jed. jenny. addison. dalton

Addie's birthday and {family} birthday parties

2012-01-17T14:43:00.000-07:00

Saturday, we had a birthday party with all of my siblings and Addie's cousins. I decided to do it at my mom's, because there are a LOT of us now!

look-- our family DOES have a few girls :)

Addie's sand castle cake I made

Dalton and Skylee hanging out

Pirate swords and gold coins for the boy guests and a mermaid skirt for Taylor

(I didn't think the boys would want anything mermaid-related)

I brought the Ariel game from her friend party so the kids could play. I wasn't assuming adults would, but Chad and Jason did lol. Way to show up the kids, J.

Presents!

It took Addie about 2.4 seconds after opening a trunk of dress up dresses from grandma and grandpa to put them on. Along with matching lip gloss, of course.

pinata breaking, princess style ;)

and.....boy style

awesome.

Thanks Rees/Workman clan for partying with us! Addie loved it

Addison's 4th Birthday!!

She woke up to a room full of balloons on the floor, but randomly only noticed the one I had taped to her drawing board. Funny. She was excited to get a Flynn Rider doll to go with her Rapunzel doll

And REALLY excited when she opened her new Belle doll!!

I didn't snap a picture fast enough, but she totally gasped and stepped back...

and then jumped up and down....

I guess that was a good call on the singing, story telling Belle doll :)

She immediately changed into her Belle dress up dress and played with her all morning.

It was very cute.

I made her some princess pancakes for breakfast too :)

That evening, we had the Weller side of the family over to continue this 3 day long celebration of Addison

Dalton loves his Ashy

Addie giving Jed a kiss before blowing out her candles, Awww

Tristan was excited about his cupcake (shhh, they were two days old)

I made pizookies for the adults and the kids had cupcakes and ice cream cones

I tried to b&w this hoping it'd be cuter. Still not a great picture, but oh well.

Can't blame a birthday girl for not parting with an ice cream cone for a picture.

Poor Dalton wasn't a happy little dude. Found out the next day he had an ear infection :(

More presents....this girl got spoiled!

Great grandma Margaret gave Addie and her bitty baby matching robes and Grammy Dawn and Papa Steve gave her some matching jammies along with some other dolls. She loves them.

Happy Birthday, Addison!! I can't believe she's 4. She's not a baby or even a toddler anymore. She's, well, a kid. She's independent, smart as a whip and full of life! I can't even let my mind think about next year because as she reminds me ALL the time, "when I turn 5 I go to big school!"

So I'll keep her close for one more year...I sure love my little girl.

Addie's {friend} Ariel Party!

2012-01-17T13:57:00.000-07:00

Addie has been talking about the Ariel party she's was going to have since about 48 hours after LAST year's birthday party. I don't know why Ariel exactly, all I know is that is what she wanted and what she knew was going to happen lol. Kids are so funny and random and specific sometimes.

So Ariel it was! We had a blast planning and creating an Under the Sea themed party (well parties!)

Since most of her cousins are boys, we do a girly friend party with a few of her favorite friends.

This way, we still get to party super girly style! :)

When we say girly style, we mean mermaid style. In this case, each girl got her own mermaid skirt and clam hair clip to party in and then take home. I think it made it extra fun for the girls and they were pretty simple to make too. Addie was thrilled about being a mermaid, though I didn't make shells for her aka "boobs things" like she had requested. Hearing her call them boob things just made it too weird.

The party guests

They played pin the crown on Ariel

Then we had a picnic under the sea and ate yummy treats

This is what they were sitting underneath

Some of the under the sea esque treats consumed

I was in love with the clams :) and hello, super easy!

Dipped marshmallows and oreos were also a hit (well we won't discuss how many oreos I ate)

I also loved the star fish rice krispie treats! I swear, these treats were all the easiest and quickest I've done for a party in awhile, but candy eyes make anything cute!

and cupcakes of course!

I didn't do a big cake til the next day/party

I still can't believe my baby girl had 4 candles on that cupcake....sigh.

The girls all took the party over from there...

they helped Addie open her presents, then they all went up and played in her room for a solid hour! It was awesome. They played without any incidents or fighting. At one point when I went up there to make sure they were all indeed still breathing, I came across this scene: Lucy sitting on a stool coloring on Addie's chalkboard, while Kallie brushed and curled Lucy's hair. Maggie was vacuuming with Addie's play vacuum saying she was cleaning up the mess and Addie and Eden were playing house with a stuffed monkey.

AWE.SOME. you go girls. They all had a fun time it seemed and Addie couldn't have been happier!

Here's a shot of Dalton among the pre-party set up. He thought the sea of balloons was pretty funny. Thanks Ash, once again, for always co-chairing my party planning committee with me! We had as much fun prepping for the party as we did attending it. We kept things pretty simple, but I was really happy with the way it turned out. Don't worry, we had two other parties as well. Gotta get the families in there too!

Stay tuned.

Christmas Day 2011

2012-01-10T17:31:00.000-07:00

Jed and I set out all the presents, got a breakfast casserole prepared and in the fridge and everything set out for the next morning by midnight. I'd expected to be up much later since we weren't home til 10. Just as we crawled our tired selves into bed, Dalton woke up. Yup. So from 12:30- about 2am ish he played downstairs with Jed. He even played with the new toy of his that wasn't wrapped. Lol, well good to know he approved of it! Needless to say, we didn't end up getting much sleep. We had 9am church though, so we couldn't let the kids sleep in, even if they'd wanted to....such is life with kids. Totally worth it, because kids+Christmas= Awesome.

We Santa left Addie a note the night before saying thanks for the cake pop. He added a marshmallow to her good girl marshmallow jar too ;) Yes, Santa got a cake pop in our house.

Santa delivered too. He brought Addie the Tangled Barbie she wanted :)

Can you tell she was excited?

She even sings! (which is a lot louder at home than in Target btw)

Dalton playing with his music table (again lol)

Addie wanted to wear her new dress that matched her doll to church.

After church, we had some family over for some brunch. I love brunch. Although I was a little sad that the scrumptious Argentine pastries we got the day before weren't nearly as fabulous a day old. I knew I should have just shoved one of the dulce de leche ones in my mouth the day before...

Bryan and London came up too.

She's sweet. I like her.

Grandpa Rees and Dalton, sportin' his new church outfit.

We went to Great Grammy Lynette's house and the kids opened more presents.

Dang, they're spoiled!

Dalton likes Addie's new guitar too. They both love this toy, it's awesome.

They're now in a band. He plays on his music table and she plays the guitar and they dance. Pretty fantastic.

We stopped by grandma and grandpa Rees's house too.

He was so tired at this point, but still hamming it up for the camera.

Pretty little Skylee.

I sure love these two. They made Christmas what it's all about for me.

Just as I settled on the couch to chill with Jed after the kids were in bed, the doorbell rang. Um, weird it's 9:30....Santa sent a helper to drop off one more gift for me!

Holy awesome!!

The next day, we went to visit my grandparents who live in a rest home in Sandy.

The were very excited to see us.

My grandpa LOVES babies, so he was in heaven! Love those two!

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

2012-01-10T16:49:00.000-07:00

Christmas Eve is hands down one of my favorite days of the entire year! Kids are full of excitement, there's great food, and a house full of family. It's what the whole Christmas season is all about. Jed and Dalton went out for a few hours earlier in the day to do the traditional Weller men shopping/people watching thing. While they were gone, Addie watched "The Grinch" and I made a Red Velvet Cheesecake. Then we all went up to Grammy Dawn and Papa Steve's house to party.

Shortly after arriving, Jed's cousin Brian and his wife Kelsey showed up. We weren't expecting them so it was fun to see them for a few minutes before they had to leave. When the went to leave he asked Jed's aunt Tami if there's anything she would want from Santa. We all SCREAMED when he opened the front door and saw Jenny, Jerry and their girls Mia and Bri from Texas on the porch! It was seriously such an awesome surprise. Tami fell to her knees and cried. Good job, Jen. Way to seriously bring it in the epic Christmas surprise department!

Baby Bri...she's so dang sweet. Plus, she's got awesome hair. It must be a Weller thing.

Addie was excited to see Bri and Mia too

Another girl to play with!! Addie has almost all boy cousins, so these two had a lot of fun :)

We were all pretty much this happy all evening

Doesn't Dalton look thrilled to be stuck between these two?

Addie sampling the dessert

"Addie, Tristan, look here and smile!" or....do that?

Dalton boy

Time for jammies and presents!

Addie helping Dalton opening his since he had no idea what was going on.

Oh, wait. This is for me?!

Yup buddy, and so is that pirate ship behind you.

Ta-da! Addie was so excited about the dress she got from Grammy she stripped down right there and tried it on! Then she realized what came with it!

An American Girl bitty baby doll! She had a matching Christmas dress and some other outfits as well as a stroller...can you spell spoiled? :) I prefer the term well loved.

Baby in a gift bag! Never gets old...

Nor does playing in boxes.

It was such a fun night. We went home and tucked our sleeping ones into bed and set up for Christmas morning. I love it. It makes my heart all sorts of happy.

Christmas week 2011

2012-01-10T16:06:00.000-07:00

I told myself I'd blog Christmas before Addie's birthday came so that I wouldn't have ALL of it to do at once. Well, that was a nice thought. Then strep hit me and hit me hard...the day after Christmas. Seriously. Have I mentioned that I'm moving somewhere warm where we can play outside, free of quarantining? Well southern friends, look out. One day soon you may get a knock on your door...

On to Christmas! We had a great holiday weekend. The weekend before we missed out on my family's party and unfortunately we never did get to see all of my siblings or any of my step siblings on or around Christmas. We did get to party with the Weller clan on Christmas Eve and see my mom and Danny and two of my brothers on Christmas. Hey, with all the illnesses we'd had, I was just happy we were healthy for those few days so we could enjoy it! I have a LOT of pictures. I decided to break it down into two posts because we squeezed a LOT into a few days since we'd been sick beforehand. So here's the week of Christmas breakdown.

Addie's Dance "Program"

I say "program" because it was just a 10 minute gig at the end of her regular dance class. The teacher lets the parents come and see what the girls have been working on since we can't watch her during class. After watching their awesomeness, I'm pretty stoked for the recital at the end of the year :)

The did a cat dance. Addie had already done most of it for me at home, but it was fun to see her with her little dance peeps. Addie was nervous right before they started their dance because a clown came in. Uh, I would be too! She gave them presents after and balloon animals, so all was well.

(Also, don't get me started on what some people dress their preschoolers in for dance.)

Pretty fantastic, no? Lol yes that's me giggling to myself.

Preschool Christmas Musical

Addie played a reindeer :)

Addie and BFF Lucy in the reindeer outfits waiting to start the show!

I totally rock and hot glued Velcro to extra fur fabric from Dalton's Chewbacca costume and made skirts. Totally necessary right? If you want to hire my fine craftsmanship skills, I can be paid in baked goods and diet coke and I will bring my own glue gun ;)

The boys watching the show. They're pretty dang handsome I think.

Surprise! Santa came!!

After the program was over, my dad came over to visit and give presents since we weren't able to go to the party at his house the week before.

It's kind of fun for Addie to get presents for pretty much three weeks straight though!

We also stopped into Farr's Fresh for some rockin' ice cream.

Eggnog soft serve ice cream with caramel sauce and cheesecakes bites, you complete me.

Blast, holidays are over so no more excuses for that deliciousness...

Addie thought it was hilarious when I tried her antlers on Dalton, so she took a picture. In fact, I just deleted about 100 photos off of the laptop after I downloaded them that she's taken in the past month. Sorry kid, I only need so many pictures of word world on the TV or blurry up close pictures of my face or Dalton's.

