Bunda Heads

2011-12-19T22:57:00.003-07:00

Today, all three girls were playing together. Rebekah doesn't really play with the other two, but she follows them around and entertains herself. I really really like it. I always feel like I'm living on borrowed time whenever it happens. The girls wanted her to follow them upstairs, but she wasn't really paying any attention. So, Jane got some Teddy Grahams and made a trial over to the stairs, like breadcrumbs for Cheeky to follow. And follow she did. Picking them up and putting them in her mouth as she went. I don't think it actually worked all the way though. If I remember correctly, she didn't every actually go up the stairs.

It really was too bad because I was trying to have on of those be productive around the house days. You know, one of those days where you put on your best "do stuff around the house" type clothes and have all these big plans in your head to clean every bathroom, even the floors, the kitchen, including wiping down the cupboards, and to top it all off, wash, fold, and put away all the laundry in the same day. But it didn't really happen. It's going to spill over into tomorrow. But it's all good because I've learned to lower my expectations. Not to say that we live in filth, far from it, (I have definitely turned into my mother), but I've learned that if I can not be so worried about making sure that everything is perfect in the house, then I actually feel much better.

Christmas mani

2011-12-18T23:47:00.004-07:00

I painted this tonight. I had the same mani on from yesterday, but only in reds, golds, greens and silver, and believe it or not. I think it looks much better in these more non traditional colors. It's all about the Scotch tape for these little trees. For most cool shapes and designs actually. I really like to paint my nails. That way, even if I haven't showered that day, or I'm in sweats with nasty hair, I can't still look down at my hands and think, "well, at least my nails look good.

Car photos

2011-12-18T23:40:00.004-07:00

We took a little road trip to Idaho Falls last weekend. I took about a million pictures of Jeff and myself while he is driving. This one must be from the beginning of the batch because the way I remember it, he was NOT up for a photo shoot. He kept on asking me "what are you doing?" over and over again, even though I never had a really good solid answer. Just taking pictures. But, Dad is the boss, so I finally let him have some peace. But not before I got a few little shots in.

Plus, had to throw a little shot of my latest nail polish polish in there.
Sophi, a little trooper all alone in the back of the mini-van. She had awesome hair that day. All braided up when it was wet to give her a nice crimped look.

What child is this?

2011-12-18T23:36:00.004-07:00

Are any of my kids every going to look like me? In general, most people say that Sophia and Jane look a lot like Jeff, I agree. Except that Sophia is totally built like me. Posture, stance, everything. But Rebekah! I guess she doesn't look like either of us. Well, I don't know, but look at this, she certainly doesn't look like me.

Seriously. If you don't know us, would you every look at this picture and think, "yes, this lady is this baby's mom." No. I doubt it.

Santa 2011

2011-12-18T23:25:00.004-07:00

I've made it a tradition to take the girls to see Santa every year and to get their pictures taken. I have an Uncle and Aunt that always took my cousins every year to downtown Seattle to the window of Nordstrom to get their picture taken with Santa. Then, every year my aunt would put all the pictures out as part of their Christmas decorations. I always loved that. I decided long ago that I was going to do the same thing.

I only have 5 pictures, but it's fun to see them all out together and see how the kids change each year.
I guess I need to scan the actual official photo. They cracked down this year and said that you couldn't take any of your own pictures, but Jeff is so super sneaky and he took this all down at hip level yo. Pretty good, except that Cheeky and yours truly are missing our heads.

r"Santa" was very nice and read each of their letters out loud and asked them questions about their gift wishes. Its helps that we always go on like, November 29th, on a week day, at like 11am. Try and get that much attention from "Santa" at this time of the month.

Decorating the tree

2011-12-18T23:13:00.004-07:00

My favorite kind of tree if a Noble Fir. I like other trees too, but right now, this is my tree of choice. The girls loved to decorate the tree and this year, they were actually helpful. I like to decorate the tree, but I have to say I enjoyed having someone open all the boxes of the Keepsake ornaments then actually hand them up so I didn't have to end up doing, or fixing it later, all by myself.

The girls love that some of the ornaments are theirs. I like seeing all the ornaments that used to be mine. This year my mom gave me some of our old ornaments that used to be her sort of fancy ornaments. She had these cream glass doves that are hollow that you can stick over the lights of the tree and they clip onto the light string. Then the dove glows because it's got the light from the string inside of it. I watched Sophia clipping them onto the tree lights and I could remember myself being the same age doing the same thing. It was very strange to think that that was 25 years ago. But you could have put that image of me from my head next to the image of her, both of us putting the same dove on a different tree 25 years apart from each other. Watching her as she did it, it just felt very familiar in one of those heart warming feel good have a moment while time freezes sort of way.
I think that this year marks a world record for how long it took to get the star straight. I'm very picky, and Jeff is very patient.

The Advent house

2011-12-18T23:04:00.004-07:00

Rebekah looks like a teenager here! Not really, but you know, she looks so old and chill, like, "hey there folks". She does not seem this poised in real life. She is still a toddling falling little 16 month old.

The girls love this little house. I think it's mostly because they each get a Hershey Kiss from it everyday. Even Rebekah, she's one of the kids now, no, I take that back, she is still "the baby". But she does get included in the House this year. Trust me, she wouldn't have it any other way. She would scream at the other two while they ate the candy and to us it would sound like baby screeches, but to her it would sound more like, "what the @@@## do you think you are doing!? Both of you! That is MINE! How dare your eat that in front of me! I will make you pay for this you good for nothing ****^$^%$#%!!!!"

And of course, because she is my baby and I think she is so rotten precious, I think it's cute.
But so are these two little girlies o'mine.

Thanksgiving

2011-12-18T22:52:00.003-07:00

We had Thanksgiving here at our house this year. A first. My family came, minus my sister and her husband. It was her first holiday away from home all married and grown up, so she put on a brave face. I was VERY surprised how smoothly things went, food wise, not like, arguing family stuff. The closest almost bad things was me and the sweet potatoes. I was halfway done when I realized that I had doubled the butter, milk and sugar parts. Luckily I had more sweet potatoes that I could hurry and peel and cook.

We had lots of leftover food, but in my opinion, that is a good thing. I only ate leftovers for 4 days. I'm hardcore, I mean ONLY leftovers, breakfast, lunch and dinner.

"See me suck my fingers, hear me suck my fingers"
She does this smile, so cute and silly at the same time. It looks even better in real life.
These are the men of the group. My big brother, my husband, and my Dad. We realized we didn't have a bottle opener, but they figured it out.

Christmas is coming

2011-12-18T22:44:00.004-07:00

A few weeks back the girls and I went outside on a nice cold day to do a little bit of decorating. As you can clearly see, it looks like it is morning because they are all in their pajamas, but, I'm thinking it wasn't...

The thought it was pretty cool that we put ornaments on our outside trees, that seems to be the thing right now, at least around here. I was really lucky and my mom didn't want these so last summer she gave them all to me when she drove down for a visit. Thanks Mom!

I can't believe how old they look in some of these pictures! What is happening here? This is my baby yo!

2011-12-07T15:06:00.004-07:00

For those of you who have been wondering what my hair looks like.

Plus, I cute Rebekah's hair, and it is bad. She looks like a cross between a medieval monk, and Jim Carey on Dumb and Dumber. I guess you win some you lose some. At least it's hair, it will grown back. I think everything was looking fine until I had a backseat hair cutter step and in and give me his opinion...then everything went downhill and I wished that I could turn back time. But here are a few pics taken pre-haircut.

And some taken during the haircut. Sadly, I can't blame this one on her wiggling too much or something like that.

Her cute little jeggings. Baby clothes are so cute. But then, here is the haircut.

2011-12-01T22:23:00.002-07:00

I was looking at some of the old photos that Jeff had from his phone. I can't believe how much hair Jane had! She looks funny. At the time I thought it was cute, but now...

I've usually had pretty short fingernails, but a few months ago, I thought that I would try growing them out and keeping them all polished. I thought it might make me feel "fancier" or something. I guess I haven't typed much in the last few months because I can totally feel a difference right now. It's weird. I'm like the primary pianist I remember having in my ward as a kid, Sister Walker, she had really long nails, probably fake now thinking back, and I remember every week when she played her nails would tap like crazy on the piano and I always thought it was weird. Or at least, I thought something about it, because I remember it. So, I guess I'm like her, only not exactly.

2011-11-22T10:36:00.002-07:00

I can't believe that my baby is 1! I still call her my baby. Obviously, she liked her cupcakes.
She is a little thing, but just physically, she's got a big personality. She likes to cuddle, follow her sisters around, eat crackers, (off the floor or from the pantry), and sort of suck her thumb. She is our little blue eyed girl.

We love our little Cheekylishious girl.

2011-11-22T10:30:00.002-07:00

Here she is! First day of school. I'm very lucky that she school is in our neighborhood so it's a short little drive or a slightly longer walk to get there. I think Sophia would like to walk more, but carpools, plus a slightly lazy me prevent that from happening as often as she would like.

She is very lucky to have her two best friends in her class with her. She goes to PM kindergarten and is starting to like it more and more. She wasn't too sold on the whole idea at first and gave me lots of moments of worry when it seemed everyone "loved" going to school but her.

I think that she just likes me so much she doesn't want to be anywhere else. Can you blame her?

2011-11-22T10:26:00.001-07:00

This picture was taken right towards the end of summer. Right before Sophia started school. I thought that I would like her going to school more than I do. I remember when she was a newborn, I'd think about how someday she would go so school and it would be great.

But, it's not so. I miss her when she is gone.

2011-05-16T13:32:00.003-06:00

Sophia has lost her first tooth! I can't believe it. She is my first baby, she just got her teeth! And now they are falling out!? She'll loose another one in the next week or so, it's nice and loose too.

A few months ago, at her check-up with the dentist he wiggled her two bottom middle teeth and was surprised that were loose already. He said they would probably fall out sometime this summer and he was right.

Yesterday, she kept complaining that they were bugging her when she tried to bite into anything. But she was also really nervous about the whole teeth coming out thing. I told her my first tooth loss story, making it seem like no big deal, (which was true), but she was still nervous. I kept having her lie down in my lap so that I could look at it and wiggle it, but she didn't want me to pull it out.

