BRAND NEW crib bedding for sale!

I have taken a long blog hiatus as life has been crazy. We've had weddings, birthdays, vacations, school, sports, etc. The big new is we are MOVING! We sold our current home in 30 days (and actually got what we wanted for it!), and now are moving out next week. So, life is even busier. We will be moving in with my mother-in-law for 2 months, while our home is finishing being built. She is very kind to let us stay with her. We will still be here in Mesa, just a little farther south than we are now. We are very excited for this move!

I have some items for sale. If you or anyone you know may be interested, just let me know. If no fellow bloggers are interested, I will post on craigslist. I would rather sell to someone I know, or a friend of a friends, than a stranger!

Quilt

I have some BRAND NEW girls Crib bedding for sale ( I have 2 of the same pattern). It has flowers, butterflies, ladybugs, hearts, gingham pattern, etc. I purchased it probably a little over a year ago, to resale it. My sister loved the bedding and was pregnant, and made my hang onto it, in case she had a girl. However, she is due any day with a boy, so it is time to sell it! Like I said, it is brand new, only removed from the package for picture purposes. It is a 4 pc. set (bumper pad, quilt, bed skirt, and sheet) from Dillards that is no longer available. It is adorable. Must see in person, the pictures don't do it justice. Selling for $100 for a 4 pc. set. Comes with original packaging.

Reverse side of quilt has stripes

Bumper pad VERY PLUSH - mulitcolored floral on one side, stripes on the other

Bedskirt - pink gingham on bottom

Sheet - pink gingham (darker than pict. shows)

Let me know if anyone is interested!

Input needed!

Anyone's thoughts on these shoes? Picture them on a white guy. I'm having a hard time wondering what would ever possess someone to buy these shoes, but then again I'm not a fashion queen. Maybe these really are the best looking basketball shoes out there!?!

Goodbye Diapers??

Callie's turning 3 tomorrow so we thought we would try to get rid of her diapers. She showed some interest in potty training about 2 months ago, so we sort of attempted then with some success. We would have days with few accidents, and then one Friday we had a great day. I went to work that night (and the rest of the weekend) and let's face it - men are not so great at helping potty train. I ask Callie periodically if she needs to go and sometimes she will come up on her own and tell me. However, Nate's philosophy is she needs to know when she needs to go, so he always waits for her to tell him. Needless to say, after that weekend, with dad taking care of her, she regressed.

So here we are 2 months later. We have been trying to prepare her for this moment for a few weeks. We kept asking her, "What are you going to do on your birthday?' and her response has been, "throw my diapers in the garbage. Then I have to go on the potty." Yesterday I decided that I needed to start it today, because guess what, I work again this whole weekend. This morning we got out a big garbage bag and she helped me throw all her diapers in it, and we took it out to the big black barrel. I distracted her as I snuck them right back out (there were a lot of diapers & I'm not going to waste all that money!) hoping that I will never have to use them again. She has worn her favorite Tinkerbell undies all day with pretty good success. We have had one poop and one wet accident and it's 5:00 pm. Not too bad! She really didn't like wetting on herself, so that is encouraging. I would love to be diaper free around here. Wish us luck!

Easter

Callie running for the next egg!

How do I get my basket and myself down?

After our baskets were all full

Dressed in our Easter Sunday best! (Where did my baby go? She is so grown up!)

I love the Easter season. The Monday before Easter for FHE we watched the Finding Faith in Christ video. Colton told me after we watched it that he never wants to watch it again. When I questioned why, he said, "because I have done things that has hurt Jesus' body and that makes me sad." So it was a great opportunity to reinforce trying to always choose the right. I'm always amazed at some of the things little children can understand. We tried to point out that because of the resurrection, Christ is alive and has made it possible for us all to be resurrected and live with him again someday.

