It's HERE!

Our long awaited Christmas present finally arrived yesterday and we all LOVE it! It had a bumpy ride getting here though. Jake's brother, Ryan, helped us get a great deal on it through some connections he has. The only downside was Jake had to pick it up himself. So yesterday he went down to the warehouse with Ryan (Ryan has a bad case of bronchitis and was still willing to help us pick it up... thank you!) They packed half of the pieces in Jake's parents' truck and the other half in our Odyssey. Well, the wedge part of the sectional managed to fly out of the back of the truck, onto I-15. Luckily, it didn't get hit and Ryan didn't get hit while he went out to get it. It got a tiny scrape on one of the corners but that's it. Ryan said the company will fix it, no problem. Then Jake and Ryan had to move the beastly thing down to the basement. The longest piece (the left-arm couch) was hard to get down the stairs and the metal underneath the couch scraped the railing and wall, leaving a nice little gash, and then when they got to the bottom of the stairs it made a little hole in our sheet rock. I guess this is why people pay to have it professionally shipped and set-up. Even with the scrape on the wedge piece, the gash on the railing, and the hole in the wall, it was all worth it. Those things can be fixed pretty easily, at least that's what I've been told. :) We love the sectional and couldn't be happier. I find myself excited to head down to the basement, just to sit on it (dorky, I know.) With our new bookcases and sectional the family room feels so beautiful and cozy. I love it. (Thanks again, Jake and Ryan!)

OH MY... I'M 6 MONTHS OLD!!!!

It's hard to believe Josh is 6 months already. It feels like I just had him, and yet here he is, practicing his yoga moves (see below his downward dog pose), learning the complexities of the telephone, and becoming close friends with Truman (maybe a little too close.) Yes, Josh loves to give me and the dog kisses, not always in that order. The dog's kisses are much more wet and usually involve the tongue. SICK! Josh had his 6-month appt. last week and was 27" and weighs 15 lbs. 11 oz. The doc was a little concerned that he had gained less than a pound in two months, so I'm going to try and fatten him up (if that's even possible with the Schipaanboord genes!) It's amazing to think that Ben was 15 lbs. 1 oz. at his TWO month appt. I don't remember Ben being a giant, but maybe he was. Anyway, Josh is still the sweetest and cutest little guy. He is a great sleeper, only waking maybe once a week during the middle of the night. I'm trying to savor every moment because I know how fast this first year goes and they change so much during this time. He really is a sweetheart and I love him to pieces!

An Empty House

It was a strange feeling, waking up to a quiet house this morning. My sister's family has been here visiting for over a week and we were getting used to the noise and chaos. Emma told me this morning that she loves Jayden (her cousin) and liked playing dress-up with her (multiple times a day.) I can already tell that the kids are missing their cousins. It was fun to have them here, but all good things must come to an end. Real life has to kick in eventually, right?! Chad, Ashleigh's husband, is a chiropractor and begins his practice full-time in a few weeks and Jake is studying non-stop for the Utah bar... 15 days and counting. Chad and Ashleigh took some nice pics while they were here (although, I did take the last one... professional photographer, I think so!) Enjoy!

Bookshelves!

We have a very talented brother-in-law, Jake Garlick, who offered to build us bookshelves in our basement as a house-warming present. Jake (my husband) and I love them and think they make the basement feel a lot bigger. Jake Garlick is very talented and we appreciated all of his long hours of hard work. They are exactly what we wanted. Thanks again, Jake!

PS Check out the before and after pics. They definitely add a lot to the room. We are getting our sectional this weekend so I'll post pics of that too. Exciting!!

Cousin Time = Fun Time!

My sister, Ashleigh, and her husband, Chad, are visiting us this week. Ben and Emma have been really looking forward to their cousins staying with us. Within five minutes of the Thornocks entering the house, the kids were already in dress-up clothes and were dancing around the house in them... yes, even Ben in his Tarzan costume. It has been fun watching them play together, even brush their teeth together. I think they will probably have Jayden withdrawals when it's time for them to go. Of course, Josh and Ryleigh are here too (we can't forget these two cuties!) I'm sure in another two years they will both be joining the fun. Today we went to the zoo. It was nice feeling like we had the whole zoo to ourselves. I think we saw maybe 5 other families there, besides us. We had a great time, cold weather and all. Last night we had dinner at our Grammy and Grandpa Call's house in West Valley. The dinner was great and the company too. We plan on going sledding, shopping, taking the kids to Discovery Gateway, going to Provo to visit more family, and more. It's going to be an action-packed week, that's for sure! Can you tell which pictures were taken with my camera and which were taken with Ashleigh's nice, new Nikon DX? Yeah, it's pretty easy. I'm pretty convinced I "need" one now.

