All about my girls

Miss Jordyn Jazz

J.J. is now 21 months and is so fiesty and fun. I had to take this pic because this is the look we get a lot!! Boy if looks could kill;) She is so smart and knows more words than I can remember to put down. Her newest words are funny and Einsteins. She loves her Einsteins. She pats her knees and lifts her arms up and yells, 'Blast off!!!' It's so cute. Little Einsteins will definitely accompany us on our trip;) Jordyn also loves to be outside. She brings me her shoes and says 'shoes...outside!!' Unfortunately, it's so stinking hot outside that it's miserable to be outside much right now. I have been taking them to the park before story time every week though and even though it's hot, the shade keeps us cool enough until it's time to do story time. She loves story time as well. She just smiles big and does all the songs and hand movements. She knows a lot of her body parts and points to them and says what they are (especially her button;) She also does everything her big sister does. They are best buds and I hope they both read this when they are older and realize how much they love each other;) She is a big daddy's girl and yells for him when he is conducting the music in church. It can get kinda embarrassing. She is also a great sleeper and I usually don't have any problems putting her down. And of course she loves saying prayers. It is adorable to see a baby on her knees whispering jibberish and then screaming out AMEN!! Plus, she can point out Jesus in pics and statues and says Jesus when we ask who it is. She actually has been doing that for a long time now. She is very loving when she wants to be. She was being very stingy with her kisses but is starting to give them a little more. We cherish them whenever we do get them. We love this baby girl so much and are so happy that she is part of our family.

Miss Kenna Rae

Makenna is over four now and I can't believe how grown she is. She is so tall and her hair is getting so long. It is so curly and beautiful. She is also so stinking smart. I'm still debating about preschool because I really don't think she needs it. We'll see, I guess. She is in gymnastics right now and absolutely loves it. She is so good at it too. She does little jumps and stuff at home and gets her little sister copying her too. Makenna is a big helper and will help me with Jordyn a lot. She is like her second mommy. She will tell me to put her in time out or to just put her to bed. It's hilarious. She is very soft and gentle with her (most times) and calls her sweetheart and gets so worried about her if she gets hurt. She will even give up the bear or baby that she wanted and give it to her sister to make her happy. She is going to be a great mommy someday. She is also a huge talker. We can't get her to stop sometimes. She will go on and on and on about anything and everything. She is a great singer and sings a ton of primary songs. I don't think she actually sings them in Primary but she sings for us all the time. You also can't get anything past her. She remembers EVERYTHING!!! We have to be careful what we say to her because it may come back to kick us in the butt. She is so loving and gives us many hugs and kisses and cuddles. We love this sweet girl so much and hope that she will stay little for a little while longer;)

More bikini fun;)

Last Saturday we went over to Trav's sister's home to celebrate our niece Stephanie's birthday. It was a pool party and the girls were all about that!! They were both so excited. It was the first time this year that they got to swim in a big pool. It was pretty cold in the pool so I just hung out in the jacuzzi. Pretty soon all of the kids joined me as well.
I didn't get too many pics of Kenna's face. She was too busy;)

Jordyn kept going down the first step and jumping back out. She kept doing it over and over. Travis decided to dunk her and by the look on her face, she didn't like it much. It was just too cold for her. But she kept going up and down that first step and then joined me in the spa as well.

Ahhh....she got water up her nose. I think someone splashed her. She wasn't too happy about it but Daddy is taking care of it.

Um......gorgeous!! ;)

Ashley was playing peak a boo with her and hiding her behind the towel.

Kenna and Leslie;)

They had fun and we get to go swimming again this weekend. This time it is for my sister's little boy Mason. He is turning two!!

So tired....so so tired!

I guess I'm still putting sleeping pills in her lunch!! ;)

A Day

What a difference a day makes. I had a lovely day with my girls today. Miss Jordyn was very loving and kept giving me hugs and kisses. I told myself that it was going to be a good day no matter what. I was going to will it to happen and it did. I also told myself to stay calm and relaxed no matter what. It was just lovely. She ate well. She slept well. She behaved well. Both of my girlies did and it was a good day. I also checked her gums to see if I could feel anything and wouldn't you know there was a tooth coming through. It is on her bottom right side. I don't know if her tantrums were worse because of her teething but I'm just going to try to make each day calm and fun and hope there are more nice days.

