thankful 22

22. Good people. I was in the shower when I heard something outside ... I hurried out to find Joe Webster's tree care in my yard, with a dead tree of mine cut down and a new tree about to be planted. I had talked with Joe about the tree but had decided to wait until next year to replace the tree and really I could do it myself because it wasn't huge. I ran out to see who told them to come and they said Joe wanted to take care of it so he replaced our maple with a new breed of dogwood for free. The thing is Joe had planted the maple too deep and so it died. The droughts and then monsoons we had didn't help either I'm sure, but I had called him several times to get help to save the tree when I saw it struggling and he thought it was just blistered from the heat. That was kind of him huh?

thankfuls 20 & 21

20. Answered prayers. I teach relief society and the lessons I've had lately have been challenging. So I was worried that this past Sunday's would be hard too. Surprisingly the subject was fascinating to me and I came across an amazing blog with references to everything so I could verify everything the author writes! It truly was an answer to my prayers and the lesson went off without a hitch!

21. Calm kiddos. I'm thankful the girls were in good, sweet, easygoing moods today! I've had several items on my to do list for months now and was finally able to cross them off! I also was able to clean the house, do laundry, do a little service, and make a few crafty things I've been meaning to do. I am zonked but happy. Thank goodness for Livy's nice nap, and play dough for Addie.

thankfuls 16-19

16. Down time. I took a little time to myself to catch up on some favorite TV shows and it really helped me relax. I then spent the next 5 hours on my feet cooking and cleaning up dinner, bathing girls, doing laundry, and such, but the hour I had to myself was wonderful!

17. Promptings. I'm grateful when I receive a prompting from the Holy Ghost, recognize it as such, and follow it. It truly is an amazing blessing. I heard once that if you followed every prompting and was close enough with the Lord you would never make a mistake. How amazing would that be???

18. Dates. Not the fruit variety. Jarom and I spent the evening out celebrating our 7th anniversary (a night early). We saw Breaking Dawn (not so great) and then had an incredible dinner at Conner's steak house. I am so grateful that after seven years I still look forward to date nights and time with my sweetie. I still look forward to him arriving home each day and I'm grateful for the love that we have. We are far from perfect but perfect for each other. He is my rock.

19. Birthdays. We are having Addie's 4th birthday party today due to next weekend being a holiday and the following weekend a vacay and then celebrate Scott's 22nd birthday tonight. Addie is having her party at Bananas. They are dressing each kid in a prince/princess costume, doing their hair/makeup/face paint, then they have a crowning ceremony, royal "tea" party, a royal ball, pizza party, cupcakes, and then making pucker powders (Pixie sticks). Addie is thrilled, I'm thrilled to not have to do cleanup. I love birthdays because they are such a special perfect time to show extra love for those you love and remember them and what makes them so special to you. Seeing Addie's excitement growing has been priceless.

thankful 14 & 15

Whew this month is just flying by!

14. Family Home Evenings. We do a large FHE with all of my family and sometimes some friends. It is so nice to have a spiritual discussion with the people I'm closest to, and I love watching Addie learn too. Livy isn't quite there yet, haha, but it will come! PS Having a yummy dessert waiting isn't too bad either! ;)

15. Food. I know this one is a no brainer, but I sure am grateful to have a pantry/cabinets/2 refrigerators/3 freezers of food!!! I am so grateful Jarom has provided so well for us so that I can buy food in advance so that I can rely off of my stockpile for at least a month or so if necessary. This came in handy when I had my miscarriage in 2009 because I was in such a funk from it I didn't have the energy or desire to grocery shop. It also is counseled that we have food storage, so I need to get back on the ball of building my supply. MMM... Food. (Dinner was a big salad with fried chicken tenders, avocados, a yummy ranch dressing, cheese, garlic toast... etc. It was SO delicious!)

thankful 13

So this is a little thankful but after apple cider and milk were spilled across my kitchen, Clorox wipes are my favorite item of the day. I realize they aren't eco friendly but man they make my life so much easier! I buy them in bulk at Costco and use them to clean just about everything. I seriously should buy stock in the Clorox business because between wipes, bleach, bleach pens, and Clorox 2 I use something of theirs at least twice a day! PS. Lysol wipes suck as do Kirkland brand when it comes to stainless.

thankfuls 6-12

6. Church. I'm so grateful to have been raised in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I can't imagine how life would be without knowing of the restored Gospel and I'm thankful my parents had open hearts and minds when the elders came a knocking.

