DISCOVERING

The weather has really started to get nice the past couple of weeks, and getting outside is almost daily for us. The other day Macie wanted to go outside in the backyard and play, but Wade was not napping and has had a nasty cold the past week, so I wasn't going to be able to go outside. I put aside my worried mom wows and got her all bundled up and let her play outside all by herself. It was scary for me and I can't lie I watched her like a hawk but she was fine the whole time, she played with the puppies, picked at leaves, climbed her playhouse, looked at and admired the puppies poop, and brought all the balls onto the deck. She loved it and I loved that I got over my fears and trusted Macie to play outside and be safe. Today was especially gorgeous and although Wade was napping I had some things to do when Macie came and asked me to play outside, so again putting aside my fears, I bundled her up and she played and discovered for over an hour.

I am so in love with this pic and wish I knew what she was finding

Big Boy!!

Wade looks so grown up in this picture. Wanted to post this for memories.

Note the big drool stain on his sweater, sadly he always looks this messy. 

PINK EYE!!!!

My little munchkin got pink eye. :(. When your kids get sick or hurt or crazy red pussy goopy eyes your mother instincts kick in an extra notch. I felt so bad for her I bought a book mark at chapters just to get change for the carousel ride at the mall while we waited for her RX. Of course some French fries for this French fry lover and when she asked for a box of smarties when we were paying for our groceries at Safeways I couldn't say no, which I have always done in the past. 

Mommy Secrets!!!

Being back at work 2 days a week was the best decision I could have made for myself and my family. I know lots of people probably think I am being selfish, and lots can't imagine going to work when there kids are so little, heck I even think I am being selfish, however I am so much happier and so excited for my days off with my kids. One of the best parts is I find it so much easier to fill our days. As I have written before I am not very creative and find it hard to think of things for us to do throughout the day, hence the reason I get out of my house a lot. From Fun Zone to Open Gymnastics, to parent and tot swim time. With only having three days now to think of activities it has been much easier and we have drastically cut back on how many shows we watch. As long as we get up and going and head somewhere in the morning, I only have the afternoons to fill the time, which is super easy when it is nice outside, we head outside or walk to the park, then come inside for some free play and then maybe some structured play. Then time to make super and wait for Daddy to come home. There has still been some rough days and some temper tantrums and meltdowns but life is definitely in a better place now. It also helps that Wade is so much more mobile, is amazing at playing with his toys, and though he still likes to be held it doesn't need to be 24/7. So the biggest reason for this post is because I wanted to ask all you moms and dads out there what has been your most creative easy activity that you do with your kids to fill the time throughout the day. I will share mine in hopes that you will all share yours so we can all benefit from this, as I am sure I am not the only mother who finds it hard to fill our days with fun, useful activities for our kids.

Mine has definitely been are play bins. I bought this bin from the dollar store for probably $4. I started by filling it with snow and then adding spoons and then those small tupperware snack holders. I fill the tupperware containers with water and then add food coloring. I put them directly in the bin and she loves using the spoons and taking the water from the containers and putting it on the snow and watching it change color. As the snow has started to harden and also melt I have done a couple more ideas. One is the pinwheel pasta with again spoons, bowls, containers and let her just play, kind of like a rice station only I find easier to clean up. A couple times I have also filled the bin with a small amount of water then again added spoons and bowls and soap and she will take her zoo animals and give them baths, I also give her a small tea towel here to dry them off with. Anytime we play with our bin it usually occupies a good 30 to 40 minutes of our time and lets me get some stuff done around the house. Alright so there she be, my best and most creative activity, oh and the best part wicked cheap, $4 for the bin and $2 for the pasta. Your turn to share now.

Memory sake

Another one of those post that I want to write just for memory.

I am a pretty lucky mother to have such a good 2 year old. She definitely has her moments and is very strong willed but overall this kid is pretty easy to be around  and a lot of fun. Today though Macie was perfection. Nothing could upset this girl, she didn't whine once, listened and followed through with everything I asked her to do. Played so well buy herself, with Wade and with the puppies. She was so happy all day, full of energy and so much life. She was constitently singing all day long jumping and dancing around. At the park she was running around and laughing so hard i thought she was gonna lose a lung. Hands down one of the funnest days I have had with my kids, seeing as Wade was pretty darn awesome today too.

