Boxed In...

Sums up how I feel right about now! We have been loading boxes and packing for the last month now and it is all finally coming to an end at the end of this week! THANK HEAVENS!

We don't have the hugest house...and when you box up most of the contents in our house and put them in our living, it really starts to close in on you! It's definitely affected my mood too! We are constantly running into things, I have a fridge in my kitchen and one in my dining room, Elodie's bed is broken down and against the wall in the living room, things aren't where they usually are..it's a disaster and for the most part I try and avoid being at home during the day! Any reason to function outside of this organized chaos is good enough for me!

Thankfully, Christopher will be home around 4pm today with the U-Haul to start loading up and clearning the air! It is definitely a warm welcome and where I'm grateful we have been organizing and planning ahead, I am so ready for some organization and normalcy!

Moving Stinks!

In her own words...

"Mom, will you please go away so I can eat my candy!?!"

Elodie has her own chores...she is responsible for keeping food in Ginger's bowl and cleaning her own room. Some days her room is a real challenge..it may take her 2 hours to clean it (plus a few reminders and threats from me! Examples include "you aren't doing anything fun until your room is clean" or "if I have to come in there and clean your room it's all getting thrown away!") For the most part she buckles down and gets it done and then she is SO proud of herself and wants everyone to see her clean room!

Today is no different....the library is on the line if she doesn't clean her room...she knows it but is slowly dragging her feet in her room. It's definitely got it's benefits..I get my chores done in the time it takes her to clean her room and I think it's important for her to understand that everyone has jobs that have to be done before we can do fun things. I'm certainly not sitting on my rear end eating ice cream while she is slaving away in her room (with the exception of this post but in my defense if I didn't document it now, I would forget)

On one of my many reminder trips to her room "Are you cleaning?" I found this....Elodie with a box of nerds (you'll notice the little gym water bottle in the corner of the picture...these were the party favors from her birthday party in September and they were all filled with candy) Well, until this morning when she found out how to open the water bottle and found the candy inside....she happily dumped a box of nerds out and was quietly eating them..until I found her! That was when she sweetly said "Mom, will you please go away so I can eat my candy!?!"

Atleast she was polite about it!

Hail to the Prophet!

Our sweet Prophet President Hinckley passed away last night....

I love President Hinckley. My first experience with a Prophet was when President Hinckley visited Ricks for devotionals (98-2000)...even being in that huge arena, when he walked in it was so quiet and the spirit was so strong! We all stood and sang "We Thank Thee Oh God for a Prophet". He also came to Louisiana when the Baton Rouge Temple was dedicated and my parents were set apart as the Temple President and Matron. (2000) Our family had the opportunity to meet with him and shake hands with him. It was amazing the spirit that was felt!

President Hinckley will truly be missed! It's amazing how much work he accomplished on this earth before and during his time as President! What a wonderful knowledge we have as members of the church that he has reunited with his sweet wife and family members! And with that knowledge, you just can't be sad!

Unemployed...

Not Christopher...ME! Last night was my last night to work at Kohl's...FINALLY! I really didn't see myself working there as long as I did (it would have been 2 years in April) but it never conflicted with our schedules and the extra money was definitely a perk (got us all the way to Disneyland and more!)

It's a little bittersweet..I've enjoyed contributing in more ways for our family, the time that Chris and Elodie were getting together, and it was a nice 8 hours a week break from home, but physically it was time to throw in the towel. Because of all the walking around I was having contractions like crazy...especially these last couple of weeks. It was definitely time! The funny thing about quiting was all the reactions I a got from other people I worked with...alot of "when are you coming back?" and "so what are you going to do now?"...uh...HELLO!?! Do you see this belly..I'm getting ready to pop in 5 weeks!

From a LDS perspective all my friends were in shock that I hadn't quit yet....but to people who aren't LDS they couldn't fathom my roll as a SAHM or a one income family...it's just funny the worlds view on whats important and the churches view.
It's not to say that in a couple of years I won't do this again...a little part time job to get out of the house, give Chris some quality time with the girls, and earn a little vacation or new furniture money but for now my place is at home with my family! And frankly, I enjoy being with my family much more than earning an extra $100 bucks a week!

