Pretties and NOT SO PRETTY!

Well today was a home day.. haven't had one of those really in a while.. I stayed home and did what I should have been doing for the last... well what I always should be doing.. at least keeping up on. Well first I will share my adorable little girl who, by the way, had NO ACCIDENTS today! Yeah Way to go EL! She found a bunch of her "Pretties" and put them all in her hair :)

And now onto the not so pretty... So we have been having some problems with our washer, which I was not excited about! The thought of Bens suggestion to just go to the laundromat sent shivers down my spine.. my kids... laundromat... lots of laundry.... my kids... ahhh.... So I did some research online and found what may be the problem, attempted to find the right tools.. and headed down stairs to make the wrong right. My wonderful husband happened to come home from school shortly after hitting the landing and he did the job for me.. but just for the record... I WOULD HAVE FIXED IT!! I told him what to do he he... Well.. this is what we found was our problem....
This is our water filter... what is all that you say.. and how in the world did a spoon make it all the way down there to the filter.. well we actually have no idea how any of this stuff made it all the way down to the filter, but it did include 4 or 5 children sized socks, a key, the spoon you can so clearly see, some loose change, a hairpin, a safety pin, and lots of yucky stuff.. Upon removing it, documenting it, cleaning it out, and being so proud that I had figured out the problem I promptly dropped it on the floor and broke it.. yes and I near broke into tears.. well luckily.. I didn't break it bad enough and it still works fine and we won't have to repair it.. Yet :) Thanks Ben.

The Fat Lip, Rough Night & A Sunday Treat!

Yesterday Aunt Chelle & Aunt Heather came out and we went to a little boutique looked around for some new crafting ideas and then headed home. After they dropped us off we went and visited Mikey and Janice.. we haven't seen them forever and decided hanging out by force was what it was having to come down too ha ha. Janice made us some yummy Chicken Fettucini Alfredo from scratch and after chatting for a while she asked if I wanted to make some Eclairs.. I had never made Eclairs and thought that would be fun.. me thinking sometime.. her thinking.... K lets do it now! We proceeded to make some delish little Eclairs.. well I didn't do much.. but I was support haha. As we were baking and talking.. the kids were playing and Jake and Elly accidentally ran into one another and Jakes lip got in the way and he got a fat lip. He was very concerned... not because it hurt, but because he thought he looked funny. He still has that fat lip today..it is very slowly going down, but here is a shot taken last night when we got home.. you can see he enjoyed the Eclairs as well because the chocolate is all over his face! This pictures so does not do it justice.
Elly must have eaten something that didn't agree with her because around 3 this morning I hear crying and Elly came down the hall.. "Mommy, I puked on my blanket!" Well that is not all she puked on.. Jake followed shortly behind her saying... "Mommy, Elly puked on my butt!" Sure enough, Jake turned around and there all over his underwear was Elly's mark. Jake had decided he would snuggle with Elly last night and got the raw end of the deal. So we had a quick bath early this morning and finally got them back to sleep. Luckily that was the end of that and they have both been happy and fine today!

Jake did so well today in primary that he earned his reward.. making some Valentines Cupcakes...it came in a little kit that I got really cheap and he's been asking to do them since they came last week.. I walked to his door to pick him up from Primary and his teacher helped Jake play a little trickon me cause she said.. "Now I had to tell Jake 5 times today that... what did I tell you Jake?" Jake looked so guilty and sorry I was for sure he had been naughty.. but then he got a big smile on his face and said, "I WAS BEING SO GOOD!" His teacher confirmed and I was relieved.

Elly fell asleep while the cupcakes were baking and so she wasn't there to decorate, but I am thinking that was probably a good thing since Jake made a big enough mess for the both of them. I think more frosting made it into his mouth than on the cupcakes :)

After frosting them, he got to decorate them!

It was a fun little activity.. He delivered a few to Janice and Mikey to say thanks for the fun yesterday! As we were 'racing' back home, I said, "Not fair you can run!" And Jake quickly replied, "Yeah cause I don't have a baby in my tummy!" When we got home he wanted to deliver another one so he brought Dianne (our tenant downstairs) one too! The rest of our little treats are for our dessert tonight after dinner with Daddy at work. Good Job my sweet little baker!

