The Unwritten Chapters of Summer Girl

Running Around Day

2012-02-16T19:23:00.000-08:00

Last night I decided that today would be our running around day, well I guess more so than the rest of the days this week. So since we had to go to the grocery..no soy or regular milk, I decided to just get the kids dressed and grab breakfast on the road so we could get home sooner. First we ran to WalMart toget my favorite plastic tubs by Sterilite. Lots of places sell that brand but I like the particular ones WalMart has, because of the handles and lids. So we grabbed 2 of those for the kids train sets they got for Christmas and some Cadbury Creme Eggs...yes I snuck those in!

Then we headed over to the eye clinic were we get Briggs's eye drops. It was kind of out of the way but I wasn't sure what time they opened this morning so we hit WalMart first. But boy was I TIRED driving over there. Seriously I was zapped I was using the cruise control a lot because I couldn't bother to keep my foot on the gas. I think it has something to do with squinting a lot too, because I forgot my sunglasses. In any event I wasn't feeling quite as tired by the time I got to the grocery store and we busted out our groceries and got home to make lunch.

(On a side note, why is it, that as soon as I sit down to type a blog post, this little girl decides to kick me in my bladder??? Really!)

Lunch and then naps which both kids only had a so so nap. But Grace did well with having dry pants. She however has been naughty playing with the toilet paper. Which is weird because I don't expect that of her..she never really made huge messes with the TP and the toilet when she was younger. I took a shower and a nap while they napped and it was good although way too short.

Grace and I had oatmeal for dinner and then she got picked up for dance class.

Aaron ate a decent dinner but he has had a bad diaper rash today and so he got a bath while Grace was gone and then they both went to bed early. I can't believe how fast my weeks are going by...I can't wait for K to be done traveling. I think once he is here for when little sister gets here, my days will slow down.
So far I haven't heard any news about my glucose test...I am considering calling them tomorrow...but then again..my I won't. After all I am scheduled for every 2 weeks now, so my next appointment is this Thursday.

Tomorrow I don't have too much planned just wrapping up the organizing. I would like to get K's office all set for him before he gets home on Saturday..but we will see. I do need to do some laundry....

Girls Night and Valentines Day Treats

2012-02-15T21:01:00.000-08:00

Saturday night K watched the kiddos and I headed out to dinner with the girls. We went to Buca Di Beppo since we hadn't been there in awhile. We had a good time and chit chatted before running over to Michaels to roam their aisles without any kidlets attached to us.

Tuesday morning I let the kids open their Valentines Day card that their great grandparents sent. Grace got a Tinkerbell card and was thrilled, then she saw the lil bit of cash that was stashed inside and exclaimed, "Money!" She was thrilled..so after her 3 yr checkup with the pediatrician, we headed over to a local pastry shop and let her pick out some treats. She wanted the bismark donut not the pink cookie. She loves putting money in her piggy bank and we talk about what the money is called and how many there are. She did so good at her appointment. She still weighs 32 pounds. The Dr. looked in her ears for her tubes. Her left one is still in place but the right one is in the canal, so we might see it come out. I might call her Ear Nose and Throat Dr and talk with him about swimming lessons, but her pediatrician was ok with it because at this age they aren't really diving down under water. We will see when it gets a little warmer. But we also talked about potty training and I asked him some suggestions about getting rid of the night time diaper. In the morning she has the fullest diaper ever..and she really isn't drinking a lot right before bed. I mean she can for sure at times but generally doesn't. So we talked about having her go during the day at certain times so she can get used to feeling her bladder mostly empty and reminding her that she can wake up and go potty if she feels she has too. It definitely has been a struggle getting her to go when she doesn't want to. She threw herself a ripe little tantrum tonight before bed, kicking her legs on the toilet and everything! Oiy! But on the bright side she has had a nap all this week with no diapers and only had an accident yesterday and I know she did drink a ton of water..so it was not surprise that she woke up in a mess. She also got a vaccination yesterday and did so well! She didn't even cry and she was so brave, I was so proud of her!

Aaron eating his half of his cookie...can you tell he was having a fit before hand. He has been so SUPER whiny and cranky the last couple of days. I can only guess that he is teething and isn't feeling well. Last night he woke up a bunch of times, and just fussed and fussed. And he just wants me to hold him all the time, or have his way all the time. But unfortunately I can't hold him 24/7, my belly is just too big, and I am too tired and he is too big and then I would get nothing done. He is getting better about saying, "Up" when he wants me to pick him up and I do. He was so cute playing with Grace in her kitchen tonight. He was taking the ice cream cones and using them as cups at the refrigerator and 'filling them with water'. He had the biggest grin feeding me water.

Grace enjoying her donut, I think she just ate the chocolate off, but it was her treat.

Look at that face. Since I have been growing her bangs out, I have to make sure I either put some barrettes in her hair or do it up in some pony tails or something and I tell her it's so I can see her beautiful face. So now she tells me, "Mom I have a pony tail like you, you can see my beautiful face!" or "Mom I can see your beautiful face too!"

It was nice not having dance class at the rec center yesterday and she still has dance class tomorrow and Jo will pick her up. She still seems to be enjoying the class.
I have been nesting and organizing still. Trying to get the downstairs picked up and cleaned out. Got the linen closet all organized and want to attack it with my label maker but need to find the refill for it. Worked on the guest bedroom space on Monday and have that almost ready...pictures to come. Just trying to get K's office space organized for him. Big Brother;s and Sister left a flyer about a pick up day for donations which totally came in handy this Friday morning, so I have most everything cleared out just need to go out to the curb Thursday night. Makes it easier for me so I don't have to make another stop and load the car and gets it out of my house.
Looking forward to getting the house all ready to have 3 young babes and looking forward to summer when I can get out with the kids and be more active.
K's foot has been getting better and doesn't hurt him so much anymore so that is good and I can't wait to have him back on Saturday night. My foot was a little bit better today, although I think I need to stay off of it. I notice that it feels normal when I am not walking around on it so much, but when I am up and down the stairs and back and forth down the hall it hurts. My weeks are just flying by and I can't believe that tomorrow is Thursday! I have a busy day planned tomorrow so I better get to bed soon! Hope you all are having a good week!!

Prayer Request:

2012-02-12T12:40:00.000-08:00

Hey Everyone...So I just wanted to pop in and give my people a quick update. Yesterday K went to his sister's clinic and found out he has infection on his pinky toe that is probably MRSA again. You may or may not remember 2 years ago while I was pregnant with Aaron we were dealing with the ugly Staph infection. K had a lil bit on his thigh, Grace had an teeny infection on her knuckle and I ended up getting one on my back after Aaron was born. We all had to have antibiotics in one way or another. It's a serious business this MRSA. I am hoping that the test results come back that its not MRSA, but he is currently on the strong antibiotics to get rid of it. When he went in, they said that it was blood born (whatever that means exactly) and he had a red racing stripe going up his foot and ankle. I guess it can lead up to your chest and heart which is very bad news.

Unfortunately, K can get bad eczema on his heels and they crack and peel and that is why he doesn't notice it until it's really bad. Because when his feet break out, sometimes a crack can be painful, its hard to differentiate between pain from a bad eczema break out and pain because his foot is falling apart.

On top of it he is heading to Rhode Island tomorrow early and will be in for a week of training, some long days and long traveling. Nobody likes traveling away from their family if they can help not to mention being on antibiotics and the fun that goes with that. He is taking ibuprofen for the pain and that seems to help, but it can start throbbing once that wears off and putting shoes on and off is a pain as well.

On top of that I think I did pull a muscle or bruise the bottom of my left foot while in Vegas. I remember stepping funny and feeling it kind of pull and go flatter and hurting but then this week it seemed ok. That was until Friday, I don't know if being pregnant and all the walking around cleaning I did on Friday made it worse, but I feel pretty gimpy for sure. If I stay off of it it doesn't hurt, but definitely putting weight on it, makes it hurt more. (Kinda of a bummer because I really wanted to wear my new boots last night for girls night!) Saturday and Sunday it has been hurting for sure.

So I hate to be a bearer of bad news, but that is some stuff we are dealing with here. The kids are great, Aaron is talking more and pointing a lot. Grace is telling me a lot about her emotions these days and lil sister, well, she is still kicking me like she is a master at Kung Fu.

Please say a quick prayer that everybody gets healed quickly and this whole MRSA thing goes away fast! Hope you all had a great weekend...just enjoying the fire myself right now. :)

Finally Friday....

2012-02-10T20:46:00.000-08:00

Hey Everyone, well it's finally Friday and we had a pretty good one! I had to schedule an appointment for an examiner to come check me out, for our life insurance. At first I thought I was going to have to take the kids somewhere or get a babysitter. But they came to the house, so it was pretty convenient, it was pretty easy they weighed me, took my blood pressure, urine sample and of course had my blood drawn. And of course because I had my blood drawn yesterday in my 'good' arm, she tried to do the other arm which isn't so good and she missed. But she did get it the second time. After she left I started my laundry and vacuuming. The kids helped me clean the windows with their spray bottles. Well actually Grace did the 'helpful' cleaning, Aaron mostly sucked the water out of his water bottle.

Later after naps, which Aaron had 2 days of good naps in a row, the kids went outside with Daddy to help him pick up the dog poop. K wasn't so thrilled, but the kids sure were. It was warm today in the 50's I think. In fact I had the fan on and the thermostat down because I was getting hot while vacuuming. K also took down the Christmas lights, I am sure our neighbors will be thrilled. With all the traveling he hasn't had a chance before now. K finally brought Aaron in when he came to him with a mouthful of compost..chipmunk cheeks and all! I had to laugh because all I saw was just a dirty little face.

We made yummy pork ribs and asparagus for dinner. Then tossed the kids into the bath and got them ready for bed.

OK I love my kids!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Watching the end of Larry Crown now and looking forward to a birthday party for our nephew tomorrow at Chuck E Cheese (the kids first time) and then a girls night at Buca Di Beppo for dinner!! Can't wait!

Bread

2012-02-08T21:28:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I made bread. Here is our 5 gallon bucket of wheat. Yes we have 5 gallons of hard white wheat. LOL We bought this back before we had kids, and the grinder attachment that goes with our Bosch mixer. So we learned how to make a yummy multi grain bread. The funny thing is K has been the one who has made bread the last 4-5 times so it took me a little longer yesterday. However I did make it, I just don't have a picture of it! I know, I know. But believe me it wasn't really pretty to look at. It tasted alright, although K has definitely gotten better at making bread than me. But I took some to playgroup this morning and plan on making more after we finish our loaves we have.

Grace played with her Play-Doh while I made bread. Notice the TuTu over her pajamas? She is so precious, she always asks me if she can put her TuTu on.

Just another picture of Aaron from before, but I do have to share a story about him. Tonight he was so cute, I was changing his diaper and getting his pj's on and he had this little play camera that just clicks when you push the button. But he was putting it to his face and saying cheese! Then when he saw his Dinosaur pj's I had from him that his Grandma Krissy sent him, he growled. The kids have a couple of plastic dinosaur figures and he loves them and growls and thinks he is so funny. What a boy! We had play group this morning and I was kind of tired and running late this morning, but was glad we headed over there because I felt better for going. It's so nice to have good friends to do that, huh?

I asked K to help with dinner tonight, we all needed a home cooked meal and we had some chicken that needed cooking and he basically cooked the whole thing! Which I totally appreciated because this belly of mine is serious getting in the way these days. When I change Aaron, when I do the dishes, putting on socks, holding babies...lol but soon soon she will be here.

Tomorrow I have my glucose test (boo) at the dr and I am going to try to fast and I am praying that I don't have to do the 3 hour glucose test.
We sold our air brush gun we had on Ebay and I plan on selling more of our stuff that we haven't been using. Also this Monday is Bulk Trash day and then the following Friday is a donation day pickup, so some more stuff will be leaving the house. K leaves Monday for another week of training and he will come back to his house changed more!!! LOL
Hope everyone is having a wonderful week!!

Our trip

2012-02-07T21:45:00.000-08:00

So we left for a couples weekend in Las Vegas on Friday night. I was excited to get away without the kiddos. We booked our room at the hotel Vdara. I hadn't ever heard of the place but it was GREAT! It's part of the CityCenter in the middle of the strip. It is a smoke free, green hotel, without a casino. The CityCenter has a mall called Crystals and it has very upscale stores like Louis Vutton and such in it and then also there is the Aria which we didn't see, but it is another hotel with a casino. The Vdara was so great. I never realized that having the smoke free hotel would be so great. I mean sure you think about it...but it didn't really occur to me until we walked into the lobby to check in. The lobby just smelled so nice and fresh. So I took some pictures of our awesome room. The pictures aren't really in order, they got a little messed up when I was uploading them.

This was our room service breakfast the next morning..pricey but so fun and yummy!

Picture of K at lunch...well it was more of a snack since we had a late breakfast and early dinner on Saturday.

Our bed..can you see above the widows the shade was automatic...well the shades...I should say, their were two. Nice King sized bed, so cozy!

Our soaking tub, perfect deepness to fit a pregnant belly!

Our modern sink in our bathroom.

Another love of the pregnant woman...a shower with a bench seat.

Look real close this is not the same TV in both pictures, there was a TV on each side of the wall, one for the 'living room' another for the 'bedroom'.

Me at Outback eating our snack of blooming onions Saturday afternoon.

So Saturday morning we headed out after our room service breakfast and started showing K the strip. He had never been to see the strip before on Vegas so since we had to head over to MGM to pick up our tickets for our show that night we walked over to MGM. It wasn't as far as I had thought and we stopped at the M&M store and had our snack at Outback as well. The Lion Habitat was closed at MGM which was a bummer, because I wanted to show K, but we got our tickets and some M&M's for the kiddos, then we headed back to the hotel to get ready. We had reservations at Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill, which was in Cesear's Palace. For some reason I thought I remembered it outside kind of in front of the casino but it was inside. Our first letdown was that it was in the Sports Book of Cesears Palace so the restaurant itself was kind of smokey being where everyone smokes while they bet on games. Another thing that irked me was the dress code..they made a point of telling us it was business casual on the phone when we made our reservations, but that must mean something to other people because they were letting in people that I thought were undressed. Granted they weren't wearing flip flops and tank tops, but it is one of my pet peeves..I guess I am such a rule follower. Also considering the restaurant wasn't that crowded they sat us, a party of 2 right next to a party of 5. I mean literally I could have reached out and hugged one of the guys. The other thing that irked me was I wanted a virgin blended drink and the bar had no blender, they could only do their drinks on ice. We ordered the Tiger Prawn appetizer with a corn tamale and it was very good. I ordered the seafood chopino and it had a cilantro broth and the scallops were huge and tender, good flavors. K order some pork medallions with a Bourbon sauce and a sweet potato mash and porcino mushrooms. He like the mushrooms and the mash was ok. The sauce he liked but thought that the pork was a tad on the dry side. So overall our opinion of the Mesa Grill was good flavors but poor execution considering it was an expensive place. Its more than just paying a lot for the food, your paying for the whole experience.

Then we headed over to MGM to see the Cirque Du Soleil show called KA. I didn't know this but we had 2nd row seats and it was so cool. The show is one with a sort of plot and it was just amazing the acrobatics that the performers did. Truly worth the money.
After the show we headed over to get a taxi, the taxi line was SOOOOO long and since I was wearing my new boots with a moderate heel, and because I thought we were closer to the tram than we were I decided I would walk back as opposed to waiting in line. Probably should have waited, because after all the walking we did earlier that day my poor pregnant muscles and feet were burning once we got back home.

Sunday morning we got a bagel from the little market downstairs and then got ready for our couples massage at 11am. The spa is in the hotel and so we just went downstairs and got checked in for our relaxing. I was still a little sore from the night before and when I was getting ready I opened the bathroom stall door onto my barefoot. They give you flip flops to wear ya know and the door wasn't high like a stall but it wasn't like a regular door either it had about a 2 inch clearance from the floor. Since I have a hard time seeing my feet these days (big belly and all) I opened the door right into the top of my foot, it hurt so bad and I was limping around during my massage. But the massage was good and if I ever go back without being pregnant I am taking advantage of that spa!
The rest of the day we walked around and took the tram to the Bellagio and had lunch. We checked out a few tables and slots and then headed back to the hotel to watch the rest of the SuperBowel and order some more room service. It was very relaxing especially eating some chocolate covered strawberries.
All in all we had a great weekend walking around eating and relaxing, just enjoying each others company and if I ever go back to Vegas to vacation..I am hoping I can stay at the Vdara again!

These pictures I took of the kids before we left..I think on Friday, just so we could get a kid fix in.

And it was nice to be missed too. Today, a couple of times Aaron freaked out because I think he thought I was going to leave him. And Grace kept telling me how much she loved me today. Love my babies!

What we are planning

2012-02-02T19:12:00.000-08:00

I am sorry I don't have any new pictures tonight. I will try to do a post before we go. We are headed out to Vegas tomorrow night for an impromptu getaway. We had been talking and talking about getting away before the baby was born just us, no kids. But after looking at the calendar we decided we either had to go this weekend or I would have to go to visit K in Rhode Island when he would be there in March for 2 weeks back to back. Flying to the east coast by myself is totally doable..even this pregnant however I didn't want to fly all day for 2 days just to get there and back. Soooo, we called around last minute and found some very nice family members who were willing to watch the kids for us and stay the night here and we booked our trip! It's official, we are headed to Vegas tomorrow night. We even rented a car so we wouldn't put the miles on the truck. (K gets a discount with his new job.) I used to love to road trip, until I had kids. So I am excited to road trip without the kids and stopping to nurse or go potty or stretch their legs or feed them or so I don't lose my mind listening to crying.
I even arranged for the dogs to be boarded that way family doesn't have to bother with them, and they can socialize too. I did have to run over to the Humane Society this afternoon and get their Boardatella shots updated, which was so easy and painless. Love it! The kids stayed with daddy while I did that. I also left Aaron at home with K and went to the grocery on his nap with Grace. It was nice to just have her and just focus on her, she is such a love.
We got our hotel booked, we got tickets to go see a Cirque De Soleil show called KA and reservations at Bobby Flay's restaurant Mesa Grill. I have always wanted to eat at one of his restaurants and now I get too! We also have a couples massage scheduled for us and so this is sort of our Valentines couples retreat weekend to focus on us and have some quality time before we add little sister to the craziness. I am sure we will also do some window shopping and throw some quarters in a slot or two while we are there as well.
We really try to make time for our relationship, in fact we are going to start planning a 'quiet date night' during the week when K is in town. Where we turn off the electronics, no TV, no gaming, no surfing the net and just either read or play a game together or talk to each other. But not 'staff meeting' talking. Staff meeting talk is where you talk about what you need to do as a family, like oh we are going to so and so birthday party this weekend, or oh I need you to take this there and such. I love this idea because quality time is one of my Love Languages.
We put the kids to bed a little early, Grace skipped her nap today and she also had her second dance class so I figure she would conk out quickly. I also thought Aaron would too because after bath time he gave me the biggest yawn on the changing table, but he just stopped cooing away after almost 30 minutes!
Oh my Aaron is getting so communicative lately. I taught him the sign for 'more' and just the last couple of days he has been nodding his head. He could shake his head no, but wouldn't nod. Now he nods and signs 'more' when he wants some more bananas or water. He loves drinking water from a big cup. Actually he loves water in every way! The bath, the toilet, the cup, the snow, whatever, he is going to love going to the pool this summer! I am going to get a pass for sure I think. Anyway he can say, Ma Ma, Da Da, ball, car, up, book, dog. And maybe uh huh. We are working on sissy or Grace. I am sure there is more but I can't remember them right now. He is wearing 18 month clothes now and still skinny. Sometimes the pants don't always fit him and by the end of the day they have to be pulled up every other minute. He is so smart, he knows to get his shoes to go bye bye and can throw stuff away in the trash for me. He also will point to the TV when he wants to watch some cartoons but he doesn't stay very focused, he can get bored of that easily.
I am feeling good. Just the usual aches and pains, and I feel huge. Sleeping is ok. For the most part Aaron is sleeping straight through until at least 7am. On a good day he will sleep until 7:50, however he can still wake up anywhere from 5am-6am and need help settling back down. Of course those nights are the nights when I am up 52 times to go to the bathroom or tossing and turning. Well I better get off the computer so I can make my to do lists for tomorrow, I have a ton of things floating around in my head!
Night!

