Busy Week

It seems like both Josh and I have a million things going on this week. Or in my case, a million things I need/want to get done. I hate that I haven't blogged more, and I'm gonna try to do better.


I've been working on taxes this week. I am soooooo thankful for our 2 tax deductions and it looks like we'll get an awesome return this year. I've also been keeping up with my couponing "job" in addition to all the duties of being a mommy. Sheryl put together an awesome savings spreadsheet to track your savings throughout the year and I update my sidebar with a running total of how much I've saved so far this year by couponing. It's absolutely amazing. Also, Fry's started up their awesome promotion again so I'm gearing up for their mega event and putting together a store list. I put together a budget for this year so I'm anxious to see how we've done for January. My whole spending perspective has changed and I love to see how much I can save now and how little I can spend. I've also been doing extra cleaning and organizing around the house in addition to my normal cleaning.


Josh has been busy dealing with the golf cart and starting his own business. He is selling his golf cart but there were somethings that need to be fixed through the MVD first so he's been dealing with that. He is also in the process of starting his own business, Elite Digital Services LLC. He went down Monday to "claim" the business name and is now dealing with other business licensing/requirements. He met with the company he is going to be working for on Wednesday and now he only has 238 things left to do to get things rolling. I'm trying to be optimistic but the skeptical side of me is over powering. We'll see what happens....I'll share more details later.


Haylee has been busy too. Being a Princess is hard work. She spends her days dressing up, coloring, "cutting" coupons, painting, and playing with her little sister. When I told her Natalee was 9 months old she said "can she walk now?" I guess she is anxious for her to walk so they can run around together. For now, Haylee just crawls around on the floor with her.


Natalee as you heard in the previous post is busy too. She went to the Dr. yesterday and is definitely a growing girl! She is the perfect baby. We love her so much. Just today she has been crawling on all 4's and she has taken 2 hour naps the last 2 days!! Things change so fast around here.

We are gearing up for a weekend full of errands, a birthday party, and shopping time with my mom (again). Josh will be checking things off his list and I'll be doing my Mega run then enjoying some awesome weather at the outdoor mall.

Have a wonderful weekend.

9 Months

My sweet precious baby N is 9 months old already. Where did the time go? It seems like I just had her yesterday. Makes me so sad.

Natalee weighs 21 lbs. 10 oz.
and is 29 1/4 inches!

Things to remember-


Wears size 3 diaper.


Wears mostly 9 month clothes.


Still our little army crawler. She'll get up on all 4's then she just plops down and starts army crawling. Guess it's faster for her.


She gets herself into the sitting position after crawling.


She is pulling herself up to the standing position on toys, furniture and in her crib. She'll even stand there for several minutes and sometimes only holding on with one hand.

 Said her 1st word "mama!" Also says "bubba" and "baba" and many other words in her foreign language.

She is learning how to open and close her hand to say "hi" and "bye".


Has 2 teeth.


When we feed her in her highchair or give her a drink from her sippy cup, she holds her arms and hands out to the side and rolls/twirls her hands.

She doesn't like to be changed or dressed. And barely holds still to actually get the task done.


Turned into a vampire for a short time and would bite me while nursing. Luckily that phase passed.


Loves to play on the floor. She loves to play with Haylee's pretend food, balls, Mickey figurines and whatever else she gets her little hands on. Unfortunately she has already discovered the dog door but hasn't tried to escape yet.

Already putting stuff in her mouth and gets very upset if you try to get it out. We also had to remove the door stoppers because she puts those in her mouth.


Drinking 6 oz bottles between eating solids. I still nurse her in the morning and before bed but it's more of a treat then an actually feeding. Again, I'm just thankful she is still getting breast milk. I am so proud of this!


Sleeping 11 hours at night. After she eats she pushes off of me because she just wants to be laid in her in crib. I give her a binkie, her bear bear, cover her with a blankie and turn on her crib music. She goes right to sleep.

Naps haven't been so great lately but she is such a happy baby that I don't really mind her short naps. She takes 2 naps a day but lately they have been an hour or shorter.


Loves her bath in the big tub. She splashes around and sucks on her squirt toys.


Her hair is getting longer and longer.


So ticklish. Especially her rib area and under her arms.


Eats table food now. Mac n cheese, fruits, vegetables and breads.

Loves to dance. She's always rockin' back and forth.


Constantly "talking", making noises, smacking sounds and screaming.

