Thursday, January 10, 2013

Updates by pictures

Since I've procrastinated so long, it's hard to catch up on everything that's been going on. We'll try to group things.

I've been making cakes when I get the chance or have a good excuse. Just fun and fulfilling for me. I will post Britt's and Emilee's cakes later.

baby shower

saw it in magazine

baby shower


Outdoor stuff while the weather was hot.

Big Surf water park





Trips to the zoo
Amusemet park with 3 free passes
The kids had a blast

Train park with friends




















We also have done indoor things.

school with friends and practice time at home


Children's Museum (I've actually lost Logan twice, and this is where he's gone both times!)

Children's Museum

Official taste testers


Logan must help me when I'm working with food.


Sporting events that we had free passes to. We never lasted for a whole game due to bedtimes but still really fun.

Arena football game 1

Arena football game 2


Baseball

Baseball

Halloween fun earlier in October. Good thing Em got to dress up for these events since she had appendicitis on Halloween.



Children's Museum

Zoo


Dinner date with our friends. Britt and I went on a couple of dates over the last six months, I think. :)


We also took Emilee to her first movie theater movie. She liked it and still talks about it sometimes. She recently told me she wants to take Logan to the theater now.


I have to stop there for now. I hope to finish up the year with lots more pictures soon. Feel free to probe me for more details on anything.

Monday, August 20, 2012

Thinking



I keep thinking about updating the blog. And, I keep thinking some more. But, somehow that's not getting it done!





Warning: Lots of words and not many pictures.






Logan is growing so much. I have to remind myself he's only 15 months old. At his check up he was about the 80th percentile across the board!! He's meeting the milestones he should except that he has no desire to give up his bottle (I don't really feel like forcing that one yet). He's teaching me that boys will be boys - falling and bumping his head, then getting up (usually climbing) to do it over again. He had Coxsachievirus right at the 15month mark. Luckily the doctor still saw him and let us know that was what he had. (Britt took Logan to urgent care the day before, and they said he had bilateral ear infections. Turns out they were wrong.) We had a rough few days. Logan let his mouth pool with spit and then dribble out because he refused to swallow (it must have hurt). Then when he got excited to eat, he realized that food hurt him too, and he freaked out at the table pushing everything away. My poor baby!! He also slept poorly so Britt and I took turns sleeping with him (on his floor--not nearly as comfortable as my bed). Luckily it was only bad for part of a week. Then, he started feeling better and started eating again and was much happier.

He loves reading books right now, and he likes reading his favorites a few (okay, many) times in a row. He loves looking for balls in books (anything circular he will call a ball). He will also notice other things if we point them out to him. He is making more animal sounds now. It's cute to see his adaptation of the noises. He opens and closes his mouth for a fish. He clicks his tongue for a duck. And he opens his mouth wide and breaths like a "ha" noise for a monkey. Maybe I'll get those recorded sometime because reading it in text is nothing like seeing it.



He tries to do everything Emilee does which can be frustrating. He has also created fun things on his own. He plays with the toilet any time I leave the bathroom door open. And, yesterday, when I caught him in there, he was feeding toilet paper straight off the roll into the toilet. What a stinker!! He does a little dance with his feet (more like foot stomp) when he gets excited about things. He loves to express himself with pointing, nodding, and shaking. He especially likes shaking his head no at me 100 times a day; when he really means it, he'll actually say "nuh" to me. Anytime I ask him to say "hi" to someone he does the same thing: smiles really big, tucks his head to one side, and tries to hide behind me. You'd think it would take less effort to just say "hi," but he won't do it.





Emilee has been looking so old to me lately. I see her running around and playing and she looks like such a big girl. Then I see "how" she is playing, and I am reminded she's a three-year-old. She can be so sweet and helpful. Or, she can be completely stubborn or even mean (though, I don't think she fully understands when she's mean). Tonight was one of those sweet times. Logan was screaming when we put him to bed, and Emilee was worried about him. She came out (after we put her to bed) and said that we needed to go check on him to make sure he was okay. Sigh. And, the other day she told me she wanted to change Logan's diaper sometime. I think I just may take her up on that one!



