Fathers Day

So, yes I realize I'm a little late, but too bad. Here it is anyway. I have an amazing husband who is always there for me and the girls. He understands my need to socialize and go out with the girls (not my daughters, but the grownup girls) and is supportive of all I do. Even with all the stresses going on right now with a new baby, moving, and studying for the bar he still finds time to spend with me and time to play with and enjoy the girls. They absolutely adore their daddy. Ryan has always been better at getting Kaitlyn to laugh and smile then I could, and it's the same with Emily. She just beams and coos at him. He is so funny and silly, I love when he plays with the girls. Nothing is more wonderful then a Dad that loves his girls, even though we are girly girls. Here's us on our wedding day:




And Ryan with his girls (the day we brought Em home from the hospital):



I have a wonderful Father and I am so grateful for all he has taught me. I'm sure there were many times he wondered if I was listening at all, but I was. I love you dad and I'm so thankful for all you have done for me. We named Emily after my dad's mom. He is very much like his mother and Emily is just like her too. She was a very compassionate and loving woman. My dad taught me to be like her and to love others. Every time I look at Emily I think of my dad, I think they look so much alike. I hope she grows up to be like her Grandpa Wilson and her namesake, his mom. Here's a picture of Dad with Em.



I was blessed to marry into a wonderful family. I love my in-laws. I could not have asked for more. They are great. I love Dad Dalton. Ryan is just like his dad. It is a wonderful thing. Terry taught his son to be the amazing man he is now. He learned to always respect his mother and to be supportive of his wife. I wish everyone could see Ryan and his dad together. They are great, always something to laugh and joke about. I love that he knows he can tease me, and I can tease him right back. My favorite is when I catch him off guard and he doesn't know what to say. great. I don't think I've ever met someone who wants to be more like his dad then Ryan. I think that's a great compliment to Terry and the great father he is. Here's Ryan with his proud parents on graduation day:



HAPPY FATHERS DAY to the 3 wonderful fathers in my and my children's lives. We love you all so much!

Mad!

Ugg, I'm so mad right now! We took our car in to get the AC fixed, $300 later and it doesn't work. How am I supposed to go anywhere or drive to Wisconsin with out air conditioning? Grr, I hate it when things break. I seriously want to cry. How can someone take your money and not fix the problem?
Ok, enough of that. Sorry you had to read my frustrations.
Great news!!! The girls and I are going to Utah!!! I haven't been since almost 2 years before Ryan and I got married. I can't wait. I get to go to my cousins wedding and a family reunion. It'll be so much fun. I NEED a break, and this way Ryan will actually get to study. I feel so bad, it feels like everyday something comes up, and Ryan has to come home and not study. Today was the car thing, again. Oh well once we move and the kids and I leave he'll be able to study. Oh but I'm so excited. We're gonna have so much fun. There are a lot of people who haven't even met Kaitlyn yet.
So I started this blog this afternoon and now its night time. -We took the car back in and they fixed it for us. Thank goodness. We pick it up tomorrow, I hope it's really fixed this time! I've decided to think positively. So, it's gonna be fixed and I'm so excited. Yay, air conditioning.
Our friend, Jessie took the girls for us for a few hours this afternoon so we could take the car in and pack. Oh it was so nice! It's amazing what you can get done with out the kids in the house. Well we decided to take down Kaitlyn's crib and just leave up the bed because the crib is the hardest to disassemble. Well Kaitlyn didn't really notice until bedtime. She was NOT happy to go to bed in her new bed. She cried for quite a while and when she finally stoped crying I went to check on her and she had fallen asleep behind the door. Poor thing she just kept knocking on the door, hoping we'd let her out. It's a good thing Ryan was here cause I would have caved. She's too cute. I love that she knocks. She knocks on everything, doors to neighbors houses, our house when we come home, the window when she sees someone she knows, her bedroom when she wants out. It's adorable. She's so smart. Well here's a picture of Kaitlyn on the floor:


Well here's a really cute picture Ryan got of Kaitlyn holding Emily. She just loves her so much, it's wonderful. We really are blessed to have these two beautiful girls!

I love summer!

