Thankful

What could be more perfect then listening to Christmas music with my hubby next to me while drinking hot chocolate? Well maybe if a sleigh full of elves rolled up and cleaned my entire house, did my laundry, and did all my Christmas shopping. But right now it is perfect.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at my parent's house. My parent's house is seriously a luxury vacation spot. I had the entire weekend of Thanksgiving off from work. That has not happened in years. We had all the traditional Thanksgiving food along with a honey ham and we intruded the Skousens to Theda Lines turkey dressing recipe. I love that stuffing. Luke ate during the preparation and took a nap right before the big meal. Since it was all adults present (I guess I can sort of count my two youngest siblings in that category) we ate on my mom's china. I have secretly always wanted to eat on the china. My Aunt Barbara and Uncle Tanner can down from Idaho. Here are a few of the pictures I snapped.

We had German chocolate cake for my dad's birthday as if we hadn't eaten enough pie.

Yep, love birds.

It just wouldn't be a trip to Hyder unless my pyro build an enormous fire. 

 I got to go to one of Shanna's basketball games. It made me want to run out on the court and show those girls a thing or two. But then I realized I could only probably run up and down the court 3 times before I was spent. The life of a has been. I enjoyed watching my sister play.

  

Two Peas in a Pod

These two babes love each other. Luke drags Holly all over the place. He loves to wake her up from her naps and feed her things she cannot eat. I don't know why but I just love these pictures. If I ever forget I have two babies I just put them both into onsies. It seems to freeze them just for a bit.

These next three tell a typical morning story. You could almost insert any caption. I think it goes something like this:

"Hawee that's my bottle" I don't think you want to drink it.

No you really don't want to drink it.  

Holly why?

Halloween

I love dressing up. I was so happy that I convinced my dear husband to dress up with me exactly 15 minutes before leaving for the church. Costumes thrown together at the last minute always turn out the best.

 

Ticking Clock

I know all of my faithful readers, I have given up on my blog. That darn pinterest, perhaps if I looked at it less and devoted that time to blogging. Alas, the moans of a busy girl. Yes I still feel like a little girl playing a grown up game. I come home to a wonderful husband who kisses me everyday and a two year old who also demands his kisses. I have to tell myself all the time that I have two kids. Life has been so busy lately. My latest adventures include some leadership roles which are a little tough for me. I have never considered myself a natural born leader. I am more of the people pleaser and lets face it a push over. I will do everything within my power to avoid confrontation. I am learning the art of delegation and communication.
      I got a new calling in church a few months ago which I can finally wrap my head around. I am the Young Women's President in the Tempe Ward. I have such great girls and amazing leaders stacked into my organization that it make my job a breeze. Now that I have a calendar in place for the next few months, I truly feel better about life. They have brought some life back into me. We played volleyball on Wednesday for mutual. The girls had a great time and the 1st Counselor happens to be the Volleyball coach at Westwood High. At the end Chelsi offered to set me some balls to hit. I killed it! It felt so good. I think I even said something like, "Yeah I had two babies". Okay our net was extremely low because of the poor quality, but it was exactly what I needed. A little pick me up and Lisa you got this.  
     The next area of my life which I rarely expound on is my professional career. I sound so old and drab when I use the word career. I hate to even chalk it up to a career as my professional aspirations are to work 1 day every two weeks and stay home with my children. Let's call it my day job, that seems much lighter. We have been busier then every on the 7th Floor. Our unit has enough beds for 48 patients and it is enormous. I actually gave 7 units of blood products in one day on two different patients. 7 units!! That is absolutely nuts as the patient could have a severe reaction every time a new unit is hung. I have worked for Phoenix Children's for 3 1/2 years now. In the last few weeks I have trained to the Relief Charge Nurse. What is a relief charge you ask? Well it is a fill in for when the 3 regular charge nurses are not scheduled. It is usually not very often, but one of our Charge Nurses broke her wrist and is out on medical leave. So today I was in charge of the floor. I carried the phone and prayed all day long that nothing would happen. I had a fairly decent day filled with some problem solving and creative staffing, but I survived. Thankfully no patients were transferred to the PICU and no one coded.
     The other night my kids and husband were sound asleep at 9 o'clock. I had worked that day so my mind still desperately needed a wind down. I sat on my chair reading a book. I started to get annoyed at the clock ticking. I just wanted quiet. Then I thought to myself, when is the last time it was still enough in my house to hear the clock ticking. I was thankful for that little moment. Heavenly Father know our needs and knows what experiences will strengthen us. I am thankful for that little voice that tells me Lisa you got this.

