Getting By

Well, we are at one of those points in life where you just focus on "getting by".  We really would be happy to just skip this moment in life, yet I think if we did that then we would not appreciate the "better" stages.  But this stage of toddler tantrums (Jensen knows what he wants, he just can't quite always explain his needs to us, so frustrating), 3 year old sassiness (have I not taught her any manners), being 36 weeks pregnant, and the stomach flu (we ALL got it) is no picnic and it may just kill us all in the process.  Too dramatic?  probably, but the hormones are flowing and everything seems to be a little dramatic around here.  lol

I think the kids sense the impending change (aka a new baby in the house) and as such they are tense and insecure with life right now.  Mommy is SLOW and so they decided they need to move faster.  I literally cried on the way home from our errands yesterday.  They were MONSTERS, and my dreams of getting through the grocery store, great harvest, AND Sams Club were all quickly dashed on our way to our first destination.  Both kids were crying and out of control.  So we dashed into Sams and then just headed home.

But with that all being said I am SO excited for this next little one to get here I can hardly stand it!  I really hope these next few weeks fly by because I am ready to be DONE being pregnant and hold my baby in my arms.  Nothing more precious then a sweet new baby.  I am ready to be a mommy to 3 (or at least lets pretend I am) and get on with our new normal.

Until that day comes you will find me organizing my recipes, hanging pictures in Adalyn's room, organizing kids clothes, washing diapers, and stealing a peek or two at my already started Christmas lists (shh don't tell, I know it is only August but my online Christmas shopping may have begun).  :)  Oh and napping, I seem to be doing that one almost everyday these days since I know my napping days may be numbered.

Hope life is treating all of you well!

Adalyn's 3rd Birthday 8*10*14

I am a mother of a 3 year old.  Pretty crazy to me!?  Actually it seems even more crazy to me that I am about to have 3 kids and have been married for almost 5 years.  But that is all for a different post...

Anyways, Adalyn turned 3 years old on Sunday August 10th.  That day we were at Grandpa Pace's house for uncle Preston's homecoming talk so we ended up celebrating Adalyn's birthday on Friday the 8th of August.  Addie didn't know the difference and she loved being told "Happy Birthday" all weekend long.

For her birthday celebration we drove to Salt Lake to spend some time with my family.  This was in between a family reunion at Lava Hot Springs and Preston's homecoming talk so needless to say, it was a very busy weekend.  Friday afternoon McKay, Adalyn, and I went with my mom and Mykelti to the movie theater to see How to Train Your Dragon 2.  Adalyn loves the first one so we thought the 2nd movie would be a fun one that all of us could enjoy.  She loved the special attention and of course the popcorn and soda, but I don't think she was really that interested in the movie.  I agree that the first one was more on her level than the 2nd one.

After the movie it was party time at my parent's house.  My 2 younger sisters were sweet and came for the celebration.  We had Chicago Style pizza from Papa Murphy's which is a family favorite.  yummy!

After pizza we watched Adalyn open presents.  She had been begging all day to open them and her reaction did not disappoint.  She was spoiled and loved all of the gifts.  McKay and I gave her My little Pony's with a castle along with a trike (that stayed at home so she didn't get it until after her birthday), and my family gave her "Frozen" themed chapsticks, dress ups, and dollhouse furniture.  She happily got playing with her toys and grandma and grandpa were even kind enough to play ponies with her.

Dessert was not the traditional cake and ice cream since finding time to bake a cake was not going to happen that weekend.  So instead we had cookies (made ahead of time and frozen) and ice cream sundaes.  Adalyn is a serious candy lover so she was happy to have her ice cream and toppings.  Gummy Bears were her favorite.  To sing happy birthday to her we put a cookie on top of the big ice cream bucket.  haha lovely

On Sunday (her actual birthday) I didn't really plan anything since we had celebrated on Friday, but Grandma Liz was super nice and remembered to get her a cake and made some pancakes for breakfast.  So once again Adalyn got to blow out some candles (her favorite part of it being "her birthday").  Thanks grandma Liz for making her feel special and for picking up this pregnant mama's slack!

Did someone say cake?  All the kids came running!

Happy 3rd Birthday sweet girl!  Daddy and I are so impressed with how smart you are.  We love your cute little voice and your 3 year old logic.  You are definitely keeping us on our toes!  We love you!

