Amelia is really showing her personality. I don’t have a picture of her being whiny and stomping her feet when she doesn’t get what she wants. What will she be like when she’s 2?!

She has grown so big, this is what happened to her pajamas.

She runs around chasing Kathryn and me when we play what Kathryn calls “our favorite tickle game”. Her tongue is always sticking out. Doesn’t that mean she’ll be a great athlete someday?

Our highchair here doesn’t have any kind of buckle. So Amelia always stands up and it makes me very nervous. We try to use a belt to buckle her in. She loves to play her piano.

My favorite cute thing that Amelia does is getting ready to leave. She gets her coat and brings it to you and sticks her arms out to help get it on. (She does this all the time, not just when we are actually leaving.) One day she also got her hat and tried to put it on around her neck. Sometimes she does this when Darryl is leaving for work, and she even walked outside once. She also loves putting scarves around her neck. I don’t have a picture, but she does a similar thing with books. She will get a book and bring it to you and start panting until you take the book, put her on your lap, and read it to her. She loves books.

Amelia | 4 Comments »

Success (pronounced Sook-chess which is the Romanian pronunciation)! I would say that today was a success, in that I didn’t get angry or lose my sanity. Since it was Stake Conference, it was held in an auditorium that we’d only been to once. We got lost on the way and were pretty frustrated but we had left an hour and a half early, so we did make it there a little early. One additional issue is that the conference is in Russian or Ukrainian (depending on the speaker), and we wear a headset to hear the translation. To be honest, I actually only heard about 10 minutes of the speakers. That’s mainly because I was out with Amelia for about an hour in a room just outside, but you can’t hear anything and the English translation headset only worked inside the auditorium. I was able to go to the Saturday night adult session while Darryl stayed home with the girls, so that was wonderful.

Thank you to everyone who gave suggestions for ideas to do with kids during church. Marz, I didn’t have a chance to do the picture book thing, but I do want to try it. During the week I tried to get ready. I made some tacky looking lacing cards with cardboard, scrapbook paper, and a shoelace. I also sewed some large buttons on a cut up shirt (that we were going to give away) for Kathryn to practice buttoning. And I made some “workbook pages”, drawing shapes and a few letters for Kathryn to trace. I had no idea if she would like or be able to do any of these things, but I figured it was worth a shot. Plus, I felt good that I was putting forth some kind of effort. I got her a special treat of gummy bears besides her regular snack, too.

Here is how Kathryn looked before we left for church. She LOVES going to church, and it helps me be in a

better mood that she is so excited. She is usually trying to open the door while I’m still getting my coat on. We got this coat and hat for her from a family in our branch. I think it is the cutest thing ever.

The workbook pages and the tracing cards were a hit! While I was out with Amelia, Darryl said Kathryn loved tracing the shapes and letters and was very good at it. She did all the pages twice that I had made (just 4 or 5 little pages). Amelia conveniently fell asleep in Darryl’s arms (which hasn’t happened in ages) so I got to take care of Kathryn the second hour. We did the lacing cards a few times and took a couple trips to the potty. I think she just wanted to go up and down the 2 flights of stairs on the way to the potty. At that point I couldn’t blame her, because it was already longer than a regular Sacrament Meeting.

Of course in July, we’ll be having 5 consecutive stake conferences on the plane ride home.

Family | 5 Comments »

Now my sister-in-law Andrea tagged me.

What I was doing 10 years ago:  I had just been in my first area of my mission for 1 month – Sibiu, Romania.  I was struggling to learn the language and having all sorts of adventures.  It was probably Easter time and I got sprayed with perfume (a Romanian Easter tradition).

5 Things on my to do list: Buy milk, clean the bathtub, read a conference talk, make things for Kathryn to play with at church, study Russian (always on the list but rarely happens)

3 Bad Habits:  Biting fingernails, getting the toothpaste tube dirty, overreacting

Places I’ve lived:  Sacramento and Folsom, CA; Provo, UT; Romania; China; Seattle, WA; Ukraine

What would I do if I became a millionaire:  I’m really not sure.  Maybe have the Maid Brigade come once a month.  We did that before we moved to Ukraine because we just didn’t have enough time to do a thorough cleaning with the traveling and packing (and it could count as a rental expense).  Probably save a lot for future travel and missions after buying a house.  Buy a new wardrobe.  I know that sounds superficial, but I have been noticing lately that most of my clothes don’t fit properly since they were purchased (long) before I had babies and I am just not the same.  Or they are hand me downs from old roommates.  Buy a treadmill.  Okay, that’s enough fantacizing, and there probably wouldn’t be that much left after the house if we bought it in Seattle.