First off, thanks to all the help sent my way. Things are going much better with nursing. Em's still needs formula occasionally, but I'm fine with that. My plan is to wait tell after we move and things settle down before I decide what to do. Hopefully my milk will last.
So, I finally feel like it's summer! The girls and I are having a blast. We are getting to know a bunch of the families in our ward better. It's really fun, but also sad because we will be leaving soon. I LOVE our ward and our neighborhood. We will really miss it here when we leave. So this week we went swimming twice! So much fun. A friend of mine, Lindsay invited us and some other friends to go to a cool wading pool here in Des Moines. It's free (yay!) and there is a sand pit, 2 playgrounds, and free lunch for the kids in the summer. Very cool. When we got there the pool wasn't open yet, so we played at the park and then in the sand. Here's a cute picture of some of the kids in the sand.



The kids were so excited to play in the water. Kaitlyn LOVED it. It was perfect for me too, because I didn't have to worry about Kaitlyn drowning while I took care of Emily. There was a little fountain that sprayed at the edge of the wadding pool and I got a really cute picture of Kaitlyn there.


This is all the girls minus Kaitlyn and the babies


Kaitlyn ready to play


Showing some of the attitude she's famous for


So if you know Kaitlyn the next two pictures won't surprise you. Lindsay likes to say Kaitlyn has 2 hollow legs. I'm just glad she doesn't mind being malled for food by my daughter. I swear I feed her, and I bring my own snacks-they just aren't as great as what everyone else has apparently.


This is Kaitlyn with Lindsay. Once she saw the food she was done playing, and she didn't leave Lindsay's side unless she saw food somewhere else. lol, Oh well.



These are Lindsay's cute girls running to the pool.


Most of the pictures I got were of the kids backs. They were having way to much fun for a photo shoot. Plus I'm still learning how to take pictures one handed. I have to say I was impressed with Debbi's ability to take pictures and hold her youngest! She got a lot of really cute pictures too. Here's a link to her pictures: Click Here

If you live near here we are meeting again Tuesday at this park at noon. It's at vine and 4th- downtown west des moines. There's free lunch for kids and the adults can eat too it just isn't free- $2-$3. I'm not sure of the price.

Well later in the week we went to our apartments pool to go swimming. It was a lot of fun. Emily slept most of the time so I got to get in the pool with Kaitlyn. That girl is fearless! I can't believe it. So there is a little step at the deep (3 or 4 feet) end of the pool that she liked to stand on and then come to me in the pool. Well we got out for a little while and then Kaitlyn decided she wanted back in. She kept trying to just get in all by herself. So I put her on the little step so I could get in with her. Before I could get in she walked off the edge of the step. So she started to sink. Scared me to death! Luckily I was right there and got her out quickly. I thought for sure she would be done, after something so scary. Apparently I was the only one upset about it. She was ready to get right back in. She still kept trying to get in all by herself. I don't know what I'm going to do with her. She's to brave for her own good.

Kaitlyn is exactly like her dad in so many ways it's amazing. She looks like him and her personality is very similar. She even makes faces just like him. She had the Dalton look perfected at about a month. Ryan likes to play jokes on me and tease me, so I shouldn't have been surprised when Kaitlyn did too! Every morning or after her nap when I go get Kaitlyn I wait to pick her up until after she gets her binkie and her blanket. Occasionally she drops it on the floor or under her crib so I get it for her before I pick her up. Well this particular morning her binkie wasn't in her crib. So I got on the floor to look for it. I looked everywhere under the bed, by her radio, her rocking chair. I couldn't see it anywhere so I checked her bed again and then got on the floor to look under the bed again. I was just saying Kaitlyn I can't find it, I guess no binkie today when I heard something drop onto the floor and Kaitlyn giggle. I looked over and there was the binkie. I look up and Kaitlyn still has her hand in the air from dropping it and has a huge grin on her face. It was really funny. She got me really good. I don't know where she was hiding it, or what made her think to do that, but it was hilarious. She just cracks me up.

HELP!

