Big night for Elle

Ellie was able to start taking dance class with Audrey!

She went a few days without accidents, and she made it!

Adventures in Crazy, January....

Yes I think this January has been crazy... no not in the I have a thousand things to do kind of crazy. Though, I do like to do that to myself. But in the we are going to do things that we haven't really done before kind of crazy. Or the Stir Crazy kind.

Two Monday nights ago, Stu decided that he needed to go buy a new car. Which he did... He got a new Audi A6. And he bought it that night, finishing the paperwork at 11... while I was home with the girlies. And yes I thought it was kind of crazy.

And of course we have tried and retried this potty training thing. I even melted down and asked for all sorts of advice on the Facebooks... I got a lot. And I took a lot and added it to my repertoire. And I bought things that I had told myself I would never buy. I bought a book on potty training, a feed and peeing dolly, and a potty watch.

The book on potty training is very good. But I ended up not really using it as what I was doing was showing progress.

The baby doll had gain a lot of interest. But I didn't really use it's features to get the point across. And when I did get around to trying them out, it turned out that they didn't work. Apparently it is a sort of flawed dolly, and only some of them really work well... and I got a doll that didn't. But the girls still love her. And she helped Ellie become a "big" girl.

However, the Potty Watch! A huge success! I didn't have to bug her about going to the potty. It put her in charge! And she went every time it went off. But she was still scared of the #2... And would have accidents with that... and a few times she didn't clean off very well, and she was not cleaning off well after going to the potty.

She started telling me she had to go potty without the watch! Which was awesome progress... but then she was going every 15 mins... I should have gotten the clue. But she wasn't having accidents.

After a playdate last Monday, I noticed that she looked off. She said she had a headache so I asked her to come upstairs so I could look at her. And then I noticed a glazed look in her eyes, and a blood shot eye. She also had a slight fever. So I decided that she needed to go to a dr.

We got her in. And I am glad we did... apparently she had a UTI. Poor kiddo, and I hadn't noticed the signs. She wasn't acting like she was in pain. But apparently she was. We got her on the medicine and things seem to be getting better...

Finally, today she told me she had to go potty, and she had to do the #2! And she did!!!! Success!!! We finally made it over that milestone! I don't expect her to get it right away. But we have made progress and that is all I need to see.

Audrey, has learned how to tie her shoes this last week. :) My friend showed me a video that has taught my daughter how to confidently tie her shoes! She is way excited, and so am I! And she loves to wear her shoes with laces now.

Today was beautiful! The storm got rid of the icky air and left some amazing snow!

We have been stuck inside a lot lately. Due to freezing temperatures outside, and a crazy bad inversion. And we have all gone a little crazy. But Sunday we had an awesome snowstorm that cleared out the air and dumped about 4 inches of awesome packing snow. So today after school I sent the girls out back to play with Penny, until I was ready to go out front and play with them. We ended up building a Snow Castle/fort.

The girls are ready to have a snow ball fight... So if anyone is up for the challenge... we are ready :) The girls spent probably an hour or more outside playing. It was awesome! (And they went to bed much more easily tonight than they had been.)

 Hopefully we can do more of the same tomorrow after school... and possibly build our snowman :)

Here are some pics of the Hockey game we went to... 2nd row near the goalie! We had a blast :)

 And now for some more random pics of the girls going Stir Crazy and learning to tie shoes :)

Yes, we have had some fun :)

I love my kids!

Proud mommy moment today! Audrey was trying to play with some boys who wouldn't let her play with them... And she stopped them and said,"My mommy taught me to be a good example... and you aren't being very nice..." After the mom of one of them was repeatedly trying to get them to use their words instead of their fists...

November 2012

We had a good month... and here are some video/slides of the pics taken this month... Technically they are just slide shows of a bunch of pictures we took. And there is no music added because I am tired of the YouTube blocking my sound or video... goodness... 

This first video is just of some of the sillyness in our life... dog, kids, cats, friends, etc. 

This 2nd video is of the first good snow of the year and the fun we had with that

This 3rd video is Thanksgiving and the days leading up to it. 

We had some good fun with friends and family.

December 2012

December, this was the first Christmas Carol that I have missed since I was pregnant for Audrey. And to tell you the truth it was a good thing I didn't work it. I was still crazy busy with everything for Christmas.

We visited Santa

We decorated Trees :)

Baby Leo's blessing plus Christmas with the Kilgers :)

I was in charge of putting together the Relief Society Christmas Party for my ward. Which we had on 12/12/12. That was sort of an accident. I didn't realize it was that day until someone pointed that out to me. I had a wonderful group of ladies who helped me out with this party. I don't think I could have done it with out them. Also I got Stu and his scouts to help with the food serving and such. It turned out fantastic :)

The next night we had a gathering with the YM leaders and their wives. And the next Saturday we had the ward Christmas Party. I helped out a little by letting them use some of the decorations we had for the RS Party. So that week I cooked at home a total of 2 times I believe... (Friday we went out with Elle..)

