Sydney Is Two!

Today our little girl is two years old! So much fun! These last two years with her have been such an adventure. She definitely helps keep our lives from being boring! What a blessing she is to us. Sydney is a beautiful girl who knows exactly what she wants. She has a funny glare that she gives most everyone that gives her the time of day. At home where she's more in her element she is such a sweetheart. She has such a sweet voice and I love to listen to her when she's pointing things out or talking to her siblings. She's still working on saying more words, but she's getting better. She has the most precious smile that melts my heart, and when she get's excited about something her eyes light up andI just can't handle how cute she is. She loves sitting on my lap and I try to do it as much as possible because I know Parker takes a lot of my holding time. She loves to read books, she loves to color, she loves Cinderella, she loves to have me play with/do her hair, she snarfs food like I've never seen, she loves her baby brother, she tries to emulate her big brother, and she LOVES her Daddy. We just love our little girl so much! Happy Birthday!

Trying to read Cinderella to Parker

Parker at 5 Months

He turns 5 months tomorrow, but since that is also Sydney's 2nd birthday I'm doing his today. I really can't believe how much Parker has grown this last month. Here are some things he's started doing this month:
Grabbing for things on the table/desk when he's in our laps.
Grabbing and sucking on his feet
Standing extremely well in our laps
Going to bed for the night a LOT earlier(think 10:30pm to 7:30pm!)
Trying to roll over and grab the wipes while I'm trying to change his diaper making it much more difficult.
And I think those are most of the new things. We just can't believe how adorable and happy and lovable he is. I mean look at him! : )

As soon as he realized what this keyboard did he just couldn't stop pounding on it! And I think it's so funny because he was sticking his tongue out most of the time, just like I did as a kid while playing the piano!

Grabbing the toesies

Here's an ADORABLE video of Parker spitting. So silly!

Who Needs Paper When I've Got Skin?

I found out a couple hours later that she'd painted on her stomache too!

This is classic Sydney. If she doesn't know you very well or at all, chances are high she will glare at you just like this. And of course she does it to me when she knows she's done something she shouldn't do.

A New Do For Sydney

Her hair is getting just a tiny bit longer so I tried something different the other day. Thought it turned out pretty cute!

Planting Our Garden

We finally had a chance to get our garden going this Memorial weekend. My bro and sis in law's Home Teacher(in our church they come visit and help out with whatever) came and rototilled it for us which made things so much easier and cheaper! A lot of the people in their ward are farmers and he had a tractor he brought in and did it with. Thank you! It was kind of a busy day trying to get everything together so we didn't actually start planting until the last hour of day light. Every one pitched in though and it was done in no time! Earlier I spent an hour and half running around town looking for some seeds. Yeah we probably should've bought them previously because the obvious places were all out of the ones we needed. I finally found the last couple we really wanted at the grocery store! Thank goodness for that! When I got back the food was ready(they at with out me but that's ok because that meant I didn't have to deal with feeding the kids at all!) and I got to eat. Yay. So we're really excited about this and hope it turns out great like last year!

David and Sydney were VERY excited to help plant the seeds. Neither of them cared at all last year(well Sydney was not even 1 yet) but David especially really wanted to be a part of it and understood that these were going to grow into "Peas!"   We'd point to where Sydney should put the seed and she'd just drop it from standing position into that general area. It was pretty cute!

Our Nap Time

Living in a tiny apartment we've had to do some things a little differently than most people. Take nap time for example. We only have two bedrooms, and since the kids would play with each other, it goes like this...

Sydney sleeps in the kids room...

David sleeps on the couch in the living room/kitchen...

and Parker sleeps in his bassinet in our room.

