Quality Time

I spend lots of time with my family, but not all of it is good quality time. What I mean by this is that all 7 of us were together, no kids were fighting, Daddy and Mommy were happy and we just had a good time. With so many attitudes and feelings to contend with on any given day I can assure you this time is hard to come by. It was a great day, we had a really fun lunch, and then came home and worked together to accomplish a task. It was a great day!

Thing 1 and 2

I can say that these two beautiful girls, whom I love so dearly are teaching me a lot about myself. I have never in my entire life been pushed so close to the edge than I have been lately while dealing with them. I can appreciate and am very happy that both of my little twins have such strong wills, but it is not making it easy to parent them. I am hoping that this testing mom stage passes soon and we will find ourselves in calmer waters, but until then I am going to continue to persevere and cherish the moments that are good and continue to better myself in the bad. I took this picture in 2009 and I have always loved it.

Happy 1/2 birthday!

At six months old Natalie is busy as ever. She is now sitting up on her own, she is crawling backwards and rocking on her knees trying so hard to get forward motion. She reaches for Mommy now when she wants me and she is attached to my hip. She is also a great eater, her favorites are Pears, Squash and Bananas and she really doesn't care for apples and peas. Natalie's personality is really shining, she is such a happy baby, that is unless she is getting frustrated at her toys, they sure make her mad especially if they are too big to get in her mouth. I will say it again just how blessed we are to have this little sweetie in our life. Oh and I want to give a shout out to Grandma Liza for taking these beautiful pictures!

Cousins

Valentine

I am pretty sure I know who everyone's Valentine is in our house this year, it would be safe to say that we are all just smitten with our Natalie!

My Girls

Love spending time with my girls.

Milestones

Enter proud Mama...Ok, so my super smart and extremely advanced 4 month old (4 months and 12 days if you want to get technical) decided that she was just going to be awesome and impress everyone with her outstanding capabilities! So are there any collage scholarships available for rolling over?? Toy grasping?? Cereal Eating?? Oh did I mention she typed this??

My Many Resolutions

I just had all the reasons why 2010 was such a difficult year all typed out and then I remembered that one of my resolutions was to be more positive so I decided not to rehash the last year! So my resolutions for 2011 are as follows....there are a lot so hang with me!

1. Be more positive...I have been feeling doom and gloom for a while now and I want to find the best in situations instead of the worst.
2. Be a better Mommy and stop yelling. I can admit that I did my share of yelling at my kids and I need to turn that around. I keep telling myself it is not working but I am a slow learner apparently!
3. Take time for me. I put everyone before myself and if I want to be able to accomplish all these great resolutions I need to become a priority.
4. Start living healthy. I don't want to just drop weight that hopefully with just be an added bonus but I want to learn to eat better and feed my family better. I want to get active daily and make sure the kids are too and do things that benefit our family's overall heath.
5. Go back to school...this looks like it will happen in the fall now, was hoping for spring but I just didn't get it all together in time!
6. Enjoy the hubby... we can certainly use a little hubby-wifey time alone this year. I have to make him a priority also so date nights here we come!
7. Go back to Church...I know that everything will be easier if we make room for our faith and I have been missing feeling the spirit so much.
8. Everything else I have been slacking on such as cleaning, saving, organizing, and just plain enjoying life!

I am really looking forward to this year and hopefully I will be able to stick to all of these resolutions.

Natalie is Four Months!

At four months old Natalie has tasted rice cereal and likes it, she has officially found her hands and figured out that she can make them do things, she is trying very hard to roll from her back to her tummy, loves when Mommy talks on the phone (she thinks I am talking to her), still wakes up once a night and loves all her new toys. At four months old I am still just in love as I was the day she was born, even more so. She is a funny little baby and still has the most awesome head of hair!

Christmas Cheer!

This holiday season came up super fast and I was really really unprepared this year. That being the case I wasn't very excited, more like dreading the whole thing. That was until we received some unexpected holiday cheer. For 10 nights a secret Santa delivered treats, gifts, a turkey! and most importantly the message of what Christmas is all about. Day by day I felt more and more of the spirit that comes with Christmas. It was so fun each day and the kids couldn't wait for the doorbell each evening. So whoever you are out there who was so generous, we thank you and appreciate you.

