Happy Birthday Gwenners!

Just had to make a quick post to wish my little big girl a very happy 3rd birthday. Today started with her getting up at 6:45 am. That's a good 45 minutes earlier than normal. I took her downstairs and she opened her present from Mommy and Daddy - a Disney princess dress-up kit. She immediately stripped her pajamas off and started trying on the different outfits. Then Daddy left for school and Gwen, Emily, and I went to the gym. Gwen wore her Cinderella princess dress and jewels. After the gym we met up with Daddy and went to lunch at Gwen's favorite restaraunt, Sweet Tomatos. Gwen eats so much good food there, I love it. She had a handful of mushrooms and even tried clam chowder which she loved. After lunch she and Emily went swimming with Daddy and I had to go to work. They came and visited me at work after naps and we had chicken nuggets together. I hope she had a great day. She went around telling everyone "I'm three on my birthday." She'd hold up her hand making an "okay" sign to show her three fingers. She'd also demand for me to sing Happy Birthday to her randomly during the day. Tomorrow is her big swimming birthday party. It's going to be so much fun. I love my little big girl so much.

Monthly Update

Since I'm only finding the time to blog about once a month these days, here's my one for August. It's fun to look back at my pictures from the last month to remind myself all that has happened. Those are only the things that I remembered to bring my camera and take pictures of too.

Let's see, since my last post in mid July, I celebrated my 29th birthday. I had to work the entire weekend of my birthday and much of my family had gone to Greece on a cruise, so it wasn't that big of a deal. It was also on a Sunday and those birthday's usually lack the pizazz of regular weekday birthdays. The major plus side of it was that we celebrated my birthday week and that turned into a birthday fort night celebration. We had a family birthday party for me and my older sisters the Sunday before my birthday and everyone came. Gwen had such a blast playing with all her cousins. Then, later that week we met up with my older sisters and their kids at the 24th of July parade preview. Or as Jonathan termed it: the 24th of July face painting extravaganza - since we pretty much spent the entire time in line waiting for face painting and balloons. It was still lots of fun.

Also during my birthday celebration we went to lunch at this Brazilian place in the Gateway Mall. It was fancier than we usually do and we brought the kids. We thought we were all prepared to keep the kids entertained: had the portable DVD player and brought cereal for Emily. Everything was fine until Gwen peed on the floor and Emily finished her cereal and was still hungry. Then Gwen spilled her drink and my drink on the floor, which just diluted her pee puddle and we decided we had better leave a REALLY big tip.

Well, despite some minor accidents, I'd say Gwen is potty trained. She even poops in the potty most of the time now. That was our biggest challenge with her. She's much better at it now, only now she insists on describing each bowel movement to everyone. It's much like when I go visit Grandpa Madsen these days. I hadn't mentioned on here that my almost 96-year-old grandpa got a hip replacement this last month after breaking his hip a few months ago. He's living with my parents now and we go visit at least once a week. Gwen loves to steal his Jolly Ranchers and calls him Mommy's Grandpa which I think is a great way for her to try to keep all her grandpa's straight.

Emily's growing and growing fast. She's rolling over from front to back and back to front. She gets up on her arms and pushes with her legs and manages to scoot herself forward a tiny bit. She'll be crawling any day now and I don't think we're ready for that. It's hard to teach Gwen to keep her smaller toys and objects away from Emily because Emily will eat them. It will be even harder when she's more mobile. Here's a cute story from today: This morning both the girls got up at 6:30. No, that's not the cute part. That's far from cute since I went to bed after midnight and Emily still gets me up once a night to feed. Anyway, Gwen came into our room and wasn't sold on snuggling with me but told me she was going to play with Emily. Emily was making happy noises in her crib in the corner of our room. Gwen climbed up on the rocking chair and right into the crib with Emily. That made Emily squeal with delight. Then Gwen decided to bounce up and down on her knees and Emily thought that was even better. Each baby squeal made Gwen guffaw. It was so cute to listen to them making each other laugh. I love my girls so much and each little moment like that one fills up my heart and makes me realize what life is all about. I miss them so much when I have to be away at work but I know that it's necessary right now and things will change in the future.

Sorry, I tried to upload a bunch of pictures, but the site is having a hard time with it. I'll try again later.