Overall,I'm excited to have atleast one thing off my plate..more like trading one thing (work) for something better (a baby)! Although a newborn is like adding 4 things to your plate!!! 4 good things!

1st Dentist Appointment

Elodie had her first dentist appointment today and we are happy to report no cavities and great looking teeth. She is a great little teeth brusher and we are happy her teeth are healthy. The highlight of course was the new Arial toothbrush and a toy out of the treasure chest!


She is really getting to be a big girl...she was so good during the whole teeth cleaning process.


Showing off her pearly whites!

Disneyland all over again!

Well kinda! We are taking Elodie to see Disney Princesses on Ice Friday night in Phoenix! The best part is we aren't telling her where we are going or even mentioning it to her so she is totally going to flip when we get to the arena and the princesses start coming out!

Last night me and Melissa took the kids to the park and then to Barro's. Both of our hubbies were gone for the evening...Mace had class until 9pm and Christopher was playing softball with his works ballteam. Anyway, the place was PACKED and we actually had to stand and wait for a table to open up! Crazy for a wednesday night. Luckily, we got a table right before our pizza came. The reason I bring all this up is because the family that was sitting at the table that we got had little girls all dressed in princess costumes....I started talking to the mom about how crazy busy Barro's was and she said they had to eat fast because they were on their way to see Disney Princesses on Ice...long story but that's where I heard about it and immediately came home and started doing some research.

The prices were a little on the expensive side but I think totally worth it! We needed a little excitement with all this craziness from moving! We are going to have so much fun and Elodie is going to flip out! I seriously can't wait until tomorrow night! I'll of course bring my camera and let you know how it goes..Christopher saw "Toy Story" on ice a couple of years ago (before we were married) with his niece and nephew and he said it was awesome! I'm sure we won't be disappointed!

If your in the area and this sounds like something your family would love definitely check out the link...Disney Princesses on Ice They are in town this weekend only!

Pregnancy Update: 6 weeks to go...

So I had a doctor's appointment yesterday...nothing new to report (thankfully). This baby is super active and with no place to go she is pushing on me all the time! Those 4 pounds I gained at Disneyland and lost 2 weeks ago are back...go figure!

As of today I am 6 weeks from delivery....a little panic...but until we move and we are settled in our new house I don't really have time to think about a newborn! Now once we are moved and settled I'm sure I'll start to freak out!

Nothing else for 2 weeks!

Playdate with Dad

It was in the mid 60's over the weekend so Christopher thought it would be a good time to wash the car. Elodie being the little helper she is wanted a job along side her dad. That is until a huge mud puddle was made and Elodie went from being a little helper to the one in need of help. Sadly, it got worse after this picture was taken..by the end of it all Elodie was literally sitting in this mud puddle....shivering and all! Christopher thought it would be a great idea to hose her down before bringing her inside....needless to say she will be scarred for life for that little idea!

Yarn Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celebrity - Collage - Morph

Go figure..

Most of you know we are getting ready to move out of our house at the end of this month...we live in family/student housing and since we are done with school we are no longer welcome! Fine by us! While we have enjoyed our stage through school and have loved the current ward we are in, we are anxious to move on to a new chapter in our lives. While we have chosen to rent for an additional year before buying, we will be in a much nicer and bigger house and are very excited about this upgrade!

As most of you also will know, along with moving comes the ever so fun activity of PACKING! Both times we have moved since living in Arizona I have been pregnant (9 months pregnant with Elodie and now about 8 months pregnant with this baby) so I am limited on what I can and cannot do when it comes to packing. It makes for a little more stress on Christopher but we chose to plan ahead and have stayed on top of not putting things off until the last minute....my limitations really only involve NOT picking up boxes but I have no problems filling them...

