January 23rd-January 29th 2011

There's no place like home!

With Ryans new position at work he gets to travel and since I don't have a job, we get to tag along when we can. This time, his job took him to... RICHFIELD UT!! Wahoo! January thru April the Operations depts have school (a.k.a. training) and Ryan was assigned to teach the class at the Richfield office.  When Ryan mentioned a few months ago that he was going to go to Richfield in January I immediately said "I am not going with you there!" But then late Saturday I decided we would go, then Sunday morning I changed my mind and decided the girls and I would just stay home... later that afternoon (about an hour after Ryan said he wanted to leave), I decided we would go and then come home on Tues. It turned out that we ended up staying the whole time. While it was nice for us to all be together (which meant I didn't have to be home all alone at night!), it was the most boring place ever!! I am not a fan of towns where the biggest store is Walmart! I need places to go and things to do. It was nice though that I had an excuse to sit and do nothing all day. I didn't have to do dishes, laundry, dust, vaccum, take out the trash, mop the floor, change the sheets, clean out the fridge, grocery shop, etc, etc, etc!! Our schedule for the week was... wake up at 8am, get the kids ready for the day, go to breakfast in the lobby at 9am, go back to the room and get me ready for the day around 10am, meet Ryan for luch around noon, go back to the room around 1pm and put the kids down for a nap and then Ryan was usually back around 3pm. Once he got back we would hang out, go to Walmart, drive around the town or go swimming and then around 5ish we would go to dinner then head back to the room and get ready for bed. Then I would play on his laptop while watching TV before going to bed around 11ish. Not too bad huh?! Kailee did better than I thought she would. I think she would get stir crazy becayse we pretty much stayed in the hotel room most of the time, but she did ok. She spent a lot of time watching Toy Story on our portable DVD player and playing in the window! She did really good keeping herself busy.

I think it's really nice to have little breaks from life, but it was REALLY nice to get back home. I am not sure why, but I was really excited to be back home on Thursday evening. I spent all day Friday thinking "I am glad I have a house to clean, laundry to wash, beds to make, dogs to feed, etc., etc., etc.." I know, really extreme, but that's how I felt for some strange reason!

Since we were trying to recover from the four day trip, we just hung out at home on Friday and then Saturday we had Zach, Anna, Katie and Caleb over for Kids Night while Sean and Jolie had their date night. We watched movies, played games and did a craft. I always worry about entertaining kids at our house because we only have entertainment for a 1 year old, but they seemed to do ok. At least I hope they weren't bored out of their minds!! We are actually thinking about getting the Wii so we will have something to do when people come over... we'll see!

This is the Questar office in Richfield! Nothing like the SLC office!

Richfield Main Street. It's a hopping place for sure!

Kailee after the 3 1/2hr drive to Richfield! I drove our car while Ryan drove his work truck. This is the result after many granola bars, nutrigrain bars, cookies, and fruit snacks!!

Kailee had a Queen size bed to HERSELF the whole time! Not really. Ellie slept with her a couple nights.

My new FAVORITE eating establishment! For months, I have wanted a drink kinda like a Jamba but not so fruity, kinda like a slurpy but without so much sugar, something kinda slushy, icy, creamy, sweet... I had never been able to find what I wanted till I found.... IDEAL DAIRY. They have the best Pina Colada slushy and they add a little bit of the best vanilla ice cream I have ever tasted to it! We ate lunch at this place every single day while we were there. Needless to say I now crave the food and slushy from this place. 

Kailee loved to look at the pool everytime we would get off the elevator. I thought she would love swimming especially because the water was super warm. Nope, not a fan. (She did warm up to it a teeny tiny bit)

Ellie's first time swimming! She seemed to like it!

This is what it usually looks like when we go out to eat...both girls want their dad!

January 16th- January 22nd 2011

Kailee is the Big Sister!

Kailee is such a cute big sister to Ellie. One day this week I was trying to get a picture of the two of them and Ellie wasn't having it. When I put Ellie on the floor by Kailee she started to cry. Kailee leaned over and gave her a kiss and then sat up to get her the binky. She loves her baby sister and loves to help me take care of her. 

