This is why they say to never leave your child unattended!

This is how I found Ellie after switching my laundry.




This is how I left her!



What a tricky girl! :)

Gobble Bag

Jeremiah tripped on some toys & caught himself but broke a dress-up shoe in the process. He was super annoyed & told Callie that he was going to take away her toys if she couldn't keep them picked up since he tripped on them. Shortly after that Callie tripped on a pair of Jeremiah's shoes & said that I needed to take them away from him because she tripped on them since he'd left them out! :)

The cleaning of the toys really is an issue around here so inspired by my friend Liz's gunny bag, we got a gobble bag. Much bigger than a pillow case! It's a collapsible laundry basket! The first couple of nights the threats of bringing out the gobble bag worked like a charm! The 3rd night Jack had made a huge mess & Jeremiah was about to get the bag & Callie was just sobbing as she was trying to pick up toys & Jack was just having a good old time playing. I told her to just pick up her things & then Jack's toys would be the one that got gobbled up & that immediately stopped the tears & perked her right up. That's ended up totally biting me in the butt! Now she evaluates which toys are worth cleaning up & which one's she's okay with having gobbled. She's said more than once, "That's okay, it can just go in the gobble bag until Monday" (the day the gobble bag gives back the toys). She's even volunteered a few things for the gobble monster to snack on! First of all I think we need to follow Liz's gunny bag more closely & make them earn the stuff back (I should have reread her post before I started the whole thing). But I wonder how many toys the gobble bag will eat up before they really care!

Cool Stuff

We got a new computer several weeks ago & I'm so glad to once again have the full version of Outlook instead of Outlook Express! I haven't used Outlook since I was a working girl & the version we have now is even newer than what I had, so I was STOKED to discover the RSS directory function in Outlook! My friend Janelle shared her discovery of Google Reader a while ago, & this is even better (for me anyway)! If you see this little orange button on your internet toolbar that means the blog (or other site) offers this feature. So I just copy & paste the feed's URL into my Outlook's RSS directory & botta-bing botta bang! No more checking a million blogs only to discover they haven't been updated! Now I can see when somebody's updated & I can read it right from Outlook w/out even opening my browser! I love it!



Here's another cool thing I recently discovered. Squid Soap! It helps kids with handwashing because it inks their hand when they press on the pump to get soap & they have to wash long enough to get the ink off. Callie & Jack both think it's really cool. We got it at Target in case you think it's cool too.

Mr. Mischief

We were grocery shopping around lunch time earlier this week & I figured I'd pick up some lunch on the way home but in the frozen food section the kids saw Kids' Cuisine & wanted them & I figured why not - I'd spend the same on them that I would buying fast food & both are probably equally unhealthy but I'd be cutting out a stop. They thought it was SO cool that they each got to pick out their very own lunch! They went ga-ga over the pudding with sprinkles on it for dessert! :)

That same morning Jack pooped on the toilet for the first time! This is huge for us because we have been trying for MONTHS to get him to do this! He always says he's scared. It's been annoying me that everybody is pushing him to get potty trained because when he's ready he'll do it, but at the same time I'm getting super annoyed having to smell him and then change his poopy pull-ups! His Uncle Kenny had told him that if he pooped on the toilet he'd get him a candy bar, so after he did the landmark poop he right away said, "Do I get a candy bar?" YES! We got him one when we were out & he made a huge mess out of enjoying it! I showed him how to give me thumbs up & he had to try several times. He'd get it & then do something else with his hands & forget how he got his thumb like that! :) Of course he hasn't pooped on the toilet again since then, but that fact that he's done it once is very encouraging!

Here's some more of Jack's silly faces. The thing I think is funniest about them is that they're not just occassion faces - these are regulars around our house - all the time! Even if he's playing by himself he makes these faces!

