"When something goes bad, turn it around and find something good"

I think the title says it all. Thank you Daniel the Tiger. Allie and Axton love this show... and I of course watch it with them!!!!  Daniel told us that if there is something that goes wrong or a way you dont want... you need to find something that is good about it. Also, I have a class called laughter yoga. I accidentally signed up for this class, but figured that I would try it out. The teacher taught me to find happy thoughts about everything.... That was also our homework assignment.

Now, why am I grateful for these two lessons? Let me explain the life of a mom.... and all of these things came just today!!! Between 6 am to 10 am.... Yeah... just four short hours....

The children have been doing SOOOO GOOD at sleeping in! They have been sleeping till 8:30 or even 9:00. However since June 21 (Summer) the light change has thrown off the kids sleeping schedule... meaning now they are up at 5:30 and totally awake by 6:00. *Sigh* I am so fricken tired!!! Ha ha!!!

So, lets start on what went bad. Nick and I  were up pretty late talking and doing homework. I ended up falling asleep by aroung 2:00 in the morning and Allie and Axton were up by 5:30 again. When I went and got them from their room... it was TRASHED! And they smelled so bad! I knew I needed to change them, but I was having an asthma attack and could not even speak! It was bad! I got the kids down stairs, and I changed them. They both exploded! Their PJ's were soaked. Then while the kids were playing, I took a breathing treatment. They had, during that time, 5 sippy cups of juice per child!!!! I figured that was fine. While I was doing Allies hair, Axton played with my Nebulizer. I got the kids in their chairs and fed them breakfast. Axton threw his bowl of milk on the floor. Allie refused to eat. While I was filming the vlog, I heard trickling. Somehow, Axton's diaper exploded (and he STUNK!!) and he peed through the chair... Not even sure how. It was bad. Got the kids in bed, and then came down to clean. Turned out Axton exploded on my nebulizer machine.... There was poop all over it! Oh and when we came down the first time, Allie and Axton opened my Tums and ate them all!

That was all just this morning. People could say after having that much happen to them, that they had such a bad day!!!! Possibly even the worst day they have had in a while.Now, challenge accepted: make it all a positive spin!

So, here it is! The kids woke up early enough for me to get the day started off right! They woke up early which meant that we were ahead of schedule. I will have time to do my homework later tonight because the kids will sleep right at seven or close to that time. Allie and Axton got their full Calcium in today because they ate TONS of Tums today. They will have very strong bones. The kids love playing with each other, so they chose to wake early and spend time with each other. Their bowels work and they pooped! It was great! They have been constipated before, and I always feel so bad. I could not breathe very well, but they walked down the stairs them selves and  laid down (voluntarily!!!) so I could change them. Their jammies were peed all over, which was a good thing, because sometimes they spend the day in their jammies. So I was forced to have them up and running for the day. Allie and Axton continued to play together so I could  have  a breathing treatment. Once I was done with that, Allie sat SO still so I could do her hair. She loves it when I do her hair. I was blessed with a daughter who loved to get her hair done and who has AMAZING HAIR! During the time of my breathing treatment, the kids drank 5 sippy cups each of juice! I was so proud of them. They were very hydrated! I put the kids up for breakfast, I love that the kids can feed themselves, and that they can also tell me what they want to eat. Axton exploded his diaper all over the high chair, but doing so, I was able to deep clean the chair. So it is super clean now! we went to clean the kids room, and they helped me. They were so good at it and sang "Clean up clean up!" the whole time. I love them! Axton fell asleep fast, and Allie went down super easy as well. I came down to clean, and it turned out Axton pooped on my nebulizer machine. I had never cleaned it or maintained it and I have had it for 3 years. So I had the opportunity to make sure everything was okay and working great. And it is VERY clean as well! Also, now my house is clean because the kids peed and pooped every where and spilled food, juice, and milk.

