Old and Self-Dressed

What age do you have to be before you start feeling old? I decided it is 26. I look old and feel old. I wouldn't consider myself a really vain person, but I care somewhat. I have started putting eye cream under my eyes because I have noticed some little lines and dark circles. It used to seem like getting old was a long way off, but now it feels like it is just around the corner. Oh well, aging is a fate everyone must endure, I just can't believe it is happening to me. ;)
Tonight Justin and I are going to the UW-CSU game in Fort Collins with Jared and Cherelle. I love going to games, but with the kids it is more of a pain than fun, so I am glad we are leaving them with a babysitter tonight.
Rob and Jennifer are coming down on Friday. I need to wash bed linen and a ton of laundry, so that will take up most of my day. I am glad they are coming, they haven't been down since we moved here. We should have a good time.
Charlee dressed herself today and once she has made up her mind, there is no changing it. Doesn't she match so well? I don't think I could find two items of clothing that look worse together if I tried, plus it is still too cold outside to wear the skirt. I'm just glad we don't have to go to the store or anything today. Notice how happy she looks that I'm taking her picture.

What a Day

Today has been a long one. Justee must have had one more barf session in her because she threw-up in her crib again this morning(she did the exact same thing yesterday morning). She has had more baths than I can count in the past 4 days, but she has been fine the rest of the day. Charlee and Justee both had check-ups with the doctor. Charlee weighed 33 lbs (75%) and was 36 1/2 in. tall (50%). Justee weighed 20lbs (25%) and was 29 in. tall (50%). Charlee was being very difficult. First she did not want to step onto the scale. When I tried to put her on it she lifted her feet up so they wouldn't touch. It took quite a bit of coaxing to get her weight and height. Then in the exam room, she would not let the Dr. listen to her heart or look in her ears or mouth. She just kept saying, "I non't awnt to." Finally when the Dr. started talking about Dora she warmed up and held still. The bad news is that he could hear a small heart murmur and is referring us to a cardiologist. He said it doesn't seem to be very serious, but he wants us to get it looked at just to be safe. Once Charlee learned that she was getting 4 shots (we are way behind on her immunizations), she said the doctor was bad and he would hurt her. I told her that doctors are good and that she needs the shots to keep her from getting sick. Both girls got 4 shots and I think it was a toss up on who screamed the loudest. Sydnee was always pretty good about shots and barely made a sound, so these two are a far cry from that. Justee has always really screamed when she got shots. After it was all over I took Charlee to get an ice cream cone. She was very excited about that and said she wanted to tell Daddy that she got "tots and ikeem" when he got home. ...One other funny thing Charlee told me this morning was that everyone has "nupples" even daddy has nupples, but cats don't.

Feeling Better!

Justee is feeling much better today. She is back to herself, so I wanted to take some pics of her happy and smiling. She is napping right now, Sydnees at school, and Charlee is playing with "her" Elmo and watching cartoons. I should be using this time to clean, but I don't feel like it. Justee slept until 10 this morning which was great because I was very tired after a late night of 2 a.m. Justin and I were playing Guitar Hero and then we watched 24. We started watching it during season 5 because my parents were watching it. We got addicted and so we went back to watch all the earlier seasons. We are on season 3 now and it has caused many late nights because when one episode ends, you have to see what happens next so you watch another episode. It is a vicious cycle.

Charlee's Forgotten Birthday

This morning Justee woke up at 6:30, which is early at the Durtsche pad since we usually get up around 8:30. She still isn't feeling well and dry-heaved a few times since she didn't have anything to throw-up. Poor girl has a fever and is very whiney. She only wants me, so I am glad that she is sleeping right now. At about 9, Charlee started crying. When we asked what was wrong she said, "You ferdot my berftay." Sydnee explained that it is supposed to be Charlee's bithday after Justee's, so it was supposed to be Charlee's birthday today. Poor Charlee was all worked up thinking that we weren't going to do anything for her birthday. Justin assured Charlee that we would never forget her birthday. We then had to explain that Charlee's birthday is the next birthday we will be celebrating, but it isn't for a couple months.

