Cloth Diapering

I know! It sounds so horrid and I have gotten a TON of grief about it... but we are doing it. We have been for two and a half weeks and LOVE it!!! But its not quite what you think it is. I PROMISE! There are no diaper pins and there are no nasty buckets of soaking poopy diapers. They are super adorable and super easy and even mike likes them! They go on just like a disposable.

So why are we cloth diapering...?

Well, a while back Maeli got a really bad diaper rash. It was like a blistering sore and it was all over! And we treated it with diaper rash creams but it just wouldnt go away. It took a few weeks of her screaming every time we changed a diaper before it got better. At the time i just thought it was a normal diaper rash but about a month ago i read something about how pampers diapers were causing chemical burns on babies. So i was just reading about it and it showed a pic of a chemical burn and it described what it was like. And i pretty much knew that that is what she had. So then i looked into what kinds of chemicals were in these things that they would cause a CHEMICAL BURN on a babies butt. Well that was enough for me to question our diapering methods. I found out that the chemicals in diapers are the same one that were made illegal in feminine products because they cause TSS. And there are tons of other things in them that are questionable to have near a babies parts. Including the dies and the bleach that is used in them. So i start to talk to mike about it and with resistance he agreed to let me try it. So we got two diapers and i loved it. SO then i ordered two more and still loved it. so then i made 21 more and they are all so adorable and we are loving it all!!!

Another reason that CDing makes so much sense for us is the cost factor. I did the math and figured out how much we would save with Maeli if she potty trained in a year from how. And just her alone we save $450. Well these diapers can also be used on our next child if we ever have one. So that will save us about another $1500 there and so on with each kid we have. So yeah.... the money factor is way worth it.

And no... its not gross

We shake the poop off into the toilet and just throw it in the wash! We never touch anything poopy or nasty. Super easy and they come out super clean. Maeli loves them too. We have put a sposie on her for when we go to other peoples houses or if someone is watching her and she wines about wearing one. She will bring you a cloth and ask for it to be put on. They are super soft and they do keep her bum dry. The inner fabric wicks it away from her skin and pulls it down into the other fabrics. They can stay on just as long as she was in the disposables too. And she has goes all night with no leaks! I have heard that kids potty train quicker with them and also they do not cause diaper rashes because the skin can breath in cloth. So all benefits for us!

Well anyways... Just thought i would share with you all my latest adventure! We are officially cloth diaper converts and we are loving every minute of it!!!

Temples, Tinkles and Thanksgiving

I just love this time of the year! I love all of the family time that i get and i love the warm snuggly feeling you get sitting inside and looking at the snow. Although i do hate the snow! I keep hoping that life will slow down here one of these days but it seems to keep busy still. Seems like we never have a free day even on the weekends ( and that is due to mike always at the BSU football games on the weekends). We have a few things that i needed to update this thing about so i thought i would write a post :)

First of all, Mikes on year baptism date is coming up! And you all know what this means. We have been looking forward to this day for a very long time! We were planning on going to the Boise temple to get sealed and take out our endowments.... but then i couldnt bring myself to get over my lifelong dream of going to the Nauvoo temple. So after many weeks of going back and forth about if we wanted to do that to all of our family ( make them either pay for plane tickets and go or just miss out on it all together) We decided to just do it! I dont wanna regret not going because i wanted to make everyone else happy! Although we love all of our family and friends who would have come, I just cant get over the thought of how special Nauvoo will be. You see... my grandparents went on thier mission to Nauvoo many years ago. Before they came home, they announced that they were gonna rebuild the temple. I remember my grandma telling me and my sisters that she wanted one of us to get married there so that she will have a reason to go to visit it. Well she passed away before it was even dedicated and my grandpa has passes since then too. But i always dreamed about keeping this promise to them. I was reading thought an old journal of mine from when i was little and i even said in there that that is where i wanted to get married. So we are gonna do it! It will be the most special thing ever!!!! I know that my grandparents will be there with us! But the thing that i am most excited about is having Maeli there! It makes me emotional just thinking about it. So our date that we are going though is January 11th. (my mom tried to get us to play the number game when we got married 8/8/08 but we did 8/9/08.... so this time i will make her happy and it will be 1/11/11 :) )

Maeli also has gone potty on the toilet! We got her a little potty chair and I had mike help me put her on it. We were just gonna let her sit on it and giver her candy and do the potty dance just for sitting on it the first time. I wanted her to feel like it was a cool thing to sit on the potty and want to do it again. So we sat her on there and she smiled and we did the potty dance and gave her candy! Then she stood up and mike looked in the potty and there was a little yellow liquid!! We couldnt even believe it! We have no intentions of potty training her yet (potty training sounds like a dog. I dont wanna train my daughter but teach her!) We have no intention of potty teaching her yet but did wanna familiarize her with the potty. So that was a huge success!

