June at the Israelsen's

I just purchased a wheat grinder. I've been hesitating, they aren't the cheapest little gadgets in the world. Oh by the way honey, if I forget to tell you and you read this, I just bought a wheat grinder. He he he. But, I finally decided that having 500 pounds of wheat will do me absolutely no good unless I have a wheat grinder. I'm certain using a stone from the backyard will get me tired much too quickly and we'll just starve- or just resort to eating wheat berries. I think it's a good purchase. I'll let you know how my new kitchen toy works. I'm excited to fire it up when it comes.

Pretty much Jacob and I have decided potty training is definitely not a strength either one of us possess. I'm not sure if I just have an incredibly stubborn 2 and 1/2 year old, or if I have really faulty training techniques. I will however, rejoice in a poop-in-the-potty triumph we had a few nights ago. I caution you, I am a mommy and I say it just how it is, so if you don't want to hear the potty talk, just skip on down to the next paragraph. Anyhow, we caught Kenna squatting and got her to the bathroom before the dirty missle had landed in the pull-up, and judging by the screaming it was much to her dismay. So to try to not make it a horrible experience for her and never have a potty success again, I tried to be as happy and excited as I could when she finally did her duty in the potty.
Me: "YAY Kenna! You did it, I am so happy for you! See, going in the potty is fun! Poo-poo loves to be in the potty and is so happy!"
Kenna: (she cocks her head to the side, scrunches up her cute little face and says,) "Mom, poo-poo can't talk. But it's nice!"
Yep, it sure is my little darling, it sure is. Yesterday I told her she could wear her very special panties but she couldn't pee in them or they would get all wet and dirty. So what does she do? She takes off her panties to pee on the carpet. Finding Nemo was much too enthralling to leave for the potty, I guess. Nice. I guess I'll just keep trying.

So I took Allie to the Dr. yesterday. She woke up with a fever and it would't come down, so when it hit 103 I called the Dr. Her ears looked good and from the blood test they couldn't tell if it was viral or bacterial but just in case put her on an antibiotic. She's been pretty fussy today, but hopefully will get back on track soon. Jacob got the random yuckies too, he came home from work sick yesterday but is better today- he must be anyway, he is out mountain biking. Yep, bikes are the newest project around here. Jacob found one on KSL and we picked it up with our bike cart that we also found on KSL in Salt Lake on our way home from Logan. Since then we have also added a bike from mom and dad Israelsen's (for me), a bike rack, and a helmet to the bunch. We've actually had fun taking the girls out for a few rides. They look so cute sitting in the bike cart together.

Last Saturday we met up with some friends (Mike and LeeAnn Adams) who have property up the mountain and got a jump start on firewood. Chances are if we wait much longer, we won't be able to afford the gas to get up there! They have two little girls too, so it was fun to get out and get dirty.

Our trip to Logan was a lot of fun. Kenna was in heaven having so many people to give her attention and play with. My mom and I spent the better part of a day sewing some really cute hooded towels that I am going to try and sell at a craft fair up Brianhead over the 4th of July. I'm also doing some cute baby headbands, so we'll see how they do.

Well, I guess it's time to go, Allie is on my lap screaming. She just isn't appreciating the blog. Hopefully one of these days I'll get the motivation (or time) to add some pictures.

The life of a two-year-old

I found a little line-up of Kenna's animals in the hallway yesterday. She told me they were in timeout because they didn't listen. Hmm, wonder where she got that from? She is such a parrot sometimes and has a killer memory. Yep, that means BE CAREFUL mom and dad! A few weeks ago I sang in sacrament meeting. When I got done and came to sit down, Kenna hopped into my lap and said "you're a good singer mom!" I looked at Jacob to let him know I appreciated the prompt, but he was just as surprised as I was and said that one was all her own. Then she grabbed my face in her hands and said, "That was wonderful! I'm so proud of you!" It was the sweetest thing in the world! I was really trying to figure out where she would have got that from and then finally I remembered. Later on that day when Kenna had a great potty moment I heard myself saying, "That was wonderful! I am so proud of you!" I instantly knew where she got it from. Ha! I'm so glad to know that the positive things are remembered as well as some of the not-so-fun mommy moments like timeout.

