Lovin' Life...

If any of you were around me last week you would have wondered if I lost my mind. Well, I pretty much did. Zack was SO hard, he was just going crazy with all the chaos of packing. I was totally stressed about getting everything packed so quickly and it just wasn't going well. When the funding fell through on Friday after I'd done all that work I just broke down and sobbed for a bit.
By the way, Zack was with me and he said, "mommy sad?" "Hit wall, feel better" haha, it totally made me laugh!
But all in all it was a HUGE blessing that the funding fell through. We were able to get A LOT done on the house this week, installing blinds, baby proofing, unpacking a few boxes we brought with us, etc. AND most important of all Zack completely calmed down and has been an angel child the whole week. I guess the stress was just too much for the both of us. But now we've had a nice productive/relaxing week so really, I'm SO glad we didn't move last Saturday, it would have been a second week of chaos that I really just didn't need.
Now I am actually looking forward to the move and I have truly come to appreciate the small things in life....like blinds, fridges, garbage cans, dishes, etc etc. :)
Here are some pics of the last week for ya!

My dad, being the awesome man he is, realized how stressed I had been last week and spent the ENTIRE morning with Zack doing yard work. Zack was in complete heaven. There is nothing he enjoys more than working with daddy and Grandpa with their tools!

Isn't he just a cutie?

We borrowed my dad's truck a couple of times last week to move stuff and Zack considers it pure heaven to sit in it. This is his "this is the coolest thing in the whole world" face. I just love it!

Zack enjoying our new couches.
The HouseI know what you're all thinking. Why is it BLUE? Well, you must remember it's a master planned community. One of the reasons we fell in love with this place is the way it is designed. All the houses are a million different colors all planned within a master color scheme. It looks so cool! I love it. Trust me, blue is actually very neutral for out here. There are purple, yellow, orange, teal, etc. etc. houses! I really wanted red but it didn't end up happening so blue is what we got. I think it's fun! I'll have to post some pics of the neighborhood when I get some time! (oh, and the landscaping is only done for our house. After all the houses are built around us there will be a huge shared lawn in front of us. I'll explain it all some other time.)

The move got moved...

There was some silly error in the underwriting process in our loan and so it didn't fund Friday which means we didn't get the keys. GRRRRRR! They didn't let us know until 5:00 Friday night so of course by then our ENTIRE house was packed. We were so frusterated...I must admit though it's been nice to have life slow down a bit finally. We're officially moving this Saturday (the 20th) now. We get the keys Monday (if all goes well of course...I mean they told us last Thursday orginially so we shall see!) so we'll camp out at the house in the evenings, just move clothes and beds, then move all the big stuff Saturday. Pics of the finished house will come I promise! We've been just a little busy lately! :)

To close for comfort...

GRANTS
REMAINING:
0

So does everyone about that housing grant Utah was doing? For you out of staters I'll explain. Utah passed legislature to give out $6,000 grants for people that moved into "never been lived in" homes. It was to help stimulate the sell of homes that were built and just sitting with no owners and to motivate people to build. They funded enough money to give out 1,600 and when they are gone they are GONE-first come first serve basis. We were SO excited when we heard about it, out builder told us they would last until August and we had NOTHING to worry about. We've been watching the numbers closely and suddenly in the last month they started going REALLY fast. We got worried and started pushing out builders to close ASAP. Well guess what?

We got the LAST ONE!

Awhile ago Trent was saying how cool it would be to get the last one...I told him that was stupid and I'd rather get the 1600th one so we didn't have to worry about getting it or not. That was WAY to close of a call for me. But I am SO glad we did get it, it will go a LONG way for us!

I should be packing...not blogging!

