Spring Break BABY

Spring break landed on my birthday week this year. We wanted one last time of playing before BJ has to be a big boy and start working again. We had lots planned for our week.

 I figured the only time I would have to potty train consistenly was during spring break. We started during finals week because I finished super early. Candy was no incentive to go on the potty. So I tried the sticker method. It was a huge success. She just wanted to put the stickers up. She understands the whole thing but still needs some time. If we stay home we only have one or two accidents and that is when we are playing and I forget to remind her. Out and about she wouldn't tell me for the first few days. Now she tells me sometimes but we wear pull ups just in case. Chonies don't really work out. She usually starts to pee and feels the wet and stops and says "I peed mommy." then we run to the potty and she continues. When she wears chonies she doesn't feel the wet until she is going to much to stop it. At home she just wears a shirt and socks. I figured the longer we do this the better she will understand before she has to pee and tell me.

 After about 3-4 days she was over the stickers. She went and didn't care to put them up anymore. I was ok with it. It got the ball rolling. I'm not too stressed about her being in chonies full time. We went from using diapers all day and night to 3 total for the day. That works for now!

 BJ planned on catching up on some sleep. I laughed when I came home and they were asleep like this. It reminded me of the pictures everyone takes of daddy with his newborn sleeping together. What about when they are almost 2 and don't really fit on top of you any more?! This pictures just makes me laugh.

For my birthday all I wanted was a pair of slip on shoes. Then one day I was doing my hair when I noticed some lighter hair in my bangs. At first I thought it was just my highlights growing out until I realized they were long gone. As I leaned in closer all the light hair was GREY! My bangs were full of them! I knew I had a few in the back but in my BANGS?! I then said I wanted to go get highlights!

 The next day we were at Sam's Club and I saw this bad boy. For some reason I have always wanted a water dispenser. Lately we have been buying water bottles, 35 pack, every 3 days. It was getting really bad. I hate luke warm water and the tap just isn't cold enough. I don't want Ice taking up space in my freezer. I don't want a jug taking up space in my fridge. When I saw the water cooler that you slide the 5 gallon jug in that keeps it cold and hot I was sold! These babies retail for $170 easy. This one was in the clearance section because it was the floor model and it was all scuffed up on the door. We got it for a fourth of the price so I could handle the scuffs. Now I have nice cold water whenever I want it and I can fill up my water bottle right when I leave and don't have to think about filling it 2 hours before I leave. So I just have to deal with grey hairs until baby comes and I can dye my hair again.

 My sister in law sent up a bunch of her maternity clothes and it just happened to get here around my birthday. My sisters and sister in laws have spoiled me with clothes. With both pregnancies I have only bought about 6 items. I am pretty spoiled!

 Nothing happens in Idaho until May. Thankfully our little zoo opened up. We got a season pass because Rylee LOVES animals and it is just small enough to do in an hour or two but large enough that Rylee can walk the whole thing and be ready for a nap after. They have a petting zoo which was the highlight, well other then the ducks. It had snowed a few days before and was 35 and cloudy but not so windy. We were able to handle it outside which was nice.

We spent the mornings organizing and getting rid of things we didn't need. In the afternoon we would go play. The wind was perfect to fly kites so we ran to the store and bought some. Rylee picked Whinnie the Pooh. She even held on to her kite and flew it all by herself. She thought it was so cool to see Pooh flying. When he finally fell we spent the rest of the time playing at the park. We do the park several times a day these days.

On my birthday I figured we could drive down to Pocettelo and do their zoo. It's suppose to more of a wildlife zoo and we have BJ's cousins that we could see. The night before we looked it up and found out it wasn't open yet! BUMMER! BJ then suggested the Hogle Zoo in Utah. I didn't want to spend hundreds of dollars in gas just for a zoo. He then informed me that I wasn't driving my F350 anymore and our little car got 35 miles to the gallon. We looked up a trip calculator and it said roughly $50 round trip! We could so do that!! I wish I would have realized it sooner cuz we could have spent our week in AZ. Oh well now I know!

 My sister in law Liz lives in Spanish fork so we called her up to see if she wanted to meet us at the zoo. Her oldest gets out of school around 11 and we got there about 1. We stopped at Chipotle for lunch which was worth the trip in and of it's self! Rylee had fun showing her cousins the animals and running around with them. They didn't have tons of animals but each animal has a ton of space so it took awhile to walk the whole zoo. This time Rylee was into the Tiger.

