another madlo update! i know my blog aren't always the most exciting to read, but there have been so many times where i have said to myself that i should write down cute little things that happen in my household. normally its cute things that my children do. this blog just make it more likely that it will be documented!

ella. has been an angel child again lately. we are figuring things out with her! we already knew that she was overtired when she was throwing so many fits, but what we couldn't figure out was how to get her to sleep more. if seemed that if we waited longer to put her to sleep thinking she would go to sleep better and sleep in, she would fight going to sleep because she was already very overtired. we would try to put her to sleep earlier and she would have a hard time going to sleep too! we have found the magic time is around 7-7:30. its quite amazing to have her go to sleep that earlier lately! our evenings seem much longer now! when i warn her that bedtime is near she says, "ok mommy!" she is so much fun when she gets enough sleep! :)

lucy. has been growing and changing so much in the past few weeks! she is crawling, and pulling up to stand on things now! she can clap and say yay (it sounds more like "aaaa"). if you ask her to cuddle she will lay her head on your shoulder for awhile and hug your shoulders. its precious! she is too busy getting into things to be in her jumperoo nowdays! we ended up selling the rainforest one on craigslist today. she is also in a big girl carseat now too! tonight we sold her infant carseat and bought ella a new one. lucy is using ella's now. she loves to be able to sit up and look around in it!

tim has been busy with school and work of course! he is the best husband and daddy, ever! we love him so much. :) speaking of which, it is very funny because whenever tim leaves or talks to ella on the phone, ella says "i love you daddy. i love you so much!" and she complains if he doesn't say it back. i love it when she talks to him on the phone when he is at work ;) but anyway, we are just very thankful that he is able to balance school and work and still have time for us! he manages to still have time to help around the house and let me have 1 night a week where i go grocery shopping by myself. i would love it if we could all go together, but its just not a good idea to keep ella up after her bedtime!

i have been staying busy with my work and all the other things that go along with staying at home with my babies! luckily, i have become much more efficient with my time and we are much more scheduled in our house now. i love being more schedule. i tried so many times when ella was an infant to put her on a schedule and she apparently did not approve. but she is finally doing well with it now! we are loving the weather and we try to walk to the park every day when the weather is nice! i made homemade laundry detergent today and i am very anxious to try it out! i also found recipes for dishwasher detergent and a drying aid. if it works it will save us a lot of money! i am also trying to figure out couponing. i have always been very intrigued by the stories of women who go to the grocery store and buy $120 worth of groceries for $70! Or the people who stockpile items they are able to get for free. I thought about all of the things I don't like to spend money on... Cleaning supplies and food basically. Really, who loves to spend money on those things?! If i can manage to cut a bunch there we can use the money for other thing!