New Landscaping

I guess the universe has decided that it is time for us to do some new landscaping in our front yard. This is what our house looked like this morning after about 6 hours of very intense wind. I'd say we woke up to it, but there wasn't much sleeping going on at our house last night as we listened to the wind, occasionally hearing stuff hit our house. (I'm pretty sure we were hearing our neighbor's roof shingles.)

We lost all four of our trees in the front yard, including the enormous pine tree, and our little apple tree in the back yard.

As you can see, the pine tree also took out half the flower bed, a bunch of grass and tore up three sprinkler lines when it went down.

This is how it looked this afternoon after our wonderful neighbors helped us cut up the trees so that we and our next door neighbors could access our garages. We are so grateful that the trees didn't damage our home and that we live in a place were people look out for each other. There was a group of men and teenage boys with chain saws going around our neighborhood helping clear up fallen trees all day long. Our neighborhood looks pretty bad with trees and fences down all over the place and blown off shingles and debris everywhere.

I'm a little sad at how drastically our yard has changed in the last 24 hours. At least I won't have to rake up pine needles any more, and I can plant a tree that I like in place of that big pine tree.

Darn It Barbie

Emily asked me today if her barbie was Darn It Barbie. I couldn't figure out where she would have gotten that from until Max pointed out that is what Ken says on Toy Story 3. So now Emily has Snow Wipe Barbie and Darn It Barbie. Both who love to parade around our house naked. You gotta love how a two year old's mind works.

Emily decided to give herself a haircut. I guess she doesn't realize how long it's taken for her hair to get to this point! She also took a piece out of the top and cut Max's in a couple of spots. She is now banned from using scissors.

Ornery Mom

I had a bad mom day today. One of those days where I'm tired, so I'm impatient with my children, they act out, I don't react in the calmest way and we go in this cycle ALL DAY LONG. I must have said, "You guys aren't listening to me!" 599,325 times today. These are the days I wonder if I deserve to have one child, let alone three. The days I wonder what I am doing as a mother. The days I feel like everyone around me is thinking what a bad mom I am because I feel like my children are out of control. I'm sure we all have these days, at least I hope all moms have these days. I just always think that at least I can start over tomorrow.

Escape!

After asking me repeatedly if he could go to his friends house, (I was on the phone with my sister and kept putting him off) Max decided to take matters into his own hands and took off out the front door with Emily in tow. I quickly ended my phone call and grabbed some shoes and took off down the street after them. And while I was mad that Max hadn't listened and followed my directions, the sight of him and Emily running down the sidewalk, hand in hand, as fast as their little legs could take them, was so cute I couldn't help smiling. Apparently Max said to my neighbor when she told him he should show me where they were going, "No! She's trying to catch us!"

It's a . . . .

For those of you who don't already know, we are expecting baby number 3 in the middle of July and we found out today that we are going to be having another . . . . girl!! I'm actually a little surprised since I've felt almost exactly like I did with Max so I thought we would be having another boy! We are happy to get either, since they are both so much fun in different ways. I guess that's a perk of already having one of each. (Max is very insistent that we are going to have just a baby, not a boy baby or a girl baby, so we're interested to see how he handles the fact that our baby will have a gender.)

Updates and Excuses

I'm sorry it's been so long since I've posted. I have to admit that I've been letting a lot of things slide the last month, and blogging was definitely one of them.

First off a few updates. No, our internet has not been down for the last two months, although it isn't technically fixed either. It works good, if a little slow, most of the time. The problem is our equipment needs to be replaced, but it's on top of our very steep, snow covered roof. We didn't feel it was worth our internet tech guys life to get it fixed since it usually works. Hopefully they will be able to get it back up to speed in March when the weather starts to warm up a bit.

Also, Max was able to take off his boot the Monday before Christmas. We have another appointment this week to check and see if his leg is healed all the way and have only had to put him back in his boot a few times since Christmas. (Technically we were supposed to be weaning him off of his boot for the last month, but I guess I took some parental liberties and sped up the process. It was just so nice having him in regular clothes and shoes.)

No Internet

So we've been having major problems with our internet the last week. Usually it doesn't work at all. I was able to get into my google reader account today and check the 160 unread posts that had built up during my internet hiatis, but when I tried to comment on a post I ran into problems. Hopefully we'll be up and running before too long. You don't realize how dependent we are on the internet until you don't have access. It's very frustrating!! We haven't dropped off the face of the earth, but it sometimes feels that way.

Marseilles Dress SHABBY APPLE GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Marseilles Dress SHABBY APPLE GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

One of my favorite blogs to follow is Grosgrain. She does the most amazing things with her sewing machine and has a lot of giveaways, which I never enter because I'm not teeny like she is, but I love looking at her creations. I just couldn't pass this giveaway up, though, since the Shabby Apple makes beautiful dresses and you get to pick your size. I only wish it was this red one that I LOVE!

Those Silly, Quirky Kids!

