Just a little...

STRESSED

So, the past couple days I feel like I am being repeatedly beaten into the ground by everything.

I think we are doing good then all of a sudden Dales car breaks down and we found out its going to cost around 200 bucks to get fixed when we just put 200 into it to get it running "right." Dale has the worst schedule ever and it is really hard to go on one car with a schedule like his. I am already worried about money and this just tops the cake.

Then I have to worry about my girlie's attitude. She will YELL at me if I tell her no. Today after hurting Makenna THREE TIMES in a row ON PURPOSE to the point of massive screams I tell her to go to bed and she goes to her room screams at me and slams the door. Is this my fault? What on earth have I done to make her so argumentative?! I have tried EVERYTHING!

First was the taking things away, losing privileges. Just more screaming and more tantrums.

Time outs. NOTHING makes her stay in. If i was to do the super nanny thing she would LITERALLY be in there ALL DAY. What good is that going to do when she wont even remember what she was in there for in the first place. Its just a power play and those are just making things worse.

I have tried to use the reward system for good behavior. Getting stars when you listen and do things you are asked to do and getting rewards for a certain amount of stars...but THAT'S not working either! She REFUSES to listen to ANYTHING I say to her. When Dale is here the problems are few and far between but the SECOND he walks out the door she becomes another child.

I am totally lost. I am afraid of what is going to happen if I don't learn how to handle her and work with her. Nothing I do is the right thing!

This is all leading to no where but I am so lost. I don't know how to be a mom to her. She is making it impossible and I don't want this to get worse.

I have never been so stressed in my life.

Just kidding

Have I mentioned how much I HATE the new blogger template crap?!

No?

Well, let me tell you now...


IT SUCKS!!

Bad

So in trying to fix my blog I realized i lost all my links to everyone elses blog. This is going to take a really really long time to fix. If you want to help me out leave a link to your blog in the comments!

PLEASE!
(and thank you)

Not to mention I lost ALL the Riley isms! I wish i would have had them written down somewhere else but I don't.

I suck at this.

I'm gonna pack my car and go to Vegas

(A MILLION PICTURES!)

So for our fifth anniversary Dale and I went to VEGAS!

We had a BLAST!

We went to the M&M store and saw the M&M car.

Spent some time at New York, New York

(It was SOO hot in Vegas and we walked through it everyday. This explains my sweaty gross red face!)

Saw the (fake) Arc de Triomphe.

(this is our only picture together...)

We lived Large in Vegas. 

We met ALL the stars! ;)

Dale compared biceps with THE ROCK! The Rock wasn't happy about it!

We hung out with Julia Roberts.

Kept it cool with James Bond

Played some ball with The Babe!

I TOTALLY called it! ;)

We also compared wingspans Jordan didn't want to play along..

Tried to be taller.....

Took a picture with my sister Mandi's favorite person on the planet!

Got serenaded by Timmy

Then serenaded Old Blue Eyes!

Dale tickled the ivory and made some sweet music with Mr. Armstrong!

Nicholas Cage and I compared our empty bank accounts!

Dale fought it out with Muhammed Ali.

Then we went to see the Fountains at Bellagio!

It was our favorite part! 

The water show is amazing! We could have stood there for HOURS!!

We stayed at the Planet Hollywood! We LOVED it!

We went to a mall across the street where I am pretty sure that if you actually wanted to walk into the stores you would have to show them you had PLENTY of money in your bank account or they would kick you out. I am pretty sure the least expensive store in there was the "Tiffany and Co." NOT KIDDING! I guess except for the Gelato place we went to that was AMAZING but a 4oz gelato was 4 bucks.... But they had these awesome tornado tubes that were so awesome to see. and then they had these.....

We thought maybe they were plastic but Dale decided to touch one and figured out it was ICE! We thought it was the coolest thing!! And of course the water below it was FREEZING! It was awesome!

Then on Thursday morning before we left we went to the Bellagio again to see this SUPER cute exhibit they had. They made it look like a big green room and almost everything was made out of flowers. We LOVED this GIANT shovel and pail!

GIANT snails covered in flowers.

Giant mushrooms and ants!

GIANT bees made out of flowers pollinating giant glass flowers!

My favorite was the snail.

Dales was this ant crawling out of his ant hill!

It was so so pretty and the perfect ending to an amazing trip! It was so nice to get away and be with just each other for once!

We want to go back already!

