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!

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??

I'd Never Do That...

Tonight is one of those nights where I eat my words as I, once again, realize that something I said I'd never do as a parent when I was a non-parent, I now do as an actual parent.

You know... we all know those people who aren't parents who say things like "Oh, I'm never going to do that when I have kids!" Well, yup... that was me.

So here I sit, tonight at 11pm not going to do something because Aurora is asleep. 11pm is her bedtime.

Before I had kids and our friends with kids would say that they couldn't come to something because their kids had to be in bed, I'd say to Dan, "I'm never going to do that. I'm never going to say we can't come to something just because our kids 'have to be in bed'. Kids can sleep anywhere! We'll just bring them and they can sleep at our friends' houses or whatever."

Well, Dan gently reminded me of this comment when I said, as an actual parent, "Ya know, we're going to have to start limiting our late night hang outs with friends because Aurora is starting to get on a sleep schedule and needs to be in bed by 11pm." haha

I've since learned that kids do better when they have routines; sleep schedules (aka 'bedtime') included. AND I continue to learn new things as a parent every day.

So the question you may have then is: Are you sad that you can't have your late night hang outs anymore??

And to that, my answer is: Not really.

INSTEAD of going out, I've had the lovely opportunity tonight of rocking my sweet, beautiful baby girl to sleep. I got to put on a movie favorite of mine, What About Bob?, and enjoy eating an avocado with a spoon, straight from the shell. I've had time to blog and blogging is completely relaxing to me. AND I get to have a bit of "me time" where I just get to sit and do nothing but relax in my pjs while Aurora is sleeping and before Dan gets home. "Me time" is nice... AND, sometimes, needed.

Parenting is definitely rewarding! We love our wonderful, little babe!

And, besides, we had a full day today.

Dan had a doctor's appointment this morning. And had blood work done. Hopefully they can figure out what's wrong with his body. It's time for him to start feeling good again! What a blessing it would be for him to be rid of his aches, pains, and ailments!

After the doctor's appointment, I dropped Dan off at work and Aurora and I headed over to the horseshoe pits to watch Dad and Erin compete in the doubles tournament with their partners for the Utah Summer Games. We braved the high temps with Mom and Cole and had a good time. PLUS, Erin and her partner won the bronze medal for their bracket! I love that horseshoes is something we can all do as a family. We've loved attending league on Thursdays and Dan loves pitching! We're looking forward to other tournaments this summer that Dan can participate in, too.

Aurora and I continued the afternoon with Artic Circle burgers at my family's house and then going over to visit her daddy at work. I love how excited Dan is all the time to show off our daughter and carry her around. He's such a wonderful father to Aurora! I sure love him!

When we finished there, we drove over to our Aunt Amy and Uncle Trav's house for a little birthday cake and ice cream for Grandma Rigby's birthday. She ended up leaving early with Grandpa because she wasn't feeling well but it was sure fun to spend a small part of her special day with her! The longer I know her, the more I grow to love her. She is one amazing lady! AND spending some time with the cousins and Dan's mom and dad and Caleb was lots of fun! Yummy cake, delicious ice cream, juicy blueberries, and lots of laughs!

Love Those Summer Days

Around here, we are loving summer and being outside and Dan's days off.

Today consisted of:
♥ sleeping in/snuggling
♥ visiting our friends, Angie and Wesley, and swimming in their kiddie pool
♥ playing pool in our garage
♥ hanging out with Jeremy, Kaela, Jack, and Harlie
♥ helping my grandpa put in the swamp cooler at my parents' house
♥ starting the "spring cleaning" project of cleaning up the outside of my house and enjoying the absolutely wonderful 8:30pm temperatures of summer nights
♥ Dan going to see the new X-Men with friends while Aurora sleeps and I watch an older movie called Roxanne (if you've never seen it, watch it!)

Also, last night when Dan got off work, he helped me with a make-over project involving our plastic outdoor chairs and "peek-a-boo blue" spray paint. Ahh! I love them! Problem to be fixed? The fact that the spray paint residue rubs off on your skin...and, possibly, your clothes...  I WILL find a fix because they're too cute not to!

Pretty Darn Great

9 Things that made the last 2 days of our lives pretty darn great:

1--I started out my Sunday morning with a 1.5 mile walk from my house all the way to the cemetery. It was a beautiful sunny morning and the smells of summer/spring are in the air and I just loved it!

