The month of April. In a nutshell:

Chelsey had a birthday. I believe she turned 25.  We got her some balloons...which my kids played with and she cared nothing about.  She did get her new Wii game system though, so I think all her birthday wishes came true.

We had a little party at my Dad's house.  We tried to sing her "happy birthday" and tried to get her to blow out her candles, but she was too preoccupied looking for a very important piece of paper from 10 years ago.   We did the birthday song 3 times before giving up and my girls blew out the candles.

Don and I had our anniversary on April 23rd.  8 years!! We saw a movie about Jack and the Beanstalk, but I can't remember what it's actual movie title was. Probably, "Jack and the Beanstalk."  Oh Don informed me it was "Jack the Giant Slayer."  We liked it.  All the restaurants were all closed by the time we got out, so we ended up getting a burrito from Filibertos.  

Then a few days later was my birthday.  I had a great day.  I went to a Relief Society thing in the morning and then tried to get my free eyebrow wax from Ulta, which they don't do anymore.  That could have ruined my birthday, but it didn't.  Just kidding. Well, sort of.  I am seriously still disappointed.  

Then I went around town and got my free stuff.  But that wasn't that much fun because my kids wanted to go with me and walking by Pottery Barn Kids is like the sirens in the Odyssey.  They got sucked in and then we had to look at all the overpriced merchandise that I will never buy, but they will beg for, for days on end.  Blasted jewelry box with the twirling ballerina.

Also, I got ONE free Krispy Kreme donut (stupid economy, they used to give one free donut away to everyone, any day of the week) which Chloe ate half.

We had dinner at Joe's Farm Grill with some friends and then came back and had cake back at our house.  

I actually did have a really fantastic day, full of friends and laughter and fun.  And I love my kids.  Even though I hate taking them to the mall.  (Hate).

Last night we went to Paloma's birthday party.  Chloe has had a hard time watching her kids turn 6 before her.  I try to tell her that this will eventually be a good thing, but she doesn't believe me.  "Don't worry Chloe.  When you turn 32, you will be happy all your friends are 32 before you!"  

 I have mentioned right, that Macie only wears her bathing suit?

Oh, and occasionally this dress.  

I love Macie so much.  She is mostly angelic.  She has her terrible 2 moments, but most of the time, she is just lollipops and sunny days.  

I seem to remember having a lot more messes to clean up with Chloe...but maybe it just seems that way because I am used to having kids and messes now.  It seemed like every day chloe was making some horrendous mess when she was Macie's age.  

I don't have as many moments with Macie.  But yesterday she had her moment.  She took a fourth of a gallon of milk and dumped it on my carpet.

Then she got the rug to sop it up.  This is how I discovered her.  Guilty as sin.  She told me, "Sowwy Mom, sowwy."

The good thing about Macie is that she feels really bad when she does naughty things. If she gets reprimanded, her feelings are mortally wounded.  And she comes back sweeter than ever and humble.  

I just love spending time with her.  She is a priceless gift to our family.

Dear Aunt Debbie-
Thank you for the polka dot tights.  As you can see, I wore them on my birthday and every time I looked down at my legs, I felt happy. I had a grrrrreat day!

Hello-
I feel a little silly, okay a lot silly, but I need some help.
If you are reading this, can I ask a special request?  I very sincere, humble request?  Could you say a little prayer for me?  I would be so grateful.
Thanks-
Melissa

Chloe the Life Coach

The past couple days Chloe has been talking about this girl named Emma in her class. "Emma this..." and "Emma that...."  Mostly it is about her pretty blonde hair and her "fancy" clothes, and that she drew a picture of her bedroom and she has a lot of beautiful barbies.
After school yesterday Chloe told me, "Mom, I've been thinking that I want to improve my life."
I thought maybe she had something really profound to say...but instead, it just made me laugh (and sigh).
"Ya, I've been thinking.  I need some fancier clothes.  Emma has lots of fancy clothes.  So I need some new fancy clothes.  Will you take me to Target to buy some?"
And then she wanted to take a shower so her hair would feel soft, and then she got dressed and came out with her purse and said that she was ready to go to Target to buy  some clothes.
We didn't go to Target, by the way, to buy some new clothes.
She also told me that she just needs some fancier clothes, but that she likes her red, curly hair, "it's beautiful...so I don't need to have yellow, short hair like Emma."
So that's good.
The other day she also told me that she liked her freckles.  Which was nice, because in the past she has told me that she hates her freckles.  I asked her why she liked them now.  And she told me it was because I (me) have freckles.  (tiny tear)

In Macie news, I got her a drink and she went to the drawer to pick out a straw, and she fished around for the pink one.
She also found an eye patch sitting around my house and put it on and said "argh."
I am so grateful for my little girls.  They are so, so good.

