Two cute Liv moments

1.Yesterday when I was cleaning up in the kitchen, Olivia asked for an apple, to which I replied "You want an apple, ok, no problem. Open up the fridge and grab one out. They are in the bottom drawer". So she did as I said. Just as she was shutting the fruits drawer in the fridge I said "Hey, while your in there do you mind grabbing Warner's green beans for me"? I then heard some large sighs and huffing noises, until she finally said "Mom, I can't get it, its kinda reachy".


2.On Saturday night we decided to take a drive down to snowflake lane in Bellevue to see the 7:00 show. It wasn't quite what we thought it was going to be, and was super crowded, so we ended up heading to the grocery store near by to pick out a treat and drove home early. On the way home I noticed that the pen I had given Liv to use on the paper I had also given her had some how meandered off of the page completely, and was all over her new jeans! I don't know what I was thinking giving her a pen un-supervised. Needless to say, I was very upset. Jaron and I both talked to Liv about how hard pen was to come out, and I was really bummed, because I had just bought those jeans, and by the look of things those pen marks that were now all over the front thigh of her new jeans, were there for good. She was pretty quiet for the rest of the car ride home. We pulled up to get the mail on our way in and while Jaron hopped out to get the mail, this was the conversation that I had with Liv.

Liv- "Mom, I'm sorry I drew on my jeans. It was an asscident (not mispelled that's how she says it). "

Me- "Its ok Liv".

Liv- "Mom, maybe we could say a prayer"?

I was thouroughly touched. If I didn't have all of my extra fluids drained out of me from nursing, I probablly would have been touched to the point of tears.

So I said, "That's a great idea Liv, why don't you say it"?

I don't remember the words of her prayer all I know is that after those jeans came out of the wash there was no evidence of ink anywhere on them.

I need to write more of these on my to do list:

Dressed the kids (2 times)
Fed the kids (3-5 times)
Cleaned the kitchen (3-5 times)
Nursed (3-5 times)
Cleaned up spit up (4 times)
Changed diaper (5 times)
Soothed a sad Warner, because Liv wapped him (indefinite amount of times)
Talked to long lost friend on the phone
Sang a song to Warner or Liv (5-6 times)
Read a book to Liv (3-6 times)
Wrestled with liv
Read a book to Warner (2-4 times)
Cooked Dinner (why I never write this on my to-do list is beyond me)

And Less of these:
-Take cookies to everyone in our neighborhood
-clean the house
-shower
-go running
-take books back to the library
-go shopping
-can pears
-start a pre-school at home
-sound out Christmas Cards
-Wrap presents
-Do laundry

Because then I would have a whole lot more crossing off to do at the end of the day.

The Spirit of Christmas

The woman that I visit teach, which just so happens to be our loving relief society president, gave me a present for Christmas. Included in her present was this talk by President Monson. It was a great reminder for me, if you have second in your day, read it. It's great.

"Giving, not getting, brings to full bloom the Christmas spirit. Enemies are forgiven, friends remembered, and God obeyed. The spirit of Christmas illuminates the picture window of the soul, and we look out upon the world’s busy life and become more interested in people than things. To catch the real meaning of the “spirit of Christmas,” we need only drop the last syllable, and it becomes the “Spirit of Christ.”" -Thomas S. Monson

Our morning Routine:

Between 5:30am-6:30am:

1.Warner wakes up/Jess feeds Warner.
2. Liv Wakes up and comes and gets in bed with us.
3. Warner, Liv, Jaron, and I all sleep for another hour in our bed.

Between 7:30am-8:00am:
1. Olivia nudges Jaron and says "Dad, I need some cereal", Jaron presses the snooze button a few times on her head as she repeats in one to two minute intervals "Daddy, I need some ceeeereal". He gets up and obliges her on about the fourth "beep".

8:00am
1. Jaron and Liv eat cereal together downstairs.
2. Jess feeds Warner again.

8:15-8:30am
1. Family prayer.
2. Hugs goodbye.

And this is what I get to see every morning.


And this is what I hear every morning when Jaron starts towards the door to get on his bike, running footsteps and then "Dad! Wait! I need a kiss and a huggg!!" from an adoring three year old girl.

Check out this eagle picture Jaron took the other day.

Check out those eyes. It makes me shiver just to look at them.

And here is a friendly squirrel (wow this really is random), but this little guy comes to our door every day at the same time. This one day he got so close that I thought he was going to come inside, so I opened the door to test him, and he tried his best to get in the door, but I wussed out and shewed him away. Who do I look like? Snow white? Sorry squirrel.

