Merry Christmas

I attempted to get out Christmas cards, I really did. I even went through the effort of taking the girls pictures and making them. But I have yet to print them and mail them, so it's not happening. So in a lame attempt to wish you all a Merry Christmas, I will post my card here!

Recent Happenings

• We're mooooooooving. We have a place as of the 1st of January. It's a nice house, about the same size as this one, but it's SO much closer to Michael's work. He is the most excited I think. For me, it's bittersweet. I am excited for change, I enjoy change. New ward, hopefully new friends, new neighbors, etc etc. But I am finally beginning to feel at home here in Nampa (26 months later). I have a few good friends, ok maybe not a few, maybe one. I am starting to enjoy my ward, but at the same time, I find it kind of pathetic when people say hi and ask me how long I've been in this ward. Uhhhh, twice as long as you honey! Plus I am so not looking forward to packing, so anyone in the near vicinity, feel free to come pack your hearts out! I have a picture of the house, but it's on my cell phone and I haven't sent it to the computer. On Sunday we're gonna go measure and stuff so I'll take some then.
• My little baby is growing up. She is such a big girl now. Totally has her own personality and spunk. It's kinda different because at this age is when Hailey started becoming the biggest brat. Aubrie seems to get sweeter everyday. She's walking along furniture now, and even standing on her own for a few seconds. I wouldn't be surprised if she started walking in the next little while, but I am TOTALLY not ready for that.
• My mother in law headed to California for Christmas on Wednesday. So we decided to exchange gifts before she left. Kev was super excited because we got him a new guitar for his guitar hero. If Michael weren't his only brother, he'd still be his favorite. The girls had fun opening presents. Aubrie actually tore at the paper. I guess it helps that she LOVES to eat it. The girls got a few outfits, some tub toys, and books. Hailey is now chomping at the bit to open the presents under our tree. She grabs one, comes up to me and says, " Go Nana's house and open present?". She's going to have so much fun Christmas morning.
• We're going on a vacation!!! Much needed I might add. We're leaving on the 3rd of January. Our first stop will just be for the afternoon in Utah. We'll see my favorite roommate from college, Dana, and her big belly (shes due in March!), and hopefully a few other friends if I can plan it. Then that night we'll head to Vegas, woohoo! I plan to gamble all of our hefty Christmas bonus away. Oooooh wait, I don't gamble. Not to mention there was NO Christmas bonus, besides sloppy kisses and tight squeezes. Which I supposes is much better then anything monetary. Wow, nice tangent. In Vegas we'll stay the night at Nikkis and hang out for a day probably. Hopefully we'll see my friend Alisa too. Then we'll head down to AZ to see my family. My grandparents will also be there! We'll be there from the 5th to the 9th or 10th, so mark your calenders and plan something fun! Then we'll head to Palm Desert. We'll be there until the 14th. I am way excited cause I get to see Holly and her new baby, Tyler! Yippee! And I also get to see Amy and her big belly. 2 more weeks.....
• Nothing else really going on. Just getting ready for Christmas. Today Hailey and I made sugar cookies and decorated them. Hailey is getting into the Christmas spirit by watching Polar Express, 20x a day. I'm not quite sure what I am doing for Christmas dinner. I lack culinary skills... I told Michael that we may be having Ramen Noodles. Yum! So if anyone has an idea for a somewhat easy meal that would be perfect for the Holiday. Please, share!- Kate and Sara, I'm talking to you. I am always up to trying new things. I just need detailed instructions. The thing I am looking forward to most is Michael having a good chunk of time off. He gets Sunday-Wednesday off. I am just so pleased that the Holidays fell on those days so he could be home with us. It wouldn't be Christmas without him.
  

Back to the drawing board...

Ugh. They decided to go with another family. I had a feeling I shouldn't get my hopes up. It was too good to be true. I'm going out with my friend Jill today to look at a few more (thanks Jill!!). Crossing my fingers!

So last night Daddy had brilliant idea to help Hailey go to sleep easier. I don't know if I mentioned it, but she takes almost 2 hours to go to bed for naps and nighttime. And it's not that she's not tired, because believe me, she is! She just wants one of us to rub her back. So we're at Costco and Michael sees this huge Elmo body pillow. No joke, its bigger then Hailey, AND her bed. So he thinks that he can bribe her with it. He asks her if she wants it, and of course she says, "Buy Momo, bring Momo home, peeeeeease Daddy". So we get home and give her the ginormous pillow... Slooooowly walk out of the room, shut the door.... breathe.... ... sigh of relief.

