I'm in Love!

Friday came and I couldn't stand the thought of staying home and cleaning again. I was trying to think of something that we could do and then I remembered all of the baby animals that the zoo just received so I decided that we were going to go and see them. If you know me, you know that I am definitely not a spur of the moment kind of girl, so this was big for me. It was a sunny, but very cold day, but I didn't care. We were getting out of the house! I took Meg and Will and we went by ourselves and it was so fun. The zoo was basically empty so my kids were able to run around and jump and explore without having me scared that they would be lost. They were so happy and it made me so happy watching them. We didn't have anywhere to go or be so I just got to play with them. Sometimes you get so wrapped up in daily chores that you forget to just have fun. We had a great time and I fell in love with my cute little kids all over again.

It's a...

GIRL!!

Baby Girl Alvord is due April 7th. We had a feeling that this baby would be a girl so we weren't too surprised about the news. Megan has said that she is going to have a baby sister ever since we told her that there was a baby in mom's tummy. She kicked me in the stomach early on in my pregnancy and my mom told her that if she did that the baby would turn out to be a boy. She is very careful about doing anything to my stomach now. I fell down the stairs at about 12 weeks and Megan was so concerned. She said that I needed to be more careful because "It be a girl then I be happy, it not be a girl I not be happy." Needless to say, she is very excited about the news. She thinks that her baby sister is going to sleep in her bed with her and that her name is going to be Emily Elisabeth (from Clifford) so we'll have to break the news gently to her over these next few months that might not get everything that she wants. We are so happy about the news and are extremely grateful that our new little girl is growing healthy and strong. Now it's time to think about baby names!

This is Halloween

This year we had a very interesting Halloween. As a mom, you always picture these perfect holidays and then are surprised and disappointed when your kids don't cooperate...at least I do anyways. Months ago I found the cutest Halloween costume of a cupcake that I was going to make for Meg. I LOVE homemade Halloween costumes and have vowed that I will always make my kids' costumes. I am sure that will change when I have three kids because this year, making two costumes about killed me. I showed Meg the picture of the cupcake costume and then told her that she would be a cupcake and will would be a sheep. At that point she made her mind up that she would be a sheep too. After giving her a guilt trip, begging, bribing, tricking I realized that it is no fun wearing a costume that you don't like and so I gave in and let her be a sheep. Stay tuned for next year's costume. I am determined that the cupcake costume will be made for someone. I worked on those costumes forever. I bought out every craft store's white pom poms. When we went to St. George I even made Dave stop at Roberts to see if they had any. Dave wasn't able to go to our ward Halloween party this year and I didn't have Will's costume finished when the party started so I wasn't able to go to that. My parents took the kids to their ward party and they wore the costumes then. Halloween came and Will missed his nap so our Halloween was filled with sobs and lots of requests for candy. I knew it would be a bad idea to even attempt to get him into his costume so he didn't even wear it on Halloween and didn't go trick-or-treating or anything. He was coming down with a cold and is almost over it so when he is in a really good mood one of these days I will put them both in their costumes and will get a picture of them. In the meantime, these pics will have to do. Meg had a great time trick-or-treating though. They were gone a long time and I got a little worried about them. She ended up with a lot of loot. She looked so cute, if I do say so myself. Will looked cute too, even though he cried when he had to put the costume on. All in all we had a fun day.

Meg was showing her muscles here because she carried some of the pumpkins in by herself to be carved.

This is the only time Will was happy all night. He would see the bowl of candy and cry and cry until he got a piece.

My angry little sheep.

Meg was actually just posing with her hand slightly in the pumpkin. We had to make her do it. She did not want to get her hand all slimy.

My happy little sheep.

Working hard for the candy.

My Night as a Teenager

This past Saturday night I lived as a teenager. I went with two of my Young Women to see the So You Think You Can Dance tour...is that weird? I really wanted to go and knew that Dave definitely would not want to go so one night at Young Womens I just threw it out there and asked the girls if anyone wanted to go. I didn't get much of a response so I just gave up hope. About a month later one of my sweet young women called me and said that she had been saving her babysitting money so she could buy a ticket. We called my advisor to see if she wanted to go with us and one of the other girls in my class and it wasn't going to work out for either one of them. I thought that would be totally weird if I went with Megan (one of the girls) alone so I lost hope again. Then she decided to buy Katie (the other girl) a ticket for her birthday. Talk about a great friend. Those tickets were pricey. The concert was great, the dancing was amazing, the dialog was super cheesy but it was really fun. I lived my night as a teenager until Katie asked if we could stay after to try to get autographs. I tried to be cool and said yes, but I really didn't want to. I was so tired...after all it was 10:30 when the show ended. Then, I knew I was old.

Katie and Megan (two of my wonderful Miamaids)

Nielsen Family Reunion

This summer we took three trips down to St. George. I think I had probably been to St. George a total of three times in my life before this past summer, but we had fun all three times. The most recent trip we took was a couple of weeks ago. We went down for the Nielsen Family Reunion (my mom's side of the family). I love the fact that I am still in touch with my aunts, uncles and cousins. It's kind of sad because I don't think I would recognize any of my cousins from my dad's side of the family. I love my family so much. We drove to St. George once Dave got off of work on Friday. The last time we went down Meg bit on the cord of our portable DVD players and put a short into it so we thought we would just drive down and the kids could entertain themselves. WRONG! About 45 minutes into the drive they were fighting and screaming and we found the nearest Walmart and got a part that we needed to make them movie work. I can't imagine how anyone survived road trips back in the day. We made it down in time to have dinner with my parents and Brian and Kara. I bet they were sad that they waited for us because our kids were crazy!



The next day we met up with the rest of the family and went hiking. We had a really fun time. We had lunch together and sang karaoke. I busted out my knowledge of Brittney Spears and did a little number with my cousin Candice and then Dave and I sang Love Shack. That night we went to see Thriller at Tuacan. Meg sat down the row from me with my mom and my mom did a great job of making sure that she knew everything was pretend. She loved watching the dancing. Will wasn't too bad either. They were both so tired and fell asleep about 30 seconds after getting into the car. We drove home the next day. It was a pretty short trip but was a lot of fun. Thanks Diane for planning such a great time!!

