HELPFUL TIP #1
So my friends...yes pretty much all my friends out there that ever check in on me via this blog, listen up!  I have spoken with several of you over the last few months who are always telling me "I'm so bad at checking my friends' blogs, what's the address again??"  And I say to you...LAME!  If you check your email daily, then you can do this next thing I'm about to share with you.  You will never have to remember another blog address or try to remember to check them again.  It is called GOOGLE READER!  My sister blogged about this "must have" a long time ago and highlighted all of its wonderful benefits and even links to how you can get started.  Now click HERE to read more about it and make your life easier and more enriched because you can stalk your friends on your own time and stay up to date on their lives....that is...if they stay up to date on blogging.  But that's another issue for another time :)
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HELPFUL TIP #2
If you love watermelon as much as I do, then here is a tip for you!  I am sort of a watermelon snob in that I'm very selective and particular about what makes a perfect watermelon, and one that is worthy of the time and effort it takes to dice it up for easy devouring.  Because I love it so much, I will eat sub-par watermelon if I have to, but now I don't have to!  Well, at least the last two experiences I've had, this method has proven effective!

Things to look for when selecting your watermelon:
  • It's heavier than it looks
  • It sounds hollow when you thump it (that was my only technique for picking watermelons before, and that just left me wide open for poor picking)
  • It has a very green color and a nice yellow spot
  • There are no soft spots
  • Bee stings around the stem (I don't know exactly what this looks like on a melon, so maybe this one is optional?)
  • SUGAR CRYSTALS....I was told about this by someone else who was helping me select a melon when I was very pregnant with Ally and she took pity on me.  They just look like black goo coming out of the stem or out of other scar marks (or as Dan says, "when it looks like a lawnmower ran over it")  I usually passed over those because it looked too mangled, but the last two melons I've brought home had the scar marks with the black goo coming out, and it has been sweet every time!  
Go here and here to see where I gathered this info.  I also wonder if anyone has any thoughts about seeded or seedless?  Though it seems you can't find seeded anymore.  I hate picking out the seeds anyway, and the last two I purchased were seedless.  Also, the one I bought from Walmart was grown in Mexico and the one I bought from Fry's yesterday was grown in USA and I kind of think the Mexican one might have been better.  Any other suggestions?  I'm going to keep testing this method as long as watermelons are in season and share it with whomever asks for tips at the watermelon bins because everyone deserves happy watermelon eating!

 
So even before my last post, all the work you can see in these pictures was done.  These were taken in MAY.  And even now, more has been done, but I have yet to take pictures of that.

I didn't take exact angles of the pictures like BEFORE and DURING...but use your imagination since you can't see it live.  (actually you could, Dan took video of the house before starting work on it, but I think that's probably too boring and not post-worthy)  So on the left are BEFORES and on the right are the DURING's.  You can click on them to see them larger and read my captions that will hopefully make what you're looking at clearer.
Well that's it!  Progress is slowly being made.  Dan has been working really hard.  Next up is finishing the electric, drywall, and we just ordered the kitchen cabinets yesterday so those are due in 3 weeks.  Which means painting the walls too before they arrive.  Any suggestions?
 
Welp! We bought ourselves a house... We took advantage of a foreclosure in a great neighborhood and after months of nothing happening and assuming our bid was being laughed at...we finally found out in March that it was ours!  I use exclamation points, but to be honest, I was not thrilled about this.  It is an older house (built in 1993) and not only were the previous owners a little off their rockers when it came to decorating and only halfway completing an addition to the house, but it needed some major renovations in order to make it not liveable, but just likeable.  Over time, and as Dan and I have gradually aligned our visions into one (haha!) I have started to feel a bit of excitement over this new home.  However, creating a kitchen from SCRATCH, is not an easy task.

We also ventured into this purchase not really knowing if we would move into it, or if we would turn it for a profit.  (hence even more delay in my enthusiasm for this stress maker!) With more and more sweat (Dan's) and more and more stress (mine) going into it, we've realized that this could be a good move for us.

The neighborhood is still in East Mesa (though farther west and north than we are currently) which cuts off a little time from Dan's commute.  It is all custom homes and we actually have an empty lot next to our house which I find kind of bizarre that it could stay undeveloped for this long, but Dan met the owner once and he told him they have plans to build...hopefully not for 10yrs or more haha!  I secretly thought how cool would it be to level our home, buy that empty lot, and build our giant dream home covering both lots!??  HAHA!  Riiiight...  So now that we're back to reality, you can see all the before pictures I took, I think in February before the sale was final.  Just remember...it has good bones and lots of potential! ;) (PO! haha...to all my old roomies that get that reference...;)

Click on any to view larger and see my captions.
 
4th - EASTER! - We spent Easter Sunday at my parent's and also held a mini birthday party, complete with egg hunt, bubble dancing, presents, and cookie decorating!  Maddy had more sugar in one day than she's probably had in her entire lifetime!

