Just Ducky!

My friend Jennie had an adorable idea for a craft that she found on another blog. So, in celebration of Easter, Jackson and Caroline made ducks with their feet. I painted their feet then they steeped on the paper. Jackson thought it was "awesome" (his new word) but Caroline wasn't too sure...

...as you can tell by her duck that looks more like a dead duck, then a baby duck following jackson's big ducks.

And just for good measure,

since their feet were already painted,

and we are in the middle of March Madness,

and since Jackson now says "go Carolina" more then he ever says "go Duke". (just one of the benefites of being home with my kids for hours on end!)

I give you...

That's a thing of beauty. Don't tell Cameron! :)

7 Months!

Here we go again... I can't believe my baby girl is...

7 months old today!!!

This is her "I told you I wasn't going to smile" face. I couldn't get her to smile for a picture today for anything in the world!

This is the first time she's taken a bath by herself. She usually takes one with Jackson, so she sits in a bath seat so I can fill the tub up. I put just a few inches of water in and let her go to town. She LOVED, LOVED, LOVED it!

Being a sweet, snuggly girl with Daddy

This is her new "squinchy" face as we call it. She sqishes her face up and breathes really heavily out of her nose. It's hilarious. I need to post a video of it.

She wriggles herself right into the corner of her crib during naps.

She is my beautiful girl! We are so lucky to have her in our lives!

And just for good measure, so you know we love him too...

Here is Jackson with his butt stuck in Caroline's Bumbo. Silly boy!

The kids have their well visits on April 9th, I'll let you know how they measure up!

As yummy as a sweet baby's bottom

I was in my room yesterday for a few minutes while the kids were in the living room playing. Suddenly I smelled baby powder VERY strongly. Fearing the worst, I walked in to the living room...


I sucked in my breath, and Jackson informed me that "it was Winter Holiday on the Island of Sodor." I couldn't help but laugh. What else could I do? He was so proud of himself, but I'm beginning to think that this obsession with Thomas the Tank Engine is going a little too far.

I knew it was a mess, but didn't think it would be that hard to clean up... just pull out the vacuum, then wipe up the remnants. Thats what I thought, until I start vacuuming and realize that its not just baby powder.... its baby powder on top of Desitin. Let me tell you how easy that came up. Not! Apparently, when baby powder is thrown on top of Desitin, the Desitin becomes hard and nearly inpossible to be scrubbed off whatever it is adhered to.

On the bright side, whenever I turn my vacuum on, it smells as yummy as a little baby's bottom!

On another bright side, the potty thing is FANTASTIC! Ther has only been one accident since last Friday at Chuck E. Cheese, and he's already waking up with dry diapers. Yay for me!!!

Bright, Sunshiney Day!

We had a beautiful spring day today, so the kids and I headed to the park and met our friends Jennie, Isaac and Maylee.

Even though Isaac and Maylee are his "friends" Jackson is only concerned about Jennie when she is around. Today he walked around the park, "hi, Jennie", "where are you, Jennie", etc. Its really cute! He loves her!

The majority of our time at the park was spent in the swings, the swings, and the swings! Jackson couldn't get enough today, and Caroline even got in on the action. She LOVED it. She looked so tiney in her big girl swing!

my cutie pies!!!

I did it...

... I joined...
And, its pretty fun. Its amazing to see people I have not seen in YEARS.

At the moment, I'm pretty overwhelmed by it.

Green Eggs, Ham & Kids

Happt St. Patrick's Day!!!

We are not the least bit Irish, but I love any excuse to have a holiday. We all know I don't need an excuse to dress my kids up, but I always do.

We didn't do anything special or fun, but we did all wear green, and my kids looked very cute!

With Jackson, I either get nothing, or I get super big "CHEESE"

She's always ready for the camera. I just can't get enough of her!!!

I knew she would take a picture with me... Jackson was a different story

This was the only way Jackson would let me take another picture of him... do you notice his trains all lined up beside him? He then made me take a picture of him with each train. Obsessed? Only slightly!

At the last minute, I decided to make green dinner, which consisted of green shamrock pancakes. green eggs (with ham in it) and green milkshakes with green sprinkles...

Even served on green plates... how about that?!

Hope everyone else had a fun day!!!

Create

We Have Success!!!