There it is guys! I am happy to have kids that LOVE each other. They can easily say that they are each other's best friends. Also, I have a clean house because they play so much! So they sleep so much as well.

Are you guys sick of my challenges??? I hope not! My challenge to you is to find the best stuff out of the crappy things that happen to you. Today is your day. You have the opportunity to complain and focus on all the bad stuff that happened to you... Or you can find the good in it all! Yeah, mine may have been dramatic, but guess what??? I happen to be a drama queen, and my husband loves me for the way I am!

Thanks for reading!!!

XoXo

I am not really sure how to do a blog, but I thought I would post some pictures of the kids.

 Axton is learning to climb up ladders and go down slides

 Allie has mastered this trick of going down the slide

 Axton was a tiger for Halloween.

 I don't think Allie could decide what to be for Halloween: a leopard, a ballerina, or a monkey in a tutu

Visit to the pumpkin patch. Allie loves pumpkins! Grandma had pumpkins growing and Allie loved to help water them.

Time for the more serious news

Hey guys!

I know that it has been a while. So I have lots to update on!

Axton is doing so darn good! He started to walk a week before he turned one! He is such a doll I love this little guy so much! He means the world to me. Axton is such a cutie, all he wants to do is smile at you and give you loves. I don't think a momma  could ask for a better son than him. He Is always learning new things, and I can tell  that he is in love with his big sister and his daddy and momma. I feel like he should be speaking a little bit, but still he is a blabber. I am wanting to hear Momma come from that cute mouth of his so bad! But with time, I know it will!

Allie is such a big girl! She is now speaking so much, and her hair is flippen long. She brightens my day so much! She now says I love you and it just makes my heart melt. I ALWAYS wanted a girlie girl for a daughter, and I have the best one out there! She loves having her hair done and is always in tutus and looking her best during her tea party! When we are in the car and Axton is sad, she will give him her toys that she is playing with to make him happy, or she will do funny faces to him or do anything to make that boy happy again. The two of them have the best relationship already. No one could ask for better children!

Now, time for the Nick and Victoria part. As many of you know, we are now divorced. This was such a hard decision for the two of us. Nick and I have some personal things that we are working on, but rest assure, the kids are our first and biggest commitment. We will do anything for the two of them. Allie and Axton are our worlds. Nick is an amazing man and who ever ends up with that boy will be such a lucky girl! He is the worlds best daddy and he is such a caring man. Now, back to the divorce stuff.... We are not in the game of making ANY ONE choose sides. There are no sides. We are still really good friends and we still talk and get along with each other. We hope that we will be able to keep all of the relationships we have with all of our friends. We also just want to keep our personal lives personal... meaning no asking what happened, or why are we divorced, or if we are such good friends why break up a marriage... we are not into the whole interview things. What is done is done. We are both great parents and people. We just needed to make this decision for ourselves.

Whew! That is a lot of news for one blog I think! I will be writing more often I hope! If not, see ya when I see ya!!!!

Love,

Victoria

Oh the places we go!

So, I will start off by saying this past weekend was a blast!

When it comes to traveling, we have discovered that there are at least two different ways. There is a trip and there is a vacation. We always plan for a vacation and end up on a trip.

What is the difference you ask? Simple. A vacation is a fun leisure activity that last longer than an hour. It is when you are soaking in the sun, things are going great and you have no worries on your mind. While a trip is still going to a different place and it can eventually become a leisure activity, however, you have stuff to worry about, you have things you need to take care of etc.  I am convinced until Allie and Axton are older, we will be taking trips.

Let me give you a back ground on Nick and I's luck when it comes to vacations turning into trips:

Hawaii- we miss our plane, end up spending more than $200 to find a HOSTAL which is not a great place... it is a hotel room with blood stained blankets, cobwebs on the toilet paper, dust bunnies in the tub, and roommates! While we were there, I had massive asthma attacks and ended up having to spend almost $300 just on medications that would usually cost $75.