Finally, right before bed, she was eating a snack, and it was bothering her so much that she had a, " just do it, pull it out before I change my mind" moment.

She got on the couch and put her head in my lap and I reached it and yanked it out! I was a little bit freaked out, but I really wanted to do it. It was definitely ready, I know I said that I yanked it out, but it wasn't really that hard. Later she asked me why I yelled when I pulled it out, and I don't remember, but I guess I yelled out, "I got it!"

She was not happy at first when it came out, she didn't like the way her mouth felt with the missing tooth. But one she calmed down and remembered that the Tooth Fairy was going to be making a visit that night, she was all good.

2011-05-04T10:12:00.003-06:00

Yesterday I was mopping the floor while Rebekah hung out in the Baby Bjorn on my chest. She is usually pretty happy to just hand out on the floor, but there are times when she would rather be held. As I mopped along, I heard a splatter sound hitting the floor. I looked around her head, and saw that she had done a nice big spit up on the floor. Since I was mopping, I was nice and convenient to just mop up the spit up.
All clean.

2011-04-28T16:46:00.002-06:00

Chubby little thighs, so cute. Sophia is my little helper, and I mean that in a nice way. I can only imagine what it would be like to have someone that is older than 4 and helpful. I bet it's really nice. She sometimes thinks that I like Rebekah more than her, but it's funny, because it's not in this pouting sort or, "you like her more than me", it's more of a inquisitive sort of, "why is she your favorite?"

She always asks me this when I've just gotten Rebekah out of bed and I'm cooing at her while I talk. So yesterday, I said, I don't like her more, I just talk to her differently, would you actually like it if I talked you to you like this, "oooh, Sophia baby, hiiii, how you are, oh, you are such a pretty girl!!" I did it in my goopy cooing baby talk voice. She decided that it was ok if I didn't don't talk to her like that.

2011-04-28T16:25:00.002-06:00

My three beautiful girls. One with blue eyes, one with green, and one with brown.

I think that they are going to end up with my skin, freckles all over. You can check them out for yourself in the last picture.

The girls have really been into She-Ra lately. You read right. Jane runs around with one of her magic wands yelling, "by the power of gray skull!" or something like that. It's really funny to me.

2011-03-16T17:11:00.002-06:00

Yesterday, I was again making all these loud moaning comments about Rebekah starting to get up on her hands an knees. I started lamenting how all my babies were going to be grown up now...I wouldn't have a baby anymore...you are all growing up right before my eyes...stuff like that.

Sophia said that Rebekah was still a baby, but not her and Jane. "We are almost in college."

This is funny because she was very serious when she said it.

2011-03-14T10:03:00.002-06:00

This morning, Rebekah was getting up on her hands and knees and rocking back and forth! I couldn't believe it. Jeff said that he saw her do it a couple of times this weekend, but I hadn't really seen it yet. I was excited and bummed at the same time because I have really enjoyed her and I don't want her to grow up. I started singing, "Oh darling don't you ever grow up", (Taylor Swift, Speak Now, track 8), to her.

Sophie was at the kitchen table eating some bacon, (more on that in a minute), and she said, "I want her to grow up."

"Oh, so that you can play with her?"

"Yeah, Jane doesn't really listen to me anymore, that's why I've been yelling at her lately."

I thought it was funny because obviously she thinks that Rebekah is going to be a better disciple than Jane is.

Oh to the bacon.

A few minutes earlier as Sophia was enjoying her bacon she said, "hmmm. Pigs are really good."

That statement was followed by some guilt on her part because then she started saying how she was sad that we had to kill the pigs though, because pigs are nice. I tried to have a Mother/Daughter moment and tell her that Heavenly Father put come animals on the earth for us to be able to eat, Circle of Life, yadda yadda, but she interrupted me before I could really have my moment. She had a great idea. She said that she thinks we should only kill and eat mean animals, like Cheetahs, or mean horses. (What?)

I think I will stick with my bacon and sausage.

2011-02-15T12:06:00.003-07:00

I can't believe that Jane is three. Today all the girls went on a walk outside, the two older girls both riding bikes, and Rebekah in the stroller, and I thought. Wow, here I am out with my three kids. Two of which can ride bikes all by themselves. Weird.

She asked for a My Little Pony themed party. I made her cake and got the two Ponies to put on the top of it. She liked that because then she got to keep them. You should have heard Sophia use all her skills of persuasion to try and talk Jane out of keeping the one with the wings. She is pretty good, so I had to step in and make sure that Jane got to keep both of her ponies.

Jane really wanted an umbrella for her birthday. You can't see it, but it's really cute because it looks like a little duck. Sophia got an umbrella for her birthday last year and ever since then Jane has had some umbrella envy. But not anymore.

This was Jane's first party with friends and not just family. She was VERY excited. That's what she kept saying all morning, "I'm SO EXCITED!" She kept on running around everywhere going 100mph with her movement and her talking. Very cute.

2011-02-09T09:43:00.002-07:00

On the outside, Jane looks like your regular adorable 3 year old. but, underneath she has a secret. Her love of little boy underwear. She has mostly little boy briefs that she picked out herself. Her favorites would be Spiderman and Cars.

The first time she wanted me to buy them I refused. But then I thought, why not, what the heck. Sure. So I bought them. Now I think they are super cute on her and I'll let her have boy underwear for as long as she would like. Plus, who knows. It may be the only time I ever have a child who wears little boy briefs.

2011-02-07T13:47:00.002-07:00

My little Cheeky wouldn't stop grabbing the blender and sucking on it this morning. I decided that it was more cute than gross, (you had to be there), so I kept on letting her do it.

She knew that I had just made a smoothie in there a few minutes earlier and she was trying to tell me that she wanted some.

2011-02-02T14:08:00.001-07:00

Yesterday Jane was having some issues with her poop. For some reason it was really soft and she ended up having a bit of an accident. That totally grossed me out. I've been really lucky with both girls that each of them has only had a couple of accidents that involve poop. I ended up just throwing her underwear away rather than clean it because I really didn't want to have to clean it.

She wasn't really done yet, so I had her go and sit on the toilet to finish and I told her to give me a holler when she was finished because it looked like she would need some help in the wiping department with this one. A few minutes later Sophia came running from the bathroom yelling,
"Jane has poop on her hands! Jane has poop on her hands!"

I thought, or said, probably said, "you've got to be kidding me!"

I went into the bathroom and sure enough, she did have some poop on her hands because she had decided to go ahead and try and wipe herself instead of calling for me.

I was really frustrated and I said to her, "Jane, do you have poop on her hands?"

"I did, but I washed it off on my shirt."

Which, she had been attempting to do. Just use her shirt as a hand towel, which doesn't make sense on so many levels. A shirt as a hand towel, or even having a hand towel for poop. Doesn't make sense. But I have to remind myself that she has a three year old brain.

2011-01-18T14:26:00.003-07:00

We had a good Christmas. It is getting even more fun because the girls are getting older and we really get to play Santa. I'm living up this whole Santa thing because I figure they only really buy into it until they are 7 or 8 and then they stop "believing".

This was the year of the Unicorn here at our house. We usually get the girls really similar things, or the same things. Since they are so close in age and also the same sex, for now, it's just easier to get them the same things, prevents too many fights.

We built gingerbread houses this year on Christmas Eve. Then "Santa" was able to snack on them later. I made the frosting WAY too runny, but I ran out of sugar, so that was that. We could hardly get a house to stand up by itself.

2011-01-18T13:33:00.002-07:00

Today Jane is 3! Already? Or is it "finally!" Depends on the day. Man, she sure did have a lot of hair. I remember thinking that it was cute, but now I think it looks kind of funny. Baby with a wig comes to mind.

Jane is supposed to be taking a nap right now since she is going to be up late because we are going out to dinner, but I can hear her up there talking and giggling. She keeps opening up her door and saying goofy things, then shutting her door.

Let's see...right now, Jane is really into her two Chipmunks, Chip and Dale. She got them while she was at Disneyland. She prefers Chip over Dale, Chip is like the "handsome" one of the two. She is really good at night when we read scriptures. It's funny to hear her repeat the lines after I say them because there are all these words and phrases coming out of her mouth that toddlers don't usually say.

I'm trying to put a stop to all the "potty talk" that she says. Seriously, it's always pee this, poop that. Bum Bum here, a private part there...drives me crazy.

She is a really nice little and big sister. She is the peacemaker out of the two oldest. She is nice about letting her older, maybe a tad big more demanding, older sister, have the right of way most of the time.

She loves yogurt drinks and would drink a whole 6 pack a day if I would let her.
She also really loves cereal, just like her dad, but she doesn't like to drink milk, just like her mom.

She had a My Little Pony birthday party and she kept saying, "I'm so excited!"

We love you Jane Girl.

2011-01-13T14:11:00.003-07:00

For family prayer the other night, it was supposed to be Jane's turn to pray, but she insisted that Chip and Dale each take a turn with saying the prayer before she did. Kind of sacrilegious? Probably.

2011-01-13T14:04:00.002-07:00

Yesterday Sophia casually told me about a boy at school that had saved her from another boy that was chasing her. She said that the M. was pretending to be a mean dog and had her backed into a corner, but then T. also pretended to be a mean dog and chased M. away.

When she said it, I didn't pay much attention, she always has little stories to tell me. But then, a few minutes later, she talked about it again, and she had this little something in her voice and in her smile.

Oh boy, a crush! Already?! I'm guess my life is downhill from here. Once I caught on to the whole situation, I engaged her more and said things like, "oh, wow, that sure was nice of him." "Yikes, that was brave!" You know, stuff that gets 4 year old's excited. She had this little cute grin on her face the whole time.

Then I suggested that we go upstairs and look at her class picture and she could show me who he was. She lit up even more and we ran upstairs. I got her picture down and she pointed T. out for me and when she did, she had this dreamy look on her face! (What the what?)

I told her I thought he looked nice, that he had a great smile. Then she said, "He is the most handsome, isn't he?"

Oh boy, really? I seriously felt like a mom. But in a good way. It made me hope that 10 years from now she will still want to have conversations like this with me.

2010-12-18T10:35:00.004-07:00

Here are a few worldly images from around the house to get everyone even more into the the Christmas spirit.

Merry Christmas everyone.