"MOOOOOOMMY"
Ugh!- I ignore her for a few minutes.
"DAAAAAAAADDY"
So I go back in.
"Mommy, back"
"No Hailey, I am not going to rub your back, go to sleep"
"Daddy, back"
"Hailey, you need to go to sleep. If you don't go to sleep I'm taking Elmo away"
"Momo go backa Caco!" (Costco)
"You don't want to sleep with Elmo?"
"No, Momo backa Caco."
"Alright"

I then take Elmo out of her room and shut the door. She proceeded to scream and cry for another hour or so. If I went in and asked if she wanted Elmo back, she was adamant that he was going back to Costco.

Back to the drawing board...

Busy Busy

Sorry for the lack of updates... Things have been kind of hectic around here. Michael is working his butt off like usual. He's averaging like 20 hours of overtime a week. Makes for decent mula, but sometimes the girls don't see their daddy for like 48 hours. Which also means, Mommy doesn't get a break.
Both the girls are teething. Loads of fun. Aubrie's two top teeth are almost through, and Hailey's incisors are FINALLY starting to come, she has 1 of 4. Most kids get those WAY before now. Needless to say nights have not been so much fun. We took Hailey's pacifier away (yes, AGAIN) but this time for good. We took her to build-a-bear and let her build a Shrek. They were have a great deal! 20 dollars for the doll, an outfit, shoes, and sound. Normally over 40 dollars. We told her that if she wanted Shrek she had to throw all her yucky pacis in the trash. Which she gladly did. Sometimes I'll see her sneak one of Aubrie's but as soon as she knows that I noticed she says, "yucky paci!!" and throws it across the room. Little stinker!
We took Aubs to the dr. for her 9 month well check. She is 29 inches (95%) ,and 17 lbs (25%). It was the first time Michael was there for shots. Somehow he dodged all shot apts with both the girls until now. So as a loving wife, I let him leave the room while I held her to get poked, NOT! He had the pleasure of holding Aubrie while she got a flu shot and a finger prick. She didn't hardly make a peep. I'll be sure to send him to the next apt when she gets like 4 shots.
So we're in the process of looking for a rental. We found one that we LOVE. It is so much closer to Michaels work. Right now he is 26 miles from work and it takes about 35 minutes each way. This house is 7 miles from work and should take no more then 10 minutes. That'll save almost an hour a day for him! And so much gas money. We put an application in on Tuesday. There were a few other families that put in apps also, so we'll just have to wait and see. Pray for us! We would LOVE LOVE LOVE to be in this house and so much closer to Michaels work.
It snowed the other day. Hailey loved playing in the snow. I'm on my desktop and the usbs don't work, so when I get on my laptop and get connect to the internet (the wireless is VERY shotty, at best), I'll post some snow pictures and other recent ones.
Hope everyone is enjoying their holidays!!

To nurse or not to nurse...

That is the question.

So here's the deal, Aubrie is going to be 9 months on Thursday. Which is precisely what my goal was when it came to nursing her. I nursed Hailey until she was 9 months (and found out I was pregnant) so I wanted to at least make it that far. And now that I have, I am trying to decide whether or not to continue.

I have pretty strong opinions when it comes to nursing. For the most part, I am a very easy going person and accepting to anything and everything. But when it comes to breastfeeding your child, I think it is the best thing a Mom can do for them. Whether it be for a year, or even for a month. I think every mom should try. Yes this is a very debatable subject, and touchy for some, so I'll try to keep my opinions and thoughts as kindly as I can. Let me first say this, I respect any choice a person makes. I don't know their situation, and I would NEVER think less of a Mother for choosing formula. But I do think that they should at first give it a try. Like take for example my sister Heidi (I hope you don't mind heids). She tried and tried to nurse Zadi. She even tried pumping. But Zadi wasn't gaining any weight. So she then turned to formula. She had no other choice, Zadi needed to grow and it was the best for their situation. I guess Heidi is just too skinny and produces skim milk (wink wink). But I have so much respect for her for being so selfless and trying so hard to nurse Zadi.


Anyway, here are some of the reasons I choose to breastfeed.

It is the most complete and perfect (hello its God made, what can go wrong there) nutrition for your child to have. Also said to be easier to digest.

