Ali is Three!!!

Our sweet, adorable little girl turned 3 today!!!  The first thing she said to me when I walked in her room this morning was, "Mom, it's my birthday and I'm ready to go get a birthday treat!"  It was hilarious!  I love that she's old enough to know that it's her special day!  Jimmy had gone to the store early to get doughnuts and chocolate milk so we went downstairs to have her special breakfast.

Ali took this picture with her daddy before he went to work.  These two are so sweet together!

 I am completely in love with this little sweetie!!  I cannot believe how lucky I am to be her mom!

 She teaches me so much every day.  She reminds me to be kind and to love.  She stands up for James and she stands up for herself and that makes my mommy heart happy.  I hope she will always be passionate about standing up for what she know is right!  She follows her heart and that is a beautiful thing.  I'm so proud of the young lady she is!

 She is so special and so sweet and I wouldn't be the same without her!  She could not be more beautiful!

 These two love each other SO much!  They are always thinking of each other and worried about the other's well-being!

  For the past year she has been obsessed with this little pony.  After we grocery shop I let the kids look at the toys and she goes straight to this little pony purse.  We let her pick one present this morning and this is the one she opened.  The pony went with her everywhere today!

 For dinner we went to "Old McDonald's", as Ali calls it. 

 She wasn't able to play at the play place because her ankle had been hurting for several hours.  She would not put pressure on it without screaming.  Initially I thought her foot had just fallen asleep but after going to the park and the McDonald's play place and she wouldn't play at either, we figured it was something to have the doctor look at.  And by the time we got home from dinner we noticed it was swelling.  So Ali and Mommy went to the InstaCare to get it checked out.

 The nurses and staff were SO sweet to Ali!  Everyone knew it was her birthday and they gave her suckers and coloring books and Ali thought the doctor's office was the coolest place ever.

 She made herself right at home.

 The doctor was concerned that it might be broken so he sent her back to get and X-ray.  The results came back clear so he wrapped her ankle and sent us home.

 Here is her (sad) cake that I had made earlier in the afternoon but hadn't decorate.  I put some icing on it when we got home at 9 pm and she didn't even care that it looked like a 2 year old made it!  I love kids!

She waited patiently all day to open presents and the time finally came!

 Oh she is so sweet!!!  How did we get so lucky?!!

Ali is the most observant human on the planet!  She has the best memory of anyone I know.  She is also the most obedient person I know!  She cares about people so much and loves to be loved!  She likes to stay up late and wake up early.  She loves Minnie Mouse and the color pink.  She LOVES to chat.  She is obsessed with cats.  She knows that when we buy a house she gets a cat so the other day she said, "Why don't we pick up our house and put it on some new grass so I can get a kitty."  It was such a clever solution.  She loves stuffed animals and candy.  When we are running errands she will always ask if we're done.  And when I say yes, she'll say, "Let's just go to one more store!"  Every. Time.  Even if we've been to 10 stores she'd still want to go to one more store.  She loves to draw, write grocery lists for me and color.
Thank you for being the sweetest little girl ever and our wonderful little three year old!  We love you so  much Ali!  Happy Birthday!

This Dude

 Yes, this is my favorite little guy on the planet!!  He is funny and sweet and we just love him so much!!  Since Ali's birthday is coming up and so much has been about her lately I wanted to take a moment to share about James.  I have been wanting to blog about the funny little things he says since summer started.

 This kid didn't really start out talking like most kids.  He didn't start with little words here and there, he just broke into full on sentences and phrases!  It was hilarious and adorable!  It would be things he heard us saying all the time.  Some of my favorites are:

Be right back.  

(He says this while leaning towards you and holding his cute little pointer finger up towards you.)

Just a second.

(Also usually said with his pointer finger up.)

Whatcha doin'?

Where's Daddy?

Where's Ali?

Another adorable thing he is doing now is when you say something to him he will repeat the last few words but in a questioning tone.  For example, I will say, "James, we need to find your shoes."  And he'll repeat, "Find my shoes?"  I'll continue, "Yes, so we can go outside."  He'll say, "Go outside?"  It's just awesome!
James LOVES puppies!!  And so does Ali!  But she assigns herself the kitties and James the puppies.  Glad they have it all worked out.

James (And Ali) LOVE having hot chocolate any time of day.  James has mastered drinking out of the tea cups.  He is also obsessed with football.  He has a favorite football that he carries around with him everywhere.  He's pretty good at sharing as long as it's not his special football.  Anytime he sees it on any TV he'll scream, "FOOTBALL!!!!!"  Also noteworthy is the fact that whenever Ali sees a Y she says, "That's BYU."  It makes me so happy!!  Like the other day in Walmart she saw a BYU cooler and said it and this morning we were playing with letter stickers and pointed to the Y and said it.

 As sweet as he is, James has his moments.  Sometimes we call him the Hulk because of his fits he can throw.  I think I have it narrowed down to possible causes.  Most of them have to do with being hungry.  The other morning I brought him down stairs after he woke up and he commenced screaming for about 20 minutes.  We finally were able to get food and water into him and then he was like, "Hey guys, good morning."  It's like he doesn't even remember screaming and throwing himself on the ground.

