The Wilson Fam

Halle's First Year

2010-05-21T07:40:00.002-06:00

So, Halle turned a year on Mother's Day, May 9th, this year. And I've decided I've got to get back into blogging, and what better way to do that than by highlighting some pics and things about our sweet baby girl?
Nicknames: Halle-Baby, Baby Girl, Bee-bee, & Punkin-Bunkin
Fav Food: Milk, bananas, graham crackers, Beech Nut yogurt nibbles, yogurt, shredded cheese, raisins, & peanut butter sandwiches.
Fav Toy: Fisher-Price cookie jar & Mom's box of o.b. tampons
Fav Words: "uh-oh" (She also says Da-da, Ma-ma, ba-ba (for bottle), na-na (for banana), and "woah-woah" (which is her response to "What does a doggie say?")
Fav Songs: Pat-a-cake, If You're Happy And You Know It, Popcorn Song, & Wheels on the Bus.
Highlights: Sat up at 5 months; crawled at 7 1/2 months; climbed the stairs at 9 months; walked at 10 1/2 months.
Hidden talent: Can open any screw-on cap; she has also been able to open a couple of child-proof caps! How's that for hand and finger skills!
Following are "some" pics of Halle's first year. (Beware: major picture overload! And instead of writing captions for each picture, I'm going to let the pictures do the talking!)

Spring Pics!

2010-05-20T14:48:00.006-06:00

I had this wonderful gal take pictures of my kids...she's AWE-SOME. She really captured my kids' personalities. Here's the pictures she put up for a sneak peek. I cannot wait to see the rest!

"Happy Days" and Father's Day

2009-06-23T08:46:00.019-06:00

Wow! What a crazy week this last week has been...where to start?!? Um, let's see, the Halle babe is 6 weeks old as of last Saturday, which means my maternity leave is half over with...Aaaagh! She is so sweet, and as Cooper would say, "Halle sooooo cute, Mom, she sooooo cu-ute!" Kylie and Cooper love on her a lot. Cooper likes to ask if he can have "a hug of Halle," or "a kiss of Halle." He'll give her a kiss on her head, hug her, and pat her on the head. He's so good with her. I haven't had any jealousy issues with him, except for when it comes to "his" bouncy chair.After a week of crazy, pounding rain, we finally got some sunshine, yeah! Cooper woke up one morning, looked outside and said, "Is it happy outside today, Mom?" He has this thing about being happy. He likes to ask everybody if they are happy..."Are you happy, Mom? I'm happy! Are you happy, Mom?" And seriously, if I'm a little moody, which I am most mornings (thank you postpartum hormones), I can't stay that way for too long. I mean, how can you look at this sweet boy's face and NOT be happy?So, anyway, with sunshine, comes the kids' desire to spend almost their entire day outside playing. And with that comes accidents and "owies..."
Cooper likes to drop things down our window wells and I am constantly yelling at him to stay away from them. Well, he learned his lesson last week...he FELL, head first, down one of our window wells. I saw him go down and immediately went into panic mode. I jumped down the well without my shoes on and landed on the rocks. It really hurt, but I didn't have time to think about that. I picked him up, checked him for broken bones and cuts. Amazingly, he escaped with only bumps and scrapes on his head. He cried for awhile, while I held him and tried to figure out how I was going to get him and me out. Unfortunately, this window well was the only one of our wells that didn't have a ladder in it. I was able to get him out without any problems, but I had to use some serious arm and leg muscles to climb out. After I got out, I sat down with Cooper and we talked about why we don't play by the window wells. I think he knows now, but I'm wondering if we should just buy some window well covers. What do you think?On Saturday, I took the kids to Gardner Village to take some pics of them in some of their Daddy's shoes. I made a card for him with a picture of them in his shoes and this poem:
These shoes are too big for me as you can plainly see.
But even when I'm grown up, they will be big on me.
The reason is quite simple, I'm sure you will agree...
No one can fill these shoes like my Daddy!The kids played by the water and fed the ducks.Before we left, we bought Daddy some jalepeno fudge from Sweet Afton's candy shop.
For Father's Day, we gave Daddy his cards and candy and the keys to the Durango, so he could go see his Father's Day present...(Yeah, he had to put together his own Father's Day present. He said he didn't mind, though.)
For Father's Day dinner, I made BBQ pulled pork sandwiches, melon salad, potato/onion/mushroom foil packs cooked on the grill, and homemade Rocky Road ice cream! Yum! It was all so good! I think we took pretty good care of our Daddy, don'tcha think?

