The Best and the Worst

So my birthday was yesterday and lets just say it was interesting. I had been to Utah all month and have kind of felt like I had a birthday month, but I woke up feeling EXTREMELY nauseous. I wrote it off because sometimes when I wake up too early, or haven't had enough sleep I feel nauseous in the morning. AND NO I AM NOT PREGNANT! Let's just clarify that now.

Anyways, I just hung around home all day. My friend Katrina brought me lunch. Lan watched the kids for me while I went to the doctors(the gyno to say the least! fun fun on your bday)! (Thanks girls) By the time I got home and still wasn't feeling well I knew I was getting sick. Josh took the girls and put me to bed saying I couldn't be sick on my birthday. So I tried to sleep it off, feeling like I was going to puke any second. And then it came, and came, and came. I couldn't stop puking for a little while.

It was really no big deal for me to be sick on my birthday, like I said I felt like I had had a birthday month. The worst part was when all my sweet friends showed up with presents and a cake and the whole bit ready to take me out to dinner and PARTY! I felt so sad! They had put in so much work trying to make the day special for me and I ruined everything!

I love you girls so much! Thank you for all the fantastic gifts and for giving me such a great surprise. Thanks for all the effort that went into planning the night!

Josh came home with a surprise as well. He brought me a HUGE mirror. It is beautiful. I assumed that we both knew utah was my birthday present but apparently he forgot. He is such a thoughtful gift giver. I have never even mentioned wanting a mirror, but I absolutely LOVE it. It's like he knew I wanted something I didn't even know I wanted! He can just go pick things out and i love them everytime. I am just not that creative of a gift giver, I guess, so it always astounds me. He also bought me candles for my empty candle holders. He said "I was surprised how much candles cost, I figured out why you had them empty for so long."

I love you Josh thank you for loving me so much. The gifts were perfect!

So like a said an interesting day. Needless to say I am doing a little better today. And I did manage to keep some birthday cake down!

coming right along!

I was about to give up!

I had to put her in diapers yesterday, to go to the baby sitters, then I was sick and just couldn't deal with it. I almost gave up.

My motivation has been a huge pack of unopened diapers that I could take back to costco. $40! You know what I could do with $40!

So last night as Josh was putting the kids to bed, he asked me if he should open the diapers or put panties on her. I said "I don't care you decided!" and Panties it was!

today on day 3 we have had 4 successful trips to the potty.

The fourth she walked in all by herself, without me saying a thing to her. I just let her, and thought lets see where this goes. The next thing I heard was like music to my ears! little tinkling in the potty. She did it all by herself and with nobody telling her too!

I am so happy!

It is coming right along! Yeah for little Hope!

*****************UPDATE********************************

Hope just got out of bed to go potty! Yeah, I think it really is sinking in!

It all started...

Monday at 3:00 PM

Lots of patience.....Lots of love.....Lots of wash.....Lots of tears

Tuesday

End of day 1 1/2

Zero success!

Here is hoping for tomorrow!

Pleased to announce..

Were very pleased to announce that Felix the mouse was not as smart as his friend Chauncey. We got him! It is a very HAPPY and sad day our house as Josh mourns for Felixs' life and as I celebrate by reclaiming MY kitchen!

oh how I missed him!

When I scheduled my flight, I told Josh I was going to be gone for 3 weeks. He said "whoa, that is a really long time!"

My reply: "I don't have anything keeping me here!"

I WAS SO WRONG!

I missed him more than I even realized! Wednesday night was so great to just be together. I couldn't believe how much I missed his touch. Just rubbing my arm absent mindedly as we talked, or his fingers in mine!

I LOVE you Josh, and I hope we are NEVER apart that long again!

Felix welcomes me home.....

After returning home there was some definite cleaning to be done. Josh had picked up pretty good, but just all the scrubbing. My floors were just nasty. I have mentioned before that our house is like tetris........everything has to fit just perfectly. Well here is a perfect example.