2010-12-18T10:26:00.003-07:00

We have a drool monster in home. We haven't really had one before, but I'm well acquainted with what it is like to live with one having grown up with one. My little sister drooled a lot and my dad used to hold her up in the air and chase us around the house letting her drool all over us.
That's a good idea. I'll have to start threatening the girls.

Cute cute cute cute drool monster.

2010-12-13T18:42:00.001-07:00

We wanted to wish everyone a late happy Thanksgiving by showcasing two very fancy pieces of turkey art.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

2010-12-08T10:15:00.011-07:00

Here we are, off to Disneyland. We have had this trip with my parents planned for at least 10 months, maybe closer to a year. I mentioned it to the girls, oh, I'd say, back in February, and every since then, they have been talking about it.

I bet that Disneyland, Princesses, something of that nature, made an appearance in her prayers at least 5 times a week over the last 9 months. They were very excited, as was I. I love Disneyland. I would go there every year if I could. We were there for 5 days and I never got sick of it.

When I would tell people we were going for 5 days they would always say, "Really, 5 days? Are you doing anything else while you are in California?"

NOPE.

It was nice actually, because we didn't feel rushed to run around and do everything and keep the kids up til midnight in the process.
The weather was great. Around mid 60's during the day, and then at night it would drop abit so you'd put on a sweatshirt and call it good. You would not believe how many ladies I saw wearing Ugg boots. It was ridiculous. People, 65 degrees does not mean that you need to wear wool boots.

They decorate everything all nice and pretty for Christmas. Some of the rides are completely transformed, like the Haunted Mansion is completely done over to to be like the Nightmare Before Christmas.

The girls are huge fans of the new Tinkerbell movies that have come out in the last few years. In fact, I have it on good authority that Santa is going the bring them the third installment in the Tinkerbell movies.

This is Tinkerbell's friend, the light fairy.

I wish I had a picture of Jane's face when she came around the corner and saw Tinkerbell. Her face lit up and she was mesmerized. It was like Tinkerbell had a tracker beam on her that was connected to Jane.

Ariel had the same affect on Jane as Tinkerbell did. Like silent awe and reverence, but without any reservations. Sophia was more giddy and overjoyed with her reactions.

I think that if you asked the girls which ride was their favorite, they would say the Winnie The Pooh ride. We don't even have a Winnie the Pooh movie, they just really liked the ride.

Jane really really wanted to see Chip and Dale. I was so glad that we found them and even more happy that the line to see them was only about 4 or 5 minutes long. On the last day we let the girls each pick out a stuffed animal, and Jane picked out a Chip and Dale that came together.

I remember Disneyland having these huge pickles even when I was a kid. Sophia takes after me and loves a good dill pickle.

These are my parents, it was so great to have them on the trip. They left the day before we did and that whole day the girls kept saying, "ohhh, I miss Grandma and Grandpa."

This humming bird was just flying around a few feet away from us.

Jane and my dad were trying out their 3-D glasses while waiting the see the movie,"It's Tough To Be A Bug".
Also, they were sitting under a huge pile of dung.

As you can see, more reverence and awe from a devoted follower. It really was cute.

We got Sophia this Sleeping Beauty wig while we were there. A little bit freaky, and cute at the same time.

On Saturday we spent more time doing shows or playing on Tom Sawyers Island because the lines were massive. Luckily, we had already gone on all the rides numerous times by then so it didn't really matter. During the week, I think the longest we waited was about 15 minutes, maybe 20 sometimes. Most of the time we only waited around 10 minutes or less for a ride. It was a great time to go.

Rolling Over Part Deux

2010-11-29T21:18:00.002-07:00

Rebekah just rolled over from her back to her stomach. From her back to the left to be exact. I'm sitting here with the laptop ready to check my email, and Rebekah is on the ground, on a blanket, we are at a hotel with hotel carpet, and bam! or more like a a blip! there she went. From her back to her stomach. Oh, but now she is mad that she is on her stomach. Well baby girl. You got yourself there so go a head and problem solve.

Here Comes Santa Claus

2010-11-20T21:10:00.005-07:00

Today we went to the mall to have the girls get a picture taken with Santa. My oh my was it already busy or what! It hasn't even been Thanksgiving yet! I thought we might escape some serious line-age by going today, but I was wrong. It was fun though. I've had the girls get their picture taken every year, then I frame them and put them out as part of my Xmas decorations. It's fun to see how they have changed over the year.

Don't worry, (I know, you were worried, right?) the picture that we got and framed is much better than this one. In this picture Santa looks like he has been hitting the eggnog a bit too hard.

They told Santa what they wanted. Sophia would like some of The Littlest Pet Shop Toys, and Jane asked for a toy race car, and, wait for it....a flashlight. Every kids dream toy. (??)

Happy Birthday Jeff!

2010-11-20T20:40:00.004-07:00

My 2 little "helpers". More like taste testers even when they aren't supposed to be testing. I swear, I have this fear that one day one of them is going to be so bent on trying the batter that they are going to stick their hand in the Kitchen Aid while it is running.

He requested Cake Batter ice cream which is a new fav of his. I am a bit smug about this because years ago, I used to get cake batter ice cream from Coldstone all the time and he always scoffed at me saying that it was gross. But now, fast forward 5 years and bam! It is all that he wants.

Unfortunately for all of us after going to 3 different stores all I could find was low fat cake batter ice cream.

But don't feel to bad for our thighs because they more than made up for it with this frosting that has a whopping 4 sticks of butter! Yum!

2010-11-20T20:10:00.005-07:00

I'm a big fan of specialty toy stores. I love Toys R Us too, but I tend to buy most of my toys and the specialty shops, I think they have WAY cooler toys.

Here we have the Children's Store, which I love. They have this cat that is always at the store and her name is Willow. Last week they had a Birthday party for the cat complete with all the appropriate festivities such as face painting, sparkle tattoos, clowns that make balloon shapes, and cupcakes.

The kids loved it.

We are going through a big Hello Kitty stage here at our house, oh, and unicorns. I think this Christmas will be remembered as

"The year of the Unicorn"

In case you were wondering, I know you were, that is a unicorn in her hand.

We thought that this was an...interesting toy.

2010-11-19T12:39:00.002-07:00

I just carried Jane upstairs for her nap. I asked her if I could carry her because I don't always carry her now since she is almost three. I said, "oh, I like to carry you, then I can pretend that you are my baby. But you aren't really my baby anymore are you. Are you starting to be a big girl?"

Then Jane said, "No, I'm starting to be...a Mommy!"

Well, not quite, but it was cute. I'm not quite ready to be a Grandma yet. Actually. I take that back. Maybe today I am ready. That would mean that I wouldn't have this ridiculously messy house to clean, 4 other peoples laundry and dishes to wash, and I would probably not be sitting here at the computer, close to 1pm, still in my pajamas. But I guess I would miss out on a lot of other stuff then that I probably don't want to miss out on.

Rebekah Milestone

2010-11-14T18:01:00.002-07:00

Just now, Rebekah rolled from her tummy to her back, all by herself. Rolling from back to her tummy is harder, so we'll have to wait a while for that one.
Yea Rebekah!

2010-11-10T17:50:00.002-07:00

Dinner of champions tonight. Macaroni, (Kraft of course, only the best for my girls), and purple Crystal Light.

Holy Moly, I did not realize just how close to the edge of the table that purple, very likely to stain, drink was.

Only two and a half months old and already she is playing with dolls. Not really.

Something about my kids and my camera makes them all have little devil eyes.
Actually, it's probably just my kids.

Big smiles.

Happy Birthday To Me

2010-11-05T11:13:00.004-06:00

Yesterday I turned 29. So begins the last year in my twenties. Sad. I was thinking, I should come up with this great list of things that I will do this year as a sort of commencement of the end of a decade. High up there would be getting back into shape after this last baby. I hear it only gets harder every year.

To start that off I had a huge piece of ice cream cake last night from Coldstone. I've been wanting to get a cake there for years, but never have until last night. I will definitely be getting another one next year. When I was trying to decide which one I wanted to order myself, it was really hard to choose because they all looked so great in the pictures on their website, but I went with red velvet cake, cake batter ice cream with sprinkles mixed in and vanilla frosting. I usually love chocolate, but I felt like something different.

It was a hit, the kids, and even Jeff who usually turns his nose up at Coldstone cake batter ice cream, (he prefers Tillamook cake batter ice cream), gave it a big thumbs up. I'm going to gets Jeff's birthday cake from there in a few weeks.

Even though I am rocking an unflattering post baby double chin in this photo, I included it because Jane's eyes are pretty awesome looking.

Rebekah's Blessing Day. Or, Happy Halloween.

2010-10-31T16:49:00.005-06:00

Today Jeff blessed Rebekah. It was a beautiful blessing.

My parents and Jeff's parents were both their and our dads both stood in the circle with Jeff. The girls were excited that Rebekah finally got to wear her white dress and get blessed. The older two girls also had new "Omi skirts" to wear to church today.

0
When when we got to sacrament meeting and took Rebekah out of her carseat, we discovered that on the way to church she had pooped and it had managed to leak out and leave a nice yellow poop stain on the back of her dress. We had a pretty white blanket that I had been saving for today and luckily Jeff was able to use that to cover the spot when he carried her up to the front of the church.

I took a billion pictures. Here are some of my favorites.

Truck or Treat

2010-10-31T16:22:00.004-06:00

This year for Halloween Sophia was a butterfly and Jane was a spider. I was a little bit worried that Jane was going to be scared of her costume, but luckily I really sold it to her.

Sophia's big thing with her costume was the wings. She really really wanted the wings.

We went to our Ward Trunk or Treat last night. The kids had lots of fun. We had it in a neighborhood instead of at the church. A few of the members of our ward live in a small subdivision that only has about 10 houses built in it. Most of the people are members, so they got permission from those people that weren't. It was great.

They had games, lots of food, and a huge playground in their backyard, (and I mean huge).

My parents plus Jeff's parents were there because we blessed Rebekah in church today. It was nice to have them with us for the party. The kids liked to be able to walk around with them.

See, I wasn't kidding. Huge.

2010-10-25T16:24:00.002-06:00

We need new Playdoh. It's all mixed up and gross.