Well, it's official. My little Allie can crawl! She finally got her coordination figured out. It is so cute. Fortunately she still is content to stay put for the most part, but when she fully discovers her mobility I am really in for it. She is constantly moving some part of her body. Whenever she's in her carseat, she kicks her legs and gets herself rocking like crazy. It is the funniest thing to watch. I sometimes forget about it, but whenever we're in public and she gets a-rockin' we manage to get all sorts of attention. Especially when she kicks so hard the carseat falls back and she gets stuck. So then she'll just sit there and kick her legs some more. Silly little thing! It has been so fun with her lately. Jacob and I often comment on how nice it is we can really enjoy her without all the fussing.

This past week we finished up getting the side of our driveway done. We put up railroad ties for the back support, then planted some bushes in the front and filled it all in with some pretty red rock. It ended up pretty good, I must say. Tons better than it used to be. Considering what we had to start with when we moved in, we have made vast landscaping improvements. I just really have a hard time paying for rock. What? Paying for rocks? Even worse is having to pay for a load of dirt. Dirt? Now come on. What's next? Paying for worms? Wait a minute, they do sell worms. If that's the case, I really need to get in the business. Kenna at least would love it. Last week I showed her a grub worm that was crawling on the driveway and it instantly became her new best friend. Nice. Way to go mom. Now, I really struggle with creepy-crawly things, but am trying to not give Kenna the same heeby jeebies, so ya, I showed her the worm. She carried that thing around all afternoon! She kept squishing it and telling us how cute it was. Cute is definitely a stretch. Um, not even in the same ballpark my sweet little princess. I can think of a whole slew of other words to describe a grub worm. I tried hard to remain optimistic without letting my detest of the grub show through. She showed anyone who came within 50 feet. I told her to feed it to the chickens but she vehemently declined the offer saying, "No, it will die!" Well, I thought, it would meet its demise either by being pecked or smothered to death. Now if I were the little worm, I would opt to just get the whole thing over with quickly by the chickens rather than a slow, painful death in the grimy little hands of a two-year-old, but whatever. We add the grub worm to a growing list of creepy-crawlies Kenna has had to manipulate and investigate. We've already had grasshoppers, ants, and regular old slimy brown worms. I'm not sure what I'll do when she wants to hold a snake.....

We're Alive!

WOW. Almost a month since my last post? Woops. But, definitely time for an update. I have so much to update on this could take forever. I will try to abbreviate.

