Sunday Fun

So, today during Sacrament meeting- during the Sacrament- my adorable little 2 year old was singing "I am a Child of God".
It's that moment as a mother when everyone is quiet and inside you're stressing and trying to figure out how to get your toddler to whisper so she doesn't bug anyone else who may be trying to silently worship or concentrate on the Savior.
Then the Bishop got up after the Sacrament had been passed and with tears in his eyes commented on how much he loves to hear the children and how special and precious they are.

I am so very grateful for our Bishop. He reminded me that she is perfect. My little two year old was told to be reverent and think about Jesus. Singing is what she loves, and she showed her gratitude and worshipped by singing "I am a Child of God" as quietly as a little two year can [you know, the volume louder than playground shouting].

My two little girls are so very special. They are so precious. They are perfect.
I am so blessed to be given the opportunity to be their mother.
They are my world.

On another note. Later during Sacrament meeting, Emmie announced to the whole congregation she had to go poop. Oh the joys of motherhood :)

Compassionate Service

So I'm the new Compassionate Service Leader in our ward.
I'll tell you one thing, I have no flippin' clue what I'm doing :)

I've read the tiny paragraph in the ward handbook and searched online for ideas, hints and tips. Not too much out there. Just praying I can figure it out and help the sisters out!

Tonight I had to print up some new sign ups and forms for the Relief Society binder. Figured I'd post them online for others to use [they're really simple], but I couldn't find any online and hey, if I can save another sister 10 minutes of her time, why not! :)

    

Here are a few:
Meal sign ups

Due Date List

Baby Basket Items

Babysitting 

We're in a married student ward, so we have a lot of babies, and a lot of couples in school and needing help with their little ones. So I know every ward won't need those lists, but it's helpful for atleast the student wards :)
We also make little "baby baskets" when a baby is born to congratulate the family. Sisters from the ward can donate items for them- hats, blankets, burp rags, diapers, clothing, lotions, baby shampoo, etc

Anyways, just though I'd share those documents online in case anyone wanted to use them :)

Santa Claus Came to Town!

Today I took the girls over to Hemming Village to see Santa Claus.
I wasn't so sure about how it would all go down since I was taking them myself and last year Emmie hated Santa...

I was on the verge of not going at all, but decided if I could find a decent parking spot I'd do it. Well, lucky for the girls there was a spot right infront of the store Santa was in.
I took them inside and right as we get into the short line, Ryann starts pooping...very loud pooping -.-
So, I hustled them back outside to the car so I could change her diaper [I decided to take nothing but my camera and the girls for our short trip to Santa lol].
I get her all changed and we went back in, luckily no one was in line.

Santa Claus turned at greeted Emmie. She flew behind me so fast! She even got down with her hands on the floor thinking he couldn't see her! Oh goodness it was cute. He was a sweet Santa and asked her a few questions, I don't remember what...then he asked if she wanted to take a picture with him. She got up and looked at me as if asking if he was ok to go to lol. I told her it's alright and that it'd be fun to get a picture with Santa and she could tell him what she wants for Christmas.

I was SO surprised she actually went to him and sat on his lap! I only half sad that I didn't get a crying picture this year lol, last years was great.

Christmas 2011

I'll admit though, last years Santa was kinda scary looking! lol poor kid.

Christmas 2012

She even told Santa she wanted a "blue minnie mouse"

Anyways, so after Santa we went outside and they had a free photobooth. Um, managing 2 kids by yourself in a photobooth to get decent pics is kinda hard. This was our best one

They also had horse drawn carriage rides, but Ryann pooped again after we got out of the photobooth and it was super cold so I decided we wouldn't do it this year.

We went home and ate lunch instead :)

Ryann started throwing a bit crying fit [TOTALLY out of character]. I had no idea what she wanted until I walked near the jumperoo and she started to calm down. I decided to give it a shot and she was instantly happy. Little goober!

This kid is so happy. I love her so much!

How we end our days: Laying in bed cuddling and reading books before bed :)

Silly Girl

Emmie and potty training is turning out to be quite....interesting lol.

She is fully potty trained now and she generally does all the pottying without help unless she needs help wiping.
It's great.
Except she now shouts to me what her poops look like.... =/
Yesterday "Momma, I made a family!!!!!!!" gross.

Today "It's a bunny!" ew.

Thanks kid -.-

Anyways....My friend, Sarah, told me about a bottle she got for her picky baby boy.
So I went out and got one to try it out. BEST BOTTLE EVER!

