A Birthday for Laney

Yep...two years ago I was in such agony with the contractions I wasn't suppose to have...oh wait, this isn't about me. (sigh)

Laney turned two today. We've had an incredibly busy day today and I am still have a lot to do. So, here are a few pictures of my cutie as she enjoys her special day. Highlights of her day included: our birthday celebration breakfast, her cousin Alex's baptism, eating lots of yummy food afterwards, shopping, playing, and having dinner with Grandma and Grandpa. opening the presents, and playing with them after.

I usually have fun as I try to make fun cakes for her. I loved her ladybug cake from last year, but this year's flower cake leaves a lot to be desired. Maybe if I'd had food coloring...oh well, better luck next year. (She's eating one of the petals in the picture.) Acutally she didn't really eat her cake this year either. I think she didn't like the homemade icing. (Don't worry Laney, I'm not offended, I don't like it either.)

I love you baby girl and can't wait to see what this year holds for you!

It Was Glorious!

Okay, so it was a glorious thing!

And it happens so rarely that it made it even better.

And, it was complete with dreams and everything.

I was able to take a nap today for the first time in forever!!

I seized the opportunity after church today. I had been fighting to stay awake until Laney went down for her nap. As I was placing her in her crib, her "big girl" bed in the corner of her room caught my eye. I thought, "Do I dare?" Yep. So I went and threathened the boys to within an inch of their lives that they WERE IN NO WAY to fight and that I was going to take a nap. (Husband unfortunately was sick in our bed with the flu!)

And it really happened! I once had a boyfriend in college give me a poster of a sleeping kitten that said Wake me in time for the weekend. I also remember, when said boyfriend, in a phone conversation (he at work, me at home after class) asked me to call him back after I had taken a nap. Wait for it...what, me grumpy when I don't get sleep? Never. Right, husband?

In case it's not obvious enough, I love naps!!

A Birthday for Steve

Happy Birthday Steve!! I am excited to spend another birthday with you. It's 6:40 in the morning and our baby girl woke me up at 5:30 a.m. to go potty. So I am just waiting for everyone to wake up so we can begin our fun day. I love our tradition of going out to eat breakfast with our family to celebrate birthdays. (How did that get started by the way?) I can't wait for the stuffed french toast from IHOP. Then I need to finish wrapping your presents. And to finish off the day, a BBQ! Yummy!

I LOVE YOU!!!

Yes, We Are Daughters of a Heavenly Father

These are the beautiful women (minus one who couldn't be with us) I work with each week at church:

We had a great girls night out at the temple to get ready for Girl's Camp, compelete with dinner and everything. My only regret was that our night ended way too soon. Girl's Camp is going to be quite the experience and I can't wait!!

Lindsey, Celeste, Mikki, Shavonne, Kelly, and me.

If you've been to Girl's Camp, what do you think I should look forward to the most?

He's Not My Son

So Sunday night into Monday morning was one of those nights. Read my post about this night, and you'll understand what happened here. But, in case you don't want to read, here's the short of it:

Ethan high fever and saying ear hurts since Saturday.

Tyler throwing up at midnight.

Ethan throwing up at 4:30.

Steve and Tiercy awake all night.

I just knew that I had to take Ethan to the doctor's because I was certain he had an ear infection, if not a double ear infection. He did. Because of his recent bout with the flu, the doctor wanted to give an injection of antibiotics for the first day and 9 days of oral antibiotics for the rest. (Or I could have given him 3 injections [1 on Monday and 1 per day for the next two days] which means no course of oral antibiotics. We all know that I avoid needles at any cost. I would never choose the shot. But I asked the doctor if he would mind if I let Ethan make the decision.

Ethan's face quickly lite up at the possibility of a shot. In his mind, shot = a trip to the dollar store. In my mind, shot = irrational fear and great dread. I told him it would hurt a little but that he could count to 10 like Uncle Todd (when Todd used to get allergy shots) to try and beat the nurse. He was game. Ethan was a trooper and did great. He ended up counting to ten 6 different times because the shot took that long. The nurse later told him that she has grown men not handle the shot as well. Way to go Ethan!! He didn't even cry!!

Furthermore, when Ethan tasted his first dose of the oral antibiotics yesterday, he asked if he could get the other 2 shots and trips to the dollar store. He's so not my kid!!

No More Diaper Duty for Me...Hopefully

Alayna woke up with dry diaper for the first time ever this morning!!! Wow, maybe it is working. Let me exlpain.

Yesterday was the day! I decided I was going to try and potty train Alayna. She has been showing signs for awhile. And, I decided the effort that goes into potty training would be worth it since I was spending large portions of my day getting Laney to keep a diaper on and getting her dressed 20 times a day because she insisted on sitting on the potty.