So last night Ryan decided to shave the goatee. It itched too much. My favorite was the faces Emily would make when Ryan kissed her. I don't think she was a fan of the facial hair. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.
Ok, totally different subject now. So I'm going to write about my nursing woos, so if you don't want to know, stop reading now! So I've had a low milk supply for awhile now. (since just before Memorial Day) I've been nursing Emily and then supplementing with formula afterwards. I was excited because it was getting better. She was taking less formula after each feeding. Then last night I nursed her for as much as she could stand then I gave her a bottle like normal. She drank 6 ounces. That's a whole feeding. I was REALLY upset the rest of the night. I don't know if she even got any milk when I nursed her. I don't know what to do. I thought for sure my milk was coming back, then this. I don't know. So then this morning I nursed her and listened very carefully. She was swallowing, so she should have been getting milk. I don't know if I should keep trying or if I'm just torturing my poor child. She nurses for about a half hour to get nothing and then inhales her bottle. I had planned to keep trying tell her 2 mo. check up, then decide if it was worth it or not. Now I'm not sure. Any advice? What do you think. And DON'T comment if your gonna say I'm a bad mother if I don't nurse. I don't need that kind of advice right now. Thanks in advance for any help you can give.

Saturday

I had the best day Saturday!! For Christmas my in-laws gave me a gift certificate to a day spa. I finally went yesterday. It was wonderful. I got there at 9:45am and didn't leave until almost 3pm! Wonderful. I got an hour massage, a facial, spa manicure and pedicure, and my hair shampooed and styled. It was so nice. I was in heaven for the massage, the lady that did mine was excellent. I could do that every Saturday for forever. Wonderful. So since I was all relaxed and had my hair and nails done I decided Ryan and I were going out on a date! Yay!! So a couple in our ward watched the girls for us (Thank you, thank you, thank you!) and Ryan and I went out. We saw Pirates 3 and then went to Cheesecake Factory for desert. I really liked the movie. I was worried it would be disappointing but it wasn't. Lots of action, lots of surprises, very good. Actually worth paying for. Then at the Cheesecake Factory we had a Dutch apple pie cheesecake, YUUMMMYY!!! I love my husband. It's so nice to actually spend time together where our conversation doesn't include, "k, I'll take this one you take that one" (our girls) So here is a picture of me all dressed up for our date.



So after church today we had a friend and her little girl (Sara and Anna) come over for dinner. Afterwards we fed the girls frozen blueberries, so we striped them down. Kaitlyn looked like a sumo wrestler. Especially when she'd tackle poor Anna. I wanted a picture of her looking fierce, but she didn't comply. Here's her sumo outfit though.

This ones just funny because she posed herself. I got out the camera and she ran and got her binkey and blanket and then posed like this. I thought it was funny, my little model in the making.


So, Ryan has decided to try out something new. The whole time I've known him he's always been clean shaven, but he recently decided to grow a go-t (sp?). I think I like it, but I'm not positive. What do you think? (Mindy, Katrina I know you'll have opinions. You gotta share.)

Pictures

Here are some pictures from the last week:




So on Monday while I was waiting for my prescription to be filled, I went shopping at Walgreens. Well, I had been looking (not very hard) for hair ties for the girls at other stores and hadn't found a set I wanted to buy. But Walgreens had the perfect set. So we came home and I played with the girls hair. I can't believe Emily can already have a pony, crazy. I think they look awfully cute!

Well earlier this week I heard Kaitlyn wake up for the day, so I went in to get her. This is what I found:




Yes, you saw right. That is her, standing there butt naked! Apparently she didn't want to wear her diaper anymore, so she took it off. I thought it was pretty funny so I had to take a few pictures and share it with the world. My poor daughter will be mortified when she grows up. Oh well!

And finally, on Saturday my apartment complex had a HUGE garage sale. Everyone set up little sales in their yards and the managers did all the advertising. There were 30 or more sales in our complex. So, before I set up my stuff to sell I went and checked out the other sales. Well I got some AWESOME buys. I got a double umbrella stroller for once Emily can sit up on her own, a new swing for Emily(yay!), and for $4 I got a lego table with 2 chairs, a set of regular legos, and a set of the big legos! Kaitlyn has loved all of the toys. She thought it was so cool to sit at her big girl table, and carried the chairs everywhere she went for a while. Too cute. So my best buy, a toddler bed! I'm so excited about it. It is made out of wood so It looks really nice. We got the frame, mattress, and bet set for $15. So good! Well I wasn't really worried about putting Kaitlyn in it yet. But we put it in her room, just to see. Well Saturday night Ryan put her to bed in her new bed. She didn't get up once, just went to sleep. I couldn't believe it. Here's a picture of her in her new bed!



