Chuck my friend

When we were in Utah we took the kids to Chuck E Cheeses and it was a blast. the kids had fun and we left without any tears. That is a huge feet with four kids! Here are some highlights! 

Layla is really concentrating here she was driving with feet and everything big deal since she is finally big enough to reach them.... barely!

Aren't these just the cutest little friends ever!

Layla LOVED dancing for the blue screen!

I love this girl!

Our Newly Colored Home

I have wanted to paint our apartment more for a while. And FINALLY we decided to do it. Mostly because my mom was on a painting kick and offered to do it for us (along with pay for paint) and really who can pass that up. So we picked out the perfect shade of sage and went to town. We actually ended up using all of the paint because we moved into the girls bathroom as well and painted most of that room. Which has made a major difference. And since no home is complete without moving a little furniture I went ahead and moved a few things around in our kitchen and made it new. I LOVE it so much and it is just the little change I needed to make it feel fresh. 

I am so glad that we can do whatever we want to our apartment. It makes it feel like home. Plus I am glad we decided to stay where we are at. Most of our ward that goes to school lives in subsidized housing. And that is great for them but for me I needed a few key things more than simply saving money (however I know they save at least 600 a month more than us). I needed to live close to my parents. Partly because I go over there at least once a week to pick something up or drop it off or just to hang out with my mom. Also because when  I need to watch my niece it makes it SO easy to have her super close. I also wanted the perfect school for the girls. And it took a lot of research but I found an elementary I LOVE in the best district with a great middle school they feed into. And when it comes to things I want for my kids the BEST education is at the top. I also wanted them in a stable environment. I want the kids they go to school with to be there all 5 years. And they will be. The girls will be in 4 and 5th grade when we move on to residency and might possibly move. And last but not least, I wanted to live in this part of Overland Park. I have everything within walking distance if I need it. We have the school less than a mile away with two parks and a ton of walking trials. Movie theater, grocery store, bank, cleaners, sam's, and gas within 1/2 mile. It is perfect for us. And Brian is just a block or two away from the highway he takes to get to school. That means he can get to downtown in 20 minutes. 

So I am making this our home for good and making it my own. We also got a new bedroom set. Last year my crib got recalled and since I save everything I kept my receipt from 6 years ago and got everything i paid for it back. And I bought the same crib only in cocoa when it went on clearance and had the new updates and remodels. I saved a good $125 and thought we should use it for our room. We have had the same bedroom set since Layla was born. And I thought it was due for a change. I had to keep red in the room since i have fabulous curtains and a giant wall already painted. So here is what we came up with. If you hate it then oh well, I LOVE IT! 

Also I recovered our computer chair and made the corner of our bedroom into a mini office space. It makes our room seem more organized. And we moved the giant TV which made so much space for us. All in all I love the new little renovations and remodels and are itching for more.

P.S. I am lazy so i will post more photos later but that would mean i need to clean and well we are relaxing today!

Love day

Top Ten Memories about Valentines day

10. The girls learned to write us love notes that said wonderfully misspelled things like 

9. Homemade cards for husbands

8. Thoughtful gifts (I have wanted one for months to help relax my aching back! Haven't tried it yet, oh you should. Hurts like crap at first but you learn to LOVE it!)

7. Cute breakfasts for cute girls

6. The shock on kids faces when they see that lunch in fact is love inspired as well!

 5. Strawberry cake with cream cheese frosting, 'nuff said!

4. Eating a cook dinner that you are scared might just taste like strawberry frosting when in fact you know it won't!

3. Making homemade cards for Dad!

2. Kids when they open a perfect unexpected gift!

1. Snuggling up to watch Princess Bride for our date and falling asleep before he finishes climbing the wall! 

It was an absolutely perfect day! Hope you had a great one as well!

Big prediction comes true

When I packed the girls up in the car and set off for our little adventure out west, my sweet hubby made a prediction. He thought that since I am venturing out on my own then of course this would be the time Layla finally looses a tooth. This idea seem preposterous because Layla doesn't even have a loose tooth, let alone one loose enough to fall out. But like lots of times more than I credit him but less then he probably believes (he he) He was correct. We made it into the mountains past Denver and then the altitude got to her. She complained her head hurt and her mouth. I assumes she had probably bit her cheek again with all her snacks and gave herself a canker sore. I did have sympathy so I went ahead and gave her some tylenol for her soreness. Once we finally settled down in Utah I checked her mouth. LOW AND BEHOLD she had a VERY loose tooth. I mean it could have fallen out by touching it. After lots of convincing her it wouldn't hurt she made up her mind. It was going to fall out on it's own. And it did about 4 days later! Poor thing had a tooth SO loose for days. And then right before it fell out, (while drinking orange juice!) she realized both bottom front teeth were loose.