Natalee, Mommy and Daddy love you so much. You are the perfect little baby. We feel so blessed to have you as part of our family. You are so happy and your smile just lights up the room. We love watching you change so much but wish you'd slow down a bit. We can't believe that in just 3 short months you'll be a year old. We have enjoyed these past 9 months with you and hope we are blessed with many, many more.

And on a funny note, look at how much hair Haylee had at 9 months old!

We have a problem...

When I went to get Natalee up yesterday morning, this is what I found.....

Natalee is pulling herself up on things! Better watch out. Time to lower the crib.

Vanessa & Andy

My cousin Vanessa got married Sunday and her and Andy chose Haylee to be their flower girl. I was so nervous that Haylee was gonna refuse to cooperate or have an attitude of some sort. I was wrong, she was awesome.

She was so happy to finally be able to wear her "wedding dress" and she even let me curl her hair. She looked like a little Princess.

(That is my Mom's Christmas tree still up!)

Her and the ring bearer quickly became buddies. They looked so adorable walking down the aisle together. When they walked up to where the chairs started they both kinda froze.

Haylee was looking for us and once she found me she started to run towards me but I told her to continue down the aisle towards Larissa.

(Haylee watching Vanessa walk down the aisle)

After Vanessa made her way to the front, Haylee came to sit with us to watch the ceremony. 

(Sand Ceremony)

Haylee pretty much danced the entire reception. Anytime there was a break from dinner, toasts or whatever, she was out on the dance floor dancing around. Bet you'll never guess who she was dancing with.....her little buddy Ben (and his older sister). It was hilarious to see her chase after him holding both hands out for him to hold and then they would jump around laughing and dancing. Cracked us up. We were told by one guest to exchange information with his parents so we could set up their arranged marriage years down the road. Everyone thought they were so cute.

The wedding was so beautiful. It was laid back and perfect. Being there early (for pictures) I got to take some pictures while they were setting things up. I loved their cake, and all of the shells were edible too.

We had a wonderful night.

Congratulations Andy & Vanessa. We wish you a lifetime of love and happiness!

Dustin's Surprise

Tonight was wonderful. The look on Dustin's face was priceless.

He knew we had gotten him a washer and dryer, but the complete kitchen package was a surprise. Pulte is switching from GE to Whirlpool appliances in all of their models so Josh was able to get him a brand new refrigerator, oven, microwave, dishwasher, washer and dryer. His current appliances are all over 10 years old and a couple of them had quite working and the rest were about to bite the dust so this opportunity came at a perfect time.

When he walked outside he said, "wow you guys got a lot of stuff" because he thought we just got it to sell it all on craigslist but after we told him it was all for him he was surprised. I think he said, "oh cool!" He was very thankful.

Josh got most of the appliances switched out but will have to finish another day due to some "obstacles" but luckily everything fits where it needs to and it will all work perfectly. I took some before and after pictures just for fun!

I'll add pictures of the microwave and dishwasher once those are installed too.

Betty Crocker

Just call her Betty Crocker. Haylee received a Princess cupcake kit for Christmas and she had so much fun making them.

She mixed the cupcake batter,

poured it in the liners,

and after we cooked them she decorated them with icing and sprinkles.

There was frosting, but it tasted pretty bad so we decided not to use that.

They tasted pretty yummy and Haylee had a lot of fun!

Zoo

We took the girls to the zoo last week while Josh was home.

We had a wonderful time. The weather was perfect, the girls we so good, and the animals were all out and about. 

Both girls loved monkey village where they could watch the monkeys run wild.

One ran across the rope brushing up against Natalee and one ran across the ground right next to Haylee and she scoped him out while he hid in the bush.

This was Natalee's 2nd time to the zoo and she loved it. Once she focused on the animals she stared in awe. She liked the animals that made noises.

(I call the koalas our foreign exchange students. They're at the zoo thru March.)

We are so fortunate to have such a wonderful zoo. They are always doing upgrades and adding new stuff.

I'm hoping to start taking the girls twice a month now that the weather is wonderful. Of course that means leaving the house with both girls by myself which I've only done once before (when Natalee needed her 2nd flu shot) and Natalee is almost 9 months! It's just easier to run errands once Josh gets home so I'm not getting them in and out of the car and trying to shop with 2 little ones. Plus, I like the break!

