Would You Believe

Would you believe that I have never:
-been skiing, or snow boarding
-been to Lake Powell, Bear Lake, Moab, or Arches (all popular Utah destinations)
-read or seen the Twilight series
-played the Wii
-dyed my hair
-even tried to drive a stick-shift
-been to Europe or Africa
-been to San Fransisco
-sold my house
-tried the Cheesecake Factory
-seen Breakfast at Tiffany's
-backpacked in the wilderness
-had a loan for more than 3 months (besides a mortgage)
-stayed overnight in the hospital, besides when I had my babies.

All in good time.
Except the loan, I hope.
And the hospital. We can always hope that stays the same til my dying day.
And I don't think I'll ever go skiing. I'm too wimpy. Skiing is too expensive for wimps.
And probably not dye my hair. It's just not me.
Ok, maybe not Twilight either. High school vampires in love just doesn't sound like my cup of tea.

But would you believe that I HAVE:
-pet a wombat in Australia
-snorkeled
-eaten a snail (not a fan of snails. cooked or alive)
-hiked rice terraces
-celebrated New Year's Eve watching fireworks on the beach
-hiked pyramids in Mexico and Central America
-drank water straight from a spring
-taught myself to paint
-seen a whale in the wild
-sported a bindi for a day
-written my autobiography (to age 20)
-married my first and only love
-brought 3 people into this world!
-at a rate of approximately 6 diapers a day per kid, in the last 5 years I have changed about 11,315 diapers!
-been blessed to stay home and raise my babies.  Even with all of the sleeplessness and headaches and feelings of inadequacy, it's the best job in the world. Thanks Ollie for working so hard for us so that my dream job can be a reality

I wasn't kidding

I wasn't kidding when I said I took a million pictures of Baby the other wintery day.
It took me a few days to find the time to go through them all, and choose my favorites.  But here they are!
Get ready for out-of-this-world-cuteness, and lots of it!

Mmmmm Mmmmm Mmmm!

Oh What Do You Do In the Wintertime...

...when all the world is gray?
and freezing?
and you have little ones?
This is what we do:
- Play cars and line them up into what Hammer calls "trains":

-Dance, dance, dance:

Take a million pictures of your baby:

No really.  I took hundreds today:

Which reminds me: Be prepared for another post with lots of cute pictures of Baby sitting up.  It will take me a while to choose my favorites and edit them a little. This is your preview:

I love his baby feet and his rolls:

Feed the Baby his baby food:

Sorry Hammer is pantless. That brings us to another thing we are slowly working on while we are stuck indoors:
-Motivate Hammer to get potty trained!
Ok, just a few more...
-Lots of dress ups
-Lots of play dates with friends
-Play Leapster and card games (Old Maid and Go Fish)

What do you do?

Jen (and Lulu) makes Baby laugh

2011 was good to us

2011 was a great year.
It was fun to look back at my posts and see what was most important to me and what pictures I loved.  Those are usually the things I blog about so it was great to have one place to see it all.
I love to see how my kids have grown, what new things they've learned, and how cute they are.
I like to blog about how amazing my husband is, but it embarrasses him, hence there are few posts in regards to that.  But looking back on the year, even though I didn't write about it a lot, I can see how lucky I am to have him.
I also like to see what I have accomplished and how I have changed.  I have learned new skills, brought another person into this world, and tried to make my life more beautiful.  Once again, blogging has helped me to really look at my life and see what is most important, then I can refocus every day on that. (Maybe that's me rationalizing to myself and to my brother-in-law (not that he even really cares) why I spend time on this blog.  But I think it's mentally beneficial and a creative outlet and a great way for me with my terrible memory to record the little things in my life.)
Maybe you will find this post long and monotonous, but I loved it.

In January

Hammer turned 2, I tried my hand at some lunch food art, made some animal hooded towels, found out we were having another boy, my favorite post was where I wrote about how pregnancy makes me dumb, and made an adorable snow man family with the kids.

In February

we went to Disney World!  Then Lulu turned 4, she took her first pictures with her new camera, enjoyed Valentine's Day, and my favorite post was when I wrote a sweet letter just for Lulu.

In March

I fell asleep in the warm sunshine, Hammer moved into a big boy bed, I hit my 6 months pregnancy mark, we celebrated St Patty's Day, and I started a photography class.

In April

I photographed evidences of Spring, bought a minivan, my favorite post was where I practiced some photography with Lulu, enjoyed seeing the new calves in the field behind our neighbors, had 2 more weeks of photography class, and laughed at more of Lulu's own pictures.

In May

my favorite post was where I wrote about my daily grind and what makes me productive, I loved Lulu's preschool mother's day gift, finished my photography class, finished painting my mother-in-law's mural, wondered why Hammer was acting differently, thoroughly enjoyed Lulu's first dance recital, and saw the "ephalants" at the zoo.

In June 

my favorite post was where I wrote about how I was still calm even though I was ready to pop, then we had a baby!  Then I wrote about Baby's 1st week of life, enjoyed help from my family, compared Baby's newborn pictures to his siblings, and still felt my hormones had not fully readjusted.