FIRST AND FOREMOST: I must tell y'all about my new BLING! So our anniversary was May 6th. Yep, the big 4! Yay for us! I ended up in Logan on Monday the 5th, and Jacob had to be up in South Jordan for work on the 7th and the 8th, so we didn't even see each other on our anniversary. Kinda weird, but okay. Anyhow, the girls and I finally met up with dad in Salt Lake on the 7th and stayed in the hotel with him. We were in the hotel getting ready for bed when Jacob handed me a little bag with a letter in it. He wrote me a beautiful little love note (sigh, I loved it) that had a huge wad of cash in it. I wondered "what the heck?!" Okay, didn't wonder, said that right out loud. He said he had been saving up. Hmm, nope, I do the checkbook, there is no way that amount could fly under the radar. He persisted and told me he wanted me to go buy the tracer band I've wanted to go with my wedding ring ever since we got married. I told him there was no way I was going to spend THAT much money on a ring for myself, and we could figure something else to do with it, oh, like put it into savings. Well, I finished getting ready for bed, hopped back into bed, and hopped right onto a little box. I can only imagine the look on my face seeing as though I had a really good idea of what was in that little black box. All I could do was huddle into Jacob and cry! He said, "you don't even know what it is yet!" I carefully took off the wrap and peered into the box to see an absolutely BEAUTIFUL diamond band. I was thinking of a nice little silver band but Jacob got me the the little silver band that included a row of amazing little diamonds in it. WOW. Double triple holy cow I can't believe it WOW. I was stunned. Floored. Humbled a bit, even? I just couldn't believe it. How did he do it? How did I not know about it? Well let me back up (this is getting way too long, but I just have to tell the whole story). A few weeks before my birthday I found a business card for a jeweler in Jacob's shirt pocket. I just smiled and kept it to myself wondering what my sneaky little husband was up to for my birthday. Well, my birthday was just perfect so I didn't worry too much about it. Then a while after my birthday, curiosity got the best of me and I asked Jacob about the card. He quickly came up with an elaborate story that he was helping out his brother who was looking into getting a little bling of his own for a special someone, but had been sworn to secrecy. He really is quite the little actor, and I ate it all up and my curiosity was satisfied. I was so fooled. I was actually thrilled that Karl was looking into getting a ring! So Jacob completely had me blindsided on our anniversary. It was like a little fairytale. I still look at it like a little girl and watch it sparkle. The bad news? I can't get my camera to take a good picture of it. I'll see if I can get it figured out. But if I keep putting off the blog it will never get updated. The other bad news? I was actually really very disappointed that Jacob's brother Karl isn't looking for a ring! And about the big wad of cash? Here is the most amazing and kind and thoughtful thing my husband could do: he sold a heifer. I don't think anyone truly understands how incredibly loving this is. Jacob, the animal lover, sold one of our heifers and took a large chunk of the profit just for me. So, the cash in my love note was the remaining amount from the heifer. Sounds silly, but it was one of the kindest gestures a girl could ever have. Thank you Jacob for being so wonderful. You don't know how much that meant to me. It's not the diamonds. It's knowing that I am married to a man who loves me more than anything in the world. Again, wow.

Okay, this is long. What else has been going on? Well, the girls and I drove with Grandpa Kerry down to Arizona for my cousins wedding. The trip actually went pretty well considering it was a 7 1/2 hour drive. Then we had a really quick trip up to Logan and Salt Lake and, like usual, didn't have nearly enough time to see anyone we wanted to see.

Kenna has some great news to share: she has had some great success on the potty this past week! YAY! Each day gets a little better so hopefully soon we can say she is officially potty-trained. I LOVE IT!

Allie is just a happy little cuss and cute as can be. She can't quite crawl but is trying to figure out how to get her caboose to catch up with the front of her body. Too fun! I am a little worried, though. When she gets going she won't stop which means I will be incredibly busy.

Well, that's it! Hopefully things will slow down a bit so I can be better at updating.

Oh, the pictures: First is me and the little ladies on Mother's Day. Thanks to Grandma Marsha for the incredibly cute dresses! Big shout out to Jacob (is he on a roll or what?!) for the beautiful corsage. The second picture: I came into my bedroom to find my silly little girls peeking out from under my bed. Still not quite sure how Allie got under there, but I have a suspicion her sister helped out a bit.

The Perfect Day

This week absolutely FLEW past. I just can't go another day without the update on my awesome birthday last Friday.

