Kidisms

Deciding on what to eat...
Benjamin "I want a girl cheese sandwich"
Ella " I want mashed eggs"

Makeup...
Ella "Mommy you need to pletch your eyebrows"

On the road...
Ella "Look mommy there is a cheap car" - meaning a Jeep

Some house pics

Our new furniture in the family room
Fireplace and my one of a kind painting - I painted it myself with some stolen ideas from art.com, then I added in our favorite words along the branches - See if you can guess who's words belong to who - I expect comments :)

Hello, Bittersweet, Family, Baby, Temple

The Living room and dining area
I finally got all of my Wizard of Oz stuff in one place!

My new bookshelves - I have a place for all our books - and photos, one day they will be organized. Who am I kidding...
So those curtains... What is it with me and curtains? I went to move them around some and the whole left side fell off the stinking wall!! I really don't like them all that much, but until there is enough saved up in my coupon clipping budget I will make-do. Since fixing them I have tried several different configurations hoping to make some improvement. I am pretty sure now I should have just left them alone in the first place. During all the various stages of curtaindom I have left the step stool out. Now I don't have the heart to put it away because it has become Maiya's favorite place. She acts as if its a swing or something - just perched there swinging her legs away, watching everybody!

Ok well thats a small tour - I'll try to get the rest of the rooms later

Lost tooth and cradle cap

Tooth number #6 - Dad did the pulling, Benjamin did some squirming, and mom got queasy - so pay up tooth fairy!
Mom's home remedy for cradle cap - massaging olive oil or shea butter into the scalp. Maiya was just ready to be left alone!

PS. Comments requested - Benjamin and Ella asked several times what the tooth fairy does with all the teeth she collects and the only thing I could come up with is that she has a collection she keeps on a pink cloud over the rainbow. Any other ideas?

Little Mommy

Here is a picture of Maiya' s inspiration for walking some - her baby. I couldn't get a picture of her actually walking with her. She is sooo cute, she will pick her up squeeze her to death around the neck and pound on her back, like Kyle and I pat her back. Then within a few minutes she gets tired and drops her on the head.

So I am a dork and loving it

I went to the first relief society enrichment night last night and had a good time. It started off bad when I forgot the salsa I had homemade, and printed up recipes for, then lovingly left it in the fridge! But lots of people brought some so I didn't feel too bad for being an airhead.

In one of the mini classes this woman brought our her "coupon binder" - being the organization wannabe I am, I was fascinated! I was like a guy looking at a fully loaded new model sports car. She used dividers and baseball card holder sheets to slide in her coupons. She swore by her system: clipping coupons on sunday, filing them during a fav tv show, then on wed getting the store flyer and ONLY using coupons at the same time the store puts the exact same item on sale. Sometimes this may mean you come close to the expiration date, but when both hits (which is very often) - you can save a TON. I thought it was so cool I made myself a binder and tried it out today.
I was amazed!! I got cereal for FREE, free I tell you! - Here is how it went down:
Kroger
Cereal 10 for 10 dollars but you don't have to buy 10 if you don't want to
I got 2 bags = $2.00
I had two .50 coupons which Kroger always doubles -2.00 = FREE CEREAL
I also got two bags of chex mix for less than a dollar.
So for a trial run I was blown away. Now it does mean getting what's on sale when its on sale and stocking up - but with three kids that is fine by me. Overall I got 37.00 of groceries for 19.00 - and I'm just getting started.
Yes I know most of you have long since rolled your eyes and stopped reading. But hey, I might be a dork shopping with a three ring binder, but saving dough never goes out of style!!

We have a TODDLER in the house!

So Maiya still prefers crawling over walking but she has started her first multiple step strides. She has also found the added benefit of being able to hold things while being mobile. We hope with round the clock encouragement she will make this a full time thing!

(post walk, fully loaded!)

mmmmmmmmmmm...Spaghetti.......mmmmmmmmmmmm

off to the bathtub with you!

First Day

As Benjamin gets himself ready for school, (a very important life skill when one has to be at the bus stop by dawn), mom frets...
Janie: "Should I make him a lunch too - I mean I know we prepaid for school lunches but what if something goes wrong - he should have a lunch from home just in case"
Kyle: "I think it will be fine"
Janie: "Are you SURE- something could go wrong"
Kyle: "Don't baby him"
Janie: "Yeah you're right - they won't let a kid go without lunch"
Kyle: Heads to bathroom
Janie: Heads downstairs to make that lunch anyway.

Grandma goes to Vegas!

My Mom and her boyfriend Tony on the red carpet at the Big and Beautiful Convention.

Glad you had fun Grandma and glad you guys got back before the airline mess!

