Basement...

Reed started to finish our basement in November, and we got it all done a few weeks ago.  It has been so fun to have it finished.  And I'm so proud of Reed for working so hard and doing such a good job!  If you're not interested in seeing a million pictures of our basement, you might want to skip this post because there are a lot.

This is one of my favorite parts......it's a food storage closet under the stairs.

Shelves in the same closet.  Reed built these for our water storage. 

Again.....the same closet. 

This is one of the bedrooms.

Another bedroom.

Family Room.

Another bedroom.

Another bedroom.

Hallway of closets leading down to two of the bedrooms.   Before we just had a really LONG and WIDE hall that was pretty much wasted space.  So Reed (and Klay) built in these closets!

Inside of one of the closets in the hall.  The other is just like this. 

Another view of the family room.

Reed designed and built this fireplace all by himself.....impressive.  I love it!  It makes it so much cozier down there. 

Family room....again.

And another Family room.  I told you there were a lot!

V-Day

I know this is almost a month late, but I wanted this post on here for one day when I make a blog book.  We had a great Valentines Day this year.  At first I thought that I wanted to go out with Reed and get a sitter, but then I remembered that Valentine's Day can be for the kids too.  So I decided to make it a fun day with Macie.  We made Valentines for Daddy, made sugar cookies, dipped pretzels and strawberries, and got everything ready for a fancy dinner.  Then Reed brought home some roses, take-out dinner, and a red box movie.  Macie loved eating on the fancy dishes and especially the STRAWBERRIES......those are her favorite even without the chocolate.  And after the kids went to bed we were able to have a date at home, so I didn't even feel like I was missing out. 
WARNING:  I took a million pictures, I was having a little too much fun with my camera.

Macie had the funniest reaction when her daddy brought her home a rose.  He walked in with the flowers and handed her the pink one, and she laid down on chair and just cried to herself.  No fits or whining......just sad little tears:(  She's never done that before.  After some explaining that hers was the only pink one, just for her, she was alright. 

This is one of the Valentines Macie made to heart-attack the garage door.........another family portrait. 

This is actually the first time I've dipped strawberries......it was so fun!

Making the COOKIES.  I found the best recipe........so SOFT and delicious!

 

Macie......

Macie is growing up so much!  She's ALWAYS pretending, dressing up, singing, and dancing!  She's obsessed with anything about princesses and "Married!" (Macie's words)  She says she's going to marry Daddy,  in the temple, with a white dress, and earrings, and necklace, and shoes, and a married (that's a veil)!  She's going to go in the car and drive to the temple.  "And Mommy come, and Grandmas and Grandpas and Casey and Cindy and Karl and Sonja!  And I get MARRIED! In the TEMPLE!"  hahaha.  The other night we went to the visitor's center and she thought she was going to get married in the temple!  It was kind of sad.    

Here is the dinosaur she made out of play dough..........pretty good.  This was the EASIEST recipe for play dough, and fast!  No cooking, and it works great.  I halved this, and it made plenty.

1 cup salt
1 cup water
2 cups flour
1 Tbs oil

-Mix together (I used a mixer with the cookie paddle attachment)
-Store in airtight container in fridge.

Macie and her creation.

This is the first family portrait that Macie drew.  She did it in church.  We are all the red ones.  Branson is the little red one in the bottom corner:)

This is the first recognizable drawing she ever did......on Daddy's list of scouts to call.  It's a face, in case you were wondering. 

This is Macie getting married.  She has my skirt on and she bunched it up so she holding her "flower."  And pillow case on her head for the veil.  I tell you, this girl is obsessed with the idea.  I thought it would wear off by now, but not at all!

Branson....

Branson is 10 months old!  I wish he would just stay my baby, but it's so fun to watch him grow too.  He really does bring so much happiness into our home, and we all LOVE him to death. 

This is him pouting....pretty cute now, but not so much when they get a little older:)  He's got it down though.  He'll put his head down on the floor and cry, and then stop and look up to see if I'm watching, then he'll put his head back down to the floor and cry some more. 

Branson never stops.........He's ALWAYS going!  He loves to explore the house and get into lots of things he's not supposed to.  It's so cute to listen to him panting as he crawls as fast as he can go......which is getting pretty fast!  (Just ignore the crumbs all over the floor.  I only sweep once, sometimes twice a day....right before Reed gets home, or when the crumbs are sticking to my feet.)

He likes to drink his bottle on this rug in the kitchen.

Notice the big scab on his forehead........he's ALWAYS got something like this on his head.  When one leaves, at least one more appears........he's at that age!  He loves standing up to everything, but has lots of accidents.  And he's always hitting himself in the head with doors and cupboards when he opens them, and shutting his arms in the drawers.

