Stair Master

It's offical, Kate can now climb the whole set of stairs YAY!!!!! It's funny, up until even yesterday (when she had therapy) she wouldn't climb more than two at a time without having me help her. Then today, out of no where, she climbed the whole set!! Now, I'm so excited that I even went and counted the stairs so you would know what a feat she conquered. We have 2 stairs then a landing and then 14 stairs. Until today she would climb the 2 onto the landing then scream at me from the landing to bring her the rest of the way up. Well, today I was upstairs on the computer and Austin was with her on the stairs and I hear them laughing and talking but I figured that they were on the landing, after a few minutes she sounded too close so I peeked around the wall and she was RIGHT THERE, 2 steps from the TOP! I was SHOCKED! She proceeded to wiggle back down them and then back up again not 10 min. later all by herself. I can't tell you how happy I am for me and for her. SO yay today for our Stair Master.

Time FLIES!!

I was looking through my blogs today and apparently I have been playing hookie. I didn't realized I hadn't written in so long! I think that when I take pictures I plan in my head what the post is going to be on and consider it done...but apparently it doesn't work unless I actually post it - duh!
I don't even remember what has happened this month. It has FLOWN by. When I make it upstairs I will upload my photos and then I am sure it will bring back the memories but right now I am drawing a blank. Vinyl has started to pick it. I'm loving it! I've started to cut vinyl 2 days a week and it has made my life so much easier. I was cutting and mailing 1-2 things almost everyday and it was starting to consume my days. Now that I have started doing it just 2 days a week I am so much happier. I have anywhere from 4-10 orders to cut and I just focus, get them all done, and surprisingly it seems to go even faster than just doing the 1 or 2 I was doing. This leaves the rest of my week stress and guilt free. I don't feel guilty that I'm not cutting vinyl even though orders have been placed and on days I do cut it I don't feel guilty working because I know doing it this way allows me to be a better mom the rest of the week! So, yes. Tuesdays and Fridays Austin watches a little more TV than I would like but he is usually watching educational programs and he is really good about playing by himself when I finally make him turn it of and I still have work that needs to get done. On a side note, I just don't know what I am going to do with that boy for the next 3 years. Right now he is 2, almost 3, but still 2. He has (obviously) a late birthday so won't be able to start school until he is almost 6. Now, at 2 he already knows all of his letters and what sounds they make. He is starting to catch on to things super quick and understand concepts faster than I was anticipating. Kindergarten just seem SO far away!!! I know I will probably have him in preschool before he starts kindergarten but that is still a ways off. I think it is unnecessary to have him in preschool for 3 years. I think the poor kid is going to go crazy at home, being bored out of his mind! I don't know, it's a problem I can feel starting to brew and I want to figure out the solution...but don't even know where to start. He is anxious to learn and understand things. Does anyone know of any great games or programs that are good at teaching preschool stuff? I think he would enjoy it. Wow, that was a longer side note than anticipated.LOL Back to life. Well, actually that's about it. Devon's work is starting to slow down. He still has tons of work but since it doesn't get light until 8:00 he isn't getting up quite so early and a couple of rainy days have let him catch up on office work so he doesn't need to stay late at the office any more. He still has work scheduled out until Christmas Eve, if the weather holds that long, but they are no longer in panic mode. Kate is still being Kate. She is stubborn and such a mama's girl...but heaven forbid she actually call me mama. No way, not her, she would rather just scream at me and everyone else for that matter. Ugh, her scream just rubs me like nails on a chalk board. I seriously can't wait for the day that she starts walking. Not that I think it will be any time soon, but it will be a great day when it comes. Well, I think that's all that is going on here. I will post again soon with pictures!

