Photo Shoot!

Kristen came over and took some wonderful pictures, she is so great at this I LOVE the pictures she took, thank you so much! And for some reason I cannot for the life of me get the pictures in any order that I want them to be in, so they are mixed up but at least they are there.

The red boots and the boy.

They do love each other, sometimes it may not seem like it, but then there are these moments.

Archie lost focus for a sec and Annie began to slip and slide to the right...

Archie is trying but Annie was wiggly...

The first of a few pictures where Archie is getting a little bored :0)

Precious. She had a tight hold on those tiny little vines.

Tucked in the vines.

So cuddled in the green.

"Hooowwww loooonnngggg are we dooooooing this?"

Perfect.

I can't believe they belong to me.

Sittin'. (not really, she can't sit yet!)

Kristen is amazing, I mean Annie is beautiful, but this picture was all Kristen capturing a sleepy/grumpy baby at the perfect moments with the perfect light.

Treasures...

I don't have a picture of Ben, but I should... Kids, smiles, D.I. purchases, my garden treasures and the cutest experiences that you just can't be mad about. Last week was full of treasures.

Archie giving me a sly smile after he sneaked outside while I was disposing of a dirty diaper.

So this is a picture of how Archie gets around the kitchen. The bucket-stool has been great except recently when he uses it to access whatever he would like while I am nursing...

Here is a prime example: The boy wanted some Jell-o. So, he got a cup out, the jello package, some scissors of course and went to work. I walked in at the point where he was about to add water... Needless to say we made jello and ate it with dinner that night.

These are Annie's cowboy boots that my wonderful friend Brittany bought for her! I can't wait for her to wear them.

Banannie:) This was her attempt at a smile and my attempt to capture it.

Cucumber! I have garden treasures!

Piano! This was an amazing trip to D.I., our local thrift store. I went to get some shoes for Arch, which we bought, pic below, and that night Ben, Tyler, Devin and Pat were unloading this 8 ton piano into the garage! It is my temporary-while-I-still-live-too-far-away-to-move-my-great-grandmothers-piano piano. Only $75, super treasure.

The jogging stroller. My husband indulges me- but this is going to be our favorite activity once Annie is a bit older.

The D.I. 'running' shoes (Archie wouldn't try them on until I called them 'running' shoes) and RED cowboy boots! I couldn't believe it, there they were just sittin' on the shelf, I grabbed them, shoved them on Archie's feet and he complained for a minute then wouldn't take them off. When we got home he first ran down the sidewalk in his running shoes, then switched to a strut in his cowboy boots.

Another garden treasure: green onions:)

Ben, Kate, Archie, Annie

I have finally gotten around to posting some pictures. It has been a fantastic month! I can't believe how fast it has gone and how many fun things we are able to do with a newborn in the summer time! If I can do it I am scheduling the rest of my children to be born in the summer months!Archie visiting us at the hospital...

Holding his baby sister, precious:)

Daddy helping the kids get along...

He just loves to caress her cheek and give her kisses, I love it!

Going home from the hospital! Get us outta there!

The beautiful dress that aunt Kristen made.

Archie's reaction to me saying, "can I give you a hug?!"

Grammy came to visit so we took her to the balloon festival, Archie got hooked on the Darth Vader balloon for some reason and couldn't keep his eyes off of it. He still asks to see the pictures of "mask Vader".

As you can see, Arch isn't really interested in anything but Darth Vader.

Don't you love it when newborns smile or giggle in their sleep? I LOVE it. And I happened to get a picture of my daughter doing it. I love saying that! My daughter...

Close up.

Another Vader and another Archie not looking at the camera.

The beautiful blessing dress that my wonderful mother-in -law made for Annie.

Annie wearing Archie's big boy shorts (we are trying to entice him to pee in the potty).

Great Grandpa Archie sitting in a WWII tank in the 4th of July Parade!

Another close up of Annie:)

Such a small little girl:)

Hangin' out.

Peek-a-boo!

Uncle Tyler, Daddy and Archie getting ready for a camp out! Is anyone smiling in this picture?

Banana boy wearing pull-ups.

Annie Banannie

She is here and she is wonderful. We are all in love. I will have some pictures later; I just want to say that having children and being married are two of the greatest experiences of my life. I can't believe how love just exponentially increases for everyone in your family when you add to it, it is amazing. For all the bad that can be felt in life the good outweighs it every time. I love my Annie and my Archie, and especially Ben.

My second experience with being locked out...