Labor and Delivery Story

2009-05-13T14:44:00.011-06:00

Okay, I know I'm a blog slacker, but I plan on getting caught up eventually. Anyhow, in my last post I mentioned that I would tell you my labor and delivery story...
Most of you know that I had been dead set against having an induction; I really wanted to feel what it was like to go into labor. Well, I got my wish; however, it was not what I had expected...I spent most of Saturday wondering if I was truly in labor or not. My contractions started at 6:00 a.m. and were pretty mild and about 12-14 minutes apart. Then they stopped. I had planned on planting our garden and went to Wal-Mart to get tomato plants and some gardening tools. While I was there they started up again; I told Scott when I got home that we were probably going to have a baby that night, but I was still having doubts of whether or not I was truly in labor (I was just telling everybody that I was and HOPING that I was!) We went to Kylie's soccer game at 2:00. Then we came home; it was on the way home that I suddenly felt like I needed to get the kids ready to go over to our sitter's house. I packed up the kids' bag, finished my packing my hospital bag, and even tried to clean a little. We went to Winger's for Kylie's late birthday dinner--something I realize now we probably shouldn't have done. My contractions before we went into the restaurant were 5-6 minutes apart, but totally bearable. I talked to my L&D nurse/friend who told me I should be on my way to the hospital and not eating at Winger's, but I went anyway, against her advice and my better judgment. While we were in Winger's my contractions were still 5 minutes apart but starting to really hurt. We got our bill right after we got our food, paid, and put the kids' food in to-go boxes. We dropped the kids off and we were on our way to the hospital...
We finally got to the hospital and I signed in at 7:00 p.m. On the way there I had decided that I was DEFINITELY getting an epidural. I was NOT in the mood to go through the pains of labor and delivery. I got dressed in the hospital gown, got in bed, put the monitors on, got my IV, and waited PATIENTLY for my epidural. Ha! It didn't happen. I was calmly talking to my husband about what we should name our baby girl and in the meantime, handling my contractions pretty well. (I think my nurse didn't actually think I was in hard labor, until she checked me. I was at a '7'. She was like "Oh, I guess we'll be keeping you here; you're having a baby tonight." NO DUH!) During one really strong contraction, my water broke. I remember thinking that the next contraction was really going to hurt and that they better hurry up and put in my epidural. After a couple of really hard contractions I knew I wasn't going to get an epidural...I felt like I needed to push; I knew baby girl was coming out whether I was ready or not.
My mom always told me she could never understand why women had to scream and yell while they were in labor. She said she was a "silent birther." Well, Mom, I don't know how you kept quiet when it felt like your insides were being ripped out and you're pushing what feels like a 15-pound watermelon out your hoo-ha! Yeah, so I was one of those screaming women...I screamed like the world was coming to an end. I think I scared some people, including my poor husband, who never got to use his labor coaching skills. It was embarrassing, but I couldn't help it. It flippin' hurt! Luckily, it was all over with within 10-15 minutes. (Notice I walked in at 7:00; I had her at 7:42).
The thing that made this labor and delivery experience so difficult for me was the fact that my adorable OB doc was out of town! The doc on-call wasn't even from his practice, AND she wasn't one I was particularly fond of. But get this, she didn't even make it to my delivery. The "doc-in-the-box" (at St. Mark's, there is always an OB who stays in the hospital at all times) was in my room, but he stood there gowned up waiting for the on-call doc to arrive. He never stepped in to help me deliver until the head was practically out. In a futile effort to "slow" my delivery and wait for the doc to get there, my feet were not put in the stirrups; I wasn't coached through my contractions; nobody told me when to push or for how long...it was brutal. I felt so alone in the most physically painful experience of my life.
On a positive note, my recovery was awesome. There is some kind of high you get after having a baby the natural way. Less than an hour after I delivered, it truly didn't even feel like I had had a baby. I felt really, really good. Would I do it again? Nope. Whoever came up with epidural anesthesia is a genious. When, and if, I ever have another baby, I will make sure I have plenty of time to get an epidural. Lesson learned.