Jobs I’ve had:  paper route, Mr. Sibs hotdog and yogurt place at the Folsom Outlets, Forest Deli, early morning custodian in the Benson Building at BYU, 99 cent store, meta information services, I can’t remember the name of it, but something at BYU that had to do with accounting and it was the summer before my mission, BYU internal audit department (different than the one I just mentioned – this one was post mission), Accounting Jr. core grader, PwC tax associate (wow, that’s a lot of jobs.)

Things you may not know about me:

I did dye my hair to try and cover my gray hair, and it did turn orange.  I wouldn’t let Darryl take a picture and the next day we got some different dye to try to get it back to normal.  It’s almost normal.

 When I was young I wanted to be a writer or a scientist.  Ha!

I don’t like chunks of fruit in yogurt (okay, I’m sure some people knew that).

I tag Bobbi, Molly, and Karen.

Amanda | 4 Comments »

I had heard from several people about the Water Museum in Kyiv. It sounded like a place Kathryn might enjoy, so I arranged to go there with a Ukrainian sister from our branch.  Besides showing me where the museum was and helping with language barriers, she helped with the girls a lot. I was so hot, tired, and sweaty when we got home. Two girls and a stroller on the metro, and stairs is not ideal. I thought, if I only had one child this would be so much easier. But the next day I took Kathryn to enrichment with me and we had a “pee-pee’s coming” experience half way home on the metro which resulted in me carrying Kathryn and running a lot and I was much hotter, tireder, and sweatier than the previous day with 2 girls. Anyway…

At the Water Museum we were able to get a guide that spoke English and seeing that we had Kathryn and Amelia, she asked if we would like to just go to the kid area instead of the 40 minute tour. I said a resounding “yes!”.

So we spent the better part of an hour feeding/looking at/touching fish, and playing with bubbles. Kathryn had a splendid time. I had been telling her for a few days that we were going to a “special place”, so it was cute to hear her talk about the “special place”. Amelia was clingy because she was missing a nap, but some cheerios cheered her up towards the end.

I had been told about the largest toilet in Ukraine (or maybe the world, I’m not sure), so I was expecting something much larger than this:

Family, Kyiv Adventures | 1 Comment »

We are having Stake Conference next week. That means instead of 3 hours of church broken up into 3 different parts/lessons, we have one 2 hour long conference. Instead of Kathryn going to nursery for 2 hours where she can play, sing, make noise, etc., she will be sitting with us. And Amelia, who is EVERYWHERE, will also be sitting with us (as she always is, but this is for 2 solid hours without a break).

Darryl and I know people who stay home on these Sundays, since it would be nearly impossible to get anything out of the meeting with small children needing attention. We really want to attend Stake Conference, and I personally feel that even if I don’t hardly hear a word, there is some kind of blessing for the effort of attending.

Now for the suggestion request. I know we only have 2 kids and for some people that would be NBD (no big deal). But we just about lose our sanity on regular Sundays, so what are some ideas of things that will keep an almost 3 year old (at least she thinks she is), and an almost one year old busy? Please! I am desperate! What have you done with small children during Stake Conference?

Family | 4 Comments »

My friend Joanne tagged me!  I was so excited and felt very cool because I had never been “tagged” before.  So here goes:

Rules:
1. Pick up the nearest book (at least 123 pages).
2. Turn to page 123.
3. Find the 5th sentence
4. Post the 5th sentence on your blog
5. Tag 5 people

The nearest book to me every time I am on the computer is the Book of Mormon, because I keep it on the desk.  Page 123 5th (complete) sentence goes like this:

“And now I, Jacob, spake many more things unto the people of Nephi, warning them against fornication and lasciviousness, and every kind of sin, telling them the awful consequences of them.”

