Cady's haircut

Cadence has been working hard on growing out a beautiful, curly mullet for the past year and a half or so. Her curls started coming in shortly after Megan was born and even then the back was noticeably longer than the top of her head.

Of late, the curls have gotten very sloppy looking, even when I try to brush it out and get them to look neat. It just wasn't working. For awhile, I've been toying with the idea of chopping off the last few inches, knowing her curls would hide any imperfections I might cause with my amateur beauty shop attempts. But, with my good scissors tucked at the bottom of a box, I never really carried through.

Until today. I had just dug through my sewing box last night and had my scissors in reach when I was combing Cadence's hair after her bath this morning. So, I snipped off the bottom few inches before I could think twice. It looks WAY neater than it did before, but she also looks older at the same time.

And if any one wants a before to compare it with:

Moms & Tots at the temple

The girls and I got to go to the temple today! I was talking myself out of it all morning, because I hate doing new things, especially with people I barely know. So glad I went, as things usually go.

Despite living in the same city as a temple, it's still a 40 minute trip. We met with some other moms at the church building and carpooled, giving me 40 minutes to chat with a woman I've smiled at but never had the chance to talk to before. The Houston Temple has a small sitting room in the annex that I assume is for baptisms and the like, but also doubles as a great place to corral a bunch of preschoolers, toddlers, and infants. Half the mom's went in to the temple, and the other half of us tried to keep the zoo under control. It wasn't bad at all, really. Everyone came prepared with toys and snacks and the kids all played well together, give me and a few other moms plenty of time to chat and get to know each other.

After about an hour, the other mom's returned, and the rest of us got to go inside. My first time inside the actual Houston temple and I was kind of completely lost because it's so much smaller than the Los Angeles one (seriously I'm pretty sure Houston's two locker rooms, the sitting area between the two AND the little chapel they have for before services could fit into the one locker room in the LA temple). Thankfully, I was not on my own and the other women were more than happy to politely point me in the right direction.

So, I got to spend an hour doing initiatories. My first time getting to do so since doing my own. It was quiet, and relaxing, and pleasant. Then, feeling uplifted from an hour of that service, I got to walk back into the room and be joyfully greeted by two little girls who love me to pieces. I meant to get a picture of the girls playing outside the temple, but by the time I was finished inside, the girls were anxious for lunch.

Seriously, so glad I once again stepped outside my comfort zone and went. Although, spending an hour in the temple makes me really, really want to get a session in. Anyone want to fly down to babysit?

Long-Term Goals

This is what I want to be when I grow up:

September 13th

Without a working camera, I don't have any cute moments to share in too-cute picture form. So I shall attempt to paint a picture of how the past week has gone with words alone.

It's remained another quiet week. Those weeks are fairly enjoyable in their own way. I get the house clean a lot more often in quiet weeks than I do in busy ones. But the girls and I also get extremely bored in quiet weeks.

Last Friday we drove down to the church building for a Moms and Tots playdate. Lots of other parents from the ward showed up with their preschoolers and infants. Everyone brought bicycles and snacks and I brought the girls' oversized bouncy balls, which were such a big hit they spurred 90% of the fights that went on that morning. I didn't get to socialize much. First my own insecurity kept my tongue tied and then the girls got a little overwhelmed with so many people and started to get really clingy. We only stayed about an hour. In that hour, though, Megan spent most of it wandering as far as she could in the field surrounding the building, following some of the older boys. They ignored her, she ignored them. A few times she got far enough, I was about to get up to get her, but she seemed to realize she'd wandered too far and began meandering back towards the picnic tables. Cadence spent most of the time sulking because I wouldn't let her demand her balls back from the other kids.

The weekend was equally quiet. We did go grocery shopping so James could get six different types of chili, three types of meat, and several cans of different tomato textures to try out a super spicy chili for this Saturday's ward cook-off. He's aiming to get a prize for the hottest chili, but I refuse to let him just dump a bottle of hot sauce and call it good. The chili he pulled off was pretty spicy, more so since there's a sweetness when it first hits your tongue (a can of coke was used as well), then it starts to burn. He's eating it for lunch all week, since I can't feed it to the kids and I'm not a fan of spicy stuff.

