Basement Swings and Other Things...

Still playing catch up... this post is all about February.  

Did you know that Scarlett is into science?  I know, the product of two engineers, she really didn't have a choice.  But I'm always surprised when she shows us how science-minded she really is.  Like when I asked her about her preschool craft (yarn tied to a popsicle stick) "is that your fishing pole?" "no, it's my grappling hook for climbing up walls."  Or when she was using her Doc McStuffins doctors kit "Mom, let me check your ears with my otoscope."  After we had a long discussion about germs, she said "I can't wait to tell Kaylie about our immune system is tiny super heroes in our body that fight germs! Pow pow!!"  Or after washing her hands at the church "we have to leave the sinks in the church going just a tinkle so the pipes don't freeze." (which we had to do over the really cold spells).

Scarlett kept asking "how does the factory make [insert any object: diapers, chocolate, bean bags, etc]?"  So Jake finally just started showing her clips of How It's Made.  And she sits and watches them!!!  The next photo is this weather book of mine that she found.  She loves to talk about all the types of weather.  NERD!  (but still resists clothes - it's really our biggest disagreement, and honestly there are a lot of days that I just don't have any fight left in me).

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree... (about the nerd thing, not the lack of clothes)

Scarlett was dancing around like this and it totally reminded me of this SNL sketch - hilarious!

Scarlett using the broom handles as "crouches" (crutches).  Then one day she asked me "Mom, am I so tasty? Can you eat me for dessert?"

When Scarlett was at school I got a text from Laura: "Could you please teach your daughter not to use such foul language at preschool? Words like "trapezoid" just seem inappropriate for this age group."  haha!

During the cold months we escaped to the basement.  The twirls loved indoor sledding (though they got dumped out a few times).

They found their baby swings.  I buckled them in and turned the swings on.  They sat in them for like 15 min!  So funny!  Maybe it brought back memories....

Eating green smoothies.  I'm glad they like them, but when I change the diaper after I always think "why do I do this?"  haha!  At least I know they have clean colons!  Scarlett loves to feed her little puppies.

Dance party!  And just relaxing and watching a show.

Siena LOVES the slide!

Frozen hair to match the Frozen shirt!  I was taking Scarlett's photo and the twirls decided to come line up next to her.  Maybe they thought we were having a run race.

When I grabbed some oranges from the fridge the twirls both yelled "bah!" Maybe ball? in their "twin talk"?  It was just funny that they yelled the same thing at the same time!  Jaide loves to lick the extra ketchup out of the hot dog holder.

Sisters, just hanging out together.

I loving watching them play when they don't think I'm there.  Why is Scarlett licking Siena's finger?  How did Siena get a toothbrush?

I found these shower hooks at IKEA and we use them as a door lock.  So the girls can't get out or when I'm showering so they can't get in.

I found out that Meijer no longer has the carts with the extra seats attached.  Boo!!!  So we had to improvise.  Not my favorite method, but it works well and I don't have to worry about toddlers climbing out and falling on their heads.  I saw my friend from church that day (who has 13 yr old twin girls) and she took this picture. (just in case you thought I was asking random strangers to take photos...)

Occasionally we spend Sacrament Meeting in the primary room, listening through the speakers and letting the girls run wild.  We've been tempted to just go there every Sunday but decided we need to teach the girls to be reverent(ish).  So it's just our backup plan on rough days.

Playgroup.  I'm trying to be better about going every week.

Our friend, Sara, found out the gender of her baby.  She gave Scarlett a ball of white play doh and as she mixed it - it turned BLUE!  How adorable!  And so sweet to think of us!!!

Knock Knox came over to hang out.  Even his older brothers came one day.  Luckily I had a few boy-approved activities for them.  Jamie let me bleach a chunk of her hair and put purple in it!!!  Wild Diva!  I don't have a good photo of it, I need to get one.

The night before Ashley and her girls came over Scarlett said this in her bedtime prayer: "Please bless my window to not make any noise and please bless no giants to come to our house.  Please bless I will have a good day with Lyla and show her my new painted walls and my toys."  (oh, I will post about our walls soon).  The twirls just love baby Farrah.  They swarm her every time she comes over.  We have been teaching them to be "so soft".  I love this video - Siena babbling and Jaide trying to find a comfy spot to relax.  Totally fits their little personalities.

