We Love Summer!

Am I the only one that is always playing catch up? I feel like I am so behind. Oh well, at least I am blogging a little! We've all been sick over the past couple weeks and are finally starting to feel normal again. We've been having awesome weather (85 degrees) and trying to take advantage of it. I also tried to take some more pics of Poquito Tito here. Aaron thinks my backdrop makes it look like a DMV photo. Ha ha!

Don't you love baby toes? Oh, and my $10 Craigslist Bumbo that Sydney loves? Not Mady, Sydney.

Background: I love this dress. No reason, it's just one of my faves. Someone with awesome taste gave it to us when Syd was born. Too bad it was December when it fit her. I was worried Mady was going to miss out too, but I squeezed her into it and snapped some shots. YAY!!!

She just wanted to eat it the whole time

Assembly line style
Sydney's new favorite thing to say, "No, no!" as she wags her little finger and does naughty things. Stinker girl.
We discovered sidewalk chalk this week. She's in love.
First lawn trim of the season. Look who got in on the action with her 50 cent (garage sale!) mower! She couldn't stop saying, "vroom vroom!"

Mady discovered her voice this week and is constantly cooing or gurgling now. She also smiles and giggles at almost everything and everyone. It's so fun to see her mellow little personality shining through now!

Family Photos

My great friend Alli (click here to visit her blog) was good enough to do some rather impromptu family photos for us in time for mother's day, and they turned out great! The one at the top of the blog is our new official family pic and the one in the post below is just too darn cute. I'm so happy Alli captured that moment! This would be the perfect little Kodak moment if it wasn't for Mady's sad sad face. :(

My sweet girl

The one we have of Mady sort of smiling. Too bad Sydney looks like such a sour puss.You just gotta love Syd's baby blues in this one. She's showing Alli her rock. Very important.
Thanks so much Alli! We love them and you did a great job!

Happy Women's Day

I have a confession: I'm slightly anti-mother's day. I mean don't get me wrong, I love being pampered and told why I am a great mom and have a day be about me, but I hate the exclusivity of it. (Is that a word?) I think it should be about all women, not just those that have been blessed with children. I know lots of women who don't have children that are MUCH better mothers than a lot of women that DO have children. Children don't make you a mom, not in the sense I mean. Being a mom is something that you cultivate inside yourself. Being loving, caring, and nurturing to those around you. In that vein, there are some women in my life who deserve some serious kudos today.

Moms that raised Aaron and I, Aunts that helped raise each of us, Grandmas, without whom our moms (or aunts) would not be here. Then there are sisters and sister-in-laws that have been the best friends I could have asked for and the best aunties my girls could ever have, friends that should be sisters, cousins and many many more.

"As daughters of Eve, we are all mothers and we have always been mothers. If we really want to make a difference, it will happen as we mother those we have borne and those we are willing to bear with." (read the rest of this talk)

So as my tribute to YOU (yes, you), Happy Womens, Mothers, Sisters, Aunts, Cousins, and Grandmas Day. We love you! Now go kiss and hug the women in your life!

More of those darling pictures to come soon!

Mess Maker

Aaron got home from a business trip tonight (good thing too or my neighbor might have inherited a couple of children for a short time). Both of my girls are good, but the do have a tendency to gang up on me when Aaron is gone and they were terrible sleepers! Seriously, 8 hours of sleep over 3 days doesn't cut it. We're so so so glad to have Daddy back. Here are some highlights lately:

While playing at a friend's house, the kiddos all played in some gravel. Everyone else was digging and playing and staying fairly clean. Sydney sat in a large puddle and proceeded to shovel gravel in her mouth and try to drink from the puddle. Rock on. (don't worry, she spit them all out). I stripped her down and let her play.

I went to Qdoba (yum!) and grabbed lunch. Sydney stole it when I left the table.

Little girl+ ginormous burrito= pure bliss

She threw a fit when I asked her to give it back

For some reason, she was thrilled to sit all squished up in her doll box.
Remember how this doll stroller is for dolls? And how it was mine as a kid! That would make it about 20 years old, so we're having to be much more careful and keep her out of it since I would hate for her to break it now!

Just before Aaron left we got his suitcase and Sydney had so much fun playing with it. As you can tell, she thinks squealing/screaming is fun and is uber good at it.

We haven't taken a lot of Mady videos, but I finally got her to smile and giggle while the camera was in sight today. Wait for it, it's about 2/3 through the video, but it's worth it. I'm biased. I like this squishy little kid. How is she 3.5 months old?

Mady continues to be my cuddle bug. We fell asleep on the couch together today (remember the lack of sleep?). I love sleeping with babies. So snuggly. Then sweet Sydney came and woke me up to inform me that the garbage truck was at our house. Thanks babe. Love you. :)

Snow!