CocoNUTS!

Jake has wanted to get a coconut for the last little while, he really wanted to try one. I bought one a while back but apparently I don't know how to pick them out cause I got a bad one. Well Yesterday while we were shopping Jake saw the coconuts and asked if he could please get one. Sure, why not! Well this morning before Daddy had to go to work he helped Jake poke a hole in the coconut so he and El could try some milk... he'll crack it open later... but for now here are a few pics of their experience...

Neither of them really liked the coconut milk.. Ben added some sugar to make it a little sweeter, but they still didn't really enjoy it.. I really wish I would have gotten a picture of Elly's face the first time she tried it.. it was quite entertaining.

Anyway, just a few other pics... This is Ellys new obsession.. thanks to her brother.. MONIES! She will bring me her little piggy bank and say, "Open please, I need lots of monies!" Hopefully she will grow out of this :0)
And last but not least, after rearranging the living room the other day I decided to finish it off with a new wall display on my very empty East wall... here was the final result. Ben is really enjoying the new layout, I am still trying to get used to the couch in front of the window... I don't know what my deal is.

Oh Friday....

It has been a long day.. but a good one for the most part. Did a little babysitting this morning... Aunt Heather came out also this morning and we made another bag and she sewed a cute little butterfly pillow.. I am sorry I didn't get any pics today.. After lunch we headed out... We did lots of grocery shopping.. a day long event ha ha... but I must say the crowning glory of the whole day was a fun - and yummy - dinner with great friends! Can't wait till next month Casey and Katie! K so who else wants to get together I love date night! Next week TEMPLE NIGHT!

Sorry for the short post I am EXHAUSTED!

We Love Daddy!

The kids were all over Ben this morning, so unfair I wanted a turn.. :) Well Elly really was just there to have daddy hold her and eat then in turn eat his food.... but Jake really wanted me to take pictures so I very willingly accepted the request.
K let me explain this picture.. It was so much funnier the first time.. Ben was trying to tell Elly to eat over the bowl so she wouldn't make a mess... Well his words were, "Put your head over the bowl." So she stuck her head down over the bowl.. Ben and I burst out laughing.. luckily she did it again for me..
Why.. I am so mad at myself.. this picture was so stinkin cute and I went and ruined it by not focusing right.. I hate it when I do stupid things like that!....But I still had to share it because even though Jake is not in focus they are still the two most handsome boys I know!
Extreme close up of Elly! She had to come over and inspect my work...
And then take her turn for a photo op with daddy...
Oh I have a cute family.. mostly naked.. but definitely cute!
Later that day I had to get the studio set up so I could take some pictures of a cute little baby and so Jake and Elly had to have a little photo shoot themselves.. Oh my children make me laugh.. well they bring nearly every emotion out of me.. but mostly, and one of my favorite, is laughter...
Even with messy hair my little girl is the cutest around!
Ok I can't look at this picture without laughing... don't ask me what he was doing.. or why, but it is funny and I hope it brightens your day as much as it does mine.. I may have to print it and post it somewhere very obvious so that as I start getting angry and my crazy child... I can laugh instead...Enjoy...
Jake loves Mary.. He wants to hold her all the time and has lots of fun with her.. Poor bird :)
Another day!