Branson cut his 1st tooth a couple weeks ago, and another is popping through.  He had a rough time with them, but he's back to being his happy self. 

My Morning.......

Today's been a little bit crazy for me.  This morning my 2 year-old informed me that she HATES me......really?  She's Two!  We had a nice long talk about that one.  I told her what it meant and by the end of our chat she told me she LOVED me, so I guess that makes me feel a little better. 

I think the majority of what has come out Macie's mouth today is, "NO MOM!"  It's starting to drive me a little crazy.  "No" is frustrating, but she always has to add on the "Mom."  So................she's spent a lot of time in time outs today, which seem to only help for like 10 minutes.  Then she's right back to doing naughty things.......ON PURPOSE.  Any advise would be great ;)

I was on the phone with Reed for few minutes, so Macie used this time to empty the clean laundry all over the kitchen floor...........and take Branson's juice away........and hide it under the clothes...........and pull the clean clothes out from under him and make him bonk his head really hard on the floor............about this time I decided to get off the phone.  It had only been like 4 minutes! 

So I pick up Branson who is SCREAMING his head off, put Macie in her bedroom.....for her own safety........and start searching through all the laundry for the bottle Macie hid.  I  can't find it anywhere, so I ask her where she put it.  She told me that she put it in Branson's room.......whatever Macie, I finally found it in the kitchen under some clothes.  So I bend over (with Branson in my arms) to pick up the juice and he pukes all over a bunch of the clean clothes and blankets.......blah.  Then I started laughing, which was a good sign.  Usually I am tired and cranky by this time of the day.  But Branson has FINALLY started sleeping through the night the last 5 days. 

I give Branson the bottle, have a little chat with Macie, and start reading her a story before naps.  Then I hear Branson crying a little bit.  I knew he was tired, so I thought I'd just let him cry a little while I finished with Macie.  But he started screaming and I thought, "What if he's by the stairs?"  I didn't think he was, because I can usually hear his little hands slapping the floor when he gets onto the hard floor, but not this time.  He was UPSIDE DOWN on the top stair, still HANGING on for dear life to the railing!  After I rescued him I could hardly hold the book I was finishing reading to Macie.  My whole body was jello after the sudden adrenaline rush, haha!  A few minutes after it happened I laughed really hard to myself when I thought of him totally scared, hanging on for so long!  Think I need a gate?  Me too. 

Now it is nap time, and I am going downstairs to caulk the basement.........alone......with no kids.......aahhhh. 

I really do LOVE being a stay-at-home mom, but some days are crazy, like today.  Thank heaven for NAP TIME, it's a life-saver!  Because even now as I write this, I can think of all the GOOD things that happened today too.  In between all those "NO MOM"s there were some "I love you"s.  And a lot of hugs and kisses and "GOTCHA"s.....that's Macie surprising me with a hug:)  And lots of hugs and very SLOBBERY kisses from Branson.  And a phone call from my HUBBY when things were getting wild at home. 

Forgetful.....

Last night I just realized that I did something really humiliating the other day.  Monday I made bread for all three of my visiting teaching ladies (who I just barely got assigned to, so I hardly know them at all).  The batch makes four loaves, so I've been using the other one for sandwiches in Reed's lunches the last few days.  Last night I was giving some to Branson and Macie asked for some.  As soon as she put it in her mouth she spat it out and said, "I don't like it, it yucky."  I've made bread every week for the last couple years, so I thought it was a little weird she she thought it was so bad.  So I took a bite and it was awful!  And I knew exactly what I did wrong......I had forgotten the SALT!  I knew right away because I did the same thing a few years ago.  I am SO embarrassed!  Leave it up to me to give the one batch of disgusting bread I make away to everyone!  I asked Reed about it and he said he'd been pulling the meat and cheese out of his sandwiches, hahaha!  Nice of him not to say anything........smart man :) 

A few weeks ago I also left the dome light on in Reed's truck.  Ever since then the batteries have been low, and yesterday they finally died.  That was about a $200 mistake....sweet. 

READ THIS.........

I had heard this book was good from a few people over the last few years, but I never really had the desire to read it until my sister and her husband told me it was really good and so TRUE.  Then I kind of forgot about it for a few months, but now another one of my sisters was talking about it.  I picked it up at the library last week and devoured it!  It really opened my eyes and helped me to understand MEN.  You might not want to read it because of the title......I know I used to laugh at the title when I saw it at Reed's parent's house.  But I seriously think that EVERY wife NEEDS to read this book.  I consider myself to be very happily married, but even in the last few days, I have seen a huge improvement!  READ IT, READ IT, READ IT......you will be so glad you did!

