Need a good laugh!!

So you know how they say "Laughter is the best medicine!". Well I need a little of that medicine right now so I am asking that anyone who reads this post tell me the funniest joke or tell me the funniest story and who ever leaves the comment that makes me laugh the hardest will get a special prize. It will be something unique to that person so make it REALLY good readers!!! Thanks in advance!!

Lovin' on Parker boy!!

So Mattie was so excited to meet her new cousin for the first time! The look on her face here explains it all. I didn't get a picture of it but back in the corner Kylee is crying because she can't get near the baby because she is sick. She kept saying "Parkeer". (I tried to spell it how she says it because it is so cute!)

This was also Billy's first time meeting he's newest little nephew. It made him even more excited to have our little guy join the family.

He is just so dang cute from every angle!! I can't believe he is 1 month old already!

I love you Parker boy!! You just get cuter each day!!!

Erin just recently had pictures taken of Parker that are priceless. If you want to see them go to Steve and Erin's blog on the side of my blog!

Mattison + Kylee= cute moments!

So one morning I came into the front room and stopped right in my tracks because I saw such a cute sister moment. Mattie was just sitting there playing with Kylee's hair. They were both very content just to be together. I love that!

Then they were sitting as close as possible to each other as they could get to watch a movie. Kylee loves to be anywhere Mattie is. She especially loves her time with Mattie now that Mattie is in school for such a large part of the day. Just as they say "Distant makes the heart grow fonder."

This was on a quiet night when the girls had actually agreed on a mutual movie to watch. Mattie set up a little bed for both of them and Kylee thought that was just heaven. Man I just love these moments of love!! I am so looking forward to meeting our little guy Brayden! He is going to be a fun addition to this cute little group of kiddo's we have now. :)

22 Minutes of TANTRUM!!!

Don't let this adorable little face fool you this post is titled 22 minutes of Tantrum for a reason. This morning I was trying to get breakfast ready for the girls so that I could get Mattie's school lunch made while they ate. They were watching Little Einsteins and just as I come in the front room to just check on them Kylee is pulling all the dvd's down off the entertainment center. I said "Kylee no! No, no!". She then looked at me, took her two mischievous hands and grabbed another arm full of dvd's and threw them to the ground. To make matters worse she is looking AT ME while she is doing it and then she says "ha!". Like she was teaching me a lesson that this is what happens when you tell ME no. I then proceeded to tell her no again and she repeated the same scenario as before. With the "ha!" after and everything. I knew in that moment I HAD to take charge and let her know that believe it or not I AM THE MOMMY! So I went over to her and told her to pick them up and put them back right now. She just looked and me and walked away. So I took her hand and calmly (no joke) walked her back to the pile of dvd's on my floor and again instructed her to pick these up. She looked at me and started to walk away. I quickly took her hand to make her stay by me. This did NOT make her happy. She started crying and throwing herself around. She was crying "I want binky!". She said it over and over and over. I told her she could have binky as soon as she put all the dvd's back where they belong. Oh my gosh then did the tantrum begin!! She was throwing herself on the ground and rolling all over the front room screaming! I heard a little voice in my head say "Stick to it. Don't give in.". I knew that voice was right but I didn't like seeing her cry. Don't worry though I listened to the voice. I STUCK MY GROUND! I finally got it through to Kylee that this wasn't going to get any better until she picked up the dvd's. So 23 minutes later.........the dvd's were being put back were they belong by my feisty little baby girl. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!! I stuck my ground and Kylee learned that mommy can be pretty stubborn too. I know there will be more of these lovely tantrums to come but I am happy to say that I succeeded in not giving in. I love you Kylee!!

Bravery!