My birthday came and went last Wednesday. I'm 26. I've decided that's one of those boring ages. 25 is a cool age to turn, because it's a nice round number. 27 has a kind of "older-20s without being close to 30" zen that makes it a fun age to say. But 26 is... just 26. Kind of like 28. The day itself passed rather uneventfully. A few phone calls, lots of facebook notifications, an email from the head of Writing.Com, and a slice of overcooked cheesecake (so unappetizing, a full 3/4 of the thing is still untouched in my fridge...). Next year will be better. It'll be a Friday birthday and we'll have found someone to babysit so James can take me out on a date. This year, though, a quiet birthday is fine. I've never had high expectations for my birthdays anyway.

Our laptop died on my birthday as well. Since we'd just bought the thing in May/June I was not a happy camper. But a quick email to my computer-savvy got the ball rolling for me to replace the hard drive and get the whole thing up and running without a problem. I consider myself pretty proficient at computers, at least as well as the next person, but with Jim's help the whole process was a breeze and just took a little time.

The girls... continue to tear the house apart and run wild. We recently took away Cadence's overnight diaper, something she's had since we started potty-training at the beginning of the year. It was a rough two weeks as we did everything we could to get her bowels moving, since she stubbornly held it in as much as possible. Saturday, though, she had a break-through and since then has been happily using the bathroom and staying dry overnight. Megan is showing an interest in following her sister's footsteps, but I'm not ready for that yet and she's not even 2 yet, so no rush. Though after some of the diapers she's had the past few days...

It's fun watching them play together. They're both bullies with each other, which makes it frustrating, but with Megan able to communicate more, they do play well. Cadence likes giving her sister orders and Megan loves being able to show she understands by carrying them out. I love watching Megan with James. At this age, Cadence's mommy-preference was strong, but Megan's pretty neutral. She prefers me when she's hurt or upset, but if she can't see me, James is a perfectly acceptable substitute and she enjoys sitting in his lap almost as much as mine. At night, if James is sitting on the couch and I'm busy, she'll happily climb into his lap and snuggle with him.

Megan really is a daredevil compared to her sister. We went to Chik-fil-A yesterday to split a bit of soft serve and let the girls use the play equipment. Cadence risked climbing to the top of the structure before she got nervous and came back down. Megan wanted to follow her and spent quite awhile attempting to climb the steps that were just too tall for her. Cadence lost interest in everything else when an older girl came in and began playing around. She immediately began mimicking the girl's moves, enjoying the novelty of some of the things she did (like attempting to climb the structure's poles). I had to drag them out of the place in the end, then I had to run back in and find the blanket Megan left behind.

Today's another quiet day. Trying to get caught up with the house, since it tends to get away from me when I'm running errands. Gotta make dinner as well. Chicken stew and some biscuits. But biscuits will only happen if I get off my butt and go clean the kitchen. Suppose I should go do that now... *sigh*

Just a weekly update

Labor Day weekend has gone well for us here in the Smith household. James normally works Saturday mornings since there's so much needing to be done at the new shop for awhile, but he talked to his supervisors and got approved to not be needed on Saturday (they can't force him to work Saturdays, but...) so we could spend the full 3-day weekend together.

We didn't do anything super special. Went to a few stores to pick up random necessities (like the ingredients and a pan for a baked cheesecake this upcoming Wednesday. No special reason or anything, just, you know, wanted a cheesecake this Wednesday...). We even bought a new video game, which isn't really new. It's old, but we didn't own it yet for some odd reason. Now we do. Problem solved.

We missed church, unfortunately. Megan woke up crying at 5:30 and I laid on the couch with her and we both fell back asleep. And since James doesn't respond to my alarm clock, we both slept right through it and woke up right around the same time church was supposed to start.

Happily, I still got adult conversation since the Relief Society presidency stopped by for a chat and then later that night we went to a family BBQ. Just us, the host family and one other family. The kids played well together and I got the chance to talk with two other moms in the ward. It was a nice evening and I'm glad they invited us. I'll have another chance to socialize with other moms this Friday at a ward Moms & Tots get together. I'm nervous, as I usually am in new situations, but excited.