I totally cannot say no to this face!!!  He will say, "Come 'ere Mommy," and squeeze his little fist together motioning me to follow him.  It's usually to go up to his room to find his binkies.  Or lately he'll just come up to me and fold his sweet hands together, hold them up by his precious chin and say, "Binky Mommy?  Please.  Binky."  How can I say no to that??!  Seriously!  And by the way, Ali loves going with him to help him get his binkies out of his room.  That is also adorable.

 I am completely smitten by this boy.  He has the sweetest, calmest spirit.  He loves so deeply and adds a great balance to our family.  We love you, James!

Potty Trained!!!!

We officially have a potty trained child in our home!!  Just shy of TWO years with TWO in diapers and we're free!!!  It really is drastically different to have only 1 in diapers.  I can't imagine how awesome it's going to be to have zero in diapers!  Ok, on to the story.  This little girl did it!!  She is potty trained!!  

 We tried a little in the spring and it didn't seem time.  We tried again in the summer and it still didn't seem time but Tuesday morning I woke up with conviction and the feeling that it was time.   The past couple weeks she has been asking every once in a while to go pee-pee on the toilet.  She would go in the bathroom, take her diaper off, and go pee-pee on the toilet.  It seemed like it was time.  So on Tuesday morning I put her underwear on and we went for it.  Things were perfect.  She didn't have any accidents all morning and before lunch she said she needed to go poo-poo.  The fact is, this has been the only thing really holding her back from being potty trained earlier.  She has had a fear of going poo-poo on the toilet.  But I told her she should try it and it will be ok.  She started getting scared and I could see she was going to back out.  I asked her if she wanted to say a prayer.  She said yes.  So I prayed out loud for her.  I asked Heavenly Father to bless her with strength and courage and to help her know that she can do it, etc.  When I was finished she said, "Mommy, you said Heavenly Father."  "Yes,"  I said, "I did."  Then she said, "And he told me yes, I could do it and then I felt happy."  I can't even put into words how touched I felt from this.  Heavenly Father, out of all the things he was doing at that moment, took the time to tell Ali that she could do it and sent the spirit to speak peace to her heart.  I am so happy she was able to express that to me.   I know that Heavenly Father cares for her.  He loves her and is aware of her.  This was something scary and something holding her back from progressing and he helped her through it.  What a cool and very unexpected experience with prayer.  So, she did it.  She pooped and she was so excited!  We called Daddy at work to tell him and we were all so excited!
This princess stuff has been sitting on our fridge for 6 months waiting for her to poop in the toilet.

Her reward for becoming potty trained was a Minnie Mouse bed (twin bed with Minnie Mouse comforter).  We went to the store that evening to buy her comforter.  The next day Daddy brought home her big girl bed and she got to sleep in it for the first time!!  Here's Ali and James trying it out before baths.

 She has LOVED sleeping in her bed so much!

 We are so proud of her!  This week has been a HUGE turning point for her!  On Monday night we went to the mall so I could get my hair cut.  I had kind of planned on her sitting on my lap the whole time because of the anxiety she experiences when I leave her.  Just as it was time for my appointment we asked her if she wanted to go with me to get my hair cut or go with Daddy and James to the Disney Store.  She thought about it for a second and then said, "Disney Store!!!"  I was excited but still wasn't convinced it would happen.  As the time came for them to go right and me to go left she held onto Jimmy's hand and started walking away.  I was so excited.  I turned back around to look at her and she was turned around to look at me.  I blew her a kiss and waved and she said, "Bye Mommy."  And that was it!  I got my hair cut, she had a great time and she did it!  She chose to do something fun without me!  I am so proud of her!!  These little things are such huge victories!

 We're so excited to be celebrating her birthday next week!!

CONGRATS on being potty trained Ali!!

Hello Fall!!

Last Saturday we drove the Alpine Loop with our kids.  The mountains were beyond beautiful with all of the changing colors!  We got out of the car at the summit and took a short walk. 

 At the end of the walk the kids spotted a worm.  That's our kids for sure!  They can always find a worm!

Bye Bye Summer

We had a fantastic summer!!  The summer months are so nice here and there is so much to do.  We were busy doing fun things and now that summer is over it seems like it never even happened.  Good thing we have pictures to help us remember the good times we had.

 Ali had the idea one Sunday that we needed to have a party.  It was so fun to celebrate just being alive!

 This little face!  He had just woken up from his nap.

 The party hostess!

 Gum-balls!

 Silly Daddy!

Along with going to fairs, picnics, hikes and parties we also got to spend the weekend with our friends at their cabin in Bear Lake.  It was a circus getting all the kids to sleep but it was a lot of fun and great company!

 I might die from the sweetness of his little face!

 Oh these little people are too much!  The cuteness!

 As always, there's painting and crafts going on at our house.

 We went to Payson in September to pick raspberries at a you pick farm.  It was such a fun experience and the best part was getting to make jam for family night a couple days later.  The kids were such good helpers!

First they cleaned the jars.

 Then they mashed the berries.

 Then they tasted the berries.

 Then they stirred in the sugar.

 Then we poured it in the jars.

 And we have been enjoying this freezer jam so much!  I will have to make more next year!