We have packed a bunch of the things that are "can live withouts for the next few weeks" or so we thought....

It just figures that as soon as you don't think you need it or never use it and can live without it for a little while...that's the day you WILL need it and CANNOT live without it!

So far I have had to unpack some recipe books, live without my scrapbooking stuff (which before now I haven't touched but now all of a sudden I'm having the hugest itch to scrapbook). I loaded up the majority of our kitchen this week and only left out a couple of glass bowls and very little tupperware (other than plates, glasses, and utensils). I thought this was a great idea until the last 2 days when I've had to wash out the 2 glass bowls we have out everytime I've needed them (which by the way, when you have 8 glass bowls it feels like you have too many, but when you only have 2, it's extremely annoying!) use a kool aid pitcher to put popcorn in, and wash out cereal bowls after they are used because heaven forbid I packed the large tupperware bowls Christopher usually uses when he makes himself a bowl of cereal!

One of our new year's resolutions was to downsize and really evaluate purchases before we make them...I think when it comes to packing and trying to save ourselves some time on moving day, we have definitely gone in over our heads and gotten a little carried away! Maybe we don't need to downsize as much as we thought!

Thankfully, we only have a week and a few days before the move so we are hanging tight until then.

Everyone needs their mommy!

So my mom booked her ticket to come out here when the baby is born! I'm really excited to have her here and so happy to have the extra support and help with Elodie and around the house. It's definitely a huge burden lifted!

She comes in on the 4th of March and will be staying with us through the 19th of March. I had a little bit of panic yesterday thinking that 3 weeks wasn't going to be long enough but after talking to my mom and Christopher, they both seem to think I'll be kicking my mom out by the end of it all. Let's hope so! Not literally, but I do hope that I feel confident once she leaves. Women do it all the time right...RIGHT!?!?!

Update on our middle of the night visits....

So as I had mentioned before, the last couple of weeks Elodie has been getting in our bed in the middle of the night to sleep with us. At first it was no big deal but it's so often that Chris and I are both waking up not as well rested as we would like....

So this was the week that I was determined to change this little routine we had created...especially before the big move and a new baby came into the picture.
Alot of you had some great advice and I appreciate all the comments and articles sent my way. I had a pretty good idea of what needed to be done, it was just the dragging myself out of bed at 3am part that didn't sound so great to me..maybe this
is Elodie's way of preparing me for all those middle of the night feedings!

Anyway, the last couple of nights we haven't had any problems with Elodie. She has been getting in bed with me after Christopher left in the morning and that to me was no big deal...plus I mentioned she sleeps later when she is in bed with us so I can't really complain. We had also been reminding her before bedtime that she needed to try and put herself back to sleep when she woke up in the middle of the night...
Either way, it hadn't been a big deal the last couple of nights....

And then last night came, 3am rolled around and here comes Elodie rounding the corner to get in our bed. I just happen to of woken up to take my 11th bathroom break so we practically ran into each other in the doorway. We were both pretty out of it but I totally scored and an opportunity to put her back in her own bed since I was already up. I stopped Elodie, asked her what she was doing out of her bed, and told her that she needed to be in her own bed. She whined for a minute and then told me "I had a good wake mommy!" This is what she always sais when she just woke up from her afternoon nap. Sadly, not the correct response at 3 in the morning. With that, I scooped her up, took her to her bed and told her how much of a big girl she was and how she needed to sleep in her own bed with her bear...

It seemed to work. I tucked her in and before I left the room she was out again! Never to be heard from again....until 7am this morning when she crawled into bed with me after Christopher left.

So progress was made. I'm not expecting this to end so easily but it's a start and I'm pleased I wasn't up more than once last night!

