Sitting Down to Breathe

Holy heck. I can't remember a summer busier than this one, truly. I have so many posts waiting to be written, it's making my head spin just thinking about it. Between 2 brothers' weddings out West, many beach trips, a fifth birthday party to boot, eye surgery for Lil' Miss, too many doctors' appointments to count, tons of fun play dates and pool days, a lovely visit from Grandma, and a 10-year-anniversary trip in the middle of all that, we have been one busy family. But busy is good, because we have friends and family who help fill our time, and we would be lost without them.

So to appease the few who read this blog with some pictures of this past weekend, I present...

Eric and Meagan's Wedding; San Diego 2012

Ms. Bossy-Pants and her little minion after a 6-hour cross-country flight.

The Groom-to-be and Dad spending some hang time at the beach with the Bride-to-be and her fun family.

 Cute Meagan and her soon-to-be nieces with Grandma.

 Day 2 of our trip: Addison's DONE. At one point during the day, she sat down in the sand, exasperated, with puppy-dog eyes, and declared: "Home." That was minutes before Makenna ran off, up the beach stairs and through the parking lot, not to be found without 8 frantic adults running hells-bells up the beach, shouting her name...because she too was done. Ahhh, my kids are troopers.

Day 3: SAILING!!!

Makenna with Aunt Chalyse.

Is that not one of the cutest faces you've ever seen? (Addison's, although Drew's isn't bad to look at either:) This girl sat gripping for dear life to anyone that would hold her throughout the entire day on the water. Sea legs, she does not have.

           

Our final attempt at a family picture after almost 6 hours on the water. Wind-blown hair and rocking the weathered look: check.

 Day 4: WEDDING DAY!
Meagan and Eric were so relaxed about the whole day and everything leading up to it, I was utterly impressed. I think right before this picture (after the sealing and before the bride and groom made their grand temple exit), Addison once again declared, "Home." Can you see the exhaustion dripping down her little face?

Dad and his two younger sisters.

Presenting the new Mr. and Mrs. Eric Bird:

 Mom, Dad, Eric and Meagan. By the way, we were competing for valuable photo-op space with a few other wedding parties, as evidenced by the throng of people behind our family.

 Yep, you're right. Those are, in fact, my sexy compression hose that I only have the pleasure of wearing during the throes of pregnancy. I bet you wish you were me, right?

 My 2 favorite brothers and my new sister-in-law.

 Finally! We got a smile out of our ever-exhausted Addison. My day is complete. She sort of has a celestial glow about her, wouldn't you say?

 Makenna was in complete and utter heaven when Aunt Meagan let her carry the bouquet.  Then just when she thought life couldn't get any better, she was given the bouquet to take home...on the airplane...all the way to Virginia. Lucky us. Somehow she's ended up with both new aunts' bouquets after the weddings. You can bet this girl feels very loved.

 Cutting the cake.

 Grammy-poo and me after the luncheon (I think I may be too old to be calling her that. Nah, I'll give it a few more years.)

 The girls with their new aunt.

What a truly fabulous wedding and trip out to San Diego. We loved every single minute of it (minus the flat tire on the rental car, Makenna losing her brand-new shoe down a man-hole after tripping, the 3-hour delayed flight home because of insane lightning in Chicago, and losing our luggage). We are waiting anxiously for a chance to get back!

Happy Birthday to my sweet girl! She's 1/2 a decade old today and my, how time flies. I interviewed her today and this is what she told me...

Makenna loves to cook in a major way. She's always asking me, "What ingredients are in here Mom?" This was our exchange last night while cutting up toppings for our homemade pizza:

Me: Makenna, maybe you could cut them in strips for the pizza and not cut them so small.
Makenna: Mom, this is how my kids like me to cut the vegetables, okay?

A generous family in our ward passed down a fabulous play kitchen to us a couple of weeks ago and she's always down in the basement, preparing meals for me, her dolls, and her willing little sister. Her TV show of choice is Cupcake Wars on the Food Network. She watches it religiously on DVR and is pretty darn good at predicting who will "take the cake" in the competition. She's so serious about it, she cracks me up.

She's such a little nurturer, not only to her baby dolls, but to Addison as well. She helps me clean the house, get her sister dressed in the morning, and run our never-ending errands without so much as a grumble (usually). One thing I love as of late and am totally milking is her go-to phrase, "It's okay Mom. Let me do it because you're pregnant." For this reason alone, I would consider consecutive pregnancies for the next 5 years. I have no doubt she will be one fabulous mother someday.

Makenna loves playing with her dollhouse during quiet time and after she's done getting ready in the morning. She loves playing games with us and doing puzzles.


 We love you sweet girl and are so, so excited to see what this year holds for you!