New Arrival

2009-05-13T10:57:00.015-06:00

Halle Brynn Wilson arrived Saturday, May 9th at 7:42 p.m. She weighed 6 pounds, 6ounces and was 19 inches long. I got to bathe my sweet baby girl because I was able to walk to the nursery--didn't get an epidural. (Labor and delivery story to be posted later.)Daddy is smitten over his new baby girl. He is so in love...I'm okay that I'm not the love of his life any more...Big sis, Kylie and Big Bro, Cooper came to visit...Kylie immediately wanted to hold her baby sister; Cooper seemed indifferent. He did seem to get that this was the "baby in Mommy's tummy" and that she had finally come out.We came home Monday morning. Here's sweet baby Halle all ready to go in her carseat...Baby Halle gets a "Welcome Home" from her siblings...Here is our crazy family of 5! I can't believe we have three kids! I'm loving it, though. I love my growing, adorable family!

39-Week Check-up

2009-05-04T21:30:00.003-06:00

Okay, I went in for my 39 week check-up and I'm now dilated to a '5'! OH, COME ON! Why can't I just go the whole way? None of this put-putting along. Geez, Louise! Talk about a trial of patience! (*Deep breath*) So, anyway, my OB gave me some options: 1) Wait another week and see if I go on my own. 2) Go in sometime this week and break my water and see if contractions start. 3)Go in sometime this week and break my water and start pitocin.
At this point, I'm thinking I'm going to wait another week. I really, really do not want to be induced...in any way. I always clown on the girls that come in for elective inductions when they still have a few weeks to go. I'm like..."Sooo, you couldn't handle being pregnant for 2 more weeks?"
My OB, however, was concerned that with me being "half way" dilated if my water were to break at home, I wouldn't have much time to get to the hospital before having the baby. That does scare me and that would be the only reason why I would be induced.
But, for now, I'm going to hang in there and see if I can do this on my own. I'll keep you posted!

Baby Update

2009-04-21T08:05:00.004-06:00

Okay, so I know I'm the lamest blogger ever. I'm so behind; there are things I need to blog about including Scott's parents' visit to us back in March, Scott's birthday, Kylie's birthday, my birthday, our little trip down to St. George WITHOUT the kids for an early 10th wedding anniversary get-away, Easter, etc., etc. But...I'm not going to blog about any of those things today. I'm just too excited about Baby Girl's impending arrival, which I hope will happen sometime next week. I went to the doctor yesterday and I'm dilated to a 4 and she has come down, which explains the pressure and back pain I've been feeling lately. My OB said she could very well come this week or the next. I'm hoping she'll hang out in my uterus for at least another week because I'M NOT READY! I have a massive list of things I need and want to do before she gets here. One of the things on my list requiring the utmost priority was getting a carseat, which I finally went out and bought yesterday after I realized she could be coming any day now. Cooper and I had a blast trying out the strollers while we were in Babies 'R' Us. He would ride around in a stroller and check out all the things he could open and close on it. Then he would point to another stroller and say, "Try that one, Mom; that one for the bee-bee, okay? Try that one for the bee-bee, okay?" (I really need to blog about Cooper's entertainingly advanced verbal skills.) I ended up buying the kid one of those classic Fisher-Price cash registers because he's so gosh dang cute. (Does anybody else ever do that? Just buy their kids toys because they're being so good and cute? And yes, I buy things for Kylie for the same reasons.)
Anyway, that is our family update for now. I'll try to catch up on everything else in the next couple of weeks.

