I told you I HATE spring time weather!!

This is what I saw when I heard Kirk and Maridon bring the girls home. We go from 70 degrees on Monday of this week to SNOW!!! The snowflakes were about the size of a quarter! Katera and Sekoya were thoroughly enjoying it though. We couldn't get them to come in the house. When I finally caught Katera I had to carry her in kicking and screaming!

Yahoo!!

It is finally the end of my long week alone--almost. Jason will be home tonight around 10- hopefully. He had a long,mixed up day with his flights home. It was supposed to be a flight with one connecting flight into SLC landing around 4:30. He called at noon saying that he was in a cab on his way to Cincinnati, OH. His plane had some problems and they were sending him there to catch a direct flight to SLC landing around 7. His luggage went on another flight so hopefully he can find it when he lands. He is going to be so tired and ready for a few slow days. He had a great week at meetings and show. He got his annual review and raise which went VERY well. He does great at his job and even has his bosses fooled!! J/K He deserves every bit of praise he gets!! I know I am ready to have him home and the girls will be ecstatic. Right now Kirk and Maridon have my girls so I could get my grocery shopping done and get the house picked up and presentable for Jason to come home to. Thank goodness for great Grandparents!!!

This was my first week leading the singing in primary. It went fine. I was completely flustered with the JR. primary though. They have such short attention spans and have a hard time sitting quietly-Sekoya especially. She thinks just because Mom is in there she can get away with murder. It was really fun though and I think it will be a great calling. Then I will know the primary songs and can sing them with Sekoya. I didn't even attempt to do sacrament meeting by myself today. Not only could I not have myself and two girls ready by nine AM, I didn't think I could contain both of them by myself through the meeting. I am sure I missed something wonderful. I am going to try and incorporate more spiritual things in our family throughout the week. Starting with Family Home Evening. It is a little hard for us where Jason is gone on Mondays, so we will have to do it on Sundays. I think it will help my attitude about the mishaps during the week if I have more of the spirit in my home.

I didn't post much this week because we really didn't do much. I had Enrichment on Wednesday that I help set up for. It was really neat. They did the whole night on "His Hands" ending with a mini manicure. It was really fun and spiritual. I ended up going to the doctor on Friday and had x-rays taken of my left foot. I don't have any clue what I did, but it just started hurting on Tuesday. It continued to hurt to where I couldn't really even walk on it. So instead of going through the weekend wondering if it was fractured or not I went to the doc. After wasting two hours and who knows how much money, they told me it was just strained or bruised. So I get to just live with the pain until it goes away. I really hate medical stuff. Half the time we go to the doctor they either don't know what is wrong or they can't do anything for you and send you home.

Swimming

Today was a long day for me. I usually have Jason home by now and the girls are so thrilled to have him home that he is enough entertainment for them. But, this week they have only seen my lovely face for the last six days. So I knew I had better come up with something to do today or I would have some really bored and antsy girls on my hands. Family wasn't much help either- they all deserted me!! Morgan,Melissa and family were at a baptism up north, Mark, JaLee and family were at a birthday party up north, and Grandma Maridon went to St. George. Sorry, Grandpa Kirk you do count, but I knew you wouldn't want to entertain my girls by yourself!! Thank goodness Grandma Sindy was home. She invited us over to make sugar cookies. After we did that I took them to the swimming pool. This was only Katera's second time swimming- her first was last spring when she was only seven months old. She was a little intimidated by all the water at first, but when she realized it was just like a big bath tub she had a blast. Sekoya jumped right in and immediately started going under the water- without her floaties even. She still uses the "water wings" that we are hopefully going to get rid of this summer. I think she could swim if she tried, she is just too comfortable using the floaties. She isn't scared of the water at all. I didn't get any pictures of them in the water since I was by myself making sure my kids didn't drown. This is the picture of them all wrapped up in their towels getting ready to go home. They both had blue/purple lips they were so cold. I am going to try and get them both in some swimming lessons before we go on our Lake Powell trip.

Play date

We had Sekoya's friend, Braylee, over to play today. They were playing mermaids so I put a little bit of water in Katera's kiddie pool outside since it was so nice. Then I didn't have to deal with the watery mess in my bathroom.
Katera likes to play with Sekoya and her friends. Sekoya is usually pretty good to include her, but the friends don't like it sometimes. Oh well, they'll just have to deal with it!

Today started my long week alone!! Jason is gone from today until next Sunday- 6 sleeps!!! He has sales meetings and a trade show in Louisville, KY. To start off my week, I woke up with a headache, Sekoya peed the bed, and Katera threw up her dinner. Hopefully it gets better from here or Jason will come home to a wife in the looney bin!

Sunday Best

I decided to take advantage of us still being in our Sunday clothes and got these pictures. Sekoya was the photographer for the one of Jason and I. We were both laughing because she kept click, click, click, click, clicking the button like I do when I am trying to get a good picture of my kids. I guess she pays attention. The girls did really good for me to get one in their cute Easter dresses......

then Sekoya says are we done yet?!

