Happenings

We had to take a second trip to finish up our dental work and get our crowns on and we also stayed with Micah's grandma and grandpa. Lexie got to come but we left the other two stinkers..I mean sweethearts at my moms (thanks mom!)

So when you have a brother-in-law do your dental work, you get to experiment and Micah had this master plan that he wanted to get a gold crown which is fine but then him and Robbe added to the madness and thought it would be cool to do an engraving on it... then fill the letter with a white filling, so Micah now has a gold tooth that has a great big white letter J for Julie on it(awe how sweet, I know) j/k. Who knows maybe they will start a trend haha.

Here is a little update on the little monsters (mostly just for my remembrance and for Tina cause she says she misses crazy Mya stories)

**Lexie had her four month check up, I'm a little behind she was actually four and a half months but anyway, she weighs 13lbs 11oz and is as sweet as ever.

**The other day I was telling the kids to get out of the kitchen and that they were food bubbles. Later on that day Tay was running around and I asked him if he was spiderman and he stopped and said "I not spiderman, I a food bubble"

**I was curling my hair and I had half of it done and I walked out of the bathroom and Mya let out a big gasp and threw her arms up in the air and said "Mom! That's just HORRIBLE!" I asked her what was wrong and she said "you can't do your hair like that it is awful" (nice that I have girls to help me with my style)

**We were driving up the mountain and Mya fell asleep on the way and one of her legs fell asleep and when she got out she said "Whoa, my leg is sparkling"

**Mya will not stop sucking her thumb and it is driving me crazy, so every time I see her do it I get mad at her. She has started coming up with excuses for why she is sucking it.

yesterday I saw her and this was our conversation

Me: Mya, was your thumb in your mouth?

Mya: I was just polishing it mom.

Me: What in the world does that mean?

Mya: When thumbs get dirty you just put them in your mouth and it polishes them

Another one is "mom, I am just so hungry I have to suck it"

**Mya does the strangest things, I went in her room and she had climbed up and was hanging stuff up I thought it was clothes but when I saw it I had to laugh, she has all of her toys on hangers. Anything with a handle or a hole of some sort is on a hanger. Everything from a Halloween bucket to an art supply kit.

Good news!

First....Lance and Tyce got their mission calls! They are going to Argentina! Lance is going to Buenos Aires North and Tyce is going to Neuquen. I googled it and they are a thirteen hour drive from each other.

I am really excited for them but sad that they will be gone at the same time. They leave October 14th. I can't believe this day has finally come. They will do AWESOME! I hope these two years go by fast cause it won't be the same without them around.

And....Tay is potty trained! Yay! He has done so good too. I was dreading the whole thing but the other day Micah put underwear on him and we decided to just do it. I have heard that boys are harder than girls to potty train but not with my kids. Mya was a nightmare and took forever to figure it out but Tay is so sweet he won't fight with me about going and wakes up in the morning saying "I need to go to the baffwoom" He has number 1 down and now we are working on conquering number 2 haha, good job Tay! Now the challenge is finding underwear that actually fit him. I have bought a few different brands but they are all big on him, so if anyone knows a brand that runs small, let me know.

And...Lexie is sleeping through the night! Hooray for sleep!

Mya's Fourth of July birthday

We had a great time celebrating Mya's birthday and the Fourth with family. It is hard to believe Mya is really already four!

Photography blog

I finally have my photography blog up and running. check it out at http://www.julieyoungphotography.blogspot.com

Obsessed

It's official, Tay is 100% obsessed with four wheelers. We went to the Carter's cabin yesterday and this is where Tay was the ENTIRE time. We would all be eating or sitting by the fire and look around and little Tay would never be there, but we knew right where to find him. He would get off the four wheeler to come grab a snack then get right back on and hang out until someone was kind enough to take him for a ride. It was pretty cute.

California

Last weekend we went to California to visit Micah's sister Kaily and Robbie. We had some much needed dental work to get done and Robbie was nice enough to work on us. I really really HATE the dentist, I think I would rather have a baby, but Rob was awesome. He did such a good job and we are so lucky to have an amazing dentist in the family. Thanks so much Rob!

When we got there we loaded up the kids to go to the water park but when we arrived it was closed because of some Huck Fin festival, no big deal, so we drive over to a different pool, pull up and that one has a sign that says, closed due to electric shock warning. So, we tell the kids we will just go to the park instead and play and not to worry because we are going to the beach tomorrow. Tomorrow comes, it is a beautiful sunny day, the forecast for Newport beach is suppose to be sunny, the kids get their shovels and swimsuits on and we head for the beach. We get there and it is all grey and raining. No beach.

I don't know why, but for some reason we were not suppose to get in the water on this trip. This drinking fountain was the only water they got to play in. They just splashed each other with it and had a grand ol' time, they didn't care. Kids are so good to just go with whatever. It was pretty funny.

