Randomness....

Because there are a few pics from just random days and random events that I wanted to share...I thought I would create a post especially for that. So here is our recent "randomness".

On January 23rd we watched my nieces, Trinity & Teyara, play their last Jr. Jazz Basketball game. They both play great and have so much fun. They are definitely some competitive little girls.

Here is a picture of the kids watching their last game....Rylee giving me the pouty lips. She just hates when I get the camera out!

On January 30th we went to my nephew Layker's 1st birthday....here is a picture of Dax enjoying a cupcake.

I am pretty sure he will love digging into his cake at his 1st birthday because he had no problem tearing into this cupcake at Layker's birthday.

For the Superbowl I made some cake balls. They were delicious! My friend Britania came to visit the week before the Superbowl and had some with her that she had made, and they were really tasty, so I decided to make some. I tried to get creative and make them into footballs, but after about 5 footballs, I decided that was enough.

Everyone loved them!!!

Ok, so I have been trying to decide if I should cut my hair shorter or leave it long. Either way I know I need a good trim, but I cannot decide if I should cut it just below my shoulders or leave it longer. Its so hard to decide. It seems like everytime I cut it off I want it back....and waiting for hair to grow always seems forever!

But its getting SO long.....

Decisions....Decisions....Decisions....

Unfortunately I don't have too many "random" pictures to post of Rylee because she is going through this stage where she absolutely hates my camera and wants nothing to do with me when its out.

Here are some cute snapshots I have taken of Dax recently.

Look at that hair.....I just love his rock star hair! What a little Stud!

Daddy & Dax

Mommy & Dax

Also, I would like to say Happy Birthday to my wonderful sister Andrea. She has always been so great to me and would do anything for me. On February 6th, we celebrated Andrea's birthday with a special cinnamon bundt cake from me and ice cream. It was delicious. Happy Birthday Andrea, I love you!!!

Teddy Bear Day...

On January 28th, Rylee's preschool class had "Teddy Bear Day". They got to choose their favorite teddy bear from home and bring it to class to share with everyone.

Rylee chose her little brown bear that she named "Little Bear". She was so excited about teddy bear day. Here is a picture of Rylee and Little Bear before preschool. At school they got to play and dance with their bears and took their measurements and weight. Little Bear was 11 inches long and weighed 12 oz. Her bear won the "cutest face" award.

Rylee has been doing so great in school and has learned so much. We do work with her a lot at home also, but she absolutely loves learning. Even when I am not showing her how to do something she is writing letters or asking me how to spell something so she can write it down. She knows how to spell a lot of words on her own without asking, such as Rylee, mom, dad, Dax....really any word that spells the way it sounds, she can write or at least tries to. She is always interested in writing new words and will ask me how to spell her cousins names, Kailey and Trayton. So I will tell her K-A-I-L-E-Y, and so on and she will write it herself. She is one smart cookie.

She also writes and recognizes her numbers and can count to 30 with no problem. She can actually count to 50 with no problem, but usually stops at 30. She also counts to 10 in Spanish. She is just so smart and we are SO proud of her! We love you Rylee....

Here is some of what she has done recently in school. And also some of her words she wrote on her dry erase table.

Here is something very special that she made for us in December for Christmas. It is so cute and just made me cry when I read it. I wanted to post it because I think it has the cutest poem and most of all it shows her cute little handprint.

A Few Firsts...

...for our little Dax boy! It is so crazy to think that just a week ago he was standing and would take a few steps, but only when he thought I was holding on to him. If he could see that I let go of him he would get nervous and sit down. Now this week he is taking so many steps....it won't be long before this cute lil guy is walking. And the funny thing is that he wants to try and run rather than walk. So it is a little scary! He is so cute and so full of personality. I love it!

I have a short clip of him walking on February 9th...he took about 5+ steps. What a BIG boy!

(I had to play it a few times before it would play without skipping-but its only 6 seconds)

Recently we moved him into a forward facing car seat. I know he is not quite a year yet, but he is so tall and has hit the 20 lb. mark. He is already at least 30 inches tall and 20.5 lbs. He does look pretty little in it, but its so much easier and he seems to love it.

