Sydney at 16 months

I feel like I haven't talked at all about Sydney for a while. She is just growing so fast. And I guess I mean that in a mental way, because she is still so little! She's 16 1/2 months now and weighs only 21lbs. What a joy she is to our family. She has quite a lot of personality. She is such a sweetheart and loves to cuddle or sit on my lap(She loves to cuddle with Daddy especially though I think). She grunts in dissagreement if we make her stop doing something(like dig in the trash for "goodies"). She tries to throw fits if she doesn't get what she wants(they don't last long and I like to think it's because I don't ever give in. Who knows). She walks up to me randomly throughout the day and starts talking to me with the cutest face. She says things like "diss", and "budiss" often. Wish I knew what she meant! She's usually showing me something atleast. She loves her older brother and tries to emulate him in every way(even the bad things sometimes). She is basically over her stranger anxiet. Now she just burries her head in my shoulder or lap acting like they can't see her that way. She has the cutest laugh when you tickle her. She loves to tickle us as well. She loves to read books on her own as well as with us. She loves music and dancing(though now her dance is more like stomping her feet than what it was before. So cute!). And she loves giving kisses! I could go on more but it's late! I do however want to record some of her newer words. It seems that all of a sudden she's saying a lot.
-About a month or so ago she learned "help" and she says it for everything. If she wants up, or down, or she wants something we're holding, or the fridge opened, or actual help with something she can't do herself. Everything.
-Three weeks ago she learned "bubye", and she likes to use it a lot. I'll hear her saying it in her crib over and over. And she likes to look out the window at the people and cars and say it.
-Two weeks ago she learned "cheese" and "apple". She also learned "yeah". One day I asked if they wanted a banana with their lunch and Sydney immediately said "yeah". I was so shocked!
-Last week was not such a good week. She learned "no" and "mine", and now she likes to say them. Here we go!
-Then this week she has learned "hot". I'm always telling her to stay away from the oven when I open it because it's hot, and she's tested the outside of it a few times. She says it more with a silent H. It's really cute!
And that's my little girl in a simplified nutshell. We love her so much. She adds so much to the family and it's so fun to watch her learn and grow.

One way she copies David and her Daddy is by putting on their hats. She LOVES them. If I'm not careful I'm going to have a tom boy on my hands being all surrounded by boys! \

For My Sake

Most of you probably won't care much about this post, but I had to put it up for me. Yesterday I got the urge to collect a few pretty leaves from the park and take fun pictures of them. So that's just what I did earlier today. I haven't had much business with advertising on BYU-I's bulletin board lately because the market is SO saturated. I miss taking pictures, so I had a moment of going back to what I started out doing. Pictures of inanimate objects. =) Sure was fun!

Don't miss our pumpkin carving post below. I posted these closer together than I normally do.

Carving Pumpkins

Letting the kids help scoop out the insides.
I finally got David to grab a little with his hands after much persuasion, but he thought it was really gross! lol.

Then the kids sat down to draw faces on their little pumpkins. They seriously were so excited about this. They've been wanting to play with their pumpkins ever since we bought them several days ago.

Scott and I both helped them draw a little face on them to go along with their colorings.

And then we carved the big pumpkin. Or Scott did. I've found that my favorite part is cleaning it out,and Scott is great at carving. I take FOREVER.

The kids thought it was pretty cool when we lit it and turned out the lights. Well except for after a few minutes David said quietly, "I'm scared". I don't think he really was, just not sure about the shadows it made on the ceiling.

Making Peppermint Ice Cream

About a week ago I made peppermint ice cream with the kids. When I was little I remember my Mom making this with us and so I was excited when I thought of it again. David and Sydney loved smashing the candy canes especially!
Ingredients:
vanilla ice cream
crushed candy canes
Let it sit in the freezer for a couple days because ours started tasting more pepperminty throughout, the longer it sat.

The Proper Gear

The other morning David watched Mickey Mouse Clubhouse while wearing my broken sun glasses, his winter hat backwards, and his backpack. I just had to get a picture!

Our Boy Names

Scott and I have finally settled on three names that we mutually like! I don't know what it is but I have such a hard time coming up with names that are even considerable for our babies. I spent hours looking at various places online to get ideas. Scott doesn't really come up with names he likes. He just tells me the names he likes out of my list. So the names, sans the middle, are Parker, Jacob, and Collin. Feel free to vote in the poll on the right! At this point no one is sticking out above the rest(well, except for me- I like Jacob the least), so it really could go any way! Feel free to also comment on why you like the name you voted for!

Autumn Fun!

