LATE 2 year visit

Robby just had his two year check-up this past week (over a month late) and the here are the latest and greatest stats:

Weight: 32lb 20z (in the 90th percentile)

Length: 37.5 in (above 100th percentile)

He is continues to be a BIG boy with a big heart and an even bigger temper :) Like I continuously say, he is in the thick of the terrible two's. Aside from some of the unpleasantries associated with this age, there are some fun perks as well. He gives the biggest hugs and kisses now, especially after being in time out. He loves to scream all the way through prayers but as soon as we say amen he gets a big grin on his face and claps his hands with joy! He loves to jut out his bottom lip when he doesn't get what he wants. He loves to chase/ be chased by his big sister. He also loves it when she plays with him. Normally during the day I overhear him telling her "come pay (play) Sissie" or "Ma-ee (Maddie) les run." He still loves his blanket and pacifier and calls it "afi"- someday we may get rid of it....who knows.

It is so fun to see Robby talk more and more every day. Some of the fun phrases he now says include:

*"Daddy go bye-bye wook (work)"

*"I all done"

*"I see you"

*"More pease"

*"Hi baby, I lu (love) you"

*"Come pay ball"

*"Throw ball daddy"

*He now knows quite a few animal sounds and sometimes when we drive we play the "name the animal sound" game

*If Jesse is home in the morning when Robby wakes up, he usually volunteers to go in his room and will then go ahead and change his diaper. During the diaper change, Jesse loves to ask him what he dreamed about while sleeping. Robby has started copying his dad and when we are in the car driving I hear him saying " deam (dream) about cars, about trains, about balls, about planes, about trucks, etc."

*"No baf (bath), I pay (play)"-- this happens nightly

7 hours

congratulations mr. E!

your mommy is a happy girl after getting a solid nights rest.

he slept from 11pm-6am last night.

i could definitely get used to that!

Eli

10 weeks old and full of spunk

i just want to squeeze that little bum when I see this picture :)

he was showing us exactly how he felt about pictures

Dance Lessons

Last fall we signed Maddie up for dance lessons at a local dance studio called "Precision." This was her first official go at "lessons" other than swimming and at first I wasn't sure whether it would be a disaster or not. The first few weeks she REALLY struggled with listening to her teacher and would just randomly wander around the room, watching herself in the mirror, or hanging from the ballet bar upside down. Her teacher, Miss Michelle, would pick her up football style every now and again and bring her back to the rest of the class. Each week, after class, she would encourage me to continue bringing Madison to dance and tell me that it went a little better than the previous week. After several weeks of this, I started working much more and therefore I had others taking her to dance lessons for about six weeks.

When I finally made it back to her lessons I was shocked, elated, and thrilled to find that things had "clicked" with my little Maddie. She was standing in line, listening, waiting her turn, and dancing with the rest of the class. Not only that, but she had a big smile on her face the ENTIRE time and came out at the end of class bubbling with excitement about how well she listened to her teacher and proceeded to show me all her stickers she had earned in class. I am so glad we stuck with it and am so proud of my mini ballerina. I have to say that these lessons have helped immensely with her listening skills in an organized group setting and it's neat to see how much she has grown over the last six months. We cannot wait until recital time in May when she gets to dance with her very own daddy!

*fun pictures at dance lessons, courtesy of Jana (a fellow dance mommy)

2 months old

This post is a few weeks late, but better late than never :) Although he started out smaller than both of my other babies, he has sure been making up ground in the growth department. I tell myself that EVERY night when I seem to continuously get up to feed him! When he went for his check-up, the doctor was quite impressed that he had nearly doubled his birth weight and literally "jumped" up the growth charts.

Eli had his 2 month check-up a few weeks back and here are the latest and greatest stats:

12lb 15oz (60th percentile)

24.75 in long (75th percentile)

Caught It!