Emilee likes to get her own way and take charge. She likes to tell me she can do things all by herelf (though, some of the time she makes me help her with things she just told me she could do by herself). She is VERY imaginative. She often tells me little stories about her "friends" (usually her stuffed animals), and it's funny how she projects herself/real life onto them. I especially love it when she tries speaking religously. I play along with pretend stuff sometimes, too; she pretends to be Mom Emilee and I am Mom Girl ( I think that's how she says it). She also likes to "dream" about what we can do and will make plans for what to do, who will come, and what we need to take. She notices just about everything around her, unless she is caught up with playing, chasing, or watching TV (she is a movie junkie- though we limit her).


A friend and I have started to do "school" with our kids (she has a daughter Emilee's age and a son who is 2). We've only met a few times, but the plan is to try once a week. We will switch off who is in charge and who's house we go to. So far it has been a success and the kids have liked the learning things we've done. I am actually really excited about it, but I wish I had more time to find ideas and work on them.


Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Happy 4th of July!

I am so grateful to live in this country. This year, we had a Family Home Evening lesson before the 4th talking a little bit about it. We had Emilee practice saying what country we live it. It was really cute. She was much more comfortable saying "America" by itself, but with our help, she would say the whole thing. Next time you see her, ask her what country we live in, and we'll see if she remembers.
We started the day with our ward's annual party. It consisted of a Flag raising, parade for the kids (they decorate their bikes, scooters, and what not and ride around the church lawn), and breakfast. Unfortunately I did not get pictures of any of it. Emilee did ride her trike in the parade. :)
We threw together a BBQ with friends for the Fourth. It was a lot of fun (for me at least). It was nice to visit with old friends, and it was nice to see that the kids could get along, for the most part. We had seven kids all under age 4. Woah!! Thanks for coming over Swegle Family and Bates Family. We had a great time!
On Sunday, before the Fourth, we had our friends, the Giffords, come to dinner. We asked them to take family pictures of us in our 4th of July outfits since we knew we'd end up busy on that day. It's fun trying to get everyone to smile at the right time.




Sickies

Apparently I need to catch up and do some back-blogging. However, here is what happened today.
Actually, this starts a few days ago when Logan got a runny nose. I thought, well, at least it's just him. Yeah, right. Emilee has is too. So the last few nights have been a little rough on us with sleeping. Yet, my kids still insist on waking with (if not before) the sun. So, since we took it easy yesterday, we had to do something today.
I opted for a photo shoot while the kids were happy this morning. It's been a while since I've taken pictures of the kids just messing around at home. You probably can't tell from the pictures, but Logan's nostrils are red and raw and Emilee had a glistening upper lip (I won't put the gross details of why). I swear my kids really are sick, despite their happy faces.


Cheese! Summersaults...sort of








Playing with his favorite thing....my pan!!




Playing with mommy's phone.



As we were hanging out this morning, I thought about it. What do we do when my kids are sick? Well, apparently we do everything we would normally do, except sleep. Before 9:30, we ate breakfast (oatmeal with strawberries), played outside on the patio and in the sprinkler (while mom mowed the lawn), started on a couple loads of laundry, made a mess throughout the house, and played in Emilee's room. I know the time because I thought it must be close to lunch time after being so busy, but I was sorely disappointed. We ended up packing part of lunch and going to the store ( I figured I wouldn't pass germs if the kids stayed in the cart). We shopped for a few things I wanted and for fruits and veggies. We finished lunch when we got home and read books for a little while. Then Emilee told me she was ready for a nap. That's unheard of! Especially at 1pm. I got her down and then Logan shortly after. While I've heard coughing and sniffling off and on, I'd say they're doing very well....to still be down 2 hours later. It's a tender mercy for me.



My little disclaimer is that I have decided to embrace modern medicine. My kids were fussy yesterday, and when they got fussy today, I pulled out the tylenol and ibuprofen (we used it overnight, too). Now, I'm not overdosing my kids (don't worry about that), but I've decided they are more comfortable, and we're all more happy when they have meds on board. That's probably why they're sleeping so long now.... they're comfortable! Hooray for medicine!!

My other confession, we are not productive all day. I usually push in the morning to get things done, and then we end up wasting the rest of the day. If only we could stay focused the whole day - we could do so many things!