18 Months Already!

Time has flown by since my little guy came into our family. Will is such a wonderful addition to our lives. When he was younger he was so mellow and laid-back. Not anymore! He has changed so much in the last couple of months. Sometimes Dave and I look at each other and ask, "What happened to our sweet little angel?" He is very active and loves to climb, jump, run, yell, throw things, etc. He is all boy. I always thought it was weird when people would say that, but it's true. He is so much different than Megan was at his age. Right now he really likes cars and balls. He actually has a pretty good arm. Dave thinks he is athletic...and does not attribute that to himself. When Meg was potty training we bribed her with Cars from the movie Cars. Then I got a little into collecting them myself, so we have a really big bin of them. That is one sure fire way of making him happy. When you get the bin out of the closet he starts giggling and gets so excited. He carries them around everywhere. One of the monumental things about turning 18 months is that you get to go to nursery. Meg went so easily and I always looked at the parents whose kids wouldn't with pity. Now, Dave and I are those parents. His first day of nursery I was so excited. I took him into his class and the teachers weren't there yet. I have to set up for Young Womens and have to do that pretty quickly after sacrament is over so I don't have much time to waste. Some other dads were in the class with their kids and they said that they would stay with the kids until the teachers came. Big mistake! About 5-10 minutes later a lady in my ward brings me Will who is bawling and said that she found him wandering the hall. He had tripped and hit his head and was crying. So, after that moment he absolutely will not go to nursery. It's horrible. We don't know what we're going to do. I'm sure one day he'll be okay. We'll see how long it takes.


Will is a pretty small little guy. At his 18 month check up he weighed 23 pounds (50th percentile) and was 32 inches long (25th percentile). Meg was always in the 95-97th percentile in height and weight so it's weird to see this lean little guy running around. He is awesome and we wouldn't trade him for the world...well, maybe on Sundays but that's the only time. We love you Gus!

My Big Preschooler

This year Meg started Preschool. She was very excited to go to school. She was also very excited that she was going to get to ride a school bus to school. The only problem was that she doesn't get to ride a bus to school, so we had to break it to her gently. She seemed to accept the excuse that the busses are broken, until she saw them driving around as we were on our way to school. Oh well, you can't have everything. I'll show her this post when she is on high school begging not to have to ride the bus and see what she says.


She goes to Magic Moments Preschool in Riverton. Her teacher is Ms. Amy. She loves Ms. Amy and always wants to surprise her with her completed homework. She has a lot of fun friends in her class...most importantly her cousins Annette and Jocelyn. It's really fun to be able to see them a couple of times a week. So far she talks A LOT about a boy names Beau. She always tells me things that he says. After her first week or so of school she told me that she had said "hi" to a boy in her class and I told my mom. My mom asked her about it and she very adamantly said, "No, he said "hi" to ME!" She is so funny. I have been able to help out a couple of times with the class and she does pretty well. She normally has a tendancy to get a little distracted, but I can tell that she tries really hard to be a good listener. She is learning so much (writing letters and numbers and is learning a lot in spanish). We miss her a lot when she is gone. We are so proud of our little smart preschooler!

Happy 3rd Birthday Meg!

To all of my loyal blog readers (Aunt Diane and Aunt Kellie) I have finally decided to update my blog. We had a great and busy summer. Some of the most fun was had at Meg's 3rd birthday party. She had been looking forward to her own party after going to many friend and cousin's parties over the months. She really was excited for her birthday so I wanted to make it special. For awhile there she was into My Little Ponies and so we decided to have a pony party for her. We had two horses come and give rides. Their names were Snickers and Cookie Dough. We had A TON of 3ish-year olds attend. We also had one very "lucky" 9-year old who Meg requested be there-my cousin Jack. What a good sport he was to come and help...and he even rode a horse in the end. We had pony rides, games like horseshoes, pin the tail on the horse and a pinata. It seemed like everyone had a great time. I think I only heard one kid cry, but everyone was really good at waiting their turn and sharing.



Our little Meggie Bug is such a special part of our family. She has an EXTREMELY large personality and is a lot of fun. She loves to ding and dance. She knows most songs that come on the radio and has "her parts" that no one else can sing (those are usually the chorus). She is generally a pretty nice big sister. We love her so much and can't imagine life without her. Happy Birthday Meg!!!

Road Trip

Dave took a look at the calendar the other day and couldn't believe that summer is almost over. He decided that we needed a little more fun in our lives and planned us a trip to Jackson Hole. My parents and their friends get together every year at Bear Lake so we went up on Friday night and stayed there. We had a fun time sitting by the fire, roasting Laffy Taffy (not as good as roasted Starburst) and playing with Dave's laser. It was so funny because that night our kids were so tired. Dave kept trying to get Meg to come out to the fire with him but she got some milk and layed down in her makeshift bed on the floor and pulled the covers on herself. Will climbed into his pack-n-play by himself and went to sleep. We were planning on playing on the beach on Saturday but the rain decided that we would just head up to Jackson early. We hung around town for awhile and that night went to see Grease at the Jackson Hole playhouse. It was AWESOME! Our kids did really well until the very end (or at least I think it was almost over) and we finally took them home before the play was over.

The next day we headed up to Yellowstone. I had never been before and it was really neat. The way they warn you so much, you expect that you are going to see charging buffalo and bears trying to eat you all over the place. We didn't see one animal...well, we did see some squirrels but that was it. We went to Old Faithful. It was so neat and very stinky. We kept telling Meg that Will had a stinky diaper and she thought that was really funny.

The next morning we were going to go on the alpine slide in Jackson and then head home, but we had all had it and decided to head straight home. The kids did really well with all of the driving (thank goodness for portable DVD players).

It was so fun to spend some quality time with my little family. I am so lucky to have an adventurous husband. He makes our lives so much more eventful and fun.

Here Meg is waiting for the play to start. There was a lot of weird antique furniture in the lobby that she liked to play on. I hate antiques. They remind me of ghosts...which I'm scared of.

We are patiently waiting for Old Faithful to spout.

More Waiting....


And finally!!!!!

More stinky geysers. Dave was bound and determine to find out how hot these really are. He secretly snuck down by one and dipped his hand in. I told him that if he was arrested we would be leaving him there.

Pioneer Day

This Pioneer Day fell on a Friday which was really nice because Dave had a 4-day weekend. We were going to be very ambitious and were planning on going to the Days of 47 Parade. I was trying to get Dave to sleep out the night before to get us a spot, but he wasn't really into that idea (I probably would have felt too bad anyways). He thought if we left at five in the morning we could find a pretty good spot. After really thinking about it, I decided that we were crazy for thinking that our kids would do well there. We got up and went to breakfast instead. We watched the parade on tv for awhile and played. Meg and I went to Classic waterslides with our cousins and Dave and Will stayed home and took a nap. We came home and took a trip up the canyon with our cousins for a campfire and dinner. It was a great time. Will was especially good by the fire. Once I told him "No" he didn't try to touch it again. Meg LOVES playing with her cousins so she had a wonderful time. We were home and in bed in time to hear fireworks going off in our neighborhood. Gotta love the life of tired parents.

Give this guy some food and he'll be happy all night.

We had a lot of fun with this butterfly net.

