The Alvords

Larry Melvin Nielsen

2010-06-21T19:58:00.005-06:00

My Grandpa passed away this past a little over a week ago. I loved him so much and will miss him greatly. I am so grateful that I got to see him at least every other week at Sunday dinner. He was always a wonderful Grandpa to me.

Larry Melvin Nielsen 1936 ~ 2010 Larry Melvin Nielsen, age 74, passed away June 12, 2010 surrounded by his loving family. Larry was a long awaited and much loved baby born to Melvin and Lila Nielsen on January 14, 1936 in Logan, Utah. He grew up in College Ward and graduated from South Cache High School, where he played football and was a member of the band. After high school, he joined the Army Reserves. He married his eternal companion Donna Isaacson on July 26, 1957, solemnized in the Logan Temple. Together they raised seven children. He was a General Contractor and could build and fix anything. After retirement he was a shuttle bus operator at the SLC Airport. "Big Larr" was a gentle giant. Although people thought he was quiet, his family knew otherwise. He had a great sense of humor. He loved his family, his temple calling, playing on the computer, the Sizzler, Mountain Dew, BYU and his dog "Poops". He is survived by his cherished wife of 54 years, Donna; and his seven children, Shanna (John) Avila, Diane (Bart) Fitzgerald, Kellie (Tate) Jorgensen, Lynette (Mark) Higley, Lori (Mike) Brussock, Kimberly (Roger) Winder and Bret Nielsen. He was a loving grandfather to 21 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren. Preceded in death by his parents and sister Lois. Larry was an excellent example in how to live a good life. He will be greatly missed. Funeral services at the River Ridge 3rd Ward, 1244 West Chavez Dr. (9700 S.) on June 18, 2010 at 11:00 a.m., viewing Thursday from 6-8 p.m. at Jenkins-Soffe South Valley, 1007 South Jordan Parkway (10600 S.) and one hour prior to the services at the church. Interment Logan City Cemetery at 2:00 p.m.

Maci's Blessing Day

2010-06-21T19:41:00.004-06:00

On June 6th, Maci was blessed. It was a wonderful blessing given by Dave and it focused on her being a good friend to others and choosing her friends wisely. There were so many members of our family there to support us. The priesthood holders who were in the circle were Grandpa Mark, Grandpa Lynn, Great Grandpa Nielsen, Uncle Brian, Uncle Jim, Uncle Brett, and Uncle Tate. A funny thing about the blessing which I want to record is an experience with my Grandpa Nielsen. I tried really hard to let everyone who we wanted to be in the circle know that they were invited. I didn't even think to tell my Grandpa because I thought that it was kind of a given. When it came time for everyone to go up to the front my Grandpa was kind of looking around like he didn't know if he should go. I motioned for him to go and he had to hoof it up to the front as the circle was slowly closing in without him. I remember thinking that it was funny that he barely made it. I am so happy that he did because he passed away the next Saturday, June 12th. I am so grateful that he was able to be a part of all three of my kids' blessings.

We had a great day filled with family and fun afterwards. My mom has a tradition that she buys her grandkids their blessing outfits. When we went to get Will's outfit, we saw the most beautiful "wedding dress" blessing dress. It was still there when we went to get a dress for Maci. She looked so beautiful! My brother even said that for a second, he thought he might be ready to have a baby of his own. He did say that it only lasted for a second though. We had a great day!

Maci Marie is 5 Weeks Old

2010-05-07T11:04:00.002-06:00

We have sure loved the past 5 weeks in our house. Our little baby is such an angel. She really only gets fussy in the evenings. She sleeps a lot and does pretty well in the night. She has a little trouble burping and sometimes gets a little upset that I can't get those bubbles out, but that will hopefully get better soon. She is such a sweetheart and we all love her so much.

Big Brother loves to give Maci kisses. He says, "Hold it." and it very gentle with her.

Big Sister is a little obsessed with baby Maci. She does this thing called "cuddling" where she closes her eyes and rubs her face on Maci's face. It's pretty sweet except that's what she does to my parent's dog, Bubba, too.

While the Cat's Away...

