My built-in babysitter

Yes, I know what most of you are thinking: a board game, a park, even McDonald's Playplace would be better than sitting in front of the TV. There are just some days when "Stevie the TV" is the perfect little helper.

Don't worry Rhaegan is still very intelligent and Marlee, well what can I say about this little girl? She hilarious!

Where have i been?

I never thought my blog would take a back seat to my life (since my blog is about my life) but it has. I have barely had time to shower (I try to at least get a shower every couple of days) let alone update my blog each week. I do have a lot to write about but my professional status as a blogger is out the window. I am going to try to update as much as possible but until my crazy life calms down you may be seeing a few more of these "breaks" as I'd like to call them.

Quick update:

-Rhaegan speaks phonetically now. Each letter of each word is sounded out one at a time. It makes for some long conversations.

-Marlee is still a handful albeit a cute one. She enjoys screaming at everything. I have lost hearing in both my ears.

-My job is going pretty well. I can't wait for the day when I can go back to being a full time Mom but for now I'll do what I have to do.

-Shae is still working unbelievably hard and is making a lot of progress. I would give more details but I can't and I really don't know much anyway.

-My mom had back surgery a week and a half ago and decided to go on a little walk after only 7 days (not allowed). While walking she slipped on the ice, fell and broke her wrist. Not just any break either. Her radius bone basically broke completely off the hand bone. Needless to say she can't do any of the things she's use to doing so luckily I'm here to help and my sister came down to help as well. It's weird when it's you bathing your mom instead of the other way around.

-Marlee has been going #2 on the toilet which is fantastic!

-Shae has been in Utah for the past week and a half and tonight he comes home! That's the best news thus far.

More to come soon (I hope)

Early Bird

My wonderful little 5 year old use to have a thing with waking up at 6am every morning even if she didn't fall asleep until 11 the night before. That phase ended (thank goodness) and was a thing of the past. I thought for sure I was in the clear. Unfortunately I was wrong. Her new time is now 5:30am each and every morning. The first couple of mornings I thought it's ok she's just not tired anymore. Now it's been 3 weeks straight of this early bird behavior and I can barely keep my eyes open past noon each day. What am I going to do? We have tried EVERYTHING from punishments to more exercise during the day. The Super Nanny has even been a recent booked checked out from our local library. She is clearly not getting enough sleep for a 5 year old. What to do?

Christmas Highlights (almost a month late)

We had a lot of fun this past Christmas. I'm still trying to wind down from it all. Rhaegan is at the perfect age for Christmas and the concept of Santa. She is a true believer and will stop at nothing to try and make everyone around her believe too. We of course taught her about the true meaning on Christmas and she is still blessing The Savior's birthday in her prayers. The week before Christmas was spent tying up any loose ends and preparing for the big day. We spent a lot of time together as a family and enjoyed reading a bunch of Christmas books to the girls to get them ready.

Christmas morning was so much fun. Watching Rhaegan run downstairs wondering what Santa has left for her was a moment to remember. She had sent him her list and was crossing her fingers as she bounded down the stairs. She was so excited to see her very own reading chair and her own camera! One that takes real pictures as she would explain it. Of course she saw what Marlee got and wanted that as well but we made sure she let Marlee enjoy her presents for herself.

Then the mother of all gifts was opened...Grandma knows her granddaughter

I'm not quite sure what Rhaegan is wearing but she apparently thought summer was the next big surprise. Marlee got that elephant from Santa which was a huge hit.

We of course had to do a little sledding (and by we I mean Shae and the girls)

This picture is priceless! For those of you who know Shae know how crazy it is to see a dog curled up next to him.

Gingerbread houses were made...of course some were better than others (Nick)

Marlee loved relaxing with Rowdy. She tried to play with Snarky but she is a little more temperamental so we thought Rowdy was the safer choice. I don't blame Snarky, though, I wouldn't like to be jumped on all day either.

Rowdy just loves kids I think

This was the only present Marlee opened Christmas morning. After it took her a little while to opened it she was too annoyed or overwhelmed with everything she refused to open any more. We had Rhaegan "help her" finish by at least lunch time.
It was a great Christmas. We hope you all enjoyed your holiday season as well.

Christmas 2010

Our Christmas was wonderful this year. We had Krista and Josh down from Michigan and Nick of course lives down the street. Unfortunately Quinten and Kate and their family weren't able to come. We really missed having them (the girls especially missed them). We all received some amazing gifts and really enjoyed spending time together as a family. I really wanted some pictures of the girls in their Christmas dresses so of course I had Krista capture a few. As you can see from the picture below Marlee wasn't too into the whole photo shoot at first. But after a little bribing she started cooperating.

I only wish this was how they acted towards each other everyday.

This picture makes me laugh every time I look at it. Krista tried to pose Marlee which you would think would have been an impossible task. It must have been an "I'm going to listen to adults" day for her.

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas as well. And Happy New Year!!

She's Five

I can't believe it but it's true. My little Rhaegan is 5 years old! I remember looking at her lying in my lap at 2 weeks of age thinking "she's never going to grow up." She is now my little lady, my #1 helper, my sidekick. She keeps me on my toes and helps me remember what is really important in life.

Her birthday was filled with many fun and exciting activities. She had incredibly long list of things she wanted to do and get for her birthday. We of course couldn't do them all (I mean lets be realistic here) but we did do a lot hopefully making this a birthday to remember. Rhaegan did say this was the best birthday ever.
(ok she says that about everything)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, RHAEGAN!!

DC part II

Our Thanksgiving in DC continues...

On Thanksgiving Day we celebrated with some of the other temple workers/missionaries with a nice dinner at the church. It was nice to meet some of the wonderful people Reed and Jackie get to work with each day. As you can see Rhaegan warmed right up to some of the men. It was literally a room filled with "papas"

The food was delicious! There was enough to feed an army too.

After we ate it was time to hit the basketball court for a little three on three (or chasing the princess ball and playing keep away from Rhaegan)

We then decided to head downtown to do a little sightseeing. It wasn't crowded and the weather was pretty nice which made for a great evening.

More to come...