Big news! Our builders are totally awesome and got our house finished EARLY! How many people have you talked to that build a house and it was finished early? We are so excited! We're moving in this Saturday. YAHOOO!
I'll post pictures for you of the finished product hopefully on Thursday.
It was a little overwhelming because the original plan was to move the 20th. But when we found out Trent's brother and his wife want to move into our condo by the end of the month and need to do some repairs first we figured we better take advantage of our chance to move in early and get out of the condo ASAP. I was way stressed at first but things are actually coming along pretty smoothly. I'm so excited...we've been waiting for SIX months now and FINALLY our house is built and we're moving in. YAY!
Last, I just HAVE to post these videos! Zack has developed a love for singing. It doesn't really matter what the music is he tries to sing along. But he has a favorite CD that we listen to in the car, I don't think I'd be exaggerating if I said we've probably listened to it the whole way through at least a thousand times. We do A LOT of driving and this is our most productive calm down tool. Anyway, he knows all the songs and loves to sing along with them. It's so cute, I just love this kid!

Sleep training - Take 2

This is another "journal entry" please ignore unless your very bored! :)
Is it just me or did I already sleep train Zack when he was six months old? I seem to remember a month straight of complete agony while he cried himself to sleep every night. That's right, it really did happen. Then he spent the next year and half sleeping perfectly through the night like a little angel child. Then the terrible 2's came. Mr independent decided sleep was not fun/interesting/needed anymore.
I thought, maybe he just needs to get out of the crib? So we bought him a big boy bed. That helped for about a month. Not because he liked the big boy bed but because he was scared of it and suddenly decided he wanted to be in his crib. Well, that soon wore off and his big boy bed started looking pretty cool. That was fine for awhile. But then he discovered the amazing freedom of a BED instead of a crib. He can get up and walk around as he pleases. He did ok with it, that is until he figured out how to open doors. It was all downhill from there. At that point he decided no naps, no bedtime, and once he was finally in asleep it'd be fun to wake up and play at all hours of the night.
This HAD to stop. So we buckled down for our second round of intense sleep training. I used my trusty book "Happy Child, Healthy Sleep Habits" to get some ideas. The book said that of course kids get out of bed for attention and the best thing you can do is NOT give them attention. So instead of me trying to reason with him like I had been in the past the book just said to do your regular bedtime routine then lay them down and leave. If they come out you don't look them in the eye or talk to them you just gently bring them back to their bed and lay them down again. I thought wow, that's simple enough!
Bedtime #1:
After 5 or 6 returns to the bed Zack started catching on that I was ingnoring him and started getting a little upset. After about 10 returns to bed he had a meltdown and just started sobbing and kept saying over and over "Mommy, SAY GOODNIGHT!" He as not throwing a tantrum, he was sobbing. It was so sad. Eventually I gave in and gave him a big hug and said "Zackie I love you but you really have to go to bed now." He was exhausted but pretty upset about me putting him in his bed over and over again so he just laid down on the floor and slept there the whole night. Yay, at least he didn't wake up all night!
Nap #1:
Zack: "Hey, this is a REALLY funny game." Everytime I open the door mom comes and gets me...maybe we should play chase!"
An hour into the process....."This isn't that fun anymore, what's her problem?"
An hour and 15 min into the process...."Mommy, rock Zackie, please, rock Zackie!"
Exhausted mommy did exactly what the book said NOT to do and rocked him for a min and he took a long nap in his bed without getting up.
Bedtime #2:
Went right to sleep. Yahoo!
Woke up at 3 in the morning and decided it was time to play! He knew he couldn't come out of his room or else I'd just put him back in his bed....so what did he do? He played for TWO hours in his bedroom. I was drifting in and out of sleep this whole time but eventually got frusterated and just put him in his bed. Can't remember everything clearly but ya, he ended up going back to sleep eventually. Then next day we had a VERY tired mommy and Zack with bad moods to go along with it!
Naptime #2:
Very tired Zack, very tired mommy.
5 minutes into the process of bringing him to his bed everytime he opened the door he started sobbing. 10 minutes into it he finally gave up and went to sleep. Whewww....is it working?
Bedtime #3:
Went right to sleep and stay asleep all night long! YAY!
Naptime #3:
After an HOUR of putting him back in his bed I was SICK of it. He was still laughing thinking it was the funnest game every. The book said plan on 2 weeks, much too long for this. I am really not that patient. So I knelt down, looked him in the eye and said, "if you come out of your room one more time you have to sleep in your crib!" The ultimate threat apparently. He stayed in there for about five minutes saying:
"Zackie have good attitude....stay in bed, ya. Sleep crib....no, no, no. Have good attitude, crib, no, no, no." He was trying so hard, it was so cute! But eventually he gave in to the temptation and came out. I had to put him in his crib. He cried for about 10 minutes and went to sleep.

