{FoR tHe LoVe......}

.....of BOOKS!!! Ayden and Zoe both have a love of books! I'm not sure if every kid is like this or if it's because we started shoving books down their throats as soon as they came home from the hospital when they were 3 days old!?!!? Just kidding, but we have been reading books to them every night since they were brand new babies! I remember being so frustrated with them when they were just under a year old and I would try to read them a book and they couldn't sit still for more than 3.7 seconds....but we just kept on reading and I guess it has paid off!! The teacher in me loves this and I really hope that they can continue this passion
throughout school!

Zoe, I think, would much rather read a book than play with a toy. She is now at the stage where she will get a book, sit down and "read" through the pages! I was amazed at her the other day when I sat down to read her a book....I left off the last couple words on every page and she could finish the lines!! There are a couple books now that she can do that to. She loves to grab a book, bring it to me, says she wants to "sit in this lap" and climbs up on my lap to sit through the story.....and this repeats over and over until we have gone through a handful of books!

Ayden is the same way. In fact, they fight over my lap when it's story time! Ayden is starting to be really good and looking at the pictures and "telling the story" through the pictures, which is a great pre-reading strategy!! He, like Zoe, has a couple books that he has memorized....his favorite one being, "I Hate Bedtime"! His newest obsession is books on tape. Last weekend, I found a tub of tapes and CD's of books we have from back when I was teaching and ordered so many books from Scholastic book orders! I brought them out, showed him how they work and he hasn't stopped listening since! He found a few of the books that match the tape and he will sit there for an hour listening and turning the pages for book after book after book!

Today we went to story time at the library! They LOVE to go to the library...we haven't been in a while, but after today I realized we need to get there every week! They love to check out new books and look around at everything! Today, I got to drop Ayden off at the "preschooler story time" to go to by himself and Zoe and I went in the next room for "Itty Bitty story time" for her age! It actually worked out perfect!! Ayden found a little buddy from church to go in with and I loved being able to sit with just Zoe and sing songs and listen to books. I realized I don't ever get to do anything with JUST her and it was nice for a change! She enjoyed the full on attention! After almost 2 hours at the library, they both had a blast and it was time to come home for lunch!! Now it's naptime for Zoe and movie time for Ayden so Mommy can have an hour and a half to work on my To-Do List.....or just relax....that sounds much nicer!!

{sLoW dOwN}

I don't know what it is, but Ayden is literally growing before my eyes and it makes me want to cry! Maybe this is a stage where they have a huge growth spurt....I don't know?!?!?!



This morning when I was getting him dressed for school, we tried on TWO pairs of pants that didn't fit....it's not that they were just a little bit short, but they were so far above his ankle that it looked like he was waiting for a flood!! Lately, I have also felt like I am feeding a growing teenager that just came home from burning a ton of calories at football practice.....he eats so so much!! He wants to eat all day long....as soon as we finish a meal, he wants something else. I swear that he eats more than I do! Also, he often wakes up in the middle of the night saying his legs hurt....gotta love those growing pains!! I try to tell him that if he would just stop growing that it would stop hurting his legs!! He needs new clothes like every other day....I think from now on, I need to buy EVERYTHING at least one size too big!



We literally talk about this every day. I am constantly telling him that he needs to stop growing and that he is getting way too big. He tells me that I just need to let him grow because he wants to go to Kindergarten and wants to be big like his Daddy some day!



And when I dropped him off at school today, I walked him into his classroom, helped him get his lunch out and kissed him goodbye. He wiped off my kiss and gave me a big smile!! I know it won't be long before he is asking me to drop him off 2 blocks away from the school. And I know that there is NOTHING I can do about him changing and growing right now, but Ayden, please slow down and let Mommy enjoy a few more years of this handsome little fella that I used to be able to love, snuggle, kiss and squeeze as much as I wanted to!!!

{oUr BiG 2 yEaR oLd}

Last weekend, my friend Carrie took Zoe's 2 year pics. I love having a friend that does photography so that I can have my kids pictures taken all the time and don't have to spend a fortune doing it! It's always fun to have current family pictures and pictures of the kids and to have people come to our house and make comments about how lucky we are to have such a good photographer when they see the pics on the walls!

