I probably shouldn't...

But I'm going to anyways. The new ward is going a lot better now. Instead of just talking to Tim the whole time I finally have a few familiar faces to say hi to and chat with which is really nice. Nursery for Hailey though is a completely different story. Let's just start this out by saying that I don't think the nursery leaders have ever had a child like Hailey before.

It starts out that we've had 2 things said to us:
1) Hailey is one of 2 "alpha" females here and we really have to keep an eye on her and another girl
2) She really has a lot of energy. You should probably think about dance classes or something for her...

K I know my kid is a handful and more energetic and crazy than most other kids, but the way that these things were said was in no way a complement. It was almost like what do you do to your kid to make her that way?!!

Then almost every Sunday we've had her in nursery she comes out with a VERY dirty diaper. It was so bad that it had leaked poo onto her bloomers and tights... which also means that everything she sad on got poo on it as well. So I understand that sometimes you don't notice a poopie diaper right away, but it was obvious that she had been in it for quite a while. On top of all that, the minute I walked into the nursery room it smelled so bad... AND SOMEBODY HAD EVEN OPENED THE WINDOW IT SMELLED SO BAD!!! So as a parent, if you notice a smell that bad aren't you going to find out where it's coming from and get that parent?!! I know I would, plus it's very unsanitary for a child to be sitting in poo that long. Needless to say I was a little ticked after church that sunday and then the next sunday I had to tell them to please come and get me if she pooed again. They tried to tell me that sometimes they don't know who it is- come on now! So hopefully this gets a little better...

Crazy babysitting

So I've been nice and watched Hailey's 4 cousins in town a few times. One time was by myself. Yep that makes 6 kids including my 2 and 4 are 3 and under- yes I'm a little crazy. The last time I had Tim's help, which made things loads easier. I snapped a few pics of the kiddos- not as many as I should have, but oh well.

I thought this was hilarious- Emily and Michael showed Tim one of their favorite computer games and got him hooked, lol- go figure. I just loved this because these two don't usually play this well together, but they totally were- well at least for a little while.
All the 4 young kiddos.

Bad me

For some odd reason I've been horrible at blogging lately... not really sure why, but I need to do better. Anyways a quick update on the past few weeks. Not really too much of anything out of the ordinary going on in our house- same old same old. Hailey won't take naps during the day for me anymore, which really sucks. It just turned out to be way too much of a battle. Some days it would take almost 2 hours for her to finally fall asleep and that included me going upstairs and putting her back in bad at least 5 times and a spank. Now I just let her stay up and she goes to bed a little earlier. The evenings are cranky time for her now so the earlier bed time helps. This is a little taste of what she does instead of napping... yep it's on backwards--
This is how my living room usually looks lol--Hailey taking over the bassinet. I've had to stop her from doing this because I don't want her to break it-- Hannah had her 6 month check up the on the 23rd and she's growing just like Hailey did. They're both average in everything and she's now a little over 17 lbs! She's starting to sit up quite well on her own, scooting and rolling everywhere, and eating baby food a few times a day now. I'm not gonna lie- I love the small break from nursing because this baby was BITING and I'm not ok with that at all! She's up on her knees and rocking all the time now so it's only a matter of time until she figures out how to be fully mobile- yikes! Here's a new one of me with my girls-- OH and I finally got a calling-- Young Women's secretary. I'm really excited about this because I don't have any experience with YW at all so it should be lots of fun. We're finally starting to make some good friends in the ward, which is nice, but I still miss the lh ward lots!

Hello Winter!!

Well I haven't been much in the blogging mood lately. Not sure why, but I suppose I need to get a little better at it. The holidays always bring such a mixed reaction to me because my own parents are in the middle of a divorce right now. I don't usually talk much about my extended family's personal issues so as not to offend anyone, but it's time to get some of this off of my chest I suppose. They've been split up for over a year now and last year's holidays were bad enough as it was trying to please everyone and see both of my parents. It would make things a lot easier if my dad seemed to care much... but he doesn't. He's been seeing a lady that was a good friend of my mom's for a while now and to make matters worse both my dad and this lady are still married... great I know right?... On top of that, since my parents have split up I've barely seen my dad but about once a month, if that, and it's usually for some sort of family function or another like a birthday, father's day, etc. If it weren't for that I seriously doubt that we would even see him that much. It doesn't bother me quite as much that I don't see my dad as much because I have my own family now, but it really bothers me because I have a younger brother who's 16 that hardly sees my dad as well.

