Sam and Karly

2012-02-11T08:54:00.000-08:00

Want to hear about a heart stopping experience I had this morning?

Not the good kind of heart stopping.

So, as you know by now I've been potty training Kaydence. She was sitting on her potty and it was time for me to put Nolan down for his nap. Kaydence started crying and wanted to get off her potty. I made her a deal, if she would stay on her potty and try to go while I lay Nolan down (a process that takes maybe two minutes tops) she could have a life saver. She loves life savers, so I gave her one and I picked Nolan up. My dad was still in Nolans room picking up some tools (he was hanging curtains) so I stayed back there for a minute while he was cleaning up. I heard Kaydence crying so I put Nolan on the floor and went to check on her. She had swallowed her life saver. Which I thought no big deal, it hurts but it's not too bad. I gave her her apple juice and told her to drink it because it will make her feel better. I went back to put Nolan down and I heard her coughing. I put him in his crib and came back out again and she was crying again, so I was giving her hugs and she started coughing again. Then she coughed up the life saver!! Which means that it was probably stuck in her throat the whole time! At the time I didn't panic, I just gave her hugs and told her it was okay, but that she probably shouldn't have any life savers again for a while. She calmed down, and we decided to try the potty again later. So I put her on the couch because she wanted to lay down. Then when I was sitting next to her and had time to process I started to panic. If that wasn't a life saver and didn't have a hole in it, or even if it had gone down a different way she could have choked. And since I was in the other room (even though it was very briefly) I wouldn't have known. So scary! Thankfully lifesavers live up to their names and also thankfully there was no harm done.

2012-02-10T20:49:00.000-08:00

This week there was two activities that the ladies in the ward invited me to. The first was a book club, which I didn't go to because I've been sick and the other one happened to be today and it was a play group. I didn't make it to that one, but this time it was simply because I forgot that it was Friday. oops.

I finished working out with my dad and I was just brushing my teeth to go to bed. As I was brushing I was thinking about how I was going to take the kids and it wouldn't be that bad. For some reason all week I've been thinking about it being later in the week, and even though the days got closer my thought process didn't. Does that make sense? Regardless, all of the sudden it hit me that today is in fact Friday and that I missed the play group.

Kaydence used her potty a bunch today! So go us, and that's about all I have for today.

2012-02-09T21:02:00.000-08:00

I have BIG news. BIG!

Kaydence pooped on her potty!!!

She actually peed in it too today, but I'm more excited about the poop. That is a sentence I never thought I would write. I am more excited about poop. The funny thing is, I didn't even intend for her to actually use her potty today. We had to vacate the house for a few hours today after the bug spray man came to help us with a little fruit fly infestation. Okay, it was a massive infestation. It was horrible. So we went out to lunch, and then to sprouts so I could pick up some shrimp and sausage for jambalaya. (it was amazing, FYI) After sprouts we decided to swing by target to look at the pottys, to get Kaydence excited about it. She told me she wanted a Dora the Explorer potty, and I said I didn't know if there was one. There was, so I ended up buying it. Then I thought, well it's here so I'll just have her sit on it and get used to it. We talked about it and Then she ripped her clothes off and sat on it. And then she peed. Which I'm pretty sure was a fluke, but it made her happy anyways. Afterwards I told her that every time she goes in the potty she gets a piece of candy. Candy is an excellent motivator for her. After dinner I decided to try again, so she took her diaper off and we watched go diego go and she pooped. Then she got chocolate and decided that going on the potty is the best ever. I actually had a really hard time getting her back in her diaper and jammies to get her to go to bed. I had to reassure her that she could in fact go potty again tomorrow and that I would still give her candy. This is only day one, but I'm feeling tentatively optimistic.

I think the best part of all of this for Kaydence (besides the candy) is the freedom to be completely naked whenever she wants. I must have at least mentioned in here before how hard it is to keep clothes on that girl. I'm cool with it. It's really only okay and not too weird for a brief time in her life, so I'm letting her run with it. Within reason, she has to get dressed when we go places (duh) and when people come over. Anyways, I am pretty sure that part of the reason she was so happy to sit on her potty was because she didn't have to have anything on. We ditched two more binkies today too, with no tears. She had 3 yellow binkies, which are all now gone, and she has 3 pink ones left. For some reason I am feeling more bad about cutting her pink ones than the yellow.

Nolan took a nap and went to sleep tonight without his binkie too. We're just taking strides left and right over here.

Nolan loves to play in the dog water. Who wouldn't? It's like a mini dog drool filled pool. Anyways, while making jambalaya tonight I realized at a crucial moment that we ran out of rice. So I grabbed Kaydence (who didn't want to be left behind) and we ran out the door in search for rice. When we got back Nolan was stripped down to his diaper and there was water all over the floor. I asked what happened and my mom said that he was standing in the dog water and splashing around. (naturally) So I put some towels down and went back to preparing dinner. Once he let me know that he was finished with his meal and would like to get down he went back to the dog water. This time he picked up the towel and put it over his head to play peek a boo. He was very pleased with himself. It was written all over his adorable little face.

As I'm writing this and thinking about gross dog water I realize that I put him to bed without a bath after he was playing in that.....

Although, I did wash out the dish yesterday, so that makes it a bit better.

Project: stealth binkie removal

2012-02-08T11:40:00.000-08:00

Well, I've decided it was finally time to man up and do something about the binkie situation in this house. After all, Kaydence is almost 3. Ideally I should take Nolans binkie away now too, but I don't know if I am that tough. I decided to start small, so I cut the top of a couple of binkies off of Kaydences binkies that she has around the house. The plan is for her to find them, put them in her mouth, realize they are broken, and throw them away herself. Some people (I think my mom did this with morgan) suggest doing it all at once, but I don't think I want to do that. It will take a couple days, but hey. Hopefully it won't be too traumatic. The first binkie free night is probably going to be the worst, but it's time. Plus, I already cut two of them so there really isn't any going back now.

A lady I follow on pinterest (we have similar gardening ideas) posted a link to a website with a link to an article on living "off the grid" on less than 1/5 an acre. I was so excited, I read the article, and then looked at the website. It was one of those, the world is ending stock up on ammo before the zombie hoards come websites. But, I googled the name of the man whose family the story is about and have found his proper website. Anyways, so I started thinking that maybe there could be a good compromise between the earthship type of home I really want, and a regular house like that family has. My garden is doing quite well, so I'm thinking that with a little work, and the support of my husband we could easily live that way. I'm all about paying less money for things.

Also, if I ever get over this cold (which is seeming less and less likely) I am going to make cheese this week.

2012-02-06T15:00:00.001-08:00

One of Sams cousins mentioned the forest of dean on facebook. Instead of thinking of camping and beautiful outdoors I automatically thought about Harry Potter. Which brings me to another facebook/harry potter related thing, have you seen that picture of the actors who play Neville, Ron, Harry, and Malfoy and at the bottom it says, 'that awkward moment when you realize that Neville is the hottest.' Something along those lines, any way I totally agree, when did that happen? Neville was a pudgy little thing with big teeth.

Kaydence loves to be characters everyday. We spent like two weeks being Go Diego Go characters. Today we have been Rapunzel and Flynn Ryder (I am Flynn of course) and mommy and baby leopard. If you talk to her in anything but her chosen character, she will either ignore you or correct you. Just a minute ago she bonked her head on the counter and started to cry, but she didn't ask for mommy, she was crying for mommy leopard. And when I went over to give her a hug she meowed and rubbed her head against me. It was pretty great.

Nolan has learned to growl, and it's hilarious. If I growl at him, he growls back. I put him down for his nap today and turned on the monitor and settled down to rest with Kaydence and I heard him babbling and growling through the speaker. He still isn't quite brave enough to take a step, but I'm happy to have him not walking yet. It will make things a lot more complicated when he can walk and we're outside by the pool while I am watering my garden. He crawls around it now, but it's easy to pick him up and put him next to me again. I guess I could do that while he is walking too, but I think it won't be as effective.

I've been reading books about gardening (in between my Tudor bios, I think I am up to around 20 with a few more on the way) and one that I read last week was talking about the benefit of bee keeping. Also of keeping chickens, which I've wanted for a long time, but I'm afraid of bees. Who wants to be stung? Not me. However, the more I think about it the more the lure of fresh honey (with the added benefit of help with my garden) the more I want bees. And how lucky that I live in the great state of Texas with Round Rock Honey that offers bee keeping classes. I think bees will have to be on the back burner a bit until we have enough space for them. I want fresh honey, and I want the bees to work their magic in my garden, but I don't want to be right on top of the hive. The book I am reading right now has loads of good information, but is a bit boring. I told Sam today that I want chickens and bees and he said okay. He doesn't like birds and thinks chickens are creepy, so extra points for him for being supportive. He said his grandma had chickens and they were fun to chase so maybe it wouldn't be so bad. I'm super excited about my future chickens. I want to raise them from chicks, which would be a fun for the kids to help me take care of them and watch them grow.

In my dreams we would have a perfect little homestead. My lovely garden with chickens and bees. And at least one Golden Retriever. Also, while I'm dreaming big I want a pond stocked with fish with a dock that you can fish off of.

And maybe a diary cow.

Maybe one day, in the distant future

2012-02-03T21:17:00.000-08:00

I refuse to watch the american version of the show Being Human, because the UK version is so good. Also, how on earth did they think they could even have the show without Mitchell. Or in reality, how did they think they could do it without the lovely Irish man who plays Mitchell. Not that it matters... I was just browsing netflix and it makes me mad every time I see it. Plus, the girl they have playing Annie is wearing the same outfit. I'm just saying.

2012-01-30T13:45:00.001-08:00

Have you seen baby mama? (If not, go watch it, it's hilarious) You know that part where the sister says, "chocolate or poop?" and then proceeds to lick it? Let me tell you how I cam perilously close to repeating that act. Sans the poop.

This happened a few minutes ago. I was deep into reading Made From Scratch: Discovering the Pleasures of a Handmade Life by Jenna Woginrich, Nolan let me know that he wasn't happy with this pursuit. He crawled up my leg and was begging me to pay attention to him. So I scooped him up and was kissing his neck and telling him he was the most handsome boy in the world when I looked over at Kaydence. She had this massive grey thing in that space between her nose and lips. So I said, "Kayd, what is that? Do you have a giant boogie on your face?" And she laughed and said, "No mommy! It's not a boogeeerrrrr!" I wanted to know what it was, I also wanted it off her face. So I picked it up. It didn't feel like a booger. I put it close to my eyes and couldn't tell what it was. Then I smelled it, it didn't smell like anything. I can't even tell you how close I was to putting that mystery object in my mouth before I came back to reality and the fact that I was holding an unknown slimy grey object in my hand. I promptly put it in the sink. I still don't know what it was though.

That my friends is what motherhood does to you. You think about putting gross mushy grey things in your mouth to find out what it is. Let this be a lesson to you. I don't know exactly what that lesson is. You might walk way from this thinking, Karly is really gross. Or maybe you're thinking about that one time when you really did put something gross in your mouth to find out. I'm not here to judge.

2012-01-30T10:07:00.000-08:00

I'm having a major case of homesick for Austin. There is no doubt that Austin has been home ever since I moved into my first apartment after high school. I like it down here, but I'm feeling like I'm ready to go back. Too bad I still have a long time until Sam gets back. I miss my friends and the general austin atmosphere. Not to mention all of the great places to eat.

2012-01-28T19:08:00.000-08:00

You better believe my pants are starting to feel a little baggy, and that makes me happy.

Also a word to the wise, when you see a restaurant advertising buffalo wings and greek gyros it's probably too good to be true. We've driven past this place a few times (it's on the way to academy) and every time have commented about how good gyros are. So we decided to go tonight. It was SO loud in there. I mean really loud. Pluckers is loud in a pleasant way. We opened the door to this place and Kaydence covered her ears. Plus, the food was okay, not good but not bad. It's not terribly often that I go to a place that I think I probably won't go to again, but I can almost guarantee that I won't go back there.

In other news, all that complaining (well, sort of complaining) I've done recently about Kaydence sleeping in my bed has come back to bite me in the butt. The past few days she hasn't come in as early as she usually does and I couldn't sleep! I don't know if it was because I am used to her coming in or if it's because I am used to sleeping with her. That kind of sounds like the same thing, but it's not. Regardless, I couldn't sleep until she came in. I feel like that kind of makes me a little pathetic. Or awesome.

2012-01-25T11:13:00.001-08:00

Kaydence helped me to make her own shampoo today :) She was really excited about it and is now happy and excited to take a bath! I finally ran out of the baby bubble bath/shampoo that we have been using, and I decided to grab some lavender oil and make it for them. I used the same recipe as my own shampoo, but I added the lavender scent to it. It smells wonderful much better than the kind we have been using. I might get grapefruit or something along those lines to scent mine next time I need to make some. Isn't that exciting? I don't have to go buy anymore (unless I want to scent it with oil) because I already have everything I need! Ha! Though, since I plan on making all of my own cleaning supplies I can use those same oils to scent the cleaners to leave the house smelling lovely and fresh. So many uses.

Nolan started standing up on his own in the middle of the room! He is so close to walking, I know I've been saying that for a while, but it is true. He goes from sitting to standing without pulling himself up on anything and he looks like he is thinking so hard about walking. He's my smart little man.

My sweet Kaydence has gotten into the habit of sleeping in my bed. I figure that right now it's not a big deal, but will probably be a problem later on. I kind of like sleeping with her though, she gives me cuddles and I don't have to worry about someone sneaking in to steal her while I sleep. What I don't like is her waking up ssssuuuuppppeeerrrr early and turning the lamp on. Previously when she has woken up so early I tell her that she can't get up until the sun wakes up. So the past few days she turns the lamp on and pokes me or lays on me, or rubs her head on me meowing until I open my eyes to see what she wants. She then tells me that the sun is awake. And I tell her that the sun is not awake, the lamp is turned on. I should probably get her used to sleeping in her room again, because she is getting up earlier and earlier to come sleep in my room. Tonight I am going to unplug that darn lamp.

Also, my husband is the best. (he likes the houses that I love)

2012-01-23T13:55:00.001-08:00

Recently I've become more and more taken with the idea of learning to do make as many things as I can to save money and avoid going to the store as much. I've come across all sorts of things, and I'm planning even more adventures in my learning process. During my search I stumbled across Earthship Biotecture, which is a company that basically makes homes that give you the ability to live "off the grid." I would probably never be entirely off the grid, because I want internet access, but the homes are completely solar/wind powered and collect their own water! Can you imagine?! I can, and in my mind it's incredible. The houses are beautiful (in an unconventional sort of way) and make use out of trash objects (tires, aluminum cans and glass bottles) most of which you can get for free. I really, really, want to live in a home like this! Mostly from the aspect of freedom from energy/water bills! They have an area set up for a greenhouse so you can grow your food too. I don't want to live in the middle of the desert and be the weirdo who thinks the government is after them. But if there is a way to have a beautiful house, that reduces your bills and is better for the environment why wouldn't you? I may not necessarily go with this company (because I have my doubts about Sam going along with it, I may be venturing into too "weird" of a territory for him) but I think it's something to look into and find a way to make it work. I was reading that these homes are hard to finance because they are new and not too many people know very much about them, but they are up to building codes (they have to be) and I read that the VA loans work with these types of houses! I know I can't be be entirely self sufficient, I can't make my own flour/sugar and milk (okay I don't WANT to) and I will have to buy meat from the store and things like that. Unless Sam got into hunting and could do all of the gross part of cleaning his kills. I know that living like that isn't for everyone, but it's really something that's getting more and more important for me to do. And like I said before, the idea of not paying heating/water bills is incredibly luring. The more time I spend thinking about it (which is a considerable amount) the more in love I am with the concept.

2012-01-22T20:17:00.000-08:00

I am absolutely and completely in love with these houses they're made out of things like discarded tires and bottles and they look beautiful! I was planning a long blog about how amazing these houses are (because I know you read my blog dear husband) but Kaydence came to sleep with me and my typing is keeping her awake.

It was going to be a carefully executed attack for my love of the idea of building a house like this, but alas.

2012-01-18T16:18:00.000-08:00

Continuing where I left off in my last post. Nolans fever went away on Monday. Then on Tuesday he broke out in a nasty rash. It's all over his face, tummy, and back. So I decided it was time to call a doctor. I found the pediatrician that I went to growing up here, and even though he terrified me (still does, but I think that is only because of my great fear of needles) I know he's a good doctor. So I called him up, and he wasn't there today. I saw the nurse practitioner instead. She was so great! She was really friendly and funny. Anyways, he has something called roseola. She told me it's a type of herpes, and followed that up with, "but not the scary, trampy kind." Which was pretty awesome. So basically he is going to be feeling pretty lousy for the next few days. It's supposed to be really hard for adults to get, but it is contagious to other kids. So obviously Kaydence is at risk, but so far she looks fine. She also told me that he should stay home from church this week. I think that might be where he got it from in the first place. I don't know anyone here, so we haven't had any play dates. He could have gotten it from the park I guess.

2012-01-14T14:50:00.000-08:00

Nolan woke up this moring with a 103 fever! :( I was so worried that it wouldn't go down and that I would have to take him into the ER or an urgent care place. Luckily it went down pretty quick after I gave him some tylenol. I am going to have to find a doctor here asap though because I don't know what's causing said fever. Anyways, he wasn't quite himself this morning (with good reason) and he just wanted to be held. He's been sleeping a lot and this morning he was pretty cheerful, so hopefully he is on the mend.

Kaydence has really been loving helping me with my garden, so I decided that we would make her a little garden of her own. I've been looking into heirloom seeds, I should have used them for my garden, but I didn't think about it until later. Anyways, they have carrots in all sorts of fun colors, and I found some purple green beans and purple spinach. So I showed her the pictures of them online and asked her if she wanted me to get some seeds for her garden. She is so excited! She keeps telling everyone that her baby plants are coming. We're going to plant the seedlings and then when they are ready I am going to get a little box container for her and we will grow her plants!

My garden is growing surprisingly well. Both the ones that are already planted as well as my seedlings. I'm pretty happy with it!

I am starting to run low on chap stick so I think in the next couple of weeks I'm going to make my own chap stick.

2012-01-10T16:49:00.000-08:00

Are you familiar with the show The Fresh Beat Band? Unless you have a small child, probably not. I am very familiar with this show, and I actually like it. (I'm also a big fan of the my little pony that is currently playing) It's a refreshing change from Dora the Explorer and things like that. However, they replaced one of the main characters and I do not like the new girl! It just doesn't feel the same. At first I was slightly abashed that I've been getting so upset over a character change in a kids show. Then I thought to myself, why, I have to watch it with her. It's perfectly reasonable (or so I tell myself). I'm telling you, the new girl is not as good! Plus, the attractive Australian (or he could have been English, his accent was sort of watered down so it's hard to say) was already replaced with a nerdy american. Geeze Nick Jr. Don't you know these things matter?

Okay, so it doesn't really matter that much, and the show is probably just the same as it was before (it is aimed at pre-schoolers after all) but I just really don't like that new girl. I know I already said that, but it all sounds so different! To further my shame, I actually googled it to find out what happened to her! I googled "fresh beat band marina" and found out that she's getting married and wanting to explore other career options. I can't say I blame her.

I've been waiting for a loaf of bread to bake so we can eat dinner and Kaydence is currently running around with a flashlight laughing at Bella chasing the light. I thought "oh man, just when she was starting to get better" and I also thought about taking the flashlight away from her. However, if you could hear her laughing! She thinks it's hilarious and I'm quite willing to run the risk that Bella will lose her mind again in exchange for such delighted laughter.

Nolan is already asleep, but boy oh boy have I been getting the best hugs from him!! Pretty much only when I first get him out of his crib, but he lays his little head down and pats me on the back. The pat may or may not be intentional. It's pretty great either way. He is SO close to walking! Any day now, but I'm just fine if that doesn't happen for a bit longer.

Also, since we've been talking about childrens television. Have you seen Peppa Pig? It's pretty funny, they're english pigs and they snort all the time, any ways today there was a line that said this,

"You cheeky snails! Stay off my lovely lettuce"

I'm pretty sure I'm going to say that out loud or to myself EVERY time I am working in my garden. Silly pigs.

