I have to brag again...

Again, I can't yet hook up my camera to post pictures of the house or children. Sorry guys- the required cable is still MIA in some box somewhere. So you will have to deal with a brag post about the great deal I got at Target today!

I got 6 Kashi items for $5 bucks! I am very excited about this. This deal is even better for those of you who don't live in Alaska. If you want to see how I did it (without even using a newspaper coupon), visit my new blog: Alaska Coupon Diva. We have been having a few glitches with the navigation bar but hopefully they will get worked out soon!

Hilarious Child

I know I have been a non-blogger lately but between our trip down south, moving and not being able to find the cord that connects my camera to the computer, I haven't been very motivated. Soon I will have pictures of the house, I promise. I can't wait to show off the amazing shower that Justin is finishing tiling. You will be very jealous of my husband's mad handyman skills when you see this gorgeous shower and soon to follow beautiful floor.

So the reason for the post is that Kylie is just the funniest little child on the plant. She is no longer a baby, but really a child. Yesterday morning she figured out how to climb out of the pack and play that she has been banished to for the last month. Since then, she has become a pro at scaling up the sides and getting out before I can even shut her bedroom door. Tonight when I took her to bed she did her usual routine of climbing onto Macy's air mattress and laying down to go to sleep. She has made it clear to us over the last several months that she would much rather be in a toddler bed than a crib, I just haven't wanted to deal with 2 crazy kids at bedtime. I usually pick her up and put her into her own bed right away but tonight I decided to let her sleep there to see what happens. I tucked her in and left and heard nothing. 20 minutes later I went to check on her and she was sound asleep and it was adorable.
Fast forward another 20 minutes and I hear noise and whimpering coming from upstairs. I figured she had rolled off the mattress so I run up to discover her laying down in the pack and play with all of her stuffed animals and her asking me to put her blanket on her. Absolutely hilarious to me that she put herself to bed, stuffed animals and all.
Anyway, that was just a story I wanted to remember. Pictures coming as soon as I can. Hopefully we will finally be in our house this weekend!

Things that keep me up at night:

Why the Rooster in Robin Hood has a Southern hick accent.
Why the Boise High fight song came from Robin Hood.
Why Clifford (the big red dog) has a comb over.
If I am a bad mother because I gave my girls ice cream cones for dinner. (they had fruit for a snack) I think I was trying to suck up to them because they keep asking to go home and also to see Daddy.
If it is actually possible to get a $75 off $100 coupon from old navy weekly so I can justify the girls and myself getting some new clothes.
Why the Man in the Yellow Hat treats a monkey like a child except he never supervises him. The whole relationship is just too creepy for me.
If I could marry Randy and Debi's washing machine. I kind of love it. A lot. Is that wrong?
If I could somehow convince the Anchorage Daily News to Offer a Sunday only newspaper subscription instead of a just a Friday, Saturday, Sunday one.
If I will ever be able to run two miles in a row without slowing down to walk.
If Macy will ever go to bed and then to sleep in under two hours.
If the thirty minutes I spent doing Wii fit today actually counts as 30 minutes of cardio. I was really working to beat that hula hoop record.
If another child will push me over the edge into insanity. I want one eventually, but can I actually handle one more?
If Eagle River in the summer equals paradise. Seriously, it has been 71 the last two days and beautiful.
If Macy will ever learn to go number 2 in the potty... I am terrified to even start trying to train Kylie. Ever.

Chatterbox

Kylie has been learning to talk more and more lately and her latest new phrase reminded me that I ought to be writing these down more so here are some of the cutest things that come out of her mouth:
- "I don't know!"
- "What Happened?"
- "I see you!"
- "Where are you?"
- "Why?"
- "Where Macy go?"
- "Want it" while shaking her head means "I don't want it"
- "Done!"
- "Lay Down!"
- "Hair" and "Bow" for when she wants me to put a bow in her hair to keep it out of her face.
I wish you could hear the cute sing-song way that she says all of these things. Maybe I will have to try to record them later.
Currently we are residing at my cousin's house in Eagle River (just outside of Anchorage) and really appreciating their generosity in letting us stay here. The girls have been loving the trampoline and I am learning how to take care girl of the girls without the help of PBS in the mornings (it is very useful for giving me and the girls time to wake up and allowing me the chance to shower) Justin has been back in the routine of working on the house, work and back to the house to work some more. I am glad he is working so hard but the girls and I definitely miss him. Hopefully the house will be suitable to live in this weekend.
Here's to a sunny 65 degree day!

I should be packing...

but there are some things I want to document before we no longer have a computer to use. First, we spent the day painting the walls and ripping up carpet at our new house. It already looks better but there is a lot of work left to do before we can move in. We had been hoping to find someone to refinish the hardwood that was under the carpet but apparently no body wants to do it for the amount we want to pay...imagine that. It looks like Justin will get to dive in and learn how to do it on his own- I just hope he doesn't sand a hole through the floor :). Here are some of the before pictures, I will have to take some "post day one work" pictures tomorrow.