My Sweet Girls

The other night I spent two hours awake in the middle of the night with Gwen because she was sick and throwing up. I really think it was the ton of grapes that she had been eating all day. She woke up screaming for me and when I went into her room I could smell the vomit. She's super sweet when she's sick. I took her into the bathroom to clean her up and she started to throw up again so I had her do it in the toilet. She stuck her entire little head in the bowl and when she was done she looked up at me and said "I don't like it in here, Mommy." I rubbed her back and told her she was going to be okay. Luckily, I have some left-over nausea medicine from my pregnancy and it's safe for kids. I gave her a half a dissolvable pill and we went downstairs to snuggle and watch Annie together. It's one of her new favorite shows. She loves to pretend that she's Annie and I usually get to be Ms. Hannigan or if I'm really lucky, her dog, Sandy. We ended up just watching all the musical numbers and snuggled under her favorite Cookie Grandma blanket as we waited for the vomiting to go away. Finally, after about another half hour or so I asked her how she was feeling and in her little 2-year-old understanding and limited vocabulary she tried to explain to me that she was feeling better by saying "my sick went bye-bye." I thought that was such a cute way to put it.

It is so wonderful and amazing to watch my little girls develop each and every day. I love watching them learn to put things together and figure out new things. Emily turns 5 months-old in two more days. She's a great sleeper and absolutely the cutest little morning person ever. She goes to sleep each night right around 7:30 and then I get her up when I get home from work to feed her around 11:00 and she sleeps until about 4 or 5 in the morning and wants a snack - not even a complete feeding. She wakes up for good around 6:30 or 7:00 and sits in her crib babbling and squealing. It would be even cuter if she wasn't in our room with us waking us up. She says "Dadadada" already so this morning I woke up Jonathan and told him that she was calling for him so he had to be the one to get up with her. He did and I got to sleep in until 9:00 - sort-of. I did have to get up and feed Emily at 8:00 although I've gotten good at being mostly asleep for that too.

I put my foot down and refused to let Jonathan buy more Pull-ups for Gwen. It seems that when she wears them that she treats them like a diaper and is too lazy to use the potty. If she's wearing her panties she does much better at using the potty. So, Gwen's officially not in diapers or training pants during daytime hours anymore! We'll see how long that lasts. I did have them go pick out more pairs of big girl panties since we sometimes go through two or three a day. She does really well when I'm home with her. Probably because I'm insisting that she sit on the potty every few hours. When I leave for work, Jonathan has been much more relaxed about the issue and he usually gets caught up in his own business and forgets to remind her. Some days she does wonderful and will do it all by herself and other times she has accidents. Do you ever get to a point where you're not having to constantly worry about them having accidents or reminding them to use the potty? I guess you do, since my mother doesn't have to call me at work and remind me, but it feels like I'm going to be doing this for a while.

Pictures from our Staycation

Grandpa at the 4th of July fireworks show at Layton. The big silly string fight of '09.

At the Clark Planetarium. Gwen watching the constant motion ball exhibit.

At the Murray City parade. Gwen and Mommy get some snuggling time.

Emily and Daddy watch the parade. What a cute bandana we found for Emily to wear to keep the sun off her head.

Gwen and her cousin Charlotte pet the baby goats at the This is the Place Park.

Gwen has no problem being brave enough to get close to the animals.

At Cookie Grandma's house eating lunch with her cousin Charlotte and second cousins.

Emily and her second cousin Dawson. We showed him how to make her giggle by ticking her nose with her toes.

Gwen shows off her olive fingers and scary face.

Gwen was so hungry at the swimming party that she took an entire pizza and put it on her lap. She did eat three pieces all by herself.

Going potty like a big girl. Popsicles, stickers, and barbie dolls have really helped us get through the last couple weeks. She still has occassional accidents and is having a hard time making poopy in the toilet, but we're getting there.

After she pooped in the potty for the first time ever we bought her this Sleeping Beauty barbie doll. Now she has a Prince Phillip to go with it and she loves playing with them.

Emily's first bite of baby rice cereal. She was a little surprised at first but she's a real pro now.

Staycation

Like many other people, this year we decided to have a staycation. Mostly because we have a 4 month-old and not much money because having that 4 month-old was expensive. I asked for July 1st thru 5th off from work but the scheduler forgot and I had to work on the 2nd. It was still an awesome couple of days. On Wednesday we had most of my sisters and Gwen's cousins over for a swimming party to celebrate my mom being done with her comprehensive tests for her Master's degree. Now she's really all done and we're all so happy for her. Gwen is by far the best swimmer of the bunch. I guess you would be too if you spent hours every week swimming. The one down side to the swimming party was when Jonathan's wedding ring went missing for a few hours. He had put it in my pants pocket and it fell out into the grass. Luckily, my mom found it while we were all sitting on the grass eating lunch.

