Baby Time

I came in the kitchen and the girls had been practicing their letters on the fridge. They are getting pretty good. The doctor seems to agree with them. My poor husband is going to be even more outnumbered. Maybe we need a boy bunny rabbit or hamster or something.

Home Improvement Adventures

As with any old house, we've had our share of home improvement fun. Some of which have been disasters, some of which have been total masculine releases. Since we moved in on the fourth of July I'll do a picture journal of what we've been through. The worst of which I have absolutely no photos of. 3 weeks after moving in, we pull into the driveway and see a little river running out of the water meter hole. $1500 (not more thanks to my uncle who helped us and the scouts who dug the trench) later we have a nice new main water line from the house to the meter and a cute little scarred front lawn. We're just glad we had a little cash in the bank for that problem.

One of the first things we noticed about the house were that none of the rain gutters were draining, so Clint got up onto the roof and found some interesting plant life in the spouts. Yes, we had a full on tree growing in the rain gutter.

Clint has a little experience in environmental law. I think our home must be a hazard for the migrating bird life in the area. This was number two that I made Clint shovel up and put in the garbage. They must think our windows are a continuation of the trees outside. So sad, but even more, it's gross!!! One left brains all over the window.

Look at that smile!!! He's lovin it. Clint and Chris cut down two pine trees in the back yard so I can plant my garden. he's not been as excited to pull out that ivy you see behind him though.

This stuff has saved out lives this year. For some odd reason, this lady loved louvred windows. Burr, drafty. Hey, it's not as bad as it looks. When the blinds or the curtains are up, no one even notices that we have plastic over the worst of our windows.

Clint just likes the manly tools. Here's he's swinging at the fence pole.

This room is a group effort. Here's a shot of our progress in peeling the white wallpaper off the walls. The yellowish stuff is the backing. After some soaking and stripping, we found pink walls underneath. It must be fitting considering the gender of our baby that will go in this room when it's all redone.

It's Snowing? Quick, run!

Last Wednesday, September 30th, it started to snow here in SLC. Can you believe it? Winter isn't supposed to come overnight like that. So, we did what every normal person would do - we packed up the minivan and drove to California. It was 80 degrees and sunny when we arrived!

My sister Brooke lives in Huntington Beach, so we stayed in a place nearby and my parents met us down there too. Brooke's son Zachary is 2, so our girls had a lot of fun playing with him. Here's some photos:
Ali is the only kid brave enough to get in the water.

What a cute family!

Playing with Grandma Janice.

Cousin Zach kayaking.

We celebrated cousin Zach's 2nd birthday.

Playing at the fountains at the mall in Irvine.

This is the closest Ali would get to the water.

We spent a day at the coolest new kid's museum out in Irvine. It was a whole city with a farm, an art studio, a fire station, grocery store, etc. The kids can wander from room to room and make a huge mess and there is a nice person there to clean up after you. It was great.

Summer's Potty Time

Yeah!! She's a trooper!!! Summer is basically as potty trained as Ali and it only really took 2 days. They both have accidents when they are having too much fun and forget to hold it or tell me they have to go, but I'm so proud of Summer. She just wanted marshmallows and chocolate, but hey, if it works. She was sooooo much easier than Ali. I was totally worried because she's such a stubborn kid, but I guess I underestimated her. She's also talking so much better after 2 speach sessions with her Aunt Jenny. I think the poor kid just needs some more one on one time. I can't forget to be grateful for the power of prayer though with this whole potty training ordeal. I know it wasn't me, I know God teaches these kids and has such a huge influence in their little lives still. Sometimes I wonder if they are getting one on one lessons from angels when I'm not looking.

On a different note. I stopped at our old apartment to water the garden and left the kids in the car for a moment. When I got back in the car Ali started singing to me "Shake, shake, Shake, shake. Shake your booty, shake your booty." Word for word. I laughed so hard!!! That was the song on the radio at the moment. What a silly kid.

Sweet Success!!!

Hey Y'all. Thanks for all the input on potty training troubles, but we've done it. Ali has been a champ through it all. Of course, she's not night or nap trained, but heck, day time works for me. I finally had to up her dose of Miralax each day to 1 1/2 tsps, and I gave her a sepository to make her poop on demand. Clint then sat with her in the bathroom until she went. With lots of praise and treats, she is doing awesome pooping on the potty. She hasn't had a messy accident since Saturday. She has been peeing in her carseat though, so we need to work on that, but all around, a champ. We had to work on the lingo since she was confusing peepee and poop on the potty and thought it was the same. So now she comes to me and says, "I want to push it out" or "I want to go yucky on the potty." She does it and walks around the rest of the day singing, "I went yucky on the potty, I went yucky on the potty." Summer is funny with all of this though, she comes to cheer on Ali and she sticks her head behind her back and looks to admire Ali's handiwork. She thinks it's sooo cool, little does she know that she's next in line. She loves candy and treats and loves to flush the toilet, so I'm hoping she will be okay with the whole process when she's ready.

