Mistake or Mischief

Maryam didn't finish her sandwich at lunch today, so I asked her to put it in the fridge. Later, this is what I found. My daughter is a smart girl, so I'm trying to decide if I think she was being lazy, snarky, or silly. I guess next time I need to give more explicit instructions . . . bag first, then fridge, girlie!

cute Peyton just wanted his picture taken with the fridge

the culprit and her brother

Yes, that is her Halloween costume. She loves to dress up!

Our "Garden"

Our town house has a deck out back, but no real yard. When we had the deck built, we asked them to include a planting area, which is filled with calla lillies and irises. This year I really wanted to grow some vegetables too. In April I bought three pots and a few plants and we were on our way.

Peyton and Maryam helped me plant one cucumber, one pear tomato, one cherry tomato, and two beef steak tomatoes. We even roped Tobin into helping, since I'm not really supposed to be lifting heavy things like bags of soil and full pots.

Tobin worried that our little potted garden would die, since I have a bad track record of remembering to water potted plants. I promised him I would be much more diligent about watering. Lucky for me, we had quite a rainy spring, so the plants have done pretty well, even if I did forget to water now and then.

Getting Started

You can see my callas and irises in the background and on the right.

Planting

This past week we have enjoyed the first few tomatoes off our plants. We harvested four pear tomatoes, two cherry tomatoes, and one beef steak tomato. The larger tomato actually could have used a few more days on the vine, but it tasted AMAZING, even though it was a little under ripe. Now I'm wishing we had planted more tomatoes. Maybe next year I'll add to our collection of pots so we can add more plants to our potted "garden."

Peyton and Maryam in front of the smaller tomato plants

with the larger tomato plants

proud faces

the fruits of our labor

Daddy Daughter Date

On June 28th, Tobin took Maryam on their first official Daddy Daughter Date. Maryam was SO excited! She put on her fancy easter dress, princess sandals, and tiara. Tobin put on a button down shirt and dark jeans, so he wouldn't look too under-dressed. As soon as Maryam saw him, she told him he needed to put on a tie! This is one girl with innate romantic notions!

The cute couple went to Yogurt Pizzaz where they enjoyed some frozen yogurt and watched part of a movie showing there. Then, they went for a walk together. Maryam said her favorite part of the date was when Daddy opened the door for her because that was romantic! Look out boys, this is one girl who still believes in chivalry!

Peyton was jealous that Maryam got to go on a date with Daddy and he had to stay home with Mommy. Poor kid. His life is rough! One of these days I'll take him on a date (if he'll go with me). Maybe then he will be more excited about time alone with Mommy.

Recently Finished Projects

I was on a bit of a sewing kick and was able to finish several projects. I mentioned a couple of these before, but didn't post pictures until the packages had arrived to their recipients. Here are the fruits of my labors. I still have several projects I want to complete before the babies are born, but somehow my sewing always includes time on my floor for measuring, cutting, pinning, etc., and getting up and down from the floor is progressively harder these days. We'll see if I get anything else done . . . .

Car Seat Cover Ups

I made these for myself. I'm excited to be able to cover my babies so strangers can't just reach in whenever they want. These seem to be quite helpful when the baby is asleep, too.

Baby Quilts

The girl quilt was for my friend Cami who just had her first baby girl. (She already has three boys.) I think this is my favorite girl quilt so far.

The boy quilt was for my brother and sister-in-law, who are expecting their first baby - a boy - at the end of this month. I can't wait to meet my newest nephew!

Nursing Covers

This nursing cover is for me. I'm not sure it will be practical for nursing twins simultaneously, but at least I can use it when I need to pump in the car.

This nursing cover was for my sister-in-law, along with the baby boy quilt pictured above.

Well, that's enough projects for now. Still on the To Do list are some curtains, sleeves for a couple dresses I found on clearance for Maryam, more baby quilts/blankets to give as gifts, and a lot of scrapbooking. I think I better start prioritizing!

Family Stay-Cations

We are not traveling this summer, due to the pregnancy, but we have done a couple of fun family day trips together.

Tobin and I took the kids to the California Academy of Science in San Francisco. It has an aquarium, roof top garden, tropical garden, and much more. We probably only saw half of it, but we bought the season pass os that we can return as much as we want during the next year. The kids really loved it! A group of moms has a trip planned there for next week, and I'm really excited to go back and see some of the things we missed. Here are a few pictures of our adventure.

Peyton, Tobin, and Maryam under the aquarium

I told Maryam to put her thumbs down so her hand wouldn't block her face for the picture. She took my instructions literally!