2--I went to church with my family yesterday because Erin was giving a talk in Sacrament Meeting on gratitude. She did great! I ended up staying for the whole meeting and I went to Sunday School and Relief Society with Collette since both our parents are in the nursery. I was so SO glad I went with her. In RS they covered a talk by Elder Dallin H. Oaks called "The Keys and Authority of the Priesthood" from the April 2014 priesthood session. It's a great talk that helps us as men AND women to understand the priesthood a bit more. Needless to say, this talk was exactly what I needed. The topic has been on my mind lately and I was blessed to have the confirmation that my Heavenly Father knows me and knows what my needs are by having me be in that specific meeting to hear that specific talk at that time. Then I got to share what I had learned with Dan and we ended up having a good discussion about it. The gospel is so true!

3--Dan came to pick me up at my parents' house after church on Sunday and my mom and Erin were kind enough to watch Aurora for a little while so I could go with Dan over to his family's house to spend some time for Ryan's birthday. That was lots of fun! Cody, Jeremy, and Cody's friend, Carter Brown, were playing the guitar for us; we spent sometime outside flying a huge foam airplane, riding the mini-motorcycle around the yard, and swinging on the tire swing; we had a yummy frenchtoast dinner and lemon bars for birthday dessert; and just spent time as a family. I left around dark because they were about to start a fire in the backyard and I needed to get back to Aurora. Dan stayed for a bit longer and then I picked him up and we headed home. I missed him while he was having his brothers weekend activities so I was glad to have him home!

4--Our whole fam slept in this morning because Dan had the day off. Aurora slept in until 1pm! And even then we had to wake her up! haha That girl!

5--The rest of today was spent with my family to celebrate Memorial Day. Dan and I ran over to check the car wash (Sparkles) for our Uncle Trav while he's gone and then it was on to my family's house. We had the most delicious barbecue in the backyard complete with marinated steaks, dutch-oven potatoes, watermelon, and a summery salad then a jello-poke cake for dessert! It was hot hot hot outside so we mostly hung out under the canopies and laughed and talked until it was decided that we'd better go swimming...

6--Dan, Erin, Cole, Mom, Dad, and I took Aurora up to the Aquatic Center for her first ever swimming trip tonight! She loved it! The water was the perfect temperature and I'm pretty sure she could've just stayed in there for days. She cried when we left haha It was so fun to see how she reacted and it was great that my dad and mom were able to take some pictures for us! First time! Hello! Pictures were a must!

7--After swimming, we all met up at the cemetery to visit my Grandma Dorothella's grave. Alex and Becca met us over there too and my dad played the bagpipes for my grandma. It was such a beautiful moment to hear my dad playing them for her just as the sun was beginning to go down and everyone around was placing flowers for loved ones gone on.

8--To finish out the night, we headed back over to my parents' to play a little game of horseshoes. It was nice to just sit out in the backyard and enjoy everyone's company. And the weather was perfect! We even played fetch with Bec and Alex's dog, Tech! It was fun ...The only thing that made it not so nice was when a stray horseshoe bounced up off the cement behind the pits and smacked Becca straight in the face! Oweee! That poor girl! We'll be moving observation locations for next time... haha

9--When we got home, we all took showers to remove the remaining chlorine and then I fed Aurora while Dan played with my paints I'd left on the counter. When I walked by a couple of hours later, I noticed he had used his artistic skills to paint the ant bait I had on the counter. haha It's actually pretty good! Who knew ant bait could look so pretty!?

Saturday Saturday

Welp, Dan's gone tonight having an all-night bonfire with his brothers. So what did I do?? Well, I went on a walk to try out my new app called Runkeeper (Awesome!), hung out with my family, ate yummy steak and chicken fajitas that my mom made, baked up some brownies and then ate them, decided to apply for a teaching job for next year (Eeeee!!), came home and put Aurory to sleep, and painted myself a cute little lyric art piece inspired by A Beautiful Mess while watching Elf.

Yup. And it was great. Also, the weather was perfect during my walk and the smells of the outdoors were just...ahhh...heaven. I wish I could describe it!

Speaking of the great outdoors... last night we tried to watch the meteor shower that was supposed to happen, but it was overcast, so that didn't happen. BUT we did do a little fire out at my in-law's house in Enoch so Aurora got to experience her first fire. Which gave me the chance to dress her in this super cute, fleece winter-suit we got at her baby shower. Adorable!

Also, I present to you: Aurora's new trick! haha