The first tooth came out at the clews so we put it in an envelope and put it under her pillow. Like everything, she decorated the envelope and asked the tooth fairy to leave her cute little package with the dollar in it. I was glad she agreed to leave the tooth in something because I knew with three of us in the bed it would be a lot of work on the busy tooth fairy that night. The envelope was such a it she did it again for tooth 2 she lost at grandma's a few days later. I was proud of my little Layla she actually PULLED out tooth number 2 herself. And when she took it out I realized the source of our tired and sore Layla. BOTH TEETH we already up and growing. They were forced out! But we successfully lost our first couple teeth with no tears shed!

My lovely loop hole

Okay so a longtime ago I started blogger with our space account that Brian uses for his med school stuff and then I made our own new email. And low and behold I still have that email as having permission to post. And guess what you get so much space for PICTURES on your blog and then you have to purchase more space. It is a good deal don't get me wrong. It is 20 GB for 5 dollars a year. That is a great deal but I am just cheap and thought after using blogger for about 4 years I shouldn't have to pay. And you know what since I have been posting for about 3 of those years from only one email address then I have several more years of posting under Brian's and our coupon address before I need to purchase space. THANK YOU LOOP HOLE! So I will have to take the extra minute and a half to log into our other email addresses to post but at least I don't have to do anything else.

If you want to know how much space you have on your blog just log in to your google account and check out your picasa account. At the bottom of the page it will show your space and how much you have left. You get 1024 MB free with each blog contributor. But also note that this account is for ALL your blogs. I have 4 or 5 that I post to meaning that my space runs up a bit faster. If you have multiple blogs under the same publisher you might need to watch more closely how fast your space runs out. But know that the space is ONLY for photos not for actual posts! And if you upload small versions of your pictures that space goes a long way. I don't do that simply because I am lazy!

So happy posting everyone happy posting!

Adventure Report

Okay so most of you know we took a little trip out west for two weeks. We decided back in January that we needed to visit our long lost Clews family friends. It has been almost 2 years since the girls have gone to see them. Plus they are just a couple hours from Grandma so we could get a nice round trip to some good hot spots.

The best part, or at least best for me, was we surprised the Clews with our visit. I called Mr. Gary a couple months in advance and cleared our schedules and then kept it hidden. It was SO HARD. Whenever Kristi would call, write, or text that she missed me I just wanted to say I AM COMING TO HELP!!! But where is the fun in that. It was much more exciting to knock on the door and leave our beloved "squeaky" (aka Winnie the Pooh) to announce we had arrived. We were welcomed with Giant HUGS and thankfully big tearless smiles.

Here are a few of our adventures in no order because lets face it we did not take a whole lot of pictures because we played too hard, or were exhausted you take your pick!

Our Kindergarteners hard at work doing their homework!

I can't believe how grown up these two are. And they are still best buds. They crack me up. Layla had her own catch phrase throughout the trip. She would always say "oh bother" whenever something suprised her or didn't work out as she expected. Now she has passed that on to her buddy and that makes me happy! We have to leave little pieces of ourselves wherever we go!

Little Miss Isa was so worn out by day 4 that she just passed out while talking to everyone. She was leaning on this chair and passed out. It was SO CUTE. We finally picked her up and put her on the couch thinking she would wake up and join everyone in playing. BUT NOPE she just kept sleeping another couple hours. Poor thing just could not keep up! But We love her anyways!

These little naps did her good though. Look how happy she is when she gets her much needed rest.

One of the perks of going to see our friends is that they have an adorable newborn. And we got to practice our baby skills on a tiny one again. Incase you all don't know we want another baby and this was a good trial big sister week. Layla took to it like a pro. She LOVES baby Kiley. She was a big helper and was so proud when she got her to sleep. She was found in this spot a lot!! I sure hope one day she gets to be our big helper, we will see!

Thanks you Kristi for teaching her to bathe a little one. She is so cute helping, I can't believe how grown up my little three pounder has gottan!

The tooth fairy made her first trip as well but more on that story in a later post!

Most of the time that we were in Utah it rained and was cloudy. A bit chilly too. However the kids did find plenty to do and a few free afternoons to play in the short sun. We also took a nice trip to chuck-e-cheeses! And we all made it out alive, happy, and together. Good huh?!

There are a couple highlights. Now I am going to post this since I have found my loop hole to purchasing space for this blog. Oh I will tell you my trick just a minute!

Stupid Storage

Alright so I finally ran out of storage for the blogging world.... now I must purchase so you will have to wait for the posts I got done cause I am too lazy to whip out the debit card.... he is tired from our trip and needs a little break to replenish!