Another thing that is on our minds is Mikes blood tests. He had some blood work done and they came back a little alarming on a few things. Nothing too big to get scared of yet but enough to think about it. He has signs of the beginning stages of hypothyroidism and also has low platelet count. They are thinking this is because of the medications that he has been on since he was 16 and so we may be switching to a new medication. He has another blood test in a few weeks to see if they are going down or maintaining. So nothing too serious yet but its on our minds. So we will see what comes of it with his next dr. appt.

There isnt much else going on really. Thanksgiving in tomorrow and we are going to both the grandmas houses for that. We are also going to get a tree on Saturday. Mike already started putting up lights on the house and getting the Christmas stuff out. We love this time of year because it is so magical!

Trunk-or-treat!

We went to the trunk-or-treat last night and it was tons of fun. Our ward had a chili cook-off and so we got to try all sorts of chili and then they had a spook house and a cake walk and then trunk-or-treat outside. I found Maeli a costume at goodwill for $5 and it was the cutest thing ever! It was a little duck costume. She was so adorable waddling around with the big duck butt! It took some time to get used to but after a while she was loving the costume. When we took her out to trunk or treat it didnt take her long to catch on to the fact that everyone was giving her candy! So she was just walking up to people holding out her hands and asking for more. She was so super cute and i loved her costume this year!

Sweet memories

Our little girl is growing up too fast! It is so crazy how much she is starting to understand! She has been learning how to fold her arms for prayer and it is so cute! We havent really taught her but she has just picked up on it from watching us do it. So the other day she gets up to the table and stands on a chair. She put her sippy cup down on the table and folded her arms and started mumbling away! Then said "Amen" and took a drink from her sippy! It was the cutest thing ever and one of those moments where you are so glad that she picked up on a good habit of yours instead of a bad one :) lol!! I was so proud of her though! I truly am blessed with such a beautiful and special daughter of God. She brings so much happiness to our family and we feel overwhelmed by God's love for our family! there is nothing better than when she wraps her little arms around my neck and gives me a big sloppy kiss! Or when she runs to me with her arms stretched out calling me momma and wanting me to hold her. Being a mother is the most amazing job in the world!

Maeli also loves the water! We have been going swimming a lot at the Nampa Rec center! She is such a hoot in the water! She tries to run and swim and then almost drowns! But she giggles and splashes and it so much fun!


We also got a chance to go to Linder Farms in Meridian. It is a corn maize and a bunch of other things. It was so much fun! I know it has been a while since i have posted pics so here they are!!!

Our big girl is now sitting at the table with mike and I. We took her trey off her high chair and moved her to the table! She loves it there too!

Maeli loves her kitty! she carries her around everywhere and is always petting her and kissing her. We also have a boy kitty that is white but he doesnt let Maeli carry him around like a rag doll like the girl does. They are so funny to watch though!!

Just another Rankin life update

Not a whole lot has been going on. What can i say... we have a busy but boring life. Since my last post in July we have had our 2nd anniversary. We went camping at strawberry again with my family and have just been enjoying life. We recently got a membership to the nampa rec center so we have been going there on our free nights. We have lots of fun playing there with Maeli and just working out together. We also were given a little kid bike seat to go on the back of our bikes so we have been going on bike rides at night too. We got a minivan which has been in the shop since like the first day that we got it! lol. And we have been doing yard work. We got three trees to go in our back yard which i absolutely love!! It feels so nice back there now there is some privacy.

Maeli is growing up so fast. She is a little hoot and she is a wild thing. She gets into everything but always does it with a cute little grin that I just cant seem to get mad at. She is getting in her molars so she will have a total of 12 teeth!! Crazy! She is also a climber and so we often have to get her off the of the dining room table and out of the laundry hamper and a number of other places that she climbs into or onto and cant get down. She is sweet as ever though and we are so blessed to have her in our family.

