I'm in Charge

Cowgirl Jada

This little rascal turned 3. I can't believe that she is 3 already and is going to start preschool in about 1 month. Although she will continually remind you that she is a "big girl", she is anything but big. For her three year check up she topped the scale at a whopping 25 lbs. We see it as a good sign that she is now moved up into the 3% for her weight!!!

As we have been talking about her birthday coming up she had only 2 requests: a pink heart birthday and a mommy grey seal present. Easy enough...if it could only stay that easy for years to come!!!

She was so excited to wake up to hearts and more hearts. Of course the first present of the day was a stuffed "mommy grey seal." I don't know where this little girl comes up with these crazy requests, but her requests are hard to resist. I was putting a movie on for the girls after breakfast. Of course Mia was trying to negotiate to get the movie she wanted and I had to tell them that since it was Jada's birthday that she was "in charge". That was my first big mistake of the day. For the rest of the day Jada kept telling everyone that she was IN CHARGE.

She loved her pink heart cake. I loved an easy request.

When we gave her some options of what she wanted to do that night for her birthday she choose to go to the farm and ride horses. The little farm at Thanksgiving Point is perfect. She got to go on a tractor ride, ride the horses 4 times, feed the goats, pet a baby horse and a baby cow and brush the llama. A perfect birthday outing for this little animal lover.

She loved brushing the Llama

We thought the most exciting present we had for her was coming that night. We had researched and found the best little balance bike. My parents came over that night after we got home to give her the bike. Since she will only ride this bike for maybe a year, we decided to get a blue one so we could hand it down to little brother. Well, that was about the worst idea I've had this year. She took one look at this bike and hasn't really looked back since. We keep trying to persuade her to ride it, but she won't. The other day she told me to take it back to the store. Great, maybe next year. Since she was IN CHARGE she would command people through out the day to sing Happy Birthday to her. It was a fun day and I can't believe she is 3. Where did the time go???

Birthdays are Tiring

We love Sprinter

Only in Utah do we have season called "Sprinter". On the news the other day when the weather man was talking about this weather that is what he called it. I thought it was great. I know most people have major spring fever and are ready for summer, but I am loving this weather. We get the best of both worlds. We can play at the park in the sun in the morning and head up the canyon and ski in the afternoon. Every day that we have woken up to rain I have cheered! It won't be long before we are sweating in the heat so I will take advantage of this changing weather as long as I can. We will take it as long as it continues and for now we will keep pulling from the front and the back of the closet!

Puddle Jumping in the wonderful April rain

Our final ski day of the season. Wish the resorts stayed open a little longer!

Watching the runners in the SLC Maraton. Living right on the route has its advantages. The girls loved cheering and encouraging the runners on.

Enjoying the wonderful spring weather.

Swimming in St. George

Blessing Day

We finally got around to blessing Miles. It was a great day although we woke up to a huge spring snow storm. Although we were missing a few important family members, it was nice to have almost everyone there. It was a great day and Miles was very cooperative. He looked like a sharp young man all dressed in white!

Now, I thought finding blessing outfits for the girls was hard, but finding one for a boy was an even harder task. Because I did not want to put my boy in an all white tuxedo, we opted for a less conventional option. It worked and the best part is that he will actually be able to wear this one again!!

Overall, it was a great day and an amazing opportunity!

Our 3 Musketeers

All sMILES

12 weeks ago time could not go fast enough. I had a body that was sore, a baby that wouldn't sleep, kids who couldn't behave and I was stuck in my house. Now, 12 weeks later I can not figure out where the time went. Miles is now 12 weeks, he is sleeping (finally), he is smiling, he is laughing and he is growing super fast. We are loving him so much and I can not believe he is almost 3 months.

Mornings at our house are a little slow. We snuggle with our blankies watch shows and drink milk. Miles fits in perfectly. The only problem is that there isn't room for me in that bed anymore.

Miles loves his new cousin Korver. They are exactly two months apart and Korver will surely pass him up in size in no time. They are closer in age than any of the cousins, so they are going to love growing up together.

