The Girls Go Camping

Its been a little while since we have gone camping. Dave and I love camping but we were very leery of the idea of camping with two small girls. Our friends, Erin and Jason, invited us along with some other friends to enjoy some backyard camping. The perfect way to start the camping season- a little trial to see if it can actually happen with small children.

All the night activities were fun- building a fire, roasting hotdogs, smores, etc. The kids loved it and all went to sleep really well. All was well...until 3AM when we woke up to the sound of rain and soaking wet blankets. The tent was leaking from the top and Lizzie was leaking from the...well, lets just say she had been drinking ALOT of liquids that day since we have been potty training. She was wearing a diaper to bed but it still didn't quite do the trick. Needless to say, we drove a couple miles home and finished the night in our beds.

It was a good time with good friends but thank goodness we were close to home. Chris and Heather went home early soon after we left. Steve, Kim, and their two dogs, on the other hand, enjoyed a long peaceful night's sleep. (Their tent even had a doggy door!) Oh, to camp without kids seems much like the comfort of staying in a five star hotel to me now!

10 Months

"Julie, Julie, Julie, do you love me?" Her eyes just light up and her whole body starts to bounce when you sing these lyrics to her. This girl is always bouncing, dancing, speed crawling, standing, or cruising around these days. She is now very mobile. And watch out...

She is trouble for sure! This past week I have been busy potty training Lizzie so Julie has had ample opportunity to get into trouble. At one crucial point (right when Lizzie had gone #2 first time) Julie was trying to play with the big toilet so I ushered her quickly out of the bathroom only to have her speed crawl straight over to the pantry, grab a bag of popcorn kernels, and dump them allll over the kitchen floor then continue to spread them. Baby proofing you say? I barely know what that is. Lizzie was not huge into exploring. Not a problem. Until now.

She has grown and learned SOO much in the past couple months. 9 months has been a huge learning window for her.

Month 9 Achievements:

Crawling

Pulling self up

Standing

Cruising

Waving Hello

Signing words: "More" and "all done"

Saying 3 NEW WORDS!: Mama! Dada! and Uh-oh!

"Mama" was the FIRST word she ever said!! She has actually been saying mama for a while but it hasn't been clear if she knew what she is saying until recently. She will hold her arms out to me and say "Mama!" Then a couple weeks later, Dave really worked with her and got her to say "Dada!" And last of all, "Uh Oh!" , no surprise to me that this would be her first word (besides mama/dada). I say "Uh Oh" all the time to her and a couple days ago she just parroted it right back at me! She loved saying it over and over again. It was very cute to hear her say it- clearly and with pointed emphasis and emotion...hehe. She's very good at mimicking her mom.

Her little squinty eye smile in the pic above always makes me laugh. Its not her natural smile- its the smile she does when she is trying to copy my facial expression. Sometimes I give her an overly exaggerated smile and squint my eyes at her when I baby talk.

Jewels- you are growing up too fast. Please slow down.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all the special Mothers, Moms, Mamas, and Mommies out there! In Lizzie's words, "Happy Mama's Day!" On this day, I am so grateful for all the women who have been such great mothers in my life.
I may not have been raised by my Grandma but I know she was a great mom. We all grow up to be just like our mothers, right? And my mom is pretty great so it only stands to reason that she learned it from her own! My Grandma has always been an inspiration to me as an amazing woman and Mother. The same line of reasoning is true for Linda, as well. Dave turned out pretty great so it can only be assumed it stems from a great Mother, of course! I will forever be grateful for all of the values and qualities she instilled in Dave that make him the wonderful husband and father he is today! We think she's a pretty awesome Grammy, too!

Now, here's where my logic breaks down. If we're judging a Mother's greatness based on how her children turned out.... Just kiddin, mom! I think you are an AMAZING mom, regardless of how I turned out :). You did the best with what you had to work with. :) And I will be forever grateful to you for all that hard work! Happy Mother's Day to you, mom! I love you!

A great legacy of love and Motherhood has been set before me and I look forward to sharing it with my children as well. As a mother of 2 young girls you might say I'm just getting started. I look forward to many more years of joy in the journey of motherhood.

Today, was the perfect Mother's Day celebration thanks to Dave and the kids' sweetness. It started off with being woken up to a little voice shouting, "Happy Mama's Day!" followed by hugs and kisses from the little fam, then breakfast in bed. Lizzie was very intent on having a "picnic in bed" with me so she helped me finish off my heart shaped pancakes and eggs.

My favorite part of the day was when Lizzie (with a little help from Dave) sang "Mother, I love you". Apparently, she had been secretly learning and practicing this song with help from Dave every night while I put Jewels to bed. Very cute.

This post may seem a bit mushy, but too bad! Its Mothers Day so I get to gush as much as I want to! :)

The Lizzie Mobile

AND SHE'S OFF!! This girl is one craaazy driver! Lizzie got a new car just like her Momma. Daddy is always pushing her around in boxes so we decided to spruce one up a bit to give her little imagination a jump start.

Lizzie and I had a lot of fun "restoring" this car together while Julie napped. It was a spur of the moment idea so we had to make do with whatever we could find around the house. Luckily, we have plenty of paper goods so most of the car ended up being make of paper plates, cups, and bowls...a little construction paper, crayons, some stickers, and voila! Dave and the girls took it for a test drive doing laps around the pool table. Lizzie yells, "Step on it!" and then they really pick up speed. Every so often Julie will try to commandeer the steering wheel then things get really exciting.

