Updates

Ok so first things first Leighton actually has 2 teeth now! poor little angel. Also she says mommamomma mom now. (can't lie, I LOVE it!) She is so sweet and so much fun. Every little thing excites her and she always, ALWAYS has a smile for you... or pretty much anything!! She loves anything you feed her and we give her puree baby food mixed with oatmeal or rice cereal. She loves cheerios and graham crackers and any teething baby food treats.

Next on the list: Ireland is learning something new each day and can recognize every single letter of the alphabet. (mostly capital letters though, she doesn't know many lower-case) and finds letters EVERY WHERE! We were driving along and she says "F mommy, F" and sure enough the sign had a big F. She finally caught on to colors and knows all her colors and will point out every thing's colors like the other day " mommy it's a gray elephant". (ah I have a post I am making all about her so I will stop for now)

But one thing I can NOT wait to share. Ireland is POTTY TRAINED!!!!! (most people saw this on face book already I think) She is night, day, anytime trained!! She has been so great at telling us and will even go in on her own. We were driving the other day and she said she had to go, she waited patiently as we found a store and ran her in. (she has used a gas station once too EWWWWW!) She has lasted long drives too. Sorry you get the point I am just so proud of her! She has done this 99% being her idea. She has always wanted to at least try. YAY IRELAND!!

next on my updates list: Daniel is crazy busy with school and work it seems he is always running, running running. He loves school though and gets to keep from getting bored :)

I am getting ready to do online courses. I of course will pick up where I left off a couple of years ago in working to get my degree in Early Childhood Education!! I started many years ago and am looking to continue real soon! I just don't have it in me to take courses away from home right now, so online it is! I will also do general studies.

Eh that's all for now. I always forget what I originally wanted to say.

NIGHT! :)

Just a few things we have been up to

I have an Ireland post I am working on but am still compiling a list of all her hilarious quotes, cute pictures and videos. But for now I want to get caught up (somewhat) on a few things that made me smile this month

Ireland just discovered she loves to feed sissy

This pic is blurry but look how stinkin cute Ireland's face is lol

Lots of being cute

Lots of sleeping (well the baby anyway)

Ireland with her frog while she goes potty

Ha ha silly girl!! Dan adjusted it today so she can jump in it again. I think she wants to do all the things Leighton gets to do but as far as this photo goes.... lol she is just goofy!

I made another fort in our living room out of sheets and random chairs and stuff. I was reading to the girls in it and then fed Lei

Concentrating so hard. She can use either hand to draw and color and does equally well with both

Loves to help us make food. Anything we make (besides thing on the stove) she gets to help with

Play doh

Sleepy head

More cuteness

This little beauty

cut her first tooth today! She turned 7 months old yesterday and is growing so fast! I love every single moment with her and can not believe her personality already! She is so happy, and loves to blow raspberries and will talk to you about everything in her little head. The only thing that actually makes sense to me so far is she says " dadadada" lol. She is FINALLY rolling over and does it often now. She still gets around going backwards and always manages to get stuck between the couch and recliner. She claps really well... with her feet! she dances whenever there is music (videos to come!) and can give you "five" and holds her own baba. She sure is so sweet and so mellow and really seems to be over her little dramatic moments.(well she gets them every now and then) She is a much more chill baby these days. I seriously love her so much and can't go a single day with out thanking my Heavenly Father for her.

this pic was from New Years

REAL QUICK

I have changed my phone # so if you need it, please email me. mandikins19@hotmail.com or I guess you can comment me here too. thanks, Mandi

Here's to a fabulous day!!

awww the memories!

I love my blog. I love it because I keep track of everything. I needed to know when Ireland got her first tooth and I went through my posts and found the exact day, and when she crawled, walked, sat up etc. I always go back through and just laugh so hard at the good times. I finally put a blog archive on the side to help me access old posts quicker. I see Ireland every single day and to me she never seems to grow, but looking back I see how much she has grown and how beautiful she gets with each day. here is one of my favorite outfits she wore: click here I have a post I am working on that is all about my cute lil monkey so I can keep record of all the funny things she says.