As if crawling isn't enough

This week I have come to a realization that my baby is growing up. She eats all sort of foods and thankfully no teeth yet. I swear last week she learned to crawl and now she is climbing and pulling up on everything. She just turned 7 months two days ago.

Weddings

Every time I think about blogging another month has gone by and it seems like I have taken less and less pictures. I had two weeks off work in August and it was wonderful! Ofcourse I forgot my camera on our trip, but here are few snap shots of the festivities. Jacob and Stacey were married in San Diego on August 11th and Tice and Ellen were married August 15th in Mesa. Tice is my cousin that lived in Gilbert, whom Luke adores. Tice would play with Luke for hours in Aunt J's back yard when I was hugely pregnant with Holly. Now Tice is off with his new bride to Provo for school. 

At Jake and Stacey's wedding

   Tice and Ellen's wedding

For some reason I actually love these pre-pictures of our family. They tell the whole story of our crazies. 

 Emma. I love this girl! Really this one is funny. (And all of my other nieces I didn't get pictures of.)

 Bride and groom (I know, terrible picture)

 Luke in suspenders. Yep he loved those.

My Holly Doll is so sweet. I am so glad she picked our family.  

A relatively decent bride and groom shot. 

Cousins

All these girls are 4 months apart! From oldest to youngest: Clara(January), Holly (February), Isabella & Gabriella (April) We are just missing Capri! She was born in March!!! She's represented here by the blanket :)


My sister in law posted this adorable picture on facebook. Holly is so lucky to have not 1 but 5 girl cousins within 4 months of her age. Not to mention two more boy cousins in the Lines family that sandwich all these girls. Not all are from the Lines side, Amy Rose was born    
on May 5 for a Skousen cousin. We are so excited to meet her next week at Jake and Stacey's wedding!!!!

Baby Food

Oh the joys of introducing a new baby to solid food. I for one think it is a royal pain and usually more work than it is worth. I have made a valiant effort in feeding Holly rice cereal this week. So far so good as we have mixed in applesauce and banana. She mostly tries to suck her thumb and tongue out food.

Talking Babies

Luke is a little jibber jabber tot these days. He is like a sponge and everyday he adds more to his vocabulary. He is even starting to build phrases. His most popular is "I want it" and "Good job". He also gets my attention by calling "Wisa and Honey". Today he called me "Wo ver" after Eric summoned me from the parking lot with a "lover". He smiled like a silly boy. He loves to copy anything we say.  

Holly has found her voice as well, so I have two babies that talk and I have no idea what they are saying. Here are a couple of videos. Please don't mind my obnoxious mamma voice. 

Luke is obsessed with a Sesame Street video we have called "Learning about letters". He loves the letter O. 

Dear Blog

I can't believe what a hypocrite I have turned into. I have to confess I get annoyed when people don't update there blogs for months. Then there is the make up blog post which is supposed to cover months of no updates. I know I know, that is exactly what I am doing right now. I could blame my lack of blogging on many things but having two kids under 18 months and working two 12 hours shifts a week should cover most of my excuses. I have really enjoyed spending time with and playing with my children. And I have enjoyed work lately. We moved from an old dingy building with two patients per room to a posh brand new floor with private rooms and all the bells and whistles. Life is great.

So here are a few random things that triggered the I should blog that thought.

I got my eyebrows waxed the other day. The lady doing then had penciled on eyebrows. I was very nervous but ironically she did the best job I have every had.

