RODENTS....

Some of you may remember a post way back of a cute little field mouse on my back step. Well apparently that cute little field mouse called up his WHOLE family, and decided to be permanent residence of our yard this winter. (I know it could be worse, my garage or my house!)

We were playing in the yard when we found a few small piles of dirt. Upon further investigation there were tons of tunnels and grooves in the yard just under all the dead grass they were using to hide under. (At least 6ftx6ft square of our yard) We found 5 holes that led into the tunnels. At this point we were unsure what in the world had done this to our yard. But we had a brilliant idea to pull out the hose and give our neighbors something to talk about.(That would be US!) The whole family was out each watching a hole not knowing what might come out. First one little mouse. Then 8 more little furry friends made their way to the soggy surface. We caught each one in random snow/sand buckets and eventually had to pull out a tupperware container to hold them all! Each time was accompanied by several shrill screams followed by mass chaos while we tried to catch each one.WE couldn't kill them, the girls the whole time are yelling don't HURT them. So we were kind and took them into the middle of a field and let them go. I am going to be kicking myself if I find them in my yard again or in my garage! If this is the case we may be the proud new owners of a large snake, or maybe just a nice kitty that like to eat cute furry things.....

AMENDMENT TO BELOW

I swear a barely finished typing this before I completely jinxed myself!! Apparently we have taken a step or 2 backwards. Arghhh, It is hard for me not to make a big deal about it when you know they know!! 

Success!

So Madelyn and I are certainly NOT on the same time table. I have wanted for several months to be diaper free! In fact my big push was after Christmas thinking we could go to Disneyland, Potty trained. Obviously that didn't happen! 

So 4 days before we had to ride in the car for 8 hours to my youngest brothers wedding in Utah. Madelyn decides she wants to be BIG, and wear underwear! (GREAT TIMING) I thought about discouraging it, but then figured it wouldn't last, since we have been down this rode a time or two already this year. Well Guess what she is potty trained! 

I was totally shocked that she did it! In the 4 days before we left she had 1 accident. I did however convince her (not really sure how still) to wear pull ups in the car and at the wedding. 

It is so funny though she doesn't say I need to go potty she simply exclaims " I am PEEING"! Not exactly what you want to hear in the middle of the isle in TARGET! We'll be working on that.....

St. Patrick's day surprises

So I am not always on the ball when it comes to holidays. In fact I guess I kind of thought that St. Patrick's day was one we wore green and let go. Well a sneaky "last minute" Leprechaun  made it to our house. He left lucky charms, turned our milk green and left little tiny shamrocks that I will forever be cleaning up!! ( darn leprechaun) Madelyn was a bit disturbed that the milk was green and kept saying eww eww double eww!! I have no idea where she got this, but it is quite funny to hear her say it. Needless to say she was pretty glad when we finished the green milk and had white milk again!! For some reason I am not able to download my pictures. I will try adding them later.

It is great to be 8

Kaitlyn turned eight this weekend. We had such a fun weekend. She has been waiting and waiting to get her ears pierced the rule at the Yates house is when you turn 8. That was exciting for her. (I really didn't think she was going to go through with it, but she did great! Not a single tear.)

Grandma and Grandpa Turner came to visit for her baptism. She was baptised on her birthday which is funny because she has always talked about it being that way. The odds of it being able to happen though are few and far between. It just so happened that her birthday was on a Sunday this year. She asked a friend to sing a song with her "I come to the water" by Janice Kapp Perry. They did a beautiful job.

She is growing up so fast. I love her so much! It has been fun to watch her understanding, and testimony grow these past few weeks as she has prepared for her baptism.

I also had Joe's family send letters to her with there testimony's since they were unable to attend. What a special book that is turning out to be. She absolutely loves it.

Family Vacation

Joe has been wanting to go to the "Happiest Place on Earth" (AKA: Disneyland) for a long time. Some friends of ours gave us a heads up about airline tickets out of Billings to Las Vegas for $29.00 each way! We then rented a car in Vegas and drove the rest of the way. (about 4 hours)

A picture is worth a thousand words.

Every day we were there it rained. These were no little showers either. One might think this would ruin your trip..... Not us we sported our rain coats everywhere! The rain did make the lines very short. We literally walked onto any ride we wanted. The longest we waited was to see the princesses. (a MUST with 3 little girls) about 25 minutes. The water rides were great because we were already soaked.!The kids feet looked like little raisins at night when we went back to our hotel!! There was only one day that it was cool enough that we were a bit miserable. Nothing a little hot cocoa couldn't fix!

I think Joe and I are a little more use to rain than we are COLD!! We thought it was funny that every morning we would get up and look outside. The sun would be shining. We would go eat breakfast and just as we were ready to walk to Disney the showers began!

We were also there for my 30th birthday!(I am officially a BIG girl now.) I think I took on Sophie Shipp's attitude of "Disneyland is nothing." When all she wanted, was to swim in the hotel pool!! I remember long lines and TONS of people at Disneyland, and I wasn't crazy about the thought of going. But it turned out really great. Disneyland is running a promotion this year you can get in free on your birthday. We already had park hopper tickets so they gave us the equivalent of a ticket($69.00) to spend in the park!! The only catch was you couldn't spend it on food. We (I better say I) got suckered into listening to this time share sales pitch, for an additional $100.00 to spend at Disney. We stuck to our guns and declined the time share and left with $100.00 to spend. (Not sure I would recommend this to anyone.) It took a bit longer than they said but we did miss the big rain storm of the day. We actually made it back almost dry that night! We ended the day with Fantasmic and fire works.

We spent the majority of our time at Disneyland. We did make it to sea world one day. I think we all agree that was the grumpy day! The 3rd day Madelyn was exhausted! We actually left at noon and drove until she fell asleep. We ate lunch next to the ocean and let her get a little nap. Then we went back. Ahhhhh life was a lot better after her nap!! We fed and pet dolphins, caught a few of the shows, and touched some sting rays.

Our highlights

Kaitlyn and Jenna loved the Star wars ride! (the boy cousins introduced them this summer to star wars. They totally love it and so does their DAD. Finally something semi masculine they can do together!)

The highschool musical parade1 we had front row seats!

Madelyn loved Toy story, the shooting one!

Joe and I went on the tower of terror! A total bust in my book! I hate those rides that drop you over and over again!!

I Loved seeing the girls see the princesses, and the fairies. Tink was so cute she had a jacket on so she didn't catch the "fairly flu".

The girls getting there hair done. This is ALL Jenna wanted to do. We kept putting it off because of the rain. We finally gave in the last night. Once Jenna got hers done, ALL the girls wanted it done. The lady was so nice she stayed late to do it.

My new best friend....

I LOVE THIS STUFF!! When Joe bought the office the ladies that clean used pledge on everything. The vinyl chairs, sinks, counters everything!! It really is awesome, it polishes sinks great and keeps water spots off. It also protects vinyl and counter tops from scratches etc. My TRUE love came when we bought our house. We have clear glass shower doors in the master bathroom. ( NOT my Favorite!) It WAS beautiful when we moved in. I have no idea what the lady cleaned with. After a week my shower looked awful. I was so sad. I have tried everything rain-X, Vinegar, tilex, the list goes on. I have even resealed the tile! We try to squeegee the water off each time but it still just looked bad. Well a week ago I scrubbed the daylights out of my shower. I used a magic eraser on the glass doors to remove the water spots and then I used pledge. I sprayed it on and wiped it off. Every time I shower I squeegee the water off and spray a thin layer of pledge,most of the time I don't even wipe it off! Behold NATURAL BEAUTY!! I love it.

What's Your Favorite Cleaning Product???