He has a name!

Our baby boy has a name! (no he is not here yet, 3 mo left) Ryan and I have had a hard time agreeing on a name for him. I have wanted to name him Logan Daniel and Ryan was not happy about the Logan part. He knew a Mr. Logan and has bad memories from him. But NOTHING else was working. We tried to think of lots of different names, but nothing fit. I was getting bummed, thinking he was going to be a month old before we got him named. (I really like to have the name pretty soon after we find out what it is, I hate saying the baby or it) Well one day I was having a rough day and I just said Ryan I need a hug and while he gave me some hugs (he's such a good husband) he says well hows Logan doing? I couldn't believe it. He is so sweet. That definatly made my day better! -Well once I finally believed he was serious! So our baby boy has a name, Logan Daniel Dalton. Logan after the Logan temple, which is my favorite- also to convince Ryan it was a good name, after Logan the wolferine. Andy says we HAVE to do his hair like the wolverine, it'd be way cool. So I'll have to do at least one picture. lol, we'll see how much hair he has. And Daniel is my daddy's name. He is an amazing man and I hope that Logan will be like him. So that's the story. Yeah for little Logan. We are so excited and can't wait to meet him.

Happy Mothers Day

Happy Mothers Day to all you mom's out there. I have learned lots from my amazing Mom friends. I couldn't even list them all. You are wonderful and amazing, keep up the good work! I hope everyone has had a great weekend. Ryan and the girls made it a special one for me. On Saturday morning I got to go garage-saleing all by myself! I loved it. It was so nice to get out with out the girls. Saturday evening we went out as a family for dinner and tried a new restaurant. Then this morning Ryan surprised me with breakfast in bed! I LOVED it! Kaitlyn helped by bringing in the cards that they got me. Thanks guys for the wonderful weekend. I want to especially thank my mom and mother in law this special day. They are wonderful and I love them both so much. I also have 3 amazing grandmothers that I love very much, plus Ryan's 2 amazing grandmothers.

My Mom


Mom and my sisters Jessica and Tiara-who must have been moving

My mother is amazing. I love her so much. She is always there for me and I love to talk to her. I call her almost everyday just to talk and see what's going on. I love the advice she gives me. My mom's main goal was to have a solid family. She wanted us to have a safe, secure, loving place to come home to, and she wanted us to love to spend time together. I think she has done an amazing job at that and continues to do so. She is the mother of 7 children and Grandmother of soon to be 4 grandchildren.

My Mother in Law


Mom with Kaitlyn just after she was born

I have been so blessed to have the best in-laws. If you got to hand pick the family your spouse came from, I'd definitely pick the Daltons. I love Mom, she is wonderful. She has always made me feel welcome and loved since the very beginning. Just after Ryan and I got engaged I flew back to Texas, but my family had already left for Utah. I was alone and feeling really lonely. I ended up going over to Mom D's house. Ryan wasn't even there, he was still in Iowa. As soon as I walked in Mom gave me a huge hug and said what's wrong? She hugged me as I baled and told her how lonely I was and how all the phones were broke at my house and then she gave me a phone so I could call my mom. I had JUST BARELY gotten engaged to her son and she was already helping take care of me. Mom your great and I love you. Mom is the mother of 4 and the grandmother of soon to be 6.

Mindy, Ryan's sister


Mindy and her husband Chris

Again, I couldn't have asked for better in-laws. Mindy is an amazing mother. She has 3 boys. Boys, they take LOTS of energy and Mindy is so great with them. I know she REALLY wants a girl, but I think she is the perfect boy mom. Austin, Cameron, and Colin are so lucky to have you. I wish we lived closer together. I love just to spend time with her and hang out. And my girls love playing with their cousins. Kaitlyn saw a picture of Austin on your blog (the one with the allergic reaction) -I hadn't said anything to her- and she says Austin mommy, look Austin. It was so cute. She loves you and your handsome boys! I love you Mindy.

My sister Julia


Julia with Kaitlyn and I on a camping trip to Nauvoo

This is Julia's FIRST mothers day as a mom! Yay Julia! I'm so excited that you are a mom now. Julia and I were pregnant together for a little while. She is way ahead of me and already had her baby. A cute little boy named Cooper and as Kaitlyn says Pooper. I have been amazed at how much Julia has grown up since becoming a mom. Babe your amazing and do such a great job. I wish I was closer and we got to hang out more. I love you babe!

