Recent events

Im actually in the mood to write so I better run with it and let you all know what been going on with us! We have had a few little changes to our work arrangements inthe past couple weeks. Me and Jon both work as night shift for a troubled teen house. We pretty just have to stay awake and make sure nobody runs away. Its pretty easy. Well, they were switching the program to a girls program and moving the boys to Mount Pleasant, which is an hour away. Some things happened that I dont feel like getting into and we though we were out of a job, but then I got to start working for the girls program and they offered Jon a supervisor position with the boys down in Mount Pleasant. So we have kind of been in a dillemma about what to do. We were even thining about moving down there so it would be easier to get to work. We still might change our minds, but at this point I think we arejust going to stay here and possibly try to get a new car so that jon can commute to work without having to worry about our car breaking down. So he gets a pay raise and I think we will actually be able to get insurance and stuff, which Im excited about. Plus, he gets to make his schedule however he wants. So I think it will be a really good thing. I am still working at the girls program a couple nights a week as well, which I actually really enjoy. I have a whole 8 hours, baby free! Jon will be graduating in April and we are both so excited! Hopefully then he will be able to move forward with whatever career he chooses. He has a couple choices for that as well, so only time will tell what we will actually be doing in a year from now. One path is the FBI and the other is Law School. Im kinda hoping for the first since I dont really want him to go back to school. But whatever is supposed to happen will happen and I know we will find the right place for our family!

Ok, that was long, Ill post some pitures now! In Makella's stocking, santa gave her some finger paints...great, thank santa...and so I decided to just let her have her way with it. She LOVED it! At first, she wasnt so happy about using her fingers and insisted on have a paint brush, but then she kinda got the hang of it and would switch off using a brush and her fingers. In the end, it was actually not so bad to clean up, which was good.

Dont mind her hair, it was supposed to be in pigtails, but I got distracted in the middle of doing her hair. :)

Her fabulous work of art!

Only halfway done, by the time she was done there was paint covering every paper and plus a couple of extra pieces that I gave her.

One last thing before I go. I have heard of seeing shapes in the clouds and in ink blots, but this was a little different. Makella has been using her potty a lot the last week and for the most part she does really good. Im not really officially potty training her. Im a little clueless about that, but she will go on it a couple times a day. We have a little candy bucket she can choose from if she does go on it. Well it always takes her like a half hour of just sitting on it before she does anything and then she will run out of the bathroom yelling, "I did it! Momma, come see! come see!" Always very proud of herself. Well today was another such day. She Finally goes poop and then runs out and says, " I did it, Momma come see!" So I go into the bathroom to help her and she says, "look, momma, I did Candy cane poop!" and just kept repeating the fact the it was a candy cane. Sure enough, her little tiny poop was in the shape of a candy cane! It was pretty funny. Then tonight before bed, she was sitting there again and a while later she comes running out with her usual thing, Only this time she was SOO excited because it was a "Boat poop!" She had done a little tiny poop that looked like a boat! Im not sure where she gets this stuff, but I guess you can find something in everything if you look hard enough!

Im Back!

So wow, its been a really long time since Ive posted anything. December was a really busy hectic month for me so it just never got done. I went to Boise twice and also up to rexburg to see Amiee and then I flew to my mom's house for about 2 weeks. All this traveling was done during all sorts of snow storms that everyone had during December. But amazingly, we never really had too many big problems and always made it to where we were going safely without a lot of delays. So that was nice. Makella actually did really good with all the planes and car rides and More car rides. Everywhere we went just had more fun people and kids for her to play with, so she did good. By the time it was all over though, I could tell she was ready for some normal life. The plane ride home was pretty bad and then trying to get through the airport with a crying baby, 2 HUGE bags, a carseat, a diaper bag, and an overstuffed purse was possibly one of the worst things ever! It was definataly a sight to see, But we eventually made it and it is nice to be back to everyday things. I have a million cute pictures from all my adventures, but this blog would never end it I posted them, so I will only limit myself to a few just to get the point across.

