28 at 28 List

Remember how I did my 27 at 27 list last year? Hmmm...well I'm not even going to do an update on how I did or how Curt did with his 26 at 26 list. Curt didn't show too much excitement with doing another list. So, here I am with my list, which starts today...you know since it's my birthday and all. 

1. Buy a house.
2. Attend the temple every other month. I should be more proactive and say every month,  but I am trying to be realistic.
3. Potty train all three of my girls. Yes, you heard that right. Well, I'm going to attempt it anyways.
4. Take bi monthly family and couple pictures. I think I did decently well at this last year...well at least the first half of the year. I need to be better this year.
5. Listen to all the General Conference talks, one at a time before he next session of conference.
6. Stay up to date with the blog. Sigh...I'm not doing so well with this lately.
7. Try and make yelling at my kids something I don't do.
8. Have Family Home Evening once a week.
9. Start working out. Blah...
10. Sell some of our stuff. Old dining room table, old double stroller, practically unused cloth diapers I didn't like...
11. Make the girls their pillow mattresses that I already have everything bought for.
12. Organize my pinterest pins. They drive me crazy...
13. Get a Christmas tree. Curt really wants one.
14. Organize my pictures. I didn't do so well with this last year.
15. Take bluebonnet pictures this year.
16. Get my children weaned from juice, get them to drink plain milk and water.
17. Work on not complaining/being a pessimist so much. This will be hard.
18. Have an 11:00 bed time. I sucked at this goal last year. I'm sure I will suck at this goal this year...I mean it is 12:25 as I'm writing these goals...
19. Figure out how to break Emery and Ella's biting habit!
20. Go through all of our storage and organize it.
21. Teach Ella not to put everything in her mouth. It gross.
22. Start using oils in our home as a natural remedy.
23. Continue to stay out of bad debt. House and student loans aren't bad debt according to Joseph B. Wirthlin. Phew. :)
24. Be an active member of our new ward. It breaks.my.heart. to leave our current ward and I don't want to let that affect my attitude or ability to be social in our new one. 
25. Work on forgiving and letting go of things. 
26. Eliminate clutter. We always always have piles of papers and stuff on our dresser and in our kitchen. It drives me insane! I hate it. It will not be welcome in our house!
27. Learn how to do something new. I'm thinking this will probably be house related...but maybe more than that too. 
28. Finish more than eight of these goals since that's all I did last year. :(  

Big Adventure Part 1

I've been putting off doing these big blog posts for forever...four months for this one... So, I'm breaking it up into two posts. Every year in January, the stock show comes to Fort Worth. Somewhat surprisingly, I had never ever gone in 28 years of  being here...and I don't think Curt had gone either. So, one day in January, we packed up our van to go on a big adventure with Heather's family and check out the stock show.

As soon as we got there, Isabelle got a foam cowboy hat. They have a huge indoor vendor display. Curt and I loved walking past all the super nice expensive boots. Isabelle loved the Bordon display and petting Elsie and the baby cow, who's name escapes me at the moment. Levi loved the big trucks. 

They had a petting zoo there. Isabelle and Levi loved it! Even Ella liked it enough. Emery was pretty unsure, but curious too.

There are very few things Isabelle loves more than petting zoos. She was in hog heaven!

After the petting zoo, we started going through tent after tent of animals that were there to be sold. The first was the horses. Isabelle loves horses, so she was all for looking in all the cages. Whenever a horse would neigh, though, it echoed pretty loudly, so we didn't stay for long. It scared Em and Ella.

After the horses, we went through building after building of cows and then goats and chickens and pigs and maybe even others that I can't remember now. We had to stop in between all the buildings and find some shade for the babies to have their naps. They were pretty short, but I was impressed that they took them. Ella and Emery had a hard time with going from building to building since they really hate their stroller now. They can't sit up all the way in it and can barely reach their food when strapped in, but they have to be strapped in. It's really annoying really. Ella eventually made her way into Levi's stroller and she loved that.

Overall, I think it was worth it to go. Especially since entry into the stock show means free entry into the Science museum across the street. Stay tuned for part two...the museum half of the day.

Princess Emery

Isabelle's love of everything princess has definitely spilled over to Emery and Ella. They love playing with Isabelle's princesses, wearing the princess crowns, dressing in princess dress up dresses and wearing princess shoes. This was the first time Emery wanted to wear the shoes...back in the middle of January. :)

She could only take a few steps in one shoe, so she would constantly race back to me to have me put it back on her. Then she would try again to walk across the room.

