Getting Settled

So we have moved and are getting settled in. I am getting excited for Christmas and don't want to unpack until I get the Christmas tree up and all the Christmas stuff out. Funny!!! I know I have to get all the boxes out of the way first, but can't get motivated. So I cleaned out a spot and we are getting the tree today hopefully. It is hard to find a place that can drill a hole in the middle of the tree trunk for our tree stand. There is one place we haven't tried yet so hopefully this place can do it.
Kandie has decided to sleep in longer and not wake up as many times in this new place. I love it. I think at the other place the heater wasn't that good in her room because it was always freezing cold in her room so I had to pile blankets on her. Kandie is also starting to crawl...backwards. This morning I was making breakfast and she made her way into the kitchen, under the table and got stuck up against the refrigerator. She was pretty mad that she couldn't move. My favorite is when she gets herself stuck under the couch. She reminds me of dear Grandma Louis. "Bob, BOB..." Instead she just kinda screams..."Aaah...Aaahh, AAAHHH..." Its cracks me up!

Myra has been sleeping anywhere. she fell asleep on Tigger in the baby tub...

Myra also found a package of gum and decided that she needed the whole package of gum. She was having a hard time chewing...

So we went to the Ward Christmas Party to see Santa...

Myra wasn't a fan of him...

It's Official

So we have been debating on moving again because this place is kinda scary that we are living at right now. We found a place just down the street that is about the same amount, which is nice.
Reason's for Leaving:
First someone stole a hubcap from one of our car tires. Then they stole a lug nut as well from our car after I had replaced them. I think maybe they had tried to steal them before because I had to get all of the lug nuts replaced because they were all stripped but that could have been anyone...next Kandie was fussing one morning. It was pretty bad I must admit, she was crying for 30 minutes and some neighbor came pounding on our door to tell me to make my baby stop crying. Ya that made me feel good inside... Let's just face I don't care about the neighbor it makes me want to let Kandie cry some more because they party all the time all night long, but I don't want to replace anything else on our car. We've already spent $120 to replace all the lug nuts and and extra $30 for the hubcap. This other place has a garage so I won't have to check on the car every time I wake up to feed Kandie and it has a washer and dryer in the apartment that I won't have to share or get quarters to pay for it. Yipee!!! Lets face it I am excited!!!

Hopefully we will be able to move in before December. Our move out date is officially December 5th but I think we'll be able to move out the last week of this month. Hooray!!!

Here's some updated pics on the girls:

Grandma Shaffer got us some new dresses


KD let me use her chair for her if I take good care of it



We had fun painting our faces. Myra even painted mine. Good Halloween clearance sales!!!

Halloween

We had a fun Halloween this year. I made Myra's costume and we had Kandie dress up in Myra's old costume. I was a pig and Mason a Rooster. When Myra saw us in our animal outfits she changed her mind and wanted to be a pig with us so we changed her outfit and she was a pig with me. Good thing her outfit fit her from last year. We went to a couple of houses and decided to go home early because every time we got candy from a house Myra would cry because she couldn't have any right then. So...I'm sure you can just imagine the frustration.
We went home and watched Switched at Birth...Kathy and Darin got us hooked. There are only 10 episodes so it won't take us long to finish. As a matter of fact I think we only have 3 episodes left and we started Saturday night. FUNSTUFF!!!

I'm makin' cheese

What a Weekend

This weekend, my dear grandma Lois passed: She lived to be 90 years old, lived a fulfilling life. She was a school teacher, mother, grandmother, missionary, and was known for her service. Such a great example to me and others in her life.



Daniel Busick, still young in life, yet having a significant influence on those who knew him, just graduated from high school, was in a freak accident on his way to Utah this weekend. He remains in a coma with his family by his side. The Busick family is in our prayers and thoughts. We love them and hope the best for them.



I feel a little overwhelmed right now, if I can just remember the Lord is the Gardener here, he knows what is best for all of us however difficult it may seem.

On a much happier note, our good friends the Elgueda's welcomed another healthy girl into their lives, Elsie Jane. We are thrilled for them and can't wait to see them all again soon!

