Pupcakes for Natalie and Pictures from Her Bday

I think I have mentioned it several times before, but Natalie LOVES dogs. It was her first word, and when she sees one, even when they are very far away, she squeals, "DOGGIE!" I wanted to do a little something special for her birthday, but nothing big because that stresses me out. So I found these doggie cupcakes and tried to recreate them...if you saw how they are supposed to look (HERE) you would realize that mine are quite comical. But I'm okay with that. I am actually very happy with how they turned out. So here they are:

The Westie

The Bulldog

The Beagle

The Schnauzer

A few pictures of Natalie opening her presents...

She loved the play food we got her, but she also REALLY just wanted to sit on it.

When I handed her the new baby doll she seriously shoved it back at me. But she loves pushing baby in the stroller.

New jammies from Grandma Becca that will fit her when she is 6. (Mom you know I love them.)

It was our turn to babysit for date night so we turned it into Natalie's party and devoured doggie cupcakes and ice cream.

The four-fingered-can't-miss-a-crumb shove in the mouth.

Could I have another one?

Here's a video of us singing to her.

Natalie's Day

I am definitely glad that today I am sitting at the computer celebrating my one year old and not at the hospital being told I am "contracting like he--" by the nurse or wanting so badly to just quit pushing as I try give birth to a baby that is over 9 lbs. The past 365 days with Natalie have been so much more than I could have ever asked for. The things I have learned and felt, the way I have loved, the things I have tried to change about myself, the pure joy I have experienced...thank you, Natalie. We love you so much. Happy Birthday.

Cute Smile

To the untrained eye this post may appear to be 3 pictures that are pretty much identical. But the trained eye will notice that this post is actually 3 pictures that I worked very hard for (trying to get her to smile) and just couldn't pick between the cute grins. I wanted to show everyone her teeth...8 of them now!

Ashamed of My Work

I always swore that someday, when I was a parent, I would take good, watchable videos of my kids. "Good" video means not wobbly and shaky, no wild swinging from person to person being filmed, no entire soccer games, no entire piano recitals, no zooming in and out at random times, etc. But alas I have failed. I guess it's a lot harder to do than I had realized. With that apology, here is a terrible video of the kids playing in the rain:

Click here for video

When It Rains...

I told Nate today that the thunderstorms out here make me think that the sky loses its temper or something. It will be a beautiful day, blue skies and innocent white clouds, and then it starts to darken and within minutes there's a downpour, crazy lightning, booming thunder, and hail. It's like the weather gods got really mad about something. And then they get over it. Not long after the "tantrum," peaceful skies return and all is calm again. We made the most of this pop up storm and let the kids run around in the rain and marvel at the thunder and lightning. Natalie had especially good time.

It may have been this very dance that brought the storm in the first place.

Bringing It All to the Table

Her highchair days are over, folks. Welcome to the table, Natalie.

I Spoke Too Soon

Yesterday I mentioned to a friend that my kids had not been sick all summer.

Today, I am doing lots of laundry.

Last night, after watching the Olympics for a little while, I headed upstairs...definitely ready to get some sleep. As I came up the stairs, I could smell the unmistakable stench of throw up. It was all over poor Natalie's bed. And all over her. You can imagine how the rest of the night went. Thankfully, Jansen only threw up once, early in the morning. He got a little bit on his teddy bear and I kept telling him I would wash it, but I guess he got tired of waiting around and took matters into his own hands. I found him in the kitchen:

They're actually doing really good today. Now we just have to wait and see if Nate and I get it...

Ta Da!

THIS is what we were working on over the weekend. And wait till you hear how much we paid for it: $0. Yeah, it was free. A friend's neighbor wanted to get rid of it (they were moving). We headed over there one night to disassemble our new swingset, but ran into a lot of problems. All the bolts were very stuck, rusted, and NOT moving. I was pretty sure it wasn't going to work out and was ready to abandon ship. We did some looking and asking around and bought some Liquid Wrench at Home Depot and let that sit on all the bolts overnight. Luckily, when Nate went to investigate in the morning, he was able to get most of them out. I think he had to hacksaw one of them off. He worked hours and hours on disassembling and then transporting and then reassembling this thing. I don't think he ever complained once. Thank you Nate! And as is evident in the pictures, the kids love it. Honestly, one of my favorite parts of all this is that in a couple years, we can make someone else and their kids REALLY happy and pass it along. That is, if we can get it apart. :)

Definitely Natalie's favorite part.

