oh Happy day!

I got to talk to the girls today. I was smiling so hard for the entire 9 minutes that I had to take some Tylenol for my jaw pain!
I miss them like crazy! two more days!


This song makes me happy too... .... click here either because it makes me laugh really hard, or because It's been running through my head for days and after searching for 20 minutes on the Internet I finally found it..

Progress......

We've got the walls painted, the furniture set up. The chair rail just needs a bit of sanding and paint.....

slowly but surely..

I am just dying for some matching comforters and new curtains...... those will just have to wait a while.

The girls want blue accent colors, so I'm going to have to find some really fun wall hangings too.

the TV isn't staying.. we just had it there to keep us entertained while we worked...

I think the shelves work really well against the one wall..

There's actually quite a bit of room in there. I'm loving it all.

We're still deciding on whether or not to bring up a fun blue chair we've had in the basement for ages.. I just don't want to put too much in there..

working hard

We've been working our tails off here the past few days.

we've moved everyone out of their bedrooms and swapped everyone around.

Ali brought me a picture from good housekeeping magazine a few weeks ago and said "mom, I want a room like this" It was very country, and definitely my style so it got the wheels spinning in my head... Megan, although she has her own bed, has been sleeping in Ali's for the past year. I actually had Megan and Mattie in the same room because it was bigger.

So when Ali had brought me that picture (which coincidental had twin beds in it) I asked the girls what they thought of sharing a room with pretty twin beds and yellow walls (which is what they were admiring)...... They agreed to the idea

So here we are.

Here's Taylor putting up some chair rail.

Even Mattie's been helping!

Hold your breath.......

Before..............

Yes, he's cute, but don't let this one fool you!

This boy of mine is a pretty smart cookie!
For weeks I’ve been frustrated because he would not hold his own cup. I’m talking absolute refusal. He’d pull his arms back, curl his little hands into fists and push his chin out, mouth wide open like a baby bird waiting for us to hold it to his mouth. I wouldn’t do it. He’d cry and cry and fuss until I felt guilty that he was so thirsty and Id give in……. we tried different types of cups; we tried holding his hands around them. I left the cup on his tray or where he was playing so that he could just pick it up and use it... he would Not do it.
I’m a sucker!
He was playing last night and one of his sippy cups happened to be nearby. Without hesitation... He turned around, picked the cup up, and sucked it down like he’d been doing it all along!

I’ve GOT to stop giving into this boy!
You’d think I’d know this by now! After all, it’s not like he’s my first baby! I took him to the Dr a few weeks ago because he’d been waking up in the night and screaming his head off till I nursed the little sucker (no pun intended). So I wanted to make sure he didn’t have an ear infection or something else ailing him. I would feel horrible if he was crying in pain.
My Dr checked him over, gave him a clean bill of health, and then proceeded to scold me! “This is the #1 compliant of new parents” he explains to the resident following him. “I’m not a first time Mom” I remind him. “Then you should Know this” he says. And I do. I know that I’m feeding the bad habit.. But it’s so easy to get reeled in! It only took 20 minutes of crying and Taylor and I holding each other back for him to give up and sleep the rest of the night... I know this is how it works.
Give him the opportunity to grow up, and to do things himself. Show him, teach him, love him... But for heavens sakes we’ve got to quit spoiling him!...... Maybe just a little……

The Mutt vs the Neighbors

Did I say I liked this dog?