2010-05-07T10:53:00.003-06:00

My little mouse WILL play. Lately it seems like all that I do is feed Maci. Will has been taking full advantage of this time to cause a little mischief. When I first came home from the hospital I was in my room feeding the baby and I could hear this pinging noise. I kept calling for Will to come and see me and all he would say was, "Yeah?" whenever I would call him. When I was done feeding I went into the kitchen to find Will playing with an opened bottle of percoset. I was freaking out, not knowing if he had eaten any or not...when he saw me he tried to hand me one saying, "Candy." I called Dave at work and he told me to try and get him to eat another one to see if he would. He said that he didn't think he took any because they taste so nasty. I tried to give him one and he opened his mouth right up. I called poison control and they told me to watch him and if he started to act drunk then I needed to call 911. That kind of advice is definitely not very reassuring, but he never acted drunk so I assume he never ate any. Lately, he hasn't been doing anything as naughty, but he still is into trouble nonetheless.

My neighbor brought some dinner over the other day and with it came this giant cookie bar. I had it on the counter and Gus found it. I came out to find him lounging in Maci's bouncy seat eating away.

Will secretly got a hold of some of my mascara and proceeded to paint his face, tummy, hands, the couch, etc. with it. They then brought a bike inside and rode back and forth from the kitchen to my room.

Introducing...

2010-04-22T18:15:00.003-06:00

MACI MARIE ALVORD

Born on April 2, 2010
Weighing 7 lbs 2 oz
19 1/2 inches long

Happy Easter

2010-04-22T18:04:00.003-06:00

This Easter came and went and I thought I would at least post a picture of my cute kids. Maci and I came home from the hospital on Easter so I don't have any pictures of what the Easter Bunny brought, but he did come by. The kids were very excited about what he brought them and were extremely hopped up on sugar when I came home. We dyed eggs for family night a couple of weeks before Easter and we all had a lot of fun (Dave especially got really into it) until Will broke all of our eggs. Maybe we'll have better luck next year.

Hey Big Boy!

2010-04-22T12:44:00.002-06:00

On March 27th, our little guy turned 2 years old. I can't believe how fast time has flown by. I was about to have baby #3 when his b-day came around so we didn't do anything too fancy. We went swimming at the SJ Rec Center with our family. It was a lot of fun! We had a lot of family come and quite a few swim too.

Will is such a joy to have in our family. Right now he loves trains and cars. He loves Cocoa Krispies and CANDY (he is crazy about it just like his dad). He seems to know if something is candy by its wrapper. He does get confused sometimes and brings me a tampon saying, "Candy mommy," begging me to open it for him. He can speak pretty well but sometimes it's only mom who understands him. His little skinny body has changed a lot just since he turned two. He looks a lot more like a boy now. We love him so much. Happy Birthday Gus!!!

Disney World is the Happiest place on Earth!

2010-02-08T15:11:00.012-07:00

For Christmas, Dave surprised us with a family trip to Disney World. Will is still under two and gets to fly free and he had a lot of sky miles so we got to go to Florida for even less than it would have been to go to Disneyland. When we left I was 30 weeks so I was a little nervous that I would be so tired and wouldn't be able to walk around as much as everyone wanted to, but I actually felt really good and had a great time. Two nights before we left Will cried the entire night (in pain). I had just gotten over a terrible cold and Meg was getting over it too but Will had just become infected. I took both of the kids to the Dr the day before we left and they both had DOUBLE EAR INFECTIONS. The Dr thought that they would be feeling okay after taking a couple of doses of antibiotics so we left. Will was terribly sick and grouchy the entire time, all except the last day. He has never been that mean before. It was awful! Meg was a complete angel and had the greatest time. Dave and I had a lot of fun too, but wished that Will would have been feeling well because it could have been even more fun. When we came home we were all bummed to be home and can't stop talking about our trip. We can't wait to go back. Dave says in three years, but we'll see if he can wait that long.

The kids loved the tea cups...this was the last day when Will finally started to feel better.

We took Meg to the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique to get her hair fixed like Cinderella. She loved it. She got to pick her hairstyle, got her nails painted, her makeup done and left with a big bag of princess loot. Daddy bought her a magic wand and she was so happy.

The rest of the day she acted so weird. We couldn't figure out what was wrong with her. People would try to talk to her to tell her she looked pretty or would just say, "Hi, Princess!" and she acted so prim and proper. We finally figured out that she was trying to act like a real princess. It was hilarious. She finally got loud and crazy (her normal self) towards the end of the night.

Meg looked forward to meeting Cinderella the ENTIRE TIME we were in Florida. We finally were able to track her down the evening of our last night there (thank goodness). She was in heaven! Megan says that Cinderella is her favorite princess because "she has yellow hair just like me".

