Cell Phone Pic Overload...

I thought it was cute how she was all scrunched up in a ball while she was eating.

Love me a baby on my hip!

Babies asleep in carseats is one of the most precious things to see.

Yum! Ice cream at Costco!

When we go to Lowes, one of the first things Mac ask to go look at is "the doors".

This picture just makes me laugh!

Who is the oldest sibling now?

Making her laugh!

Nothing but cute and adorable!

Helping feed sister!

Mac figured out how to roll his tongue! I most def cannot do that.

My little cool dude!

She is all over the place now, and rolls like there is no tomorrow!

She fell asleep during a basketball game.

More ice cream at Costco.

I love me some adorable rolls, she is just too cute!

Ready to go in purple!

This blue frosting stained his hands and face for a whole day, so funny!

One tired boy fell asleep after he was done eating his mac-n-cheese.

His first family picture.



She ends up like this alot and will do it back and forth with each leg and kinda ends up scooting a little.



Mac has been trying to be a good helper and he wanted to help change Oaks diaper.
 He has one of his helping hands on his face, see post below if you don't know what I am talking about.

LOVE.LOVE.LOVE this smile!

This is an oldie! She used to smile alot in her sleep.

This is an oldie too. I left Hubs home with both kids for the first time (oak was just a month old) and Oak cried the whole time and Mac got into everything he could and got into trouble and had to sit on the couch then zonked.

This is an oldie too. Mac and his buddy/neighbor A.

I thought it was so cute how he had fallen asleep with his hand like that.

Another oldie. Destined to be a thumb sucker.

Pizza Picnic

Oldie, Just love that baby chub!

We love this hat, and I thought she looked like a little knome.

When he hasn't had a nap yet, he will fall asleep instanty in the car.

Hubs has been teaching Mac how to play Chess. He is starting to figure out what each piece does which is pretty cool. And he loves to play with Daddy.

This was actually today. She was playing with this teether and somehow got it stuck on her foot.

Oldie. Love the smile on Mac's face!

First time she sat up when she was 4 months old.

Hands are cool!

Untitled from bwilb on Vimeo.

Helping Hands!

About a month ago I was feeling like I needed to do a chore chart for Mac, so I asked my friends on Facebook what kind of chores they thought a 3 year old should do. I got a TON of great answers! It was very helpful. There were many that I hadn't thought of for Mac to do, but there were more that I realized that he already, to a degree, helps me with. So then I thought about the one task that we have told Mac was his job, which is setting the table for dinner. And I thought about how much he whines and complaines when I tell him to set the table because it is his job. There is alot of drama that goes on before he eventually does it.

I decided that I didn't want him to feel like that about chores or helping around the house.

So then a thought popped into my head and I got really excited!

And here is what I came up with...

"Helping Hands!"

Every time he helps me he gets a hand, when he gets all of his hands he gets a privelage.

It took me awhile to get this going because I wasn't totally sure how I wanted to implement it.

 But then one saturday when I was trying to get some housework done and I had asked Mac to take his toys to his room so that I could vaacuum, he REFUSED! It was an all out war! He pretty much didn't care what the consequence was, he wasn't going to do it. He sat in time out for an hour, and didn't care. So then I threw out the idea of taking all of his toys away. And he didn't care! I am not a pushover when it comes to parenting and my mom taught me the golden rule of parenting which is "be consistent with the law of consistancy!" And I take that rule very seriously! So I had to follow through with my threat, even though I felt bad about it. As Hubs and I were taking EVERY SINGLE toy out to the garage I asked him if this is a terrible thing, and he was completely fine with it, which made me feel better. I was pretty worried at first about what would keep him busy, because Mac gets bored very easily and then he gets into trouble. But I can't even tell you how amazing it has actually been to not have a million toys scattered through the house, that his room doesn't always look like a bomb went off in a toy store, that he is finding other things to do (with my help) that are more creative. He did alot of painting last week, and loved it. He never asked for any of his toys back, out of boredom or out of just wanting to play with a certain toy.

So this is where the "Helping  Hands!" came in!

