Happenings.

We have been busy, hence the lack of blog posts. But here are some updates!
Leah is 16 pounds 7 ounces and in 6-9 month clothes and wears size three diapers (same size as Adds...). She is rolling lots and so close to crawling. Its taken her longer than I thought, but that is ok. She sure is a sweet heart.
Addie says some of the funniest things lately:
-"Peek-a-boo! I see meeee!"
-"kiss it mama. All beddurrr"
-when Leah wakes up, she kisses baby and says, "Good mo-been!"
She will still only wear dresses because princess wear dresses. Addie loves baking with me. We bake about 3 or 4 times a week.
I went down to see my family in Vancouver this last week. Its always good to see them. I got to spend time with my cousin Katie and her two cuties. Baby B is so adorable! I miss having a teeny baby!
Mike's parents come into town on Thursday or Friday. We are going skiing this weekend (fingers crossed!).

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Addie

On Saturday we went to the Sandy River Delta in Troutdale, Oregon with my family. We walked for about 2 miles. Everyone loved it (as you can tell from this picture). Roxie got to run and meet lots of other dogs. Leah slept most of the way. Addie had fun walking, but when she was done, this was the outcome.
We had a fun day; the only bummer was that is was only about 43 degrees, but it was a beautiful day.

Dad and Leah

Sandy River Delta

Last Week

Here is my backyard last Wednesday. How beautiful was the snow? We were sick and home bound, but we did get out and play a bit. Roxie, who loves to be inside, played outside in the snow a ton! She is from Montana and got back to her roots last week. Mike was able to stay home one day and help me out with the girls when I was sick. I am super grateful for that!!

Today, I missed out on a great family time. My uncle was called to be a stake president down in Oregon.

I have been feeling super grateful the past few days. I have been reading a few things lately that help me to remember to be grateful. I am grateful for a full pantry, the bouncer that Leah loves to sit in, that Addie still takes good naps, my girls love each other (and are on the mend!), for cars to get around in the snow, and for a warm house that didn't lose power.

I am excited for my week!
Monday: Leah has a doctors appointment.
Tuesday: packing
Wednesday: Vancouver
Thursday: Crafting
Friday: new cousin! And a party for a wedding
Saturday: Skiing
Sunday: Home again.
I am excited to see my grandparents and spend time with my sisters. My mom is so excited to see the girls.

I'm 6 months old today!

Today is my half birthday!
I like to sit in my jumperoo and bounce for almost 40 minutes before I want to be held. I love rolling everywhere. I am almost crawling. I am so close, and its making mom nervous. I can now fit into 6-9 month clothing (and it took my big sis until almost 9 months to do that!). I love to eat, mostly nurse. I do enjoy applesauce and bananas though. Sometimes sweet potato will strike my fancy, but the rest of it...not my favorite. I have a really cute laugh and my big sis can get me to laugh really well. I love bath time. I have since the day I was born. I never cry during bath time, unless the water is too hot or too cold. I am not a very good sleeper, but mom says since I am such a happy baby that its almost a decent trade off. Mom also said that next week we are going to buckle down on sleep training, that doesn't sound fun, but I know mom is tired, and I don't need the night time calories any more. I get to go to the doctor on Monday and then they'll tell me how big I am.

PS: mom, my bangs are getting into my eyes again, I need a hair cut.

Pictures

When we went to the zoo the other day, my good friend Allyson took some cute pictures. She is a great photographer (I have some talented friends!) and these are my two favorite pictures from the day.
Like Addie's outfit? You can't see all of it, but she had on a denim dress, tights, princess running shoes, her Patagonia fleece with animals, gray gloves and her hat. She very much enjoys picking out her own outfits.

As a side note, Allyson's husband is in the Navy and is currently deployed. He is traveling the world on a ship. This is his second deployment and his first one was to Afghanistan. I am grateful for his service to our country, and for Allyson for supporting him.

5 for Friday

Since I missed Thursday, I'll just do 5 things today
1. I am becoming quite the play-doh molder (??). We love play-doh here and Addie always likes me to make a mermaid. And this time she had me Mickey Mouse... Apparently Mickey has no abdomen, just pants, and his arms come out of his pants......? WTC?
2. This week we went to the aquarium and the zoo. We had so much fun! We need to go to the zoo more often. Its a great place for Addie to go run and she loves seeing the animals. We went with a good friend that I've known since junior high and she brought another friend's little girl. Its so cute to see the little girls play.
3. I REALLY HOPE IT SNOWS THIS WEEKEND! I want to go sledding and have hot chocolate with my girls.
4. Leah scoots everywhere. She just needs to figure out the arms part of crawling, then she gone :)
5. I love when I say something like, "Uh-oh Addie! Did you fall down?" and she replies, "Sure did!"

Leah

Ok...I know I have asked for advice on this before, so feel free to repeat yourselves (maybe I just need reassurance on letting my 5 month old cry a little?). Leah is not a good sleeper. Let me be more specific. She sleeps pretty well, as in I don't have to work at putting her back to sleep after her middle-of-the-night feedings (yes plural, usually 3...yikes). But the problem is getting her to sleep. The only way she'll do it is if she's nursing, and even then it's like buying a lottery ticket. Mike is great and takes her about 11:30 every night to let her cry it out while holding her. I can only stand it for a few minutes then I cave and go nurse her. But every night from 9:30 until midnight, she half sleeps, half fusses. I know she's not hungry because she only nurses for a minute then falls asleep. I also know she can go 5 or 6 hours at night without a feeding. Tips, comments and concerns are greatly appreciated. (Maybe I just needed to vent...)
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Addie is a funny gal...

