Big Girl Bed

Tonight my baby girl decided she wants to be a big girl.  I had painted and decorated her new room and placed the toddler bed in there.  Never did we pressure her to sleep in there.  But we were always showing her her new room and telling her it was going to be her room when she wanted to be a big girl.  Well, tonight she decided was the night.  Without us saying a word, she went straight to her new room and climbed into her new bed.  She had some trouble adjusting, and wanted us to move the crib into the room as well, but wanted to stay sleeping in the big bed.  The end result...we moved the bed into her old room.  Once she's used to the big bed, we'll move her into a new room.  Too many changes at once is a bit overwhelming, especially if you're 2. 

I'm excited for her taking this step all on her own. Yet, I'm a little sad. It's the first time we haven't had a baby in the crib.

First Day of Preschool

I used to think that having a kid go to 2 years of preschool was a bit crazy.  I thought this until I had Logan.  Once Logan hit the age of 1 or so, I couldn't wait to get him in an environment that would be perfect for him.  He loves learning and needs lots of stimulation.  Without hesitation, we enrolled him in Explorer Center Preschool for this year.  His first day was today.  And he LOVED it!  Once I picked him up from class and got him in the car, the first thing he asked was "Can we go back?"  Coming from Logan, this is an excellent sign.  I was nervous dropping him off.  He has a tendency to not listen and do his own thing.  He's very stubborn.  But the teachers assured me that he did well and over time will get the hang of things.  I'm so glad that he's going to school and actually enjoying it.  I have to admit, I've enjoyed having the time too.  Who knew you could get so much done in 2 hours with only one kid versus two.  (I think I did at one time, but forgot.)

His first school art project. I was told it was supposed to be his face. Guess we have a Picaso in the family. ;)

Pony Rides

Today for our play group, we went to Seattle Pony Rides, which is actually just 2 minutes down the road from us in Snohomish. There were a lot of kids, which meant, a lot of waiting and impatient children. But the kids loved riding the ponies. I'm not sure if it's something we'll do again...perhaps when the kids are a little older. But it was a good experience. Not only did they get to ride the ponies, but they got to feed them carrots too!

2 year stats

Olivia turned 2 a few weeks ago,and she had her 2 year well-check a week ago. I'm just now getting to posting about it. (It's been a busy week.)

Anyway, those of you who have been around Olivia know she's a big girl. She's always been a big girl, even from day 1. Here's the proof of just how big she really is:

Weight: 33lbs (95%)
Height: 35 3/4" (95%)

But let's be honest. She's not really big, she's just big for her age. The Dr. said she's the size of a 2 1/2 + year old. And quite frankly, she's almost as big as Logan. (He's about 36lbs and maybe 38". I'm not sure though, haven't really taken the time to measure him.) My prediction for her adult height is about 5'8". I think she'll be taller than me for sure.

But enough about her height. This girl is all about the drama. She has to be heard. She sings songs almost 24/7 and more than half of them I'm pretty sure she makes up since I have no idea what she's singing. But it's fun to listen to her. Every time we go to a park, she runs to the swings while shouting "THIS IS THE BEST DAY EVER!" (from Tangled) Apparently, that would make pretty much every day the best day ever. She cracks me up.

I love that she gets along so well with Logan. They play very well together and always seem to be concerned about one another. For the most part she's a happy girl, she does have her tantrums, but who doesn't? She hates getting into trouble. So it's been pretty easy to discipline her if and when it's needed. She is my little angel.

Day at the Beach

Our second day at Cannon Beach was so beautiful that we spent it at the beach. Only makes sense, right? My kids are loving every minute of being here, and I'm loving every minute of watching them have so much fun.



Is this just not the cutest? I LOVE it!







I'm lovin' the beach. Maybe one day we'll live by one. I could spend every day here and be happy. Watching Sam play with the kids, and watching the kids have so much fun...yes, this is my heaven.

Our Fourth of July

The 4th was celebrated at Cannon Beach, OR. We are having a wonderful time here. The weather is being very cooperative, which we always appreciate. The morning of the 4th we went to the Cannon Beach parade. It was so much fun to watch the parade, and the kids really enjoyed getting the candy.