Organizing on a Tuesday

2012-01-31T20:16:00.000-08:00

This picture I took on Saturday after K came home. Kiddos loving on their daddy!

Last night when I was falling asleep, it took me a little bit longer than usual because I was thinking about all the closets I wanted to organized today. So that is what I worked on today, cleaning out the tops of the kids closets and pulling things out to sell on Ebay. I am eager for everything to have a place and to live more simply. Especially since, as soon as baby girl gets here I am not going to want to do an extra organizing chores of such.

OK I love this picture...Can anyone guess what it is. I have been meaning to post it, since we got back from SD in Dec. Grace drew it shortly after. Any ideas??? Ok I will tell you..its a tent and a campfire at the desert!! So cute huh?? Her first drawing of something real!

My little bear vacuuming away with the popper!

He was a whirl of activity while I was trying to take his picture tonight.

A family friend got Grace signed up for a 2nd dance class on Thursday nights at her church. It has a lot of little girls in it and she got Grace this leotard and tights. Grace just loves it and wants to wear it as much as she can.

Showing me flamingo again. So we headed off to dance class with just me and Grace, Aaron stayed home with Daddy and it was nice to have just one child for a little bit. I dropped her off and headed to Target to return a basket I got that was too big. I also got a couple of dollar spray bottles to put water in for the kids to help me 'clean'. I also saw a church friend at Target and chit chatted with her a lil bit. It was a nice lil kid free time although too short! :)

So when we got home tonight Daddy and Aaron had picked up some toys and the living room was clutter free (I love that!) and so was their rooms! We put cranky pants Aaron down a lil bit early and then Grace and I read her 'Nana Books'. She loves reading them and usually wants to read ALL of them! She is so cute!

This week is going by so fast, I can't believe tomorrow is Wednesday!

Dance and New Rooms!

2012-01-26T21:23:00.000-08:00

So I think I have finally finished doing the kids rooms up. These pictures are from Tuesday before I took Grace to her dance class. She was trying to show me 'flamigo' where she puts her hands outs and puts her foot against her knee. Kinda of like a tree pose in yoga.

She loves her ballet slippers I got her.

And of course my Air Bear bringing me his shoes. He knows to go get his shoes on to go Bye Bye and has even tried to put them on himself. Such a smart little boy, he understands so much! Now if he can just learn some words so that he can communicate better with me instead of whining at me! He has been in super mommy mode the last week n half. Just wanting me to hold him a lot and he puts his head on my shoulder and snuggles in. I love my snuggles, I just wish he didn't want to always snuggle when I was in the middle of doing something,

So Memaw and Pepaw got the kids these little license plates with their names on them and I decided to put them on their doors.

Here is Aaron's room. I finally got him his toy bin and a shelf to put his piggy bank on. I got the kids 2 free piggy banks from our banks. They are very cute and Grace is into money now. I had bought the letter A awhile ago with the intent to finish buying the rest of the letters in his name at Michael's using a coupon every week but only got one letter so far. But the A looks cute up there for now. I also put the green and blue chairs from the folding table in Grace's room in Aaron's room since his room is painted green leftover from the office. I thought about repainting it a more lighter neutral color, but that is not happening at this stage of pregnancy.

The walls are actually a darker green than they come across in the picture. I also moved the glider into Aaron's room since it made more room for playing in Grace's.

I put the tree picture back up with the shark picture. They are just a couple of art pictures leftover from my high school days, but they went with the color scheme and we had them framed already so why not?

So as you can see we moved the changing table into his room as we still change him, also creating more space in Grace's room. I got some darkening panels for their rooms and we put the maple chest in the closet. There is still lots of Daddy's stuff up in his closet but it's ok there for now.

We also got the rug at Home Depot and inadvertently its the exact same rug as my moms, just bigger! I wasn't sure it would go at first because it has more blue in it, but I actually really liked it there once we got it in the room.

Grace's room...

Oh yeah here is a close up of Aaron's toy bin, not quite as full as Grace's but I am sure it will get there! LOL!

OK now back to Grace's room. I moved her kitchen out of the closet and into the corner. Her new darkening panels as well.

It's kind of hard to see but I had to put her name letters back up because when her crib was in the corner it was high enough she was able to rip A, C & E off the wall. She LOVES her toddler bed!

Her toy bin. The black bucket we painted as a project last year to hold all of her kitchen/food toys. Then the basket for her stuffed animals which I just downsized by about 90%, she had way to many. Now it holds her pillow pets and a couple of new stuffed animals and her blankies.

Her shelf which I love! I stuck her Raggedy Ann & Andy dolls up there with her piggy bank and her star wand from her first birthday. Also a couple of framed pictures her Nana gave her to the right. The shelves have to have light stuff on them, they are the sturdiest, but it keeps the piggy banks up out of harms reach.

Her closet, I moved Daddy's chest of drawers into her closet so she can get her clothes. She was getting chairs and pulling stuff down off of hangers and I was worried about hangers snapping. I still have to go through the top of her closet because she has a bunch of bigger sized clothes up there and some toys I have to figure out. I also stuck a pink and green blanket she had from when she was born on top of the chest of drawers. I gave her that red makeup bag I had extra to hold her "Jewels". She got a bunch of play jewelery for Christmas and loves her jewels!

Her new comforter and sheet set. It's pink and green with lady bugs and she LOVES it as well!

It has a sheet and a comforter and it's reversible and now we don't have 52, 000 blankies in bed at night.

I told him to smile and he did!! Love that lil bear!!

Our family friend Jolynn asked if she could put Grace in the dance class at her church and since she as taking care of the cost and carpooling I was game! Also there are more girls, so I think we are going to finish up the 2 weeks we have left at the rec center and stick with this until April, when they will have a little recital Tonight was Grace's first night and she was so cute!! Jo also got her a black leotard and some pink and black tights. I will take more pictures of her wearing them next week! Lots of girls tonight and she just jumped right in! She is so easy going.

I have been sick with a cold this week and its a huge pain being sick and pregnant because I can't take anything. Another bummer with that is that K has been in Rhode Island for training with his work. So I miss him and the help. He comes home Saturday and will be home for 2 weeks before he has to go again. We are definitely going to try to get away for a long weekend without the kids before little sister arrives.
I am also nesting like crazy!! It's is funny, I am just purging stuff left and right and organizing, organizing, organizing. My next project is to try to sell out couch downstairs, we don't really use it and it just sits in front of a ton of storage space that we can access. We sold our desk on Wednesday and I was glad to see it go out of our garage. I also donated a bunch of clothes and stuffed animals today. Like I said, purging.
Well I got to get off to bed and get my rest so I can get rid of this cold! Night!

Sick

2012-01-24T20:14:00.000-08:00

I was going to do a post tonight, however I don't think I am. I can't bring myself to upload the pictures I took tonight. I have a cold and with being pregnant and K being out of town this week, I just don't have the energy. 8:00pm comes and I am ready for my 'me time'. Thankfully the kids aren't sick. Grace had dance class again tonight and is still loving it. Aaron apparently hates riding in the dark backwards without his big sister or something because he whine/fuss the whole way to Targer and back during dance class.
Some people are coming to buy our desk tomorrow night. They are driving a ways for it. It was schocking to get 2 calls on it Saturday and one call on it today. We were ready to donate it. Go fig.
Just about have the kids rooms done. Pictures to come soon.
Night!

Errands to run

2012-01-19T19:42:00.000-08:00

We had such a busy day today and frankly I am glad it is done. Both the kids were up at 730 for good, which is fine but K and I went to bed late after midnight. These days I need at the very least my 8 hrs of sleep, and more than that is usually good with this pregnancy. And it's never a solid 8 hrs, I was up with the dogs once and up with Aaron around 6ish. However...after breakfast I was ready to get going and hit the road. If it didn't snow today then I was going to be out and about and getting stuff done. So off we went. First stop was Target where I had to exchange some little ballet slippers for Grace for a bigger size. I also got Aaron's toy bin organizer and bins, and a shelf for each of their rooms, as well as some toiletries we needed.

Of course we had to use the restroom before we could check out and then it was back in the car to head over to Babies R US. We had bought these new fangled sippy cups there on Monday. They are hard to explain, but they didn't have a spout and were like drinking from a real cup but with a lid. Anyway, Aaron wouldn't drink out of them and I couldn't really blame him because they were weird. Returned those, got our money back and got 2 normal sippy cups. Off to Wal-Mart to exchange the curtain panel I bought in the wrong size. Back out to the car and luckily (this wasn't originally on our list) but there was an Office Max and so I returned the label maker tape I had bought on Tuesday because K told me he has some more tape for it some where in his office already. Which was good because that stuff was expensive at $23! Then we walked over to Firehouse Subs and had an early lunch. They have really good subs, especially considering they do hot subs. But I ask them to make them cold and they are delicious and the kids eat pretty well at "samwhich place" when we go. Grace did manage to knock her drink over twice. Of course the first time it didn't make a mess so she had to do it again so we could have them mop up fruit punch. Ahh kids! She was trying to protect her paper from Air Bear...you know that is important.

After lunch we were cruising right along and so we got some groceries and were out of there by 12:30, which I was amazed at. Aaron fell asleep in the car and he slept until about 2pm. (Not in the car, in his bed) I don't think Grace naps at all these days, but generally she stays quiet in her room.
I got the kids laundry done and put Grace's away in her new to her chest of drawers. I also folded Aaron's cloth diapers and put away his disposables. Grace played with play-doh and the dogs ate up Aaron's Teddy Grahams when he dropped them on the floor.

After daddy got done with work we headed out for Chinese food to satisfy his craving...hey wait..isn't it me who should be have my cravings satisfied??? :) I actually had no cravings at dinner time so it sounded good and surprisingly the kids ate their chinese food really well. Especially Aaron who is a picky eater. But they brought out this mango sorbet after dinner and it seemed to clear Aaron's pallet, because he would have some of that and then stuff fried chicken pieces in his mouth.
Before dinner Grace and I played catch with the bouncy ball and she is catching the ball so good! She is really learning to keep her eye on the ball and she can really huck it too! Aaron even caught it a few times while sitting in my lap.

Tomorrow I hope to put together Aaron's toy bin organizer while I work on laundry and then also iron the curtains if I have time. I didn't get to that yet. Hopefully K will be able to put their shelves I got them before he leaves for some more training on Sunday. I think their rooms should be done by the end of next week, because I just have a few finishing touches. I am crossing my fingers. It's funny though because K keep laughing about how I am nesting so much. And I really have to agree with him. I tend to like organization and detail anyway, but I don't remember being so into nesting with the first two kiddos. Maybe because I know having a 3 year old, 1 1/2 year old and a newborn will keep really busy for awhile! LOL

Time for a hot bath for me, my legs and back started aching while I was playing catch with Grace today so I am ready for some R&R! Nighty night!

Some cuddles and some cleaning

2012-01-17T20:05:00.000-08:00

I put Beauty and the Beast on for the kids the other night after dinner and bath time, and the kids snuggled right in to watch it. We got Grace some princess bubble bath and she LOVES taking baths even more now. She would take a bubble every single night if she could. I couldn't resist snapping their picture of them lying there with their heads together. Aaron is getting more and more into watching movies which is great because then I can count on him to be still while I take a shower. They don't watch a lot of TV or movies but we do have snuggle time in the mornings occasionally and watch movies at night as well.

I love these Batman pj's on Aaron they ares so darn cute. Still a little big, but they washed up so soft and he is just the most snuggliest little bear, especially after a bath. Speaking of watching TV, so this morning I put on Sesame Street for a little bit until Grace woke up. Aaron had slept late till about 8am and then woke up cooing. (Which is always a plus!) And then Grace slept a little longer. It seems since she has her toddler bed she can hear us get Aaron and while peek in our room to see if we are awake. So this morning she hadn't woken up yet, so Aaron was watching a little bit of Sesame Street and then Grace came in. I let her watching about 10 minutes as well. But before turning it off they learned the word, HUMONGOUS. So all day today Grace has been saying, "You Are My Mongus!" I was cleaning and I kept hearing her say that to Aaron back down in his room over and over. What a crack up! I got a lot done today. I picked up our living room and kitchen, it was getting a bit disastrous and then at nap time I went about purging clothes out of our chest of drawers so I could put his little chest of drawers in Grace's room and then we can share my big one. It felt good to get rid of a bunch of clothes that I am not wearing. I hate storing stuff that you don't use and just keep for 'some day'. That some day never comes. Some things I have had to keep like maternity clothes and nursing bras and such. So I will be glad when I am done nursing this last baby because then I can get rid of all the clothes that go with pre and post pregnancy and just have regular clothes again! I also went through some of Grace's toys and we are going to be getting rid of some of them. Of course now that Grace's room is kind of clean that means Aaron's room is more tornado like because I just kind of tossed his toys in his room to get them out of Grace's. But I am taking one day at a time and tomorrow we can do laundry and work on organizing his and Grace's clothes into their new spots.

Here is a couple of pictures of Aaron's room without the desk and such in it. I lifted the camera up high to get that angle. Of course we have the rug and other furniture in there now, but I plan on taking some after pictures of their rooms when I am done. It might be a couple of weeks before that happens but I am working on it day by day, amongst regular mommy duties of course!

Grace had dance class tonight and since K had to work a little bit later than usual he didn't make it in time to go with us out to get some food before class. So I dropped Grace off to class for the first time and took my lil Air Bear with me to Office Max. I needed more clear tape for our label er and then of course K told me he thinks we have lots of refills already. So I will probably be taking that back next week. Assuming I can find the tape. I was trying to label the clear tub I got for the kids play-doh and realized that when Grace was playing with it a few weeks ago that was the last of the tape. Label makers are the coolest tool ever. I knew it would be cool when K showed it to me, however I hadn't used it until a few weeks ago and it was so cool. I wish I could label everything! HA! But that would probably be overkill.
Have I mentioned that this little girl in my belly is a soccer player? She is a mover and shaker this little girl. She is kicking me all the time! She was moving around a lot today, and is kind of quiet right now...maybe she is learning her nights and days! Oh wait, I spoke too soon, she just somersaulted!
Time to go have a nice relaxing shower and then some cookies and milk I think.

Weekend and Thoughts!

2012-01-15T20:14:00.000-08:00

We have had a busy weekend. Saturday morning Daddy and his friend took down the desk in Aaron's room and moved it into the garage. They also moved Grace's crib into the garage which had been sitting in our living room for a little while now. They also moved a bunch of stuff downstairs into Daddy's office/ the guest bedroom and the changing table into Aaron's room. Then Daddy and I went out for a date night. We had dinner and then cruised over to Home Depot and checked out rugs and such for Aaron's room. It wasn't our original plan to spend date night shopping in Home Depot, however we did have fun and it was best to get it done. I never would have been able to buy an 8X10 rug for his room without K and we also got some new light bulbs for the room as well. After Home Depot we looked into a movie but there weren't any that we wanted to see, so we cruised over to Barnes and Noble and got some hot chocolates and relaxed in the chairs until they closed. I know I know-hot date night huh?? But I was feeling tired all day and was kind of glad to just be in a quiet kid free zone with my husband for a little bit.
Today I got up with Aaron and fed us breakfast before sneaking downstairs so Daddy and Grace could sleep. Grace was up way late so I figured she would need to sleep in, which she did. Then we headed out to the late service at church. When we got home we tried for naps. At least Aaron took one despite waking up a couple of times, and I finished my book. Then after the kids got up we laid the rug out in Aaron's room and Daddy had changed the light bulbs in his room already this morning while I was showering. I love his room so far and can't wait to get curtains up in his and Grace's room and then a toy bin for his toys. The kids loved stomping on the new rug. I got a shag rug so it would be softer to sit and play on.
I am looking forward to this week being not busy with not a lot planned so I can go get the things left I need for their rooms and organize them up a little bit. I think I am going to switch a couple of dressers around as well. When we moved the changing table into Aaron's room, we took Grace's sock and underwear drawer out too! So I think I am going to have K and I share my big dresser for now and then put Grace's clothes in his old one. I am thinking about painting it to match her room. It's a cheap particle board dresser from Target and already has the finish removed from where we taped the drawers shut from our first move into the townhouse. I am not sure though if I would have to completely sand it or maybe just scuff it up real good so the paint can adhere or if I have to do that at all. Or if I have the gumption to do it at all. It's small so I think spray paint would work and wouldn't be too much of a project. But I won't do it if I have to sand it and such. I don't know, guess I will look into it and see. Hopefully I can get the curtains figured out before K leaves. He leaves this weekend for another week of training in Rhode Island.
I am hoping it snows tonight or tomorrow. This morning on the way to church it was sooo warm. It was 53 degrees, which is totally crazy. Then by the time we got out of church the wind had picked up and that cold wind usually means a storm is coming. I want a fire and a soup making day!!
I also want some peanut M&M's-yum!
Well time to get off the computer for the night, hope everyone had a nice weekend! LOVE YA!

Big 3 Birthday Girl!

2012-01-11T20:17:00.000-08:00

Grace turned 3 years old yesterday and I got her some donuts for breakfast. After breakfast I let her open her cards and a couple of gifts that came in the mail the day before. She had such focus opening the cards.

Cinderella! She loved her princess cards and Tinkerbell cards!

Look at that face! Her bangs are getting so long, but I am not going to cut them. We are growing them out, because they are so thick and start far back on her head, so it's time to change it up. But of course that means time and patience.

She got new panties size 4T!! Tinkerbell and more princess, she loves it! And that is a smile!

Playing with her new Tinkerbell doll. You pull a string and Tinks wings move, light up and it plays a little song.

Dinner at McDonalds with mommy and daddy before dance class. She ate her cheeseburger and got to open her present!

We got her a VTech computer. I actually picked it up earlier this year on clearance and she totally loves it! Also she is so good at it already. She can practice her letters and numbers and different puzzles and it has a little mouse. Its pretty great.

I love this picture because it reminds me of a picture that my mom took of her when she first played a Sesame Street game on my moms computer when she was one.

So sweet, like a little doll! You just want to squish her cheeks!

I know this pic is kind of far away, but she went down the slide at McDonalds a couple of times while Daddy was opening her computer and it was a brand new playground, so the slide went super fast. She thought it as a hoot!

Then we hurried off to dance class. Even though we were a few minutes late we were still the first ones there. However two other little girls showed up and it was much better I think. Here they are warming up.

Second position (I think). Love this!

Kicks

Leaps

Watching the other girls.

Free dancing low on the ground. So we signed up for 4 weeks and we will see how it goes. She didn't want to wear her leg warmers (which I thought would have looked so cute) but you cant force it, ya know? Her birthday was a blast and she has been all about being a big girl today since she had her birthday yesterday. All day she kept referring to how she could do this or that because she is a big girl now and she is three.

Love this boy! I just had to share his sweet face. He has been doing pretty good with his naps. Although he was up early this morning. Awake at 520 and then again at 6 something and finally came to snuggle in at 7ish.

I have my next prenatal appointment tomorrow. This little girl is a crazy mover! Anytime I am still she is moving around. At night before I go to sleep she is kicking me. This morning when I wake up she is kicking me, at playgroup sitting on the couch she is kicking me. Today at naps I try to catch some z's she is kicking me. Sitting in the lazy boy while I fold clothes, again she is kicking me! And she is kicking me right now as I write this!!! I wonder how active she is going to be when she is here!
This week has been so busy. Sunday we had a birthday dinner for Grace and her uncles at Grandma's. Then we had K's brother and his family over for dinner on Monday night, while they were in town. Yesterday was Grace's birthday and dance class. Today we had playgroup and tomorrow prenatal appointment and then a birthday party for her little friend at the bounce house place.
Time to get off the computer and get cozy in PJ's-night night!

SNOW DAY!!!!