2012-01-08T08:00:00.000-08:00

Oh my, did I wake up on the wrong side of the bed this morning or what?

Kaydence came into my bedroom this morning (as has become routine) so we cuddled and went back to sleep. (which was pretty wonderful) Then she got up at like 6:15 and was asking me for apple juice. I was in a weird half wake half sleep where I was awake, but still dreaming. In my dream I poured her sparkling apple juice and handed it to her. In real life I told her I would give her apple juice, but when she kept asking me I was frustrated because I really thought that I already gave her some juice. So I got up and gave her some juice and we were going to go back to sleep again when Bubba woke up! Darn, that was rotten luck. So I got up again and Nolan didn't have any intention of going back to sleep. I put him down and let him play and went to get Kaydence, who was playing in my room since I wasn't there to remind her that the sun wasn't awake yet. And then my head started to hurt and I was just in a rotten mood. My mom got up and took the kids and I went back to sleep for a little bit. And now I'm feeling much better. I'm only human and get tired and frustrated sometimes :) I think my mom was annoyed that I was in a bad mood because when I woke up again she said, "are you smiling this time?" and then went into her room and shut the door. Bad mornings happen to everyone.

We went to the zoo yesterday! Brownsville (which is about an hour away) has a really nice zoo. It was good when we were little, but the recently renovated it and now it's even nicer. My parents decided to get a zoo memebership, so we can go whenever we want! Yes! I took some pictures, I'll try to post them on facebook later. Anyhow after the zoo we went to the garden center here so that I could start getting plants for my container garden! I am going to stagger the plantings a bit, so I only got a few to start off with, but I'm really excited to try and hopefully get some good vegetables!

2012-01-05T07:25:00.001-08:00

Well, blog world I have a problem. And that problem comes in the form of the most beautiful two year old in the world deciding she's done with naps! I love nap time, because it gives me time to get things done. OKAY, okay, so maybe I'm unproductive 98% of the time because I like to be lazy during nap time. Lately she's been waking up at 6:00-6:30am, so I tell her she can't get out of bed until the sun is awake. It doesn't really work though because even though she is technically in bed she spends her time talking to her toys, or asking me if it's okay to get up yet. I shared a room with her while Morgan was here and now that I am back in my room Kaydence comes and crawls in my bed around 3 or 4 am. Remember the days when my kids slept until 8:30 or 9am in their own beds?! I sure do, because Nolan gets up just as early now. Luckily for me he takes great naps. (because his teeth are finally through!!!!)

The other problem which is related to the nap time is that when I get frustrated, I laugh. I always try not to, but it just bubbles out of me. Which makes it kind of hard for people to see that I am in fact frustrated and not kidding around. I lay down in Kaydences room with her (in the spare bed) while she falls asleep and frequently have to tell her to lay down and close her eyes. Some days when I know she's not going to take a nap but I really need her to these laughing episodes happen. She think's it's hilarious so it eggs her on. It happened yesterday, but she was so cute that I decided just to take her with me (it had been an hour and a half of trying to get her to sleep by that point) to buy black african soap.

Which brings us nicely to the next topic, black african soap. I was looking at books about soap making on amazon and I read something about how there is instructions for black african soap in this book. And I thought, what is that? So I looked it up. Black african soap is supposed to be great for your skin. If it really works (and most of the reviews I have read says it does) it is supposed to help clear blemishes/acne, help clear eczema, aaaannddd helps with stretch marks. Which is the real draw for me. So I went to the Vitamin Shop down the street from us and got a bar. I decided I was going to try it. I'm still going to make my own soap in a few months, but I might as well buy this one in the mean time because I don't know if that's something I can make as well at home. After the soap expedition I took Kaydence to Barnes and Noble and we got her a book about going potty with Dora and a book about giving up her binkie. The binkie book made her kind of upset, but it's time for that to go. She's just getting too big. I was hoping that she would grow out of it, but she hasn't.

Nolan is going to be walking within a week I think. He loves to hold my fingers and walk around the house. He has a walker but he prefers to push a chair around and giggle and babble while he does it. He looovvvveeeessss his grandpa so much. He would prefer to be with Grandpa over anyone else I think. When Sam calls I usually hold the phone up to Nolans ear so he can hear his daddy for a bit. A few times I was sitting in the back seat of the car with the kids when he called and I held the phone up to Nolans ear and Nolan started giggling and babbling and I took the phone away and he started to cry. So I put the phone back and he laughed again. He did it a bunch of times, it was really funny and pretty adorable too.

2012-01-03T20:15:00.000-08:00

Let me tell you how in love I am with my new shampoo and conditioner. SO. IN. LOVE. I can't decide if it's because I am incredibly pleased with doing it myself or if it's just that awesome. I think it may in fact be both. It would have been more helpful if I took a picture, but right now my hair looks amazing and I don't have any product in it! You heard me, no product. It's curling really nicely and it's ridiculously soft.

Also my toothpaste is amazing as well! Now that I've started and felt how satisfying it is to make my own things there's no stopping me! That's kind of all I have to say

2012-01-03T15:35:00.000-08:00

I made my shampoo and conditioner today as well as my toothpaste!!!

I haven't tried the shampoo yet (I will tonight after I work out) but I did try my toothpaste and it was good! The toothpaste recipe calls for stevia (natural sweetener) but I didn't want to buy a big thing of it just for toothpaste. (I don't bake often enough to use it) So instead of adding the sweetener I just added a couple more drops of spearmint oil (because I couldn't find peppermint and I like spearmint) You could tell that there was baking soda in there, but it didn't bother me at all.

And the conditioner called for 1/4 sprig of rosemary, which I forgot to buy so I just left it out. Anyways, I am pretty excited about it. It was so easy to make! My mom said "How much did you pay for that?" Isn't it cheaper just to buy a tube (remember how I said she would rather buy it than make it) initially you do have to buy a few things to make it. Unless you already have peppermint oil and coconut oil on hand. I didn't pay very much for it and I will already have it on hand anytime I need to make it, so in the end it is much cheaper to make your own.

2012-01-02T20:21:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I am finished being a negative nancy, let's get back to my plans to have make as many things as I can shall we?

I am going to make my own shampoo/conditioner this week. It's actually a vinegar rinse and not a conditioner. Initially I was worried about walking around smelling like a pickle, but I have been hearing about a lot of people who do this and say that it doesn't smell bad at all. I'm having a bit of trouble tracking down castile soap here in the valley, but I haven't looked terribly hard. I'm going to try sprouts tomorrow.

I am also going to try a toothpaste, but I'm still looking for one that Kaydence will use. I read a lot of the comments and it sounded like it doesn't taste too good.

I'm staggering my projects out through the next few months, because I don't want to throw away the stuff I am already using, that's just a waste. However, I don't really like the way my toothpaste tastes, so I'm going to give it to my mom since that's what she already uses. And I just bought some shampoo and conditioner that makes my hair feel awful. Yuck, so that one probably will go to waste, unless mom wants it.

I also found a recipe for deodorant, which I think I might try. (but not until next month or so when I run out of my own deodorant) The trouble is that I tried Toms of Main once, and it gave me a rash, which was terribly uncomfortable. It went away as soon as I switched back to regular. From what I've been reading it's either the baking soda OR the corn starch. Sooo I guess I'll just have to experiment for a bit. Also apparently Arrowroot powder (instead of baking soda) fixes the rash problem. I mainly put that in for my benefit, because I keep forgetting what it's called.

I'll post on how they turned out. I'm going to get stuff for my garden this week hopefully. I need to start growing my seedlings. First I need to decide what I am actually going to grow though.

UPDATE: I found this recipe for deodorant, I think it's pretty similar, but I like it because it has pictures and gives you an option for sensitive skin.

2012-01-01T10:22:00.001-08:00

This year I've decided to do a new years resolution. Well, more of a life change really. You've all heard me moan and groan about how I want to be vegetarian but that I can't really because I live with carnivores. So, I'm going to keep with my current eating regime (eating as many veggies as I can and limiting the meat when possible) also I'm going to spend this year trying to learn how to make as many things as I can. I'm planting a vegetable container garden at my parents house and I'm getting a few books about how to get a good crop from small spaces, and how to do canning and things like that. I'm also going to be making my own shampoo and conditioner (which is REALLY inexpensive and really easy), soap, cleaning supplies, and chap stick. Depending on how long it takes me to perfect those things I'm going to work on making my own dairy (cheese, yogurt, ect) My mom always rolls her eyes at me when I talk about learning these things and says she would rather go to the store. It's getting to be more and more important to me to learn how to make things on my own. I'm tired of needing to go to the store for everything, and even more tired of all the junk they put into it. Not to mention how much money it will save in the long run. Soap isn't cheaper to make at home though, but I think it's worth it in the end. It's an exciting new chapter in my life and this is a change that's going to last. It's going to be trickier with things like cleaning supplies and laundry soap (I already know how to make laundry soap) because as I've said before my mom would rather go out and buy it. But I really don't like most of the smells in cleaning supplies, so I decided if she wants to buy it she can, but I'm going to make my own and use them when I clean. Some of the things like soap and shampoo won't make any difference to the rest of the house because I will be the one using it. I'm going to use it on the kids too.

Oh, and I'm doing P90X2 as well, but that isn't really a new years resolution since I've already started. I'm making an effort to be healthy while I'm doing it because I have a history of going a little crazy during weight loss goals. (Like hardly eating and adding extra workouts if I dare to have a snack) The point is to be healthy, so I'm not weighing myself at all and sticking to my healthy eating. I've been making a point to snack as well. Plenty of good foods and just the right amount of working out.

I'm really getting sick of the deployment too. We get to talk every day, but usually the reception is pretty bad. Kaydence spends a lot of time telling me that she misses her daddy, but the second he gets on the phone or skype she refuses to talk to him (most of the time). We basically live two lives and don't get much chance to talk about what we do. I'm usually pretty busy doing things with the kids, but we never really talk about much of anything when we get a chance to talk because I'm usually trying to get Kaydence to talk to him. He is doing pretty good though, he works out every day and they work really long days.

Anyways we switched to 3pm church, and I'm already dreading it.

That was supposed to be a more positive post, but Nolan is kind of refusing to nap, and I was frustrated about not being able to really talk to Sam.

2011-12-26T12:13:00.001-08:00

Well, I think it's finally time for a good post.

Christmas has come and gone at the Ormsby-Latham household and it was quite wonderful. My dad surprised my sister with a new iphone, my brother got a tablet (Actually they both did, my parents pitched in to get Jesse one too) and I got paddle boarding lessons (which I am really excited about, except for the fear that a shark will knock me off my board and try to take a bite out of me) AND P90x2! Yeah! Project get fit or die 2 is in full effect. My dad and I are going to do the workouts together. I'm really excited. Kaydence and Nolan both had fantastic Christmases as well, they got a ton of stuff though, so I'm not really going to list them. I sent Sam some candy and treats and he got a pair of basketball shoes too. I had my dad go outside Kaydences window on Christmas eve and shake some bells and say HO HO HO, Merry Christmas. I wish I had recorded it. She was so excited! "MOMMY!! SANTA IS HERE! HE IS FLYING WITH RED NOSE REINDEER!"

I do however, have two complaints about an otherwise perfect day. OKAY, 3. First, we didn't get to sing ANY Christmas songs at church! I KNOW! I know. Christmas music is the one time of year I look forward to singing (I think I probably sound fine when I sing, I just have a thing about other people listening to me sing) and we didn't get to sing any! They the primary sing a few songs and this woman sang a beautiful song, but where is my slice of the Christmas joy?! Oh well, there is always next year. Second my cat Dexter (who has until now been my favorite pet) has started peeing around the house to mark his territory. He saw his reflection in the mirror and it freaked him out, so now he thinks there is another cat. Third, Bella got a Christmas bone, and then threw it all up a couple of hours later. So the day was half Christmas fun, half cleaning up after my animals. Sheesh. My dad isn't too happy with Dexter right now either, because he peed in my parents closet (on his side) twice. On his workout bag and his swim bag. I'm going to get him fixed asap. I should have done it before now, but I've been kind of busy.

Nolans top two teeth have come though, but his bottom ones are still stuck. You can see the out line of them perfectly, but they just don't want to budge. Poor little guy. He's getting ready to walk any day now. I give it a few weeks tops before he is walking.

Kaydence got an Angelina Ballerina board game and a princess memory game so that's been pretty fun.

OH, also Jesse gave me a cast iron skillet and a cajun cook book. Yeah, it's about to happen. I'm going to try the red beans and rice first YUM!

2011-12-19T19:50:00.000-08:00

So I haven't really blogged since we moved here, sorry about that.

I keep starting posts and then I can't think of anything that I want to say. We went to the beach today. I feel like I should post more about that since I made the effort to start this. However, all I really wanted to say is that I keep looking down at my camera bag thinking "I should really pick that up and upload those pictures, but I'm just so tired." So the only logical thing to do is blog about it.

I promise to be better in the next few days and post a real update.

2011-12-11T19:14:00.000-08:00

I just ate a massive spoon full of nutella. I'm not exactly proud of that.

Nolans teeth still haven't cut through, but I have confirmed that it is indeed both his lower and upper teeth coming in all at once. It cant possibly be much longer now right?

2011-12-07T14:27:00.000-08:00

Okay, to pick up where we were yesterday (because I got busy and then forgot about it)

We're all settled in here, I've pretty much unpacked everything except for a few odds and ends that I can't find a place for. I like living here, but I miss Austin already. I grew up here, so I've got some feeling of nostalgia. That's mainly based around my obsessive love for El Zarrape and Mexican candy though.

Kaydence and Nolan haven't had any problems settling in, and today we're decorating for Christmas. We sent Sam a box today full of his favorite candy and some beef jerky. And a few other odds and ends. They are having to work 12 hour days over there, apparently they're enforcing that. So he's not too happy about that.

Also I am way more excited about buying presents for my kids than I am about getting anything for myself. Other than books I can't think of anything that I really want, but I am really excited to see Kaydence get excited about all of her presents. Plus, Nolan is having a very dinosaur Christmas. I know he doesn't care about Christmas, and let's be honest he probably doesn't care about dinosaurs either. But those dinosaurs I got him are awesome, so I'm excited for him.

I love my babies

2011-12-06T13:07:00.000-08:00

We're here!

We're all settled in McAllen now at my mom and dads house. I still have a few odds and ends to un pack, but I have the kids rooms totally set up. Kaydence is sleeping in her toddler bed and Nolan is FINALLY in a crib and his own room. They both have some toys in their room and a few out in a shared space with a little tv. Kaydence has discovered that she has a little bit of freedom with her bed because she can get up and play for a few minutes after I tuck her in. I've found her passed out in her bed with tea cups and things like that the past couple of days. Silly gal, so far as I can tell she's only playing for a few minutes. Nolan was a little freaked out in his room with a real crib at first, but now he loves it. I think he really is about to get his teeth now.

more to come, I have my hands full at the moment

2011-12-02T08:31:00.001-08:00

This morning for breakfast I had hot fries and red bull. That has to be an all time low for my breakfasting. I fed my kids normal breakfast, so no worries there.

The good news is that I really am almost done packing. I just have to do all of the toys, kid dvds/books. Plus a few odds and ends laying around.

The bad news is that I had a melt down last night, crazy person style. I was feeling totally overwhelmed by the time I got the kids down and things just got worse from there. A few other things pooped up that ended up being just one thing too many. So I was sitting on the floor surrounded by boxes and feeling very alone. So then to my surprise Sam got on facebook so I told him everything that was bothering me, but he could only talk for a couple of minutes, so I actually ended up feeling worse because I was lonely. So I started crying and then, I went upstairs, picked Kaydence up and proceeded to cry all over her. It was not a pretty picture, but being the sweet little thing that she is she gave me hugs (which is pretty much what I wanted) and I took her downstairs to sleep with me and she went right to sleep. I didn't sleep for a while, and I woke up with a killer headache, but at least tomorrow is moving day, so it's almost over. Almost.

2011-12-01T13:54:00.000-08:00

Quick break before I get back to packing.

I learned a very important lesson today, 5 hour energy will give you energy, but you will still feel as tired as you were before. At least that's what happened to me. I couldn't sleep last night and Kaydence woke up suuuper early today, resulting in a frantic exhausted mommy trying to pack like a mad woman. I called Betty for help and she came and took the kids out for lunch. So I packed and then I needed to go to pick up some medicine for Sam. It wasn't ready, so instead I got a 5 hour energy for myself. I thought I was being so clever to dose myself with highly potent caffeine to get through the day until I could go to sleep. Negative. Right now I'm feeling a crazy mix. I still feel just as tired as I did before, BUT now my body feels like it's racing. It's just not a pleasant combination. Not pleasant at all. The energy part is fine, but I feel like if I am energized I shouldn't feel like I could sleep on a bed of nails.

Lesson learned.

Also, remember a few blogs ago I said I hadn't had much caffeine and I was going to try to keep that up. Let's take a minute here to laugh. Ha, ha haha. That was a good one, maybe under normal circumstances that would have worked out.

2011-11-30T19:38:00.000-08:00

So, tonight I'm just dead tired.

My afternoon was a crazy mess of poop and crying babies. I don't mean to say that it was a terrible afternoon, I laughed about it. BUT, it was a pretty big mess. Nolan slept for like 15 minutes and woke up with a poopy diaper (so he was grumpy) and Kaydence never went to sleep, she was just up there crying so I finally went in and I saw here diaper on the floor and poop EVERYWHERE! Seriously it was on her legs and arms and all over her sheets and on the diaper rails. At least it wasn't on the wall. I feel like if there was a sitcom that scene would be on there with the mom saying something clever and witty and there would be that sound effect that means you're supposed to laugh. It was seriously messy. Anyhow, so I got that mess cleaned up BUT since they didn't nap I didn't finish packing the kitchen. Then we went to Bettys house because I've been obsessed with finding a few things I've lost, I didn't find them. And then my sweet friends had a little get together for us :) SO now I'm just tired. I tried to work up the motivation a few times to get up and finish the kitchen, but I am lacking. So instead I am going to wake up early, finish the kitchen and then work on our clothes. It's going to happen people!

2011-11-28T16:39:00.001-08:00

Well, day two of being mostly off caffeine. I kind of feel like punching someone in the face, but not really. I'm pretty sure I'll survive. It wasn't intentional, I kind of just ran out and haven't felt like getting dressed and going to the store hahaha. Plus, I was drinking so much caffeine that I kind of thought my heart was just going to explode one day. It's not healthy. So, we'll see if this holds up with the move and everything. I guess there is no time like the present to cut the caffeine down. Maybe just if I'm going out to eat? I'll have to think about this.

Also, I hate packing so much. Thank goodness for Flight of the Concords to watch and laugh while I do awful things like fold clothes.

2011-11-23T13:23:00.000-08:00

Who has been married for 4 years today? That's right, it's me! (And Sam duh.)

Sam got me a really pretty tudor rose necklace that I've been wanting for forever! I'm wearing it now. I really love it. I got him the new call of duty, which I get him every year because it always comes out in November. Really that is a present for both of us though, because (cover your ears xbox haters) I love to play call of duty. Not by myself, but multi player with Sam and Parker is the most fun! And Jesse when he is around.

Anyhow, Sam is in Kuwait and he says it's okay for me to say that now.

And I just made pretzels out of frozen dinner rolls. Take that!

2011-11-18T20:53:00.000-08:00

Well, it looks like Sam will be leaving the USA in a matter of days, still can't say where to though.