Diaper Cake Anyone?

2009-03-02T21:59:00.004-07:00

So, I decided to make a diaper cake for my friend, Jennie (who's going to be having her little girl sometime this week or the next), and I just thought I would post a picture of the end result. I think it turned out pretty cute, if I do say so myself. It was lots of fun to make, though, not so much fun finding all of the stuff for it. Now that I've done it once, the next one I do should be pretty easy. There are 15+ pregnant girls in our ward and I have a pregnant sister-in-law and three pregnant cousins, so I'm sure I'll get plenty of practice!

It's A...

2009-02-28T07:48:00.005-07:00

I've been meaning to post something like this for the last 2 and 1/2 months, but I really wanted to announce the gender of our baby with a cute picture like this...and I kept putting it off. So, here it is, finally! This is for those of you that STILL don't know what we're having. Well, now you know!

Cooper Turns 2!

2009-02-03T14:16:00.020-07:00

I can't believe it; my baby is 2! We celebrated his birthday the day after his real birthday on January 31st with family. I decided to go with a train theme because one of the big presents we got him was a Thomas train set. (It was actually one of the gifts we got him for Christmas, but he never opened it because he was so into his Dirt Devil vacuum.) So, I dressed the kids up in train conductor garb. Cooper is actually wearing his Daddy's overalls that are like 28+ years old. Awesome, isn't it!?! Don't they look adorable!Jill and Elizabeth came dressed appropriately as well...The first party activity we did was make trains out of gum and different pieces of candy. Cooper managed to eat 4 or 5 Hershey kisses before starting to make his...Here's Cooper's cousin, Amber, making her train...And here's conductor Kylie working on her train...And ever the kids at heart, here are Jill and Elizabeth with their finished candy trains...Here's Cooper with his train. (Note: Whenever I point the camera at Cooper, he says "cheeeeeeese" with no prompting, which explains why all of his pictures look like he's saying...well, "cheeeeeese!")We then played pin the #1 on Thomas, which I didn't get any really good pictures of. (Sorry.) Next, Cooper opened his presents.He got a cute wooden train with individual magnetic pieces that spelled out his name.He also got new puzzles, lots of clothes, a mini Cooper car, a cute dog named "Jazzy" dressed in Jazz uniform from Build-A-Bear Workshop, a real Elmo CD player, 4 new CDs, his Thomas train set, and a tool set.Cake time! Happy birthday to you; happy birthday to you...After lots of encouragement, Cooper blew out his candles all by himself.Cooper eating his cake...The kids played with Cooper's new toys...Momma and the kiddos in their train conductor clothes...Cooper all pooped out after his party...

December Recap

2009-01-24T15:18:00.006-07:00

I know, I know, it's a little late to being posting about things that happened in December, but I'm determined to blog about them nonetheless...
Kylie had her first ever dance recital December 17th. Call us biased, but we're positive that her class did the best. She was fun to watch. After it was all over, she told us, "When I was up there, I thought to myself, 'This is cool!'" It's nice to know that she gets excited about performing. We just might have a little showbiz girl in-the-making!
We celebrated Christmas at Great Grandma Russon's house this year. We had our traditional Christmas Eve dinner by candlelight and the kids opened their Christmas pajamas from Nana and Papa. We left the kids in the care of Grandma & Grandpa & Aunt Jill, while we went back home to sleep for the night. The next morning we awoke to find a huge snow drift blocking our alleyway. Scott was not to be bothered by it; he kicked the Durango into 4-wheel drive and we drove right through it. Scott was all about driving through it again, but I made him get on the road and we made it back to Grandma's house in time for breakfast and present opening. Kylie got the fish, scooter, and helmet that she asked Santa for. Both kids got new winter/snow gear and a new sled. Kylie also got new Leapster games and a case for her Leapster, movies, clothes, a sundae kit, games, art kit, etc., etc. Cooper wasn't really into opening presents. We helped him open the Dirt Devil vacuum I got him and it was pretty much over after that. There are a couple presents that he never even opened; I'm rewrapping them and giving them to him for his birthday this month!
The kids had a 2nd Christmas when Nana, Papa, Uncle G, Peyton, & Ashley came up to visit. We had a second round of present opening...the surprise gift we got was a tote full of things to take on our Wilson summer trip to Oceanside, CA in July.
All in all, it was a great Christmas holiday...

