New Room

So we decided we shouldn't spend the money to go to Disneyland this October....BOOO!! We just have other places the money should go. Because of this, I still wanted to do something nice for the girls. I have been dying to remove the Sesame Street mural off of Kadence's wall. It was kind of cute when we moved in and she was 14 months old. Now, it's far from cute. My girls don't even watch Sesame Street anymore so I wanted this giant ugly thing gone and a more age appropriate room for Kadence. Here's a picture of the lovely wall:

We started the day after Shelby got her tonsils removed. Probably not the best idea, but hey who said we thought it out? The girls LOVE to help in this kind of situation so we bought two little rollers for them so they could help prime the wall. (After hours of sanding the goopy nasty paint-thanks David!)

There was something else that was really bothering me in her room. There is an intercom that is probably from the 70's. When David went to remove it we found out that it didn't even have any wires connected to anything. Basically it was just there to fill the space. I figured I could fill the space with something better looking. There is now a picture that hangs over this big gaping hole.

After Kadence was born there was an enrichment night in my ward in Logan. You could make your own custom vinyl lettering and do what you want with it. (This was before Cricut) I decided this would be perfect for Kadence. We hung it originally in Logan but it hasn't been hanging since we moved to Ogden 4 years ago.

I have been looking for a way to make the stuffed animals look a little nicer. we used to have them in a tote in the corner that was stacked about 2 feet above the tote and constantly overflowed onto the floor. We have 3 BIG bags of stuffed animals in our basement too. I realized that I should just put an animal hammock in the corner of Kadence's room. Wa La! Much better!

Not only did we have a tote for the stuffed animals, but we had a tote as a toy box. Anything that didn't go in a set or have a specific place....went into the toy box. It too was overflowing and constantly a mess. Not to mention it looked terrible! I decided to look for a way to make the toys look better and keep them more discrete. I thought this was perfect:

The only thing I wish was different about it was the drawers were supposed to be pink, green and yellow. As you can see the drawers don't look yellow at all. Even the picture on the package looked yellow! Oh well, we will replace them down the road I guess.

I had my neighbor do a painting for each girl almost a year ago. I absolutely loved the way they turned out, but haven't hung them up yet. I even bought a shelf that I meant to hang above the picture. So months later I finally painted the shelf and we hung them both up. I will be making "Kadence" to go on top of the shelf out of wood letters.

I didn't take a picture of one of my favorite parts of the whole room, Kadence's new bookcase. It is seriously the cutest thing ever! I am going to decorate it with cute little girly things and have books on one shelf. I will take a picture of it when I do Shelbys room. Everything in Shelbys room will be basically the same, just a few minor differences. I'm so happy with the way things turned out and its weird to see a more girly room. She loves it which is the best part!

Back to School

Kadence was incredibly excited to go to her schools Back to School Night. The girls were both able to wear new shirts and their new favorite thing in this world, their Twinkle Toes! We didn't stay long because David could come with us but only for 15 minutes before he would need to leave for his own Back to School Night at Highland. It didn't matter to Kadence, she is SO excited to go to Kindergarten and this just intensified the excitement. (Sorry for the crappy picture, it was taken with my phone)

No More Tonsils!

Last Friday, August 19th, Shelby had her tonsils and adenoids removed. She suffered from severe sleep apnea as well as multiple sinus infections. When we took her to the ENT, he said the exact same thing as when we took Kadence to him, "WOW, have you seen these?!" He had me take a look and pointed out how her tonsils were squishing her uvula from each side. He said they were pretty big and they needed to be removed for sure. I was pretty nervous because Shelby hasn't really had anything done before. The only time she was put under anesthesia was for dental work and she woke up very very angry. I also was nervous about how well she would go back since we couldn't go with her.

I spent the next 2 weeks between the appointment and the surgery talking it over with her. I explained that we couldn't go with her but that she could take a stuffed animal to keep her company. (She chose her hippo, named Hippo) I also explained how she would wear a gown, how they would use a mask to put her to sleep, and after she woke up that they would get us. She seemed like she understood it all very well. Kadence kept reassuring her that the Dr's and nurses were all very nice and would take good care of her.

