Love having that Daddy home!

As you can see by the lack of posts, Mikey is home and its been wonderful! He has been off since last Sat. Lincoln is loving having him around! He has been so silly and cute with his Daddy. And its crazy but ever since Mike got home, Sequoia has been doing so many new things, like rolling from back to belly! Even though I didn't get to see it, I'm so happy Mikey got to. She is so fun and happy most of the time and is so busy. Its crazy how different each individual child is.

I've been so busy this week running errands and working, but its nice because Mikey has been able to spend a lot of time with the kids. I finished the kid's play room, big accomplishment! I still have decorations to do and all the fun stuff, but its painted. I also got to go to the midnight showing of New Moon and it was so much fun! I ended up getting 23 tickets for friends before it sold out. Even better, Kimi and my mom got to come for the movie too. We sold my Mom's purses at the Holiday Extravaganza here in town Friday and Saturday. Good times hanging out with them both days. (Mike was great all week playing with the kiddos!)

The irremovable boots. Every time I put shoes on him he grabs these and wants me to put them on him. He's such a nut. And aren't they so attractive??:) He has one shirt that he could get away with wearing these. But oh well! Nobody's hurt and he's happy and its only a pair of boots. It is fun to get a lot of crazy looks when we go out in public, some people even love them:)

Lincoln and Inara (future Mr and Mrs Goodman) playing in the bathtub

Inara was so funny. She came over to visit Linc after she got out. He was freaking out and kept grabbing at the vinyl curtain and trying to block her. I love it!

Pretty in Pink

Lincoln lounging around

Mike said he was so cute putting Buzz and Woody under the toy so they could play with it

So tender

We had some really fun times lounging around and hanging out with Mike. Its wonderful to get to have him home, I'm so grateful. Now the tables are turning and me and the kids are gone from him:-( He couldn't go anywhere for Thanksgiving because he is on call, so we are going down to St George tomorrow. I worked a half shift today (I wanted to get out early because the roads are awful with ice, there were so many wrecks!) and we are now at Grandma P's. We all had so much fun sitting around watching my nutso of a child run around and be crazy. We also stopped by Tenille's to see them for a bit. I hope it will be a fun trip!

Koban and Sequoia, finally get to play together...

:)

Our crazy monkey

Monkey and Ty playing

Hanging on with Grandpa

Anna and Quoia

Wow I was so super behind! I'm sure I'll remember something and need to write it down, I need to be better at that! I started my own little journal just for me and I love it! I have more than 10 personal journals that I have kept through out the years. After more than 3 years of not writing, I'm so happy to be at it again. Gotta love the journals!! (And Mikey if you get this tonight, good luck on the job tomorrow and some big decisions!:) I love you!)

Play room

Alright, so don't you love it when you're in the grocery store and chat with a friend for a minute, and walk around browsing and all the sudden a few different people are asking you, "Um excuse me, but is that your kid down there??" Oh yeah, Lincoln was clear across the other end of the store, even better, with only one shoe on. (Someone even commented on his one shoe!) I felt so white trash! He was in the Cozy Coupe Car style carts and wiggled out of the seat belt while I was chatting. How embarrassing, I'm just glad everyone else was watching out for my boy. Geesh!

So, Mikey told me last night they were supposed to be out on the job site at 1am this morning. I haven't heard otherwise, so I'm assuming he is doing the job and should be home in a few days, wahoo! Man its been a super long 2 weeks! But I can't complain, every time I do it seems the person I'm talking to always has it worse than me (Toni!) so I'll just smile and be grateful I'm home most of the time with my awesome little ones.

I've been staying up till after 1am the last 2 nights, FINALLY started painting the play room I've been talking about doing forever. It is hard work! Mike has surprised me and has painted almost anything I want done so I've never realized how hard it actually is. I guess not hard, just time consuming! Thanks so much Mike, I'm really appreciating it!! But it is still fun to get it going, I'm excited to see how it is going to look! I'm doing it for a 10 hr project for Personal Progress, but I'm sure in the end it will be well over.

