Sadie's Laugh

Sadie laughed for the first time on her three month birthday. Ah, it is the cutest thing ever!

 Enjoy!

The Things They Do

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Lucy loves to take pictures whenever I've got the camera out.

 Cole sits in Sadie's bouncer all the time...this picture is from the first time he got in it. He got stuck. I heard him calling me from the bathroom and I found him like this :) Made me laugh...he didn't think it was so funny.

 After I got the picture of Cole Lucy wanted me to take a picture of her sleeping in her 'boat' (a.k.a. Sadie's tub)

 The kids pretending to be horses. I had to tie their riders to them because they kept falling off.

 Sammy the turtle. Eating snacks just like the rest of us....

 THe kids were sick a little while ago (sadly we are sick again). While they were sick they couldn't give the babies kisses. So these pictures are from the first time they could hold her and give her kisses again :) I think Lucy held Sadie for ten whole minutes and Cole kissed her the entire time!

Silly kids

Anytime I lay Sadie down after she has been held for a while she will stretch like this :) I love it!
Sadie is also rolling over. She rolls over almost every time I put her on her tummy. She scoots herself while she's on her tummy by pulling her in knees and pushing out...At this rate I think she'll be crawling in a month!! I you hold her hands she can stand pretty much by herself. She can also sit up, with assistance and loves to be sitting. I think she feels big when she's sitting up.
Last night I had a dream she was already walking around! hahah, I haven't had a baby be this active or 'mobile' so early. 

General Conference Weekend

This weekend was wonderful. I always enjoy listening to General Conference. 

The messages are so uplifting, and help me to be better and to try harder to do what is right. 

Even if you are not a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints you can still be inspired and uplifted by listening to the messages that were shared this weekend. They are messages of hope, and faith, that give insightful and helpful principles which will lead you to find true joy and happiness in your life. They teach how to have better marriages, happier families and homes. Encourage good, healthy relationships within your family and with your children. 

I am so grateful for inspired leaders who are lead by the spirit to bring us these messages every six months. I believe these men are called of God to lead and guide us. I know what they speak is true and right. 

Below I have left direct links to my favorite talks that were shared, ones that really touched my heart and spoke to me at this time. I know as I go through and read and watch them again I will gain further insight, but for now these are my favorites. I hope you will read and be filled as I have been.

Elder L. Tom Perry

Elder Jeffery R. Holland

Sister Elaine S. Dalton

Elder David A. Bednar 

Cole turned TWO!

This is what he looked like a year ago....

SUCH a CUTIE! 

And now...

What a difference a year makes! This kid is adorable, I love him to pieces. I used to think having a baby would help me not baby him anymore. Nope, not true. He gives me his sad face and my heart melts. It is so hard to discipline, or put this kid in time out.

This was his cake! A lion, in case you couldn't tell. The frosting is whipped cream and his mane melted a little. One of Cole's first words was lie-lie. Interpretation: Lion. For a few months everything was the first sound of the word repeated twice. 

So.....

 Lou-lou = lucy

mama = easy, me!

dada = devin

rye-rye = his uncle Ryan (we often wonder if he thought ryan's name was lie-lie because he would use them interchangeably)

We've been telling Cole his birthday was coming soon. He didn't get it. We went to buy his presents and he was oblivious to the fact that they were for him. Two days before his birthday he found his presents behind my rocking chair (unwrapped, my fault!) and wanted to play with/read them. I told him he had to wait until his birthday. His response, "NO! No birthday" with his frowny pouting face. I just laughed.

While we were making his cake I kept telling him it was his birthday cake. He still didn't get it.

In the picture above we are lighting the candle, I don't think he gets it even still! It finally clicked when we started singing to HIM! Haha, then he realized it was all for him :)

He lost his shirt because he got so much frosting on it, it was soaked.

Along with his love of Lions Cole is also facinated (okay, obsessed) with dinosaurs. Particularly 'Sharp tooth!" 

(for those of you who do not know Land Before Time, sharp tooth is a T-REX).