Katrina, Ryan's sister


Katrina being cute and funny

Katrina hasn't become a mother yet, but she is an awesome sister in law and I'm sure a great wife. I also really enjoy having Katrina as a sister. Your wonderful babe and I love you!

A great rainy day activity and other things

A few weeks ago we had some older kids at our house to play for the afternoon. We have TONS of toys, to many in fact. But we don’t have much for older kids. Plus it was rainy all day so we couldn’t run around outside. I was trying to think of some fun things for the kids to do when I remembered a fun idea I read in a Parenting magazine. We got out a cardboard box and unfolded it. I had 4 kids, one square for each kid. Rule one, you must stay in your square. Rule two, you have to share the sidewalk chalk. That was it. The kids had a great time.



The oldest a girl, 10 found out you could erase it and recolor your square. Just use your sock or your pants or even your hands. Lol. They got a little dirty but had a great time. I had gotten Kaitlyn the sidewalk chalk for Easter and we hadn’t had a chance to use it yet. She had fun coloring with it and breaking them into smaller pieces (why? I don’t know, but she was having fun!) and Em thought it was so YUMMY! We had to keep taking hers away. It turned out to be a fun little activity. So next time your stuck inside on a rainy or cold day give it a try!

Kaitlyn NEVER EVER sleeps with us. Ryan is VERRY happy about this. I tried when she was littler to let her sleep with us occasionally, but she just can’t sleep if mommy’s there. Even on the few times she’s been sick at night, she can’t sleep when we (ok, I) put her in our bed. The other morning Kaitlyn came in REALLY early. Like 4 or 5. I was worried she’d be up for the day, but Ryan just plopped her in the middle and we ALL went back to sleep, including Kaitlyn. When we woke up I couldn’t believe it. Ryan got up before us to get ready for the day and snapped a few pictures of us sleeping. WARRNING: I am sleeping and do not look good! Please ignore me and look at my sweet cute baby.



A weekend or so ago Ryan and I went to look at some houses during the day (thank you Andy! Having a teenager in our house is AWESOME!) Kaitlyn and Emily stayed home with Andy so we could be quick. I had put Kaitlyn in her bed before we left. She usually goes to sleep really quickly. This time she was having a rough time going to sleep. Plus I heard some really weird noises, I thought our neighbor upstairs was just being really loud, moving furniture or something. I even checked our screen door which doesn’t always close all the way to see if it was making the banging noises. Well eventually the noise stopped and I didn’t think much of it. Ryan and I left. When we got back Andy was just dying with laughter! Kaitlyn had been having a hard time sleeping and then she started yelling for help. When Andy went to check on her she was between the board and the wall. It’s really hard to explain so here’s a picture:




The first is a picture of Kaitlyn’s bed. Ryan’s dad and grandpa made a really cool bed. It’s a bunk bed, but the bottom is a desk instead of a bed. They gave it to us recently, and Kaitlyn has her toddler bed under the bunk bed and we took down the desk for now. So the second picture is of the space between her bed and the wall that she had climbed down into. She had been there for a while and Andy had heard noises and thought she was just playing, apparently she had been stuck in there and was trying to jump out. We thought it’d be fun to put her back in to take a picture, but she freaked out! I know I don’t have to worry about her climbing in there again. I love that Kaitlyn is so adventuresome (sometimes) it just cracks me up when she gets stuck somewhere odd.

There was a huge city wide garage sale on Friday and Saturday. So of coarse I went! There were 100 registered g-sales and more that weren’t. I had so much fun, and got tons of great stuff, and if you ask Ryan all I did was spend our life savings. Lol, but he’ll be grateful when the baby gets here and we actually have clothes for him. I got a huge bag stuffed full of boys clothes, books, barbies, a UT Texas hat ($2, brand new!), baby dolls, a slide for the girls, a princess doll, a princess lamp and placemat, and princess clothes. Plus other stuff. The funniest is I got a Cinderella book for 25 cents and Kaitlyn was reading it, she’d open it “ohhh, Thank you mommy!” and then turn the page and say
“ohhh, Thank you mommy!” again, for almost every page. She carried it around and even slept with it last night. I love that she can be so happy with something that cost a quarter.