Andrew and Mason in the kiddie pool.

Kim loved riding the floatation devices. All the kids would pretend they were horsies.

Gwen in her swimming vest. She is a very good little swimmer and loves to make big splashes and jump in from the sides. The hardest part of swimming with her is getting her to let you help her. At one point she went to jump into the deep end of the pool and later climbed into the big pool without her vest on. The water is over her little head in the big pool, but it doesn't stop her.

Jami swimming in her big lady bug floatie.

The group of swimmers: Heidi, Jami, Sam, Mason, Andrew, Noah, Laura, Kim, Me, and Gwen. Not pictured are Emily, Grandma, Jonathan, and Linda.

On Thursday we woke up at 6:30 thanks to Gwen and got ready for the day. We met Jonathan's sister, Lisa and her daughter Kat along with Jonathan's brother Sam and his wife Dianne and daughter Charlotte for breakfast at Village Inn in Sandy. Jonathan's uncle John and Aunt Joan came along for breakfast too. Gwen loved eating her scrambled "eggies" and then started eating off of mine and Jonathan's plates. It's a good thing I usually don't order a separate meal for her since she likes to just pick off ours. She got bored after eating and decided it was time to show off her new potty skills and ending up going three times before the rest of us were done with our meals. Hey, at least she likes using public bathrooms.

After our breakfast we drove and drove up to Preston, Idaho. It takes about 2 1/2 hours to get up there. Gwen watched Annie on her DVD player for 2 hours then decided it was time to wake up Emily and we had to deal with a grumpy Emily for the last little stretch before we got to Cookie Grandma's house. Gwen loves her Cookie Grandma. She's the Cookie Grandma because she works for Pepperidge Farms and has yummy cookies and goldfish crackers each time we see her. The group from breakfast minus John and Joan met us up there shortly after we got there. Plus, one of Jonathan's cousins and her kids came for lunch. Farmer Floyd made us hamburgers and Gwen mostly ate watermelon and black olives for lunch. The kids played outside with Lady, their yellow lab, and made a fort in the tree. The grown-ups sat in the shade and talked. Later in the evening we rode on the 4-wheeler and did sparklers. Gwen and Charlotte were scared of them at first but once they realized they were relatively safe and made great magic wands they went through a bunch of boxes of them. At about 9:30 we packed up our very tired girls and drove all the way back home. Or rather, I drove and everyone else slept.

Friday I went to the gym in the morning, had lunch and a shower, then we called Sam, Di, and Charlotte to see if they wanted to go the This Is the Place Park. It was really fun, they have so much to do up there. I hadn't been there since I was a little kid so it was all new to me too. Gwen loved the pony rides and getting to pet the baby sheep and goats. I wish they stayed open later than 5:00 so that we could have spent more time there. We really could have spent all day there. It's kind of silly for them to close so early in the summer. So, if any of you reading this want to go with us again we can go up for an all morning thing and maybe pack a picnic lunch. After the park we went to Paradise Cafe - one of our very favorite places to eat and had yummy sandwiches and cookies. Gwen really wanted a carrot cake so we all shared a slice. I knew she was my kiddo - that's my favorite kind of cake, we even had it at our wedding party. After dinner we went home and put the kids to sleep. Jonathan and I stayed up late watching old Mythbusters from our Netflix. I now know that if I get hit with a penny thrown from the Empire State Building that I'd be okay.

Saturday we slept in a little bit- Gwen got up at 8:00 instead of 7:30 and I remembered that Murray city has a parade. It's not the 4th of July without a parade. It started at 8:30 and by the time I found that out it was nearly 9:00. Well, I figured that was okay since who wants to sit through a 3 hour parade anyway. We got breakfast to go from McDonalds and headed to State Street for the last half of the parade. It turned out to be just the right length for the kids and Gwen got to eat some taffy for breakfast.