First thing in the morning Jacob got up to get ready for work and then left just like he usually does, and I stayed in bed. Well, the next thing I knew, Jacob had come back and brought me breakfast in bed from IHOP! Oh it was sooooo good and such a great surprise! I made him come snuggle with me in bed and share it. He decided IHOP would be a much better choice then his own cooking. I had to agree (I say that ever so lovingly). THEN when I told my sweet husband that he better get back to work before too long, he gave me my next surprise and told me he had taken the day off to spend with me. That right there was seriously the BEST gift for me! I was so excited. So we got up and got the girls ready and let Allie have her morning nap. After that I decided I wanted to go do some shopping. Right before we left I thought to myself that it was just barely noon and I already had a perfect birthday. So we went in and ended up at a yummy restaurant where I love to get soup and salad. We hadn't been in there too long when the next thing I know, my parents, yes, MOM AND DAD who I haven't seen for about 3 months, came around the corner of the restaurant. HOLY COW!! I couldn't believe it! All I could do was cry! It was such an incredible surprise. They ate lunch with us and I was in heaven being so spoiled. I was with the people I loved most and I couldn't ask for anything more. We came back and when we were unloading mom and dad's car, Jacob pulled out yet another surprise- a double jogging stroller! YAY! Let me back up- the day before I had been on a walk with the girls and our other stroller popped a wheel and pretty much died a miserable death. So I called Jacob and told him to get on KSL and find me one (I refuse to spend a fortune to get a brand new one- those suckers are expensive) anyhow, he had found one and my parents picked it up on their way down. I love it! It runs like a charm. I was just on cloud nine all day long. Jacob's sister Marlene came to town that night also, it was so fun to have so much family around. Later that night we topped off the day with an ice cream cake. The top of it had crushed pieces of Reese's Peanut Butter Cup on it and Kenna looked at it and said, "Hey, it's chicken poop!" Yep, that's my girl. Well, that was my day. It was so perfect. Thanks first to my awesome husband who went to so much work to make sure I had a great birthday and then for the incredible surprise of having my parents come down and also Marlene. What a blessed girl I am. What's next? Well, next week a road trip down to Mesa for a cousin's wedding. My dad is driving us down, so we'll see if we all survive 7 hours in a car! Wish us luck.

All in a day's work

So I made bread on Monday. There is nothing quite like a piece of hot, homemade bread fresh out of the oven. Mmm mmm! Fortunately I had already indulged in the first slice before Kenna got to it. Yep, I left the bread too close to the edge of the counter and my dear little 2 year-old got hold of it and worked her magic on it. At least she was able to destroy only one of the loaves. I'm learning to never turn my back. On our car ride home from the store this afternoon, I decided to let Kenna snack on a banana. She has done it before and eaten it like a good little monkey. Well, of course today I looked back to find her squishing it between her fingers. Nice. I was able to pull over and take care of the situation before she decided to finger paint with it. My little destroyer has been wreaking all sorts of havoc lately. Needless to say, my patience has been tried!

We spent the day Saturday out in the yard trying to liven up our driveway a bit. Kenna loved being out helping her daddy. Allie got out in the sunshine a bit too, and was thoroughly enjoying her time munching on the grass. Kenna loves to sit by Allie whenever she is on the ground and always manages to really get on Allie's nerves. She tries to love her, but really it's just pestering. Poor Allie is going to look like a mangled loaf of bread! We were over visiting some neighbors, and Kenna found some little flags that the power company puts up to show where the power lines are and she decided to make them her own. What was one of the first things she did with her flags? Oh, she just whacked her sister right in the legs. Yeah, double nice.

Anyone else follow The Biggest Loser? Yep, forgive me for abandoning Idol, but I really got into The Biggest Loser. Last night was the finale and it was so amazing to see how the people changed. WOW. I was definitely cheering for Ali to win. She looks absolutely stunning. If you didn't see it, Google it to find her before and after shots. Makes the poundage I want to lose look like a piece of cake. Or, I mean, a bag of carrots. Of course, if I went away for a few months and had no worries and someone to cook and clean for me, I would come out looking like a rock star too. Hmm. For now I'll just settle with running around trying to keep up with a two-year-old and hauling around a 20+ pound baby. Throw the carseat in the mix and we're looking at a good 30 pounds. Now calculate the times I haul the carseat out of the house, in and out of the car to make a few stops, take it in and out of the shopping cart, and lug the monster back into the house, it's amazing my arms don't look more like Popeye's. Maybe I should do lunges while holding the carseat. Then my legs will look like Fabio's. Hmm. Then I could compete on American Gladiators. What could my gladiator name be? I think Crush is taken. Amazon? Titania? Grinder?

