A New First

Gwen must have caught a stomach bug from nursery a couple of weeks ago, because last week she woke up in the middle of the night sick. It took her a couple of days to get over it. She was so quiet and cuddly. I hate it when she's sick, but a calm Gwen is something special. She would pull me over to the couch, saying "my tummy hurts," and that was my cue to sit and cuddle with her and watch tv. She's pretty much over it now. Sometimes she'll come over to me and pout, "My tummy hurts!" because she wants special hugs. She's adorable.

Last night, Phoebe woke up in the middle of the night with the stomach bug! It was so sad. Her first tummy sick. I had to bring her out in the living room and stay up with her for hours. Gwen was never sick like this when she was a baby. I'm not exaclty sure how to handle it, but I think we're managing. She sleeps a lot, and though it's hard for her to keep anything down, I make her drink her water. I give her cuddles, wipe downs, and extra loves, and I don't think there's much more any one could do. She's weak, but sometimes she'll get on the floor to play for a couple minutes. I'm just glad they didn't get sick at the same time. Now I'm praying Logan and I don't get it. (We will. Who am I kidding?)

Since Phoebe is anti-crib, I set her up on the couch. I had to surround her with all her friends, because she misses me when I don't hold her, even when I'm just in the kitchen. Her friends made her feel better.

Gwen thought it was pretty neat and wanted in, too.

While I was putting Phoebe down for a nap in her crib (she's still in there!) Gwen covered herself up on the couch to drink some milk. I surrounded her with the toys. She gets pretty jealous of her sister, so, even though Gwen's not sick, I have to give her all the extra care I've been giving Phoebe. Oh, well. Who doesn't need extra hugs once in a while?

This picture has nothing to do with stomach bugs. I've been trying to get Gwen to use the potty, and she's pretty determined not to. But Phoebe seems all for it. She get's mad when Gwen is on it for too long and she'll try to push her off. Then she climbs onto the potty herself and stays put for a while. At this rate, I'll be potty training them both at the same time. I can't wait. I'm so sick of changing diapers. Almost three straight years now! Is it silly to fast for your child to use the potty? Because I'm seriously thinking about doing just that. Either that or throwing away all her diapers and strapping the child down until she goes. That sounds like a really good idea right now.Oh well. I guess she'll go when she's ready.

Seems like Phoebe's ready now, though.

Easter Day

We hope everyone had a great Easter/conference weekend! We certaainly did. The girls got baskets and pigged out on candy all Easter morning. We stayed in jammies most of the day and cuddled up on the couch to watch the conference talks. Gwen was excited to point out "Present Monson" whenever he appeared. Even though it was just the four of us for the holiday, I wanted to make a big meal. It was my first big, holiday meal ever, so I was extremely pleased that everything turned out yummy. I jump on any reason to pig out. The only leftovers we have are rolls and apple spice cake, and they will be gone before the end of the day. So freaking good! Thanks, Patti, for the delicious spice cake recipe! I will be making that often.

Of course, Gwen didn't completely understand why we celebrate Easter. I told her we celebrate Jesus coming back. Through out the day, she'd say "Jesus is in the sky. He came back!" I love it when she gets excited to learn about Christ. The talks given in conference touched a lot on teaching your children in the home. I'm not sure how to make a 2 year old understand most things pertaining to the gospel. I'm not sure how to explain some things. I'm sure Heavenly Father will help us!

Gwennie was all too eager to help share Phoebe's basket.

The girls had a ball playing with all the bunnies the Easter bunny left to guard the baskets.

Happy Easter!!

Easter Dresses and Bubbles

Since GC is Easter Sunday this year, I was very pleased to dress the girls up in their Easter dresses for church a week early. It was very hard taking pictures of these two. I'm planning on taking more on Easter and hopefully they'll stand still for me. But we got lots of comments from people at church. I was surprised that not more people dressed up in pastels and whatnot for Easter. Maybe it's because we don't have church on Easter this year. When I was little, my mom went all out on us girls. She pranced us girls into church in matching dresses, hats, gloves, and purses. Logan wouldn't let me get them hats. They wouldn't have worn them for very long anyway. Still, they clean up nicely, huh?

Gwen's really into bubbles, as most kids are. She's been practicing doing the actual blowing. She's pretty good at it now. She calls it "bubble potion" like they do on Super Why. That or "Mr. Bubbles" from Lilo and Stitch.

Her cheeks crack me up.

Yay for warm-ish weather!

The weather warmed up a bit this week, so I took advantage and took the girls to the park. I wasn't sure if I would be the only parent there with her kids, feeling like a dork, desperate for some fresh air. But, actually, there were a ton of people there. Even though the weather was still a bit cold, as soon as the tempeture rose above freezing, everyone flocked to the playground. Gwen didn't mind the cold at all. She loved being able to run around and make friends. Gwen is the most hyper child I know, and yet when it comes to playground safety, she is a champ. She won't go near the sides, she's very cautious going over the bridge. She used to army crawl over the bridge. Then when she felt a little more confident, she clutched onto the railings. When she felt braver, she clenched her fists and stomped acrossed it. She's hilarious. She had to cross that bridge to get to the slides. That's basically all she does while we're at the park. She can go down the slides a hundred times and not get bored.