January 9th- January 15th 2011

Before I started blogging weekly I would think back through the week and wonder what we did or what we accomplished and I felt like we didn't do a whole lot. Now that I blog about the week I have found that we are busier than I thought. We definitely aren't running around every minute of the day, but we do actually get out and get some things accomplished!

We started the week off with my mom coming over on Monday evening so Ryan could change the spark plugs in her car. That took a whole whopping 10 minutes and then she stayed and had some Papa Murpheys pizza & cheesesticks with us. She stayed and visited till 7pm which she hasn't done in a long time and it was fun to have her here for a while.

Kailee had a PJ party Tuesday morning at her Music for Tots class. She looked so stinkin cute in her PJ's and I bet it was the most comfortable class she has been to! I have been taking her to this class for a few months and it has definitely been fun, but I think we are ready to move on to something new. I love the idea of having her enrolled in a class so I have to get out of the house! I also love being able to take her to a place where she can be with other kids. I found a place in Syracuse that has a dance class for tots so I decided we would give that a try on Thursday evening and see how that goes!

After her class I stopped by Old Navy and found a lot of their stuff was 40% off already reduced items!  I couldn't resist all the cute stuff and I picked out a few things for the girls for next year! How could I turn down pants for $6 and shirts for $3?! I realized that's what I need to start doing. Usually I buy the kids a couple outfits a month for the next season, but I am going to start buying for the next year when all the stuff is on major clearance!

Shortly after we got home Steph stopped by to bring us dinner! That was really nice since I still hadn't gone grocery shopping! She made a vegetable soup and rolls and it was delicious! After she left I put Kailee down for a nap and pulled out our cookbooks so I could finally make a menu for the week and a grocery list. Once I had completed the list I realized it had quite a few 'odd' items on it and I didn't want to search for those items so I asked Ryan to go for me! Of course, he agreed! The poor guy was out till about 9:30pm shopping for me. I am really lucky he will do those tasks for me! It was nice to have the house stocked with food again! I don't like to cook, but it saves a lot of money and gives us time together so I guess it's worth it.

Thursday I finally decided to try to get something done in the house. At the end of the day, I had done the laundry, but didn't get it put away and I cleaned ONE bathroom. Not too successful, but that's all I could! While I cleaned the bathroom Ellie and Kailee sat outside the door in the hallway and watched. Ellie is getting to the point she doesn't like to lay down all the time and I finally realized I could sit her up in the Bumbo! Great idea and she loves it! The only problem was that Kailee got jealous... but then I remembered she has her own personalized stool that her uncle John made her! Wah-la, two happy kids!

Thursday evening Kailee and I went to the Me & My Tot dance class. The class is a lot like the music class I have been taking her to, but along with singing they also dance and then play in the tumbling room. Kailee was so shy at the beginning, but as soon as we stood up to dance she came out of her shell and had a lot of fun. I am still trying to decide if I am going to enroll her. Ryan and I think it would be good for her and it would be fun for me too!

While we were at the class, Ryan and Ellie went to Steph & Mike's to participate in Mike being ordained a priest. We are really happy for Mike and the decisions he has started to make. We know their family will greatly benefit from these decisions!

I had the cleaning bug again Friday, but it quickly left when I received a phone call from Alison. She was calling to see if we wanted to go out with her and her husband that night and we ended up talking for over an hour! As soon as I got off the phone with her Steph called. So needless to say, I didn't get anything done around the house and Kailee spent the morning watching Toy Story!  That's ok though... it was time well wasted!! Around 1pm I got a text that said "see ya at the church at 2pm". Oops! I had a meeting I was supposed to be at and we hadn't even had lunch yet. I quickly got myself ready, made Kailee a corndog and we were off to the church. The meeting didn't go so well for me since I was being selfsih and spent the whole morning on the phone...which resulted in Kailee skipping her nap. She was as cranky as a 1yr old can be! At one point one of the other girls there told me I should just hit the road and go home! Oh well. I tried!