A week ago we got about 14 inches of snow (by Aaron's calculations) and today we got about 4 more (by mine). The stuff we got today was almost all gone by noon, but we had fun in it while it lasted. We went outside to play (check out those snow pants!).

Started a snow man

Showed everyone how big Syd is

Syd scarfing snow like crazy. Today while we were walking through it she hasd to stop to grab some snow every couple of steps! Too funny!

Two days after our last weeks snow storm. Look at those funny matching shorts! Love it.

Easter and Dress Ups

Sydney's never understood dressing up before, but while Kayden was here to play with, I brought out our dress up bag. It's filled with halloween costumes bought on clearance a few days after the event (when they go 90% off I can't resist!). After many outfits, Sydney finally decided this was the look for her. No seriously, she wore it for 2 days straight basically. Note: those were my sunglasses when I was 6 and my fancy purses too. I know, you're all jealous. Abby, Alli, Kristi, does the tiara look familiar? Passing it down to the next princess. :)

You can't always be the princess, sometimes you have to be the knight too. The pacifier makes this outfit.

Priceless face. Back to a fairy princess.

Add a few feather boas, a witch hat, and some hawaiian leis. Oh yeah, we had fun.

Mady's Easter picture - she's so big!
The best one of Sydney. This girl is constantly in motion!

The Visit - Part 1

My brother and his wife and son came to stay with us for a week. We were never close enough in age to be great friends growing up, and we've always lived far away from each other as adults (except for 1 glorious week when we both lived in CO before they moved), so this was the longest amount of time I have spent with him in ages! We had tons of fun all being together. His son Kayden is 4 months older than Sydney and they loved playing together! We hit a lot of fun places while they were visiting too, so there was never a dull moment with 3 kiddos!

Our first stop was the Children's Museum. We had never been, but Sydney loved it. Mostly she loved that everything was little. She pretty much would have been content to sit in the bathroom and use the short sink and automatic soap dispenser all day. That and the short drinking fountain. Hea-ven.

I think her favorite part was the Young Children (0-4) area. And of course, the slide was a fave. Uncle Ryan must have helped her up and down this thing at least 15 times.

My brother and his cute family

Sydney and Kayden in the little grocery store. This was another favorite section. Sydney also loved the veterinarian section. Basically she got to run around with a stuffed "meow" and "woof woof" for awhile.

Kayden painting... everything

Next day we did the Aquarium. Daddy came along this time. Possibly Syd's favorite here was the ducks (below), although she also really enjoyed the tiger.
I really enjoyed when neither of the kiddos were crying because they were both being fed. Yay for snacks. No one fed the rays like last time (click here to see that crazy video), but we still had lots of fun.Next was the zoo. We got creative in our transportation methods here.

The kiddos had fun and we ended the day with Kayden asleep in his stroller, Sydney asleep in hers, and Mady asleep in the front carrier. By the time we left the zoo, I was ready to sleep for a year! Good thing Mady was nice and slept the whole night that time!b

I have a few more pics I may post, but we had tons of fun with Ryan, Sarahi, and Kayden and can't wait to see them again! Thanks for all the fun guys!

So Behind

Remember how I practically haven't posted since we came back from Idaho? And we have tons of pics from then to now. Awesome. Here's a catch up post to start off with. Sydney is all sorts of a big girl. I think she's learned 3 new words in the past 2 days and can understand almost everything we tell her. She has also christened Mady "Mlner." This is most accurately pronounced with the tongue coming out of the mouth on the "ml" sound. Nice. I think she's figured out she's not going away though and likes "Mlner" for the most part.

I tried to do a photo shoot of the girls. Mady didn't move (shocker) but also wouldn't smile. Sydney wouldn't hold still, and wouldn't pose or smile or even look at the camera for the most part. Stinker. Here is a sampling of what we ended up with. We'll try again another time.

How much do you love you?
Mady went in for her 2 month check-up when she was 9 1/2 weeks old. She weighed 14 lbs 15 oz and was 25 .5 inches long. Sydney also had her 18 monthe apt at the same time. She weighed 28 lbs and was 32 inches (I think). Sydney was in the 80th percentile (except for that big ol' noggin - still up at 95th) and Mady was, um, above the top line. You know how they chart your kids growth and show you the curve and where they are? She was above that. Our doctor's words, "You have big kids!" Yup, we do. And for the most part, happy ones too.
A week ago we got to listen to General Conference. We enjoyed it all, particularly the sessions (2) where Sydney was asleep or watching Winnie-the-Pooh with no sound while we listened to conference. Genius. Here she and daddy are snuggling during a session.
Mady has become (for the most part) a pretty happy baby. She will almost always smile for her daddy and has even giggled a few times for him.

