Another week in the Crittenden household

9/17--FB post: What happens when little girls get up too early in the morning. Asleep on the couch before lunch. There goes Mommy time, I mean naptime.

Avery woke Makenna up not long after this pic was taken, ha ha

Makenna's "cat baby" that she dressed up and pushed around in a stroller earlier today. She was talking to it and everything--"You hungry, baby?" That girl cracks me up.

 

 

Homemade Moon Sand (flour and baby oil). Yes, it made a mess; yes, they loved it.

 

 

One more funny thought from that day: You know it's bad when Avery tells me, "You need to go get a tissue and wipe her nose!" [talking about Makenna] Ha ha!

9/18--FB post: Storytime at the library, then grocery shopping, and now I'm fixin' to get a massage. Something for the girls, something productive, and now something for me! 

The massage was great BUT...

FB post:
Jared, look what your daughters did while I was getting a massage downstairs and they were supposed to be napping. They took all of the baby products they could reach and put them in the sink and threw every single towel onto the floor. Looks like they used their potties as step stools to be able to reach higher. Little stinkers. And now they're just now going to sleep [~4:30pm] so they completely messed up their naptime. Fun stuff. Oh well, at least they stayed upstairs so I could get a full massage!

 That evening after dinner, we went out on the deck and blew bubbles using a bubble machine at dusk.  The moon was full and kind of hazy behind thin clouds.  The girls thought it was really cool.

9/19--I asked Avery to pick up something off the floor and go throw it away. She was holding her blankie, which she lovingly placed on the floor, then said, "Just a minute, blankie." So cute and sweet.

I played Bunco that night. Kiki watched the girls at her house and they had so much fun playing with their cousins.  It was a fun night for me, too!  :)

9/20--Chloe's new favorite place downstairs is in the girls' train tent.  I'm sure she likes it because she can hide out in there. 

9/21--Jared got home at 2:30am, after driving all night home from his latest 2-week trip.  The girls were so happy to have him home.  He took them on the 4-wheeler that afternoon and later that evening.  I watched a lot of football, ha ha, including my Tigers, who beat Auburn 35-21.  We remained #6 in the polls.  GEAUX TIGERS!

After church today, we ate lunch and packed up and drove to Grandpa Ted's house.  Jared was relaxing on the couch before we left.  This is what Makenna likes to do when Daddy is sleeping on the couch.  She always brings him toys and stuff and just piles it up on him:

 Some kisses for Grandpa:

 

 We made a quick stop on the way home from Grandpa's to enjoy the scenery at Jordanelle Reservoir:

Makenna was scared to walk down the hill, so Avery was concerned and tried to help her

We then stopped at Bridal Veil Falls to have a quick picnic and feed (and touch) the fish:

It was a great family day today.  :)

Sick Week

The girls and I had a busy day on Monday.  We went and got the safety and emissions test done on my car, went by the bank, went grocery shopping, and picked up some friends (a young couple from Louisiana who attend BYU-Idaho) from the airport--I brought them to the airport a couple of weeks earlier and they left their car at our house.  That night, my throat starting itching and burning a little and I just knew what was coming.

Sure enough, the next morning, I woke up with a burning throat, aching ears, congested sinuses, and tiredness.  So not fun to be a sick mommy!  The girls both had runny noses and were cranky and Makenna started getting a cough.  Now it's Sunday and Makenna and I are still coughing and Makenna still has a bit of a runny nose.  We are feeling better for the most part, though.  It was a rough week being sick without Jared here and being cooped up in the house all week.  The worst part was that we didn't go and hang out with two of Jared's sisters, who were still in town all week; they were all sick, too!  We even stayed home from church today, even though I really wanted to go.  But, since the girls and I are all in nursery and there are rules about not going to nursery with runny noses and coughs, I decided to just get a sub and stay home and rest one more day.  We really need to get out tomorrow!

I actually didn't take many pictures this week but here are some FB posts that I posted from my phone while lounging on the couch being sick, ha ha:

9/10: I need the dinner fairy to visit our house tonight. It's already 7:30 and the kids will probably just get cereal tonight. I feel like crud!

The girls are trying to spin on their heads after watching one of the routines on SYTYCD [So You Think You Can Dance]. They can make me smile even when I don't feel well.

9/11: Avery just called Nikki on the "phone" (calculator). "Hello, Aunt Nikki!"  Now Makenna is "talking to" Aunt Kiki. 

