look who is 1!!

this past year sure has been a crazy one....and one of the hardest of my entire life. the birth of my baby girl was the best event of the year. easy labor and delivery, beautiful baby and sleeping 6 hours at night by 2 months (unfortunately that all changed once we moved). now she is already so much bigger and it seems as though i love her more every day. she definitely has me wrapped around her little finger :) here are a few little facts about our little loaf:

she has gorgeous blue eyes and perfect blonde hair

she is already so funny!! one thing she does is if you say "shh" she will lay down on the floor and then pop up for you to say "good morning!"

attitude. need i say more?

stubborn. again, need i say more?

she hates eating something unless its something that WE older people are eating

shes a mommas girl....bad.

she takes after her brother when it comes to teeth...already almost has her full set by age 1

she is so great at walking!

she loves her daddy (just loves momma more :)

she LOVES playing with mason

she is a water baby. bath. swimming pool. as long as water is involved

do not take her outside and expect to get her back in the house without a huge fit

she stops complete strangers in thier tracks with her good looks :)

apparently she has second child syndrome...meaning she is SO much harder than the first

climber. of. everything. she could make it to the top of the slide on the swing set before she could walk across a room

we had the pleasure of celebrating her big 1 year with her grandpa tony and uncle casey! they were in town helping us put in a patio so we went to dinner at the famous catfish plantation (its haunted...look it up if you dont know about it :) then went home for cake and presents. sophie wasnt a big fan of her cupcake...didnt even make a mess!

this is her little rider from grandma colleen and family. she loved it and im sure she will enjoy riding around out front with mason!

love this look that she gives in pictures...cracks me up!!

face time with grandma steph

while pregant with sophie we kept saying we wanted another boy. i really wanted mason to have a brother to play with. now that i have sophie i dont know what the heck i was thinking!! i LOVE having a girl!! i love doing her hair and girl clothes are so much cuter!! i really feel like we have a special bond (im hoping our next kid will be a boy so i can have sophie all to myself :). i am so glad we have this girl in our lives. she is a handful. wow. i thought girls were supposed to be easier as baby's? either way, i freaking love this girl. happy birthday sopha-loaf!

3!!

its hard to believe that three years ago i was rocking my new sweet baby in the nursery at the hospital....wires attached to his chest and an i.v. taped to his tiny foot. as time has passed you wouldn't even know that mason got pneumonia fresh out of the womb and spent an extra week in the hospital. he is a happy, healthy, energetic boy. this past year has been a huge change for our whole family, but i think it has been especially hard for mason. in 6 months time he got a new sibling, moved 1000 miles away from his family, friends and only home he has ever known, moved again 2 months after the first time, and potty trained. i feel like he grew up too fast. sometimes i forget he is only 3....he acts so much older and is so smart (not just bragging here. we think he may have some kind of photographic memory, like you tell him something once and he does not forget, and he already knows his whole alphabet and numbers up to 20, has great reading comprehension, and knows how to spell his name which is more than most kindergartners know). he is a great help with sophie and has learned to take care of himself in case i am tied up with sophie and unable to help him. we love to play candyland (yes, he really knows how to play it the right way, counting and all!) and his new favorite is "go fish". he is currently obsessed with spongebob squarepants and usually refuses to watch anything else. when it isn't too hot, we spend our time in the backyard on the swing set, playing ball, or drawing on the driveway with sidewalk chalk. he and sophie are water babies and love to take baths and play in the swimming pool together. he is so sociable and will talk any and everyone's ear off. one of my favorite things about him is when he puts his arm around me, says "i love you mama" and gives me a little peck :) one of my least favorite things about him is his OCD problem. wow. that will cause a lot of issues between the two of us :) i am so blessed to have such an amazing boy. not every toddler would have handled the past year as well as he has. i love his eyes, his smile, his laugh. i can't wait to see where the future takes him. i believe he will do great things! i love you mason!