Christmas Village

On the 23rd we didn't have plans, and we hadn't been to Temple square or anything this year so we decided to head to the Ogden Christmas Village.

We convinced our friends, the Hills, to join us. Addie and Lucy look like twins here.

It was COLD. I was hoping to find a night that was over 30 degrees, but alas, we just bundled up and drank some cocoa and partied on.

I think we've got a little family picture in front of this each year since Addie was born. Guess it'll be our tradition! Since I'm unable to ever remember to get a family picture ON Christmas, it's close enough.

They even rode the little train, and loved it! Then we convinced them to walk down to La Ferrovia for some nice warm Italian food to end the evening.

When we got home, Dalton decided to attempt climbing into the dishwasher.

He was successful. (I have a WHOLE lot of Dalton that I need to post, but that's another post and another day. Dang, I love that boy)

Also, here's a random shot of the bench that we made for Grammy Dawn for her birthday. We (meaning our friend Jordan) painted it. Then we put the grandkids hand prints on it. I think it won't be long before that bench is covered with tiny grandbaby hands!

Okay, so that brings us to Christmas Eve!! To be continued....

Pre-Christmas Catch-up

2011-12-21T05:31:00.001-07:00

It occurred to me as I laid wide awake after feeding Dalton a 3:30am bottle....uh Christmas is in like 5 days and I haven't updated my blog, other than family pictures since Halloweenish. Then I started making a to-do list in my brain of other things I need to do before Christmas this week, and well here I am an hour later blogging because I can't sleep. Maybe that's because Dalton slept without waking up from 9:30-3:30 and my sleep deprived body has no idea what it's like to sleep for more than 2 consecutive hours so now it thinks I should be good to go with 4 hours? Either way, I'm now rambling. This is what I feared would happen if I blogged at this hour.

I'll give you a little wrap up of what our November was like. First off, let me just say that December can be summed up with one word that I have learned to loathe about winter time with kids: SICK. Addie woke up in the night with a sore throat on December 5th...and since then every one of us has been sick in at LEAST one form. She finally is over her cold, and Dalton is too. Unfortunately, the cough from that cold brought Dalton's reflux back with a vengeance and he had a very miserable few days last week. He's back on his meds for that and doing better (and thankfully sleeping more than 30 mins at a time!) Jed and I both had a stomach bug last week and Jed's recovering from Pink Eye right now (seriously, right??) and we've both now got colds. Here's hoping for a healthy Christmas! Onward and upward....and on to this post. Okay, here's November:

Disney on Ice

My mom and I have decided that this is now a yearly tradition with Addie. This year was even better than last year because there were more princesses, including Rapunzel :)

Thanksgiving

Addie took this picture of me, so yes it's a bit blurry :)

That's me with my contribution to Thanksgiving which included making 80 orange rolls. I decided that Gramp's famous orange rolls needed to continue on after he passed away, so I obtained the recipe and set forth to master them. We all missed having him at Thanksgiving this year a lot, but at least a little piece of him was there. I also made some pies the night before, because it was Thanksgiving and that's what I do.

Dawn always sets everything up so pretty and nice for family dinners...even when it's for 30+ people!

Ashley made cute place holders for each person's place setting too.

My Chocolate Truffle pie (okay, well it's Paula Dean's but I made it)

Ash's Dulce de leche Apple pie, yum!

The best banana pie ever (in my opinion) Banana pie with Vanilla bean custard

Jed's brother deemed it the best pie he's ever had. Good enough for me!

Dalton is getting too big....more on that another post (ps, he's crawling all over, pulling himself up and climbed a flight of stairs the other night!)

Getting Christmas set up and being jolly....or whatever

(what's with my blurry pictures??) Addie and her little tree

So, I have to preface this part with what November at my house is like. Jed's company puts up Christmas lights for several homes each year, which means he's generally gone from Halloween until Thanksgiving almost every evening and Saturday. This is always kind of rough for me, but this year he was already extra busy at work, extra busy with Plutonium jobs, oh and I had an extra kid :)

Needless to say, it was just plain extra rough on all of us. He was gone 12-18 hours everyday of the week except Sunday and he was obviously exhausted by the end of it. I'm sure it's much harder for him, since he's the one being worked to death, while I'm in a warm house baking and what not. Still, it's hard on me and the kids. An example of how busy he was: we literally took the family pictures from my previous post in 20 minutes after I picked him up for his lunch from work, then took him back. Yep, it was like that in November! He's still super busy, which I can't complain about since his long work hours mean that I get to stay home and play with my kids for a living. BUT, by the time the weekend after Thanksgiving arrived, I think we had both had enough and probably should have just sat on the couch in jammies all day after church and taken naps. Instead, we decided to set up the tree and put up Christmas stuff.

This is a cute little picture....I'm glad that it looks like the whole Christmas set up part was full of laughter and happiness and joy because it so wasn't. I was tired and grumpy, Addie was pushing everyone's buttons and Jed was so tired he could hardly muster the energy to set the tree up. I think next year we should just wait a week :) Oh well, that's life right? You build something up in your head to be all magical and perfect and at the end of it you think I should have just done that myself when everyone was asleep and saved the trouble. Does that sound awful? Sorry. That's just the kind of day it was.

In any case, Here's the tree all set up and decorated!

I redid the tree with some cheap, non-breakable colored ornaments since I have a crawler around these days. I decided I wanted to add something fun, so I made some cupcake ornaments. It's fun and cute and kid-friendly so I haven't worried too much when I see the tree shaking from Dalton pulling on strands of lights he can reach :)

Some random...

I watched SkyleeiPad...and yes, Addie took this picture too lol.

Pretty sure this is the source of our initial illness this month....Kangaroo Zoo. We went for a field trip, and Addie LOVED it.

As much as Dalton loves pickles

This boy won't eat rice puffs or yogurt melts to save his own life, but he decided aunt Teri's pickle was delicious. He seriously chewed on that thing, and then a couple more all during lunch. He still doesn't have teeth....maybe this is the teether of the future. Give your kids a pickle slice.

Friendsgiving

Jed and I hosted a "friendsgiving" dinner for my baking clubs friends and their spouses. It was so much fun and so delicious! It was also sans kids, which made it very nice. We were able to squeeze 10 place settings at my table that really seats 8.

Becky made this pretty Red Velvet Cheesecake....I can't wait to attempt this for Christmas Eve!

The crew, except for me taking the picture and Jed grilling up skirt steak

Mmmm...food, and talking....and more food and more talking and laughing. My favorite things!!

Since this WAS my foodie friends, we had two desserts :)

Doesn't that Cheesecake look pretty? I also made a truffle pie

My not-so-great attempt at taking pictures of my kids in front of our tree

Addie never smiles great for me, what do you do? Somehow 90% of the pictures I took came out totally blurry, so this was the best I got. I think I'm the last mommy blogger on the planet still using a point and shoot camera, or heck half the time my phone!

Not perfect, but it'll do I suppose....

Oh I like him.

For decent photos it helps to have a really good camera, a person like my aunt taking them and a backdrop haha....and four kids who are pretty dang cute! Even then, this was the best we got! Getting ONE good picture of four kids took about 50, but it'll do! We took it for Grammy Dawn for her birthday. She loves her grandbabies so she loved it regardless of perfection.

Tristan, Dalton, Addie and Emmett

That about wraps up the goings on here. Unfortunately with all the sickness we've had to miss out on a few Christmas plans and play dates, but we hope to make up for it this weekend and enjoy Christmas with lots of family and loved ones. I wish you all a very Merry Christmas!

and now I will attempt to squeeze in a couple more hours of sleep...

I'm thankful for these people....

2011-11-23T22:21:00.000-07:00

Thanksgiving is tomorrow and I have so many things to be thankful for. I could attempt to list them all, but I don't think anyone would want to read a list that long. When I have had trials and difficult times, I have thanked my Heavenly Father for my many blessings and tried to name them all. Often I find that it makes whatever impossible trial is at hand a little smaller and less important. What's most important? My faith and my family. Everything else is just filler.

These people make my life complete.

That about sums it up. I LOVE my family.

Halloween Parties (I forgot to post this, whoops)

2011-11-23T21:58:00.000-07:00

I remember a time when Jed and I would converse about Halloween and costumes and always say, "well do we really have a reason to dress up? Are we even doing anything on Halloween?"...Ha, this was before kids

Now we have parties and functions galore all month! It's a lot of fun, plus it made me feel like the effort I put into making costumes was well worth it. So here are a few parties we attended this year...

Primary Party

Our ward didn't do a whole ward party, just a primary carnival type gig. It was pretty short and chill, but Addie seemed to have fun with her friends.

Party at Grandma and Grandpa Rees's

Bumble Bee London (I made her bee tutu and headband) Isn't she cute?

Couple lady bugs and a bee :)

The cupcake walk was kind of a fail, but the kids didn't know, so it's all good!

The whole crew....this picture grows every year, love it!!

Weller Party

Tristan the pirate

attempting/failing once again to take a photo of all four kids....

and some of the other peeps

Whit and Chris as 80s, Ash and Ian were a devil and angel and Kacey and I made her cute ghost tutu costume (like how most "sewing" I do is just tutus? lol)

Preschool Party

I helped out with Addie's preschool party....it was mass hysteria but fun!

This was the craft I helped with...needless to say, my hands were blackish for a couple of days

Finished up our Halloween with some trick or treating with daddy....

Hope you all had some fun times too!

October (sans Halloween/Parties)

2011-11-09T16:55:00.000-07:00

October was a busy month! It seems each month every year gets busier and busier. Since our families are continually growing and Addie goes to preschool, we are always going somewhere or doing something for the next upcoming holiday or event. This month was quite eventful and I totally slacked on blogging, so I'm breaking it up into this post and another of just Halloween-related fun. Sorry, I'm aware I've got a ton of photos....this is nothin', I had over 300 on my camera...

October Birthday bashin'

We got together at Jason's house to celebrate my dad's, Emily's,Tammie's and my birthday.

We went for a walk in the sunshine, but Addie pretended it was raining.

Feeding the ducks :)

Addie protecting London from the pretend rain...

My 29th (what the what?!) Birthday

It was spent with these two cuties...this was in some terrible lighting at Farr's Fresh but we didn't go for the lighting, Addie said we had to go since it was my birthday and all ;) Grammy Rees came too!

We went to dinner with Jed's parents and came back to our house where Jed made us all chocolate souffle

It was SO good...especially since I've been dieting this month (more on that madness another time)

It feels very strange to know that I'll be 30 next year. I don't feel remotely that old. I know that's what everyone who's that old says....but it's true! I totally think I'm 26 lol. Ah well....here's to one more year in my twenties! My goal is to be under my weight from last summer before I hit 30!!

A Sunday walk in the leaves....

Seriously....I need a better camera because mine doesn't do those eyes justice :)

Me and my girl

(yes that's an Easter basket that she used to collect leaves)

Jed and his mini me. Seriously, could they look more alike?

All of Addie's pretty leaves.....

That's also the last time that we visited Gramp as a family before he died. Thankfully he was pretty up and happy that day and able to talk pretty well. We love him and miss him a lot already.

Preschool Fun

Addie and I decorated a pumpkin for her "homework". It was a part of the Syracuse Pumpkin Walk, which unfortunately we couldn't attend because it got SOOO cold that week and Dalton was/still is sick.

She was quite pleased with her pink pumpkin! Mommy owns a can of spray paint, booyah.

Field Trip to Black Island Farms

We prepared for cold....but not enough. I felt like we should have been seeing Christmas lights. Seriously. My fingers were numb and ears were in pain they were so cold....So glad I bought Dalton a hat the day before that. Bless you Target for my shopping weakness in your premises.