Breastfed babies generally have lower rates of ear infections, illnesses, rashes and allergies. Although I don't think that one is working out too well for me, lol, my girls have had it ALL. Eczema, Chicken Pox, Rotovirus, RSV, and NUMEROUS ear infections.

The ease of nursing. I don't have to clean bottles. I don't have to prepare bottles at 2 am. I don't have to worry about packing bottles, formula, water, etc, whenever we got out.

Breastfeeding lowers the risk of SIDS. Although there's no conclusive evidence of this per se. Some studies have found a link between lowered rates of SIDS while others have not. What's clear is that breastfeeding can help prevent respiratory and gastrointestinal infections that may be related to SIDS.

Helps protect me against ovarian and breast cancer.

And one of the most important reasons (for me at least) it's FREE. The cost of basic formula for the 1st year of a babies life costs around 1,500 dollars. And when you don't make very much money, that's a big amount! Heck, I just us lots of money, maybe I deserve to go buy something nice :).

Anyway, I should get off my soapbox. But for the record, I hate nursing. Lol. It makes my PPD worse, and I just don't enjoy it like some mothers do. I don't feel like I'm bonding with Aubrie as I nurse. And I am not one of those women who say it's so "beautiful" to nurse their child. Lol, it's kind of ugly actually, and my saggy boobs would probably agree! But for my baby I'll sacrifice.

So... back to the original question, to nurse of not to nurse. I guess I'll just play it day by day. She's really only nursing 4 times a day, MAYBE 5. So it's not very time consuming. But I kind of want my body back :). I've got 2o lbs that need to LEAVE! They are no longer welcome. Well, I'll nurse tomorrow... and if I wake up the next day and feel like nursing, I'll do it again, until I just don't feel like it anymore... we shall see, time will tell.

Things I am Thankful for

A little late for Thanksgiving, but things around here have been kind of hectic, and Thanksgiving wasn't a very "thankful" day, so to speak. So I figured I'd take the time to write down some things I am grateful for, trivial or not.

* First and foremost, my family. All of them, children, husband, sisters, brothers, mothers, fathers, nieces and nephews.

* Fast food. As gross as it is, and fattening, there are just some days where I am pooped! I am so thankful I can call Michael on his way home from work and ask him to pick me up some love handles with a side of grease at Panda Express.

* Modern medicine. Tylenol, Immodium, Exedrine Migraine, Anti-depressants, Dulcolax, Infant gas drops, origel, jet alert, Advil and much much more. No, I am not a druggy, and actually I don't even like to take medicine, but sometimes you just have to be grateful for the presence of it in your life, whether it effects you directly or indirectly.

* Criminals. Yes the world would be a much happier place, and carefree without druggies, murderers, drug dealers, rapists, chomos, tax evaders, fraudulent people, but then my husband would be out of a job.

* Naptimes. And the fact that my daughters simultaneously take naps, which then allows mom to grab her pillows and blanket, lay on the couch and fall fast asleep.

*Vacuums. Aubrie puts EVERYTHING in her mouth. I vacuum 2 times a day and she still finds the crumbs on the floor. But can you imagine how much crap she would have consumed had their been no vacuums invented?

*Charmin Toilet Paper. Nothing else is soft enough. I hate going to other peoples homes and needing to use the restroom only to find gas station toilet paper (I use the term toilet lightly, as it really feels like paper).

*Clorox wipes. Oh the ease.

*Good Friends. Be it friends you see daily, friends you "type" with daily, friends you talk on the phone with daily, or even just friends that you haven't seen in years, good friends are hard to come by, so I'm grateful for the ones I have.

*E-bay. Whatever you do, buy or sell, its a good place to make money and save money.

*Good TV. Mindless, drama filled, slutty, ridiculous, moral less television makes for good tv and something to do when everyone else is sleeping. Tila Tequila, come on, how much trashier does it get, but I love it!

*Churros and a sprite at costco. My guiltiest pleasure of them all.

Messy Children

So I suppose I should start keeping a closer eye on my children. We've had a few messy incidents the last few days.

First I was in the bathroom getting ready for the day (yes it was already 5 pm, but thats beside the point) and Hailey decided to put some blush on her face. No big deal, cleaned it off and left the room. 5 minutes later I realized she never followed me out of the bathroom. So I called her name and she came running. This is what she looked like.


I'm quite impressed that she mostly only got it on and around her eyes.