Disneyland Day 2 Part 1

I was in need of an upper today so I thought I would start the heavy task of Disneyland! You have to understand why I have been dragging my feet...this is partially for all of you to enjoy but also serves as a family journal...I want to document every detail and in doing so, it's going to take FOREVER!! So Day 2 will be divided up into 2 parts, maybe even 4 parts!...most likely everyday will be divided into 2 parts because we shoved so much into each day. Sadly, some pictures will have to wait as I've ordered the photo pass cd and it hasn't come to me yet. So lots of pictures of Elodie with the princess' as well as with Mickey Mouse will have to wait!! I will forever think that the photo pass people who take your picture all over the park was the best idea Disney has had! What a fabulous concept! Everytime I saw one of them I got super giddy!

Okay, Day 2 part 1....

We got up early Monday morning, well rested and super excited about our day. We were able to check into our resort (The Paradise Pier) around 9am which was perfect because we got to park close to the park...huge perk! And then to the happiest place on earth we went!

I of course was overwhelmed with all the fabulous places to get pictures and felt like I could have taken a million pictures before we even entered the park! It was crazy...Here is Chris and Elodie right after we got our tickets scanned....


And the photopass guy took a bunch of pictures of us in front of Sleeping Beauty's castle....which is another reason to love them..not only will they take the picture of you and your family, they offer to take your picture with your camera too!


Christopher and Elodie in front of Sleeping Beauty's castle...


Finally, getting to go into the park!



The first thing Elodie wanted to do when we entered Fantasy Land was ride the big carousal....so off we went!




The second on the list was DUMBO! Oh how we loved Dumbo..we must have ridden it 4 times the entire time we were in Disneyland, took a million pictures, and tons of video. It was by far one of Elodie's favorite rides...

This is the ride that left me feeling most sick...We let Elodie handle the lever that makes you go up and down and she was going to town! It was nauseating! I never threw up and I rode everything Elodie rode!

You will see more pictures of Dumbo as the days go by....Elodie really loved this one as I'm sure most kids do!

Next, Mr. Toads Wild Ride...





Peter Pan...


On our way to Pinnoccio...I don't think that's how you spell it....


And I think I will stop there....until Part 2!

If 3's a crowd...

then we need a bigger bed!

Long before we had Elodie we decided that it was important for her to sleep in her own bed, in her own room. This decision served a few purposes. 1- We all needed our own space and would all be much happier with a little distance for naps and bedtime. 2- Ginger was here first and was already sleeping in our bed. We didn't want to kick her out to make room for Elodie. And 3- Being able to enjoy our bedroom was important to me and Chris. So it was a done deal and when Elodie started sleeping through the night at 5 weeks off to her own room she went.

It's worked well for our family and overall we have been happy with our decision...HOWEVER, in the last couple of weeks Elodie has been finding her way to our bed....sometimes it was 5 or 6 in the morning but lately it has been as early as 2am! She goes to bed fine in her own bed...We don't know why it started, there's no reason behind it, but we let her in simply because it wasn't that big of a deal. Until you realize that Ginger still sleeps with us, I'm almost 8 months pregnant, AND we are sleeping in a tiny full size bed! (Gasp all you want but it was given to us when we got married and it fit our needs just fine! We like to sleep close anyway. This is not to say that a bigger bed is not on my list of priorities for this new year.) Not to mention that Elodie is NOT a snuggler and attacks you in the middle of the night. I will wake up to find a knee in my back, her head shoved underneath my chin, arms flying, she just isn't a very gentle sleeper! This being said, Ginger has officially kicked herself out of our bed and most mornings we find her sleeping beside our bed or in a different room all together! All our efforts have been shoved out the window and we know have our almost 3 and a half year old in our bed! The only perk to this little stage is that Elodie will sleep in until around 8:30am...sometimes later! It's fabulous! On the other hand, don't try and get up before then because she is such a light sleeper that she is up and out the door before your feet hit the floor!

Now we are at a crossroads...we have a new baby coming to our home in about 8 weeks and we need to nip this in the bud before then! So this is the week....it's going to require taking Elodie back to her bed in the middle of the night and probably battling with her for a few nights but hopefully being persistent will pay off! It's either that or we need to go buy ourselves a California King and that my friend isn't happening any time soon!

New Recipes...

