Summer send off!

I have lots of friends who have done amazing things to send off summer (trips, boating, huge parties, concerts, etc.). Around here we've been a little more chill in kissing summer goodbye since I have had all the excitement I can handle this past month. Between house shopping, car shopping, moving, unpacking, and having two kiddos adjust to a new place I've had no time to even realize that summer was heading out! It finally sank in when I turned the AC off for a full 24 hours this weekend. It struck me even more this morning when I dropped Evelyn off for her first day of preschool (yay!).

What an amazing summer! Kevin found an awesome job which he loves, we relocated to a beautiful home (pictures will come once things settle down), we were able to spend a lot of time with family, and now I have the chance to make a bunch of new friends in our new ward!

We went to the Treehouse Museum with cousins last weekend. Next time I go I am totally buying an annual pass. They have SO much to do for the littles! Evelyn LOVED the instruments they had there. She spent loads of time playing with the castle playset. She found 2 princesses (maleficent and aurora), a knight, and a dragon and acted out sleeping beauty :) I think we'll go back every week or two since it is only 15 minutes away.

Rhett is still growing like crazy still. At 8 months he is a crazy fast crawler and yesterday he made it up 2 flights of stairs before we realized where he went. We really need those baby gates up!

Evelyn started dance class. She is in a ballet and jazz class right now. She is so excited to show me how she can walk on her tip toes. She also loves to show me how she can 'leap' over things that she sets on the floor :)

I learn more and more every day that kids are sponges. They are learning all the time...even when you think they aren't. How do I know this? Mostly because the past month Evelyn has started singing ALL. THE. TIME. What does she sing? Songs we only hear on the radio in the car! Ones that she has only heard 3 or 4 times. It is nuts! The other day she started singing 'Boom Clap' by Charli XCX. She thought it was "boom crap" though...bahaha! It did make us rethink what we listen to on the radio though. You sort of have to when you hear your toddler sing "come onto me, come onto me now". Looks like we'll be sticking to CDs from here on out. Apparently she likes Taylor Swift and Maroon 5. She has been singing 'Shake it off' and  'Moves like Jagger' for the past 24 hours.


Now for the picture flood!

 Afternoon movie time always ends like this. Thank heavens since in-her-room naps are apparently 'for babies'

 

 This girl LOVES to dress up in her princess dresses. When dressed like Sofia, she sings her theme song over and over again

 

 

 Those EYES!

 

 

 Fire fighter digs at the museum

 

 Climbing to the top of the Tree House

 

 Building a ball track with daddy at the museum

 

 Suiting up for wizards chess

 

 Castle playset

 

 He totally wanted to eat those armor puzzle pieces

 

 Drums!

 

 Sometimes activities are just too much for Rhett.

 

 The kiddos love to play this new game. Evelyn gets into the cupboard and Rhett opens and shuts the door. Yes, Evelyn is in the cupboard.

 

 First day of preschool and all she wants is to show me how she can stand on her toes

 

Nope she is not excited at all!

 

 

 

Life is good. I have a lot to be grateful for.



 

And that just happened..

OK. So the story I'm about to relate did actually happen although it was last week. I've spent the interim time trying to figure out ways to make sure it never happens again.

So Kevin and I bought a home in Clearfield. We love it...like a lot. Moving in set up some interesting timeline issues though. We wanted to wait to close on a house before we bought a second car. Being a one car family is hard though, especially when I can't drop Kevin off and pick him up from work without security clearance...boo. I had determined that it would be better to wait a couple of months to recoup finances before buying a car. We had some crazy expenses setting up house here after closing. We wanted Evelyn to start joy school and dance classes, but we had to find somewhere close enough to walk or I'd need to drop Kevin at the HAFB gate and he'd need to walk to work (not a great option). Crazy time table.

Anyways, Evelyn's preschool had their preview last Wednesday afternoon. I had Evelyn ready an hour before we had to leave and sent her out to play in the back yard with the instructions to not get dirty. I went out to get her when it was time to go and saw that she had sat in the dirt an dug. Not a big deal, but then I noticed she'd had an accident (major regression when we moved...yikes!). The mud from that got everywhere!  We started over getting ready and got out the door. Last week Evelyn and Rhett both fit in the jogging stroller just fine (it is big), but today they were WAY too big to fit together. How does that happen? I grabbed a baby carrier and decided to strap Rhett to my chest. It was only 7 blocks to preschool, we'd be fine.

3 blocks into the walk I was sweating like crazy. I am not THAT out of shape. I looked down and realized that BOTH back tires on the stroller were flat. Like, crazy flat. Rhett wasn't helping. He'd grab the stroller handle and pull it toward his mouth throwing off the alignment on the carrier and loosening the straps...the little scamp!

