The Wrights

My addiction

2012-01-25T11:27:00.000-08:00

My name is Kelly Wright and I am addicted to Baked Lay's: Southwestern Ranch chips.

I know this sounds silly but I do have a serious problem here. It started off with Baked Lay's in general. They are the only chips I really eat. And unfortunately to me and my body, I think these are healthy. I feel good eating them. If they are not baked lays, chips generally gross me out. Even Baked Ruffles.

To further my problem, I have now become a Baked Lay's snob, only choosing the Southwestern Ranch flavor. They. Are. DELICIOUS! They are a little spicy and I used to keep Lyla from eating them because she doesn't like spicy things and so she'd inquire what I'd be snacking on and I would just say "Oh, these are my spicy chips", knowing she would just walk away. This made my snack even better... one I didn't have to share with the kiddo's!

I know I have a problem because I pretty much eat these several times a day, every day. And if my bag is running low, I go and buy a new one to stock up. I always have these delicious chips in my house. I just crave them all the time! One bad thing about them is they can really taint your breath. But I don't mind because I can still taste it's deliciousness in my mouth and that makes me happy. Nate would probably say that he does mind... especially before we head to bed and he has to lay next to a stinky breath girl, even if she brushes her teeth. Sorry, babe! I wish I had an intention of stopping, but I don't. So, friends out here, if I have particularly spicy breath when I talk to you, you'll know why. ;)

Lyla's first day of Preschool and some fun pics

2012-01-24T13:19:00.000-08:00

A group of my mom friends out here and I got together and decided to do a little preschool for our littles and today was Lyla's first day! She LOVED it! I told her about it on Sunday and she had not stopped talking about going to school until she walked through the door. The only thing that she was more excited about was her new (to her) Dora backpack! She rolls that thing everywhere she goes in the house! And yes, it is a "roller backpack" and the inner nerd in her is so excited about it!

Her first "First day of school" photo! Love the forced smile! She look so worried!

Being a dork for the camera... I love her!!

All the little kiddo's. Lyla and Izzy's smile are SO FUNNY in this pic!

Thanks for the pic Emily!

These pics of Lyla were taken yesterday because she was so excited about her new backpack. I tried getting her to smile for the camera and she did this...

and this...
Finally a laugh/smile from her that looks genuine!

And here are a few of Ruby...

First of all, her hair is getting so LONG! Her bangs are at least an inch past her eyes and always in her face. I'd cut them but then I feel like I'd have to keep cutting and cutting. They just need to grow and I need to train them stay to the side. Anyway, for now I am trying to get her hair out of her eyes and while she was drinking her bottle this morning, I did these pigtails on her and they go nowhere but UP! That's all her does when in an elastic. So, although she looks a little silly, she still looks super cute!

And because Lyla got a new backpack, we also gave Ruby a new (to her) purse, which she loves to carry around with her as well...

Today is actually the first day she started to say "cheese" and smile along with it! I'm such a proud mommy!!

Isn't her hair great in these pics? I did it before Nate left for school and he said, "Ruby, I'm sorry I leave you at home with your mom all day long".

Love my sweet and funny girls!!

5 Year Anniversary!!

2012-01-22T20:21:00.000-08:00

We celebrated our 5 Year anniversary at the end of December and it was magical! Nate's sister, Lizzy, was still in town and so she lovingly volunteered to watch our kiddo's so we could go celebrate! Thanks Lizzy!!

We started our day off with a lovely couples massage at Massage Envy, which was quite amazing!

After our massages we went home to shower and get ready for our dinner. My stud of a husband took me to one of my favorite places, Ruth's Chris. This is definitely a special occasion restaurant for us (and most people) and I was SO surprised and excited to be eating there!! I am a lucky, spoiled girl!

Anyway, we ate, talked about our "Top 5's" of several categories throughout our 5 years of marriage, and laughed about some fun memories we've shared.

Here's a pic of Nate's delicious salad... it was SOO stinkin' good!
And my caesar was huge and quite delicious as well. I ate almost the entire thing!
5 years! The old couple in the background were actually celebrating their anniversary as well! We talked about how one day we'll be like them, but then before we left we asked them how long they have been married and they said, 10 years!!!! Maybe we don't want to be like them after all!! We'll shoot for being married 50 years instead :)
And our delicious dessert that was complimentary for our anniversary. It was probably the best cheesecake I have ever had!! Mmmmm, my mouth is watering just looking at this picture.
After dinner we had planned to go to a movie, but we ended up not feeling very well and were pretty tired and so we decided to go home instead. It kind of made me feel old making that decision, but I had already had such a wonderful day with the hubs that it didn't seem to matter.

I don't know how I got so lucky to have a man like Nate decide to marry me. He's smart, funny, kind, loving, a great father, a loyal friend, an optimist, a great priesthood holder, hard-working, handy with household stuff, eager to learn, strives to be better, and an uplifting companion. And he is mine. :) I love you babe!

Bedtime update

2012-01-15T20:10:00.000-08:00

Okay so I guess I should send out a little update, but to tell you the truth, I have not wanted to jinx our luck! The very first night after I wrote the bedtime post, Lyla has been an ANGEL going to bed (knock on wood)!! We started putting her down b/w 7 and 7:30 and we thought it must have been the bedtime. And then we had a late night and we were DREADING bedtime because we thought it would be business as usual and she was totally fine! Maybe it's because we cut potty treats. One thing we did do is the night I wrote the post she was kicking and crying and we didn't acknowledge her at all. I don't know. Anyway, thank you to EVERYONE for your awesome advice.

Changes we are making: earlier bedtime and cutting sweets. And not that we have changed this but we're really praising her for doing so good.

Hopefully this awesomeness continues!!

Ruby's Kicks: A sad, sad story.

2012-01-10T21:26:00.000-08:00

Earlier this morning the girls were out playing in the backyard as I watched from the back door. Ruby would occasionally come and hit the door excitedly as if to say hi, get a hug, and then she would be off again. So about 30 seconds after one of these cute encounters I hear Lyla yell, "Ruby's playing in the water"!! So I quickly run out there and find Ruby on the side of the house, sitting in the middle of a puddle of mud and water, splashing around like it's bath time. GAH!!! She was COVERED in mud in her brand new outfit she got for Christmas and brand new WHITE shoes we got for her this past weekend. So I quickly run to grab her and I strip her down, Nate grabs her shoes, and I get her in the tub for a bath while Nate scrubs away at the shoes.

I get Ruby all clean and warm again and Nate successfully cleans the shoes so they look brand new! Nate sets the oven to 150º and turns it off and sets the shoes inside so they can dry quickly. Disaster resolved.

Anyway, as dinner time approached I was feeling a little stressed out and tired and I had two little girls who were feeling especially needy, I had no idea what I was going to make for dinner, and my patience was running thin. So finally I decided on a baked potato bar and set the oven to 450º. I start to clean some dishes that had piled up in the sink and realize that the oven was sort of smelling a big. I thought it might have been because the oven was at such a high temp. I decide to double check my temp to make sure that you really bake potatoes at that temperature and realized that I needed to cool it off to 350º. So, I go to reset the temperature and open the oven to cool it off a bit and realize smoke is pouring out of the stove top. So I quickly think "Crap, was there already food in there?" and I throw open the oven door.

Smoke comes POURING out of the oven and as it starts clearing away I realize "Oh my gosh, the SHOES"!!

So I quickly grab a pot holder and try to take the shoes out and they are STUCK to the rack! I start panicking and yelling for Nate to help and he runs down thinking one of the girls must be choking or something (I hate to see what I would be like in a real emergency) and by the time he gets there (less than a minute after I opened the darn oven) the kitchen and the hallway leading to it was just filled with smoke and smells like burning rubber. Awesome. Anyway, we pull the rack out, take it outside, open all doors of the house and go through all the "How the heck...", "What on earth..." and "I can't believe I did that" stuff. Hopefully we can find another pair Ruby's size... she LOVED those shoes!

Anyway, here is the damage...

the poor shoes

Luckily, after the oven rack cooled off, the remains of the shoe rubber peeled off easily.

Destroyed

Advice Needed: Bedtime

2012-01-09T17:55:00.001-08:00

I'm calling out for advice because we are seriously at a loss of what to do. Here is the problem...

Lyla has been seriously fighting bed and nap times like she is fighting for her life.

I have no idea what happened. She used to be so good at going to bed. She is an awesome sleeper (and still is once she actually falls asleep). But for the past 4 weeks or so, Monster Lyla, comes alive any time she heads to bed or for a nap. She usually fights putting on pajama's because she knows that pj's mean bedtime, but I think this part is actually getting better. But once she is upstairs, all hell breaks loose. It typically goes something like this:

Lyla: No, I don't want to go to bed. I don't want to go to bed please. (Fake crying begins) Please, can I not go to bed?

Us: Sorry babe, it's bedtime and your body needs rest.

Lyla: (Panic arises as she wraps her arms around our neck, not wanting to let go) No please, I don't want to go to bed, please!

Us: I know sweetie. I'm sorry but it's just that time.

It kind of goes back and forth from there.

We set her down and quickly walk out so we can lock the door before she comes at it kicking and screaming.

This is a big problem. Besides the obvious that it is exhausting, frustring, etc., it is also a problem because she shares a room with Ruby. Sometimes Ruby will just eventually tune her out and fall asleep on her own. But it keeps Ruby up for longer than we would like, and she has to witness her sister turn into a crazy, thrashing toddler. For example: As I am typing all this, Lyla is upstairs screaming and crying to get out of her room and is KICKING the door really hard and then yelling "Ouch, my foot hurts!!!!". Well of course it does sweetie, you are forcefully pushing it into a wooden door. Duh! Regardless... This. Needs. To. Stop.

Things to consider:

We follow a bedtime routine. Dinner, bath, pajama's, brush teeth, family scriptures, family prayer, books. Occasionally if Lyla does a good job not complaining about getting her pj's on, we will let her play for X amount of time as a reward(usually 5-10 minutes).
She behaves this way regardless of whether or not she has taken a nap.
She sleeps around 11-12 hours a night.
We have tried the reward system (ie: if you do such a good job going to bed tonight, you will get ____ tomorrow.
We have tried explaining why she needs sleep.
We have explained that bed time and nap times are not consequences.
We usually go up a couple of times during her 30 minute tantrums and try to calm her down. 75% of the time she does better and is quiet in bed and eventually falls asleep.
Tonight we decided to try and not to say anything to her at all during her tantrum.
We've tried consequences if she fusses.
We have tried holding her, singing to her, rubbing her back for a little bit while she lays in bed but as soon as we leave, the tantrum starts back up.

Basically, I feel like we have tried everything. Am I missing something? Have we done something wrong? Please feel free to be brutally honest. I really am hoping this is just a phase but a month long phase makes me feel like we need to change something, do something more effective, and just find some way to stop this behavior so Nate and I have a peaceful evening rather than one filled of headaches and exhaustion.

If you're still reading this, do you have any advice? Anything? I'm feeling a little desperate here :)

A few things you should know about Lyla:

2011-12-30T08:56:00.000-08:00

1). She can twist that swing up really well. This is her being modest about her accomplishments.

2) She whips her hair back and forth.
3) And she can sing "Someone Like You" better than Adele herself!
She makes us smile every day. :)

our Christmas and some swing fun...

2011-12-30T06:30:00.000-08:00

Well this was our first Christmas that we spent together as a family (without going to visit extended family) and it was awesome! It was so nice having our own schedule, having Santa visit our own house, and to start our own traditions.

Christmas Eve I wanted to be all about the kids. Since Ruby is still pretty young, it really ended up being about Lyla. So we made a couple of ornaments and we painted two snowmen (see below). We played around, set milk and cookies our for Santa, and the girls went right off to bed without complaint! It was awesome!

As soon as the girls were down, we went straight to work. Nate started assembling a swing from Santa...
Once mostly assembled, Nate, Lizzy and I helped put it together outside. (blurry pic, sorry)
While Nate was assembling the swing, Lizzy and I wrapped up all the gifts, while watching Harry Potter.

A funny stories with Lyla before Christmas...

1) Ever since Thanksgiving, Lyla has said that she wanted Santa to bring her a swing. We bought her several other gifts thinking that she would change her mind (like she and most kids usually do) but about 5 days before Christmas, I realized that her answer was still the same and she even told Santa himself! So, in a panic, we ordered a swing that was at an awesome price and took back some of her other big gifts so it could fit within our budget. And this was actually a perfect gift because we really needed some activities to do in our backyard. Phew!

2) One morning before Christmas, Lyla was upstairs and I was down stairs and I hear Lyla screaming out "Mom! Mom, LOOK! Moooom!!" As I am about to head up the stairs, I hear "Look, it's Rapunzel, mom!" We find her walking out of the office (where the Christmas present closet was) holding her new Rapunzel doll with her mouth and eyes wide open! She was sooo excited!! So Nate just quickly grabbed it and put it back and surprisingly, she didn't argue! When she finally opened it on Christmas, she said "It's Rapunzel from upstairs!" It gave us a good laugh :) Anyhoo...

Christmas Morning:

Christmas morning started with Lyla waking up and coming into our bedroom. We told her that today was finally Christmas and asked her if she wanted to see if Santa came. So we got Ruby and guess what?! Santa came!! Here's our Christmas tree with Santa's gifts on the sides (shopping carts and books).

Lyla was so excited to see that Santa ate our cookies and drank up our milk...
And he even left the girls a note!

So, we weren't sure what was in the back yard. Maybe Santa left behind one of his reindeer! Nope! He left the girls a swing!!!
Lyla and Ruby were pretty excited about their shopping carts from Santa...
Despite this picture, Lyla was really excited about her new Toy Story book. Ruby got a Princess book.
I tried getting a picture of the girls with their piles of presents...

I was unsuccessful.

The girls got some fun presents from us and some family. They each got a couple of learning games, fun magnets for the refrigerator (which they LOVE), princess dolls and barbies, books, clothes, a couple movies, and other little things.

Nate got some Duke stuff and a watch...
I didn't get a picture of myself, but Nate got me an e-Reader, which I was SOOO excited about. Unfortunately though, it didn't have the feature that I really wanted it for (to read it in the dark so I could read in bed). So instead, we got me a Duke sweatshirt and today I am getting all the Harry Potter books (something I have been asking for for YEARS!)

After presents, we ate some DELICIOUS caramel rolls!
The girls played with their new toys...

We then all went to church, which was wonderful. And then we came home and started cooking dinner! This is the first ham that I had to prepare... Luckily it was already cooked and I just had to do some artful reheating. :)
Our good friends, the Oakes family, came over for dinner. It was so much fun having good friends that stayed home for Christmas as well. And all of the food was amazing!
The Oakes Family.
And a picture of our little group. PS, isn't Nate's beard awesome? I convinced him to grow it since he doesn't have to shave or impress anyone for a while. This may be one of his only chances to grow it!
We really had an awesome Christmas and we really have loved having Aunt Lizzy here to enjoy it with us. And I am a big fan of having Christmas at our own home with our little family. SO much fun!

And here's a pic of Lyla enjoying her (and Ruby's) new swing set.
I love this picture of Ly and Nate.
Today, Lyla asked to switch the swings into different spots and I said "Maybe Dad can do it later." To which she replied. "Or maybe Santa could do it". Thanks for reminding me that this was a gift from Santa, Lyla!

She mostly likes to swing on her stomach. I think the fact that they are not the bucket/baby swings, she gets a little nervous sitting on her bum. Baby steps.

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas!! Only 360 days til' we get to enjoy the madness again!