Projects, Projects! Before and After

So Yesterday I decided since Dale ACTUALLY had a Saturday off that I wanted to go to Goodwill! I have been wanting to go for a while but since I never had Dale with me I wasn't even gonna chance it!

So we get to Goodwill and I see the posters "50% off Sale July 17th"

MY LUCKY DAY!!!!

So we go in and i was thinking it would end up like it always does.. never really finding what I want.. until I saw this baby....

The most UGLY/BEAUTIFUL piece of furniture ever!

It was exactly what I was looking for! I have been looking for something with this kind of shape for quite a few months and everything I saw was always over 100bucks and I never wanted to fork out that much just to redo it.

Again, MY LUCKY DAY!!

I paid less than half of that for this beauty.

I couldn't figure out what to do with it but I figured i would sand it down while I was in the process of thinking.

Girls room?

Our room?

Entertainment center?

I finally decided that the area we needed it most was right under our TV!

Then onto deciding the color... I had a hard time..

Red?

Green?

Grey?

Finally I figured that we probably wouldn't want a big piece like that to be so red that it would drown out the rest of the room so BLUE it was!

I found the color I wanted at Wal-Mart kilzed it and painted it until almost 1in the morning! I let it dry overnight and we put it in our family room this morning and this is how it turned out...

I am so IN LOVE with this set up!

Of all the projects I have finished in the last couple weeks I am MOST proud of this!

It livens up the whole room, hides toys and electronic cords and makes the room feel "Homey"

I just want to squeal!!

Blue Eyed Boy Meets A Brown Eyed Girl

I started writing this post last Sunday and I could never get the words right. I am not blessed with the ability to put my thoughts down on paper (or a blog) and make it understandable to the average human. So I am starting over and I hope by simplifying it it comes out the right way!

Yesterday Dale and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary! We made it pretty low key because JUST Dale and I are headed to Vegas next week for 4 days and we didn't want to bug more babysitters and shove the girls away when we are going to be leaving them on Monday but luckily we got a last minute babysitter and we went to a cheap lunch and a movie! (Go see Despicable Me HILARIOUS!)

I was trying to write a big post about how Dale has bettered me in so many ways but I couldn't find the right words. So in that simple sentence, there it is!

He has brought me out of my shell, taught me how to stick up for myself more and has made me feel so much more confident in myself.

Everyone says that they have the best husband in the world. I think that is true of every ones husband. They have the husband that suits them best, the person that "completes them" for lack of a better phrase. And with the risk of sounding super cheesy.

Dale truly is my perfect match. He is the perfect husband for ME.
(Ya I know, SUPER cheesy!)

I Love you Dale. Cant wait to see what gets shoved our way in the next 5 years!

These Legs Are Made For Walking

Yep you guessed it! Mak is WALKING!!

She is taking about 7 steps at a time!!

By the time I think to get the camera she is so tired so the amount of STABLE steps goes down a bit but she is already trying to navigate herself instead of just walking to and from Mommy and Daddy!

She is so cute!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com
I told dale that by the time we get back from our trip to Vegas next week for our anniversary, she will be walking all by herself and we will have missed it!
He didn't like that very much......

A Busy Bee

I have been project crazy lately. My White walls with nothing on them, my white curtains hanging there lacking color (or just horribly colored) having nothing in my house organized with everything we have having no real place to get put.

Can you see how this would be driving me insane? Ya....

So I am not even sure when, I think it was a little over a  week ago I started waking up and getting stuff done! The entire upstairs needed re-doing so before I even went downstairs to see my girls or eat or anything I started working on everything upstairs! I couldn't go downstairs because I KNEW that if I did the girls would see me I would start having fun with them, sit down to relax and never get up. Nothing would have gotten done!

So, first up was cleaning the bathrooms! My nose hairs are still burned from the bleach! (too much?) It might take another week to get my sense of smell back. But after I sanitized the bathroom I organized it. Then I organized the girls old clothes and found Riley's old clothes that now fit Mak (18 month clothes people!!!!!!) I am sure some of you are losing interest with all these details (if you hadn't already lost interest at the first sentence) so to shorten it up I ORGANIZED MY BUTT OF!!!

Upstairs was lookin' fantastic so i did the same to the downstairs bathroom! I felt so accomplished and that was just day one!

The next day I did the same thing! Wake up, don't let the girls see you and WORK! Dishes, laundry, vacuum....

It felt AWESOME!