Our tree is up. Our decorations are beautiful, and we have been listening to lots and lots of Sufjan Stevens, Celene Dion, Frank Sinatra, Paul Cardell, and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. I have a huge to do list, one of which is a Christmas card that we still need to take pictures for. Ah Brooke I wish you were here.

How is your December going?

Why Giving Matters

A few Sundays ago our wonderful Sunday school teacher handed out THIS ARTICLE written by the eminent Roman Catholic economist, Arthur C. Brooks. I was very inspired by it, and thought I would share it. His address was given at a BYU Forum this last summer and this article was published in BYU magazine.

After I got back from a baby shower today Olivia was telling me how her and Dad took pictures of an eagle. As she was telling me this she told me that dad went outside to take the pictures, but that and I quote "I not go out, cause I was not going to get chomped by a car."

I started laughing, and then she gets upset, because I'm not taking her seriously, which makes me laugh harder. Ahhh it was cute!

My favorite daily Liv saying , and it really is every day that she says this lately, is

"Mom, I'm getting bigger, and I'm gunna get bigger, and Daddy's getting bigger, and Warner's getting bigger, but you're getting smaller".

A little nugget for your day.

"We women have a lot to learn about simplifying our lives. We have to decide what is important and then move along at a pace that is comfortable for us. We have to develop the maturity to stop trying to prove something. We have to learn to be content with what we are."
-Sister Hinkley

She's Three

The other day Olivia lifted up her shirt, poked out her pot belly and said to me "Mom, I have a baby in my tummy".

"You can't have a baby in your tummy" I said.

"So, why" said Liv.

"Because you have to get married first".

Then yesterday, when she woke up from her nap the first thing she said, well exclaimed really, was

"Mom! I'm gunna get married!".

The look on her face was so good. She was so excited.

I'm not sure who the lucky fellow is, although I have my suspicions. . .

Today she turned three. And there is so much I wanna say about this sweet girl and the joy she brings to our life, but it is late and I still have to tuck her in, so for now I give you the photos of our fun day.

Pink cake. No questions asked.

Polka dot themed party.

Sneaking a jelly bean.

And presents!!!

She ate three pieces of cake, which was ok with me, since she's now three and all. . . :)

What we've been up to in our spare time:

First:

After several weeks of arranging, editing, designing, and waiting, I heard a knock at the door, and our beautiful blog book was sitting there on my doorstep waiting to be opened.

It was so exciting. A very worthwhile project to be sure.

Blurb did a great job.

And Last:

My friend posted this darling play kitchen on her blog, and I thought that it would be a great birthday present for Liv who will be turning three on Tuesday. I proposed the idea to Jaron, and being the handy man that he is, he agreed to helping me with this little project. Thanks to Jaron and his carpentry skills and some friends for lending us their tools, this project turned out to be quite a success.

We still have a bit of touching up to do, but I just couldn't wait to post a picture of it. In total we spent 80 bucks on this little play kitchen. Its a pretty good deal compared to store bought kitchens, especially if you're looking into Pottery Barn play kitchens, which cost anywhere from 300 to 600 dollars. Yea, not going to happen. So. . . here it is in all its purple beauty:

And now for some random catch-me-ups:

Olivia-isms:

(For some reason she says the funniest things when we are in the car).

The other day Jaron and I were trying to have a conversation and as is typical of most two year-olds, Olivia, to the best of her ability, kept using her voice in a very loud and obnoxious way to keep our conversation from happening. After a little while of trying to talk over her, Jaron finally said, "No more talking, Liv. I'm trying to talk to mom". To which, she angrily replied, "But I wanna talk"!

Just as we were about to reply in a loving and more patient way (I promise we were going to) Warner let out a little happy grunt. To this Olivia promptly moved her anger and attention away from us and shot her brother a deadly glare and then sharply exclaimed, "Warner! Don't smile at me!".

How dare him. Really what was he thinking?

Ohhh the joys of life. We were laughing pretty hard at that one.

I'm afraid that as much as Olivia loves her little brother, he still tends to be the brunt of most of her frustrations. There is almost nothing in life that frustrates her more than Warner's lack of ability to do things.

To give you an example, this is what I heard coming from the back seat of my car while driving today:

"Warner talk!

Warner please talk.

I just want you to talk to me.

Can't you talk to me?"

Silence.

Silence.

"Warner!
Talk!!!"

This went on for about two whole minutes, and with each passing moment of silence her voice escalated higher and louder.

"Warner talk! Warner talk!"

She eventually got so mad, I thought it best to intervene on Warner's behalf, but I had to hold back the laughter.