Lights on the Neuse

2011-12-29T12:07:00.000-08:00

A little more than a week before Christmas, our friends Bill and Christianne invited us to "Lights on the Neuse", a Christmas lights park. It was in a rural area where the city's downtown was decorated so beautifully! Inside the park itself was a 3D Christmas light maze, Santa in his sleigh, a 30 minute hayride taking you through a Christmas light feast, and last but not least, there was lots of candy, hot chocolate, kettle corn, etc!

Nate and the girlies...

Our family with Santa. This was the best picture from our camera, but the one they took was picture perfect, but I didn't feel like scanning it in :) A tired Lyla will have to do...

Bill and Christianne in the 3D maze.

The cute, ENGAGED, couple again :)

Oh look! Here they are again on the hayride...

The hayride was really great. The unfortunate thing was just as they hayride took off, it started to rain. So we spent the next 30 minutes trying to cover up and keep warm. Thank heaves we had our hot chocolate!

There was a section where it "snowed" (aka sprayed bubbles) that stuck all over us.

Nate and the kids with "snow" in their hair. I love this picture!
Santa's elves working in his workshop.
The creepy elf.

And by the end of the hayride, Mine and Lyla's hair was soaked. Ruby had our friends jacket covering her hair, but Lyla refused to wear anything on her head.
We love Santa!!
Thanks Bill and Christianne for an awesome time!!

Dance Class

2011-12-29T11:45:00.000-08:00

Lyla had her last dance class earlier this month. She LOVED this class, and especially her teacher, Miss Camielle.

Unfortunately, with Lyla starting Joy School and me taking on Fuqua Families Co-Chair, we aren't going to be able to continue dance next semester. Just too much in our busy schedules. Hopefully we can pick it back up in a year or so :)

Funny stories of the girls (mostly Lyla).

2011-12-13T19:23:00.000-08:00

Every time Lyla goes potty she insists that I come help her finish up. And every time when I help her finish up and she is off the toilet she gives me a huge hug. So the other day I hugged her really tight and said "I love you Lyla. You're the best"! And she said so lovingly, "You're the best, too"! Melted my heart!

She has started to compliment the chef during dinner saying things like "Mmm, wow, dinner is delicious. Thanks mom and dad!".

Scene: We were eating dinner and I got up to put my taco in the microwave. I look at Lyla and she has her arms folded and is scowling at me.

Lyla: You disgust me.

Me: What? Did you just say I disgust you?

Lyla: Yeah. You disgust me.

Sheesh! Apparently dinner wasn't very good! And I think that she got that phrase from Elf but I'm not sure.

Whenever we turn on our Christmas light's outside she insists on going out in front and proclaiming "PRESTO"! as we plug them in.

We were talking to her about the whole concept of Santa Clause the other day.

Us: Lyla, do you know where Santa Clause lives?

Ly: China

Us: What? He does not! He lives at the North Pole!

Ly: No, he lives in China!

The other day Ruby was crying and I was holding her trying to calm her down and Lyla cocks her head to the side and squints her eyes in a not so sorry way and says, "I don't think she likes you very much."

Nate and I have started surprising her with little gifts for doing so well at various things. And we typically have her close her eyes as we place a little gift on her lap or something. Anyway, she has loved this! Anyway, now she has adopted the idea, but only to surprise me with something she has broken. A few of those items were a styrofoam ball that she bit into, a cleaning stick for her new recorder that was broken into pieces, hair clips, etc. So now whenever she says, "Mom, close your eyes, okay"? I know I have something to dread! Hopefully she doesn't wise up because each time I have had to send her to time out.

Several weeks ago during bath time, Lyla backed into Ruby and Rube slipped in the tub and her whole head was submerged underwater while she was facing up. She had an expression of terror and I was so grateful (I usually am)that I was right there so I could immediately pick her up. Anyway, so I explained to Lyla how careful she needed to be and that Ruby could die. The word "die" has no meaning to Ly whatsoever so I tried to explain it a little bit and how sad we would be (just to make her WANT to be careful in the tub with Ruby). Anyway, so a couple days ago (several weeks later) Ruby slipped and her head was partially under the water (all her hair) and I sat her back up and Lyla exclaimed, "Oh no, Ruby died"! I tried to correct it but she was convinced for about 2 minutes that Rube had indeed died.

And then a funny thing about Ruby...

Ruby has become very picky with her food lately. Just today I put a slice of bread on her tray for her to eat (which she usually LOVES this) and she immediately picked it up and tossed it off the side and just looked at me as if to say "You get the hint?" She has been doing this with almost everything I feed her. I am not used to a picky baby! They are all things that babies her age would eat. But she'll eat pb&j, any kind of chicken or meat, pasta, fruits, veges, etc. But the other day she wouldn't even eat her pancakes, even after we put on the delicious vanilla syrup but downed the berries we served with them! Funny girl!

She LOVES to bump her head against the wall because she thinks it's hilarious. I'm worried she'll seriously injure herself but she seems to think she is awesome when she does it. FYI, I do pull her away from the wall when she does it and tell her no... I'm not that bad of a mom :) And if I put my forehead to hers to rub noses or something, she takes that as her go ahead to head butt me really hard and she grabs my face until she accomplishes it. Typically I'm able to dodge them but sometimes she gets me. Silly kid.

I love my littles!

It's her birthday...

2011-12-10T12:28:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday Mom! (warning, this is sort of journalistic and I'm feeling pretty emotional. Read at your own risk!)

This may be one of my favorite pictures of her ever!

Today is/would have been my mom's 56th birthday. Most of you know this already, but she passed away this year on January 18th. I've just been thinking about her 1 year death anniversary and wondering if it will be hard or if I will be fine. I wasn't even thinking about her birthday or Christmas time until recently. I had been so busy preparing for Lyla's birthday party and then her actual birthday. Then the evening of her Ly's birthday after everyone was in bed and I was in the kitchen doing some dishes, in dawned on me that it really was Christmas time and also my mom's birthday in 5 days and I've pretty much been crying ever since!

I think it's especially hard since the last time I was with her was Christmas time where we were able to take our last family photo with her and we were able to bless Ruby. That was one of my favorite trips to California with my little family and we were so sad to leave. We had no idea that it would be the last time we would see my mom. So now that it is this time of year again (her birthday, Christmas, and the last time I saw her), I can feel the loss of her so deeply and I'm a complete mess. I just miss her. I miss talking to her. A TON has changed within our family since she died and I wish I could talk to her about all of those things. I want to talk to her about our move, Nate in school, my beautiful and sweet daughter's, my photography, new and old friends, etc. I miss all her updates on family, friends, her "crappy" body, and her stories about when she was a young and able mother. I. miss. her. A lot.

So anyway, I've been extremely sensitive all week and I even cried during Elf. My brother Mike blogged about her today and he did a bike ride in honor of her. You can find his post here. His post is very happy and positive, unlike mine. And he said that mom would want me to be out and having fun and would want me to be happy. Maybe that will be next year for me. I'm just not feeling that way right now. But don't worry, I am going out on a date with Natey tonight and I'm going to do some retail therapy so maybe that will help :) Anyway, to make up for my negativity, I think I'll recycle my post for her birthday last year since it all still holds true. Here it is. I love knowing that she read this and loved it so much that she put it in her personal journal that her friends were helping her compile.

And mom, if you're able to read blogs in heaven or if you're reading over my shoulder as I'm typing away, know that I love you with all my heart and I miss you so deeply. I hope you're dancing and running, and skiing your heart out! Happy Birthday!!

Tired Ruby

2011-12-06T19:15:00.000-08:00

I uploaded this video on Facebook but since I like to so much I thought I'd put it up on here too. Enjoy!

Lyla is 3

2011-12-05T21:51:00.000-08:00

I bought a new lens for my camera and I am in love. I have only used it once so far and was able to get these sweet gems below for Lyla's 3rd birthday pics. I may do other ones but these will do for now :)

Happy Birthday beautiful Lyla!

Lyla's 3rd Birthday Bash - Monster Party!!

2011-12-04T19:55:00.000-08:00

After a long week of lots and lots of prep, Lyla's birthday party day finally arrived!! We were originally going to have a "Lollipop" themed party, which Lyla thought was great, but we weren't wild about it. Then one day, Lyla and I were reading a book about Monster's and I thought out loud, "What about a monster party?" Lyla's eyes immediately lit up and she said "Yeah, I want a MONSTER party, yeah!" And so we went to work.

Originally I wanted to go simple with this party. Unfortunately, I went to the wrong place for simple ideas... Pinterest. This site completely took me in the opposite direction and helped me find soo many cute "monster party" idea's that were to die for! Anyway, here are all the details of the big day...

The morning of the party, Nate and I were frantically doing some last minute prep. I had some serious frosting difficulties and didn't have a minute to relax or eat. My wonderful husband thought to make me a smoothie while I was working the cake problems out and as I went to take a sip, the whole thing clumped up and fell right on my face! I looked soo pretty :)

Anyhoo, here is the monster cake...

Since our cake only had about 5 cake pops, we had like a million left over. So we decorated those and used them home with the kids as party gifts. And a big thanks to Nate for helping me with those!

Nate did all the decorating with the black icing, which totally completed them!

When the first kids arrived, their first activity was to go to the "Monster Lab" (I am SOOO sad I did not get any pictures of this!!). Basically, all the kids got to pick out a felt puppet to decorate. We had eyes, eyebrows, mouths, shapes, pipe cleaner, etc., and the mom's were there to help them glue it all together with hot glue guns. The kids were all excited that they got to make their own puppet that they could take home as well.

Most the kids with their puppets...

After the Monster Lab, we went into the back yard to play "Hide the Monster". Basically, we had 2 monsters that we hid in the back yard and the kids were supposed to go find the monster. When they found the monster, they were all supposed to scream all the way back to "home base". I think this was one of the highlights of the party. The kids loved being able to scream and run around.

Explaining the game to the kids...

They were supposed to be facing the house with their eyes closed so they couldn't see where we were hiding the monsters. Plus, my backyard is extremely bare so the monsters were ridiculously easy to find.

Screaming back as they found Cookie Monster.

Screaming coming to home base again...

Tagging my hand at "home" and telling me all about the monsters and where they found them.
Next was our "Monster Toss" game.

Nate and I explaining the game...

As it turns out, I should have made more pink bean bags since some girls were upset they didn't have a pink one, haha! Should have known!

I had planned on using this as a photo prop at the party, but totally spaced it. Oh well! At least I got one with Ly.

After the games, we ate lots of pizza and then it was on to presents!

Lyla was so excited for all of her gifts that her friends gave her! She was one spoiled girl!

After presents, it was onto the cake!

Lyla blowing out her candles. I thinks he did a pretty good job of not spitting all over it, too! Haha! :) Also, the frosting on my poor cake started to fall off on part of the side. But my friend Laura made me feel better by saying it made it look more "monsterish". Thanks for the positivity, Laura!

This cake was amazing!! I don't take any credit for it either. Just two awesome recipes that I had at another little girl's birthday party a couple weeks before. When I had it there, I knew that was the recipe I wanted to use for this cake and it was soooo yummy!!
Lyla had such a fun time at her party and with all of those friends of hers! We missed a few other friends that couldn't make it for one reason or the other (plus, her other friends in IL), but we knew they wished they could come.

Lyla LOVED her Cookie Monster backpack (the one we used in Hide the Monster). We got that thing for 5 bucks at the one and only Walmart... great find!

Me and the birthday girl!

And this little chicklett slept throughout the entire party and woke up as the last guests were leaving! Here she is enjoying some leftover pizza.
Anyway, I ended up doing a whole lot more than I originally planned for but all of it was so worth it! I had fun doing the prep, and Lyla had fun helping me with it (especially the bean bags). Plus, sewing those puppets really helped me get comfortable with my sewing machine (only my 2nd time using a sewing machine, ever!) and so now I feel so much more confident using it! I am so happy about that!! And the bottom line was that all had a great time, especially Lyla! Oh, and a BIG thanks to Emily for taking pictures for us!!!!

Happy Birthday Ly!

Thankful Day #30: My Side

2011-12-01T08:21:00.001-08:00

I wanted to save my side of the family for last. The Chapman side of the family is a completely different dynamic than the Wright side, but I wouldn't have it any other way. First of all, I just need to say how much I MISS my family. Up until a few months ago when my brother Scott got married, I have been the only one living away and everyone else was within an hour of each other. Now, Scott's family lives in NV and he is hoping to find work there really soon, but they are at least within driving distance! It is seriously killing me being away from them. Especially since I have a new and ADORABLE niece, 2 prego sister in laws (both their first babies... I am extremely sad I am missing this!), and a new sister-in-law, along with her 4 kiddo's that visits often and I am missing out on getting to know them better. Not to mention all my nieces and nephews that I haven't been able to get to know. I am particularly sad about not being able to see the nieces and nephews grow up when I was able to be there during their younger years. Every time I see them and how big they have gotten, it makes me SO SAD.

Anyway, I'm so lucky to have 4 older brother's who all looked out for me, teased me, counseled me, etc. I know I could always, and still can, count on each of them with anything I need. I am so lucky that way. They all married amazing women whom I love sooo dearly. When I was 8, my mom married a wonderful man who had 4 kids of his own. The oldest, Randy, actually passed away before they got married. I am so excited for the opportunity I will have to get to know him after I pass. He and I will be total buds, I just know it! Anyway, this marriage brought along 2 more step-brothers and a step-sister. I can honestly say that I love and care for these step-siblings just as much as I do my biological siblings. The word "step" in my stepfamily simply just doesn't apply for me. They are family! Again, I feel so blessed for that!

Awesome picture taken by Michelle. This was less than a month before my mom passed and it has everyone that was in our family at the time (minus Heather, who passed away). We had no idea it would be our last with mom.

Scott and Shannon

One thing Nate and I have started to do when we visit California is try to get individual time with the sibs and their families and it has been awesome every time! I have so much fun with each of them. Anyway, I love and seriously MISS each member of my Chapman/King clan.

Onto parents...

My mom. She was and is amazing. I miss her dearly. She taught me humility, patience, love, understanding, the importance of the gospel, and you know, all that good stuff. I think about her several times a day. Sometimes I am okay with her being gone. Other times I just think it's unfair. You know, the usual. And sometimes when I imagine her still being alive, I imagine her walking, playing with my girls, and being the grandma she always was inside. I can't wait to see her again (but I also sort of can wait) :).

Another pic by Michelle.

My dad. I have an awesome dad. He is one of the most generous men I have ever met. He really knows how to take care of his "little girl". I can go to him with just about anything I need and he makes sure that I am taken care of above and beyond what is necessary. He is a great example of hard work. He is a faithful friend. He has taken me on some seriously sweet vacations. It makes my day every time he calls me "just to say hi". And it makes me so happy when I see him happy. And every time I am around him, I am convinced even more of how much he loves me. I am so, SOO blessed to have him as my dad. I love, admire, and respect him for so much!

And then Rik. He has been a second father to me. He took care of my mom up until the day she died and he did it without complaint. Any time I was struggling with something, he would take me for a burger to help me work through it. If my mom and I were arguing or something, he would again take me out to eat and let me know I needed to be easy on her and how much she loves me, etc. He is the greatest example of service that I know and I was so blessed to live with him to witness that day in and day out. And even though my mom is gone, he is still very much a huge part of my life. Just like my dad, I love, admire, and respect him for so much!

I miss my family. I love them. I seriously cannot wait until I get to see all of them again!

Between my family and Nate's, I have completely hit the jackpot.

I am also so grateful and happy I did this grateful November blog. Even if I was late on more than half the days, It has helped me to remember only a few of the things I was grateful for and why. It has helped me to remember my many, many blessings on the days that I wasn't feeling so grateful. Anyway, I am one happy, lucky, and extremely blessed girl!