Did I mention it was WINDY?? Uh, yes it was.

The best shot I could get on a bumpy freezing trailer....

This dude talked waaaay too long about stuff kids could care less about....come on dude, wrap it up!

After a stop at their pumpkin patch, Addie finally (an hour after it began) got to go down the slides that was the only part she cared about. Weee.....now let's get outa here! :)
I'd like to go back next year early in the month, you know when it's 60 not 30 degrees.

I hosted baking club this month too...

Union Grill's recipe for Caramel Bread Pudding. Turned out divine.

Playing with London

Addie adores London! She likes to pretend she's her big sister. I'm okay with it.

She sings her songs and it's pretty dang cute.

Dalton thought she was interesting too. Every time I'd lay her on the ground, he'd army crawl over there to see her....I think he wanted to eat her though.

He's also quite motivated to crawl for iPads....even across my dining room table.

Costume- Making

I completed the costumes a couple of weeks before Halloween. Good thing, because our ward's primary party was the next day! Addie was happy with her ladybug costume, so I was too :)

I may be biased, but I don't think a baby Chewbacca gets any cuter than this....

I've got a whole bunch more pictures of parties and Halloween...that will have to wait til later!

Our Gramp

2011-10-30T22:10:00.000-06:00

Our family lost a great man today. Jed's grandpa Darrell, or Gramp as we all call him passed away. We will miss him dearly. He was such a wonderful father, grandfather and great grandfather. Not many kids get to have a close relationship with their great grandparents, but Addison has spent a lot of time with Gram and Gramp since she was a baby and Gramp loved her and each of his great grandbabies to pieces. He was always so excited with the arrival of a new baby and was usually one of their first visitors :)

I was welcomed into Jed's family not only with welcome arms, but arms that felt like I was already a part of. Gramp isn't just a grandpa to Jed, I feel like he's always been mine too. 9 years of adulthood is definitely long enough to have a person become an important part of your life. We had many visits, parties and holidays with Gramp and each one is filled with memories of laughter and happiness. I'm so grateful for the amazing family that I married into and the opportunity I've had to be a part of Gramp's life.

It's been difficult to explain his death to Addison. She's had a lot of questions and I know that she'll miss him a lot. I'm glad she was able to see him one last time yesterday and give him a love. His grandkids and great grandkids were always a bright spot in his day. He was able to live to see every one of his grandkids married in the temple. Two of them were just a few months ago. Over the past few years he's always said he needed to live for certain things, such as babies being born, missionaries coming home, or weddings. I think he finally felt like he could let go and we're grateful that he's not in pain anymore and he's with his daughter again. He will be missed by many, but the memory of him will remain in our hearts always.

Septembre

2011-10-02T22:58:00.000-06:00

So apparently September came and went without me taking the time to blog about what we've really been up too. I have a lot of pictures, but not a lot of time and energy at the moment, so here's what you get.

September was a month of:

Starting Preschool

Excitement for starting dance classes

Multiple beach and boating excursions

Finding the one day this month it wasn't clear and hot....when at the beach

(got pounded by rain as we loaded the boat up out of the lake)

Fair attending

and fried oreos eating....

(I gave these a meh, could have been better)

Hair chopping

Duo shopping cart riding

Double drink sipping

Birthday party attending

6 month checking up

(18 lbs 13 oz of cuteness)

Duck feeding....and running away from

Aerospace Museum wandering (aka chasing Tristan)

Bathtub exercising

Peaches being turned into a variety of deliciousness

attempting to crawl

and finally...

Ending with an absolutely gorgeous day!

I can't believe it's already October! I love this month. It's already off to a great start. Conference weekend is always so nice. We have a lot of fun planned this month. I'm trying to focus on that and not think about baking ha ha. I'm starting a diet/weight loss program tomorrow, so my posts may be free of baked goods for awhile, sorry! ;)

Here's a peak at what October has already brought....baby London loves!

6 months of Dalton

2011-09-23T16:35:00.000-06:00

I can't believe that 6 months have gone by since the day our sweet boy was born. He has been an absolute joy and we love him to pieces! Here's a recap of the past 6 months....okay, well just in pictures :)

1 minute old

1 hour

1 Day

1 week

1 month

2 months

3 months

4 months

5 months

6 months

We sure love this lil punkin!

I'm crazy about this boy of mine. Who wouldn't be though, really? He's sweet and happy and fills our home with love and laughter. Addie adores him and I love watching him giggle at her. He's on the move these days! He's soooo close to crawling and rolls all over the place. He wants to be big, but I'm not quite ready for that yet. Today, he played at the park with Addie and even went on the swings :)

This pretty much sums up his attitude towards life.

Dear 2007 Jenny, you have no idea....

2011-09-07T21:44:00.001-06:00

Dear 2007 Jenny,

You have no idea who you'll have turned into 3.5 years from now. You're going to look around you and think, holy smokes, did I just puree fruit for baby food, jam and fruit leather and then sew a hole in my kid's leggings?? Who AM I?! while this may come as a shock to you, you have in fact earned your title as a SAHM. What's that 2007 Jenny? You don't even know what SAHM stands for? That's okay dear, you don't figure that out until 2009 :)

You know how right now you get up, get ready and go to work...like by 9am? Well, don't panic when I tell you this: you will only ever have hair and makeup done by 9am if you are either a) attending an early morning wedding b)going to church or c)I can't really think of another reason. Oh, and those reasons won't make it any easier to do so, just insure that it happens.

In your current life you rarely cook dinner. If Jed doesn't cook that usually means you're going out or you'll order pizza or make one of the 4 things you know how to make that isn't a baked good. This will change, but you'll find you actually enjoy cooking. Well, when the kids aren't making it nearly impossible.

It probably doesn't occur to you in you double-income-no-children lifestyle that you can in fact make things rather than buying everything. You know that onesie you purchased in Austin for upcoming baby? The one that cost $26? 2011 you would buy a $2 onesie, then sew tulle and ribbon onto it instead. Yep, you'll be frugal like that, and even pretty crafty. Did I mention you'll sew stuff? Yes indeed...like a whole baby's room full if stuff. Crazy, right?

The weirdest part about becoming a domestic housewife and mom is that you'll become more comfortable as that person than you are right now. You'll look back at 2007 and think of how long ago that seems. You'll wonder what on earth you did with all your spare time. It's gonna be a weird day, just a heads up. All weirdness side, you will love your life full of play dates, groceries, and baby giggles.

Much love,

2011 Jenny

PS please go take a nap on my behalf

What my kids love/why I love my kids

2011-08-30T22:42:00.000-06:00

Addison Loves.....

to help me bake. While wearing cute aprons. She especially loves licking the bowel or spoon.

I love that she has something that she enjoys doing with me. I also love that she enables me to bake :)

Twirling

If there's music, she's twirling and dancing. Yes, even in the middle of Hobby Lobby. She starts dance classes this fall. Pretty sure she's going to love it.

I love that she can just be in her own little girl world no matter where we are and not care who's watching.

Putting on random items of clothing...

like pajamas paired with my snow boots and her mittens that are way too small. It IS August, but I guess she missed that memo that it's 97 degrees out. Whatever, she works it out ;)

I love that when she puts something of mine on she says, "Look, I'm mommy!" then laughs hysterically

Eating ice cream. Especially in the company of her Daddy.

Hello Farr's....do you think that's a titch big for a single scoop? Ah well.

I love that something simple like and ice cream cone is a whole adventure that makes her day.

Pretending to sleep in random places

Like her brothers baby tub in my living room....

Or in the middle of Hobby Lobby (do I go there too often? nah.)

I love that she will sometimes let me pretend too and let me lay on the couch as she covers me with blankets. Ahhh...if only it lasted more than a couple of minutes ;)

Playing on the beach

This may be her all time favorite activity...who can blame her. It's beautiful, not another person in site, cheetos and capri suns are around, and her papa who will pull her on the tube behind the boat. Lucky girl.

I absolutely love spending this kind of time with her. Away from everything, just soaking up the sun, breathing fresh air and watching her play. It's the best I tell you, the best.

Playing silly games with her brother

Like "this is our tent mom. We are camping and I'm asleep" She's under than purple blanket lol. Look at Dalton. What a freaking sweet happy baby. He just rolls with it and giggles at her.

I LOVE that they already "play" together.

Dalton loves....

Being almost too pretty to be a boy ;)

Okay, well that's a lie. He could care less. I love it though. He's handsome :)

Eating! Real food!

We started rice cereal last week. He embraced it as well as I'd assumed he would. He watches me whenever I put something in my mouth and licks his lips like he wants it. It's so cute. It makes me want to share, but I don't since he doesn't even have teeth yet.

I love that he loves food as much as I do. That's my boy!

We tried squash yesterday. Win. He's a fan.

I'm a fan of making baby food. It couldn't be easier. Awesome.

Dressing in random cute onesies

Okay, well again I think just I love this. He tolerates it though :)

Swimming at Grammy's house

Nice warm water and some shade make it the perfect spot for him to kick his little feet and relax in the pool.

I love that he is good in the water. We're a water family and Addie is a serious fan of anything to do with water. Get used to it kid, this family swims and boats until it's too cold outside to do so!

I should mention he's rolling ALL over the place and totally trying to crawl! Ah! Stop growing, baby boy....

Addie and Dalton LOVE....

Each other!!

I LOVE that they love each other!

Nothing makes my heart happier than watching Dalton squeal and giggle as Addie sings him a song, plays with him or gives him loves. Then other day, she was playing hide n seek with him. He stayed in his jumper then entire time. She would leave and count and come back and find him. SO random. But hey, they both laughed and thought it was great. These two are my favorites.

One last thing before I end this love-filled post. We celebrated my mom's birthday Sunday. Go me. Look, I took HER picture instead of one of the cupcakes I made! Unprecedented ;)

Happy Birthday, Mom!

To not disappoint and shock anyone, here's a picture of cupcakes from last week. Drool on.

Hope you're all enjoying the end of Summer.....we are!

London Elizabeth

2011-08-30T21:50:00.001-06:00

August 15th I got to welcome my newest sweet niece into the world :)

London Elizabeth Workman

6 lbs 11 oz 19 inches long

and so pretty

I got to sneak in with Bryan and do the "daddy" part. Um, that rocks BTW. Us moms are totally missing out hangin out in our rooms while the dads get to bathe a brand new, straight from Heaven newborn. LOVE

All pretty and clean and ready for cuddles

Proud mom and dad couldn't look take their eyes off of her for longer than one picture ;) who can blame them? She's a love little bundle, that baby girl.

Cousins London and Skylee

Up till this point Skylee always has looked so little (compared to Dalton) She looks big now!

Congrats, Bryan and Whitney! Love that sweet little one already!

August rush....

2011-08-16T14:38:00.000-06:00

Summer is almost over, but we're not slowing down yet! It seems like August hasn't been any less busy than July. Who thought that would be possible? We're squeezing in all of our summer activities and outside fun while it's still warm (or HOT) out. I'm honestly getting a little bit burned out the past week or so of Summer. Mostly, it's just because it's exhausting, and really hot. I have to soak it all up though, because before we know it the snow will fly again and we'll all be quarantined indoors surviving cold and flu season...bleck. On that depressing note, here's what our August has consisted of so far....how is it possible this was all in two weeks' time?

Birthday Celebrating.....but I only took one picture: my Banana pie with Vanilla Bean custard filling

In my defense, Jed couldn't make it to the party, so I had my hands more full than usual.

I know, we all know that I would have taken that photo regardless...if you could taste the pie via the interenets you'd understand.

