Old School

I recently got a box full of goodies from my mom the other day. And by goodies I mean my books from when I was a kid. When I got them I could have spent hours just flipping through them and reading them. And to my utter delight, Ellie loves every single book that came out of that box. She has spent hours with Rob and I reading them over and over.

Some of my favorites from the box:

I will always love Shel Silverstein. I remember my Mom taking me to the library to check out the tape for this book. Shel himself reads the poems and it is hilarious. Every time I read this book I hear his voice.

These books are so awesome! I especially love Socks for Supper. I seriously love reading these to my kids.


Ellie reading But No Elephants

I think Ellie's favorites are the Sesame Street books. Did anyone else have those? I have lots of them but I would love to find all of them that were published so I can add them to my collection. Ellie chooses a Sesame Street book for a bedtime story at least 5 nights a week.


We were also at my Grandma and Grandpa Maxwell's a while ago and Ellie found the toy closet. It was so fun to see her playing with all the toys that I grew up playing with on Sunday afternoons when we would visit.

Didn't everyone have a ViewMaster? Even as an adult I love looking at the slides. My grandma has hundreds of them.

One of my favorite stories ever

The Fisher Price record player. I had to restrain myself from packing this thing up and taking it home with me. This thing has lasted at least thirty years through several grand kids and it's still going strong. They really don't make toys like they used to.

My next quest is to find some of these and other toys like the Fisher Price Little People sets on eBay. I've never done eBay so any shopping and bidding tips would be much appreciated!

Dominican Republic!

We had so much fun on our trip that I'm already thinking
of planning our next one!
I bawled and bawled when we left our girls (thanks for taking such great care of them Jana and Mom!) but once we were on our way I was fine. We really missed them but we had a great time. The travel was tiring - we had red eye flights both ways but it was totally worth it. Our hotel was awesome, the weather was beautiful, the beach was perfect, the food was good, and best of all - it was so great to reconnect as a couple. Rob went deep sea fishing for a half a day but other than that we spent all of our time on the beach and swimming in the ocean. It was wonderful. Every once in a while we would stop and look at each other and say, "I wish Ellie and Piper were here." They would have had so much fun playing in the sand and water. Someday we will take them to the beach.

Here are tons of pictures. Feel free to just skip over them if you want - I will totally understand :)

A random island

The Punta Cana airport. It was totally open to the outside - no doors or windows, just half walls and a roof and there were birds in the food court.


Our hotel room

The hotel lobby

The lobby was huge!

The view from our balcony

In the courtyard

The market which was a 15 minute walk down the beach

Beautiful water


The usual view from our lounge chairs

Our last day on the beach and the only day it was cloudy

The Trip

I know I'm not the only mother in the world who has left her children for an extended period of time. I know some moms that do it a lot and some moms who almost never do it. I am one of those moms who almost never do it. In fact I never spent a night away from Ellie until she was three years old and since then I think I've only been away from her three or four nights her whole life including the night I stayed in the hospital when I had Piper. The longest I've ever left Piper was last month for about 4 1/2 hours. I left her and Ellie with Rob while my sister-in-law and I went to the temple. So I think it's safe to say that I am very very attached to my kids. I have an incredibly hard time leaving them.
So what was I thinking when I agreed to go on a 5 day trip with Rob to the Dominican Republic without our girls?
Don't get me wrong - I am super excited about the trip. I've never been out of the country before and I've certainly never been to a tropical resort. I'm looking forward to sitting on the beach with Rob and playing in the ocean and exploring nearby villages. But I just don't know if I can leave my kids. I nearly hyperventilate when I think about leaving them. What if Piper cries the whole time and refuses to take a bottle? What if we get kidnapped or swept out to sea? Clearly I need to relax and realize we will all be fine - but how? I know they will be well taken care of while we're gone but what the crap am I going to do without these cute little faces?

For Grandpa Great

This is Ellie sleeping a few nights ago. This is Ellie's favorite hat. She calls it her 'sleeping hat' and she won't go to bed without it under any circumstances. Grandpa Great (Rob's Grandpa) made it for her and I'm assuming it was meant for playing outside in the snow but she hauls it all over the house every day and it goes right on her head as soon as her jammies are on. I cannot even begin to tell you how much she loves it. Thanks Grandpa Great!

The Lazy Post

I wanted to share a great post titled Refining Possibilities from one of my favorite blogs called Small Notebook. She has inspired me to make my own list of what tasks, plans, projects, and goals to keep and which ones to drop. I don't know if anyone else does this but in my head I have all these big plans and lofty goals for what I want to do and make and be (for proof see this post which is only a fraction of the actual list of stuff I want to do). I'm re-prioritizing my time and my list.
I'm looking forward to clearing my head and my bookmarks :)

For Jana

Behold!
Piper's first and last piggytail:

Cheetos,The Animal, and Other Quotes

One of Ellie's awesome outfits

At Grandma Great's right before bed time

Ellie: I better not eat any more Cheetos or I'll Cheeto the bed.
I literally laughed until I cried. Tears streaming down my cheeks.

~~~~~

After eating pancakes for breakfast
Ellie: Mom, I got pancake juice on my hand but it's okay I licked it off and it was yummy!

~~~~~

Ellie: What day is it, Mom? Is it Sunday or Foursday?
Me: It's Tuesday.
Ellie: Oh! It's Tuesday!

~~~~~

Reading her Book of Mormon to me before bed
Ellie: And Jesus was nice to everybody and Nephi had to build a ship and Laman and The Animal (Lemuel) didn't want to help...