Opa (Devin's dad) pointed out a while ago that Cole can't say very many words clearly but he can say 'sharp tooth' no problem :) Just to give you an idea of how much he likes that movie and it's characters.

So we got him the book '1000 facts on Dinosaurs' We have the Mammals one and he LOVEs it! Reads it all the time. I've learned quite a bit about mammals over the last couple of years. 

We also got him a Lego set (technically MegaBlocks, same thing in my book). He loves building with our blocks but gets frustrated that they fall over all the time. So I figured it was time to get him started on legos. What kid doesn't like legos?

We've been exploring and playing with them, teaching him how they stick together and all that fun stuff. He likes it and I think he will continue to like them as we play with them more.

  He is my Cole buddy forever :)

Now on to hone my dinosaur facts!

Easter 2013

Easter was fun! We dyed eggs with my sister and her family. This was the first time for our kids and they really liked it. It was a lot of fun to see how differently they work.  Chastity's kids were very creative I LOVED seeing what they did and how they decorated their eggs.

Everyone working on their eggs

Lucy was very careful and gentle with her eggs and how she dyed them.

***All picture that are nice and clear--yea, those are Jon's. We're not lucky enough to have a DSLR just yet :) But I can't wait!! Those things take awesome pictures!****

 her colors didn't turn out very bright because she would wipe them dry with a napkin. 

Cole was very NOT careful with his eggs. He loved that they changed colors! At first he tried the metal egg holder to put it in the dye but that didn't last long because he couldn't balance the egg very well. 

So he would just drop them into the cups! See the splashes on the table :).  

Then he would use his hands to get them out of the cups, one hand was a solid blue the other was solid green!

He was also very fast. He went through a dozen in the time it took Lucy to do two or three eggs. 

Since a bunch of them cracked when he put them in his cups he found one with the shell peeling off. Once he realized he could peel them he peeled several very carefully.

 Chastity's kids are so creative and talented here are some picture of cute little eggs they decorated

Sam did a bunch of multi colored ones, those are my favorite!

Eve  did little Humpty Dumpty's

And Beth-el had three mustache eggs. SO fun! I loved them :)

Afterwards Chastity's kids his Lucy and Cole's eggs so they could hunt for them. It was fun and the older kids stuck with them to make sure all the eggs were found. Giving them very good hints when my kids were struggling.

My little easter bunny's :)

And Sadie just because she's cute...this was the face she was giving Jon :)

My budding artist

Lucy's artistic abilities have sprouted!!!

I've been waiting and waiting for lucy to start drawing shapes and pictures. For the longest time she has just scribbled. For the last couple of months before her birthday she would draw circles. I kept seeing pictures from other kids her age and they'd be drawing pictures and people and what-not. I was a little discouraged but just kept telling myself it would come in time. Her interests lie elsewhere (which is VERY true).

In december or january, she painted this picture.

To look at the whole thing it may not seem special, but look closely at this part...

She drew a roller coster dragon! See the blue dot-body and green head? 

the green strokes to the side of the body are the wings!

I wish I had taken a picture of her painting the dots, she was so very careful, the rest of the page was colored after the dragon :)

Then the week before St. Patricks day we were painting some four leaf clovers. I looked down and Lucy had drawn this!

She had one sun and was doing the rays. As she painted the lines she asked, "Mommy, what are the lines coming out of the sun?" I told her they were called 'sunrays'. She said, "Oh, I'm painting sunrays!"

We made our own watercolors. It was fun, but they dry really chalky, so the paintings flake off pretty easily. 

And here is Cole-miester's masterpiece!

The most recent development was with sidewalk chalk. We were all just doodling away when Lucy blurts out , "Momma look! It's Lucy with arms and legs."

 In this picture she's drawing Cole

 He is a little shorter and fatter :)

 Cole coming over to add his two cents

 He just draws as much and as fast as he can

 Cole's about to get an earful about drawing on Lucy's pictures :)

I was so excited to see her draw a person with arms and legs! and eyes and a smile! So fun to see them learn!