California- We were driving to California for a family trip, and we stopped at Denny's to eat dinner. We came out to find out that our keys were still in the ignition, and that costed us $50 to get a person out to fix that.

California (again)- on a separate vacation before we left, Axton was sick so I took him to the doctor and he said that I just had to watch for certain symptoms and if they occurred then I have to take him in. While we were in California, these symptoms came up. So we took Axton to the insta care and they said that only the ER took his insurance. So we go to the ER and after 5 hours the doctor just gives us Tylenol and an antibiotic. We later find out that they do not take his insurance. This week we just finished paying off the $3000 bill.

Now, lets talk about this weekend. My brother, Kenna and her husband, and Nick, the kids and I went to Bear Lake this weekend to go boating and have tons of fun! We got there and there were so many dead bugs and such all over the house. So we cleaned it up. Our house up there does not have water so what we do is fill a 500 gallon tank up with a hose from a member in the ward up there and then hook it up to the house. The boys went and filled the tank, an hour later they came home and hooked it up to the house. It is supposed to fill a tank under the house and then we would have water. This takes about an hour too. So Thomas later went outside to find that the lever was in the wrong position and that the water was all over the sand. Then next day he went and filled it up just to find out that there is something wrong with the pipes. So all weekend we did not have water.... When we went to go boating, the boys rehooked the battery and Nick and I filled the boat with $75 worth of gas. We get to the dock and the boat would not start. We had to ask everyone if they had jumping cables and if they would be willing to jump us. We were only able to get one engine of the two to start. So we were out side for four hours and never got it to work. We still had fun though!

So, now we come to Saturday night. Nick and I decided that we wanted to get to our 9:00 church so we had to stay up till 2 in the morning cleaning. We then woke up at 4:50 to caravan with Kenna and Jeff. Everything was going great until we hit Ogden. Our tire blew out! So then Jeff was helping Nick with the tire. A cop came to help us too. We got the wheel changed just to find out the spare was flat as well! So, the cop took Nick (in the cage of his car) to the gas station to fill the tire up with air. Then we got home. So we spent $75 for gas then $230 for auto related stuff!

This is how awesome we are with vacations! Who wants to come with us on our next one!

Pictures to come soon!

I do as I am told... This is Nick :D

Apparently I need to set better goals for myself and actually have them written where I can see them relatively easy...haha...Victoria is awesome for making me write out my goals for the future months. I love her so much!

Spiritual 

I have been really lax lately with regards to fulfilling my commitment to the gospel, and I am sure that there are several factors that contribute. But aside from that fact, I am setting a goal to at least read my scriptures in the morning when I get up. I am hoping that it will help me become more apt to wake up in the morning for work. 

I have been pretty good about getting my tithing out of my paycheck before anything, but I need to work better on the fast offering. I believe it will help to figure out some of the finances we have.

Goals: At least read 1 chapter of scripture daily.

          Donate fast offerings and keep paying tithing.

Kids

It is always an exciting time when the kids come running to daddy when I get home or pick them up from daycare. I want the kids to do that forever. The hard part is getting them to want daddy anytime. They are home with mommy while I am working and have her to cuddle with and play with. I don't have the time I want to spend with them and be their daddy. I want them to be able to come to me with problems when they are older. I want them to trust me.

Goal: Spend quality time with the kids, even if it is just a half and hour or something.    

Wife

I am making a self-commitment to spend some time with Victoria, whether it is a date alone or just being with her and the kids. So far, I feel like I have been doing good at taking her on dates, I just hope that my imperfections will be overlooked. 

I have several ideas for our anniversary, and I even asked a month in advance for it off from work. The only downside to any of my plans is that we have school the next day, so we can't do anything long distance until two weeks later during our break. 