Our happy little guy finally joined us. He had a great time the last half of our last day. His favorite things to do was to ride the train that takes you all around the Magic Kingdom. It was fun to see him so excited.

This picture is one that we will be able to black mail Megan with one day. For some reason she started to do this really weird smile and did it almost the whole time we were on our trip. This pic is one of the worst. Pocahontas told her to "Smile big!" and this is what she got. I could barely stop laughing long enough to take the picture.

Meg was extremely afraid of these Incredibles characters. They tried for 10 minutes to get her to take a picture with them but she wouldn't. I kept telling them that it was okay, but they just kept trying and trying. It was really funny because she wasn't scared of anyone else really.

Luckily, the lines weren't very long and the kids were really good to wait.

We just happened to be standing right at this spot in Epcot when Sleeping Beauty emerged. She was the first princess that we saw and she was so nice to Meg.

We got to go to a water park one day and had a great time. It wasn't extremely warm, but we just kept telling ourselves that it was snowing back home and it made it that much warmer. The kids loved to dig in the sand as Dave body surfed in the humongous wave pool.

This picture was taken our first night in Florida. We landed, checked into our hotel and headed to Hollywood Studios for a couple of hours until it closed. On the bus to the park a family gave us some fast passes to the Toy Story video game ride. We really lucked out because we got to go twice that night and the other day that we played in that park the wait time was about an hour and a half. We all loved that ride. Will even kept his 3D glasses on.

Big Boy Bed

2010-01-26T16:22:00.004-07:00

In preparations for our new baby to come we decided it was time to get Will a bed and get him used to sleeping in it. My parents gave us a mattress for him for Christmas so we went out and got him a bed and set it up. He was so excited to have it in his room so we thought it was going to be a piece of cake to transition him. It actually hasn't been too bad. We have it pushed up against the wall and his changing table pushed up on the other side so it is basically a crib but it keeps him from falling out...or at least we thought it would. The first night he rolled around so much that he rolled off the end. He hasn't fallen off since and doesn't really get down until I come and get him. My kids are weird that way. When she was younger, Meg would wake up in the morning or from a nap and would knock on the door until I went and got her...and she could open the door. Will's bed is pretty high but I have a stool by it so he can climb on and off. He climbs all over it during the day, but when I put him to bed or down for a nap he doesn't get down. He is getting to be such a big boy. It makes me a little sad, but I guess it has to happen since there is another baby on the way. We love our little Gus so much.

I had to include this picture because I thought it was so cute. When Meg's away at school or dance, Will gets to do all kinds of things that he normally would be in trouble (by Meg) for. This day he found her i-pod and was having the greatest time listening to her music. He is such a funny little guy.

My Christmas Project

2010-01-13T14:17:00.004-07:00

About a year ago I bought a pattern for a card table fort and was meaning to make it for my kids. Then a few months ago I happened to find an awesome blog http://homemadebyjill.blogspot.com/2009/10/felt-playhouse.html and she made the most amazing playhouse. I talked to my friend Tara about it and we decided that we would both make one for our kids for Christmas. We gave ourselves about a month to do it so we thought that it would be no big deal. It took A TON of time but I think it turned out really well. I basically copied the playhouse from the blog that we found. Tara and I split a lot of things and it was really fun working on a common project together. Once it was all said and done I realized that I didn't measure correctly and it is a little too tall for my table. For Christmas and these pictures I had to put a bunch of boxes on the table to make it look decent. I am going to have to make a structure out of PVC pipe or something but I am really proud of it. I am using it as one of my Young Women projects because it definitely took me longer than 10 hours to finish it. I barely finished it for Christmas but my kids really seemed to like it...except the fact that Will kept standing up and hitting his head on the table. Making this helped me realize that I am really not that bad at sewing after all. Thanks Tara! These pictures are terrible, but they're better than nothing...

A dog house complete with doggy door and bones that come off to feed the cute little dog.

An apple tree with apples that can be picked.

A garden with...

Corn

Carrots

and lettuce that can all be picked.

Tara went above and beyond and made this cute mailbag and mail for the mailbox (The mailbox door opens).

Funny Megisms

2010-01-10T16:32:00.003-07:00

Our little Meg is one funny little girl. She says the craziest things. I wanted to post them before I forget.

We were eating dinner the other night and Meg said, "Mom, Dad, I love you...but I'm the MASTER!" We have no idea where she came up with the word "master" but she really means it that she is the master. The sad thing is is that she really does rule the roost here. It was funny how she let us know her feelings though.