But... to make matters worse he's spending plenty of time with his new "girlfriend" and her daughters. How do I know that??? Well my dad lives in Spokane and we all know he's spending his time with somebody- I mean come on no one works THAT much. Plus when he called on thanksgiving I could hear kids in the background... So now comes the dreaded holidays when everyone's supposed to put on a happy face and see each other. My dad's family in particular has always been good at always having family get togethers during the holidays and we'll see how awkward this one is...

Hannah is 6 months old now!!! I can't believe it's been that long already since she was born. She rolls, laughs, smiles a lot, grabs and holds things and got her first tooth almost a week ago... so she's been biting me... A LOT!!! And it hurts!!! Hailey wasn't nearly this bad. I've been trying some rice cereal, but she doesn't seem to like it much so I added some baby food fruit to it and she still doesn't like it much. Here's a few more updated pics of her...

And then Tim and I both got to speak in our new ward a week and a half ago. Of course they nabbed us right away for talks, lol. I really didn't mind doing it though- my talk was easy- it was on our recent temple trip. And then Tim got called as the 1st counselor in the Young Men's so my Wed night's are now stuck with the kids- I say that like it's a bad thing, but I promise I don't feel that way. I'm excited that Tim has a new calling and I support him 100% in it. They have yet to give me a calling and I'm really anticipating it because I'd like to start getting to know people a little better in our new ward. Things have been really awkward so far... And I really miss my friends from the lh ward!!! Though I've been able to see quite a few people I still miss you all lots and lots!!

Oh and to end with a laugh... I went shopping by myself on Black Friday while Tim stayed at home with the girls. The roads were terrible... but I scored some good deals so it was worth it! I went to wally world, kohls, fred meyer, game stop, and then shopko. By far my best gift was the final fantasy 13 game that I secretly bought for Tim... I even went as far as putting it on the card that he doesn't check and hiding it in the car. Well stupid me let it get stolen. How on earth did I manage that one you might ask?!! Stupid me forgot to lock the car one night when we had massive amounts of snow. Tim and I were out shoveling and removing snow from the cars when I saw the passenger door a little open. I yelled "Ahh crap!!" and told Tim that the car had been broken into. Of course he asked what had been taken and I had to tell him about his surprise... Bad me I know and I felt really bad. Turns out that Tim's scriptures got taken too because the elders from our ward showed up at the door yesterday to return them. But the kicker is that we didn't even realize they were gone. I know, bad, bad, bad again, but we've been using mine in the house and didn't even think about his. Somehow they turned up at another member's house?? So I called that lady to thank her and she had no clue how they turned up as well except for her daughter in law said that they were on their porch?... well that's a strange story I know, but oh well at least we have them back!!

Never buy this brand!!!

For Valentine's day this last year Tim bought me a Timi and Leslie diaper bag... some of you may be thinking diaper bag???!!! But I found one that was super cute, functional, and basically exactly what I was looking for because we were expecting baby #2 in a few months and I needed one that would be able to hold a little more, but was still stylish. Well here it is- Yes I've gotten lots of compliments on it and I USED to love it- tomorrow it's going into the trash... These are some of the pieces that have fallen off of it- nice huh?!!

Well I'm about to start my list of grievances with this bag and company overall.

First, about a month after we purchased the bag, the leather pieces that pull the zipper across the top pulled off. I went back to the retailer that I purchased it from, left my contact info, and never received a call back or anything- NOTHING AT ALL!!! Well I could still pull the zipper back and forth so that didn't bother me as much.

Next, the liner started to come apart from the bag. Now isn't that the best mix of trashy and sophisticated that you've ever seen?!! This part really ticked me off.Then came the buckle on the front that fell off for who knows what reason besides it's an absolute pile. That piece has the magnetic part that keeps that flap shut, which, when it was still on, was great for keeping my 2 year old out of that pocket. Next, yes there's a next on this list unfortunately, came the metal loop that hold one of the ends for the shoulder strap... fabulous as the shoulder was my main way of using the diaper bag since I have a 5 month old and a 2 year old and my hands are usually busy holding one of them or both of them. In fact that was one of my main criteria for a new diaper bag was that I had to be able to throw it over my shoulders... And finally, the big kaboom the zipper just came off yesterday... another big fa-bu-lous was muttered. In conclusion, I'm so freakin sick of this darn bag and this company in general... You see that price tag?!!!! No I didn't quite pay that- I got a 25% discount, but even that was absolutely ridiculous! My husband was just trying to spoil his moody, pregnant wife by buying me something pretty and all it does is break on him. I thought by buying a quality brand that it would last oh, say longer than a few months?!! But Nooooo.... we were very wrong there. So I'm off to good ol wally world to buy one for a fraction of the price that will probably last a whole lot longer than this one did.

