Gobble Gobble Goo and Gobble Gobble Gickel, I Wish Turkey Only Cost a Nickel

 Every now and then it's not so awesome to get a jumbo pack of something when all of your drawers aren't childproofed yet.

 Thanksgiving was a half success.  Food = success, which is super awesome since this was the first Thanksgiving where Ben and I cooked.  Company = not completely successful.  It was awesome to have my parents there but Skyler ended up getting croup on Tuesday and so Ben's sister Trina's family wasn't able to come up from Alabama.  Boo.  It was a serious bummer.

 The entertainment of the evening was fabulous and consisted of Skyler trying to figure out my mom's nylons.

My kids made me go on an "olive hunt" this morning when they stole them off of a plate on the island.  Wrong holiday guys!

So here's my not so serious thankful list.  I'm thankful for Sesame Street and how it has helped Lily learn how to count (as well as let me make dinner).  Oh and also for teaching her how to rap to the letter A, I know she'll use that at some point in her life.  I'm thankful for humidifiers so that Skyler no longer has to sleep in our bathroom with the shower on.  I'm thankful to have a seriously loud toilet seat lid that scares the bajeebers out of me in the middle of the night (Ben and I have some weird luck in that department and we always end up with some kind of weird toilet wherever we move.... strange.).  I'm thankful for ear plugs and that I can actually sleep now.

Onto my serious thankful list.  First of all I should say how grateful I am for Ben.  I really don't give him enough credit on our blog since it's just a very rough synopsis of a small fraction of our lives.  For those of you who unfortunately haven't been able to meet him, he's seriously amazing.  No we don't always see eye to eye, but he's so awesome.  I don't think I could have married anyone else who would have as much patience with me.  He's one of the hardest workers I know, and for that reason we were able to buy a house.  Which leads me to my next subject.  I am thankful for our house.  It's AWESOME.  I'm thankful for Lily and Skyler.  Even though they require lots of patience I've decided that there are probably 5-10 amazing moments to every one terrible moment.  For an example, keep reading below.  I'm thankful for the gospel and the impact it's had on my life.  I'm thankful for the spirit and that it guides me on a daily basis whether it's "pack one more diaper" or "you need to buy this house."  And most of all, beyond any of these things, I'm thankful for Jesus Christ and that all things are possible through Him.

I hope all y'all had a fabulous Thanksgiving!  Now onto Christmas!  (And Ben and I have decided to keep up my family's tradition of decorating for Christmas on Black Friday, so pictures of the house will soon be inevitable.  I promise to post pics this week.

Cute Skyler

Now for the quote of the week:  Ben and I were downstairs playing cribbage after the kids' bedtime when Lily started yelling, "Mommy Mommy Daddy Daddy!"  We knew that was a big deal because Lily is the world's best sleeper so when she yells in the night we run because something is seriously wrong.  So we sprinted up to her room to find her still awake and just lying under her covers, happy to see us.  When we asked her what was wrong she immediately started jabbering away telling us all about different colored bunnies, how Pop Pop drove to church in his car, blah de blah de blah, you name it she talked about it.  When we realized she just needed to talk we started leaving so she could go back to sleep.  As soon as her door closed she screamed again so we went back in.  She happilly started jabbering away again and then I realized what she was doing: monologuing.  Holy cow, this is seriously in her genes (for those of you who are unaware I would "monologue" to my parents every single night between scripture study and prayers, while my mom would listen to me for at least an hour while my dad passed out on the couch).  When all of this became clear in my mind I burst into laughter and then Lily said, "Yeah, Mommy.  I'm so funny."  Which made me laugh harder so I collapsed on the floor and started my "laugh/cry" to which Lily said, "Daddy, Mommy's laughing on the floor."  Love that child.  She totally came to the right parents.

One of "THOSE" Days

 This is just down the street from our house.  It didn't turn out as well as I'd like, but I am seriously loving how long the fall leaves have been here!

