My list.

I just read a list of

70 Things To Do Before Having Children

Among the things to do were, visit the Amazon rainforest, scuba dive to a ship wreck, visit the north pole, spend a night pub-hopping in London, go to a vegas strip club... the list goes on.

What's missing?

Get married.

70 things to do before having kids, and getting married isn't on it.

Reading the list got me thinking. Should I have done a few more fun things while I was single, or before we started a family? What would it be like to "bare all on a nude beach."

It got my mind going on a list of my own. So here it is.

At least 25 things you will totally regret missing

out on if you spend your life on a nude beach.

1. Experience the miracle of childbirth, first hand.

2. Love someone more than you ever knew possible.

3. Get pooped on, and not even get that upset about it.

4. Heal a hurting owie with nothing more than a kiss.

5. Memorize a few (dozen) children's books.

6. Sit front row at your daughters first ballet recital.

7. Cheer from a few steps away as your fast growing baby takes her first steps.

8. Tear up as you walk away from the first day of preschool.

9. Get to know your pediatrician very well with lots of, "everything is fine" visits while you are figuring things out.

10. Feel a sweet little baby moving around inside you.

11. Play Santa.

12. Get to experience childhood all over again, as you watch your kids go through it. And actually, I'll argue to my grave that it is MUCH better the second time around.

13. Learn patience.

14. Learn patience again.

15. Ok, one more time.

16. Learn to rely on others for help. No one can do it alone 100% of the time.

17. Fall in love with your husband all over again as you watch him in his "daddy" role.

18. Hear the first "Mama" from your baby.

19. Get showered with sweet hugs and kisses and I love you's.

20. Have at least one ridiculous piece of jewelry made by a toddler, that you cherish more than your pearls.

21. Have muddy footprints that you avoid when mopping because they are just too cute.

22. Realize, your parents did the best they could, and really- you have a lot to learn from them.

23. Have a tea party with a REAL princess.

24. Have a vast selection of bedazzled tiaras at your disposal.

25. Test the limits of your imagination as you create a new bedtime story every night.

I could go on, but my dishes have piled up. This list I'm sure would be drastically different if we had any boys, but thats MY list.

Do I regret having a baby before I turned 23?

Before I traveled the world, or visited some exotic land?

Not for a second.

I wouldn't trade one stinky diaper or late night feeding for a New Years Eve at Times Square.

And to the person who puts off kids to complete their endlist list of "must do's"...

You will have a great photo album when its all over,

but you will have seriously missed out on the real joy in life.

Forgetting yourself.

You aren't giving up the adventures of life when you have kids.

Trust me, my daily adventure is way better than the Amazon.

“I don't want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully, tailored clothes, my hair expertly coiffed, and with long, perfectly manicured fingernails.

I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp.

I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbors children.

I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed someone's garden.

I want to be there with children's sticky kisses on my cheeks and the tears of a friend on my shoulder.

I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived.”

― Marjorie Pay Hinckley

Today was a GOOD day.

I feel like for the last 2 weeks I have been struggling to keep my head above the water.
The girls haven't slept well since we got back from our trip. They have been keeping me very, very busy.
The house is a disaster.
Meals this week might have included pancakes, apples with peanut butter, and even... popcorn.

I feel like I have been trying to figure out how to take care of Abi, and how to take care of Ellie- simultaneously. Last week, I flat out couldn't keep up. They both wanted one on one attention all the time, and I was simply out numbered.

Today was different.

Today I got to play with the girls.

I got to take care of the girls.

I got to read books to the girls.

I got to make a fresh, healthy dinner while the girls played together.

I think Ellie is finally getting big enough that Abi is starting to see her as a playmate and a friend, and less of the competition.

Did our day start with a bang when Abigail bit Ellie on the cheek?

Yes.

Did Abigail have a few time outs throughout the day for pushing Ellie down?

Yes.

Did the day come to a close with a bruise on Abigail's arm because Ellie bit the crap out of her?

Absolutely.

But in between the timeouts, we had a lot of fun today.

I love Ellie.

I love Abi.

and I love taking care of the girls all day.

So here is our day in iPhone photos.

I mean... I got to workout, shower, and fix my hair. Now THAT, my friends, is a GOOD day :)

Today I earned my Motherhood Badge

We just made it back home from a fun filled 12 days in Washington. We had a lot of fun, and got to visit lots of old friends while we were there. But that isn't what I am going to tell about tonight.

Our trip home was a memorable one, no doubt. We took the easy way out. We flew.

On our way to Seattle, we had an easy going morning, no rush at the airport, had plenty of time. The girls did great.

Then we got on the plane.

