Oh the Joys of Packing

This is what our apartment looks like right now... Yuck.
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A few days ago I posted our computer desk on Craiglist. We bought a new one, but aren't going to put it together until we move into the house. Well, someone bought our old desk yesterday, so now the computer is sitting on the floor in the corner of the living room.
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And yes, that means right now I am sitting on the floor to blog. I'm ready to move now...

Our First Easter Egg Hunt

My parents' neighborhood/ward activities committee hosted an Easter egg hunt this morning. Last Easter Carrie was only 2 1/2 months old so we didn't do anything like this. Although I don't think she cared much more this year than she did last year. They let all the kids under age 2 go first, so we ran out about 5 feet into the park and picked up a few eggs. Carrie just liked to hold and shake them to hear the candy inside rattle around.
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She did NOT like putting them in her bag. When I tried to hold her hand a few minutes later, she thought I was trying to take the egg out of her hand and she freaked out! She was content with shaking them for about 20 minutes. Once we opened them and showed her that there was chocolate inside she loved it! Yummy!
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She got her face painted like a bunny; so cute! We spent a little while eating doughnuts and muffins and playing on the swings and the slide.
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The reason her eyes are closed on the swing is because when it would swing forward she was staring right at the sun.
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I'm really glad we had fun because this will likely be the extent of our Easter celebration this year. Next weekend we will be busy busy busy trying to unpack in our new house! We signed all our papers yesterday and should get the keys early next week. We'll go on Friday to do a little painting and move a few things that can fit in cars, and then Saturday morning we'll get the moving truck down there! (Hopefully between conference sessions....)
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The apartment is a disaster right now with the dining room stacked high with boxes, but we're really excited to be moving into OUR house next weekend!!

Locked In!

I can't believe it, but I just locked Carrie and the keys in the car! She's out and everything's ok now, but talk about an adrenaline rush...

We were getting in the car to go to the bank. While I was buckling Carrie in her carseat, she was playing with the keys. She started pushing buttons on the keyless entry, and locked the car. When it locks, it honks so I quickly took the keys from her and dropped them on the front seat.

This is what I always do, only usually, the car hasn't been locked when I drop them onto the drivers seat.

Well, apparently it didn't click in my head because I got done buckling her in and closed her door. 1/2 a second later, I reached for my door to get in and go.

It didn't open...

Suddenly it registered in my brain "OH NO! SHE LOCKED IT! SHE'S LOCKED INSIDE! AND THE KEYS ARE INSIDE TOO!"

Fortunately the March weather has been mild so it's not too hot outside yet, and the car had been in covered parking all day. I quickly called Justin (the only person with a spare key) who said "I'm on my way". I found out later he was going 75-80 down the freeway to get to us asap. Luckily, he didn't get a speeding ticket!

After calling Justin, I called the apartment manager, not knowing what to do. She brought me out a wire hanger, but of course, neither of us knew how to use it to break in. Watching on TV or movies is my only experience with that. She said if I needed her to, she would call the fire department for me. I said I thought we'd be ok until Justin got there.

After about 15 minutes, a locksmith truck drove by through the complex. I frantically waved him down and asked for help. He had barely turned off his truck and walked over to the car when Justin pulled up.

And Carrie was such a good sport until the last few minutes. She was making faces at me, laughing, playing peek-a-boo etc. Whew!! The panic experience is over now. Lucky for us, it wasn't the middle of July in the direct sun...

My 14 Month Old Explorer

A few days ago I packed up all of the extra "stuff" under our bathroom cabinet that we won't be using in the next couple of weeks before we move. Carrie tries often to open those cabinets and play with whatever is inside. Now that there are only a few things left, I decided it wasn't worth the fight of trying to keep her out while I was doing my hair this morning. This is what happened. Looks like fun! :)
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Carrie is doing much better with several days worth of antibiotics in her. The concussion is totally healed and both ears are back to normal, yeah! (If you don't know what I'm talking about, scroll down a few posts)
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At her doctor's appointment last week she weighed 19 lbs 6 ounces. We didn't measure her height, but we will next month at her next regular well check.
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Even though she's a few ounces behind the "limit", we turned her car-seat forward facing a few days ago. Sadly, her first ride facing forward wasn't exactly a joyous event. That was the day I took her to the doctor with the double ear infection. I know I like it forward facing much better. It's easier to get her in and out and much easier to get the car-seat in and out if I need to.
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In other happy news, I am now officially a full-time stay at home mom (probably only for the next month, but hey- it's a start). Yesterday was my last day of work for a little while, while we are packing, moving and unpacking. I love being able to stay home with Carrie!

