Here she is...

She is ready and waiting for us to make her ours....

So I haven't blogged in 14 days but let me start in with my excuse. First off- the Christmas flurry. Secondly, sick kiddos and lastly, getting a house. Yes my friends, we are finally under contract on a home and I couldn't be more thrilled. So I will be back soon and please forgive the horrific punctuation.

"Mom, J smells like the sewer!"

Yes, she did. I went to investigate the sewer claim and found nothing. Strange. So bath time it was. I am sure I'm not the only every other day bather mother. Am I?

Speaking of sewer smell, house shopping is in full swing. There are some people out there who want an ass load of money for their not so great house. These people are usually a "distressed seller." Seriously people. And don't even get me started on the number of short sells out there. When is our society going to get responsible? You are accountable for reading the $^&*@ fine print.

I'm not claiming to have not made mistakes, financial or otherwise. But those were my cross to bear. I'm sick of people wanting top dollar for shit they can no longer afford. Deal or foreclose. Its that simple. The one house that was reasonably priced and nice was gone as quick as we saw it. It went under contract while we were trying to figure out what to offer. Damn the luck. So tomorrow I hit the pavement alone. AHHH... So not looking forward to it. My hubby will be at work but those are the breaks.

"Mommy- that's santa's husband!"

Yes. That is exactly what she exclaimed when we rolled up to Santa's House @ the Christmas Village field trip. I politely told Hannah that in fact that was Santa's wife but we would love him just the same if he opted for a husand instead. She stared at me confused. The field trip would have been more fun hnad it not been 24 degrees and I didn't have a 1-yr old who thought everyone wanted to hear her scream like a banshee. She is such a treat somedays.

Our J-Baby

Justyce. Justyce. Justyce. This post is going to be dedicated to my little girl. I am going to say once again- she is so hard. She is the most difficult child I have ever had to deal with. Not that I have a long list of children whom I have cared for under my belt. I am so not a kid person. Kids are such a foreign being to me. I love mine and completely get mine but the rest just intimidate me. Anyway- back to J lady.

This child makes everyday a challenge and most days I am exasperated beyond belief. I consistently find myself commiserating with my mom and my husband about Justyce and just how hard she is. Right now I am realizing that I need to stop. I need to look at the positive. Justyce has made me a better mom. I constantly am having to find new ways of being patient and creative in order to meet her insatiable needs. She needs what seems like constant attention. But I am finding that its not constant attention that she needs but constant inclusion. As long as I strive to constantly include her in my day our days go much smoother.

Of course she still has her meltdowns and gets frustrated and yells at us all day. It wouldn’t be a day with J without that. I think J just needs more than Hannah did. Hannah is so easy. J has been hard from the 6 week mark in the belly. She has me on some form of bed rest for more than half of her stay in my body and in constant pain and fear of her ejecting herself early. And then she did eject herself early and has fought an uphill battle since.

I constantly wonder what the future holds for her to need such special love and guidance and I hope that I can help her meet her challenges successfully. Hopefully when we meet her challenges, together, she will still laugh and scrunch her face at me. She will still be everyone’s J-Baby.

"Mom- Justyce needs a crate like Hurley."

Me and the chicks after going to Rodizios with Daddy, Tyler and Michelle.

Just the chicks. Oh, and lamby. I must have been weak since I let him out of the house considering the losing him @ FrontRunner incident!

JC touching things she shouldnt.

They partied a little too hard @ the Victory Party.

Yes, her shirt says Barack for my birthday. JC's 1st birthday was on election day and she got her wish. :)

"Mom- you are the best freezer pizza maker."

This is me and the chick peas @ the Utah Democrats Victory Party.

This is JC @ daddy's halloween party.

Hannah was a geisha. She is obsessed with all things asian- including sushi. That is a mouthful of donut not sushi- thankfully.

Hannah @ Tyler and Michelle's wedding. She is mad she had to go open before the bar opened. :)

JC and I at said wedding.

"Mom, what was that noise?" "I don't know, Hannah" "Mom, it absolutely wasn't a turtle!"

I am going to start titling my post with Hannah-isms. There are so many everyday. Maybe someday soon we will have J-isms. The Hannah-ism is from driving to Salt Lake last night to meet Daddy and get some dinner. There was a small noise in the truck. I think J dropped her sippy cup.

