Reasons I can't wait to have my own house

1 - I can' t wait to let my kids go out in the backyard and play while I am making dinner or am otherwise engaged and I don't have to go with them because it will be fully fenced.

2- I. can't. wait. to. paint.

3 - I can't wait to hook our water line up to our fridge again and not have to refill the water pitcher 10 times a day.

4- I can't wait to be able to open our blinds and not be staring at (or being stared at by) the people walking down the sidewalk or the drivers on 300 South.

5 - I can't wait to be able to put Hunter down for a nap on a different floor than us and therefore not have to shush the other kids every 10 seconds.

6 - I can't wait to buy furniture and actually have the room to rearrange it if I want.

7 - I can't wait for Brandon getting ready in the morning to not wake the kids up.

8 - I can't wait to have a place to do crafts. Cause I really want to do some crafts.

9 - I can't wait to be paying a mortgage and not rent.

10 - I can't wait to have Brandon's commute be shorter so he can spend more time with us.

11 - I can't wait to live close to our friends in Lehi and Thanksgiving Point. (Though we will miss our friends here, luckily, they're all moving too)

12 - I can't wait for the kids to have a playroom. And keep the toys somewhat confined to one area.

13 - I can't wait (and hope that we get to move early enough) to have fun sprinkler parties in the summer.

Resolutions-for real.

So at the beginning of this year, I made the normal New Year's Resolution to lose weight. I make it every year, let's be honest. But this year I am serious. After 3 babies and not (intentionally) losing weight in between them, (Haylie's baby weight just kind of fell off, much to my delight) I am in serious need of losing some lbs. And what is the deal with boy baby weight? After Henry I lost some but then it just quit coming off and the same thing happened with Hunter! Dumb. Anyways. I think about working out a lot but I have a very hard time actually doing it. I am also a huge fan of spending lots of money on workout DVDs and not using them. My husband loves it.

So this January, after we got home from Phoenix, I was like, this is it. And I started actually using my Turbo Jam DVDs that I got after having Haylie. It's funny. I used to not like them, because I thought that Chalene was obnoxious, but now, I love them. Maybe I thought she was obnoxious when I was doing the 45 minute workouts and I was hating life. But this time I discovered the Fat Blaster workout, which is Interval training (I'm a fan) and it's only 30 min! Double bonus. Then my friend told me about Jillian Michael's 30 day Shred, which is also interval training. (But it's got a lot of strength training where Turbo Jam is more cardio) I would like to say that I enjoy the Turbo Jam more but Jillian makes me work! So I alternate them so I don't loathe exercising.

I have found that since I've gotten in the habit of working out and eating well, I actually enjoy doing it and I look forward to it. I also miss it on days that I don't do it, which is something I never thought I'd say. The best part though? I've started seeing results. At first it was just things that only I would notice, how my body feels different, like it's changing from the inside out. ( I hate that it can't change from the outside in, like lose all the fat and then build the muscle, but it's the way things work. And I weighed myself yesterday and I've lost 17 pounds! I'm almost to the 20 lb mark! I'm hoping to lose 50 at the end of it, and it's encouraging to be on my way!

Thanksgiving

We made a last minute decision to go to Washington this year for Thanksgiving. It was so much fun and even though we didn't get to see everyone we wanted to because they had a crazy snow storm come through, we had a really nice visit. We stayed with my dad's sister, which we've never stayed with before and it was really nice. Her house is very cozy and I loved just sitting there all snuggled up with a cup of hot cocoa and watching the snow fall. She lives close to Mt. Spokane so it was so much prettier up there than in town. Everyone was complaining about the snow but I was loving it. It snowed almost the whole time we were there!

I was a little worried about having Thanksgiving dinner at my aunt's house because she has a lot of dietary issues and can't eat most things that would be at Thanksgiving dinner. I even called my dad ahead of time to make sure that we weren't have a "diet dinner". He assured me we weren't and he was right. It was actually one of the best Thanksgiving dinners I've ever had. Everything was made from scratch, and some of the substitutions she made made the food even better. For example, she can't have sugar so she made the sweet potatoes with pure maple syrup. YUM! I even made them again since I've been home I liked them so much. We didn't make it over to my grandma's because of the snow but I kind of liked being snowed it :)

Henry's birthday was two days after Thanksgiving so on Friday my dad threw a birthday party for him at Chuck E. Cheese. He was so funny. If you get the package then they do this whole thing where Chuck E. will come out and present you with a crown and a medallion and sing to you. There were a few other kids having parties there at the same time so they do the presentation all at once. Henry had the funniest look on his face the whole time and wouldn't participate in any of the songs or dances. Then each birthday kid gets a turn in the Ticket Blaster, which is one of those things you stand in and they turn air on and tickets (they usually use them for money) blow around and you're supposed to try and get as many as you can. They told him if he got scared to knock and they would let him out. I think he misunderstood because he just stood there and then knocked because I think he thought that's what he was supposed to do. He did end up catching some tickets in his crown though. Then they asked who wanted to go in for Henry to earn some tickets. I'm pretty sure they were talking to the adults, but Haylie was so excited and she wanted to go in so they let her. She just stood there too, but she didn't knock. It was the funniest thing because of the look on her face. And then it was even funnier, because, like Henry, she had caught tickets in the crown, but she took it off before they could open the door. My dad got some sort of package and I will say that they are very generous with the tokens there! By the end of the night we were just playing the games that were the quickest just to get rid of them. We all had a great time and the kids still talk about it. Thanks again, Papa Zkeeter!