Goal: Spend more one on one time with Victoria

School

Haha! This is a good one! I frankly have put school as a lesser priority to work and my family a-so I can provide for them, and b-so I can try to build a strong family. I only have school and work on the same day on Wednesdays and I am really beat when I get home sometimes, so I rarely study that day. Every other day, the only excuse I have for not studying is no motivation or desire or no time. Time to study is an important thing though, especially now that we have a test almost every week in Anatomy. I just hope that the final wont kick my butt in the end. 

On a side note, the testing days for Anatomy got moved from Friday and Monday to Monday and Wednesday, which is really inconvenient for me since I work Wed evenings and have class until noon on Wednesday. That leaves only Monday to take the tests. Normally, Monday wouldn't be that bad, but it seems that every test from here on out is going to be on the Monday after I work a 4 day weekend, which wears me out. Proof is in my recent test score and the comments the testing center supervisor gave to me: "I am concerned about you. You've fallen asleep in two tests now. Are you getting enough sleep? We have resources to help you." Something along those lines. I understand the concern, but I have to work to pay our bills and support my family. We cannot live off government help, and I would prefer to work and build up my body to the stress that is in the months to come. 

Goals: Better study habits. At least an hour every night.

          Pass Anatomy.

          Find a way to stay awake.

Health & Nutrition

Definitely slacking in this area of my life. I haven't been to the gym for a few weeks, and sometimes I just don't want to eat anything or eat everything. I think I just need to get my body back in balance and get my metabolism back into motion like it was in high school. I consider myself average health, slightly less healthy than I should be. However, we-meaning Victoria had the brilliant idea-to start a new carb-free meal plan. It's not hard to find food, it's the motivation to keep eating it and finding different ways to cook chicken...haha!

Goals: Stay on track with Victoria and resist the urge to unhealthy snacks.

          Eat healthy, no fast food or restaurants-except special occasion) 

Goals and such!

Hey guys!!!


So I have been thinking there is never really a lot to say with Nick and I each week. School is always crazy and always busy. So I am going to try something different! I recently read my good friends blog, and fell in love with an idea that she had! So, this is an idea stemmed from her.

To start off, if you have a goal and you do not write it down, then it is just a dream. Well, I am ready to make my dreams a goal and hopefully an achievement!

Health Wise: I plan on exercising 4 days a week. My schedule allows Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday for sure! So, I will try to do that. When I am there I plan on spending just as much time on Cardio as I do for Resistance. I used to be good at going to the gym, but once I am there I do either cardio or resistance.  So, I will be doing both each day and I will be doing a minimum of 30 min each!

Nutrition Wise: I plan on and have already started eating nothing white. Which is white flour, white starches (potato, rice, etc) and of course sugar. I also cut out Diet Coke... and I sort of am addicted to that. So that was the hardest. So, no bread, rice, pasta, potato, sugar, soda, juice... I cannot remember if I am forgetting anything else. But just healthy eating. Oh! No read meats either. I am just eating fish, chicken, and turkey.

Family Wise: I plan on playing with my kids and being active. Sometimes I catch myself just watching the kids play while I sit on the couch and play on my computer or do homework. So, for my goal, I will play with my kids and be as active as they are.

Husband Wise: I plan on dating him. We find ourselves in the same room and not talking, we sometimes just do our own thing. So my new goal is to keep active with Nick. I will talk to him and be with him when we are together.

Spiritual Wise: I have been so bad with scriptures, prayers, and even going to church. I am great with excuses, so I am not going to give any. I will have these done daily. Except going to church. I will do that weekly. 

School Wise: I plan on studying harder EVERY DAY. I am okay with some of my classes, but I will say I am pretty good at procrastinating my A&P studying and then the test score shows it. I need to take my studying guides with me everywhere I go and be on top of things!


I asked Nick to do the same stuff, so he needs time to think about it. So, you should be seeing a post from him soon!

Here are some pictures that I forgot!

 

Allie is doing her homework... If you cannot tell, she drew a flower, doggie, and a bear

 

 

These are Allie and Axton at the lake.... Axton thought that he was supposed to eat all the sand!