These pictures were taken a few weeks ago and not really for the purpose of a "before and after" but maybe they will give you a hint of what we are dealing with. If not, here are some tidbits we learned form the neighbors today:
- This family was nice but a Korean family that spoke no English so no one really knows much about them.
- In this house they had several dogs, a muskrat and chickens (yes, you read correctly) living in the crawl space. This does explain the odd smell in there and the chicken wire over the entrance to the crawl space from the house. I am glad I am not the one who had to clean up down there! Wow, definitely no regrets in pulling the flooring up. I am soooo not an animal person.
- Apparently this family only owed 50,000 on it when they were foreclosed on. Instead of selling the house for $100,000, they asked over $200,000 which no one in their right mind would pay with it in this condition. Therefore, they were foreclosed on and apparently left in the middle of the night, taking their boiler with them (thanks HUD for replacing that) and also all of the doorknobs, I might add.
- At one point this family had a stove fire that tragically scarred what would be a gorgeous stainless steel gas range. We are left with the remnants of that fire.
- There are planters in the back because the lady was a gardener and there is already rhubarb sprouting up around the yard.

So this is now what we know about our new little house. Aren't you jealous that this loveliness is not all yours???

I don't really want to write about what we did yesterday, I don't have the energy. That will have to come later but here is a shot of the girls enjoying their S'mores.

And because I have had s'mores on the brain lately I finally decided to try a peanut butter s'more tonight. I toasted a marshmallow over my electric stove, spread peanut butter on a graham cracker, put chocolate and that and voila! An amazing- too good for words- Peanut Butter S'more.

A friend suggested I try it with a peanut butter cup and that will definitely be tested out soon!

When Mom is in the Shower...

While I (mom) rush to take a five minute shower the girls can, dump out every toy in the toy room, eat every cracker within reach, and strip off their clothes and climb inside moving boxes...

Their cuteness is what keeps them alive...

Our lives...

Nothing major has been going on in our lives lately (except for getting ready to close on our house this week) except a lot of time playing outside in the perfect 65 degree weather. If it weren't for all of the trailer parks, Anchorage could be heaven on Earth in the spring.
Justin went camping Friday night with some of our friends. The girls and I were going to go to but we woke up Friday morning to pouring rain and colder temperatures so the girls had to stay home. I was disappointed but it wouldn't have been worth taking the babes. Justin was a little worn out after his trip and Macy refused to take a nap Saturday afternoon so this is what I was greeted with after I put Kylie down for bed.

Yes, they were both out cold. I placed Macy into bed and told Justin to go lay down and then enjoyed an evening to myself, which was kind of nice although I had been looking forward to hanging out with my husband since he had been gone the night before... oh well.
And then this morning the girls insisted on helping me make frosting for our cupcakes for today's linger longer after church. Justin seemed to get a kick out of this. What he doesn't realize is this is what happens whenever I try to make anything.

And then some of our wonderful friends bought themselves a nice new bike trailer so they kindly gave us their old one. Justin couldn't resist testing it in the backyard after dinner:

The girls were huge fans. We are off tomorrow to get them some proper helmets so we can go on a real bike ride.

And here is Kylie playing outside. She really enjoyed laying in the grass and searching for rocks. She's pretty adorable, if you ask me.



And to answer any lingering questions about our new house, here you go:
1. No I am not excited to move. I love my ward and the part of town we live in, I love being by the coast and so close to the airport. I will miss our friends and location a lot.
2. No, it isn't bigger. But it is ours. After having owned our homes since we got married, we have hated renting up here. Finally though,we are getting a little house. It has a heated garage (a must for up here) and a fully fenced yard. Those things I am excited for. Homes are crazy expensive up here so it has been difficult to find something in our price range, especially since we still own our house in Spanish Fork. We ended up buying a HUD foreclosure so, you guessed it, this new place is going to be quite the project. We are going to work on flooring and painting before we get in there and hopefully we will be able to fix and replace things a little at a time. (Ok, everything needs to be replaced, but we will just have to be patient...) I don't love the part of town we are moving to (ghetto but not terrible) but at least we will be really close to Target and Joann now :) Justin is going to love having projects again and we are happy to not be throwing money away on rent anymore. Hopefully, after some sweat equity, we will be able to sell it for a bit more in a couple of years and then get something that we will like more, but that will come in time. We were thrilled to discover hard wood under the nasty carpet so hopefully that can be refinished fairly simply and cheaply.

So that is the story on our house, because I keep getting questions and I realize that I have not explained the situation well. Wish us luck and if anyone knows anywhere in Anchorage to get cheap doorknobs we need a few! (The previous owners took them all when the left :))