So it goes...

 

Well the month and a half went by too quickly. We had such a great time over Christmas! We enjoyed a great ward party where the kids got to "shop" for gifts for the family. I also had a super fun night at a gift exchange with girls in the ward. Once Joey got here things went into high gear. We started his visit by going to see the new Star Wars film. I thought it was great, but I think the boys had warm up to it. After church on Sunday we headed north to the Twin Cities to go to the Mall of America. We did it last year and it was a ton of fun and we thought Joey might enjoy it. It was a short trip but we had good time. 

It snowed Christmas Eve and we had the best time going out to play in the snow and we made a pretty good snowman. Christmas morning came with lots of great gifts and food. We had fun Skyping with the grandparents too. Johnny was back to work after Christmas so we spent the rest of the days trying to keep ourselves entertained. Joey gave me a day off which was greatly appreciated. I went to my doctors appointment sans kids and then had lunch with Johnny at the hospital. then I took myself to see Star Wars again!

New Years Eve Johnny was working so Joey and I took the kids to a party some people in our ward were having. We played volleyball at the church for a bit. While everyone else had dinner we went to the hospital to see Johnny and have some ice cream. We went back to join the party at the Henderson's to eat and play games. We had a great time and good laughs. 

Once Joey left it was back to our normal routine which now includes weekly doctors visits and weekly ultrasound and NSTs. The kids are not loving being at the doctors so much, but I am enjoying getting to see my baby once a week and getting to spend lunch with Johnny at the hospital. Things are going well with the pregnancy. Baby is growing at the right pace and heartbeat is good. It looks like a Cochran and we got to see some hair today in the ultrasound! Daphne is not enjoying school very much this week. We had been having so much fun with it and then we took a break while Joey was here and ever since it has been a little bit of a struggle. Johnny has been looking at job opportunities for the last couple of weeks and has had a few phone interviews that have gone well. We are heading to Wisconsin in a couple weeks for a face to face, which I'm excited for, but we are going to have to wait til after baby comes to go visit other places.

Thanksgiving!!!

Well all week led up to the big Turkey Day! I hadn't been excited about it this year for some reason. I think it was our trip to Minneapolis started our Christmas season early. But over the weekend we invited our friends the Harts for dinner so I was a little more excited then. I love hosting things for people! So I woke up and made monkey bread, shoveled snow, and put the parade on for the kids. Friends came over at noon and the kids were having crazy fun. The turkey took longer than anticipated, but it was so worth it! BEST TURKEY I EVER MADE! 

We had a great time with them and Daphne was sad to see her friends go. We talked to family on skype and then it was off to the races. I "love" our tradition of Black Friday shopping. We got to Wal-mart right at six and the WHOLE parking lot was full we had to park across the street. Let me just say it was crazy in there. We also headed to Target which was much less crazy.

Dressing up the house happened over the whole week. I did the outside of the house all by myself! both trees turned out good too. 

I am so excited for the Christmas season! So many things to look forward too! Lots of parties and visitors and a trip to AZ!!!!

Helpful Friends

This week was a normal one. We spent a lot of time hanging out, doing school, trying to keep warm. We had a visit from my visiting teachers on Tuesday. I love that one of them is my good friend Mindy. She has three little girls and Daphne adores them. She loves when they come to play. I told them about needing to get some things done around the house, but not having the required tools. The most pressing being our bathroom door. So Mindy, the kids and her husband, Steve, came over yesterday to help us. It was great fun and we got the door back up so win win!

Oh...maha!

This week seemed long because all week I was just waiting for the weekend. Not a ususal pastime of mine, but I knew once Johnny got home on Friday he would be all mine for almost a week. So I couldn't wait!

I have started doing preschool with Daphne. She isn't to happy about it and I have to say its not my favorite part of the day, but she is so smart and I want her to succeed. Monday we had a repairman at our house. Our heater was not working which is not a good thing here in Iowa. He could not figure out what was wrong with it, which was making me nervous because my thought was that we were going to have to replace the whole heater. Thankfully it ended up just being some rocks in the exhaust pipe. We also took a walk and ended up going to our typical hang out, McDonalds. I miss being able to go to a park, but its really to to cold to be outside for any amount of time. 

Friday finally came and I was so excited. After putting the kids to bed we watched a movie. Saturday was the big day. We had decided to visit our good friends the Jevene's. They were on the Island with us and its been three years since we've seen than ans it was great to see them. They also watched the kids for us so we could go to the Temple. The Temple was tiny, but beautiful. It was so nice to get to go with Johnny which also hasn't happened in a long time. We got headed home a lot later than we were planning so the ride home was hard. Church was even harder. The kids were quite tired, so they were cranky, but we got through it. 

Tomorrow we are heading north for a couple of days. We wanted to go to Nauvoo, but the temple is going to be closed so we searched for another location for our mini vacation. We settled on Minneapolis. Santa is making an appearance at the Mall of America which we thought would be fun. 