WADE'S NURSERY

It is not totally done yet and I am still waiting on a couple things that I ordered of etsy that are taking forever to come but for bringing him home from the hospital to a completely empty room besides a bed and dresser it has come along way. I decided to just focus on certain colors I wanted for his bedroom and bring in cute accessories that matched. The main two colors are Navy Blue and Green, followed buy some red accents and hints of yellow and orange. I am really happy so far with how everything has turned out and can't wait to get the blanket finished and my etsy things in and up.
I also am going to sneak in a couple cute pics I took of Wade in his bedroom.

what a handsome little dude

we can't decide if we should paint the dresser white or leave it the way it is

this is my favorite part of the decor

hoping to one day make the blanket smaller.

This boy has muscles!!

Boys really are built different then girls. I remember the first time I touched Wade's legs I couldn't believe how strong they were. Only 2 days old and I was feeling acutall muscles. He has definitely proven himself in the boy department. He was rolling both front to back and back to front at 2 months and two weeks ago he started a bit of the army crawl and this past week he perfected it. Not even 5 months old and this kid is crawling. Although it is cool to see him doing these things when he is still so little, it makes me realize how much faster he is growing up then Macie. He is almost half way to one and it feels like we just had him. Slow down little buddy, don't grow up to fast on me.

Wonderful moments

Although the circumstances were not ideal, and I would have rather been down just visiting for fun and not for our Mothers funeral. There really were some wonderful moments in the sadness of Vicki's passing. We shared some wonderful memories and good laughs and got some great pics, mostly of Macie. 

A world of regret.

Tuesday March 11th I got a phone call from my husband while I was at work that broke my heart. He had just gotten a phone call from his sister letting him know his mother had passed away sometime that day. Corrine had called her a coupe times that day and couldn't get threw, so finally called the landlord to get her in and found her in her room. She ended up having a heart attack and complete respiratory failure. It seemed so unreal and like my world was all of a sudden in this strange bubble. I drove home in tears and had so many feelings of regret. Why did I not get to now this wonderful women better. Why did I not try harder to have a better relationship with her. We definitely where to very different people. I have always loved her and has always seen the sweet innocence in this women, but I know in my heart I did not open myself up to her, I did not fully welcome her into my life just because we didn't have anything in common. As we are preparing for the funeral I am filled with sorrow as I did not know this beautiful mother to my husband and grandmother to my children as well as I should have. Some wonderful things I did know about Vicki

- she loved her children and grandchildren more then anything.

- she loved reading her scriptures and tried her best to understand and live the gospel.

- she was definitely a girls girl. Pink, jewellery, nails, she loved her girlie things.

- she loved cats, she had a cat "phantom" who lived for I think 18 years or something crazy like that. It was a hard day when Phantom died.

- she loved her diet coke 

- Mark and Corrine have been cleaning out her apartment a bit and she kept everything. Especially notes and letters. Corrine had found a note that she had written to her mom in high school thanking her for the shorts she had boughten for her for gym class.

- She loved watching the news and always had a story to tell me or Mark about the world when we called or visited. 

- she was the sweetest most innocent women I have ever meet. 

As tears fill my eyes as I write this blog post I realize I loved this women even more then I thought. It saddens me so much to think in my time here on earth I will never see her again, never hug her again, it truly doesn't feel real yet. I hope I can live my life better, and be righteous enough to live with her again some day. 

WEEK 2

Week 1 is done and it was almost 100% successful. I spent $97 on groceries, until Saturday night when Mark and I decided to make Sushi, Tempura, and Inari. Having to go and buy the supplies for that definitely put us over our food budget, however we could have gone out and bought it from a restaurant and it would have been more expensive so we still in the end saved. That is my justification. Mark has a challenge at his work for the next 30 days to not eat out once. Spending $100 on groceries every week is great, however if you then go out and eat 3 or 4 times it kind of defeats the purpose of saving money, so these next 4 weeks should be huge savings with groceries and not eating out at all. For the most part I want to also try and include little household things in this budget like wipes, formula, detergent, toilet paper, cleaners, but it is definitely not a must to include it. On Saturday we realized we needed toilet paper, detergent, formula, and dog food so almost $!00 was spent just buying those things as formula was $4 cheaper then usual so I bought 4 of them. The biggest goal though is the less then $100 on groceries and if I can add household stuff as well great, if not I am not going to stress about it. 

Today was great success I bought everything on my grocery list and a couple extras I forgot once I was there that I needed for Macie like crackers and cereal. My total was only $72 dollars.