Free Ice Cream and Random Fun

Sof's chubby snuggly face.

Claire has become quite the climber, and it is no surprise she found her way onto this bench. This girl is going place, and I am scared to turn my back for even a second.

DQ celebrated the 1st Day of Spring by giving away free ice cream cones all day long. March has become such a fun month for random free things. 

Claire isn't quite the ice cream fan her sister is, so Sof was content to finish both ice cream cones.

I signed up for a conference for my little business back in November, and my Mom was kind enough to drive north to spend 2 days watching my girls for me so I could rendezvous with other small business owners in Midway. It was a lot of fun, and I learned a lot of things that will hopefully help me continue to grow Eclair & Co.

pictures with some amazing friends I made!

Greg and I even got to go on a little date one night! This greek food was AMAZING!

The girls had so much fun with my mom here, and I think even my mom had a fun little getaway. Claire slept amazing for her naps both days and there weren't many hiccups, and the girls got spoiled by Grandma, a rare treat, so I think me being gone for 2 days was good for everyone.

Sofi loves this mermaid at the aquarium, and the girl does a really good job! 

Her thing for a few days was walking around naked with a necklace in her mouth.

Sof's fat face selfies kill me!

Here's another one.

Claire loves to shovel snow, even if there isn't any snow to shovel anymore.

Killing time during her Dr appointment.
Claire is in the 75th percentile for weight, 15th percentile for height, and the whopping 95th percentile for head size. She is short and stout!

We have met my little sister Katy in Layton the last two years while she is up competing for the State FCCLA competition for her high school. We left an onry Claire with Greg and Sof and I escaped to kidnap Katy and take her to get a Nielsen's custard. Sof's first experience, and she already wants to go back. Katy is so fun, and Sofi sures loves whenever we can spend time with her.

Sofi LOVES going to the dentist! She did amazing and almost had a cavity, but the dentist decided it was a shadow from her moving during the X-ray. Lucky her!

Just like her older sister, Claire loves running on this wall at the top of our street.

I love having Sofi burst Claire's bubble for a picture.

We've learned the good times to go to the Aquarium, when there is hardly anyone else there, and we often times are able to feed the animals for free. Sof loves feeding the parakeets. Claire loves trying to grab them.

The famous scrunched-nose cheese. My favorite!

Toilet Troubles

Luckily we have 3 toilets in our house, because the upstairs 2 decided to self-combobulate within a week of each other. Once I got mine and Greg's fixed, Sofi's wax ring decided to disintegrate, which  lead me to redoing the bathroom. I was hoping to do it anyway sometime in the future, so the toilet gave me a kick in the pants, and 1 month later it is pretty much complete, but holy cow was it a mess!

I didn't peel the linoleum back quickly enough, so black mold was quickly growing. I had to rip up the linoleum to allow the subfloor to dry. Sadly, I had to rip the rest of the linoleum out.

This bathroom really was hideous!

3 Days and lots of pounding and sanding later, I had most of the linoleum and glue up. Whoever put that flooring in wanted it to last through the Millennium. 

Luckily we didn't have to replace this, but I'm not sure how long it will last so hopefully we move before it decomposes as well.

Progress pics! Not a single wall is square in this bathroom.

Already so much better!

These cute girlies were such good troopers! They were content to entertain themselves for many days while I let the bathroom project consume me!

Sofi picked the paint color, and it's really bright but pretty cute! Ready for base trim.

After 2 weeks, I finally got the toilet put back on, and despite my PTSD, it hasn't leaked!!

My little project partners! 

Proof that they love each other (most of the time). They learned to play with each other really well while the bathroom was being redone. They are quite the little frenemies.

I was really gung ho about redoing everything, so I took it upon myself to take out the shelves above the toilet that I absolutely hated from day 1. What I thought would take 10 minutes took me well over an hour, and I was sweating more than I would on a hot summer day after running!

Really, can you blame me for wanting these gone?

The shelves popped right off so I was feeling really optimistic.

Anger got the best of me and I put some pretty impressive holes in the wall

Whoever put these shelves in used 42 SCREWS!! 42 people! The individual deserves a special place in Hell, along with whoever put the linoleum in.

TA-DA!!

