D-backs and Naps

First, a cute picture of our adorable Brigette. Yesterday we hit up the local park and splash pad with some friends. I kept Brigette and her delicate baby skin in the shade, but just in case, she also wore this adorable sun hat. ($1 at goodwill, I love it!) *And a quick note on our wardrobes... Brigette is wearing a bejeweled tutu over her shorts because Carrie insisted (love her), and the splotchiness on my pants is paint. They're grungy pants because we came straight from workout group to the park. (Yeah me, for working out!)*

We got to go on a fun quadruple date last night to a Diamondbacks game! I would really love this picture except of course, there's a Dodgers fan sitting RIGHT behind us... Kinda ruins it... ;)

Anyways, we had a blast with the Ostlers, Hedges, and Carpenters. The Ostlers had a bunch of extra tickets and invited us all to come with them. We all piled into their Sequoia, went out to Pei Wei, and made a night of it! (It makes Justin want a Sequoia even more, now that we know 8 adults can ride comfortably in it)

A Big thank you to Brandon and Marissa for watching our girls for us! Sadly, however, because Carrie played long and hard with her cousin, when we got her home late late after the game, she had a night terror.... Uggh. I really don't like those at all...

She must be having a growth spurt or something because she's napped 2 out of the last 3 days. On Tuesday while I was teaching piano, I shouted upstairs for Carrie to turn down the volume on the TV. No response... Shouted her name again... Nothing. I was starting to get mad because sometimes if she just doesn't want to listen to what I'm saying, she'll ignore me or hide when I call. Getting no answer back from her, I started to gruffly climb the stairs and said, "Carrie, you need to answer me!"...

When I got to the top of the stairs, I saw her crashed out asleep on the floor of the loft; Mickey Mouse blaring and all. :) And of course I felt bad about getting mad that she wasn't answering me in her sleep ;)

Then today after Justin got home from work, he laid down for a little power nap. (It still makes me tired just to think about him getting up at 4:45 every day...)

 
Brigette had fallen asleep in her bouncy chair...

And Carrie had fallen asleep on the loft couch. Notice how both girls sleep with one hand up by their face just like their daddy? So cute :)

Her Own Room!

Well, last night we tried putting Brigette in her own room to sleep again (we all know last time was a disaster). This time was a success though!! Woohoo!! She stayed in her own room ALL night long!

She ate at 7:00, went to bed at 9:30. She woke up and ate at 1:00, 3:00, and 4:30... I know it sounds like it was a bust, but she was basically asleep the whole night. She definitely ate a full feeding each of those times, but went right back to sleep and slept great in between. Luckily, so did I. We're all happy and rested this morning, so in my book, I call that success :)

She's also smiling more often and we LOVE it! She's so stinkin' cute! I tried to catch a couple on camera today. Of course, that's always tricky, but I caught a couple half-smiles at least. :)

And of course we already knew Carrie was adorable too, but she's even more so when she asks me to take her picture with her sister.

Becoming Christlike

The talks in Sacrament Meeting today were all about giving Christlike service. And I had a bit of a spiritual realization (well, it kind of felt more like a spiritual slap-in-the-face, but that doesn't sound as appropriate). 

Lately I've been having more and more overwhelming, stressful, semi-depressed days. And I haven't known what to do to combat it. During the talks on service today, however, it hit me:

If I'm doing my job as wife and mother correctly, I'm doing Christlike service. If I face my daily duties with that attitude, they'll probably become much easier. True Christlike service is doing something for others that they can't do for themselves. Well, our girls are TOTALLY dependent on us (mostly me) for their daily care, food, nurturing things. This is certainly not to detract from Justin's role in our family as the provider because obviously that's a HUGE part of our lives. If not for him and his service of going to work every day, I wouldn't have the blessing of being able to stay home with our girls.

Anyways, every time I do something in my role as a mother, I'm giving service. I've never looked at it quite like that before, but I love the thought of it.

The best way for me to feel better is to serve. I need to set an alarm and get up and going in the morning, not lounge around waiting for the girls to get up before I even get out of bed. I'm not necessarily excited at this particular thought, but I know I feel better and I'm more productive when I'm ready for the day at the beginning of the day, not 2 or 3pm... Justin's been telling me this one for a while, but sadly I hadn't listened until the Spirit told it to me. Sorry sweetie. :(

Hopefully as I get to feeling better, the mood in our home will change with me and in turn, make our whole family happier. Our routines will flow more smoothly, I'll be able to keep up on chores instead of always feeling like I need to catch up. And hopefully, it will help Carrie's behavior improve. Either that or give me more patience toward her. I often find myself way too short-tempered with her than she probably deserves, and I know a big part of it is the feeling in our home because of my stressed/overwhelmed feelings.

Because honestly, how cute is this girl?... (scene; Justin watching an Arizona Cardinals game)

*
Justin: Hey, where's Skelton?!

Carrie: Who's Skelton?

Justin: He's the quarterback for the Cardinals.

Carrie: (looking at the TV and thinking) Oh! Is that the team with the Angry Birds on their helmets?! :)
*

Basketball and Sushi

Lately, some friends of mine have started playing basketball together a few mornings a week at the church. We usually only have 3 on 3, and only a few of the girls actually know what they're doing (I'm not one of them). It's still fun though, and I'm certainly getting a workout!

