Yesterday, as part of the "tire ourselves out enough so that we aren't scared to sleep without Daddy in the house" campaign, we met April and her boys at Garfield Park in the afternoon and brought along dinner too.

April trying to keep all 4 of the bigger kids swinging.


Ethan and... a juice box.


Its hard to teeter, when there is no totter


Finding a more even weight distribution, but neither kid was heavy enough to make it go. So April helped.


Then Ethan wanted in on the action!


Almost... so close... to having my two oldest looking at the camera AND smiling.


Ethan is kind of a 'fraidy-cat. Its just his nature. So him on these ropes is a big step!


April spinning her boys, Giblet^™ on the left and Grady on the right, in the spinny seat until they were dizzy!


Ethan trying to lift Grady onto the cement frog. He was shocked by how much heavier Grady was than Elly!


April holding Elsa on one of her brief appearances from napping, and, as April called, "the boobcave". See her blog for the referring picture :)


Its time to go when you get this face and the words, "But Moooooommmmyyyyy". Whining. A surefire way to know your play time is done ;)


This is picture I took of Gwen on Friday when we were at the grocery store. She's been eyeing this horse for awhile. She found it quite lacking in excitement, unfortunately. She told me next time she won't waste her quarter on THAT. She'll use it for a gumball.

Today Jason left for his week long business trip and oy, I am dreading the two nights I have to stay here by myself. I can't express how much anxiety it gives me to be home alone at night. I'm trying to be a big girl in this area, but its hard :(

The last 3(?) days, I've been trying to take walks of about 5,000 steps each (around 2 miles). I've been exploring various routes. The first one I did was pretty flat and was 3.500 steps. The second one I did took me up a ginormous hill and was pretty tough, but it too was only 3500 steps (but a much harder 3500).

Today, after grocery shopping, we went over to my friend Kristy's house (her son Blake was in Gwen's gymnastics class and also attends MOPS). She lives, well, according to my pedometer, about 3/4 of a mile from us and this was our first attempt at walking there. We did it fine (though the kids are really whiny about walking) and had a great visit with her in her very lovely home. The walk back was rough as the kids were super tired and cranky. Gwen picked a handful of blackberries and held them to her chest, leaving a bright red splotch. Looked like she'd been shot or something! That's gonna take a heck of a lot of stain stick. Anyway, that walk was around 3900 steps. Its seemingly hard to find a route that doesn't intersect with huge streets that don't have crossing access and also has sidewalks that are 5,000 round trip.

Suppose the exercise is good either way though, hmm?

Well, off to pick up. We've been gone all day and the house is a disaster.

Oh, I forgot to mention that we attended church on Sunday and things went MUCH better. Thank you everyone for your hints and ideas.

Ethan started throwing a fit right as we were about to enter and we started getting stressed out. J and I took a moment to become calm, then dealt with Ethan calmly. One of the things we've found is that ignoring the behaviour, especially in public, is quite effective. On the way, we'd talked about what exactly was going to happen. We were going to put Gwennie in her class, then go into the church and sing and pray, then Ethan would go to his class. When the children were dismissed, the lady behind us asked if she could walk Ethan to the class and I agreed. I think this helped so much too... He generally acts a lot better around non-family. He went without any fight and came out happy and smiling. Whew, what a relief!

Unfortunately, we won't be attending the next two weekends because Jason is on back-to-back business trips, but hopefully our next visit will continue on this happy trend.

Well heavens. Its been nearly a week since my last blog. I felt like I should blog on the day of my birth. Yeah, I'm 30 today.

This past week has been long for some reason. On Wednesday, we traveled to downtown Seattle to meet up with some people from my online message board. This is how I met my good friends April and Alyssa actually. Some others from Washington were in the area and we decided to get together. You'll have to read all about it on April's blog... it was quite the adventure getting to the meeting site but we had such a good time. Its a unique experience to meet people that you've known for years online. There is an instant level of comfort. Its nice.

Friday, my Mom took the kids overnight ('cept Elsa of course) and I made one of my favorite meals for dinner. We hit Baskin Robbins for dessert and both zonked out by 9. We are SO old! Saturday, we bummed around, went out for lunch and headed over to my Mom's for dinner and a party in the late afternoon.

Grammy and Elsa (by the way, I have my replacement camera now. Yay!).


My cake (the candles shape the number 30)



I was blessed to receive some great gifts. American Cookery, by James Beard. A wonderful book of recipes and historical information on the origins of American cuisine. A truly delicious bar of chocolate flavored with espresso. Probably one of the best bar chocolates I've ever had! Also, a few folks combined funds and purchased me a ruffler foot for my sewing machine which will come in handy.

Speaking of sewing, I finished my latest project for Gwennie. It's a little too big but since she's growing so fast its no problem. It has that big old ruffle on the bottom which gave me fits! I had to gather 108 inches down to around 40. I hate hand gathering. So the ruffler foot that will arrive shortly will be sooooo welcome. I have two girls. There will be lots of ruffles in my future!

Congratulations are in order for my cousin Lindy, her husband Tim, and their son Cedric, on the birth of their little girl Cienna Yvonne last night!

I simply cannot wait to visit with all these Eastern Washington babies next month!

We need advice.

Today we tried a new church. One that is within walking distance, which is pretty cool. Its called Lake Country Baptist and has around 150 people I'd guess.

Right away we appreciated that we were noticed as newcomers and welcomed as such. Mom, you'll like this... as we were walking in, an older lady greeted us and asked about the children and such. When she found out how close E & G were, she said, "Oh, that is wonderful". Another greeter said, "My goodness your hands must be sooo busy with these three" and the lady said, "But its good, so very good". It totally reminded me of you. There was also a really good mix of old and young people, which is important to us.