Viva Las Vegas

Last weekend Dave was going to go to Las Vegas for a training seminar. The weekend before I was gone to girl's camp so I was bummed to be apart again. Plus, my parents are out of town and my sisters-in-law were having a girl's weekend so I was feeling like I was going to be super lonely. Dave came home from work on Thursday and we had dinner and I told him how lonely I was going to be. His flight was going to leave in about three hours. He checked to see if there was room on it for us and there was! So, we tagged along with him for the weekend. It was a little rough getting there, but we made it late Thursday night. Friday morning we took Dave to his seminar and then went to the aquarium at Mandalay Bay. It was a lot of fun and they have a lot of sea life to see. I thought it would be fun to show the kids the lions at MGM so I started walking over. It didn't look too far away, but as I started going it started to seem farther and farther away. It was about 110 degrees (I really don't know how people can live there). We finally made it and checked out the lions. By that point I was exhausted so we finally went back to our hotel and relaxed until it was time to pick up Dave. We ate at the Bellagio that night. The kids loved it. We watched the fountains and then headed back to the hotel to go to bed. The next morning we took Dave back to his class and then we went over to Circus Circus. It was actually pretty fun. The kids were a little too small to ride the rides but we looked around and played some games. We watched some circus acts and then picked Dave up from his class. We had some time to kill before our flight left to go home so we found a splash park and let the kids play. All in all it was fun spending time with Dave and showing the kids around Vegas. I'm not planning on going back for a long long time though.

Will and Dave having fun at the splash park.

Meg waiting for the fountains at the Bellagio. We bought those shoes she is wearing in Vegas and she LOVED them. She kept running around saying that they made her run fast. When we were waiting in line for dinner she kept showing everyone her shoes and telling them that they were new. It was so fun.

Will loved being in our hotel room. Here he is enjoying a pancake and jumping on the bed. He was in heaven.

Thank goodness we found the splash park. Meg finally got her clothes wet after much poking and prodding. She wanted her swimming suit on but I couldn't dig it out of the suitcase. We kept telling her that it was okay, but she was really weird about it. I think she finally got too hot and just decided to do it.

In the picture, Will is getting his diaper changed on the grass at the Bellagio. He was so fun on this trip and was as happy as could be.

It's Independence Day!

I am doing this blog for journaling purposes only, seems that it is almost a month later. We have been EXTREMELY busy lately. We just got done with our Girl's Camp. It was awesome! I still haven't put all of my stuff away from that though and we have been home for almost two weeks. That's what basements are for, right? Anyway, we had a pretty low key 4th of July this year. Both of our kids were super cranky so it made for a really fun day. We went to my parent's neighborhood for their annual parade and breakfast. I had to wake the kids up to go...that's never a good sign that your day will go smoothly. My mom pulled them in the parade and then we had a little breakfast. It was my cousin Jack's birthday so we went to his house for a party and then we went home. I taught Young Womens the day after and I came up with this great idea to stitch "pray" onto a pillowcase for each girl. I really didn't think it would take me very long, but ended up taking me about 20 minutes per pillowcase and I had 27 to do. I worked on those things all day Friday, the rest of the day Saturday and then Sunday morning. They turned out really cute though. The girls really seemed to like them...some even brought them to camp with them. They in turn tiedyed them which was a little alarming, but I figured I had given them to them so they could do whatever they wanted to them. I was kind of bummed though. Oh well. We grabbed some dinner and then got a few fireworks to do at home with just us. It was actually pretty fun. Will got a little scared, but his tiredness was working against him too so he was kind of whiney. Meg really liked them though. Then, we put the kids to bed and I stayed up until one in the morning stitching. Great fun!


I am so grateful that we live in a country where we are free. I am also very grateful to all of the people who are willing to serve in the armed forces. I definitely wouldn't be able to have my husband in harm's way and I respect those families so much. God bless America!!!

Dairy Days

My friend Stacy told us about Dairy Days that Thanksgiving Point holds each year and we decided to go. She was sick and missed out on the fun though. It was a great time. Both of the kids were in love with the animals. They had a lot of baby animals there and it was really fun to see them all...I'm a total sucker for baby animals too. I had been bribing Meg all day with a horse ride and she was so excited up until the point that she was actually supposed to get on the horse. She freaked out and cried almost the whole time. It was so strange because she is never really like that. She did say that she wanted to ride a red horse so maybe the horse that she got wasn't what she had in mind. Will rode a horse too and loved it. We had a great time though and will definitely go again next year.

Meg was having a pretty long conversation with this llama.

Will loved being free to roam around and he loved looking at all the animals.

This baby cow was a huge hit with my kids. He was really hungry too and kept eating our stroller, people's clothes, a little girl's hair.

Happy Daddy's Day!

We had a great time getting ready for Father's Day this year. I took the kids to the mall looking for a tie for Dave's dad. We came away with a tie for him, my dad and two for Dave...all picked out by Meg. She chose a purple tie for Dave and was so excited about it. When we got home I hadn't yet prepped her to tell Dave that what we got him was a surprise so she told him that we had bought him a purple tie and that was that.

Dave is such a wonderful and loving dad to our kids. He is extremely hands on and is so helpful. He loves to play with and read to our kids. The other night he went mountain biking right after work and didn't get home until our kids were in bed. He came downstairs where I was and said, "I miss our kids." It was so cute. He is such an incredible dad and I appreciate everything that he does for our family. Happy Father's Day Dave!

"He walk like people!"

(Meg took this picture so it's not the best. Will is so happy to be able to get around quickly. He won't crawl at all anymore.)

Since Memorial Day Will's favorite thing to do is walk. He had been taking steps here and there for a little while but must have decided that it was time, because he is walking EVERYWHERE. On Memorial Day we went to the park with Dave's family and he must have felt more comfortable on the grass because he started to walk longer distances. Now, he basically walks everywhere. Meg was a very good big sister and taught him how to walk (or at least she thinks she did) by holding his hands and walking backwards. At first, Will was a little leery of this because she would go too fast and then he would fall on his face. After a few talks she became a lot nicer and more gentle about it. She was so excited and said "Mommy, he walk like people!" Will is a lot of fun. Last night Dave sadly said that we don't have any babies in our home anymore. It's true too, he is definitely a little boy now.

Aloha

Dave and I got to go to Hawaii this month....without kids. It was so fun. We have been to Hawaii three times since we have been married. It is by far our favorite vacation spot to go. The first time we went I won a trip with my work. That was a fun trip but I was about 20 weeks pregnant with Meg so I was really tired and wasn't able to do a lot of adventurous activities. The second time we went we brought Meg with us (she was about 7 months old). That too was a lot of fun, but a lot of hard work with a little baby. This time we were kid less and I wasn't pregnant so we were ready to do a lot of fun stuff. Jim and Sarah came with us. We had a great time hanging out with them. They are so layed back. It was really nice. We quickly drove the road to Hana as soon as we got off the plane and then stayed in Hana that night. We stayed in this really nice bungalow that night. The next day we spent the entire day having fun adventures on the road to Hana. We hiked through bamboo forests to waterfalls, swam in waterfalls, hiked through lava tubes. It was really great. The rest of the time we stayed by black rock in Lahaina. We swam a lot, went snorkeling and just relaxed. We missed our kids a lot. Mother's Day was an especially hard day for me because I wasn't able to see my little babies. They were having a wonderful time with my parents though. A few months before the trip my mom made the mistake of telling Meg that they would take her to the dinosaur museum while they took care of her. She talked about it EVERY DAY until they finally did. In fact, right before we headed to the airport we said a family prayer. Meg wanted to say it all by herself. She said the usual things and then said, "Thank you that Grandma and Grandma take me to the dinosaur museum." It was hilarious. The day that we left we did a zipline tour. It was so fun. We thought that we had lost our camera so we didn't get any pictures but it was awesome. I am usually scared of heights but I actually didn't get too scared. It was a much needed vacation. We feel like we are married again instead of teammates. It was nice to spend a lot of good quality time together. A big thank you to my parents and my aunt and uncle, Kellie and Tate for helping us with our kids. Will got sick about four hours after we left and was a little miserable so it wasn't a really fun time for them. We really appreciate all of the help that they gave and still continue to give to us.

