January took off...

I have always counted December 31st as a part of the New Year simply because it they coincide and one day leads to the next. Normally the past couple of years we have just spent New Years at home, because it is hard for the girls to stay up late and then have to travel home. But we were so excited when we arranged to have Lanette and Shaun come to celebrate New Years with us. Our girls absolutely adore them. We had a fun evening of playing Beetles Rock Band, TTR and Risk. We are always so pleased when we find people who love risk as much as we do. The "Tyrant" won around 2:30 in the morning. I think we were all completely exhausted. We had such a fantastic time having them here with us, and are grateful that they are willing to submit themselves to our brand of craziness. Sadly the only picture I got from the evening was of Ruby working her magic on the drums.



Saturday the 2nd, we found the perfect bed for Ruby. We have been looking around for a little bit because at the girls well check Dr. Ramsey said it was time to move Emma out of her crib because too many kids jump out and hurt themselves. We were initally thinking of just getting her a little metal bed frame and a mattress but we found an awesome bed on ksl for less than what we could have gotten just a mattress for. It was quite the squeeze fitting it into our van with the girls, but gratefully it worked. Ruby loves it and we call it her princess bed. She now resides in the basement, and Emma has taken on the toddler bed. I was completely worried about the transition simply becasue it was so hard on Ruby when she was two, but to our amazement. Ruby loves the basement and Emma is good about staying in her bed and just going to sleep (most of the time).





When I was reading a friends blog a couple of months ago she shared a challenge that she did that month. She dubbed it "No spend month." Which meant spending money only on necessities. Like groceries, bills, and mortgage. We decided that we would institute that this month and see if we could do it. I look forward to seeing the checkbook balance at the end of the month. :)

We thought it would be a good idea to start potty training Emma before the baby came. What a laugh that was. She had constant accidents and didn't seem to get what was happening or even notice anything different when she went on the potty. After three days and running extra loads of laundry to make sure she had clean panties to continue the process we decided that she wasn't ready and that we will give it a go later. Much to my relief.

I got a call for Jed on Wednesday right at he was leaving work, he told me that his 4runner sounded like a monster truck and walked around his car and discovered that a 2 foot peice had been sawed off his muffler. He filed a report with the police and then went to have it fixed because he couldn't drive fast than 30 miles an hour without the sound being unbearable. Jed took it to Master Muffler, and they said that this is the 6th muffler they had replaced this week. We couldn't figure out what they would want with that peice of the muffler and were told that it is the catalytic converter they wanted, and that if they are good it can be removed in about two minutes. So 366.00 dollars later Jed has a new muffler. I was in a rage about it the whole night because we could have done so much with that money.

Ruby also had an eye appointment this week up at Primary Childrens. We noticed that her vision has improved greatly since she has been wearing her glasses, but her left eye still would wander for short periods of time. She wasn't supposed to be seen until March, but I didn't want to wait that long if we could do something about it now. Dr. Dries also noticed the wandering during the appointment and prescibed patching therapy. So from now on she will have to have her right eye patched for 1 hour everyday so she can practice using her left eye while she does things that are detailed, like working on the computer, doing puzzles, stringing beads or things that require concentration. We have been doing it for two days now and she does very well and doesn't take the patch off. Were hoping to see improvement come her next appointment. After her appointment we got to meet up with Melody at the hospital and grabbed a little snack at the cafeteria. She was very nice and offered to pay for our snack. I felt silly but accepted because that allowed me to not have to break my goal for no spend month. It was very nice of her to offer. We had a great visit and enjoy the times that we can get to see her.

That was our week, an we are looking forward to next week being a little more laid back.