Christmas this year was great! Christmas Eve the girls opened matching pjs and visited Cody's parents. 

We opened presents on Christmas morning and then headed down to my grandparents house in Utah that afternoon. It was great being able to spend so much time with family and have all of my siblings in one place. That rarely happens and I have no idea when it will happen again but it was amazing. 

These three cousins were all born within a few months of each other and had a blast playing together. It was so nice to not have to worry about Ellie because I knew she was content playing with everyone. They kept rocking on this chair and then started jumping from the foot rest onto it while the other two were laughing and rocking. 

 

On Thursday we headed to the dinosaur museum at thanksgiving point in Lehi. Thank heavens we have to babies because we didn't have to pay for them to get in! They had a discovery room that we could have spent hours in! They had tubes that had a fan at the bottom and you could create things to put in it to wath them float to the top. Ellie would have stayed at this station the entire day if we would have let her. 

 

We were actually very impressed with the entire place. It was very kid friendly and had all sorts of fun activities to keep them entertained.

We knew the boys wouldn't last too long hanging out with us constantly so we sent them to do manly things on friday, like shoot guns! All except poor josh, he was sick the entire time and I'm sure not being able to sleep because of the kids didn't help at all. 

My sisters and I took the girls to get a buld a bear, the three older girls (maybe later Kate!) all got gift cards for the holidays. Ellie chose a horse and refused to let me put clothes on it but the leash she chose was acceptable. 

That night we had a girls night, the sisters and grandma, and left the kiddos with the boys. The rest of the weekend was spent just hanging out and enjoying time with everyone and playing games. We get very competitive and it gets intense. I have learned that I have no patience when it comes to games and pick up sticks is not the game for me. 

Monday morning was bitter sweet. Spending time with my family was amazing and we loved every minute of it. But driving away and taking josh to the airport made me extremely sad because I am not sure when the next time we will see him or my sisters family is because of the distance. I guess it's time to start designing our neighborhood just for our family to live so we can always be close! 

Since we moved I have felt off trying to get back in the groove I everyday life. Between cleaning the house, laundry, meals, dishes (the day we are able to get a dishwasher and have space will be the 4th happiest day of my life (the first three being my wedding day and the day that the girls were born)), taking care of kiddos and making sure they get the attention and care they need, and trying to find time to exercise and lose this baby fat. It can be a lot. Especially with the holiday season, I feel like it's a season of busy and long to do lists. 

To avoid feeling completely overwhelmed we have been taking it easy. So far my house has only been completely clean at one time once and that was because we had a dinner guest. I haven't made any delicious holiday treats because I don't want to gain a ton of weight (I really have zero self control when it comes to any kind of sweets or pastries/ breads, or any good food really) and its a lot of extra dishes. I have such little motivation that we haven't even decorated the tree. But a large part of that is because I am enjoying no broken ornaments all over the floor and the after season clean up and also because I am enjoying the simplicity of our lot tree. It doesn't need a ll of the embellishments to be beautiful and bring Christmas cheer.

The time of year, the girls being sick, moving, and well, everything all at once has been a little overwhelming and days like today are necessary. We've been spending a lot of time on the floor playing and dancing and being silly and letting the house be messy and eating frozen chicken and fries and calling it dinner. Usually all this would drive me nuts but I am loving it. I love that katelyn and I snuggled and took a nap this afternoon on the couch instead of getting the long to do list shortened. When ellie only wants to wear the fox pajamas all day for three say in a row I don't get mad, we've just been going with it (mainly because we have two pairs of the same ones). We've been talking and facetiming family and enjoying our family. Instead of worrying about all the things we could be doing and it has been great. 

We've got the upstairs just about put together aside from hanging anything on the walls, we will do that eventually. The downstairs is a complete mess where we put everything else and said we'd put it away later and yesterday was later. Cody and Ellie were downstairs and Cody needed something so he called up to me. Ellie being funny started shouting " Jayme" in her two year old lingo. We both were just about rolling on the floor laughing. She cracks us up. It almost makes me sad that she doesn't call me mama or mommy, just a straight up mom. She's even got the teenage version down where it fluctuates and sounds like she's annoyed when she calls me. Crazy kid! 