I could probably devote an entire blog post listing the food items Luke has stuck up his nose. Seriously this kid has a nose problem. If it can fit up there he has shoved it up his nose. Peas, raisins, craisins, sauage, bread crumbs, oh and my favorite he rips off tiny pieces of the wipees and puts those up his nose too. At night when he goes to sleep he twirls his blanket on his nose, weird. I don't know what to do about that.

We bought the Costco box of wipes. I rounded up 6 open packages today. I guess we just pull out a new one every time. Sheesh.

My beloved Kitchen-aid broke! Apparently more that 6 cups of contents is full for the mixer if you add anymore ingredients no warranty. Eric was making bread with the same recipe my mom has used for years in her kitchen-aid.

Our new floor in Care Area 7 has a cozy lactation room, complete with a comfy recliner and hospital grade breast pump. Before the move pumping was a royal pain at work in a tiny room used for storage.  Thank you for accommodating nursing mothers. 

We haven't done anything too exciting the last couple of months, so here are a few snapshots of our normal.

Go Dog. Go 

Isabella, Holly, & Gabriella 

 Yes, he figured this out on his own. 

Best Sunday picture so far. I have about a thousand of Luke mauling Holly.   

Another attempt at a Sunday shot.  

 (Before the stated eyebrow wax, yikes)

Crafting vs. Construction

I love love this video. President Uchtdorf puts it so simply. We women love to create and need to create. I have had a few projects I have been wanting to finish. With the two kiddos it is difficult and almost near impossible to find time to sit down and create. I told Eric all I wanted to do was to sit down for 3 hours and do something uninterrupted. He laughed and thought I was a little silly, but like a loving husband helped me fulfill my request. He even extended a helping hand. Women have an inner need and desire to create and I think men have an equal desire which also involves using tools (especially power tools in our case we'll count the stapler) and getting their hands dirty. I should have known that a simple bow board project would have brought out the construction worker Eric. Eric worked at his father's roofing business for years installing suspended ceilings. He happily got out all of his tools and helped me build the sturdiest reinforced bow board. I had to realize I couldn't tell him how to measure things and put in screws. I decided to save that heated conversation for when we remodel a bedroom or bathroom down the road. I had a sewing mindset and wanted to use patterns and templates, while Eric trusted his measuring tape and eye balling skills. I must say he did a wonderful job so without further adieu Holly's bow board.

I should have taken a picture of the back. This baby is not falling apart. Construction lesson number 1, you can never secure your work too much. Not reinforcing enough only cost more money later.

My man and all the tools. 

My mom gave me some of the extra fabric from the crib bedding so it matches. I need to pay proper tribute to my mother for making Holly's adorable bedding. Here is her quilt. 

I also made all the bows and hair clips on the board. With Etsy for inspiration and a YouTube tutorial you can make anything. Here is a link to the ribbon rose tutorial. I had to watch it several times and burn my fingers with a glue gun many times to produces these flowers. Note to self next time I buy a 2 dollar glue gun, buy the low temp one.

Does Wheat Really Stay Good for 30 years?

Well at least 22 years. Thanks to some wheat from Momma Lines from 1989 and a wheat grinder for Christmas from Momma Skousen we made some delicious wheat bread . I was a little skeptical about the wheat but once ground up, it yielded superb wheat flour. So stalk up for the next 30 years. :)

2 months old

Holly is growing up so fast. At her 2 month appointment she weighed 11 lbs 10 oz and was 24 inches long. Putting her above the 95 percentile for height and 50 to 75th percentile for weight. Our kids have small heads and she is in the 30th percentile for head circumference.

She is starting to coo and smile. She loves her older brother since he is always in her face or next to her in the bouncer. Luke brings her toys and Cookie Monster attacked her face yesterday. Once again we are working on being "soft." Holly has gotten into a beautiful routine and sleeping 6-8 hour chunks at night. Now I know because I wrote that she is sleeping great, I am doomed for a few more sleepless nights.