Thankful Day # 29: Nate's Side

2011-12-01T07:25:00.000-08:00

I truly think I married into one of the BEST families in the world. Seriously. I hear so many people complaing about their spouse's side of the family and their inlaws and such. And every time one of these conversations occur, I have NOTHING to contribute! I can't even say anything like "Oh yeah, I hate that." or "Oh, I know what mean!". In fact, I usually feel the need to declare how sorry I am for them and how awesome the Wright family is and just how much fun we all have together. It's so true. I love each and every one of Nate's siblings and their spouse's (if they have one). Right now we are all spread out but I have been fortunate enough to spend a good amount of quality time with each couple or individual at some point in our marriage where we were able to build individual relationships. I. Love. Each. And. Every. One. Of. Them! One thing that makes me so sad thought is because we are all so far apart, I haven't been able to get to know a lot of my nieces and nephews and my sweet daughter's haven't been able to get to know the Wright Family very much (mostly aunts, uncles, and cousins).

Nice family photo in Kauai.

During our Secret Falls visit.

To top off my awesome siblings-in-law, I have an amazing Father-in-law and Mother-in-law! I cannot express that enough. They are total opposites, but so perfect for each other. They have always treated me so wonderfully and I have always felt so loved by them. Jerry was my bishop when I was entering into high school and he always made me feel so loved, even then! So he has had a place in my heart since the day I met him! And Pat was the same way! She even comes to my aid whenever I have a child since my mom wasn't/isn't able to and she was SOO helpful in all the right ways and whenever she would leave I just wanted her to stay for a little while longer! They have I think 17 grandchildren with 2 more on the way, and they treat every one of them as if they were their only grandchild. Every month the girls get an awesome package from Gr. and Gr. Wright that tells them in some cute way that they are thinking of them and that they love them. Here are a few examples:

A bag of Skittles that went along with this poem:

Hey you sweet little kiddles...

We thought you'd like some skiddles.

...And if they're feeling sad,

Share some with your Mom + Dad.

From Grandma + Grandpa Wright,

Think of us with every bite.

We really miss all of you,

and that, of course, is true!

Another time they sent Lyla the book (Ruby wasn't born yet), Flat Stanley. Along with the book, they also sent Flats of themselves! Lyla was to take Flat Grandma and Grandpa all over with her and take pictures. Each family got a Flat Grandma and Grandpa and I think in end, Grandma put together a book of their Flat adventures. So fun, huh?

Anyway, these monthly packages range from a stick of gum to books and every time, regardless of what is inside the package, the girls are so excited that their grandparents sent them something, were thinking about them, and expressed their love for them. I am so grateful that they are so mindful of my kids and work so hard to let them know that they love them. We are a very blessed family!

I love this picture of them!

Another thing about this family that I am personally grateful for is the parenting. I look up to Pat and Jerry, and each of Nate's married siblings in their roles as parents. They all do such a great job of showing their kids how wonderful they are and building them up and helping them grow in such a positive environment. Nate and I do our best to model our parenting after what we have been able to observe by all of them (and my siblings as well). I am so lucky and blessed to be a Wright!

Thankful Days 23-28

2011-11-27T21:27:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the thankful blogging hiatus. Nate was home early on Tuesday and was off for the rest of the week so the girls and I were busy soaking up every moment with him possible!! Gosh, I love family time! Anyway, here goes the catch up!

Thankful Day #23: All Recipes

I love this site. It is my go-to site for recipes and most every recipes has turned out so good! Thanks all recipes for making our tummies oh, so happy!

Thankful Day #24: Thanksgiving

This year was my first year hosting Thanksgiving and I was SOO thankful that we pulled it off without a hitch (probably because I was NOT in charge of the turkey)! OK, well dinner was actually ready 45 minutes later than we hoped, but it was all so yummy! Everyone brought delicious food that I had been craving all week. Kevin smoked a turkey and had smoked gravy that went along with it. The turkey, along with the mashed potatoes, was my absolute favorite part of the entire spread. I seriously could have eaten it all but my friends probably would have been pretty grossed out :)

Here's the gang, minus all the kiddo's.

A very poor picture of the spread/kitchen setup.

My pretty stuffing from Allrecipes. To be honest, I think I put WAY too many craisins in it!

The tots were all so good while they happily ate their popcorn while watching Snow White.

We also busted out the ping-pong table. Tyrus was the champion of the night... and all the other nights :)

Me, Ruby, and my good friend Haley.

We had such an awesome Thanksgiving! Thanks to all of those who joined us and made it spectacular!

Thankful Day #25: My Dedicated Husband

One thing I made clear to Nate several weeks ago was that I wanted him to put Christmas lights up the day after Thanksgiving and he happily agreed. What he, and I, didn't realize was how terrifying the process was going to be.

Our house has a lower roof, and an upper roof and both of them are pretty steep. To make it even more nerve-wracking, it was super slick! Every time Nate made a move, the grit on the roof would come off and run down the sides. This made Nate a wee bit nervous.

Nate, laying on the roof to ensure his safety. He was not very happy with me taking pictures of him while he was trying not to slide off the roof but I had to preserve the memory :)

If we thought the lower roof would be difficult and scary, the upper roof was 10x worse! We borrowed our friends 15 foot ladder that just barely reached the bottom of the top roof. I held the ladder for Nate while he climbed up it and when he got to the top he was shaking. I realized then just how high and dangerous it was and told him he didn't have to do it and it wouldn't be worth it if he fell off. But he went ahead with it anyway because he knew I wanted the lights up. This man spoils me! I felt okay since I knew he was going very slowly and was mindful of all his movements.

My studly husband finishing up the upper roof...

Anyway, I found out later that day that several people have actually died trying to put up their Christmas lights and falling off the roof. After I heard this I really felt like the worlds worst wife and that I have the worlds best husband. We may just keep these lights up for the remainder of our stay here in Durham, haha! Thanks babe for risking your life on the super steep and slick roof, just to make me so happy! You're amazing!

Thankful Day #26: Christmas Decorations

I started to decorate while Nate was doing lights, but when we realized how dangerous it was, I stayed outside and saved the decorating until the next day. I was SOO excited to decorate because we bout a bunch of awesome decorations last year after Christmas at Sears that were on sale. Anyway, here are a few pics...

The train around our tree...

Our Christmas village...

Most of the inside setup...

We finished our decorating and cleaned everything up. We had friends over and had a fabulous time. After everyone left, Nate went to return a redbox and came home with pizza. We turned the lights off and all the Christmas decorations were lit up and our little family watched Elf while eating our pizza. It was complete bliss. I love the feelings of Christmas, especially with my little family and I love my family more than anything!

Thankful Day #27: Evey

My girls LOVE dogs, especially Lyla. Every week day we take our friends puppy, Evey, out to go potty while her owners are at school and work. This has been really great for my girls to get some interactions with dogs since we fully intend to get one in the future. We've been doing this for the past month and my girls have sort of developed a bond with this pup. Anyway, our friends were leaving town this past weekend and asked if we would be able to watch Evey while they were gone and we happily accepted!

We seriously had such a great time! There were a few hiccups here and there, but nothing that the 4 of us couldn't handle. Ruby has learned how to defend her face when Evey attacks her with slobbery kisses. Lyla has felt so comfortable wrestling around with "Evey Girl" and has had a blast playing with her. Evey was also very protective of the girls. When we put them to bed the first night, she sat at the top of the stairs as their "watch dog". And when we sent Lyla to timeout, Evey went and sat dutifully next to her the entire time. Lyla LOVED that!

Anyway, this has been the perfect way for us to get our "dog fix" while we aren't able to care for one ourselves at this point in our lives. And Lyla wasn't even upset when she went home because she knew we see Evey all the time. Perfect setup if you ask me!

Evey was sooo patient with Lyla!

Lyla loves this pup!

Thankful Day #28: Family Time

I just have to say how much I LOOOOOVED having Nate home for such a long time. It was all about family and the girls and I ate up every moment! Complete, Christmasy bliss! Nate seriously is the greatest father and husband and he is the calm to our emotional storms! Now, he only has 2 more weeks of crazy, I mean class, and then finals. After that he gets an entire month off!!! Oh, I can't wait!

Thankful Day #22: When Daddy Comes Home

2011-11-22T20:40:00.000-08:00

Today was sort of a meltdown day. It started off when Nate left for school this morning, Lyla started screaming and crying. I quickly ran downstairs and she was staring out the door window just crying and crying. Here was our conversation:

Me: Lyla are you ok? What happened? (The sobs continue and so I crouch down next to her and give her a hug) Oh, are you sad that dad left?

Lyla: Still sobbing, she nods her head.

Me: Oh sweetie, It's ok. He is just going to school. He'll be back later. (She continues the crying). Do you want me to call dad so you can talk to him?

Ly: No! I don't like him!!!

Me: What? That's not true, you love daddy.

Ly: I just want him hooome! Sobs continue...

I tell her it's going to be alright and that he was getting home early tonight and we were going to have 5 days with him all to ourselves, etc. This seems to stop her crying almost completely but she was still pretty emotional. So I walk into the kitchen and call Nate as he was still on his way to school and tell him what happened. So he asked to talk to her and I put the phone on speaker next to Lyla so he could talk to her and I could translate since I was pretty sure she wouldn't say anything.

You know when you're feeling really emotional and upset about something and when you see or hear that person, it takes everything within you to keep your tears from gushing out? Well, that's exactly how it was for Lyla. As soon as Nate started talking to her and trying to reassure her that everything was going to be ok, she was just silent and was working sooo hard to keep from losing it, occasionally letting out the high pitched little whimper. It was the saddest thing I had ever seen!

And then the emotions somehow transferred to me later in the day. Lyla ended up being in a great mood, thankfully. But I think it was a combo of different things going on for me... worries, children (and dogs) not listening to me, never ending cleaning, and some other things. So when I called Nate to see when he was coming home, it was me who was trying to hold it together and not unleash the waterworks.

And somehow, when Nate got home, everything was better for all of us. We all went to Chik-Fil-A for dinner and then went shopping for our Thanksgiving Extravaganza (I LOVE grocery shopping with my whole family!). The best part of our night (besides being together) was Lyla. The store we shop at has double seater, race car shopping carts where two kids can sit in the cart that looks like a car and they have little drivers wheels. The girls LOVE these carts and it makes shopping with them bearable and even fun! But when we went to get the car cart, Lyla saw something even better–a mini shopping cart with a huge obnoxious flag that says "Customer in Training"– and her eyes just lit up!! So the whole time, she dutifully carted along right by my side with such a proud look on her face! She wouldn't let anyone else push her cart and she wanted that thing filled to the brim! And then when it came to check out, she hand delivered every item in her cart, one-by-one, to the cashier. It was sooo cute and the cashier was very patient and encouraging. Hopefully next time she'll figure out the concept of moving out of people's way, not running into shelves, not running at all, etc.

Thanks Nate, for being so patient with your emotional girls. We LOOOVE you!

Thankful Day #20 & 21

2011-11-21T08:11:00.000-08:00

Thankful Day #20: Relief Society

Because I don't know of any other organization that takes care of its members the way the Relief Society does. I've seen it's power throughout my life growing up with all these amazing women helping my mom AND my family every single day. I've seen it play out in my own life after I moved out of the house through visiting teaching, my Relief Society president, and others. I've served in Relief Society presidencies and just felt a unexpected amount of love for each of the sisters, even if I didn't know them. I couldn't explain it except that I truly felt Christ's love for them. The Relief Society organization is so inspired and a blessing in mine, and many others lives. I love the Relief Society!!

Thankful Day # 21: Hot showers

I loooove a nice, hot shower! Nate thinks my showers are scalding, but I think they are perfect. And I feel so good after I have showered. If I skip a day of showering I just feel gross, unmotivated, and tired. A nice, hot shower makes my days soo much better! :) Shower, shower, shower!

PS: Baths are pretty amazing as well, but I always take a nice hot shower when I am done with my bath!

Thankful Day #18 & 19

2011-11-19T12:32:00.000-08:00

Thankful Day #18: Modern Medicine

Because let's be honest, a lot of us wouldn't be here if it weren't for that. Here are a few things I am thinking of:

Epidural: I am convinced that the epidural keeps me wanting to have kids.
All medications, chemotherapies, etc. that help us fight for our lives against horrible diseases.
Medicines for headaches and migraines!
If we were born way back when, my sweet Lyla would not have been able to walk due to her clubbed feet.
Muscle relaxers that have helped my hubs back when he has problems with it and the really strong doses of them that made my mom's life livable.
Ultrasounds, xrays, ct scans, mri's, etc.

I just feel so blessed to be a part of this generation where we have so much knowledge, medicine, doctors, hospitals, etc. that help us to survive and live long and healthy lives!

Thankful Day #19: Technology

Computers, the internet, digital camera's where you can see if you actually like your picture, cars, radio, i-pods, photoshop. The list goes ooooooooonnnnnnnn!!

Thankful Day #17: My Lyla Girl

2011-11-17T19:28:00.000-08:00

I am sooooooo thankful for my Lyla girl. In a few weeks she will turn 3 and I just can't believe it! I already feel like she is a little girl now and not a toddler! Whaaa????

This little girl one of the lights of my life and here is why...

She has THE best facial expressions I have ever seen! I have several pictures of them that are just priceless and make me laugh every time I see them.
She has the cutest belly laugh I have ever heard! And so does Ruby.
I love watching her with Ruby. She loves her sister and to hug and squeeze her! And she is getting much better at sharing with her.
Her eyes completely light up every time Nate and I sit down to play with her, but she sometimes will try to hide her excitement as if trying not to lose her cool :)
She is a great eater.
She's an even better sleeper! Last night I put her down to bed early as a punishment at 6:30. She woke up with some tummy aches a few times later in the evening so we made a bed for her on our floor. Then she slept until 7:30 and waited so patiently until 8:15ish for Nate and I to finally get out of bed and make breakfast. Heavenly Father blessed me with ANGEL sleepers!
Lately she has become a really big cuddle bug. I think Ruby sparked some competition in her!
Whenever Nate gets home, she just starts laughing uncontrollably as soon as she see's or hears him because she knows he's going to come tickler her.
She is suuuper dramatic and loves to pretend. She is going to be an actress one day, I just know it!
She's super smart. I love listening to and watching her learn and remember things.
Any time she see's a picture of a beautiful, blonde model she says "Look! It's my mom!" Thanks for the confidence boost Ly!
She is starting to actually want to be just like me. This really helps me to shape up. But it's usually looks she wants to imitate. She'll often ask me to do her hair like mine. So we'll blow dry and straighten it occasionally. One day I did my hair like hers and her eyes just lit up when she noticed! And then the other day I was wearing a hat and she wanted to wear one just like me. I know this won't last forever so I am eating it up while I can!
We are best buds!
And there is more but I'll spare you the rest...

She does have days when she is very tantrumy or she doesn't listen very well, but they are always usually when she is super tired, hungry, or genuinely upset. And I know that post I did a few days ago about our doctors office visit sounds horrific. And it was. It was absolutely horrifying for everyone involved. But in the end, I can't blame the girl one bit! She has had several traumatic doctor visits that completely merit her response and protectiveness over Ruby.

In the end though, the day I had Lyla was the day that the BEST change in my life occurred. I became a mom. My heart expanded beyond what I thought was possible. She was and is my mini-me! I grew a protectiveness in me that I never knew existed. Seeing her having to go through treatments for her clubfoot was so sad, but I was so grateful that I just felt peaceful through it all. I honestly feel that Heavenly Father put her in my life to help me grow in all the ways he needed me to. I love my sweet Lyla!

Where's Lyla?

I posted several of these pics on Facebook but we had so much fun taking these pictures! Here are some of my favorites....

Crazy Face

Sad face

Laughing at our previous sad face

Love you Ly, and I am THANKFUL for you!!

