What a day!

Elisha and I made plans to go get coffee and go to the mall this morning, with kiddos in tow. So we get coffees (uh, decaf, so it doesn't really count) and make our way to the mall. The thunderstorms that the meteorologists predicted were right on time. Did I ever tell you that that would be my go to career if I went back to school and somehow got amazingly brilliant at science, and math? Well, it is. I love weather patterns. I sound like a dork. Moving on...

So Myla is asleep, Oliver is ready to jump out and take the mall on, and it starts sprinkling. Great. Ok, maybe if I move super fast we can make it to the entrance before we are all soaked. So Oliver's out with his umbrella, so far so good. I get Myla out, which wakes her up, and put her in her stroller. It starts dropping water bombs. AWESOME. Myla starts whimpering, I only have one stupid umbrella. Mental note, buy more umbrellas. 

She is getting dumped on. Cue the thunder and lightning. Oliver starts crying, loudly. OK, moving super super fast. Shoving snacks into the back of the stroller, I bend down to unlock the breaks and Rrrrriiippppp, goes the back of my jeans. WHAT? This is not happening! These pants aren't even tight! I move so Elisha and Laurell can see me, who are by the way scurrying to get Frank and Roman out of the car as well. "Look, I split my pants!!!!" I turn around and show them my half covered butt. Hahah. Isn't this funny?! So they laugh and feel sorry for me at the same time. Laurell suggests I put my jacket around my waist. Smart girl. I'll just buy new pants. Shoot, we will ALL just buy new clothes because the alternative is to wait it out in the 4runner with thunder and lightning and two sobbing, soaking wet kids. No thanks. I hate being stuck in a car during storms!

Oliver is still crying and refusing to move. Poor kid is obviously scared and confused. Why is my mommy making us stand outside in this horrific weather?  "RUN!" I yell. "Go Oliver, go, go now!" So he runs ahead while I clutch Myla in one arm and drag the stroller, with breaks still on, with the other. 

Whew! We made it! And a while after, Elisha, Laurell and the boys made it too. Okay, this day is off to an interesting start. So we shop and buy new clothes for those of us who are soaked and/or in need of covering their behind due to a large gaping hole in their pants. *Silver lining; I found a cute pair of skinny jeans on sale. Yay! 

The rest of the morning goes fine and we manage to have a little fun intermixed with a bit of chaos. Somewhere along the way, I realize I'm missing my phone. Wonderful. Dustin will be thrilled. So we ask around on our way out and magically Laurell finds it at the Barnes and Noble customer service desk. Yippee! 

So we say our good byes and I drive home. I pull into our drive way with my two sleeping angels in the back. I decide to relax for a minute before I get the kids out and I pick up an ad to read that Elisha gave me. I am leaning back in my chair, flipping through this ad when I notice something move to my immediate left. I glance at the door and see a giant furry black spider about an inch from my arm. AAHHHHHHHHHH! I freak and jump/slide across the seat and I'm out the passenger door as fast as humanly possible. My car is running, my children are sleeping inside and a huge scary spider is moving around on the inside of my car door. AHHHHH! I open the car door quickly so that I can keep an eye on it. I'm almost hyperventilating and trying to reason with myself to kill the menacing thing. 

Nope, can't do it. So I do the next best thing and call my retired 60-something year old neighbor lady to come over and kill it. 

Sharon: "Hello?"

Me: "Hi Sharon. It's Missy" breathing all hard.

S: "Who? I can't hear you."

M: "Oh, sorry, maybe it's my phone. I'll call you back."

S: "Hello?"

M: "Hi Sharon, Can you hear me?"

S: "This is Sharon, who is this?"

M: "Oh, gosh, it's my phone. I'll call you back." Thinking I could just go and get her- I can see her house from where I'm standing. Or I could get someone else, but then the spider could move and then I would never drive my car again for the fear that it would jump out and scare the crap out of me when I drove next. Oh good, she's calling me back.

M:"Hello Sharon?"

S: "Who is this?"

M: "It's me, Missy, your neighbor!"

S: " Oh, gosh sorry, I can't hear well on my cell phone."

M: "Are you afraid of spiders?"

S: "What, why?"

M:" Because there is a huge one in my car and..."

S: "Oh, sure I'll be right over."

Bless her heart! She came right over and after misunderstanding where I pointed to, had her face right up next to it. I grabbed/pinched her back, no, be careful it's right THERE! She said "Oh, I hate killing these things, but it just won't. come. out." as she is trying to fling it out of the handle, while I try to dodge where it might fly. "Oh, well (squash) it's dead. See? It's dead." as it falls to the ground. I feel as though I coming back from a heart attack. "Thank you, thank you, thank you Sharon." My hero!

A message to the universe: I'd like to not find anymore surprises today if that's possible. Do you hear me? NO MORE! I'm going to go clean while my children sleep and please please please, don't let me find any bug or spider while I do it. THANKS.

~Missy 

Easter Weekend

Okay, I'm too tired to write in great detail about our Easter weekend, but I wanted to share some pictures before this week is over and it all seems irrelevant. 

We had a GREAT time at Arno park hunting for Easter eggs on Saturday morning. Oliver scouted out the grassy terrain and managed to get quite a bundle of eggs. Once he opened one up and found candy, it was all over. What kid doesn't love candy?!

 I put Myla on the ground right in front of an orange egg, but she couldn't get over the wet grass. Typical girl. 

On Sunday, we went to Church and saw some friendly faces. We had planned on having dinner with family, but Will was sick so we sort of made alternate plans. Poor little guy. I'm glad he is feeling much better!

While these two were dying eggs, the Easter bunny hopped through our yard and left Oliver's basket full of goodies as well as lots of candy-filled eggs. Like he needed more of that. ;)

So egg-cited to dye eggs!