I am moving in a couple of weeks, my parents house is finally closing so now I'm really trying to pack and get things together. I have to say, I'm doing much better than I usually do. I need to work of my room REALLY badly. Tomorrow. I planned on doing it today, but my poor sweet Kaydence has developed quite the night time fears. She has ended up sleeping in my bed two nights in a row. Okay, OKAY so the first night I was feeling really stressed and lonely and I knew that Nolan wouldn't sleep with me so I woke Kaydence up and brought her into my bed. I know that's horrible! I couldn't help it! I felt so much better with her in my room though, the downside is that she stays awake for like 3 hours. She will drift in and out and so will I, but then she will stroke my cheek or hold my hand or whisper that she needs apple juice. Which are all absolutely adorable, BUT it makes it kind of hard to sleep. Last night she was scared though. I don't know what happened. All of the sudden she is telling me that she doesn't want monsters to come in her room and that she is afraid of bad guys. I know it's normal, but I don't want anything to scare her! I can't think of what did it though, she hasn't watched anything that could possibly be scary since Halloween (Nightmare before Christmas) and she's still talking about how much she loves Jack Skellington. I guess it doesn't really matter, but it does bring out the crazy in me big time. I'm a pretty paranoid person, I constantly worry about people breaking into my house, and spend a un-healthy amount of time thinking about what I would do if someone broke in. It's just not normal, at least, I feel like it shouldn't be. So when Kaydence tells me that she doesn't want bad guys in her room I immediately think oh my gosh there is someone going into her room at night! You see? It's not normal. Back to the main point. I was going to start packing my room today, but I was so tired from two nights of Kaydence in my bed that I ended up packing a box of Sams jackets and calling it good. Tomorrow I'm going to have more energy, because I'm going to sleep tonight.

Also, I feel like the show New Girl gets funnier every time I watch it.

I forgot! Nolan is now 9 months, he is 17 pounds and he wears 12 month clothes. He eats everything he can get his hands on. He still doesn't have any teeth, but his gums are super swollen so I'm betting he's going to get like 4 all at once. He's been a bit grouchy the past couple of days, probably because his mouth hurts. He is the happiest little boy (normally) he loves to play patty cake, and he likes the wheels on the bus. He likes it when I sing to him, so does Kaydence, she's started learning the words to songs and singing along too! He loves Kaydence and loves it even more when she plays with him. He is my sweet little brown eyed boy.

2011-11-14T18:46:00.001-08:00

Seriously, how is it ONLY 8:45?! Stupid daylight savings time has messed me up. Good golly miss dolly.

Stupid is now a banned word in my house, so long as a miss Kaydence Rose is within earshot. Crap is also banned. I am pretty guilty of using stupid on a regular basis, and my mom says crap all the time. It was only a matter of time before she started saying it too. I can't remember how she used the word crap, but it was while my brothers were over and it was hilarious. I don't want her to get used to saying that though. Today I drove my mom over to the honda dealership because the A/C went out in her car, so on the way back we stopped at wendys. I got the toy out of her bag and I said, "Well, that's a stupid toy." so Kaydence chirped in "I want to see my stupid toy!" There are worse words for her to use, but I would like it if she didn't say such things. At least for a few years.

Anyhow, Sam should be taking off in the next week or so. I'm not sure exactly if I am supposed to say where they're going, so I'll post that after he lands in country.

Nolan has his 9 month appointment tomorrow! Can you believe that! Because I hardly can. He just went through a super growth spurt. He's wearing 12 month clothes right now. He was wearing 3-6 month for the longest time and then I switched him into 6 months and a week or two later 6-9. It was like every two weeks he has to switch sizes. Luckily he fits into his 12 months so hopefully that will last a little longer! When he is tired now he's pretty much only happy if he is being held, but usually I have to put him down to make his bottle. So he will craw for a few seconds and then lay on the floor and cry. It's pretty funny, probably not for him, but it is for me. He still loves to crawl and climb over anything and everything. He absolutely adores his big sister, who is still not too sure about him. But she's making strides now, she will say things like "it's okay buddy, it's okay" when he cries and she helps me give him things in his car seat. He HATES his car seat. I'm hoping that he can be moved up to a front facing car seat soon, I think he will be happier when he can see things.

I took nyquil last night (I've got a cold or something creeping up on me) and I've been in a fog ALL day. I don't really like taking nyquil, but I do enjoy a good night's sleep. It's a love/hate thing. I had to go back to sleep when Nolan took a nap this morning (Kaydence hung out with my mom). I say had because I seriously felt like I was just going to pass out. I've pretty much been a bump on a log all day long. Hopefully I'll be back on my feet tomorrow though.

2011-11-08T20:23:00.000-08:00

I cannot express how nice it is to have clean teeth.

I realize that was an odd start. Kaydence LOVES to brush her teeth with my tooth brush. (Yes, I know that's gross) Yesterday she was brushing her teeth with my tooth brush and she took it outside for some reason where it ended up in the dirt. So of course I didn't brush my teeth last night. Or this morning, or all day in fact because somehow (it was Sams last day here) I never seemed to have time to go get a tooth brush. Anyhow, poor example or oral hygiene aside, let's have an overview of our weekend with Sam.

I went to pick him up on Friday, it's an hour and a half drive, which isn't that bad really. We came home and ate at pluckers and Parker came over so we played xbox. Saturday we spent the day at the Celtic Festival, which was SO MUCH FUN. I love renaissance festivals and all of those things. We had the best fish and chips. Oh my gosh it was so good. We looked at the shops, saw the beautiful dogs and horses, I got Kaydence some tudor books (I couldn't help it!), I got a beautiful chain mail necklace. Sam and Kaydence did an archery thing. It was a really fun day. Then Sam and I went on a date to eat indian food. Sunday we skipped church and hung out all day and relaxed together. Oh, and I made gumbo. Monday Sam and I worked on cleaning out the garage and we went out to eat with Sams parents. Today we didn't do much. I guess it doesn't sound too fun, but it was nice just to have him home. Kaydence was so excited to see him she has had such a fun time having him around all weekend. And Nolan was right back to being daddys boy! It took him a few minutes to place him, and then it was like a light clicked on and then that was it. He wanted to be with his Daddy. Kaydence and Sam have been playing with the football, she loves it!

I was worried that it would confuse Kaydence having Sam home, but I told her before I went to pick him up but I told her that daddy could only come home for a few days and then he had to go back to work. She seemed to understand. I told her enough times that she started telling me that he would only be here for a few days because he had to go back to work. This afternoon I told her that I had to take daddy back to work and she just said, "Okay Mommy" and that was that.

I was going to post about some cute things my babies have been doing, but I think I'll do that later.

2011-11-02T18:48:00.000-07:00

I packed most of my kitchen today, go me.

In more important news Sam get's a 4 day weekend!!! Woo Hoo! Saturday-Tuesday

Anyhow, I've noticed that when I'm stressed I tend to obsess over the weirdest things. Today my kitchen was full of boxes, my mom didn't feel good, Nolan is teething and Kaydence just wanted attention. It was a bit much today, anyhow I noticed that only 3 of 4 of Kaydences new tea set were on her tea tray and I could not stop looking for it. I finally decided that I was being a little crazy, so I stopped, but now that I'm thinking about it again it's bothering me all over again. I know it will turn up. I even checked in the boxes I hadn't already taped up for it.

I've been looking for Christmas presents for my babies (DUH) and I've already started thinking of Christmas crafts that I want to make! Tis the season ya'll. Yes, I did just tack on ya'll to that season greeting. It's so Texan of me.

2011-11-01T18:39:00.000-07:00

Last week my mother in law told me that she was only buying halloween candy that she didn't like. I thought that was a good idea. So of course I did the exact opposite. I tried to pick candy I wouldn't eat, but I just couldn't! Not only did I buy too much (we don't get a lot of trick or treaters on our street. People mostly go up and down main street) but I only bought candy I like. So now we've got a ton of chocolate and I just keep eating it. At least the 100 Grand I just ate says it's 30% less fat, so that's something right? Probably not in the long run, those Hot Fries I just consumed kind of canceled everything else out. No to mention the taquitos I had for dinner. Yeah, remember a month or two ago how I was talking about how healthy I eat? You can feel free to rub that in a little bit now. Actually until like a week ago it was all great healthy eating, and then it all went downhill. Curse you Halloween treats! Plus, now I'm getting ready for the move so I don't really want to buy more groceries. See the problem? Luckily my mom went to Sams club today and got a bunch of freezer meals for us so I don't have to get so much stuff and then throw (or give) it all away. Those freezer meals are tasty, but not healthy by any means. Oh well, after the move (and let's be honest probably thanksgiving too) I'm going to be doing p90x 2 with my Poppa Bear. Soon this will all be a distant memory and I will once again talk about how healthy I eat and how I want to be a vegetarian.

If you've spoken to me recently I've probably told you that I'm not sure when we are moving, or even if we are moving because things with Sams deployment are so up in the air. I've decided to get ready as if I were moving (cleaning out junk and things we don't use terribly often) and then if we end up not leaving it will be done anyways. I think however, that they won't come home. I thought that all along, but now I'm a little more sure. There is talk of a 4 day weekend this week, and they wouldn't be letting them have a 4 day pass if they were just going to come home in a few weeks. So this week I'm going to pack up excess kitchen items, my dvds/hall closet (I am dreading that one, but not nearly as much as I am my own closet). I'm also going to purge my closet some more. I thought I was drastic last time, but I always seem to keep things that I think I will wear and then never put them on. Hence, another purge. I also need to make a massive run to goodwill.

I don't know if you can tell, but this blog is kind of a giant to do list. I'm so sorry if you've read this far, it was probably a waste of time. I just cleaned out the pantry and fridge so now I'm kind of just wasting time before I do the dishes.

Also, we've been taking the dogs to the dog park, Bella is one happy camper. Kaydence loves it because she can throw rocks in the pond. (so it's a win/win) There is also a pretty cool park across the parking lot from the dog park. We found a dog park in McAllen, there isn't a pond though.

Mommy werewolf, baby werewolf, and little baby bubba werewolf

2011-10-29T19:36:00.000-07:00

We're a werewolf family here. It's been going on for a few days now. I'm not even sure where she learned what a werewolf is. She knows they howl too.

"Mommy werewolf where aaarrreee yyoouuu?"

I hear that a lot when Kaydence is looking for me. (not that I'm ever very far away, or in any hidden places usually I'm just in the kitchen hahaha) Today she put me down for a nap on the floor. She literally got every blanket she could find and piled them on top of me, and then put a pillow over my head. Every time I moved the blankets off my face she came and put them back again. It was hilarious. I've been singing Remember the Alamo to her all day long and she chimes in at the appropriate parts with reeemmmeemmmbbeerrr the eeelllmmmooo. That doesn't have anything to do with being a family of werewolves.

She howls at me all day long, in addition to mommy, baby, and little baby bubba werewolves we also have daddy werewolf, grandma ponies werewolf, and grandpa werewolf. It's really a lot of fun being a werewolf family. She transformed from werewolf into Cinderella today for our trunk or treat! She was SO happy, she went around saying trick or treat, and thank you (such a polite little princess) and then she would stop and say WOW! Look at how much candy I have Grandpa! (Benny and Betty were with us, my mom was there with us too, but Nolan was at his wits end so she took him home and put him to bed) and then we came home and I told her she could have a few pieces of candy after we took off her dress. So she sat on the big pillow with me and said things like "would you like some chocolate my darling?" (she really says that) She found a pixie stick and I showed her how you open it and then dump it in your mouth. So a few minutes later she said, "Open your mouth babe, see you pour it in like this and then it's candy!" We watched Scooby Doo.

Nolan was dressed as Gus Gus, my mom made him a little hat with mouse ears, and a little jacket with a tail sewed on it. It was ADORABLE. Betty posted some pictures on facebook (I will as well later on) He is the cutest little man. He is always sticking his tongue out and smiling. Goodness I love him, he woke up a few minutes ago and I went in to see what was wrong and he started laughing and held his little arms up for me to pick him up. LOVE. love love love him.

Also, the light for my webcam is turned on, so I keep thinking that someone has hacked my computer and is now watching me. Because I'm so interesting. Most likely my computer is just acting up though, we were on skype with Sam earlier.

2011-10-28T18:26:00.000-07:00

I know Halloween is only a few days away, but now that the hype is about to die down I'm already starting to look for Christmas presents. (okay, usually I have already started buying things by now...) Is Kaydence too little for this? I kind of don't want to pay that much, but maybe I'm just a sucker for all things disney for my little princess. Anyhow, since I just wrote that I am now going to feel like a jerk for saying what I am about to say:

I've been chewing on this one for a while. Christmas decorations already?! "It isn't even Thanksgiving yet!" They have started taking down Halloween and started putting up Christmas already! Good grief. (pun intended) I LOVE Christmas, but I feel like decorations are coming out earlier and earlier. This is madness!

Now let's get back to what I want to buy for my babies. Who else loves the Disney Animators' collection of princess toddler dolls?! Adorable! I was thinking I was going to get Kaydence things besides princess, but she will only be a little girl for so long. I picked this out for Nolan. Also, since I just complained about the Christmas decorations, a few weeks ago at Hobby Lobby I saw the best set of Christmas decorations!! They bright and they sparkle and they're sooo cute! My goal in life (okay, maybe only at Christmas) is to have it look like who-ville threw up all over my house at Christmas time.

Now that I have indulged myself, back to Halloween mode!

Halloween party!

2011-10-27T18:07:00.001-07:00

We had such a good day today!

Today was our halloween party. It was so fun I think we'll make it an annual thing.

Did I post about the pumpkin patch? I can't remember. I don't think I did... So we went to Sweet Berry farms with Kaydence and Nolan (we being my mom and I) it was every bit as fun as I was thinking it would be! Kaydence was so excited about everything she saw. We took tons of pictures, and in every one Kaydence is making some silly face or she has hair in her face! I got TONS of goof pictures of Nolan, he is such a happy little boy. He smiles as soon as you hold the camera up! Anyways, we walked around and looked at everything there was to do and then she saw the goats and that was it! She just wanted to feed the goats the rest of the time! She was so funny "come here little baby goats! Come here I have some food for you!" Then we took her to pick her pumpkin, and headed home. The drive was SO beautiful. I told Sam that I want to move to Jonestown when he gets back. It's just 5 or 6 miles outside of where we live now and it's so pretty. This is going to happen people! I just have to look into the schools and such, but otherwise I've pretty much decided.

Back to the party. I finished making all the preparations last night so all I had to do this morning was set everything out. We woke up and had breakfast and played for a while. After I put Nolan down for his nap I started pulling things out. The hardest part of the morning was keeping Kaydence out of the food! :) She wanted to sample a little bit of everything. Then we got dressed. I wore my fairy godmother gown and Kaydence wore her Cinderella dress. She didn't want to wear it at first, and then I realized that it was scratching her, so I put a blue t-shirt on her and after that she didn't want to take it off. We had a really fun time seeing everyone who came and eating and playing. I made witches broomstick treat bags, ghost strawberries, witches fingers (String cheese with bell pepper for nails), rotten deviled eggs (deviled eggs with food coloring), cake balls/pops (the sticks didn't stay in very well), and spinach dip with a vegetable tray. Plus, my friend Sunshine brought over cupcakes, and Rachel brought some yummy cookies and pretzels. Doesn't pretzels looks weird when you see it written?

We had such a good time. And we've just been relaxing all day. There wasn't much clean up either, which made it even better. We have a pumpkin carving party to go to tomorrow, trunk or treat on Saturday, and finally MONDAY is Halloween!

2011-10-24T20:05:00.000-07:00

Since we last spoke I've been making an effort to not be such a grouch.

Most of the time it's works ;) the weirdest things rub me the wrong way. And I've been OBSESSED with finding the seat that goes inside my little bouncy seat thing. Firstly, because I think Nolan would actually like to play in it, and secondly because I don't want to haul that think to McAllen without a seat! I can't find it anywhere. I've been going through boxes and all sorts of things. Stupid seat, WHERE IS IT?!? I don't think I can explain how much it's driving me up the wall. I even have a vague memory of it in a clear plastic box with some other odds and ends. I even looked in all of my clear boxes. NEGATIVE. Hark, as I wrote that I thought to myself, there are also some clear plastic boxes filled with my old books that have been put into my in laws attic! It's decided, when we go over to search for sticks (I'll explain later) I will also search and see if my mystery box it there. Now I feel a little bit better.

Anyhow, this week we've got some very exciting things planned for this week. Tomorrow we're going to the pumpkin patch. Kaydence is soooo excited! I'm pretty excited too, let's be honest. On Wednesday I'm getting a lesson on cake balls by Sandi, and on Thursday we're having a Halloween party! Which brings us back to the searching for sticks. I found these awesome treat bags courtesy of Martha Stewart And I'm making them! We have the bags, and the candy and other fun things, now we need sticks. And since my in laws have lots of trees, we're going stick hunting.

If you saw my facebook you've probably already seen some of the pictures of Kaydence and I playing with vampire fangs. (one of the treats for our goodie bags) Anyways, when I first put them on I was teasing Kaydence and chasing her around saying "I vant to suck your blood" (Nolan was napping, so he didn't get to have vampire fun) and then I went a step further and got one of my sheets and wrapped it around myself like a Dracula cape. And I flapped it around and we had tons of fun. Then she decided that she wanted to scare me, so I would hiss at her with my fangs in and she growled at me and I'd scream and run away flapping my cape behind me. She thought it was hilarious. For a while I couldn't talk her into trying her own fangs, but then I convinced her and we hissed (you know, like the sound a vampire makes when it goes into the sun) at each other. Eventually she needed her own cape, so I gave her one of my towels. And we flapped around the house hissing.

Uncle Parker came over tonight since he didn't make it yesterday. Have I written about their tea parties? I feel like they deserve a post dedicated to them. I'll write it tomorrow. I know you're excited.

2011-10-23T18:46:00.001-07:00

I've been in a foul mood the past day or so. I'm not even sure why,

Yesterday was my last day of school, I rocked the written exam and the practical exam was pretty easy too, plus we got to chat and stuff while we were at school. I think the fatal flaw I made was not eating lunch. We were released from our written test after we finished, I got home around 10am and we had to be back by noon. I wasn't hungry yet and I was nervous about the practical so I decided not to eat. I was fine all day and then when I got home I sort of crashed. We decided to go to pluckers, but it was suuuper busy. We went pretty early, but there must have been some sort of game on. So instead we went to Moonies and I had a veggie burger, it was really good, but I think there was rice in there. That's weird right? I think so. It was still tasty, but why put rice inside bread? I tried to google it to see if someone posted a recipe or something, but I couldn't find anything. I didn't look terribly hard though.

Anyways, so everything was just really rubbing me the way all night, and then I was mad because I finished school so it should have been a fun time. My dad called and I watched Storage Wars for a long time (don't judge me, it's really good) and I felt better. Then Sam called and I just got so frustrated with everything that's going on with his deployment. It's a lot to type and I don't really understand what's happening anyways. I just don't like not knowing what's happening. I don't know if I should start packing or wait or where he's going. It's very frustrating. I've been trying really hard this time around (unlike the last times Sam has been gone) to not take out my frustration on him, but.... what am I even trying to say? I don't know. I'm frustrated with not knowing what's going on and no idea when things will get sorted out. I'm afraid I'm not a terribly good '"army wife".

2011-10-18T19:15:00.000-07:00

First, on an entirely unrelated note, if you love instrumental music you should look up a Enloom, because they're amazing.

And now it's about time for an update on my little family :)

Kaydence, oh my sweet sweet little Kaydence. I can't even say how grateful I am to have her. I love her so much. I was so proud of her today, we went for a play date at mcdonalds and she was running around playing on the playground and talking to the other kids! Oh, it just made my heart melt. I know that doesn't sound like a big deal, but she has been so shy that in the past when we've gone she wouldn't go play unless I was with her or she would just stay on the bench next to me. She's starting to warm up to people too. She is such a shy little thing that seeing her come out of her shell and letting other people see her fantastic personality just warms my little heart. She repeats things like a parrot these days too! Which has been fun. The other day we were eating spaghetti and she kept getting the parmesan cheese and saying, "would you like some more my darling?" She uses pet names like that a lot because that's how I talk to them. I ask her to go check on Nolan for me while he is asleep and she comes running out of my room shouting BUBBA IS AWAAKEE! My darling little boy! It's so cute. I do this thing with Kaydence where I say, "Baby, I have a secret, come here" and she comes closer and I whisper "Do you want to know what it is?" and she says "Yes" and then I shout "I LOVE YOU" and the past few days she has started repeating that little segment to me! I could probably write an entire book about the adorable things she does. I've been teaching her to say things from Swamp People (she can say Troys Yeah yeah yeah yeeeaaahhh like a pro) I've been getting her to say Phew, that ain't no baby! So Yesterday we were watching youtube videos of disney world parades and there was a princess Tiana float and Louie the alligator came right after and she said "Phew! That ain't no baby!" I laughed so hard. It was awesome not just that she said it, but also that she said it in the right circumstances! One more Kaydence story and then I'll move on (like I said, I could write a novel) I love to give her kisses, who wouldn't, and tonight I was giving her a kiss after we read her princess Halloween book and she decided that she wanted to give me puppy kisses. She licked my face and then cracked up! She thought it was hilarious, of course I was laughing too and I said GGGRRROOOOSSSS give me a real kiss. And then she licked me again. Then she said, "Mommy be puppy too?" I know that the adult thing to do in this situation would be to not lick her, but I did. And if she about cracked a lung laughing. It was so hilarious. Seriously, it was so much fun to just be silly with Kaydence and hear those sweet giggles!

