Twenty-FIVE

Holy moly. I. Am. Old. Ok, not really, but 25 sounds WAY older than 24. Am I right or am I right or am I right? My birthday was on Sunday and it was pretty low key, being on a Sunday and all. This weekend my mom, sister, and two nephews came for a visit. We went to the Aquarium of the Pacific (NOT fun, sorry mom. Rachael was a living terror. Pictures later.) on Saturday. Friday night, Nate took me out to the Cheesecake Factory. SO YUMMY!! I've only ever had their cheesecake (ironically we didn't get a piece because we were stuffed to the rafters.). But the pasta we both got was to. die. for. I'm getting hungry just thinking about it.
So since I continue to age, I'm trying to become better each year. This year is gonna be good... I don't know exactly how yet... but it will be, and I'll let you know when I figure it out. I'm thinking about having a positive outlook on EVERYTHING, using anti-aging face/body wash (never to early to start, right?), drawing nearer to God, and being more thankful for all of the wonderful blessings/people/both I've got in my life. Some people want to stop making excuses for not being the weight they want to be, I'm going to stop making excuses for EVERYTHING. I heard a quote once, but I won't quote it cuz I don't remember it exactly... Something like if its not that important you'll find an excuse, if it is important you'll find a way. I totally agree with that. Anyways, I'm gonna go do some laundry and be THANKFUL that I have a washer and dryer. (For reals, last week it was broken and it was terrible...)

#4

Today, I took a nap. Yes, my friends, a nap. Not an, "I'm going to close my eyes while Rachael watches this movie and hope that she doesn't jump on my back or take the knives out of the drawer." Nope. Rachael was at school and Whitney was unexpectedly tired, and instead of spending the three hours Rachael is at school watching TV or cleaning (haha, right...), I did the dishes then took a NAP. Happy Birthday to ME!! And then, instead of going to the park (cuz let's be honest, sometimes going to the park is NOT a walk in the park. Thank you, thank you, I'll be here until next Thursday. Try the veal. [Gilmore Girls]) we came home and played with playdough. Much more low key. Now I've got company tonight, but my vacuum is broken, so I'm just letting it slide. They really don't care anyways. Have a good night. I know I will!!

#3

Today's present worked out for me!
First off, I'd like to give a shout out to my amazing husband for training our daughter so well. When Nate is home, he's the one to get up with Rachael if she does get up. Sometimes she gets up at an outrageous hour, like 4 a.m., so Nate goes in and says, "Rachael, its still dark outside, all of the cows and horses are still sleeping, so you need to sleep too, ok?" So this morning Rachael woke up at 5:30. Not happening, my friend. So I took her potty and put her back into bed. "Close your eyes and go to sleep, ok?" "Mom." "What?" "Cows see-ing? Horse see-ing?" "Yep, the cows and horses are still sleeping." "Shae-shae (what she calls herself... I'll take what I can get.) see-ing." "Yep, Rachael needs to sleep." Done! She slept until 9.
Today for my present, we went to a place called Pump It Up with some girls in the ward. Its just those blow up slides and bounce houses and such. I got an AMAZING deal through groupon for it. Amazing as in 6 passes for $5. Nice. It was a lot of work for me actually, especially because Whit only slept for like 15 minutes after we got there. After we left we went to Chili's for lunch. (I actually sat in the car for like 5 minutes debating on whether or not to actually go in, or just get it to go. We went in.) The girls were amazing and so good, and the food was ok. As fun as it was go to out to eat, the REAL present I got for myself was getting the Avocado and Ranch dip. YUMMY! If you've never had it, go get it. Like right now. Its only $3, and you get it instead of the salsa. I have that ranch and the fresh chips sitting in my fridge, waiting for the girls to go to bed so I can watch Gilmore Girls and Parenthood while snacking. Best. Present. Ever.
Now Rachael is watching Cars and Whitney is still sleeping. Once she wakes up, heck, maybe I'll treat myself to a shower! How nice would THAT be!

Uuuuuugh

I'm about to share one of my least favorite things about parenting with you. Ready?

When you kid does something {REALLY} naughty and you can't get mad at them because you weren't paying attention to them.

This could be something like writing on the walls/couch/carpet with pen/crayon/permanent marker. Or squishing their bread into their water cup, then proceeding to let their play horse "eat" said concoction. Or they could pull all of the books off of the bookshelf. All extremely obnoxious. All things little kids do, its just how it is.
Tonight's episode is bad, and annoying, and {mostly} my fault.

So here I am, happily typing away at my post (see next post) and I hear Rachael in the bathroom playing in the sink with her toys. A usual occurrence in this house. I usually end up with water all over the floor and a sopping wet kid. Not a big deal, I'd rather have her doing that than wasting her life away in front of the TV. Tonight, I thought to myself at LEAST four times, "There are so many worse things she could be doing."
Then I hear the splashes. She occasionally dumps cups of water onto the bathroom floor, quickly putting a halt in her water-play. I thought this would be no different. I was wrong. After plugging the sink, she took the ENTIRE roll of toilet paper, basically a new roll, and torn it up (including the cardboard roll...) and placed it in the sink. Then filled it with water. The splashes I heard was the result of the T.P. plugging the emergency drains near the top of the sink, thus allowing the water to leak all over the counter and onto the floor. Joy. I had to scoop the sopping T.P. out, allowing the least amount to go down the drain. So annoying. And to keep Rachael away (and to keep her from waking her sister) I just shut her into her room, no reprimand.

I need to be more vigilant in watching what my three year old does, but sometimes I'm just too tired. Then I end up with more work later. Such is parenthood, I guess...