I've been tagged twice in the last little while to post seven quirky things about myself, and try as I might I cannot think of one single thing to write. I am sure that I have some quirky things that I do, but my brain will just not function to help me recall them. Instead I've decided to write some quirky things about my two little squirts. Here goes:

- One of Emily's bum cheeks is bigger than the other one. (related side note: Emily has the cutest, chubby bum which is a little out of place on her not chubby body and I think I'm a little obsessed with how cute it is.)

- Max has become very particular about what he is wearing to the point that he has even begun to outright refuse to wear one particular orange stripped shirt anymore. If his outfit looks a little strange it's because he picked it out himself. This is one battle I'm choosing not to fight.

- Emily doesn't really laugh very often. Instead she does a kind of "huffing" sound when she's excited about something.

- Max dips his vitamin in whatever we are having for breakfast that day, whether it's eggs, oatmeal, pancakes, etc.

- Sometimes when Emily cries she blows raspberries at the same time.

- Max really likes to use his utensils, so if he is having a hard time spearing food with his fork, he'll pick it up with his hands and stick it on his fork instead of just putting it in his mouth.

- I'm not sure if all kids do this, but both of my kids like to get in this position when they are in the crawling phase. I like to say they are doing their yoga.

FALL !!!

Fall is here!! There are so many things that I love about this time of year. I love getting out my sweaters and warm clothes - I love sweaters! I love the crisp, cool air and the changing of the leaves. I love the anticipation of Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. I love it when the heater kicks on and you feel all nice and cozy inside your warm house when it's stormy and cold outside. I love that snow is coming. I even love the nights getting longer with the changing of the seasons. It's just my most favorite time of the year!

In the last few days...

I had about eight inches cut off my hair. I've been in need of a haircut for a while and have been wanting to go short again but kept putting it off. With family pictures this weekend and Curtis getting married next week I finally got motivated to get it done. Now I just have to figure out how to get my bangs to look all cute like the lady at the salon did. I'm open to tips or recommendations.

Emily figured out how to pull herself up onto her feet! After spending several weeks getting up to her knees she finally had success. When I walked in her room and saw her standing she had such a proud and excited look on her face.

We had an unexpected visit from Veronica and Victoria Rojas. Jeff (and his missionary companion Steve) taught and baptized the Rojas family about thirteen years ago while serving his mission in Tacoma, Washington. It was so fun to get to spend a few hours catching up with them. I love getting a glimpse into what his life was like for the two years that he was on his mission.

Max played dress up for the first time. I guess it was inevitable with all of his girl cousins that Max would catch the princess fever. The last two times we have gone to the DI he has wanted to hold a princess dress from the costume rack while we are wandering the isles. (We go there about once a week to look for books, puzzles, etc. - it's a cheap way for us to kill a little time.) Well, when we went to my mom's this Sunday for Conference, Ellie had brought her Snow White dress down with her and Max wanted to wear it, too. I think maybe it's time to invest in some boyish play clothes for him.

The Nie Nie Dialogues

For several weeks now I have been running across posts out in the blogging world about Stephanie Nielson, of the Nie Nie Dialogues. She and her husband were in a plane crash in August and are both still in the hospital undergoing some major recovery. I finally linked onto her blog when I found out she is originally from Utah and is LDS and was so touched by her writing that it has been consuming my free time for the past couple of days. I can see why she has touched so many people and inspired such a responce to this tragedy. If you are intersted in reading her blog you can link to it here.

random weekend pics

We didn't really do anything that exciting over the weekend, but I wanted to post some cute pictures of the kids so you'll have to bear with me. (Or skip it all together, I guess! :) )

We went to the park right by our house with Ellie Friday night while we were watching her. She and Max had a fun time running after each other and up and down the toys. (That's really all the little kids can do at our park. We just got new park toys a couple of months ago and it is basically four different kind of monkey bars, a completely vertical rock wall, and this bouncy thing they are sitting on. After being so excited to get new toys I was pretty angry. Where's our slide!?!)

I got some really pretty pictures of Ellie but, of course, couldn't get Max to lift his head up or look at me. What a stinker! And what a beauty Ellie is!

Max is looking pretty stylin' in this old pair of sunglasses he likes to grab out of the back closet.

Emily had her first cake on Saturday at our annual neighborhood "Eat in the Street". She's probably a little young, but she was so fussy unless I was putting cake in her mouth! ;) We had quite a bit leftover, so she got some more after dinner on Sunday and I just let her have at it and make a big old mess. (I'm normally a bit of a neat freak when it comes to food.)


Emily took her first bath in the big tub tonight! She loved splashing in the water and being able to play with toys and Max loved having someone to play with for bath time. Unlike Max, she has loved bath time since she was born. (Max screamed for the first three or so weeks the entire time he was being washed, dried, lotioned, and dressed. Jeff always said he didn't mind because at least we knew why he was crying. So much of the time we had no idea.)

