M's 1st B-day!

So, It's been FOREVER since I posted. Life is way busier with 2 kids than with just 1. Especially now that M is crawling & cruising around. She doesn't sit still for more than 2 minutes I swear! Here are some pics of her during her B-day week.

Okay, so this pic is from about 3 wks ago, but it is a pic of her very first piggy tail!

So G&G Swenson went to Thailand for a week & a half over M's B-day, so we had a little pre B-day cupcake & present unwrapping before they left. She did not like having all that gunk on her hands.

She got several outfits & PJ's, boy does this girl LOVE clothes! She loves to play in piles of clothes!

Here is the cake! I special ordered M's B-day cake to match a pair of leggings I have for her. Isn't it way cute! Just the right size.

I got her all ready (leggings & hair done) & I placed her on my makeshift photo back drop. When Dad brought the cake into the room she started screaming! She wanted it NOW!

However, once she actually had the cake in front of her, she was a little timid about digging in.

Here she is trying to figure out how to pick it up without getting all gooey.

She started with the candle first. She did not want to give up the candle, not sure why though. It's not like it tastes any good.

It cracks me up that both of my kids are such FREAKS about getting their hands all sticky!

Still worried about the goop on her hands. :)

Here she is trying out a new way to eat the cake without getting it on her hands. It worked out okay for her.

The sugar is finally starting to set in.

Woohoo!!! Gotta love the sugar!!!

Notice the lack of REALLY digging in! Neither of my kids really ever got that it was okay on this one occasion to get really messy, that it is expected of them. :)

More cake & matching legging shots.

She started to get into a little more, after a little encouragement from mom & brother.

Daddies little girl!

Mom & M.
C & M. He is supposed to be hugging her (though it was more of a choke hold). She did not want to share her cake with him.

So there you have it. She is now 1! I can hardly believe it. She had her 12 month dr visit today & her weight is up from the 10th percentile to the 24th percentile. She weighed 19 lbs 6 oz. She is 28.5 inches tall (26th percentile) & her head is 46 cm (76th percentile.) All in all she is doing well.

The Sneezin' Store

So yesterday my husband took my son to get his Flu-mist. He knew he would be getting a flu shot to help "keep him healthy & strong." I was getting ready to go to work when they got home from the pediatrician office & I asked him where he had gone & how it went. He told me he had been to "the sneezin' store." I then asked him what happened at the sneezing store. He proceeded to tell me "well, I got some nose stuff that is good. But it was really stinky!" The nurse told him to sniff like he was smelling roses- didn't smell like roses apparently!

Tahoe, Teeth & Trick or Treat

Okay, so it has been WAY too long since I last wrote. Well, we have been busy. My husband got a second job (very lucky for us considering the economy & all). I continue to work full time & be a mom the rest of the time. Not much time for other things. Well, the end of September we went to Lake Tahoe with some friends for our Anniversary/my birthday. It was a very fun trip. We did lots of fun things while there. M got her first tooth the last day while we were traveling home (Oct 4). She cut her second tooth just one week after the first. Then of course there was Halloween last week. That being said, here are a bunch of pictures.

The first day we spent on the beach. It was nice & warm & a clear day. The rest of the week cooled off quiet a bit.

C kicking the waves

M & our friends little girl. They are 1 month apart & look like they are related, they are not.This is the view out our hotel winow. Yes, that is a ski lift. We woke up the third morning with snow & were SOOO excited about that. Little did we know.

A nice cold walk on the beach & the piers. C has a huge band-aid on his forehead because he fell face first off a 3 foot wall because he "was trying to see my ant friends."

The boys.

The hole crew minus myself.

We went & watched the Salmon spawn. All that black, those are Salmon.

Us & more Salmon

C & L with more salmon. There were some photographers at this bend in the river that told us the day before we were there 2 black bear had been on this very beach catching the salmon. How cool would that have been!?

This bend in the river really reminded me of our old family cabin in southeastern Idaho.

Crystal clear water & more salmon.

C & the wooden firefighter that was at the station near our hotel.

C & the back of the paddle boat we went on. The Ms. Dixie.

Me with snow on my sweatshirt. This was the night before we left.

The view out our window the morning that we were leaving.

We were told you had to have chains or snow tires to get around Lake Tahoe that morning, so we went down the other side of the pass instead of going around the lake. There was about 2 ft! Beautiful.

The road further down the pass.

M in her cute black Halloween outfit for our pumpkin painting/carving party we went to with some friends.

M in her flower fairy costume.

C & M on the front porch. He insisted on being a firefighter, again, for the third year in a row.

Transformers, robots in disguise! Autobots, roll out!

My little fairy firefighter! How cute!

UPDATE: She's 7 months old!

7 MONTHS & COUNTING

I finally got around to downloading pictures off of my camera & discovered how terrible I have been about taking pictures! A week & 1/2 ago M turned 7 months old! I can hardly believe it! She has been sitting up entirely on her own now for over 3 weeks, on 9/13/09 she finally figured out how to roll from her back to her front as well as front to back (on the same day)! She had previously gone from front to back, but not with any consistency. Now she can do both & knows she can in order to get something she wants. In mid August she figured out that she could scoot while laying on her back. She puts her knees up & pushes off so she scoots upwards. This has not helped the bald spot on the back of her head! :) She is developing quite the little attitude as well. She knows what she wants & will tell you. She loves to chatter & making the sound "a-da, a-da". She absolutely adores her big brother & vice versa! Even if she is in the middle of a fit & C walks in, she will stop crying & start giggling & laughing at him! It is so cute to listen to the two of them giggling at each other. Once one of them starts in, the other gets going & they will just giggle & giggle & giggle. C is almost potty trained. He forgets to tell you he needs to go about 40% of the time, but if my husband & I remember to take him every hour, he stays dry. He still will not go #2 on the toilet though. However, he will hold it until he has a pull-up on for bedtime or nap time & go then. We haven't had a #2 accident (in big boy pants) in over 3 weeks! C also has a new friend. His new best friend is imaginary & is with him all the time. He is a robot. Yes, a robot! Anyone who knows my son will laugh at this. He used to be deathly afraid of robots. Now anytime he gets in trouble he blames it on his robot or says his robot made him do it. I even find him talking to his robot every once in a while. His new favorite movie is "Pete's Dragon" & "Scooby-doo." He is getting to be quite the little riot. Anywho... That is the update on us. Oh, yes, & today actually happens to be mine & my hubbys 10th anniversary! 10 years! I can hardly believe it! I would post pics of our wedding, but they are all in storage! Bummer! It's been a good 10 years with lots of fun, challenges, sad & happy times! I love you Babe!

