Update on our lives...

Things around here are kind of starting to get back to normal after my surgery. I'm pretty much off the pain killers (kinda sad in a way....those were fun) which makes me a much more normal person again. Grandma Dona and Mallory left this morning to head back to Utah (REALLY sad, they were so wonderful! We couldn't have made it through this week without them) so that means I'm back on full time Mom duty. Kinda tough still because I can't lift anything for one more weeks, that means Chase and I are having some issues already. I'm still pretty sore, but it's manageable. I went and bought a button up shirt for the first time since I was like 15. I almost started crying when it buttoned right up without a problem. Wonderful. Hallie did a lot of testing poor grandma and Mallory while they were here, luckily Mallory had no problem sending her to time out when necessary.
So what's next for us? Well lets see......On Aug 20 then kids and I head to California to help Mimi and spend time with my family for a while. Matt's going to be gone to training in Washington, so we'll actually be in Cali for about 2 months. We're really looking forward to it, we haven't seen my family since XMas so a long visit will be kinda nice. Matt is in charge of getting the house all packed up and sent off to Germany at the end of August (poor guy). Matt will get out to California in late October, we'll spend a week there for Halloween, then we're off to Germany on Nov 1 or 2. Holy Crap.....I'm moving to Germany.

The sunset at the beach last night....unbelievable.

Sharing...

So I haven't been able to decide weather or not to share this info with my fellow bloggers, but it has been such a great experience...I decided I just had to! I went in this past Thursday and had a breast-reduction. Anyone who knows me knows, I'm a busty girl! Well, my back hurts all the time. Clothes never fit right. I'm REALLY self conscious about them. So I decided it was time to do something about it. Because of the back pain, my insurance covered the surgery 100 percent. Another little perk is, a reduc is also a lift. HELLO! REally needed that too. So far, recovery has beeen not too horrible. MAtt's grandma Dona and his cousin Mallory came out for a week to help us out and have been absolutely WONDERUL. I can't even tell you how great they have been. The kids love them both to death. Matt has been so good to me and taken such good care of me. So all I have to say right now is this: If you have big boobs and back pain and hate your big boobs, GO TALK TO A DOCTOR! Your insurance will probably cover it! The question most of you moms are probably wondering...will you be able to nurse? It's a 50/50 chance. If I can't, I can't. Kids do just fine on formula all the time. If I can nurse, I will. I figure if I keep giving my kids 100 percent of myself, but maybe can't nurse, they'll grow up to be happy and healthy still, with a WAY happier Mom! :) 8

Matt is a Genius!

So for about a year now we've been having issues with Hallie getting out of bed (sometimes 2 or 3 times a night) saying "I can't find my water! " or "I can't find my binki". Then us telling her "turn on your LIGHT and look for it." Then her crying and demanding and insisting that one of us go and help her find it. Because neither of us are in our right mind at 3 in the morning....one of us usually ends up going to help her just so we can get back to sleep. And now, for the past few weeks, we've been getting a 5:45 am wake up call on top of being woken up during the night.

soooooooo

Matt came up with an ingenious idea! He went and bought a CD player/alarm clock for Hallie's room. He made a CD of classical music and set her alarm for 7:45. We put and extra binki and an extra cup of water on her dresser. Then we explained to her that she is absolutely NOT allowed out of her bedroom until she hears the music in the morning. We told her it is a magical music box and it knows when she is allowed to get out bed. And if she gets out of bed before that..... BIG TROUBLE. Two days now....no nighttime wake ups (at least she's not waking US up) and she hasn't gotten out of bed until the music goes off. She even stayed in bed until 8:30 this morning listening to the music. Let's hope it sticks....but for now, Matt wins the creative Dad of the year award!

He does all his own stunts...

