What we do with time off

Todd took a few days off work, so I took advantage of it to have him help me clean out the rooms in our house. We've only finished the laundry/storage room, but it made a HUGE difference and now our food storage is more organized. Hooray!

Cookies

We were having a very rough day today, so we made cookies! Yum!

How did my kid learn this?!?!!

A conversation that took place this morning between Evan and I:

"Where's the baby Momma?"

"She's right here Evan."

"Oh. Did the doctor get her out?"

"Yes Evan, the doctor got her out."

"Did you push?"

"Yup, I pushed."

"Did you cry?"

"No Evan, I didn't cry. I had an epidural."

"Oh."

I don't know how he knew that women push babies out! Guess his mother is an OB nurse.

The greatest joy!

This was a long, long weekend of work. Twelve hour shifts can be horrible when you're busy, but absolutely unbearable when they're slow. Wow. I wanted to go to church with my family so badly today. Coming home was wonderful though. I came in the door to hear cheers from Evan as he ran up with arms out to give me a huge hug. Madilyn (who just learned to crawl a week and half ago) saw me, let out a little squeal and crawled over as fast as she could (it was quite cute to see all the effort). It is so nice to be loved and to have such beautiful things to come home to.... and the best part? Todd had dinner ready. Hooray for my wonderful husband!!

Baby Woes

My little baby is growing up too fast. She started crawling a few days ago, and is now getting into the bathroom. Oh the joys! She has also really gotten into "talking".... and loudly. It's cute, but can be very annoying when trying to watch a movie or have a conversation with an adult. At the doctor's office today whenever anyone talked to her she would just make farting noises at them with her tongue and lips and then flash her gorgeous smile. Man she is a stinker!

She is 31 inches (99.8%) and 24 pounds 7 ounces (96%) at 9 months. Because she has been teething, I failed to equate her fussiness to a bad ear infection. After 10 days of amoxicillin, she now has two ear infections and a stronger antibiotic. However, she doesn't even complain. She is her normal self. I am just waiting for her to become a difficult child, and I am loving the heck out of all these "angel" months. Can't she just stay little forever?

Railroad Park

I apologize now for all the pictures in this post, but this was a really neat place and we had blast!

We had a great weekend in the Valley with Grandma and Grandpa Shreeve and Uncle Brandon and Aunt Brindi. We spent Saturday at the McCormick Stillman Railroad Park in Scottsdale, AZ. Although smaller than I thought it would be, it was every little boy's dream park.

This is looking down the hallway inside the above train's passenger car. I couldn't belive how small the rooms are compared to the movies that make them look huge! This train car was the president's car. Wow! I have a lot of pictures of the rooms, but there are too many. The woodwork and mouldings in this place are amazing! We have never seen such tiny toilets!

The Whole Family!

We all got to ride on this tiny little steam engine around the park and through a tunnel.

Evan was very afraid of the carousel, but he loved this train ride and had to toot his train whistle every time the conductor tooted his. So cute!

The best part about this park was how inexpensive it was to have so much fun. Park admission is free. The train ride is $2 per person. The carousel and train tour are $1 a person (kids are free for the tour). Not pictured is the carousel, playground, mini train towns that are amazing!, shops, and lookout towers, and other buildings. I would recommend this place to anyone who wants a cheap family adventure!

After the park, the grandparents graciously took the kids so we could go watch a movie. It was a much needed break from the kids. Although Seven Pounds is a VERY sad movie, and I wouldn't recommend seeing it in the theatre.

With all the Thomas the Train tracks and engines, our house is looking like Grand Central station! Evan is in heaven!

Looking back...

Four

Three

Two

One

January 12, 2005

4 years old!

Evan had a fun birthday. We wanted a train-themed party, but ended up with a train cake and spiderman decorations because wal-mart sucks. It was fun though!

We had Grandma and Grandpa Gardner and our friend John over for subs and cake. Evan got clothes and his eye-popping Incredible Hulk shirt from Grandma and Grandpa. His reaction was seriously so cute! From John he got a Star Wars dart gun. From Grandma Martineau he got a really fun plan-car launcher that Evan is having fun taking away from Madilyn. From Mom and Dad he got the Tag reading system and some books, and some Thomas the train accessories.

Evan's favorite part was the balloons of course. He LOVES balloons, and apparently, so does Madilyn!

We are heading to the Valley this weekend so we can take Evan to the McCormick Stillman Railroad Park in Scottsdale. We are so excited!

Lucky Me!

Four years ago today Todd and I were anxiously awaiting the birth of our first child. Today was my due date. He was late by 5 days, so you'll have to wait at least that long to see pictures of the celebration. I have the most wonderful children and love being a mother and especially a wife.

Enjoy the photos!

THE best part of being a mother!

Big Brother

Big Mess!

A few changes

I am like most other girls in that I get tired of my house from time to time and want to make changes. We haven't done much to our house to make it ours since we bought it 2.5 years ago. We finally bought our first set of couches and dcided to repaint the living room. It is only halfway done, with no decorations on the wall yet. I am so excited to get to work on the rest of the house.

Our family has the same cough/ cold thing that everyone has and we are so exhausted. We have also been weaning Madilyn onto formula since I have to go back to work full-time for awhile (which I hate). She is having SUCH a hard time. The similas makes her incredibly gassy and our little angel is so miserable, so now we have her switched to isomil. What a nightmare!

We were way excited to not have to get up for 9 AM church today. Going at 11 is going to be so nice for us! It was Evan's first week as a sunbeam. I am so looking forward to seeing him in his first program at the end of the year! He is growing up so fast! I was a little worried because he was horrible during sacrament meeting, but his teachers said he was wonderful and kept telling all the other kids "shhh!" What a cutey.