US

happiness is..

2012-02-01T14:26:00.000-08:00

Dani Grace

Is getting more and more mobile by the day. She is crawling now with the occasional belly flop worm move. But for the most part she is pretty much on her knees, which is good for me because I don't have to lint roll her as often. (She has started to pull herself up to things as well!)

She waves now too and says "HI YA!" It is pretty cute and spastic, and she is pretty funny to watch her wave at others, who don't know what she is doing. She will wave to just about anyone.

She is following in her brother's footsteps and becoming quite the chatter box she says Mom, Dad, Bath and bob (for Grandpa bob, just kidding for bottle, or boobles is what we call them around here.)

She is REALLY into baths. If she hears any water running, she comes very quickly to our bathroom, and tries to climb up to the tub. The other morning she hit Kory on the face all morning saying Dad, bath, dad bath over and over.

She still has not cut a tooth! I am pretty sure Axel had 3 or 4 by now, I keep waiting and checking, because she will have random days of pure sad grumpy sack of baby, which makes for a heinously LONG night for all. But nada. Sometimes they will swell and get a line but then go away.

She LOVES music and when people sing to her. Sometimes when she is fussy I will tell Story to sing her song to her, and Story will come to her rescue and sing "Oh I wuv my oh I wuv my Dami Grace!" both girls faces light up and it possibly is the cutest thing cousins could share.

Speaking of cousins, she is starting to play lots now. (Which is nice, I get lots done) But it was pretty cute the other day I was dealing with Axel and Story drama. I went to check on the babies, and they were both just sitting on the floor by each other peacefully playing with toys. Neither was taking the others toy, hitting, yelling or mauling each other, they were just content to be playing side by side with out any interference from older siblings. (oh the JOYS of being the younger sibling) I am pretty glad Dani has Gauge, I hope he will look after her and be like a body guard and not let people be mean to her. The seem to be such good friends!

This little girl LOVES her baby. Seriously if she sees it she will start laughing and squeeling, she snuggles with it every single night in hr bed. It is so dirty and gross, it is hard to believe she only has had it for a month, cause it looks super sick now. She drags it with her everywhere!

Axel

Man oh man is he growing up! I seriously can not even remember what it was like for him to be a baby now! He is such a good kid and helper, he pretty much is that kid that I know would thrive on a chore chart if I made one for him. He loves to help, and do what mom or dad are doing, all the time. I guess that is why he came first, he will be a great older brother to watch out and keep track of his sibs. That is if he can stop fighting with them.

His newest thing is he is potty trained. Well sorta, he has bad days and really good days, but we're getting there. I say he is potty trained because he doesn't wear diapers anymore and uses the toilet on his own. Sometimes he gets distracted and will have an accident. He is really hard on himself when he as an accident. It is pretty sad, I feel bad he feels so upset by it. We have been trying to tell him accidents happen and it is ok! (Thanks to Elmo)

He likes his privacy, and being a big kid and using the potty all by himself. So he has a hard time wearing pants, but is getting much better at letting us help, so he is not commando all day anymore, only when my visiting teachers came over, he went in his room came out butt naked, and showed everyone his business. Yikes! We're not there just yet completely but we are on our way! I am pretty proud of him, I know it has been a hard journey for him, but it was something he decided he wanted to do, and has stuck to it. We have more good days then bad, so that is a good thing.

It finally snowed some here, by some I mean we had it on our drive way, but because Axel LOVES "Snowman" we got all bundled up one saturday and went outside to make the best of it, and boy did he! building a snowman

Making footprints

Throwing snowballs at mom!

Afterwards we came in and had a cup of Hot Cocoa, with candy canes!

me

I have been in a really good place with my life this past month, and it feels really good.

Beforeyou ask, no we did not come into a large sum of money, or buy a newhome. In fact nothing has changed other than one thing. My attitude.

Abouta month ago, I was down, pretty down, and had been for quiet a fewmonths. Nothing I was doing was really helping me get out of my slump.I was exercising for endorphins, and trying my hardest to count myblessings, but really I was down. I was frustrated with just aboutevery aspect of my life to a certain extent and had been for quite sometime. It was putting huge strain on my marriage, my mothering, and myability to serve the lord to my fullest capacity.

Koryand I went to the temple one evening with his family last month, and Ihad this concern in my mind, that I wanted to be happy again. I wantedto find a way out of this darkness, I was determined to do somethingabout it. So with that prayer in my heart I went to the Temple, to drawnearer to my heavenly father in hopes I would find my answer.

Duringthe session I had this distinct impression, not once, not twice butthree times that I needed to be better about my personal study of thescriptures. Kory and I already read them together at night, but truthbe told, since I became a mom, I rarely have time to sit down to studythe scriptures by myself, and to truly study them. I DO have adesire to be knowledgeable about scriptures. I want to be able to teachmy children scripture stories (Besides Nephi and the Gold Plates) Youmay laugh but really that is the only one I could confidently sit downand tell my kids without feeling like I was preaching false doctrine,or outlandish things. (And I am pretty sure it is from The LivingScriptures videos I watched as a kid, or could be that I have read andre-read the first of the scriptures too many times to count.)

SoI told Kory about my desire, and he offered some great suggestions(like always, he is such a rock when it comes to gospel stuff, and isalways my go to for church stuff). The next day before my day started Idecided I would try to help myself get into the habit, and start withsomething that I am more motivated to read, and maybe from there couldfind topics to study more fully in the scriptures.

I pulled out January's Ensign and turned to the first article, which is the First Presidency Message. It was entitled "Living the Abundant Life" by Thomas S. Monson.

AsI read through the talk, I was then reminded that I was supposed toteach on this article in Relief Society in February (next weekactually) I always find it humorous that whenever I sub for RS, it isalways about something I have had recent experience on. It is as ifHeavenly Father wants to teach me the lesson, and he knows I am notthere testimony wise to bear my testimony any other way, so he makes me teach a lesson on it. clever clever.

Thearticle was great, more than great it was like the windows of heavenopened up and heavenly father told me exactly what I needed to work on.I remember hearing once upon a time that if you want to talk toheavenly father read your scriptures. How true that is! Often times Ithink when we pray we just list off to heavenly father all our issues,but then we don't or maybe I don't wait for him or allow him to tell ushow to fix said problems, we just expect them to be fixed.

I am grateful for a modern day prophet who receives revelation and who can offer comforting advice to those in need.

PresidentMonson mentions 3 key areas that counsels members to focus on to livean "Abundant Life" He calls them the ABC's the fundamentals to living ahappy life.
Have a Positive Attitude
Believe in Yourself
Face Challenges with Courage

Istruggle in ALL of those areas. And decided right then that I was goingto follow the prophets council and move forward from that day forwarddoing such. And you know what it has made a HUGE difference. I amfeeling like I can do what I need to do because I have thisunderstanding, and it puts me in control of my life again. All theseoutside things that I was letting affect my life and my happiness nolonger have been.

Since I have been taking on this new mantra, I am a better loving wife, mother and I feel balanced.

Maybethis post was too revealing about me, and perhaps I shared too much,but maybe there is someone out there who like me needs to read it. Take it for what it is worth I guess.

Kory
Well he works so hard. He has been pulling in lots of extra hours with work this month, and working any spare moment getting his studio stuff done. He took some time to put up a shelf for me the other Saturday in my craft room for all my fabric, and it has been so nice and inspiring to see it all out so I know what I have to work with. I have loved it. SO glad he is such a handy man, I try not to fill my honey do list too full of items for him, but it is hard when he can do it so easily and knows so much.

He also has been crazy supportive to me during my hard days recently, I am sure he doesn't think anything of it, but it has meant a lot to me to have his support.

His calling keeps him sooo busy too, he has a pretty good attitude about it too, he never complains when people call and ask for this or that, he is always so willing to help and come to their aid. I am trying to be more like that. He is such a great example.

He and Axel are pretty much best buds. Both my kids love him so much, the minute he comes in the door, they both scream and get so excited to see him. Dani is starting to get pretty ticked if he spends too much time with Axel before coming to her, she is quite the princess, and is has him wrapped around her little finger!

Lovely just simply lovely

2012-01-28T16:51:00.000-08:00

Friday we got to have a photo shoot of the kids with Jessica Peterson in her studio. It was such a great day, and my kids were not what I expected. Axel ate up all the attention and loved every minute, while dani was shy and serious...WHAT?! Probably because it was Jessica asking and not mommy, and his bestie Ashdon was there, so he loved everyminute, and came home telling dad all about it! SO funny. She had them do all sorts of fun things that boys love doing, and was such a good sport about them tearing her place to pieces! (Literally there was stuff EVERYWHERE!)

If you want to see a sneak peek of her cute cute pictures look here! I must admit I have pretty cute kids! But she is pretty freaking talented! I may be biased in both areas, so you better just take a look for yourself :)

I am soo so sooo excited for the rest of the them! I can't even stand it! (No pressure Jess, take your time! :) )

RARRR!

2012-01-22T20:59:00.000-08:00

Last week Kory took a day off, and not for any particular reason other than to spend it with me, and our babies. I really truly can not think of a time (holidays aside) he has EVER taken a day off to do something like this. He works so hard for our family. We are pretty lucky.

It was so weird to have a day where we just went and did stuff, and that we weren't giving up our Saturday to do so. The whole day I kept thinking it was in fact Saturday and was panicked I had so much to do before Sunday. (Blasted 9am chuch!)

We decided to go to the "Dino museum" aka the "Museum of Paleontology" at BYU, Yeah it is STILL around, and across the street from the stadium, fantastic, and FREE! I remember walking there on field trips in elementary school and watching the employees clean bones, and being BORED out of my mind! But taking my kid there was soooo much better!!

The first dino we came to he said "This is a Halloween Dinosaur!" ha ha

Axel just took it all in, at first he was a little nervous about the big dinos with sharp teeth, and just kinda walked around from display to display, but eventually he warmed up and we made it around 6 times, and he LOVED it, and we had to drag him out to leave.

He was quite nervous about this guy, and wouldn't let us put him close to his teeth.

Axel and Dad

He called this one "Tiny" (for those of you that watch Dinosaur TRAIN!")

The GIANT sloth

Axel thought it was pretty cool to be inside this one's tummy

On like the 3rd time around Dani woke up and we put her up to the teeth and she LOVED it...

Which of course gave Axel the courage to give it a try.

Axel thought it was soo funny that he was a real dinosaur

So did dad...This picture was Axel's idea...

Baby Girl got tired of sitting in her stroller and decided she wanted to get down and explore as well. (Notice her on all 4!)

**We also made Dinosaur sandwiches for lunch to eat on the way to the museum.

After the museum we took the kids to see "Happy Feet Two". They both did really well and sat through the first half and we think they enjoyed it mostly, but then they both crashed and slept through the end. Ha! But it was cute movie, and a good way to end the day! I wish every day could be this fun!

There's still more time

2012-01-17T15:44:00.000-08:00

Even though Christmas was over we decided there was still time do some of the things we hadn't done yet.

First I forgot to share this picture of baby girl. She literally fell asleep just sitting up. (This was Christmas afternoon) She skipped her morning nap because Christmas was just too much fun.

Taking pictures in the jammies we got for Christmas:

Normally my kids would have opened them up Christmas eve, but it's a long story why they opened them up Christmas day instead.

Axel with his Robot jammies, and cool robot blankie from grandma

I found these at old navy for super cheap, and Axel had like 3 pairs of skeleton jammies as a baby, so I was tickeled pink when I found a girl version for Dani. (I know wrong holiday)

JAMMIES!

Visiting Temple Square

This was BEFORE Christmas but I forgot to post it in the last post, Axel LOVED SANTA, he sat on his lap for like 15 minutes hugging him and talking to him about robots, and all things Axel.

Then this kid showed up and just started talking to Santa telling him what he wanted, I was trying to get a picture and he moved to the other side of Santa

Santa is telling him to get back in line. Ha ha

Making Gingerbread Houses

Some of our good friends from Georgia came over for dinner and we made gingerbread house/robots.

I wanted to make the real deal, had it all perfect, then I put Santa on top and the whole thing crumbled! Just goes to show you folks, you must have a sure foundation, built upon Christ otherwise santa aka the devil will crush your dreams as seen here. (I may or may not have used that analogy for the FHE lesson. ha ha ha)

Kory and Axel made Axel a robot (which he played with for DAYS) he even added it to his robot guys he takes to bed.

Jess and Skyler thought they needed a break from shane and left him with Grandma, and only brought the new baby, sheesh! But she made it up to him by making him a robot too.

Skyler made this house

After feeling completely devastated that my house fell, I made a new one, with a much better foundation this time. Axel called this his Robot Factory!

A couple days after Dani became mobile!

And this is just a really funny video of my kids. Sometimes they love each other, other times they fight over toys.

Twas the Season

2012-01-07T09:30:00.000-08:00

The Season for us came and went way to fast

we sure do wish it would stay and last and last!

We celebrated our savior, and rejoiced with much joy

Filled our days with tinsel, goodies and toys!

