FAMILY PICTURES 2011

We have discovered that its too hard (especially with 2 small children) to take our own family pictures, so my really good friend Julia Fullmer agreed to help us out and take some pictures for us!

FAMILY

 

LILY

CRYSTAL

 THE GIRLS

Easter 2011

Yes I know I'm behind! Easter was a long time ago. We were in Idaho Falls and had a great time!

Friday night. Putting her colored eggs in her basket for the Easter Bunny to hide.

Grandma Gordon and Crystal showing off their colored eggs.

Setting out baskets Friday night for the Easter Bunny to fill!

The Easter Bunny came Saturday Morning. He even remembered Lily this year! :D

Crystal looking through the stuff she got.

Crystal showing Lily the toys the Easter Bunny brought for her.

Easter Egg Hunt at Grandma and Papa Cook's House

Still looking for eggs!

Resting for a minute. This Easter Egg Hunting is hard work!

By the end of the day she was a pro at it. She searched for eggs that the Easter bunny hid Saturday morning, then more hunting at Grandma Cook's and AGAIN that night at Grandma Gordon's house.

Here is a video of some of the events.

 Crystal's not happy in this pic, but these are the dresses Grandma and Papa Cook got the girls for Easter! Aren't they cute?

 These are the girls after our trip wearing the PJ's Grandma and Grandpa Cook got them for Easter.

This is a picture of the girls with their cousins. These are the dresses Grandma and Papa Gordon got them for Easter! I'm LOVING having fun dressing them the same now that we can get matching clothes in Lily's and Crystal's size.

The Good Samaritan

The most wonderful thing happened to me Thursday night. I went to pick up a pizza from Little Caesars to take to Ty at work which is a huge task when you have 2 small children. When I was little it was okay to leave the kids in the car for 2 minutes while you ran in to get a pizza, but now you get the police called on you, or worse someone tries stealing your car and taking the kids with them. Needless to say I went into the pizza place with my arms already full. I ordered a special they had for a pizza, crazy bread, sauce, and a 2 liter soda.

I had all if it and Lily in my arms and decided I was just going to have to trust crystal to walk to the car without holding my hand (don't worry I was totally prepared to drop the pizza if she ran in front of a car). Almost immediately though, Lily started grabbing at the sauce and crazy bread and I could see only disaster could ensue. I was desperately looking for a place to set things down to save the sauce that Lily now had in her grasp when a lady who was waiting for her order came over and asked if she could help. I gladly accepted. I was just going to have Crystal hold the sauce so lily couldn't get a hold of it, but the very kind lady offered to walk out with me to the car. I was so grateful for this lady's small act of kindness! It seems silly that a woman walking marinara sauce to my car would make my whole day, but it did!

(I know I promised pictures last week but our internet is too slow to upload them right now. We are moving to a different apartment in two weeks and will have better internet, so I'm going to have to wait till then to do it. :D)

Wronged At Walmart

At the risk of sounding like a child tattling on someone who cut in the lunch line, I just HAVE to share what happened to Ty and I in Walmart Saturday night. But before I do I'd like to share a few tips to avoid this EVER happening to you. 1. Avoid Utah all together. Honestly, I realized this could happen anywhere, but many Utahans act in person the same way they drive: Completely inconsiderate with a serious ME attitude. (I hear this is only the case between Salt Lake and Provo - and believe that could easily be true, so I guess avoid the salt lake-provo area ;-)) 2. If that isn't possible, as in our case, DON'T EVER go to Walmart on a Saturday night. 3. And finally if you really MUST go to Walmart for that last minuted Sunday dinner item or Saturday night ice cream, NEVER EVER EVER EVER go to the Walmart in Orem. In fact it would probably be a good idea to drive a few extra miles to the Lindon or Springville Walmart WHENEVER you need to go to Walmart because the Orem Walmart is possibly the worst Walmart I've ever encountered (that's a whole other story though).

By the time we got what we needed and headed to the register at Walmart Saturday night, it was already eight thirty. Less than half the lanes were open. The lines were HORRENDOUS. Lily was SOOO tired. And Crystal was grumpy. So we made our way to a center lane that seemed to have the shortest line. Our spot in line landed us right next to the $5 DVD bin. The people in front of us, the people in front of them, and Ty and I were perusing through the movies as we waited in line.

