First Sleepover

Brooke had her first real sleepover with her friend Brooklyn a few weeks ago. Maria took the girls to Disneyland for the day and then the girls got to do a sleep over at our house. They had a lot of fun and did great! These two have sooo much fun together and really are the best of friends.

10 Months

My little baby is now a little man. It seems everyday I see a little bit more of the little baby in him leave and a little bit more of the "little man" become apparent. He is still such a delight to be around. He LOVES his sister more than anything (despite the torture and teasing) and will follow her around and cry when she leaves the room. He loves just about any activity. He loves bath time, eating, dancing, singing, playing with toys, etc... This month he has started to say "Dada" even though I have tried t0 teach him Mama far more often. He does a half scoot half crawl and is pretty fast getting around the house. He will play peek-a-boo with you by putting one of his hands on his forehead "covering" his eyes and then pull it away with a huge delighted smile, that melts my heart. He is starting to have a little bit of separation anxiety and doesn't want to be away from me, and wants to held by me a lot. (which I love:) ) He is also teething SUPER bad and has a lot of crazy gum problems at the moment that is making him a pretty bad sleeper and a fussy baby. It is sad because he is never like that and I know he must be in a lot of pain. He likes to shake his head no. He loves to "schmeegle" (no I don't expect anyone outside my family to know what that means), and he loves to babble and scream in a high pitched voice. He is starting to give kisses and wave bye bye. He loves to watch people and observe. He is still a very timid baby and very laid back. I love him with all my heart and I KNOW I am the luckiest Mom in the whole world. Happy 10 months sweetie!

Don't you just want to kiss that little face?

Happy Valentines Day!

We love you all! Have a wonderful valentine's Day!!

Awful...

Well I am sitting here with a pit of guilt in my stomach. I feel a little silly posting this right after I posted about "hitting my stride" but hey that is real life.

I freaked out at Brooke today, and I'm not talking about a little bit. I freaked out BIG time! She had been whining for about an hour straight and the last two days she has been taking Preston's toys over and over again. This combination are my least favorite things kids can do. Whining I absolutely dislike and when she always takes whatever Preston is playing with really gets to me.

So here is the situation - I had just blown up 72 red balloons by hand so we could have a Valentine's balloon party together. Brooke had just woke up from a nap which is when she is normally is at her best. But as soon as she got up it was non-stop whining. In an attempt to get her to stop I took her downstairs and surprised her with all the balloons. We were all playing together but every time Preston grabbed a balloon she would go take it. Um hello, don't you realize there are 72 of these things? I kept telling her to stop taking them but after the 10th time or so of her taking them just to be mean. And yes she was trying to be mean, I lost it...

I grabbed her and started yelling at her. Threw her on her bed and told her to "STOP TAKING PRESTON"S TOYS!!" I kept yelling at her that she needed to listened to what I said. If I said to stop taking Preston's toys she needed to do that. If I told her to stop screaming in the house then she needed to do it. (She always screams louder when I ask her to be quite.) She pretty much has started to disobey everything I ask her to do just because. I am a consistent parent. if she does something there is always a consequence. So why does she do things to disobey on purpose??

So I did, I totally and completely lost it. I yelled at my daughter for a good minute or so (loud and mean, not a nice yell), and now I feel awful.

I grew up in a house of yelling, so unfortunately that is the first thing that comes to me when I am angry or when I really just don't know how else to react. Normally I know this and I stop to cool off before I do something but today just really set me off.

Sometimes I feel like I am the worst parent in the world even though I know that 95% off the time I am being a pretty good one.

It really does amaze me how I have only screamed like that today and now I feel like it will be the only thing she remembers.

So there you go I feel terrible and really feel like I don't know how to parent anymore.

Consistency isn't working. The yelling today..worked. What does that mean??

I know I don't want to be a "yeller" so that rules that out.

Brooke is hard right now. She likes to do whatever I ask her not to do. I will just keep praying for help from heaven in raising her. But today I learned that yelling is a awful feeling that I don't want in my home or in my relationship with her.

I know this may seem like a basic concept but it was a profound one for me today. I hope this post will be a good reminder to me the next time I want to scream.

Hit my stride

Lately I have felt like I have really hit my stride as a mom of two. It took me 8 months, but every day I felt like I learned a little bit more to be more efficient, patient, helpful, etc.. So now I feel like two kids is pretty easy. I am loving how smooth life is right now. I know that means something will happen to throw everything off course again until we all adjust again, because that is just the cycle of being a mom. Once you figure out a stage it changes.

I have also fallen head over heels in love with my kids. I didn't think I could love them anymore, but then they do something that makes my heart grow even bigger. I love that!

Brooke is such a sweet and loving girl. She is always trying to take care of other's and she is a really good friend to all those around her. She has gotten better about sharing, she doesn't cry when we brush her teeth anymore, she stays in bed until her "cow clock" wakes up and then she gets out. She listens good and chooses the right most of the time. She says the cutest things all the time and probably has just as eloquent a vocabulary as I do. She really just understands life, and loves it. I am so thankful for her and I am so glad that I am her mommy!! What a lucky person I am!

