Some people are just so sweet =)

I was out shopping at Kohl's this morning, which I love by the way. They actually have good clearance prices, plus you can use their 15% off coupons on top of the clearance prices..... aweeeesoommmeee!!! I was out shopping for the new house- yes I know we haven't closed yet, but I've gotta start getting stuff while it's cheap and on sale. So my grand total came to just under 125...., BUT I SAVED 215!!!

Anyways, it took a while for me to check out and while I was standing there I chatted it up with this really nice lady who asked if she could Hailey would like a Pooh Bear that they had near the register. I didn't really feel like I could say no- they were only $5- and it just made Hailey's and that lady's day. So of course I had to take a cute lil pic of Hailey with her new stuffed animal.

And then Hannah didn't get anything out shopping today, but she's still cute as can be and talking a lot now!

Super savers!!

I'm very careful what I buy, what the price is, etc... basically a cheap skate, but hey if I can get good stuff for cheap then why not?!! I really want to get more into couponing once we get settled into our new home, but for now I'm just dabbling in it. I thought I should share my latest deal while you could still capture on it yourself.

Check out http://www.familyboundmom.com/

This site is awesome!!! Right now on restaurant.com you can get a $25 gift certificate for only $2!! How is that you might ask?!! Well they usually have them on sale for $10, but when you go to checkout enter the code CLEARANCE and it takes the discount off for you! Awesome right?!! I bought $175 worth of gift certificates for only $14!!! Sometimes they have certain stipulations that you have to watch out for, like having to spend at least $35 or not on certain holidays, etc. but that's usually not a problem for my family!!

My personal battle ...

I've been a little overly obsessed with the scale lately... really not kidding there. I'm dying to work out harder, but my weights and awesome workout dvd's are all packed away... Soon I keep telling myself cause we'll be in our new home very, very soon. For now I'm just trying to cut back on excess snack a roos, watch what I'm eating better, drink more water, and taking a walk almost every evening with the hubby and kids.

See I lost my baby weight within about a week and a half after having Hannah this time, which I was ecstatic about because it took me at least 2 months with Hailey. But I have 2 big problems right now.
1) I had my share of "extra" on me when I got pregnant with both of my girls so though I've lost the weight that I gained while pregnant I still have a ways to go. And yes, I realize I should be happy with losing that weight alone, but I feel this uncontrollable urge to slim down and I've learned in life that you aren't going to lose weight until you're ready.... well I'M READY NOW!!! So have to take every opportunity while I'm still willing- and not pregnant anymore!!
2) I had a c-section with Hailey- it was an unplanned surgery though it could have been planned. She was my breech baby, but for some ridiculous reason my stupid drs didn't know she was breech.... until after over 30 hrs of labor!!! No I didn't see the same dr again, yes the c-section could have possibly been prevented and at least tried to turn the baby, and yes I have bad feelings toward it still.
I'm not sure whether it was the shock of unexpected surgery or just how my body reacted to it, but it wasn't good for me. I have an absolutely huge fat flab that hangs over my scar line from the surgery. I have absolutely no idea how women have flat tummies after having a c-section cause I don't!! It's so bad that I look freakin pregnant with clothes on still- helloooo body- my baby is almost 3 months old now so definitely not pregnant anymore! I have not worn anything but jeans that help to suck in my gut this summer because I'm that paranoid about it... I wear those shaper thingies underneath my skirts and dresses to help suck it in when I have to dress up. I realize that there's about a 100% possibility that I would still have excess around the mid section regardless of having a c-section or not and I was never the skinniest person to begin with... So my expectations aren't to have the flattest tummy ever.... but seriously the flab is in extreme excess and has gotta go! I'm not even kidding in the slightest when I say that I'm considering a nice tummy tuck for myself once I'm done having kids!

But to end this on a positive note- I'VE LOST 5 LBS!!! Yipeee!!! It's working so far. It's a slow process, but I'm ok with that. I know that losing slowly is better for your body and I'm just so happy I could pee my pants with the results so far!!!

Time to move again

Tuesday we finally heard the word- the bank had accepted our offer including the closing costs that we had asked for! We have both felt all along that this was the right house for us and that we were being led towards this home starting off with Tim's parents letting us live with them during this crazy time and trying to find a new house. First, the house had been on the market for about a month and a half, but no one else had even made an offer. Then the house was right in our price range and had just about everything we needed in a home. Next, the house is literally right across the street from where Tim's mom grew up so the family thinks it's really neat. And then now we really didn't have to wait much more than about a month, which is great for a short sale home, especially since the sellers had their mortgage between 2 banks. We've also locked in a really, really low rate of 4.375 % and that might go down a little lower too! We just feel so blessed with this house situation.