I was getting her ready for her dance recital and as I put her tights on they were a little long so I pulled them up high. She said, "Mom, I'm Aladdin!" I didn't know what she was talking about until I looked at her more closely. She did look like Aladdin with his high-waisted pants and no shirt.

She told Dave out of the blue, "Dad, I don't like the crazy dad, I just like my normal dad." Dave asked her who her normal dad was and she said that he was. When he asked her who the crazy dad was she said it was Leia's dad (Dave's brother, Jim). I guess she just wanted him to know she didn't want to be given away.

I got Meg out of the bath the other day and Will was playing some songs on a toy Princess CD player. Meg was naked and suddenly started doing what she called the "naked dance". It was so funny and really crazy. When she was asked where she learned it she said that Ms. Amy (her preschool teacher) taught it to her. Ms. Amy's got some explaining to do.

The other morning I wasn't feeling well so I got the kids some breakfast and went to lay back in my bed. After a few minutes Meg came in and asked me why I was in my room all by myself. I told her that I was sick. She said, "Do you need a boyfriend?" I told her that I didn't because Daddy was my boyfriend. She was so confused and said, "Well then where is he?" She is really into talking about boyfriends and girlfriends now.

We love our little girl so much. She is so fun and is such a joy to have in our family.

December Fun

2010-01-10T16:05:00.005-07:00

I am WAY behind on my posting, but better late than never. We had a really fun Thanksgiving/Christmas time this past year. So fun that I didn't take many pictures and didn't blog about anything. We picked out a real Christmas tree this year. The kids were so excited to be at the tree lot. They were pretty good about not taking ornaments off of the tree. We did have a few ornament casualties from Will's curiosity though, but he loved our Christmas tree.

Will suddenly has a sick obsession with putting stuff in his hair. He loves to have his hair fixed and combed. This is about the third time I have caught him putting Vaseline in his hair. I thought I had hidden all of the bottles that we own, but I missed one...a very large and full bottle and he found it.

We used our Children's Museum pass one last time before it expired. The kids love that place but it is a little far away and we didn't go there very often. We had a great time!

Meg had her third dance recital last month too. This time she wasn't in a mommy and me class so I was a little nervous to see how well she knew the dance. She wasn't nervous at all and was so excited to perform on the stage. She did a very good job. Her dance teachers were off stage doing the dance along with them so she spent a lot of the time watching them as she did the dance too, but she was so cute. She got a bouquet of pink flowers from her Grandma and Grandpa Higley and loved them. As soon as she was done with her dance I picked her up and she wanted to see her Grandma and Grandpa (to get her flowers). Grandpa Alvord even suprised us and came to see her perform so she has a lot of people there to see her. Will was very happy to be at the recital as he got to eat a very messy blue sucker the whole time.

Meg and her "best friend" Chayse love to dance together.

The kids here are all ready for church in their Christmas clothes. We were told that Megan went into primary for a little bit this day and kept pulling her dress over her head (to show them how much she looked like Cinderella). What a crazy girl.

I'm in Love!

2009-11-17T09:53:00.004-07:00

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...

2009-11-10T21:44:00.002-07:00

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

2009-11-10T21:20:00.007-07:00

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

2009-11-10T21:08:00.002-07:00

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

2009-11-05T19:57:00.004-07:00

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!

2009-11-05T19:42:00.002-07:00

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

2009-11-05T19:31:00.002-07:00

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!

2009-11-05T19:16:00.005-07:00

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

2009-08-13T10:16:00.004-06:00

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

2009-07-27T22:24:00.003-06:00

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

2009-07-23T17:03:00.007-06:00

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!

2009-07-23T16:44:00.002-06:00

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

2009-06-22T16:27:00.004-06:00

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!

2009-06-22T16:22:00.002-06:00

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!"

2009-06-04T10:50:00.004-06:00

(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

2009-05-29T08:26:00.004-06:00

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

2009-05-29T08:19:00.004-06:00

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

2009-05-20T16:48:00.010-06:00

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!

2009-04-23T16:33:00.004-06:00

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

2009-04-20T08:11:00.002-06:00

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

2009-04-13T09:51:00.006-06:00

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

2009-04-07T11:27:00.005-06:00

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

2009-03-31T08:28:00.004-06:00

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...