Since the obam health care thing that passed, mike has had to do a lot of extra work to get ready for this friday when it all takes effect. He will no longer be able to take more than one patient at a time so he will have to work longer days and get fewer patients taken care of. This means that he cant do home health anymore which we were enjoying the extra money from that. But it will all be okay because he will have to work longer hours so it will kinda make up a little of that extra we were taking in. We were hoping to do lots of home health to get all our debt paid off but it will just take a little longer now. Mike is doing his last class to get his bachelors degree too so he keeps plenty busy between work and school. Oh yeah... and he has season tickets to boise state games so he is always watching thier games of checking up on the other teams they will play blah blah blah..... I am getting a little sick of football and the season just started!

As for myself.... i have just been enjoying life. I have spent lots of time crafting in my craft room and have been making lot of cakes too. I have started teaching maeli scripture stories with the living scripture dvd's. We usually watch them and color a page that goes along with the story. She loved it too! She has been so into the movies and she loves to color. I am also teaching myself american sign language through library resources and online websites. I think its just so fascinating!! I also got to spend some time with Emiley and my mom and sister for the Time Out For Women thing they did her in Boise. It was SO much fun!! We got a hotel room and spent the night away from kids and our hubbys. It was a nice break and we have a lot of memories that we made from that weekend.


Well that is pretty much our lives in a nutshell. We really dont have a lot going on these days. But for some reason we always are super busy. We are still settling into our house and into our ward and neighborhood. We really do love it here in Nampa. We love that we are so close to everyone and everything and that we get to visit family so often. It is all starting to feel more like home.

P.S. Sorry i dont have many pictures lately. We first lost our camera in the move and then when i fould it i couldnt find the charger. So we finally found the charger and then we realized we didnt have the battery for the camera. But FINALLY we have all of the pieces and have been taking pics that i will get posted sometime. :)

I wrote this a little while ago and just found it. Thought i would publish it :)

Mike and I just had our second anniversary! It seems like we have been married forever! Maybe its just like that because we dated for two years before we got married so we have been together forever! Anyways... since Brittany and Adam were married on the same day 5 years before us, we had a double date to the Melting pot. They are closing in a week so we thought that we should get in before they are gone. It was a great night and we had a lot of fun. I would probably never go back there because it is so expensive for like no food but it was really a great time. Dessert was the best though! I would go back just for the dessert!

We have been settling in great here in Nampa. We love it here and we love our ward and mike loves his job. We havent been doing much but have been super busy. Dont know how that works but that just how it feels. We got a second car finally! A mini van. Not my first choice but it is practical for our family. Its in the shop right now because it broke down on us on our way back from a camping trip. LOL!!

Maeli is getting big and has learned how to open the front door. She is starting to talk a lot more although we still cant understand what she is saying. But she knows exactly what she is telling you! She is growing fast and getting a lot of hair. She is so sweet though and we just love having her around. She keeps us on our toes and entertains us well.

Right now we are taking care of a foster dog which is a lot of fun. She is a great dane and her name is Maggie. I wanted to have a chance to have a pet but mike didnt want one so we agreed to have foster pets that we can take in for a little bit and not have to pay anything for food/vet/ adoption fees and then when we start to get sick of them we just find them a new home. Its been great having her around and she is such a good dog. And Maeli loves her to death!!

We are finally feeling like we are living in our house now. We have most boxes unpacked. Feels like it is taking forever to make this house our home. But i have things up on the walls now and i feel like we are settling in just fine. We love it here but have noticed how hard and expensive it is to be a home owner. We have had many things go wrong and we have had to fix ourselves!! Its a harsh reality but we are grateful that we are blessed with such a wonderful house and friends here.

Mike is doing great at his job. I went to visit some of his patient there and they all said great things about mike. He even calls some of them his grandparents so it makes me happy that they love him so much. Mike got season tickets to Boise State games this year so he is super excited about that. He saved up and dreamed about it for a long time and its nice to have a job that he can make a little extra when he wants to pay for things like that. He deserves to have something fun like that too!

I am just loving being at home. Maeli and I get to play lots and go wander around town. I have also been making cakes here and there for people and that is a lot of fun. It gives me something to do when i want a break from house chores which seem to never end. I mean seriously... I have never had to clean a house this size and it hardly is ever clean because of that. It is a lot of work that i have a hard time keeping up with :) LOL!

So things are going good and we are adjusting to a new life here! We miss a lot of our friends from Pocatello and wish that we could still be close to them but we are starting to make friends here and we love being so close to both our families.

Im so proud!