Can I get a little help here?

Dinner a l'Hopital

I've mentioned many times before how long evenings are when Nate is gone. The perfect solution: having dinner with him at the hospital! Nothing like macaroni and cheese, chocolate milk, and Cheetos to keep you going. (Yuck.) I'm not a big fan of cafeteria food, and although I do not consider myself to have germ-o-phobia, I am a little scared of hospitals. I feel like they are crawling with contagious diseases and other sniffle and vomit inducing bugs. So I wish I could have relaxed and enjoyed myself a little more instead of cringing every time Natalie sat on the floor or Jansen ran his hands along the walls. But it was definitely better than spending the evening alone!

Awww...makes me sad :(

This poor little guy thinks the yacht is his mom:

Little Bit of Separation Anxiety

I always think it's funny when you come pick your kids up from the babysitter and you ask how they did and the babysitter says they were great...but you know better. Sweet Monica watched Natalie for me and as you can see, she was a little bit of a handful. But of course Monica didn't complain one bit. And just so everyone knows, she is a wonderful babysitter, but had to get these shots of the girls because it was too funny. I couldn't agree more. Sofie just thought Natalie was hilarious and couldn't figure out why she was crying. Call me a mean mommy, but these pictures just make me smile!

MOOOOOMMMMMMMMYYYY!!!

Can't you just see her saying, "You think this is funny?!"

We've Been Working on Something Today...

More to come!

Another Uneventful But Happy Day

Not much going on here. Potty training is, well, still in the works. It's coming along slowly, but I guess that's how it is. I took a few pictures of Jansen and Natalie so that I would have something to put on the blog:

Watching the rain

Natalie stole this out of her favorite treasure chest: the garbage

The kids get so cranky and clingy in the late afternoon. It about drives me crazy. Taking them outside is usually a quick fix.

Picnik

Every once in awhile I like to play on this site called Picnik (picnik.com) where I can do cool things like this to my pictures:

Isn't that fun?

Lately

I took Jansen back to the dentist yesterday...she was very kind and a great dentist, but I drove 30 minutes to get there, waited 40 minutes in the waiting room, and she was finished looking at him in 3 minutes. The update: just wait and see some more. The tooth may or may not make it. She kind of thinks it won't. Jansen did great though. Here's a pre-visit interview video I took of him. And a picture at the dentist:

Today I am really hitting the potty training hard. Jansen will be going to a preschool one day a week soon and I really feel like it's time to be done with the diapers. I'm planning on not really leaving the house until we make some real progress. This is a picture of Jansen telling Nate how he went to the bathroom by himself.

Memories

My dad passed away when I was 13, and I distinctly remember one evening not long after he died when I was tagging along with my cousin to her college professor's home. The professor was a kind woman, and she knew that I had lost my father recently. She sweetly and sensitively told me to write down my memories of him. She told me how although they were clear in my mind at that time, I would forget many of them, even though I didn't want to. That advice sunk deep into my heart and I knew I wanted and needed to do it. 13 years later, I still haven't. I have started many, many times, so I do have some things written down, but I have a long way to go. Today would have been his 50th birthday, so I've been thinking about him a lot and feeling the need more than ever to record all the special memories I have of him. I also had the idea of asking anyone that reads this post that knew my dad to leave a comment...a memory you have of him that I can include with mine. Because if you were lucky enough to have known him, then I know you might have a memory like one of these:

-Riding on his back as he swam around my grandma's pool

-Sticking our heads out of the sunroof of his Saab as he drove down big hills

-Piling lots of pillows and blankets to sit on in the back of my grandpa's truck and going to the zoo
-Going with him to Lehi High School where he played basketball on Saturdays and playing with all the sports equipment and having a whole gym to ourselves

-Friday night Slurpees and watching X-Files

-Walking to the ditch with our dog Conway

-Watching Jazz and 49ers games on TV

As you can tell, this is an old picture. But it makes me happy, and I haven't had time to dig through and scan more recent ones. I don't know what I would do without memories...they are absolutely priceless.

A Fair to Remember

I've been telling Nate that we should go to the State fair, but it's not easy to find a time that works, and he's usually got a lot of studying to do. So I went with some friends! We all got in for free and the kids were really well behaved.

Anyone that knows me well will know this was my very favorite part of the day. I didn't get a very good picture, but that little wagon is full of tiny dogs. Hilarious and kooky. I love it.