Ryann wouldn't take any other bottles, but this one, called mOmma, she latched on immediately and drank away!

Pretty excited that I now have the option to use up the huge supply of frozen breastmilk I have :D
Date night here I come!!!!!!!!

Dog Treats

Gurgi is in love with these!
I found a recipe online and made a change.

Recipe adapted from mrsfieldssecrets

Peanut Butter Dog Cookies

adapted from allrecipes

1 cup rolled oats

1/3 cup coconut oil

1 cup boiling water

3/4 cup cornmeal

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 cup milk

1 egg

1 cup peanut butter

3 cups whole wheat flour

Directions

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, combine oats, shortening, and boiling water. Allow to sit for 10 minutes. 
• Add cornmeal, salt, sugar, milk, egg, and peanut butter and mix well. 
• Slowly add in flour until you have a thick dough. 
• Roll out dough to 1/2 inch thickness and use a knife to cut the dough into strips, then cut into squares at the size of your choosing.
•  Bake for 25 – 30 minutes, or until barely browned around the edges.

Makes 2 – 3 dozen, depending on the size of the squares you cut. Store in an airtight container for up to 4 days. 
Since it makes so many, I suggest freezing a good portion of the batch to keep them from going bad :)

I used coconut oil instead of shortening because coconut oil is very beneficial for dogs! Coconut oil contains lauric acid [a medium chain fatty acid found in mother's milk] which helps prevent viral, bacterial, and protozoan infections. As well as, reduces risk of cancers, improves digestion, promotes normal thyroid function, prevents and treats yeast and fungal infections, helps balance metabolism, and supports healthy skin/coat.
Not to mention dogs go coo-coo for coconut oil!!!

Jumperoo Fun!

So Ryann is not a fan of swings, bouncers, anything.

Today I pulled out the Jumperoo. She has great head control and loves to "stand". So I figured it was worth a shot. Best decision ever!
Ofcourse she can't jump yet, but I put a pillow under her feet so she wasn't just dangling. She loved looked at all the toys and even grabbed at a few.
Hey if it'll give me 5-10minutes of free arms to make lunch or something then whoo-hoo!

She was all smiles

Exploring!

Playing is hard work!

And this is a sweet photo of my little angel this morning. Boy does she bring me such happiness!

Need a Good Laugh?

Oh my, I was laughing so hard.
This definitely made me feel better
LOL

http://www.buzzfeed.com/daves4/people-who-are-having-a-worse-day-than-you

Today I felt like a zombie!!! I thought I was tired yesterday, holy cow today was even worse!
BUT, I am so grateful to my good friend Brittney! She watched both my girls [Ryann's first time being babysat!!!] so Mark and I could go to lunch together. It was a quick 30minute lunch with a 5 minute stop at the store, but boy am I so glad I got to spend that little time with him!

Today I started calorie counting. I'm determined to lose some weight...
Calorie counting sucks. 

lol
I'm just glad I have some friends who are also dieting so I don't feel so alone.
My goal is to lose about 20lbs.
Luckily I found an awesome Iphone app called MyFitnessPal
If you are looking to lose weight and have a smartphone add it and let me know, we can be friends :)

So I was on the verge of getting rid of Gurgi, our puppy. He is a good dog, he was just getting on my nerves.
But my mom talked me into training him more and seeing if things improve. [I think she loves the dog more than I do LOL]

Anyways. Here's our spoiled pooch who we love to death.

Emmie has been fighting sleep lately. When we go to put her to bed, she comes up with every reason for us not to leave her room. Tonight, the only way I could get her to go to sleep was telling her I was going to get her a new princess book and she would only get to read it in the morning if she went to sleep.
Lucky for me, D.I. had a princess book for real cheap!

I also found a few more [saving for her stocking] and a Book of Mormon Stories book. We've been reading her the scriptures every night, but I'm excited that now when we read certain stories, I can bring out the book and have pictures with summarized captions to help teach her :)

Oh, and I also came across a cute Family Home Evening book with activities that Emmie will love!

Anywho....Tomorrow I'll be making a batch of Homemade Deodorant...maybe I'll take some photos and post a tutorial tomorrow :)

Night all!

Today was exhausting! Or maybe rather I'm exhausted from the events from this weekend.

Friday I spent going throughout the house and making a huge pile of everything we don't use. Um...it was a pretty big pile!!!! We spent til 2am sorting through and organizing them into groups, boxes and putting price tags on them because Saturday I participated in a massive indoor garage sale!