lately

its funny that when mason was younger i would always post about the smallest things; his first food, his first tooth, pretty much any little movement he made i blogged. poor sophie hasn't been in the spotlight nearly as much. part of the reason why could be that much of my time is taken up by two kids and by the time they go to bed i'm too exhausted to do anything but also go to sleep. well in honor of my neglected daughter, i am trying to write this post in as short as time as possible to update everyone on the happening of our lives. this is mostly reading so if you aren't interested i don't blame you!

a few months after we first moved to texas, mason showed interest in potty training so we decided to give it a shot. he was doing really well and i didn't have to change a poopy diaper on him for a couple weeks. it was awesome! then we moved and he transgressed. he got lazy and knew it didn't matter if he went in his pull up. i gave him some time to adjust to the new house, got advice from lots of people and decided to give it another try. i did away with the pull ups (except at night) and aimed for training with "naked time". mason didn't like not having any pants on so i let him wear his pants without anything on underneath. mason doesn't like to be dirty and if he peed in his pants he hated it so this technique worked like a charm! he earned his underwear and has been wearing them for almost 2 weeks. he still has a few accidents (its usually when he gets too busy playing and forgets to go to the bathroom) but he is doing really well. i'm going to give him some time before we start working on going at night because some mornings he wakes basically dry and others he is soaked. he has made some friends and loves to go to play group and nursery. there is a little group from church that has several boys masons age so its fun to do a lot of things together. he is still super smart and it amazes me how much more grown up he acts everyday.

sophie, (also known as loaf, D, and little :) is growing like a weed. she has mastered crawling and is pulling herself up to everything. she is also getting herself into trouble; eating things that she shouldn't, getting into cupboards that we apparently need to lock. she is so different from mason. mason never really got into anything, was not fond of putting things in his mouth and this girl already has an attitude to a degree which i don't recall mason having. she flips out if she doesn't get her way and is super stubborn. not only does she look like her mom, she acts like her too :) she hasn't slept a good night since we left utah and i am dieing. i thought after i got my medication fixed it would help but it didn't and i have tried everything. cry it out worked for mason but it just makes sophie even more upset and it takes longer for her to fall asleep. i just ordered yet another sleep book to try and some lavender oil to see if that will help. on the plus side she is so funny and i love to hear her laugh. she claps her hands, shakes her head and waves (though none of those happen on cue). she still has gorgeous blue eyes and i love her blonde hair which is getting long! her and mason are starting to play together more and its fun to watch them together!curtis has been working A TON!! some days he is gone for 16 hours and there have been weeks when the kids haven't seen him for days on end. it has been so hard. we knew it would be crazy but we weren't prepared for it to be this bad. curtis is the only production supervisor and is basically acting like a manager too. he has turned into his dad...always gone at work and even when he is home he is on the phone :) they are getting another supervisor today and getting a ton of problems worked on at the plant so maybe, just maybe things will start to slow down in the next little while. he is also the sunday school president so he usually has meetings to go to on sundays and people to meet with so it just adds to the stress. i miss him and the worst part is that even when he is home the kids keep us separated. why did no one tell me life was so hard?! :) i really am doing better than i was. for a while i usually didn't have a car and was stuck at home. we sold my car before we moved and brought curtis' car and the truck down. curtis doesn't like to commute in the truck (for obvious reasons if you know anything about gas prices) and it isn't a vehicle i can load both kids into and cruise around town. however, thanks to my awesome in laws, tony took the truck and left casey's car here so curtis takes that to work and i get to use our car. now we can go to the library, park, play group, or wherever we want whenever we want!! i used to tell people i felt like a teenager..."curtis? can i have to car today?" :) hopefully we can get another car (family friendly!!) in the near future but in the mean time this works out just fine! i am also the new choir director and it scares me to death!! i have played the piano forever but never ever had any singing experience. there are a lot of great people willing to help me out but there are still days when i wish i could run to the bishop and ask for something else :)