Hannah got placed in the highest reading group at school, the red reading group. I told her that participating in the group would help her become and excellent reader. To which she replied, "I can already read. I don't need a group." She is so modest. ;) The kid just tells things like it is. Kind of like how she told her great-grandma she was going to grow up and get a tattoo on her back like her mom, its better than getting one on your arm like her aunt. I don't even think my grandma knew I had a tattoo. Thanks, Hannah!

Dilemna...

I always feel like I am having some sort of dilemna. Right now we are looking at making a locational change for our family. Houses are so freaking expensive. Its not the price tag on the house. Oh no, its the monthly payment every month for the next bazillion years. And if I move I want to NEVER have to move again. I want my final home an unfortunately I don't see that happening unless I make some serious lifestyle changes. It's not that I am afraid to make those changes, It's that I am afraid I am not disciplined enough to stick to those changes. I am not a naturally disciplined person. I cheat on diets, i don't take work seriously, I don't frequent the gym as I should, I impulse buy, I haven't done what I need to do to be good in the kitchen and I just plain do what I want.

How do people do it? How do they stick to a budget? How do they stay committed to being a good homemaker? How? How? How? I can do it. That I know. But can I stick to it? I would need to in order to get the kind of home I want, where I want it and not have to go back to work full-time. My biggest qualm is that I get my house and I don't stay disciplined and then I have to not go to school and work full-time and have no one to blame for my situation but me. I need some sort of frugal, homemaker rescue. Someone to come in, kick me when I am down and help me be disciplined and keep my wandering eye on that light at the end of the tunnel.

Changes...

Yay! So I finally got my part time shift. I am stoked! It starts Friday.

It's been awhile...

I need to update- that I know. I am now on a couldn't be worse shift where I have to be to work @ 5 am and I am still in limbo on whether or not I can switch to part-time status. Once I get home from work I am too exhausted to do much of anything besides play referee to the kiddos. Our sitter is finally back in town and will start watching our kids tomorrow so that will make things a little easier. I have gotten so spoiled by having a caretaker come to our house and watch our girls that having to go pick them up seems like a huge chore. I know, enough whining. But it doesn't end there. ;)

Hannah is going to St.George this week with my mother-in-law to visit Hannah's great-great grandmother. She is lucky to have such living relatives! I am nervous because she is going to be gone for 4 days! I have NEVER been seperated from her for that long, except of course for me to go on vacation. It's a little surreal for her to have her own life and to be able to go on a trip without me and her biggest concern in how much she is going to miss Justyce. It just reminds me that someday she won't need me anymore and how much I don't want that day to come. Tomorrow I will update with pics. We have had some big events since I last posted. J turned 1 and the chicks partied it up @ the Utah Democrats victory party. More to come on all that...

Her big heart rears again..

She is such a good kid. She just came into my room and told me she wants to get her sister a dollhouse for her birthday. She said it will probably take all she has in her piggy bank and asked me to help her open it? I asked her if she was sure she wanted to spend all her money ona gift for J. She looked at me like I was crazy and said, "Of course, she is my sister." WOW! Selfish me.

My mode..

Well I guess I am in party planning mode. We had planned on having J's birthday party on Nov. 8th but for logistical reasons had to change it to the 1st! I have like a week. It goes against Chris' cardinal rule of not having celebrations before the milestone is achieved but what can we do!

I went to get my nails filled today while Hannah was in school and just took Justyce. She screamed and screeched the first 20 minutes. Then a nice lady who was waiting for her highlights to process offered to hold her. She picked her up and J kept launching at me. I finally took her all while getting my nails done still because she was getting to be too much for the lasy to contain. When I got her she looked at the lady and laughed and clapped. She is such a brat sometimes and she gets away with it cause she is cute. That is going to haunt us one day...

FINALLY! A real word..

Justyce finally says something other than "huh" on a consistent basis. She now says "dada," all the time. Yesterday while he was on speaker phone I had her talk to him and she said "hi dada." It was the most precious thing ever. She is getting so big and smart. I can't believe she will be one in less than a month.

The sickies continued...

So we went and saw our beloved Dr. Gabrielsen and J-Baby has an ear infection- an extra inflamed ear infection. She got a shot of antibiotics at the office that the nurse said would sting and be very painful. We also got antibiotics to start tomorrow. The poor baby can't get a break. I don't know how I am going to get them in her since she is refusing all food and drink. We are supposed to give her 1 tablespoon of liquids every 20 minutes until her appointment tomorrow. By then he wants her to have had 36 ounces. I don't recall a day every she has had 36 ounces! Keep J-baby in your thoughts. She needs them.