Thankful Day #16 - To be living in a house

2011-11-16T08:14:00.000-08:00

I know I have talked about this before, but I am sooo grateful that I live in a house now... even if we are just renting it. We had lived in small two bedroom apartments our whole married lives and they each were great places. Our last apartment was great and perfect for us for a little while. But I began to go completely stir crazy.

I think it was a combination of having a second child, the cooold Chicago weather, only having 1 car so I was often stuck at home, zero natural light, always worrying about disturbing the neighbors below when Ly would throw a tantrum or something, and then probably a little depression from my mom passing. And Nate was always really busy at work.

So when I thought about us moving to Durham and being really poor students and living in yet another tiny 2 bedroom while practically never seeing my husband, I felt very unsupportive and unexcited! I just told Nate that I would be a much more supportive, happy, and loving wife while he did school if I could just live in a house... (and to have a second car so I could actually take advantage of the awesomeness of Durham). I know this makes me sound soooo spoiled, and maybe I am, but I have been a very happy and supportive wife while Nate is gone allll day long almost every day for school.

So when we found this house that was within our price range, it was a huge answer to our prayers! This is our place. I don't have to worry about bothering neighbors if the girls run around. I don't feel trapped. We have plenty of natural light. We have a garage that actually connects to our house (say whaaa???). We have the perfect setup here for our family. We have a big backyard where the kids can just run around and play (even though Ruby doesn't go back there yet). I am just so thankful that we live here. I feel like I am on vacation all the time :)

Thanks Nate for putting up with your high maintenance wife!! :)

Thankful Day #15: When I Learn Something About Myself

2011-11-15T13:12:00.000-08:00

Thankful Day #15: When I Learn Something About Myself

I think in the past I have struggled with identifying what I want to like vs. what I actually do like. And sometimes I get in my head that I want or need to be good at certain things, or I try to make it some hobby of mine. Does that make sense? Let me tell you, it is overwhelming! Here are some examples...

I want to be one of those people who just loves to cook and bake. I do like cooking and baking and I make good stuff. I just don't like to do it every night. It overwhelms me. Probably because of the mess I have to clean up afterwards.
I want to feel like cleaning is therapeutic, but it is sort of torture for me. I sound like a teenager, I know. But when things are clean and orderly, I feel more at peace and in control.
I want to get to all those projects sitting in my garage (repainting a blanket box and 2 bookshelves, re-doing our coffee table and our kitchen table), but I do not have the time!!
I want to read a book or two every month, but by the time I have the time to do it, I'm just too dang tired.

Anyway, I think I had just been trying to do too much and I just felt really overwhelmed. There is just not enough time in the day to do so. So, I started to try and figure myself out and what I really want and enjoy and accepting myself for it. Let me tell you, it really has been such a weight off my shoulders! So here is what I have figured out...

Cleaning:

Having a clean home is therapeutic to me, but cleaning itself is not. So, I decided that I would clean for about 45 minutes every morning and then be done with it for the rest of the day. Well actually, we do a clean up with the girls before bed. I am hoping that will make sure things stay picked up, cleaned, and orderly.

Cooking:

Still don't like to do this very much. But what I do is just buy meals for the week or two, make enough for leftovers, and I also get some easy meals. Freezer meals are also a great idea. This one time, a couple of friends of mine and I spent an entire day just cooking freezer meals. It was so fun and it provided a ton of meals that were so easy to assemble. I think I may start that again.

Things that are important to me (in no particular order):

Good, quality time with Nate and the girls. Sleep. Staying home with my girls and being able to raise them myself. Feeling like I contribute at home and financially. Everyone being happy. Time for me to just sit and relax. Church.

Things I have time for:

My kids. That includes feeding, changing, bathing, playing with, teaching, and crafting with them. And taking them to play groups, parks, etc.
Husband. He is so busy and is gone most the time. I take care of him by taking care of the kids, giving him food when he gets home, trying to keep the house clean, and you know, basic needs. I also make sure we get to spend some good quality time together before bed... probably more for me than him :)
Photography. I can take pictures of people on the weekends, and edit the pictures during nap times, while Nate is doing school stuff, etc.
Books. When I don't have pictures to edit, I can read the book club book.
My calling. Because let's be honest, I can't afford not to do my calling.
If I have a lazy Saturday or something where Nate is home, then I can do my projects sitting in my garage. More than likely I won't get to those until Christmas break.

Thankful Days 11, 12, 13, & 14

2011-11-14T17:31:00.000-08:00

I have seriously been neglecting my thankful blogging but what can I say, I've been a little busy. So here goes.....

Thankful Day #11: For Duke because it has already proven to be a huge blessing in our lives and just continues to do so every day. It's such a privilege to be here.

Thankful Day #12: That Ruby got her two bottom teeth. I was really starting to wonder where they were!

Thankful Day #13: For good, one-on-one time with friends. I feel like you really get to know someone that way and create a bond. It's good stuff.

Thankful Day #14: That despite the fact that Lyla was/is a candyholic, she LOOOOVES fruits and vegetables. Especially carrots. We've pretty much gotten rid of her Halloween candy since she would go potty not because she actually had to go, but to get the treat itself. And she has made an awesome transition to eating vegetables or crackers instead. Yay, for a healthy tot!

A visit to the doctor that I'd like to forget (and not forget).

2011-11-10T13:37:00.000-08:00

Just had to document this outrageous experience today...

Ruby had her 1 year well visit today at the doctor's and oh man, it was a disaster! The whole thing!! Not because of Ruby... she was actually just fine. But Lyla. WOW!

We went straight to the doctor's from Lyla's dance class and Lyla was in a really great mood. She was super cute and talkative to all the doctor's and was just very sweet. Oh how quickly things turned! Our doctor was examining Ruby on the table and Ruby was reading an animal book and everything was fine. Lyla kept asking to get up and I told her she couldn't because there was no room. She started to throw a fit and so to avoid this, knowing there was still much to go over, I just let her sit up there and keep Ruby company while I talked to the doctor. So they read a book together.

THEN, Lyla started to rip up the paper on the table saying "Oh, no! I ripped it!" The doctor told her it was fine and so I didn't worry. But then, she started ripping it in little pieces and throwing them on the floor. So, I kindly asked her to stop and she got really mad at me and just spit. This, apparently, is her new thing when she is upset. Not cool.

Trying to avoid a scene, I just said "Lyla, we do not spit. If I see you do this again, you will have to get off the table, and go to time out". Long story short, she spit again about a minute later when I told her to stop doing something. So I said, "I'm sorry, we're going to have to get off the table now and sit in timeout". This. Set. Her. Off.

So, as I was trying to watch Ruby and make sure she was fine on the table, while also trying to pay attention to the doctor's counsel, Lyla was screaming and bawling hysterically. She was ripping paper from the table and then throwing it on the ground, picking up the pieces and throwing them all over again, throwing herself on the ground, ripping her jacket off and throwing it on the ground, and then again herself, all while in hysterics and huge tears coming down her face and saying things like "No mommy, NO!" and "I want my daaaaaddddyyyyy!!!!". The doctor and I did our best to ignore the tantrum.

Anyway, so when the doctor left and we were waiting for a nurse, I had a talk with Ly. We hugged, we talked, we took deep breaths, and she calmed down. She put her jacket back on, picked up all the pieces of paper on the floor and was ready to apologize to the doctor.

Then two nurses came in to draw some blood from Ruby. Ruby has been throwing up a little every time she eats something. Sometimes it's a lot, sometimes it's a little. But it always happens. After talking with the doctor, they decided to run some tests to be safe. Anyhoo... they put on a little tourniquet to find a vein and one nurse was holding that arm, while I held the other and the the other nurse was doing the poking. Curious Lyla went to take a look at what they were doing and she LOST IT. She was in complete hysterics flailing her body and burying her face into my body saying, "No, no, no, no, NOOOOOOO!!!!!! Please stop, please stop, STOP IT!!!! Mommy, daddy stoooopppppppp!! I don't want you to hurt heeeeeerrrrrrr!!! I want to go hoooomme!!" Over and over and over again. I kept trying to show her that Ruby was ok but she didn't seem to hear me :) Ruby cried when they initially poked her but she stopped crying after that and was fine. Lyla didn't care. SHE was not fine with it and then she started to make Ruby nervous and so Ruby kept looking back at Lyla freaking out and would cry nervously watching her but would stop pretty quickly.

When the nurses finished and left I was trying to get Lyla to calm down and was trying to show her that Ruby was fine and there was nothing to worry about. Then, another nurse came in with the vaccinations, or in Lyla's eyes, 4 needles. And that is when all hell broke lose. There is no other way to describe it. Lyla saw the needles and she lost it even more than the first time (if that was possible). We kept trying to tell her that they were to help her so she won't get sick later on, blahblahblah. She just kept bawling and bawling and finally said "I don't want you to poke her!! Please don't poke her!!! Don't poke heeeeerrrr!!!" It just crushed me because she was so sweet and protective over her baby sister. We kept trying to assure her that everything was fine and when she realized that she had zero control over what was going to happen, she had had it! She ran to the door, turned and gave us a look like (you guys are crazy, I'm outta here!), opened the door and booked it down the loooong hallway screaming and crying out "I WANT MY DADDY! I WANT MY DADDY! AHHHHH! I WANT TO GO HOOOOOOME!". I quickly passed Ruby off and chased after her and brought her back It was quite the scene. Her doctor then asked Lyla if she wanted to go read a book with her so I could be there with Ruby and Lyla decided that was ok.

After all the vaccinations, I went back out to get Lyla and she was calm but still really upset. As the doctor was summarizing all my to do's, I looked down at Lyla and she looked up at me with these big, wide, teary eyes and she quietly and sweetly said "Please, can we go home now, please?" Ah, it just broke my heart!! It was like the house of horror for her, that poor girl!

So we got Ruby dressed again, packed up our stuff and I had to finish filling out paperwork. During that time Lyla must have composed herself because before we left she said "I need to go apologize to the doctor!" I told her she didn't need to and that she had been through enough and I was sure they understood. But she insisted on apologizing.

It was so sweet and so sad to see how concerned Lyla was over Ruby. I, and all the nurses and doctors, were just shocked at how protective she was. It totally made me forget about being frustrated with her for misbehaving before. I just felt for the poor girl. I love my sweet Lyla and she sure does love her little sis.

Wish us luck when we go back for Lyla's 3 year well visit, haha!

Thankful Day #10: Ruby

2011-11-10T12:24:00.000-08:00

Thankful Day #10: Ruby

I am thankful for my little Ruby, who just turned 1 a few weeks ago. Don't worry, I am grateful for Lyla as well but I'll get her later. Rub is such a delight in our home and she makes everyone around her smile. Seriously, how could you not love this face and those eyes?

She just started walking a week or two ago. The most she has taken is 6 steps or so, but she still crawls way more than she walks. Look at that cute, standing girl!

One of my favorite parts about Rub is her cackle laugh. She does this when she is running away from being tickled or something like that. I've tried to imitate it, but it scratches my throat and makes me cough. But that funny cackle laugh is always accompanied by this sweet laugh/smile...

Here are Ruby's stats...

Height: 29.3/8 inches (50%)

Weight: 23lbs 3oz (75%)

Head: 46.6cm (76-90%)

What she's up to:

She has her two upper molars but no other teeth.
LOVES water. As soon as I start the bath water, it takes everything I have to keep Ruby from climbing in (yes, she can climb in herself now) before her clothes are off. And when she goes swimming, it takes all my energy and attention to make sure she isn't trying to dive in head first while in her floatie thing. And also not to drink the chlorine water!
Makes a cute little scrunchie face where she purses her lips and furrows her eyebrows and breathes in and out really loudly and quickly. She also does this on command.
Her hair is straight in the front, curly in the back. And it's getting very long and into her eyes. I keep trying to decide if I should cut it or just let it be so it can grow out.
She is an awesome sleeper!! She goes to bed around 8 and wakes up around 8 (sometimes til 9!). She also takes about 5 hours worth of naps a day. She sleeps like her mother :)
Loves almost anything to eat that you put in front of her.
She can clap, just waved for the first time today, and can understand the word no.
She started to walk.
She has started to imitate.
Loves to be tickled and wrestled around with by her dad.
Loves her big sister and thinks she is hilarious.
Loves reading. It's like she has entered a magical world when she is in front of a book and points to things and turns the pages. It's super cute.
Is a lover of accessories. She will go to anyone with a necklace, bracelet, watch, earrings, etc.
Is the best snuggle bug in the world. We can't get enough of her snuggles and they just melt our hearts!
Loves to play on the "jumping couch" with Lyla.
Loves dogs and laughs hysterically when she encounters them.
Likes to drop the food she is done with on the floor.
Has found her voice and just talks and talks and talks like she is having a real conversation with us.
Has also found her screaming voice and loves to scream in a really high pitch really loudly. She especially enjoys screaming wars with Lyla.
Likes to pull all our dvd's off the shelf, dump toy food and blocks all over the toy room. She likes to make a mess!
Has just started to dance a little.
Is a mama's girl.
Laughs and smiles at just about everyone and everything.
Is just about the happiest baby around.

We love our sweet Ruby and we are so, so THANKFUL to have her in our family!

Thankful Day #9: A Loving Heavenly Father

2011-11-09T18:12:00.000-08:00

Thankful Day #9: A Loving Heavenly Father

To say I am "grateful" for my Heavenly Father seems like an understatement. It is so much more than that. I owe him my LIFE and unfortunately, I don't think I always give it to him 100% like I should. I have had a really good life and have been blessed beyond what I can even comprehend. I know those blessings come from Him. Just like in everyone else's lives, I have also had times where I have just struggled. It has been during those hard times when my Father in Heaven sweetly lets me know that He is there for me, always has been, and always will be, in some way or another.

My Heavenly Father was right by my side throughout the whole process of my mom dying. I think my mom was, too. The day of her funeral was really tough. I rode with my stepdad on the way to the church building while we listened to her favorite Mormon Tabernacle Choir cd, and I was just feeling anxious. I had done a lot of the planning and I wanted to make sure everything looked right, that the display was in order, the flowers were received, etc. I wanted to look like I was put together. I was also supposed to speak, which I was fine with. Public speaking doesn't bother me. But the fact that this was all for my mom's funeral made it extremely overwhelming. This was a day that I had always known would come, but not as soon as it did. I felt so sick to my stomach, I was shaking from constant chills, and I was on the verge of losing it. So, before everyone got there I asked my stepdad to give me a priesthood blessing. I do not remember all the words that were said in that blessing, but I remember that immediately afterwards, I felt complete peace. My body wasn't shaking anymore, my stomach didn't hurt one bit, and for the entire day I felt the peace I needed to feel to get through that dreaded day.

I know without a shadow of a doubt that that blessing came directly from my Heavenly Father. He was there for me when I needed Him and He still is. I know that this is not the only occasion where I have had such a strong confirmation that He is there for me. He watches over me day by day, through good and bad, all the time. I know that when I come to Him in prayer, he listens and he answers. And he does the same for you. He knows our fears, our joys, our trials, our insecurities, our successes and failures. Everything. All he asks is that we let Him into our lives, our hearts, our minds, everything. Luke 11:9 reads, "And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you."

Thankful Day #8 - Our busy life in Durham

2011-11-08T17:57:00.000-08:00

Thankful Day #8 - Our busy life in Durham

One of the best parts about living here in Durham is how much there is to do for me and my girls. Between our ward and Fuqua Partner's, we really could do something every day if we wanted to. Take a look at our schedule:

Monday: Music Maker's

Tuesday: Fuqua Partner's park day

Wednesday: Playgroup with ward member's

Thursday: Dance class

Friday morning: Playgroup park day with the ward

Friday evening: Fuqua Friday

Yes, sometimes it can be overwhelming when you have a ton of laundry to do or when you need to clean the house. That is when we skip a park day or something like that. Then starting in January, Lyla gets to do joy school, which I think she will love. For now, Ly is loving music maker's (Ruby loves this one, too!) and dance class the best!

