Yesterday.....

We had a great two weeks. Logan came down from Alaska, and we had a great, fabulous, wonderful, excitement filled vacation. Yesterday he flew back to Juneau. Elise and I are still in Oregon. We're hoping this is the last time we'll have any of these "leaving on a jet plane" experiences. Luckily it was General Conference weekend for the church. We got to listen to the Prophet and Apostles share uplifting messages that helped take our mind off the fact that Logan was gone. We rarely got to actually sit down and focus on what was being said, or to hear it over the rambunctious two year old. She really enjoyed the singing, and would sing along any time she could, loudly and in random tunes while doing some interesting hand motions. I was interested in a couple talks that I heard snippets of, and will subsequently be trying to read those ones first when they are printed in the Ensign next month. One that stood out was Elder Hales about debt, for obvious reasons, and how if we are living providently, then we just need to have sufficient for our needs, and need to be mindful of any spending beyond those needs. As we are almost out of debt, it made me mindful of the mindset that could contribute to future financial difficulties if we aren't wise with our spending. The other interesting talk was one of the members of the Quorum of the 70 who spoke about change, and how sometimes we just need to get going with our life, get on with things. I think that was appropriate for our family, as we've been struggling with finances (hence the being in two different states for the last 6 months!), and with figuring out possibilities for the future. We've been weighing the options of staying in Alaska, or moving to Oregon and trying to start over, trying to find a new job. We still don't know where we'll be in the next three months, six months, or year, but we feel confident we're doing all we can to put ourselves in the right position so we'll be ready for whatever happens. We sure miss Logan a whole bunch though!!!! This last week when he would leave the house Elise kept talking about how he'd be back in a few weeks. I told her that he'd be back in a little while. Yesterday, Elise kept asking if he was coming back in one second, or a little while, and I had to explain that this time it'll be for a few weeks. We made a countdown chain to help us visually understand this. Then last night, as we were talking with Logan on the computer, she kept asking/telling him to come out of the computer. She said, "Daddy, come out puter, hold hands, go to the zoo, put on shoes" over and over, with a bewitching little smile. She loves her Daddy so much! It was great to see them together and to see that it didn't take any adjustment period to having him here in person. When he got here, she went right to him and gave him big hugs and kisses. Now she's talking about him going on an airplane and how when he lands she's going to give him big hugs and kisses. What a great girl! We love you Logan! And hope this really is the last long separation we'll EVER have to do!

Fun Times With Daddy

OUR FAVORITE MAN is here for a couple weeks. We've had a great time together as a family, and have even gotten to visit some of our more extended family too. We had fun in Portland going to the zoo and children's museum. We are spending a few days in the warm sun of California before heading back for a week on the Oregon coast. We'll get pictures up here soon, but wanted to say that WE LOVE DADDY!!!! We love having him here with us. He is the coolest and most fun person to hang out with. We're hoping things are in the mix for us all to be living in the same house again within a couple months. For those who are confused about our family status, the situation is a bit complex, so don't feel badly. Here it is: Logan is living in Alaska, working for a residential construction company, staying with his boss's family in Juneau. Our daughter and I have been 'visiting' down south for the last several months. In October we stayed with my mom and sisters in California. For November through March, we've been staying with Logan's parents on the Oregon coast. This is Logan's third visit since Elise and I came down south. We're making considerable progress in getting more financially stable, getting out of debt, and preparing for some day moving all the way into the lower 48 (probably to Oregon, to be closer to family, a couple years from now). Financial reasons are why we're having this 'extended vacation' time. We're applying for jobs in Oregon, but are to the point that we'll probably be moving back to Alaska around early June, and continuing with the residential construction company. We're not really sure what the future holds for our family, but we're trying to make the choices that give us options for the future. It has been rough, but we love Logan and getting to spend time with him on his vacations. We're looking forward to the time when we won't cry when we hear anyone singing "Leaving on a Jet Plane" any more!!!

So, all in all, the vacation has been great, and we hope will continue great for the next week. Then we'll work on getting some pictures updated for the blog. In the meantime, we're gonna spend every second with Logan that we can, and soak up some great sunshine today!

Distractions: Center Pieces and Little Fairy

As the time gets closer to our favorite fella coming for a visit, I find that I need some distractions to help pass the time, and to keep my mind from going over all the possibilities of what could possibly go wrong to prevent the visit from taking place on Friday (hooray!!! for the visit!!!!). Some distractions occur naturally with the preparations, like laundry, general cleaning, and of course packing (I pack lots, like the kitchen sink comes along too...). However, some distractions are introduced from outside sources. We had a couple this week. My friend was asked to do the fruit arrangement center pieces for the Relief Society birthday dinner celebration for our ward at church. She asked me to help, and I was intrigued by the project. We spent several hours with our kids at the church doing the rather large fruit pieces. They came out great! They were bigger than I thought they'd be, big enough to need a trash bag to cover, and super heavy, but fun nonetheless. My girl was a trooper super duper helper, played with friends, took a nap, ate lunch, sneaked a couple grapes, and even learned to peddle the bike all by herself around the room. This is the star version of the center pieces, although I should have taken one with a person to give an idea of scale.