PS GO VOTE! If you are one of the 24 states with elections happening today, make sure to get out. Every vote counts!

"Awesome" Day at the Grocery Store

So, as a mother of three now, one of the things I probably dread the most during the week is grocery shopping. I don't mind when I have to run in the store and grab two or three things, but I'm talking about the MAJOR shopping trips that seem to take forever. When we first enter the store I get plenty of looks and comments. "Oh, aren't they cute?!" "Wow, you have your hands full." "Your children are so well-behaved!" "I bet they are your big helpers." The kids stick right next to the cart, the baby is asleep, and I trick myself into thinking that somehow this trip will be different from the past hundred trips we have taken. Of course, by about 15 minutes into the trip the kids are running down the aisles, touching everything in sight, begging for their favorite fruit snacks, the baby is crying, and I'm ready to put the food back and get in the car... and yet, I persevere and we manage to make it out alive, but just barely. Well, yesterday was a different story. I prepped myself for a morning full of "fun" at Costco and Smith's. I bribed them and said if they were good all morning we could go to McDonald's for lunch. Costco went rather smoothly, besides Ben getting teary-eyed because I bought Emma an Easter dress and he didn't get what he wanted, a $10 kite. I told him we would get him a nice outfit with a new tie but that definitely wasn't as exciting as a kite! We hopped in the car and headed to Smith's. Right when we walked into the store, Ben noticed one of those kid carts and grabbed it. I gave him and Emma a list of things they were in-charge of getting (saw it on Nanny 911.) Instantly, they were engaged. Of course we had an issue with there only being one cart and two children, but once they got the sharing thing down, it was GREAT! They actually had a lot of fun and I had fun watching them. Emma looked so serious, staring down the aisles trying to decide which hotdog buns to get. Ben loved arranging the food in the cart, and then Emma would re-arrange it. Overall, I would say this was the most successful shopping trip we've ever had. When I put the kids down for their naps yesterday, I told Ben thank you for helping me pick out the groceries and he said "Mom, that was awesome. We need to get one of those little carts again." So there you have it.. grocery shopping was "awesome." Maybe I should invest in one of those carts so that we can be guaranteed "awesome" grocery shopping trips every week!

Crawling Babies and Snow Storms

It's amazing what a week's worth of amoxicillin can do. Last week I had two miserable boys and now they are both back to their normal happy selves, thank goodness! That is one of the hardest things as a parent, watching your child be sick and miserable and not being able to help them. Josh is a knee-rocker now and has managed to scoot his knees forward and then he thrusts his upper body forward. I'm sure it won't be long until he figures the crawling thing out.

The last picture was taken at the beginning of a huge storm we had this morning/afternoon. I did a stupid thing and decided to hit the big sale at Kohl's this morning. As I was driving there the weather was fine, but I noticed some dark clouds heading toward us. I kept driving and within minutes I was right in the middle of a blizzard. If any of you know me at all, you know I have a fear of driving in snow. Immediately my stomach started to churn and my knuckles were white, palms sweaty. I felt sick, literally. The whole time though Ben kept talking and saying how cool all the snow was. I tried not to show him I was scared out of my mind! I drove about 25 mph home, following a semi. I saw two accidents on the way home, which frightened me even more. Then I got off the ramp and headed up Center St. toward our house, skipping the grocery store because I didn't want to be out in the storm for one more minute than I had to. I started heading up our hill. For all those who haven't been to our house yet, I will just say, this hill is STEEP. It makes for a nice view, but man, it's a climb. I called Jake about half-way up because the wheels were turning but we weren't going anywhere. I kept flooring it and we would move, slide, then get stuck again. There was a car behind me, riding my tail and I just wanted to cry. My smart husband instructed me to put the car into 1st gear (which I hadn't thought of) and it took me probably 10 minutes to get up to our house, when normally it takes less than 2. It was the best feeling, pulling into our driveway and knowing we were all fine and the car had made it. What were we thinking to buy a house on a mountain??!! Jake of course reassures me that storms like these don't happen very often, and I wouldn't be driving in them. I was talking to Jake's mom about an hour after we got home and she said she heard on the news that Bountiful was getting hit hard and some roads were being closed. That's what I get for deciding to save a few bucks at a sale. What I went through today was definitely not worth the $8 I saved on a shirt! Oh well. I guess to have great snow you have to take the whole package, blizzards and all. I will be watching the weather very closely next time I decide to go out right before a storm!