2009-03-25T16:02:00.002-06:00

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

2009-03-25T11:47:00.005-06:00

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

2009-03-10T08:44:00.002-06:00

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

2009-03-07T12:16:00.002-07:00

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)

2009-03-07T12:08:00.003-07:00

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?

2009-03-06T11:38:00.004-07:00

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

2009-02-27T15:17:00.003-07:00

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

2009-02-27T15:09:00.003-07:00

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?

2009-02-27T14:54:00.001-07:00

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!

2009-02-27T14:22:00.005-07:00

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

2009-02-12T14:45:00.004-07:00

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

2009-01-14T17:41:00.006-07:00

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

2009-01-14T08:14:00.004-07:00

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

2008-12-22T22:01:00.004-07:00

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

2008-12-22T21:46:00.003-07:00

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....

2008-12-22T21:32:00.004-07:00

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!

2008-12-17T14:40:00.003-07:00

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

2008-12-16T10:05:00.002-07:00

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

2008-12-14T15:17:00.003-07:00

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

2008-11-27T20:35:00.004-07:00

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

2008-11-23T14:08:00.002-07:00

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!

2008-11-07T13:59:00.004-07:00

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

2008-11-07T13:45:00.002-07:00

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

2008-11-04T15:17:00.006-07:00

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

2008-11-04T12:47:00.006-07:00

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!

2008-11-04T12:02:00.003-07:00

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

2008-11-04T11:35:00.003-07:00

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...

2008-10-03T15:36:00.006-06:00

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

2008-10-03T15:20:00.005-06:00

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

2008-09-16T14:57:00.005-06:00

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 .

Go Utes!

2008-09-08T21:49:00.003-06:00

This past Saturday my parents invited us to the University of Utah game. My brother got tickets for us last year and the year before in the MUSS and we had a great time. He doesn't go to the U anymore though so we were out of luck. My parents ended up buying season tickets this year and we got to go with them to the opening game. It was so fun and our kids had a great time too. We rode TRAX to the stadium. Meg would yell "Go Utah!" and clap a lot but she also got scared when the crowd would cheer. I think her favorite parts of the night were hanging out with her Grandma and Papa and doing the wave. She was really amazed by it and as it came around to us she would say, "Here it comes, here it comes." Both Meg and Will ended up falling asleep during the game. It ended up being a blow out so we left early so we would have a seat on the train for the ride home. Hopefully we have a winning season this year and beat those Cougs! Go Utes!!!

Mush Anyone?

2008-09-05T15:20:00.003-06:00

I was at the park a couple of days ago and a friend and I were talking about how we are trying to quit nursing. She asked if I had given Will rice cereal yet and I was kind of shocked, thinking that he was way too young. I did some quick calculations and figured out that my baby boy is almost 6 months. The time with this little guy in our family has gone by so fast. I should have been clued in that he was ready for something more than milk as he watches everyone put food in their mouths and he grabs my hands if I am holding him while eating. So, this morning was his first attempt at eating regular food. He didn't seem to like it very much but is such a sweet little boy and just kept eating it with a happy smile but confused eyes. Don't worry Will, you'll get baby food in a couple of weeks...and boy you're in for a treat!

Let's Dance!

2008-09-05T13:18:00.003-06:00

Yesterday I took Meg to her first dance class. It was actually a lot of fun and Meg seemed to enjoy it. We brought Will and he sat in his car seat and watched us dance (it is a mommy and me class so I dance too). She got slightly distracted a few times and would go over and say hi to Will, but for the most part she tried hard to listen to the teacher and do what was asked of her. I know she is a little young, but we want our kids to be involved in something athletic and also something musical as they grow up so we thought we would start her out now. Plus, she looks so cute in her little dance outfit and shoes. She says "Mommy, Megan dancing show?" and twirls around saying "Weeee." It's so cute!