 Rylee and Livvy are a month apart. It is so fun to watch them together. Rylee is way more talkative (every single person points out how much she talks and how big her vocabulary is) but Livvy plays more. Rylee is taller by about a forehead and they still aren't good at playing together and would rather play with the older kids but maybe someday they will have fun together.

 Liz had a babysitter for the night because she had a seminar to go to so we piggybacked on her sitter and left Rylee with her cousins. They got to have dinner and a movie. We ended up being late to the seminar so I got to pick a resurant to eat at. We went to the Old Spagetti Factory which was excatly what I was wanting. It was fun to sit and chat with Liz and Jon and eat yummy food. Matt and Camille ended up getting to Utah that night from Cali so we were able to put the kids to sleep and have fun sitting and chatting. The next morning we all had breakfast and just hung out until they had to leave.

 We went up to Salt Lake and took BJ's grandma out to lunch at Sizzlers. It was fun talking with her and visiting. Rylee wanted to go see the Temple and since I now HATE traffic and feel like I am going to die anytime I drive in Salt Lake we thought we would hang out until after rush hour. We walked temple square hitting all the fountains and making wishes. We did both the visiting centers. Then we headed up to Bountiful to return some shoes BJ had bought and eat dinner.

We ended up leaving around 8 and it started to rain. I don't mind driving in the rain so we kept going. As it got darker the rain came down harder and our headlights were foggy so they weren't super bright. After a truck passed me and I couldn't even see the reflective signs on the side of the road I pulled off. My stomach was so tight from not sleeping well and being stressed with traffic that I couldn't handle the pain anymore. Thankfully BJ has a million family members all through out Utah. Less then 3 miles from where I pulled of lived BJ's aunt. We made our way to her place and asked if we could spend the night.

 His cousin left her kids with grandma so we got to spend the morning playing with the twins and riding the four wheelers out to see the cows. I love the Balls side of the family. They are so much fun to be around and have the weirdest stuff. Rylee had fun with the babies and seeing more animals.

We made our way back home and we had planned on doing Bear world this weekend. It was 1/2 off admission, Cub palooza, free rides, and an Easter egg hunt. I've driven by Bear World so many times in the 2 years we have been here that I figured we needed to try it out. I must say it is NOT WORTH the $16 per person regularly.  We got in right as the Easter egg hunt was starting so Rylee and I ran out there super fast so she could get some candy. Then we headed over to the rides that were free today and found out that Rylee is more like me and wanted to ride every single ride. Even the ones for big kids. BJ hates waiting in line for rides because he doesn't think it is worth the 1 minute of fun. I will stand in line forever because it IS worth the 1 minute of fun. Rylee proved that our family will go to amusement parks! BJ kept trying to get her leave but she would just say, "nope I waiting to ride..." I let her wait and do whichever she wanted. BJ was bored.

 Then we headed to the petting area. Rylee thinks it is so cool to pet the animals. The deer gave her head some kisses even. We had to hurry home because BJ was meeting someone to sell them his tires so we hurried over to the drive through portion. It was very lame. If Rylee hadn't had been there I would have been so mad we spent $15 to do it. Rylee of course loves sitting in the front seat and even the regular birds that we see every day was exiciting to her. We got to see a rare all white Elk but we have seen him from the rode driving by. The bear portion was cool because some even came up to the car and Rylee thought they were so funny. She makes everything 10 times more fun.

 After that I was ready to go home, shower, and just relax. We had such a fun filled week! School starts on Monday so it's back to regular life for us. It is always nice to take a break from life and just enjoy!

Three down one to go

I made it! I got through the third semester! Everyone says if you can make it to the 4th semester you are golden!

This semester was a whole lot easier then last semester. Class was easier, tests were easier, clinical was more excititng. I must admit I am glad we didn't get another semester as hard as 2nd because I really wasn't feeling it. I don't know what it is like to be pregnant and have nothing to do but I just didn't care about the material we were learning so it made it very hard to concentrate.