Our baby is a...

On Wednesday we found out what we are having! I was supposed to have my appointment on Tuesday, but on Monday the doctors office called and canceled my appointment. That made for a pretty ruff day. I was at work and they just left a message, so I had no idea why it had been canceled, or if I would be able to get it rescheduled. I called Ryan on my break and left him a message that pretty much just said, hey they canceled my appointment and I’m really upset about, love you bye. We missed each other during our lunch breaks, but when I came home this was waiting on the table for me:



My husband is so sweet and wonderful. That really turned my day around! We don’t really do flowers at our house often, on my request. So this was definitely a surprise and it made my day. I got home just before the doctors office called, and was able to set up the appointment for Wednesday so we didn’t have to wait to much longer. The Lord definitely works in mysterious ways, while I was really upset about it being postponed; it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Ryan wouldn’t have been able to be at the Tuesday appointment, but he was able to come on Wednesday. It was so nice to have him there with me. So we are having a BOY!!! Ryan is so excited and so proud of himself. I am excited too. I’ll just have to learn how to do boy things. We haven’t decided on a name yet, but we’ll post when we do. So here’s a picture of our little baby boy.

Em's 1!

Lately Kaitlyn has not wanted to eat her dinner. Ryan and I decided we were going to stick with it, and make her eat her dinner. This particular story was a while ago. So I made dinner and put it on the table and immediately Kaitlyn says I don’t want it. She refused to eat any of it. So we told her she couldn’t have any more milk until she ate one bite. That has worked well in the past, but not that night. Many fits followed, she got sent to her room to calm down, and we finished our meal. Later I told her Mommy, Daddy, and Emmy ate our dinner, so we get some ice cream. All she had to do was take one bite and she could have some too. She sat there and watched us eat our ice cream, still refusing to eat one bite. After that Em got to take a bubble bath, which is also a huge treat in our house. Still all she had to do was eat one bite. This one was the hardest for her to watch, but she stuck her grounds. She would not take even one bite. Here’s a picture of her torment.



And Em enjoying the bubble bath



Poor Em really wanted Kaitlyn to join her, apparently baths just aren’t as much fun if sister isn’t in there trying to drown you. After that we told her she would have to go to bed early if she couldn’t eat one bite. She chose to go to bed. I even went in there a couple of times and offered her one bite, still no. So she went to bed early with out extra milk, ice cream, or a bubble bath. I couldn’t believe it. During this process I had to keep reminding myself, if we can teach her good standards she will stick to them. NOTHING will change her mind once it’s set. Hopefully we can get it set on good standards.
And for another Kaitlyn story. Can you tell she’s my spirited child? Anyway, a little while ago I took Em to the doctor and she needed antibiotics for an ear infection. So we had to go to the drug store. I HATE the drug store. What’s that saying about a bull in china store? That’s what I feel like when we have to go in there. I avoid that place like the plague if I can. Right when you walk in there is a whole row of candy at children’s eye level on one side and many rows of very breakable things on the other side. You have to walk past all the candy and a ton of fragile things all the way to the back to get to the pharmacy. It’s horrible. I usually don’t even attempt it with the girls, what ever medication we need is not worth it. For some reason I decided to attempt it this day. I don’t know what I was thinking. So we walk in and I want candy tantrums start right away. The thing is, if she hadn’t of been freaking out I would have bought her a sucker, they’re like 13 cents or something. But because of the huge fits I had to say no candy today. So I run to the back put Em down and run back and get Kaitlyn. We made it in, not gracefully or anything but not with too much to handle. So we sit in the back and wait for the prescription. When it’s time to leave you have to go back up to the front and stand in front of all the candy to buy the meds. This is the WORST part of the whole thing. I wish we could just pay at the pharmacy. Well we got things paid for amid me taking things away from both Kaitlyn and Emily MANY times over. Emily is incredibly fast at grabbing things. It’s amazing. So now it’s time to leave. Kaitlyn is completely beside herself, huge fit in process and Em’s just watching like ok whatever Kaitlyn. I’m trying to get Kaitlyn to stand, which is impossible. I finally decide to just pick her up and am trying to figure out how to pick up Emily as well, when an ANGEL sweeps in to help. One of the store workers comes up and asks if I would like some help. I just said, if you could hand me Emily that would help a TON, but she offered to bring her to my car. Growing up in the Dallas area I had a hard time accepting her offer. Pictures of her running off with my child ran through my head, but I also felt that she was a safe person and it would be ok. I decided to let her help me, and I’m so glad I did. With my baby bump in the way it’s even harder to hold both girls, especially when Kaitlyn is flinging her body about and screaming. Well we get them in the car and this sweet woman was telling me she has two close together, so she knows what it was like. She was so sweet and understanding it was wonderful. After that I was emotionally a wreck so I called Ryan and asked him to meet me in his parking lot so he could just hug me. Poor Ryan has had to deal with a distraught wife pretty often during this pregnancy. He was great though, he came out and gave me some hugs and had some stern words with Kaitlyn. He is a wonderful husband. Anyway the main reason I share this story is to say, if you see a mom out there who needs just a little help, do what you can. You have no idea how much that will mean to her. And comments like, wow you should get supper nanny are NOT helpful! Don’t worry no one said that to me, but someone did say that to my mom.
Now on to some EMILY stories. Guess what! Emily is one year old! I still can’t believe how big my baby has gotten. Her birthday was Saturday April 19th. We had a special day planned for her. I decided not to do a party this year but to have a day full of events I thought she would enjoy. We started off the day with a trip to Wal-Mart were Emily got to pick out some new toys and spend her birthday money from grandma and great grandpa. It was fun, but very hard for Kaitlyn. She wanted to pick out the toys for Emily. Actually the whole day was kinda hard for her, she’s not used to Emily getting all the attention! After that we came home for some much needed nap time. While the girls slept I took everything out of the plastic and wrapped it for Em. The night before Ryan baked Emily’s cake and I decorated it. Here’s our masterpiece:




