Rutavala

As you know we started using the oils in July because they helped my kids sleep.  They were doing great.  Then in August Ava got sick.  She had a fever that wouldn't go away and she ended up getting a bunch of shots.  Her awesome sleeping streak ended.  She would sleep pretty good if she slept with me.  If she slept in her crib, then she woke up way too often.  Recently we finally got her to sleep alright in her crib but she would still wake up and when she would wake up she would scream and scream instead of slowly and quietly waking up.  It was miserable and after a few particularly bad nights we decided enough was enough and she was going to have to figure out sleeping by herself.  I went to the store, bought some earplugs and extra pacifiers to keep in her crib and headed home.  On my way there a friend called.  It was a much needed phone call!  She suggested nightmares.  She told me she was reading a book about trapped emotions and thought maybe the shots had caused Ava's problem.  I came home, got online and found some oils that have worked for others.  That night she only woke up twice in a 12 hour period.  I love my oils!!  We have continued to use them and have slept great.  Because we were so desperate for sleep, I used every oil I had that might help so during naptime I have been trying to find which are necessary and which are not.  I thought I had it figured out so last night I only used 3 oils on her and regretted it.  I think she needs them all for bedtime!  I put one drop of Cedarwood and one drop of Frankincense on her forehead, temples and back of her neck.  I also put one drop of Peace & Calming and one drop of Joy on the bottoms of her feet.  She sleeps much longer and doesn't wake up screaming or even crying.   I'm glad we got that figured out!

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Essential Rewards

Essential Rewards is brilliant. Essential Rewards is a program for wholesale Young Living members.  It is an automatic withdrawal/shipment.  You can change your order each month or leave it the same and restock what you already have.  There are a lot of bonuses to Essential Rewards.  You get more bang for your buck and get  free products and reduced shipping!  And if you plan on making money it is a great way to make sure you don't forget your 100PV before the month is over!

At the moment there are EIGHT special kits available!  The savings rang vagaries from $5.00 savings to $85.00!! So if you plan on getting any of the products in these kits then you might want to consider Essential Rewards.

 

 

Now how to get free products.  When you spend while you are signed up for Essential Rewards, you will always get a percentage back.  Your first six months signed up you will get 10% back.  The second 6 months you will get 15% and after that you will always get 20% back!!  If you ever want to cancel Essential Rewards make sure you spend your points first!

 And of course reduced shipping is always a huge plus!

As long as you spend at least 50PV (personal value which almost always is the price of the items you bought, ex: you buy an oil for $35.95 then your pv will be 35.95pv.)  you will stay on Essential Rewards and reap the benefits.  If you at least 100PV you can protect your check and make some money!

The catch? NONE!  Young Living rocks!

 

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peace and calming

This is my story.  Why I love Young Living and how it all started.  About 2.5 years ago we had a little boy.  Sweetest thing ever!  We love him to death, except at night.  He isn't much of a sleeper.  It took us months and months of doing everything we could to get him to sleep through the night.  He finally did but everything had to be perfect.  NO NOISE AT ALL.  If he heard a mouse he would be up.  So we use a fan to help drown out the world.  Also no light.  He has cardboard boxes in his window with multiple blankets draped over the curtain to make it as dark as possible.  So he started to sleep, but he was whiny all day long.  Fast forward a bit to September 2013.  We had a super adorable little girl.  At first she slept like a champ!  She was the best newborn ever and I slept better than any momma ever! But then she got a bit older and stopped sleeping so well.  Our good nights were her waking up "only" three times.  How did I function?!  So this went on and on for months.
During this time I met some pretty cool people, one of them who uses DoTERRa.  She tried lots of things to help us with anything from belly aches to diaper rash.  And I was so sad that nothing worked!  I know the oils work great for her and her family so I wondered why they weren't working for mine.  I decided to try some essential oils from the health food store, again with no success.  So I went on using the store bought medicines and waking up all night long.  Then my aunt gave me a call and told me about Young Living.  I must say I was VERY skeptical and not too excited since I had had no success with essential oils before.  But she sent me some oils and the first rubbed a drop of Peace & Calming on my little man before bed.  The next day he was a happy two year old!  I decided to try some on Ava also. She only woke up ONE time! It was the first time since she was a newborn!  I couldn't believe it and honestly thought it was a coincidence!  But no I continued to use the Peace & Calming oil blend on them for bedtime and they continued to sleep.  It is the best oil!  Since it worked so well I started using the other oils and have had awesome results with them!

