Bridget's Preschool Graduation

The whole concept of "preschool graduation" is kind of funny to me since they didn't seem to exist when I was a kid, but now they seem to be all the rage. And Bridget actually still has one more year of preschool before starting kindergarten, but all of the kids "graduate" even if they still have a year left. It would make more sense to just call it an end of the year program and let those kids who are moving on to kindergarten "graduate," but then you might have a bunch of kids having meltdowns if everything isn't equal. Oh well. It was a fun event nonetheless.

Here she is ready to perform

And here she is quite proud of herself afterward

Here's a video of the Macarena Months song they sang:

And here's a video of her getting her graduation cap while sharing her answers to some questions her teacher asked her beforehand. You may need to turn your volume way up to hear it well enough:

Congratulations on finishing your first of MANY years of school, Bridget!

Memorial Day Family Outing

It's been a couple of years since we've visited Temple Square, so we decided it was time to go again. Here's the girls in front of the Salt Lake Temple

The four of us in front of the reflection pool
In front of the Christus statue at the Visitors Center (I should mention this was Felicity's favorite part because she loves pictures and statues of Jesus. She kept running up to it and pointing and even tried to climb up a couple of times before we pulled her away).

We even went on a tour of the Conference Center

Overall we had perfect weather and a great time together as a family.

Bridget's Half Birthday

Bridget is now officially 4.5 years old. Most people assume she's at least 5 when they see her because she's so tall for her age, but sadly she still has another year before she starts kindergarten thanks to having a fall birthday.

Right now, she loves playing outside and riding her bike, playing games with anyone who'll play with her, dancing, singing (including making up her own songs), and drawing. She continues to be a great big sister and loves playing with Felicity, although there's starting to be a little more fighting now that Felicity expresses her dislikes and frustrations to her often bossy older sister. She also loves to have books read to her and is really into the Berenstain Bears right now. She prefers spending time with Mom and is into doing everything I do such as cleaning, putting on make-up, carrying a purse around, helping in the kitchen, and getting her nails painted. As girly as she is, she still enjoys wrestling with Dad too. She loves treats and chocolate, so we couldn't pass up the opportunity to make some cupcakes to celebrate her half-birthday. She picked chocolate with peanut butter frosting. Yay for being four and a half!

Nate's 3rd Half-Marathon & Bridget's 1st Race

Once again, Nate completed Ogden's Half-Marathon! His goal was to complete it in under 2 hours and he did it! Here's his official stats:

Time: 1:59:15

Overall: 1070 out of 3193

Men: 567 out of 1132

Men 35-39: 145 out of 286

Here's Nate with the girls after the race. Felicity is so wiggly these days that this is the best picture we got.

Personally, I think I deserve a medal for getting myself and both girls ready (including breakfast) and to the finish line by 9 am. It was a very stressful morning for me, and I drove like mad trying to get there in time to see him finish, I had a feeling all of my effort would be in vain and we wouldn't make it. Amazingly we did, but just barely. I was pushing the stroller and trying to get Bridget to walk as fast as she could as I tried to find a place for us to stand when I happend to see Nate about 50 feet from the finish. So I saw him cross, but the girls did not.

After Nate's race, we headed home for a couple of hours so Felicity could get a good nap before we had to head back for Bridget's Kids' K. For over a year, she's been begging to run a race, and she finally got her wish. She kept changing her mind about who would run it with her, but in the end, I convinced her to choose Nate since he informed he was going to feel bad about it if she didn't. That was fine by me since I don't really love running.

Here she is in the middle of her race (Nate ran a few feet ahead of her several times to take some pictures):And here's the shot I took of both of them just before the finish while Felicity and I cheered Bridget on:Since Bridget didn't get a medal for her race, she decided it would be okay of she and Nate shared his.

Mother's Day

This was the first Mother's Day since I've been a mom that we spent the day together just as our little family. Usually we get together for dinner with Nate's extended family, but it was nice to do our own thing this time.