I am not so sure at this moment. Although I think I might be unfairly blaming the poor mutt.. You see I just finished having a little chat with the Animal control cop who showed up at my house this morning. For the second time in two months, our neighbors next door have complained about his barking at night. Which in actuality, he really doesn't do much of unless provoked (by perhaps their two roaming cats.?.?.?.?.)
My neighbors are (what my niece would call) "meanies". They're childless middle aged, tree huggers (and I say this in way of description only, so that you can visualize them of course, because there is nothing wrong with tree huggers, I love trees!). When they moved in, we were in the front yard with the girls. We gave them a neighborly hello, and they totally ignored us! Blatantly ignored us, and then looked at my children with disgust. When Christmas came around Ali and I took around treats to all the neighbors. We stepped up to their door, rang the bell and waited. The woman opened the door and looked at us disapprovingly. Stepping forward Ali held up the plate of goodies. The lady snarled, “What’s this?” I stepped forward and replied that they were cookies we had made. “Why?” She huffed.
A little flabbergasted, I said in my brightest Christmas spirit voice…… “From our family, we um, just wanted to say Happy Holidays (being politically correct you see)”. She backed up and shut the door on us without so much as a smile or nod. Ali and I retreated quickly to our house, and once Inside Ali innocently asked “Mom, Why was she so rude?” I had no explanation!
One time Taylor was shoveling the driveway. Megan was using his heap on the side of the drive as a slide, and some of the snow toppled into their yard. So Taylor walked over and started to shovel what Megan had mussed back up. The Lady came running out of her house hollering “get off! Get off! Get off my property!” Taylor explained what he was doing, and she yelled at him to get out and that she would do it herself! Frightening? Yes!
She sits in her front window behind the curtain and watches her yard. No one is allowed to park in front of their house. When we have family over, they must park down the street. My poor parents made the mistake of parking in front of their house one time, and before they could even open their doors she was yelling at them to move their car!
She also called the fired department on us one time too. Taylor and our good friend had done a very small controlled fire in a pit in our garden to burn all the weeds and growth we had. It had been doused and buried for a good half hour but apparently her poking her head over our fence and yelling at Taylor wasn’t good enough ,because all of the sudden the fire truck and two cop cars were swarming our house! The fire dept commended the guys on doing such a good job on the controlled burn, because they could hardly tell where it had been! But then she sat out in her yard fuming and pointing our direction for the next 15 minutes before they left. Anyway, my whole point of this ramble is that she’s not very nice, not very neighborly, and apparently doesn’t’ like children OR dogs…
We’ll keep Westie inside from now on, and hopefully she can find something or someone else to complain about..

chilling at the pool

My Friend and I took Mattie to the swimming pool today.

It was so nice to just kick back and enjoy the sunshine.

Matt LOVES the water! He was looking pretty tired by this point from all the splashing he'd been doing.

chubba whubbba Binky boy

taking a snack break

Me without make-up

After the pool, we stopped at Sonic for a yummy peach slush.

mmm.. My favorite!

Now that's what I call Summer!

The girls have been gone one full day now. I miss them already.
I still haven't accomplished anything in the house.
Instead, I took advantage of Matties morning nap to catch up on 45 minutes of lost sleep . Then headed to the pool.. Tonight, my Dad wants me to show him how to list things on eBay. He has rooms full of 'stuff' to sell. Its been awhile, so I hope I remember how to do it myself! I just might list a few of my own things if I get around to it this week!

Mattie is playing happily by himself while I'm typing this. I'm trying really hard not to look his direction because I know as soon as I do, he will start fussing.. He's such a silly kid! I've found that if I sit in the same room but ignore him and not even look his way, then he'll sit a play with his toys for quite awhile. If he catches my eye then its all over!

Its been a day

Its HOT! (click on words to see the latest Utah weather!) swamp coolers are not ideal for Utah heat. I know that much. Its 78 in my living room right now, and the swamp cooler is 15 feet away. Its hot, its muggy, and I dream of central air.
The kids and I just spent the last 1/2 hour spraying each other with the water bottle. I think I'm one degree cooler, and about 60% covered in old spray bottle water. I think I'll re-apply every half hour until I fall asleep tonight!. Anything for a few degree difference.


Mattie was supposed to go to his 10 month check up today.
but...

Do you see anything?


Look again.



Yep, that's the empty hook that my keys are supposed to be hanging on...
thank you my darling husband for not putting them there when you drove the van last night.

The kids and I looked over 40 minutes for the darn things and I've yet to find them. Taylor will be doing his own search and rescue when he gets home. I keep forgetting that he's not allowed to use my keys. This is not the first or the last time this has happened.
I did manage to find the spare set. IN HIS PANT POCKET. Unfortunately that was AFTER I had called and re-scheduled Matt's appointment. oh well.

With the heat, and no where to go the girls were restless today. Ali was bouncing off the walls, and Meg turned up the whining a few notches. I think it also had to do with the impending departure with Ex. He finally arrived quarter after 7 tonight. Its going to be awfully quiet around here. I hope they have a good time, and most of all I hope they stay safe. It's hard not to be in control of your own kids. I have plenty enough to keep me busy for the next two weeks however. I plan on cleaning the house and enjoying the fact that it stays clean for at least 24 hours. I'm still debating whether I want to start any major projects. I'll let you know what I decide.

I also made these today.....


YUM. Pumpkin chocolate chip. They taste better than they look. trust me, I've eaten 5 of them already.
oh, I have to give her credit






She helped too.
Isn't she purty?





Have a great day.

****update***** Taylor found my keys IN OUR BED! "they must have fallen out of my pocket" he says. "all I had to do was pull down the sheet and there they were"

Well gosh, if I knew it was that easy, I would have looked in our bed for my keys!

