More matching, I'm an Auntie, and Sunday Pleasures.

 For the record I adore these girls. And dressing them in matching attire. 

I'm not quite sure what it is about seeing these two girls who look absolutely nothing alike  wearing something the connects them together.{ I swear they share the same parents!}

They both love to smile with their mouth open.

I wonder where they get that from! 

I got to visit my new nephew on Saturday afternoon. I could have held him all night long. He's perfect.  Miss Bailey is darling with him:

I had to take a photo my sis who looks AMAZING and IS amazing. She labored and delivered sans pain meds.   On purpose.   The funny thing is she told me I could do it, too.  I didn't mean to be rude but I broke into a fit of laughter.   I very well know that I could not nor would not.  My threshold for pain-- be it ANY kind of pain: mental, emotional, and of course Physical, is a negative 3.

Anyways, back to my awesome sister. This poor thing had been having false labor for 5 weeks. No kidding.  I don't know how many times she went to the hospital but suffice it to say we were all relieved she was in the hospital when he decided to come.  Davis was born ON his due date, after all that. I think he is growing up to be a practical jokester. He's got a good start now.

And then I had to get one of Jake, SuperDad.

Jake and Becca are great parents. I learn so much from the both of them and always pray that some of their patience and kindness will rub off on me.

I have been feeling really badly about how cranky I've been the last few days. For some reason I have just woken up every morning completely void of patience.   My, how my children have suffered this week!

Today I decided I was going to be a deliberate mother. I mean, I love to think I'm always deliberate, but if we are being honest here (which isn't that idea of this sort of thing, right?) a lot of times I'm also counting down the minutes until bed time and nap time.  The time in which I can hear myself think. Anyway, I digress. So yes, I was going to be deliberate today. And what do you know, being deliberate actually bought me a 37 minute nap today. It really made the difference in our home today and the children appreciated the effort that was put into making their rainy Sunday afternoon a better-than-average one.

Yahoo.


After dinner we sat on the back porch enjoying home made Oreos. (We are out of the real ones, so a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do!)

Here's to tomorrow

Today....today was.... a day.

A day I'd like to just tuck away in an envelope, squeeze into a bottle and toss it out to sea, never to be seen or heard from again.

It was one of those days that now all the kids are (finally!) asleep I am swallowed by guilt, and rightfully so.

I was a mean mom today.

I wish I could say I rose above it all. I wish I could say that despite my utter exhaustion {two of my children for some reason had no interest in sleeping last night}, when the children were being naughty and disobedient I simply took a deep breath and said in a lovingly tone, "Dears, there are consequences when you do that."  I wish I could say that I patted Cade on the head and said calmly, "Oh darling, you will come out of it," when Cade moaned and complained for the 15th time that finding a Lego Set buried in the back yard and one under the carpet wasn't real. That in fact, he had dreamt it last night during the 3 mere hours he happened to sleep.

I have a dozen excuses of why it would have been perfectly rational for any sane mother to want to blow her gasket. Especially under the circumstances of how things went and continued to go today. But the reality is I'm an adult, and I'm supposed to keep my cool even when things aren't going how I'd like. I know better.

The irony in this is that one of the (many) issues I'm dealing with Cade at present is teaching him how to respond appropriately even when things don't go his way. Can't say that I was a great example today of how to be when things don't go your way.  In fact, I was the perfect example of how NOT to be. I am beginning to wonder if he is just getting it from me. Like, all of "it."

Good heavens.

I was trying really hard to dig deep down and find that bit inside of me that would find this mini-mess courtesy of Ruby Dear adorable or funny....it just wasn't happening. Not today. 

And here was the icing on the cake--- walking down the hall and finding this posted on Cade's door. 

 I'm particularly fond of my frowny face.  Graphic design just may be in his future.

Here's to tomorrow.

Fourth of July

We had a pretty great 4th of July. We awoke to Savannah peeking into our room and saying, "Mom, there's a hot air balloon in our front yard!"

So that explained the noise.

I went outside with Sav to catch this sight:

Had to get Savvy in the shot. What a fun way to wake up on the Fourth!

There were other balloons landing throughout our city. How lucky we were that they picked our little culdesac to touch down.

We got to watch the balloon go down...