We did go to the Crab Cooker while we were in Newport, it is one of their favorite restaurants. I have to say I was very proud of myself, I 100% hate seafood mostly because of the taste but I also hate how it looks, I am very afraid of creepy crawlers and all of that shrimp and crab and lobster just looks like GIANT bugs to me! It really freaks me out. Anyway, we had crab and I ate some, yay. I couldn't shell it or touch the disgusting claws or even look at them, but I did eat more than I thought I would. Thanks for a fun time guys and letting us stay with you!

Saving money

I had to post an update about the whole coupon thing. I thought that at first it would be a pain to use coupons but it really isn't bad and doesn't take that much time. After you check out you just hand them a big stack and they scan them all through. It's pretty fast.

I am pretty excited about my savings. All of this food originally cost $34.00 but after it being on sale and me having a coupon on top of that I got it all for $9.60!

I got six boxes of cereal for $3.20!, the salad dressing was only 15 cents a bottle, each chex mix was 40 cents... anyway, I was happy to see it really is worth it. Waahh Whoooo! I actually get kind of excited to go grocery shopping for the first time ever.

A year ago today

A year ago today at this time I was getting Mya and Tay ready to go up to Salt Lake to meet Micah off the plane from Iraq. I cannot believe that a year has already gone by, when the year he was gone took SOO long to pass.
I am so proud of Micah. Even though it was really hard, it taught me a lot. I remember when he first found out he had to go, he was up north at drill and I cried and cried for the whole weekend he was gone and really didn't know how I would do it. Tay was only six weeks old and Mya was so hard to handle. I was bitter at first but decided that he was going whether I had a good or bad attitude, so I toughened up and tried to do the best I could. I have grown so much through this experience, and have learned that we are all a lot stronger than we think we are.
I am also very relieved to say he is out of the Army now. I was worried when he first got home that it would be hard to get back into the groove of things and also worried how it would affect Micah but I am glad to say unlike a lot of families who are torn apart and never the same after going to war, we are so fortunate to be doing well.
Here are just a few things I am glad to not have to do anymore by myself
Going to church by myself
Not having the priesthood in our home
Eating dinner without him and no grownup conversation
After putting the kids to bed just sitting alone for the couple of hours until I go to bed not having anyone to talk to.
Worrying how I would react if someone were to break in and Micah wasn't there to protect us
Not getting to go out to dinner of a movie with him
Hanging out with friends and trying not to feel like the third wheel.
Not being able to hand the Tay off when he was a baby and had bad nights. I remember being so tired and crying right along with him because I just needed a break.
Mowing the lawn and taking care of the yard
killing bugs
Not being able to open jars or fix certain things

The first year of being a normal family again has been great!

Here is a link to the video of him coming home.
Mya was so excited! You can here her squeal in the first video and in the second, she couldn't wait for him to get to her. There was caution tape keeping the crowd back and she ran right under it to see him.
http://micahandjulie.blogspot.com/2008/05/video-of-micahs-homecoming.html

Summer fun

Here are just a few pictures of the kids enjoying the warm weather.

It's A Miracle

Mya has finally decided she wanted to learn how to ride her bike! We got it for her for Christmas and we would ask her all the time to try and ride it and every time she got on she would cry and scream bloody murder the whole time until one day she wouldn't even look at her bike anymore. She wanted nothing to do with it, until we went to my mom's. I wrote out a check without anyones name on it and stuck it on the fridge and whoever could get her to ride a bike got the check. Ted and Pam got her to ride TJ's by putting balloons on the handle bars, letting her wear elbow and knee pads, a helmet and gloves. They got her to actually get on without screaming the whole time. (looks like you get to cash the check Ted, because you guys got her to do it!) Then the other day at home she decided she wanted to try again and has become a pro.
Yesterday she rode to her friends house and it was so cute. She is growing so fast!

Coupon Class

I have always been the type that doesn't take advantage of all of the free coupons and deals when grocery shopping and always think it is a pain to try and get good deals,but yesterday I decided to just see what it was all about and if you really could save.
I went to Albertsons and only bought food that was on sale that week. They had meat buy one get one free and a lot of items 10 for $10. I didn't even use any coupons that you have to cut out and take with you, and when I was done checking out, I was so excited because I got $260 worth of groceries for $150. My total savings was $110! I know if I would have taken coupons on top of the already discounted store prices I could have saved more. My neighbor Heather went the other day and saved way more than she spent. She got $100 worth of groceries for $25.
Anyway, I am going to have a coupon class to learn how to save as much as possible, taught by Heather Petersen and Mandy El Halta, so if any of you Cedar Citians want to come I am thinking probably next Wed. the 27th so just leave your email and I will let you know the exact date and time.

Hooray for warm weather

I am so excited that it is warm! Today we went out to three peaks with friends to rappell, catch lizards, ride rhinos, and have a bbq. The kids had so much fun, That is one time when we never hear any whining or fighting. They love being outside.