Hide and Seek

A couple of months ago I decided it was time to finally get on a schedule!!  Now that I am on one I think to myself all the time....Why didn't I do this sooner?  It makes life SO MUCH EASIER!!  I actually make a menu every week so I know what we are having for dinner and go shopping every friday while Kaydence is at preschool for two hours.  (It goes a lot faster when I only have one kid! Of course I remember when I thought going with just one was hard! ha ha)  Every monday is my cleaning day where I clean our whole condo.  Even though I may not get the bathrooms done on cleaning day (because I dread doing them)  I try to not be too hard on myself because I know I will get it done another day.   I can't believe how much happier Vinny is with me being on a schedule.  I think this is something he has been trying to tell me to do for a really long time and it just never stuck so I think he is really relieved and very happy!  Most importantly I can't tell you how much of a difference it has made in my life and my attitude towards my motherly/wifely duties in the home.  I feel like I have accomplished some amazing thing when my house is clean and there is dinner on the table.  I was making dinner before of course but I could never make anything that I didn't normally make because that would mean I would have to go to the store at the last minute and I didn't have time for that.  I was cleaning my house before but not every week all the time.  This is really embarrassing but I have to say that even the bathrooms would go 1 or 2 months without being cleaned.  In my paper journals I have often written about being a wife and mother and all the things that come with those callings.  I have had a hard time with cleaning.  A lot of things I have had to overcome because of childhood experiences.  Cleaning when I was young wasn't because we were trying to make  a happier home, it was more about cleaning so we wouldn't get spanked and yelled at.  So when I got married of course cleaning wasn't fun or something I really cared to do.  With this schedule I have figured out how much joy I can really find in cleaning and taking care of my family in that way.  I want to clean so that my home will be a happy home!! Something I am sometimes really struggle with but if I just remember... having a happy home.... then those feelings of discouragement usually go away.  I love when my family is happy and most importantly I love when I am happy.  Having a happy mommy and wife really makes a difference with the spirit that is in the home.
So with all that said.....I have a story.  While I was putting the laundry in on monday I heard a door close.  I thought it was the door to our bedroom which the girls aren't allowed to play in because they usually just get into everything they aren't supposed too.  I went out to look and they were not in my room or anywhere else that I looked.  I started to panic thinking the worst....that someone had come and taken them.  I ran everywhere in the condo, checking the usual hiding spots only ending up to find they weren't there.  I went out on the balcony and called their names (which Kaydence usually responds too)  I ran back inside and checked every room again thinking I really must have not checked a spot where they would be hiding.  And then ran outside again this time screaming their names.  I heard in the distance Kaydence saying, "We are over here!"  I went out and they had gotten all the way down the stairs outside!  I was relieved but at the same time feeling a little overwhelmed with the fact that they could have been taken or hit by a car or they could have fallen down the stairs.  When I asked Kaydence what she was doing or thinking by going outside.  She responded..."We were hiding from you!"  I then explained to her that we don't go outside to hide from mommy and explained all the things that COULD HAVE happened and then locked the door so they couldn't get out again.  PHEW!  Thank goodness Heavenly Father is looking out for me and is easy to forgive my parenting flaws when stuff like this happens.  I am still trying to get over this happening but I know one day it will be something I laugh about so I decided to write it down. 

Went to the dealership today because they didn't finish the safety and emissions on saturday like we thought.  I was really nervous to take these two by myself but it ended up going really good!  They had a little room for kids to play in with little couches and TONS of toys.  They also had free popcorn and soda.  Which of course the girls loved!!! (and me too!)  Thank you Nissan Dealer for making our experience a good one!

Hurt.

