Well I'm leaving in the morning. So excited to get away but I'm missing my babies already. Especially Bella. She's soooo cute lately. The way she demands hugs and kisses. We went to wal-mart tonight to pick up some snacks for the trip so I bought her Over the Hedge. She was going to get it for Christmas but then with the move we didn't have money. And I'm getting quite sick of Madagascar. Over the Hedge seems to be equal to her, she even calls it Hedge now. We bought a box of valentines with that on it and she carried the box around for days.

John's become a very active toddler. He has no attention span at all. He only does one activity for a few seconds before dashing off to the next. It's funny to watch some times but can become very annoying. Monday Becca comes back to restart his therapy. I'm so glad he gets to keep the same therapist since he loves her so much. She seemed quite happy to hear we were back too.

















I have no idea what I'll take pictures of while I'm gone. The kids are all I know. Plus I'm taking my old camera so I'm sure it just won't be the same anymore. I LOVE my new camera. I can't wait till we get some warmer weather though and can go outside to take pictures. We got a bunch of snow today but I just didn't feel like going out in the cold.

















Oh and John has started sucking his thumb all the time now. It used to just be a sleepy time thing and now it's an all day thing. I really realized it taking pictures. It's cute, don't know how long it'll be cute but for now I'll enjoy it.

New camera and a road trip

My new digital camera came in the mail today and I'm sooooooo excited! I got the Nikon D50 and love it. I took way too many pictures today but I'm just trying to figure it out. I love having control over what the settings are. And best of all Isabella's eyes are OPEN in the pictures. I was getting so mad at my old camera (it's a good one for being a point and shoot camera.) I had to delete almost everything I took because Bella closed her eyes every time and John was a blur.


And we got a washer and dryer. No parent should be without those. We go through so much laundry. Thankfully Corey has been the one going to the laundry room for us. I'm about to put a load of towels through the maiden voyage. My life is boring!

On to the exciting stuff now. The HER Foundation has been working for a long time to get public awarness about hyperemesis gravidarum out. Well finally Dr. Phil is doing a show about it! We are all very very excited about this. This disease effects so many and still no one knows what it is. I had never heard of it before I got it. Anyway the show is being filmed on Thursday and I'm going! It was so exciting being called by the Dr. Phil show. A bunch of us from the foundation will be attending as VIP guests. So I get to go on another road trip but this time without the kids! Four of us from Utah are driving out to Hollywood together so it should be lots of fun. Corey's worked it out with his boss so he can work from home two days and take care of the kids. He insisted that I go. The episode should air in a week or two, I'll be sure to post the exact date when I find out.

Well John got his own room today. Bella has been increasingly not nice to him lately and I drew the line today. She layed down on top of him and wouldn't let him up. Scared him to death and made it so he could barely breathe. I just can't trust her alone with him in their room right now. Besides I think it'll be good for them anyway. Their sleep schedules have really been clashing lately and they both need a little alone time.

I'm a little bummed about losing the computer room but it's not a huge deal. I haven't been spending as much time on the computer lately anyway since it's not in the living room anymore. And we're used to our bedroom being cluttered with computers anyway.

Poor John is so sick and miserable. He spent the whole day moaning and crying and clinging to me. He just doesn't know what to do with himself. I of course feel awful for him. Bella's still a bit sick but not as much as him. On the plus side they both took two naps today, that hasn't happen in a year!

Today was definitely better. Not perfect but better. John's pretty sick, the mild cold everyone else got hit him pretty hard. It's gone to his chest and he sounds awful. I'm so glad we made it this long before his first real cold, it would have been awful when he was a baby.

Oh and John said his first words today. I couldn't believe it, Bella picked up his bottle off the floor and handed to him and he looked at her and said "thank you." I figured it was one of the coincidences where it sounds like he's saying something but he's not but I repeated it and he said it again. He even said it several more times for Corey. And I was shocked that not only he said it but he did it unprompted and in the correct context. Smart kid.

And this is proof that Bella is a big kid now, when you tell her to smile she does this. I always loved how kids do that and you actually have to tell them not to smile for the camera. It's even cuter when it's your own kid.

Bad bad day

Funny how the events of the afternoon can make a whole day suck. I don't know what happened to my good kids but I want them back! I know they're stressed by all the crap that's gone on but they're driving me nuts. Bella threw fit after fit today day for hours on end. Usually I send her to her room and she calms down after a minute and comes back out and behaves. Not today, she'd scream in her room for 20 minutes come out and throw another fit within 5 minutes and the whole process would repeat itself. I took them outside and it still continued. They're getting into everything, screaming all the time and throwing things. Not to mention fighting with each other over ever toy we own. Stuff I don't tolerate but my normal parenting techniques aren't working which just leaves me feeling like a failure. And Corey's meeting ran late so he didn't get home till 7pm. Tomorrow has to be better than this (right?)