Later that night, we had our own little fireworks show for the kids. Mainly sparklers and a couple little fireworks. It was the first time we did anything like that for the kids and they both had a really great time, even though they were a bit hesitant at first. We even let Logan stay up late and watch the fireworks on TV. He really enjoyed that.

Happy Birthday Olivia!

My sweet little girl is 2!!! Can you believe it? I can't. She sure is a sweet little thing. She had her favorite dinner...pizza. And we had some family over for cake. Nothing big, but that's just perfect. Her favorite movie is "Tangled" so I got her a cake to match. She loved it!








We opened presents, which took longer than it should have. Olivia loves to show off and gets distracted easily. She got a lot of really good things, but she seemed to really like her "Tinkerbell" DVD. She's been asking for that movie for a long time. Another present she really liked was her bike. She couldn't even wait for it to be put together the right way before she got on it. I have a feeling she'll be wanting to go outside more often than she does now (if that's possible). Thank you Grandma H. She loves it!





She really had a great birthday! She sure is lucky to live nearby so many family members that love her.

This past week

So my computer broke. That seems to be happening to lots of people lately, or so I've heard. We have another computer, but mine is where all the pictures are. Oh well. I sent it in to be fixed since it wasn't even a year old. One day I'll get it back. Until then, we'll just have to settle for words only, unless by some miracle I can find the cable that hooks my camera to this computer.

Anyway, this week hasn't had a whole lot of different things from the norm, but there are some things I wanted to document while I remember them.

First off, things Olivia has been saying....

*Did you know that play doh is actually called "Punk"? Well, it is, according to Olivia

*She had her first "official" time out the other day. Once she was sitting on the step and we told her she was in time out she replied "Ah NUTS!" Sam and I had to go to a different room and laugh. Even when she's in trouble she's still incredibly cute. But we have to learn to stand firm with her or else we could be the ones in trouble later.

*Some of her favorite phrases include:
"Come with me mommy"
"Follow me mommy"
"Watch this" (and then she proceeds to do some sort of dance move)
"I'm so silly"
"Where are you?" (while putting her hands to her mouth as if to be louder)
"I need a coat and socks and shoes" (She's very into dressing for cold outdoor weather and going outside)
"Logan, stop it, listen to me" (Yes, she's very bossy)

Both kids are into quoting movies as of late. They love to quote "Tangled", "Cars", and just recently, "The Incredibles".

Speaking of the Incredibles, Logan has become "Incred-a-boy" whenever he's outside and refuses to be called anything else. So I've learned to go with it and ask Incred-a-boy if he needs anything. But once inside, he's Logan again and he tells me so. It's very fun to watch him use his imagination. I was beginning to wonder about him, but it's appeared and I couldn't be more pleased.

Potty training is going very well for what little time we've spent on it. He's really good the first half of the day, and not so good in the afternoon/evening. But again, good at night when he decides to wake us up at 2 in the morning! Ugh! Oh well. We're getting there and then it will be Olivia's turn. Oh the joys of parenthood!

So that's been our week. Not too exciting, but the kids are growing and it's fun to watch, for me anyway. :)

Summer? time fun

I question the summer part because frankly, I don't think that mid 60's and rain off an on make a good summer. Granted, we are in Western Washington, and this weather is to be expected. And, okay, so summer doesn't officially start for a few more weeks. But it makes it hard to want to go out and play. Despite all that, we've been trying to make the best of it so far. Hopefully the weather will cooperate later on and we can really get into the fun of summertime.

In the meantime though, we've been going to parks, indoor pools, and hanging out in the yard. I've found that if we leave the house each morning and I let the kids run around for an hour or so, I get 2 hours of "me" time while the kids nap. That's right, Logan is napping again. I've been working him hard. ;)









Another thing we've recently started to tackle....Potty training. I've been dreading this day since Logan was born. But it's here and I feel will be around for quite some time. Logan is actually doing quite well, but I was hoping for an overnight success. (HaHa) Go ahead and laugh, I'm laughing too. He fights me with having to go to the bathroom and wants to wear diapers, but I'm insistent that those days are over. The best thing I've found that works for Logan is LOTS of praise. I'm serious, I totally go overboard with the hugs and praise and kisses, but it works. I think he likes all the attention. The only thing is, Olivia is starting to feel left out and now wants to potty train too. I guess that's a good thing, but I don't have the energy or patience to potty train two kids at once. That's a lot of bathroom trips. Hopefully by the end of summer though, I'll be done with kids in diapers for awhile. That's my dream anyway.