Ty stayed standing behind the cart and would push it forward as the line moved. When it got to a point where the line had moved everyone but us away from the bin, Ty pushed the cart forward leaving about a 2-3 foot gap between the cart and the lady standing in line in front of us. We were still looking through them hoping it would help the time pass (it had already been 5-10 minutes) when a college student in a handicap electric cart (with 4 of his friends in tow) squeezed the nose of his cart in front of us. Ty and I just stood there jaws dropped staring at them but they refused to even look our way- even after Ty pushed the cart right up behind the electric cart they were using. The kids cart didn't even fit in the gap Ty had left, but as soon as the lady (who used to be right in front of us) moved forward he drove his cart completely in front of us! All 5 people didn't even look back.

I tried very hard not to be upset and tried desperately to believe they really had no idea what they had done. I thought well maybe the kid on the electric cart really didn't feel well and needed to get home, or that maybe somehow it really didn't look like we were in line. So I looked at the people behind us in line. They were - of course - digging through the DVD bin... in about the exact same spot we had been when this happened to us ... with - shockingly enough - the same gap between them and us. I stepped out of line to get a different view of the situation. Unfortunately it didn't make me feel any better. They definitely looked like they were in line. And if I thought it were questionable, they were close enough to the line that I wouldn't DARE get in front of them without asking if they were in line first. So it was true. These five students had really just pulled in front of a young family with 2 small GRUMPY children (who does that?!?! REALLY!?!?!).

We'd already been in line for a good 10 minutes and it didn't look like they had a lot of stuff anyway, so I calmed myself down thinking that it was only going to take 2-3 more minutes TOPS and it wasn't going to kill us to just wait it out (Which was really hard by the way. Its one thing when you get cut off when driving, then the car is gone in seconds and you move on. But standing in a long line at the store, we just had to sit there and stare at them for another 10 minutes... or more. Yes that's right ... more than 10 minutes.

As it turns out (once it was their turn) most of the stuff being bought belonged to 3 girls in the group. They rang it up as one transaction, but then wanted to use 3 different debit cards. So the cashier had to figure out what the 1/3 of the total was and the girls began sliding their cards. REALLY? (At this point Lily had decided she'd had enough and was SCREAMING in her carseat. Ty had taken Crystal elsewhere because she was NOT going to stand in line any longer!) The first girl paid and the second girl's card wouldn't work on the machine, so the cashier took it to run it on his end. As he was sliding the card he dropped it behind the keyboard and down into the neck of the stand. SERIOUSLY? THIS CAN'T REALLY BE HAPPENING? The cashier couldn't reach his hand down far enough to get it. Neither could anyone else in the group and yes they ALL tried. Even the "sickly" one in the handicap electric cart who didn't seem handicap or sickly at all as it turns out - NOT EVEN A LIMP! He went and sat back in his cart while the others figured out what to do. (This made me feel more upset because I couldn't blame it on him not feeling well and needing to go home anymore).

This is when I heard his friend ask him (remember Lily was screaming still) if it was worth it leaning his head over to point in our direction. I heard him respond something about the line ... I don't know what he said exactly. I was too shocked at the fact that they had indeed known what they had done, but had been above standing in line like the rest of us and waiting their turn! Wow! Again I will say it: REALLY?!?!?

Well after about five more minutes and some squeezing hands through different opening in the register, one of the girl's finally managed to get the card out. The second and then third girl paid. Then the other two bought what they had in two different transactions and it was finally our turn - 5 transactions later than it really should have been (Lily still NOT happy!)! It was like having FIVE people cut in front of us in an already LONG line!

From the moment it happened I realized it wasn't going to do any good to feel anger towards them when it was just making me feel horrible. I'm sure they left the store without giving the situation another thought. My hurt feelings weren't going to affect their lives in any way, just mine and mine alone. So yes I have told you my story of how I was once greatly wronged at Walmart. And yes it has made me feel much much better (I don't know why ... but ... well ... it has ... lol). Now I just hope next time it happens I will handle it with a better Christ-like attitude and avoid the bad feelings all together.

Sleep?!?! Who needs sleep? Not Lily...Or so she thinks!

Okay, so I have gotten extremely far behind on my blogging. I've been struggling keeping up with the housework lately let alone having time to blog! The girls have been keeping me on my toes and Lily has been especially clingy lately. She's gotten to the age where she likes to play with her toys by herself, BUT I have to be sitting right there next to her while she does it. Why? I have no idea, but I remember Crystal going through the same phase. Lily also hasn't been sleeping well the past few weeks. She wakes up around 2-3 am and screams and throws fits till 5 am. Ty and I have been tag teaming so we've both been losing sleep (not that anyone in the house can sleep with her screaming like that) Ty has been Superdad and gets up with the kids in the morning after long nights with Lily while I sleep in. But sleeping longer doesn't really seem to make up for the lost hours at night. I wish we could get her to understand that a dark room means its time to sleep, NOT time to play! She'll figure it out eventually though. But until then we have decided we need to separate the girls so they don't keep waking each other up.