We decked halls, visited Santa, goodies we baked

we made presents, sang carols, our joy was not faked

We spent the season with many friends and family so dear

But are looking forward to starting again with the new year! 

We have packed it all up now, and are saying goodbye

To a wonderful year, we will try not to cry. 

2011 we had a baby, built a company and so much more

but we couldn't have done it with out all our loved ones galore! 

The Christmas season started right on schedule for us, the day after my birthday weekend. I ran around like a crazy lady the first day in attempt to get it all up before I had Kassie's kids the next two days. I ended up tripping on a small step and spranged my ankle...mind you it still hurts. Because of that, the kids ended up helping me out the next couple of days.

uh Axel, the beibs called and wants his hair back....Axel got a hair cut, it was pretty sad.

This cute girl turned 6 months at the end of November, so we took these pictures to document it.

Axel and Story had to have a turn.

We have this skeleton key hole in our back entry door, and my favorite part of this years decor is you could see our tree from the hole everytime we came home. I tried to get a good picture, this is all you get.

Neighborhood Christmas Play date

We did another neighborhood progressive playdate. But this one we did at the church, so it really was just a Christmas party. The kids had fun with the photo booth, we made ornaments out of play dough, read a story, had a great lunch, and decorated Christmas trees with frosting. It was a good time!

These girls are less than a week apart, Dani just woke up from her nap so she was slightly disoriented and confused. But I love Anna's face here, it cracks me up!

Dani kept taking Anna's binki, what a stinker

Decorating Christmas trees

Axel enjoyed eating the decorations before he even got them on his tree, oh well!

Christmas Parties GALORE

We had Kory's Work Christmas party this year at the ROOF in Salt lake city, this was our view! It was so BEAUTIFUL! It was nice to get out without our kids too! Thanks mom and dad for watching them for us!

Anderson Christmas Party

Axel using his killer batting skills.

I thought this one was funny because the whole time Story went Axel said "My turn, Axel's turn!" from that point on. Those two!

This was Axel's Robot Arm

Poor Felix, Santa was just too scary for him

Axel has really gotten to love spending time with Kim's kids since they have been spending so much time in our studio, I am glad he is finally becoming more outgoing.

Dani surrounded by her cousins or 2nd cousins or cousins once removed, who knows, but they all thought she was so great.

Friend party in Park City-we got together with my girl friends and families this year, it was such a good night, and it was nice to spend time with them and all their cute families. -I stole these Pictures from Jessica Peterson, go here to see more.

Christmas Eve with the Jorgensen side: We had a yummy lunch and then exchanged gifts, it was the perfect Christmas Eve. I forgot my camera at home, and I was super bummed, because I knew my mom had something really special planned, so my cell phone was what I had, and the pictures are lacking.

My dad reading the boys a story, they sure do love their grandpa!

My mom made everyone in the family a super hero apron! The ladies got Wonder Women and the Dudes, Super Man, she made over 20 of them this Christmas season! She is Wonder Woman! The kids loved them, and I love wearing mine when I am cooking, because I already know I am wonder woman, but now I have the outfit to PROVE it.

Baby girl got this dolly, and it is her FAVORITE toy.

I couldn't get my family to take a picture with all our aprons on when we got home, but here are our aprons together...

Axel wore his Robot Costume to the Christmas Party, and he got that little Robot figure too.

Christmas Morning!

This little boys face when he saw the stockings, was priceless

He loved his stocking stuffer Robots (His favorite of all gifts)

So did baby girl-I think she thought she was being naughty getting into it, that is her thing lately.

She got a hippo

We opened lots and lots of presents

And maybe tasted a few...

And played with them to our hearts content

And wore them...

And tried everything on

We took a family picture by our tree, this was the best one, and it is a pretty sad one at that, but we'll take it. We hurried and got ready for church and maybe were there for 15 minutes, but at least we tried right?

We had christmas tree waffles for breakfast/lunch and found out Axel love Raspberries so much, he ate all of his, mine and the rest of the box.

After we headed over to the Anderson Grandparents for giving of gifts, and to play with cousins and Kory's siblings. It was a great way to end our evening, I wish I would have taken pictures!

Gifts from the heart: a home made Christmas

This year we opted to make all our gifts, I figured my kids have somany toys already, and we really don't have very much money right now,and I had a ton of fabric, so I wanted to give it a try. And if I dosay so myself it was my most favorite Christmas of all times.

So in no order of importance...

Peg People-Super Heros! From left to right
Super man, Tigris, Batman, Liono, Pirate, Spiderman, Panthro or "The prophet" as Axel calls him, and Optimus Prime-Axel is so into little figurines, I thought he would love them, and he does! Batman seems to be his favorite right now. He goes "nananananana batman!" We got together with my friends (old neighbors) Sheri and Anni to make them for our kids, it was such a fun afternoon. The kids played and we crafted, the boys kept wanting to come take our people though. I had so much fun I kept making them, and still have a bunch I want to make!

I made and designed this pea coat for baby girl. I took an old pattern from the coat I made Axel at this age, and revamped it and altered it, it is a bit big for her in the shoulders, but already it is starting to fit her better. But it turned out super cute. The purple buttons are from her Great Grandmother's button supply :)

Soc-to-pi-Ash and I got together and made our babies these cuties, They no longer have the eyes, Dani ate them off within minutes, I guess I need to sew them on!

We also made the boys these dinosaur tails! Axel LOVES IT!

I made her this ear warmer,

Dani was givin a girl version of this doll when she was born from my friend Shere, and Axel loved it, so I thought he would love a pirate one...Thanks Sheri for lending me your pattern!

Since he is so into dress up, I made him a super hero costume for it

and a cowboy costume! I had a lot of fun designing these patterns and costumes.

Axel LOVES church, he also LOVE dad's Pink and checkered tie and is always asking me for his pink tie. So i made him a couple ties to match dad.

Since the boys were matching for church, I decided to make baby girl and I matching Maxi Dresses. She pulls it off much better than I.

I made Kory this card table to play games on our bed, and it works wonderfully! It is made of hounds tooth felt and a styrofoam board. The felt holds the cards nicely

I also made Kory a piano warmer for his piano to keep it even tempt and in tune, and a scarf for me to match girls coat. (no pictures sorry ) I made my mom and mother in law recipe card holders, and my dad a heating pad, and my father inlaw hand warmers. (the guys are SO hard to make gifts for! ) OH and I made boots for baby girl, I can't believe I don't have a picture of them, but I don't! I will post one though later.

I made ornaments for all our neighbors and family, home made sugar free fudge, nut clusters, and roasted cinnamon almonds (Think the ones you taste in the mall, but these were GOOD for you)

I was quite the busy bee working on these gifts all December, but it was SO MUCH FUN! Kory was
crazy busy recording this song (but it is still not completed, but here is the first go at it) and my sister in laws Kim's kids all December, (still working on getting that finished up) so I had plenty of time to get my stuff done after the kids went to bed.

Believe it or not there is more to this post but I am going to save that for later.

Turkey PARTY!

2011-12-28T15:00:00.000-08:00

That is what we call Thanksgiving at our house. Well that's how I explained to Axel that it wasn't just an ordinary day, but a special day, he totally went with it and screamed with excitement.

Because I am a crazy woman, you can say it, I know you are all thinking it anyway. I decided the week of Thanksgiving that I wanted to do something fun and Thanksgiving-ish, and I wanted it to involve my son and crafts and yummy food. In the past I have tried to host small gatherings of loved ones and their off spring, and as fun as they are, it always requires some serious resting after wards, my house is a mess, and well the kids don't care for it really. (see Axel's Birthday this year, perfect example)

Axel loves walks, and it was really nice weather that week. So instead of the above I decided a "Progressive Play Group" would be so much better! So that night I sent out a mass text to my neighbors who have kids Axel's age, with this outlandish idea that each house come up with some sort of Thanksgiving activity for the kids and then we would just go from house to house spending about 20-30 minutes at each house. BRILLIANT right?! That way everyone does their part and the kids get their wiggles out walking in between each activity. I may be crazy but I am a genius too.

Pretty soon I had quite the list of moms and we had 9 tots (not to mention the 6 babies who came along for fun) on our guest list and 5 families, 6 if you count I was sporting two extra with me. (Oh! did I forget to mention?! YES this was also the day that I was babysitting Kassie's kids :) )

At the first house we made some costumes...

Can I just tell you, seeing the kids run down the street together in their get ups was pretty much the cutest thing ever. We were quite the site!

Then we went and learned about the first thanksgiving...

She had these cute felt puppets that helped the kids visualize.

Then on to the next house where we made Turkey hands....

Axel really liked this activity.

Then back to our house for a few games, (we combined forces, one less house to walk to) and yummy dessert.

I made these deliciously cute turkeys, and we had water to drink with "Mayflower" straws. The Styrofoam cups are ug, originally we were going to do hot cocoa, but after all that walking we were all parched, so water seemed to be the better choice. Apparently when I was planning my treat I wanted chocolate, infact, the clerk the night before while ringing me up cracked a joke "Someone's got the midnight munchies he he" ....wasn't funny in high school, and still isn't. Just Sayin. If I would have asked him the time, I am sure he would have said something about 4:20 too. anyway...

In honor of said conversation I took this picture, gotta love Axel's face and Story's chocolate beard. And the 70' s colorization of the photo was a must.

It was great fun and only took us an hour and half! I am still amazed with how quickly it all came together and with such ease and it was actually fun, and Axel loved it.WE LIVE IN THE FUNNEST NEIGHBORHOOD EVER

THANKSGIVING DAY
The actual day was spent with my family at my parent's house. My mom went all out and everyone catered to Kory's diet, making everything with almond milk and agave. He pretty much got to eat everything, which is really rare for him, it was really yummy too!

This kids table

I attempted my first sugar free pumpkin pie this year, it turned out, but still wasn't as good as my Mother inlaws. But I am glad I made it because we were going to try to make it to the Andersons for dessert, but we missed it! It was over so quickly! Kory would have never forgiven me for having him miss out on pumpkin pie on thanksgiving.

Some photos of Thanksgiving Day

The kids enjoyed the coloring place mats while they waited to eat

Maddy sat here for like I don't know 20 minutes by herself waiting for the dinner. She is so strange sometimes.

The guys

Axel didn't want to sit at the kids table, he wanted to drink "Doda" From the giant red cups like all the adults.

This was baby girls first thanksgiving. She seemed pretty happy, here she just woke up so she is tired.

I never get pictures of me so here is one that night when we got home.

All in all it was a GOOD THANKSGIVING!

It is time for a post.

2011-12-07T18:52:00.001-08:00

I have a big Thanksgiving post but I wanted to share these fun videos of my kiddos from this week, because they're really funny. Well we think so at least!

Axel has gotten really good at hitting the ball with a bat. (Or in this case a wooden spoon) Can we say future racquetball champ!? This isn't a fluke either, Kelli will back me up, she was here the other night and he was hitting a ball with his bat too.

Now watch it a 2nd time and watch how spastic our big dog is to Kory. Yes she is like this all the time! Drives me crazy!

Baby girl is such a weirdo these days! Who knows what she is doing here, but we think it is cute! She has been doing this a TON lately. We are just like WHAT?!

I think she is either dancing or trying to say hi.Who knows really, but it is freaking funny!

B is for

2011-11-27T08:30:00.000-08:00

Buddies

We met up with Ashley and Ashdon for a playdate last week. It was too chilly to do much outside, so we decided to hit up the mall and let the boys play there.

Early this month we went on a walk with a neighbor friend to a park, I thought this picture was cute of Evan and Axel playing together.

And of course with Story. They were playing Grandpa that day. They came running into the kitchen giggling and Axel said "Hi mom! I'm Grandpa!" then Story said "I'm Grandpa TOO!"

Boyfriends
I remember growing up my parents picking "future husbands" for us. It used to drive my sisters and I crazy, because the guys they picked were never who we would want to date...ever! But now that I am a mom, I totally get it. Both my kids have multiple "future spouses".

I wouldn't mind if Dani ended up with this little guy. He is so sweet to her, and always comes to see her during Relief Society or Sunday School and his parents are great! Last week Dani reached for his long locks and ran her fingers through it. He just smiled and held her hand. He is such a cute cute kid.

Boats

When I leave my laundry basket out Axel requests to "make a pie" ie wooden spoon, and to "get a boat" ie laundry basket. So he can paddle him and Dani around in it, and sing row row row your boat. These are from last sunday.

Blue bugs

The last time I weeded my flower bed, Axel and I came across this BLUE potato bug! I had never seen a blue one before. I wonder if it had some condition or if it was just a weird one. Anyone else seen a blue potato bug?

Books

Books before bedtimes is what we do.

