Dear Dairy Products,

Oh how I miss you! These last few weeks have been harder for some reason than the last 7 months. You taunt me too often and every once in a while I give in to your horrible temptations. It makes me so sad when Michael is screaming in pain that I didn't have more self control.

I almost cried yesterday walking down the Halloween candy isle with the thought of enjoying Halloween without sugar cookies, doughnuts, or chocolate. Dum dums, smartee's, and starburst just are garbage compared to the rest! To make things worse at the end of the Halloween candy isle was the middle of the walk-way set up of all the holiday baking ingredients. Thoughts of Thanksgiving without mashed potatoes, rolls smothered in butter, or grasshopper pie and Christmas without caramel and fudge are haunting me now.

It was so much easier when I was losing weight so quickly. The sacrifice was rewarded with a happier baby and being able to fit into all my pants again. I have plateaued and now have lost my enthusiasm. The gallon of delicious milk just smirks at me as I reach for my disgusting soy or almond milk. Mike is enjoying all his yummy treats and not having to share at all. Grating cheese was already one of my least favorite dinner chores, now it is pure torture. How can you grate cheese and not pick in or eat the large chunk at the end?! Pancakes and yogurt, cereal with normal milk, biscuits and gravy...breakfast just isn't the same without you. It's getting too cold for my morning fruit smoothie and I haven't found anything I love as much. Just as I think our time apart is almost over, Michael has another day or night of puking and screaming. I wish I knew how much longer I had to be away from you. Please know that you are loved and missed!

Sincerely,

Julie

5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed

My brother who lives in Boise asked me to come babysit his kids for a few days so he could take his wife to see her cousin, Roy Halladay, pitch against the Giants in San Francisco. It worked out pretty well because Mike was going to be out of town for most of the time anyway. I had to leave just a couple of days before him and got home about 2 hours after him.

The 7 hour drive with me, the kids and dog was, of course eventful, but nothing other than the normal 7 hour drive with 2 kids and a dog by myself. Danny has 3 kids and a dog as well. I had kids ages 0, 1, 2, 3 and a severely handicapped 6 year old, 2 dogs and no hubby or any other adult for that matter for 3 days. It actually was fun! Each day there were 10 crazy minutes here and there, but that happens even with just 2 kids. We played play-doh, chalked and the weather was nice enough for playing on the playground in the backyard and going for a walk. I got a little nervous when I saw the girls playing on a skateboard on the driveway and hid that. Visions of bleeding children needing stitches with me trying to take all 5 kids to the ER started running through my head. A situation I didn't want to see if I could conquer. Other than a few bumps and bruises from the swing set it was an accident free few days.

The kids played really well together. Isabelle and Sydney are about 6 months apart and Michael and Nick are about 8 months apart. The most exciting part of the day was getting Kali off the bus and then having a bed party to welcome her home. She is in 1st grade now. They would watch for the bus to come and all scream when it came. I went and got her off the bus and put her in her bed. She's always exhausted after a long day. All the kids piled in to welcome her home and play with her for a few minutes before she crashed for her nap.

Overall, it was a complete success. It was so fun for the cousins and dogs to get to play together. To top it all off Danny and Karen had a blast and enjoyed the quick spontaneous get away without kids!

Which Battle?

So since we moved here, there is no good place for the dog food. I'm fine if Michael really wants to eat the dog food, go for it, I just HATE the way he smells when he's been in it. So I do try to keep him away. I got sick of the battle and finally said, "FINE! Eat all you want and decide it's gross and lets move on." However, with his digestive problems we had to take him off of ALL food other than nursing and rice cereal. Well of course the dog food tastes good! He would just sit there and eat handful after handful. I couldn't figure out what to do next.

Today he came across a paci in Isabelle's doll stuff and sucked on it for hours and never touched the dog food all evening. He's almost 1, I don't dare get him hooked on a paci now, but it was so nice to not have the chase for an evening. UG! That's all I have to say...UG!

Out of the mouth of babes

This conversation just took place at our house.

-Where are you going mommy?

-To the bathroom

-Do you need any help?

-No, thank you.

-Ok, I'll just be waiting outside. If you need any help ask me in a nice voice and I can come help you.

Wordless Wednesday

Me...wordless? Heavens no! This was supposed to be a picture post, but something funny happened today. Coming out of the gym, Isabelle yelled. "Mom, come beat me!!!!" In a totally happy voice. I realized how bad this sounded now that it was so public. We often will race doing things especially to the car and I always say, "I'm going to beat you." I think I need a new phrase.

Now for a "Wordless Wednesday."

Need a Laugh Today?

I don't know if anyone else finds this funny just to look at, but I sure do. She makes me laugh so hard every single day. Gotta love this goof ball!

My Tiny Baby

I finally got to take Michael in for his first well baby appt in 7 1/2 months. At 9 1/2 months he was only 14 lbs and 15 oz!!!! He's still not even 15 pounds! In all the pictures I have of him, you can't quite tell how tiny he is. I'm not too concerned because he eats a ton, is happy, and is hitting his milestones. Isabelle was a tank, so I was excited to have a tank of a baby boy. It hasn't happened. I'm sure he'll catch up sooner or later, but until then, we're gonna feed him like crazy and see if we can get any more weight on him.

Sibling Frustrations and Joys

Isabelle loves her brother. A LOT. She is always trying to help with baby Michael. ALWAYS. Michael loves his sister. A LOT. He has to always see her and see what she's doing. Isabelle just doesn't understand when he cries, STOP whatever she is doing to him. She thinks she is helping. However, Michael is also figuring out how to manipulate me. He loves me. He's a momma's boy. He knows that if Isabelle is in a 10 ft. radius and he starts to cry, I come running. I used to always come to the scene and there was definite need for mother intervention. Now sometimes she's not even touching him! Sometimes, he will see her coming and immediately look at me with a concerned face and I can just see him saying, "Mom, she's coming! HELP!!! Please do something!" What to do?