It was a crazy day....I had both kids with me, we went to 3 locations, changed Zoe's clothes 3 times, tried really really hard to get Zoe to smile and be happy since this was right at the beginning stages of her UTI, tried to keep Ayden OUT of the pictures this time, The highlight had to be when we snuck into a park that wanted to charge us $10 just to get our cars in! It was the end of the day, it was getting dark and Zoe had a little accident (thanks to the UTI) in the $170 Matilda Jane outfit that Carrie let us borrow for pictures! And then I had to go find a disgusting park bathroom and put Zoe's nice clean little bum on a disgustingly, dirty toilet seat for her to finish up! And then we discovered there was no soap.....I couldn't run back to my car fast enough to find some hand sanitizer!! Carrie and I left our cars right there at the entrance to the park and discreetly got out all the goods for our final pictures.....a wrought iron table, 2 chairs, a tea set, a stuffed puppy and a pretty Zoe! Nothing like being very discreet when you are sneaking into a place! I'm so glad we did it though because the tea party pictures turned out so cute and they are sooooo Zoe!! :) What a crazy day, but oh the things we will do to get some priceless pictures of our little ones!! Thanks Carrie!!!

I had a hard time picking my favorites, but here they are.....

{sLeEp}

Jeremiah and I consider ourselves lucky because we have been blessed with 2 kids with the best sleeping habits. We have heard horror stories from friends through the years about kids that have to sleep in the parent's beds or stay up until 10 pm or need someone to lay with them until they fall asleep.....for the most part, we have been lucky enough NOT to have these issues (knock on wood)!!! That is until we have some life changing moment (such as moving, taking away binkies, moving out of the crib) and then all of our good sleeping habits at this house go out the door!!

Right now, our issue is with Zoe and getting out of bed since she has a big girl bed and doesn't have the crib to trap her in anymore. She used to be the best sleeper....going to bed at 6:30 or 7 pm every night and sleeping until 7:30 or 8 am. The little stinker has been getting out of her bed 4 and 5 times before naps and bedtime the last couple days. And she is very smart and has already learned how to manipulate....every time that she comes out, she says she has to go potty!! Of course, we don't send her right back to bed and she knows this will give her a few more minutes to be awake! The funny thing is that she actually DOES go potty every single time! I swear she is saving it up all day long just to be able to come out of bed 4 times to go....when she should be asleep! She knows that if she comes out of her bed, she gets her binky taken away...so she knows the drill now. She leaves her binky, blankie and babies all tucked in her bed, she opens the door and walks out of her room....and then closes the door behind her....and then she comes to find us! So that is our issue right now.....along with her waking up between 6 and 6:30 am the last few mornings (of course on the days that Ayden has decided to sleep in until almost 7 am)!! We decided that she was probably waking up this early before, but was totally contect staying in her crib until we came to get her between 7:30 and 8 am! Now that she has freedom, she is out!!

Tonight, after coming out 4 times to "go potty", she came out a 5th time and was running down the hallway, dancing and yelling, "Mommy, the ice cream man is here, the ice cream man is here"! And sure enough....the songs on the ice cream truck right outside her window were keeping her up. When I looked out the window, there was Ayden and Jeremiah buying some ice cream! So she then really freaked out and had to come down and have some ice cream with Ayden! When we came downstairs, I told Jeremiah this was the 5th time she was coming out and that I "was going to pull my hair out because of her"! Well, Zoe heard that and said, "It's ok Mommy....I will put all of your hair back for you!" Thanks Zoe.....how about you just stay in your bed instead!! =)

{tWo yEaR cHeCk-Up}

Today was Zoe's 2 year check up. It went really good. Zoe is TERRIFIED of doctors....I think she remembers back to her first few months of life when we would have to go in to the doctor's office for a weight check every other day and strip her down to her bare bum to make sure she was gaining weight because of her acid reflux. Oh how I do not miss those days one bit!