Other news:

Guess whose going to the midnight showing of New Moon tonight? Oh yea oh yea oh yea. Oh Jaron, stop vomiting, you know that deep deep down somewhere you are totally jealous of me. Mua ha ha ha.

Symptoms of the Swine Flu:

• unusual tiredness,
• headache,
• runny nose,
• sore throat,
• shortness of breath or cough,
• loss of appetite,
• aching muscles,
• diarrhoea or vomiting.
• and
• growing a snout
  

Its true. Ok, not the snout part, but we have been sick. If you get the swine flu in your house go straight to the doctor and get Tamiflu, but make sure to (even if your pharmacist tells you that it doesn't matter if you take it with food or not) take it with food or else you and your little one will get very sick.

Our Staycation with Peps and Archie

Day 1:
Westport

Day 2:
Twin Falls

Day 3:
Scuba Diving at Redondo with Dive Master Mike

Barbecue at Alki


Day 4: Sunday
Relax, games, good food, church, ext.

Day 5: Seattle
Pikes Place
and
The Ballard Locks
(But I don't have those pictures yet)

What fun! Thanks again for coming to visit us Pepper and Archie! We miss you.

Happy Halloween From the Fingamingo and the Skunk

After loading the kids into the car to run some errands today, I ran back in the house to get something that I had forgotten (surprise surprise). When I got back in the car

Olivia said,

"Mom, I yelled at Warner"

Me- "Why did you yell at Warner Olivia?"

In her sad/verging on angry voice she said:

"BECAUSE, I want Pepper and Archie to visit me again!"

Me -"I agree Liv I agree"

Stay tuned for photos of our wonderful and fun-packed week together soon to come.

Sunday Suprise from the World Travelers

At 5:30pm yesterday I received a very exciting phone call. "Jess, this is Liz. We decided to get bumped on our flight home from Paris, and we are in Seattle for the night, how far away from the airport do you live?" I think I may have seriously scared her with my excitement. I think the words "I'm fifteen minutes away we will be right there!!" came out of my mouth faster than you could say "uncle". So my brother Isaac, wife Liz, and two cute kids Sarah and Josh got picked up and brought to the Brown household for Sunday dinner.

They were just flying in from a two week trip to London, where they visited my parents, and also traveled around Europe, visiting Germany and France at the tail end of their trip.
As luck would have it, it was also Isaac's birthday. So we got to all sing the Paxman round of Happy Birthday songs to him while he blew out his tea light and thought of what he wanted to wish for on his 38th birthday. I couldn't believe how good the bunch of them looked and sounded considering they had been awake for 23 hours and counting.

We enjoyed a wonderful visit with the Paxman's and tried to hold on to them as long as we could but after a few hours the travel and jet lag kicked in and it was time for them to go get some sleep.
Amazingly Isaac was able to peel the kids off of my couches and we drove them back to their hotel room to sleep until 4:00 am when they would get on their final flight home.
Sleep well Paxmans. It was fun seeing you.

When I'm all out of Words. . .

Our New Running Stroller. . . dun na na naaaaa

As Warner grew bigger and heavier, the whole pushing Liv/carrying Warner for a morning power walk got really old, really fast. So. . . after lots of painful waiting we finally found this gem of a running stroller on craigslist, and its wonderful. Its a bike trailer/running stroller, and let me tell you, it is much easier on me back. I ran my first run with the kids in it a few days ago and it was great. If I had four thumbs I would give it four thumbs up, but I only have two so I'll just give it two.

The kids seem to like it too. Especially Warner who usuall falls asleep amazingly enough.

So, I'm thinking about running a 10k in November with my cousins and I was really excited about it until I found out that it is actually a trail run, with steep inclines and such. I'm really scared now and don't know if I can do it, because I'm use to running the flats down in the valley. Have any of you out there ran trail runs before? Are they super hard? (And if you're one of those crazies that has actually ran a marathon don't comment, because if you tell me its easy, I might not believe you) :).

A Trip to the Temple

Every time Jaron and I go to the temple, Olivia gets sad at being left behind. Her plea is so hard to turn down. . ."But, I wanna go to the temple". Well, on Friday I made her wish come true, and we drove to the temple. The Seattle temple has this wonderful little hidden pathway that winds you through a quiet and peaceful little garden. It was so fun to take her there to explore and feel the peace on the beautiful and sacred temple grounds. She loved it. She was happy, and I could tell that she knew this place was different than other places, because she was very reverent, and that's saying something if you know Liv.

I loved the colors of the fall leaves against the backdrop of the white temple walls. So pretty.