Fall

After weeks of wanting to put up my fall decor I finally got to do it today. YAY!!! I love fall. It was fun going through my stuff and trying to remember where I had put it last year. This will be the first time in our marriage that we will spend the holidays in the same house as we did the year before. Every year until now we have moved too soon. Hopefully it will be our last winter in this house and I am even more hopeful that we will be in the next house for MANY MANY years. As I was decorating today Austin saw some of the costumes in the box and wanted to dress up. He wanted to be the "scary monster" first but that only lasted about 20 min. Then he wanted to be Elmo and ended up staying in it all day until Dad came home and made him take it off so he didn't end up spilling dinner on it. In the spirit of Fall for lunch I cut Austin's sandwich in the shape of a pumpkin which he absolutely loved. Then after naps we made pumpkin spice cookies. It turned out to be a fairly productive day, I -in no particular order- cleaned, decorated, made food, cleaned, cut and shipped vinyl, posted a few new designs, watched HOUSE, read to the kids, played and even got a shower in before dinner LOL. The weather is starting to cool off and it is even suppose to rain on Wednesday...which just reminded me that our Young Women activity is suppose to be outside hmmmmmm, maybe we should have a back up plan. Anyway, here are some pictures from today. Enjoy.

Yikes, what a week!

Wow,
Last week was a crazy week. It started out so good! I took the kids to the babysitting co-op I am a part of and cleaned my house. It was so nice. I went through all of their toys, cleaned out the back hall closet and made it the new toy closet, I put away all the baby stuff (swing, jumper, exersaucer)changed some beds, cleaned 2 bathrooms, swept, mopped, vacuumed up stairs and down.... I was so happy! I kept it clean, spotless, until Thursday when I ended up getting a 24hr bug and could hardly function. Yuck. I haven't felt that crappy in a LONG time. I was totally wasted and worthless. Friday I spent trying to play catch up and running errands. Devon worked all day Saturday until I had to leave for our RS service/dinner/conference. All in all it was a decent week and I hope that next week will be just as productive minus the worthless Thursday. As for news Kate is doing well with her therapy. After her session was over this week Amy, her therapist, asked me how her eating is going. I told her the problems she is having and then she enlightened me a little. She suggested that Kate is having problems with food for one of two reasons. 1) because she is highly sensitive to textures and just doesn't like them or 2)(and the one she feels is the real problems) that her muscle tone is low in her face and mouth, just like in the rest of her body, and that she actually gets tired of eating before she is actually full. To this she suggested that after she is done eating the solid food that I give her on her tray that I need to offer her baby food. Things she can eat without working to eat it ie: applesauce, baby food, oatmeal. As soon as she said this I was like....AH HA! It totally makes sense! So I have been trying it lately and sure enough, when she is done eating the food on her tray she is still hungry and eats what every "easy" food I offer her. So hopefully now she will gain a little more weight and maybe it will help with her therapy and muscle gaining. So that is the new news with Kate. Austin, well he is just happy Austin. So funny to talk to and likes to talk a mile a minute. He is getting to be a real smart brute and picks up on things a little too quickly LOL. He is fun to have around and is turning into nice company during the day. Devon is still as busy as ever and is only home enough to sleep. I sure can't wait till winter. It will be a nice break from this insane blessing of our first real season. As for me and my business, it is going well. It's pretty steady and I really enjoy it. I am learning more and more everyday of the tricks to selling things online and one of these days Laura and I are going to venture out and start selling vinyl on ebay. As for now I am just holding on and gearing up for a hopefully exciting holiday season! Anyway, hope you were able to keep up with this ever changing post. I will run through and see what pictures I can grab from this week!

Pictures? Did someone say pictures?

So I have been taking pictures everyday, I just haven't been posting them so 1/2 way doing what I wanted to. Here are some pictures.

Kate eating chocolate chip cookies....she LOVES chocolate. Life doesn't get much better.

Kate's cute boots...although they kind of look like fake legs LOL

This was a barbecue this weekend to honor Star's Firefighters

Paige and Austin and the BBQ waving the flags they stole from the decor

Paige...blissfully enjoying the beaters, Claire....trying to steal dough from the bowl, Austin....yes, playing with the princess. Cookie dough? What cookie dough? Apparently he's in love.