He is such a stare bear, a lot like his mom! He zones out so much I had to get a pic of it.

I was going to take pics of our swing set my parents gave us when it was all painted and had a bit more work done, but seriously the day after I started painting, it snowed. So maybe in the Spring. Anyways, Lincoln loves it! Its so nice to have it at the house, I don't like playgrounds!

Grandma G has ruined him with suckers! :) He loves them.

Silly kids! I swear I never have the time to workout anymore! So playtime is now; great leg lifts!

One of his favorite things is "patty cake"

Sequoia just hanging out

Silly boy

Vidoes

No, I don't let my child watch tv all day, but when he does he is totally into it. Especially these days when it is Toy Story!

I'm sorry you can't see your little kids, and I know these are kind of lame-o, but here is at least something for you Mikey...

He loves the chiropractor's office; they are so good with him and gets all kinds of stickers and fun toys like this. He has really surprised me lately. He hasn't cried when I leave him somewhere lately and when we go somewhere else he just goes right up to people for whatever. He used to be my shy boy, its so cute to see him grow up!

Of course, dancing to his Toy Story.

Probably not cool to anyone else except you Mikey:) Sequoia is working so hard on moving her legs. Oh and she is totally grabby with her hands. We were at the table eating cereal and she was in my arms. Well she reached right up and tipped the milk all over me and her. It was funny!

Happy Halloween Daddy!

My monkey and sweet butterfly

The kids and their darling elephant friend Inara

She was so precious, and super good all night by the way!

Inara

He loved his costume! Actually, we wore it around the house today for a couple hours. He's such a nut!

So cute!:)

K so Shilayna and I got the kids together and went to the Trunk or Treat at the church. It worked out nice because Travis couldn't go either. (Poor Mikey is still in Texas pretty much just hanging out at the hotel waiting for this job to come. He has been there a week now and hasn't even started! Its a bummer for us both, but I guess that's life. I'm just really hoping we can hang out enough before he goes again.) Shilayna stayed the night at our house while I was at work, I really appreciate her, she even cleaned my house!! I love my friends here.

Today was such a good day! I was really surprised how calm I was. I am usually super on edge after I work all night then go to church at 9am, but it was ok. Oh and Lincoln bore his testimony for the first time today! Haha! I went up with him and bore my testimony and he decided he wanted to as well, so he grabbed the microphone and talked into for about 10 seconds. It was actually kind of cute. Yeah, but not when I kept trying to talk and he threw a fit. Seriously, it was kind of chaotic, but oh well! I guess that's my life now, but its still pretty fun:) It made me feel better when other people got up and told me they've all been there! Embarrassing, but good to know I'm not the only one:)

Oh yeah and my phone is dead! Yuck! It is such a bummer! I don't realize how much I rely on my phone until I don't have it, seriously scheduling and all! My lesson had a visual that involved water. I'm a dork and didn't screw the lid on tight and put it in the bag. My phone was floating in it! I'm really hoping by some miracle it will be perfectly fine in the morning. Cross your fingers!!

No more mullet, yeah!!

Before...

After... Yeah she totally looks like a boy, but she's 4 months old, she doesn't care. It was driving me crazy, Linc had the same thing, yuck! I was going to wait for you to do it Mikey because you do it so much better. But I couldn't any longer; it had to go!

He does the silliest things sometimes, we sure love this boy!

And of course we love her too!

We got as far as carving off the top and taking some of the guts out. Lincoln didn't like the insides. He doesn't like yucky stuff on his hands.

He was so proud of his pumpkin

This girl has been drooling so much and chews on everything!

I love her one little dimple!

Lincoln and Annica playing with the magnets when she was here with us

4 Month Check-up

Ok so of course the next day was great because Mikey came home unexpectedly! Yeah! We've been so busy this past week, as usual! Aunt Annica came out and stayed with us, that was fun! She came and helped out a BUNCH with our crazy lives and kids. Mikey got to be here for almost a week and was about to have a whole week off to hang out and play but had to go to Texas, where he still is now, so it was so nice to have Annica here to watch the kids and help out while I had to work/sleep and all that lovely stuff. While she was here we went and picked out paint for the play room which I am so excited to get started!

