Barty: 4 months (almost)

Little B is almost 4 months! Can you believe it?! Well, he is just an absolute doll baby. He is so happy and mellow, and just a little angel sent from heaven. He is getting chubby, and smiley and he is jabbering up a storm. I felt really bad in RS yesterday because he was talking so loud. Little stinker. My favorite thing about Barty these days is that whenever I change his diaper, he smiles and laughs like it's the best part of his day. He has the absolute sweetest laugh. It sounds like he is coughing. His little thighs are so chunky and squishy, and they are the most ticklish part of him. His eyes also turn into little crescent moons when he smiles and laughs, just like his daddy's. My other favorite thing about him is that he is sleeping 10-12 hours at night, every night. He has been doing this for a little over a month now, and I didn't have to do one single thing to get him to do it. See, I told you he was an angel baby. We all love our little Barty, even though he is growing way too fast. :(

And Barty loves his big brothers!!

Sayer

Sayer is almost 2 1/2. He is turning out to be just as crazy as his brother. Different, but still just as crazy. Sayer has got to be one of the pickiest eaters out there. He basically lives off of yogurt, fruit and crackers. There are a few other things that he will eat, like chicken, bread, cucumbers, carrots, dry cereal, but none of them are very consistent. Sayer is VERY emotional! When you tell him he can't have something, or if Asher is teasing him, or he accidentally gets sprayed with water... you would think that he broke his arm or something the way he cries. It is SO dramatic. I can't handle it actually. It drives me crazy.

He is turning into quite the talker. I love listening to him talk because he annunciates every part of the word. It's really cute. He still gets the phrasing mixed up, but he is quite the conversationalist. I think he has a little OCD in him. When he is trying to get your attention to show or tell you something, he will repeat himself over and over again until you acknowledge that you heard him and repeat what he said. One time Nate let him go for like 5 minutes without answering him. "daddy. daddy. daddy. dadda." For 5 minutes. Awesome. When we are reading books and he sees something in the book that he wants to show you, he will grab your face and turn it so that he can be sure you are looking where he wants you to. It was cute for maybe the first 5 times he did it. Now it drives me crazy. He loves music and likes to sing. Sometimes we hear him in his bed at night, singing to himself before he falls asleep. My favorite is to listen to him sing twinkle twinkle little star. He also does this really funny voice. Kind of low and raspy, like a monster. I can't even describe it, but it's really funny. I will have to get him on video doing it sometime. He thinks he's quite the comedian, always putting on a show, pulling faces, doing funny voices. He definitely knows how cute he is and milks it for all it's worth. We think he was meant for the stage, being the overly dramatic, animated little thing that he is. He also does the best sommersaults. He even points his toes and keep his legs together and straight. Love it.
He has gotten really good at riding his scooter and loves to do whatever Asher is doing. He loves his big brother. Whenever Sayer has to take a nap, he asks "Asher take nap too?" He doesn't want to miss out on anything. When he wakes up and Asher is gone or asleep, he asks "where Asher?" It's really sweet. I also love the way he says Barty, again, I can't even describe, but it's cute.
This summer, Sayer has learned to love to swim. He can't really swim or anything yet, but he loves going in the shallow areas and jumping and splashing around. This makes me happy because at the beginning of the summer, he was terrified to even get in. He's getting so good at pretending, he loves trains and dinosaurs and books. He also loves to play with his baby bear and wrap it up in a blanket or towel and pretend to put it to bed. Today in church, he had these two tiny dinosaurs and was pretending to put them to bed. He didn't have any cloth or blankets or anything, but was pinching at the air and pretending to lay blankets across them. It was the sweetest thing. He is such a good little listener and is for the most part so obedient. He loves to hold Barty, and I am constantly blown away by the things he is learning everyday.
Despite his absolute adorable-ness, I feel like he is getting hard. Like I said, he is just so emotional, and his tantrums have been getting a little out of control lately. I am hoping that once we get back to NY and back to routine and normal bed and nap-times, that he will become a little less dramatic. But aside from his tantrums, he is pretty mild tempered, not nearly as aggressive or intense as Asher, which is a welcome difference. ;) I just know he is going to change and mature so much over the next year. It all seems to happen so fast... too fast. But we love our little guy and are loving watching him learn and grow.