My house would not be complete until I got something on my walls though.... My sister was going to help me with this since DECORATING is an area in which I LACK talent but I got a fire underneath me doing the rest and I just couldn't help myself! (Hey Jamie, feel free to critique this and come over and put it where it SHOULD go!) So I spent all yesterday afternoon in our HOT garage spray painting picture frames! This morning I actually got them up on the wall!!!!

It looks like this.....

and this....

So I starting looking at the horribly colored curtains in my family room. They were SUPPOSED to turn out dark grey but they turned out light gray with white spots. It wasn't the first time i had dyed something but it was the first time with my washer and it turned out horrible! I knew I couldn't use my washer for it again but I had another set of curtains I needed to get done for my bedroom so I spent SO much time in a hot nasty sticky kitchen boiling water to pour into a plastic bucket to dye my bedroom curtains THIS.......

GREEN!

I know its a horrible picture but I couldn't get the color to look even close to what they actually look like in a picture so I had to darken it up! yuck!

But you get the gist! Its really actually pretty in real life. Again, they didn't turn out perfect but they are a lot better than my grey ones! and they look cool with my bedding and green pillows!

That's what I have done so far! I have SO much more on my list to do but its gonna have to wait! I need to spend some more quality time with the girls and less time worrying about my projects!

But now I have enough stuff done that my house feels a little more like home and and I have less clutter in my life!

I have a "new" couch though that I need to clean and try to find (or make) a slip cover for and then I will be SO happy with my family room!! (anybody have an upholstery cleaner I could borrow? Also anyone have skills in making slip covers or re-upholstering???? I NEED YOU!)

Why

Right now I have 3 pots on my stove trying to boil water at the same time. I am trying to fill up a giant plastic tub so that I can dye my bedroom curtains.....

Why do I do this to myself???

Day Trip

Yesterday we took a last minute trip up to Payson with my sister Jamie and her kids to play in Christopher Creek. Jamie invited us on Thursday night and luckily Dale was able to get the day off last minute!

It was so nice to be in cooler weather for a day! There was a nice breeze almost the entire time and of course there was the cold creek to play in! We definitely needed this little break!

Dale and I were both able to spend some time with just Riley Bug and Mak had tons of fun crawling around in the cool grass and splashing around in the shallow parts of the creek!

Also, I was able to bring my new camera and really put it to use! It was around 1 o'clock by the time we got in the creek so the sun was right above us so it was a little different figuring out how to use the setting on the camera to my benefit but I have to say again...

I LOVE THE CAMERA!

I got it JUST in time!!

So here are my favorite pictures of the girls...

(there are a lot!)

Dale and I think she looks so grown up in this picture! She doesn't look just like shes 4. I love watching them grow up but why does it have to go so fast!!

This is one of my favorite pictures!

"DADDY DONT TRY TO MAKE ME WALK I JUST WANT YOU TO HOLD ME!!!"

Yep Im chubby! I like food!

Chubby and PROUD!

What IS this thing called nature? What is this green stuff? I'm gonna touch it!

Eh, The thighs speak for themselves..

Hey! I'm an adorable girl named Riley Bug but I was having WAY to much fun for my mom to catch up with me and get pictures!

(She had SO much fun!)

Just TRY to resist kissing thse cheecks Mommy and Daddy!

SERIOUSLY just TRY!

What the HECK did you just do to me?? What is this cold stuff?? I'm not sure I'm a fan!

Umm, she is cute... That's all.

Mom and Dad Why don't you bring me here more often??

See I had fun! I enjoyed getting out of the heat and exploring the creek with Riley and figuring out a few things about my camera! I have TONS to learn but I am so excited to!

Dale enjoyed helping our nephew catch a BUNCH of crawdads, laying in the hammock with Riley while guessing cloud shapes with Riley and exploring the creek with Riley!

I WANT TO GO BACK!!

My New Love

I'm sorry Dale. I have a new love. Its this guy right here!
You have to admit, he is rather beautiful.
Also,
he takes amazing pictures!

One day I will find out how to give you the attention you deserve but I will be holding hands with this guy a lot.

This might scare you and this might be OK with you but only time will tell.

I am so excited that Dale let me get a new camera! His only rule was that I sold the other one first.
(Thank you Craigslist!)

It was kind of an ordeal at the store last night trying to actually purchase this thing but everything worked out and I brought it home and have been playing with it ever since!

No more camera that I cant figure out! That means I might actually post more pictures up here that I actually took! YAY