But after all of those feelings I still feel conflicted and that all revolves around church. Now we're going to have to actually switch our records over. I'm sad to leave the ward because this is the ward where both of my girls were born. It's the ward where I was baptized and got to see my wonderful husband become active again and become the true leader in our home. I've finally gotten to know people in the ward enough to where I don't sit alone at activities or have nothing to say anymore.... but that's where my sadness ends. I've made friends, but Tim hasn't and so we hardly ever do anything with other couples in the ward. Mainly we just show up at ward activities and after the last one, Tim said he was refusing to go again... why you might ask??? Not a single person besides myself said anything to him. Not a one at all. Now we live a good half an hour away from our building and he thought it was pointless to drive all that way just to talk to me when he could have done that at home. How can I argue with that?? The only thing that has probably kept Tim coming to church is his testimony and his family because he tells me that almost every week he sits by himself in elder's quorom- the only time anyone really talks with him is about 4 people and sorry, but not naming names right now. And to make matters worse since we've moved out into the valley I've even been feeling very out of touch with people in our ward. We've both been very close to switching over our records to Tim's parents ward even for just a short while. Literally, their building is 5 minutes away... so basically the only reason that we've been driving all that ways is to keep in touch with people.

Overall I think that we're both glad for a fresh start. The past few years have been very difficult for us with the complete 180 that we did with our lives. Once we did that we basically had to be very careful what we did and we lost a lot of the close friends that we had before. As I've gotten older I've realized how important it is to keep friends around with similar values as you have, especially when your kids are involved. I just wish that we could have established some better friendships in our ward. I know I've made a few good friends that I feel lucky to have met, but I wish that I could say the same for Tim. It really makes me sad on our drive home from church to ask him about his classes to get the same response every sunday. He loves church and has a wonderful testimony and I'm so thankful for that because if it weren't for that I'm not sure we would be in the same position we are now as we're both ready to go to the temple together now. I'm very thankful for where we are in life and I can't deny feeling very blessed lately! I'm really just hoping that a new ward will bring a new start for us as well!

Kids Day

Last Saturday we went down to Riverfront Park for Kids Day. They had all sorts of neat booths for the kiddos and we're definitely going to head down again next year. Of course she loved the jumpy bounce toys!

Waiting for Clifford! This was the first time she saw him when we were waiting in line.

Though she was really excited to see him, she was absolutely terrified to go near him, lol! Silly me forgot her suit and towel. Luckily it was really hot out because there was no keeping her out of the water. This was right after another bigger boy soaked her by messing with one of the water shoots, lol!

Happy Birthday Mom

Last Monday, yes I know that this is a little belated, we went out for mi madre's birthday! My pile camera was wigging out so the pics are a little odd.

Family pics

My very talented friend Jandre took these. We just spent a few hours walking around Manito and taking advantage of the beautiful scenery. I'm super happy with how these turned out and these aren't even half of the ones that she took. I will definitely have her always take these from now on. She's just started up and if anyone needs pics done I would definitely recommend her to anyone I know. To check out more of her work see her blog at http://www.sherwoodphotographs.blogspot.com/.

My super cute baby!

She is super photogenic already! I just love making her smile and coo and I think that I could take about a million pictures everyday!

Another 'gross' adventure

Warning this is a little on the gross side, but funny enough to share. I went into Hailey's room this morning and this is what I found. If you look closely all of her clothes are off. Now I didn't even know that she could get all of her clothes off... guess I do now! Not quite sure how I'm going to make sure that this doesn't happen again tonight, but we're going to have to be creative! Yes, that is a big ol' poo stain- GROSS!!!Yes a bath was in order IMMEDIATELY! Nice and clean now.

Fun at Manito

Last Friday evening Manito had free live music and snacks at the little food shop. We brought our blanket and enjoyed a fabulous evening! Then we went up to the splash pad and toy area for a bit.Hailey was very possessive of the horsie. Anytime another kid would get onto it she would run over and say "my neigh neigh". Even Hannah got in on the fun too!

Greenbluff

There are so many neat farms up at Greenbluff and one of the farms has pony rides for kids and I knew that Hailey would love that. We packed up the kids and headed up Friday afternoon, but hardly any of the attractions were open. We're definitely going to have to go back up at least one more time later this fall. I guess they must only do those on the weekends when they are having the festivals. We let Hailey play for a while in their dried pea 'sandbox' and then feed the goats. They even gave us a show while butting heads! Hailey literally screamed in delight when she was watching that, lol!

My big baby

She loves to do everything Hannah is doing and I'm not quite sure how she managed to get in here, but she did! Surprisingly though she really hasn't been jealous of Hannah so far, which is fabulous.

Hannah at 2 months old!!!

I just can't believe that my sweet little girl is already 2 months! The time has really flown by and I've found this baby to be so much easier than Hailey was. She had her check up yesterday and is already 11lbs 13 oz and almost 23 inches! She's starting to smile and coo a lot and it's just a blast once they reach this age.