A walk with Bailey

A week or so ago (I've lost all sense of time recently), Sam's brother and sister-in-law visited. They have the cutest little girl, Bailey. I regret I didn't get any pictures with them, but on the last night, we all went for a walk and I was able to get some pictures of the kids together. We found frogs, played tether ball, and just had an all around good time being with each other.

A new addition to the family

No, we're not pregnant. Yesterday we got ourselves this....





Isn't she beautiful? This was totally not planned. We had just been talking about getting a minivan at some point. We've always wanted an Odyssey, but knew we wouldn't be able to afford one so we decided to check out Kia Sedona's. Yesterday we decided that I would go test drive just to see what I liked better. I drove a Sedona and I liked it. Then I went to the Honda dealership and test drove a 2008 Odyssey Touring and I HATED it. It actually surprised me at how much I disliked it and at that point was determined to get the Kia. But then I test drove the above car, a 2011 EX-L-Res. I fell in love with it when I first saw it, without even looking on the inside. It "spoke" to me. I became even more in love with it when I learned it had everything I wanted, leather interior, entertainment system, and dual power sliding doors. The salesman was kind enough to let me drive it home to show Sam and the kids. They all fell in love too. Logan said it was "a pretty car" a "cool car". We decided that instead of buying it, we would lease. With all the specials going on for the Memorial Weekend, we got a pretty good deal. So this is our new family car for the next 3 years. We're all pretty excited about it.

On a side note, we traded in our Accord. The AC had just recently gone out and it needed a new windshield. Hence the reason we were discussing getting a new car at one point. We loved that car, but were very surprised to find out that it had been totalled at one point and rebuilt. It was missing parts! We had a carfax done when we bought it, and it didn't show any report of an accident. We were scammed. Lesson learned, don't buy from a private dealer.

I need to take more pictures

Lots has happened lately, and I have no pictures to document. For starters, my recovery went better than I expected. By day 10 I was almost back to normal, day 13, pretty much normal. The only thing now is a tiny sore throat that's really not any worse than normal (for me anyway). I'm excited to have this be over with and to be able to not be sick ALL the time!

The kids had lots of fun while I was "away", but they were so excited to see that I was, as Logan put it, "not sick anymore". My kids are great. They drive me absolutely insane at times, but they are so fun.

Currently Sam's brother Joel, and his wife LeighAnn are visiting. They have a cute little girl, Bailey, who my kids absolutely adore. The three of them have been having fun playing together. It'll be sad when they have to leave. I think Logan will take it the hardest. Bailey and Logan are getting along great, so much so that Olivia has gotten a little jealous that she's not getting as much attention from Logan as she's used too. Wrestling has become a favorite sport of hers, not so much for Logan. It'll be interesting to see how she reacts to Logan going to pre-school in the fall.

The young women in my ward at Church have been fantastic. They've been coming by in the afternoons after school to help with the kids so I can continue to rest a bit and get 100% better. That has been a tremendous blessing for us. The kids love the attention, and I love being able to rest some more.

I am so excited for the summer. I just hope the weather cooperates and warms up a bit. There are lots of little hikes I want to take the kids on and a bunch of other little outdoor things. Some day soon though, it will all happen.

While the cat's away the mice will play

Since I've been laid up in bed, I have had my wonderful mom, husband, sister-in-law, and brother-in-law and wife help out with the kids. It seems that every time I'm laid up, the kids always have so much fun. One day though, I'll be having that fun with them. The kids have been pretty good, as far as I can tell. I haven't heard too much screaming from my room and that's always a good sign. Logan has become very helpful around the house. It seems my vacuuming days are over. Logan loves to do it. My mom told me that he wanted to vacuum so much that she told him to pick up the toys and then he could vacuum. Apparently he got so excited that he picked up the toys really fast and then vacuumed, not one room, but pretty much the whole house! Way to go Logan! While Logan is cleaning and such, Olivia has been keeping herself busy with coloring, art projects and tv. I'm glad the weather has been semi-decent, it gets the kids outside every now and then. They've even been so lucky as to go to the Children's Museum and Jump Planet. I'm glad they are having fun. I don't know if Olivia even misses me, but I know that Logan does (every now and then at least). He asks every now and then if he can lay down in bed with me because "that will help mommy be better". Really, he just wants to play in our room, which is off limits.