The Fire Engine (we can't say fire truck because with our little guy it comes out as a swear word)

This was just one of those "today's picture" I loved how the light from the window was illuminating the food just waiting to be eaten.

Kate, rockin' her cowgirl attire

The gummy candies I made.

Practicing taking pictures in filtered light. I wanted to see if I could notice the "good" light.

Yummm, we went out for breakfast and I had the best meal ever.

These were the vinyl samples I sent to the Spotted Box

On this one I was trying to use my manual focus. I see the benefits of having manual focus but I think I will need to get my eyes checked before I am able to use it. Phahah, sad but true.

Hi Ho Hi Ho off to the Doctor we ....went?!

Today Kate turned 15 months - wait, did I say that right? FIFTEEN MONTHS?! Really? Wow, maybe she doesn't seem that old because she can't stand, crawl or walk...but that could just be me LOL. It also could be because she is in the bottom 5% for her weight, 10-25% for her height and 10% for her head. Since her last check up in June she has only gained one pound. That kind of surprised me because her legs are so much more chubby now.LOL We are pushing it if we get her into 12 month pants. For some reason she just has no waist/butt. Everything just falls off her. She is still easily in 6 month skirts, shorts, and capris....anything where length doesn't matter. For her tops she can wear anything from 9-12 months and it fits fine. Dresses are my favorite because she can wear anything from like 6-18 months. It's just so weird for me because Austin was always so big. He was into a size before or right when he was suppose to be in it. His clothes always fit in the waist but were too long LOL. It really is funny how different kids are. The doctor overall said that Kate looked good although he stressed that I really need to start feeding her a multivitamin. He knows that we're doing therapy and asked how we liked it. He commented on how happy she was...then left us for the nurse to stick her with SIX shots. OUCH!!! She cried and it was sad because it took a while for the nurse to give them all to her. 3 in one leg, 2 in the other and one in the arm...poor baby. At least I remembered to give her IB-profin (sp?) before we left. She calmed down quickly once I held her and fed her Recces Pieces. All in all it went well and we don't have to go back until next June so yay baby Kate!

Too Tired

So today has been one of those days. Where some moments I think I have things under control and the next I am wondering what in the world is going on?! To summarize I think I'll just make a list.

Why I felt I had things under control

worked out/ went to my first PiYo class (pilates and yoga) LOVED IT
made Gummy Candies from this cool tutorial (that you'll have to check back later for the link for)
Made 60 samples for the Spotted Box
Cut packaged and wrapped 2 orders
took the kids on a walk to see the swan
made breakfast, lunch and dinner
emptied the dishwasher
bathed the kids
1 load of laundry
swept and moped kitchen floor
went to the post office
made and posted one new design for my store
posted a tutorial on my other blog

Why I felt like crap today....I mean why I felt like things were out of control

Haven't folded 4 loads of clean laundry....still
wanted to ship out the samples today but needed 15 more min. that I didn't have so they will have to go out in the morning
Lost my patience and had to give Austin a little spank before bed.

*note for me by the time it's bedtime...it's bed time and lately he has been playing this bedtime "game" of pretty much not going to bed unless we sit with him until he falls asleep. Which sadly doesn't fly with me. So after many attempts to get him to go to bed I told him if he got out of bed one more time he was getting a bum spank. Not 30 seconds later he was out of bed. So he got a bum spank but lucky for him dad came home to snuggle with him....now back to the list

Ran out of Laundry Soap
Ran out of mop spray for the wet jet
never put on make up...which I don't really care about but my husband doesn't really like it if I don't "get ready" for the day. It doesn't have to be all out, but at least a little
Didn't visit my neighbor
didn't do 2 vinyl design previews for people who want vinyl
Didn't start the book I wanted....which is probably a good thing
Didn't talk to my sister on MSN today
Didn't post pictures on this blog LOL, and I'm not going upstairs tonight to do it LOL

So there is a brief outline of why sometimes I feel I've got it all taken care of and sometimes I just feel so frustrated. Hopefully tomorrow will be good and Devon will be home from work before 8:45 so that I can go to YW.