Single

If you didn't know, Austin is selling security this summer. He's in Kentucky right now and for another week, but then will be off to Indiana. It's totally crazy, but it felt (still feels) like the right thing to do at this time. With Austin getting his Masters and him working in school systems, we figured this was the best way for us to get ahead and keep out of debt for school and whatever the next year lies ahead for us. It's actually pretty exciting to be doing something different and taking a new adventure together.

I am still in AZ until the end of May and then the girls and I will meet Austin until the middle of August when we all come home again. Lots of people think that's crazy that we're apart for so long, but I have actually felt a lot of peace on the matter. My bro leaves on his mission next week, my sis-law is getting married in a couple weeks, I have the girls signed up for swim lessons, and I wanted Austin to be focused and get in the swing of his game before we got there.

Austin has been gone for 2 weeks now. I've been keeping myself very busy, so in a lot of ways it has been going by fast, but night time is definitely the worst. I miss him for many reasons. Not only do I love the man to death, but he helps me out SO much. I appreciate him when he's here, but it's crazy how much more I realize all the little stuff he does for me.

The biggest thing has been my car being dirty! I hate it! I have never put time to clean out my car, because Austin is so great about taking care of that for me.

I had to take out the trash for first time in a long time. And I can't remember for the life of me to put it out on the right days.

He helps me around the house a whole lot. I wouldn't be near as good of a mom without him. He vacuums way more than I do. He's better at cleaning out the fridge than I am and I don't have anybody to pick up my slack!

It's been hard not having that time of day I look forward to when the girls are completely occupied by their daddy.

I have nobody to cuddle with at night and for the first time I haven't been reluctant to let Sky sleep with me on occasion.

He's not here to get the groceries for me or to do those late night store trips I can't do alone.

I feel like Austin is a superhero in a lot of ways. I am sooo grateful for him. His hard work ethic is something I knew I couldn't live without in a husband and he exceeds my expectations. He's a natural at being awesome ;) he even sold 3 alarms today!! I'm so proud of him! He's rockin it.

I have learned that yes, I can do this single mom thing, but it is a lot easier with your man around. I feel like I have been prepared in a lot of ways to be apart from my husband at certain times in our life. Still though, I miss him and it's going to be so exciting when we see each other in person!!

Laundry Room Makeover

Because I'm not a professional blogger I'm not good at taking before and after pics. Let me just tell you though... My laundry room was BAD and UGLY. I went to work taking down some nasty wallpaper, painting the walls and my old hand-me-down washer and dryer, and doing a couple crafts for the room. It only took me a couple day and hardly any time. In those couple days we also went to the zoo as a family and Austin and I went horseback riding. It was a fast, easy project (except for the part when we almost flooded our whole house because the washer hook up valve thingy broke. Haha never have seen water pour out as fast as that) and I love the results. Doing laundry is so much more fulfilling now. ;)

Easter

(FYI: These pics are WAY out of order because i'm posting from my phone. Will try to rearrange later.)

The day before Easter we went to the Annual Adair Easter Egg Hunt. Sky had much more fun this year. I love traditions like this. Our family is so great!

Easter morning the girls woke up to Easter baskets outside their rooms and an Easter egg hunt downstairs. Sky kept jumping and yelling "yay jelly beans!!!" she was disappointed with the little bags of m&m's. Haha. So fun! Truly Learned to open the eggs and tried to sneak some jelly beans. I believe she got the taste of a few. Ha. We don't have church till 1 so we visited my parents before church and joined them for lunch. After church we went to my in-laws and had dinner with them. It was a great family-filled day. We were reminded of our Savior and we know He lives and feel of His influence in our lives.

Truly's 10 months

First off... The first 2 pics are the classic Truly fake crying faces. This girl makes me laugh!!

Truly weighs 19.2lbs. Everywhere I go multiple people comment on her bright big blue eyes. Someone today told me they looked like eyes out of a Dr. Seuss movie. That REALLY made me smile. She is quite adorable. She walks along furniture now and almost stands on her own. She points at everyone now and is starting to help me "clean up" toys by putting them in baskets. She loves other babies her age and smaller. She bolts for the stairs every time she sees the gate open and laughs hysterically when I chase her up them. Her personality is really starting to shine! She's very much on the go, but oh so sweet. As of today she now has 5 teeth. Food is definitely her friend. We all love Truly so much! She has a special piece of my heart.

Potty Training

This could get really long with how long and hard I have thought about this potty training concept. To be quite honest, I didn't think potty training was going to be nearly as hard as it has been. There's something about it that makes me feel like a very inadequate mom. Everything else with motherhood thus far has come pretty naturally to me: getting the girls to sleep 12 hrs at night and take great naps, getting them to eat whatever I put in front of them, taking sky's binky away, and then her bottle, not giving them anything to drink to sleep with, discipline, whatever it is... Everything has seemed like 2nd nature to me. Sure it's way hard, but I've always had my system and it worked. And then there was potty training...

