Could life get any better? I submit that it cannot.

I'm feeling a little nostalgic today. Maybe it's the fact that Christmas is right around the corner or that I'm feeling very blessed in life right now. Probably a little of both.
This is my all time favorite time of year! I love everything about it....except for the snow....and the cold. Stink! It's cold out there this morning!!! The furnace was turned down and still ran most of the night. It kept me awake, but I guess I wasn't freezing all night. It was nice to wake up to the hoar frost this morning. It is one of my favorite scenes in nature, which reminds me yesterday evening had the best moon. It was big and bright and the sunset had the fog pink at the top slowly turning a dark blue at the horizon. Beautiful!!
I normally am not one to be excited about presents for myself at Christmas. Don't get me wrong, I love getting presents, but that's not what I get excited for. This year, I'm pretty excited. It's probably because I know what I'm getting. Maybe if I knew every year I would get more excited about it. I think there is a link between knowing and the level of anticipation. My lululemon gear is sitting in the bag under the tree and it's all I can do to not pull it all out and try them all on. 3 more weeks!
We are having a really good week here at the Mallard's. And for all of you who don't know how it's pronounced, it ma-LARD, not like the duck. I kinda have a beef with that. I told Jaron that I was shallow enough that if I didn't like someone's last name I wouldn't even think of dating them. I thought "Mallard is a good last name", but I didn't think about how it was hard to pronounce for people, let alone how much it would bug me. Could be worse. I could be Mrs. Chevapravatdumrong. And yes, that is a real last name.
So back to our good week. The girls are starting to play better!!! Macey is still a turkey (she is at the moment throwing a major tantrum) but I can see a glimmer of a difference. The glimmer gives me hope! They both really are great girls. Mackinley told Jar that he had winter on him when he came in with snowflakes on him. How cute is that! I love that kid! I am so in love with my little family. Jar is such a good daddy and hubby. My favorite image in my head that I have of the 3 of them together is when Macey was probably about 7 weeks old. Jar was holding her in one arm, had Mackinley on the other side and he was painting Mackinley's fingernails. It was pretty darn cute. We are pretty lucky to have him.
Well, my mudding and taping is calling, well shouting, my name. We are getting more carpet put in next week and I need to get ready! The hallway and the 2 girls rooms are being done, so it's not too bad, but we had to redo the part of the dining room that attaches to the hallway. What a mess! Oh well, in one more week we will be done with reno's until next year. It will be nice to relax and enjoy the time and money we've put it. It does look really good. I for sure will be posting pictures after the girls rooms are done. I finally found my card reader, but I have so much on my card that it will take a long time to get it all off. I tried last week and it said about an hour and a half. I needed it in 10 minutes, so it didn't get done. That will be a goal for next week I guess. Get it prepped for Christmas!!! Did I mention I was stoked for Christmas?