Nolan has seemed a little off the past few days. Usually he loves crawling around and being around Kaydence and he's just happy to play with whatever he can get his hands on. (that doesn't get taken away by Kaydence) He has been sleeping a lot more lately and he doesn't want me to put him down on the ground. I'm thinking he might be getting an ear infection. We'll see. Anyways, back to him playing with whatever he can grab. My mom took Kaydence out the other day because I wasn't feeling well. So when Nolan woke up I brought him over to the toys and set him down and I sat by him and the look on his face was just priceless, he looked at the toys and then looked at me like "really, I can actually touch it?" He always gets excited when he has free reign of the toys, but this time was particularly funny. He is 8 months now, and he still hasn't cut any of his teeth. Which is unfortunate for him because the boy loves to eat. He got his hands on an apple Kaydence had been eating and was having a grand time gnawing on it, until Kaydence saw. He was so mad when she took it back from him that I ended up getting out a new apple and eating half of it just so he could have fun with an apple. Goodness I love that kid. He wants to be around Kaydence more than anything. His face just lights up when he sees her. I need to buy him more baseball gear, he looks so cute wearing it.

Sam is no longer going to Iraq because the Iraqi government says that after 2012 any soldiers who remain will have to conform to Iraqi law. Which means that we don't know where he is going now. And we're still not sure about that 4 day pass he may or may not get. So we're kind of in a weird state of limbo waiting to find out where he's going.

2011-10-15T18:59:00.000-07:00

I know I've complained numerous times about my neighbors dog across the street. The one that barks CONSTANTLY. I will however, refrain from another rant about how obnoxious this dogs barking is. (Especially in the dead of night) However, I will tell you that while I was paying bills tonight I was listening to this dog bark again, and I was also complaining to my mom about this dog barking, again. And then I thought, this is silly, I've been listening to this dog and complaining about this dog for months now. Seriously, I was complaining to Sam a few weeks before he left about his dog barking. So, since I was already on the Cedar Park website I looked up animal control and reported that darn dog. That's right, passive aggressive at it's finest. I know that they live across the street from me, but I'm just not good with confrontation. So instead I'm going to let the authorities deal with it.

In less obnoxious news, there are rumors about a 4 day pass for my own dear husband. That's right, 4 days. This may or may not happen, so I'm not supposed to get my hopes up.

Also, one week of school yet!

I promise to update the world on my beautiful, perfect children soon.

P.S. I wasn't being sarcastic, I really think my babies are the most perfect babies ever created.

2011-10-13T18:04:00.001-07:00

Spending money on things that I don't think is necessary really makes me angry. I used to love spending money, what happened to me! Not that it's a bad thing, but it kind of ruins my day. Here's why I'm thinking about this right now. I have a trainer working with Bella and he really recommended using a gentle leader for our walks. I decided to go get one, because it worked so well. I also needed dog food and treats to give Bella when she stops looking at lights. We also talked about giving her a Kong filled with peanut butter and frozen for times like mid-afternoon/evening when the shadows/light are a constant problem. So I got treats and a kong (Actually two, because if Bella has one it's not fair if my moms dog doesn't have one. Right? Because they're dogs of course.) and then I thought, Hey! dog food is way cheaper at target. I thought, these treats probably are too, but I thought target didn't have kongs. SO I went to target for the dog food (3 dollars saved) and then I saw that they DO have kongs there! And they're less expensive!! So I thought about returning the other kongs I bought and buying the cheaper ones from Target, but by that point Kaydence was getting tired of sitting in the cart and was ready to go home. Stupid PetSmart. I did make myself feel better though, because I saved a good 5 dollars on the gentle lead, and the kongs came with treats. So, whatever. It still made me mad.

The things that get my blood boiling these days.

The ridiculous thing is that I've been buying Halloween things left and right, do I need them, no? Let's also not talk about all the money I waste on caffeine and treats for Kaydence, the difference is that I want to buy those things. Bella has treats at home, but we've been running through them at a stupid rate because every time I give Bella a treat my moms dog comes running. I kind of want to not give him treats because I'm trying to train Bella, and he's spoiled as it is. (so is she, but usually she doesn't get treats left and right like she is right now)

Anyways, I know it's stupid to get worked up over such a silly thing. It's just that kind of evening I guess!

2011-10-10T08:57:00.000-07:00

Did you hear that?

That was me breathing a HUGE sigh of relief. Why you ask? Because this morning I had a consultation with a dog trainer who managed to get Bella to stop staring at lights! The fact that he managed to get her attention away from the lights is a pretty big thing. This is amazing news people. He is coming over tomorrow to show me how to fix Bella! And then I can have my good dog back, minus mental issues.

So if you want a dog trainer, I can give you the name of one. Yes!

2011-10-06T12:18:00.000-07:00

So, here's the thing when I turn Glee on I feel like it's a chore. Season 1 of Glee was awesome. Season 2, slightly less. And now I can't figure out why I still watch. I see that it's on hulu and I think I really don't want to watch this. And then I turn it on. It's on right now. I feel like it's word vomit TV style.

After this week I have about 15 hours left of my externship and I'm ready ready ready for it to be done. I'm pretty much 100% positive that I want to go into dental hygiene. I like assisting, but I was right about this being a good first step into dental hygiene. Yesterday I felt horrible after my extern hours. They just hired a new assistant so yesterday there was 4 assistants in addition to myself there. We were literally bumping into each other. I felt like I was in the way, even though I was doing all of the sterilization and helping clean the rooms for them. It was just a bad day. I really miss Sam and I have a ton of homework. Basically I was just throwing myself a pity party.

Today Nolan was napping, because the best napper and Kaydence was hanging out with my mom so I had time to relax a little bit and then I re-aligned myself and and back on track.

We bought a witch hat at Target this morning and I spent a good portion of my time chasing Kaydence around being the silly witch.

Halloween!

2011-10-03T20:07:00.000-07:00

Some exciting things have been happening in the Latham house!

Big news, (big by our standards) I took Kaydence to the disney store to pick out her costume! It was costume overload! I wish you could have seen her face, she was SO happy! She was going around and hugging all of the beautiful dresses. Before we went she wanted to be Tinker Bell, she also talked about being Alice in Wonderland. On our way there I was talking to her about all of the costumes they would have there. She saw the Tinker Bell and Alice costumes, she hugged the Jasmine costume and then she saw Cinderella and her whole face lit up! She jumped up and down and said "CIIINNNNDDDDEEERRRREEEELLLLLLLAAA! Wow! Mommy! Glass slippers!!" And just like that, she was firmly set on being the most beautiful Cinderella the world has ever seen.

I had some mild price shock at check out, but in reality it wasn't that much more expensive than the target version and way better. Plus we got glass slippers with little lights in the heels and a wand. So there. Last year she was Belle, and she also had little yellow gelly shoes with light up heels and a wand :) she had a crown too, but since she doesn't keep them on her head for more than a minute or two at a time I didn't want to pay for it. We had our costumes planned out (because I want us to match this year hahaha) for Tinker Bell and Alice, so when she settled on Cinderella I decided that Nolan is going to be a mouse. He is going to be gus gus, and I am going to be the fairy god mother. My mom is going to make me a robe for it.

I have the house almost decorated, I just have a few finishing touches left. And tomorrow we are going to make some sock- skeletons! Think sock monkey, only in skeleton form! We have already made bats, we colored some pumpkins, we made egg carton spiders. Our spiders were much more colorful than the ideal black spiders :) We already had colored paint and pipe cleaners, and I decided it would be silly to buy black paint and pipe cleaners. They're pretty cute. My mom got Hocus Pocus for us today! We already watched it :) I think I enjoyed it more than Kaydence did. She was more interested in playing. I used to watch that movie all the time, even when it wasn't Halloween. I also got her halloween pop tarts, a crayola glow in the dark halloween coloring thing (color explosion) and a rugrats halloween DVD. The colors and rugrats dvd are hidden for a while longer so we don't run out of all of our fun things all at once.

We are ready for a month of fun! Because after Halloween all of my thoughts are directed toward Christmas decorating. Thanksgiving is awesome, but not nearly as fun to decorate for. I am that person who wants to decorate for Christmas as soon as thanksgiving is over, and I leave them up until after new years usually. Right now Hobby Lobby has some seriously cute decorations. Bright colors and glitter, I'm all about Christmas decorations that look like who-ville threw up all over it.

I love the holiday season.

2011-09-30T18:39:00.000-07:00

So there is this dog that lives across the street from me who barks all day everyday. And all night. This isn't a new thing either, it's been going on for such a long time. It's been really annoying me since Sam left though. Well, it was annoying before he left too. But now it makes me want to punch something. Is it really bad that I'm considering calling the police? I feel like if they are going to let that dog stay outside and bark everyday then they shouldn't have a dog. I mean if you lived in the middle of no where, with no one around you and you decided you wanted like a working dog or something and you want it to stay outside, then fine. That's your business. But not when you live surrounded by other people who don't let their dogs bark constantly. The only thing that's stopping me are two things. The first, when my former neighbor called the cops on us for Bella barking (to be fair, she was barking that day and the guy had his house forclosed on shortly after so he was probably pretty stressed) and I really wished that he had come to our door and politely asked us to keep our dog under control. However, I don't know these people. And secondly, I'm not sure exactly who to call. I just want someone to get them to let their dog inside, or find it a new home. Or at least find a way to get it to stop barking. It drives me nuts when Bella barks, how can they be okay with that dog barking all the time?

2011-09-29T18:30:00.000-07:00

Boy, I really let the ball down today!

Last night poor Nolans nose was so stuffed up that he couldn't sleep unless he was propped up on me. Which meant that I in turn didn't get any sleep. I was supposed to go in for some extern hours today, but I thought that I just wouldn't be able to do it on so little sleep with two sick kids. I know it's not a big deal to anyone besides me, because I'm not getting paid. It's just for me to learn. And if we're being honest it's probably easier on them when they don't have a shadow following them around everywhere. Plus, I could not (and still can't) find my scrub bottoms for the life of me. Which lead to the I need to clean my room crisis. I made a dent, and I'm going to keep chipping away at it tomorrow. I got Nolans clothes switched out to 6-9 month. Oh yeah, that happened! And bagged up all of his smaller size clothes. Anyways, Kaydence is back to normal today, but Nolan is still super stuffy.

Right now I have a chapter of homework to be doing, BUT I'm tired and don't feel like working. I watched Criminal Minds with my momma, and then any and all enthusiasm I had for reading about coronal polishing went out the window. It was a very small amount of enthusiasm. Very, very small.

To be a fly on the wall

2011-09-27T20:34:00.000-07:00

Unless you're a Tudor fanatic like I am, or just interested in what I have to say on the subject you're free to skip over this post.

If I could go back in time and just observe, (like be invisible and therefore unable to catch any horrific diseases) everything that went on in Henry VIII's court. If only. I just want to understand everything that happened to the LAST detail. Did Thomas Wyatt really love Ann Boleyn? Because let me tell you, I've read his poems and I kind of love him. I don't even normally read poetry. What really made Henry turn against Anne? That continually baffles me, I just don't understand how you can love someone so much for so long and then have them killed. Did Henry have some illness that made his personality change? Was Catherine of Aragon really a virgin? What in the world was Catherine Howard thinking?! I mean I get it, she was married to a horrible fat smelly old man, but really. Her cousin was beheaded! Did she learn nothing from that?! Was George Boleyn gay, and what really happened with Jane Boleyn? And also, what was the deal with Anne of Cleaves, why did Henry dislike her so much? Lately I've been thinking a lot about how various authors can contribute so much into your views and opinions of history. I started watching The Tudors, which I still love, even though it is pretty inaccurate at times. And then I read The Other Boleyn Girl. At first I loved that book, and for the sake of fiction it's still a pretty good read, but the more I lean about Anne, the more I find myself resenting that book. I know it's a work of fiction, but Philippa Gregory presents herself as a historian. There is a Q & A at the end of the book that makes it seem like these things were based on fact. Maybe she did do research and still believed that Anne was a horrible person, I don't know. But as far as actual historians go... I spend a fair amount of my time reading Anne Boleyn (and other Tudor persons) biographies, and each author has their own vivid picture of who Anne really was. Some of them firmly believe that Catherine was lying through her teeth about being a virgin, (personally I think there might be some merit to that argument) or that Jane Seymore was a pawn put in place to capture Henrys attention away from Anne. I've said numerous times that I had thought I was finished reading about the Tudors, but the fact of the matter is I might never be finished. And I'm okay with that. I absolutely love them. I've so far read 12 biographies (most of which are about Anne) and I have 15 more on my amazon wish list. And that wasn't counting the books about Mary and Elizabeth Tudor, Margaret Beaufort, Elizabeth Woodville, and The princes in the tower. Because that would have added a substantially.

I'm not sure what the point I'm trying to get across is. I have all of these thoughts jumbling through my head and I can't seem to make them come out the way I want tonight. So many momentous things happened in the life of Henry VIII and I just want to know and understand everything that happened.

2011-09-23T19:00:00.001-07:00

Do certain words ever bother you? I'm not talking about swear words here, I just mean like every day words. (for example my photography teacher hated the words moist and sandwich.) I hate the word Labia, or Labial. It just makes me feel gross. I bet you're wondering why I was thinking about this in the first place. It's because there is a term in the orthodontics chapter I am studying 'labial hooks' Ugh. It's just a nasty word.

You can tell I'm really focused tonight.

I have a feeling tomorrows test might be a disaster. I feel like I've had a really busy week. Which, for me I actually have. I worked some extern hours at Crystal Falls dental (that's the office my school is done through) and that same morning I went to a different office to see if I could extern there. I was so nervous to go into the extern hours. Goodness. I hardly ate all day (which made me REALLY tired) and I left my house like 30 minutes before I needed to because I was pacing around the house. It ended up going pretty well. I did a lot of sterilization, I also cleaned up rooms and set them up again. I even did an impression on a patient, which made me really nervous. I've done them at school a bunch, but we have a material that sets slower. The first day of class we did the fast set and I had to do mine like 3 times because it was setting too quickly. Luckily I remembered all of the steps in the right order, AND I got an impression first try. Go me. The rest of the day passed about the same. I ended up staying longer than I was signed up to because the assistant I was working with was supposed to fill out an evaluation form for me, and she was really busy. Dr. Ince was really nice. I was watching him with his patients while I wasn't busy with other things and he's really nice to all of them. He never seemed like he was in a hurry or too busy to listen to what they had to say. (in case you're in the market for a new dentist) I even handed him a few things while his assistant was out of the room. It kind of freaked me out though ahahah. I wasn't helping so I didn't have gloves on (I didn't touch the patient at all) and he asked me for some bands (orthodontic patient) and I was thinking "should I be wearing gloves for this? my hands are clean and I haven't touched anything" and then I looked around and couldn't find the gloves (I later saw them, they were right next to where I was standing haha) so I handed him a band. Later I was back with his assistant and she asked me to hand her a wire, and I reached for the gloves and she said I didn't need them, so I guess I was right. I keep thinking about it though for some reason. He also had me help him mix some cement, but I hadn't done that kind. We did mixing in class, but it was a pretty short station. He was really nice about it though, he showed me how and helped me. So all in all, my first experience externing wasn't nearly as terrifying as I thought it would be.

Kaydence has been missing her daddy a lot lately. It was really confusing to her when we went to see him because I've been telling her that Daddy was going to be gone for a really long time. She has been asking me a lot when he will be able to come home, and tonight we read the book he recorded for her. She asked me if I could just go and pick daddy up from work really quick and bring him home. It just breaks my heart when she says things like that because she is too young to understand where he really is. You can't tell a two year old Daddy went to war, or daddy was deployed. I tell her that he is at work, which is true.

I did get the best surprise ever today though. If you didn't already know this, we don't have cable TV, we use netflix and hulu. Which is generally no big deal because I can watch most of the shows I would be missing anyhow. However, CBS was constantly ruining my life last year because Criminal Minds (my favorite show) isn't available on hulu OR their website. They had almost all of their other shows up there though! Epic fail CBS, epic. (and that's a word I don't use terribly often) Anyhow, they have FINALLY resolved this issue and I watched the new episode tonight! Yay yay yay! I can't tell you how happy that makes me. My life has been shallow and empty without criminal minds. Okay, not really. It hasn't been too different, except for the lamentable loss of one Dr. Reid gracing my television on a weekly basis.

2011-09-21T20:54:00.000-07:00

Let's talk about how I got to see my husband today!

There was a retirement ceremony, so they flew in some of the guys who were deploying for it. Which meant that I got to drive down, with the kiddos and see him for a few hours. Which was really, really nice. Kaydence was super excited to see him, she was kind of upset when we left though, because she thought he was coming too. We had to talk about how we were just visiting Daddy and how he can't come home for a long time still. That was significantly less fun. I would tell you about all of the things we did, but we didn't really do anything. Besides sit at a table with some other people from the unit and chat, which was good. Originally they weren't going to leave until 5pm, so we were going to be able to leave with Sam for a bit and then drop him off again, but they switched it to 3pm. It's okay though, because it was still nice to see him. Even if it was only a few hours.

I haven't heard from him at all since then, and I kid you not a few minutes ago I was thinking "ohmygosh his helicopter must have crashed and that's why he hasn't called" and then I remembered that while I was doing my friend Mandys hair (which turned out orange somehow) her husband called her, and since he was one of the ones that flew with Sam obviously everything is fine. Which led me to, where the heck is my husband? Can you believe that thought actually went through my head? Goodness gracious. What am I going to do with myself?

It's 11pm, generally around this time I am already sleeping, or pretty close to sleeping. Tonight I really need to be sleeping, because tomorrow morning bright and early I am going to see a very nice dentist about being an extern in his office. But I'd really like to talk to my husband, so I'll probably stay up and hope he calls.

7 months!

2011-09-20T11:23:00.000-07:00

Nolan is 7 months old. Boy that went by quickly! And he is just racing around this house!

He went up the stairs the other day. I about had a heart attack. He likes to go and pull himself up to standing on the stairs all the time, so I didn't even think about it. I was sending a text and then I looked up and he had already made it up two stairs! I tell you, this kid won't slow down. He crawls around like a mad man and climbs everything he can. He LOVES climbing the big pillow, a lot of the time he will sort of roll off. He's face planted a few times, but then he just gets up and climbs back up again. He loves to be around Kaydence, but she's still not digging the whole little brother thing. She is super sweet to her sister Ariel though. (it's a littler mermaid doll, I didn't have a secret baby and name it ariel) He will eat anything you give him, he doesn't care what it is. He eats his veg, fruit, and whatever I will give him to gnaw on. I let him chew on my apple today and his little eyes just lit up! I love that little man.

2011-09-15T19:46:00.000-07:00

Unless you've been living under a rock, or you just don't read my blog (don't worry, if I didn't write it I probably wouldn't read what I have to say either ;) plus, you're reading now, so we can still be friends) you've undoubtably heard me complaining about how my dog stares at light spots. All day every day this happens, and it gets worse at night. The point of bringing this up again is that I may have FINALLY found a solution! The spray bottle. Bom bom boooooom. I tried the spray bottle before when she was a puppy and generally being an idiot, but after a while proved ineffectual. Which is why I didn't try it before now. I was doing a friends hair, and so I had to buy a spray bottle. Since I was spraying things (things being my friends hair) Kaydence decided that she needed to spray things. In her case things is everything, including Bella, which was particularly hilarious to her. Bella did not not not not like it at all. And so I thought, hey, Bella hates that, I'm going to spray her in the face every time she stares at lights. The trick to this will be to see if she will just ignore it in a few days. Here's to getting my sanity back...

