Wednesday Is My Day Off

Wednesdays are my day off... usually. And today, I had the day off... because it's Wednesday. SO I had big plans for my Wednesday, to have fun hanging out with my little cutie, Aurora all day since it was just going to be us.

But then we both slept in and I thought I'd have to babysit my friends' little girl after school and things just weren't working out.

So I was bummed. And Dan's out of town, helping his dad, Steve, with his courier business since he's sick from starting chemotherapy and having a bad cold on top of that. Ugh!

I was just feeling stuck in the house and down.

Around 3:15pm, I was packing Aurora into her car seat to go pick up our little friend from school, when her mom called to say that she ended up getting off work early and I didn't need to babysit today! Woo! Not that I don't love our little friend, but I had "big plans" to do something today, remember?

So I kept Aurora in her seat and we headed out the door with $21 in hand and a plan to find toddler shoes for my walking babe. OH MY GOSH! I forgot to tell you guys! WE HAVE A WALKING GIRL ON OUR HANDS!

Anyway, I needed to stretch that small wad of cash in my wallet as far as possible because I also needed diapers... hmmm... yeah.

For you moms who buy diapers, you know that this was basically not going to happen. Diapers are freaking expensive.

Lucky for us, I remembered seeing an ad on Facebook about a diaper sale happening at a store here in St. George called Traders Discount Markets, so before we left the house, I called them to see if they had some in stock... They did!

Oh! And I also called the Iron County School District to have them activate my application for some open elementary teaching positions! Eeek!

But then, we were on our way!

You guys.

Traders had diapers on sale for pretty much HALF OFF the regular price for the EXACT brand we buy!
I wanted to jump up and down for joy! I didn't.
And I wanted to buy all the diapers on the rack! I didn't do that either... only $21, remember?
So I left there spending only $15 for 138 diapers! That is a steal!

People, that was step 1 to turning my day around.

Step 2 happened after searching Walmart and Target for semi-cheap toddler shoes, to no avail, and ending up at the D.I. (All Target brought us was a fun little jam session with the Beats by Dre headphones haha)

I tried a few pairs of shoes on Aurora at the D.I., had her walk around in them (that was adorable), we chose two pairs, and then we paid for them! Guess how much?

$6!

I spent EXACTLY what I left the house with. Oh, success, you make me happy.

Then we drove around for a bit, enjoying the beautiful scenery of St. George and the summer-like weather before stopping by Albertson's on the way home.

Just one question for ya, Cedar City... Why the heck did you get rid of our Albertson's?! That store has everything! haha I love it!

I left with comfort food (guacamole, chips, a mango, fruit leather, and mini ice cream cartons) and pictures of my cute shopping buddy, so that went well.

When we got home, I watched a small portion of Lilo & Stitch with Aurora before putting her to bed. I am so lucky to be her mom! She is the sweetest thing!

Oh! And I got to talk to one of my best friends, Natalie Wade, tonight on the phone and she let me know that she will be coming to visit St. George in two weeks! I was so happy! I miss her!

AND THEN right after that, I checked Instagram to see that I had WON A CONTEST!!! It wasn't anything huge, but I never win! Never! I was so excited! You all have no idea!

I won a cute little stuffed bunny for Aurora from Apple Park Kids!

And then my cute hubby text me to say he missed me. And my dad called. And my sister-in-law, Kaela, posted a picture for me on Facebook saying they missed me being there.

So even though I'm alone tonight, I don't feel lonely. And even though my day seemed doomed, it turned out pretty good.

Recharged

We had the opportunity to visit both of our families in Cedar City on Tuesday and Wednesday, and while it didn't go quite as planned, it was SO AWESOME to see our families! We've been missing those people!

Poor Aurora has been growing four new teeth in on the top so she's been absolutely miserable for the past week; extremely stuffed up, ear infections, sick belly, the works. She has a sore throat from coughing and hasn't wanted to eat or drink anything. Plus, she threw up in the car when we got to Cedar and kept us up ALL NIGHT on Tuesday night... so we also took a trip to her old pediatrician there to make sure she was alright. Thankfully, she is just stuffy which is the cause of all our her troubles, so they did a deep suction on her nose and she was SO much better for the rest of Wednesday. She even slept all night for us on Wednesday night! Hallelujah! 

