Fire Ant Frenzy

Well, we went camping this weekend to a really pretty place called Lake Somerville. Brett flew in on Friday to spend the weekend with us. So we packed up the kids on Friday night and headed out. The place couldn't have been prettier. The campground was nice and grassy, not much dirt, beautiful trees, and it was surrounded by a gorgeous lake. I should have gotten a picture. Anyway, we had a great time. As we were packing up on Saturday morning, we heard H suddenly start screaming. I knew instantly that she had been attacked by fire ants. Poor H. For anyone that has ever had a fire ant bite, you know they are no fun. Those ants are mean! They are teeny-tiny and very aggressive...they swarm and just start attacking. We tore her shoes off, and were trying to get them off her, then had to strip her down to nothing because they were under her clothes. I stopped counting at 20 bites. I got two or three bites on my feet, and I've been itchy all weekend--I can't imagine 20+ bites! Right after she got bitten, her face broke out in a rash. Probably a reaction to all the bites. But she's running around now like nothing happened. Whenever we talk about it, she just says,"Dose spiders bite me." She was a little confused.



We got home from camping, and had to prepare our girls to sing Love at Home in ward conference with us. The choir director had asked us last week if we would sing the first verse as a family, and the choir would come in and join us in the later verses. G was so excited, she loves to sing for people. We were a little worried about H contribution because she tends to sing extremely loud and off key--and also is hard to control sometimes. Well, during rehearsal, I knew it was going to be a spectacle because H and G kept fighting over the microphone, H didn't want to hold still or be held, and she was talking and singing very loudly. Here we are supposed to be conveying love at home, and I was about to kill both of them!



The song was to be performed as the closing song of the meeting. By that time, H's cute hairdo was not so cute anymore. Oh well, it turned out fine. Surprisingly, H was the one that pulled through and sang most of the song (despite the fact that she couldn't hold still and was babbling incessantly while the choir was singing their part.) The stake president and bishopric were just trying to hold in their laughter. G got a sudden case of nerves and hardly sang. T and I were just trying to smile and sing without bursting into laughter ourselves. The bishop stopped me in the hall later and said he really wished we had a video of the performance. He thought it was hysterical. I'm glad it's over, and I hope we don't have to do that again anytime soon.


I have to give a shout out to Brett. (Those are his hairy legs in the picture with H.) He and the baby had a nice nap together after church. We've had a great time with you this weekend!

The Squeaky Wheel...

All right, everyone has heard the old saying, "the squeaky wheel gets the grease." Well I have found, in my life, this is completely true. For example, G, a.k.a. "Big Squeaky Wheel," finally wore me down and I gave in to her getting her ears pierced. Am I failure as a mother since I caved? Look at that smug face...she is so proud she got her way. There's never been a hard and fast rule about what age she needed to be. I've always told her "well, I had to wait until I was 12,"---but is that really a good reason? Just because I had to wait doesn't automatically mean she has to wait, does it? This was my quandary. So I told her that she would have to be a big girl and take care of them, which she of course told me she would. (I also made sure she understood that this was the only piercing that would be aloud forevermore in our house!) So we went on a Mommy/Daughter Date. We went to Claire's to pick out some bling for her ears. I have to say, I thought maybe she would chicken out...because, let's face it, she can be a pretty big wimp. But she sat in that chair like such a big girl, and she didn't even cry. She just looked a little shocked. Now that the deed is done, I think she talks about her ears more now than before! She's such a girly-girl. Now when she is getting ready for school, she puts on a necklace and bracelet as well. It's usually a little overkill and I have to put the nix on something. Girls...oi vay!

Gotta keep updated pics of my other "squeaky wheels" for grandparents!

OCD 2-year-old!

Look at this face. Does this look like the face of an obsessive compulsive door closer (and locker-outer)? Don't let that innocent face trick you. This little girl, once again (yes this isn't the first time), locked me out of my bathroom. I had just gotten out of the shower, and had put one contact in, and the phone rang. So I went to the office to answer it. It was my mom, so we chatted for a while. Meanwhile, H was messing with the door lock, and then (as she always does) she shut the door. Last time this happened I had hubby on the phone trying to explain to me how to jimmy the lock. It took forever, and I finally gave up and got out the drill and took off the door knob. This time, I just went straight for the drill. In frustration, I was telling her to not mess with the door locks, and she got this really concerned look on her face. While I was taking off the doorknob, she wrapped her little arms around my leg and said, "I sorry, Mommy." And I said thank you for saying sorry, please don't do it again...and she said, "I won't, I promise, Mommy, I promise." I couldn't help but chuckle inside. She's a funny girl. Somehow, I don't think this is the last time I'll be pulling out the powertools to open my bathroom door.

Wicked and so much more

All I can say is WOW! It was awesome. I haven't been to a broadway musical in so long...and it was good to be back. Amazing music, amazing vocals, the set was awesome--I could go on and on. If I could afford it, I would go again and again. I hadn't ever heard the music, and I didn't know the story in any detail, so I had no preconceived notions of what it would be like. I want to go again when G is old enough to go, too. (Lots of people brought their kids--I guess I'm too cheap!) If Wicked is coming to your town anytime in the future, I would highly recommend it. It sells out wherever it goes, so don't wait on buying the tickets. Otherwise you will pay a lot more buying them from ebay or stubhub (which, sadly, is what we did.) Mind--definitely talk Deron into taking you. Or just get tickets with some girlfriends and go. If I'm in town, I'll volunteer to go again! It was fun to have another night out without the kids. Twice in one week is a rare occurrence. But we found a babysitter that I feel comfortable leaving a baby with.

