Claire is 4

Happy Birthday to my darling Claire!

We had a great birthday party with friends from the neighborhood, church, family, and Blake's co-workers (who invited Claire to be their flower girl).  It was a Princess Party.  If Disney made plates and dolls in Jasmine it would have been a Princess Jasmine Party.  The other princesses were acceptable.  Sheesh.

That night we had a visit from the Binky Fairy (who took away the pacifiers and left presents).   She had a few meltdowns for the first 3 days afterward saying she wasn't 4 any more and tried to put the prizes under her pillow to get them turned back into binkies, but on day 4 she said, "Hey, Mom!  I don't need my binky to sleep!"  Hooray!

The last night.  Getting one last fill.

Many dimes and Disney Princess Lipgloss (she wrote the Binky Fairy and asked for pink & red lipstick)

And we took her 4 year old pictures this week.  Her Keroppi outfit is the one that gets worn first every time we do a new load of laundry.  The princess dress has been worn every day since her birthday.

She was standing on stairs and told us she was getting a book from the library shelf.  Doesn't she just look like she's in Princess land?

And now she's 4.  I hung up a 5T sweater in her closet today.  I have a child big enough to wear kid clothes.  Amazing.

Anson's first Clap

Anson started clapping today.  I'll post the video clip here eventually...

His 9 month check-up went well.  He's still in the 95th percentile for height but is now in the 10th percentile for weight.  Long and lean.  I asked if the drop to the 10% for weight was a concern.  The doctor looked at me and said, "If you or your husband were significantly different builds then we'd be having a different conversation.  I'm not worried." 

A Flurry

I just had a crazy weekend.  Blake left early on Wednesday to drive his parent's moving van (with about 1/3 of their stuff) to Utah.  I was a single parent for a few days, which was really hard even though Amanda came and was a huge help in the afternoons. 

The kids and I left on Friday night to fly to Utah.  Dad dropped us off at the OAK airport.  We waved goodbye only to hear my flight had been cancelled.  I ended up having to call him to turn around and pick me up and then drove over to SFO (aaaaaaah!) to catch a flight that was only 10 minutes later than my original flight in OAK.  I had to go through the security check line with my stroller in one conveyor belt and ALL my other stuff in the other.  And then Claire was too afraid to go through the metal detector gateway by herself. Finally a nice lady offered to hold her hand on the other side while she waited for me and that worked.  I got to the gate, slapped my tickets on the counter, they gave me my seat assignment without even talking to me and rushed me onto the plane....  CRAZY!!! 

Maybe it was because we were on a flight to Salt Lake, but the other passengers were so helpful and understanding, offering to help with the stroller or bags or with the kids or just offering words of encouragement or congratulations for handling everything so well.  The kindness of so many strangers was reassuring about humanity in the world. 

So we arrived (phew) and Blake picked us up to drive to Logan.  Logan is an 1.5 hours from SLC in good weather.  We had a BLIZZARD as we were trying to go through the mountain canyon wishing we had a snow plow instead of a car and almost ended up on the wrong side of the road. We got to the hotel finally.  Blake had to go back to the car 3 times to get things we'd left in there.  The kids didn't fall asleep until 11:30PM (Anson was fussy and Claire was too excited).  We were up at 6:30 to get ready for dropping the kids off to a babysitter and going to the sealing in the Logan Temple at 9.  That went well and was the whole reason I came out.  It was great to be in the temple with so many of our family members - Blake's siblings, parents, grandparents, aunts, cousins.  Tiffany and James are now eternally bound with their adopted children.  I'm so happy for them to not only have 3 beautiful children but that they are joined forever.  The rest of the day was fun spending it with our family there: lots of food, a nap! and swimming.

That night Anson again didn't go to sleep until 11:30 again.  Then Claire woke up at 3:00 vomiting every 30 minutes until 5 AM and then every 15 minutes until 8 AM.  That's never fun, but less fun when you're in a hotel on your last day of clothes for the trip and without your normal sick solutions.

Somewhere in the middle of it all she was getting pretty delirious.  The only things she said all night besides moans and groans and hurling sounds were "my tummy doesn't have room for chips anymore" (the last thing she ate), "my belly button hurts", and "When Santa comes tomorrow he's going to bring me a pink T-shirt with Batman on it"  (I laughed out loud for a while at that one!). 

