Real, real life

Have you ever heard the analogy that raising toddlers is like trying to shovel your driveway during a snowstorm?? Well that is the season that Jake and I are in and we love it. It's crazy hard and busy but it is the best thing we have ever done. We also wouldn't trade it for anything. So that's why I changed my blog. Before I changed it, I thought that I had to come up with these ridiculously fabulous posts that showed how awesome and perfect we were.  Well I hardly ever wrote because let's be real, we're awesome but we aren't perfect! So I want to share with our friends and family all of the crazy things our two beautiful girls teach us. And just want to share real life, how we survive and get through the toddler years.

To kick start it, Aliyah has been OBSESSED with putting stuff in her hair.  Almost everyday there is something new.  A few weeks ago, she found a bottle of Vick's Baby Vapor Rub (while she was supposed to be taking a nap.  And I have no idea how in the world the bottle ended up in their room in the first place.) By the time I realized that she wasn't sleeping and I could hear her, it was too late. I opened up her bedroom door and it smelled so strong of Vick's and it was COATED in her hair.  She was a grease ball for weeks because we tried all the home remedies, which didn't work, and I was too cheap to go buy fancy shampoo. Then there was diaper cream, face soap, toothpaste, corn starch, and now we are just waiting to see what she finds next.









Kailey loves it when she gets pulled into Aliyah's hair brained adventures! These two are the best of friends and really good little trouble makers! Speaking of that, I better go find them and see what they are up to! :) Have a Merry Christmas this week!

Blog Remodel

I just recently learned a lot more about blogging, yay! I learned more about backgrounds and buttons and how to set it all up and make it look cool, so I made a few changes to mine. I love it! I learned how to link my blog to my mormon.org profile. So if you want to learn more about my faith and why are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, click on my button (you can't see the button if you are looking on your phone) Hopefully I will start writing more and updating regularly. Anyway, Kailey has been teething and she has a cold at the same time, so the poor thing hasn't been doing very well.

Thank goodness Aliyah has been a good sport and has been sharing all of her toys with her.  She loves to try and make everyone "happy". I can get her to do almost anything if I tell her that it will make me "happy"! So now she is getting better at putting her shoes on all by herself and cleaning up her toys and other things like that.  

Today to help cheer her up, we went outside to get some sunshine and play!  We went to Young's Dairy for the first time and we had so much fun!  The girls favorite part was feeding the goats. Aliyah was scared of them at first but then I couldn't get her leave them alone! Even Kailey joined in on the fun!

We got to play in a jump house today that had a slide. Aliyah climbed it all by herself and went down the slide and she was so proud! I love watching her learn how to do new/hard things. The train ride was really fun for the girls and then of course we had to share an ice cream cone! We had so much fun getting fresh air and being outside. The girls are growing up too fast for me! I need to remember to just play with them and have days like this more often.

That cheesy grin! I am one lucky momma!

Catch Up!

Okay, I have been slacking on this! Somehow life just got crazy and this just didn't happen. So I wanted to just do a quick catch up on what our family has been doing. 

Aliyah is almost 2 1/2 years old! Time sure does fly.  She can now count to 11 and loves learning the ABC's. She is too smart for her own good and always keeps me in check. We love her to death.

A few days ago, we had to go to the doctor because Aliyah had a head cold, that turned into a lung infection.  We did a little breathing test to see if an albuterol inhaler would help. After we were done, we got to bring one home with us to do for a few days. She had done awesome with it and she "loves her "mask". But we are grateful that she is healthy again!

Aliyah loves to learn and make messes! So one of our favorite things to do is play with baking soda and vinegar!

Kailey is getting so big! Next month, she will be a year old! Crazy! She has four teeth and two more are coming in. She loves to eat and play and read books and is so close to walking.

Ice cream cones and walks are the best!

We are in trouble now! Aliyah has learned how to climb into Kailey's crib. Today after nap time, I ran upstairs because Kailey was screaming, I cam into the room and Aliyah was scrambling to get out of the crib. (and she actually headed straight to time-out. She knows whats up.) Anyway, this picture shows the diaper that Aliyah took off of Kailey while she held her down.  Thank goodness it wasn't  poopy!

Jake is still busy at school and getting ready to focus more of his time on his thesis work.  We just got a barbecue and he loves to grill! He is currently at 12 miles in his preparation for the Air Force marathon in September! Jake jumped out of an airplane...while it was up in the sky.

This was fun to watch and we sure were glad when we saw daddy land on the ground! He absolutely loved it! (He is the orange parachute.)

 A little update on me.  I am just loving my job as a mommy and am so grateful that we were blessed with the most adorable little girls ever! (it sure helps when they are crazy!) I love the sewing machine that Jake got me for Christmas and have been having fun making things for our house.

Here are curtains I made for the girl's bedroom. I need to redo the left panel.  I made it while the girls were awake...

We have done so many fun things and have been so blessed with great neighbors! We have been able to have a lot of cook-outs and just relax and play. Here are a few more pictures of what we have been up to.

We get to have missionaries in our home all the time and we LOVE it!

This was from a fun family night that we had. We talked about the Prophet Nephi and how Heavenly Father helped him build a ship to bring his family to safety. So we made some fun boats and then put them in the little kiddie pool!

We love taking walks as a family!

 We can't wait to see what other fun things this summer has in store for us!

 

Family Night:Creation

The primary theme this year is to "Build Strong Testimonies of Jesus Christ". So I thought it would be good to teach Aliyah more about Christ. So for the next few weeks, we are going to focus on an attribute of Christ. This first week we are learning about how Christ is a creator.

Music: My Heavenly Father loves Me

Lesson: We talked about how Christ created the earth for us and how he created all the animals and plants. We taught Aliyah that we are sons and daughters of God, so we can create just like He can. We watched this Mormon message that Pres. Uchtdorf gave about creating.

Activity: We made and played with oatmeal play dough. I picked this recipe so that Kailey could play with us too!

Treat: We ate raspberry muffins and had a fruit smoothie.

We have so much fun when we set aside Monday night to spend as a family, but why do we do it? Our church leaders have counseled us to hold a weekly night to gather together as families and to teach and learn about the gospel. This is a quote from the prophet of our church. He says, 

"We, as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, must stand up to the dangers which surround us and our families. To aid us in this determination, I offer several suggestions, as well as some examples from my own life.

I begin with family home evening. We cannot afford to neglect this heaven-inspired program. It can bring spiritual growth to each member of the family, helping him or her to withstand the temptations which are everywhere. The lessons learned in the home are those that last the longest. As President Gordon B. Hinckley and his predecessors have stated, “The home is the basis of a righteous life, and no other instrumentality can take its place nor fulfill its essential functions.” President Thomas S. Monson.

Family Night:Sharing

This week for family night, we talked to Aliyah about sharing.  


Music: "Give," said the little stream   and "Choose the Right"

 Lesson: We read the scriptures, Ephesians 4:32 and Matthew 5:9. We then talked about how part of being kind and being a peacemaker is sharing.  We talked about how we can share our toys and share our clothes with Kailey and then we talked about sharing our food and treats. We told her that when we share it makes our friends and family happy. Most importantly we taught her that when she is sharing, she is choosing the right and that makes her happy and Jesus happy.

Art: I made a paper for Aliyah to color that had a big "S" that was for sharing and a picture of Jesus for her to color.

Treat: We made homemade donuts and then we invited some friends over so we could "share" our donuts with them! It was so much fun and Aliyah loves having friends over! The donuts were so easy to make and tasty! We will definitely be making them again!

Aliyah loved them!