19 Hour Fast... PREGNANT

So today started by pulling my kids out of bed and attempting to keep them warm and asleep as I transported them to my car so that I could go and drink pure sugar and get poked a bunch of times. That's right I had my glucose test today.... So after finally getting everything and getting out of the house, finding out the HWY 89 exit is closed and having to backtrack to get to my moms because she so kindly watched the kids while I went to the lab, I made it to IHC Bountiful Clinic at 9:30. (Remember I had been fasting since 6 the night before.. putting us already at a whopping 15 1/2 hours...not so fun) They brought me back, extracted their first sample, and then gave me my oh so delectable drink. She handed it to me and told me I had 5 minutes to drink it.. I opened it guzzled it in about 5 seconds... anything to get this show on the road... she was impressed... told me she'd see me in an hour. I took up residency in the waiting room and pulled out my book. A short while later I was lucky enough to look up from my book and see an old friend. It was so fun to visit with Brindy and see her cute kids, but alas that took up not nearly enough time so I returned to my book to wait out the rest of the first hour. 10:41- Poke #2 then more waiting and reading... 11:41 - Poke #3 getting to know the receptionist quite well, she has 5 kids and loves reading.... more reading... 12:41 Poke #4 YEAH its over! Goodbye lab, hello food! I picked up some lunch and headed to my moms to collect my children. I stayed for a little bit and chatted, but I was so tired I felt I needed to go home.. I had to convince Jake that it was ok to wait to go to Kangaroo Zoo until our friends were feeling better and we could go with them.. but to make it up to him we had to do something.. well we were in bountiful... so we stopped by...
YES Nielsens.. I can't remember the last time I got a concrete.. what better way to celebrate the end of a glucose test with SUGAR ha ha ha.. it was so wondeful!
Have you ever had to try and take pictures of your kid in the backseat with a pregnant belly that takes away most of your mobility... hence the not so pretty back seat photographs.. but as you can see Jake was very pleased that we made the stop. Elly was still asleep after passing out at Gigi's. I shared my bumbleberry concrete with her once she woke up...
That wasn't quite enough though so we stopped and went through the car wash and Jake was quite fascinated... it was fun.
Doesn't she look like such a peaceful sleeper.. ha ha, she woke up right after the car wash and Jake exclaimed, "ELLY YOU MISSED THE REALLY COOL CAR WASH!" Well maybe she'll experience it another time.. if it rains or snows tonight and tomorrow I'm sorry I didn't mean to call it on.. but just make my kiddos happy :)When we finally made it home this evening we were all exhausted and against my better judgment I let Jake take a quick nap... and now I am paying for it because he is still awake and I see no sleep in site... oh help me I am exhausted.. Oh and the doctor finally called me back and told me that my test results were normal, no worries. Yeah..

8 WEEKS AND COUNTING!

We are officially 8 weeks away from Jonah's due date.... we aren't excited at all can you tell :)

Drink Anyone?

This is how my children drink their liquids. You would think that one straw would suffice, but no... they need options. Hum.. now which one to choose!
Today we took our weekly trip to the Library, and I remembered to bring my camera... man though stress, stress, and more stress. It started out all fine and good.. infact quite entertaining. As we were walking in Jake saw an elderly man getting out of his car, Jake turned to me and said, "Mom, he sure got old!" hopefully his hearing wasn't working ha ha. Then Elly proceeds to call them Grandma and Grandpa.. they seemed to enjoy that though :)
This is one of the kids favorite parts.. putting the books back in the bin.. its almost more fun than checking them out.. ha ha almost.
Did I mention stress? Elly decided she was going to potty train today and was doing great all day actually till around 3 when she got too tired to care anymore.. but this meant every five minutes she would run screaming through the library.. "I NEED Potty! I NEED Potty!" So most of our time at the library today was getting familiar with the bathroom.. ahhh.. Anyway.. she was crazy today as well and that definitely didn't help.
But she sure is a cute crazy little girl!
And of course one of my handsome big man!
And now I sit here 55 minutes into my fast for my glucose test tomorrow.. oh it is going to be a fun day tomorrow, at least I have he positive reward of getting to hang out with a good friend after its all over! Wish me luck!!

Well Check Ups

Well my kids had their well check ups today.. another year older and more vaccinated.. ha ha. Jake was so nice and let Elly go first.. She stood on the scale like a big girl and got weighed.. 24Lbs.. way to go Elly you hit the 15th percentile. She then got measured 33 1/4" tall in the 31st percentile she apparently didn't grow much since her last well visit.. She looked great though and the doctor was very impressed with her vocabulary. Poor girl does have ears like mommies when she was little... lots of wax. The Dr. had to clean out one of her ears before he could even see enough to make sure everything was fine. She was clinging pretty tight to me otherwise I would have taken a few pics. She is quite amazing when it comes to shots.. when they first stick her she'll start to cry, but you can easily distract her and she'll stop really quick.