Lake Powell

2008-09-04T16:28:00.006-06:00

This past Labor Day, we went to Lake Powell with my family. We met up with my brother and new sister-in-law who just moved to Arizona. It was so good to see them. It seems they have been gone a lot longer than a month. We left for Powell at five in the morning on Friday. I thought that it would be a rough drive, being so tired and all, but I actually liked it better than driving in the pure daylight. We got to Page at around noon, with plenty of time to do some boating. We got on the boat and started to head out to the main channel. My dad realized that something was wrong with the boat. We headed back to the dock and found out that the fuel pump was bad. We spent the rest of the day on the dock trying to hunt down a new fuel pump. We couldn't find the part anywhere nearby. My dad and uncle Tate were such troopers and got up the next morning at four and drove to Vegas in hopes that they could find someone with the part there. They ended up finding the part and came back and had it installed. You would think that this would have put a big damper on all of the fun that we were looking forward to having, but I actually had a fun time hanging out with my family on the dock. I was introduced to Sudoku and am addicted to it now. I learned that my brother can regurgitate food (weird!). My kids had a great time because there were so many people who wanted to play with and hold them. We finally got out on the water on Saturday and had some time to play in the water. The water was so nice and warm. Will even liked swimming in it. I love Lake Powell so much and love spending time with my family. Everyone was so good to us and helped us out with our kids. It was a very pleasant little trip.

What a cute bod!

Waiting at the dock...the repair man is in the boat and we are almost done waiting. Yeah!

Once we got out on the water, this storm followed us.

My aunt Kellie gave up her sweatshirt so Will wouldn't get too cold. I didn't think I would need to pack warm clothes for Lake Powell.

These garbage bags kept us somewhat dry and warm. We had to tell Meg that they were called "Boat Coats" so she would even put one on. Even then, she wasn't too happy to be wearing one.

Meg loves being in the water. Dave let her "ski" as they barely dragged behind the boat and I rode the tube with her.

It finally warmed up and we had a great time. Will especially liked being in the boat.

The Miners Rock the House.

2008-08-26T07:43:00.005-06:00

This past Saturday, Dave and I went to my 10-year high school reunion. When we first heard about it I thought it could be a lot of fun. As it got closer and closer my friends started going back and forth about going or not. Everyone had so many good arguments as to why they didn't want to go, that I ended up not really wanting to go either. Unfortunately, I succumbed to peer pressure by Brittney and bought our tickets. I have to admit, it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I ended up just kind of talking to all of my friends that I see pretty often. It was nice to leave the kids (thanks Mom and Dad) and just go out with Dave. I'm not so sure that I will get suckered into going to the next one though. I feel like an old mom. I guess I am a mom, so that's okay.

Mamma Mia

2008-08-21T14:11:00.004-06:00

Monday, Dave had the day off and Meg was having special day with Maya (Grandma) so we decided to go to a movie. Will is such a good boy so we didn't think it would be a big deal. It was pretty cheesy and I don't really know the ABBA songs, but it was kind of cute. At one point I looked over my shoulder and I could see a girl singing her heart out, only to look at Dave to see him mouthing the words too. He says that he was just kidding, but I know better. Dave said that he felt like he had been invited to a sleepover that he really didn't want to be invited to. The funniest quote of the day came as we watched our little guy stare at the screen the whole two hours (he never once cried). It was so funny, but Dave became a little nervous and said, "If Will ends up being gay, I am going to attribute it to this movie."

Kids Say the Darndest Things!

2008-08-20T14:06:00.003-06:00

Sunday, I was quickly changing my shirt in a rush to get to church on time. Meg was sitting on my bed and I didn't realize that she was watching me, but she sure was. She got very excited and said, "I see boob, I see boob!" Then she pointed to me and said, "One boob, two boob." I honestly have no idea how she learned that. Now, she is always talking about boobs. When I have her on my lap to read to her, when I get her out of her carseat, etc. she always points them out to me. Weird!

Summer Playgroup

2008-08-19T13:29:00.007-06:00

Meg, Will and I have had such a fun summer. We organized a summer playgroup with a bunch of friends and had a great time visiting and exploring new places to play. We ended up buying a season pass to Classic Waterslides and have spent the last few weeks there. I actually had a season pass when I was a kid and going there brought back some good memories. Don't you just love the smell of Classic? It's kind of a mix between sweaty socks and stale popcorn or something...gross, I know. I could recognize that smell anywhere though. It's fun to see Meg interact with other kids. As we get ready to go play she names off all of her friends and cousins asking if they are going to be there ("See Ekky Jo Jo and Yacky?" That means see Nettie, Jo Jo and Zachy, her cousins). Once we get around everyone she turns into a lone wolf and just plays by herself. Sometimes I worry that she is going to be a loner when she gets older but everyone assures me that it's normal for kids to play by themselves.

Some of our favorite memories include going to Wheeler Farm with Emily and her kids and Meg was bitten by a duck. She kind of thought it was funny but then told my mom about it later, so it must have freaked her out a little. The fun 'Welcome Home' BBQ with Natalie's slip n' slide. Listening to Natalie scream as she went down the waterslide next to us. Stacy and I getting jammed into a corner at the Dinosaur Museum as I fed Will (what a crazy day). It's so neat to watch my kids become friends with my friend's kids.