Weller/Keller Wedding

It's just too fun to say Kelsey Keller Weller....that's the bride of Jed's cousin, Brian. I didn't get a good enough picture of them to post, but she looked gorgeous and it was a great day!

The Logan Temple is so pretty....

Addie loves Tristan

Jed's aunt Tami, cousin Jenny and her cute daughter Mia

They had their luncheon at Cafe Sabor, which was delicious. I'm always up for fajitas, fruity frozen drinks and decadent chocolate cake. My children even behaved rather well. Awesome

We had a few hours to kill between the luncheon and reception, but didn't want to make the drive twice, so we went to the Willow Park Zoo and playground. It was HOT, but thankfully there was a lot of shady places to sit and for Dalton to roll around. Speaking of, look at these eyes....

No wonder I'm madly in love with this boy.

Oh, and look at those chubby legs!

I have to seriously force myself to not eat those rolls every day. He was so good that day. Gosh, what a sweetie. It was a 13-hour day and he was content and sweet and good.

The reception was at the American Heritage Center in Wellsville. What a fun place. Addie loved that we got to ride in a "carriage" pulled by horses back to the place it was held.....she also loved this aspect:

Super cute candy station. Lexi, Kelsey's little sister filled like 3 bags of candy for Addie before the night was over. We also enjoyed some Coldstone ice cream. Good job guys; your reception was a kid's dream (who am I kidding, I was loving it too! Four words, Salted caramel ice cream)

Addie and Mia danced the night away

Ah, Wellsville is pretty isn't it?

The next morning, I helped my mom throw Whitney a baby shower.

Once again, I took a picture of the treat I made and then didn't pick my camera back up.

In my defense...um, I was talking a lot?

Stay tuned though, because I have better pictures than a baby shower...the actual baby!

London arrived last night and I've got a whole bunch of cuteness waiting to be blogged.

Lagoon!

We had a last minute Lagoon day last week when my friend scored some seriously discounted tickets.

Addie loved it! It was HOT (have I typed that like 5 times now?) We had a blast though. Ash and Ian live like 10 minutes away and they met up with us and played and helped with the kids. Addie's favorite ride was the "roller coaster" aka puff. Brave kid. I was a whimp when I was little and wouldn't go near it. Don't worry, I overcame my fear and went with her ;)

Dalton, was once again, a trooper. He decided to take a little cat nap on the train. Jealous.

Addie and Ian on Odyssey. Cool ride. LONG line.

Later that night (yes the same day) I hosted our annual SYTYCD Finale party.

I borrowed my mom and Danny's basement and giant TV. We kinda watched, but mostly talked, ate, talked, ate more then talked more.

Bless Danny's heart lol....he joked that he could hear Megan from down the street.....

Some full moonlit boating

There are no words. It's perfection.

Emmett turned 1! I can't believe it's been a year since our cute nephew was born.

Isn't he adorable?!

Happy Birthday, Emmett!

That about wraps up the past two weeks! Goodness, I'm kind of tired just reliving it :) One more thing and then I'll end this post before it gets even longer. Addie steals my camera daily and takes pictures with it. Here's what she took this morning while I was upstairs....

Impressive, no? Lol, she's funny. I literally deleted 29 photos off my camera last week that she took.

9th Anniversary weekend...aka Food-cation 2011

2011-08-03T14:17:00.001-06:00

**warning: this post contains graphic photos of amazing food.

if you are currently dieting, you may want to avert your eyes and skip this post**

Jed and I celebrated our 9th anniversary this weekend! Wow, that makes me feel old...

The kids played at Grammy Dawn's house for two nights while we headed down to Salt Lake for a little getaway, and some delicious food. It was nice to have a little break, and probably good that I wasn't too far away from my baby. Addie got spoiled and I worried she wouldn't want to come home with us :)

First Stop: The Wild Grape

Pan seared Halibut for me. Gnocchi with beef, mushrooms and truffle oil for Jed.

It was DIVINE. I never ordered fish, but I loved it. We had only been there for breakfast, but dinner didn't disappoint at all. If you've never been there, I highly recommend it!

Dessert: Gourmandise

We had to wait a few hours before we had room for dessert, so we opted out of it at Wild Grape and instead stopped at Gourmandise and picked up some delicious treats. Mine was Raspberry Mousse Cake.....not gonna lie, I let Jed have one bite out of obligation, then finished every last crumb. SO GOOD.

Next Stop: Left Fork Grill for Breakfast

Jed is totally in his happy place....corned beef hash and eggs

Very different atmosphere from the Wild Grape. It's a tacky decor-covered little diner that looks like nothing remotely special. I had heard great things about it from my dad, so we tried it out. I've heard their pie is delicious, but I was too full/um, it was 10am....I had to draw a line somewhere.

I got blueberry pancakes, which sounds boring, but they were SO good. Usually I eat like a half of one and I'm good. I just kept eating and eating even though I was full because they were so yummy.

I'm now wishing I'd saved room to try a piece of blackberry cream pie though....

After that breakfast, neither of us were hungry until 3pm. We headed up to Park City and walked around the outlet malls a bit, then headed back downtown for a late afternoon snack. Okay, Jed's is more like lunch

Bruges Waffles and Frites

Yes, that is indeed a Belgium waffle covered in dark chocolate, strawberries and ice cream.

(I was going to get creme fraiche, but it was SO friggin hot, the ice cream sounded better. I wasn't aware there isn't indoor seating there)

Jed attempted to take down the "Machine Gun" sandwich, which consists of a baguette filled with lamb sausage, frites and their homemade mayonnaise. Jed got the Samuri mayo...it was good and had a kick!

Their frites were good, but Jed's frites come pretty dang close I think :)

Dinner: Settebello

(yes, we still ate dinner lol)

We shared this wood-fired pizza. We got the Bianca one- mozzarella, prosciutto, arugula and parmigiana.

It was delicious and different, I liked it. Jed also got some fresh mozzarella and tomato appetizer.

I saved some room for dessert.....hello, you HAVE to when gelato is on the table!

I got coconut, much to Jed's dismay.

Then we went and saw Cowboys and Aliens. It was a pretty entertaining flick.

Plus, Daniel Craig was in it, so, um yeah.

Finale Foodie Stop: Breakfast at The Wild Grape

I got Brioche French toast with lemon curd and blueberries (holy YUM)

Jed got one of his "death row meals" Shirmp and Grits.

With very full tummies, we went and picked up our kids from Grammy's and went home.

I then took a nap with Dalton :)

It was a fantastic little getaway. Thanks again Dawn and Steve for taking care of the kids and to Jed for spending a whole weekend with me. I love you!

Next year is year #10, what the what? That's a whole decade.

We will be going somewhere further than Salt Lake to celebrate that one I think!

Jed's 31st Birthday

2011-08-03T14:17:00.000-06:00

Jed took the day off for his birthday this year and I was glad because he works hard all the time. He deserved a fun day, and we sure had one! I made him breakfast that morning, which consisted of bacon brushed with maple syrup and hole in one eggs.(nothing says I love you like cooking bacon and eggs when you yourself loathe them :) just sayin)

Then we headed up to Pine View for some boating. It was overcast all day, which I didn't mind at all. It even sprinkled a bit, but that didn't ruin our fun. Ashley and Ian joined us too, as well as Papa Steve.

Ash gettin' her skiin' on.

can't see Papa's face...it's covered by a chubby face in a life vest :)

He was happy when it was all over to be free of the jacket...don't you love his windblown/sunblocked hair do? He's awesome, we like him.

Addie could have played ALL day on the teeny tiny beach we found. She loves the sand and water.

Dalton took a little dip in the lake too. We were worried about him getting too hot. He was soooo sweaty after his nap on the boat.

The birthday boy driving the boat....

he went skiing too, but I didn't get pictures because I was beached with the kids.

Birthday dinner: consisted of Peanut Butter Cheesecake Tarts and Alley's Pizza.

Well balanced meal, I'd say.

Happy Birthday, Jed!

Summer....so far

2011-07-11T00:42:00.000-06:00

I was going to title this "Summer Lovin'" because we have been LOVING summer. Then I decided that song titles as post titles are just too cliche....so I went for boring. Anyway, I digress, which I shouldn't because I just downloaded 260 photos off of my camera, so clearly I have no time to waste babbling and should get on with this post.

We've been seriously so busy. July is by FAR the busiest month of the entire year. My house is almost constantly a wreck because of it, but I'm having too much fun with the kids to care. We'll clean in the winter when it's too cold for anything else, right? Again, digressing....I think I drank too much diet coke. My brain is allll over the place. I have tons of pictures to share, so if you get bored, I'm sorry. I'll try and keep this a brief as possible. Let's face it, half of you just scroll through the photos without reading this rambling anyway....right, mom? :)

Here's what's taken place in the past 3 weeks:

Play dates

Boating

Yep, she drives.

his poor cheeks barely squeeze into that vest

Sprite ad ;) she was sooo excited to share that can with me

Tristan loved it when uncle Jed dipped him into the cold lake.

He would looked shocked each time then say "water water, again again!" So cute.

Addie took a quick dip with Blake too....brrrr!

chatting with dad on the back of the boat

sacked out on the boat, motor running= baby tranquilizer.

my cute friends

Tristan took over Addie's sunglasses..whatever, he works it out.

West Haven Days/Impromptu neighborhood backyard water bash

Dalton workin' out the metro western look.

Lucy and Addie waiting for the parade (why does Addie do that in every picture? I can't see her face. ah well) The parade rocked. It was like 30 minutes and they got a sack full of candy.

Cherry Days, you could learn a thing or two from these folks out west.

Jed and Jordan looking as cool as two dudes holding infants can.

Bouncy Stuff! I wish I could have one of these babies behind my house. I'd never have to entertain my kid again. She went through the obstacle course over and over and over.

Tristan loved it too! Just needed a little assistance.

Ash and Tristan on the BIG slide

Afterwards, we got all suited up and took the kids to the pool....and it was closed. LAME. We didn't let that get us down though. We borrowed Jordan and Laura's sprinkler and kiddie pool and the kids had a riot

Total difference between boys and girls.

Tristan in the middle of the sprinkler....

Addie and Lucy like the water, but apparently needed umbrellas if it was going to be spraying in the air.

such. girls.

Neighbor friend Kallie came over and joined in the fun too. It ended up being a total blast!

Skylee's Blessing

My cute, sweet niece, Skylee was blessed last Sunday.

Isn't she so pretty? Love her.

The 4th of July

My patriotic kids

(wish you could see Addie's SUPER cute hair bow Laura made)

and patriotic cupcakes

Addie's new favorite thing to do at Grammy's pool...jump onto a floatie from the side of the pool

ta-da! that's what she really said.

This may look like a public pool, or the one in our neighborhood....nope. It's just our immediate family and their kids at my mom's. We were actually missing my brother's family and a few others aren't in this shot. Imagine what this shin dig will look like 10 years from now!

Lacey and her kids...total trooper. 4 kids, all 5 and under without James there. Gold mom star, Lacey.

Bryan's noodle rainbow. He was seriously impressed with himself. Made me take this picture.

After the annual pool party, it was off to the annual BBQ/Fireworks party at the Weller's!

Tristan approving of aunt Ashley's cute star pie pops

Emmett rockin' on the horse

Me and my little family watching the fireworks

Jed gave Addie earplugs this time, so she stayed outside :)

Ash and Ian

Slip, slidin' summertime fun

Jed scored more dad points yesterday. He went to home depot with Addie and came home with a 50 foot long sheet of plastic painter's sheet. He hooked up a sprinkler, applied a little dish soap and the kids (and adults) were off to crazy fun town.

