Winner!

So I used this here generator thing and it came up with number 13!


So the winner of a great hair day is Erinn!!!

Erinn said...

Since I'm curling iron impaired, maybe this is just what I need!

March 26, 2012 5:06 PM

FB me your address

Congratulations!

This was so much fun. We'll have to do it again!

PS-Autumn I love your hair please don't cut it off :)

Highlight of the week

I sort of fell of the coupon wagon about a month ago. It just got kinda of hard to go shopping so much so for the time being we are just doing Costco.

We go in the middle of the week in the middle of the day right after we leave the Gym/Kids Club.

It's the same routine every week and Noah LOVES his Costco days!

Me....well not as much, well not so much anymore.

First off when we get to Costco I have the babies up front and Noah rides in the cart.

He likes to be the one to show our Costco card at the front.

He always says "here you go good sir" as he flashes our "special card".

He must have heard one of the workers say that before.

Well first I will tell ya one thing when shopping in the middle of the day you are usually shopping with a more....how do you say it...mature crowd.

And I'll tell ya those mature crowds love them some twin babies.

I get stopped CONSTANTLY everyone wants to see the babies, say hi to them and I have even had people ask if they can take their picture with them.

(the rest of the shoppers who aren't of the mature crowd are moms like me and they are way to busy dealing with their own kids to bother with mine)

This would all be rather flattering if the babies weren't spending most of the time screaming.

Wait did I say babies, I meant baby and that baby being Ryder.

HOLLY FREAKING H-E-DOUBLE HOCKEY STICKS that boy can scream.

The second he sees me put any kind of food in the cart that he likes for example Hawaiian bread he screams until I give him one.

Then if I give him one I have to give one to Emma.

Then Ryder scarfs down his bread barely breathing in the process and goes right for Emma.

She screams and tries to get away and Ryder is practically on top of her trying to get her bread.

It's rather hard reasoning with a 14 month old baby.

Then comes the samples.

One time one of the sample ladies gave the babies a bunch of crackers and now every time Ryder sees a sample table he points and screams and goes nuts.

There are always those woman...and it's always a woman...who act totally and completely annoyed and get all short and cranky with me.

In a previous life I would take these women down.

But now I just try to walk as close as possible so they can get a better listen to Ry's ear piercing scream.

Then we check out and Noah loves to unload the cart and gets upset when the worker tries to do it for him.

For some reason we usually end up in the same line with the same girl every week and she loves the babies but that couple of minutes when the cart is on the other side of the check out line proves to always be a bit too much for Ryder.

After we are all paid for I give Noah some money and he runs right up to get two hotdogs.

I fill up Noah's cup with water and then a splash of lemonade making it pink.

Then I fill mine up with water and let the babies have it.

Someone always makes a comment about how I shouldn't give my babies soda.

Always.

Then Noah eats his hot dog and I share mine with the babies(yes I just got done with the gym I run an extra mile in order to accommodate that hot dog...mmmm...).

Someone always makes a comment about how I shouldn't give my babies hot dogs.

What would I do without all these super informant strangers telling me how to raise my children?

There is lots of screaming going on when the feeding of the hot dog happens.

Also Ryder has taken up a new little trick where he pretends to sneeze and then screams until you say "bless you!"

So yeah a lot of screaming going on by my little guy.

But not from my other guy.

Getting his Costco hotdog is the highlight of his week.

When eating his hotdog he is very much in the zone and wants no disturbances.

For example the guy in this picture sitting next to him tried asking Noah some questions just to be friendly and Noah shot back "Can you not talk to me while I eat."

Sigh...we are working on being more friendly.

We then leave and Noah always has to hold the receipt and asks for a happy face from the worker at the door.

We load up the car and head out and every single solitary week I end up driving right by good ole' Westlake High right as they get out of lunch and make a mental note to not ever do that again. Yikes.

And while we are braving Costco in order to feed our family Natalie is at school dreaming of her future...

I thought it was hilarious that everyone else's signs said when they are 100 they want to be Rock Stars or have lots of money one said when they are 100 they want 1,000 dollars. Ha.