The sickies...

Justyce has the sickies. We are off to the doctor this afternoon. She hasn't thrown up since Saturday but she is now refusing both formula and pedialyte- from either a bottle or sippy. All she wants to do is sleep and not pee. I feel so bad for our little woman. She has had a rough road.

Markets...

Is it so horrible that everyday when I see the markets crashing I breathe a sigh of relief that I no longer work in the investment world. I can just imagine the tension and the stress of having to explain to your clients about their losses. I worked in investments at a good market time and I still hated the stress of explaining losses- even though usually it was in a particular market sector.

On that note- I haven't logged into any investment accounts of ours. I don't want to know. Ignorance is going to be my bliss. The ecoomy is cyclical. The economy is cyclical. The economy is cyclical. That is my chant. H and J- I cross my fingers we (as a world economy) can get out of this mess and you will have money for college. If not, Hannah you would make a lovely artist and Justyce have fun in the circus. :)

My Wonderful Hubby...

My husband, Chris, is taking a big leap and running for union VP of his arena at work. The girls and I are so proud of him. We are proud of all the growth he has made in the last few years. He has become so centered on helping people and making the world a greater place to call home. We are so happy he is the leader of our family. Good luck babe! You're the best person for the job. kawaforscreening.blogspot.com

You would think....

You would think that after doing my own laundry for more than half my life (yep folks, I started doing my own laundry at 12. Make note for your own offspring.) I would remember to close the lid when I start a load. I went to wash my uniforms this morning- yes, I wait til the morning of my first day back at work to launder my uniforms- and low and behold when I went to put them in the dryer at the absolute last possible minute to be dry on time- I forgot to close the lid. So they are not only not dryed, but also not washed.

What a great start to the work work! At least I have off Friday for Michelle's bachelorette party. I get to go out with girls, have drinks, and not have a child or two for my extremities! I am stoked- for myself as well as Ty and Michelle. :)

Which remind me I need to get the girls some dresses for the wedding. I am tempted to have Hannah wear last year's Christmas dress. It's not too holiday-ish. Its cream and forest green. No red. Or Hannah can get a cardigan for one of her sleeveless dresses. Justyce for sure needs a new dress. She doesn't have a dress that isn't sleeveless and I doubt I could convince her to wear a cardigan. She would just want to eat it no matter how much logic I try to instill.

So I decided I need to be more frugal. Our goal is to have me no longer working fulltime by January that way I can go to school. If anyone has any tips on how to make it on one or one and a half incomes I would love to hear them. I need all the advice I can get!

HUH?

That is all Justyce says. She will start making other noises and we start to think she may bless us with another attempt at a work and all we get is "huh." It doesn't sounds like a question either; just a statement. Yesterday we went to Ikea and Chris and I were talking to her and she started to make the mmm sound. I was thinking mama was to follow. All we got was
"mmmmhuh." Seriously?

We have a fun trip to Ikea. Anytime we go there we spend hours without realizing it. Yesterdays tally was 4 hours. It was ridiculous. We got a lot of stuff though. We went to get some stuff to help organize the play room. We purchased some organizers- now we just have to actually go in and organize the beast. That is on tomorrow's agenda. We will see if we actually do it.

Little Blossoms

This year is going by so quickly. The greatest thing about this year for me has been watching the relationship between Hannah and Justyce blossom. I know they are going to be the best of friends. They play, antagonize, and love on each other all day. Hannah is so sweet with J. There was a time right after Justyce was born that I wasn't sure the relationship would ever evolve. Hannah coped by ignoring Justyce for the first month of her life.

Justyce worships Hannah. She gets so sad when we drop Hannah off at pre-school. It breaks myheart. She is ecstatic when we pick her up though. Somedays she fights her nap just so she can see her sister.

Today at breakfast they we so funny together. Justyce has a playfulness about her that is greatest when she is with Hannah. On a darker note, I know if something were to ever happen to Chris and me they have each other. That gives me a comfort I never knew I could find.

So....

I have decided to get us a little home of the web. I need to start chronicling our daily thoughts and adventures with these amazing princesses we have been blessed with. They challenge and fill us with happiness every day. I CANNOT imagine our world without them. Hannah is becoming such an inquisitive, miniture adult. She is learning to read and her logic astounds me everyday. Justyce has bloomed into such a spitfire. She is going to be the one to give me gray and cause Chris to bald.

I am hoping I am dedicated enough to ramble here on a daily basis. Wish me luck.