Today we had beautiful weather and we took the opportunity to play in the leaves after my walk. My friend Madaline threw leaves at the kids while I took pictures. We had such a blast, especially both of my adorable kids!

Isn't this the cutest?

He started doing this in anticipation of the leaves being thrown.

Halloween Sugar Cookies

My Little Singers

For those of you who do not go to the LDS church, the children learn what we call Primary Songs, and this is a video of David singing one he has learned in his nursery class. "I am a child of God". Sydney also joins in as much as she's able to. =) I think this is SO adorable!

It's a BOY!!!

So today I was finally able to go to the doctor! This time around I'm seeing Certified Nurse Midwives and so far after today's appointment I am happy with this decision. They were so nice and I felt like I could just talk to them like friends. I didn't know they'd be able to do the ultra-sound today so I was excited. I can't remember the last time I felt SO excited. First time hearing baby's heart beat, seeing it, finding out what it is. Yeah, excitement. Baby looks and sounds healthy, but guess what? My due date was changed to January 18th! LOL. I find it hard to believe that I was that far off(when I found out I was pregnant I was already like 6 weeks and couldn't remember exactly when my last period was. Just tried to remember best I could). I do have another ultra sound scheduled for October 30 to make sure I was only off and that it's not something like the baby's not growing correctly. The OB came and talked to me too and said he's not worried at all because of my history, and I'm not either. That's good! I'm great with having my due date changed to later. I know that seems crazy to any mom out there, but I have been blessed with easy pregnancies, I'm not particularly ready(at least not at this point) to be a mom of 3, and I REALLY did not want a holiday baby. So it works out nice! Oh, and I am so STOKED because they don't need me to do the glucose test!!! (sing hallelujah chorus here) I wanna puke every time I have to drink that awful stuff. Since it's my third and I've never had gestational diabetes before, and since I haven't gained an abnormal amount of wait for me, they say I can skip it unless sometime down the road I suddenly start to put on lot's of weight. =) I'm 24 weeks and 4 days, and I've gained 13 pounds.

Short Update

Wow I feel like I'm so behind on this. My life feels like it's been a non stop whirl wind the last week or so. One week ago today was my 26th birthday. Scott was out of town that wednesday thursday friday for a school thing, and I wasn't expecting much for my birthday. But thanks to caring family and friends my birthday turned out to be awesome. Thanks again! The weekend was busy, and then this week my sis in law and I have been trying to get everything done with the garden, and I also had my first canning experience. Something until just recently I never thought I'd care about. Having my own garden has changed the way I feel about some of those things. Anyway, here are some scattered pictures taken recently.

Picking Crab Apples with some cousins.

Some Muscle, Hair and Toilet Paper

Finally I can get Sydney's hair in a little pony tail! Her hair has been too short, and then when it started to kinda be long enough it was still extremely fine and I couldn't grasp it for anything. I'm now very excited to use the little barrets and things I bought for her forever ago.
On Satuday, while I was blanching and freezing corn, Scott and the kids built a toilet paper tower. David had a lot of fun knocking that down!

Little Owen

A little over a month ago my bro and sis in law welcomed their first little baby. Congratulations to them! So exciting. And a week ago I got to take pictures of this little cutie! Here are my favorites. If you like what you see and would like to see more of my work, go here.

First Belly Shot This Time Around

I am about 23 weeks along now(somewhere around 6 months) and have gained 11 pounds. When I saw this picture I was like, "Whoa, I'm really big!" I mean, I know I was getting a lot bigger just in the last month but I didn't realize I looked THAT big. Oh well. Baby's gotta go somewhere. And no, we do not know what it is yet. I will be sure to post about it as soon as we know! Scott wants another boy and I think I do too. Whatever it is, it is extremely active. But then, both David and Sydney were this same way.

This is something I'm looking forward to...I took pictures of my new nephew Owen about a week ago. David was asking the whole time if he could hold him and he got to at the end. Both Hilary and I were amazed. Seriously, David hasn't really had the chance to hold a baby since Sydney(and he was way too young to care), and I couldn't believe how adorable he was being. He sat so still and was so gentle. He was SO happy to be holding Owen. Now he won't stop talking about the baby in my tummy. I'm so excited for him to meet his little brother/sister!

Hope his enthusiasm lasts!

David: "I want this on my back"
Me: "Ok. Oh look! Daddy does that with his for school!"
David: "I want to go to school!" He runs and get's his shoes on.
Me:"Oh look you forgot your pants!"
He runs and grabs them and proceeds out the door just like that. Of course I had to grab a picture. =)

I tried to explain to him when he get's to go to school, but he just kept telling me with a serious look on his face that he wanted to go to school. So precious!