Busy Busy

I knew that life would get busy really fast when I started delivering babies again. And boy has it!!

Last night I was called to the hospital around 9. Bunch of different things happened and I didn't get home until 2am. I did get a 1 hour nap at the hospital. Then I got home and slept, but the girls woke up early which made Rich mad, so then I woke up because I was mad at him for getting mad.

Then I fell back asleep with both girls at my sides. Then I woke them up and kicked them out of bed. Then I woke up for real at 6:45.

Then I went to work. Then after work I went straight to the hospital and after all was said and done I ended up at home around 7:30. I put the girls to bed and I have been working on stuff for my class reunion. Then The girls are still awake so I have had to threaten back and forth with them to get them to fall asleep.

And I knew I would have to blog all this so I remember how crazy I am for loving what I do so much that I keep doing it!!

Now I am off to pack my bag to leave for California tomorrow. And I have another one in labor. Could this make 3 in 1 day??

Here are my plans for Napa:
Kiss Hazel, hold Hazel, make Hazel laugh
Hug Zachy and talk his ear off
Get my hair done
Make cupcakes for my reunion
Figure out decorations for my reunion
Finish my playlist on my ipod for my reunion
Find something to wear
Spend time with my family
Get Dean his birthday present
Talk with my dad about birthy stuff
Visit Ashley at work
Take pictures, lots of them
Housewarming party for Cory and Katie
Go to reunion
Laugh about how stressed I got for planning a reunion because it really wasn't bad

and I will let you know if there are more in my short 48 hours there.

Child Labor

My little Cara Kay and Ryann had their very first paying job this past week.  They had to feed the neighbor's fish and fill up the bowl with water.

Ryann was in charge of bringing the food, she would drop in 3 pellets and Cara would drop in 2 pellets. Then Rich or I would turn on the hose and the girls would both hold it and let the water go into the bowl. I am not quite sure how that ended up being 10$ worth of work (5$ for each), but those girls were pretty dang excited and Rich is going to take them out on Saturday to buy something.

Neither can make up their mind about what they want to get. Cara thinks she wants squinkies and Ryann says she wants a horse, but they keep changing their minds.

Classic

I forgot to post these awesome pictures yesterday.  Here is Ryann being silly with her ice cube.

Cara "freezing" outside of the pool.

 Ryann learning how to shoot water out of the noodle.

 Ryann and Cara each picked out noodles from the dollar store and they were so excited to play with them.

1 week countdown until swim lessons!!

Happy Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day!  We spent it with family and friends. I should have spent some time trying to teach the girls about Memorial day, but being a slacker mom I just played with them instead and enjoyed my day off from work.

 Some day I will spend the time to tell them all about their great grandpa Cochran and his military service, their uncle Ron and his service, and not to forget their Grandpa Hamilton, Great Grandpa Kevern, and all the other military men on the Hamilton side.

But until that day I will let them play in the sun and have fun spending an extra day with mom and dad.

Busy Day Cara Kay: Ants, music, and dance.

As I walked in the door at 5:30 this morning from a birth I was startled to see Ryann and Cara jumping up and down on the stairs. They were loud and obnoxious for my tired ears and I imagined Rich was pretty annoyed as well.  I finally calmed them down and I figured out they were so worked up because our downstairs floor was covered in ANTS!

Rich was able to spray them and clean them all up, but while he was doing this Cara decided that she would bring down her little laptop and "play music" for them so that they would follow her and die.

Did someone teach this girl the story of the pied piper? Isn't that sort of what he did??

Weird. 

My Cara is pretty creative. I caught this little goodness on video tonight. 

Follow My Voice

This is what it looks like when Cara says, "Follow my voice mom." as she bounces down the hall pretending to whistle. 

She leads me on little adventures like this about 2 or 3 times a day.

Hair Styles

I am trying to get creative with the girl's hair. It is hard for me to do it all the time, but it is getting so long for both of them that it has to get done or else it looks like a mess. 

