Grandma Gertrude's 98th birthday

We are so fortunate to have Deb's Grandmother living in SLC now. She lives at Atria in Sandy. By coincidence two of my old AXO girlfriends also have family at Atria Sandy AND Dave's Grandpa Bill moved there as well. It is a wonderful facility that gives elderly people the option to live in an assisted living situation or have their own apartment with different levels of help. I highly recommend this place if anybody is ever in need to find new housing for a loved one! Anyway we celebrated Grandma's 98th birthday this year, so exciting. We had a lovely dinner at my Mom's house and my Uncle Scott ( Grandma's son) and his wife Lucy came out from New Jersey to celebrate with us. The only people we really missed were Craig and Ian who are too far away in London:(

Ashley starts preschool!

Ashley is starting preschool this year. She will be going to the Newcastle School in Draper on Tuesday and Thursday 8:30-11:30am. Her teacher is named Miss Debi and she has a daughter named Ashlee....what a coincidence!

London with Ashley

How do I begin?? The trip over started with our flight from SLC to JFK. The in seat entertainment was broken...no kids cartoons. So I tried Go Go wireless on the laptop, it would stream for 15 minutes then stop for 15 minutes....aaargh. 5 hours, no kids movies, no nap. Flight from JFK to LHR. Ash falls asleep right after we take off. I mistakenly wake her when dinner arrives. All hell breaks loose, LOUD wailing, crying " I want to go home" " I want my own bed" " I don't want to go to London". One hour later still getting stares from other passengers...are you going to shut your child up anytime soon??? I finally lie to Ash and tell her that I will have the pilot turn the plane around and when she wakes up we will be back in SLC. We eat, she watches cartoons, we are only 3 hours from London and she only slept a total of 2 hours. I give her some Dramamine and she is out. I wake her when we arrive at LHR. More crying, wailing etc. " Hold me Mommy pleaseeeeee!" " I am so tired...my legs don't work!" We stand in the Customs line for 40 minutes before a kind Immigration Officer comes and pulls us to the front of the line. I think the other 700 people were tired of listening to her. Disaster.
Time change ended up not bothering her at all. In bed every night by 8pm, up at 8am no naps, just like home...aaaah:) My brother Craig cooked me wonderful meals every day. I drank wine with every dinner. Never had to wash dishes..I didn't want to come home:) We went to Legoland, rode the double decker bus, the tube, went to the playground everyday, the Sea Life Aquarium, visited Ian's sister and her family, visited Mark's Spencer Department Store and much more. Craig and Ian were great hosts and I can't wait to go back...perhaps just with Dave next time:)
We left one week later, flew from LHR to JFK. As we came closer to JFK to pilot announced were were going into a holding pattern...okay.....2 hours later "Well folks were are low on fuel so we are diverting to Newark to refuel, then we'll get new paper work and head back to JFK....thanks for your patience." Well we had a 3 1/2 hour layover in JFK....so much for that.
About 90% of the airplane missed their connection, we were all stranded until the next morning. Ash fell asleep again 20 minutes before we landed and I had to wake her up to get off the plane. More crying, more wailing....oh God here we go again. Yet again, the Customs Officials saved us by bringing us to the front of the line. I think the other 300 passengers were very grateful. We all shuffled over to Terminal 4 to find a comfy couch or bench. Once I had Ash settled she fell asleep immediately. 30 minutes later I felt so awful, nauseous, sweaty, yuck. I spent the next 4 hours running to the bathroom to vomit. Fortunately, I was next to lovely ladies from England who were willing to watch over Ash and our luggage, while I ran to the bathroom. They were true guardian angels.
Below is our slide show from London.