We all just bring our kids and they play with toys and hangout while we're playing ball. One day though, they found a huge bag of cheddar popcorn one mom had brought and dumped it out. All over the place... Once that happened, we all just said, "Oh well. Eat what you want, we'll vacuum before we leave" :) 

For our co-op date this week, we decided to try a sushi place in town. I've never had it before. Never... I was definitely nervous. I knew there probably wasn't anything to be afraid of, but sushi has a bit of a scary stigma attached to it.... Here goes nothin'.... 

My sushi picture of Justin unintentionally ended up looking like the tongue on the guy from Kiss.... :)

And as you can see since I'm writing about it, we survived! And actually, aside from the few RAW pieces on the plate, we very much enjoyed our meal. We'll definitely be going back again :)

Wiggle, Wiggle, Wiggle, Wiggle, Wiggle.... Uuuhhh!

I workout!!

Well, at least I'm starting to again... I'm trying to start back up writing down what I eat, record my activity, and make weight and workout goals. As much as I hate to do it, I'm posting "before" pictures for motivation...

 

I'm also trying to make a few other goals to help me be a better person overall. Things like breaking down my housework so I don't stress myself out, but things still get done, read the Book of Mormon and say my personal prayers etc. Hopefully I'll see many good things come out of all these goals soon :)

Though, Brigette and I went for a jog with the stroller this morning and she's been acting needy and fussy all day.... I think maybe my working out is making my milk taste funny or something. I should probably quit for her sake ;)

Anyways, on to cuter things... The girls, of course :)

Carrie has several crowns leftover from her birthday party that she likes to wear around the house. And now Brigette gets to join in the Princess fun too!

Yesterday we hit the town shopping while the in-laws were still here. If you look closely and you'll see Carrie posing with the mannequins at JCPenney; per her request.

She also got to ride on a rocket ship with some Muppets outside of Toys R Us. She was thrilled!

Brigette's Big Day!

Today was absolutely perfect!! Brigette must have known I was stressed and nervous so she slept for a 6 ½ hour stretch, woohoo! And since we had everything all prepped last night, we were easily on time, whew!

The best part of the day though, happened first thing this morning. Brigette smiled at us for the first time! She had just woken up and we were snuggling in bed. We were trying and trying to get her to smile, but it just wasn’t quite happening. Justin finally walked away to start getting ready for the day. A few seconds later, I saw Brigette’s eyes catch mine, so I smiled really big and she smiled huge back!

I felt so bad that Justin had missed it when he had been there only a few seconds before. I was oohing and gushing about it and told him how I’d caught her eyes when she’d done it, so he tried again. I was afraid it was going to be a one-time-only thing (at least for a few hours or something), but she smiled for Justin too! A TRUE social smile! It was wonderful!

Brigette was given a beautiful blessing by her Papa Earl and several loving family members and friends. Right after Sacrament Meeting everyone came to our house for subs, chips, potato salad, cookies, and soda. There were LOTS of people and it was LOTS of fun!

Brigette looked gorgeous in her dress (I’m so proud of myself that it turned out), and she was a peach all day! Carrie had her share of mood-swingy moments, but considering the three ring circus we ran today, I’d say she did pretty good.

Since Carrie had a grumpy face, we all decided to do one ;)

I’m so thankful for the Priesthood and the opportunity we have for our babies to be blessed. And I'm especially thankful for both of our wonderful loving families. :)

Growing and Learning

I can’t believe it, but Brigette turned 6 weeks old yesterday! She’s growing so fast! She’s finally starting to outgrow a few of her newborn sized clothes, but most of her 0-3 month sizes are still way too big for her. So for now we’re in between. :)

Justin’s parents and grandma got here last night for Brigette’s blessing weekend, and we’ve already been having lots of fun having them here. Brigette and Gigi share a love of naps, for example ;)

Today we went shopping at Target; Mostly to find a dress for Carrie to wear for the blessing tomorrow. While I was going through racks, Nana Coleen was holding Brigette and watching Carrie roam around. Everything was great until I heard Coleen start shouting (very politely) for Carrie to stop running and come back… It didn’t work. It would have been over quickly, except that Coleen had a bad knee injury recently and isn’t exactly in prime marathon-kid-chasing condition because of it… ;)

I started speed walking and calling after her only to have her turn to look at me and BOLT across the length of Target. I had to literally RUN ¾ of the way across the store to catch her. All I can say is she’s very lucky we were in public, or she would have been in much bigger trouble… Anyways, we found a very adorable dress for Carrie for tomorrow (and a few more for both girls, just because). Thanks Nana & Gigi!

While Carrie was at co-op, we enjoyed a night out with Earl, Coleen, and Grandma at Olive Garden, where at one point I had to nurse Brigette standing up in the handicapped stall of the bathroom… Fun stuff ;)

Since we’re having a bunch of people over tomorrow I’m in half-panic mode about having everything ready for lunch and getting us all dressed and ready on time enough to save seats for family at church. So all the non-perishables are set out, plates, forks, cups, napkins etc., and all our clothes, bows, shoes etc. are ready to go.

 
Here’s hoping tomorrow goes smoothly. It’s now 11:30 and I am going. to. bed…