She turned 2

Mya turned two years old on October 28, and I don't want to forget things about her at this age. She's got quite the personality, and she makes us laugh every single day. I've been told multiple times by my mom that she looks like me but does not have the same interests as me at this age. Mya is all about the bling. It is rare to see her without some sort of accessory whether it's a necklace, bracelet, tiara, dress up shoes, purse, etc. She loves it all. She loves to play with her dolls, and I have caught her more than once trying to nurse one of them or wrapping them up in a blanket or trying to burp them. She's particular about what she wears even down to her shoes. If I don't already have her clothes out ready for her to put on there is no way I can get her dressed without her saying, "me pick." The same with pajamas. She's gone to bed with two pair of pajamas on at the same time. Or with leggings under some shorts. She doesn't love getting her hair done unless I tell her I will curl it. Once it's curled she stands in front of the mirror saying, "I pretty." She has a few family favorites and I spend a lot of my day saying we will see Natalie or Aly or Papa another time. One day she wandered around the house with my phone saying, "Hello Papa. Hello. Oh no! Hello? Where'd he go? Hello Papa? Oh no." We finally had to call him when I knew he would be home from work. She loves her Grandpa. Grandma too, but for some reason she likes to tease her and won't say her name. They took her and Jacob to a little Christmas party last week, and she spent the whole day saying, "Ready go Papa's party. Ready go!" When she came home she has been telling us nonstop that she sat on Santa's lap and cried. But then she giggles. She is a sweetheart too and it's not unusual for her to climb in my lap and say, "Hold Mama." I'm glad she still lets me hold her and cuddle her. She loves to help me with Adalyn and to tease Jacob. One of the best things about bringing Adalyn home has been watching Jacob & Mya learn to play together. He can make her giggle and giggle then send her running away screaming her head off the next minute. Ah, that's what big brothers are for, right? I do love the moments of everyday when they play and laugh together. It's the best. Mya brings so much to our family, and I am grateful for her everyday.

She's Here

Miss Adalyn Taylor was born October 18, 2011 just after 3:00 pm. She weighed in at 7 lbs 11 oz and was our first baby to cry coming out. It was music to our ears. She was perfectly healthy and as beautiful as her big brother and sister. She's also our first redhead. We've been wondering when we would be blessed with one. She has certainly blessed our family immensely and we couldn't have asked for more. She hardly ever cries and is a good sleeper and eater. She doesn't scream bloody murder in her carseat which both of the other two did for the first 3 months or so of their lives. In fact, she goes right to sleep in the car. Jarom & I can hardly believe that we have been blessed with our first expert traveler. My recovery has been a bit more difficult and longer than the other two were or maybe I just have a very short term memory when it comes to that aspect of having a baby. Today I have been thinking a lot about how fast our little ones grow up and especially about how much they change in the first year. It makes me want to stop time. I don't want Adalyn to grow up so fast. I have probably enjoyed the newborn stage the most with her so far, and I want it to last a little longer. Jacob and Mya have been so good with her for the most part. Mya likes to hug a little too much at times, but she adores Adalyn. And Jacob is so good to help me when I need an extra pair of arms to hold her for a couple minutes. I feel very blessed with my little family, and I am especially grateful for Jarom. He's been so patient with me the past couple months. I was not a fun pregnant woman the last two months of my pregnancy, and he never complained. I suppose he deserves the ski passes we bought this week!!