This morning when she got up she was so proud of herself. AND, again I thought no way- not possible, Ryan put her down for a nap in her new bed and she stayed! When she got up just before church, it was so cute, she knocked on her door. Lol, then she just opened it and came out. Oh, my baby's growing up. I can't believe it.

Lancaster WI

On Wednesday morning we left for Lancaster Wisconsin. It's a 4 hour drive from here. Well actually we went to Platteville, which is 15 min. from Lancaster. The girls were so good on the drive up. BUT, there's always a butt right? the AC on my car was acting up. Only every once in a great while would it work. And it was H O T on Wednesday. I felt so bad for poor Emily. She's still so young and has a hard time regulating her body temp anyway. So we switched back and forth from windows down and trying to make the AC work. By the time we got to Platteville we were all dying of heat. So we go to check in to our hotel that Ryan had reserved on line a while ago. Well, Ryan went in with Kaitlyn while I fed Em in the car. They were gone a lot longer than I expected so Em's and I came in to see what was going on. Well, our reservation had been cancelled. After a while they figured out what had happened. Our reservations had been for 5 days earlier and when we didn't come they canceled the room. We're still not sure how the reservations got put on that day, oh well. So we went up to our room for a few min before we had to be at our first appointment (to look at an apartment). We got up there and it was burning hot, so we turned on the wall AC unit, and guess what, it didn't work. By this time I've already striped Emily down to her diaper because I'm seriously worried about how hot she feels, and Kaitlyn and I strip down to just our pants too. (Sorry if any boys are reading this) So it's time to go and we get dressed, except for Emily. I was seriously worried about her, and we head to our first appointment. We left the AC on in the hotel, hoping that by the time we got back it would cool down in there. The first apartment we checked out was seriously cool. I loved it. Everything was perfect except, no washer dryer hookups, which is a big deal with a family of 4. I was really bummed becase I really liked that place. Well while we were there Kaitlyn threw up on Ryan and herself, lovely I know. Well I had only brought one change of clothes for Kaitlyn, I know what was I thinking?- Oh yeah I was drugged the day before, I wasn't thinking much. So anyway she had to change outfits and was going to have to wear it for two days strait. We seriously thought about letting her go in just a diaper like Em, because it was still very hot in our room, but she's getting to old for that now. At least in public. We had a few hours between the next set of appointments so we hung out in the hotel. Emily was still burning up so we gave her a cold bath to cool her down. Boy, she did not like that. But it finally worked, she wasn't burning up anymore. Well we saw a few more places but they were terrible, a definite no way for all of them. Then we went to Lancaster to pick up some classifieds. Lancaster is so small that they have like 1 maybe 2 sets of apts. and they are all tiny, like efficiency and 1 bedroom size. We were hoping to find a house for rent there because we wanted to be close to Ryan's work. So back to Platteville for another appointment. This time it was a townhouse. I liked that is was at the end of a dead end street- no traffic. Well the guy was really late to show us the apartment, and apparently we were the last of a group. So there were 3 potential renters there waiting for him. Us with our 2 kids, a mom with her adorable 2 yr old twin boys, and a couple. Well when he got there he showed us all the place at the same time. It was very crowded in there. Ryan liked this place, but I wasn't very impressed. It wasn't bad, I just didn't like it. Well I was in the kitchen and I opened the freezer to check it out and a ton of ice fell on the floor. So everyone came to see what the noise was and I said. There's an insane amount of ice in there. The renter guy thought that was the funniest thing he'd ever herd. He kept saying there's an insane amount of ice in there, like that was an odd choice of words. Lol, oh well. Ryan and I didn't think it was weird. Maybe it's a Texas phrase. I don't know. Well anyways we went back to the hotel (still really hot in there) for the night, hoping the next day would go better. I was getting nervous that we weren't going to find anything to live in. Well getting Kaitlyn to sleep in a hotel room is not an easy task and we were already worn out from the day and she had only had one nap. So I was