Logan's 15th Month Well Baby Check

Today we took Logan in for his 15 month well baby check and he is great. I was pleased to see that he is averaging out a little. At 9 months he was 20 lbs (50%) and 30.5 inches (95+%, which is what they put when a baby is totally off the chart), so basically a little bean pole. Now he is 25.4 lbs (60%) and 32.2 inches (85%). He is also a runner, climber, and tantrum thrower. What a big boy. He is so fun to have around and just silly a lot of the time. He still jabbers constantly, but isn't saying to many words. He does say "Mom, Dada, bottle, no, mine, and that." He is also getting into animal sounds now, he is pretty good at jaguars, cows, and dinosaurs.
Lately he also likes to come up, grab my hand and take me to where he wants me to be. He will also do that sometimes if he wants me to put him in his crib for a nap.

He is still allergic to soy, poor kid. But we are still hoping he will grow out of it soon.He loves to take care of babies. Any kind of baby. He gives them love and feeds them bottles.

Logan got this cowboy hat for Christmas. He wears ALL THE TIME. Cute hu!

Look it's Super Alan

I took the boys to Kangaroo Zoo the other week. Alan was so brave (after taking a few minutes to adjust) he went all the way to the top of this thing and slid down so fast that I couldn't get a picture of it.

My little cowboy

One Crazy Week

Last Friday when I told someone that I didn't really have anything going on next week I should have knocked on wood. Here I am one week later and I must say that I am tired. I will not bore you or myself with all of the details, but here are a few stories to illustrate how it went and then assume every day held about the same level of joy and excitement.

On Tuesday, while at the bank getting a cashiers check so that I could then go the the post office and mail everything for Scott's FBI background check so that he can take the BAR exam, the teller was nice enough to notice that my driver's licence had expired A YEAR AGO! So after the bank (in Macey's), picking up a few things at Macey's (grocery store), and waiting in the long line at the post office (because there was only one person working there) with my three sweet kids, making lunch, putting Logan down for a nap, and locating a Driver's Licence DMV office, I took all three kids to the DMV. OH it was FUN. By the time my number was called, Logan was throwing an all-out tantrum, Alan was almost in tears and whining because he left his fruit snacks in the van, and Emma was being a very "helpful" little mommy. I am guessing that the guy at the counter took pity on me, because he only made me take the eye exam, and I had been told earlier that I would have to retake the written exam if my licence had been expired for more than 6 months. But this very helpful man didn't say a thing about it. He just said "That will be $25 to renew your licence" and then said to Logan "Don't worry we're almost done." I don't think I have ever been so grateful for my kids to be acting up and for someone who was truly helpful. I was NOT looking forward to retaking the written exam with three kids. Canyou imagine if I had failed? I was surprised however, how very not stressed I felt when all that was going on around me. So after the DMV I got to take all the kids to a grocery store for the second time that day because we were completely out of food and I didn't have time earlier to get everything we needed. I got home just in time to make dinner, get the kids to bed, and head off to my Hip-Hop class at the rec center. Then I came home and did the dishes and picked up before going to bed just after midnight.

Crazy Right? So everyday wasn't quite this busy, but somehow each day managed to quickly fill up with more than I could do. And last night Logan was sweet enough to wake up at 3am and insist that I get up with him. In the process of convincing me that he really needed me to get up and get him out of his crib he woke up Alan and the three of us had a nice time in the living room until about 5:30 when they decided they were ready to go back to bed. This is not a normal thing for them. I can't even remember the last time I was up in the middle of the night with either of them.

C'est la vie

This week I have also reflected a lot on how much I love being a Mom (usually during yoga). I love my children so much. They bring so much into my life. Oh Man that baby Logan. He has my heart in his sweet little hand. He is so cuddly and loving. Although he is the most independant and prone to fits of my children, he really is such a sweet, happy, loving, little guy. He makes that cutest/silliest faces that just light up his whole face and makes anyone within his gaze just have to smile.

Alan-boy is just so good and sweet and funny. I never know what is going to come out of his mouth next. The other day I was telling him that we needed to be very quiet and go up to bed and he just looked at me and said "that sounds like a terrible idea to me." I just couldn't help but smile. And every night as he goes to bed he has me lay down next to him, then he pats or rubbs me on the shoulder and says "I love you mom." I hope he never grows up. And yet I know he will. I love that kid.

