Bed time

Bed time around here has been horrible lately! Evelyn had always been a good sleeper, even when we took the side off her crib to make it a toddler daybed, but ever since our first night in our new place it has been a constant battle with her. Here the girls are sharing a room (and Aubrey is actually sleeping in it!) which we though might be a problem but that isn't the case, Evvy just refuses to go to bed before 11 or 12!! Even when we start bedtime around 7 like we used to, it still takes hours for her to fall asleep. Normally that wouldn't be too bad because I've always been a night owl but during the move my sleep schedule changed and I am exhausted by 8 or 9. Aubrey has been doing great in her bed, she whines for a few minutes and than falls asleep and will sleep through the night.

Evvy on the other hand won't fall asleep despite trying everything we can think of; letting her fall asleep watching a movie, laying in her bed with her, taking Aubrey out of the room...I would just bring Evvy to bed with us but I don't sleep well to begin with and adding a squirming toddler to my bed only leaves me EXHAUSTED when I wake up even after 8+ hours of sleep! And while I am thankful that Aubrey has been going to sleep early, because she goes to bed early she also gets up early which means I can't even sleep in...It's a vicious cycle and I really hope the end is near because both Craig and I are starting to loose our patience and are missing our time together after the girls in bed.

No More Aubrey-punzle

So yesterday after giving Aubrey a bath, I was brushing the horrible tangles out of her hair and realized that handfuls of hair were falling out! Turns out Aubrey had found some scissors and cut her bangs (which have been in her eyes) and hair because she "didn't like it" (also the same reason she took a pen and colored all over the 16x20 family portrait I just had printed out.) I love that the girls are so independent but some times I wish they weren't that independent, like thinking they can make their own breakfast and such...

Anyway her hair was way beyond salvaging, she pretty much cut one side of her hair to her shoulder leaving the other side mid-back length. So off to the salon we went today. We knew she was going to end up with a bob and while she probably needed that much cut off just to remove the split ends and such, I was so sad to see it get cut off!!! I know it's just hair and it will grow back but I loved her long hair. She had just gotten to the point where she would let me fix her hair into braids, buns and pigtails, and occasionally even let me curl it! While I hate the idea of her growing up, I loved how her hair made her look like a slender little girl as opposed to baby girl with a round face. She too is sad that she no longer has long hair "like Belle" and as I write this is whinning that she wants her hair to be long again. It'll take some getting used to but I already am warming up to it just a few hours after, plus we shouldnt have anymore fights over brushing her hair. Here are some Before and After photos:

These two were taken just a few weeks ago, I was just commenting how long her hair was getting

The damage

This doesn't even begin do it justice

At the Salon

Her new hair

Evvy loves to sing...

Sfrarr sfrarr brush pants, Sfrarr sfrarr brush pants.....sfrarr bob!

Oh Evvybug I love you soo much! You are too cute for words sometimes and this totally makes up for the fact that you were a little monster at the grocery store today :) Also the fact that you've been giving me sooo many kisses lately! Now can we talk about the whole fighting bedtime thing...

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from the Mortons…may you be blessed this day and remember the reason for the season.

Christmas cards

So I finally sent out our Christmas cards. I know they probably won't be recieved in time but a late card is better than no card at all! My plan was to have them done last week but Craig and Evvy caught a cold and then we had his Christmas party to get ready for, which we cut really close as well, shopping for outfits that morning! But I finally had a chance to get a group photo of us yesterday and than got some GREAT photos of the girls in our backyard this morning. Here are some of the photo's that didn't make the card...

Aubrey's silly dance!

Pretending to be a frog

I think that these photos capture the girls personallities pretty well, always running around and being silly!!