worried it was going to be a horrible fight to put her to bed. Well we put her in her pack n play and just tried to ignore her. To my surprise she actually didn't scream. She just didn't go to sleep. Well this was Wednesday night which meant So You Think You Can Dance was on. I'm a HUGE fan of this show. Last year I cheered for Benji the whole way. (For those of you who don't know he won last year, and I love him) I don't normally go crazy over reality shows, I like them but I don't usually watch the whole season or vote. Well That's not true with this show. I watch every show and cheer on my favorites. Last year when Benji won I was SOOO excited, if we hadn't had friends over I would have been jumping up and down screaming. Even with visitors over I could barely contain myself. So last year Ryan knew Wednesday nights he can't watch anything else, we are watching my show. Same for this year. So to bad Kaitlyn, I love you but the TVs on. Besides she likes to go to sleep with white noise on, so this was her white noise. It was 2 hours long and I loved it. I just love dance. Plus I'm happy because this year they are being nice to the contestants that suck. I hate it when they are mean. Well half way threw the show I glance quickly over at Kaitlyn (hoping she doesn't see me look because then we have to start over again) and she is watching the show with us. This is crazy and exciting for 2 reasons. First, it is impossible to get her to watch a show. I would love it if she would sit down and watch TV every once in a while, but she has no attention span for TV or movies. And secondly, the most exciting part- she was dancing with the contestants! I had a hard time not looking after I saw that! It was adorable. Every time I looked over there she was dancing. I love my baby. I wish we had the video camera or even just the camera, it was so cute. So for the rest of the show she slowly danced herself to sleep. Even when she was laying down, adorable. Now I love the show even more. I didn't know it was possible. So anyway, sorry about raving about a TV show, but seriously it's really cool.
Thursday we saw 2 places in Platteville, and I set up an appointment for the only place available in Lancaster. Well the first place we went to was falling apart. I felt like I needed to hold on to Kaitlyn to make sure she was ok, and I'm not a germaphobe. But then, taduntada... we went to a great house! It had a wrap around porch that was enclosed, 2 living rooms, a basement, dinning room, and 3 bedrooms. Plus we'd have the whole thing to ourselves, no other renters. I was REALLY excited about this one. An actual house, and it was really cute. Very old, but cute. So we drove to Lancaster for our last appointment, which I thought would probably be a waste of time. It was supposed to have only 2 bedrooms, so it would be smaller, and I loved the house we had just seen. Well we got to Lancaster a little early and looked at the house. I thought, well this is really cute. It's right across the street from the Piggly Wiggly (grocery store) and 2 blocks from Ryan's work. That was an immediate plus. Well we went inside and Ryan and I just fell in love with this house! It was way better than the first one. There is an office, a work room, an actually dinning room with lament wood flooring, 2 living rooms, a cute kitchen, 2 bedrooms, and a garage. Plus this house has been in this Lady's family for 4 generations, so it's an older house. It has the wood working all around the inside that is SO beautiful! There's a fire place and a beautiful china hutch that goes with the house, a built in book shelf that is gorgeous, and in the 2nd bedroom one whole wall is a closet. The closet is a few feet off the ground and underneath along the whole wall are drawers. Every room has great storage. Even the master bedroom has a walk in closet. Ryan and I wanted this house soo bad! This house was $100 less than the first AND rent includes the heating bill, which is crazy! Well the landlady said if your interested, and both Ryan and I at the same time said we are VERY interested, there's a guy who already really wants it-so if he doesn't want it you can have it. And we'd have to wait tell Saturday to find out. Man we were so bummed! So after that we visited Ryan's office and drove home. The whole way home I tried to convince myself that I didn't really want that house, but it didn't work. Well a couple of hours later the landlady called to tell us she changed her mind! We got the house! I'm so excited. It really helps to know that I'm going to like where we are staying. What a huge blessing. So that pretty much was Wednesday and Thursday. I'm just so glad that we know where we're moving to.