Dave spent awhile talking to a homeless man about the history of this banyan tree.

We took a hike to the blowhole. It was so neat...maybe my favorite part of the trip.

Dave in the bamboo forest. This hike was my other favorite part of the trip. Jim almost killed himself climbing one of these.

This was in a lava tube cave. Dave is still talking about the "hidden cameras" that they installed to keep you from going too deep into the cave. "Don't insult my intelligence!"

We love Maui!

St. George

May has been an extremely busy month for our family. For Young Women's we are practicing for and getting ready for our Temple Celebration performance that will be at the Conference Center tomorrow. It has taken a lot of time, but is going to be so awesome. We went on a couple of trips this month too. At the beginning of the month we went to St George with a bunch of Dave's high school friends. We did some swimming, shopping, mountain biking, and just hung around. There were quite a few kid's schedules to work around so it was a little difficult to hang out a lot with all of Dave's friends, but it was still fun.

There is a really fun splash park by their City Hall in St George. The kids had such a fun time.

Pics of the kids

My friend Natalie has been wanting to get into photography for awhile. She just got a fancy new camera and was nice enough to take some pictures of my kids for me. I think she is so talented and did such a good job. Thanks Nat!

I love this one! It's kind of a funny face but is classic Will. When he gets really happy he squished his nose up and the wrinkles appear. He is so funny.

This one is so funny because it really doesn't look like Meg to me. I haven't seen her make this face before.

Will climbs into everything now. We were just talking and he climbed into this play sink. He is so hilarious. We have one of those walkers and he really likes it. I was making dinner the other night and he and Meg were playing back by their rooms. I heard the walker come closer and I figured he was just pushing it. He comes around the corner and was in it. He was so proud too when he saw me. He can climb out of it too. He is getting to be such a big boy.

The Mullet is Gone!

Will got his first haircut (besides his rat tail being cut off) this week. His hair didn't look very long but it was a little thick in the back and whenever his shirt would slide under his hair and push his hair up he had a bad mullet. We went to Cookie Cutters and he got a little boy's haircut. I was a little sad to see the baby chick puff on the top of his head go but he looks so much better. He was such a good boy. Meg got her hair trimmed and he watched her. They put him in the same little airplane and he was as happy guy. He tried to look at the clippers and that made it hard but he was a brave little boy. He got a balloon afterwards and was so happy. He looks so cute.

He ended up with a faux hawk and looked so handsome. This really is the best picture that I could get. He is VERY active right now.

Hangin' with the Jackster

This past weekend I had the privilege of being a mom of three as we took care of my cousin Jack while my aunt and uncle were out of town. I picked him up from school on Thursday and we hung out and went to a reception. Friday I had to take him to school. It really wasn't a big deal but it was SO much different having to get up and make sure someone else is ready, their tummy is full and is off to school on time. He is such a little angel and was a real pleasure to have around. Friday night Dave made him watch Nacho Libre. Saturday we went to the dinosaur pack in Ogden. It was a lot of fun and was really neat. Dave's little brother Rob had a CD release party that afternoon so we had to leave a lttle earlier then we would have liked, but I would totally go back again if anyone reading this wants to go. It was really weird but fun having three kids around. Probably because Jack is such a nice boy, plus the fact that he is eight years old doesn't hurt. Thanks for coming to stay with us Jack!

Easter Festivities

We had a really fun Easter Weekend this year. On Friday night we got hamburgers (or as Meg says Krabby Krabbies) and then bribed Meg to eat dinner with the prospect of dying Easter Eggs. She LOVED dying the eggs. She actually did a pretty good job too. Her hand turned "Incredible Hulk" Green. She was a little concerned that it was going to stay that way but we finally got it to come clean.


Saturday Dave had a meeting for the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house (he gets to be a tour guide for some of the General Authorities) and I took the kids to Riverton's Easter Egg Hunt. Sarah warned me that I would be in shock to see how competitive parents can get at those things. It was pretty crazy. The fire engine's siren went off and then the hunt was over in about 10 seconds. Meg only ended up with a couple of suckers and some tootsie rolls. She was happy though. We saw the Easter Bunny there too.


Sunday we went to my parent's house for dinner. They had a little egg hunt for Meg and she ended up getting a lot of stuff. Will crawled around and ate candy off the floor all night. The rest of the night he was VERY cranky. I think he might have felt a little sick from eating all of the candy that he did. It was a fun holiday!!

In this picture, Will is chowing down on candy. He couldn't get it in fast enough.

The Easter Bunny visited our house and brought a lot of fun books toys and a little candy.

Happy Easter!!!

Toddler with a Camera

As I was getting ready the other day, Meg found the camera and took some pretty funny pictures. In total she shot 61 pictures. It's funny to see what's important to a 2-year old.

Meg's most prized possession is her monkey.

She really likes My Little Ponies lately.

She loves her little brother and unfortunately had to wake him up to get this shot.

She has A LOT of the Cars Movie's cars. These are just a few.

She likes dinosaurs a lot now too. This is one that Will got for his birthday.
She keeps acting like it is hers and she rides it around. What a character!

Will Turns 1

On Friday, our sweet little guy turned one year old. We had a pizza party for him and had our family over to help us celebrate. After the party, Dave commented that he Will seemed to know that the party was for him. He was very happy and cute and just looked around at everyone looking at him. He was very spoiled and got lots of fun toys. We had a great time.


Will is such a sweet boy. He loves to be held and cuddled. Right now he is very cuddly and cries when you walk away from him. He loves his sister. He is starting to take her "stuff" and it is causing a little contention in our house but we are all learning to share. Will is crawling and cruising on everything, but still isn't walking. He can stand without holding on to anything, but doesn't usually do it if someone isn't standing close by or he is in the swimming pool. Lately he has been really into cars or anything that has wheels. He LOVES to put things in other people's mouths. Maybe it's the future dentist in him coming out or something. He loves to put his finger (just his pointer finger), binkie, toys, toothbrush in my mouth. He is so fun. He makes sounds now that I think mean Meg "Meh" and Mom "Ma". We love having him in our family. Will loves food and eats about twice as much as Meg but he is pretty small still and doesn't really have that buddah belly that most babies have. Happy Birthday Will, Gus, Baby Brother! We love you!!!!