When the girls got up from nap Emily got to open her presents. Unfortunately most of those pictures got deleted when I was trying to download them. Here’s one of her playing with a few of her new toys



She got a princess chair, a basket of play food, a little xylophone type piano, a bath toy, and a play remote control. She really likes all of her toys and the girls had fun playing with them. After that it was cake time!





I think she liked it! After cake we went BOWLING!! Emily’s favorite thing was to watch the ball return. Kaitlyn enjoyed it too, but half way through they were done, so we finished, (Ryan won!) and then left. They enjoyed it but got distracted at the end. After that we went to the park for a little while and then went out to a pizza place. They sang to Emily and gave her an ice cream cone too. It was a fun filled exhausting day! The girls came home and crashed! So Emily has been flirting with the idea of walking for a while now. She decided to be a full fledge walker on her birthday! She is all over the place now. I love watching her walk, it is adorable! The new walk, walk is the best. My little Emily is growing up so fast! I can’t believe it.

Cute Kaitlyn sayings and more

So Kaitlyn is talking all the time now, and I’m actually understanding a good portion of it. It’s pretty fun, but I can tell she gets really frustrated when I don’t understand her. We went to Milwaukie last weekend (more on that later) and Kaitlyn saw something that she liked and she said “coo wow!” . Andy (a 19 yr old that’s living with us, more on that later) and I thought it was so cute. She says it all the time now. Andy says when he goes on his mission, he’ll start that were ever he is as the new saying. So now everything is coo wow. Too funny. The next one is funny and kinda sad. We were all watching TV’s funniest moments when there was a clip with a bull in it. The clown got attacked and the funny part was the bull completely pantsed the clown (it was blurred). All of a sudden we hear Kaitlyn “No Cow! No Cow!” Her poor little face was so cute. She was so worried about the cow hurting the man. She has only really seen milk cows and thinks of them as sweet kinda cuddly things. Poor girl. Now randomly she’ll say “no cow” and she’ll even go up to Emily and have a conversation about no cow with her. Too funny. It’s amazing the things she remembers. I just hope she doesn’t grow up with a fear of cows now.
I feel like we are at the doctor almost everyday now. It’s crazy. We’ve been there twice for Emm’s breathing, once for Em’s ears, for Em’s 1 year check up and for my monthly prenatal checks. It’s been crazy lately. It’s really funny though because when Kaitlyn sees the doctors office she starts saying, mommy doctor tummy, over and over. After the doctor does his check on me Kaitlyn wants it done on her too. She loves to get weighted, get her blood pressure taken, her ears checked. All of it. She walks in and says hi to everyone and says Hi doctor when he walks in the room it’s so cute. Her favorite thing to talk about though is defiantly mom’s tummy. She gets to hear the baby and see moms belly. After the doctor leaves she hops up on the table and mom get to check her tummy for a baby. I never thought a doctors office would be so fun for a little girl. Maybe she’ll be a doctor, or marry one. Lol.
So we got a new little addition to our family. No I did not have the baby yet! Actually because we have number 3 coming we decided we needed to upgrade to a van. There’s no way 3 car seats would have fit in my car. We had been kinda looking for a while, but weren’t serious. Well one weekend Ryan said we should go shopping right then. I was kinda like ok, whatever, we’re not getting one yet though. I mean we still have quite a few months before the baby gets here. So anyway we went up to Platteville and the first place we went had a great van. It was really nice and at a great price, so Ryan convinced me to test drive it. We ended up buying that van. I love it and it has been such a blessing to our family. Ryan said he felt prompted to go and look and when we did we found exactly what we needed. It also has been a great help now that we have Andy living with us. Ryan was able to use the van to help him move, and we can give him a ride to church and stuff because there’s plenty of room. So I’m sure you’re wondering who Andy is, well here’s that story. –With Andy’s permission of coarse.