Sorry I have been such a slacker blogger lately, but we have had more important things going on around here, namely... potty-training! I don't recommend it! Just kidding. :)

We started Monday, and Monday was disastrous. Jackson didn't make it to the toilet a single time, so I was cleaning up pee and poop all day long. No fun! I knew I just needed to stick with it, and on Tuesday, he did GREAT. He wouldn't even tell me when he had to go pee, he would just go in and do it... no accidents all day. The same thing on Wednesday, except the two times he had to poop, wouldn't do it in the toilet. Yesterday, he had a couple accidents, he had some friends over and I think he was too distracted, but then he finally pooped in the potty!!! We did a dance and sang a song and clapped and cheered.

He finally got to put a sticker on the "poop" side of his potty chart. Then he got to eat his special treat that he picked out if he pooped in the potty.

Isn't he cute in his big boy underwear?!

I was feeling really great about the whole thing until today. He woke up with a dry diaper, and went pee in the potty first thing. All of a sudden, everything was a game. Every thirty seconds he was telling he needed to go, which meant stripping off all his clothes to have him do NOTHING on the toilet. Then when he finally did need to go, he would tell me he didn't, throw a fit, and then pee in his clothes. He did that twice, but then actually pooped the potty. Then we left for a friends birthday at Chuck E. Cheese. What a disaster that was. There was so much going on that he absolutely would not break away from playing, and he peed in his clothes 3 TIMES!!! Oh well, it was probably too early to venture out somewhere so exciting. I am optimistic that things will be better. I certainly hope so, because it made me very nervous to go to church on Sunday.

He is a big boy, though and his really has been doing SO WELL!!!

Just a couple of silly pictures...

Of a couple of silly kids!

Christmastime... according to Jackson

All the nasty weather of the weekend, finally turned to BEAUTIFUL snow by Sunday night. By Monday morning we had several inches, and it really was lovely to see!



Jackson kept looking out the windows and doors telling me it was Christmastime! It was really cute! I couldn't convince him to go outside and play in it. He kept telling me it was very cold, but as soon as Cameron got home, he was begging to go outside and play. I see how it is... he just didn't want to play in the snow with me!

Visit

Mom was here this weekend, and our rush to get out of the house was to see our good family friend, Kim Artinger, who was in town for a visit. She hasn't changd a bit, and it was wonderful to see her.

We also took the opportunity to go to church on Sunday in the ward I grew up in. It was wonderful to old friends, and other than the weather, and the before mentioned accident, it was a WONDERFUL weekend!

Such is Life!

You know how you'll be going along, feeling like you're doing just fine, and then something happens, and you wonder, "why now", or "why me"? I know we all have, and I have just experienced one of those times.

We have been working very hard to be very frugal, not spending any money (mainly because there is not alot of extra to spend) and pay off our debt, and try to save a little bit at the same time. Not necessarily an easy thing for me, but we were doing all right. I feel like I've really gotten the hang of budgeting for everything, and controlling the urge to impulse buy. Its amazing how much it costs to have to kids, and how much money is spent just on necessities.

Due to all of this, I have also become ridden with stress and anxiety. I can't really explain it, but I let things affect me terribly. I spend most days just a ball of nerves; sick to my stomach with worry and stress. I know its a problem, and I am in the process of doing something about it.

Well, Saturday morning was one such morning. The weather was cold and rainy and awful. Jackson was being an absolute pill (as per usual these days. My sweet boy has dissappeared somewhere, and I desperately want him back!). Mom was here, and Jackson had hidden her keys which we needed so mom could move here car so we could leave. After tearing the house apart, Cameron finally found the keys, mom moved her car, and we were on our way. I am so keyed up and stressed, it is windy and cold and miserable, I'm not payinf the least bit of attention, and...

BAM!!!

Literally...

Yes, I hit a parked car, my mother's car, that was parked behind Cameron's car. It means that I have to back out of my deiveway differently, and I somehow had forgotten that I needed to do that. While I am glad that it was her and not some mean person, it has only compounded the money issues and the stress issues. So now, we are trying to figure out if it is cheaper to pay our insurance deductable and have our insurance go up how ever much, or maybe pay more out of pocket to just have both cars fixed and not have our insurance go up.

I guess its good that we have been working so hard to spend as little money as possible, but this just totally kills those plans, and what little we have saved that was going to pay off some debt.

Such is life!

I know that I am so blessed. I'm not complaining... just venting!