7. My home. As I cleaned house Monday I thought about how blessed I was to have a nice home. Many of you probably know I really hate the look of the outside of our house but as I cleaned I appreciated having a home with nice features. Plenty of room for us, in a wonderful neighborhood and school district. And its ours. Ugly on the outside, cute on the inside. :)

8. Gorgeous weather. We had sunny 70s here this week and it was perfection. We took advantage of it and the girls played at the playground for hours. So nice.

9. New friendships. I have a new friend, Evelyn who is married to one of Jarom's friends from growing up. They recently moved back from UT and we've become close friends. Wednesday was her birthday so our hubbies watched the kids while we spent a girls day out having a yummy breakfast at Another Broken Egg (bacado omelets and cinnamon rolls... yum!!) followed by an hour massage at the spa, time in the steam room, a pedicure, Target trip, then the guys grilled steaks and we ate them with salad, some yummy garlic parm rolls I made, and a cheesecake! Perfect day. I'm grateful for my sweet new friend and the joy and insight she adds to my life. I'm also thankful my hubby has his friend back to hang out with who set up the whole day since I've had my spa giftcard forever! :)

10. Bunco. A friend from church set up a bunco group last August and asked me to join. So once a month I get a GNO with yummy food and great company. All the gals are from my Ward and I've really enjoyed getting to know them better. I look forward to it every month and always have a blast! Jarom is sweet to be sure to be home that night on time so I can go and I'm grateful for that too! Sometimes a little girl time away makes for a better mommy and I'm always ready to give my babies a big squeeze when I get home.

11. Veterans. I've been blessed to be born and raised in this great country where I'm free to do as I choose. I'm thankful for the veterans that have fought for my freedom and are currently fighting for my freedom.

12. Eternal families. A friend's dad passed away this morning. I can only imagine how they must feel during this difficult time. I know they must find peace in knowing their family is eternal. I'm so grateful to be bound to my family and it gives me great comfort to know that death is not the end. I'm so very thankful for my forever family.

thankfuls

I'm going to try to post my thankfuls for the month of November.

1. My sweet girls. They drive me nuts but they also bring the most joy. They adore each other and I often spy them holding hands, hugging, kissing cheeks, or brushing each others' hair. It makes the times when they are pulling hair and screaming worth it!

2. My hubby. He is so easygoing and easy to please. He works so hard for us. He's my eternal mate, my forever best friend. I love him.

3. Heaters. After being out in the nasty wet weather it felt so good to come home into a warm house.

4. Addie's preschool. When Trevor her best friend moved we went through a hard spell with Addie. I wasn't able to find her a school that felt like a good fit and inspiration led me to call a school I had called before and upon touring I knew it was where she belonged. Addie has made 3 new little girlfriends who are all within a month of her in age which was important to me since she is an older 3 and she now has friends to play with. I'm thankful I finally convinced the kids' moms that I'm not evil being LDS and we now all go to the playground every pretty day after school for a few hours. Addie still asks for Trevor all the time but at least her rough patch seems to be behind us. She LOVES school and her teachers are too cute!!

5. Good health. We've been hit by allergies and I've lost my voice again. I look toward to feeling great again soon and having the girls back to normal!

Makes me grin

Addie barely touched her lunch today even though it was one of her favorite's... chick fil a. So all afternoon I've been telling her to eat more chicken nuggets so we can go upstairs to play and to get the Halloween decorations out of the attic and she says to me, all exasperated but with a slight turn of her little mouth...

"Mom... I ate about 65!!!" (in reality she ate 1.)

Sigh. Did I mention 65 and 66 are her favorite numbers lately?

