Draper Days 2012

Last weekend was Draper Days.  I had been debating whether or not to even go with the girls or how long to stay because it would be so late for them.  I was pretty sure they wouldn't make it to the end to watch fireworks so I decided we would go and just hang out for a while and when they started getting cranky we would go home and not stay for fireworks this year.

So we headed down earlier in the day and walked around for a bit.  It was sooo hot.  We then left our car down there and walked home.  When we got home we had to give the girls a cool bath because they were so hot. I actually filled our jetted tub in our master bath and they loved the extra room in the tub and played for quite a while.  We then gave them a late nap and after dinner walked back down to the park.  We met up with my sister and her kids and hung out listening to music.

The girls were so happy.  We fed them their night bottle when they would normally go to sleep and they just kept playing and looking around.  Finally about 9:30 you could tell they were so tired but they were still totally happy.  So Jennifer picked up Siena, I took Aria, and within minutes they were sound asleep.  We put them in the stroller and they slept like that until right before the fireworks started at 10:30 (late for fireworks I thought and a lot of families, including my sister, left before the fireworks started.)  The girls were totally mesmerized by the fireworks and just stared at them the whole time.

As soon as they were over we jumped up, ran to our car and were out of there.  We put the girls down and they went right to sleep and then they slept until 8:15 the next morning.  I think it was worth going just for the extra hour of sleep we got that morning.

Honestly, I had no idea how good the girls would do being out late and was very impressed that not only did they make it to the end, they were happy the entire night.

I guess Draper Days is still a tradition that we will continue on with.

Livin' the Dream

Brigitte and I decided to take Holland, Siena and Aria to see the 24th of July parade floats that are on display the week before the parade.  It was so fun to just walk around and let the girls look at all the bright colors.  And of course it was fun for Brigitte and I to just get a chance to talk and catch up with each other.  Even though we talk all the time, rarely do we get an hour straight to just talk.  It was a fun evening spent together.

They really are livin' the dream being strolled around without a care in the world!

We had to take a picture in front of the Charly float advertising the re release of the movie Charly.  Brigitte and I saw it together 10 years ago and bawled.  I don't think I'll see it again.  Unless someone tells me they changed the ending.

Aria hearts Siena

Aria LOVES her sister Siena.  I think Siena could be an only child and would be just fine.  Aria however, loves when Siena is around.  If Siena starts crawling towards her, she cracks up laughing, squealing and kicking her legs.  She watches whatever she does and anytime Siena talks to her, Aria starts babbling away back at her.  This isn't a new thing, even when they were just a couple months old, Aria would stare at Siena all the time.  As soon as Aria can keep up with Siena, she will be chasing after her all the time.  Don’t get me wrong, Siena loves Aria too.  They're starting to play together and they talk back and forth more and more these days, especially when they’re next to each other in their car seats or high chairs.  But we can always see the love in Aria’s eyes for Siena.

10 months

The girls are 10 months. Double Digits. It’s almost like a pre-golden birthday. Instead of turning 10 on the 10th (Golden Birthday) they turned 10 months on the 10th. Ok it’s a stretch.

Doesn't their hair look so cute in pig tails?

Here are a few things about the girls this month:

Siena is all over the place. She is pulling up to a stand, getting back down, and walking along furniture. She’s letting go with one hand and I’ve seen her let go with both hands for a quick second.

Aria is scooting and has gotten pretty fast. She looks forward to the day she can keep up with her sister and is slowly getting more brave to explore areas of the house.

Siena has been doing this for a couple months but I never wrote it down but she shakes to music. If she’s sitting she bobs up and down. If she’s crawling, she sways back and forth.

Both girls like to grab at my face when eating. They either play/pull my hair or put their hand to my mouth so I can pretend to eat their hands and kiss each finger. Sometimes it distracts them and they start laughing.

They both shake their head no constantly. They do it most when eating and mostly they think it’s a game. Of course it only eggs them on when we start shaking our head yes at them. They think it’s so funny.

They are starting to eat more food. Their favorite foods are cereal puffs, strawberries, pineapple, and graham crackers.

Aria has mastered picking up food with her thumb and finger and getting it into her mouth. She’s pretty clean about it. Siena is doing better at it but isn’t as accurate and consistent as Aria at this point.

They still don’t have any teeth and no signs on the horizon that I can tell.

Siena started clapping the day before she turned 10 months.  She's so proud of herself.  The next day I wondered if she would remember and as soon as I got her up, while changing her diaper, she started clapping.  It's so cute to watch.

Aria babbles all the time.  She mostly says ba, ba, ba, or ya, ya, ya.  She's been babbling almost the entire month and I love it.

They are getting harder to manage at church. We’ve been lucky so far that they would fall asleep in the car seat or our arms but now it's hard for them to fall asleep and they are so tired. It’s an exhausting 3 hours. Aria seems to know when she’s ready to go home. She poops every Sunday about 20 mins before the end of church. Just enough time to have to go change her in a cramped, small bathroom.

My favorite new thing they both starting doing this month is as soon as I walk in the door from work each day, they immediately get the biggest grin on their face and then crawl and scoot as fast as they can to me and pull on my legs until I pick them (which they only have to do for all of 1 second). It melts my heart every single day.