Selling our 2001 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited

I know it wasn't even quite a month ago that I posted about our new Jeep, but we are selling it. We are VERY sad to see it go because it's awesome! We have a friend though, who is selling a van for several thousand less than we paid for the jeep, so we're going to try to sell the jeep and be able to put a little bit of money back into the bank.
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I know a lot of my readers probably don't live in the Phoenix Metro area, but if you do, or know someone who does... Check out the ad! http://phoenix.craigslist.org/evl/cto/1647348882.html (the ad is also listed below)
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2001 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited Edition
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Automatic Transmission, 4WD, V8, 4.7 liter
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105,000 miles.
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Excellent condition (no exaggeration). Leather, heated, power control seats. Power steering, cruise control, tilt wheel. A/C works great. Infinity sound system with 10-disc CD changer, tape deck & single CD on wood trimmed dash. Stereo and cruise controls on steering wheel. Power Moon roof. Roof rack. Keyless entry. Tinted windows. Full size spare. Tires are almost brand new. Recent Carfax report available. 15 mpg city, 20 mpg highway. No dents or scratches on the exterior paint.
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If you want to check the blue book include the following in the equipment segment: www.kbb.com
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Multi-compact disc
Premium SoundPower Moon Roof
Towing Package
Premium wheels
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Contact Rebecca or Justin 480-861-1986
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$8545 OBO
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Garden Goal & Mustache March

Yesterday Carrie and I took a walk to Lowes, just a few minutes from our house. We went to look at paint color swatches, but ended up having a lot of fun. After a few minutes in the paint section, we walked out of the store through the "garden center". We walked up and down all the rows of flowers. Carrie loved it! And it was educational too - we pointed out red and yellow and purple etc. Big plants and small plants. I taught her how to smell the flowers. It was the best nature walk I've been on! It was a beautiful 74 degrees outside with the shade of the garden center and all those wonderful flowers.
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We also saw the vegetable plants. And we (I) decided on a another new goal. To have a garden. Just a small one in the corner of the yard (when we get into our house). I'm thinking about tomatoes, sweet onions, zucchini and strawberries. Does anyone have experience with any of these plants? Advice? More suggestions?
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PART II: Mustache March
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Justin's team at work had a "Team building" thing going on for the last few weeks. Towards the end of February, they (all the men) started growing mustaches. [Rebecca's eyes rolling] What-ever. I'm not a fan of facial hair. It's scratchy...
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But, the good supportive wife I am, I "OK'd" the mustache growing. Mostly only because I know Justin doesn't absolutely love his job and maybe this would make it a little more fun. He told me after about 2 weeks, they were all itching (literally) to shave, but no one wanted to be the first one to back out.
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I guess yesterday they all decided it was over (or Justin wimped out first) because last night he made me take a picture of his mustache.... and then he shaved!! Yeah!
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The first thing I did once he was all clean shaven was give him a big non-scratchy kiss. What a relief. My husband has his face back!

You CAN Teach a Sick Baby New Tricks

Carrie has had a fever since Monday afternoon and has had a crummy appetite. The fever only ever got as high as 101.6, so I wasn't really worried, but it just kept coming back. I decided that the 3rd straight day (today) was enough. We just got back from the doctor where we found out she has a DOUBLE EAR INFECTION.
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The doctor looked in her left ear first and said "Oh yeah, it's full of fluid, that's infected". Then he looked at the right side and said "Whoa, never mind, this is the one that's really bothering her. This one is awful." So we are waiting for the pharmacy to fill her antibiotic right now. Here's to hoping and praying she starts feeling better.
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Speaking of praying, Carrie has taking a liking to it. It's mostly at mealtime, but it's adorable. When I started to teach her how to fold her arms for the blessing on the food, she would only last long enough for about a 4 second prayer.
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Now, a couple of months later, she loves it, and actually lasts long enough for a real prayer. Just the last couple of days she has started to fold her arms on her own, with no help, or arm nudging. And several times during the meal, she'll stop and fold her arms again. More prayers? OK. After the 3rd prayer during breakfast this morning, I had to tell her, "I've run out of things to pray for..., please just eat your breakfast"
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A few days ago we came over to my parents house right at the end of an activities committee meeting. A few minutes later they said the closing prayer. Carrie was standing in the middle of the room right next to the guy who was standing and saying the prayer. She kept staring at him and about halfway through, she looked over at me and folded her arms; and kept them folded through the whole thing. I was so proud!
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Now we just have to work on closing eyes... Yeah right.
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Another new trick I almost forgot to mention. If you ask Carrie how old she is, she will now proudly hold up one little finger! It's so cute. :)
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Even though she's been sick the last few days, I'm glad my job is flexible enough that I was able to "call off" for today and tomorrow to be home and take care of her. I only have one more day of work next week and after that I'm taking a little hiatus while we pack, move, and find a new babysitter close to our new house. I LOVE staying home with my girl.