My poorly neglected blog and a quick update on my girls

Why has blogging become so hard for me?? The thing is I have at least 10 posts typed and ready for pictures, but I can't seem to sort through the darn pictures, edit them, upload them to photobucket, and get them posted.

When I actually have time to do so something always goes wrong... ie tonight my internet is literally slower than molasses. I tried to upload a picture without editing, and it seriously took 10 minutes to get to 25% before I just exited it. At least I have all of Livy's months typed and ready. But seriously between either Livy waking up early from sleeps, Addie or Livy needing something, someone wanting to come see our house, or me just being busy being a mom of two, I don't have a second to spare. I realized I used to blog during Addie's naps, but she quit naps when Livy arrived and I can only force a nap on Sunday when she's up super early.

Sorry to be so whiny but I HATE being behind! I'm gonna have to get a babysitter for 2 days straight to get caught up! LOL!

In the meantime, I suppose I'll keep typing up milestones before I forget them and saving them to my ever growing list of drafts! :)

PS. Livy turned 11 months yesterday and has been paci free for a week. She's standing up from the ground without assistance and climbs stairs like a pro much too quickly! Her favorite pastimes are pulling toys out of the toy box until she can't reach anymore or getting into my jewelry box. If no one is watching and someone has left the bathroom open, she darts for the toilet and plays in the water... NASTY! When that becomes old she pulls the toilet paper off the roll if no one has caught her yet. She is into EVERYTHING and has 10 words now. She loves to talk on the phone but mostly just says "hi" over and over with the occasional "bye". Livy weighs 17.6 lbs (20th percentile). Livy hated the sand and ocean this year, but loved the pool and being tossed in the air while we were in the pool. Finally the last day of the beach she warmed up to the sand and crawled everywhere.

Addie is a money driven gal. You can get her to do almost anything with the offer of earning money. She saved her money for 2 months to buy a 19" horse she named "Racey". She has been really into these little mini Barbie's target has in the checkout lane and has saved enough money to buy 2 so far, and she's now saving for another one. Addie is a huge helper, makes her bed everyday without being asked, puts her clothes in the hamper, wipes her own bum finally, buckles her own seat belt, and has gotten pretty good with her number and letter recognition. She LOVES to help me clean. She's memorizing books and loves to sing primary songs. Her favorite is "I love to see the temple". She HATES to wake up early for church, is extremely jealous of Livy's nursings because she wants to cuddle with me, so after Livy nurses usually Addie gets to have some one on one cuddle time. I'm trying to get Addie excited for her new twin bed we'll be putting her in this week instead of the toddler bed, but she's not having it, even despite all the pink I'm offering her. Livy's more than outgrown the bassinet portion of the pack and play and so Addie's bed has to go back to the crib. She really is a sweet little girl, even if she is SUPER opinionated and bossy at times. I wonder where she gets that from??? ;) Addie weighs 27.8 lbs when stuffed to the brim. I think that placed her in 3rd percentile?

Night y'all!

Nummy!

Papa gave Livy a lemon at longhorn  to watch her make a face but she surprised us all and loved it! In fact she got really upset when I took it away from her.  Stinker!

February, 5 months for Livy Lou, Addie my drama momma, and more!

In January we started Livy on rice cereal and a little "adult" food like mashed potatoes and such because she was so interested in our food!

Right before her first bite of rice cereal!
She was already grabbing food off our plates at dinner at 5 months! By March we so I got the go ahead from our doctor to start real baby food! Here's Livy's first taste of rice cereal on January 23rd, the day after she turned 4 months (I forgot to post this with my January post).


Livy wanted my ice cream sandwich so I gave her a taste... nummy!I also got tired of eating the same ole same ole and looked up some new recipes! Check out the grilled cheese pesto panini's on allrecipes.com, because they were SO good!!!

Livy started working her arms out of the swaddle sack no matter how tightly I swaddled her. It made for some not so fun nights with her waking up several times! She also had a dr checkup on February 9th and weighed in at 14.6 lbs (50th percentile) was 25.75" long (80th percentile) and her head was 16" (25th percentile). Livy continued to become more lively each day and got to where she'd gab every moment she was awake. Little loud mouthed frog!