A hard day at work

Myra has been potty training that is why she has no pants on. But she has been pretty cute lately. I can't stop myself from laughing when she get's frustrated. She tells me not to touch the TV or tells me she'll be right back. In the process of her saying this she is waving her hand in front of her like off from Dora the Explorer when they tell Swiper not to swipe. Is it bad that I laugh at her?
The other day she helped me vacuum, I think she has been wanting to do that for a while but was scarred of the noise. She finally built herself up and can now vacuum our floor. Need to train them while they're young right? She also has loved getting into my jewelry box and wearing my necklaces. I need to put that up higher even though I thought that my dresser was higher. That is okay though.

Yesterday I noticed she was quiet so I went looking for her and found her on the bathroom sink putting eyeliner in between her eyes, blush on her cheeks and whatever else she could get her hands onto. I am just glad I don't wear lipstick... She also had her rubber bands on her thumb cutting off the circulation, so her thumb was dark purple by the time I got them all off.
She is learning so fast and is always trying to do things that I do (including putting eyeliner in between my eyes...jk) I better whip into shape and start doing the right things because I know I have a little girl always watching me.

Rock Star

I was taking picture of Kandie and she automatically did this. I was beginning to wonder if she was doing it to impress her aunts Kathy and Karey because those are the only people I know that do this a lot. Hum...

Blessings in our lives

Potty training has been going better. Myra hasn't had any accident for 4 days now. She is so funny. When she has to go she runs into the bathroom. When she is finished she comes out yelling "Mommy I went potty potty potty!!!" She get's so excited.
I have been able to see some of the blessings in our lives. So we have been searching and searching for a house to get. We have probably put in almost 50 offers on houses and we finally got accepted to one. Well we went and took a look at it and after 2 hours of looking and talking about it we both talked ourselves out of it. The numbers weren't adding up and it just wasn't a good house. Mason had met with a different lender and found out that the price range we have is actually a lot lower than what other lender's had said. So I am really glad that we didn't get accepted to any other house because it would have been a mess to deal with once we found out our actual price range. So it has actually been a blessing to not get a house yet.
Updates with Kandie and Myra: They are both growing up so fast. Kandie is almost sitting up, I have noticed Myra is getting taller because a lot of her dresses are above her knees. They are so cute together. Kandie just loves Myra to death. She is always laughing at her, even when Myra is in trouble. It is kinda hard to be serious though while Kandie is laughing at Myra, but I don't mind too much ;)

Potty Training

We have started potty training this week. So far not too many accidents. Her accidents are getting closer and closer to the bathroom. First she realized that she had to go and dribbled all the way to the bathroom. And a couple of times she has made to the bathroom but as she is climbing on the step stool to get on the toilet she pees on the stool right before she gets it in the toilet. I have found that Myra can hold in her pee for a really long time. And if she doesn't have to go she won't try. But when she has to go she runs as fast as she can to the bathroom. I think I'm making some headway here. Thanks to some advice from my sister in law Jess I was able to convince Myra that poo and pee go in the potty. I think she has now realized that I am right ;) and its just a matter of getting to the toilet in time.

It has been an adventure and hopefully I can keep staying positive and true to my word.

Museum of the Rockies

Lot's has happened this last week. Things have been busy. First I have been doing a lot of sewing projects. I was able to sew Myra a shirt, Kandie a dress, and I sewed some hole in Mason's pockets for his insulin pump. I think that one was actually the hardest. But all in all they all turned out okay. This is the shirt I made Myra.
We went to the Rockies Museum to see the frog exhibits. Myra was stoked to see some frogs. She called it the froggy house. Also in the museum was a play area of Yellowstone park. Myra was scared of the Geyser when it went up.
Also Mason and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary. Its hard to believe that we have been together that long. They have been so fun together and I have enjoyed every day. Mason came home with some flowers which made my day. For dinner we went to the park and had a picnic. I had made chicken wraps so they were easy to finger foods. That way we could let Myra run and play and get some time to talk just with each other since Kandie does extremely well sitting in her car seat and being quiet. It was a fun day.
And again Myra has some cute things she has been saying lately:

Me: Myra are those cool toys
Myra: No...they are HOT!!!
"oh no mommy don do dat"
She likes to sing songs now:
Happy Birthday to you...Happy birthday to you...Kandie happy birthday...
Go diego go diego go diego
evwybody evwybody be a cat...la la la...
Her prayers are getting cuter every day. We finally got a recording of it so I will post that sometime.