2012-01-07T19:43:00.000-08:00

We woke up this morning to snow! Finally! I think it snowed once in November while we were away in San Diego and so we were ready for some snow. It has just not seemed like winter without snowy weather. Don't get me wrong, I am still Summer Girl coming to you live from my blog, however I have come to appreciate my four seasons and it just makes me love summer more when I have a nice cold snowy winter. Besides it gives me a chance to wear my scarves, hats and mittens and my kids too! Speaking of kids...are these snow babies not the cutest kids you ever did see? Luckily we still had the original snow suit that Grace wore for 2 winters. It's an 18 month and fir Aaron perfectly. Plus it's for a boy so really it was just too cute!!! He even kept his hands in the little mittens which Grace never did at his age. She doesn't have snow pants right now, however she is also oblivious to being cold I think. She got to wear her new snow boots I got her and I had to force her to wear her jacket. I might try to find her some waterproof gloves because her little cotton gloves got soaked of course. She eventually told daddy that her hands were cold.

Throwing a snow ball.

Making foot prints.

At first Aaron wasn't so sure about this stuff called snow, however then he warmed up to it when he saw his big sister running in the snow. His little marshmallow suit is so cute!!

Watching Daddy shovel the walk.

Smiling at mommy.

Eating snow. She often prefers eating it to playing with it...you would think we don't feed her or something.I have to watch her like a hawk when we are out and about because you never know where she is going to grab some snow from. Fresh snow in our front yard is one thing but...yeah yuck.

Today was such a great day. Daddy let me sleep in because I haven't been feeling exactly so good the last couple of days. I have like swollen lymph nodes in my neck or something. I dunno, kinda of like a sore throat but not. I can still eat and drink, but it hurts when I swallow and have been a bit congested. Since I am pregnant and can take meds on a limited basis, my sleep is by best asset to keeping me healthy. Felt about 70% better this morning and the kids had a blast playing in the snow. Then we headed out to Costco to pick up a billion things we needed that were in the coupon booklet (love that!) I don't think we impulsed bought one thing! Then lunch and returned a couple things at Target (no line, also great!). Mailed something for Daddy and picked up my third and last book in the trilogy I am reading. The Girl that Kicked the Hornets Nest. One last stop at Home Depot for some gift cards before home again. We scavenged the house for whatever for dinner and Aaron had yummy oatmeal with peanut butter and honey for the first time. I was nervous he wouldn't like it but he did! He is such a picky eater sometimes it just drives me crazy. Sometimes I think he gets away with too much because he doesn't really talk yet-however we have been working on stopping that. :)
Grace has been doing pretty good with her toddler bed. I think 50% of the time she falls out of bed because she is such an active sleeper. The other night I put her back to bed when I checked on her and then she slept until almost 9am before I woke her up and she was again on the floor. Naps are another thing though, sometimes we get a good nap but yesterday was the second day we tried to have a nap without a diaper and she came into my room twice to go potty and was up and down. Although at least she doesn't call out, "MOM!!" every morning when she wakes up. She used to stay in her bed and just yell for me. I don't know whether it was good that she was staying in bed still or bad that she was yelling for me at the top of her lungs. lol I told her a couple of times that she couldn't yell and wake up her brother. This morning when K took Aaron downstairs and let Grace and I sleep, the dogs pushed our door open, and I think Grace woke up and saw me still asleep in bed. So she shut her door and turned her light on and was reading books. I woke up at about 830 and saw her light on and wasn't sure if she was in there or downstairs with daddy. I was happily surprised to see her reading quietly. So maybe we are working a system out.
I posted our desk online to try to sell it and have not had one call, and I thought we priced it pretty aggressively. Boo. I am not sure what I want to do. I know I want it out of Aaron's room before K leaves in a couple of weeks for another week of training back east, but I am not sure if I want to just store it in a few pieces in the garage or sell it for way cheap or even give it away. I thought the new year would be a good time to sell a desk, what with New Years Resolutions some people want to organize.
We have got lots to do tomorrow, Grandma is hosting a birthday dinner for Grace and her 2 uncles and I have to make a list. The presidential debate is over and it's time to put a movie on! Night!

Birthday Party & Dance Class

2012-01-05T19:26:00.000-08:00

Here are pictures of Grace's birthday party with her little friend. Her friend turned 4 and of course Grace will be 3 next week. Aaron after he went down the slide with Daddy.

Grace getting off the slide by herself.

Other birthday girl H.

Birthday girl's little sister S, who is super tiny! She is 2!

One of Grace's little friend A who I used to tend last spring.

A picture of the slide, Grace getting the last ride in before she went in to eat pizza.

Another playgroup friend M, who's party is going to be there next week, she turns 2!

Grandma and Aaron playing with the ball.

Daddy hanging around.

Grandma and Aaron

I think Aaron looks hilarious here, because he is so dubious of Grandma taking the picture.

Hey Mom, whatcha doin?

Pizza and Capri Sun Juice, what more could a kid ask for?

Mommy and Air Bear

The 2 birthday girls. This picture also cracks me up because Grace so seldom gives a big cheesy grin for pictures, so she must have been having a blast!

Daddy and Aaron having some pizza.

Ok I took a couple of pictures of Grace at dance class. I didn't want her to hear the camera going off since it was just her and she had a hard time focusing being the only student and only 3 as it is. But she was so cute stretching out.

I think they were learning 2nd position from ballet here. We were sitting in the back of the gym. The class is just at a rec center, so they don't have a real dance studio but its only $18 a month, so we will see how it goes. She liked it and I am hoping that with more kids it will be more fun. Although being her first class I didn't really know what to expect, whether I wanted more instruction and less fun or vice versa, so we will see. Also I plan on talking with my SIL who was the one who taught Grace her somersaults "monkey rolls" and who used to teach the little girls in her old studio, what to expect.

I can't believe tomorrow is Friday, the week sure has flown by. I finally got our desk posted for sale online! I am hoping it sells, I want it out of the house while I am in a cleaning mood. Looking forward to tomorrow night having dinner with K's brother and his family!

New Year Clean Up

2012-01-03T20:28:00.000-08:00

I don't have any new pictures uploaded yet today, but hopefully I will tomorrow. Last night we had a joint birthday party for Grace and her little friend H at a indoor bounce house place. I first heard of it when the moms at playgroup suggested we go for open bounce, and so we took the kids a few times to open bounce and decided since it was a bit pricey to share the cost of hosting a party there. The girls LOVED IT! Once the kids got there they all just had a blast running around with each other and parents and grandparents, all the adults can bounce for free. Another little girl at playgroup her birthday is Jan as well and she also is having a joint birthday at the bounce place next week, so Grace will have a blast bouncing around again.
Today was such a good day. It was the first day back at work for K after a 4 day weekend and that of course left me free to organize and clean and purge to my hearts content. I managed to get the Christmas decorations put away, reorganize the kitchen cabinets (to house my new immersion blender), and the coat closet (to house the kids ever expanding art supplies). I also finished up a couple loads of laundry.
Tomorrow we have playgroup and hopefully some more organizing, but for sure some more cleaning, it is a new year after all. I have to keep on top of things while I still have the energy!
On Saturday I was 24 weeks and 6 months. I can't believe around the end of this month I will be in the third trimester, this pregnancy is going by so fast it seems.

Aaron is still cutting teeth and he has some good days and some bad days. Today he did good until it was time to have dinner and then go to Grace's first dance class. He melted down. I think it was a combination of having a short nap, not wanting to eat chicken and cutting teeth. Once we got in the car he was good.

Grace seemed to enjoy her dance class, although she was the only student tonight. Hopefully there will be more students next week and she can learn some more. I think we will sign her up. She has a green tutu and a peach dance dress and leg warmers that matches both that she is dying to wear to dance class.

Aaron is so smart he points to stuff he wants and understands a lot. Oh and he also knows how to go down our stairs on his bottom. He still needs to be supervised, but he knows that he knows because he gets to the ledge and immediately sits on his bottom to scoot to the edge. So cute!

Grace is such a clever thing, the other day they were downstairs playing and I guess she hid Daddy's work phone. This morning he had an early start and couldn't find it. He was afraid that one of the kids had chucked it into his work trash and when he collected trash Sunday night he had unwittingly dumped it with all the other trash. I asked Grace this morning after breakfast if she knew where daddy's cell phone was downstairs. Sure enough that stinkin cutie pie showed me exactly where it was behind the trash can and between the wall and the desk on the floor! At least it was thrown away and at least she tells the truth on her little adventures!
It's so great watching them grow up!

Wednesday

2011-12-28T16:38:00.001-08:00

I just had to post this sweet picture of my little Air Bear. He just radiates sweetness sometimes! He is wearing his new little wolf hat from his Nana and Papadaddy. He had a rough day today and seemed extra whiny. But I suppose it has something to do with that top tooth coming in slowly. Today I got a slow start on the day. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do whether I wanted to get out of the house or clean. In the end my laziness decided I would clean, because I didn't really want to take the time to look put together! Ha! So I picked up the kitchen and living room and then took the Christmas tree down. I vacuumed which led to a melt down for Aaron. I don't know why sometimes he acts like he is afraid of the vacuum, and other times not. Weird. Then we had lunch and I took as little of Grace's crib down as I could in order to get it out of her room and down the hall. (Which was difficult because her room was a disaster area and I didn't want to clean it for that task) My plan tentatively right now is to get the desk sold in Aaron's room and then put him in Grace's crib and the matching changing table in his room and then take down his crib to wait for the new little one.

But after today and only partly taking apart Grace's crib maybe I won't care so much for his furniture to be matching. And we will just move the crib to the garage for the next 4-5 months.

Still not sure where I am going to put little baby girl when she is ready to move on out of the bassinet. I am hoping she will be a good sleeper and be able to go into Grace's room. But we will just have to play it by ear.

Then after naps we cleaned up Grace's room and got it organized. I have been going a little crazy and not wanting them to open up a lot of presents with little pieces because there isn't a system in place for Aaron's toys specifically. I have to do some shuffling around of our coat closets and such so I have a place for their 'art' supplies. Crayons, colored pencils coloring books and play doh need a new home. Right now Aaron's favorite thing is to get into the cabinet were they are stored and dump the crayon bucket out and then put them in his mouth. He colors a little bit but then Kayla starts eating the crayons-thus a big mess. So then I put the crayon bucket on the counter and then the counter starts filling up with 'stuff' and then I lose my mind again!

Daddy is having a guys night tonight and we have playgroup tomorrow morning. Time for me to go read my new book, The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo. I probably should do some laundry, but think I will put that off until tomorrow.

Night!

Christmas Stuff (Long Post)

2011-12-27T20:53:00.000-08:00

I picked up this gingerbread house on clearance before Christmas and Grace and I had a great time putting it together, It took some finangling and one broken wall but they gave us a bunch of icing so it worked. Then she and Aaron had a blast eating the candy off!

Aaron wishing he could help too! Just a drool bucket he is. He is talking more, and walks up and down the halls following me saying, "Ma Ma Ma Ma!"

The finished product side one.

The finished product side two, with a cutie pie waving.

This is Grace's new to her toddler bed. Aaron loves being able to climb up into it. I got it for $35 with the mattress and a pink fitted sheet. It had some stickers on it and some paint scuffs. We got all the stickers and paint off and the foot board still has some scratches but will work and Grace LOVES it. Every night she is excited to sleep in her toddler bed. And so far another added bonus she hasn't gotten out in the morning after two nights! In the morning when she hears me up with Aaron she calls out, "MOM!!! MOM!!!" K and I were pondering tonight whether she hasn't realized yet that she can get out, or what I think she is just is so behaved and used to routine.

After her first nap in her bed. I have to record this funny story, on Christmas day Grace was acting up a bit and driving daddy a lil bit crazy with her constant sass. We were getting ready to go up to K's grandmother's place and we were buckling her into her car seat and she was just being her lil spitfire self. (Side note story) So at night we sing to Grace before bedtime and we sing You are my Sunshine. One of the lines in the song is, "You never know dear how much I love you". Grace runs around all the time saying, "You never know dear!" Sometimes silly and sometimes full of sass. The other thing she is always pointing out is who are boys and who are girls. Like Daddy is a boy, Mommy is a girl and so on and so forth. So anyways we had buckled her into the car seat and Daddy was getting into his seat telling her she needed to stop being so sassy or something to that effect. She said something sassy, and K says, "I'm a warrior!!!!" in a boisterous voice. And Grace replied as only she can, "I'M A GIRL...YOU NEVER KNOW DEAR!!!" K and I started cracking up at the underlining meaning. It was the most hilarious thing and of course since we were laughing she thought she was just the cat's meow.

We had a great Christmas with the kids. They slept in till about 8am and that was perfect. Grace was so thrilled and now that she can open presents a lot faster the morning spend by! Which was great because last year it seemed to take hours and hours and we were just so busy. This year we were able to spend some time just relaxing until it was time to cook and then head to K's grandmothers for the evening. K also had Monday off after Christmas and so we spent another day doing nothing just hanging as a family. Tonight we tried to take Grace to her first dance class but despite me calling earlier this afternoon to double check the instructor wasn't there. Grace was a little disappointed but she had fun playing with daddy and singing with him on the way home and she quickly forgot. We are going to try again next week.

We are also planning Grace's birthday party. I can't believe she is turning 3! My sweet first born is getting so big and articulate. We are planning a joint birthday party at Bouncing off the Walls an indoor bounce house place with a little girlfriend of Grace's who is turning 4. We went there a few times with playgroup during their 'open' bounce time, and decided to split the cost since our daughters birthdays are so close together and have the same friends. It should be fun.

I finally am posting some belly pictures!!! I am 23 weeks along and hadn't taken any belly pictures of this sweet girl growing until tonight! Another few more weeks and I will be in the third trimester. This pregnancy has been pretty easy compared to the other two. I am starting to feel the heaviness of pregnancy I suppose. In the mornings my joints are creaky and I have my mattress topper on the bed which is great. Still not a lot of heartburn or gas which is so great. Today I did start to feel tired and took a shower when I put the kids down, then tried to take a nap. It was great because both kids got great naps. I have been working on transition Aaron to one long nap a day and today he did pretty well. First this morning he slept straight through until 8am, no early morning fuss (he always wakes up on the wrong side of the bed), and he did wake up after an hour at nap time but then I settled him back down for another hour!!! WooHoo!

Tonight we are watching Cowboys vs Aliens which has been surprisingly interesting and not much alien footage which is good. Hope you are enjoying your holiday as much as we are!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T10:18:00.000-08:00

Good morning everyone! I just wanted to do a real quick blog post and share our news. K and I decided to wait to find out the sex of our last little one until Christmas morning and so officially we are annoucing we are having a...............girl!! We are so excited! Kind of funny too, because Grace kept saying she was having a little sister!
We are due April 21st, although I am sure she will come earlier, they all do! And besides I already feel as big as a house!
Wishing all my family and friends a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Happy Birthday to Jesus today. Thank you for Your ultimate sacrafice!

What are you doing?

2011-12-18T20:36:00.000-08:00

While I was in San Diego I went in to check on the kids during naptime or get Aaron, something like that and I found my sweet Grace had tried to climb out of the crib and had gotten stuck. The picture of Aaron was right after, the flash kind of blinded him.

Look at that face! My sister took these pictures for me because she kept getting mad at me for trying to take a picture with my cell phone! lol

My kids snuggling together! I so love that, they are so precious. Look at those baby feet!

So yesterday I was supposed to pick daddy up at the airport at 2:15pm and I needed to go to the grocery too. So after Aaron woke up from his nap we headed out for an early lunch and then rushed through the grocery store (busy on a Saturday before the holiday). We hurried home to unload the groceries and grab the dogs. I had scheduled a 2pm dog grooming appointment for the dogs. I figured since it was the holidays and I was pregnant I would pay to have them all clean for when K got home, and for the holidays too. I had spent about 20ish minutes on the phone on Friday talking with the gal who tried to find me in their system. They couldn't find me and I finally determined that I had fallen out of the system since it had been more than a year. (We had taken the dogs there to get groomed for the first time before Aaron was born when we were dealing with the MRSA fiasco). So we scheduled the appointment and she told me that depending on what type of groom I got for them would depend on the cost. And that was it. No other information was given.
So I got home unloaded the groceries and loaded the dogs into the back of the SUV (normally they go in the truck, but being by myself they had to go in the SUV), I had planned to get there about 10 min early so that I had plenty of time to get to the airport, park and take the kids in to see their daddy! (Luckily we live close to this new Petco and close to the airport, otherwise I wouldn't have schedule it this way.)
I get to Petco and take the dogs in. The girl comes out to greet me and immediately asks me about the rabies certification. I immediately have my hackles up because I know I don't have them nor was I told to bring them. I think they will have it on their collars, but no the lady says that doesn't show a date. So she tries calling my vet, like where did she get the phone number so fast too?? And of course they don't answer...so by law she CANNOT take the dogs. I ask for the managers name and number and who was working the day before because they did NOT tell that information. (Important information for someone who they deem a new customer don't you think??)
I was LIVID! I now had to take my dogs back home and then go to the airport to pick up my husband. I was pissed and pregnant! I called the manager and was talking to her before I dropped my phone while trying to put the dogs in the backyard. (So no resolution.)  Oh and then K had text me on the way home from Petco, so he had landed early. So not only was I pissed, but I was emotional too, because now I was way late.  One of the reasons I was so mad was because the woman in the grooming department was just so rude, and I think she was the one who took my call, because she told me that she worked yesterday and she didn't even OFFER an apology. I worked in customer service for 10 years before I stayed home with my kids. Sometimes you have to at least pretend to kiss some a$$. This woman could have cared less that she had potentially done anything wrong. I will probably try to call their corporate offices tomorrow, and be like a dog with a bone, because it was so upsetting and inconvenient for me, mom on the go, pregnant with two toddlers trying to get my husband from the airport.
Oh and I have to write this down before I forget. Grace was so cute today. She was talking with K and she was like, "Daddy your so beautiful. Your chin is so beautiful. Your eyes are so beautiful.  Your hair...I scratch your hair ok?" Where does she get this stuff??
Then Aaron was cracking us up because he was blowing raspberries on K's tummy and getting it so slobbery but it was hilarious!! He thought he was so funny, well he is so funny and cute too! Love my lil air bear!

Some more San Diego Pics

2011-12-15T20:02:00.000-08:00

I know I haven't blogged in SO long. Blogger made me update and it hasn't been as convenient as it used to be. I decided to try to upload some pictures tonight and it actually went pretty quickly. Unfortunately I don't have the patience or desire to do a long post tonight. We had a great time in San Diego visiting with everyone. A couple of pictures of Grace with her Papou on the carousel. And then some of the kids at the beach. They had a blast playing in the sand.

Of course I couldn't get them to both look at me at the same time. Our flight home on Monday was a wreck. We left my mom's house for the airport at 930am for a 11am flight. The flight was delayed. It was then delayed further while we sat on the tarmac waiting for a turn to use the runaway. (It was pouring rain and we were a heavy flight packed to the gills.) Our flight was delayed an hour and an half total. Suffice to say we missed our connecting flight. On the way out of the bathroom with the kids, the flight attendant told me that if we were going to Salt Lake then we would staying on that plane in Oakland and going to Seattle (for a 2 hr flight) and then another 2 hr flight from Seattle to SLC. I about died. 5 months pregnant with a 3 year old and a walking 14 month old on my lap. During lunch time. Yeah they are not going to make it on peanuts. I am not going to make it on peanuts! In Oakland they let me get off the plane and run and get some food. Of course they only fancy schmancy food close by. So I ordered $30 worth of sandwiches (not Subway) to take on the plane. Which of course they just picked at. (I really don't blame them...I didn't think much of them either) I only wish the Subway had been closer! There was a sweet flight attendant that took Aaron and let him walk up and back down the aisle during that first flight. Thankfully the two 2 hr flights were not full and we had the aisle to ourselves. I had our stuff spread all over and boy did we make a mess, but after that first flight I really didn't care. I was so ready to get off that plane in Salt Lake I had to choke back the tears. Never flying Southwest again with young children. They don't have straight flights from SD to SLC anymore, so it was supposed to be about 2 90 min flights and a plane change. BUT... the kids were so good considering they were stuck on a plane and my lap mostly ALL day, because we didn't land until just about 8pm Monday night. Then there was a nice lady to help me get all my stuff, I am so thankful for her too.

