Decemberween

Once again time has slipped away. The end of another year has come. Goodbye 2008. Hello 2009.

Let's see, this month has been eventful. I got a Costco membership for my birthday so James and I went for the first time. Of course it was hecka busy because it was a Saturday but I still had fun. I went to IKEA for the first time. Wow. I loved it. I got called as the new Primary President. There are only 25 ish kids so nothing too stressful. The hardest part was calling counselors. I really wanted to make sure I did it right. I know the Lord has guided me and I'm excited to get started this Sunday. James finished up his first semeste of gradschool. He loves the program and the friends he's made in his cohort, (the group of students he progresses with through the program until graduation. I think they'll get to know each pretty well...) Having James home has been nice. He gets up with the kids in the morning and lets me sleep because of course Lizzie is waking up in the middle of the night again. And I'm too tired to let her cry so I just get up with her twice a night. James being home also means that we get kind of bored during the day and we just want to shop. We finished up Christmas shopping in plenty of time. Plus bought a few new clothes, and Edin got new shoes.

Christmas was a blast for us. My dad is back in Utah so we made a trip to Salt Lake to spend some time with her. He and his wife showered us with gifts. I finally have all the seasons of Gilmore Girls. Wahoo. In reality, the best gift from them I think has been having them so much closer than Vegas.

While we were in the area we hopped over to James' dad's house. They took us to dinner and we went back to their place to hang out and play. James loves playing ping pong in their bastment. And Paul made some incredible fudge! Man, it was good! Paul and Becky always make sure we feel welcome and loved when we visit.

Christmas Eve was spent at Jame's mother's place. I almost said house but had to ament it. Because they're in an apartment but just announced they bought a house in Salt Lake. Yay! They've been wanting a house for a long time and it's finally becoming a reality. Good for them. Dinner was famulous and we enjoyed spending time with James' siblings and Mom and John. And, drum roll pleas, drdrdrdrdrdrdr, I got a sewing machine!! Connie and John, and Bill and James went in on it together. I'm so excited to get started. I have a little experience but nothing I can be really proud of. That's all about to change. I jus t need some project ideas. If you have any, let me know. I think I'm going to make my own throw pillows. We'll see.

This was the first year we spent Christmas mornin in our own place. James and I got up early, got ready, opened our gifts from each other, and then got he kids up. Edin says "Yay, Santa. He brings candy canes." It's so cute how excited he gets about Santa. So obviously he's easy to please. All we really have to give him was candy canes and he would have been set. We did get him a little more than candy canes. We just got several small things we new he'd be happy about. And in fact, after opening a few things he seemd board of opening and just wanted to play. Haha, how typical of him. We headed to breakfast at James' sister Annie's. Kind of a tradition. James' dad Bill was there with his cute son Cody. We ate, opened MORE gifts, and I have to tell you, it's been a great Christmas. I stayed up really late making bows for my sisters-in-law. They both have baby girls and the headbands and flowers were so cute on them.

The festivites did not stop there! We drove to Salt Lake again to have a small party with my siblings. We do a sibling gift exchange every year and this year we added a little pizza and a little guitar hero. Only my second time playing. The first was actually this month at a cohort birthday party for Carly. Happy birthday, Carly. And I have to say I'm a big fan of Guitar Hero and the wii.

And finally, the Bigler family party was Sunday. We always play a white elephant gift exchange and we always have good food and games. My grandmother recieved the gift of new carpet for her living room. She's wanted new carpet for so long. I'm happy for her.

I swear this was nearly the Christmas of my dreams. Don't take this the wrong way but I've been spoiled. I got to spend Christmas with all the people I love and we got nearly everything on our wish list. Plus, James' birthday is in 18 days and he's getting a great surprise.

I'm too distracted watching Gilmore Girls to write anything more but Happy New Year!

Thanksgiving travels

Okay, so it's been so long since I've posted that Lizzie's gotten another tooth, started crawling AND started cruising on furniture. Wow, I'm good at this blogging thing.