Not my girl :)

How to

So a lot of people asked me how I use this here curling wand.

Let me say I am not a professional or claim to be an expert but I do it every other day so...that's there the deal.

Giveaway

I have to mention that as I am trying to type this I am throwing a wooden block across the room and the babies run and grab it and bring it back to me. Basically I am playing fetch with the babies.

I haven't read a book in a long time.

Well, since we moved to this house actually.

I don't believe the whole "I don't' have time"...because if we want to make time for something we can.

There is always free time.

So I hadn't really picked up a book because I was spending my free time doing other things like sleeping.

What?

I consider those hours between 10pm and 7am as free time, I just choose to sleep during my free time.

Anyways....

So I was watching Selena the other night with Jed.

Well actually I was watching Selena and Jed was sitting next to me doing that thing he does when he is trying to act like he is into what I am watching but trying to convince me there might be something better on.

So anyways.

I've always loved the movie.

I had no idea who Selena was obviously prior to the movie because I was young when she died and I was never into that music.

But I decided to google her family to see what had happened to them since she died.

I read that her husband Chris Perez had just put out a book and I thought I would give it a read since it was short.

All I can say is I really LOVED IT!

Such a sweet and honest love story.

I stayed up to 1:00am reading it and then cried myself to sleep.

Seriously such a sweet book.

I wanted to reach through the pages and give him a hug.

In other news have I mentioned how much I LOVE LOVE LOVE my new curling wand?

When my hair is long it can't hold a curl worth anything.

It's suuuuper thick, don't believe just ask any hair dresser I have ever had.

BUT this curling wand seriously keeps my hair curled for TWO days.

I curled my hair SATURDAY and I tried to take this picture this morning(it's wavy today) but Ryder bit me as I was trying to get a picture.

But you get the idea, right?

Well here ya go.

A little give away just because I finished reading this book about Selena and I am thinking life is to short wasting your time curling your hair with anything else.

Leave a comment and I will draw a winner on Friday and I will send one lucky cyber friend my new favorite find because every woman needs one.

(but I can only afford to give out one)

The Huss Homestead announces the arrival of....

When I had the twins everyone so kindly informed me that I was "done". I had two boys and two girl, and in this world it's all about even numbers so therefor I was done. It was so nice for random strangers to make that declaration for me.

I have to admit that the thought of never being pregnant again was rather appealing.

I could get rid of all these baby clothes and baby stuff instead of storing for the next.

I could get my plastic surgery(I have birthed and breastfed four children, I am getting plastic surgery and totally open about it).

Very appealing.

But there was just this nagging feeling that there was someone missing from the family.

After much consideration and prayer we decided it was time to add to our family.

So yes incase you hadn't already guessed we are officially announcing.....

NOT!!!!!!

We bought a dog!

Haha. Sorry not ready to contemplate another little Huss baby yet :)

Her name is Alexis for now we will probably change it when we get her.

She is set to arrive on April 14th which is actually Natalie's birthday.

She has NO idea!

She is flying in from Atlanta and we are thrilled.

She is a....get ready for a jaw drop....Great Dane.

And before you say it....

YES I know they get huge

YES I know that huge dogs produce huge poop

YES I know how much work a puppy is I have had a few

YES I am totally under no illusion that I will be the one taking care of her

YES we have put a whole lot of thought, prayer and then some into this decision

And the saying goes that having a puppy is like having a newborn, right?

Well, I am sorry I have had puppies before and have had four newborns.

They might be a lot of work, yes but you talk to me after having two newborns at the sometime and try to tell me a puppy is the same amount of work.

Why such a big dog you ask?

Well, our yard backs up to hiking trails and since we have wilderness behind us any small dog would be gone in seconds.

After doing some research we found that Great Danes were wonderful with kids and we both loved them. I found a woman in Camarillo who has Great Danes and she let the kids and I play with him and even though he was large he was so sweet.

I love the idea of having a dog running around the back with the kids.

We already, well Jed actually already started on the dog run and we ordered a big pretty dog house and have started the preparations for her arrival.

