Happy Anniversary

Sunday is our 6th year anniversary, so we were planning on going out Saturday night... but that's the ward pool party... so we went out tonight instead. Oh the difficulties of finding a restaurant!!! Matthew was thinking the Eiffel Tower Restaurant or Top of the World, I'm thinking like Chili's- any meal w/o children means peace and quiet, I don't need fancy frills! Needless to say, I showed him the online menus of his places (which grossed him out, and I think it's a red flag when half of the menu's in French and I don't even understand what half the English words mean... we have simpler palates... pheasant and rabbitt, yuck!)) So we went to Red Lobster! So yummy!!! (Thank you Yaya for watching the girls, they played hide-n-seek and of course sang and danced to Leslie Gore songs... they were so tired and ready for bed by the time we got home.)

And it completely figures, yummy peaceful meal at Red Lobster without the girls and I totally miss them the whole time. We took this picture because Kylie loves looking at the lobsters. So this one's for her. Matthew was a bottomless pit, eating his plate clean: snow crab legs, shrimp scampi, lobster tail, and fried shrimp. Me, not so much... I went off my "watching sodium intake so I don't swell up in my 3rd trimester" for this meal and I'm completely feeling it in my ankles already. Oh, and we should have taken a picture of our dessert, molten chocolate chip cookie a la mode. Delicious, should have started the meal with dessert!
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So, Happy Anniversary Dear... obviously our wedding picture is to the right...

Here's a photo from when Matthew and I were dating.

This picture was taken over 8 years ago in front of my Oma's house, it looks like me (to me) but it looks like I'm with Matthew's youngest brother, Aaron.

Fun things you may not not about us:

1. We met at a tri-stake dance, Matthew was home from his mission and thought I was about 15-- I was 18. He asked me for my phone number over a dozen times that night and I kept telling him I'd be sure to give it to him before I left. Really, I had my number written down on some paper in my pocket, I just liked to hear him keep asking!

2. We lived about 30 miles away from each other... he would drive to come and pick me up (30 miles) drive us back to his town (60 miles) because he knew his way around and we'd go to the movies/mall/etc, then he'd take me home (90 miles) then he'd drive back home (120 miles). He did this about 5 days a week, for a year.

3. While we were dating, I transferred to BYU, so he transferred his job (with ADT even back then) out to Utah to be with me.

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4. I don't call him Matt, ever- some of you may have picked up on that. Not that it's not his name or that he doesn't like it, everyone else calls him Matt. In fact, it's weird to him when other people call him Matthew-- we figure they don't know us yet or they only know him through me talking about him and referring to him as Matthew. I only call him Matthew, always have. He's not Matt to me- he's Matthew, that's just the way it is.

5. He'd sooner work 4 jobs than have me work. Even prior to having kids, I've never had a real "job"... When I graduated from BYU, I decided to put my Economics degree to work and started interviewing with a company. Then went back for a 2nd interview, and a 3rd, and they wanted me to come back for a 4th on a conference call with someone from Colorado or something like that--- it was becoming ridiculous--- Matthew told me to go and tell them where they could shove it... which is probably why I've never worked. I don't think he likes the idea of someone having authority over me and telling me what to do.

6. He'd give me his last dollar if I wanted a Slurpee- or some other frivolous thing... which I'm not sure if it shows why I do the money or just how much he loves me :) we'll go with the love thing.

7. He always says he's sorry first, which works out nicely because I've never been wrong since we've been married.

It's fine... I'm not jealous at all ;)

(A post dedicated to my husband)... today he caught a flight to LA for some sort of training (I don't pay attention), his alarm went off at 4 am, and by 7 am he'd called me saying that he was in the LA office. Early day for him to say the least!

So Dear, Kylie and I did something special for you given your rough day... you know the whirlwind mess of shoes all over our closet, well we organized them all during Kacey's nap!