Everywhere else but where I would like it...

I use Myra as a patient to test for diabetes at a diabetes research center. Good start huh? They mailed me a package to get a blood sample from Myra. It has been sitting on the shelf for a couple of weeks so I decided to take it down so I could see it and when I am in the mood to make her cry I will get the sample. In this package is a kit on how to take a blood sample, a needle thing that you push so it will poke your finger, a numbing thing, some band-aides, and a tube to put the sample in. Well Myra found them. There were 2 needle things because you can only set it off once...so Myra set off one but somehow didn't poke her finger. She thought it was cool and played with the broken one for a while.

Explanation for why she thinks this is cool: Whenever Mason pokes his finger to test his blood sugars Myra is usually right there beside him because she wants her fingers poked too. Mason pretends to poke her finger and then pokes his.

Okay back to the story...well she found the other poker, grabbed that and actually poked herself. I heard her crying from a different room and when I came in she was wiping her bloody finger on the table trying to get the blood off. Now I figured that since she poked it, all I had to do now was put some blood in the little tube and have it be over with. So I tried...I first put Kandie down in her bumbo seat in front of the crime scene and tended to Myra. Because she had wiped her finger so many times on the table I couldn't see where she actually poked herself so I am squeezing her finger to get some more blood out and she is screaming and because she is screaming Kandie starts to cry as well. I figured it was about time for me to cry too since everyone else was right? Now this was at 6:00 in the morning when she did this just to give you a idea of what I am feeling at this moment. I couldn't get any blood in the tube. You would think this would be easy but it wasn't. It was as if the tube had been bathed in oil because nothing was going in that tube. It would just run down the sides and on top of that try holding a screaming 2 year old, a tube and a finger. They just don't blend well together...So I just gave up and put a band-aide on it.

In the end my house looked like a murder scene. In all the panic we happened to get blood all over the walls, the table, up my arms, on both our clothes, and somehow on the bumbo seat...everywhere else but the tube...

A couple of Myra stories

Here is a little update of Kandie and how big she is getting. I have been saying she is 3 1/2 months but realized that it is actually almost September which means she is almost 5 months. Wow how time goes by...

I went out to change the laundry. Myra was sitting in her chair and when I came back this is what I saw...

Every time I want to leave the house Myra has to grab as many toys as her arms can carry. So this is her getting ready to go to her friend Abigail...It was cute at first. But after a while she started getting smarter. She is now trying to make me carry a bunch of toys too!!!

Myra has a couple of cute little things she has been saying lately:
"Wow...Cute pants Kandie"
"Okay okay I'm commin" she says this when I am asking her to come hold my hand as we cross the street or when I use my serious voice
"don't touch tv...I beat you" I hope you can guess where she learned this one...
"mmmm...I don' know"
"Ohhhh Mannn" from Dora the Explora (Swiper)

She also says the prayer now it goes something like this:
"Heavenly Father...Food...daddy work, mommy work, Kandie work, mumbling...good girl...mumbling...AMEN"

Myra found the Scissors

Before and after. Her beautiful hair before she found the scissors and after. I knew this was going to happen sooner than later. Everyday she would look at me and say, "I wanta hair cut like mommy and daddy" so eventually she found them today. She decided it needed to be short. I guess she didn't want me putting it up in braids anymore. I am kinda regretting trying to fix it because I think it looks worse now. I found out it is hard to cut a two year old's hair while she is jerking and moving her head all over the place.