Addie and Lucy going down ever so daintily

Jordan and Jed, not so much. Lol

Pretty sure they played on it for like an hour longer than the girls would have.

I took a couple of turns. I went pretty much grandma-style, as to not further injure myself. Stupid back. It's so lame. Maybe I'll share the details of my being a gimp in another post.

This one's already pushing it on the length.

I can't end a blog post without a picture of food, right?

(yes, I'm aware I already showed cupcakes. Hey, I left out some others during editing lol)

Happy Birthday, Gramp! We celebrated Jed's grandpa's birthday last night.

I made a little cake for it :)

Now I'll end this post, since it's pushing 1am. Dang it, I'm struggling with getting to bed before midnight lately. It's a problem seeing as I get up two or three times a night too...I should work on that. Coming up on future posts.....Jed's birthday, more playing/swimming/boating I'm sure, and hopefully an actual update on my kids. For now, good night.

Founders Day, Father's Day, Friends, Food....basically SUMMERTIME!

2011-06-23T10:20:00.000-06:00

Wow, that is a lot of appropriate F words :)

It really is crazy that Summer is already here, even though it feels like the past month it took forever to get here. Summer time is SO BUSY! When I realized I had 164 photos on my camera after only 5 days I thought I'd better blog a couple of those days!

Founders Day

Papa Steve love the parade

Especially with all his grandkids!

Tristan and Addie...posing oh so sweetly.

Grammy Dawn and Dalton

The kids had so much fun in Grammy's kiddie pool.

Dalton and Emmett

Cute lil' buddies...they're 8 months apart, and maaybe like 8 ounces apart in weight :)

Another one of Jed's rockin' creations....

BBQ pulled pork and coleslaw over home made corn chips= best nachos ever.

Addie and Lucy running away from scary cousin Carson

Waiting for the fireworks to start. Cute friends :)

Notice no pictures during the fireworks....we were inside. Addie has decided this year that they hurt her ears, so we watched from Steve and Dawn's front window. Still a great view!

Father's Day

Pretend this is a picture of Jed and his kids....I'm a lame wife and didn't take one.

Instead I took one of PB Cup Cheesecake Tarts.

Lacey and I swapping babies...cousins Skylee and Dalton

The Workman Clan.....except Jason & his family.

Just want to give a shout out to our awesome dads. I didn't take any pictures at my mom's house of the kids with Danny (I suck like that). He's an awesome stepdad and I love him dearly. My dad and Steve are great dads and grandpas to our kids. Our kids really are so lucky to have lots of people who love them around! Love you guys! Thanks for all you do!

Friends

Lori and her girls were in Utah for a few weeks and we got to hang out with them twice.

Love seeing them! Wish they lived closer....but visits are good too :)

We've been having a lot of play dates with friends the past couple of weeks- it's one of the perks of Summer! This week has been busy again with parks, splash pad, pool day, and boating later today. Looks like I'm going to have a lot of blogging to do this Summer.

Food

Strawberry Souffle- look how high they puffed up!

They were good and fresh tasting, and even fat-free....

SO I added some chocolate to the tops

They needed it though :)

This cake isn't just a cake, it was an inspiration! Also proof that if you combine two recipes and two chocolate-loving girls' minds, amazing things can happen.

Not even messing around....this cake is awesome.

Well that wraps up last weekend.... I hope you're all enjoying the sunshine as much as we are!

Dalton's Blessing Day

2011-06-08T12:42:00.000-06:00

Jed blessed Dalton on Sunday. It was a great day!

Jed said that the whole time he was saying the blessing Dalton was looking at him and smiling :)

So sweet! This boy's smile seriously melts my heart. I just love him to pieces. Jed did a wonderful job.

My kids sure are blessed to have such a great dad.

We didn't get great pictures, but hey it's something.

Me and my dad

My pretty mom and Dalton

(Janet took this and the next picture)

I love my kids

4 generations of Wellers- what handsome guys!

Me and my mom and brothers (sans Jason, we missed him. He's in CA)

Grammy Dawn

We had a lot of other family and friends come and support us. We really appreciate that and felt very loved. Dalton is one lucky boy indeed. I was so happy that the weather cooperated. It was a gorgeous day, which was good since we had brunch outside afterwards. We served up some yummy crepes and toppings along with some breakfast casseroles that were a big hit. The recipes for them can be found here and here for those who asked me for them. Thanks again to everyone for your help and for the love and support. We have wonderful families!

typical Monday afternoon

2011-06-06T16:59:00.000-06:00

4:35pm.....what are we all doing at my house? Well, here's the breakdown:

ADDIE

MOMMY

DALTON

That about sums it up....Addie in the corner on time out (don't let the photo fool you, there was a 10 minute meltdown prior to the staying quietly in the corner.) I'm drowning out the whining coming from the corner and the desire to lock my kid in her room the rest of the day with Diet Coke. Dalton is sweetly sleeping on the couch. He definitely gets a gold star for having the best attitude today of all three of us.

a great {grandparent} weekend

2011-05-31T08:35:00.000-06:00

Our kids are so lucky. Not only do they have awesome grandparents who love and spoil them, they also have wonderful great grandparents. We don't get to see mine very often because one lives in California and my Grandma and Grandpa Workman are now both in separate Care Centers and it's kind of a long drive with the kids.

Sunday we decided to load the kids up and head down to see them both. We stopped at their house first with my dad (it's being cleaned out to sell). It was kind of sad to see the place that I went to throughout my childhood so empty and quiet. If you're a relative of mine you know that house was rarely empty or quiet! My Grandma has been in a nursing home for quite awhile because of her lack of mobility. She has a lot of arthritis and osteoporosis in her back. She was so excited to be visited, especially by her great-grandkids.

Meeting baby Dalton. He is their 36th great-grandchild!

Addie was number 28.

We went to my Grandpa's Assisted Living place after that. Until last month, my Grandpa still lived in his home. Unfortunately he's starting to lose his short term memory and can't be on his own. He loves it there though. He's thrilled he gets to have his own stuff in his little apartment and be pretty independent, but still have meals with the other residents and not have to worry about taking care of cooking and such. To say he was excited to meet Dalton is the understatement of the year. He was awesome. His smile never left his face.

Jed, Dalton, my dad and grandpa

(and um yes, Dalton does look just like his daddy!)

Me and my Grandpa and my kiddos

We couldn't get him to stop looking at the baby long enough to take this picture. He's so cute. He loves babies! He just kept saying what a wonderful day it was and how he just couldn't believe it.

I love this picture.

Yesterday, Jed had the day off (well kind of. He had work off, but not second work aka Plutonium) We went to lunch over at his Gram and Gramp's house. We love spending time with them. They're so cute and sweet with their great-grandkids and they're always thrilled to see us all.

Dalton hangin' with Gramp

Gram and Gramp with the kids

We're so fortunate to have their great examples in our lives and in our children's lives.

We love our grandparents!

I like him

2011-05-31T08:02:00.000-06:00

He just really has a lot to say already. He is so smiley in the morning and for an hour straight he'll just smile, coo and try to talk to me. I love it. He's talking to his little friends on his mobile here. They go way back ;)

and yes, he did pass gas in the middle of that video....such a boy.

2 months old...and other May happenings

2011-05-24T12:06:00.000-06:00

Dalton turned 2 months yesterday....he's getting so big already! I took him to the doctor and he weighs 13lbs- 80th%! Big boy. He's such a smiley sweet baby. He is doing SO much better. It's been quite the roller coaster the past 2 months trying to figure out how to make him feel good and be happy. First we realized he had Reflux and he's been on Prevacid to help alleviate that. He still was having some problems though. After trying everything from only nursing, to mixing formula and breast milk to straight formula, we finally have this baby figured out. Consensus is that he just can't tolerate breast milk, like not at all. Our Pediatrician said it sounds like he's got an allergy to something either in the milk supply, such as wheat or eggs, or the protein in the milk itself. So, here's hoping when we start him on solids he does okay and doesn't have food allergies.

We're just glad that our boy is content and healthy. Oh, and very cute :)

Addie "graduated" from preschool.....I say "graduated" because technically she's got two more years of it, so we're not really going anywhere. She has LOVED preschool and she's excited to go back in the fall.

They sang some very cute little songs and it was fun to see what they've been learning this year. I have to admit I almost cried seeing my little girl up there like a big kid. Wow, where does time go.

I swear I've blinked from when she was as little as Dalton is

Park Playing!

We've had I think 3 days where it didn't rain this month....those were spent playing at the park as much as possible! We went with Tristan and Whit one day....actually come to think of it, it did rain that day after we left. Tristan is so cute and getting big enough to run after Addie. It's so fun to watch them play. They're buds.

Whoa...when did my kid go from toddler on the playground to a kid? She looks SO big.

Saturday, Whit and Chris were moving, so I took Addie and Tristan again to play. It was so nice out! Oh how I wish we could have a few more of these days....I know this rain will eventually stop and then it'll be 90 degrees outside and too hot for park playing.

Both kids LOVE the swings!

We went to the park one day with Lucy too. I love this picture of them drinking their Capri Suns and having some sort of girl talk....they say the funniest things to each other. I was out of earshot this time, so I'll just have to imagine what topics were discussed. They also spent a half hour locking each other in a tower there. Funny little imaginations.

Getting crafty/frugal

Addie ripped a hole in the knees of some pants, so I turned them and another pair of jeans into Bermuda shorts. Not too shabby for never sewing any clothes before :)

Addie has an obsession with playing with pins (Scary)

She was "helping" me with her jeans.

I also made these last night for Dalton just for fun.

Although I don't think this chubby boy even needs clothes to be cute

Notice how blonde his hair is already turning- my children refuse to keep my hair color it would seem.

Did I mention it rained a little?

Can't wait for summer! BBQ's, swimming, fireworks, and boating....all around the corner!

Mother's Day Weekend

2011-05-12T11:25:00.000-06:00

We had a busy Mother's Day weekend full of family and fun....but first I have to share a few of the cute pictures that my friend Amanda took of Dalton a few weeks ago. He wasn't very cooperative but we were able to get some good shots.

Love that sweet boy :) Thanks again, Amanda!

Addie's Preschool Mother's Day Program/Picnic

We had a cute little Mother's Day picnic with Addie's preschool. It was fun and the kids were darling. They sang some songs and gave us presents they made for us. I loved it.

Today is her last day....I'm not sure how either of us is going to make it all summer without preschool.

A lovely wedding day!

Congrats to Rhett and Alexis! Saturday we had the opportunity to see them get married and spend some time at the beautiful Salt Lake Temple. There were SO many weddings there....it was like parade of the brides or something. They all picked a perfect day though, the weather was gorgeous! Jed and I love when we get to spend time with his siblings, and it was a great way to spend the day with them.

Blake, Kacey, Emmett and Dalton (um, doesn't he look like he's 3 or 4 months old?! He's not)

Whit, Ash, Me and Kacey -still holding baby Dalton, she must like him :)

Adorable Mia- Rhett's wedding day was also her 2nd birthday!

Me and my baby boy

Ash and Ian- did I mention they moved to Utah from Rock Springs? LOVING that.

I did some crafting and baking too.....no wonder I was so tired Sunday night. Not as tired as I would have been without the BEST Mother's Day gift EVER that Jed gave me... 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep!!

Since Dalton was born I haven't slept more than 2 hours at a time at night, so it was VERY much appreciated. He even made me wear ear plugs, took the baby monitor and slept on the couch so I'd be completely undisturbed by him getting up with the baby. Have I mentioned that I like him? I do. A lot.

Mother's Day

We spent the day having brunch with Jed's family and then visiting my mom.

It was fun seeing everyone and spending time with my own little family.

