Oh, Joy.

I've heard that unless your children embarrass you in public, you're doing it wrong. Claire has only been a smidge embarrassing, (Until she threw the tantrum from Hell at DI and a thousand people told me to "Put the child down and we'll let you go" and prove that she was indeed my child) but then we added another kid. When you have two so close together, you're bound for some really embarrassing situations. Or so I've learned the hard way.

When you're pregnant and huge and there is absolutely no room for your bladder in what used to be your stomach and you cough or sneeze or laugh AND pee your pants, it's funny. Everyone around can sympathize or relate, and it's really not THAT embarrassing. When you're not pregnant and you pee your pants because you couldn't get to the bathroom in time, and you're not 4, well, it's pretty embarrassing.

Claire is going through this phase where she loves to push the cart. It lasts for a little while, but then she transforms into a little space cadet and needs to explore EVERYTHING she sees. Even the pattern of the markings on the floor.

So earlier this week, I went to Walmart. I was replacing a couple blinds in our house, and had to pick up a couple other things. And then I needed to GO. Now, I drink between five and six liters of water a DAY. I drink A LOT of water. And when you add my diet coke addiction, milk, juice, whatever on top of that, we're in trouble.

Anyway, so we're walking through the grocery store and then I start to walk as fast as possible without running. And where is Claire? Oh you know, mosing about looking at things, playing with things, sitting on the floor, running AWAY from me. And I can't put her in the stupid cart without people think I'm kidnapping a child. (We're NOT going through that experience again.)

I start to panic. I'm now running with the store in small spurts when Claire thinks we're playing a game, and then she'd run off in a different direction and hide. Or sit staring at the tile. So I ended up racing to the bathroom. I wanted to use the family one, but some teenage girl was in there doing who knows what. (I have a thing when people use the handicapped or family restrooms when they don't need it and I end up dancing around with my two kids and massive stroller. So I run for the women's restroom, leaving the cart outside the bathroom, but taking Aoife with me. Aoife ends up on the floor by the sinks, Claire is somewhere nearby, and all the while I have begun to pee my pants. Thankfully a person at the customer service desk had seen my hilarious performance and Claire was right there waiting for me right outside the door.

We quickly finished up our shopping trip and went home. And then it happened again the next day at the farm!! Claire couldn't stop looking at the rocks on the ground, and I didn't have a stroller. Aoife sat patiently outside the porta-potty while Claire paraded around all of the potties, feeling free to open the door and expose her mother.

I love my children, I really do. Bless their hearts. I don't think I'll be doing any shopping with the girls for a while. But who could be upset with these two little cuties?!

Three Years.

In advance, I apologize for the lack of detail, pictures, and quite possibly grammar. As I type this, Claire is supposedly napping, and Aoife is pulling at my hair, clothes, keyboard, and otherwise squirming, and all I'm really thinking about is this wonderful, blessed Diet Coke sitting next to me, and when Aoife will also go down for a nap so I can empty the storage unit and organize everything and figure out what we'll be selling at the yard sale this weekend, and what we'll pack. I appreciate your patience with my current (Permanent) scatter brained state. 

It's amazing how quickly time flies. This last week we celebrated our 3rd anniversary. Not only did we get to celebrate three wonderful years together, this was our first anniversary that I wasn't pregnant!!

On our wedding day between the actual wedding and reception, Ross and I went to Olive Garden for some soup and salad, and then did a corn maze. It's been a fun tradition ever since, and each year we've added a little tag-along.

Our anniversary fell on a Wednesday this year. Wednesdays are typically family nights where Ross' siblings that are here in Utah come for dinner and games. Or study parties, since the three of them are taking a class together this semester. Ross' brother and sister graciously babysat for us so we could go out. Our original plan was foiled, so we ended up going to J-Dawgs, walking around a party store, going to our favorite park, and finally sipping on milkshakes at Sonic.

The next morning, Ross surprised me with a rose and a Redbox in the car. (I'm the driver in the family.) He also came home early so we could enjoy Cornbelly's as a family. It's been my favorite tradition/family outing since we've been in Utah. I will especially miss Cornbelly's and hope we can find something similar in Wisconsin.

