Letdown

January is such a downer! It has been a blur of sick kids (including the hubby), poor sleep, and no motivation. One day was especially rough. It started with me getting my first ever shiner--Kate threw the phone at my eye. She then dumped an entire bag of Marshmallow Mateys on the carpet/couch and dumped my powder onto the bathroom floor. Later I was getting a game out of the closet and a bunch fell down on my foot. I haven't been sleeping well either. Between Tyler, the girls, and my bladder (I'm not preggers, I just have the smallest bladder known to mankind), I wake up a lot and have trouble falling asleep. I've been taking naps almost every day, which means I don't get much done around the house. Thankfully this month is almost over.

Tyler and I have made some personal and family resolutions that have helped with things a bit. Possibly my favorite is that Tyler has resolved to make dinner one night a week. He has been faithful so far. All of his meals have been tasty. Most nights there have been leftovers, so it is great to have two nights a week where I don't have to worry about what to make.

Tyler also encouraged me to learn a new skill this year. After much thought, I decided to pick something that is more like a project but will hopefully help me learn new skills along the way. I want to learn more about decorating and organization so I can give my house a makeover. I'll take it one room at a time (starting with my bedroom) and we'll see what happens. I'm excited to learn new things (I want to make curtains for several of the rooms) and hopefully have a better-looking house at the end. I am open to any ideas, tips, books, websites, blogs, etc. that can help me in the process. Wish me luck!

Christmas dresses

I love the Christmas dresses I found for the girls this year. We got some pretty good pictures of them sporting their fancy new outfits. Love these girls.

A long December

December was, of course, a busy month for us. We had family parties, Christmas concerts, yada yada yada. I'll make shorter posts about some of these later. Christmas was great. The girls loved it. It gets more fun as they get older. I especially love Christmastime because my entire family is in town. We had everyone over to watch the Las Vegas Bowl and we hung out a lot. One fun little story from the holidays: we went to the Larry H. Miller Christmas Carol Sing-Along at ESA the Monday before Christmas. I started feeling ill beforehand, but we were already downtown at a party at Tyler's work. The arena was crazy packed, but we had good seats and sat with some of Tyler's family members. Something just wasn't right with me, and about halfway through the concert I knew I was going to barf. I ran up the stairs and knew I didn't have time to make it to a bathroom, so I ran outside and immediately puked on the pavement. People were walking by saying, "Ma'am, are you okay?" I mean, vomit was spewing from my mouth as they were asking this. I felt a little better, but I was glad to see Tyler out there with the girls by the time I was done (luckily we stayed just long enough to get our free Jazz tickets). As we continued back to Tyler's work, I started feeling worse and knew there was going to be trouble. We had two cars there, but there was no way I was going to drive home. I'm so glad we left a car, because Tyler had to pull over before we got home so I could puke again. It was a long night of sitting on the toilet and puking. It finally stopped and I got some sleep, but I didn't feel myself for over a week after that. I hardly felt like eating, especially treats, which is very unusual for me. The sad thing is that two days later Ada started puking, and that night in her bed, Kate started puking too. Ada puked seven times and was done. After barfing twice in her crib, I had to cover myself with towels and hold Kate while I awaited it to come again. Luckily she only barfed two more times and was done with it. They both seemed normal the next day. It was so sad with Ada because after the first time she was just dry heaving and it was so hard to hear and watch her. All I could do was hold her hair back and hold the bowl up to her mouth. Anyway, that was our pleasant week before Christmas. I'm glad it came when it did. Poor Tyler caught it two weeks later, but luckily we all made it through Christmas and New Year's unscathed. Pictures (of Christmas, not puke) are forthcoming.