Dax had his first taste of chocolate pudding. Brett decided Dax needed to experience the yummy taste of chocolate since Rylee was eating some and poor Dax was so sad that he wasn't getting any. How can you say no to such a cute little face? He definitely loved the pudding! Look at that face!

He also had his very first popsicle. He held it and went to town on that thing. Brett actually gave him his first banana flavored popsicle while I was grocery shopping, so this picture is a few days later and is actually his 2nd popsicle. Brett said that when the popsicle was gone he got so mad and started crying. He acted like someone had taken it away.

Dax also had his very first ice cream cone. I didn't get very good pics of this because we were in the car and the cone didn't last long. Aunt Andrea decided she would give Dax a vanilla/chocolate twist baby cone. He loved it, but immediately squished his fingers through the cone and had ice cream dripping from every direction. It was a mess....but a cute mess!

And last but not least....the first lollipop. Its the famous powder suckers. I love these things because kids love them, and they are not sticky. That is the best part! This was a giant one. I was too worried about the other one breaking from the stick, so we got the BIG one. He loved it...look how proud he is of this sucker!

Really I don't feed this kid sweets much, but the funnest firsts when it comes to food is always sweets! What can I say....sweets are good!!!

Happy Birthday to Trayton & Layker....

For the month of January there were two of my nephews that celebrated a birthday! My sweet nephew Trayton turned 4 years old on January 17th and my little nephew Layker celebrated his 1st birthday on January 30th.
Because I was in Mesquite celebrating my birthday the weekend of Trayton's party, I missed it, but Rylee still went. Since I was not there I didn't get any pictures from Trayton's actually party, so I decided that I would just post some random cute pictures of Trayton.
Trayton is such a sweet and shy little boy. I really wish I could have made it to his birthday party but I am so glad that Rylee was still able to go.

HAPPY 4th BIRTHDAY TRAYTON....I Love You!!!

On January 30th, my little nephew Layker turned ONE! He is getting so big. He started walking about a week before he turned 1. He seems so little to me still. I guess its hard to tell when my kids are so tall for their age. Layker has such a cute personality already. He always crinkles his nose and giggles, its so cute! I look forward to Dax and Layker being able to be best little buddies!

Brinne gave Layker a cupcake to eat by himself and he had that thing gone in less than 2 minutes flat. So she gave him a second one. He was loving it.

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY LAYKER...I Love You!!!

It's a New Year...and already so much to celebrate!!!

Wow! I cannot believe it is already 2010. It seems like it just changed to the year 2000, before I knew it I was getting married in 2003, having Rylee in 2005, having Dax in 2009 and now here it is 2010. Where do the days go?

This year we decided we wanted to stay home and bring in a New Year with the kids and each other. I made lots of good food and we invited Rick & Judi over for food, fun, and games. Of course my little monkey Dax was in bed by about 8:30pm. After that we all just hung out until 10pm, which was when we let Rylee celebrate the New Year. She had picked out hats, blowers, and necklaces for us all to wear. We watched the eastcoast celebrate at 10pm our time, and then Rylee went to bed and Rick & Judi headed home. Brett and I relaxed with some food, wine, and a great movie...The Hangover. It was a great New Year!!!

Of course I had to make some New Year's resolutions(goals)....and this year I wanted to make a few. So here they are:
1. Lose weight and get in shape. Not only by exercising but also by eating more healthy. My goal for this year is to lose 20 lbs by mid-June.
2. Excercise every morning.
3. Clean my house immediately after exercising, before doing anything else.
4. Have more patience.
5. Save enough money to go on a cruise or vacation, just me and Brett.
6. Get caught up and stay caught up on scrapbooking.
7. Take the kids to the Zoo.
8. Go camping in the mountains as a family. (I loved camping as a kid and would love to take the kids).
9. Make sure to have plenty of mommy/daughter dates.
10. Take a dance class. (I think it would be a blast to take a dance class...something like Hip Hop. In this small town I am not so sure I will be able to find that?!)
11. Drink more water...I am bad at this. I go some days and do not drink and ounce of water all day...sometimes for days. My goal is to drink 1.5-2 liters of water a day.