They've decided to always look at each other and smile when I go to take their picture.  I think it's cute that they always smile and then look over at the other one to see if their smiling.

Family Adventure to Ghost Falls

We decided to try a new hike up to some falls by the Draper Temple on Saturday.  We left early hoping to avoid the heat.  My sister had told us it wasn’t that bad of a hike (hint, next time ask if she’s ever actually done the hike.)  The girls were loving the backpacks and so off we went.  Well little did we know there were 2 ways to go and lucky us, we picked the long, hard way in the sun up some switch backs and the most non-direct route there.  After a while I thought I was going to die.  The backpack was cutting into my ribs, making it hard to breathe and all of the sudden Aria weighed 75lbs at least!  Ok and…I’m out of shape, I admit.  But seriously…I never thought we would make it.  In fact I stopped under a tree and told Shane I was done and couldn’t go any further.  So he told me to wait there and he was going to hike up a bit and see how much further it was.  He came back less then a minute later, picked up Aria for me and low and behold we were about one turn and 50 feet from the falls! So happy.  I was so tired when we got there that I didn’t even take one picture, in fact I barely even looked at the falls.  I think they were pretty.  We took the shaded, windy path back and although I was much happier, the girls were very ready for their nap and I was ready to be back home in my air conditioned house.  I may have been very sore the next day.  Note to others, take the shaded, windy path to Ghost Falls. 

Before:

 Aria wouldn't look at the camera cuz the sun was in her face.  See the temple in the background where we started at...and we hadn't even gotten to the switchbacks yet.  The reason I know this...I'm still smiling.

After:

 

Matthew turns 8

 

My nephew, Matthew, turned 8 this month and as is tradition when each niece or nephew gets baptized, I take them to dinner. So we took Matthew to Olive Garden this week to celebrate. It was a fun night getting to spend some one on one time with Matthew. He’s such a sweet, nice boy and was polite and talkative the whole night. Of course Collin had to get into the picture. The one of just Matthew and I was strategically taken at this angle without cute Collin knowing.

Michelle watched the girls for us and I had to take this picture of the girls when Michelle holds them. They rest their little leg across Michelle’s belly. So cute and funny. And I was impressed that Michelle could hold all 3 girls without falling over!

4th of July 2012

We had such a good 4th of July this year.  It was different this year then any other year but still great.  It started out going to our neighborhood bike parade and breakfast.  We've actually never gone before because we are usually sleeping in (I did kind of miss sleeping in).  The breakfast was fun and one day all too soon the girls will be so excited to ride their bikes in this parade.

The girls were total hits at the breakfast with their headbands and several people were taking their picture.  My mom bought these cute headbands for the girls.  I love all these cute headbands I have for each holiday.  When I put them on this morning before the parade and breakfast I wanted to take a picture of them but they kept looking at each other and smiling and giggling.  I'm pretty sure they were saying 'Hey, do you know mom just put a really silly looking headband on your head?'  LOL...

We hung around the rest of the morning, giving the girls a good morning nap and then in the afternoon we headed down to Brigitte's parent's house for a BBQ.  It was so fun to see her family and it has been a long time since I've been down there.  It was a relaxing, fun afternoon sitting in their backyard under the shade talking.

So now it's 4th of July night and we gave the girls a bath, and put them to bed.  I just finished mopping our floor and am now blogging while watching the fireworks in New York on TV.  Can't say I've ever watched fireworks on TV for the 4th of July before but it's rather peaceful, not fighting crowds.  I get a close up concert from Kenny Chesney and Katy Perry.  Next year we'll try fireworks but this year it just wasn't worth it to us to keep them up so late.

We really live in a great country.  I'm grateful for that and grateful we get a day off work to celebrate it.

Michelle

For the past 6 months my girls have been spoiled to have my sister as their babysitter twice a week.  I've already posted about Jennifer and how much she watches my girls, but this time I'm talking about my sister Michelle.  When I knew I was going to have to go back to work, I was in total denial over what I would do with the girls.  I didn't want to impose on my family but both my sisters were adamant that these little girls would not go to a strangers house or daycare.  So they took it upon themselves to work out a schedule that would work for them and us. 

Right before I went back to work, Michelle announced she was pregnant.  The funny thing was she was dreading telling me because she would only be able to watch my girls until she had the baby.  I was thrilled for her and didn't care.  Well those 6 months have come and gone and now my sister is getting ready to welcome a new little girl into their family in the next month.

Monday was the last official day Michelle watched my girls for me.  They have LOVED it over at Michelle's.  They don't even flinch when I put them down and walk out the door and that gives me such a peace of mind as I leave them each day.  They love their dog Ally and Ally is so patient with them.  The girls have trained her well for when a new baby arrives.  And Collin is always so good and patient to share his mom with the girls twice a week.  Often when I come to pick them up, friends are over playing with her kids and they are always playing with the girls and helping out.

Michelle has been so good to keep them on our crazy strict schedule and calls me multiple times a day to update me on what they're doing.  Michelle has been a lifesaver and answer to prayer for me.

THANK YOU Michelle, We Love You!