I did mine first but quickly realized I needed to enlist help for your side. I just handed them to Kylie who matched the pairs all around the floor of our bedroom. We weren't finished at this point, there were still shoes in the closet (all yours, yes). Halfway through, Kylie said she was tired and was going to abandon me to do the job alone, I bribed her with a lollipop... all was well!

So, us girls did sandwiches for lunch and ate tv dinners while in our jammies for supper... how about you? Were your catered breakfasts and lunches good? :) How about Gordon Biersch for dinner, I bet that was super yummy too? It's fine... I'm not jealous at all, no pregnancy craving envy from me ;) I'm gonna have a yogurt in a little bit anyway, that'll do just fine :P

Can I put water in it... now?

Oh we're coming along now, no longer is it a yucky hole... the estimated finish date on our contract is July 28. So that would be 13 days from now, but I'm ready to fill it up and hop in! This humidity (mind you it's like 24%) is killing me!!!

Since the last picture, they've plastered over the gunnite, added our tile trim around the top, leveled out the rocks, and given us a new backyard gate. We will also be putting in an additional fence back where the a/c units are so that I have double protection with the girls being outside. We'd be able to do a bigger pool if it was more centrally located in our backyard, but I refused because we wouldn't be able to completely block it off... and I'd spend my life worrying about where the girls are every second of the day! But I think this was the best way and is working out quite nicely :)

So 13 more days to add our "special dark blue" tile stuff to the inside/plaster part of the pool (that makes the pool look a deep blue), cement all around the pool and add a finishing spray that supposed to not get hot on your feet (I'll believe it when I see it), put our fence back up, oh and how can I forget... take more of our money! (hehe)

Doctor Appointments

The girls had their well-child checks on Friday morning. Kylie is in the 95th percentile for her height (figured that) and the 60th for her weight. Kacey is in the 50th percentile for her height and the 5th for her weight. And no I didn't forget another number, it's 5... now the kicker is, Kacey (on any given day, at any given meal) eats twice as much as Kylie! When I make the plates up for dinner, Matthew will put them on the table and give the girls the wrong plates. Kacey's plate always has more food, because she eats way more. Weird, huh??!

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Kylie got 4 shots, and Kacey got only one. Kylie was such a champ, 2 in one arm and 2 in the other, the nurse really poked those big needles in her arm too, no gentleness about it. Kylie cried on the last shot, the nurse said it stings really bad (MMR) which is why she always does it last. Kacey cried with her shot, smart little cookie then continued to kick the nurse away... she couldn't even get the bandaid on her, I had to do it.

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Kylie's having a little reaction to her shots, the MMR left a bruise...

The DTaP, just today, started itching and is very swollen and red and HOT, very very HOT. I've been putting cold compresses on it. I didn't realize how swollen it was until she got dressed and I could see how loose her dress sleeve was on her right arm but then how tight it was on her left. She's a tough little thing though.

To lift her spirits a bit, I did a French Manicure on her nails. And then put a sparkly nail polish on top (you can't see it well on the photo), but she's just beside herself in delight!!! Mind you, my nails are dull and boring, but my daughter's look great!!!! :)

Here are some Sunday morning pics, no family picture though... The Stake Presidency was here today so Matthew had meetings all morning and never made it back home... And I have no clue how to do the timer on the camera.

5:51 am

... and the door bell rings, twice. Not once and wait a bit, no one must have heard, let's try again. But ring, ring, like an impatient person. Matthew springs out of bed, I mumble 5:51 in the morning. My thought is kill anyone who is ringing my door bell at 5:51 am, that seems like justifiable punishment. The dog's barking, Kacey's crying... ugh.

It was the gunite people, like I know what that means, telling us to move our cars out of the garage because they'd be blocking it for a while. So,they worked for 5 1/2 hours today, and this is what our pool looks like! (the stair-type things is our wetdeck, then it goes from 3 to 5 feet deep. Matthew tells me those poles won't be sticking out. They are the plumbing for the inground cleaning system -bottom ones - and water to be pumped in - side ones, - which will be cut down once they put in our tiling)

Baby I Know... (with back up)

Okay, here is a video Kacey and Kylie singing our version of Maybe I Know, aka Baby I Know...