First we did the corn maze, with Claire as our leader. Unfortunately she was more interested in finding rocks on the ground. We did hay rides, played in the Pumpkin Princess Playland, shared a sno-cone, went down a huge slide with potato sacks, picked out a pumpkin, went on all kinds of rides, watched the pig races, and I was finally able to ride the mechanical bull. Like I said, this was our first non-pregnant anniversary. It's been a dream of mine. No really. And it every bit exceeded my standards. It was SO FUN!!! I had a REALLY good ride and stayed on for a long time. The gentleman controlling the bull had to result to making the bull spin in a circle really fast to get me off. And I loved every second. We ended up staying there for a little over three hours, and could have spent even more time there, had it not been for bedtime.

And Friday came. The day we were waiting for! Ross' siblings, again, so graciously watched the girls for us. This time overnight. We began our weekend getaway with a trip to Scheels, the new sports store around the point of the mountain. It was HUGE. And amazing. They even have a ferris wheel in the middle of the store. We could have spent forever in there. Ross ended up getting a new pair of shoes, which he desperately needed. It's a really cool store.

Then we drove to Salt Lake where we would spend the rest of the weekend. We checked into the Anniversary Inn. We picked the Sun Valley Suite, which was a cozy cabin, with a 2 person jetted tub and waterfall shower. I was so much in awe of the room, we didn't do much for a while. We watched movies, enjoyed sitting in rocking chairs on the front porch, and eating cheese cake. It was a blast.

The next morning, we went to the Salt Lake temple to do a live session. It was an incredible way to start off the morning. That was another thing on my Utah bucket list. The session was amazing, and I learned a lot more from it being live. We changed in the car and then explored City Creek. We could have spent all day there. We were there for a long time, and didn't even see everything. I got a few new clothes, but it was just fun to be able to spend time with Ross without kiddos and just talk. After we took a trip up to the outlets at Park City.

After another shopping session, we drove back to good old Provo to the dollar theater. We hadn't seen Brave yet, and saw that the movie was at that theater! It was AMAZING!!! We arrived pretty early for the movie, so we sat in the car talking and enjoying cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory, which was delicious by the way.

We even got home only a little after 8, and got to go to bed early. It was an amazing weekend and a great way to celebrate the last 3 years. With a big adventure ahead of us and so much going on, it was a nice break, but we're glad to be back and looking forward to many more adventures to come.

Conference Thoughts.

I am trying to keep this blog strictly our "family blog", though I am well aware that at times it has become a blog about Me (Katie Loveland), exercise/training programs, experiments, recipes, babies, and postpartum depression thoughts. I know I do sometimes post about my religion, The Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and that I even have a link on the side for those who have questions or want to find out more about what our family believes. This will be a post about just that.

I'll admit, while trying to prepare for a yard sale (By the way, we're having a yard sale on the 20th to help dejunk before we begin packing, and it will actually be a multi-family event. let me know if you want more info.) Anyway, while going through all of our belongings, preparing for Ross' family to spend Conference Weekend with us, focusing on being a better mom, and all in all checking things off of my to-do list, I really didn't prepare myself for conference this year. I still got a lot out of conference, but I wish I had prepared myself so that I could get out MORE.

Like I said in an earlier post, Ross and I went to the temple last week, and both received the same feelings and thoughts about time and what we are doing with it.I thought it interesting, that much of what I got out of conference, was about the same topic, summing up to being better disciples of Christ and having that reflected by our actions. I had planned a Family Home Evening for last week about that, too. Though, I could never teach as eloquently as those who spoke in this conference. I had planned to talk about how our actions reflect who we are. We were then going to decorate our own plates, and bake them to make them permanent. We'd each then have our own special plate that we had designed and decorated.

Ross' family came out for the weekend. It was wonderful. They had gotten tickets for all of us for the Sunday morning session, as well as tickets for the men for the priesthood session. Ross' youngest brother recently turned 12, and this was to be his first priesthood session. It was special that they all got to go to the conference center together.