Mike took his PTA licensing test a week ago and I was so proud of him! He passed with flying colors and is now an official licensed Physical Therapists Assistant. He amazes me with how smart he is! He graduated top of his class and has only one more class to finish his bachelors degree as well.

I could not be happier with the job that he found ( mostly because he loves it and loves working for that company)! He has so much joy and excitement going to work every day and i love to see him so happy! And it has good insurance so that is a plus too! So the good news is that we can keep our house... and our baby... and our car... and Mike gets to keep his happy wife :) LOL! I feel so blessed right now to have an income that can support our family. I am so glad that we are able to start paying back those school loans too!

Fathers Day and remodeling

We were so happy to have Heather and Justin here for the weekend helping us to do a little remodel of our home. Justin is very talented and super knowledgeable about building and so we asked them to come help put up a wall. Well we got the wall up downstairs to finish off that back bedroom and we also got the sub floors laid so that we could redo the flooring. I was so glad to have them here to help out and get this huge project done. And i was so happy to have my Heather here too! It started to pour rain one night and they were huge drops, like a flash flood, so heather and justin went out and washed thier car in the rain. It was pretty funny!!
Although we still have to lay the floors and also tape and texture the wall... i am still impressed with how much we were able to get done. And the rest i feel confident doing myself.

Since yesterday was fathers day, and I knew that we would have house guests and be super busy with the wall... i decided to give mike his fathers day gift early. Maeli and I came up with 100 reasons why we love him and we filled 100 balloons each with one of the reasons. It sure did take a long time to fill each one of those balloons... but Maeli had so much fun running around in them once we were done. She was laying down on them and rolling around. It was so funny!!! We also got him a new tool box cuz his was falling apart and a drill since we seriously needed one. I was glad that we did it early so that he could use it for helping with the wall.


So today I am left here at the house that looks more like a wood shop, trying to get some floors laid and still keep an eye on Maeli. Its a task but Im sure that we can do it!!! We are hoping to have everything done so that we can have a great weekend at my family reunion this next weekend. The best part of this whole living room remodel is that I now have a CRAFT ROOM!!! YAY!! That is what we are doing with the extra bedroom downstairs. So excited to get to work on my scrapbooking because i am way way way behind!

So here are some before, during and after pics of the wall going up. Still lots more to do but Im excited with the progress!

life in Nampa ID

it has been quite a whilr since i have given any update so i figured it was about time. we finally got into our house two weeks ago and it was sure a pain!! there were mistakes that were made that pushed it back a long time and it was hard to wait even one more day. but we made it through the last three months of waiting and finally are in our home.
it has been a headache trying to get all moved it, but slowly we are getting it all done. this next week we have a wall going up and also some floors going in so a lot of work to do. on top of that we have had a very busy schedule. we have had some of my siblings over for half a week and also have had things going on every night. mike just finished two more classes and has one left on top of taking his license test. so things have been crazy! but mike got a fun toy that makes things a little more fun. he found a great deal on a projector screen for our bonus room and we tured it into a theater room. it is so so so much fun!!
we are going to a new ward which is amazing! we love our new ward so much. there is such a great mix of younger and older family. tons of kids maelis age so she will have lots of friends. mike and i had to give a talk today in church. one lady came up to me later and said that she has had a friend investigating the church and that he really felt the spirit while we were talking. i was glad to hear that we were able to speak with the spirit. we have already made lots of friends and cant wait to get to know everyone.
we are so glad to be so close to all our family! its been great seeing them so often. and its also nice to have our own space and also start this new part of our lives!

Published with Blogger-droid v1.3

Just an update on life :)

Well we are enjoying living in Ontario! It is so nice to be close to all of our family and getting to spend so much time at everyone's events! Not a whole lot has been going on, but i will give you all the lowdown on whats up!
First of all, mike got a job!! He is starting on May 10th! Right after graduation we will finally be making money! He will work as a tech till he gets his license, but at least we will have an income till then! Him starting his job means that we can start moving forward on our house and plan to be moved in by the end of May! Mike starts his last week of clinical tomorrow and i cant wait for him to be done! Its hard working for free!!! And graduation is on May 8th! (Maeli's Birthday)

Maeli is walking everywhere! She has been walking a little since we came back to Oregon, but now she is running! Its super cute but also lots of trouble! She is into everyting!!! Her birthday is in just two weeks! WOW! I cant hardly believe that it has already been a year! I am kind of sad about her growing up so fast already! We have truly enjoyed her sweet personality and her adorable laughes! She makes us so happy and we are so blessed to have her! She has been talking a lot too! Everything about her just makes our hearts smile! We couldnt be more happy!!
As for myself, I have been enjoying staying home with Maeli and watching her grow! We have been learning lots and playing hard! We have enjoyed playing outside and she often refuses to come inside!! I have been doing a lot of crafts and cake decorating! I have discovered that i love to decorate cakes! What a fun and messy new hobby! I have been able to try out a lot of new recipes for fillings, frosting and cakes on Mike and our family and practicing my decorating skills! The picture above was the first time that I made fondant roses and I loved them. I will have to use them more often!