An explanation first... they are in jammies, Kacey's jammies are makeshift versions of snuggies that we cut off the feet and arms to and put on her backwards....(my husband is so smart, he thought of this when Kylie used to take off her jammies and diaper. The idea was to get the zipper to the back so they couldn't undo it and start removing diapers! I am so lucky to have such an inventive hubby! He wants to patent it and sell it to some children's clothing line!) Now Kacey wears them also so she can't get her clothes off while in her crib and take her diaper off and be "free" if you get my drift... getting all sorts of "stuff" everywhere on her and in her crib in a matter of seconds (been there, done that, TOO many times, so we (he) came up with a solution)

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And here are just some pics from this morning before we left on our errands...

Happy 4th!

Happy 4th Everyone!

Our 4th of July was really fun! The morning began with Kylie's swimming lessons, which was nice because Matthew was home from work so he could go too and see Kylie with Miss Shannon. Then we had a bbq with my folks, Matthew's bbq's are always amazingly delicious (he burns the hot dogs nice and good just the way I like, and my dad usually gains 5 pounds in 1 day from all the cheeseburgers he eats)...

(Kylie's festive toes)

Then I went shopping for a few hours with my mom- childless and husbandless! Super fun, no little munchkins asking for lollipops or gum and hurrying my shopping trip along. Long story short, I learned something today: you don't need to have a matching outfit if you find a pair of gorgeous shoes, the outfit will come... always always get the shoes anyways... and I did. Also another lesson: if you can't decide which color, get both... one is a chocolate crocodile and the other is silver metallic- both high heeled peep toe (if you can't tell.)
Then when I got home, Matthew had the girls suited up and we played out back in our little pool for 2 hours- can't wait for the real one to be done. My babies are all nice and tan... and of course, we did F*I*R*E*W*O*R*K*S! Here are some pictures of the fun:

Matthew had a glorious time, as always, putting on his fire show for us as we sit many, many feet away... He bought fireworks yesterday, needless to say he went over the "spending limit" I gave him, but he enjoyed himself.

Some of the show, until my camera battery died... figures, before he gets to the big stuff at the end.

A little too much for the little one. She didn't like the loud ones and would lean into me covering her eyes as I covered her ears.

At the end of everything Kylie goes, "Let's do it again!" I asked her what she meant, and she pointed to the big mess of fireworks in the street and said, "Make them all go one more time." Sorry babe, doesn't work like that...

She also just came excitedly running downstairs and said that she can see more fireworks in the sky from her bedroom window, she's never going to go to sleep!!!

Busy Week

Goodness... there has been a lot going on, I can't keep up.

MONDAY

Bright and early, 7 am, these pool people don't waste a minute of "cooler" daylight. We spent the entire day listening to the sound of drilling concrete, digging concrete and dirt, Kacey crying, and Maggie barking.

Matthew got a quick shot before they started.... fence.

No fence.

Backyard view- we're actually extending that wall forward about 10 feet- it's nice when Matthew's Treasurer on the HOA board.
And now after....

Monday was also Kylie's first swimming lesson with Miss Shannon. Kylie loves the water, but is afraid to put her head under (even with an adult holding her promising to bring her back up). I swear it has to do with how Matthew has traumatized her, I mean played with her :) so she has trust issues. I've seen another little boy Shannon's working with, after 3 weeks he could swim like 5 feet under water all on his own... so I know Kylie's frightened but hopefully she'll get the hang of things.

Oh, and Monday evening Matthew started up class again... fun times. It was a nice little break off, I'm not sure who was more bummed that he started back up -him or me.