My cousin Tania posted these recipes on her blog yesterday. Since I didn't have dinner plans when I read her blog I thought I would give it a try. We had this meal for dinner last night and it was a huge hit! And, we are having leftovers with fresh bread bowls tonight! Thanks for the recipe Tania and I hope you all enjoy!

Southwestern White Chili:

1 pound chicken- cooked and cubed
1 medium onion-chopped
1 and 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1 T. vegetable oil
1 T. minced garlic

Saute onions in vegetable oil with garlic powder and minced garlic. Combine with cooked and cubed chicken.

In a large pot combine the following...

2 cans Great Northern Beans (drained and rinsed)
1 14 oz. can chicken broth
1 small can diced green chilis
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. oregano
1/2 tsp. pepper

Add chicken and onions and bring to a boil. Cover, lower heat and simmer for 30 minutes.

Before serving add the following...
1 cup sour cream
3/4 small container of whipping cream

Bread Bowls:

1 loaf Rhodes bread
1 egg beaten

Cut loaf into thirds. Form each third into a ball. Place on a large sprayed cookie sheet. Brush with egg. Cover with sprayed plastic wrap and let rise until double in size. Remove wrap and bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until golden brown. Cool and slice off tops. Hollow out bread and fill with soup.

ENJOY! I know we did!

Pregnancy Update: 31 weeks tomorrow

Anybody else as obsessed with the baby ticker to the right of my post as I am? Probably not. I have a measley 8 weeks left of my pregnancy!! YIKES! Very hard to believe it's getting to the end..it's gone by so fast this time around!

I had my doctor's appointment this morning and the good news is...drum roll please.....I've LOST 3 pounds!! Don't know how I did it but 3 of the 4 pounds I gained during Disneyland are now gone! My doctor wasn't bothered with the weight loss..he just said don't let it happen again! And since I don't know what I did to lose it, that might be easier said than done!

Everything looks great..baby's heartrate is great, I'm feeling crowded out but good, and we are right on track.

Just before sitting down to post, I got a phone call from my doctor with the official c-section date..For those of you who don't know or have never heard Elodie's birth story..I dialate to an eight and then my cervix hits the walls of my pelvis...basically I don't have birthing hips..the thing that stunk the most was being in labor for 18 hours before my doctor came to that conclusion! My mom had the same problem (there is a medical term for it) so it's pretty much genetic. Anyway,
I go in on March 5th at 12 noon.....DUM, DUM, DUM! Scary! My original due date is March 16th, which is my dad's birthday so he was pretty bummed to hear March 5th.
I would like to have the baby on March 3rd...since my birthday is Nov. 3rd, Elodie's is Sept. 3rd, and Chris' birthday is March 6th...but as long as the baby wasn't born on Chris' birthday I was happy. March 3rd would have been better though!

My mom is planning on coming a day or 2 before the surgery and I've told her she isn't leaving until I kick her out! Now that she and my dad are no longer in the Temple Presidency she has all the time in the world right? Their retired!

Nothing else to report....more in 2 weeks!

No better feeling...

So first off I have to say that I am lucky I'm not posting this entry from a hospital room! We were so tense and excited last night, jumping around, and screaming I was contracting so bad during the game! We couldn't relax the whole time! Christopher kept saying he wished he could record our reactions to the game because we were going crazy!! It made for good times...Elodie got a little scared for a minute or 2 but overall it was fun!

LSU pulled through and made Louisiana proud! And me happy that I spent the money on shirts for the game!

It wasn't looking great the first 5 minutes into the game when Ohio was up 10 to nothing but like always LSU was cool under pressure and came back and whooped some bootay!! What a great feeling!

It was definitely a great way to spend our Monday night..wish we could have spent it with my family in Louisiana but we are hoping to plan a trip home in October and definitely plan on going to Tiger stadium for a game!!

Geaux Tigers!!

Tonight's the big game!!! Thanks to my sweet sister in law Alexis, we have LSU shirts on route to our house today for the big game tonight!! Pictures of course to come!