10 Months!

My baby boy is 10 months today.
He was a bit of a fuss bucket all day, and I was trying to wait for a good time to do his monthly photo, but he just wasn't feeling it. so here he is, grumps, bare bum and all..

He's crawling everywhere, eating everything, and loves to play with toy cars. He still loves weston, and thinks that we need to be in his eyesight at all times.. We love this little guy!

We had noisy, but fun day today.. 9 kids running through the house at the same time It was quite chaotic.
Meg just left with her kids, and Ang was over earlier with her three girls too. I could hardly hear myself think for awhile there.
Its time I try and get some sleep. I have to work tomorrow after having a week off. Its going to be torture getting out of bed in the morning.

and the little one said "roll over, I'm crowded"

This is what I woke up to this morning.. We have a King size bed, but my side of the bed apparently has child repellent because they were both crowded in on Taylors side (lucky me). I had to get a picture of them all snuggled in together. I tried not to wake them up with my camera, but Taylor heard the click. He took that opportunity to sneak out and sleep on the couch for the last few hours.

We're sure going to miss these little bed hogs while they're gone!

Ali's been staying up deep into the night. Its going to be a fun battle when school bedtime arrives next month.

she's such a night owl. I'm SO not.

Megan still falls asleep where ever she is, if she's tired.. Taylor actually carried her up to her bed last night after she fell asleep with a laundry basket over her body obviously in the midst of playing something.

she must have woken up to a lonely bed and found ours in the middle of the night.

Summer time is so inconsistent around here. It’s hard to keep a routine when they spend half the summer at Ex's mom's house. Like I’ve said, I try to plan activities and fun things while we have them, but having the Van die on us really took a toll on the event planning.
We did take the kids to the pool a couple times, and they’ve spent quite a few afternoons at my parents house playing in the neighborhood, but otherwise, its just been time hanging at the house. Why does that make me feel guilty? Summer doesn’t need to be filled with activities right?
I did manage to plan a scavenger hunt for them the other day.. It was definitely a hit. In fact, Megan asked me to do another one for her yesterday. And we did have “art” day. Which has left my back patio, and my kitchen tablecloth covered in paint. And I did do the fort………... So there, we have had fun. I’m a good mom after all!
On a different note
Meg has become quite whiney lately. She started after the last long visit at Ex's, and hasn’t stopped. After this next two week visit there, I'm sure I'm in for a treat. Hopefully we'll be able to undo the habit when things become more constant.

Oh and I just have to mention that I am SO excited for my brother. He called a few days ago to tell me that he is getting married! Yeah, he so deserves it. He is the best dad and His ex wife was not very nice. The best news of all is that he’s gone from a total atheist to finding Christ, and going to church. That’s just a miracle in my eyes. God works in mysterious ways. He sounds so much calmer, and happy than I’ve heard him sound in years. God’s got a plan for my brother I know that, and I’m so excited for him. I can’t wait to meet his new wife someday soon too. I wish he didn’t live so dang far away!
Love you Craig.

Well I’m off to clean the house for the 100th time this week. We’ve got lots of friends coming over today to play and I would hate for them to trip over our mess.

So sorry this is rambling, but I thought I’d write a few things down (for myself more than anyone) and this was the place to do it.
Have a great day!

Poker dots

Meg was snuggling up to me last night on the couch. Patting my face she asked "mom, why do you have poker dots all over your face?" She's so sweet, I could eat her! I just laughed and hugged her tighter.
I love her vocabulary. It’s so sad when children grow up and start realizing how to properly articulate words. I Love that she says "chicken spots" and "ku-prize" or "bee-member". I never correct her. She'll start kindergarten this fall, and those sweet errors will fade away soon enough.. But until then, I'll savor every word.

computer love and the mutt

I'm not the only one who loves my laptop.

The girls are always asking to play games on it. Lately we've been watching old cartoons on youtube. watch an episode of the smurfs and your guaranteed to go back in tme 20 years!

This mutt...

For years, I wanted a lap dog. We got Weston 3 years ago when he was still small enough to tuck inside your pocket. (Literally, we carried him around like that for a few weeks). He was so cute and snuggly. Just what I had wanted. But then, the rotten mutt refused to be housetrained! That was the end of my love for him. I expected some accidents here and there, but this dog insisted on using my new carpet every chance he got. So we banned him to the kitchen. That made me sad. I had wanted a snuggly little dog that would jump into our bed at night and sleep at our feet. Instead I got a dog that slept in his kennel so he wouldn’t ruin the rugs. I felt jipped. Taylor and the girls have always loved him. They don’t care so much about the carpet. But I just didn’t have any reason to like him. Then the boy found him(click on words).. I started to let him run around with us as long as I could keep my eye on him at all times.. Matt giggled and squealed every time he came near him, and that made me smile. I allowed him in more and more so that I could watch Matties delight. The mutt has been hanging with us a majority of the day for weeks. He’s been a good little dog, and I admit, I love that he climbs into my lap for snuggles whenever I'm sitting down.. He still has to be watched like a hawk. He has abused my carpet once again, but I am forgiving him a little more these days..

beating the heat

Its official, I'm the coolest mom ever.. at least for the moment.

