Overdue update

I was just looking through all the pictures on my camera and realized it has been a long time since I have posted an update so I thought I better give it a shot instead of mopping my floors like I should be doing....

Christmas was a lot of fun this year now that Stockton was old enough to really enjoy it alot more.  Having kids really does bring the magic back into it.  I am going to really start looking forward to Christmas each year now.  Here are both of the boys after opening their presents from Santa and Mom & Dad.  And a few others from the morning.

The boys are definitely starting to be more like brothers.  Logan loves it when Stockton will play with him and Logan justs gives him the biggest, cheesiest smiles.  Stockton goes back and forth when it comes to playing nicely and when he can be a little rough or annoying.  He has a problem with wanting to decide what Logan should be playing with rather than just allowing him to play with whatever he is enjoying at the moment.  Overall, I think they are really starting to love each other.  Stockton always wants to sleep in Logans bed with him and whenever I have let them nap together on Mom & Dad's bed, Stockton will always hold Logan's hand until they fall asleep.  And just a few days ago, they had their car seats side by side in the car (normally there is a seat between them) and Stockton held Logan's hand the whole time we were driving.  It is so sweet.

We celebrated Stockton's 2nd birthday in January.  As generic as it sounds, I can't believe it has been 2 years.  He is still so small, it is hard to believe he is actually 2.  At his check up, his weight was the 3rd percentile, height was the 14th percentile, and his head was the 93rd percentile.  Just hearing those measurements makes me wonder how he is even able to walk without toppling over all day long.  He is still Mommy's precious angel and spends most of his day following me around the house saying, "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy..."  He definitely loves his Mommy, but Daddy is at the top of his list too.  He always makes sure to throw in a few "Daddys" through out the day and point at the door.  His speech therapy is going pretty well.  I think he probably speaks about 10 words now and signs probably around 20.  He continues to improve each week, so we are happy about that.  Stockton has always been our perfect sleeper from the very beginning.  He has always loved sleeping in his own bed and has never had a problem putting himself to sleep, but he had a HORRIBLE nightmare on New Years Eve and his sleeping has been a work in progress ever since.  He was terrified to even go near his bed or our bed for about a week afterwards.  We have him sleeping in his own bed now, but still freaks out if we put him in our bed at night.  And he has a hard time going back to sleep if he wakes up in the middle of the night.  Hopefully things will continue to improve and he will be back to his old self eventually.  Here are some of his favorite things right now:
Favorite Food: chocolate milk and cheese
Favorite Movies/Shows:  Toy Story, Madagascar, Whinnie the Pooh, and Wonder Pets
Favorite Book:  I Love My Mama (about the mommy and baby elephants) and his animal flap book
Favorite word: Mommy, Please, and NO!
Favorite Toys:  Woody & Buzz, blocks, and his animals
Favorite thing to drive Mom crazy:  Climbing on the kitchen counters

 

Logan:  where do I even begin with you?  You are the CUTEST baby I have ever seen in my life.  I just wish I could take good pictures to justify how beautiful you are.  You have the roundest, perfect face, the perfect amount of chubbiness, and a smile that melts my heart.  When Stockton was a baby, everywhere I went people would tell me how cute he was, but I NEVER get any comments about Logan.  I am baffled by this because, lets be honest, Stockton was precious, but he wasnt the cutest baby in the world, but Logan is absolutely adorable.  I was talking to my sister about this and we came to the conclusion that it has to be his stork bite.  After she brought it up (her son had one, too) then it made sense.  Because that is normally the only comment I get, even from family members, is about when/if his birth mark will fade away.  I have even had one of the sample ladies at Costco, not once, but TWICE say something about it to me.  She didnt start the conversation by telling me how cute he was, she simply stated, "My granddaughter had a mark like that on her head, but dont worry, it will fade away".  My response was, "I am not worried about it".  Needless to say, I will be avoiding her on any future Costco visits.  It is so weird because I honestly dont even see it when I look at him.  It makes me sad that it is obviously the only thing that some people see.  Anyways, I didnt mean to go off on a tangent about that.  Back to Logan....he is such a happy, playful baby who just wants my attention all the time.  I can tell he is going to be our "get into everything" baby because he is so grabby and getting very anxious to go go go, he doesnt know how to sit still!  It seems like he always has an agenda.  That is so much different than how Stockton was, I am a little nervous about the trouble he will cause once is mobile.  He still wants to eat ALL the time!!  He drives me crazy though because he wants to eat EVERYTHING in sight, but he HATES being spoon fed.  I dont know if it is the baby food he doesnt like or the act of being fed.  He loves sucking on crackers and toast and anything that he can do himself.  He loves talking, growling, grabbing his feet, and bouncing in his exersaucer thing.

 If you are wondering why Logan's orange shirt looks strangely familiar, it is because its the same orange shirt that Stockton was wearing this past summer.  That's right he was 18+ months old and Logan is only 5 months.

Bekah's 30 in 30

One of my very best friends in the whole wide world is doing something really fun, she is going on 30 blind dates in the 30 days before her 30th birthday.  Unfortunately, I am a lame friend that can't find her any guys to sign up because either A) all the single guy friends that I have are the same single guys friends that she has, or B) all the guys I know are married.

So, that is where some of you might be able to help.  Check out her blog, http://www.beks30in30.blogspot.com/, and refer any guys that you think might be interested to check it out, too.  Who knows what could happen, right?  :)

P.S. To anyone from Boise that might be reading my blog, I would really, really welcome some candidates from you because if I could get Bekah to fall for a guy up here then that means I could possibly get her to follow him here, just like I did!!!

