Hello Blog, I have missed you!

I have been terrible about keeping my blog updated lately, and really it's not like I am just super busy beyond the normal level of craziness!  I am so far behind on Christmas shopping it's not even funny.  So I guess I will have to be VERY busy soon.  I have been feeling guilty about not sending out Christmas cards this year, there was just no way that was going to happen, maybe next year! :)  But here I am, finally doing a little blog catch up!

My mom flew into town for Christmas and it's WONDERFUL having her here!  Austin and Lanna are enjoying have their Grammie around and have been a lot less fussy since her arrival.  :)

The kids latest obsession is "horsey-back rides" and Jonathan has perfected it.  Well kinda ;)


I believe he was begging for help here ;)






The twins have also discovered the joy of dragging as many toys as possible into random places, like the bathroom, before I can stop them.

can you say EWWW!  We use a lot of Clorox in this house...

They also love helping me bake/cook.  It is hard for me to let them help because I want everything done just so, but I am working on it.  Anyhow, you would not believe the kind of time I devote to trying to think of ways I can let them help me when I am cooking or baking.  I have been wanting to make sugar cookies in cool Christmas shapes and let them decorate but I don't have any cookie cutters and every time I have remembered to check at the grocery store they are sold out!  Maybe next grocery trip :)  In the mean time we made Chex Mix.




Since mom is here and we have a live in babysitter, Jonathan and I took advantage and these puppies got dug out of a box and dusted off


How can a girl not take advantage of a chance to put a little extra effort into appearance and hold her sexy man's arm while out on the town? ;)

Please ignore the toys and books scattered around, we do have two toddlers ya know ;)

I have been trying and trying to get a picture of Austin and Lanna in front of the Christmas tree while they are wearing something that could be considered festive, but I have gotten a lot of this:


or this


or something that is really close but someone had to put a car up by her mouth ;)

I will get one though, I can feel it!

In the mean time we are relaxing with Grammie and trying not to think about all the Christmas shopping that still needs to be done.  And Jonathan came up with the latest bath time craze




Once an Army brat, I guess it always effects your life ;)

Potty Training and Toddler Beds

The other morning (only a couple days after potty training incident number one) Jonathan said to me "do you think we should try putting the kids in their big kid underwear today?"  I told him, it did not go well for me, but since I was headed to run errands and he was going to be home with the kids for a while, he could try it if he wanted to.  So on went Thomas and Minnie.  Before I could get out of the house Austin had two accidents, but at least he pee on the tile and poop when Jonathan was in charge. ;)  I went to Target and when I got home Austin and Lanna were in diapers.  I asked Jonathan about it and he said "I gave up, they can wear diapers until they are 12."  Any other takers?  Two parents down, whose next?

We also switched the twins to toddler beds and I am afraid that it's going to mean the end of naps.  If I do get them to nap it's usually an hour or more of struggling and then I end up having to wake them up so they don't sleep to late.  It's also been a fight at night.  I am really regretting switching, but I don't want to switch them back either.  Last night they did not get to bed until 11:30 and then Austin was up at 7:00 this morning, that can't be good!  I guess we will just keep chugging along and hope it evens out eventually.  They used to sleep around 11 hours at night and take a 2-3 hour nap, so this has been a huge change.

So this blog has been sitting on my screen for a few days waiting to be finished and it's just not happening, so I am going to post it! 

Potty Training, New Grocery Stores and Christmas coming early!

I took the twins to Target and they each got to pick out a pack of "big kid" underwear.  Austin chose Thomas the Train and Lanna chose Minnie Mouse (I was actually a little surprised on that one, I was expecting her to choose Dora).  We have been talking about how they are in diapers now, but when they wear their "big kid" undies they have to go pee pee and poo poo in the potty like big kids.  The other morning I asked Austin if he wanted to wear his Thomas the Train big kid undies and use the potty today.  His response?  "No mommy, not right now."  When I asked Lanna she said "ummmm....sure!"  So I put on a pair of Minnie's and once again went through the whole, potty talk.

prepped and ready to go:


I took her potty every 30 minutes and asked her if she needed to potty at the 15 min half way mark.  By 11:30 she had pooped in one pair of Minnie's and peed in two others.  She is now back in diapers and I have decided that she is not ready yet and we will try again when she is 12.  I told Jonathan that if he had any interest in potty training before 12, that was on him.  I think the last straw was peeing while standing in a plastic tub that had all their toy cars in it.  Do you know how long it takes to clean of 30+ toy cars?  I don't either, you will have to ask Jonathan.  I kid, I kid!!  It took me while! 

