Sunday, July 29, 2012

Mama!

After no babbling at all, Joey has now discovered how to say MAMA!  Grace's first babbles were DADA so I'm just a little glad that Joey said Mama first.  :)  I went to put him to bed and he was pretty sad.  I was about to walk out and he said Mamamama.  So I immediately teared up and walked right back to his crib and gave him a smooch.  He thought I was rescuing him so he was a little ticked off when I walked away.  Lol.  After a little crying, he said Mamama again.  Little cheater.  Grace did not enjoy the new words and kept saying "Jojo! Sleep!"  So, I had to go back in!  I picked him up and rocked him and sang songs.  I attempted a few Disney Ballads (selections from Tangled, Mulan, and Hercules) but couldn't remember all of the words!  Blasphemous I know!  But then I started Part of Your World from The Little Mermaid and sang every word.  Grace and Joey were silent through the whole thing so I'm guessing they really liked my rendition.  Normally Grace screams NO! when she wants me to stop.  After I set Joey back down, he still wasn't calming down.  I wanted Grace to be able to sleep so I picked him up to go rock in my room.  Grace was NOT having that!  She kept screaming JOJO, BED!  I tried walking out, but it just escalated.  I guess she was ok with him crying for a few minutes because they both passed out within 3 minutes.

Lol.  I loved every bit of this sweet moment and wanted to write it down so I could remember it on the harder days.

Here's some pictures of my two little cuties.  They sure adore each other!  They may not share blood, but they are as close as any siblings could be!


Snuggles.  :)


Whenever Joey is drinking a bottle, Grace wants her "Nilkie" (milk) too!


Waiting at the chiropractor's office.  I threw my back out a few weeks ago and the chiro has been helping a lot!  He loves the kids too!  Grace loves going for the treats and movie in the front room.  


Seems like the only time I break out the camera is at the very end of the day.  They love to snuggle close in their PJs.  I love dressing them in "Themes" too.  This day was "Sports" with Joey in Baseball and Grace in Dance jammies.  We also have Monsters & Fairies and both in Frogs.  

I am so incredibly blessed to be a mommy!  These two light up my life and every day I am thankful for their two amazing and courageous birth mothers!

Monday, July 23, 2012

doTerra Essential Oils

I attribute a lot of today's goodness to Essential Oils.  Read the post below about our awesome day.  :)

We've been using doTerra Essential Oils for about a year.  We started small with just a couple oils and they've worked great.  I got Peppermint (which Robby uses for headaches), Lemon (I use it for sore throats and for cleaning), Eucalyptus (I rub on the kids' and our feet or chest when we get a cold), and Lavender (I put in the kids' baths or rub a drop on their chest before bed).  Most of them came in a small kit and it was a really great price and I'm so glad we got it.

So a few months ago I tried a couple more.  I found an awesome blend called Solace.  This WILL be TMI for most men (and some women) so feel free to skip to the next paragraph if you don't want to read it.  :)  Solace is to help women during "that time of the month" and during menopause.  I've been using it because I was having pretty bad mood swings and (TMI alert) really bad cramping every cycle.  My cycles were also generally 50 days long or more.  But since starting this blend, my cramps were almost non existent.  I only had 1 day of feeling kind of yucky instead of a week (or more) feeling like Mr Hyde.  I would rub a little on my wrist every day for the month and it ended up helping my cycle be only 27 days!  That's the shortest cycle I've ever had in my entire life!  It was incredible!  When I was cramping, I would rub some of the oil on my stomach and they would disappear within the hour.  It has really been incredible.  After years of having horrible PMS, I finally found a great solution.

Ok, TMI over.  :)  Since the oils were working so well, I decided to dive in even more.  I bought several new blends, skin care products, and a diffuser.  I bought Deep Blue and Coconut oil to mix together to rub on my back and Robby's shoulders.  It's a great pain reliever and works pretty quickly.  I also got Serenity and Elevation.  These blends help with mood.  I put Elevation in the diffuser in the morning and then I put Serenity in an hour before bedtime.  It's helped me stay happy all day and then the kids help relax at night.  The past few nights both kids have gone down without a fuss, which while that's normal for Joey, Grace used to whine and cry for at least an hour before bed.  So I definitely attribute that to the oils.  :)  The skin care products smell delicious and hopefully it will help clear up my acne that looks like I'm 16.  I'll take the clear skin over looking like a 16 year old. :)

I REALLY like the oils.  I've tried other oils at Whole Foods and other health stores in the past and they aren't nearly as good.  I've had a few friends try them too and they love them.  I'm definitely not a sales person, but I really love these oils and believe in the product so I like sharing the good news.  :)  If you'd like to check them out, or try some, let me know.  http://www.doterra.com/

Great Day

Today was a really great day.  With 2 kids 19 months apart, some days are a little overwhelming and can leave me exhausted.  But today was incredible.

I woke up to Grace opening her door at 6 am.  Normally I would be a little perturbed, but she had slept hard for 11 hours.  So I had her climb into bed with us and snuggle for an hour until Joey got up.  We played together for 2 hours and then Joey went down to sleep.  Normally Joey is a little whiney in the morning (because he really just wants to sleep and eat all the time), but today no whining.  :)

When Joey went down for naps, Grace and I read books for about 20 minutes.  She would climb into my lap with a book, sit and read it, turn pages, point at the pictures, and then when the book was done, she would run back to get another one.  I'm the first to admit we have WAY too much screen time at our house and so I'm trying harder to eliminate that.  After my sister's amazing example, we started practicing quiet time before any tv or movies come on.  Grace has to sit on the couch, her arms folded, and not talk for 2 minutes.  She has a little trouble wanting to make noise and bounce around, but she did really great today.  I'm hoping this will help with being reverent in church too.