Here is what I did for the girls on Mother's Day. Cara wouldn't let me take a good look, but here is Ryann's hair below. 

Ryann's hair is stick straight and Cara's hair is kind of a wavy crazy mess.  But either way I sure love both my girls and their fun hair!

Mother's Day... LATE!

Since returning back to delivering babies and getting phone calls all throughout the night, I have had a little bit of a hard time finding the time to blog regularly. I can't believe that I didn't blog on Mother's Day... but I guess one could say that it is "my day" so I didn't really have to do anything at all.

However, I was spoiled... SUPER SPOILED!... on Mother's day.
I had a delicious breakfast of homemade cinnamon rolls with these cuties.

And I had lots of homemade cards, pictures, and flowers. I even got a SPIbelt (small personal items... Rich says it is just a mini fany-pack), a pink nail polish, amazon gift card, and an awesome watch that has all sorts of gadgets that I haven't figured it all out yet. I have figured out the calorie counter, the heart rate monitor, the watch itself, and the pedometer. There are endless more possibilities. 

Overall it was an amazing and wonderful day. I was spiritually uplifted, slept in, spent time with my family and my wonderful in laws, and I thought of the wonderful mother's in my life who have made me the mom I am today.

Impromptu Play Day

As we were driving out of our neighborhood to do our saturday errands, I saw a little bit of activity going on by our local Ace Hardware. Much to Rich's annoyance, I told him to turn around so we could take the girls to it.

 We met cowboy JJ and his fancy beard. He made balloon animals and hats and princess wands for us. 

 We then took a sneak peak with the fire truck. By the time Rich got up there he had already popped like 3 of their balloon things. The balloon giraffe was the most traumatic of all. 

 Cara looks kind of freaked out in the above picture, but she was really having fun.

See how cute she is in the picture below?  She was loving that fire helmet. 

 They also got their faces painted. 

 I was really surprised Ryann choose a rainbow instead of a unicorn.  Biggest shock of my day I think.

Oh no, the biggest shock was when Rich locked the keys inside the car. Thankfully a good friend was driving past and took me home where I could get our spare key and then she dropped me back off to rescue my family.

Then we were off to finish our errands.  What a fun little impromptu play day. I love my little community.

Survival Straps

Rich has wanted one of these guys for a long time. 

He got my dad and my brother in law Ron one of these bracelets from http://www.survivalstraps.com/

For our anniversary I got Rich a gift card, because I knew he would want to pick out his own colors. There was no surprise when he picked out Giants colors. 

Anyway, hopefully he never has to use it, but this paracord rope may come in handy when we go to Aspen Grove this summer or when he goes on the family/ men backpack trip in August.  We'll see.

Happy Birthing

Today was a wonderful day, after a two year hiatus I was able to return to delivering babies!

I had a beautiful, perfect birth from a very sweet mom. I wanted to cry tears of joy the entire way home from the hospital. Now on to a busy and crazy lifestyle of what I love to do.

Thank you for all of you who have stood by me during these ups and downs in my life the past three or so years. I have been eternally blessed by your love and friendship and support. It has been a hard and sometimes dark time for me, but I know that it has all been for my growth and development and learning. I am so thankful to my husband who is my rock. We have grown so much closer through all of this and I love him a million times more than the day I married him (seriously, who thought that was possible??) 

Gilbert Temple

My girls got to do something yesterday that I have never been able to do. :)

Our current sitter was able to take our girls and her kids to the Gilbert Temple construction zone to watch the Angel Moroni be placed on top of the temple. This had to be very hush hush so we didn't even know they were going!

I was so excited when she sent me pictures of the girls up close and personal with the Angel Moroni. 

I tried to ask them all about it, Cara was being a stinker so she said "no" to everything I asked her, and Ryann was trying to be silly so she said "yes" to everything I asked her. Overall I think they had a really fun but really busy day. 