My dad always said life isn't fair

We went shopping this week so I could buy some new clothes for myself. I don't really need new clothes I guess, but the ones that fit (my skinny clothes...yay!) are at least 2 years old. I didn't wear them last year because Macey was still just a wee babe and I couldn't fit in them, so some of them only have one season of wear. I still would like to buy some more. I didn't find any though.
Jaron doesn't like to go clothes shopping. He is a major pain in my rear end when we go. Not that he won't let me spend the money, it's the fact that he can't stand waiting around. He's constantly asking if I'm done, or he won't look at what I'm showing him and give me an opinion of something. He would make a terrible gay guy. He is pretty patient though when we are shopping for him. We went to wholesale sports first. We were there for a good hour waiting for the paperwork to his new gun to finish. While he is standing ogling guns I have to keep both kids happy in a non kid-friendly store. Boo-urns. But I did it without complaining....about any of it. And just so you know, I am not complaining right now, I am explaining.
So off to the mall we go. Jar was actually pretty good, because he wanted to even out the tally. He spent so much, so I should spend so much so that I didn't count the gun as his christmas present. He's so thoughtful.
I didn't find anything for myself and I was okay with that. Until Mackinley got her ears pierced. She was pretty adamant that she get them done and so I let her. Since it was unplanned she didn't get emla cream put on like I normally would've done, but she's a pretty tough girl.....I thought. The poor thing thought she was going to die I'm sure. I did feel bad for her. She didn't cry too hard for too long. But she whined for the next....well she's still whining. She absolutely loves them though. Anyways, we did this at the end of the shopping trip and I didn't feel like dragging a crying kid through any more stores. But I definitely felt like buying something nice for myself, even if it was a super cute dress from le chateau that was 200 bucks! I resisted and we left. Jaron with a new gun....Mackinley with new earrings.....and me carrying Macey. Oh well, maybe next time.
I did get a pumpkin pie blizzard that day, so that was great. And after the mall I got a donut and hot smoothie from Timmy's, so that was pretty great too.
We got home kinda late and as we drove into the driveway lo and behold a stupid muskrat is running toward my house! The thing was ginormous!! Jar got out to get rid of it, but the thing was stone stupid and ran toward Jar and got booted around. It sat on the woodpile and Jar went to go get something to catch it in. By the time he got back it was gone. Ewwww! It's lurking around somewhere. Hopefully it has left and went back to the water.
Crazy day, but fun. Today we drove out and went shooting the new gun. I have to admit I'm kinda wimpy, and after shooting 8 rounds, my arm is sore....still. I just checked.
We got trim put up today!!!! Hallelujah! It looks amazing. Jar did awesome. We still have more to do and then I promise I will put up pictures. I can promise this because I finally found my card reader. I was getting kinda worried for a bit there, but it turned up.
Now that I have typed this up I have realized I have had a pretty busy week. And it is not finished yet. Monday, tuesday was cleaning and laundering. Wednesday was Christmas baking with my mommy. Thursday was shopping. Today was trim and shooting guns and hanging out with friends. Tomorrow is super saturday...yay! and Sunday.....well, I don't even want to talk about sunday. Sunday's are the worst day of the week. At least Jar is home this sunday. Only 3 and a half more months til nursery. Only.
Off to bed for me! I am excited to lay in bed and watch a movie. A nice way to end the day.

Random tidbits to fill you in

It's been awhile since my last post. It seems like nothing much has happened since then, but at the same time I feel as though life has been crazy busy.
Mackinley was sick for a bit and we totally missed out on Halloween this year. At least they are young enough that they didn't notice. I am stuck with my "stash" now that I didn't hand out. Maybe if I bury it deep in the cupboards I won't find them until next year and can save a few bucks. No, I don't want to eat them and I don't want my kids to eat them, or Jaron for that matter. Not that I'm anti-candy, I just hate having it around tempting us all.
Is anyone else excited for Christmas? I am soooo pumped!!!!! It is my all time favorite holiday of the year. I get to decorate next week. Maybe Mackinley will be a better helper this year. Macey definitely won't be.
Sorry I haven't posted any pictures. It seems like the thing to do. I still can't find my card reader for my computer to download them off my camera. I have pictures on my camera since May! It's a little frustrating! I am slowly organizing all the computer stuff since we got the new computer desks set up, but I still can't find the blasted thing. Hopefully soon.
I am continually amazed at how resilient kids are. A couple of days ago Mackinley fell on the elliptical and smashed her mouth up really good. Both her lips were huge! They are looking better. She bit through the bottom lip and it has scabbed up nicely. This is where I would insert a picture of Mackinley's lips.
Today she had an Ikea reusable bag wrapped on her wrists and over her head. She was going downstairs and Macey was heading upstairs. They somehow got entwined and fell down together. Poor Mackinley was freaking out because she couldn't see anything and didn't really know what happened and poor Macey got a goose bump and some rug burns on her face. I'm really not looking forward to the broken bone and stitches part of life, but my kids seem to be following in my klutzy footsteps. Maybe they'll grow out of it.
I am being summoned by the monster in the crib. I guess that is all for now!

Does the craziness ever end?

