Squash for my little squash

This little one is eating baby food! It is so hard to believe she is old enough but she loves it! She wasn't too thrilled with rice cereal, but can you blame her. Blan, mushy paste. But she loves her squash!

And she is rolling over! I just took these pictures. She doesn't last long on her back now and she is a champ on her tummy. Toys are closer to chomp on that way! I can't believe how fast my baby is growing up! 

Well, my toddlers need to be in bed now so I guess I have to stop playing with this cutie pie. She is so much fun though! And so peaceful especially when another may, or may not, be going through the infamous two year old stage! But...the two big squashes are playing so happily right now, I may enjoy this sweet one a bit longer. 

Weekend Trifecta of Awesomeness!

I'm finally getting caught up about our big weekend in February. I called it the "Weekend Trifecta of Awesomeness!" That weekend, Jane was blessed at church, Stephen John turned two, and it was Valentine's Day, all on the same day. Dan and I have such great families! Both of our parents were here and my sister in-law Emily. It was wonderful to have both our families here to enjoy such a special weekend. Thanks for coming out guys!

Sunday morning we celebrated Valentine's Day. Yum-chocolate! The boys loved getting valentine's cards from their grandparents and grammy (my grandma). They are so lucky to have two sets of fabulous grandparents that they know really well!

Then we all went to church where Dan blessed Jane. I'm so grateful to be married to such a good man. It was such a sweet blessing. I count my blessings everyday too for such a wonderful baby. She just has a sweetness and happiness about her. 

Emily, Grandpa M, Grandma M, Stephen John, Dan, Jane, Michelle, Dallin, Grandma C, Grandpa C

3 generations

The dress that Jane wore was the dress that I was blessed in. I'm so glad my mom saved it. I loved passing on my blessing dress to my daughter. The blanket Jane used that day was made by my great-grandmother, Jane's great-great-grandma. How neat is that! My great-grandma was very talented at knitting and crocheting. And she adored babies! Its extra special too because I remember my great-grandma. She used to let us ride with her on her electric scooter. We thought that was so fun as little kids. 

My happy girl... 

 with a little sass! 

My baby girl!

After church, and the boys' naps, it was all about this little dude! Guess who is two?! Stephen John! He loves animals so I made him an animal cake. When we go to the zoo, SJ could seriously stay at each exhibit forever in peaceful harmony with the animals around him. He said to say that the giraffe is his favorite. It really is. Its a mandatory stop each time we go. 

I made the cake on Saturday so that Sunday wouldn't be so crazy. Every time he saw his cake he would point it out and tell us that it was his birthday. He was very excited to finally be able to eat it! He will never smile in pictures for me, so this is pretty good. 

Here are some things this little one was doing when he turned two:

-puzzles! Not your baby ones, but the cardboard toddler jigsaw puzzles that have a cardboard backing you put them on. He is really good at them!

-trots around the house

-STUBBORN!(I'm not sure which parent you can blame that one on)

-Talks, a lot! Careful, he'll start saying anything he hears you say. One time Dan was putting lotion on his hands and told SJ that his hands were shot. So then SJ starts putting lotion on himself and says, "checks shot," "nose shot," "knees shot," etc. You can have a pretty decent conversation with him too. It kind of throws people off when they hear him talk because they don't expect it. 

-hates falling asleep. I won't even start in on these stories except to say that at one point we had to rock him to sleep. When he felt himself falling asleep he would sleepily say "no!" and wiggle a finger or foot or whatever just to keep himself awake.  

-takes the world in. When we go on walks he walks slowly looking at all the bugs on the ground or pointing out things he sees. He loves riding in the stroller and watching everything around him. He would go forever!

-loves making a mess and cleaning it up. Sometimes it seemed like he would make a mess just to clean it up.

-food! When we eat, he'll check out everyone else's plate and if there is something on it he wants, he'll lean forward with his chin up and say, "bite please" as angelically as possible and leave his mouth open for you to deposit the eyed delectable in his mouth. 

-washing his hands/playing in the sink

-Bumble!!!! He was obsessed with the Bumble from the movie "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer." Randomly, and quite often, with his round eyes opened even wider, he would whisper-yell in a deep, raspy voice--"Bumble." Or say, "Bumble's coming!" If we happened to be in my bed, he would then hide under the covers.