Preston is my little gift. I know how much Heavenly Father must love me just because of what a sweet baby he sent to me. He is patient, sweet, funny, happy, and just about every other good quality you could think of. He rarely cries. He is almost always laughing or smiling. He is a tender spirit and I can tell that he loves everyone around him. It is as if you can see the love that he has for his sister, daddy and others by the way he is with them, even though he is so little. He is starting to grow up so big lately and it is breaking my heart a little bit. I can't wait to see him in other stages of his life but he has been such a sweet baby it is hard to see that stage leaving. He can stand up, he is almost crawling, he scoots around the house just laughing and squealing in delight. He sleeps through the night normally from 6 PM to 6:30 AM. He does the cutest babbles and has a cute low man voice.( He can also scream and squeal like a girl though.) He loves to eat, and eats just about everything we do. He got four teeth this month, and even though you can tell he is in pain he rarely fusses over them. He really is the perfect baby. I'll put my order in for 5 more just like him.

I feel almost guilty to have as much love for my kids as I do. I am so grateful that being with them is my job and that I get to go through all the bad and all the good of every stage of life with them.

Brooke's Testimony

We had a FHE on Testimonies about a month ago. I wrote down Brooke's and then totally forgot about it. I found it today while going through some papers. It is so precious and I do not want to lose it so I am going to post it here. Here is Brooke's Testimony at 2.5 years old. Word for word what she said.

- I Know I can play with Heavenly Father.

- I love Jesus.

- Jesus loves children.

- Jesus makes our beautiful world.

- I know Jesus got born.

- Jesus got baptized in the water with a bird. (no we are not teaching weird things she is referring to the dove that came down from heaven after Christ was baptized. silly girl!)

- We get married at the Temple.

- Jesus talks at the Temple to hear us. (Once again not teaching weird things she is talking about the statue of Christ at the visitors center at the LA Temple. By the way if you have not gone to the LA Temple visitors center being a Mormon or not you should! It is amazing and has such a great spirit to it. It is a great place for your children to learn more about Christ and to learn more about your role as a family on the earth.

SICK!!

I am sitting here at the computer seriously going crazy!! My family all got sick after Christmas and we have all finally recovered. We had one day out and about at the park yesterday (so nice) and guess what? Brooke woke up with a stomach ache and is throwing up constantly today. UUHHG!!

Having sick kids is the worst but sick kids plus never getting out of the house is seriously driving me insane!!

Dear husband please come home and take care of our kids so I can go somewhere and do something other than clean up throw up...SAVE ME!

Happy New Year!

I know this is late but here it is. I decided to go cheap and not print my Holiday card this year, so here is the digital copy. I hope your holidays were wonderful! Much Love to all of our family and friends!!

Preston is 8 Months!

Our sweet baby boy turned 8 months old. He is such a sweetie and just loves life. He is super easy going and the best mild mannered baby in the whole world. He loves to play with toys especially any kind of electronic like my phone or itouch. He likes to make a fart noise with his mouth, and you can tell he is all boy. He has the sweetest laugh and smile in the whole world. He has one tooth to date and he likes to use it! He loves all food and basically begs for food anytime we are eating. He has tried just about everything already. He is our lazy baby and still will not use his legs in any way. He won't stand, crawl, or anything in between. he loves to sit and roll, and I think it will be a long time before he even wants to crawl. I love him so much and can't imagine my life with out him. Happy 8 months bubba!

Christmas Celebrations!

We had all of our family over to our house for a Christmas family Home Evening and game night on Dec 23rd. We had a lot of yummy treats and had fun with our family. Sadly these are the only two pictures I took from that night.

Christmas Eve - We do our fancy dinner on Christmas Eve. This year we had Filet Mignon, mashed potatoes, creamed corn, salad, and martinelli's. We made cookies for Santa and put them out for Santa along with some carrots for the reindeer. We read Luke 2 and Brookie followed along with her Nativity set. We each got to open one present and enjoyed them for a while. We finished off the night with a reading of The Night Before Christmas and we went to bed with Sugar Plums in our head.

Christmas morning coming down to see our stockings and the gifts Santa brought. Brookie asked for a "Comfy Chair" from Santa, I asked for a Razor Scooter, Jason a Simon Dewey Calendar, and Preston asked for "Rex" from Toy Story. Santa delivered..We must have been good this year:). Brooke was so much fun this year. She totally "got" Christmas.

For breakfast our tradition is quiche and Jason's mom always made him coffee cake so we have carried that on too. My Dad joined us for a while and we all had a relaxing Christmas day just enjoying one another and the spirit of the season. I can't wait tell next year!!

Gingerbread House and LA Temple

We made this awesome Gingerbread House kit from Trader Joe's. Brooke loved doing it and wanted to go inside the house. Moments after the picture of her on the ground with it she stepped on it and said she really wanted to fit.

We also got to go see the lights at the LA Temple and visit the new visitor's center. It was amazing and I could have stayed there all night. Brookie always loves to walk around the Temple. Love my sweet family! So glad we were sealed together forever!! Jason took us to a super yummy dinner at a little authentic Italian restaurant.