A nerdy confession:

Recently Jeff and I have gotten hooked on "Battlestar Galactica". Jeff's co-worker owns the first three seasons (they're on the fourth and final season right now) and had lent Jeff the first disc. We watched it a couple of Saturdays ago and, if gas prices weren't so high, there's a good possibility that I would have sent Jeff to go get the next disc the following day. Instead I had to settle for Jeff calling him Sunday to ask if he would bring the rest of the disks to work on Monday. In some ways it really brings back my days of watching reruns of "Star Trek: the Next Generation" with my brother at ten every night, although I wouldn't really say the shows are very similar. In case you had any doubts that the creator of this show was a nerd, he has invented his own swear word, which still makes me laugh half of the time they use it. The up side to this, though, is that the swearing isn't really an issue, which is nice since it is a Sci-Fi network show. (You do need to watch out for the love scenes.) If your a fan of "LOST", you will probably really like this show. It has a lot of suspense, mystery and good dialog that make it really fun to watch. I always love it when Jeff and I have a show that we can watch together after the kids are in bed. Now we just have to work on moderation so that we still get enough sleep!

Aargggg!

I know that all kids make mischief and get into things, but come on! I would just like to be able to go for a few hours without telling Max, "Stop that!", "Get off of there!", "Put down that knife!", "Don't eat that cube of butter!", etc. My house reached the point of crazy baby proofing before Max was eighteen months old yet he is still constantly finding new things to get into and ways to drive his mom a little crazy. I know I'm not alone in this, but I needed to do some venting after finding him in his room with every single wipe pulled out of the (full) wipes container and then wadded into a ball and shoved back in.

Lovin' them socks

Max has been developing a sense of style recently. He has become a little choosy about what he will and will not wear. The socks have got to be my favorite, though. It's always the same three pairs, put on over each other. How he can stand to wear all those socks when it is so warm is beyond me!

Little facts about our little kiddos...

Max says, "Sorry, again!" instead of just plain sorry, with a big grin on his face, sounding not in the least bit sorry.

Emily loves to blow bubbles. She can produce quite a bit of drool. I'm wondering how bad it is going to get when she is teething.

Max will say, "Don't cry, Hobbes" or "Don't cry, Emmie". (He has obviously heard me say this to Emily when she's crying and I can't get to her right away. Sometimes Emily's crying when he says this and sometimes she's not. I'm not sure about Hobbes.)

Emily frequently snorts when she is crying.

I listen to a lot of show tunes and oldies and I love to have music on when I'm cooking or cleaning up the kitchen. Lately, Max has been requesting that I turn the music on and is singing along to my music. It's kind of weird to hear a two year old singing "Little Shop of Horrors".

When Emily wakes up, if she was sleeping on her belly she hikes her little bum way up in the air.

Max has a hard time with opposites. He says cold-hot when something is too hot and he asks me to turn the music off when he really wants it on.

Attack of the Flies

A couple of weeks ago we had about six flies buzzing around our house. I thought this was odd since we had only had maybe two flies before in the 2 1/2 years that we have lived here. They were gone after a couple of days and I didn't really think any more of it until a few more showed up yesturday. Then this morning when I went downstairs to open the blinds I found about twenty flies in my living room. I felt like I was in the fly version of the movie "Birds". They were all just sitting on my walls and windows, waiting. I hope they don't decide to attack.

(I actually vacuumed them up a couple of hours later. Max keeps calling them spiders, even though I tell him over and over that they aren't spiders, they're flies.)

Random little nothings

Emily has found her thumb. I have to admit that I am actually kind of glad because now she can soothe herself. She was on the point of sleeping through the night when she was about two months old and then we switched her antibiotics and she did not like the new medicine at all. She quit napping, starting getting up earlier in the morning and sometimes in the middle of the night, and was very fussy because her belly hurt and she had diarrhea all the time. She went through 20 diapers one day (this is not an exaggeration). We started giving her probiotics a few weeks ago and it has helped immensely. She is back to being my sweet little girl, she is napping great and sleeping through the night. I am so spoiled, I know! :)

Max loves to eat oatmeal for breakfast. (Or, as he calls it, opameal.) He is just barely getting to the point where he will choose pancakes instead some of the time. Who doesn't want pancakes over oatmeal!? It can be a little messy to clean off of his clothes, so I started pinning my kitchen towel from the day before around his waist so that when he is done eating I can just take it off and he is all clean.

Max is just always doing funny groupings with his toys. I don't know if you can tell or not, but he has put one crayon on each section of train track.

The new thing to do with his toy cars is to line them up in the window sill of his bedroom. He went really crazy on this day and lined them up upside down.

Emily has started laughing the last couple of weeks and it is sooo stinking cute. She is such a rolly-polly happy baby. I can't believe how big she's gotten and how fun she is. She's also working on rolling over, but isn't quite there yet.

Max climbed out of his crib this morning. I was feeding Emily in my room when I heard Max open his door and there he was standing in his doorway looking very proud of himself. I put him back in to see if he would do it again and one minute later he was on the floor playing with his toys. I have been dreading this moment for a while now and am actually surprised it has taken him this long to do it since he is such a mischievous, active little boy. He still napped for me today and went to bed tonight just like normal, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this new skill doesn't mean an end to life as I know it!