We had so many errands to run, Dr apts, and lots of activities this week. I also took an extra night shift this week. Poor kids are going all over the place! Sequoia had her 4 month check-up with a new Ped. She is 13 lb, 24 in, and 16cm head, all in 25%. She is such a good little girl now! I love it; she doesn't cry much anymore. Its wonderful! She's a little sweetie:)

She is getting so big!

Lincoln is getting so fun! He is such a curious little guy. He doesn't talk much, but he is learning so many other things. At least he calls us "Ma" and "DaDa", thats good enough for me right now! He is getting very good at going to the babysitters to play, he hasn't cried in a while when I leave now. Good boy!

Lincoln absolutely loves Toy Story. I bought him some Buzz and Woody PJs and he wants to wear them all the time! He has never noticed any piece of clothing until these, its so cute! One day he found them and brought them to me and tried to take his shirt off so he could wear them. I told him he had to have a bath first before PJs, and it was only like 3pm. Well he ran straight for the bath. Of course I gave in because he was way too cute!

Daddy and Sequoia, so precious:)
(and no Mike is NOT posing for the camera, it was just perfect timing!!!)

Hi!!

Anyways, I'm super tired! Worked last night and didn't sleep too much. I work Friday day and Sat night and then not at all next week, wahoo! I'm hoping I can get a lot done then, and even better that Mikey will be able to come home next week too! Night...

Um, not my favorite day

So I swear I always have "the best day ever!" and "this is the worst day ever!" in the same day, maybe even an hour later its totally opposite. Mike always makes fun of me because I say it so much. I'm just SO high, and SO low all within a short time frame. Always have been, oh well!

Anyways, today, not so fun. And yep, I'm complaining! Don't read if you don't want to hear it:) I worked the grave last night (a 13 and a half hour shift it turned out to be!), it was the first one since I've been back. It was a super nice night working, so no complaints there. I think I'm just SUPER sensitive to anything the day after. One of my young women, Meghan, was so nice to come sleep over at the house and be with the kids. Yep, Mike's gone again:( He is in Montana and then probably going straight to Colorado to another job. I missed him today! (But don't worry sweetie, you are definitely not the reason I'm upset, I just miss you.)

I came home this morning, showered, got ready for church and got the kids up and yadda yadda yadda... I had my "second wind" by the time we got to church so I was wide awake. Anyways, Lincoln was crazy! He knows when I'm extra sensitive! He would not hold still and kept running away from the bench. Then Sequoia started to get fussy. I think I left like 5 times to go out in the hall. My ward is so sweet. I had a few different people grab Lincoln for me, which of course he would scream because he's antipeople and just wanted me while I was holding a crying baby. So much fun.

One of the ladies I don't know too well came and took her from me. I was so grateful. Although the whole time I tried to get Lincoln's attention with other things to hold still, I could hear Sequoia out in the hall crying. (Which totally makes me think of another story...no I will not go workout at the rec center again! While I was in yoga and the instructor is telling us to "breathe, relax, blah..." um, no I can't when the walls are connected to the daycare place and oh what do you know, she is at it again, crying. Anyways.)

It was all I could do to hold back the tears! I felt like I was watching Cars and The King wrecked! (gets me every time) I couldn't leave because I was giving the lesson in yw. I was exhausted and Lincoln would not hold still and I tried to hurry and get a bottle ready and Ah!! I started to think, why should I even bother going to church if this is how it is going to be, but nope. I know it may be crazy, but I know that is exactly where I need to be. Sure its hard without Mike, but I can't make excuses. And with all the million kids I want, I'm sure its only the beginning! But we will still be there. EVERYONE knows when we are there, but thats ok. There was something said about temples today and..........???:)

I'm sorry, not done. So Lincoln only slept 2 hours today for nap time! No! I was so tired I didn't want to get up! So from then on I tried to be nice, but one little thing and I'd freak out! And Sequoia! 3 times I layed her in bed and she woke up screaming. I so much wanted to be in bed by 9:30pm, but she said, "Um, NO!" Anyways, I could go on but why bother, I'm going to go to bed.