We had church first thing in the morning, so I spent the morning trying to hurry and get us all out the door on time. At church they gave all the women pots with soil and Forget Me Not flower seeds along with the copy of a talk by the same title by Deiter F. Uchtdorf. I remember how much I loved that talk when he gave it to the women of our church and the way it made me feel. Sometimes I need that reminder to be more patient with myself. I need to be happy with where I'm at in life right now and not always waiting to find happiness when certain things or events occur.

The rest of the day we just spent together. Bridget was so excited for Mother's Day and had been asking me for weeks when this day would finally get here. I loved seeing her excitement and the special things she tried to do for me that day including wrapping my gift herself. It wasn't what she wanted to give me, but it was what I wanted (a hand vac). She was so sweet to think of a gift for me, but it was more money than I wanted Nate to spend. She remembered me telling her a while back that I used to play the flute, but that I didn't have it anymore. It got left at my parents' house, and from there I have no idea what happened to it. She really wanted to give me a new flute, and I must admit her thoughtfulness brought tears to my eyes just as it did to hers as Nate explained to her that it was too expensive of a gift.

That afternoon we made it to the cemetery to put flowers on my mom's grave. I must admit that it's times like this that I really miss her. I can't believe it's been almost 11 years already. I wish so much that my girls could know her, but pictures and stories will have to suffice. I'm just grateful she was such a wonderful example of motherhood for me to follow. I know that as a child, I wasn't always the best and certainly didn't always agree with her parenting, but now I see a lot of wisdom in the things she said and did. She must have done a lot of things right since all 7 of us seem to have turned out pretty well.

I love my girls so much, and am so grateful Heavenly Father trusted me with their spirits and allowed me to be their mother. Sometimes I feel like I'm far from perfect, but I'm so grateful for all that I get to learn in the process. I've certainly learned more patience and have a better understanding of sacrifice. More than anything, I'm grateful for the love I feel for them and from them every single day.

Baby Animal Days

Since both of our girls love animals (not sure where they got that from because Nate and I don't), we decided to go to a local event called Baby Animal Days. There were a ton of people there, so the lines were long and we didn't have a lot of time which means we didn't really get our money's worth. At least the girls enjoyed the little they did get get see and touch. Bridget's favorite was the ponies, and they even had a place for kids to ride horses and ponies. Sadly, that line was really long, and Bridget was disappointed that she didn't get to ride one. Here's a little of what we did see:

Felicity liked the chick and even tried to give it a kiss.

Bridget was a little afraid to hold the chick at first and gave it back pretty quickly.

Felicity loved the bunnies.

Favorite Play Places

Wouldn't you play inside a kitchen cabinet and toy box if you could fit in there? Felicity seems to think it's pretty fun. She can't always get out of the toy box by herself, so she hollers for help when she's ready to get out. And she's thinks she's pretty funny when she closes the cabinet doors while she's inside so she can play peek-a-boo.  We certainly love her and her little personality!

Easter

Trying to get a picture of the girls together in their Easter outfits was no easy task since Felicity is constantly on the move, so this was the best we got. With their size differences, I had a hard time finding matching dresses I liked, so I ended up making them matching skirts and buying shirts. They look pretty cute, if I say so myself.

 We did our usual thing for Easter this year - went to church and then to Nate's Aunt Linda's house for dinner and an Easter egg hunt. Bridget loved the hunt, but Felicity didn't quite catch on. She picked up a few, but was happy to just play with them. Bridget, Megan, and I also dyed eggs the day before, but I forgot to take any pictures. Bridget loves to dye eggs so it was a good thing I had to make a bunch of deviled eggs for Sunday dinner.

Happy Easter!

Felicity's 1st Birthday

My baby is one!!!

My favorite thing about first birthdays is the whole cake part. I love making cakes, eating cake, and most of all watching my little one get her first taste of some sugary deliciousness. Her she is stripped down to just her diaper not knowing the mess that awaited her.

She wasn't quite sure what to think of the whole thing so Bridget stepped in to offer some encouragement.

