First Words

Ivie is beginning to talk to us!! So far she says (on a consistent basis) yea, no, hi and Ivie! If you count WHEE as a word than that too! It is way cute! Even more exciting is that she is starting to speak on time whereas Xavien had a bit of delay in his speech. Here is a pic of the adorable one!

Projects

One thing that I am great at is starting a project. One that I am NOT so great at is finishing the project. At any given time I probably have at least 3 different projects going....what can I say? I am easily distracted. So when I do finish a project I am pretty excited. Here are a couple that I have finished in the past week (I only have about 10 more to go til Christmas.)



The first picture is of a temple necklace that I made for myself and my sister, Tiffany. Tiffany went to the temple for the first time over the weekend and I wanted to give her something special for the occasion. It is all white which makes it ok for the temple I think. At least no one said anything to us. I am really pleased with how it turned out!

The second picture is a scripture bag for Kanayla. It is a Christmas present so SHHH!! She is at the age that she wants to take scriptures of her own to church and this bag is big enough for scriptures plus colored pencils or whatever. Tiffany did the bag part while I added the ribbon, button and handle. I hope she likes it!

Either way it feels good to finish some of the projects up. If I can finish anymore I will let everyone know!

Birthday Boy

Xavien's birthday is this week! He is 3 yrs old! My sister's wedding reception and activities are taking place all weekend so we celebrated his birthday today! I didn't plan anything elaborate and I had to hurry the icing job on the cake because of time constraints. (You'll be able to see all the spots I missed on the pictures! :) ) Xavien loved everything though so the mistakes aren't important. He got a stuffed Curious George, some trains, and my grandmother made him a Spiderman quilt. He is already sleeping with the quilt. He is one special little boy! I love him so much!

Discouraged

Warning: This post contains rambles, venting and complaining.

So I am going through a rough patch. Kanayla loves school which is great except she is going through separation anxiety again. When she comes home from school she is an extremely clingy, emotional, tantrum throwing mess. It is frustrating me to no end. Xavien and Ivie are also going through various stages of the anxiety due to their ages and Kanayla's influence. I had no clue it was separation anxiety until the dr. pointed it out to me this morning. She is feeling overwhelmed which in turn makes me feel overwhelmed and out of sorts. The only problem is that no one can figure out what Kanayla is feeling overwhelmed about. It definitely isn't school, that is the only time she will voluntarily leave my or Matthew's side right now. I am the type of person that I NEED a more than average amount of sleep or I am not a pleasure to be around and I just don't function very well at all. For around 3 weeks now I am woken up at least twice a night by Kanayla or Xavien. Not good for functioning statis and it is showing. For the past few days my fuse has been incredibly short and I am almost more moody than Kanayla. I have been getting upset with everyone and really I want to stick my head in the sand, scream and then chant 'it has to get better soon!'. None of this is going to solve the overall problem though. How do you handle a 5yr old who suddenly wants to cling to you like a barnacle every hour of the day (I do mean EVERY hour....she wants to sleep with us, for me to play every single thing she is doing, to not cook or even go to the bathroom without her attendance). Then add the 3 and 1 yr old who are demanding some one on one time too. Honestly a baby I can handle, they are small enough that most tasks can be completed with the baby on your hip but I can not carry my forty pound daughter around on my hip! I am only 5 ft tall! She is just under 4 ft now. Kanayla would knock me over flat!

So I am feeling like a bad mom. I love my kids, they know that I love them. I just don't know what to do!

Halloween costumes

These pictures are real lousy. Our excuse is that none of the kids wanted to stand still and then after one pic the camera battery decided to die. Kanayla was a fairy princess and designed her own costume. Xavien was a train driver (engineer) and Ivie was a monkey. I am pretty proud of myself though because for all three costumes I spent a total of $11.50...pretty good I think.