First trip to the...

DENTIST!

I originally made the appointment for this wild and crazy child because lately she has fallen and hit her mouth quite a few times and every time she does her mouth bleeds pretty bad...

(One of the many disadvantages of having a child learn to walk so young- Maddie still hadn't learned to walk by this age)

When we got to the dentist's office the lady asked me if they had seen any of our other children before at which point I said, "NO, and I realized last night I should have made an appointment for Madison too." She told me that they were ahead of schedule and so they were able to fit Maddie in as well. And boy was I glad we did.

They ended up taking Madison back all by herself at first (which really surprised me). I was a little nervous, especially when I heard her crying in back. :( But pretty soon the lady came and got us to go back with her. She said Madison did so good until they tried taking pictures of her mouth. I guess that part scared her a little. We were in there while the dentist looked at her teeth. She was a little nervous but did great. As a reward she got to choose a special toy. This was her choice...

 We were able to learn a lot about Madison's teeth in this appointment. Turns out that Madison grinds her teeth... she also already has 4 adult teeth on bottom getting ready to push out the old teeth and 2 on top. The problem here... the teeth are huge! Her mouth is so tiny that this is probably going to cause some problems later on. At least now we won't be surprised...

And this little girl, did pretty great herself. She didn't like the dentist looking in her mouth much but we made it through. He said that things look pretty good (we were really worried about her mouth with all the bleeding) but he did say her bottom teeth tilt backwards instead of going straight up. Once again, not really anything we can do about this but now we know how she was able to put bite marks in the gums behind her top front teeth (as a result of one of her falls). And as mentioned before, Brooklyn does have a few new teeth popping through at the moment.

So our first trip to the dentist was a lot less traumatic than I had expected and for that I am grateful!

A little bit of craziness

Things have been a bit crazy around our house lately between moving in to a home that is not really our own, being sick with coughs, colds and the flu as well as teething (which is just an added bonus right?). The girls have been pretty... lets just say... not themselves. It's sad actually. Today was one of those days where you are literally counting down the minutes until you can put them to bed hoping you will make it without completely losing it. Anyway, I just had to do this post to remind myself, that amid all the screaming and orneriness there are still those moments of pure joy that make it all worth it.

 Check out that welt on Brooklyn's face. She fell into the gate for our stairs (that wasn't actually up on the stairs at the time). There was no question what she hit when we saw her face...

 This picture was taken only minutes after a half hour screaming fest where I finally discovered that Brooklyn has a few teeth trying to make their debut. I tried everything to get her to calm down but it wasn't until Maddie gave her this singing/dancing snowman that she finally stopped crying. Thank You Mads!

And on another note: I finally got my new camera!!! I'm in love.

Shhh... don't tell karl :)

But my mom said I can't have it until Christmas seeing as it is pretty much the ONLY thing I am getting this year. I have however been experimenting with it a little bit just to make sure I really like it since you only have 10 days to return it...

Shhh... don't tell my mom :)

But don't you worry, the camera will be back in the box before you know it. You however, are going to have to wait until Christmas to see which camera I chose to go with.

What's your pick???

OK serious question here. I want all the input my smart friends have to offer. For Christmas and my birthday this year, I am finally going to get myself an SLR camera- this has seriously been years in the making. I am making (and by making, I really mean forcing Ü) all of my family to help pay for my camera.

Picture from Google

So my question for those of you who already have an SLR camera or those who are very knowledgeable about these things:

What brand and style of camera do you have?

What lens or lenses would you consider a necessity?

What do you think I need to know before buying a camera?

I think I already know which camera I am going to get but I really want to hear what everyone thinks. I haven't made any decisions yet about lenses so I especially want to hear your opinions about that.

Thanks in advance!

 

All of our possessions sitting in a pile

We are finally home!

 We managed to cram all of our possessions into the basement of my BIL and SIL's house. I can't believe it all fit- minus the few things we actually need to live for the next unknown amount of time (such as our beds, clothes and a couple dressers). Oh and I guess our couch, that wouldn't quite fit.
It took us 2 trailer loads, 3 truck loads, one van load and a car load to finally get us here and we still almost didn't make it all fit.
(it doesn't look quite as impressive as it really is)

Thanks go to Lacey and Steve for letting us take over your home, Cache and Mandi for taking our couch, and all the many who helped us pack and move. We love and appreciate all of you.

(I promise I will start posting pictures of things you actually want to see now that we are all settled in and I actually feel like I have some time again.)

It's fun for a while....

Playing in boxes is lots of fun...

 ...And using a book shelf as a slide is even better.

Exploring the toilet is pretty exciting too...

...Although it's been fun, I think we are all ready to be done!

We're ready to be back on a normal routine, and actually have our own toys to play with.

We've really enjoyed living in Idaho. In fact, Maddie keeps telling me she doesn't want us to move. Her nursery leaders all told me how much they will miss her and everyone wishes we could stay a little longer. It's been an adventure we've all enjoyed but I think we're all ready to be back "home."

...Tomorrow's the day. Wish us luck.

I NEED it!

So I know I've been blogging a lot lately (There's not a whole lot to do when the only belongings we have in our house are our clothes, a tv, our beds and dressers) but thought this was too funny not to remember.