Despite those few things, we had such a great time! 

We got to meet our cute new nephew, Lucas, and he is so wonderful! When we took pictures of the cousins together, Aurora absolutely loved being able to snuggle with her arm around Grace and her other hand holding Lucas' hand. 

This is such a fun time in life with our siblings and us having kids around the same age. It's crazy to see how much our families have grown over the years AND how the children (us) are becoming parents and the parents are becoming grandparents! Life is sure moving along and we're just doing our best to keep up! 

We realized we now have a niece and a nephew on each side of the family. We are loving it! 

Over the time we were there, we were able to:

•Have Dan help his dad, Steve, deliver packages for his courier job while I spent time with my sisters and my parents

•Try out a new recipe (Ranch Pork chops) with Dan's family

•Hang out with Dan's brothers and visit with his dad, Shon

•Have Dan help Jeremy give his dad, Steve, a priesthood blessing for comfort and health

•Take turns trying different methods of comforting Aurora as she screamed the entire night... finally resulting in me taking her on a drive at 6:00am so we could get some peace... bright side? I saw the beautiful sunrise

•Eat breakfast at Denny's with Dan's brothers, Caleb and Ryan (Caleb missed school because he had to catch up on sleep from the Aurora all night crying thing)

•Go to that lovely doctor's visit for Aurora

•FINALLY TAKE A NAP (only 1 hour but, hey, I'll take what I can get!)

•Eat dinner with Dan's family at The Pizza Factory and Kaela even came with the kids so Aurora got to see more cousins! We miss living by them!

•Play games and chat with my family... we played Quelf Antics and laughed our butts off at my mom's interpretive dancing skills, Becca's humming skills, Steph's song writing abilities, Erin's artistic renderings, Dan's miming expertise, and me trying to play Jingle Bells using my mouth as a kazoo! haha If you are now curious about the game, go play it!

•Get pushed around in a toy baby stroller... oh wait, that was just Aurora!

•Get a much needed early bedtime and a full night of interrupted sleep at my parents' house

We got home this morning just in time for me to shower before Abi got there for me to babysit! And let me tell you, that mini-vacay must have been just what we needed to recharge our batteries, because today went great!

Dan got a nap, 

I played with the girls and picked up my friend's foster daughter from school,

I tried a new hairstyle on Aurora and she actually sat still long enough for me to do it (!),

Abi got picked up and we took the other ladies with us to Smith's to go food shopping, 

We got all the food on my list plus a bit more for THE EXACT amount of money we had planned (Boom, baby!),

We had dinner from Arctic Circle since we were starving (Yes, we're those people that spend money on food shopping only to become hungry faster than we can cook it and eat out...),

We got to chat with our friend, Kara,

I cleaned out the fridge AND the pantry (Go me!),

I made dinner to send with Dan to work (Cheesy Chicken & Broccoli Casserole),

Aurora actually ate and drank stuff today (It's the little things!),

Aurora went to bed on time... peacefully,

Dan got off to work on time,

and I'm blogging!

Next goal? Get Liz to sleep before midnight!

Kids These Days

Today I learned a couple of things; 1) Nose hairs act as "smell trappers" so that the smell of child throw up will NEVER leave your nostrils, no matter how much laundry you do or how many times you spray the floor with Lysol *kill me* and 2) I have road rage.

You see, the last few days around here have consisted of kids barfing, kids whining, kids in general, and lack of sleep. All of those combined = Count down to nap time/count down to bed time.

Confession: that makes me feel horrible. But some days, a girl just gets worn down!

One of the little gals I babysit has this perpetual cough and a sensitive gag reflex, which means exactly what you think it means...

Aurora is teething. Again. And the tale-tale signs of that are poo-splosions and projectile vomit.

Both situations cause me to feel completely helpless, because all I can do is rub their back and let it happen, and then try to keep them from stepping in it!
AND both situations make me want to scream from frustration, and pick them up, vomit and all, for a snuggle because I hate seeing them feel that way AT THE SAME TIME. Life as a mom is a struggle!