(p.s. 3 year old pics will be coming in a few weeks.  Figured we would kill 2 birds with one stone and do birthday pics for her and newborn pics for the baby at the same time.  So stay tuned for those in about 6 weeks :) 

Water Features

So once again we have got a few random things that I want to document, but most of them do not need their own post.  And as I was gathering the pictures for this post I realized that most of them are related to water in some form or fashion hence the "water" title to this post.

Up first... Our garden.  It is finally taking off and we are getting actual food from it. :)  This year's garden has proven to be our best one yet (we definitely have a ways to go, but it is better).  It did have a few struggles in July as the heat took its tole on it and we were wondering for awhile if we would get any food from it this year.  All the plants were looking a little sickly and it seemed like our plants were never near as tall as our friend's plants.  So we questioned what to do and McKay decided to just be faithful at watering everything really well.  We also considered buying some lady bugs because we had some other bugs that were eating our plants, but decided that it was a little too late this year, but that we would have to remember to buy some next year.  Last year our neighbor bought a ton of lady bugs and besides it being really fun to have so many cute bugs in the yard, they also really helped keep the pests to a minimum.  Thankfully McKay picking things up in the watering department really seemed to help and everything is looking pretty good now.  When we picked our first squash we were all SO excited, even the kids, so of course we had to document it...

#2: We recently realized that we had some extra money leftover from our tax return and decided to check off a few things from our "to buy someday list".  The first thing that I thought of was a Berkey water filter.  I have wanted one of these for a while now, not only for everyday drinking, but to also have for emergency preparedness.  These are the best affordable water filters on the market and they are especially great because their filters last a LONG time (like 15-20 years) so no need to worry about replacing them anytime soon.  We ended up buying ours from Berkey online during their scratch and dent sale.  We were going to go with a REALLY big one, but decided it just wasn't necessary since you can refill them at anytime, so we went with a medium size one and are very happy with it.  The last question on the table was where we were going to put it in our kitchen since it takes up quite a bit of space and I really didn't want to waste valuable counter space.  My solution to the problem was to put it in the laundry room which is right off of the kitchen and has a counter that we don't really use right now.  McKay's solution was to put in the pantry which is attached to the kitchen.  His idea was lots better than mine and after he built me a little shelf for it it was the perfect place for it.  It is out of sight so my kitchen still looks "pretty" (execpt for 95% of the time when there are dishes all over the counter...) and the water filter is still functional because it is right next to the fridge.  Along with building a little shelf for the water filter, McKay also hooked up a hose to the water tap that is next to the fridge.  The tap is supposed to be used for the fridge, but we don't use ours with our fridge because they are known for leaking often and McKay doesn't want a flood in our house.  The guy grew up cleaning house floods so he knows what things to watch out for and apparently a fridge leak is one of the big ones.  Anyways here is a picture of our cute little water filter.  We are very happy to have it and the kids love getting water out of it too.  I am happy to know that I am drinking healthier water on a daily basis plus have a good system in place for emergencies.  

#3:  This is huge!  Miss Adalyn has finally graduated from diapers and is officially potty trained!  Wahoo!  (totally relates to water right?) If you recall we started potty training her at the beginning of 2014 and we gave it all we had for about 4 weeks.  She was a pro at the night time stuff, but by the end of 4 weeks was still having 2ish accidents a day sometimes more. blah!  Also going #2 in the toilet was not happening at all.  I was in the throws of morning sickness and the accidents were just too much for me so we stopped all potty training for a few months.  Then in June we picked things back up and everything went MUCH better.  This time she was actually ready and figured things out fairly quickly.  The 2nd time around she never had an accident in her bed and has continued to amaze us with her night time routine.  BUT if it isn't one thing then it is another.  So while she was really good at bedtime it took the girl 4 weeks to actually go #2 on the toilet!  We tried everything to convince her to go #2 on the toilet, and it took a LONG time.  But we are finally there and we haven't had a "poop" accident in a few days.  Oh the joys of being a young mother!  lol Honestly potty training was one of the hardest parenting tasks that I have done up to this point and don't have a single ounce of advice for anyone.  lol  Every child is different, just wait until they are ready and then try your best to encourage them and they will eventually figure it out.  Congrats Adalyn we are so proud of you!  Here she is with her donut (her prize for going poop in the toilet for the first time)

And here is Jensen with his donut, because of course we ALL needed to celebrate her accomplishment..it was a group effort ;)

PS. while we are talking about poop, I just wanted to mention that while potty training Adalyn we also started cloth diapers with Jensen.... ya I do some crazy things while I am pregnant.  lol  We have been using them for about 5 weeks now, but I don't really have much to say about them other than the fact that we are doing it.  There are a million and one blog posts out there about cloth diapering, but if you want to ask me specific questions about how we do it then please feel free.  I am sure the longer we do it the more we will learn, but so far my knowledge about it is pretty minimal (although I do love the system that we have set up and it has been very manageable thus far, even while being 34 weeks pregnant).  Overall it really has not been that bad at all having a older toddler in cloth diapers, although I am a little nervous about having a little one PLUS a toddler in them in a few months.  So we will see how it goes...