2 1/2 Years Old

My little Lizzie is 2 1/2 years old! She is getting to be such a big girl and will correct you if you try to say otherwise. "I'm not_____, I'm a big girl." is a commonly heard phrase around here. (fill in the blank with any and all adjectives ever used.) The first thing people say about Lizzie when they first meet her is, "She has the cutest voice!" Her voice has the cutest little cartoon/chipmunk quality to it. This little girl is never at a loss for words, either. Its made even more amusing by the fact that she has such a wide vocabulary for her age.

The other day, Lizzie was chattering nonstop about anything and everything, barely stopping to catch her breath. Then, all of a sudden, she paused for a whole long minute and exclaimed, "Wow Mommy!"
Me: "What Lizzie?"
Liz: "I think I ran out of words!"


The things that come out of her mouth crack me up lately. I honestly do not know where she comes up with some of this stuff. Sometimes she says things that I KNOW are Lizzie originals.
Example: "Oh my shoot!!" She says this all the time. Its her favorite exclamation. Its always said very loudly, condifently, and with great emotion. Now, I KNOW that I've never said this and would certainly remember if I heard anyone say this because it sounds so odd (maybe not THAT odd, almost like a vaguely familiar Southern lingo/Utahism). But odd enough that I would remember hearing someone use that phrase.
Its just her funny composite of "Oh shoot!" and "Oh my!/ Oh my goodness!"
Regardless of its origins, it makes me cringe/crack up every time it comes out of her mouth.



This little girl, I mean BIG girl, (excuse my slip up Liz :) ) is so chock-full of personality I don't think I can capture it all in one blog. She's my tiny little drama queen that can go from classic terrible two, nightmare tantrums to sweetest girl in the world within seconds. Its all part of her charm though. She is going through that 2 yr old dilemma where 50% of the time she desperately wants to assert independence and control, and the other 50% of the time just wants to be a good girl and make her parents happy. Sometimes both at once. It can be very Jeckyll and Hyde around here at times. Anyone with a 2 yr old know just what I'm talking about.
We keep busy trying to channel her strong little personality for good. She's going to make a great leader someday in whatever she desires.

When she's shooting to be a good girl she goes so above and beyond. Sometimes, when we want Lizzie to cooperate quickly and efficiently when getting ready for bed we reward her by letting her watch a 10 min TV show called "Timmy Time," and tell her that she gets to "Stay up!" The other day, I turned it on and sat down next to her on the couch. She responded by cupping my chin in one hand, caressing my face with the other and saying, "Thanks for watching with me Mommy! You're my Mommy and I love you!" Followed by a big kiss.

Today I overheard her talking to her Daddy, "I like your eyes! I like your hair! I like your teeth! I like your nose!" Followed by a big Lizzie Bear hug.

The Golden Era of sisterhood is here at last! I'm not going to go so far as to say these two always get along. I won't even say the getting along happens more than 50% of the time. However, it is happening MORE lately and thats what counts! These two are so fun to watch when they are getting along, though. I can give Lizzie a box of Cheerios and she will dole them out one at a time, kind of. "One for me! One for Jujiebean! One for me (stuffing a handful into her mouth). One for Jujiebean (pops a single Cheerio into Julie's mouth)." But hey, they are both having fun AND being fed so I just smile.

Happy Easter!

Holidays are so much fun with kids. This year we celebrated the spiritual part of Easter on Sunday and the egg hunt, candy, and easter basket portion on Saturday. Most of the documentation of the holiday was captured on video by Dave, but we did get a couple pics of the kids digging into their Easter Eggs.

The morning started with a hunt for Easter baskets. Lizzie was very into it this year, considering she is already obsessed with hiding and finding anything and everything. Hide and go seek is definitely a favorite game around here! She was more than elated to find a basket stuffed full of jelly beans, chocolate, and a little wind up chick that hops.

Mid day we had a couple friends over for an egg hunt in the backyard and barbecue. The weather was perfect this year! We got some great footage of Lizzie running around the backyard, fast as lightening, snatching up all the eggs. She was very much into the finding and collecting aspect; while, Josh was into the finding and immediately eating the candy aspect. It was all very cute and amusing to watch. In the picture above, I think Josh had just stuffed about 20 jelly beans into his mouth at once..hehe.

Even little Julie seemed to be very excited about the Easter eggs and Lizzie was kind enough to let her suck on her packages of candy.

9 Months!

Julie is 9 months! Whoa, where does the time go? I loove this pic because she's playing a little game with me. I stick my tongue out at her then she sticks out her lil tongue. She loves to mimick my facial expressions and then we both laugh and laugh!

She is up to all kinds of new tricks these days. The other day I had laid her in her bed and when I went in to check on her she was sitting up! She can go from laying to sitting to crawling position all on her own. She can even pull herself up now! She loves to stand and play now while holding onto her table top toy. She can definitely get from one side of the room to the other, too. Its kind of a mixture of scooting/crawling at this point.


Its a miracle that she has learned to get around at all considering she hardly spends any time on the floor at all! I just can't resist her when she holds her chubby little arms out to me and gives me those big blue eyes. I end up carrying her around all day. She is such a snuggly Mama's girl- I love it! She still has some stranger danger instincts so she doesn't always show her always smiley/snuggly self to many people.

She's getting to be so big and her hair is really getting thick too! She's getting older...noo!

This girl has the sweetest little personality. Its so easy to make her smile and laugh. Every time I pick her up she gives me the biggest hugs. Gotta love little baby squeezes.

It was so nice to fiiiinally have good weather so I could take her outside to get some pictures! She was loving the sun. She's very good at expressing her emotions with all kinds of noises and syllables. Her most commonly heard noise is Mamamama. One day I said, "Say Mama!" and she said, "Mama!" I was very pleased although not convinced she knew what she was saying...

This girl has some serious eyelashes. I still have people comment on them all the time. I wish my eyelashes went to my eyebrows!