Avery wants to look out the window to see pink elephants. Where do they get this stuff??

Looking for pink elephants. I really have no idea where that came from.

9/13: It's hard to get better when you can't get a good night's sleep and it's hard to get a good night's sleep when you can't stop wheezing and coughing. :(

Makenna playing with two dinosaurs: "Aaaaaaaaah, don't eat my tail!" 

9/14:
[just before naptime]--I just asked Makenna to go downstairs and let the dog in and she said, "No, I don't feel good." But she sure is playing hard in the cushion fort she built and is laughing quite hard. Little stinker!  [She did go and do it after I asked her a second time a few minutes later, though.]

[late that night, close to 11pm]--Just got the crap scared out of me! I was down here at the computer in my scrapbook room (in our basement) when I thought I heard the basement door open. I thought it was probably just the cat who pushed it open like she often does if it's not closed all the way. I went back to what I was doing but turned around after a minute or two because I felt like someone was there. When I turned around, Avery was standing there in the doorway. I almost screamed and my heart was racing! Makenna was not far behind her. I had turned all of the lights upstairs off before I came downstairs (there are just a couple of nightlights upstairs), so they came down the hallway, then down the stairs, in the darkness! I really don't know how they didn't fall down the stairs! They just barely started getting out of bed on their own last week (without me having to physically go in their room and tell them to get out of their beds) and this is the first time they have gotten out of bed before they actually went to sleep. And they did it so quietly; I didn't hear a peep on the baby monitor and I hadn't been watching the video monitor. At first, it just scared me that I wasn't really expecting anyone to be there when I turned around but now I'm paranoid that they will try to get up again tonight and every night in the future and fall down the stairs! I guess I will start leaving the stairway light on from now on.

Today, 9/15:

Just relaxing and watching some football while the girls nap. Aaaaaah!

[During dinner] Makenna said her finger hurt and Avery was very concerned and was asking, "Oh sweetie, are you okay?" She was also stroking Makenna's arm and saying, "I'll be right here, Makenna." It's so sweet when they say things to each other that you usually say to them. It's not so cute, however, when they use other phrases against you like, "Just a minute!" Ha ha!

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I watched the LSU vs. Kent State game by myself last night.  It was a blow-out and kind of boring; I actually kept dozing off in the first half.  We won 45-13 and jumped up to #6 in the AP poll.  Woohoo!

I'm looking forward to a much better week of better health and getting out of the house.  I'm planning on bringing some produce from our garden to Kiki tomorrow, getting a massage on Wed., playing Bunco on Thurs., and hanging out on Friday with one of my former Young Women from Louisiana who just started attending BYU.  Oh, and LSU plays Auburn on Sat. and I'm hoping to watch it with the neighbor from Louisiana.  Should be a MUCH better week!  :)

Jury Duty, Dinosaur Museum, LSU football, & Family FUN!

Monday, 8/26: My day started early (for me) with being at the court house by 8:15 for jury selection.  I was there for 5 hours and wasn't chosen.  They chose 9 people out of 47.  It was for a 3-day trial for a guy being charged with aggravated kidnapping, aggravated assault, and domestic violence in front of a child.  Scary!  I was relieved not to be chosen to sit through that trial and hear all the details!  The whole process was very interesting and thorough, though.  And I didn't know who was gonna watch the girls on one of the days, anyway, so not being chosen solved that problem.

That night, Kiki had her graduation from the Utah Institute of Healing Arts.  The girls and I went with her family and Timmy to Magleby's for some chocolate cake afterwards.

Wyatt is CRACKING ME UP in this pic, ha ha!!

 

8/27: Since I ended up not having jury duty on Tues., I brought the girls to the dinosaur museum because it was $2 Tuesday.  I won't be doing that again.  It was really busy and not worth saving a few bucks.  There were so many kids in the quarry (where the kids can dig for dinosaur bones) and Avery got a whole fistful of sand thrown in her face.  :(  They had fun for the most part, though, but it was a little too stressful for me with that many people.

 

 

 

 

They have started holding hands more and more and I love it. So cute.

 

 

We then went and ate at Culver's with some friends, who we then brought to the airport. The girls slept all the way there and back, worn out from the museum.