About 5 or 6 AM I decided we needed to do laundry after hand-washing yet another set of icky clothes. I gathered up the kids laundry and went downstairs to find the "Market" was sold out of laundry detergent due to the basketball tournament teams making a run on the laundry room before they checked out the day before.  Poor Blake had to run to Walmart in the middle of the dark, snowy night.

Before I left home I had a prompting twice to put Pedialyte (an electrolyte drink for kids) in my bag.  I almost ignored it but I'm SO glad I didn't.  Once she started sipping the drink every so often she started feeling better.  She got a blessing from Blake and Adrian at 8AM and finally slept a whole 1.5 hours without vomiting until 9:30 AM.  What a relief.  Then she got up and started talking and acting normal except she asked for lots of food for breakfast but didn't actually eat anything.  Still, the kids and I didn't go to Church for the baby blessings to make sure she wasn't sick and sharing germs. 

I'm so thankful for motherly promptings from the Spirit and for the healing power of Priesthood Blessings.  Without those two we probably would have had to rush a dehydrated child to the emergency room and I'm not sure I would have been on the plane to come home last night.  I told Claire that Jesus has the power to heal people like we read about in the scriptures making the blind to see and deaf to hear and the sick to get better, and that Daddy has that priesthood power from Jesus, and that she can ask for Daddy to give her a blessing to get better too if we believe.  Somehow that's something I've always known intellectually but saying it to an almost 4 year old sick and weak in her bed made the connection in my heart that it is the same power of Jesus Christ that we can call on, too.  Somehow the priesthood power today and Jesus' miracles in the Bible were separate in my mind but now I realize that they are same.  That realization leaves me with a sense of awe and appreciation.

So now I'm home.  I'm still watching Claire's tummy and I'm nothing short than exhausted.  I'm taking a sick day to recover and make sure I don't get sick with the same thing.  Today that's my priority.  Tomorrow, back the grindstone.

Anson at 8 months

And so it starts.  Anson just keeps getting older and older.  He's definitely not a baby anymore.  He has a sense of humor.  He has an idea of where he wants to be.  He's starting to copy the sounds I make, or at least tries it.  He's not rejecting tummy time so much.  He plays for "long" periods of time by himself or with his sister.  He looks at the right person when you say their name.  He's babbling with mixed sounds and inflection in his voice.  He doesn't want to eat anything from a spoon, he wants to feed himself with his hands (and yet doesn't chew so just ends up stuffing his cheeks with food bits).  He cocks his head to one side and smiles when people say hello.  Where's the baby?

Here's what our Anson is like at 8 months.

And so it starts: getting dressed up by Sister when Mom's not looking.  She doesn't even put the bow on her head.  Why his?

And so it starts: standing.  He's so happy to get in the tub he locks his knees and hangs on to the side when I show him the water filling.  Just try to get him to sit down...

That double-armed flapping thing he does in the beginning is his self-created, "Pick me up!" sign.  He's been doing that so long I can't remember when it started.  He's been saying "da-da-da-da" for maybe a month already but this video clip night we knew he knows what it means now.  And just so you know, he said "Mama" twice today. Yay!!!  That's the first I've heard it.  Whenever I asked him to say "ma-ma-ma" before all I got was "Ba" or a kiss.  So it's official.  "Dada" is his first word, and "Mama" is his second.  It doesn't matter what he says next now.  :)

Kitchen Counters

I was reflecting last night about my kids and my kitchen counters.  Both of my children are content to sit on the counters while I prepare food.   When Claire was small she played with toys within reach while I got meals ready.  Now she's old enough to start "helping" and sits on the counter to help and nibble at food while it's being prepared.  Anson now plays on my counter while I prepare food.  And sometimes when Claire sees Anson on the counter she wants to be up there, too.  I may need a larger kitchen.

It's funny the things that end up being memories.  I've gone through our photo library to document some of my counter moments with both of the kids.

Baby Claire

Helper Claire

Baby Anson - he's going to grow out of that counter space faster than Claire did!

Snitching Food - I don't even care if they eat less dinner because they've eaten raw veggies while I'm cooking.

