It's great to be 8...months old!

I've been awful at keeping up with charlies monthly updates which bums me out because I know i forget all these first of hers!

But hopefully I won't procrastinate any more :)

Charlie is 8 months (and 2 weeks old) now. Her first tooth FINALLY broke thru yesterday! Her two bottom teeth have been coming and her gums have been swollen for a while but they took their sweet time actually breaking the skin. Charlie has been a champ though. It doesn't seem to faze her much. 

She is now fully crawling and had been for about a month and a half. She was a late roller but as soon as she started rolling she started rolling all over the house and then just full on crawling. For the past two weeks she's been mastering pulling her self up and walking along the furniture. I still can't believe how mobile she is! She loves opening and getting into anything she's not suppose to. Her nick name right now is "trouble." Infact we might change her name to charlie trouble maker Simpson. 

She also LOVES eating anything but baby food. She wants what we're eating and sometimes refuses baby food. And for about a week now is only drinking formula. I wanted to breastfeed for a year and around 7 months I started to get worn out. She was still waking up twice a night and I knew it was because she wanted to nurse for comfort not because she was hungry and being the selfish mom I am just wanted to sleep thru the night. It took her a while to get her to drink formula but once I did (and by i I mean my sister) she had no problem taking a bottle except at night which I expected. I slowly weaned her off her night time bottle and sure enough she decided waking up for a bottle wasn't worth it. So we are both now happy and well rested! 

Here are her monthly pictures. It's not as easy as it looks....

But in the end we end up with a decent picture :) 

My baby started kindergarten

I CANT believe Bella is in kindergarten. We had her meet the teacher day last Tuesday and her teacher is so nice. Bella really likes her. She learned where her chair at school was and where her cubby was. Then today came and she was so excited! I was too:) she said "I can't believe I get to wear my new outfit today!" We went back to school shopping 2 weeks ago and I made her wait to wear her new outfit. I wish she needed more clothes but Bella seriously has WAY too much so I couldn't justify buying her more than one outfit. 

Doug and I drove her to school and we were the second people to arrive. Bella was a little shy at first but I could tell how excited she was.

Watching her walk inside with her class was so sad for me. She waved at me and I just wanted to follow her so bad! I wanted to see what she was going to do that day. I wanted to watch her interact with her classmates, her teacher. In a weird way I was jealous of her teacher. My baby is growing up. 

When I picked up Bella from school I was so excited to hear about her day and I'm happy to say she LOVED it! She told me all day everything she did today. She told me they colored, they played, they spun, Her teacher read her books. I really am so happy gang she loved it. It really was such a relief to me. I would have been so sad to send her back everyday if she hated it but she is so ready for school!

Tomorrow Bella wants to ride the bus....wish us luck. I'm scared about that too and was perfectly happy taking her to school everyday but she wants to ride the bus dang it...

I made a cute little video of Bella's first day right here. I know I'll love watching it when she's older:)

 

 

The pick me up I've been praying for.

I'm not sure why but for the past few weeks, months I'm not sure anymore I have been in such a spiritual rut. It takes everything in me to get dressed and ready for church on Sunday. I have to remember to pray in the mornings, and reading my scriptures feels like such a burden. I don't like it. I keep going thru the motions but that's about it. If you know me, really know me you'd know I pray almost constantly. In my head it's like a never ending prayer keeping an open conversation with my Heavenly Father. So this last few weeks I've been praying and asking what can I do to get out of this? Today I got a little answer. 

http://youtu.be/2w49_1a9X0Q

I watched this video and my heart was full again. I'm human and this isn't my first spiritual rut but it's the first time it's lasted so long. Watching this mans testimony and story reminded of when I felt at my most darkness. How I felt with my first act of faith which was a simple prayer. I remember how I felt after. It's so comforting knowing that my answers are always a prayer away. 

"I realized it was part as our condition as mortals to sometimes feel as if we are surrounded by darkness. And even though we feel lost, that god promises go uliuminate the way before us. No matter how long it takes. 

Spiritual light rarely comes to those who merely sit in darkness waiting for someone to flip a switch. It takes an act of faith to open our eyes to the light of Christ." 

Promptings and blessings.