Seriously. I laugh quite a bit lately at the cute things she says. Here are a few examples:
-she loves cantaloupe, but can't say it to well. It sounds like, "canta-la-la-la-la-looo-pa"
-sometimes she'll grab Roxie's collar and say, "come on, pooch!"
-she counts! "One, two, three! Se-ben ape, nie,ten, leben, twelb!"
-she sings "I am a Child of God." My heart melts thinking about it.
-when Justin Bieber comes on my pandora, she gets so excited and yells, "pu-chow hanz up! Shake or booty!! BIEBER!!" And she dances! She makes sure Leah dances, too.
-the other day she ripped up a library book (not looking forward to my next trip there...talk about a walk of shame). As I was scolding her, she looked at me, with a slightly cocked head, and said, "Mom, calm down. Calm down." Yup, lecture over, cue laughter from me.
-and it's really awesome when she yells, "shut up, mom!" in the middle of church.

I love her to death. I know I am biased, but she is so cute.
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Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Mike! 31 years ago you graced Earth with your presence and I am so glad you did.

I still remember the day I knew I was going to marry you. It was the Sunday after I stood you up to go to watch a movie at your place after the party at the Peach Palace. I walked into church a few minutes late with Juliana. We sat down on the back row and you turned around and smiled at me. Ahh, I melted inside, and it still gives me butterflies thinking about it.

I hope you had a good birthday. I love you. You are a great dad. Addie loves when you come home. Leah likes cuddling with you. I'm so happy I am stuck with you forever!

13 for Thursday

As the clock struck midnight on New Years last week, like many of you, I started to think of how my I could make 2012 better than 2011. Here is my list (in no particular order).
1. Go to the temple more often. With being pregnant last year and having a new born, it was pretty hard to go as often as I would have liked. So this year, I want to go more.
2. Cook healthier meals. We don't just eat junk food here, but I want to eat a lot healthier this year.
3. Work out more. Losing ten pounds is my actual goal. I want to run more and do more conditioning.
4. I want to go on a trip, just me and Mike. The last time we just went on a trip just us, we went to Victoria for our 2nd anniversary.
5. Start doing some preschool activities at home. I don't want to full on do home schooling, but a little.
6. Enroll Addie in a dance or gymnastics class.
7. Go to the Oregon Coast. I love it there and I want my girls to love it too.
8. Ski off the groomed runs. I hope it can happen this year. It might be hard with baby Leah to get up to the hill enough, but at least ski the one run I was supposed to last year but chickened out. Mike knows which one.
9. Try to get my books back to the library on time. They are usually late...
10. Be a lot tighter with my budget. I usually do ok, but we really want to save more money.
11. Read more books.
12. Go camping this summer.
13. Facebook/blog-hop less.

Christmas in Rexburg

First off, Leah rolls everywhere. She got stuck under our bed the other day. I can't tell you how many times she got stuck under Grandma Huskinson's tree.

We left Friday the 23rd about 4, spent the night in Coeur d'Alene then drove the rest of the way Saturday. It was slow going because we were taking our trailer back to live on the farm and it KILLED our gas mileage. Saturday night we enjoyed a huge turkey dinner. The kids and Aunt Andria put on a Christmas play (not really Christmas-y, but so funny). Mike told the Christmas Story and we sang a few Christmas songs and called it a night.

Sunday we were up bright and early for presents. Mike was more concerned about the sticky buns. We got ready and then headed to church. I LOVED having church on Christmas! We should do that every year. My father-in-law spoke and did a great job. (When we got to church there was a girl in our pew that looked a little like my sister. Addie noticed right away, walked over gave her a hug and said, "Hi, Marit!" She stayed with her and her family for most of church.)

Monday we headed up to Grand Targhee for some skiing! Addie loved it. I didn't get to do anything other than the easy run, but it was so worth it. Addie loved every second of it. She skied with Mike and screamed with pure delight. (See the ten previous posts for pictures)

Tuesday, the girls and I laid low. They were exhausted, or maybe it was me.... I don't really know. We did go see Mission Impossible and left Addie with a sitter (younger sister of Marit's look-a-like). Leah went with us. Best part about the movie theaters in Rexburg: there will always be at least 2 babies there, so I didn't feel one bit bad about bringing her.

Wednesday I shopped with my mother-in-law at my favorite store, Downeast Basics. I probably spent too much, but my post baby body was in desperate need of looking cute. And I got some great deals!

Thursday we had lunch with the whole family at Taco Time. The my MIL and two of my sisters-in-law went shopping. We saw some very cute over priced things and some not so cute over priced things. I really enjoy spending time with them.

Friday we took Addie to her first movie. We saw The Muppets at the $2 theater. For $9 we had tickets, popcorn, a drink and candy, which is less than one movie ticket at home. She loved the movie. It was super corny, but so cute.

Saturday we went to Jackson Hole and went to the rec center for some swimming. We loved the water slide there. After we went to Billy Burgers. It was so good! Mike and I stayed up and felt bad for Dick Clark (seriously... He looked pretty bad). My New Years kiss was Leah (she slept horribly the entire trip). Mike was too busy making fun of people on TV.

We went to church Sunday, then drove home after. We spent the night in Missoula and drove the rest of the way Monday. It's good to be home, but we really enjoyed our trip to Idaho. I am already counting down to the next time we can go.