Legoland

At the end of August I bid for a long (24 hour) overnight in Orange County, CA. It was over a weekend and the plan was to bring along Dave and the girls and visit Aunt Cathy (Dave's sister). After a horendous flight with Madison screaming for freedom, we arrived to sunny 72 degree weather. We piled into Cathy's car and headed to Legoland for some fun! After yucky traffic and a 2 hour drive to go 50 miles, we arrived. The rides are perfect for small kids and waits were not to bad for a Saturday. We left when the park closed at 8pm and both girls quickly fell asleep....sweet silence:) We stopped for gas right next to the hotel and Cathy's car battery died. She had it towed in the morning and all was well. Maddie still screamed on the flight home...just not as long as the way over. She is officially banned from airplane travel until she is two...unless she is traveling with Nana and Papa...they can have her:)

Katie's Baby Shower

Back in June I hosted a baby shower for my fabulous sister in law Katie. She lives in Vegas so she came up for the weekend and we had the shower on Saturday the 19th. We had a great turn out of family and friends. Baby Taylor was born September 20th 2010, more pics of her later! We are excited to have a new cousin in the family, we love you!

Money

This is a tough subject for many. We are spending around $1,000/month for food, gas, clothes and toiletries, diapers, cleaning supplies etc. Dave thinks it is too much. I want to know what everybody else spends per month and see if I am really overspending or we are about the same. If you feel comfortable leaving a comment for me privately I'd love some feedback on what your house spends...if not that's okay...Dave and I will still argue every month about who is right:)

Just a few random thoughts

I very rarely blog about everyday life, but hey maybe someone out there wants to hear about it. Ash says funny things right now.." Mom don't step on cracks they break your back" She really does avoid every crack on the ground.. "Mom watch out for the muddles ( muddy puddles)" " Mom does she have ammonia (pneumonia)?" " Mom you are sooo beautiful" not funny but downright touching:)
Life has been a bit crazy with Ash starting preschool last week. She is in heaven and barely says goodbye as she bolts out of the car. She seems to be enjoying it so far and it is great for me to have some alone time with Maddie. I started Little Gym with Maddie yesterday, we are going to the same location I went to with Ash. The teacher, Mr. Braden is AWESOME and I think it is great for the kids to see a male role model for a change in this type of setting. I was practically in tears watching Maddie run around for an hour climbing on everything and smiling and giggling...she was so happy!!! Teething in my house has been rough the last 2 months. We are not giving her the binky like we did with Ashley to get through the day. Maddie only gets it at nap and bedtime...therefore my life is pretty much a scream fest all day long as she gnaws on her fist and even bites herself so hard she cries louder!!! Maddie is a screamer and I'm at my wits end!! Is it because she is the 2nd child and Ash picks on her all day or is it just Satan in my cute child's body and she has no control???
Here is a quick run down of our typical day on school days. I get up at 6:30am to shower and get ready, wake up ash at 7:15am, get her dressed, brush teeth and do hair ( but not like the Grinch she says..). Then I get Maddie up and dressed. We go downstairs, heat up 2 sippy cups of milk and feed the dog. We eat breakfast quickly so we can leave by 8:15am. I pick up Ash at 11:30am and we usually run one errand and get lunch somewhere. Maddie falls asleep on the drive home and I put her in her crib. She doesn't transfer well so she wakes up and plays until 2 or 2:30 pm then falls asleep again. I put Ash in her room to play quietly and watch a DVD while I nap for an hour and do any computer stuff I need to. Both girls out of room by 4pm. We have a snack and then I force them to go outside in the backyard while I start dinner. Some days they play really well outside together, other days they scream and cry every 5 minutes over toys. I feed the girls and eat with them around 5:30 or 6pm. Dave is home around 6:30-6:45pm. He entertains Maddie while I clean up the days dishes and load the dishwasher. I no longer do the dishes after every meal. I stack them during the day on the counter and load them all after dinner...this helps me feel like I'm not doing dishes all day in the kitchen. After cleaning up it's time to get the girls ready for bed around 7:30pm. Ash goes right down at 8pm now that we have cut out her nap. If your 3 year old fusses at bed time and doesn't go to sleep until 10pm it is time to give up the nap...I promise you that 1 week of cranky transition is worth it!!! By 10pm I am DONE for the day and go to bed to read for a few minutes before it's off to la la land.