When we moved to Idaho we had two choices. 1. Live with our parents for a while and buy a house or 2. Live in the house Doug bought before we got married. #2 may seem obvious but the house Doug bought was old and a little bit on the smaller size especially to what were used to. We decided that even though we do love our parents we would probably love them more a few miles away from them lol. 

The first time I came to our house I almost cried. We have had 3 different renters living in it in the past three years and they really made it gross. The carpets were disgusting especially my future babies room. I thought "how in the world am I suppose to let my baby sleep in here!?" I wanted to call and yell at Doug. Seriously I didn't even want Bella to sit on the floor. I didn't know what to do so I did what I always do when I don't know what to do. I prayed. A lot! 

The next couple of days I humbled myself. A house is a house and I am not better than this one. Who am I to think I am above living here right? Especially since this was Doug's grandmas house. There are a few times in my life where I have felt like Heavenly Father is truly talking to me. I have to listen so carefully but I prayed so hard for comfort, for guidness seriously just anything and this is one of the few times I knew he said to me "this house will be a HUGE blessing to you." That was a huge turning point for me. A few days later Doug came and my mom and I had already started cleaning it and even though I cleaned the bathroom like I've never cleaned before (I scrubbed walls and ceilings!) he even said "i would feel bad giving Bella a bath in here." So we gutted it. New floors, vanity, closet thing, toilet, everything and it looked a million times better! I felt a million times better. Then my awesome dad took out the carpet in the kitchen and put new floors. I felt even better. And finally Doug took out the carpet in Charlie's room AND the padding underneath (it was soo filled with pet poo/pee that Even doug wanted to throw up) and put in new flooring. Nothing fancy but my baby could sleep in there. I was happy! We cleaned the carpets in the rest of the house moved everything in and called this place home. 

A few weeks later i hosted my sister in laws baby shower and Doug's aunts came. They knew this house from when Doug's grandparents lived here and they said something that made this house amazing in my eyes. They said that Doug's grandpa built this house for his grandma. That he wanted to make sure it was sturdy and she would be able to live here after he was gone. My little house was built with a lot of love and i now understood why after every little fixture doug said "my grandpa would be proud that I'm fixing this!" 

Okay so fast forward 8 months and I now know why this house is such a big blessing. It's small so 1.the mortgage is small. 2. We just paid it off. What!? Doug and I decided to try our hardest to be debt free ASAP and we paid off our house June 5, 2014! I'm 24 and Doug is 27 and we OWN our home! It feels amazing! I have to say Doug has been trying to get me on board for a while but I just didn't understand. He finally got me to start reading Dave Ramsey: the total money makeover and ever since then we have worked together to make this work! I'm sooo incredibly proud of my husband. He's seriously my hero and I wish I listened to him sooner! Doug has always been so worried about providing enough for our family and he works like crazy! Seriously I've never met anyone who works harder then him. I constantly have to remind him that he is doing enough and that we are more than happy! Now I have proof because in 6 months (we started at the end of January) we were able to pay off our house with me still being a stay at home mom and a new baby! So if you see him tell him he's awesome :) 

It's my birthday I can do what I want!

When I was pregnant and I pictured playing with my little girl I thought of a baby and a 5 year old. It sounds wierd but I just imagined playing with my five year old, her going to school for the first time, riding her bike and now that time is here. I've never really cried over Bella getting older until now. Seriously I'm crazy I cried not once, not twice bit FOUR times! I just can't believe how fast these last 5 years have gone and I'm a little scared of how fast the next 5 will go. 