We made these little spiders for Halloween. They turned out pretty cute. All they are is black pipe cleaners wound together. We put them around the house in different places to make it seem more festive.

2010-10-22T20:19:00.002-06:00

I can't believe that she is old enough to be have a school photo. It is so crazy to me. I think that she looks really really cute. Proud Mom.

2010-10-22T10:52:00.003-06:00

This never happens in our family. Kids sleeping in the car! Seriously. I had to take a picture to prove that it ever even happened.

Daddy daughter quality time.

2010-10-19T17:13:00.002-06:00

Hey, my eyes match my headband! Thanks Aunt Mandy for my cute outfit.

Oh, what! You hadn't heard that I was potty trained a few weeks ago?

2010-10-18T17:56:00.004-06:00

Now that it is actually feeling like Fall around here, well, sort of feeling like fall. It's still getting up into the 70'sishy, but the leaves are all changing color and falling off the trees. Or, I guess you could call it Autumn as Sophia's teachers did. Autumn, who calls it Autumn? Now it is time to finally bust out the new wardrobe. I probably have it pretty easy because I have all girls. I hear they are much easier to dress than boys are. I wouldn't know. I sure do love shopping for my girls.

Rebekah is starting to show a little personality now. The first time that she smiled she 4 weeks and 2 days old. I teared up a bit because it made me so happy to know that she was happy. Actually feeling joy. It made me feel good to know that she was feeling good and I could see it on her face.

2010-10-18T13:46:00.004-06:00

This is what we wish we doing more of around here. Man, why is she so tired, it's not like she does anything but live a life of leisure. Oh, life of leisure, I get it, that's why she is sleeping.
Also, she is dropping her nap, but it's a real gray area. If she has a nap, she can't seem to fall asleep until 9pm, (waaaay too late for her to be showing her face downstairs around me), or if she doesn't have one, then this seems to happen.

But, on the other hand, she is really cute. Especially when she puts on this little number. Seriously, so cute.

Sophia really loves going to Preschool, oh, sorry, if she heard me say that out loud, she would correct me. School. Just School. Not Preschool. I believe they were talking about the letter "A" here. Hence the ant antennas.

Rebekah, (oh for real, I just typed out her name "Rebecca"!!) here is having her first bath, and I somehow managed to get a Internet friendly photo without Jeff even trying to play the over protective dad.

We call her "Rebekah Cheeks", or just "Cheeks" for short. Can you guess why?

This is their favorite place to sit whenever we make anything that uses the mixer. Today, it was chocolate chips cookies. Actually, that's pretty much always what it is. Maybe throw some Banana Bread in their every once in a while. But then again, I always put chocolate chips in my banana bread too.

A quite moment captured in her carseat...a rarity. I have kids that scream constantly when they are in their carseats. At least she will eventually fall asleep. Sophia never even did that. (Love you!)

Sophia likes to lie next to Rebekah on the floor. She also likes to give her a little too much love if you ask me. I've tried to narrow my "Hey, leave her alone!" and my "girls, you are too close/rough!" to when I can tell it's bothering Rebekah and not just me.

All in all adding the third hasn't been traumatic. traumaticl in that you think that you are going to die!!!!!! sort of way. The first 3 weeks or so were a bit sketchy as far as my mood and energy go, but I was also really really lucky to have help from family. I keep waiting for the shiz to hit the fan but so far so decent. For me just having A kid in general was a HUGE big shocker. That was such a big adjustment for me that adding anything after that hasn't been any more of a shocker than having the first one was. You know, how people say that having two was SOOO much harder than having one, etc etc.

After I got over the one, a second and third weren't too much. I still have to get up early, yuck. I still have to feed someone else, change someones diaper, listen to some whining, clean up someones toys, you get the picture. Plus, I think that Sophia has a "more challenging personality" than the other two, so that makes any addition seem a bit easier.

Of course, those would be all the negatives to having the third, of course there are positive moments, but that's never what people ask about. It's always, "oh, adding the third was the hardest ever!" Or, "how are you doing, are you surving?" Or, my favorite, "if you can do 3 then you might as well do 6 or 8." (no thank you, it's not like having 3 is easy breezy or anything.)

I think that it helps that the two older girls are good friends and generally play well together. I'm really lucky like that.

Rebekah

2010-08-24T21:43:00.006-06:00

Jeff here. We had our baby Friday evening at about 6:00. She was 9 lbs. 3 oz. and we named her Rebekah. Sarah and she are healthy and resting a lot.

We were glad to see them interacting well together before the baby came--we had wondered how adding a third child to the mix would change things.

The calm before the storm. As you can see here, Sarah is receiving 20 mL/hr Pitocin, which means this picture was taken later on in the day. We had an appointment to get induced at 7am, and they started the drip at 1 mL/hr, increasing by about 2 mL/hr every half hour.

Rebekah actually has the least amount of hair of our three girls. (Compare below.)

Sophia

Jane

2010-08-01T11:14:00.002-06:00

Lately, Jane has been getting constipated. Well, I don't know if I would exactly call it constipated, but she is sometimes has a harder time going. She gets really focused and all red in the face and frustrated. Then she has this really cute complaining whiny voice and she say, "uh, I have a little bum."
Of course, I'm then very sympathetic to her plight and kind of repeat it back to her in my oh so I feel sorry for you voice, "oh, you have a little bum?" Then she just says, (again with her little cute voice, "Yeah."

I need to be better at writing down the funny things they say to each other. Oh, this morning, Sophia was running around the corner to go up the stairs and I guess she hit her knee or something on the corner of where the banister starts. So then she said to Jeff, "We need to get a new house so that that doesn't happen again."

The girls usually have a bit a fight at the dinner table about who gets to say the pray, so we usually end up having two prayers. But one night, I said that Sophia could say the prayer and Jane got all bummed and upset, so Sophia, in an effort to appease her said, "it's ok Jane girl, you can say the closing prayer." I liked that one.

2010-01-31T20:12:00.002-07:00

Lately, Sophia like to go up to Jane's room when she hears that she is awake from her nap. Then she climbs into the crib with her and they have some sister time.
Cute.

Jane likes her Tinkerbell wings she got for Christmas.

Sometimes she shares.

2010-01-28T11:32:00.004-07:00

We celebrated Jane's 2nd birthday last week. She loved having a special day for herself. Lucky for Sophia, Jane is good at sharing her new presents because someone, (Sophia), had a hard time not getting presents.

We made an ice cream pie had pizza and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

I was a little under the weather and I didn't get her presents wrapped. But, she seemed to enjoy the whole, "close your eyes and reach into the bag!"

Jane, (and Sophia), love her little make-up compact.

Sophia says, "hey, I can see my nose!"

Happy Halloween

2009-11-03T15:01:00.002-07:00

The girls loved Halloween. We had Chad, Elisa, and Eden here with us to celebrate. That made it extra special fun. The girls love their little cousin.
Silly me didn't take any pictures of all of them together, but Elisa did, (with her way nicer camera), so after she gets her pictures uploaded, I'll see if I can borrow a few of all three little girlies together.

Sophia was a peacock, Jane was a flower, and Eden was a ladybug. All three of them out together was to die for cute.

We also did something productive and went and got all the kids H1N1 vaccines. My we walked right on in, no lines at all! We were happy, but the kids, not so much.

Cookie Party

2009-10-28T13:12:00.005-06:00

I love sugar cookies with butter cream frosting.

Sophia's two little friends Savannah and Claire, plus siblings, came over this morning to decorate Halloween cookies.
They wore their costumes so we could take some pictures, but then we stripped them down for the cookie part so that they wouldn't get frosting all over.

Sophia isn't actually wearing her costume, but when her friends got here and they were all princesses, well, she wanted to wear a princess dress too.

She is actually a peacock, (sounds funny, but it's really cute), but I'll get pictures of her in that on actual Halloween.

Pumpkin carving with power tools

2009-10-19T20:20:00.004-06:00

Leave it up to Dad to turn pumpkin carving into an excuse to use his power tools.

The girls were really excited to carve, they were loving watching Daddy use his jigsaw.

Sophia was NOT liking the smell of the pumpkin once it was cut open.
She didn't help clean them out.

Jane is drunk with fun.

I'm so yellow next to Jane, it's the Asian part of me.

They were really loving to watch Dad use the jigsaw the second time.
Lots of screaming.

Sophia, who made it very clear earlier that she was not interested in trying a toasted pumpkin seed, just commented on how good they were smelling as they baked in the oven.

Jeff said, "I thought you didn't want any, do you want to try some now."

After a moment of thought, she said, "I meant that they smell good for you."

Little Sickies

2009-10-19T20:15:00.002-06:00

Fevers fevers. Little lethargic sickies.

We've been eating a lot of Popsicle and watching a lot of tv in over the last few days.

Ahh the cold and flu season.

Jazzy Bug

2009-10-19T20:11:00.002-06:00

Sophia is now taking "dance classes". I use that phrase very loosely. She really loves it. It's with The Little Gym.

She's a Jazzy Bug. They do a ballet, tap, and tumbling/gym activities.

Tall Monster

2009-10-18T15:32:00.003-06:00

The other day I found a tall monster, giving birth to Jane.

Linder Farms

2009-10-18T15:14:00.006-06:00

Last Monday, the girls and I took a little trip to Linder Farms for some fall festivities. It's only about 10 minutes from our house, but, because I wasn't paying attention when I looked up the directions, we went the wrong direction and took a 45 minute detour. Lucky for me the girls were very patient.

They loved looking at the little petting zoo.

Both of them took a short pony ride.

They attempted to do the smaller of the mazes, (we skipped the huge corn maze), but they mostly just ran around having fun until they got tired, then they came over to me and I lifted them out over the short little straw wall.

Saturday

2009-10-18T14:59:00.005-06:00

Yesterday we made rainbows on the back porch using chalk.

It makes for messy hands, and clothes.

Daddy mowed the lawn for what he is hoping is the last time until spring.

Sophia helped Mom fold the towels. She did all the wash cloths by herself and put them in a neat pile. I was thrilled.

Daddy pulled out all of the dying tomato plants and put them in the back of the van for a trip to the dump.

Sophia Says

2009-10-08T10:11:00.003-06:00

Yesterday Sophia was in the bathroom with Jeff while he was, ahem, taking care of business. Sadly, the days of her being able to hang out in the bathroom with Daddy are numbered.