On to other things.  I went to the Fry's grocery store that's close to our new house.  It was my second time in the place.  It is HUGE.  By far the biggest grocery store I have ever seen.  Having to learn the layout of new grocery stores always takes me a little bit of time.  If I ever become Queen of the World, I will standardize the layout of grocery stores.  Just keep that in mind with the next election for Queen of the World coming up! ;)  Anyhow, I walked the whole place aisle by aisle.   And then I had to go back and walk it again because I missed some of the things on my list the first go around!  By the end I just wanted to scream "I just moved here, could someone PLEASE show me where the minced garlic is and I will get out of your hair!"  :)  The killer is when you get home and start thinking of all the things you forgot.  Me and that grocery should be tight in no time!

And I last but not least....Christmas early in this household!  As I mentioned a while back I have been wanting a digital SLR camera for 3+ years now, and my WONDERFUL husband got one for me!  I LOVE IT!!!



Now I just have to figure out how to use it ;)  But maybe one day soon you will start looking at my blog and think "Wow, awesome pictures!" and "Look how crisp that picture is!"  It might be a while though, so nobody get your hopes up!  I am trying to have it figured out enough to at least get some good Christmas pictures.  Anyhow, hope all is well with everyone in the blog world, don't anyone work too hard, my kids obviously don't have that problem. ;)

A guest blogger

We have a guest blogger in the house!  This one is coming to you from the man of the house:

From bliss to terror in an instant – Lindsey has been mentioning to me all day how she made spaghetti last night and there was some left that I should eat today. I’ve been looking forward to it because I’m a big fan of spaghetti and the time finally came as I was preparing to leave for work (I am working the night shift these days). With eager anticipation I walked to the refrigerator in a manner that can only be described as floating on clouds. I opened the door and removed what promised to be a meal of sheer bliss and practically skipped to the counter ready to acquire a healthy portion of happiness. This is where things turned ugly. I cannot describe the sheer terror that overcame me when I opened the container of “spaghetti” and encountered a ghastly substance of shredded horror that I later came to realize was “spaghetti squash”. Yes that’s right; it was squash shredded into stringy pieces closely resembling that glorious food know as spaghetti. Now I’m all about eating healthy and everything but this has gone too far. Way too far. When I go to sleep tonight I will be reverently praying that I never face so terrifying an experience again for as long as I live. 

 

the spaghetti squash in question:

Thanksgiving

What was I thankful for this year?  Oh man my list is intense...and long, but one of the big ones was having a house to host Thanksgiving dinner at!  We moved into our house Wednesday, with not a moment to spare.  :)  We have been pushing and pushing and then pulling and then pushing some more trying to close on our house early.  As it turned out, we closed on our house late, and barely made it before the holiday.  But the important thing is, we were in it!  It was crazy, and hectic, insanity from beginning to end, but somewhere in the midst of all the mess, we had breakfast burritos in the morning and Thanksgiving lunch/dinner in the evening, and it was all pretty darn good if I do say so myself!!  I had lots of help from everyone (in fact, I still have not cooked a turkey...thank you Andrea for letting me put that off one more year).  Throughout the whole day I kept looking around and seeing boxes and packing  paper and bubble wrap scattered about with random items from random boxes laying anywhere there was a flat surface, but it did not seem to tone down the laughter or the smiles, so I guess a perfect house is not all it's cracked up to be.  Really it was exciting, kinda like a scavenger hunt.  Need a spatula?  Look in one of the kitchen boxes, I am sure one will turn up eventually.  (and if you want to be honest, it may not even be in the boxes marked kitchen!)

everyone helping and hanging out in the morning:


boxes boxes everywhere!


starting to get food on the table:


looking yummy


ready to eat!


everyone looking at the Black Friday ads before heading to bed


even Chaos got in on the action


Rob and Jen had to leave the next morning :(  Their visit was WAY too short and we can't wait to see them again!  Friday was great, we did a little shopping and a lot of relaxing.  Saturday night we celebrated Jonathan's birthday.


