I Love to See the Temple

Did you think I may never blog again? I thought I may never blog again. I had far too many photos to sift through of our vacation and of our recent happenings. But I persevered and downloaded the 300+ photos (my memory card was full--it's never been full before) and I've uploaded the chosen favorites to the good ol' blog. And now you can enjoy the spoils. You're surely welcome.

Instead of one ginormous post of our vacation, I've broken it up, lucky you. So without further ado, here is the first of many: the pictures of our little trip to Temple Square.

We took Granny and our cousin Sam to see the sights. The boys ran around like mad, but Will was extra sweet with the Christus statue, as evidenced below. It really was one of those precious moments in life--how he tenderly viewed the statue of our Savior.

Granny, Sam and Will

Our little family in all our splendor.

And this is how Luce enjoyed most of our vacation: in the Baby Bjorn.
Will with the Christus.

Darn That Baby Weight

I'm ba-ack from my two-week vacation (I'm sure you've missed me). And while I enjoyed myself immensely whilst on vacation, the post-vacation depression has come on in full force. I miss never cooking, cleaning or grocery shopping. I miss the great company, the constant entertainment for both me and my kids in the form of siblings/parents/grandparents/cousins. But what I miss most of all? The food. Because now that I'm back to real life and back to reality, I've come to realize something: this darn baby weight ain't going anywhere any time soon. Thus, the sad end to my happy days of eating whatever I want whenever I want. And the beginning of my days of tracking every calorie on MyFitnessPal.com and dreaming constantly of ice cream, butter and all things fattening (I have a serious sweet tooth). In order to help reach my goal, I'm wondering if there's anyone out there who wants to join me in my quest for healthy living/eating? You know what they say: you have more success if you diet with friends (but what I really think they mean is: misery loves company). So, let me know if you want to have the time of your life, depriving oneself of food and happiness but eventually (hopefully) looking decent in a bathing suit.

P.S. Send my way your favorite healthy meals and snacks and I would love you forever and ever!

A Day in the Life of a Three-Month-Old

Lucy's three months now. And besides eating and sleeping (and eating while she's supposed to be sleeping, i.e. at night) here's what Lucy's been up to:

Posing for her mama for her three-month photo shoot:

And, of course, getting harrassed by her brother during said photo shoot:

Snuggling with Dada:

Chillin' in the bumbo (check out Will in the bumbo at the same age--they could be twins!):

Getting introduced to all the Book of Mormon characters from her big bro.: (Will yelled at me one day, insisting I bring Lucy upstairs so he could show her all his Book of Mormon characters)

Playing in the snow for the first time: (here she's decked out in her outfit. She didn't really play in the snow but she did watch her brother play in the snow for all of ten minutes before she had to hit the sack)

And because he's so cute, I had to throw one in of Will, who is a big part of Lucy's day-to-day life:

We love you, Lucy--even if you still wake up a ridiculous amount at night--we'll keep you anyway. Happy three months!

The Tickle Monster

Lucy received a baby gift from the doctors at my fertility clinic--a darling book called The Tickle Monster that comes complete with a pair of tickle monster gloves used, obviously, for tickling. It comes as no surprise that Will thought these tickle monster gloves were just about the coolest things ever and insisted on wearing them to bed. And when I went to tuck him into bed that night, this is what I found:

Now just try to tell me this isn't the cutest tickle monster ever.

Luce

Here are some photos of our little gal from the last month:

Tummy time (and drool time. I have leaky babies).

First slow dance with Dada. So cute.


She was being so cute one day that I had to snap some photos.

And we broke out the playmat the other day, which she loves. She just kicks and smiles and kicks and smiles when placed upon it. I can never get a good photo of it. This is the best I got.

Christmas 2011

This Christmas we celebrated in Vermont with our usual Christmas festivities: the nativity with friends, our traditional Christmas eve dinner (that serves as Christmas Day's dinner as well), Santa, church, present-opening and then the playing with the new Christmas loot. This year the sledding was cancelled due to lack of snow (boo hoo) but we took the big kids to the Muppet Show while Josh stayed home with the babies and Nate worked. Christmas night, once the kids were asleep, we celebrated a job well done with some brownies and homemade peppermint ice cream and some Brian Reagan to boot. Good, fun, sleep-deprived, crazy Christmas--how we like it best!

Now the photos to document:

Will as the wise man, delivering his gift (in a purple box, of course). Sadly, no one would be Dada Joe this year but we did have one child offer to be a cat. I'm sure there were cats in the stable, right?

All the participants in their nativity pose.

I love Beth in this one--look how tenderly she is looking at Baby Jesus. I also love little Nate on the right who is crying, "Save me, save me from baby James."

Luce was there, too, though she wasn't awake.

The Christmas eve jammies.

The Christmas eve jammies pose.

And Lucy's jammies. It was waaaaaay past bedtime.

Oh look, she can be happy.

Christmas morning on the stairs.

Inspecting their Santa loot.

Santa brought all three big kids sleeping bags. They were a hit!

And here they are enjoying Cars 2 in their new sleeping bags.

Lucy, of course, slept through it all. But Will enjoyed opening all her presents.

Good times Christmas 2011! Until next year.

My Dirty Little Secrets

I thought I'd air out some dirty laundry, for the sole purpose of your reading pleasure (Jon go ahead and skip this post--there are no pictures. You'll have to actually read).

1. I truly cannot return a library book on time. It is impossible. I've accrued fines at all the libraries in the vicinity and when we lived in Colorado I had to stop going to the library so as to avoid paying my astronomically high fine.
2. Another thing I simply cannot do is get ice out of the freezer without dropping some on the floor. Every time, I drop a piece or two and it shatters all over the floor, making a liquid mess!
3. Every night when going to bed, I take a new glass of water, without ever removing the old glass. My bedside table is riddled with glasses of half-filled water. Josh always claims that he can tell which day of the week it is by how many glasses I have on my bedside table. Of course, on cleaning days, I return the glasses to the kitchen. But it takes at least three trips.
4. I just may be addicted to television. I do love television. And babies don't help. I feel newborns are just more bearable with television--the constant nursing is less painful while watching a good show; the late bedtime seems earlier with a good show; the bouncing and rocking and bouncing and rocking to sleep is less tedious with a good show, etc., etc. Some of my recent favorites: The Good Wife, Friday Night Lights, anything Masterpiece Theater and The Good Guys (just to name a few).
5. I'm still wearing my maternity pants. Even my fat pants don't fit. I just don't want to buy new jeans. I want to wear my old jeans. It's a little disheartening. By week 4 with Will I was back in my pants. And by month 3? I'd lost all my baby weight. Currently, I still have 15 lbs. to go and I only gained 30.
6. At 2.5 months old Lucy was officially sleep-trained. I guess 10 weeks is my breaking point, because that is when I let Will cry it out, too. This time around was much easier--12 minutes one night and she was done. Now I just rock her, sing her one song and plop her in her crib (lovingly, of course). Usually there are no tears, but sometimes there are a few. Doesn't mean she's now a fantastic sleeper (though she is much better). But it does mean that I've regained half my life back. The getting the baby to sleep and to STAY asleep process was just getting far too taxing. Is it bad to say that I love my babies much more once they're sleep-trained?

There it is folks, a few of my deep, dark secrets. On paper, they are pretty boring. But let's be honest, I'm not that exciting. I'm a mother of two who either reeks of poo or breast milk. But, of course, I wouldn't have it any other way (well, maybe I wouldn't mind smelling like roses every now and again).