Bye-Bye Summer

I can't believe Benjamin starts school on Monday. My world is going to change big time!! For starters, he has to be at the bus stop by 6:55 am!! Last year is going to seem like sleeping in. Then he doesn't get home until 3:10ish. Part of me is excited that he will be there all day, then another part of me feels like that is too long - I guess he's really not my baby anymore. I wonder how Ella will deal without her partner in crime.
His teacher is Ms. Bressman (yeah I know what you are thinking, don't say that one fast three times) - she seems really nice and Benjamin likes her already. Maybe because she had cookies at the open house today;)

Uh-oh

Some of you will remember the "backwards baby", when Benjamin was around 18 months we had to put his diaper on backwards because he was fascinated with taking it off. By two we had to put the diaper on backwards and the onesie on backwards too. Well someone is developing this skill too :)

Fasting

So Kyle and I aren't the best about fasting, but this Sunday we did. We talked about it with the kids and said we were fasting with the ward for rain because there is such a bad drought going on here. They agreed to go without snacks at church for their "fast". After that they just thought it was really funny that they were eating and we weren't. At lunch Benjamin did ask for rain in his prayer without any prompting.
I was kind of worried about explaining to the kids that not all prayers are answered immediately - as they kept checking outside to see if it had started raining yet. But lo and behold at about 4:00 it started raining. The kids were amazed, Ella stood in the middle of the backyard yelling "you did it guys, you got Jesus to make it rain!!!! - good job Mommy and Daddy"

Pictures

We had a blast at Medieval times last night - the kids were beyond mesmerized!!

The Green Knight threw Ella a flower from the arena - she was in love!

"No silverware in medieval times, no silverware at Medieval Times"

The kids loved eating with their fingers - I should let them do it more often - Ella ate tons more than normal!

"The Green Knight" - Ella's crush

Maiya's first ponytail

Yummy... mmmmm... crayons

Bad idea to have one kid doing crafts next to a toddler eating!

Boy am I tired...

But I know that is no excuse - I have been thoroughly chastised by family and friends.

We are still getting settled, and it doesn't quite feel like home. BUT the kitchen is unpacked and the cable is hooked up - the two most important things right?? I don't think I will ever get the girls room organized, everytime I try Maiya gets too grumpy to stay with me, and when I put her down to sleep I can't work in there. I was thinking of putting the kids in day care just so I could finish getting this house put together.

I promised details of the trip here, but the pain of unpacking has begun to deaden those memories, but I still need to once again thank everyone that helped. We couldn't have done it without everyone!! It seemed like we ran out of room in the Uhaul about five minutes after we picked it up. We gave away a bunch of stuff, then had to do some major maneuvering to finish packing the rest.
The trip itself went relatively well, despite one "break down" with the Uhaul which was beyond frustrating at the time but only cost Kyle a couple of hours. Meg and I went on with the kids and animals. We managed both closings in one week. And even though it may take me forever to get it straight - I am loving the new house.

Funny comments from the kids post move:

Benjamin --
"This house is cool - there is one room, then another, then another..."
At Walmart "Wow this is just like our walmart - they must like Virginia Beach - they are copying it!"

Ella --
The second night here they were playing outside and she forgot the sliding glass door was closed and ran smack into it at full speed. The next day I found her going back and forth through the door; "what are you doing Ella?" - "Practicing not running into the door"

Ella has also been concerned about Santa Claus - will he know where we are? - will he get burned if we have a fire?. Its funny to me that they weren't really concerned about how he would get in when we didn't have a chimney and now that we do they're worried.

We're here!!

It was one heck of a ride but we are home... here are a few pics; story to follow ;)

Hitting the road from Nana's
"oops" - somewhere in Bristol
Aren't we a sight! - somewhere in Tennessee
Thanks for the conversation Meg!
Maiya found one way to keep herself occupied
"YEAH - we're in TEXAS"
We're home!!
The kids were in shock - "the new house is sooo cool!"
Celebrating with some sparkling cider!

VA to TX...

Well tomorrow it begins... We are going to church and saying some more goodbyes then leaving for Aunt Beth + Meg's in the afternoon. We will pack her then us on Monday, close on the house on Tuesday and hit the road. We will spend the first night with Nana and Gram in Danville. We will close on the house down there on Friday and unpack the truck on Saturday. Kyle spoke to someone from the ward down there and there will be a few people to help us on Saturday. The Church is so cool!

So most likely the next time I blog, I'll be a bloggin' Texan. Wish us luck!

Bye-bye's have begun :(

Happy Fourth!!!

Some pics...

Maiya likes to get into everything I am packing or unpacking - boxes, drawers, cabinets, under beds, closets, etc.
mmm. outback. mmm.
Bye-Bye Kylie
"that's not quite smiling Maiya"

Its been great but...

Tomorrow is the last day I am taking AVON orders !! Let me know if you need anything

Lips

Ella the budding artist has begun adding voluptuous lips to her drawings, and every drawing gets them - man, woman, child, baby, even a frog or two I think!

Update on us:
We enjoyed a great week with Kyle's Mom and Gram and will see my family at the end of this week. We are in countdown mode with about 12 days to the big move. We are sooo excited and dreading the actual move all at the same time.
We splurged and bought a new sofa and the coolest ottoman at a local store that was going out of business - we are like kids at Christmas because we left it all boxed and wrapped up and we are dying to get it unpacked!!
The kids are saying goodbyes to friends - Kylie and her family are going on vacation for 2 weeks so we said good-bye to her this morning - I still don't think they get it though! They keep asking me things like why are you packing our coloring books too and why are you packing that? "Guys - we are packing EVERYTHING!!"

Dolphin Watching