Today's been pretty laidback. For such a long weekend, you'd suppose we got more done, but we didn't. We really just sat around with our feet kicked up and enjoyed the peace and quiet of just staying home without any responsibilities for a few days except what to have for dinner. James has done a good job of spoiling me. Chinese food on Saturday and Taco Cabana for lunch today. Mmm. I am crazy about Taco Cabana. They have the best handmade tortillas that are included with every meal and their steak fajita tacos are amazing. We discovered this gem our first few weeks in Houston (when Seaboard was paying for all our meals and we were free to try every dining out option in the immediate area) and have gone back twice since. So yummy.

The girls have adjusted really well, I think. Of course, I don't think they comprehend just how big this move was. It's still hot outside and they still get put in timeout in the corner whenever they do something wrong. Taz still hides in their room and Hanna still hides out of reach. Daddy comes home and we eat dinner. We watch Strawberry Shortcake (albeit, on a bigger, better television screen now). We play with Legos. Life is same ol' same ol' for those two little girls.

I can't even record how much they've grown because I honestly barely notice. Cadence's learning has slowed down to the point I can't pinpoint new things as easily and it's hard for me to notice Megan's growths because they're not as obvious when I've got Cadence to compare her to. For example, it took me several weeks to realize Megan was using sentences. Mostly she was parroting her sister, but she quickly began to understand the syntax rules and coming up with the sentences on her own. It's made her much more vocal recently. Cadence has learned to link descriptive words with nouns to specify things. Not just colors like she used to. But the other day we had star-shaped chicken nuggets and she was calling them chicken stars. She is also learning a ton of things from watching television. The other day I caught her putting a doll on the back of her stuffed dog and telling it to "giddy up, horsie".

They both continue to grow like weeds. I'm afraid to measure them, because I don't want to know for sure how big they've gotten. Cadence was just shy of 3 feet last time I measured her. Not sure I want to see her hit that particular mark yet. I'm already fighting the idea of a haircut, though I know she could use one to even out her mullet.

We've progressed to the last stage of potty-training for Cadence by taking away her bedtime diapers. So far no accidents, but we have had a few issues. Nothing unexpected, but I won't say she's 100% potty-trained yet. Megan shows an interest, but I want a few more months before we get her going. Maybe after she's 2 I'll consider letting my last baby grow up...

It's raining, it's pouring

Wow, over two weeks since my last update. Oops.

I have little news to share, really. I have spent pretty much everyday of the past 3 weeks chasing two way-too-energetic toddlers around and picking up the mess. Or, sitting on my butt and thinking how much I don't want to pick up yet another mess. Welcome to motherhood, right?

James continues to enjoy his new position. He's had a few hiccups as he adjusts to a few changes between his old shop and this new one. But, overall, he's still well-liked by his managers. He's working crazy hours, unfortunately. Since some of the machines are still not up and running after the move, the workload on the machines that are running is doubled, which means they need as much as they can get out of their operators. James, naturally, is working as many hours as they ask of him within reason. Once things run smoothly, the hours will calm down, but he expects to be pretty busy for quite awhile.

So, most of the time, it's just me and the girls.

Yesterday we got caught in a decent downpour. We'd experienced some Houston rain shortly after reaching the city, but Thursday's downpour put it all to shame. I pulled into the small parking lot of Babies R Us while it was overcast (lots of thick, low, gray clouds threatening to rain at any second at this point). The parking lot really is tiny. Four parking spots deep with the extra row along the far side. I parked at the "far side". As I was checking out ten minutes later I noticed it was raining outside, so I put Cadence into the cart and ducked into the rain. It took me all of one second to decide my best option was to run. So run I did, as quickly as safely possible. Megan, who hates baths and swimming pools, immediately began freaking out. Cadence, my water baby, was bouncing in the cart and laughing. And in the time it took me to get to the car, we were all soaked.

I'm not talking our hair has a sheen of water over it and our clothes are damp. By the time I got the girls in the car, their hair was plastered to their heads. My jeans remained wet for the entire 20 minute ride and for the next hour indoors. It was crazy. I turned my windshields to their highest setting and it barely kept up with the rain we were experiencing. There weren't rain drops on the places the wipers missed. It was a solid flow of water pouring down my windshield. Craziness!