Waiting for her high five from me:)

Go Oliver, Go!

I tried dearly to get Oliver to put his nice shirt back on, obviously that did not happen. So Myla is all cute in her dress and Oliver is in a hoodie. Oh well. Lesson learned. Take pictures BEFORE you let him change!

Swing time!

Obsessed with her shoes

Check out my teeth!

:)

Parties, Omaha, and Sleepy Beauties

 These past few weeks have been happily hectic and I am feeling very fortunate that we have such awesome family and friends to spend time with. 

We had a great time celebrating Chloe's 3rd Birthday at the end of March and enjoyed seeing all the family and friends that could make it out. Chloe and Oliver were so cute sitting at the table chatting away like big kids. Chloe had a few bites of cake and then turned to Oliver and proclaimed "I don't feel well Oliver, I'm going to go lay down on the couch". Oliver was concerned for his dear cousin, but once he was assured Chloe would be alright, he continued to shovel in his cake until he was on a nice sugar high. He of course fell asleep on the way home from their house, but promptly snapped out of it as we ever so quietly tried to transfer him to his bed. How kids can sleep for 5 minutes and then feel completely recharged is beyond me. Sigh. 

We made the trek to Omaha last weekend to see my oldest brother Jared and his sons, Jackson and Sam. We were able to catch Sam's afternoon soccer game and visit the famed Omaha Zoo, which in my opinion, lived up to the hype. It was really sweet to watch Oliver instantly bond with his two cousins and Jackson and Sam couldn't have been sweeter to him. Nana and Papa Swan made the trip up as well to help celebrate Sam's fourth birthday. I can't believe how big all the cousins are getting! 

Dublin and Uncle Travis also had a birthday last weekend and Dublin is now 12! Holy Moly where has the time gone? I remember teaching Dub to swim when he was just a little tike at the Campus East pool! Ah, the good ol' days of sneaking into apartment pools. A Swan sister pastime for sure.

So, Oliver, Myla and I all have colds and haven't been feeling the greatest, so the past couple of days have been spent inside just trying to make it to bed time. Thankfully we all woke-up today feeling measurably better. Yay! Maybe I'll update my blog a little more now. Maybe...

Here are a few pictures from the last few weeks:

Chloe and Oliver patiently awaiting some chocolate birthday cake

 Grandpa Garwick and adorable Will

 Cake coma 

 Oliver and Jackson at the zoo

 Sam, Jackson, and Ollie

Nana and Oliver scoping out the sharks

A rare quite moment;)

Good Morning Sunshines!

Teething Bites

While we were out and about today, Oliver and I were goofing around and while he was laughing, I caught a glimpse inside his mouth. What did I see besides his beautiful pearly whites you ask? Both of his second upper molars threatening to pop through his bright pink gums! Not only is the poor kid getting his lower-left second molar (he already has the lower-right), but two others as well! That makes THREE huge molars! No wonder Mr. Oliver has stopped taking naps for the last three weeks, or more. I have lost count. The kid cannot settle down long enough to fall asleep let alone sit still. He has got a crazy amount of never- ending energy!


As I mentioned before, Myla is also getting teeth so our house is a bit on the cranky, whining side. Not to mention the sleep is not exactly quality, but we are doing what we can and occasionally dropping like flies to catch a few minutes of Z's. Ahem. Dustin.


On a brighter note, Myla is crawling all over the place and trying to gnaw on any car, truck, or train in her path. Oliver now has to keep his cars and anything with little pieces away from his sister. If he catches her with something she shouldn't have he says "Myla you can't have that, no no." and promptly takes it from her, leaving her to crawl after him. Hah. This is going to get pretty amusing, albeit tiresome for all.

Crawling Lady and Cool Dude on a Bike

So, both kids in bed by 7:45. This. is. awesome. What did we do with our extra free hour? Well, Dustin continued to watch Simba’s Pride (no joke) and I decided to write this blog post. What exciting lives we lead.

This past week has been big for little Miss Myla. Not only did her first tooth erupt last Thursday, but the little lady started crawling tonight! We were even quick enough to capture some footage of her first real army crawl. She was going after her pacifier even though she already had one in her mouth (I guess she wanted a back-up?). What teething babes won’t do to get a little comfort, right? 

I’m excited that my little girl is crawling, but can’t help but think how fast these last seven months have gone! Before I know it, she will be walking and then goodbye baby, hello toddler! It makes want to try even harder to soak my kids up while they are small and still calling me Mommy. 

We have also been enjoying the beautiful weather by spending a lot of time outdoors. Hooray for Spring! Oliver now insists that he ride his cool balance bike when we go for walks and has become quite the speed demon! 

Stir it up! (helping with Aunt Desi's bday brownies)

Silly swing time

Oliver and Myla's first bath time together.

Hello!

Spring has sprung and with it, so has our family blog. I’m hoping to entertain you on a bi-weekly basis (let's not be too optimistic) with stories, photos and anything else that randomly pops into this tired (but oh so excited!) momma’s brain! I am loving staying at home with my two charming children and could not be more thrilled to be Oliver and Myla’s occasionally melting down momma! Life is busy with routine and typical mom errands/chores, but as the kiddos grow I am finding myself learning lots of new tricks and discovering just what it takes to raise kids. Dustin and I were discussing this very topic the other day and we both proclaimed, that being GOOD parents was a lot harder than we thought it would be! Hah! So here’s to raising wonderful, polite, humorous, intelligent, kind, fun, beautiful, talented, adventurous, friendly, thoughtful, caring (and the list goes on...) children!

Here are a few very recent (from today) photos of the kids goofing around in the living room and of Oliver playing outback while Myla took her nap. Myla is 7 months old today and Oliver is 2 years and 4 months.