Been awhile

Hey, its been awhile!  Guess i have a few min. to update those who check this :)  The girls are doing great!  Julia only has 7 more days of school and she is sooooooo excited. She keeps saying she will be a 2nd grader right after school gets out next wed.  And Madie keeps saying she will be a kindergartener then too.  Ella is such a good talker, when she wants to be.  Otherwise, she is pretty lazy with how she puts her sounds together lol.  Aubrey is crawling all over the place and pulling up to things.  If i hold her hands, she will walk on her own.  I think she is still months away from walking though, and will most likely be my latest walker.  I dont care though.  

The weather has been slowly creeping up the high temp. lately.  We hit over a 100 last week, and today will be around 94.  The lows are usually in the low 70s! HAHA weird.  But its better than when summer is fully here and the lows are in the 90's...ick.  I'll be looking at Oregon's weather then and be jealous.

Took the day off from working out to Insanity.  While i have noticed changes in my arms and slight toning in other places, its not enough!!  Im so frustrated!  I watch what i eat, i've always eaten pretty healthy.  My problems were not eating often enough, and to big of portions when i did eat.  I changed that, and did Insanity for over 3 months, with no change on the scale.  Talk about bummed.  "It will happen, it takes time, dont give up" are all things i've heard and repeated to tell myself.  But when skinny people are telling you those things, it doesnt help much :/  I could go on more about how upset it makes me, but i remind myself that others may read this lol.

Ugh, im so sick of the backyard of this house.  I didnt really have a choice when it came to picking this house, since we were signing the lease to it from the hospital, when i was having Aubrey.  And since we were leaving to head here when she was only 8 days old, i wanted to have an actual place to come too :)  The house size is fine, im OK with it being a Ranch style, which i really dont care for usually.  I dont like the layout though.  We gave up one of the bedrooms for the playroom, because it is the first room when you enter the house.  It has 3 tall windows in it, and i was not comfortable having one of my kids sleeping in that room.  Not using that as a room, is making Madie and Ella share a room.  Which actually is fine.  Madisen is the only one that can fall asleep to Ella's talk-til-she-passes-out nightly thing she does.  I let Julia have her own room since she is the oldest and wanted her own space, plus none of the rooms, besides the master, has enough room for a bed AND a crib, plus 2 dressers.  So the baby is in our room, on my side of the bed.  Its worked out ok because she has been little.  But she is getting bigger now and im ready for her to share with her sisters or have her own room. 

I think when our lease is up, we are going to find a new rental,as much as i HATE moving, one that is bigger and has an actual yard.  My dream after having kids, was to have a back yard that i could have a play structure in, a sandbox, and a water table for the little ones.  I wanted to make the back yard a fun place to hang out in, and just be able to watch the kids play.  Cant do that here!  And no, not because its too hot.  Its only to hot for that about 5 months out of the year.  Perfect otherwise.  Anyways, the dog cant even enjoy the back yard in this house.

Kinda excited to start a new job soon (not sure when).  It will mostly be from the house with possible going to the office on the days Jeremy is off work and can be home with the kids.  It will be working for my Realtor (the one who helped us get this rental) and some other guy.  Not sure the pay or anything, but im sure he will be fair.  He's a nice guy.  Possibly be able to get a second car if the whole job thing works out.  We are thinking about getting Jeremy a scooter thing this week.  They are only about $1000 and he can pay it off with his work bonus in July.  That way i will have the car to take the kids and pick them up from school.  They start back at the end of July and its waaaay to hot to walk them all then.  I did it at the end of Aug. last year and it was 119*.  Not gonna do that again! 

The two youngest are up now, so gotta go!! 

Spider meets the vacuum

I've been doing this new work out called INSANITY.  And ive been doing really good at it, and keeping up doing it daily as hard as that is to find the time.  BUT today, im updating this blog, doing laundry, among other things, and packing my bag for Vegas!  I'll get back to that later.

