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!

Sisterly Affection?

Honestly, Sydney is really nice to Madelyn usually. Except for that time she hit her over the head with a (plastic) gold club, but she did it to all of us, so that made it a little better right? And then there was Tuesday. We could have done without it. Sydney tried to walk across Mady twice (as in step on the middle of her tummy), kicked her in the head (not hard, but still) and head butted her on accident (running across the couch, tripped, smack). Then we had some sweet moments though, so maybe she was trying to make up for it. While laying here with Mady Sydney even tried to get Mady to hold her hand. Sweet. Let's skip the golf clubs next time, though. (P.S. Blow the pic up by clicking on it to see that Mady has a little smile too!)

Zoo Day

I know I totally promised to post these pictures ages ago, but here they finally are! Two weeks ago we enjoyed some fantastic weather and I convinced myself to be brave and take my two munchkins to the Zoo. We love our zoo pass and try to use it regularly. We missed going in February, but still, we're doing pretty good. I think we've been about 10 times since we got the pass last June, so it has definitely been worth it! I called my friend Casey and got her and little Kenzie (just a few months older than Sydney) to join us. We always have fun with them and Kenzie's got some mad vocab skills, so maybe hanging out with her will inspire Sydney to try a few new words too! Here are the big girls with their drinks and snacks watching the hyenas scarf down a wildebeest leg. On second though, it may have been a cow. Haven't seen many wildebeests around here lately.

As always, the favorite attraction for both girls I think was the geese. Why are they so fascinating? This goose was particularly bold and walked right up to Kenzie and stole the vanilla wafer out of her hang. Kenzie was not sure what to think.
Sydney just waved to them and said hi. She didn't have any food at the time and when I did give her something to toss to them, she ate it. Note to self, never give her pet food.

Here we are checking out the monkeys. Sydney was was too distracted to pose for a picture, but here's proof that we were all there together.

Here are our little monkeys in the monkey house. Sydney is usually the follower but she was on one that day and was a crazy little maniac. She ran around, pounded her little fists on the doors (no animal windows though), etc. Kenzie was a good friend and followed her lead. Sorry Casey!

Here we are on the hippo statue in the middle of the Zoo. I have no idea what Sydney has in her mouth. Don't ask me why I dressed us all in jeans. We were totally sweating.

Mady completely unsure about the whole affair.
Sydney during lunch - she played right next to our bench the whole time. I was so proud of her for staying close I didn't even care too much that she was playing in the dirt and had gotten FILTHY. She wore white, I bleached the shirt, and I managed to stop her from eating any poop, chewed gum, or discarded teddy grahams, so I counted it a success.
Mady spent most of her time in the front carrier asleep. Good thing since I was trying to keep an eye on Sydney!
Proof of the gorgeous weather. We were in heaven.

It's really nice again here this week so maybe we'll get out and about! I'm all about these mild winters.

Great Coupon

Not an update, just an FYI. For all you coupon shoppers like me out there in need of diapers or wipes, here's a real gem for you! Click here to print a $5 (or $3) off coupon for any Huggies diaper product (you can use either coupon on diapers OR wipes). Right now out here anyway, the Huggies diapers are on sale at Albertsons for $7, which, when you use the coupon, makes them $2. The wipes refills are $6 regular price (and they're my favorite wipes ever!) at Walmart, so when you use the coupon, they are $1. I bought $36 worth of wipes last week for $6. Go stock up if you need them. I think it will only let you print the coupon twice, but it does not print a different barcode each time, and I just printed it once and then copied it a lot. It worked for me! Happy cheap diaper shopping!

Funny Little Monkeys

This is a very random post and if you're sick of seeing the two little monkeys that run my house you can skip it, but I need to preserve these moments. Sydney is in such a funny phase right now! She's 18 months old on her way to 12 I think. I walked in the living room and found this the other day - Sydney helping herself to a show with some pancake mix on the couch - presumably for a snack? Also note her "Wow, look at that!" face. It's because she got caught with the remotes and is changing the subject. Stinker!

Here"s our little Mady Cakes looking all big. She's 7 weeks old today! She's becoming more and more responsive to outside stimuli (namely us) which is great. Little smiles creep in now and again to melt your heart.
Sydney decided to teach her dolly a much needed lesson about the dangers of drinking and driving (see bottle on floor). Friends don't let friends drive drunk. Sydney might be enjoying the carnage a little more than she should. Also the dolly was not wearing a seat belt. Naughty.

This is a daily occurrence in our house now. I had to rearrange my pantry so the lower shelves held items Sydney could play with. She's sort of into everything. Last week she loved water pitchers, this week it's the colander. Who knows what her next love will be.

Hopefully not this! I know they grow up fast, but this is a little too fast! Last night we were making dinner and I hear Sydney saying "mwuh mwuh." When I turned around I saw this. Yup, apparently this girl loves Indiana Jones because she was totally kissin' on him.

When my parents came out they brought Sydney a baby doll of her own to play with to help with any feelings of jealousy. She's done really well, and she loves that doll. I brought up my doll stroller from when I was a kid and she loves that thing. Poor doll had a few spills at first, but the kid's a pro now, even if the doll is riding upside down sometimes.

Sydney is such a little copycat right now. She'll feed her baby doll, tap the bottle on her wrist to check the temperature (she doesn't miss a beat!), burp her baby, and try to help change Mady's diaper. Aaron mentioned the other day how observant she is and that she's learning right now how to be a mom. Kind of scary that she's learning while I am, but kind of neat too.

She wants to do everything we do. Sometimes this is great like when I brush my teeth, she wants to brush hers. Other times it doesn't work so well, like when I'm cutting chicken or something - I know, we're totally mean parents and won't let her use knives or uncooked meat yet. Talk about overprotective! We're making smoothies in this picture and Sydney is scarfing the fruit down almost as fast as I could get it in the blender.

Mady is my snuggler. Sydney always preferred snuggling with Aaron. Mady prefers me. Different shapes I guess, but I like having a snuggle budy. It's cozy.

Look - proof that we had flowers. Beautiful crocuses. It's been really nice out here and all of our bulbs have been coming up and starting to bloom. Then the evil beastie bunnies came and devoured them all. I hate those varmints. It's wabbit season again.