five fact friday

one- I was getting ready one morning and Mattie suddenly got very upset.  It took me a few minutes to realize she was saying "hair down! hair down!" I had put my hair in a pony tail and she did not approve.

two- Jilly is beginning to live up to her bossy older sister role and always has a specific plan for exactly how she wants Mattie to play with her.  I'm having to remind her over and over again that we have to let Mattie make her own choices.  

(this tree has three times as many blossoms now, it's the happiest thing right outside my kitchen window)

three- Mattie and Jilly were playing so well one afternoon I didn't realize how late it had gotten.  Instead of giving Mattie a late nap and then having her up all night I decided to just skip her nap that day.  Baaad, baaaad idea.  Naps for life.

four- Bryan is camping with the young men from church tonight so I made Jilly's life when I told her she could sleep in bed with me (for my protection, obviously.)  She turned into the darling dearest girl and even came out of bed just to tell me thank you and then went right back in.  Bryan may need to find a new sleeping quarters when he gets back.

five- Mattie has this new little queen wave where she keeps her fingers close together and barely rotates her wrist.  It's the best thing ever.  

friday five

one-  It is increasingly apparent that Mattie is nearing the terrible twos.  She's feisty and very opinionated and sometimes can be a real pill.  But she can also charm the pants off you when she wants to.  She hit Jillian this week and after time out I told her to say sorry.  She then spent the rest of the day saying "Sorry Gee-yen" at random.   Jilly accidentally bumped Mattie and right on cue Mattie said "Sorry Gee-yen."

two- Jillian and Mattie sometimes have a tumultuous relationship but this week was mostly up.  When Jilly came out of her ballet class Mattie was so excited to see her that she ran to Jilly and gave her a huge hug that made them both fall over.  Also, I hope these girls are prepared to wear matching dresses for the rest of their lives because I'm addicted.

three- I love watching Jillian grow up.  Sometimes her lazy mom can't get breakfast going fast enough so Jilly gets the waffles out of the freezer, toasts them, puts them on plates, and gets the syrup and PB out.  Also, since Easter is over Jilly is rearing for the next holiday so I told her about Mother's Day.  She calls it "Girls Day" and told me today "Daddy and I will get you a present, and you and Daddy can get me a present!"  Right-o.

four-

five-  Our Primary President is moving so our whole presidency was released a couple weeks ago.  We wanted to go out one last time together so Shake Shack it was (for those counting, this was my third time in 6 days.)  These girls are the very best part of Baltimore, besides Shake Shack of course. ;)

five- It is finally feeling like Spring around here.  One day we were in the car and Jilly pointed to a tree and said, "What's that?  Is it snowing?"  I assured her it wasn't snowing then looked for the tree she was looking at and realized it wasn't snow, it was white blossoms she was seeing!  We're so happy to have flowers instead of snow on our trees.

Happy Weekend!

An Eggcellent Weekend

Easter Weekend is always exciting, but Easter + General Conference Weekend is extra special.  On Saturday morning we went down to the Inner Harbor where I may or may not have gone to Shake Shack for the second time in three days.  My excuse is that Bryan hadn't been yet, but really I just couldn't stop thinking about those shakes (and I'm about due for another one.)  It was fun to walk around for a while since we'd spend the rest of the day inside.  We dyed Easter eggs while listening to General Conference; Mattie cracked 3 eggs and Jilly dyed all of hers pink so... a success.  We also made cupcakes and chow mein noodle nests.  Jilly, who loves holidays just as much as her mama, had memorized our agenda for the day and kept me on task.  She also told me over and over "this is my best day!"  It was a good day, but I'm quickly learning that holiday hoopla with kids = exhaustion for parents.

On Easter morning the girls got a few little things in their baskets and we had an egg hunt at home.  Mattie is our resident chocaholic and had eaten her weight in candy before Jilly even had one piece.  After breakfast we drove to my sister's house where we had another egg hunt in her back yard.  We watched Conference and between sessions walked on a trail behind their house where we found a fun little tepee and Jillian went on the rope swing (so scary!)  We ate a fabulous Easter dinner; tonight when we had leftovers Jilly told me "This is a delicious dinner, you're a good cooker like Gigi."  Then Bryan had the nerve to tell her that Gigi actually had made this dinner- Traitor.  

Thanks to uplifting Conference messages, nice weather, time with family, and remembering our Savior I started this week in a great mood.

friday five

1. We recently got a Shake Shack in Baltimore so my friend Alli and I headed downtown to check it out.  It was just as delicious as I expected (the girls and I inhaled our concrete and my cheeseburger...yum.)  After eating we figured we had already made it and found parking downtown so we walked around the harbor for a while.  It was so fun to chat and enjoy the beautiful day.

2. I watched another friend's six-month-old twin boys this week.  My girls were in heaven- a baby for each of them!  I laid Mattie down for her nap while they were still over and when she woke up and they were gone she said, "The babies! Where they go?" and started crying.  As sweet as these little guys are I hope I never ever have twins- it was a very busy few hours!!

3.  Nothing says spring to me like the click clack of little jellies.  Jilly got some new ones this year (try saying Jilly's jellies 10 times fast) and they have strawberries on the bottom and smell like strawberries.  One day Mattie was sad about something and to cheer her up Jilly said, "hey Mattie, want to smell my shoes?"  I had to laugh.

4. The girls got new nightgowns this week from their Nana.  I'm afraid this is only going to feed Mattie's obsession with wearing pajamas.  At least she looks darn cute in them.  Nana also sent new "bop flops" as Mattie calls them.

