"American Day"

Hope was very excited about the 4th of July this year, only she called "American Day." For a few days before, any time we were driving she would always point out the flags and other decorations that people had in their yards and ask why we didn't have any. That is right. I do not have any 4th of July decorations. Her excitement for the holiday of which we had no plans and no decorations made me feel like one heck of a disappointment to my children. The night before the 4th Hope got so excited that as she lay in bed she told me all the things she had planned for the following day. She said she was going to make everyone a flag. True to her word, she woke up early and immediately wanted to draw.

She did make one for everyone. I guess all those afternoons "singing to the flag" in kindergarten paid off, cause that an awesome one. I am very impressed with her stars. I still can't draw a decent one.

Out of the blue, Ben decided that we should go up to the West Bountiful parade. I don't like parades. I don't think I ever have. Once in my early 20's I got pegged in the forehead by an overzealous candy thrower and that pretty much sealed the deal. I mean, that tootsie roll could've put my eye out! Anyway.
Hope insisted that she have an "American shirt" for the "American Day." So here she is looking festive in her American Day attire, and Eden in her pigtails that lasted only about an hour.

 Turns out that West Bountiful throws a decent parade with zero overzealous candy throwers. Actually, I do think there was one, but he missed me and narrowly missed Whitney who was standing behind me so I'm okay with that. :)

There were horses that had been painted like the flag and some that had stars painted on their rear (buttock?) that Hope said looked like a cutie mark, which is the little symbol on a My Little Pony. They got lots of taffy and a few of those dangerous tootsie rolls and then we went back to grandma Verla's house for lunch. We spent a few hours visiting with her and aunt Whitney and Hope gave me a preview of her teenage years with this...

 playing on aunt Whitney's phone.

That evening the girls finally got to do sparklers and Pop-Its. They were concerned about holding a stick that was on fire, but soon got the hang of it and we went through a few boxes of them.

 The people in our neighborhood put on some pretty amazing firework shows. There were fireworks on the streets in front of us and behind us. We couldn't decide which way to turn our heads. Being surrounded by fireworks is pretty cool (and a little scary given that it had been so dry prior to the 4th). After watching outside and being eaten by bugs we moved into the back bedroom to watch for a while more. It was nice sitting in the quiet dark with my little ladies and their daddy watching fireworks that were so close.
What I thought would be a disappointing American Day actually turned out quite wonderful. The only time I saw disappointment in my girls' faces was when they were told they had to go to bed. If Noah would've been here I dare say it would have been perfect a American Day.

Last Year...

The Holidays happened at our house. Just because I haven't posted about them doesn't mean I canceled Christmas or anything. Hmmm...maybe that will be my new threat this year. Since we don't promote believing in Santa Claus coming down our chimney and leaving presents I can't tell my kids that they'd better be good because Santa's watching. Maybe now I will just threaten to cancel Christmas.

I guess that was a pretty Grinchy way to start off this Holiday post, but when you get a good idea you gotta write it down, otherwise it will just get lost in the cluttered room of my brain where I keep all my good ideas. I can't find anything in there.

We kept Thanksgiving simple this year. Noah was here though, so that made it extra special. We did do some Christmas decorating though, as per our family tradition.

Here Eden is looking through the black Friday ads with Ben in the middle of the floor. I still don't understand why they chose to do it there, but it turned out to make a cute picture.

Here are more Thanksgiving photos.

*Just a note: Last Thanksgiving I specifically remember thinking that Miss Chevious would surely have calm down by Thanksgiving 2012. Boy was I wrong, and here is to hoping I am not wrong for next year!*

 Hope had a kindergarten Christmas program mid December which was adorable to watch. There were so many kids stuffed onto the stage that she was visibly uncomfortable and kept folding her arms to make herself as small as possible. She has been learning and singing the songs for a couple of months, which means that Eden and I know some of the songs too. I love to hear Hope and Eden singing the Christmas songs, but my favorite is "I Want a Hippopotamus For Christmas."

