My only wish

Would be that the nap started before 6:18 pm.

Our mornings will soon be starting MUCH earlier

Mike starts inservice tomorrow. Seminary...here he comes. School around here starts August 10th this year, so he only has a little less than a month to get prepped. We are night people, not morning people. That will probably Mike's biggest challenge this year. Good thing Merrill kind of gave him a head start on how to survive the whole starting your day early thing. I know, early to bed - early to rise. It does feel good, but it is SO hard! I don't think we ever get to bed before midnight - which works for me b/c the kids don't ever wake up before 7:30, usually they sleep in till 8 or 8:30 (don't get too jealous, it's because they don't nap! they usually go down about 9...and i'm pretty sure 2 year olds need atleast 11 hours of sleep combining nightime with naps right?) It's also hard to put the kids to bed when your house has mini blinds (they don't do a darn thing!) and they are laying in bed crying cause it's still sunny outside at 8:30pm!!!! BUT, regardless - this week we are going to try to get everybody on a better schedule so Mike (and the rest of us - so it's easier for him) can start getting to bed earlier for his fun school year coming up :)

Oh, and by the way we got an offer on our house the first day it was listed :):):) We are still crossing our fingers that everything will work out okay though!

Goodbye

This is kind of a wierd post because we moved in November BUT we just put our house up for sale! It's kind of a strange feeling because I am excited it's on the market and hopefully it will sell soon, but it's sad knowing that the first home you owned won't be yours any longer. I feel like so much happened there, so much started there - it's bittersweet you know?

I was SO excited to move into this home for plenty of reasons. 1. To get out of palm springs - wasn't really my kind of city. We were at least 20 years younger than everyone else there. 2. I was excited to move out of an apartment and into a home. A home that I could do whatever my little heart desired to do to it. I was excited to pick out the tile, the carpet - you know, the whole shebang. It was exciting. Did I mention exciting yet? 3. I was excited to be closer to our friends - we really loved our ward!

We moved in & we painted everything ourselves, did the backyard ourselves, added wood flooring ourselves - I feel like we really made it our own (not sure if I would do it all "ourselves" ever again, but it was a good experience, after all - it WAS our first home). Brooklyn was 6 months when we moved in and when we moved out she was 3 years 8 months and we had Brielle. All of their baby memories were made there as well as OUR memories during that time.

The Jensen's, Runolfson's and Tibbitt's were all within walking distince to us and we went on plenty of early morning walks with the kids, had many game nights all together & lots of date nights without the children. Jenni always planned fun things for us all to do (the joy of having only 1 child)and had the best fondue parties - Mike still talks about them! Brooke was always so willing to do anything for you as well as having Brooklyn over to play with Carter at all times and we all know Brooklyn LOVED playing with Carter. It was a really fun time in our lives.

Brooklyn still talks about our old house and always asks to go back to the house with the swing set outside. She loved that thing! If only our backyard out here were bigger....

I took these pictures before we moved so I could post pictures while we were trying to get renters in it. I'm glad I did! They aren't the best, but atleast they are something to remember everything by. The whole renter thing didn't work out the best for us, and Mike & I both feel like the best thing for us to do next is to sell it. It took a while to really decide - this market is not the greatest, but we are hopeful - and we can only hope and pray that things will work for the better. It was a good home for the time we were in it - we loved the layout and it had the perfect setup for me to work from home. Wish us luck for the road ahead :)

testing testing 123

Did it work - are my pictures bigger?????

just because you have to have a fourth of july post...right?

Yesterday was fun - now onto today. Brielle had one of her meltdowns in church today. The water tray during Sacrament meeting was passed by her twice, both times she was very sure that she didn't want any water. Fast forward 3 minutes. She wants to know where her water is. I quietly remind her that she didn't want any water. The screaming begins. I start the bribes - - - it's not working. I pick her up and start walking out to the hall. She begins SCREAMING "let me go, I want my daddy, I want my daddy!" She wiggles out of my arms and starts beelining towards the sacrament doors to open them to "go get my daddy" she is freaking out, I'm trying to talk to her rationally (is that even possible?) but she won't have any of it. She then takes off down the hall - stopping every few steps, turning towards me and yelling at me to "stop flowowwing her". I really at am a loss of words. Five minutes earlier she was just cuddling me. In the mean time about 15 people pass us giving me the can you please control your child look (okay - they may not have, but that's what I felt like they must be thinking) I take her outside to try and calm her down. Doesn't really work. We go back inside - she's still screaming (and swatting at me) then Chris (thankfully) walks out into the hall, Brielle runs into his arms and calms down. He asks what's wrong, and as she wipes her tears away simply states "nothing". She then leans for me and asks to go back into Sacrament meeting.

She did the same thing a few weeks ago with Mike when we were at Sea World. She went on a little rampage and didn't want him to follow her while he was trying to take her to the bathroom while screaming for her mommy. She kept turning around to make sure he wasn't following her and if she spotted him, she freaked out even more. He said he was trying to duck behind trees and people so she couldn't see him while trying not to loose her at the same time. He was mortified.

I knew that as a baby her demeanor was too perfect and that I had it coming for me. She is definitely making up for lost time. I am not patient enough for the terrible two's...she is SO stinkin strong willed it drives me NUTS! She has meltdowns if I: buckle her in her car seat (she has to do it), if I flush the toilet (she has to do it), if I sing in the car (only she can sing in the car), if I get her dressed (she has to do it) - the only thing she doesn't want to do by herself is sleep in her own bed. Little stinker! I'm only hoping that since she started being a stinker a little early it will end a little early. I'm crossing my fingers X.