Emma has grown up and yet is still my little baby. I have really enjoyed laying down with her before she goes to bed to read books and then give her a hug and a kiss. She started a new preschool in January and I am so proud of her. I am sure it has been hard on her sometimes that we have moved so much and I was worried yet another change in preschool would be hard on her. But she seems to doing really well and I know we made the right chose. She is so kind and sweet. I just love my pretty little thing.

Girls Be Warned

Oh my little Alan boy. He really is just a cool kid and I fear he is going to be a total heart breaker. During dinner yesterday he was talking about something. I think he was telling us (or his food) a story about his food. All of a sudden his little eyes popped up and he said, "Mom give me a kiss" and then he leaned forward over the table toward me. His little face was just so sweet and cute that I just had to lean over and kiss him...only it was also so cute that I just started laughing. As I leaned in, laughing too hard to actually kiss him, (his lips about an inch from mine), he whispered "just kiss me." It was very sweet and sly. So girls: watch out I have a little Casanova in the making.

A few other funny or smart things he has said lately:

During prayer and scripture tonight Alan put his hands down on the mattress and then used them to start walking up the wall. While upside down, half way up the wall, he said "I'm walking up the wall with gravity."

And while watching Aladdin for the first time he turned to Scott and said "This show has an evil Macaw."

There are many many more, but alas I can't ever seem to remember them. I think I should just record everything that he says all day, and then write a book or just give him his own show "Alan says the darndest things."
He also has gotten very into telling me how to spell things. His favorite, of course, is "A-L-A-N spells Alan, I have two A's in my name." Then the other day while driving in the van he asked "Mom I know A L A N spells Alan, but what is a word that spells C?" I guess he wanted me to tell how to spell a word that started with C. (he has had a hard time remembering that C says Ca) Anyway, I told him C-A-T spells cat and he just started singing a little song about C-A-T spells cat. What a silly kid.

Finally on Antibiotics!

So when I woke up on Christmas eve I was really sick and I went into the doctor and told him that I was sick and needed antibiotics so I could get better and take care of my family and all that stuff that moms do during the holidays. He did a strep test, it was negative, and he sent me home saying he thought it was virus and there was nothing I could be about it. Long story short I never got better and have been surviving on about 6-8 ibuprofen and about 4 Tylenol a day for that past 13 days. So today I went back into the doctor and once again said I am sick and need antibiotics. So this doctor (different doctor) sent me to the lab and ordered a strep test and a blood workup. I was in the lab for almost an hour with all three kids and they let someone who was training draw my blood and then had to have someone who knew what they were doing come do it after he failed. Big surprise I was negative for strep, but myblood work showed I needed to be on antibiotics! I just wish the doctor would have listened to me the first time, it would have saved and lot of time, money, and head aches (literally).
The kids were very good the whole nearly 2 hours we were at the health center. I am so glad I have such wonderful, nice, and obedient kids. And they are cute too :)

Happy New Year

I am so excited for 2009. Our little family has so many wonderful and exciting plans for this year that I don't see how we will possibly be able to do it all, but I am looking forward to the challenge. I won't mention them all now...mainly because I fear that if I even begin to say it out loud it will some how jinks it. One immediate change is our new calling. Scott and I will be serving together as Primary teachers for the 11 year old class. We are looking forward to it. We were called despite them knowing that we will be moving by August, but it should be fun while it lasts.
Also by way of a resolution I have resolved not to go to bed at night without doing the dishes and cleaning the counters. Wish me luck!

Good luck to all in the upcoming year!