#4: A quick shout out to my husband who thanks to his amazing garage sale skills got us an almost brand new water softener for our house.  We have hard water at our house and over the couple of years since we moved in I have watched the hard water take its tole on our appliances.  Also when we moved in the plumber suggested to us to get a water softener, but we have never followed through since their $700-$1000 price tags are a little hard to swallow when all it is going towards is softer water.  But a few weekends ago, we found one at a garage sale that had only been hooked up once to a house for a very short time and was priced at $40.  Sold!  We brought it home and it has worked great and will hopefully save our pipes in the long run.  :)  Love it when you stumble upon great deals like that!

#5: Just for fun to end this super long, slightly wordy blog post.  A few pictures of the kids, in the bath tub.  :)  McKay has been so good to give the kids their baths/showers the last few weeks since bending over to scrub a little body is almost too much for me these days.  

    

Oh those busy bodies!  They definitely keep us on our toes these days!

Summer Visitors

Ok I am getting behind on this blogging stuff.  Between growing a baby and toddlers this mama just doesn't always have it in me to put my thoughts into actual sentences.  Then this weekend I finally got the energy to blog and McKay goes and steals the computer for 3 days on end.  The man got addicted to family history recently and I can't seem to catch a minute on our one and only computer.  Although I can't really complain too much because things are usually the opposite with me being the one hogging the computer.  :)

So this post is going to be a combined one about some visitors that we have had recently.  McKay and I LOVE having visitors.  Idaho is not the biggest tourist attraction so we don't get tons, but we love it when we do.  So if you want to come feel free, our door is always open.  :)

Our first visitors this summer was McKay's sister, Candace, and her kids, Kenzie, Braden, and Kyle.  They stayed at our house for a couple days at the beginning of July while Chad went on a fishing trip.

Adalyn loved having Kenzie come play, and I think Kenzie enjoyed having a little cousin follow her around too.  She was an excellent helper with Adalyn and Adalyn loved every minute of Kenzie's attention.

While they were here we didn't do too many exciting things but we did manage to go for a walk by the falls and take pictures by the temple.  The kids loved collecting feathers and things around the river along with chasing the ducks.

McKay and his sister Candace

Later we went for a picnic in the park with McKay's aunt Claire who also lives here in Idaho Falls.  After dinner we went to Arctic Circle for some Ice Cream cones and to visit McKay's cousin Julie who was working there that night.  Then late that night Candace and I snuck away and left all 5 kids with McKay while we went to Zumba.

The next morning they hit the road early so that they could spend some time in Yellowstone.  So the visit was short and sweet, but it was fun showing them where we live and some of the things that we like to do (aka.  Eat Ice cream and go to Zumba).

Thanks Candace for stopping by, we had lots of fun!  And come back anytime :)


Another visitor that we have had this summer was my youngest sister Mykelti.  She came and stayed with us for the majority of this past week.  She is on summer break from BYU and came up to visit us in between her work shifts.  My kids ADORE Mykelti and they were so excited that she came to see us.  I loved having the extra set of hands to help entertain the kids.

While she was here we shopped, took the kids to play at the play grounds, and finally tried out the splash pad in Rexburg.  I have been meaning to go to the splash pad for a couple YEARS now and so I am glad that we finally tried it out.  Verdict:  It was really crowded and pretty overwhelming for my little toddlers since there were lots of older kids running all over the place.  But in the end they warmed up and seemed to really enjoy it.  I think their favorite part was riding the carousel  next to the splash pad.  They both had really fun reactions to the ride and loved playing on the "horses".  Mykelti was a good sport at the splash pad and got soaked several times all in the name of helping the kids go down the water slide.

These kids love water, and this next week we are going to the pool at Lava and I KNOW the kids will LOVE that kiddie pool (it is seriously the best kiddie pool I have ever been to.)  So the water fun isn't over yet.  :)            

Thanks Mykelti for coming to visit, we miss you already!