And now we are home safe and sound getting back into the swing of things here. Had a prenatal appointment on Tuesday and apparently I gained 6 pounds while in SD...too much yummy good food! lol And my uterus is measuring ahead of schedule for how far along I am. So that leads me to believe another early baby is on the way. Wednesday we had playgroup and it was great catching up with my friends and letting the kids play. Today I cleaned house a bit trying to organize day by day and pulled out some Christmas decorations. We have to get the tree when Daddy gets back and of course we will have a million things to do with him when he does, but we will figure that out this weekend. He comes home on Saturday afternoon and I for one am so excited to see him. It has been 3 weeks and we need our daddy back home! I think maybe some errands for tomorrow and hopefully some more packages will arrive. It's funny Grace is so used to K getting packages delivered for his work that having 3 huge boxes in our front room 2 of which are for her and Aaron doesn't even phase her! Good thing she can't read they are from Amazon and not Daddy's work! LOL
Hope everyone is having a great holiday so far and I will try to get some more pictures uploaded soon.

Thanksgiving Camping Trip 2011

2011-12-05T21:49:00.001-08:00

This year we got to go camping with my family for Thanksgiving. We loaded up the kids and all the dogs (there were 7, 4 of which were German Shepherds) and headed out past Glamis. We had 4 big rigs and 1 tent. We had 18 people total. We had a blast, sitting around the campfire and playing Mafia and Catchphrase and just chit chatting with everyone. The stars were beautiful at night and it was a great trip.

Daddy and Grace having fun playing in the sand.

Sisters who like to camp...

Mom and Bruce

Daddy snuggling with his babies.

My newly married brother, checking the light for me, by striking a pose.

We headed back from camping the Saturday after Thanksgiving so we could get the RV cleaned and returned. Then Daddy had to head back home. He was home all last week while we stayed out here, and now he is working hard this week out in Rhode Island doing his training for his new job. He will be there for 2 weeks and I am heading home with the kids in a week.

Finally some pictures

2011-11-30T20:54:00.001-08:00

I finally uploaded some pictures from the wedding and the rehearsal dinner. Aunt Meghann and Aaron at the rehearsal dinner.

Mother and the groom...

Uncle Cameron and Grace goofing off. It looks like she was trying to escape or she was being squirmy, but he was actually letting her go here, she was having a blast.

Uncle Taylor reading to Grace that weekend..she totally soaks up her attention from her Uncles and Aunt.

This is my absolute favorite picture from that weekend..my kids and my siblings!

This picture cracks me up because litterally seconds before the camera flashed she was smiling this sweet huge grin, but then the camera caught this picture!

Grace at the wedding taking pictures with the disposable camera. Having a blast. I will have to try to post a video of Grace dancing. She danced the night away in her sweet flower girl dress and was a hit on the dance floor. My little show stopper.

The bride and groom listening to the speeches.

So far our trip out in SD has been a blast and we have been super busy, visiting family, camping and hanging out. I will try to get some camping pictures up real soon.
Enjoy!

Weddings n such

2011-11-27T10:35:00.001-08:00

UPDATE: I wrote this blog last week and finally got it posted. Enjoy!

Hey everyone, we have been sooo busy lately and I haven't gotten to my blog. One reason is I left my camera in San Diego 2 weekends ago and having been waiting for this weekend when we go back to get it. We went out to go to my brother Cameron's wedding. He married his long term girlfriend Heather who is a total sweetheart. I now have a new sister in law! It was a crazy weekend and Grace got the stomach flu for the first time ever. Poor thing was scared to death but got better quickly and was able to be the flower girl still.

We got in on Friday night to pouring rain, then we had the rehearsal dinner on Saturday night at Stir Fresh a yummy mandarin grill, that you kind of make your own plate thing. It was delish and the kids had a great time playing with their aunt and uncles.

Sunday was the wedding and although it started out raining, the skies dried up (Thank You God) for the ceremony and the reception was held indoors. What a fun party with great food and dancing. Especially for Grace, my little girl was thrilled to be on the dance floor for hours with the adults and she danced her little heart out. Aaron did well too, and fell asleep in his Memaw's arms despite being in the loud room with the dj.

And now we are getting ready to head out again on Thursday night. We have a late flight and did that on purpose so that the kids will hopefully sleep. At least Aaron! We are so excited to be visiting family and also going camping out in the desert for Thanksgiving!

Daddy is going to be coming back early because he has to work and he has a new job that he has really been enjoying. He has been working for about 2 weeks and is so much happier.

I finally felt the baby on Saturday. It was so great and I can't wait to be able to feel it more. I may have decided to find out the sex of the baby though. I was organizing kid clothes and went under my porch to the cold storage and counted 14 boxes/bags/tubs of varying sizes and fullness of boy and girl clothes! So I may find out to get rid of some of those. But I do still have a month to decide. I scheduled my ultrasound and because we are leaving on Thursday and I won't be back home until Dec 12th and then K will be in Rhode Island for training for 2 weeks we scheduled the appointment for Dec 19th. So I will be 21 or 22 weeks so they will be able to see a lot too.

Grace has been so excited about the baby and when she climbs on me and accidentally knees me in the stomach or something she goes, "Oh I am sorry baby." She is just too precious. I can't believe she is almost 3! I told her she has to ask Santa for a toddler bed for Christmas and she thinks she is getting one for sure now! lol We are getting her one for Christmas and I have tried to find one already before we left, but haven't been successful, so hopefully it will be easy when we get back.

K and Aaron were sick last night and that is a bummer. But I think they are both on the road to recovery. Aaron just had a fever and it seemed to have broken. And Daddy had the stomach flu and spent today resting his achy bones. Poor guy. But at least now instead of on vacation, I say. I feel great and finally gained some weight with this pregnancy. Had my prenatal on Monday and I think I had gained 5 pounds even though I have had a bump forever it seems!

Well I gotta wrap up this blog and I will try to post again with pictures of the kids from my cell phone.

Night!

Pumpkins, Tools and a New SUV

2011-11-02T19:14:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone..finally got all my most recent pictures uploaded. I remembered to bring the camera for our pumpkin picking experience. We had a field close by our house that I noticed one day had a ton of pumpkins growing there..then a few days later they had a sign up that they were a pumpkin patch and were selling them. It was great to wander through the field and pick our pumpkins. The only bummer was that Aaron fell asleep five minutes before we got there and stayed asleep the whole time we were picking. He woke up when I was about to buckle him back into the truck.

Grace sure had fun though, trekking through the field trying not to trip on the roots choosing which pumpkin would be the biggest and one she could also carry. Doesn't Aaron look so long in my arms?!

This is Grace showing us her muscles, which you need if you are going to pick up pumpkins.

Mommy and my sleeping little bear.

She found her pumpkin.

So officially Daddy has a new job. I may or may not have mentioned it and his official first day was on Monday. He went on Saturday to FedEx to pick up his tools. 9 boxes that filled the bed of the truck. I went outside and he was a kid at Christmas checking out all the new tools the company provides. Things he has always wanted to work with before that the prior company never allowed. He is so excited to be working for Schneider Electric and already they are proving to be a professional company that really takes care of their employees! The kids climbed up in the back with me and thought they were cool too.

Aren't they just so darn cute?

Whining about something.

Oh this picture cracks me up! So this is Daddy's new ARC (sp?) flash suit. At certain times when he will be doing some work with high voltage he has to wear this suit. (Something the other company never mentioned at all) I told him what a great Halloween costume! He looks like something from a sci-fi movie. I am so glad for the safety measures Schnieder Electric follows and also so thankful that nothing has happened to him for the last 5 years!

Grace showing me her 'peace' sign. I forgot that Murray on Sesame Street ends the show by saying, "See ya next time on the street-PEACE!' And one day she was talking to me and was like, "Peace!" and flashed her peace fingers up. I was like where did she learn that?? I asked her and she told me Murray in Sesame Street. Also a friend of ours Jo taught her I Love You in sign language which she loves doing as well, although she has a little bit of trouble keeping her middle fingers down. So precious!

And finally.........The New To Us Expedition!!! It's just like our old Explorer but with a third row seat in the back. I actually finally drove it myself for the first time yesterday. Daddy drove it around this weekend and I love it.

It has a 6 disc cd changer, heated mirrors and heated seats. The drivers side doesn't work but K thinks he can fix it for me. (I LOVE having a handy husband!) Cruise control, running boards (which I love cuz I am short) trailer brakes and an after market chip to help monitor something or rather. Love all the cup holders and big console, oh and it also has the keyless entry on the outside which is nice for the winter I can start the truck warming up while I gather kids and don't have to worry about it being stolen.

I actually did my grocery shopping today after playgroup and it was so nice to load all the kids and groceries and not have to fight for a spot. Right now I think I am keeping the third row of seating in even though it makes for less storage room in the back. It was funny though because we took the car seats apart to wash the covers this weekend and had to put them back together on Monday. So we stuck the kids in the third row to play around while we did that (or really K did most of the work, since he took them apart) and the kids thought being in the very back was a blast! And now Grace always asks' me, can I be back there? I tell her yes when the new baby comes!

We had a great morning at playgroup, got lots of good play time in and chat time in for mommy. I really do love my playgroup moms, they are the best! Then a late lunch and a late grocery trip that we hurried through. Kind of ironic too, because us moms spent about 10 minutes trying to find Aaron's paci at playgroup this morning and then I lost the paci at the grocery store today. He must have spit it out and I didn't notice until we were on our way to check out and I wasn't about to go retracing my steps through Winco. Oh well!

Tomorrow is Thursday and I start my planning for our trip to SD this weekend for my brother's wedding, I can't wait! And then back home again for a week an a half before heading back to SD to go camping. So busy but so much fun!

Well I hope you enjoyed the pictures! God Bless!

Yogurt Boy

2011-10-28T19:50:00.001-07:00

These are the pictures I took yesterday that the computer felt ok with posting today! Go figure. I let Aaron have some yogurt in a little cup with a spoon and he just loved it. Not only does he love yogurt but he has been getting more independent lately and wanting to have his own spoon and fork. He had yogurt everywhere as you can see but was quite content. Grace had to scrunch her little face up and cheese it up for me as well. I love this picture.

I got so much stuff done today and K was able to get the Expedition registered and it passed safety and emissions so we got plates and everything! Sweet. Tomorrow we will swap out the car seats and make it the official mom mobile and daddy can load up the truck to use for his work starting Monday. Nothing really on the agenda for the weekend, just relaxing and church and maybe some pumpkin carving if we feel up to it. I promise to take pictures of the Expedition tomorrow!

No pictures tonight.

2011-10-27T19:41:00.000-07:00

Well I tried to post 2 pictures of the kids just now..but it is telling me there is an internal error. Lovely.
K's last day of work was today! On Monday he starts with his new company and is really excited. We are excited to have him home for awhile too! Even though he hasn't been traveling the last couple weeks, he had a really big job to do with practically no help so he was working a lot of OT and we didn't really see him a lot. His ankle is getting better, it seems to like some support and feels ok when he has his steel toe boots on. At home walking around in his stocking feet it tends to hurt more, so some more rest is needed which is what we will be doing this weekend!
Again I didn't get any pictures of the new SUV yet...hopefully tomorrow. We just stayed home and did a bunch of laundry today. Tomorrow I have a couple of errands to run that need to get done this weekend.
Aaron has been doing a lot better with his sleeping even though he has still be cranky with the teething, the teething tablets I bought yesterday seem to be working! I checked tonight and that 2nd top tooth looks even more ready to pop through than before, I can see a 'line' of tooth now instead of a point. :)
Pretty consistently he has been sleeping from 7pmish to 7 or even 8am. Last night he went to bed 7:40 and he woke up at 7 this morning but then quieted himself down and stayed asleep until about 8:20. I actually took a shower before I got the kids up today. I usually take my shower during morning nap because I am just not a morning person and can have more time...although it changes all the time because I also used to work out during morning nap and take a quicker shower. Aaron's naps seem to be shortening a little, but it is working out ok because he is going to be earlier typically. Today his morning nap was really short but then I was able to tuck him back in for another hour for his afternoon nap.
We watched Rio tonight with Grace and she loved having movie time with daddy while I let Aaron play upstairs before bed. Did I tell you all I got an amazing deal on maternity clothes the other day?? 3 pairs of jeans and 2 shirts each just .97 cents! If I did..sorry I am pregnant! lol!
I think that is all the update for now...just looking forward to having a relaxing weekend with Daddy before me and the kiddos head to SD next weekend.

2nd Trimester

2011-10-25T18:41:00.000-07:00

I am officially in the 2nd trimester now and am excited to hopefully be able to feel the baby move in a couple of weeks..the earliest they say is 16 weeks and I will be 15 weeks on Saturday. I am feeling fine and dandy these days too and making sure that I stay up on my cleaning and such because we have such a busy time coming up. Next weekend its off to SD for a wedding and then a week n half later back to SD to go camping for a long trip with me and the kids. Then back again just in time for Christmas and then New Years and then Grace's 3rd birthday which she has been telling everyone about for months now! Sometime during all that traveling I will have an ultrasound although I am not sure if we are going to find out the sex on this one or leave it a surprise. Right now I am 50/50...but I will let you know what I decide.

I can't remember if I post this picture of Grace already so it may be a repeat but its so cute how she digs in my closet and wears my high heels, especially since I really rarely wear them. Today was a pretty good day today, Aaron woke up at 6am but I gave him his paci and he fell back asleep until 740am and since he has been going to bed at 7pm I considered that pretty darn good! I am not sure if its all the teething or what but after he wakes from his afternoon nap he seems to be a bear until dinnertime and then that can be a struggle and then its like off to bed you go cranker!

I had to wait for the furnace guy to come and do a tune up on our furnace this morning so I was able to get some cleaning in and hopefully laundry finished up tomorrow after playgroup and groceries.

Poor daddy thinks he may have sprained his ankle last night coming down a bunch of stairs with his heavy toolbag and he probably saved himself from a faceful of concrete but hurt his ankle instead. He has been icing it and wrapping it and its not swollen but does bother him and he has been trying to keep off of it as much as he can.

Tonight we went and picked up our new used SUV we bought. Since daddy will not longer be having the leased vehicle for work and now using our truck we need a new mommy mobile. Also we needed one that will eventually seat more carseats. We tested the truck and it would have seated 3 car seats in there side by side, but then we couldn't really carry anyone or anything else. And since we just had family visiting back to back we do need the extra seating, and it will be nice to have a place to put the groceries too! We got a 2000 Ford Expedition that is white and has some nice perks like heated seats and mirrors. I am excited because it is about the same size as the truck is now, so I won't be driving a big ole huge SUV but it has more room like we needed. Also it is in really good shape mechanically so Daddy feels good about it being safe and reliable for us.

After we got the Expedition I was craving some Mexican food so we had dinner at a local restaurant. Boy is Aaron no fun to be around in the afternoons/evenings. The only saving grace was there was a screaming 2 year old little girl across from us that drew both of our kids attention and stopped Aaron from fussing about how he didn't want to eat his quesadilla and only eat guacamole. He did eventually start to chow down...but he can stall and fuss like a champ.

Off to home we went and off to bed he went immediately, and he goes down early just fine..so he must need it. Tomorrow is playgroup and the grocery and I will try to get some pictures of the new car up too. Right now its time to relax and enjoy the evening before bed.

Goodnight!

Friday at home

2011-10-21T19:16:00.000-07:00

We didn't do anything today but hang out at home. Aaron woke up at 5:50 right after daddy got into the shower. Then I was able to get him to go back down until about 8am. He is still cranky and that tooth hasn't popped through yet. I love these pictures of him from a few weeks ago when my dad was here he just looks so grown up! And the he is wearing the new shoes they got for him.

A picture of my first born cutie pie.

Tomorrow we are going to look at cars...need to find a new vehicle for running around with the kids and might as well get one that has third row seating now that the new little babe is on the way. Also we are going to get pumpkins tomorrow and Grace is thrilled that Daddy will be home and going with us. He has been working mad overtime the last 3 weeks and she is so excited. Her little life is just full of wonderful things this fall!

I hope to get a caramel apple because I have been craving one for like 2 weeks now!

And for some reason I had to take a picture and post it of my yummy healthy lunch today. I made egg salad and then we had some kiwis for the first time. Of course my little Air Bear loved them...Grace took some convincing but ate her carrots real good (no ranch for her!). In the end she ate all her kiwis without too much fuss, but isn't funny how they act like you are giving them poison to eat?? Looking at this now makes me hungry too!

Aaron's 1st Birthday Party

2011-10-20T19:31:00.000-07:00

I finally uploaded all the pictures from Aaron's birthday. There are a lot so beware! I wanted to rent a bounce house for Aaron's birthday from the beginning because we have a lot of kid friends now. Also because since most of those kids are Grace's age and her birthday is in January she probably won't ever get a BBQ kind of outside party. So I went with a frog theme using green and yellow as the theme colors. I made this sign myself with just regular old construction paper. The bounce house! The kids had a blast and Grace was thrilled when we came home and saw it all set up. She went with me and Memaw to run last minute errands, so she got some one on one time too. She was a great help!

I had daddy take the tents that were giving to us last year and put them up for the younger kids and it was perfect! The non jumpers could play inside and they got to have fun too!

The food table all set up!

Aaron's high chair all decorated up thanks to Memaw!

I saw this color combination of brown with an apple green online somewhere using other mediums and thought what a great idea for a goody bag. I just bought lunch sacks and found this super cute stamp at Michaels for .99 cents. I had Grace help me and we just used regular green paint for the stamp and she helped me press the bags. I just filled them with one candy, a rubber squishy ball in yellow or green and then 8 Crayola Crayons wrapped up in green yarn. My mom helped me assemble the bags too. I had planned to do this all a month ago...however I got pregnant and felt like doing the bare minimum.

Chocolate cupcakes I had a mix for. Those are green chocolate frogs I made with a mold I bought for a dollar. I did do those ahead of time but I only made a few and so we just put a few on here and there.

The birthday cake and the 'smash' cake I got free. I love how the colors turned out and I put those little frogs on the cake..they were like .50 cents each. And the birthday napkins..clearanced for a buck per package.

My sweet girl...so excited for her friends to come over before the party.

The birthday boy!

So hard to get pictures of him..but you can kind of see that his shirt says Birthday Boy.

Birthday boy on the move...my mom says he will be running by the time we go camping for Thanksgiving and I think she is right, everyday he just picks it up a little more.

Eating his birthday dinner..chips, green jello, green grapes..hot dogs! The best! lol

The guests! Well at least the adults!

Memaw and Pepaw!

Friends!

Grace's buddy..

Friends being silly!
The grandma's!

Aunt and Uncle.

Another friend!

And Daddy of course. I didn't manage to get me...but I am glad I did manage to get some pictures, because I wanted to video tape more and I didn't! I only video taped Aaron doing his cake, which was a hoot because he put it all over his little blond bald head.

He does have more hair now, especially in the back its long. It just isn't coming in very much in the front, so he really does look bald. My mom was like oh he does have hair..its hard to tell from the pictures. Maybe I can try to capture his head! lol

Aaron also didn't really 'get' opening his presents however..he did get a bunch of balls and trucks that he loves! He loves throwing balls and thinks he is so cool. In fact he got a little 'bath' ket ball set for the bathtub and he loves throwing those little basketballs around.

All in all it was a great party! And now I have a 1yr old and a 2yr old! His 12 month check up is on November 1st so I will fill in all the details then with his stats.

Also he is getting his 4th tooth his second one on the top and feeling pretty cranky. His nose has been running a lot whether its from a little cold or his teeth I don't know for sure, but will be glad that he should be all better by the time we got to San Diego for my brother's wedding in 2 weeks.

That's it for tonight! Night!

Lunchtime at Subway

2011-10-17T13:02:00.000-07:00

I was cleaning up my email just a minute ago and found this video I forgot to post! I can't believe I did because it is so hilarious. We went to the mall and were eating lunch and Grace and Aaron were playing together, just being silly tilting their heads back. But I got some of it on video and thought I would share!

I am going to try to post some birthday pictures and a blog tonight! Enjoy the cuteness!

Walking and walking and walking

2011-10-10T19:28:00.000-07:00

My boy has been walking like crazy this past weekend. It's like all he needed to do was to take his first steps and he has been off! I am so proud of him and he is so proud of himself, you can just see it on his face. He grins such a big grin. He walks and walks and crawls when Grace is chasing him or he wants Grace to chase him. Or he wants to get somewhere super fast!