Bedtime

Bedtime has kinda flipped itself upside down recently. Axel gets out of his bed a bazzillion times and comes and hides outside our door. All we have to do is open the door and he books it back to his bed. We can't help but laugh, but it is mighty frustrating that the kid will do this over and over until 11pm. And Miss Dani is not doing so well anymore sleep wise. It's like she has forgotten how to sleep! I get really really frustrated at night because she was my good sleeper. She used to go down at 8 pm and sleep until 5! Now she wakes up at midnight or 2 am and wants to nurse. I am hoping it has to do with teething, and that maybe when it breaks through we can get her back to normal.

This picture is actually taken a bit ago, since then she has completely stopped using this binki, she like her brother said forget it all on her own. UGH

Big Girl

Dani has graduated to sitting in the grocery cart. (I still leave her in her car seat most of the time, because she is usually asleep) But here she was so happy to sit up and play with all the toys and smile at all the people stopping to tell her how pretty she is.

She is also sitting up and saying a few words now! I can't believe she is so big already, yet still so tiny!

Brand new
One day Kory and I were in the basement discussing our carpet dilemma. ie we have dogs, dogs that only like to use the bathroom on carpet, even though our house is mostly hardwood, they use the rugs! It drives me completely crazy! The destroyed our last rug during July because of all the fireworks. During the rest of the year they are pretty good, but we have had some accidents.

So we were contemplating what we should do, because things are tight for us, and the last thing on our budget is buying a rug. But we needed a rug because Dani is getting to that stage where she wants to get down and play and roll around.

So back to my story, so we were like "MAN what should we do! We really need a rug!" Then we heard someone at our door, not even two minutes later. And it was my parents, with a GIANT GREY RUG! It totally made my day/week/month! Thanks mom and dad you guys are the best!

That same day, Dani was testing out the rug and I was cleaning and when I went to check on her she was fast asleep!

Axel loves having a rug so he can play and lounge on it and watch his shows.

Bears

Axel was given this great big bear from Grandma and Grandpa Anderson, and it is his new buddy.

Everywhere that Axel Goes he is sure to bring along mr bear...

In the Car

At the store~i've never seen so many kids faces light up! Seriously, every cart with a kid in it had to stop and show their parents the cool bear.

Eating dinner

Rockin out with dad in the studio

He has even put it in time out :)

Bald

It may not seem like it, but Baby Girl is finally getting some hair, but in pictures she still looks bald as can be, but she is getting some hair, it's dark too. So it will be interesting to see if she has dark hair or if it lightens up like Axel's.

This is a random post, but hope you enjoyed it! Next will be our Thanksgiving festivities, so stay tuned!

For the beauty of the earth

2011-11-15T20:49:00.000-08:00

While everyone else has been busily decorating for Christmas (I wont name names, but you KNOW who you are.... :) ) We have been embracing fall for all it's greatness. From decorating our home in the warm vibrant colors of autumn, to baking all those scrumptious harvest desserts, I'm talking pumpkin cookies, apple pies, and pumpkin rolls! YUM need I say more? And of course taking every opportunity to get outside and enjoy what is left of this warmish weather. Whether it is a walk to the park or store, we've been doing it, and loving it, and picking up leaves along the way cause that activity never ever ever gets old. (I have been told that by two toddlers so I am totally an authority on this fact.)

Why oh why would you want to ditch this part of the year regardless of how great you think Christmas is? (AND may I add, I LOVE Christmas, and decking the hall to the nines is pretty much my favorite part about the season next to celebrating the saviors birth, and you can bet your bottom dollar come NOV 25, that is what I will be spending my pre-birthday day doing, and our house will glisten and shine like nobody's business!)
But that, like all good things must wait, because at our house we are celebrating Autumn and "Giving Thanks" daily for our bountiful blessings and are P.U.M.P PUMPED to engage in a day of stuffing our faces of all things unhealthy in the name of gratitude! CAN I GET AN AMEN!

And then of course celebrate the 2nd most important day in November, my Birthday! (Although, some would argue, it is the MOST...just sayin...) WHAT IS NOT TO LOVE!!!?

So here is a breakdown of our week thus far, and maybe it may motivate some of you to put off the tinsel and embrace the fall, because we make it look SO good.

OK I love pumpkin rolls, LOVE is actually an understatement, but alas as many would know my plight, Kory can not partake in such, for two reasons 1. Sugar, and Powder Sugar 2. Dairy

So I was DETERMINED to find a recipe that I could "Agave-fy'" (That is my new word for it, so go with it) Anyway, so I found this recipe here. Simple enough, gives good instructions but kinda wordy, So I made the cake part, and it turned out BEAUTIFULLY, and it smelled scrumptious, and filled our house full of pumpkin cinnamon goodness. I was super excited to share it with Kory.

Then I attempted the filling. I was going for a coconut milk creme filling as the base, and well after much experimenting it didn't really turn out as I envisioned. But it did work out and taste really good, we've been enjoying it all week after the kids go to bed. Next time I will skip sweetening it completely because it is too sweat and I will just fill it full of the coconut milk creme with a dash of vanilla, the cake is sweet enough you don't need it.

Here is a picture of it sliced up! not pretty roll by any means, like I said it was a work in progress... next time will be much much better.

Walking has been really helping me lately coping with my many "stresses" yeah that is what I will call them. My kids have been really enjoying it too, on one of our many walks, we picked leaves along the way to help decorate our home. S and A loved this activity.

When I got home I dipped them in wax and made a garlandish thing for my kitchen window.

I also made another wreath, this time with twine and jute. It took FOREVER to wrap it in the jute. But it turned out cute right? I made the pinwheels from paper and a grocery bag. I wanted to do pinwheels because they remind me of turkeys.

Another dessert...
I am not really a pie person, but that is one of the few desserts you can buy sugar free at the grocery store, but they're kinda pricey. I have always wanted to learn how to make pies, I just feel like the task of making the crust seems soo scary. Up to this point my pie crust knowledge usually involved graham crackers. But I REALLY wanted to make some mini pie/turnovers for our Super Saturday Activity, so I attempted it...

First Batch: Turned out great, only I didn't put enough filling in them, so I attempted a second batch...
Second Batch: Maybe I didn't have enough flour, maybe it was too much shortening, but either way whatever it was, it did NOT work out. I threw them ALL in the trash.

***

After I took them to our Super Saturday I decided I would try one last time, but this time "Agave-fy" them (see how I did that...anyway) so Kory could shower me with compliments for making him yet another dessert he can eat.

And the turned out BEAUTIFULLY wouldn't you say?! And they tasted SO GOOD! I'll admit, my egg wash made them look like they suffer from a skin condition, but still they were tasty, but it does add to the charm of the "homemade goodness" of them.

So here is the recipe for the filling, the pie crust is just your standard 2 pie Betty Crocker pie crust recipe, of flour, crisco, salt and water, by the way I had no idea that was all that was in them!

Agave Sweetened- Apple Filling
Peel and Cut 2 golden delicious apples into thin small pieces
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 C agave...I think...give or take a tablespoon... maybe sweeten to taste.
1/8 C flour

Mix all those together and you have a great sugar free pie filling! (I think if you want to make an actual pie double this recipe and only slice the apples, but the mini pies don't require as much filling)

Enjoy!

Walks...
As many of you know, I tend my niece and nephew two days a week. Most days we are stuck at home though because I don't have a way to take them anywhere. (oh how I wish I had a mini van, and oh how I NEVER thought I would say that ever ever ever!)

Anyway I have been trying to decide if a double stroller is something I should get, or just a wagon since I have more than two babies to take with me half the time. Up to this point we have just been walking around the block, S and A walk/run and I push baby G in a stroller and baby D is usually wrapped in my wrap. But I FINALLY found a great way to get them out of the house and out somewhere besides just around the hood.

Ta Da! My bike stroller converts into a jogging stroller, and with a little creativity, it totally works out!

Baby D, S, and Baby G snug as bug in a rug up front, Gauge was getting bugged with Story a little bit though because she had to hold his hand.

Axel loved sitting in the back luggage compartment all by himself. He talked with me the entire way about all the things he was seeing. It actually was kinda nice. I originally thought Story would do better back there, she is just a better sport about everything, but he really wanted to try it. He kept saying "Axel's turn! I try!?" SO it worked out. And Story is so good at holding the babies and not bugging them...too much.

We have been walking to the store, and the various parks around the neighborhood thanks to this set up!

On this particular day, a house on the way was selling bunnies in it's front lawn. I let the kids get out and meet the bunnies. Axel was so excited that on the way back he kept asking to go see the bunnies again. Kinda a fun block because the next door neighbor to the bunny house had a pet duck and a bunch of chickens, so the kids thought that was great.

Story Axel and Gauge is in between them.

At the park the older two went crazy on the slides while I pushed the babies in the swing, they were happy about that the whole time. I got a lot of looks from moms, one lady asked "Are these ALL your kids." I could tell she was trying to figure it out.

Halloween ~Part 2

2011-11-02T21:53:00.000-07:00

I think it is fitting that I have two posts about Halloween since it turned into such a big production. I think it just comes with the territory of having kids though. Suddenly you want them to go do everything, from parties to trick or treating. You just do more than before.

First things first. Baby Girl's REAL costume.

We had this costume picked out for months, because she is always shoving her hands in her mouth, and Kory would always say to her "munch munch munch". She became our little cookie monster.

So, after a rough patch of the blues, I decided I was in need of some much needed "me" time. So I made a date with my sewing machine and came up with her costume. I used the rest of the fabric from Axel's Pablo costume from last year. There was just enough too. The cookies and eyes and zipper cost me 2.50, so I would say not bad for a costume huh?

Originally her sleeves were supposed to go all the way passed her hands so it looked like she was eating cookies when she was sucking on her fingers. However, after I sewed the sleeves to the bodice, they were shorter than expected, and I was too lazy to do something about it. I still think it worked out though.

She was so obsessed with the cookie rattles I made that attached to the cookie applicae, she pretty much had them in her mouth the whole time.

These last two pictures are really just because.... Baby girl really isn't herself with out puke coming from her mouth....yum...so pretty.

This picture is exactly how she was feeling by the end of Halloween...more to come on that tho.

I really liked how her costume turned out, and we got a lot of compliments on it. Although my niece story told me Dani was Pablo :) I guess I shouldn't have used the same fabric.

Anderson Halloween~ or rather Kelli's Halloween Party

Kory's sister puts on a huge Halloween party for the family. She does a really good job, and it has become a really fun tradition. I have a lot of anxiety about it though because of the costumes. It is so much pressure to come up with something clever or funny or original, not that I really care, I could go as witch and be content. But Kory has the same requirements every year. That the costumes be 1) Original 2) Funny 3) Inexpensive or better Free 4) Can be thrown together easily.

Well that is one impossible task if you ask me. And I sit and stew about it all October. "What do you want to be?" is pretty much brought up at every dinner that month, and usually he wont make the decision until the day of the party. UGH just thinking about it stresses me out.

Last year we kinda had an excuse, I was on bedrest, and just me going to the party was probably more than I should have done. But this year I really had no excuse other than that we just are crazy busy, tired and broke.

But we finally figured it out (thanks to my friend Sarah, who helped inspire us) She suggested I go as Milk to go with Dani's cookies. I loved the idea, and I admit I probably could have done more, but I was happy with my tee shirt

Kory then decided he wanted to go with Axel's costume. But we had a hard time figuring out what "Goes" with robots. Then it hit me. Who do we know that walks talks and breaths robots, other than Axel? ...Jerome, Kory's brother in-law, that has built award winning Battlebots. So with the help of Kassie we were able to fulfill the above 4 requirements and just a few days shy of the party. But I don't have a picture of us in our costumes :( I will post one when I can get one from Kelli.

TRUNK OR TREAT

Right after the Party we went to our ward Trunk or Treat, which was so nice to not have to dress up twice!

Axel loved carrying around his "Pumpkin Patch" to get his treats.

Kory took Axel around to all the cars

And Baby girl helped me pass out the candy. She swatted at every sucker I gave out! She is so grabby these days!

Our Family at the Trunk or Treat

Then on actual Halloween, it was such a nice day, I had to get the kids out to enjoy the weather. So we walked to what I thought was a near by park, but really was like 14 blocks away.

At first Axel rode in the stroller and Baby Girl in my wrap. But about half way, I felt like I was a pregnant lady again and had met my max capacity to walk while carrying an extra 20 lbs. So I made Axel walk and pick up leaves and look at the Halloween decorations and had Baby girl ride on the stroller the rest of the way. Then it was a breeze.

We had fun at the park, Axel and Dani both love the swings.

Axel is getting more and more brave at the playground. He usually crawls across this bridge there, but this day he jumped and jumped and jumped across it. I was pretty proud of him for being brave.

Dani loves the swing. At first I was just having her sit in her stroller while I pushed Axel, but then she started to yell at us, and was so excited to go in the swing. She is getting more and more vocal about what she wants these days.

The way home, Axel was beat, and I was tired and too hot to strap girl in the wrap. So this is what we came up with, and it totally worked, cause we're classy like that :) hmmm maybe it is time I decide what kind of double stroller to get.

Stringtown Nightmare Express

That night we went to the train. We were really worried Axel would be scared, and there were parts on the ride where he was, but he really loved the train.

