Serious??

Sam turned 18 months old on November 12. Where has the time gone?? Lately whenever he sees Carly go to the bathroom he wants to have a turn sitting on the toilet. I don't object. How nice would that be if he potty trained himself?? He hasn't done anything in the toilet yet (I take that back....he farted once) He just gets up, sits for a while, and then wants to get down.
Ever since we have been in Utah is seems like his vocabulary has just exploded. He is now saying :
Thank you
Please
Sam
Mommy
night-night
Love you
This is a big step up from just a month ago!

He is turning into such a big tease. He loves to tease his big sister and recently has found the fun in teasing his Aunt Sharise by not giving her hugs and kisses and laughing about it.

He is such a fun little guy and adds so much laughter into our family! We sure love him!

Happy Birthday!

My hubby turns 26 today! I couldn't have asked for a better husband and friend!

Love YOU!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope you all have a good one!

since we've been gone.....

We haven't been up to much since we've been in Utah. After a round of sickness and all of us fighting either a cold or allergies, we've just been chillin' at the house most of the time. Last Saturday we ventured out with my family and took the kids to a movie. I have NEVER taken either of my children to a movie. I take that back, the last time we took our child to a movie Carly was (probably) 7 months old.
We went and saw The Christmas Carol. We probably should have gone to a more kid friendly movie but oh well. Carly lasted about 5 minutes and Sam didn't make it past the previews. Luckily we had some foot space so they could walk back and forth. I enjoyed the movie though, I was able to watch most of it. Let's just say I won't be taking my children to a movie again for a while (unless it's something I know Carly will like)



Here's Mr. Sambo before church. He's so handsome, although he didn't want his picture taken that morning.

My mom and sisters. We went to Time Out for Women here in St. George. It was pretty great! It was nice just to have time away with my family and with no kids!!

Utah and tonsillitis cellulitis and abscess and Brother's wedding

Carly loves Chantelle's "princess" dress.

Me and my Sisters and Brother.

The kiddos with their Aunt Sharise and her friend at the Temple

My mom and sister (des) made the girls' skirts.


The newlyweds!

So, we made it to Utah. We left last Tuesday morning and made it by Wednesday evening. My throat decided to start hurting Monday evening and by Tuesday morning it was horrible. I figured it would go away but all Tuesday in the car I was in major pain and couldn't eat anything. Tuesday night I barely slept (strange hotel room and sore throat=no sleep) By Wednesday morning my throat, ear and head ached. I was in so much pain I didn't know if I could make it. But I had no choice but to get in the car and drive. Luckily Chad doesn't mind driving and he drove most of the way to Utah! By Wednesday night I thought I was going to die. I dropped my kids, hubby and luggage off at my mom's and drove into St. George to visit with a Doctor. He figured it was Tonsillitis cellulitis and abscess (I thought "can you speak English?) Anyway....my lovely sister (who is a nurse at that office) gave me two shots of antibiotic (in the rear) and I was prescribed some pills to start the next day. Well, things didn't get better, they got a little worse. By Friday (My Brothers Wedding) I was so done with it....I had some pain meds that I took so I could make it through the wedding at least. That afternoon, before the reception, I was able to visit and Ear, nose, and Throat doctor that I used to work with. He then proceeded to agree with the first doctor on what it was and then proceeded to put me through the most horrible pain I've ever felt in my entire life! He numbed my throat (not enough) then took a needle to see if there was any pus in my tonsils......low and behold...there was.....so he then proceeded to lance my tonsil with a knife....A KNIFE.....and eventually drained out 10cc's of pus! I thought I was going to die. Luckily I had my sister at my said and I'm pretty sure I almost took her hand off!! The crappy part of it all was that I wasn't able to go to My Brother's reception which I am totally bummed about! Today I woke up (after a restful night of sleep) and I felt like my old self again (almost!) I hope I never have to go through that again.

On the other hand My brother and New sister's wedding was beautiful. They looked so great and I am so happy for them!!

Halloween fun!

We spent Halloween night at our friends house. We had some yummy chili and cornbread. The kids had fun trick-or-treating. Carly kept barging in people's homes taking whatever candy she could. It was a lot of fun!