We made Gingerbread houses the next Tuesday with our friends.

The next week I realized that I needed to plan a party for Audrey's Kindergarten Christmas. The Room Mom didn't tell us, until I asked, that she couldn't get off work that day. And she didn't have anything planned for it either. So I figured that the kids could make "gingerbread" houses for their party out of graham crackers with candy and frosting. the day before the party the teacher put me together with another mom who was willing to help out and had an idea for a craft for the kids to do to. So we had to activities planned for the kids. I found out that night after I had purchased all the stuff for my activity. That the Room Mom's MIL was willing to help us out as well. So I figured we would be good. And when I showed up to the party there was 2 more people there willing to help out as well. They even brought cupcakes and gift bags for every kid there. It was amazing and I will consider it a small miracle that happened to make things a little bit easier for everyone involved. 

That night we had Audrey's dance recital...

The next night was the Winter Solstice and we were supposed to have friends over for games. But no one showed up. So we went on a quick adventure downtown. Stu decided to take the girls and I to Temple Square. And we were going to ride the train. 

When we got to the train the ticket booth we went to first was printing out void tickets. After a little while and a few people trying it we figured out that it wasn't taking any money either. So as the train was arriving Stu got our tickets from another ticket vendor. And we hoped onto the end of the train. However, Stu saw a UTA police guy and hopped off the train to tell him about the broken machine. (He is a good Scout) :)

I didn't know how to keep the doors open for him to get back on the train. So the train left with the girls and I on it and without my Stu... or my tickets...

At the next stop the girls and I hopped off the train to wait for Stu at the next station. He had gotten on the next train after he finished talking to the police officer. So we decided to get on that train with Stu and get off when it was going to turn from the route we wanted. That way we wouldn't be staying out in the cold waiting too much. So we are riding downtown. When suddenly the train hits the brakes and the horn blows... Stu grabs Ellie who is sitting next to us and braces. We were sitting in the front of the train and Stu was sitting facing the front of the train. So he could see out the driver's window. A car had decided that it was going to flip a u-turn in front of the train. I suppose they didn't see the train or something. Lucky for us we had a good train conductor, and we didn't end up crashing. 

We made it to Temple Square without any more incidents. We walked around for a little while admiring the lights and looking at the Nativities. Taking lots of pictures. Finally, we went in to look at the Temple from the temple grounds. It was peaceful and calm in there. With all the other people out in the square I was sure the temple would be swarmed too, but no one else realized that it was open for anyone to walk around it and admire the beauty in that place. 

I also loved watching Stu as he was talking to Audrey about the carvings on the outside of the temple. It was a very sweet moment.

Then we got back to the train and had a fairly uneventful ride back to the car. Though Ellie was very cute sing Christmas songs all the way back. When we got home the I made Hot Cocoa for everyone. (The girls won't drink it if I call it Hot Chocolate...) I was finally able to get the girls to bed around 10. 

Christmas Eve morning we got together with the Robisons for breakfast. Cinnamon Rolls at my Aunt Kaye's house. And we got to visit with everyone there. Which was really nice. When that was done we decided to drive down to Orem and visit with my Grandpa Howse. we were glad we went then, because it was starting to be a really bad snowstorm. We stayed and chatted a bit, and Jan had the girls frost cookies with her grandson. They had a fun time doing that. We headed back up to home as the snow storm got a little bit worse. When we finally got home there was 6 inches of snow on our driveway, there had been none when we left. Stu started to shovel and decided he was done. So he took Audrey and finally bought us a snowblower. While he was gone my Mom and Dad stopped by to deliver gifts. (I got a sewing table!!!) After he got home and did the sidewalks it was time to go over to his Mom's and have Dinner. 

We came home and got the house ready for Santa to arrive. The girls got out some Oreo's for Santa, (I ran out of time to bake cookies..) and of course they got out 9 carrots for the reindeer. But we found out from Santa that Comet was allergic to carrots so he shared a cookie with Santa. They also put out some milk, and told the cats not to drink it this year...

The view from our backyard Christmas Morning... 

Christmas Morning the girls woke up at 4:30 am. Ellie was able to fall back to sleep for an hour I think. But Audrey decided that she was way too excited and she stayed awake until about 6:30 when Stu told them they could go downstairs. 

They had lots of fun opening gifts and oohing and ahhing... over the presents. And after everything was done at our house we got dressed and went to Grandma Jill's house for breakfast, and more presents! When everything was done there we visited Great Grandma Jensen's home for a little while. After that we went and visited Great Grandma Wilde's home. Then we went home and crashed... But still had more to do. We decided this year that we were going to cook our own Chicken Cordon Bleu for dinner. It has become a tradition. Christmas Dinner must be Chicken Cordon Bleu. And we invited a friend over to join us. After dinner the girls watched a movie while the big kids played games.   