Well actually I love the idea of two.

So therefor we are actually looking for another puppy preferably a Boxer to go with our new doggy so they always have a playmate.

So remember if you see any of my kids it's a surprise!

Shhhhhh

Photo Booth Pictures

I saw this at the store and thought "I have to have this!" mostly because it says As Seen On TV and even though I never saw it on TV we all know I am a sucker for those infomercials.Well this thing is freaking AWESOME!

I tried to take picture of my still curly hair after a full day of craziness but this is what I could get...


I downloaded some other random Photo Booth pictures while I was at it.

This is when we were in the throws of our two month long sickness that took all six of us down at different times. Ryder is with his favorite toy the nose sucker. He used to chase Emma around trying to suck her nose. Sometimes she would sit still and let him try to stick it up her nose.

We had an abundance of couches in our guest room for about a week.

Anyone else have to put their sacrament talk in 40 font? I don't often have to glance down at my talk but since I am pretty much blind I need it to be nice and big font. People in the back could probably just read it if I held it up. (and for those non mormons out there we are asked occasionally to give a talk about a certain subject during sacrament meeting, mine was on parables)


One of those days
These two seriously crack me up!

Noah

I spend a lot of time with Noah. Therefor I have a lot of Noah stories that I need to record.

Enjoy.

~I had on this dress.

(It wont let me save a picture)

It had just arrived in the mail and I tried it on and asked Noah what he thought.

He says "Oh Momma you look like a spy!"

Gave me a good laugh.

~

Emma and Ryder have been walking for a few weeks now.

Yesterday Noah comes running in while I am getting ready and says

"Momma! Emma is walking now!"

I said "Yes, she is and has been for awhile now."

He says "Oooooh, I think she just started walking"

~

We bought a new big couch, you know the kind that makes an L...

So we got it and decided we didn't like the color so we had them take it back(after waiting 6 weeks to get it...I know, I know I don't feel sorry for me either) and we ordered the same couch in a different color.

Anyways.

They came and picked up the couch on Thursday morning.

So our living room didn't have any couch at all so I took the kids little recliners and stuck them in the living room until we could figure out what to do.

So on Friday after a full 24 hours of a big room with no big couch Noah, after watching TV for about 30 minutes or so Noah says "What the heck!" and looks around the room and says "Where did our couch go!"

He is an observant one.

~

Noah's favorite place is the mall. He asks to go there every day. As a matter of fact he told me the other week that he "Sure wishes I could live at the mall."

When we go we always go to Hot Dog on a Stick.

The thing is that Noah HATES his hot dog on an actual stick.

He wants it in a bun only.

Every time we order a hot dog in a bun the girl gives us a weird look. Also, a hot dog on a bun not only cost more than on a stick it takes about twice as long.

Kinda random.

~
I tell Noah that Natalie is having three friends over.
He asks if they are girls or boys.
I tell him they are girls and he just puts his head in his hands and says "Oh gosh, they will want to come in my bed all the girls love getting in my bed"

~

I took the kids over to our friends house for a "late over" so Jed and I could go on a date.

Our friends have little girls.

Noah was concerned because he was afraid that there wouldn't be any guy toys.

So we get to their house and Noah instantly goes running for where the toys are and starts digging through.

He pulls out a wooden snake and gives me a smile that says "I am good, now you can go" and ran outside with his "guy toy"

Don't quit your day job

We made a declaration when we moved here that we were no longer putting together furniture.
Okay, well Jed made that declaration.
So we have been looking for a little stand to put all our entertainment stuff in for awhile. We found a stand on Amazon and the dimensions were perfect.

Only downside it needed to be put together.

Jed said we shouldn't get it because it required assembly.

I said lets get it anyways and I will put it together.

So it arrives and I instantly become resentful and want Jed to put it together.

I figured he was simply kidding.

Nope.

He says lets just return it.

I decide to just give it a go.

Because I am sick of having the boxes on the floor.

How hard could it be.

Well first off the directions were just diagrams.

Secondly, I apparently suck at following diagrams.

End result.