Daddy comforting a sick baby girl.

Justee's 1st B-Day

Today Justee turned one year old! I can't believe she is already one; where does time go? The sad thing about today is that Justee was sick. She threw-up six times. She never quite got into her presents or anything and she slept most of the day. I made her a chocolate-dipped strawberry cake. It didn't turn out the way I wanted. I should have left off the chocolate and just made it a strawberry. I wish my cakes turned out as well as my sister's cakes. Oh well, there is always next year. Justee got some good gifts. We got her a bouncy zebra thing, Syd got her a V-Tech helicopter thing, Charlee got her an Elmo (which she thinks is hers), my parents got her a cute ladybug book, her aunt Michelle and uncle Jayson and fam sent her a card with $10, and her Great Grandma Putnam (my mom's mom) sent her a "Love Dollar" in a card. She does this for all her young grandkids, which is amazing because she has over 100 grandkids! She is so thoughtful and a such wonderful woman and Grandma. Overall it was a good day, I just hope she feels better tomorrow.

Phew! (or however you spell a sigh of relief)

This is my third and final post of the day. After a day of worrying and frustration, we finally got our video camera back. The rec. center had it all along. When the security guy finally looked at the footage...(How does it take all day to look at 5 min. of footage? Don't these people care that I have my camera back for my daughter's first birthday? I guess it is only important to me.) Anyway, after the rec. center told us that they didn't have it and we would have to file a police report in order for them to look at their surveillance, and after Justin filed a police report (and most importantly worried all day about how mad I would be at him if we didn't get all our stuff back), and after they finally checked the footage; they saw that one of their employees picked up the camera bag right from under Justin's nose and thought it was one of the rec's camera bags. So it was sitting in the security room, right next to the guy watching the security tapes. My first reaction is to be mad and wonder how the heck they didn't realize what they were doing, but I am just glad that we got it back. I am also glad to report that Justin even told me how proud he was of me and how I handled the whole situation. I am glad that I didn't blow up at him, although I did say a few not-so-nice things, but I did way better than I have in the past. It wouldn't have changed anything or made either of us feel better, so hopefully I can learn from this experience and be...well, nicer when things like this happen...and hopefully Justin will never leave something so valuable behind again. ;)

Fun Hair and Shopping

We went to Old Navy last night to pick out a birthday outfit for Justee. Sydnee needed some new pants as well since she has managed to put holes in the knees of every pair but one; and that pair is quickly becoming high-waters. So our one outfit/pants trip turned into a $150 shopping spree.

Sydnee got two pair of pants and two shirts; Charlee got one pair of pants and five shirts; and Justee got two pair of pants, a pair of shorts, a skirt, and five shirts. I couldn't help it being that all the new styles had just arrived and they were having a 40% off sale. I made sure to tell Justin that I saved $90! The girls were excited to try on all their new clothes and model them for Daddy. Even Justee would walk around the corner and smile at her Dad and then turn and walk out. They are all wearing a new shirt in these pictures.

I thought Sydnee's hair turned out so cute today that I wanted to take a picture. Of course, you can't do one without the other...Charlee wanted me to take a picture of the balls they got at Old Navy. She quickly got distracted by the TV.

Gymnastics and You're Kidding, Right?

Sydnee has been in gymnastics for about a year and a half now. She loves it and has really been improving. When she started out, she was in a pre-school class and she stayed at that level for quite a while. Now she has moved through the kindergarten level, the advanced kindergarten level, and now she is in the beginner level. She is the youngest in her class and she is doing so good. I wanted to put up a little clip of the video we have of when she just started to where she is now; but, when I went to get the video camera I couldn't find it. Justin took it to video Sydnee at gymnastics while I was in Hawaii and I haven't used it since, so I asked him...We can't find it anywhere. That means he must have left it at the rec. center...They don't have it. They are checking their surveillance footage to see if Justin or someone else walked out with it. The worst part about not finding it is that I have the discs with Justee at the hospital and Christmas and everything in between on them in the camera bag. Plus, tomorrow is Justee's birthday and we won't have our video camera for it. I am trying to be nice to Justin and not yell at him and make him feel worse, but trust me, it is not easy.