We arrived at the hospital and Shelby didn't seem nervous at all. She liked the gown because it had tigers on it.

She absolutely loved the slipper socks and kept testing the non-slip bottom to see if she would slip.
She went back to surgery without a single tear. The surgery went well and the Dr told us that she had a large amount of adenoid tissue and the already mentioned large tonsils. He said she didn't bleed much and was recovering just fine. I was sure that when they brought her to her room she would be hysterical, but she wasn't at all. She was just sitting up in the bed looking around as she took her ride through the hospital. She was in a daze, but overall doing really well. She was excited to get her prize for being brave and ate a popsicle so they sent us home.

At home she did great! She played and played and if you didn't know she had surgery you would have thought it was just a normal day for her. She even asked to eat a cheese sandwich! (And did!) She had a restless night, but never fully woke up. I slept her in our bed anyways because she kept moaning in her sleep and I couldn't leave her. The next day and night were almost completely normal. The 3rd and 4th day were rough. She didn't want to drink much and was just kind of sad all day. After day 4 she started to improve and improves a little more each day. Two night ago she woke up completely freaking out. We never did figure out what was going on, but it was really scary. She was hyperventilating for about 10 minutes and we thought we were going to need to take her to the hospital because she just couldn't breath and nothing we did would calm her down. We finally got her calmed and she was restless the rest of the night, but woke up completely fine. It was scary and kind of weird. Today (Day 8) she randomly will start crying so I know she still isn't healed, but she is about 85% of normal. She really wants to eat "crunchy things" and can't wait to "use a straw." She makes me laugh! I can't wait to have my Shelby back to 100%. I am however grateful that we never have to have another tonsillectomy again in our household. Oddly enough we have all had our tonsils removed by the same Dr.

Friday Confessional

I CONFESS....Today was by far one of the most interesting Dr appointments I have had. I had to go for my yearly exam.....YIPEE....and my Dr is always scheduled pretty far out unless you are pregnant. I refuse to change Drs because when you find someone you trust completely, why change? Because of this, I drive to Logan. I did it through my entire pregnancy with Shelby which was high risk so it had more appointments than usual and most of them were in the winter. I just can't say enough good about him. Because of him we have Kadence and that is the best gift EVER. He didn't deliver her, but before heading home after a long night of deliveries he trusted his instincts and ordered a precautionary ultrasound, which resulted in us knowing our baby was in danger. If he hadn't taken the time to send us for an ultrasound...if he had been in a hurry to get home for a few hours sleep before his wife left him with 5 kids while she went to Girls Camp....if he wasn't thorough, we wouldn't have our Kadence here today. Every minute made a difference and I won't ever be able to express my thanks to him. Anyways, back to the Dr appointment......I didn't have a broken knee when the appointment was made so I had no idea that I would be in a knee brace with limited mobility for my appointment. I was so worried about how it was going to go and mentioned it to the assistant. She was funny and said, "If things aren't working out well, I'll just come over and hold your leg up." It made me laugh and calmed my nerves a bit. Needless to say, the appointment went fine, but I wouldn't recommend a yearly physical in a knee brace. (Ha, that was probably more information that anyone wanted to know)

I CONFESS....I LOVE Logan. I didn't always love it when I was there, but I sure do miss it now. Just driving back through the canyon and entering the valley was AMAZING! David and I talked about different memories the whole way up. It was a nice little adventure and we secretly hope to live in Logan one day and have David be a professor at Utah State. That's our little dream anyways.

I CONFESS....I'm not a huge ice cream fan. When I am in the mood for ice cream, I can devour it, but I'm not usually in the mood. I don't know why, I LOVE sweets so you would think I would love ice cream....but NOPE!

I CONFESS.....I can NOT believe that Kadence is starting Kindergarten this year. She's still so little and I'm sure she will be the smallest in her class. She is so excited which makes me excited for her. I love watching her get excited about meeting new friends and learning new things. Her happiness is definitely contagious! I just don't feel old enough to have a Kindergartner.