We put Gwennie in her class (went in without a single look back at us), and Ethan joined us for the service until dismissal to his class after worship. This is where we need help. He was pretty bad. I had to take him out and into the bathroom for some serious discussion about his behavior. After that I tried to take him into his class and he acted much like he did last year at pre-school for the first month. Whiny, crying, pouting, dramatic and pretty much miserable. After trying to get him to warm up and play for 15 minutes, I decided to bring him back into the service. He then started acting up and talking, fake crying really loudly, pouting and being destructive. Jason took him out for a few minutes and when he returned he started kicking the chair in front of him. Needless to say, it was embarassing and stressful and I remember exactly one sentence of the entire sermon!

Its really the most I've felt like a complete dunce of a parent. Now, in all fairness, he had an allergy flare up this morning and was on Benadryl. I'm sure that didn't help. But this behavior is not abnormal. Anyone who knows Ethan has seen these things happen before. I realize he's 4, but his behavior seems immature for a 4 year old, at least to me. And worse, I feel like we don't know what to do to make it better. We punish him, especially in public, and he reacts even worse. If we try to deal with it by talking or distraction, the behavior really amplifies.

I feel like we're doing it all wrong, but I don't know how to do it right. Any advice? Post it in a comment or email me. I want to hear what others, outsiders, have to say.

Yesterday, Mom and Aunt Jenni took E and G to the zoo. Aunt Becki also was there and the kids had a great time. I enjoyed the quiet time around home, though most the time they were gone was eaten up with grocery shopping and buying prizes for the kids. Why you ask?

BECAUSE THE KIDS WENT 5 SLEEPS WITHOUT A BINKY! Yay! If you can't tell, we are very happy about it :) We still have work to do because Ethan, upon reaching this goal, promptly asked for his pacifier because, "I got my 5 stars, now I want my binky back". Uh, no. Not how it works buddy. Ethan got a small Lego Indiana Jones set and Gwen got a ballerina leotard with a little skirt. Now we need to keep on them for the next 5 sleeps. We don't push it, letting the allure of a prize do most the work. They both had binkies last night which is disappointing, but we persist.

So I made these cupcakes and I was real excited because they were on my favorite cooking show, Good Eats, and looked delicious. I put them in the oven and as I'm bustling about cleaning up after myself, I notice this bowl of white powder... wha? Well shoot, it was the flour and leavening! Luckily the wet mix did have cocoa powder and beaten egg whites so they cooked up with some structure, but they came out looking like sunken soufflés. The taste was still good, very chocolaty. But eating one was like eating nothing at all. There was almost no heft to it... like air. Oh well. Maybe we'll try again today!

Dad made a quick stop at our house last night and Gwen really beat him up. He left saying, "I feel like I've been mugged". For such a little sprite, she sure is rough!

Another cousin of mine, Julie (sister to the aforementioned Jennifer), just sent me the recipe to some absolutely delicious bread she brought to the family reunion. SO good. I cannot wait to make it. I'm going to share the recipe here and urge you to try it.

Dilly Bread
I'd guess from the portions that this would make two loaves

2 T yeast

4 ½ C flour

¼ C sugar

2 tsp. dried onion

2 tsp. salt

½ tsp. baking soda

4 T dill seed

½ C warm water

2 C cottage cheese, warmed

2 eggs

2 T butter

Put all the ingredients in a mixer, dry on the bottom, wet on top, and knead 5-10 minutes. Divide and put into pans. Let rise till doubled.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

While I'm talking about Julie, I want to mention her website, MeantToBeModest.com. She uses her talents to make modest swim wear for women and girls. This definitely is a need in our world and I'm glad she's providing this resource. Cool stuff.

My husband is so cool.

For my birthday, he wrestled the budget and found enough money to buy me a new sewing machine!


http://www.brother-usa.com/Homesewing/ModelDetail.aspx?ProductID=EX660

Do you see how computerized it is? I'm so excited. I might actually be able to do items with buttons now! I am always amazed how Jason is able to manage our money and work numbers. Its something so beyond me.

The last few days have been rather stressful. I've felt so overwhelmed and worn out by Ethan and Gwennie. They've been up to major hijinks and my house is constantly being messed up, even when I'm right behind them picking up. I just can't do it fast enough. So today I packed everyone up and we went to Fred Meyers, where I put them in the in-store babysitting and strolled around for an hour and picked up a few things and basically just enjoyed some peace and quiet.

We've started a rewards chart for E and G's binky withdrawal. So far we've been able to do two days of binky free naps. Neither child is ready to give it up at night. Naps are hard though. Without the paci they aren't sleeping much and they, well Ethan, is upset with going down. He's motivated because if he can get 5 stickers he'll get a Lego set, but he really misses the binky. I've caught him a few times sucking on his fingers which is not great, but he doesn't seem to find it so great either so I'm not too worried about it being a replacement for his paci.

We had quite the funny morning. At 4am our fire alarm started beeping, which means the backup batteries are low. It sends a beep through all the alarms, so basically into every room. It beeps every 30 seconds or so. Irritating, but I could have slept through it. Problem is, our dog apparently felt there was a fire and was terrified. Poor Toby! He stood next to Jason and panted heavily and shook like a leaf. Jason tried to get him in the bed, but Toby was too paralyzed with fear. After a lot of bed patting and encouragement he managed to jump up on the bed and squish himself right up next to me. He was shaking so hard that our California King size bed was vibrating. Really really vibrating. So much so that it was cracking me up and I started giggling hysterically about it. Jason was not so amused.

Jason got up and removed the offending fire alarm and Toby calmed down and I was able to go back to sleep for another 2 hours. The vibrating bouncy seat seems to be a good trick for calming Elsa... maybe I'll just scare Toby and put him on the bed next time I need some relaxation!