Then tonight, I drove to Wal-Mart to get some stuff for Aurora to eat (I'm starting the B.R.A.T. Diet to see if that helps), and this kind woman in front of me stops on a busy road to let people turn left so they didn't have to sit there forever waiting for a space to open up to turn. Yes, I say "kind" because, honestly, that's what she was being. BUTIWASJUSTWANTINGTOGETHOMEANDIWASSOTIRED! So I honked at the woman and pulled the most annoyed face that I could muster, then muttered to myself about how annoying that was that she'd hold up traffic like that, AND I held my hands in the air like "What the heck!?"

I then became "that" driver... (air quotes)... as I silently glared at her rear view mirror hoping she'd soon get the show on the road.

Looking back, I think that was a nice thing she did and I wasn't even in a hurry. I was just frustrated. I need to dial it back while driving..

But it is in moments like these or days like today this week, that I have to take a breath, take a power nap, and think of all the things I have to be grateful for. I think that in most stressful times in life, if you take a minute to be grateful for the little things, everything else doesn't seem quite as bad.

So here is what I have to be grateful for over the last few days:

♥ All major throw up incidents have happened on my kitchen floor and not on the carpet. Hallelujah!

♥ Nap-times and 8:00pm bed-times

Cute Abi taking a nap on the couch... Look at those lips, people!

♥ Date nights with my hubby... Whether that's been to the movies and shopping where he makes me laugh my butt off over a stupid joke, or a simple night in together after Aurora goes to bed, he makes me feel amazing!

♥ The sound of Aurora's wonderful laugh. Seriously, the best sound in the world. I love that girl.

♥ A visit from my mom and my sweet little niece, Grace! My mom is one of my best friends. I could talk to her for hours... and sometimes that's all you need.

♥ The beautiful weather we've been having and ward friends who invite us to go to play-dates at the park! It has been in the 70's this week and it's been amazing. Plus, I was able to meet a few new girl friends from my ward who are just the sweetest!

♥ And honestly, all these little people who I get to spend time with in my home as a babysitter/stay-at-home-mom. I'm grateful that their parents trust me to look after them as my own, I'm grateful to have the love of their children--I love them all, and I'm grateful that I get to stay home with my own little princess in the process! For that, I'd take the chaos any day!

Aurora and Abi (I watch Abi everyday)

One day, I even got to have 5 cute girls at once! Rilee (10 mon.) and Sophie (3 years) are my friend, Kjerstin's little girls and they were so fun! Then Shaun and Kara's sweet little foster girl comes over before and after school some days. She was basically like the cool older sister at age 6!

Beautiful day at the duck pond in the park by our house with Aurora and Abi

Our cute 3 year old neighbor, Max, comes over occasionally and tells us all sorts of fun stories haha

And on Thursday nights, while our friends, Allie and Brady go to a work meeting, we get their fun little Brilee!

Art

Today I babysat our friends' foster daughter when she got out of school. She attends a dual-immersion school where the students learn in Spanish and English, so today, I got the privilege of reading with her in not only English, but Spanish as well. And then... she drew me pictures while we all watched Barbie The Pearl Princess.

Basically, if you were to stop by on any given day, you'd hear replays of Tangled or some Barbie movie because, hey, the girls love it! And we're talking eyes-glued-to-the-screen kind of loving.

Tangled has quickly become Aurora's favorite movie and I'm okay with that! If I have to listen to songs over and over and over and... well, over again, I guess I'm alright with it being those songs. When she was sick, all she wanted to do was have me hold her and snuggle her, so we watched it quite a bit. And now, it's just the favorite. What can you do?

But back to business! We were talking about me babysitting our friends' little girl... Isn't she just about the best artist you've ever seen at 6 years old?? haha Let's take a moment to talk about this masterpiece she drew:

Genius! First of all, let's all appreciate the fact that I'm taller than Dan... or is it just my hair? Then take a moment to awe at our puckered lips. haha I love it. I absolutely love it!

Seriously, I will cherish any drawing given to me by a child forever, because they are just fun! Kids have a way of capturing their thoughts, feelings, and the world around them through what they draw in a way that no one else could. It's awesome!

We sure love having that little artist come over to our house. Some days she can be a bit loud and a bit hyper and a bit physically draining (that girl has some energy!), but every day, she makes my Aurora laugh and light up a room like only a good friend could! Yay for friends! I hope Aurora has a million more that make her happy like that.

Sunday, Monday, Yada, Yada

These last two days have been kind of great.
To the outside world, they may not look like anything spectacular or out of the ordinary... but for our little family, they've been awesome!