Several people have commented that I am lucky I am so good at school. This semester kind of proved that. I really did zero and I will be getting a B- maybe even a solid B. I think the subjects this time around were easier to understand. More patient care instead of diagnosing and figuring out things. We did a lot of group work which made things a lot easier. Clinical were a lot more fun. We got to be all over the hospital instead of just med surg. Picking up the material was easier which meant less study time for me. I studied with some of the other students last semester and at the start we got together again. I did not want to spend that much time studying this time around so I backed out. How I studied, go to class, play on pinterest, write the 20 page study guide out by hand, take test. I got in the 80's on all of my test. 2 other students had the same exact score as me yet they spend hours and hours studying. They prepared for class, took notes during class, went to several study groups then took the test. They all got mad at me when I would get the right answer and I didn't have any great insight into why it was the answer, it just was. Other students worked extermely hard to get a B and I did about nothing. I wonder if I had put in all the time they did if I would be one of the smarties and be getting an A. Eh, I'd rather grow a baby and play with Rylee. I passed and learned a ton actually. This is the first semester I felt I acuatlly learned something and feel competent working with my patients.

Next semester is the one I am looking forward to the most.    OB and peds. I got one shift in the ER and I had several infants patients and I know I do not want to work peds. I am so happy I got one of the two positions for the labor and delivery nursing preceptorships. Ever since Kerri let me be there when Kaci was born I thought being a labor and delivery nurse would be the best job in the world. I can't wait!!!! This semester is going to be the best one yet.

I am going to be huge but BJ will just be working so life wont be too hectic. Come July I will be done. I can take the test to be a registered nurse and be Krystal Balls RN. How nuts is that?! A year ago I was so scared starting the program and now I feel like I really could be a nurse and be just fine. It's been stressful at times but it has been the best learning experience ever.

Happy Easter

We went to the park where the Fire Department had an Easter Egg "hunt" for the community. Rylee was up all night with a fever and runny nose so I wasn't sure if I should make her go and play or not. I figured we would have to wait a whole another year so might as well try. They had the 0-2 year olds in the tennis court and just had a whole bunch of eggs laid out and every one circled them. When the siren sounded the kids could go pick them up. I had BJ grab Rylee and put her right in the middle so she could pick them up without having to fight the other kids. We were the only smart ones so Rylee had her choice of what to pick up. We only got about 10 or so but we didn't help pick them up like some of the other parents. Rylee had more fun sitting and opening each egg and seeing what was inside. The fire department used some pretty sweet candy. Better then the stuff we bought. It lasted about 5 minutes but she really enjoyed it.

 I remembered that  Barnes and Noble was having story time so I thought that could be fun. Since the weather has been amazing with the sun shinning and in the 60's we rode our bikes to the mall. It was about half a mile ride. They took forever to start and when the lady showed up she had a really boring book and Rylee wasn't interested. We colored a picture while she read the book then she got more candy.

 The Easter bunny gave Rylee a Bubble gun and water guns. She had a blast and went through all the bubbles already. The Easter bunny didn't get the memo to buy the big refill bottle too. Rylee loved getting a purple basket. The night before I told her all about the Easter Bunny and how he might bring fun toys. She was so excited. When she woke up I asked if the Easter Bunny came. She ran to the window and looked to see if he was there. I told her to look on the table and when she pulled down her basket she shouted "FUN TOYS!" She sat and opened all the eggs and was excited to see fun orange colored juice. She has yet to stop talking about him and what he brought her. We have filled the eggs up several times just so she can open them. She is walking around with the basket still talking about how nice the Easter Bunny is.

Matt, Camille, and Lilly came down and we went to Red Robin for dinner. We are obessed with Red Robin. We split a Royal Red Burger (has a fried egg on it) get endless fries with campfire sauce and ranch and endless root beer floats all for $14. We love it. We introduced it to Matt and Camille then headed back to our house to let the kids pick up Easter Eggs again and Dye them. Lilly is just crawling and wasn't too into picking up the eggs so Rylee showed her how it was done.

Kerri told me to use the muffin tins to boil the eggs and dye them. She said they don't crack in the oven but 5 of ours cracked. I didn't mind since we were using food coloring. The muffin tins work great!! No one spilled other than a few drips here and there. Rylee is really into colors and had fun watching the egg go from white to a color then to brown. She just wanted to keep putting them in the colors and since they were for her I let do what ever she she wanted. We ended up with camo eggs. The down side to muffin tins are colored fingers. Rylee's were brown and so were her arms from drips when she held it up to show everyone. Since she is sick and can't go to nursery I figured it didn't matter. Kerri said her hands were only dyed for a day or so. After bath time though it was all gone. I was super surprised.