While we were there we also finally did Addie's 3 year checkup and Addie weighed in at 24.4 lbs (3rd %) and 35.5" tall (10%). Both girls had shots in their legs and bawled their eyes out, but Addie really was dramatic over the shots!!! She said she wanted shots like sissy while we were at the doctor until they gave her shots. Then she wouldn't quit crying and seriously hobbled around the entire day whining. The funny thing is that if you had something fun for her to do she'd run around no problem, but otherwise she was hurting "soooooo bad". Haha! After their immunizations.It snowed again that night some but luckily not too much, but the roads iced over and weren't really safe for driving until the next afternoon.

Addie cheering up sissy while I made up my bed (hence all the pillows thrown in with Livy)

I bought some Valentines for Addie to hand out to her "fwiends" and she had SUCH a fun time picking out which one went to which person and drawing on them. She picked out "princess" cards and we added a little treat to each one and passed them out. It made her SO happy.


We celebrated Valentines Day at Mom and Dad's house with Mom's annual Valentines day the Sunday before Valentines Day. She made a yummy meal as usual and had a blast! Then on Valentines Day Addie and Livy both got a rose and a little foam frame covered in hearts from their "boyfriends" Trevor and Christian, and Trevor also got Addie a little heart balloon on a stick and a box of chocolates! Addie was over the moon and had to then of course bring Trevor a card and some chocolates. Addie spent the day finger painting cards for everyone in the family, then we set the table and picked up some "bubbly juice" (sparkling cider) and a cheesecake and had a delicious dinner!

I had her make the cards in the bathroom so it would make for easy clean up... haha!Messy hands!!One of Addie's pretty cardsWe ordered in Steak Out at home so I didn't have to cook. It was super yummy and relaxing.

The Friday after Valentines Day Jarom and I decided to go on a much needed date. We tried Conner's steak house at Bridge Street for the first time. We had Boursin Filets (filet's with boursin cheese and thin fried onion strips on top), salads, mashed potatoes, and their house made strawberry ice cream. The meal was INSANELY delicious. Seriously amazing (and way expensive). YUM.

Addie decided in February that she wanted to be a baby again. So she started wanting to wear footed jammies again (she's refused them since she started walking at 14 months) and she wants to be held a lot. It's been fun. Most of the time she'll act like a big girl, but it is usually when I have a million things going on that Addie feels the need to be a baby. Oh well, she's only little once right? Or in her case twice??? :)

Random funny: One day the dogs were barking outside and Addie said "I heared a kangaroo!"

My dearest friends... aren't we purdy???We had a surprise 30th birthday party for our dear friend Ron at our house on the 23rd. I love this group of friends SO much!!! The Birthday Boy RonWe heard Addie and Trevor laughing like crazy in the other room and this is how we found them... having a tea party. Apparently it was hilarious!The whole group...

We also celebrated Mom's 54th birthday in February! She and Dad rented a cabin on the mountain and we went up that evening for a cook out and party! We had a great time and can't wait to get back up there when it's warm so we can enjoy the outdoors! Mom got a DSLR as her main present and she's been clicking cute pictures since... maybe she'll start blogging again now... ;)

And here's a couple cute videos from the beginning of February of Addie making Livy laugh. Addie entertained Livy while I took my showers before Livy got old enough to sit up.




That wraps up our February!

January

Life has been so busy the past few months! I can hardly catch my breath at night before another whirlwind day begins. I guess I'd better begin my catch up... starting with after the snow in January.

After all the snow we got cabin fever. I didn't want to get out around all the flu bugs going around so we spent lots of time visiting family and playing with our germaphobic friends. ;) See the apron Mimmie is wearing? I made it for her at my first year of Young Women's Camp at Camp Jackson in 1999. She wears it every time she cooks.
One of Addie's favorite things to do is to help in the kitchen and she LOVES to make tea cakes with Mimmie. So Mimmie and Addie made tea cakes and tea cake dolls during one of our visits in January. So fun! One thing that stands out in my mind from growing up and visiting Mimmie is she always had Red Hots for when we made tea cakes. Addie loved decorating with the Red Hots.