On the plus side Bella has once again done very well with potty training despite all the confusion. She was in diapers for the road trip and then when we got here she got sick and had diarrhea. Put her back in panties today and she did so good. I don't even have to remind her anymore she just comes and tells me she needs to go.

I had a post typed up last night and lost it. I was almost done when Bella messed with the electrical outlet and popped the circuit cutting off power to the study. I'm still not quite sure what she did but there's black stuff on the outlet now and she didn't get hurt. She actually didn't even get scared. Guess we'll have to watch her more closely around the plugs, I have all the empty ones covered up but this was one with something plugged into it. Still haven't checked to see if my camera battery charger was ruined or not.

Today is Corey's first day at his new job, he called and said it's going really well. I'm enjoying some alone time with the kids napping. It's kind of nice to have him out of the house again, both ways have their ups and downs I guess. The kids are driving me nuts though, everyone is getting over the cold and Bella's just really wound up. I was going to take them to the park but it's all snowy and icky outside. Of course the weather was beautiful and sunny all weekend while we were sick.

Anyway I gotta go enjoy the quiet before it's gone. Corey's hours are later now so we're on our own for awhile. But he leaves after we're all up and got to have breakfast with us so that's nice.

Back Home

So we survived another road trip with the kids. 1300 miles in three days. It actually went much better this time. Breaking the trip into three days instead of two helped a lot. They survived off of crackers and gatorade the whole time and I discovered computer keyboards make awesome car toys for kids. We happened to pack the computer in the back of the van so the keyboards were in there already and the kids LOVE the keyboards. They are wide enough that they fit across the carseat great.

It's great to be back in Utah, we sure missed it. And our new location here is nice. Only about 9 miles from where we were before but it's far enough out that it's quieter which I like. The apartment is great too, much much better layout than our last place. And we have a garage which is attached to the apartment and makes it feel more like a house. Also there's three bedrooms so taking our computers out of our bedroom and the living room gives us much more space. The only problem is there's not much space in the kitched for food, but at least there's more counter space. Can't wait to get our tax return so we can get a washer and dryer. We just go through way too much laundry, I'd be living in the laundry room. I sent Corey there today and had him take the portable DVD player, so he watch Harry Potter while he was there.

The kids are definitely reacting to all the stuff that's been going on. They've had no stability for over 2 months now and it's been rough on them. I miss my good kids so much. They're driving me nuts but I know it's not their fault.

I caught a cold on the road trip and now Isabella has caught it. We get to be miserable together now. And it's almost certain now that John will get it too. They're such healthy kids, I think they've only had a cold once before. Of course runny noses are way better than vomit so I can't really complain.

And I just got this cute video of Bella tonight. We got them the piano for Christmas but the batteries on it stopped working and it only played a little bit. Finally switch the batteries and they love it all over again. Bella wore herself out dancing, and by the time I took the video she'd already been going for at least 5 minutes.

All Packed

Well we got the U-Haul packed today. I can't believe we packed everything and loaded it up in a day but we did. It actually went much better this time. It seemed like there was less stuff for some reason. We're putting the computers in the van with us so I get to enjoy my internet for one more night.

Anyway we head out first thing in the morning and should arrive in Utah on Tuesday. Hopefully I'll still be somewhat sane when we get there. The kids have watch Madagascar 6 times today. It's Bella's favorite movie, she pretty much won't watch anything else. I wanted something different to go listen to so I put the Lion King in and she cried when it came on and wasn't Madagascar. At least it's a good movie right? She love Nemo, but doesn't care for the actual movie just likes Nemo. I don't think I could sit through Nemo over and over.

On the road again

Life's crazy right now. Corey got offered a job back in Utah that really wanted to hire him. So he flew out a couple weeks ago for an interview and they hired him. So we're moving back to Utah. I'm not happy about turning around and moving back so soon but he needs this job and we really do miss it there. I never wanted to live in Utah before but it turns out it's a pretty good place.

We tried to find a house to rent but since we're not there in person didn't have much luck. Especially with such short notice so we went ahead and got an apartment. Didn't really want to go back to apartment living but it's a bigger place with more rooms so it should be better. And it has a hot tub (Bella can say that now too.)

So I have to pack all our stuff up now in a day and then spend another day packing it into a U-Haul trailer (not fun!) Oh and the best part will be 3 days in a van with screaming toddlers. We're breaking the trip into 3 parts this time because trying to pack so many miles into a day last time didn't work well. We'll be stopping off in Kansas to meet a friend from the HER Foundation though. I'm really looking forward to that. I've met several of the ladies from there already and they are all so very nice. It's great to meet people that can understand how awful my pregnancies were because it really changes your life and few people understand that. There's lots of the HER ladies in Utah!