Yesterday, Sunday, Dan got home from work at 8:00am. Aurora and I were already up and getting ready for church. Aurora was looking beautiful in the new dress she got from her Great Grandma Rigby and her cute flower hair clip she got from her Barclay aunts and grandma. Dan came in cheerful, despite a hectic morning at work and he looked so handsome in his church attire. And I was feeling pretty! I mean, all you girls out there can probably attest that that little fact right there can be all it takes for the makings of a good day, right?

We headed to church together and made it just in time for the sacrament meeting to start. The meeting was wonderful and the speakers spoke straight to my heart. It was as if they knew what was going on in our lives at this exact time and said what we needed to hear; the talks were on finding hope through your struggles.

Now as I say that I felt those talks on that particular topic were quite touching to me, many of you might be wondering what struggles we're enduring. Honestly, not too many, but some of the people closest to us are indeed struggling and in need of hope.

As many of you who follow me on Facebook might know, Dan's dad, Steve, is battling Melanoma (skin cancer). I'll share what his mom posted on the Facebook group page we've created to clue you in on his story:

I think that his parents and the whole rest of our family are in definite need of hope while going through this scary time.

The second speaker during the meeting, spoke of his dear mother who has been battling different kinds of cancer for a total of 13 years. He told that she had been given a blessing in the beginning of it all that she would live to see her youngest son serve a mission. During the years that followed, she had to go through stage IV cancer in various forms and survive the pains of having her cancer go into remission and come back multiple times. She was given "death sentences" of a few months to live each time they found the cancer had come back. Yet, through all that, she continued to have faith that she would be able to battle the cancer and she continued to have hope that she would come out stronger. Now it has been 13 years and her youngest son is putting in his papers to serve a mission. Because she continued to have hope even through her struggles, she is still here to see the fruits of the blessing she received so long ago. There were probably many times, that it would've been easy to get discouraged and lose hope, but she didn't.

My beautiful Grandmother Dorothella Smith, battled with Breast Cancer for most of my life. She was diagnosed with it around the time I was born and then it went into remission until the last couple years of her life. My mom always tells us that one thing my grandma really believed in was the power of having a hopeful and positive attitude in light of her struggles. Cancer is brutal and it isn't for the weak; my grandma knew that what you needed most to stay strong in the fight was a positive attitude, a hopeful attitude that you could survive and come out on top.

I think that one of the reasons my grandma battled so long was because of her hopeful attitude. She didn't let the depression of her diagnosis seep in and take over her body's ability to fight, she went about each day one step at a time with brightness.

As I write this, I'm not saying that just having a positive and hopeful attitude will cure cancer or solve all your problems. What I am saying is that it makes it a whole lot easier for you to see the light in the world, even when it seems at its darkest. Hope shines a light and clears your mind to help you see the good through all the bad. The talks on Sunday were a peaceful reminder for us to have hope and to not give up the fight with Steve! It was also a reminder to me that our Heavenly Father does know us each individually and he knows the desires of our hearts. What a testimony builder!

After church, Dan had to help the interior design woman finish getting the homes decorated for the Parade of Homes coming up. Because of my friend, Marissa, and her willingness to watch Aurora, I was able to help Dan. We got a lot done and it has been nice that I've been able to spend this time with him. This little side job has really been such a blessing to us. Dan was asked to help by our good friend, Shaun, and it has really helped to fill in the gaps from when Dan wasn't working. I even got to catch up a bit with Marissa when I got home. I haven't seen her in so long! We are truly blessed to have such good friends living near us.

Today brought with it 70° weather and beautiful sunshine plus two happy girls and one happy mama/babysitter. I watched Abi today and I'm happy to say that she AND Aurora are both feeling so much better after all this sickness that's been sticking around. I was lucky enough to find another high chair seat that I could use for Abi at lunch time on the St George Yard Sale page over the weekend, so we got to have both girls eat lunch at the same time, on their own. They were loving it!

We also spent some time outside today and we had a fun time following Miss Abi as she walked around the apartment complex. It only became not quite as fun when Abi decided she was too tired to walk any further and I ended up carrying both girls back to our apartment. Together they are heavy!