Good Noggin' News

First of all, I'd like to apologize to anyone who may have been worrying all weekend because I never updated on Carrie.
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I am glad to report, she is doing great! Friday night after the CT scan, no news was good news. The doctor told us if there was anything serious going on (like a brain bleed or something) they'd call us immediately after reading the results. No phone call meant she just had a concussion. The doctor called me this morning to confirm that everything was A-OK. It seems strange to be relieved she had a concussion...
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Anyways, Saturday morning she was back to her old self. Running and playing all day. This picture is from this morning. She found Justin's ear-clip-on headphones so I put them on her. She walked around with them on for about 10 minutes, no music, just headphones. :)
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Saturday, we actually revisited the "site of injury", the furniture store. I took Justin back with me and we bought our new sectional! I'm so excited! It's huge, but so is our family room!
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We are in the final stages of getting ready to close on our house. We should be moving in in 2 or 3 weeks! Yeah!

Trip to the Doctor

So this is Justin writing (yes I am a part of this family even though you hardly even see pictures of me lately). So I was reading the last post about Carrie's strange sleeping behavior and everything and thought I would do a follow up post.
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So Carrie has continued to be very whiny and have very weird sleeping schedules. This morning she didn't wake up until almost 11 and then she fell asleep again on our bedroom floor like 45 minutes later. She was not her normal, active, running everywhere little girl self, so we were a little worried. That's when we remembered that she had hit her head pretty good on Wednesday night. Rebecca's mom then said we probably should get her in to the doctor and just have her checked out.
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Well Rebecca went to the doctor and she said everything looked fine, but she wanted to do a CT scan just to make sure. So for the next 2 hours we sat at Cardons Children's Hospital waiting to get authorization from our insurance to get this done. We finally got authorization and Carrie did great getting her scan done. Poor girl, she had to be "strapped in" so she couldn't wiggle. The Rad technician said she did the best of any of his patients today. (Three times between the doctor's office and getting the CT scan done, she fell asleep either in Rebecca's or her mom's arms; very out of character for her). The doctor put the order in as STAT so we should be hearing back from them today if there is anything to worry about.
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Carrie is already in bed sleeping and probably will sleep well into the morning. We are crossing our fingers and saying our prayers that everything is OK.

Bye Bye Bottles!

I know it's a little past time, but we are officially bottle-free around here. The last few days Carrie has been less and less interested in them. A couple of nights ago, she actually went to bed without taking ANY of her bottle. I was so worried she'd wake up in the middle of the night hungry, but she didn't. :)
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Even though she's 13 1/2 months old, we've still been strictly on formula because we had some leftover. When we were on WIC, we were fortunate enough to get free formula. We ended up having several "extra" cans after Carrie's first birthday (the traditional "switch to whole milk" date). We decided we'd just use up the formula since it was already paid for and will expire before we would have another baby to use it.
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We still have a couple of cans left, but sippy cups don't have ounce markings on the side so it makes it pretty annoying to try to mix. Therefore... formula went "bye bye" with the bottles. We are full-on, whole milk in a sippy cup; like a big girl.
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I haven't figured out yet if her whiny behavior and messed up nap schedule the last couple of days is her not feeling 100%, or just a new phase of toddler-hood. I'm hoping the former, and hoping that it will pass.
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Today, she did not take a nap. At all. I tried three times. All three times, she would be quiet for 15 minutes and then fuss and whine for a few; repeat this pattern for an hour or two and there you have today's nap schedule. In between naps, she was into EVERYTHING she wasn't supposed to be. Pulling the computer keyboard off the desk, pushing buttons on the printer and TV and worst of all, pulling cleaning brushes and dish-washing soap out from under the kitchen sink.
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When Justin got home, I told him "She's driving me crazy!!" As I was relaying my day to my mom later, she told me something me dad apparently said when I was really little. "It's a good thing you were home with her then and not someone else. Just think how much you love her and she's even driving you crazy! Imagine how crazy she'd be driving someone who didn't love her as much! Lucky lucky girl..."
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Thanks for reminding me of the bright side dad. I love the days I get to stay home with my baby girl.

