Adriana made a huge mess and ended up staining a section of our carpet red. I was starting to get upset as I was scrubbing the carpet trying to get the stain out, and it was probably obvious in my voice as I called to Adriana to come help me with the cleaning. I was given a great reminder of priorities, though, when Adriana ran out of her room and said, "It'll be OK, Mom. I said a prayer to Heavenly Father that we can fix it, so I know it will all be OK." And you know what, it was. :)

That giggle gets me every time.

I really do.

So apparently I failed to mention in that previous post that Miriam created her "facial hair" all on her own. She was having pudding and that's what she looked like when she was done--we didn't clean up her face at all or try to make it look more like her daddy's facial hair. That was all Miri-bug.

Grandma Jeanne was in town the past two weeks to help with a new baby and visit with family and friends. We all loved getting to see her, and Miriam especially looked forward to spending time with "Deenie, Deenie!" as she has dubbed her Grandma Jeanne. Lucky for us, Grandma Jeanne comes out to visit several times a year. There are definitely certain perks to living in Utah, where all the out-of-town friends and relatives seem to eventually come to visit. A switch for Kenny and me, since we both grew up in military families and were always the ones coming to Utah for vacations.

Last Sunday when we were at Glen and Octavia's house, Adriana got smacked in the eye by the teeter-totter on their swingset. She's got quite the shiner. We're not exactly sure how, but she even lost most of the eyelashes on her eye. We were very grateful that the injury is just on the eyelid and around the eye--her eye itself didn't seem to be damaged at all and her vision hasn't been affected. The pictures don't do it justice, but here's the eye at breakfast the next morning.
The swelling has gone down almost completely. I was a little worried that it might scar so I bought some Vitamin E cream today to rub on it. Adriana didn't want to hold still for a picture tonight after her bath, but this is what the eye looks like now.Kenny calls her "my little boxer" and he proudly showed her eye off at work yesterday. I'm just glad we don't have any family pictures scheduled for the next while. Eyelashes will grow back by August, don't you think?

I thoroughly enjoyed all of my parenting "firsts" this Mother's Day. Adriana actually sang during Sacrament Meeting, and caught my eye several times to give me her classic big grin, which made me tear up a little. I got to be "Mom in a bag" for Primary, which is a funny tradition our ward does for with parents for Mother's Day and Father's Day. I was covered up by a huge bag (made out of a king-sized sheet, with the bottom open and a drawstring at the top), then guided in to the Primary room where the children asked yes/no questions and tried to figure out whose mother it is. When I went in several children called out questions like, "Are you Clark's mom? Are you Mitch's mom? Are you Jenna's mom?" But then I heard Adriana ask, "Do you have any pets?" She did figure it out eventually and was thrilled to see her mom emerge from the bag. This was also my first Mother's Day where my girls "made" me breakfast in bed. Only a few spills on the dry clean only bedspread. (Yeah, didn't realize it was dry clean only when I bought it. Not the most practical with small children in the house.)

The Saturday before Mother's Day our primary had a brunch for mothers and grandmothers. We were fortunate to be able to have both grandmothers attend--my mother-in-law is in town to help with a new baby and visit with children and grandchildren in Utah. At the brunch the children each served their mothers, and then there was a small program. It was a nice activity.

Adriana was invited to a birthday party last Tuesday. In honor of Cinco de Mayo, the children were encouraged to wear costumes. This was Adriana's:

Can you tell how excited she was? In that third picture she was saying, "My friends are going to think I'm so beautiful!" No self esteem problems for this girl.

After the party she came home with all sorts of ideas about what she wants for her own birthday party in a few weeks. A sleepover (immediately vetoed by Mom) breakfast pajama party with sprinklers and playing in the pool and a strawberry cake with white frosting and flowers of all colors and berries on top (in case any bears or deer come, of course) and lots of fun games and a pinata and presents and tons of balloons....yeah, the list keeps getting longer every time I talk to her. And that's just the party. Some of her requests for her birthday have been to go to California to have a picnic, get another pet, visit the dinosaur museum and find real dinosaur bones and fossils, go to the farm, go to Grandma and Grandpa's house, and on an on. Lately it seems that whenever the answer is no or not yet to something Adriana wants to do, she'll say,"We can do it for my birthday!" I fear that there will be a letdown when the actual day arrives and it's unable to live up to her numerous expectations. We'll definitely have a party, but I'm not sure yet what the theme will be.