She is starting to notice things are different. This was obvious when she said to him, "Your private parts look like a stick."

I thought it was funny.

2009-10-04T17:17:00.001-06:00

Today while we were watching conference, we kept pointing out President Monson to Sophia and repeating his name to her in hopes that she would remember who he is. At one point, Jeff pointed to the tv and asked Sophia, "who is that?"

Her response?

President Omonson.

Nash Cousins

2009-10-03T16:27:00.006-06:00

In August the girls and I took a trip to Washington where we stayed with my parents. My brother's wife, Natalie, and their two kids, David and Daniel were also there. The kids got to spend lots of time reconnecting after having not seen each other for a whole year.

We missed Jeff, (we were gone for almost 3 weeks), but from what I can tell, while we were reconnecting with cousins, Jeff did found time much needed time in the evening, after a hard day at work, to reconnect to his friend the Wii.,

Change of Plans...4th of July !

2009-10-03T13:21:00.007-06:00

I've decided to have a change of plans. (Only post number two, but I might have to give up on the post titles.) I'm going to just do a handful of smaller posts. That way someday when I'm try to go back and find things, hopefully it will be easier.

Over the 4th of July we went to Idaho Falls to stay with the Parry family. It was great because everyone was there. Sophia and Jane got to spend some time with their cousins, which they love.

Speaking of cousins, last night, Sophia was talking about Christmas, Halloween, and the Easter Bunny, (why not), but then she stopped for a moment and said, "Oh, but Kindin is better than Christmas and Halloween, I love her."

SO CUTE.

What else is cute? Jane and Jack. Has a cute ring to it.

Hopefully the girls don't inherit my ability to get seasick while sitting in a boat the is practically docked. For real. The first year we went to Lake Powell after I married Jeff, I had to get off the docked house boat and sit on the beach in a lawn chair because I felt sick.
Jane REALLY loves her Grandpa. She is all about the male figures. We'll have to keep our eye on this girls as she gets older. Jane got her hair cut by her Aunt Elisa. Jane had this really bad orphan hair that I desperately wanted fixed. I decided that a pixie type cut was the best way to go. Elisa actually only cuts Chads hair, but we figured that a boy hair cut on a girl is basically a pixie. I thought it turned out really well.
Jane loved to jump on the tramp
Tea Party!
Here are Kindin and Sophia's glamor shots.

Billions of Pictures

2009-10-03T12:44:00.012-06:00

First of all, everyone notice that I'm putting titles on my posts again. Honestly, I'm not a huge fan of titles with blog posts. I don't exactly know why, maybe I think that they are usually something repetitive, like a line taken from the first or second sentence of the actual post.

Now that we have gotten that out of the way, here are my billions of pictures, (also the title of my post), taken from April til now. Yes, it has been that long since I last downloaded photos from my camera.

This is what my house looked like when our Bishopric from our new ward showed up unannounced at our house. If you are wondering what I looked like, all you mothers out there, just imagine that you've had one of those days where you didn't get dressed

Notice the fast food carnage that is the top of my kitchen table. I looked even worse than my house did. Maybe this night explains why, six months later, I still don't have a calling.

Baby Jane girl

Sophia's new favorite place to sleep. Seriously. We can move her back into her bed 10 times, and for some reason, she usually ends up out there.

Dad and his little girls.

Now we have arrived at Sophia's 3rd Birthday. It was the first time that we did a part with friends. She had 3 little friends come over and they played in a big blow up pool in the backyard while the rest of us ate lot's of food inside.

She loved, loves, this shirt. She wore it all the time. Actually, I think that she might have just asked me about it yesterday.
She really liked the carrots and the dip from the veggie tray. It was WAY too many veggies for our little party, but I think I made taco's later that week and used all those peppers.

I'm Back

2009-09-30T21:14:00.002-06:00

I've decided to blog again. I took a little long break. But, this morning I was making grocery list of the things I needed to get this week, and I wanted to make White Chicken Chili, but I needed to list of ingredients. I knew that I had posted that recipe on my blog last fall, so I came and looked it up. Then I started to look at some of my other older posts and I LOVED looking at the pictures of my kids that I had posted a year ago. So, I'm going to give it another try. Hopefully there are some relatives out there that also want to look at pictures of my kids and hear about what we are doing. But if not, at least there is something for me to look at later. However, first I need to get all the pictures off of my camera. My memory card is full, so, when I finally get Jeff to hook up our new computer, (this one is too ghetto for me to put pictures on), then I will put up a zillion with all the stuff we have done this summer.

2009-08-01T22:14:00.002-06:00

Today John and Jeff spent ALL day setting up our new playground. I'm SO excited. The girls are going to LOVE it. The temp was around 100 degrees today, so they were sweating like crazy. Neither Jeff nor I thought about putting sunscreen on Jeff until it was way too late. Hopefully he won't be too miserable over the next few days.

Right now we have Renee, John, Jordyn, her friend Dusty, and my sister Bethany all staying with us. Until yesterday we had Chad, Elisa, and Eden with us also. Jordyn has a tennis tournament here this weekend, so that's why they are here. Chad and Elisa flew out from here to Seattle yesterday. The kids and I are going up to Washington for a few weeks and my sister is going to drive with us, so that's why she is here.

We went to Bear Lake last week with the Parry's. The kids had a blast going swimming and playing in the sand. They really like to be with their little cousin Eden. It's fun for me to see how they can actually be really nice with her. I think that because Sophia is so close in age to Jane, she was and is, not always very nurturing with her. (But they are really great friends.) It's just different to see her with a baby. Different in a good way.

There is a really good beach at the lake that has a bunch of sand. I brought some sand toys with us and they girls spent some time each day down there playing. The water was really nice too. The incline of the ground once you get into the water is really gradual, so you can go out really far and the water isn't very deep. I really liked it. Sophia is really good about "swimming" around with her life jacket on, so she would go out with me and doggy paddle around. Both of the girls took a spin on the jet skis with Jeff. I think that Jane actually like it better than Sophia did. She seems like she might be a little braver than Sophia is.

2009-07-21T17:58:00.002-06:00

Today we had some friends come over so that we could all bake cookies and play. We have a slip in slide that we put out in the backyard for the kids to play on. The kids all stayed inside while we got the cookie dough made, only then did they go outside. I swear, I don't think that any of the kids even cared about the cookies because all they wanted was the dough. There were three of us mom's and then 7 kids. It was a bit of a mad house, but it was really fun. I'm really enjoying my new ward and getting to know other girls and their families.

Everyone has left now, but Sophia and Jane are still running around outside. Jane LOVES to be naked, but I don't really indulge her too often because she doesn't have any idea that she can't just pee whenever she wants to. So, whenever we are going to be do any water activity in the backyard, like today, I don't even bother putting a swimming suit on her, or a diaper for the matter. I just let her run around butt naked. She loves it. When I try and get her clothes back on her later, (I think she's been naked for a few hours now), she is going to put up a huge fight.

2009-07-19T16:14:00.003-06:00

I think that the girls and I are going to sprout fins and tail and grow some gills because we have been swimming so much lately. Yesterday we went to the pool from 3pm until just after 6pm. I was a little bit worried that Jane might be getting sunburned. She doesn't have quite the skin tone that Sophia and I do.
Sophia loves going to the pool. She wears a life jacket and then she just "swims" all around the pool by herself. She won't put her face in the water yet, but next summer she'll have to because that's when I'm going to put her in swim lessons. We got some noodles yesterday and she really liked to have that. She doesn't really need it to float around the pool, but she was still really happy to have it.

I got Jane a life-vest yesterday. Until then, I'd just been holding her, but she was getting really restless so I thought I'd give the life jacket a try. Since it's late in the summer the selections was sort of lame, but so I had to get this new thing that is sort of a mix of water wings and a life vest. But it's Coast Guard approved or whatever. She did really well. She would float around and kick
her legs. I still stayed right by her in case she tipped back or something, but she really liked it.

Yesterday we went to a little block party pot-luck. Our neighborhood is really large, so this just included the house in a smaller area surrounding our house. There were about 10 families or so there. It was actually really nice because now I know the names of all the people in the houses nearby. Also, Sophia met some other girls her age. In fact, the only other kids in the area are 3 other girls that are ages three, two, and almost two, so it's pretty perfect for my two girls.

2009-07-16T14:56:00.004-06:00

Just now as Sophia was peeing, she said to me, "I'm peeing...it's like milk from cows." Not exactly my dear.

2009-07-15T20:24:00.002-06:00

Jane is not really a big talker yet, not when it comes to actually words at least. She is constantly jabbering on and on and on and I love to hear it. She is so cute. But she does say a few things.

All done, (ah duh)
Grandpa, (ba ba)
Hi
Bye
Mama
Dada
Cheese, (eeze)
Please, (eeze)
Yes
No
Ball, (ba)

We have this little photo album that has a few pictures of family members in it. One of the pictures is of John, one of her grandpa's, sitting on his motorcycle. Just a few days ago, I showed her the picture and said, "Grandpa". She definitely recognized him, (she is a grandpa's girl big time), and started pointing at the picture and saying "ba ba, ba ba, ba ba." It was really cute.

Sophia is talking more and more like an regular person, but she still says a few words in a cute little girl way. She says exercise like ekersize. Speaking of the motorcycle picture, that picture was originally given to her when she was a little older than Jane because she loved Grandpa's motorcycle and she used to say mocalee. We thought that was pretty funny. This isn't really a funny pronunciation or anything, but Sophia calls us "honey" all the time. "Oh, honey, you can't do it that way," or, "honey, it's not time for that right now." Honey this, honey that. It's because we call her honey all the time. It's really cute. She's been doing it for a while, and I hope she doesn't stop beucase there is something really nice about your little toddler saying, "oh honey" to you and giving her head a little shake.

2009-07-13T09:55:00.002-06:00

We had a really fun fourth of July week. We were really lucky to have David and Mandy plus their two kids Kindin and Jack come up and visit us for a few days, then we all made a caravan and drove over to Idaho Falls to stay with Jeff's family for the week. His brother Chad, his wife Elisa and their and my niece Eden flew in from Switzerland the day that we all got there. We are really exited to have them back in the States now. They are going to be living in Salt Lake which is just a 4 1/2 hour drive so we will be able to see them much more now.