Pillow Perfection

Time for another craft project! I've been eying the decorative pillows at Walmart (and a few other places) for our new couch/family room. Well, the "other" various places, the cheapest I found was like $30 on sale. So I resorted back to Walmart (my home away from home). No help. How can one little pillow cost $13? When I'm planning on having either one very very large couch, or multiple couches in one room, the pillow count starts to climb. No way am I spending that much.
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I went to Hobby Lobby for the first time yesterday and found some fabric that was awesome! I had an idea of the color "scheme" I wanted, but I also wanted some bold patterns and more than one pattern. This is the end result of my labors yesterday.I probably didn't end up saving all that much money, but now I have exactly what I want and get to say "Yeah! I made those!" The backs are either a light brown, a bright green, or the pale blue (interchanged randomly).
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Oh the satisfaction I get when I turn around from my computer and see them sitting on my couch. I'm almost giddy (it's probably unwarranted, but whatever) :)
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One thing that for sure makes me giddy though is my darn cute little girl. She's growing up so much! She will now take a few toys and walk to somewhere else in the apartment to sit and play with them. She'll jibber jabber to herself with her toys for a few minutes and then come up to me and yammer off baby talk like she's trying to describe to me what she and her toys were just talking about.
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She laughs all the time, and sometimes, it's just while she's playing by herself. She loves to read books and will actually sit and flip through a book, front to back by herself saying stuff like "yabba goo hee bab nene ooo gee" etc. I'll try to catch it on video sometime, I promise.
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This next picture isn't any special cute smile or anything. Just look at her eyes. Totally beautiful blue with a dark blue ring around the edge. I love it.

Late Nights

Thursday night, Carrie had a rough time going to sleep. She went to bed around 7:45 and over the next couple of hours she woke up 4 times. Twice, she had gotten her leg stuck between the crib bars. And I mean really stuck - above the knee, totally can't get it out on her own... We finally went to bed about 10 and right as we were about to fall asleep, she woke up again. This time she was full-on crying, and totally awake. It only took a second to get her chilled out, but as soon as I tried to put her back in her crib or leave the room, you'd think I was abandoning her the way she cried.
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We've all been a little sick around here lately and Carrie has had a little bit of a stuffy nose, so I gave her some tylenol and a drink of water thinking it should help. No luck. I closed her bedroom door and let her play in the dark while I half slept on the floor. I know this is starting to sound like a habit, but unfortunately apartment living isn't really the greatest situation for letting her scream herself to sleep for hours. We let her cry, but after about 20 minutes we have to do something before the neighbors complain. When we get into the house if she needs to scream herself to sleep, we can let her.
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I fell asleep before she did, but when I woke up a few minutes before 2am, I found Carrie sprawled out asleep on the floor. (After pulling all her toys, blankets and dirty laundry out) Hallelujah! Back in the crib for her, and back in bed for me!
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Friday was a much more fun version of a late night. We got to hang out with some of my girlfriends from high school and meet each others' husbands. We had a yummy dinner, played games and had dessert. (I made angel food cake for the first time and it turned out beautifully! I'm so proud!) It was awesome! It's been a while since we've really been out on a date and it was fun to have friends to be with. We've become such old fuddy duddies going to bed by 8:45 usually, but last night we didn't even get home until 10:30! Woohoo! Party Animals... or something like that. Lucky for us, my little brother loves to babysit for us and we get to pay him with Quiznos. :)

Who Me? Couldn't Be!

Carrie pulled every box of cereal out of the cupboard at my parents house. When they found her she was sitting in the middle of the pile. By the time my dad clicked the picture, she had chosen this pose... "Who me? I don't know what you're talking about! They just pulled themselves out of the cupboard!"

I Love Bargain Deals

I just love finding good deals. Looking (or bargain hunting as it's usually called) can be hard and frustrating, but when you find what you're looking for, or what you didn't know you were looking for, it's all worth it. For example: Craigslist + the Dollar store + Goodwill =Everything in the picture cost $38 dollars total. :)

The dresser will be re-painted, and used as a sofa table behind our yet-to-be-purchased sectional couch in our family room. I'm not exactly sure yet where the "treasure" plaque will go.

The antiquey picture frames, I'm super excited for. I'll be continuing to collect frames and pictures for our "ancestor wall". My parents have one in their house and I love it, so I'm going to copy them. It will be a wall in our living room with pictures of us, our parents, grandparents, great grandparents etc.... All in black and white and all in beautiful old-fashioned picture frames (from the dollar store).

I'm getting excited about all the fun decorating I'll get to do in my new house. We'll be closing sometime in the next month most likely.

***Random side notes***
-I did my Jillian workout DVD again yesterday! Twice in one week is quite an accomplishment for me!
-Yesterday when I told Carrie "no no" for doing something she wasn't supposed to, she turned, looked at me and said "yea yea"...... OH NO!!! She's way to young for that!!