Even though motherhood is exhausting, I LOVE being a mom and wouldn't trade my two beautiful babies for anything....especially when you get fun perks like this one

Gotta love a sweet baby smile!

I'm so grateful for the moms in my life and that I've been blessed to be a mom myself.

what the kids are doing these days

2011-04-27T22:35:00.000-06:00

Sorry my Easter post was super lame in content. I was trying to be brief so that I could go to bed last night. Which is quite ironic because I hurried and blogged knowing that Dalton would wake up about 11:30 to eat and he ended up sleeping till 1am. That would have been nice to know before I decided to wait up for him to wake up...dumb dumb dumb. That won't happen again. Anyway, I digress. So here are a few little updates and such about my kiddos from the past few weeks.

This chubby boy weighed 10lbs 8oz last week when I took him to the doctor.

We were concerned that he's got reflux so I took him in and the doctor gave us a prescription for Prevacid, which seems to have helped him not be in pain after he eats. It's very good since before that I couldn't lay him down after he ate during the day or he'd just cry.....so he mostly slept like this

Not that I don't love cuddling my sleeping boy, but unfortunately I have other responsibilities and another child to take care of....oh and showering is always a good thing too.

Jed jacked up his crib on one end to help him....although it makes my OCD kick in to see it all askew on the wall, it's better for Dalton.

He really likes when I carry him in the sling too....which Addie also thinks is fun to use and pretend her baby is in there. She's funny.

Chubby boy is about to bust through his buttons on his little Easter outfit.

Dang newborn sized stuff. Just doesn't do the trick for our boy. I had to put stretchy pants on him because these ones were tight and bugging him (hey kid, I know the feeling)

He's still eating every 2 hours during the day like clockwork....sometimes he'll go 2 1/2.

Finally he's gone a few nights of going 3 hours between a feeding or two.

It's a little exhausting, but hey I'm glad he's healthy :)

Gotta maintain those cheeks somehow right??

Addie is still doing all her random Addie things

including setting her table with a blanket as a table cloth, then inviting George the monkey (who's birthday it was apparently and 2 Auroras. Oh and I was invited to the tea party too. The purple plate is mine)

At Dalton's 2 week appointment, the pediatrician gave me the green light on sending Addie back to preschool (WAHOO!!!) I was really glad because she really does love it. Who wouldn't? I was jealous yesterday when their field trip was to the Pizza Man in North Ogden. They made their own pizzas and bread sticks. She LOVED it.

Shout out to buddy Cooper- Aren't they freaking cute in their chef's hats?

Thanks Chelsie for being my kid's adult supervision for me!

Nothing too exciting going on in our little world. We're mostly just trying to maintain some sort of order and normalcy. I'm getting used to having two kids and having it take an hour to get out the door to go anywhere. We really are enjoying our new little boy and couldn't be happier that he's a part of our family. Now I'm going to bed so that I can get up in an hour to feed Dalton....hey you never know, he could sleep till 1am again, right?

Easter

2011-04-26T22:37:00.000-06:00

Okay, I really don't have it in me to do much of a recap of Easter. Kind of like how I took pictures of my kids in their Easter outfits, then didn't even print or send out the cards...meh, oh well.

It was pretty chill this year. We stayed home and then went to my mom's for an Easter party in the evening....here are some pictures of the weekend fun:

Easter Egg Hunt at the park

Egg dying

"Tangled" getting

Addie always says "take a picture of this" she does this several times a day and poses with Dalton lol

Playing with cousin Tristan

Chocolate-drizzled Strawberries and Cream Pie (YUM)

Whit, Tristan and Dalton

One of like three photos in existence of our family

Easter colored cake

Cute Nixon

Addie loves uncle Bryan

Hope you all had a great Easter weekend!

The past couple of weeks....

2011-04-08T23:12:00.001-06:00

Well it's been over two weeks now since Dalton's arrival and life has been flipped upside down and inside out, but we are all adjusting and getting used to this whole having two children thing. The sleep deprivation is the biggest change/issue, but I'm still alive so I've proven that I can indeed survive on only one-two hour increments of sleep at night. Jed had me go up and take a nap after he got home from work yesterday and I slept for nearly three hours....then realized that is the longest stretch of sleep I've had since Dalton was born. But hey, he's only a sweet little newborn once right? I keep telling myself at 2am that this stage is only a little while and sooner than later I'll miss snuggling this sweet baby in the middle of the night. I'm still hoping someday soon he starts going longer than 2 hours between feedings, but for now I'm hanging in there.

We completely adore our cute, chubby Dalton. Addie is in love with the little guy and she's done better than I thought she would with the change. Today she came up and sang him songs while I was rocking him then kissed his head and said "I love you so much baby". Melted my heart. Speaking of Addie, our baby boy looks SO much like her, especially how she looked as a newborn. Oh except that he's got over 2lbs on her birth weight.

this is my baby (Addie)

this is my baby on carbs (Dalton)

Jed was able to take a week off and I was so very grateful. It went by quickly and I was so glad that I had the extra help during the day, especially that first week when I was still in a lot of pain. He's such a good dad. He's been awesome. He's been going to work at 7am all week so that he can leave at 3:30. Then he comes home and plays with Addie, helps clean up and cooks. For real. I like him.

His son likes him too :) this was our first night home. I may have reconsidered the guitar rocker jammies if I'd known that it'd turn my baby into party animal that night. He was awake half the night! He's gotten better, thankfully, now he's just up frequently to eat.

Meeting new friends

This is Alice, future girlfriend, she's 6 weeks older than Dalton and lives across the street.

Note how he's playing it so cool and acting uninterested ;)

Uncle Bryan and Whitney came to see him

Uncle Chad and Lacie's baby, Skylee, arrived 8 days after Dalton did...

yet they look 8 weeks apart lol....in my chubby boy's defense, she was born 3 weeks early.

She was exactly 3 pounds smaller than he was at birth. Too funny.

Cousin Emmett

They're gonna be cute buds

Spending time with big sister

Addie loves to hold him

She also wants to wear her "big sister" shirt all the time! It's cute.

She was excited the other day when I also put Dalton in his "baby brother" onesie.

Look how soundly he sleeps....during the day ;)

Look how cute these chocolates are! Aunt Teri made these for us and brought them to the hospital the morning after he was born. I loved them. It was fun to give them out to visitors who came to see him.

Good ole bath time after his cord fell off and could get wet.

Watching Sleeping Beauty with Addie

She was telling him not to be scared of Malificent. Funny kid.

More sleeping....during the daytime.

He doesn't stay asleep for long....

he's got to wake up to make sure he's eating enough to sustain those chubby cheeks!

Making some fashion statements already too

His skater shoe socks

workin' out the Star Wars logo tee- definitely his daddy's boy!

This week has been kind of stressful. I got Mastitis and felt horrible for a couple of days. I finally left the house on Wednesday to take the kids to the doctor. I had not left the house at all since he was born. Crazy. Dalton weighs 9 lbs 4 oz now which is the 75th percentile for weight.

I've had such great support from family and friends and really appreciate it all! Now I'm off to feed this boy and put him to bed...for an hour or two anyway :)

Dalton Rees

2011-03-29T22:21:00.000-06:00

I can't believe that it's been 6 days since this little guy was born and I'm just barely blogging about him. It's been a little difficult finding the time, but he's way too precious to wait any longer to share him with the blogging world. Today was my due date, and I'm so glad that he's already here!

Just before my C-Section

Ready to pop!

Dalton Rees

8 lbs. 11 oz. 19 1/2 inches long

(No wonder I felt so huge and could barely move!)

No sense covering up that head of his with a hat when he's got this much hair

The nurse fauxhawked his hair when they bathed him....so cute.

It felt so long before I got to finally hold him....

Just soaking up my brand new baby boy

Addie meeting her baby brother

Addie was so excited to meet her brother and hold him

(and yes, yes my daughter is wearing a pink tutu skirt to the hospital, no surprise there :)

hey it matched her big sister shirt)

Dalton meeting his grandparents, aunts and great grandparents

Papa Steve

Grammy and grandpa Rees

Grammy Dawn

Aunt Ashy

Aunt Whitty

Grandpa Randy and Grandma Tammie

Great Grammy Lynette

Gramp

Daddy got some snuggles in too

Addie was so cute about Dalton. She demanded to wear her big sister shirt and tutu again one of the days they came to visit. She just wanted to hold him. She was excited about it. She still likes to hold him and give him kisses. I wish the lighting was better in these pictures, because they're pretty dang precious.

All ready to come home!

We came home Saturday night and life has been turned upside down in a wonderfully exhausting way.

I've got more pictures and thoughts to share, so I'll post again soon. We're so grateful to have a healthy, sweet baby boy in our home. We all are in love with him and thank Heavenly Father for sending us such a precious little one. Welcome to the world and to our little family baby Dalton!

320

2011-03-21T23:36:00.000-06:00

320...that's how many diapers I have in Dalton's closet. There is a stack of folded blankets and freshly washed clothes hung up. His changing table is full of onesies, pants and jammies, most of them have been washed more than once because I couldn't remember which ones I'd washed so I rewashed them all. It's also stocked with baby socks, burp clothes, receiving blankets and diapers.

My house is clean (thanks to my mom's help, love her!). Laundry is all caught up on. My fridge and freezer are stocked. The car seat is properly installed in my car. I have my diaper bag all packed full of things for Dalton for the hospital. I have my hospital bag packed other than the things I'll need to throw in that morning. I have a bag packed for Addie so she can sleepover at Grammy Dawn's house Wednesday night. Long story short: I'm prepared. We're all prepared. There is really not much left to do.

Oh, well I guess we still have ONE thing to do. HAVE A BABY! In like, you know 42ish hours. When I say I'm prepared I feel like that is a lie. I AM prepared as far as having everything cleaned, organized, and ready to bring our baby home. When it comes to having TWO children instead of one, recovering from a C-Section again, going through the sleepless newborn nights and the baby blues and the unknown of how Addie will adjust, I feel completely unprepared. I know there is no avoiding it. I don't think anyone is ever truly prepared for parenthood. I thought I would feel more ready this time, but somehow I feel less ready. You'd think having done this once before I'd have it all together better than I do.

As unprepared as I feel to have our lives changed forever once again, I am SO happy and excited that I get to meet my baby boy on Wednesday night! Addison has been the best thing to ever happen to our lives and I know that we will feel the same way about Dalton. I can't wait to hold my baby and soak up all that sweet newborn goodness.

Some Addie Time

2011-03-21T22:48:00.000-06:00

Well, we're down to the final countdown here for baby Dalton to arrive...we're talking less than 48 hours here people. In between all the baby preparations, I've been trying to focus as much time and attention on Addie as possible.

I don't generally celebrate St. Patrick's Day other than wearing green. This year, however, I forgot to consider the fact that my child now goes to preschool....thus we ended up doing a little more than usual this year. Addie's "homework" was to bring a painted green box to preschool that they'd then decorate there.

She loved painting the box....that I then evened out, because I'm OCD like that.

Finding that the leprechaun left her some treats even though we didn't catch him...

he even turned our pancake batter green!

Addie had a green feast at school. All of the kids brought a green food to share and she had a lot of fun.

Her preschool does the funnest things. I love hearing all her stories about it each day.

Last Addie-Daddy-Mommy Outing before baby brother

We decided that we wanted to go out and have a fun evening with Addie before her little world is altered.

We went to In-N-Out for some dinner then to Boondocks for some fun.

Boondocks was fun for Addie. She played some little kid arcade games, played in their big Kiddie Cove and even dared to do a daddy-sized game that was more like a ride.