Also, Sam is sick right now. He will be landing in Kuwait on October 25, but we still don't know where they're going after that.

I love my babies, more than anything. Kaydence has been giving me the biggest hugs in the world lately! I love them. And my handsome little man is not only crawling, but also already starting to pull himself up to standing. Sheesh, give me some time will you Nolan! Slow down and be my little man a little longer! I need to buy that poor kid some trucks, he's always playing with tea cups and whatever Kaydence leaves around.

Lastly, like the complaining about Bella, if you've been reading you will know that I frequently go through stages of wanting to be completely vegetarian (I would if I didn't have to cook meat for Sam). Today is an excellent example of why. I took Kayd to Chick Fil A and we were eating it on the way home from the mall. I handed her back her drink and she gave me the chicken nugget she was eating. She doesn't like to hold her food and drink at the same time. So I looked at it and I noticed that half of the chicken was WAY undercooked! dhsakfhdjasbfkadga GROSS! Luckily she didn't eat that part, but then I started to feel really sick. It's probably all in my head, because I'm sensitive about meat anyways, but after that I felt kind of sick.

2011-09-13T20:16:00.001-07:00

When people ask me what's missing from my life I can answer Pauly Shore.

Thanks to a friend of mine from high school posting about watching Encino Man on facebook I decided to look up good old Pauly on Netflix. There isn't much to watch instantly, but it did give me ample time to think about what awesome movies he's in.

Anyways, this morning I woke up on the wrong side of the bed. It was a pretty slow, hard start. Dexter was scratching outside my door, trying to get in. It was around the time of day that Sam is usually getting ready for work, and so I heard this obnoxious sound and my mind had a ready answer: the sound you hear is Sam getting ready for work. So I though oh, of course that's what it is. That's when reality stepped in to give me a slap in the face! Thanks for that one. So, I was wrenched out of the happy bubble where Sam is still at home making obnoxious velcro sounds while he get's ready for work and back into real life where he is about to go to war.

And with that incredibly long sentence, I take my leave.

2011-09-08T19:47:00.001-07:00

Let me tell you about a problem I have. It's my complete and utter obsession with The Avett Brothers. I love them so much. I sing along at the top of my lungs and feel fantastic every time. I think it's literally been weeks since I've listened to another band, which is more than a little weird. I don't know what it is about them, but the music just makes me feel fantastic! Which, I realize I said basically the same thing one sentence up. It's true though. I'm even thinking about buying a t-shirt AND a hoodie. It's kind of big news people. I don't think I've bought a band t-shirt since high school. Also, I'm not a big fan of concerts. I LOVE live music, but I don't like crowds. That being said my brother and I decided that we need to go to an avett brothers show. It's an obsession to rival that of my Anne Boleyn one.

My mom is teaching me to water color. Here's the problem though, I really love painting. I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing. I can make a decent enough painting when I really try. (only if you like 'abstract' art though ) Generally I just spread bright colors around until I feel happy. Now that I'm actually trying to learn the correct way to do things, I just want a big ole canvas and a brush and do my usual thing. It's time consuming and frustrating doing things the right way :) I made some decent aspen trees today, but I just don't like them. I don't know why though...

I think that's about it for today, I don't know why I shared any of that information. It's not important for anyone to know of my consuming love (I almost said 'consuming passion', but I thought it would be even weirder) for the avett brothers, or my watercolor woes. I'm just waiting for Sam to call so I can go to bed really.

2011-09-04T20:37:00.000-07:00

So all these fires are scary right? Yes, they are. A fire sprang up today in the general area of where I live, and a HUGE one in bastrop.

Anyways, I've been thinking all day about what I would take with me if we were to be evacuated. (which, for the record, isn't happening, there isn't a fire near me now but it seems like the entire state is on fire) Here is the list I came up with

First and most importantly I would make sure my babies are safe. Everything else can be replaced. But since that is a given, and assuming I would have a few minutes to pack:

Clothes, diapers/wipes, binkies, bottles, and formula for my babies

I would probably have to grab all of the stuffed animals in Kaydences crib, along with her blanket. Nolan would need his blanket and his silky bear

Computer

cell phone

chargers for both of the above

72 hour kits (just in case)

clothes for myself

my pets (but I probably wouldn't worry about their food or accessories)

and I think that's it really. I was thinking that if I had time I would grab some of Kaydences DVDs. What morbid thinking right? I even went as far as to think that maybe I should pack a just in case bag, but I didn't. Sam and I were talking about the fires and there are fires all around Ft. Hood right now too. There is a married couple in his unit, deploying together, whose house is like 10 miles from the fire! So not only are they being deployed, but they might lose their house if the fire spreads much more. Here is hoping/praying that we get some rain! We really needed it before, but now we desperately need it.

In less frightening news, tomorrow I am starting a juicing cleanse for 14 days. I talked about it a bit when I had my tonsils out. I had to stop then because the acid burned my throat too bad. I wanted to start again before now, but with Sam leaving I was just too stressed. Also I ate a whole ton of crap, and my body needs a good over-haul. If you didn't read about it before, you should watch Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead. Basically you juice fresh fruit and vegetables for all of your meals/snacks. I'm going to weigh and measure myself tomorrow, and on day 14 so get ready for some changes people. They're coming!

2011-09-02T13:04:00.001-07:00

And just like that Sam is gone and we're in survival mode!

I realize that sounded pretty drastic, in reality all it means is that I probably won't change out of my pajamas (unless I have to) and I'm not going to clean (much) until Monday. I'm giving myself the weekend to feel sorry for myself.

And then it's time to pull my big girl pants up and get on with it.

Also, when I hear from Sam I will put an update in here to keep everyone in the loop. For the record, we have sort of been told where they are going, but that could change. Also I'm not supposed to tell anyone (outside of family, who I will call or e-mail those out of country once I really know) until he has left and safely landed in country. He will be at Ft. Hood for a month or so. I will be able to talk to him on the phone at least until then. But we won't be able to see them at all, so he is gone gone. Did you know sesame street makes a special episode about deployment? Well, they do. (just in case someone reading this needs such an episode) I watched it with Kaydence and told her that her daddy has to go away for a long long time like Elmos daddy. She seemed to understand a little bit. So this morning when we took Sam to drop him off I told her she needed to give her daddy a big big big hug and a kiss because he will be gone for a very long time. She said ooohhh, and hugged him. I talked to her about it a few times today and she says yes mommy, daddy gone. So I don't know how much she really understands. Which is okay because she is only two, I'm just dreading when she starts to ask me where her daddy is. He got her and Nolan a recordable book so they can hear him talk and hopefully we will be able to use skype.

As far as how I am feeling... well... I feel just like you would expect a wife sending her husband off to feel. My sister put it best, she asked me how I am feeling and I said, "I am okay, I am sad but I don't feel too bad." She said, "I'm sorry :( it'll be okay. I know you're sad and just being tough." Which is the best assessment of my feelings I've probably ever been given. It sums me up perfectly.

But like I said earlier, I am giving myself this weekend to feel sorry for myself and then I've got to get on with it. It doesn't do anyone any good to sit around mope, but in this situation I feel like a little moping is just the ticket. I've got two of the sweetest babies in the world and lots of family so I'll be fine.

On the 'I might lose my mind and do something stupid' line, I woke up this morning and decided that one big dog in my bed wasn't enough and I need a second golden retriever to love me. I even went as far as picking out his name. Because of course it had to be a boy. Luckily I came to my senses, because really isn't one dog with questionable brain functions enough for one family?

2011-08-30T09:41:00.000-07:00

oh.my.goodness.

My daughter seems determined to press every single one of my buttons today. We've had a great morning, and then all of the sudden until the last 1/2 hour or so. She does this thing where she says something over and over and over and over and over and over until I do what she wants. Which of course I try not to do because then she thinks that's a good way to get what she wants. For example she wanted me to read her a halloween book, and I said, not right now I am eating lunch. We can read it when I am finished eating. So she says: No Halloween book! Halloween book! Halloween book! Halloween halloween halloweeeeeen. Over and over and over, and of course she wasn't listening. I asked her to be quiet so I could explain to her why we couldn't read the book right then. Which, she didn't, so I put her in time out and said, when you're ready to listen you can come out. She sat there for about 5 minutes crying halloween book halloween book. When she finally stopped we had a talk about her behavior and she said, okay mommy, go eat I read by myself.

I tell you, this mixture of the terrible twos and the stress of her daddy leaving is wearing me down. I frequently find myself thinking that I can't handle anything else. There has to be a better way to get her to understand that she is being annoying, I just haven't figured it out yet. Here is praying for extra patience.

Also, my vacuum broke.

I would like to add that even with challenging days like this (or like the past few weeks to be more accurate) Kaydence (and Nolan, but he isn't being obnoxious) is the best thing that has ever happened to me. And I wouldn't trade my time spent with them for anything else, even when we're having a really, really bad day.

2011-08-29T08:50:00.000-07:00

I'm in the middle of a serious crisis here. I decided that I was going to get myself ready for my juicing cleanse by eating even more healthy than usual. I started off my morning really well, but it's almost lunch time and my fridge is full of delicious macaroni salad and left over chinese food. It's taunting me. "look at you, being healthy. Don't you know I'm delicious?" So now the big problem is, stick to being healthy, or wait until that delicious (and decidedly un-healthy) food is gone and then try to be healthy?

I think we all know the answer to that one.

There is a little voice chirping in my ear demanding to see pictures of disney world princesses. Since my time is in such high demand I will try to post again later and finish this update.

2011-08-28T14:20:00.000-07:00

Kaydence: Mommy, An Bodin best friend.

Me: Anne Boleyn is your best friend?

Kaydence: No, An Bodin Mommy best friend

Me: Anne Boleyn is mommys best friend?

Kaydence: No, Mommy my best friend.

Glad we cleared that one up!

If you didn't piece two and two together, Kaydence can say Anne Boleyn now! Not perfectly, but it about melted my tudor loving heart.

In other news, this is Sams last week at home, he leaves on Friday.

2011-08-25T21:39:00.001-07:00

Dear down the street neighbors,

It's almost midnight and your dog is barking so loud that I literally can't think about anything except how much I want it to stop barking. I would like of like to go to sleep at some point tonight. And I would REALY like it if your dog stopped barking. Thanks so much for thinking of those around you while you let your dog bark all night,

Sincerely,

Karly

2011-08-24T17:54:00.000-07:00

Once again I am procrastinating what I need to be doing to write a blog. I don't know what it is this week, I just don't want to do my homework. I did a little bit today, but I just don't want to work on it anymore. Maybe it's because I only have two chapters this week instead of the 3-6 I usually have? I would think that less homework would make it easier to do, but no. It just means that I have more time to devote to two chapters. What I really want to be doing is reading the end of my book, or watching an episode of Daria. Instead I am writing this blog, and thinking about how I should be reading up on radiographs.

Kaydence is doing so many adorable things it's hard to keep up. She has started pointing her finger when she says things. For example, tonight she told me she wanted grandma to give her a bath (my mom is back in town for a few days) so they were getting ready to go upstairs and Kaydence pointed her finger and said, "Be right back Grandma, brush hair really quick!" Then she walked over to her little Ariel vanity brushed her hair, came back and said, "Oh! Wait, right back." pointing her finger again. So this time she went to her vanity and picked up the little fake bottle of hair spray, which I told her was perfume. (I don't use hair spray so it was easier to tell her it was perfume) So she picked it up and said, "Oh, I don't know how works!" so she shrugged her little shoulders and said, "Okay Grandma ponies, let's go." Every time she hears skype ding she think's it's Auntie Boo Boo (morgan) calling to talk to us, and so today when she really did call she was over the moon. I want to keep track of all the new things she says, but at this point she is repeating phrases and words almost non-stop, so it's hard to keep up. We have funny (to me) conversations all the time. She is really into best friends right now, usually I am her best friend (which pleases me to no end) but last night my brother Parker came over and she gave him the biggest hug and said, "You're my best friend Uncle Parker, I love you." Today we were sitting together, playing with blocks and she turned to me and said, "Mommy, where Uncle Parker is?" I said, "Well he had to go to school baby, but he will come over later this week to see you." She said, "Mommy, Uncle Parker is my best friend, I miss Uncle Parker." So I gave her a great big hug. She is too cute. Also when he was over last night she brought him a special game (call of duty black ops) and wanted to sit with him while he played. Since Sam and I play with him as well she brought both of us controllers and said, here, SPECIAL GAME! It was funny. I cheered for him when he got a kill, so she started cheering every time she thought something was happening, so sometimes he got killed and she said, "Yay Uncle! You did it!" We gave her a controller later and she would press buttons and then say, Look at me! I did it! I love that girl.

Little Nolan is going to be officially crawling in the next couple of days. He gets his knees under him and pushes around the room. He is just the happiest baby and so easy going. I am so lucky to have such great kids. He still love to eat. We went to Razoos last ngiht with my dad and he was wanting something to chew on so I gave him a green bean and he looked like he was in baby heaven. He likes to be around Kaydence and loves to be held and loved, but he is perfectly content to scoot himself around the room going after toys. I feel like I always have way more to say about Kaydence than Nolan, she just does more so I have more to report.

I saw little halloween onsies at target and I am so excited for halloween this year! Halloween is my favorite holiday (okay, maybe tied with Christmas) and Kaydence is so excited for halloween this year. We're already looking at costumes. I think I am going to wait to move until after halloween. Hopefully my parents house will be done, but I really want to be able to decorate and have a fun halloween before we move.

And lastly, 70 straight days of triple digits! I think Kaydence and I are going to have a rain party, do a little rain dance and hope for a good storm!

2011-08-23T12:44:00.001-07:00

How long has it been since you've had a really good hamburger from Wendys? I haven't been to Wendys in forever, but today I had to go down to bring Sam the check book at work so we went to Wendys. It was a really good burger. I don't know if it was a fluke or if wendys just got really good. I remember always liking wendys, but never really thinking it was a good burger. This one had really thick and juicy meat and the bun was really soft. I think the pickles were different too.

That's besides the point though, it was just a good burger. While we were sitting there eating Sam told me that they might not get their two week break during deployment! Here is why, starting in 2012 the stupid army is switching their deployment time from 12 months to 9 months. (Really, you couldn't do that a few months earlier so we didn't have to have a 12 month one?) Most of the other branches have 9 month (I think they're less than that actually) so they don't get a break since they aren't gone so long. So this could effect Sam because he will be deployed in 2012, he will still have to be gone for 12 months but they might not give him his two weeks off. Really? Really. He says that hopefully they will be grandfathered in, but this is the army so who really knows?

2011-08-19T12:34:00.001-07:00

I need to go shopping. Having babies has put a serious cramp on my style. Or it could be the drastic purging I keep putting my closet through without buying new pieces. Another option is that I actually do have cute clothes, but I'm just kind of lazy. I have friends (I'm looking at you Rachel) who look AMAZING all the time. I used to have an awesome style, and I'm going to get that back. The goal I set for myself while Sam is gone is to re-vamp my wardrobe. Find some awesome vintage pieces, I will also need some boots. And probably some more t-shirts. Also blazers. Let's make this happen. And by let's I mean me and the internet. I don't know what shopping McAllen has to offer these days, but shopping with two kids is probably my least favorite thing to do. Ask me how long it's been since I went to the grocery store. (diaper runs don't count) Also I'm determined to wear cute day dresses instead of jeans every day. I can't help it, jeans are the most comfortable things ever. So maybe just a dress once or twice a week.

Last night I decided I needed a haircut, so I did it myself. Just like in high school, and it's pretty awesome if I do say so myself. Probably I should get someone to clean it up for me and blend in the chunks a bit, but I'm happy with it. That's all I really have to say I think, nothing interesting really. Sorry about that.

The three day shirt

2011-08-18T09:16:00.001-07:00

This morning I came to the startling (and disgusting) realization that I have been wearing the same shirt for three days. You would think that would mean that I haven't showered for three days, but that's the worst part. I have showered every day and put on the same dirty t-shirt. What's that about? Is it because disneyland is the happiest place on earth? Actually, I like disney world better. (it was a disney land shirt, in case you missed that) I do need to do laundry, but I have plenty of clean clothes. I am just boggled that I kept putting on the same shirt. Luckily my visiting teaching companion called and asked if I could go for a visit (which was cancelled). After she called I thought, I am covered in baby. Which lead to the how long has it been since I showered thought, (yesterday) and then I proceeded to figure out why I felt so dirty. I now have on a clean shirt, but I'm still wearing dirty shorts. I need to work on that. Maybe by the end of today I will be wearing clean clothes from head to toe. Although, since I don't have to go visiting teaching anymore the idea of changing back into my pajamas (sans the dirty shirt...yes I slept in it too, don't judge me) is very appealing. The worst part is that I wasn't just sitting at home for three days. I ran errands and went out in that shirt! I am appalled with myself. Not really though, because if I'm being honest it's not the first time and probably not the last either. What I should do today (since I am wearing a clean shirt and all) is go to the grocery store, but who wants to be productive? Not me. I think I would prefer to spend all day on the floor of the tent that I built with Kaydence again. Today I was looking at my calendar, because I couldn't remember what day it is (apparently I am losing my mind as well) and I realized that tomorrow will be exactly two weeks until Sam leaves. Which is was prompted the idea of changing back into my pajamas and laying on the floor. Kaydence and I are going to make necklaces today though, so only a little bit of laying on the floor. Right now she is giving her baby a bath in the sink, so I've got some time to kill.

2011-08-17T12:58:00.001-07:00

Today I feel like a human again.

Kaydence is also feeling normal again. I don't know why it's so challenging when she has bad days, even her bad days really aren't all that bad. I blame it on the combination of all of the factors that made the past couple of days the worst. Lets emphasize that again WORST. worst. worst. worst. worst. I feel like I need one more worst for good measure. worst.

Now I feel better. Anyhow, it made me feel way better when Sam came downstairs from putting Kaydence down and said, "Wow, I'm sorry." Yeah, it really was that bad. So then I said, "She's been like that the past few days!" And then I started crying. Once that was out of my system Sam went to get dog food and I said, "get Kaydence a present, you can give it to her when you get home." (because of course another toy would fix her right?) He said that he was going to get her a book that he could record his voice on. I said, "Okay well if you can't find one there is this Ariel doll that she always asks for. It's like a toddler Ariel and she sings and has a tail." And then I started crying again, because what's more emotional than a singing Ariel with a tail right?

Maybe it was crying, or maybe the moon changed or whatever was making Kaydence into a monster magically went away, but today is a much better day. Kaydence and I built a tent and spent all morning watching mickey mouse cartoons together. We also had a picnic in there. And we have had a really fun day together.

2011-08-16T13:20:00.001-07:00

This is like the 5th blog I've started and then realized I have nothing positive to say, again. Which really bothers me because I like to see the bright side of things.

The problem is that I'm having a hard time seeing the bright side at the moment. Someone remind me?

The other thing that I've noticed is that I don't handle this kind of stress very well. I seem to need to eat a lot of cheese, and baked goods. With a few fried things added in just because everything tastes better when it's fried right?

Also, Kaydence fell off her chair and hit her face on Nolans high chair.

2011-08-15T19:10:00.000-07:00

It seems like more and more of my posts are about how frazzled I'm feeling. Sorry about that.