After quiet time, we watched Angelina Ballerina, or as Grace calls it, REENA!  She loves to get up and dance just like Angelina.  I loved the books growing up (and often pretended my name WAS Angelina) so it's really fun to share that with her.  I showed her our collection of Angelina books too (we only have 3 so far but I plan to buy many many more).  I was able to put away all the clean dishes in the dishwasher while she watched so it was a win-win.

Then it was time for the chiropractor.  We LOVE our chiropractor.  He adjusted Grace and Joey and then they sat while I got adjusted.  We all feel so much better after we go.  Plus he adores the kids.  We came home for lunch and then danced for 10 minutes and it was naptime.  Both kids fell asleep really quick and then I got to work.

During naps I cleaned up all the laundry from our trip to Utah, straightened our room, and picked up around the family room.  Then I was able to chill and relax and watch some shows on Netflix.  It was a wonderful break.  I got to sit and watch both of the kids on our new video monitor too.  That is something I definitely wish I had bought earlier.  But luckily I got it 50% off at Target.  :)

Grace woke up after a good long 2 1/2 hour nap and was happy as can be.  She is loving the freedom that she has from the toddler bed.  She is doing really well at staying in it, but she wakes up so much happier and runs right into my arms when she sees me and I tell her what a big girl she is.  She loves that and it's definitely made her a happier toddler.

Joey woke up 30 minutes later and then we played.  We listened to music, played with toys, and snuggled.  After a little bit, I put both kids in their room together for sibling play time.  Joey loves crawling around after Grace and it gives me time to clean and cook dinner without them at my feet.  Plus it's fully baby proofed so I don't have to constantly redirect Joey to a good toy instead of a "don't touch."

While playing together, Joey followed Grace into their closet.  Then Grace decided it would be funny to shut Joey in the closet and turn off the light.  Joey thought it was funny at first but then she kept doing it so he started to cry.  Poor guy.  Lol.  Hopefully Grace learned her lesson, but I'm sure it's the first of many times that they push each other's buttons.  Soon Joey will be bigger than her so I'm sure he will get her back.

During their play time, I was able to get a load of dishes done, straighten and vacuum the front room, sweep and mop the kitchen, wipe down all the tables and chairs, and vacuum their room.  I love being productive.  :)

Then it was time for Joey's nap.  Like I said, this kid LOVES to sleep.  I decided it would be a lot of fun for Grace and I to do some Yoga together.  We found a couple videos on YouTube (Apple TV is awesome) and we followed along.  Grace thought it was pretty cool and loved when we would do poses together.  She ended up playing along with me for about 30 minutes.  I got a lot of good stretches in and practiced my posture so it was a win in my eyes.  :)

Then I had Grace do some more quiet time (another 2 minutes and she rocked it), then watch the rest of her "Reena" show while I got dinner ready.  We had a lot of potatoes so I decided that breakfast for dinner sounded fun.  I made hash browns by peeling potatoes, grating them in the cheese grater (because what else would I use it for?), pressing out the moisture in a towel, then cooking them in a frying pan with a little oil.  They turned out really crispy and delicious so I will probably be making more tomorrow.  :)  I made pancakes and then had apple slices with peanut butter.  Not the healthiest meal, but it was really yummy.  :)  Joey really enjoyed the apple slice and ate a lot of hash browns. :)

After dinner, we cleaned up and turned on some music.  Then DADDY came home and danced and played while I made his dinner.  Then it was time to get ready for bed.  The kids got in their PJs, we read a couple Sandra Boynton books (our very favorite author).  We read Moo, Baa, Lalala (Grace does all the animal noises), then Red Hat, Green Hat, and then 15 Animals.  Then it was off to bed.  Grace got out of bed a couple times tonight, but mostly because Joey was having a hard time falling asleep (we had a diaper mishap).  But then both babies were asleep by 7:30 and now it's quiet time for Robby and me.

We are watching Parks and Rec and it's HILARIOUS. :)  It's nice to have time together at night, even if he's working from home and I'm playing on my computer too.  Today was really a perfect day and I couldn't have asked for more.  :)

Counting, 2!, Dace!

Grace counted to 3 today!  I told her to take 2 bites and started with one and she said two right after.  So I tried prompting her to do more and she counted all the way to 3!  She's not advanced for her age by any means, but after worrying so much that her speech was behind, I'm celebrating these small milestones.

Grace also will tell anyone who asks how old she is.  Even if she is answering the wrong question.  Someone will ask "How are you?" and she will answer with "2!"  It's pretty adorable.  I try prompting her with "How OLD are you?" and she will answer 2, but she hasn't quite figured out there is a difference.

She also started saying her own name, sort of.  When someone asks her name she replies "Dace".  We're still working on the G sound but hopefully it will come soon.  :)

Toddler Bed


Grace is such a big girl!  We decided to switch her to a toddler bed.  The first night I told Grace she had to stay in bed or I would turn her bed around.  She kept getting out so I flipped it around.  She eventually fell asleep but was mad.  The next day for naps, she asked me to turn it around without even attempting to sleep.  I thought she missed the closeness and was scared of the open space.  So I flipped it around.  I figured that would be the end of the toddler bed but that night she surprised me.  I went and bought a video monitor so I could check to make sure she was staying in bed.  She tried getting out twice and I just told her without opening the door to get back in bed.  After 10 minutes, she was asleep.  I couldn't believe it!  It's been 2 more days and every nap and bedtime she has stayed in the toddler bed.  She fell out once the first night but hasn't again since.  She loves being able to climb in and out, but has also been good about waiting for me to come get her.  She is waking a little early in the morning and wants to climb in our bed so I'm thinking of getting a color changing clock to teach her when to get out of bed.  We'll see how that goes.  :)  For now, I'm so proud of my little girl!