Since my last post something happened that makes us look pathetic, so I was debating if I actually wanted to write about the embarrassing parts of our life. and I decided that I will. What happened was some unknown person wrote a note on an envelope on our front door that said - "once when I really needed some extra cash a stranger left some on my windshield. I couldn't get you out of my mind! Hope you can use this for something." I guess I was ashamed that I have become that person. That kind of person that everyone knows is poor and feels bad for. But I don't really think of our situation is that pathetic. maybe we don't have everything we could ever want, but who can? The answer is no one. No matter what our income is we will always want more. We definitely aren't rich, but we have enough to pay all of our bills AND have some extra money. Our babies have diapers and clothes and get to have fun every single day, and I get to stay home and enjoy everything they do. That being said, don't bother feeling sorry for me, because I am probably feeling bad for you, that you might not be enjoying life as much as I am despite our means. This reminds me of the story of the two brothers who owned a farm together. At the end of the season they split the hay or whatever they were growing in half and sold it. One season after they split it one of the brothers went and took 1/3 of his crop and put it on his brother's saying, "My brother has a 7 kids and I have none he needs it more than I." later that night the other brother went to his crop and took 1/3 of his crop and gave it to his brother saying, "My brother has no family he needs this more than I." Or something like that:) then they went out the next day and saw that the piles of hay were equal so they went out that night to do the same thing. This time they saw each other and hug and yada yada yada. But with all that being said i was really happy to find the note. it said one of my friends had been thinking about me, and as fate would have it I have been feeling like i don't have any friends here. So when I got this note I was deeply touched and resolved to be extra nice to everyone and try to make even more friends.
Its sad how one experience with a person can really hurt you and your ego. Like when you think you are good friends with someone and they just aren't there for you when you really need someone. I've been really sick for the past like 3 months, and that really put my friends to the test. Few seemed to pass, bringing us dinner or a dessert without me asking, watching max, and offering to help clean up. Mostly the people who really were there for us were people we barely knew! So in a way getting sick was really good for my mental health, it weeded out the people who were bringing me down emotionally and replaced them with compassionate selfless people. That being said they have pushed me to be better to strangers too.

Another interesting thing happened this week that I'm not too proud of. When Ian started his job we were in some debt, and he wasn't making enough to pay all the bills so we got into a little bit of debt. Not a lot but enough that we never had anything left at the end of every paycheck and we decided that instead of paying tithing first, we would pay our power or whatever so we wouldn't get kicked out of our apt or have something turned off. We figured we would be all caught up by the end of the year and we could pay whatever we owe in tithing. So the end of the year rolls around and we are about 200 dollars short, so our bishop gave us until the end of January. So what happened was I had a baby, and Ian had some paid days off that he took and I was scared to have two kids at home by myself so i made him take off another two days until my mom got here. So when I realized we wouldn't have that extra money for tithing I called my bishop and told him the situation, and that we could catch up on the past year but wouldn't really be paying the current balance. He chastised me a bit and i talked to Ian and we decided to pay that before rent. Then a few days later we got exactly 200 dollars in the mail from Ian's parents, not knowing that was the exact amount we needed. It was amazing how that happened. I don't even feel like we deserve that, it just makes me realize how much god loves us. Like a lot. I always feel completely taken care of, the day I feel like god has deserted me will be a sad day indeed. But I don't think that day will ever come.

Nana comes to visit

Nana came to visit about a week after Lily was born.

Karina thought it would be fun to tag along, and that ended up to be a complete disaster so they left early.

All I have to say about Tanner and Max is I hope one day they can like each other half as much as they hated each other on this trip. Then they would be best friends.

 Anyway Nana came and helped out a ton. She took max sledding in the negative degree weather and made us real food (which we hadn't had since probably Thanksgiving). She also made a batch of delicious cookies (or Deedo as max likes to call them) every other day. I really don't know if Max was eating them all or if it was Ian, but they went really fast.

Nana and Max Dancing on New Years

Kay getting her New Years Kiss

Lily getting a bath.

