Okay finally got the pictures edited. Yesterday we went to Boondocks Fun Center for Corey's birthday. We'd never been before and it was exactly the kind of thing Corey had been wanting to do. They have laser tag, go carts, bumper boats, rock climbing and a huge arcade. It was a lot of fun, Corey definitely enjoyed himself. Bella was too short for most things, but was tall enough to ride the bumper boats with Corey which she enjoyed. And the arcade had several games that she had fun doing, including a toddler sized Wack-a-mole which was her favorite. This place was also very clean and really quite close to our house, I'll certainly never go back to Chuck E Cheese again.

Oh and Bella learned to say "I love you" yesterday too. Up until now when you told her you love her she'd say "I know" and instead of saying I love you Daddy she'd say "I know Daddy." I'm kind of sad to see the I know go but her saying I love you is so cute. And she taught John to say I know when we tell him we love him so it still lives on.

Today was Corey's birthday and he took the day off work. We had a lot of fun but I'm too tired to edit the pictures and post them tonight, so I'm just doing this instead for fun. More pictures to come tomorrow.

And Corey thinks the kids look nothing like him. Although I do think Bella looks a lot like me, she definitely has a good amount of Corey in her. I redid Bella because I think her smiling with her mouth open like Corey messed with it. I guess we know who she smiles like ;)

The best thing!

I'm so happy, Bella can finally go potty by herself!!! It's the best thing ever for me. I found some little step stools that are the perfect height and she climbs up pulls down her pants goes potty, wipes (without pulling a ton of toilet paper down) and flushes ALL by herself. And we're almost over the fear of public restrooms, she asks to go now but usually doesn't potty.

Our cat is adjusting well around here. She's so sweet and cuddly (and lazy.) The kids spilled kitty litter ALL over the kitchen and dining room floor this morning. It was all over John, in his hair and his mouth (luckily I had cleaned the box out before this happened.) So then I clean it all up and swept and mopped the floor, and over course they did it again!

Penelope

We got a cat. I've totally wanted a pet forever but we've always been renting so it wasn't an option. So finally we own a house and can have a pet. The kids would have prefered a dog but they're a little more work than I'm up to right now, a cat just fits our life a little better. I had planned to go to the shelter to pick one up so we went to Petsmart to get the supplies, and they have a few cats there on display from the shelter. Penelope was just so sweet that we decided to get her (plus she was already fixed so we didn't have to pay extra for that.)

We couldn't think of a better name so we're just going to leave it Penelope, which I kind of like. And the kids can call her Penny. I just hope she adjusts to our family well and no one ends up being too allergic to her.

And I cut John's hair. It was supposed to just be a trim but I kind of messed up the bangs quite a bit and had to really cut it all off. It's not too bad though, I think we'll try to spike it up. And in the future I think I'll just take him back to cookie cutters.

In the Bub

Just a couple pictures from bathtime tonight, or as Bella calls it the "bub." I gave the kids separate baths tonight, for the first time in well over a year. I think they enjoyed having all the toys to themselves. The first one is a picture of John's puppy dog eyes, that's what he did when I told him it was time to get out and go to bed.

The weekend

John's feeling much better, guess it was just one of those 24 hour bugs. Bella spent all of last week begging to go to the hospital (she's so weird.) "I want to go hosipal" "I want to go doctor, get stickers!" When we pulled up to the hospital on Friday her face lit up like it was Disney world or something. Doesn't take much to please her I guess. Then she actually asked for shots! The look on the nurses faces when she asked was great. She did get her blood drawn while we were there and she was so brave, no tears.

So yesterday our neighbors had a garage sale. We had only seen them in passing before and never really talked. So we spent most of the day out with them talking, while Bella had fun digging through all the stuff on the lawn. They're really nice, and actually our age. Luckily our neighbors on the other side moved out (turns out they were running a meth house!) Oh and our neighbors have the cutest little dog that John and Bella LOVE. John is such a dog person, and this dog is just his size. So they played with him a bunch, he sneaks into our backyard to play too. I can't wait to get the kids a dog, but that's going to have to wait until after the next kid is at least a year old.

While we were out we heard the ice cream truck and Corey insisted on buying Bella some ice cream. I told him he was starting an awful habit but he didn't care. She loved it, and so did Corey, John was napping and missed out.

Today I put the little pool back up in the backyard for Bella. Then we put the little slide in it and she had so much fun on her little water slide. I had to make her stop, I think she would have done it all day if I let her. I imagine we'll be back out there after naptime today sliding some more. John's not a huge pool fan, he'll only stay in if he can sit on my lap the whole time.

Sick

Poor John is sick today. He threw up all of his juice this morning but afterwards acted fine so I figured it was a fluke. We went ahead to Bella's neurologist appointment and he seemed kind of tired but okay. During the appointment he threw up a ton of bile though (yuck.) They gave him a cute hospital gown though since his clothes were all dirty. By the time we got back home he looked just awful, running a fever and everything. He was feeling a little better when I put him to bed tonight though so hopefully he'll be fine tomorrow.

On to Bella, she had a follow up appointment with the neurologist. The meds they put her on have caused awful awful mood swings. Think of the video of her outside the van, only worse a LOT. It's hard to handle and hard to watch. She did have another seizure though so they increased her dosage. I'm on the fence about the med but I'm giving it another month to see what happens. They said the alternative med they would give her actually has worse mood side effects, and what she's on treats her exact type of seizure. We'll see what happens, maybe the side effects will wear off or at least improve.

I think it's obvious that there's no shortage of good pictures of these kids. However there's very few good pictures of them together, even rarer both looking and the camera and smiling. This one is the best I've gotten in a LONG time, and while they aren't smiling they are looking (with their eyes open) and don't look too uncomfortable. I keep trying for that great one of both of them that I used to be able to get about once a month and they simply don't happen anymore. Bella's now old enough to be able to understand what I want her to do and be able to do it, but at the same time John's now too old to allow her to do it.

This boy is just impossible to photograph. All he wants to do is run around the room screaming! Despite that they turned out pretty good. I especially like the first one. Makes him look so sweet and innocent.

This is what happens when Corey leaves, Bella just has to go with him. But even when she does she freaks out thinking he's leaving without her and when the van turns on she really loses it. She's definitely two.

We had a crazy weekend but it was lots of fun. One of the ladies from the HER Foundation came with her family to Utah to visit so we all got together. We went to Thanksgiving Point on Saturday and all the kids had a blast at the museum and farm. It was hot though and by the end of the day the kids where wiped out. There were 11 kids total between all of us. Then today everyone came over to our house for a big lunch and all the kids ran around like crazy. It was great.

Good news on our leak, the patch the plumber put on it seems to have fixed the problem! I was so nervous that we'd have to pay to replace the pipe. While this problem most likely was there before we bought the house there was no way to know about it from the inspection. There was no water running through the pipes so you couldn't tell. It wasn't until a few days after we moved in that the leak became apparent.

John is talking so much now. He says "night night" when I take him up to his room for naps. Lots of new words that he's using on his own. This is great because he's been good about repeating things but not understanding the meaning and using them on his own until now. Hopefully soon we'll be completely done with early intervention.

Bella now answers all questions with "yeah" which is a nice change from the "no" that we used to get. It's so cute, especially when we're asking her if she did something wrong and she proudly admits to it.