Party time: Splash Pad

We had Asher's actual birthday party the day after his birthday. We went to the splash pad in Highland and just invited family and a few close friends. It actually turned out to be kind of a cold, and VERY windy day, so not the best day to be at the splash pad. But the plus side was that there was hardly anyone there. Despite the clouds and winds, we had a very nice time, and again, Asher was super happy, and that's all that matters.

As many of you know, one of Asher's favorite things in the whole wide world is baby birdie...

(He took this picture himself, by the way)

So, being the awesome mom that I am, I spent hours in the kitchen making him the most awesome baby birdie cake ever!! (If I do say so myself). Seriously though, so proud of this cake.

See the resemblance?

My sister Jillian came over one night to help me make all of the tiny baby birdies, which we both were so proud of. We thought they turned out so precious. When Asher saw it, he actually said: "Oh mom, he's supposed to have a black beak. But it's ok. A yellow beak will be nice too." Ha! What a crack up. But he of course, LOVED the cake and was so happy when he saw it. He wasn't jumping up and down for joy though, like I thought he would be, he was very tender. He said in a very sweet voice, "Oh, it's a baby birdie cake!!" This kid is always surprising me.

I got the idea from these Martha Stewart cupcakes. I also used the buttercream recipe that was used on those cupcakes. Yum! I made the fondant myself, using the recipe from Carrie's Cakes. It was actually really fun to make fondant. I will be doing that again in the near future. I made the yellow cake from scratch, of course, and really liked the recipe that I used. It was really moist. I got it from Epicurious, and it was actually a very long and involved process. It was worth it though. Aside from this recipe, my second favorite one, that also happens to be way easier, is the one from the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. Just FYI. In between the cake layers, I made chocolate ganache, and it was wonderful as all things chocolate always are.

Anyway, enough about the cake. The party was a success. The kids had so much fun playing, and the adults had a great time just sitting and chatting.

Sisters Jill and Lexi playing with Barty. It was so great to be able to have them both in town for it. In the background is Nate, his brother MacKay and his wife Rebecca, and our good friend Andrea is on the chair.

Mister cool!

Chowin' the cupcakes. Don't worry that those birds are made out of fondant which is basically straight up sugar. The kids were poppin' them in their mouths like pieces of popcorn. So sick.

Luke and Jace. Great friends!

Zoe and Sayer, eating their sugar birds. Yum-my.

Party time: Pirate Island

On the day of Asher's birthday, we went to Pirate Island with just our little family. The kids seriously love that place, and the pizza is so yummy, so you won't hear me complaining. He opened most of his presents from us there. He got a new baby flamingo, which as you can see, he was thrilled about!

He also got some sea animals to play with in the bath and pool. Seriously... hours of entertainment. Best $10 ever spent! After pizza and presents (not in that order) the kids played for a while on all the toys and wasted all their tokens on all the games. It was a successful birthday. Asher was on cloud 9 the whole time.

Asher's Birthday

Asher turned 4!! I can't believe it myself. The kid has grown and matured so much. All of the sudden he is talking like a grown up, his thirst for knowledge has tripled and he remembers EVERYTHING (both a good and a bad thing! ;) He is a handful and drives me insane, but is truly the sweetest, most genuine kid. He loves, and I mean LOVES to play with other kids and just be around other people in general. He loves to play play play and has an amazing imagination and ability to turn any old object into something spectacular (again, not always good). He lives in his head a lot of loves to make his toys talk to each other. For the last few days, he has spent an hour plus in the bathtub playing with his sea animals. It is a crack up. He is in love with animals, baby animals in particular. Baby birds are his favorite. Don't ask me why he has latched on to them, but this has been going on for almost a year, starting last fall when he wanted to be a baby chicky for Halloween. We got him a bunch of audobon birds for his birthday, and they are all his babies, and he is always telling me that he has to go put his babies down, or that he has to go because his babies are crying and he needs to take care of them. The other day, baby penguin was sick in bed all day... poor thing. ;) I love watching him him play. It definitely helps soften my heart for those times when his stubborn-ness takes over and I want to wring his little neck. Figuratively speaking, of course!