We spent lots of time with our friends too! We enjoyed a dinner out at PF Changs one night and Addie and Trevor were too cute with the horses out front. Addie got scared by the time I pulled out my camera, but they are so fun together!Darn me for not having my good camera with me at all times! They are so sweet together. Today Addie told Grandma on the way home from the library "I'm gonna marry Trevor and Trevor is gonna marry me! We are gonna live in a house tree and we are gonna swim in it and have lots of toys. Then I'm gonna have a baby in my tummy!"... oh dear! LOL!
In other January news... our utility bill was a whopping $790!!! And we kept the thermostat between 70 and 72! That tells you how frigid our winter was because we have new vinyl windows!

Yet another reason...

Why I LOVE my man.

When I do this....

He does this...

Is there anything hotter than a man working with tools??? Yep... when he's helping you to fix your mistake WITHOUT complaining OR being asked to help WHILE using tools, haha. I sure do love my handy man who so graciously helped me fix my novice uh oh.

And let me explain... my table was a wreck... scratches, marks, finish coming off, etc. So I got the bright idea to whitewash it so it'd be all purdy to match my new kitchen. And 4 coats of whitewash later, some sanding and a good wipe and it looked gorgeous. Then I went to seal it. And I used lacquer instead of polyacrylic because that is what the girl in the tutorial online used... And that's when all heck broke a loose. My gorgeous whitewash started coming up and the lacquer acted as a paint remover... GAH. So as I cried in the garage I knew I'd have to sand it down and start over. So I try to sand it once it was dry (it was a fast drying lacquer) and it started goo-ing up on me. More tears happened and I went to bed defeated. I wouldn't normally have been SO stressed except Bunco was at my house the next night... and you have to have a table to play Bunco on!!! Luckily Jarom got it sanded to a gorgeous fresh ready to paint surface, I stained it, sealed it, whitewashed it 4 times, lightly sanded it, and sealed it twice to perfection. (Sorry this is the only pic I have of the finished product.)

(And then last week while making the girls Memorial day dresses I put a nice gouge in my perfection... UGH!)

Mini Shoot

Check out http://agalwithacamera.blogspot.com/2011/04/mini-shoot-ii.html for more pictures of Livy and Addie from a few weeks ago! We almost didn't make it to the mini shoot sessions Becki was doing at my friend's play group (we left for NM that day for Gramps' funeral), but I just shoved it into that jam packed day and I'm so glad I did! Becki got some great shots! Thanks Becki, I can't wait to get these printed!

Livy at 4 months

Just was looking through my posts that I never completed and realized I forgot to post this... Oops!

At four months Livy:

• Blows raspberries ALL the time... she is constantly soaked in drool.
• is teething big time. She gnaws on everything and her gums have widened out.
• wants to eat everything we are eating. She gets very loud and will start fussing if you don't feed her something while you eat. Even if she just nursed.
• Since she wants to eat all the time she's had a lot of new foods! She loves ice cream, mashed potatoes, and basically anything we will give her.
• She has mastered eating from a spoon. She eats up every bite of rice cereal that I give her.
• Didn't like the prune juice I was supposed to give her every day to help her go to the bathroom, so I now mix it with cereal and she LOVES it.
• Rolls over in both directions
• still doesn't like tummy time. In fact as I write this she flipped herself to her back and is much happier.
• is a VERY happy baby. She smiles at everyone but still only likes to be held by a select few if Momma isn't near. She melts down quickly if she realizes I'm not there and a stranger is holding her. If I am there she'll tolerate someone holding her for about 5 minutes.
• LOVES LOVES LOVES her sister. Addie keeps her laughing and they laugh over the silliest things.
• Is a bit of a chunk. She got the chunkiest little cheeks and bummy. I love to kiss those little chubby cheeks! She looks like she's got food stuffed in them.
• Weighs 14.6 lbs and is 25.75" tall. That puts her in 50th% in weight and 80th% height! Her head is 16" which is 25th%. If she keeps growing at this rate she'll pass up Addie! Addie was at this weight at around 8 months old and Addie currently weighs only 24.4 lbs fully dressed (3rd%) and is 35.5" (10th%).
• Did okay with the 4 month shots. 2 months shots were awful on her. We had sleep disruptions for about 2 weeks when she didn't want to nap and woke up at night for her paci, but we seem to be back to normal now. (Addie had to have shots too and hobbled around for 2 days begging to be carried and crying constantly but then would be fine if we offered to go play outside or something else fun... silly girl!)
• Isn't too interested in the TV. I don't really let Addie watch TV much anymore so it's never on for Livy to see.
• Is getting better on working with her hands. She can get her paci in her mouth most of the time now without too much trouble.
• Still sleeps swaddled... if I don't swaddle her she doesn't sleep for long.
• Has been working out of her swaddle sack at night and waking herself up. So the past few nights I've made it a little tighter and she's slept great! It'd make me claustrophobic but she seems to be very comforted by it.
• Can drink from a straw! She was doing great with water in a cup with a straw until I gave her a sip of lemonade and she really didn't like it and now likes to chew on the straw more than she likes to drink out of it... sigh. Maybe I'll use the trick I did with Addie and give her a straw with milkshake to get her to stop chewing and start drinking more. :)