He very much enjoyed his birthday cupcake...

Can you tell???

It's Already Happening...

Dave and I were trying to get out of the house the other day and Meg didn't want any part of it. You know how your kids arch their back and squirm as you are trying to buckle them in their carseat? You know how it makes you crazy? Dave was dealing with Meg and finally had to get mad at her and push her down in the seat. Meg was SOOOO mad at him. She screamed and cried and then said, "I can't love my dad!" To Meg the word "can't" means don't, won't or can't. She said it a couple of times. It was so funny. I told Dave that basically she was saying 'I hate you' in a two year old's language. He felt terrible and was trying to get back on her good side the rest of the night. Boy, we certainly have some interesting years ahead of us.

Sunny AZ

A couple of weekends ago I went to visit my brother and his wife in Arizona. My parents drove down and got there on Thursday and worked on my brother's new house. I flew in on Friday (I HATE roadtrips) and we worked on their house on Friday too. Their house is so cute. They painted it all themselves and did a great job. Saturday we met my aunt Diane and cousins Eric and Candice and Capri at the swap meet. My sister-in-law, Kara, put it best when she said, If you haven't seen your Grandparents lately and you are wondering where they are, they are at your local swap meet! It was crazy how many elderly people were there. There was a lot of interesting stuff to look at. My cousin bought these awesome sunglasses.

There was a little booth selling underwear and bras. My cousin thought that the swap meet was a big garage sell with everything used. I told her that I was pretty sure that the stuff was new, but after seeing this...

I wasn't so sure. Ewww! We shopped the outlets and went to a cactus farm. It was fun and was really great seeing Brian and Kara again. They were excellent hosts! I missed my family so much. I basically talked about Meg, Will and Dave the ENTIRE time. It probably got annoying, but oh well. When I came home Dave was extremely appreciative of me. Absence definitely makes the heart grow fonder. Thanks to Kellie and Tate for helping out with our kids on Friday and Dave for flying solo (even at church) so I could go.

Mom and Dad at the cactus farm.

The lovely hosts at Joe's Farm Grill.

My family eating lunch outside! It was awesome. I can't wait until spring/summer is finally here. It is snowing today so I guess I will have to put my flip flops away again.

Goodbye Rat Tail

We are still sick!!! This has been horrible. We are now at the coughing until you throw up stage of the sickness. On Saturday, Dave had to go around our neighborhood and get some things signed by our neighbors for the HOA. The kids and I have been cooped up for so long and even though it was pretty chilly we walked around with him. I put Will's winter hat on him and noticed the making of a mullet sticking out the back. We had to give our baby his first little hair cut and chopped the rat tail off. Now, when looking at the back of his head, he looks like a little boy and not a baby. He is almost one, but I still feel sad that he is so big now.

First Prayer

The other night Dave put Meg to bed and he went to say her prayers for her but she wanted to do it herself. This is what she said...

"Heavenly Father, thank you for this day. Thank you baby brother. Good day. Name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

She has said some more prayers since then and I can only catch a few words of them, but she is saying a lot. Only Heavenly Father really needs to know.

Sick Day(s)

This past week has been horrible in our house. We just got over sick noses and colds and I thought we were in the clear. Monday, my mom was coming to get the kids for special day. Will was acting especially clingy and I thought it was just because he wasn't getting enough attention. I thought that he would get plenty of TLC at my parent's house. He ended up with plenty of messy diapers to last us a month. Then, on Thursday, Meg and I woke up but Will was still asleep. We finally woke him up around 9:00 and he was so cranky. He drank his bottle and then layed there like a limp rag doll. He has NEVER done this. I felt so weird about it but he just wanted to lay and watch cartoons. I have been trying to get some things done for our New Beginnings coming up so I worked on some things and he eventually rolled over and fell asleep on the couch. Later that day he tried to crawl and just collapsed on his face. I tried to get him to stand up and he wouldn't put any pressure on his legs. I finally called the doctor and he looked at him. He said that he just has a virus. Poor little guy. He has been sick almost a week now. Meg has a horrible cold and cough and now Will is coughing too. We need to get out of the house. We are all miserable. Hopefully next week we are all better.

All week Meg has looked like this. Dave said, "Meg, you look like no one loves you." Poor thing.

Little Angel or Little Devil?

I thought this was pretty funny and meant to post on Sunday. Anyway, my friend subbed in Meg's nursery on Sunday. When we met up in Young Womens she told me that Meg was being so cute in nursery. She said that she started hanging around a littler girl and just kept saying, "You miss your Mommy?" and telling the leaders, "She misses her Mommy." She would follow the girl around and was kissing her (on the lips) and telling her, "It's okay." She was practically mauling the little girl and was patting/rubbing her. So, I felt good that even though she was invading someone's personal space, she was being nice.

Then, when Dave picked her up after church the leaders said that she slapped a boy in the face. I was in shock. How can someone go from a little angel to a devil in the same hour? She looks sweet though, doesn't she?

Happy Visit

I had an appointment to get my teeth cleaned this week and brought the kids with me. Dave has an operatory converted into a little kid land with toys and a tv and Meg loves to play in it whenever we go to the office. I figured she would be happy to stay in the playroom the whole time. On our way there she kept asking where we were going. I told her that we were going to Daddy's work so I could get my teeth fixed. She would say "Oh." and then would ask again. Finally she said that she wanted to get her teeth fixed too. When we got there Dave was working on someone else so I stocked some supplies that I brought. I went back to the front and Meg was already in the chair and had her mouth open so wide. She must have really wanted her teeth fixed because she made sure that it happened. She was so brave and let Dave scrape her teeth and poke around a little. She has NO CAVITIES!! I try really hard to brush her teeth twice a day and she is usually pretty good about it. Thank goodness!!! What a cutie though.

Children's Museum

We went to the Children's Museum with Sarah, Natalie and their kids the other day. I love it there. There are so many things to see and do. Will can finally cruise around by holding onto things so he was especially happy to be there. Meg only got lost a couple of times. Thankfully I had Nat and Sarah there to help me keep an eye out for her...she is so quick. It was another nice day and we played outside on the helicopter for a long time and soaked up some rays. Meg LOVES playing with her cousins. I can get her to do anything if the reward is seeing them. She says, "My Leia? My Ekkie Jo Jo (Nettie & Jo Jo)? My Yackie (Zach)? They are all so sweet to her too. We have a pass to the museum now if anyone wants to go.

Spring, anyone?