He's such a mischievious kid! I don't know if it's cause he's a boy or if it's just his personality or a mix of both (& probably his age too), but he is always making mischief! Callie never colored on a wall or anything, but Jack has colored on walls, floors, bodies, dishes, important papers, furniture, you name it! He doesn't give a crap about me telling him not to do something. Not only is he going to do what he wants, lots of times he makes sure I know he's gonna do what he wants! It's hard to stay on top of him when he's constantly doing things he's been taught not to do! It's especially hard when I'm nursing to do anything. It's gotta be something pretty bad for me to get up in the middle of feeding Ellie! I've mentioned his sense of humor. I think he's smart. One day Callie was playing with some little plastic jewels she has & Jack wanted them & she didn't want him to have them so he grabbed them & tossed them & they were scattered. Okay, typical, right? Every kid does that. So Callie gathers them up & has them in this little pile that she's hovering over & he's a couple feet away from her & he says, "there's one!" So Callie looks in the direction he's pointing & jumps up to look for it & the second she left her pile he swooped them up & ran out with them as fast as he could! How many 2 1/2 year-olds are smart enough to trick their older sister?! Like I said, mischievious!

Ellie's 2 months!

I can't believe it's only been 2 months since Ellie was born! Life is hectic right now, as you can imagine from my lack of posting! Yesterday somebody ask me how I spend my day. This was my yesterday: nurse, feed the kids, nurse, visiting teachers, nurse, feed my kids lunch, nurse, some yardwork, nurse, throw together the rest of my mutual stuff, go to YW presidency mtg & mutual, nurse, relax, nurse, go to bed! So that's why I don't have time to update my blog! Because when I'm not nursing & doing normal mom stuff, I have a to-do list that keeps getting things added to it & not much getting crossed off! So anyway, here's our little sweetheart! She is seriously a great baby! She is very happy most of the time & she is totally cool with her big brother & sister fussing over her all the time. Jack utterly adores her! He's always saying to her in this very sweet voice, "Oh my sweetheart." Or "Oh, my precious." :) He's a keeper! They all are! Sad story - we went to Chili's for dinner last weekend & got these jalepeno cheese fries as an appetizer. Ellie was getting fussy so I figured she was ready to eat so I went to feed her & she suddenly starts screaming bloody murder! For at least 5 minutes! I just couldn't calm her down! Once she settled down & fell asleep I went back in to eat & we concluded I must have touched her with my jalepeno fingers or something & either her eye was burning or her mouth? Sad huh? Well then tonight we had pizza for dinner & Jeremiah likes crushed red peppers on his. He finished first & took Ellie in the other room & all of a sudden the same bloody murder cries. I'm assuming it's the same thing. Poor girl! We'll teach her yet to hold her spicy! :)

I'm so original!

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 0 people with my name in the U.S.A. http://howmanyofme.com">How many have your name?

There are 19,752 people in the U.S. with the first name Hillary, statistically the 1318th most popular first name.
There are 1,398 people in the U.S. with the last name Divis, statistically the 20425th most popular last name.
While both names entered were found in the database, neither was common enough to make it likely that someone in the U.S. has that name.

My funny children

First let me say that Jeremiah left the house at 5 this morning so I was wakened by a crash this morning at 7:45 and I ran to the kitchen to find Jack standing on a chair surrounded by a shattered drinking glass. He's funny because whenever he does something he thinks I'm going to be upset about he starts repeatedly saying before I can even say anything to him "I'm sorry Mom. I'm so sorry Mom. I'm so, so sorry." Who knows how long he'd been up this morning. The pantry door had been left open the night before so he had all kinds of stuff from the pantry including trail mix that was scattered on the table, mini dixie cups in mini stacks around the table & floor, a snack container that he couldn't get the lid off of, and more mess. He was working on getting a new cereal box opened (probably causing the glass to get knocked off the counter). Also the mop was on the kitchen floor. When I picked it up to put it with the bucket & take care of it he told me that he'd mopped & I discovered water in the mop bucket! We have a water cooler in the corner of our kitchen so I can just imagine him filling his little dixie cups and pouring the water into the bucket! Although it took me almost 45 minutes to get everything cleaned, swept & mopped, I found the whole thing pretty humorous. Anyway, here's a couple new funny things they've said. The couple things I remember anyway - they're constantly making me smile or laugh!

Jeremiah unfortunately taught our children to say "What's up? Chicken butt!" After some laughs when the kids said it I tried to at least band-aid the phrase & told them to say chicken bum. It only works half the time. But for a while they talked a lot about chicken butts & bums. So Jack's sitting on a kitchen chair & randomly says to me, "Mom, wanna look at my side? Look at my chicken butt. I have one!