Gramps and our trip to New Mexico

I'm so glad we made the trip to Tulsa, OK last summer for a week to spend time with Grams and Gramps Haynie along with the rest of the family. We didn't realize at the time that it would be the last time we got to see him. Addie got to meet Gramps and I got to know Gramps better. I had only met Gramps the night before my wedding and really hadn't gotten a lot of time with him. It was a fun trip and memories were made. At one point during the trip I was in the kitchen cleaning and he was sitting at the table. He looked at me and said "What are you doing?? Get over here and talk to me, I have stories to tell you!" So I listened to his stories for hours. I'm so glad I did.

Sadly our sweet Grampa Haynie passed away Tuesday March 29th. We had gotten a text informing us he wasn't doing well the Saturday prior but no one realized how badly he was doing. As soon as he heard the news we scrambled to find airline tickets. We had just about decided that we were not going to be able to go out for the funeral due to the insane cost of the tickets when we found a great deal flying out of Nashville. We packed up and headed out the next day and were able to be there for Grandma and Dad Haynie during the very difficult time.

It was nice to meet all of the family I've only "known" through facebook and to remember Gramps while spending time with the family. I'll never forget what Grandpa Haynie told me the night before I married Jarom as I was meeting him for the first time... "you don't want to marry him!" and he didn't even crack a smile. As he sat wearing his overalls and baseball cap I knew I loved him immediately.

Gramps and Grams with their three kids

From top left: Mary, LaVor, Linda, Gramps, Grams
Unfortunately Addie and I were suffering from allergies before we left for New Mexico and didn't feel 100%, but figured the NM air would dry us right up! Livy did really well on her first plane ride and even sat in a high chair for the first time when we were at the airport (Delta lost our stroller and carseat so we were forced to try it out for the first time!) We got to New Mexico safely and Delta somehow managed to reroute our stroller and carseat so that by the time we got our luggage to leave for Belen our stroller and carseat arrived! Thank goodness!

Livy got sick for the first time that first night there with a virus that ended up being passed along to me, Addie, Jarom and who knows who else. :( Until Addie and I got sick, we did some exploring.Gramps didn't believe in throwing things away! Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without! Before I ever met Gramps I heard stories of the old traincar he had moved to their house. Jarom remembers so fondly the summer he, Dad, and Gramps built a dirtbike/motorcycle from all the bike parts Gramps had around and they got it up and running! I loved this shot. Some of Gramps' treasures he found over the years.We had a very eventful rest of the trip with the pukes and Addie puked for the first time ever on the plane home and then the nasty virus kept going around our family for 2 weeks. Sadly since I was sick I didn't get many pictures with my camera like I wanted. I sent Jarom with my camera to the burial so that he could get a few shots.
We miss our Gramps badly, he was so funny and sweet. Keep watch over us Gramps until we are together again.