And here she is near the end. Cake and frosting everywhere. :)

She didn't show much interest in the gift opening which surpised me (it was getting late and I think she was a bit tired at that point). Bridget was once again happy to step in and help. They both loved the alphabet train Nate and I gave her.
At 12 months she:

• Continues to be a monkey and climbs on anything she can. It was only a matter of minutes before she was standing rather than sitting on her train. She also loves to climb on the step stool in the main bathroom.
• Only sleeps through the night a couple of times a week but I'm really hoping that's going to improve once those 1-year molars finally come through. They've been bothering her for a few weeks now and the bottom two are ready to break through at any moment.
• Makes the sounds "Da-da," "Ma-ma," and "Ba."
• Still loves to cuddle blankets and stuffed animals
• Is starting to figure out how to go down stairs but prefers to try it forward facing. She's okay for one or two steps but isn't quite ready to master going down all of them yet. At least she's good to swing the baby gate shut herself if we leave it open, and then we just have to latch it.
• Loves being outside, going down the slide, and getting into mischief including running into the street much too often.
• Would live off of crackers if I let her but also likes sweet potatoes (only mashed not cubed), bananas, peas, and grapes.
• Has great comprehension such as walking to her closet and sitting down when I tell her we need to get her shoes on, walking to her bedroom when I tell her it's naptime or time to get pajamas on, and going into the bathroom when it's bathtime.

Her stats from her doctor's appointment were:

Height:30.5 inches (88th percentile)

Weight: 21 lbs. 13 oz. (62nd percentile)

Head: 17.6 inches (38th percentile)

Field Trip to the Childrens' Muesum

For this month's filed trip, Bridget's preschool went to the local childrens' museum. We hadn't been there since her 2nd birthday, and it really hadn't changed that much. Obviously, she was too little to remember it, so she was so excited to see and do everything. She truly spent the whole time running from one thing to the next, and sometimes it was hard to keep up with her.

At the end, the kids gathered together to act out and listen to the story of The Three Little Pigs. Bridget got to play the part of the 3rd pig (she's the one with her head down).

Lucky for us, the museum gave out coupons for free admission at the end which means we'll be going back again this summer.

Nature Center Family Outing

Several months ago I purchased a Groupon for the local Nature Center knowing that we wouldn't get around to using it until the spring. Nate hadn't been there since he was a kid, and I'd never been there, so we weren't exactly sure what to expect but it turned out to be a fun family afternoon.

It was nice weather, but since it's still early in the spring we hardly saw another soul the whole time we were there. We started out at the visitors' center where Bridget saw her highlight of the trip - a tiny owl named Gidget. Not only was Gidget the cutest little owl, but Bridget took a special liking to her simply because their names rhyme.

The rest of our time was spent walking the trails. The only wildlife we saw were the several birds they have in a caged area (eagles, pelican, owls, etc.) and a couple of turkeys that roam the grounds. Felicity didn't seem to mind the bumpy stroller ride too much until the last few minutes which worked out well since Bridget decided she was too tired to walk anymore. So Bridget squeezed into the stroller while Felicity road back on Nate's shoulders. It was nice to get a little exercise, get out and enjoy the weather and nature, and do something memorable as a family.

11 Months

I cannot believe my baby is almost one. I feel like I just gave birth to her. Sometimes I wish time would slow down just a little. Instead I have to savor each moment, including this one:
This girl will not leave anything in our kitchen alone, especially this cabinet. Sadly, I was standing right next to her making some cookies when it happened. I knew she was up to something when she was really quiet for a few minutes, and I couldn't help but shriek when I looked down and saw the mess she made. Then I decided it was better to laugh and grab the camera. My laughter continued even when she started to cry because she decided cake flour didn't taste that great...