I also took a few pictures of the girls while we were outside; they both looked so cute! My favorite one is one I took standing on our porch looking down on them from above. I'm sad I could only get the one shot but that's about all you can do when you've got toddlers on the move!

Dan was able to work over at the parade/model home again today while I babysat and then got off early enough that we could hold Family Home Evening! We had so much fun. We got Panda Express for dinner and then couldn't help ourselves and got doughnuts from The Fractured Prune while we were over there. But, really, can you blame us? I mean, look at those things!

When we got home, we sang a hymn and said prayer before putting Aurora to bed and watching a movie. Dan fell asleep during the movie, but it's ok. After his busy weekend of working working working, he deserves an early bedtime!

Happy Monday, everyone!

Double Post?

Ok, I know what you are thinking! But I promise, this is not my second post of the day... not technically, anyway!

You see, I'm what you'd consider kind of a night owl. Especially when Dan is off working graveyard shifts. I just can't, for the life of me, go to sleep at a decent time. Tonight though, I'm going to try!

Which is exactly why it is going to look like I'm posting twice in one day, but really, I posted once last night (around 2am) and once right now (at 10:30pm) and I live by the phrase that "It's not the next day until I go to sleep!" haha

And besides, I'm trying REALLY hard to keep up on the whole blogging front because I know how much you all hate love having to read my catch-up posts. So I gotta post! I gotta!

Today was a semi-lazy Saturday. I say 'semi-lazy' because while I did get a few things accomplished, I still didn't do all I probably should have.

Highlights included:

♥ Day #2 of my Jamberry Nails trial.
I'll admit... I wasn't that impressed on day #1, but they are much better the second day... kind of like soup! And now that I can see my regular nail polish start to chip while the Jams are holding strong... Love 'em!!

♥ Waking up to my hubby getting home from work and a text from my sister, Becca, announcing the arrival of their new little man, Lucas Knight Riddle!
Don't feel bad if you didn't even know she was in labor... neither did her own family! haha I was a little sad that I had no idea until the little guy made his appearance, but I'm glad mom and baby are doing ok and that my brother-in-law, Alex is taking good care of them. That's about all the information I have to share other than his stats: He came a week before due date (even though Steph and I teased she'd be a week late, like us) and weighed in at a whopping 8 lbs. 9 oz.! Welcome to the world, little Lucas! Isn't he beautiful?

♥ My sister-in-law, Laura, was awesome and came to sit with Aurora while she napped, so that I could go with Dan to work for the interior design lady again.
If you missed the last post, he helps her move furniture and decor for model homes in St. George. Today was a short day, but I got to look at one of the homes he helped with and OH. MY. HECK. I want to move in like yesterday! I told Dan that one day, one day, I'll decorate the inside of our home like that. It was beautiful. Both homes we had to run by were in spectacular areas of town; Entrada and The Ledges of St. George. And the sun setting on the cloudy skies was the cherry on top of a wonderful time with Dan. I mean, look at those clouds!

Oh, and p.s. Laura and Cody are pregnant!! They will have their baby sometime in August! It is the year of the new nieces and nephews, apparently!

♥ Seeing Aurora's face light up at seeing her dad and then watching her try to eat the peel off the orange was great too. I just really love my daughter, ok!? Could she get any cuter??

Sick of Sharing

Remember a while back, like a month ago, I told you all that Dan had quit his job and was on the look out for a new one? And I'd mentioned I'd started babysitting? 

Well, If not, there ya go. You've officially been reminded. And just stay tuned, because I'm going to give you all the dirty details of our lives, as follows. Just keep those above reminders... in mind.

So far, we are going on weekend #2 of Dan's new job, PLUS the end of week #1 for Aurora and me being sick. Luckily, I'm starting to recover and so is she... only after a very scary visit to the ER in the middle of the night. More on that later.

And we're back to Dan's new job... Dan got hired on at Eagle Ranch Academy! Yay! 

It's a youth home that he's on staff to monitor at nights. 

Like all night. 

On the weekends. 

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. 

All night. 

8:00pm to 8:00am. 

Am I a fan of the schedule? No. 

Am I proud of him for getting the job? Yes! 

Am I grateful for all his hard work and that he has the job? You better believe it!

But on nights like tonight, where I haven't seen him all day because of opposite sleep schedules and combined work schedules, we go back to me not being a fan of the hours. 

