Happy (early) Birthday to Daddy!

Matthew's birthday is Monday, he'll be 31... I love it when his birthday rolls around because it changes our age gap from 3 to 4 years!!! I love that he's always so much older than me!!! (I rub it in too, probably always will)

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With his birthday falling on a Monday, I was kinda bummed. Mondays are always difficult in our house-- his busiest day at work by far, conference calls, meetings and cleaning up whatever business mess happened over the weekend, and of course class at night. But I guess I should be grateful... he just barely got out of a 5-day training in Boca Raton that was going to have him gone during his birthday (he moved it to October, which I guess I'm thankful for now, but I won't be in October) ANYHOW, we celebrated his birthday meal today at:

SUPER yummy!

We shared the Oriental Potstickers for an appetizer, which wasn't my top choice but it was his birthday celebration so I went along with it... (potstickers are usually too gooey for my liking) but these were absolutely fabulous! The soy sauce and sesame seeds and all the other spices really complimented each other... I highly recommend it! Matthew had the filet mignon, which he said was so good he barely needed a knife to cut it. I had a crabcake sandwich, which was huge- I had to take half home....

So taking half home left room for dessert- two decadent slices of cheesecake, of course! One was a peanut butter and fudge ripple and the other was peanut butter cup and chocolate chip cookie dough... wow, huh! A pregnant woman's dream... oh wait, we were there for him, right????!!!! :)

Now, it's all I can do to keep Kylie quiet about his birthday present, more to come later.... and he doesn't help, always trying to bribe it out of her and trick her into saying something!!! You can do it Kylie, just a few more days! :)

Family Inaugural Swim

Today was the day... I called Matthew and said Mr. Pool Man gave us the go-ahead. Matthew was golfing, so I told him too bad and that we were going in. Hehe... we waited, he was home within the hour.

Us waiting

The first few steps in... at first you think it's a little cold, but after a few seconds, it couldn't be more PERFECT!

Refreshing.

Relaxing.

And just plain fun!

If you can't find us, or don't hear from me in a while... you know where to look!

We've Got Water...

...but I bet it's cold! It took 12+ hours to fill up. It was almost like having a newborn baby, Matthew set his alarm for nearly every hour last night to wake up and go check on the water. We had instructions to turn it off when the water hit the middle of the tiles. It looks fabulous, it's taunting us right now because they are chlorinating it and the special cleaning system we bought is working it's magic... so we must wait.

Today was also really nice because we got rid of this:

And got this:

The button on the sliding glass door is the most annoying (but useful) thing. You have 7 seconds to open and shut the door and push the reset button, which is specifically up high. Difficult when with two adults (one being slightly big in the mid section), two little girls, and a dog all trying to get out the door/push the reset button/ and shut the door in 7 seconds. It makes a terrible noise if you miss the time limit or if you don't push the button SO you know if you're kids are outside and shouldn't be. It's really a great safety tool, but we went ahead and did the safety fence with a lock. And on top of that, with our security system... anytime a door or window opens, our alarm system control pad (both upstairs and down) speaks to us like on an intercom and tells us, "fault garage door." Meaning the garage door opened, or "fault master bedroom window"... you've got the picture.

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Mr. Pool Man says that the chemicals and whatnot are doing their thing and we can go in Saturday (maybe sooner) so it will have a few days to warm up from the nice Vegas sun... I'M READY! On top of that, we sold the Universal Gym for our asking price and that leaves Saturday morning too.... I'm getting my backyard back!!!! YEAH!!!!

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This picture I just thought was funny... Battle of the Dirt Devils, mine and theirs. My girls have a thing for vacuums. In fact, on Sundays in nursery when they clean up, Kacey's usually assisting a Nursery Leader holding the vacuum. I usually have to "hide" as I vacuum or do little jobs just so I can get it done... but what ends up happening is everyone has to have their turn with the vacuum.

Saturday & Sunday

I bought Kylie a little play money set. She already knows all her coins- the girls milk my parents for all their change everytime they come over to our house. And my dad happily empties his pockets as long as they correctly name each coin. (He did the same thing with me, amazing how keeping it is great incentive to learn!) There is a house minimum of 10 coins per girl (my girls are demanding) and if you don't have the 20 to pass around, their tempers go flaring! :) Kacey's right about half the time too when identifying her coins- obviously the penny is the easiest, and dimes are called "diamonds"... the nickels and quarters cause Kacey some problems. But Kylie's got it down! So, I got Kylie this play money set so she could not only practice coins, but also learn dollars. She learned fast.... (Papa time for the big bucks please) This is SOOO my girl, it kept her content for an hour! Sunday Morning prior to church.
Sunday morning family picture.
Love this one, "Where's the baby?" (just a few weeks left)

Little Things

You know, I really get enjoyment out of the little things in life.... the simple things really make me happy. Example: I love it when everyone eats all their dinner, especially when it's something new or something they didn't eat the last time I made it. Today, salisbury steak with macaroni and gravy, and biscuits... girls ate their plates clean. Love it! Matthew, he's eating salad!!!! Salad-Aka "rabbit food" because I found a salad dressing he LOVES- Kraft Light Raspberry Vinaigrette. These things make me so happy... when I tucker the girls out from a fun filled day and they're happily going to bed... when my air conditioning bill is less than my car payment (love that one!)... when all the ironing's done... when the mailman brings my mail to the door because we have a package... and of course, my most obvious little enjoyment... matching clothes for my 2, nearly 3 daughters... SO the girls got a couple new bathing suits. Here they are modeling before we go out to renew our tan... (another one of my little things, I love those tan little babies of mine, and their cute white butts when they get in the tub... am I allowed to put a pic of that on a blog, too cute!)

Another thing that brings me joy, shopping around... we're getting estimates on the pool fence, first estimate $1200. Slightly outrageous for 12 feet of fence, when 5 of that 12 feet is a gate... shopping around playing companies against eachother, Matthew found the exact same fence for $480. Good job Dear! See, it's the little things :)

One Minute...

... we love eachother. (what is going on with Kacey's hair, it didn't look that frizzy in real life, must just be the pic) The next minute, we're mad. It's hard to keep up.

Summer is starting to slow down (ahhhhhh!), all of the girls' activities are coming to an end. It was very fun and I'd do it again, it kept us busy and happy.... but we'll take the month of August to play in our "nearly days away from being done" pool. Kacey and I had fun in gymnastics, but we're done with it. It was something nice to try, not something she loved. Kylie more enjoyed Kacey's class by sitting on the side watching and participating on her own. This is the last week for Kylie's creative class, Wednesday specifically is cooking and today she made breadsticks (actually fairly good). She also (a few weeks back) made an edible playduh with peanut butter and m&m's, which was really really yummy! But tomorrow's the last class, and soccer's over after tomorrow too. Although we're doing soccer again in August, and really looking forward to it.

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Here's the progress on the pool. I eat my words, the spray on the decking really does keep the cement cool, it's much cooler than the other patio cement we have! They've rebuilt our fence and all we need now is the dark blue plaster on the inside of the pool and we're done!

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.