This is how we've decided most nights are panning out these days:

Crystal makes whining noises in her sleep (she's done this since we brought her home from the hospital. Super noisy sleeper). The noise eventually wakes Lily. Lily thinks it must be time to wake up and play. Mommy/Daddy goes in to give Lily her binky/comfort her/ tell her to go back to sleep. Mommy/Daddy goes back to bed. Two minutes later Lily begins to SCREAM because she doesn't want to sleep, she wants to play. After 5 minutes of screaming, Crystal is finally awoken to the banshee noises coming from Lily's crib (Crystal is a VERY deep sleeper, but even she can't sleep through Lily's screaming). Mommy/Daddy goes back into the room to comfort Lily and try to lull her to sleep. Screaming continues. Lily joins Mommy and Daddy in their bed (this worked for a few days but not anymore). Screaming continues. Lily is put downstairs in the living room to scream at her hearts content. Screaming continues for a good 15-30 minutes. Daddy goes to give Lily her binky and comfort her. Lily calms down. She spends the rest of the night between Mommy and Daddy in bed. Mommy and Daddy don't sleep very well. THIS MUST END.

So we are moving in a month to a different apartment that has three bedrooms. We are hoping she will sleep better without having Crystal in the room waking her up at night. This isn't the only reason we are moving though. The owner of our duplex doesn't care for it well. After 4 leaks in the roof over the winter, the owner finally replaced the roof but refuses to check for mold in the ceiling/walls. Immediately following the roof replacement, the kitchen began flooding from the foundation. Instead of fixing the yard which is the cause of the problem, they chose to run the water to the neighbors side of the duplex. In my mind its just delaying the inevitable instead of solving the problem but whatever. The bathroom has needed work done on it since we moved in, but NOTHING has been done. We are tired of our pleas being left on deaf ears. So we will move. We LOVE our neighbors! We LOVE the location. We LOVE having our own backyard and not having people above or below us. But we have decided its worth giving it all up to have slightly more decent living conditions. The new apartment will have people above us and I hope they LOVE children because they will be hearing some screaming now and then... especially when doomsday comes. And I'm not talking about the end of the world people ... okay well I guess it depends on who you ask. To Crystal it might be the end. She's on her last binky and when it breaks/gets lost, she will have to be ALL grown up and start sleeping without it. YES that's right my 2 1/2 year old still has a binky. We are working on it...

Third time's a Charm!

When I was 7 months pregnant with Lily, Ty and I decided to attempt potty training Crystal in hopes that we wouldn't have 2 kids in diapers - not to mention the money we'd save. So I googled (side note: (I know how much you love my side notes :D) Chrome Browser's spell check doesn't think "googled" is a word; I think it should) "potty training" to see what I came up with. Nothing. Okay so there was something - TOO MUCH of something actually. SO I read article after article, they all had COMPLETELY different strategies ... most of which told me I was going to ruin my child's life if I trained her before she was 3 years old! Really? Ruin her life? I was potty trained at 2 years old. My life wasn't ruined. I don't remember being traumatized by the experience at all... okay okay ... I don't remember the experience at all, but it obviously didn't ruin my life.

Needless to say I was a bit overwhelmed and had NO idea what I was doing. Naturally I turned to my mom. Her response was, "Well I don't know how I did it. All I remember is it took lots of patience." Okay well patience is not my strong suit, but I was sure the prospect of no more diapers would help me through it. I still had no set strategy on HOW to do it though. So I thought about the stuff I had read. ALL of them agreed that Pull Ups were useless, so I went and bought LOTS AND LOTS of underwear for her. Some said to make it a party, so I made cupcakes, wrapped her underwear like a present, bought her a potty chair, bought stickers and printed a potty chart, bought treats to bribe her with :D, and I thought I was good to go!

The big day came! She opened the underwear, threw away her diapers (okay pretended to throw away her diapers ... those cost $ you know!), put on her underwear and celebrated with a cupcake! Then the day went down hill from there... it was a nightmare ... she was upset because that underwear was NOT holding her pee and she was getting all wet! And why sit on the chair with a hole in it ... that's not comfy! The one time she did pee in the potty chair, we were so excited for her that we scared her and she almost cried ... lol ... it didn't go well. We were also putting her in a diaper during naps and at night because - well frankly - we were stupid and didn't know what we were doing ... lol.