She'll sometimes stop her sliding to run around with another kid and scare him or her for while with her excited laughing. The kids don't know why Gwen's chasing them. She usually chases five to seven year olds. I say they need to toughen up. She also loves the swings. I get my arm workout from just pushing her in the swing for 20 minutes. She screams and laughs very loudly. Other mother's smile over at us, saying how cute she is, but after five minutes of screaming, I don't think they find it very cute anymore. It's the park, people.  Kids scream. Especially mine.

The next day the weather was even warmer, and since Logan had the day off, he came with us to the park. Phoebe woke up from the stroller ride this time, and she had a ball going down the slide. She figured out how to lean forward and slide down by herself. She did it many times with absolute glee. I can't wait for consistent warm weather. I'll go to the park every day. I'm so sick of being cooped up in the apartment all the time.

Here are some pics I thought were pretty funny.

Phoebe chowing down on string cheese.

Gwen doing something. Maybe dancing. She insists I put her in the little skirt thing, and she runs around, twirling.

My Two Sickies

It's been a while since I last posted. My camera is freaking out on me because it's not liking a video I had taken with it, so it freezes and won't let me erase it. I hate posting without pictures, but I'm not sure when I'll get my camera working again. Oh well.

Last week my girls were pretty sick with colds. Gwen actually had a double ear infection, poor thing. She kept waking up in the night, crying and grabbing her ear. One night last week was terrible. Phoebe woke up sick and in pain at 1am and Gwen woke up shortly after. They were so sick and weak, but couldn't sleep because of ear pain, hacking coughs, and fevers. If Phoebe dozed off, she woke up 15 minutes later crying. It wasn't until 5am that the girls finally fell soundly asleep. It was a rough night. We took them to the doctor's the next day and they were put on antibiotics. That whole day, Gwen slept on the couch. I had never seen Gwen so calm. It was eerie and I felt so bad for her. But the antibiotics helped almost right away. That night, Gwen got up and started to play. She continued to get better from there, and Phoebe started feeling better within a couple days. Sadly, we had to miss Logan's brother's wedding. Logan got to go, but he had to miss the partying afterwards so we could take the girls to the doctor. I still can't believe I missed it. I'm so glad my girls are back to normal, though. Sick babies are very cuddly, but excessively so. The girls began fighting over who go to sleep on my lap, and it got pretty stressful. I hope they take turns over who gets sick next time. Two at a time is just too much!

The girls are changing so much. Here are some new things they've started since the last time I wrote:

Phoebe

Blows kisses whenever she feels like it (melts our hearts every time)

Says "ball"

Kisses her stuffed animals

Throws away her diaper after a diaper change, sometimes without even being asked

Runs!

Gwennie

Dances the hula along with Lilo and Stitch, or whenever I put her in a dress

Exclaims, "Oh my gosh!" whenever she gets excited or drops something

Started potty training (whenever she's on her potty, she wants the rug around the toilet put around her own potty - still no success yet)

Surprises us everyday with a new sentence - "Are you reading, Mommy? Is it fun?"

It's amazing all the new things they do every day. If they let me, I could watch them play all day long. They are so entertaining. We can' wait for the weather to warm up so we can take daily walks and play at the park. We have such cabin fever! I'm already making plans what we're going to start doing this spring. Zoos, museums, parks, everything. This summer I won't be pregnant or still recovering from pregnancy, so we're going to have a lot of fun. Hurry up, May! (Because you know it's still going to snow next month...)

Just Another "Love You" Kind of Day

This year for Valentine's Day, Logan and I agreed not to spend money on each other. (We're saving up to have our eyes checked. We're going blind.) So we agreed to write each other heart felt, hand written sentiments (hahaha.) Logan certainly got spoiled from his three Valentines. The little girls gave him a hand made card (on red card stock, cut outs, and everything) and I gave him a couple sappy letters and a Bountiful Marriage Card (like the Starving Student Card.) We had good fun all day long, playing games with the girls and making puppy eyes at each other. It was basically like any other day, but it was fun to do our them in the name of St. Valentine. 

Gwennie in her new dress. She loves her "pretty cloves." 

Phoebe's "love me" look.

I made a special dinner. It was bow tie, roasted red pepper Alfredo pasta with salmon and cheese. Turned out pretty good.

Hope everyone had a happy Valentine's Day!

I love you, hot stud of mine!

Phoebe Turned One!

Yesterday was Phoebe's first birthday! My baby has grown up so fast. She can now walk up to 10 steps at a time, she says "mama" and "dadda" and will mimic just about anything you say. She waves bye bye backwards (with her fingers fanning her) and gives kisses on demand. She can rough and tumble along with Gwen, and she adores her big sister fiercely. She's still a mama's girl and I wouldn't have it any other way (though I wouldn't mind if she warmed up to the rest of the family.) I love my Phoebe. I absolutely, positively love the name Phoebe. I liked it before, but seriously, I've come to think it's the perfect, greatest name for our lovable, gorgeous, funny, playful daughter. She's been a great addition to our family, and I can't imagine our lives without her. She's definitely teaching me patience and how to be a better mother. I am so blessed to have her! 

Here's Phoebe in her princess tutu that her sister wore on her first birthday. 

This is the cake Lindsay made for her for her party. It's adorable! Thanks, Linz!

Phoebe loved the cake. She had her own cupcake, and she made a complete mess of herself. She had cake packed in two fists, trying to get it all in her mouth at the same time, only most of the cake didn't make it inside, as you can see.

After cake, I had to stick her in the sink. You couldn't touch her. That's how your first cake experience should be.

Happy birthday, Phoebe Princess Love!