2 going on 17

Sometimes I have to stop and remind myself how little Gwen is because she seems so grown up to me. She started potty training herself at 18 months, has an opinion about the clothes she wears, can communicate almost anything to you even though her vocabulary is limited, and understands everything you say. She is fiercely opinionated and lets you know it. If shes meets someone new, she studies that person, with stern eyes, until she feels she can trust them. If she feels out of her comfort zone at all, she bottles up and becomes very quiet and stares at everything with her furrowed brow. However, if she's in her element with people she loves, she is the most joyous, loving, dancing, singing, laughing, teasing little person you've ever met.
I wonder when we'll stop calling her "baby Gwen"? It has just kind of stuck, and I kind of like it even though I know she's not a baby anymore. She got sung to in nursery, got a present at joy school, brought cookies to day school, went out for ice cream on her actual birthday, and had a "party" with our family on Sunday. Lucky Girl!
Birthday Breakfast!

Birthday Ice Cream! In case you missed it, this is Gwen's smile for the camera face.

Party on Sunday! We invited everyone over to our house for dinner, presents, cake and ice cream. We had Gwen's favorite dinner, eggplant Parmesan! Miles loved helping her open every present. :) She got a "new" bike, Minnie Mouse books and Minnie Mouse salon stuff, a beautiful new dress that she wanted to put on immediately, some books, a movie and some new nail polish. She also got a "new" dollhouse that I bought a the DI the day after I found out that Gwen would be a girl. :) It was $2, and in terrible shape, but I was just so excited to be getting a girl that I bought it. When she was born and my mom came up to help, she did all the leg work making the dollhouse more sturdy and such. I recently tried to make it pretty, although I think my dollhouse-ing skills are lacking. She loves it still and that means it's a success!

I tried really hard to get the Birthday Girl "money shot". I don't think it quite happened, but here are all the attempts. :)

Thank Goodness it's Spring Around Here!

Yes, it did snow again today, but let's face it, I'm so used to it by now after living in Rexburg for 5 years! This is nothing compared to the second winter you get sometime in March in Rexburg. I clearly remember the weather warming up after winter, the snow was all melted, and as soon as I went to the hospital, in labor with Gwen on Mar 21, it started snowing again. By the time she was born the next morning, it was a winter wonderland. So bring it on Utah!
The past few weeks have been awesome weather-wise. I can send the kids outside to play, we've planted flowers (some that we started in jars inside so we could watch the roots grow and chart how quick the tops grew. So cool!) and started the early plants for our garden! (HOORAY!!!)



We went to the park the other day (first of the season) and I snapped a few pictures of these cuties.


And just because...

St. Patrick's Day

I used to think that St. Patrick's Day was kind of a silly holiday that people just used as an excuse to get drunk. That may still be the case for many Americans, however I learned some things about St. Patrick's Day this year that made me appreciate it more! Did you know it's a religious holiday? (The whole "St." should have clued me in, I know) St. Patrick was the one who first used the shamrock to symbolize the three members of The Godhead. Anyway....
Since St. Patrick's fell on a Sunday this year, Richie's sister decided we could celebrate it earlier on in the week. She went all out! Good thing she was feeling festive, because we didn't do hardly anything for it!
We made Leprechaun masks, marched on rainbow feet, danced an Irish Jig, had some sensory play with rainbow jello, ate a fruit rainbow, watched the uncles fly kites, jumped on the tramp with the parachute and made a rainbow in a jar! Whew! What a fun, whirlwind of a party! We also managed to get a little cuddle time in with baby Caleb. :) Thanks aunt Makenna!!

The Silver Lining

Last post was "golden moments" and this one is about silver linings. I sense a theme coming on. I'm simply trying to accentuate the positive. The positive here is that my kids are dang cute!. I don't know why I haven't posted these pictures before. My awesome niece Zadi got a fancy camera for Christmas and tried it out on our kids when we were down in St. George. Didn't she do a great job? I wanted to make sure I posted these here so that one day when I get around to making blog books, these pictures will be in it!

Golden Moments

You know the funny thing about me working? I think I'm actually a better mom more of the time now! I'm more conscious of what I'm doing with my kids when we're together and I'm trying harder not to lose my temper so often. Although that doesn't always work out. In fact the other day I had my first, "Stop yelling at each other or I'll stop this van right now!!!!" moment. It was monumental, but I'm glad I don't have anything to really document it. It was ugly. I also feel like I'm running around lots more, and I'm not a huge fan of it. I'm already wondering how all the moms out there with multiple older kids, and all their schedules do it. ??? Props to you guys. I cherish our time at home together more, and now when we have a "boring" day where we don't leave the house all day, I just revel in it, which didn't always used to be the case. I guess all of this rambling to say, I think my kids are cute. :) I'm glad they're mine and that when I've had a hard day, I can sneak into their rooms at night to make sure they're warm enough and watch them sleep for a minute or two. It always calms me right down and makes me exceptionally grateful.

Gwen's obsessed with babies. She's always carting them around, putting them in their crib and piling every single blanket on top of them. If you look closely you can see her purse. Another favorite accessory.



The other day I had a golden moment with Gwen. She woke up from nap time just beaming. Miles wasn't awake yet and I was trying to watch a show of mine, so I convinced her to snuggle up to me so I could finish watching it. Her cheeks were so round and rosy and warm. We just cuddled and tickled for a good 20 minutes. It was awesome. Why don't I let myself have moments like that more often?

The other morning, Gwen found her sunglasses and insisted on eating her cream of wheat and toast with them on. Miles wanted in on the camera action and knew just how to do it. Lots of kissing and hugging between siblings is a favorite of mine. The other day I was rounding up the kids from their classes and when Miles and Gwen saw each other the hugged and kissed (with no prompting from me, mind you) and Miles gave her lots and lots of compliments about her artwork from the day. Pay day!



Cousins Ethan and Caleb came over the the other day for some music time and it's fun watching them really start to play with each other. Gwen and Ethan hopped into her baby's crib and laughed and talked for a good 10 minutes. Miles got in on the action and pulled his first ever funny face! Gwen and Miles practically mauled baby Caleb with loves,kisses, piling blankets on him and holding him on their laps. Can you blame them? Look at that cutie!



So amid those times when I'm rolling my eyes and trying so hard not to totally lose it, there are those really special moments. Tonight while getting the kids ready for bed, they were really grumpy because of a lack of nap. When that happens, there is no rational reasoning, there is only sobbing, back-arching, and whining. It causes my angry level to escalate really fast, and pretty soon I was getting up in Miles' face, being a nasty mom. Throwing his pajamas back at him because he wouldn't choose, but didn't like anything I chose. Forcing the toothbrush in his mouth because he refused to brush his teeth, and dragging him into his room, literally. Ugliness. But after we had all calmed down a little, dad put Gwen in bed, and I had time to apologize to Miles for my meanness. He begged me to cuddle with him in his bed, which doesn't happen very often. Although I wanted to come back to the computer to blog and eat some chocolate chips, I grudgingly obliged, because truth be told, my blood was still boiling a little bit. However I'm so glad I did because I had another golden moment! He wrapped his arms around my neck and that perfect, smooth cheek of his fit right on the bridge of my nose. We gave each other butterfly kisses and eskimo kisses, and I thought of how quickly he won't want to do this with me anymore, and we snuggled for one more minute.