A couple weeks ago Callie says to me, "Mom, you make my heart feel super happy!" OMG! If that doesn't melt your heart I don't know what would! I couldn't believe she'd come up with something like that. Turns out she didn't! I happened to sit down with her just in time to hear the end of this cartoon that I don't normally even have my kids watch, Ni Hao, Kai-lan (not because I don't approve but because they watch enough other stuff - why add one more to their list. Plus it doesn't seem as cute & sweet as stuff like Franklin & Little Bear.) Anyway, what does Kai-lan say at the end? "You make my heart feel super happy!" Oh well! It was still cute that she said it to me.

While we were in the car we were listening to some Disney CDs & the kids were guessing which movies the songs were from. One of them had both children stumped so Callie kept saying, "Tell me! Tell me!" I knew that she'd get it if she'd just keep listening so I told her to do just that. She kept asking & asking for me to tell her & she finally says, "I can't handle it mama! Tell me!"

Oh and the funniest one lately, Callie's sitting on the toilet a couple days ago & informs me: "Mom, pagina (what she calls her parts), rhymes with China." Where she got that one, I don't know - surely not from Ni Hao, Kai-lan! Oh & probably a year ago when she used to say Jermina instead of Jeremiah, she'd realized that pagina & Jermina sounded similar & it really annoyed Jeremiah and she knew it so she'd say, "Hi Jermina Pagina!" and giggle! LOL!!!

I just love the free entertainment my children are. Wait, free? Okay, maybe a movie's cheaper but a movie could never fill my heart with the love & joy my children bring to me!

Ellie's Newborn Pics

I almost forgot! Here's Ellie's newborn pics! I'm so glad I had them done! These are some of my favorites. There are more here!

Random stuff

It's past bedtime but here's one last post. Today's been a different day - Callie's with my mom visiting my Grandma & Grandpa Green in Heber, AZ. The house has been much more quiet! No fighting for one (meaning no squealing & a lot less crying), and plus she's a little chatterbox & talks my ear off! :) Poor Jack is such a sickly kid! I took him to the Dr. a couple weeks ago since I thought he had allergies & he does so he got a prescription for that. His nose has been running for a month! And now he's his molars are bothering him & he's been absolutely miserable for days! Then he started coughing a couple days ago - I don't know if it's from the allergies or what. Then today we were at someone's house & he & a little boy were chasing each other & Jack had a coughing fit & coughed so much that he threw up repeatedly! For about 20 mins. or more he was coughing so hard that he could barely talk to me! When we got home I gave him albuterol & a cough drop & that took care of it pretty quickly.

Anyway, here's a few more pictures & I'm off to bed!

I can't believe how much Ellie's grown in the last month! And these pictures were taken within minutes of the same time exactly one month apart!

My girls!


Ellie after her first bath! Okay, seriously she was a day shy of 5 weeks old before her cord came off! Ridiculous! I quit giving her sponge baths a while ago & had just been wiping her down with wipes because sponge baths suck! They take forever & she'd cry most of the time! I was so excited to finally be able to bathe her! And she didn't shed a single tear! I think she maybe even liked it!

We didn't get a single decent picture of our family or Ellie on her blessing day! Here we are anyway.

We had lots of family in town the last weekend of March because not only did we bless Ellie but also my dad was made Bishop of our ward. My Grandpa Green is great! Here he is reading to the kids, but he's so funny. The kids sat down with him & he opened the book & started making up all this gibberish to see if they'd say anything & they just listened & didn't say a word. For about 10 seconds. Till something else caught Callie's attention & she was off! We laughed about it & she never knew what had happened. Or cared! :)

Jonny left today. I still love him & I think he still loves me. He had the angry me at the end of the pregnancy, and then the teary, moody me afterwards (I'm 5 days sober!). I know Jeremiah will really miss having somebody to play with! Good luck this semester Jonny! Callie wanted to know your phone number tonight so she could call you from her great grandma's house & tell you goodnight!