Little Bo Peep

Kenna has some of those "Kidsongs" DVD's that she loves to watch. Yep, they're a buck at WalMart and just as cheesy as can be, but Kenna loves it. One of her favorites has a song about Little Bo Peep. So now Kenna loves to go out in the backyard and grab a long piece of rebar that has a crook at the end, then wander around saying "Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep and can't tell where to find them." She says it over and over as she goes all over the backyard. I actually think she tries to herd the dogs with it. It's so funny to watch how she can be in her own little world sometimes.

Jacob has been staying pretty busy with tractor work. He loves his, I mean MY, little tractor. We got it on my birthday last year, so I remind him I let him borrow it. I did drive it the other night actually. AND I even dug up some dirt with it. Yep, I am really quite impressed with my tractor driving abilities! I am definitely diversifying my talents.

Shane, a good friend of Jacob's, and his wife Rachelle came down from Logan and visited last Saturday. Jacob was in heaven with a familiar working buddy and I really enjoyed a fellow mom to sit and chat with. We got a babysitter Saturday night after the Priesthood session and went and had a fun "grown-up" dinner together. Once again, it made us miss being at home around good friends we have a history with. We love company!

Allie is getting pretty darn good at sitting up on her own and is quite proud of herself. Still not sure when she'll start crawling, it will be a while. I'm not sure if I'm ready for that milestone or not! She gets bored easy and I can tell she is just itching to move around and investigate things, she just doesn't quite have the mobility. So I think she will be really happy when she can crawl around, but I'm afraid my world will suddenly explode. Kenna leaves everything out, Allie finds it and puts everything in her mouth, mom is always running around. Perhaps I should enjoy the days of baby confinement!

Oh, bad news. My memory card on my camera is almost full. But I can't delete any because I haven't gotten them printed yet! Oh, I am so far behind! I'm going to have to do it a little at a time otherwise it will cost me a fortune. My internet is way too slow to do it from my computer. Nice one Britt.

Just Say No.....

....To Easter candy! So Sunday is my "day off", if you will, and I indulge in a little eating o' the treats. I was quite pleased to remember Easter falls on a Sunday and really enjoyed indulging in the spoils of the Easter Bunny. That was until about 4 p.m Sunday afternoon. I started feeling a little somethin' somethin' happening in my gut, but thought it was perhaps one too many peanut butter eggs. We sat down to a nice dinner of roast, potatoes, and green bean casserole and I could only manage a bite or two. Well, let's just say the Easter Bunny left a little more than sugar in one of those colorful little plastic eggs because by 9:00 I was spending way too much time with my face in the toilet. Yep folks, the flu. AGAIN, I must add. That is the 3rd time in less than two years! In pleasurable fashion, it eventually went to all of us with the exception of Allie- thank goodness. Fortunately, Kenna's was confined to her diaper and I didn't have to deal with the joy of spontaneous pukage. Jacob was about 12 hours behind me. By Monday night we were thankfully back to normal. However, I completely rid my house of any evidence of Easter. That included baskets, grass, eggs, and ESPECIALLY candy. Even though it was a bug instead of sugar overload, I still can't even look at those once-tempting mini snickers. I have decided though, that it actually is a great side effect. Perhaps Weight Watchers should invent a sick pill to take after you eat treats and then you won't even want them anymore! Ha! Hey..... I'm going to be a millionare.

Can we all give a hooray for my little Allie? She is finally, I repeat, FINALLY able to take soy milk! I never thought the day would come! I am still mixing it with a bit of the old stuff, but she seems to be tolerating it well. Now my budget can breath a little bit. Now I can pay about $12 a can for formula instead of about $35, AND I can get it in a store. Yeehaw! The Lord truly blessed us through this whole expensive formula ordeal. We were always able to find it cheaper. I have to say that we are such an incredibly blessed family. I pray that I will always take the time to recognize the Lord's hand in my life.

Last little bit- I have really been getting into the whole food storage thing lately and am quite enjoying it. But it makes me feel like I'm a little old lady. Ha! Just want to put a little plug-in out there to my fellow domestic goddesses- just a few extra dollars a week will make a big difference in the long run!