Parenting

So I have been having a hard couple of weeks with Myra. Most of it is me I know but I like to blame it on someone else. Here is what a typical day is for Myra:

* drawing on the couch with a pen
* touching the projector
* getting into my makeup and worst of all my eyeliner
* bringing juice into the living room and spilling it(not to mention that it is cranberry apple juice...so a stain is involved)
* getting into the kitchen cupboards and dragging everything out
* not holding my hand while crossing the street
* getting chairs and other objects and stacking them until she is able to reach things that she is not supposed to get into
* laying on top of Kandie
* getting into things while I am feeding Kandie because I can't get to her fast enough
*getting on the computer and pushing buttons making our computer download things that make it slower
*getting into the wet wipes


And the one that I wish would be over with already

NOT POOPING ON THE POTTY AND MAKING ME CHANGE HER STINKY DIAPERS...

I have been reading a book on disciplining your toddlers and younger children and it is funny how most the anger and frustration is from the parent. First the parent talks to their child. Next tries to persuade them to do what they want. Then they argue and yell until they eventually hit their child out of frustration. They call it the talk-persuade-argue-hit syndrome. The toddler is just testing grounds to see what they can get away with.

How come parenting is so hard!!! Some days' (like today) I wish that they came with a manual. 'When a child does not listen or throws a tantrum, unscrew the back and pull out the batteries'. Oh how I wish that were true.

To control myself I find that I have to sit down and read that book until I realize that I need to teach them that I am the boss. And not by throwing fits. She learns those fits from me probably.

Now the potty training thing...boy how I do I start. She was so anxious to sit on the potty when we first got it that I pushed her too far and now she's not interested at all. The only reason she sits on it is because she used to get cookies. I have changed the rules though. She gets a sticker for trying and a cookie when she actually poops on the potty. But she hasn't gotten that yet. She looks at me, "mommy I want a cookie"...then she remembers that when she poops on the potty she get one, so she takes off to the bathroom, pulls down her pants, sits on the potty and say, "cookie mommy cookie mommy". And I know that is the only reason why she sits on it. When she finds out that she doesn't get the cookie she's done. It makes it so that I don't want to take her to the potty because I know that she won't go.

Oh the treasures of potty training...Can I switch places with her one day so I can be the one to drive her crazy...

The white stuff

I caught Myra with the oreos. She ate all of the white stuff out of the middle of the cookies and left the chocolate part. I just thought of this song...

What is my kid turning into???

Was it really worth it?

I was really tired today, so as soon as Kandie was asleep I decided to take a nap with her. I got a pillow and blanket out and slept on the floor in the living while Myra watched Toy Story 3, that way in case she needed me I would be right there. I woke up to her telling me that I needed to change her diaper. On my way to get a diaper I noticed all my dried beans were scattered across the house. Next I went to change Myra's her diaper and I noticed she had tucked her shirt in her diaper so you can only imagine what that looked like. She has been eating sand at our friends house a couple of days ago and it is still going through her system so throw that in your imagination. I can't help but laugh out loud thinking about it. I threw her in the tub and began picking up the beans off the floor. And apparently I slept through the UPS knocking on my door. Who knows what else I slept through. I kept thinking was the nap really worth it? But I'm sure if all of that happened without my nap I probably wouldn't have handled it very well so YES the nap was worth it...

Huh?

I tried about a dozen times to get a good picture of these two hugging each other but clicked at the wrong time. This is just hilarious to me. It is good for me to look at these two and remember how cute they are. Kandie's shirt has a picture of a peach and it say's I'm peachy...which is kinda how I feel. Yesterday was a hard day for me. I got a phone call from the owners of the apartment telling me that I was parked in someone else's spot. So I go out to do some shopping with the kids and move the car in the process and the guy is standing next to my car ready to yell at me. What kind of person yells at someone with kids? But that didn't bother me too much. I could understand cause he had to park farther away. What really bothered me was when I went to the bank to cash a check. The ATM was down so the parking lot full. I drove around 2-3 times and finally found a spot. Right after I park and get out of the car someone decides to come up to me tell me that I was parked in their spot. They apparently had been driving around for 10-15 min and were quite irritated. It was like I had a sign on my head that said, "I park in peoples spots, yell at me." I was in the mood to tell him that if he really wanted it he could have it in 2 minutes because I wasn't going to move it, then I walked away as he was fuming with steam and yelling some more. What a day!!!