All these long posts without pictures

make me sad. And bored :) I am such a picture person. Here are some of our Christmas

We had a huge slumber party at my mom's Christmas eve to Christmas morning




the end!

so random

I was tagged months and months ago to do a "25 random things about me" post. It has taken me a while to compile this list of awesomeness because I don't really think about things I do or things that are random or new to people. read it or don't, but I personally love reading other people's lists. I have made a top 25 before on face book and maybe here but this time I tried to pick things very few if anyone knew. sigh. ps none of these are supposed to be great.. just random. :) I tag: everyone (except Kristina of course)

Yes I needed to add details to each one to explain.

1. I can not sit normal. It doesn't matter if I am in public or not, at least one foot/leg has to be up  and under me. and church is so hard for me. I have to remind myself the ENTIRE TIME to keep my feet on the floor. crazy

2. When Dan and I were on our Honeymoon we went on a cruise and were one of 71 other newlyweds on the ship. They had a game show and Dan and I were selected to "audition" to get on stage as the newlywed contestants. We had to dramatically (and loudly!) act out a tarzan and jane scene in front of EVERYONE and we came in 2nd place. :) / :( but afterwards a lot of people were telling us they wanted us to win and called us tarzan and jane around the ship!

3. I have almost 10,000 pics I have taken just since Ireland was 3 months old saved in my iphoto on my computer, and that is after erasing hundreds. I love pictures!

4. I got to watch my amazing Grandpa receive his purple heart from the war. It was on the front page of the newspaper, it was so special and I got to be there because he got it 47 years late!!

5. I have a phobia of taking baths. I have to scrub it top to bottom first and still get weirded out and hurry them up. I feel it will never be clean enough for me- yet (this may sound rude but I don't mean that) I let my kids bathe- no problems.

6. in june 2005 I stood on top of the eiffel tower in Paris. the VERY NEXT night Tom Cruise proposed to Katie Holmes up there. He couldn't have done it a day sooner? :)

7. I LOOOOVE to fly. I love checking in at the airport, I love security, I love taking off, I love being delayed forever while sitting on the plane. I would fly across America just to fly right back home. Am I nuts?

8. I live for power naps! 15-30 mins. gives me so much stinkin energy!

9. I randomly take huge, deep sighs/breathes and people think I am mad or annoyed all the time.

10. I get excited and or happy very easily. the littlest thing gives me the chills. Happens all day long.

11. I talk to myself. all. the. time. LOL When I was pregnant with Ireland I worked in a deli and was sweeping one night & apparently mumbling because this chick I worked with was like "What did you just say to me?!" I was confused. She was like " yeah I saw you giving me dirty looks, mumbling under your breath, you got a problem??" I TRIED to explain I was day dreaming and was talking to myself & that I did it all the time. She thought I was nuts and was like trying to fight her. ha ha ha ha

12. One of my hugest pet peeves is people talking to me- through my kids. But in a bad way. Like talking in a baby voice to me "mom, I need my bum changed" first of all, stop. don't tell me what to do and second of all, why are you pretending to be my kid telling me? ha ha Oh man, people: STOP!! lol

13. I think it may drive people nuts, but I refuse to abbreviate my texts, I text way too much and can do it super fast, and it may take more space and time but I just don't have it in me to type U for you and C for see. Do I sound rude in this post? eek. **I don't care if people text me like that by the way!