That was Monday's distraction. Tuesday was spent finishing the Abby Cadabby fairy type costume for my special girl. The wings were a bit more complicated than I thought they'd be, but we got the crinoline in the mail on Monday, and got the outfit finished on Tuesday. She wasn't even interested in the dress until I got the wings done. Then she wanted to wear it and dance, and even fly. For those who may be concerned, her version of flying is to run up and down the hallway and say, "flapping wings", not climbing up stuff and jumping off (thankfully). So she had a blast. And I got some cute pictures. Here are just a couple of my favorites:

First thing this morning she wanted to put the dress and wings back on and dance some more. What a fun fairy she is!

I'm so glad she likes her dress, although I don't know how long the fabric will hold up to an energetic 2 year old! But she's a cutie and so much fun, and loves the dress and wings for now. She is ready to show them to Daddy. She is so excited for her Daddy to come. We've been talking about him coming for a visit. She told me that when she sees him when he lands after flying in the airplane that she's going to give him a big hug, and a kiss on the finger! We are so excited, and are praying Daddy travels safely!!!

New Dancing Skirts

My girl LOVES to dance. She loves it. She spends much of her time going on her tippy toes, raising her arms over her head, doing leg lifts, or wiggling her hips, or trying to do all those things at the same time. On Sunday she wore her Christmas dress for church. There is a slip underneath with a little bit of tulle. She discovered this section 3/4 of the way through sacrament meeting. She told me it was a skirt just like Zoe's (from Sesame Street, she does ballet). She immediately stood up, said, "ballet" and started dancing. I tried to help her remain quiet while she danced, but she was very excited. (I called my mom to tell her about it, since she made the dress for my girl. I left a message on the answering machine about how Elise loves the tulle part of her dress...Grandma Parker was very confused, thinking, "I never made a tool belt for that grandchild"...). Needless to say, my girl loved dancing in the dress with the special dancing skirt.
So, Tuesday, March 10, we went to the store and got some tulle in various colors, and made her a ballet dancing skirt all her own. She loved it!!! It wasn't completed yet, but she wore it the rest of the day. She showed Grandma and Grandpa her dancing skills in the pretty skirt when they got home. And fortunately I got a video as well as some pictures....although those videos won't load onto blogger... She is so much fun, I just wish you could see her very graceful and well practiced moves!

We then finished the skirt, and she wore it several times during the week. This first one is on the long and puffy side, but so cute!! Having made this first one, I think I know how I'm going to modify the next one. We planned on making another to have on hand if her cousin wants to dance too. Once she had the skirt on, she had to find her 'Abby wand' too. Now all she needs are the wings...don't worry. She keeps reminding me. We're still working on the wings part, but she's pretty cute without them....

Yesterday, March 12, we were playing with the dancing skirt, and she found her bike helmet, and had to put it on, as well as the knee and elbow pads. That dancing is a serious business....apparently....

She's the safest dancer on the block!!!

Today, Friday the 13th of March, I finished the second Tutu/dancing skirt. I didn't sew the elastic in permanently yet, and made it wide enough that I could wear it and give my girl a dancing partner for the next couple weeks until her cousin comes over again.

She thought this was the coolest thing! We're going to have some fun with these in the next week, which will hopefully help us pass a bit more time until Daddy is here to have fun too. Anyone want to join us for a bit of ballet? We'll make you a dancing skirt too! We really LOVE dancing!!!

The Sound of Things....

You know how sometimes you say or write something and then it is brought to your attention that it somehow didn't convey or express what you thought you were saying? That happened to both me and my spouse this week. I wrote a post yesterday about how my girl gave her daddy some kisses for his big owie, but didn't write about what the owie was. The daddy told me it didn't sound nearly as cool to say he had a big owie. I will now correct that for him. What he has is a knife wound in the leg which resulted in three stitches at the emergency room, and a great story to tell his family when he called long distance to inform us of the situation.

In all fairness, I'm not the only one who has a hard time expressing things to the satisfaction of others. During the trauma and stress of the moments in the ER, he was conversing with the doctor and nurse. You know, chatting about this and that to take his mind off things as they irrigated and anesthetized the wound. He was discussing some of the situations in our life, and said something about how we're getting up there in age. He told them he was 28 and that his wife is in her early 30s. Is it just me or does that make me sound older than I really am? I told him I felt that just didn't accurately represent my age, and he assured me he meant it to be kind, and thought it made me look younger than my turning 32 this year. I did not wholeheartedly agree that saying I'm in my early 30s does justice when I just turned 31 in December. I think 31 and 3 months is much younger than 'early 30s' implies.