(I know it's still summer, but I'm ready for fall. Can you tell?)

Meg Turns 2

2008-08-10T14:24:00.006-06:00

Today our sweet little girl turned two years old. We had a little pool party for her yesterday (Saturday) and had a great time. I have been prepping her for her big day for awhile now. Whenever I would sing Happy Birthday to her she would say, "No, Mommy birthday." She's so funny sometimes. We had a great day. We had cupcakes and ice cream, opened presents and then went swimming in our clubhouse pool. Meg was really excited to swim, especially with her Grandpa.

We love Meg so much and are so happy that we get to have her in our family. She has such a spunky little personality. She loves to sing and dance. Today, she started singing the hymns at church (her own words, of course) very loudly. She loves animals and has to carry some sort of animal with her at all times. She especially loves monkeys. She loves the tv show and movie, Curious George. I found some little underwear with Curious George on them and am hoping that they might get her interested in potty training (one can only hope). She is a very sweet girl and loves everyone. Her nursery teachers tell us that she hugs the other kids in class until they both topple over and then they laugh their heads off. If someone is crying she will pat their head and say, "No cry." She is a very nice big sister and loves her baby brother. She is very kind to him. She kicked him accidentally one day and made him cry. I told her to apologize to him and she wouldn't. I left the room and I could hear her say, "I sorry baby, I sorry." It was so cute. Meg loves apple juice, beans, tomato soup and fruit (especially mangoes and blueberries). She loves shoes and is constantly trying someone's shoes on (mine, Dave's, Will's, anyone whose shoes are off). She has pink snow boots that she insists on wearing. Dave hid them in our closet since it's summer and she found them and came out wearing them saying, "Look Daddy, boots.". She loves to swim and is getting to be very daring in the pool. She is so beautiful. Whenever we are out in public we get comments from strangers on how cute she is. I think it's because she looks people right in the eyes and smiles or says hi. She is such a joy to be around and makes our home such a happy place. We love our little Meggie Bug. Happy Birthday!!!

Meg loving her 'Baby brother' (he is rarely called Will).She is very protective of him. If someone is holding him that she isn't so sure about,she will cry and say "My baby!" until he is given back.

Gotta love snow boots in August.

Bean mustaches are the best!

Happy Anniversary!

2008-08-01T17:22:00.001-06:00

Yesterday, Dave and I celebrated our 5-year anniversary. Dave arranged a little party with some family and friends. We had a great time. He told me that entertainment would be provided but I could never get out of him what the entertainment was. He had made a little video and sang and played guitar to the song "Megan's mom has got it going on." It was so funny, sweet and thoughtful. Dave is such a wonderful husband. He is so interesting and smart. I tell him that he can be the one that learns things in our family and then he can just tell me what he has learned. He has such a unique sense of humor. He is such a wonderful dad to our two kids. I am definitely Will's favorite, but he is giving me a run for my money when it comes to Meg. All day, every day, she asks "Where'd daddy go?" She sometimes will even answer her own question and say "Work." but she is always thinking about him. Dave is such a hard worker and such a good provider for our family. He is very passionate about me being able to stay home with our kids and I am so grateful for that. I love you so much, Dave. I look forward to many more wonderful years to come. Happy Anniversary!

Alvord Look-alike Meter

2008-08-01T17:09:00.001-06:00

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph

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2008-07-31T15:04:00.001-06:00