Isabelle is helpful and actually very helpful supervised. She helps with EVERY aspect of Michael's life. Dressing, diapers, stories, playtime, bedtime, etc. She can feed him. It's a big help when she feeds him. I'm ok with her feeding him as long as I get it ready and tell her what to feed him. The other day she put him in his high chair, and gave him some crackers and started mixing up rice cereal and a jar of baby food at like 3:00 (that's his dinner). You wonder where I was while this is happening? How long does it take to fold a small load of laundry? Long enough for ALL of this to happen. She's quick. She has dropped him on his head I don't even know how many times from moving him from getting into the dog food, or trying to climb up the stairs etc. She's being helpful, BUT...what to do?! Any ideas?! I'm running out.

However, all this be said. They LOVE each other. He will tackle her, and she will tackle back nicely as they laugh. He will not nurse while she is in hearing or seeing distance because he just has to be able to see her (as long as mom has him). Isabelle takes Michael on rides in the little red car and drives him around while they laugh hysterically. They snuggle in the grocery cart in the little seat part meant for one kid. Isabelle loves to get in Michael's crib in the morning and play with him. Bath time is just a hoot and you can't help but laugh as they splash around. I love when they just laugh and giggle and growl, and are so silly and it is the cutest thing on the planet! I just wouldn't trade it for the world. In fact I would even love to add another one to the madness. At the end of the day I love being a mom, but there are usually a couple of times during the day I just don't know what to try next with these two! It gives me yet another new respect for my mother. I'm so grateful for Mike and all the hard work he's putting forth for me to be able to stay home with these little sillies. All the little frustrations are so worth it for all the joy that comes with it!!!!

Happy 4th of July!!!!

Yes, that is the title of my post, but give me a break, I've moved since then. I have to post it because this is the closest thing to a journal I do these days...here goes!

In the morning we headed up to Mike's uncles cabin. We enjoyed the little Brighton parade as always and this year we had a fun little float. We threw just as much candy as got thrown at us.

We spent the day up there, and then headed to Mike's parent's house for driveway fireworks. Isabelle enjoyed sparklers this year especially with help from Grandpa or Mike.

Yes, we are all in jackets and under blankets...it was COLD!

Here is my cute son, yes, in a flowery beanie...it's all we could find. Did I mention it was cold? Hanging out with Grandma.

Michael looks fat here. Don't worry, he's still not.

I have different pictures somewhere, but couldn't find them. Plus my sister is missing my kids, so I put lots on.

The House Hunting Adventure

I'm plumb tuckered out!

I got to go with Mike for a few days to Spokane to find us a place to live. He had Monday off, but had to work Tues and Wed. The plan was to drive home Wed/Thursday to drive back up with the moving Truck, Sat/Sun for work on Mon. That was the plan....see later post.

We left Sunday and dropped Isabelle of at Mike's mom's. My idea of a 2 year old for an 11 hour drive, hotel room, and house hunting didn't sound fun. Thank goodness for grandmas! We had to tote Michael along. He did awesome for the drive up. We came the Coeur D'Alene way. We discovered for this drive, even if you don't think you need gas, potty, or food in Idaho Falls....YOU DO! There is NOTHING until Missoula other than teeny little places that you leave behind a leg or an arm for a tank of gas and some food. It's a good few hours of nothing but beautiful scenery. The drive up was gorgeous. It didn't feel as long as it really was. We made it to Spokane and got lost a gazillion times just trying to find the hotel. We got settled in our hotel and went to buy a GPS. That thing saved our lives for house hunting. It was awesome! Not to mention there are LOTS of one way streets and even more streets that look like major roads only to end in nowhere. That night we drove to the temple.

I only had a few stipulations for our house. The floor was clean enough for me to let Michael crawl around and the yard/street was safe/quiet enough for Isabelle to play. I'd also like to not feel like I'm going to get shot or mugged in my neighborhood. Well the first few places we saw maybe only hit 1 of the 3.

My favorite one...We're standing in the living room of a house and looking out the back window. The lady showing us the house said, "I do have to tell you that is the prison you're looking at. Some lady got really mad when I didn't tell her that. It's only a minimum security place, so they aren't that bad. They also do trash pick-up around here, but they're always in their orange jumpsuits and easy to spot." We're looking at an empty field and then a prison. Nothing behind this backyard and a prison except a wheat field? Thanks, but no thanks. Unfortunately, that place had new carpet. :(

By lunchtime, I had to drop Mike off for a lunch meeting and went back to the hotel for Michael to take a nap. I was so bummed and sure we were moving to a hole! After Mike's meeting, he got some input on where to look and that helped alot. We found lots of areas we liked, but nothing for rent. Along the way we met THE Gonzaga bulldog mascot. She was really cute, and I don't normally say that about bulldogs. We found a few places I was sure we were going to get some sort of disease just from setting foot in the house, and the million dollar homes. It was an adventure.

The guy Mike is replacing suggested we come look at his duplex. It fit all the requirements!!!!!! Tuesday night, we were calling his landlord and were able to sign a lease Wednesday morning.

Michael did great on the entire trip of being in the car for 3 days, until our drive home. He finally decided he was done, unfortunately it was 5 hours from home. He gave in and slept the last 3 1/2. Needless to say, it was a very LONG hour and a half!

We lived to tell about it and had lots of adventures in those few short days.

At a gas station: YEAH! I'm out of my carseat!!!!!!