My Little Kiddies

I love my kids. So much. I have been having a blast with them lately and I really need to write down some things they are doing and things that I love about them. Especially since Ammon is turning 4(are you serious?!?!) next week, and Abbie is turning 2 next month(even crazier!)

Ammon:

-I love that he loves to learn. He remembers all kinds of things. I hope it sticks with him as he grows.

-He loves Space, which is awesome because it has always been one of my interests as well

-He loves dinosaurs. He knows a ton about dinosaurs and loves watching Dinosaur Train.

-He loves cargo pants

-He loves his family

-He really looks up to his dad, and wants to be like him

-He loves Star Wars, and light sabers. It's funny because up until like a week ago he had never even really seen it, and even now has only seen parts that aren't scary or disturbing.

-I love sitting down at meal time and listening to him talk. He can have a great conversation if he's in the mood

-Today at lunch he said "today we learned about how we came to earth with the power to choose". I asked him what kinds of things he wants to choose and he said, "good, happy things." I love that he is taking in gospel lessons at home and at church. I'm glad something is sinking in.

-He wants to be a handy man when he grows up

-He can put the funniest outfits together, i.e. long sleeve shirt, shorts, snow boots, and two ties.

-He loves learning about the Army of Helaman best and loves singing the song, it's his favorite primary song.

-He enjoys doing puzzles.

-He also really likes Go Diego Go, he enjoys learning about animals: where they live, what they eat, etc.

Great kid huh? I have so much fun with him, and have always had a strong bond with him. I'm so grateful the Lord saw fit to send him to Matt and me. He is my little buddy, and always will be.

Abbie:

I am so excited to be able to write all of this because she is doing so well lately:

-She loves bubbles

-She loves take care of her baby dolls

-She loves phones(as long as they work for real)

-She loves to carry a purse around and wear her necklace

-She loves to read books

-She is starting to actually say words and sign consistently which makes me so excited! She can say: bubbles(buh-buh),hi, bye(aye, aye), mom, dad, up, and can sign: more, please, milk, again, change, all done, thank you, wave. Those of you that know how uninterested she was 6 months ago in communicating can understand how exciting this is.

-She loves real babies and kids

-She loves to follow the big kids around

-She is her dad's biggest fan. I seriously have never seen someone who is so in love with their dad! She loves me a ton, I know-she was super attached from an early age for a long time, but she is always so excited to see Matt, loves to see pictures of him, and laughs with delight when I talk to her about him. She runs to the door every time we hear the garage when daddy comes home.

-She loves to be told her hair or her clothes are pretty

-We just discovered that she really likes her Christmas Tinker Bell pj's

-She loves music

-She loves animals

-She always says "mmm!" whenever she eats something she likes

-She is rarely sad, only when she's tired really, and even then she is an expert at putting off sleep.

-She is consistently sleeping through the night, and just recently is going to sleep more on her own, which is such a tender mercy for her tired mom.

-She knows where her hair, teeth, belly button, hands, feet, and tongue are.

-She loves to say "ahh" when it's time to brush her teeth

-The way she walks and "runs" is hilarious. She leads with her head and often will put her arms behind her like a penguin, or will swing one arm and charge full steam ahead.

She is so delightful. In all honesty, there is not a day that goes by that I don't think or say to someone how adorable and funny she is. If she wasn't so awesome, there is no way she would be able to come into mom and dad's bed so many nights, because we all know how much mommy loves her sleep!

I'm glad I finally got this stuff written down. I can't express how grateful I am to be their mom, how much I love them, and how privileged I feel to be able to be home with them each day.

This year so far in a flash

Instead of trying to catch up on posts for the past 6 months, I am just going to make a list of things we have done or that have happened to us this year.

January-

Ammon's 3rd birthday. I had help from a friend for a party. We did "Ammon's Favorites" It was lots of fun! Janie's 4th Birthday. Meg did a fantastic job and the kids had a great time!

February-

Abbie's first birthday. Pretty low key, because I got burnt out with Ammon's, sad huh? We had two get togethers since Matt's parents and brother were in Hawaii on her birthday, so we got to celebrate twice! We were concerned about some of her development. We contacted Early Intervention and found out that she qualified for a teacher to come out twice a month to play with her and help her communicate, clap, wave, immitate...

Disneyland in March!

We got to take my grandma who had never been to Disneyland! We celebrated our 4 year anniversary while there, and it was a great trip despite two very sick kids. My 24th Birthday

April-

Matt's 26th birthday, My mom's birthday-we all went in on a Nook for her and she was so surprised!