*Hope is in the front row wearing a cream colored dress.*

Christmas is always a busy day because we either pick up or drop off Noah at 1:00 and then we go see both of Ben's grandparents. This Christmas since we didn't get to be with Noah until 1:00, we woke up, went to Grandma Verla's, then to pick up Noah, and then to Grandma Hammond's. The girls handled not opening presents first thing in the morning surprisingly well. I was very proud of them. By the time we got back home it was 4 or 5:00 so we opened presents then and had a late dinner. Everyone got spoiled as usual, and just like last year, Eden decided mid-present opening that she was no longer interested and daddy had to encourage/help her open her remaining presents.

 Ben and I decided that we would no longer be party poopers for New Year's Eve. Ben basically did everything, including entertaining everyone with his famous dance moves. We played board games, watched a wonderful video (that Ben put together with all the videos we took in 2012 and some pictures) and ate root beer floats, had lots of snacks and laughs, wrote out some resolutions and even a balloon drop! Of course we did the balloon drop at 10 so the girls could go to bed. They were getting pretty cranky by then.

 

 
After that Noah watched a movie in his room and Ben and I did our nightly routine of watching a show and then bed. Thrilling, I know, but as you can see from the last picture we were pretty exhausted by that point. Actually, Ben is making a snow angel in the confetti (packing peanuts). The night was full of great traditions to add to our list!



Halloween 2012

This Halloween was crazy. From the moment I got up till my head hit the pillow I was going, going, going. Usually, Hope goes to afternoon kindergarten, but on this particular day they were having a field trip and combining the morning and afternoon classes to go to a play during the morning session of kindergarten. So I dropped Hope off at school, had about an hour to feed, chase, clothe Eden and finish any last minute preparation for pre-school which I was teaching that day.

Then the little ladies in Eden's class joined us for a while.

 

I love that Eden has these little friends who are also in her nursery class at church. They all get so excited when they see each other. It is precious!

 

 

We learned about the letter "P" so we painted pumpkins purple!

I had to leave as soon as the girls left to pick up Hope from her field trip, which was actually late, so Eden and I waited on the sidewalk in front of Hope's school, where Eden repeatedly tried to run over a woman standing a few feet away while wearing her lady bug costume. It was quite a site. Luckily, the lady was a good sport.

Hope came back very excited from her field trip to see Flat Stanley! She told me all about riding the bus, and the characters in the play. Then we rushed home and had "lunch" and then rushed over to help Aunt Autumn clean her house for a whopping 45 minutes. The girls and Caleb and Cameron ran around in their costumes while we worked on the house. Unfortunately, I didn't take my camera.

Then we rushed back to Hope's school for the costume parade. It was a long wait and a lot of kids in costume. At least the weather was nice, but Hope had a heavy tiger suit and I new she was getting hot. Once again, I forgot my camera, but one of the sisters from my ward works at the school and captured this shot of Hope before they came out to the actual parade.

 

 

The kids walked a pretty long distance...most of it where no parents were even standing...it was weird. When we were walking back to the car is when Hope said to me, "I'm tired. Can we rest in a tree?" Given that she was wearing her tiger costume it was especially cute.

After the parade I dropped the girls off at daddy's work to trick-or-treat there and I drove to get Noah. We were able to spend the evening with him, but he needed to be back by 9 so we decided to spend Halloween in Grandma Verla's neighborhood, which also happens to be the neighborhood that Ben grew up in. Pretty cool to trick-or-treat your old neighborhood with your kids I think.

Noah could not make up his mind about a costume this year, so about 5 minutes before we walked out the door to start loading up on candy he decided he wanted me to paint his face like this.

 

 

He didn't have any reason why he wanted it like this, but he liked it, so everyone was happy and we were now ready for CANDY! Here are the kids waiting to go out Grandma Verla's door.

 

 

As usual, Noah was an awesome big brother and would help Eden up and down people's front steps to get her candy. They even held hands every now and then while walking down the sidewalk. Hope was too busy running ahead with some other family...she was really excited. As we walked I told Noah about the Halloween when he was Eden's age. He would knock on someones door yell "trick-or-treat" and would always walk away with "Happy Halloween!!!"

Before we made any other stops we visited grandpa who was sitting on the front porch handing out candy. This is a great picture. I love the way Eden is looking at Ray.