Goodbye my friend.

I am actually a little sad to announce that Stockton went to sleep for the first time without his pacifier tonight.  I am relieved that it was an easier weaning process than I anticipated, but sad to think this is a sign that he is turning into a big boy instead of my little baby.  It was time though.  He was starting to drive me crazy about it.  He has been pretty good at only having it for bedtime and in the car, but lately he has been asking for it CONSTANTLY.  And then when I dont give it to him or I have to take it away from him, he throws a royal temper tantrum.  I happened to read somewhere that if you cut a hole in it, then they will eventually lose interest because it isnt soothing to them anymore.  I did that on Wednesday and anytime he asked for it, I gave it to him. And it worked!  He just didnt really want it anymore.  It was great because I didnt have to fight him on it!  It's like he realized on his own that he didnt want it!  Tonight when I put him to bed, he took it out of him mouth, handed it to me, and went to sleep!  That is nothing short of a miracle in my opinion.  So it is with sadness and relief that I say my final farewell to the days of the paci.  Although, I am sure I will miss my friend during temper tantrums at the grocery store...SIGH.....

My Mom

My mom just came to visit from Idaho this past week and ever since she left, I havent been able to stop feeling sad.  It was just such a great visit, probably one of the best times I have had with my Mother in my adult life.  I am lucky to have such a fun Mom.  I am not the best writer, but I am really good at making lists.  So while my emotions are still fresh from her visit, I want to list everything I love about my Mom so that she knows it and so I can always look back and remember them.

1. She is fun.  Because of her, I already force my own children to turn the music up and sing and dance.  Even though I am sure I look like a fool, just like my Mom did, I remember how much fun it was even though we always tried to act like it was stupid.  

2. She spoils us in a way that she was never able to do when we were kids.  I mentioned while we were getting ready for Stockton's birthday party that I wish I had more cute, stylish serving dishes.  So when we went to Ross to return something, she bought me almost $100 worth of serving dishes.  At Ross, you can get ALOT for $100!  Now every time I use them I will think of her.

3. She lets me be myself.  She let me go through every single throw pillow at Ross for about an hour and told me that she liked everyone even though I am sure my indecisiveness was annoying.  She is always supportive about little things like that. When I told her the plans for Stockton's birthday party, rather than trying to do things the way she thought was best, she just helped me make sure everything was done the way I wanted it.  And was just there to help and support.

4.  She taught me to believe in fairies and all magical things.  That may sound weird, but I am glad that I was encouraged to believe in Unicorns and given the impression that Mother Nature was actually a real person that made everything on the earth grow and be beautiful.  I am glad that she bought my son an animal that when his Dad tells him it is a horse with wings, I can tell him matter of factly, it is actually a Pegasus.  And then hope that he believes it actually exists somewhere in a land faraway.   

5.  She loves Troy.  I can tell that she genuinely cares about Troy and she treats him the same way she treats her own children.  And it seems like she does this with all of her sons and daughter in laws.  

6.  She is the best Weema.  I have never seen any sign that she loves any of her grandkids more than the rest.  She treats them ALL like they are her very favorite and I really think all of them are.  She spoils them even more than she does the rest of us.  And she is so good at playing with them.  It was touching to see the way she gets down on Stocktons level to play with him and how much they both seemed to enjoy it.  And she also spoils them more than her own kids.  She seriously supplied Logan with his entire newborn wardrobe and she is constantly buying them things here and there just because she wants to. 

7.  She is strong.  She has been through alot in her life.  She has experienced alot heartache, betrayal, and loneliness.  But she has learned how to be happy with herself and not let her past experiences affect the person she is today.  

8.  She loves me.  Our childhood was far from picture perfect.  And she didnt do everything the way I wanted when we were kids, but I always knew without a shadow of a doubt that she loved me.  And now that I am a parent, that is what I want my own children to know everyday, how much I love them.  My Mom did that for me and I hope my kids will feel that same love from their Mother. 

Hopefully she will be back soon for another visit.  And maybe the smell of lavender will linger in the air until she comes back, then it will feel like she never left.  

Before I was a Mom...

...I told myself that I would never have snot faced kids.  Now I wonder if I will ever NOT have snot faced kids!!!!

We've been busy

We have been busy the last month...we went to Utah for Thanksgiving and for some much needed family time for me.  It was a wonderful, relaxing trip full of time with my sisters, family, and a few friends.  While we were there, we went ahead and blessed Logan.  We did it at my sister's house and it was a neat, intimate experience.  Troy did a great job.

.We have had Christmas festivities going on the last couple of weeks.  Christmas gets more fun than ever once you have kids to experience it with.  

 Logan just gets cuter and cuter everyday.  Just looking at him melts my heart in a way that I never thought possible.  I love seeing more of his happy personality coming out more and more.  He has the funniest laugh,  in the beginning, I always thought it was a cry, not a laugh.  He seems to be liking his older brother a little more.  He actually smiles at Stockton when he tries to "play" with him and he can tolerate Stockton's weight on him alot better than he could in the beginning.   

 Stockton took a couple of good falls that look like they will end up leaving some scars.  I guess its a good thing girls like that...

Four Years

It is hard to believe it has been 4 years since we were here...

What a perfect wedding it was. There isn't a single thing I would have changed.

4 houses, 3 jobs, and 2 kids later, there isnt a thing I would change today either.  Except of course being back in Hawaii with ALL 3 of my Boys!

Thank you, Troy, for making me happy everyday.