 ...down

 ...down

 DOWN!

At 10am my folks and the Mann family came over for a 4th of July Brunch complete with Buttermilk syrup and Independence Fruit Salad.  Poor Rebecca was exhausted from yet ANOTHER false alarm at the hospital.  Jake was, too, but you wouldn't have guessed it because he was his usual chipper self.  We enjoyed everyone's company and took a dip in the pool after breakfast.  It was hot as blazes outside.  Kyle enjoyed his day pacing around the yard and house puttering around fixing this and that. I think that's his most favorite thing to do in the whole wide world.

Kyle laughs at me whenever I tell him how much I love going to the Stadium of Fire. I'm not sure why he laughs, but he does. This being our third one, it's safe to say it's our family tradition. Kyle told me if we were ever invited to go boating for the day, he'd totally give up the Stadium of Fire for that.  

I tell him we would do both. Duh!

My mom always gets the kids 4th of July shirts and I happened to snag some pretty great shades at the Target dollar spot a few weeks ago just for this occasion.So here the darlings are, all ready to go!  Poor Ruby was feeling sick and wasn't particularly thrilled about getting her picture taken...

 YAY!

  Back down again...

 ...and she's done for the day!

This year the Beach Boys performed and they were incredible. Savvy and I had a great time jamming to their songs. My favorite part still was the jets flying overhead before any of the performing started. My heart pounded into my throat and I was  flooded with feelings of gratitude for our freedoms in this country.

While walking to our seats, we ran into our dear friend, Jill, whom we were planning on meeting up with the next day. Jill was in town from Chicago with her family -- which is how we knew them.  About 10 minutes later after we had sat down, what do you know, Jill and her brood had seats on our same exact row.  That was pretty crazy.

Other than Savvy and Cade having to go to the bathroom 3 times during the Stadium of Fire (and we were in the middle seats in our row-- of course!) it was a great evening.

God Bless America!!!

Snippits of life

Both my girls have been up on and off all night and now I can't fall asleep. So, I thought I'd treat myself to some of the everyday-ness here in the Woodbury Household...

Man talk:  Jon and Kyle supervising the pool while discussing all things manly. 

Cousin-time! I love that my kids know their cousins. They have a great time together. Never a serious moment. Ever.

Ruby is very much a Daddy's girl. I'm okay with that. So long as Dad is around to indulge her. This was around 10 pm when Ruby decided she wanted to wake up and hang out with Daddy. Obviously Daddy was more than willing to oblige.

Spy Kids Club. The kids decided to dress in disguise when Jaime Beth and her sister came over to play. They had a ball, despite their serious expressions.

You want to know what Cade said about his disguise?  "I'm dressing so Ruby and Celia won't recognize me."  They crack me up. They spent the next 30 minutes running away from the babies.

 Bedtime. While it is often the most exhausting time for me, it's also a tender time of the day. The kids really like reading to Ruby and singing to her when it's time to put her to bed.  These are the moments I hope to remember when I think of bedtime. I hope. Most times it's a lot more chaotic, dramatic, and noisy.

Preschool! Sav and her cousins attend BYU preschool. It's a blast! We carpool and the kids have great conversations with each other. Sav LOVES to drop Luke off in his classroom. She thinks she is so grown up. She really is though-- that's the sad thing!

We're good now

I've learned that in order for it to be a real, bonafide summer a couple things have to take place.

1. Kyle has to spend the majority of his time back East (that's just a given-- nothing new)

2. Something major in the house has to go awry --while Kyle is gone of course. It can't happen during one of his visits home. 

3. One of the children has to get injured in a more-than-minor kind of way. (Usually Savannah, but this is up for grabs to whomever wants it.)

I've already shared about the hot water heater deciding to turn in its notice. On a Sunday evening no less. {Which by the way, my new hybrid hot water heater is working out awesome-ly. We had company stay last weekend and everyone had a hot shower. Yes, all 10 of us did. I'd say that's a win!}

Lately Cade and Sav have really been motivated to be independent as well as really helpful. I appreciate this to the stars and back. I really, really do.  Last Thursday around 10:30 am Savvy decided she was hungry for a mid-morning snack. Instead of whine to her mother about being hungry, this self sufficient girl pushed a chair to the fridge and opened the fridge door to make herself a sandwich.  We keep our peanut butter in the fridge, so Savvy reached up to the top shelf to get it....and it slipped from her hands and landed smack on her big toe.