This morning started out eventful when i found a big A** spider in the kids bathroom.  That is the 2nd one in the last couple weeks, and only in their bathroom.  They are mutants here!  HUGE!  Even my husband agreed that the last one was very large, when i called him to kill it.  But of course he was at work when i found the one from this morning.  As most or all of you know, i HATE spiders!!!!  The bigger they are, the worse my fear is!  This was big, brown and hairy, so nasty.  I got all worked up trying to kill it somehow.  I was trying to stay strong for my kids, but they saw right through me lol.  I was figuring out how to get if off the girls showers curtain and into the toilet when it started on the move.  UGH, i hate when they are creepy crawling when you want to get them.  He went behind the toilet and i couldnt find him.  Which of course is making me sweat and freak out cause im not about to let my kids go pee in there now!  2 of them still hadnt gone since waking up, the baby was starting to cry cause she was hungry, i hadnt made breakfast or Julia's lunch.  So after about 45 min. (yeah yeah) i get the vaccum cleaner.  If this spider had been smaller, i would have been able to get it and throw it in the toilet but with the legs and body it was almost the side of my palm.  NO THANK YOU!  So i get the vaccum out, but of course as soon as i get close the thing takes off in a sprint towards the tub again.  So about 15 min. after that i try again, determined to get him because now its almost time for Julia to leave for school, the baby was fed, BUT my 2 oldest still needed to pee.  And i know if i took my eyes off him any longer, he would be long somewhere when i came back and i can not have that happen.  I took the hose from the vacuum and went to him very slowly since he is obv. smart enough to run.  I got him this time.  I also wouldnt shut off the vacuum for 15 min. so i knew he wasnt crawling back out! hahahah  I vacuumed the kids room after i got him, then dumped it, and vacuumed the living room.  He better be dead!  

So now that the vacuuming is out of the way :)  I did some laundry.  I needed to so that i could pack a few things for Vegas tomorrow.  IM sooo excited to go!  I havent been in over 7 years.  Im kinda sad though too cause i've never gone a full day/night with out seeing my kids!  I completely trust their dad to handle all 4 of them, which isnt the problem.  And im totally fine leaving the older ones for a couple days lol.  But i feel like my little baby Aubrey is going to miss me.  Shes is my little momma's girl.  She hangs with me all day, most of the time, on my hip while i cook, or im sitting near her while she plays.  I know it will be good for her to not have me being the only one that puts her down for a nap or feeds her.  But im going to miss her soooo much!!  My kids have only spend the night away from me, when i was in the hospital having one of their siblings but even then my parents would bring them up to visit. Julia has spent the night at her aunts house once, and that was totally fine.  Shes at the age where im totally fine with her staying a night at her aunts, grandparents, or her best friends house.  I know its probably odd for those reading this to think that i've gone that long with out leaving them anywhere, but its thats just how i am.  I love having my kids around.  And i know the older they are, the more willing i am and will be to apart from them on occasion.  Its just when they are little like Aubrey, and even Ella's ages that i have a hard time leaving them.  Having said that, once im there, im sure i'll be fine.  Mommy needs a break, and some BFF time!  Since neither of us gambles, it wont be an expensive trip at all :)

Not sure what else to update on since my last blog.  Ella is now potty trained! :)  I've hung out with a friend from down the street.  We went to a drink and paint studio last weekend.  That was a blast, i hope we can do that again someday.  I'll pick something more challenging to paint :)  And in March we are going to a glass blowing place with a Groupon we got.  That is going to be a blast too!!  

I hear Ella is up from her nap now, so i must cut this short.  I sure hope this rain, yes i said rain, stops here soon, since i need to walk to go get Julia in an hour.  GOTTA GO!

Winter Break

Feels like its been awhile since i've updated this.  Since my last post, we've had Christmas and started a New year.  Julia was off for about 2.5 weeks, and i got used to her being home.  So its her first week back and i've kinda missed her :)  Although i dont miss the two oldest bickering.  

We had a real tree too! lol  This was our finished wall tree..

 Christmas was awesome.  We missed our friends and family, but i have to admit it was pretty nice not having any expectations to be somewhere, and we could just hang out in our pj's watching football, while the kids played with their stuff all day.  The kids loved everything they got!  Which was great, cause both sides of the family sent gift cards since shipping costs are so much.  So i picked stuff out using the gift cards, wrapped it and put who it was from on it.  My sister sent actual stuff in the mail and the girls loved that too!  Packages are always fun!!  We hung low and didnt do much for New Years.  The girls wanted to stay up, but made it to about 9, if we were still in OR, that would have been midnight by east coast time, so that worked for us.  When we did live in Oregon, we always went by east coast time and watched the ball drop at 9, our time, and then off to bed for the kids.  Not like i made it much longer than that.  Ever since having Julia, almost 7 years ago, i havent really gone anywhere for New Years.  My husband was usually working, and nights at the time, so i stayed home.  Plus, even if he wasnt working, i didnt want to be on the roads with drunk drivers so i just stayed home.  Now i celebrate like a grown up in my own home after ALL my kids are asleep in bed.  :)  This year including skyping with one of my best friends while we enjoyed an adult cocktail.  