Ryan had been Branch mission leader in our branch until just this last week. Because of this he has gotten to know our two new converts really well. There’s Andy, who’s 19 and Ethan who’s a senior in high school. These two are great young men and we have loved getting to know them better. Unfortunately Andy’s parents aren’t happy about him joining the church. General Conference weekend Andy told his parents of his plans to go on a mission. His parents took his house key away and stopped paying his rent for his college dorm, and kicked him out of their house. We had an extra room, so Andy is living with us until he goes on a mission. I’m so sad that there are still people who can not accept our church, or even find out what it’s really about. I wish Andy could still spend time with his family. He has a little 12 year old brother who really looks up to him, and it’s sad that he doesn’t see him much anymore. I hope their hearts will be softened and everything will work out. On a positive note, having Andy here has been a blessing for our family. Ryan and Andy are great friends and act like brothers with each other. It has been nice for Ryan to have someone to do boy things with. Also Andy has been a real big help with the girls. He helped me a ton when we went to Milwaukie and he’s happy to watch the girls anytime. Kaitlyn really looks up to him and loves having him here. I think it will be very hard for her when he goes on his mission.
So last weekend we went to Milwaukie (4 hours away). I have never been there, so I was really excited about going. Ryan had a continuing education class up there and his boss paid for gas, so we decided to turn it into a fun family weekend. We had a great time. We got there Friday late afternoon, and checked into our hotel. It was right down town and it was very nice. Andy came with us to hang out and help me with the girls when Ryan was in class. Here’s our little family in our hotel minus me.



We went out to eat dinner and walk around the mall that was just down the block. It was fun to get out and do something different, plus I’m ALWAYS up for shopping! On Saturday Ryan had his class most of the day, so Andy and I took the girls to the Children’s Museum. It was so much fun. The girls LOVED it. If you’re ever in Milwaukie I would defiantly suggest going there. I’m so glad Andy was there! There’s no way I could have taken both girls there by myself! Kaitlyn was all over the place. There was just so much to explore! Here’s some pictures of the girls exploring.










Around lunch time we decided to get some lunch. So I stood in line at the information desk for 10 mins for them to tell me they don’t have any food! I thought every child attraction would have some food at least nearby. Kaitlyn and Emily were so worn out from all the playing and exploring plus they were starving. Any mom out there knows that spells BIG trouble. We had lots of meltdowns on the way to the van! So we had to drive around downtown and try to find somewhere to eat. If you’ve ever been to a big city, you’ll know there is no parking anywhere. It was crazy. I finally just dropped Andy off at a Dominoes with some cash and drove around until the pizza was ready. Luckily the girls crashed as soon as we got in the van. We drove back and payed another $6 to park at the museum again, and enjoyed our pizza lunch in the van. The girls slept for almost an hour and then got up and ate some pizza with us. Then we went back in for another hour or so until it was time to pick up Ryan from his class. Apparently the hour nap was nowhere near long enough for Kaitlyn. We had some MAJOR breakdowns! Fun fun. I was just glad I had Andy there to help with the girls. We went and picked up Ryan and drove to Madison and got out at the mall there to stretch our legs, and of coarse go shopping again! We got home safe and sound, but we were all exhausted. It was a fun quick trip and now I can say that I’ve been to Milwaukie.