All hell broke loose. We kept joking that we needed a reality show or something because the flight was so bad.

Well today started off bad. Abigail was up a lot last night. We were up late last night, trying to pack all of our Christmas stuff into our luggage. Weighing, shifting things around, reweighing.

All 4 of us have bad colds and congestion. Ellie is teething.

We got out the door about 15 minutes later than we had planned, pretty normal for us, admittedly.

Ellie cried the whole way to the airport. We dug through the luggage, found the motrin, and gave her a dose.

We paid for a cart to carry all of our crap on. Because, well, you only have to do some things once in life.




We got checked in, and got to the bag check, crossing our fingers. The weight limit is 50 lbs. 49.6, 50.2, and 50.8. They let us squeak by.

We take our cart as far as they will let us go, to ease the craziness of carrying our 3 big carry ons, purse, and two backpacks and the two kids, a stroller, and a car seat. Security is where we must part ways.

We grab some lunch to eat on the plane, and then head down to our gate, of course, the last gate of the terminal.

They are already boarding. Why wouldn't they be.

We go to get a claim at gate tag for the stroller, and they have to stop boarding, and shift people already on the plane around, because we were assigned an exit row.

Boarding continues after a few minutes, and we finally get on board, the last ones on the plane.

We finally get to our row, and there is another lap child on the row, so we have to be moved again, and they move another whole row of people because you can only have one infant on a row because of the oxygen masks.

Finally, we are on our way. I joked to Charles that maybe since our morning had been so chaotic, they plane ride would be easy going.

I proved to be very wrong.

Ellie was all over the place. Abigail was in her car seat, and we thought maybe if we could coax Abigail to my lap to color, that Ellie might take a little nap in the car seat.

Success. Ellie napped for about 45 minutes. It was glorious.

We switched and put Abigail back in the car seat for a bit, until she started asking for some Mama snuggles. We got her out, put Ellie in the car seat again, and just as I sat Abigail in my lap, facing me, she got a funny look on her face, coughed, and threw up a little in my lap.

I took one look and knew that wasn't the end of it.

"CHARLES! (in panic) Grab a bag." Trying to be discrete, but seriously in panic.

I cupped my hands for a great catch. She filled them.

A little louder, and more panicked.

CHARLES! HURRY! A bag!!

He looks at me with a blank stare of horror.

She throws up again, with now where to go but my lap.

At this point, I am practically yelling at Charles as he rummages through our trash filled seat back pockets for a barf bag.

And with great timing, the beverage cart pulls up.

Charles finally gets the bag open and looks at me like, "What now?"

"Well bring it over here so I can empty my hands!!"

He finally does, and I get it to Abigail's mouth just in time for the last catch.

I look up and see the flight attendants just as they realize what has happened.

"Oh dear," one says, "I'll get you some napkins." The other flight attendant gags, and pulls the cart out of my way.

We head to the bathroom to clean up, while Charles rummages through the dirty clothes that got shoved in our carry ons when there was no room anywhere else.

I spent the rest of the flight in his pants, and a dirty tshirt.

After I got out of the bathroom, I apologized to the flight attendants. One of them put it well... she said,"Girl, that was all you, you caught every bit of that. Way to go., that was all you!"

The whole way home Abigail had a bag ready to go, but we made it home without any more incidents.



Then she walked in the house, ran to the trash can, and threw up again.

I don't know what is worse... if she has a stomach bug for the second time in a month, or if she is doomed to a life of motion sickness like her mother.

Actually... I do know what is worse.

Now, I'm going to go take some Tylenol for the headache I got when I pulled our carry on bag down and hit myself in the face with a shoebox.

Santa visited us for the weekend

Abigail got a cute little Elf from Nana for Christmas that she got to open this weekend. She named her Elfie and she loves her. She has heard about the Elf on a Shelf thing, and has friends who have elf's that disappear to the North Pole at night. Abi is really worried about Elfie disappearing. She sleeps with her, or puts her high up on the shelf so that she can't get down. First thing in the morning she frantically checks to make sure she didn't 'sappear, as she says it. When my dad was here last weekend, she roped him into playing the role of Santa. They were pretty funny to watch.

The Dance Recital

Abi has been really excited for her Christmas Dance "Bacital"

Mimi and Pops came down for it. She did a great job, and is so stinkin cute. She is the smallest one in the class by a long shot. It is so fun to see her up there having fun. I think we are done with dance for now, but she had fun, and loved being on stage!

Here is a link to the video if you want to see the whole thing:












I think Ellie is sick of sitting on the sidelines. She is ready to get in on the action!