 

 

Tigger was also out trick-or-treating. Eden is trying to copy Noah's silly face here. It was quite funny to watch her distort her face in a variety of ways until she settled on this one.

 

 

Just before we got to Tigger, Eden decided she was tired and needed some persuading to move forward. Getting to Tigger was a good motivator, and bless her heart, she tried to be a good little trick-or-treator, but it had been a LONG day.

 

 

 

So finally, this is where she ended up after daddy went a little crazy with the camera.

 

 

A week or so before Halloween this year, my dad told me that I did this very thing when I was little. Only apparently I sat down in the middle of the road. At least grandma's house was just across the street. We were finally headed home, but we had to take off the costume's so the seat belts would fit and Eden freaked out.

 

 

Thank heaven for a sympathetic grandma! We were so glad to spend Halloween with Grandma & Grandpa Jones. Thanks for allowing us to intrude your home on Halloween and for making it extra special for us. We love you!

 

 

 



Sunshine turns FIVE!

***Every now and then I get a little blogged out. Call it writer's block, call it lazy block, call it blogged out....today I'm calling it emotionally drained.  Several times I have started to update my blog and the thought of it just makes me tired. So much has been going on physically and emotionally that once an experience has past I have to refocus all my energy on getting through the next experience and I have nothing left to revisit the one I just got through, which let's face it, is exactly what journaling is all about. Or at least this "journal".  Lots of great things are happening during this most recent storm for me and in an effort to focus on the positive and being more positive in general, blogging about those little rays of sunshine through the storm clouds might just help me do that. So here's hoping I can find a plug for my "emotional drain" and build a reservoir again. :)***

 

A little over five years ago Hope Elizabeth Maxwell was born. She is my second child, but to be honest I was a little nervous about being mommy to a newborn again because the first time around included some severe post-partum depression and I was worried that might happen again. Fortunately for EVERYONE, it did not. I had the experience that I had hoped I would have with all of my newborns. I was in love. I was in awe. I couldn't stop looking at her. Even when she had woken me up for the third time in the early morning hours, she somehow made me smile. Somehow I could see those precious dimples through my sleep-deprived eyes and still feel amazement at how bright she could make a unlit room.

 

I constantly received compliments on behalf of her beauty. I remember one Sunday a lady touched my shoulder and said, "She is so beautiful I can't stop looking at her. Usually they aren't that pretty when they're first born." What can I say, I make pretty babies. :)

(Eden, Hope and Aubrey at the party)
 

Sometime in the first year we all began singing "You Are My Sunshine" to Hope. She loved it. It was her favorite, and if I remember correctly, it was the first song she memorized. She also has taken many liberties with the song. Once she changed the lyrics to be about her "toot". She hopped around on the bed singing, "I toot, I toot!" She was indeed our little sunshine. Since I've called her my sunshine and she's asked why several times. Once in response to her inquiry I said, "How do you feel when you see the sunshine?" She just smiled at me. "Do you feel happy, and warm and wonderful?" She nodded with her pretty little smile and dimples all aglow. "Well, that is how you make me feel. So I call you 'My Little Sunshine'." She giggled and seemed okay with that answer. Something about that little girl literally makes my heart feel warm and full. Even just thinking about her I can feel it. I think it partly has to do with her name.

(Eden, Ry, Hope and Aubrey)
 

When I was pregnant with Hope, once we found out she was a girl, I knew without a doubt her name should be Hope. I felt her name was Hope because I had been without actual hope for so long in my life until I met her daddy. He sparked hope in me again and that is something pretty significant to happen to a person. Now that Hope is her own little person I can see another side to why her name was and is HOPE. She emits hope. She hands it out freely like a gift to everyone she encounters. It is, no doubt, a gift from Heavenly Father (or Harry Potter as Hope confusedly calls him) that will only grow stronger as she herself grows. I am honored to be her mother.