Christmas

Those last few days before Christmas really started to pick up steam. On the Sunday before Christmas we had a family coloring contest. After dinner the kids helped judge the entries. Can you believe that they couldn't agree on the winner? Scott still thinks that his should have won, and I agree that his was the best. As it turns out, Emma and Alan tied. The winners split a family four-pack of tickets to ride the Hilton Express Holiday Lights Tour. (luckily for us children under two are free) After the winner was announced, we made the hot cocoa and got the kids in their jammies and headed out to hop on the Hilton Express bullet train (our van). We passed out the cocoa sippies and we were off. Every time we passed a really well lit yard we would all say "Ooooo, Ahhhhh, Ohhhhh." Logan really got into it. Over the next few days we would often hear an Ohhhhh coming from him as we past some lights. Our tour even managed to find Santa's house. Emma really wanted to go knock on the door, but we explained that Santa was sleeping and needed his rest for Christmas eve.
Monday night we made spritz cookies for Santa. I found a really great recipe online and they worked really well. The kids were totally able to press them out on to the cookie sheet. Then we got to enjoy a few of them for treat.
Tuesday night we went to a super-fun Christmas Eve Eve party at the Mickelson's. It was great to see everyone, and Scott and I kicked everyone's trash at the game.
I was so sad Wednesday morning to wake up with a sore throat, head ache, and nausea. And to make matters worse Logan had thrown-up all over his room and then threw up again all over me. I was so sad that Christmas would be ruined. We had to miss the Hilton Christmas Eve party and my poor kids had chicken noodle soup for dinnner, made by Scott, or else they wouldn't have had anything. After dinner I had to go get some ibuprophren. The only place open was Smiths and the lines were all the way back though the other side of the store. IT WAS A NIGHTMARE. Once I was on ibuprophren, Tylenol, and nausea medicine I finally felt well enough to help get really for Christmas Morning.
Although I was worried Christmas would be miserable, it actually turned out to be very nice. The kids were so cute, nice, and excited as they checked out their stockings and opened their presents. Logan was espcially cute. He LOVED the dinosaurs, he kept making the big ones eat the little ones. After a super yummy breakfast, we played Candyland. Later we headed up to Mom and Dad's for dinner and we got spoiled with more presents. It was definitly a white Christmas and the weather was so crazy that we ended up spending the night at Mom and Dads.

Santa and all that Holiday Whobity Whaty

Wednesday afternoon was Emma's Christmas Preschool Program. Alan was so excited to get to play at "Emma's Park." It is just the play room at Emma's school. A few of his funnier moments were when he rolled a large foam like barrel into the middle of the room, stood it up on its end and then announced "Now I need to build stairs." Which he did. He also found a large cylinder that he laid on and said "I'm floating down a river on this log." Then the program started. They sang Santa Clause is Coming to Town, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, and Jingle Bells. Then they told them to Sing Santa Clause is Coming to Town again really loud so Santa would here them and come.

Emma was so cute and sang VERY loud, especially for the last song.

As soon as Santa came out Emma yelled out "I want a pink computer." She said it more like she was just soooo excited and was not demanding. Then she nicely waited her turn to sit on Santa's lap and then told him about the computer. She is just so cute!

As you can see Logan did NOT share Emma's excitement about sitting on Santa's Lap

Once it was Alan Boy's turn, he got down to business and very nicely and seriously told Santa he wants lots and lots of so many dinosaurs. He may have told Santa that Logan wanted dinosaurs too. I guess Logan will learn that if you don't tell Santa what you want then you'll just end up with what your brother wants.

Later that night Scott and I went to the firms Christmas party at the Joseph Smith Memorial building on Temple Square. The room was on the 9th floor and had an amazing view of the Temple. Every year the firm supplies white elephant gifts for all of the couples. Most are actually pretty cool gifts, but there is always one or two gag gifts in the bunch. This year we got "The Worlds Largest Underpants." At the end of the party, Scott was nice enough to model them for everyone. I bet you didn't know that I was married to an underwear model.

After the party we took a quick stroll around Temple Square to see the lights. It was beautiful. We just had to stop and take a pic by my favorite spot (near the Assembly Hall). For years they have always had all the trees over there covered in pink lights. This year all the trees were covered in gold lights. I like the pink better, but the gold was still gorgeous.

Ok, so in other news it has been one month since I gave up chocolate and started working out. I was pleased on Wednesday to learn that I had managed to lose 7 lbs this months. Not too bad considering it was a month with Thanksgiving and Christmas goodies. Only 28 more lbs to go.

It finally snowed

enough to go out and play. I am not sure what the deal has been with the weather this winter. It snowed once in October and ever since then it has been unseasonably warm. So this morning when we woke up to a snow storm the kids were so excited. I told them that we could go out and play once the snow let up a little, so we spent the morning making a Christmasy paper chain that we hung in the living room. Then just after I put them all in their beds for a nap, I came downstairs to see the sun shining brightly. I was worried that it would get too warm and the snow would be gone by the time they woke up from their naps, so I went back upstairs to ask if they would rather go out and play in the snow and then take a nap. Can you believe that they would all rather go play in the snow?
Man, playing in the snow is hard work. By the time I got them all bundled up, I was practically sweating. After getting Logan's snow pants, gloves, coat, and boots on he kinda tipped over on the love seat and whimpered a little "umm mom I am stuck." It was really cute. Once I got him down on to the floor he was able to move a little.
The kids were so funny. They insisted on wearing pants, coats, boots, gloves, and hats, even though I told them it was not that cold out.