 It was the first time anyone had done this type of event in Rexburg, so it was a trial run. It wasn't too bad, although the weather sucked that morning and made hauling all the items to the event a pain.
We got there a little late, and ended up with a round table instead of a long rectangle like I had anticipated so that made getting my items seen a little difficult. I was still able to make $101, sooo not too bad I guess :)
I've been busy trying to sell everything I can that we don't have so we can have some extra cash on hand, it's been pretty nice.
Oh and not to mention all the extra space we suddenly have!!!! We can breathe again!

We've been married 4.5years now, and we finally bought a Christmas tree!!! We set it up the day after Thanksgiving. I love having that little sparkle in our home! :) We decided on no ornaments this year...not only because we're super poor [ok, mostly because we're super poor LOL] but I think it'd be less stressful for me with having a 2 year old and a dog. 

Lately, I've been working with Emmie a little bit. I found some preschool printables and I'm making her a "school" binder. I'll have to post pictures and links to the printables I'm using. There are such great resources on the internet!

Anywho. I'm newly addicted to Instagram....

Now if only I looked as good in real life as I do in these pictures lol

Starting new

I'm really good at starting blogs, writing for a month...then never going back to it again...
then starting the cycle over again a few months later!


I'm determined to stick it through with this one.


Life with 2 kids [and a dog] has been quite an adventure so far! I want to say it's easier, but of course it's also much much harder than just having 1.
I feel it's easier because I know what I'm doing. We've had a routine since Ryann was a week or two old. That has been my life saver. Plus, I'm pretty freaking grateful that I still have my "me time" even with a newbie in the house. I would go insane without having a good few hours straight of quiet to myself. 

It's hard to believe it's already December 1st. Well, I was just thinking the other day I couldn't believe it WASN"T December yet, the gap between Thanksgiving and December is too long...but now that it's here it just feels wrong. It's so WARM outside! Our high was 52 today!!!!!!! That is so not right for Rexburg!
Don't get me wrong, I LOVE it. It feels amazing, but it just doesn't feel like we should be getting ready for Christmas. I'm hoping for one good snowfall so we can make another snowman and go sledding with Emmie for the first time. Then the snow would be welcome to melt away for forever.

So Christmas is coming and we've decided to keep things really simple this year.We're going to do a want, a need, a wear, and a read. Emmie will be getting new Minnie Mouse bedding. I chose this one. It's reversible, but I don't care much for the other side [the one they advertise that has the minnie mouse character on it]. I LOVE the black with the mouse silhouettes though! Too cute! Our store doesn't have the bed skirt in stock and I'm too cheap to pay the outrageous shipping fees...so I'm going to see if I can make my own bed skirt for her bed, maybe. I like the black/white striped fabric they have going on in this picture. Very simple and I'm sure I could easily find that pattern at the fabric store.

Anyways...Mark and I are also working on a quiet book for her other gift. It'll be a felt quiet book. We're having so much fun making the pages for it. So far I have a potato head page cut out, and a barn with farm animals. Mark is working on a car page with a little town and street. She's going to love it! And hopefully it'll help make Sacrament meeting a little bit easier!
Oh, and I'll be added up templates for the pages we make up. Once I finish some pages completely I'll post pics and links to templates I used, or post my own templates for download. :)

For her "a wear" gift, I got a costume from Kmart at their Halloween Clearance. It's a red dress and will be perfect for dress up! 

The last thing I need to decide is a read. Does anyone have any good book suggestions for Emmie? I will most likely go with an Angelina Ballerina book or something. Angelina is her new obsession!!! Pretty sure she'd flip if we got her own Angelina Mousling book...we've been checking them out at the library and she's always sad when we have to return them.

Ryann's gifts I mostly won. I won her this toy

It's a Tiny Love Musical Stack and Ball game.

Then I won her a cloth diaper for her "wear" gift :)
Her need gift, I'm thinking of getting her a wooden teether since we're getting closer to that age. Then she just needs a read gift! :)

I decided on Christmas Eve, we'll follow my family's tradition of getting new pjs. But I'm also going to wrap up a box that will have a new movie for the family, a bowl with popcorn to pop, and hot cocoa. So we'll snuggle up and watch a movie together before bed in our new pjs :) Emmie will love it. We've been dying to get her the new TinkerBell movie.

Annnnnyways. Not too much is new here. Just enjoying life as a new family of 4!