We had  a lot of things (exciting things) going on this last weekend that it just flew by but at the same time the days seemed so LONG!  Kaydence has preschool, Which she loves going to,  every friday.  This last friday they got to go on a field trip to arctic circle.  It was so cute!  They showed them where they cook, store, and clean all the food.  They even got to make their own ice cream cones!  I think it is something Kaydence will remember forever.  They also gave her a coupon for a free ice cream cone which she just could not wait to use another day.....so we ended up going back there when daddy got home from work.  I love going to arctic circle because their playplace is more like a playground that you find at a park and kids can't get stuck in it as easy.  (So really I like going to there so I don't have to climb up into a big mess to save my child if they get stuck!)  One thing I don't like about going to playplaces is when parents just think it is a place where they don't need to watch their kids at all!!! My girls are small and usually get beat up by those kids whose parents don't really care or notice because they are so into whatever they are doing and figure their kids are doing fine.  If you can't tell it is something that really bothers me.  This friday had one of those said parents there.  Her daughter had an icecream cone in the play area where it specifically says, NO FOOD ALLOWED!!! Well her daughter must have been finished with her ice cream cone because she threw it from where she was standing.  Half of it landed on the stairs that all the kids go and the other half landed on the ground.  She then goes and sees her mom who cleans her up and is so happy that her daughter ate all of her ice cream cone. (since she wasn't paying attention and didn't notice that her daughter had thrown the ice cream and it was now all over the place.)  Her daughter then goes back to playing but not before she sees the ice cream that landed on the floor that I guess she wanted more of because she started licking the ground where it had been dropped!  Vinny and I and another mom looked at each other in complete disgust and then looked to see if the mom was watching, which of course she was not.  The other mom was so kind to inform that woman that her daughter was licking the icecream off the floor, which she responded by saying, "Oh it's okay.  It's not that big of a deal!"  We could not believe what we just heard but I guess to each thier own and I really hope that girl doesn't catch some weird disease from that gross floor she was licking.  Any way, the girls had a lot of fun playing and going down the slide!!! Saturday we had a birthday party for a neighbor to go to in the morning and then we waited around (anxiously)  to go get our new car that would be big enough to fit our whole family when baby cameron comes.  So when the time finally came we went to our good friends Matt and Tanshyle's (since that is who we were buying the car from) where the girls stayed and the men went to deal with buying of cars.  While they were gone Kaydence and Holynd decided to play with Tanshyle's razor...which of course ended up cutting Kaydence's finger. which of course gave me a screaming child with a really bloody mess!  I am so thankful I was at Tanshyle's and she was there to help me since I am really not good with blood... AT ALL!!  It took us a good 15 minutes to stop the blood from coming so we could finally put bandaids on it. And then another half hour to calm Kaydence down so she would want to play again.  We did survive though!!!

This is a few days later when she would actually let me take a picture.....and of course the bandaid had to stay on because it still hurts too bad.  (we have gone through TONS of bandaids and are now out because of this incident.)
That night we went and showed our new car to Grammy and Aunt Rachie.  While we were there Kaydence played with a Jesse doll from toy story two.  When we were ready to leave she didn't want to leave Jesse so Aunt Rachie was so nice and gave Kaydence the Jesse doll.  She LOVES her!

  She has to sleep with her and make sure she is close by during the day and even had to bring her to sunbeams!  She now goes around saying, "Howdy Cowboy, YEEHAW!"  It is so cute!  The only problem is ....Adallyn wants one so I will be buying her one this week so they don't fight over Jesse anymore. (Kaydence is pretty protective of "her" toys!) 
Sunday was great .... until Kaydence accidently closed Adallyn's pinky finger in the door. (The hinge part)  It looked aweful because her whole finger was smashed in there with the door fully closed!  Poor thing.  I am pretty sure that her nail is going to fall off. :(  She was screaming and to calm her down I thought it would be a good idea to give her a sucker..... yeah all it did was cause more problem when the sticky sucker got on her finger that was hurt.  DUH NICOLE!!! So then that just started a screaming fit again.  She would even try putting her finger in her mouth to make it feel better.  It was so sad.  I cried and cried as she would look up at me like, "help me please mommy....it hurts."  All I wanted to do was take the pain away and I couldn't no matter how much I tried to love her or distract her or pray for her it still wouldn't take the pain away at that moment so all I could do was cry with her. It was the longest hour of my life as I just held her while both of us cried. Within a couple of hourst hough she acted like nothing happened and started playing again. (Every once in awhile she would remember she got hurt and hold her finger.)  When Kaydence saw me crying because of Adallyn she started crying because she wanted mommy to be happy and she didn't like that I was sad.  It was so sweet.  Adallyn will not let me take a picture of her owie but it is already looking so much better.