-he likes to scribble on the palm of his hand and call it a monster. Then he'll hold his palms up and roar at you quite ferociously! 

-reading books

4 months

Baby girl is four months old! Where is the time going? I keep thinking this little girl is going to roll over any day! But she keeps us in suspense and just goes to her side to chill out for a bit. She loves grabbing onto things now. Both boys received quite a surprise when they laid down by her one day and their hair got a good tug! They are a bit more careful and some haircuts have helped too.  She wiggles lots too. The boys like to sit and lay next to her which means that her wiggles come into contact with them. We've convinced Dallin that is how she is saying hi but SJ still shouts in his long, drawn out, whiney voice an alarm of attack! "Janie touching me! Janie kicking me!" Once in a while when I remind him that she is just saying hi, he'll say, "oh, hiiiii Jaaaaaanieeee," in his long, drawn out, sappy voice. Jane also loves her playmat. She wrangles those toys above her to naw on them. She also loves to sit up on your lap and to be held upright. She loves to watch everything around her, or is already learning to keep an eye on her brothers! She is the calm in the storm here, that is for sure!

These are some of her 3 month old pictures since I never got them posted.  I got her smiling too!

Then her brothers had to join in. 

And get dressed up too!

I don't think she is too sure of this. 

Pure Cuteness

Just because they are so cute, here are some pictures I took a few weeks ago!

My friend gave Jane this dress and I think it is so adorable! She always looks so pretty in it. It just looks like a dress someone named Jane should wear!

Jane looks like a little doll when she sits up, which she loves doing!

Check out the cute diaper cover! And those skinny legs! I don't think we'll ever have a chubby baby! Sorry for the upside down picture. (Dallin just walked up while I was typing this and said, "oh, what a cute, baby doll girl!" Then Stephen John says, "ooohhhh, Jaaaaaane!" Yes, they love their sister.)

Hello. I'm Mr. Handsome.

Goodbye Mr. Handsome!

2 months!

Where did two months go! It is hard to believe that this little one was two months on the 17th! Having a newborn is kind of like when I served my mission, in that the days (and nights) are long but the weeks go fast. Luckily, the nights seem a lot shorter, or longer depending on how you look at it, because this little angel is sleeping through the night! I always want to shout hallelujah when this happens! This girl knows she has a happier momma when she has slept. 

Here are some other things Jane is doing now:

-smiling!

-laughing! The other day she laughed and then I laughed, and then she laughed, back and forth, back and forth. It just filled me with joy! You just can't help but smile and laugh with a baby!

-making noise! This girl discovered her voice, but she still just makes happy noises. She hardly cries. 

-plays on her play mat. Jane comes alive with wiggling and noises when you lay her on her play mat under the hanging toys.

-holds her head up much better!

Here are her stats from her two month appointment:

Height: 22 inches, 26th %

Weight: 10 lbs 11 oz, 32%

Head Circumference: 15.16 inches, 56%

She is following the trend of our children, long and skinny, and the trend from my side of the family of having a big head!

2 months!

My Grandma C made each of her grandchildren a blanket. We all loved ours so my mom has continued the tradition with her grandchildren. This is the blanket she made Jane. I think it is so cute!

Sorry, you'll have to tilt your head to see this one!

Dallin had to get in on the action! He won't let me take as many pictures of him now, but he loves being in pictures with Jane!

Maybe I'll use the blanket to track her growth each month instead of the giraffe! 

I didn't write a post when Jane was one month, but here are the pictures I took of her. 

A little comparison. 

1 month

2 months

Pizza Rolls

Before Jane was born, I tried to fill our freezer up with meals. For about a month, I doubled what I made for dinner and froze the extra. I tried to get a bit creative to not have a freezer full of casseroles. I was pretty successful I'd say because we only had a few casseroles and I had to stop freezing things because I ran out of room. I saw a picture of pizza rolls online and gave that a go. Well, the boys LOVED them! I guess I'll be making these again. 

"Little Sister"

Someone likes impersonating his little sister! 

Baby burrito!

Ummm…is this how you wear it?

When you tell him to smile, this is what he does!

What is better than one baby burrito? Two!

2015

This is how we rung in the new year! Dan was feeding Jane and I was up with crying boys.

We joked before we went to bed that night, that if we were both up at midnight, we should pop open a bottle of Martinelli's that we had leftover from Christmas. In the moment, we opted for sleep instead!

