Shhh.... Don't wake the babies

 

It is amazing what you can sneak in and do when the babies are sleeping! Specifically use a flash and a loud shutter click.

I love watching them sleep. So calm and peaceful. Because there are times that the entire day is a running race of screaming, crying and me pulling out my hair. But at the end of the day, there is nothing that makes me happier than being their mother, and my heart is full because of it. 

Family Vacation

Two weeks ago we took our big vacation for the little family down to Utah. It only took 3.5 hours to get there so it was as my husband called it, "halfsies staycation". We needed/wanted to a vacation on a budget and easily traveled with our two toddlers. So we put 'Jake and the Neverland Pirates' in their dvd screens and away we went. It was four jam-packed days of fun, tears, tamtrums and new adventures.
(I don't have a lot of photos becuase the rest are on my actual camera and I can't find the cord to hook it up, plus my phone takes better pictures 99.9999999% of the time)

Day one was spent driving down and snacking the whole way. We arrived at Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake and spent a few hours walking the grounds and screaming for a multitude of animals. Lilly's favorite was a giant seal that was blind. He was as big or even a little bigger than a sedan and just swam in circles in a large viewing tank. She loved him! We spent a good 30 minutes just on him!
Then we saw the Polar Bear and Isaiah could not get enough of him. This giant entertainer would push off of the bottom of his tank and jump up right in front of the viewing pane and rise from the water and stroke backwards and then dive down to do it again. Another 30 minutes went by.... 

We celebrated Isaiah's 3rd at Chuck E Cheese's and Lilly could not get off of this merry go round horse thing. Literally we put in 20+ coins. They had a blast to say the least running around like orange soda spiked, fruit snacked filled crazy children with an almost unlimited amount of tokens. When we finally left, it had been two and a half hours and Steve and I were exhausted,  beyond what we could ever imagine.

That evening after dinner, Steve allowed me to go to Ikea by myself.... enough said. I actually reined in my spending and after I got home wondered why I didn't buy a few items I had wanted. Then I realized it would have been another $100 and blown our budget. Plus Steve was happy on my total.

Day 2 was spent in the beautiful Temple Square. I had been to the Salt Lake Temple when I was really young with my family to pick up my sister from her mission from the airport there. She served in Italy and the best way to pick her up was there. I don't remember a thing except when I ate a peice of candy during a tour and spite it out. It tasted so bad and the part I remember the most is my other sister yelling at me infront of everyone and made me pick it up out of the flower patch it landed.

We went through the visitor's center and walked around the Temple. Crashed a few wedding photos trying to get away. We headed over to the Church History Muesum and it was amazing! Although we didn't really get to spend any time outside of the children's exhibit with hands on activities. After an hour we realized it was 2 hours past lunch time...

We headed to the newer mall in Salt Lake, City Creek Mall and had lunch and some of the best shopping in ages! Steve bought me a beautiful Coach wallet as a surprise, that I picked out because he didn't actually know which one I had wanted, just the price I had told him ages ago.

Salt Lake Temple

We rode the Utah Trax Train from our hotel in Sandy to SLC for fun and Isaiah loved it!

Lilly could care less....

Friday we went to an aquarium and literally ran in circles for awhile. A long while.

Followed by more shopping at some outdoors stores and the Dinosaur Museum in Lehi. Isaiah was so scared we had to rush through, it being the most expensive site we went too... but in the end he loved it because they could dig for all the dinosaur bones they wanted.

From there we went to Provo and spent the next day with my best friend and her husband. Steve and Mat went shooting and Jen and I had breakfast and hit up Target and Cocoa Bean cupcake cafe. Our usual. We like to repeat what works for us. And I don't know what I would do without this girl, seriously. Plus we went through her clothes she didn't want and I came home with a huge bag of stuff from Jen-ymart!

We headed home and somehow wondered why the kids only slept for a half hour each in the car. We got home on Saturday around 7. Origionally we were going to stay until Sunday but the kids were not sleeping well and we were so tired and out of patience that we almost pulled over to take a nap. We opted out of church the next day to catch up on sleep and get the littles back on their schedule.