Well not much else is going on in our lives. We are just waiting and waiting till we can move into our house and start that part of our lives. We are looking forward to all of the new things in our life that are to come and all of the new exciting adventures that we will be taking! Only one more week of clinical and two days of class for mike and a whole new life begins!

We got it!

We were supposed to find out on monday if we got the house or not, but they didnt get to us until yesterday! But after a few minor changes to our offer, they accepted it! Pretty much the only change that was made was that the closing date was moved back which works in our favor anyways. It gives mike more time to find a job too! But we arent gonna tell them that :)

The house is 1663 square feet and has 4 bedrooms and 2.5 baths. There is one place in the house that was supposed to be another bedroom but one wall was never put up so we are going to do that so we will have 5 beds! the yard it huge and i just love the front of the house! Its so cute and has so much charm! its on a dead end street and has a park right across the street! It will be perfect for our first home!

We are so excited to be able to have a house by the beginning of this summer! We never thought that we would be getting a house anytime soon and are just so happy that it all worked out so well! We just have a little less than 3 months left living with people and then we are in our house! So exciting!!!! And the best part is that we will still qualify for the 8000 tax credit too!

We will post some pictures of it once we move in and have made some repairs and changes!

house hunting MADNESS!!

Mike and I had a crazy day yesterday! We have been house hunting for about a week now with a realtor in Nampa. On Tuesday we went out and looked at a bunch of houses and there was one that i absolutely loved. We got pre-approved through a lender for enough to pay for this house that i loved and then went back to look at it yesterday. Well when we got there, the realtor got into the lock box and the key was missing. She called around and found out that the house had sold and that no one had bothered to update it in the systems! So i was really upset! I was in love with this house and now it was gone! Well we went back to her office to look and see if any new listing had come up. There were two more so we went to look at them.
The first was trashed! The people knew that they were gonna lose thier house and so they kicked in all the cupboards and recked the whole house! The next house we looked at was perfect! it was a cute house and the floorplan worked out great for us! But then i look out the back window and realized that the yard was like two feet wide and i couldnt deal with looking at a fence all day long out the window! I was pretty upset because Mike loved the house and i did too except for the yard! Then we realized that the house that is backed up to this ones yard was the very first house we ever looked at. So I asked if we could look at it again because the yard was HUGE! So we went inside and realized that it was the exact same floor plan minus a wall that was never put in to make the bedroom downstairs! Well my dad has built a house and so has mikes dad so we knew that they could put in this one wall for us! I was sold! I wanted this house so bad!!!! So we went back to her office to make sure that it was still available!
Well it was still available, but there were 7 other offers on the house and they were only accepting offers for another hour. And we had to be pre-approved through wells fargo because that is who the house was through! Stupid wells fargo! Well every person who could handle a mortgage loan was at a meeting in boise! and we only had an hour left! We couldnt get a hold of anyone but still wrote up an offer anyways hoping that we might be able to get it in! Well 20 min before it was due a WF person called us and just said that he knew Debbie and trusted her and if we were pre-approved somewhere else he would just write us a letter saying that we were through him too! Without even taking any information. So we got the offer in with not a second to spare!
Who knows if we will actually get it but it was a fun and exciting day trying to get this all done on time! We made a very strong offer that was 10000 over asking price, so we are hoping that we get accepted! I love this house! But with 7 other offers, who knows how high they offered for this house! I feel really good about it though!
So we will find out on Monday evening if our offer was accepted! If not, we will not get too upset because we know that the right house will come up! We have really been enjoying this whole process of searching for our home! Its kind of stressful but its so intense and exciting! So i will keep you posted on if our offer gets accepted!!!

We are all moved!

