Angela's Antics

Angela is always cracking us up. Three is a funny age. As we drove to the gym one morning Angela was saying out loud, "Those are nummy." And I asked what she was talking about. She replied, "Those things that in my nose are nummy." Great. I told her "Those are boogers and they are gross, not yummy! We use a Kleenix for those!" Then I went on and on about all the foods I give her that she turns her nose up to. What's the deal with that? Hmmm. .. Maybe if I put those foods in her nose she would try them? It's a creative solution...

Speaking of her nose, Angela is suddenly very keen on sniffing the air and commenting on smells constantly. It makes us a little self conscious these days when we talk close to her. We often get interesting comments on what our breath smells like. "You breath smell like mac an' cheese!" she told me one day - but I hadn't eaten any mac an' cheese and I don't think that is something I want my breath to smell like. Sometimes we make a game out of letting her smell our breath because she is very specific. Angela doesn't just say it smells good or bad - she states something specific that it smells like. "That smell like banilla (vanilla)" or "that smells like yucky" on a more generic day. (o: She'll make comments if she walks in a bathroom after someone or if someone toots - so look out - there's no getting anything by the olfactory policegirl in our house. She is not subtle in her observations with her nose. She can sometimes call someone out with several fingers holding tightly to her nose, "That smell like stink."

Angela can also use her sense of smell to catch me sneaking gum. I have to chew it often on the way to somewhere because Angela has given me a complex about my breath. Okay, not really, but I chew minty gum for social reasons. My girls, on the other hand, chew minty gum and tic tacs like they're going out of style - they can't get enough. (I buy the Trident with xylitol, so it's actually good for their teeth - he he he). Anyway, sometimes I just want to have a little more confidence in my breath and not have to pass out three more pieces of gum when we're driving somewhere. No matter how quiet or subtle I try to be, within seconds I hear Angela behind me, "You hab gum?" and then, "I hab a piece? I want a piece too." Then sure enough Sarah and Natalie hear this comment from the way back seat and so much for saving my gum for bad breath emergencies. (o:

Angela says things so cute. A few examples - "That's lily hot" = "That's really hot", "That's lily hard" = you can probably figure it out using the last translation, "Awwwwight" = "Alright" with a long drawn out dramatic flair which means, "I don't really want to go along with your idea, but I guess I will if I HAVE to." "I small like lunch" = "I smell something that smells like lunch", "You hep me?" = "Will you please help me mother dear."

Junie B. Fan

Sarah does a reading log every night for school. She is currently reading approximately her 20th Junie B. Jones book. This is her log from last night, "Junie B. Jones is the most hularyos person I have ever read of. She says some sayings that crack me up. I will never forget funny Junie B. Jones."

I love Sarah's sense of humor - she laughs a lot and loves jokes and cracks up during movies at all the right times. I took the girls for a "girls night" to Wall-E last weekend and I thought the movie was great, but my entertainment came more from listening to Sarah's reactions and belly laughs at the funny parts. Cute kid.

A Fun Summer Visit!

So one of those fun summer activities I mentioned earlier that we thoroughly loved, was a visit from my mom and sister in the middle of August. It was so fun because the day they arrived was Chrissy's 18th birthday, so we got to celebrate with her! Yahoo! The girls made cute decorations for the door with balloons to welcome her. We had a fabulous dinner celebration at Cheesecake Factory - food and celebrations go hand in hand in the Thorup family! We stuffed ourselves and enjoyed giving Chris a hard time when we asked the waitress to find a cute boy to come sing Happy Birthday to her. She found one and when the group came to sing the boy came and plopped right by her and put his arm around her. Chris is a good sport. (o:

Saturday's market was our big adventure and outing the next day. The Max was our fun means of transportation - which the girls loved and it dropped us off right in front of the market. We always have fun seeing the fun variety of goods people make to sell there. I found a snazzy purse, Chris and mom found some cool clothes and the girls brought their allowance money and bought some cute whistles that played three different notes. The lady that sold them taught the girls to play a song on it and they loved it. We went to one of our favorite downtown resaraunts, Rock Bottom Brewery and rode the Max back home.

On the ride to the max earlier in the day, the girls' allowance envelopes that I had brought sparked a funny conversation with the girls. Sarah informed grandma, "Mom's the richest in our family, but not as rich as fancy people." I asked Sarah, "What kind of fancy things do fancy people have that make them fancy?" To which she replied, "They have a swimming pool inside a swimming pool and they don't have to go to school."

A few minutes later, when Natalie was counting her dollars, she threw one into my mom's lap in the backseat and exclaimed, "Have a tip!"

That night I took pictures for a girl who used to be one of my young women in our last ward and now she's married! She had an open house that night. It was fun to see friends from the Quatama ward, as always. That was the third reception I shot in Merrilee's backyard and I am sad that she is moving in a few months to Utah. She is great and her backyard is gorgeous. She was always so gracious and sweet to share her home. Anyway, I had lots of fun and the kids had fun swimming with daddy, Chris and my mom(!!) while I was gone. What an awesome sport mom is! I am sad I missed it. The girls thought that was pretty cool. Sunday we went to church - I loved having mom and Chris there with us and it was fun to bring Chris to Young Women's even though I got stuck leading all the youth in a musical number we had to practice that I didn't know. Long story. The young women said it was funny to watch me and Chris giggle and joke around together during parts of the lesson - like sisters. I'm not sure if that meant they thought I was being immature or I am usually serious. (o: Either way, we had fun.