One February evening I called Jake (who was out of town, of course) at 10pm and told him I hadn't eaten dinner yet.  Why? you may ask... well, I'm so glad you asked:

It all started when all the girls were in the bath tub.  I told Scarlett if she squirted me one more time she would lose the privilege of watching a show after bath time.  She squirted me (on purpose) and I told her that there was no show tonight.  I got her out of the tub while she was crying hysterically and I just put her on my bed to deal with after the twirls were dry.  I went back in the bathroom and Jaide started FREAKING OUT - crying and shaking with fear.  I looked in the tub (water was already drained) and found little poop balls from (I'm guessing) Jaide's bum.  This is the second time she's freaked out after seeing her own poop - clean freak? scared of something leaving her body?  I don't know, but I feel bad that she's so upset about it.  So I got the diaper wipes to pick out the pieces, when I turned turned around Siena was holding the poop and handing it to me like it was no big deal.  I picked up the poop and scrubbed them both down again.  I got Jaide out first, hoping to calm her down.  As I was drying her off she threw up everywhere (from her tantrum).  The vomit was red and made my heart skip a beat - until I remembered that we all ate Red Velvet Oreos right before the bath.  I quickly picked up Jaide and put her back in the tub, then snatched up Siena who was still clean.  I took her in my room to put her diaper on (all while Jaide was still screaming and Scarlett - not wanting to be outdone - was crying very loudly).  I decided to turn on a favorite episode, yes I know that I said no show, but I was soooo past caring about "saving face".  I went back in the bathroom just in time to see Jaide make herself throw up again. I cleaned her off then scooped her up with big towels and just snuggled her.  We went to watch the show and calm her down (she wasn't even in a diaper, but I didn't care).  The worst part was: she would calm down then she would whimper and just bury her head in her hands.  Like she was reliving the moment the poop came out and she was so distraught about it.  I felt so bad for my little sweetie.  Luckily (?) they were all sick with a nasty cold and I gave them benadryl at dinner time.  So it was already in their system and they all went to bed within minutes of laying them down.  I went back to my bathroom and bleached the tub, cleaned up all the vomit and bleached the floor, shook out the towels in the other bath tub, drainoed that bathtub cause of the nasty chunks, started the washing machine (with a lot of white vinegar in the bleach dispenser to help with the smell), took out the stinky poop trash, cleaned up the kitchen from dinner, opened all the windows cause - despite the freezing temperature - I had to get rid of the smell (including paint fumes cause our painter was at our house that day), then - finally - at 10pm I sat down to eat dinner.  It's not like this was the worst night ever, it's just an example of the chaos and the days that I really wished Jake was home to help.  But he let me vent all the gross details over the phone and that helped lot.  I'm just glad he's back now (more about that in another post).

Other random things that happened to me this month: I found out that Ford was hiring like 27 people from BYU this April!  I wanted to somehow help them transition to Michigan so I made a BYU Ford Family FB group for the new hires to ask questions.  It has over 100 members now and it's being utilized a lot!  Then, I was at Target one night (sans children).  I was in the aisle next to this couple asking questions about vacuums and the Target sales rep was like "honestly, I really don't know anything about them."  I went over and we started chatting about the vacuum we have - that I LOVE!  I took them demo one off the shelf and showed them all the features that I like.  They were so grateful - especially cause it was like a third of the price than the one the Target lady was recommending.  They asked me how I knew so much about vacuums (I'm an enthusiast??) I guess my aero-thermal engineer side geeks out at cool technology!  Then finally, and I'm only including this for myself cause honestly this stuff doesn't happen much to me anymore, the guy at the drive through window at Wendy's was acting all weird to me and he finally blurted out "Your eyes look like marbles! *confusion on my face, trying to figure out what he said* That's definitely a good thing."  I really appreciated the compliment after a long and hard day (obviously, cause we were having fast food for dinner) and I looked pretty gross too (no makeup, air dryed hair, hoodie, etc).  

Congrats!  You made it to the end of this post!!!  You win a gold star!  To claim your gold star, just send me your SSN, birth day, a lock of hair, and your first born child.  :-)