Santa the Fire Chief :)

I really love our neighborhood. We won't be living here much longer, but they do lots of cool things. Saturday, they had the neighborhood fire department do their visit from Santa. They have the fire chief dress up as Santa, and they drive through the whole neighborhood and hand out candy to the kids. They were a few minutes early so we were scrambling to get out to see him. Abigail was wearing Ellie's coat, haha. Abi loved it though, and Ellie slept through it :) I love when people go out of their way to do things like this that make it such a fun time of year for the kids.

Christmas Part 1

My parents came up this last weekend to have "Christmas" with us before we left. They also got to see Abigail's Christmas recital, and that alone was worth the trip :) I didn't take very many pictures, but the girls both got some cowgirl boots from Mimi and Pops and the LOVE them. They got spoiled with several other things as well, but the boots were a big hit. Abigail opened them, her jaw dropped, and she just started hugging them. It was so cute, haha. Ellie put them on and started walking around. Hers have some growing room, they fell off once, and she started crying until we put them back on. I got a cute new Vera Bradley bag that I can't wait to pack and use this weekend, haha.

Gingerbread House

We have had a fun month getting ready for Christmas. We just can't wait to fly outta here on Saturday and spend the holidays in Washington this year. The next few days will be a photo blast of the different things that have been going on around here.

First, our Gingerbread house. Charles helped Abigail build it. Ellie kept occupied with other things. Then Abigail decorated it. She instructed me where to put the icing, and then she added the candy.

The Birthday Party

Birthdays are a big deal to me.

I'm not really sure why. I think it must be because my parents always went out of their way to make us feel special and loved on our birthdays. That, and... buying gifts might be my favorite thing in the world. I feel like there is only one day a year that is ALL about you. It should be special.

I try to keep things toned down, especially for the first couple of birthdays when they don't know what is going on anyway. But any little thing I can do to make it special, I want to do it.

I was a little bummed when I woke up on Ellie's birthday feeling a little queezy. I didn't get to make a big deal out of it like I wanted to, but lucky for me, she didn't know the difference.

I wasn't feeling very well all day, but I did manage to make a cake for her.

She opened her presents with a little help.

The cake was enjoyed Ellie, Abi, and Daddy.

Ellie handled it much better than Abigail did on her first birthday. For Abigail, I made her a little bear cake that looked like a real bear, and it made her cry. Haha.

Ellie dove right in once she got a taste.

Watching the three of them eat the cake pushed me over the edge.

I spent the next 12 hours hugging the toilet.

So did Abigail. Now she thinks cake makes her throw up.

I'm not telling her it doesn't, either.

My Ellie Mae

The first year of life is a funny thing.

For the first few weeks, you are still wrapping your head around having a little one.

And you wonder if you will ever sleep again. Then before you even realize it, they aren't so tiny anymore. You are thrilled when they start to roll over. Sit up.

Then- holy crap, when did my baby get big enough to crawl? Eat solids?

Now she is One.

She is walking. She is jibber jabbering.

She is getting feisty.

(I wonder where she gets that.)

I can't believe a year is already gone.

I find myself wishing I had taken time to enjoy it more. It has been a little bit of a rough year for me, trying to figure out some health issues going on. This year has been full of blessings though, and having Ellie Mae join or family definitely tops the charts for the year.

She is walking. She just doesn't know it yet.

She can walk all the way across the room if she has the right motivation. Other than that, she is content crawling, or- holding on to someone's hands and steering them around as she walks.

At 11 months she was 24 lbs. We will see what her 12 month check brings.

She wears size 18 months clothes.

(Side note. I just had to make Abigail stop wearing her size 18 month coat so that Ellie could wear it.)

She wears size 3 or 4 shoes. Kind of in between.

She only takes a bottle before bed. And not for long.

She eats.

and eats.

and... Eats.

She is allergic to eggs. Kind of. They give her the worst diaper rash you've ever seen almost instantly. Probably something she will outgrow.

She also has a bad reaction to squash, and possibly other orange/yellow veggies.

Diary is still undetermined.

She does the cutest mean face on demand.

She bites Abigail when she is being mean to her.

She loves, loves, LOVES playing on the stairs.

She likes making a mess of the doll house.

She gets into everything.

She freaks out when you put her in her car seat, but is fine once she settles in.

She wants to be a big girl. She hates having to sit on the sidelines and watch Abigail do certain things, like her dance class.

She loves baths.

She sleeps about 13, sometimes 14 hrs at night. (with the occasional disruption of course)

She likes to sleep with her face buried in the corner of her crib.

So much more I could say about our Ellie.

She is wonderful.

She has made our family complete.

...............At least for now :)

I went through the last year and picked some of my favorite pictures of Ellie to put in a book.

Feel free to quit at any time, but I couldn't stop picking favorites.