Happy Birthday Kristi!

After spending most the morning at the doctors with the kids was over it turned out to be a pretty good day. And once evening came and Brad was home it was the best. First off we went and got Brad's present to me, our laminate floor for our kitchen. Then topped it off with Dinner at the Coppermill which was so delicious, but we were reminded why we do take out with the kids most of the time. Kaitlyn kept saying that she was just like fancy Nancy, (a girl in her favorite book "Fancy Nancy") and she kept drinking with her pinky in the air. We then came home and had a fun little party with balloons, cake and presents. Now all we have to do is install the floor.

Potty Trained

Melanie is officially potty trained. I now only have one kid in diapers, YIPEE!!! We have kind of tried things off and on for a little bit, but to be completely honest I just wasn't ready for it. A couple of Sundays ago we ran out of pull ups. Of course we couldn't go buy more because it was Sunday. So we found this really old night time pull up we used with Kaitlyn and gave her the option to either put it on or to put "soft underwear on." She went back and forth a few times and finally decided the soft underwear. We went on to tell her that she had to keep it dry. For the most part she did.

Then Monday came and she went mess in her underwear 3 times. I was just about ready to go and buy some pull ups, but didn't give into the temptation and decided there was no turning back now. So for FHE we decided to head to Shopko. We let Melanie pick out any toy that she wanted, we kind of influenced her by giving suggestions that were in a good price range. She had about 6 toys in the cart and we told her to choose one. She chose this polly pocket car that came with a girl, a boy, a monkey and a cat. Like we need any more polly pockets around our house. Oh well. I knew that she needed instant gratification as well. So I grabbed one of the ten pack play doughs and about 4 bags of the individual m&m's (which are her favorite not to mention they were pink because of Valentines day). So the next day we were up and going.

The system went as follows:
Every time she went wet she got a pack of m&m's, every time she went mess she got to pick one of the playdoughs. When the playdoughs were gone she got to get her polly pocket.

So this afternoon she earned the last playdough and polly pocket.

Side note: While we were at Shopko we had a very sad 5 year old sister. So we decided to let her choose a much smaller packet of polly pockets. If she agreed to be my eyes when I wasn't around and told me when Melanie would hide in the corner to go mess or say she needs to go wet to get me. Let me tell you she was the best eyes ever. So she also got to get her polly pocket today too.

So you see it all is perfect because I was about at my wits end today trying to find the girls something to do because it was snowing here yet again. They have had them for almost 45 min now and I haven't heard a peep from either of them Yeah for everything!!!!! Now lets just hope that she keeps it up and doesn't have any set backs. For all of you out there trying to potty train, I say wait. Melanie was trained faster and easier than Kaitlyn. I think because she was older than when we tried to train Kailtyn, she was more ready.

Stitches

We have always been really good at not leaving our kids alone in the bathtub (Brad is better at it than I am). Especially when they are Matthews age. Matthew has really loves to stand while in the tub. We usually just laugh at him and tell him to sit down. Sometimes he sits, sometimes he plops down and sometimes he smiles at us and stays standing. Well even if you are in the room it doesn't mean something bad can't happen. Last Thursday Brad was giving the kids their baths and all of a sudden I hear him yelling my name. He brought Matthew out dripping blood from his chin. Matthew had been standing on the side of the tub like he always did and slipped and hit his chin on the side of the tub and it split open. I ended up at the Insta-care that night for about 2 hours. And let me tell you holding your one year old down so they can put in stitches is not a fun thing to do. I am just glad he only needed three. He was actually really good considering he was dead tired and only one. I think he hated the ointment they put on his chin to numb it the most. So on the way home we stopped to get some neosporin and the only thing I could do to make him happy is say, "do you want to get a sucker?" The whole time he was yelling sucker while we tried to find the medicine isle. We ended up with a whole bag of dum dum suckers too. Needless to say today was a happy day. We got to get the stitches out and it looks like it has healed nicely. This is just yet another experience of proof that boys are so different from girls. The girls are yet to have to have stitches. But I will knock on wood so I don't jinx myself.

We Thank Thee

We were very surprised by the passing of President Hinckley. He was a great man and I am so glad that my kids could somewhat know of him. When I told the girls this morning Kaitlyn said "Mom that makes me sad, he will live with Jesus now." and Melanie said, "Jesus loves him" He has had a great influence on our lives and has always given us great counsel. He accomplished so many things while serving that has blessed our lives so much. I am sure he is rejoicing with his wife now. I will never forget his contagious smile and laugh. He was a great man and we will miss him.


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Doctors fix everything, right?

OK, so I was visiting teaching the other day and telling them a story about Kaitlyn and my partner said you better write that down that is so funny. So here I am, I have kind of been using this blog for a journal and crazy enough it is the best journal I have ever had. So just disregard this post if you want I thought since she was the second person to tell me that I needed to write it down I guess I better.