I tried really hard this year in Primary, to make Easter all about Christ and not the Easter Bunny. I handed out little bags with a easter pencil and eraser, a poem about Christ, and a picture of Christ. I was sure not to include any candy. Needless to say, my kids came home with a bunch of candy!

We did the traditional easter egg hunt in the backyard. Callie actually had the hang of it this year and was excited to find each egg. Colton had fun finding the eggs that were trickier to find. I had to tell Colton that the Easter Bunny always hid an egg in the BBQ when I was a little girl and sure enough, the last egg found was in the BBQ! The Easter Bunny was very kind to them and left them a lot of candy (and licorice - their favorite)!

That evening, we ended up over at my parent's house for the traditional ham easter dinner. Great food as always. All the grandkids were able to have another easter egg hunt there, and all got more candy and toys. We love living close to family and being able to spend the holidays with them.

Timeout?

Callie was sent to timeout (our laundry room) the other day. She was quiet, and I told her it was time for her to come out. This is what I saw! She was not naked when she went in there! Little stinker was in there playing with Colton's dirty soccer stuff. I shouldn't have been too surprised as she does love to dress up!

Callie's a big kid now!

Callie's big girl bed
Colton's room - fit for a train/truck/car lover!
Nate made the mats and pict. frames for these 3 pictures.
Dining Room
Living Room

We did it! We decided that since we aren't going to be having any babies around our house anytime soon (that's another story!), that we would try to officially put up all the baby stuff around our house. This included Callie's crib/toddler bed. This past weekend we put up her "big girl bed" and she absolutely loves it! She has not had any trouble sleeping and hasn't even fallen off the bed. I really didn't want to put the bed rail on, unless we really needed to, and so far so good. When I was decorating Callie's room when she was a baby, I wanted to do a room that could grow with her. I searched and searched, and managed to find a twin bedspread that matched well with her wall border from her crib set, so I didn't even have to do any redecorating. I think her room turned out very cute and girly! Colton was jealous of me taking pict. of Callie's room and not his, so I snuck in a few of his room also. His room should be able to grow with him for quite a few more years too.

This past fall, we finally finished painting and decorating our living room and dining room. It only took us 4 years! When we moved into the house, they were both completely empty for quite a while. I'm no interior decorator, but I thought I'd post the final results. Any decorator's out there, feel free to give me advice.

In December, I had some medical things happen with me which has made us postpone our next child for a while. My doctor called me at home one day and said, "I'm not telling you that you should probably wait a while to get pregnant, I'm telling you, you NEED to wait." He says I need to wait six months before we try for another child, while other things I read say to wait at least one year. I have always wanted my children about 3 years apart, but obviously Heavenly Father had a different plan. Callie will be at least 4+ years old by the time our 3rd child could come along. Part of me is sad that things didn't go as WE planned, but that's okay. I am looking forward to the positive aspects of it such as: getting Callie potty trained so we can be diaper free, no more toting around a diaper bag like I have for the last 5+ years, and a little free time to myself when Callie will go to preschool in the fall and Colton will be in all day kindergarten. I appear to be perfectly healthy at this time and have faith that this will continue. My dear sweet husband was so wonderful through everything. He finished up all the christmas shopping, made and passed out salsa to all the neighbors, sent out the christmas cards, took great care of the kids, and did anything else I asked him to do. I love you Nate! I was hoping to send out a little letter with our christmas cards, but that didn't happen with everything else we had go on. Maybe this coming year we will be more on top of things!

Irvine Regional Park 2

Irvine Regional Park

Saturday of our CA trip we visited Irvine Regional Park. We had been there once before and the kids loved it, so we decided to go again this trip. We were glad to see that the park was open - it just reopened that week from serving as a base camp for the firefighters fighting the Santiago Canyon fire. The park features a mini railroad (the longest mini RR we have ever ridden, and we have ridden quite a few due to Colton's obsession with trains), a lake with paddle boats, tandem bikes to rent, horseback riding, playgrounds, and home to the Orange County Zoo. It is a very nice park with tons of trees and picnicking spots. We visited the had a picnic, visited the zoo, rode the train, and played at the playground. We spent a good majority of the day there. Our kids love being outdoors!

