The "I am putting off packing" blog post

Tomorrow we are going to wake up insanely early and drive to Utah. I've missed it so much. Yes, it being the state of Utah and all the people I love who live there. And the mountains. I am now one of those people who miss the Utah mountains. There is a mountain not far from our house I call my Utah mountain. Then we went to St George to get all of our stuff out of storage and I saw real Utah mountains and I realized my Utah mountain was a really small "wish it was a Utah mountain" kind of mountain. If you get what I mean (secret message I'm excited to see more than desert and billboards).
Kirsten has officially hit the terrible twos. Aka she took a permanent marker to my couches while I fed Audrey upstairs. That's right I said couches(plural). Not part of the couches unless we are counting every single part. The arms, each cushion, as well as the carpet, tile, blinds, a few toys, movies, her arms, and toes. Sigh. But I was a good mom and punished her by putting her in the corner and pointing to the ruined couches 15-20 times telling her no no no and didn't just spank her and send her to the room for the rest of the night like parted of me wanted. But apparently for a real artist any punishment is worth it, because during Audrey's 3:00 feeding today Kirsten took a pen (you bet I hid all the writing utensils in our house, but I used a pen to do bills earlier and left it on the desk) to ALL THE SAME PLACES she colored yesterday. I spent four hours scrubbing yesterday with hairspray, a rag, and water. Didn't even get a fourth of it out. They call it permanent marker for a reason. Oh and the kicker? I really want new couches and was hoping to sell these to help fund my new couches. So not going to happen anymore. Sigh
Want to hear me complain some more?
A couple weeks ago the girls and I went to Target. Not surprising since we are there 3-4 times a week. What can I say, it's my happy place. Everyone was tired and grumpy. I went to pay for my merchandise and realized I didn't have my debit card. It was in my back pocket when I went in the store and wasn't there anymore. Pay with a credit card and alert customer service about the card being lost. Come home and cancel the card. Find it in my purse the next day. Awesome. Too bad I canceled it. Drive 45 minutes to MACU to get new cards, but their machine is broke. Awesome. Ask them to mail the cards to me. 3 days later get my card in the mail. Not one of Kirk. Awesome. Finally get around to calling on it a week later and they say his has been sent out and for us to wait for it to show up. It has since been another week totaling 3 weeks since we requested his card. He still doesn't have one. Awesome. Oh and our credit card was stolen online and canceled. They were suppose to mail us new ones. But we haven't seen those either. Awesome. So between the two of us we only have one debit card. We call it our "forced to save because we don't have access to our money"plan. You should try it.
One more whiny story?
Audrey is cutting both of her top teeth. Poor girl is so miserable. We get to hold her. A lot.
On happy notes, Audrey is so cute. She melts my heart repeatedly during the day. And the girls are really starting to play together. I don't think you can really appreciate this unless you have two kids. But seeing them play together is the absolute best. The other night Kirsten laid next to Audrey outside and point at the stars, and airplanes, and doggies (birds) and just babbled and babbled...Audrey grinning and squealing. cute!
One more cute story then I promise to go pack.
We use a lot of signs with Kirsten, one of them being "thank you". Yesterday I put Audrey on the floor in my bedroom while I was getting ready for the day and she started to cry. Kirsten comes to her rescue with a toy (ok it was really a travel size shaving cream can, but ya know). Audrey proudly accepts the offering with a huge smile. Kirsten then spent the next couple minutes trying to get Audrey to sign thank you to her. Cute. Just too cute. They are the best. I love being their mom.

PS Happy Birthday to Kirk tomorrow!(ladies I know it's hard to resist, but he is all mine!)
PPS won't our boys be soooo cute?
PPSS No I haven't given into the idea of having boys...
PPPSS But it's really about Kirk's birthday. I'm so happy you are 26 honey!
PPPSSS I really am going to pack...NOW

Best Weekend Ever!

Last weekend was awesome. It started on Thursday when my brother Garrett and his wife Emily came down from Provo for some nice relaxing fun. We spent all day Friday at the pool.

Then we woke up early Saturday morning and drove to the Laguna beach, which is about 4 hours away from Las Vegas. The entire time we were in the car with grouchy children I just kept thinking about all of the things we should be getting done on a Saturday. But as soon as we were on the beach (aka heaven) I never ever wanted to leave. We were even able to see dolphins and seals from the shore. It was so cool. We stayed at the beach for about 5 hours and then met up with some friends for dinner. It was an awesome day.