5. With Spring-ish weather arriving (still kind of cold but we'll take it!) we've been walking to the park in our neighborhood as often as possible.  Bryan made up a new game where he stands on the edge of the bridge and bounces it while the girls sit in the middle laughing hysterically .  It's too bad he's such a boring dad.



Happy Easter and Happy General Conference!

First Quarter Books

I started 2015 with some excellent books, and while making this list I realized how much nonfiction I read and loved.  Getting nerdier every day.  

Excellent:
1. Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty - On the very first page we're told there was a murder at the elementary school trivia night but we don't know who died.  The rest of the book recaps the six months leading up to the murder and gives clues without sharing the identity of the victim until the very end.  I loved the mystery and the characters.  This wasn't quite as good as What Alice Forgot, but still I enjoyed the story and whizzed right through it.

2. Delancey: A Man, A Woman, A Restaurant, A Marriage by Molly Wizenberg - This is a memoir about Molly's experiences opening a pizza restaurant with her husband.  I have zero intentions of ever having a restaurant, but she made the whole process so fascinating and entertaining.  I really need to plan a trip to Seattle so I can eat at Delancey and be best friends with Molly.

3. A Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass -  I read this for book club and loved it.  Frederick Douglass has an amazing story and he tells it so well.

4. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee - Another one for book club.  It was fun to discuss with a group of adults (as opposed to a class of 11th graders.)  The audiobooks is read by Sissy Spacek and is excellent.

5. Upstairs at the White House: My Life with the First Ladies by J.B. West - West was an usher in the White House from 1941-1969.  He served with Presidents FDR through Nixon, and the book is full of anecdotes on the families (especially the first ladies, whom he worked with closely) and fascinating stories on the history of the White House itself.  I devoured this book.

6. The Smartest Kids in the World: And How They Got That Way by Amanda Ripley - I listened to this on the way to my parents' house which they probably regretted because I did not stop talking about it the entire weekend.  Ripley follows American exchange students in Poland, Finland, and South Korea- some of the top-performing education systems in the world.  Some things she learned were obvious, and some were really surprising.  This was especially interesting to me as my girls will start school in the next few years.

Great:
7. Food: A Love Story by Jim Gaffigan - So funny.  We listened to most of this on our road trip to FL which was perfect because it was easy to pause and come back to and not tricky to get caught up when someone had a little snooze.

8. Moonstone by Wilkie Collins - This is considered the first detective novel in the English language.  Throughout the book there are a few different narrators, some I liked much better than others.  The story kind of drags at times (mostly because of the narrator changes) but overall I really liked it, and each time I thought I had solved the mystery I was totally wrong.

9. Focused: Keeping Your Life on Track, One Choice at a Time by Noelle Pikus Pace - I read this one Sunday when we didn't have church because of bad weather.  Noelle is amazing and inspiring, and I loved reading her stories and words of advice.

10. Charlotte's Web by E.B. White - I read this to Jillian and while we were reading the last chapter she said, "Wait, who's Charlotte?"  It was a bit confusing to her, and I'm not sure how much she enjoyed the actual book, but we did love our time reading together.

11. Attachments by Rainbow Rowell - It took me about half the book to get into the story but once I was hooked I was looking for any opportunity to keep reading.  The story was sweet and I loved the characters- I felt like they were all my friends by the end.

Pretty Good:
12. Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult - This was the opposite of Attachments; I started out really enjoying the book but about halfway through it lost its sparkle for me.  My biggest issue was the characters' infidelity.  I did, however, love the twist at the end; I never saw it coming and thought it was clever and really rounded out the story.

April Foolery

Historically I have been a lousy celebrator of April Fools.  I haven't ever planned anything in advance, and I'm so gullible that I always dread this day since I usually end up feeling dumb for all the silly things I fall for.  But this year somehow I nailed it.

Last night at the last minute I threw bowls of cereal (leftover Lucky Charms from St. Patrick's Day) in the freezer.  Jilly was annoyed when I told her she had to have cereal this morning then her bad mood got even worse when her spoon was stuck inside the bowl.  Finally I explained April Fool's to her and she thought it was hilarious.  Mattie was frustrated for a second, then proceeded to contentedly pick out and eat all the frozen marshmallows.

I was on a roll so I decided to do something for Bryan.  For the past few weeks I've been searching for The Tonight Dough and I finally found it the other day and we scarfed it down in 1.45 seconds.  So I cleaned out the old empty carton and filled it with cottage cheese.  When Bryan got home I told him I'd gotten more and asked him to get it out for us.  His response was priceless and I laughed harder than I've laughed in a long time.  Happily I was smart enough to actually buy us a new carton and hide it in the freezer so we could enjoy the ice cream after all.  Happy April Fool's to all and to all a goodnight.

(My other favorite April Fools joke here.)

Runner's High

This weekend we went to Richmond so I could run the Monument Avenue 10K with my family.  It was my first 10K and my "training" was forcing myself to go running at least once a week on the treadmill.  And let me tell you: running outside >>>> running on a treadmill.  I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the race (even though it was freezing cold.)  My mom, brother, and I ran together which was a lot of fun- at the mile 2 marker Tyler thought we were just starting mile 2.  When we explained that we had finished 2 miles he started cheering, "Yes!  This is awesome!  I could run a marathon!"  Bryan watched the girls while we ran and they made a play dough pie (can you say fun parent?) then came out to see us at the finish line. 

The rest of the day was filled with Tyler's basketball tournament (they won!), Cafe Rio (if I'm being honest, this is the real reason we went down to Richmond), and the Women's Broadcast.  On Sunday we went to church then Jilly cried all afternoon because she didn't want to leave Gigi's house (none of us did!)  Happily we'll see them again soon, and I won't even have to run 6 miles that time.