Apart But In My Heart

Trip

I am on a bitter-sweet vacation this weekend. I had to leave Chris and the girls behind while I flew to my oldest brother’s wedding. Chris had to finish out his rotation and has a test tomorrow when I will be returning and it was too financially and practically impossible to bring the girls. We had Nana Kathy help watch them during Chris’ work and one more time tomorrow for his test. I flew to St. Louis overnight on Thursday and spent the day making up for the lack of sleep and traveling with my best friend to Nashville. I feel mostly recovered from that night at the airport because of a restful Sunday playing games and eating my dad's famous Thai food before leaving back to St. Louis Airport. I have a flight to Las Vegas tonight and will spend another night in an airport because my last flight home isn't until 1pm.

Wedding

Spending time getting from St. Louis to the wedding was a fun road trip with my best friend. It was so great to get so much time with her! Then I also got some quality time with my family which was wonderful as well. We all got to the shared house on Friday night and woke up to greet each other just in time to be tired and get ready for the wedding. Both the ceremony and the reception were held at a beautiful church where we also took the wedding pictures which was very convenient. Once we had our fill of their wedding cheesecake, we got to spend time together at the house doing a puzzle, games and talking. A small handful of us went to a Nike store and got new shoes then accidentally found a yummy ice cream place on our way home...Now I have a new sister-in-law and I’m sad to have such a short time to be with my family. 

Claire

This week was fun for the girls for the first half because they had their friends back to come to play with them. Claire is getting so fun to talk to and get her to explain things. She will decide that she loves homework only after saying, “not homework” but then have a blast finishing so fast while I’m doing dishes that I say, “how did you do that?” She gets so satisfied with herself but still needs to have me give reward hearts for her completed work. I love talking to her on the phone and she is so excited to hold daddy's phone and show me things even though it's only a phone call. I sometimes watch our nanny cam at home to see her showing me her stuff and she giggles because I can see what she's doing. Her love of princesses holds strong and anything that is pink or purple, fairy or unicorn, and all things sparkly are included in her castle collection. 

Shay

My precious baby really missed me and had a few sad times like when she got home with Chris after dropping me off at the airport and she realized I wasn’t with them. We talked on the phone and I realized how hard it is to understand her when I’m not in person! Time to start practicing enunciating all the parts of the words instead of letting the last letters get lost. The only other time she was upset was after church today and it made me really miss her! I wish I could have brought them because they would have had a lot of fun playing with their cousins. I can’t wait to give them hugs and kisses again, this was my first time willingly going on a vacation without them. Last time I was in the hospital with a ruptured appendix and was rather distracted most of the time almost dying to think about missing them.

These Girls!

 I LOVE MY DAUGHTERS!

Easter

We had a wonderful time teaching the girls about Jesus and Easter time. When I asked Claire what she learned from the Easter lessons, she said, "Jesus died" and I said, "yes, isn't it great that he died for us?" "No mommy, I don't want Jesus to die," she said in such a sweet little voice too, so I had to explain, "it was a good thing because he came back remember? And now we can see him again." Then she was happy. We had our Easter baskets full of presents yesterday with a new coloring book, a dress, a hat, and some candy for each of them. I also spent some time this week making them a princess matching game out of fabric which they play together but love it when daddy or I play with them too. Shay always has to find the card that has Elsa and Anna, and she wins no matter what if she gets them because she is more obsessed with them than any of the other princesses. I had planned to decorate Easter egg cookies with them but the weekend got away from us so we ended up just eating them instead.

Claire

Do you see how cute she is? She is getting to be more frustrating because she likes to bring toys out into the living room (why when you have a whole toy room??) and even though she pinky promises me she will put them all away...she always drags her feet. She likes to pretend she is soooooo tired and "falls asleep" on the couch when I ask her to start putting the toys away. All I have to say to get her butt in gear is, "ok I guess I'll throw them away..." then she uses her super princess speed to beat me to the toys I'm trying to pick up. Our meals have become easier for her to eat, but she doesn't like trying new foods at home, even though it is something I know we ate when we visited Idaho only a month ago. Silly girl, but just so darn cute when she is climbing into bed with us at 6:15am! They keep waking up earlier and earlier.

Shay

Just as cute right?! If you see her having pretty chubby cheeks it is because she is back into the habit of storing the food in her cheeks that she doesn't want to eat. Usually, it is the green beans or carrots that she saves for the last of the plate and then eats because I tell her she can't have a cookie unless she eats them. I still don't give her a cookie unless she swallows, but it is really annoying to see her 2 hours after lunch still have food in her mouth. After Claire taught her the 'climb on daddy' game they've been using him as their jungle gym whenever they got the chance this week. We had some rainy days this week and there was a slug they found in our garden bed. Chris pulled it out and put it on the ground, but Shay couldn't leave it alone and we had to put it out of sight. She is still changing her outfits several times a day but getting better at helping by first taking off her clothes so I have to help her put the other ones on so she isn't running around naked.