 Their first bath after them both getting hurt.  Adallyn acted like it was no big deal and her finger didn't just get smashed in the door and Kaydence just held her finger the whole time saying how much it hurt.  I just love these two girls so much they make me so happy!  I am constantly being humbled by their sweet little innocent spirits!  I am so grateful to be their mommy!

She is 4!!!

My little sweetheart turned 4 on friday and I cannot believe how fast the time has gone by!!!  On her birthday I was looking at pictures of her when she was born and during her stay in the hospital and almost started crying.  She was only in the hospital for two months, but those two months seemed like years as we were waiting for her to get better so she could come home.  Now she is all grown up and already tells me what to do.  Just a little bit about our Kaydence right now.....
*She LOVES Adallyn!  She even pretends to be her mommy sometimes.  She is very protective of her, if anybody is even a little bit mean (that could even mean just looks at Adallyn the wrong way) Kaydence is right there saying, "That's my sister and you better be nice to her!" or "Don't be mean to my sister!"  Which is usually followed by Kaydence saying, "Come on Adallyn!" walking away with her arm protectively around her.  I love it so much!!!


*She LOVES baby Cameron! She has to tell everybody we meet that "Mommy has a baby in her tummy and his name is baby Cameron."  Whenever she even gets close to my stomach she will say, "I am sorry baby Cameron!"  In the morning she has to hug my belly and tell him how much she loves him.  I have a feeling that she will be just as protective with Cameron as she is with Adallyn and he will have nothing to worry about when he comes!!!


*She LOVES dancing and singing!  Her favorite song right now is, We are Young by FUN.  It is so cute to hear her sing along to the song or when she sings it without any music (which is what happens most of the time)  She will sing and dance ANYWHERE!!! It doesn't even matter where or who is watching she will just sing her heart out! 


*She LOVES princess' and dressing up in her princess dress ups!  There is not a day that goes by that she is asking me to put one of her princess dresses on.  She would wear it wherever she went if I let her.  For her Birthday she, of course wanted a princess tea party!!!  Her favorite princess right now is Rapunzel.  Usually when she has that dress on Flynn Rider is a name I hear often as she pretends he is saving her!


*She LOVES her friends.  Everyday she is wanting to play with someone, asking if I will call or text their mommy to see if we can come over.  Usually when when do go and play it is a battle just to get her to leave because she doesn't want to leave her friends, even if we have been there all day!


*She LOVES being dramatic.  She is already a little actress!  On her birthday she wanted to go to Arctic Circle and there was a little boy that was a couple years older than her following her around and you could tell that she knew.  She always has to make her actions and facial expressions very dramatic!  Especially when she is dancing and singing.  I hope I can get it on video before she grows out of it. 


*She LOVES being stubborn!  She does NOT like to go to bed and will fight it no matter how tired she is!!!  She will NOT wear pants because she says she is scared of them..... she will wear leggings though.  If there is not a clean dress in the house there is a half hour battle to get her to wear jeans. 


*She LOVES her daddy!  She doesn't like when he is gone from work for that long or when he has to work on the weekends.  He is usually the fun one who will play games with her before bed and cuddle with her!  (Daddy fell in love with her the day she was born)  She especially loves daddy/daughter dates!


*She LOVES to cuddle!  I love when she comes and sits on my lap and just lets me hold her!  I know that she won't always want me and I just enjoy the time that I get with her!


So there is just a couple things about my strong willed very loving little girl! Now on to the pictures from her birthday (or more like her birthday weekend) 

I had to start out with a few pictures of when she was in the hospital!!  It is no wonder that she recovered so quickly she is a strong willed little girl!  We love her so much!

Adallyn would get a present and give to Kaydence to open.  It was so cute!!

Kaydence was pretty adament that she make these funny faces when I took the picture!

For her birthday not only did she want dresses but she wanted a pink pig.  I had no idea what she was talking about but daddy came to the rescue and got her a piggy bank with some change.  She LOVED it and I am pretty sure that was her favorite gift!