Last week Ellie got her first ear infection. That was... Interesting. She wasn't all that bad, just a little bit more short tempered than normal and had a nasty cold. I left her with my mother in law for an afternoon so I could take Kate to get her shots and get some Christmas shopping done. That woman is heaven sent and not shopping with a two year old was great, I was in and out so fast. 

Kate had caught the nasty cold that Cody and Ellie have had and it is so sad to see such a tiny thing struggling so much. The other night I was up a lot and finally switched with Ellie and threw her in my bed. Last night I was afraid of a repeat and had a sleepover with Katelyn on the floor of her room. The worst part of being a parent is feeling helpless when your kids are sick. I prayed and prayed and eventually cried myself to sleep because every 5-10 minutes she would cough and wake up screaming. She finally fell asleep and only woke up occasionally. It was a miracle. 

Ellie is loving the house and having a lot more room to play in. We've been having fun going to play at the church gym with friends to let out energy and get moving. She is so funny sometimes. She is usually a very active kid and loves to play with others but the last two times we have gone she just wants to sit back and watch everyone else. She is very observant and really notices people's emotions, not only when they cry but also if they are just sad. It amazes me how concerned she gets for others and I hope that's a quality she keeps. 

Ellie is quite intelligent. We had gone to cal ranch on Saturday to look for snow boots for her and she found a stick horse that she rode around the entire time we were there. 

She threw a fit when it was time to put it back and leave. The girls and I went again yesterday morning to pick up a present for Cody and she remember right where those were. She walked straight to them and would not be coerced into leaving without one. We gave all the old men shopping a nice show of a screaming toddler with a mother frantically trying to quiet her child and tell her that she was done throwing fits. Someday I would like to record our store visits because I am sure after the fact they would be hilarious. Two year olds sure know how to keep their parents on their toes. But we sure do love this spunky and creative girl.

This crazy kid of ours turned two! I can't believe it! We had a little party for her before we moved. Just having her grandparents and cousins come was a treat enough for her. She is obsessed with pirates, so we had swords and hooks for all.

She loved having her cousins come play and thought her own ice cream cone was the coolest.

There are quite a few things that I could say about this girl. She has such a personality! She can be so outgoing and the next minute extremely shy. Most of the time she likes people and saying hi or smiling at strangers in the store. Yesterday she did something that surprised me, with a room full of kids she just stood back and watched them play and was perfectly content to be on the side lines. She is already an amazing big sister to Katelyn and loves having her sister do anything that she is doing. She talks a lot, especially since we got rid of her pacifier. She loves to dance around the living room while listening to music and gives a mischievous grin when she is doing something she knows she is not supposed to. She does silly things on purpose and laughs so loud as she's doing them, today it was walking around the house in my shoes.

I feel almost silly writing this, trying to explain miss Ellie because there are not even words to describe this girl. She is spunky and fun and sassy and frustrating and fearless and timid and everything else all at the same time. She is everything. She's obsessed with pirates and Christmas lights and playing hide and seek. She is stubborn as can be when it comes to food and lets you know that she knows the word NO. She likes to use her hands  to color and play with stickers and tickle her dads back and arms. If you are on the floor she thinks you are her personal horse and screams as she jumps on your back in excitement. She scowls when shes angry and asks for a tissue when she cries to wipe away her tears. She's a ball of personality that cannot be described in words. But we sure do love her. Every quality she possesses, her concern for others when they are crying and her constant need to let her dad know that she loves him when he is home. 

This two year old Ellenor... what did we get ourselves into with this one?!

I know if I don't write about it now I probably won't. Cody has been working so hard on getting the house ready for us to move in. We tore up all the carpet upstairs, so in the living room, hallway, 3 bedrooms, and office. We tore up the laminent in the kitchen and the dining room had carpet so that got taken up as well. Originally we were going to put tile in the entry way and not even mess with the kitchen quite yet. Looking into tile we realized that it would be a lot cheaper to do laminate hardwood floor and keep the rock in the immediate doorway. We had been discussing how it would work with replacing the carpet and having it all blend together when we eventually put in new kitchen floor. We changed plans and found out we could put flooring in the entry, kitchen and dining for about the same as tile only in the entry. 