On Saturday we went to my mom's brother's house for an open house/joint birthday party for Henry and my cousin Josh. My uncle's daughter, Jenni, was also in town with her new baby so we wanted to give the family a chance to see everyone at once. But because of the snow, only the immediate family came! Oh well, we had a very nice visit anyways.

On Sunday we packed up and went to stay at my grandma's for our last night in town. She made turkey noodle soup and it was delicious. I think with all the yummy food we ate I gained about 10 lbs., which is exactly the opposite of what you want to do after having a baby, but oh well. We had a nice visit with Grandma Carol and Papa Jim and then on Monday morning we headed home. We split the drive up, just to be safe, so we stayed Monday night in Butte, and made the rest of the trip on Tuesday. It always feels so good to come home to our own beds and routines after a trip, even though we have so much fun while we're there.

Henry's First Primary Program

This Sunday was my first one back since giving birth, and obviously Hunter's first trip to church ever! I really wanted to go, even though we (Hunter and I) hadn't gotten any sleep the night before; because it was Henry's very first Primary Program. We have been so excited to have Henry in Primary, he loves it so much and we were really interested to see how he would be up in front. I have heard many stories about how "interesting" Brandon was. Apparently he was the kid who always sat up there and made faces and basically humiliated his mother. We expected much of the same from Henry, since he's such a crazy little outgoing kid. Exactly the opposite. Brandon had to convince him to even just stay up there and sit in his seat. He wouldn't stand up at all for the songs, he didn't sing, and when it was his turn to say his line, he refused to get up. His teacher picked him up and took him to the microphone and he whined and acted like the microphone was going to attack him. Awesome. He did so good at memorizing his line, too! Poor kid. I asked why he wouldn't go up and he said he was afraid of the microphone. He did get up to the microphone in the Primary room and say his line though, so that was good. Maybe next time he'll get up there...

I don't like that

Henry is going through a phase right now that I do not particularly like. He doesn't like ANYTHING. Every single night while I'm making dinner he asks what we're having. When I answer he yells in an extremely whiny voice "But I don't LIKE that!". And then we have to basically force-feed him a bite after which he usually proceeds to clear his plate because he does, in fact, "like that".

The thing that really gets me is is it's like he's just doing it out of spite to drive me crazy. He says he doesn't like things that every kids likes. For example, yesterday we were getting ready to go out to lunch and we were telling him to get his shoes on because we were going to McDonalds. He then stomped around for ten minutes, refusing to put his shoes on and claiming that he doesn't like McDonalds. Come on now. Every kids likes McDonalds. And today. The ward primary is having a water party, which Henry has been talking about for two weeks. This morning he decided that he doesn't like water parties. Or ice cream for that matter, which they will be serving at the water party. Or chocolate. He just decided to throw that one in for good measure I guess.

This is stressing me out. First of all, Brandon went on a man-trip this last week, which left my 36 week pregnant self alone with the kids. Not a huge deal, but I can't say I haven't been looking forward to this water party as well, just to get Henry out of the house for a little bit and have some peace and quiet. Did I also mention that I'm sick? Just a cold, but when you aren't allowed to take anything for it a cold can knock you on your butt. Just saying.

Anyways. I am pretty much over this "but I don't like that" phase of my son's life. No, not pretty much. Very over it.

Haylie, however is going through a really cute phase where she wants to "give you wuvs" every five minutes. Which is how I caught this cold. She had it and I couldn't resist her when she would reach her chubby little arms out and say "Give you wuvs, Mommy. Give you kiss, too". Dang it.

Aren't kids great?

Quitting the Bink

So we've been talking about taking away Haylie's bink for quite some time now, but I just haven't wanted to go through that again. It wasn't bad with Henry, he was just really whiny for a few days and I wasn't looking forward to that with Haylie because she is extremely annoying when she's whiny. Extremely. But we both agreed that she needs to be done with the bink well before the baby comes so yesterday I took them away. I just hid them before nap time and when I went to lay her down, the conversation went something like this:

Haylie: where's mine binky go?

Me: the binkys are all gone because you're soooo big now.

Haylie: mama throw them in the garbage?

Me: uh, yes.

Haylie: oh.

And then she rolled over and went to sleep. Are you kidding me? If I would have known it would be that easy with her I would have done it months ago!

The duck pond

My friend Lindsay texted me this morning to tell me that there was a playgroup today and afterward she and her family were going to the BYU duck pond to have a picnic lunch. After a little persuasion, I convinced Brandon to meet us there with Taco Bell. (He doesn't eat sandwiches, and I didn't have time to make any anyways) I had no idea where the duck pond was, and I wasn't really paying attention when Lindsay was telling me. Silly me. We live on 300 S and 900 E. The duck pond is on 800 N and like 600 E. Awesome. Did I mention that I only took our umbrella stroller because normally I let Henry walk? It's really not that long of a walk for adults, but for little kids, it is. Henry did well going there, Lindsay's little girl got tired at the end and wanted in the stroller, which her 9 month old sister was occupying. So we get to the park and eat lunch and feed the ducks. The kids were in heaven. Henry kind of tried kicking one of the ducks, and I think he had more fun chasing and terrorizing them than feeding them but Haylie was so cute. I think BYU holds classes there, because my friend Deena, who also came, referred to the pond as the Botany Pond and there was a large area with stadium benches, which is where we sat. The kids were playing at the top of the seating area when all of a sudden Brandon gasped and ran off. Poor Haylie had taken a nose dive down the stairs. She only fell like, one stair but she fell face first. She looks so banged up it pitiful. I thought she only got her nose but as you can see she got a lot more. Poor girl.