Sympathy Weight

Clint's law firm is doing a "Biggest Loser" competition to see who can lose the most weight. Clint and the girls decided that instead of losing weight, they should put on some sympathy pounds to keep up with me. Here's the before shot (it looks like Clint's already got a little bit of a head start, maybe that's why he cropped his head out of the photo).

We'll post the after shot on March 31st, 2010.

Why do they need to keep up with me?

BECAUSE I'M PREGNANT!!!!

I don't know what the deal is, but my stomach is expanding like twice as fast during this second pregnancy (I guess once you stretch all that beautiful skin out, there's no holding it in the second time around) so I'm going to need all the sympathy that Clint and the girls can offer.

P.S. We had an ultrasound already and the doctor thinks there's just one in there. Phew!

potty time

So we've been on a wild ride of trying to potty train Ali this last month. I think she was ready right before we moved, but I didn't want to do it then, and I'm afraid I missed my window. She does great with peepee in the potty, but it's been quite a battle with going yucky in the potty. (That's what she calls it) She has confused pooping on the potty with peeing on the potty, so I've been trying to get her to understand she has to do both in there. The first time she ever pooped on the potty, she comes running to me after saying "poop on the potty, poop on the potty." So I ran her outside thinking she needed to go and found this huge log sitting on the edge of the potty seat. I guess she took pooping on the potty literally, so we've switched to saying poop in the potty.
The girl is quite amazing. I figured out that she won't poop naked, so I let her run wild and free all day, but she holds it. She holds it until we have to go somewhere and I want to put panties on her for the trip. She'll poop in her panties, or in a diaper, but not naked or in the potty.
So yesterday, I stuck her in the bath tub and then went into the kitchen to do some cooking and heard this bloody murder screaming, so I ran into the bathroom. She was holding a huge log, and what did she do with it? She handed it to me. LOVELY!!! Thanks for the present sweetie. I guess she was a little scared of the poop and didn't want it in the tub with her. Oh the things you do with kids you never would have thought. I don't think we are going to re-carpet until I'm done potty training my last kid, that's for sure. I don't know what I'm going to do with Summer, she's scared stiff of the potty and won't go near it.

Any advice for a first time potty training mom with a kid who'll poop anywhere but on the potty and a kid who is scared stiff of it?

New House!!!

We have been in our new house for 3 weeks and I haven't seen my camera since, so sorry for the pictureless blog. We are enjoying our home and have been super busy just cleaning it. The house had been vacant for 2 years, which means I'm constantly on spider patrol. Our first big project will be the bathroom, apparently the master bathroom has a leaky shower pan that is leaking into the basement bedroom, yucky!!! We love all the extra space. I went down to the cannery and polished off the basics for my food storage now that I have so much space!!! Come and visit us soon. We love visitors.

We've moved!!!!

I'm (Kelli) sitting on the front porch of our new house stealing someone's wireless. Shame on them for not locking it, but good for me. We've slept here now since Friday night. We're super excited and love it already. I now have hobbies for the rest of my life getting it fixed up and redecorated. Come by and visit if you want a tour. You can email me if you need my new address. I don't want to post it on the blog, but my phone number is the same, so don't worry, you can still call.

House Photos

Some of you missed the pictures on the MLS, so here's the requested photos of our future home. After some scares with the inspection, we are still buying this house. We are excited to have our own place. The owners are moving out, so that explains the mess and it was a rainy day when I took the photos, but here's our house.

Here's the front of the house.
This is the living room complete with a cork board wall, bring on the dart tournaments!! I will definitely be ridding myself of the drapes, though my own furniture isn't much better.

This is the kitchen, complete with olive colored appliances and carpet in the kitchen, yucky.

Here's a view of the dining room into the living room

This is the master bathroom.

The master has two toilets, you know a his and hers. Clint said we could punch a hole in the wall and hold hands. Yeah, weird, I know!!!

They liked Olive Green. I had a friend suggest having a "Where the Wild Things Are" bathroom in here. Anyone good at painting pictures from fairy tales?

This is the backyard, it's what I fell in love with.

Here's the deck on the back of the house

Here's another backyard view. Lots of windows, which I love, though it might get expensive to replace them all.