Challenging but very blessed is how I would describe 2015 for us.  Here are a few highlights: 

We were blessed with many things! Dan started a new job with Textron's flight department. He loves it and for a pilot job, he gets to spend a decent amount of time at home. 

Before he started his job, he deployed for the reserve unit. This was challenging to have him gone for three months, but I was blessed to be able to spend a lot of the time at my parents' house. My youngest brother was there part of the time too. We were also able to visit my in-laws and good college friends in Arizona and my cousin. 

We went to the Ozark's as a family and got to spend a few days just relaxing with the boys. They loved fishing, throwing rocks in the water, and roasting marshmallows. 

I was able to continue to help run the primary at church. It was challenging with this pregnancy, but I really enjoy teaching the children. It always amazes me how easily the children learn the gospel. There is something to be said about the faith of children. I'm excited to have more energy for this new year in primary since I'm feeling much better. 

We had several visits from our parents and some siblings too. Wichita isn't exactly a destination place (although it is a great place to raise kids), so we know it is all out of love that they come. One visit included a BYU football game in Kansas City.  Too bad they lost, but it was still fun. 

Christmas was wonderful--I wrote about that in the last post.

The greatest blessing of the year was the birth of Jane! Sweet Jane! She is wonderful! She has us all wrapped around her finger, but she is sooooo good, so we can't help ourselves.  

But, with this greatest blessing of the year also came the greatest challenge--being pregnant. This was my most difficult pregnancy. I never felt well, beyond just the normal morning sickness and all, and was exhausted the whole time. Sometimes it was debilitating. I'll spare you the details but just say that we were in survival mode for a lot of it. 

I share this because with this challenge, also came an abundance of blessings, particularly in the timing of everything. 

Much of the first trimester, I spent at my parents' house. They were so helpful with the boys. My younger brother was there too and let's just say he wins "Uncle of the Year" and "Brother of the Year." I would ask him to keep an eye on the boys, just to make sure they were safe while I would nap. He didn't do just that but would play baseball with them or other things. He also helped me to take the boys to the beach and do fun things with them.

After the first trimester, Dan started his new job. It seemed like on the days that I was the most exhausted and feeling the poorest, he was home. Either a day off or on standby and didn't get called in.

Then at the end of my pregnancy, his work was really slow and he spent a lot of time at home and was there when Jane was born. Then when I got the shingles he was still home and so helpful.

My mom's arrival the day before Jane was born was also perfect timing and having her help was really nice especially when I got sick.

Now Dan is in class for one of his certifications and not traveling. Also great timing since Jane is still so young. 

The week Dan was gone, his mom was here to help. Once again the timing was not planned, at least not on our part! 

The timing of everything was a tender mercy from Heavenly Father I'm sure. He didn't make the pregnancy easy but provided a way for me to make it through. He has also blessed me with answers to prayer about all the things I was worried about with having a baby. Being in survival mode also taught me to evaluate and focus on the most important things in my life. I'm so grateful for Heavenly Father's awareness of me individually! This year constantly reminded me of that! 

Christmas

Little children make Christmas magical, and a new baby makes it so very sweet. 

This year the boys "got" what Christmas is all about. It was so fun and inspiring to watch them be excited about it all. I loved that they weren't just excited about Santa and presents, but they were also so excited to celebrate our Savior's birth. 

For Family Home Evening, we had the boys help us put up the Nativity. They got to hold each piece and we talked about the important role each person played in the Savior's birth. They were so engaged! The boys also loved watching the Nativity video our church produced. It is really good! I can't tell you how many times the boys watched it! Stephen John still asks, "Watch baby Jesus?" He also loved reading a Christmas book from the song, "Mary Did You Know?" 

We also enjoyed all the fun things that the Christmas season brings. The boys loved Christmas lights and Christmas music! They had to move their seats at the table and we couldn't close the blinds at night so they could see our neighbor's Christmas lights while we ate dinner. Once our tree was up, then they had to move their seats again so they could see those lights while eating too! 

This is a picture of the boys meeting Santa at a Christmas party. They weren't scared at all! In fact, Stephen John thought it was his turn and totally cut in line, walked right up to Santa and sat on his lap. They asked Santa for a train. The boys must have been good because that is what he brought them!