We had christmas up in Boise with Jon's family and we really had an awesome time! We spent Christmas Eve and Angie's house playing games and had a little devotional this which was really good and then we had christmas at Aaron and Kelly's house. Makella loved her Uncle Aaron and he introduced her to the wonderful world of trains! They watched a whole history channel show together about trains and she was Glued to the tv. I've never seen her want to watch something unless it is a cartoon or kid show, so it was pretty funny. It was just a good for us to spend time with everyone up in Idaho since we dont get to see them all too much.

A couple days after Christmas, I flew over to my mom's house in Washington and spent the next couple of weeks over there. During that time we hung out with Matt and Mandy a couple of times which was really fun. We had a really fun new years eve night playing games and eating way too much food and then Matt Made an awesome dinner over at his house for new years day. Makella had such a good time over there with all of pete and leah's kids and then Jeff and Val even came over from yakima for a couple days. There is nothing better than spending time with family so I loved it! I even drove over to Sunnyside for a whole 24 hours and got to see my grandparents! They had never met Makella before so it was good for her to meet them and she warmed up to them instantly! It was great! Thats kind of a small recap of the past couple months.

This is Makella, Lilly, and Danika who are all 4 months apart. Danika the oldest, then Ella, then Lilly. It was fun to watch all three of them together. We tried to have a little photo shoot of the 3 of them. this was probably the best one of the bunch. It seems to show their different personalities. They are all so cute!

While I was there I had my mom help me with all kinds of sewing projects since I have small desires to be able to sew things really well. The reality is that it is pretty hard for me to do, so having my mom there to help me ensures that I can actually do it right! Around christmas time I decided I wanted to try and make makella a christmas dress...Its not to hard right? WRONG. It was Really bad. I finished it and she wore it the next day for church and it Literally fell apart...they had to tie things together just to keep it on her. It was really embarrassing and bad, but I decided to try again at my moms, and hooray! It worked this time! This one wont fall apart and though it may be a little minnie mouse like, I think its cute! I did most of the dress myself, (my mom helped with the hard parts). I was pretty proud of myself for doing this! I also made a quilt for when we move Ella from her crib, which might be pretty soon. and some other skirts. That about sums everything up and I will end it there before this gets to be too long. There will be more recent posts to come, I promise!

Week in Pictures!

I have a ton of pictures today. Im a little late on posting all this, but we had a really good time last week for thanksgiving. Ben and Wendy and also Ben and Lacy came and hung out with us for awhile. They both got here on Sunday and Ben and Lacy stayed til Wednesday and Ben and Wendy stayed until Saturday! It was so much fun to get to see them all again. While Ben and Lacy were here, we went up to the mountains to see what we could see. Which wasnt a whole lot since it was pretty cold, but we went to Bridal Veil Falls and it was pretty. We even found some snow..probably more ice than snow, but Makella loved it anyway! We watched movies and played games and had a lot of fun while they were here. We even went to the playground by my house and played there for a bit....yeah 6 grown ups and 1 baby all playing on the slides. Unfortunetaly I didnt get pictures that day, but it was fun!






























On Wednesday, we ate breakfast with Ben and Lacy and then they had to go back to Lund. That afternoon, the zoo in salt lake had free admission! So of couse we went! Karianne got to come with us too, which made it even better! We had a lot of fun seeing all the animals. We left right when it got dark, so we got to see all the christmas lights that they had put up at the zoo. It was really pretty! The whole time Wendy was here, Makella was pretty much attached to her and was pretty content to just be with Wendy. It was a pretty nice break for me!






























This is the red panda, it was my favorite animal and I think I want one! They are so cute!













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They look pretty excited! :)















We have pictures just like this from when we were little and we came to hogle zoo!















