100% successful birthday party! Great idea, Aunt Krissa. Rylee had her 2nd birthday party at a fun, indoor amusement park. Megan had a blast, and I mean a blast! She ran from ride to ride, and we heard, "I'na do dat one again!" before each ride was even over. They had a roller coaster, which I didn't think she'd want to ride, that went forward and backward. She loved it - loved it. Megan played games, rode rides, and ate tons of pizza. She's already planning her next trip there.



*I love this picture of Megan (bottom left hand corner). What kind of face is that?*

Even after we wore them out sliding and shopping, they still had energy to come home and play dress-up. It was Rylee's first time to wear princess shoes, and she was a natural! She put those suckers on and clippity-cloppitied around the house like she'd been doing it forever. They were both very upset when we made them dethrone and deslipper to go to bed.

We took a family shopping trip to the outlets in Park City. We had a few agendas: Grandpa's wardrobe, my wardrobe, and Daddy's wardrobe. We made a dent in all three of those! Thankfully there isn't a kid in the stroller...



All of Grandpa's loot!

Megan and Daddy dragging their sled to the slide.


Daddy and Megan sliding down. Megan had a blast! She kept telling Daddy to go faster and faster.


Mommy riding solo.


Family pic at the slide.


And we wore them out!

Stroll down Main Street


Posing on a rock

"Grandma, I want to wear the ear sweaters to hear the movie."

The cousins came over for our weekly swim. Look, that table could've held more kids! They had such a good time together. It sure is fun to watch the older kids imagine and play. Austin was the sea monster for a while and had everyone running, but even coming back for more. About 30 minutes into our play, I jumped in the water with the kids - it was freakin' cold! The rain last night must've knocked it down 20 degrees. I cannot believe that they were even in the pool!

Daddy taught Megan how to doggie paddle. She has her own version of it in the little pool where she paddles her arms and walks on her knees. I caught her in action.

Hey, thanks to whomever told Megan about my woes because today was nearly a perfect day! She went over to Aunt Kelly's for a while so I could work, and she was good over there. She was an angel when we got home and for the rest of the evening. We had actual conversations about obeying, and she was so proud of herself when she made the right decision. I appreciate the emails and phone calls offering advice. I promise I'm listening. As recommended by someone today, I forced her to have "Megan time" in the playroom, and as she was playing she turned to me and said, "Hey, I'm having fun!" Can't argue with that! Wonder what tomorrow will bring...

I don't even know where to begin. We are having such issues over here in "Megan Land." I'm about this close {-} to just plain losing it. If it weren't such a long flight, I'd be on the next plane to Australia - alone. Mostly we're having discipline issues. Megan has plain gone berserk within the last 2 weeks. We are living the terrible twos gone bad. Among other things, things I am too embarrassed to disclose that she does, she will not mind; she will not go to bed without a 2 hour ordeal; she will not respond to any form of discipline; ETC. Daddy and I are at our wits end. She is precious and we love her dearly, but she has complete control over our family right now. I've done some soul searching, research, calling around, talking to other moms, reading, crying, and cussing (out of earshot of course). I have followed all the advice from the leading experts, but clearly they have never met Megan. The best explanation that someone pointed out to me today, that I truly had not even considered, is that we completely changed her entire life and routine with the move. It wasn't really affected when we lived with Gran and Papa because we still went to playgroup, the library, and school. But being down here, and with freakin' $4 gas, we've dropped off the face of the earth. We really only have interaction with other kids at library storytime (30 minutes, once a week), cousins for 2 hours once a week, and IF the boys can play next door. That leaves a ton of time that Megan and I spend isolated together. I honestly believe that most of what is going on around here is due to our isolation. Therefore, instead of running off to Australia, some things are about to seriously change around here. I've been lazy, and have made excuses, but no more. I'm getting a membership to either nannies4hire.com (comes highly recommended on Jon and Kate +8) or sittercity.com or something and finding someone to come watch her while I work. OR I'm going to enroll her in a two-day mother's day out - even if I have to drive an hour to get her there. I'm going to come out of my shell (yeah I have one) and find a playgroup around here too. Even if I have to buy my way in! We're setting up a routine and getting involved in things. Or else I'm going back to work in August - no lie.

This is one of Megan's most requested songs. She asks us to please sing "four and twenty blackbirds like Uncle Matt."