!!!!!!

This evening Hailey went #2 on the potty for the first time- yipee!!!!Though she's probably going to hate me for taking this picture when she gets older I just had to capture the moment. I started screaming for joy and then I had to call Tim right away (he was on his way home at the time) so Hailey could tell him what she was doing.

We haven't really tried too hard with potty training up to this point, but she has shown some interest and I've gotten her to go #1 on the potty a few times. The weird thing is that we just finally went this afternoon to good ol wally world to pick up a potty chair for her. It's kind of funny though because it was still in the trunk of the car- I didn't have a chance to bring it in yet. Guess it's time to really start the whole potty training process with her. I really don't know what I'm doing at all, but here goes nothing. At least this means I can finally see an end to changing diapers for 2 and back to only changing 1 kids diaper again!

Elmo!!!

Yes we love Elmo in our house- at least Hailey does. And... I love Elmo too if it's going to get her to sleep in her new toddler bed. Last night was her 2nd night in the toddler bed and she did great again! We got super lucky and picked up this bed with the matching bedding for only $35 on craigslist!! I know it's sounds a little icky to buy used bedding, but it was in great shape and nothing that a good wash doesn't fix. My only problem with the bed is that it's a little boyish, but you know what, I really don't care. She keeps saying "seep elmo bed" and I can tell how much she just absolutely loves it!

More after pics of house- downstairs

Please be kind with these- there are no pics on the wall yet, dirty dishes in the sink, and toys everywhere (*GASP*-I know I'm human), but alas my poor blog-a-roo has been a little on the neglected side lately and these pics are long overdue.

View of kitchen- in here we got a brand spanking new fridge, tile floors, and a full tile backsplash. Another view of our kitchen. Entry way- new tile floors, paint, tore out icky old magazine rack that was on the wall underneath the window, and then framed in the door that would have been on the other side where the ottoman is. View of dining room from entry way- dining room got new paint, crown molding, and new floors. View of window seat that's in dining room. Laundry room- new floors and paint and our new (to us) washer and dryer. Thank you craigslist!!View of living room- new floors, paint, crown molding, and doorway was framed in to the right of that doorway!Another view of my living roomAnd then last, but not least our bathroom. This room got new tile floors, paint, new elongated toilet (those things are the ONLY way to go regardless of the size of your rear- they're just so much more comfortable and once you get one you will never go back to regular toilet seat!!), and a new cabinet that goes over the toilet for extra space.

More after pics of house-upstairs

The upstairs area was by far the easiest to take care of. Unfortunately though, we've been so stinkin tired of doing work on our house that it's taken us a whole extra month just to finish painting upstairs. I guess that's what happens when you work yourself so hard- your body just shuts down for a while and refuses to do any more work. Anyways, the upstairs was in pretty good shape when we bought the house so a fresh coat of paint and a good clean on the floors was about all it needed- yay!

View of Hailey's play area with only some of the toys- the rest are still downstairs waiting to be brought upstairs. Haha let's see how many of them remain upstairs.

View from the top of the stairs.

Another view of the girls room.

View of the girls room from the door.

To tell or not to tell?

Sooo... I've debated back and forth for the past day on whether or not to share this story because it's at the expense of my dear hubbie.... but then I decided what the heck! I guess I have to start from the beginning. We've both been wondering if I might be pregnant so I grabbed a few tests from the Dollar Store (love that place!!) and took one Friday morning. Luckily not pregnant right now, but these pregnancy tests are a little different than the typical ones you buy from the store. You have to pee into a cup, then use this dropper to put some onto the test strip. A little inconvenient, yes, but for one $1 who cares?!! Our most shallow cups are our glass ones that we use regularly, but I didn't see the big deal in using it because I rinsed it out and put it into the sink where the rest of the dirty dishes were sitting... yes I have dirty dishes in my sink- I"m not perfect!