Sophia really really likes to play with her cousin Kindin. They are only about 3 months apart. Jane had a lot of fun following the two older girls around, but she also really like to play with her cousin Jack. Both of the girls really liked their cousin Eden. I thought that they were both really tender with her.

It was a full house at the Parry's, but I thought that we all fit nicely. Sophia slept in a room with us, which turned out to be really good. She's reached that age where if she wakes up we can basically threaten her with her life,( be quiet or die!), and she more of less gets the idea. Jane ended up sleeping in a corner of the basement, which actually wasn't a big deal. We brought a fan with us and turned it up nice and high so that it blocked most of the noise coming from upstairs.

We had family pictures taken while we were there. The first time with the Parry family since any of the kids have gotten married. We were told to wear kahki colered pants and either a white top or a black top. Having black hair, I automatically decided that I would wear white. The rest of my family doesn't have black hair, but they all have brown. If I wear black, sometimes in a photo it looks like I'm wearing a hoodie. So, kahki colored pants and a white top, sounds easy enough? Well, turns out, nobody in my little family has a pair of kahki colored pants or a white shirt. Ok, that's not exactly true, I have a pair of chinos that are kahki, but they are a size too small. (Sigh). But it was kind of fun to go out and buy some new stuff for us to wear. Usually I would hear, "get some kahki pants and a white shirt" and I wouldn't give it much thought, I would just go out and buy some kahki pants and a maybe the same white polo for our whole family. But this time I thought about it more and tried to get different things that would still work for what my mother-in-law wanted. I ended up really liking all of the stuff that I got for everyone.

The photo shoot was kind of exciting because halfway through, a huge storm started to brew. The clouds were really dark, then the wind started to howl and blow super hard. Then about 10 minutes after that it started to rain. Hopefully the pictures we were able to take were good enough to satisfy.

On the fourth, my mother-in-law watched all 5 grandkids, (two 3 year olds, one 18 month old, one 14 month old and one 9 month old) all by herself! (although Uncle Jason was downstairs asleep on the couch), while the rest of us went up and went river rafting with Steve and Sharon Parry. I was a little nervous and almost didn't go, but I'm glad that I did because it was really fun. I'm not much of a water person, whatever it's called to have a phobia of water, I'm sure I have that. Jordyn had a friend that came with us and he is the only one that ended up falling out, and he fell out twice. The river was really high this year, so it was moving really quickly, it took about half the time that it normally does to go the distance we went.

Idaho Falls has a pretty spectacular fireworks show that starts at 10:00pm. Usually my kids go to bed around 6:30pm, but we decided to try and take them this year. I had Sophia sleep from about 5pm to 8pm, and Jane just took he normal nap. I'm not sure if it helped or not, but at least Jeff and I got a little break that evening while Sophia slept. Sophia did NOT like the fireworks. She kept her ears plugged the entire half hour of the show. Grandpa took her for a little walk which seemed to relax her a bit, but even still, she kept saying that she wanted to go home. Jane like it though, she just sat on my lap and starred the entire time. On the way back to the car, Sophia had the sun shade on her side of the stroller pulled all the way down covering her completely because she wanted to block out all of the noise from locals setting off fireworks.

Kids Club

2009-05-23T20:49:00.003-06:00

I try and work out as much as I can. Sometimes, scratch that, usually, it doesn't happen. The problem is that Jeff usually doesn't get home until later at night, like 8 or 9pm. So, by that time, I've usually parked myself in front of the tv, with the laptop on my lap, and I am NOT in the mood to go to the gym. What's that you say? Get up early and go before my kids wake up? PASS. I've been thinking about it for awhile now, and this week I finally went and did it. I signed my kids up for the Kids Club at the gym.

They have only gone twice, but it worked out great! They can go for two hours a day, which is more than enough time. I even took stuff with me to shower and get dressed afterward. That was especially nice because my kids do not excel in the let mom get showered and dressed in peace area. The first day they were a little nervous about going, but the second day, Jane was struggling to get out of my arms while I was trying to sign them in. I put her down and one of the workers opened the door for her and she just walked right in.

It felt so good to have worked out, showered, and gotten dressed all before lunch. PLUS, on top of that, have a little along time. Selfish? Maybe, but not in a bad way. Maybe I'll even lose the rest of this baby weight. Especially since my "baby" is almost 1 1/2.

So many things

2009-05-21T19:02:00.012-06:00

First of all, I'm am right now, as I write, also watching the season premiere of the bestestestestest show ever, So You Think You Can Dance. Love love love love it. The summer has officially begun for me.

Ok, now that I've got that out of the way, I have a cute little story about Sophia from tonight.
She is at that age where she is saying little cute things without even realizing it. Tonight I was reading her the Dr. Seuss Book Hop On Pop, a classic. There is this one page that says,

Bad
Dad
Sad
Had

Dad is sad
he had a bad day
what a day dad had. (Or something like that.)

She always asks me "oh, why is he sad?" I always answer, "he had probably had a hard day at work." Up until now she has always just accepted that and we go on. Actually it's become part of a routine. Well, tonight, same thing, but this time, after I told her he had probably had a bad/hard day at work, she said to me, "oh, he probably couldn't check his email, that's bad." So funny. Here I am, reading her a book that was written when a one computer took up a whole room, and it didn't even have email. Now years and years later, my two year old is adding her own twist on Dr. Seuss.

Next item on the agenda. I cut bangs today. Well, that's only partially true. I actually had some bangs cut like 2 weeks ago, but I had them cut sort of longer, and not too thick. This way I could have bangs...but not totally commit. I've had the same type of "noncommittal bangs" 3 years ago as seen here in this picture of Sophia from 2006. (Man. I look skinny there.)

But now I decided that I want to go all the way. So, today I did. Here is what I look like now. I do have to do the, "I seriously can look better. I'm wearing NO make-up in this picture, none at all", blah blah blah. But it's true. And since I'm not 18 anymore, I don't have wonderfully perfect skin tone or texture. Seriously, a little foundation and under eye concealer makes me look TONS better. The proof is in the above picture. But I'm too lazy and apparently don't care enough because I knowing all this, still didn't bother to go and gussy up before I took this picture just now.

I'm sad now that my hair isn't longer again. For anyone who hasn't known me for very long, up until right before the other picture from 06 was taken, I've always had really long hair. Someday.

Now, some cute pictures taken in the last few days.
I especially like the one with Jane and her closed eyes. She looks like a little, cute dork.

No More Naps

2009-05-19T14:15:00.002-06:00

I solved Sophia's going to bed problems. Turns out she is done taking naps. On one hand it's really sad because I don't get a nice little "lunch break" everyday. But then again, on the other hand, it's nice because now she goes to bed nice and early, usually around 6:30 or so, and then since that is also the time that Jane goes down, I have the evening to myself.

Personally, I think she is a bit young to give up napping, but before, she was taking a nap and sleeping for about 2 hours, then, she wouldn't fall asleep at night until almost 10pm. No good. When I dropped the nap...asleep before 7pm no problem. I even did a few tests where put her down for a nap again a few times, and each time she couldn't go to sleep that night. It's hard though, because even though it appears giving her a nap set her up for disaster at night, she still gets tired during most days.

Unfortunately, we haven't solved her getting up at night problems. She usually still wakes up around 2 or 3 times. Sometimes it's her diabetes that wakes her up. A low blood sugar here, a high one there. I am not a nice mom when I have to get up in the middle of the night. It's something I need to work on, or at least ride out.

I Heart NY

2009-05-11T14:22:00.008-06:00

I am now back from my hiatus from life. For real, if I didn't think about my kids, then it was like my life with them the last 3 years had all been a dream. Not a bad dream, just a dream. However, when I did think about them I felt like if I had to wait a second longer to see them, then I would die! This was my first time away from them, and I was gone for a whole 7 days. So much for baby steps.

A big round of applause for my mother-in-law Renee. Without her, this trip would have been impossible. It can be daunting to watch ones 2 little grandchildren for 7 days, especially when one has some special medical needs. But my kids are happy and healthy and she did a great job.

Out trip was lots of fun. It was me, my mom, my little sister Bethany, and my sister-in-law Natalie. We saw 5 plays while we were there. Blithe Spirit, with Angela Landsburry, (I don't know how to spell that), and Rupert Everett.

Little Mermaid, good, but not that good unless you have a car full of 6 year old girls with you. More of a, seen it once and that was good enough, but still glad that I did see it at least once, type of show.

Wicked. Always good, that's why EVERYONE likes this show.
lool- bv xzu izAYh3

Guys and Dolls with Tony Award nominee Oliver Platt, and Lauren Graham, from Gilmore Girls. She can actually sing really really well.
Also, for any of you who share my terrestrial habit of watching Sex and the City, (on TBS of course), the other actor was on that one episode where Carrie and Big went to a jazz club together, just as "friends", and she ended up falling for the jazz club owner, (this actor), and Big kept on following them everywhere on their dates.

The last show we saw was 9 to 5. The actress on the left just came straight from playing Elphaba on Broadway in Wicked, and the girl on the far right has played Glinda on Broadway.

Slap Chop Remix

2009-05-01T17:44:00.002-06:00

Readers of this blog may have noticed that I don't contribute too often. Thus, something has to be really good/noteworthy for me to post. I give you the Rap Chop:

Flashback friday!

2009-05-01T10:19:00.011-06:00

Sophia's little preschool group had a nice little Valentines Day party in February, and I never posted anything about it, so here goes.

She decorated some cookies, which I then ate. Not because I'm a mean Diabetes nazi but because she just really isn't that interested. She does like frosting though. I like both waaaayy too much.

Then all the kids got together for their "class picture". (Go class of 2024!) They are from left to right; Tayson, Macy, my Sophia, Kaylynn, and Kate.

Here is a cute picture of Jane girl just because I LOVE it. Too bad it's sort of blurry. She is still a doll. Sorry, she has orphan hair. I usually try and do both of their hair everyday, but sometimes it doesn't happen.

Gum, a semi-new obsession at our house. When she first started "chewing", she would go through piece after piece and I was just about to ban it from her existence, but then she started keep a piece for more than 15 minutes.