While we were in line, each train that would go by he would say "My TRAIN! Come back! Come back!"

My little Cookie monster

Robot Axel and Kory

He wold get so excited when the train would pull up, but so sad when it would drive away with out him.

Us on the train

Axel was pretty nervous Kory said, Dani LOVED it she loved the music and the faces and was so excited each time we went under the tunnel.

Our Train stalled, I was glad it didn't stall at a scary part that would have freaked Axel out.

Like this Dragon, it was soo cool! It moved up and down like a flying dragon and literally came right up to your face. I was scared even.

I think this picture is funny. That girl may or may not be related to us, but she takes her job seriously, they all do, I am so impressed with how well done this is every year. No wonder they got so many awards. AMAZING (There is talk that this is the last year, but we asked Saundra and she said they are still deciding, but that the Christmas one is no longer happening. :( So I am really glad we went, even if it will be the last time.)

This year they had a photo spot where you could take pictures of your family on the train. Clever clever.

After the train, we went to my sister's house to trick or treat with her kids, and show my parents there costumes. Hilary and her husband went all out this year and served 'Halloweenies' and hot chocolate to trick or treaters and neighbors under their car port. They decorated and everything, such a fun idea!

This is the only picture we took there because Baby Girl was so not happy. She wanted to eat real food with the rest of us, and was irate that we were not sharing.

We eventually ended up blending up oatmeal and feeding it to her and she warmed up. Funny girl, turns out I can't leave the house at dinner time with out her cereal, I certainly learned my lesson.

We had a fun Halloween. Axel loved it and loves having his own little "pumpkin patch" candy stash. Don't worry it is well regulated. :)

Halloween~Part 1

2011-10-30T17:50:00.000-07:00

I figured I needed to break up the events of Halloween since it somehow turned into a week long holiday for us, and it is still going...one more day left!

Earlier this week I took the kids to our weekly ritual of Story Time at the library. Oh how I love this part of our week so much! We get to go sing songs, dance, watch a puppet show, and read stories. Axel has loved doing this since he was a tiny baby when I would take my sisters kids, now he is old enough to join in and "get" it. It is so much fun to watch him. I love it!

This week was Halloween week, they had the kids all dress up, and the story time teachers dress up as well. Axel was pretty excited that one of them was a pirate. :) AND she let him ring the bell too, at first she asked the two girls next to him, but they hid behind their moms, so when she offered him his little eyes lit up, and he eagerly took it, but then he got a little nervous because this required him to be brave and outgoing, but he looked at me and I encouraged him he could do it and he shook that bell with all his might and then quickly handed it back to her and sat down next too me. I love my timid boy so much!

After we stopped by a tree in our neighborhood that had some greatleaves and took pictures of the kids in their costumes, and playing inthe leaves.

I had SO many pictures from this day. So click here if you want to see them but here are a few of my most favortist ones!

Obviously we had Axel be a robot for Halloween. I made him his costume this year, and it only cost me 1.50 for the fabric! I made up the pattern for the shirt, but the hat was a pattern I had, and we just added the applicae's, antenna, and poof ball on top. I was really nervous about him keeping his costume on, so I wanted it to be something he really loved. And we all know how much he LOVES Robots. I also wanted his costume to be something we could put in dress ups and he could keep wearing.

While I was working on the design of the front I had the buttons on the side lined up, he came up to me and was like "oh a beep beep button!" and was pushing and turning all the buttons :) The buttons and ric rac I acquired from Kory's grandma and literally were perfect for this.

He loved throwing the leaves

I tried to get him to look at me and smile, but he just wouldn't. He is still such a serious boy!

He loved throwing the leaves at me, I had leaves in my hair all day, that night even Kory found some.

Dani was a Zebra this day because I didn't have her costume yet. Oh how she reminded me of Axel this day. She was sooo serious! She was concentrating very hard on all the leaves and the crunchy noises they were making. I could not get her to crack a smile once!

She would NOT stop putting those darn leaves in her mouth!

This one is my favorite of her! Even though she is not smiling I think it turned out really cute. I love that the leaves are flying through the air because Axel wouldn't stop throwing them on her, and her face couldn't be more put out.

How come kids in costumes is tooo ridiculously cute?

Yesterday we went to the Anderson Halloween party, and I forgot my camera! I was devastated. I really was. I really wish I would have made Kory take me back home. But I had chili on the floor of the car spilling all over my leg so I just wanted to make it there with out getting burned.

Speaking of chili I had a few people ask me for the recipe for the chili I brought. I got it from my sister, who got it from her mother in law, but it is pretty good stuff. I served a modified version at the party to meet Kory's dietary needs :) So here it is... (AND I feel pretty good because Kory said he liked it, and he even had TWO bowls!)

Karen's White Chili

4 chicken breasts
1/2 onion
3-4 cloves garlic
4 Cups chicken broth (I just put 4 cups of water and 4 chicken bullion cubes in the crock pot)
4 cans white beans
1 Cup sour cream***
1 can diced green chillies
2 t. Oregano
1 t. Red pepper
1 t. Cummin

Cook (bake) chicken with salt and pepper. I used frozen chicken breasts and cooked them at 375 degrees for 45 minutes, then shredded the chicken, into the broth.

Sautee onion and garlic with 1TBS Butter.

Add all ingredients together in large crock pot. Simmer and salt/pepper to taste.

***I substituted the sour cream with my a roux of butter, flour and almond milk, and no one could even tell! So if you want to do that you heat 1/4 c butter and wisk in 1/4 cup flour, until you get a paste, then you slowly stir in almond milk, about 1-2 cups worth until you have a good consistency of creme. Then just add that to your crock pot with the other ingredients.

Fall is in the air

2011-10-26T14:13:00.000-07:00

What is it about this time of year that makes us feel like we have to fill our homes and time with lots of baked goods & holiday crafts? It is a mystery to me, but somehow it gets me every year, the October chill hits and I want to do nothing but that. Suddenly I am even willing to lose sleep and rest over it. So here are a couple things we have done to embrace the fall atmosphere...

I whipped up this wreath thanks to this and this on Pinterest. Mine is not nearly as adorable as those two. But I am proud of the fact I made it from things I already had. Minus the foam part, which I got the idea from this, and it only cost me 97 cents from home depot! Which I think is a great way to make a wreath. However, it does sort of go into an oval shape after a while, so it is not the most durable wreath, but it works for seasonal items, or if you like to mix up your decor often, I recommend this approach.

A few days ago, a neighbor invited us to join her and her little girl Daphne to the pumpkin patch. When she called she said "I asked Daphne which one of her friends she wanted to invite to the pumpkin patch and she said 'can we invite the little boy who loves Backyardigans?' I asked her who Axel? and she said 'YES Axel!' " So we went with them, and had a really great time. Axel loved the whole thing, and I enjoyed visiting with her, it has been a long time since we got together.

After almost 4 years in our house we finally got "Boo'd". My theory is that someone finally dared come to our door because they could do it without being seen. Anyway, thanks neighbor whoever it was, you made our day/week/halloween!

I also finished the kids costumes and I CAN NOT WAIT for this weekend, as we have oodles of plans to do lots of parties and trunk or treating and visiting family! Sheesh when did Halloween turn into a week long event! But I will save that for the next post!

Baby girl and Gaugers aka "tank"

2011-10-17T13:39:00.000-07:00

Don't let his nick name fool you, this guy may be big and tough looking but he sure has a sweet heart and a special soft spot for baby girl.

Whenever he sees her his eyes light up and he makes his way over to her, NO MATTER what is in his way.

Gets into position, hence the tongue :)

and he plants one on her! ahhh so sweet right?!
woops! She tried to turn her head to look at me, as cruel as this picture may seem, I love it, I love that Dani is getting a squished face, by gauges oober chub gang flashing hands and then his bright blues are so innocent, like always. Too cute!

This is pretty much an everyday occasion, on this particular day I was ready with the camera. He is so sweet to her, and I know they will be the best of friends, maybe a little better than their older siblings :)

Not that S and A aren't good friends too, they just have a "different" kind of friendship. When they are friends they are the best of friends, but when they are enemies you better duck and cover.

motivation where are you?

2011-10-11T22:16:00.000-07:00

So in my last post I said I wasn't going to blog for a while because I had a craft-a-thon to do, but it really is not working out as I had hoped. I have still been doing extra projects this week, just not to the fun part yet I guess.

But here I sit on my computer, completely exhausted from taking care of my two kids today, and all I want to do is lay here and do nothing but look at blogs and pinterest and just be the lazy unmotivated person I have turned into.

The kind of person that doesn't accomplish much in a day other than feeding kids, herself, and keeping them happy and healthy. But I consider that a good use of my time, I guess what I am saying is I don't know if crafts really still bring me joy like they used to. I would much rather spend it with my kiddos, and feel it is a better use of my time. SO even though my crafting week didn't really work out, I think it still had it's ups.

Speaking of my kids. I took this picture of baby girl and a couple days ago when I was on my computer and she on my lap trying to push the buttons. This is her mesmerized face the one she gives people until they smile at her. Sometimes she will then yell at you until you acknowledge her. Shortly after this picture she smiled at herself but you know how the Photo booth goes...

Then I started scrolling through my pictures and came across this one of Axel

And this one

These were both taken of him at 6 months. For the most part I think this is the age where he looks like baby girl, maybe it's the bald thing. But he is two months older in these pictures but I have always thought she looks like him at this age.

I kept looking through pictures and came across this picture of Axel at the same age Dani is right now, and they look nothing a like. Then again he looks nothing like the pictures above either. He changed so much in those two months, he lost his long dark locks, and his baggy eyes, he still had his chubby cheeks, and he learned to smile a lot more. But for the most part he was way different.

My point is this, I wonder how much baby girl will change in the next couple months. I can't imagine her with a ton of hair, or light hair. But I never thought Axel would have light hair either, and he is as blonde as blonde can be now.

Babies grow and change so much, I am always sad to say goodbye to each phase when it is time to move on, but happy and excited for the new things they learn. Like we just said goodbye to baby girl being that baby that just will chill and sit there. She has always wiggled yes, but she now wants to get down and play and roll around and just be doing what everyone else is doing. But on the flip side she is rolling over from back to front and front to back all the time, if she sees something she wants she will just flip over and over to get it, we also pulled out her bouncer and she loves being able to stand up in it.

This is Dani a month or so ago, she is a lot more giggly now, and we LOVE it.

The video above is of Axel being a pirate. We love his arm move :) I love how much Axel loves all things boy, sports, pirates, robots, skateboards, drums and guitars. He has been really into singing lately. Each day he gets better and better with the Backyardigan songs, and other songs. we often hear him singing to himself. He is turning into such a little guy.

Life on my phone

2011-10-10T14:45:00.000-07:00

I wish my phone took better pictures because it seems to be my go tocamera. But the quality is always gross unless I am outside then itworks fantastic. But it seems to do a better job at capturing the morepriceless moments of my day to day life with the kids. So here are someof the ones from the past couple months that I got a major kick out of.One day I think I would like a snazzy iphone, that would be swell, butfor now these will do.

A play date with nixon. They both have grown so much since then

A month ago I tried to potty train story and Axel together, they were bare bummed most of the day.

and drank a lot of juice

and ate popsicles and had to change their clothes due to some "accidents" ie Axel peeing on the floor and then Story running and slipping on it while trying to get away.

When we went bed shopping for Axel we met up with Ashley at IKEA. The boys had fun playing on all the beds in the toddler section.

Ashdon made himself right at home

Along with that one of the first nights Axel had his new bed he opted to sleep on his chair instead.

Axel is TERRIFIED of our dr's floor. He was walking very carefully on the edge next to the wall. We are not sure what he thought it was, but he kept asking for "huggies" and for us to hold him.

Axel's cousin Andy made him some really cute "gabba gabba" drawings the other day, he absolutely loved them

First time with play dough. Story just kinda stared and didn't know what to do really, but they both have gotten much better since then and we play with it on a regular basis.

Axel thinks my bra is a hat, so he put it on baby girl.

Baby girl was trying to sit up all on her own here.

Axel was pretty excited about this robot book sent to him all the way from Georgia from his buddy Shane. We read it every night and he has it memorized.

Chillin with cousin nixon, these two seem to be best buds, they like to hold each others hands and suck on them.

Axel found a "SMAKE" in the yard and was pretty happy about it

I often take pictures of Kassie's kids because they are a lot more cooperative, and this one is too cute to not share. You are welcome Kass.

On the day I was taking pictures of Kassie's kids for her birthday Axel decided he too wanted to pose with the yellow flowers too.

I let Axel try licking the frosting from the beater for the first time. He didn't trust me at first, luckily Story was there to show him how it's done.

Maybe these pictures aren't funny to anyone else but me, but we thought they were pretty great.

This is going to be my last blog for a while as I am having a "craft-a-thon" this week. We'll see how much I can get done, but then I will blog all about it!