When I got home around 4:30ish, Kailee fell asleep and Ryan and I quickly made dinner so we could make it out to Magna to go to the Cyprus basketball game with Alison, Jeff and Julie and Justin. Ryan and I didn't get there till half time and then Alison, Julie, Kailee and I went for a walk around the school checking out all our old cheer pictures! When we went back to the gym the game was over!! Oops, sorry Ry, I didn't mean to abandon you!

After the game we all went to Julie and Justin's house and talked and talked and talked, played the Wii and made some plans for a weekend vacation to St. George! We planned to go in April and stay at a condo all together! I really hope we follow through with it! I could use a mini vacation and they would be so fun to spend some more time with. While playing the Wii, we played some dance game and it was surprisingly fun! If we even buy the Wii I am for sure going to get that game! We finally made it back home around 2am. I love spending time with my friends and I am grateful Ryan doesn't mind it either!!! Kailee even seemed to have a good time playing with all their toys and she even joined in dancing with us!! I am sure Ellie had a great time too since everyone took time holding her and loving on her!

Since we were out so late Friday night we got a late start on Saturday! I don't think we got up till after 9:30am and the only reason we got up was because Kailee woke up asking to eat. I think we would have slept all day if she would have let us! Even though we didn't get up till late, Ryan and I both quickly got moving with things we wanted to do. Ryan and Kailee ran to my moms to get her treadmill and Ellie and I stayed home, showered and started the Saturday chores. That didn't last long though because I had a baptism I had to be to at 2pm. I got home after 4pm and Kailee went down for a nap. While she was napping Ryan worked in the garage to make a calendar holder for me and I ran to Target and Old Navy. Before I knew it, it was close to 7pm and I hadn't even started dinner! I think we finally ate around 9pm and by then Kailee was as wild as could be and Ellie was as upset as she could be. We kept trying to get both of them to sleep, but neither one of them wanted anything to do with it. Ryan ended up taking Kailee upstairs close to midnight and I ended up sleeping on the couch with Ellie till Ryan came down and got us around 4am!! Staying out for all hours of the night was fun before we had kids, but now we pay severe consequences when we do that!!

Kailee is becoming such a brave little girl! She now lays on her stomach when she's in the bathtub!

This week I also started Ellie's scrapbook. While going through her pictures I realized I don't have ANY pictures of her getting a bath. NOPE, I don't have a picture of her first bath. For some reason the nurse at the hospital when Ellie was born thought we said we didn't want to be there when she was given her first bath. I can't understand why she thought that, but since it is over and done with and I can't do anything about it, I will just move on. I am not bitter about it at all...haha! So, sorry Ellie, this is your first bath picture...at 3 months!

And just because I think she's cute, here's this one!

January 2nd- January 8th 2011

Ellie turned 3 months old this week! She is getting so big and learning so many new things. She smiles a lot, giggles and coos and she is starting to hold onto things. She recognizes Ryan and I and she loves to watch her big sister. She has been so talkative the past few days. She goes on and on especially when we talk back at her. 

Kailee is beginning to feel much better. Her injury is hardly noticeable now. She is a lot happier. She is back to playing, eating and sleeping. I took her off her pain meds on Monday and I noticed a huge improvement with how she was acting. I could tell that her collarbone still hurt, but she didn't spend the day crying over everything like she had the days before. We gave her some ibuprofen to help with the swelling but that's it! I am glad that she is feeling better. It's good to have my little spunky girl back. This week she has been trying to dress herself. She will get all the pants out of her dresser, sit down and try to put them on. She will try each and every pair until she gets one on at least one leg. Most of the time she gets both of her legs in one of the pant legs. Cute girl. She learns something new every day!

On Tuesday we took the first of two road trips... to Idaho. We drove up to Malad on a whim to participate in the MegaMillion dollar lottery. Don't worry, we didn't spend a fortune on tickets and it was fun to get 'away' for a little while. We left around 7pm and got home around 10:30pm. It was a nice quick trip and fun to get out.