#2

So today's birthday present to myself didn't go according to plan. The PLAN was to go to Kohl's and use a gift card we've had for a while to buy myself a new pair of pants or shirt or something. Well, its pretty difficult to try things on when you've got a baby strapped to your front. So I meandered around Kohls, wanting so badly to find something to buy, even if it wasn't for me! I looked for clothes for the girls, but didn't get anything because I was determined to find something matching. Nothing for Nate. Then I thought, "Ah-ha! Perfume!" Nope, nothing was on sale. Then I thought, "Ah-ha! Kitchen gadgets!" (which I love.) Nope, nothing was on sale. Then I thought, "Ah-ha! I'll buy something online!" And that is what I just tried to do. I tried to buy this beautiful maxi dress. Its exactly what I've been wanting. Neutral-ish colors so that I can wear a plethora of cardigans as a coverup, and its SUPER long so it won't hit me awkwardly at the ankle like I hate. Get this, I even found a 15% off all dresses coupon AND a 15% off your purchase coupon. SWEET! Minus the fact that the website wouldn't apply the gift card. It said it was applying it, yet my balance was still 22 bucks. No bueno. So I called customer service and spoke with a very nice man (whose native language was NOT English, so I could barely understand him... no bueno [pun intended]) who after about 20 minutes told me it was a problem with my credit card. So I hung up and tried a new card. Still no go. Lame. So I'm giving up. I tried to be nice to myself, I really did... maybe tomorrow I'll try again.

#1

Nate is in LA this week for some training, so I'm trying to find ways to keep a positive outlook and not lose my sanity. (I would make a TERRIBLE single mother. I'm so thankful for my amazing husband!) Since this week is my "birth-week" (aka: the week leading up to my birthday, YAY!) I've decided to do one thing for myself every day. So tonight, since the girls went to be like champs, I'm taking a bath. My first bath in this apartment. I. LOVE. BATHS. Seriously. This is a picture of my dream bath (just slide a copy of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, a bowl of delicious popcorn, and a big bottle of ice water, and I am SET!). However, tonight's bath will look nothing like this. For one thing, we have one the obnoxious bathrooms that the fan automatically turns on when you turn on the light. No bueno. And the tub has the sliding glass doors. No bueno. And the tub is super narrow. No bueno. But it is full of hot water (I had to fill it with ULTRA hot water about an hour ago before I put Whitney down, the plumbing in the apartment is really loud.) and I'm headed to pop a bowl of popcorn. (No, I'm not reading HP4 currently, but not from lack of desire. From a conversation I have with my mom a lot about how I should "read new things." Whatever, mom... HP still rocks my socks.)
Stay tuned for my other "ME" presents, I've got some good ones coming up that I'm REALLY excited for!

Laugh Fest

Whitney was laughing hysterically at Rachael in the swings today at the park. So cute!

(It looks like I'm shaking her a lot more than I really was. Don't fret, Whitney isn't going to get shaken baby syndrome, but my phone probably will...)

(Oh, and don't mind my double chin. Gross.)

Halloween

We had a great(ish) Halloween! It was a crazy day because it was Rachael's first day of school, but everything worked out. I made soft pretzels shaped into pumpkins and "fingers" for dinner. I wanted to make sure Rachael got something not sweet for dinner, so I had to make something I know she'd like. It was a hit!
Once Nate got home we headed out to go trick-or-treating. We went to a part of town that I had heard from girls in the ward was a good place. There were a TON of people there. It was pretty chaotic. I had Whitney in the baby carrier I borrowed from a friend, and we lasted a good 50 minutes out there. As we headed back to the car, Rachael spotted a playground and that was the end of everything. Whitney was shrieking, literally shrieking. I've never heard that noise come from a baby before. So we had to pull Rachael away from the slide, and she was not happy. Nate had the screaming Rachael, I had the shrieking Whitney, and after much struggle we got both girls into their seats. We got home and snapped a few pictures, then they headed to bed. PHEW! I'm not gonna lie, I'm glad this Halloween is over. But next year we're ALL going to dress up!

I made these fun peacock costumes for the girls. Thank you Pinterest for the inspiration! I love how their headpieces turned out! Now what am I going to do with them... and the 125+ yards of tulle...

Preschool!!

FINALLY!! Rachael got in to the District's Early Childhood Education program! She'll be going to preschool every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday from 12:20 to 3:20, with two 30 minute speech therapy sessions during the week. This is such an enormous blessing! (One downer is that we live 1.1 miles away, and in order to qualify for transportation, aka the little school bus, you need to live 1.5 miles away. But its ok at the same time, because it makes me really sad and emotional to think about sending my baby girl on a bus all by herself... Sad!) But I'll be biking her there and back, four days a week... Ugh, that's what we get for paying off our student loans, no extra money for another car. But I'm 100% ok with it because this is my kid's academic future. I'm so excited to see her develop and start talking and learning!

Rice Cereal

Whitterkins got rice cereal for the first time on Saturday night (Oct. 29). I was hoping to wait until she was at LEAST five months old (in a few days she'll be five months...) to start her on food, but she's been waking up every two hours to eat. No bueno. So we thought we'd give this a shot. She didn't love it, she didn't hate it. But she did sleep better! She only woke up once that night, it was amazing! The next night, however, she did not sleep better. I think it gives her gas or something... We'll probably take a break for a few days and then try again.
Here is a post of Rachael's first time trying rice cereal. We were living in NYC when I posted this, so there is some other things in the post. Enjoy!