Before I write this I do have to say that I am generally a pretty nice mom and don't really get really angry, but the past few months I haven't really been getting the sleep I have needed and been quicker to raise my voice and become angry. That being said, a couple of weeks ago I had some cysts removed from my head and the night before we were telling the girls how I was going in and the doctor was going to take some balls out of my head. We continued to tell them that they were going to play at our neighbors house. I was just trying to prepare them for a not so normal day. Kaitlyn was very concerned and started to ask all sorts of questions, how is he going to do it? is it going to hurt? what are they taking out? she then said, "Uh, mom so is the doctor going to make it so you won't be angry anymore?" At this moment I didn't know what to think, do I laugh because it was really truly funny that she thought that the doctor was going to take out these angry balls. Or do I cry because my 5 year old thinks I am a mean angry mom? It was kind of an eye opener though because I had no idea that she was viewing me as an angry mom. My response was, "yes Kaitlyn it is going to help me not be so angry." What could hurt right? What better time to make yet another resolution, to get more sleep and not be so quick to raise my voice. The sleep part hasn't been super successful because I really enjoy staying up late in the peace and quiet, I just can't get myself to go to sleep early. I would like to say that I never get angry anymore, but then I wouldn't be human now would I, but I think I am more on the look out to not raise my voice.

FYI, because some of you have been asking? I'm feeling a ton better, the surgery was a lot worse than I thought it would be, but I survived. I still have some pretty big bruises on my head, but I am fine. Now the hard part is the hair starts to grow back in and it makes my hair look really funny. I guess that means I need another haircut.

YUMMY COOKIES!

The girls talked me into making cookies yesterday, so in hopes that we wouldn't make a huge mess I decided that we would make

this super easy pumpkin cookie recipe that my sister Annette gave me. The only problem was that she gave me a yummy maple glaze that you drizzle over the cookies and when you have a 5 year old a 3 year old and powder sugar you have a huge mess. They were blowing it, eating it and attempting to make snowmen out of it. not super sucessful on the last one. needless to say I didn't stop the fun they were just way to cute, but I did end up with a huge mess to clean up. other than the powder sugar fun, I think the girls other favorite part was watching them cook with the oven light on. The cookies were really yummy they are even gone, the girls ate the last two this morning, so I thought I would share the recipe with you all.

Pumpkin Spice Cookies:

Combine one box of spice cake mix, one 15 oz can of pumpkin and 1/2 bag of chocolate chips.

cook 10-12 min on 350

Maple glaze:

3 TB butter or margerine

4 TB milk

1/2 cup brown sugar

Combine these in a saucepan on the stove, but do not boil

Remove from heat and add 2 cups of powder sugar. (I usually just stir it in and have a lot of lumps, if you want a really smooth glaze get the hand mixer out.

drizzle over cookies and enjoy.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow

This last week we have been hit with a lot of snow. The girls and I went out today and made some snowmen. It all started with one snowman and then I saw Kaitlyn and Melanie both starting another one. Kaitlyn said "Mom now we have a daddy one we need a Kaitlyn one." So I came down off the porch to help them make some baby snowmen. We then continued the fun with snow angels, a snow fight and shoveling the driveway. I am glad that I decided to put off all the chores I had to do this afternoon and enjoy my girls, we made some fun memories.

2008 is Here

Happy New Year!! We hope that 2008 is as good as 2007 was. After we finished up the birthday party we had a really fun New Years Eve party. It consisted of playing games, dancing, and a lot of junk food. Here are some pics.


Matthew loved the chocolate


Playing Games


Doing the Mickey Mouse and Goofy dance


The girls dancing




Happy New Year!


The horns were really loud!

Happy 5th Birthday Kaitlyn!

Kaitlyn had her 5th birthday yesterday. She got to celebrate on Saturday and Monday. She wanted to go to Build a Bear for her birthday, so we decided to celebrate with her grandparents and to do the whole Build a Bear thing on Saturday while we were down in SLC. First thing in the morning we were having a party at the Blakes, then we headed back up to SLC and enjoyed a yummy lunch and another party with the Hiatts. Then on our way home that night we stopped at the Gateway and had a really fun time at Build a Bear.

We then celebrated again yesterday with the Johnsons. She couldn't have had a better birthday. The glow in her eyes just showed how much she was loving every second of it. She is growing up way too fast! She absolutely loved her Ariel cake and was so excited to find out that not only did we get to have a birthday party, but also a Happy New years party. She is finally starting to understand that her birthday is on a holiday.

Merry Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas here at home! The kids are so fun and took it all in. I think it was all that they expected and more! The kids sure do make Christmas fun and we just loved watching them with the sparkle in their eyes. We then drove down to Grandpa and Grandma Hiatts and enjoyed opening more presents, eating great food and being with family.

Christmas Eve PJ's and slippers

Christmas Morning!

Doing Puzzles with Grandpa Hiatt