14. I had my "sidekick" stolen at a concert by some drunk guys behind me. It was my baby and brand new! * sigh*

15. before I die, I want to save someone's life or help someone immensely and be 100% anonymous

16. My senior year of high school I was not doing well in English at all. It wasn't hard but I disliked it so much that I didn't care at all how I did. My teacher did an extra credit assignment: pick the winner of the Kentucky Derby. She passed out papers with the horses, their names and their odds of winning. I picked the one who was sure to lose because I liked his name: "War Emblem" This was the last assignment and I was sure to fail the class. UNTIL... my horse won!!!!! I got 100% out of 0. I passed my class with an A- I kid you not. (I am not proud of the fact I was failing- but thought it was cool that a horse saved my heiny that year)

17. I have to watch movies with subtitles. It would so help if I didn't have horrible hearing!

18. When we were in France, a group of us girls wandered for hours trying to find a salon to get french manicures. How cool would that be?! French manicures in France! Well we found a salon and they laughed at us American tourists and said it would be X amount of dollars= over 100 American dollars. um.... we didn't get our nails done. :(

19. Dan, Ireland and I went to Phoenix when Ireland was 8 months old to attend my bestest buddy Matt's wedding. matt and his bride stayed in a hotel and graciously let us stay in their apartment for a few days. The last day we had lot's of plans. But I ruined those. Ireland was on the bed being silly so I plopped hard on the bed to scare her. Um... I busted the bed! half the bed crashed to the floor and We spent our entire last day ( and every single last penny we had) fixing that bed. Not my proudest moment! How hard did you laugh reading that??

20. I am TERRIFIED to speak in public! I had to give a spotlight on myself in front of the primary kids. I almost passed out! I was so red I felt my face burning. I wrote down things about me in case I panicked and forgot what I liked to do. I was so scared I couldn't even read the paper. I even said something about " when I turn 30 in 4 years" um... try 6 years!

21. One of the saddest moments I had lately: I was SO stoked for a concert I was planning on going to for MONTHS!- ever since I first got pregnant with Lei. and The DAY OF I got strep and was so miserable I had to stay home. I cried a little too hard that night. Sad right? yes I love music that much.

22. I always have to punch in random microwave times. I always have. if it needs to be for 3 mins and 30 secs I do 333 or 226 I always have to make it a not normal time. odd I know

23. In december after I got married I was hospitalized for 4 days because I had strep, pneumonia, and bronchitis real bad. All at once. It sucked and finally day 4 came, and as I was waiting to be released, my left side of my face went numb. Felt like I went to the dentist. No one knew what it was... eventually I was diagnosed with Bells Palsy. For a little under a month, my entire left side of my face was numb, couldn't shut my eye (sucked to shower because soap would run down...) had to wear a patch to sleep and keep crud out of my eye) I couldn't talk or pick my lip up so I drooled all over. I must have looked pretty scary. They think it was caused from being so sick and so many anti biotics.??? who knows. My mom has video of me trying to laugh it was so sad. :(

24. I made up my own words to songs as a kid (and maybe now as an adult *wink*) and still to this day sing the words I used to think it was even when I know the correct words. I do that to lines in movies to, like Little mermaid. ha ha

25. This was long and exhausting to type, but fun to read and laugh out loud way too many times. Anyone still here? ha ha I had more but I will spare you...

night!!

I wonder..

How awesome does my old background look with our fall family pictures? HA HA. Oh well. I was sick of the fall background so I had Dan put my old one back on that he actually designed. We just don't have any decent winter pics of all of us together. I may put the girls pic up of them in their Christmas dresses?? UGH. The things I go through :) I am just picky. I am WAY behind on my 25 random things about me post. that is coming next... dun dun dun!

**Instead of just deleting this post I am updating it. I changed our picture! Hooray! (The pic at the top of my blog) It was taken Day after Christmas at my Grandma's house. The end

have a lovely day.... er morning now I guess

WELCOME

I now have a new blog. I will add pictures and more things later but for now want to lay low. Please be patient with me thank you.

I just may

There has been a lot in my head lately and if I don't get it out I may just scream. Not really but it might be therapeutic. :)

I have had these thoughts for so long that I think now is the time to get out how I really feel.
I am not even sure where to begin.