We're in our new house.  It's awesome.  I'm loving every room and putting everything I love into place.  It is such a fun experience.  And Ben and I are super duper happy.  I have had a few requests to put up pictures of the house, but I don't feel quite ready to do that.  I still have junk in random places and we have one picture hanging in the entire house.  Give me a few days and maybe (MAYBE being the key word here) I'll have a few pictures of just a couple of rooms.  No promises, though.  Sorry.

 Saturday morning snuggles

 I think Seseme Street has taught Lily well about patterns: lettuce, noodle, lettuce, noodle.... now if I could get her to eat them, then that would be even better!

I thought he looked like a mini storm trooper when he did this.

The kids' new play room!  Seriously, they spend more time in here then they do in their toy room.  I figured something like this would happen.  I'm going to leave this cabinet empty and unchildproofed for them. 

So yes everything has gone beautifully until today.  Today was not such a good day.  Here's the story:  We were all sitting in Lily's room playing when Lily ran out into the hall and got two night lights and started banging the bulbs together.  As soon as I yelled for her to stop the glass had shattered all over her floor and I freaked out.  So I pulled out my weapon of choice (yelling) and told them to climb onto Lily's bed so that I could pick up the pieces.  I'm ashamed to admit that I yelled more than I should have.  Now that I look back at it, really is it that big of a deal that she broke a night light???  No.

So I thought fast of where I could put the pieces of glass.  I didn't want to go far so I decided on the master bathroom since I leave our door locked and they wouldn't be able to get into it and cut themselves.  Then I did some personal business *em em* and was in there for maybe a minute.  When I came back out I was surprised that only Skyler was still in Lily's room because I had told them both to stay on the bed.  Then I noticed the bonus room door was closed.  I ran inside to find that Lily had chosen (for the third time ever) her weapon of choice, that's right, vaseline.  WHAT?!  NO!!!!  THIS IS A NEW HOUSE!!!  WE JUST MOVED IN WEDNESDAY NIGHT!!!!!  But what does that mean to a toddler?  So we now have three nice spots of vaseline all over the carpet upstairs.  Goody.  I originally thought that I had put it in a place where Lily couldn't reach it, but now I think I'm going to have to build a secret passageway that leads to a secret stairway that leads to a guard dog that protects a vault with a 25 digit password that holds the vaseline.  That is my next assignment for Ben.  (Good luck, hubby!)

So I got even more upset with Lily and then I had to regain control of myself and think of cute memories of her.  I also had to think of when I looked at the + on my pregnancy test and how Ben and I were bouncing up and down with excitement.  Didn't I want this?  Of course.  And so I'm trying to control my emotions and I made a batch of brownies.  

Then I thought about my life and the billions beyond billions of second, third, etc. chances Heavenly Father has given me.  So today was one of the many times that I looked at Lily and saw myself and realized that we are not so different from each other.  Not always doing the best thing but always offered second chances because we are unconditionally loved.  

So with that thought in mind I am going to get myself a rather large piece of brownie and remind Ben to bring home some Spot Shot.  Aaahhh..... this house is going to be full of adventures.

Hello, Goodbye

I have been terrible at taking pictures (don't worry, I am planning on soon redressing my kids in their Halloween costumes and pretending that I actually remembered to take pictures that night....).  So you guys get an awesome picture of my son's hand!!!  YEAH! 

The past few days my dad and Ben have been to and from Idaho.  They got back last night and can I say how thankful I am to have them.  I consider myself very spoiled to have such wonderful family.  Thanks to Ben's dad and best friend, Matt in helping us get everything done so quickly!!!

And today/probably tomorrow, too, is moving day.  My dad just tried taking Lily's Workshop Tool Table (which she has been so conveniently been using as a bedside table) and she yelled "No don't touch!  AWAY!  AWAY!!"  And she tried protecting it with her life.  Too bad I'm too convincing and got her to color and play with play dough while my dad snuck it out.  I have a feeling that this is going to be harder than I thought with babies around....

And although my entire life is basically centered around this move right now I would regret it if I didn't put up a few quotes of the week.