These were our attempts at taking Newbron pictures. This is also why people pay so much to get them done, They are really hard!

Lily's reaction when she found out Nana was leaving andd wouldn't stay with us forever.

More about Lily

This was almost a day after she was born, she actually looked cute with the little bow the hospital gave her.

The first night we brought her home. Max was understanding more about her, like we can't drive our hot wheels on her face. So it was nice to see them all reading a bedtime story together.

The day before Christmas, i wanted everyone to see how awesome I looked since we never took a picture at the hospital.

She was just so tiny I couldn't help myself

Seriously she has the biggest double chin ever! Love it!

For some reason she likes being wrapped like that.

There you have it:)

Lily

Lily turned one month today and so I thought I would put a few pictures up of her and say a few things.

She was born at 3:36 am on Friday the 21st of December.

8 pounds 1 oz. 20.5 inches long

Labor was really short about 4 hours. Only 1 where I was really in pain, and I got to do it without an epidural since I had such a terrible experience last time. Another nurse came in after and said I did a good job because usually you can hear screaming all the way down the hall with women who do it naturally but no one heard me. So I guess that's good.

We named her Lily Ataline. Its funny how picking out names work, I had a list of 30 names that I liked and Ian looked at it once and said, "these are all terrible, except for Lily." But before I got pregnant we had a different name picked out, this may sound crazy but i feel like that little spirit kind of picks out their own name. It happened the same way with Max. I hated the name Max, but then i got preggo and somehow it just felt right. Her middle name is Ataline which is an anagram for Natalie. I never really liked my middle name Marie and neither did Ian and I didn't want her middle name to be Natalie because that sounded lame, and I really like the name Adaline, so thats how she got her middle name.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 She was pretty fat when she came out, and blond. Neither of us were expecting that.

She looked so chubby, bruised, and angry we thought she resembled the old lady from The Goonies. At least for the first day or so.

Chicken Bouillon

So on Saturday we went on our first family outing all together. It was so exciting that Lily didn't even bother waking up the entire time we were gone, but hey I'm not complaining. We went to Target because Max got a Lightning McQueen car for Christmas and he lost it last weekend. Ever since Max lost it he has been freaking out and demanding us to find it for him. So of course that night after we got him another one we find the first one.... Oh well we knew that would happen.

Anyhow we also went to Sam's club and bought enough Chicken Bouillon cubes to last for the next five years. So as soon as we got home Max brings the container to me thinking it is candy since they are wrapped in shiny papers and asks me to open it for him. So instead of telling him no they are gross and having him whine, I gave him one:) He licked it once and decided it was gross and just held it in his hand. Then Ian started asking Max for the candy in his hand because it was sooo good, and kept saying how delicious it was and how much he wanted to eat it until max ran away. About a minute later Max came into the living room with the cube just sitting in the side of his cheek with a grossed out look. So after we laughed for a bit Ian asked if he wanted to throw it away and Max nods yes. So we walk him over to the trash where he opens his mouth and slowly and carefully reaches in his mouth to get the cube out without having it touch his tongue. After Max threw away the remaining of the cube that hadn't dissolved in his mouth, he just stands there with his mouth open trying not to swallow or taste it. So Max is just standing there with a constant flow of drool streaming from his mouth, trying his hardest not to swallow or taste anything. We take him to the bathroom to rinse out his mouth, but he won't do it. So Ian hands him a towel and Max just starts wiping his tongue with the towel, then puts his mouth under and faucet and lets the water run through his mouth for a full five minutes.
It was pretty entertaining to watch and Max hasn't asked me to unwrap another bouillon cube since then:)

Why i'm starting a blog

Well I guess thanks for reading my new blog. I am mainly writing this because I have the worst memory in the whole world and I want my kids to know about the funny stuff that they did when they were too little to remember. Also I wanted to try to take more pictures and have the stories behind them. The last reason I suppose would be to let our family know what we are up to since we are so far away and Ian and I stink at calling people:)