A rough phase

It's been pretty rough the last couple of weeks. I don't know what happened but one day I had the sweetest baby ever and now all of a sudden I have a crying, screaming, tantrum throwing, cranky baby. Or I guess I should say toddler. She just turned 21 months old and won't be two until September but she is getting a head start on the terrible twos I guess. Makenna waited until her 2nd birthday so I thought we would be fine when we went on our trip because Jordyn wouldn't be quite two yet. Oh, I hope she will be ok. I think she is better with other people though so I think it will be alright with my parents there and seeing so many different things. Well, at least I hope so. I'm kind of worried about it because I can't take her anywhere right now. We went to lunch at In n Out last week and she wanted down and started screaming as soon as we got our food. She is bad at church, the store, restaurants and other people's homes. I want to apologize if anyone has had a bad time because of my screaming baby. I know it can be hard to be around. But no matter how bad she gets sometimes, I love my sweet baby girl so dang much I can't even stand it. I get so mad at myself when I get so frustrated with her. I just think she is so smart and she can't adequately express herself which makes her very frustrated. I really wish I knew what to do with her because what I am doing is not working at all. Someone also asked me if she was teething and my first thought was no because she had gotten all her teeth really fast. But now that I think about her nearing her 2nd birthday, I guess she could be getting her two year molars. I couldn't feel anything but that doesn't mean anything either. That would be lovely if it got better once some teeth broke through but I'm not counting on that. Sometimes it seems like she gets mad at me when I leave to go to work because she is extra bad on my days off. It's like she is getting back at me. And I guess she is worse for me than for Travis which ticks me off because what the heck is that about??? I've tried time outs. I've tried ignoring her. I just don't know what to do that will help because the things that I am doing is not working. All I know is to just love her and hope that it will pass soon.

My monkey girl

It's gymnastics time again. We haven't been since before the end of the year. She broke her leg and we just never went back after that for some reason. I have no idea why because she loves it. She's always timid at first. She won't do the warm ups really well and she kept looking at us but that can be expected since she hasn't done it for six months. But she got the hang of it really quick and she stopped looking at us so much. I'm so proud of my monkey girl. She just loves tumbling and twirling around on the bars. We had thought about putting her in dance this time just for something different but she kept asking for her gymnastics so that is what she got.
This is in the beginning when she couldn't quit looking at us and not really paying attention.

That's my girl in the background. She does that so well;)

A jumping shot. Have I said how much I love my camera lately??? Well, I do because there is no way we could have gotten these shots. She would have been on to the next thing before our other camera finally snapped.

And another jumping shot. I love the hair in the air;)

Balance baby!

Uh oh....hang on to it.....she didn't even fall!!!

What happened here?? LOL!! Her leg is totally tangled under her arm;)

Oh, that is what it's supposed to look like!

She is so good at it all.

I love the four year old class. It's a little longer and they get to do so much more stuff. We will just have to keep her in it;)

Wa Wa

That is how Jordyn says quack quack whenever she sees ducks. It is so cute. She just automatically says wa wa. I love it. We had some extra bread that wasn't very good so we decided to go feed the ducks at the Aliante park.
Don't look at Kenna's hair;) I didn't do it that day and tried to put it up in a ponytail so we could go out.

J.J. wanted to look at the camera this day and Makenna didn't, I guess;)

It was on a Saturday afternoon and the ducks were quite full already. None of them really ate any of the bread. O-well. It was so crazy there so we went to another park so they could play on the playground and Makenna did the monkey rings for the first time!!! She got all the way to the end minus one! She was so proud of herself and so ready to get back to gymnastics which starts again tomorrow!! Yay!! Hopefully she will have the nice teacher again instead of the crabby one. Stay tuned;)

Travis cooked!!