Dairy Free Creme of Broccoli Soup

2011-10-07T10:36:00.000-07:00

BRRRRRR! Am I right or am I right?

All of the sudden we went from blasting our AC during the day to blasting the heater instead and bundling up in blankets. Instead of keeping the door closed to keep the cold air in we have been keeping it closed to keep the cold air out!

On top of that, I have had a sore throat. So yesterday because I decided I was going to stop mourning summer being over, because as we all know I love summer. But instead of crying about how much I want to go swimming or eat some watermelon. (can you believe I bought a watermelon for 75 cents a pound the other day?! Don't worry I had severe buyers remorse when I got home and saw my receipt and it was a whopping 19 dollars! So I took it back and said goodbye to the days of watermelon)

Anyway, I decided this whole " I hate the winter" attitude has got to change, otherwise every morning I will wake up hating being up, and the rest of my day will be miserable for the next 9 months.

So I am trying something new, I am going to be one of "Those" ladies that loves the fall and winter months. I am going to try to forget about all the reasons I HATE winter and just focus on ways to love it. I am going to fill my house with fall smells, and spooky decor, and help my kids grow an appreciation for all of the season.

As a start of this new resolution, and my sore throat, I decided I was in the need of soup, the good kind, not the kind from a can. But the kind that my mom used to make that filled our home growing up with good heart warming smells. So I called my mom and asked her to explain to me how to make her famous Creme of Broccoli Soup.

So she patiently instructed me on how to make it.

Many of you know that my husband is allergic to milk. So often times this time of year is hard on our family, or maybe just me. Because while everyone is enjoying the yummy treats and such we don't really get to partake. I mean I get to, bu it doesn't make my body to happy.

Kory doesn't really like soup. He says it is not a meal. I however LOVE soup. My theory is it is because he never gets the good stuff. You know the creamy delicious fatty soups that make you feel better when you are sick and miserable. He for the most part has to stick to the broths and the stews. Which are good too, but just not AS good. So I decided while I was being experimental I would try to make this soup with Almond milk instead of the milk my mom uses. Not only would this make it so he could eat it, but Almond milk is great for sustaining blood sugar, and has a good amount of protein, and is just better for you than milk. So everyone wins. I was worried it would taste like almonds. But the onions and salt and pepper made it so you could not tell the difference at all.

Also this recipe is cut in half for our small family. I would double ifyou want to feed more than 2 1/2 half people. Both Kory and I had a bigbowl and we still have a serving or more left.

you will need...
a stick of butter
1/2 c flour
3 chicken boulion cubes
Almond milk (about 2 cups worth)
Frozen broccoli Florettes
3 sticks of Celery
1/2 sweet onion (the white ones)

**Now before I explain my process I realize that there are MANY of you out there who are regular soup makers and know how to do this. I have made soup before, but from a mix, where I just had to add milk and stir, so this was a first for me. And there are probably faster ways to do this and more efficient ways. But I was experimenting with the almond milk and didn't want to waste if it wasn't going to work. In fact, turns out I misunderstood my moms directions and there is, but this worked for me, and I know it will work with the almond milk.**

Also, I thought I would post it for those of you who have requested it.

Step one:
Make Chicken Broth.

Take 3 boulion cubes and 3 cups of water and dissolve in a pot of water. (you could also buy a couple cans of chicken stock)

Step two:
Make a Roux Sauce using butter and flour in a good sized sauce pan

Take 1/2 cup butter bring to boil-reduce heat to about medium/ low heat.
Add 1/2 cup of flour and whisk to create a roux sauce -
Add a tsp of salt to mixture

( I know how to do this because I have to do this to make home made mac and cheese sauce, but if you're confused go look for a video on youtube, because the first time I did this I burned it.)

Basically it will turn into a clumpy gravy type stuff, so you will then need to slowly add your milk to the roux mixture

Step three:
Add your milk and broth to clumpy mixture

Add 1/4 cup of almond milk and wisk
then add a 1/4 cup broth and whisk
Repeat until it is the consistency you would like for your soup.
Bring to a low heat, make sure you continue to stir this.

Trouble shoot: If it is too thin- turn up the heat slightly until it thickens.

If it is too thick-Add more liquid
If it is too floury tasting- add more liquid, or salt and pepper

Step four:
Saute your veggies in some butter.

At this point I called my mom, turns out you could actually add the veggies to the butter in step two. But obviously it was too late for that.

So in a skillet warm a little bit of butter.
Then add your diced sweet onion, 3 sticks of diced celery, and cut broccoli (frozen or fresh)
Saute those babies until cooked.

Step five:
Add your cooked veggies to the soup

Continue to stir
Salt and pepper to taste.
Simmer uncovered on low stirring occasionally.

CROCK POT MODIFICATION

Obviously I haven't done this but if you wanted to have this in a crock pot so you could make it earlier then eat it later in the day.

I think you would just need to trow it in the crock pot at step five, then just keep it on low until it is time to eat it. Keep in mind you still need to stir it throughout the day, and add more milk or broth if it starts to thicken too much.

Dinner Is served!

*the picture looks kinda sick, it was from my phone and this was taken of the left over stuff this morning so it was thick and cold :)*

We served this with whole wheat bread, Apple cider seen here, fresh cut peaches, and then cinnamon apple turnovers, sweetend with agave, apple juice and cinnamon for dessert. (they weren't very sweet, but would be perfect with almond milk ice cream or coconut milk whip creme. )

The cider was ok, neither Kory nor I really like cider turns out, but it did make our house smell like yummy yummy fall goodness all night long!

Hope you all are enjoying the fall as much as we are trying too!

zoobilie zoo

2011-10-06T11:10:00.000-07:00

Do you remember that show? anyway...

For Kory's Birthday we took a much needed mini trip to the zoo. Mini meaning it was our family vacation for the year. Sad as that may sound to some, it was exactly what we all needed. We had a lot of fun!

Axel was much more into the animals this year than last year when when he was still a baby.

He LOVED the monkeys, and the monkey's and gorilla's did not disappoint this year. They were very alert and would go right up to the glass and such. Axel's FAVORITE part of the show was watching both young gorilla's go to the bathroom. He was pretty excited to see the "monkey poop".

However this statue monkey was NOT his friend.

Speaking of big scary gorilla's, theywere cleaning the outdoor cages so the gorilla's were stuck inside fora bit. After awhile the big one got really frustrated and started tocharge the door, and shake the gate and it was pretty scary, because wewere right there. Everyone jumped back because it was so sudden.

Althoughhe seems to have a temper he also had a gentle side and offered some ofhis hay to Baby Girl. Had she been able she would have totally taken it from him. I was pretty glad to have that glass between himand our babies. I definitely wouldn't want to meet that guy in thewild.

Dani's favorite part I assume was the elephant. I think they moved slow enough and were big enough to catch her attention. She just laughed and giggled at them, and swooped her arms at them.

It was really hard to get pictures taken of everything with this girl, as you can see she held my camera case the whole time, and any time I got out my camera to take pictures she would try to grab it. Stinker!

Some more monkeys

It's not the zoo with out a picture of our little family in front of these tigers. Go Here to see how much our family has grown in a little over a year!

Giraffes

It was IMPOSSIBLE to get a picture of these two looking at the camera. Believe it or not Kory was the more cooperative one!

And of course to see how we measure up next to a gorilla!

1,2,3...4!?

2011-10-03T14:35:00.000-07:00

I have a 4 month old! AGAIN, and this time it came much much quicker!

Drinking from a cup
She is already following in her brother's footsteps by trying to steal my cup! She has enjoyed the sips of water I have given her now and again. She's faster than Axel was. He was more sly about stealing my cup from me, but she has quick quick hands and if she wants it she will grab it!

She also tries to steal anything she can off my plate. I was at a baby shower the other day and she grabbed my whole bunch of grapes and shoved them in her mouth before I could stop her.

Chatty McChatterson

She has started to make a lot of sounds but our favorite one is "haaaaaaaa"

She often says this to new faces that approach her, like when daddy comes home for work. I like to pretend she is saying hi, because that is what it sounds like, and that is when she does it. They say that babies this age aren't making any sort of connection with the words they make so who knows really.

I was at the grocery store the other day in the check out line, and I was attending to Axel's many many demands for a sucker and balloon, when two young guys behind me say "My what a friendly little girl!" I guess she had been smiling and talking to them the whole time. She is such a ham.

ROLLIE POLLIE
She is a rolling over like a champ. Tummy time? What's that? The second you put her on her tummy she will flip right over. She has no use for being on her tummy. She rolled over for the first time at two months, but now it is every time she is on her tummy. She has rolled over from front to tummy once or twice but not consistently. It will be any day now, she just has to find the motivation to be on her tummy.

Last night she was starting to scoot towards an object while on her tummy! So I think she will be mobile in no time.

Head shoulders knees and TOES!
She has discovered her legs, and toes, if you have seen her sticking her legs straight out before, it is hard to imagine she could do it even more, but she does.

Last night she spent all dinner kicking the animals hanging from her bouncer with her feet at a 90 degree angle. Her legs are pretty tough little things. She prefers to stand over sitting. Something that we forget sometimes because Axel was such a content baby to just sit there and chill.

She is sitting up pretty well now on my lap or on the couch, with a little assistance, but she is getting pretty close to doing it on her own. I think I need to be better about giving her those opportunities to practice. When you have a big dog like ours it is hard to want to put your tiny baby on the ground to explore play and practice the things she needs to.

There were 3 in the bed and the little one said ROLL OVER!

Another big milestone for her and her brother is that they have made the transition to sharing a bedroom! She in her crib and he in his toddler bed for the past two weeks. Nap time is a whole different story since she takes a bunch of naps and he just takes one really long one, so we still have her pack and play in our bedroom for when she needs one of her 5 naps. We are still working the kinks out, like she still has a feeding in the middle of the night because I am too scared to let her make to much noise out of fear she'll wake Axel, but I think now that she has been in there long enough he no longer sees her as foreign noise. So he sleeps right through any noise she makes. Last night for example she was having a hard time, and woke up every hour so I was in there every hour trying to figure out what her deal was. But he slept just fine.

GROWING
Today was her 4 month check up and she is doing great! I wont bore you with the details but she is 30 percentile in all areas. Just a tiny thing, but growing steady like she should. I am little less worried about that this time around, except for the fact she is our little "barf bag" seriously though this girl is constantly covered in puke, and puking. I am kinda at a loss because our Dr just says "well babies throw up." and kinda acts like I am dumb. Which I am like duh, I know! But for it to be an all the time thing, and not just when she just ate. Did anyone else have this issue with their babies? But I guess I shouldn't worry about it, because she is growing just fine. Maybe I should invest in rain coat for the both of us. :)

**What she's wearing : a HAND knitted jumper from Kelli. Leggings: Babies R US. High tops: CLEARANCE sneakers from Shopko $4 dollars baby! Hair accessory: Gifted from Rainey.

30?!

2011-09-28T15:46:00.000-07:00

Today Kory turns 30...

30! Isn't that bizarre!? I think so! I don't have a lot of time to write this but here are 30 reasons why we love Kory. These are in no particular order....

30. He is a fantastic father
29. He is a great husband
28. He is a honorable son
27. He is a fun uncle
26. He is a loving brother
25. He has a great love of the Gospel
24. He is patient
23. He is kind
22. He is giving
21. Service is a BIG part of who he is as a person
20. He is a hard worker
19. He is talented musician
18. He is creative
17. He has a good attitude, the cup is always full with him
16. He has fantastic hair
15. He has the prettiest eyes and long long LONG lashes!
14. He has a smoking hot body, but you'll never catch him taking pictures of it with his cell phone :)
13. He is SO funny
12. He is very good at racquetball
11. He has a great knowledge of the gospel
10. He would do anything for anyone before himself
9. He LOVES his family... all 2,000 of them
8. He has a testimony of the church
7. He reads to Axel everynight and puts him to bed
6. He likes playing games
5. He is dependable
4. He will dance with me
3. He likes to snuggle
2. He is great to the dogs
1. Because he loves and takes such good care of us.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Hope you had a good day today!

Now everyone quick write a little something to wish this guy a happy 30! lets see if we can get 30 comments!

"Happy Happy Birthday Birthday Crayonma"

2011-09-26T14:39:00.000-07:00

That is what Axel said all day yesterday, as yesterday was his mamma's mamma's birthday. And as many of you know, he is really into birthday's right now. He even was ok with going to a birthday party and not getting a gift. He just had fun playing with all his cousins, and then his favorite part watching grandma blow out ALL those candles, again and again and again. (Why do trick candles never get old?)

When "crayonma"(as Axel says it) couldn't do it, she had a swarm of little boys to her rescue. We quickly put an end to that before too much spit got on the cake. But it was a good day, for a very good lady, who we love greatly.

Even though I am a day late on here, I know she will check it, so Happy Birthday Momma! We love you to pieces and are so glad we have you!

Woodland Creatures

2011-09-20T16:43:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, we were invited to a fun birthday bash for our nephew Felix. I waited for Kelli to post about it, but she took too long...