This is how my cupboard looked when I got home:



This is what it normally looks like:

You can tell josh was doing the dishes.

*ANYWAYS* back to my orginal story!

I opened up my bottom drawer to get a rag out to start all the scrubbin' and found NEW MOUSE POOP! Many of you know what a trial this is to me from a previous post about our friend (or enemy, depending on whose side your on) Chauncey.

I immediately called Josh and begged him to tell me that he caught and killed a mouse while I was gone. He tried to lie and said that he did, but I knew he hadn't.

Needless to say, we are trying to catch another mouse. I insisted that Josh COULD NOT name this one, but that didn't matter. "Felix" welcomed me home! LUCKY ME!

My sweet little Brie....

Brielle put her arms around my neck and said "oh, mom you are the best! you are the coolest!"

This of course, my made my day! I had to blog it so that when she is 16, I can go back and show her that she thought I was cool one day!

At bed time I told her to come over and I would read her a story. She said

"Oh boy! This is just too much fun!"

I am so glad that I could make her day by reading her a story!

The plane ride!

We started our journey early on tues. morning! My sisters did not know that I was coming and I was so excited to surprise them! I was excited to surprise everybody but it slowly started getting out!

The Girls didn't really know what was going on but were excited. They loved looking out the big window at the all the big planes! We flew to Baltimore, which was only a 40 min. flight! It was great! The looked out the window. They giggled when the plane took off and landed! They loved getting apple juice for the stewardess. We didn't even have to pull out any of our snacks or activities and I thought "Wow, this will be a breeze!"



We had a 2 1/2 hour layover in which we went potty twice, ate, had ice cream, and ran around the windows like crazy! We even ran into the glass a few times and it was funnier everytime! When were they going to realize that they could not walk through the glass?



When we finally boarded the plane I quickly realized this was NOT going to breeze! I knew it would be kind of caotic but the first flight fooled me a little into thinking it would be easy! We were on that flight for 5 1/2 hours and it was LLLOOONNNGGG! Everybody was getting restless so it is no wonder that the kids were! We took a bathroom break which was humorous shoving all of us into that tiny little bathroom! The clouds only look cool for so long, but when we were finally flying over utah, Brielle looked out and said

" Wow, it really is Utah!"

I don't know if it was the mountains (which are gigantic, you forget how big they really are!) or the snow, but she remembered something about Utah!

When she saw my mom at the airport she ran straight into her arms! it was so sweet!

I couldn't wait to see my sisters! Angela came over and we all ran out yelling "SURPRISE!" Her face was priceless! We then both yelled, screamed, hugged, and cried! Jennifer figured out that I was here over the phone! I had slipped quiet a few times talking to her, then when Ang was begging her to come to g-ville she put two and two together!

We couldn't stop laughing and we couldn't believe that we were together! WE spent the week together, and then my Brothers and sister in law came out this past weekend! It has been a blast being with the family! The kids have been excited to see thier cousins and Brie has been referring to them as her buddies!

I haven't got to spend much time with Josh's side of the family, but I can't wait until they all come up so that we can get together! We saw Mikey and Jen's little baby, and the girls just went nuts over him!

We are so happy to have this time to spend with our family and friends!

*********WARNING**************************

This video may make you sick! Brielle took control at one point, and lets just say she is still working on her camera skills! This was just for Josh since he couldn't join us on the first big plane ride! Love you baby!

NO... we are NOT dead.....

WE'RE IN UTAH!

Well, the majority of us anyway! The girls and I flew out about a week ago! We are having so much fun seeing everybody, but I am missing Josh like CRAZY already!

I have delayed posting because I have some cute pics of the kids on the plane! Yeah, that was an adventure! Try keeping a VERY active 2 year old, and a VERY active and DEFIANT 3 year old occupied and happy for 51/2 hours on a plane! They did surprisingly well, but even I was ancy!

-ANYWAYS-

I can't find a USB cord ANYWHERE! Don't worry I am keeping up on my search and the pictures will come soon!

P.S. WE Love you JOSHY!