I have about a hundred pictures of Sophia washing Jane's hair. This was back in February too, in our old, crappy, gross, tiny little bathroom that had brown water that ran from the faucet. No kidding. I have some pictures of it I took once, just for the record. I'll have to look for them and put one up here.

On a totally unrelated note, has anyone been to McDonald's lately? Well, they currently have the most ridiculous Happy Meal toy. And by ridiculous, I mean, wacko twisted what the shiz funny. It's these CD's called Kids Bopz where choirs of children will delight you and your children with their renditions of such pop hits as "Hey There Delilah", by The Plain White Tee's. Or, anyone care for "Girls Don't Cry" by Fergie? What about "Get This Party Started" by Pink; an oldie but goodie.

Unfortunately for me, we have two kids who got two different Happy Meals last night. Each of which contained a different volume of Kids Bopz. So now I have two CD's with five different gems on each of them. Curiosity got the best of me and after we got home I immediately turned one of them on and my kids went crazy for it. It was the first things Sophia wanted when she woke up this morning. There she was at 7am, in the family room, getting her groove on. The silver lining in all of this is it gets my kids dancing and I love watching my two girls "dance".

One of those day

2009-04-30T14:38:00.002-06:00

Well, here I am, almost 3pm. I haven't gotten dressed, I haven't showered in 3 days, I haven't gotten either of my kids dressed, (well, I put pants on Sophia, but she doesn't have a shirt or socks on. Do I get points for at least taking her nightgown off of her?) I still need to do the dishes from LAST NIGHT.

Every time I have one of these days I swear to myself, never again. I'm going to get up everyday with a smile on my face from now on. Hop in the shower, get dressed, (in clothes that haven't fit in years), do my hair and make-up, and maybe even put on some perfume, why not?

I'm going to feed my kids a perfectly cooked breakfast, AND they are going to eat it without complaining. I'll have no problem doing all the dishes and cleaning up because the girls will go and play happily together without bothering me at all.

Well, I usually achieve something sort of close to this for a few days, but inevitably, it never lasts. Eventually I have a day where I don't want to get out of bed when I hear the first girl call out. Then it's just downhill from there. I wonder where all of my motivation has gone? I guess that it's still there, but only somedays. The part that can be frustrating is that on the days like this I think to my self, "ok, get up, get in the shower, be productive, come on, the girls are asleep right now, clean the kitchen!" but instead, I watch Taking The Stage episodes on MTV.com like I did today.

Shoot, at htis point in the day I'm thinking it would be a waste of time to get dressed, oh, except that I wanted to get rolls from Great Harvest to go with dinner tonight...I'll just throw on some sweats and a hat, maybe a shirt and shoes on Sophia too. Yeah, that would be a good idea.

Dear Sophia,

2009-04-28T20:36:00.003-06:00

I don't care if the book we so perfectly placed in you bed before bedtime has now, 45 minutes later, fallen over. I don't want to come up to your room and fix it. I don't care that your blanket has a crease in it, fold, whatever. I don't want to come up and fix it. I love you, love you, love you, but I'm not interested in coming up and giving you hugs and kisses, again, for the 3rd time, and hour after I first put you to bed. I don't feel bad when, because you won't stop coming out of your room crying about some ridiculous thing, I finally turn off the hall light resulting in even louder crying. It's SILLY that you can't seem to reach the sippy cup on the nightstand right next to your bed. NO, I will not come up and get it for you, get it yourself.

I love you, you are my baby girl. I love you and I want you to be able to do these things for yourself. I think that you need to be able to fix your own sheets, rearrange your own stuffed animals, reach up and get your own drink. I'm not an unfeeling mother, I remember what it was like to be scarred of the dark, to want my parents. But don't you think getting up ever 15 minutes from 7:30pm to 10:00pm is too much?

I know that someday you will be able to go to bed on your own and I will wish that you needed me, but right now, sometimes I wish that you needed me a little bit less. But, until then, I guess I'll continue to leave the hall light on.

love, Mom

Monster

2009-04-28T13:58:00.002-06:00

I am a monster, and I am going to create some little monsters if I'm not careful. I lOVE to eat out. It's funny, because I also love to cook, I actually plan on going to cooking school later when my kids have grown up more. But I still love to eat out. My family ate out a lot when I grew up, (sorry mom!) So, if I don't give it too much thought when it comes to taking a trip through a drive though. Now my kids are starting to adopt the same mentality. That's what I mean by creating a monster. It's not unusul for Sophia to say to me, "let's go to a restaurant!" Sometimes I'll say, "no, we're going home so that we can make dinner", and she'll yell, "no, I want to go to the restaurant!" (my 2 year old.)

I'm determined not to eat out as much. Putting it out here like this will help, I'm hoping. I was about to type, "I'm not going to eat out for the nest 2 weeks," but then I remembered that I'm leaving for New York City for the week on Monday, and I can't promise not to eat out while I'm there. But that's different because I'll be on vacation, (without my kids!). The problem I want to work on is eating out way too much when I'm at home. I'll just have to work on it when I get back. Anyone have any suggestions?

Shutters and Shades

2009-04-27T19:35:00.004-06:00

Silly me, just when I typing in the title, I typed "Shutters and Shiz", weird. Anyhoo. The blind guy came over today, (enough with the jokes boyfriend), to do the final measurements of all our windows. We are going with a combination of shutters and shades. We're getting shutters in most of the windows on the main level, except for the doors leading out to the backyard, and little window that's high up in our bedroom. Then upstairs, (3 bedrooms and a playroom) we are getting white blackout honeycomb shades. They look white, but then on the inside they have this stuff that looks like foil that blocks out light. They had betta be good or else because the whole reason we decided to pay more for them is so that they will block out light for our little tiny's while they are napping and also for these lovely summer months where it doesn't get dark for forever late. We also went with the cordless because I don't want to have to worry about the babuses strangling themselves. I'm abit of a paranoid freak when it comes to that sort of thing.

The shutters are also cordless, but all plantation shutters are. I just love the look of them. I've been dreaming about them for forever and ever and now in just 4-6 weeks my dream will come true! I picked out the color today, you would be surprised at how many shades of white their are. Here are some pictures of both for your viewing pleasures.

Obviously, not rooms in my house, but that is generally what the windows will look like. Oh, well, except that we didn't get the kind of shades that come down from the top, just ones that go up, but that's what they will look like. You will notice that the shades don't really open like blinds, they just go up and down which is find because I only really want to put them down at night for privacy, and then keep them open all day. On the flipside the shutters don't go up and down, just open and close.

Decorating

2009-04-27T14:21:00.004-06:00

We are almost all the way unpacked. Now I have to start thinking about decorating. Well, actually, I've been thinking about it a lot already, but it's going to be a process. I keep looking at all my favorite blogs where I am getting tons of ideas. One of the problems is that my styles have changed since I got some of my furniture about 5 or 6 years ago, but I can't really afford to buy new couches, plus, even if I could, ours are still in perfectly good shape. Nor is that really high up on the list of things we need to get. Oh well. I can work with it.

I used to really like county type things and some shabby chic, but now I like much cleaner lines. I wouldn't necessarily say that I have a modern style, but I think it borders on that. None of my current furniture, pictures, decorations could really fall under that category, so it's a bit of an eye sore for me when I look at my stuff.

My cousins wife decorated their home all by herslf and I think it looks amazing. The parts that I especially like are the color of the walls, I love that blue, the couch, my couches are so over sized, and just the over all look and feel of the room. All the lines are so clean and there isn't any clutter. The blue gives the room a cool feeling, but the dark floors also keep it feeling warm

2009-04-25T21:58:00.002-06:00

Today we went over to our old apartment and cleaned it all up nice and pretty, it was super duper fun. Right. The whole time I was there I kept thinking to myself, "self, all this energy and time that you are putting into cleaning this piece of crap apartment, is time and energy that you could be putting into putting things away at the house that still need to be put away." Funny though, for the last hour I've been surfing the internet and I haven't had any thoughts about all the things I need to do around the house.

I love having so much more room. I love having all the toys up in the playroom. Sure, throughout the day some of the girls toys find their way downstairs, but nothing major. I also love having everything so open, mainly my kitchen. My old kitchen was like a cave and I hated being in it. Now I don't feel like that at all.

We have most of our things unpacked, but not quite. I think that some of the stuff that is left should just go in the garbage. I'm not really sure what to do with some of it, and I don't think we would miss it if it were gone. Next comes all the little things that I need to do. One big thing on the list this week is to get our window coverings ordered. We had some quotes done last week and we decided which was best so they are going to come back on Monday and do the final measurements so that we can place our order. After that it will still be at least a month! Yuck. Oh well, I'll just have to get used to wearing clothes around the house at night. (I kid, I kid).

2009-04-15T19:07:00.002-06:00

MEN, ALERT! If you don't like to hear about "womanly things" then don't read. You have been warned.

This week I'm having my period. Totally a bummer because it's moving/packing week and when I'm on my period I'm a horrible everything. Sophia is now at the age where she is noticing when I'm on my period. Lucky me, she always follows me into the bathroom everytime I have to go. I try and explain to her what is going on, but I keep it real simple, because it's not like she is really going to understand me if I start to talk about uterine lining and shedding.

Today when I was changing my tampon she was very kind and told me, "oh it's ok mommy, someday you will be a big girl like me and then you won't have to have your period anymore."

If only she knew.

2009-04-14T21:04:00.002-06:00

We got out keys today! It doesn't feel real. I went over to the house with the girls and walked around abit. I felt like I was somewhere that I wasn't supposed to be, like any minute someone was going to walk in the door, look really confused and annoyed and say, "who are you and what are you doing here?" Well, that didn't happen and the girls and I put a few things away that we had brought with us. Mostly some toys for the bonus room. Here in this apartment and in past apartments, I've always felt like our front room is overflowing with toys, totally packed. But once I had all the toys in the bonus room, it looked kind of sad and small. I have a feeling that is going to be a reacurring theme with our move. But I don't mind. I'd rather feel like it's empty then for it to feel like it's too crowded.

Now I'm off to continue to pack. Our apartment is a MESS. Seriously. It I wasn't so lazy, I'd take a picture, upload it and post it. Oh well.