BJ got a four wheeler with his truck and he and Matt spent the day getting it to turn on. They finally got it up and going and had some fun riding it around the yard. Rylee had a blast riding with her Daddy. Camille, Lilly, and I stayed inside and sorted through all of Rylee's clothes and finding the baby stuff.


It was one of the best days we have had in awhile. BJ pointed out how nice it was to have me home on a Saturday. For the last year all of my Saturdays have been spent at the hospital and when I had time off it was snowing outside so we couldn't really play.

I'm glad we did all of our Easter fun stuff on Saturday so that today we can have a normal Sunday and color the picture of Christ next to the tomb and be more focused on Him then the Bunny. Holidays are a blast with a kid. I can't even remembered what we did last Easter.

And of course it isn't Easter Sunday without a new Easter dress. Thanks Grandma She loves it so much I can't get her to stand still enough for a decent picture!

Gender Reveal Party

 The new hip thing is to have a gender reveal party. I thought it would be fun to announce the gender in a fun way but with family living far away that could be expensive so I asked some friends if they wanted to do a party. A mutual friend of NaElle and I is only one week behind me and they found out the gender the same day I did. So we combined our news and got together on Sunday.

I have been dying for something char-broiled and Cody got a smoker for Christmas so I bought ribs for him to smoke. We told our ward we would teach primary one more time and since we already moved wouldn't be able to make dinner so we all had ribs and mashed potatoes. They were so yummy!

Sarah and Alex brought cupcakes with filling inside and one of them had the color of the gender. We brought a pinata with candy the color of the gender. First we ate dinner. Then we all picked what we thought we were having. I made bow ties and bows and you had to wear what you thought the genders were. Then we put a bunch of Old wives tales to the test. We tried them all out to see what they all said the gender was. Then we ate the cupcakes and hit the pinata. Such a fun night and it was on St. Patrick's day!

 I cut the meat off for Rylee thinking she wouldn't want to eat it off the bone. I was helping BJ with his meat since he had surgery on his lip and needed the meat cut off too when I turned around and saw her going to town on one of the ribs. She loved it! She even ate most of the left overs the next morning.  She loves meat.

 Sarah, Alex, Eli (their son), NaElle, Cody, Crue (their son was sleeping) working on the cupcake to see who had the one revealing cupcake.

 Matt, Camille, Lilly (their daughter), BJ working on their cupcakes.

 Sarah, and Jayze (NaElles brother and sister in law who is 14 weeks pregnant) working on theirs.

Rylee stole BJ's but Cody was the winner. It was filled with pink! They are having a girl! It was so fun to find out that way. The majority of wives tales said boy for her so she got a big kick out of it.

 We pulled our Mexican side out and bought a pinata. Who doesn't love a pinata??

 

I have a video of Rylee going to town on it. She laughed so hard. She would hit it and laugh and hit it again. She had a blast. We let her have at it for awhile before we let the adults break it. She thought it was the best thing ever. We will for sure do it again for her birthday!! 

 

  

Everyone was too cool to try so we had NaElle step up. Cody was in charge of pulling it out of the way so it took a few hits before she broke it open. Rylee was so astonished that she broke it. She said the rest of the night, "NaElle broke the colors!!" She kept looking at NaElle and saying that. It took a while to convince her that she was suppose to break it. 

 All the adults waiting to see the color of the candy. Rylee as the only kid old enough to hit the pinata.

 It's a BOY!!!!

Thanks Winco for having all Easter candy so we could have baby blue candy!

 

They might be too cool to hit the pinata but not too cool to collect the candy!

  

Rylee of course only grabbed one candy. She picked up 3 in total. We need to work on that.

 We spent the rest of the night just playing. Rylee took pictures of Daddy being silly

 And Uncle Matt being silly.

 It was fun to see the kids finally playing together. Rylee is the oldest and biggest but she still had fun.

 I love that everyone had green on. Great day to have a party. It was a blast. I think the gender reveal party really is a fun way to tell everyone.