Just after realizing I had flat tires I looked up and realized that there was no pedestrian bridge accompanying the large overpass I had to cross to get to preschool. I figured I would just go under and see if there was a place to cross Trax underneath. Nope, but I did find the pedestrian bridge! It was up 2 massive flights of stairs. Evelyn got out to climb the stairs and I pulled up the stroller after me. at the other side I had her climb down so I could thunk, thunk the stroller down the matching stairs at the other end. No pressure, just haul this massive jogging stroller up and down 80 stairs with a squirming baby strapped to my chest. No biggy.

By the time we got down we were 2 blocks away from the preschool. It was at that point that the rain started. I was honestly grateful since I was sweating like a pig. You'd never know it by the time we got there though! Thank goodness both kiddos were dressed for rain.

We were only 5 minutes late for the meeting so it was just fine. The meeting was great. Evelyn is going to love the program. They are even alright working around her little (big) regression. They say it is common when 3 year olds start preschool anyway. PHEW!

Evelyn didn't want to leave when the meeting was over, but I insisted and suddenly she decided it was time to go. GREAT! I tried getting her into the stroller and she refused to sit, informing me that there was poop...you know...   ...for REAL?!? Not now! I had a pull-up in case of a little accident, but no bag for this type of thing. She wound up just standing on the foot board of the stroller for the ride home while Rhett rode inside. We took a longer more stroller friendly way home and it only added 10 extra blocks or so...only. We got rained on during the walk back so it was just a lot of fun all around.

I cracked up so many times during the walk and the laughter helped a lot. I get the feeling that it was God's way of telling me that getting a car was probably more important than paying off my student loans a couple of months early. It fits in the budget fine, I was just getting so excited about eliminating the last of our debt payments that I underestimated my ability to get around here without a car. Kevin just sat and smiled while I related my story and agreed that we should look for another car.

The morale of the story is...kids are nuts and motherhood is full of improv. In the end, we found a great SUV and are picking it up tonight.

FREEDOM!!!

Summer 2015

Well, it has been sort of a crazy year, but this summer has turned out to be pretty awesome!

We've spent loads of time at the park, splash pad, and playing around nana's house.

We went to the living planet aquarium and Evelyn got to pet a stingray. She was obsessed with the penguins and was convinced that they were from the Penguins of Madagascar movie. Hilarious. We nearly got stuck on their rope bridge. Apparently I am not very coordinated when I am trying to hustle a toddler and NOT loose my shoe at the same time. Rhett was just super mellow the whole time...per the norm.

We took Evelyn bowling for the first time. She is a HUGE fan. That was 2 months ago and she still talks about it all the time.

Evelyn got to see her first movie in a theater. We saw the minions and it was hilarious. I don't think Kevin and I would have enjoyed it as much if we didn't have her between us laughing hysterically at everything and periodically getting folded up in her seat.

We started house hunting and that afternoon we put an offer in on a beautiful home in Clearfield. We've always moved quickly and this was no exception. We are under contract and hopefully we will close the first week or two of August. It is absolutely perfect for us and is only a couple of miles from Hill AFB so Kevin will have a 5 minute commute. BOYAH! We'd looked at the house online a lot before going to see it and we knew that if it looked anything like the pictures we'd try our best for it. We feel like that is where we need to be (or at least try to be) right now. Our realtor is phenomenal and out lender is super on the ball. So far we have been really lucky. Fingers crossed that everything will keep going as planned.

This summer we got better at holding FHE. Evelyn's favorite was probably our lesson on Noah. We told the story, learned the Noah verse in Follow the Prophet, and then we had Evelyn tell each of us which animal to be and we pretended to be animals until it started 'raining' then we ran and climbed up on the couch...I mean, the ark.

Evelyn started daddy-daughter dates. She LOVES them. Here she was waiting for 'prince charming' as she has dubbed Kevin.

Evelyn turned 3 and we potty trained. I stooped to heavy bribes, but it worked wonders. Princess dresses and accessories will encourage this girl to do anything :) Our favorite activity during potty training was building temples with magna-tiles. These are seriously the best toy ever. I like them just as much as she does.

We built temples for FHE one night and since then they have become one of Evelyn's favorite pass-times.

We went to my brothers new house in Tooele and had a combined birthday party for Evelyn and her cousin. It was great to see everyone together all at once. Evelyn loved the party and seeing her cousins.

Immediately after blowing out candles she started pulling them out and licking them. Silly goose!

Crowns...Rhett loves them as much as she does.

There is an Evelyn under there!