The entire time I was building it I thought the back was the front and the front was the back and well there was one piece of "wood" (I am not sure what it is) that doesn't have a black backing and well...

Oh and that door is supposed to attach somehow.

I refuse to take this thing apart just to flip over the stupid board so I bought some black paint.

Also, are you supposed to have a ton of left over parts???

Then Jed ordered a new stand for pascals cage from a furniture store.

As it's delivered it's in two boxes.

Ugh.

Jed again says lets just return it.

I decide to just build it because apparently I didn't learn my lesson.

Well again just sucky diagrams.

I get going on the project with the most amazing attitude....not...I wouldn't have come near me with a ten foot poll.

Apparently furniture building puts me in a rather pissy mood.

I get the whole stupid thing put together and I can't get the top to push down.

I sit on it.

I jump on it.

I scream profanity at it.

Nothing works.

Finally I say screw it.

Who cares.

So I stick Pascal on it...

And call it a day.

Did I mention it took me 3 hours to put together.

And dont' try to open the doors because the levers are not screwed in.

THAT particular part was missing from the diagrams.

I have made the decision that I will not buy assembly only furniture until my kids are old enough to put it together for me.

Lizard Love

Natalie has a new obsession and that is lizards.
A trait she obviously inherited from her father.
She finds them and names them and lets them crawl all over her and then finally will let them go only after we tell her to.

Then she mourns the loss of her lizard, draws pictures of them and cries every time she says their name.

(the biggest loss was Jumpy the baby lizard)

Here she is outside showing me how her lizard (I believed she named this one Rainbow) is sleeping on her hand under her sweater.

"Someone, anyone please help me!"

Now this is not usual because she is banned to the backyard when she has her lizard friends.
She cracks me up because she will sit there and just admire the beauty of this lizard. Yesterday she was showing me Rainbow and she said "Momma look at this beautiful blue belly and how she has these pretty black dots"

She is seriously her fathers daughter.

Two pees in a pod.

Buying a house

When you are looking into buying a house your Relator sends you a ton of listing every day. You scroll through trying to find a listing that catches your eye.

I imagine when you are a Relator putting up the listing requires some thought as you want to catch the perspective buyers interest.

Which I am sure that is exactly what this Relator thought when he put this listing up....

{actual listing}

Great home, located The board of Westlake Village and Thousand Oak, very opening and spacious floor plan, high ceiling and a large window, spacious 4 bedrooms with 3.5 bathrooms, formal dining and living room with fire place. Light & bright kitchen with adjoining family room, Plantation shutter, Hardwood floors, Gorgeous and hug backyard with fruit trees, very private location

So the house is located THE BOARD of Westlake Village and Thousand Oak...not Oaks just a single Oak, not the border but the board. Just so there is no confusion about it's location.

The house has a very opening floor plan, if you have never seen a house with an opening floor plan it's a house with a possible open floor plan it just hasn't been opened yet but we are in the process of opening it.

There is only one large window. Just one.

And on that one window is the one plantation shutter.

And just incase you are feeling lonely the backyard will give hugs.

And to top it all off if you are putting a house on the market it's crucial to get a great picture to really catch the perspective buyers eye and make them feel like "hey I could live there!"....

This must be his evidence of the fact that there is the one window.

Makes perfect sense to use this picture as the main picture as opposed to oh I don't know let's say the front of the house.

Oh and gee and lets not take our camera down a few inches and get a picture of the giant bathtub underneath that window.

Seriously!?

What suckers read that listing, saw that picture of the ugly window and thought let's buy this house!

Seriously.

Suckers

;)

ps-I am pretty sure every single listing I have ever read says "light and bright" it must be a California requirement.

The Huss kids

I'll tell you what, it's hard to get a picture of this bunch.
Especially on my snap-n-go.
That delay will kill ya.
But I thought these turned out pretty well.