May-

Mother's day and Sue's birthday we celebrated up at Wolf Creek. We stayed one night and it was great weather!

June-

Father's Day for my dad: we went up Millcreek canyon for breakfast. It was great except when Ammon slipped on the picnic bench and bit almost all the way through his lip when he bonked it on the table.

My sister gave us passes to Discovery Gateway for Christmas, so we took the kids up there and they had a great time!

Janelle and I got a zoo pass and went a few times with Meg and the kids. Had lots of fun swimming in Grandma Sue's backyard

July-

We found a house! Since looking in February we put an offer in on the second house we looked at in West Jordan. Not too far away, pretty much everything we wanted, affordable, and perfect size yard for our lack of experience. Everything went so smoothly! The seller let us take all of the appliances, and she had replaced the carpet, the furnace, painted and done many other things, which is great because we are newbies and would have had a rough time if we would have gotten into a fixer-upper. We moved in July 19. Love the ward and the neighborhood! We got some family pictures taken and had some fun times bbqing.

August-

Lots of fun play groups with the great moms in my ward. We went to Donut Falls, Cecret Lake, Bingham Copper Mine and Copperton Park, Twin Lakes, Temple Square. It was great exercise and Ammon was a great hiker!

My dad's birthday. What an adventure! We were supposed to have foil dinner and roast marshmallows up the canyon, but we didn't go up high enough-thought we couldn't find them, went up and down 4 times, and finally went home. Sharon came down to the mouth so she could call us and we at least made it up for cake!

We also bought a car! Our Kia kept having problems-we think it was a lemon that couldn't be proven a lemon. Instead or forking out more money and dealing with an incompetent dealership we decided to trade it in for a mini-van. We splurged and got a brand new Honda Odyssey. It gets better gas mileage, has room for growth without sacrificing trunk space. I LOVE IT!!!!!

September-

Another Disneyland trip-this time with all the Cases! It was filled with lots of memories, some good, some bad- but that's how most vacations are, right?? We got to visit some good friends in Oceanside and Matt went body-boarding. We ate at a cute restaurant on the pier and got to watch the sunset and see a beautiful full rainbow. We watched the World of Color which is amazing, ate Breakfast with the Characters, and enjoyed an unseasonably hot, but fun Disneyland vacation!

I know I'm forgetting things, but it's a pretty good summary. It's been a fun year and we are so happy to have great family, friends(old and new), and a house that we love and feel at home in.

I look forward to more great memories!

Catch up-I'm way behind!

I'm just now doing a post about Christmas....How sad. I figured even though it's so late I would put up the pictures, because we've had some good ones. Christmas was great, it was so fun with the kids, and wonderful to spend time with family. The End.

Hilarious Ammon

Ammon has been saying some great things lately:

"Mom, I want a washing machine for Christmas so I can wash my own cwothes"

At the Case Christmas party Grandma and Grandpa were opening a massager that had a long handle, Ammon saw it and said "Hooray! A Toiwet scwubbew!!!"

Matt got this phrase from his dad: often when I ask Matt why he's doing something he'll respond by saying "making little girls ask questions, and you know what? It works every time!" The other day Matt took Ammon to the store with him for some Christmas shopping and Ammon somehow got a hold of some scissors and was cutting the air with them. Matt soon noticed and took them and asked Ammon why he was doing that, to which Ammon replied "making big daddies ask questions, and you know what? It works every time!" Just passing on the traditions....

Abbie is now crawling on all fours and has started using sign language for "all done" and "more" it's pretty much the same sign for both, but she knows she's trying to communicate, and we know and that's what's most important.

We're super excited for Christmas, posts will follow with hopefully lots of pictures!!!!

Abbie Update

A quick update on Abbie's 9 mos appt last week:

Height: 28 1/2''--------80%

Weight: 17lbs 9 oz. -----25%

HC: 42 1/4 cm------8%

Cute little head, ha ha!

She's doing pretty well. She's not babbling really yet which makes me a little concerned but she's such a contended little things and loves to play on the floor. She is a really happy baby and is getting a lot better at letting other people hold her besides mom and dad. She's "army crawling" she is mostly dragging her body with her strong arms...she's getting better at using her legs. I wonder if she'll start crawling soon because she likes to pull her knees under her a lot. She still loves rolling around and is an expert at sitting herself up from laying down. I have been more worried about her growth because she's not pulling to stand and not saying any consonants and a couple of other things. The Dr. said to watch her but that she's not too concerned because she seems to be a pretty chill baby in that she is content for longer maybe than some other babies so she's not in a rush to always be trying new things. I have to keep reminding myself that babies develop different things at different times and not compare so much.