A couple days after the 1st, we headed up to mountain to play in some snow.  Yes, Arizona does have mountains, and does get snow, LOTS of snow in the winter! :)  I didnt really know this either when i lived in Oregon, until my friends in-laws were visiting from Flagstaff and they told me that they get lots of snow every winter.  Eye opener for me.  I just thought all of Arizona was hot, all of the time.  Lately, its been in the 30's when i walk Julia to school, but by the afternoon is sunny and in the 50-60s.  Anyways, flagstaff is about a 2.5 hour drive from where we live.  I packed our lunch and snacks and extra clothes and all our snow stuff and off we went!  We didnt want to go to the actual ski resort, so about 2 hours after leaving the house, we just took an exit and were looking for a big field to go play in.  We had the dog and wanted her to be able to run freely.  Luckily, we had taken the perfect exit!  Tons of people were doing the same thing and had all pulled over for this huge field to play in.  We drove about another min. down the street and there was a country club with an acre or so of land out front that another family was playing in the snow as well.  So thats where we got out and played for a couple hours.  Im sure once the kids are all bigger there will much more time actually playing in the snow, but with such little ones, it ended quickly.  Ella never slept on the way there, so she was tired, but did really well over all :) 

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 I cant believe that my little Aubrey is already 5 months old!!  And in less than 2 months, i'll have a 7, 5, and 2 year old!  Speaking of an almost 2 year old.  Ella is almost fully potty trained!  She wakes up dry from nap and has no pee accidents for over a week.  I am just working on her using the potty for her #2.  She likes to wait until nap time to do that, although she has gone in the potty for that a couple times now, but it still fighting that.  Not sure why....

Here are some random pictures from the last few days...

 Until next time...

Naps are overrated

*Yaaaaawn* Im so tired today!  I didnt go to bed any later, or earlier than usual.  And yet i cant stop yawning.  It seems like no matter how early i try to fall asleep, i cant.  Until at least 10.  You'd think it would be easier with how tired i am.  But i've always been a night owl, guess that doesnt change even when my sleep has been taken away for months! lol Ella and Aubrey are sleeping and i guess i could nap, but that would leave Madie awake.  And i kinda feel like i shouldnt be sleeping when one of the kids is awake.  At least until she is older.  But then again, how much sleep would it really be?  It would be that day dream sleep when you can hear everything but just cant fully fall asleep.  Either way, its to late now.  I past the point where i'd get anything.  Aubrey has been down for over an hour, which means she could be up any min. or sleep another 2.  The minute i would close my eyes, one of them would wake up and then i would be grumpy! lol

Ella has been dry all morning today.  She didnt chug 2 sippy cups of water this am either.  When she does that, she literally needs go pee every 10 min.  NO LONGER.  12 min. and she has peed her pants!  And that will continue all morning.  Literally!  Its so hard to not just put her in a pull up.  I have her in a pull up for nap time, but most of the time she will wake up dry if she has gone potty right before nap.  

The girls are getting excited for the hay ride on friday evening.  I should hear back sometime this week as to what time slot we got.  I asked for the 6-6:30 one, i think lol  It might have been the 6:30-7 one.  Oh well.  Either one of those will work.  Aubrey has a well child check up Thursday.  As soon as that is over, we will head to ballet/tap class for Madie.  Julia will be at school and i will leave Ella home with Jeremy.  She is just toooooo busy to bring there.  Next week i will have to bring them all though, besides Julia.  Jeremy is going to be training on a tool at work and they want him working a mon-fri shift from 8-5.  So he wont have to go in this Sunday, but in exchange will be working thurs. and friday next week. :/  

Saturday Julia and i have to volunteer to run her girl scout booth at the holiday bizarre.  Its only for 30 min.  I think this weekend we will go see the Zoo lights here.  Probably Sunday, because we never get to go do things on Sundays. 

Im holding off on Santa pictures until i get the cute matching skirts my sister is sending in the mail for my girls.  I hope they are cute!  I havent seen them, but since my sister and i have the same taste in pretty much everything, im sure they will be!  If we get them this week.  I might try and get the Santa picture out of the way too because i want to add it to the Christmas card i will mail out for the holidays.  I like to get those out by the middle of the month or so :)  Next weekend, on Saturday, at 3p, Madie has her winter recital.  I cant wait!  Im sure it will be adorable!  We will take a video of course!! Then on Dec. 19th, at 6:30p, we have Julia's 1st grade musical.  Havent heard much about it, just that they are designing their own snowman shirts to wear for the musical.  They will keep them and can wear them all winter, on fridays, for school spirit day.  Then Julia is off school from the 21st of December to the 8th of January!  Nice long break!