The bunny found us..

and it was a MESS!!

The Easter Bunny came to our house while we were at church. So the girls were surprised with an egg hunt right when they walked in the door. The Easter Bunny got a little out of control with the grass. It ended up all over the entire upstairs. Sekoya would go from egg to egg and open it right where it was and leave the candy right there on the floor. She was cracking the eggs like you do real eggs. It was pretty cute.

Then they emptied their baskets. They each got a new spring outfit, swim suit, sandals, and other little trinkets. Sekoya was so siked about the Hannah Montanna gummy candies and a Hannah Montanna pen that sings. I don't know what the Easter Bunny was thinking when he bought that pen! Katera was more excited about the candy strung all over the floor than her basket. She just couldn't believe all that candy was so easily accessible! Fun times!

88

I had to post this before I forget...

Every time Sekoya has to say an amount of things lately it is always 88. She wants to have 88 Cheetos, she wants to go down the slide 88 times, she doesn't want Jason to be gone for 88 sleeps, etc. It is so funny! I asked her why everything is always 88 and she just shrugs her shoulders and says I dunno.

Another thing she says a lot lately is "That's for me to know and you to find out". This is kinda an irritating one. She was having a meltdown this morning over something- I had no idea why. When I asked her what was wrong she said through tears "That's for me to know and you to find out!" Well how do you try to help when that is the answer you get?

Her new favorite thing is watching funny kids on You Tube. She always wants to sit on my lap and watch videos. This started when Maridon sent us a video of a baby laughing hysterically. We watched that video on my email over and over until I finally deleted it. Then she wanted to watch it again so I had to search You Tube for it. She saw all the other videos and we spent forever just going through those. I have to be really careful that I don't open any videos with questionable content!!

What's in a name??

One of our friends had this link to a blog on her site that gives good ideas of things to journal/document on your blogs. They put new ideas on the blog every Friday for people to post on Tuesdays.

What is the story behind my name?
All I know right now is that one of us (me & my sisters) was supposed to be named Marnie. But none of us ended up with that name. I will have to find out more from Mom.




What is the story behind Jason's name?
Right now I know that he was called Festus the whole time he was in Mommy's belly by one of Kirk's work buddies. I'll have to find out more on this from Maridon.




How did I come up with my kid's names?
I grew up with a very common name. There were three of us in my class. I was determined that my kids would have a unique name that would be all their own, yet not too different that they would be teased. It's hard picking the name that your child will be known by for the rest of their lives. I also had to have a name that did not end in the "ey" sound -like my name Ashley Rappleye. I didn't want their names to rhyme!

Sekoya

I was thinking about all the name of girls that I knew and where they came from. I thought of the name of a car that had been used- Camry (Toyota). So I thought of all the other car models that could possibly be used as a name. We were coming out of Costco one day and there sat a brand new model- Toyota Sequoia. At that time we were really wanting to buy one of those! So I thought that sounded like a pretty name if you just changed the spelling. I didn't want my little girl to have a Q in her name! This was what I knew I was going to name my little girl from the time I was six months along. It just took me the rest of the pregnancy to convince Jason. He thought it sounded too 'black' (no racism intended). The only reason he decided it was OK was because Grandpa Don said he liked it. I think.

Katera

Now that I had one little girl with a very unique name I had to find another one. I just couldn't settle on a Sarah or Katie. She would feel left out!!! I searched the internet for names and meaning of names. I tried names of flowers and trees (Sequoia- Aspen). I tried everything I could think of. So I went back to the cars. Cadillac had a model once called the Catera. I also kind-of switched the letters around in a friend's sister's name- Takara. We ended up with our sweet little Katera.

Everyone just shakes their heads at my names for kids, but I don't think anybody could picture my girls as anything but Sekoya and Katera.

Easter Fun

We took the girls to the Monroe Easter egg hunt this morning. Sekoya has done these before, but this was Katera's first time. She really wasn't too sure what it was all about while we were all waiting for the "go" signal, but when all the kids started running around and picking up candy she figured it out. She had a great time filling her little bucket. Jason made sure she got all his favorites so he could steal them later. Sekoya was a pro and didn't need any help at all. She didn't want to be with Mom and Dad though, she wanted to stand by her friends. She had a great time too and they both got way more candy than they needed.

After lunch I got the egg coloring kits out and we colored our eggs. I stripped Katera down to her diaper because I didn't want her ruining her new spring clothes. Katera just wanted to dip her fingers in all the colors. We tried a couple different techniques- tye dying and spinning. Neither of them worked all that great, but the girls had fun with them. I had to take a picture of our colored fingers when we were done to show how messy it was. I think we will go roll them on Saturday. This is something that I have never done and don't completely understand the concept, but I think the girls would have fun with it.