Everyone always posts those articles that go on and on telling you how much better you sleep alone, and well, all I really have to say to about those articles is, "What a load of bull hockey!" I'll take nights sleeping with my bed-mate over nights alone, anytime!

On the bright side, with Dan gone, that meant that Aurora and I got to have a little mother-daughter date night. Granted, my date did fall asleep in the car on the way to get ice cream, but we had a killer time eating it (after I woke her up) and snuggling to Tangled (Aurora's current go-to film) for the 30th time today. 

And although she thoroughly hated having her picture taken for date night, I'm just over the moon that she's feeling better! Sunday night was, literally, the worst night.

I contracted whatever it was that our little cutie gal I babysit had last week and was sick with low-grade fevers, headaches, cough, and runny nose for the greater part of the week. So on Saturday, when Aurora started to get sick, I just assumed she had the same thing and tried to work with it accordingly. 

Sunday, she had a fever of 101-102 F the whole day with medicine, and Sunday night when she hit 103.5 F and rising, I quickly took her into the emergency room. Dan was in Cedar City for the Superbowl, so I called him and he rushed back to be with us at the hospital, and I was so relieved! I was so scared, as I sat in the ER cradling my lethargic baby and they clocked her in at just above 104 F. Her breathing was rapid and she was SO hot.

I kept praying that they'd figure out what the problem was and they'd get her temperature back down quickly and that Dan would get there soon. And all those prayers were answered as the hospital staff went straight to work and the doctor saw us quickly and my Dan got there in record time.

Thankfully, they located the problem and figured that what may have started as whatever I had, escalated to deep chest congestion and a double ear infection. They started her on antibiotics and ibuprofen and her temperature slowly creeped back down.

So after being out sick and doing no babysitting for a week, we started back up today because we're both feeling better. And the new favorite toy for the day was the laundry basket. We had a good time!

But, oh, the downside of babysitting. 

The sick sharing. And yes, we're sick of sharing. haha 

Mad Hatter

Apparently, not very many people who live at my address love sweet and sour chicken for dinner.

And when I say "not very many", I mean I'm the only one who likes it.
Just me.
Everyone else tolerates it.

The good news? Leftovers. For me. For days. haha

Moving on.

This morning when I was feeding Aurora, Kaela text me to see if I'd want to go walking. I was really tired and lacked motivation so I debated saying no... but I'm glad I didn't!

We got ready and left our houses around 9:30am heading to the library.
I returned some books (after... oh... two months haha) and then sat on a chair in the children's section and read books to Harlie and then to Aurora. I could sit in there forever doing that! I love reading so I hope Aurora will, too.

Then we went to the park right next to the library and let Jack and Harlie play.
While Kaela and I sat watching them and playing with Aurora, we noticed that there were people at the pavilion giving out free lunches to kids so we looked it up and realized that Cedar has a free lunch program for kids up to age 18.
So we packed up the young'ns and got ourselves some free lunch!
Adults can buy a lunch so they can eat with their kids so we got one too.
Apparently this is something they do at the Main Street Park Monday-Friday from 11:30am to 1:00pm. Pretty sweet.

After that we decided to take the Canyon Trail through the other park to get back home.

I love love LOVE Cedar's parks! They are truly beautiful.

Around 4pm, Kaela and I left the kids with Jeremy and Dan and went to our soon-to-be sister-in-law, Laura's bridal shower at the Heritage Center.
It was a Mad Hatter theme (from Alice in Wonderland) so the tables were decorated with cute tea pots and everyone wore their craziest hat.

Also, I tried peppermint herbal tea for the first time ever!
Like, with a tea bag and everything! IN an actual tea cup with a saucer.
I felt very fancy.
BUT I did have to add a ton of sugar to like it. Also, I didn't like it hot.

Haha one gift that Laura got was some baking stuff.
Attached to a baking mix of some sort there was a note that said, "For when you DON'T want to be dessert." 
Then as Laura dug deeper into the gift bundle, there was a thong with another note attached that said, "And for when you DO."
We thought it was a clever "spicy" gift. haha

**I will add pictures of the shower later. My stupid phone died so I'll have to wait for Grandma Rigby to put them on Facebook**

ALSO!! My mom may have fed Aurora ice cream last night. Yup. She loved it.