Christmas Eve we spent at my sister's home and enjoyed a great dinner and time with family. As usual my sweet children were spoiled rotten and brought home a gazillion new toys to play with. Natalie seemed to want to sleep rather than enjoy the festivities but she sure looked pretty all dressed up!

Christmas morning was just more toys and fun, and preparing a turkey dinner for Zach's family. We had another great day just hanging out with family. The holiday turned out great and we are so thankful for our families!!

Natalie is Three Months!

Time needs to slow down now, this is all going too fast! Natalie is three months today and I am not ready for her to get any older. I absolutely love this age, all the smiles and the cooing. She is so sweet and even if she is crying it makes me smile. Natalie at three months is a tummy time pro, she loves her mobile, she loves to be talked to, she loves to coo, she has found her hand and can bring it to her mouth and suck her fingers, is still nursing great and will sleep 5 hour blocks for mama. We are so lucky to have such an amazing baby for our last, it is making this so enjoyable and I am so loving every single second!

Natalie is Two Months!

Natalie is already getting too big, she started smiling at us around 7 weeks and quickly started cooing right after. She is a whopping 13 lbs already and loves to eat, so much so that she still wants to wake up 3 times a night to nurse. I love how she is spending more time awake and alert during the day she loves watching her crazy sisters! Natalie has been such an easy baby hardly ever crying, even during a long weekend away from home! We really are lucky to have this little cutie in our home!

Halloween Weekend

Who wouldn't love an early Christmas present? Especially if it involved a little place I like to call Disneyland. My Mom who is just awesome decided to make her Christmas shopping easy and take all her kids and grand kids to the happiest place on earth for our gifts this year. It was soo much fun and I am so grateful for the time I got to spend with my Mom, sisters and their families.

Day One
We went up a day early and got to spend some time at the beach which was so beautiful. I loved going to California ever since I was a little girl because we always got to go to the beach and hang out with my Aunt Lezlie. It is so fun getting to see my kids get to experience the same fun I always had...they adore "California Aunt Lezlie!" So it was Natalie's introduction to the beach and Alexis broke her in by throwing a nice handful of sand in her face. Thank goodness she was asleep by that time and so her eyes and mouth were closed. Other than sand in the face I am pretty sure she enjoyed the beach, if nursing is her favorite thing to do than doing it on the beach is a double bonus! My three older rascals took a minute to get used to the sand and seaweed but were over it in an instant and ended up soaking themselves in the water. Who said swimsuits were needed at the beach? Zachary also had a good time hanging out with my cousin who is pretty close to him in age.

Day Two

Disneyland...Costumes...Trick or Treating....pretty much the best day ever! We spent most of the day riding rides and just enjoying seeing the kids have soo much fun. Before I had kids I never knew why so many adults were sooo obsessed with Disney. Well now that I have kids I too am obsessed, its hard not to when you see how much fun they have! It was such a great day with my family!Right after Disneyland we checked into our hotel then went back to my Aunt's house for some trick or treating. By that time I was exhausted and was pretty sure my kids were going to crash, but amazingly they were fine and had a blast trick or treating with all their cousins! Day Three

Back to Disneyland for one more day! This day was more relaxed we didn't end up riding on too many rides, if you ask Maile she will tell you "only FOUR" if you want to be exact but we did get a chance to eat a really good all you can eat BBQ lunch in frontier land. Zachary pretty much ditched us and the young kids to have some tween fun with my little sister and my cousins. He had soooo much fun riding all the big kid rides and not having to deal with his parents. A big thanks to my Aunt Susan and Aunt Lezlie for taking them around. Overall the day was great and Grandma took all the little kids back to the hotel for a slumber party and the hubby, my older sister and her husband all got a chance to go back and ride some adult rides. That was the best, and I decided I could use a healthy dose of adrenaline everyday if only I had a roller coaster or a free fall in my back yard!