We have carpet!!! Hallelujah! It looks so much better down here. It feels like a home now! There is still soooo much to do down here before we're finished, but it is livable. It should mostly be done next week as well as the bathroom down here.
Maybe by then Jar will want to install my new central vac system again by then......they don't get along. So here's a good story.....we have central vac in our house. It is old and nasty. Costco had a new central vac system for sale that came with everything, the pipes, the kitchen add-on, all the plug ins, and a power nozzle. Fully loaded. For super super cheap. I was so excited. Because it's all in already I figured it wouldn't be to hard to substitute everything and it would be a snap. I was wrong. Our old vac was attached to the wall up high in the laundry room, and by high I mean our laundry room has a 12 ft ceiling. So Jar is up there on the ladder trying to get the old one down and the bolts came out and he fell....onto the water heater. The old central vac took a chunk out of the floor and hit the new vac. The new one fell and hit my newly painted wall and took a chunk out of it and then slid down and scratched it all up and landed milimeteres away from Macey's cute little toes. Jar's pants and underwear were ripped and when he turned around I looked and he was bleeding. It turned out it was just scratched a bit with a pretty good bruise. I thought for sure though by the sounds of him he had broken something in his body. Once we knew he was okay we started to laugh about it....well, I started to laugh anyways. That was a few days ago. I am hoping Jar heals mentally before next Friday so I can use the new vacuum on my new carpet.
Pretty funny, but it doesn't end there. This morning we had no hot water. Jar's fat butt landed on the hot water tank's release valve and bent it so it was leaking. It wasn't leaking onto the floor, but into the water tank itself and the pilot light went out. Jar tried to fix it by vacuumming up the water with the shop vac which would be fine....but he had it in dry mode with a bag full of drywall mud. Oh the fun never ends!! We were able to fix it ourselves, so that was a bonus.
And the girls, oh the girls. They've been contributing to the madness with full force! Macey is in the helping stage. She wants to do EVERYTHING that I do. She has always wanted to be with me and for me to hold her, but she wants to right in the mix of things. I painted the bathroom last week and she decided she wanted to help paint. She painted herself pretty good and when I found out I ended up getting paint on my shoes, jeans, and there was something else, I just can't remember. So into the tub she went! The next day I ran into town while Macey slept. Jaron decided to sleep too. When I returned home Mackinley reeked of my perfume. She had half a bottle of it in her hair. That was probably 5 days ago and she has had a bath everyday since then and it still smells of perfume. GAG!
I'm really hoping that one of our projects will go smoothly. None of this stuff that makes me wanna rip my hair out or go sit in the bathroom and cry. I can't even do that anymore. If I shut the bathroom door fully in our room I will get locked in. The handle is broken on it. Good thing we're putting in a new door....soon. Hint hint. Wink wink. Jar.
So that is a little look into our life the last few weeks. Crazy, but my house looks so good! I will put some pictures up when we get the trim put up and the new doors put in. Hopefully soon!

Bring it on!

So today I entered into a new phase in life. It's the bloating, cramping, gassy, diarrhea phase. Not very pleasant, but ultimately can't be helped. I started my new meds today that I'm supposed to stay on for the rest of my life. Yuck! Hopefully the symptoms don't last forever as well. The bonus side is it's diabetic medication and I don't have diabetes, so bring on the sugar!! That would defeat the purpose of the meds though in heavy doses of glucose.
Why am I on these meds? I have a hormone disorder called PCOS. I don't look like I have it which is nice, but none the less it is there. The meds are supposed to help regulate my testosterone and FSH and LH. Therotically they should help me get pregnant when I am ready to.
So hopefully next year or the year after (depending on my sanity at the time) the discomfort will pay off with a cute little baby.
In other Mallard news, the girls are feeling better (they have been pukey and poopy the last week and a half). Mackinley is loving her ballet and Macey.....well, she is just the cutest thing ever! She is at such a fun stage right now. She loves to point and babble about whatever she is pointing at. I love watching her learn right in front of me. She LOVES books. Her favorite is to sit on my lap and look through her books. She is so grown up! Oh, and she does so much sign language now. Bird, cat, dog, horse, cow, book, dinosaur, more, eat, drink...I'm sure there's more. She can do please now, but not thank you. We are working on that one.
Mackinley thinks she is a mom now. She is quite funny, but I try to not let her be too bossy. She is the best big sister and a sweet daughter. Today at Costco I bought her a big fairy book that you find things in the picture. I tried to hide it from her but the cashiers aren't very stealthy. They handed it to her and she wouldn't take it. She looked at me confused and asked "Is that for me mom?" I told her yes and instantly her face lit up and yelled "Thank you Mom!". She then proceeded to kiss my arm up and down and we walked out of the store. Too cute.
And a reno update......All the drywall is up! Half of it just needs to be sanded once more and will be done and the rest I start tomorrow. Hopefully painting will be done next week!! Yay! So much closer to organization and cleanliness. I am excited.