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We Love San Diego

2008-07-31T08:34:00.005-06:00

Last month we took a trip to San Diego. I know it's a little late, but I wanted to document the fun time that we had. We flew in and went to the zoo the first day. It takes going to another zoo to realize how ghetto Hogle Zoo really is. Anyway, the zoo was awesome. Meg loved it! Our favorite things to see were the orangutans, gorillas and the hippos. In fact, Meg is now obsessed with hippos. I don't know if she even knew what they were until she saw them in real life. Will was so nice the entire trip. He slept a lot and ate and slept some more. The next day we went to Sea World. I remember going to Sea World when I was younger and loving it and it met my expectations. We had breakfast with Elmo and friends (which really only ended up being one friend: Telly). Meg really enjoyed watching Elmo and gave him a hug and five, but she was very leery about even getting by Telly. Weird. We went to the Shamu show, which I have to say was kind of inspirational (I know I'm cheezy). Meg was in awe watching Shamu. So, she is now also obsessed with Shamu. It was a long hot day, but really fun. The third day that we were there we went to Lego Land. Dave hated it there, but I thought it was kind of fun. It was really crowded, but Meg couldn't go on very many of the rides anyway, so it really wasn't a big deal for us. By this point, we were exhausted. We called it a day early and just went back to the hotel to swim and eat dinner. Day four came and we were ready to go home. It was Sunday and I always feel kind of weird just having fun and not going to church. We went to the beach and then to Balboa Park to look around (we were pretty much just waiting until it was time to go home). Our kids were really good on the plane. We borrowed my Dad's DVD player and "The Monkey Show" Curious George and Meg was glued to it the whole time. It was nice. It was kind of hard taking two babies on vacation, but I really think that it was worth it. In fact, Dave made a little movie with video on the trip and we have had to watch it at least once a day since we have been back. Meg calls it The Hippo Show and as soon as it is over says "Hippo show again." It's not a request either, more like a demand. I have to limit her to no more than twice a day. So, we have had many more hours of San Diego fun since we have been back. We had a great time being together as a family. I would love to go again.

Meg and Mom climbing the rope nets at Sea World.

Having fun in Lego Land

Beach Baby Will

She cannot take her eyes off of this hippo.

She looks a little scared, but really did like seeing Elmo.

I Love to See the Temple...

2008-07-30T13:44:00.003-06:00

My brother and his sweet fiance, Kara were married on Friday. It is so weird to think of your little brother as someone's husband. He still seems so young to me. We were able to go to the temple on Tuesday as Kara received her endowment. I always feel so happy and rejuvenated whenever I go to the temple. Friday morning they were sealed together. I haven't been to a wedding/sealing since I was married myself. I loved it!! Dave and I both felt the spirit so strong. What a wonderful blessing it is to be able to be sealed to your family. They had their reception that night and it was so beautiful. Meg was given the cutest little dress to wear. She loved the dress so much! When I put it on her she patted it (it was really poofy) and twirled around. She knew that she looked cute. She took about a half hour nap all day and was so crazy! She had her own little boquet and I would find it thrown on the ground as she ran the other way. I think she thought that all of the people at the reception were there for her. She really put on a show for them and loved having everyone look at her. I will say that she did look really cute though. Kara and Brian look so happy and I am so happy for them. They make a wonderful couple and I am so glad to have Kara as a sister-in-law. Welcome to the family!!!

Brian and Kara Higley

Meg was trying so hard to open the doors of the temple.

She kept knocking and finally told us "It's stuck. Open it."

Dave and Will at the reception.

Happy 4th!!!

2008-07-30T12:59:00.006-06:00

I know I am a little late posting this since July is almost over, but I actually remembered to take pictures of my kids and wanted to post them. We had a great 4th of July. Every year, my parent's neighborhood has a little parade for the kids. Meg has been in it the past two years. She is always mad when she goes by, so the pictures don't turn out very cute. Oh well. We swam in our little pool in our backyard and then went to my parent's house for a BBQ later. We had a great time. I was so prepared and brought my kids' pjs and bath stuff and thought I would have them all ready for bed so they would fall asleep on the way home from fireworks. I bathed Meg first and sent her outside for rootbeer floats and then took Will inside for his bath. I came out to find Meg soaking wet in her jammies. She had made her way away from the crowd and had decided to take a dip in the little pool in the yard. Dave and I both thought that the other person was watching her so she snuck away without anyone noticing. She came back around and announced "I swimming!" I was so mad that all of my hard work had gone to waste and she was all gross again (the dogs like to spend their time in the pool too). I am so glad that she didn't drown. After the fact, it's a funny story remember. She is so independent!

Meg, Will and my cousin Jack

Meg in the parade last year.

Meg in the parade this year. Still not so sure about it.

I finally did it!

2008-05-23T14:31:00.002-06:00

I have been getting invites to all of these really cute blogs and I just keep thinking that one day I will have some time to start one of my own. I'm not sure I really do have the time to make a really cute and up to date blog but both of my kids are asleep so I thought that I would give it a try. I don't know if I am just not computer savvy enough or what, but this thing is hard to set up. Maybe I will give my password to Nat and see if she can make mine cute. Hoe exciting to be entering the blogging world. Wish me luck!!