Here's some highlight's from the past month:

• Her walking has improved even more, so she's speedy even with shoes on now.
• She learned to climb onto our brick fireplace hearth, much to my dismay. Several times every day she'll start to do it, and I'll tell her no. She'll get a huge grin on her face and keep her leg in position while I tell her no a few more times. Then she'll smile and put it down. I love how she thinks she's funny as she tests her boundaries.
• She got 2 more teeth on the bottom for a grand total of eight.
• She learned to blow kisses and almost always blows them (without being asked) while getting her diaper changed.
• She continues to love playing with Bridget, and Bridget loves playing with her. Yea!
• Her hair is continuing to fill in and is getting curlier every day. She's definitely going to have an afro just like Bridget did as a toddler.
• She's currently battling her millionth cold...okay, maybe it's more like her 8th or 9th, but it feels like her millionth. Poor girl, between teething and colds, she only sleeps completely through the night once in a while. She still tends to wake up once most nights, and we usually give her a bottle simply because it's hard to get her to drink enough formula during the day.

I love this video. Miraculously, she waved and blew kisses on command. She certainly is a sweetheart!

Field Trip to the Fun Center

For this month's field trip, Bridget got to go with her preschool class to a nearby Fun Center. At first I was a little skeptical about how educational this trip would actually be, but it ended up being a good mix of learning and fun.

The kids started off learning a little about bowling. Each child bowled a couple of frames, and then they got to go behind the lanes to see how the machines work. I even learned something new. Did you know bowling balls come without the finger holes in them? They drill the holes into them themselves. The also got to hold a bowling pin to check out its size and weight.

The next part of our tour was going into the kitchen to see how they make their pizzas.

While they waited for the pizzas to bake, each child got to sample a flavor of ice cream. Bridget chose birthday cake and seemed happy with her choice.
I didn't take any pictures of the next part of the tour - walking through the glow-in-the-dark mini-golf.

At this point, the kids finally got to eat their pizza before heading to what probably ended up being the favorite activities for everyone - the bounce house and trampolines. Thankfully, they didn't eat too much beforehand.

Bridget had a blast and can hardly wait to go back as a family.

Valentine's Day

We certainly don't go all out when it comes to Valentine's Day at our house. In fact, Nate and I never have and probably never will go fight the crowds to go out to eat for the occasion. And I've made him promise to never waste the money to pay the outrageous prices they charge for flowers. We don't even exchange gifts. BUT...I do like to do some simple things as a family and make it fun for our kids.

We started off the day with some heart-shaped raspberry pancakes. Nothing fancy really. I just blended up some raspberries and mixed them in with the pancake mix and some water. I had visions of doing something a little fancier, but Bridget had preschool that morning so we kept it quick and easy. We all thought they were delicious - even Felicity.
Bridget was also pretty excited to give Nate the Valentine we made for him the day before. I found this idea on Pinterest and loved how cute and easy it was:
Bridget was also excited for her Valentine's party at preschool. I found a bunch of cute ideas on Pinterest yet again and let her choose what she wanted to give out to her classmates. This cute dinosaur valentine filled with conversation hearts and white chocolate covered pretzels was her final pick:
For dinner that night, I also didn't do anything fancy - just some heart-shaped grilled cheese sandwiches with a copy-cat recipe of Zupa's Wisconsin Cauliflower Cheese Soup:
I had plans of making a fun treat, but we had too many other treats around so I opted not to. Maybe next year.

10 Months

Little Miss Felicity is quite the busy girl these days toddling from room to room and making messes faster than a tornado. She gets into cupboards and drawers that Bridget never even touched as a baby or toddler. So even though I have to watch her like a hawk and am grateful for a second pair of eyes (a.k.a. Bridget) to help me, she continues to be a very good baby - just really, really curious.

I love her expression as I caught her getting into that cupboard for the millionth time. It's like she just wanted to say, "What? I just need that bottle of corn syrup again." And I've just completely given up on the plastic containers. That drawer will remain a mess, and all containers and lids have to be washed prior to use.

She's definitely improving on her walking skills and holds her arms up for balance a little less. Falls are still frequent though because she likes to go faster than her little legs are ready for at times. At least she's now able to get to a standing position by herself without pulling up on anything. I've put shoes on her a few times, and at first she just cried and refused to move in them. She still doesn't like them much and falls a lot more in them, so hopefully that will improve soon. Here's a video of some recent walking action and standing up on her own:

In the past month, Felicity's also acquired 2 more teeth (one on each side of her top front teeth) for a grand total of 6 now. And she also survived another cold. After the cold ended and the teeth popped through, she finally started sleeping through the night again. Wahoo! She generally goes to bed around 7:30pm and sleeps for 12-13 hours. If she does wake up, it's only once after she's been sleeping for at least 8 hours, and she goes right back to sleep after a diaper change and a bottle.