I read a book that says your child could be potty trained in 1 day. (insert sarcasm here) We're still working on it. She is doing great. Yesterday she fought it and didn't want to go in the toilet but didn't want to wet her pants either...she was in a catch 22. She cried everytime she went in the toilet. It made me feel awful and like I was the meanest mom ever. At one point she was literally falling asleep on the toilet because she was fighting going so badly.

Fairly quickly she could recognize that she needed to go and would tell me. We only had 4 accidents and many success on the toilet. She even slept through her nap without a diaper.

Today our only accident was because she told me and we didn't make it in time. And we have had many success today, with even a smile after one of them. Yahoo. We still have a lot of progress to make...but hopefully she'll keep getting better and better. If not, I am in for a long road.

Here is a post from Steve's perspective about yesterday:

Steve: Hello, this is Steve

Caller: Hi hon

Steve: Hi

Caller: Baby went potty on the toilet can you praise her.

Steve: Sure...great job! You went poop on the potty! You did a great job.

(That's our favorite part. Thanks for the praise hon...but I've been going on the potty for 35 years now. = >)

Caller: Hold on, let me put her on the phone

Steve: Oh, okay

Caller: She's ready.

Steve: Great job, baby! Did you go poop on the potty?

Baby Caller: (Silence)

Steve: Baby? Did you go potty?

Macho Mechanic: (Weird expression while walking by my office looking at me).

Steve: Great job for going poopoo!

Baby Caller: (Silence)

Caller: Okay, gotta go. Hang up

Steve: Hang up

Ummm...yeah...seriously!

Silly Me

My mom and her husband are coming for a visit in July. I am so excited to see them! And, I am also excited because Steve and I are going on an overnight excursion while they are here. She has graciously offered to watch the children for us. A few months ago when Steve and I were discussing this excursion we talked of many possible places to go. However, in the end, I told Steve that I would rather spend our time in Salt Lake doing things (movies, spa, bowling, anything) rather than spend our time together in an airport and or an airplane so we could fly somewhere.

Well about three weeks ago, I was checking our website history to find a website that I had surfed but couldn't recall the name of it. While checking out the history, I came across many websites about San Diego. All of my reasonable, logical arguments of why we should stay in the Salt Lake area on our excursion went out the window and I was excited. I just knew that Steve was planning a surprise get away to San Diego for us. Yahoo!! But, now the delima, should I ruin the surprise for him and let him know what I saw, or act ignorant?

The choice was taken from my hands when a few nights later.

Steve says to me: You do remember that I have that conference in San Diego in a week and a half?

Tiercy: You do, what conference?

Steve: You know, the one I had to switch to May because of Girl's Camp.

Tiercy: Oh yeah. I do remember now. (In my mind, disappointment because we weren't going there on our excursion after all.)

Either way, I am really excited to have some one-on-one time with Steve. There are times it's hard vying for his attention with everything else going on.

Welcome home Steve. I missed you! And you're right, San Diego would have been a lot more fun if we were there together.

Who is Who REVEALED

I am on the:

Picture A: Left
Picture B: Middle
Picture C: Left

Alisha, very smart observation to notice that one of us, my twin Paige was dressed in blue, and I mostly in red. When I talked to Paige the other day, I asked her if she was wearing blue because it had been/is her favorite color. My favorite color is red and I think always has been.

Good job to Leann and Kelly! and almost Steve (if only you hadn't vacillated back and forth so much on the middle picture)!

A Story and Who is Who?

Okay, so my mom, enjoying retirement and the time on her hands has decided that she wanted to submit a story from my childhood to a major newspaper. She submitted and they in return emailed her and asked for a picture. The picture she wanted I had in my possession, therefore, I (actually Steve -thanks sweetie) had to scan it and email it to her. I thought I would share the story with you.

As siblings tend to do, Paige and I got into a fight, (is this even worse when you are identical?) one day when we were younger, don't remember the specific age. It must have been a doozy, because she approached my mom after and said, "I wish my egg hadn't split." Ahhh...only the words of an identical twin.

The other funny thing: my mom had not told Todd about this little endeavor. So, one day Todd was driving to work with his carpool and was sitting in the back seat. He was reading the paper on his way and opened the Living section to see this picture (the first one below) of himself plus 2 staring back at him.

Here are some of the pictures:

Picture A

Here is the picture to be submitted. I think we were 10 years old here. Am I on the right or the left, because we know I'm not the one in the middle?

Picture B

I really am not sure of our age here, but given the teeth that are missing, I would say 6. Which one am I (hint: I am not wearing brown.)

Picture C

This was a Christmas card my mom sent out. I am guessing that I am 5 or 6 here. Which one am I?