Maters

I passed the bread for the sacrament last Sunday to Mae.  She held her hand up like a traffic cop and shook her head.  "Nah.  I'm good."

I snuck Jason's birthday present into her room and hid it behind the coats.  "Mae, I'm hiding Daddy's birthday present here.  It's a secret."
Five minutes later, "Daddy, you got a present?"
"SHHH!  Mae, it's a secret."
whispering, "It's in my room."

She always pops up singing, "Divaaaa Las Megas!  DEEEEVA Las Megas!" *lisp.  Don't forget the lithp*

Now she loves coming up with ways to say our names.  "Mama, you name Brandy?"
"Yup Mae."
"You name not Mama, you Brandy?"
"What do YOU call me?"
"You name Brandy but I call you Mama and Daddy name's Jason."

After my Grandma's funeral Noah, Mae, and I were driving home.  She had a glow-in-the-dark necklace and she chewed a hole in it.  She started hacking behind me so I turned around just in time to see her puke up her funeral potatoes on her new dress.  She sobbed big crocodile tears. 

Couldn't get Google for poison control in Payson and so we pushed on.  She'd finally calmed down and I turned to tell her we could clean her up as soon as we got home.  There she was rubbing glow gunk into her eye.
"I wanna new eye!  I wanna new eye!  Oh my hebbens!  Good gracious!  I wanna new eye!"
I pulled over at a gas station.  What do I do?  Take in a naked baby or one with puke all over her.  I chose naked and wrapped in a jacket.  And Noah?  He had to hang by himself (nice), while I shoved (literally), Mae's head under the faucet to rinse out her eye. 
"Oh my goodness!  I wanna die!  Oh good hebbens!"  The rinse was unsucessful. 

Finally got some service and called poison control with Mae still expressing herself in the back seat.  She'd just settled down when she rubbed her other eye.  Still more exclamations. 

About the edge of Springville she cried herself to sleep but woke for a moment to say, "Tell the people on the phone I o.k.  I all better."

As I write she's playing with her siblings something that has to do with, "I break you into jail." 

Handy

Made this after seeing a similiar one online on a craft blog.

Liv said people were staring at me while I assembled it on the floor at the D.I.  and  people were going to laugh when they came over.

I still like it.

We are a group of do-it-yourselfers.  Mae took that and ran... with scissors.

Her hair now parts on the right.

U-Yi-Ya

Thought I'd be tricky and leave Mae in her crib crying for U-yi-ya and just quickly walk them across the street to school. 

When I got back she was sobbing and crying, "U-yi-ya hode you!"

She pointed to her window and I was horrified to learn that she'd helplessly watched the whole episode. 

It took the poor girl a couple of hours to get over the fact that U-yi-ya hadn't held her before she went to school.

Notice Mae already has 3 sandwiches on her plate.

On a much lighter note, that day she and George got to go to a tea party and eat nearly every finger sandwich in the place.  She sat perfectly still for me while I put curlers in her hair. 

Lest You Think...

Lest you think...

1. I fell off a cliff while out running.

2.  Cirque De Soleil abducted my children (it's the closest thing to gypsies in SLC).

Well...

A. I ran 6.3 miles down (ish) Hobble Creek Canyon Monday last.
B. I felt wonderful upon completion
3. I jacked up my left foot in the process.  Plantar Fasciitis.  It's icky.  Read more here.
F. I did all of the suggested stretching and dixie cup icing.
IV. I started back today with my shoes "zeroed" re-laced (very un-lacey like) and got 2.5 in (running only about 1.75), but it's a start.

Q. Mae turns 2 on Saturday : (  Unfortunately what she and I have to say about it doesn't count.  When I ask if she's having a birthday she says NO.  That's just fine with me.  She's perfect just the way she is without growing into some rotten kid.

She said, "Bye Bumpa," when we left this guy on the bench.  She loves herself some "bumpa"

Getting the Finger

I shut the bathroom door on this poor chica's finger 2 weeks ago. 4 hours later she'd come out of the funky sedative they give youngins' and had 11 stitches holding it in place. Yet she still has what Jason deems "a weird fatal attraction" to me.

It's ugly. Oh, it's ugly!

$1400 is even uglier. I hope she has the Midas Touch. That's a lot of $20/month payments. If you'd like to contribute:

NMOA

Negligent Mothers of America Fund

or

FPHMOA

Former Potential Hand Models of America

I'll take your pics :)

On a lighter note, she said her first sentences this week...

"Owie stinky" {translated: Diarrhea}

"Owie Coe" {translated: Owie Chloe; Chloe just scratched my foot}

She's so much like Liv whose first sentence was "Owie chair."

Sleepy Time

Apparently the beds provided by ourselves and my parents are no good...

The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly

The Good:
Art City Days :) Nothing like a small town celebration, especially one as big as this one!