Spring time Growth

 Claire

We had a church talent show where she sang "I am a Child of God" for everyone then danced with her sister while I played a verse with my flute and then they fought over the microphone for the last verse. Luckily, everyone I talked to told me how precious they were and how they enjoyed seeing them because they are so cute. Claire has colored the rest of the giant Blue's Clues pictures by finishing 5 all by herself while I helped Shay with one, and she gets so into it sometimes. She also loves using her sister's birthday present more than Shay and painting with water. This week I have encouraged her to write her own name instead of copying from me because I saw her letters outside with chalk. It looks like a sloppy kid's letter but it makes me happy to see she is learning from the little homework we do every day.

Shay

Shay likes reading books more than coloring, probably because we have a Frozen book and that is her favorite to look at and find the singing picture. I planned a painting session today for the girls because Shay is old enough to not try to paint herself on the walls, and we painted egg cartons to prepare for Easter! I plan on putting the eggs that have candy in them in their cartons to go in their basket for the morning and then after church letting them do the egg hunt. Claire has been hiding the eggs for Shay for a week now because of how early I decorated the house, but I've specifically not hidden them for them so that it can be special on Easter day. We have been opening the Ressurection eggs we got last year and reading the scripture that goes with the story about Jesus so they can understand the real importance of Easter. I also put candy in with the symbol to make them excited about it...

Garden

Our herbs are growing a lot more than I thought they would and we see lots of little sprouts in each of the areas. The girls like to help water and check on them each day calling them "baby plants" and saying "aww how cute" when we check on them. I'm excited they are sprouting well but it is already getting really hot so I'll need to keep a close eye on how they are doing as we are heating up for summer already. I don't want spring to be over yet but there have been a few days we've had to open the windows at night to bring in some cool air already. My mint and green onions are still thriving, but before these herbs were the tomato and pepper plants that failed.

Marching into April

 Claire

Earlier this week we had some cloudy days but for the most part, she has been enjoying the sunshine and usually reminds me to put her sunscreen on when they play in the water. I make sure she does her homework every day and randomly one time I drew a heart on it when she finished a line so she required it for the rest of the page and week! It was pretty cute though and she started writing the alphabet outside with chalk without any help so I think once she finished out the papers from the book we have we can start writing words. She made a face on her apple while eating it for a snack and she seemed so proud of it, but couldn't replicate it the next day when she tried. I love this little stinker. Her hair is so long and slightly curly when I let it air dry, and I keep saying I should cut her bangs but now that they have grown a little they are splitting pretty well so I might not.

Shay

She has liked to dress up as the PJ Masks ever since getting pajamas and the masks for her birthday and she likes to wear shirts that have Elsa. Just in the last two days, she keeps finding more outfits including Ariel, Tinkerbell, and Starbeam, and bringing them to us so she can change her outfit 10 times a day. I now see that I need to teach her how to get dressed on her own...so expect to see more crazy outfits in the future as they pick out their own clothes too. It might not start right away because I want to get them a dresser that is easier for them to find their clothes in and teach them how to keep them organized a little. The more exciting thing for her today was finding her Catboy toy that has been hiding in the couch cushion for a week! 

Chris

The last week of rotations was at a clinic with a doctor that inspired him to dress up WITH A TIE all week! As much as he told me he doesn't like primary care, the doctor he is shadowing is very respectable and it is cool to hear how Chris looks up to him. The travel is quite annoying because now he is gone so much longer leaving to drive 30 minutes and not seeing home until after 6pm makes a very long day without him. He did have half days both Thursday and Friday because there weren't any patients after 1pm so it felt like a good start to the weekend. We also enjoyed some cuddles during General Conference...once...since most of the time I was in my sewing room working on sewing blankets. I had already cut out and laid the patterns out for them earlier and was able to complete 7 quilt tops and 2 table-topper quilt tops. I have 2 more blankets plus getting them batting, backing, and assembling them for our Relief Society service project. Then I have the fabric for one more table topper and half of another that are decorations for my future home that I dream of having a different theme for each month. So far I have Feb with hearts, April with flowers, August with summer fruits completed, then July has a patriotic look and will be done once I sew it, and March needs another St. Patrick's Day fabric to finish it's look. The rest of the months will be worked on in the future when I have the money and time, but I have the plans!