It was a great trip overall, and Isaiah and Lilly really loved it. Momma needs a bit of a vacation now though....

Recent Pictures

Recently I went to my trusted photographer Kayla Evans at Paisley Studios and had the kids' pictures done outside for the first time. Click this link and let me know how they turned out!

Because I think they are kind of amazing!

Isaish 1st "Professional" Haircut

My son had his first professional hair this week. It was so much easier than me and my husband trying to do it. And it looked a million times better! I got his hair done at Paisley Studios Photography Studio and Salon. It is also where I get the kids' pictures taken. They do an amazing job, especially Kayla. (It will hopefully displaying our latest shoot soon!) Laurie was Isaiah's "Stylist" and she totally rocked the mo hawk!

Lilly trying to entertain herself

That sucker saved our lives!

Camping in Island Park, Idaho

This last picture is bear tracks... about 50 feet behind my tent. Where I was sleeping. Where I changed my clothes. Where my children played. No biggie...

Memorial Weekend

I hope everyone had a great weekend! I was camping from Friday to Monday. It was a great weekend off to say the least. But in South East Idaho it is always very sunny the week of Memorial Weekend and then the week after. Never during. And this is a yearly camping trip with Steve's parents that we go on every year. These are just a few photos of our weekend!

This is what it looked like when we got there...

On a walk with my kids and my mother in law. Beautiful!

My in laws and Steve fishing on the dock

Lilly and I on the curb, we don't fish

Isaiah's first fishing lesson

And Isaiah's FIRST FISH! See his proud daddy?

Bethany

Sittin' Pool Side

*********

Just wanted to point out that my printables were featured on The Kinch Life Blog yesterday! Check out the totally cool project she made with them here! 

(find my printables here)

*********

Isaiah thinking Lilly needs to be thrown from his four-wheeler to learn to stay off

 Who has not been loving this totally great weather?!?!? (If you are not having sunny, no rain, no wind, mid-70's weather my mistake) It just feels so good to not worry about snow!

So much cooler to let the water out of the pool than let it stay in

Oh pool side... how I have missed you! With my chipped nail polish. 

That hole in the fence back there was officially repaired yesterday... such an eye soar

And someone won the four-wheeler battle, and she totally owns it!

Bethany

Happy Summer weather!

VIP Party to NOT Miss

Just for the sheer fun of it, Isaiah and Lilly had a party the other day... in Isaiah's crib. VIP invite and all. I had to stay behind the "gate". 

(Pardon the bit of blurry, there is no window in Isaiah's room)

Oh, she caught us, they are thinking... even though I had to put them both there!

Love her! I get to see this smile every morning when I get her up!

And he is such a stud!

Stay tuned tomorrow for my first HIGH FIVE FOR FRIDAY with Lauren at From My Grey Desk link up party! I can't wait!

Bethany

Nothing like a Snow Day

Who doesn't love just a little snow in the winter? Normally Southeast Idaho is covered in the winter time with a perfect white blanket (where we live). But this year we hardly have any...

I personally would love it for just a handful of days in general, but children see it differently!

So the other day when it put down just a little I bundled the kids up like the little brother on "A Christmas Story". Here are just a couple of pictures of our day out. More like 20 minutes...

We only have a couple of trees in our yard, but I thought this was sort of pretty.

He really could not see that well, but his ears were warm.

Oh bright eyes Lilly!

Failed Snowman attempt because it was not thick enough to stick together.

The wagon is their favorite toy. Steve got it for them for Christmas and I really think it is the only thing they can agree on! We walked around the house probably 15 times. 

Hope your winters are going well!

Bethany

My Son Almost Mangled the Manger

Last night at our ward Christmas party we were having a good time, having some nice dinner. Everyone was dressed up as if it was old Jerusalem itself. That is, everyone but us. Sorry, don't own a bath robe, and no thanks anyway. But I was still in Christmas spirit. We sang carols and it was fun. 

