I'm a Homemaker!

All right, so I know that I'm already a homemaker, but I feel like a better homemaker after tonight. I went to the greatest class at church tonight! I learned how to make bread-FROM SCRATCH! I've made bread in a bread maker, but never in the oven. I learned how to mix, knead and shape the dough, let it rise and then cooked it in my oven. Man alive...my house smells so wonderful right now. Aren't I making you jealous right now? Don't you wish that you're here smelling the yummy bread? I had 2 large pieces with butter and I am in heaven! The recipe made 6 loaves of bread, so I'll freeze the other 5 I haven't cut into yet for later enjoyment. I feel so homemakey! (is that a word?) This is a picture of my loaves of bread! I can't wait to make other things with my new found knowledge of bread making!

Today, Emily decided she wanted her car on anything but it's 4 wheels. So by late afternoon she had put the car on every angle possible, and wanted me to take a picture. Emily called Nathan over and they posed for a great picture!

This afternoon, I decided to attack my desk. For a before and after picture look at the clean picture here, and the dirty one in the last post with me holding Nathan. I even dusted and wiped the desk off! It was so bad I felt like the world was closing in on me. Now I have an open space to work and I can organize my stuff again.

We found out Monday morning that Nathan isn't growing just one tooth in his mouth. He is growing 5!!!!!!! No wonder he is feeling so bad! Last night was the first night in 4 days that he didn't require Motrin to go to sleep. He is finally playing and eating again. Only problem...he figured out that if he doesn't feel well, and gives really big, blue, puppy dog eyes, he will get held and doted on. Now that he's feeling better, he still wants to be picked up and held all the time! No way, hosea! I still try to snuggle and love a lot, but he has toys to occupy his time, not mommy.

Emily the last few days has decided to be a little stinker. Yesterday she went on a destroying ramage. I think she thought she was a tornado/hurricane. She managed to pop my big medicine ball-WITH A PENCIL! That is one determined girl. Her reasoning for breaking it-"I didn't like it anymore. I didn't want it, so I popped it and threw it away." WHAT child? She has ripped workbooks and taken apart things/toys, whether they are hers or not, all because she didn't like them anymore. I'm not sure what's happening with her. I try to spend time with her, let her know that I love her and she can come to me for anything, but she thinks she owns the world and lets you know it. Please tell me this is just a phase and that she will grow out of it in like 5 minutes, right? Emily is so cute and wonderful, and really wants to choose the right and be a good girl, I just have to remember that. Plus, I love her, good or bad!

Blog Worthy

So many things have happened this week that I think to myself, "This is blog worthy!". See how many times I've posted? Yeah, I didn't do so well on getting everything put on here, so here we go!

I love my kids and am so happy to be their mom, and sometimes my favorite time of the day is to just watch them sleep at night. They are so peaceful and often smile in their sleep. I couldn't help but catch a few cute pics of them sleeping!





On Thursday Nathan's mouth decided to start to grow another tooth. Well, our kids don't do anything little, so his mouth REALLY hurt and he got a fever. He has been living on Motrin a few times a day to help with the pain and fever. It was so bad on Thursday that when I got up from the couch after snuggling him to cook dinner, this is where I found him a few minutes later-ASLEEP! Now that it's Sunday, he finally feels better and is back to his playful, eat everything is sight, self!




Plus, later that night, I got some good snuggles out of Nathan. This is Emily taking the picture. She aims the camera then says, "Where's my smile? Nathy (that's what she calls him), give me a smile. Look here." Who does she sound like? Oh yeah, ME! Man, kids say the darndest things! But I have to admit, there are days she takes better pictures than I do!

Emily has inherited my genes! She loves to build forts. This is Emily's fort, designed, created and built by Emily herself. The building and constructing comes from Daddy's genes! Although my mom will object. My brother and sister and I used to build forts in our living room that had seperate rooms with doors and air conditioning (fans). Emily's a good little architect and builder if I do say so myself! Plus, this is Emily taking the picture of her fort. She was so proud of her buiding skills!

A really good thing happened Thursday. I went to the dentist (that's not the good thing), and I had to sit for about an hour waiting for the hygenist to be ready to clean my teeth. So while I was waiting, I got to talk about my It Works body wraps and other products. They are such cool products. Let me tell you more about them! Get a hold of me, and I'll let you know how you can lose inches in just 45 mintues! I got to talk to about 6 or 7 people in the dentist office! I gave out brochures and I can't wait to go back in and drop off some business cards! That was a big boost to me, and made the start of my day really cool!

