Jammy Days

We have been so busy lately. I'm not one for a busy schedule, but sometimes it just can't be helped. Today was supposed to be another one of those days, but the kids are sick and I don't feel like dragging them around all day. I cancelled our stuff so we can stay home and relax. Hopefully the little ones will start to feel better soon because there is a lot of busyness coming our way again! Busyness that can't be cancelled.
I am a huge fan of jammy days! I like them on days like this, where it's not nice out and nobody is feeling that great. We have baths, get in new jammies, watch TV and cuddle up in our heated blankets. So nice.

Green with anger

Jar and I have been thinking about becoming foster parents the last few weeks. Mostly me, but Jar seems to be on board. When I approached him about it he didn't even ask why....no questions, no nothing. Just "You should look into it". I was taken aback. I was at least expecting a "why?". Not a "why would you wanna do something like that", but just a simple "why". So I've started to look into it. I think I'm trying to satisfy my baby cravings without having to have a baby....but that's a whole different story.
Anyways, there are a lot of questions that we need answered before we commit to this and hopefully we will know this week. I am hoping for this to be a good experience for my own kids. I asked Mackinley the other day if she thought it was a good idea if Mommy and Daddy should let another little boy or girl come live at our house for awhile. I told her someone kids don't have very good houses and they need a good place to live until they have a better house to stay. She looked at me and said, "I don't like our house." I looked up, confused. "What do you mean, you don't like our house?"
"I don't like our house very much. It's green. I don't like green."
Phew! I was a little worried. It only got worse.
I decided I should try and explain it a little differently. "Some kids don't have very safe houses to stay in, so they need a safe place to stay until their house is safe again."
"Daddy gets mad a lot." Oh dear. This is not going very well at all.
I actually thought it was pretty funny, but I felt like I was already failing the home inspection. Jar wasn't too fond of her statement and he has been extra careful not to get mad at anything. This might sound like Jaron is an angry dad, but he really isn't. He's really great with the kids. We both could be more patient and we have been working on this. It's amazing the difference we can see in just a few days of being more patient with the girls.
Hopefully I will have more news about this whole thing in a month or two. Whether we do it or not, we have already learned and improved our home because of it! Mackinley will think our home is improved when the house is no longer green. hahahaha! I love that kid!

Ramblings

Merry Christmas! Happy New Year!!!! Hope you had a great family day weekend!!! Happy St. Patty's day!!! Is that everything? Oh, Happy Easter!!
There, I think I have everything covered since my last post. It has definitely been awhile! I don't even know where to start!
We have been quite busy this year. We started on some minor reno's on the upstairs. We replaced all the doors in the hallway. We have one more to put in and then we can do the trim and be done with it all!
We just got back from our family vacation. We drove down to Vegas and spent 4 nights there, and then went to Salt Lake for conference. It was a long trip and by the end everyone was tired and just wanted to get home. It was a lot of fun though. We got to see 7 of some of our favorite missionaries that we have had since we've been married. It was great to see them! I also got to go on the roller coaster at New York New York, and the Big Shot ride on top of the Stratosphere! Talk about intense. I love rides, especially ones I have never been on. Especially when they are on top of the tallest building in sight and they shoot you up even higher! Can't get much better for an adrenalin rush from a ride.
I am going to start doing my Personal Progress again. A couple of months ago I was visiting teaching and my companion is the YW's president. We were talking and I found out that they had different jewelery than when I did it, and it was silver. I really wanted it and she said that I could do the new program to get them if I wanted. I really wanted to do it, but it kinda got pushed to the back of my mind. Then while at conference they challenged the moms to do it too. It renewed my desire to start it, so my mom and I both bought the books and journals to start. Last night in bed I was reading through it and I am quite excited to get going on it! I am hoping that it will help with the level of happiness in our home. Don't get me wrong, we are quite happy, but there is always room for improvement! Especially when it comes to me....let me explain quick.
I have low hemoglobin levels. I always have, not low enough for a tranfusion, but low enough they tell me to eat differently. Nothing major. I found out last year though that I have extremely low iron saturation levels. Almost non-existent. They prescribed me some iron pills and that should do the trick. I didn't take them though because they are supposed to bung you up. I did start taking a pill though that is an iron pill, but it comes from a different source other than minerals, so it doesn't make you constipated. Awesome! I started taking it, and then for some reason forgot about them and I didn't take them for months. I think last month was the worst month I have had in a long time! I didn't want to get out of bed in the morning I was soooooo tired! All day I would be tired. I could sleep all day and all night and wake up tired, and it's not just a bit tired. It's major tired. It's mentally, physically, and emotionally tired. It's tired like I've never felt before. It was awful. I thought working out would help, but it seemed like it was making it worse. I had surgery a month ago (another story that I probably won't share, it was minor...girl stuff) and so I thought that was why I was so tired, but I was getting worse and worse. I started to take my iron pills again and within a week or two all the tiredness was gone! One morning I woke up at 7 and I didn't have the desire to lay and sleep just a little more. My kids weren't even up yet. I felt great all day! Every day was better and better! I didn't link the two for awhile and now that I know, hopefully I won't have to deal with this again. So, the point of this story.....it was really hard for me that month to be excited or happy or anything fun. It drained me. I could still do it, it was just hard. When you get that tired everything and everyone suffers. I wasn't spiritually tired, but it started to feel like it. When that starts to happen everything else goes out the window! That is why I am so excited to start this program again. I am hoping that with my feeling better it will just help our house feel that much better after the horrid month I'm sure we all had.
On to some more interesting things! Macey is talking! She doesn't say sentences, but she can copy what you say. She tries anyways. I love this stage! She is so stinkin cute! She can throw the worst fits I have ever seen. Now that she can talk a bit better, they have become less frequent, which is nice. She is quite the girl. She loves jewelry and pink clothes. A couple of weeks ago we were getting ready for church and I put a cute brown dress on her with a multicolor flower print all over it. She screamed and screamed and pulled at her dress until I took it off and put on a pink one. Oh dear! Her daddy is kinda sad about this. He thought for sure she was going to be the tom girl. Sorry Jar, she's all girl! Oh, she also HATES to get her hands dirty! She won't go up the stairs to the garage because she gets rocks on her hands. It's pretty cute.
Mackinley will be 4 next month. Where does the time go? She is quite the mommy. She is almost done ballet for the year and I am excited to see their recital. She is also mommy's little helper, mommy's little sidekick, mommy's little everything. Our whole trip went something like this...
Mackinley: Mommy, you sit by me? (We are in a restaurant)
Me: I would love to.
Mackinley (as Jaron is walking towards her): Daddy, you don't sit by me! Mommy is!
She also always wants to cuddle with me all the time. Which is nice until Macey gets jealous and starts to throw a fit. We have discovered that if we want to get Macey to do something that she doesn't want to we just need to get Mackinley to do it. We have a system. It works.
Yesterday we were talking and I can't believe how fast time flies! This month is full for us with wedding stuff (my sister in-law is getting married, Yay!) and next month has a few big events, and then June my youngest brother is graduating and then it's summer. We all know how fast summer goes, so it's practically September already. Boo! Although I'm sure Jaron wants it to be September because that means hunting season. He has bought 4 guns I think since November and is itching to use them. Buying those guns h
as definitely benefited me though. I think my last post was about my first Lululemon purchases. They are not the last either! Every time Jar buys a gun, I get to go to Lulu. Good deal I think!
Enough of my random ramblings. Hopefully I can get these pictures to work. FINALLY!

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!