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!!