BBQ with friends! The most amazing pulled pork and brisket with BJ's homeade bbq sauce

Fireworks with s'mores.

The Bad:
Mae puked up her fries and was sleeping during said fireworks, so we couldn't watch with friends.

Emmeline puked (whatever she'd eaten), so Sarah and Angelo couldn't stop by to say "adios" before leaving us utterly alone again.

The Ugly:
French fry puke

Better Late...

I vowed to take Mae's 1st Birthday pictures in a tutu and I finally did today. Grandma would kill me if she knew I had possession of these and did not share them.

Notice the perfect curlyQ of her bellybutton :) Is there no end to the perfection of my children?

AquaPhobic

Little Mae-toes has suddenly and unexpectadly become water nuts. She must now bathe with another body or she entirely freaks out. Kind of a tush pain, but these are sweet...

And I hardly think Liv minds.

Big Girl

Little Miss Mae has in recent weeks become quite a big girl. She says "Uh-uh" (uh-oh), she praises all of my cooking with a "MMMM" when I spoon it into her now toothed little mouth, and she officially crawls...forward. Also, her toes are now forcing the seams on her 6-12 month sleepers!

This babe is growing up!

There's More Than One Way to Skin a Banana

This seems to run in the family...

Ask my bro and sis-in-law about the unfortunate conoli accident of '05

The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

The Good:

Miss Mae has decided to grow up all in one week. She now waves, calls Jason "dadadada", and gets herself into crawling position. The icing on the cake, she plays peek-a-boo!!!

Toured the Draper Temple with my family.

We had 1 incredible day of homeschool (and a couple of okay ones). I'll detail next post.

I got the most fabulous car.

Got to go to a movie, have bookclub, and a cooking class with the girls this week.

Discovered the secret to ridding my house of "pet odor".

The Bad:

Mae has decided to grow up all in one week.

Discovering my old car wasn't worth much. 173 k miles, go figure.

Had to remove lots of "pet odor".

The Ugly:

"pet" stains

My mii (no, it's not ugly, it looks JUST like me). I guess I thought it would turn out more Hiedi Klum-ish as I chose each of my features. The more I progressed, the more it mirrored me and it completely freaked me out :) It was crazy! To make a long story short, Liv and Isaac thought I was nuts as I laughed (hysterically), and cried at the same time. Now that's some self discovery! (anyone else have an insane reaction to thier mii?)

Before I Forget

I just have to say that nothing, nothing in the world is sweeter than when I am holding my Mae and she holds me back.

(and if I were really "a photographer", I'd have a photo to prove it)

Big Trouble

Oh Heavens above, what will I do if she doesn't behave?

Look at this child. Just look at her.

How in heaven's name could you send her to her room? Maybe if I don't look at her while I shout, "Go put your nose in the corner!"

Delivered, Signed, Sealed

We are a bit mixed up in this family, but this is how it goes...

Mae had a busy week. Wednesday, finalization, Thursday, Thanksgiving, Friday, Sealing, Sunday, Blessing.

Our time in the temple was precious. The sweet little ladies working that day dressed the kids in beautiful white clothing. They came into the sealing room looking like little angels. Little Mae sat quietly cooing while the sealer performed the ordinance that would bind her to our famliy through eternity. He explained that no matter what happened in the lives of the parents, children who are sealed to their families will have the blessings of eternal parentage. He also remembered each one of our names (which is a feat because as Isaac said, "Mom, that guy was all white. He had white hair in his nose and white hair and his close was white!").

My mother-in-law, the Carvajal's, The Standifird's, and the Gurney's were able to attend with us.

What a blessing that Isaac and Liv will remember the temple. One more reason why being adopted is soooo cool.

We are a "peculiar people". If you want more info on the sealing and blessing ceremonies, see the church website.

Another Late Night

Here I am again, editing at midnight. But I had to show off my babe. She has got to be the single most beautiful thing you've ever seen. I wonder if you can tell she was sick? For the FIRST time in her life, the day I sneak in to Jason's video studio to use the lights. I tried to help the miniature circles under her eyes. I had to have a shot like this because I've got one of everyone so far though never done by me, yeah!!! I feel terrible now, looking back on poor Siena's pics, taken with a spotlight in a bedroom at my house. Wendy, if you're up to it I'll sneak into that studio again :)

You can tell by the last two pics that the studio lights (ours are hot lights), cast a yellow glow. I had to correct it in editor, guess I need to do some more on these!

It's my party

you gotta set the scene

Beautiful party girl

Kristy & Macey

Grandpa & Adrienne

Patty-Cake with Cowboy Grandma

Darling Heidi & little Scarlet (don't you LOVE that name?)

Laura & Sleepy Mae

Isaac's already teaching her soccer.