Tuesday, March 19, 2013

St. Patrick's Day 2013

On Sunday morning we found some leprechaun footprints leading a trail to some Lucky Charms cereal. The girls were so excited that Lucky came. He left the note above with the cereal.

Usually we wear green and eat Lucky Charms, but I found a cute treasure hunt on a blog that I thought the girls would like. Found here.

 Here's Molly finding a clue.

 Getting a little help from daddy.



Finding the treasure!


They found the treasure! I love Molly's face! The treasure was little bags with skittles and some chocolate gold coins. Let me say, it doesn't take much to make little kids happy and excited. I laminated the clues so I can use them in years to come. I liked the treasure hunt because it has you go places that pretty much every house will have (the fridge, by books, a window, door, tree, etc.). Now I'm getting my Easter stuff out. Too bad it will only be up for a couple weeks. Oh well.

Saturday, March 16, 2013

Irish Dancing

My cousin's daughters are Irish dancers and they are really amazing! We went and saw them perform a few months ago and they are so talented. The news did a story on them last night. They have four daughters who dance and the two oldest are going to World's, which is like the Olympics for them.

Check out the story/video!

http://www.ksl.com/?sid=24420812&nid=148&title=layton-sisters-on-their-way-to-olympics-for-irish-dance&fm=home_page&s_cid=queue-4

Go Mckenna and Danielle!

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

to be completed...


In addition to many perks here at the house, one big one is that my mom is a magazine hoarder. Yep, she is. But she gets great magazines that I like to read, so lucky me! In the past few weeks she brought home this one pictured above, Quilts and More. They have some really, really cute things in these magazines, but it costs I think $6.99 for one issue! Yikes! I don't have that kind of money for magazines. But my mom does, so I reap the rewards.

See this cute table runner on the front? I love it. I think it's so cute and I've already collected some fabric to make it. I just need to get about 3 more things and then I will have everything I need to make it. Maybe spring will come if I just make it? This week has started to warm up and I think it's around 55 outside right now! Wahoo! We'll take it. I am sooo done with the storms and snow. Luckily most of it has melted away.

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Oh, the Places You'll Go

Have you read the Dr. Suess book, Oh the Places You'll Go? It's a really good book and I think it is the last book he wrote while he was alive. Anyway, I feel like we (meaning my little family) are in the part that talks about people waiting. Waiting for this or that or whatever. I try and try not to think of us as waiting for something or anticipating a life change, but lately I feel that way.

Justin is looking for a new job right now so we have put house hunting on hold for now. There are several reasons for this. He doesn't really love the work he is doing and he doesn't see himself there long term. Instead of finding a job later on when we already have a house, we decided he should find something now since it might influence several things with the purchase of a home. The market is definitely better than it has been, but it is still pretty competitive in Utah and add to that the fact that Justin has only had just under a year of "real" experience as an attorney. There are still plenty of attorneys with more experience looking for jobs.

While we definitely feel lucky/blessed that we have the greatest set up here in the basement with my parents, we definitely want to be in our own place. Trust me, I am pretty sure I will cry for a couple weeks after we move because my mom is so helpful to me. But still, I have a hard time not having my kids in real bedrooms with closets and doors. We really don't have many choices of where to put Jackson, so he is with us in our room, but he is the lightest sleeper. We pretty much tiptoe in at night and hope we don't wake him up. I can't wait to get ready for bed with the lights on in our own room!

When we first started looking for a house, we set a deadline for this summer before Molly starts kindergarten, but now I'm not sure if that will happen. I plan on starting her at the elementary school I actually went to. I thought it wouldn't be good for her to start and move schools, but I've since decided that she will be in kindergarten and really it won't be a big deal at all. She makes friends wherever she goes and I don't see her having a hard time making an adjustment. She changed preschools this year after a couple of months and was totally fine, so I'm sure it will be the same if it comes to it.

While I know that owning a home isn't the easiest, I look forward to us learning and growing together as a family and relying on each other to get through the trials while being happy with our successes. I don't consider myself a major planner, but I do like to have some plan for sure and although this isn't exactly how I pictured things, we really do have SO much to be grateful for. I don't want to sound ungrateful. I love that my parents have been a big part of my children's lives so far and that they have such a close relationship with them.  I know we will miss them when we leave.

I know we have accomplished some great things while we've been here. Justin graduated from law school and we've had 2 more children while living here. We've been to some neat places and tried new things.

I do know that things will work out and I might even look back and think how easy or simple things were when we lived here. I sure hope so! Do you ever feel like this? I'm sure you do once in a while too.

P.S. I should probably say that I was up with Jackson 3 times last night as opposed to him sleeping through the night. So please don't judge me too harshly. Since I use this blog as my journal, I decided it was ok to have a more "real" post.

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

More taggies

I did it again...and I probably will in the future too. I made some more taggie blankies for gifts. This time I used leftover scraps and I am really happy with how they turned out. I have never done a version like this, sewing squares together, so it was fun to mix it up.

I did one that is a 6 patch and the other is a 9 patch.

There is some cotton fabric, flannel and minky, so you can't go wrong. They are soft! Oh and fleece on the back.

Perfect for little hands to grab and rub.

Welcome baby boy(s)!


And a big welcome to my new niece!! My brother Ryan and his wife, Becky, had this beautiful baby girl last week on February 26th! Romy, we are so glad you are here! You are adorable. Look at her cute bow hat! She and Jackson are 9 months apart to the day.



Monday, March 4, 2013

Jackson at 9 months

Jackson is 9 months old. He is still a happy guy. No crawling yet. But he is a roller! He figured out that he can roll and get what he wants, so there's no need for crawling. At least yet anyway. He has these 2 teeth on the bottom and is getting a 3rd on the bottom right now.

He still eats almost everything we give him. He wasn't a big fan of olives though. Can't blame him there. I don't like them either! He's eating broccoli here. Alison loves broccoli too. We lucked out on that! Molly is better at eating her veggies too since Ali really seems to like them. Gotta love peer pressure.

I swear by sleep sacks. My kids always throw their blankets off, so these have been very helpful. He pretty much wears his jammies most days and we give him a bath at night and change him into new jammies! I know, awesome mom!


(So you can see my hair)
And in case you don't see me and didn't know, I went to the dark side! I decided to be brave and try a dark brown. Everyone has been really nice and complimentary about it, but it's not like people are going to come up and say, "Wow, that looks ugly!" So you can be honest and tell me what you think. It's fine, but I don't love it and most likely I will go back lighter. Always fun to have a change though! And you never know until you try.

Jackson's stats at 9 months:
Height: 75%
Weight: 25% (19 lbs.)
Head: 56%

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

Justin made us some DELICIOUS pancakes for breakfast this morning! He said he happened upon the recipe on mine or my mom's computer and thought we needed to try them.

Yummy! They were super rich, so we couldn't eat too many. Good thing because it didn't make a ton of batter.

Here is the yummy cream cheese drizzle/syrup you put on top. They take a little bit of time to make, but they are worth it. Original recipe found here (with better pictures too!). Give it a try this weekend! You will not be disappointed :)