Later, I learned I walked out into the absolutely worst of the day's storm at just the right moment. I have to say, I'm rather pleased. It was an awesome rain experience, lol. If it wasn't for Megan, I might've enjoyed just strolling to the car so Cadence and I could enjoy it. :-)

But, that's really the most exciting news of the past few weeks. Unless you count paying someone to mow our lawn, or the delivery of our washer and dryer. Well, I guess the TV's exciting news, but not really blog-worthy. We really got it so we could fully enjoy Skyrim when the time comes (uh-oh, my geek is showing...) And, no, I will not bore you all with a geek review of Skyrim when the time comes. Just... when this blog goes silent again in November, know I'm too busy to care about any of you and my kids are probably being unwashed and unfed. ;-) (Totally kidding about that last part, mostly...)

Unfortunately, my camera has officially gone kaput for the time being. No real worries. I'll be getting one next week for an early birthday present. Then I'll get lots of pictures for you all to enjoy. And maybe I'll even get some family pictures done soon so you can see the whole good-looking brood (maybe, it'll take a lot of sweet-talking on my end to get James to spend his free time in front of a camera, lol).

House Pictures (part 1)

Rather than wait and hope my house comes together any time soon, I figured I'd show it off as best I could under the circumstances. Obviously, we are not fully settled. There are boxes of books in one corner and I was in the middle of cleaning (thus the pile in the middle of the room) when I decided to take the pictures. Anyway, just the front room for today. The bedrooms are still a WIP. The girls' playroom has a stack of empty boxes filling an entire corner and I want to hang pictures and such before I take pictures there.

But, the front room. This is the view from the front door. Had to buy a cheap desk for our desktop computer since our old one is currently in about a dozen pieces in our garage. But this works, because the smaller desk means the whole thing takes up less space in general and I'm happy with that:
The view from the opposite side of the main room. Unhung pictures and piles to be picked up and all. The rug in front of the couch is covering a very worn spot in the carpet, but it works, so I'm happy:
A view of my living room from the loft. A nice overhead look to give you a good idea of the whole thing. Enjoy:
So, there it is. A little peek into my new world. :-)

Just some pictures

Day 16 in Houston and still living in a hotel (day 21 of hotel living in general). The novelty has worn off and rubbed raw. But, what can you do when your stuff is sitting in a moving van 800 miles away? We spent a lot of time in the car running errands, driving over to the house to let the girls run around, and picking up lunches and dinners (pretty much over eating out as well).
I loved this picture of the clouds. I think it describes Houston weather pretty well, lol. See those storm clouds coasting in right over the blue sky?
We brought our laptop to the house when the cable guy came to get our internet up and running. James taught Megan how to play Bejeweled. He moved the mouse and she'd click when he told her to. It was super adorable to watch.
Then they just started goofing off together. James is such a goof with the girls and they just love it!
The girls love the hotel bed. Cadence is pretending to sleep. She was even fake snoring. The girl cracks me up.
James went back to work on Monday. He was getting antsy with having 2 1/2 weeks off. I can relate. Even after almost 3 years of not working or going to school, I still have antsy moments. Anyway, the only thing that stinks is having to wake up at 5:30 to drive him to the shop. The girls did well the first day, though they did take two naps each. Yesterday, they both dropped by 8am and slept until I woke them up at 10:30 to go run errands.
My final picture is me bragging (again) about my brilliant child. While drawing on the hotel wall is obviously a bad thing, I was impressed with her skill. I did a little google research and rediscovered some things from my various child development classes that implies she's well ahead of the curve artistically. I remember seeing similar pictures drawn by one of my more talented Sunbeams near the end of our year together. Probably not the best ruler to measure Cadence's development with, but...
Speaking of Sunbeams... guess who'll be one in only 5 months?!?!?!

Houston Top 5

Our stuff just left Bakersfield on Wednesday via the moving company, so we continue our hotel stays. I am beyond ready to be settling in my new house. Every day, James and I go over there for one reason or another. Yesterday it was to have the fridge delivered. Today, the cable internet gets turned on. We water the lawn and spend time with the cats and let the girls run crazy in an enclosed area larger than our cramped hotel room.

We are ready to be home. The girls can't express this particular desire, but they are beginning to grow restless and Cadence actually cries every time we leave the house (not because it's home, but because it's big enough to actually run).

Anyway, we've been here about a week and a half, so here is my list of top 10 things of Houston (so far), in no particular order:

1. The Rain - It fascinates me. You can see blue skies and sunshine but you can still have your windshield wipers on full blast because you're stuck under one of the fat gray clouds that happens to be raining at that exact moment.