She's also starting to discover the world a bit and will bat at toys and reach out to touch the sides of her little play gym at times.

Sydney is discovering her independence more and more each day and wants to do things like a big girl, including climbing stairs, etc. She's discovered all sorts of new things to love at the park lately. She now loves the slide and the stairs going up to it.

In slightly more exciting news, remember this post? (click on it). Monday I had a deja vu when my sewing needle snapped while I was sewing and a needle shard flew up and hit me in the EYE! I got it right out, but honestly, who else do these things happen to? I'm seriously considering Aaron's advice of wearing steel toed (sp?) boots and safety goggles from now on when I sew. It's dangerous you know.

She Likes to Move it Move it

This girl has some serious moves! We were watching Madagascar 2 tonight and discovered Sydney's new favorite song. She started dancing 1 year ago and she's never really stopped!

After the song was over she kept saying "Moo Moo Mit" which, for those of you not fluent in Sydney, means Move it Move it! We kept going back to the song and letting her rock out some more. I don't think she ever got tired of it! Gotta love that kid.

Deja Vu

Last year on Saturday March 22, Sydney was sealed to our family in the Rexburg, Idaho Temple and was blessed the next day. (Click here for that post.) This year, we had some deja vu when on Saturday March 21, Aaron's mother's family was sealed together (In our religion we believe families can be linked together in this life and the next through a special ceremony called a sealing). The next day we blessed Mady. It was weird thinking that we had just done this exactly 1 year before! We have loads of pics to share, and most of you probably don't want to muddle through all of them, so I'll tell the story and add a slide show so you can go check them out if you want.

Here's the rundown. Friday March 20 we loaded the girls up and headed us to the airport. I had borrowed this amazingly cool contraption from a friend of mine that completely saved our lives. Basically it attaches to any convertible car seat and gives it wheels. No lugging car seats or strollers. You can find them here. On Thursday I had put Sydney in it to test it and she loved it! She refused to get out - definitely a good sign!After walking about a mile and a half, we finally got to our gate. The ticket person greeted us by name (apparently not many people travel with 2 lap kids!). The girls both did pretty good on the flight, although Sydney fell asleep about 3 minutes before we landed. Of course. Aaron's parents were gracious enough to come pick us up and loan us a car (we take up a whole one now) while we were there. Thank you so much again! Sydney had tons of fun running around when we got there and Grandpa & Grandma were thrilled to play with her! That night we hung out with lots of family on both sides and I got to meet my cute nephew Isaac while lots of people met Mady.

Saturday my mom watched the girls while we went to the temple for the sealing. It was beautiful and wonderful to see so many people! We had a giant family get together afterward and it was insane! There are tons of little kids, all ages 7 and under, so it was a bit of a madhouse, but very fun.

Sunday was the blessing and it was beautiful. Aaron did a wonderful job and Mady looked beautiful thanks to my mom who sewed her gorgeous dress and my sister who made her adorable headband - thanks again! My sisters and sister-in-law came to my rescue since my camera didn't make it out of it's bag until 2 days before we came home! My mom also put together a great luncheon after church, which was great. Lots of family, friends, and great food.

The rest of the week we hung out with our remaining family members and even squoze (is that a word?) in a date night while we had grandparents to babysit. We bought mountains of diapers (such good times), stayed up incredibly late, played with our old toys we grew up with, and I don't think I ever had more than 1 child to watch at a time - it was weird. Nice, but weird! We got lots of fun toys and cute clothes from the aunts & grandmas. Since we have most of the girl grandchildren (and the only grandchildren on Aaron's side for a few more weeks) they get a tad spoiled. We like it. Thanks for everything - and yes, Kiery, even the heathen socks!

Saturday morning Aaron's parents got up at the crack of dawn to take us back to the airport to catch our 6:40 AM flight (the price of getting cheap tickets on Priceline). Both girls did awesome until we landed 20 minutes early. Then the Jetway was frozen to the runway or something and they couldn't get it to the plane. Both girls decided it was the perfect place to launch a screaming assault. Such fun times! Then we got back to our house and realized we had turned the furnace off (it was nice when we left but snowed a bunch while we were gone). Our house was a chilly 42 degrees, so we all stayed bundled up for a few hours while the temperature climbed to a more hospitable number. All in all, a great trip with tons of fun memories and 2 very tired parents! Thanks again to everyone for coming and for your hospitality while we were there! We loved seeing you and you are all welcome to come visit us anytime!