They really loved playing in the snow

I just love snow babies

Alan was so cute he kept running around making snow angels and adding little pieces of snowman saying this is his nose.

Logan loved helping to smooth the snowman

Emma spent most of the time being a puppy, but she did give Baby Snowman his carrot nose.

Alan's awesome hat hair! It reminds me of when he was a little baby and he had super blonde fuzzy hair that stuck straight up.See what I mean? This is Alan 6 months old.

Update

I love love love the Christmas season. I must admit I look forward to it all year. I remember as a child the weeks and days leading up to Christmas seemed to linger on and on. Now the days fly by and I feel as if I have so much to do that I will never get it all done before the 25th. So much has been happening the last few weeks that I have not had time to blog about it.

One of the biggest changes in our home is that Logan is now walking all over the place. He took his first steps quite some time ago, but I think he was afraid to walk very much with Emma and Alan always running around like monkeys. They were all dancing to the Nutcracker the other night and Logan got knocked over several times.

So here is some video of Logan on the first day that he really started walking. It was the day after Thanksgiving, so if you are watching it, the song fits to the day and Logan is a bit of a Turkey. It was just before dinner and Logan is hungry and tired so it also shows him throwing some of his cute little baby fits.

We spent 4 days up at Scott's parent's house over the Thanksgiving week. It was nice to kinda go away for a while.  To help kick off the Christmas season we took the kids to the Nativity at the Kaysville Tabernacle. There were hundreds of nativities there from all over the world and fun crafts for the kids. The week after Thanksgiving was spent cleaning, decorating for Christmas, and making cookie dough. I was a little disappointed when I didn't get it all done by Sunday, but oh well. On Sunday we made our gingerbread house. The kids enjoyed it so much. All week Emma kept asking if it was Sunday yet so we could make our gingerbread house.  Emma also learned once again about Jesus' birth. All week she has been playing that she is Mary, Alan is Joesph, and Logan (or a doll) is Jesus. I think it's cute that Mary has replaced Hannah Montana in Emma's world of pretend. This week we have once again been too busy and the days have passed by too quickly. I try so hard to slow down so that the kids can take part in some of the joys of Christmas. It took me the whole first week in December to get the tree up and the lights on it. So on Monday the kids and I decorated it. They had so much fun helping with the ribbon, beads, popcorn, ornaments, candy canes, cookies, and pine cones. We don't have a lot of room in our current place, so I stuck a lot of our Christmas decorations in the tree (like cute tins and figurines). The kids also loved helping me set up the nativities around the house. It was a nice time to talk about Christ's birth with the kids. Tuesday was our ward Relief Society Christmas party. It was a lot of fun. Good friends and good food. That evening I was reflecting on all of the amazing women that I have been blessed to know and to be friends with. It amazes me how quickly we as women see talents and virtues in other women but don't always see them in ourselves. I have been blessed with wonderful, beautiful, and talented friends who often inspire me to try harder and to do better. So if you are a woman and I know you just know that you are awesome and beautiful.

Scott has had finals this week which has added to the craziness. We are SO EXCITED to be so close to being DONE WITH SCHOOL. After this, there is just one more semester to get through. His final on Thursday was with his friend Saul. So while the men were off taking tests, Saul's wife Ashley and their daughter Paige came over to play. We all had a lot of fun making candy cane cookies and just hanging out. 

I am so excited for the fun that we will have over the coming weeks and I wish you a Merry Christmas.

Baby Logan coloring like a big boy at the Nativity

Logan played with this marble works for over an hour

Alan was excited when we finally let him take the marble works apart

Logan hamming it up infront of the tree

He got very upset when Emma tried to get in his spot light

Emma loves wearing all her holiday outfits

Santa's Elves are Working Hard

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

What more can I say... it is just awesome. I saw Andrea's and just had to get in on the fun.