FB post on Wed., 8/28: I looked high and low this morning for one of the girls' sandals before going shopping and finally just had to put a different pair of sandals on them. Evidently, I didn't look low enough because, come to find out, the sandal, along with about 60 wooden puzzle pieces and some play food, was all shoved into an a/c vent in the floor (they had taken the vent cover off). I'm pretty sure it was Avery. Thankfully, I was able to get it all out but I sure was mad!

Makenna is always saying the phrase, "Don't be shy." I don't think she knows what it means.

8/29: Makenna: "Squishy fish needs a check-up." Then, "Mommy, my pet fish is better." We've watched a few episodes of Doc McStuffins lately.

8/30:

Makenna lines up her fruit snacks before eating them. Avery just eats them.

I need to print this and pass it out to all of my neighbors. :P

8/31: Makenna is acting like a kitty, meowing and all, and she said, "I don't have a tail. I don't have foot paws." She so cute and funny!

8/31: We went to a neighbor's house to watch the first LSU game of the season.  We beat TCU (ranked #20) 37-27; we were #12 (jumped up to #9 after that game).  It was so fun to watch the game with other LSU fans and a Louisiana native.  He made gumbo and I made jambalaya.  So good!  The game didn't start until 7 here and, by the time we got home, it was 11:00; Avery practically ran to her bed to get into it, poor baby. 

I put the girls in their tiger suits and took some pics in my LSU rocking chair on the front porch before we headed to the neighbor's house

My nails for the game

9/1: After going to bed so late the previous night, the girls woke up at 6:45 (about an hour earlier than usual), of course!  We were all so exhausted for church.  We spent almost half of sacrament in the hallway and they were a little crazy during my lesson in nursery.  I was planning on taking a nap when they took theirs but Timmy texted me and wanted to come over.  So that's why I uncharacteristically feel asleep on the couch that night and didn't do the blog last Sunday.  Timmy brought some bubble machines from his job for the girls and they had a blast playing in the bubbles that evening:

9/2: Silly girl!

 

9/3: My favorite Daddy phrase of the day: "Don't stand on your sister!"

Avery didn't really feel well most of the day, probably from being constipated--it had been close to a week since she had last pooed so I gave her a couple of suppositories, lots of prune juice, and some Dulcolax over the next two days and she finally let loose, ha ha.  Poor thing.  She uncharacteristically fell asleep on the floor before naptime that day, with Daddy snoozing on the couch.  Notice the bells still tied to her ankles.  :)

9/4: We had yet another weenie/s'mores roast in the back yard, then played with the bubble machines Timmy brought the girls earlier in the week.

This cracks me up!

Trying to eat the bubbles?

That night, Jared decided to have a camp-out with the girls in their train tent in the living room.  They loved it!

This is how Jared slept all night, ha ha!

9/5:

Creating masterpieces to send to Uncle Jason in Scotland.

I made eggplant-crust pizza for dinner and Makenna cried for at least five minutes before she would even try it. Then she liked it. Little stinker!

9/6: That morning--another example of how Makenna organizes stuff, this time by color.  :)

 

One of Jared's sisters just adopted a baby and the sealing was in the Salt Lake temple and the blessing was in one of the theaters in North visitor's center.  We took the girls.  Jared went in the temple for the sealing while I stayed in the waiting room with the girls and some of their cousins.  We then went to the blessing, after which we took photos with everyone.  We had a snapshot taken of us:

Everyone went out to eat at Chuck-A-Rama afterwards.  The girls had fun hanging out with cousins all day.

The next day, we drove up to Grandma's house to play with everyone.  We all drove to Jared's grandpa's house and hung out there for a while.  We were just planning on playing outside at his house but a storm blew in.  He was saying that he hardly got any rain all summer so, of course, it rained while we were there and wanted the kids to run around outside!  They still ran around the porch and a little in the light sprinkles.  We got home at 11:30 last night.  This time, the girls slept until I woke them up for church.  They did OK in church today but were ready for their naptime, once it came!

Jared left for another trip this afternoon after the girls went down for their nap today.  Timmy came over again this evening and hung out for a while.  We played with the bubble machines again out on the deck.  We are looking forward to hanging out with cousins some more this week, since they will still be in town all week.  I'm sure I'll have plenty of photos to share next Sunday! :)

Oh, and I didn't get to watch the LSU vs. UAB game last night, since we were at Grandpa's house, but they won 56-17 and are now #8.  GEAUX TIGERS!!!