Today was a challenge. Kaydence wasn't feeling very well and was just having melt downs left and right. Everything set her off. Plus, she's 2 so she is just a little more dramatic anyways. Nolan has his 6 month well check today and for some reason I was feeling like I couldn't possibly make it to that appointment with Kaydence in tow. So instead of being reasonable and calling Sams mom for help I asked him if he could come home early. I already knew the answer, I just wanted him to be there for me since he's going to be gone so soon. Anyways, around 11:30 I decided I had enough and Kaydence needed an early nap. She usually goes down at one, but she was really tired. She cried for about 15 minutes and then I decided that since Nolan was asleep I would go up and read her some books. We read three books and then she went to sleep. She slept until 2:30, and then we packed everyone up and went to the appointment. Luckily she was feeling much better by that point. She played with toys and looked at the books they had and didn't freak out like the last time I took her with me to Nolans appointment. She was worried when I told her the nurse was going to give Nolan some shots and after he got stuck and was crying she came over to him and said awww, It's okay bubba. And gave him a hug. It was so sweet. Nolan is 16 pounds now. :) he is still 20% in his weight, but he sure looks like a chunker to me! We had a good cuddle session while Kaydence was taking a nap. It was wonderful.

I was thinking about writing more, but I'm tired. Maybe tomorrow, but tomorrow I need to buck up and get to studying. I got a 97 on my last test and I want to keep the rest that way as well.

2011-08-14T14:55:00.001-07:00

Good grief I'm tired today.

Kaydence and I must be coming down with the cold Sam had a few days ago. She has been grouchy all day. My sister and Dad came to visit this weekend, so I stayed up way too late last night. It was worth it though. My sister is headed back to BYU and since my dad lives in McAllen I don't see him very often. That will change pretty soon though, since we're going to be living in the same house in a few months! It looks like I will be moving in with my mom and dad after I graduate in October. The framing on the house is already up so they're moving pretty fast. It's going to be a beautiful house. The floor plan is really nice, but the builder does all of these crazy things with the ceilings! (in a good way) They're a little over the top for them (and me) but they found some that the builders call "plain" that are really nice. Sam is leaving in in 19 days. That's crazy right? I feel like I've been talking about this deployment forever. I kind of have though, because there were rumors that he was going to be leaving at least a year ago. We STILL don't know where they are going. I stopped asking, I'm assuming that when he finds out he will tell me.

Kaydence and I are watching Tinker Bell and the great fairy rescue. She is still in her tinker bell pajamas as well. Every time I try to take them off she says, "No, mommy! Halloween." This weekend she started telling my sister that she was "just hanging out" and my ABSOLUTE favorite:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ovqpZgE9Eg

I walk around quoting Swamp People all day, it's my favorite show and I kind of wish that I could watch it all day every day. One of my favorites is Troy saying Yeah yeah yeah yeeeaaahhh! That isn't a very good clip, but it's the only one I could find. (I didn't look very hard though) and this weekend Kaydence started saying it too!!! It's hilarious, I am going to try to get a video of it. When she went down for a nap today she sat in her crib saying it over and over and over. When my dad first got to the house she ran up to him, growled and slapped her hands together. (alligator chomp)

2011-08-11T11:38:00.001-07:00

The sheer amount of information I have to learn each week is a little ridiculous. I guess that would be the advantage of a longer program. This week (have I already said this? If I did, sorry you're going to have to read it again) we're doing dental anatomy as well as anatomy and physiology, and a couple of other chapters that are full of much easier information. Earlier in the week I was freaking out thinking 'how am I going to learn all of this in a week?!' I have been chatting with a friend of mine, we went over our answers and shared our mutual dread of this weeks test. And then I thought, I'm probably freaking out over nothing. The information needs to be in my brain yeah, but it's more the dentists job to know all of those things. Is that bad? No, I don't think it is. I'm still learning it, I'm just not going to worry about memorizing it. (UNLESS I have to label the skull or something without a word bank, then I'll be in trouble.) This is information that you would generally spend at least a semester on, I can't be expected to learn and remember everything in a weeks time right? Right.

I am supposed to be going over said anatomy/physiology and dental anatomy chapters to make notes. (hoping to sink that information in my brain a little more) However, my pandora mix is particularly excellent right now, and it's distracting. I know, I know I should just turn it off, but there is something extremely satisfying about listening to great music and pausing to sing along while you study....let's not talk about how it takes a lot longer to finish AND I usually have to re-read things when I do this. If I'm reading it for the first time I usually try to listen to instrumental music, but come on, you can't listen to that all the time!

Now let's talk about how much I love my kids. (Hey, I'm a mom I spend 98% of my time thinking about them or playing with them) Kaydence has been saying some darn right adorable things lately. Generally when I go into her room to get her out of her crib I say things like "Oh Hi honey you ARE awake!" So yesterday I went into her room and she said," Oh Hi honey, I am awake!" and she will walk around the house looking for me and say "Oh no, Honey help me please!" She uses other terms of endearments that she hears me say a lot too, and it cracks me up to hear it in her sweet little voice. She has also been spending a lot of time as puppy Kaydence. I always say oh what a good little puppy and scratch her head like she is a dog, and both of the real dogs come running. She usually turns into puppy Kaydence when she is hoping for a treat. This morning we were cuddling on the big pillow (my all time FAVORITE pass time) I was giving Nolan his bottle and Kaydence was asking for Yo Gabba Gabba. I asked her if she could bring me the remote so I could turn it on. There was one on the floor, but she reached up and grabbed the one off the book shelf and then turned to me and said, "Phew, Mommy I am such a big girl." and I said, "Oh, look at you! Yes, you are a big girl now and you're such a good helper." she came and sat by me and said "Mommy big girl too." I replied "Yes, I am a big girl too" then she said, "Bubba big girl too." and I said, "No honey Bubba is a boy, and he is still a baby, he is a baby boy." and she said, "No mommy, bubba big girl."

Speaking of big girl bubba, Nolan eats 3 meals of baby food a day now! And that kid can pack it away! Every time I mix up food for him I think there is no way he's going to eat all of this, and 9 times out of 10 he does! For a few days I was thinking what is going on with him?! He's not sleeping and drinking way way way more milk than he ever did. At that point he was just eating baby food twice a day, so I moved him up to all three meals and now he is happy as a clam. I think at this point he has tried all of his veggies, so next step is fruit!

And just since I was talking about him not napping he just woke up. His ears must have been burning

2011-08-09T13:35:00.000-07:00

Aren't dogs supposed to be able to pick up on their owners moods? It seems like every time I'm feeling worried or stressed Bella acts even more retarded than usual and Dexter is the one who comes over and offers me his own form of comfort. Granted, it could be that Bella just has a tiny brain and Dexter just wants me to scratch his face. But generally (when I am in a bad mood) speaking Dexter comes running and hangs around me all day. He sits on my lap while I give the kids a bath or on the table while I do my homework. He is currently rubbing his face on my arm.

I miss Sam. He's still here, but I never get to see him because he's working such crazy hours. Sometimes I think it would be better if he were already gone, because then I wouldn't have to wait around all day wondering when he would come home. And then I think I should be grateful for the time that I get. The past few days he has been home in the mornings because he has been flying at night, but he needs to sleep so I don't get to spend any time with him. It's confusing for Kaydence because she sees that he is home and wants to play with him, but doesn't understand why he is so tired and won't get up. Then he wakes up in time to eat and get ready and he leaves again. I just miss the familiarity (I am not talking about sex, filter your brains!) and comfort that comes with being married. Or I guess I had that sort of thing when I dated someone for a long time, but it's different when you're married too. I know exactly how I feel, but not really how to say it.

Sam was working late last night (of course) and I was so tired but I ended up watching TV half the night wishing that I had someone to talk to. It's not that I even had anything to say, I just wanted someone to be there for me. Which should be Sam, but he's so busy and I don't want to just dump all of this stuff on him because I feel like he has enough to worry about. I don't even know what stuff I'm really talking about wanting to tell him. He loves what he does, and he is happy doing it, I just wish he had something that made him happy and that left time for me and the kids. 90% of the time I guess it is, but deployment training has to take most of his time. Of course it should, since they need to know all of these things to be safe while they're over there.

School gives me something to focus on, and that's good. I finished part of my homework today, but I don't have enough time to get started on the next bit before Kaydence gets up from her nap. I like the way I feel while I'm learning and doing things that are just for me. My mom has been telling me I need a hobby for a long time, but I never found anything I wanted to do as a hobby so it always annoyed me. School isn't a hobby, but I think it fits that requirement.

It's going to be a long 15 months.

2011-08-07T21:22:00.001-07:00

Second post today, but since my last one didn't really say anything except about me being grouchy I figured I would give an update on my kids.

Kaydence told me that I was best friend today! It melted my heart. She did tell me that Shamu was her best friend before she told me, but I'm counting it anyway. I can't remember what I gave her in the car but she said, Oh thank you Mommy! I love you momma, you my best friend. I'm also not sure where she learned about best friends, but I like it either way. She is still obsessed with Halloween, so I might throw her a summer time halloween party. I'm not sure, October is just around the corner. I think we'll just do TONS of halloween crafts and decorations. And an actual halloween party with friends :).

Nolan LOVES to eat. It's crazy, when Kaydence fist started eating she would spit the cereal out and all of the new flavors of veggies she would spit out. Then after she had fruit she wouldn't eat veggies. But this kid wolfs down his cereal! I bought him some of those rice cake things for babies (baby mum mum) and he eats those things like there is no tomorrow. So I decided to start him on veggies (his dr gave him the OK a while ago, I just haven't done it yet) and he LOVED his peas (or maybe it was green beans). He was getting mad at me when I didn't get the spoon to him fast enough. He did the same thing with squash today. He is super close to crawling, he already scoots around like a mad man, but he is really getting his knees up under him too.

So random, and not that anyone will know who I am talking about but whatever. Today while I was taking my nap I was having the CRAZIEST dream. It was so weird, anyways. It started out and I was making pumpkin pie (two of them to be exact) and then all of these crazy things started happening. Kaydence and I were in a house that was flooding and then all of the sudden Sams cousin Lucy pops up and says Oh, we're moving to Canada isn't that exciting? And I said Lucy! It's flooding in here, how did you get in? Then I was back at my house taking a nap and I woke up (in my dream) and said Oh no! My pie! They've been in the oven all day, they must be brunt to a crisp. Also, I was having a really hard time waking up, you know like swimming to the surface, so Kaydence was awake and calling me to come get her and I kept thinking, is she really awake or is this part of the dream? She really was awake though.

Also, I love school. It's weird because typically in new situations (ANY new situation) I am quiet and stay to myself and I never volunteer or speak up in class. I didn't speak up in class, but I already have a couple of friends AND during lab I volunteered to be the example (the teacher made a tooth impression on me) and then I was the first one to go out of our group too! I can't decide if it's because everyone there is so friendly, or if it's because I'm just awesome. I'm leaning towards awesome, but it's too early to tell. (that was a joke, but since this is the internet I feel like that might not come across)

With that piece of hilarity (ha, ha.) I am going to bed. Or to watch shark week.... Either way.

2011-08-07T14:23:00.001-07:00

It's Sunday-fun day with no fun to be had! Generally speaking, I love sundays. We go to church, Kaydence takes a nap. My brother comes over for dinner and to play xbox. Hence Sunday-fun day.

My house is a disaster. I know you don't believe me, you're thinking it can't be that bad. Oh, but it can. I had so much homework last week that literally all of my free time went to working on my homework. (I'm not counting the time that I spent watching shark week after homework and before bed) So I decided that the house was just going to be a mess. Last night both of my kids went to bed REALLY late because we were at a family reunion for Sams side. They both slept until 9:45am! Except Nolan got up to eat around 6. Anyways, they were both looking like little wilted flowers and Kaydence was being a grouch (hey, it happens to everyone) so I thought, Sam isn't here to help me so I made the executive decision to stay home. We watched The Wizard of OZ on the big pillow and then we all took naps. (Even me) Now I have a nap hangover. We have family portraits tonight, and for some reason I would feel a lot better about that if my house was clean, but it's not. Because it's Sunday-fun day and I took a nap.

Basically I just wanted to tell everyone that I'm grouchy. I blame that nap.

2011-08-01T21:05:00.001-07:00

It annoys me how often hulu plus freezes when I watch on my computer. If it works fine on my TV it should work fine on my computer. Someone should fix this. Who will this someone be? I don't know, I don't work for hulu, and if I did I probably wouldn't read my blog. Just know hulu, I am shaking my fist at you. Also, netflix keeps telling me it has a plugin failure! Again, why does it work on the tv and not the computer?!

What I really need to be doing right now is sleeping, last night I was up until like 3 am. I probably slept on and off during that time though. And then Nolan woke up at 6, and both of my children were up by 7:30. I've been having some slight (and by slight I mean on the large side) anxiety/stress issues as of late. In turn, I have trouble sleeping.

In other news, the rate of Kaydences phrases growing is astounding. On Sunday she said, I'm a crazy girl, oops my bad, big bubbles, and I can't even remember what else. She also says Oh my goodness. I mentioned going to sea world with Sams family while they were in town and she got her shoes and said I'm ready, go see Shamu! So I told her we couldn't go until Uncle Chris and Auntie Emma were here. She saw uncle Chris today, so then she started asking for Emma. Also, the amount of details that girl can remember is crazy! She tells me how Shamu splashed us (complete with hand motions) she also told me that she ate ice cream, and that we looked at sharks. I was debating on going a second time (because this time I will have to pay, no free army tickets this time) but now I think I kind of have to because she is so excited. Back to her phrases, today she got the dog food container out and told me she was going to feed the dogs. Later, she came in and said mommy come help. So I went in, she climbed up on the container and pointed to the top of the fridge and said, "special treat." I said Oh, you need a special treat? And she said, Yes Mommy, special candy. So I gave her fundip. I mean, seriously she learned how to say it. Also, I haven't called it that in a long time because I haven't stocked up on special treats in a while. She can count to three (usually she says one two one, or one two two, but she will say three if I say it with her). She can also tell me red, yellow, green, blue, pink, sometimes purple and sometimes white. I need to work on her ABCs too.

Also, raise your hand if you remember what studying is. (If you went to college or took any kind of studying related class recently you don't count) This is basically the first time since High School (and let's be honest, I didn't really study much then either I'm just naturally awesome) that I've really had to study. In the sense that I have homework, and have to fill in a lot of worksheets. Plus, now that I have kids, it's way tricker. I have to actually plan (I know lots of people do this regardless, but I'm lazy) when and what I will do while my kids are asleep! Tonight I was supposed to get done with two chapters, but I only did one because I didn't realize that Dexter was shut in Kaydences room, which caused some complications during bedtime. By the time I finished the first chapter (and worksheets) I decided I needed to finish my book (which I did, and I feel like there should be another one, but there isn't) and then I felt like it was a good time for a bath. I actually don't mind homework, and it feels good to be learning something. It makes me feel really good to have something that's just for me to focus on. On the down side, I have to get a TB test, track down my shot records, and hope I was tested for HIV while I was preggo so that I don't have to do it all again before next Saturday. I guess that's one downside of signing up for class three days before it starts. More to come later, because I'm tired and I'm hoping for a good nights sleep tonight.

One more thing, I joined this facebook thing about bring Zack back to bones, (because what can't facebook accomplish, right?) because I like him. Let me say this though, it really weirds me out how obsessive people are with this actor. They say weird things, and they're always voting for him for best actor things. Let me just show you a few of the things written:

So I had to go back through the episodes .. namely the Gormagon ones .. I cried, I did ...

Any time Zack is on a chair, sofa, car seat, restaurant booth etc... how does he manage to make that look so sexy?

i love every zach episode he's just too adorable!! he's our little addybear!!

We have not heard anything about his coming back as of yet, but we are working very hard to get him back. If you haven't seen it already, check out our websitehttp://bringbackzack.com/ and click on the 'How to Help'

It's me again, I'm too lazy to fix the font (if it even looks different in the actual blog because it's different now) Reading some of these comments makes me feel like of like a creeper. I keep thinking, these people are weird, I should quit this group. And then I think, well, I really do want him back on Bones.

singing BLAH BLAH BLAH

2011-07-25T20:11:00.001-07:00

Turns out, I'm not a big fan of cold soups. Why is it soup if you serve it cold? Gross. No, I didn't just eat cold soup. I saw a recipe for it and it awakened fresh loathing. Loathing! No offense if you like cold soup. I went through the trouble of making a cold soup once and it was horrible. I'm pretty sure it wasn't my cooking (or lack there of in this case) because I'm an awesome cook. In fact, I didn't even eat it, I put the spoon in my mouth and spit it out. Also, melon soup? What is that. Someone must like them because otherwise there would be no need for such large amounts of cold soup recipes! Yes, it is a little ridiculous how much I dislike cold soup. This is my second post of the day (go me) and this one is just because I feel like rambling. Sam is here, but I can tell that he wants to watch TV. (But I made him try the game that I will be talking about below)

Today he got me Your Shape Fitness Evolved for our xbox kinect, (is that spelled right) because I wanted to do the cardio boxing. It takes the punching bag out, which is handy because I don't have one. Also I like to punch things. The kickboxing class I took in Houston was one of the best classes I've ever taken. Which isn't saying much because the only other one is Bikram yoga, and we all know how much I love bikram yoga. SO MUCH. I am going to take a class while Sam is gone, maybe. (it's expensive and I really really really want to go to England when Sam gets home) Anyhow I was playing, and my only complaint is that you have to unlock each level before you can do the whole workout! Which I mean yeah it's a game so that makes sense, but you have to go back out to the main menu each time to click on the next section! And then your heart rate goes down. But, they have other games like hula hoop (which is really hard by the way, probably way harder than actually hula hooping, but since it's been about 10 years since I have used one I can't really say) and there is a block breaker one that's really fun. But every time it says "this isn't exactly what we're looking for" work harder! WHAT! I killed all of those stupid blocks, so I tried again and again and again and every time it says you could work harder! Yeah, you work harder video game! There is also a balancing game that made my arms burn like crazy, and it said I was only burning one calorie! Whatever! You didn't burn any. Stupid computer. (My cat just did a back flip off the table. He is attacking a baby sock.)

It's a little bit stupid how indignant that game was making me, and yet it was so much fun I'm going to keep playing. (with a healthy dose of complaint for good measure) For the record, Sam tried the first level and it said something like try harder and he said, "Whatever! It's my first time you idiots!" I'm glad I'm not the only crazy person in the house.

In other news, I started a new book series, The Nine Lives of Chloe King because I watched the show and liked it. So instead of ordering all three books in one big book I jut got the first one. (in case I didn't like it) But I read it in about 5 hours and did like it, so I've been waiting impatiently ever since. Book three has arrived, but I'm still waiting on book two! It's taunting me, it's sitting right by me on the table. If it could speak it would say come on, you know you want to read me. Yes, I really do, but I can't because stupid book two hasn't come yet. My sister in law Jennie lent me the first book of Game of Thrones, but I haven't started it because I'm waiting on the Chloe King books. For the record, (and this might be the first time I have ever said something like this) I think I like the show better, but the books are still really good. One HUGE advantage the show has is this British actor, who (as I told my sister) has the most beautiful brown eyes I have ever seen. If she doesn't end up with him I'm going to punch someone. I'm over this whole forbidden love thing. (thanks Twilight for dragging that one out) Also, I loved Twilight the first 100 times I read them. I don't know if it's because I am older now, but I just want Jacob to stop being a whiney baby "Oh Bella I love you" and Edward to stop saying oh everything is my fault, your soul, I'm no good for you blleeehhh. And yes, I will still go see both breaking dawn movies, even though the others aren't very good.

Sam is still playing and he just said "That's right medium difficulty!" I'm telling you, this game is fun.

I feel like I am melting your brain (if you have made it this far) but it's like word vomit. I just feel like saying what's in my head. And what's in my head is completely useless. Unless you also hate cold soup, and then we can discuss our mutual hatred of said soup.

Sam just said "I'm pretty much a pro, I don't want to talk about it" because he's "pretty much good at everything."

2011-07-25T12:42:00.000-07:00

Let's talk about how awesome my babies are.