Anyways... fast forward to later that evening. Tim and I had just finished painting the rest of the upstairs in our house and we were rinsing out the brushes in the kitchen sink. Tim then proceeds to pick up the cup, fill it with water, and DRINK OUT OF IT! Unknown to me, but he had been doing that ALL DAY LONG, LOL (I found that out a little later)!!! So then of course I have to tell him my story about peeing in the cup and he flips out! I start laughing so hard that I end up rolling on the ground laughing and now he has vowed to get me back. I insisted that wasn't fair because it's not like I did that to him on purpose and I had rinsed the cup out really well.

So that's why I've decided to share this experience... because one of these days he's going to get me back and I suppose I'm going to have to humiliate myself then and tell the rest of it. So I'm definitely going to be on my toes for a while, but Tim seems to have a knack for not forgetting things like this- ahh crap!

Count it!!

It's official- the weight loss is at 20 pounds now! You know what the really strange thing is though?!! I still look in the mirror and see a big fat blob... seriously what is wrong with me?!! I can definitely see it in my face, on the scale, and in how my clothes fit, but it's almost like I'm wearing "fat" goggles and my eyes refuse to see what's really there. Isn't it odd how as women we do that to ourselves?!! Well here's to trying to see myself differently =)

Like mother like daughter

Yep her shirt is pulled up- she decided to nurse her baby while I was nursing Hannah and I was finally able to take a pic of it. Sorry no nursing pics of me though... haha

And then laying with the baby and blankie afterwards- she's just such a sweetie sometimes!

I should probably wear an apron...

Everytime I work with flour I get it absolutely everywhere... lol!

But this is sooo worth it! Homemade tortillas!! I came across the recipe a few months ago and I've made these a few times now. They're super easy to make- and for me to say that you know that they are really easy- and a lot cheaper and healthier than buying them from the store =)

Recipe is: 2 cups flour 1/2 ts salt 1 cup water 3 tb olive oil

mix dry ingredients then stir in wet stuff. Knead 5-6 times on flat floured surface. Separate into 8 sections then roll those out onto floured surface and cook in pan that is sprayed well with cooking spray.

***Hint*** Use plenty of flour when rolling out.... And it's better to cook on low temp 2-3 and then see if your burner needs to be turned up or down and ENJOY!!!

Trunk or treat

We (me a little reluctantly) went to our new ward's trunk or treat this year. I guess it's because I have yet to really make any friends at all in the new ward and I definitely feel like an outsider. I miss my old ward- to me, it's my home ward because this is the ward I was baptized in, had both of my girls, watch Tim become active again, and made bunches of wonderful friends. I miss you all to pieces!!! And I hope that everyone knows that I only moved about another 10 minutes away so I plan on keeping in touch and maybe attending an activity here and there- so keep me informed! This year Hailey was Elmo and Hannah was a pumpkin- aren't they just stinkin adorable?!!

And of course a cute famliy pic =) It's still a little weird to see pics of us and to think that I'm a mom of two with a husband. The past 7 years since Tim and I have been together have flown by and I just feel super lucky to have him as my husband!! Our decorations... a little cheese ball-ish, but I still had fun with it.

And Hannah was an added decoration =)

Halloween fun

Of course we had to carve at least one pumpkin this year- but I had to go to 5 freakin stores to find a pumpkin! Well I suppose that I could have just went to 4 stores, but I tried to buy one at Safeway. I brought it up to the register and this little tiny pumpkin came to over $6- seriously?!! Yea it was some organic pumpkin... oooh special and they wanted to charge me over $1 per pound- I don't think so!!! So we tried one more store and all they had were gigantic ones, but oh well I guess it was better than nothing at all. We went a few days before Halloween this year- ya I know should have done it earlier, but what can I say life has been busy lately. Tim and I carved it and of course, I had to toast the seeds- YUMMY!!! By far the best part about buying a pumpkin. And I would totally buy another pumpkin right now just for the seeds, lol... but I'm really not joking there. These were before they were toasted while I was letting them dry out- they didn't make it that long for an after shot, haha!

Here is the big bad pumpkin...

All lit up...

This morning I hit up good ol Wally World for some clearance fun! I just loved how the day after the holiday everything with Halloween on it is half off!!! I picked up a few Christmas items, some new black tights, a few new decoration for next year, and of course a little candy- yum!

