Stice Family

I've been trying to play more with the manual settings on my camera. Here's a few trail runs today.





Tuesday was Enrichment night. We were supposed to have a bonfire out at Stake Pres. Barlow's property but it poored rain! So we met up at my good friend, Lisa's house and had our hot cocoa and doughnuts inside. We all just mingled and shared favorite things; websites, shops, quotes, scriptures, etc.

Wednesday I opted out of taking Ashton to story time since he was such a bear at the last one. He had orange juice on the way there in the car and couldn't bring it in to the library. So when I shut the car door with his OJ inside and him standing outside, he dropped to the pavement in a massive fit. We're seeing a lot more of these fits lately. He waved and kicked so hard that my attempt to carry him in to the library and out from the street failed. So I ended up literally dragging him in by the arm. So embarassing. Usually entering a building like that instantly distracts him and he calms down but this time he flailed his body around going through the doorway so that his forehead whirled into the doorway and got a honking big goose egg on his forehead. He hollered all the way in to the bathroom where I tried to calm him down. We stayed long enough to do the craft and snack but missed the story and songs and I think I even had to drag him OUT to the car.

Wed. night we took the kids to Todd's mom's to stay the night since Todd and I had a flight making us leave town at 6:45am the next morning. His mom kept the kids for the full weekend with their cousins as well. My brother and sister in law, Kris and Amber, drove to Cedar City while we flew. We met up in the afternoon for the beginning of the conference we came to attentd at George Wythe University. They offer a Masters and PhD in subjects that Todd is super interested in. We were all SUPER impressed with the things we learned about the university, the teachers there, and the current students. We have a couple friends attending there right now who have spoken so highly of it. So anyway, we felt the trip was worth it. Todd is hoping to start working toward his Masters and then his PhD, beginning this January. They offer distance studies where the teachers come to your home town for a lecture once a week and you read at home, then discuss back and forth online with professors and fellow students. You have to have at least 10 students enrolled for them to come to you. And it looks like they will have about that. So he's excited about it.

On Friday night we were lucky to get to see my parents. They were driving through to SLC from Palmdale, CA to see my dad's brother be sealed to his wife and her two children (from a previous marriage) in the temple. We all met up at the Cedar City theater to see the new James Bond movie that came out that night. We bought the very last 5 tickets to the show and seating was rough. We walked in as some of the employees were asking people to scoot to the center. I was able to sit with my parents with Todd right behind us and Kris and his friend, True, who drove down for the conference with him and Amber sat in the very back. Their wives stayed home since it was the later show at 9:30. I had fun chatting with my parents afterwards. Just random icing on the cake to get to bump into them there while we were down there.

We had flown in to Las Vegas, then rented a car to drive the rest of the way to Cedar City. I'm glad we did that rather than drive the full distance there with everyone else because I got so swollen just sitting in the conference for 3 days. I never would have made it home in a car driving the full trip. There were no evening flights to get us home on Southwest, Saturday night. So we drive to Vegas and went to the Phantom Of The Opera and stayed that last night there. Then flew home the next morning. It was much needed time just relaxing. Honestly, my ankles were nearly as wide as my calves and I couldn't fit shoes on my feet. I could barely wear flip flops. I didn't get this swollen EVER when I was pregnant with Ashton and only in the very end when I was pregnant with Brielle. I was only 21 weeks along like this! Not good!

We got home yesterday and were very excited to see the kids. We missed them immensely. They had a blast with their cousins but it was nice to see they were excited to come home.

We spent the day unpacking and doing a deep clean on the living areas that got a little out of hand packing before we left. I usually can't even pack until the house is immaculate. As if my brain doesn't function with a cluttered home or something. But the kids left their mark on it while we were packing.

I'm really struggling keeping up with them! As soon as I get done putting one thing away, Ashton's pulled out and set down another. If I keep busy working on a certain task, he keeps busy breaking out the glue sticks and gooping up all parts of windows within his reach and dancing around in the cat food he's tossed all over the kitchen floor. He loves to apply Todd's deoderant to his lips for lip gloss, and a few nice smelling smudges on the counter top to spruce up the room. Then there's my make up he uses as crayons in my bathroom. No height or hiding spot is out of reach. Or too hard to climb. Brielle tries to help clean or at least inform me when he's into trouble, but she quickly loses focus cleaning or gets busy drawing at her desk as Ashton breaks away. When the baby comes and he sees that he actually loses more of my attention, I'm doomed. Any suggestions? Today, I got most of the work done during their nap time and then took them out of the house to get groceries so Todd could actually see it clean for a moment when he got home for work!

I'm guessing part of my problem with Ashton's messes is that it's getting too cold for the kids to play enjoyably outside. Ashton would still be out there all day in a heart beat. But Brielle hates the cold and Ashton doesn't like to be alone out there. So I'm used to them spending a good portion of the day playing to their hearts content outside and now they're inside all day trying to find interesting things to do and exploring drawers and closets that were never curious to them before.

I bought oragomy paper for craft time tomorrow. I just don't know how enthused Ashton will be about that. I know Brielle will love it. She's been really into making paper airplanes lately since her primary teacher made her one a couple Sundays ago.

Enough of my tazmanian tornado worries. I'm off to brainstorm Christmas presents. Things that make the least amount of mess...