right before christmas, my grandpa went in for surgery to get a new pacemaker put in. for some reason there were complications and he died almost a month later. they still aren't sure what happened...his body looked fine from the cat scans but for some reason his brain just never came out of the fog from the anesthesia. one day he would know who everyone was and be talking, the next he wouldn't wake up, then he wouldn't know any names. luckily curtis was able to get off work and we got to go back to utah for his funeral. even though it was for a sad event, it was good to see my entire family. the only one missing was my brother who is still on his mission in mexico. the funeral went smoothly and i actually learned a lot of things about my grandpa that i hadn't previously known. it was also good to just be there for my grandma. she seems to be hanging in there but we still tried to help as much as we could. i tried to do some cleaning for her (which was hard with a house full of people) and we bought her some groceries before we left and just let her know we were there for her. we also got to see our good friends kurt and noelle and tony and cheryl and it was so fun to hang out with them and thier families for one night of our visit! so that is us lately! as usual hope everyone is doing well and we love you all!

dreaming of a white christmas

we began our christmas weekend with a trip up to grapevine, texas on the 23rd. a guy that curtis works with and his wife invited us to go to ICE! with them. its located at a huge hotel called the gaylord and the event involves a freezing cold tent, big blue parkas, and a lot of ice. they fly some artists in from china and they create these awesome sculptures out of ice. the theme this year was "shrek the halls" and although i don't think it was worth the price, it was still pretty cool and a fun family outing. they had 3 slides made out of ice and that's all mason talked about the whole time. this is him going down the slide on his back. he loved it!
this is the nativity made completely out of ice...best part of the night :)what a handsome boy!

the day of christmas eve we made cookies for santa. mason had fun helping and couldn't wait to put them out that night!

christmas eve, a family in our ward invited us over for dinner. we joined them along with the missionaries and another young couple and enjoyed food and acting out the nativity. mason had fun playing with a boy from nursery and it was nice to join others for the evening.

christmas morning arrived and the madness began. both kids got way too much stuff ranging from a train for mason to slinky's from santa. curtis got everything he asked for (all things for his xbox or course) and i got a kindle fire and a new camera. was not expecting both of them. turns out curtis won a 42 inch tv at a work raffle and since we already have one, he returned the tv and used to money to buy the camera and used to rest to buy himself a few things. i swear he is the luckiest guy i know. he always wins things in drawings...then gives them to me :)
i was pulling paper out of sophies mouth all morning! everytime i turned around she had found another piece to chew on!

mason had more fun with sophies toys than she did!2 crazy kids!

mason has a t-ball set that he loves. unfortunately he didn't have a glove so he usually used his shoe :) santa was nice enough to bring him a glove!

blue eyes, blonde mohawk!

mason got the pillow pet he wanted

so, we survived our first christmas away from home and overall it wasn't too bad. we did miss everyone but it was fun to be with our own little family and start our own traditions!

hope everyone had a merry christmas!!

so long 2011!!

what a year it has been! we've been up, we've been down and have probably experienced every emotion imaginable. for the most part i'm glad it's over :) i hope the next year will be just as good and not as bad. it will still be full of learning experiences (curtis just got called as the sunday school president, i am now the ward choir director just to name a few) but as a family we can get through it!! as for the past, here is a little review of some big events our family had in 2011.

curtis graduated from southern utah university in may with a bachelors degree in business management. the company he was working for offered him a promotion within the company. we were so proud of him and so glad he wouldn't have to go to school all day and work all night anymore!!

on may 24th our beautiful little sophie was born. everything went well for both of us and we were so happy to have a little girl in our family. immediately mason was a great big brother and to this days loves his sister. she is such a sweetie with gorgeous blue eyes. she is trying to crawl and is starting to stand up to things and is a major mommas girl. we love her!!

in july we moved to texas. it was a huge change for all of us. we happened to move here during a record breaking summer but somehow made it through the heat. in october they finished building our house and we moved in! it is so nice having our own home, a yard, and the kids both have their own rooms. in the past 2 months we have already had tons of memories and cant wait for more!