Trip to Texas, sorry no pics. I forgot my camera!

Lots and lots has been going on since Easter. Day by day it feels like nothing is new, and I don’t have much to say, but since it had been a while I do. First off, is Emily. She is not walking yet, but she is VERRY VERRY close! Em is so different in so many ways from Kaitlyn. It has been fun watching her learn to walk. She went about it pretty much backwards from all the other babies I’ve seen. Most babies learn how to pull up on couches or whatever first, Em did do that. But usually the next step is to walk along things, then start to let go a little- move from one support to another, start taking steps and then way last they learn how to stand up from the middle of the room. Well, not my Emmy. It doesn’t matter haw everyone else does things, she does it her own way and in her own time. There was no pushing her on this. She learned by pulling up first, but then she went to learning how to stand in the middle of the room! She is crazy, I love it. She learned how to stand and had INCREDIBLE balance (for a baby) before she would walk along things. She could stand for at least a few weeks before she decided to start taking steps. It is so funny to watch her. She stands up so perfectly and is very graceful, then she’ll stand there for a few seconds before she gets the courage to move one of her tree trunk legs. The other funny thing about Em is she does not like to practice when ANYONE is watching. Not even mom can watch. She would only walk if she thought no one was looking. The way Ryan and I realized for the first time that she could take more than 1 or 2 steps was Ryan heard her little feet padding across the kitchen and caught her taking 5 or 6 steps! And anytime she relizes someone is watching she’ll stop, smile at you all shy like, and then sit down! No more walking someone is watching. It’s pretty funny.
A few weeks ago we (the girls and I) got to go to Texas! It was so wonderful to visit everyone. We got to go down because my little sister JULIA had just had her first baby, so we went to see him, Cooper, blessed. (More on that later)
We have some friends here in Lancaster, the Staders, who have family in Oklahoma. So I called Danni and told her we were going down to Texas and we decided to carpool. It was WONDERFUL to have a friend to drive down with. She has 3 children: Emily (6), Noah (4), and Lilly (2). Emily-big Emily just LOVES that baby Em and her have the same name. She just loves to help take care of her and play with her. It is so great. And Noah and Lilly like to play with Kaitlyn, so everyone is happy and it worked out great. So we had 2 moms and 5 kids! It was a little crazy, but Danni is a very organized mom and her kids helped out a lot with my kids. It was nice to spend the 13 hours of driving getting to know each other better. We left on a Thursday right after MOPS (mothers of preschoolers- a Christian mom group similar to Enrichment, that meets once a month) and drove down to Kansas City on Thursday, and then from Kansas City to Oklahoma on Friday. I got to meet her parents and let the girls run around while we waited for Ryan’s mom to come and pick us up from Danni’s moms’. My poor mother in law got stuck in HORRIBLE traffic JUST before she reached us and a 3 hour drive turned into a 4 hour drive. She brought Kaitlyn and Emily’s cousins Collin and Cameron with her. The girls were so excited to see Grandma and cousins. It was great. We went out to eat and then drove back to Texas. It was nice to spend some time with Mom D. When we got to my parents house it was like 11, so we spent 2 full days traveling. Consequently Saturday is a blur to me. I really have no recollection of what we did that day. Spent time with family and trying to get settled I’m sure. Sunday was the big day. We went to Julia’s branch (church) and got to watch Cody (Julia’s husband) bless baby Cooper. He did a great job, the spirit was very strong. I’m so proud of my sister and the little family she has. She is such a good mom and it was so fun to spend time with her. Kaitlyn and Emily were very clingy and whinny because of all the change, Emily getting 4 molars and having breathing problems, and because Daddy wasn’t able to come, so Kaitlyn ended up coming to Sunday School with Em and I. It was fun to watch my parents with the girls. The girls are so much bigger every time we get to go back to Texas. Mom and Dad especially were enjoying cuddling with Em and watching her stand. Kaitlyn was being really cute. We had her blocked in one row of chairs so she would be close and not disturb the other adults. Kaitlyn