Cutest Terror on the Block

My brothers and I grew up listening to stories of adventure, trouble and pranks from my dad over the dinner table. We waited anxiously for him to tell a new story we'd never heard before of his boyhood adventures and then we'd beg him to retell the ones we already knew by heart. Any ounce of a funny story where Dad had caused trouble or set out on an adventure as a child was sweet ear candy to us. The same for my mom, but looking back, it seems like most of them belonged to my dad.




(Dad, far left, 1960. Doesn't he just look like trouble, but too cute to stay in it for long? Hmm, I wonder where Addison gets it...)




Poor, poor Grandma Bird. My heart goes out to her. Never once, in the midst of all that story-telling, did I ever take into account what Grandma must have gone through raising SEVEN rambunctious children.

This week I think I've gained a glimpse of what it must've been like raising my dad and his six brothers and sisters. My sweet, precious, hilarious 2-year-old is starting to live up to all the promises of her age. "Trouble-maker" is a gross understatement. "Simple curiosity" is a compliment.

These last 3 weeks I have earned a whole row of stars under my Motherhood badge from my dear Addison alone. And just so you don't think I'm being melodramatic, a quick recount of my  Misadventures in Motherhood:

Scene 1: I'm taking a quick 5-minute-Mom-shower one morning last week when Addison walks up, pulls back the curtain and says, "Look Mommy. Me?" She has my nail polish unscrewed and is pointing to a no-longer-painted nail. I quickly tell her to put the lid back on and put it on my dresser. "We'll do it after I get done." 2 minutes later I turn off the water and step out and I see that the desirable nail polish bottle is gone...and so is my 2-year-old. I find her in her bedroom...painting her fingers.Yep, the nail alone is child's play. This one is going for the entire finger. I grab it, look under her pudgy hand and, to my horror, see that she's given her cream micro-fiber chair a makeover, as well as her hand. Now we have an accent piece for the nursery in none other than hot pink. I would've taken a picture to help me look back and smile one day, but smoke was billowing out of my nostrils and ears simultaneously...

Scene 2: This morning I walked into her room to find an entirely new box of tissues carefully taken out, one by one, and blanketed across her floor. Puppy dog eyes and shrugged shoulders greet me as I look down at her with hands on the hips. That little stinker...

Scene 3: A few months back I invested in a dentist-requested mouth guard because I grind my teeth at night like it's nobody's business. 4 days after I picked up the $200, specially made, clear mouth guard, Addison swiped it and hid it in the best hiding spot ever. We're still trying to find out where, exactly, that hiding spot may be. We're hoping it's not in a landfill somewhere in Northern Virginia. That Addison of ours...

Scene 4: Just returning from Costco this week, Makenna and I are unloading groceries and I'm talking with my mom on the phone. Within 15 seconds of tossing my purse and keys inside the door and returning to the trunk for another load, Addison has rushed in, shut the door to the garage and, wait for it...dead bolted it. Who knew such a shrimp could even reach the dead bolt? Not I, my friends.When she realized she was in a dark basement and couldn't reach the light, she screamed. When she realized she was alone and nobody was coming in to get her, she wailed. All efforts to open the door were useless. She was screaming too loud to even understand me. We went around to the front door: dead bolted. We went around to the sliding glass door: locked and the wood pole in the runner. All the windows are locked. I start to question my safety measures. Why, just this once, couldn't I have been a little more reckless with my precautionary measures? After 15 minutes of listening to my baby go berserk inside, I finally called 911 (this is the 2nd time I've called 911 for Addison in the past 7 months. I'm considering putting them on speed dial). Within 10 min. the fire department had arrived and was axing through our deadbolt. Kind of like this, but with a little less sneering...

  
Needless to say, we're taking a family outing tomorrow morning over to Home Depot to not only purchase a new deadbolt for our badly dented door, but also invest in a much-needed spare key. (BTW, I know you're probably saying, "What family of dummies doesn't even keep a spare key hidden somewhere?" I was actually saying that same thing before I remembered that we've never needed one because we have a keyless entry on our garage door. 'Nuf said.)

So that, my friends, is our darling 2-year-old. Makenna looks like Mother Theresa compared to this one. Thank heavens she really is too cute for words, otherwise she may have already been sold to the highest bidder. Lord have mercy on me...and her.

Guess What?

"The Sisters Mann" are pleased to announce...

...they will be adding one more to their show coming late December. Tickets will go on sale shortly. Stage design is in the works (we're on the lookout for bunk beds). These two are anxiously awaiting the news of whether their long-awaited trio will finally include a little gentleman or if their stars have aligned and they're blessed with another little diva. Check back mid-August to see the finalized cast list.

p.s. Pampers were on Clearance at Safeway yesterday for FIVE DOLLARS a bag. Guess who's cart was filled to the hilt?

And everything after...