 These are a few more things you can do with Peace & Calming to help your little one be the sweet and adorable baby he/she was meant to be!

For those of you wondering how I used the oil, I just put a drop on one foot then rubbed them together.  I do it right before bedtime as they are getting pj's on and brushing teeth and things.  We also made a sleeping cream that works great for adults!  I used it for my kids when I ran out of the Peace & Calming but it didn't work as well.  That was a long month, but I finally got some more in the mail a few days ago :) Hello Sleep!

 

Sleeping Cream:

• 12 drops of Cedarwood
• 12 drops of Peace & Calming
• 12 drops of Lavender
• 1/3 cup of Coconut Oil

Just mix them all together. I used some baby food jars because we have a lot of those. You many need to let the Coconut oil get warmed up to make it watery and easier to stir.  Let it harden a bit then rub it on your feet.  If you need more rub it on your back and neck and cup your hands over your nose and breathe it in.  The Cedarwood is a great oil for insomnia.  If the cream isn't working try rubbing just the Cedarwood on your forehead and wrists.  My dad did this and complained he was sleeping too good.  He couldn't wake up in the morning.  It is some pretty serious stuff!

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A little bit of a lot

Before I start, please know my keyboard is broken and I can't click the same button twice without waiting for a few seconds, so if lots of things are mising a leter (like those) it is because I got sick of trying to be patient.

I feel like I could write a milion things, it has ben forever and so many things have hapened. The last thing I wrote last time was about Mat's dad pasing away. It was so devastating! It is still hard to believe. We went to Nc for the funeral and it was the best funeral ever. At the viewing the funeral home owners said the only other time they had seen so many people go to a viewing was when a child had died. Mats dad was great, everyone loved him! He was super funy and friendly, like mat. The funeral wasn't depresing, but ful of great stories and it was a hapy funeral, lots of laughing and remembering. Owen would see Greg in the casket and point and say "papa papa bye bye papa" It was so sad! But also great that he remembered him, and it was weird that he kept saying bye bye, like he knew. It was nice that everyone got to meet ava and it was god quick trip.

Since then life has gone back to normal, schol and kids. Matts semester is great, he has lots of awesome clases that arent loading him with homework so we se way more of him than I expected and I love it! Owen is also loving it!  He has one semester after this one and then student teaching we are a bit excited!

Owen is stil the cutest thing alive. He has ben super whiny lately so we are thinking his molars might be coming in :( it never ends! He had a few weks of almost no naps or crying for an hour in his bed before he would fal aslep. It was anoying, but now that we have switched his nap time to earlier he has ben doing god. He is in todler lab at the schol, and he loves it! I love watchign him from the other side of the mirrors. The kids are hilarious and so cute! HE is talking like crazy, starting to do 3-4 word sentences and that makes life so much easier! He loves playing bal. His new favorite word/phrase is "go panthers" as he pounds the air with his fist :) so cute! We went to the schol one night to watch a basketbal competition and Owen was mesmerized. He just stared the whole time and would randomly say go panthers and lok at me to make sure he said it when he was suposed to. it was hilarious! He stil loves ava more than anything, but wil now take her toys :( we are working on that. he is also stil obsesed with mat, today we were playing and mat had owen and pretended to take owen away and he freaked screaming dady dady and it tok us a while to calm him down, if anything ever hapened to mat it would be unbearable for owen, and me because of owen haha.

Ava is also super cute! She doesnt slep as god as she did, but i stil cant complain. she is such a god sleper compared to owen at her age that I love it! She is a realy easy baby, she eats and sleps and plays, rarely any crying. when she is tired she wil rub her eyes and we just put her in her bed and she wil go to slep. she is god at holding onto things and tries to put everything in her mouth. She loves her litle toes and hands, she is mesmerized by her hands when she sees them :) its fun to watch! She has one litle problem. She has geographic tongue. She would scream  and scream sometimes when she would eat and I couldnt figure out waht it was from. my cuz is a breast feding consultant for WIC and noticed her tongue and talked to her boss and they figured out that some of the things i was eating might be hurting her tongue when she would eat. I started paying closer atention and found out milk wil hurt it, not a lot but enough to make her uncomfy. And my prenatal vitamin. That one is bad. She would scream at each feding for days when I take the vitamin :( so no more of those! But with the milk it only hurts her at the feding right after i drink milk, so that must get out of the system quickly. it is so nice having that fixed! it was so sad watching her eat and be hurting at the same time! She is FINALY starting to laugh, she wil get realy excited but only open her mouth super wide into a huge smile. I think she has only laughed 2 or 3 times, but there are times now that i think she is so close to doing it that i hope it wil come more often!