Happy Birthday Doodles

Monday I spent my day cleaning house and prepping for Daphne's party. We really didn't decide to have a party until last week so I didn't have a lot of time to plan stuff. We decided on easy. I made a simple lunch and to just let the kids play in the pool and sprinkler and have some water balloons for them to pop. 

The big day arrived and I'm grateful to say everything went very smoothly that morning while I made all the food and got everything ready. I was a little nervous because when I woke up it was overcast, but the sun came out and it turned into a beautiful day. Daphne woke up asking when her party was and when her friends would be here. She was so excited. The kids had a great time and I'm so glad. 

Daphne requested a chocolate cake with berries and I was happy to oblige. I trained her well! I was happy with how it turned out and everyone loved it.

Wednesday we took advantage of having the car and went to a playgroup the stake has. It was at an awesome park in West Des Moines. It is on a lake with a beach. It has a great playground and a little splash pad. The kids had a great time and I got to meet some new girls. We are actually going to go to another play group with a couple of them tomorrow. We also went to the mall and Costco since we were on that side of town.

Playgroup on Thursday was very nice. It was at a great play ground. It was so nice to get to know some more ladies a little better. Daphne had a great time with the kids and I think my have found a best friend. Eliza is 3 as  well and they just loved each other. 

Friday we went out again cause I had some things I needed to get for the house. It was a horrible outing. Daphne pooped in her underwear THREE times. The last time I just bawled while I cleaned her up AGAIN. I am getting so frustrated with this potty training thing. She knows how to do it, but she chooses not to use the potty and it is wearing on me. We have been working on this for almost a year off and on and she does really well for a month and then decides not to go anymore. Its just so frustrating. 

Saturday was fun filled. We headed out as Johnny came in from his last night shift. It was sad to go have fun while he was home sleeping, but he needed it. We went to our ward's Pioneer Day Party. We had stick pulls and games and a cute little covered wagon for the kids to ride as well as a potluck lunch. Daphne had a blast playing with friends and getting to run around.

That night we went to the Indianola hot Air Balloon Launch! Johnny volunteered to be the doctor on hand at the first aid trailer so we got free tickets. Let me say it was so cool. Daphne couldn't believe how big the balloons were and Quen got pretty into it to. I would say there were at least 50 balloons! It was a perfect night to be out to. They had a live band playing, so Daphne and I had to have a dance party. We especially liked the parrot, monkey and puppy balloons. We had a great time! 

I'm happy to say that after a hard week in potty training Daphne has had no accidents the past two days. I think our decision to withhold movies has helped a lot. Hopefully it lasts. that would top off this awesome week! 

Lunch and Dinner and Zombies, OH MY!!!

This week was a fun one. Th

e first of the week was pretty routine, but we had a fun weekend. 

Thursday I spent the afternoon talking to my high school friend, Lisa. We had a good time catching up and we decided to be weight loss buddies. I really need this cause I'm way out of shape and can't fit in any of my clothes. 

 Friday morning I took the kids on our weekly walk to McDonald's. We always have a lot of fun going and playing at the play place. I was so proud of Daphne because she walked the mile there and the mile back. She was a "little" cranky on the way home, but it was understandable. When Johnny got home he took us on one of our family dates. We tried out a local favorite called Zombie Burger. It was a long wait cause it was BUSY, but the food was good and the atmosphere was great. We may have to go back! We had a great time walking the shops around as it was a beautiful night.

Saturday we headed down to the Farmers Market. We need to make sure to go as early as possible cause if you show up at 10 it is packed. We headed straight over to the Hart's house for Kyle's birthday party. They had some fun games and good food. My kids were pooped by the time we got home so Johnny and I played games until dinner. 

Johnny has a week of night shifts and I'm not looking forward to it. Last time he did it it was miserable, but we will have the car so we will have to take advantage.

Extra Kiddos

Johnny didn't go to school on Monday because a big storm was supposed to snow us in again, but it ended up not snowing much. We just stayed at home but we did give Quentin a little haircut. We tried just trimming around his ears, but it looked weird so we ended up buzzing it. It was a little sad at first, but I decided I like it how it is his big brown eyes stand out even more and who knew there was a little blonde boy under all that hair. 

We didn't do anything out of the ordinary until Friday night. I babysat for a couple in our ward so they could go out to eat and then go to the temple. So I had six kids to take care of including mine. I was a little nervous especially since one was only 2 months old. 

But the kids had so much fun and it was so much easier than I thought it would be. Daphne was so happy to have someone to play with. I had a fun time cuddling with this little cutie. I thought Quen would be totally jealous, but he was fine with it. 

Johnny had to work on Saturday so it was another normal weekday basically. I don't like not getting a full weekend with him, but sometimes you gatta do what you gatta do.