came up to my Dad and said “suse me” (excuse me) and passed him no problems and then did the same thing to my Mom. Before we realized what she was doing she was free. It was so cute we just let her play in the rows behind us. My parents were very impressed with her manners (so was I!) I try to teach her to be polite, but I’m sure if you’re a mom, you know that most of the time you feel like nothing is sinking in. Well I guess she has been listening to me. It was so cute and she got such good feedback that she kept it up the whole trip. After church we went to Julia’s NEW house (yea Julz!). This was the first time I got to see it not in construction. It is beautiful, and I’m sure they will love it for a long time. Mom and I helped Julia get the dinner ready. It was so good. Julia did a great job getting every thing together, it was delicious. And I love, love, love her kitchen! Julz even had some sippy cups for my girls to borrow. Kaitlyn and Emily had been driving me CRAZY. I couldn’t have an inch of space and they wouldn’t let my parents and siblings help much. Then, Kaitlyn opened up her cup and spilt RED juice all over my sisters brand new WHITE carpet! I almost lost it. Luckily Julia and Cody were very cool about it. I think everyone was more worried about me than the carpet. I banished Kaitlyn outside and my brother Jace was kind enough to make sure she stayed out there by entertaining her, and Emily was taken from me (I don’t even remember who she went to) and I was sat down and given something relaxing to do. That made all the difference in the world. I’m so glad I have such great family to be able to give me some time away from my kids when I NEEDED it. Well Cody was able to clean up the mess. I’m not sure if it left a stain or not, I didn’t want to look. Cody was talking to me and making sure I knew it was ok. He said, oh don’t worry. I’m sure Julia will start spilling things on purpose soon, so I will put in the wood floors sooner. Sure enough a few minutes later Julia says, Hey Cody, looks like you’ll just have to put in the wood floors soon. It was really cute and made me laugh and feel better about things. Later that evening we played a new game Cody and Julia had. It was tons of fun. I was glad to be able to relax and enjoy and not worry about the girls. Julia’s mother in law was there and Julia later told me she felt so bad, she was like, wow, Christi can’t even go to the bathroom. They were that clingy the first couple of days. On to Monday. Monday we got to spend at the Daltons. MINDY came over with her two youngest and the girls had a great time playing with them. After a little while we got to go SHOPPING. Probably my favorite past time, especially if there’s money to spend. Grandma D got all her grandkids some really cute clothes. It was fun to shop with Mom and Mindy, and Kaitlyn LOVED to run around and pick out more things for Grandma to buy. She enjoys shopping WAY to much, I have no idea where she gets that. Lol. It was so great to shop, because the only place to shop near us is Wal-Mart and that gets old fast. Yay for cute new clothes for the girls! Kaitlyn and Em also liked playing outside in Grandpa’s sand box. Tuesday we stayed at Moms. Poor Tiara (my youngest sister, a kindergartner) got sick Sunday night, and ended up being sick ALL WEEK long. Poor girl. Mom and I were pretty tired so we just stayed at home and relaxed all day. Aria came by with Skylar and we got to let our girls play. When Jess and Kurtis (my brother and sister) got home from school, Kaitlyn had a blast running around outside with them. She got to play on the trampoline and in the playhouse. So much fun. Even though it was “cold” for Texas we had a blast and enjoyed the warm weather. Wednesday we got to go to my friend ARIA’s house. JENNY JULIA and I were there with our babies; Skylar, Sophia, Cooper, Kaitlyn, and Emily. It was so nice to see everyone and see all the cute babies. Sophia and Cooper were still new babies and Skylar is a few months older than Em. The girls had a great time playing and I enjoyed sitting and hanging out with some of my high school friends. When we got back Mindy came over with all 3 of her boys. My sisters and her 2 oldest boys are the same ages and they all went outside to run and play. I loved being able to let Kaitlyn just go outside and play. She had a blast! Later that night Mom and I got to go shopping and we met Julia while we were out. Yay shopping! The next day we left at 8 in the morning and started our 2 day trip back to Wisconsin. It was so much fun to go home and visit everyone, but it was over WAY to fast!