When we told Axel we were going to a birthday party, he was SO excited, he sang "Happy Birthday" the whole way there. Being so close to his birthday, we were really worried he would be upset he didn't get to take any of the presents home. Luckily my sister inlaw brought him a birthday gift, so I am pretty sure this is what he will expect at all birthdays.

My sister in-law went way above and beyond, she gave me crap for my birthday party but I think the fact that she sewed a party mask for every single guest shows that she way out did me or anything I would ever do, she had to have made like 20 masks. So she can't give me crap anymore. Not to mention the cake and the other decor was all just adorable.

Axel absolutely loved his skunk mask and wore it the entire time.

The best part was when Ashdon ran up to Axel in his mask and Axel didn't know it was him and he panicked and was super scared, and started to run away and Ashdon lifted his mask off his eyes and said "Axel Axel, it's me it's me, Ashdon!" in his cute little voice, relieved it was Ashdon and not a scary woodland creature attacking him he squealed and they both started giggling and chasing each other like they always do.

All the guests had so much fun with her masks, and the best part was wegot to take them home! Axel, and Story both played with them all weeklong.

Here are some of the pictures I took from the party. I figured she would want to blog about all her decor so I just thought I would just post the pics of the guests that I took.

The birthday boy Felix was soo cute in his little raccoon get up that his momma made him.

When I was going through the pictures I thought who is this little girl I don't know any 5 year olds? Then I was like Oh my that is syd! She is soo old and grown up looking!

This is the point where Ashdon was convincing Axel that it was just him in that disguise :)

Axel once he found out it was just Ashdon :)

Cutest little raccoon snoozing away

Baby Nixon with his papa

Axel LOVED his mask and wore it the whole time. (this is his new "Cheese" face.)

Whooo whoo is that stinking cute owl you ask? Baby Gauge in all his cuteness.

Story and Baby Gurl!

Our little family

She woke up eventually

Axel wearing his mask home along with playing happily with his new Robots from Aunt Rainey

I threw up pictures....

2011-09-14T14:23:00.000-07:00

I have so many pictures I want to share....

These were from Labor Day, I wish I would have gotten some pictures of the rad bike Ashley's husband nick built, oh well, maybe someone else did?

Axel passed out on the way there, so we moved him to a blanket on the lawn so he could have a good nap, and then we moved the blanket and he still slept.

Ash and baby Nixon

Gauge lovin the grass

Ashdon lovin Gauge

And Felix working on his walking skills

Earlier this month we had a play date with some cousins, Ashley, Ashdon and Baby Nixon came over on Thursday when I tend Kassie's kids it was very loud at our house all day, but boy did these kids have fun playing together!

Best buddies, this couldn't be more true, Axel loves Ashdon, and is always asking to go to Ashdon's home.

Story is such a good sport to play with all these boys, I can't wait for Dani to get older she and Story will have to stick together!

For some reason they decided we needed to clean our back yard!

Axel and his bucket

Story sees me with the camera and immediately requests I take her picture

That pool gets kinda crowded with 3 kids! just wait until next summer when there is 6 toddlers!

Story is often found sitting on our bench playing with all the heart figures :)

A little after we played outside we came inside and Ashdon and Axel were found hanging out on this chair playing with their cars :)

This was pretty much what the day was like :)

A few weeks ago my mom's work had a carnival. It was really fun, my sister had just gotten back from Arkansas as well, it was fun to see her and her kids again after the long summer. We missed having them around

Axel enjoying all the treats by the trash can.

Grandma showing off her new baby girl grand daughter, she only has a few of these so they get pretty spoiled :)

Axel really wanted to climb the bouncy house but got to scared, luckily Aislynn took him through once.

Hinkley and Nicolas

Our picnic lunch

Baby girl

spider man

Axel got a basketball painted on his hand

This kid walks now! Crazy

Ah Hinkley such a sweet heart

At the end of August Ashley and I made a trip to Cherry Hill to spend the day, only to find out it was Freaking CLOSED already! luckily the nice lady at the KOA there, let us swim in the KOA pool. The boys were satisfied but kept asking to go to the pirate ship :(

The water was too cold for these two munchkins to get in

They love sitting by each other on the beach chairs! I can't count how many pictures I have to these two snuggling together, and it never gets old!

Axel rested his head on ashdons shoulder at one point! we were dying

This is Dani's cousin Khloe she is a couple months younger than her, but they weigh about the same. Dani is a bit taller though. And obviously Khloe has a lot more hair. we have hair envy :)

that's a lot of pink wouldn't you say?

Cute cute girls

3 months a few weeks ago...

2011-09-11T14:29:00.000-07:00

I wrote this post a few weeks ago, but didn't upload it....

Holy crap where did the last 3 months go?!

I can not believe my little girl is already 3 months! She is growing up so fast!

She is such a GOOD baby. I'm serious too, she hardly ever cries. And when she does it's kinda funny because it sounds soooo fake and forced, like someone is saying whaaaa whaaa whaaaa. We laugh every time. And usually she will quickly change her tune if you pick her up. Unless it's bedtime, then all she wants you to do is put her to bed, and if you even dare try to snuggle with her she will get irate. Again my kind of kid. She is so much like me :)

Some of the things she has been doing lately...

She has turned into a gigglly girl now. Mostly it is for Daddy, all he has to do is look at her and she will start to giggle. It is pretty adorable, or when we change her, she is so ticklish on her shoulders, it kills me every time to hear her laugh. Each day she does a little more, and as many of you know, baby laughter is probably my most favorite sound in the world. NOTHING cheers me up quicker.

She has always been an excellent sleeper, with very few feedings in the night since she was tiny. At first I thought it was because we kept her in our bed. Something I decided we would just not even try to fight since we tried so hard with Axel and nothing ever worked. But because she wanted her space and was such a wiggle worm we kicked her out and and after about a week, she is now sleeping completely through the night. Usually from 9 or 10 until 6 or 7:30 . It is really nice to have her be such a good sleeper. And she doesn't cry when she wakes either, she just sits there and sucks at her hands and grunts. I think that is why she is sleeping through the night because I don't hear her wake up anymore and my body has stopped making milk at that time to wake me. (I had a few nights were I was just drenched because she didn't wake me up). We are pretty happy that she sleeps so well. It is such a blessing. We will be moving her into Axel's room soon probably but that makes me really nervous.

She has pretty good control of her little hands. She can move them around and get them in her mouth when she wants too.

She loves kicking her feet. Today infact she discovered she can really move them and she just layed on our bed kicking her feet as fast as she could then she would just smile all big at me. Too cute.

AS you can tell we are totally head over heals for her.

She is also the little chatter box now. The other morning she woke up and just was chatting away at her little mobile animals.

She is so petite, she still fits in her newborn t's. Because she has such narrow shoulders. She got that from me. Unfortunately nothing will ever fit her...

Don't forget to look at the post below....

Did you miss me?

2011-09-11T14:15:00.000-07:00

If you haven't noticed anyway, I haven't blogged or been visiting blogs to leave my many words of wisdom this week, and it's been killing me! But probably not as much as it has been all my loyal readers :)

I wish it was because we have been too busy having fun to do so, but in fact it has been quite the opposite. Granted it hasn't all been miserable but it hasn't been the best week either.

Where to start...

Early last week we said good bye to my power cord to my computer. (Kory did a really good job fixing it when it broke last month and got it working again, but this time around it just wasn't going to work.) And due to just pure bad timing on my part it took us a bit longer to get a new one.

So we have been using the computer on an emergency basis until the new cord comes, but my life is on this computer, it has been extremely hard for me to function with out it. Luckily Kelli and Kyle lent us their computer so we were able to use that as a back up. It was greatly appreciated.

Which leads to incident number two, last Friday I was going to print some baby shower invitations I was asked to make for a lady in our ward. I went downstairs to my newly remodeled office, and could just smell old water. So I walked over to our closet which leads to the furnace and under my feet I felt a "squish squish" and just new it was bad. I called Kory (who just left for work 30 minutes before that) and he came home, to fix what we thought was just a small leak in our AC pump. I thought I would get a jump start and pull up the carpet, and OH MY GOSH this was no small leak! There was water EVERYWHERE, I am sure most of it absorbed into the concrete, and thankfully we bought a super absorbent pad, because it kept the carpet dry in most places, but the pad was drenched. (Does anyone else feel like they are watching a period commercial?)

Anyway...

We worked for hours emptying out the room and sucking up the water with the dry vac. When we went to carry the pad out we couldn't lift it because it was so full of water. We put it in a plastic garbage bag and the bag just filled with water instantly. Luckily, we were able to make it out of the basement before it broke and got the other parts wet.

We dried out the pad, carpet and concrete, and then cleaned it all with bleach water in hopes to get it all clean, we think it will be ok, but we are still kinda waiting it out.

It is really hard for me to have things like this happen. I don't do well with the unexpected. Anyway later that night we had a ward camp out that Kory was in charge of, so we couldn't really miss it. We had a lot of fun at the camp out but it kinda messed with Axel's sleep schedule. He didn't want to go to sleep in his room after that. But after a few nights of us standing our ground we are finally back to normal sleep schedule and routine.

Looking back at all this now, it doesn't seem like that big of a deal, but to us it wasn't exactly the funnest week for us. But like the motto that seems to fit our situation oh so well "It could be worse" and I just have to keep telling myself that over and over, this week more so than ever.

On the plus side, my replacement power chord came yesterday, yeah! And now I can get all my swimming lesson stuff finished up, and get back to blogging! I know you are all so excited about it. And I have loads of end of the summer (I think that is the first time I admitted that) posts to write. For now here are some pictures to keep you all happy :)

Axel enjoying his camp out food

It was soo cold, we all ended up bundling up in the same bed

Baby girl was not a fan of how bright it was that morning

Just like at home, Axel pushed Kory all the way to the edge of the bed

Axel's camping face

Baby girl was all smiles once her eyes adjusted

Axel thought it was fun to wake up in the tent and eat breakfast in bed

For Axel's Birthday, Grandma J got him a toddler bed, he had so much fun putting it together with dad.

He was really excited to sleep in it too, and got his pillow and blanket ready for bed before it was even finished

Here it is in all it's glory in his room

However after the camp out he refused to go to bed, and one of the mornings this is where we found him. But since that day he has slept in his big boy bed.

I will try to blog some more tomorrow, perhaps something more interesting. But I like to keep this in order. I just uploaded photos from both my cameras and I have quite a few things I missed out already...until then peeps, happy sunday!

Happy Birthday to my baby boy

2011-08-30T13:37:00.000-07:00

This post will be bitter sweet. In one way I am so very happy to celebrate Axel's not 1st, but 2nd birthday already! But in another way it means he is no longer my baby boy. This year sure did speed by quickly. It seems like it was last week that we were celebrating his 1st Birthday. But enough about how fast time is going. Let's move on to all things Axel!

It has been a while since I did a post just about him.

Lets list all the things he accomplished this year! (or as many as I can think of while he naps :) )

Weaned from nursing to the bottle- This was no small feat since up to that point he wouldn't even so much as look at a bottle.
Added oodles of words to his vocab and is now onto complete sentences.
Took his first steps, learned how to walk and is now running circles around us on a daily basis
Slept through the night for the first time and continues to do so with out much complaint
Took on many house hold responsibilities like feeding the dogs, taking out the garbage, doing the laundry, and helping mom make dinner.
Learned how to say prayers or rather the beginning, and the end :)
He became a big brother for the first time, and a very loving and gentle one at that.
Continues to practice his music skills and pirate imitations on a daily basis.
Knows all the words to Popcorn popping
Moved from his crib to his big boy bed with a lot of excitement
Actually got pee in the potty instead of on the floor or in his diaper
Moved from demanding for things to saying Please and thank you for what he wants
Became obsessed with playing sports, then pirates, and now robots.
And much much more

We are so proud of you buddy for all you accomplished this year and we can't wait to spend another great year with you watching you learn and grow. We couldn't ask for a better son, you are our favorite little buddy. Thanks for all you have taught us this year and for being so loving and patient with us as we test out parenting on you. We love you to the moon and back!

For his birthday this year we did a Friend Robot Party. It turned out great! I'll be honest here couldn't have done it without the help of Pinterest, oh how I love that site!

Anyway here are the details....

Here is the invite I created in Illustrator

Here is the party set up...If only I had more time I wanted to hang more of the balloons but I was with out a ladder.
The snack table, with the BOBOT center piece I made out of cardboard boxes, tin cans and a couple nuts and bolts. I am all about reusing (I even reused the Axel sign from his first birthday party :)
I opted to use blown up balloons instead of helium this year. I wish I would have had more time to put them in other places, but I think it worked out. The little Robot figuring is from this.
ROBOT GEAR table

Then my sister in law Kassie (knowing and appreciating Axel's deep love for robots) lent me the Robot Party Cartridge she had just created with her work. You should check out her art work on her blog, she is super talented. With out this gem our party would have been quite drab.