A big part of me thinks that Heavenly Father sent us here to Durham more for my sake than Nate's. Being this busy and involved has been a huge blessing in my life, especially with Nate being gone so much for school! And the fact that I get to do all this with my beautiful daughter's and really great friends makes it even sweeter :)

Thankful Day #7: Twilight (Don't judge me)

2011-11-07T19:59:00.000-08:00

Thankful Day #7: The Twilight Saga

Don't judge me. I know this sounds so stupid but hear me out. I had never really been a reader. I thought reading books was sooooo boring and those who read them for fun led really lame lives. I was the student who always read cliff notes rather than the books themselves. Plus, no one in my family ever read for fun (at least from what I remember), so books were hardly a part of my life.

Then, one day at work, all these young girls were ranting and raving about this book that was "Amazing" and they all were like "You HAVE to read this book!". This was before New Moon had come out and before there was a huge media hype over it. Anyway, I randomly decided to head to the bookstore a couple of days after that and saw Twilight and read the first chapter and thought, "This chapter actually kept me interested. Hmm, I guess I'll give it a try ". So, I bought the book and took it home and Nate was really shocked and a little proud that I was actually going to read a book! Anyway, long story short, I really loved Twilight and it completely sucked me in! Yes, a lot of people trash talk the books because of its crappy writing but I don't really care too much about that. It's the story that sucked me in. And what got me the most excited was that I (me, Kelly who does not read books because it is lame but secretly always wanted to be a lover of books) actually got sucked into a book for the first time ever!

And so yes, I do like the whole series but I am most grateful that the books got me into reading a lot of other books that I have also really enjoyed. And right now I am even reading a BIOGRAPHY (I never thought I'd say that) and I am seriously enjoying it. Who am I? What have I done with myself? Thanks Steph Meyer for, you know, writing about hot vampires and such :)

PS: The biography I am reading is called Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand and it is really, really good so far!

Thankful Day #6 - Skype

2011-11-06T22:00:00.000-08:00

Thankful Day #6: Skype

One downside and definitely the one of the hardest parts to living away from family is not being able to see, talk, and hang out with them on a regular basis. A couple of years ago Nate and I decided to get webcam's for his parents and my mom and Rik so we could chat with them on a regular basis and so our kids could put their names to their faces. Both sides of the family just loves this technology!

I guess there is just something about talking to someone face-to-face, rather than over the phone. Conversations last MUCH longer and everyone seem's to connect more. It makes it so my girl's don't "forget" who their grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and family friends are.

I truly LOVED getting to Skype with my mom. Their laptop would just sit on her lap and so the webcam would be shooting at an upward angle and we always had a really great view looking up her nose :) Which sounds so gross, but really it was so endearing. But I loved watching her expressions as we told her things and then listening to her chat about whatever was on her mind. I loved watching her use up all her energy to blow kissy faces toward my girls. It was just like we were there with her at her blue chair. Gosh, I miss her.

Tonight I was Skyping with my brother Scott and my stepdad Rik and it really was just what I needed. I have been a total crab all day long and I have no idea why. But I had so much fun being able to chat with two people whom I love dearly. And then after Scott left Rik's house, I kept talking with Rik and we just chatted as if we were there with each other playing cards, and not across the country. It had been quite a while since he and I have chatted. I was able to talk to him about a few things that I have really been struggling with lately and about how much I miss my mom, and he was able to do the same. It was just what I needed for my crabby mood today. You don't always get those sorts of things when you're on the phone. Sometimes I feel like Skype is a virtual hug :)

Thankful Days 4 & 5

2011-11-05T08:27:00.000-07:00

Thankful Day #4: The Indian Culture

Well, most other cultures I also really appreciate. But yesterday I was feeling sort of sluggish but things became SO much better when me, Nate and the girls went to an Indian celebration. Duke has what they call "Fuqua Friday's" where every Friday they feed the students and their families and we all have a great time. Yesterday was probably the best FF yet!

It was at a hotel hosted by the South Asian Business Club to celebrate Diwali, the Indian Festival of Lights! There was delicious Indian food, a couple of Henna booths, and DANCING!! Oh the dancing! At first no one was really dancing that much, but Lyla was just drooling over the few who did get on the dance floor to strut their stuff. When I finished eating I took Lyla to the dance floor and that's when the party REALLY started! The music was awesome and we looked like a couple of foolish white girls, but oh we had so much fun. And I found that Lyla really likes break dancing! She kept getting on the floor and spinning herself in circles and when she wasn't doing that, she would STUDY everyone else's moves. Oh man, we had so much fun and we were just sweaty and gross by the end of the day!

Anyway, I loved everything about last night. I loved the clothes, the colors, the food, the music. EVERYTHING! Oh man, we truly had a great time!

Thankful Day #5: Our new furniture

A family in our ward was moving and sent an email out saying they were giving stuff away and on the list were a 6 drawer dresser and a love seat couch. These were the exact two pieces of furniture I was really wanting to get for our home but just did not have the money. So when I saw these two on that list, I quickly sent my claim!

The couch we didn't NEED, but have thought it would just complete our toy room. It's older, but has a really nice and comfortable slip cover and it truly looks SOO nice in that room. Plus it is REALLY comfortable! But we use it to watch movies on, family scripture study and prayer, and it's the girls "official jumping zone". I told them they can't jump on or off anything else but that couch. It is PERFECT!

The dresser, on the other hand, we did need and when Nate brought it home, I was SOO excited! The girls did not have a dresser in their room and we were using our changing table to put their folded laundry on. To say it wasn't working is an understatement! Everyday the clothes just ended up being pulled off and onto the floor and just created a big mess. And then I started to confuse what was clean and not clean! The dresser was in really great shape and already had a coat of primer on it! So we just painted it a nice cream color and it looks fabulous! We decided to keep the mirror the same color it was before because it matches both of our cribs pretty well.

And the best part of these two items is that they were FREE!!!!!!! Heavenly Father answers prayers, people... we just have to be patient :)

Thankful Day #3 - Music and Dance

2011-11-03T08:52:00.000-07:00

I am thankful for music because it moves my very soul and makes me feel on such a deep level. I don't know what it is, but it can make me laugh, cry, get extremely giddy and excited, make me want to dance around uncontrollably. I love music!! There are a few songs in particular that when they start playing, I just sort of stop everything and breathe in their beauty. Anyway, here is one of those songs that I first heard in the modern day Romeo and Juliet (with Leonardo DiCaprio... my celebrity crush since Titanic :))

I promise this is not as risque as it looks :)

But when you combine music with DANCE, oh man... that just kills me in all the right ways. So You Think You Can Dance is one of my favorite shows and these dances are a few of my favorites ever. Seriously, take the time to watch because these dances are phenomenal!

The first, Bleeding Love performed by Mark and Chelsea... Dancing, song, story, oh man!

This Woman's Work, performed by Melissa and Ade is a dance about breast cancer... makes me cry every time. Watch it!

Gravity, performed by Kayla and Kupono... a dance about addiction. Gosh, this dance makes me so grateful I don't battle with addiction and so sad for those who do. Sooo good!

And just so you don't think that I only like sad songs and dances, do yourself a favor and check these bad boys out. I couldn't embed these next two in here but they are some sweeeeeeet hip hop songs that seriously make me consider creating a double life where I have some wicked cool moves like these...

My chick Bad - Twitch and I think her name is Lauren. This makes me want to be in a western.

http://youtu.be/T9lGGp5eq4w

Outta Your Mind - performed by Twitch and Alex. This just makes me want to get outta my mind and LOSE IT! :)

http://youtu.be/TLtSfYX8tJk

And this one performed by Danny and Lauren just makes me blissfully happy and gets me smiling :)

Sick and Thankful November

2011-11-02T07:16:00.000-07:00

For two weeks in October the girls and I were sick and homebound for 2 weeks straight. It was horrible! Thankfully we got over it and everything was normal and happy. That was until Halloween night I got a random headache right before bed. I thought I could just sleep it off but it just got worse and worse. I finally got up around 2:?? am and got myself some ibuprofen and was able to fall asleep. When I woke up, I was feeling fine but with symptoms that felt like I COULD be getting sick, but I wasn't sure. By the time it hit about 3-4ish in the afternoon yesterday, I definitely felt sick. My nose was constantly running, I felt lethargic, my throat felt funny. I slept terribly last night because of my runny nose. And now today, I feel worse than ever. I'm congested, my head hurts, my stomach aches, I feel nauseous if I do anything besides sit here or lie down, and my ears even ache a little. I would love it if Nate could come home so I can curl up in a ball and sleep forever. For now though, my girls will have to get by with half a mom.

Anyway, I'm obviously feeling a little cranky and this is NOT how I wanted to start my November. So I decided to join the "Thankful November" blog thing and blog about something I am thankful for every day and hopefully that will keep my feeling positive. Hopefully I can do it. I'll submit two things since I missed yesterday.

1. Nate: I know this is kind of an obvious one. But I am thankful for him because when he came home from his LONG day yesterday to a messy house and no dinner made, he wasn't even upset. He just helped finish getting the girls ready and in bed and then HE made ME some fajita's for dinner and then forced me to go to bed right after our show Parenthood. What a stud!

Thankful #2: My Vacuum: I seriously use this bad boy at least once a day. Miss Ruby loves to throw her food everywhere when she eats and rather than using a broom and sweep around the legs, the vacuum hose does the trick so easily and quickly. And it cleaned up Lyla's spilled cereal today (without milk). In fact, I use it for the entire kitchen, the bathroom's, all the bedroom's, and sometimes for the living room. Thank you vacuum for working so efficiently!

Happy November everyone!!!

Let Them Be Little

2011-10-24T08:14:00.000-07:00

I Heart Faces photo challenge of the week is "Let Them Be Little". I immediately thought of this picture of my little ones because it's just so funny and cute. They were DONE taking pictures!

we need a dog

2011-10-12T06:49:00.000-07:00

Lyla would be the happiest little girl around if she only had one thing... a dog. Really any pet, but she LOVES dogs! She is always asking to pet other people's dogs and she tells me all the time, "Mom, I don't like cats but I LOVE dogs. Cat's scratch me." Which is true, a cat did scratch her once. Anyway, if we had a few extra thousand dollars hanging around, we would totally have a dog. We have a house and a big yard... gosh it would be perfect. But alas, we do not. So we have to settle for this....

That's right, a giant black spider with purple sparkles. It is one of our halloween decorations that you can hang from the ceiling. Instead, Lyla has been dragging it around telling everyone "You can pet it if you want to! He's SOOOO nice!". I would hang it but I don't know if I have the heart to take away her first "pet", whom she loves so dearly. So, maybe I'll let her have 19 more days of bliss.

Two words: Pet Deprived

funny girls on a fall day

2011-10-10T23:47:00.000-07:00

The girls and I have been sick this past week... especially little Ruby. I think all had the same cold but Ruby's must have been enhanced since she just got 2 molars in the past week! Poor girl. Oddly enough, those are the only two she has so far. Let's just get it all over with Rub, we got this!

Anyhoo, we have been avoiding contact with anything that involves kids (which is pretty much everything for us) and I think the three of us have gone a little crazy being homebound like this. So, after we ran an errand today, we didn't want to be couped up again in the house, so we went into the backyard to play AND of course, I took pics of the girls just for fun.

Ruby wasn't in the mood at first...

First a glare...

Then she softens...

And back to her old self :) Rawrrrr...

Ly has especially felt couped up in this house and so she just ran around like crazy in the yard. But not before she stole Rub's binki. You have to click on the picture to make it bigger because her expressions are so funny!

Awesome runner/jumper/hopper/skipper?...

Don't you just love her outfit? She picked it out all by herself :)

I told Lyla to do a star jump (you know, with both arms and legs out) and this was the result...

My favorite.

I can always count on Lyla to leave me laughing with her priceless expressions! Love my girls!

proof it's fall

2011-10-06T06:33:00.000-07:00

Behind our fence in our backyard there are a ton of big, foresty tree's that are beautiful and green! But this little guy in our yard just wanted to remind us that Fall really is here.

And you may not know it, but this tree is STRONG. It withstood the hurricane, when other big tree's were knocked over. Even more impressive, it has withstood several beatings by little toddler's taking it by the trunk and violently shaking it back and forth. I'm sorry tree. I try to put a stop to that as quickly as I can.

Happy Fall!

Lyla was so funny today...

2011-10-02T19:06:00.000-07:00

I don't know what it was but Lyla was so funny today!! Here are a few examples...

1. Setup: This morning it was pretty chilly outside but Nate and Lyla went in the back yard so they could go play around. I went to join them and chased after Lyla for a little bit and attacked her with tickle's. After a few minutes I was pretty cold and decided to head back in the house.

Lyla: Are you going inside mom?

Me: Yeah, I'm going inside.

Lyla: (sounding disappointed and sarcastic at the same time) Oh, are you too busy?

SLAP! Nate was laughing because our 2 year old had just burned me.

Me: What? No! I was cold you silly goose!

So of course I played with her a little longer until we all went back in.

Family, isn't it about... time? (So perfect for general conference weekend!)

2. Setup: Lyla loves fruit snacks and she had just had a pack of them. We were watching the afternoon session of conference and since that wasn't holding her attention she was watching a movie in the other room. I heard her go into the kitchen, grab herself another pack of fruit snacks (which she is not supposed to do since she she just had one and she didn't ask) and go back to watch her movie.

Nate: Are you going to say something to her?

Me: No, I think I'll let her think she got away with it. I'm choosing my battles.

Then Lyla walks in and so generously hands me a purple fruit snack (she knows they are my favorite) and says "Here you go mom!". So much for letting her be sneaky! So I thanked her for sharing and told her to ask next time.

3. Setup: Someone "Booed" us today. It's a Halloween tradition where someone ding-dong ditches you and leaves you a treat with a note that says "You've been booed!" and you're supposed hang a sign in your window that says you were booed and then go do it to a couple of other people in your neighborhood. Super fun and cute!

Anyway, so we open the door to this cute little note and the treat's and we were so excited! At first glance we thought they were cupcakes...

Us: Someone left us cupcakes!

Lyla: I wanna see the cupcakes!

And before we know it she starts walking out before I could grab her and SQUISH!!!!!! She steps right on the plate of what we now know were homemade oreo's! NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! We felt so bad because someone had went through all this effort to do something so cute and creative and Lyla came in prancing around like she was King Kong. It's okay though, the treats were covered so we ate the non-damaged goodies and it really did give us a good laugh! I'm just hoping that whoever it was who dropped them off wasn't hiding out and listening to all the commotion. And if whoever it was is reading this blog... I'M SORRY and THANK YOU!!! :)

4. Setup: During conference today, whenever a speaker came up she would ask, "Who's that?" and we would tell her. Here are a few funny exmples:

President Eyring:

L: Who's that?

Nate: That's President Henry B Eyring.

L: Hey! I saw him last night!

President Uchtdorf:

Ly was having trouble saying his name. Here are a few of her versions of his name: Uff-dork, Mook-dor, ucht-doof.

5. Both girls were in their room for their afternoon nap. About 10 minutes after we put them in we were Ruby laughing hysterically over and over again. It turns out that Lyla had put all of her bedding in Ruby's crib and had climbed in there herself and was playing with Ruby making her laugh and laugh. Such a sweet sound!