On our way home on Sunday, we flew back through Salt Lake and had a small layover. We did a quick tour of Temple Square. I would love to go back there and spend more time. My sister Chelsea was visiting a friend at BYU that weekend and flew back home with us. We loved being able to have some time together as a family.

More Disneyland Pictures!

We love Winnie the Pooh!

Posing by Small World

Buzz Lightyear - one of Callie's favorite characters

Riding the Rockets

Nate and Colton on the rockets (taking their own pict)!

Honey, anyone?

Disneyland!!

Snow on Main Street

Small World

Cinderella's Castle

Family in Toon Town

Meeting Minnie Mouse

The weekend before Thanksgiving we did a short family vacation to California. Our main destination was Disneyland. I really wanted to take Callie before she turned 3 and we would have to pay for her, and I wanted to see Disneyland all decorated for Christmas. It was opening weekend for the Christmas festivities and it turned out to be not crowded at all. The longest we ever stood in line was 15-20 minutes (not including the hour wait for Nemo)! It was a great time of year to visit! I even convinced Nate to fly to CA. We flew into Long Beach - I would highly recommend that airport to anyone. It is a small airport so it is not crowded at all. You can walk right through security without a wait and walk right up to the rental car counter and have your car in 5 minutes. We have flown into Long Beach before and had the same experience. FYI: If you book early, Delta will have flights from PHX - LGB for $49 one way. We waited too long to book and had to fly to SLC and then to LGB but it was still fairly cheap.

Friday we spent all day at Disneyland. Our family is known to be perpetually late, but we were actually on the shuttle from our hotel to Disneyland at 7:30 am. I know, miracles do happen! We first headed over to NEMO. I thought it was a cute ride. Colton really enjoyed it. At the beginning of the ride, Callie said "Look, there's Nemo!" and then was silent the rest of the ride. When the ride stopped, she started crying and said "I don't like it!" I didn't blame her. I can imagine Nemo can be scary to a 2 year old with it being all dark and a lot of loud noises.

Colton was insistent that he wanted to ride the train roller coaster (AKA: Big Thunder Mountain). I convinced him to go on Matterhorn first since it is a smaller coaster and warned him about the Abominable Snowman (me telling Colton: Just like the one in Monsters Inc.). He wasn't too scared of the monster, but the coaster itself kind of scared him - too bumpy and fast. Needless to say, he didn't end up riding "the train roller coaster". Colton enjoyed all the rest of the rides except Pirates of the Carribean and the Haunted House. Of course, Callie didn't like those two either.

Callie took a while to warm up to the rest of the rides after the Nemo scare. She was even a little nervous in Small World and didn't crack a smile until the ride was almost over, but I think she enjoyed it. She really liked Autopia, Buzz, the Rockets, Winnie the Pooh, and Peter Pan. She absolutely loved the evening parade with all the characters. She kept saying, "Mom, look! There's Cinderella, or Goofy, or Buzz Lightyear, etc." I thought she would be afraid of meeting the characters, but she wasn't. Colton and her were able to hug Winnie the Pooh, Eeyore, Tigger, and Minnie Mouse. They must have more guts than me. I have a picture from when I was 4 or 5 years old, and I was scared of Chip and Dale!

The kids both took a short nap in the evening, so we were able to take turns riding Indiana Jones and I got to ride Big Thunder Mtn. while Nate headed over to get a seat for the parade. At the end of the night we saw the musical fireworks show and had it "snow" on us on Main street. It was fun to see Disneyland all decked out with Christmas decorations throughout the park. (Small World and the Haunted Mansion actually are totally different rides at Christmas time. They both are full of Christmas decor inside the rides!) We loved our day at Disneyland and hope to be able to do it again sometime!