I took a picture of Sydnee doing a backbend and Charlee wanted to try one too. Then Sydnee said she wanted to take a picture of me and Justee, so that is why this picture is on here.

A Cookie Tradition

For as long as I can remember, we have made big heart shaped cookies for Valentine's Day. My mom would put everyone's name on a cookie and we got to decorate them with different kinds of candy. I loved this tradition so much that I have always made sure that I do it with my kids as well. One thing I have grown to appreciate about my mom is how much work she put into making holidays and birthdays fun for us. It is a lot of work to make the cookies and clean up the messes. I find myself not wanting to deal with all of it sometimes, and I catch myself thinking that the kids would never notice if I left some activities undone...Then I remember how many good memories I have of this type of stuff; I want my kids to have those memories as well. So, like all moms, I sacrifice; which turns out not to be a sacrifice after all because I love seeing how happy it makes my girls and I have fun doing it too.














This is Charlee's "cheese smile". I keep trying to get her to say something else or nothing and just smile, but she likes to say cheese and so all her pictures look like this.

Long Night

Justin and I didn't go out on Valentine's Day; we waited and went out on the 15th. We went down to Denver and ate at The Oceanaire. It is a really nice seafood restaurant. I had Crab and Justin had salmon. It was really good and we had a great time. It was on our way home that the "fun" began. We were on a really busy I25 and we were glad we could take the HOV lanes (high occupancy vehicle, I just learned what that meant). Traffic was stop and go and we were coming to a stop...evidently the guy behind us hadn't realized that all the traffic was stopping in front of us. Justin saw him coming in the rearview mirror and told me to hold on. Justin tried to drive up around the car in front of us by squeezing between it and the barrier wall. He didn't make it; the Range Rover behind us smashed into us. We got pushed up onto the barrier wall with our left front tire. I thought we sideswiped one or two cars as we slid by them, but we didn't. Luckily I was wearing my seatbelt because I rarely put it on. Everyone was ok, but I was very thankful that our girls were not with us. We were a little sore for the next few days and I hit my elbow on something so it has a bruise, but overall we are fine. The Asian man that hit us didn't think it was his fault; the police saw it differently and he got a ticket. Both vehicles had to be towed and since it was Justin's work car, his company had to get us the towtruck they wanted...to make a long story short, we waited there for 2 hours until we finally got a towtruck and were able to climb in and start the 50 mile drive back to our house. We didn't get home until after 1 am. ...At least dinner went well. :)

Thar She Blows!

One of the coolest things we did when we were in Maui, was went whale watching. We got to see a lot of whales! We saw a mother and her newborn calf, as well as lots of other babies. A couple of whales jumped out of the water several times (never got a pic). We saw a whale roll over and show us his belly; and one poked his head strait out of the water. We also got to listen to the noises they make under water. They were very noisy. We were told we were very lucky to get to see that many whales doing that many different things. This is a pic of a tail and I think it is pretty cool.
This picture is of a whale's "blow". This is usually what gave away a whale's location. Someone would yell out "Thar she blows! Whale at 9:00. (we were facing 9:00, so we loved hearing 8-11)This is a mom and her baby is right next to her.
This is the whale's head poking out of the water. It is truly wonderful to get to witness the beauty of this world and everything in it.

Home From Maui

I had a blast in Maui with my friends Renae and Keela. It is nice to be home though, I missed Justin and my girls a lot. I have a lot of catching up to do on here so I might jump around a bit. I told Justin he could write on here while I was gone and tell about his experience with staying home with the girls, but he must not have had time. ;) He had to help Syd with her Valentines for her school party and go to parent/teacher conferences. He had slumber parties with the girls; he watched movies and ate popcorn and stayed in their room with them. They loved it. He is such a great dad. The girls love him so much and he is always doing fun stuff with them. When I got home Justee would not come to me. She looked at me like she didn't know me. She only wanted Justin for the first 4 hours. Then she finally warmed up to me and now she is back to normal. I'm gonna put up a few pics from Hawaii, but I'll write more later. I have a messy house to clean and I am still pretty tired. I haven't caught up on the sleep I missed... Poor me, I know.