Change

In 5 days we get to finally meet baby #3!! I feel like I'm on this never ending roller coaster with no end in sight. First, this pregnancy has kicked my butt in every way possible. It has been by far the hardest one. I guess that is what you could expect when you're 30, chasing 2 very busy kids, and life just seems to get busier everyday. I do like to be busy but sometimes wish we could slow down just a little. Our lazy, go with the flow days are infrequent at best. Emotionally, I feel all over the place about adding to our family. Blame it on the hormones, I guess. We definitely knew over a year ago that we needed to add to our family. We didn't expect to be adding quite this quickly since it took us so long to get Mya here. But I can't help but feel sometimes that our family life feels full, not complete, just full. I guess the incomplete feeling is what drives us to have more children, right? I am excited to see and meet this little girl, but I am sad to be leaving behind this chapter of being a family of four. I'm anxious about delivering her. I have yet to be able to just bring a baby home without them needing something extra as far as care goes. I really really want to be able to do that this time. No lights, no NICU, no antibiotics, no oxygen, nothing. Just a perfectly healthy baby girl. That is what I pray for EVERY night. I'm anxious about being away from Jacob and Mya. I know they will be in good hands, and I desperately need this little vacation from them. But I will miss them!! CHANGE-so hard but so important for us to move forward in life. Hopefully next post will include a picture of our newest addition:)

Things that Matter Most

There are so many things I have wanted to rant and rave about lately, but I decided not to do that since it's giving too much energy to things that don't matter.

Jarom and I celebrated our 7th anniversary last week. I feel so blessed everyday to have him in my life. I hope the next 7 years are just as great and better than the last!

Last year of PreK

Jacob started his last year of preschool last week. He's going to Ms. Martha's who is just around the corner from us, and she is the one he went to for his first year. He was so excited to finally start while a few of his other friends had started kindergarten earlier. It's three days a week for 2 1/2 hours which has been perfect so far!! He loves going and comes home excited to tell me all about what they learned. He is writing his letters fairly well. Mostly needs to work on his small letters. He's also reading which makes me so excited!! Granted we still have a ways to go with the reading such as teaching him all the tricks of the English language, but he does great with words that make the sounds they are supposed to make. Who made up our language anyways? Never realized how difficult it is until I started trying to teach Jacob all the rules.

Labor Day

Jarom had planned a few months ago to go on a little trip with his brothers over labor day weekend, but as the summer went by and he was gone way too much for my liking with young men stuff that I asked him not to go. So I felt like we needed to do some fun things that weekend to make up for it. We went camping in the Uintas just for one night. We contemplated staying the whole weekend but the first night was rough so we called it good. I forgot to get a sleeping bag for Mya so she got a little cold with just some blankets which meant lots of crying throughout the night. The only time she slept soundly was when Jarom put her inside his sleeping bag with him, and he didn't get much sleep. We went to Provo River Falls and up to Mirror Lake before heading home. It is so pretty up there but definitely crowded.

On Labor Day we went hiking and swimming and to the skate park. The swimming part was a fail because it was too cold. The kids lasted about a half hour before they were in tears from shivering and being cold. The skate park was a hit with Jacob. He had so much fun riding his bike around in it. We were a little nervous he would get creamed by the bigger kids, but they seemed to watch for him pretty good. I have taken him back but during the day when it's less crowded.

Jacob is 5

I am still in denial that Jacob turned 5 this year. It has helped that he was so excited about this birthday. He had a really fun time celebrating. We went to the zoo a week before his birthday as has been our tradition for the past five years. Only my sweet animal loving boy can get me to the zoo on a hot Saturday in August. Plus if you missed it they had zoo-rassic this summer so he was super excited to see all the dinosaurs too. On his birthday we had a little friend party. He wanted to slip and slide and eat chocolate cupcakes so that is exactly what we did. It was the easiest party ever!! He also played his first t-ball game that night, and we had pizza with Grandma & Grandpa & Aunt Liz & Ellie. We also had some yummy chocolate dinosaur cake with ice cream.
Jacob's favorites at 5 years old:
Food: chicken nuggets, cereal, bagels with cream cheese, fruit, pizza, chili, red bell peppers, broccoli, artichokes, BROWNIES.
Toys: dinosaurs, dragons, trio pieces
Things to do: play with friends, go to school, play games on pbskids.org, play on his dad's phone, ride his bike, anything outside