I am doing great, I reopened my litle busines because i love it so much. we figured life is back to normal, no more pain or tiny babies to constantly be taking care of so i started it up again and we both decided i wil put more money and time into it :) which i totaly love! I have ben making lots of hairbows for ava and they are so cute! i could literaly make hairbows al day! I also crocheted some baby boties the other day, which i havent done much of because they aren't as popular as hats and  things, but ava could use some booties :) The busines is going god :) i made al my money back that i initialy put into it for new suplies and advertising and things so now is just profit yay! and i love doing it so the money part is more of a plus :) we are going to save up for a surface 2 for schol. Mats computer isn't much beter than mine, his shuts down randomly so he has to remember to save everything al the time or he wil lose it. so a new computer is neded, and the surface 2 can do everythin he would ned and its smal enough to take to schol :) im excited about geting one and i hope we can son!

basicaly life is god. we are hapy and healthy (finaly losing baby weight!) and our kids are the best. here are a few iphone pics!

owen loves grocery carts!

Barney is stil his favorite!

fat baby cheks

he is sharing his straw :)

I just got him out of bed and this is what he did, part of his whinines. 

this is him at schol

he has his own scriptures :)

he got stuck and it was hilarious!

This is their diferent reactions to flash haha he hates light and always runs around the house turning off the lights. avas eyes are always wide open, she loves to se everytihng.

This was where he decided to lay down when he got tired haha

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Today I got a letter in the mail from a girl who was in one of the areas where I served in Brazil.  She would always help us teach and now she is on her mission :)  It was awesome to hear from her!! She wrote all the whole letter in English, which I loved, and she told me that our old mission split!! It's super exciting that there are so many people serving right now! Her letter brought back so many memories!  When I was opening the envelope I forgot that most people don't use the envelopes that have the stuff you lick to close it because those are expensive.  Instead they use glue to hold envelopes shut and you always have to rip off a side of the envelope because the flap is so glued shut that it isn't worth it to try to rip that part.  And the letter inside is usually glued to the envelope because the glue seeps through.  That happened this time, it makes me smile.  Brazil is awesome.  So are Brazilians.  She also mentioned a time we were out teaching when it was pouring outside.  I don't remember any specific time, but I remember how much I loved the rain in Brazil!  They get the best rain!  I'm sure that was a good day for me!

The kiddos are doing great.  In the beginning Ava was cute to look at, but was basically a lump on the floor or the couch.  She is getting cuter and interacting more so that makes her more than a lump :)  She is starting to smile at us which is the best!!! She is super cute and is an awesome sleeper at night! She wakes up at 3 and 6, so if I got up at 6 I could say she only gets up one time in the night, but I prefer to keep sleeping, which is hard because I only get and hour or two of sleep after that feeding and it is soooo hard to wake up after such a short sleep!! One of these days I will just get up at 6 and get some stuff done.  That will be a good day.  She has had a hard time pooping, she cries and wiggles and it takes her awhile to get it out, but when she does she is a happy camper.  She seems to be getting better so I hope it is passing.  She has thrush :(  I read a bit about what it is and how to get rid of it and it is super complicated!! It reminds me of getting lice and all the crap you have to wash and everything.  Annoying.  She is getting fatter YAY!! She is already over 10 pounds and its super cute.  Her legs are still super skinny, but they are starting to get rolls! She is a super loud sleeper, snoring, nose and throat clearing, loogie making... It's nasty and used to wake us up every second but now we sleep through it. She is also a choker :( Owen has had a hard time with choking his whole life and I think Ava is going to be worse. She chokes on milk every time she eats, how do you choke on liquid?! Owen started solids late because he has such a hard time but he never choked on milk! Hopefully she will get over it.