We love you Asher, and love watching you grow, and are so happy to have you in our family!

Pioneer Day. Firetrucks at Veteran's Park.

Riding the tractor with 'Uncle" Joshie in Scipio, also on Pioneer Day. He was in heaven!!

I love all these pictures. He looks so cute and sweet, and of course, silly

Back in the saddle again

Well, I have been a terrible blogger lately. Every time I have thought about writing a blog post, I cringe and just have no desire. I feel like my blog has turned into more of a scrapbook filled with things like vacations and random activities that I am sure only Nate and I care about, which makes it so much more of a chore to document. And of course, I am hopelessly behind, so it is all just too overwhelming.

Blogging has been an interesting thing in my life the last few years. At first it started out as a way to keep up with friends and family. Then it became inspiring. I learned a lot of things about being a wife and mom, got a lot of new ideas, and was overall just inspired to be better. Then I was inspired to be more. I watched as many of my friends became ambitious and started fulfilling passions and lifelong dreams and then shared it on their blog. I realized there was so much more to me than motherhood. There were things that I wanted to be and to experience, and through blogging, I started to figure out what those things were, and then understood that I could actually do them. It was eye-opening and exciting. But then it became competitive. I always felt the need to "keep up" and found myself comparing lives and accomplishments. It became overwhelming and negative, so I found myself separating from the blogging world a little bit. Then life got busy and tiring and blogging really just turned into a chore, which is where I find myself now.

Well, I still have my trusty google reader and have been faithfully keeping up on many blogs, and a few have actually been inspiring me again, this time to re-enter the blogging world a little more. My friend Maren, who is an amazing blogger, is doing a series right now called "How they do it", and it is inspiring in so many ways, and has helped me to see that there are a lot of positive things to gain from blogging, and I think I am ready to be apart of it again. Despite my lack of blogging, I still find myself thinking of things to blog about and share. Things that are witty and funny, or that have been on my mind that I want to share. Things that I have learned or even opinions I would like to voice as well as hear from other people. But the OCD in me won't let me post because all things must be in order and I want to get all the other stuff documented first. So I want to still post all that boring stuff that no one really cares about, in hopes that I will also be able to have a little more fun with blogging again, as I think it can still be a positive thing in my life. I'm not promising anything, mind you. But the desire is definitely there, more than it used to be, so we'll see what happens. In the meantime, I'll get posting on what we've been up to, and guess what... it's not even going to be in order! *Gasp!* :)

Birth Announcements

My sister in law, Lizza, made these AWESOMELY ADORABLE birth announcements as a baby gift to me. She did such a great job, I just had to share. We only sent them to Aunts and Uncles and Grandmas and some other people who don't really read our blog. But here they are: (they are supposed to be library books!)

Very cute and creative, huh?! Thanks so much Lizza, you're the BEST!

Mother Daughter Trip: DC

*This trip happened back in March, so this is long overdue. But I had to wait for Nate's contribution... see end of post*

Our first stop in DC was to the Costco right down the street from Jill's apartment.

The highlight of that trip was when we were all casually walking down some steps and Jillian full on toppled down the stairs. Not just a little trip, but legs coming out from under her and falling on the ground and essentially rolling down the rest of the steps. It was bizarre and a little sad because she really did get hurt. But to be honest, it was mostly funny. I mean her legs were actually in the air. It just looked so spectacular, and it was so crazy that she had such an amazing fall on all of 4 steps, that once we knew she was ok, we couldn't help laughing. But she healed up fine, so now it is nothing but a great memory! :)

Our first day on the town, we were getting ready to leave, and when I saw Whitney ready to go, the first thought that came to my mind was "first day of school". With her backpack and cute outfit, she looked like someone headed out for her first day of school.