So we loaded up the uhaul last friday and left saturday afternoon for home. It did take us a while to drive back because the uhaul can only go so fast... but we were glad to be back home! We got all of our stuff into a room at my moms house on sunday and i was surprised that it all fit! I did have to leave my craft stuff out because i use it so much! but everything else fit into one room! Mike is still back in Pocatello because he has classes until tomorrow, but Maeli and I are settling in back here in Oregon!

I was kind of sad leaving pocatello! I never thought that i would be sad moving away from there, but i was! I have made so many good friends that i was having a hard time leaving behind! EMILEY!!! I MISS YOU!!! :)

So things are gonna start slowing down here soon i hope! Once mike gets back and he starts a regular schedule of clinicals it will be at least! But we are really looking forward to being done with school and finding a house this summer!!!

Maeli's first word

We have been trying to get Maeli so say mama or dada for the past few months... and today she finally spoke! Well she didnt exactly say what i wanted her to... but i guess that she has her priorities straight :) I got it on video right after she started talking so here you all go!

Christmas and the new year!

Hi everyone! my mom was begging for an update and some pictures and i have to agree that it has been a while since i have updated this :)

Well we got to go home for a full 2 weeks for Christmas! it was AMAZING! We had tons of fun with all of our family and got to see lots of friends too! Christmas eve we got to see some family out at my Marvin Grandparents house for dinner. My grandparents are much too generous and got us the whole getup for church. Mike got a new suit and he loots so good in it!! I got a few church outfits and some shoes!! and we both got new scriptures with our names on them and cases for them too! Maeli got a toy :) We felt very blessed to have gotten all of this stuff because we needed it badly!!

Christmas morning we got up bright and early as always at my parents house. We got up and played with the kids santa toys until mom and dad got up. Then we got to open presents galore! We got all sorts of books and movies for FHE and that are just great to have a round. We got this adorable measuring board from my mom for the kids growing up. I got some vinyl for my new cricut (i didnt know about yet), mike got white pants and a shirt for getting baptized in, and maeli toys... and tons of other stuff... we got spoiled this year for sure!!! oh and i got mike some weather toys as we all know he is obsesed with weather!

After we were done there, we headed over to mikes parents house where we had some breakfast and waited for Matt to get up :) Then we opened some presents. Maeli got some toys :) and she ate some paper too!! I got spoiled over there! I got some more vinyl, a jukebox for by cricut, my software for my cricut, and a cartridge for my cricut! And then mike surprised me with the pink cricut that i was begging for and he told me that i couldnt have and that i would have to wait till after christmas! It was so sweet of him to keep it a secret from me so that i could have a sweet surprise :) And we also got a lot of other great gifts as well from family!!

We got to got and see mikes aunt Jennifer and uncle Ken and cousin Megan! We always love seeing them! They are a hoot!!! And we got to see Brittany and her family a few times while we were there!

We left the day after the fiesta bowl because mike wanted to stay and watch it with is brother.

Then on the 9th was mikes baptism day! we were so blessed to have so much family down for that. My parents and younger siblings came, and Brittany and Adam and the kids came too! We also had tons of friends who came from rexburg and logan UT that night too! Maeli got an ear infection AGAIN that day! but we got her to the doc and got her some meds and still carried on with the night. Bryce got to baptize him and Brittany and Adam gave some great talks! Then we all stayed for some grub and had fun chattin!! It was a great night. The next day he got confirmed in church by my dad! It was just such a great weekend!!! Im so proud of mike for making this huge step! Maeli got a rash in church so we had to take her back to the doc because she was allergic to the penicillin. we got some new antibiotics and it was all good! She has been quite the handfull when it comes to health :) but we still love her!!

Not a whole lot has been going on since then. Maeli is starting to stand by herself for short amounts of time. She will be walking here soon im sure! I have just been enjoying my cricut and doing lots of crafts with it :) finding every reason to use it!! Oh and i joined Weight Watchers. Its not so much my new years resolution but a life time resolution to have better health. WW has been teaching me how to make healthy choices and to look at what is in food before i just eat it. Its crazy what all i was eating before. And i have started to work out again. I was doing really good before thanksgiving but then quit when we were traveling so much... so im back on track and im gonna lose this baby weight. I started another blog to track my progress... www.projectbabyweight.blogspot.com if you wanna cheer me on :) i know that i wont do it if im not accountable to someone so thats why im doing the blog :)

We are moving home soon too! we are getting excited for that! Only like a month and a half. And mike sold his car last night! That was a huge blessing. We used the money to pay off some student loans :) only like 13,000 more to go... we will get there someday! Well here are some pics from over the break!! Enjoy!