A major blessing and miracle happened Thursday morning. Kathryn was driving to work on McKellips and had just gone under the 202 overpass when someone decided to really quickly make a U-turn. Kathryn slammed on her brakes and went to get out of the way but ended up spinning around a few times and going up on her 2 passenger tires, ending up facing the opposite way in the rocks on the side of the road. She was shaken, but there was no damage to her or her vehicle. I am so grateful for that! When I told Emily about the accident, all I said to her was that Aunt Kathryn was almost in a car accident and that her car was spinning around, but she's ok. Emily's instant response was, "That's because Heavenly Father picked up her car and put it down safely." I LOVE that girl!

On Friday Robby and I were able to go to the temple (thanks mom for watching the kids!). It was great to be out and even better to be serving in the temple. We got there early, about 5:15 for the 6:00 session, which is a good thing because it was full! We sat by our good friends the Rappleyes and they were asked to be the Witness couple. However, they were going through the 6:30 session so Brother Rappleye said "We can't do it, but (points to us) they can! His wife laughed and hit him all at the same time! We were very happy to be the Witness couple and it helped us listen a little more to the endowment session! We got to see some friends that used to live in our ward, and I saw Sister Fulkerson, my old stake president's wife, and talked to her for a bit. Then we went over to Gecko Grill for dinner. It was nice eating and not worrying about saying "Emily, stop hugging your brother too much. Nathan, stop throwing food. Eat your dinner, both of you!" We had a great night.

Saturday morning Robby helped a family in our ward move and we was gone from 9 until 2:30. He came and got Emily around 11:30 and took her with him. So I got a treat of being by myself while Nathan took a nap. I read a magazine-dare I admit it was Emily's magazine I bought for her at Costco? It was PEOPLE's collector's edition of Dylan and Cole Sprouse from the Suite Life on Deck from Disney channel. I know, I'm crazy. But what else was I supposed to do, clean my house? Yeah, right! I did end up doing some dishes and get the Costco food put away. Poor Robby came home sunburned to a crisp and is still hurting today. He is my be burnt one day, tanned the next day. I feel so bad for him. He can't even play with the kids or give them hugs because his arms hurt so much.

Then Saturday night we went to a my networking group's social/party (more thanks to mom for watching the kids!). It was lots of fun seeing people in everyday clothes instead of business get-up! We laughed and talked and had a good time. Plus, the bonus thing, it was next door so all I had to do was walk over!

It was just me at church today because Robby was still burnt to a crisp, Nathan was still grumpy from growing a new tooth, and Emily wanted to stay home with daddy. Today I took it easy and got somewhat of a nap before Emily came in to tell me after about 15-20 minutes of laying down that I'd been in bed to long and it was time to get up. I shooed her away and got a little more rest, but mostly just laid in bed and enjoyed horizontal resting time. I don't get enough of that! So that's where I'm off to now!

Little Cowgirl

I felt like scrapbooking tonight, so I decided to look in my 2005 folder, then randomly clicked on a month. I ended up with June, then randomly clicked on a folder. I clicked on the 18th. I opened the folder to see the pictures and smiled! This was a good folder to click on! This is Emily about 6 months old when she started playing with a horse our friend gave her before she was born. She STILL loves this horse. I can't believe the thighs on that girl! I have to remind myself that Robby and I don't make small babies! It was so fun to look back on my little cutie that is now over 4 years old!

Sibling Love

This afternoon Emily runs into the office where Robby and I are working and says that Nathan got into the sink in the bathroom. We both thought he was playing in the sink and with the stuff on the counter. We told her that was ok then asked Emily to go get him out of the bathroom and shut the door. Well just then we hear a LARGE crash. We run into the bathroom and find he is really IN the sink. He had somehow crawled from the stepstool Emily uses to wash her hands into the sink and was comfortably sitting in the sink playing with Emily's hair stuff. I laughed so hard, then ran to find my camera!