(Hope, Aubrey and Eden standing on the "horse track")

 

A few fun facts about Hope right now. She still cannot fall asleep on her own. I have to sit in her room with her until she falls asleep. Right now grandma is visiting, so grandma "gets" to do it, because hey, when grandma is around what good is mommy? :) She likes to tell me to think about good dreams and she thinks about them too. This is because one night as she was trying to fall asleep she said she was scared she would have another bad dream. I told her that she can help herself to have good dreams if she just thought about happy things that she would like to dream about while she falls asleep. So now every night we have to think about happy dreams. Hope's favorite color is purple. It has been for a long while, and looks like it will continue to be. She has started drawing the past few months and has become quite talented at it. There have been many days when all she wants to do it draw. She gets better every day and loves to show off her masterpieces.Two Sundays ago, she was drawing in sacrament meeting and she told me she was drawing that picture for Jesus. Hope loves primary! She is no longer afraid and will skip on into the primary room, give her teacher a high five and sit in her chair with that sunshine smile on her face. She has said the prayer in primary twice now. She has made many friends with both the boys and the girls and is surprisingly outgoing for being the child of someone like Ben and I (who are not outgoing). She is an incredibly picky eater. She still doesn't like meat, but will eat Chicken McNuggets the few times we go to McDonald's. I don't know if that really classifies as meat, but you know..... she still likes Mac N' Cheese, but it has to be the right kind and the right brand. Still loves apple juice and will settle for water at night. She has been doing quite well at the dentist and the doctor's office. The past several visits were met with bravery and dimples. No tears. Like I mentioned above, she gets Heavenly Father and Harry Potter mixed up. She has some speech issues that certainly don't help. Now that she's started school I am sure speech therapy will be in her future. Her problem letters are "R", and "L". Grandma thinks it's quite funny to try to get her to say "Lizard Lickin Lemon", which comes out, "Yizzard Yickin Yemen".

(Aubrey, Grandma Verla, Hope, Grandma Nikki and Eden)

She does not like for me to fix her hair. She lets me comb it and will occasionally wear a clip on the side or a headband, but forget about anything else. She has NO interest in getting her ears pierced but will let me paint her nails sometimes. Sometimes she lets me paint them, but wants me to take it off immediately after. She adores her big brother who helped teach her how to swing all by herself. She talks about him often and misses him a lot when he's away. Her relationship with Eden is growing. Still not great, but they have their moments of wonderful, melt-your-heart kind of bliss. She loves school and is excited to go everyday. I can't wait to see how she grows.

(Hope, Eden, Grandma Bosley and Aubrey)

I love this picture of Grandma Bosley!!!

Miss Chevious Moments Episode 3

Monday
This morning was beautiful so we spent all morning outside. Eden hadn't been out there for 30 minutes before she had doused herself with sand and dirt. In her hair, in her shoes, who knows where else...she was dirty. I just looked at her and sighed as I watched her sprinkling more sand on her arm and then tossing a handful in her sister's direction. I remember putting sand in my hair when I was about Hope's age. I thought it tickled when it would slide down my scalp. I guess payback is only fair, so I just let her do it. That certainty that they will be clean and smell lovely again is what I love most about our night time routine, even if Miss Chevious only stays clean while she's sleeping.

The girls watched a movie while I made lunch and that is when this happened.

This one is really daddy's fault for leaving his newspaper in such an obvious place for it to meet it's demise. Okay, so it is just as much my fault because I looked at that paper several times making a mental note to move it cause of Miss Chevious, but I kept getting sidetracked. Miss Chevious showed her mercy and the paper remains in tact. You are welcome, daddy.

Eden decided to wash the couch with her macaroni and cheese so mommy decided to wash the cushion covers. No pic of that, but the memory is still vivid.

Then there was lots of tormenting big sister by taking her stuffed animals and running around the house with them (smiling behind her pacifier all the while) while Hope screamed through tears of objection. Yesterday, they had some moments where they got along so well. They would hug each other while they went down the slide and giggle and smile. I tried to soak up as much as possible because I knew it wouldn't last long. I drew on those memories of yesterday for peace and reassurance amidst the screaming and yelling of quibbling siblings today.