Now Jake on the other hand refuses to cooperate at the doctors.. he did do a good job when they were weighing and measuring him... 37Lbs, 40 1/2 inches.... 50% on both. They asked him to strip down to his underwear, but since he dresses himself and often goes commando he was without and they gave him a little gown.. he was not happy about that.... Elly wasn't quite sure what the big fuss was.... and was interested in finding out why Jakie was so unhappy.
They tried to give Jakie the H1N1 vaccine.. you can have it in a shot or a shoot up the nose. He opted for the up the nose and then decided he just didn't want it at all. We had to hold him down and once we thought we got it in he blew as hard as he could out his nose and who knows how much got in cause a huge wad of nasty came out ha ha. Man aren't my children polite. :)
Anyway, Unc called while we were there so we came home right after and had a little visit with him and gave him back his phone that was left here. We've just been cleaning and hanging out the rest of the day. Oh, we watched this National Geographic video called In The Womb, and Jake was fascinated. He kept looking at the screen and then at me and with a very astonished look would say, "THATS WHATS IN YOU!" one of my favorites was, "MOM YOU HAVE EGGS!" Anyway, with all the goings on I must say I am looking forward to the winding down of the day... the kids are in the bath, then we'll read scriptures and write in our journals and then off to bed.. YEAH! That is if it goes as planned... which it seldom does :)

Newspaper Woes

I am so sick and tired of this! For the last 2 and a half months we haven't received our paper and I have had to call every week, some weeks it didn't matter that I called because they were out of papers and were unable to deliver them. I have prepaid for an entire year and this is really throwing off my couponing! What do I have to do to get through to these people!!!!! Anyone have any ideas?

On a happier note.. I accomplished a goal of mine.. Get Christmas down before February ha ha I know it is crazy huh.. January is such a busy month and being prego, and mostly alone with two kids, it hasn't been a pleasing schedule to find hours to put away all the Christmas decorations. Last night as I realized it was the last day of the month, I decided I didn't care what it took I was getting it all down, I wasn't going to blow such an easy goal. So with the help of my kids.. if you want to call it help, they kept dumping everything out.. it is all taken down and put in the shed! Not only that, but I rearranged the livingroom.. I don't know why I felt the need to do this.. or that I should seeing as those are very large heavy pieces of furniture for one pregnant woman to push around. (Don't worry I was already scolded for my wrong doing) Anyway, here are a few pics.. unfortunately while Jake was taking some pictures he dropped my camera at just the right angle and broke my lens so I only have my 50mm lens to shoot with at the moment and so you won't be getting much of a view.

Eggs & Shoes...

So the last little while Jake has been obsessed with boiling eggs. He loves them. We made a few last night and Jake saved one for this morning.. this was Jake and Elly opening up the egg before church.. Elly was very intrigued.
Elly is really wanting to do everything by herself. Well as we were getting ready for church this morning she insisted on getting ready by herself. She did a pretty good job, but made me chuckle when she came out all done sporting these....
She got the right shoe on the right foot.. and the same KIND of shoe.. just a little off on her colors. She really didn't want to change them so I said what the heck and she got lots of compliments today at church.

And Then The Rest Of The Day...

Today was a really lazy day really, after daddy had to leave for work, the kids played with their zip track, played Wii, we just hung out... these pics are from my little photographer..
Later that afternoon Aunt Heather came over to do some more craft projects, and we were busy with those the rest of the day... we had a little break when Gigi, Grandpa, Aunt Chelle & Uncle Peter came out to wish Elly a happy birthday... then back to the sewing machine :) I did find out that Moms sewing machine is now fixed and I will most likely not be seeing my little sister quite as much ha ha.. I was quite bummed about that. It was nice while it lasted though. Here are the projects we worked on today...

