Emma's On The Loose

She's Two!




She's Fast!




And she doesn't wear diapers!

Move out of her way!

I took Christopher and Emma to the park this morning and she insisted that she wanted to ride her bike. GREAT! I took the wagon along thinking I'd be hauling her and her bike halfway into this expedition.

Well, no wagon was needed. She proved me wrong. She pedaled at a fast walking pace and never slowed up once. We played for an hour and then she said to me, "poopy come." We high-tailed it out of that park and I insisted that we use the wagon on the return trip. She would have nothing to do with that idea.

I'm happy to say that we all made it home... IN TIME!

We're On Our Way...

We're on our way to being DIAPER FREE... Pampers, Huggies and Luvs will most likely see a decline in their profits. Our home has been purchasing these products for the last 9 years! Has any one figured the price out on this... let's just say you go through 6 diapers a day and they are each .25 (Costco warehouse price). That's $1.50 a day... which is $547 a year... which is nearly $5,000 for the past 9 years! This calculation did NOT include the months when we had two kids in diapers...

BUT - I need to say that I never once complained about changing a disposable diaper. (Neither has Glenn.) You see, we came from the era where cloth diapers were the norm and landfills were a much cleaner place! What can we say... we've done our part - almost 20,000 diapers!

FORTY - two days later

I LOVE BEING 40!

You get all kinds of wonderful things... after your big day! Cati, my girlfriend in California, realized that I was celebrating my 40th... what a delicious surprise! Cati, you can be late ANY DAY! (Talk about some excited kids too!)

FORTY!

I am happy to report that age 40 feels the same as age 30, and age 35 and age 37... nothing different to report!

I had a wonderful day with family and friends and I even received 40 presents! See's candies accounted for 23 individually wrapped presents. And today I am trying "to contain" myself but isn't it a bit RUDE that my husband bought me this lovely box of my favorite assorted truffles - THEN HE LEAVES TOWN FOR THE REST OF THE WEEK! Who am I to share (the calories) with? Melissa come over quick before they're gone!

There was an assortment of 12 petite candles (with various scents)... a bag of assorted sizes of chip clips... a gift card to Sports Authority (new running shoes to work off those candy mentioned earlier)... a few kitchen gadgets...

ALL -IN - ALL... it was a wonderful day! 40 is not bad!

Parenting Woes

There was an earlier post (Eldon's) about parenting skills, the idyllic family, etc etc.

Well, we are trying to be pretty good parents. We hold regular Family Nights, we wash the van occassionally TOGETHER (like on the videos), we go to the park AS A FAMILY...

Monday's Family Night lesson was a simple one - let's just be kind to one another. We shared some scriptures, wrote out nice comments about each member of our family and played a little guessing game with the comments, had graham crackers and frosting... a real nice night! There was just one catch - during the week you need to try your best to be nice to someone, everyone - just do something nice!

All the boys were in bed tonight (Thurs) and I asked the question, "Hey boys, how's our Family Night Challenge going?"

Nick (5) responds - Well, I never really had an opportunity (very sincere voice).

Zach (7) responds - Well Mom, there was this boy on the playground who doesn't have any friends "story" the kind of story that goes on and on and on. Thanks Zach.

Ben (9) responds - Well, today at breakfast Mom. What? Yeah, you made cracked wheat for us to eat and I sure don't like it, but I didn't complain.

Well, I do know that sometimes lessons need to be repeated... this may be just one of those lessons!

Change

Since blogging for me is writing about our day-to-day activities - life is going well. The boys and I went to see Happy Feet yesterday (Civil Rights Holiday) at the theatres. Emma stayed home to take a nap. It's wonderful to have Glenn at home. He does let me go (without having to pluck Emma from her naptime) so much! He runs to pick-up boys that I have forgotten somewhere. He tries to be so flexible - yet much of the time he works late into the night or is up at 3 working with those abroad.

Yesterday they "let go" about 1/2 the workforce (once again ) from his company... is he worried? Yes. But he tries to hide it well! Will there be more lay-offs? If so, they will most likely shut the company down. I'm thankful for my husband (who is currently employed still). And if they "let go" more... we will handle it well (as before).

Having A Little Girl Around!

It's GREAT having a little girl around the house. Each night when I go to bed, I place my clothes in the hamper which is in our closet... and this is what I find:




What in the WORLD you are thinking... these are boxes of shoes (and I don't have many) that Emma has searched through looking for the perfect match to her outfit for the day!


Yes, girls are a lot different than boys! (And I LOVE IT!)