I'll leave you with some picture of the girls i took a few days ago.

Until next time...

Our Crafty December....so far

I dont have a whole lot of time to write a nice long blog, so i'll start with showing the crafts we have been up to this last week.  Its kinda hard to find time to do these when Ella is sleeping AND Julia is home.  So sometimes, its just Madisen, then Ella when she wakes up, and then Julia later after she gets home.  Sometimes i dont even want to do ONE craft, let alone the same craft 3 times in one day! lol  But i make myself so i have some of these things to look back at, or cry at someday :)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

So one of the crafts i did, was for me :)  I saw this on Pinterest.  The person's was better, but it linked to Etsy and wanted $24 dollars.  I was trying to create things i already had at my house, on a budget here people!!  And i had choose gray and the wedding date to be light green, but my Ink in my printer is being weird and wouldnt print the green.  So i went with pink.  Its my husbands birthday, mine, our wedding date, and our kids birthdays.  

Ella got moved to the table, since we need the high chair for Aubrey soon.  Ella thinks she is soooo big now.  I do have to admit that i have put her back in the high chair for breakfast and lunch sometimes, its easier! :)

Cutting out circles

Cutting her circles out

There is two pieces of paper here.  The girls made their own snowman, and cut them out and glued them onto paper.  This kept them busy for awhile!  Julia's is on top, she added clouds to hers.  Madisen's is the bottom, didnt she do great on cutting her circles and the snowman arms?!! :)

Made this the other night as a dessert for the kids.  They loved it!!  We didnt have ice cream, but this was healthier anyways :)

By Madie

Julia added snowflakes to hers

The other day i had them draw a Merry Christmas picture.  Madie draws her durning the nap time of the others and while Julia is at school.  It kinda funny that Julia's usually look pretty similar to what Madie chose to draw.  Which is true on almost everything she makes while Julia is at school lol.

100 squats by the 31st!

Decided to join a Squat-a-thon this month.  Someone posted it on facebook so i was like, why not? lol  Then i posted it.  So a few of my friends, including my mom, are going to do it with me this month.  Woohoo!! 

4 months old!

Aubrey turned 4 months old yesterday!!!  Shes getting big!!  Which also mean that tomorrow, Ella will be 21 months old.  Time is flying!  I cant believe in a few months i'll have a 7, 5, and a 2 year old.  Plus a 7 month old! 

I had to cut a lot of little hand prints out!

All my girls little hands :)

Instead of 4 wreaths, i made it into ONE!

My almost finished project!

The wreath looks good i think!  I have been debating on changing the little hand prints that are acting as the bow of the wreath to a different color.  Ive gotten the suggestion for White, i think i'll go with that.  Thank you Darlene! :)

Our wall Christmas Tree

The girls adding Ornaments

Yes we are going to get a REAL tree too!! lol  I just thought about this idea yesterday and went with it!  My idea was to have this tree on the wall and the girls would make ornaments to hang on it.  They made like 5 or something yesterday, and then i decided instead of trying to make a ton right then, why not make it more of a game that goes all month long.  So i told them they could each make an ornament every day and hang (stick) on the tree.  And by Christmas Day, they would have each made 25!! Not including the ones they made the day i put it up.  They are so excited!!  We are also excited to find out that my Nana is sending the older girls an advent calendar.  She tends to get them one every year and they so look forward to it!  So they were over joyed when i told them Nana is sending them one this year.  Julia was just asking about when we were going to go get one this year.  Now i dont have to!!  Thanks Nana!! You rock!!

On top of all the other things we are managing to do and keep up on this month,  we have our Elf on the Shelf too!  This is where he decided to be this morning when the girls woke up :)  I always like this idea until a week or two into december and then im like, Why did i start this?? lol  Sometimes i forget to move him until the am and have to hurry...or i'll remember right as im falling alseep. haha

Ok i smell a dirty diaper that needs changing.  Thanks Aubrey! lol  
Until next time....

Holiday prep

Made Shepard pie last night for dinner.  I dont recall ever having it before, and i definitely have never made it.  Its pretty easy!  And it was such a hit!  I found a couple recipes on pinterest and then just went with my own, combining a couple different recipes.

I didnt have block cheese to shred so i just broke up some of my pre-sliced Tillamook cheddar cheese.  Turned out great!