Fast forward to today. I'm on the phone dealing with the fact that I now have a suspended license (thats a story for another post). Well Hailey comes to me and says, Mamma, Aubrie cookie! So I turn around and look at Aubrie and sure enough, Hailey decided to share the cookies with her.



So like I said, I guess it's time to start paying a little more attention to my girls. Hailey just loves to be so helpful. She'll share anything with her sisiter, her milk, water, peanut butter sandwich, pretzels, toys, moms cell phone, Kevs Xbox controllers, cereal, pacifiers, and now cookies. Oh the joys!

New Camera

My camera came in the mail yesterday. I was so excited. It's a Canon PowerShot S3IS. In the past 3 years I have had my fair share of digital cameras. Trying to find one that I just love and does exactly what I want it to do. Which is:
Take good looking pictures
Not instantly blur when my subject moves (seeing that my subjects are normally a 2 year old and 8 month old, this is very important)
Quick processing. It must be able to take a picture and turn around and focus again for another picture rather quickly. I always tend to miss perfect moments when its processing.
Durable (I have a 2 year old, enough said)
Good Zoom- sometimes I'm really far away and want to take a picture unnoticed.

Not too much to ask right? Yeah that's what I thought. First I had a Casio. At the time it was ok for what I needed. I didn't have kids and it was more of a "fun" camera. It crapped out rather quickly though. About a year ago we lost it when we were in vegas. It wasn't too much of a disappointment seeing as we were already looking for a new one. Then I bought a Sony Cybershot. Hated it! The picture were dark and grainy. They would look ok on the LCD screen, but once loaded on the computer, they were awful. So that was quickly returned to Costco. Next I had a Kodak Z something or other. It was great! The turnaround time on the pictures wasn't the best, but everything else was good that I let that slide. Well after 10 months of having it, something went wrong. The pictures were all over exposed and had lines through them. Heidi had the same exact problem with her camera ( same model ). So as sad as it was, I returned it. I bought another Kodak and HATED it. I returned it within a week. So for a while I was cameraless. I finally found one and decided to give it a try. The reviews were great. And I LOVE IT! The processing time is great, best I've had. I think this camera is going to last me a while. Which is such a relief since I am so sick of dealing with camera issues! Anyway, I'm done with my ranting. Here are some pictures from my new camera...
This is Aubs enjoying her pizza crust at Costco.


Hailey being a cheese ball- nothing new.

Aubrie just being cute.

Hard Days + Long Nights =

That's right, Aubs finally got a tooth through. She's actually been relatively good. But on top of it she has an ear infection, so she was given antibiotics and now she has a yeast infection. Poor girl wakes up 3 times a night just screaming. All she wants is to be held. Which is different for us because normally she just wants to be laid down and left alone.
Today Aubrie is 8 months. She has been such a good baby. She had a rough start but now she's just happy to be herself! She loves her big sister more then anything! She can just watch Hailey forever and laugh. She is not quite crawling yet. She scoots, but gets so frustrated when she can't get where she wants. She started pulling herself onto her knees a few weeks ago and just likes to look around. I've been pretty slow with giving her solids, mostly out of sheer laziness, but today I gave her toast and she LOVED it. Then at dinner I gave her some noodles and she loved those too. I guess I should start feeding her more, lol. Well thats my update on my toothy girl!

Happy Halloween!!

I now have a computer, wooofreakinghoo! So now I can update my blog (no promises to how often that will be). Next step is to get a new camera. I'm trying to decide between two, and once I decide I will start taking more pictures. So please excuse the utter crappiness of the quality of these following pictures. They were taken with my Mother in Laws camera, and lets just say it is definitely not top of the line.

So Halloween was a blast. Hailey couldn't be more excited. She LOVED running up to the doors and yelling, "Twick Tweet". And she was overly adamant that whenever she was given candy, Aubrie needed some too. So after grabbing 5 pieces out of the bowl for herself, yes, GRABBING, not kindly waiting for the other person to hand it to her (now what 2 year old would do that?) she would look at the person and say, "Aubrie canny?". I think she was secretly scheming to get more candy for herself, because lets face it, Aubrie isn't going to eat Reeces Peanut Butter Cups and Butterfingers, as much as she would LOVE to.

Anyway, here are some pictures of my kiddos!!
I like this first one because I think it looks like both my bugs are gonna fly away, but Michael seems to think that Hailey looks like she's trying to fill her diaper.



Well I have a few more to post, but Blogger is being lame and keeps giving me errors. So I will come back and post those pictures.