I would like to say you can also do this with the book you are currently reading (besides the Book of Mormon, of course).  I just started reading a book about Harriet Tubman so the 5th sentence of page 123 says this:

“Her former home along the Eastern Shore was abuzz over the 1857’s dramatic events:  the Dover jailbreak in the spring, the removal of Tubman’s parents in the sumer, and then, in the autumn, waves of fugitives heading north.”

For those that would like to participate, I tag sisters and sisters-in-law:  MaryAnn, Heidi, Andrea, Suzie, and Bobbi.

Amanda | 3 Comments »

Kathryn loves her clothes. Before she was 18 months old, she had a favorite dress that she wanted tied around her waist over her other clothes. She definitely had a favorite outfit, which was the red jump suit she got for her 1st birthday from the Skidmores. Amelia won’t be getting that one for a hand-me-down.

When Grandma Harrison sent some spring clothes, Kathryn spent quite a bit of time playing with and sorting them. Here they are spread out on the bed – you can see she sorted like things together.  Kathryn immediately picked the Winnie the Pooh shirt-dress (as she calls it) and green pants as her favorite outfit. You can tell by the smile on her face, and by the fact that she wears it 4 times a week.

I kept some of those spring clothes, along with clothes given to us by some friends with girls older than Kathryn, in a separate drawer.  Kathryn realized it and then always wanted to dress herself in the “spring” clothes. This is what she picked one day. She was so excited about her choice that I didn’t have the heart to tell her a turtleneck isn’t really for spring, let alone that it wasn’t actually spring outside.  Kathryn is very good at getting dressed by herself, especially putting things on backwards.

From the “spring clothes” drawer Kathryn found a pair of “spring” pajamas. I’m not sure where she learned about spring, because I don’t think I had talked about spring yet. This was all going on during the snow. Anyway, she LOVES the spring pajamas, and I let her wear them if she wears pajama pants over the shorts part. Which she does, over her panties, which are over her diaper. Here she is modeling her spring pajamas and her wavy hair after wearing braids.

Kathryn | 7 Comments »

Here is a picture of what Darryl did with a cucumber last Saturday.  Kathryn was delighted to have “Larry the Cucumber” from Veggietales.

Darryl, Kathryn | 3 Comments »

Usually a trip for President Bush wouldn’t interest me all that much, but since he visited Kyiv and we live here, it was a little more exciting.  I don’t know or understand everything, but I am trying to keep up a little on what is going on here.  President Bush arrived on Monday night, and there was a demonstration all day Monday very near Darryl’s office.  In fact, they marched from the square up the street where his office is, so we have some pictures.  These are the people against Ukraine joining NATO – mostly old people and a few young students, Darryl said.  People from the Communist party and the Nationalist party.

 Click here to see some pictures of the actual visit, courtesy of a friend’s website.

Kyiv Adventures | 2 Comments »

We’re having some problems getting pictures into our blog, so the President Bush visit protest pictures will have to wait.  Meanwhile, here are some random things.

It has been interesting to see things on TV that we don’t see in the US, such as sports besides basketball, football, and baseball (and hockey a little bit in the US and a lot in Canada).  Soccer everywhere, we have like 5 stations with all soccer.  Lacrosse and such.  But the other night we saw something we had never seen before and don’t even know what it is called.  Essentially it was volleyball, but it was played with feet.  This is not a joke.  They were kicking the ball to bump, set and spike it over the net.  It was amazing!  All sorts of scissor kicks.  We also learned there are a lot more tennis tournaments than the Grand Slams we hear about back home.  We are big Roger Federer fans.

Another thing I have noticed on TV here is the advertisements for tourism to places like South Africa, Morocco, Poland, Egypt, etc. 

In other amusing tidbits (at least to me), Amelia likes the green baby.  Back before Kathryn was born and I was still working at PwC they gave the PwC book for new mothers.  It featured pictures of babies of PwC employees from around the country, and of all ethnicities.  I saved them and eventually laminated them for Kathryn to play with.  She absolutely loved them, except one baby we call the “green baby” because he is dressed in green.  She would gather all the babies and then put the green baby far away from the others and herself.  We still don’t know why, but she has said that she likes the green baby at our new house.  Anyway, Amelia has recently discovered the joy of these babies.  Her first favorite was the green baby!  She sorted through them one day and when she found the green baby she started saying, “Da! Da! Da!”.

Family, Kyiv Adventures | 1 Comment »