Stickers Stickers Everywhere!!

On Sunday night, Mom, Karri and I were watching the sing along version of High School Musical 2 and Mara decided to find some stickers! It's good to have grandma's that will let you put stickers all over. She had started to put them on the cupboards (she see Xander's potty chart with stickers on it and wants to do the same thing) So Mana (my mom) grabbed her and they started putting stickers on her hand! Now she thought that was cool!! It is so cute when something so simple makes kids so happy :)

The New Stefie

This is one of my very best friends Stefanie Walker!! We have know each other since our Sophomore year of High School. We were in Choir together all 3 years of school and became really good friends. She got married on August 16th to Scott Shoell! I am so very happy for her to finally join the ranks of married-hood lol!

LOVE YOU STEF!!

And this is Mara after enjoying a piece of yummy cake at the reception!! She is so my daughter! She loves the cakes, brownies, and cookies just like me :)

Picture Randomness!

I realized that I hadn't updated the blog for a little bit. So here are some of the highlights of the past week or so. Mara is really starting to be a "cheeser". Whenever she sees me with a camera she says "cheese" and pulls this face :) I absolutley love it! I love how her nose gets all wrinkled.

My mom has slip covers on her couches and Xander likes to play under them. While he was doing this Mara found him and wanted to join in. They were laughing together for awhile, so we decided to get the camera out.

Can you see them????

Peek-A-Boo!!

The Many Moods of Mara

Mara's personality has really blossomed lately. She has started to tell me "bye-bye" and wave, whenever she wants me to leave her alone. Namely when she is getting into something that she knows she shouldn't. It has made me laugh on more than one occasion. Here are a few of my favorite pictures of the week.

This is Mara sitting in a toy that is supposed to help her learn to walk (which she has mastered by the way). She likes to put toys, books, or her bear in it and push it around like a stroller. (Maybe that is why she always had to push the stroller in Disneyland!) She is definitely going to be a little mommy.



Then today she found Xander's flip flops and decided that she had to wear them. She was getting really mad for about 5 minutes while she tried to get the first one on. Once I helped her she went and got the second one. She was able to get them on and walk 4 or 5 feet before they started to fall off. I guess that I need to get her a pair of flip flops. It will have to wait until next summer, because now I need to look into getting boots for the winter. (I like to plan ahead :)

DISNEYLAND RETURNS!

Beware!! There are alot of pics!! We just got back from our trip to DISNEYLAND! Xander had so much fun! He did everything we wanted him too at least once. But there was no way he would do them again! :) It was great to have mom and Karri with us, it made taking care of Mara alot easier. Especially when she couldn't go on the rides. The trip went really fast and it makes me wish that we lived closer and could go all the time. I love Disneyland! Here are the highlights:



At the entrance, the classic picture with the mickey flowers!


Xander's first time on a REAL rollercoaster! (Thunder Mountain Railroad)


Mara and me with Buzz!


Our pic from Space Mountain! Can you see Xander???


Xander with the real Buzz Lightyear!!


On the Jungle Cruise (the second time around)



With Woody!! We were the first in line!


The Boys waiting for their car on Autopia!


Family picture with Buzz. Mara couldn't keep her eyes off of him!! :)


The kids with their new Mickey Ears!


Xander and Me on the Astro Orbitor (this was the first time I have been on this ride too!)


Me, Xander and Karri waiting for the fireworks!


Me, Pat and Mara waiting in line for the new Nemo Submarine!!


Xander in line for the Nemo Submarine!


Xander and Pat walking to the Tower Of Terror!


Inside the Hollywood Towers Hotel (Tower of Terror)


In front of Boo's door! (Monster's Inc. ride)


Xander with Lightning McQueen! Ka-chow!


Me, Pat and Xander on the Grizzly River Run! It was the first time for all of us on this one. Xander barely hit the line to get on the ride! Wahoo 42 inches! (with shoes)


After the River Run! We got pretty wet! (you can't really tell from the picture)

Mara in Bug's Life Land in the mini water area! (she got soaked to the bone! but loved it)


Xander all wet in Bug's Life Land!


Xander and Pat in front of a cool airplane in California Adventures


Xander looking at the map, deciding where to go next! We have many pictures of this!