January Pictures

random-- i find that most of my pictures tend to be of the most random assortment. no stories to be told, no fun captions to mark them, just plain old pictures of my kids going about their normal life. but i actually LOVE to take pictures of our precious kids under normal circumstances and then look back and smile on the small & simple things of life. like the time i whipped out my camera to attempt to catch that heart-melting mile wide grin that Eli likes to put on display for me, only to catch the "serious" face each time I tried (1). or the time Eli was drunk happy after an extra long nursing session and wouldn't budge from his sleepy state, even with Robby and Maddie screaming and running around the couch pretending to be running from Monsters (2). or on a sunday when I was completely head over heels in love with the way Eli looked all dressed up in his big boy church shirt and pants (3). or when Maddie walked up to me and asked me to take her picture in her "pretty, pretty" outfit with good luck bear, proceeded to give me a totally sweet smile and then to top it all off actually looked at the camera with her eyes AND her head (4/5). or when i looked over at Robby during breakfast and noticed that he once again had his green train at the kitchen table and was trying to feed it his breakfast cereal and milk, with the most content look on his face (6). what a wonderful and sacred calling it is to mother these precious children and spend each day with them.

(1) I have been trying for the past month to get a picture of my little guy smiling. So far the only big grin I have managed to capture was on my phone (but I don't know how to transfer those to a computer??). This picture will have to do for now, until I can get a better one.

*note: i LOVE these mittens that my mother-in-law gave me for Eli to wear, they have SAVED his face from being covered in scratches!(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

(6)

February's Top Ten.....

10. The first weekend in February we went to the musical Lion King with my whole family (without kids). The singing was amazing, the costumes were the best I have ever seen, the babe slept the entire time, and we had fun company with us! The one bummer: we found at we had to pay for a lap child when we arrived. Yes...you heard that right; $24 for little Eli to sit in my arms and sleep the whole time. You gotta give them props for finding a way to squeeze a little more money out of people.

9. Going to the ASU Women's and Men's Gymnastics Meet with Maddie and Eli. We dropped Robby off at Nona and Papa's house and he had fun one-on-one time with his grandparents. We then met our good friends at In-N-Out Burger and ate dinner before heading over to Wells Fargo Arena. It was lots of fun and especially funny to watch Maddie doing her "nastics" in the aisle just like the girls on floor exercise. She is quite the wild child and I am afraid that most of the people around us were happy when we decided to make it a night.

8. This next one definitely isn't a top ten "good" thing to have happen, but is still noteworthy for the month of February. Robby mauled his little brother with one of his tow trucks after bath a few weeks back. I laid Eli down on the floor in the playroom long enough to run in the bathroom and hang up the bath towels. In that time period, Robby ran over to Eli and smacked him in the forehead/face with his truck. Poor Eli looked like we had beat him for nearly a week; I felt so bad that I called Jesse sobbing on the phone after it happened. Thank goodness his face healed quickly and he doesn't remember this incident. Needless to say, Robby went to bed EARLY that night (like 6pm) and I learned a valuable lesson: NEVER lay your baby down on the floor in the same room as his two year old brother.

7. I was able to go to Jamba Juice for some smoothies and gab time with my good friend/newlywed Carla. It was fun to sit and look at her gorgeous wedding pictures and talk about the good times together. It's always a fun night with that girl!

6. Oklahoma City vs. Phoenix Suns basketball game! We took our beloved Eli once again in tow and decked him out in full Suns attire. This time we watched them massacre Oklahoma City and witnessed LB's 41 point game: AWESOME (if you notice my double chin in the picture above, just reference down to number four on this list).

5. Taking Madison on a "mommy-daughter date" to the matinee showing of my younger brother's play performance of "Thoroughly Modern Millie." She sat so well during the play and was so interested in everything that was happening. On one part Millie picks a rose and starts singing. Madison announced that she was "so naughty for picking flowers...daddy would be so mad." *Hmmm...apparently Maddie does listen to what her dad says, she just hasn't quite mastered the part about obeying as well.

4. Being welcomed back to LA Fitness with brand new membership cards, after suffering a clothing meltdown on Valentines Day while trying to get dressed for our church's Sweetheart Ball.