We are getting spring fever around here. It has been so nice the past week or so. I have busted out the capris and flip flops. It is still a little cold, but I don't care. I can't stand winter anymore. My kids have been loving playing outside. We went out the the park behind our house the other day. Usually there are tons of kids outside, but for some reason we were the only ones out this day. The kids had been playing with the camera and I didn't realize that the lens had Gussy's fingerprints all over it until after I uploaded these pictures. They're a little fuzzy, but still so cute.

Meg is not too keen on taking naps anymore. She really starts needing one every three days or so, but is pretty happy most days without one. The other day I knew she needed a nap so I told her that if she took one we would go to the park when she woke up. She ended up sleeping so long and finally at 5:00 I went in her room to see if she was okay. She was still very sleepy, but I wanted her to be tired when bed time rolled around so I tried to wake her up. She would not respond to me at all. Finally I said, "Meg, do you want to go and play at the park?" Her eyes quickly opened and she said "Yes!" and she was up. She kept saying "My friends." and "My kids." She is so funny. She loves playing around other kids (not so much with them, but she is getting better at that too). We were almost the last people in the park that night. It was getting dark and she didn't want to come home. Dear winter, please go away!

Happy Valentine's Day!

We had a great Valentine's Day this year.

The day before Valentine's Day Dave brought home flowers, a teddy bear and balloons for the kids. They were so happy...especially for the balloons. Meg actually put her flowers on her nightstand in her room. She was so proud to have her own flowers from Daddy.

On Valentine's Day the kids woke up to their own little mail pouches filled with special toys, treats and Valentine's books. I was planning on making something similar to these but then found them on the ETSY website and am sure glad that I bought them instead. They look a lot better than anything I could sew.

I made a special breakfast and we ate off of our heart-shaped plates. It was really fun.

Meg requested a bubble bath and got to take a very long one.



Later that day we went to the Dinosaur Museum. It was really fun. Meg has really been into dinosaurs since my parents took her to the Dinosaurs Live show. She told my mom that she wanted a dinosaur with red eyes and lo and behold, my mom found one and gave it to her for Valentine's Day. After the museum we went to my parent's house and dropped off the Valentine's card that Meg colored for them. They sure spoiled us. I had been on a strict "No Treats" diet for probably a month and a half until this day and had to fall off the bandwagon since we were given so many yummy homemade treats. Don't worry, I'm back on now. So, we had a great day spending time together as a little family. I love my kids and husband so much. Dave really did well and had some tulips (my favorite) delivered to me and also gave me some perfume. What a great day!!!

Jell-NO

The other day Meg saw a box of Jell-O in the pantry and wanted some. I realized that the poor thing had never been introduced to Jell-O (one of my favorite treats as a kid) and so I made it for dinner that night. We got it out of the fridge and poked it to show her that it was set up. She was SO excited to eat it and finally ate enough of her dinner so that she could have some. We gave Will some and he loved it, but he basically loves any adult-type food. Dave gave Meg a hefty hunk of Strawberry Jell-O and she put it in her mouth and started to dry heave. I felt bad for her because she looked so confused as to why she was getting sick over it and I had made it seem like the greatest thing ever. It was so funny though. I have been horrible about taking pictures lately and feel like nothing is really going on with us, but thought this night would be funny to remember so I had to post.

9 Months

This is what I see when I walk in his room (but now he is standing). How cute!

I can't believe that Will is nine months old. He is such a big boy. He had his checkup on Monday and weighs 19 pounds. Meg weighed about 21 pounds at nine months so he is a little smaller than her, but everyone comments on how big he is. He is so happy to be crawling. Since Christmas, his favorite thing to do is just crawl around and explore. I can put him downstairs and he will crawl around for hours playing with toys. For the past week or so he has been pulling himself up on everything and climbing on everyone. He loves to be manhandled by his sister (and she loves to manhandle him). Sometimes I think she is being a little too rough, but when you look at his face, he is smiling and squealing with delight. It is really fun to watch your kids play together. We love him so much and are so lucky to have such a happy boy in our family.

Christmas 2008

I am a little late at posting this, but thought better late than never. We had a great Christmas. Christmas Eve we went to a party at my Aunt Lori's house. Meg had so much fun because two of my cousins have young kids too and she got to run around and be crazy with them. She was completely wired by the time we got home, but she and Will finally went to bed just in time for Santa to come. The kids woke up around 7:30 on Christmas morning. It was so fun to see Meg's face light up as she opened her presents. The biggest thing she got this year was a kitchen, but she didn't really give it a second look until later that night. She got some more cars from the movie Cars and also received Mack the semi. She got a little piano which she has loved. Will got some books and toys. After opening our presents we went to my parents for a delicious breakfast and got to spend the morning and afternoon with them and Brian and Kara too. It was so fun. Meg and Will were completely spoiled and they both just wanted to play all day. We headed home, thinking that we were going to get a nap in, but found our house covered in a snow drift. The kids were asleep in the car so Dave and I dug our house out and then headed to Jim and Sarah's for more family fun. We had dinner there and opened more presents. Meg LOVES her cousins so she had a great time playing there. We finally headed home, bathed the kids and then let the kids play with all of their new toys. Meg played and played and finally Will and I were ready for bed. Meg stayed up with Dave and finally gave in and went to bed around 10:00. We had a wonderful day with our family.

Meg, Will & Grandma Higley

Meg received her first dress up outfit from her cousin.

Dancing Queen

This past Thursday, Meg had her first dance recital. We take a mommy and me class every week and she really loves it. We have been working on her dance "I Love You Santa Clause" for a few months now and she really knew it. We would sing the song at home a lot and she would practice. When I would try to get her to do it for Grandma and Grandpa or for Dave, she would get shy and embarrassed and would not do it, or would go and do it in the corner where no one could see her. It was really funny. As the recital came near, her teacher told us that we may be surprised because the little girls usually love the fact that everyone is watching them and they will perform, even if you don't think they are going to. I bribed her with a Dinaco helicopter and that did the trick. My parents and grandparents came to watch her. They had it at a local middle school and the auditorium was packed. When we got in, Meg couldn't take her eyes off of the girls dancing on the stage. I thought that she was getting stage fright, but come to find out, she was really into dancing. When it was our turn, she got right up on the stage and performed. She remembered all of the steps but got a little distracted at the end and was bending over looking through her legs when she should have been doing something else. Oh well, what can you do? I was very proud of her though. She did such a great job. I think dance is something we will keep her in. She really seems to like it. We will try and get the video of her dance up soon. It is so cute!

Meg with Grandma and Grandpa.
They gave her flowers after her performance.
She was so proud.

Meg and her friend Chayse. They loved all of the attention they were getting.