She loves eating big girl food. She absolutely loves Ammon and he loves her. He is a great big brother. These kids are just the cutest. I'm loving being able to stay home and play with them everyday. Ammon protects Abbie by moving garbage cans that she scoots to and always is looking out for her.

Ammon is saying the funniest things. He is great to talk to. The other day he told my sister that if there are bad guys he will get them, and if they hurt him, his daddy will protect him. He and his dad are my protectors and I love them for it. He's got a stellar memory and loves reading books. We live in a musical at our house and it's awesome to listen to him go around singing all day.

We're all doing pretty well. Matt and I have made a debt elimination calendar and we're so excited to be out of debt and working towards our own home and another car. Matt has a huge deadline tomorrow at work, so he's been working 14 days. We've missed him a lot but we're so proud that he works so hard for us. Hopefully he passes his certification tomorrow so that he can come home and do fun Christmas things with us.

Hello? Is anyone there?

I haven't blogged in quite a while, and frankly, I haven't felt like it. Especially because our camera broke. Sometimes because Ammon listens so well and understands so much I tend to forget that he's still a 2 year old and should just not be allowed to play with some things-like our camera. lol. He apparently really like the lens cap thing that would automatically open and close as the camera turned on and off. He liked to help it open- ha ha. He brought it to me and said, "mom, I think it's broken."

So I feel like my blog is boring to people without pictures, hence the lack of blogging...

The last couple of weeks have been full of sick people, and I'm sick of it. Ammon got a bad cough and was up most nights, then when he started doing better Abbie got a cold which maybe was a virus, because then she got a fever and roseolla rash. Then she got croup. Poor little thing was miserable. For those of you who know her, you know that Abbie CANNOT hold still. Well she did when she was sick which told me how miserable she really felt. Poor little thing just sat on my lap and fell asleep all day everyday and then was up crying all night. Needless to say mom was pretty miserably tired. Well, the kids are doing better, now Matt is sick and I have a stuffy nose. Ahh, the change of seasons...

Not too much has happened. Little Abbie is our "ooo" baby. She absolutely LOVES hearing, and saying "ooo" If you say "ooo" to her ,even if she doesn't say it back, she puts her little tiny bird lips in formation of a perfect o. She loves to play and roll around on the floor. I wonder if she'll even crawl because she can just roll wherever. She's started to scoot around on her little bum to rotate herself. She loves looking at dogs, she loves Ammon, and she loves her mommy and daddy. She is getting better about other people holding her. She doesn't cry right away anymore. I have started giving her finger food which she loves. She's a very happy baby now and quite content most of the time. We love her so much. I never put Abbie's 6 months stats up. So now that her 9 mos. appt. is at the end of this month, perhaps I'll put them up...

6 mos.

weight- 15 lbs 9 oz ..........45%

height- 27 in.....................90%

head- 41 cm......................15%

Ammon is a little smartie. He loves to ask "why". He asks it all the time until he understands something and then talks to himself in the car explaining and going through all the things he's learned. I love talking with him. We talk all day everyday and he remembers what I explain to him and loves explaining it all to whoever will listen. He is very particular about the way things are done and has taken after his mommy in bossing people around while he plays with them. He loves reading books. Currently his favorites are the "If you give a mouse a cookie" books. I love reading with him. He loves playing in "houses"/forts, anything that you can put blankets, pillows, toys, etc. in. He loves football and he loves his baby sister.

I am really enjoyed playing in the concert band. We had a concert this last saturday that went pretty well. It was a tribute to Veterans and I loved the music we played, although, if I had my way, we would not have played quite so many. I really like the people in my section, they are very kind and it's great to be building and maintaining a skill again. It's hard every week to leave, but I am always so happy when I come home. I love the fulfillment that playing and adding to making beautiful music gives me. I have started collecting movies. I love looking at the $5 section at Walmart. I really want to build up a selection of wholesome, entertaining movies for our family to watch.

I can't believe it's already November and that Christmas is close. I can't listen to the radio right now because I'm not quite ready for the Christmas songs...maybe after Thanksgiving. I do have some pictures on Sue's camera, so I'll try to get them up soon.

Ward Challenge!

Challenge:

Read the Book of Mormon by March 28 (my birthday!). I have a little bit of catching up to do already! But that's only because we were out of town when they gave us the challenge.

I'm excited! Read the quote by Pres. Benson on my Principle of the Day, powerful!