Since I felt Daniel and Chalyse's wedding needed its own separate post, here is everything that came afterward on our three-week schlep through Utah/Arizona. 

My cute sisters-in-law, minus Heather who was in Texas. It's not often we're all together, but we have fun visiting when we are.

  

Grandma Karen with my girls and two of their cousins. Makenna and Addison were in love with Mayley, whose birthday falls between the two of theirs. 

Aunt Melinda becomes the "resident nail stylist" whenever we come to town and the girls LOVE it. Addison got her first mani-pedi and proved every bit worthy by holding stock-still until everything was dry. (Why is it I wait to do so many things with my youngest that I was so gung-ho about doing earlier on with my oldest? Does anyone else do this?)

 

Makenna with cousin Nathan, who is a week apart in age. They've only met a few times since they live across the country from eachother, but they were exceptionally cute to watch together and I think they would become fast friends if a certain family decided to move out this way;)

 

The girls and I were able to spend a day with Jenn and Magnolia while Drew was doing a deposition down in Provo (seriously? Work on our family trip?). It always seems to feel like we're transported back to Freshman year in DT whenever we reunite. (No, we didn't moon anyone out of our 6th floor dorm or steal girls' clothes while they were in the shower this time. But given the chance...). But we did make a Slurpee run (at noon, though, instead of midnight) and guess who gave Mags her first Mountain Dew Slurpee? Yours truly.

 

We had to make a stop-off at the Y before we left Utah. BTW, this is the day we're driving down to Arizona. We started off the car ride down to Provo from Lehi with Addison up-chucking everywhere...for a long time. Poor thing. It was in her hair. It was all over her clothes and only blanket. It got down into her car seat under the cover. It got all over Makenna's hair/clothes. IT WAS EVERYWHERE. So that, my friends, provided the smell for our entire ride down  to AZ. 

But back to the Y. We stocked up on BYU gear for the new season: new sweatshirts and T-shirts. We stocked up on chocolate-covered gummy bears (it's possible we may have purchased 3 pounds of these and it's also possible they're already gone- I think they're laced with meth, or something equally addicting). We toured the campus and oohed and aahed over all the changes (I used to think my parents were so dorky and old every time we made a trip to BYU growing up and listening to them do the same exact thing. Are we really there already?). Last stop before heading out on the road to Phoenix? Why Burgers Supreme, of course. Could not leave town without gulping down Fry Sauce, with a few fries, and our favorite sandwiches.

 Wait, did I say our last stop? Strike that. It was meant to be our last stop until we were passing Fat Cats on University Ave. when some extremely intelligent and honest lad side-swipes us and keeps on driving (speeding) Did I mention we were in my parents' car? Don't fear, my 007 husband heroically chased him down University and maneuvered his way through little residential streets until the sucker realized his efforts were futile and that we had him where we wanted him. 

...2 hours later and we're finally leaving Provo onto Arizona (free advice to anyone who wants it: when you call 911 and report an accident you've been in, don't say that everyone's fine and that you're not blocking any traffic. I think it's okay to fib a little so that you're not shoved to the back of the line and end up waiting over an hour for a slow-talking cop to arrive and "investigate" the scene. Just sayin').

 

Midnight- we arrive in Arizona!!! The girls finally fell asleep in Prescott (about 50 minutes from home, which was pretty much as good as not falling asleep at all). For the next TWO WEEKS, we lived in the pool. The girls were in heaven. Hence, the following 300 pool shots. 

 Seriously? Do they come any cuter?

 The mats were a smashing success with these two. Surfing, laying out, water slides, etc. etc.

                                                                       

                                Drew got me an iPhone for Mother's Day (the man totally spoils me) and I have totally had too much fun with Instagram. I LOVE IT. 

 

 Can I just mention, rather proudly, that my girl started swimming WITHOUT floaties while we were there? Holy heck, I was flabbergasted. She swam across the pool and back again. She is a rockstar in my opinion. 

It wouldn't be a trip home without a Diamondbacks game. My dad has REALLY good seats this season and the girls loved being so close to the famous bobbleheads/Baxter the bobcat/cheerleaders/etc. The fireworks weren't too shabby either.
 

 And lastly, these little lasses love to play dress-ups (Makenna a little more than Addison). And Grandma's a pretty good fashion designer.

 New girlie-girl outfits from Grandma. Absolutely love them!

  

 And finally, the plane ride home to D.C. I was flying by myself and desperate to keep the peace (translation: the girls took full advantage of this mama in every way possible; i.e. cranberry/sprite cocktail from the flight attendant, RingPop that lasted the entire 2nd leg, and whatever movie she wanted...and then three more). What can I say? This girls knows how to fly in style.

 

 Now only 2 more months until our next cross-country flight, except this time I'll have the hubs flying to and from with me. Cake walk, folks, cake walk.