Ouch.

There were lots of tears. Lots of them. Poor girl.  Her big toenail immediately started turning blue. While sad, I was relieved-- just a bruised nail. No big deal. So I send her to BYU preschool and she came home complaining about her toe still hurting. I made an appointment that evening for her to go to the doctor immediately after picking Kyle up from the airport.  

Kyle was a champ and took her to the doctor along with the other two kids in tow during bedtime no less and was told to get some x-rays done the following morning. So Sav and I went to get her xrays taken.  She wore her fanciest dress and shoes (high heels!) even though her toe supposedly hurt for the occassion which won her many oohs and ahs and chuckles in the waiting room.

The radiologist was really great and made getting x-rays taken into a fun game for Sav. I love it when we luck out and get kid-friendly care.

Here she is, the reigning X-Ray queen!

A few hours later we were told she indeed had a fracture in her toe and needed to come back to get wrapped or splinted (or whatever they decided to do). The doctor examined her foot and after hunting around the hospital, she was at last given a black shoe to wear. But guess what? the next day Savvy was going to a birthday party. And can you believe what the birthday party theme was?

Fancy shoes.

As in "come wear your finest, fanciest, favoritest shoes and take turns trying them on!" 

Instead of Savvy getting all upset that she wouldn't be able to dress in her fanciest shoes (the cinderella high heels) she gasped with excitement at the prospect of getting to show off this apparently very fancy "shoe."

This is one of the many reasons why I love his girl.

She has such a sunny outlook on life and gets great joy out of simple things. We were both thrilled the doctor said she could still swim as long as she didn't stand on her foot and that she'd only have to wear it for 3 weeks. After getting her medical shoe fitted we agreed it was definitely a perfect opportunity for us to walk across the street to Kneaders and have lunch, just Savvy and I.

Eating lunch with this girl was hilarious. She fell in love with the peanut butter that she ordered to dip her apples in. She kept asking, "Mom, what is IN this peanut butter? It is so good!" Then she'd dip the peanut butter in and her eyes would roll back into her head and she'd make some noise making her approval obvious. Her grilled cheese sandwich was apparently the best one she'd ever had. And she's had a lot of grilled cheese sandwiches in her day.

After lunch we headed to Honks {a dollar store in Provo} to get some supplies to bedazzle the medical shoe. We finally settled upon a container full of sequins.

My cousin Megan and her folks were in town and made Savvy feel like a million bucks by gifting her with her very own Princess stickers (with glitter on them no less!) which were used to decorate her shoe for the party. Savvy was in seventh heaven.

That night Cade slept in her room to make room for guests and Savvy said, "Oh, I'm so glad Cade will be in my room to keep an eye on me. You know, because of my broken toe."  It's really hard to not bust up in fits of laughter when this girl opens her mouth. She's pretty precious.

Here Savvy and Aunt Dee are sporting their injured feet. Melody has plantar fascitis (sp?) and of course Sav has a broken toe. It doesn't keep them from enjoying life, though!! (no, she does not swim in it. She just wears it when she walks around. Either that or hopping, which cracks me up and reminds me of myself when I had foot surgery. It's pretty cute)

Last Saturday night I finally had a second to spice up the shoe with some glitter and  sequins. Savvy proudly wore it to church the next day and related her story to all who asked her.

It was just a matter of a couple days before all the sequins and glitter had rubbed off. Tonight I had a few minutes to spare (or rather the desire to put off dishes and laundry in order to do something more creative) and decided to crank out another bedazzled medical shoe:

Ta Da!  We have an abundance of glitter pens and all things shiny thanks to Aunt Melody and Grandma for giving Savannah what she loves best for her birthday -- crafting supplies.  We are definitely putting them to great use.

Sav still remains positive and doesn't let the clonky black medical shoe get her down. In fact, I really believe she loves her little conversation piece.

So let me recap our summer thus far:
Kyle traveling-- check.

Major home appliance gone bust- check.

Child injury - check.

We're good now.