I decided I couldn't take the smell of the garbage anymore...I am sure I was the only one who could smell it, as everyone here has a cold, but my super pregnant nose has not failed me, although sometimes I wish it would. So I heaved it out of the garbage can, still in my pajamas, bare footed and with a toddler on my heals asking: "mom, doing?!" I thought I can race outside and just throw it in the big garbage can before he can make it out of the door (and seeing as how he refused any type of clothing this morning I did not want him outside). So in a minor flash of forethought I put on a coat, it's cold and I want to be warm, however, my forethought did not extend to my feet. I raced outside and raced back to the door, I could hear Archie struggling to open it, here is at least one door that he still cannot open, while my feet were burning with cold. I reached out to the door handle thinking of the welcome warmth me toes would encounter only to find that the reason Archie could not open the door was because he had locked it. Twice. I mean he had dead bolted the door as well as locked the handle, I could tell he was just fidgeting and trying to figure out what to turn to get the door open, so he really didn't know what was going on. But because I had screeched outside he screeched inside with laughter the funnier he thought it was the colder my feet got, as I hopped back and forth outside telling him to unlock the door, my senses came back to me and I realized I could just go through the garage...
But, as mentioned above this was the second time this has happened to me, with slightly different details... my advice is don't go outside without shoes on unless you are sure you can take the cold or unless you're sure your toddler knows how to unlock the door he/she has just locked.

The Biter

Not that he bites people, he just takes huge bites of my chocolate, peanut butter filled egg.
We were finishing lunch the other day and I decided that we should share a treat. Knowing that Archie is 2 and I am 27 and he has a little mouth and I have a big mouth (relatively) I figured that telling him he could take a bite of my Reese's peanut butter egg would still leave me with most of the treat. I know, I know, I was taking advantage, but really he doesn't need all that sugar... so I held out the treat and gently touched it to his lips and sooner than I realized his teeth were encompassing 3/4's of the egg! He grinned at me as if he knew my plan and he had won. He did, however, what he doesn't know is that because I am 27 and he is 2 and because I am 5'5" and he 32" I can reach the cookie jar where the treats are hidden, so I helped myself to another, without sharing with the biter.
Someday, sooner than later I suspect, he'll realize he can cleverly reach most things on the counter with some creativity and then he'll be the 2 year old out smarting his mother, or at least secretly eating chocolate.

Christmas and Family

We had a wonderful Christmas. You could see Archie processing what was happening and having more fun with toys and presents and excitement. He misunderstood the excitement though, and went for the unwrapped wrappings in the trash bag rather than the nicely wrapped presents under the tree. It didn’t matter to him he was happy to get his hands on anything toy or not. We spent the morning playing, eating, puzzling, and resting. Temple square later that night was fun, but we arrived too early for the lights, and after spending and hour walking around in the cold as a group we decided to leave, and we took about 5 steps and as if on cue all of the lights surrounding the temple turned on. It was magical. We reveled for about 2 minutes, it was still very cold, and then left, feeling satisfied that we got to see what we came for. Archie absolutely loved the attention he was getting. Aunt Kara, Uncle Devin, Grandma, Grandpa, Mom ( I am now “mom” not ‘mommy’ or ‘mama’… my little heart broke a bit, my little baby is not a baby) Daddy, ( how he got to be ‘Daddy’ and not just ‘dad’ escapes me, but makes me smile) and Archie. He would go from adult to adult bathing in their laughs and kisses and chases, not at all ready to share his pack of grown-ups with anyone. And he didn’t have to. We left two days after Christmas to spend a week with my family where Archie isn’t the only grandchild, but the only one that could make it to Colorado. So it was another round of amazingly fun laughs and kisses and chases from Grandpa M., G-ma, Aunt Laura, Uncle Bernie, Uncle Zach, Aunt Courtney, Mom and Daddy:) We do our best not to spoil the child, but how can you spoil a little boy who basks in your attention? Instead of too many ‘things’ he gets time and love and books read and trains played and pictures drawn. It is the most surprising, purest relationship. I am living the life that I always wanted but wasn’t sure how to express. Days may run into days and life isn’t always exciting, toilets need to be cleaned no matter where you are! But, I have an incredibly loving husband, who is committed to our family and our family’s happiness and a son who makes me laugh out loud and want to cry because he is so sweet. However, just like all lives, mine isn’t sunshine and roses and smiles every second of every day and that is why it is so wonderful. We learn hard lessons sometimes and make tons of mistakes most times, and burn dinner so the house fills up with smoke two times… but, I am rescued by that charming man who walks into the smoke filled house and opens windows, finds fans and says “don’t worry, let’s do date night tonight and take Archie with us”. Then, when it happens to him the next time, I will be there to rescue him. And Archie will be there to watch and learn, a) how to use the oven, b) how to use a timer, c) how to comfort and calm, d) how to make the best out of a burned dinner (because sometimes you just have to eat it when there is nothing else and the budget is tight!) I love my family, especially husband, kids, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters, grandmas and grandpas.


We don't really have any other Christmas photos, I used our video camera most of the time and still have to get the videos uploaded. These pictures were from our Family night at Thanksgiving Point, taking a wagon ride through the lights in 'Santa's Village, it was a lot of fun.