We've had Thanksgiving in Arizona. The kids and I, along with my mother, drove to AZ for an 11 day stay. Edin slept well for the most part but Lizzie proved to be a pain, probably do to teething mixed with a new environment. We were sleeping in the same room so I didn't sleep well either. I stayed at my cousin Sheri's house the whole stay. We stayed up late nearly every night watching shows, talking, coloring my hair, painting my toe nails and basically taking a break from our kids while they slept. You know they say "while the cats away the mice will play." And play we did.

Thanksgiving dinner was at Sheri's, which was awesome for me because my children took fabulous naps while everyone ate and schmoozed. Then when they woke up they were so much fun! Everyone got to meet Lizzie for the first time and Edin chatted it up with all the aunts and uncles. What a guy.

While I was there I saw Twlight with cousin Becky. I was disappointed that it didn't get better the second time I saw it. I gotta say it didn't live up to the books. Dumb Robert Pattison. He's no Edward!

We also had a play date at Becky's house for Kody and Edin. It took Kody a few minutes to warm up to Edin but then they had a lot of fun playing together. That Kody sure can speak well. I'm so impressed. I was hoping she could teach Edin a thing or too but time was too short. She can count and say the alphabet, recognize letters and the sign for letters. Dang that girl is smart! And she's cute, to boot!

I tried to make the rounds and visit everyone's house, Laura, Lisa, Rita, but I didn't spend enough time at each house. It was hard to juggle nap times with visits. One night be went to Peter Piper Pizza and Edin had a blast. He could hardly leave the place. So much to see and do and touch! I did a lot of shopping while I was there, too. Something about all the driving around and passing stores just pulled me in. Oh yeah, and the whole fam got together to eat at La Casa Reynoso. It was fun to have one long table full of chatter and children and yummy food.

I also celebrated my 23rd birthday, which just so happened to be on Thanksgiving day this year. Woot woot! Laura hosted a birthday party for me at her place. The whole fam came by and ate pound cake (mmm, Laura's sour cream pound cake...) and ice cream. What good people. The Schurig family sure knows how to party.

The night before we left, Sheri started feeling sick. We thought it was just the giant Pizookie (Pizza cookie) we ate during the day but then she got a pretty bad fever that night. In the morning Edin pointed to his tummy and said "owie!" and wouldn't let me put him down. So I packed up the car as fast as I could and picked up my mom. Of course it took way longer than it was supposed to and I was hecka cranky. We did finally hit the road and Edin fell alseep within minutes. I wish I could say the same for Lizzie. Anytime I got close to falling asleep in the back seat between the children she would start wining and crying. Then just before we pulled into a rest stop about five hours into the trip Edin threw up. I only caught the second half in a bowl...We cleaned him up and he was so happy after that. It's usually really hard to tell if he's sick because he's still so happy. Lizzie, not so much. She's a normal child. When she's sick, everyone knows it. She was so sick of being in her car seat by the end of the trip that she cried the last hour and half. Yay. Needless to say it was a long trip home. But we were safe and when we got to the house James had put up the Christmas tree! Yippy! It was so nice to be home again and sleeping in our own beds. Although I did have to reteach Lizzie how to sleep through the night. But we had some good nights.

I'm thankful for my family and friends. I have a roof over my head, a car to drive, and food on the table. My husband is doing well in school, my kids are beautiful and happy, and we're all healthy. Not to mention I have the gospel and a kowledge of my Savior Jesus Christ. I know Heavenly Father has a plan for me and He hears and answers prayers. I have so much to be grateful for in my life.

Lizzie's first tooth

How fun, my little girl got her first tooth. Of course I think she hates it. We're trying to keep the Orajel coming but sometimes I can tell she's miserable. She loves eating solids and tries as hard as she can to take from me whatever I have. So far she's had lots of carrots and spaghetti squash. (I made my own, thank you very much!) I think rice cereal upsets her tummy so we switched to oatmeal. She also loves those cute star puffs. She doesn't quite have the finger-thumb grab down but she eventually gets them in her mouth. I love my little girl. She's growing up so fast!

Halloween is coming!