So those are some goals I have made for this year and I hope to accomplish each and every one of them. As for my #1 goal of losing weight and getting in shape, I figured what better way to motivate myself than to have goal pictures. I decided that having goal pics and even posting a few might just help me to be more motivated and to be held to the goal more. So I have posted a few pics I have of me about a year after I had Rylee. I know it might be closer to a year and a half after Dax that I accomplish it, but I am determined. So here are some goal pics....

Already this year I have celebrated my birhday! I am now 28!!! It seems so crazy to think I am already 28. I don't feel any older than when I was 25, so being 28 doesn't bother me, it just seems weird to think back at memories that seem like yesterday and really they were 5-10 years ago. For my birthday Brett brought home cake and ice cream the night before so we could all have some together. Rylee LOVES birthday cakes and blowing out candles, so we do it just for her! On my birthday my wonderful mom, sisters, sister-in-law and all my nieces and nephews surprised me by showing up at my house with a cake and ice cream also. We all had cake and ice cream and hung out for a while. They are great! Then Brett got off work early and took me to dinner. Before dinner he took me to pick out an outfit...I love clothes. Really I didn't even expect that since I knew we were going to Mesquite on the 16th to celebrate my birthday.

On the 16th we got up early, got ready and took the kids to their grandma & papa's house for the night. Then we headed to Mesquite with Jenny and Jaron. Just the ride there was a blast; we laughed the whole way. Once we arrived in Mesquite we checked in, fixed ourselves a little, then went bowling. Brett won the first game and I won the second game. After bowling we headed over to the CasaBlanca for the comedy show. It was great! Afterward we headed back to Virgin River for some good ol' Prime Rib dinner. The rest the night we gambled, gambled, and gambled some more. I sat at the blackjack table from about 11pm-3am. It was a lot of fun. And even better, I left the table about $2 ahead. I think that is pretty good after tipping for every drink and playing for that long. The next morning we got ready, checked out, ate breakfast, gambled, went to the car show and headed for home. It was a GREAT weekend!!!

Another milestone....my little bubbas is 10 months old. I really cannot believe that he will be one year old before I know it. He has the cutest personality. He always tries to play with Rylee and it is so cute. He will get so excited and climb right over the top of her trying to get her to play. He loves chasing her around and trying to take stuff away from her. She gets mad and he laughs and tries again. He LOVES to eat. The second dinner is done and we start to sit at the table he is frantically chasing us around so we won't forget to feed him. We always tease...because I will say "he loves spaghetti" and Brett will say "he loves anything, we could feed that kid a piece of paper and he would eat it." He does love to eat. I think his favorite is spaghetti. He also loves mashed potatoes and gravy. Oh and he loves ice cream! Really it seems like he will eat just about anything I cut up and feed to him. He ate his 1st Oreo cookie just a few days ago. Suprisingly it wasn't near as messy as when Rylee had her first Oreo. He does great at feeding himself too. Its so cute to watch. His 4th tooth just recently broke through the skin and it looks like his two front teeth (on top) will poke through within a week or so. He babbles all the time. He says mama, dada, baba, kucka, yes, and shakes his head yes and no all the time. And he loves to dance. If a song starts playing, Dax starts dancing. He is such a cute boy!

He is getting so BIG. He weighs in at 20.5 lbs and 30 inches long now. He always stands without holding onto anything. He has even taken a few steps from an object to me. He will stand alone for a very long time if he doesn't realize he is doing it. Once he realizes, he will grab a hold of something. He climbs grandma & papa's stairs all the time. We are just trying to master coming down backwards now since he always tries to go forward.

He loves bathtime! Every time he hears the bath water running, even if its not for him, he zooms in there to play. The other day Rylee was bathing and I took his shirt off so he could splash in it. Well, he went over the side and into the tub...in his clothes. He did it very gracefully and didn't bump his head, but it was still too fast for me to catch him. He is off the binky too...such a big boy! We all just love him to pieces. Rylee & Dax are truly the lights of our lives and are both such smart and sweet kids.

Happy 10 month Monkey we LOVE you!!!

And in between all the celebrating we have spent time together bowling and playing in the snow. Rylee loves the snow and cannot get enough.

"Here's to the bright New Year, and a fond farewell to the old; here's to the things that are yet to come, and to the memories that we hold."