TUESDAY

Kylie had her creative class, she made an awesome wreath for the 4th of July. It was by far the best one out of the class, I so owe it all to Tate and Preschool. Kacey and I had our Mommy & Me gymnastics. Next week is our last class, I don't think we're going to sign up again. The highlight for Kacey is getting water during our breaks :) And the plumbing people were here for the pool Tuesday, again being loud... how you can be loud when installing pipes I have no idea! And again, Matthew gone in the evening for a 2 hour (wow!) HOA board meeting. OH!!! And Kacey went tinkle on the potty, all on her own... she was right about to get in the tub, and down she sat and the little potty was filled up! I was shocked, no one even encouraged her or asked her or anything! I keep saying that I'm going to potty train her, but I feel so bad that I might be doing it out of convinence for me and not necessarily if she's ready and wants to. I keep thinking, "if I wasn't pregnant, would I train her now?" Then I feel guilty and I just don't start... but maybe she's ready (?)

WEDNESDAY

Matthew's in Fresno (and Reno next week and San Fran the week after that... I can barely keep up). We had one of our air conditioning units moved to make room for the pool, he was here at 8 am. Nothing like a door bell ringing, dog barking, and baby crying to start the morning off right. But even more fun.... I got to drink the yummy (not) orange pregnancy drink today at the dr's office, and they took my blood. I think an inspector came today also, I saw his truck parked outside... this pool stuff moves really fast! Then, Kylie had her creative class and then swim lessons again with Miss Shannon.

Tomorrow continues with Kylie creative class and then soccer. I'm so glad I've got her involved with things, otherwise we'd go nuts at home listening to the work being done outside. And of course, I'll have to go and buy a big thing of fireworks... many of you may not know, but my husband is quite the pyromaniac. I'm sure we'll have pictures to post from the 4th!!!

Baby I Know...

Sunday morning, usual picture to document my cute girls. One thing I think is so funny... Matthew gets the clue what "color scheme" we are doing for church as I lay out the clothes the night before, and he always matches us. You might think I force him (maybe encourage is a better word) to coordinate, it's all I can do to coordinate my own outfit with the girls, but he always finds a tie to fit in too. Love it! Good job dear!Okay, this is the funniest thing in the world. We have to give this one to my mom, Yaya. See, normal people sing "Twinkle, Twinkle" or "Rock-a-by-baby..." or other lullabies to soothe children. Not my mom. For years, she's been singing the girls Leslie Gore songs. (Leslie Gore refresher- sings "It's my party and I'll cry if I Want to" and "Judy's turn to cry" etc...etc..) Matthew and I swear when Yaya babysits the girls, they sing the whole time. The funny thing is Kacey even knows some of the words.

Here is Kylie singing "Maybe I Know".... however, she sings it "Baby I Know" and it's way too difficult to fight with her and tell her it's wrong, because in her mind she's right and that's all to it. So in our house, it's baby instead of maybe.

June 27

Anyone else in shock that July is around the corner? What happened to June? However, I still feel like I have forever until this pregnancy is over... go figure that one. I had a doctor appointment today, he said he'd induce me a week early (whooopie, sense the sarcasm). He did another ultrasound, merely for convenience to check the heartbeat, still a girl :) Always good to have more confirmations... the nursery's already painted pink.

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Here are just some cute pics of the girls before our daily outings. Kacey's arm is just fine, I'm taking the other night as a "warning" to always keep an eye on her. I forget that she's not as old and (for lack of a better word) coordinated as Kylie because she's only 21 months... not 4 yrs old like her big sister so she can't have the freedom like Kylie. So I consider it a blessing, and I'm keeping a watchful eye out.

I love seeing the two of them together, the bond they have is amazing. Don't get me wrong, they fight like the best of them... each holding their own regardless of age, strength, and size (we raise strong females in this house! My poor husband always has a female bossing him around in some way or another) But the girls really are so loving to each other. They fit so perfect together, I love how they compliment each other in their personalities and roles as big and little sister. Super cute... not sure how baby girl #3 will fit into the dynamic, I hope no one is odd ball out. More time to worry about that later. I'll just enjoy this for now.