The Katester

Ada is officially 3 1/2 today, which means that Kate became 1 1/2 twelve days ago. I am way behind. There is a lot to report on little Kate, so I better get crackin':

On the day of the 10th, I FINALLY felt a third tooth poking out of Kate's gums. We're slowly getting there. Maybe one day she'll be able to eat like a normal person. She loves to talk, and she's good at it. I can't believe how many words she says and how many she can put together. It's adorable, but it makes her seem so darn old! Every day she grabs all the Sesame Street books she can find (we have a lot) and brings them to me so she can sit on my lap and identify all the characters. She loves to be read to. Poor little thing has been sick a few times this winter. When she's not feeling well, she likes to cuddle with Mom. I love it, except that it makes it hard to get anything done. For a while (like right after Daylight Savings) she was waking up at ridiculous hours. She slowly started sleeping longer and then was consistently waking up between 7:00 and 8:00. Now she's been waking up in the night and the wee hours of the morning, but she's been going back down and sleeping until 8:30 or 9:00. She is a crazy climber. We have to fold up all chairs so she doesn't drag them around the house and climb onto things. She especially loves to stand on chairs so she can turn the lights on and off. She is so sweet and happy. She loves to play, laugh, and have fun. She dances whenever she hears music and often prefers to run instead of walk. She loves going to Nursery. We took her a few times before she was official because she was getting so hard to take to class. I was a little nervous about her going, but she does well and has no problem leaving us. She comes home and tries to sing the 'Hello' and 'Sunbeam' songs. So cute! Her hair is now long enough for pigtails! It can be a chore to do, but it's adorable. She loves to give kisses. We'll be reading a book and she'll suddenly bend down to kiss someone on the pages. She kisses the toys she plays with and people she sees. I love it! Now for the best news of all: Kate doesn't have to take her antibiotics anymore! If anyone doesn't know what I'm talking about, you can read here and here. We took her to Primary Children's last Friday for another VCUG. It was an unpleasant experience for little Kate. She did much better when she was five months old. She cried the whole time and Tyler and I had to try and comfort her while she laid on a table hooked up to a catheter, with dye being pumped into her bladder and an x-ray machine over her. After the whole ordeal they gave a her a little teddy bear and told us they'd let us know the results. On Sunday I got a message from her doctor saying that everything was normal and she didn't have to take antibiotics anymore. Hallelujah! I hated giving those to her every day, and getting refills every month. The only plus is that she has never had an ear infection. Anyway, we're thrilled because we know other kids with the condition have had it a lot longer, and if it hadn't have gone away on its own then she would have had to have surgery.






We just love this sweetie!

Family photos

We got family pictures taken last month by a friend from our old ward. I had been wanting pictures for a while, and worked hard to put our outfits together. I got my inspiration from here. I love the color combination she used. I did my best to replicate without breaking the bank. I would have loved to buy new outfits for us all, but I went the cheap route instead. I borrowed my sweater, Ada's shrug, and Kate's skirt from family members (I also borrowed a yellow headband for Ada, but we couldn't find it on picture day. I later found it at the bottom of Kate's laundry basket). I wanted to buy Kate a red shirt with white stripes but I couldn't find one anywhere, so I used this red shirt she already had. I also already had the red shirt I'm wearing, Ada's skirt, and all of the flowers. I found Tyler's sweater at Old Navy for a whopping $4.74. I purchased Kate's shoes at Kid-to-Kid for $6.

My problems: I wanted the pictures to be taken outside, but I waited too long and we had to find an indoor place last minute because it was during the time in December when the highs were in the teens. Also, I didn't think to have the photographer take full-body pictures of us all, so you can't see the girls' full outfits very well. Also, the girls weren't cooperating! Kate wasn't feeling well that day, and Ada had a hard time looking at the camera. Despite all that, I think they turned out really well. We'll have to call her back in the Spring for some more.

This is the one we selected for our Christmas cards. It's the best one where we're all looking.

I love this one of Kate, but who knows what Ada's looking at!

This one's not bad, except that Ada's doing something funky with her tongue and Kate looks drugged up

Another one where the kids aren't cooperating. At least Kate is looking, though she looks troubled

She's good for the individual shots

This is the only picture that shows Kate's shoes, and they're just in the background

The best one of Kate

Aww...except that after this picture was taken she said something like, "Look like you're happy to be together!"

That's more like it! I think our natural smiles were getting worn out by that point

She took a few of the girls together but none worked out! Hopefully we'll have better luck next time.