NewlywedsKirsten kept sending Emily down to the ocean for more water.
Audrey is getting so big.
Her first trip to the ocean was a huge success.

I told Kirk if we ever strike it rich, we are relocating to one of these homes.
Audrey was a big fan of the sand. Any chance she had to dive for the sand she would take it. We had to keep our eyes on her constantly or she would have a mouth full of sand. She pooped sand for two days afterwords.

Then Sunday, a couple hours after Garrett left, our good friends Joe and Brenna showed up with their cute kids. Joe was here for a conference, so Brenna and I got to spend all day Monday and Tuesday chatting and playing with our kids. It was a blast. Kirsten and Jade are only 3 months apart and Brenna and I have been anxiously waiting for the day when they would play together. The time has totally arrived. These two girls made us laugh pretty much the entire time.

For instance. We were upstairs in the playroom when Kirsten found the stash of swim diapers. She promptly stripped herself naked and put her swim diaper on then found a swim diaper to give to Jade. Brenna tells Jade no. Jade then walks down the stairs with her swim diaper and returns a few minutes later with nothing but the swim diaper on.

Audrey and Isaac chilling at the park.

Like Kirsten's shoes she put on herself (the orange sandals her dad bought her are her favorite)? And Kirsten's skirt Jade is wearing over her shorts? These girls loved wearing each others clothes.

Notice the high heels. Major drama.

If you look closely at the next picture you can see the tiny black bug on Kirsten's hand. Both girls are staring at it. This poor little bug was loved to death. But not before it suffered through an hour of affection from two little toddlers. These girls were fascinated with it.

We love visitors, if you ever have the chance to come to Vegas we would love to see you!

My Wife!!!

As an avid follower of my wifes blog, I'm sure there are a lot of things that you know about me and my wife Dynelle. I figured for mothers day though I would take some time to tell you about things you probably didn't know. They are the things that make her special to me.

1. She absolutely loves her girls. More than you can even imagine.

2. She has the sweetest laugh.

3. Her smile lights the room.

4. As a dedicated mother she has never given up on anything.

5. She remembers absolutely everything.

6. She cares about everyone.

7. She gets terribly scared when watching Signs! :)

8. She is an amazingly good decorator (she decorates 100 times, all of which look great)

9. She can quote Cars, Little Mermaid, Curious George, Cinderella, and many more

10. But most of all she is Loved so much by her girls and me!

When we were picking out a present for Dynelle at Hal-mark Kirsten came to my rescue by pointing at this willow tree figure and saying "Mommy" She saw a perfect depiction of Dynelle and wanted to get it!!!!

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY BABE!!!!!

New Bike

Living in Las Vegas it is essential that we have two vehicles. And our moped just wasn't quiet cutting it on the freeways. So the hunt was on for a new car for Kirk. I use the term "car" loosely since motorcycles were the only thing he actually looked at. On the morning that he bought that pretty bike you see, our conversation went something like this:

Kirk: "Are you sure it's ok I buy a motorcycle?"
Me: "I want you to be happy, but I swear Kirk if you die I will..."
Kirk "I know I know you temple divorce me" (which is exactly what I was thinking, even though it has never been a conversation in our entire marriage)
Dynelle: "I will be so mad"
Kirk: (leaning in to kiss me) "I won't die"

So here is Kirk's new motorcycle.
He is one very happy man!
(Doesn't he look so hot!)

8 months!

It's true. She's been 8 months for 4 days now. Being 8 months is good for Audrey though. She has started scooting across the room, reaching for toys. She will even keep herself entertained for more than a few minutes so I can do laundry without her in my arms. She is still one of the sweetest little babies you'll ever meet. Yet there is a side of her you don't really want to mess with. Lets just say she is one determined little girl and leave it at that. I hope that her determination will help her a lot in the future, and I am determined not be scared of the teenage years already because of it.
Audrey loves every type of food she has ever tried. If you are eating something and she is within eyesight you better plan on sharing.
She was sleeping 12 hours for about a week. Then she started waking up at 6:00 and the time just keeps moving up from there. She was awake at 3:45 this morning.....oh well.
Yesterday we were standing in line at the post office. Audrey starts doing her flirt thing with the old man behind us. All smiles and giggles. Then he called her a boy (which wasn't his fault really, she was in a blue onesie with no bow) and she immediately started bawling, her little heart broken. You would have thought he cut off her toe. Just so we are clear, Audrey does not like to be called a boy :)