We were browsing through Best Buy last night, and Daddy found this perfect tripod thingy. It's like a Gumby tripod. It's a stand, or if needed, it bends to hang or attach to an object. I attached it to the fireplace tool stand. I'm so excited! Maybe now I'll be in more of the pictures...(sorry for the crappy pictures; I used my cellphone camera.)

Megan's been at Gran's, and I've been in a funk. What better thing to do than sit on the couch all day long? Yep, I've vegged on the couch for most of the day. Occassionally I worked, but mostly I watched TV. And I mean mostly. Oh wait, I did manage to throw an awesome dinner into the crockpot and bake some yummy Banana Bars. Other than that, I've been useless. Useless.

I was very excited for Megan to come home to give me something to do, but she threw a slightly psychotic fit about leaving Gran's house, which led to Gran asking her to stay another night. So, I'm kidless again. Daddy is playing softball; Megan is being spoiled by Gran and Papa. What's a girl to do? I'm headed to my scrapbook room.

Okay, so yesterday morning I woke up at 7:15 a.m. because the house alarm was going off. It does that, you know, when Megan opens the front door to see the "thing that just drove by". Scared us to death. I'll admit I forgot to walk through the house the night before to flip all the door latches. Won't be doing that again. Luckily Daddy caught her before she got to the front porch.

Okay, so this morning I woke up at 7:15 a.m. because the emergency alert system siren was blaring through my neighborhood. At first I thought it was an alarm for the gas drill behind our house. Then I rolled over and looked out the window at the dark, gray, cloudy sky just in time for the emergency alert system siren to start telling me to take cover immediately (first time I've ever heard a siren talk; that was weird). The kicker this morning is that I could've slept until 4 p.m. because Megan stayed at Gran's house last night after the game. Darn that storm that rearranged all of the items in my backyard and almost blew my house over!

Thank you Blurb for the wonderful Blog book. I received it today, and I am extremely happy. When I first saw the box, I was on my way in to call and complain. It didn't look like a 10 page book would fit in there, let alone my 384 page book. It is so thin, which is why I had to take the first picture. BTW, my pictures do not do it justice. I can just see Ashley R and Matt rolling their eyes at my pitiful pictures. I tried! You should've seen the first 20 I took and didn't post!!! :) Anyway, the book is perfect, and Daddy and I have had fun flipping through it tonight.

Megan has been asking to go to the Rangers game, so we cashed in our free tickets for tonight. It was SO crowded! Something about the Braves being in town? Anyway, we sat in a whole 'nother world out in left field, directly behind the foul pole - see that yellow beauty? We had the sun for about 30 minutes, but we also sat directly above where the dots run out during the 6th inning...imagine Meg's face when she saw that happen.


Megan and I shared dollar hot dogs and cheese fries - both not on the health food regimen, but delicious nonetheless.


And thank you Nolan Ryan for deciding not to be cheap anymore and bringing back our family's fine china. The Rangers plastic cups are back! (You Utah folks need some??)

Megan: I pooped in my panties!

Daddy: Oh Megan, why didn't you tell me you needed to go?

Megan: Well, I was playing Little People and all of a sudden I got dizzy and I had to poop and it was on the carpet and I'm sorry. We need to clean it up.

I haven't felt good today, so I just wasn't up to the 2 to 2 1/2 hour bedtime production tonight. I decided to rock Megan instead of putting her in her bed and listening to/dealing with the ups and downs, the pee-pee excuses, the "I want my daddddddy" screaming, crawling over the gate, etc. But she still pulled several stalling tactics; one being song analysis. She would ask me to sing a song and then she would proceed to pick apart and analyze the entire song. For instance, "the grass grows greener still" led to, "Mommy, was there a grasshopper in the grass that grew greener still?" I answered, "Sure. I bet so." And guess what that led to? A whole story about a grasshopper in the grass. I can't even begin to describe the conversation about "Sing a Song of Sixpence." She asked me what it all meant...I seriously needed Google in my rocking chair tonight. Even with all of the conversation, she finally fell asleep.

Megan: Aunt Krissa went to the doctor for her belly. They checked the baby growing in her belly?

Mommy: Yes, and everything is fine.

Megan: Is it a boy or a girl?

Mommy: We don't know yet.

Megan: I know. It's a girl.


Megan: I need to put Princess stickers on Daddy's present so he will love it.