I wish I would have started this weeks ago so I could have had more time to make more decorations with it because it really had so much fun stuff on it. But like many things I do, I wait until the last minute and do way too much in that short period of time.

We used the Cartridge to make these hats and goggles for all the guest. And to me it seemed like once I got all the kids hats and goggles fitted on all 20+ guests they were already all done wearing them. But looking through the pictures my sister took, it actually looks like they wore them. SO it was worth ALL the work.

As guests arrived we played a couple rounds of "Ring around the Rosey." I had intended it to be Ring around the Robot, but since I was busy making robot hats for kids my mom stepped in and helped with that part.

We then colored, cut and put together Robot puppets. That was quite challenging. Most of the kids would have rathered just play on Axel's yard toys. (Next time, that's what we'll do) But we did have some kids finish them, and they turned out pretty cute. I am pretty sure Axel was confused the entire time.

We then had a light snack of "Nuts and Bolts", "Motor Oil", and "Computer Chips."

Then we sang Happy Birthday to the birthday boy, who thought that was sooo strange, but something must have sank in because the following day he sang Happy Birthday to himself all day while playing with all his new toys. " Happy happy birthday birthday Axel"He didn't really get the whole how to "blow out the candle thing" and wanted nothing to do with it, or the attention either. (Like father like son :) )

We then cut the Robot cake that I spent SO much time making. It was pretty depressing to cut into. It was my first time making fondant from scratch, and it killed my arms and stomach, I was sooo happy how it turned out. Isn't he CUTE! I kept it a surprise too, Somehow I managed to make it while Axel slept. We then tried our hardest to get him to open his presents but he wasn't a fan of it at all. He loved his presents, but not the part where we told him he had to not play with them. His guests had the same problem with it as well. One of which kept asking, "Where's one for me?"

We sent each party guest home with a little favor bag, filled with "Robot Bits and Pieces" and then recuperated the rest of the evening.

To save space on my blog I didn't want to load all 100+ pictures taken so if you want to see the rest of the photos go visit my Facebook album.

Sunday was his actual birthday, I woke up Axel and sang him Happy Birthday first thing, and he just kept singing it to him self and asking us to sing it to him too. He loved that the song had his name in it. All Sunday morning he spent playing with all his new toys, and was seriously the happiest kid. At church his nursery class sang to him and he loved every minute of it.

That night we had cake and ice cream as a family, and had him blow out candles one more time with the last two pieces of cake from the party.

50 years is no small feat.

2011-08-15T17:45:00.000-07:00

Kory's mom and dad Celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary this summer. What a huge accomplishment! We had fun celebrating with them!

As a gift for them one of the granddaughters (Mikes daughters) organized a big memory album for them and had us all contribute. These were our pages

Axel's PageDani's Page-
It was upon doing Dani's page that I realized we had no pictures of Grandma with either of my kids. So I made it a point to take lots of pictures with her at the thing :)

Kory's and my page - this page was hard to find a good family picture because we didn't have one after dani was born, so we took the one where I was like 8 months pregnant, and hating life, but it's a good picture anyway. Our family with Grandma and Grandpa

A somewhat better photo than the one from the blessing.

Kory and 13 of his siblings Mike, Steve, Kris, Rich, John, Kevin, Kim, Kurt, Shauna, Wendy, Keri (not pictured), Jeff, Mom and Dad, Kory, Kelli and Kassie!

With all their spouses!yeah I have 14 brother in laws, and 14 sister in laws! Funny story when Kory and I were dating he used to quiz me on all his siblings and spouses. It is harder than one would think! But I did it! and now I know them all pretty well too.
This was our centerpiece: The hat for Grandpa and the flowers for Grandma. When I asked Kory what reminded him of his mom, he said flowers. Although, our first idea was to do a Lazy Susan on the table :)
Of course Axel took one of the hats and had to wear it around.
Kassie and I with our babies Dani and Gauge
Grandma and Miss Danielle, she couldn't keep her hands out of her mouth the whole night!
Grandma, Dani and our new cousin/niece Khloe (only a week old or so!) But these girls are only about a lb different in weight in this picture! Although Dani is much taller it seems.
Mike was kind enough to do oodles of train rides with the kids...
Axel loved it but also was nervous about it too.
Maggie looks soo beautiful in this picture.
This is where lynus told me I was fat. He put his hands on my love handles, and said "yep your definitely bigger!" At first I was like, "uhhh thanks, I just had a baby, give me a break!" and then he said "Maggie IS smaller than you." It was because they made us trade places so the car was balanced, and I had said, I need to trade her places because I am bigger. He was just measuring to make sure :)
Axel enjoyed the train more when it wasn't moving, he is such a scaredy-cat sometimes.
And Dani got passed around to all her many many aunts and cousins the whole night and was told how beautiful she was all night long. So she was a happy camper :) She got to meet Aunt Alison for the first time too :)
All in all it was a pretty great night, and we were so happy to be able to be there surrounded by such a great family. Thanks Maida and Bob for sticking together for all these years, and for doing such a great job raising such a big and wonderful family! We are so happy to be apart of it! I hope one day Kory and I will get the same opportunity, thanks for setting such a great example! We love you!

Danielle's Special Day

2011-08-11T16:21:00.000-07:00

We blessed Dani on Sunday August 7.Kory did an amazing job on her blessing. We had so many of our loved ones there both at the blessing and at our home for a picnic after the blessing. We thank you all for coming and supporting us on this important day!

Miss Dani in her dress

Her dress was given to her by her Grandmother Julie (my mom) we had intentions of making one but I was really hesitant about my skills in that area, I didn't want it to be discouraging. I felt a lot of pressure so I put it off, luckily my mom came to the rescue and got her this beautiful dress. I added the leftover flowers from her baby shower. The beads where ones I was given that belonged to Kory's grandmother. She was so beautiful in her dress!

The shoes were mine when I was a baby. I was so happy that they fit her, and that they fit the dress style as well. The lace is a tad dated but I hear lace is making a comeback. So all in all they went well together. Our growing family: This is our ONLY family picture since she has joined us, kinda a sad one at that. (I am hoping the ones from Grandma and Grandpa Anderson's 50th turned out better)

Grandma and Grandpa Anderson

Grandma and Grandpa Jorgensen
Chillin with Dad and Grandpa
Dani and Grandpa are making the same face here...My mom said "that is who she looks like"
The Kim and Mark clan

Kevin, Jolynn, Kevin and MaidaKelli and "Belik"...aka Felix

Jay and Stephanie
Ash and Nixon
Ash, Nixon, and Dani
Dani and Nixon
Hilary, her family was there too, but not when I had finally gotten around to taking pictures.Kassie, Jerome and kiddosKassie and Baby Gauge

Kassie and Story
Jeff and Rainey Family, quite a photogenic groupJeff, Dani, and GaugeKurt, Karen and Nick
Axel's "future wife" Sammy :)
Can you believe these two are sisters? They couldn't look more different
Baby Ellavynn

Sammy Their momma and papa: Tankia and JordanSheri and Steve Nelson
PJ and Alan
We also had Wendy's family there, and Kristine's family, but they were no where to be found when I got out the camera.Kory's brother Rich also came to the blessing. So thanks to all who came and supported us!

The after party :)

She was so happy to get that dress off! She just sat and kicked her legs and laughed and smiled.

Axel wanted to join in the pictures and was giving her huggies (that is what he calls hugs)
This bonnet came with the dress, I think she hated it as much as her dad did.
Tired?
No mom just tried to give her a kiss. Could she be more offended
Sweet siblings...is it bad I used Photoshop to take out all his grime off his face and the giant scrape on his forehead?
This is my favorite picture of them all! I love my kids.

Playdates, learning and the like

2011-08-07T17:29:00.000-07:00

I have been pretty busy lately, so I haven't had a chance to blog. But here are a few things we have been up to lately...hopefully this week I will be able to blog again about this weekend, as it was quite an eventful one.

Item 1. School

I decided that since I went back to work, even though it is only a short period 3 days during the week, that my time with Axel needed to be filled with something besides him watching TV and me doing chores. So I decided that I would start doing "School" with him, to help him learn his letters, name, and numbers. I had read back when I was tending my sister Hilary's kids that young children need to focus on one letter at a time for about two weeks. I thought hey I could handle a little prep work and then we would just do the activities over and over throughout the week each day.

Because it is summer we mainly just "play school" the days we have cousins Story and Gauge.
Boy do these two LOVE to play school and learn about the letters.

The first day I was sooo surprised at how much they absorbed all the information and how such simple activities would entertain them so well.

A is for Acorn, Airplane, Alligator, and Apple.

A is for Aprons

We played dress up and put on Aprons

TV ZOMBIES: I know this isn't a school activity, this was right before the first lesson, but I couldn't get over their zombie TV faces...But they had fun playing dress up and wearing them all day.

Axel's is the most unfortunate...Magic Bag....A is for...

To introduce the letter, I cut out a GIANT A and some "A" objects and put them in what I called the magic bag (a giant pink gift bag) I got them really excited and made this funny accelerating noise (think the music machine folks) "do do do do" then would pull an A object out. They couldn't get enough of this game. Axel plays it daily over and over.

We leave the A on the board all week and talk about it at dinner.

After we are all done we sing a song I made up. (Too bad I don't have a way to record these songs because they are that fantastic and EVERONE would love them, and then I would be the next sighning time lady...ohh wait...)

It goes like this

Acorn, Airplane, Alligator, Apple
All begin with A
Acorn Airplane, Alligator, Apple
All begin with A

A says aah, A says aah
A says aah aah aah aah

Acorn, Airplane, Alligator, Apple
All begin with A!

I know I'm a genius!

Anyway, Story and Axel love love love it when I sing this and act it out, especially when I act like I am ho ho ho -ing the aah aah aah aah part.

A is for Airplane

So we made some killer airplanes out of paper towel rolls and cardboard

We colored them

We Flew them around outside

Made airplane soundsWatched for Airplanes in the skyRead Airplane books

And enjoyed an Airplane snack

A is for Alligator
We made "A -lligators "

Read books about Alligators
And had an alligator snack We also sang "5 little monkies swinging from a tree"ooldles too.

We also did a whole bunch of Apple activities but I don't have pictures :( Maybe next week)

So far A was a huge success, if you ask Axel what A says he says very proudly aah aah aah!

Item2: Baby girl is two months!

And is more smiley than ever! We just love how smiley she is and how happy. Don't worry she has her moments but she is pretty content most of the time. We get complements all the time about her beautiful long lashes, which of course we are totally in love with too. She is going to be TROUBLE when she is older! Overheard by one of the tweens at the Anderson 50 wedding anniversary "She is going to be a KNOCK OUT!" and I agree :)

She has discovered her hands, and is constantly sucking on them or her little fingers, and is SOAKING from her drool most of the time. I am going to have to start layering her clothes to keep her warm in the coming cool months. She loves baths with her brother, this was her first one, but she really likes Axel and was smiling at him and watching him play with all his toys, and of course he was so kind and gentle to her.
This is Axel giving her loves. He always says "Ah cute" after he gives her hugs. :)
I am pretty impressed with her ability to hold herself up. She is a big fan of the bumbo, mostly because she can look at herself in the mirror, and she thinks that is pretty neat. She also loves looking at other babies in magazines, and will often smile and study their faces.
She is a GREAT sleeper, and is already sleeping in 7-8 hour stretches at night! She also self soothes. Sometimes this is sad though, because she will NOT let us rock her to sleep almost ever. Although she will sometimes. But I am not complaining. I love that I can put her down when she is tired and she just dozes off.

That's all for now!

scottish fest 2011

2011-07-23T16:24:00.000-07:00

We went to Payson' s "Festival of Scottish stuff"

Here are some pictures

Axel running around

Felix and Axel
Axel joined the dancers on stage
if you're thinking I took this picture to show my son looking at the dogs you are wrong...Kory hates hates hates pocketless jeans, so this is really just for him
"ah loves...so nice" That is what axel says after giving anyone a hug.
We came primarily for the bagpipes...
Sitting on the grass waiting to do something, but just sat and visited with...

And this little lady showed up with her dad and brother, I just thought she looked so pretty standing there.
Dani was there, but slept the entire time while we walked around. Like always. :)
When we left there was this tree and it was dead but strangely it was very interesting to me, and I thought it was sad, so I took a picture.

Church stuff...

2011-07-20T15:40:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I get sick of my ward, my calling is hard, and I complain a lot about it. Which I think is why I am still doing the same calling for two years. (longest in my life, side note Kory has changed his almost a dozen times since I got called.) But that is not to say that I don't really love my ward, and the people in it. Especially in the summer.

I love that our ward does "walk and talk" every Sunday. We get a chance to get out with our family walk around the neighborhood and then meet at a host family for dessert and mingling with our neighbors. It is so great, and most of the time that is how I get to know people in our ward. This has also really helped Axel get to know people and kids in our ward better, and come out of his shell a little. It is fun to see him watch the older kids in awe, and run around with some of the tots his age.