Static Electricity

Static electricity is an interesting thing. I knew how it happened but I thought it was interesting to see how to help eliminate it.

Static Elimination Tips

1) Increase the humidity in your house and workplace. Air is much drier in the winter, which increases the frequency and severity of shocks. Use a humidifier.

2) Change clothes - switch to natural fibers, since synthetics pick up more of a static charge.

3) Change shoes - there are special conductive shoes in a variety of styles. They are made for people working in the electronics industry. You will need to find a store or catalogue that sells or can order them for you. (Search online for "esd shoes")

4) If your skin is very dry - try an anti-static hand lotion (also available for the electronics industry.)

this is long you don't have to watch it all but she's cute anyways

Are they alive?

I don't know what it is about Kandie's toys, but Myra just loves to sleep in them. Kandie has also been falling asleep in her toys a lot lately. Mostly the bumbo seat. You would think they would hardly get any sleep. Last night both Kandie and Myra went to sleep at about 10:30. Kandie usually wakes up around 5, but today she slept till 8:30. I woke up at 7:30 wondering if my kids were still alive. I didn't know what to do. Myra is in fact still sleeping and it is 10. Why can't they do this everyday? I feel well refreshed and ready for the day with no interrupted sleep.

Kandie has something to say...

New haircut

I was in need of a new look. My hair was so thick and hard to do anything with. This way I can do things fast and it still looks cute. Yipee!!!

Southwestern-Style Grilled Chicken Wrap

Southwestern-Style Grilled Chicken Wrap
A delicious wrap you've gotta try it!!! I'm gonna make it tonight!!! Yummy

Hyalite Falls

We took a fun little hike up Hyalite trail just outside Bozeman. There was just a little bit of snow on the ground so it wasn't too bad. We ate lunch up by the falls and took a lot of pictures because it was beautiful. That rock I was sitting on apparently had water on it so I walked back down with a wet bottom. haha!!!

Myra's birthday

Myra turned 2 yesterday...yooray. First Monte drove up so Myra was excited to see him (he called that night and said he would be here at 1 in the morning)so only Myra was happy to see him ;)
First we were going to go the Museum of the Rockies but she fell asleep on the way, so we poked around until she woke up. We went to the mall and let her ride in one of those cars. We let her try on shoes, look at books, and play on all kinds of rides they had there. She was having fun. We went to pizza hut for dinner and to top it off we went on campus to feed the ducks some bread. That had to have been the highlight of her day. We came home opened presents and ate the sad cake I made. So as I was putting the frosting on the cake it totally fell apart. I think it was because I put a filling in the inside of the cake and it couldn't hold all the weight. So here are my cake making skills. Let's just say I'm no expert. Mason kept trying to make me feel better by saying how awesome it looked...I think he was being sarcastic!!! I think I will call it the blob. No one else can make a blob as beautiful as mine. Then I couldn't find the candles we had bought a couple of day's ago so we used matches for her candle. What a couple of rednecks...But I think she had a great day...now to get Monte to leave again. If only he wouldn't have been at my house every day for the past 2 1/2 years I would probably feel different about him. I can't wait to spend more than 2 months away from him. Hopefully when he moves to Arizona he won't visit us as often. Congratulation Monte for getting a job and moving away!!!

TROUBLE-MAKER

What a Sunday. Good thing I had been to church or I would have lost it. All in one day Myra decided to get into the expensive lotion. She had so much on her and the floor that she couldn't stand up because it was slippery. Next she somehow was able to undo her diaper in her onesie. I don't know if you can see her cheek hanging out. Then she opened the door and tried to run outside while it was hailing outside. Sometimes I wonder what goes through that childs head. The other day she had a screw-driver and was poking holes in my brand new furniture. It took every power in me to not throw too much of a fit because the couch is under warranty for 5 years...I just have to remember that she is still learning and of course that she is a 2 year old in a couple of days. Good thing Kandie was really good that day because I was going to loose it. She is smiling more and more. It just makes my day when she smiles at me.