My New Button

You may have noticed I added a button to the bar on the right.  It's for mormon.org.  I really like the new site.  I submitted my profile and it's "Pending Review".  Someday, hopefully soon, when you click on the button it will take you to see me on the site, too. :)

Getting the Most Out of Your Money

I was asked to present an evening of ways to get the most out of your money for our ward Relief Society weekday meeting.  Keep in mind that I'm a tax professional and not a financial planner.  Yes, there is cross-over, but I even paid for a financial planner a couple years back to help me since I didn't have the time to look into where to allocate my funds for the highest yields, etc.  That said, I'm still comfortable with numbers and talking about money so I accepted the assignment. 

I was worried 1) that I'd run out of things to say or not have any really good advice and 2) that no one would be there.  But the night went well!  There was a good turnout and the discussion about how to save money with everyone contributing, in my opinion, was great.  We have great sisters in our ward and everyone had good ideas.

Rather than keep these ideas to those of us in the room I thought I'd share them here for you, too.  If you want to learn more about a topic leave a comment and I can do another post about it.  Or, call me. :) I prepared the list and added the last section for things that came up in our discussion.

Budget
Church Guidelines
  Pay Tithes/Offerings
  Avoid Debt
  Use a Budget
  Build a Reserve
  Teach Family Members
Mint.com - Free online for tracking expenses, budgeting, saving goals, & more tools
Balance Checkbooks & Credit Card Statements
Practice with Cash Envelopes
Family discussions
Needs vs Wants
Take a second look at fixed bills

The Church’s Provident Living Resources (providentliving.org)
Family Finances Pamphlet
Online Financial Course: Peace in Your Hearts
Quotes and Talks from Church Leaders
One for the Money: Guide to Family Finances
Online Financial Calculators
Family Finance Lesson Materials
Additional Resources

Protect Yourself - Insurance (An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure)
Home
Health
Life
Auto

Tax Planning
Avoid late payment, late filing, & underpayment penalties
401(k) Contributions
IRA (Traditional and Roth) Contributions
Health Savings Accounts
Dependent Care Savings
Itemized Deductions (above standard deduction amounts)
  state tax (withheld and tax paid)
  contributions (tithing, fast AND mileage for service/callings)
  home mortgage & real estate tax

“Free” Money
Reduce/Eliminate debt
Credit Card Points (IF you pay off monthly)
Swagbucks.com - earn points for Google searches
401(k) Employer Match
Charitable Contribution Employer Match
Online discounts (e.g. retailmenot.com)
Discounts for paying up front

Groceries
Eliminate empty calories (drink more water, don’t buy soda, chips, candy, McDonalds, etc.)
Seasonal produce (on sale or from gardens, esp. high yield plants)
Shop the grocery sales
Meatless Monday
Coupons
   Combine store sales with manufacturer coupons
   Sunday-only newspaper subscription
   Utah Deal Diva’s Couponing 101 (utahdealdiva.com)
   coupons.com and coupons.redplum.com

Other Ideas
Sentimental or home-made gifts
Lengthen time between hair cuts
New uses for old things
Birthday clubs (Toys-R-Us, Aveda, etc)
Customer loyalty programs & emailings (Huggies, Pampers, WorldMarket, JoAnn Fabric, Michaels, etc.)

More from the Group Discussion
Pre-paid cell phones, especially for teenagers
$10 Costco cash from Schiff Vitamins
Allocate a % of your paycheck to direct deposit into a savings account
4 glass jars for kids's savings: Charity, Fun, Mid-Term Savings, and Long-Term Savings
Goodwill sells (with zero sales tax) excess inventory from Target and Orchard Supply Hardware
Use loose change to start savings accounts
Put coupon savings from your grocery trip into a savings account
Cook from scratch
Build it, sew it, make it yourself and consider trading/teaching skills
Pay extra on your loan payments (specify that the payment goes toward principal)


I do need to take a minute to credit two people in my life that have taught me about these topics.  My Mom taught me a lot when I was still a child about budgeting, distinguishing needs and wants, building up savings and many more fundamentals that I've been able to build on.  My sister-in-law Jessica, the Utah Deal Diva herself, has given me many of my recent tips & tricks and is my couponing inspiration.  Thank you, Mom!  Thank you, Jess!