Maymont

We went up to Richmond last weekend to see family and took the girls to Maymont Park while we were there.
Maymont is a big public park with lots of nice trails and a farmhouse and barn animals and also some bears and foxes and birds to see. It's a pretty sweet little park.

The girls loved it and Seth and I loved having extra people around to tend to them.

All the pictures I have of my Dad on this outing are of him 10 feet in front of me.
If you've ever been on a trip with my Dad, this should not surprise you.

The only exception is this one. Wait for it....

 We found this big old tree next to a little creek.

The girls (and Seth) loved playing in it.

H had to ride around in the stroller and get carried by everyone, so naturally she was exhausted by the end of the day.

Four years of going up to Richmond for visits and this is the first time we've gone to Maymont. Ridiculous. It won't be the last.

My girls

Just a random post because I think my girls are totally awesome and hilarious.

The sweet dancing makes up for that super annoying song that I hear eleventy billion times a day.

The noise H makes when she desperately needs something. I don't even know where she got it from, but I'm pretty sure it means "gimme."

T: "Mommy, it's time for the princess to eat."

H is belly-licious.
She was just sitting like this, I didn't pose her.

H is saying "here you go" in case you can't decipher that. They love helping me empty the dishwasher and I hope that love never fades.
I know it's skewed in favor of my second born, but T does get her own posts, so it balances out.
I love my girls!

Happy Easter!

Easter Festivities were a bit subdued this year thanks to our entire family coming down with the flu.

This is what Easter weekend and pretty much our entire week has looked like: copious amounts of T.V. watching. Seth stayed home from work. T had free reign of the house because her parents just lay in bed all day. The trash cans are overflowing with tissues. The house looks like a bomb exploded. Utter chaos.

Anyway, we did do some Eastery things before the madness descended.

 Like dying Easter eggs.

 T was uninterested in the dying part and WAY into the stickers/markers/doodads the kit came with.

You can see her handiwork best on the blue egg. I have been picking bits of sticker off my carpet all week so I am rethinking my decision to buy the extra fancy kit...

Another thing she and H were both WAY into: candy. (Are you surprised?)
They got a new dress and a book and some bubbles but nothing was as exciting as the CANDY.

They were also way into the Easter Egg Hunt we went to with some friends from church. T would try to stop after each egg and open it up to inspect/eat the contents and as a result was one of the last children to finish.

H just tried to pick up any old thing and put it in her bag, including sticks, rocks, dirt and some wiffle balls she found, along with a few eggs.

The only thing they were NOT way into? Taking pictures in their Easter dresses. (Again: are you surprised?)

So Happy Easter! And now off to celebrate my returning good health by eating some more of the girl's candy haul....

Toddler Talk #5

After T ran into her room to get her pajamas on:

T: Mommy come help me!
J:
T: Mommy!
J:
T: No one will help me and it's so sad.

While I was trying to get her to go down for quiet time:
T: Mom, I want some chapstick first.
J: No. Get on your bed.
T: *throws herself on bed* I can't live like this anymore!

(Backstory: T scraped her knees up in the Library parking lot and was upset about it for days.)
After dinner one night while climbing down from her chair:
T: Come on knees, you can do it! You can do some more things!

After she got upset about something:
T: There's puddles in my eyes because I was crying.

During dinner when Seth was talking to her about her Disney Princess toys:
S: Is mommy a princess?
T: No.
S: Oh, mommy's the queen.
T: No.
S: Hmm. What is mommy?
T: A monster.

Helpful

T helps me out sometimes by feeding her sister.

Soon I will teach her to make the meals as well and then I can sit on the couch and watch Netflix all day.

And T likes to do it, and H likes to eat, and I like to watch Netflix.

So it's a win-win-win!

Hate List

Seth is normally a very laidback guy. He never gets mad, he rarely gets annoyed, he is just a happy go-lucky kind of person.
But there are a few things that make him genuinely angry. Are they normal things, like poverty and injustice and evil?
No. They are not. They are:

1. Left-turn red arrows instead of blinking yellow arrows. Every time we have to sit at one of these I get the long explanation about what a time-waster this is, how it would be more efficient if we had the option to turn, why haven't they replaced all of them yet, blah blah blah. Every time.

2. Front-row Joe. (This is my favorite.) Front-row Joe is a cartoon cat that the Provo Dollar Theater uses to promote their concession stand and remind people to turn off their cellphones. And Seth HATES HIM. I still haven't figured out why. And I probably never will.

3. The phrase "I could care less." The correct way to say it (I know now, thanks to Seth) is "I couldn't care less." I think maybe his level of hatred for this phrase wouldn't have developed so much except for the fact that every time he launched into a tirade on the subject, everyone's response would be "I could care less." ("Everyone" includes myself, of course.)

4. Jared, The Galleria of Jewelry. Because there is no s at the end of the name to show possession. He took me to Jared when we went engagement ring shopping and spent most of the time muttering under his breath about the missing s. We did not buy my ring from there.

5. Morning radio talk shows. I dread driving anywhere with him before 10am. I know, Seth, I know. Just turn your ipod on already.

You can see the malice glittering in his eyes, can't you?

Cousin Parties

We were having cousin parties all over the place this past month!
And by all over the place I mean two. Gabby came to stay with us for 10 days and Hannah for just 3 days (both Winsor nieces) and I have more pictures of Hannah than I do of Gabby.
I do not know how that happened.

Don't be sad Gabby. I got some sweet video of your dancing skills:

But I'm sorry it's a weird color. Don't let it detract from your awesome moves.

Toothbrushing Party with Gabby.

Toothbrushing Party with Hannah.

Bathtub Party.

Breakfast Party.

Party Party Party.

Partied out.
So cousins, come visit us!
And your weird aunt will take lots of pictures of you while you brush your teeth.

The Caterpillar

Last week was really nice so we spent a lot of time in our backyard.

One day T was playing across the yard and I was sitting on the back porch steps watching her when she suddenly started screaming at the top of her lungs and running towards me. I thought she had hurt herself, she was screaming so loud.

She hadn't. When I asked her what was wrong, she said there was a caterpillar coming to get her.

I am a mean mother, so I laughed at her. I stood up and went to inspect where she was playing, hoping I could get a picture of the "scary caterpillar" so I could write up a funny story about it. 

Yeah, this is what I saw when I walked over there:

Definitely not a caterpillar. Definitely a snake. 

Sorry for laughing at you T. I would have been screaming too.