Husbands

I thought since I am out of town and miss my hubby like crazy I would do a post dedicated to him. It isn't very often that he is the subject of a post. Sad that the most important person in my life gets such little attention in cyberspace. But truth be told I am absolutely, eternally, madly, IN LOVE with my husband. He is not perfect and neither am I. But we are each others' better half. He has so many of the qualities and talents I long for. I wish I could be more like him. But HOPEFULLY he says the same about me.

One thing I have learned is that most woman are easy to say "Wow I don't like how that husband does that, or treats his wife as such." But the truth is that is exactly true. OR COURSE we don't like things about other peoples spouses and we can easily place judgment on their relationship. There is a really good reason for that, they are not the one WE chose. I don't know about you but I picked Brian for a reason and most of those reasons are probably things other girls might not like. And the things that might drive me crazy might not someone else.

Brian is quiet and a bit shy. He isn't the life of the party. Now by no means does that make him socially awkward but rather content to be no matter where we go or what wet do. He doesn't every try to fit in because he is happy to be himself even if that makes him the odd man out.

He likes sports but could go a year without thinking about it and be fine. Must men ARE NOT LIKE THAT. They live and breath sports. That would make me crazy. Brian and I can have couple time and personal time whenever. Our hobbies and interests do not dictate when we do things. I love this. I can have Brian's full attention any time not just on commercials. My hubby thinks I am pretty, gorgeous even. That makes all the difference sometimes. Most of our men were attracted to us for a reason. I am attractive because partly I am far from am average girl. I am hispanic and thus I have a different look. He loves it as much as me and that makes me feel special.

My husband is humble. He will be the first to admit that he has faults. That is so attractive. I know too many men that think most people are idiots and they are not. Wow that is so unattractive and irritating. Boosting about yourself by putting yourself above another is the least attractive quality. If only men got that memo. Brian isn't better than most men exactly, he is just the best for me. I won't go as far as to say her is better but different in my favorite ways. I love love love him so very much and as honored to call him mine.

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oh the things they say

Oh the things my kids say sometimes makes me go numb

I stand there in awe and feel a bit dumb

When did they grow up and get so mature

My babies are all grown up so I guess I need more!!

Really these girls come up with the most elaborate story lines. Sometimes they are surgeons fighting to save a life. While other times they are swing dancers. All the while the things that come out their mouths shock me to the core.

"You got to be kidding me mom. Is that for real?"

"Veebout" - Isa for without

"tumputer" -isa for computer

"oh geeze" - this is a layla staple

"for extra" - we use this one a lot. For instance we have the following conversation a lot.

"girls you can bring one buddy and a coloring book with you today.... (they gather it up and then) what is all in your bags?"
"we both have a barbie, two hard princesses and sunglasses for extra"

I am not sure why but the girls just think they need "extra" stuff in addition to what ever we say. We give then three cookies they need a fruit snack for extra. It kind of drives me bonkers but it is our life.

There are a million other things they say but these are a few off our staples.

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Vacation time

I thought I'd let everyone know I left for utah and will post all about our trip when we get home. But know we are having a blast catching up with our best friends.

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Thank you Kohl's

Alright so I didn't find the perfect pair of jeans like I hoped. But I did find a nice pair of casual cargo pants. But my big find was a great shape tank.

I have about 5 different body slimmers in my wardrobe. And as great as they might be they tend to make me feel like i can't breath after a few hours. So they are for church or meetings where i want to look like I have womanly curves as apposed to the muffin top that is WAY too much information for other's eyes. This tank actually lets you breath. I tried on everyone they had a Kohl's and though they might be okay they just seem to show every crease that is my fat! This one is two layers on the middle so it tightens on the underside and on the top it is a tank of sorts. Plus the chest portion IS NOT shaping which means I can breath. I LOVE IT!

The best part is I couldn't spend the money. It was on sale and I had a coupon but really I just couldn't get myself to buy it. My sweet loving mother who dresses me, talked me into showing her what it was. I did and I came home with two. One black and one white. My mom takes pity on me and knows how hard it is to dress modestly without showing the whole world how misshaped my middle is and as the same looking stylish. It is a struggle. I would rather be all over large than have tiny ankles and wrists and just grow bigger to the middle. it is sad when your waist is 10 inches LARGER than your hips. Really what shape is that??? Blah but now Thanks to the FLEXEES® FAT FREE DRESSING® RIB TANK found at kohl's I can actually wear some one my cute clothes without having to sacrifice breathing!

Need some fashion advice

Muffin top? I know I am about 35-50 pounds bigger since kids. I was a 0-2 before. Now depending on store and cut I am a 10-14. I don't care what the tag says I got over it. But I need a pair of pants to help the muffin top that makes wearing ALL shirts impossible. Help!!!

