Haircut!

Before:

After!

I love that she has eyes now!

Happy Birthday, Gwen!

Gwen turned 2 last week. I can't believe it. I had always pictured myself as a mother, but I had always imagined my children being babies. Now that my little girl is growing up and isn't a baby anymore, I'm getting scared! She'll be three next year! She'll be going to kindergarten in a couple years after that. Pretty soon she'll be a teenager, getting boyfriends, going off to college... This is crazy! I need to take things slower. This months goal: potty training.

So anyway, on Gwen's birthday, we went over to Lindsay's house to have a little party. It was so much fun watching Gwen attack balloons, down two cupcake cones, and tear open presents. It's fun now that she's old enough to understand present opening. Even though after one present, she doesn't want to open any more because she wants to play with the toy she just unwrapped right away.

We've entered into the terrible twos. Personally, I'm like, whatever. We just left the terrible ones, so I'm pretty much prepared for terrible twos. Hopefully, I'll get lucky and the tantrums will start dying down. I hope, I hope, I hope.

Gwen had a doctor appointment the other day. She's 36 1/2 inches tall and 30 pounds. She's a pretty big two year old, so says the charts. I'm not sure where she gets her height from. Phoebe is another big baby. She's 15.5 pounds, which is pretty normal for her age, but she's 26 inches long! That's in the 98 percentile. We have tall children, for some reason. They'll be thankful for that later in life.

Here's Gwen on her birthday posing for the camera. I told her to stand in front of the door so I could take her picture, and she laid down and started posing in various positions. She's funny.

Gwennie at Aunt Lindsay's house playing with a punching balloon. She loved that thing.
Gwen eating a cupcake that was baked into an ice cream cone. It was a very cute idea, and Gwen thought it was a real ice cream cone, so she licked the whole thing.
Gwen got two strollers and two baby dolls for her birthday! She loves pushing her babies around and taking care of them. She is currently teaching one of them how to go pee-pee on the potty. I'm hoping Gwen takes the hint.

Vacation Pictures!

Daddy comforting Phoebe on the airplane going to New Jersey. Gwennie playing with her friend Julia in the pool at Nanna's house.

Gwen May with her great-great-grandmother, May.

Gwen and Julia eating waffles before Story Book Land.

Gwen exploring the Igloo in Story Book Land.

Gwen riding the merry-go-round at Ocean City.

Elephant ride at Ocean City!

Phoebe and her cousin Hayden, surrounded by Logan, my brother Shaun, his wife Kelly, and my sister Samantha.

Me holding my nephew Hayden! He's just a week older than Phoebe. I love his floppy cheeks!

Logan pushing Gwen on the swing at mom-mom's house.

Blowing out birthday candles. Every time Gwen sees a candle now, she sings "Happy Birthday to you!" then blows on it.

After cake.

Five generation photo of my family.

Nanna giving Gwen hugs on our last day in NJ.

Here's Phoebe, hanging out in a window sill, while we ate breakfast at the Denny's in Layton.

I have a lot more photos that I'll add to my facebook.

New Jersey Fun!

We're still in NJ for another couple days, and though we've only been here for five days so far, we've done tons of stuff! Sunday was our first day here, and we spent it hanging around, recovering from jet lag and spending time with my great-grandmother all afternoon. We had a very old photo album of pictures of my grandma when she was young, and it was fun going through them and hearing all her stories. Gwen's middle name is May, which is her first name. I'm so happy that Gwennie got to meet her great great-grandma! 

On Monday we went to Story Book Land. That was so much fun! The park was located in the woods, so we were covered by shade all day. There are all kinds of story book character houses and eateries and rides. Gwen loved the rides! She went on the flying elephants ride first with her daddy, and her mouth was wide open in a gigantic smile the whole time. She had a fit coming off it, of course, but she settled down as soon as we got her on the next ride. Gwennie is very brave and a daredevil. She even went on the tilt-o-whirl with us and loved it! She laughed the whole time, and I was the one to have to hold onto the rails after the ride so I wouldn't fall on the floor. She's a trooper. The only down part of the day was when Gwen fell on the ground and busted her lip open. Thankfully, she didn't lose any teeth, and she stopped crying as soon as we gave her a water bottle. Her lip is a little swollen now, but it could have been a lot worse. 

On Tuesday, Logan and I met up with some friends of mine from high school. It was great seeing them and knowing that I still have friends here, and that they all haven't forgotten about me. Gwen spent the day with Nanna going swimming and playing in her sandbox, while we took Phoebe to Mr. Humphreys' house. Mr. Humphreys was my biology teacher in High School. He's a good friend now to me, Lisa, BJ, and Dale (my crew, yo) and he really wanted to meet my kids. I decided not to bring Gwen because he has lots of animals that I didn't want Gwen to kill. She's pretty wild, especially in new places, so I let her have a day with Nanna. 

Wednesday we went to Ocean City, NJ with my mom-mom and pop-pop. It felt good to be back on the boardwalk, feel the ocean breeze, fight off seagulls, and take Gwen on all the rides that I went on when I was little. We didn't stay too long, though, because Gwen started a meltdown when she was finished with rides. We ended the day getting foot-high frozen custards, which settled her down considerably. Mmmm...