Tuesday

Today we met Ben for lunch. Why would I take Ben away from the peace of his work to the stressful environment created by Miss Chevious in a lunch atmosphere? That is a good question and one I ask myself every time we meet him for lunch. I always say to myself, "Poor Ben has been working hard all day and now is being hounded and harassed by this little monkey and then has to go back to work for the rest of the day. I won't do this to him again." But I miss my Bennie Boo and can't help but want to go see him in the middle of the day. I should just suck it up, spare him and let him work in peace until he is forced to come home. :) Anyway...she actually didn't do too bad this time out. She only squirmed and bruised a few of my ribs while we were standing in line, held on to the glass partition between the line and the cooks with a death grip that only daddy could break and then tried to steal Hope's food. After a while of eating what she could snatch from Hope she decided she wanted my drink, but it was laced with caffeine so I wouldn't share. Mean, I know, but the last thing anyone wants is Miss Chevious hyped up on caffeine. She settled for her sippy cup, but grabbed an empty water cup and went to work making her "special juice." This is what Noah calls it when Miss Chevious drinks from her sippy cup and spits it into another container. She did it somewhat discreetly and gracefully though, so I was grateful there wasn't juice spraying all over the surrounding patrons. Her chin rested on the edge of the cup and a steady stream of juice poured from her little puckered lips into the water cup. She reminded me of one of those little statue fountains of the little kids peeing or something. Hey, if a statue of a kid peeing can be a considered a cute fountain why not one of a kid spitting into a cup?

Wednesday

This morning when I looked in little Miss Monkey Pants' closet I was hesitant to dress her in the super cute outfit from Grandma Verla. The shirt is white and this is Miss Chevious we are talking about, but I had waited a long time to dress her in this outfit and it is finally warm enough too so I put it on her anyway. The morning went surprisingly well with no dirties on her clean white shirt, but then came lunch time. I've been trying to get the girls interested in some healthy smoothies and so far Hope refuses to try them and Eden loves them. Today I made a peach raspberry smoothie. I guess Eden didn't like today's flavor cause this is what she did with it.

Raspberries on her cute new outfit!!! I am happy to say that I only had to treat the stain and wash it twice for the stain to come out, but it is out. The outfit lives for another day. Miss Chevious does pretty well with big kid cups (like the one you see on the couch behind her) when there is something in it that she actually likes. Who am I kidding? I bring these moments on myself. You're probably thinking I'm an idiot for giving a two year old an open cup on the couch. I am thinking the same thing and wonder why I continue to do these things?

Here she is having a snack in her second outfit of the day. She loves olives and calls them "tacos" cause we usually eat them when we have tacos. I gave her several in a cup and she sat on the floor to munch.

She found a colored pencil, speared the olives and used it as an eating utensil. I guess putting them on her fingertips is no longer fun.

Thursday
Fast forward through the usual tormenting of big sister and other messes to dinner time. Miss Chevious and Hope sat briefly at the table eating corn when Hope decided she was done. Eden looked at the plate that Hope now left unguarded and went for it. Not only did she steal her corn, but she used her chair to climb up on the table so she could eat the corn like a dog. Precious little thing.

She must not be as seasoned as Hope in eating her food like a dog because after a couple of bites she gave up and resumed eating...like a human.

Friday

I had a headache all Thursday night that lasted until I woke Saturday morning, so when Miss Chevious fought me on getting dressed I just rolled with it and let her stay in her pajamas. I wish I could've done the same with her messy diaper when she fought me on that, but given her history of playing with poop and the inevitable rash that follows diapers that aren't changed regularly I felt I had no choice but to call on my super mommy powers and change her diaper through flailing arms and her squirming body. Diaper changed, but not without a big swipe of the baby powder by Miss Chevious.

While I was cleaning the bathroom she found her potty and dragged it into the kitchen where she stuffed a bunch of toys and paper in it.

At least she isn't scared of it. The more comfortable she is with it the more likely she will be to use it. Right?
Lastly, she was having a snack at the table (shocking that she was sitting at the table, isn't it?) when she decided to turn the yogurt cup upside down, try to empty it on the table and then smear it around with her hands.