For all eternity

We did it!! On Oct 23rd Tim and I went to the temple for our first time and then we were sealed and had our girls sealed to us right afterwards. It was such a wonderful day and it completely flew by. My fabulously awesome friend Jenn took care of the girls for us so that we were able to be worry free- love you Jenn!!! We were so blessed to have many friends and family there with us so share in our special day. The temple brought forth so many feelings, but the strongest overall feeling I had was the constant feeling from the Holy Ghost that this was the best thing for myself and my family. The overwhelming feeling of my Savior's love surrounded me so intensely that just remembering that day brings tears of joy back to my eyes. Simply put (and I think I've heard this from others as well) the temple is beautifully simple and simply beautiful! I can't wait until we are able to go back again- hopefully soon!!- though having young ones can make that a little challenging, but when have I ever backed down to a challenge?!! Here is a pic of us right after we were all done.

Now you know I couldn't leave you without a good laugh...

Afterwards the entire family went to Applebee's for a bite to eat. Of course Hailey had to get into something and started bawling (I think this pic is hilarious... scroll down and you'll see why)

This is the culprit- she stuck her finger in, couldn't get it out, and, yes, she's done this many times since then as well... you would think that she would learn, but I suppose she is only 2 lol!

Who saves clothes for 4 years??

That's right- I DO! So as most who read this know, I've been saving my favorite size 8 Gap jeans for about 4 years. Yep I've been fat and overweight, but hey I'm a curvy woman and my weight goes up and down just like everyone else! Well it was about 2 weeks ago when I rewarded myself with the new size 10's and after a few days- they didn't fit!! So I whipped out my old jeans and bada bing they fit! I called Tim at work right away to share the good news! They are a little on the tight side, but I'm still losing so they'll fit like a dream in no time. I took my jeans that I had just bought back and the people at the store were super nice and let me exchange for a smaller size!

Now I'm not writing any of this to seem like I'm vain or anything. I'm really just that excited to be back into a size that I never in my life thought I would see again! I mean for the past few years I've been going into the stores to buy a bigger size so just the fact that I'm doing the opposite is just making me ecstatic! And... Tim's lost about 20 lbs as well and fitting back into smaller pant sizes too. I'm very glad that both of us are making our way back to healthier weights and that we're doing it together!

Why I shop at Lowe's

So we've had to purchase 2 new ladders recently. The 1st was bought from Sears. The 2nd was bought from Home Depot, which I never shop at. I originally went there because I was trying to find a ladder that would work with the ladder tray that I had bought from Lowe's because I wanted it desperately to help paint. So I'm in a hurry and walk all the way to the back of Home Depot carrying Hannah in her seat. Nobody says a word to me to see if I need help. I pick out my ladder and carry the ladder in one hand and Hannah in her seat in the other all the way back up to the front with NOBODY offering to help at all! Now I'm perfectly capable of carrying that- neither were very heavy, but come on- someone working there should have offered! Now this isn't my first bad experience with shopping there so that's why we've purchased all of our materials, supplies, etc. for fixing up our house from Lowe's... and we've spent about $5K on the house so far so they've definitely missed a good customer!

And fyi, EVERYTIME I go into Lowe's (and it's been probably about 30 times or so within the last month) I've been asked if I needed help! And I've gone by myself, with the girls, and with Tim. So there Home Depot and good riddance because you wont' ever get my business!

Happy 2nd birthday Hailey!

My baby turned 2 on the 9th... can you believe it?!! I sure can't believe that the past 2 years has flown by as fast as it has. We waited a week to celebrate her birthday this year because we had just moved into the new house last weekend and it would have been a pain. We had TONS of family over for her birthday last night. It's so nice to have a bigger home because we fit so much nicer than the squeeze to get everyone into our old home for hailey's bday last year. I made her cake- yes it's a little cheesy, but I had fun and everyone loved it! I'd actually really love to learn how to decorate them better... maybe that should be on my Christmas wish list then.Blowing our her candle. She demolished her cake and ice cream! One of her favorite gifts-ELMO!!! And to finish off the night... this video is hilarious! Adam, Tracy, and their kids gave this to Hailey. It's a coloring book, but when you open the back cover it sings this song (listen closely I'm pretty sure just about everyone has heard it). She wouldn't stop playign it over and over again!