So I always thought I knew what it meant to be brave when I was younger. I now think that the brave means so much more than what I thought as a child. The other day I opened up Nie Dialogues to find Stephanie's first picture of herself since her plane crash 1 year ago. She posted it for all to see. At that moment I had even more of an understanding of what brave means. To me bravery means to stand up and keep on living even when you want to go in to a hole and hide. I know there are times when I get down and all I can think of is how I want to be in bed and don't want to get up. Then I think of Stephanie and all the difficult things she has had to go through in 12 months and realize that if she can continue to live each day and stand brave against all the struggles that she faces each and everyday than I surely can. She hiked the Y mountain on the 1 year anniversary of her plane crash. She set that goal for herself and she DID it! Today I want to stand a little taller like Stephanie and Christian and set a great goal for myself. I invite all of you to join me in this quest to be a little more brave. Brave against temptation, Satan and the things of the world! To just be brave enough to be yourself no matter who is around. Be brave enough to share your love with all those you come in contact with. Thank you Stephanie for your bravery and for helping to strive to be a little more brave in my faith in myself and in my Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ!

Where is Kylee??

So the other night I heard something weird in the baby monitor. It sounded like Kylee was talking in her sleep but it was muffled so that made me want to go check on her while she was sleeping. It was about 4 am at this point. I quietly open the door to just look at my girls and I see Mattie sleeping peacefully so I crack the door just a little more to check on Kylee in her bed. Except there is a problem...Kylee isn't in her bed! What? So I start looking all around the room and I am starting to get worried because I CAN NOT find her! Then something little catches my eye. It looks like little toes sticking out from under Mattie's bed. What?

So this is what I see and I lift up the bed skirt to Mattie's bed and there is my little Kylee sound asleep UNDER her sisters bed. Totally content to be in the dark covered area. I was trying so hard not to laugh really loud and wake the girls. As you can see the flash of the camera woke Mattie up but only for that second thank goodness.

So I got down on my hands and knees (after I stopped laughing so much) and scooped Kylee up to put her back in her bed.

She is the craziest sleeper I have ever seen! She talks in her sleep, walks in her sleep and even laughs in her sleep. She doesn't even stop when she is sleeping! The girl is always busy and keeping me on my toes. Hey Kylee let's stay in our beds from now on. :)

Mattison's 1st day of Kindergarten!

So today was Mattison's 1st day of kindergarten and she was VERY ready. She was so excited when she woke up and realized that the day had FINALLY come. She is attending a great charter school where they are required to wear uniforms and I think it is great.

This is on our way to school this morning. She was all smiles!

Kylee was also very excited. She had no idea why but she could tell everyone else was excited so that was good enough reason for her to join in the fun.

Daddy actually did pretty good this morning sending his baby off to school.

I have to say I think I also did pretty good. :) I learned that there were quite a few other LDS kids in her class and I know it sounds silly but that gave me comfort.
After the kids drop their backpacks off at their classroom doors they can play on the playground until school starts. Mattie likes this idea!


So now it is time for school to start and Mattison was very quick to put her backpack in her cubby and sit right down at her desk.

I took this picture when she didn't know it. She had been sitting there for about 3 minutes and just could not figure out why we weren't starting school yet. As you can tell here she is ready to get this party started. Let's just hope this enthusiasum continues all her life.

As soon as we pick her up from school she tells us she had fun and she is hot and needs a cold water bottle. Oops mommy forgot to send a water bottle to school with you. So here she is chugging my cold water bottle.

Then we decided it would be fun to get her a ice cream cone from McDonald's to celebrate her 1st day of kindergarten. I think she liked this celebration. Wish I had a picture of her AFTER that ice cream cone was finished. It would leave no doubt in your minds that she enjoyed it.

I'm so glad you enjoyed your 1st day of kindergarten Mattison! Mommy, Daddy and Kylee missed you a lot today but we know you will enjoy your time at school. Love you baby girl!! Now time to go do your homework!!! Seriously :)

Sleep?!?!