I CONFESS....I am one heck of a cranky mommy when I don't get enough sleep! If one of the kids has me up all night I am not a nice person the next day. David has learned to let me sneak a 10 minute power nap and I am a much nicer person after the fact. Being a mom isn't always the easiest job, but it is the best job out there!

Our Healthy Family Celebration!

Every year since 2006 we try to celebrate August 5th. Not only because it is Grandpa Joys birthday, but because it is the day we took our sweet fragile little Kadence home from the hospital. She was a day shy of a month old and we were thrilled she was coming home so soon. Ya Ya, we have all heard my sappy story and me gush about how grateful we are to the many Dr's who helped our precious girl beat the odds. ANYWAYS....we decided that every year we would celebrate her homecoming. After having Shelby we realized that it wasn't very fair to celebrate Kadence's homecoming and not Shelbys because both were significant. We decided we would still celebrate every year on the 5th, but we would instead celebrate being together, being happy, and being alive.

This year I was having a rotten, crumby, no good sort of day on the 5th. I didn't really feel like doing anything. I was feeling sorry for myself because I wasn't able to do very much with my knee. I was down in the dumps and just couldn't snap out of it. Then it made me so frustrated because I am so very blessed and have so much to be grateful for. For goodness sakes, that's what we were celebrating today after all.....being alive! Even still I couldn't snap out of it and that just seemed to make me more frustrated.

We finally decided to head off on our adventure. We decided to go to The Oaks and sit outside to eat fries, onion rings and of course ice cream. This is one of our favorite things to do. We love sitting out by the river and enjoying some ice cream. The girls were so cute and loved every second of it. It was amazing how quickly I was able to stop my pity party when I was with the people I love, and we were all alive and healthy.

I love my girls so much and am so grateful to have both of them in our lives. I'm not saying things don't get frustrating, but we always end the day with giggles, hugs, and stories. I love being a mommy to them and can't imagine my life without them.

Here are a few pictures taken with my phone.

Just Random Things...

So tonight as we were getting ready to read scriptures we were trying to tell Kadence she needs to be nice to everyone in Kindergarten. We tried to stress being nice even when others aren't and being nice to those who might not be nice to her. Then she tried to explain a scenario to us. 'I'll be nice even if someone punches me like this (demonstrated punching her leg)' we told her that if that happened she should tell Miss Joy but, yes she should still be nice. Then another scenario, 'I'll be nice even if someone punches me in the mouth because I'm talking.' it was SO hard for David and I not to laugh historically because she was being very serious. Where did she even learn about punching? I can't remember ever talking about it or hearing the girls talk about it before. Oh well, I'm just happy she'll be nice to everyone.

I think it's funny to go in public and continuously be sked if the girls are twins. They aren't which I feel is obvious, but then again I'm their mom. You wouldn't believe how many times a day we get asked, 'Are they twins?' It's to the point that sometimes when people say Hi to the girls, Shelby says 'We're not twins.' it makes me laugh. The thing I find a little weird is that some people don't believe me when I tell them they aren't twins. Why would I lie? It's just silly.

I love having my girls so close in age. I was nervous when I was pregnant and strangers didn't help that at all. Throughout my pregnancy with Shelby people constantly told me how hard it would be and how tough it would be to have two girls SO close in age. Really?! Why tell an already pregnant woman that she's going to regret having two kids so close. It hasn't been super easy all the time but I really love how close they are. They are best friends and care so much about each other. I don't know if they would be as close had they been further apart on age.

Friday Confessional

I CONFESS......I don't like most leftovers. I don't know what it is about them, but they just don't taste real delicious to me. There are a few things I eat the next day but past a day I don't eat anything. I'm super picky, I know.

I CONFESS.....my husband makes the most delicious scrambled eggs ever! They are so moist (not soggy kind of moist) light, and fluffy. I don't know how he does it, but he makes awesome eggs everytime!!