We love our funny girl and that she made us laugh so much today!

my husband is famous

2011-09-28T11:34:00.000-07:00

When Nate was on his mission, some guy from the church came out to take some photo's of missionary work. As it turns out, some of those photo's have been featured in several church material!

You may recognize the first photo as it has been featured in: The New Era (missionary edition), the Joseph Smith manual, several church video's, on the church website, etc. We were shocked when someone called us and said "Hey, have you seen the New Era? I think Nate's in it!".

This picture is only in 1 video we have seen but is all over the internet.

He is in this video twice but I can't seem to find the second picture of him ANYWHERE! It is my absolute favorite! Watch the video, because it is great, but Nate is at the very beginning and at 1:56.

Nate loved his mission and absolutely loves Africa so it is fun to see these pictures every once in a while. I wish I could somehow get a copy of them!!

photog attempts with sun flare and lyla - fail

2011-09-26T19:56:00.000-07:00

I know it seems like I post a lot of adorable pictures of Ruby, because let's face it, she is so darn cute. But I think that everyone should know that I really think that Lyla is also such a cutie and has such a gorgeous face. The trouble is getting that gorgeous face to present itself at its best on camera. Which is why I haven't posted many cute pictures of her.

So, today the light was good and I decided to go out in my backyard to practice getting photo's with "sun flare" (by the way, I suck at this technique!). So, I dressed both my girls up, but with the intention of getting a really cute one of Lyla and if we have time, try to get a sister photo. So, I tell Lyla to stand and smile to get my first shots to see what adjustments I need to make and this is what I got from her...

(Doesn't this picture above remind you of the guy from Bloodsport when he gets chalk powder (or whatever it was) thrown into his eyes? GREAT movie!)

and then...

and my favorite...

A couple of these things come to mind for the above picture:

Voldemort (with hair) throwing the killing curse at someone he's got issues with. Or maybe Bellatrix (sp?)
"Psycho Killer.... fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa far better" Haha! I love her!

Either way, this girl is here to INTIMIDATE! Be scared.

Anyhoo, after a couple of these photo's I realized 1) they look horrible (lighting and such) and 2) my daughter can be lethal ;)

So I tried to get her to sit down and do a new angle and after telling her she could watch a show if she just smiled and looked cute for the camera, this was the best I got...

And then I told her I was going to come tickle her and got the first genuine smile out of her...

After another failed attempt to get a decent picture of Lyla (and good sun flare), I decided to try out Ruby and got this cute pic...

I really do like this picture but as Nate said, you can't really tell that it's supposed to be "sun flare" so it just looks like her hair is on fire, haha! What can I say? I'm learning :)

Duke Basketball Campout!

2011-09-20T08:34:00.001-07:00

So, every year Duke holds a camp out that students must attend if they want to be eligible for season tickets. It starts on a Friday at 7pm and ends Sunday at 7am. During those 30 hours, they sound a siren at any given hour (even at several points in the middle of the night) where all the students book it to check-in at the designated booth. If they miss I think more than 1 check-in (maybe 2), they are no longer eligible for tickets. Then if you are picked, you get the privilege to pay $200 for tickets. Nate was one of the lucky winners (#695 out of 730ish), along with 4 other guys, and now the group all gets to split the tickets :)

The guys: Eric, Russ, Carl, Jon, Chris, Josh, Nate, Tyrus, and Tyler... all the LDS MBA students (minus Joel who couldn't be there).

The setup: You can either sleep in tents, UHauls or RV's. Nate's group chose to rent two UHauls. It also happened to drop 20º from the day before and rain, so they set up a tarp b/w the two UHauls and another canopy. They even had a grill, a table for all their food, and a TV that they could stream football games to.
All the wives decided to join the guys for dinner Saturday evening and it was so much fun seeing all the madness. We definitely stood out with all our kiddo's running around since almost everyone else around was pretty much wasted, blasting 80's music while singing and dancing along, while wearing wigs, masks, crazy clothing etc.

Some of the LDS med students (They are pictured below) decided to move their tents right next to our UHauls since the area they were in was pretty rowdy and they could hardly sleep! Plus, our spot was right next to the check-in spot.

Ruby was definitely excited to see her daddy!

All the kids were so excited about the Bags set up!

I tried to get pics of all the families. Unfortunately I didn't get everyone but this will have to do...

Carl, looking pretty manly.

The Alder's

The Garner's. Funny story... when we moved here, Nate and Josh discovered that Josh was roommates with Joe (Nate's brother) their freshman year of college! We had been in contact with the Garner's for a while so it was funny that it didn't get discovered until then. Small world, huh?

The Oakes Family. I may or may not be completely envious of Haley and Izzy's beautiful brown skin. I think I should avoid taking pictures with Haley for this reason. She might make me look ghostly :)

Lyla and Annabelle spent probably at least 30 minutes tracing each other. It was hilarious to watch them be so patient with the other tracing and balancing on them!

Pettersen Family.

Campbell Family

Russ and Vhari got all flirty with each other. I LOVE this picture with their cute little girl witnessing the love!

MacBeth Family

And then there is us. I love Ruby's "Why are you squished up against me?" face. And please excuse my hair... rain + humidity = nothingicandoaboutit.

Anyhoo, Nate had a really great time, but was SOOO tired when he got home. It doesn't help that he is just SWAMPED with school stuff so catching up on his sleep does not seem to be likely any time soon. Oh well, it's all about the experience. Go Blue Devils!!!

LDSSA BBQ Kick-off!

2011-09-19T08:24:00.000-07:00

The LDSSA had a BBQ to start off the new school year and for us all to "officially" meet! And since it ended up being my birthday that day, a couple of the girls made me cupcakes... sweet, huh? Anyway, I didn't get that many pictures but here is what I have...

Rachel, Emily, and Haley. Each of these girls are so awesome! They don't know it yet but I just love them! And they all look so pretty!

And Vhari... she is just plain wonderful and she makes me smile! Seriously.

And so is Kathy. And Kathy is extremely crafty, which I love! Can I please be as talented as you Kathy?

And Stacy just amazes me with her Staciness (btw, "Staciness" is a GOOD thing!) and she is the leader of the pack for Fuqua Families. You go girl!

We're missing a couple of the girls in these photo's but I seriously love all of them. Every. Single. One! They are all just so, SO great!

Some of the guys chattin' away.

We have been having so much fun with this group so far and the fun is just going to go on and on!

Ruby - 1 in 1

2011-09-17T22:56:00.000-07:00

Ruby will be 1 in one month. Where did the time go? Did the year seriously go that quickly?

I thought I'd do a little post on her because 1) she's cute, 2) I have tons of cute/funny pics of her lately, and 3) Her babyhood is almost over! Bah!!

Ruby is pretty much the person glued to my hip. She's the baby who watches my every move whenever I am in eyesight and when I leave a room, she watches that last spot she saw me very intently until I return. And anytime I am in the kitchen, she goes straight to me and hangs onto my legs just because that's where she feels like she should be.

Another funny thing about her is that if I am feeding her and she runs out of food, she makes this sound that can only be compared to revving an engine until she is fed some more, and the process goes on until she is full. She is also a human vacuum, which tells me how bad of a job I do at keeping our floors clean. I don't even want to know how much she has eaten off the floor as a result of my failure to sweep up after each and every one of her meals! Even if I think they are clean, she always manages to find SOMETHING!

I'm pretty sure Lyla gave her an Oreo.

Another cute/funny thing about Ruby is her hair. She has awesome hair and I am totally jealous of it because mine is not so awesome. It is also a little intimidating because I don't know how to do anything but pony tails, pigtails, and half-up (all things I can do with Lyla's hair). I know I won't need it now but I don't even know how to french braid!!

She woke up from a nap with some crazy bed-head!

Her first pigtails.

After we took them out.

And a few other last things...

Rub is just a good and easy baby. Anyone who babysits her or spends some time with her has all said those same two things. She's just so chill!
She LOVES to snuggle and burrow her face into us or a soft blanket or whatever. Nate and I are eating that side up as much as we can!
She loves to give big open mouth kisses.
She thinks it's hilarious to be mischievous. Our carbon monoxide detector is in the middle of the hallway upstairs and she crawls straight for it every time we put her down and tries to push the button, laughing the entire time. If she goes deaf, I blame the detector!
She still doesn't have any teeth.
She can stand on her own but quickly grabs me or sits down when she realizes it.
She adores Lyla. ADORES!
Loves the marshmallows in Lucky Charms cereal.
Only throws a fit when she's hungry or really, really tired.
Makes noises similar to the Aflac duck.
LOVES to play in the water. I have to be extremely careful with her in the pool. I know you're thinking, "well duh!" but even when I have her in a little baby float thing, she tries her darndest to put her face in that water to drink and dive into it. That's all she wants to do, dive in and it takes almost all my energy to keep her from doing so! And in the bathtub, she goes crazy splashing with her hands and crawling all around, even over Lyla... it drives Lyla nuts! But all Rub wants to do in the water is play, play, play!
Recently learned to clap. All I have to do is say "YAY" in this high-pitched singsong voice and she just starts clapping! It's the CUTEST thing!

I took this one of her as she was crawling on me trying to attack :)

We love our Ruby Cube!

Scott's wedding, California, my mom, and other adventures...

2011-09-14T13:13:00.000-07:00

Okay, I know I have been in bloggy overload but I am trying to catch up!!

In early August I headed out to NV to go to my brother's wedding and then afterward I drove down to California with my family and spent some time with them! It seriously was a super successful trip and I got to see a gagillion people! Seriously. It rocked. Unfortunately, though, Nate wasn't able to make it since the wedding was during his first week of school. He was there in spirit.

My brother Scott found this awesome, amazing and babe-a-licious girl and convinced her to be his wife. I seriously am so happy for these two! They make a great couple and they both deserve so much happiness, it's not even funny! (Well, we all do, but especially these two!) Scott lost his beautiful wife, Heather, a couple of years ago to cancer and it has been really hard not having her here. So, I am so grateful for Shannon that she said yes to my brother and that she is making him and their family oh so happy!

I was lucky enough to stand behind their photographer and snag a couple of cute shots of them. I think the first is my favorite!

Shannon and Scott

I'm pretty sure I am in love with her dress. AND her shoes. AND her!

Love bugs...

Uncle Jeff is such a good uncle. And Ruby wasn't even afraid of his beard! (It can be a little intimidating) :)

Me and Ly

We were also able to go have dinner at my grandma's house. I used to eat there EVERY Sunday and I loved ALL of her food. Except the day she made fish with the fish heads (plus eyes) still attached! But seriously, is a FABULOUS cook and I still call her asking her for recipes or cooking advice!

We named Ruby (Ruby Louise) after my grandma (Louise). So I love getting pictures of these two together!

After my grandma's, we went to go visit my mom.

Lyla stole Grandma Dana's flowers.

Honestly, it was such a weird feeling being there. I hadn't been to her grave since the day we buried her. It was just so strange to have her so close, yet not there at all. I think for the most part I have been doing ok with the whole thing. But it all comes in waves and I have been hit by several "waves" the past couple of week's or so. I don't know why. Maybe it was because it was my birthday. Maybe it's because we live in this new place. Maybe it's because I have had some crazy mommy moments and I don't know if they are normal or not. But the other night when everyone was asleep and I was cleaning the kitchen, I was listening to MoTab and two songs came on that Rik and I listened to while driving to my mom's funeral, and I just lost it. They're from the album "Consider the Lilies", "For the Beauty of the Earth" and "O Holy Jesus". My mom LOVED that album and so do I and those two songs already made me emotional. But now that they are tied to such an emotional part of my life I lose it every time. But I listen to it when I miss her and I get sad every time I listen to those songs but in a weird way it makes me feel better. I feel closer to her, somehow. I guess what I am trying to say is that I miss her like crazy and it's been hitting me hard the past couple of weeks. So much to say to her and I just can't. I love her!

Anyhoo... after my mom died, Rik decided to really get into gardening and he has done a FABULOUS job!
Do you see that sunflower behind him? I think that day we measured it at 9ft 4in! HUGE!!! It probably grew 1-2 more inches but then it got so big it just started to droop over. They ended up making awesome sunflower seeds! Rik is also holding a huge radish from his garden.

Lyla also got to hang out with some of her cousins. She LOVED hanging out with Ryann and Zoey and playing on their i-Touch.

I also got to visit one of my life-long friends Brittany. She had baby Holly just days before!

We also got to see Papa Brian's new shop. Here he is with Ruby. She loves her Papa Brian and was pretty much eating his face trying to give him kisses. It was awesome!

We also stayed a couple of night's at Papa Brian's. Here he is watching Barney with Lyla. What a good grandpa!

Papa Brian with Ruby.

My dad, Christie (his gf) and the girls.

By the pool...

My good friend Tanne got married. Here we are at her reception. She is GORGEOUS and she just looked so happy! I am so happy for her and just wish we could live closer together!

Tan and her new hubby Trevor.

I also got to visit with my cousin Val and her son Ben. It had been so long since we had seen each other!

We also got to hang out with Scott and Shannon the night before we left. It was so good being able to get to know my new sister-in-law!

Shannon about to clean Lyla off from her big mess :)

Look, Rik shaved!! Doesn't he look so handsome?!

I'm sad I wasn't able to get pictures of EVERYTHING I did or of everyone, but I got to spend so much quality time with family and friends, it was amazing! The girls and I were always on the go and we just had a blast! Thanks to everyone for such an awesome time and thanks to Scott and Shannon for getting married so I could have an excuse to come visit!

Orientation

2011-09-12T14:53:00.000-07:00

Nate had orientation for his first 3 days of school. It was pretty much like camp. They were all divided into sections and competed in different things. For example, they had a scavenger hunt around the school, face painting, spin-around-the-bat contest, team cheers, etc. I think they had some other motivational type speaker's come, too. But between all that fun, Nate ended up losing his voice after the very first day. Guess he really got into his team cheer, haha!

Anyway, it was actually a lot of fun though because each night of orientation, the school hosted a dinner for the student and their families (I love Duke because of how family friendly they are)! And then after the dinner there would be some big party somewhere.

Nate came home one day like this. I think he scared Lyla.

I stayed home for the first party and Nate went with a friend. But the second night was an 80's night and we just HAD to go! Our awesome friend Necia watched our girls for us so we could go have a good time. Thanks Necia!

Anyway, the first month of school was called "Global Institute" and that is already completed. Nate really enjoyed it and felt like he learned a lot. So now, he is in his first real semester (which started on Labor Day) and he is already super busy! Luckily, between the ward, Fuqua Partner's, dance and music class, the girls and I are swamped and hardly have the time to sit and wish we had more time with daddy. I love this place and I love just feeling like this is where we belong!

Wright Family visits!

2011-09-12T14:21:00.000-07:00

We were SOOO excited to have Nate's parent's and his little sister come out to visit us for a weekend. We jammed that weekend in with SO many fun things to do and we had a blast doing it!

One of the first order's of business was to go to dinner at a true, North Carolina BBQ joint! We went to the Backyard BBQ Pit and I immediately fell in love with this state! It was kind of a hole-in-the-wall type place but it was DIVINE! Especially the rub for that meat! They actually gave us some rub to take home and we used it on some pork the next day and it was amazing! Anyone who comes to visit us, we are taking them here, no question! Here we all are (except Ruby, who was in the car)

They had beef brisket, baby back ribs, chicken, and everything else you could possibly want!

My food. Everything was delicious and it was while eating this meal that I fell in LOVE with hush puppies!

Pat

Jerry and Becca

Me and the hubster...

Everyone

That night, Pat and Jerry made us some DELICIOUS homemade strawberry ice cream! Jerry was the master of ice cream making. It was like an art!

Lyla got to enjoy reading some books with Grandma!

Becca and Ruby

They wanted to see the campus and so we took them around a bit...