As we continue to see more of her personality emerge, I have to laugh at how she is so much like me and Bridget is so much like Nate. For example, Bridget is a total morning person like her dad. If Felicity wakes up for the day before 8am, she's going to be crabby most of the day. I'm also not a morning person and am in a much better mood when I get to sleep in until 8:00 as well.

She's also starting to like books and will actually sit still and listen to a board book for a minute or two. She has a particular favorite:

She loves looking at all the animals and feeling them. We call this her puppy book. I was shocked and amazed a few days ago when I was finishing up with Bridget in the bathtub and told Felicity to go get her puppy book in an effort to keep her away from the tub. She toddled off to her bedroom and returned a couple of minutes later with it in hand, ready for me to read it to her.

Another cute thing she does at nap time or bed time, is wave bye-bye. She doesn't always do it on command, but if she's really ready to go to sleep and you ask her if she's ready for a nap or to go night-night, she'll start waving and/or put her head on your shoulder.

We are so blessed to have this cute, smart girl in our family.

Fire Station Field Trip

When I met with Bridget's preschool teacher last spring before I decided to enroll her, I asked how many field trips the kids go on, and she said about one a month. Sadly, that has not been the case. Here it is January, and this is only the 2nd field trip they've gone on this year. Anyway, I was happy to be able to go with her on this one as we toured our city's fire department.

Her teacher actually has 3 different classes, so there were about 24 kids there. Here's a picture of her class together sitting on the front of the ladder truck.
The kids had the opportunity to walk through part of the ladder truck, walk through an ambulance (Bridget thought that was pretty cool), see the inside of the fire station where the firemen sleep, eat, and hangout, and see, hear, and touch the fireman while he had all of his gear on.
I also really appreciated the lessons in fire safety - not playing with matches, having a meeting place outside for your family, stop, drop, and roll, etc. - since that's not something we've ever really discussed with Bridget.

It was also kind of cool because while we were there all of the firemen had to leave on a call with the pump truck and ambulance leaving the fire chief to do some of the instruction.

At the end, all of the kids got little plastic fireman hats, and Bridget looked pretty darn cute in hers.
Although this was not her first time in a fire truck (thanks to Grandpa being a fire chief), she had a pretty good time.

First Snowman of the Winter

Here it is January, and we finally got our first really decent snowfall of the season (as in 4-5 inches overnight). I'm by no means complaining about this because Nate and I are not snow people, but Bridget always looks forward to a chance to bundle up in her snow gear and play. She and Nate built this snowman together, but sadly it warmed up enough during the day that it toppled over by the end of it.

9 Months

I didn't think it was possible, but Felicity gets cuter every day. Her little personality is really starting to come out, and it makes me look forward to the coming months ahead. Overall, she's still pretty mellow but she's started laughing and giggling a lot more lately - especially when she's getting into mischief.

This past month has been a busy one for her as far as developmental milestones. On Dec. 22, she learned to crawl up the stairs herself. On Christmas Day she walked more than she had up to that point (5-6 steps). In the week and a half since then she's been walking more and more. She lets go of things all the time and walks anywhere from 1-6 feet. My guess is she'll be walking proficiently by the end of January. Can someone please tell her to stop growing up so fast?

Right around New Year's her top two front teeth popped through. It hasn't seemed to bother her too much...yet. I'm just grateful that another accomplishment occurred before those teeth came through - I successfully weened her about a week before Christmas. It took a lot of patience and effort to get this girl to take bottles, but I'm glad to be to that point. The timing really worked out in a lot of ways because giving her a bottle really helped on both airplane flights at Christmas, and with as sick as I got with the stomach flu, it would have been really hard for me to try and nurse her.