2009-04-13T20:10:00.007-06:00

We had a nice Easter here in Boise. The weather was kind to us and cooperated so that the girls could wear their new dresses, (thanks Grandma and Grandpa). I would have had them wear them anyway, can't let bad weather stand in our way, but it was nice to not have to worry if they were cold.

HAPPY EASTER!!!!!!!

2009-04-10T13:29:00.003-06:00

So glad the kids are down for a nap. There has been lots of yelling, screaming, and slamming of doors this morning, unfortunately none of it was done by the kids. Motherhood, hmm, gotta love it?

2009-04-09T09:10:00.004-06:00

Out apartment is a huge mess. A huge mess in a little space. Packing with kids is so much harder than packing without kids. I should know, we've moved 6 times without kids, or pre-kids, and 7 times since we've had kids. The life of a constantly moving college student. Now that we are grownups we are looking forward to putting our roots down in one spot.

Jeff says: I'd just like to clarify here that we haven't moved that many times. Here's the run-down:
Pre-kids
Provo Villa Maria-Provo Family Tree
Provo Family Tree-Provo Pioneer Townhomes
Post-kids
Provo Pioneer Townhomes-Anacortes
Anacortes-Bothell
Bothell-Boise Columbia Village
Boise Columbia Village-Hilton Street

So there you go. Two moves without kids and four moves with kids. Now you know.

2009-04-06T14:05:00.004-06:00

We got Sophia her first pair of flip flops today. She calls them clip clops though. I think that she knows they are supposed to be called flip flops, she just can't make the "f" sound very well. She is so funny walking in them because she doesn't really walk normally. I keep telling her that she has to practice a bit and she will get better. Luckily she loves them so much that she hasn't gotten frustrated yet. These look like the ones I got Sophia only they have butterflies on them and not flowers.

I love Havaianas, they are my favorite type of flip flops. They are really simple, ( I have a plain black pair), but they are really really comfortable. I highly recommend them. They are from Brazil, Jeff said that everyone over there wore them, but they've only been in the US for the last 3 or 4 years. They're great.

In other flip flop news, today at Costco when Sophia's flip flop fell off her foot while we were checking out, she yelled at me at the top of her lungs, and I mean, as loud as she possibly could, "Help me now or I will spank your bunda!"

Seen and Heard

2009-04-04T20:42:00.002-06:00

An exchange between Sophia and me tonight while I changed her diaper.
Me: Does the heater feel good?
Sophia: Yes, and my poop smells good too.

Sophia said this while we were playing ball last night.
"Balls like to fly, like birds."

2009-04-04T18:02:00.009-06:00

Today we went out on a shopping trip and bought all the things you need to supply for yourself once you are a home owners. No more apartments that conveniently come with a fridge, (a piece of crap fridge), and a washer and dryer, (also pieces of crap.) From now on, if our lovely new appliances break down there will not be a apartment repair man to come over and fix them for me. I guess that's ok though, I think I will still be glad to live in a house. I think it was harder for me to fork over the cash to buy the appliances than it was to buy the house. Probably because I view the house as a monthly payment thing when the appliances were a huge chunk of money right up front. Ouch, those better be some clean clothes I see coming out of the laundry in a few weeks. We got traditional white, not blue. I like more traditional things, and it was $200 more to get a color. For me, definitely not worth the money. The fridge looks stainless steel, but it isn't. It looks like stainless steel but it doesn't show fingerprints like stainless steel and you can hang magnets on it. I'm not really big into hanging a lot of things on my fridge, but I would at least like the option. We didn't get a fridge with a water dispenser because they raised the cost almost $500 and I felt like they took up too much room inside.

Jeff says: We also bought a lawnmower.

2009-04-03T08:17:00.006-06:00

Yesterday we had our home inspection. There weren't any problems really, so that was good news. The people that live next door, (our neighbors!) came over and introduced themselves. They were really nice. Afterwards, I took the girls over to Costco and ended up buying a hose and a nice push broom for our soon to be garage, patio, and driveway. Most people wouldn't get too excited about such a purchase, but I was. This morning I was thinking that I should go back because they had really good front door mats too. I also got a picture of the Salt Lake Temple for us to hang up after we move. We aren't from Salt Lake, and we didn't get married there; we got married in the Bountiful Temple, but I didn't really like any pictures of the Bountiful Temple. I figure that the SLC Temple is sort of an "every man's temple". It's actually a really big picture, and mine is framed in brown wood instead of black. My mother in law has one that she got from the same company, (Cultural Hall), but hers is the Idaho Falls Temple and the one that she got is HUGE.

2009-04-02T10:19:00.003-06:00

Sophia will be starting Insulin pump therapy in the next few weeks. I'm thinking that it will be good because we won't really have to give her shots anymore. Sometimes, but it will be the exception and not the rule. Instead she will wear a pump that has a tube under her skin and it will deliver the insulin to her body when she needs it. We still have to push buttons on it and tell it how much to give her, but I don't have to give her 10 shots a day. I've heard that it has a learning curve that tends to remind people of when they or there child was initially diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes, but that once you get past that, it's a huge improvement over the shots. It's should help her be healthier too because it is able to give much smaller doses or insulin than we are able to give with needles. Right now, she has to have had at least 10 grams of carbs before we can give her any insulin. But if she eats say, 5 her blood sugar will still rise to high levels etc, lots of other way too long explanations of why it will be better with a pump. Anyway, a pump will be good to have once we get the hang of it.

I ordered the pink one, pricey little son a gun, but it's worth it.

We Did It!

2009-03-31T19:24:00.006-06:00

We finally bought a house! We only had to look at 50! before we decided on one. Actually, we saw this particular house for the first time about 25 houses ago. We really loved it at that point, but we weren't able to come to an agreement with the sellers, so we moved on. Since then, the sellers lowered the price because the house still wasn't selling. We still loved it, so we decided to make another offer. Happily for us, this time we were able to come to an agreement with the seller. We close on April 15th which is really soon, but I am so excited. we only unpacked around 2/3 of our stuff when we moved here, so I won't have to pack as much as I have in the past.

This is the kitchen and it is one of my favorite things. I love to cook and I can't wait to cook here.

Front entryway, that's an office/den to the right and a "Harry Potter suite" to the left

Fireplace

Kids upstairs bathroom vanity and then the eating area.

The bonus room, no more toys being stored in my front room!

The breakfast bar and the back yard. There is a "common area", well, I call it a bike/jogging/walking path right behind the fence and between our house and the houses behind us so it's nice because it gives us a little bit more space behind.

2009-03-16T18:50:00.002-06:00

Today I sat down to use the bathroom and everything was going fine until I realized that I didn't have any toilet paper. Luckily Sophia was home. She is getting older and getting better at taking direction so I thought that she could get me some toilet paper. We have all the toilet paper in Jane's "room", which she usually isn't allowed to play in because it doubles as a storage room and I don't want her playing in there. When I told her to go into there and get me the toilet paper she first told me that she couldn't go in there, (good girl). After a few minutes of coaxing, I could hear her go into Jane's room, but she came back out and said that she couldn't find any. I wasn't too surprised because it is really packed in there. So then I told her to go into the other bathroom and get me some. Easy enough I thought. She seems to have no problem going in there and playing with it when I tell her that I don't want her too. Of course, this time, while I'm sitting on the toilet stranded, she can't seem to find it. I was getting a little bit agitated with her and I kept saying, "Sophia, it's on the wall, by the toilet!" Finally she says to me, very sympathetically, "oh honey, you can use pretend toilet paper." Pretend toilet paper, I'll have to remember that one for the future.

2009-03-05T09:50:00.002-07:00

Sophia is starting to talk like me, and not in the good way. Sometimes, when she wants me to do something, she gets really frustrated and says, "Do it, RIGHT, NOW!" Or, when she doesn't want me to do something, or usually, when she doesn't want me to have her her do something, or help her do something, she tells me, "Do NOT do it". It's funny because I guess when I want to put emphasis on a "request", I say "do not" instead of "don't".

She also copies some nice words too because she call Jeff and me "honey" quite often. It's really endearing to hear your two year old say, "oh honey, how are you?" Or, "Honey, you can't have that."

Jane is developing quite the personality. She is only 13 months old, but she thinks that she is older. I don't remember that with Sophia, and I don't think its because I don't have a good memory, I just think that they are different. Part of it is probably because Jane has an older sister to emulate. Jane wants to feed herself all the time and it drives me crazy because she is not coordinated enough yet. She thinks she is, but she isn't. Yesterday at Costco, she wanted to feed herself frozen yogurt, so I let her at first, but then she was making a HUGE mess, so I took the spoon away. Of course, she screamed and screamed about it, but oh well. Luckily, I don't get too self conscious when my kids freak out in public. I wouldn't have even let her try to feed herself, but she get super mad when I try and feed her. When she first started acting out while I tried to feed her, I couldn't figure out why she was acting so mad. Now that I know, I try and let her feed herself a little bit, she because it's so messy,(she insists on using utensils, not her hands), I don't really like to let her.

2009-02-26T10:26:00.003-07:00

The other night Sophia had a drink of water in her bed which she ended up spilling on her self. Of course, she told me that she wanted to have a new blanket because it was all wet. Then she also told me, "I want some new legs too" because they were also wet. I thought it was pretty funny.

Little Mama

2009-02-11T22:54:00.003-07:00

Jane is reaching that age where she is starting to love holding her babies and animals. Actually, I need to get a picture of it, but she has a new fascination with Elmo. She hasn't even watched Elmo's World, she just likes the dolls we have around from Sophia. Being the experienced parents that we are, we anticipated this attachment to dolls and we got her one for Christmas even though at that time she didn't care at all. I don't know how she did, but Renee somehow knew that Jane was going to be a huge Elmo fan, and she got Jane a Tickle Me Elmo for Christmas. She LOVES the Elmo dolls. I don't have a picture of her with one yet, but I'll get one.

1st Black Eye

2009-02-11T22:44:00.006-07:00

Jane has her first black eye. Hopefully not her first in a long line of many. It happened when her big sister tripped her. Seriously, right before it happened I said, "Sophia, be careful, don't trip Jane!" Of course, she trips her, and it WAS on purpose. Of course, being two, she had no idea what the consequences of her actions would be, but so sue me, I was still really mad. I got over it though, I just needed a few minutes. Love my girls.