Makella got to ride the carousel! She wouldnt ride on any of the animals because she gets scared easily, but she Loved to sit on the bench!
Then the next day was of course thanksgiving! This year me and Wendy pretty much made everything! It was the first time we have ever attempted Thanksgiving dinner. It was really a lot of fun though and everyone helped out, so it turned out awesome! We had it at Jon's parents house because they had a little more room than our apartment. They werent even there though because they had gone up to spend thanksgiving with Kami. So It was just me and Jon, Ben and wendy, and Karianne and Larry. We didnt slave too hard I dont think and it all turned out good. Im usually not a huge fan of turkey on thanksgiving, but I actually really liked it! It was really good, so I guess turkey can taste pretty good. Plus, we only had the things that everyone liked, so it was a really great meal! Jon was pretty concerned with us having enough pie...haha, so I think we overdid it on the pies...but you can never have anough pie, right?























































Jon is pretending to cut the turkey, but really Larry is the master turkey cutter, so he did the honors! After that, we spent the next couple of days out and about. We did a little shopping and then we went with Karianne and Larry to see the new James bond movie and then to Cafe Rio, which is always good. Ben and Wendy had to leave the next morning and Makella was really sad to see them go! She misses her aunt wendy and knows that she lives in california so now, that is where she wants to go! It was a really good week for us and we were so glad they could come. Its been awhile since Ive been able to have thanksgiving with anyone in my family, so it was great! Now, we are just gearing up for christmas and all the good times that come with it! I hope everyone had a good thanksgiving and that you have a good christmas holiday as well!

Post-Binky Update

First of all, Thanks for all the advice and stuff about the Binky's. I was really freaked out about getting rid of them because I thought she would never sleep well again! Well, we are on day 3 and its really not that bad! I have had 2 nights without a peep! No getting up looking for binky's, Not even getting up just to cry. She has stayed asleep all night long. Its fantastic! I took some advice and have been timing her crying and just been letting her put herself to sleep. She only cries for about 10-15 mins total! Bedtime just isnt as enjoyable as it used to be with the cuddling and singing songs stuff. Now she cries and hates it. Today when I told her it was time for bed, she actually started begging to go into timeout....So she doesnt really enjoy it, but its getting better. I should have done this a long time ago!



P.S. As I write this, she is in her bed crying and yelling.."Im Happy, Im Happy". Poor thing.... :(

Bye Bye Binky Party!

So Makella has had a binky since she was born and she loves it! I had every intention of getting rid of it before she turned one....But that never happened. She got really attached to it and I tried replacing it with other things, but it never worked. For a long time she has only used it at bedtime. But when she sleeps, she has to have 2 of them. One in her mouth and one in her hand. Taking even one of them away was a BAD idea. Its been starting to annoy me that she likes them so much and she has been waking up like 3-4 times a night when she cant find them. So I finally decided that I had enough! All day yesterday we were getting ready for her "Bye Bye Binky" Party. She was so excited about it! She talked about it all day and was pretty ok with throwing them all away. I told her that for every binky she threw away she would get a present in place of it. She had four binkys so she got 4 presents. She got a couple books, some necklaces and bracelets, a new bedtime bunny and a donut! She was more than happy to throw them away and said bye to them and everything! It was great.....Then bedtime came. We were expecting it to be a long night, so I put her to bed kinda late in hopes she would be more tired, but after crying for almost 2 hours she finally fell asleep....for about an hour. Then she woke up again and I felt so bad that I held her for awhile and she was awake for about another 2 hours before FINALLY being totally out at midnight. Even when I was holding her she was still whining and crying. It was sad! I guess 4 hours is a good starting point. It can only get better right?? Im really hoping she can adjust to this. It was hard listening to her be so upset. IF anyone has any suggestions on how to make it any easier, Id love to hear!




































In other news, we celebrated Jon's Birthday this month. His Birthday was on the 5th, but because of his crazy school schedule we didnt get to celebrate it until about a week later. We just had a little party. His parents came over for dinner and then we had a cake. It was nothing big, but it was good! I'm really proud of Jon. He does so well in all his classes and this has been an especially hard semester for him. He is so good about studying and working. I dont know if I would have that kind of stamina! He is such a great husband and father. Im so lucky! I only got one picture at his party and its not that good. It was on the wrong setting and then my camera died. So this is all Ive got.

Its Halloween Time!