Attending general conference was on my bucket list of things to do before we leave Utah, and I was so grateful for the opportunity to go, especially with such wonderful company. It was an incredible experience. We got to hear Music and the Spoken Word, which was beautiful. And then I got to be in the same room as the prophet, his apostles, and other general authorities. I have always known that we have a living prophet on the Earth today, but hearing him and speak, and testify of Jesus Christ, strengthened my testimony of prophets. I KNOW that Thomas S. Monson is our prophet today and that the Twelve Apostles are called of God and that they are truly inspired men who receive revelation for us today.

I felt beyond blessed to be able to attend conference, particularly that session. Thank you Mama and Papa Loveland for supplying the tickets, and especially Papa Loveland for watching the kiddos so that I could attend. It was an experience I'll never forget.

When Ross first applied for Epic, and had an interview, we prayed. A lot. And I KNEW that was where we were supposed to go and where we NEEDED to be. Once it was confirmed with a job offer, I made some goals. I wanted to strengthen my testimony so  that I would be able to stand on my own two feet and share the Gospel, and answer any questions that may arise confidently. I knew I would need to be a strong example, and comfortable being a "Mormon". We've been in Utah for three years now, and I've grown comfortable. I've accepted that everyone here is LDS. No one drinks, or smokes, or parties. And you could have a conversation about church anywhere, and everyone would know exactly what you're talking about and not question you.

Ross and I both grew up in Portland. We loved it there, loved all of the people there, and all of the different experiences we've had there. I've heard Madison is beautiful, liberal, and a lot like Portland. I've even been attracted to the apartments that advertise recycling. I'm beyond excited about this new adventure and getting out of the "Mormon Bubble". It will be wonderful to be able to share what has so richly blessed my life, and hopefully have a similar Portland vibe. I've been checking out different races and triathlons in Wisconsin, and have even chatted with a couple people about what running outside in January is like. (We hear it's cold.) They've been ever so friendly, just like the folks in Portland and I cannot wait to start this adventure!

Halloweenie Season

Saturday morning we went to the temple. Honestly, it's been a long time since we've gone. When we move, we'll be in the Chicago temple district. We've really taken having so many temples so close for granted. It was great to go again. While there, Ross and I had the same thought about time. How we spend it and what message we are sending to God with the way we use our time. We decided upon a new schedule. At 9 PM we go to bed, planning on actually GOING to bed around 10. And we wake up at 6 in the morning. (By the way, it is REALLY dark at 6, and you can see so many stars!)

We started this new schedule today. This is Ross' last semester at BYU. Every other semester, he's started either class or work at 8 AM. I was excited about this semester when Ross said he only had work at 8 AM on Fridays. The other four days, he starts somewhere between 10 and 1 PM. I immediately thought of sleep and sleeping in. I was singing praises.

While it was great to catch up on sleep, I felt LAZY. I wasn't getting my work outs in that I wanted, and was just dragging the rest of the day.

Back to Saturday. I thought about this idea of time all day. By evening, I felt like the worst mother, wife, and person on the planet.

Today we started our new schedule. I went running, grocery shopping, showered, and played with Claire a bit before we had to take Ross to work. It was fantastic. I've been feeling like I don't play with my kids enough. I was the perfect Holly Housewife. Dinner was cooked and on the table, which I actually set right when Ross got home, the house was always spotless, and I did spend time with the girls, just maybe not as much time as I would have liked. (No, I don't neglect my children, and I'm actually a pretty good mom.) Today, I decided to dedicate the rest of my day to Claire and Aoife. Claire started the morning making cookies with Ross. It was cute and they had a lot of fun, we also colored Halloween pictures I had printed.


After nap time, we made caramel apples, listened to Halloween music, colored more, and just played. I am completely exhausted, but it was fun. It was good to have a day focused solely on the girls. I didn't clean, and we had leftovers for dinner. On the couch.

Claire loved pulling and pushing the caramel around the apples.

It was impossible to get her to leave the apple on the baking sheet.

Proud of her hard work.

Loving the caramel apple.

We took no survivors.

With moving only 76 days away (74 till our stuff moves), I don't really feel like breaking out the cute decorations. I don't think we have any fall ones, despite it being my favorite season. So we just taped our pictures to the window. It's actually really nice not having to be perfect 24/7, or ensure that our little home could be a page in Better Homes and Gardens magazine. We had a really good day.

Excuse the flash, but you can see the pictures really well!