Also he has been sleeping so good as well. His naps are not as good sometimes but I will trade those for sleeping until 8 or 830 every morning. I can't remember the last time that he woke at 6am or earlier. The last 2 days he slept until 8:20 and I would say he sleeps until 7:30 or 8 pretty regularly now, which I am thrilled with. I don't know if it's because I have started giving him soy milk and he has been loving that or because his other bottom tooth popped through, but it could be both. He loves his soy milk and it sits well with him. His bottom tooth is coming in crooked though...which is a little bit of a worry to me. I will probably ask the pediatrician about it when I take him in for his 1 year appointment.

I am getting ready for Aaron's 1st birthday party on Saturday and already have a bounce house scheduled. I know that Aaron won't really know he had one...but since Grace's birthday is in Jan and her friends are going to be coming to the party, I decided to splurge since its our last good weather for awhile. Still not sure what I want to serve for dinner...(I am supposed to be making my lists right now)...but I will come up with something before Wednesday. (I better because that is when I am doing my grocery shopping!)

Some things that Grace is doing right now is she loves to play hide and seek. And he is becoming a really good hider as well. One time she hid and K couldn't find her and another time this weekend she hid and my dad couldn't find her. And she is so cute when she says, "Ready or not heres mine come!"

We also switched Aaron's car seat this weekend so he is sitting in his big boy car seat and I think he loves it. Although since I rode in the back with he kids this past weekend I think he wanted me to hold him because he was really really fussy when we were driving around. I think he was thinking, "Mom if your back here why am I stuck in this seat??"

Time to get off the computer and get back to my list, enjoy my boy walking! I think he is pretty darn cute myself!

Snow??

2011-10-06T19:43:00.001-07:00

Yesterday it was cold and rainy. I normally try to hit the grocery store after playgroup on Wednesdays because once I am out with the kids I want to get that chore done. However, since yesterday was the last playgroup for one of our moms (their family is moving out of state) we all stayed and chit chatted way too long! It was almost 1pm before we left. Poor Aaron was getting a bit cranky and telling me that he was hungry and tired. So we hit Del Taco and brought it home to eat before naps. So we hit the grocery store after. At playgroup it wasn't raining until we were leaving and so here are the kids bundled up to go to the grocery store. Normally I don't like hitting the grocery store in the rain or snow with the kids, however we had no essentials! Isn't Grace just a doll in this little red fleece jacket, it fits her perfectly now! Aaron was not having it, he was like can we go already??? And right after I took this he wiggled and fell on his hands and feet. Thankfully no tears.

This was today and I was trying to get a picture of these super cute slipper socks that I have been waiting forever to put on him. Since we got more rain today and some parts of Salt Lake even got snow and for sure the mountains did, I had to try them. They are 6-12 months and they fit perfectly. You can't really see them too well, but they are blue and brown and have this cute brown stitching. My friends mom sent them to me when Aaron was born-Thanks again Mrs. K!

I don't know about you all, but I am not quite ready for snow yet. Some nice crisp fall days, some pumpkin picking and carving. Warm comfort food and Halloween, yes, but snow...no. Supposedly it is going to be in the 70's again next week, which I am glad for because I want to get a bounce house for Aarons birthday! So I am praying that, that is the weather we get! :)

Here is a blurry smile.

Standing right in front of me this afternoon. I had the camera out to get Grace, and always try to get Aaron but he is just too darn wiggly.

Grace loves wearing my high heels, and this was the second pair she tried on this afternoon. She walks so easily in them...its a crack up because she walks click clack up and down the hall. And then Aaron was following her, I think he wanted to play with whatever she was playing with today. He kept grabbing her blue bear earlier today as well. Big sisters sure are cool!

We have a fun weekend planned. My dad is coming to visit and we are excited to see Papou! Then next weekend it's Memaw and Pepaw to visit for Aarons birthday. And the craziness continues until the new year. Hope your all get ready for a fun weekend!

THANKS!

2011-10-05T08:40:00.000-07:00

Whoever left me the comment about using the dry erase marker to get rid of sharpie-thanks a bunch! I tried it and it worked!
I suppose that I could have looked online, but it sure was convient for you to give me that tip and we have dry erase markers too!

Thanks again!

I hate grafitii....

2011-10-04T19:28:00.000-07:00

....especially when its in my house, with a sharpie, by my 2year old...don't you?

I finally uploaded pictures from our last zoo trip with a girlfriend and her daughter. We had a good time, except Grace didn't want to climb on any of the fake animals.

Look how long Aaron looks here! And he is wearing is little shoes...I forgot about that.

Look at that face!

Aaron loved looking at the ducks in the pond so much!

Today I was bored so we went over to the mall and had lunch and walked around. I wanted to see what size shoe Aaron is and see what kind of cute shoes were out there for him. I also looked at and picked up some maternity jeans and a cute top. I already can't fit into my jeans so I am going to be buying more maternity clothes most likely.

I also got an interesting visit from animal control this afternoon. Apparently we own 6 german shepherds that bark all day instead of just 2. Hmm, I didn't know I was that crazy!

Looking forward to playgroup tomorrow and a visit from Papou on Friday!

October orange

2011-10-03T19:13:00.000-07:00

On Saturday we made a trip to Home Depot to get the last set of blinds for over the kitchen sink and drapes for the sliding glass door. Since Aaron was wearing orange and the cart was orange I couldn't resist taking a couple of pics with my phone. Especially since Grace's first ride in a cart was at Home Depot and she also was wearing orange. As you can see they had a blast.

After Home Depot we went home for naps before K and I got ready for our date night. Grandma and Aunt L were coming over at 5 to watch the kiddos for us. We headed up to one of our favorite nice Chinese restaurants called The Manderin, however they were closed! So we called PF Changs and made a reservation for 630 there and were able to slide right in. It was just as delicious as the other place too.

Afterwards we didn't really feel like a movie and hit the town and checked out cars for sport before heading home a little early. Truth be told I was kind of beat and we sat with the ladies and chit chatted about the kids for a little while.

Sunday brought sleeping in, a trip to 2nd service at church before heading home for lunch and naps. After naps (of which Aaron's was terrible! He woke up crying after 30 minutes of sleep and we had to go then and was pretty cranky for the next hour) we headed off to the grocery to pick up some meat to BBQ for a going away party for a playgroup family. We had a blast though and the kids got to play on the playground and Aaron walked and crawled all over.

Today Aaron woke up around 630 and I got him a bottle (I am no longer nursing him, he kinda decided he didn't want to do that anymore when I started giving him soy milk) and hoped he would go back to sleep. He didn't of course but Daddy was up at that hour anyway and so he changed his diaper and put him back down and he slept past 830! Which I was fine with because I was beat.

Since he woke up so late I didn't put down for a morning nap and hoped (again ) that he would take a longer afternoon nap. However he didn't although he did wake up pretty happy so I didn't try to put him back down.

He was walking a lot today. He would take a bunch of steps like 5 or 6 at one time before falling and he was so proud of himself. He kept smiling about it. I guess it's time for me to get him some more shoes. He has one pair that we have as a hand me down, but I have been holding off on buying some more because it has been summer and he hasn't been walking yet. Now that summer is coming to a close and the boy is actually walking I guess it's time for his mom to get him some real shoes! :)

It was a pretty good day today and I got some house cleaning down. Tomorrow time to finish up the remaining laundry and clean the bathroom.

New Steps

2011-09-30T19:25:00.000-07:00

Today was a hectic day even though I stayed home all day. I tried to get a bunch of house work done today and succeeded in vacuuming and mopping the living room and kitchen. I also sadly realized that I have several more years of cleaning up sticky floors. We have wood laminate floors and between the tumbleweed of dog hair and the crumbs from the babies and spilt water and cut onions bits or whatever our floors seem to get dirty so fast. I almost just don't want to do it because as soon as I let the dogs in you can see their paw prints or they slurp water and slosh it everywhere. Or then its dinner time and noodles are flying off the high chair, but alas this is that season of life and I have to get used to it! At least Daddy like it and was really appreciative when he came home so that is nice.

Aaron did not want to take a morning nap today so I tried to feed them lunch early and put them both down a little early than they have been. Aaron slept but only for his usual hour and a half and I don't think Grace slept at all, although she was quiet.

When Aaron did get up from his nap I let him have some animal crackers and he actually took his first steps all by himself, twice in a row! I was/am so proud of my little boy! He has been 'walking' holding onto us for awhile now and it just seems like he just didn't ever have the confidence and also that he thought his speed crawling was faster. Hopefully this is the beginning of many more walking adventures to come and he may be actually walking for his birthday in 2 weeks!

I took this video this afternoon of Grace riding her rocking horse, she was previously yelling, "YeeeeeeHaaaawwww!" over and over, but of course as soon as I started videoing she stopped. Oh and another things she says that I don't want to forget is about Hide and Seek. She loves playing that with K and she will count to 3 (yeah he doesn't get much time to hide) and then she will say, "Ready or no heres mine come!" It is the cutest darn thing ever. Oh and sometimes she will hide in the same spot over and over again. She is too cute!

Well tomorrow K and I have a date night and we are so excited to get out of the house and hang without kids. We both have been a little stressed out lately with different things, work pregnancy, kids, dogs, life...you name it and we are thankful for Grandma and Aunt L to babysit together tomorrow. We are looking forward to a wonderful weekend starting with date night and ending with church and a going away party for some new friends on Sunday evening. We hope you all have a wonderful weekend planned! All our Love!

Wednesday

2011-09-28T19:21:00.000-07:00

Went to playgroup today. The only other mom in the group J who has 3 kids has decided to take over playgroup which I am so thankful for. So we had it at her house today. She has a great backyard that is huge and chickens and a garden. Her oldest two girls are 3 and almost 2 and then she has a little boy who is about 3 months younger than Aaron I believe. Grace loved hanging out with the girls. We are going to try to do a small bible study about being a mom as well and I am so thankful for her deciding to do this. Myself and another mom had considered co hosting it, but really this will be so much better for me as I get underway with this third pregnancy. Plus J is so understanding as she has 3 in the same age range as we will. She is a sweet heart!
After playgroup we swing through Micka-Donalds (as Grace would say) and that is the only time Aaron slept. From playgroup through the drive thru and then to the grocery store where I wolfed my sandwich down before getting the kids up and out.
We had no milk and I needed some essentials for a dinner I planned tonight and some fruit. Aaron loves fruit. I got these delicious huge green seedless grapes and I was biting them in half for him this afternoon for a snack and he was just going to the bowl himself and stuffing them into his mouth. I guess he feels pretty tough now that he has a top and bottom tooth! :)
I made an Asian dinner tonight. I went with a recipe from Barefoot Contessa on Food Network but didn't follow it exactly. It was good because we had all of the ingredients already which would have been really expensive otherwise. But I made a talapia fish with an Asian dressing and panko breadcrumbs which was ok. I also made some sauteed fresh green beans with sesame seeds and then my favorite an Asian noodle salad with snap peas. That was delicious and will make that again and add a few things.

Yeah so Aaron and Grace both went down for a nap at 2 but Aaron did not sleep at all! He kept banging on the wall and cooing and then he would fuss and I went in once and gave him his lion and his paci again. Then the next time I went in and changed a poopy diaper and I thought for sure he would sleep then because he hates sleeping in a yucky diaper-but no. Finally I just got him up. Not sure what his deal was. Oh and the other night by the way he did not get sick so I am thankful for that. He did fuss like I said but then I didn't hear a peep out of him the rest of the night. So tonight he was so fussy that he went to bed at 730 and he was ready for it. Here he is with his lion.

This is the ladder off of Aarons firetruck. As you can see it has a little present in it. Those are broken crayon pieces that I think were meant to be some sort of cargo. Nice.

K and I are going to try to plan a date night for Saturday, I think it will be something we both really need. There are lots of things going on right now and hopefully the stress level will be lessened for us by Friday. We are excited for new things coming.

Monday

2011-09-26T19:19:00.000-07:00

Hey all, I started to do this post last night and got all my pictures uploaded and then the laptop died and I couldn't be bothered to go get the cord from the living room. Normally the plug is our room but it migrated to the living room and hasn't made it back yet. These first 2 pic I took the other day, actually I don't really remember when I took all of these but can guess within the last 5 days. Grace here is enthralled with Iron Chef America which was on while I dusted our room. Go figure she actually watched it for a little while...more interesting than smiling for the camera. The little bear here is on the move again, holding on to everything until its time to speed crawl away. (Which is why it's a blurry picture) He still has no desire to walk. Although K did get him to take a couple of steps on his own, but only by walking while holding his hands and then slipping his finger out of Aaron's grasp.

Grace is rediscovering her playdough again and can play with it for a little bit. She loves to roll it out real thing and make shapes out of the 'stencils'. I have to get her some more playdough tools for Christmas.

She looks so much like her dad, little cutie pie. She sure is a whiz.

Here is the little bear waking up from his nap. On Sunday he actually slept until 7am straight through! It was great. He hasn't had anymore 5am or early wake up calls lately and I am beginning to think that when he does do that he may be teething...because we discovered another tooth popped through! So now he has one on the bottom and one on the top!

Look at that face, it sure does look grumpy doesn't it? But I think it might have been the beginning of a smile. I took about 30 pictures before I gave up and finally picked up the poor child from his crib.

Cookie Monster! I made chocolate chip cookies and let the kids have one for their after nap snack yesterday and this little darling was all over it! Cookies in both hands and melted chocolate all over his face! And once again here he is giving me his serious face. I think both kids know when the camera comes out, one is a ham the other is like no way mom!

In 3 short weeks my boy is going to be 1 years old! I can't believe it, and we have another one on the way. Last night when I was uploading these pictures I was looking for my Sept. 2011 file and found Sept 2010 first. In the front of the file was pictures of me pregnant with Aaron. Boy was I pregnant, but in a good cute way! lol I can't wait to see what the next one is going to be like.

So today we met up some friends and went to the zoo. We had a great time and Grace sure does love older kids. Aaron was so mellow too especially for missing his morning nap. I tried skipping his morning nap on Friday and had hoped for a long afternoon nap but that didn't happen. Today it did though! He fell asleep in the car on the way home (about 1:30) and slept until 4pm! It was great and I got to have a nap too, although I started freaking out that something had happened to him because he never sleeps that long. The one good thing about Aaron is that he has become easy to take out of his car seat asleep and then lay back down. Grace is always kind of bad at that. Half the time he stays asleep and if he does wake up while I am walking him in he will fall back asleep.

I am a little worried though that he might be getting sick. He kind of burped/spit up three times within like 20 minutes this afternoon before dinner and I was afraid to feed him dinner. Neither one of my kids have ever thrown up because they were sick and I could just see myself glad for a long nap because I would be up with him all night tonight. So I am praying he is fine and just had the burps. He ate his dinner down fine. He had yummy chicken from a quesadilla and rice. And seemed fine after but I am praying still!

K is out of town again for 3 days so we are on our own tonight and tomorrow but he will be back on Wednesday. We miss him!

We decided to officially cancel out Netflix this weekend and are going to try Blockbusters program that is similar. We didn't like that they were going to have 2 separate companies to do the streaming and the mailed dvds. We already ordered some movies and it sees that they have more selection already. And we like that we can take them back to the store instead of mail them. So if we want to go pick up a movie for Grace we can, plus we have 2 out at a time. I think that is the gist of it. Grace is so into the Lion King right now. Whenever she seems promotions or a commercial for it she goes, "My tiger movie!" Especially if she sees a commercial because she doesn't really understand what a commercial is. She just wants me to put it on for her. We may go take her to see it in the theaters, we will have to see if someone wants to babysit Aaron because for sure I am not taking him!
The Briggs update: We took him to his special appointment for his eyes and basically got stronger medicine to help clear up his eyes. It started working right away and we have a follow up appointment in a couple of weeks. We will see how it goes, the drops are cheap and neither was the appointment for that matter, but the poor dog can see again. The hard part is remembering to give him 2 different eyes drops in the morning and night in each eye. K has been the one in charge of that task but when he is away I have to remember to do it.

So far with this pregnancy I have been feeling ok, it could be a lot worse I know. It also seems that I am more yucky feeling at night. I get all sloshy and can't eat a big dinner. I have to sleep on my back and kind of up on the pillows, which does not bode well for the long term. That was how I was with Aaron at the end.

Speaking of Aaron I hear him...he is fussing and waking up slowly and it has only been and hour I see. Wait... maybe he will put himself back to sleep. My poor boy...I love you son.

Our news

2011-09-20T11:29:00.000-07:00

So we have some news in our family that we are happy to announce! If you haven't already guessed from the photo above we are expecting our third and final child. The baby is due April 21st, although if I am lucky then this one will be early like the other 2! I am 9 weeks along and feeling decent enough. A little queasy and tired. I have found with this one that the more frequently I eat the less yuck I feel. So I have been trying to keep my tummy full. Although I already feel like I can't drink a lot or I start feeling sloshy and almost heartburn-y.

We get to hear the heartbeat at the next checkup next month.

We love you!

2 Things...

2011-09-18T11:41:00.000-07:00

...Grace always says these days.

1.) "Whats the matter mommy?"
Nothing Grace I am just eating my lunch, or sitting here, or thinking or whatever!

2.) "Why?"...................5200 times in one sentence! And then again in the next sentence, especially when we are driving.

Grace-isms

2011-09-17T19:35:00.000-07:00

Grace has been so full of funny thing lately that I want to try and write them down so I can remember later. We went for a walk after dinner and Grace had a ball she was so funny. At one point we passed a house that had a little dog on the front porch and it was barking. She started barking back at it. "Arf Arf!" So we chuckled to ourselves and slowly walked past the house. I said to Grace, "Are you talking to the dog?" She nods. "What are you saying?" I asked
"Arf." she replies, like duh mom.
And tonight for dinner she decided she needed to have her own bowl of clam chowder. Yum! But really what 2 year old do you know who likes clam chowder. So much so that she waited to eat it because it was piping hot at first.
We popped the Utah game on right before bed to check the score. Grace says, "I wanna watch football." Of course she didn't really want to go to bed either. So we taught her to say, "Go Utes!"
She is so cute and smart!

My poor baby

2011-09-17T08:56:00.000-07:00

So Aaron has had the worst diaper rash, poor thing. I had thought it was a lot better on Thursday night, but it wasn't. And because we use disposables when he has a diaper rash so we can use diaper cream he also gets like a red ring on his leg from the material that goes along the leg of the diaper. Poor boy, he just screams when we change him and a few times we have just taken him into the shower to get the rest off. Last night we made chili and cornbread but I only gave him a banana and cornbread for dinner because I don't want him to have any rich food that is going to upset his tummy. Love my boy and hope his little bottom heals fast!

11 months and what not

2011-09-15T12:44:00.000-07:00

Aaron turned 11 months old on Tuesday! These 1st few pictures of him wearing red and blue are from awhile back I just forgot I had taken them. He is sleeping better, he hasn't been waking up in the 5 o clock hour. Well except that one time! He still goes to bed great and he still wakes up on the wrong side of the bed every single time. But I have a new theory about that...the last week probably, I wait and let him cry it out. And a lot of times he will either go back to sleep or quiet down. I found that when I went in there and got him he was still sort of asleep and despite me holding him he was still just as ramped up as if I would have left him. So especially for naps he has to cry it out. I love this picture of him standing. He stand so good, and has no problem climbing at all! He has figured out how to crawl up onto the fireplace hearth and the picnic table downstairs and has even stood straight up once on the picnic table. He loves water and loves playing in the dogs bowl or the toilet. New rule in our house shut the bathroom door. Grace never found that quite so fascinating. lol

These pictures were taken on Tuesday. He still has no interest in walking despite his parents trying to bribe him with M&M's. He will make his body go slack if he doesn't want to walk. The funny thing is when we "walk" with him and hold his hands and kind of support his body weight he does really good and walks pretty well and lately both K and I have said we could almost just let go and he would just keep walking except for his death grip on our fingers or that he realizes that we are about to do that!

His little bottom tooth is coming up more and more and I think he maybe getting the one next to it soon. I thought I saw white in that spot below his gums. It's hard to tell because he hates being messed with and you have to pull his lip down and get his tongue out of the way.