Saturday
First thing this morning, Eden grabbed Hope's cup and Hope freaked out even though it was already empty. As I was trying to explain to Hope that she needed to use words to express her feelings instead of crying and whining Eden examines the cup and considers giving it back. Finally Hope asks for it back (such a novel idea) and Eden obliges...but not before slowly and deliberately spitting in it. She didn't even spit juice or milk, it was just plain old disgusting spit. I was so shocked and confused at what had just happened I am sure I stood there staring at her with my mouth hanging open for a good 30 seconds. Why did she feel the need to do that and where in the world did the idea come from????
This evening she got her first goose egg. Hope was spinning her around in the entry way trying to get her to stay inside so Hope could sneak out and see what daddy was doing in the yard. Suddenly I hear a smack and the french door vibrate...then Hope: "Are you okay, Eden?"....Crying. Hope hid behind a chair because she thought we were going to be mad at her. I didn't see  Eden's head right away cause she was looking down, but she hugged me tight when I picked her up. It was after Ben had convinced Hope to tell him about it that we knew to look at her head. There it was. I can't believe I didn't notice it first thing. It was huge and pink/blue/purple with a harsh line down the middle of it which was obviously from the edge of the door. Eden hasn't had many major owies, thank goodness, so I was relieved to see that she got over it somewhat quickly. Hope remained very concerned though and kept asking her if she was alright. While they were undressing for their bath Hope asked, "Are you sure the water isn't going to hurt her owie?" Hope has always seemed to think that getting ANY owie wet is going to make it hurt. Anyway, I was very touched by her concern for her sister because usually it seems like she can't wait to get away from her.
***So I've made a decision about the new Miss Chevious Moments episodes. I will no longer be documenting on a daily basis, as a lot of these moments occur several times daily. Instead of being a diversion of troubles, trying to document on a daily basis seems to be causing more stress. So away with it! Instead, I will do my best to capture the big Miss Chevious Moments and hopefully I will have enough to make a few posts a month. I know family enjoys these posts, but there is so much stress that I can't do anything about that if I have a choice to rid my life of SOME stress, albeit not a huge conductor of stress, I should try to eliminate it, right? Right.***

Christmas

This is going to be a short post because I feel like I highlighted most of it in the previous posts. This year Ben made the girls an awesome little kitchen. The girls love it and it is Hope's favorite color: purple! Great Gma Jones and Hammond gave them some play food and pots and pans and so did mom and dad. Add that to the tea set that Hope already has and you've got a working kitchen. We open presents one at a time in our house; something I did as a child. I like this way because everyone gets to see what everyone else got and you are able to experience each child's reaction to each present. It is kind of long and drawn out, but I like that my kids have learned patience with it.

Noah got a Razor scooter and some computer games and some other little things. I think he was a little disappointed but he is now at the age that his "toys" are more expensive so they are fewer than the cheap stuff the girls get. On Christmas Day we opened up a Wii from grandma Nikki! So that evened out his disappointment. We had a great Christmas!

 



Hello Again

Here's what the Maxwell's have been up to the past several months.

We've tried to introduce Eden to as many members of her family as possible...and she's loved every single one of them.

(Eden with Grandpa Maxwell, Aunt Donna, Grandma Jones and Aunt Whitney)

We took a couple trips to the Zoo.

Hope turned THREE!!!

And of course Ben made the most amazing cake ever - a sunshine in honor of Hope being our little sunshine who is ever singing "You Are My Sunshine". :)
Grandma Bosley rented a cabin at Sundance that we enjoyed for a few days.



Precious little Eden has proved to be quite a high maintenance child, so bear with me as I continue to update our blog. We have lots more to come, including Noah's 9th birthday post!!!

End of 2008

I didn't realize until just last week that I had only taken a few pictures of Christmas. I was pretty disappointed, I suppose that is something I will have to make a priority for the new year.

Anyway, we all had a great Christmas and we were all spoiled rotten, as usual. Thanks to everyone who made this Christmas extra MERRY!!!



Grandma Verla's house is like going to a winter wonderland! She has a ton of great decorations and I can imagine how magical it must all seem to a child. The kids loved looking at all of the pretty festive things and especially enjoyed her singing stuffed animals.



Hope has a new fascination with oral hygiene. The other day daddy got her her first big girl toothbrush which features Elmo, one of her favorite characters. She is borrowing mom's in this photo though.



Noah is very proud of Hope's interest in video games. I, however, intend to nip this in the bud. Is that the right expression? :)