I CONFESS.....I can make an amazing grilled cheese. I get the cheese all melty in the middle and make sure every piece of bread has cheese on it. Then I get the outside a nice golden brown. It's one of our families favorite meals.

I CONFESS.....I have food on my mind. I am waiting for Shelby to go back for surgery and can't eat in front of her since she can't eat. I don't know why, but when you CAN'T eat is when you feel like you are starving! When the Dr comes to get her we'll be rushing to the cafeteria that's for sure!

Shoes!

Its no secret that my girls watch a lot of tv. Part of that includes commercials. They hadn't really ever asked for anything they saw on a commercial until they saw one for "Twinkle Toes Skechers." They talked about them constantly for over a month. They asked repeatedly if they could save money to buy them. It was kind of cute, but the shoes are....not as cute. Daddy couldn't resist and so he asked if we could get them for back to school shoes. Why not? Well, I'll tell you why not. They are not the cutest shoes, they are bright, ugly, ridiculously over the top, and they light up! I hate light up shoes! I researched online and I found a few pairs that were Twinkle Toes, but didn't light up. Perfect! I got both pairs for a pretty good deal and was excited to see the girls reactions. They were SO happy and SO incredibly excited. I tried them on and....they didn't fit! Of course! For some reason they were too big on both of them. We decided to return them, and hunt for new shoes that might not be the coveted Twinkle Toes. The girls understood and didn't throw a fit which surprised me. We headed out to Famous Footwear because they had their Buy one Get one half off deal going PLUS we printed a coupon for an extra 20% off. AMAZING! We got there and they didn't have a great selection, but the only ones the girls had eyes for was.....the stinkin' Twinkle Toes! They only had two different styles so that gave us little to no options. The girls tried on the exact same size as I had ordered and somehow they fit. You're kidding me! Here are the terrible shoes that make my babies so happy!

Here is the worst part about the shoes!

Kadence left with a lecture on when it was ok to tell people about her shoes and stomp her feet and when it wasn't after she said, "I'm going to yell 'Hey friends my shoes light up!'" We will be making a call to Aunt Barb to apologize in advance for the disruption this may cause to her Kindergarten class. We told her she could only do it at recess, but she is so excited I don't know if we can contain it! Lesson learned throughout all of this? The girls have their daddy wrapped around their finger!

Absolutely DISGUSTING!

Most days I love that when I stand in my backyard I get a great view of the sunset bouncing off of the mountains.....

Yesterday and today I wish I was much further from the mountains. We found out we had a mouse! DISGUSTING! I went to put a cookie sheet away and found poop in our cabinet.....with our pans, really?!! I told David, he cleaned it up, and we knew we had a house guest.

We weren't quite sure what we were up against until at night Davids brother, Jeff, went in to get a drink. He came out in a hurry saying, "Eww, grosss....Eww, grosss!" He then explained that a mouse ran right by him. Again, DISGUSTING!

I sent the boys down to buy traps immediately and was so freaked out all night. I was hoping that we would have a dead mouse, but no luck. The mouse ate the bait and escaped the traps. David reset the traps, added more bait, and we left to exchange some shoes. When we came home we found this.....

DISGUSTING!!! He was bigger than the trap! I'm shocked the trap even killed it to be honest. Either way we caught our friend! Now I'm hoping its the only one. We'll be thoroughly cleaning each cabinet and checking for any spot it could have entered our house and then checking outside. I want to put an end to our house guests because I was terrified!

Weber County Fair

Since David and I started dating we have gone to the fair together every year....minus the year Kadence was born, but now that I think about it I think we actually did go. We have been entering things in the fair for the past few years too. Its something Davids family has always done and its fun. This year I entered a wooden bird that my neighbor helped me make. She does a craft night once a month and I liked the way it turned out. David entered a vase he made me out of clay and glazed. Both won blue ribbons. Jeff entered a vase, and our cousin Amanda entered photos. All of which won blue ribbons. (Good year for the Joys!)

Another favorite since having kids is to stop at the games the Library sponsors. The tickets are cheap, help the library and you win a prize. Awesome!