New Digital Pages

I cant figure out how to get them side by side. But this is a page I did for aubrie today.

Ugh, The things my family does to make me update!

I've been tagged...(way to go fressia)
4 jobs I've had
1. Preschool teacher
2. Secretary to an Attorney
3. My Gym teacher
4. Gap

4 movies I can watch over and over
1. Green Mile
2. American History X (ONLY THE EDITED VERSION)
3. Raising Helen
4.

4 places I have lived
1. Mesa, AZ
2. Indian Wells, CA
3. Las Vegas, NV
4. Nampa, ID

4 Guilty Pleasures
1. ben and jerry's fish food ice cream
2. Digi Scrapping
3. Napping
4. Spending money (that I don't have)

4 places I have been on Vacation
1. Argentina
2. Italy
3. Rochester New York
4. Schnecksville, PA

4 favorite foods
1. Sonic Grilled Cheese wacky pack with tots
2. chocodiles!!
3. Italian Chicken
4. nice big juicy steak from outback

4 websites I visit
1. Gmail
2. babycenter
3. facebook
4. Msn Groups- The Real Hottie mamas (a group of my friends that I chat with)

4 places I'd rather be right now
1. in bed
2. on a boat in a lake
3. with my AZ family
4. camping

4 books I love
1. Twilight - stephanie meyers
2. notebook- nicholas sparks
3. Wicked- Gregory Maguire
4. All anita stansfields books

4 things I would like to know how to do
1. keep my house clean
2. speak another language
3. how to put the laundry away after I wash and fold it.
4. drive a boat

4 things I worry about
1. my family (near and far)
2. my weight (such a trivial thing)
3. being pregnant again :)
4. Michael at the prison

4 happy moments
1. seeing my girls smile
2. getting sealed
3. seeing amy get sealed
4. when my family come to visit, or I go see them

4 things I want to do in the future
1. go back to school
2. have a boy (Faaaaaar future)
3. go on a nice vacation (sans kiddos)
4. find something I am passionate about

4 people I am tagging
1. Hayden Mazzarelli (alright everyone, laugh with me now- pigs will fly when hayden fills this out)
2. Nancy Eagan
3. Carolyn Detro
4. Amanda Hornibrook

Zoo Time!

Yeah, I'm doing real good at this Blog crap. My excuse, Hailey dropped my camera and now all my pictures look "over exposed". I need to take it into Idaho Camera and get an estimate as to how much it will cost! Urgh!

Anyway, we went to the zoo on monday with some friends of ours. They all had a blast. Although I will admit, Hailey seemed more intrigued by the trucks and planes that passed. Every time she heard one or the other she would say, "truck! truck!" or "plane plane!" whilst pointing. Aubrie was as good as she always is. She LOVED riding in my new double stroller. I don't think she made a peep the whole time and eventually she was fast asleep.

Happy Memorial Day

A very uneventful holiday weekend for us. Friday we played some games and Micheles house, Saturday we went and saw Pirates (which was unnecessarily long), Sunday we had dinner and played games at Micheles house again. Today Michael had to work (but its time and a half so thats nice) so the girls and I are just chillin at home. I'm actually still in my pajamas. As are both the girls. Anyway, thats our weekend update! I hope everyone else had more fun then we did!!

Camping

We went camping a few weekends ago. Hailey had so much fun by the campfire. She kept on saying "hot, hot". We roasted marshmallows and made smores. I was super bummed because my camera died early the next morning. Therefore we got no pictures of Hailey playing in the river. Next time I will be sure to charge my camera before we leave! While we were there there was a snake coming towards our campsite so Michael got some tent poles and "shooed" it the other direction. Pretty brave of my husband who hates anything creepy crawly!

Just Testing

So, Heidi told me I had to join the blogging club to keep the family updated on our lives out here in good ol' Idaho... So I suppose I will. Who knows if I'll be able to keep it up, but we shall see. So Here is my first BLOG. WOOHOO! Pretty uneventful day. I jokingly combed Michaels hair in a part before he left for work, and he thought it would be funny to go gel it down like that. And on top of it wear a dorky outfit. All kidding aside, he went to work like this... What a dork! He even sent me a picture message on my cell phone while at work to show me that he still looked like that. I don't know where I found him. Oh well. Anyway, it's extremely late and I really should be in bed seeing that my daughter thinks it's fun to wake up at 7:30. Night Everyone!!