"Whatcha doin'?"

***Disclaimer***

I wrote this post yesterday in an effort to vent privately. My original intent was to not publish it in light of today's continuation of yesterday's frustrations and the fact that I gave it a day before posting my sometimes "kneejerk" comments, I feel I should post this for those of you who can relate.

Many of you may think I'm a patient man. What I'm about to say might change your impressions of me but I'm willing to risk it for the opportunity to vent.

It is finals week for me. I went to bed at midnight and was upt at 5:00 working on a massive group paper that is due thsi weekend. I've also got a final in that same class that I need to prepare for and take before Saturday.

Today has been...shall I say...not the best. Rease has had a mild temperature off and on but has been in pretty good spirits. So let me give you a rundown of the last half hour's events...

2:00: Rhen woke up from her nap and at the same time Rease decided to cut her nap short. Rhen was hungry - Rease was crabby.

2:01:

Rease: "Daddy, Whatcha doin?"

Me: "Feeding Rhener."

2:02: I feed Rhen and cherish every moment the bottle is in her mouth because it is sweet silence except for...

Rease: "Daddy, whatcha doin?"

Me: "Just cleaning."

-Fast Forward_

2:08: Rhen is done and it looks like a bomb went off on the top of her high chair tray (quesadilla explosion.) I quickly move the kids downstairs to play with the toys while I deal with the aftermath.

Rease: "Daddy, whatcha doin?"

Me: "Going downstairs."

2:10: I thunder back upstairs and just as I get started on the kitchen Rease yells from downstairs...

Rease: "Daddy, whatcha doin?"

Me: "Just sweeping."

2:11: I don't even really get the broom in hand before I hear the sound of little footsteps on the stairs (Rhen is not ready for going solo on the stairs so I'm in a bit of a panic.)

Rease: "Daddy, whatcha doin?"

Me: no comment

2:12: I barricade the bottom of the stairs with as many things as I can.

Rease: "Daddy, whatcha doin?"

Me: "Blocking the stairs for Rhener."

The minute I get back upstairs and pick up the broom once again I hear a familiar voice.

Rease: "Daddy, whatcha doin?"

Me: "Sweeping the floor."

Rease: "Rhen is poopy!"

Down I go again...

2:13: The diaper is open and it is NASTY!

Rease: "Daddy, whatcha doin?"

Me: "Changing Rhener's bum."

2:14: I remove the stair barricade to get by then replace it and head back upstairs.

Rease: "Daddy, whatcha doin?"

Me: No response...by now I'm that frustrated

2:15: Screams of bloody murder erupt from downstairs. Rhen has taken Rease's toy (or vice versa.) By then I need a little peace and two minutes to get something done. Down I got to break it up. While pulling out the pack and play I catch myself imagining what two child-size muzzles would look like.

Rease: "Daddy, whatcha doin?"

Me: "Putting this up for Rhener."

You can imagine how this story ends...

Me: Unresponsive, frustrated and silent

Rease and Rhen: Happily playing...

Nat used to tell me that days would pass and she didn't feel like she'd gotten anything done. I honestly admit that at that point in time I didn't have the first clue what she was talking about.

Now I do...

Happy Birthday Justin!

We celebrated Justin's birthday Sunday with dinner and presents at mom's house. He is turning the big 3-0 this week! Oldie Goldie!

Rease loves to help open presents and uncle Justin was nice enough to let her help.

Dessert was this delicious fondue spread...

Such a fun birthday and we loved the dessert!

Super Saturday

All us girls at the office have been wanting to get together and work on all our crafty projects together. So last Saturday we finally planned it and got together for the day.
Gayle taught us how to frost cupcakes. This is a good start for my run at making Rhen's birthday cake. I feel much better after Gayle's class.

Hayley taught us magnet making.

Kilee showed us these cute baby burp cloths.

Isch made headbands with us and we also made baby hairbows. We had such a great time together and got all our projects done. Maybe this will be our monthly tradition!

Toilet bowl

Rhen has found the toilet. Oh man I'm not quite ready for her to be walking around and getting into the toilets.

But she does look so cute and innocent!

Smoothies anyone?

Last weekend we were at mom and dad's house and dad was nice enough to make us a big batch of smoothies. He had it all made and poured it into this cute plastic picture - then this is where it ended up. The handle broke off just as he was pouring and the smoothie ended up all over dad and all over the kitchen. The best part about it was when mom saw what happened she said "oh crap on it!" I thought it was hilarious. We all cleaned up together and dad was nice enough to make another batch for us.

Delicious!

Whirlwind Rhen

One day I decided to follow Rhen around with the camera to see how many messes she can make in a small amount of time.

She started under the sink - we try to keep her out of the cupboards with hairties on the handles.

Obviously she has found a way around it and can squeeze her little self in between.

Reaching inside to pull out all the cleaning supplies.

Moving onto the diaper bag.

Found some food mom.

Then to the toy bin.

Next the pans.

She pulled the pans out and then cried because they landed on her feet.

She ended her whirlwind mess making with the appliance cupboard.

I figured I better stop her when she got to the chopper - that was a little too scary for me to watch.

Believe it or not, this trip of hers only took about 10 minutes. This girl makes me tired.

I love sugar!

Who doesn't love licking the beaters?

The day with the neighbor boys

Josh watched our cute neighbor boys one day last week and Rease had such a fun time with them. They played and played and took a trip to the park and played and played some more.

Josh and I bought a few random umbrellas a few years ago in St. George when we were there for marathon weekend and it was pouring - they were the only umbrellas left in the store and we grabbed what was there. One of them happened to be a Little Mermaid umbrella and Rease has been begging us to let her use it for weeks now. She finally got her chance this rainy day.