Update

I don't know what happened... we took the ace bandage off at about 9:45 last night, worrying maybe it was too tight, etc etc. She slept with us all nigh,t and the arm didn't seem a problem... she was able to roll around and kick Matthew just as normal. :) She woke up 100% herself- not favoring the arm at all- doing everything as normal. She's got complete rotation in her wrist, I've tried it a few times... doesn't bother her one bit.

I don't know if last night she did something, and it gave her a twinge of pain so she got scared... but I know it really hurt because she wouldn't move it and wouldn't let me touch it. And when she did move it slightly, she'd cry. Now, this morning it's all better. (?)

Well, I don't understand... but I don't need too. She's better, that's all that matters!

Are You Kidding Me??!?!

Kacey. My dear sweet Kacey.

This is what we hear about an hour and a half ago:

(Kylie): "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

(Kacey crying): Kacey walking over to us holding her arm, HER SAME BAD ARM AT THE SAME SPOT... "Kylie did it. Kylie did it. Couch. Kylie."

Yeah, so I'm blogging about it to keep from losing my mind. It's hurt again. I held her for an hour and the smallest movement would make her wince. I'll take her in tomorrow, hopefully the Ped Ortho will take me without a doctor referral considering we were just there a month ago getting the stupid cast off. I'm thinking the less different waiting rooms I have to sit in, the better. But seriously what do I say... I have no idea what happened. Kylie's told me 3 different stories, and all I get from Kacey is "Kylie did it."

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We wrapped it with an ace bandage- stabilizing her wrist so she can't twist it, and since then she hasn't cried once from the pain. So hopefully she (and I) will get a decent night's sleep. More tomorrow. (If I have to tolerate another cast, for another 4 weeks, giving a toddler only sponge baths when she desperately wants to play in the tub with her sister... ugh, seriously.... are you kidding me???!??!)

Sunday

Our usual Sunday morning pictures, I figure if everyone's nicely dressed we might as well document the occasion! We thought we'd change it up a bit and do a picture outside. Can you tell we had some spare time this morning?

Kylie said the cutest thing on Friday morning. The girls were sitting around the table while I was getting their bagels ready. Matthew went around and did his kisses goodbye. Kylie said, "Where are you going Dad?" And he answered, "To work." Kylie, "Oh, why are you going to work?" He looked over at me and smiled, "So your mom can buy new clothes." Kylie said after some thought, "Yeah, we like to go shopping." Hehe... it was funny, at least he knows why he has to work! :)

S O C C E R ! ! !

We had a busy morning. I dropped Kylie off for her hour of kiddie kollege (Today they colored, cut, glued catapiller food to a picture- I guess they read a book about it.... Yesterday -since I'm sure you're all on the edge of your seats- was Cooking Day and they made and ate pancakes. Kylie put whipped cream and sprinkles on hers). So this morning, I dropped Kylie off, ran to the grocery store with Kacey, ran home to unload, ran back to pick Kylie up with a packed lunch and bottled water...

I was so happy that Matthew was able to escape work for soccer! Kylie was really excited to see her Daddy after her class, and it makes her realize that what she's doing is important and that she's special to have her Daddy there watching her too. I'm really grateful, that despite the hassles of Matthew's day, he always does stuff like that to be involved. So right after class, Kylie quickly changed with me in the bathrooms to her soccer stuff, and (we had 15 minutes) the girls ate their packed sandwiches. And in the gym we went for SOCCER!

The pictures all came out blurry, go figure since there was a lot of running. But to start, here's a video of Kylie running around and kicking into the goal.