We have been painting like crazy today and thought it was going to take all weekend. Cody's family came to te rescue! His mom watched the girls all day so that I could be there helping him. His dad and brother also came over all day to help paint and the entire upstairs is just about finished. We didn't think we would even get half way done today. 

The bathroom ended up being a lot bigger project than either of us anticipated. We thought changing the shower behind the door into a closet and putting a shower head in the tub would be a lot easier but it's taken a lot. Cody's brother came up last week and helped a lot and Cody laid the last of the tile on the floor at 2:30 am the other night. 

It's been a long and rough process but it will be so worth it in the end! We can't wait to have it finished and be moved in. 

I forgot to mention... Everything in the house was originally PINk!!!!! I mean everything! 

The hall without the cabinet doors

Almost finished bathroom! 

Living room looking towards the door 

Living room from the front closet 

Ellie "riding a horse" 

Dining room and kitchen 

Right after Cody ripped out the shower, it was at least 2 inches of cement on the bottom! 

This week we took away Ellie's pacifier for good. Cody was gone over night on Monday and that was the day I did it, big mistake on my part. It was a very long day and an even longer night. We've noticed that its been effecting her teeth lately and she just constantly wanted it. I was tired if her crying for it constantly (she was only allowed to have it for naps and bed time). She was screaming for a while so I finally made a slit in the tip and gave it back to her. She was sad and just kept saying its broke. The only nap she got that day was in the morning on the couch while watching a movie. That night she went to bed ok, I waited until she was really tired and put her in bed but she woke up screaming at midnight. We played musical beds with the two girls. Ellie was in my bed but would randomly wake up and scream that it was broken. That woke katelyn up and eventually she was wide awake and would smile everytime I tucked her back in, I threw her in Ellie's bed but Ellie didn't like that and it only brought on more screams from Ellie. I was so glad when it was finally morning. 

Without the pacifier that means no naps. At all. It's been a long week without naps. I've been turning on a movie in the afternoon for Ellie to have some quiet time and she has fallen asleep a few times. I even tried letting her take a nap in her tent but she just thought that was way too much fun to sleep. 

I was really worried about how night time would be. The first couple nights were hard just because she has always been really good about going in her room and going straight to sleep. But the past two nights she has done just that and its nice to feel like we are back to normal. 

And since I've update about our eventful week with Ellie, katelyn has a new trick up her sleeve. She is now rolling over! And she has learned how I scream, no doubt from hearing her sister do it so much. 

Cody has been working a lot on the house. We are hoping to be in before Christmas, that's my goal at least but he's doing most of the work by himself so it takes a little bit longer than anticipated. The girls are happy that it is Sunday so that they get to see their dad for a whole day and not just a quick hello or goodnight. 

I hate waiting. Absolutely hate it! And I have little patience for waiting which is probably why I’ve been forced to do so much of it lately. It feels like the past month has been spent waiting.

Waiting for the opportunity to buy a house. Waiting for the  government to open back up so we can buy a house. Waiting to close on a house. But we got the house! Now its waiting to get it all put together so we can move in. Waiting for Cody to have time to work on it. Waiting for Katelyn to get sleepy so we can go help. Waiting…

Waiting for a few hours at Lowes. At least we enjoyed looking at the Christmas decorations for a few minutes to help entertain us.


Sunday Ellie was sick and had a high fever. We spent the entire day waiting for her fever to go down and for her to start acting normal again. Thank heavens it only lasted one day, I was getting tired of the same disney movies over and over.



I've been waiting for Katelyn to roll over. She is almost there but not quite.



We've been trying to patiently wait for the November birthdays and Christmas. I am extremely excited for Christmas because I ordered some black boots but I have to wait... I've already finished shopping for the girl's and can't wait to see how excited Ellie will be.




A few other things that I've been waiting for are... to see progress of working hard to get this baby weight off, to get Katelyn moved out of our room and in with Ellie, to see family around the holidays, for Ellenor to start talking more. It seems like I keep waiting for the day when I can actually finish a to do list and not have only half the things I should get done crossed off. But despite waiting, we are trying to enjoy each day and make the most of it.