She was all excited when it started

and then the whole thing started to shake and move and it made her pretty nervous

so...she ended up on her daddy's lap for the rest of the ride :)

She also loved playing rollerball....almost a cross between bowling and ski-ball.

Oh and Jed rocked on the "sledgehammer" which was a kiddie sized whack-a-mole game.

He dominated and put a high score on the game and got Addie some tickets :)

Lol....poor other small children...they'll never get close to that score.

It was fun to play with my two favorite people before I add a third to that favorite list. Jed and I were both exhausted before we even started the evening, (something about me not sleeping at night and Jed working 10-18 hour days the past two weeks, twice literally ALL night) but we're both glad that we took the time and played with our little Addison while she's still the baby of our family.

March Madness

2011-03-12T21:34:00.000-07:00

It's been a pretty crazy month...yet has also seemed long already at the same time. The days are long with Jed pulling out all the stops to get his Plutonium jobs done before baby Dalton's arrival. So Jed is busy and not home much, I am feeling quite large and uncomfortable and not sleeping much, and Addie, well she's just as busy as ever doing what she does and being sweet and helpful to me.

Loving Preschool Days

Addie got to wear pajamas the day they focused on letter "P". She thought that was pretty cool.

They also had a dental hygienist come and talk to them about teeth.

She loved that she got her own mask. She told me all about why we have to brush our teeth afterwards. I love that she's starting to really love it and tell me what she learns and stories each day about preschool. She also has a habit of selling out her preschool friends to me. Makes me laugh. She'll get in the car and say "Rachel said can't at preschool today. We don't say can't at preschool. We say I can try" or

"Ava didn't want to clean up today so she cried"

A warm enough day for the park!

I've been trying to go and do some fun things with Addie this weekend while Jed worked and before I'm not able to do much for awhile. We played at the park Thursday and then wandered the Princess aisle at Target and had a pizza picnic at home and watched "Hairspray". Today we had a full day of a birthday breakfast for Papa Steve and Uncle Blake then went to "Tangled" at the Kaysville Theater...which by the way, I may never attend again. Loved that we got to see it again but they don't let you buy tickets ahead of time, you just have to show up early....like 30-45 minutes early. I wasn't prepared for this to mean standing outside, while raining for part of that time. Oh well, it was fun and I love doing things like that with her. We also went to my nephew Evan's first birthday party....Addie crashed in the car on the ride home and I collapsed onto the couch and don't plan to move the rest the night :)

She also is getting excited about her baby brother coming, as we all are. She has been such a great little helper to me lately and I think she'll love being a helpful big sister, maybe "too" helpful sometimes :)

Papa Steve always teases her that her brother is in the oven and she gets very offended and upset by this statement...lol she is such a literal kid. She had quite the serious conversation the other day with him the other day about it and told him "The baby is NOT in the oven. The baby is in mommy's belly and the oven is at her house. I don't want to hear you say that ever again." and she meant it! He teased her an hour later about it and she put her little finger up all mommy-bossy like and said, "um, do you remember what I said?"

Needless to say both Papa and Grammy both were almost in tears laughing at her.

Addie and Grammy agreed that next time he says that he will go to time out.

Baby Boy.....oh we can't wait for his arrival. Well, I can a little since there are a few things left to do, but if I could have him tomorrow I'd pull an all-nighter to get it all done! He's coming in 11 days, so we don't have too long to wait now.....

and don't worry, he'll be well accessorized as well :)

As for me.....well I'm looking like I'm 38 weeks pregnant.

Well, maybe bigger ;)

This was my happy place last Saturday...I helped my mom throw a baby shower and she got me an alligator jaw before it started. Dang it was good lol. I needed that extra sugar to cope with being called huge repeatedly at the shower...oh as well as miserable looking. Ah well, what do you do right?

Speaking of food....

Our Best Bites book launch and cooking demo

I was so excited to see, meet and watch Sara and Kate from ourbestbites.com cook up some delicious food in a gorgeous demo kitchen at Orsen Gygi. I got to go down with a couple of my foodie friends, Megan and Carlee. We were stoked when Megan won 2 tickets and even more so when after Sara and Kate read our tweets on twitter offered me a ticket too! I felt quite special :)

Sara and Kate were very cute and fun in the kitchen. I loved that they seemed just like me and my friends cooking, not all technical and pro-chef like. Don't be fooled though, their recipes are AWESOME. I seriously use their recipes for at least 70% of the meals I make, maybe more.

We got to taste their yummy concoctions....and LOVED this one!

Sorry, it doesn't look pretty but OH MY GOSH...SO GOOD.

Peanut Butter Cup Cheesecakes

We even got hooked up with the secret recipe. Saweet!

We got to meet them and have our cookbooks signed!

(Yes we're nerds because we thought this was SO cool- and sorry the pictures aren't good. I forgot my camera so they're all from my phone. Plus a stranger took this one and didn't get how to use it)

Oh, and if I didn't eat enough there, Megan also brought me some delicious donuts from Beyond Glazed.

This was followed by a meeting of our Culinary Club....where again, we ate some more. It was quite the foodie day. Loved it and loved having one last girls' day/night before I become home bound for awhile :) Thanks Megan and Carlee and Our Best Bites!

Dalton's Room

2011-02-25T11:07:00.000-07:00

We've been working on getting everything ready for baby Dalton's arrival. I've been doing a lot of sewing the past month! It's funny because until I did Addie's quilt, I had really never sewed at all. I've come to really enjoy it, at least the simple stuff that I've done. I still wouldn't attempt anything with a pattern anytime soon :)

Jed and our friend Jordan painted one of the walls a soft blue and I love how it turned out.

I mod-podged fabric to some wooden letters for his name above his crib.

His crib quilt i made

I fell in love with this argyle fabric from Hobby Lobby. I liked the colors and the patterns.

His quilt took much less time than Addie's did since it was so much smaller. I actually did ALL the sewing and hand stitching on it by myself :) Dawn finished the edges for me though, because she's cool like that.

I wanted his room to be simple, cute and clean looking

We got a new crib after ours was recalled. I was fine with it because I preferred brown over white for a boy's room, especially with the fabrics I used.

My mom made some covers for my rocking chair and I think it turned out great! Thanks mom!

I made a pillow :) I've never made one before, and I just winged it, but it was actually very easy.

It definitely adds some comfort and back support for me in my rocker.

I also made a Valance....also a first for me.

Yes this whole room was basically me playing with a sewing machine trying to see what I could do myself.

I made the bed skirt too, which looks just like the valance.

Addie posing for me while I took pictures.

Here's some close ups of the quilt. It's kind of hard to see the hand stitching that I did on it, but I followed the white lines of the argyle. It makes the pattern pop a little more and I like how it turned out. I didn't want to have stitches running across the pattern of the fabric.

I still need to find a few things for the walls and a lamp and a couple of little things, but other than that we're done! Can't wait for him to get here and snuggle him in the other cozy blanket I made him :)

February Fun (and a little January)

2011-02-25T10:33:00.000-07:00

February has flown by. I always forget that it's a shorter month. Maybe it's because half this month was spent with Addie or I being sick, but I can't believe that it's almost MARCH. March has seemed sooo far away and now it's almost here! I'm having a baby in March! Ah! Crazy....

On to what we've been up to lately....

Addie (with my help) made a Valentine mailbox for her preschool party.

She loooved making it and then kept asking when the party was.

I guess we should have done it 1 day instead of 4 days beforehand :)

Scored some pink boxes for Addie's shelves randomly at Harmons for 1.50 each. Sweet! I'd been searching for some for months and couldn't find any that weren't ridiculously expensive or fit in the space.

You say it's your birthday....

It was apparently Yoda's birthday (for like 3 days)

She put Aurora's party hat on him, sang to him and fed him cake.

Did a little Valentine baking....not as much as I'd originally planned.

Addie built Jed a bike

Yes, those 2, 24-pks, cupcake rug, dish towel and ladle are indeed a bike.

SEE?

He's a good sport.

Addie's Preschool Valentine Party

Addie's preschool party was a lot of fun. I volunteered to help out and I couldn't believe how many fun things her teacher had planned for the kids to do. It was a busy 2 hours! They did 2 different painting crafts, made Valentine headbands, had cake and juice, played games and then exchanged Valentines.

Addie had a great time, even though she had started feeling under the weather.

Within 24 hours of that, she got SO much worse. Poor kid was miserably sick.

She crawled up onto uncle Ian's lap at 5pm and went to sleep.

We spent the rest of Valentine's weekend staying in and trying to get her feeling better. She felt better Tuesday, then ended up with an ear infection which made her feel terrible for a few more days. I was lucky enough to catch her cold and spent all of the following week feeling sick too ;)

We're all on the mend now and ready to be done with sickness for the season!

We've got a baby coming, no time for that nonsense.

We got to play with our good 'ole friends last Friday evening.

Loved catching up with Van and Lori and letting these monkeys on my bed play :)

Thanks for coming to see us while you were here guys!

In totally out of order news...Addie had her first preschool field trip the last week of January.

They go somewhere each month and this time was ice skating. She was SO excited!

Jed took his lunch from work and came with because um, let's face it, 8+ months pregnant on ice skates probably wouldn't be the best idea. Especially when I saw how tricky it was for the kids to skate!

That was the only time Addie was holding his hand and the wall....the rest the time he and other parents had to either just skate bending down with her in front of him (ouch) or...

Yes, that's super dad. Ice skating while holding her.

(sorry the pictures aren't great, taken through glass)

Addie had a lot of fun and was glad her daddy came to play!

Insomniac Brain Dump

2011-02-18T05:02:00.000-07:00

I'm so behind on blogging. So why not catch up at 4 am right? Oh, right...because that's what a crazy person would do. Well...call me crazy or maybe just pregnant, but here I am at 4:20am and I've been wide.awake. since 2:45 when Addie came into our room for (insert random 3-year-old reason here). I was already tossing and turning and not sleeping much anyway between head congestion and my baby in my belly who thinks he's a gymnast. He really is a wild little mover in there. He's breach so he's got a little more wiggle room and he sure uses it. It's quite the show to watch my belly going crazy in the evenings with his movements.Him being breach, and apparently big, also means his head is just above my belly button. You can see/feel his head and it's no wonder that even though I'm on the strongest antacid there is, I'm getting reflux in the middle of the night. Anyway, I digress....I was supposed to be catching up right? Oh, well I can't find the cable to my camera to actually do a full update with photos of Addie's first preschool field trip, Valentine's party and other events. I'm frankly too lazy to even download what I've got on my phone at the moment. So those will be coming soon....I hope.

