Kate at 18 months

My girl is a year and a half!  Crazy!  

Kate is still such a joy.  I have a blast hanging out with her and Matthew every day. She is fun and spunky and is learning about the world so quickly.

She is still an amazing night sleeper but a horrible napper. She has already been on the one nap schedule for several months.... and half the time, she takes no nap at all.  Luckily she makes up for it by being a dream through the night, but sheesh, she sure is a little grump in the evenings from being so tired and usually has to go to bed pretty early.  I'm dreaming of the day we can all go out as a family in the evening and have a pleasant time.  ;-)

Kate has become Little Miss Independent.  She doesn't really like us to help her with anything unless she absolutely cannot do it by herself.  Sometimes I laugh when I watch her refuse any help as she struggles to do something on her own and then finally look at me with defeat and say, "Help."  (Which comes out, "Helph.")  

Kate loves bubbles, the moon, going for walks, swimming, and reading books. She also loves jewelry! If I don't put any on her and she can't find any laying around, she'll steal mine. I have high hopes about her getting into dress-up in the not-too-distant future.  

Kate loves to watch Micky Mouse Clubhouse.  It's actually the only thing she'll watch right now.  Luckily, that also happens to be Matthew's current TV show of choice.  If you ask her about Micky Mouse, she'll say, "Minnie."  "Daisy."  (Her favorites).  Her favorite songs are, "Slippery Fish," "Old MacDonald," and "I Am A Child of God."

Kate loves to climb all over furniture, including the stairs.  Agh.  I've spent more time on our stairs lately than I'd prefer, but I suppose the sooner she gets good on them, the better.  She loves jumping on the couches and the bed and plopping onto her bum.

Her favorite foods include crackers, cookies, smoothies, pizza, Nutri Grain bars, strawberries, french fries, hot dogs, and waffles.  Hey, there were a couple healthy foods in there.  ;-)  She absolutely loves when her food comes with ketchup, which she calls, "sauce."  She can dip her fries in ketchup like a pro. When the fries run out she starts dipping her finger and eating the ketchup by itself.  Ewww.  I then take the ketchup away and she gets mad.  (Sorry lady, but that grosses me out too much).  She is totally obsessed with lollipops.  Lollipops have saved my sanity at the grocery store lately.  As long as she has one, she behaves.

Half the time she thinks Matthew is hilarious and the other half of the time she is bugged by him. Ha! In all fairness, he definitely spends a fair amount of time picking on her. Luckily the girl is slowly learning to stand up for herself.  ;-)  She loves giving Matthew kisses and he can make her laugh pretty dang hard.  Overall I would say that they get along well.  They are each other's best buddies and she lights up like a Christmas tree when Matthew runs into her room every morning to greet her after she wakes up.  I am so glad that they have each other.

These last 18 months have been absolutely wonderful.  Love you Kate!

Lately

Time to play catch up if I want to keep this relatively updated!  :-)

Mother's Day was awesome. Michael sent me out that Saturday to go shopping and get a haircut. I stayed out for a good few hours and came home feeling pampered. I love my family and I love being a mother.

The next weekend was our annual Girls Weekend! This was my first time being baby-less overnight since August of 2011!  (By the time Matthew was old enough to leave overnight, Kate came along). It was seriously nuts not having a diaper bag and only having to worry about myself for a couple days. Of course I missed them, but I knew they were fine with Michael and it was pretty nice to have that freedom for a couple days. Plus, I think this might have been my favorite Girls Weekend yet.  

Can I also say that flying without a baby and/or toddler is the BEST!?  :-)  The only, and I mean ONLY, downside to flying solo was that people no longer avoided me like the plague and I was squished by an enormous man that smelled funny.

The theme was, "Under The Sea."

We ate too much, laughed a lot, had a bridal shower for my future sister-in-law Stephanie, did pedicures, and shopped. We went to a cute little Danish town called Solvang (near Santa Barbara) and shopped and shopped and still didn't even see half of the stores.  

On the way home we ate at a yummy restaurant called The Red Pepper. I'm still daydreaming about their pineapple shrimp. Yummmmmy.

We also hung out at the Redondo Pier and enjoyed some awesome weather.  We went paddle boarding (SO fun!) and all got toe rings.

The kids had a blast with Michael. Kate was pretty mad at me the night I got home but was completely over it by the next day.  :-)

Until next year!

And.... summer is here. Noooo! 100+ degrees for the next few months! Argh! On the bright side, we've been doing a ton of swimming.  Both my kids adore the pool.

Also, it's baseball season! Okay, that's not all that exciting in my opinion, but I did love going to a Diamondbacks game with the family a couple weeks ago. Chase Field is very kid friendly, which is so nice. They also have $1.50 hot dogs and corn dogs and $1 popcorn, and who wouldn't love that?

And since we can't just swim for hours on end every day, I've been trying to do more more fun and creative indoor activities.  I'm already sick of trying to think of things. Friends- come over for play dates please! On this day, I let the kids play with finger paints on canvas. It only took Kate 2 seconds to start painting on herself... in red of course, so she looks like she's from a horror film.

A couple weeks ago my parents came for a visit! It's always so depressing when they leave because we have so much fun with them.

Last but not least, Michael got surgery earlier this week! He had a double sports hernia. Ouch! Recovery has been anything but easy but he is finally doing much better.

Right before surgery

And for your viewing pleasure, here's Michael coming out of anesthesia. Haha. You're welcome.