We went out to dinner to Applebee's last week and we love their spinach and artichoke dip. It is so yummy! I made the comment that we should find the recipe and try to make it. Well, Travis looked it up, got the recipe, got the stuff at the store and cooked it up!! And he did a splendid job! It was so yummy and it looked and tasted just like the Applebee's kind. Not so good for my diet but o-well, it was worth it!! ;)

Here is the recipe to any who want to try it:

Applebee's hot artichoke and spinach dip

1 (10 ounce) box frozen chopped spinach, thawed

1(14 ounce) can artichoke hearts, drained and roughly chopped

1 cup shredded parmesan-romano cheese mix

1/2 cup mozzarella cheese

10 ounces prepared alfredo sauce

1 teaspoon minced garlic

4 ounces softened cream cheese

pepper (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine ingredients thoroughly in a bowl and spread mixture into a small baking dish (8"X8" dish). Bake for 25-30 minutes or until cheeses are bubbling and melted. Serve with chips or bread.

The ingredients can get kinda expensive if you don't have some on hand but it makes a big batch. You will want enough people to share with;)

I need to stop watching the news!!

All I have to say about the stuff on the news this week is HOLY CRAP!!! This world is just so evil and I can't stand it anymore!! From the baby in the dumpster to the two boys tied together in the garage to the girl that got shot dead in their apartment. Why all the violence against babies and kids??? And that's just in my neck of the woods. In Pennsylvania, some idiot being chased by the police, ran up onto a sidewalk full of little girls. One of the moms was outside and tried to lift the car off of her daughter and the idiot pulls a gun on the mom and demands that she stop trying to save her daughter!!! Um....why??? How can you be so evil that you would not let a mother try to save her own baby girl??? I just don't get it. I also don't get how people including Obama can believe that late term abortion is right. We have babies surviving when they are born only half way through yet they are letting them kill their babies when they are about due. This too is murder. I don't believe in it at all but if you can't figure out that you want to do it before the baby is almost full term, then give it up for adoption. There are many that would love to be parents! What is a little more time being pregnant??? How can they knowingly kill after they have felt these babies move and kick??? I just don't understand!!! This is got to be the last days, right??? I'm scared of what's to come if it's going to get worse.

Men!!

I've officially lost five pounds. Yay! It's going slower than last time but I'm not being as good as I was either. Anyway, I was looking at my progress and was showing Trav. I was mentioning to him that I was starting to look good....right honey??? And this was his answer....classic man answer! "Yeah, but you don't get to eat anything good!!"

Thanks babe;)

Graduation

We've had lots of big things happening this week. Our niece Leslie graduated yesterday with High Honors!! We are so proud of her! And now on to BYU Idaho!! WooHoo! I wish I could turn back time and do that too. I hope she enjoys every minute of it. It goes by way too fast.

And I just have to rant for a minute about how people act. I swear people think that they are the only ones that are important. There were so many that were rude that Travis and I were just looking at each other like, "really???" They ask you not to bring those horns for a reason. I felt so bad for the poor kids that came right after one that had family doing that since it totally drowned out their name so that you couldn't hear it. I mean...come on!! It's not just your kid graduating!!! Grrr! I just think it's rude. Oh, and the people that think it's nice to start smoking right in the middle of a crowd of people waiting for the graduates to come out. Thanks for that! LOL!! Anyway, it was a nice graduation with a very cool principal but it reminded Travis and I that we don't want to go back to High School;-} Hehe! Oh, and it was much different than our graduations! I don't remember them selling pizzas and nachos and popcorn like it was a game or something;) It was quite funny!

Back to the temple

I love the temple. It's so peaceful and beautiful up on that hill. I'm so glad my mom and dad watched the girls so we could go on Saturday to my cousin's sealing.
Trav got this cool shot.

My grandma looked so cute;)

I can't wait to go again. It will probably be in Palmyra next time;-}

Green thumb?