In July

we celebrated the 4th, Baby turned 1 month old,  tried to take a photo shoot of Baby (about 2 weeks too late though), my favorite post was when I blogged about why I blog, and documented our every day life in photos for a whole week.

In August

we went to Liberty Park and the Dinosaur park with my parents, saw a video of Baby's first smiles, Ollie blessed Baby, we finally had our first tomatoes from our garden, my favorite post was where I blogged about how sweet Baby is, wrote about Baby's name meaning, and Lulu had her first soccer game.

In September 

Lulu started at her new preschool, we enjoyed our summer evenings, I wrote about where I was on 9/11, Hammer felt left out of all of Lulu's adventures, I took Lulu's soccer pictures myself (and Hammer's), we had a weekend centered around activities with Daddy, and my favorite post was the list of things that I'm excited for Lulu to still experience in life.

In October

we looked at Lulu's latest pictures that were amazingly good, enjoyed the Fall colors over Conference weekend, Baby measured huge at his 4 month appointment, I photographed evidences of Fall,  my favorite post was where I worked out my issue with past memories, had an abnormally warm weekend full of outside fun, and I documented the current tender mercies of the Lord in my life.

In November

we shared our pictures from Halloween, my favorite post was where I opened up about my not-the-best-mom-day, Baby had his first rice cereal, I decided how to show my gratitude, we had a great thanksgiving even if I did accidentally erase most of the pictures, and seeing our Christmas tree at night made me happy.

In December

I wrote about what helps me stay motivated to exercise, Baby had his 6 month check-up and took some mighty cute pictures whilst waiting for the doctor, my favorite post was about the Little Nativity scene we created, we visited Santa, we had some new Holiday traditions and decor, I shared the Christmas card I made of my 3 little reindeer, explained our Christmas Jar, and documented our not-quite-perfect-but-close Christmas.

The makings of a great 3rd birthday

Here's how it played out.
Friday, January 6th; B-day
First things first, we placed the celebration wreath on the front door for all to know that it was a special day:

Next, we let Hammer choose a new box of cereal for breakfast.  He chose well:

After breakfast, the kids enjoyed watching/helping me start the cake:

While the cake was cooking and while the Baby was nursing before his supposed morning nap, the kids watched a little PBS in mom's room:

After mom made lots of frosting and Hammer played lots of cars and Lulu played lots of Leapster and Baby did not really nap, we were all starved.  Off to Little Caesar's for a special birthday lunch to bring home:

Then there was lots more playing and cake decorating until Grammie and Dad arrived for present opening time.  Check out this action shot:

Hammer loved his McQueen wrapping paper, and all his cool new presents:

And here is his cake! McQueen is at the finish line:

Other cars racing up the cake behind McQueen:

And some stoplight cupcakes:

The cake was kind of a disaster, because I went more for taste than for looks this time.  But it did taste good, and Hammer liked it.  That's what counts right?  Although I'd like to try again with the knowledge I gained from this experience.  Anyone want to order a Cars birthday cake from me?
Can you tell he's really into cars?  I didn't include a picture of the awesome Cars decal I made out of fondant and put on top of the cake, because it says his name instead of the word Cars.  Then there's a 3 in the V underneath, instead of a 2.  You got that pictured in your head?  It was cute.
So we sang Happy Birthday to him:

And he blew out his candles:

And ate his cake:

I wanted a picture with the birthday boy and his prized birthday balloon:

This picture is too funny not to include too.  Check out Hammer's face:

To top it all off, we had another glow-in-the-dark tubby time:

That's always awesome:

But no, the fun didn't stop there on the actual birthday day!
We also had some birthday fun on Saturday, January 7th too.
Here's Hammer at Toys R Us picking out a small present from Geoffrey, the Toys R Us Giraffe. Hammer chose a life-like stretchy iguana, and some cars:

We also stopped for a free ice cream scoop at Baskin Robbins.  Lulu enjoyed the free scoop actually while Hammer got a mini parfait.  Mmm:

And so another year has passed, and this little man is 3!
He is such a delight to have in our home.  So funny.  So cute.  So imaginative.  So silly.  So boy.
We just love him.
Now, we just need to work on getting him out of diapers!

Life Lately According to My Phone

December Edition:

In love with the Grinch

Such a happy baby

The Christmas Jar

Our first Christmas Jar Activity

Baby's 6 month check-up

Waiting forever for the Dr

My new homemade mini tissue trees

Sick little Lulu

Hammer's funny face

I love the tree at night

Our tree

The Lights Before Christmas

More Lights

Hammer fell asleep waiting for Lulu to come out of preschool

My keys

Baby also waiting for Lulu to get in the van after preschool

Lulu's squinky sitting on Santa's lap and asking for a Leapster

Lulu waiting for an xray

Baby finds his toes

Cute baby, tired momma

Even though Hammer doesn't love his blocks, I do

Hammer loves to wear sunglasses inside