When the nurse pulled out her little ear thermometer to check Zoe's temp, Zoe JUMPED out of her skin.....she acted like someone just pulled a gun on her!! We tried a new doc that we saw a couple months ago when Ayden was sick with strep and I really love him! He was the first doctor that Zoe has ever met and she didn't shed a tear at all in front of him! He was really good with her and had Ayden do all the work. Ayden got to hold the little light thing to check her eyes, nose, mouth & ears. The doc gave Ayden all the commands to tell Zoe, such as "tell Zoe to open her mouth, tell Zoe to say 'eeeeee', tell Zoe we are going to look in her ears". Ayden was in heaven as Mr. Doctor's Assistant and Zoe really liked the fact that it was just her big bro checking her out instead of that BIG, intimidating guy in a white coat!!

She checked out good....the doc made a comment about how well she is talking and how many words she says. He asked if Ayden was a good talker like Zoe when he was her age. She weighed in at 28.5 lbs (60th percentile) and was 35.5 inches (90th percentile)! This is not surprising....we knew she was a tall girl because she is pretty much wearing all 3T clothes right now! So she went up in both height and weight since her 18 month check! I still can't believe that this is the same TINY, little girl that was in the 10th percentile for height and the 3rd percentile for weight when she was just 2 weeks old! Wow!! Guess we are doing something right!! I love that she is still a tall girl....that also amazes me since she came from a petite, little birthmom that was only a few inches over 5 feet and a birth father that was just shy of 6 foot. Maybe she will be our tall and skinny model!!

She only had to get 1 shot and a prick on the finger for an iron check. She didn't do that bad at all for the shot...just cried for a second and was happy to get a bandaid!! This was by far the easiest she has ever been at a visit. Usually she is crying so loud that I can hardly have a conversation with the doctor! Thank goodness that was not the case today!!

The doc also had to get a urine sample. Last week, we were in the doc cuz Zoe had a urinary tract infection!! It's been so sad to see her in pain when she tries to go potty and complaining all the time that her "potty and tummy hurt"!! Poor girl!! I had no idea kids this small could get one, but I did read that it is common for newly potty trained kids because they sometimes hold it in too long.....and that is definitely the case with Zoe! She will hold it for hours and hours before she goes potty!! Hopefully she learns to NOT do that so she won't get any more infections!! Anyway, luckily the infection is going away since she has been on antibiotics all week, but she is still in pain and complains all the time, which is so sad! Hopefully she will be back to her happy self soon!

{sLuMbEr PaRtY}.....

Last week for Spring Break we decided to have a "cousins slumber party" since we were all on break at the same time! Ayden literally asks me every single day if we can go to Cooper & Carter's house or if they can come to our house.....sometimes, he goes outside to ring the doorbell and then runs back in the house to pretend that he is answering the door and Cooper & Carter are on the other side! He is obsessed, so I thought this would be a great idea.....have them over, let the kids get sick of each other, send them home and not have to hear about it from Ayden for a couple weeks!

So they came on Thursday and we had lots of fun! We went swimming, played outside, played football, watched movies, got donuts, got slurpees, went to McDonald's, got ice cream, made cookies (sounds like a sugar high doesn't it?? no wonder everyone was so hyper), played, played and played some more!! Ayden had a blast...he couldn't get enough of having his cousins around all to himself!! And he was beside himself when it was bedtime and they got to stay the night AND sleep in his room!!! The slumber party was a hit!!

I love this cute, diaper free, wedgie bum bum in a bathing suit!!!

This boys were so rough in the pool....minutes later, Carter was holding Ayden underwater. I had to break up all the fun....even though they were "just playing"!!

Sugar consumption....all day long = 3 crazy boys and 1 exhausted Mommy and Auntie!!

Ayden getting lessons from big cousins on how to be a "gangsta"!! I had to ruin the moment and tell them that "gangsta's" are SO NOT COOL!!! Ha!

Football in the street.....when Ayden was asked what his favorite part about having his cousins over was, he said when they were playing football out in the front yard! The simple things.....

