April 2014

Time for the monthly wrap-up. My life has been kind of a blur lately, so I'm not really sure there's going to be much to say. I'm sorry if I miss something important.

We didn't do much for Easter because we didn't feel that any of the traditional activities were age appropriate for Sprout. Coloring eggs would have been a disaster, and he would have no idea what we were doing if we set up an egg hunt. We did get a little Easter something from Grandma Holdaway for Sprout which was very nice.

Mr. Mitchell and I went to 'Walk With Christ' in Pocatello, and that was very nice. It definitely put me in the Easter spirit, and amped up my gratitude for the Savior. You can click here to read about it and see some pictures. The pictures don't do it justice - there was obviously a huge amount of work put into transforming the building into the event.

My mom sent me a text about mid-April asking if I would be able to get myself to Boise if she bought tickets for Wicked. I was excited because we were supposed to see it in London together, but then she ended up not being able to come over at the end of my semester there. It ended up working out that my sister, Jayme, and brother, Garrison, were able to get to Boise to go and see Wicked. It was fun!

Trying to sneak a picture.

All of us.

The show was super fun to watch, and it was almost sold out. The guy that played Fiyero was kind of a weak link in the cast, but otherwise I thought they did a fantastic job. We had a great time, and I'm so glad I had the opportunity to finally see it. Thanks, Mom!

My dad gave up his ticket for Garrison (who was a last minute addition), and I feel badly he wasn't able to go, but he didn't miss out on all of the fun. We stayed up late talking, went out to eat a few times, and went shopping. Here's a little plug for Yard House in The Village in Meridian: they have great food! It was delicious.

Her lemonade was EXTRA good.

Watching the fountain show after dinner.

After our brief weekend in Boise I had to scurry straight down to Salt Lake for a business trip. I picked up my boss from the airport, and we headed over to Park City to view some of the homes we just acquired. In the morning we drove back into Salt Lake City where our conference was being held. Some of it was blah, some of it was informative, but it was so nice to meet the people I work with. Luckily, I was able to video chat with my boys everyday so I didn't get homesick.

April Treasures:

Sweet Moment: Sprout was running around the house singing something not quite discernible so I joined in with my own song. He stopped singing, sat on my lap, and snuggled into my chest. After I finished the song he looked up at me and said, "Please!" So, I sang another song while he snuggled. After I finished he looked up again and said, "Please!" We continued that pattern for probably close to ten minutes with him just snuggling in while I sang him song after song.

Sprout also really likes to drag me over to the piano to play songs for him. His favorite right now is "I See the Light" from Tangled. He'll have me play it over and over.

He's still in a container phase. He loves to put things inside of other things. A favorite is the laundry basket, but he's recently discovered the bathtub doesn't just hold water.

His mimicking phase has now included footwear. He likes to make me put on my shoes, and then he'll put on Daddy's shoes. He's hilarious to watch trying to get in Daddy's boots because he'll put his head and hands on the floor, lift his leg in the air, and then he'll swing his little foot around until it finally lands in the boot.

It's finally getting warm enough to go out and play. Sprout loves to go to playgrounds so he can stick bark on the slides. He'll go down the slides if we put him at the top, but he has more interest in digging around.

Lastly, a little video of our amazing, little boy. He is too much fun!

April 2013

Here's the part where I put in all of the miscellaneous pictures and videos that I would like to share with friends and family.

First of all, I finally made the perfect chocolate chip cookie. Seriously amazing. I was truly proud of myself.

Perfection!

I had to snap the last gummy picture of my baby. His two bottom teeth burst on April 28 and April 30. I miss that adorable toothless smile, but he is stinkin' cute with his two new chompers.

Last toothless picture.

I'm not sure why this picture was taken, but I just love the face. We can pretty much always tell what he's thinking.

"You have crossed the boundary from entertaining to weird."

I don't have any C.G. videos the month that wouldn't bore anyone besides me. I could watch C.G. do nothing all day! However, he never does nothing all day. He is a big-time roller. We try to sit him up, but he doesn't want it. He'll flop right over and roll where he pleases. Sometimes he'll do a labored army crawl if whatever he's trying to get to is too close to roll to, but too far to just reach. Most of the time, though, he rolls and gets anywhere he wants that way. He makes lots of different noises, started reaching out to us when he wants to get picked up, and loves to eat. He loves pears, banana wild berry, banana, sweet potato, banana puffs, and milk. He hates peas. He'll tolerate pretty much anything in between. He loves strings and crinkly paper.

I do want to share a couple of thoughts I had this month along with a funny story:

1) I had to fill in for a housekeeper this month, and when I arrived at the condo to start cleaning, the family was still there working on getting out the door. They invited me in to start cleaning while they headed out, and I overheard this conversation between the mom and daughter. 

"Mom! Why can't I wear it?"

"Because we are classy people."

Boom. That was it. No wordy explanation, no 'because I said so,' no bashing people who do wear that. Why don't more mothers try to teach their daughters to be classy in their words, dress, and actions? It thrilled my heart to hear a mother trying to teach her daughter to be a lady. Please don't read this as an appreciation of snobbery, because it was not that at all. It was simply good taste.

2) While sitting at the table with my mom and dad enjoying the perfect chocolate chip cookies my mom told me that I'm like Mary Poppins. Jokingly I said, "Why? Because I'm 'practically perfect in every way?'" To my surprise she said 'yes.' I almost never feel that I'm good enough at anything, and I was so tickled to hear my mom say that. My dad piped in by saying that there's no such thing as a perfect parent, but that I'm pretty close. That almost made me cry. Granted, I haven't had to do too much parenting, but I seem to be doing a good job so far. My favorite thing about that conversation was the wrap-up from my dad, "You never know whether or not you were a successful parent until you see your children as parents." I am so pleased that I have helped my parents feel successful because they have been terrific parents and deserve to feel that way.

3) I work nights, and one night Mr. Mitchell had to work a night shift at Home Depot, and my mom had to go do Relief Society visits. That left my dad as the babysitter. He was sitting downstairs with the baby who was very upset, and my dad couldn't seem to figure out why. Then I hear this conversation:

M: Are you okay down there?

D: Well, I'm not the one crying!

M: Ok. Just wanted to see if you needed help before I left.

A few seconds of silence...

D: MARLEAH!! MARLEAH!! Are you still there?

No answer...

After my shift I found out that C.G. had a very poopy diaper, and my dad does not do poopy diapers. Unfortunately, my mom had slipped away by the time he realized that was the problem. He didn't know where the wipes were, and didn't want to interrupt me, so he used tissues to wipe the baby's bum. Then he fed the baby 30 something banana puffs (instead of the sweet potatoes waiting upstairs) and put him in bed after 9pm (instead of 7:30pm). I heard this story and had a good chuckle over it. C.G. and my dad were both alive and well, and that's what counts.