Desert Breeze Park

The last day Ashley and Addie were in town we finally had some time to play. We took the girls out to a BBQ for Rich's work at a park close by. 

Addie had fun with the bubbles. 

Cara and Addie and Snoopy liked riding the old school rides. (we did go on the train in the background too) 

 Ryann especially loved the splash pad. 

 Of course the horse ride was a stellar hit as well. 

 And they ate all the food and Cheetos and cookies that they wanted.

Happy Monday!

HAPPY MONDAY!

Watermelon Face

We have a really good friend who calls Cara "Face." Becase cara in Spanish means "face."

I laugh every time he does it, because Cara really has no idea what is going on. But when she does realize what he is doing, she says, "NO! I'm Cara"

 Speaking of "I'm Cara", I heard that Addie and Cara got in a huge fight in the car because Addie kept saying, "I'm Cara," and that made Cara really mad.

 I also heard the girls fighting, "My mom told me yes." "My mom told me no." over and over again. Man it is cute, but those girls can really get on your nerves with all their fighting. 

Back to my little watermelon Cara. I love her and her cute little watermelon face. 

Ryann-isms

Most mornings when I go running or hiking I come home and Ryann's little head pops up from the front room and she says, "hi mommy!" She is always dressed in something she picked out herself.

Ryann loves to wear dresses. She wears dresses and leggings as much as possible, they are usually play dresses though, some have been wore almost ragged but she doesn't want to give them up. Her most recent "dress" purchase was at a garage sale and it is really a tshirt for a 8 year old, but Ryann pairs it with leggings and she calls it good.

Ryann's favorite chore is cleaning the stairs. She gets her little dust brush and dust pan and sweeps the top step, then sweeps the next one and sweeps all the dirt and dust down to the bottom step and cleans it up. She does a fabulous job.  (thanks daddy for teaching her how to do this!)

Ryann now knows how to get on the computer, find printable coloring pages and print them out. She colors them and when she is finished she searches the house for tape and tapes the pictures to her wall.  Currently we are out of tape. Looking for a gift for Ryann? TAPE!

 Ryann doesn't like to look people in the eye. She hardly ever looks at the camera and she also has selective hearing.  No joke, this girl can just ignore you like you were never even there. It makes me a little nervous for kindergarten and if she will listen to her teacher. 

She loves to color with sharpies, but knows that she really isn't supposed to. After she finishes her picture she always brings it to me and says, "here mommy, I found this."  As if I didn't know what she did with it.

Ryann is very independent but very very different than Cara. Cara listens and is loud and in charge. Ryann is quiet and sneaky and loves to do her own thing. She is perfectly happy sitting in her room all by herself playing.  Of course she likes playing with us,  but she is very capable of entertaining herself as well.

Welcome Home Uncle Zach

I am so excited and pleased to announce that my little brother Zach has faithfully returned home from his mission in Texas.  

Okay, so you all already knew that because basically it is pretty much family who reads this blog. But anyway, I am so happy for him and I wish that I could have been there to show my love and support for him.

For the past 2 years my little family has been through a lot, but when I look back at what Zach has done then it really is nothing. He put his schooling on hold to leave his family and friends and dating behind. He left so that he could help teach people about Jesus Christ and how to find happiness in your life. He left to better himself, become closer to his Father in Heaven and to bless his family. And that he did. 

My sister Erin wrote about it earlier today, but I will have to agree, Zach holds a special place in each family member's heart. He is the baby of 6.  I know that he was my best friend my senior year of high school. I would get out of school, drive home, get my razr scooter and put the extra one in my backpack, and then I would scoot my way down to his elementary school to pick him up.  Some days it was picking him up in my car, other days it was on the tandem bicycle, but  he was always smiling when I picked him up.

Most nights when I was in high school (maybe just senior year?) I would go into Zach's room and tell him a story. It was usually around 9:00 and I would climb into bed with him and we would just lie there and talk until we both fell asleep. This usually didn't take long and then I would stumble out of bed at maybe midnight and find my way back to my own bed. 