Those are little birds.. they were so cute! Heather found a bean bag toss at the DI without any bean bags so we made a few of those for her game.. and then we finished it off with a library bag.
I made library bags for my kids and she saw them and wanted one... she cleverly thought to add a pocket on the front though... smart girl! Way to go Heather you are quite the crafter!

Finally 2!

My little Elly is 2, can you believe it.. I can't time has flown by and I swear it just continues to move faster! At this time 2 years ago I went in for my Dr. appointment a little bummed that I wasn't already holding my little girl. My Dr. said the I was dilated to a 3 and asked if I'd like to have the baby that day.. YES PLEASE!! He told me he would call the hospital and see if they could fit me in. An hour later I was dropping Jake off at Mom and Dad Moosmans, calling Ben and heading to the hospital. After almost 6 hourse and a half unsuccessful epideral I finally got to see my baby. Surprised yet again to see a little Blondie! Where are they coming from ha ha. She was 7 lbs 11 oz and 20 1/2 inches long. And now my baby girl is 2 years old!
Daddy went paintballing last night for his birthday and he is in just a little bit of pain.. OK lots of pain, he couldn't get out of bed so we did he festivities in the bedroom so he could be involved :)
Elly has opened almost all of her gifts already due to the many different parties we have had this month, so she just opened one this morning.. but she didn't care :)




Getting her birthday kiss from Jakie!
She had to try on her spoils! She got a new bathing suit for this summer! So fun!
We love you little mama! We are so happy you are a part of our family. You bring us such happiness and loads of smiles. Happy Birthday!

Fun Friday

This morning I got a call from my little sister Heather, she wanted to make her baby sling today and asked if I would help. Of course! She came out and thanks to my wonderful hubby who was an amazing help today we were able to go to the store, KID FREE might I add.. and get the things we needed. Then while he played with the kids, cleaned the dishes, and did the laundry.. Yes I know I am lucky, and YES I am ecstatic he is mine and no one elses... Heather and I.. mostly Heather I just read the instructions and interpreted.. helped pin a few things... We made a very cute reversible baby sling.


After she left I hurried and multitasked...got some pics ready for YW and made dinner for my fam, plus a few more who were joining Ben on his birthday paintball escapade. While he went out, my wonderful mother in law babysat for a little while so I could have a break.... I must admit I was bored out of my mind, didn't know what to do with myself alone... I went and tried on a few clothes which didn't pan out then picked up a prescription... and then came home. Wow an hour and a half without children.. how quickly you can get things done without them :) So I relieved my mother in law early, the kids and I read scriptures and they are eating popcorn watching a movie.. hopefully soon to be falling asleep. All in all it was a very nice, way to quick Friday.

Celebrations Continue!

Tonight was yet another fun birthday celebration for January birthdays.. well for Ben and Elly anyway. The Ambler family came up and we had a yummy lasagna dinner and had fun the rest of the night! Jake had a hard time not understanding it wasn't his birthday party, so we included him as much as possible :) (P.S. you can click on the pics to make them larger)


Oh wow I am huge ha ha!

Daddy and his little girl

The silly Aunties! Well two of them..

Thanks by the way to my photographers, I wasn't much help taking pictures of the event I'm glad I had excellent helpers documenting for me!


Elly got a little ring off the top of her cake.. and Jake had to blow out a few candles!

Then came the presents.. they were very excited to show Grandpa.




OH THE FUN ZIP TRACK!!

Elly loves her cousin.. and there is our little math group doing their thing. They were doing their thing.. oh wait they haven't stopped and it is 11:15.

And then tragedy struck.. actually for a second time. The first was when they were trying to put together the zip track and the track attached itself to Jakies chest... the second was when Jakie put the car too close to Grandmas hair and the wheels ate it up!

Everyone was very concerned... they only had to cut out a little bit compared to what was stuck in there...

Jake and Elly were the most concerned and kept giving Grandma kisses as she was being brave getting her hair pulled out.

Yeah! She survived!! Jake was so sorry.

Hottie Amblers!

Look closely at who is racing around the track.. Yes folks, that is baby Jesus


Had to end the night with a fun swing in the blanket!



Thanks everyone for making this a grand occasion!