Here are the pictures I took of M on her 7 month mark!

This picture I was messing around with my camera & used micro-burst. The blown up view of it is pretty cool. It would be a cool effect for sports or something like that.

POTTY TRAINING IN FULL SWING

Day #1: FINALLY gets the concept! (No accidents even).
Day #2: only 1 accident! He even actually took the incentive & took off his own underpants, climbed onto the toilet & went without being supervised! When he put his big boy pants back on however, they were on backwards. But this is HUGE progress folks!
Day #3: We will see how it goes today!

Another HUGE in the world of my son... He swam yesterday (with his lifejacket) WITHOUT anyone holding onto him (or him clinging onto my neck for dear life).

We are making big strides with that kid this week! YEAH!!!!

My daughter still is only rolling from front-to-back and not back-to-front yet. But she is getting better at getting off of her much dreaded tummy time & back onto her backside. She cracks me up cuz she lays on her back & gets both feet right up to her mouth & chews on her toes! They are her favorite toys! It works for my cuz I don't have to remember to pack them when we go out somewhere.

I also got my new car a week ago. We decided to get another Nissan Maxima. This one is a 2004, Silver in color & has all the bells & whistles. It does have 70,000 miles, but that's just getting the engine started with Nissan though.

OUR FABULOUS HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!

Anyone who knows me very well, knows that I LOVE the fourth of July! It's almost like Christmas for me, I mean as far as anticipation & excitement surrounding the holiday. I love the BBQs that accompany the fourth of July celebrations, the fireworks, the parades. You name it, I love it! This year was different however. We started our regular 4th activities by going to the Lehi Fire Departments annual 4th of July breakfast @ 7:30. We left there to head to the Freedom Festival Parade in Provo. My family has been going to the parade for as long as can remember. My Great Grandma owned a house on the parade route when I was a kid, so the parade was a kind of family reunion time. Well, when she passed away, one of my Dads cousins bought the house on center street & there is an open invitation to come & watch the parade without having to go the night before to find seating. It's quite a nice arrangement. We even have access to a bathroom if needed (rather than use one of the lovely outhouses provided by Provo City). So anywho... we were running a little late for the parade. & I mean only about 10 minutes late. We would have been early enough to see the opening cannon or whatever it was this year. Traffic was pretty bad once we got to BYU campus & my husband & I were debating which route to take. We finally decided on our route, had our game plan in place & were stopped in traffic when... WHAMMMMM! This guy behind us rammed into my beautiful, lovely, paid off, perfectly running Maxima! He admitted to me (albeit after I chewed him out) that he simply "was not looking up at the moment" so he didn't see that we were stopped for parade traffic. How much do you wanna bet he was texting?! He must have "looked up" at the last minute & tried to swerve to miss us, but no such luck. He hit us pretty darn hard! My husband was driving, my 3 1/2 yr old son was in the back passenger side & my 5 month old daughter the driver side. (I was in the passenger seat). Fortunately, we were all OK. Some bruising, mild concussions & whip lash, but otherwise fine. Here are some photos.

You can see the traffic ahead of the car in this photo. That was not traffic caused by us, it was the traffic we were stopped in.

My brand new Sit-n-Stand stroller was in the trunk. It came out of the accident pretty much unscathed. A small scratch to the manufacturer sticker & some scratches to the front foot rest, but otherwise fine.

So, you know how I said the stroller was fine? Well the Fire Department had to take the back seat out to get the stroller out of the trunk. I think they were pretty happy I gave them permission to tear out the seat!

My Mom & Dad were only about a block & a half in front of us when the accident occurred. They came back to pick us up. My Dad was pretty T.O.'d at the guy for hitting us with his two grand kids in the car! Here is my car being towed off. My husband was talking with my mom & sister (who happened to drive past the accident on her way to the parade & stopped) & apparently said "watch, she's gonna start crying when the tow truck drives away." He was right. I am such a sentimental fool. But I LOVED that car!

Here's the damage that occurred to the truck that hit us. Not much. He drove off & apparently went to the parade, cuz my mom saw him walk past my Dad's cousins house.

We also went to parade anyway. We only got to see about the last 30 minutes of it. But my son had fun playing with his cousins! What a cute kid!
My mom with my daughter! My daughter was so mellow. It was kinda funny, hence my moms expression.
The painting in the back is my Great-Great-Great Grandmothers picture. When a was kid & we would go visit my Great Grandma & she would tell me stories of her. She was a very strong willed woman & I always admired her. My daughter is named after her!

That my friends, was my 4th of July! We had a BBQ after the parade & watched some fireworks in Pleasant Grove that night with my in-laws. It was good other than the whole, wrecked my car crap. The insurance company has since declared the car totalled & so we are in the market for a new car. Probably gonna move up to a minivan. Hope others had a better 4th than us!! :)