Junior year of high school I didn't have a class after early morning seminary. So I would get up and go to seminary at 5:55am and then when I got home at 6:45 or so I would run into Zach's room, jump in his bed and "steal his warmth". I would cuddle him and wake him up until I was warm from being in my freezing cold car each morning. 

Zach is one of the people who taught me that my family is what is most important in my life. Obviously my parents were a big part in this, but when I realized that I would soon be leaving for college and I would be missing Zach I held on to him tight. He had such a sweet spirit and love for me that I knew I would do anything for him and I would do anything to help make sure that he got what was best in life.  Fortunately I haven't had to do much at all since he is such a stinking smarty pants, but I hope he knows that I will always be there for him. 

My little family has prayed for uncle Zach, every day for the past 2 years of his mission. That means 1 prayer in the morning, 1 prayer at dinner time, and 1 prayer at bedtime. That is 2190 prayers. I just don't know what we will fill our prayer time with since he is home now. 

Now when are you going to come visit us???

Maybe you should read the past two years on the blog to catch up?  Haha. Have fun with that. That is a lot.

Oh yeah- what ever happened to the bacon package I sent you on your mission? Did you like it? Did the Elders ever get it to you?

Oh- and I forgot to mention how spoiled Zach was by all of us. Since he is our special Zach he got a package almost every week in his mission.  Wowza.

Cara-isms

I don't think I capture Cara's personality very well on the blog. I just say that she is a "redhead" but that doesn't put it all in perspective the way I think it should. These are examples just from today!!!

 Today I found blue splotches on the kitchen floor. At first I thought they were smurf footprints, but then I realized that Cara decided to eat a blue gogurt all by herself.  Miss Independent... I think so.

She also pours herself cereal every morning for breakfast. Pops usually, but today it was frosted flakes. She often takes about 3 bites and then off she goes to watch a movie.

 After the first bite of dinner she ALWAYS has to go to the bathroom. She also ALWAYS has to go to the bathroom right after we close the door to have her go to bed.

Today at Miss Mary's house she hit Ryann in the eye twice. Then to top it off, after time out she came and hit her in the leg.

A few minutes ago, when she was supposed to be sleeping she found a duck beenie baby and decided it wanted to go swimming... in the toilet.

Ryann knocks on the door at least once after bedtime to let me know that Cara is "playing with the curtains" or "hitting the wall with her toothbrush" or "getting out of bed' or she "has a flashlight"

The only way I could get her to eat dinner tonight was to pretend she was a puppy named "pepper" and teach her dog obedience school.

Everytime she gets stickers she puts them first on herself and then on the floor or the wall. No matter how many times I tell her no or take them away or reprimand her, they always end up on the kitchen floor or the wall.

Cara is fully capable of going to the bathroom by herself, when it is convenient... like after bedtime.  But this morning she comes out of the bathroom saying, "I went peepee" with her panties around her ankles. I ask her what she is doing and if she wiped and she said, "No, I need mommy to wipe my bum, I am too little."

Addie Visiting

 Addie and Auntie Ashley are visiting with us this week. I had mentioned how the girls hadn't been fighting and it was awesome.  However, on about day 2 that was all thrown out the window.  This cute little stinker can hold her own.

 But did I mention she was potty trained in 1 day? Okay, so the first day she had one accident but has been dry ever since. AND she has been dry through the night. I am so proud of her. Every time she goes pee pee in the potty she comes running to me and asks me for a chocolate.  Which I happily give her :)  that is what aunties are for. 

 Here is a picture of Addie and Ryann playing tug o war. Serious though, we had to intervene on this one. The bubble machine is a big hit. 

Princess Time

I think this is the first time ever that Addie and Cara have actually played well together. They are cute and have fun and today Miss Mary said she hoped that Cara didn't rub off on Addie because Addie is so sweet. 

Really? My Cara kay not the sweetest thing ever??

Either way these girls had a lot of fun today.A