Owen is still the best ever.  He loves Ava like crazy.  The other day I had to go to the car and move her car seat to a different spot so I took  him and let him run around inside the car while I was doing that.  Usually when we do that it is super hard to get him to come out of the car and he screams and cries when we finally catch him.  (It is a Ford Expedition, so lots of seats and room to play.)  This time when I was done I tried to get him to come out to the door and he stayed in the back where I couldn't reach and instead of going into the car and getting him I just told him we forgot Ava and we had to go get her and he came out :)  SO CUTE!!  He still shares his Barney and blanket, which he calls Po.  He tries to put the binky in her mouth, which she doesn't like.  She isn't super in love with the binky like most babies, but she will use it every once in awhile so when Owen tries to give it to her half the time she doesn't want it so it just makes her crying worse.  But it is sweet he tries to help.  She likes to look at people and when she is crying and I am busy I will tell him to go see what is wrong with her and he will look at her and poke her and tell me she is crying, which gives Ava someone to look at so it helps me out!

This past weekend we blessed Ava :) It was sweet.  Matt's parents came on Thursday and then my parents and siblings and their kids came on Friday.  Saturday we went prom dress shopping.  It was way fun!! It makes me want to wear a pretty dress!! We also went to a fun Halloween thing, it was too crowded, but the weather was perfect!  It was a stressful weekend because of all the people, I was happy when everyone left so was Owen.  He got really cranky and whiny toward the end!! Sunday was horrible.  Church ends 20 minutes after nap time should start, so he has a hard time days when he isn't already in a bad mood.  So we didn't get any pictures because he was as bad as he could be and we were sick of it and annoyed.  There were some pictures taken of Ava by herself on our floor :) That's enough for me! 

I started writing this a few days ago and never finished, it is now Sunday/monday in the middle of the night and we got devastating news sunday morning that Matt's dad died.  It's hard because we just saw him less than a week ago but at the same time it's wonderful because we just saw him less than a week ago! Its almost 4 and im feeding ava, matt hasnt fallen asleep yet :( Keep him and his family in your prayers, I will write more later. 

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Farmers Market and a Craft Fair

Yesterday was the last day of the rexburg farmers market and they were having a little halloween type theme for kids so we decided to check it out.  We went with my cousin Alaina and her two kids.  She has a boy, Nathan, who will be 3 in a few months and a little girl, Eliza, who is 4 months, and they live in the same apartment complex as us so we were super excited about our kids being so close in age.  But her little boy and Owen DO NOT get along and it drives us crazy!!! We need to fix it since we hang out all the time.  Luckily there was so much going on at the farmers market that they decided to completely ignore each other and spend their time trick-or-treating and decorating their pumpkins.  It was a quick visit, but a nice way to get out of the house.  Owen doesn't get out nearly as much as he used to before Ava came along and I feel bad so whenever we have an excuse to go somewhere we do!  It will be nice when she is old enough to be around people.  The boys dressed up, Owen was a ninja turtle and Nathan was Thomas, they looked super cute.  Owen didn't really get the whole trick-or-treat concept, this is his first time doing it, but it was nice we had a little practice run before Halloween.

Owen decorating his pumpkin.

Nathan doing a weird eyebrow face :) Hilarious!!

Eliza chillin at our house wearing a crown Jenn crocheted :)

Ava making a funny baby face :) 
Today we're vendors at a craft fair in Idaho Falls.  It was terrible.  It was at a fitness center and there were barely any people selling things, we later found it was because a lot of the people who were planning on selling worked at the fitness center and there was a huge layoff that took place a few weeks ago so all those people dropped out and basically the craft fair was a big dud.  Luckily for us we made enough to cover the cost of the booth, gas to get to Idaho Falls, and we even had extra, so it wasn't a complete waste.  We did spend HOURS sitting in an almost empty gym with two kids so if we had known how it would turn out I think we would have rather not have the extra money and sit at home instead.  I think we were the only people who made more than $20.  Sad!  Owen and Ava both did great.  Ava literally slept in her car seat the whole time, except when she was eating, and Owen playing in the racquet ball court or chased a ball through the gym the whole time.  So in a way it was nice there wasn't many people so Owen could run free.  At the end we found out Owen had turned lights on in our car so it was dead and had to be jumped, that's always annoying.  But we made it home and I got to take a much needed nap.  Now Matt is doing homework, Owen is crying in his room because our sucky upstairs neighbors are ridiculously loud and woke him up, Ava is asleep in her crib and I am sitting on the couch wishing I didn't have to get up to get some water. This next picture is Owen on the way home, he missed his nap so he passed out pretty quick in the car :)

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Can Every Title be "Update"?