After the parade we went downtown to the Gateway Mall. I know, I've ranted about that mall before and trust me, I still hate it, but I had movie and dinner passes and we wanted to use them. We had lunch and McGrath's Fish House - it was good, but next time we'll go sans Gwen and Emily. Gwen wasn't interested in eating and only wanted to climb on the booths or run around the patio. After lunch we went to the Planitarium to waste some time before our movie. Gwen was so entralled with the big constant motion ball display they have. I then let her pick out a bouncy ball from the gift shop. We went to the new Ice Age movie in 3D. Gwen refused to wear the glasses and that made the movie all blurry for her so she wasn't all that interested in it. She wanted to climb all over the stairs and play with the ball. It was a cute movie - the parts I got to see between bathroom visits and chasing after Gwen. The best part of visiting the mall was that both girls fell asleep on the way home and had a good nap before we headed up to Layton for fireworks.

It's been a family tradition to go watch fireworks in Layton with my sisters and their families. This year I actually didn't have to work and could go with. Last year, Jonathan and Gwen went with Grandma and Grandpa. This year I got to come with and watch little Emily blow raspberries at the big fireworks. She was so hyper that she kept squealing and blowing raspberries. Gwen loved the glow sticks that Grandpa brought and declared that she was a princess, Daddy was Prince Phillip and Mommy was the evil queen. That's okay, I don't mind being the bad guy because sometimes I get to be Prince Phillip or the good faries.

Yesterday, was Sunday and I actually got to go to church. I was released from the primary presidency because they really needed someone who didn't have to miss church every other week because of their dumb work schedule. I really miss getting to work with the kids and I'm having a tough time trying to be excited to be back in relief society and sunday school. The best part is that I get to play and snuggle with Emily the entire time. If the lesson gets too boring, I can use her as an excuse and sneak out for a couple minutes . . . or the rest of the lesson. After church we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house for my favorite dinner - Swiss steak and potatos. Gwen had watermelon and black olives. Hmmm, think she likes those two things more than any other food on the planet? All in all it was a fun little vacation. I got to get away from work and spend time with my little family and extended family. It was probably less stressful and more fun than a bigger more expensive vacation.

Lagoon

Gwen loves her princess helmet. She even wore it the other day to eat lunch. Safety first you know. We make her wear it even though she rides her tricycle slower than she walks. That's saying a lot.
We went to Wheeler Farm with Noah last week. The weather was okay at first but started to pour buckets a few minutes after this picture. Here's the cute kiddos with their money to pay for their pony rides.Gwen got to ride Marshmallow and their ride was even longer than normal. They got to ride the ponies into the barn because of the rain.

So, last Tuesday we went with my mom, my sisters Laura and Linda and their kids up to Lagoon for my mom's stake Lagoon day. We had so much fun. The morning had started out cold and rainy so we weren't sure that it was going to happen, but around 9:00 the skies cleared and the weather stayed wonderful until that evening. The threat of rain seemed to have scared off the massive crowds so we never really had to wait in lines or fight for a spot to eat. I sometimes forget that Gwen is only 2 1/2, she's really tall and big for her age - wears a size 4T in case anyone wants to buy her clothes for her end of summer birthday. Because she's as big as her older cousins, I let her ride all the rides with them. She did awesome. She did get a little scared if the ride got a bit too fast and would bury her head in your chest until it slowed down.One of these things is not like the others. Jonathan's never been a fan of big rides so he had fun riding the kiddie rides with Gwen and her cousins. He and I did get to sneak off and ride some of the bigger coasters though. He'll go if I make him, distract him, encourage him, and hold his hand - much like going to church on Sunday.Gwen didn't quite understand how these bumper cars worked. You had to turn the wheel for them to drive forward. She stayed like this stuck against the wall for the entire ride. They even stopped the ride in the middle and tried to show her how to get it moving. We'll have to try this one again next year I guess.

Her favorite ride was the carousel - big surprise. That night when I was putting her to bed she suddenly said "Emily's got horns." I looked at her and asked "what?" She explained "Daddy ride zebra. Emily's got horns. Her . . . goat. Grandma ride zebra too. Me ride kitty, nice, like Sneakers in my closet." Oh, yeah, we adopted my little sister's old kitty, Sneakers, since nobody else wanted her. She lives in Gwen's closet and has for about 2 months now. She has only recently begun to venture out into the rest of Gwen's room. I guess she's getting more used to living with us.This last week was also Jonathan's 30th Birthday. We celebrated it all week because I had to work the evening of his birthday. We went to Lagoon on Tuesday and on Wednesday my mom watched the girls and Jonathan and I went to dinner at this Sampam chinese food place. I found out that duck is utterly and totally disgusting. In fact I will start teaching my kids to call them "yucks" instead of ducks because that's a much more fitting name. After dinner, we saw the new Star Trek movie and it was pretty awesome. Even with my husband having to point out what other movies or tv shows all the actors are in. That's his thing, by the way, he loves those type of connections. He loves to say, "hey, Spock is the guy from Hero's who eats other people's brains. Isn't that cool?" It's fun that his brain works like that, but I'm never as excited about it as he is.

