This really nice lady at Greg's work got Scarlet and Brighton outfits. So nice!!!! This was part of Scarlet's gift.

Scarlet's been coloring like a mad woman. I love it. She gets so excited and runs over to me, with her papers, to show me what she's done.

Another dumpster find!

I was in the shower and when I came out I saw this-

Naughty, naughty, naughty. She wouldn't let me take her pic so I told her she wouldn't get a time out if she smiled for me. I couldn't help myself.

Pat came out to visit for a week! It was so great! She just left yesterday. Scarlet is sad and asked for her within 10 minutes of getting home and then a couple hours later, as well as today. They had a good time.

Brighton has grown a TON. So much!!!! He's such a cutie. We just love him. He smiles all the time and is really happy.

Playing at the playground.

It never ceases to amaze me how beautiful my kids are.

This is Scarlet whining for Diego.

Is he a cutie or what?

Right before we took Pat to the airport.

Out hiking.

Scarlet usually doesn't get too messy while eating. She got it all over herself so I had to take a picture.

Oh my gosh, it's been a long time since I've blogged. First, we were all sick. Every one of us. No fun. Brighton, poor thing, would literally choke on his flem. I mean like he would stop breathing and we'd start pounding his back till he started again. Scared the crap out of me and made me terrified to leave him out of my sight or fall asleep at night. So that took a week out of blogging. Then Pat came, which was great! She played with Scarlet, held Brighton a lot, did my dishes everyday and cleaned my bathrooms right before she left!!!! It was so wonderful and I was so grateful for her coming out. It was nice she got to meet Brighton. We watched Lark Rise to Candlford every night together and got quite hooked. It was fun. Scarlet was OK, while she was here. The last couple days she wasn't feeling very well and woke almost every night in pain and had to come sleep in bed with us.

My life is so DIFFERENT than it used to be. I can't believe how one kid can change everything so much. Our house is SUCH A MESS. I mean it's disgusting. Same with our car. It's starting to SMELL. I don't want to be one of those people with stinky cars. But when am I going to get around to cleaning it? Yeah, THAT'S not going to happen. There is so much crusted CRAP all over our carpets. It's just disgusting. We really need to get it cleaned, but I don't want to pay for that. The house kept pretty clean while Pat was here and she only left yesterday and somehow it's a mess again. How does it happen so fast?

I never sleep. I mean NEVER. Brighton has been going thru a phase where he needs to be held from 8-11ish, all depending on when he wants that last feed for the night. Well, that means I have to stay up that late and then he's also been going through a phase where he likes to be held in the middle of the night for 20 minutes or so, sometimes twice a nice- and then he'll go back down. So between that, 2 more nursing sessions and Scarlet waking up crying owie, bringing her into bed with me, her rolling all around, feet smacking my face- MY wake schedule literally is something like this-

Go to bed at 11pm.

Wake at 1, 3:30, 4:30, 5, 5:30, 6:30, 7. And then we're up.

You know, it varies. But I'm NOT JOKING. Sometimes it's every 15 minutes!!!! It's insane!!! I don't think I've had a 3 hour stretch in over a week! And then that last half of the night is just killer! It never ends! As soon as I lay down from tending to one kid, the other one needs me. It's the worst. It's like having a newborn again, juggling between the two of them. The WORST part is that around that 4:30/5:30 stretch, I'm so mad about how the night has gone and how little sleep I'm getting, I literally lie there just fuming inside! And I literally can't sleep because I'm so MAD!!! It's so frustrating! I usually lose a 1/2 hour there! That's the worst, I get up so often, it wakes me up and takes me awhile to settle back to sleep, but then I just have to get up again, and again, and again. Last night, it was the usual, except this time Scarlet woke around 5am in hysterics because she was hungry so I made her scrambled eggs at 5 am and then we went back to bed. I was so afraid she wasn't going to eat them. I just can't believe I made scrambled eggs in the middle of the night.

The weird and miraculous part is- I'm FINE. Seriously, the day passes just fine and I'm not exhausted. I feel horrible in the night. It's the absolute worst, but once 7am rolls around, I'm ok. Or at least by the time I have breakfast. I honestly have a harder time in the day when I get more sleep. I've come to decide that the only explanation is the Lord. There's just no physical way possible for me to feel as good as I do, on so little sleep, and just the opposite when I get better sleep. I figure, the Lord knows I'm trying and he's literally blessing my body along the way. It's insane, but I'm grateful. 

I never knew it was possible to love my kids so much. It is the most awesome thing. People who don't want kids, don't know what they're missing out on.

Scarlet's had a rough couple days. I'm pretty convinced she's herxing right now. It's different this time. The doctor said sometimes the reaction can make you really hyper and I thought that was so weird, but I've been seeing bits of that in Scarlet. It's weird! She gets so hyper I don't even recognize her. I mean, it's better to have her happy and bouncing off the walls, than crying in pain- but it's WEIRD. And then she'll suddenly BE in pain and a hysterical mess. It's been very up and down. It's the worst when she cries at night and I can't do anything because Brighton is crying too and I have to hold one and let the other cry. It's the worst. I've been so emotional the last 24 hours.

I've been out of maternity clothes for at least a month!!!! THAT is a great thing. And I'm only 3 pounds away from my goal weight! YES!!! But I think I may just go past it. Now that I'm so close, there's still some stomach flab that I'm pretty sure is still going to be there after 3 pounds have left. So I may go 5 more pounds. I'll just see as I go. I'm glad I'm almost there. It makes me feel good I can accomplish my goals.

I made a new goal- I'm going to walk everyday after lunch with the kids. I used to walk with Scarlet constantly. Literally hours a day. I loved it. Scarlet HATES it now. She fights me the whole way. But now that it's been 5ish days in a row, she whines, but kind of gives up once she's in the stroller. I was hoping that would happen- that eventually she would know that's just what we're going to do. I only walk for 30 minutes, but the first few times she would cry for half of it. It sort of ruins the experience. But I want to get outside, I want to do SOMETHING for myself and decided THIS is going to be it. It's good for all of us and I need SOME exercise in the day. I'm hoping to eventually go out there longer. It depends on the kids and honestly, I'm so out of shape- I'm always wiped by the end of 30 minutes. How embarrassing!

I had my 3rd choir practice and it was GREAT!!! The first two practices I feel like I floundered a bit, but the last one I think I finally got it down and the choir made SO MUCH more progress. I had so much fun, I literally was dancing in my car on the way home. It gave me a total high. Only 9 people ever show up at a time, but those 9 people sound really good! I'm hoping to get more people. We're singing in sacrament meeting in 2 weeks! Hopefully we sound good! Leading the congregation on sundays is also going well. I never knew how hard it was to be a chorister. I mess up so much. It is so much harder than I thought it would be. As stressed as I was when I got called, I'm so grateful I got it because it gets me to church on time, gives me a break from my kids, and I can actually pay attention to the talks because I stay on the stand. I feel bad leaving Greg alone, but it's nice for me!

I think that's all our updates. Things have been so hectic, I realize now I'm never going to catch up and am done trying! There is absolutely no way that my house is going to be all the way clean, ever again. I will always be behind in laundry. I may never get time to myself again, unless I want to stay up late and suffer the next day for it. But I've decided I'm ok with it. I mean, I can either be upset everyday about what I can't change or I can be happy in a disgusting mess and do what NEEDS to get done. Like get food on the table and get things cleaned eventually. It just is. As frustrating as it can be sometimes, I feel really happy and I love my kids and I'd rather have them than endless time to myself. Things are good, they're just really different.