We went to the local Christmas tree farm for our tree this year. It was fun walking around with the boys looking at all the trees. However, once Dallin saw the tractor trailer you could ride, he wanted to pick any tree just so he could take a ride! 

This one!

Tractor ride

Everyone helped decorate the tree! At first Stephen John didn't want to (he was tired) but when I showed him his ornament from Grandma and Grandpa Condie from the year before, he became so happy and totally into decorating the tree. He wanted all of the ornaments that he put on to be put up high. He would point to where he wanted it to go, or Dan would hold him up. After we decorated the tree, we sang Christmas carols. 

Dallin with his first ornament from Grandma and Grandpa Condie

 Every year my grandma gave each grandchild a Christmas ornament. Thanks to her, our tree is full of beautiful ornaments. It always brings back so many memories when I unwrap them. It was fun to show the ornaments to the boys and Dan.

My mom got here about a week before Christmas to help with the baby. She also helped with all things Christmas and made it so fun for the boys. She did all the things I loved doing as a child that I wanted to do with the boys, but let's face it, weren't going to happen with a new baby. I told her I was going to eat all the Christmas cookies I wanted this year since I'm always so hungry the first month or so after having a baby. So, she even made my favorite Christmas cookies to spoil me. Yes, I ate them all and thinking about them now is making me want more! Thanks mom, Christmas would not have been nearly as much fun without you! 

Decorating the gingerbread house

Decorating sugar cookies

Yum! After awhile, Stephen John asked for a spoon and just started scraping the frosting off to eat it. He even layered chocolate frosting on top of the vanilla frosting! 

My parents brought some Christmas books for the boys. Some of the books were the kind that you record yourself reading, including a song at the end. They gave that book to their other grandchild as well. My brother complained that their daughter listened to the book 10 times on their drive home one day. My mom had to laugh because she ended up listening to it way more! Dallin practically has the Frosty the Snowman song memorized now, and so do the rest of us!

Reading Christmas stories with Grandpa Condie

Jane is ready for Christmas!

Someone is excited to leave cookies for Santa!

Christmas morning was so much fun. Of course the boys were very excited when they saw all the presents, and especially the train set from Santa. The best part of it though was watching Dallin give a present to Stephen John. Dan took Dallin shopping a few days before Christmas to pick a present for his brother in an effort to teach him that Christmas isn't just about getting presents, but giving them to others because we love them. Dan said it was a bit stressful giving him full access to the toy department since he's never had that before. But with some help, he grasped the concept that he was choosing something for SJ. He actually picked out two things that Stephen John would really like and ultimately picked the soccer ball. When we started opening presents, Dallin wanted SJ to open the present he picked out and wrapped for him. While Stephen John was opening it, Dallin was giggling and jumping and smiling from ear to ear. As soon as Stephen John opened it, he yelled "soccer ball" and started kicking it around. They both were so happy! I loved watching Dallin be so excited to give something to his brother. 

My other favorite gift was this cross stitch that my sister in-law made for our family. I love it--it is absolutely adorable! She captured our family so well! Everyone who sees it also comments about how cute it is. 

Everyone obliged me by taking a Christmas picture. The objective here was documentation, not beauty! Hence, the combination of normal clothes, PJs, and SJ's favorite outfit-his diaper! The first picture cracks me up. In our defense, it was taken with a timer. The next one is a bit better. 

A visit from family wouldn't be complete without playing Settlers of Catan. When I was visiting California earlier this year, my dad beat me, but he wasn't completely satisfied until he beat Dan as well (he was deployed then). We played three games and my dad won the third one. We all agreed that for safety's sake, it was best that my dad won. He and Philip were driving to Virginia the next morning and the weather wasn't predicted to be the greatest. If my dad hadn't won, he would have been thinking about the game and possible strategies he should have employed instead of sleeping that night or focusing on the road the next day! 

Dallin loved our Christmas tree! I would even venture to say, he loved it as much as my Grandma Wimer loves a Christmas tree. He would turn the lights on as soon as he got up in the morning and made sure they stayed on all day. Sometimes we would find him in the morning just sitting in front of the Christmas tree looking at it while he waited for others to get up. When we had to take down the tree because it was too dry, he about cried. We consoled him by telling him that the tree was going to be turned into mulch to help next year's Christmas tree grow. I agree Dallin, I didn't want Christmas to end this year either! 

One last picture by the tree before taking it down