This is him voicing his opinion about now wanting his picture taken with me! lol He was mad at me for something I can't remember what. He pulls such sad faces, you think I had told him he would never eat ice cream again! In fact the last night I reheated some meatloaf and mashed potatoes I had made for dinner. The kids had both enjoyed that meal when I had made it, however Aaron was not having it last night. I also gave him some peaches to get his appetite going. He ate all those up and then just sat and whined in his chair. At one time I tried to feed him a piece of meatloaf and he made like he wanted to pick it ups himself, so I let him take it. He promptly tried to toss it overboard. I was like, "Aaron No!" He looks at me staring unsure of what to think for just being chastised, then his face starts puckering up, his eyes brim with huge crocodile tears, that bottom lip pokes out and he starts wailing!

K and I both thought it was hilarious, he is so dramatic. You can kinda see in this picture the beginning of the sad face.

But here is the happy face. Sorry some of these are so blurry it was really hard getting pics of him on the go.

Here with mommy and unsure of what to think about what I am doing. Last night Aaron got whole milk for the first time and then again this morning he had a little bit. But I am afraid that he is going to have to wait a little bit more I think. He has had the worst diapers and his bum is on fire. He has been a sad boy today because his bottom hurts. The pediatrician had said 11 months instead of a year was ok, in order for him to gain some weight, but it looks like he has either had too much or it doesn't agree with him.

My precious little girl helper. She had an awesome nap and woke up a sweaty mess, but you can see all those tomatoes, I used those to make my homemade sauce. There was a little bit more that you can't see. She loves to help in the kitchen both mommy and daddy.

I had to post this picture because she seriously posed for this picture. She made this face and held it for a minute. I don't know what she was thinking but she looks like a hot mess! Literally! She is such a funny girl!

Actually getting a cute smile from her.

And her poor knees. You can see how we have had multiple skinned knees on both legs. We picked up some Vitamin E oil so put on her knees. I would hate for her to have scarred up knees the rest of her life from just learning how to move around in her own body!

Oh my goodness the "Pack Pack!" So I told Grace a little while ago that we could get her a backpack to take on our trip to SD in Nov. So on Monday she mentioned it and I thought yeah we aren't doing anything today and school is pretty much in session so we should be able to find some on clearance. Well we went to Target and found this super cute rolling "pack pack" (just like daddy's briefcase) it has a handle you pull up like rolling luggage. (She has her hand on it) She LOVES this backpack. She melted down at naptime and bedtime that day because she wanted to play with it so bad. She is going to be thrilled when she actually gets to roll it around the airport and have her stuff inside.

Ok so here is the picture of the chicken fontina I made. I tried this new recipe from Giada once before but this time I improvised and changed it up a lot. This time I deglazed the pan using some leftover reisling (homemade from K's cousin) and used all of our fresh tomatoes. Garlic, onions, a bay leaf some other seasonings and some heavy cream all made this delicious. 2 things I will do differently next time is puree the tomatoes (I normally do but had totally forgotten to this time and it was a bit chunkier although still good than I prefer) and then let it thicken up a little longer. Because I had to cook the tomatoes first this dinner took forever so everyone was starving. And of course my new favorite cheese is a Fontina-it melts so good and is just yummy! You can see my husband has a clean plate and is mopping up all the goodness with a piece of bread.

Nothing else going on here we are just sitting back and trying to be patient as certain things work themselves out. Some things just take a little time if you know what I mean and so we have to wait a couple of weeks before checking back in. I can't believe my baby boy is almost one year old, boy does time fly. I am enjoying September, we still have nice warm days but the they aren't nearly so unbearably hot. The nights are cool and I am in the midst of party planning for Aaron. Hope everyone has a good weekend its almost here!!!

I blogged too soon...

2011-09-09T08:50:00.000-07:00

I shouldn't have mentioned that Aaron was done waking up in the 5 o clock hour...5:40 this morning was awfully dark.

Glad power is back on in California, that was pretty crazy ridiculous!

Briggs is currently at the vet with my hubby.

Next week will be an interesting week for hubby. He has some things going on that could be very exciting for him and a change for the family. Prayers for him on Monday for sure and possibly another day.

Time to go start the dishwasher...

I am still lazy..

2011-09-08T19:32:00.000-07:00

I haven't plugged our camera in to charge and then I forget it needs charging. Then I go to get the camera to get some updated pictures of the kids for my blog and turn it on and realize of course that I haven't charged it since...I can't remember when. Daddy has been home now and is done traveling for awhile. Yay! We are glad to have him around for awhile.

I have to say that I am looking forward to fall and winter. I really do love the change of seasons. I am already thinking about soups and hearty winter foods. I have been craving chili and we have everything to make it, it just is waiting for the right time.
Let's see what are the kiddos up too? Grace is doing well with her potty training, although I need to do better about making sure she goes potty before naps and bedtime because we are still waking up with wet diapers. The poor girl is learning how to use her body you can tell because she is constantly skinning her knees up. Every time her knees are pretty much healed up, she trips and skins them again. She just did it again last night. Poor thing, she is such a little trooper. (Ok I love this picture of the two of them, I was trying to get Aaron to smile so I wasn't looking at Grace and she has the sweetest smile in the background)

Aaron is my opinionated child. Well Grace is too, but Aaron is constantly whining about something or grunting or crying. He has the sweetest smile, I just wish I could see it more often! He hardly ever wakes up cooing and happy, he wakes up on the wrong side of the bed almost every time. Oh and he is finally getting his 1st tooth. Bottom front of course. So I am sure that has been contributing to his whining and I am looking forward to that stopping. Hopefully. He is such a weird eater though, he has to wait for all of us to be done eating it seems before he tucks in and starts going to town. But if he likes something he sure does chow down. He ate a ton of Mac and Cheese tonight. When he gets to be Grace's age, I can see already the food bill going up. Already I starting packaging my ground beef in 2lb packages because we no longer can eat just 1 pound as a family. He has been getting better at not waking up at 5am anymore. Now he wakes anywhere from 6-7am. I nurse him still in the morning because I can usually get him to go back to sleep that way (except for this morning of course) and then he will sleep until almost 8 which is great. His naps on the other hand, they are still short. They are about 1hr each, and the last 2 days I have been sticking him back in bed again at dinner time around 5 because he just crawls over to my leg, pulls himself up and starts whining at me. He is tired, but oh so stubborn. Soon we are going to have to switch him over to the convertible car seat because I think he is going to be too long for his infant seat. My little dishwasher raider here, he likes to climb into the dishwasher, to my dismay, so I stuck the butter dish I use as a giveaway tupperware on his head. He thought it was funny.

Of course then Little Miss Cheese and Ham wanted to be just like her brother and stuck the strainer on her head. Silly girl.

Aaron is still not interested in walking. I really hope he is walking by Thanksgiving because we are going to Glamis to go camping and it would be so much better. He pulls himself up and stands straight up all the time, and he will walk along the couch more now. In fact in one of the pictures above he was just about to do that. But whenever I am holding his hands and try to support him walking he sinks right down to his little diapered bottom and starts his crawling.

Tomorrow Daddy is taking Briggs to the specialist to have a look see at his eyes. The poor dog is going blind, the other night I watched him run straight into the side of the house because he thought he had turned the corner to go up the stairs and come inside. So he ramped up like he was going to run up the stairs kinda fast ya know. I saw it coming and was like No Briggs No! Poor dog at least he has a hard head, and it didn't seem to bother him. It's just hard because with toys all over he is forever tripping on them and has knocked Aaron over a couple of times. Nothing seriously that Aaron hasn't done himself, but we just feel bad. I am not sure there is anything we can afford to do but we are checking it out.

I think I may take the kids over to the farmers market tomorrow to get out of the house. I can't wait for the weekend!

LOVE and HUGS!!

Cheesin It

2011-08-31T19:59:00.000-07:00

Tonights picture for daddy. I got her new cupcake pajamas from Coscto sized 3T last weekend. I can't believe how big she is getting. Her new favorite saying these days is, "Thank you..SO MUCH!"
Tomorrow's Thursday and hopefully Daddy is coming home tomorrow night. We miss him so much.

The most precious singing ever...

2011-08-29T21:21:00.000-07:00

So I finally took some videos of my 1st born singing some of her favorite songs. She is so cute and she will sing a lot of the time by herself. The only problem is as soon as I whip out my phone and start taking pictures and videoing, she starts with the "Cheese!" And a few times lately she gets one of her 3 play cell phones and pretends to take pictures of us with them. She is a ham!
Hope you enjoy!

Birthday Weekend

2011-08-28T20:06:00.000-07:00

Some of these pictures are not from this weekend but I wanted to post them anyway. This picture of Grace was maybe from the beginning of the month..my corn on the cob eater-summer 2011. Why she reclines when she eats corn on the cob I don't know. And that's not her beer there just fyi, she has the pink sippy cup. Another phone pic for daddy..

Tonight we went to Wingers for dinner-had to get my doubled sauced bacon cheddar wingers burger, and they sang to me. Kent told them I was 32 and the guy yells, "Hey everybody this young lady is 61 today lets wish her a happy birthday!" LOL it was hilarious but then Aaron started crying his poor little baby eyes out. Of course some yummy Asphalt Pie helped. Asphalt pie has his most favorite mint n chip ice cream on an oreo cookie crust with caramel sauce and whipped cream on it. He looks ok to me...

My big girl! Before dinner we went to Costco. We needed swiffer pads and toilet paper and I got Grace a new pair of 3T pj's that have cupcakes on them. She looked so big in them tonight and was thrilled to be wearing them. With her new haircut and new pj's and her little articulate vocabulary asking me Why? every other minute, this girl is getting so big!

After dinner we walked around the strip mall and they have a splash park fountain area and Aaron loved it! Yes Aaron, Grace is a little hesitant, but my boy dives in face first and worries about drowning himself later. :P He was crawling around and having a good ole time getting drenched. He was getting right in there with all the big kids-no stopping him when it comes to water!

I had a great birthday weekend, lots of sleeping in and good food that I didn't have to cook! Thanks for all the well wishes and love everyone!

Not really on the ball...

2011-08-25T21:11:00.000-07:00

So I know I have not been updating my blog as frequently as I normally do. And there hasn't really been anything going on lately to be an excuse, just laziness I guess. Although I did take our camera somewhere a couple of weeks ago and it had been in the truck until today, when I made a point of bringing it in. This week my blog has been in the back of my mind as something I want to update and I kept thinking I need to get the camera so I can get some good pictures of my kiddos.

So I took this one tonight right before bed to send to daddy. Grace was so cute, she said Cheese about a billion times and Aaron was looking at me like Mommy what are you doing. I have been putting Aaron to bed early a lot lately because he is napping so bad in combination with getting up around 5am still. I was previously thinking that he was waking up and experiencing some separation anxiety and just needed to be shushed to sleep. However the last 2 days have not been the case at all. Aaron is on to me! He woke up around 520ish and I tried to settle him down, (which in the past has been decently easy) but he was NOT having it. So I stuck him back in bed this morning and he whine cried until 6am where I got him again and nursed him and hoped he would go back to sleep. Which thankfully he did until almost 8am. Which was great, but I so could do without the continual 5am wake up call. 5am is just too early for this night owl. Especially since his naps are not too long during the day. My prayer is that he sleeps straight through until 7am.
My sweet girl loving herself some, "Micka-Donalds".

Aaron with a mouthful of chicken nuggets. He is such a weird eater. He loves chicken nuggets and he can really wolf some food down if he likes it or wants too. However sometimes it really takes him some time to almost warm up to the idea of eating. Unless of course it has some kind of sugar in it. He seems to have a 6th sense for sweet treats! We went to get frozen yogurt with daddy the other night and K was holding him while I got a couple of samples to try. Aaron was practically mashing his face into the little sample cup of yogurt and had a death grip on K's forearm pulling it towards him. But I can offer him something new like a yummy mozzarella stick (which you would think, what kid wouldn't like??) and he won't even touch it. I went to Los Betos tonight and was hemming and hawing about whether to satisfy my burrito craving because I wasn't sure if the kids would eat Los Betos. So I got a chicken quesadilla and some rice for the kids to share. It took him awhile but the kid wolfed down some chicken! And the other night all he wanted was cold green beans.

My friend who has a little boy a little younger than Grace just gifted us with a TON of little boy clothes because they are done having kids and she was spring cleaning. We got some 12 month and some 24 month clothes, but let me tell you all we now have plenty of sized 18month winter clothes. Which include about 30 long sleeved shirts and 30 pants and about 5 jackets. We have 1 pair of 18 month pajamas. So this boy will be set by the time the snow flies this season. There will be some stuff we will have to get like shoes and hats and pj's and such, but otherwise this winter Aaron will be set!

I can't believe how big my kids are getting. Grace is becoming so grown up. She puts her shoes on all by herself now. She just sits down and says, "This right foot?" And she doesn't always get it right of course, but the fact that she can do it is awesome. She can almost open the sliding glass door by herself. Sometimes its closed too tight and she can't. She goes potty by herself and can buckle her top buckle on her car seat all by herself too. Every night when we tuck her in we say prayers and then we have to sing a song. Usually You are My Sunshine and then Jesus Loves Me. And during the day she will sing her ABC's to herself and Rock a By Baby. So precious, I have been meaning to record it because I don't ever want to forget that sweet precious little voice.

Aaron is becoming more and more vocal just this week. He will grunt and kind of scream when he gets mad. Especially when Grace takes a toy away from him, and he yelled at me tonight when I got him out of the bath. He was not done playing!!! Also he has been standing a lot hands free the past couple of days. Just figuring out his balance and practising over and over again. Such a sweet boy...

Tomorrow is Friday, thank goodness, and K will be home. I know he has a hard and long week and will be glad to be home. And I will be glad to have him home this weekend. I am looking forward to a relaxing birthday weekend. We may go to Liberty park after church on Sunday and just hand out and BBQ, just depends on whether I want to actually do something or veg out all weekend. Next week is the last week K will be gone so we are over halfway there! I can't believe summer is almost over...it went by too quickly. I am kind of bummed that summer is almost over but then kind of excited for Aaron's 1st birthday. Boy how time flies!

Clapping

2011-08-16T19:59:00.000-07:00

Today was an eventful day. Last night Aaron was up a 100 times it seemed. He was up at 230, and then 330, then 430-530 with sporadic whine crying and finally up for good at 630. Yesterday his eye was bloodshot and watery but this morning it looked normal. However since the horrible night I decided to take him into the pediatrician this morning. Turns out he is healthy and fine, no ear infections or anything. Which is good, great. Why all the drama and trama then?? I wish I knew. He has always been a bad napper it seems, I keep hoping for a breakthrough, a revelation of understanding, for how to get him to take 2 good naps, or at the very least one good nap a day. He isn't even a year yet! He can still take 2 naps a day! The mornings I can get a good hour or hour and half nap especially if he wakes up early. However the afternoon when Grace is still napping he lasts for about 40 minutes-and hour and a half again. Only one time can I think of that he napped for 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon. And actually that can flip flop around too, bad morning naps and decent afternoon naps.

Then this afternoon he went down and cooed and then he cried himself asleep and slept for just under 40 minutes before he woke up crying. He has a very sad whiny heartbreaking cry. So I went in gave him some little Tummies some water and his paci again and tucked him back in. Again he cried for about 5 minutes and then fell back to sleep for about another 40 minutes so that was pretty good. And I have been putting him to bed early since his afternoon naps have been bad.

I think he is waking up and can't put himself back to sleep and then he realizes he is by himself in the crib and that works him up. The problem is how do you walk that fine line of teaching him to self soothe and quickly going into his room and shushing him before he really gets himself worked up? I don't mind getting up and soothing him for a few seconds but I also don't want him to become dependent on me running in there as soon as he cries.

Grace pointed out to me today that Aaron was clapping. He is so smart. I said Aaron are you clapping and he starts clapping. Hopefully this video I took with my phone will work.

The hubby is out of town this week. It's only Tuesday and he is having a rough week so far. His shoes are giving him some bad blisters, he has no rental car, he got sunburned on Monday and he has to be out of town next week and the week after. :( We miss him, but I think he misses us more being all by himself.

Play group tomorrow and hopefully the grocery and maybe some afternoon pool time for Grace and Aaron.

10 months old!

2011-08-14T19:39:00.000-07:00

Yesterday my tender hearted son turned 10 months old. It has been 10 months since I have worked at the bank, and it has been 10 months that I have gotten to stay home and do mommy stuff all the time. And after 10 months I still love it! This little jailbird here is growing so fast. He is the faster crawler ever! He loves to put his head down and crawl and break neck speeds towards the dogs water bowl or to be "chased". He loves to pull himself up on everything!! Mostly me and especially when I am trying to cook dinner. The last week you would have heard this around my house, "Hey Honey??!! Can you come get the baby??!! I can't cook with him clinging to my leg!" Then my sweet husband comes and grabs him while I cook a yummy dinner. Tonight they went outside and daddy filled up the little inflatable pool I got and they played in the pool for about an 45 minutes while I cooked. We had tried to go swimming at Aunt Crystal's new apartment place but that fell through so we just hung out with them but the kids were in their swim suits most of the afternoon so it worked to let them swim tonight. Plus its still hot out. Let me tell you, Aaron LOVES the water way more than Grace ever did at this age. He will play and splash and crawl and practically drown himself in that pool or the bathtub for that matter! Daddy hadn't gotten the pool all the way filled up yet tonight before Aaron was crawling in it. And K tried a couple of times to get him out and let him play in the grass and dry out he kept going back for more! (I think he is like his mama with that regard)

He also is a bit of a picky eater compared to Grace who loves slurping spinach, asparagus and brussel sprouts. He has to have his meat cubed, don't use a serrated knife to cut his meat up! No way! It must have a nice clean edge, no shredded pork for him or torn pieces of hot dogs, they all must be little sliced circles for him to enjoy. Oh and he sure does love fruit and yogurt, grapes, strawberries, and melon are all of his favorite. But like Grace he isn't a big condiment fan. Neither one of them much prefers their food bathed in mayo, mustard ketchup or BBQ sauce and forget fry sauce or ranch!

His sleeping patterns are still erratic although I am going to work really hard at trying to stick to a strict naptime for him and we will see what happens. He just goes and goes sometimes and doesn't sleep. At church this morning they asked, "Is it ok if he goes to sleep?" We were like, "Sure! If you think you can get him to!" Especially since he was awake at 630am and didn't get a morning nap because of church. Yeah way too much going on at church for him to sleep. But he is always a sweet heart with whoever is holding him. He loves mama, but will be fine with anybody as long as they are holding him. And actually he will play contentedly by himself for a little while if you sit there with him too. But Grace tends to leave him alone and if I am cleaning or walking back and forth between rooms he doesn't like that.

His personality is coming through more and more. He is such a ham! I don't know where he gets that at all!! LOL! He loves to rock back and forth like he is dancing if I turn a song up and dance with him in his high chair. And he will do this bashful head shake thing while he smiles that is just adorable. Also I started playing a game with his paci with him the other night and it was cracking me up! I took his paci and sucked on it real fast and then he grabs it out of my mouth. When it comes out I go, "Ha!" and make a face and he just cracks up laughing! Then he puts the paci back into my mouth and we do it all over again!

I think he was/is going through a growth spurt because of how he was sleeping late a lot last week and how he has been eating a ton of food! I make him the same size sandwich for lunch as Grace but just cut off the crusts and cut it into little bite size squares so he can swallow it easier. (He still has no teeth) and he eats it all and tons of fruit or avocado or maybe some yogurt raisins. He is just a chow hound lately. Plus an afternoon snack, and then tonight he and Grace both ate a ton of the Chicken with Sage and Fontina I made. (New recipe and it was delicious, or as Grace would say, A-licious!)

I just can't believe how big my children are getting. I can't believe Grace is practically potty trained and how good she talks and learns things. She is so smart and picks up on everything! Aaron is so smart too and he "gets" when you joke and act silly with him. Today he even took a lunging step toward the coffee table at Aunt Crystals place and made it!

I am already planning Aaron's birthday party and it should be a fun time! I got a frog mold off of Amazon and going to try to make chocolate frog pops. I think it should be pretty easy, I will let you all know how it goes after I do a practice round or two.