She still continues to do a lot of exploring around the house, and especially loves to open and play in all of the kitchen cupboards. She's also recently discovered how fun it is to play with the computer mouse and keyboard and continues to pull DVDs and books off all bookshelves. Playing with toilet paper and curtains also continues to be a favorite activity. She also LOVES taking baths and doesn't mind getting splashed or having water dumped on her head at all.

One of my favorite things lately is hearing her say "Mama" or "Mom." At first she definitely wasn't attaching it to me, but I think she's starting to, and I love it!

Her 9 month stats kind of surprised me. Her increased mobility has certainly helped her slim down, and I'm pretty sure the height measurement is a little off because she wouldn't lay down on the table very well at all to get measured.

Height: 28 in. (66th percentile)...she's probably longer than that though

Weight: 20 lbs. 6 oz. (77th percentile)

Head: 17.5 in. (64th percentile)

I love this girl! (Photo taken by Bridget)

Christmas in Portland

Coming from a big family, I'm used to having lots of people around at Christmas. Since Bridget was born, we've spent 3 Christmases right at home with our little family which was nice in some ways but made me miss my family a little. So last Christmas we decided we would plan and save so we could fly to Portland to spend Christmas with several of my family members this year. Matt, Jessica, and Colin joined us from Oklahoma, Megan came from Utah, and Mark and Mark had the pleasure of hosting everyone at their awesome house. Everyone is pictured below except for Nate and me.
It was certainly a memorable Christmas, although I'd have to say it ranks right up there as one of my worst ones ever (that's not to say it was all bad). Over the 4.5 days we were there, all 10 of us managed to get the stomach flu at various times. Poor Colin started out by throwing up on both flights on the way there. Then it passed to Jessica and Matt the next night, Megan, Mark, and Felicity on Christmas Eve day, me, Nate, and Bridget on Christmas Day, and finally Other Mark on the day after Christmas. It was kind of sad too because Megan and Jessica spent most of the 23rd making all sorts of yummy treats for us to enjoy while we were there, and then everybody lost their appetite to eat them.

Luckily, Felicity's illness was the most mild but mine was the worst. From 2am-7am Christmas morning I lived on the bathroom floor freezing and in misery. At that point I was able to move to the carpeted floor just outside the bathroom while I was waiting to try and feel well enough to make it up the stairs to open presents (everyone was kind enough to wait for me - even Bridget and that's tough for a 4-year-old). I really don't remember much after that. I was so tired from only getting a couple of hours of sleep and felt horrible. I tried my best to pay attention to Bridget as she opened her gifts. I'm just glad Bridget still felt okay at this point so she could enjoy it. Nate took pictures, and Jessica was kind enough to take care of Felicity for me during the gift opening. Here's some of what Nate took:

Just prior to the present opening, Nate started to not feel so great so the two of us spent the day laying around and napping. I think other people stepped in to take care of our kids, but I honestly don't really remember. By the afternoon, Bridget joined us and ended up throwing up almost as many times as me, so that night ended up being a rough one as well. The day after Christmas, we were feeling better but not quite right yet. Then finally the next day, we ventured out of the house to the outlet mall. That was our only excursion the whole trip (unless you count my going to the grocery store the night we got there).

We didn't take many pictures other than Christmas morning, but here's one Bridget probably took of our stockings.

We had to take a picture of Felicity and Colin in their monkey pajamas. Jessica and Nate were actually color coordinated with their jeans and brown shirts too.
Like I said, the whole trip wasn't bad. It was great to see some of my family. And as a nice end to a pretty terrible Christmas day, Felicity decided to start walking more than she ever had before. Here's a video of it:

Since we flew to Portland, we left some of our bigger Christmas presents at home to open when we got back. I loved this more than I thought I would since I ended up not enjoying much of the present opening on Christmas Day. Bridget helped Felicity open a new dress from Grandma and Grandpa.
And Bridget shrieked with delight when she opened this art desk from Grandma and Grandpa too. This girl loves to color and draw, so it was perfect.

It was certainly not the merriest of Christmases for us, but it is one we'll never forget.