3 Months

Nov. 20, 2011
Time is moving faster and faster every day, I am certain of it! This girl has been such a sweet addition to our family, we can't seem to get enough of her huge grins and her squishy cheeks.

Miss E is starting to figure out how to interact with Sis without injuring her :). This is a huge step! E has great intentions but has a hard time recognizing the difference between her sister and a baby doll. She truly does love her sister and tells us all the time how "bee-ful" and "gorgeous" she is (thanks to Alvin and the Chipmunks for that one!).

This is a great representation of E's hair at the end of most days...

Baby H is getting more and more alert and is getting to the point where she recognizes her own hands and eats them constantly. She has started hitting the toys that hang above her on her play mat. We love that she can now predict when we are going to tickle her and laughs/grunts when we start. She has started cooing and talking in the last two weeks, and it is adorable! H is not rolling yet but I know it won't be long. She can get to her side with no problem and it's only a matter of time before she goes all the way. She can scoot her body around about 180 degrees when she is laying on her back. Sadly, her once great sleeping habits are slipping away from us. She is now waking up lots in the night, but this week we are blaming it on a stuffy nose.

We are so blessed to have such sweet girlies!!!

Snow Girl

 Nov. 5, 2011
 My E girl LOVES to play outside. She has been dying since the weather has turned cold, because we are mostly stuck inside with the new babe. Thankfully we had a not-too-snowy snow day that allowed her to go out in the back yard for a while. I am excited for the day when we get a fence and I can send her outside any time she wants!!!

She was trying so hard to make and throw snow balls. We'll have to wait for some real snow to teach her how!

Of course she had to taste it!

Pink Tutu

November 1, 2011

This tutu is perfect for spinning!!!

I'm not sure if you have noticed over my last several posts, but this girl LOVES pink and LOVES dresses/skirts. She would wear a pink dress every day if I let her. Thankfully, her grandmas have helped us out in that department. Grandma Jean bought her his cute tutu at Costco and she finally got to wear it. She cried when I made her take it off to put her jammies on that night. I hope to do a post highlighting all of her pink outfits.

Halloween 2011

October 31, 2011

Miss E has known what she wanted to be for Halloween since about July so it has been a long couple of months waiting for "Halloween to start" (as E says). We had a gift card to Chili's (thanks Reids!!!) and kids ate free on that day, so we started our holiday out right. 

Our cute little skeleton, smiling at daddy.

Please don't judge that we got molten chocolate cake, and willingly fed it to our 2 year old, before the biggest candy holiday of the year! It was too yummy to pass up. 

Yes, I do realize that she looks ridiculous...she was a little excited about Halloween and destroyed her hair in the excitement.

After dinner and a quick run to Home Depot, we hurried home and got our little Angelina Ballerina ready. Thankfully E had no trepidation about knocking on doors and saying, "Trick or treating" at every house. She loved it and we love living in a neighborhood that is so close and safe! After our little neighborhood we had fun passing out candy to the cute kids that stopped at our house.

This is her "cute" smile lately

Being a mousey ballerina

Showing me her beautiful skirt

Our big girl headed to the first house of the night.

Pumpkin Carving

October 30, 2011

Before she realized that she wanted no real part in carving pumpkins. She did enjoy telling daddy to make her pumpkin "happy, not naughty."

This girl just loves to be involved in any way!

Taking a break from her dancing to smile for mom.

The real carver.

We had never carved pumpkins until last year, when I realized how unskilled I am and how awesomely skilled Steve is (seriously, he means business)! This year was no exception. E was so excited about carving the pumpkins until she realized two things: pumpkins are gross and stinky, and it takes a long time (anything more than 5 minutes). She decided it was more fun to dance around the kitchen while mom and dad did all of the work. I totally forgot to take pictures of the final product but Steve carved a happy face for E and a cool bat for himself and I carved an owl on a tree branch.

Birthday Party

October 29, 2011

I am so amazed every day at how big Miss E is getting. She is still a little nervous about new situations, though, so I was so happy that she got invited to her first big kid birthday party. It was a 2 hour party and she clung to me for about half an hour. She finally gave me the boot, however, when they pulled out a huge tub of popcorn and told the kids to dig through it it find suckers! She was in heaven! Thankfully she ended up having a great time and has been talking about it ever since.

Pumpkin Patch

October 29, 2011

This year we were struggling to get ready for Halloween. I put up zero decorations and we kept delaying getting a pumpkin. We finally made it out two days before Halloween only to find that the local pumpkin patches we had planned on visiting were closed. We decided to take a detour down to Layton to visit our favorite doughnut shop, Madbrook Donuts, before stopping at one more big pumpkin patch. Thankfully it was open and ready for business! We had come here last year and did all of the festivities, including taking a hay ride out to the field to pick our own pumpkins. This year we were lucky that they still had lots of pumpkins at the Farmer's Market. Steve and I vowed that next year we would go all out again, since both of our girls will be big enough to enjoy it.

It was really cold so we kept the baby covered for all but this one picture to prove she was there too!

She was a little wary of the scary pumpkins!