Hot Hot Water and Sekoya's Tree

Today was another nice day so we played outside again. Jason is home with us this week so he gets to play with us too. It is fun to have Daddy home!! Sekoya introduced Katera to HER tree. It is a big tree on the corner of our property out front. Sekoya loves to play in this tree all year round. When it's summer and the leaves are on she will hide in it. She likes to play that someone or something is after her and she runs to this tree and climbs up as far as the branches will hold her. She will often call it the Dinosaur Tree because the way the leaves hang look like the head of a T-Rex.

Katera was trying to eat cheerios that had spilled on the ground. With the cheerios she was getting a little dirt, dried leaves, etc. She didn't even realize it until we told her to spit it out. I had to climb in the tree after them to help Katera out without getting her eyes poked out by the bare branches.


I went to a parent/teacher conference to get updated on Sekoya's kindergarten readiness. . . . her teacher says she is more than ready. She has mastered 22 0f 23 items on their tests. The only item she didn't master was writing her name with a capital first letter and the rest lower case. She just writes them all upper case. One funny thing was she had to draw a picture of a person- they want them to show a head, body, arms, legs, eyes, nose, etc. She drew a picture of her dad with spiky hair and all. She said she was finished and then said she forgot something. She went back and drew a TV! I don't know if this means that Jason watches too much TV or that she likes to cuddle with him and watch cartoons???

After that we introduced Katera to another one of Sekoya's favorites- the hot, hot water. It is a small hot spring in the hills right above our house. Sekoya loves to ride the four wheeler to the hot spring and then throw rocks in the water. She also likes to collect the spent shot-gun shells that are up there from people target shooting. This was Katera's first time there and she loved it too. She just loves to be outside. She loved the four wheeler especially. While Sekoya was completely entertained at the hot spring Katera just wanted to get back on the four wheeler and go for a ride. That is a good thing since we will probably be doing lots of four wheeling this summer. That will probably be the only thing we can afford to do with the gas prices getting so high. Sekoya was getting kind-of brave and jumping over the little stream of water.

Princesses on Ice

We got back this afternoon from the Disney on ice show we went to yesterday. The ride up was not very fun though. Katera was screaming mad before we were even out of Sevier County. She cried off and on the whole ride up. I don't know if I can do Disneyland if she isn't any better by October! Other than that she was pretty good considering she didn't get to nap at all yesterday. You'd never guess she cried for two hours from this picture!

We dressed Sekoya up in a Cinderella dress up we borrowed from Makayla and got her a crown to wear. She was so excited!! During the show Sekoya kept oooohing and aaaaahing whenever a new princess would come out. She also kept saying how glad she was that she got to come. Katera got pretty excited at first and then she just wanted to play the up and down game on the chair. She also kept leaning into Jason and I and giving us hugs. I guess that was her way of saying that she was glad she came too. We had great seats on the fourth row so Sekoya felt like she could just reach out and touch the characters. I think I had the two cutest princesses in the whole building!

After the show we went to the Mayan for dinner. I had never been there and thought it sounded like a fun place to go for the kids. They have the inside all decked out to look like the Mayan jungle. Then right in the main area they have a dive pool that they do shows throughout the day. Sekoya just couldn't stay in her seat. She kept getting up to stand by the fence by the water. While we were waiting for our food Jason took her right up front, leaning on the fence, to watch some divers. One diver did a not-so-good dive and ended up splashing all the spectators. Jason came walking back to our table dripping wet, carrying a soaked and crying Sekoya. She didn't think it was too fun to get wet. She was really concerned that Makayla would be mad about her dress up getting wet. After we calmed her down our food got there and we ate some americanized mexican food. The food was good- not great. It's mostly about the atmosphere.
As we were driving back to our hotel we were talking about Sekoya getting drenched and Jason said that he thought it was kinda funny. Sekoya said, " I thought it was rather rude!"



By the time we got Katera to bed she was exhausted!! She dove right into bed and went right out. That is a miracle in hotel rooms where you can't put her in her own room or anything. That was the best part of the night. It got worse from here on out. We all went to bed at 9. I layed there and listened to the teenage girls and boys from lacrosse and soccer teams yell, laugh and slam doors until midnight!! I finally got about an hour of restless sleep when Katera started wimpering. I got her out of her crib and put her in bed with me. Jason was sleeping with Sekoya. Katera tossed and turned trying to sleep for about 1 1/2 hours. Then she sat up and cried and heaved once. Thankfully it only got on her pajamas and I luckily happened to have an extra pair in the suitcase. That made her feel better and she went back to bed until about 5 am. She woke up again and got back in bed with me- then back to her crib and slept until about 7:30. It was a LONG night!! I don't know what it is, but Katera always gets sick when we leave town. I think it is a subconscious thing about her missing home and her own bed. I hope she grows out of it soon! She didn't nap all the way home today either. Needless to say, she had a good nap once we got home- 3 hours- and to bed very early 6:30!!