I finally decided that I needed to start my Helping Hands idea and we decided that when ever he helps out in anyway or if he does things like his bed time routine with out a fit then he can have a helping hand. When it comes to little things like taking his dishes to the sink I will add a few more little tasks to it for him to get one helping hand. And for bigger tasks he gets one hand. For doing things like getting ready to go somewhere and cooperating, or getting ready for bed without a hassle or even being good during Sacrament meeting at church he

will get one. After he gets eight then he can choose some toys to come back into the house, or another privelage like playing on Daddy's iTouch.

And to be honest, the outcome has been much better than I ever expected. He is actually enjoying helping with things. He actually has the patience for me to teach him the correct way to do things. And he is almost always willing to help when ever asked.

On top of that, he isn't always asking about when he will get something. And alot of the times he will just help willingly and not even think about getting a helping hand as a result.

I am hoping that this will continue like this and it will instill in him, and Oak when she is old enough, to be helpful to those he is around and to have good cleaning habits.

Helping Hands

I traced his hands and had him color them.

I wanted him to help with the project in some way so that he felt like it was his idea too.

Then I cut them out and laminated them and put a magnet on the back.

They sit in a jar on top of the fridge. And he gets to pick one out when he is helpful and put it on the fridge.

He loves to count how many are on the fridge and also count how many he has left in the jar.

He has never gotten discouraged about how many he has left. And it takes him about day and a half to get all eight.

Oak {7 months}

.she learned to clap on march 4th and she now claps with open hands and when you say "yay!".
.she rolls all over the place in all directions and every which way, and she is fast at it.
.she has learned how to get down on her own when she is tired of sitting up.
.she is a full time sitter and will catch herself when she loses her balance.
.she has tried all the veggie baby foods and prunes and she only didn't like the peas. She kept gagging and when she had enough she just stopped opening her mouth for me.
.she loves to chew on any fabric/material (she gets excited when she sees that I am going to wash her face).
.she is officially in 12 month size clothing and won't fit into anything smaller.
.she says "dadadad" and "babababa".
.she now can hold her own bottle.
.she loves to play peekaboo and kindof gets the idea.
.when you put a blanket over her head she will grab it and pull it off.
.when she is on her tummy she has started to stick her bum in the air and push her self backwards.
.she has even tried to get her knees up under her.
.pretty sure she will be crawling with in the month (if I could stop her I would)
.she is so wiggly now and it is getting harder to change her diaper. (it was hard to take her pictures this month)
.she loves oatmeal.
she chews on everything.
.she is getting her first tooth and it hardly seems to phase her, except that she drools more than she did before.
.she can sign "more", but I don't think she knows exactly what it means yet.
.she is such a happy baby all the time.
.she still sucks her thumb when she is hungry or tired.

DO YOU SEE HER TOOTH?!



TODAY...

• I will say "no" less.
• I will say "stop" less.
• I will not say "later" or "Just a minute."
• I will NOT get distracted by unimportant things.
• I will stop and listen to EVERY word that he says.
• I will sit down and eat every meal with them.
• We will do more playing and creating.
• I will let him get messy and be messy.
• I will sit next to him while he watches his rented movie instead of doing other things.
• I will hug and kiss them and tell them I love them twice as much.
• I will beckon to every cry immediately.
• I will only do housework or other things during nap time.
• Today I will make sure my kids know that I LOVE BEING THEIR MOMMY!

life lately...

-- Both of our kids have been really sick the last week and a half, and now Hubs is sick. We all have a bit of cabin fever and I ready for everyone to be better. I was given a tender mercy and I DIDN'T get sick.

--Since Mac has been sick and cooped up in the house for so long, he has had the WORST behavior. I have never seen him more stubborn and defiant EVER. It has been a really hard couple of days!

--Oak turned 7 months! Time is seriously going by way too fast. And has learned some new things that make her seem like such a big girl: she can open hand clap, can hold her own bottle, and she got her first tooth.

--Mac has not worn a pull up to bed in about a week and has only had one morning wet. Yahoo!

--After the contents of our 72 hr kits had been sitting in grocery bags on the floor of my laundry room for a whole year, and waking up to hear about the earthquake in Japan, I decided to finally get it all put together in the $2 clearanced back packs I got at Walmart a couple of weeks ago. They are 99% done, with just having to get copies of important info and documents to put in it and also getting some baby formula in packets.