Poor little Zoe was kind of grumpy and we ended up taking her to the doc while they were here.....that was interesting....me and four kids at the pediatrician's office. Cooper & Carter were great and I decided to leave them in the waiting room while they played their DS! Ayden was the problem....he kept running back and forth in and out of the office to the waiting room! I wanted to strangle him, but he ran too quickly from me every time before I could reach him!!

We went to Temecula to meet up with Joe & Cara for the drop off! The kids and I were super early because there was no traffic, so we stopped at Barnes and Noble to hang out. I love taking the kids there and letting them read books in the children's area. We were there for a full hour and all 4 kids were so good! They would go get a book, come back to our spot, sit down and read it, take it back to get another book and so on!

And after dinner was this cute little train sitting in the middle of all the restaurants. We couldn't resist, so the kids went for a ride and had a blast!











So our slumber party was a hit! I thought the older boys might've been bored by the end, but when I told them it was time to go meet their parents cuz they were going home, they asked why they had to leave and if they could stay longer! Guess they DID have fun too!! Thanks for coming boys....come again soon because my plan didn't work and Ayden has been asking even more than he was before if we can see our cousins today!!! Good thing we are going to San Diego this weekend to see everyone and get our "cousins fix"!! :)

{oFFiciaLLy a BIG GIRL}

A week ago, Zoe became an official big girl when we took her crib down and whipped out the big girl bed! Since she is potty trained, I thought it was time to get rid of the crib because the crib kind of "traps" her in there and even if she has to go potty, she can't get out! So, we have been talking to her about her big girl bed for a while now and every time we would ask her if she wanted a big girl bed, she would say "a big bed like Aydee??" She's always so excited to do everything just like her brother does!

We took the crib down over a week ago, set the bed up, got her some cute bedding and that was that! She has been in her big girl bed ever since and hasn't looked back! She looks forward to going to bed every night and hasn't tried to come out after we put her to bed. And in the morning or after a nap, she has just started (the last couple days) to come out of her room and find us. I actually think it's the cutest little thing....when I am doing something and she just walks right in the room and says "Mommy, I woke up"! It hasn't really been a problem yet because we are up at the crack of dawn anyway with Ayden!

Here she is.....she looks so tiny to me in this bed!! And it is only a twin.....

We have the little bumper things to keep her from falling out, but we didn't use them and after a week, we realize that she doesn't really need it. Luckily, she hasn't fallen out yet. One night when I checked on her, this is how I found her....this is the closest she has come to falling out of bed so far.....

I'm not sure what it is, but our kids are crazy sleepers.....something about sleeping the correct way (with your head on the pillow at the head of the bed and your feet at the foot of the bed) just doesn't make sense to either of them! They both sleep sideways.....and don't seem to care for covers.....

{hAppY EasTeR}

What a busy day we had on Sunday. Between Zoe's birthday and Easter and doing Easter at our house in the morning with the kids and then going to Jeremiah's parent's house for brunch and another Easter egg hunt and Zoe's birthday and then coming back to our house for dinner with my family and Zoe's birthday and Easter! Wow....no wonder I am tired this week!!

As soon as the kids woke up, they wanted to go hunt for eggs in the backyard! The sun was barely up and it was freezing outside, but we all trekked out there anyway! They had way too much candy this day! By 9 am, they were both complaining of tummy aches!!





They were excited about the treats in their baskets....







It was weird this year to not go to church on Easter Sunday since our General Conference fell on Easter this year. But it was kinda nice to not have to stress about getting the kids all cutesy in their new Easter outfits for church!

We headed over to Jeremiah's parent's house and had another Easter egg hunt. The kids got another basket with lots of treats....and more candy!! Ugh!







Even Daddy got in on the action....





No Easter baskets.....plastic grocery bags will do just fine!! ;)

Checking out the goods in their baskets....





They each had a can of silly string in their baskets, so they decided to go outside and have a silly string fight.....first victim was Daddy!!





What a mess to clean up!!







And then we came back to our house where Grammy and Grandpa brought more Easter baskets....and more candy! Ugh Ugh!!



Everyone was happy with the treats in their baskets....