Me:  "Lily, are you my favorite daughter?"
Lily:  "Doctor?  Me no doctor."  *Rolls her eyes and looks at me like I'm stupid*

Stop reading here if you don't want to know how unladylike I am.  That means you, Daddy.  So I get really burpy when I chew gum (seriously???) and I was chewing gum in the car and I literally had the biggest burp of my life.  It probably lasted a good 4 seconds.  Here's how Lily responded: "You OK mommy?!?!  You OK?!?!"


Skyler has gotten really big into saying please (pronounced "baze") and thank you (pronounced "day doo").  It is super duper cute.

So as I said before, today or tomorrow will be our last day at my parents' house.  So let me dedicate this section to them.  Thank you for putting up with toys everywhere, for the kiddos scaring the bajeebers out of Mia at first, for Skyler who still cries through the night, for Lily who has the volume of a fire alarm, for the kids bringing home sickness all the time from church, for their constant fingerprints on the TV and windows, for getting everything childproofed, for allowing 8 AM therapy sessions, and for getting into all of the "caves of wonders" aka pantry and closets, for getting covered in goop when trying to help me feed them at mealtime, for letting me sleep in sometimes because I'm about at my wits ends, for watching the kids so Ben and I can have dates, and for letting me use more than a fair share of hot water for my showers.  You guys are super awesome and we're so lucky we have y'all!   MWAH!

When It Rains it Pours

In a good way.

In less than 24 hours we will be homeowners.  This means:

*I will have one extra key on my key chain. 

*I don't have to worry about my kids breaking something that doesn't belong to me.

*We're actually putting our money toward an awesome investment.

*I can start a garden next year.

*I can paint!!!!
*I will have all of my stuff back in my possession after having it in storage for almost a year.  I have missed you pots, pans, pictures, and recipe cards that I forgot. Oh and you, too, california king sized bed.  

I'm just a little bit excited for my hand to be super sore from signing so many papers tomorrow.  

Maybe this means that I'll stop dreaming about moving in every night.

And let me give a major shout out to Ikea and Craigslist for helping us get the things we needed so cheaply.  I love you.  If I had to choose between a shopping spree between the mall or Ikea, Ikea would win every time.

And as if all of these things haven't been awesome enough something absolutely beautiful happened this week:

Lily counted to 9!

By herself.  And acted like it was nothing new.  And she keeps doing it over and over.  It's just a big shock seeing how she had only ever counted to 4 before she counted to 9.

Oh and Lily sang with Pocahontas this morning.

I am seriously loving this rainstorm.

Behind the Scenes

Here's our official family portrait.  Don't we look so happy?  We are, but the truth is that we had to hide marshmallows behind our backs so that Lily would stay with us AND stop crying for EVERY SINGLE picture.  Also, it's strange to think that it was on this very day that we found our house.  I know it sounds weird but I'm glad I have lots of pictures of that day to help me remember that feeling we felt.

*We close on our house on October 29th.  Ben and my dad will be flying out to Utah on November 4th to pull our stuff out of storage from Idaho, and then we will be moving into our house around November 10th.  And although it is so thrilling to be starting a whole new adventure (I feel like ever since I left for college every year brings a whole new adventure), it has been soooo stressful.  Finding cheap home insurance, doing paperwork, budgeting, more paperwork, walk-throughs, and of course more paperwork.  Since my body is infamous for behaving badly when I'm stressed out this experience has been no exception.  My eyelids started swelling up (seriously????) and on top of that we've had a few rashes going around our house.  Honestly I just read that again and I have to laugh at how weird we are.  Let me rephrase that.  I have to laugh at how weird I am.  Sigh.

*I wish I could say that by now Lily is making huge improvements in her speech.  In a way she is improving because she says many more words and is able to explain more clearly what she needs.  However she usually just says one word at a time like, "snack," "water," "monster" (Sesame Street), or "walk."  The hardest part about Lily's speech is the fact that she says everything backwards.  Since we've been working so hard on getting her to put words together it has overwhelmed her and she has to work her memory backwards like this:
          Me:  "Say 'green block.'"
          Lily:  "Block..... green."
That is how EVERYTHING goes.  Her therapist has told us to keep working and eventually she'll grow out of it.  About a week ago she actually said "Help please" instead of "Please help" and I seriously almost burst into tears.  It was such a sweet experience.