Messy, but it is pretty much done (minus painting the baseboards and vanity) but people we have arrived!
I love it but hope I NEVER have to do it again!!!!!

Greg helped by lifting the toilet.

It's bright, beautiful, and a Sofi loves her new bathroom! I feel accomplished, but holy cow do I feel bad for the people who decide to reno their whole house at once. Slow and steady people ... slow and steady.

Free Pancake Day

Oh Ihop, What a magical place! We went spur-of-the-moment to get free pancakes, and it proved to be one of my better ideas. We picked Sofi up from preschool and were off to get pancakes for lunch.

We each got a standard stack of pancakes and both girls were in LOVE with the Strawberry syrup.

The longer we live here, the happier I am to be able to go to places in Layton rather than Centerville - it is rarely ever as busy as places in Centerville. When we went to Ihop in layton, the only people there were cute old veterans having brunch, and they were all so cute to talk to us and comment how cute my kids are. We will be going there again.

She ate half of that stack! 

Claire was content to drink the syrup. She provided great entertainment for everyone around us. 

For days after, Sofi kept asking if we could go back to Ihop. I have since purchased Strawberry syrup and am wondering why I waited so long to do so. Poor Greg missed out thanks to Busy Season. 

Curse you Busy Season!

Turning 28

Claire in a more acceptable birthday suit than my own.

28. The age where I officially sound old. Even though birthday's themselves are fun, I am now realizing why people tend to become less enthusiastic about them as time goes by.

My mom recently said, "Every day is ordinary. Birthday's should be special" and I wholeheartedly agree. We set the tone for our day, and I woke up knowing my birthday would be great! And guess what? It was! The weather was absolutely Beautiful! Sofi and I spent the time during Claire's nap outside raking dead leaves, and I was so excited to see green things growing!! The first signs of Spring was on my birthday. How exciting is that? 

After Claire woke up, I took the girls to the fun Farmington Park where Greg met us and told me to go have fun, so off shopping I went and found 2 cute dresses both on sale! I'm not one for selfies, but since my birthday is about me, here you go! 

Easter dresses don't come much cuter than this!

I picked up Costa Vida for my birthday dinner and I came home to Greg making me a yummy lemon cake. It was delish!

So to sum up, turning 28 wasn't too exciting, but being 28 is pretty great. I am surrounded by my people, and it doesn't get much better than that!

Busy Season Trip to Cedar

We were packed and ready to go Thursday morning to go to Cedar City. Sofi woke up so excited to see Grandma Jan and it was all I could do to get her to Preschool on time. Claire and I were packed and ready to go when we picked Sofi back up. While we were eating lunch, I got a phone call from Greg who informed me that I had mixed up my weekends and if we went to Cedar we would miss the Annual Spjute party. I asked Sofi multiple times what she would want to do, and she said Cedar every time (and don't forget everything was packed), so off we went to Cedar City.

Having fun waiting for Sofi.

She sleeps in the car for a grand total of 40 minutes. But hey, it's better than nothing.

Chasing Grandma's kitty and wondering where she went.

It's important to keep your ears warm while going #1.

Shelby's dog has destroyed my parent's backyard, so luckily there is a fun park next door.

Facetiming poor, busy Greggy

Sof had a blast being chased by my mom one night out playing.

Neither girl was cooperating for a picture.

My grandma loves them anyway.

This isn't the best picture, but on the last night in Cedar the big red hill was all lit up, and somehow it made the whole trip worth it. Just about every time I take a trip to Cedar, I wonder why I do it because my girls drive my crazy, and most of the time I'm by myself with them, but when I see beautiful scenery like this, scenery I rarely see anymore, it makes it worth it. And, the fact that my girls love Cedar City and their grandparents makes it worth it too.

Driving back west, the clouds were amazing. It was the calm before the storm.

Claire became good friends with this swing.

Cedar High's Girls Basketball team was in the play-offs for the State Championship while we were down there, so my parents went each night and each night they won, everyone got more excited. Sofi wanted so bad to watch that my dad snuck her in. This is her excited face watching the CHS girls win the State Championship for the first time ever. 

Clairey loves Mocha.

This is the picture Greg sent me of the Spjute movie night. It looked fun, but I kept telling myself I would've had to take Claire home early anyway.