(Oh and Steve's Kim, I totally just read your blog and yes! I feel the same way sometimes so don't worry!!)

And don't worry, I'm sure tomorrow is going to be "the best day ever!"

A fun surprise visit

Our big girl:)

Wow Lincoln's head looks huge next to her!! Anyways, he has been so cute with her. I absolutely love that he is a good big brother still. I was nervous!

So, Yea!, Mikey is home! Its been so nice and weird to have him here. Don't worry, good weird:) He got home the Sat before last, had enough time to shower, give me a smooch, and head off to the Priesthood session for conference (which was great btw!). I had to go to work the same time he left, so Bonnie and Meghan came over to watch the kids. They originally were going to sleepover, but Mikey came home! He was in Colorado working on his supposed days off so we were kinda bummed, but then when we came home from work on Monday he walked in and said, "I have some good news, and I have some bad news." In my saddest little voice I had, "You have to go on another job but we will make money, blah." Nope!!! One of the engineers came back from maternity leave and he has his original days back so this last week was his week off! Worked out perfect!

It was even better because Mike's bro Ty was just randomly coming to visit that week if Mike was going to be home. It was fun having him out here again! At least now we finally have the shower upstairs done. They went fishing and we watched movies and just hung out, it was fun! He is actually coming back tomorrow so can can go out fishing one more time before he goes back home. I just hope Mikey doesn't have to go out on a job.

Mike and I had a great unplanned date that Friday. We dropped the kids off at the babysitter, we have to pay the same amount each week anyway and we picked them up early one day, so why not? It was so nice to run errands and do a bunch of stuff just us. That night we had some friends over and played some games, it was super fun. I'm going to try to have people over more often, I loved it. It was crazy with a bunch of kids all over, but well worth!

We went to Utah Sat morning and visiting Tyson and Danielle. Cade is getting so big, he's already bigger than Linc. It was so crazy to see the difference in those two! I forget that each kid is so unique. My fam watched the kids while we went to the temple, it was so good to finally go! It had been a while. I hope we can go more often in the future. I love the Ogden temple! We stayed the night at my parents house, even though I was super nervous because my mom had the swine flu the Sunday before. Her doc said she wasn't contagious anymore, so we took the chance.

We hung out and played games that night, then went to Koban's blessing in the morning. It was so nice to get to go to it. He is getting to be such a cute little guy! And so much bigger than Sequoia. It was fun to go hang out at Tenille's and meet more of Jon's family.

We are back to "normal" life here. Just clean clean clean all day long, play with cute little kiddos, pay bills, young women activities, volleyball games, errands to run, cook food over and over again, work, and I'm just loving it. I love working about 2 days a week and get to be with the kids as much as I am. I'm loving both worlds right now.

She is getting so big! I love seeing all the little new things she is learning. It is so cool to watch babies grow up.

Lincoln watching Monsters Inc and playing with Mike Wazousky and Sully (thanks to Aunt Annica for letting him borrow Sully). He is totally a doll guy! "Stuffed animals" He has to sleep with his Bunny and his Monkey.

Oh and we keep losing bottles everywhere we go, so Mike and I decided no more for Lincoln. I don't really care if he has one or not, whatever to me! But I just don't want to keep buying more. He still has his precious binkies so its ok! Its only hard for nap/bedtime because he ALWAYS goes to bed with a bottle of water. He was not happy at all tonight (his thing is to lie on his back and bang/kick at the door, beautiful noise!) but we didn't give in, even when the little stinker woke up his sister! Arg! But we'll keep at it! Fingers crossed!