Lights at Temple Square

On Saturday, we went to see the lights at Temple Square with Jim, Sarah and their kids. Meg was SO excited to be with her cousins and was especially excited to be in her snowsuit. We pulled it out of her closet and put it on her and she kept raising her hands in the air and shouting, "Snow!" (We hadn't even left yet.) It was a really cold night but Dave brought his jet boil camping burner and made us all hot cocoa. People around us were asking where we had bought it. We could have sold it and made a few bucks, but it was nice to have to be able to warm up a little. Meg wasn't very interested in the lights but wanted to run around and eat any snow that she could get to. She loved following her big cousins, Zach and Leia, around and wanted to do everything that they were doing. It was a fun night and was nice to be able to hang out with the other Alvords.

Jocelyn, Zach, Meg, Leia and Annette

Dave making us cocoa. I felt like we were homeless or something.

Gus had a great time and seemed to stay pretty warm.
His cheeks were so plump and rosy.

I'm getting nuttin' for Christmas....

Tonight for Family night I had the genius idea to go and see Santa at the mall. I don't know why, but I really didn't think it would be very crowded and I wanted to get Meg and Will's picture with the same Santa that we have in years past. We get to the mall and the line is SUPER LONG. At this point I was still excited about the whole plan so Will and I got in line and Dave took Meg and walked around the mall, rode the carousel, rode the escalator a few dozen times and came back to see that I was only about 1/3 of the way through the line. They left again and came back to find me about 1/2 of the way through the line. I think that they should make a rule that anyone who does not believe in Santa should not be allowed to sit on his lap. It was getting ridiculous because I thought Santa was on a break because the line wasn't moving at all and then when I would look to see what was going on, some teenagers would be sitting there chatting him up. So, we finally made it to the front of the line, we get our kids on Santa's lap, take a quick picture with the phone and then we were on our way. As soon as Meg gets off of Santa's lap he says, "It looks like I have a wet knee." I was horrified to find that Meg had peed her pants sometime when we were in line and had gotten Santa's leg all wet. I felt so bad and apologized but all that I got was a glare from Old Saint Nick. So, needless to say, we'll be lucky if Santa gives our home a visit this year. What a night!

Gus is crawling!

Our little guy finally figured out how to crawl yesterday. He has really been thinking about it a lot lately and has spent many hours on his hands and knees rocking, but yesterday he decided to take the plunge. Everyone always says that life gets so much harder when they are crawling, but I am excited and am really happy for him. He seems so much happier now that he can get to where he wants to go. He has been changing so much lately. He now has six teeth (one more soon to come). He is showing a little attitude too. He and Meg got in their first fight the other day. He was sitting next to his basket of toys and had it propped up so he could easily reach inside. Meg came from the other side and pulled the basket down. He was MAD and tried to pull it back. It was so funny. I guess I got a little glimpse of what's to come. We're so happy that he is learning so many new things. Way to go Gus!

Light the Night

In the South Jordan City complex (where Dave's office is) they host "Light the Night" where they light up the big Christmas tree and all of the lights around the towne center after everyone counts down. We went last year and thought it was a lot of fun. We went again this year with my parents. We ate at The Pie for dinner and headed over to the ice skating rink just in time for them to turn the lights on. We heard Santa coming on a fire engine and Meg got to sit on his lap. She is not scared of Santa at all and when asked what he is going to bring her, she always says, "CANDY!" That should be easy enough. It was a pretty cold night so we didn't stay long, but it was a lot of fun hanging out with my parents.

Fun with Grandma

On Monday, Meg went to my mom's house for her special day. My mom usually comes and picks her up, but we wanted to go to a boutique so I took Meg to her house. We went to the boutique and I planned on leaving her at my mom's house when we got back and then I was just going to go home. On the way home, Meg became VERY grouchy. She was whining and crying about us singing a song that she didn't want us to sing, etc. I finally asked her if she wanted me to go away so that she could have her special day with grandma alone. She said yes. How mean! So, I left and my mom said the she was happy the rest of the day. My mom bought a gingerbread house that she and Meg were going to put together that day. From what I heard it was a very interesting experience. My mom said that she couldn't put the candy on the house faster than Meg was taking it off and eating it. Meg even requested that my mom pipe the icing directly onto her tongue. Meg is just like her dad in the way she loves candy. She will do anything for one little M&M. The house turned out very cute though and Meg was very proud. She would tell Dave and I, "I maked dis candy house" as she picked icing off of her little house. Thanks mom for being such a fun Grandma. Meg obviously loves her special time and doesn't want anything to ruin it...especially me.

Thankful

This Thanksgiving I have been thinking about how blessed I am. One thing that stuck out to me from this past General Conference was the fact that we should be more thankful in our prayers, rather than asking for more blessings. I have been trying very hard to do this. It really isn't hard, considering my sweet little family and happy life. This past year was wonderful because we were given our little baby, Will. I am so grateful for modern medicine that helped him get over the trouble he was having. I am so grateful for the power of prayer. I know that the prayers of our family, friends and ward family helped him get well. Dave and I are so blessed with many kind and generous people in our lives. When Will was in the hospital, Meg was able to stay with my parents the entire time. She had a great time and was happy as can be. I am so grateful for parents who love support me and my little family so much. I also have wonderful in-laws who were constantly calling us and telling us that they knew that Will would be okay...and sure enough, he was. When we would leave the hospital each night, we would turn on our cell phones and we would have so many calls and messages from our sweet friends and neighbors.


I am also grateful for a kind and generous husband. He works so hard to provide for our family. He does a great job too. We are so grateful that things are going well with his new office. He stresses a lot about our well-being, but each month all of our bills are payed. He feels that it is important for me to be able to stay at home with our kids each day and I am so thankful for that. He is such a kind and fun dad to our kids. They both love him so much. I am so thankful that he is such a good friend to me. He has quite the unique sense of humor and is so fun to be around.


Each night I thank my Heavenly Father for my membership in the true church on the earth. The gospel keeps my life healthy and happy and gives me direction. I know that my Heavenly Father loves me and thinks of me. He really does listen to and answer my prayers. I can't imagine my life without the gospel in it.

I really could go on and on. I know this is a long post, but it's always a good idea to document your feeling so you can look back when times get a little hard and remind yourself of how lucky you really are. We truly are so blessed.

One more thing...it's 8:45 p.m., my kids are asleep and I'm grateful for a cozy bed that I will be climbing into as soon as I publish this post. Good night!

Proud Mama

Meg had been potty training for a little over a week when it was time to go to church again. Dave was out of town and I brought the kids by myself. I was SO nervous that she was going to have an accident in nursery. I brought reinforcements: new panties, tights, dress, etc. I was prepared. I tried to get her to go potty right as we got to church and she tried but nothing happened. I took her to nursery and then nervously waited for her teachers to bring her little wet self to me. It never happened. As soon as Relief Society was over her teacher, Brother Jones (she LOVES him) came in the room and said, "She said pee pee." I quickly gave Will to someone else and rushed her to the bathroom. She held it together and made it to the bathroom before she had any accidents. When I got back into the room women were asking, "Did she go?" and "Did she make it?" I felt as proud as I would if she had just become the President or something. I proudly announced that she did go to the bathroom and was all smiles. I have been all smiles ever since. She has been doing AWESOME without a diaper and I am so happy!