That afternoon we had more family join us! Kelly and Lisa very sweetly made a trek out to see us. Not an easy task with four kids. (We had to laugh at the fact that it took them four days to get out here because they only drove about three hours a day. But they had a nice relaxing journey.) It was so fun to see their cute family and meet sweet baby Corbin (I hope I spelled that right, Lisa!!) We all headed to Hagg Lake for a fun Sunday afternoon outing. The kids (and adults) enjoyed the timeless sport of throwing rocks in the water. Kelly tried teaching us how to skip rocks and Chris did a bit better than I. (o: Supposedly, Kelly said this was a surefire way for her to win over guys - so she was motivated to learn! We walked around and enjoyed the beautiful scenery together, it was a fun afternoon.

Later that night mom and Chris and I made Oriental Chicken salad with cabbage from our garden and homemade cinnamon rolls. Kind of a weird combination of food, but it tasted good! The next day was our last day with mom and Chris - in the morning the girls were sooo excited to have Chris and grandma join us for swimming lessons. They loved having an audience, even though we had to sit quite a ways away. I enjoyed having company that day and Chris enjoyed checking out the life guards. (o: When I saw the one she thought was the cutest the next week, I got homesick for Chris. (o: After all the swimming, we had a final lunch with mom and Chrissy at Sweet Tomatoes. We were so excited they got to come see us, but just for the record Natalie was especially sad that grandpa didn't come too. We all missed grandpa who couldn't get away from work - boy do we know how that goes.

Back on the Saddle!

Here is a random cute picture of Sarah and Angela in the morning. This is a typical outfit that Angela sleeps in at night - SpongeBob's and a pink tutu. Even my girls' sleepwear is creative! Angela is taking after Natalie in the fashion department. Their creativeness is so dang cute and so dang annoying all at the same time. More on that later. On with the latest post...

Things got a little busy in August and haven't slowed down. Busy or not, it's time to get back on the saddle! So over the next little bit I'll be reminiscing our last few weeks of summer and first couple weeks of school. We have had a lot of fun. The last couple weeks of summer were memorable and part of the reason I took a break is because I didn't want to spend time on the computer that could be spent having fun with the girls. We played and played and then school started . . . I have been trying to hang on to the roller coaster that our daily routines have turned into with all three girls in three different school schedules. The last couple weeks have been lots and lots of running around to doctor appointments, 4 birthday parties in one week (3 within two days), shopping for birthday gifts (o:, going to the gym, piano lessons, young women's, field trips, volunteering at school, playdates, soccer games, more doctor appointments - (Natalie had a reaction to her antibiotics and a follow up ultrasound after a UTI), church meetings, photo sessions, etc. etc. etc.

I am having to get used to planning a strategy on how to fit in everything and how to organize my traveling around time and making sure to be home for Natalie to get on the bus in the early afternoon every day and back again when she and Sarah get back in the afternoon. The new half day every day Kindergarten has been fabulous for Natalie, but it is very tricky to have every single week day broken in half with only a two and a half hour window between kids going and coming. And the other thing that makes things extra crazy is that it seems like I am the most forgetful when I have the most going on. I leave my wallet places, or the referral paper that we need at Natalie's ultrasound appointment and I have to run back and get these important things.

The referral paper mishap was one of those mornings when I really had to plan out my day - I had to get Angela to preschool and bring her backpack and my camera to take a picture of one of the new kiddos in her group, I had to bring lunch for Natalie so she could eat on the way back to school and her backpack too, I brought a sticker book to entertain Natalie in the waiting room, a big water bottle for Natalie to drink (she had to have a full bladder for the procedure), I had to remember to check Sarah's shoe size before we left so we could look for some white baptism shoes in the limbo time between dropping off Angela and going to the appointment (why hang out for an hour when we could get something done in that part of town?) and I had to remember to bring the checkbook so that I could get some money on Sarah's lunch account - while I was dropping off Natalie at school.

That hour of limbo time turned into running back home to pick up the referral paper I left sitting on the counter where I set it down to pick up everything else I was taking. (Amazingly, we still had time to look for shoes and found some at the first store! A 'tender mercy' for sure.) I really did make a nice and neat pile in the morning when things were calm. We hit a few roadblocks that day with the forgotten referral sheet and an accident that happened on the way to taking Natalie to school because, poor thing, she had to drink so much water before her appointment. She went at the radiology office, but had to go again on the way to school and didn't make it. We had to take a detour to home to have a quick bath and change. Then I couldn't forget to pick up my youngest child at Julie's house who sweetly helped by watching Angela after preschool for a little bit.By the time I had lunch that day it was 1:45 and had just a few minutes before the girls got home. Plus I had YW that night. This makes me tired just remembering.

(o:

It feels like this is pretty typical lately. I've actually had even crazier days - the day with two birthday parties on top of the usual stuff was a good one. Afternoons and evenings are no better ... homework, piano practice, chores, soccer, dinner, young women's, and on and on... Yikes. I hope I can survive this year! I also hope I can just learn to enjoy the ride because when things are calm I know I will miss this. (o: I am trying to get a grip and say no to as many unimportant things as I can so we can have some time for the occassional bike rides, trips to the park and the fun stuff. And I don't write this because I feel sorry for myself or think that this running around is unusual. I am just amazed at how many things come up and see myself entering this phase of life I've seen other friends do with older kids than mine. The taxi cab phase. (o: It's all good - I love that I am so lucky to do all these things and be so involved in my kids' lives. It really is fun, for the most part! (It's just unfortunate that this taxi cab phase of our lives cooincides with the gas crisis!)