12 Years

I hate January 9th. Even though it's been 12 years now, I remember January 9, 1999 like it was yesterday. I was in the funeral procession for my best friends Mom who had died 4 days earlier (as if that wasn't tragic enough) and my Mom got the most awful phone call. It was my brother crying hysterically because he just received a call that my Dad had been in a car accident and was dead. My poor brother was home alone. I wish I could erase that entire day and week following.

Over the past 12 years his absence has broken my heart. He wasn't in the stands when I graduated high school. He never got to walk me down the aisle. He didn't get to hold either one of his granddaughters who are named after him. I don't get to see him on holidays or at family gatherings. And I think the hardest is that he's not just a phone call away and I can't go visit him and just give him a hug.

Loosing a parent is horrible. I was Daddy's little girl. I still have dreams about him and they are so real. So real that I wake up and have to remind myself that he's gone. Breaks my heart.

Today I told Haylee I was going to get balloons for Papa Reggie. She said, "are we gonna let them go in the sky because he died?" Sadly, yes.

Predictable

I started giving Natalee her binkie when I put her on the floor to play. Why? Because if not, she licks the tile and "eats" the door stoppers.

She has this little "routine". I put her down and she taps her right foot against the floor, licks the tile (if she doesn't have a binkie in) and then heads straight for the door stopper.

Little stinker! I can tell I'm gonna have my hands full with this little girl. She is already getting into things and doing stuff I can't remember Haylee doing. But how can you get mad at this sweet little face?

To do list

I started making a "special" to do list a couple weeks ago because I knew Josh was going to have this whole week off. Needless to say we have been cleaning and organizing a lot around here. I cleaned and organized the girls rooms/closets, our closet, my craft room, and the office. We got all of the Christmas stuff put away, and I got several others things done like giving Jackson a bath, making cupcakes with Haylee, going to the ortho. and eye doctor. It's amazing how much you can get done when you have a helper.

Funny story. I had just went through my side of the closet and got rid of some clothes. Josh then proceeded to do the same. I think Josh has always had more shirts than me. He did get rid of a lot and then came over to my side and said that I now have more than him. I tried to explain, "well, I have to have 3 stages of clothes. The normal (pre pregnancy) clothes, the pregnancy clothes, and the post pregnancy clothes." He said, "well I have the pre 44 oz'r clothes and the post 44 oz'r clothes." I just laughed! And by the way, Josh will be starting P90X again Monday and I'm gonna try out 30 Day Shred.

We've had a fun week taking the girls to the mall and the zoo and going out to dinner and lunch, but now it's time to crack down. Our "new year" starts Monday. I don't really have any resolutions this year. It seems I make the same ones every year and never stick with them. I did however learn to save more and spend less this past year...finally! So for 2011 I'm gonna just try to better my life and better our family situation. Meaning, cut back on drinking soda, only go out to eat 2-3 a month (for date nights etc.), continue to save money by coordinating sales and using coupons, and maybe exercise a little. Those are all pretty reasonable. I have made a 2011 budget and have allowed myself $50 a week for groceries, diapers and toiletries. Most of you know that Fry's ended their awesome promotion so this budget might be difficult to keep but I'll do my best. For example, I rocked Safeway this past week stocking up on 10 boxes of Nature Valley granola bars and 24 boxes of fruit snack all for under $2. Not bad. I plan on hitting CVS this coming up week to stock up on Finish Dishwashing Tablets. They will be a $8.75 money maker! So there are still awesome deals out there.

Oh, and before I stop babbling, did you notice my beautiful blog makeover? I would have had it all done within an hour but blogger changed some minor things since the last time I reconstructed everything so I had to figure things out on my own. Embedding this, html code that....it's a lot of work. I must say I love how the header turned out. I feel very accomplished. That was on my to do list too!

Ok, going to watch a movie now. I'll leave you with a picture of my favorite girls.

Looks like they get along great huh? Well I do believe that this picture was taken shortly after Haylee put Natalee in a headlock and Natalee started crying. Poor baby N. Soon you'll be able to hold your own.

1-1-11

I don't know what to say about 2011. This could be a very stressful year for our family. In less than 4 months Josh will no longer have a job with Pulte. I pray he will find another job soon (or at least before his last day with Pulte) and that the benefits and pay are comparable if not better than what he has now. I pray that no matter what, we will be able to pay our bills and that more than anything we just make it through whatever hard times we face. I know Josh is a hard worker and he would be a wonderful asset to any company.

I hope this new year will bring happiness and great health to our family. I pray we will be able to create a lot of memories together as a family and that we will all be safe and protected.

Welcome 2011, please be good to me.