So, to set the record straight, he has a knife wound, and I'm only 31. Isn't it wonderful that we're able to communicate, and modify how we've expressed things so our spouse can feel better? I sure think so. By the way, the knife wound is healing, it is about 2 inches above the left knee, a couple inches inward from the knee cap. It happened on the job site as some old caulking was being removed. He is a bit sore, but doing fine, and taking pictures of the stitches which will come out next Thursday morning. That's just in time for him to get on a plane that evening to start on the way South to come for a visit. So, we're down to just one week from tomorrow morning that we'll be seeing him....HOOOOOORAAAAYYYYYY!!!!!

Little Girl Solutions

My sweet husband got an injury today at work. When we called to say goodnight and read a story with him this evening, he showed it to us. I told my girl that her daddy had gotten a big owie. Without a pause, she said, "Kiss it better", and leaned forward to kiss him on the computer screen. When she had finished, she leaned back in my lap and said, "Mama kiss it better". So I leaned forward and kissed it better too. We hope Daddy heals up quickly so he can come visit in less than 10 days!!! We hope the big owie feels better, and hope Daddy knows how much this group of girls loves him!!!!

New Adventures

Elise and I had a bit of a day today. She was doing normal things, like making a huge mess kicking the dominos under the couch (although she helped hold the flash light so we could find them, she really liked that), wiping her messy hands down my pant legs at the store instead of waiting for me to wipe them for her (she did a very cute giggle and helped hold the basket afterwards though), and as I contemplated spending a normal evening having dinner, reading Dr. Seuss stories and singing the Wheels on the Bus song for the millionth time today, I realized that I could use a break from the normal. That and she started imitating me saying, "Stop, No" and shaking her finger at me so that I would sit with her on the couch and read the same story again instead of get a drink of water. I thought it was going to be a long night....So I changed tactics and we had a special girls night instead. We were the only ones home, so we picked a movie Elise has never seen, and popped some popcorn (she loves popcorn). She chose (out of Peter Pan, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and Cinderella) Cinderella, or as she says it, "Sillerella". I was amazed at how into she was. She's always been interested in television, and remembers many things (Today the word on Sesame Street was toss. They tossed a ball and a cow. She spent time today imitating that, and pretending to toss a ball, and even a cow.). We usually limit the time spent watching television, so any time we do watch is a treat. This movie watching turned out to be a great experience. She loved the dancing, and the mice and birds singing, and being helpers. She loved that the mice helped clean up the mess the cat made, and that the mice help make a dress for Cinderella. She loved that there was a fairy and a pumpkin. All in all, it was fun to watch her get excited for popcorn, and the dancing. She was so excited for dancing that she had to get up and dance herself and wanted me to dance with her (I'll try to get video soon!). It made a great end to a long day, and made it easier to look towards tomorrow.
Elise is a great girl, and has been doing some fun things lately that I thought I should update on. She is talking up a storm, and its funny to hear some of the things she comes up with. She has been mimicing me, repeating whatever I say, and at the store the other day was saying, "OK, Alright" and nodding her head as we walked around. I guess I use those as filler words as we check things off our list, and she caught on to that, so she kept saying them as she tried to follow people around who had balloons (It was Valentine's day so MANY people had balloons.) Today fell over and immediately popped up to say she was ok, then she got back on the floor, and said, "Help", and waited for me to help her up. That's one of her favorite games to play, helping people. We talk a lot about helping others, or people that can help us, like firefighters or policemen, or postal workers, or people at the store. It makes for interesting conversation.
The other way funny thing, is that she has been saying sorry when I wipe her nose, and says she feels better when I'm done. Since she's been sick we've talked a lot about her feeling better when I do certain things, like snuggle her, or kiss an owie. Today she brought me a puzzle that was wrapped in plastic. She said, "op puzzle....".
To which I replied, "You want me to open this puzzle?"

"Yes," she said.
Then she said, "Feel better."

I said, "You'll feel better if I open this puzzle?"

She nodded, with a big smile and said, "Yes."
I couldn't help laughing. She would feel better if I opened the puzzle so she could play with it. What a clever way of reasoning why we should play with new toys. I love this girl! She's a challenge in so many ways, (that's a good thing!), and is so fun to be around.
Now we're gonna call Daddy, so she can tell him about Sillyrella, and we read our good night moon and go to sleep.....hopefully we'll have some great adventures to tell about tomorrow as well!!