Lost

A couple of nights ago, we went to ShopKo so I could look for some new Maternity clothing. I headed off to the dressing room to try some things on. When I came out, Chad asked me where Myra was. Apparently, after I had gone to the dressing room, she had taken off after me. He thought she had made it into the dressing room with me, but I had never seen her. We looked around all of 5 seconds before a voice came over the loud speaker, "Will Shannon Keyser please come to the front desk." Quite embarrassed, I head off to the front of the store. Sure enough, there's Myra, with a red splotchy face from crying. The funniest part though was seeing her standing there, holding several Bras she was bringing for me to try on. I guess she had gotten lost trying to find the dressing room. Hopefully that will be the last time I'm called over the loud speaker to get my kid, but very possibly not....

Lexi Do it Mom!

Lately, Lexi is all about doing things by herself. She doesn't want to sleep in her crib anymore. She doesn't want to sit in her booster seat. She doesn't want to wear a bib while eating. She wants to get in and out of her car seat by herself. She wants to get her own food. She even wants to put on her own diapers. The most common thing we seem to hear from her lately is, "I do it." Today, she informed me she doesn't want to wear diapers anymore. Funny, because she doesn't seem ready to potty train any time soon. She's never gone in the toilet and rarely do I even know if she's going in her diaper. So, I thought, we'll see where this goes. I let her pick out her own panties and I cleaned out the old kid potty. After nap, she wanted to wear her new panties. So, I told her that she had to tell me when she needed to go potty. Then, about every 5 minutes, I would ask her if she wanted to go potty. Which she would enthusiastically reply, Yes! Of course, she would just sit there and do nothing for about 2 seconds, before she jumped up yelling, Done! After a couple of tries, she promptly wet her pants and is now back in diapers. However, Myra has taken to this potty training MUCH more enthusiastically than I have. I've caught her several times in the bathroom with Lexi today, coaching her on potty-training basics. They include, but aren't limited to:
*(Yelling) Lexi, sit down and go potty!
*Don't poop in the little potty, just the big one.
*You have to pull out the toilet paper, like this. Make sure it goes in the toilet.
*(Yelling) Lexi, I'm going to tell you one more time, go potty!
*I'll go in the big toilet and you go in the little toilet.
*Lexi, why haven't you gone yet?
*(And my favorite!) When you are potty trained you have to learn the potty dance. I'll show you...

I'm making a VERY half-hearted effort to potty train Lexi right now, but maybe Myra will just do it all for me! After all, Lexi does do EVERYTHING that Myra does.

National Park Trip

Condensed Version (If you don't want to read this long post.)
We took a trip to Arches National Park, Goblin Valley and Capitol Reef National Park. Two 2-year-olds, Two 4-year-olds, Two pregnant women and Two Dads, all traveling in one MotorHome. We all had a lot of fun and had to listen to a bit more fighting than we would have liked, but overall, it was a success!

Now for the Long Version (If you want all the details.)
Last weekend we took a trip with our friends, The Day's. We left Thursday afternoon and met up with them at Janelle's grandparents house in Provo. Where we then loaded all our things into their Motor Home and headed on our way.
We drove to a rest stop outside of Moab, where we just parked the RV and slept for the night. The ride down was kind of crazy. The kids were all really hyper and very resistant to the idea of going to sleep for the night. We finally got the kids to sleep, but it was a pretty rough night. I think Maddie was the only little one to wake up during the night. Lexi was the last one to wake up in the morning. The beds were pretty uncomfortable and not very big for Chad and I to share, but oh well. The worse part though was the Semi that pulled up next to us and left it's motor running for HOURS!!! It was so loud. I can't believe the kids slept through it, because I certainly didn't!
The next morning, we all were up before 7. We had a quick breakfast, climbed back in the RV and headed on our way. First stop - Arches National park. We made a quick stop at the Visitor Center to fill up water bottles, then headed into the park, to the Delicate Arch trailhead. It was turning out to be a fairly hot day, so I'm glad we all brought a lot of water. We made fairly good time on the hike up and with only a couple of stops to rest.



Myra was such a trooper. It was kind of slow going with her though because she kept stopping to look at rocks, plants and play in the dirt. Lexi loved riding in the backpack although she wouldn't keep her hat on. The sunscreen certainly did it's job! We finally reached the top and had lunch. I was so paranoid the whole time about the kids falling off the ledges up there. Myra really wanted to run around. While we were eating, a couple of Ravens joined us for lunch. I was amazed how close they came to us. The kids really enjoyed having them so close by. The hike down was quick and uneventful. We were all pretty hot and tired by the end, so we headed back down to the Visitor Center to look around there. The kids especially enjoyed playing on the bronze statues outside. The big kids would "ride" the mountain sheep, but Lexi enjoyed "riding" the little lizards. After that we headed to the RV park to set up for the night. We spent some time playing in the little stream nearby and the kids enjoyed playing at the playground.