Our Dinosaur and Fairy

( I'm bummed this picture is blurry!)

Sam hated his costume the first couple times I put it on him but he loved wearing it on Halloween!

The middle picture she was jumping off a bean bag to try to fly.

Carly was pretty disappointed that she couldn't fly, even with Fairy dust (a.k.a.glitter).

Tooting my own horn....

WOOT. WOOT.
This has been (by far) the most tedious project done so far. I saw the pattern on etsy and fell in love with it. I debated for about a week whether or not I wanted to tackle it but I finally decided to give it a whirl. After lots of cutting, lots of sewing, lots of pins poking my fingers, 129 squares and a lot of unpicking...I finally finished it yesterday! She loves wearing it because it twirls really big. After a test run of wearing it this morning I have to re-sew a couple places that came loose. I don't think I will be making another one of these for a long time!

First Haircut

Before

After
We finally bought some clipper so Chad could cut Sam's hair. It was a bitter sweet moment. I hate to lose all his baby hair but he looks like a big boy now!

How cute is this??

I was browsing through all the crafty websites that are on my favorites list and I cam across this little beauty!

A LOT of Pictures....

Chad had fun at the dollar store and bought the kids some funny balloons. As you can tell they were a big hit and Sam loved wearing them!

Sam loves to wear Carly's crown. Maybe it's time for some boy dress up clothes!?

Below: Carly's fish craft for last week. Obviously we worked on the letter F. She had to wear her big bird costume from last year.

Below- I made a little Halloween skirt (from the leftovers from my table runner) It turned out okay for my first skirt ever!!

Below: Our friends subdivision had a Halloween festival over the weekend. It was cute, they had a little petting zoo, which of course our kids loved!

Below: Today we went to The Oil Ranch. I've never been and it was a lot of fun! The kids really enjoyed it (up until nap time kicked in) Carly loved all the animals. It was a perfect day too, the weather was so great and it really felt like fall.

Carly wanting to climb into the pen with the donkey.

They gave out free pumpkins to all the kids. They has fun picking out their pumpkins!

They had hayrides going and they would take you out in their pasture, they gave the kids some pellets so they could feed the cows. It was hilarious to have these huge cow noses come right up to your face. The kids (mostly Carly) thought it was the greatest thing ever. I thought she was going to climb right on top of the cow! At one point Sam stuck his hand on one of the noses and I almost puked wiping off all the cow snot off his hand! Pretty disgusting!

Frog named Three

Meet Three. (a.k.a. The Frog)

Sam with an ice cream mustache.

Carly and Sam watching a squirrel from Carly's window.

The other day Sam weirded me out a bit when I had to wake him up at 10:30a.m. (he went to bed at 8:00 the previous night) All he wanted was for me to hold him, he didn't want me to put him down, he didn't want to stand up. He was like a limp noodle that couldn't keep his eyes open. I got him to eat some toast and OJ and he perked up a bit. He still took a nap from 1-3 and then went to bed at 7:30. He woke up at his normal time the next day. Who knows that the deal was. It was kind of nice to have a child that just wanted to sit still!

Carly's handprint butterfly (we are reviewing letters A-E this week)

My Halloween table runner that I whipped up last night (never thought I would say that!)

Thing one and Thing two

The closet under the stairs isn't for junk anymore! It's Carly's "New House"

I love it when this happens, just not at 5:00PM
(below) Giving her baby a big hug. I love how passionate she gets and has to close her eyes!

Carly

*Has way too much energy!

*Loves to talk, sing and basically just make noise.

*She loves to watch movies with songs and can have it memorized after seeing it only a couple times.

*She loves to watch Curious George and Clifford the big red dog. Dora has phased out.

*She no longer takes naps but still has quiet time (most days)

*She can write letters A-E and count to 20 but usually skips 16. She knows all the colors and shapes.

*She has begun the art of nose picking.

*She gets excited when she can wear her "puppy panties"

*She hates getting her hair done.

*She is a child that thrives on a schedule.

*She will repeat something until we respond to her.

*She will randomly say "I love you so much mommy (or Daddy) and then proceed to say "and I hope you wisten (listen)."

