Friday Five

Here are some things we've been up to lately: 

1- Grandpa Walker stopped by one afternoon and... brought ice cream! I love living so close to the freeway. My dad tries to stop most times when he's driving by, even if it's just for a minute. 

2- We had an Aubrey/Nathan weekend. The other Rencher kids went with their parents to Youth Conference, but Aubrey and Nathan got to stay and play with us. (Jacob was supposed to stay too, but he got a little sick and his parents wanted to keep him close.) The first night we had our very own "Movie Night" (one of Lydia's favorite special activities lately). The Saturday we played massive amounts of "Cover your Assets", made chocolate covered pretzels, and even went to the Towne Cinema to see the Good Dinosaur (complete with loads of popcorn and treats). David was even able to get off work early enough to come to the movie with us. It was so wonderful. 

3- I never blogged these photos when I took them, but I kind of love them. When Lydia was a baby I used to put her in the sink and let her play while I did the dishes. She loved it and so did I. I haven't done it with Austin as much, but one day he was especially clingy so I scooped him up and put him in the sink. Lydia insisted that I finish the dishes in the other sink so she could get in, too.  They played while I finished cleaning my whole kitchen. 

4- I love how well Lydia and Austin are playing together lately. I'm not sure what they were doing Well... I know that Austin was trying to get to the cords under the computer to flip the switch- effectively killing the desktop and turning off the wifi, argh. The cords are now boxed up and protected with duct tape. Lydia moved all the chairs over and climbed into the fort to play. So silly.

5- My Grandma Walker isn't doing super well and was taken to the hospital in Odgen this weekend. We went and visited her this week. It's not anything in particular that is wrong. Just more of the same. A lot of pain, low oxygen, and some stomach/bowel issues. It was nice to visit with her and my grandpa all the same. Lately when we've been going to visit them in Wyoming she's been working on some coloring books and seems to really enjoy it. So we brought her an adult coloring book of the LDS temples and it's lovely and I hope she likes it. They still haven't released her from the hospital and it looks like they are trying to get her into a rehab facility again. My heart breaks for her because I know that she really just wants to be at home but also that she's in a lot of pain. 

Austin and Lydia liked the view from her window. 

OH, and can I add one more tangent to the end of this post? Yesterday I got a surprise sneak peek at the final product for a collaboration I've been working on with a company called Pure Creations. Next week these Thank You Cards (along with 7 other Thank You designs) will be listed on Jane.com! I'm thrilled about the whole thing and the card is hanging prominently on my refrigerator. I know I say this a lot, but it's so neat to see the final product of something that I created in my mind and put together on the computer. I'm so excited about the whole thing! 

Also, I took down a giant pile of junk that had been placed on the fridge at one point or another, cleaned the whole surface, and put a few things back onto the fridge to "stage" it (including re-writing my grocery list) so I could take this picture and put it on my Red Ladder Design facebook page.

Multi-tasking at it's finest.

So this is the thing - every single day I have at least one load of dishes to do. Most of the time I do them first thing in the morning while Lydia is eating her breakfast. (I have a strict "I don't do dishes at night" rule.) But on the occasional day that I don't get them done while Lydia is in her high chair, I have to do them in the afternoon or else they will pile up and become extremely intimidating. Sometimes when this happens Lydia is happy to play in the next room over, or happy to play with the silverware that I put in the dishwasher. Other times however, she stands by my legs and whines and whines and whines. I can only take so much of the whining, so oftentimes I will set her on the counter and let her play with a tupperware or something while I am doing the dishes. Sometimes she stays fairly dry, and other days she gets pretty soggy. Then there are the days that she wants to full on play in the water. Who am I to say no to such an innocent request? She patiently waits until I get one side of the sink cleaned out and then we strip off her clothes and diaper and stick her in the sink. 

It actually works really well - she is thrilled to be playing in the water and I am able to continue to work on the dishes in the other half of the sink. About the time that I am finishing up with my last dish is about the time that she starts to get bored and tries to stand up (which is immediate grounds for removal from the sink). Who ever thought that as a mom I would be so good at multi tasking that I would be able to wash my dishes and give my baby a bath at the same time?

And what is better than seeing a naked baby in a kitchen sink? 

Seeing that same baby doing the same thing exactly six months ago. 

(I took these pictures in May 2013, but I don't think that I ever got around to blogging them so I searched them out and thought that they would be the perfect addition to this post.)   

Look at how much this cute girl has grown in just six months. I love her happy grin.