Grumpy Girl, this is what I have to deal with every time I take out my camera, notice the glare out of the corner of her eye...this girl has gotten soo much attitude lately

Eventually she usually comes around

And these were taken inside, wearing a silly elf hat Uncle Colton sent them

Journey to Colorado part 2

So I left at our last post at reaching the hotel. Because all of our stuff was on a truck being shipped here we decided to stay in the hotel across from Oxy's office so A) we wouldn't be sleeping in an empty house with no blankets and B) so Craig could just walk across the street in the morning.It worked out great until check out time when I needed to get ALL our luggage, two girls and a cat that wasn't even suppose to be in the hotel, out to the car. Thankfully 2 of our suite cases had wheels so I made the girls pitch in, which they weren't thrilled about! That left me with a wheeled suite case, a bag, a backpack, the cat, jackets and my purse. I was able to hide the cat carrier under my purse and the jackets and the rest I lugged outside. We made it to the car without Emma being seen and I even managed to snap a pic of the girls :)

After getting the girls loaded up we got the keys to our place and then headed over there! The girls were super excited at first but that only lasted a few days, then Aubrey started whining that she wanted to go back to her "old new house" (our last place was always reffered to as the new house) Even now she will start whining that when she's not in a good mood...Anyway back to the first few days. Instead of buying blankets which we already had enough of, we got sleeping bags since we plan on camping this summer, plus I was hoping a cool Buzz or Princess sleeping bag would make bedtime easier. It did not.

Friday night Evvy got sick after dinner, I think she either drank too much chocolate milk or hers was bad because she was better by morning and no one else got sick. Sunday we drove up to Powderhorn and showed the girls snow. Aubrey was so disappointed that there was no snow when we arrived and couldn't wait to go out and play in it...until she realized how could it was! Evvy was asleep when we got there but woke up in time for a few pics, though she wasn't happy to go from a warm cozy carseat to 25* weather.

Our moving truck showed up Monday morning and aside from a few mishaps *ahem droping our brand new dryer or standing on and breaking our garage shelving* everything went well. We also got our cars back, which meant having to return our rental Suburban :'( We didn't even have it for a full week but I'm hooked! If we can somehow manage to afford a suburban when it comes time to trade in our Caliber I would love to have one! Craig on the other hand doesn't feel the same way :(

Anyway I think that's about it...Aubrey still isn't thrilled to be here, Evvy has been clingy and both girls are super cranky and cry anytime I try to go shopping but other than that things are pretty much the same, just a little colder and in a different state :)

...Oh, different state reminds me, Craig is in love with Cabela's. I'm pretty sure he saw all the guns and ammo (which isn't locked up like you'd find it in CA) and it was over! Any chance to go and he is all over it! He even wanted to go to Target with me because it's just a short walk through the mall to Cabela's :)

Journey to Colorado Part 1

Our trip through LAX started off kind of rough, but thankfully that was the only bump we had along the way. I've been waiting on a replacement licence since Nov. and a photo ID is required to fly, though the TSA can approve passengers on a case by case basis. I had no problem getting though just a few weeks ago but this time when we checked our baggage I was listed as a Selectee, which I guess just means you're subject to additional security checks. Craig had to take the girls through security by himself while I waited for someone to give me the OK. Like last time, I had my Sam's club card with a photo and a credit card with my name on it, though I wass asked a lot more questions before they let me go though the metal detector and then I was patted down, and they swiped by belonging to make sure there wasn't any residue on them. Thankfully that went all right, and even though I knew there was no reason I shouldn't be approved I was afraid I wouldn't get through. After all that I was taken to a little room where I got to hold Emma (our cat) while they took her carrier through the ex-ray machine and then we were good to go! The woman that helped me was great and couldn't believe they didn't just let me go through, since I was traveling with my family.

Anyway we got on the plane alright, we didn't have seats together so Craig sat with Aubrey in the front and Evvy, Emma and I were wayyy in the back. Everytime Evvy looked out the window she would tell me there was a shark! She thought the engine was a shark, silly girl! We made it to Salt Lake behind schedule so we had to rush to our connecting flight and just barely made it! By that time it was 8pm and the we were all hungry, so it made for a rough flight! Thankfully it was only a 40 minute flight because the girls were soo cranky! But we made it, got our rental car and checked into the hotel!