2. The Clouds (and blue sky) - I never fully realized what we were missing. There are some seriously gorgeous clouds here in Houston. Big fat fluffy ones. All the time. And a bright blue sky behind it. No smog to diminish the blue and no mountains to comb out the fluffy clouds.

3. Half Price Books - Its exactly how it sounds. A used book store chain. We got a hard cover copy of a Wheel of Time book (that we already own, just not in hardback...) and a paper back cover copy of another Wheel of Time book (same situation, lol). James also got a new role-playing book. We got a DVD and I got another book I've been wanting for awhile. And we only spent $35 ($20 of that was the role-playing book).

4. Sweet Tomatoes - Better known as Soup Plantation, at least to me. Oh yum. And it's not too far from our house.

5. Showboat DriveIn Theater - I've been sulking that I won't get to see Harry Potter's final chapter until it came out on DVD unless we befriended a new babysitter. But, we're going to see it AND Captain America tonight. Bring our portable DVD player to entertain the kids and close our car so if they scream they're only bothering us and enjoy two movies we've been wanting to see for $10. Score!

I did intend to do top 10, but I'm running out of time, so top 5 it is!

The past week or so (with pictures)

We were homeless starting Wednesday, the 13th. Packers came early in the morning and packed everything up. The girls spent the day with Aunt Robyn (and eventually the rest of the family). And I spend the day running errands, checking into hotels, and occasionally kicking my feet up at my mom's house, trying to enjoy every last moment. We enjoyed a dinner at La Mina, since it's my all time favorite Bakersfield restaurant.

Megan ignored the chips and salsa and tried to eat me instead

He doesn't know I took this picture, lol:

Cadence enjoyed dipping the chips in the salsa, but not eating them. She also begged for Megan's high chair:

Thursday, we drove out to Taft to see James's grandparents one last time (as well as meet up with Jared and his girlfriend who were in town), then all of us trekked out to Porterville to see Talon, Jacob, Charish and Sydnee. After a few pictures and dinner at Taco Bell, we all went to the park. The girls, who'd begun showing signs of having a very stressful week, perked up once we were at the park and I got some super cute shots:
We spent most of Friday with my family, except for dinner with James's boss. It was a very strange day, and we all started crying when it came time to leave. Heck, I was blinking back tears when I was trying to track down the kids' shoes to put them on. I cried for awhile after that. Every time I had myself under control, James would pat my knee or squeeze my hand or give me a hug and I'd start crying all over again.

Saturday morning, we said good-bye to Bakersfield and drove through Barstow and on to Flagstaff. It was fairly uneventful. It was our hardest day with the girls as they got used to this idea of a road trip. By the last hour we were counting down miles and trying to keep Cadence happy long enough to reach the hotel. The second day she did better. James woke up at 2:30am and we just went. We were out of the hotel by 3:30 and on our way. It was great, because we had an amazing sunrise over the Arizona desert on the way to New Mexico. Gorgeous:

The best part of the early start was the girls sleeping for the first few hours and then being perfectly content to watch their DVDs between stops:

The third day, we were ready to reach Houston. The girls, now used to road trips, did all right all said and done. We stopped off in Fort Worth to visit an old cemetery where one of my ancestors was buried. Unfortunately, they didn't have a gravestone for her, but there were a few others with the same last name:

We reached Houston, finally, and were happy to be here. We went shopping shortly after arriving to stock up our kitchenette for the three days in our first hotel. The girls loved the car attached to the front of the cart.
And, of course, we had to stop by the big Bass Pro Shop just down the street. Cadence and Megan LOVED the aquarium full of catfish and the like.
Megan cracked me up because she was mimicking this O-mouthed fish. She and the fish just stared at each other with their round mouths for a full minute until Megan started giggling.
Anyway, obviously there's more. We've been keeping busy trying to get the car registered, signing our lease, filling out paperwork, and all the other important stuff you're supposed to do when you move to a new state. Our stuff is finally en route from Bakersfield to Houston, so we're hoping to set up house within the next week or so and plan to post pictures as soon as it's done! We've also been enjoying some summer rain. I just had to bust up laughing when I walked out of the hotel and curse myself for not grabbing my sunglasses, then 2 minutes down the road I have to turn my wipers on full force. I don't think I've turned the wipers on that high since we bought the car!