Well its getting on towards bed time and K has to head off to CO tomorrow for the week. :(

Hope everyone had a relaxing weekend like we did!

Wedding and what we have been up to

2011-08-12T19:53:00.000-07:00

These are pictures that I took with our camera from my sister in laws wedding last week. I tried and tried to get a cute picture of Grace in her dress but as you can see she was having a ball running around.

My boy.

My man, so handsome.

Grace and her pal.

The brother in law and sister in law and my nephews. You can't tell but they one on the way due in October, boy #3! (Check out the hot pink socks-in memory their father)

We went to Wheeler Farm on Tuesday and Grace got to check out the farm with her buddies A and L.

Holding hands with her little friend. Lately Grace has been all about boys. She will see boys playing, riding bikes and scooters and say, "Where did those boys go mom?" Funny thing is she never mentions any girls! I might be in trouble... hee hee.

Herding the kids.

Aaron hanging out at the farm.

I took this picture this morning, can you see what Aaron is standing on? He climbed up onto the ball of the popper toy.

I have been back to working out and do 4 miles at least 3 days a week. The beginning of the week Aaron slept until past 8am 2 days in a row. Then today he had a good morning nap but had a horrible afternoon nap and so I got him back up. I put him back down around 415pm and he cried and cried and finally fell asleep for a half hour before Grace stomped around in the hallway and woke him up. Tomorrow Grandma is babysitting and K and I are going to go to dinner and a movie. Which is perfect timing because next week K has to go out of town.

Another cute Grace expression, when we tell her some news that she will like, "That be exciting!" Oh and she loves telling you her full name. We will say Grace, your silly. And she will reply.."No I Grace ____ ____! "

She is learning to say her ABC's and doing super with her potty training. She hasn't had an accident in forever it seems. She knows how to buckle the top part of her seat belt and is so proud of that. She loves being 'bare feet' and can't wait for her birthday, even though its still months away. Tomorrow my sweet young son turns 10 months old, the time sure does fly doesn't it! Hope everyone has a great weekend!

1st Drive-In Movie Expierence

2011-07-30T13:53:00.001-07:00

When I was growing up I can remember going to the drive in theater with my parents and it was a blast. I can actually remember seeing Indiana Jones..although not sure which one it was. I think the second one. Then when K and I were dating we went to the drive in as well. To me, there is nothing more fun in the summer than getting in your pajamas and grabbing your blankets and pillows and heading out to the drive in. We have talked about taking Grace since the beginning of summer because its one of our favorite things to do. Also its cheap 2 movies for $7 and close to our house, less than 5 minutes away. One of the draw backs with going to the drive in theater in Utah is, that the movie doesn't start until it gets dark, which means about 9:15pm here...well past bedtime. So we have been hemming and hawing about whether we wanted to take the plunge and take Grace to see a movie at the drive in. We had finally decided to just go for it last weekend, but it was summer showers last weekend and all this week. Friday was the first evening it didn't rain and it was a little bit cooler than normal-meaning not 95 degrees. Once the sun sets though its not that bad. We were a little bit worried about Aaron because he is such a particular sleeper, and likes it dark and quiet. So we got the kids in their pj's and the truck packed up and headed the 7-11 down the street for slurpees and candy and then to the drive in. Aaron was passed out asleep by the time we got our spot so we just rolled the windows down and let him sleep. He did good until the movie was almost over probably just about 11pm and then woke up. He instantly stopped crying when he saw the movie screen and was mesmerized. Grace got a little bored about 2/3 of the way through the movie, but on the whole did really well for her first time. Although her bouncy behavior could be attributed to the slurpee and candy she had after bedtime!
They both finished out the movie well behaved and we decided to head home. Normally I am a night owl and would have been game for the second movie..Mr. Poppers Penguins, but last night I was tired and didn't want to risk the second movie. So we left on a good note, after all Grace didn't know we paid for 2 movies! And since the kids were free anyways its not like we wasted our money. She was so cute calling the movie Race cars!

Here she is eating mommy's treat actually. Making a silly face.

Cheezin it with Daddy

Cheezin it with mommy!

My sweet girl, I can't believe she is getting so big!

Snuck a picture of the precious lad asleep with his leg propped up. I just love those baby hands and feet! He is such a character, yesterday he was rocking side to side in his high chair, just to be silly! Hadn't ever seen him do that before, what a goof!

Our cozy truck~

This was the third family pic I took and had to turn the flash on manual because the auto flash wasn't activating. So Grace was done taking pictures and daddy's eyes were closed.

This one was using the auto flash and it didn't use the flash so it was a bit dark.

Kickin back with daddy.

This morning Aaron woke up at 7am ish which he has been doing a majority of the week, except I was feeling way tired and kind of junk fooded out. So I nursed him and put him back to bed and stay asleep for awhile till almost 10, I was amazed. So we all slept in then I gathered up the kids and headed to wal mart, I needed to get another package of diapers for Grace for bedtime, and wanted to see if I could find a kiddie pool and/or water table. They didn't have any of that, so we got a few little extras and then grabbed lunch to take home. The kids are napping now and we are surfing the net and enjoying the quiet time. We have to get our rest in this weekend because next week will be busy with the rehearsal dinner BBQ at our house on Tuesday, wedding prep on Wednesday and wedding on Thursday. Then girls night with the playgroup moms on Friday! Can't wait it should be a busy but fun week!

My Stubborn Boy

2011-07-27T19:44:00.000-07:00

Last night I got a weird throbbing headache in my temple and hit the bed early. Aaron was awake at 6 and I nursed him and he was still sleepy so I got him to go back to sleep. Then K got up with the kids and let me sleep for a little bit. It was great, and he made breakfast too, scrambled eggs and bacon.

Then we went down to playgroup at my friends house and the kids all played in the kiddie pool and water table. After playgroup it was lunch and groceries and back home for naps. Wait...yeah about naps. The kids went down late and Grace didn't even sleep, she just sang and bounced around in her crib. And Aaron he cooed and cawed for about 1/2 hour then he cried and then he finally fell asleep.

My little boy sure is stubborn!! He still takes bad naps in the afternoon and then wakes up cranky and whiny and just wants to be held. Then we have dinner and its like he is hungry but doesn't want to eat unless it is on his terms. And we know its food he likes and has eaten before. Tonight for instance we walked over to Costco, we needed some Tums and cheese and so we decided to have a cheap dinner. We know that he likes hot dogs and he did not want to eat that hot dog tonight for the life of him. It was going to be his terms or we all would pay! Finally he decided that he did want hot dogs and then munched them down. Oh and don't hurt his feelings at all because he will cry such a sad long drawn out cry and let you know. He accidentally grabbed K's carne asada bake and the foil was kind of warm. Not enough to burn burn him, mind you, but boy did he make a face and cry and cry and there was nothing that could distract him until he decided he was done.
But boy does he love the bathtub and the water. You get him in the bath and he starts pulling up on the edge and laughing and having a grand ole time splishin' and a splashin'. Then out of the bath and into pajamas and I nurse him and it's like he is a brand new baby. Happy and laughing and crawling on the bed and cracking these funny faces. And just cooing up a storm. Such a joy! So I uploaded these pictures they are from Monday I think. Thought I would toss one in there of me.

Sweetest big sister!

Look at those baby blues...adorable!

Aaron cracks us up because he will raise his arms when he is eating. Like he is conducting a orchestra.

We just finished watching a Netflix called The Box with Cameron Diaz and James Marsden, very interesting. Not sure it was one of my favorites but it kept me watching. We did watch a preview before the movie started of Denzel Washingtons The Book of Eli. Have you all seen this? We rented that months and months ago and I have to say it was one of my favorite Denzel movies. If you haven't seen it, rent it!

I can't believe tomorrow is already Thursday! The week is flying by! My sister in law comes home from Africa tomorrow and then her wedding is a week away! It is going to be a busy few days for awhile.

Some Singing

2011-07-25T19:39:00.000-07:00

Hey all, its Monday for sure here. Our Monday morning started at about 5am when I heard one of the dogs panting. It was Kayla but she didn't need to go outside she was just panting. But that kind of woke me up and then I realized that they both needed to go out. After I got up I saw the dog poop on the floor. It really irked me because normally they let us know by pacing and whining that they have to go real bad when we are still sleeping. Whether its midnight, or early morning or whatever. Now warning from a dog. So I let the dogs out then clean the mess up and then plop back into bed because Aaron has slept straight through and he will probably be waking up at about 620. No sooner am I all cozy in bed than I hear Briggs barking his fool head off. Up I get to bring him back inside, can't have him waking up the neighbors that early. Back in bed for maybe 15 minutes and then I hear our little Air Bear cooing away in his crib and its 5 to 6am. Nice. The good thing is that he woke up happy as can be and played happily for about 10 minutes giving K and me a chance to chit chat before we were on duty. K also had to get up early for a service call that he was busy with all day today, so he was up with me.

Nursed Aaron and then headed into the kitchen for breakfast and spent a little bit of time reading my bible. I am trying to get back into doing that. Then fed Aaron and cleaned up the kitchen a bit. I went back into our room to clean up the spot on the floor more and was gone maybe 2 minutes and came back and Briggs had messy poop all over the floor!!!! Arg! I do not know what is up with the dogs but that was seriously annoying, especially because Aaron kept trying to crawl toward it.

So I get that all cleaned up and then I put Aaron down about 8am and its time for Grace to wake up. I go in her room and she is sitting in her crib with her diaper in her hand, but still dressed in her pajamas. Her bed, pillow, blankies and stuffed animals all have pee on them. Ok so we get Graced up and dressed take all her stuff out of her crib to be taken downstairs to the laundry. I get her a bagel and I am ready to get on the treadmill. Downstairs we go where she gets to watch Monsters Inc and eat her bagel and I start the laundry and then jump on the treadmill. Thankfully Aaron sleeps for 2 1/2 hours and I get a nice long workout in (4.2 miles and 560 calories) and a shower and then he wakes up around 1030 for a snack and we then shortly after that we head over to Target.

I wanted to get some of those cubicles/shelves that you can put the cloth drawers in for the kids toys. I have a bunch of Grace's toys in tubs with lids but then she can't put them away her self. So I got one since it was on sale and some other things we needed, like some more sippy cups without rubber tips so the kids can't poke their fingers through. (They just love doing that).

After lunch its usually naptime around 130 but Aaron only slept about 30 minutes for his afternoon nap and Grace not at all! She was supposed to go to bed early but that didn't happen because K was late getting home and I was busy cooking dinner and cleaning up after dinner so she got to play with Aaron in her room.

Poor Aaron has a sore bottom and he was in disposables all day today, so I could use diaper cream on him. But today must just have been a poopy day because literally about 5 out of 6 diapers were poopy! I know you probably don't want to here about all the poop, but too bad its my blog! And if I smell one more dog fart, I am going to go crazy! LOL!

Anyway Aaron is doing great aside from his diaper rash and the kid will be walking soon I think. I will try to get a video on my phone of him crawling because he is so fast now! Tonight Grace was running from the kitchen and then throwing herself on the couch and then back to the kitchen again and I think that if Aaron could have done the same he would have. He crawled super fast after her panting and laughing toward the couch and then pulled himself up. Then Grace ran back and he sat down and started after her again with his fast crawl/laugh. He is so funny.

Lately Grace has enjoyed singing before we put her to bed. In fact I realized that we went through a whiny stage for maybe 2 weeks where she would cry after we put her to bed. She has always been really easy to put to bed and hasn't ever fussed or whined or cried. So we were at a loss and then K started singing Rock a By Baby to her. And now we have to sing every night and at some naps. She loves it! We sing Jesus loves me, which is one of her favorites and You Are My Sunshine. So I took a video of her singing today on my phone. Hope you enjoy! Time for me to soak my aching legs in the bath it has been a long day.

UPDATE: Sorry every one, I just tried to view this video and am not sure why I can't hear it. Probably something to do with my phone. I will try to fix it tomorrow. It's a shame because you can just tell it's so cute by how animated she is! It makes me want to get my phone and watch it again, because she is so cute.

Run for the Rock 5k

2011-07-23T20:34:00.000-07:00

This morning I ran my first 5k and it was great. This is my friend K and her husband S and their 2 year old son A. She is the wonderful person who hosts playgroup at her house. Well in the summer we have been meeting at the park. She is great, organized and super sweet, funny and a great conversationalist. Another playgroup mom MB and her son L. Little L is wearing his daddy's number because he was out of town. I took those before the race.

My little Grace after the race.

Cheesin for the camera.

I had K put my number on my back in case I needed to use my shirt to wipe sweat off. :) I know, such a lovely thought huh? I do that when I am on the treadmill, but when I am on the treadmill I don't have a hat on to catch all of the perspiration...so I ended up not having to use my shirt to wipe my sweaty face!

Us. Sorry my thumb is there, but this was like my third attempt.

Aaron did not like running a 5k. It was his naptime and he was not having a good time sleeping in the stroller. We had to stop once during the run to get him a graham cracker and then on the last little bit there was no sidewalk and the sod was all tore up and he started crying and was mad and sad for the last 10 minutes. Even though we hit sidewalk about 30 seconds after he started crying he still cried us into the finish line. He did however like playing in the new landscaping at the church. Yes he loved the wood bark mulch and kept sweeping it side to side with his hands, making a huge mess. Then Grace got in on the action and we had to tell her no, she was to big to be making a big mess. Such concentration as you can see.

Sweep, sweep, sweep.

This is how you do it sissy.

My man, taking a break. He actually placed 3rd place in his age group 30-34 and got a ribbon. I got 5th for women ages 30-34. We did a 13:30 min mile, which we figured was pretty good because the first half was pretty hilly. I also won a bible study book and we brought home some frozen otter pop like treats for Grace.

Oh also for K's birthday in April and for a Father's Day gift I had his Shellback Certificate framed and we finally hung it up. I love this frame, can you see how it looks kind of like distressed wood? It reminded me of an old ship.

We hung it above the fireplace. I know I need to recycle some of my Sunday papers.

After the 5k we came back home rested and had some lunch then it was naptime for the kiddos and shower time for us. We both tried to take a nap but it was short lived because Aaron was up after a little more than an hour. He woke up on the wrong side of the bed and was cranky until his early bedtime at 720ish.

If you want a good diet tip, set your freezer temperature really low and then your ice cream will be really hard to scoop. It will take so long warming up the ice cream scoop and be so hard to scoop it that you will give up having a bowl and just eat a bite or two and go back to what you were doing. That happened to me tonight.

Have you ever wished that you could surf the net for hours uninterrupted? I don't normally surf the net a lot and especially having two young children I don't have time to. But tonight I was surfing and reading my SparkPeople site and feeling so tired. Except I didn't want to go to sleep! I had to write this post and then I wanted to read my blogs, and check out Pinterest and should do my Evites for the rehearsal dinner and then I have to check Facebook. Speaking of FB, I am just annoyed that it has sucked me in. Especially because I recently watched the movie The Social Network about how FB came to be supposedly. And it just irritates me that I am adding to his wealth. Stupid Facebook. Stupid fireworks on Pioneer Day. Been listening to those slam around in the street behind me for the last 2 hours. Lame.

Ok I am getting cranky, can you tell? I should go to bed. Hope your having a great weekend!

I said I wouldn't but I had to...

2011-07-22T19:42:00.000-07:00

share this cute pic tonight in a quick post. Daddy was reading Grace a story and I took Aaron in to listen after I nursed him. After I got Aaron dressed and before I nursed him, we were playing around with Daddy and Grace. I took Aaron and poked him around the corner of Grace's door to play peek-a-boo with them as they got Grace into her pj's. Aaron had all of us cracking up. He was so hilarious, he kept throwing his head back so he was upside down and just laughing away. It was a hoot, and my face hurt from laughing so much. I think Grace and Aaron look alike here, I mean you can tell they are brother and sister.
Grace is so cute, we taught her to not interrupt and to say excuse me if she wants to say something when we are talking. So she says excuse me all the time. "Excuse me, excuse me, excuse me." Oh a hilarious story from today at lunch. Grace was talking to me and Daddy started talking to me. Grace turns in her seat to K and puts her finger up and says, "Just a minute daddy I am talking to mommy." So cute!
I can't believe how much they are both growing.
Oh and have you all heard of Pinterest? I hadn't heard about it at all until I read about it over on Kelly's Korner Blog. Its a site where you can pin virtual images that you find all over the net to your 'board'. You can have different boards. So for example, I started a board for Aaron's first birthday party, so if I am surfing the net and I see and idea for his party I can just "Pin it" and it will go to whatever board I choose. Or if I see home decor stuff or a new recipe. Then I can go back to my boards and use the images or remind me of whatever, and Pinterest (the site) automatically gives the credit to the original poster. Such a great idea because I have tons of ideas running around in my head and it lets you organize it online! No clutter on my bedside table! LOL!
Tomorrow morning K and I are going to be running a 5k, we are pushing the kids in the stroller. It's for our church to help raise money for the property we want to buy to build a building on. You can walk or run or whatever. We will probably do both. I haven't ran on the treadmill since Wednesday but this evening we walked on the trail by our house, just a leisurely stroll.

I bought quinoa (keen-wa) the other day and can't wait to try to cook it. I am obsessed with Cheeze-It's these days, but haven't had any of the Coke that is sitting in my pantry for about a week. My feet hurt from cleaning all day and our neighbors brand new wooden fence fell down in a torrential downpour the other day, which is kind of hilarious and kind of sad at the same time. Their carpenter didn't do a very good job. Oh and I have to go plug my camera in!
Time to jet! Night!

Failed Wednesday Post

2011-07-22T13:02:00.000-07:00

I just realized again that apparently my post from a few days ago didn't auto save a whole bunch of other things I had written. I am bummed because I wrote a bunch of stuff about what Aaron is doing and now I will have to try to remember what I wanted to keep track of.

I probably wont do a post tonight, I for sure need to get to bed early because we have our 5k tomorrow morning and I was up early with Aaron at 6ish and to bed late. Although he did sleep straight through so that is a bonus.

Also I went to get the camera out and take some pics of the kiddos at lunch today but I forgot it had a dead battery from 4th of July, so I need to plug it in.

So I will take pictures at the 5k tomorrow and do a post tomorrow night!

One thing I did remember that I wrote was that when I ran on the treadmill on Wednesday, I have a new best 5k of 35 minutes. And it felt easy too! So hopefully tomorrow morning I will feel the same and it will be a breeze! But with no breeze. Running against the wind is hard!

Love ya!

Some things

2011-07-20T20:17:00.000-07:00

UPDATE: I wrote this post last night, and totally thought that I had posted it. Apparently I hadn't, good thing I checked! Well Daddy surprised us tonight and came home early! The kids had just woken up from late naps and were in such great moods. K brought home a little drum that you twist back n forth and the strings that are attached beat the sides of the drum. Both kids loved it and kept fighting over it! I will try to get some new pictures of the kids tomorrow.

Summer is in full swing out here in Utah. We have had a couple of intense summer showers and some hot days, but I am loving it. Although I do need to get some color on my legs, they sure do look pasty compared to the slightly darker shoulders and arms I have. Which is interesting because I do put sunscreen on, usually 50 or 70 because it what we have for the kids.

Daddy is in New Mexico this week and so we sent him a goodnight daddy picture. Lately I have been thinking Grace is looking more like her dad. Last night I went to bed way too late and wish I hadn't because Aaron actually slept straight through until 7am. I was glad, but tired. I have been trying to have some quiet times in my Bible before Grace gets up since Aaron has been up around 630am the last 2 mornings. This morning I nursed Aaron and then he spit up in my Bible. Baby spit up and bible pages don't play nice together.

Off we went to playgroup at the park and then right over to the mall to return the second dress I had bought last week. It was too itchy and I didn't like the way it fit once I got it on a second time. Yesterday I did find a neat body shaper unitard thingy at Kohls and so I also took the Spanx panty hose back as well. I don't mind wearing panty hose but it is so hard for me to walk in high heels with panty hose on. My feet are so narrow that I have to get a good grip with my toes or the back slips off. After I returned the dress at Dillards we skipped on over to the shoe section and I got a super cute pair of Jessica Simpson high heels that fit great. They are nude colored and patent leather. I will have to take a picture and post it soon.

