Good Morning

This is Daisy waking up in the morning. She is always happy first thing in the morning. You can see her thinking in this video. She can hear that someone is calling her name but she isn't awake enough to figure out where it is coming from. She takes a while to wake up (just like her dad!)

Ok, ok, ok. Here is a real video for my mom. I have some more videos coming but I love how she snores in this one. She has become a snorer and a slobberer.

Thanks!

I just wanted to thank everyone really quick for going to Chili's yesterday. Hopefully they raised a good amount of money. My Mom has been asking me for a video. I asked her to go to Chili's. I don't think that she went to Chili's last night. Since she didn't this video is just for her. Hope you like it, Mom!

EAT AT CHILI'S

Ok, on Monday, September 29th, you need to go eat at Chili's. Chili's is doing a fundraiser for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. All the money they get on Monday will go to St. Judes. This is a win-win situation...You get to eat a great dinner and the money will go to a WONDERFUL cause. Why not?

If you are not familiar with St. Jude then you should know that it is the leading hospital in Childrens cancer. It is a research hospital that will treat cancer patients for FREE. If you are unable to pay for the cancer treatment then it is no problem. The hospital covers the expense. Ben took a tour of the hospital for school and learned that it cost $1.4 million a day to run that place.

We have a family in our ward that have a 3 year old little girl that was diagnosised with cancer. Her cancer is in it's advance stages and they have been blessed to live so close to St. Judes. She is in nursery with Kaylee. I can't even imagine what it would feel like to find out your daughter has cancer. Your eating at Chili's will contribute to her treatment. Please, please, please go eat out at Chili's on Monday. And spread this news around so that we can help to raise as much money as possible. You can check it out here for more information.

Pictures and Pandas

These are just some random pictures. Heidi likes to play in our new frog pool.
Daisy sleeping this morning. So cute.
Today was the Fall Festival at the zoo and members got to ride the kiddie rides for free. We took the girls on all of them (wanted to get my moneyt's worth out of that pass!!) But we did the train ride twice.
Heidi and Kaylee loved it but Daisy could have cared less.
Love this picture. Ben is a sucker when it comes to the girls.
Here they were fishing with magnets in the water for fish with paper clips on them. Heidi swung the pole in like you would a real fishing pole and she clocked me in the head with the magnet.
Poor Daisy just had to sit there and miss out on the fun.
Here is what I mean by Ben being a sucker. He is more strict about things than I am. When he is home the girls don't get away with as many things. (Like playing in the tool drawer...I don't care if they do but Ben does.) However, when it comes to spoiling the girls Ben takes the cake!! I would LOVE to buy them presents at the zoo but I would get in trouble for wasting our money on over priced toys. But once Ben decides that he wants to spoil them they get whatever they want.
Today he told them he would buy them something from the gift shop. I was thinking it would be a little 3 dollar toy. Oh no. They just got to pick whatever they wanted! It just so happened that they both wanted Pandas. Ben used his birthday money to get them their own pandas. (Isn't he so sweet.)
Since Heidi and Kaylee both got new pandas that meant that Daisy got the old one. This was a gift to Kaylee from Carma when she was born. It has been her special panda until Ben bought her a new one. Now it is Daisy's.

Round heads

My sister Kaylee brought it to my attention that all my girls have had round heads. So here are pictures and you can decide for yourself.
I tried to get the pictures as close to three months as possible. The one of Kaylee is about 6 and the one of Heidi is 4 months.

Family Update

Ben had his birthday on Monday. The day started at 5:30 when Daisy was wide awake with a poopy diaper. These pictures of Daisy were taken at 7:15 in the morning after her second bath because she poop through her diaper again-all over her bouncer. So Daisy's gift to Ben was to poop five times and I would have to change all of them instead of Ben (at our house you get out of poopy diapers on your birthday and mothers/fathers day).The rest of his birthday was spent slaving away in the kitchen. Ben wanted his favorite chocolate cupcakes so I had race and make them from scratch before lunch. We went to the school to surprise him. Ben also wanted a Cafe Rio recipe for dinner so I was back in the kitchen after lunch. The whole day was cooking and cleaning but the food was delicious!