Meanwhile, I'm just going to dump my brain with some word vomit and hope that it helps me be able to sleep. For peeps who normally skip through my rambling to see pictures, sorry, just skip this post and wait for the next one :)

My baby is coming in less than 5 weeks now. I feel prepared in some ways and completely unprepared in others. His room is pretty much done and put together. I've got diapers and wipes to last a month and clothes washed and in his drawers and closet. Jed's aunt Teri even made me some cute boy burp cloths. At the same time, my brain keeps having mini-panic attacks about all the tiny details left to be done. There are a lot more factors to consider the second time around. This time I'm stressing about Addie and how/where she'll be for my 3-day hospital stay and how she'll cope with me being in the hospital and getting a baby brother. I know she, as well as all of us, will have an adjustment period and I'm trying to not set any expectations and just roll with it. The issue there is that I like to have things planned out and prepared...but there really isn't a way to plan for a small child's reaction to her center-of-the-universe lifestyle being altered by a baby. Oh, plus my hospital decided they're holding a conference the day I was supposed to deliver, so that entire day got bumped. When I say bumped, I mean nobody called me to reschedule or anything, even though we've had the date booked for a month. So by the time I found out, which was yesterday, everything that week is already booked except for 6pm the night before. I'm not thrilled, but what else do I do? Hey, maybe I'll randomly go into labor and get him early ;) Riiiight.....
That whole "nesting" thing? Well I think I had that like two months ago, but right now I can't seem to motivate myself to do much of anything. It's an issue. Good thing I'm OCD enough that everything is pretty much done already even though I've got over a month to go :)
I've gained 10lbs in the past month....uh scary. All of a sudden my weight shot up and it's frightening me. I only ever gained under 20lbs total with Addie, but I also couldn't eat sugar lol. I know some has to do with my legs swelling from my varicose veins...let's just go with that and not think anymore about it.
Jed is doing a really strict diet. I am not. I am pregnant and "can't" diet. He's trying to get a little healthier and lose some weight. I personally think it's unfair for him to get thinner as I get more huge. Oh and I totally feel guilty for eating real food in front of him even though he tells me not to. Needless to say, the mini Reeses peanut butter eggs are "hidden" in the freezer to ease his pain.....plus I like them better frozen.
Addie has had a cold since last Wednesday. Just when I thought she was better on Tuesday, she woke up crying in the middle of the night with ear pain. Sure enough the poor little thing has an ear infection. Wednesday was a long day for us at both my doctor and hers. She seems to be getting better at least, now I just hope that the cold she gave me doesn't get too bad.
The last issue weighing heavy on my mind and heart: my Grandpa isn't doing well. He had a stroke last Friday night and he hasn't recovered. He got moved to the ICU last night and it isn't looking very good. He lives in California so I can't go and see him and it breaks my heart. My mom and aunt are leaving in the morning to go be with him. I was looking forward to him meeting baby Dalton. Dalton is my grandpa's middle name and his mother's maiden name and he was SO excited when my mom told him that's what we're naming our baby. It saddens me to think about them possibly not meeting, at least maybe not here on Earth.

I believe that sums up most of what has been occupying my thoughts this week. There are many more random and trivial thoughts I'm sure, but I should stop babbling and maybe attempt an hour or two of sleep. Now I'm wondering where that camera cable is....

January randomness

2011-01-25T23:31:00.000-07:00

January is usually a pretty boring month. Cold temperatures, not a lot to do, and no sign of spring in site. This month has flown by though! We've embarked on new adventures, had lots of partying with Addie and have been beginning the nesting process for our upcoming baby.

Speaking of baby...um, he's coming 8 WEEKS from tomorrow!!!

I'm not a fan of self-timer photos....especially when it's of my "baby bump".

Let's face it, it's beyond a bump. Nonetheless, here I am!

30 Weeks

He's going to double in size before my due date...

not sure how he's going to fit or where he's going to go!

We've been preparing for baby Dalton to come and I am pretty sure that within the next couple of weeks I'll be totally done with everything....and then I'll just be waiting for him to arrive. I not only have the nesting bug, but I'm a big planner/a little OCD so I can't stop myself from getting everything ready, like NOW. Melissa hooked me up with some baby clothes (thanks!!!) and they're already washed and in the drawers of my changing table. I've also made him a blanket, crib quilt (Dawn is finishing the edges for me right now), and a valance for his room. Now I've just got to do a bed skirt and I think I'll be about done with the nursery stuff. Jed is painting a wall tomorrow night in his room.....and after a random/kind of scary crib recall, we're also getting a new crib for him. That about sums that up....I'll post some pictures once it's all done :)

Preschool!!

Addie started preschool 2 days before her third birthday. She's doing well and seems to like it quite a bit. She was pretty nervous at first, as I expected, but now she's getting more comfortable with it. It's only two hours, three times a week, so it's not too much for her. She still seems so little to me and when I pick her up each day I can't believe that my baby girl is that big.

She won't pose for pictures anymore...so I didn't get great ones from her first day.

She wanted Yoda to be in the picture with her....silly girl.

Yet, one more birthday bash....

Last weekend we went down to my dad and stepmom's house and went to dinner to celebrate Addie's birthday. She loves seeing her grandpa! It was funny when the restaurant brought ice cream out to her after dinner and sang to her. She just sat there then whispered to me, "Um, mom, it's not my birthday".

Snow Playing with daddy

We finally got some decent snow today. The kind that actually makes good snowballs. Jed came home and asked Addie if she wanted to go out and play. Of course she did! She loves it.

They made a giant snowball as big as Addie.....and I watched from the window in the warm house :)

Once again....my no-longer-napping-girl hit a tired wall one day and randomly crashed on my hand in the grocery cart. I couldn't get her to wake up....she slept for 30 minutes in the store.

That's about it....okay, so maybe our January was kind of boring. I've just been too busy to care I guess.

Addison's 3rd Birthday!!

2011-01-08T22:15:00.000-07:00

We've been celebrating Addie's birthday for three days straight pretty much! Well, the past three days, and also last Sunday...so um she may start thinking that birthdays are really birthweeks. I'm okay with it though- she's got a lot of people who love her and spoil her and want to get in on the celebrating. Jed went out of town Friday and today, her actual birthday, so we called Thursday her birthday. Hey, she's 3, she doesn't know if it's the 6th or the 8th right?

Addie started the day by coming downstairs and opening some presents from me and Jed and seeing her balloons and streamers hung everywhere. She was excited!

She LOVES tea sets, baking stuff and play food....no idea why ;)

After she played for a bit, she and I made some PINK blueberry muffins for breakfast.

Ashley was here and helped me set some stuff up that morning and prep for her friend princess party. We took her to preschool, along with mini cupcakes for her class (more on preschool in a later post)

and then kept on decorating and getting everything ready.

There were princess things EVERYWHERE and LOTS of PINK!

The party favors- personalized crown-shaped cookies tied with a little wand.

Since Addie has a lot of little princesses and princess barbies, we used it all to decorate

Somehow I didn't remember to take many pictures of the decorations......

Probably because I took SO many of the mini-cakes that Ash and I made.

I have to say, these turned out as cute as I'd hoped and imagined they would. The idea popped into my head at 4am on day when I was wide awake with pregnancy insomnia. They were almost too cute to eat :)

Ashley did me a solid and wore my Snow White costume for the party

Addie was so happy about it! Of course she had already demanded to wear her Aurora dress too.

I should clarify, Ashley didn't just come dressed up.....I had her hide from the other girls upstairs till they were all there then I announced I had a special friend there....look at the girls reactions. Love it.

Kallie (in yellow) was terrified at first and a few were stand-offish but warmed up eventually.

It was very cute. They really thought she was Snow White!

She gave them all princess crowns and then invited them to the table for a princess tea party!

Addie loved it...well she loves pb&j and lemonade so I couldn't really lose there. Plus she loves tea parties. We have pretend ones daily.

The girls all sipped their "tea" and ate some snacks

Then it was time for cake! Look how excited Addie was to eat her Snow White cake!

Love it!

I swear it took her like 4 minutes to blow out 3 candles...so dainty ;)

The girls ate their cakes while the adults snacked, chatted and played Paparazzi

Then Addie opened her presents, with assistance from her guests. It was funny, they all helped her rip them open. Then they all preceded to play with the toys. It was a lot of fun for the girls it seemed.

I tried and failed to get a great shot of all the girls with Snow White. This is the best I got.

Still cute.

So....about 5 minutes after the second to last little princess left, I remembered that I never brought out the pinata! Addie has been asking for one for months for her birthday. At that point we figured we may as well break it open. So she and Eden took some whacks at it with the light saber (worlds colliding? lol)

We knew it wasn't going to break and eventually Jed just broke it open- oooh CANDY!

It was such a fun party. The girls were all so darling! We've got a fun little group of neighborhood girls and it was fun to have them and a couple other little friends celebrate with us.

Thanks for all who came!!

Yesterday, Addie told me "I think it's still my birthday though" Hey why not kid, live it up.

Grandma and Grandpa Rees came over and she got another fun present and played with them for awhile.

She spent the rest of the evening putting a baby my little pony to sleep and potty in her little house.

This morning, we celebrated her birthday, yes again...by going to breakfast with her aunts (Jed's sisters and our sister in law) and Jed's parents. I'm glad that she embraced her birthday being a whole weekend so I could still have her actual birthday be a little special.

Me and my princess...yes, my little girl wore a crown to breakfast. Oh, and a tutu skirt.

Addie with her cousins, Tristan and Emmett

After that we went to Jed's parents' house so they could give her a present

She was so excited about her new kitchen

and also about bubble wrap.

That about sums up the birthday celebrating! Wow, after blogging this I think I have an idea why I'm so tired today! I loved throwing Addie parties, playing with her and having family and friends share it with us!

3 years ago this minute....

2011-01-08T07:53:00.000-07:00

My baby girl was born. Addison has brought more joy and love to our lives than we ever thought possible. I love her with all my heart! We've been celebrating her birthday all week long and will continue to play today. I have lots of fun pictures to share from her friend Princess party :)

Here's a quick snapshot from her first day right after preschool. We celebrated her big-girl moment with a Jamba Juice. Love her and thank my Heavenly Father for her every day.

Happy Birthday to my beautiful girl!

Wait, when did this happen?

2011-01-02T22:05:00.000-07:00

It's been brought to my attention in the past few weeks that I have an almost three year old! I'm seriously in awe that three years have gone by since she was the one in my belly. I think registering her in a preschool this week was the kicker. I constantly tell her that she's not big enough for school (meaning elementary) so she's a little confused now as to how she's big enough for preschool. I hear ya kid...I don't know how it's possible either! We took her to Target to pick out a backpack and she now wears it around the house. I think she's excited and I hope that she'll do well on Tuesday when I take her (heck, I hope that I'll do well) She isn't napping anymore, so I think it'll be a good 2-hour break in the day to fill in some boredom of winter. I obviously have mixed emotions about it. I think we both need it, but I also know that it means she's growing up even faster than I thought possible.....okay let's table this whole topic before I cry and get the cookie dough out of my fridge.

Here's what Addie has been up to

She's still loving her letter/chalk board....notice her backpack on :)

She now has long hair to the middle of her back

I still haven't ever cut it, other than her bangs....and I don't foresee me doing it anytime soon

Loves being silly

She likes to take the Mr. Potato Head pieces and put them on herself instead of the potato. Weirdo. Usually it's the Vadar pieces. This time she was being a monkey with the ears and mouth.

Embraces technology

I was shocked to see how quick she picked up on using an Ipad this week. She wants one now. For real. Um, sorry kid, if one of us gets one, it won't be you ;)

Could play outside all day- even when it's freezing cold!

Making snow angels with Grammy

"Ice skating" with daddy yesterday (holy seriously COLD!)

the area behind our house filled with rain water on Wednesday which then froze over.

So it has become our own little ice rink. Sweet! I pulled the carrying a baby card and didn't participate.

Acting out scenes from movies while watching them

This was Jed's proudest dad moment thus far. She picked up his/her light saber and did Luke's whole routine as he was fighting Vadar. It was pretty accurate and very funny. (sorry light saber fights are blurry)

Looking forward to being a big sister

Baby Dalton at 28 weeks.

Today we began celebrating her birthday, which is Saturday.

We had some cake and ice cream up at Grammy Dawn & Papa Steve's house

She said she wanted the giant cupcake to be PINK

and she wore her cute tutu skirt that Grammy got her for Christmas

poor girl had a tummy ache when we got there,

but after some Ashy cuddles and a trip to the potty she was good to go :)

She told us on the way up that we were having a party, but that it's not really her birthday.

We opened some presents and visited with family. It was fun and simple.

I'm looking forward to/having anxiety about the upcoming week with Addie. Preschool, a princess friend party and more birthday fun to come!