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!

6 Months Ago...

Six months ago our sweet baby boy came into this world. I can't believe how fast time flies by. The first couple of weeks of his life were scary and stressful. When he came home, I remember telling his doctor that I was so worried about him and his breathing. It was hard for me to sleep because I would worry that he was going to stop breathing in the night. His doctor told me not worry and that that was water under the bridge. He said that I shouldn't treat him any differently that a baby who came home on time. He has always been such a sweet little angel who loves to be held and cuddled. He is the most smiley baby I have ever seen. He not only smiles with his mouth, but with his eyes too. They sparkle any time he gets attention. Right now he is cooing/singing, rolling (only once in awhile and mostly during the night), eating baby food, and he can sit. Yeah! He loves attention from his big sister and especially loves the song "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah" and will stop doing anything to listen. He is the most wonderful baby and we are so happy to have him in our family. We love you Will...happy six-month birthday!

Circus

Dave and I were so excited because we had purchased tickets to the Barnum and Bailey Circus and planned on taking Meg out for a little date. My mom was going to watch Will for us. The day of the circus, Dave ended up catching the nasty cold that we had and wasn't able to go. My mom, bless her heart, came with Meg and I instead. She really doesn't like the circus that much at all, so it was so nice of her to come. We brought Will with us. This circus wasn't what I was expecting at all. My mom likened it to a stake road show. Meg was sick and wasn't really too interested either. At one point I thought that she was going to fall asleep. We decided to stay for the tiger's act which was right after the intermission. Meg was excited for a little bit and then halfway through their act she sat sideways in her seat and wasn't really watching at all. She definitely wasn't feeling very well so I finally decided that it was time to go. It was kind of fun, but not something we'll do again any time soon. Grandma did buy Will and Meg gigantic stuffed animals so that was probably the highlight of the night for sure.

Meg chose this tiger. Will got an elephant and when my mom gave it to him, Meg said, "Meggie elpant." We are working on sharing.

Meg, Will and Grandma Higgy.

Too much fun for one day.

Fun at the zoo with Grandma Alvord

Dave's mom had a toothache and decided to spend the money coming out here to have Dave fix it and then she could see her grandkids too. We had a fun time with her here. On Thursday we went to the zoo with her and also Aunt Sarah, Zach, Leia, Nettie and JoJo. It was the prefect day to spend at the zoo. Will was such a good boy (he always is). He loves the be outside and just sat back and relaxed as we pushed him around. Meg is really into walking lately. When we go to the store she will say "Meggie walk," before the car is even stopped. It's not a question either, more of a statement. She is generally pretty good and will follow me around, but she likes to touch EVERYTHING. She walked all around the zoo. She was pretty clumsy this day and fell down a lot, but she still had a fun time. She LOVES her cousins and they are all so sweet to her, especially Zach and Leia. We love spending time with them and were so glad that Grandma Alvord could come and visit us.

This cheetah kept pacing back and forth right by the window. Whenever it would come by Meg she would shake. It was kind of scary.

Meg and Leia (the little monkeys). Meg would do and say everything just like her older cousins.

The four Alvord girls: Leia, Meg, Jocelyn and Annette .