The Hardest Days of My Life as a Parent-POTTY TRAINING!

So I was talking to my sister-in law, Sarah on Monday and she told me that she had started to potty train the twins, Nettie and Jo Jo. I felt ashamed because Meg is only a week younger than them. Sarah is an amazing mom and I am sure the twins will be potty trained very soon, but I have been putting this off for so long...and I only have one to deal with. She inspired me and so Tuesday night I finally just made up my mind that we are learning to use the potty and we aren't turning back. I didn't have anything to do on Wednesday and so I thought it would be the perfect time. I didn't realize that my whole day Wednesday would be spent in the bathroom. Wow, what a pain! Meg had seven accidents and four successes that day and I thought that was pretty good. I tried so hard to stay upbeat and not get too frustrated. I prayed many times that day for patience with my little one. Thursday, I was planning on another day like the last, but Meg did so awesome. She only had one accident the entire day. We went to the Utah football game and left her with my cousin and she did great with her too. Today has been really good too so far. I feel pride swelling inside of me for my little girl. I can't believe that she is so big. She is so smart! She has acquired a lot of cars from the movie Cars (I am all about the bribe) and we just went and loaded up on more panties (She chose Cars boys briefs, but that's okay) and things are looking up. I will be so happy to only have one baby's diaper to change. Why didn't I try this earlier? What a week!!!

Snow Day

We woke up to snow Wednesday morning. Meg LOVES the snow...especially eating it. I had decided to crack down and finally potty train Meg that day and so we planned on staying home all day anyways. She outgrew her snow bibs from last year so I didn't really have anything warm for her to wear, but she didn't care. I put some sweats and a coat on her and outside we went. We made a snowman, had a snowball fight (or at least I threw snowballs at her while she laughed hysterically) and I buried her in the snow. She had such a fun time and ate A LOT of snow, which made for many bathroom breaks the rest of the day. My daughter is such a fun loving little girl and is always up for anything. She is my little pal and I am so glad that I get to hang out with her every day.

Fall Fun

Our kids are growing and changing so much every day. Will is getting some fuzzy hair and is getting pretty chubby. He is now rolling all over the place and is very loud. A couple of months ago I was kind of worried because he was just very quiet and was content just hanging around. He has changed so much. He is still our little angel baby and is very happy. He is constantly jabbering and making noises. He has a jumperoo and loves to play in that and jump around. He has two teeth now and loves baby food. The only thing that I have found that he doesn't like are prunes (who really likes prunes anyway?). He is pushing himself up on his arms a lot, but hasn't figured out how to tuck his knees under in order to crawl. He will eventually and then I will be blogging about how crazy my life with him is. Just last night Dave was saying how sad he would be if Will wasn't in our family. He is so happy and smiley and he just makes our home a happy place.




Meg is such a funny little girl. She has gotten pretty skinny in the last little while. Her hair is getting a lot longer and is still pretty curly. She is really into pretty much any Disney movie right now and still loves Curious George. I always wanted her to have an animal or security blanket that she loved and she didn't have anything that she was attached to up until about a four months or so ago. She loves her Monkey (that's his name) and has to have him pretty much all day long. I don't know why I thought security blanket/animals were so cute because if we can't find him, she keeps asking for him until we do...what a pain. Megan loves to sing and sings all day, every day. If I start singing with her and she wants to sing alone she will say, "No, stop it Mom," with her hand out. She has started to play on her own a lot and likes to have her privacy at times. She will sometimes go in her room and shut the door and when you go in there to check on her she will say, "Get out Mom," and shut the door on you. She's not doing anything naughty, either. She just likes to be alone, I guess. She is such a fun girl and we love having her in our family.

Halloween 2008

We had such a fun Halloween this year. I have vowed to make my kids Halloween costumes every year, but I almost caved and bought costumes for them this year. We had the worst cold sickness ever (Dave called it the cold with fangs) and it took me over seven weeks and two doctor appointments to get over it. I just could never feel well enough to make a costume, but when I went looking for costumes to buy I just couldn't bring myself to do it. So, I found a cute costume idea for a cave girl and we decided that our whole family was going to be cave women and cave men. I thought they turned out really cute. We made big teeth out of tinfoil and masking tape. We went to our ward party all dressed up. There aren't very many adults who dress up in our ward and Dave was kind of ashamed that we did, but I was proud not to be a party pooper. Meg had her first taste of chili at the ward Halloween party and loved it. Her costume was a mess after that so it was a good thing it was dark colored fabric. Meg got to wear her costume to her dance class Halloween party and then we dressed Will and Meg up for Halloween night. I took the kids to my parent's, Grandparent's, and aunt and uncle's houses for trick-or-treating and thought we would call it good at that. When we got home Dave wanted to take Meg out to a few houses in our neighborhood. She loved it and they were gone for a very long time. She kept telling Dave, "Another house daddy!" and then they would keep going. She got a ton of candy and when she got home they dumped it out and Dave taught her how to organize and separate it...doesn't every kid do that? I love celebrating the holidays with our kids. It is so fun to see their excitement and how their little eyes sparkle as experience the fun that the holidays bring.

Go Jazz Go!

My parents have season tickets to the Jazz games this year and were out of town for the game a few weeks ago so we rounded up our kids and headed to Salt Lake. Last year Meg went to a few games with Grandma and Grandpa and LOVED them. They bought her a Jazz jersey and a Jazz Bear. Whenever she sees sports on tv she says "Go Jazz Go!" and shakes her fist. We were excited to take her to a game this year. My parents' new tickets are right behind my uncle Tate's tickets now so we were happy to see my cousin Jack at the game too. Meg absolutely loves Jack and wanted to sit with him. He was nice enough to share his popcorn and seat with her. We sat behind them with Will and got to see him stare wide-eyed at all of the bright lights. I can't even remember if the Jazz won or not, but it was a preseason game so it really didn't matter. We had a fun time though. We hope the Jazz have a great season this year.

(Meg and her favorite guy, Jack)

Scarecrow Festival

We had a lot of fun in October. We went to the Scarecrow Festival with Brittney, Jordan, Chayse and McKay. All that I can say is that Jordan was a lifesaver. Meg was bound and determined to get lost. She had to bring her bath duck toys and just wandered around playing with them. We got to the festival right when it opened so we were able to play a bunch of carnival games without waiting in line. Then, we saw that they had those bungee/trampoline things. We waiting in line for those. Meg was such a brave girl and let the guy strap her in (she was stone-faced as he was getting her ready) and away she went. I think I saw a few little smiles from her. It was fun. We waited in line for a little train that took you around the grounds and that took so long and MEg ran away so many times during the wait that once we were done with that activity I decided that we would call it a day. It was a fun time though. Of course Will was a little angel and just liked to be held and look at all of the people. Thanks to Brit and Jordan for their help and friendship!