Round 1 of potty training with sky went down 6months ago. I've read multiple books on the subject and decided to try out a method I thought sounded great. It was absolutely terrible and I quit the 4th day. I decided to take a little break and try the next month. It went better... Actually 2 weeks with no diapers, but then the holidays came and it was way too hard to stick to it.

Guys, I'm not good at dealing with failure. At all. It's just potty training, but I seriously felt like I failed and was doing something wrong. That's where the inadequate mom thoughts came in.

I decided to take a much longer break and decided that maybe Sky just wasn't ready. And now, I believe that was part of the problem. I was really scared to start up again, but decided that I was going to need to come up with my own plan, because all these methods that I've read about just aren't cutting it for Sky. I almost feel like this potty training thing has been training me too.

Last Monday I started it. I knew sky was ready, it was the right timing, and I knew I wasn't going to turn back. Truly spent a lot of time at grandparent's houses those first few days, so I could have one-on-one time with Sky. The week before I talked a lot to sky about how the next week we were going to have a potty training party and that she wasn't going to wear diapers anymore. When the day came she totally understood. I also want to mention that I'm totally against pull-ups at any time of potty training. I'm a dive-in and do it type and I think it confuses them.

I loaded her up with drinks that first day and had her going potty at least every 30min. I rewarded her with candy the first day. The 2nd and 3rd day I started a jar she got to put cotton balls in. (The jar is full now, which means we will be taking a trip to the zoo!) I also got a bunch of toys from the $1 store to reward when she did something incredible. I didn't like the idea of her knowing what she was going to get and being demanding of it. We also got into our routine. I learned what her pattern was and she learned to control her body. At this point, i pretty much jut take her to the potty every couple hrs unless she initiates it. It actually works much better for me! I need a schedule, so this couldn't be a better system.

I am proud to announce that I have considered Skylin potty trained! Sure, she has accidents now and then, but she is doing amazing. We have been gone a lot this week and I've been prepared for accidents, but she hasn't had them. We even did the easter pageant last night and she used the bathroom there. Major success! I see the light at the end of the tunnel now and am so glad that my first experience with potty training is coming to an end. Go Sky! I'm am so proud of her and she looks darn cute in her panties!

California Spring Break

(Warning: I should have made this into 3 posts with how many pictures Austin and I took, but I didn't. :) Early Wednesday morning of Spring Break we headed out to California! I was SOO excited! We hadn't taken a REAL family vacation since before Truly was born. I need vacation time in my life. I kinda live for it. Anyway, we left and got to Jack's house for some cousin fun. We love Jack and we miss seeing him so much since they moved to Chino Hills for Dental school.
Chino Hills is super BEAUTIFUL, by the way! We had a lot of fun seeing Chelsea and Jack (and Marshall for 20min). Jack and Sky played well together. Sky did the bossing around, being a mom, and Jack acted like the baby. They're match-playmates in heaven. ha. Their apartment is so cute. We went to the hot tub and to a really nice park the next day. We did a lot of relaxing, and not much sleeping since the girls slept terrible that night. (thankfully, they turned back into our sleeping angels once we arrived at our hotel.)

Thursday night we walked around Downtown Disney and then met my parents at our hotel. This was our last big family vacation before my little bro leaves on his mission. (Ghana, Africa!) Our hotel was 10min walking distance from the park. It was so nice that we didn't do any driving/parking and we could leave and go back to our hotel whenever we wanted. My parents seriously spoiled us. I don't know if I could ever do a Disney trip differently now. This was definitely my best experience. We had 2 entire days and the 2nd day it rained, which was totally crazy to start out with, but it was great, because the lines were SO short. Tip #1: Don't plan a disney trip unless you know it's going to rain. ;) We did everything we wanted and more. We had so much fun! During the day we mostly stuck to all the little kid rides. I had forgotten about so many of them. It was fun to relive it and going with kids made it even better. Sky's face was so priceless. She STILL talks about The Little Mermaid ride and seeing Mickey and Minnie Mouse. Truly's favorite ride was It's a Small World, naturally. Tip #2: Don't go to Disneyland without my dad. My dad isn't much of the theme park goer. Any time the girls were napping he would gladly sit and watch them while we went off to do the big rides. Both days we left the park around 6 to walk back to the hotel, get the girls ready for bed, and in bed, and to freshen up. Then my dad would stay at the hotel to check on them while we went back for more! The trip wouldn't have been nearly the same without him there. He's a toddler and baby lifesaver for parents like Austin and I.

Chelsea and Jack met us for a few hrs on Friday.

Sky and Roxy (my bro's girlfriend's daughter.)

(Sportin our ponchos!) We rode California screamin 3 times in a row without any line.

This is the Ariel Sky bought with some of the garage sale money she earned before our trip. (With our help, of course.)

Holy fun times!! When is our next trip?!