We had yummy Dutch Oven chicken and potatoes with cobbler and ice cream for dinner. It was so nice that night to be able to shower, put the kids to bed early in the tent and we actually had a decent night sleep.
The next morning was a early start again. We cleaned up and headed back into Arches. We hiked to Landscape Arch, which has recently been labeled as the world's longest arch. The kids were a little less enthusiastic about hiking the 2nd day, so luckily it wasn't a very long hike.
We then headed out of the park and onto Goblin Valley. I'd never been there so I was pretty excited to visit it for the first time. It was very hot when we got there, otherwise, I think we would have spent more time playing around. The rock formations were very fun to climb on, around and through.
And they were generally easy enough that all of the kids were able to just run around and enjoy themselves. Myra and Lexi were very brave with their climbing and exploring. All of the kids had a great time playing hide and seek and pretending they were in castles and such. It was kind of funny how Myra and Camille stayed together the whole time and Lexi and Maddie hung out with each other. They are all such good friends. Chad and Brad even played Frisbee while on top of the rocks. The funniest though was Lexi going down the hills. She discovered it was easier to sit on her bum and scoot down the little hills. Unfortunately, the video we took of this didn't work. :-( We eventually ran out of water and had to head back to the RV. It was such a hot day! After that we drove to another RV park for the night. There were just a couple of other people there, so the kids had a fun time running around and exploring. Myra even found a snake. We roasted Hot Dogs and marshmellows that night. I think the marshmellow roasting was the highlight of the trip for Myra. She was so excited about it! We had the best night sleep that night. It was quite relaxing. The next morning we had Dutch Oven eggs, bacon and potatoes. Then we loaded up again and headed home. On the way, we drove through Capitol Reef National Park. I'd never been there before and I have to admit I was a little disappointed. It was pretty, but I've seen similar looking places driving elsewhere in Southern Utah. In actuality we only saw a very little bit of the park. We stopped and looked at some Petroglyphs. They were pretty cool. There were tons of little caterpillars where we were, and the kids really enjoyed looking at them. We also saw a deer quite close-up. I was surprised it didn't run off. We checked out the Visitor Center and took a scenic drive where we had lunch at the end. After that, we headed home. The kids slept a lot of the way and it was very peaceful. I had a great time chatting with Janelle while the kids were all silent! And, of course, it was nice to get home and sleep in our own beds. We all had a great time and the kids are wondering when we will go camping again.

It's been really hot lately! Not anymore!

Before


After

After weeks of deliberating over this, I finally just did it! I chopped all my hair off. I decided that it was just too hot and I needed a change. Yikes! I cut off close to 14 inches and am donating it to Locks of Love. So far, I think I like it. I think it looked better right after the girl dried it, before she started gooping it up with styling gels and such. So, we'll see how it looks tomorrow when I do it myself.

Another Milestone

I think when I started my business, I wasn't sure this day would ever come. And the most amazing thing is how quickly I've arrived here. Yesterday, I sold my 1000th item in my CuddleBaby Boutique shop on Etsy. I'm pretty excited about it!

Birthday Parties

The past couple of days have been filled with Family, Friends and Parties! Sunday was both Mother's Day and Myra's 4th Birthday. Chad and the girls gave me a new printer for Mother's Day. Lexi gave Myra an umbrella, but we made her wait to open up the rest of her presents until later in the day. At church, Myra got to be spotlighted in Primary and sung too. She was sooo excited! Then the primary sang to all the Mother's during Sacrament meeting. I was kind of sad about it though. I had to play the piano, so I didn't get to watch them sing. :-( Chad said she was waving at everyone and was so happy to be up there. After everyone left the stage, Myra and Camille didn't realize what was going on, so they were still on the stage. Silly girls. I also played for the Ward Choir to sing in Sacrament meeting.
In the afternoon, My mom, Bre and Danny came up for dinner. (My dad had to work.) Myra is very excited to use her new Water toy that Bre and Danny gave her. It was quite difficult to explain to her yesterday that it's still a little too cold to play outside in the water. Myra also loved the Belle Doll she received from Grandma and Grandpa. She spent a lot of time yesterday have "Tea parties" with her. We had a yummy dinner, then after Chad and I put together a treasure hunt for her to find her gift from us. Chad took pictures of different areas around our house and the first gift we had Myra open included a picture of an area of the house. She had to go there, find the next "clue" - another picture, that would lead her to another place.

She loved it! It was a fun way to give her her gift. We ended up giving her a scooter. She's pretty good at it already and has really enjoyed playing around on it. After we had Cake and Ice Cream. Myra wanted just the Cookie Monster face, so Chad cut out just that part for her.
On Monday, I took Myra in for her 4-year check-up. She was so great. She chatted away to all the nurses and the doctor, then it came time for her shots. She had been very nervous about them, but she was WONDERFUL! She didn't even cry and now she says it's didn't even hurt. I think she was mostly just excited about the sucker. That afternoon we had Myra's friend birthday party in the Soft Play area of the Fun Center here in Logan.

The kids LOVED it and it was nice for us to not have to find things to entertain the kids. All they did was play, open presents and ate slushies, then played some more.

It was pretty crazy having little 12 kids running around, but they all seemed to have a fun time. Myra was pretty exhausted that night. Then after it all, she got to go home and open presents from her Grammy and Grandad. She especially loved her new nightgown, which she wore for most of the evening, before even going to bed. I'm pretty sure I'm going to have a tough time keeping her out of it during the day. Overall, I think Myra had a wonderful Birthday this year. And now, I get to listen to her and Lexi fight over the new toys for the next few days until the newness wears off. (Exactly what happened after Lexi's birthday.)