On Thursday I took a night off and went to dinner and a movie with two of my best friends...Sammie and Alison. I have known Sammie since the beginning of time and I met Alison shortly after! I love getting together with them and I am glad Ryan doesn't mind when I leave. I never seem to make it home before 1am, but he is still ok with it and even encourages me to go! We had a really good time talking and catching up at dinner at Applebees and then we went to see How Do You Know- one of the funniest movies I have seen in a long time. Alison actually just sent me a text of a line from the movie... and it still makes me laugh! Good friends and good times! I am thankful for them. One of the best things about them is that I can be myself and they still love me!

On Friday when Ryan got home from work we took off again and drove up to Idaho Falls to pick up some end tables from DownEast Home. We left around 5:00pm and got back home at 11:10pm. Not bad! I was worried about how the girls would do, but they did really well. Yes, Ryan does the craziest things for me!

To end the week, Ryan and I went out on a Date on Saturday. Jolie, my sister-in-law, set up a kid swap for us so we could start going out again! Thank goodness! One Saturday a month they will watch our kids and one Saturday a month we will watch theirs! Ryan and I haven't been out on a DATE for a looooong time so thank you Jolie and Sean! For our date we went to dinner at PF Changs which was absolutely delicious and then we went to see Little Fockers. We went to pick the kids up around 10ish and Kailee was as cute as can be running around with her cousins. She loves to be with them and they are so good to her. Ellie spent the evening hanging out with her uncle Sean! He is sooo cute with her and she loves being with him. It's good to know that our kids our loved so much by our family.

Happy New Year! 2011

It's so hard to believe a new year is beginning already. I know I say it all the time, but it seems as if time is going faster and faster. 

So, with a new year comes new goals. One of my goals for this year is to try to update my blog once a week instead of once every 5 months! I would love to make a book at the end of each year for our family journal. I don't keep a personal journal so I thought this book would be something my kids could look back at and see what we did as a family, etc, etc, etc. So that is what I am going to try to do! We'll see how that goes! Good luck to me!

So to ring in the New Year... I went to bed at 9:00pm!! Wahoo! What a celebration huh?! We had spent the day down at Fashion Place Mall and Kailee was soooo miserable the whole time. She is still in pain and fights everything. She is only really content when she's home, on the couch, watching Toy Story! So that's what we did the rest of the night.

On New Years Day we stayed home and I cleaned all day long! I love how clean and uncluttered the house feels when we take down all the Christmas decorations. I decided to start deep cleaning in the kitchen and I cleaned it top to bottom. I am sure it isn't noticeable to anyone else, but I sure feel good knowing it's clean!
Ryan spent most of the day taking care of the girls while I was in heaven cleaning. I'm sure that was a lot of fun for him to be doing on one of his few days off!

Crazy us did brave church today (and I hate to say it, but mostly only because I was asked to say the closing prayer in Sacrament). I did think about staying home many times this morning though. Kailee cried ALLL morning long, over EVERYTHING. Amazingly though she was really good during sacrament. She did ask to go bye-bye a few times, but overall she was quite pleasant. When we were headed to sunday school she decided she had had enough and off Ryan went to take her and Ellie home.
Around 4pm they all came back to church to pick me up and when we got home both Kailee and Ellie fell asleep for about an hour. Thank goodness. That little girl needs to get as much sleep as she can right now. Of course when she woke up she was right back to watching her movie.
Later in the evening we turned off her movie so I could watch some of my Sunday shows and she wasn't liking that idea. Ryan went and got the portable DVD player for her so she could all have what we wanted. After that she was in heaven. She sat on the couch till about 9pm watching her movie while we watched our shows!

It's now almost 11pm, Kailee just woke up, in pain I'm sure and Ellie is jabbering away sitting on my lap. I guess I will finish here and go take care of them and get us all to bed.
(At least I got my first post of the year done! Yea for me!)