lately I have been feeling that there are not enough hours in the day. I have so many things that I want to get done each day but there is just not enough time. I have started picking only one thing extra I want to do that day and that is it. Do I want to read, work out, embroider, blog, call someone or go to bed earlier? Daisy goes to bed around 9:30 so I only have between 9:30 and 10 to do anything for myself. Then I end up staying up until midnight because I just love having that time to myself.
Ben has started school again. He is always good about balancing his time between school and the girls. He comes home around 5:30, we eat dinner together and then he spends about an hour with us before the girls go to bed. But once the girls are in bed he goes to the computer room and shuts the door. Then he studies until 10. He gets to do school screenings this year and has been able to see some interesting things. He has fun seeing things that he has studied about.
Heidi and Kaylee are just the same-Kaylee is crazy and Heidi is working on reading. I am not sure how to handle Kaylee. People keep saying that she is just adjusting and finding her place with a new baby. Unfortunately her place ends up being the timeout chair because she just won't listen/obey at all. I am trying to take time out each day to spend with just her. I don't know if that will help but that is all I can think to do right now. Heidi and I read Hippo Lemonade the other day and I pointed out some words to her. We read it again last night and she was able to read part of the words with me. It was exciting to see her recognize and read some words. That is about all that our family is up to. It has been busy but fun.

Swaddling

I am a firm believer in swaddling. I wrap my babies up tight whenever it is time for bed. I love it because they know it is bedtime when the blanket comes out. (Although she doesn't look ready for bed in this picture.) I swaddle my kids until they are about 9 months old.
My mother-in-law gave me a book that said the secret to a happy baby is Swaddling, Shushing, Swinging, Sucking and Being on their side. I don't follow all of the steps but I do swaddle religiously. Heidi has even figured out how to swaddle her dolls because we do it all the time.
My mom always think they look like a little baby in a papoose. You know, the little indian babies that are wrapped tight and carried on the mother's back while they traveled to the river to do the wash.
My mom also says she looks like Charlie Brown-which she DOESN'T. Charlie Brown has a large head. Daisy's head isn't too big but just perfectly round. Like a pancake. I love it.
My mom wanted to see a picture of her chubby legs. She is so big that I put this outfit on for the first time and she already filled it out! Sad. She is just too big.
She is trying to wave goodbye. The video isn't great-just another grandparent video where I am trying to get her to talk. She gives some cute smiles in the video but most of you will think it is too long to watch.

Animal Parade

The girls came up with this game. You can't tell by the video but they hold the animals and then wave their arms for them. It is so cute.

Kaylee was cute this morning. We were talking about going to California and all she talks about is seeing Becca. After talking about it I said that it might be best if we don't go. But Kaylee's response was "But I want to see Becca!"

House

Finally the new season has begun!! I am not a huge tv watcher but I do have a few shows that I LOVE! And I love House. I even have a crush on Dr. House and dream about him after I have watched the show. This is a great show and if you are not already a fan you should give it a try.

Just in case you were wondering, I am going to give you the list of shows we watch.

1. House (Fox, tuesday nights)
2. Lost (ABC, thursday nights)
3. The Office (NBC, thursday nights)
4. 24 (Fox, monday nights-although, last season wasn't that great so I will see if I am going to keep this show

5. Opportunity Knocks (ABC, tuesday nights-This is a new game show and I think it looks interesting. I am going to give it a try and see how I like it. However, if it is at the same time as House then forget about it!)

**American Idol was also a show I watched but dropped it last season to pick up Lost. It is still worthy of being mentioned and I also have a huge crush on Simon. There is just something about rude, British man that I can't resist!

Conversations at our house

Kaylee: Stupid.
Heidi: Mom, Kaylee is saying 'stupid'.
Kaylee: Stupid.
Heidi: Kaylee, we don't say 'stupid'.
Kaylee: Stupid.
Heidi: Mom! Kaylee keeps saying 'stupid'!
Me: Kaylee, we don't say 'stupid'.
Kaylee: (with attitude) Well, I was just pretending!
Kaylee is standing on her head when she was supposed to be cleaning the room.
Me: Kaylee, pick up the Barbies and put them in the bucket.
She continues to stand on her head.
Me: Kaylee! Pick up the Barbies and put them in the bucket. Quit standing on your head!
Kaylee: (With attitude) Well, I was just joking.