Claire waited by the window chanting, "Daddy" for a long time. She was so excited to show Ross what she had done today.

What Really Goes On During Nap Time.

Claire eventually fell asleep. I know, I checked on her, but the following is how she puts herself to sleep. It's her wind down routine. 

Taking in the grandure.

The lamp is usually on the furthermost part of the dresser, and right side up.

Notice the missing shelf.

I'm not exactly sure how she actually SLEEPS on her bed. It's usually covered with every animal and toy in her room.

Oh, there's the missing shelf!

I am baffled at how she reaches the box of hair bows, but I guess a little girl room isn't complete until it has a trail of bows.

I often go in and find her sleeping in mysterious positions. Today she was on her bed, T bone style, with her legs dangling off, and the rest of her forming a peak on top of all of her stuffed animal friends.

Although she won't be 2 until November, I think we have officially hit the "2's".

Sharing.

I feel a little ridiculous teaching my toddler how to share and be kind when I haven't figured it out myself yet.

I'm not sure about anyone else, but I'm sure Ross would agree wholeheartedly with this diagram.

And I'm ashamed to admit it, but I'd agree too, not even counting when Aoife was in between us, along with both cats. For starters, here's how we fit in our bed.

Ponytail = not sleeping. But I fit nicely on "my side".

 Here's what happens when you put the sweetest, self sacrificing 6' 4" husband and an unrelenting, sleep deprived, psycho wife in a queen sized bed together.

Aoife is only allowed in her crib, and we're down to one cat, and absolutely Pepper cuddles and sleeps with us. And my hair goes all kinds of crazy when I sleep.

I am stubborn. And particular. Especially when it comes to sleeping. I have MY pillow, the comforter only covers my legs and stomach while the second blanket covers my arms and head, with only a breathing hole for my face to poke out. And I am spread eagle. Unfortunately I never got the memo that married people don't fall asleep cuddling and have all kinds of extra space for your legs. It's actually the opposite. We have an unspoken no touching while trying to sleep rule. Violators may or may not get a little shove accompanied by a big huff.

Usually we end up with all kinds of tossing and turning and flopping and squishing and whatever other "ing" word would fit in here, until we arrive here:

"Our Room:" and "Meanwhile on the futon..."

Luckily we have a futon in Ross' study room. (Which is currently where Aoife and her crib reside.) It's been a fabulous futon for when family comes to visit, but never in a million years would I have thought I would prefer to sleep on it rather than my own bed. I love the futon. I love the study room. And unfortunately Aoife has been occupying that room and I've had to make do without it the last few nights.

I vote our next major purchase following the move is a California King firm mattress. Not a 2nd car, or house, a big mattress. We actually had this discussion last night. :]

*Please note, I do like sleeping with my husband. No, our marriage is not in trouble. Quite the opposite in fact. We love and like each other and sometimes manage to fall asleep in the same bed. However, when I am restless I do relocate to fall asleep and then move back into the bed upon waking up again in the middle of the night.

Potpourri of Loveland Happenings.

We've had a BUSY last couple of weeks, and I haven't been blogging much. Let me explain why.

Claire, Aoife, and I just got back from spending a couple weeks in Oregon. It was wonderful. I flew out with Claire at the end of August, while Ross stayed with Aoife for classes. A few generous people helped watch Aoife while Ross was at class, or work. (Thank you again, Clarissa, Kami, and Shaelynn!!) Ross and Aoife drove out a couple days later with his sister for the weekend. It was Ross' brother's birthday that weekend. We're so grateful we could all make it and have the whole family together. To celebrate, we went on a family bike ride. The girls rode in a bike trailer together for the first time. They did great! Claire of course had Mama Loveland's iPhone and watched Elmo on YouTube the entire way. On the way back, Aoife was hungry and struggling. Whenever I'd look behind me, Claire was either holding the binky in Aoife's mouth, or trying so hard to feed Aoife a bottle. It was sweet. Claire really is a wonderful big sister and it's been fun watching these two grow together and start to play and laugh together. I adore it.

While visiting with the Lovelands, I went red! And I love it. I don't know if I'll ever want to go back to blonde. After a week with Ross' family, we ventured off to my family's house.