December 1st

I am way late on all these Christmas/December posts but here they are. On December 1st our tradition is to open our new Christmas Jammies. We also started a new tradition of opening a new book every day up to Christmas. They were all Christmas books. It was a fun idea but Brooke didn't really like it all that much so I don't know if we will still do it next year. Auntie Lana got to come over and enjoy our December 1st activities with us. It was a great way to start off the season.

MICHAEL BUBLE!!

I am not a concert girl. I do like going to them but I am just as good watching music videos or listening to a CD at home. However I have always wanted to see Michael Buble. He is by far my favorite artist. Well Jason came home the other day and said he had the best surprise for me...Yep Michael Buble tickets. His podiatrist from his work had a suite and had tickets he gave to us! Score!! There were 3 tickets so my Dad was happy to tag along and we were happy to have him. The suite was awesome but kind of weird not being in the "sweat " of the concert. I loved it and loved the company even more. Michael Buble was great (he has a potty mouth though:( ). I love sad soft melancholy songs ( don't ask me why) so I missed hearing his softer songs because he really just did his big band songs. My favorite part was when he danced and sang a Michael Jackson song, he was so good at it! He had a very fun personality too. Loved it all and would see him again anytime. Thanks honey!!!

I didn't take my camera so these are the only pics I took with my itouch.

First Tooth

Our little man is breaking his first tooth. He has had a fever and a super snotty nose but he is still smiling and happy.

I want it short like Brooklyn...

Brooke kept telling me over the last week that she wanted short hair like her friend Brooklyn. Well we drove by a Cutz for Kids today and I asked her if she wanted her hair short and she said yes. Here are the results. I think it looks very cute and she loved feeling pampered while we were there. When did a kids haircut start costing $20? That's what Jason pays...I better learn how to cut hair!

By the way she remembered that she got a sucker when Ashley cut her hair last time, and it seems the whole thing happened just because she wanted the sucker. That's all she cared about the whole time.

Before

During

After

Let's try this again...

I don't know why none of my links are working to my new blog but I will try again. Fingers crossed! Tips from a Homemaker .

We need rain boots!

Brooke's new favorite thing is to play in the rain. On days when it is not too cold and raining I will let her go outside. She is so fun to watch and has way too much fun! Preston and I usually stay dry inside, and just watch Brooke have fun. Of course we always follow up this ritual with a warm bubble bath and some hot cocoa. Oh to be little again.

Florida trip

In the early part of last month I was able to go on a sister vacation with 3 of my sisters to Orlando, Florida. We had a great time and it was so nice to hang out with these cool chicks! Here is a quick recap.

Day 1 flight, getting lost driving for 3 hours just trying to go to Wal-Mart 1.5 miles away from our hotel at 10 PM. Crazy! Day 2 = taking it easy. Pedicures, eating at the grossest Mexican restaurant, and eating at the most delicious Japanese steakhouse. The guy who was cooking our food was so funny because he only had two jokes that he told over and over. He kept calling soy sauce Chinese coca cola and every time he would clean the grill he would say Chinese exercise. Weren't we at a Japanese restaurant? Good times!

Day 3 was The Kennedy Space Center. It was so amazing to realize how so , much of what we have and use everyday came from the space program. There space ship launch experience was awesome too! It simulates a real launch for you. It is also on a beautiful island and was so gorgeous to look around. We got to touch a moon rock that is older than 99.9% of earths surface, so cool! i made Preston touch it too. Love those cute sisters of mine! They are such awesome ladies. That night we went to a Sleuth's Dinner mystery show. It was so fun and had surprisingly good food.

Day 4 was Epcot. We ate at every single food cart in all the countries and we each spent about $80 on food alone. Way worth it and so fun to find out what food you like from all over the world. I liked Canada, Greece, Italian, Mexican. Morocco, and a few more the best. Preston was so cute trying on all the different hats from the different countries. The best part of the day for me was a concert from Hanson who I loved growing up and had no idea they were going to be playing. We even got to hear "MMM bop."

Day 5 was Gatorland. I highly recommend this if you ever go to Orlando.

I even sat on a real alligator! He was little but I was still scared to sit on his body. Plus there were other alligators with there mouth not taped right next to us. Scary!!That night my sister took me to my favorite Italian restaurant "Bucca Di Beppo" and My sister April and I went to the Temple while the two other sisters watched Preston for me. It was an awesome trip and the best part was just hanging out with these awesome ladies! Love you all!

7 months old

Preston is the sweetest best baby ever! Every day I look at him I know Heavenly Father loves me so much because he gave me such a little sweetie! He is eating lots of solid foods and loves everything I have given to him. He can sit up all by himself, and loves to play with paper. he still will not bear any weight on his legs and seems quite content to never try to crawl or scoot. He just likes to relax and look at his surroundings. We love you Preston!!

I started a new blog! Sneak Peak...

Dear Family and Friends,

I started a new blog about projects I have been doing around the house. Feel free to check it out. I have a lot more to come, but I would love to share it with you.

Tips from a Homemaker (just click on the link) Thanks and look often!