Two minutes later...

Kaylee is turning in circles.
Me: Kaylee, stop turning in circles and pick up the Barbies. Go put them in the bucket.
I sit there waiting while she completely ignores me.
Me: KAYLEE!! Pick up the Barbies!! You need to obey!
Kaylee: (with attitude) Well, I was just joking.
Me: Listen. I don't want you to be joking anymore just clean up the room.

Two minutes later...

Kaylee is sitting on the floor playing with the little people
Me: Kaylee. Pick. Up. The . Barbies. You need to obey.
Kaylee looks at me.
Me: Pick them up now! Quit playing and pick up the Barbies.
Kaylee: (with attitude) Well, I was just NOT joking.
Heidi: Hey Kaylee, I'm going to play with the Noah's Ark.
Kaylee: What?
Heidi: I'm going to play with the Noah's ark.
Kaylee: What?
Heidi: (louder) I'm going to play with the Noah's ark!
Kaylee: What?
Heidi: (just about screaming by now) I'm going to play with the Noah's ark!!!
Kaylee: What?
Heidi: AAARRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!
Kaylee was by the couch with Daisy next to her on the floor.
Kaylee: (in a playful tone) Hey Mom, guess what I'm doing.
Me: What? I can't see. You look like you're standing next to the couch.
Daisy started making a strained noise.
Kaylee: I'm stepping on Daisy.
Kaylee: Mom, I'm hungry.
Me: OK. You can have either pretzels or applesauce.
Kaylee: I want candy.
Me: You can have pretzels or applesauce.
Kaylee: Um...I want licorice.
Me: You can have pretzels or applesauce.
Kaylee: I want animal cookies.
Me: You can have pretzels or applesauce.
Kaylee: I want chips.
Me: YOU CAN HAVE PRETZELS OR APPLESAUCE!!
Kaylee: I want pretzels.

Heidi the Photographer

I find Heidi with my camera snapping picture after picture of nothing. But she managed a few of Kaylee. Plus, she is always telling me the pictures are for the blog so I thought I should put some on.



This video is just Daisy in her crib. She likes to stare at the mobile animals. I want to get her something like that for the floor but they are way more than I want to spend. I always hate buying baby toys because you never know if they are even going to like it anyway. Regardless, Daisy is cute in the crib.

The Facebook Face off

Everyone is getting involved in facebook which is a fun way to reconnect with old friends. With Ben's ten year high school reunion he started a facebook account and has been able to check up on some friends. These are people that we haven't seen since high school. It has been fun and interesting. We've enjoyed looking at the pictures. However, Ben wants me to get my own account and I just don't want to. I feel like I don't need facebook because I do blogging and I just don't want to have ANOTHER thing that I have to check and make comments on. I don't even really comment on blogs even though I look at them so I don't want another thing to become involved in. Plus, I feel like I should cut back the time I spend looking at blogs so why add something else that takes me away from my duties?? I am the same way about TV shows. I can only have so many. It's not that I don't like the other shows but I already spend too much of my time watching the shows I do watch. I have come to a point in my life were if I pick up a new show then I make myself give up an old one. (For example, this year I started watching Lost so I quit watching American Idol.) If I started facebook then I would have to give up blogging and I don't want to give up blogging.

Anyway, Ben is determined to make me have a facebook account. He has now told me I am no longer allowed to look at his account. That really isn't a problem because I don't look. However I saw that my brother, Sam, had one and I wanted to see it. Ben wouldn't let me. He even changed his password so that I couldn't look at it!! Well then I was mad.

Later that night I went into the computer room and closed the door. I got into Ben's fantasy baseball and changed his password!! I was pretty proud of myself because he is in the playoffs and he would be ticked if he couldn't put in pitchers and what not. I thought I was pretty darn sneaky! This was just the leverage I needed for him to change his password back.