Easter

This is my 100th post!  About time. ;-)

Easter this year was wonderful.  I know my kids won't remember a thing, but I got really into it anyway. Partially for them, but also for me - holidays are so fun!

I figured I'd try to teach Matthew the basics about The Atonement and Resurrection.... and by basics, I mean I pretty much told him that Jesus got owies on his hands, loves us a lot, that he went away, and that he CAME BACK and we get to be with our family forever.  The next time he saw a picture of Jesus he said, "Jesus!  Owies on hands!  Oh no!"  Hmmm, pretty sure that that's all that really stuck with him.  Dang.  Better luck next time I guess. :-)

Anyway, as you can see, I made the kids take a bunny ears picture.  I couldn't help myself. And it turned out WAY better than last year's picture:

We saw the Easter Bunny at Walmart!  Free picture!  And good thing it was free since even though Matthew thought the Easter Bunny was incredibly awesome, he would NOT look at the camera.

We colored eggs!  Well, me and Matthew did anyway.  I am not cool enough to deal with the messy disaster it would've been if I'd let Kate participate this year.  ;-)  I got some cheap plastic eggs for Matthew to color on with markers, and of course we also dyed some real ones.

We took the kids on an egg hunt in the neighborhood the day before Easter.  They had different egg hunts depending on the child's age so it was nice that Matthew and Kate were able to hunt with other small kids and babies.

The Easter Bunny visited this egg hunt so we got another pic.... but once again, they would not look at the camera.  :-)

Why are Easter Bunnies ALL so creepy?  Is it that impossible to make a cute one???  Sheesh.

Anyway, the night before Easter Matthew helped me bake up a bunny cake.  He loves helping me in the kitchen.

My counters?  Yeah, I'd like to say sorry and that they're not normally that messy, but honestly.... they usually ARE that messy.  Agh.

On Easter morning we let the kids open their presents (a couple small toys and a book for each of them) and then had to jet off to 8 a.m. church!  I did manage to sneak in a family pic using a timer.  :-)

We had an Easter Feast that evening.  Matthew's favorite part was, by far, the bunny cake.

So glad I got to celebrate with the fam, and so grateful that I get to be with them forever because of my Savior.

Children's Books

When I was a kid, like most other kids, I changed what I wanted to be when I grew up ALL the time. However, I remember that there was a good year or two (which was forever for me!) that I was dead set on being an author of children's books. I even wrote several stories on pieces of construction paper, stapled them together, and illustrated them myself.  (Um, yikes. I have never ever fooled myself into believing that I could be an artist).  ;-)  Eventually I sort of forgot about my passion for children's books, but it has been rekindled now that I have two kids who have grown beyond just the "Baby Touch and Feel" books.

In a nutshell, I still LOVE LOVE LOVE children's books. Don't get me wrong, I love grown-up novels too, but I don't get excited about them in the same way that I get excited over children's books. It kills me when I go to the children's section of a bookstore and can't just buy every book that I see.

I seriously think I could read to my kids all day. I am sooo glad that they enjoy it so much. There are many different activities that I love doing with them, but I think reading to them is at the top of that list. It's simple and definitely not very flashy, but it is wonderful. I hope that they continue to love books their whole lives- even in a world that seems to be drifting away from books a little.  (Boo!)

If anyone feels so inclined, please share with me one or more of your favorite children's books! I am on the hunt for more, and I don't own nearly as many as I wish I did. And if anyone is looking for some good ones, my favorites include:

The Very Hungry Caterpillar 
Harold And The Purple Crayon
I Was So Mad (this has helped Matthew express himself better during his tantrum-throwing age ha!)
Love You Forever
If You Give.... books (A Mouse a Cookie, etc.)
Goodnight Beach
Guess How Much I Love You
The Sleepy Little Alphabet
Five Little Ducks
Dear Zoo
Where The Wild Things Are

And anything by:
Leslie Patricelli
Karen Katz (my kids LOVE these ones)

*Many (most?) of these are toddler-age books, though I am also starting to think about adding to my slightly-older kids' book collection as well.

Phoenix Zoo

This year, I spent my 27th birthday at the zoo!  Michael had the day off work and we've never been, so I thought it would be the perfect day to go since it was a weekday, (less crowded) the weather was likely to be nice, and the kids are old enough to appreciate it.

We got there as soon as it opened and stayed until nap time.  (My kids are NOT the type to sleep in the stroller.  Ever).  Matthew had slept horrifically the night before so he was a bit cranky, but he'd been looking forward to going to the zoo for weeks so he would snap out of the crankiness whenever he'd see a cool animal.

Apparently the Phoenix Zoo is not all that impressive, but I wouldn't really know because I've only ever been to two zoos in my life, and the first one was a reeeeally long time ago.  (It was the San Diego Zoo).  I remember that I had a blast and I distinctly remember the hippo and the monkeys, but that's about it. Anyway, I thought it was way fun and the best part was seeing how excited Matthew and Kate would get over seeing all the animals they've been learning about.   

 Matthew was on Could 9 when he got to see the elephant. It was what he'd been looking forward to the most.

HUGE tortoises!

This jaguar looked like it wanted to rip our heads off.

Rafiki-ish type monkeys

petting zoo

See what I mean about Matthew?  :-)  He looked like this unless he was looking at an animal.

Toucan Sam

zebras

After the kids went down for naps I went shopping for a few hours by myself, which is seriously heaven. Ha. And then we all went out to pizza for dinner. Perfect birthday!  Big shout out to Michael for being awesome and making the day so great!