Utah Trip

My mom & dad were going to Utah for General Conference & I knew my mom wanted to go early so I woke up Wednesday morning & called her & asked if she wanted to go that day! Totally a spur of the moment decision since I'd considered it the day before & decided definitely not! We didn't leave for almost 5 hours after we'd decided to go and travel takes even longer with a nursing infant (and I'm not one of those dangerous rule-breakers who will nurse in a moving vehicle!), so we only went to Beaver that day. Utah trips are usually jam-packed, trying to fit as many visits in with our friends & family as we can. This trip most of my friends and family got shafted because it was difficult for me to get out of Wendy's house for the day before 2pm since we stayed up too late visiting & had 7 kids between the 2 of us - 5 of them wild hooligans & 2 of them very demanding newborns! Usually I get some good shopping in too but this time very little shopping was done & it was great hanging out in our pajamas half the day & visiting & letting our kids have a ball!

So Wendy was upstairs talking to me while I was getting ready for the day and Callie called up the stairs to tell us that the boys were coloring on Jackson! Spencer's 4 1/2, Preston's 3, & Jack's 2 1/2. Wendy asked Spencer about it & Spencer informed us that Jack did the blue & the green & he & Preston did the rest. When we asked WHY he said because Jack was doing it first! LOL

Callie loves taking pictures & she went crazy with the camera. This one's of her best boy friend (since she is constantly reminding me that Corinne is her best friend in the whole wide world) Spencer. When I uploaded/downloaded - whatever you call it - my pictures onto the computer I saw all kinds of pictures that I didn't remember taking at Wendy's house, but it was easy to identify who'd taken them since they're all from ground level! :)


Here's all 7 of them! Emily, Ellie, Tanner, Jack, Preston, Callie, & Spencer!

It was pretty much impossible to take a nice picture of all of them, so we finally told them to do things like stick out their tongues or make funny faces. Callie & Spencer had a good time with this!

On a final note, it was great listening to Conference on my drive home Sunday. I LOVED the talk towards the end of the Sunday afternoon session about young mothers. It was both uplifting & motivating. I just love Conference!

BFFs

Emily & Ellie are going to be BFFs just like their mom's! haha The girls are just 16 days apart (Ellie's older) but Emily was 6lbs when she was born & Ellie was 7-2. Plus when you're this little 16 days can make a big difference! I love the looks on Ellie's face!

Oh look - Emily's telling Ellie their first secret. Wait, I think she's just hungry.

12 on the 12th

Saturday, April 12th


Jonny & Jeremiah are loading up the toys first thing so they're ready to go play when I get up! This is Jonny's last weekend here so the boys wanted to make sure & make it good!

Jackson is just hanging out waiting for the girls to get up! He's usually the first one up in our house.

Ellie gets a lot more "tummy time" than the other kids got - probably because she doesn't hate it like they did!

Somebody at my baby shower gave me a birdseed sock for the kids & they loved seeing the birds come & eat it all. I bought a second one but it didn't last long so I decided to buy a traditional bird feeder & cheap birdseed & today I finally hung it up in the yard.

Ellie's watching House Hunters with me. I watch that a LOT! Especially since I'm nursing so often! It's got to be HGTV's most popular show!

Jonny & our (their) cousin Tyson are headed out the door for a double blind date. Jeremiah's wishing them luck & hoping they'll like their dates!

My mom & dad had to go take somebody some keys an hour out of town so they took Callie & Jackson with them for the ride! It's SO great having my mom & dad live right here! They're a great help to us & do a lot to help me keep my sanity!

Callie & Jack love painting. And I love paint with water books! They're much cleaner than the normal water paints!

Kenny is giving Jack a bath since Jack is totally excited to play with the new Backyardigan's Pirate Ship tub toy that Uncle Kenny just brought him!

Callie is constantly playing dress-up & here is in true princess dance form in her new Princess Aurora dress-up gown that Uncle Kenny just brought her! Uncle Kenny loves to spoil Callie & Jack! They love it too, but he should save his money! :) He's such a good uncle, with or without presents & treats!

It's Saturday night & since we didn't go out we ordered in! It must seem like we eat out a lot! We really didn't before, but we've been eating out a LOT since Ellie was born. There are just not enough hours in the day! Hopefully soon I'll start cooking most of our meals again.

Oh sweet hot tub! How I've missed you! This was the first time in at least 10 1/2 months that I was able to get in! It killed me all winter long when my back was aching & Jeremiah would head out to soak!