I LOVE Halloween and I'm excited the festivities have begun. The family went to the grandparent's for a small party last night and we had a great time. We were the only ones who dressed up but that's typical at Connie and John's annual Halloween party. My kids are too cute in their costumes to let anyone miss out on seeing them dressed up. Edin is a tiger, Lizzie is a bear, we bought an adorable lion flashlight and James and I are "Oh My!" Lions, and Tigers, and Bears. Oh My! Yeah, we think we're clever. I'll add some pix after all the parties are over. I love sugar and chocolate and trick-or-treating and dressing up. Halloween, you rock!

Where did September go?

What? October has started? I don't even remember what I did with September. I suppose I unpacked a few boxes, rearranged some furniture, made a few batches of muffins and cookies. The kids and I played outside quite a few days. The local swimming pool was still open so we splashed around for a couple of hours there. I met a few of my neighbors and their kids. Church changed to 2pm. WHAT?! I found the good grocery stores and visited DI a few times. We took a trip to fish lake and I took a million pictures of Edin exploring. He loves fish now. (Not eating them. We tried to feed him some and he refused. I think he was sad we killed his friend...) Edin watched his first movie, Finding Nemo. James helped my brother Dan put in his sprinkler system and later put down sod.
Lizzie started rolling over (and now won't stop.) Edin says many more words now including "neck," "I want mo," (more) "bye-bye binki," "I want ahah,"(the monkey in the tub) "Where's daddy? I want daddy," and "Hi Zzz Zzz" (Hi Lizzy) The kid is so cute it makes me sick! He turns two in just two weeks. More on that later.
So I suppose I've done a lot of fun things this month. Things feel more normal and I think I've found my stride here at Wymount Terrace.

Sleeping better

Lizzie finally seems to have found her stride. I started putting her to bed earlier (7:30p.) The second night of this she only woke up once, at 3:30a. Then she gets up for the day at 8a. Naps have improved immensely and I'm SO happy. I was getting pretty frustrated, to say the least, at all the night time wakings. She still has some rough nights but it's because I have to adjust to being home sooner to put her to sleep earlier. It kind of cramps my style but it's worth it to have a baby sleeping through the night. By the time I go to bed, she's been sleeping long enough that I actually miss her and have to go look at her sleeping. I'm so blessed to have this sweet daughter of God in my home.

3am

So here it is 3:30 in the morning and my baby won't stop crying. As if my days aren't long enough with two kids, why don't we take on a couple more hours in the night. And by a couple I mean four because even if it is two hours, which is enough torcher, it FEELS like four because my baby is crying the whole time. Milk just won't do at these times. Singing, rocking, shhing, walking, bouncing, swaying, watching TV, none of these things will do at this time. What am I supposed to do? I'm tired, I'm thinking bad things. I just want to freak out. But then I remember that I love my baby so much. She's cute. And someday when she goes on her first day, I'll use that time as payback. "Remember that night you cried for hours and wouldn't be consoled?" Geez, this isn't enough funny. Far from my best material. Maybe I'll rewrite it tomorrow night at 3am.

Messy Blog

You know, no one told me how annoying it is to make this thing look cute. And of course I want it to be cute but I don't have the sweet skills it takes. The next time you come to my blog it will probably be different because I'm still working at it. And lets me honest with ourselves, if this blog is anything like my house, it will probably always be kind of messy. But whatever. I just have to accept that. So take it for what it's worth. Peace.

Brand new

I finally decided I need a place where I could write down a piece of my mind. The good, the bad, and the ugly. You'll probably read that phrase from me again later. I've never really blogged and I don't usually spend a lot of time looking at other peoples blogs. I figured that's what facebook is for. Post some pictures, give a description, and walk away. I don't have to decorate and impress anyone with the way it looks. Plus, I take so many dang pictures of my kids I can't possibly post them all here! But maybe I'd just like a place to ramble. Read if if you want, don't if you don't. No biggie. But when I ask you about it later, you better know the answers ;-) And also, all my pictures are on the other computer so I won't be adding any for a small while.