So the next day, Crystal just simply DIDN'T pee. She held her pee till naptime when we put a diaper on and then again till bedime. REALLY?!? Now I'm thinking ... she's ready to be potty trained if she can hold it THAT LONG, so what am I doing wrong?!?! We went on like this for 5 days with very little success, in fact she was just getting worse, refusing to wear underwear at all, just peeing everywhere and walking away like nothing happened, AND there was NO way she was gonna sit on that chair ANYMORE! So we decided we were obviously doing something wrong and thought we'd better stop before we did ruin her life like the articles said we would ... lol.

A month or two later, just before Lily was born we thought we'd try it one more time. She was 2 now and could communicate with us TONS better than before so we thought she might pick up on it better. Lets just say it didn't work as well as we'd hoped. I think we only lasted 1 day before we gave up (this was more our lack of motivation ... remember I was nearly 9 months pregnant and not only emotional but tired). She was as stubborn as ever about it. At this point she knew what we wanted her to do, but she just didn't have any interest in doing it.

So fast forward 6 months to a few weeks ago. Ty's cousin, Emily, posts on Facebook that her 2 year old is potty trained and it only took 3 days! When I read this I WANTED her secret more than anything! You have to realize that at this point I had decided it might be easier just to teach Crystal how to change her own diaper that to teach her to use the toilet... LOL! This is what Emily sent me: 3 Day Potty Training. She said not only had she had success with it, but she knew other people who had done it too. I had nothing to lose. So I read the book, and though it was similar to what we had tried in the past, it pointed out several vital things we had been doing VERY wrong!

This was IT! NO going back! Third times a charm right!?!?! So we started out again... I bought more underwear (I thought she'd wear it if it had her favorite disney characters, mickey and minnie, on them), I bought more treats, and finally I set aside 3 days for JUST her and no distractions!

Day 1:She 'threw away' the diapers ... again. We put on her Minnie underwear after a small fight and a successful chocolate cupcake distraction ;D. And that was it! We reminded her hundreds of times to tell us if she needed to go and watched her EVER SO CLOSELY so we could get her to the toilet in time! The only accident she had all day was at naptime.

Night 1: A Nightmare for ALL of us. 6 pairs of underwear. 5 pj bottoms. 4 sets of sheets. (I'm just glad she's in a toddler bed with a crib mattress so it wasn't too hard to change and clean up!)

Day 2: 2 partial accidents (She stopped it as soon as she realized what was happening). She did have a full on accident during her nap again...

Night 2: I thought we had a breakthrough when she CALLED for me so she could go potty after I put her in bed. She was still dry at 4 am but was very wet when I woke her in the morning.

Day 3: She wore the same pair of underwear ALL day long! She even stayed dry during her nap but she only slept for 20 minutes so I don't know that it counted. lol. We even started relaxing on following her around and watching her every moment because she was getting so good at letting us know when she needed to go!

Night 3: Had to change the sheets 2 times. Once @ 1am. Once in the morning.

Today we are feeling pretty confident that she is day trained. We were out all day today and didn't have any accidents! We are however concerned about her inability to stay dry while sleeping. She still doesn't wake up when she needs to go, she just sleeps through it till its too late. I'm feeling very much against putting a diaper or pull up on her because I don't want her to start holding it till she has a diaper on like she was before. I think we are going to give the nighttime training another week or so and see how she does. I'm hoping as she gets used to going to the bathroom during the day that she'll start remembering while asleep that its not okay to just go whenever she wants anymore.

I can't tell you how happy I am that this 3 day program was so successful. I would suggest it to ANYONE who's thinking about potty training a child soon. The author of the book suggests 22 months is the perfect age to begin training (it is a lot of work and you go through a lot of underwear in 3 days but to have NO diapers at 22 months! Wouldn't that be wonderful!?!:D). I wish more than anything that we had had this book the first time we tried training her, it would have saved us all quite a bit of stress and frustration - not to mention $ on diapers :D!

WHAT A WONDERFUL FEELING!!!

Just thought I'd post a quick update. I don't have any pictures off my camera right now. I've been a slacker lately. My parents came to visit over conference weekend, and I don't think I took 1 picture!

First and foremost I want to mention: WE ARE ALL HEALTHY!!!! FINALLY!!!!! Ty had the worst time kicking the RSV we passed around to each other, but I think its safe to say that he's healthy again. The rest of us have felt better for a few weeks now. I'm praying we can stay this way for a while because I just can't handle any more sickness in my house at the moment!