*Skyler is my comedy relief right now (when he's not waking me up at 5AM).  His new phrase is "Oh boy!  Oh boy!!!"  He usually says it when he sees a very cool toy.  So funny.  He's also such a fast mover!  He doesn't run yet but boy does he hobble!  It looks like he's going to fall over any second but he just keeps going and going.  So much fun to watch!

*Ben loves his job.  To be completely honest, I think this may be an even bigger blessing than the house.  Perhaps it's the fact that we went through 10 months of unemployment aka constant freaking out/frustrations/feelings of worthlessness/etc.  I know of a few couples who are fighting the same battle that we once did and my heart breaks.  What a terrible thing to go through.  I can't say how grateful I am for Ben's job.  It really is a dream come true.

So there's a rough synopsis of our lives right now.  Yeah, we know we're weird.  :o)

Mum and Dad's Visit

Ben's Mum and Dad came all the way over to NC from St. George, Utah to visit us!  We had a lot of fun playing at parks, touring our new house, and enjoying the babies.

As you can see Lily was in Heaven.

 Skyler had fun too.  Just not on the swings.  :)

 Lily gave Pop Pop thumbsucking lessons.

 Skyler's always snuggling on his blankie.

And he gave out LOTS of kisses.

It was a fun trip and we're so glad that they were able to come out and see us, but we're especially glad that they were able to get to know the babies better.  Skyler took a little while to warm up to them (as usual), but Lily was in their laps and playing right away.  I think the highlight of the trip for me, personally, was watching Lily run around all day Sunday yelling "HAPPY DAY!!!!!!" over and over and over again (I'll post a movie of that soon).   She was so thrilled to have so many people around loving her.  She even sat in Grandmum's lap for a couple of hours playing with a felt board Noah's Ark.  CRAZY!  Thanks, y'all, for coming out!!!!

Skyler's Quote of the Day

Skyler trying to be Mr. Potato Head.

Seriously go ahead and just roll your eyes before I even tell you this.... but I'm just SUPER DUPER EXCITED to be Mrs. Claus this year.  I know it's barely October but I've been waiting for this my WHOLE LIFE!!!!  So, of course, I just started trying to get Lily and Skyler excited about Christmas (because it'll probably take a while for it to sink in) and so tonight at dinner this is what happened:

Me: "Do you know who's coming to visit in a few months?!?!?!"

Then at the same time Skyler and I said:

Me:  "Santa!!!!!"

Skyler:  "Jesus?"

And then it hit me.... the Little Handsome is way more into the spirit of Christmas than I am.  I burst out laughing which of course turned into tears because that was seriously humbling.  I'm grateful that I had this experience early on so that I can remember the true meaning of Christmas.  And yes, you really are reading about Christmas in October.

Anyhoo, my papala works for IBM and they had their "Family Day" today and we went to enjoy a day full of free food and rides.  Here are some pics of the day:

One of my favorite parts of the day was when Lily called her hamburger patty a "cookie" and was very surprised when she took her first bite.


In the meantime I continue to be amazed at all the wonderful things that are happening to us with our house.  It really didn't make much financial sense for me and Ben to go ahead and buy a house now but the spirit just kept prompting us toward this one house.  I'd get excited and then I'd realize something else and start to worry.  But miracles just keep happening:

Miracle #4: the builder installed the wrong doors in the Play Room (except they were actually the doors we REALLY wanted in the first place) and so they apologized and charged us for no doors which took an extra $700 off of the house price (we'll take anything we can get!)

Miracle #5:  Ben found a diamond ring buried a few feet underground 3 years ago when he worked for Rexburg's water department.  After failing to find the owner (which was close to impossible considering how deep it was buried and the fact that it was at a public park) we were left with this diamond ring which Ben had completely forgotten about.  Then this week Lily got into some of our stuff and pulled that out of nowhere!  So we will be selling it to put that towards the house as well.

I cannot believe how miraculous my life is right now.  This house is PERFECT and I'm so excited to move in. I think it's safe to say that the Lord knows us better than we know ourselves.