Megan: I don't want to sleep in my bed! It will float down the river!


Megan: You have an achy in your tummy, Mommy? Let me get my Mouse-ka-tool and I will fix it for you, okay?


Megan: I need a new toot-frush that goes "grrrrrrrrrr" like you and Daddy have. (referring to an electric toothbrush)

All Daddy asked for (present wise) for Father's Day was to get to sleep in. Since I knew that was easier said than done, we bought him a present. Megan was beside herself that Daddy was in the house but not playing with her. She went to the bedroom door no less than 10 times, each time I grabbed her just in time. Needless to say, she kept waking him up with her screams for his attention when I would yank her away. I tried to distract her with wrapping his present but even that only lasted 5 minutes. See her pretty decorations? Daddy finally gave up and got out of bed so she could give him his present and yell Happy Father's Day at least 10 times. Megan got Daddy a digital picture frame for his desk at work.

We took Daddy out for brunch. He and Megan polished off a few pancakes. See her special Father's Day shirt? She was proud to wear it and tell people about it.

Not wanting to embarrass our Daddy with sentimental mumbo-jumbo, I am so grateful that Megan has such a wonderful, helpful, loving, sweet, cute, sexy, and fun Daddy.

Daddy, Megan, and I were having a discussion in the car today about relationships and nicknames.

Mommy: What does Papa call you?

Megan: Jellybean!

Mommy: What does Double G call you?

Megan: Meg-pie!

Mommy: What does Mommy call you?

Megan: Ant!

Puzzled looks...and then it hit me. I call her "Bug."

I'm not sure where it's going yet, but Gran said she could find a place....

Gran has been helping me decorate the house. Things don't just pop out of nowhere, so we've spent the past 2 days shopping. Behavior-wise, Megan has been from point A to point Z. We've had everything from pleasantly giddy to outright, uncontrollable tantrum. Apparently it is much more enjoyable to dance while curtain shopping...



And apparently, we wore her out! She fell asleep on the couch yesterday afternoon and could've slept through a tornado! She DID sleep through hammering, the TV, and even a visit from the boys next door. I thought maybe she was out for the night. Nope.

I'm trying to remember this conversation, word for word, because it was so priceless.

Mommy: Meg, we're going to go see Uncle Scott tonight because he's getting ready to leave for college. In 2 days!

Megan: Well, I want to go with him.

Mommy: Well, he's going to go by himself so he can learn. He isn't going to live at Grandma's house anymore.

Megan: Oh. Will Grandma be sad?

Mommy: Yes, she will be sad.

Megan: We should cheer her up.

Mommy: What should we do?

Megan: We should go over there and make her laugh. We need to be with Grandma more, okay?

Mommy: Okay, we'll do that.

Megan: And we should bring her some flowers. Some aquareene flowers.

Somehow that kid gets everything she wants because we stopped to get her flowers and the store actually had aquareene flowers! We brought them to Grandma, and she loves them. They are in a vase on her kitchen table.

Daddy and I were standing in the kitchen this evening; Megan was at the table eating dinner. Daddy leaned over, kissed me, and gave me a hug. Megan gave this little giggle/grunt and said, "Now you are married!"

Hope this brightens your day as much as it did mine!

Daddy and I have a really bad habit of frequently asking Megan if she has to go potty. The girl can go like 4-5 hours between pee-pee trips sometimes, but that makes us nervous. Sometimes I find myself asking her like every 15 minutes. Apparently I got on her nerves today because after I asked her one time she said with a sigh, "Please stop asking me." It was so full of attitude...

BTW, I am certifying her "potty trained." She has an accident of some sort about every 4th day. We're currently working on the concept of changing underwear every day because we need to, not because they are wet or poopy. She'd wear the same pair of Cinderella "beautiful gown" panties for a month if I'd let her. Her argument is that she kept them dry and didn't have an accident. Valid, but it's the concept we're working on.

So at about 10:30 a.m. I had this brilliant idea to go to the park. Why it took us half an hour to get out the door after said brilliant idea is beyond me. Anyway, we made it to the park, but Megan didn't want anything to do with the swings or the slide or the other kids. She simply wanted to throw rocks into the creek. So for 48 minutes, we threw rocks into the creek. Whoopee. It was like watching paint dry for me, especially since I really do hate outdoor anything. But she had a blast, which in turn means I had a blast since I love watching her have fun.