3. One of my newest passions is making jewelry. I have inherited this love from my dear mother. I am officially blaming her for getting me hooked on this stuff. She is so crafty and has been doing beads for years, but just recently she has sucked me into this addicting new hobby. I went to a bead party this month and made an adorable new necklace for Maddie and one for my cutest ever niece for her birthday!

2. The reorganized park days in our neighborhood! My kids LOVE LOVE LOVE to be outside and so we have been so excited to once again have an official park day to meet up with friends and play. I now have Robby and Maddie both asking me every day if we are going to go "pay at pock pease" (in Robby's words).

1. We have been taken over by trains and cars at our household. This isn't an official "thing" that happened but is instead a daily occurence at our house. Robby has so many cars, trucks, and trains after hitting the jackpot on his birthday; that it feels like no matter where you look in our house, you will find one. I would try harder at keeping them in the box where they belong, but the thing is he is constantly playing with them. His beloved green train accompanies him at mealtime and occasionally is fed his own serving of food, they follow him over to the couch to watch movies, he always has a few outside in case he gets bored playing in the dirt. He even has to have several in his crib when he naps and goes to bed. Hooray for having a little boy!

Helping Daddy Wash the Car

Only in Arizona can you wear clothes like these in February, and run around & play in the water outside without freezing to death! (We LOVE our warm winters)

One of Robby's favorite things to do outside, is walk around with Maddie's pink lawn mower and pretend to mow the lawn, cement, rocks, and dirt "just like daddy." His other favorite pasttime would be to putter around in the garage with either Daddy or Papa in all the tools.

You've been tagged, now fill in the answers and tag 10 or more people... don't forget to tag me!!

1. Who was your FIRST prom date?..................Mike Spears at Red Mountain High School
2. Do you still talk to your FIRST love?...............Nope
3. What was your 1st alcoholic drink?................................Never had one--ever
4. What was your FIRST job?...................................besides household jobs and babysitting, it would have to be my short stint at Arby's
5. What was your FIRST car?..................................1994 Nissan Sentra--I drove it all the way through college and beyond :)
6. Who was the FIRST person to text you today?...................My sister
7. Who is the FIRST person you thought of this morning?...........My little E at 12:30am when he awoke me from a short slumber
8. Who was your FIRST grade teacher?..................Mrs. Reese
9. Where did you go on your FIRST ride on an airplane?..........To Orange County, CA when I was 15 months old (thanks Dad for the info); I have flown WAY too many times to remember since then.
10. Who was your FIRST best friend & do you still talk?........My sister Loriann who is older than me by 16 months and we talk almost every day. Besides her I would have to say DeeDee Smith and Kelly Bower that lived on my street in Bountiful, Utah; haven't seen or heard from them in YEARS.
11. Where was your FIRST sleep over?......My first I had was my 10 year old birthday party.
12. Who was the FIRST person you talked to today?...........Jesse sometime in the middle of the night as I whined about how tired I was
13. Whose wedding were you in the FIRST time?..............My own wedding, besides that my sisters wedding (actually the only other wedding I have been in besides my own)
14. What was the FIRST thing you did this morning?..........Fed the babe
15. FIRST tattoo?......................................................I suppose permanent eyeliner if that counts
16. First piercing?...................................................... Ears--when I was 8.
17. First foreign country you've been to?.....................Canada or Mexico
18. FIRST movie you remember seeing?.................The summer movie fun one's at the local movie theater called the Sandcastle when I was a kid.
19. When was your FIRST detention?.............................I don't really remember ever going to detention: maybe I have blocked that part of my life out??
20. What was the first state you lived in?........................Utah

Tag your it: To anyone who wants to!!

happy. love. day.

my other half: the love of my life...always up for some hardcore balloon tying entertainment for the kids; need i say more?!

i love love love my little E...and 100% totally agree with his onesie; don't you?

i love this little miss thing....even covered in rocky road ice cream and constantly dressed up in princess attire.

i love this little boy...especially with his blankie on his head. it makes it convenient to keep his security blanket with him always and his hands free to do what they please.

tHe tRaiN PaRTy

Cousin Kaylin was nice enough to help Robby play with all of his new toys!!

Robby's 2nd Birthday!