As Steve and I are helping clean up and get Lilly in her car seat I look over and there is a giant stuffed sheep Isaiah is trying to RIDE under the manger with the Baby Jesus all swaddled. As I walk over he gets off and pets it like a dog and runs away. I go back to doing something and look over again and Isaiah is trying to PULL DOWN the Baby Jesus by the eye ball! (No other child tried this for the record) And started tilting the manger over. I got there in just the knick of time, but we almost had a one eyed Baby Jesus. 

Joy to the Holidays!

Bet

The Awkward Early Potty Training of Isaiah

So everyone knows that you need to wait until your boys are at least 3 years old to start potty training them. But what on earth is wrong with getting the idea in Isaiah's head early?

Ever since Isaiah could walk, he follows Steve into the bathroom to watch him pee. But he would stand at a distance. To be honest, I encourage him to watch, because sooner or later (my plan anyway) is for it to seem totally natural for him to start doing it.

Lately though, it has become a little bit weird for Steve. Isaiah has started walking right up to the toilet and looking at his manhood, then inside the toilet. Back and forth the whole time. Steve-O is starting to feel a little awkward and like his space is being invaded. We have two kids under two, of course we don't have space!

Isaiah's Gnome Costume

Isaiah's first Halloween was last year and he was only 9 months old. He was not doing any trick or treating obviously so we did not buy a fancy costume. He was a cute little baseball player, it was a fun sleeper outfit. He peed through it 2 hours after we put it on him.

This year he will somewhat understand that there will be fun to be had, but probably will flip about some costumes he sees. But we decided last year that it would be so cute if he was a little garden gnome! And no, it had nothing to do with the movie Gnomeo and Juliet. But I only found one costume online and it was so ugly! So I decided to put one together. It will be NOTHING fancy by any stretch of the imagination but it will be cute.

He is going to wear gray sweat pants and a cute long sleeve royal blue shirt. This was based on one of my favorite cartoons growing up called "David the Gnome" on Nick Jr.

But the hat was my project. I am not a crafter by any means but this was easy! Because I used Super Glue, oh yeah. I bought a foam birthday hat from the craft store and some red felt. I cut the felt to fit and super glued it on, since this hat will totally be used after Halloween, kidding. I then took some blue felt and "patched" it on the hat and it is so cute! Even with the price of the shirt of $4, total for the costume is $5.50. Not bad.

I had red felt strands glued to my hands for a couple of days though... but my kid is cute!

I thought this shampoo was tear free!

So my dear, sweet Isaiah has become desperately attached to his father in the last few weeks due to Steve being home, everyday. He cries when he walks away, even if it is a couple of feet. I admit I get hurt a little because Isaiah could care less for me it seems sometimes, and I grew him!

So I decided to take a bath tonight being 37 weeks pregnant and sore. Isaiah thought it was his bath time and started throwing in his toys. So I let him get in with me. We were having a fantastic time until Wonder Dad had to spoil it. He talked to us for a minute and then left.

Isaiah proceeded to cry the entire 2 minutes he was away and try to climb out using my leg. Upon Steve's return he wanted out and to be held by guess who. I am chop liver. But I am glad he loves his dad so much, I just want to be wanted sometimes. But in a couple of weeks our little girl will want me so it's probably a fair trade.

First... Taste of Cereal!

So today was Isaiah's 4 month doctor's appointment and I got the OK from Dr. Smith to give him cereal. (Sad, our doctor is moving to SLC to work Primary Children's) So this evening for dinner, he ate about 1/2 a tablespoon of oatmeal cereal mixed with formula!!!!


At first he was not sure what I was holding up to his mouth because at this point he knows what the bottle is and opens his mouth for it. And he stared at me when I put it in his mouth for a few seconds and started sucking. It took a minute but he started warming up to the idea. He started putting his finger in his mouth to try and figure out what was going on... but he liked it and opened his mouth for more. But halfway done he got tired of that because it was almost bedtime and he just wanted his bottle since he had shots today. (Yes, I cried more and longer than he did)


Overall, it was a good first experience. Now I just need to fear allergies... I almost want to sleep on the floor next to the crib just in case. I have a sleeping bad in the closet, maybe I will...