Tonight we decided to have a picnic on the family room floor. We had hot dogs and fries, jelly beans for dessert, and we turned on the 1st Harry Potter. We played and laughed with the kids which helped release any tension of the day and helped us remember that the kids are the most important things in our life. Emily and Nathan love Robby so much and he loves them back even more. They know that they can wrestle, snuggle, chase, love, torture, kiss up and generally love up on daddy and he will be right there to do all of that stuff back to them and put big smiles on their faces. I even got in on the floor time play and got bounced on one too many times, but what good is laying on the floor if you aren't being smooshed? Actually Nathan will come over and push you down, he's a strong little bugger! Then he quickly crawls on you and starts bouncing. Then he somehow signals Emily over and she joins in on the bouncing fun. Happy kids, squooshed mommy/daddy!

These are some pictures I took back in March of Emily and Nathan snuggling. They love to be together, and most of all they love to give each other hugs. I'm so grateful that they get along!

Easter Sunday

Today was a great day! We got up early so we could attend Michael and Jessica's ward because Michael was blessing Allison today. Robby was asked to be in the circle which was a wonderful thing to watch because I love it when Robby uses his priesthood to give or help give a blessing. Michael did a great job and Allison was beautiful in her white dress. I didn't get a picture of her, but I have one of her tonight. So cute you could just eat her up!

Tonight we had Easter dinner at mom's house with all of us and Kathryn's friend Nicole, who I love-she is so much fun! After dinner we took family pictures and thankfully Nicole was there to act as official photographer. I think the more pictures we took and the blinder we got from the flash, the crazier each set of pictures turned out! You'll see what I mean when you look at the pictures.

Pictures of the cousins and how inthralled Emily and Nathan are with Allison:

The full family picture:

Our family:

Mom and Kids:

Us Three Kids:

And as a P.S.-Nana came home from the hospital last Tuesday and she is staying at my aunt and uncle's home. They are taking great care of her, for which I am so grateful to them for letting her stay at their home. She is doing much better, but still very weak. When I went to visit her on Friday, a nurse was there that told us that she was very lucky to be alive. When we asked why, he said that Nana really shouldn't be here right now because of how long the kidney infection was in her body and went undetected (2-4 weeks). I said a silent prayer right then and there for how blessed I am to have her in our lives still. She is a fighter, but I know she can't live forever. I love her too much to let her go home to Papa, but I also love her too much to watch her suffer with pain or just the frustration of not being able to move and do the things she wants and needs to do. It's all in Heavenly Father's hands, and I must remember it is His will that I must follow, not my own.

Crazy Kids

This has been some week! So many ups and downs, but thankfully the ups out way the downs.

Early Wednesday morning, our friend and business partner Kara had her baby! Patrick is such a little cutie! He loves to snuggle, and I am majorly baby hungry after holding him! Congrats to Kara and her family! I love the middle name they chose for him...Danger! Now he can really say his middle name is danger!

After doing so well at keeping my house clean, Nathan decided to have a food fight with the floor. I'm not really sure who won, but I know I lost! But he is always so helpful and loves to use Emily's pretend vacuum!

Emily's Nannie and Poppa gave her a princess CD player for Christmas, and we finally got batteries to put in the player on Thursday. Emily never took the ear phones off all day! She even wanted to go to bed with the player and we had to draw the line there! I love that she sings all the songs and even gets up and dances sometimes. Nathan is so jealous! Whenever Emily actually takes off the headphones and walks away, Nathan will walk over and put them on and try to listen to the music too!

On Friday we had our friends the Richardsons over for dinner which is always TONS of fun! We get to talk and catch up while the kids play. You'll notice that Emily, in the pictures below, has a scab on her nose. She was having so much fun playing that she didn't notice a drawer was open and ran right into it and scratched a part of her nose off. She cried for a few minutes, but was more interesting in playing with friends than being pampered and smothered by mommy!

We had our Easter egg hunt party tonight at our house. We hunted for eggs inside because of the rain outside (we actually had April showers!). The kids got a jackpot when it came to gifts from the Easter Bunny, and Nannie and Poppa got the kids Animusic DVDs which the kids wanted opened right then and there, and they watched and danced, and Nathan did his usual conducting of the music moves. Emily went wild looking for eggs and did really well finding a lot of eggs, even in the hard places that Robby put them. Nathan was so excited every time he found an egg he would almost jump off the ground then run to the egg, pick it up, smile, then drop it in his basket.