The teacher was really nice... she gave Kacey a little ball to play around with, because (regardless of what yummy snacks I had for her) she quickly realized that what all the kids were doing was much more fun!The funniest thing happened, I WISH we got it on video. The kids were all done, the teacher pulled them in a huddle in the middle of the gym, and said 3-2-1- SOCCER right as the buzzer on the clock went off. During this time, Kacey was being all big and brave walking into the middle of the gym (I guess to join the huddle) then she heard the buzzer.... poor thing, you could see her face and seconds later came the horrific scream and alligator tears... it was really cute! :)

Busy Little Bees

This summer I have the girls enrolled in a whole bunch of various activities. I figure with summer break for Preschool, Kylie would be climbing the walls in boredom if I didn't have a plan. And there's only so much to do in the Vegas 110+ summer, much less being in my last trimester my energy is lacking. That and we're putting a pool in the backyard, it's only a matter of time before the digging starts and the noise is going to drive me crazy!!!!! So today was the first day of all the fun!

This is Kylie's first class of "Kreative Kiddie Kollege"- it's for 1 hour, 3 days a week. Every week they focus on a different theme and do different crafts and sing songs. The teacher is really nice, Ms. Jackie. Kylie was such a good girl. I went to peek on her when it was almost over and another mom asked which kid was mine. I pointed Kylie out, and she said to me... "Oh, she's really good. She was the first one done with her project!" This mom was actually chastising her daughter through the window because she was struggling cutting with scissors, as were quite a few other children... not my Kylie and she's one of the younger ones in the class (yes, I'm a proud Momma!)

I was peeking in from a little window so it's blurry.

The next 6 weeks are SO crazy for the girls, but I'm really excited about it. Kylie's got her creative class 3 days a week. Then she's also in soccer once a week, more pictures Thursday. And then swim lessons start in about 2 weeks, which will be 3 days a week also.

Since Kacey's younger, she has less going on... And while Kylie was at her class, Kacey started gymnastics. It's a Mommy & Me class, I was the only pregnant Mommy... it was quite a workout!

She was amazing on the balance beam. I was holding her hand for my sake, not for hers.

Tada!!!!

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day Daddy...

Poor guy, he had a church meeting this morning~ didn't realize it until 30 minutes prior. He ran up to shower, I made cinnamon buns for him that weren't ready by the time he left. When he got home, I was running late so he had to get the girls ready and he took pictures this morning. By the time we got home from church, his cinnamon buns were still waiting but by this time there were only 2 left :) ~grabby tall 4 year old, who generously shares with her short little sister, a pregnant wife, you do the math.

We went shopping yesterday to buy him SOMETHING special, anything he wanted really. We'd been out of town all week, I had nothing for him (other than the random things we bought this week in San Diego). We shopped for 2.5 hours at the Outlets and Meadows Mall, without children. The fruits of our labors??? Two Pretzels and a Coke. The whole mall at his fingers and we're happy with Pretzel Time. So today was any old Sunday to him, I can't even make him brownies because I don't have any eggs from being out of town all week!!! I guess he wins the award for making my Mother's Day better than I made his Father's Day. But the great thing about him, he really doesn't mind at all :) What a good guy!!!! He'll be happy if the Lakers win tonight, that's all he asks for :)

My tan little babies!!! Kacey's actually peeling a little around her nose, it looks like she has freckles :) Look at those curls around her ears, I refuse to cut them... the top is bound to grow in!!!

This little girly cracks me up. They sang at church today for the Daddies. She's been excited about it, singing me the song for nearly 3 weeks now. So they announce for the Primary to come up for a "special musical number." Kylie goes up as fast as her little legs will take her, without running. She stands up straight, gets her front row spot, folds her arms ready to sing, and puts a big smile on her face and was as proud as she could be of herself!!!

This was what we found when we went to bed last night. When I peeked in on her, she was still awake sitting up like this... Maybe she was talking to Shamu who's on the ground there on the left, I don't know.... (notice the blankets to ease a fall in case she jumps out again) Anyways, I guess she eventually dozed off.