One day while driving in the car listening to the radio, there was a commercial and they kept saying "Its Halloween Time" all spooky ghost like. Ever since Makella heard that she's been saying it. So she was ready for Halloween! This is one of my favorite holidays and so I wanted it to be such a great day and for the most part it was! We woke up and I made makella some jack o lantern Pumpkins. It was kinda silly, but she was SO excited that there was a face on it and that it had chocolate! So it was worth it.

Then we were going to run some errands and on our way out, my neighbors invited us to go with them to Macy's for some morning trick or treating. It sounded a lot better that errands so off we went! She didnt have her costume on yet, but at least she had her cute outfit on! I have really enjoyed out new neighborhood and all the awesome people in it! It was fun to get to know some of the ladies a bit better! Plus, Makella really loves playing with all the kids.

So after that I finally got around to running some errands and when we got home makella was literally begging for nap! "Get a banket momma, get a banket. Take a nap, so tired" She refused to eat anything so I just put her down. When she woke an hour and half later, she was a mess! She had a fever and was non stop crying and just plain miserable. So this was her for the next 4 hours:

She didnt want anyone but her dad so he was forced to sit there with her for about an hour. They both looked pretty miserable. She got some tylenol and finally around 4 o clock she decided she could eat and she started to feel better! Im pretty sure she is teething!
So after that I got her all dressed up in her wonderful spacegirl costume, which my mom made and I was sooo excited for her to wear it! Its adorable! Then Jon's mom stopped by after work to see her. She had a pretty funny costume so it was fun to see her and it helped makella be a little happier! She insisted that Grandma Nena go trick or treating with her, so off we went! She got the hang of trick or treating pretty quick! Here are some pictures of the evening.

We went trick or treating for a whole hour and she loved it all! He bucket was getting so heavy that dad had to help her! Jon said it was one of his favorite halloweens because he got to take her and they had a really great time! Plus, she got a lot of good candy that he got to enjoy with her! :) After that, Karianne and Larry and her brother Jon came over and hung out. Karianne has a lot cuter pictures of Ella because my camera decided to die. Anyways, we got pizza and watched a scary movie to end the night. It was a lot of fun! I hope everyone else had a great Halloween too!

Fall Fun

**This is probably going to be pretty long, reader beware!**

Its been awhile since Ive really posted about anything and I kinda have a lot of catching up to do, so bear with me. There are lots of pictures! Ive really been loving this past month. Its just been perfect! Im really not a big fan of summer and all the heat (especially in our new apartment), so Ive been waiting and waiting for it to feel like fall and cool down a bit. It seemed like summer was never going to end over here because it was so warm all the time. But Finally this past month, its been wonderful! Its so cool during the day and almost cold at night. I love it! Plus, where we live, we have 2 big trees in our front yard and they are the first ones on the street to lose there leaves. So rather quickly they turned yellow and then gave us wonderful leaf piles to play in! Makella had a blast playing in all the leaves!

The changing of the leaves and the weather has just put me in a pretty good mood and we have just been having fun whenever we can! At the beginning of the month my mom drove down with Val and her kids so Valerie could see her family. We went to the aquarium with them and had a great time! Then my mom came and stayed with me for the weekend. It was really fun to have my mom here for a couple days! Then a couple weeks later me and Karianne got the opportunity to see Jamie before she went back home from her mission! She was in South Salt Lake for her mission and they had a final testimony thing for all the missionaries that were going home. It was a really neat thing to see Jamie there. She was totally in her element and had sooo many people who love her and appreciate the work she has done. It sounds like she was a fantastic missionary and made some really good memories. There was a lady there who came up to Karianne and I and was crying and she thanked us for being Jamie's friends and helping her get into the gospel becuase Jamie had had such a good influence on her family. It kinda suprised me at first because I didnt really see how I helped her so much. Jamie was always such a good example to me has helped me in so many more ways than Ive helped her! Im just really grateful to have her as my friend! I only got one picture from that night because I kinda forgot that I had my camera, so I took a quick picture before we dropped her off. Anyways, It was really neat!