*New Topic*
So is anyone out there into Sudoku? I've heard about it, seen it in the flight magazines next to the crossword puzzles, and have always been too ADD to try and wrap my brain around it. (I swear having kids has killed most of my brain cells.) So I was at Target several weeks ago browsing through their dollar section. And I saw this travel-sized Sudoku for Dummies book...so I picked it up. Needless to say, Trevor and I tried it together, and I gave up immediately. Of course, he was really good at it right away, being the brainiac that he is. Well, I haven't thought much about it, until Trevor brought it with us last night so I could try it in the car on the way to the show. I finally got it! Now I won't say I'm a wizard...I have only finished one puzzle and it was an "easy" one (hard for me), but I was SO proud! I even autographed it when I was done so everyone (really only T, since who else will be looking at it?) would know I did it. It made the drive into downtown fly by.

*Another New Topic*
Okay, WHY is Sanjaya still on American Idol? Maybe none of you follow the show...but odds are you all know who I'm talking about. It's really starting to bug me that we have to listen to him week in and week out. He's not even in the same league as the rest of them, but I guess neither is the girl with the legs. But I won't harp on that.

I will now stop with my random thoughts, and wish you all a great rest of the week!

Oh the woes of Wicked...

So, as you can probably tell from the title of this post that we were unsuccessful at getting tickets tonight. I'm SO bummed! We got to the theater downtown early to put our names in the raffle. They had 20 tickets available. It was a completely sold out show, so we were really taking a gamble thinking we would get in. We did go out to dinner, and then waited by will call until the show started to see if any tickets would become available...none did. Such a bummer since it seems like it's such an ordeal just to get out in the first place without kids. (Be grateful if you have parents or siblings that live nearby that will watch your kids...it's expensive to pay babysitters these days.) I feel like watching a depressing movie now to match my mood. Any suggestions?

So, based on how bummed we were that we didn't get in, we decided to just pony up the cash and buy tickets online for next week. So stay tuned next week...I'll have a full report on the musical.

Oh, one funny thing did happen tonight. We were driving down the freeway, and we saw a truck with a trailer in the back with a big smoker. The funny thing was, the smoker was on! I guess that's how you know you live in Texas when folks will smoke their bbq dinner while driving down the road.

Pictures and Pedicures

Well, as you can tell, we got Easter pictures taken today. I don't know how picture sessions go for all of you, but I always put it off because it is HARD! Holly absolutely refused to smile or sit still. It was amazing that we got any salvageable pictures. Needless to say, it was bribe central just trying to get them through the experience. Word of advice--do not try and get pictures taken on the Friday or Saturday before Easter because EVERYONE and their dog are doing the same thing. But we got through it. G was an angel.

And we got one decent picture of Baby K. We couldn't get her to smile, but at least she's not screaming.

It's been so nice having T home the last couple of days. I took advantage of it and went and got a pedicure. But by the time I got out of there, the little asian ladies had talked me into a manicure and eyebrow waxing as well. I've never done the eyebrow waxing before...I highly recommend it. So much better than plucking. And cheap, too.

Tomorrow, T and I are attempting to go on a date. I'm being brave and letting a babysitter watch the baby, too. I'm always so paranoid when they are this little. But our babysitter is in college, so I feel like she's old enough to handle a newborn. The broadway show Wicked is in town, and we are going to attempt getting tickets at the door. We'll see how that goes. Apparently, they do a lottery a couple of hours before the show and give away their best available seats for $25 each. We've been pricing tickets on ebay, and if we bought tickets there it would cost us over $150 per ticket! So, we're going to try our luck, and if we don't get it, then we'll just go to dinner and call it good. Wish us luck! I hope everyone has a great Easter!

Oh what a Monday...

I know today is not Monday. In fact, it's Wednesday. (But suffice it to say, Monday was not a good day. I won't bore you with my venting.) I can't believe the week is already half over. It's very exciting, because T doesn't have to work tomorrow or Friday. Yippee! He gets every other Friday off, and since this Friday the whole company is off for Good Friday, he gets Thursday off, too. We should go do something really fun, like get out of town. But we are going to be really boring and stay home and do projects. See, when you own an OLD house, the projects never end--ripping down ugly wallpaper should be an olympic event (we would win the gold medal.) Seriously. We love our house, but sometimes we want to tear it down and start from scratch.

Wasn't conference good? I love conference weekend. I love staying in my pj's and watching it on tv. It's a nice day of rest. Sometimes Sunday does not feel like a day of rest. Last Sunday (the one before conference), by the end of the day, we felt like we'd run a marathon. Does anyone else feel this way? Between getting three girls ready by myself (4 if you count me), helping run primary, meetings, choir and firesides...it's exhausting. April is my month for doing sharing time. So if anyone has any good ideas--let me know.
Well, that's it for now.