I guess I'm cheap! (but not easy)

The girls and I are grocery shopping in Walmart today and this is how our conversation went:
Mackinley pointing to Princess alphagetti's - Mom, can we buy that?
Me - Not today sweetie.
Mackinley - Oh. Then it's not on sale?
How embarrassing! I'm not sure why I was embarrassed really, but I was.
She then proceeded to ask if things were on sale for the rest of our shopping trip. I usually only buy stuff that is on sale. Not fresh produce or bread, stuff like that...but things that have more selection so there is always something on sale. Stuff like cereal, soup, or just the occasional good sale even though I don't really need it. I know most people shop like that, but for some reason the fact that my 3 year old knew what a sale was, was a shocker for me! I guess they really do learn young!

One of those days! Again.....

So you know when you have those days that you're busy and need to get things done and everything just seems to go wrong? I happen to have them a lot. Yesterday was no exception!
We all were up early and ready to go to the calf auction in Fort Macleod. We were there for about an hour. It was fun to watch the girls run around and Macey loved all the calves. Mackinley kept getting a little too close to the fence, but other than that it was stress free. We got home at noon.
This might not seem like a big deal, but in our house it kinda is. I will paraphrase. By noon we were all fed, bathed, dressed, into Macleod (which is 40 minutes away), watched the auction, and home again. That is busy for us. Jaron had to go back to bed because he worked that night. The girls and I hung out and cleaned for a bit and then Mackinley had ballet. So cute!!! She loved it. I couldn't really see very well, but what I did see looked like a lot of fun.
We went home and got supper ready. After supper Jaron went to work and we decided to go outside. I needed to get laundry started (it had been awhile, so long Mackinley ran out of underwear this morning...oooops!) but I thought we should go out and have a bit more fun while it was nice out(who needs underwear?). What's a half hour, right? I have a buggy that hooks up to my bike, so we were going to go on an awesome fun bike ride. Mackinley went in to get some shoes and Macey wanted up on the trampoline. We have a slide that is connected and she likes to go down it. She also likes to run across the trampoline and run into our arms. She likes to run across the tramp and we catch her. Normally Jaron and I are both there to run around, so we have our bases covered. Last night she decided to run across, so I ran around, and last minute she turned and darted in another direction and ran straight off the trampoline. I couldn't get there in time to catch her, but in time to watch her land face first and then her legs came up and her whole body bent backwards over her head. I screamed grabbed her and Mackinley and drove to the hospital.
I dropped off Mackinley at her friends house which right by the hospital and then went and waited and waited and waited to see the doctor. We got to the hospital around 7. At 7:30 they told me the doctor was out for supper and wouldn't be back until 8. I thought I'd waited this long I could wait a little longer. The doctor didn't show up until 8:50. Good thing we were first in line! He took a look at her and said she's probably fine, but if you notice anything weird bring her back in. They said she might have a mild concussion because she wasn't walking normally, but she seems fine today, thank goodness! Just a bump on the forehead and a couple of minor scratches.
So I am doing my laundry today. Which is okay, I was just hoping to get out and enjoy the sunshine! We might try the whole bike ride again tonight minus the trampoline.
I know I'm always going to have busy days and we wills always have those disaster days....I just wish they didn't always tend to line up together! After days like yesterday I am content with the kids I have. It has helped me get over my baby fever real quick like! We'll see how long that lasts!
Actually, probably until this morning when my girls were laughing harder than I have ever heard before. It was the best. Mackinley was laughing at barking spiders and Macey was laughing at her. Definitely a better start to hopefully a better day!

Ballet shoes and Needles.

Well, today was an expensive day!! We had to put down half of the cost for our carpet. Yikes! Then I decided last minute to put Mackinley into ballet. Double yikes!
The only way I justified spending that much money on a 3 year old to go to ballet was that I don't actually have to pay for it. Thanks Teck Coal! She looks so stinkin cute in her gear that we bought. We got home and she immediately put it all on. Then she started to dance around like a ballerina. She is quite the girl! So much of a girl in fact that at lunch today she asked if we were going to go fishing. I said sometime we would. She then said "Oh, good. I need to get a pink fishing rod. With princesses on it." There is such thing. At Walmart.
Macey didn't have a good day though. One word. Immunizations. Yuck! I absolutely hate them! Jaron got to come with me this time. I don't think he's been able to come since Mackinley was a little baby. I only cried a little. It seems to get worse the older they get. I am dreading taking them both for flu shots and then again for swine flu shots. It's torture I tell you! Poor helpless little babies. If only there was another way.
I used to take blood from babies. I used to think I could poke my own kids no problem. I have gotten soft in my motherhood. Just thinking about it makes me ill. I don't know what I would do if I had to go back! Maybe change professions. I hear dentistry has a lot of money in it. :)
So Yippee!!! I get carpet downstairs in about 3 weeks! My life will slowly get back to normal. And by normal I mean clean and organized! I am pumped!!!