Ty has been working long and hard on creating a cell phone app for a company in Washington. I don't think I'm allowed to post any details on what it is (wouldn't want anyone getting to it first ... hehe). I think he has enjoyed doing something that pushes his limits. Its been a month of "It's gonna work!" "It's not working." "Now its gonna work!" "Its not working." "I got this part to work!" "I can't get the next part to work." "I think I figured it out!" "WHY ISN'T IT WORKING!?!?!" Then the best part, "IT WORKS!" I have been so proud of him for sticking to it and working through it even though it didn't come together as easily as he thought it would. Ty is notorious for turning around and walking away when something stresses him out, so I'm ashamed to say I was surprised when he just kept plugging away at it. It has become his baby and I think he is quite proud of it! He and his dad are going to be flying to Washington next week to show the company what he has finished! Wish him luck; this could be really good for us! :D

I had another birthday ... sad I know ... 27 ... I just can't believe I'm 27! I don't feel like I'm 27. And I don't know how its possible that I'm 27, when I know my parents are only in their 30's, aren't they? When did all this happen? I'm afraid my life is going to be half over before I catch up with it! Time is flying by way too fast! I had a great birthday despite it all! Ty surprised me with a DQ ice cream cake... though we both agreed it didn't have nearly enough frosting on it ... lol... but it was great. I think Ty took a picture or two but I'll have to post them another day (pictures tend to make my "short posts" take hours to complete ... lol).

Crystal did help us end my birthday on a high note by coloring on the carpet with permanent marker. After several different cleaning products and a lot of scrubbing the marker had faded quite a bit, but we could still see it. BUT the day after we had given up getting it out, we noticed the marker was completely gone. I don't know if the stain remover we used bleached the carpet or what but the marker is gone! We aren't gonna complain! :D

Crystal has taken more interest in coloring and drawing lately (obviously from the paragraph above ...lol). Hopefully she has learned to just do it in coloring books and on paper! Its so fun to watch her work. She gets down close to the paper like she's creating a MASTER PIECE. When she's done its usually just lines and colored in circles, but to her its all sorts of different things! She shows me "letters" and "dogs" and "horses" and "pigs" .... she can go on and on about the things she draws!

She also LOVES Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (don't know if I've mentioned that recently). She can say "MICKEY MOUSE" clear as day! She can also name all of the other characters, "GOOKY," "DAISY," "DONAD," "MINNIE," and "PUTO." We are still working on our alphabet. She is getting better at it, but we still have a long ways to go. She has a leapfrog video on the letters and their sounds that she loves to watch. In the video it says "B says buh... buh, buh, buh..." (it does it to a rhythm), so now when she sees a "B" she says, "Mommy look its a 'buh... buh, buh, buh...'" At least I know she's picking up on some of it ... hehe. We are also still working on counting to 10. For some odd reason she tends to count by even numbers ... lol ... not sure why but we are working on it.

Tomorrow we are potty training AGAIN! This time its for good ... I think ... lol ... I mean ... THIS IS IT! lol. Please pray for me to have patience because I love Crystal and I really want her to survive this ... lol.

Lily is 5 1/2 months now and still has yet to roll over (she really hates her tummy time...). But she sits up really well now (unless she gets too excited, then she tends to fall over...lol). We did have a scare on Friday when she fell head first off my bed. I know I know I'm the worst mother ever! I had her sitting up on the bed. Because she usually falls backwards onto a pillow and since she doesn't (nor has she ever tried to) roll over, I wasn't too concerned about leaving her there. I do have to admit that a small voice in the back of my head said not to leave her there, but I was just running downstairs to grab a few things and I was going to be right back up. Not to mention SHE DOESN'T ROLL, so why not leave her there.

I was on my way back up the stairs when I heard a THUD. I knew immediately it was Lily, and I didn't hear any crying afterwards. I dropped everything in my arms and ran! She was lying on the floor, holding her breath in a cry. I was so glad she was alive I started crying too! It was pretty traumatic. Less than a minute later she was laughing and smiling and enjoying all the extra attention!

Afterwards we decided she had to have fallen on her stomach and pushed herself (with her feet) head first off the bed. I was so thankful she didn't have a concussion or worse. It took Ty (and my parents) 2 days to convince me she was okay!

She is also getting really good at grabbing at things and putting them in her mouth. She also LOVES it when Crystal pays attention to her. She follows Crystal all around the room with her eyes hoping she'll look her way! Crystal has also taken more interest in Lily lately, now that Lily will play with toys (okay by "play" I really mean "eat" .. lol). Lily's absolute favorite toy is still her Johnny Jumper! She can be entertained for a good hour in her jumper, especially if Crystal plays with her by swinging her and helping her jump!