Over the holidays I have had plenty of time to figure some things out. Since this is my journal, I will express it here. I can't keep apologizing for typing things that might offend someone. Read it or don't, just don't be upset with me for expressing how I feel. Over this time, I have tried to figure out who my real friends are (family or not). There are times I think things are ok with someone and then BAM I am proven wrong. Now I would like to believe I am a good person. I would like to think if someone had a problem with me- with things I say, do, or am going to do- that I would be a good listener and hear what one has to say. That who ever had the problem would come to me, Nope that's not the case. Seems time and time again, I am the LAST person to hear about what I am doing wrong. hmmm. Strange isn't it? I had a few of examples about how people have problems with me personally, with me having a baby(when I was pregnant with Leighton), things I might be doing that is MY BUSINESS not the people who choose to get involved and involve other people that it didn't concern to begin with, people who make me feel like I am a bad person for what I say, how I raise my kids, how I speak, if I go to sacrament every week, how my house looks, etc.
What it ALL boils down to, is I JUST DON'T CARE anymore. Why do I need to care what ANYONE thinks of ME?! I have spent my whole life worried about pleasing everyone, worried about whether my kids look cute, whether my house looks decent, worried about whether I am too loud, and say the wrong things, tell dumb jokes, sing off-key, etc. Why does it matter? Why do I spend so much time worrying what people think of me? Because I do and always have. I hate when someone is mad at me, I hate letting people down and I hate looking dumb/bad. But news flash: this is life.

I am not here to please anyone. My goal in life is take care of me, take care of my family. To provide service to those in need, to be a teacher, to do everything I possibly can to return to my Father in Heaven with my head held high with the fact that I know I tried my best. Right?My guidance counselor in high school gave me a necklace that says: PEOPLE MATTER, THINGS DON'T.
Sure I would love to have my house decorated all cute and always have nice clothes, and have all these movies, books, music, toys for my kids, but besides the fact that it's not always financially possible, in the end, I won't need any of it. In the end I will have my family. My jeep isn't the greatest and needs a ton of work but gets us where we need. My house is never spotless, I don't always have everything put away, but my kids are HAPPY and for the most part HEALTHY, and they are so smart and I love them so much and am glad that I can put off laundry to blow bubbles and watch barney for the 1,345th time. I have so few close friends. I have a hard time trusting people, and it only is getting harder. For my friends and family who are here for me, who don't JUDGE, don't criticize, who love me for me-faults included, who attend parties I throw, who listen when I vent, or even when get so excited about the tiniest things my kids do, for those who accept me: I say thank you. Thank you with all my heart. You are the reason I keep my optimistic attitude and you are the reason I still trust people, and in the end, that is all I need.

I had New year's resolutions and I always write them down and always have too many. I always forget them and never follow through because they were never things that would really help me in the end.

I want to be fit and healthy, I want to have energy to play with my kids and not get tired after "flying" Ireland around the house like 3 times and then I am exhausted, I want my body to heal and fight off the conditions I have. I want to have goals that aren't silly and ones that will mean something to me in a year. Our relief society said this: "Keep your New year's Resolutions down to one or two that will help you the most in the things that matter most for eternity. We can't perfect ourselves all at once." With that said, I will keep mine personal and strive for what I think is most important. You know that saying, "don't give up what you want most for what you want now". Smart huh?

Anyway, I have already forgotten some of what I had wanted to say. I do feel better though. Whenever I feel myself worrying about what other people think of me, I will keep my wise Father- in- Law Clive's advice in my mind: "if people are offended by you, then that is their problem." (sorry if I butchered that, it is just what I remember him telling me)
And every time I get down on myself or any situation I think of what my Mother-in-law Bonnie tells me every now and then: " this too shall pass"

that is the end of this, and it is now 2 am and I am so sleepy. I wonder if this will make sense in the morning? hmmm.

have a great day :)