This year we let the girls get their faces painted. Kadence picked a lady bug almost right away and Shelby picked just as quickly and chose a.....spider. Yes, a spider. We made sure she saw the strawberry, hippos, and butterfly because she likes those too but she was set on a spider. Thats my Shelby!

I really love this picture for two reasons. First, I love how happy Shelby is while seeing her spider for the first time. Second, I love how tender David is as he pulls her hair aside so she can get a glimpse. He's such a good daddy!

The finished products!

Both girls were given bookmarks and Shelbys was a winning bookmark so she was able to pick a book. Jeff tried to talk her into getting a book the librarian used to read to him and David, but Shelby wanted this one and as usual there was no changing her mind.

We then headed over to see the animals in the stalls.

When we were walking past the sheep, a sheep started baa'ing at Kadence. Kadence went and pet the sheep and then came back to us. As she walked away the sheep baa'd at her again and jumped up on the fence. Poor Kadence was startled nearly to death, but then started laughing pretty hard. It was hilarious.

We promised them a sno-cone after we saw some animals. They are really into slushes, sno-cones, slurpees and icees right now. (Perfect timing for Shelby to get her tonsils out) David was just as excited for his favorite lemonade as the girls were for their sno-cones.

We went inside and watched a pony judging while the girls finished their treats.

Then we headed toward the petting zoo. On the way there, Jeff offered to pay for them to ride on the pony. There's no way I was going to pay $5 a girl to ride in a circle, so they are lucky to be spoiled by their uncle! Thanks Jeffy! The girls were in heaven!! Because we had let Kadence have her few hour break from her brace while we were at the fair, she kept slouching over. The guy running the ride walked over and sat her back up because it looked like she was going to fall off. She immediately said, "Thanks for helping me sit up!" Then she had to yell to David how nice the guy was for helping her. She makes me laugh. As you can tell, they definitely thought this was pretty awesome!

We then went to the petting zoo. The first stop was the baby goats. As the girls were petting the babies, two babies climbing all over two of the moms. It made me laugh so hard so I took a picture of one of them.

This was probably their favorite part of the whole fair!

Anyone who has seen my girls near animals, knows they are terrified of them. We try to coax them into liking them but it just doesn't work out. For some reason they didn't mind walking right up to two different cows and brushing them. The other cow was much larger than this and they didn't hesitate at all. Go figure!

At the end of the day they had won many prizes and were so worn out, but it was well worth it! Next year we are going to help the girls make something to enter so they can see the ribbons. They were so excited "we won" and were so proud of us. I want them to take pride in their own creations....plus the kids win money and they will be ecstatic!

North Shore

A while back I had purchased a few Groupons to North Shore Aquatic Center. My girls loved it last year so we figured we would go a few times this summer. Unfortunately I broke my knee and haven't been able to walk well enough to watch them play. Not to mention my brace is really hot. I wanted to take them at least once so I bucked up and we went. (And I sold the other passes so I could spread the great deal!)

The girls loved it just like last year, only Shelby loved it a little more. She loves to swim and I'm thinking lessons will be a must next year. We were able to bring Uncle Jeff along with us because the Groupon got in 5 people. It was actually his birthday so it worked out nicely. The girls loved having him there with us and Shelby loved showing him how she could swim.

We were able to see the girls friend Emi there too!

Kadence hates the sun in her eyes, and if you've been to North Shore you understand why she is covering her eyes. It is SO bright there and I always forget our sunglasses.

The girls and I during the designated "time out of the pool" to test the water.

Since I wasn't able to be in the water and REALLY enjoy playing with the girls I went back and forth between the side of the pool and the pavilion. I treated myself to some nachos. I LOVE disgustingly fake cheese over crunchy, almost stale chips. I don't know what it is but I love it! I partnered it with a Diet Coke and that was my entertainment!

At first the girls didn't want to play in the splash pad area. I had decided there were too many nachos for me so I told David he could go watch them. It was too hard for me to watch the girls from the side of the pool so I told them they needed to go to daddy or go play at the splash pad. They made the best decision....splash pad. They loved it!