I love that our ward has so many kids and babies my Axel and Dani's ages. Kory said on our block alone their are 13 babies around Axel's age and younger soon to be 14! That is ALOT of little kids. Dani was one of 5 babies born within a week of each other. (1 sister moved, and the other goes to a student ward, but she lives on our block) But the 3 that stayed all had sweet little girls.

Here is a picture of us with our babies

and just our girls...

They are youngest to oldest... Dani being the oldestDani looks like a "thugga" with her headband.

We also really love our stake picnic they have every summer. They have sno-cones, and cotton candy, face painting, rockets, and this year this giant beach ball! My camera died and so this was the only pictures I got, but it was Axel's favorite part :)

Axel chasing the ball

Getting a chance to push it
Running for his life as it heads towards him. I know it's mean but his scared run for cover face cracks me up every time, and I can not help but laugh.

And then we have a "Ward Pie Social" where we just get together and eat pie and visit. This is a pie eating contest. The bottom picture he was dry heaving from eating too much, but he ate a good portion and was the youngest contestant.

It was kind of nerve racking this year because it was at a park by the river, and have you seen the river this year?! It was crazy high and fast, and I was on edge the whole time. Luckily Kory kept close watch on Axel, but all the moms where pretty freaked out. This last picture is of Kory and Axel at the pie social.

Our 4th in pictures...

2011-07-17T09:03:00.000-07:00

On Saturday we went to Lunch at one man band with grandma and grandpa J, and then swimming the rest of the day with cousins. I sadly didn't take a single picture, but we had fun, and it was my first time really swimming since I had Dani. It was great!

On Saturday night we went to the fireworks, and lasted maybe 5 minutes.

Dani looks like a totally different baby when she just wakes up. She has such a swollen sleepy face I love it!

On Sunday Axel dressed himself for church...

We went to grandma and grandpa J's to have a bbq, play croquet and do more fireworks

Axel never leaves my parents house empty handed, this time they sent him home with a tinkertots set still in it's packaging that she had gotten from my grandmother's house. Kory made it into a pirate ship for him :)
On Monday (the actual 4th) we got up bright and early thanks to our dogs...but it got us up so we could make it to the balloons Side note: This was Kory's first and he said last time he will do the balloons. He was really disappointed they didn't let them take off that day.

Then we walked over to the parade, and really had fun, until a football came out of nowhere and landed right square on Dani's chest. It was the saddest thing ever. But she was such a good sport about it, and didn't even have a bruise!

Because it was overcast for most of it we got to enjoy it for a while. Then the sun came out so we decided to leave. This Pirate ship is the only picture I got.
Then that night we headed over to Grandma and Grandpa Anderson's for a BBQ

Axel saw Grandpa sitting by himself over by the fence, so he brought him a basketball to play with. He thinks the world of Grandpa, I love that they are both wearing their hats in this picture!
There was lots of food, fireworks and fun!
We made glow stick jewelry
Time for a fashion show....

Tiff and Austin with their bling
Jeremy is bad to the bone with his handcuffs
Maggie with the worlds longest glow necklace
Kyle bringing nerdy back with his headgearBut I think the most creative had to go to Andy and Axel...

Axel sporting the glow nose

Andy with his Oversized glassesAnd his Belly sticks :)

While I was off playing with the kids, apparently all the moms where doing their nails. :) My sister in law Rainey was kind enough to do mine for me during the fireworks! Don't they look fabulous. Sad to say they didn't last longer than a couple days though because We had a really fun holiday

I really want to blog right now

2011-07-15T16:16:00.000-07:00

But instead I need to

Feed a hungry baby...

Put some clothes on a naked toddler that has been making circles around our house for the past hour while I was on the phone yelling Pee Poo Pee Poo...(I am too afraid to go find out what he means by this, side note, my little dog just brought me in a little gift...SICK)...

Empty the dishwasher...

Put the dirty dishes in the dishwasher...

Trade out the laundry...

Get dinner on the table...

All before Kory gets home in 5 minutes....

One month down

2011-07-10T21:58:00.000-07:00

Dani will always be my summer baby, she was born the weeks school got out and all the pools open. It took us a little bit to get out and about but, we somehow have managed to have a pretty eventful summer thus far.

Dani turned "one month old" a while ago, and I meant to write about it, and sadly I am just getting to it now, and we are only two weeks away from her being two months! They grow so FAST!

I am no photographer by any means, but I wanted to try to take some photo's of her similar to the ones my friend and AMAZING photographer Jessica Peterson took of Axel when he was a couple days old. They are nothing compared to hers, but I think I did a good job capturing all the sides of Dani that I love at this stage. So here you go! You can see the rest here.

Isn't she just adorable!

We love how smiley she is, her smile just melts my heart every single time I see it! She loves it when I stick my tongue out at her, and will try to do the same. She has started cooing at us occasionally, and it is so fun to see her try to talk to us.

She is an AWESOME sleeper, granted she gets woken up pretty easily, (we have a pretty noisy house for the most part during the day, but she is good about soothing herself and putting herself back to sleep) When we go to bed at night she sleeps for a good 5-6 hour stretch in between feedings every single night, and sometimes I will make it all the way to 7 am!

When she wakes up she reminds me so much of her daddy, they both have the same sleepy face.

She loves baths, even her first one she just sat there contently.

Axel likes to sit in her boppy, he calls it his seat
But I think it fits him better anyway, and she is not that big of a fan. We started watching Kassie's two kids a few weeks ago. Axel and Story get a long better than ever, and I was even able to get all 4 babies to sleep for an hour and a half all at the same time! the two older ones slept a little longer...Here are some pictures from that...

We spend a lot of time in the yard playin...

Gauge and Dani
I LOVE this picture, he looks very worried... I am pretty sure I was making some ridiculous face to get Dani to perk up, and Gauge obviously was NOT amused. Its kinda funny the girls are such Hams and the boys are little grumps :)
Story and Axel wanted to get in on the pictures...but mostly Story, Axel just wanted to jump and play on the bed.
Gauge and Story....
Story and "Baby Girul"
Axel
Neither of my kids wanted to be by the other.
I was trying to get all 4 in one picture but as you can see this is the closest you get. Awhile back we went to Story's house for a playdate/pooldate, and to see their newly remodeled back yard, which is super fun and relaxing.
One of the many many trips we have taken to 7 peaks this year.
Felix came by to visit a few days after Dani was born, he loved this car, and he looks oh so cool in it...
Last week our friends Jessica and Skyler and their son Shane came to our house for dinner, the boys loved sitting on the picnic table together eating their "dimner"
I have so so much more to post from the 4th and from this weekend but I need to go to bed, because tomorrow I start my swimming lessons! I don't think I have stayed up this late since Axel was born, I am really excited but also nervous like always, but Kory gave me a blessing and it really really helped put all my feelings right where they needed to be.

F is for....

2011-06-27T16:13:00.000-07:00

FATHERS silly!

Happy Father's Day to all those father's out there, including my own dad, my father in law and of course the Father of my two beautiful children!

When Kory and I first got married, I was commuting every day to the University of Utah, and taking his nephew Andy to a school for kids with Autism. Andy was quite impressionable so I got in the habit of listening to "Kid Friendly" or what I call "Mom stations" while he was in the car. One of those stations was 106.5, and after a while I really started to enjoy their morning show, so I became a regular and listened to it daily on the drive up, with or without Andy with me. Because I listened to them all the time, I got really good at calling in when they had prizes and contests and pretty much won something almost every month, from movie tickets to, dinners, to even a really nice set of pots/pans (which are still in excellent condition to this day). I think it was one of my favorite hobbies. Every month Kory and I got to participate in something we otherwise wouldn't have and it was really fun. :) But I stopped listening to them when I stopped commuting, and haven't entered anything with them until this year.

For father's day I entered Kory into a contest to play musical chairs for a chance to win a gas grill, and $1000 worth of meat. I am not sure how many people sign their dads up for it, but he was picked and we got to go to Cherry Hill for the day to watch him battle it out with 21 other dudes. He did really well, and got 6th place, and won us tickets for dinner and a movie. So even though he didn't win the grand prize we still got to play all day at Cherry Hill together and didn't go home empty handed.

Her is fisher from Today's 106.5

Kory between what I called his "Body Guards" Both these guys played really fairly and kept a nice distance, and they actually both got out before Kory did. Kory said the big guy in front of him was way nice and polite. This picture is soo funny

This is right before Kory got out. The guy behind him "Snaked" his seat from out from under him. He would slide under the guy in front of him. So when I saw him get behind Kory I was so panicked, I couldn't watch, I wanted to throw up. Can't you tell he is just right on Kory's heals?
Axel was nervous the whole time, and wanted Kory to come back, but when they started to play he has a look of worry on his face the WHOLE time

The water park had this huge pirate ship that you could walk through

Axel was in pirate heaven, he kept saying "Arrr a pirate ship"

The kiddie pool was fun too, it had a pirate ship slide that went down to it.
We then went to the lazy river

And then the other little pool We had a blast at cherry hill, we don't get to do stuff like that very much or ever. So it was really nice to spend time just playing and having fun. We didn't stay too long (didn't think our kids would have lasted much longer) because we also had a BBQ to get to that night.

That night we went to a Father's Day BBQ at my sister's house and had yummy ribs and a whole lot of other yummy food.

On Father's day we went to sacrament for the first time with our whole little family to celebrate since having Dani. And besides the part where upon rushing to take a semi fussy baby out to be nursed, I stepped on Axel's pinky finger, and then fell on my bum while trying to give Axel loves in the middle of the aisle, with baby in hands, it went well. (lets just say I may not be ready to be back at church just yet after all)

We then came home had a steak dinner, and then headed over to Kory's parents house to visit with Grandpa Anderson. It was a very fun and eventful weekend!

We are so grateful for the dads in our life. Especially Kory, he does so much for our family, and I could not ask for a better dad to my kids. He loves them so much and really does a good job setting a good example for them. I love sitting back and just watching him interact with Axel, they are such good buddies and Axel loves him to pieces.

Two weeks down...

2011-06-10T15:00:00.000-07:00

Dani had her two week (11 days actually) check up last Friday.

Weight 7 lbs 5 oz

24 %
Length 19.6 inches
29 %
Head 13.58
21 %

When I was filling out paper work the receptionist kept calling "Danielle? Danielle?" and it took like 3 calls before I was like OH that's my kid. I am so used to hearing "Axel" I think I just spaced it, and he wasn't even there with us.

The Dr said she is doing great and everything about her is "normal" from her ultra dry skin on her feet, to her cinnamon roll belly button, and including her lump on her head.
Lump on her head you ask? Yeah right as if you all haven't noticed it, but in case you haven't heard from us what it is, it's a hematoma, but it's on her head so it has a longer name but means the same. Basically its a blood vessel that burst during birth, and eventually it will go down when the blood is reabsorbed through her body. In simpler terms its a bruise. We just have to wait now, it could take a two weeks, two months or even still be around a year from now. But we were told there is nothing to worry about and that she is perfectly healthy, and those are super common.

This is a screen shot of a picture these guys took of her in the hospital, but it shows how big her bump was, it has gone down quite a bit since these were taken two weeks ago

She was quite grumpy during her appointment because she was hungry, but even at her maddest she is quite content. I would just have to talk to her and she'd stop crying and look at me.

She's our happy girl, we were so surprised to see her making smiles at us the first couple days and each day she gets older those smiles get more and more frequent. And if you are really lucky she will giggle for you in her sleep. (which kills us every time)When she isn't eating or sleeping, she is pretty much just kickin it and looking around and listening very intently to the world around her. And her arms and legs never stop moving! She is quite the wiggle worm!

She is also quite the pooper. Kid you not she is always pooping, and I am not just saying that because I forget, she really is always pooping.Axel has really started to love her to pieces. He brings her her binkie when she cries, and today he was very concerned for this morning as she was crying he climbed up on to our bed where she was and said "Why Crying?". It was very adorable. He will also lift up her car seat cover from time to time and say "boo"! Or this morning her binkie fell out and he said "ah oh, kinkie" and handed it to her. He is turning into a great older brother and helper.
We let him hold her for the first time the other day, and that made all the difference. I don't know why we waited so long to let him try. Maybe because he hasn't been interested and we didn't want to push her on him. But either way he held her and it was ADORABLE! And when I took her back he said "Hey, Mine!" and wanted to hold her again.
As for me, I am feeling GREAT! I love that I am not pregnant anymore, and the two kids thing has been so much easier this time for me. I think for the most part I am just kinda bored during the day. But we have been trying to keep our selves busy with walks, play dates and I set up a little play area in the part of our backyard that is decent for Axel to swim and Dani and I just chill in the shade. I did however get two mosquito bites! SO I either need to get some sort of off candle or have any of you seen those new clips? I think that is brilliant, I may be picking those up for me and Dani.

But it has been hard for me to not take on too much too soon because I feel really great. But I try to rest when my kids rest, which right now is never at the same time. So that still needs some adjusting.