Anyway so this year I was really hoping her birthday would be special. Doug and I got her a bike and I was sooo excited to see her face when she saw her brand new bike for the first time. Bella did not disappoint. Her jaw literally dropped when she first saw it and begged us to go ride it! We made her wait until after breakfast (mostly so we could wake up a little and not scare the neighbors with my morning face) but she didn't mind since Doug got her donuts for breakfast! We stuck a candle in it and sang to her. So after our nutritious breakfast we went on a bike ride and I have been looking forward to this bike ride since we bought the bike. Unfortunately Bella whined halfway thru that we were going to fast, there was too many cars, it was hot, the list goes on. Finally we made it home and her neighbor friends rode with us for a minute when my little monster started saying "it's my birthday I can do what I want" as she tried riding into the road. Doug grabbed her and corrected her But then after her saying it to Doug and back talking we had to take her inside for a time out and a stern talking to. I won't drag on the entire day but I was so excited to take her to her favorite lunch spot, a movie maybe, the park and we had to leave the park as soon as we got there because of the terrible fit she thru. Seriously one of the worst ones ever. We didn't even make it to the movie. Finally in the evening after dinner and some much needed quiet time for all if us I decided to try and redeem her birthday. Her neighbor friends that she loves came and played and she was happy. Then i walked to the park with Charlie while Bella rode her bike. She had a lot of fun and was really good! She saw a lot of her friends from church which was nice. When we came home she rode her bike around the house for about twenty min and instead of putting her to bed right at 8 I made popcorn put on a movie and let her start watching while I put Charlie to bed. Bella and I finished the movie and cuddled. I think we both needed the cuddle time. 

I feel like the meanest mom for putting Bella in time out so much today. Especially since now it's a five minute time out instead if four. I was so looking forward to having a great fun day but Bella wanted to keep me on my toes apparently lol. I asked her before bed if she had a good birthday and she said yes, and she was sorry for being naughty.  I'm glad she still enjoyed it. 

At the end of the day I still am very grateful for my little sour patch kid:) 

Bella's Golden Year.

Have you ever herd of your golden year? Your golden year is the year you turn the same age as your birthdate. So Bella turned 4 on June 4th last year. I never really paid much attention to it but Bella truly had a golden year. This year Bella was adopted by Doug

Sealed and sealed to doug and I for time and I eternity 

and she became a big sister for the first time. 

I think she's had a pretty great golden year :) she accomplished a lot for a four year old.

Woohoo Charlie is 4 months!

I feel like I blinked and Charlie is four months old! These past four months have seriously gone by so fast. I finally feel like I have a good routine and I can handle two kids. Charlie has been such a sweet baby. All she wants is to eat, sleep and be with her family. I decided babies are smarter than a lot if humans these days (myself included.) seriously she doesn't want the best of anything, she doesn't care what she's wearing or if she has the latest toy all she wants is to be with her family and to eat. Seriously she doesn't mess around when it comes to food. 

So Charlie just had her four month checkup and she weighed 15.5 lbs and is 25 1/4 inches long! It's crazy how much she's grown. She's still a very smiley baby loves chatting with people. 

New things she loves this month is her playmat even more. As I was going thru her four month pictures every time I looked up her body was in a different position. She doesn't really roll over yet so I was afraid I missed it but she is just spinning. Who needs to roll when you can spin? 

Something else She loves is her exersaucer. She has really started grabbing things and putting them in her mouth so it's super cute watching her play. I love it!!! 

Playing has really started and what she's been working on the most this month. I could watch her all day. Especially since every day she really does get stronger and can grab and reach things a little better than the day before. 

These moments are some of my favorites. 

Anywho! Another one of her favorites is going on walks which I love! I'll put her in her stroller and she hardly fusses at all. She's loves looking around. Earlier this week we did 3 miles with a friend and Charlie fussed for a minute or two at the end of our alk and then fell asleep. It was awesome. Even Bella walked the entire thing which I was proud of. 

This month we also got her ears pierced. She cried for about 5 minutes and then forgot. So not too bad. I made Doug hold her lol. 

Before 

After. Yes it was really sad. 

I'm not sure why but I'm obsessed with her chubby little hands! Seriously ADORABLE!!

Okay back to business she also started sucking her thumb. Not all the time but just randomly. She has been sucking her fingers for a while but just started on her thumb. She's adorable! 

We also started giving her solids. So far she's had green breans, banana, and sweet potato! She LOVES food! When I started giving Bella food she didn't know what to do really and she didn't care but Charlie does not mess around with food! She wants it and she wants it now! 

Okay now here are our monthly pictures! I took her rug out because I decided it's too bright and I rather focus on Charlie. Hope you enjoy :)

Her sweet face!

Here's one I wish I started from the beginning but didn't think to dang it! 

Bella and Charlie. There's only a 20 pound difference between these two. 

And of course Bella being the silly girl she is wanted her own pictures so here's Bella's 59 month pictures lol. 

She's silly and that's why I love her :)