Parks and Ice Cream....and Renovations

So today was a great day! I got to sleep in while Jaron had the girls. This is a normal occurrence, but normally I don't really get to sleep because the girls are crying. I just lay in bed listening to them holler. Which still okay, but today...today there was no crying, none that I could hear. I woke up by myself and not to Mackinley coming into my bed or Macey waking up in her room. I don't mind being woken up by the girls, but wow! It felt great! Then I got up to get ready for the day. I had lost 3 pounds, got showered and ready with no interuptions, made lunch and we were off to Lethbridge.
I love our Lethbridge trips. We do the same things most of the time. Go to the pet store, get some ice cream, get some KFC and eat it at the park. Today we were at the park for awhile but left because it was just way too hot. So we went to the splash park instead. I love being able to hang out and lounge and just have fun with my family. Nowhere to be, nothing to do.
The girls seem to like our trips. Mackinley knows the routine...which stores we go to, what parks, stuff like that. Macey just wants to run loose and destroy anything in her path. Like today at the pet store. Instead of looking at all the cute fluffy animals she was off running and grabbing the stuff off the shelves. Too bad clay bowls are so breakable! The people that stock that store definitely don't have kids!
Tomorrow won't be as fun. Productivity doesn't seem to be "fun" anyways. My floor will be done, and we will be on our way to having the bathroom done. The drywalling will commence soon! I really should take some pictures. We are doing MAJOR renos. Extensive, huge, ginormous renos.
I cannot wait to get this done. It looks really good so far. Jaron has done a really great job. We have had help from my Daddy too!
Jack Bauer is calling my name. I need to get in an episode before I go to sleep!

The Beginning

Well, I caved. I am now officially a blogger. I guess Facebook just wasn't enough. I am always amazed at how much time people spend on the computer blogging and facebooking and twittering and whatever else there is to do. How do these people get anything else done? And by people I mean the super moms that have jobs either at home or away from home. How do you work, cook, clean, launder, take care of kids, go to school, and sleep? I need more energy.....
The summer is winding down, and I gotta say I have mixed emotions about this. I am looking forward to being at home for longer than a week at a time, but I am dreading the inevitable winter. We have been having beautiful weather here the last week. We have also been having a sick family the last week. The two don't mix very well. I did take the girls out to the splash park in the Pass yesterday though. We've been cooped up all week and I just couldn't take it anymore! I was pushing Mackinley and Macey on the swings and Mackinley said "Mom, that tree has orange feathers." I looked around and there were yellow leaves showing up on the trees. It was kinda sad. The sadness was pushed aside though by the humor I found in her statement. I can't get enough of my kids!
My baby girl turned one this past week. I can't believe how fast they grow up! She already thinks she is much older than this though. Believe it or not, when the girls are getting in each other's faces it's usually Macey picking on Mackinley. I think she has the little dog syndrome. They have been at it more than usual this past week, due to everyone being sick and cranky. I have dealt with sickly kids a lot the past few months and frankly I'm sick of it! If it's not one thing it's always another, right? I don't want to think about what happens when you add a third kid into the mix.
I really do love my life right now though. It might be tough, but I really wouldn't want it any other way. My kids are great, super cute, and they absolutely adore me. My husband is amazing. He puts up with a lot in our house being the only guy. He tries his best to make the girls and I happy. He is a hard worker and he absolutely adores me. Right Jar? I live a beautiful part of the world. I have a decent house that is just going to be getting nicer (I really hate renovating). We really aren't lacking in any area of our life. Life is good! I love it!
Maybe this blogging isn't as bad as I thought. It's kinda nice to just sit down and type out my thoughts, clear the head a bit.
I do need to get to bed. The girls went down to bed early tonight. They were both out at about 7:45......45 minutes early!That is some kind of record. I really hope it doesn't mean early to rise though. Although 45 minutes earlier than 10:30 is 9:45 and I think I can wake up by then. I really am spoiled!