--On that note, we had a crazy storm yesterday and a lot of people's power went out. I was actually on the phone with my mom telling her about it and telling her that my in-laws power had gone out and literally that very second ours went out. So crazy! It happened later in the day but it was still somewhat light outside so I was able to go find our flashlight and lantern. I found out that our lantern's batteries were dead and I didn't have enough new batteries.( So that is on my list for the week.) We then decided to go for a drive and by the time we were about to step out of the house the power came back on. So we were luckier than most because our power was only out for maybe 15 minutes at the very most.

--Last week I got this itch to finish decorating Oak's room. And to to give it that finished feeling (besides that I haven't painted in there yet), I found a curtain rod that we never had used and so old white, sheer curtains from IKEA that I had used a million years ago and put them up in there. I like the feel of going in her room now. I have been really itching to do Mac's room for awhile, but I have decided to wait until we get him a bigger bed (he is in a toddler bed right now) and also I want to paint his room.

--This last Friday I was taking Oak to the doctor and the weather was beautiful and you could see the pink blossoms starting on all the trees. And all of a sudden it hit me that it IS actually March and we are so close to Spring and Summer. My mindset has for some reason been stuck in January where it felt like months before we would get to nice weather. But we are so close, like really close and I am so excited!

--I don't know what it is but I just can't keep up with my dishes lately. I feel like I get a load done and still have more in the sink and then dinner needs to be made so then another load is piled on my counter. It is seriously driving me nuts and I wish I had two dishwashers.

--As I am doing certain things during the week, there are a few things that I tell myself every week that I need to get. Two of them are a NEW vacuum cleaner, pretty sure out doesnt' suck anything up and takes the term very seriously "SUCKS". Lately I have been using the hose part and vacuuming our house on my hands and knees using the small hole of the hose. Also a color printer/scanner. Every week when I prepare my primary lesson or want to do some fun activity with Mac I curse the fact that we don't have a color printer. It is really annoying! But after I do all of that, I tell myself that I have gotten this long without them and to just deal with it. And then a new week starts and the same thing happens all over again.

--In one month from today, Hubs and I will have our 10 year wedding anniversary. Holy Smokes! I LOVE my husband but after 10 years with him I can also say that I LIKE him too! I have been hoping and dreaming for the last couple of years that by the time we hit our 10year that we would be able to go on a REAL vacation to some place far away that I have never been with palm trees and white beaches and clear, aqua ocean. It is pretty likely that that won't happen, I can now dream for our 20 year anniversary cruise. Which is actually already planned with our good friends John and Amy who got married 5 days after us (we didn't know them at the time).

--I am starting to "coupon". This is my third try at doing it. This time I really hope to succeed. So far I have failed because I haven't gotten on single deal yet. But I am just a couple of weeks into it and there really haven't been any deals worth me making a special trip to the store which is NOT close to where we live. But I did go to a "couponing" class that my friend had and it actually was so much help. She explained alot of stuff that I wasn't completely sure of and to have some tell you face to face how it works always makes things easier. I came away more confident and I am really excited to be doing this and to build my food storage and hopefully save us some money, or at least stay within my grocery budget.

--I challenged myself to make my bed everyday for the whole month of March. I ended up starting two days early, because that is when I decided I was going to do this and i wanted to just start now! I have only missed ONE day so far. And that was this last Saturday, and to be honest I didn't even think about it until we went to bed. It was the first day in over a week that i was able to get some other things done outside of our home and in our home because Hubs was home to help me and I was taking advantage of that. But I have to say, it hasn't been that hard and I really like what it does for my motivation to get some other things done around the house.

First Tooth!

 

This cute girl of ours is finally getting her FIRST tooth!

She has been sick all week with a terrible sounding cough and a major snotty nose. And for a little girl who doesn't feel very well she has been remarkably happy and good. She has also been slobbering more than usual (think soaking a bib every hour) and chewing like crazy this week too. I am thinking because of the tooth.

She is already beautiful, adorable and so stinkin cute...

but with two little bottom teeth showing when she smiles,

I think just might be cuteness overload!

sick!