 Last Sunday, my friend Rachel came over.  We enjoyed just hanging out with the kiddo's.  Watched a movie and made some snowflakes to decorate the front windows with.  Now you would think with us being grown up women that we would be able to make snowflakes with no problem.  WRONG! lol  Rachel couldnt even make full ones, she kept opening them to be half snowflakes LOL, and mine were always messed up too.  They looked like rectangles or werent cut very good.  Finally after finding a couple different directions on Pinterest, on how to fold the paper, we got it!  By then it was already a couple hours into cutting them.  I let the girls help but it was to hard for Madisen to make little cuts on folded paper.  Julia figured it out right away though and will soon be better than Rachel and I! lol  Here are some of Julia's creations!

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This one is mine, once i figured out how to fold it the right way lol

Kinda hard to see, but here they are on the windows :)

So now the winter season is apon us.  Im getting into the holiday spirit, especially because we have a house to decorate now and not a townhouse that was 3 floors.  Not that i like this house very much, but it is, none the less, a house.

And of course we cant forget about my Santa mug to fully be in the spirit of Christmas! :)  As well as Julia's school doing a number of holiday inspired activities.  Which of course we just find out about and they are all really really soon.  One of which is the giving tree.  They want you to bring in gift cards from a selected number of stores to go to families in need.  If you do that, then you can pick an ornament off the tree in the front office. They are also having a book fair the same week.  As well as horse drawn carriages around the neighborhood for a small price, that includes hot chocolate and cookies.  Jer doesnt really care to do that one but said i could take the girls, so im just going to pay for me and the two oldest.  Kinda a fun little mom and daughter time, so im all for it!  Then also in the same week, we are to bring a white shirt in for Julia to make for her 1st grade musical they are putting on in 2 weeks.  But the shirt has to be in by monday.  So lots going on here for us!  To add to the chaos, Madie has a ballet recital Dec.15th, which is the same day as Julia's soccer orientation.  Which was also a day i was invited to a gathering at my friends house that i have to pass on because we are so busy.  Life of a mom i guess.  On a side note, Julia has a girl scout meeting this friday that i know nothing about yet, but i know she will have fun like she always does!

When the next few weekends finally slow down, i think we will go see the zoo lights here.  Thats a tradition we have done since Julia was born, and even though its a different zoo, we can keep the tradition :)  We are even thinking about taking a couple hour drive up to where there is SNOW and letting the kids play in it for awhile.  They really really really want to make a snow man!  I still need to find the time to make some winter/christmas crafts with the kids.  SOON!

A note on Ella's potty training.  She is doing really great!  We are still training obviously though.  She has many days where she stays dry all day!  I take her hourly, sometimes longer than an hour.  Im working on her telling me when she has to go.  She tells me a couple times a day she needs to potty.  But everytime i ask her, she says "no".  Even if she just said " i needa go potty" and then i say, "what? you need to go potty?" and she immediately says "no" lol.   Um whatever, im taking you to the potty, and she goes right away.  Guess i should be working on what NO and YES mean lol.  Only got her to go #2 on the potty once.  She still likes to disappear and concentrate really hard on going in her underwear with out being caught.  Hahaha.  Then she comes and finds me and says "eeeeww, P-U, uh-oh and NO NO" followed by some jumbled words while she grabs the back of her pants and says "poopoo goes on potty"...YES, YES it does! lol

not so sure about a singing Christmas decoration

Silly face!

Aubrey is getting so big!  She can roll all over the floor now, she grabs at her toys and pulls them off her play gym.  She loves her exersaucer and is totally outgrowing the swing already, just out of boredom! lol  I swear i give birth to toddlers and not babies.  She wont even be 4 months until Dec.1st!  She is teething like crazy, so shes constantly drooling, putting her hands in her mouth and making crazy faces because she likes to bite her tongue haha.

Was supposed to be sleeping!

Silly face!

 I have to add a little about Madisen because she has been such a helper these days!  While Julia is at school she has gotten to be quite the big sister!  Always helping with Aubrey and Ella and picking up toys, even though Ella is the main one that has dragged them all over the house.  Ella likes to clean up most of the time though, shes going to be a good cleaner upper like Julia was when she was little :)  Also, the lazy walker that madie used to be, is No more! lol  The walking to Julia's school and back and really gotten her muscles up lol.  She jogs half way there and back now.  Unless of course, i want to jog too, then she stops behind me and whines so we end up walking lol. 

Julia is julia.  Emotional, loving, smart, beautiful and did i mention emotional? lol  She is doing great though, all the kids in her class want her number to have play dates.  Oh joy. lol  And all the boys like her too, GREEEEAT. haha.   

Well mom duties are calling...more like whining.  So until next time...