I unfortunately kept Aaron out too late past nap though and he was overtired by the time we got home. it took forever for him to get to sleep. I consoled him 3x before I headed downstairs to jump on the treadmill. (I had some serious irratations I needed to work out.)

9 Month Check Up

2011-07-15T14:54:00.000-07:00

Aaron is 9 months old now and such a sweet boy. He is still so tender hearted. He is going through some separation anxiety, and doesn't like it when I leave him alone. Or when Grace does either. He likes to play in her room with her and will crawl down to her room but sometimes she leaves him and he comes creeping out of the bedroom looking for us. Here he is on the 4th (I took these all with my phone, I upgraded my yahoo so now it lets me download pics I send it from my phone again) enjoying a snow cone. This kid loves sweets! Ice cream and such especially. Grace and I waiting for the doctor.

I tried and tried to rotate this picture but finally gave up so I can get this post written and then I need to do some chores.

Aaron is 17.3 pounds and almost 29 inches long. He is 67% for height and his weight is only 6%. Of course breastfed babies are typically leaner, but he is a little on the lean side for his height. Dr. T suggest that we start giving him butter on his crackers and peanut butter (which I already make him peanut butter and jelly sandwiches). Some yogurt and sauces like ranch and maybe even fry sauce to help him gain a little bit of weight. He is a pretty good eater and eats at the table with us now. He didn't like the ribs we had for dinner last night, but he did like the yummy baked potato casserole I made. Lots of butter and cheese in that. We also talked about him waking up still and Dr. T reminded me that he is probably just needing some reassurance during the night, because he is going through that stage right now. It was weird last night though because he did wake up at 330 and I tried to calm him down and then he was quiet when I left him, but then he started again. So K went in and calmed him down and I thought for sure that he would wake again at 5am like he normally does. But he didn't wake until 7am, which was good. Now if he could just sleep straight through until 7am I would be happy with that!

After the Dr. appointment I wanted to go over to the mall and check out Nordstroms and Dillards for dresses for the wedding. So this morning I packed us a lunch and we headed over to the mall. Aaron fell asleep on the way over because it was his nap time. And when I transferred him into the stroller from the car he stayed asleep, which is beginning to happen a little bit more these days. He used to be wide awake anytime we would get him out of the car seat.

Grace and I enjoyed our packed lunch at the food court (which K thought was kind of weird and was a bit hard with all the yummy food around, but then we had a treat at the end of the day so it was worth it). And then Aaron woke up right before we were going to start walking around and so we fed him some lunch. I did find another dress at Dillards and bought it. It was $40 more than the other dress I bought already at Ann Taylor, but this one is more dressy, so we will have to see. I found a dress I loved at Nordstrom but it was $200 um yeah not paying that much.

K text me that he wants to go for a run tonight, so I have to wrap this up soon. He is headed out of town next week, hopefully he will find some time to get a run in while he is there. I am also excited because tomorrow we have a babysitter and are going to go to Buca Di Beppo for dinner (I have a coupon) and then going to see the X-Men movie around 8pm (Bought discounted movie passes 2 for $9 awhile ago!) Hope every ones Friday is going great. Happy Weekend!

Finally... 4th of July 2011

2011-07-11T19:32:00.000-07:00

Well gang, here they are the most adorable kid pictures from the 4th of July. Last year we started a tradition of joining our friends Vern and Jo at their house for a kids parade and breakfast party. They join in with their neighbors whose house is actually on the street where the parade is and they cook pancakes and eggs and bacon and egg strata and quiche, fruit and orange juice and all sorts of yummy delicious food everyone brings. I was so excited to get to dress the kids in their matching 4th outfits that my mom got them (Thanks Mom!) and they were just so cute. I was pleased because Grace's dress was a 24 month, but it was a different brand and it actually was a perfect length. Some of her 2T dresses are getting a wee bit too short.

Such a big girl holding her brother!

Aaron kicking back with daddy and eating all the watermelon and sausage off of daddy's plate.

My sweet girl and me.

Cute pirate float. Anybody can be in the parade and maybe in a couple of years we will be. Or maybe Grace will be in it with Vern and Jo, they used to do it with their granddaughters who are practically teenagers now. But for now I am enjoying Grace enjoying the parade.

Grabbing some candy, you gotta get it quick!

Bringing her stash back to her home base.

Trying to get a picture of my handsome hubby and me.

Jo and Aaron, who seconds before had been fascinated with the tree branch.

Ok so I only posted on picture here. But I was sitting on our 'long' couch. Which by long I mean maybe 6 feet. We have a couch and a love seat up stairs, and I was laying on the couch. Aaron had crawled over and pulled himself up down by my feet and I started taking pictures of him. After a few minutes he had walked along the couch all the way over to my arms! This was the only one that came out good during that time.

Later that day after naps we headed out to a park where they have the Western Stampede Rodeo and a small carnival. Grace was super excited and we got a parking spot inside the parking lot. Which we later regretted. lol We had to eat some fair food and get some tickets for Grace to ride. She loved this little ride, it went around in a circle, but she thought she was cool riding it all by herself.

The Carousel of course for both Aaron and Grace.

And then lastly Grace and I rode the Ferris Wheel before my camera battery died. She loved it, although she would freak me out when she wanted to be by the little gate to look down and say hi to Daddy and Grandma.

After the ferris wheel we had some potty and treat breaks and then found a spot on the grass to spread out our blanket to wait for the fireworks. I think we had to wait an hour and half but the kids did real well. We brought their pajamas because since it doesn't get dark here till after nine the fireworks don't start until 10pm. We changed them up and then just hung out until the fireworks started. Aaron actually fell asleep while they were going off and then woke back up for the finale. Grace doesn't like loud noises so she was freaking out a little bit. After the show we headed back to the truck with everyone else at the park and then had to wait in the parking lot for about 30 minutes before we were able to get out. Lesson learned-leave fireworks show early. All in all it was a fun and busy day.
Today just flew right by and I am not sure what I really did today. Aaron was up at 7 and I was just zonked out. Last night he woke up at 130 and then 430 and then 7. We didn't go to bed until midnight I think. I think he may be going through a growth spurt because the kid ate a ton of food at lunch and dinner tonight! I worked out on the treadmill while Aaron napped. He napped for 2 hours and that was great, then I packed up a picnic lunch for us to take to the park. I figured some play time outside would tire him out for a long afternoon nap as well. Hmm not so much. At lunch he had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich some cheddar cheese hunks I cut up, and a bunch of Pirate Booty (which is like a puffy cheeto). Plus a ton of water. Then for dinner he had a some baby food green beans, part of a bread stick and then a ton of peaches. And I don't mean baby food peaches. Daddy opened up one of the can of peaches we canned last year and he put about 5 peach halves in a bowl for him to have and share a little bit with the kids. Aaron was just slurping them down so fast! He is a maniac! He turns 9 months on Wednesday and his 9 month check up is on Friday so we will see where he is at.

I did manage to sleep for about 45 minutes today in fact we all napped during nap time. But I need to do better getting to sleep earlier. Then I had a headache when I woke up, but I think that was because I hadn't drank enough water and I sweated a ton out when I was running today. And then I brought a big thing of water to the park with us, but the lid cup was warped and the lid wouldn't screw on properly. So I dumped some of it out on the way to our spot under the tree and then I handed it to Grace to hold and she dropped it and spilled the rest. So I threw that cup away.

We watered the garden and the lawn this evening after dinner and K and I were talking about saving up to re landscape our lawns next year. We have had such issues with the sprinklers in the back yard and are currently trying to regrow some grass in a bunch of spots. K has fixed and replaced a bunch of sprinkler heads (he is so handy like that, just love that about him) but he thinks that because there are like 10 sprinklers on one line and like 2 or 3 on the other line. That the one line is not providing enough water pressure to get the right amount of grass watered. So we talked about maybe doing some landscaping in the front that wouldn't need to be watered and then maybe where the garden is on the side of the house fence that off and put a pool over there and a drip system in for the garden. Right now its just talk but our poor lawn is so sad and we want the kids to be able to play outside all the time. So we will see.

Well I gotta get to bed earlier and rest my body.

Night!

Micka Donalds!

2011-07-09T20:28:00.000-07:00

The other day I took the kids over to Savers (a thrift shop) on a walk.

Then we walked over to McDonalds for some lunch. Aaron loves chicken nuggets and chowed down on them.

Unfortunately this McDonalds doesn't have a play gym, but Grace still had a good time.

I cleaned the truck out today and vacuumed it. Grace had cookie crumbs in her car seat and we still had the DVD player in there from our trips. Now its nice and clean and mostly "un-baby-fied" at least for a little bit. Ha Ha!

I am trying to not drink Coke and haven't had Coke for 2 days now. Yay me! The weather has been a little cooler and we have had some summer storms. We are having a relaxing weekend just hanging at the house. I went to the bank during naps (which were awesome!) and stopped by a garage sale on the way. I got a couple of 12 month T shirts for Aaron and then stopped by The Sara Lee Bakery outlet on the way home. The hubby and I pass it all the time and we both have wanted to go in there. I got a loaf of bread for .60 cents and a bag of bagels for 1.25!

Tonight for dinner we had yummy steaks, steamed broccoli, and baked potatoes. The kids love steak! It's been a great weekend so far, tomorrow church and Costco and more relaxing!

Some kind of twin thing...

2011-07-07T20:41:00.000-07:00

So I did two things tonight. Upload the family picture from Easter and then scan and upload K's baby picture. I think that he is about 4-6 month there with his cousin. Do they look identical or what??

I officially signed our family up for the 5k our church is having on July 23rd. I am so excited about it. I have always wanted to do one and now I am! So last night K and I put the kids in the jogging stroller and we walked over the local community college and then we jogged around it. It was great and today K clocked it and it was 3.7 miles. I also jumped on the treadmill this morning and did 4 miles and burned a ton of calories, while Aaron was napping. He got almost and hour and half nap this morning and then an hour nap this afternoon, so poor baby he got tired quickly this evening. Then before lunch I started addressing invitations for my sister in laws wedding in August. Got those done by 3 and then my mother in law came and picked them up to mail up.

I also watched the kiddos for an hour tonight and tomorrow is my last day for watching the kiddos in the afternoon. Their mom put her notice in and gets to be a stay at home mom. I know she is excited. And I am looking forward to a little bit more free time to some summer fun! After all this is Summer Girl here!

Grace is doing great with her potty training, no accidents at all. Although I am not sure about the next step or when we should try for naps without diapers. Daddy said that we would have to upgrade her to a big girl bed so she can get up and go when she needs too. I just don't want to do that yet! I don't want her to be able to get out and wander around. Plus she is such an active sleeper I know she will fall out of the bed, because she did when we went to Wendover. Any ideas or suggestions?

Looking forward to a weekend of getting our house picked up and more organized and relaxing!

I will try to get 4th of July pics up soon!

Mmmm slurp slurp your spinach!

2011-07-03T21:19:00.001-07:00

We have been enjoying the fresh spinach from our garden a lot lately. Grace didn't want to eat it at first. She thought if its green and slimy well it must be gross. However she did try it and she loves yummy spinach. She slurps it up just like Popeye. She doesn't like cooked bell peppers though...lol

Even Aaron likes spinach. But he hates it when I use the spoon to get the spilled food off of his chin. He turns his head after I feed him every bite. He is such a boy-loves to be messy.

This morning K got up because the kids were still sleeping and had a quick breakfast with his sister before she headed to the airport on her way to Ghana, Africa. She will be there until the 23rd of July (I think) and then back to get married! After he got back we got ready for church and headed down. Then after church today we had lunch and then K was sweet to go with me to a dress shop that I wanted to check out. I didn't find anything there so we headed over to the Gateway Mall. They have a fountain/splash park that the kids can play in the water. Really the water shoots up from the ground and it times to music every half hour as well. Grace was deathly afraid and so we went over to Ann Taylor and I tried on a couple of dresses there. I found one that I like and it was only $55 dollars. So I think I am set with a dress for the wedding. Now I just have to get my arms toned up! Ha! That shouldn't be too hard right? Just keep carrying my kids around.

I will be glad when July is over-NO MORE FIREWORKS! The last 3 nights we have been listening to people set off fireworks in our neighborhood and behind our house and really I am over it. I am all for a nicely produced fireworks show, but that's it. I don't get the whole explosives in your driveway thing. And remember its not just for the 4th of July here, its also Pioneer Day which is on the 24th. Fireworks then too.

Tomorrow we are taking the kids to a small parade and breakfast party over at or friends Vern and Jo's and then we will see where the night takes us.

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY! GOD BLESS!

'Nightmare Before Wedding' Bridal Shower

2011-06-29T20:22:00.000-07:00

My sister in law Crystal is getting married and I threw her a Nightmare Before Christmas themed bridal shower. For those of you who don't know what that movie is about (I had to watch it again myself, I had only seen it once) it's about Jack the pumpkin king lives in Halloween Land and he is very good at being the pumpkin king. But then he discovers a door to Christmas Land and loves Christmas. He loves it so much that he wants to do Santa's job. But Sally is kind of like a female Frankenstein and she thinks Jacks idea is not so great. She tries to tell him (like all good women do) but he doesn't listen until its too late and Christmas is ruined...almost. Then they fix it and fall in love. So since Crystal loves that movie I wanted to theme the party towards that. The pictures I took of the guest kept coming out blurry so I only post a couple.

I invited the guests to wear their favorite black and white outfit and a lot of them did! Here is the bride, looking fabulous in her black and white.

Crystal, Janeen, Aryann and Darci. Aryann is a bridesmaid and she is the mom to the kids I watch. And Darci is her mom.

A picture of the cake. I couldn't decide if they made the cake to lean on purpose or if they just did a bad job.

I kind of think they just got away with having a crooked cake because it was NBC themed and they could.

The present table. I got a bunch of the decorations at a garage sale.

I love this. In the movie when Jack is telling everyone back in Halloween land about Christmas he sings a song and says, This is a thing called a present. I found that picture holder and spray painted it black.

Ok here is the food...Don't these jalapeno poppers look so good? They were SUPER HOT though. I mean I felt terrible because I thought a little bit if spicy was good, I know Crystal likes spicy, but they were pretty much unbearable. Although I took the rest home and froze them but we have added one here and there to different things we have cooked. A little bacon and cream cheese and jalapeno to our fresh spinach was yummy.

These sausage wraps were yummy. They tasted like biscuits and gravy in a hot pocket. Yum!

Black and White everything. I got tiny little antibacterial hand sanitizers for like .60 each and gave them little aprons with some lace I got at the garage sale. I thought they were cute.

The punch bowl, with the bride and grooms initials. I downloaded the NBC font online for free and found some shiny white metallic paper that was super fun.

Oh I got these floral pieces at Michaels and added some glossy black spray paint and black glitter. They turned out awesome!

Another garage sale find. They had music notes attached to them. Didn't need those, but the metallic were perfect!

Another phrase from the movie. That flower was like almost practically the same flower that Sally pics the petals off of in the movie.

I wished I had gotten some more close up pics of everything, but I was running around kind of crazy. It turned out way fun.

As for today, we had a good day but very busy. Last night Aaron had a bad night. He was awake at midnight, 3am, and 5am. Turns out that his little whizzer has an infection and I am sure he woke up when he went potty in his diaper because it was sore and it stung. My poor boy. So we went to the doc this afternoon and he told us to keep putting an antibiotic cream on it and clean it every night in the bath. I just feel so bad for letting that happen. But on a side note he is cruising with his crawling. After we got groceries this afternoon I went and got a snow cone for all of us to share. And Aaron loved it! At one point Grace put the cup down and I had never seen that boy crawl so fast and so well! All in one day! So he is on the move these days.

Grace is cruising along with her potty training as well. We were out and about all day and she didn't have an accident. Of course we are still going tinkle a bunch of times per store, but she is just doing great. It amazes me how she learns so quick. Like how she hops up on the toilet just fine. She is so smart. Oh and I have to write this down. I love how she says McDonalds. She has been all about the McDonalds toys lately because Annabel will bring hers over sometimes. So she says, "I want my Micka Donalds toys."

My sweet Grace-don't grow up.

Love Mommy

Father's Day Car Show 2011

2011-06-29T12:49:00.000-07:00

Every year we go out to Wendover, NV to celebrate Father's Day at a classic car show. K's grandparents bring out a bunch along with some of their friends and we have a big group of people. Here is our "campsite" and this picture is about half of it. My sweet little Aaron.

Crystal and her fiance Devin with Grace.

Crystal's car and her grandmother Lynn blew up one of her engagement pictures with the car and put it in the window.

It's hard to see with the glare but I tried for a closer picture.

Grace telling the people who were revving their hot rod's engine really loud, "No! Be quiet!"

Grace and Mommy doing our "cheese" cheek to cheek smile.

Grace helping to push the Aaron in the stroller.

Zoey and Grace. Grace loved riding on the scooter with Zoey and she did so well!

Some pics of other people's cars in the shows. I love this one, they painted it Metamucil orange and can you see the license plate and whats sitting in the dash behind the windshield wiper? A can of Metamucil!

I love the blinker on this car, it looks like a crystal from superman!

Doesn't this truck remind you of Mater from Cars??

Cool old car with lantern headlights.

And my favorite a Corvette Sting Ray, although I would get it in a different color..maybe red?

Zoey and Grace in the Daddy's car before the Poker Run.

Toby and Luke in their daddy's car before the Poker Run.

Grace and Aaron in Grace's bed in the hotel room.

Grace at the buffet in the morning for breakfast.

Grace and Jason (Zoey's dad) checking out the mirrored ceiling.

Toby showing me his missing teeth.

Hi Daddy! Happy Father's Day to the best dad ever!

Aaron having himself some sausage for breakfast.

We had a great weekend like always and now I just have to get the bridal party pics up! Then that can be checked off my list. Finally starting to get in the groove of things back here at home!

The Pink Box

2011-06-26T21:56:00.000-07:00

You know what I was thinking about last night? A pink box. Well actually not just a pink box but more importantly the pink box. Do you know what I am talking about? If I had a picture I would show you but I don't. The pink box I am referring to is the pink box that donuts come in. A dozen donuts to be exact. A dozen delicious donuts from my childhood.
One of my favorite childhood memories was waking up on Saturday mornings and coming out into the kitchen and finding out Yay! Mom got donuts! My favorite donuts are chocolate bars, and then cake donuts with rainbow sprinkles. I know a lot of people prefer the glazed and Krispy Cremes to be more precise, but I prefer the generic chocolate bar.
I think it must be a San Diego thing too, because in San Diego its like you can find a donut shop everywhere or on every corner, but not really here in Utah. Last night I thought about going this morning to go get donuts, because I think I know where a donut shop is, but then I was too tired to this morning.

Today we tried to have a relaxing day, although it was only a little bit. Aaron has slept through the night till 6am the last two nights, however I have gone to bed so late that I haven't gotten up with him. Just nursed him and snuck him back into his crib for another hour and a half. Although I still felt wiped. I am glad that all of our craziness has slowed way down. I managed to get some laundry done with K's help this morning and did watch How to Marry a Millionaire with Marilyn Monroe while the kids were napping. I also got most of the leg bands on the cloth diapers adjusted with K's help as well. Have I mentioned lately that I still love my cloth diapers. I was telling K just last week that I am so glad I decided to go with cloth. It is more work and some days I do just grab a disposable when I cant get the diapers washed right that instant. But really Aaron does well with them. In fact with all of our traveling and him using the disposables I noticed that he can get like a dry skin rash on his legs. And he has had like 2 diaper rashes in his almost 9 months of life and that was when he was on antibiotics for his ear infections.
The cloth diapers have been a great investment and soon we won't have to buy diapers but rarely because Grace will be potty trained soon. At least I hope!
She is doing great, we have accidents but really it seems only at home when she is busy playing outside or downstairs.
Today we took a walk to the elementary school after dinner and right after we left to come back home she told us she had to go potty. Well there is not potty except at home so she had to hold it and hold it she did! She did great!
K and I are planning on running a 5k in July for our church. I have always wanted to run a 5k and have never done it. Well this one is sponsored by the church and the money goes to funding the new church building. I am excited, and I think some of my playgroup families will be joining in as well!
I am beat got to go to bed. Wendover and Bridal Shower pics to come this week!