I could continue but that was pretty much the miracle discovery in the whole process. Doing the bedtime dance of puttin him back in his bed a million times helped him get more and more attached to his bed. Then suddenly the crib became the worst threat ever. He's been doing good at naps and bedtime ever since...not perfect but better than it's been in months!

HOORAY FOR SLEEP!

I also decided he needed some "do's" at bedtime instead of just "dont's".
So every night/afternoon before he lays down he says with me:
"lay down, stay in bed, close eyes, relax, and go to sleep."
I think that really helped too. He's such a good boy, I'm happy it wasn't 2 weeks of misery like the book said to plan on, I have been pretty exhausted lately, I guess growing a baby takes up a bit of your energy! :)
Sorry this post is so much writing with only one picture, this was one of those things where in a couple years I'll be like..."what did I do with Zack at this stage?" So I thought I'd write it down in our family journal. :)

The moment you've all been waiting for....

I'm PREGNANT!

(For real this time)

I've known that I'm pregnant since Easter(fun day to find out eh?) But of course after 2 miscarriage's I wasn't quite ready to celebrate just because of a positive pregnancy test. At seven weeks I went in for my first ultra sound which was when I saw our precious baby for the first time!

As you can imagine up to that point pretty much all I did was worry. But the FIRST thing I saw when they started the ultra sound was the little heart beating. Total relief swept over me and we were all so excited! Zack loved hearing the heartbeat and Trent made sure to tell me "I told you so!" (He was sure it was going to be fine this time and kept telling me to stop worrying so much!)
As you can tell, you couldn't really see anything in that ultra sound. I was just calling the baby our "little blob." But today the ultra sound was SO awesome! I wish we had gotten more pictures that showed everything we could see, it was so special! We could see the little hands and feet almost perfectly. I love the profile picture of the whole baby. It was just moving and kicking constantly throughout the whole ultra sound. What a SPECIAL experience. We are SOOOOO happy!
Oh, and the due date is December 19th. However, unless by some miracle I go into labor I'll probably have a c-section the week before. I'm not planning on a vbac though, the risks hardly seem worth it to me. Anyway, exciting huh? YAY!!!!

I'm in a hurry to get things done, I rush and rush until life's no fun!

Warning: I ramble on for a long time in this post, skip to the bottom if your just looking for some entertainment! :)

