The Reality of Dreams

On a recent "clean house day", I moved from sweeping and mopping the kitchen floor onto cleaning the bathroom while the kids made the rest of my house a mess around me. When I ventured from the bathroom to grab the broom from the kitchen, I found Lydia like this:

She had fashioned a bed using a couch cushion and the rugs that I had thrown off to the side while the kitchen floor dried. When I approached her she said, "Mom, I'm tired" - this was meant to explain her makeshift bed on the floor. I laughed, took a picture, and then told her to get up because kitchen rugs aren't the cleanest things to be laying under, and it was grossing me out.

Lydia's sleep has been an interesting topic around here lately because she has started remembering her dreams. It's fascinating because she can't separate them from reality yet. We have a Baby Einstein movie with a cow that makes a silly face in it (ask Lydia and she'll make the face for you), and Lydia claimed it as her favorite movie for the last few months...that is, until she had a dream about the cow. She claims the cow came OUT of the television and laid ON her stomach. It was a mean cow. She doesn't like that cow. She is sure it really happened, no matter how many times we tell her it wasn't real, and she now refuses to watch that movie. The Baby Einstein featuring the goat is her new favorite.

Lydia also had a dream that an orange animal came in through her window and got into bed with her. I thought, oh this might be a nice dream. But no. I asked her if the animal was nice and her face became very grave as she shook her head and replied that it was NOT nice. I tried to get more clarification, but she just keeps restating that the animal was orange, it got in her bed with her, and that it was a mean animal. And that it REALLY happened. 

I tell Lydia that the dreams are pretend. And though she nods at me while I'm talking, I can see the doubt in her eyes. After all, SHE was the one the orange animal got into bed with. It was HER stomach the cow laid on. Someday she'll figure out her scary dreams aren't real, the poor girl. But for now she can snuggle up in her kitchen rugs and escape into her own world.

Now, see if you can figure out if that's a real booger or not on Ammon's face -

It is, in fact, cereal that got stuck under his nose in his snot. Just thought you'd enjoy it :)

Easter - Take 2

Thanks to my wonderful, smart, computer savvy friends, I was able to recover my lost Easter pictures. Huzzah!! This makes me so happy. This momma loves her pictures of her babies. And after reading the last post, I realized how dreary it sounds. So, luckily, I get another go at it. So check out my two sweethearts in their Easter apparel:

Thank you Uncle Kyle for holding Ammon still, though he was not happy.

And for teaching Lydia to stick out her tongue instead of smiling.

It's already virtually impossible to get her to smile for the camera anymore.

And for this boy it is impossible. I take what I can get.

There you have it. Sure, they aren't pictures of the century and you may wonder why I care so much about them, but looking back at my own Easter pictures with my siblings is one of my favorite things. I love how we change throughout the years with our Easter outfits. So these pictures are like little nuggets of gold to me that I want to preserve for my kids when they are older to look back and smile on.

And maybe someday I can give a cheesy object lesson about the miracle of the "resurrection" of these pictures and how wonderful it was and how happy it made me when the pictures were brought back from death....I can hear my kids groaning now :)

Easter Weekend Blur

We had a very crazy Easter weekend full of sickness, frustration, egg hunts, and candy. After finding out that Brigham did not get ANY of the BAJILLION  jobs that he's been interviewing for, we both had a sort of breakdown Friday night. To top that off, my two germ monsters spread a very nasty bug to the whole family that had at least one of us out of commission all weekend. We're still trying to slowly recover. Of course it hit Ammon the hardest and turned into a sinus infection plus a yeast infection on his little bum. Just add another doctor trip to his repertoire. 

Despite that chaos, we manged to make it through three Easter Egg hunts, consume enormous amounts of chocolate, and spend some time with family. Unfortunately, we left our entire dozen "painted" eggs (as Lydia calls the dyed Easter eggs) at my cousin's house so I'm going to have to find something else to make for dinner besides the previously planned egg salad sandwiches.

Today, somehow half of my Easter pictures got deleted, including those of Lydia and Ammon in their adorable Easter outfits :( I'm still devastated by it. I'm hoping my uncle managed to get a few snapshots of them on his camera. They really were smashing. But here are the ones I managed to keep from Easter morning.

With so much going on it, everything blurred by in one of our least graceful Easters. I'm just glad we were able to do what we could to celebrate Christ's triumph over death and the glory of life that we each have thanks to Him. 

A Few Firsts

This past weekend was exciting, not only because it was General Conference, but also because we had a few firsts happen.

The most exciting first was the new baby added to the Tappana family.

Jackson, our new nephew, was born on Friday and we couldn't wait to meet him so we rushed over that very night and took up way too much time bothering his tired parents to check out this cute little guy. He's the first boy cousin for my kids and my very first nephew! Lydia enjoyed holding him and despite Ammon's first reaction of curious stares, I'm sure he'll be glad to toddle around with another little boy soon. So welcome Jackson, you handsome little boy!

Now as for the next first, you'll probably laugh.

Most of the time, while Brigham's out at the Priesthood Session of Conference and then with his Dad and brothers for dinner, I mope around wishing I had some ladies around to party with or lament that my family lives so far away. Basically I throw myself a loner's pity party.

This year I determined that I would make my own fun so I took the kids for a complete new experience: Happy Meals at McDonalds.

Yep. My kids have never been to McDonalds, played in a playplace, or had a Happy Meal. Brigham and I both strongly dislike the place and avoid it completely. However, I thought my kids, by right, should experience the wonders of greasy food, greasy slides, and a new toy to fight over and lose that very day.

As you can tell, Lydia's share of the Happy Meal mostly consisted of swallows of chocolate milk amid running to and from the playplace - she had a blast! And Ammon was all too happy to reap the benefits of forgotten chicken nuggets, apples, and french fries (well the french fries Mommy decided to share). I snuck in Wendys for the majority of my dinner :)

The kids had much more fun than me in that hot, crowded room. But making my kids happy makes me happy, and there was no moping going on. We were all in a good mood going out on the town - even if our definition of a new, exciting night is a Happy Meals at McDonalds.