*Some of my favorite words that she says are:

swim soup=swim suit

wittle=little

wove=love

readymote=remote control

bwanket=blanket

*She likes to dress herself.

*She likes to get into the wipes and clean.

*She likes to talk on the phone whether it's with someone real or pretend. She will make sure to tell me to be quiet if she is talking on her play phone.

*Has to have her door open at night with a night light. Every night I give her a kiss, she has to give me a hug and then I have to rub her back.

Sam

*still getting more teeth. He finished his molars and is now working on his upper side teeth (not sure of the technical name)

*Loves to cuddle but only if he's tired and has his blanket and his binky

*If he hurts his hand he has to have me kiss it.

*He loves to climb on our couch or bed and jump up and down.

*He's not a very vocal guy, he only says "Da-ye" (Daddy), Mom, Boo, bubbles, "Ni-Ni" (binky), ball, sometimes he'll say Carly and I think he's learned how to say his name, it comes out at "Ma" (he'll point to himself when he says it)

*He only takes one nap a day, but it is usually a two-hour nap. He goes to bed for the night in between 7:00-7:30 and wakes up 12 hours later.

*He is still hooked on his binky.

*He has learned to growl and he'll growl whenever he sees an animal toy.

*He has to bark whenever Skipper barks.

*He loves the sound of fast and loud cars.

*He loves to play outside.

*He loves to dance whenever he hears music.

*He loves to try and give Carly hugs all the time.

*He could probably eat more than me if I let him.

*He would much rather eat from the table than in his highchair.

*He will give kisses but you have to earn them.

*He will wave good-bye and say "Da"

"Treehouse" and a yellow duck

Carly got creative and decided to make a "tree house" They've made a "tree house" pretty much every day this week. It keeps them occupied and they actually somewhat play together (which is always a bonus!)

Letter D this week. This is her yellow Duck.

my new sickness...oops...I mean Hobby.

So...you know when you play the game Tetris so much that eventually you start dreaming of the little Tetris blocks? (Okay, so maybe that is just me!)
Anyway....it's to the point now to where I am dreaming of flowers and bows. I think I need help! :) The sad part is.... (I know, could it get any more sad than me dreaming of flowers?!?) this is not even all of them. Some of these little babies have twins!

another week....

We really didn't do much this week. I just stayed home with the kids and did the usually runs to wal-mart or target or the grocery store.

Sambo found Carly's pink cowgirl hat. I think maybe we need to get a few more boy things around this house.
This week Carly and I worked on the letter C. This was her cloud picture that she made.

One year later.....

Well, early (early) this morning exactly a year ago we were listening to winds howling, trees crashing and rain pouring outside the walls of our house. I was laying in bed texting back and forth to my mom who was safe in Utah. Looking back I've realized I've forgotten a lot of details about that night and the weeks to follow (two weeks without power!) But I haven't forgotten to be grateful for the little things. At least I hope I haven't. Having food in my cupboards and foods in the grocery store, gas in the gas stations and most importantly electricity. I'm so glad that we haven't had the same issues this Hurricane season (knock on wood) but I am glad that I did experience at least one natural disaster. As weird as that may sound!

(Meet Hurricane Ike)

(looking out our front door)

(Our backyard)

What we've been up to...

So, this week has been a weird one. One minute I was happy, relaxed and the next I would be freaking out at Carly or Sam for something! This could be a "ladies days" problem (hilarious episode from Everybody Loves Raymond BTW) At times all I wanted to do was close myself in my room and be selfish and do something that I wanted to do. I'm sure most of us get those days. (not so much fun for the kids I'm sure) Today has been a better day, I tried to start off with a positive attitude and so far it's been going smooth!
Here is my first quilt that I made. It's very small. I didn't want to do a big one for my first one. I am really proud at how it turned out. Thanks to my friend Tasha ,who got me started, and the world of You Tube I finally finished it last night.

Here is one of the clips I made for Carly. I saw some on Etsy and thought I'd try it out. I am pleased at how well they turned out. She was excited to wear her "new bows"

This week I've been doing the letter B with Carly. It's a bit tricky for her to write, she's almost got it down but here is our Blackbird puppet we made.