9th - Maddy's Birthday!  "I'm TWO!"  I taught her to say that when people ask how old she is, we worked on it for a couple weeks although she still has trouble getting the fingers down.  We had a little birthday party at our house for her and Dan's family came.  The kids played in the backyard and then we had pizza, opened presents, and had her butterfly cake!  At two years old Maddy can sing all the words to "I Am A Child of God" and "Twinkle Twinkle" among others, she knows her entire alphabet and with no help from mom, can recognize some letters.  She just about has all her colors down and can count into the 'teens.  She is talking in full sentences and surprises with new ones all the time.  It's so fun to hear her talking more and understanding more.  I also like hearing her "mother" Ally, it's cute now, but not for long!  She is getting more creative as she plays and reads herself stories.  Her latest thing is "I'm being a birdie, ladybug, snake, etc."  I don't know where she picked up on that, nursery maybe?  But it's so funny!  She still loves to read, to hear music, sing and dance, to play legos and blocks making towers, painting and coloring, anything to do with water, and playing with other kids and of course Grandmas and Grandpas and all extended family.  She makes us laugh everyday and is such a good big sister and helper.  We just love our sweet Madelyn! 
 
FEBRUARY - A pretty quiet month, no major things to report, so I'll just let the pictures tell it all.
MARCH - Spring time is here which means bunnies, and easter egg hunts and girls in pretty dresses!  Maddy enjoyed the egg hunts, although she got jipped at the ward one, but we remedied that with one on her birthday/Easter celebration the next weekend (in April).  Enjoy all the pretty pink-ness!
 
FYI - If you haven't already figured it out, you can click on any of the pictrues to view them larger, also you  can see captions I've wiritten on a few if you hold your cursor over it.

JANUARY - We took the girls on a couple "first" trips this month.  We did a quick day trip to Tortilla Flats to see the lake, do a little hike, and enjoy the wonderful weather!  Both our girls LOVE to be outside no matter what the occasion so it was a fun time!

Our next trip was to Flagstaff to enjoy the recent snow dump that happened this month.  We stayed one night in a hotel (Daddy and Madelyn in one bed, Ally and I in another - what fun!) and spent the entire first morning out in the snow.  We went sledding on a saucer (Mommy took the plunge with Maddy for the first ride! Woo hoo!) and Ally pretty much froze, poor little girl.  She ended up falling asleep, but once I felt her hands and feet, I kind of think it may have been a hypothermic coma?  This wasn't Maddy's first time to see snow, but it was her first time to play in it.  Thanks to awesome friends that loaned us some snow gear, she had a BLAST!  We made a snowman (although the snow was pretty crusty) and sang the snowman song and threw snowballs at Daddy.  It was a great and exhausting time!
 
November - So not much seemed to happen this month.  Ally grew, Maddy is still learning to "be soft," and we ate turkey with Dan's family and this year (and always...) we were grateful for our two healthy little girls!
December -
6th - Ally's Blessing Day - It was fun to have my sis and her family with us this time around.  First time in a long time that we were all together for a special occasion.  I tried to record the blessing again, but I think you mostly hear Maddy "trying" to be quiet, haha!  Ally did great after I reminded the boys to not let her feet go above her head (as in Maddy's situation that made her cry through the whole thing)  We had the usual "brunch" afterwards at our house.  It was a great day!
13th - We celebrated my brother Scott's birthday, nephew Connor's 1st Birthday, and had a pre-Christmas all on this one day.  Go here for the photo highlights!
Christmas Time! - Now that Maddy is older we could really start to talk to her more about Christmas things.  She loved seeing the lights up at night and caught on to who Santa was real quick, though she did NOT want to give him hugs at the ward party...  We unfortunately couldn't torture her and put her on his lap at the ward party because they didn't do it until the very end after eating and a show and there were masses of kids.  Oh yeah, and Santa did some magic show or something first...??  But Christmas time was so fun and Maddy still asks to sing what she calls "holy night" but that means "Silent Night" and she was singing Jingle Bells the other day when she found her bell (the other day being May 13 2010)  Some of Maddy's main attraction gifts were Elmo dolls and a mini kitchen.
 
I realize the shock that the 5 of you who may actually read our blog might experience at seeing a NEW post after a 7+ month hiatus, but you may be even more shocked to learn that I already started this post and it was inadvertently deleted! Grrrr!  And yet here I am making time again!  (trust me, this is monumental)

So to get all caught up I figured I'd go month by month and list the highlights via pictures, plus that helps me remember what happened and when... (I'm a firm believer that pregnancy brain is real and never really goes away...)

I'll start in October since that is really when life came to a screeching halt with baby #2's arrival.

OCTOBER
4th - 
Or somewhere around there....Dan's 32nd birthday.  I love surprises, giving and receiving, and so I continued that tradition.  Last birthday I was in cahoots (sp?) with Dan's boss and Maddy and I drove the 60 somethin' miles to surprise him at work!  This year I threw a mini surprise party for him at Eatza Pizza! I think it was a success and all within days of me giving birth...am I Superwife or what?!?
7th - Aleah Shay joins our family!  I think I'll save her birth story for another post or a blog, jr. post (if anyone is even interested). But to sum up, it was all very different from my first experience - from the feel of the contractions to the delivery experience - no complications, thankfully, just different.
Halloween - Maddy got to attend a couple "spooktacular" events.  Daddy took her to Grandma M's party and Mommy took her to the ward Trunk 'r Treat.  Ally stayed quarantined at home.  I went the handmade route on Maddy's costume, making a tutu skirt, wand, and buying some wings to turn her into a fairy of sorts. Not terribly coordinated but she liked it!  Dan found an after Halloween clearance puppy costume that we let Maddy dress up in for a few days as well.
Who am I kidding?  I only got through 3 events of October and it took me 3 days (including the first deletion...)  I'll post this one for now...cross your fingers for more.  :)
 

 
A new video of Ally laughing.