She cracks me up!

Matchy Matchy

October 22, 2011

Not such a successful picture, I was trying to hold the camera, hold the baby up, and encourage big sis to smile while not dropping the baby. Whew!

I am so excited to have two girls now because that means matching outfits!!! My sweet grandparents were able to stop by our house the day after Baby H was born and brought these cute sweat suits. I am in love with them. They are soft and fuzzy, not to mention the fact that they have ruffle bums!

Trunk or Treat

October 21, 2011

We were watching 2 of our cute nieces for the weekend of our ward trunk or treat. 

My cute girlies: Purple Cat, Wizard/Witch, Angelina Ballerina, Pink skeleton

It ended up working out great because Steve was working so that meant I had two big helpers!!! 

 The girls were so cute and had fun getting lots of treats. 

My older niece did a great job of entertaining lots of little kids while their parents finished dinner. I wish I would have gotten a picture, but she had the kids all lined up against the wall and did a Simon Says type of game along with some creative adaptations. She's a big help!

 It was such a fun night and I'm glad that I decided to brave it with four kids. It ended up being perfect!

2 Months

Time is flying by! I was so surprised when I realized that Little Sis was two months already! She has been an absolute dream so far. I had alluded to her big sister being a bit difficult. Miss E was very alert and active from day 1. She didn't seem to sleep as much as other babies and she liked a lot of attention. Little Sis is so sweet and mellow. She seems to sleep a ton and is a great eater. Steve and I both agree that our girls have very different personalities already and we are so grateful for the spirit each of them bring into our home.

Not happy to be taking 2 month pictures!

2 month doctor appointment...before the shots...no pictures of after, she was not pleased!

I loved this one, she was mid yawn but looks so goofy

2 Month Stats:

Length: 23 1/2 inches 80th%ile

Weight: 11 lb 12 oz 75th%ile

Head Circumference: 39.5 cm 60th%ile

(She is very similar to her big sis...see here)

• Smiles all the time
• Follows us with her eyes
• Starting to reach for things, starting to like her play mat
• Sleeping for longer stretches at night (10 pm-4 am occasionally)
• Strong neck!!! She can hold herself up on her elbows for several seconds.
• She is getting close to outgrowing several of her 0-3 month outfits, sad!

BYU Day

October 14, 2011

Steve and I realized that, aside from football games, we really hadn't been back to BYU to visit together since we graduated in 2008. When we found out that my little bro, Matt, was going to be touring the campus with his friend (side note: I CANNOT believe he is old enough to be touring college campuses!!!) we decided to head down, take him to lunch, and make a day of it. It was so fun to go back with the girls and let Miss E run around and play on the beautiful campus. I absolutely love the campus in the fall! We were also able to visit our old boss, Chuck, from when we worked at the field house doing activities support. We loved that job and he was the best boss! I was also so very happy to get some fudge from the bookstore...I love that stuff!

This is at the fountain of the new(ish) JFSB. This building is so beautiful and high tech, I wish I would have been able to spend more time here.

We took Matt to Sammy's in downtown Provo. It was yummy, although it was WAY slow! I attempted to do a little photo shoot with E against the cool red brick. She didn't cooperate too much and these are the silly pictures I did get...

This little missy is a trooper! She has such a sweet disposition and allows us to schlep her all over the state, only crying when she is messy or hungry. LOVE HER!
Sadly, I didn't think to get any pictures of the girls with Matt, not smart. We'll just have to imagine his cute face!

Cute Big Sister

October 11, 2011

This girl has had an interesting time of becoming a big sister. It is the same story told by every mother I have ever talked to, but it is so much more difficult when it is my life and my kids! (Isn't that how it always feels!) Miss E loves her baby sister so very much, but has had a hard adjustment when it comes to sharing her mama and daddy. She has been acting out and has become so defiant we aren't quite sure what to do sometimes. Her listening "skills" have become nearly nonexistent. Our great sleeper has turned into a nervous Nelly and is up in the middle of the night almost every night. She sometimes tries to love her little sister "to death," with squeezes and loves that would bring a grown man to tears. We try to calm our frustration by (constantly) reminding each other that "this is just a phase" and that "her world has been rocked," but it is still hard! Nevertheless, there are still times each day when E reminds us how much she loves little sis and that she is going to be a fiercely protective and FUN big sister!!! She loves to share her toys and blankie with the little miss and jabbers with her all day long. We love our girls more than words can say and look forward to seeing the relationship that they build!

PS: Thanks to Aunt Mari and girls for the super cute outfit! She seems bigger and bigger each day!
PPS: Mom, notice the "bobbers" in her hair. Oh those take me back!

Family Pictures 2011

October 1, 2011

We were so lucky to get our family pictures taken this year. This is the first time we have done "real" pictures since our wedding, six years ago, so we were overdue! We gotten them taken up in Huntsville by the lake and the setting was beautiful. Thanks to Adri Freeman, we are so happy with the result! We would totally recommend her, her price is awesome and she does a fabulous job! Check out her blog for more of our pics:

Family Pictures

Girls' Pictures