So glad we have fun neighbors for Rease to play with!

Breaking free

Rhen plays this little game with the doors in our house. She'll crawl into our bedroom and shut the door then squeeze her little fingers in between the crack and open it back up, etc. ect. Once in a while the door shuts all the way and she can't open it without help. When that happens she stands up against the door and pounds on it over and over until once of us opens the door for her. Then it starts all over again.
She tries to do the same thing with the front door but can't quite reach the door handle so she then goes right into the pounding.

Cute little thing in her diaper just trying to get out.

Got my hat on...

Rease felt like she needed to wear her hat one rainy day when she was going outside to play - this is the hat she chose. Why not?

Hello?

Rhen has learned to do all sorts of grown up stuff - she eats grown up food, she goes up and down the stairs (sometimes down doesn't end up so good) and she talks on the phone. 11 months old and she can do it all!

Valentines Day

Happy Valentines Day!

We sent the girls on a scavenger hunt Valentines morning to find their presents...

Rease had fun and kept saying "where's the next glue (clue)?" Their Valentines presents were coloring and reading books.

Then we made heart-shaped pancakes and wrote pancake words. The R is for Rease and Rhen.

Ever since then Rease has asked for heart-shaped pancakes. Next year we'll do it again!

Our life

I feel like I have been out of the blogging world lately and wanted to have a catch-up day. Life in our house has been busy and crazy. Josh is in his last few months of school and is working so hard at getting through these last 3 classes. He is still home with the girls during the day and is also on the job hunt. I know he gets overwhelmed with all he has going on, but boy do we love and appreciate all he does for us. I am still working and am so grateful to be able to work as much as I do. I was filling in for a girl on maternity leave at an office in American Fork in December and January. The office was great and I was glad to have a steady office to be at for a couple of months. I am back to temping almost every day which is good and bad. Good because the temp agency keeps me busy almost everyday but bad because it's like my first day on the job everyday that I go to a new office. All in all, we are so glad to have the work we have. I work at my dads office one day a week too which is a nice break from the crazy other days that I sometimes have.

This past week has been a hard one for us. At 13 weeks pregnant I found out that our baby had stopped developing at 8 1/2 weeks and had no heartbeat. We opted for the d&c and I went in Monday morning for surgery. Everything went good and luckily I have felt great physically since then. Emotionally though this has been hard on me - I can imagine it's hard for anyone who has a miscarriage. I have felt a lot of strength from my good husband and my sweet girls and I am coming around. I've found since this happened is that all I want to do is spend time with my family and cherish the moments that we have together as the girls grow up. We have great people around us and have had a lot of love and support come our way this week. This is hard for me even as I write but couldn't pass up the chance to say thank you and we love you to the amazing people in our life.

Rease is 2 1/2, talkative, loving and very sweet. She has recently started saying to Josh "Daddy you are a great dad." She is also a very sweet older sister to Rhen. She loves kissing her, holding her hand and just playing with her all day long. She's not perfect though and spends her fair share of time in "timeout." She thinks she's very grown up and tells me "I can do it myself." Her favorite movie right now is "Monsters Inc" but that could change at any moment. She wears size 4T clothes and size 8 shoes. My favorite features on her - her 2 front teeth are a little longer than the others and we lovingly call them her "buckers." She also has a mole just off her nose by her right eye that I think is darling. Josh loves tucking Rease into her bed and has taught her to love a few of the blankets we have. 1st blanket - her turquoise one that she has had since she was little and has slept with for a year straight. This is the "soft blanket." 2nd blanket - a huge king size cream blanket that I love cuddling up with is the "super soft blanket." I think her turquoise one was in the wash when Josh introduced this blanket to her and since then has asked to sleep with the "super soft blanket." 3rd blanket - our newest favorite brown blanket we just got for Christmas is the "super duper soft blanket." If I were to describe this blanket those are exactly the words I would use. It is super duper soft and I love it. Rease shortens the name and just calls it the "duper soft blanket." You would think she would get confused but she knows exactly which one is which and asks for each of them by name. Most nights she sleeps with the "super soft blanket" and when she goes the Grammies she takes the "soft blanket." The "duper soft blanket" is used mainly when she watches a movie on the couch downstairs. We love this girl!

Rhen is a love. She loves to smile, laugh, mimic and get into everything. There aren't many moments that make her cry - when he bottle is gone and she's still hungry or if she's really tired she will start to whimper. She has blonde whispy hair that looked like it would be stick straight but has recently started curling on the end. She still has only 2 bottom teeth but that doesn't slow her down from eating anything she wants. I started giving her chocolate milk and teaching her how to drink from a sippy cup - the chocolate milk seems to help teach her since she'll do anything she can to get it out of there. She will be 1 in a month and is wearing 18-24 month clothes. Rhen is so tall and skinny (and even more skinny now since she was sick for a week and lost some weight.) She has the biggest bluest eyes. She has started saying a few words and my favorite is when she sees me and says "mama" or sees Josh and says "dada." Crazy how she knows the difference. The one word I would use to describe Rhen is "Smiley."

I love our girls and I love my sweet husband. Life is good to us and we are happy being together.

Uh-oh

I could tell Rhen was into something because I hadn't heard from her for a couple of minutes. She had a trail of star stickers behind her and a pile of them all around her and in her mouth.

She can now say "uh-oh" when she knows she's in trouble.

Then she handed the bag back to me when she knew she was in trouble.