Because of this I am forced to be extremely quiet the whole time, tip toeing everywhere, typing lightly on the computer key board. My options are play/work on the computer, read, or nap. I usually go with the first two just because I'm weird and think sleeping is a waste of time. I really wish we could put Parker in the kids room-we even have the crib still set up and empty-but the kids know how to climb into it and I wouldn't feel comfortable unless I had a monitor where I could see them or something. I just know they would climb in, jump all over him, lay on top of him, and stuff things down his throat(Sydney already did this once-yeah, terrifying). So, I guess until we move this is how it's going to be. It's ok though really, maybe because I don't know any different. I'm just grateful that we've been able to afford to have our own place at all the last few years.

Swinging for the First Time

About a week and a half ago Parker went swinging for the first time. We had a baby swing but we got rid of it because we never used it. So it really was his first time ever. He's still a little small for it so I stuffed some blankets around him and pushed him very slow. He liked it but mostly he was fascinated by the side of the swing!

Pictures for my brother and sister in law

A little over a week ago I took these pictures for Russ and Hilary. We were at a family dinner at my other bro and sis in laws house and we were just going to do pictures around their yard, until Heidi told us their neighbors were really nice and wouldn't mind if we took pictures around their property. They had huge stacks of hay bales, an old barn, and some grain silos. It was so much fun to take pictures there!

 

Bountiful Baskets

Has anyone heard of this? I feel I have to share it because it's just so great! I found out about a month ago and just barely remembered to do it. Go to this website. It is 100% volunteer run and so you get super cheap produce! It also comes from as local as possible and from smaller farmers. Awesome! You can get this basket I got for 15$ or you can go organic for 25$. Every week the produce changes so you don't know exactly what you're getting(it's always this large amount), but I kinda like that! This week the basket had:

2 coconuts

2 larger cucumbers

2 summer squash

3 avocado

2 large oranges

6 bananas

11 tomatos

2 bags baby carrots

romaine lettuce

bag of apples

bag of small peaches

1 small thing of black berries

Good deal? I'd say so! However, it's only in these states; WA, ID, AZ, UT, WY, TX, NV. If you live here check it out! Most states seem to have a lot of pick up locations so you probably have one close to you! Ordering is done online at the beginning of the week and then you pick up Saturday. Happy shopping!

PS. I've heard about Terra Organics too. No idea any details, but if BB doesn't work for you maybe this one will. =)

Just Chillin'

haha, this one cracks me up!

Scott looks mad but he was just watching the news! lol

David Singing

David learned this song in Primary and I had to get a video. It was just too cute! If you can't understand what he's saying, or don't know the song it goes like this:

"I love sister she loves me, we love brother yesiree, he loves us and so you see, we are a happy family!

I love mother she loves me, we love Daddy yesiree, he loves us and so you see, we are a happy family!"

David is combining the verses into one.

A German Meal

Scott and his brother Russ served their missions in Germany and since Russ is moving soon we decided to have them make us a German dinner while we're all still together. We had Hungarian Goulash, Knodel, Spaetzle, Rot Kohl, Brats and some bread, salad, and Americanized German Chocolate cake. It was really fun and the food was really good! The kids ate it amazingly well too which is always a plus. Thanks guys!

Parker at 4 Months

On the 8th Parker turned 4 months old. I can't believe how fast the time has gone!

At his check up he was 14.5 pounds (40%) and 25.5 in. long (71%).
I am reminded again why 4 months is my FAVORITE baby stage. They are still small enough, still very much a baby, but they respond to you, they hold their head up great and so are more stable, they can entertain themselves with toys, they coo and make the funniest cutest noises...yes, I love this stage! I wish they would stay 4 months for like two or three months and then keep growing again cause it doesn't last long enough! I love snuggling and kissing his cheeks and making him laugh.
So besides the above mentioned here are some things Parker is doing:
He loves sitting more upright in the stroller and looking around. It might be his new favorite thing!
He loves that other baby in the mirror.
He is ticklish
He is extremely wiggly as all our babies have been.
He loves looking and grabbing books as we read them to him.
He is getting better and better at supporting his weight when we hold him standing in our laps.
And... that's all I can think of right now. He sure is a cutie! We are just so grateful to have him.