Grandma Jill's for Christmas Breakfast

The next week we decided to try and take it easy. I went to see Les Mis with my mom. And Stu and I went on a date to see The Hobbit. 

We had quite a time in December... 

Audrey's Dance Recital for 2012

I am now going to go in reverse for a little while...

This post is about Audrey's Dance Recital that was on Dec. 20th, 2012...

We took a lot of pictures again... Actually a lot of them were taken by Stu. I took the videos. :)

 So this will be a picture/video heavy post... Enjoy! Also some of my favorite pics from the collages will be pulled out as well.

Getting ready for the recital...

Waiting for things to get started

Warming up!

Showing off what they do in class :)

This is a link to a silly gif that Stu made from some of the pics he took...

And here is the video I put together of the recital:

Performing the dance they learned for the recital

All done and so proud!

The 1st adventure of 2013

So I don't typically let my girlies play with Playdoh. I don't like the smell, and how it gets under my nails when I play with it, also I don't like the mess it makes. And last but not least... I can not stand it getting mixed together, while it looks cool. That is one thing that drives me a little crazy. But I am trying to overcome this problem of mine and want to be able to let the kids play with stuff like this a little more often. Also I am overcoming a fear of getting rid of the bad/unused/broken/etc. toys.. And not worrying about if the colors get messed up. For goodness sake, Shilo, just let them play with it a bit and then let it go.

Perhaps if I take care of my own problems in these areas then my girls will too. I suppose that is sort of what I am working on this year. Half of my issues with the girls are just that... my issues. I need to work on them not my girls. And hopefully while I work on my issues it will help out my girls' issues.

Anywho...


I have a video of the girls playing with their Playdoh set that they got for Christmas. And that they love playing with. It is a little long, but it has some good interactions with the girls playing together. And you can kind of hear Ellie's froggy voice... She lost her voice during the escapades of New Year's Eve... :)

The last adventure of 2012

So we didn't have big plans for celebrating the new year... I had thought of maybe having a board game night. And inviting some of our friends over. But our plans changed when one little Ellie got a fever. It wasn't a big fever, just a little one. And she started coughing... nothing too big again. we had hopes of getting things done... but things fell through.

I had begun another campaign of Potty training the Elle. Taking it a little slower. This time the reward is not having to wear "baby" diapers, getting out of taking naps, and I am not pushing the pooping in the potty thing. In fact she can poop in the pull ups as long as she is "twinkling" in the potty. And so far it seems to be working :)

So we were doing this with Ellie. And then she got sick... She had a headache and a slight fever. She was just a little lethargic. So I was worried... what if I have to put her down for a nap?? Will it undo all the work that I have done to get her going to the potty? So i gave her some medicine and let her choose. She chose to lay down and watch tv. Of course... and she fell asleep. When she fell asleep I took her to her room so she could be more comfy. But she woke up maybe 10 mins later. Feeling much better.

We decided to call off the game night. And instead we went to IHOP for dinner. And ended up being the only customers in the restaurant. the waiter was excellent and in the middle of the dinner Ellie decided that she needed to go potty... on her own, and she went!!!!

And both girlies ate everything they ordered :)

Anyway, we went home and I told the girls that they could stay up for the New Year. So they wanted to watch movies all night long. So we started out the night watching The Black Cauldron, and then they followed that up with some Veggie Tales (during which I took a break). Then they watched The Lorax (I joined back up at that point). My turn to chose a movie and I chose Beauty and the Beast. About halfway through the movie Ellie jumped up and told me she had to go potty! It was about 10ish... And Audrey was out cold...

We came back downstairs and finished the movie... and I took Audrey up to her bed. She was out out... silly kid. We then watched a bit of Lady and the Tramp, we as in Elle and I. And soon it was midnight. And we went upstairs and celebrated with Daddy. Had some sparkling Apple Cider. And proceeded to try to wake Audrey up so that she could celebrate a little with us.

This is where Ellie went bonkers. She was sooo excited she was running in circles in her room screaming Happy New Year! And then she saw daddy trying to wake up Audrey, so she climbed up to the top bunk to help. She started screaming at Audrey and climbing on top of her and hitting/kicking her. Then when Audrey rolled over... Ellie decided that the best way to wake Audrey up would be to JUMP on her stomach, knees first... Well Audrey's eyes opened for sure with that... and she groaned... but she didn't' wake up...  So we made Ellie climb down... and get ready for bed.

Also, as a quick side note. At around 7 pm Ellie's fever had come back and she was feeling lousy. So I gave her some Tylenol and some Benedryl to help her out a little. Expecting her to fall asleep. So in all her fighting to stay awake it was quite amazing that she made it to midnight. But it did make for an awesome night of cuddling with the girls for me.