Yesterday I took the girls to Target to see if we could get some gift ideas for Christmas. We walked around the entire store and looked at pretty much everything. We walked up and down the toy isle admiring every single toy. I bet you will never guess what item caused Madison to have a major melt down in the store because I wouldn't buy it for her right then???

A Hair Dryer.
Not a toy, a real life hair dryer...

Yeah... I'm sure you really want it honey, but we already have one that we can share. No you don't really need your own, you don't even have enough hair to use one yet.

As we made our way towards the doors Maddie was still trying to convince me she needed that blow dryer.

Needless to say, everyone we passed got a good laugh that day...

A letter to my one year old!

When Madison turned one I wrote a letter to her on her birthday and posted it on here. I just realized I have not done this yet for Brooklyn so here it goes... only 2 weeks late. Sorry Brookie.

To my angel Brooklyn Kay

When you were born I remember wondering if you were going to let your sister walk all over you because you were so content and even tempered. It didn't take very long for me to discover that this was not going to be the case. Instantly you and your sister became best friends and have stayed that way ever since. I have loved watching your personality shine through and must admit that you continue to surprise me every day. I wanted to share a few of my favorites things about you as of late.

I love the way you always make me smile. Even though you can be a little stinker and are quite mischievous I love watching you explore the world around you. Your excitement for life radiates in everything you do.

I love the way you always like to give me kisses. I can't even count the number of times in a day I get covered in wet, slobbery kisses. Oh how I love them. Sometimes I try to turn my head so you kiss my cheek instead of my mouth and although you will still kiss me, you usually turn my face towards you and try again until I let you kiss my lips.

I love how you also love to blow raspberries on my cheeks, or my neck, or my arm. This usually makes me giggle because you almost always seem to do this at the most awkward times- like in the middle of the sacrament prayer while the room is completely silent.

I love how you look just like your daddy but act just like I did when I was a kid. (This is something I just realized myself...)  You are always quietly getting into trouble- climbing or exploring just as I always did. You also can be quite loud. You love to scream, especially when you are upset. Even though I won't admit it, if you were to ask your Grandma Jo about this one I'm pretty sure she would be quick to inform you of the MANY occasions where I made it so she had to leave a crowded room just to get me to stop screaming. Like I said, I'd never admit it, but you are a lot like your mother in that way.

I love your curiosity for life. You are always looking for something new to discover.

I love how you make people work so hard to get some sort of expression from your sweet face. You are quick to give your mom and dad smiles but secretly think it's funny to watch everyone else try to make you smile and therefor don't do it as quickly as they might like.

I love how coordinated you really are. For being so little, your balance and ability to catch yourself amazes me. And the way you walk backwards all the time, just makes me giggle.

I love that even when you cut open your lip and your mouth is bleeding (for the 4th time in about a week) you get so mad at me for trying to clean it up. You would rather just suck it up and continue to play while your mother is in a complete panic.

I love when you blow kisses to everyone who passes by and your sweet little wave to say goodbye.

I love how quickly you put yourself to sleep at nap time or at bed time but must admit I don't love how often I still have to wake up with you at night... I guess you think there are many other things you would rather be doing.

I love how when you are upset (whether it be at me for telling you not to do something or at a toy that made you fall down) you chew us out. There are never any real words involved but you are definitely chewing us out.

But most of all, I love how life is just better with you in it and am grateful I get to keep you for all of eternity.

Even though at times you are a little stinker and I can't keep up with all the trouble you get yourself into, I wouldn't have it any other way.

 Thank you so much for being all that you are.

I love you!

Love, Mom

Thanks again Katie for letting me use the pictures from your camera... since I have yet to actually take her one year old pictures as well. One of the downsides to being pregnant. Sorry babe, we will get there.

Daylight Savings...

7:15- Great tonight, not so great tomorrow morning when I'm waking up at 5:30.

"Just so you know dad, Brooklyn put herself to bed." Madison

P.S. Madison got up to bear her testimony for the very first time today. It was definitely a proud mommy moment for me. :)

She talked about Heavenly Father, Jesus, our Prophet, President Eyering and Uchdorf.

The grin on her face went from ear to ear.

I don't think this will be the last time she gives this one a try.

So are the days of our lives...

We are moving... again.

We knew this was the plan from the beginning.

It just came so quickly.

And really, we were hoping we would have a least some idea as to where we would be moving.

But no.

Well, I guess we do know where we will be moving.

Into Karl's parents basement.

The question however, is for how long?

We are still waiting to hear back on a few jobs Karl is being considered for.

Which means come next week we are unemployed and homeless.

So it's back to his parents house we go.

Poor them.

Good for us.

Karl just decided this past weekend we are going to move most of our stuff back this weekend.
I so hadn't even started packing yet.

We're hoping it won't be long before we get a job but until we do we don't know what we are going to do.

And the worst part of all...

When we do actually get a job,

We'll have to move again!

Oh and it gets better.

This part took us all by surprise.

Trust me on this one...

I'm Pregnant!

...Yeah. I knew it would shock you. It did me too.

Looks like we've got another little one joining our family the beginning of June.