(She also got two dresses from me and a new princess dress up... CINDERELLA)

She wanted a princess cake for her birthday but I really didn't want to spend 30 dollars on a princess cake so I made this one instead that she ended up loving just as much!

My cute little Adallyn loved the cake too of course!

Thanks to Grammy this whole birthday came together really great!!! It included peanut butter and jelly and ham and cheese sandwiches, salad on a stick, fruit on a stick and LOTS of treats!

All of her friends that came...Holynd, Alexia, Chloe and Adi.

 

Her wonderful birthday cake that grammy spent hours making!  You can't tell from this picture but it was pretty much amazing.  So amazing that Kadence didn't even want to eat it!

Kaydence being the leader that she is wanted everybody to put their hands in and do a little cheer. Don't know where she got that from!

Cute hats that they decorated with flowers!

And of course they had to dance!

All the princess' beating up on daddy!

Blowing bubbles!!!!

It was a pretty busy weekend and wore me right out but it was definitely worth it! On her birthday she went to preschool, arctic circle, and swimming! She was definitely spoiled by all her friends and grammy who gave her 5 new dresses so that mommy doesn't have to do laundry everyday to keep up with all the days she wants a dress. Thank.You.Grammy!  Kaydence, we love you and we can't believe how big you are getting everyday!!!  We couldn't imagine life without you, you definitely make it more complete! Thank you for choosing to come to our family!

Family pics

I know, I know this is my third post tonight but I have to hurry and do it while I have the internet handy. Plus, Vinny has been wondering why I haven't put our AMAZINGLY AWESOME family pictures on the blog so here you go.....

 I personally LOVE them and I think I have the cutest kids EVER!!!(but I may be a little biased) 

BIG SISTER'S!

So ovbiously it's not the best picture but it's the only one we had with them wearing both of their shirts.  We were so excited to finally be telling people that we are having a third! (well at least I was since I am getting more and more sick. ugh.)  I loved that it took people a little bit of time to figure out instead of announcing it. It was so fun and a great Christmas present for everybody. It makes me nervous that by this time next year I will have three to take care of but at the same time I can't help but feel so blessed. I love both of my little girls so much and I do not know what I would do without them in my life.  I can't wait to see this little one and welcome them into our crazy little family! 

CHRISTmas!!!!

Christmas. was. busy.  We had so much fun visiting with family but it was definitely crazy running from one place to the next.  Sometimes it didn't seem like it was Christmas. We got through it though and the girls still got to play with their toys. (Even if it was 9 at night)  

 Our Christmas Tree with all the presents!

 The kitchen that Santa brought for Kaydence

 They are so excited!

 My awesome new coat Vinny got for me! Just one of the many items of clothing he got for me!!! He loves me!

 Trying to get Vincen to wear something other than t-shirts all the time! (although he did get 5 of those for Christmas)

 The Quiet Book for church that we waited way too long to get.

 Overwhelmed and a little bored.

 Ovbiously a gift from Daddy!

 Adallyn's big present! (Belle doll and dress. Which I think Kaydence loves more than Adallyn)

 My surprise (literally) present.  I could not believe that I got a laptop.  Hopefully we will get the internet soon so I can blog a lot more.

Kaydence was pretty hilarious opening presents.  Every time she would open one she would say .... "OH. MY. GOSH!" as if she just couldn't believe that what she was getting.  She even did that with the clothes.  SO CUTE!!! We will miss Kaydence telling everybody that she wants a kitchen from santa. I loved how she said it. Hopefully she won't want anything too crazy next year.  This year I asked Vincen to get me a shirt and that he should make it a tradition. He refused at first but then he gave in and ended up buying me seven. I was in Heaven!  He also got me a wheat grinder that attaches to my Kitchen Aid that I am so excited about!  I think I had more presents than the girls! SPOILED!!! All in all it was a very good Christmas.
Also, I was so excited that Christmas was on a sunday this year.  It definitely made it more of a crazy day trying to plan church into the mix but I felt like that was the most important place for us to be on the day that the Savior was born.  I feel so grateful that He was willing to come to earth knowing he would have to die to save us all.  I can't help but feel loved and very blessed to be a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints!