequences to two of the songs from High School Musical 3. I love when my inner child comes out and having Jenni around sure did help in surface again. We will miss her while she is gone, but thank goodness for webcam, which will help us stay in touch with each other in a more personal way!

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

I Love Bubbles!!!

Baby Dylan loves bubbles....

Learning to Skate





On Saturday, we spent a couple hours at the skating rink for Ashlyn's birthday. Our girls have been skating maybe twice in their lives and it has always been quite an experience mainly because they have to wear regular roller skates and usually spend more time on the floor than standing up. However, this time, they were really starting to catch on. Maddie is very close to skating on her own...she just needs a little more confidence in herself. Ashlyn is confident, but the skill isn't quite there yet. But, she is coming along as well. And Brooke was so determined to get out there too, so I finally gave in and put her in skates to see how it would go. And, surprisingly, she did very well. She loved it and wouldn't leave the rink!!! Check out the video below...


I think Chris had as much fun skating as the girls. He even tried the stretch game. He did pretty good, but ended up stretching just a little too far!!!