Evelyn LOVES Cindarella so we found her the perfect dress. Not even scratchy.

Now she sings "So This is LOVE" while she dances with her daddy.

Rhett is straight up adorable. He is learning to crawl. 6 months is a little soon for my taste, but he started sitting at 4 and a half months so I should have known this was coming. He just wants to be able to keep up with his sister. He has grown out of all of his 6-9 months clothes and is into 9-12 month everything! Crazy! He is still not the best sleeper, up once or twice a night, but I am not ready to push the nigh-time weaning now that he sleeps well otherwise. It takes a lot of grub to maintain that level of cuteness :)

It is hard to believe how much things have changed in the last 3 months. It is just a testament that God has a plan for each of us. None of us are forgotten, even when we feel like we must be. I am so grateful that God loved us enough to make us wait for the perfect situation.

It is a good day to be grateful!

Favorite Potty Training Quotes. From Our House to Yours.

Guess what! We potty trained Evelyn...well I suppose it is sort of still a work in progress although accidents aren't a common thing now. I just thought I'd share a couple of hilarious potty training experiences from the past month. Potty humor all the way...beware :)

Day one of Evelyn sitting on the potty was great. I had her sit on the potty while I took a mommy shower (you know the ones that only last 2.5 minutes because you're afraid what will happen if you stay in longer than that?). While I toweled off I heard Evelyn yelling. I couldn't understand what she was saying at first, but once I my brain started processing I heard her yell, "No kid! You gotta get out of there kid! I'm going to poop on you. You gotta run. I don't like that! You don't play in poop. Run kid! RUN!!!" I had absolutely no idea what was going on. Rhett was down for his morning nap and as far as I knew, no one else was home. I came out of the bathroom to her still shouting and realized I had forgot to tell her that her potty played a song when she pooped or peed in it. At the end of the little fanfare a chorus of kids voices shouted "yay!" She proceeded to tell me that there was a kid in her potty and that she had pooped on him because she had nowhere else to poop, and that the kid was still in the potty playing...

I laughed...a lot.

In the beginning, every single time she has to go potty during the night she comes into our room, gets super close,  and whispers in one of our ears "I have to go pee pee". Scared the living daylights out of me the first couple of times!

Thank heavens she is getting more confident on her own now.

We ordered her a super cute princess dress from the Disney store and once she fills a special poop sticker chart she gets the dress. She runs around the house chanting "I poop I get the dress" over and over again. She is getting close!

Earlier this week she pooped in the potty and when I walked by she was sitting there and yelled "Hey mommy!" I stopped in and she said, "I pooped...this one is a boy, and he is handsome!"

Kevin feels a lot less awesome when she calls him handsome now...

I love that girl!

#konmari What a Difference Already!

So I have always had a lot of stuff. I've been a lover of shopping and as a result I've also been a fan of different organizational techniques. Earlier this year a friend mentioned the konmari method. I'd never heard of it, so I thought I'd get the book and check it out. The method totally resonated with me. Here are some pictures of day 1.

I tackled clothes, performance attire, scarves, belts, and shoes.

Here is the 'discard' pile. The 'keep' pile is less than 1/4 this size. Crazy eh?

My sorting buddy.

Folded shirts/tanks post sort. Only the ones that make me happy. 

Bottoms post sort...love!

After going through everything once, I let it sit overnight then went back this morning to see the things I'd decided to keep...at that point I removed several more items that I don't look forward to wearing. Hopefully they can be of use to someone else...a bunch of them are hardly worn and some have tags. Mostly from the time periods when I was trying to discover my individual style. Now I just need to figure out how to get it all to DI!

Here is the final clothes/shoes discard pile. 12 bags of clothes and 2 bags of shoes.

Taking on jewelry next. then I'll move on to the rest of the house.

Happy sorting!

Sleep Training? Mommy win!

Ok. Those of you who know me well, or who pay attention to my sleep deprived posts on facebook, know that Rhett has never been an awesome sleeper. He doesn't cry at night, he just fusses. And fusses some more. And does that every time his binky falls out. All night long.

Now I am new to this whole 'not sleeping' baby thing. Evelyn was a great sleeper. She slept through the night (8hrs + 4hrs) starting at 8 weeks old and by 3 months was sleeping 12 hours straight. She has been like that ever since with the exception of teething and sickies. I have recently realized how lucky that was.

By 3 months old Rhett was sleeping 3 hour stretches...not awesome, but doable. At 4 months old he backslid and started waking every 45-90 minutes! I was pretty much non-functional as a mommy and as a person. I dropped my workouts to a bare minimum. Sometimes I skipped them all-together!