I am definitely not good at growing stuff. If a plant is high maintenance, it will die at our house. We tried to plant some watermelon and pumpkins and that was not a success at all. But a couple years ago, we planted a couple of fruit trees. I picked out a nectarine and Travis got an apple tree. We found out later that the apple needs another apple to pollinate it! Ugh....high maintenance;) We have been talking about getting another tree but never have. Well, for some reason this spring, our apple tree has apples!!! Somehow it blossomed all by itself! I guess we will find out if they are any good pretty soon. And I just wanted to thank my honey for keeping our yard looking so nice. He is a good mower;-)

New Moon- Fan trailer

This is a trailer that a fan made but it looks better than the real one....enjoy;-}
http://www.youtube.com/user/tiffanyd666

Bikini fun

Who doesn't love a sweet, chunky baby with sweet, chunky thighs in a bikini??? I think it's the cutest thing ever! We played in the kiddie pool at Grandma and Papa's last week and the girls loved splashing around.

Little Miss diva got cold so she wrapped herself in a towel to keep warm and borrowed Grandma's glasses. It makes her look way too old;)

I wish my thighs could look that cute in a bathing suit;)

The boys were over too so of course there was some riding going on! Gunnar loves the pink bike for some reason! He has a fit when one of the girls tries to ride it;)

And I haven't posted any more pics of Izaak so I needed to remedy that. Makenna absolutely loves to hold him. She is so good and she will sit still with him for quite awhile. He has gotten so big and has changed so much just in the last two months since he was born. I just love those cheeks!!! I can chew on them all the time. They are even bigger now than this pic shows;-) And Jordyn is so soft and sweet with him too. She just rubs his head and is so gentle. I know she will be such a good big sister as well as Kenna in the future.

And this is my sister's newest baby. They named him Cash and he is the cutest thing;)

Funny girl

Makenna had to keep getting up last night to pee because I was shoving fluids down her all day. She started crying at about 10 o' clock and I asked her what the matter was. I couldn't understand her for a minute and then she finally blurts out, "My potty won't let me sleep!!!"

Poor baby!

And yes, she is still a baby. She's my baby girl;) Instead of going on a movie date on our anniversary, we got to spend two hours at the pediatricians! You got to be jealous of that fun;) Our sweet girl started having fevers the night before. I was keeping it under control with some Motrin but it stayed at 103 a lot. Well, right before we were about to leave, Makenna woke up from her nap so we waited so we could give her some more Motrin and she was on fire!! She also looked so pathetic. It was so sad. We took her temp and it said 104.9!!! And usually the ear ones are less than the rectal temps that are more accurate so that scared me!! I called the docs and asked them what I should do and they told me to come right in. That worried me even more since it's usually pretty hard to get in even when you call first thing in the morning. Of course her fever broke right when we got there and it made it hard to really see that she was sick but I just kept thinking of how she looked just an hour before. He said there was some fluid in her ears but didn't think that would warrant such a high temp. Makenna then got to pee in a cup for the first time but that came back fine so she didn't have a urinary tract infection. He was a little stumped but gave us some antibiotics after an extra test showed that she had enough gunk in her ears. So, hopefully this will get her to feeling better. She feels fine in between fevers but she just crashes when it starts spiking again. She started feeling really yucky again last night! I just wish the doc could have seen that. O-well. Today has just been a lounging day filled with movies and gatorade and hopefully she will feel better soon. And hopefully Jordyn and I won't be next!!

And I just had to add this cute pic of Jordyn changing her baby's diaper;-)

Eight years!

I can't believe it's been eight years since I got lucky and this handsome man married me;)

We have known each other most of our lives now....I guess that's what happens when you get older;-) We've known each other since we were 12 and both of us had high hair!! I think it's so cool that we can look back on our school years and remember friends and teachers that are exactly the same.

I think this is a High School pic though;)

Jr. High

We got back together again in our early 20's after I had a dream about him;)

Sigh...look at how young we look!

I called him, we went out and he called me everyday after that. We got married two years later.

We had our first baby shortly after we got married;) Well, the furry kind!

And now eight years later, we are a family of four plus a furry one. I love our happy, little family and I love my sweet, amazing husband. Happy Anniversary babe!

(Yes, this pic is a year old but I like it;)