100th Day of School!

Sydnee has been counting down to this day for the last week. She was so excited to wear her 100 shirt! Her teacher asked if everybody could wear a shirt with 100 objects glued to it. Sydnee and I went to a craft store and looked at some possible items. She picked these sparkly pom-pom things. When we got home we talked about how we could glue them on. She wanted a butterfly and flowers, so we made 8 flowers that each had 10 balls and a butterfly that had 20. That added up to be 100. Sydnee loved counting out all the ball things and glueing them down. Here she is in her beautiful shirt. She is very proud of it.

I knew that Charlee would feel left out if she didn't get a shirt too, so we got stuff for her to make one too. She started off by saying she wanted a snake and put all the balls in a line on her shirt; but after she saw Sydnee's flowers, she wanted flowers too. I asked if she would like a caterpillar which is like a little snake and she was very excited about that.

Justee loved the shirts. When the girls put the shirts on this morning, Justee was on the attack! She chased them around and kept trying to grab those things. She really wanted to rip them off and play with them. We were lucky she only got one off Sydnee's; we just glued it back on.

Doctor & Dentist all in one day

Monday was a pretty busy day. Sydnee had a yearly check-up with the Dr. After they did an eye exam she looked at me and wispered, "That was really fun." Then, After school, Sydnee had to go back to the dentist. I knew she was pretty nervous about the whole thing because she hardly said a word. They told her if she felt any pain, she could raise her hand...as soon as the drill touched her tooth, she threw her hand in the air. I'm pretty sure she was just scared and not in pain. She was shaking so bad after a few more tries that the dentist decided he better not go on. He said he didn't want to traumatize her, so he put a temporary filling in and refered us to a pediatrc dentist that could give her nitrous oxide to calm her down. (That gas used to be my favorite part about going to the dentist.)

Justin had a city leauge basketball game that night so we all went as our "Family HOME Evening". His team won so that was a good thing. Justee is such a pain to take to the games because she wants to run out on the court. Sydnee and Charlee are pretty good about sitting and not running around, but I was still glad when it was over and we got to go home.

Justee also started coming down stairs by herself. I am really excited about this because she loves to go up the stairs and look down at everyone through the banisters, but then she cries for me to come get her down...then she goes back up and cries...This coming down by herself is a good thing.

Superbowl

We had a great Superbowl Sunday. After going to church first of course, we watched the game with the Nicholls family and ate a ton of food. I guess I didn't go to church because Justee was sick so I stayed home with her while Justin took Syd and Chaz. Justin said it was a really good fast and testimony meeting, and the Bishop gave a really good lesson in Priests (Justin is the assistant Priest leader.) Then Justin went with the missionaries to pass out sacrament to the home-bound.
When I am working in the kitchen, Justee loves to pull out all the bowls and play with them. While I was making spinach-artichoke dip I looked down to see that all the bowls were out of the cupboard and Justee was in it. Charlee kept shutting the door and playing peek-a-boo with her. She was loving it.
It was a great game and all of us were cheering for the Giants, so we were happy with the outcome. There were some big celebrations, but I think my favorite was when the Giants scored their last touchdown...Everyone was on their feet and Justin ran at Jared (Jared flinched because I think he thought Justin would tackle him), picked him up and ran across the room. Sydnee kept yelling down from her room that daddy needed to be quieter, but of course that wasn't going to happen.
Here is a little bit of what we had to eat: Pizza, wings, chips and seven layer dip, bread and spinach-artichoke dip, pistachios, veggies, dried fruit, candy, and pop.

Haircuts

We all got haircuts today (except Justee of course.) Charlee just got her hair trimmed, but this was her first ever haircut. She almost fell asleep while she was getting it washed. Sydnee got a lot of her hair cut off. This is the shortest we have ever cut it. She really likes it. I think it will be nice to have it short while I am gone; it should be easier for Justin to fix. Justin said he never thought he would be spending a day at the salon with a bunch of girls getting haircuts. I think he loved it! ;)