Dino Tails

One of our favorite places to hang out is at Curt's oldest brother's house. As couples, we really enjoy hanging out...at least on our part, maybe I'm being to presumptuous to assume the same thing on their part, ;) and our kids really like playing with their cousins. Back in January, we went over to have dinner together and so Curt could assist in giving Lacey a blessing since she was about to go in and have a Cesarean section 36 hours later. After dinner though, Abby and Brigham pulled out their newly acquired dinosaur tails from a birthday party they went to. They had so much fun!!! All three of the older kids took turns and ran around roaring at each other. Even the babies liked them. Emery was pretty confused about the whole thing, but still enjoyed it. We always end up staying as late as we possibly dare to push bed time too. Even though it was just a short drive home, Emery and Ella fell asleep in the car. Oh, how I do not miss climbing the stairs with two sleeping babies! This was not easy!!

Well Child Exams

Back in the middle of April, I took Emery and Ella in for their 15 month well child exams. Here I am, just blogging about it, almost a month later, so I don't really remember once. I do remember that Isabelle stayed with my Curt's mom, and I just had the girls. I finally gave in and used a stroller in the office. I never have before, and I even this time, I just used a single umbrella stroller. (We hate our double stroller, so it's just in storage with the rest of our stuff right now...) It helped a little bit getting in and out of the building, but not much in the building since Ella didn't want to stay in it.

The day we went in for their well child was less than a week after Emery's eye surgery. She was very traumatized by the surgery and probably more by not being with me when she woke up. It definitely reflected in how she reacted being at the doctor. She cried pretty much non stop whenever anyone was in our room. As soon as they would leave, she was immediately fine and would stop crying and say, "All gone." It was the first time she said the phrase and it was so super cute. :) Other than that, the only other eventful thing was that Ella had double ear infections and Emery had a heat rash...and that they got their shots

We were still there for over two hours. I swear...it's bad. Even after we see the doctor, we wait at least thirty minutes for the nurses to come in with their shots. Poor babies did not like that I subjected them to that. It is always so super hard having them both get shots one right after the other. There is only one of me to help hold them down and then comfort them. Oh, yeah, that was one other reason the stroller was good. I forgot about that.

Here are Ella's stats and percentiles:
Weight for Age: 24 pounds, 11 ounces   67th %tile
Height for Age: 31 inches                       62nd %tile
Head Circumference: 49 cm                   97th %tile
              (little more than 19 in.)


Here are Emery's stats and percentiles:
Weight for Age: 22 pounds, 5 ounces     42nd %tile
Height for Age: 30 inches                       30th %tile
Head Circumference: 45.5 cm                35th %tile
              (almost 18 in.)

Isabelle had her well child exam on the 7th, earlier this week. She loves our doctor, but doesn't like anyone else there. She freaks out about getting weighed and measured. However when the doctor comes in, she jumps, shows off her ballerina (she calls it pallerina) moves, talks her ear off and shows her all the colors on the floor. Our doctor actually thinks she is such a great listener and child in general. (Don't worry, I corrected her...) Dr. Davis actually commended me for how good of mom I am in teaching her and having her development way past other kids her age. I told her how strange I thought that was. She was very quick to say that most of the kids her age don't talk as well and struggle developmentally to be where they are supposed to be. It made me kind of sad for those kids, but very happy for mine. I realized that we are very blessed to have such a great group of friends who all inspire me and we all hold ourselves to a higher standard when it comes to being moms and teaching our kids. Just one more thing that makes me so grateful for our church...since that's the connection we all have as friends.

Isabelle didn't have to have any shots, but she did have to have her finger pricked to test her blood for iron and lead. Her iron was good and she didn't have any lead in her blood. Yay for Isabelle. :) She did not like having her finger pricked or milked for blood, but still handled it decently well. We finally got her to take the multiple band-aids off two days later. She was attached. 

Here are Isabelle's stats and percentiles:

Weight for Age: 31 pounds, 7 ounces     57th %tile

(insert bad mom face here, since I only have her weight stats...)

Family Pictures

Back in March, I arranged to have our family pictures taken. When Isabelle was one, we had her pictures professionally done in a tutu. My mom and I wanted to do the girls in similar outfits, but during Christmas we were so burned out. So, it got put on the back burner. That is until I came across a fantastic photography deal. I jumped at the chance and we are thrilled with the out come. Well, the family pictures. Let's just say the wind and the girls, especially Emery, didn't like the strange guy looking at them. That was rough, but not the photographers fault, at all. In fact, for what he had to work with (yes, it was that bad), we are more than happy with the images he got. Isabelle on the other hand, was more than willing to have her picture taken and she loved playing around with the photographer and his wise use of reverse psychology!

Thanks Shawn!!