This is on of those days that I should NOT be blogging. I have a very large "to do" list that I should be working on instead of sitting in front of the computer. We will most likely be moving in less than 2 weeks and not only do I have barely anything packed but I also have a very messy house! UGGGGGG! But I'm tired of rushing around like a mad woman so I decided to take a small break during Zack's nap. So what do I do? I blog, I know wierd outlet huh? :)
Let me just say sisters are a gift straight from heaven. I love calling my older sister whenever I am bored, lonely, need mom advice, wanting to brag about Zack, or vent about him, etc. etc. Can I just say that I am SO glad I was not the first one in our family to have kids? I can't imagine what it would be like if I didn't have a sister to call and say "what in the world am I supposed to be doing!?" Half the time her advice is just that being a mom is confusing and it's always hard to know what the right thing to do is. But even just hearing that I'm not alone in feeling that way is enough comfort for me! :)
Zack sure has been giving me a large test in patience lately. We have been transitioning him to a "big boy bed" and he has taken this as an opportunity to assert his independence! :) He's been putting up big fights about naps and bedtime. Zack is naturally a VERY happy, good kid. He likes to make people around him happy and he's naturaly very good natured. But have him miss a nap or go to bed late...suddenly you have grimlin on your hands. Hitting, screaming, trantrums....all day long, he turns into a wild child. So, needless to say, it's a big deal to me that he gets his sleep. The last couple weeks his sleep schedule has been inconsistent and difficult to maintain. He hates to miss a moment of the day and it's especially hard for him to stay put now that he has the freedom to get in and out of bed as he chooses. Accompanying his lack of sleep of course has brought out the grimiln side of Zack more regularly. Man, when people say kids force you to learn patience I now know exactly what they are talking about!
The reason I went off about my sister at the beggining is because I was just talking to her before Zack went down for a nap today and something in our conversation reminded me how special and awesome it is to be a mom! I think our struggles the last couple weeks I haven't been remembering that as well as I should. But honestly, these last 2 years have BY FAR been the best of my life. It's all thanks to little Zacky and my awesome husband. So I guess I just needed to get it out, I love my kid! After I got of the phone with my sister I decided to just STOP and spend some time with my boy. We did gardening because what is better for a 2 year old boy than digging in the dirt? He LOVED it. We had so much fun together and you know what? He went down for his nap with NO fight whatsoever. Maybe I just need to slow down a bit, stop rushing around all the time. I need take time to just enjoy life and spend time with my little Zacky.

Anyway, enough about my life lesson's! Zack has been talking ALL the time now! He speaks clearly, in full sentances. I'm LOVING it! The kid thinks of the craziest and most off the wall things and it's so fun now that he can share those thoughts with us! We get lots of good laughs from it! Here are a few of the funny things he's been saying lately:

me: "Zack, what do you want for lunch today? Mac and cheese? PB&J? Chicken Nuggets? etc. etc. (I seriously gave him like 10 options)"

Zack: Squints his eyes, gives me a look like I'm crazy and says "No mom, ' want donut!"
Right!!!

I got lots of new clothes for my Birthday that I was pretty excited about. I was getting dressed the other morning and tried on of those shirts on for the first time. It was a really cute shirt but just way too big and looked rather rediculous on me. Zack walked into the room, took one look at me and yelled "NO LIKE IT! TAKE IT OFF!" Apparently I can start asking my 2 year old for fashion advice now! :)

The other day we were packing up our bookshelves to get ready for the move. While we were putting the books into boxes he came across Trent's old mission scriptures.
He opened them up and pretending to read it said "and it came to pass...Lord, Lord, Lord." then he knelt on his knees, bowed his head, folded his arms and said "Heavenly Father, Name Jesus Christ Amen" It just melted my heart! I guess he's actually getting something out of reading scriptures before bed...and it came to pass, a good thing for me to remember when Zack is throwing a tantrum! :)

It must be a combination of our crazy lifestyles and our MANY drives to Salt Lake from Orem but Zack has come to love driving in the car. He likes to look out the window and talk about everything he sees. The funniest thing though is when we are driving on the freeway and they have walls put up that block his view. As soon as they are insight he starts screaming "NO! Take 'way!" As if his screaming will make them move!
Oh, and did I mention he loves to direct traffic too? If a car drives to close or in a lane he is not happy with he is sure to let them know. If he has road rage at 2 imagine how he'll be at 16 when he's the one driving! YIKES!

Last, Trent's work had a company party at the Zoo last Saturday. It was so much fun! Zack LOVES the zoo and it was especially fun this time because daddy came too! Here are some pictures of the day for ya!

We took Zack to the bird show and that was probably his favorite part! He's been a few times before but this was the first time he was old enough to appreciate it. He LOVED watching all the birds fly right over his head!

Zack showing us how a Giraffe eats a snow cone! :)

Lovin' life with daddy!