What is sleep?? I'm not very sure because it seems like I am getting less and less of it these days. I guess it is all just part of motherhood and being almost 30 weeks pregnant. So here is another thing about sleeping, 2 nights ago I had to put the girls to bed by myself without Billy's help because they were going to bed about 15 minutes later than usual and Billy had to get to work. Our normal routine is Billy gets almost completely ready for work then puts the girls to bed then finishes getting ready and goes to work for the night. The girls like this routine and honestly so do I. So anyways back to 2 nights ago when I was in charge of putting them down. Kylee didn't go to sleep until 9:30 pm!!!! Mattison didn't go to sleep until 10:00pm!!!! What the heck! I thought I was doing everything the same way Billy did each night but apparently NOT! So the next night we were back to normal and Billy put them to bed. I am NOT making this up the girls were asleep by 7:45pm last night! Once again I say, What the heck!!!!! He was in the room no more than 5 minutes and the girls were out cold. I spent more than 1 1/2 hours with them before they fell asleep. I guess it will just have to be Billy's job forever! :) hee, hee

Oh yeah and a little side night at 9pm I called my dad and said "Do you want to adopt my second child? She will not go to bed and I am exhausted!" This is my dad's response "ha, ha, ha, ha, ha". Yeah lots of sympathy. Then he says "Have fun!" Thanks for the great advice dad!

New Roomates!!!

So last week my great friend Ashley told me she wanted to take my girls for the day so that I could have a day alone with my amazing husband. So yesterday was that lucky day! Ashley came and picked the girls up at about 10 am and kept them VERY entertained until she brought them home around 7:15 that night. Billy and I decided (more so me hee, hee) that we were going to take advantage of the time alone. Billy took apart the full size bed that Mattison had been sleeping on so that we could put 2 beds in the room. That is right, Kylee and Mattison are roommates!! Kylee has officially moved out of the crib. I figured in about 9 weeks or so their is going to be a new baby invading the crib so no time like the present to put her in a toddler bed. Needless to say it saved us a ton to not have the girls here and in the way to put the beds together and situate the beds the way we wanted them.

The girls LOVED it when they got home! They were so excited to share a room. They both slept through the night last night in their own beds. It is a miracle that I am very grateful for. Then they have been playing in their new room together all morning. Kylee has already taken a 1 hour nap in her new bed too. She is way excited to be such a big girl like sister!

The girls had a blast with Ashley! She took them to Grams house (Ashley's grandma) where Grams had cookies and ice cream with all the yummy toppings. They had pizza while they were there. Then Grams and Ashley took the girls to the $1 store and let each of the girls pick out like 5 or more things each! Needless to say they had a blast with that. They each brought home a bag of goodies from the store. Then Ashley headed to her mom's house with the girls to go swimming. Thanks Kim for helping Ashley with the girls in the pool it is for sure a 2 man job if not more when Kylee is involved. They got to play with the dogs then they headed to Ashley's apartment to have dinner, movie and a bath! The girls had a blast with Ashley and all her family! Thank you soooooooooo much Ashley, Grams and Kim for such a wonderful day for my precious girls and for my amazing husband and I who had one on one time for the first time in a while. Also thanks to my mom who gave Billy and I movie tickets to go on a date while the girls were out on their adventure. Billy and I finally got to see Harry Potter 6. Now on to the next adventure........waiting for Krista to get home so we can start getting Brayden's room ready for him! It is a football themed room of course. :)

34 YEARS!!!

I wanted to wish my parents a very HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!! My parents have now been married for 34 years! I'm so blessed to have such a great example for what a marriage should be. I have always been blessed to know that my parents love each other VERY much. My mom and dad are best friends and they love spending time together. I love to see how much my dad loves and cherishes my mom. They take care of each other the way a husband and wife should. Thank you mom and dad for setting such a good example for what a marriage is all about. I'm not saying that their marriage is perfect but they know that they want to be together for eternity so they work at it everyday. I love you mom and dad!! HAPPY ANNIVERSARY to these last 34 years and many more to come!!