In front of Duke Chapel...

The campus has these sweet ground mister's that go off periodically. Becca and Lyla were lucky enough to play in the mist :)

Love this pic of these two!

Nate and Jerry on campus :)

First family pic at Duke.

We also headed over to Sarah P. Duke Garden's because, well, it's GORGEOUS! It started to rain in the middle of our tour so we had to cut it a little short.

Us at the garden's.

Too soon, all the fun was over and they had to leave to continue their fun vacation up in DC!

Ruby and Grandpa Wright. These two definitely had some good bonding time together!

We had so much fun while they were here! Thanks Pat, Jerry, and Becca for coming out to visit us! WE LOVE YOU!!!

White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake

2011-09-10T11:42:00.000-07:00

I LOVE cheesecake! And my favorite cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory is the White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake. So when I heard there was a dessert contest in our ward, I went online and found this recipe! I just HAD to give it a try. I haven't made a cheesecake since I was like 16 or something so I was a little nervous and it took me FOREVER! But anyway, here's what I did...

I made a few alterations, like having the crust go up the side and just using Oreo cookies for the crust (instead of regular chocolate cookies and sugar), but I followed everything else pretty much to a T. It wasn't perfect. I don't have the stuff to do a water bath, so I just put a 9x13 pan of water below and it still had a nice fat crack (thank heavens for toppings). That and I wish the filling was just a TAD more firm, but it still ended up tasting GREAT!! And I'd like to thank Woodranch for helping me gain some dessert decorating skills, haha! :)

And by the way, I ended up winning!! I was totally surprised because there were a lot of really great desserts out there, too. My grand prize, may you ask? I got to be the first to dunk our bishop in the dunk tank! Good times :)

Anyway, below is my cheesecake and then I put the website's picture, plus the recipe, in case you wanted to try it :) Oh, and here is the link on All Recipes.

White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake

Ingredients

1 cup chocolate cookie crumbs
3 tablespoons white sugar
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 (10 ounce) package frozen raspberries
2 tablespoons white sugar
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1/2 cup water
2 cups white chocolate chips
1/2 cup half-and-half cream
3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

In a medium bowl, mix together cookie crumbs, 3 tablespoons sugar, and melted butter. Press mixture into the bottom of a 9 inch springform pan.
In a saucepan, combine raspberries, 2 tablespoons sugar, cornstarch, and water. Bring to boil, and continue boiling 5 minutes, or until sauce is thick. Strain sauce through a mesh strainer to remove seeds.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). In a metal bowl over a pan of simmering water, melt white chocolate chips with half-and-half, stirring occasionally until smooth.
In a large bowl, mix together cream cheese and 1/2 cup sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs one at a time. Blend in vanilla and melted white chocolate. Pour half of batter over crust. Spoon 3 tablespoons raspberry sauce over batter. Pour remaining cheesecake batter into pan, and again spoon 3 tablespoons raspberry sauce over the top. Swirl batter with the tip of a knife to create a marbled effect.
Bake for 55 to 60 minutes, or until filling is set. Cool, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 8 hours before removing from pan. Serve with remaining raspberry sauce.

Rik in NC

2011-09-10T10:37:00.000-07:00

Part of the reason (and I mean a HUGE part, like 99.9%) that we were so successful in unpacking is because of my step-dad, Rik. This is his first vacation away from home in YEARS and he chose to spend it by helping us move. We felt really bad for him because when he was out helping us, he was recovering from a broken rib! What a stud, right?

One thing about Rik is he is a really hard worker. He did not stop, nor let us stop, until things were mostly taken care of. There was a point where Nate and I felt like we had done a big bulk of the unpacking and we could stop and take a break, but luckily Rik pushed us to keep going. So for a week, he stayed to help us unpack, move and put together furniture, hang pictures/decorate, organize shelves, cupboards, and drawers, and countless other big and small things. Especially since we were also trying to take care of our kids, this took hours upon hours!! We are SOO grateful for his help and I'm afraid we would still be unpacking if it weren't for him.

After a few days of all this, Rik finally declared that he was tired and sat down to watch a movie with the girls...

One night we had our friends over, Bill and Christianne. Bill is my step-brother, Ryan's, good friend. When Ryan told Bill we were heading out to NC, Bill immediately came to our aid and gave us all the North Carolina info we needed to know. He even showed up with a couple of pizza's and drinks only a few hours after we arrived to our new home and he helped us unload the first half of the truck so we could get our girl's beds assembled. Seriously, this guy is a stud! And his fiance, Christianne, is pretty amazing herself! Just, the nicest people ever!

Papa Rik was also very helpful with our girls. Here he helped us bathe Rub...

Okay, so the biggest project that took Nate and Rik HOURS was the garage. We had so much crap in there (boxes, tools, and a bunch of other miscellaneous stuff) and they finally got it all organized so we can park our van in there, if we wanted.

This is our ALMOST finished Living/Family room (just need to add a mirror). I'll do another post on the whole house later once it's all FULLY decorated. But that may be a while...

The Toy Room.

Our kitchen. The Shelf Reliance was another huge project that took the boys a couple of hours to assemble.

Rik giving Lyla words of wisdom...

We had a little pool (that we eventually took back) that had a bunch of water in it and there were some spots on our lawn that needed some watering (no one has sprinkler's here in NC). So Rik taught Nate how to siphon a hose to use the pool water for the lawn. We were pretty fascinated!

The back of our house...

Lyla had a lot of fun as Papa Rik timed her running as fast as she could to the end of the yard and back. I think her fastest time was around 13-14 seconds.

Running, running, running...

Good buds...

On Rik's last day, we drove him around Duke's campus. Unfortunately it was raining and we didn't have much time, so this was the only picture we got with him on campus. Here they are in front of the Chapel.

Ruby loves her Papa Rik.

And I love him too :)

Thanks Rik for coming out to help us. We could not have done it without you!! LOVE YOU!!

Moving to NC

2011-08-28T19:02:00.000-07:00

I can't believe how far behind I am on posting on this blog. SOO much to catch up on...

Well we made our move from Illinois to North Carolina! The whole process was long, a lot of work, and pretty sad, but we did it.

A quick note, these pictures are SOO out of order but just bare with me!

We decided on Friday afternoon that we should hold a garage sale the next Saturday since we had all this stuff we were going to get rid of. We called our goof friends, the Christensen's, to see if they wanted to join us since they would be moving for school about a week after us. Despite the heat and the super late notice, we were really successful!!

My lens fogged up as soon as I took the cap off to take this pic. SOO humid!

Luckily, Ruby was pretty content in her bouncer.

The girls armoire/dresser. This was one item I was SOO sad to part with. Unfortunately it just wasn't practical for us and we needed a 6-drawer dresser instead. We have yet to find a dresser for cheap and are currently using our changing table :)

Later that day we headed to our friends place to celebrate Melissa's birthday. Can you believe this cake? She made it all by herself and it was actually DELICIOUS (sometimes it seems like pretty cakes aren't always tasty)!!!!

Moving on... We seriousily have some of the best friends out in the Chicago area. Seriously they are great and we miss them tons! The couple of weeks before we moved were just full of goodbye's and packing.

Girls night, minus a few of the girls...

In the midst of packing I got a couple of cute pics of Ruby wearing a beanie!

Our ward threw us and the Christensen's (another family moving for B-school) a goodbye party and I hardly got any pictures from that! But here is one of Lyla and her good friend Jaxon being silly.

Thank heavens for empty boxes to keep my girls entertained!

My good friend Julie also threw a smaller goodbye get-together for us and the Christensen's as well. Of course, I didn't get any pictures of the group! But here is a cute one of Ruby and Diane...

We also celebrated Drake's 16th birthday that night. This is the only picture with the most people in it that I have!!

Our old pantry. I miss this pantry SO MUCH! Seriously, it is HUGE! The place we are in now has a lot of cupboard space but no pantry. So now, all of our food is in the cupboards, refrigerator, and in our huge Shelf Reliance Rolling Can Shelf in our kitchen :)

What our apt looked like for a couple of weeks...

My ward is awesome and a bunch of women DEEP cleaned our apartment for us. Seriously, I have never seen my apartment so clean! Hopefully my landlord was just as grateful!

The living/dining rooms & kitchen.

Our old bedroom

We also had a ton of friends from the ward come to help us pack up. They were also pretty awesome.

Since we took off that same day, it was time for us to say our tearful goodbye's to some really great friends. Here is Lyla with one of her best bud's! I swear they had a little crush on each other!

We had a really great and smooth trip to NC. My step-dad, Rik, came out to help us move and drove with me and the kids while Nate drove the truck. The girls did great, the truck worked fine (minus no air conditioning :( ), and we made great time.

**The only cruddy part was the HORRIBLE motel room we stayed in. We drove for about an hour looking for a decently priced and quality place to stay and nothing was meeting our wants/needs. Since it was arond 3am, we gave up. I was trying to be a "good wife" and save money by staying in one of those cheap-o motels and OH man was it awful. We asked for non-smoking, they gave us smoking. The room had not been cleaned thoroughly and the bathroom was horrific (pee on toilet, overall smell of urine) and just entering in there and then the thought of going in there made me GAG! I would have said something had it not been 3:30 in the morning. I think the guys was mad at us for waking him up in the middle of the night. The beds also had cigarette burns. So I just laid on top of the covers and brushed my teeth with bottled water outside. Never again, sweetie! Sorry!**

Anyhoo, we finally made the long journey to our amazing house in good ol' Durham, North Carolina! Rik was awesome and helped get us about 95% unpacked during the week he stayed with us. Thanks Rik!! Anyway, we love it here and we just feel like this is where we are supposed to be, which is such a great feeling!

Stay tuned while I continue playing catch up!

Our 4th, 2011

2011-07-10T21:13:00.000-07:00

I LOVE the 4th of July holiday. In fact, I love all the summer patriotic holidays (Memorial Day, 4th, and Labor Day). They are days to celebrate our country, our freedoms, and those who have sacrificed and are still sacrificing their lives for our sakes. The OTHER reason I love those holidays is because it is my family's tradition to go to the park, play over-the-line softball, and have a swim/bbq/ping-pong extravaganza at our house and on the 4th it is followed by fireworks. But since I have lived so far away, I have missed way too many of these traditions with my family. But this year, we finally decided that just because we lived so far away, we didn't have to miss out on these traditions. Instead, we brought them to the good ol' IL.

My fabulous husband made my day by arranging a OTL softball game with some of our ward member's. We had a GREAT turnout!

The fielders....

Levi, batting it up

Part of my team...

The Dellster...

Maddie was an awesome Rubysitter...

And Ruby was a tired girl... and it was HOT!

We had SO much fun playing OTL and I think everyone had a pretty good time. It's good to find a sport that families (men, women, and children) can all be involved in. Maybe it can be a new tradition for the good old Elgin 1st ward.

After softball, we went home to make a cake and then headed over to one of our favorite family's house, the Willerth's, for a swim/BBQ!

Lyla getting ready to get her swim on...

Della and Ruby...

Diana and Lyla...

Oddly enough, Della and I have the same swimsuit. I like to think it means that I am fashionable :)

Cute Emma and Pete joined the party too...

Trying to get Nate to pose like we're going to prom...

Dean and Diane making fun of how I wanted to take the picture...

Rub loved the water and was chillin' like a villan...

I love my two girls!!

Lyla was NOT very comfortable in the water at fist. But after a few hours into the day she definitely warmed up playing Motor Boat with her dad.

Such a happy girl...

Lyla was helping to throw sticks into the fire with her Grandma Willerth.

Diana and her friend Wojtek...

Drake and his girlfriend Carrie...

Del and Lyla...

Diane and Diana with Diane's new BEAUTIFUL spice rack!! Can you believe that thing!?! A definite improvement from a lazy susan cabinet.

Later we headed to the Curtis/McQuay home to watch the Sleepy Hollow fireworks...

Ly loved watching fireworks with Diane and playing with the sparklers...

Love these girls!

Seriously, this was one of the best 4th of July's I have had in a long time. From OTL softball to spending time with a family we consider ourselves to be a part of (whether they like it or not :) ), I would not have spent it any other way. We love these guys and our ward and we will miss every single bit of it.

Hope your 4th was happy :)

BIG Minneapolis Post

2011-07-06T13:12:00.000-07:00

Two weekends ago Nate and I decided to get in a visit with Nate's brother, Joe, his wife Naomi, and their kids Layton and Izzy. They only live about 6 hours away and compared to the rest of our family, that is CLOSE! They had a full agenda for us when we got there so we got to play hard the entire time.

Our first night there we went to an awesome park nearby while Nate and Joe played tennis. Wish I got some pics of that. Then Naomi, the master chef, made a delicious dinner which I am salivating just thinking about it.

The next morning Joe took us out on his boat. We ate a delicious lunch and then got our wake boarding/tubing on! Unfortunately I didn't get any pics of Nate but he did AWESOME for how long it had been. Then we wanted to try and get the kids on the tube and get comfortable in the water.

Naomi sitting with Lyla getting their feet wet...

But when they got on the tube, my extremely cautious Lyla was anything but comfortable.

Then I hopped on the tube to try and make her feel more comfortable and when Joe started pulling us (SLOWLY), she was still PANICKED! So her tube ride lasted all of 30 seconds. One day she'll learn to be a little more adventurous... hopefully.

Who is that?

Oh right, it's me! After Lyla got off the tube, I went out with Layton and he LOVED it! He is a total fish. After that, Joe pushed me back out so he could thrash me around a little bit. Lyla was on the back of the boat watching and was in complete hysterics watching me out there. But, it was a lot of fun and I almost fell off multiple times. But I was determined not to let go so Lyla wouldn't think for a moment that I had died. Because that's kind of how she was acting. As Naomi put it "It was like watching her parents get eaten by dinosaurs."

Ly acted the same way when Nate was wake boarding and she kept spitting out lines like "All done!" "Get back in the boat!" and "No, DON'T get back in the water!". It was all a little sad that she was so traumatized by it but also really cute that she was so protective of her parents. Love you Ly!

Naomi and Iz snuggling after her nap.

After I tubed, Nate got back on the boat with Layton. Look at how cute they are together! These two had a great ride.

The next day we were able to see a tiny part of the Great Mall of America. It definitely lived up to its name... that place is HUGE and actually has a theme park right in the middle of it! We started off at LegoLand.

Lyla LOVES Woody from Toy Story.

Joe and Izzy. Isn't she adorable?

They had such awesome Lego structures!

For some unknown reason, Lyla LOVES those big stuffed mascots that walk around and you can take pictures with them. She thinks they are the best thing ever.

Of course, we HAD to ride the escalator for about 30 minutes before we had lunch...

And can you believe it, Rainforest Cafe had their frog mascot walking around the restaurant. This just totally made Lyla's day! She was so excited that she even grabbed his hands and started to dance with him (which consists of jumping up and down really fast). I got some on video but the quality is horrible since it was so dark. Oh well.

After lunch we decided to go to the theme park. Naomi and Iz were great sports waiting around while we went on a few rides.

We chose to go on the log ride since it was the only one Lyla and Layton could go on. Joe and Layton had a log to themselves and decided to sit in the front and they got DRENCHED! It was so funny, despite the fact that Layton was not very happy about it. Poor kid. And as you can see from the picture below, Lyla wasn't a huge fan either.

And then they had even MORE characters running around. Here is Lyla with Dora and I don't know the other guys name. She actually doesn't even watch Dora but she was still thrilled.

The Backyardigans?

By the end of the day, we were all exhausted, especially Layton...

Ruby LOVED Cache, their dog. He kept licking her face over and over again and she just LOVED it!

And Ly loved Cache as well. He's such a good dog!