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Remember that snow storm we were getting

So this is the snow piled up next to my car. I was very glad that the wind kept it from covering it or else I would have never gotten out. However we did end up with a 3 1/2 foot drift in front of our cars which made it interesting to get out. And the best part of a snow storm is something has to go wrong. Thankfully Brian and Layla had school canceled and our sick Isa had already seen the doctor. But no no they couldn't prescribe a nice easy to take antibiotic for her no they had to give her some white gunk she refused to take. So in the midst of a blizzard she holds her ear and streams in pain. 

So after hours on the phone Papa came to the rescue and got her some plain old amoxicillin and she was as good as new. Of course that meant that Brian took an hour to get to and from the store and luckily made it just in time before the bulk of the snow hit. She just slid around in our icy streets. 

But as you can tell from this 5 foot pile on the side of our steps, they didn't over exaggerate this lovely storm at all. It was definitely an Idaho kind of week!

Kristi CLOSE YOUR EYES!!!

 This post is going to display my many projects for my bff Kristi who just had her third little cutie. It was a girl and of course they had to torture me with not knowing the gender until she was born. So as soon as I got the text I ran out to the store to pick up material for her gifts.

I have been making rag quilts for a year now and have gotten the hang of it and felt it was a good step into piecing a quilt. I want to be a quilter but it scares me to death. Mostly because I HATE pinning for hours. So this is my first real pieced quilt for little Kiley. I went ahead and picked out 6 materials (4 I had on hand thanks and then I picked up two new printed ones to make it complete) and cut out 49 7" squares. I put them into this design and then stacked them into rows and labeled each row with a piece of paper so I would not mess up my order. 

 Nice isn't it I was proud. 

I used my open sewing time during spring break to sew together each row of 7 and then put them all together. And after I finished the front i realized it needed a super perfect back. So I headed to my new favorite place Joann's and got HOT PINK super soft fabric for the back. But up and sewed a crazy cozy binding and put it all together. And for the quilting aspect i did not have a free form foot like I wanted yet to I simply sewed on the the edges of the squares which turned out perfect. You can't see the stitch at all on the front and it made a great quilted pattern on the back which i like. Simple but nice. Oh it is so cozy.... so much so that I am making the girls their own very soon! 

Now on to project number 2. 

Burp cloths

I have seen there are about 4 billion ways to make these and I couldn't decide for a while which way I wanted to go. So i decided to do a mixed middle with all my favorite fabric. Here are a few just for fun. 

Here are a few to go with the quilt.

And here are my favorite to go with project number 3 the nursing cover.

I debated on fabric for a long time. And since I ALWAYS play it safe i thought i would be daring for once. I just hope Kristi likes it. I know she is like me and keeps it simple but this is just so dang girly I love it to pieces. I of course did not have a computer at the time so I had to use my phone to follow the step by step instructions. That was fun. Here is the pattern i used and it turn out just like I hoped. And it really was simple. If you can sew a straight line you can make this no problem. plus it is a GREAT and cheap gift for someone. And being a mother who has nursed and had her hooters exposed to the world thanks to falling blankets, I will attest that no mother can have too many. I am going to have like 4 or 5 if I ever get another baby around here. 

The little things

The small things that make my day

Notes from my kids

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Spring break = video games

Brian had a good week off of school and was able to just relax. He helped me a ton around the house and let me catch up on projects I have wanted to do for months. THANK YOU SWEETY! But one day when I was folding laundry for the millionth time I came into the living room to find this......

Like father like daughter.... they crack me up! I missed the shot of all three later when layla pulled up a chair to play bejeweled with Brian! My funny video game addicts.

Snowmen

The girls have been very sad about out "fluffy" non snowmen building snow this year. So after our last snowstorm there was a bit of freezing rain and ice that went along with it. So it made for good snowmen snow FINALLY. After probably the 15th snow day for the school year the whole family bundled up and went outside. 

I did learn that when you plan the year before for snowsuits I typically do not do well. I had to purchase a new suit for Layla last year due to poor planning. And this year poor Isa was wearing a 3T which totally didn't fit but made due. And we had to buy layla new boots and I was cheap and bought size 1 even though she is barely a 12. So we look pretty mismatched and big and too small everywhere but we were warm and happy. Plus thanks to Santa we enjoyed a good batch of hot chocolate after every outing! 

So here is Big Bob and his alien friend Stan!

(names change about every few minutes so I picked my favorites from the bunch!)

Big Bob took the whole family to build but Alien Stan was all the girls doing. I love that they wanted to make him an alien.... they crack me up sometimes!