Not that this is anything new because I spend 90% of my time talking about them. However, I am ignoring my chores so this seemed like an excellent way to spend my time. I am working on getting Nolan to sleep by himself now, and it's way easier than it was with Kaydence. Maybe because listening to him cry doesn't bother me as much as it did with Kaydence. I let him cry for a few minutes, and then go in and give him his binkie back. Sometimes it takes a few times, but eventually he goes to sleep on his own. Kaydence just screamed bloody murder. He is starting to get his teeth in, so he is sleeping more than usual too. He loves his daddy! He gets mad at me when Sam is around and he wants to be with him! It's pretty funny. If I take him away from Sam to give him a bottle or change his diaper when he doesn't want to go with me he sure lets me know. He is funny about Sams mustache too he reaches up and tries to grab it all the time. Kaydence is better about Nolan having his own toys now, and she will usually bring me a toy for him if I ask her to. We are still working on getting her to let him look at books too. Usually I will read both of them books and she is okay with that (as long as he isn't touching her) but if I put a book down on the floor for him to look at she takes it away.

Kaydence always amazes me with the things she understands and her ability to repeat what I say now. She will try to repeat almost anything I ask her to (unless she has an audience of course). However, yesterday I was telling my friend Mandy that for Halloween I wanted Kaydence to be Tinker Bell and Nolan to be Peter Pan. She got very excited because we have talked about how we dress up and have treats at halloween time. She doesn't understand that it's a time of year though, she keeps asking me to go to halloween. She brought me her aurora dress up and wanted me to put it on her and said go halloween!!! It's very amusing. She also associates the sound of a message on the computer with my sister Morgan. We skype with her a lot, and I end up talking to her on facebook chat a lot while she is at work as well. Today I had multiple pages up so my computer pinged when Morgan wrote me and Kaydence came running over yelling See Boo Boo! See Boo Boo!! (which is what she calls Morgan) She wasn't pleased when I told her we couldn't talk to her right then.

Everyday I am amazed at how much she understands! She is so smart and so sweet. I am so lucky to have such wonderful babies!

This is what I think about

2011-07-22T12:05:00.000-07:00

Do you ever notice that when you eat fast food for lunch you're hungry for the rest of the day?

Sam got home much earlier than we anticipated (he wasn't supposed to come home until the 26, and then he said he would come home today but it would be around 2-3pm) and we went for lunch at chick fil a. I haven't been there in a really long time, much less eaten fast food in a long time. So I kind of forgot how hungry I am after I eat that stuff! I not only eat about 5x as much as I normally eat, but then I feel like I need to keep eating for the rest of the day. I'm resigned to the fact that today just won't be good for my waistline though because we're going to the draft house tonight too. Fried pickles? Yes, please. Too much soda and popcorn? A given.

Sam is going to have a few days off and I am pretty excited. We are going to go kayaking, and if we have time I'm going to get him to take me to the indoor rock gym down south so I can figure out where it is. (not that I couldn't go by myself. I just want to go rock climbing) Less pleasant (and I have yet to inform him) we're going to pack the garage because I can't do it by myself. He was supposed to come home and go straight into his next phase of training. 7 days a week, and who knows what time he would get home everyday. Bad news is that the recent rumors of where they will be going are less than pleasant and all a bit more scary than I was crossing my fingers for. Plus, they will less likely have access to internet and not much phone use! I was counting on skype so Kaydence and Nolan could still see him! So hopefully these rumors will turn out to be nothing, but I don't think they will. It's getting close to the time when they will officially know where they're going. I'm not sure if I am supposed to say where they might be going or not.... so I just won't.

I was planning on doing a dental assisting program before I move to McAllen and hopefully get a part time job while I am there. The plan was to have that work experience under my belt and then start taking classes for dental hygiene. I was going to use all that extra money (we're going to have plenty saved anyway) for a trip to England. Or disney world, we were going to do one of them when he gets back anyways, but I was thinking that we could do both. I love Sams family and I think I'm going to go crazy if I don't see Hever castle soon. (plus every other tudor place in England) I literally sit in bed and think about how amazing England must be. The flaw in this plan? The next start date for the classes I was going to take isn't until September 30th and it's a 12 week course. I am moving in October/Novemberish. So I looked to see what McAllen has to offer, it has a dental assisting program there but the prices are crazy. The one here is 2,400 (a little more than that, I don't know the exact number) and the one I found down there is 18,ooo! Yes you read that right. That's a 16,000 dollar difference! I can't figure out what it is though. Maybe it's a degree? Who wants to get a degree for dental assisting when all you need is a certificate?

Also my internet keeps turning on and off.

This post is kind of useless, I'm just bored. Everyone (even both of my children) is napping except for me. If I nap during the day I am awake most of the night.

Not that this is relevant at all, but when is shark week? It's summer. I'm ready to watch people get gored (and learn about how sharks aren't all that dangerous) so that I can fuel my fear of deep water. (and sharks) Don't worry, it doesn't stop me from swimming at the beach. Banana boats are another story.

2011-07-18T20:11:00.000-07:00

And just like that I have bounced back to my normal happy self!

Yes, I did start things off with something that would be better suited for say the middle. That's just how I do things. I credit a clean house (I have no shame in admitting that when my house is dirty I feel stressed. Let's not talk about my bedroom though, that's ALWAYS messy.) some daily cardio (yes, I did just say that.) and a comment on my facebook status. Was it funny? No not really, but I grinned like the cheshire cat, and my mom said, "What's that smile for?" So I tell her and I know she thought, what's so great about that. In answer, I don't know, but it made me super happy. I know you're going to go look on facebook now to figure out which status comment it was, aren't you?

Now, let's talk about how awesome my son is. He is now 5 months and a little chunker. I love his fat! He is ticklish, and I get great giggles from it. He can roll both directions, and almost as soon as he accomplished rolling he started scooting himself around the floor. Is it bad that I thought to myself NO! It's going to be much harder to do things when he can move around! Or will it? Block off the stair case and let him roam. Either way I love him. He was doing this hilarious (for a day or two) screeching thing, luckily that's over. He would just sit wherever he was and screech if he was happy or sad or hungry. It was really hard to tell what was up with him for a few days there. He is eating cereal like a pro. (can you watch man vs wild on hulu? Yes, that was random but I just thought of it and I am afraid I will forget if I don't write it down) He likes to play peek a boo while I change his diaper, and he likes to be near Kaydence. Don't worry, if he touches her she immediately says ouch mommy! Bubba! Yeah, I'd say we're going to run into some issues there later on.

I'd say that's about it for now. Nolan is amazing, oh and my best friend had her first baby and she is so cute I think I might die a little bit every day until I get to meet her. Dramatic enough for you? I think so.

Deployment

2011-07-16T11:29:00.000-07:00

I think the stress of Sams up coming deployment is starting to catch up with me. I really try to say that everything will be fine while he is gone because I will be living with my mom and dad. That's totally true, but it's not like it's going to be a walk in the park. I am glad to be living with them, but I don't really want to move. But I don't want to be by myself all of the time either. Benny and Betty would help me, but I need to have someone with me more than a little bit at a time. I loved McAllen when I lived there, but I hardly have any friends here and I don't know anyone in McAllen anymore. How do I explain to Kaydence where her daddy has gone? He's gone for a few weeks for training and she's always asking me "where daddy be?" "daddy home?" Plus all the packing that needs to be done. I can handle the house, but the garage? There is so much stuff in there that I have no idea what to do with. Maybe I should just sell it. Oh, and the truck STILL needs to be fixed. I'm starting to notice that I feel really anxious for no reason during the day and I have trouble sleeping at night. It's not like I'm sitting around worrying about it. But I'll be laying down to go to sleep and my whole body tenses up and I feel so anxious that it's hard to breathe. And it's an obsession of mine to plan what I will do just in case. I have to know that if something does happen I will still be able to take care of my babies. I don't think anything will happen, but still I have to know what I would do. People keep asking me if I'm okay with his deployment, or if am I handling it okay. Of course not, but do I really have another choice? No. It's not like staying home is an option. (Even if it was he would still go because he wants to.) You can't just say no to the army.

I am a very private person, it's hard for me to share things with anyone, even Sam. (also why it's hard for me to make friends) But I just don't know who I can talk to about this (except my friend Mandy whose husband is also leaving) because people are always saying well of course he is going to be safe, and at least you have your family. And then I feel obligated to smile and act like everything is fine. I am so tired of being fine, unfortunately that's just how I am. And again, I don't really have another choice. I wish I had a good book to read, but Kaydence is feeling very needy right now and every time I pick up a book she needs to read it too or she needs me to sit by her while she eats. (ect) I can't decide if she is picking up on my emotions (even when they aren't showing) or if she is just feeling like she needs more attention because Nolan (who is now 5 months and will have a blog post all about it later) is now moving around and has his own toys. She doesn't like him playing with toys.

The internet is a very public place for writing these things down. If I kept a journal I would do it in there. At least it's slightly therapeutic, in a weird way since everyone that I have pointedly not told any of this to (anyone who reads my blog that is) is now privy to all of my secret squished up feelings.

Conversing with Kaydence

2011-07-13T19:25:00.000-07:00

me: Kaydence, can you tell me what a cow says?

Kaydence: uuuummmmm.... moo

(after bringing me a plate of pretend food)

me: Oh, thank you baby. (pretending to eat) Yummy, what did you make me?

Kaydence: uuuuummmmmm... apple juice

me: Kaydence, do you know where Bubbas binkie is?

Kaydence: uuuummmmm....

me: (reading a book) What else do you see on this page?

Kaydence: uummm.... Uncle Ray.

me: Uncle Ray? I don't see Uncle Ray anywhere on this page!

(points to a big truck) Kaydence: Uncle Ray loves me.

me: Oh more food, thank you! You're so sweet to me. What did you make this time?

Kaydene: uuuummmm... apple juice

me: Kaydence what color is this?

Kaydence: uuummmm.... blue.

Kaydence says uummm more than anything else, it cracks me up. I can't remember if I've posted this before, but one time my mom said I wonder where she got that from and I said uuuuummmmmm.

2011-07-11T19:02:00.000-07:00

Seriously, this whole my throat hurts worse than anything in the world thing is getting old. I want to eat a frickin cupcake. Which, I probably could because they're soft and mushy, BUUUTTT sweet things leave a horrible taste in my mouth since this surgery! BLERG.

I had a doctors appointment today so I got up and took a shower and was so wiped out you would have thought I had run a mile. The doctors visit was quick, and free (go me for having two insurances) and I've got another week of horror to look forward to! Just kidding (mostly) he says I should start feeling better soon. Hmmm... I'm pretty sure we're past the 10 day mark he promised me! Anyhow, my mom had to drive me to the doctor because she didn't think I looked good enough to drive myself. So we loaded everyone up (promising Kaydence french fries if she complied) and headed out. Apparently after I went inside my mom was going to take Kaydence to get said french fries, but she freaked out when my mom tried to leave the parking lot. So they just hung out in the car and Nolan slept. Good thing she has a DVD player in there.

Kaydence is really into friends now. I showed her pictures of a friends birthday that we weren't able to attend (way to ruin everything chronic tonsillitis) and she kept saying LOOK! FRIENDS! She also decided that nursery is the best place ever because Abby is there. Even though I don't think Abby was there the past couple of weeks. She lines up her princess dolls next to each other so they look like they are holding hands and says momma, friends. I think this means we need more play dates once I can walk around and talk for longer than a few minutes at a time.

Also, I need a haircut. I am thinking Carrey Mulligan.

P.s. Harry Potter.

Fat Sick and Nearly Dead

2011-07-09T15:22:00.000-07:00

That is not a comment on my life, it's the name of a wonderful movie! It is a documentary about an australian man who is overweight, on tons of medications, and has an immune disorder. So he decided to do a juice cleanse for 60 days. For 60 days this man only ate fresh fruit and vegetable juice. He lost a whole mess of weight and got off all of his medication. It was such a good documentary, it wasn't preachy at all it was just the story of a man trying to get healthy. It's on netflix instant play, so everyone should watch it. Seriously it's so good.

Why am I telling you about this? Well, I watched it and I thought my mom needs this! (I love you mom!) And also I need this! What he did was extreme, and he did it under doctor supervision. Normal people do it for 10-15 days www.jointhereboot.com I have lost some weight from my surgery, but I do want to continue losing weight to make it to where I want to be. The main issue for me right now is that I was having such a hard time eating jello or anything even semi solid. And I was so so so sick of broth that I really wasn't getting nutrients. So I saw that documentary and it seemed perfect. We are on day 4 and my mom has lost 7 or 8 pounds and two inches off her waist! I am losing about a pound a day. We have a fruit juicer and we mix fruit and veggies and juice them for our 3 meals. If you need a snack you either have more juice or water. The point of this is to cleanse your body of all the toxins you've been eating and storing in your body. I should be a nutritionist, I am so obsessed with healthy eating. Anyhow, the trick is that when you start eating meals again you need to keep eating healthy to keep the weight off and/or keep losing weight. They say that ideally your breakfast would be fruit, lunch veggies, and dinner mainly veggies. You would eat meat 1-3 times a week and keep breads and such 1-3 times a week as well. Which is about exactly how I want to be eating anyways. So that's what I'm planning on doing when I finish this juice fast. I love the way I feel. My mom had a really hard time the first few days, they say that the first 3-4 days are pretty bad, but after that it's so easy and you feel great. It wasn't hard for me because I was already not eating. I think I'm going to start a food blog, photos and all when I finish my juice fast.

I am also cutting out the caffeine! Which is pretty big for me. Of course I haven't had any since getting my tonsils out, but before I practically lived on red bull and diet coke. I was so tired all the time and that's what kept me running! I can't say that I won't even have diet coke anymore, but I'm not going to keep a 12 pack in the house. It's important to me to start teaching Kaydence good eating habits and she doesn't need to see me guzzling caffeine like it was water.

I was messing with my blog, got it looking amazing and fun, and then something happened and half of it disappeared!! Blerg!!

...and then I was too tired to fix it.

Let's play catch up

2011-07-08T13:15:00.000-07:00

Did you notice the title?

We took our first ever family trip! Yay!! We went to Utah, and it was amazing! I was worried about the plane ride and how Kaydence would do. Nolan is little enough that we gave him a bottle on the way up and on the way down and he slept the majority of the plane ride. Kaydence was a dream! Seriously, the flight attendants even told us how great our kids are. (mommy brag) I got her a few new dvds, but mainly I packed my bag and hers full of fun little treats for her. Mostly princess things of course. Oddly enough her favorite thing was this squishy pig ball I found at the dollar section in target. I didn't even know if she would like it and she went crazy over that thing! She thinks it's hilarious. And she was very excited to get on the airplane, she kept saying Mommy FLY!!!! And she was waiting around all morning while we finished getting our things together saying go sky! go sky! She cracks me up. She was just wonderful on the plane, she didn't cry or fuss. The only time we had a problem is when she had to put her seatbelt on, but I gave her jellybeans so that was okay too. We got off the plane and the weather was beautiful and you could see the mountains everywhere and the air smelled so nice. Then I started thinking I could totally live here. We stayed with my Grandma who Kaydence started calling Grandma Lalalala because she couldn't say Laird. We went on a picnic with my Aunt Linda and cousin Haley and her son Everett. My Uncle Donnie came at the end too. It was such a nice time to spend with family. Grandma had all sorts of wonderful things for us to do, we took Kaydence to the bean museum, and the salt lake zoo. Which was probably the coolest zoo I've ever been to. If you haven't been and you're ever in salt lake you need to go. What else did we do... we went to the creamery. Then on Thursday we went to a live session at the salt lake temple with grandma and Jennie. I think I like live sessions much more, I wish they were more common. You get to get up and move much more. Friday we had a family picnic with Sams family from england, and can I just say how much I loved them! I didn't get to spend much time with them, but they are so amazing! They are all so nice and welcoming. I really really want to get to England even more than I did before to get to know them better. Sams cousin Paul got married on Saturday and it was a beautiful ceremony. Then we had lunch at this brazilian steak house that was so incredible. I ate myself sick. Tucanos I think it's called. Then we had the reception which was up Provo canyon at and it was just beautiful. Mountains all around, and they had two springs. Very very lovely. I spent most of the time chasing after Kaydence and throwing rocks in the ponds with her, Parker (Parker is Sams cousin Karens son) and Jules. On Sunday we had my family over to Grandmas house for a meet and greet since almost no one had met Sam. It was really just a nice trip all around. I said earlier that when I got off the plane I thought I could live in Utah, but the thing is....I am just a Texan. The mountains are beautiful, but I kept thinking that I was ready to go home to Texas the whole trip. I just love it here!

In my last post I talked a little bit about my surgery. Let me now say that I wouldn't wish getting tonsils removed to anyone! Oh my goodness, it's been awful. I've really been trying to put on a happy face, but I'm STILL eating mainly liquids. I managed to eat some jell-o and I had some applesauce the other day. I am now drinking liquid by choice though (I will talk about that later). It is so painful to swallow, even 8 says after surgery. I am finally starting to feel like I don't need my pain medicine, but the pain from my throat also radiates to my ears. Goodness gracious. Luckily I was prepared for it to be horrible. I still don't think it was quite as bad as I thought it would be, but it's pretty close. Hopefully I won't be getting sick all the time now. I think one of the hardest parts is that Kaydence really wants me to play with her and be with her all the time like I usually am, but I have to lay down most of the day. I took a bath yesterday and was totally wiped out for the rest of the day. She has been coming in and watching movies with me, but she has been getting so frustrated the past few days because she misses me and wants me to take her outside and go to the pool, but I can't do any of that yet because I'm still recovering. Betty has taken her out for a day of adventure though, and I'm so thankful because she just wants to be out of the house and having a fun time!

Also Nolan ate rice cereal for the first time and he wolfed it down! He opened his mouth and searched for the spoon before I could even scoop up some more! He ate two bowls tonight. So here's hoping that with some real food in his belly he'll stop guzzling his bottles down so much! The kid is constantly eating! I love him

2011-07-05T17:18:00.000-07:00

Nolan can officially roll over!!!

more later...

2011-07-02T13:42:00.001-07:00

In case you missed it, I got my tonsils removed on Thursday! Lucky me right? I was so nervous going into it! Not because of the surgery, I could have cared less about that part. There is hardly any deaths from a tonsillectomy, but I am so afraid of needles!! And from anyone who remembers my last experience with a needle had left me even more frightened than I was before. Sam gave me a blessing before hand and I was feeling pretty calm until the nurse (whose name was Karen) took my hand to start the IV process. And then I pulled my hand away and said wait, wait, wait! I'm not ready! That was when the lightbulb clicked and she realized that I was afraid of the needle. Luckily for me, she was holding lidocaine in the needle to numb the area for me!!! Which ended up being extra amazing, because the first IV didn't go in. (I have really small veins) So she tried again in another spot and the IV went in, but there was a valve or something in the way so it wasn't really working. At that point she said, well you're just being so sweet about it I hate to put you through that again. So she was going to leave it in my arm and said they would probably do another one while I was asleep. But then my arm started filling up with liquid so she had to take it out. It left this huge nasty purple bruise and a weird purple line on my wrist. Anyhow, another nurse came in and got it on the other hand on her first try. I spurt blood everywhere! Luck blood doesn't bother me. Anyways, after that ordeal they wheeled me back to the surgery room and covered me with nice warm blankets and then the next thing I knew I was awake.

Sam and I were dating when he got his tonsils out so I was expecting it to be much worse than it has been. Don't get me wrong, it's pretty horrible, just not as horrible as I thought. The pain medicine is a big help. It doesn't make me feel loopy at all, I just get really tired. It's really hard to swallow, they said I could try jello and popsicles by today, but it's a little too uncomfortable still. I try to drink as much as I can while the pain medicine is fresh and before I fall asleep since it hurts to do it when it's wearing off.

I am so lucky that I could do it now while Sam is home for a few days and while my mom is here to help me! My babies are a handful! Kaydence wants to be with her mommy so we have been watching dvds on my computer together. We've seen beauty and the beast 5 or 6 times the past few days. Nolan is being so sweet, as usual. I'll have to post about our wonderful trip to Utah and the other changes we've been seeing. I thought I was going to have more time before I got sleepy, but Kaydence had a huge poop blow out. All over her, the crib, her stuffed animals, and the floor. Sam was at the grocery store so my mom helped me clean it all up and now I'm pretty much wiped out!

haha... get it?

2011-06-30T02:17:00.000-07:00

People put the strangest videos of themselves on youtube.