On Thursday, Logan and I checked out a couple cemeteries in Millville. We were looking for graves of my ancestors and found quite a few of them. One of the cemeteries was ancient, and the way it was set up was awesome. Tons of hills with old, little steps winding around the place. We had never been to a cemetery like it before. Is it a little weird that we visit cemeteries on our vacations? 

Today is Friday, and in a few hours we're going to my brother Shaun's house for a BQ. I haven't seen my brother since my wedding, and now he's married and they have a baby boy a week older than Phoebe. His name is Hayden, and I can't wait to see him! Hopefully, Brad and Stephanie will be there too. Brad got back from Iraq last month, so I'm kind of looking forward to seeing him bald. (Haha, just kidding.)

Tomorrow, we're heading back to Millville for a BQ at my mom-mom's house. She has a big pool that I can't wait to jump in. 

Well, we had better be getting ready for Shaun's BQ. It's going to take a while to wrestle Gwen into some clothes. We're coming home Sunday morning, so by Monday, I should have all the pictures up. 

Three Down, Infinity to Go

Today is our third anniversary! Time has flown by so fast, and yet I still feel as if I've been with Logan forever. As I went through our picture collection, I realized how few pictures there are of Logan and me. We have hundreds of pictures of our kids, but only a handful of us together. So this next year, we're going to make it a goal to take more pictures of us! We certainly have done quite a bit in three years. We did a lot of work, school, and raising babies. Now we are at that point in our lives when things are just about to kick off - as soon as Logan finds his dream career and we move off to the big city (hopefully Idaho Falls... Salt Lake City at the furthest.)


The above picture and the below picture are a couple of our engagement pics taken spring of 2006. I think we look so different. Logan was so skinny!

Even though my wedding dress had long sleeves, it was extremely hot on our wedding day. Then on our drive to our reception in NJ, it started to pour. For the next week the east coast flooded, but Logan and I were always just two steps behind it for our entire honeymoon, and we got to enjoy the sunshine at the beach and Palmyra! Good times.

This was our first Christmas as a married couple, and I was already pregnant with Gwen. We spent the holiday at my mom's house in New Jersey. I was very morning sick the entire time, but I had so much fun. We haven't been back to NJ since. (But we leave for NJ in just three days!)

This is pic of me just a few hours before my water broke. The next day we got our Gwennie!

Gwen has an exciting birth story. I was in labor for 14 hours, suffering contraction after contraction because no one would give me an epidural. Gwen's heartbeat was dropping and labor wasn't progressing fast enough. I was rushed into surgery and Gwen came out green and not breathing. The cord had been wrapped around her neck three times and she released meconium to signal fetal distress. She spent her first three days in NICU, where she progressed beautifully, and tried eating all the cords stuck in her. She was a real trooper, and just the most gorgeous newborn the doctors and nurses had ever seen, they said so themselves. Logan and I were so very, very proud!

And here's our beautiful, sweet Phoebe at just two days old! Her birth story was less stressful, but I did deliver her VBAC! She was extremely big, and it was a good thing the doctors didn't know, or else they would have forced a c-section. Labor was so quick and painless (Epidurals, yay!) and the stay at the hospital was so short, that I think every labor should be like this one! The cord was wrapped around Phoebe's neck, and her whole face was severely bruised from being stuck, but she bounced back fast and we came home the very next day, Valentine's Day! She was born Friday the 13th, but I think she is a very lucky baby. So cute and quiet and good. I love my girls!

I am so proud of all of our accomplishments in three years, and I can't wait for all the years to come. Gwen will be turning two, Phoebe has her first Christmas to look forward to, and the girls can't wait to meet their Uncle Brendan in January! Lots of excitement to keep our eyes on. Three more years are going to fly right on by. Bring it on!

More Pictures, Couldn't Resist

Phoebe loves to wrap herself up in the blanket my friend Lisa made for us. (Lisa, if you're reading this, this blanket is seriously her favorite! Thanks for the crutch!) She will grab fistfuls of blanket and roll around so she's completely wrapped up and mommy has to come save her. Then she does it again. Gwen can't eat anything without getting it all over her. We gave her one chocolate before bed. I should really start using bibs with this one. I just hate washing and rewashing and rewashing, etc. them.

A cute picture of a daddy with his baby.

This is the miracle that takes place when Gwen won't take a nap at nap time. By six o'clock she is out like a light. I think she's the coolest kid ever, but when she takes unexpected naps, the world can relax a little. I can, at least, which is enough.

Not Much New, Just a Few Pictures

We've just been hanging out here in our little, hot apartment. Since it's been raining for the past few days, we've been playing lots of games and going bananas. Phoebe is turning four months old in a few days. She's gotten to be very social. She laughs at her sister, and she smiles really big for her daddy. Her favorite toy is that little baby doll rattle. It's constantly wet, since she loves to suck on it. She's very cute.

We're going off to New Jersey at the end of the month. I'm very excited for my family to meet my girls, and I'm super excited to take Gwen to Story Book Land and the beach! We haven't been to New Jersey since Christmas of 2006, so I'm thrilled. Could you tell?