Pat and Xander riding in the front of the Monorail that was painted yellow and blue for the Nemo Submaine ride!


Xander and Karri in the Tea Cups!


All of us in front of the Castle on the last day!
We love you Disneyland!

Dragonflies Galore!!

Tonight after Pat got off work he noticed that there were a lot of dragonflies around, so he and Xander got out there nets and were able to catch around 4. In this picture they both have dragonflies in their nets. (Pat had accidently hit one and it fell, so he put it in Xander's net) BOYS LOVE BUGS!!!! :)

So my sister mentioned that I hadn't updated my blog since the 4th, so here is an update! We had a really fun 4th. We spent alot of time with Pat's family. His brother Ben and his family were in town. So that made the holiday extra fun. We sat on the lawn at the Provo Temple and watched the fireworks from the Stadium of Fire. It was great. But Xander was starting to fall asleep in the middle of them! When it was over we had to walk a little bit to get to our car, so we made Xander walk. That woke him up!! It took us at least 30-35 minutes to get home, and Xander stayed awake the whole time. I thought for sure that he would have fallen asleep. So he was up until 11:30 or so! Then the next morning we woke him up a little early and went to see Transformers!! (It was better than I thought it would be)

Since then we haven't really had much going on. We saw Harry Potter last week and loved it!!! But then I got sick, and ended up giving it to Xander. So we are both on antibiotics.

We are planning a trip to DISNEYLAND! lol (I have to laugh, because I never would have thought that I would be going twice in one year! If I would have know then I would have upgraded to an annual pass like my mom and Karri!) We are leaving next Friday and driving. But the fun part is that Mom and Karri are coming with us!! We are all really excited for the trip. I have made a count-down chain for Xander, but every day he is asking to go! Over the weekend Pat and Xander were in the car and heard on the radio about a contest to get Disneyland Park Hopper Tickets. All of a sudden Xander got worried and told Pat that "We need to get tickets if we're gonna go to Disneyland!!" This trip is going to be fun! Xander is tall enough to ride everything except Indiana Jones and California Screamin'. So we will see how he does. This will be his first time on any type of roller coaster, but he says he wants to ride them all!! Who knows, maybe he will :)

Happy Independence Day!

Happy 4th of July!! I decided to continue a tradition that my mom and dad started. The annual Flag Shirt Family Picture! For at least 4-5 years my parents would buy shirts from Old Navy and we would sit on the porch and take a family picture. The last one we did as a big family was at Mount Rushmore, 3 months after my dad died, when I was 5 months pregnant with Xander. That was a fun trip! :) Anyway, So Pat and I donned our Flag Shirts this morning and got the kids "dress up" and did our family picture! They turned out really well. Once we were able to get Mara to look at the camera :) Here are two of my favorites. We are off to do some swimming and BBQ-ing today. Maybe we will even see some fireworks! Happy Independence Day!!!!!

Swim Time!

We went swimming yesterday at Brent and Lisa's pool in their complex. Karri came to swim too! We had alot of fun! It was Mara's first time in a big pool this summer. It took her at least 45 minutes before she started enjoying herself ie: splashing and laughing. We had fun with Max and Conli too. I have decided that Max is a fish. He loves the pool and can swim all by himself (eyes open in water even!) and he is 4 1/2! I just need to make a goal to take Xander swimming more, I really want him to have the confidence that Max does. I just burn so easily so I try to avoid the outdoors during the summer :( Even with sunscreen I got burned on my arms and neck. And I made a new discovery, Mara has my skin!! I thought that I put enough sunscreen on her, but she still got burned on her little arms :( :( Now I know, Xander has Pat's skin and tans easily and Mara is like me. It's so fun to see how your kids turn out so differently! I just hope that we can have a fun summer of swimming!

Xander's Big Bed!

So Xander is OFFICIALLY a BIG BOY! He is potty trained and got a twin bed a few weeks ago! He loves his bed very much and it has solved his night time wakings! So that makes me and Pat very happy. Finally both kids are sleeping through the night :) Here are a few pictures of Xander on his bed. (Yes, he does have Star Wars sheets! I bought vintage sheets on eBay)