Well here it is 4am and I am up with little mister Nolan. Poor guy had to get shots yesterday so he's not feeling too good. He is still smiling and happy though! He is 13 pounds 2 oz! Yay!

Sadly for you, because I know you were hanging on the edge of your seat Nolan fell asleep as soon as I started writing this. I tried to find the paper from the dr so I could post his statistics, but I can't find it and I'm tired. I would say that I'll finish later today, but I am having my tonsils out today and I can't promise any blogging.

Plus, I'm not sure my drug induced rambling would make fun reading.

2011-06-15T22:04:00.000-07:00

Today I was freakin exhausted. Seriously, since Nolan has been sleeping so well I've gotten really spoiled. Sams cousins gave us a whole bunch of fun things for Kaydence. Including a playscape and a little trampoline! <3 We love them. (our cousins and the fun things they gave us) Anyways, Sam got home pretty late and I helped him put it together. And by helped I mean I googled a picture of what it should look like. So of course Nolan picked that night to wake up a bunch. So nap time rolled around and I thought okay power nap....and then it was 4:30 and Kaydence was awake. I was passed out, I had to struggle to wake myself up when I heard Kaydence. So now it's 12:15 am and I'm wide awake. That's the problem with naps, once it's bedtime I sleep for 30 minutes and am wide awake. Go me. Since I'm awake I'll take this time to update on our little family.

As I said before Kaydence is in love with her new playground toys. We had to get dressed and go out to play this morning before we even had breakfast. Since she has now decided that talking is awesome she is learning new words at a crazy pace! She has been telling me all day Momma, I happy! And I ask her who else is happy? And she lists off everyone she loves, it's adorable. She can say I love you now, so today got a Momma I happy, I hove you. Most days I ask her if she is a princess, she always says yes (duh) and then she tells me which princess she is. Usually Ariel, but we have been seeing a lot of Aurora lately.

Oh, also I'm getting my tonsils out June 30, two days after we get back from Utah and 5 days before Sam leaves for training. Go me? Good thing my mom will be here to help me, and double good thing that Betty is so close to help too!

2011-06-10T12:46:00.000-07:00

I L O V E it when my kids are both asleep at the same time.

I love my kids more than anything, but I also love time to sit and do nothing by myself. Or to edit photos. ;) Either option.

2011-06-05T09:33:00.000-07:00

I have lots of updates to make, but I'm going to give a quick overview and do a lengthy update later.

We took Kaydence camping and had a fantastic time! Nolan stayed with my mom who is living with us while my parents decide on a house in McAllen. My sister just had her gallbladder removed and is recovering with us as well. Kaydence now calls her "Boo Boo." Nolan is a very active little guy, and I have been getting some giggles out of him! My parents bought me a digital camera that I found on craigslist, so I am trying to merge the artist I used to be with the mother I am now. I'm having a hard time, the pictures are beautiful, but I feel like I'm missing something and don't know what it is. We are leaving for Utah in a few weeks for our cousin Pauls wedding. I've been sick for the past week, I got some antibiotics though. Also I might have to have my tonsils removed.

untitled part 2

2011-05-24T19:18:00.000-07:00

(does anyone else think it's funny that I never bother with a title, but I did put untitled part 2? Well, I'm laughing for you.)

If anyone read my post earlier today and thought, wow, that ended very abruptly. You're right! The reason being Nolan and Kaydence both failed to take their usual long afternoon naps! Curses! And then she was grouchy because she was still tired. So now I am finishing what I started earlier. Nolan is doing so good! He has some fat on him, which I am very proud of. And he sleeps thought the night! It's a big deal for me because Kaydence was still getting up just a few months before Nolan was born. I have to bring him in bed with me for part of the night, but he will sleep until 6 or 7 and then go back to sleep for a while. He tends to cat nap all morning, and then he takes a super nap in the afternoon. I am getting spoiled because his long nap usually is at the same time as Kaydences nap. He smiles so much! I had to work pretty hard to get Kaydence to smile at this age, although it might be because I talk to Nolan all the time and smile at him and I didn't really at this stage with Kaydence. I felt like an idiot talking to myself basically, but these days I live in toddler world so maybe it doesn't matter? Either way, he smiles so much! I love all of his little smiles. He is seriously such an awesome baby. Plus he has brown eyes. All those pep talks worked! I am really excited because we're going camping this weekend! We are leaving Nolan with my mom (since we are just going for one night) and taking Kaydence to inks lake with our friends Justin and Mandy. Sam and Justin are in the same National guard unit, they also work at the airport together. And Mandy and I just like each other because we're awesome haha. It was kind of last minute, but they still had some camping sites open so here we go! Although the camp trip is also bringing my crazy out too because as I was trying to sleep last night I was thinking things like, what if an alligator eats her? Are there even alligators at inks lake? No I don't think so. What if a snake gets in the tent? What if she steps on a fishing hook, what if someone tries to break into the tent. Well I'd better bring my pepper spray, what if she gets my pepper spray? Well Sam better bring his gun, what if she gets into his gun...you get the idea. And then for some insane reason I thought about how I would write about it in a blog, which I am now doing. Although I was much more clever about it last night. Or maybe I was just tired so I thought I was being clever. It doesn't really matter. In my last bit of news the amazing camera I have been drooling over for months on craigslist is still available and my mom and dad offered to donate to the cause of my getting it! SO CROSS YOUR FINGERS. right now. She says she wants to sell it before she leaves for Europe at the beginning of June. So we low balled it, figuring maybe she would take it but if not we could meet her in the middle anyways.

In ending, if you didn't read my earlier post it's about the fun things Kaydence and I have been doing.

2011-05-24T12:01:00.000-07:00

As usual with my blogs, I am writing this instead of doing laundry :)

Kaydence and I have been doing some really fun things lately! Thanks to my mom for looking on the internet to find fun things for two year olds!! We got a bunch of macaroni noodles, and mixed different food coloring in with them so we have green, blue, pink, purple, yellow, red, ect macaroni noodles and we put them in a plastic container and Kaydence scoops the noodles out and puts them into a different container. She has so much fun, and she is learning how to scoop things besides! We have been having pony hunts (it was dinosaur hunts on the internet, but we have a lot of toy ponies). It's just like a easter egg hunt, only we use her pony toys. She is so funny, I tell her not to watch me but she always sneaks looks in. Then when she comes to look for them she walks around going hmmm...hmmmm AHA! It cracks me up. We also put shaving cream on the table and let her smear it around and make a big mess! It was super fun. Today we made finger paint with pudding and food coloring. That way I didn't have to worry about her eating it. That also made a giant mess, but it was totally worth it. She helped me mix the pudding and scoop it into paper bowls. She wanted Nolan to sit by her and see how much fun she was having.

2011-05-10T13:01:00.001-07:00

What a lazy blogger I've been. I'm sure the world is dying to hear about my little family. (that was sarcastic since you can't hear me speak ;) haha) So what's new with us?

Well I've gone back to being vegetarian. However, I promised Sam that I would still cook him meat sometimes. So technically I am only a semi-vegetarian. I was having trouble eating chicken while I was pregnant so we were eating a lot of ground turkey. Anyways, to make a long story short meat is still grossing me out. If anyone remembers I tried it last January, but I was staying with my mom and I didn't really get a lot of support, and so I never really tried to find good recipes. This time around I've got a few good cookbooks and I've found a bunch of really good blogs. I'm going to lose this weight, yes I will. Plus it cuts my already low grocery bill even more since meat can be expensive and I'm only buying it every so often. I am trying to do insanity, but I don't think I like it as much as P90X, I hate the warm ups hahaha. After the warm up I'm fine, but I hate doing the same things three times in a row. I was taking a bikram yoga class, but my 30 day trail is up, and it's expensive regular priced so I did some research on the internet and figured out how to do it at home. The only trick is that I have to do it while Sam is home because I can't lock myself in the hot bathroom for and hour and a half and worry that Nolan will wake up and need to eat. Plus I wouldn't be able to focus if I was listening for him the whole time. It's not ideal, but it works and its cheap.

Sam and I are still sharing a car, but since my mom will be in and out staying with us through the summer we decided just to keep sharing until Sam leaves. We took Kaydence to a round rock express game on Friday, Sam got tickets from work and we sat on the lawn section. We had so much fun! I didn't really watch the game at all, but Kaydence was loving running around and playing. She hated the fireworks they shot off whenever they got a home run though. And there was a fireworks show at the end that we had to plug her ears for. She didn't like it when she was watching, but when we asked her about it after it ended she was all smiles and said she did like it. She is currently making her way through the cream center of some oreos and putting the cookie part back. :) Silly girl, we had a tea party with her dolls this morning. She didn't fully understand what we were doing, but she started to get into it after a while and brought her dolls food to eat. She is talking more and more she says something new almost every day. She loves coloring. I need to find her some crafts that we can do together.

My baby Nolan is the sweetest little guy! He is full of smiles whenever he is awake! AND HE HAS BROWN EYES! Yes!!! I always said I just wanted one baby to have brown eyes and now I have him! He is a tummy sleeper though, so that's been complicating things a bit. He likes to be held while he sleeps, but if I put him down on the big pillow on his belly he will stay asleep. Sometimes he still wakes up, but putting him down on his back is a sure way to get him up. I am not sure if I am making it worse or not, but I need him to sleep. He is doing pretty good at night too! He eats around 10-10:30 and then he will usually wake up around 2 or 3, but if I bring him into bed he goes back to sleep until 4 or 5 usually. Then I put him back in his crib and he will sleep for a few more hours. Last night he slept until 4 and then I brought him in bed and he slept until 5!! He has been waking up around 8 or so and having awake time. Kaydence is starting to be interested in him and pay more attention to what he is doing, but she is also getting a little bit testy when she wants me to do something and he is eating. She points to his play mat or his chair and says here! here! I wasn't really having any problems with that until just recently, but we manage okay. She is watching more TV than I want her to, but it keeps her busy when I am busy with Nolan at least. Also I am thinking of switching them over to cloth diapers. It's kind of expensive to start up, but then you don't have to buy diapers anymore, so in the end it would save a lot! Plus (and Sam would be rolling his eyes at me if he were here right now) it's better for the environment because it's less garbage.

2011-04-23T17:50:00.000-07:00

Today we took my beautiful two year old to austin zoo! We had a great day! She made monkey sounds and growled at the tigers. I love her so much. This morning we went to the farmers market. I loved it, it was so fun and the veggies are so fresh! I am torn though because on the one hand the veggies are fresh and chemical free and on the other hand they are a little bit more expensive. So I'll probably keep shopping at sprouts and go to the farmers market every so often. We got her a little mermaid princess vanity for her birthday. Jennie got her a little mermaid jewelry set and the necklace sings like Ariel! She loves that thing. Anyways, she is smarter than ever. She is starting to speak in little phrases. She says Oh no! And it's about the cutest thing I've ever seen. She loves to color now, and she always wants to draw momma and daddy. I draw her little stick figures of our family. She sniffs the air to ask me to draw flowers, and lately for some reason she wants me to draw eyes. She also loves for me to draw dogs and cats, but I have to label them Bella and Dexter underneath. I'm not sure why that is. She rubs her belly and says mm mm mm when she wants to eat. I told her the easter bunny is coming when she wakes up so she spent the rest of the night walking around saying hop, hop hop, come here! (except it's more like meeerrrr) I'm sure I could say a million more things about her, but she is healthy and smart and a whopping two years old!

2011-04-18T18:28:00.000-07:00

I need to fold laundry.

Well world, I am now 23 years old. Woo hoo! Thursday night Sam took me to Razoos and I got the best crawfish I have ever had! It was super fresh and spicy. Friday was my actual birth day and we drove to Houston to go to my best friend from high schools baby shower. So I spent the weekend in Houston. It was the first trip down to Houston with both the kids and it was much more complicated than it was with just Kaydence. My mom got me a couple of books for an extra present, my parents already got me vibram five fingers. Which are amazing by the way. I am taking a bikram yoga class as my present from Sam, Jennie has been pitching in to help baby sit during the week so I can make it. I LOVE bikram yoga. In case you don't know what bikram yoga is, it's a room heated to 105 degrees, sometimes it's hotter though and I can't remember what percent humidity. It's an hour and a half of pure sweaty goodness. 27 poses! I love it so much I want to do it every day. I actually am considering becoming an instructor, but I have to have at least 6 months of classes under my belt. And then it's a 9 week training! I don't know how I will manage that with my kids, but we'll see.

My baby Nolan is 9 lbs now!! Yay baby boy! He will be a chunker yet! He is still being a sweet baby boy, I don't have too much to report on him other than his weight gain. He has been giving us adorable smiles though.

Kaydence will be two on wednesday! Can you believe it?? I can't. This is usually where people say "it makes me feel so old" bbbuuuttt I just turned 23, so I'll skip that part. I will post a big thing about all of the amazing things she does after her b-day. My poor girl hardly slept at all this weekend, she was so tired that on the way home she fell asleep while she was eating! It was hilarious. She would reach into her tinkerbell bucket and pull out a pretzel and put it in her mouth and then her eyes started drooping, but she kept chewing. Then she would twitch and open her eyes and grab another pretzel. It was hilarious! She only did it for a few minutes, but it was so cute. She is my sweet little princess.

mothers day

2011-04-08T12:37:00.000-07:00

http://www.thevintagepearl.com/products/vintagepeasinapod_p218

Tell me these aren't amazing? I told Sam the pea pod would be amazing for mothers day!

2011-04-07T19:48:00.000-07:00

Well, that was un-expected.

Today in the middle of the day I started feeling like crap. Probably because I started stressing out over this whole government shut down thing. Yeah, this crap no pay for two weeks includes us. Whatever, jerks. Anyways, I went grocery shopping and played with Kaydence and Nolan. I put Kaydence down and was relaxing and then I decided I needed a bang trim. So I trimmed my bangs, and then I decided I needed to refresh my layers. When I finished there was a GIANT pile of hair on the floor. I looked in the mirror and then I was just over it. I'm just tired of ling hair. So I cut all of my hair off. It's about chin length now. And immediately I feel so much better. My hair was getting so tangled that I was using ridiculous amounts of my daughters detangler spray, and since I never take the time to blow dry my hair my shirts always get soaked while my hair is drying. It looked pretty, I will admit that. I was trying to grow it out until October, but who cares really? And the other thing is that I was constantly putting it into a pony tail to get it off my neck. Or just so I wouldn't have to do my hair, but then I would feel like I looked like I rolled out of bed and put my hair in a pony tail. (funny since that's about what it summed up to) I grew it out longer than I have ever had it before. I took a picture a week or two ago, and now I'm ready for summer.

2011-04-07T06:43:00.000-07:00

I keep trying to start a blog, and then I have just been sitting here looking at the screen. So hopefully today I can have something worth while to say.

On Monday I started INSANITY. In case you missed it, after Kaydence was born I did P90X. I loved it, then I let my dad borrow it when I was pregnant with Nolan. And I started reading about how awesome insanity is. It's only 60 days, P90X is 90 days, and there are no weights or equipment. That being said, it's WAY harder than P90X was! Maybe I was in a little bit better shape when I started P90X, I don't know. Monday was the fit test, and I did HORRIBLE. No joke, it was awful. I had to keep stopping because Sam was at class and Nolan was crying, and every time I started again my muscles had enough time to relax to realize that they were being torn to shreds. Tuesday was a little better, but not much. I tried getting up early and doing it, but I was tired, so I did half of it and decided to try again while Kaydence napped. That was also a H-U-G-E mistake. Because again I gave my muscles enough time to realize what was happening to them, and they didn't like it. Not one bit. Yesterday I did pretty freaking awesome, if I do say so myself. I finished it all in one go. I can't always keep up with their pace, but I just do as much as I can and know that the people in the video are already in super shape. My goal is to keep up with them by the time I'm finished. I got up and did my workout before Kaydence woke up this morning too! Go me! I've been trying to take Bella for a walk, or walk Kaydence to the park to stretch out my legs. It helps, if you're reading this and thinking trying insanity is a good idea. Also I am watching season one of glee. Kaydence is awake now and demanding my little ponies while she eats her Kashi blueberry waffles. (2 for 5 at sprouts)

So I'll post updates about Sam and my babies later.

2011-03-28T17:45:00.000-07:00

Will fart jokes ever get old? No, I don't think they will.

I start out with this because today I saw Bill Engvall on netflix and I decided to turn it on. I can't remember how he brought around the fart jokes, but I was sweeping the floor and was laughing so hard I thought I was going to pee my pants. Seriously, I stopped and went to the bathroom just to be safe. It was hilarious, the whole thing was funny but especially the fart jokes. I know I should be an adult at this stage in my life, but I don't think fart jokes will ever stop being funny. Never ever.

Having now stated how funny I think potty humor is, I don't think I really have anything else to say. Mainly because I'm still thinking about how funny Bill Engvall was.

It was 15 degrees off cool if you're wondering which one I'm talking about

2011-03-24T11:59:00.000-07:00

Time for an update of our lives!

My sweet baby Kaydence is getting more and more grown up every day! It kills me! :) She is adorable, and is now getting into everything! She figured out that she can move the kitchen chairs so she is constantly pushing them to the junk counter and getting into all sorts of trouble. Yesterday she pushed the chair to the where I keep the play dough and she tried to climb up onto the counter to get into it! Tricky girl, luckily I caught her! She is saying so many new things every day I can hardly keep count. She says no now, well it's MO really. And she points her finger every time. She has started being more and more interested in her baby doll, even though she still ignores Nolan for the most part. She likes giving her doll a bath, and she has started brining me her naked barbies (they are actually disney princess dolls) for me to put a diaper on. We use the preemie diapers one of the nurses in the NICU gave us for her dolls. Her barbies look hilarious with the diapers on. I can't remember if I mentioned it before, but her dolls also have to be naked now. Any time they have their dresses on she brings them to me and demands that I take them off. Nap time and bed time is easier and easier, I am a little bit worried about what will happen once she is in a toddler bed and can get in and out, but she still likes her crib. And I like Nolan in the closet, so it works out for now.

Nolan likes sleeping on his tummy, I hold him on my chest sometimes so he can sleep on his belly. During the day I let him sleep on his belly for a little bit (on the floor, poor guy) where I can see him. He sleeps fine during the night, but during the day he has to shift positions a lot to get him to sleep. I don't really mind, as long as he sleeps at night! He still gets up every 3-4 hours, but he is staying awake more during the day. So I'm hoping eventually it will all work out and he'll sleep longer. He's a sweet little guy.

Yesterday I was sooo tired and decided I needed to be by myself for a while. So after Sam finished working on his truck (which I just remembered I meant to write about, I promise to do that next) I went to half price books to browse. I didn't exactly plan on getting anything since I just got a few books from amazon, but I found the 4th book in a series I have been reading for 5 dollars! Hardback! The crazy thing is that they had the first book in paper back for 7 dollars. Weird huh? And they have the 5th book for 9 dollars. There was another sticker under the 4.95 one on the book that I just got for 9 dollars. So maybe it was a mistake? I don't know, but then again I don't really care because I still got it! Ha! On Monday I am starting the south beach diet. I also ordered insanity. I decided I want to try that, mainly because there are no weights, and it's only 60 days. Also, my dad still has my P90X and since I am ready to start working out asap this is a good option. After I finish insanity I think I will do a round of P90X, probably not as hardcore, unless I still need to lose weight. I think that's all that's new with me.

Sams truck broke down! Boo, so I am without a car until it gets fixed, but that's not really a big deal. His clutch went out, which was going to be crazy expensive to fix until one of his friends from work said, Hey, you work on million dollar helicopters, you can fix your own truck. So he spent all day tuesday working on it, but he couldn't get the transmission to come out. Luckily a friend from work used to work on cars so he came over last night and they got it out. Unluckily the transmission also needs work, but his friend said he would do all the work for no charge as long as Sam got all the parts. Way to go! So we're still working on the truck situation. Also he has to have surgery next week on his leg. Nothing major, he has a cyst there. The doctor drained it but it refilled the next day so they're going to slice it out.

With that interesting tidbit you are now mostly caught up on our life. At least you are caught up with the bits that I can currently remember ;)