I'm still loving that it's summer. It's rained nearly constantly for the last week or so and I'm very ready for that to stop. If anyone's up for anything fun to do during the day we'd love to come along or plan something with you. We got so antsy today to go swimming that we all went and stayed for about 40 minutes even with the rain dripping on us and the wind blowing. As we were walking back home, the sun came out and it actually felt warm, go figure.

My gym recently started charging $10 a month for their previously free daycare. It's totally worth it, but still stinks. Since Emily is still too young to go (only 6 more weeks until she can, wahoo!), I just leave her home with Jonathan and take Gwen. Gwen loves the daycare and has some friends there that she looks forward to seeing. Plus, when she's there she has 15 other little kids she can make dance with her and give her daddy a break. She's really into copying the dance scene from Cinderella and is learning the one from Mary Poppins. Throughout the day she'll come up to us and say "dance with me" grab our hands and make us sing the "This is Love" song. She then leads us around and makes us sit next to her and even ends it with a kiss then abruptly runs away. I guess it's no surprise that she's picked up yet another cold since she's kissing all the kids at the daycare. Oh well, she's just too cute.

Speaking of cute, Emily is becoming less and less of a lump and is more interactive these days. She smiles and coos. She tries to roll over. She reaches for toys and grasps them and puts them in her mouth. The other day I gave her a taste of the bread from my sandwich and she loved it. We can't wait to start her on solids because it's so fun to watch babies try new flavors and textures. She seems to have gotten really big all of a sudden and is fitting in her 6 month old clothes and has definately outgrown her 3 month old stuff. My little baby is getting so big.

Here's Gwen watching the dancers at Lagoon. It's super cute how she copies them and is just a step behind what they do. Too bad it was raining and they stopped the program right after this.

Yay for summer!

I'm so excited that it's officially summer now. You wouldn't know it by how busy we've been at work though. The swine flu is hitting our area pretty hard right now. It's made us even busier than our usual flu season. Instead of our usual calm slower summertime numbers of patients, we're having two-hour waits all day long. So, if you think you have swine flu, which would be a sudden onset of fever, cough, body aches, sore throat and maybe vomiting, please just stay home and take care of yourself. There's not much the doctor can do to help you. Rest, fluids, treat the fever with tylenol or motrin and stay way from the public for about 5 days or until the fever's completely gone for 24 hours. There's also not much you can do to keep from getting it. Wash your hands and stay away from other sick people. I actually think that Jonathan probably had swine flu last month when he was so sick and he got through it just fine. Anyway, I really hope that none of you get it. The one good thing about the flu is that Jonathan has been substitute teaching a lot recently. That's been really good since his census job is all done with. We're still looking for a job for him for the summer so if anyone has any ideas, we're more than willing to listen.

So, I've mentioned to some people that I try to get out and do something fun with my girls each day. It doesn't have to be something huge. I think it probably has to do with my underlying guilt that I'm not around in the evenings and want to make it up to them by being more active with them when I am around. Also, I've found that it's better to do active things with Gwen then to let her sit in front of the TV all day. It makes us both happier. Well, some of the fun places we go are: the gym, Liberty Park, Sugarhouse Park, Wheeler Farm, the aquarium, or our swimming pool. We've already been swimming half a dozen times. Gwen's so good at it too. I can't wait for some of her cousins to come go with us.

At Liberty Park they have some of the old kiddie rides up and running. They have this old carousel that Gwen loves to ride. She'll pick her favorite color of the day and ride that horsey. She calls it the "up down round and round."They had these exact cars when I was little. They look like it too. Jonathan loves that Gwen recognized the Batman car and wanted to ride it instead of the pink one.They also have a big playground with a water area. Gwen was scared to get wet at first, but you see that she got over that pretty quickly.

Monday, we went to the zoo again. We had gone with my sister and her family on Memorial Day but it was so packed that we didn't get to see or do much. This time we made sure to watch the bird show and see more animals.