We had a preschool field trip today to the Living Planet Aquarium up in Sandy. While I have been forever ruined on appreciating aquariums since living nearing the Baltimore Aquarium (nothing else even compares), the kids did just finish a unit on the ocean and sea creatures, and they aren't as biased as I am. We had a lot of fun. I was pleased to see that they've opened a new exhibit on South America and the Amazon that I thought was well done, as well as practically doubling the number of things to see. My mother-in-law is in town for a new baby, and she and my four-year-old niece, Catherine, were able to come with us. Or rather, the girls and I really ended up going with them. I'm still impressed that we managed to cram three car seats in the back of that car. Kenny ended up needing our car because he woke up this morning in quite a bit of pain with a kidney stone and he spent the morning at the doctor. Poor guy. I know, I probably should have driven him, but he insisted he was still able to drive and I should go on the field trip.

So yeah, back to the field trip. Where are all of the pictures from our outing? I brought the camera with us, or at least I thought I had. When we got to the aquarium I went to pull out the camera from its bag and I discovered that our camera had been carefully replaced by the kids' play camera. All closed up nicely in the case and everything. Miriam strikes again. Apparently she has figured out how to drag a small chair from Adriana's room in to the living room, so that she can reach the things I store in baskets on our entertainment center. So no pictures this time, although hopefully I'll be able to get some copies from one of the other moms who did take pictures.

I've discovered that I am really bad at doing big posts that will have a lot of pictures in a timely manner--I never did do a Christmas post. That explains why I am just now posting our Easter pictures, several weeks after the fact.

Our Easter festivities began at the grocery store this year. On the Saturday before Easter, our local Maceys store had a candy/treasure hunt. Any child who wanted to participate needed to color a picture (picked up previously), and then follow the clues on the back of the paper to find their treasure. We also got to meet the Easter bunny, who terrified Miriam. There was no way she was going to pose by herself, and even when I was holding her she cried and kept trying to climb over the top of me to get away. Aww, memories. I'm not sure exactly what Adriana thought the purpose was of the gigantic bunny, since we've never really bought in to or played up an Easter bunny with our kids, but it was still a fun morning.
Here are the eggs we dyed. Adriana's favorite part was coloring with a white crayon before putting on the dye. Miriam mostly liked putting on stickers.
I didn't get any cute posed pictures of the girls in their matching Easter dresses, but here they are dancing in the parking lot right before church. My niece Evelyn has the same dress, so I'm hoping we can get a good picture when the Hinckleys are out here for Kenneth's homecoming this August (so please bring that dress, Marie!).

On Easter Sunday we had an egg hunt outside. Grandma and Grandpa were able to come, much to our children's delight. We had actually planned to have our egg hunt on Saturday, but when Granpa wasn't going to be able to come Adriana insisted that we wait until he was there. We also had a nice Easter dinner with my parents and Kendall's siblings Pam and Daniel.
A quick FHE lesson afterward about Easter and some playing, and that brought our holiday to a close. Grandpa really is a good sport with all of Adriana's games and make-believe. "Now Grandpa looks so pretty!"

I had one of those "I can't believe how grown up my child is" moments today. Adriana gave her first talk in Primary, and Kendall and I both commented on how grown up and poised she looked sitting up there by herself in the front waiting for her talk. Until she put up her legs (flashing the whole Junior Primary) and started picking her nose, that is. Hmmm, yeah, that's my Sunbeam. She did a great job with her talk, though, and she helped with writing it so a lot of it was in her own words. This Saturday will be my first opportunity to attend the Primary Mother's Day brunch, and Sunday will be the first time Adriana gets to sing with the other children in sacrament meeting. I know this sounds overly sentimental, but I've really been looking forward to having Adriana get to sing with the Primary (instead of singing along as loudly as she can sitting next to me on the bench). It's also neat that both of Adriana's grandmas will be in town for this Mother's Day. Lots of firsts.

I have been pleasantly surprised at what a good experience having the guinea pigs has been so far. I know, it hasn't even been a full week yet, but still. I was a little worried that the day or two after I would seriously regret this decision, be bothered by the smell, the girls would lose interest or refuse to help take care of them (at least Adriana; I'm not sure how helpful Miriam's "help" would be), or something. Not so. Adriana helps me give them food and water each morning and is more than happy to play with them as often as I'm willing to take them out of their cage. The only time I really notice their smell is when Adriana's door has been closed all night, and even then it's not overwhelming.

The biggest surprise has been how quickly Miriam has warmed up to our new pets. The first thing she wants to do in the morning is go see the "innies," and she frequently pushes a little chair over in front of the cage, climbs up, and then talks to and tries to pet the guinea pigs. The funny thing is that the guinea pigs will often "talk" back, which makes her bounce up and down and squeal in excitement. Miriam even likes to hold them now on her own.

So yeah, I think that Patches and Skunk are here to stay.