Then we had dinner and let the cousins all play together. Well as much as Allison who is 2 months old can play with her cousins who mawl her will love, kisses, snuggles and too much attention! Emily always wants to hold Allison, and most of the time Allison will tolerate it. Nathan has gotten in on the wanting to hold Allison game too. He walks over and tries to take the baby from whoever is holding her. While Jessica was changing Allison's diaper on the floor tonight, both Emily and Nathan got down on the floor with Allison and took turns kissing her. Yes, even Nathan gave kisses. He would lean over and give his wet open mouth kiss and say "mmmmaaaa" when he touched her face! Sooooo cute. Emily even got Allison to smile! I think these kids love their cousin!

Are you sitting down?

My house has been clean for 2 days! I know...I told you to sit down! I cleaned the kitchen and family room yesterday, and it is still clean today. I have done dishes 2 days in a row. I must be sick. When I was mopping yesterday, Robby came in and jokingly said, "I need the camera, you are mopping". He knows I HATE mopping. To make it more amazing, I was using the big rag mop which is really hard for me to use, so I usually use the sponge mop, which Robby says doesn't clean well. I hadn't vacuumed yet as of tonight, so as a way for Emily to get out of going to bed, she comes to me and says, "You need to vacuum before we go to bed so we can run away from the vacuum and scream". So I even vacuumed! Like I said, I'm sick!

Update on the kids...Emily rode her bike all the way to and from school yesterday. She was so happy to show all her friends that she could ride all by herself. She has been my big helper and wanting to be a part of everything I am doing lately. Nathan is good ol' Nathan. He is so good at giving snuggles. All you have to say is "Nathan, give me snuggles", hold your arms open, and he will run toward you and give you the best hugs. Of course then Emily wants in and we get a good family snuggle going on! Nathan fell off the little chair in the family room and met the side of the kid table and has a nice mark down the side of his face. Robby thinks we should call him Scar (from Lion King) because his scratch is about in the same place.

Beautiful Day in the Backyard

Today was a relaxing family day. We watched both sessions of General Conference and Robby went to the Priesthood session tonight while the kids and I went to Costco to pick up our easter cards that I created today.


Between the conference sessions, the kids went out back and played like they had never been outside before. Nathan can now say outside, which sounds more like ow-si. Emily has really learned to love her bike and will ride it in circles on the little concrete slab in the backyard. She only turns left, so I think one day she may become a Nascar driver. When I tried to get her to go right, she told me she would make an eight and then go left again. Silly girl!



Nathan has become dirt's best friend. As soon as Nathan goes outside, he and Dirt are glued to each other. He cries when I take him to the kitchen sink to separate him with his friend Dirt. Then he remembers his friend Water, and life is ok again!




Robby filled up the sandbox with more sand today because the kids had succeeded in taking ALL of the sand out of the sandbox, and then turning the sandbox over and dumping any remaining sand out. You'd think Robby had given them gold when he started pouring the sand into the sandbox. Nathan then decided to take a big handfull and pour it on his head. He seems to think that the more sand his can pile on his bald head, the more hair he'll grow or something like that. Park day is terrible! We come home with half the playground's sand, and that's AFTER I rub off as much as I can. He is way too funny!





We went to visit Nana again in the hospital tonight. She is looking better but is still very tired and weak. They just keep running more and more tests, and everyone I talk to has no idea what they're for. I sure hope she gets better soon so she can go home and get some rest. The kids really helped her spirits rise, and I'm so grateful that they have that influence on her, and on me too! Both Emily and Nathan gave her kisses, and you'd think by Nana's smile that they had given her the moon!

Photographic Kids

Today the wonderful Robin Seger took some pictures of the kids at Lou Coopey Photography. Emily did a great job and loved smiling and posing. She is such a little princess! Nathan on the other hand was a TOAD!!!! He refused to be any where near the camera, and when he did get close enough and smile, Robin would bring the camera up and Nathan would turn around and run away. But we finally got some good pictures of him, and both of the kids together. Enjoy!

Welcome One and All!

Welcome to the wonderful world of the Sandling family! Enjoy our updates, stories, pictures, and just everyone's craziness!

This is Emily and Nathan playing at the park the other night. They cried when we had to leave because they just love being outside playing and running around!