Ly LOVED her uncle Joe. Every time he was gone she kept asking Naomi, "Where's Joe?" And she would just look at him with adoring eyes and she loved watching movies on his iPad. It was really cute!

She also loved her Aunt Na. They are total buds!

We seriously had such a fun time with Joe's family and we wish we could have snuck in a few more trips before we move. Thanks guys for being awesome hosts! Miss you guys already!!

Rub is crawling

2011-07-06T11:00:00.000-07:00

My little Ruby is crawling up a storm these days. She took off the other day while we were at the park and I snapped a few photos. I thought they were all cute so I posted like 5 of practically the same photo. Don't you just want to kiss those cheeks over and over again?

Sisters

2011-07-06T10:01:00.000-07:00

These girls seriously love and adore each other so dang much. It makes my heart happy :)

I'm not sure what happened to Lyla's hair. Morning hair is always crazy. But Ruby was SO excited when we put her in Lyla's bed with her sister. She think's Lyla is the best, most fun and funniest sister in the world.

Their first bath together.

Looking cute for church. I love Ruby's face :)

And this was just today. Lyla insisted on wearing a dress, doing her hair, and then she wanted to go see her friend Lincoln. Trying to impress someone much, Lyla? Haha! Here she wanted to hold Ruby and take pictures. Funny girl.

These girls are so lucky to have each other!

Lyla's 2.5 pics

2011-06-20T13:34:00.001-07:00

Earlier this month Lyla turned 2.5 and I've been meaning to do her pictures but just hadn't gotten to it. Yesterday she looked SO cute for church that I had to snag a few photo's before church started and her hair started to fall out :) So we jumped out of the car, had a 2 or 3 minute photo shoot, and walked into church. Here they are...

Lyla ...

is a GREAT big sister to Ruby. She loves making her laugh, giving her her binki, helping to change her diaper, helping to put her down for a nap and greets her when she wakes up. If she steals a toy from Ruby, she'll definitely replace it for another toy. And Ruby just adores her big sister.
Is starting to become more girly. I asked her what shirt she wanted to wear the other day and she insisted on wearing a dress and putting cute clips in her hair.
Is becoming very independent. She always wants to buckle her carseat, do "potty business" by herself, push the cart at the grocery store and put items in the basket, and she even pulls out my pony tail and tells me she'll "fix it" and then try to put it back together.
speaking SO WELL! Sometimes I forget that she is only 2.5 but she will put together long sentences that actually make sense. But sometimes she'll blabber a sentence as if that was also supposed to make sense. She's funny.
Is getting good at learning her colors.
Is ALMOST done with potty training (except for during the night). She went two steps forward, took a step back, and is starting to head forward again. Go Lyla!
is so TALL and SKINNY! I think last we checked she was 38 inches and she weighs about 27-28 lbs...only 7-8 pounds more than Ruby.
She loves to sing and will often make up words to the tunes of songs she knows (ie: she will sing "London Bridge is Falling Down" and just plug in the phrase "cut my hair" or something to the sort, over and over again).
She LOVES to dance.
Loves to swim.
Loves books, music, pictures, and movies.
Loves animals.
Can be a really good and compassionate friend.
Loves helping with household chores.
Occasionally will fall down and automatically yell out "I'm okay mom!", even if I didn't see it.
Really enjoys using the phrase "right now" or "right here". Last night Lyla went downstairs to the common area of our apartment building and I told her that she needed to "come upstairs right now" and she just said "No, I'm staying right here!" while shooting me a very stern look. It's scary how much she imitates me.
She has been sooo cuddly lately and I am LOVING it!
She is a total goofball.

And I just want to write down a quick funny story that happened a couple months ago that I don't want to forget about...

Lyla has been picking up on a lot of the things we have been saying lately. So the other night we had some friends over for pizza and games and Lyla was walking around and playing with her friends and some toys. Then we see and hear her pretending to talk on the phone saying "Oh crap" over and over again as well as "I hate you!". I was mortified!! Nate and I both say "Oh crap" at home and I'll say "I hate you" when I am joking around or if I am being teased. Then, as if that wasn't embarrassing enough, she drops everything she is doing, walks over to the table, stands on a chair, picks up a two liter bottle of Root Beer and just starts chugging! We were all so shocked and just laughing so hard. It was definitely a reality check that she sees and hears EVERYTHING we do!

I love my Lyla!

He's 27!

2011-06-18T08:34:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to this great guy right up here ^. He is the greatest husband, father, and friend. He makes me laugh. And he makes me so dang happy. I love this man!!

Quick trip to NC

2011-06-14T13:56:00.000-07:00

Last weekend Nate and I dropped our kids off at our good friend's house and took a trip to North Carolina so we could do some house hunting before we moved out there. However, we ended up finding a place through Craigslist and signed a contract before we even headed out there. Since our trip was already booked, we decided to go anyway to visit the campus, see where we were going to live, and also pick up a car that we bought online (I know, we're crazy!).

I have really struggled the past 2.5 years only having 1 car. It's hard having kids and staying at home and just feeling "stuck". Grocery shopping, running errands, doctors appointments, play group or anything social would all require me to use the car. Not that I never had it, but it would take Nate finding a ride to work, or me taking him. Just a pain. So, we decided it was time for us to upgrade in that department.

Thursday evening when we flew in, we went straight to go pick up our new (to us) van. Since we bought it online, I was a little nervous to finally see it but it turned out to be even better than we expected!!! It has Stow-N-Go (awesome!), and has a TV for road trips, automatic doors, trunk, seats, etc. Everything is in really great condition and it drives really well! We were SOO pleased with it! I actually thought it was funny because 2 separate people came up to us while we were out there and said "That is a really nice car you have there!" Which, I agree it's a nice van, but it's also just a van. I don't know, I just never look at a van and say "Wow, that's a really nice car!". It made me feel like we were driving a fancy sports car! It was pretty funny :)

Anyway, here it is...

The next day we went to visit Duke's campus. It was way bigger than we expected and it was just BEAUTIFUL! The landscaping was gorgeous and they had some beautiful buildings. I think the most beautiful of all was the Duke Chapel (I don't know if that is the official name) pictured below.

We didn't have too much time but we definitely wanted to go by the Fuqua School of Business (where Nate will be attending) and check out his building. Here's one of the classroom's we checked out...

I think they called this the Hall of Flags. If not, it seems appropriate. They even had a flag for The Latter-Day Saints!

Nate is SOO excited to start school again. He LOVES school (weirdo) and I think he will just feel like he is right in his element. To be honest, I'm a little jealous. I would love to go back as well.

The next morning we were able to go see the house we already signed a 2 year contract with :) We LOVED it and I can't wait to finally live in a HOUSE and to have a private backyard! I am definitely over the apartment living/shared walls/small space phase of our lives.

We LOVED North Carolina. It is beautiful there and everyone is so dang nice! We definitely experienced some great southern hospitality! We were also able to visit Duke's Gardens (which was gorgeous), go see 2 movies, have a romantic dinner, and just get the last time to ourselves before we start our crazy life as students again.

We are definitely ready and excited to start this next chapter in our lives but we are also really going to miss Chicago and the friends we have made here. Moving is always so bitter-sweet.

While I was in the shower...

2011-06-13T15:48:00.000-07:00

Lyla LOVES photo booth on our Mac and every time I am on it, she points to the icon and asks... no... BEGS me to pull it up. Typically we will take pictures, make funny faces, make video's, etc.

So, the other day after my shower, I came out into the living area and saw that photo booth was pulled up and I quickly realized that she had finally figured out how to open up the application all by herself! I was pretty impressed.

What I was even MORE impressed with was when I came home from vacation last night and the application was up and I saw this picture...

She must have also figured out how to take a picture of herself. I love this girl!

fun photo shoot with my girls

2011-05-02T14:07:00.000-07:00

I needed to take Ruby's 6 month photo's and it ended up being a fun little shoot for both my girls. Love them!

I think I am declaring this one as the official 6 month photo (Even though she is 6.5 months)

And then Lyla wanted in on the action. Don't worry, the blanket hanging in the background wasn't meant to be a backdrop or anything... it was for something previously.

I call this one "Lyla the Tiger"...

the royal wedding

2011-04-28T10:26:00.000-07:00

Are you planning to watch the Royal Wedding tomorrow morning?

I don't know why but I really want to watch it. Maybe it's because it's one of the only positive things you can find in the media. Or maybe (and probably more likely) it's because I'm so happy about the fact that when people say "Kate", they think of Kate Middleton rather than Kate Gosselin (thank heavens!). Either way, I'm excited about it. And I'm excited that I have DVR so I don't have to wake up at 3am to watch it!

Crazy Freezer Meal Day

2011-04-26T08:24:00.000-07:00

I had to blog about Crazy Freezer Meal Day just because it's an awesome idea that I have never done before. My friend Camille introduced the idea to us and it turned out great! Basically, there were 4 of us and we each submitted 2 recipes. Camille bought all the food and we chose a day to just cook all 8 meals, some of which could feed us for a couple of nights! So you end up having between 8-16 meals in your freezer so you can just heat them up if you don't feel like cooking! And the best part was that it ended up being only about $5ish/recipe or $2.68 per meal! Awesome, huh?

Anyway, our 4th cook decided to bail on us to have a baby that day (can you believe her?) ;) But the 3 of us cooked from 10am-4:30ish, while trying to entertain 3 little kids (who did awesome, btw) and we were able to get 7 out of our 8 meals finished! I felt pretty good the whole time but when I got home, I made the mistake of sitting down and then I realized just how tired my mind and body were and I realized I didn't want to cook anything for a few more days! It was crazy! Here is what we made:

enchillada's - will feed us for 2 dinners and a lunch

chimichanga's - 1, maybe 2 meals

chicken squares - 1 meal

sausage casserole - Probably 3 meals

chicken cordon bleu - 2 meals

cuban ropa vieja - 1 maybe 2 meals

spaghetti sauce - 3 meals (we originally had this in one big bag but we ended up splitting it into 3 little bags.

**french dip sandwiches - this was our 8th meal that we are still getting but didn't have time to finish that day

Not bad, huh? I took some pictures throughout the day but I did a horrible job of "documenting" the experience. But here are a few of them...

Emma and Camille as we are just getting started.

Emma was the ultimate chopper. She probably chopped around 5 or 6 piles just like this one!

Anyway, we ended up getting busy so there is a huge gap of pictures, but this was taken at the very end of the day. Look at how horrible of a mess we made!!

Just a couple of our freezer meals

Thanks for the awesome time ladies! Everything has tasted great so far!!

Little Ruby

2011-04-13T06:28:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted anything about Ruby lately but here are a few pics of her from yesterday after eating some applesauce...

I love her chunkiness! And then before I part, here is a video of Rub laughing with her daddy...

from bad to good

2011-04-11T13:46:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was one of those days with Lyla where I really think she spent a total of 3 hours on time out because it was just one thing after another. I do have to say that it probably isn't all her fault. We have church from 1-4 and she never got her nap. Then Nate and I were getting so frustrated and of course, that just oozes from us and creates more disobedience. So really, it wasn't her fault and I knew that. But I kept feeling like "WHAT AM I DOING WRONG"?!?!?! And I was getting so worried about all these misbehaviors and what I was doing to cause them and blah blah blah.

Anyway, last night we read a the conference talk by Elder Lynn G. Robbins and he talked a lot about how to discipline children and he said something about how children do not act out and misbehave just because, but that there is almost always an underlying cause. And he also gave some tips on disciplining. So I decided to put those things to test today and you know what? Today has been awesome! We got up, took dad to work, and Lyla was already being so SWEET! Then we went to the grocery store (which is something I usually dread with 2 kids) and it actually was so FUN! I felt like the tiniest changes I made in my attitude totally made her behave so much more! And Lyla was obedient, helpful, put things back on the shelf when I asked. It was great.

Then the best thing happened. As Lyla and I were looking for some frozen chopped spinach, a woman came up behind me and said "You know, you do SUCH a good job with her! I've seen you a few times throughout the store and I just think you're doing a really great job"! I swear I almost hugged and kissed her right there in the frozen food aisle! Anyway, when we left the store I tried to apply some of the tips that Elder Robbins suggested (compliment her be's) and it seemed to really work! I'm sure the tube of smarties also helped :) And then later we had a neighbor friend over to play and they both played so nicely together. And afterwards Lyla said "I played nicely with Lincoln. I get a treat!!" And since I was so proud of the improvement from yesterday, I gave her 5 whole jelly beans :)

Anyway, I'm not writing this to brag about how well-behaved my kid is. But I just wanted to remember that after such a horrible day, they can be angels the very next. Love my girls!

skool iz kool

2011-03-31T07:16:00.000-07:00

For the past what seems like FOREVER, Nate has been prepping to go back to school to get his MBA. Between studying for the GMAT and actual applications, he spent at least 100+ hours getting ready to apply. Worst. Process. Ever. It seriously was some of the worst months of our married lives. Anyhoo, over the past two weeks we heard from all the schools he applied to and found that his hard work paid off. So now we get to decide between these two schools...

vs.

Or as I like to look at it... North Carolina vs. Southern California :) Both are BEAUTIFUL places. Well, I've never been to NC but I've heard wonderful things. But there are so many benefits for BOTH schools that it is just going to be a really tough decision. All I know is that I am moving somewhere WARMER! Yesssss!

But in all seriousness, we just feel extremely blessed that he actually got into a school and even more so that we get a choice. We were pretty nervous. I'm proud of you N8r Sk8r! <3 ya!

We'll keep ya'll updated once we make our official decision.

Brookfield Zoo outing

2011-03-23T10:51:00.000-07:00

We had a rare week in the Chicago area where it was WARM! Well, relatively warm... like mid 50's. Good enough! So a group of us mom's decided to take our kids to the zoo and Lyla was THRILLED to be outside running around!

Chasing her buddy Jaxon

With her friends Graham and Jaxon.

Ly had a little bit of a freak out in the Children's Petting zoo. She did NOT like the the rooster's cocka-doodle-dooing in her face and she did NOT like the goats walking toward her. I guess they were supposed to just sit there...

Trying to show concern/offer comfort while trying not to laugh. It was pretty funny because she would cry because she was afraid of the roosters and how loud they were, and then she would laugh because she thought they were funny, then cry, then laugh. You get the point.

Trying to let her know that everything would be okay and that the goat wasn't going to "get" her.

She liked this goat since it wasn't moving.

Ruby was mad that for the first part of the zoo she was in her stroller. She wanted in on the action! So I went all the way back to my car to get the baby carrier so she could enjoy the sun and the zoo. She. Was. In. Heaven. Anyway, by the end of the day we were all exhausted and Ruby fell asleep without me even realizing it.

Things I have learned from this outing:

1) When I try to comfort/calm Lyla, I put my face right into hers. Weird, I know.

2) I need an Ergo Baby Carrier. It has been on my wish list for MONTHS but it is just so dang expensive!! But the weight on my back and shoulders from my Bjorn is killer.

3) Lyla feels threatened by rooster's and goats.

She's so grown up!

2011-03-19T12:48:00.000-07:00

While I was at Michael's the other day, I decided to get a little craft for Lyla. They had this little flower (among some other items) that were just $1! It was perfect. So, we put on some "paint clothes" and got her to work. This was Ly's first painting experience and she LOVED it! She patiently let me teach her how to use the brush and how to clean it between each color use. Then she took over and did such a great job!

That same day while I was cooking dinner or something, she decided to do dishes. So she climbed up the chair, washed a cup like a thousand times, and tried to use hand soap to clean her straw (pictured below). I love when she does things like this!
And lastly, Ly can pull a mean or sad face out of nowhere... a true drama queen. So, we finally got this action on video at the dinner table the other night. This girl never ceases to entertain us! Love you Ly!