4 Weeks Today

Life with a new born, 2 year old and 5 year old. Feed baby, change diaper, feed two year old, wipe bum, unclog toilet, clean up spilled juice, feed baby, change diaper, get two year old out of the sink, clean up puddles of water off the floor, break up a fight, make lunch, clean up macaroni off the floor, put two year old down for nap, put two year old back down, put two year old down again, feed baby, change diaper, try to take a nap--ya right, try to find lost barbie, go get two year old up from nap and find poo on the floor, clean up poo off the floor, feed baby, change diaper, baby poops and pees on my bed, wash sheets..........and so it goes!!!
I can't believe this guy is already 4 weeks. I think I am finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel...at least today. My sanity changes on a daily basis. Somedays it is good and somedays...not so good. Everyone keeps asking 3 is hard and my answer is just that having a new born is what is hard. I guess because the girls were just super easy babies and good sleepers this one has been the hardest adjustment. Now that he is finally going back to sleep after he eats in the night, I am feeling a little better. Now I just need to figure out how to get him to take naps during the day! At the end of the day, it is all worth it. We love this little guy so much and already can't imagine life with out him.

Miles is Mr. Serious

I am lucky to have two great helpers. I can totally trust Mia to watch him while I get stuff done. (Like clean up poo off the floor.)

I love a sleeping baby!! He is already spoiled and will only sleep on a feather pillow.


We love a good storm. Thanks Dad for helping us build a snowman!!

Our Walk for Miles

Well, once again I am a little late in posting, but better late than never. Well as most of you have heard, sweet Miles was born on January 8th. After 4 short hours of labor and 2 pushes he was born at 3:23 in the afternoon. He weighed 7 lbs and 2 oz and was 20 inches long. Everything went well and we are happy to finally have him here.

His first two nights home he didn't sleep one wink and I was ready to go back to being pregnant again. We have finally figured out how to get a little sleep, so we are ready to keep him. He has been a really good baby so far and we think he is pretty dang cute.

The girls love him and just can't figure out why they can't carry him around. Mia would hold him all day if she could. Jada of course has had some memorable comments. The first thing she said when she saw him was, "That baby looks like a cricket." Yes, a cricket. I couldn't figure out where in the world she came up with that, but then my mom remembered a movie the girls had watched at her house. Can you see the resemblence? After Jada watched his first bath at the hospital she couldn't stop saying, "That baby has a stick on his bum." I'm not sure whether she was referring to the clamp on the cord or whether she was referring to his different anatomy.

Life is good and we are lucky to have such great family, friends and neighbors who have taken such good care of all of us. I forgot how much work a new born is and I could not have survived this far with out all the help and support from Chip. He is the best and these kids are lucky to have such a great Dad.

Lesser of Two Evils

I had to ask myself for a long time--What would be worse: potty training a stubborn, crazy toddler at 8 months pregnant, or trying to do it with a newborn. I was going to tackle this terrible job 2 months ago, but of course things just kept coming up. This last week I finally had a week where I didn't have to be anywhere, so I decided to go with the first option and give it a try. Mia was fairly easy to potty train, so I figured that if I applied the same method this time it would work out just perfect. WRONG!! What I didn't take into account, was that Jada has about 100 times more energy than Mia, that she is a little bit more stubborn, and that chasing her naked body around our house would be a little harder than it was to chase Mia around our small apartment. I didn't ask myself once during the process "Why in the heck am I doing this?" I asked myself that about every 5 minutes. It turns out that a child has to actually hold still to even try to go potty and if a 2 year old decides they want to hold it, they can hold it for at least 12 hours. It didn't matter how many juice boxes I gave her or how much soda I offered her--she would just hold it. Needless to say--last week was the longest week of my life and there where quite a few tears shed on both sides, but it is over. This week we have moved on to using the potty every hour and trying to see how many public restrooms we can see. I thought we were making great progress until we dropped her off at a friends' house last night and she took advantage of finding a nice quiet corner where she could do her business--in her pants. Soooo, we still have some work to do on the #2s, but we are getting there.

I have officially decided that potty training is by far the worst and hardest job of parenting yet. Since I am terribly lacking in the patience category, it is/was a real struggle for me. I know we have a long way to go still, but things are looking better. Hopefully by the time this baby gets here we can have it somewhat mastered!!!! (ya right!!!)