After I wrote last time I wanted to find the camera so I could put up some pics, but it is still lost.  We have no idea where it might be, probably in an Owen hiding spot with half his cups.  Luckily we have an awesome Iphone that takes pics so I am going to try to write on the computer and post pics from the phone.  We will see how it goes.  

Baby Ava Lou Triplett was born on Sept 20th and it went wonderfully.  The few weeks before that I was as ready for labor as you can be without actually being in labor.  I was either having horrible and painful contractions that weren't consistent or I was having consistent contractions that weren't painful.  I was 4 cm and just waiting.  Instead of waiting forever like we did with Owen, the Doc let us go a few days early.  I went in to be induced at 6:30 AM got the pitocin around 8 and had Ava at 12:20.  It was quick and easy!! She was almost 3 lbs lighter than Owen so that was nice too!  The best part is her hair! She had some and still has some!! I don't think she has lost any of her hair.  And it's dark.  I love it.  So does Owen.  He will come and rub her head while saying "hair, hair hair."  She was the perfect baby, only ate every 4 hours at night and every 3 during the day and rarely cried.  She was fine sleeping in her crib or sitting by herself on the couch.  Now she isn't being so sweet.  She still only eats that much, but she has decided she doesn't like to sleep.  She will be so tired her eyes are red and she can barely keep them open but she will refuse to sleep.  Very annoying.  So I am not getting as much sleep as I would like, I still get a lot more than I got with Owen who seemed to eat every hour.  Last night I just let her sleep in our bed so I didn't have to get up and try to get her to fall asleep every few minutes and it worked great.  I can't wait until she smiles and interacts.  I remember when Owen was a newborn we didn't think he could get any cuter, but now we know the newborn stage is nothing compared to what is coming up!! She will use a binky but has a hard time understanding that she needs to close her mouth in order to suck on it.  Also annoying.  She gets fussier the later it gets, and spits up randomly so we don't know if I am eating something that is hurting her stomach or what.  She has super long fingers and toes, just like Owen.  I don't think she looks like anyone yet, but most people say she looks like Matt.  She will make some expressions that Owen made when he was a baby but other than that I think she has her own unique face so far.  

Owen is great!  He hasn't hit the jealousy stage yet, he loves Ava just as much as we do.  When she cries he will tell us she is crying and try to give her the binky.  When she is sleeping he will try to share his blanket with her.  When he is reading he will throw books at her for her to read (we are working on that).  He always wants to hold her and will give her more kisses than he gives us.  He never was a tv kid until recently, we were blessed with Barney because we can sit him in front of the tv now when we need to get things done and can't with two kids trying to get our attention.  Since he started liking Barney we have tried other shows and movies and he is liking all the Disney movies!  I hope the theater here will get Planes soon so we can try out a movie theater!  When my mom was here she bought him a Barney doll and he loves it, he carries it around and sleeps with it and shares it with Ava.  He talks like crazy, he can and will repeat any word we say.  Some aren't as obvious but most are pretty clear.  He has started to try to take off his diaper :( and hates to wear socks.  His favorite thing to do, besides watch Barney, is to read.  He will sit on the floor for hours with his books.  He also loves to be outside, which he hasn't gotten to do much because of Ava.  It will be nice when we can take her out with us.  He went to nursery for the first time a few weeks ago and didn't do so good.  We always thought he would be fine because he likes people and doesn't have a problem if we leave him with other people, but nursery was too much.  Matt dropped him off and there were only a few kids so Owen went in happily and Matt left.  During the second hour the nursery leader got Matt because Owen was having a hard time.  He went to the room and peaked in and saw Owen standing in the corner on the verge of crying.  He went in and saw there were closer to 20 kids and half of them were pushing the other half and stealing toys and it was no good.  He will try again in a few weeks and we hope Owen will forget about his first experience and will end up liking it.  

Matt is back in school and loving/hating it.  He has the teachers that just give stupid assignments that do nothing but take up time and then he has the other teachers that are great and do a good job teaching.  He has been really busy with homework but his schedule is great!  He is home most of the day and can help if I need.  His parents are coming at the end of this month for the baby blessing and he is excited to see them.  

I am doing great.  I feel a million times better than I did while I was pregnant!  My back doesn't hurt and I don't hate everyone.  I am staying super busy, lunch and dinner time come so quickly each day it's weird!  I have been trying to make one crochet hat a day so I can have some to sell at craft fairs again, but I dont usually have the time to get a full one done.  I also want to make one for Ava but haven't done that yet.  Life is great!  

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