for thanksgiving, some of curtis' family came to our house for a few days. it was so much fun letting the kids play together and just hanging out doing absolutely nothing!

in december, my family came out the week before christmas. we haven't seen them since we moved so it was so great to have them here! mason loved seeing them again and kept camille and dallin busy most of the time. it was hard to send them home and we can't wait to see them again!

last but not least is chritmas but i already talked about that too so read the previous post for more on that!
we hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and may you have a wonderful 2012!

our first big hosting event

we were so blesssed to have curtis family come to our house for thanksgiving! carolyn and jaxton flew down monday before the holiday and they both got the flu the following day :( the rest of the family got here wednesday morning and luckily our other 2 visitors were feeling better. unfortunately mason got sick that night after dinner and i started throwing up at about 3 am so no thanksgiving dinner for us! tony did prepare a nice turkey and we had a great dinner for those who were able to eat it. the next day it was tony's turn with the bug. everyone else got some shopping done and got some great deals! the majority of family left saturday night but carolyn and jaxton got to stay a couple extra days which was fun! curtis was supposed to talk in church that sunday but conveniently got sick that day. it was pretty funny that 6 out of 10 people got sick over the course of 6 days. other than that we really had a good time. the kids loved playing with each other and carolyn and i enjoyed getting out and doing things together!

here are the grandkids with their grandma! sophie sleeping with grandpa after he slaved in the kitchen all day!
all the kids took a bath...what chaos!
the two older kids made these turkeys on thanksgiving...as you can see mason still isn't 100%

the kids had a blast with carolyn! she is awesome!

me and the boys

are you kidding me!?

these last few months have been so amazingly hard. both kids have been grouchy and not sleeping and i just feel like i cant be mom anymore. i keep telling curtis i am done...no more kids for me!! (probably not true but thats how i feel most days). i thought once we moved out of the apartment things would get better but they haven''t. at least not yet. mason still wont sleep on his own. i have this great book about sleeping problems and i have tried everything it suggests but nothing has helped. i'm just crossing my fingers that it will fix itself over time. sophie is still waking up every 3 hours to eat. between the two of them i don't get much sleep which makes the days super long...especially since they wake up when curtis leaves for work at 6 am. sophie is a freaking whiner. all day long that is all i hear. at night she screams like she is hurting. i give her gas mecidine and hope it helps her feel better.
a few days ago i was looking up some information on an anti-depressant that i am taking and noticed that it said "can cause baby to be irritable, upset stomach, etc." after reading that and thanks to an annoying side effect that i'm experiencing, i decided to find a doctor and get everything figured out. she said the side effect is a common one with anti depessants and she found that this particular medication i was taking is NOT recommended for breastfeeding and it does cause the baby to be irritable, sleeping problems, etc. OH MY GOSH!! i was so angry!! when i first started the medication, i picked my prescription up and noticed it said "DO NOT take if you are breastfeeding." i called my doctor 2 or 3 different times confirming that it was still ok. he told me he recommends that to all his patients who are breastfeeding. guess that's what i get for going to my normal doctor instead of my OBGYN. about the same time i started that medication is when sophie started being a problem child. she went from sleeping 6 hours a night at 2 months old, to not sleeping at all; she went from crying only when she needed something to crying all the time. i feel like such a bad mom :( you know how it is to be a mom....you feel like everything that happens is your fault. luckily i went into the doctor and got things worked out. i am now on a different medication so i'm hoping it can help me and sophie get back to normal.
on the plus side we love our house!! i love having our own space, a yard to play in, counter space and being able to do our laundry without lugging an overflowing basket down a flight of stairs to the laundry room. curtis' dad has been a great help upgrading a few things; putting in ceiling fans and a garage door opener. we are super appreciative of him! we hope that everyone is doing well! we miss all our friends and family in utah! we were so sad that we weren''t able to come out during casey's visit....our house finished that same time and we weren't able to work the trip around the closing date and moving out of our apartment before the end of the month. hope to see you all sometime soon!