Our first day we did Museums. It was fun. I'm not much of a museum gal, but I still enjoyed it. I can't remember the name of the museum we went to, Museum of American History? Something like that. But it had all the Inagural Ball dresses of the first ladies which was cool. It also had Julia Child's kitchen, which I thought was very cool. We also went to the Holocaust Museum. It's a very somber, fascinating place, but after the first 3 floors, I was done. I don't think I need to go back there for at least another 10-15 years.

Day two was my favorite. We went to the mall and had a picnic and flew kites and blew bubbles. The weather was absolutely gorgeous. It was so relaxing to just sit and talk and laugh and people watch. Here is Jill with our awesome eagle kite that she bought at toys r us in Times Square.

Whit and Ash blowing bubbles

My Aunt Karen came down for the day with her daughter Robyn and her daughter Belle. It was fun hanging out and catching up with them.

Lexy, Morgan, Jill, Hailey, Aunt Karen, Belle at the WWII Memorial

Mom and Morgan

Mom, Lexy, Jill, Whit, Morg, Hailey

After the WWII Memorial, we kept walking along the reflection pool and up to the Lincoln Memorial. From there we walked to the Jefferson Memorial and were able to enjoy the beautiful cherry blossoms. After that we went to dinner around Chinatown. It was a lovely day in DC!

This is unfortunately, the end of my picture taking, but not the end of our trip. The next day my mom got super sick, so we just went shopping at the mall and met up with Doug and Jackie who were driving through from Virginia, and then later met up with Burton and Janaya Rampton, good friends of Ben and Whit from their Provo days. The next day it was time to head back to NY. We had a fabulous trip, and it was so nice to get away without kids for a few days. It would have been perfect if I hadn't been pregnant and could have actually enjoyed the chance to sleep in as much as I wanted. But when you are 8 months pregnant, there is just no comfy position to sleep in. Oh well. It was so fun to be with my mom and all my sisters. Hopefully we will be able to do this at least every couple years.

Things I learned while Morgan was gone ( By Nate. Of course Morgan already knows these things!)
*If you load kids up on enormous ice cream cones with chocolate sprinkles, they will not fall asleep on the ferry/subway. Instead, they will be bouncing off the walls like crazy people, screaming at the other boats, and generally annoying everyone around them.
*Always bring a spare set of clothes, because if there is a mud puddle in or near the playground, one of the kids will find it, step in it, and of course fall down in it.
*If you don’t open the window in the bathroom, the entire house will smell like pee.
*If you don’t get the 2-yr-old into his diaper IMMEDIATELY upon exiting the bathtub, he will pee on your running clothes.
*If you let said two year old get out of the tub to look for toys you can’t find, there is a good chance that while he is out of the tub and disrobed, he will relieve himself on the floor, and then step in it.
*There are no beaches on Staten Island, even if you walk around the coastal area for 45+ minutes.
*If you bring potato chips as part of the lunch and don’t separate them into little bags, they will become the entire lunch.
*If you bring carrots as a snack, you will end up eating them yourself.
*In the sandbox, little girls like to build castles, dig holes, and make sand cakes. Little boys like to destroy these things. No matter how much you tell them not to. You’ll probably have to sit next to them to ward off their destructive instincts so that all the other parents don’t glare at you, thinking you are a bad parent and hoping that you will leave soon so their kid can play in peace.
*There is never an acceptable time to leave the playground. Desperate screams of “no!” and frantic running will inevitably accompany your proposed departure.

Wheeler Farm

One of the first weekends that we were back in UT, Nate wanted to go to a fiddle contest up at Wheeler Farm, so we decided to take the kids. They of course loved all the ducks and geese that were wandering around. They loved to climb on everything, and I am amazed that they never once fell in the water. I loved seeing them have so much fun though. They seem like they can entertain themselves for hours at places like this.

Chasing ducks and geese

Climbing the wagon

Asher sittin' on the porta john

This turkey was enormous. Aside from their necks and heads, they really are beautiful animals.

Little Barty, being so good, as always!