Noah
3 1/2 yrs old
~Is obsessed with Jed. The second Jed comes home Noah races for the door and pretty much doesn't leave him alone until he goes to bed.
~ He especially loves to rough house
~Starts almost every sentence with "actually"
~Is always hungry
~Is tall and skinny
~Wears a kids small which is the same size as Natalie
~Loves his Star Wars shirt
~Can often be found running around and jumping off the stairs and rolling around with some sort of "weapon" fighting off bad guys
~Stubborn
~Really good with the babies
~Doesn't do anything without Natalie, the two are always together which is rather funny because Noah is very much not into girls right now. He gets really annoyed when Natalie has a girl friend over and they want to play girl things.
~Is getting much better about playing with other kids.

Natalie
5 (6 next month!)

~Very much into school. She loves to learn
~ She has missed a few days this past month because she was sick and she kept telling me how she needed to get back to school because they were going to be making bald eagles and she had always always wanted to make a bald eagle
~Is obsessed with Fairly OddParents
~Loves to hang out in the guest room and watch TV and play on the computer
~LOVES art
~Is finally able to read her basic reading books fluently!
~Is still really into layering always has at least two shirts on at all times
~So so sweet
~Loves food
~Favorite friends are Anna, Elizabeth, Mary and Gavin
~Teacher said that she is very studious and always very nice to all her classmates
~Strongest subject besides art is math(a trait obviously from her father)

Emma
14 months today!

~She is seriously the sweetest most delicate little baby!
~Loves all animals and gets so excited when she sees any especially dogs
~We turned on the dog show and she seriously sat on my lap and watched it and screamed with delight
~If she is done with her food she hands it to Ryder for him to finish
~Will give loves to anyone who wants to hold her
~6 teeth
~Is walking but is very very slow at it, she is very careful as not to fall
~Likes to sleep with two blankets uses one as a pillow and wraps herself in other
~The other day at the kids club at the gym I had to come get Ryder and change his diaper. I guess Emma didn't see me take Ryder and when she realized he was gone had an absolute meltdown. Poor thing. She gets very upset if Ryder is not within an eye shot of her.
~Loves to play patty-cake


Ryder
14 months today!

~Got a haircut but his hair is still crazy
~Still loves his thumb
~He walks very fast and as a result falls a lot
~When he is done with his food he hands it to Emma(they like to share)
~Likes it when Emma chases him
~Bites
~Has 6 teeth
~Loves the phone and remote
~Doesn't like to be alone needs his Emma
~Calls her Mema
~Says several words and mimics everything we do
~Enjoys screaming
~Finally likes baths(Emma still hates them)
~18lbs

First Time in the Dentist Chair

So the kids have never been to the actual dentist to get their teeth cleaned Jed has always just done it at home. But it was time that the kids got the experience of being in the dentist chair.
Noah got to go first since Jed just called and said that there was a little gap for him to squeeze in Noah.

The office door. Still so proud of Jed he is really doing so well and we feel so incredibly blessed to been given the opportunity to buy this practice. The entire office staff is amazing! Seriously so wonderful.
I wasn't sure how Noah would act but he was so good! He didn't even care. I just said Daddy and Marisol were going to brush his teeth and he was fine with that...as long as he got to pick out a toy from the treasure chest. :)

Getting pictures of his teeth.

He loved the shades

These two were a bit fussy and I just took them outside and walked around with them. I had just came from from the gym and I am pretty darn proud of myself because the office is right next to a Baja Fresh, Rockit Fizz amongst other various yummy food joints.

When he was all done he came running out and asked me to take a picture of his teeth because all the poop and pee were off his teeth. (they say the sugar bugs poop and pee on their teeth, kinda gross)

Slightly obsessed

In our apartment I had a few wall decals but since we moved into our house I have found that I just might be slightly obsessed with them. They seem to be popping up all over and I can't stop myself!

Babies room

(took me like a flippin hour to put this thing up)

Above Ryders bed, there used to be more but he took them down. Apparently he doesn't care for giraffes because there used to be three.
The babies door

Emma's bed

Above our door in our bedroom

Noah's bed


Natalie's
Above the kids desk and the calendar is a wall decal as well. I love it! It comes with a dry erase marker and I just change it every month.

It's just so easy and cheap and can really transform a space. But I wonder what the limit is on how many decals your allowed per square footage???