Last week I realized something had to change. I had done some research and knew that Rhett had sleep associations with his binky. I was sure that if I kept it from him I would get even less sleep. So I just let him keep it.

Now I believe in a God that cares about the little things in my life. Believing as I do, I prayed. I prayed a lot. I got the feeling that I was the one who had to fix the problem. Boo. Fixing problems is hard. So I started asking for advice and reading articles. I found a lot of good information, but no solutions for my specific problem. Rhett is a super sweet and mellow baby and the idea of letting him 'cry it out' was not OK with me. I think it has to do with both of our personalities. I am sure it works for a lot of babies and awesome parents, but I didn't think it was for us.

During my search I found a system called Sleep Sense. I read a lot of reviews and pretty much every page on the website. The system offers 'stay in the room' options as well as 'leave and check' options. That was more of what I was looking for. I went ahead and bought in! The e-book teaches about infant and toddler sleep and offers how to's for different age groups. It is a gentle program for teaching baby the needed skills to fall asleep on their own and setting them up for success.

Well, I decided to start during naps that day. I followed her instructions and Rhett went down on his own without his binky in only 20 minutes! It was like that all day. By bedtime (7pm) he went down after only talking to himself for 10 minutes in his room. No tears! He woke up at 10pm and I knew that would be the real challenge. Getting him to go back to sleep without a binky. There was 45 minutes of protesting. Since I was right by his bed I could pat him and keep him 'calm'. Talking to him kept him from getting super upset, but I could tell he didn't like the change from habit. At 45 minutes he rolled onto his side with his little panda and fell asleep. He woke up a couple of times but babbled himself back to sleep in a few minutes. He ate at 3:30am and was up for the day at 6am.

Not perfect, but day two was even better. I stuck with the instructions and he went down easily all day and at bedtime. I didn't even need to sit with him after putting him in his bed! This time he slept from 7pm until 4:45am when he ate. He promptly fell asleep and didn't wake up till 6am. Then he talked himself to sleep again and slept until 7. Bam! Sleeping baby! I feel SO much better. I know there may be setbacks, but it was far easier than I thought it would be.

You can get a free sleep report emailed to you by filling out some basic information here: http://sleepsense.net/ Filling out the report also takes you to a page where you can get the basic system for $20. Next to the babywise system, this is the best money I have spent on programs to help baby learn.

Happy sleeping!

Aaaaaannnnd Done!

Well I am convinced that life with the little people will never slow down! I don't think I'd have it any other way though...except maybe time for a bath without little fingers wiggling under the bathroom door...or maybe a 4 hour stretch at night without a tiny tummy getting hungry...but hey those are just details!

I have a lot to be grateful for. This whole mommy gig is full of ups and downs, but every down has a far more rewarding up that accompanies it. Rhett has more than doubled his night wakings for the past 2 weeks. I tell you what that is rough! But when I finish feeding him, and he has already zonked out, I give him one last squeeze and he gives me this incredible drowsy, milk drunk smile. I know he won't be this little for long, and I LOVE that he loves me so much in that 'I adore you' way that only babies can pull off..

Did I mention Kevin got a job? We are done with the job hunt!

Yet another thing to be grateful for...really, really, really grateful. My last blog post was about our last year and how it has been pretty rough. I still don't know why I felt like I should write about that, but the following afternoon Kevin went to an interview and received a job offer on the spot! He will be working for a federal contractor at Hill Air-force Base. We put off letting most everyone know until now since he had to pass a crazy DoD background check for secret clearance to work on his projects. Kevin has never done anything that would disqualify him, but I still worried until this morning when we heard back...

I won't know what Kevin will be doing at work, but lets be perfectly honest...when have I ever really understood his work? He'll have about a 40 minute commute each way right now, but we hope to buy a house closer to the base in a few months. There are a few neat little (and not so little) communities I have my eye on.

That is really the biggest news around our house. Smaller ticket items are Evelyns new kittens tiger and teddy, and Rhett learning to sit. All in all it is a very good life and I am grateful to have it.

Here are some pictures from the last month.

 Still looks like daddy.

 These were my favorite toys as a child. Evelyn is absolutely LOVING them now. I am talking about hours of dedicated play time. Score!

 

 When Evelyn wakes up in the morning this puzzle is the first thing she wants to do. She can do it on her own! Bring on the geography bee!

 

 Look who turned 4 months old last week and is already in 9mo jammies! 18lbs and counting!

This face makes night wakings worth it. Is that not the sweetest smile!?! 

 Move over GQ.

 Watching his sister from the safety of the bleachers...

 He sits! 4 months and 1 week.

I think there is a monster in my laundry pile...