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6/23/2010

Just the Girls

My fabulous and talented girlfriend, Michelle, came over to help me (and by help, I mean pretty much do all the work) sew some summer dresses for the girls. She seriously whipped these out in no time. I'm sure my amazing ironing skills and elastic-threading were *such* a time saver. They turned out so cute and I am so in love with them. Thank you SO MUCH Michelle.

I took the girls out to the backyard and told them to pose.



Ahh, just shows my two girls funny little personalities. Of course both of them have since had hair cuts. I'll have to get some pictures of those too.

The next day was Ellie's book club. Guess what she wore?? We invited some of the girls whose moms are in my book club to come over for cookies, lemonade and a fun discussion. They all read Betsy-Tacy (which I cannot recommend highly enough, it is really sweet and charming) and actually had a discussion for about 30 minutes before they broke for snacks. Oh my gosh, they were SO CUTE! And SO SWEET! I loved it. After they were done eating, they made paper dolls (it goes along with one of the stories in the book). And then we went and chopped off Ellie's ridiculously long and stringy hair. HOORAY!

6/14/2010

ONE-derful!

Earlier this month Luke turned ONE! I still can't believe he's one. This year flew by. The first few weeks when he was struggling to eat and put on weight I thought we'd never get here. Well now it's here and I'm not sure I'm ready for him to grow up.

We celebrated the day by swimming at my friend Jacque's where Luke decided that he did not like her cool deck and started standing up by himself. Of course he only did it at the pool or anytime Dustin was not around.

We went out to eat at The Market Street Grill where Luke refused to eat what we ordered him.Sniff sniff, no more bottles. The transition to real milk and sippy cups was pretty easy seeing as he hates eating to begin with.

Then we were off to our Ward Party where he found the dum-dum treat basket and decided that those were better tasting than the cotton candy and popcorn.
Finally we made it back home for some Sprinkles cupcakes. Luke obviously did not know that these were one of Oprah's favorite things because he was not going to have anything to do with them. That's pumpkin with cream cheese frosting in case you need something to crave this morning.

We just knew he'd love them if he took a taste so we resorted to stuffing it in his mouth. We're not proud of this moment, but it looks like it worked!
The next morning we let Luke play with his fun new birthday present from my parents -- a water table. He is very serious about it. The big kids seemed to be equally entertained.

Monday we went in for his well check. He's 30.5 inches (75th percentile) and 20 pounds 7 ounces, which puts him back in the 10th-25th percentile. Little pip squeak. I really do try and feed him, but he's very head strong. I blame Dustin. His favorite foods are apples (hence the Chunk from Goonies look above), cheese puffs, macaroni and cheese and veggie straws. Somehow my pediatrician has assured me that this is OK as long as he's getting a little bit of the healthy stuff he'll eat (yogurt, baby food, apple sauce, oatmeal, milk and bananas). That's seriously about all he eats. Maybe some cereal or goldfish if he's desperate.

His favorite word is Dada. He says Mama when he's sad or can't find me. Every once in awhile you can get him to say Hi to other people or he'll yell Ellie which is really cute.

He's transitioning down to one long nap, which I'm learning to love because he'll sleep in a lot longer in the mornings now. He used to be up at 6:30 every morning, but now it's more like 8.

He has 5 teeth. I have no idea when that fifth one came in, I just noticed it one day.

And he's JUST starting to walk. He took his first steps last Wednesday and just started getting really brave this weekend. He has a few bumps and bruises and a nice gash on his head to prove it.

Saturday night we were at our friend's house and Luke was out on the putting green with the dads and kids. I was suppose to be helping Dianelle get some food ready, but I was just in awe watching Luke as he took a nice big bunch of steps. Dianelle asked me if it was as exciting with the last as it was the first and I have to say -- I think it's MORE exciting if that's possible.

With Ellie I was waiting for the next milestone and expecting walking to come, but with Luke I've been so happy to let him be a baby that it surprised me. Plus the other kids get *SO* excited that it's fun to watch their reactions. I think having them to share the amazement with makes it so much better. We seriously can sit around for an hour and just clap and cheer as Luke takes a few steps.

Luke was definitely a surprise for our family but I am so in love with him and can't imagine not having him. We are so lucky Heavenly Father had a plan and didn't follow ours!!

6/07/2010

School's Out for SUMMER!

WOO HOO! I know in 7 weeks I'm going to be sooooo ready for the kids (ahh, kids -- I can't believe Nate will be a kindergartener next month) to go back, but I am loving summer so far. . . even with the heat!

Wednesday Sadie started swim lessons along with one of her cute little girl friends, Ashlyn.

Then I ran up to school to take some pictures of Ellie on her last day of 2nd grade. Ellie is in a different class than most of her friends next year, so it was a sad day. She's been lucky to have so many cute girls, I know next year she'll be just as lucky. Her 2nd grade teacher is moving to Colorado to teach and her amazing 1st grade teacher is retiring.I probably shouldn't have pointed out that her Kindergarten teacher isn't there anymore either. I think she had one of those, "Everything is Changing" break downs. I was going to take the kids out to celebrate, but we ended up having the YM over so instead I ran to the grocery store and spent way too much time making THESE (ok, they are time consuming but so yummy , let me know if you want to make them and I'll share some tips).

It didn't matter anyway because Ellie ended up swimming and spending the night at Hayley's (the little cutie in the picture above). Thursday the little kids all slept in until almost 8 and then we had some friends over in the morning, went to Sadie's swimming lessonsand then swimming with the Haymonds for the rest of the afternoon.

Friday we went swimming with a bunch of friends at my girl friend Jacque's (yes, there IS a theme here), and then celebrated Luke's birthday. I'll have to do a whole separate post on Luke's birthday. You only turn ONE once! I can't believe I'll never have another baby :(

Saturday we decided to be lazy. I think it was our first free Saturday in months and we had fun just running to Costco and Sprouts. Sadie ended up going swimming with her new BFF, Kaylee, and then Dustin and I finally managed to see Iron Man 2.

So these pictures are from last Saturday, when we were crazy busy, but I wanted to make sure Nate's mug appeared somewhere on here. The kids had a Princess and Pirate birthday party to attend. Plus they make me laugh. How could we be bored with those two crazies? If you're wondering what is in Nate's hands -- they are hair curlers that Nate has made into swords.

Today we've already gone to the Pediatrican for Luke's well check, done swimming lessons for Sadie and Ellie has a friend over for the day.

Plus we've already got two play dates, Ellie's book club and a swimming day planned for the week. Hopefully we'll have the perfect balance of lazy summer days with enough entertainment to escape too much TV and "we've spent way too much time together" fighting.