Today we had to take the van to Sears to get it all fixed up so we had lots of time to hang around the mall. It was great to window shop in shops I haven't been to in awhile. Utah has awful mall (at least the ones went to were.) Bella loved the Build-a-Bear workshop, I think for her next birthday we'll take her there to build one. It's hard to believe John fit in those Build-a-bear clothes once (at almost 2 months old no less.) Any I probably won't have time to post again till after we get to Utah and get internet set up, I'm sure there'll be lots to report by the.

Big Boy!!!

John moved into a big boy bed. I've been wanting to get him into a toddler bed because he shares a room with Bella and when she wakes up she gets out of bed and plays with her toys. He of course is stuck in the crib. Bella always takes toys and puts them in the crib for him to play with but it's not the same. Plus Bella actually started sleeping better when we moved her to a toddler bed. Anyway I was waiting for him to be able to walk really well which he now does (he almost runs) and be able to climb in and out of bed. Since he can climb onto the couch and off of our big bed I figured he was able on those parts so we decided to give it a trial run.

I had always planned to move Bella to the converted crib and put John in the toddler bed since it's lower and has rails, just wasn't sure how Bella would react to him in "her" bed. I took the side rail off the crib and Bella jumped in it and claimed it as her own. Didn't want anything to do with the old toddler bed so that part was actually easy. It's gone very well so far. He slept great last night and napped very well today without climbing out of bed.

And while we're on sleeping news a sad day has arised, they can no longer nap together. Over the last week Bella has been sleeping shorter and shorter amounts of time during her nap and it wakes John up when we take her out of the room. The short naps (less than an hour) are just not cutting it for John. So today was the first day of them napping separately. John always gets tired early anyway so I put him down at 11:30 and he slept for two and a half hours when I got him up to put Bella down. He slept soooo great, Bella still didn't sleep long though. I was so bummed to lose my alone time while they nap but this is good too, having only one kid awake is sooooo easy! And Bella seemed to love having time without John where she can get all the attention.

And Bella must being going through a growth spurt because she's been so hungry and thirst for almost a week now. Always asking for food and a sippy cup. She has a food dance she does whenever we say it's time to eat, she waves her arms up and down and says "eat, eat, eat." Now she actually calls it "eat dance."

Wonders of Wildlife

We took the kids to the National Fish and Wildlife Museum (Wonders of Wildlife) today. It was really fun. Bella loved it and made lots of cute faces for the camera. Corey's convinced she's going to end up a model after all the pictures I make her pose for.

John got to get out of the stroller and walk around. That's the great part about him walking, I always hated how he was stuck in the stroller alone. He loved roaming around looking at stuff. Then this big group of people came around and I really thought he'd freak out and demand to be held. But he didn't, he just kept walking and occasionally dodging them. Then the big group starting to leave and he tried to go with them. Silly boy.

So we enjoyed all the animals at the museum, especially watching the otters swim around. The kids loved the fish the most though. Bella even saw a real live Nemo, she was beyond excited about that.

After the museum we ate lunch at the new Chic-fil-a. It was so yummy, they have the best chicken either. And everyone seemed to agree with me. They have a cute little indoor kiddie playground at this one so I took the kids after we ate. Usually Bella just looks around cutely and then is ready to go. I guess she's over her social anxiety though because she just jumped right in and started playing. And this was a small crowded playground too. Just climbed right up to the top and used the slide, she couldn't even see us when she was up there and still didn't care. She must have gone at least 50 times she was having so much fun. She finally came down out of breath demanding something to drink.

So that was our day. I continue to hate Springfield, it's the worst city to drive in. We probably drove for 2 hours total today just in Springfield and we weren't even lost this time. It's like constant rush hour there all the time. Talk about getting carsick.

So I took this really cute picture of Isabella on the potty. One of the rare ones from inside where her eyes are actually open. However the room was a mess, junk everywhere. So I had to photoshop all the crap out of it. Would have been a lot easier to clean the room first. Guess it's like the real video of Isabella crawling for the first time. We had to stop and clean and then get her to crawl again. Guess I didn't learn my lesson. So anyway here's the original picture.



So now I'm done messing with it and bored to tears. Can't remember the last time I was this bored. Corey flew out for a job interview this week and we're still waiting to hear about it. Not looking forward to moving again so quickly but a good job would sure be nice.

We made rice crispy treats today. Corey had never done that and they sounded yummy. The kids helped (well Bella ate the marshmallows.) Anyway this is them at the end, totally mad because I wouldn't let them eat the whole pan. Guess the whole house needs to be photoshopped huh?