We've been inside all day trying to stay cool. I decided to make the girls a little fort.

If it keeps them occupied for a few hours, I've done my job!

I loved doing this as a kid!

Its a hard knock life.

This past week we’ve been faced with some major trials. Huge scary decision making trials. Seriously, when it rains it pours! It’s been a test of our faith to be sure. A test in which through my constant prayers has made me stronger and more sure of Heavenly Fathers power. I don’t know how things are going to turn out, but I do know that there is a plan for us. A plan that we don’t even know. Heavenly Father has his hands on my shoulders. He is giving me comfort, strength and courage to endure these trials. With Him, I can handle this.

CPAP, summer fun and Portrait of a Friend

Angie dared me to post a picture of myself with my new CPAP mask. I just can't do it. I posted it here for a few hours, and when I looked at it again I scared myself! so here it is on my daughters darling cabbage patch.. Its hideous. The doll makes it look so much better than it really is!

I lasted until 3 this morning before I ripped it off my face so that I could sleep. Its definitely going to take some time to get used to..

boy I'm too young for this stuff!

Summer fun Art time .

the Kids had a great time smearing, sloshing, and splattering paint anywhere they could. the best part was turning the bath water blue afterwards as it washed off their bodies!

"Aunt Angie"

She's as beautiful inside as she is out.

I'm not a beautician!

I'm not allowed to cut Matties hair anymore. This is what happens when I do.......

He reminds me of someone...............

Thankfully Alisha came to the rescue with her mad haircutting skills.

I had a Maternity shoot this afternoon.

Here are a few of my favorites. It was a fun shoot. Mom is naturaly beautiful, and Dad was ever so cooperative, even if he couldnt stop making silly faces!

Baby "MJ's" debut (in her mommy's tummy)

Happy Fourth Of July!

Here's to family, fireworks,and matching outfits!



We spent the afternoon at Taylor's family's house. His family is HUGE. He has 7 siblings , with 13 (going on 14) nieces and nephews. It was a busy little barbecue! Lots of kids running and food flying! Its nice to visit with everyone. we don't do it expect for Holidays.


It was a good day.
Hope you all had a good one too.

Shots, puddles,cupcakes and a bath

We had a busy day today.
The Girls got home this morning, from spending the last 5 nights with their dad.

Megan had her big Kindergarten check up today. That only meant one thing. SHOTS! I decided not to tell her until we were on our way out the door. I thought I’d save the anxiety until the very last minute.

I was so impressed by her quick intelligent answers, and surprised at how big she suddenly appeared. She passed with flying colors of course. She was given a kindergarten workbook at the Dr’s office as a little prize, and she insisted on doing the entire book as soon as we got home. I think she’s going to love school.
After her appointment we took a rest, then headed over to Papa’s and grandmas house for our weekly visit.
Mattie successfully grossed my mom out by eating the hose.

Megan did her usual ......................
Searching for bugs

and Stomping through puddles.

And we enjoyed one of my Favorite dinners…………BREAKFAST!!! Yum! My mom makes better pancakes than IHOP I swear!
Here’s Mattie enjoying a very festive Fourth of July cupcake for dessert.

And because he was covered in frosting, I decided to jump in with him and Megan in the big tub… (sans clothes since my dad was there)

Matt LOVED the jets. He splashed, squealed, and giggled the whole time..
We ended the evening curled up on the couch watching Nanny Mcphee…

It’s good to have the girls’ home!

Love this, and don't know why.

Watch this.. its catchy

Crawling!

He's finally crawling!

Yeah Mattie!

As you can see, he's also scaling the stairs!
(Time to put the gates up!)

He's doing some funky tucked leg crawl. I told Taylor to ask the Physical therapists at work tomorrow for advice. One of the speech therapists on our unit was really helpful months back when Matt wasn't eating very well.
We’re sure fortunate to have such good resources so close.

He is pulling himself up to stand on everything. We think that he is tucked under because he’s trying to stand and walk, instead of crawl.

He just thinks he’s so big!

He also started clapping his hands. He’s so proud of himself, he’ll clap and look at me to make sure I’m impressed.
He’s so stinking cute!