I also wanted to write about something else that has really helped me the last couple of weeks.  Reed and I decided not to have "T.V." at our house a few years ago because when we do, it seems like we spend too much time in front of it instead of doing better things.  I would try to let Macie only watch one movie a day, but ever since Branson was born, I used it as a scape rout.  When I got busy I would always find my self asking Macie if she wanted to watch a movie.  I'm not saying that's really bad or anything, but lately, that's ALL she wanted to do!  As soon as one movie was over, she'd want another....all day long!  Around Christmas time I usually gave in so I could get stuff done, but I felt guilty about it all the time.  The reason we don't have T.V. hooked up is so we won't watch it all day long!  So I was pretty nervous about cutting her back.  I thought I was in for a week of tantrums about wanting to watch movies, but I was totally wrong!  I told her the new rule: Only one movie a day, and then worked on distracting her with books, toys, play dough, coloring, ect.  She was so much happier, and it wasn't a hard transition at all!  It was a little more work for me, but she loved the extra attention from me.  We both seem so much happier.......she gets more Mommy time, and I don't have the guilt!  President Uchtdorf said in his October Conference address that "In family relationships love is really spelled t-i-m-e, time."  SO TRUE!  I am so glad I decided to enforce the rule.  I have to throw in my disclaimer though.......when she is sick, I let her watch more movies:)  All she wants to do is lay down, so I put a movie on for her.  Just thought I'd add that in......I'm not perfect...not even close:)

Branson is ALL OVER the place!  He has really taken off, and spends most of the day EXPLORING the house.  Last night he learned how to stand up in his crib!  He can pop the tray off of his bumbo and get out, which makes dinner time extremely messy.  I wish he'd slow down, but it's fun to see him learn and grow too.     

Random Pictures....

These are just a few random pictures from the last week or so.....

Macie got these shoes from her Uncle Casey and Aunt Cindy for Christmas and she LOVES them.  It's surprising how well she can walk and RUN in them!

Close up of the shoes......she is SUCH a girl!

Pretending to read the dictionary...upside down:)

Branson looking innocent.



Branson looking pleased with himself, and Macie looking annoyed.  Macie had to move to a chair where Branson couldn't reach her because he wouldn't leave her alone.



Branson torturing Macie, haha!  Yesterday he really took off with the crawling, and he bugged Macie all morning.  He would climb on her and get her snacks and sit on her blanket(heaven forbid).  He seemed to really enjoy it.



Macie helping Reed blow out his birthday candles.



She was so excited all day for Daddy to "blow his fire." 





Singing Happy Birthday to Reed.





Branson eating his Cheerios, he loves being able to eat by himself.





"Don't mind if I do......"



Happy Birthday Reed!

Today Reed turns 28! So I wanted to give 28 reasons(in no partucular order)why I LOVE him....haha, he's gonna love this;)

1. He is a hard worker and great provider for our family.

2. He also knows how to play.

3. He would rather have me cook him something for his birthday than go out to eat.

4. He makes time for me.

5. He makes time for Macie.

6. He makes time for Branson.

7. He's a great friend to others.

8. He makes friends easily.

9. He can't sleep without me fluffing his pillow:)

10. He is very smart.

11. He likes to laugh.
12. He honors his priesthood.
13. He always helps when I ask.
14. He loves his kids.
15. He always tries to do what is right.

16. He asks me what he should wear...usually.
17. He's organized.
18. He goes out of his way to get to know people.
19. He's NOT shy, unlike me:)
20. He always sits by or talks to those who look lonely.

21. He wants me to stay home with our kids.
22. He supports me in my hobbies and interests.
23. He doesn't talk bad about me.
24. He likes my cooking.
25. He says "I Love You" multiple times a day...I need to hear it.
26. He says I look good with no makeup....I know it's not true, but it's nice of him to say that.
27. He has a strong Testimony of Jesus Christ.
28. For some reason he picked me!
Happy Birthday Reed, we LOVE you!

Christmas 2010

We had a great Christmas this year.  It was pretty low-key, but that's how we like it.  One Christmas Eve we went to my parents house in Basalt(Firth).  We had a family party with homemade soup and rolls, thanks

Mom, and lots of TREATS.  We ate, played a game, and opened presents.  It was so fun to see everyone. 

On Christmas day we woke up and opened presents with the kids.  It was fun to watch Macie, because she was so excited.  After that we headed to Reed's Parents house in Idaho Falls.  We had a delicious breakfast of potato casserole, ham and smoothies. Then Reed's brother Troy called, he's on his Mission, and we were able to talk to him for a while.  And then we got to open presents from each other.  Again, it was so nice just to be with family. 

After that our little family just stayed there and hung out for most of the day.  Branson had a rough night Christmas Eve, so we were both pretty tired.  So the kids and I took a nap that lasted about 3 hours!!  Here are some pictures from Christmas morning at our house........