This is pretty much all Mac has done for the last five days. He just lays on the couch drifting in and out of sleep. And almost every time he wakes up he is freaking out about something because he just doesn't feel good and he doesn't know what to do. On the plus side he has been drinking water great and I think he may now be night time potty trained.

I really hope his fever breaks today because I hate seeing him be sick  for so long.

Happy News!!

Hub's little sister, J, is offically engaged to L. He is a wonderful guy and we really liked him when we got to meet him last month. We are SO EXCITED for J!

Aren't they so cute together in this picture?!

And this is the ring...

Isn't it beautiful?! 

Allergy Update!

I just remembered that I hadn't updated my blog about taking Mac to the allergist. You can read about why I took him to the allergist HERE.

Before I get into that though. I have to say I am completely annoyed that the ER doctor did not know more about peanut allergies when we were there. Although he was nice and great with Mac, and that Mac really like him, he pretty much blew off the possibility of Mac being allergic to nuts. He came to that conclusion when we said that he eats peanut butter just fine. On top of all of that we had to pay out our deductible in DECEMBER on that visit that didn't do us one bit of good (especially since Mac was mostly better once we got there). I have to keep reminding myself that I was being a concerned parent by taking him to the ER for something that could have potentially been very serious.

So anyway, after a heads-up from my sister-in-law and some research, we found out that someone can have severe nut allergies and not be allergic to peanuts and can eat peanut butter just fine. Peanuts are NOT nuts! They are legumes (beans). Crazy huh?!

I got a nature bar from my dad that was identical of the one that he had given Mac and kept it to take to the allergist. I finally got around to calling a pediatric allergist (with a great recommendation from my neighbor) and finding out who was covered under our insurance. Made the appointment for the next week. And his appointment was actually a week ago today.

We came from the appointment was pretty much what I already knew...that Mac IS ALLERGIC TO NUTS! He was tested for all nuts and a few seeds that were in the nature bar also. And he actually didn't test him for peanuts at all because he said that if he eats peanut butter just fine he can eat peanuts just fine. There are actually a few rare nuts that he isn't allergic too, but the Doctor recommended we not go into that with people as it would just confuse them. I will say however that he had the strongest reaction to cashews and pistachios.

But the best part of coming out of the appointment was that I was ok with the outcome of the tests, I wasn't panicking, I felt like it was something we could handle and I didn't feel like I needed to keep Mac in a bubble for the rest of his life. Things just didn't feel much different. I am not sure if it is the fact that Mac reached the age of three without incident, or the fact that I have really always had a feeling (just Mama instinct i guess) that he was allergic and have just always avoided giving him nuts already.

But despite all of that, Mac does now NEED to have an Epi-Pen with him at all times. Even though his previous allergic reaction never affected his mouth or breathing, it could the next time. We also learned that it is a VERY slim chance that he would grow out of this allergy (like 8%). But the bright side is that allergies are very common place now, schools are more aware and very cautious. So it won't really be an issue when he goes to school as long as we make everyone aware that he is allergic and that we teach Mac what it means to be allergic to nuts. The DR explained to me that I need to keep a fine balance between being very aware that his allergy needs to be taken seriously and the right precautions need to be made and to also not to be overly protective of him and think everyday that he could die from this. And so far I feel like I am doing that pretty good.

Mac will have to go back to the allergist every year mostly to just stay on top of it and the doctor can evaluate and record any reactions he may have had. And to also get his Epi-Pen prescription renewed (which is expensive by the way, yikes!)

And on a semi-side-note: we found out that he is NOT allergic to milk anymore, YAHOO!

Sealing photos...

A friend emailed me today reminding me that I hadn't posted our pictures from the Temple. I kindof forgot to post them here because I had already posted them on Oak's blog for her birth family.

We didn't do the professional photos this time because I didn't want another thing to stress about. I also knew that Mac would not cooperate for pictures, and that would stress me out too.

I ended up having a friend (who is a great photographer too!) shoot some photos of us, telling her that all I wanted is one good picture of us in white and one good picture of us in front of the Temple. Mac was such a goofball when she was taking our pictures in the atrium, that I didn't regret at all not getting professional pictures done.

These are my favorites and I have to say that I LOVE THEM!!!

Thanks A!