But my favorite thing to hear was a couple of days ago when Sam came up and told me that just before they said prayer for dinner, Logan said to Sam "we need to bless to make mommy better". So, he did, and once the prayer was over Logan said "Yeah, now mommy is all better!" Ah, the simple faith of a 3 year old. He was quite ditraught that I wasn't actually completely better, but he was reassured that it helped me to feel better, even for a little bit and that I'll get better faster. It still brings tears to my eyes. He is such a sweet and caring little boy!

Tonsillectomy

So those of you who know me well, know that I get sick about every other week or so. It's almost always tonsillitis. So I saw a specialist and he agreed that my tonsils needed to come out. So last week they did. While I was getting ready I had a few nurses ask me some questions, one of them being, "Are you sick now?" my answer "No, not really, but my throat hurts." The anesthesiologist came in and asked some questions and asked me to tip my head back (they were going to put in a breathing tube and she needed to look I guess) once I did, she exclaimed "My goodness, I know why those are coming out!" Apparently they were pretty swollen, which I knew but had been used to it since it had been so long. Once I woke up and was in the recovery room the doctor came in and told me that it's a good thing we took them out. They were completely infected. Eww gross!

I had been told some rather horrific stories of adults getting their tonsils out. It freaked me out so much that I wanted to cancel. But my loving husband insisted that it be done. But those stories helped me prepare. I prepared myself for pain like I've never felt before. After a wonderful blessing from Sam the morning of, I was ready. Well, as ready as one can be for such things. It's been a week, and yes, there have been days that have been harder than others, but it really hasn't been as bad as I was expecting. True, there is pain, but it's just like having tonsillitis only a tad worse. I was told to stay in bed for 10-14 days. I'm on day 7 or so. Yes, it hurts, but I'm so glad I did it. I'm halfway through the "worst" of it. I'm anxious to get back on my feet and get back to a normal life. Who knew that having your tonsils out would be so exhausting. Of course, being on percocet every 4 hours is probably contributing to the exhaustion, and possibly helping me think I don't have as much pain as I could. I am so glad I did it and can't wait for summer to come and to actually be able to enjoy it with my kids. :)

Family Pictures

I found a deal online one day for a 30 minute photo shoot with a professional photograher for only $40, which included pictures. I thought it was a great deal, so I signed us up for it. Normally I take the kids to JC Penney or do them myself, or my favorite, have my wonderful sister-in-law take the pictures...Seriously, she's amazing! But I thought it would be fun to try this out, for $40 I thought it would be worth it. It was a $350 value, so I figured why not? I'm glad we did. He was very patient with us. Sam and I do not photograph very well and the kids tend to go crazy after 2 seconds. But Les Hays did a wonderful job. Our pictures were scheduled for the week before Easter. To my surprise, he had a couple baskets with easter eggs and a live bunny rabbit as props. I was impressed. But I was even more impressed that he got Logan to smile. He didn't want to be there and nothing Sam and I did worked. But Les worked his magic and we got some great shots.

A day at the zoo

The other day was beautiful. The sun finally showed and it was even a little warm, not too warm, but warm enough for jackets, not coats. :) A friend of mine was planning on taking her boys to the zoo and invited us to go along. At first I said no. I had no intention of taking my two crazy kids to the zoo without their dad to help. Even with my friend, we were still outnumbered, two 3 year olds, a 22 month old, and a year and a half old. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to chase after them. But after the awful beginning to the day, I quickly realized that staying at home would not be any good. I was quite proud of myself though, I got the kids fed and dressed, myself dressed,a picnic lunch packed and everything we needed for the day ready in about 20 minutes. We even made it to the zoo before my friend. We had planned to meet at 10. We live about 45 minutes away, and we planned this around 9ish. Needless to say, I felt really rushed, but I'm so glad we did it. The kids were very well behaved and had a great time!

This bear was awesome. He knew how to pose for the camera. He smiled for pretty much everyone and then proceeded to show off. I wish I had video of it. Hilarious!