We all had a great time and we were able to end the night with some birthday gelatas from Zeppes. Delicious!

Friday Confessional

I CONFESS...I have days where nothing seems to fit right and doesn't look too flattering on me. I usually end up in tears, but today I didn't! I sucked it up and figured 'To hell with trying.' it was much nicer for me, and David too I'm sure, to avoid the fit and just move on. Here's to hoping tomorrow I feel good in whatever I decide to wear.

I CONFESS...I get super sad to see Shelby grow up. I was thrilled when Kadence went to preschool. I knew she would learn and love every second of it. She was so excited and I was excited for her. Now it's the same way with Kindergarten. Although with Kindergarten I am struggling a little knowing she'll be gone all day everyday. BUT she'll be in great hands, learn tons, and make friends. For some reason I just don't get happy when I think of sending Shelby away to preschool. I think it finalizes that my youngest baby is growing up. I really have a hard time knowing that I will have 4 hours every week without either kid. I'm sure it will be nice to devote that time to homework, errands, or lunch out, but I'd rather spend it with my kids.

I CONFESS...I'm really bummed I'm so white! For the past 3 years I have been hoping that it would be the year I got a tan. My skin looks much more healthy when tan...and a bit sexier. I get overheated easily and it makes me sick, but I have been trying to build a little tolerance to the heat. For some reason things keep coming up and I remain very pale and pasty. I thought for sure this year would be the year for a tan, but then I've been stuck in a brace. Oh well, maybe next year will be the year!

I CONFESS...I'm still really bummed I had to drop my photography class this year. I have tried to teach myself how to use all the different functions so I can use manual settings. I'm improving, but I still have a long way to go that's for sure. I get so frustrated sometimes when I can't get it adjusted right, so I switch it to auto. I'm hoping one day I can either take the class or get the hang of things. I'm not really good at people telling me how to do things and actually get frustrated when they do. I like general information and suggestions and then I like to just figure it out on my own. It's the same with photography. I just like experimenting and learning by making mistakes.

Friday Confessional

I CONFESS...That I am having a hard time thinking of good confessions. Sometimes they come easily, and days like today I draw a blank and struggle to find anything to confess.

I CONFESS...Doing the girls hair is when you will find me at my worst. I can't stand it! If they could just hold still for 2 minutes...tops...I could completely do their hair. Of course not! They move and wiggle. We've had tears from all 3 of us over their hair. I don't even know why I put any effort into it at all because ten minutes later it's a mess!

I CONFESS...I don't always feel like a great mom. I make mistakes, lose my temper, forget breakfast...sometimes lunch (never both in the same day), I'm not always the best example, and I don't always spend enough quality time throughout the day with my girls. I am not a perfect mom by any means, but I actually think I'm a normal mom. I struggle to figure out the best way to handle the day to day privilege of being a mom.

I CONFESS...I don't like to eat food with chunks. Like tomatoe chunks, yogurt with fruit, any kind of sauce with chunks, etc. I know it sounds strange, but I just dont like it. I have started getting better and will eat a few of the chunks in fresh salsa and I eat a black bean salsa that's to die for and it's full of chunks.

I CONFESS... I cringe when I write spaghetti on our menu. Having been poor college students, then poor parent college students we have eaten so much pasta! We now can afford to go a week without pasta, but it's one of the only meals Shelby will eat. She's super picky but can devour an entire bowl of plain pasta. We eat it about one lunch a week, and one dinner per week. It's not my favorite that's for sure!

Trampoline Fun!

Tonight while the girls were jumping on the trampoline I took a few pictures because they get the most sincere and genuine smiles and giggles. It is PURE happiness! Some of the pictures look like a disastrous injury will result from it, but they are just nimble and care free!

Shelby barely missed stepping right on Kadence's face....but she missed!

They stopped for a minute to watch a plane go by and giggled the entire time

This picture screams neck injury, but like I said, they are nimble!