Disneyland Day #1

The wait is finally over!! I'm finally done with all of my editing and can finally start posting our Disneyland pictures!! I'm going to do day by day so we'll start with Sunday..it's not the most entertaining day but it definitely was adventful!!

We left Arizona around 8am, dropped Ginger off at Chris' cousins house, stopped at McDonald's and were on our way. About an hour into our trip Elodie started complaining that her stomach was hurting and she needed to go to the bathroom. Keep in mind that we were in the middle of no where...once you get off the interstate it's desert landscape forever!! Nothing for miles! We attempted to distract her but she wasn't having any of it and reminded us every 5 seconds that her stomach was hurting so we needed to stop! Finally, the first town we got to we stopped and sure enough Elodie indeed needed to go to the bathroom and I felt so bad for her! She has never really had stomach issues before so it was pretty hard on her. We got back on the road, only to have Elodie start complaining yet again that her stomach was hurting and she needed to go to the bathroom! UGH!

To save all the gorry details we ended up stopping about 4 more times, twice on the side of the road because we were in the middle of no where! Christopher was frustrated because we weren't making good time, I was annoyed because it didn't seem to matter how many times we stopped Elodie's problems were not stopping, and Elodie was crabby for obvious reasons! Towards the end of our little adventure, Elodie figured out that if she said she needed to go to the bathroom we were going to stop so it's pretty much all we heard the whole rest of our trip to California! We figured this out after 2 stops when she didn't do a dang thing! Sneaky girl! But what else do you do when your little one sais they need to go! I was just praying the whole way that this was not a sign of things to come!!!

We made it to California unharmed and safely around 3pm, checked in our hotel, and tried to relax for a little while! Because our park hopper pass didn't start until the next day (Monday) we decided to explore the Downtown Disney shopping area and take in the feel of Disney. It really did the trick for us because as soon as we got to Downtown Disney all the craziness of the trip up faded away! THANKFULLY!

We walked around for a little while, explored the Disney Store (which is heaven on earth for any child) and ate dinner at the ESPN ZONE (highly recommended if you get the chance). It was a nice way to wrap up the day and really helped us all unwind from our long road trip. We never saw another sign of Elodie's upset stomach the whole time we were at Disneyland or the way home...not to jump ahead but when we were getting ready to leave California...as we were driving along the first thing out of Elodie's mouth was that her stomach was hurting and she needed to go to the bathroom! Seriously, one smart cookie! Christopher told her if her stomach was hurting we were going to put a diaper on her...that called her bluff and she was quiet the rest of the ride home!




Everything was decorated so beautifully!!! No one could have been in a bad mood walking around Downtown Disney!


It's exactly what you might imagine it to be...huge tv's EVERYWHERE and a second floor devoted entirely to video games! Hog heaven for any guy! They even put a time limit and price minimum on each table so you can't just hang around and watch football!



We headed back to our hotel shortly after dinner...we were all exhausted and needed a good nights sleep for our long days ahead. I was so glad we decided to get into California a day early. It was nice to have that time to unwind and relax!

Until tomorrow!

Not the way we planned to start out the new year....

Christopher's sister Amanda called this morning to let us know that Christopher's dad had been admitted to the hospital last night with chest pains and was shortly being transferred to the valley to have a stint put in one of his arteries!!!

Holy Cow!!!

He was transferred down here around 3pm and by 7pm this evening was in recovery....thankfully he did not have a heart attack..just the beginning symptoms of one...and thankfully all was caught in time for it not to be an emergency...just looked at as preventative measures. Only one artery had minor blockage that needed to be taken care of.

Given that Chris' Grandpa Yarn passed away earlier this year because of a heart attack the doctor's felt it necessary to go ahead and take precautions.

We are thankful that all is well and Chris' dad will be released from the hospital tomorrow morning.

It's scary to think of how much genetics effect our health. It especially concerns me when it comes to Christopher! It is definitely something we will watch for and try and prevent at all cost!!