(Excuse my lack of my lack of make-up, just admire the color of my hair. Not what I look like. Thanks.)

They have an amazing yard, and Claire loved being outside. The first few minutes we were there, she was running outside, exploring trails, and picking blackberries. Oregon berries are phenomenal, and one of the many things I miss dearly from Portland. We had a lot of adventures. Claire went to my favorite apple farm that my family went to while growing up, ran all over the zoo, experienced the Oregon Coast for the first time, and chased the dog.


And then I flew home with both girls. It was actually a great experience and just about as normal as if I were flying alone. (Except that I had to urge Claire through the metal detector, take Aoife out of the car seat, walk with her through the detector, move the stroller to another place, and somehow collect all our stuff, get Aoife back in the car seat, while herding Claire and trying to keep her in the same general area.) But really, it wasn't bad at all. They girls did so well on the flight and slept during the drive home.

Now, back to why I haven't been blogging much. Being home has been wonderful. I feel like every time I got out of town, I come back with renewed determination to be a better wife and mother, and to make improvements. With the big move coming up, I feel like that determination is multiplied a hundred fold. So here's what I've been up to.

As soon as I got back, I organized different movers to come out and give us an estimate. I finally got around to actually applying for apartments, instead of just researching and organizing them into a spreadsheet. (Can we say NERD?!) So far we've applied to 3, and I'd like to do more this week. Winter generally isn't a time for moving, so availability on the apartments we like might be hard to come by.

I've decided to put Pinterest to good use. I've done a few crafts here and there, but I've decided to do something else. I've been organizing my shopping list for the entire week. I browse Pinterest for different dinner recipes and make my list and add the other things we need for the week. So far it's been AMAZING. I get to find new recipes, so I'm not cooking the same thing each week. The only catch is, I can only go to the grocery store once a week. Which is great, because if I want a treat or dessert, I have to plan for it, otherwise I can't have it. The result: We're eating a lot less crap and not buying things because they "sound good". I was going to the grocery store DAILY. And I never wanted to because I didn't know what to make for dinner anyway. If things go like they have these last 2 weeks, we'll have cut a couple hundred off of our grocery bill for the month. And the recipes have been super delicious, too! Since the recipes make a lot of food, we have nights for leftovers, and I've been freezing some so we'll have easy meals when December comes and we're packing, and I don't feel like cooking.

I've been working on being more productive. (Organizing and planning for the move has helped a lot.) So I haven't been online as much. And I really like it. Which explains why I haven't been updating our blog.

And we found the coolest place for kids ever. Its called Jungle Jim's. It's kind of like a Chuck E. Cheese in that they have games and prizes you can get with your tickets, but we didn't really care about that. They have rides that are just for kids. We got Claire an all day wristband for super cheap so she could go on all of the rides she wanted. I so wish I hadn't forgotten my camera. She had so much fun and went on most of the rides by herself. The only ones she didn't go on alone were the bumper cars (Only because I knew she wouldn't do the gas pedal and steer at the same time.), and the roller coaster. (Because that one was SUPER FUN and we wanted to do it too.) It was hilarious watch Ross squeeze and fold and cram into the kiddie rides. We were there for almost 3 hours and had the best time.

Since being home, we've been working with Aoife on sleeping. Claire was easy. (Get ready, super controversial) I did Babywise, starting at 3 months. After two nights of crying, she'd sleep 13 hours a night. Straight. And is still an amazing sleeping. It was HARD as a mom though, and it drove me crazy. We're doing things differently with Aoife. I don't know if it's because she's a premie, or if I've gone soft, but we're not doing that with her. Instead, we cut down the number of bottles we feed in the middle of the night until we'd only put the binky back in her mouth if she woke up. I've done a regular nap pattern, and it's working. She's been going to bad at 7 every night. Last night she fussed a little at 5 AM, and went right to sleep after I put the binky back in. And she slept till 7:30 when Claire came running in screaming, "HI!" We've even had the girls sleeping together in the same room at night, but today I'm taking apart Aoife's crib and moving it into Ross' office. It's wonderful to sleep again! It's like I'm a whole new person!

Our next adventure is getting our family portraits done on Saturday. I still need to work on what we're wearing, but I'm really excited. Pictures to follow, I'm sure!