New Friends, New Tricks

Daphne, Ryan, Sebastian

If you have read my blog since the beginning you will know I have a Facebook Group of ladies known as the Bahama Mamas. They are ladies that were all due the same week that Daphne was due. These ladies are great, strong and encouraging women. It has always been so nice to be able to talk to real moms whos kids are the same age as mine. Monday we finally got to meet a couple of them that live here in the area. It was so fun to get to get out and talk with grown ups and the kids had a great time.

The rest of the week was spent at home continuing to potty train Daphne and I am so proud to say she is a potty trained girl!!! She goes all by herself even being able to pull on and off her undies. She is still in diapers at night, but she often wakes up with a dry diaper so it may not be to much longer before she is out of them completely. I can't even say how proud I am of her. 

Quentin turned five months on Friday and I'm glad to say he is doing well. We have started to feed him baby food. He is also getting a little more balance and I think he may be sitting up pretty soon. He has discovered his feet and its so cute when he grabs them. The two kids are so cute together when they play. They love to play peek-a-boo together and I love to watch them. He has regressed a little in the sleeping department. He was sleeping through the night, but has started waking up two or even three times at night. This makes it hard to get through the day, but I have gotten to take a nap a couple days, but it always seems to short.

Thanksgiving....plus a week.

We had a great Thanksgiving and I hope you did too. Johnny was done on Tuesday so we got a really long weekend with him, which is always fun. I spent all day on Wednesday prepping for the big turkey day. I like doing this because it makes Thursday so much easier and I get to enjoy spending the time with my family instead of in the kitchen. I didn't do all homemade stuff this year though most of it was. We had a TON of food leftover, but that is fine by me. We made our thankful hands on Wednesday as well. We started this little tradition in Dominica with my good friends Katie and Clair. I loved doing it, so we have kept it going.  Thursday I got up and made breakfast and then got the turkey in. We all sat and watched the parade together. I missed Santa because I was started cooking, but that is okay. We ate early so we could get to talk to family and then go out for "Black Friday"(which for some reason starts on Thursday now!) We didn't get much, but we got a couple good deals. 

Friday I usually put up the tree and decorate, but we didn't have a tree yet so we went out to the mall and walked around. Saturday I was a busy girl. I went out to go get a tree and then I had a practice for singing. I also had to go shopping. When I got home we cleaned up the house. I put up the tree and then we waited for our guest to arrive. 

 One of Johnny's classmates, Bryan, is staying with us for two weeks while he does a short rotation here. It has been fun for me because he has taken Johnny to work with him so I have had the car and been able to go out. I took the kids out one day to just walk around at stores and it was so nice. It was my first time being out just me and the two kids and I'm proud to say a survived. We also went to the Lego store for their Free Build. Fun times!

To much fun to handle! (Pictures)

Sorry, these are very out of order!

Cinderella and her Prince

Halloween

Me and Katie!!!

All the Dominica Kids! They belong to us, Jamie, Holly, Crystal, and Ann.

Daphne had a ball playing with Hayden!

Pioneer Children at the Temple VC.

Two Months

Me and the Sister at Arlington

Kirtland

Living the good life

I feel so lucky right now. I have the two best kids in the world. Daphne is doing so well adjusting to having another kid in the house and sharing mommy. Quentin is just perfect and is giving me plenty of sleeping time. It has been pretty stressful around here because of this move. I have been going crazy trying to get our apartment situation figured out and figure out packing and these two kids have been so good I can't believe it. I know The Lord is blessing me at this time and I thank Him and all of you that have been His instruments. Thanks to all the friends that have visited and brought meals and thanks to our parents for all you have done for us. I don't know how sane I would be without you right now.

On Wednesday Quentin had his first doctor appointment. He is growing way to fast. He gained an inch ( he is now 20) and the scale said 8lbs 3oz, but I don't think that is accurate because they didn't take his full diaper off. He got a clean bill of  health, which was very relieving after Daphne's first experience with a doctor. 

Daphne is 2!!!

 

 Monday was Daphne's big day. She is officially 2! We didn't do much until Johnny got home from school. When he did we opened her present, a little doctors kit, which she loves. We made her chicken and veggie kebabs for dinner which may turn out to be a tradition. Daddy then made her birthday cookies. We talked to grandparents and it was a great day.

 

Tuesday morning was the big party day! We got up early and johnny dropped me off at the splash pad so I could decorate and he and Daphne wen to get the pizza, veggies and ice. They got there right on time for the party to start. I know she had so much fun, which is what I wanted. All her friends came and she loved giving out the "goodie bags" to each of them. They played and ate and had a great time!

 

I love my little girl and am so proud of how she is growing. She is so smart and so sweet (most of the time) and I can't wait to watch her grow into a beautiful woman. I hope to be a good example of that to her. Love you baby!