And then Sunday morning Grandma, Grandpa and Auntie Ann left.  The house is WAY too quiet now.  So I am holding out for when my mom gets here in December.  :)  In the meantime, I have A LOT of unpacking to do!  Jonathan is working like crazy since Amazon's peak season is obviously Christmas.  He will probably be on mandatory overtime from now until Christmas, so I am going to have to find a lot of activities to do with the twins to keep us all from going crazy!  Maybe we should start with unpacking ;)  Anyhow, here are some pictures of the house from when it was empty.  I think the inspector or appraiser took these:

the front


formal dining room (to the left when you walk in the door)


view of the kitchen from the living room:


did you check out all those cabinets?   

looking at the front door and stairs from the living room:


the upstairs, looking out from the loft area:


master bathroom :)


I would show you pictures of the bedrooms and other bathrooms but they are pretty boring.  Pretty much tile/carpet and white walls.  And the backyard is not landscaped yet, so it's just dirt and rocks, but when (I say when not if and cross my fingers) we get that fixed I am sure I will be posting pictures!  I already have tons of ideas for what I want in our backyard, we will see what actually happens! 

So, I think that's all I got for now!  Lots of boxes to unpack :)  Then I should probably go shopping for more Christmas decorations because I don't have that many, and the twins love them.  They point at them and say something along the lines of "mama, mama, Christmas?"  It's pretty cute.  And just today they both asked (independently) about a Christmas tree!  I can't tell you how relieved I am that my mom's love for Christmas decorating did not get skipped in me or my kids!  Bring on the Christmas baby!

btw, did I show you a picture of West Point's latest cadet?  She is pretty cute:

We got to see SNOW!

Before the snow fell the kids got to experience being tossed into leaves:





And then the snow came!  New Mexico, New Mexico, you pulled through for me!  It was perfect, we had one night where snow drifted down and the twins got to see it and then the next day it melted and went back to warmer weather which was much appreciated seeing as how I do not have very warm clothes for Austin and Lanna. 



Austin spent most of his time in the snow trying to eat the flakes drifting down.  It was pretty cute.  We got our snow storm in for 2010!  Which is important since I don't think Phoenix will be getting snow.  :)

We also had a great visit from some of my most favorite people.  Melody and Tarra (plus her two adorable kiddos; April and Alex) came all the way from Albuquerque for a visit. 

Here is Mel with all the kids:


Before they headed back to ABQ we ate at Gabrels:


Austin LOVED the guacomole :)





Oh and I have mentioned I know have a fashionista on my hands?  She chose her own outfit for the first time and this was it:


She brought it to me saying "mama, I wear this one today."  :)  Big props to Grandma and Auntie Ann who bought it for her!  She LOVES it!

Last of the crisp days, we are headed to COLD!

Last weekend Jonathan drove over 18 hours round trip to visit the kids and I for a couple days.  What a good husband.  :)  We had a wonderful time.  We ate delicious food, we fed ducks at the pond, we went for walks and in between we relaxed. 





family shot!


It ended way too soon, but I guess good things commonly do.  Maybe that's part of what makes them so good, they leave you wanting a little more.  Since he headed back to Phoenix, the weather has been getting colder and colder.  Our days of crisp fall weather are gone, now they are cold, but that's ok.  Cold days mean things like fires and hot cups of tea.  But, before the snow starts we are enjoying fallen leaves as much as possible. 







there is a grandma somewhere beneath the kids and leaves!



For now, the sky is a deep blue, the kind of blue that touches your soul, the kind that makes you feel like your heart is swelling up to twice it's size because it really is that beautiful.




Eventually the snow clouds will roll in, and cover the picture outside the windows in white and everything will look new and fresh and calm.  I am kinda hoping we will get to see at least a little snow before we head back to Phoenix.  I don't have any warm clothes for myself or Austin and Lanna, but I would like them to get a chance to see snow again, I am guessing they don't remember it!