Peyton, Tobin, and Lydia . . . photo by Maryam

Our family went to the Jelly Belly Factory with a group of moms and kids from our ward. The kids thought it was really cool. Peyton was so excited because jelly beans are his favorite treat right now! Daddy wasn't all that excited, but he humored us anyway.

Peyton, Maryam, and our friend Mikayla

Peyton and Daddy

Maryam and Lydia

Maryam, Lydia, Peyton, and Tobin

Won't Maryam love when I use this shot for her wedding video or something like that? :)

I'm Losing It!

I think I may have officially lost my mind! I know, it's a pregnancy thing. But I didn't seem to gain many brain cells back after the last pregnancy. This could be a bad thing. Luckily, I have a calendar in my cell phone that remembers all of the important things for me. If it ever dies, I'm in big trouble!

Here's my latest example of my lack of brain power . . .
My sister-in-law's baby shower was this past Saturday in Utah. Of course, I couldn't be at the shower, but I did make a couple things to send to her. I am super excited for her to receive them, and had her gift completed in plenty of time to mail it for the shower. However, every single day last week, I forgot to go to the post office. How does that happen? Every night I would see the gift sitting in my living room and think about what point in the day I would go to the post office the next day. Then each day, I would not think about it one time. I finally mailed the packaged this Monday. I missed the shower!

I had a baby gift ready to send to a friend in Utah as well. So Monday, I finally could keep it in my head to get to the post office. I planned to use the priority mailing boxes at the post office to send the gifts. When I got there, I realized that I didn't bring any packing tape, and I didn't know if the post office would let me use some. The line was huge on Monday, so I started the wait to find out if they had tape. Then, I noticed some tape for sale with the other packaging items. Lucky me! So I went back to the little counter, packed up the two gifts in separate boxes, and taped them closed. Then I realized that I was still holding the cards. Duh! I taped one to the top of the box and shoved the other under the flap.

I waited in line again and finally made it to the window. The very kind post office employee told me that if I used a different box I could save a lot of money. I was so grateful! I got the boxes she suggested, and was actually glad to make the switch so I could put the cards inside this time. I switched the gifts to the new boxes, taped them closed, and realized that again, I failed to put the cards inside the boxes. Seriously?!?! Two times in a row? I will cut myself a bit of slack, since I was also trying to keep track of my two active four-year-olds. But really I should be a bit more together than this.

I will post pictures of the gifts and some other projects I recently finished, but I want to wait a couple more days. I don't want to spoil the surprise if one of these ladies reads my blog post before she receives her package. Let's just hope I got the addresses on the boxes correctly. My sister-in-law is having a boy and my friend had a girl. I will be so embarassed if I mixed up their gifts! (Girls, if I did mix it up, please let me know so we can arrange an exchange!)

In Other News . . .

Life is moving along at a regularly crazy pace. Peyton and Maryam are growing like weeds, as evidenced by Peyton's flooding pants. I bought him a couple new pair of jeans and a pair of church pants, but I refuse to buy any other pants until fall. This wouldn't really be a problem, except that the boy loves to wear his sweat pants. We are starting to get a lot of comments, even from strangers, about the length of his pants. I find it comical. Yes, I know my son's pants are too short. No, I'm not going to do anything about it right now. Thanks for being the fifth person to point it out today! :)

We are having lots of summer fun so far. We have two weekly park days, and next week I'm going to meet with some other moms to plan more fun activities. One that's high on my list is the tour of the Jelly Belly factory. I think Peyton and Maryam will really like it. I need to try to get that one on the schedule sooner than later, since it will mean a fair amount of walking and time on my feet. Other activities like going to the beach might be a bit less strenuous for a pregnant mama. Shoot, a day laying around in the sun sounds great! Our neighborhood pool has been a nice amenity too. My belly feels so much lighter in the water. Peyton is a regular fish, and loves jumping in, trying to dive for toys, swimming around with his friends, etc. Maryam doesn't really like to put her face in the water, but she LOVES the social aspect of the pool. This can cause me a bit of stress, since she sometimes wants to hang out with the local teenage girls who happen to be at the pool. Yikes! I'm really not ready for her to be a teenager yet.

I haven't figured out yet what to do about preschool in the fall. We've been doing a co-op style preschool for the last two years. I'd love to continue, but I'm not sure if it's realistic with a brand new set of twins due about the time school starts. I got a flyer about an in-home preschool nearby, and based on the price, I think I'm going to have to suck it up and be super woman with the co-0p style again. Paid preschool for twins is expensive!