We had such a fun day yesterday!! (totally sarcastic). Matt brought Chase in to me in bed yesterday morning as he was walking out the door to work, kissed me goodbye and he was out the door. I was still laying in bed and talking to Chase while he wobbled all around my room when all of a sudden...down he went. He fell and smacked his face on the edge of bed (which is low to the ground). I scrambled out of bed to grab him because he hit HARD and when I scooped him up, there was blood running down his face. I don't do well with blood. Right across the top of his cheek bone was split open and he was screaming his head off. I put pressure on it, butterfly bandaged it, put another bandaide over that to catch all the blood, called Matt and told him to turn around and come home, got Hallie out of bed and dressed, and headed out the door to the ER. Luckily, on a Monday morning when Dr's offices are open the ER is not so horrible of a place to be. They gave us the option of stitches or steri-strips (they said if he picked at the steri strips we would have to bring him back for stitches). We went with not dealing with stitches and decided to have the strips. It was trauma for me letting them strap him into a baby-straight jacket so they could clean him up and patch him up. Good times. so anyways, now Chase has a few more reasons to whine CONSTANTLY. Hopefully those teeth pop through soon, cause I'm about to lose my mind.

Hallie hasn't gotten much blog time lately, so I decided to put up this picture from shopping at the outlets in Destin this weekend. Matt's favorite store there is the Mrs. Field's, so he let Hallie pick out any cookie she wanted. Of course, she wanted the "sparkly" one. :)

Happy Birthday!!

Our cute little Chase turned one year old today. It was a day full of whining and crying and a very runny nose. His top teeth have been trying to break through for what seems like weeks now and he has NOT been handling it well. Our peaceful, easy little boy has been the opposite of that lately. We still were able to catch a few pictures of his smiling tonight for his cake and presents. We love Chase so much, he has brought such a fun dynamic to our family. He's saying new words every day. He said Hello to my mom on the phone today. He also says: Dada, Mama, Ball, Tree, Dog, No no no, more, I think I'm forgetting a few. I have to write these types of things here since I'm a bad Mom and don't do baby books or keep journals. They're going to have to deal with my blog (hopefully bound into a book one of these days) to learn about their childhood. :) So here are Chase's birthday pics!


Chase with a little cup cake on his face.
And a little more!

Cleaning up a VERY messy birthday boy.

Chase getting a drink....

Eating one of his birthday presents.

His whhhhhaaaaaaaaat face.

Giving chocolate face Hallie a big kiss.

This is what he really looked like most of the day, I just mostly put up the few happy ones we had. Poor little guy.

Feeling a little slap happy.....

I'm really tired, it's been a really long day. I don't want to go to bed because Matt's not home yet. There's nothing good on T.V. because it's the summer. My house is clean (kind of). My kids are sleeping (hopefully). I'm really bored (REALLY bored). So I decided to blog, even though I really have nothing of any importance to blog about. So I'll make a list, one of my favorite things to do. This list will be of the funny things Hallie has said to me over the past weeks....
1. A few weeks ago at dinner she farted really loud in her chair the said "I have to go potty!" and got down from the table and ran for the bathroom. A few minutes later, she came back to the table with her panties in her hand and tells me (in front of both of Matt's sisters) "Oh sick Mom! I Sharted!" Nice. There was some nice brown streaks in her undies.Thank you Matt for teaching her that word.
2. We were watching the jets take off at the base the other day and she asked me "Mommy, do airplanes have blood?" I told her no, only people and animals have blood. Then she replied "so my minnie mouse does not have blood either." Smart little girl.
3. Matt and I were getting ready for church on sunday and we were both in our bathroom, Hallie decided to join us in there and was getting under Matt's feet every way he turned. Finally he said "Hallie, Move!" She looked at him and said "Daddy, we DO NOT say that! We say EXCUSE ME PLEASE!"
4. She was struggling to get her hot dogs on her fork the other day and I heard her under breath muttering over and over again, "Freakin A, Freakin A". Once again, that one came from Matt. She just KNOWS the things that we say that are naughty.
5. Our friend Madeline (who was VERY old) died a few weeks ago, and while we were driving in the car she told Matt, "Daddy, Heavenly Father wanted Madeline to come home to live with him." Sometimes she says things that aren't crude. :)

To spank or not to spank?

Your thoughts? Is it ok to spank your kids? And besides whether or not you think it's ok, have you ever done it?