 My College BFF came to visit this past week all the way from the other side of the country.  It was such a special treat since I haven't seen her for 7 years.  I wish you didn't live in New York Rachelle!  Why can't all my favorite people just live on the same street as me? And never move, ever.  That would be so great.  Thank goodness for modern forms of communication.  Speaking of modern times, You know I watched "Lincoln" today (finally) and I am so glad I didn't live during that time.  Mostly because living during the Civil War had to be really wretched, but also because they had really bad hair styles and clothes...Also a lot of people died from things like drinking contaminated water.  I gained a different appreciation for Mary Todd Lincoln though.  All I had ever heard about her was that she was crazy.  But honestly, I think I would have been too considering the things she went through.  She lost 2 children in their youth, and 1 when he was 18.  Not to mention she witnessed her husband's murder.  I digress.  Anyway, we had a good visit and we took them to "Manuels" for some Mexican food.  Because if Arizona has one plus, it is our abundance of good Mexican Restaurants.  Our kids mostly behaved.  Chloe loved meeting a new friend, and now has a penpal.  And I was so happy I got to meet all of Rachelle's kiddos!  How weird is it to be Moms now and to tell our kids we met in College...it must be weird for them...I remember being surprised to find out my parents had lives before we ever entered the picture.  It's hard to look back to all those years ago and to think of our lives without our kids and our husbands!  We always tried to imagine the future during those days, who would we marry, what would our kids be like...and here we are, living in our future!      

 We did bring out some of the old roommate silliness though...aaaaahhh...we need to do this more often to keep us young!

 Rachelle ended up marrying the boy that the two of us hung out with all the time.  I love their love story.  We were all just friends for the whole year, then that summer I went home, and I guess they decided to fall in love!  ; )  I just love stories that started as friendship, don't you?

 The kids (minus adorable baby Grant)

Rachelle, convince your husband to move to Arizona.  What more do you need in life than Mexican food, and well, me.  Okay, you probably need more than that.  But try it anyway.

Easter

 I cleaned Chloe's room yesterday because it was out of control. I am hoping now that I got it back in control, that she will be able to maintain it.  When I start going through her stuff I always run into a billion loose papers and it is such a predicament for me because I don't know what to do with all her papers.  As her Mom, everything she writes on, is a work of art in my eyes, and I want to keep all of it.  But I can't! If I kept every paper of all my children until they turn 18, I'll need  a storage unit!  I loved the bunny, that she gave it heart cheeks and feet.  And that she wrote she loves her "cozin" because she is "kind."  How could I throw that away?

 And then I have a bunch of these things, with adorable pictures and then she writes things like "I would shar my Easter Egg wif my frend and my mom."

 Easter weekend was really busy but really nice.  We didn't start our Easter Egg hunt early enough so it was dark by the time we finished.  And yes, Macie is wearing bathing suit. We had an all out battle that morning when I literally had to force her body into her Easter dress.  Macie was acting like she was being waterboarded.  So when she got her Easter dress dirty after church, I didn't make her put it back on.  P.S. I let her white dress soak in the sink and when I took it out a few hours later, it was stained with rust.  Thank you bathroom sink.  I eventually managed to get the rust out with steam and lemon juice, but also managed to burn holes in another dress applying the same technique.  One dress saved...one dress ruined.  An eye for an eye I guess.

 But I did manage to get a few pictures of her actually wearing her dress.

The first thing Chloe told me this morning was, "Mom I don't want to be a Grandma because I don't want to be fat. I have other things to do...I want to be a ballerina when I grow up."