As the night progressed Ben didn't say anything which I thought was funny. He checks his fantasy stuff every ten minutes! I decided to take action and sign him completely out of Yahoo so that he would have to sign in and see that I had the upperhand in this fight. I went to sign myself in, typed in my name (schtaylor), and then typed my password. Lo and behold my password was INVALID!!! Ben had gotten into my account and changed my password! Man, I felt like a loser. I should have seen that coming but I was so caught up in my own craftiness that I didn't even remember that Ben knows all my passwords. Needless to say, I had to fix Ben's account so he would fix mine and he still wouldn't tell me his facebook password. (Ben says that he is Jason Bourne...yeah right!) This face off has only strengthened my resolve to never get a facebook account. I may have given in before but not now!!

Homeschooling

Due to Heidi's birthday she will be unable to attend Kindergarten until a year from now. I think that is too long before she starts and have decided that I will just home school her and do it myself. I figure I am smart and competent enough that I can handle teaching what a five year old needs to know. I have also been reading a book about homeschooling and like how unstructured it can be. I like that we can learn what she is interested in instead of following a strict curriculum.

We have started with writing and reading. She can write all of her letters but they usually take up the entire page for one letter. Thanks to the dollar store she now has a manuscript pad of paper that she writes on each day. She picks a few letters, chooses a word or two, and then she gets a sticker after she fills up the whole page. We also got some workbooks from the Dollar Store that have math, reading and writing to work on. It has been fun so far. She is getting the hang of it and I feel like she gets a good balance of learning and playing. I am hoping that she will be able to read before she is actually ready to enter Kindergarten. I like having my girls home. I don't want to send them away from 9-4 when they are only 5! I am excited to home school!

I'm on the McCain Train

I am a Republican by birth. Should I ever reject that heritage to turn Democrat I am fairly sure that I would be disowned by my dad. However, this election was a hard one. I am not a huge McCain fan-I hate him. I didn't like how he and Huckabee tag-teamed against Romney. It wasn't a fair fight, but then again, that how politics work. After knowing it would be McCain vs. Obama Bin Laden I seriously considered NOT voting. I didn't want to be responsible for either of them getting into the White House. (My biggest complaint about Obama is his lack of patriotism...that is the last thing this country needs!) However, after watching Sara Palin last night I know where my vote will go! She was a smart pick and I think that she will balance out the parts about McCain that I don't like. I just really liked her. Normally the VP doesn't have much of a role in the White House but I could see where she changes that. So I need to find out where I can get a McCain/Palin sign to put in my front yard now.

A side note: Did anyone else find her kid's names interesting? They were totally different, borderline weird, but I loved them! Don't worry, I am not going to name my next kids Willow but maybe Erica could do Piper or Trigg. I just loved the names! And Track?? Where did she even get that? But still, loved it.

Daisy weighs 13.4 oz!

And I think we can say that Kaylee is officially potty trained! I don't want to jinx it but we have been accident free for over a week. I no longer have to ask her if she needs to go because she just tells me. Oh man, do I love having a potty trained kid!

Ben was Tagged

Ben's Mom tagged him and I know he won't do it himself so I am going to fill it out for him.

3 Joys
1. His wonderful wife
2. His crazy/loud/funny/cute kids
3. The feeling of relief after going #2 (he is going to kill me when he sees this, but hey, he had his chance to do it himself!)

3 Fears
1. That the birth control won't work.
2. Anything that has to do with communicating/seeing spirits or dead people. Things like weegee boards freak him out (did I spell that right?) His Aunt has a story about weird things happening when she used a weegee board and it is things like that that he doesn't like.
3. Going into the attic of our rental house.

3 Current Goals
1. Win a 5k.
2. Get a 3.5 GPA this next semester (that will require a lot of work).
3. To win in any one of his fantasy leagues (that will require even more work than school because he stinks at all fantasy sports!)

3 Current Obsessions
1. Getting into shape.
2. Having the highest score on all our Wii games
3. Facebook

3 Random Facts
1. He received the All-League award his Senior year for playing soccer. The LP team went to the playoffs that year.
2. Our first months of flirting involved a clothespin, gingerbread cookie dough and a car safety flier.
3. He still sleeps with his baby blanket every night.

He will not tag anyone because he doesn't care but it would be interesting to read what the other husbands would put. (Or what the other wives would put about their husbands)