Christmas Pics

2008-12-30T10:21:00.011-07:00

I got some great Christmas pics of my kids thanks to Zoie, who I met at our GNO Twilight night. She is awesome! (Check out her blog link on the side.) I've definitely found a long-term photographer to photograph all of our future family picture needs (or wants, heh, heh). No more JC Penney or Kiddie Kandids for us! And get this, all of these pictures were taken in natural light; she does not use ANY lighting equipment. Did I mention that she is awesome?

Christmas Tag

2008-12-14T18:19:00.008-07:00

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? I do both.

2. Real or Artificial: I love the smell of a real tree, but that's about it. I hate the care & clean-up involved with a real tree. Next year we are definitely doing artificial.

3. When do you put your tree up? Whenever I feel like it. This year I've been feeling like crap, so it didn't get put up until the second week in December.

4. When do you take the tree down? Whenever I feel like it. (Usually sometime after New Year's Day).

5. Do you like eggnog? No. (Do you know how many fat calories there are in that stuff?)

6. Favorite gift received? Probably my first Cabbage Patch doll.

7. Hardest person to buy for? My husband.

8. Easiest person to buy for? My kids.

9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes. It's a Willow Tree set from Deseret Book.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail.

11. Worst Christmas present ever received? I can't really remember being truly disappointed with a gift I received from anyone. I'm not that ungrateful.

12. Favorite/Worst Christmas movie? I like "Elf" & "The Muppet Christmas Carol." I can't think of one I don't like.

13. When do you start Christmas shopping? Sometime after Thanksgiving. I always think I should start earlier, like in September or October, but it's hard to get motivated about Christmas shopping then.

14. Have you ever recycled a gift? Maybe once or twice.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas time? Anything chocolate-y, caramel-y, and/or peanut-y...and my Mom's cheeseball.

16. Lights on tree? White.

17. Favorite Christmas song? "Joy to the World," especially when it's sung by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

18. Travel on Christmas or stay home? Traveling to Lehi this year.

19. Can you name all of Santa's Reindeer? Yes.

20. Angel or star on top of tree? Star.

21. Open presents on Christmas Eve? Yes, just one. Usually, they're pajamas from Nana and Papa.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? The cold & the snow.

23. Favorite ornament? My S'mores ornaments. (The marshmallows make snowmen engaged in different activities and each one is sitting on a piece of chocolate bar and graham cracker.)

24. Favorite food for Christmas Dinner? Spiral honey-baked ham & "funeral" potatoes (eaten in the candlelight).

25. What do you want for Christmas this year? For my family to be healthy & happy.

I tag Mom Wilson, Sarah, Karen, Becky, & anyone else who wants to do this.

Belly Picture!

2008-12-06T10:19:00.005-07:00

Okay, I'm posting a belly pic to appease a certain one of my friends who, for some reason or another, is obsessed with pictures of her pregnant friends' expanding waistlines. Here's my belly at exactly 18 weeks. (Sorry, I'm not going the naked belly route...maybe later.) I find out what the little runt is on Thursday, the 18th. I'm pretty dang sure it's a girl, though I will be pleasantly surprised if it's a boy...

Twilight Tonight!

2008-11-20T08:53:00.004-07:00

La, la, la, la, la, la, tonight is Twilight Night! I'm going to a GNO (girl's night out) with 55 other girls to Cheesecake Factory for dinner and then to the Twilight movie at midnight tonight. I am SOOOOOOOO excited!

Halloween '08

2008-11-18T11:12:00.011-07:00

Here are our Halloween pictures, finally!

Kylie had lots of fun in her class Halloween party and was the star of her class play. She played the smart ghost who knew how to pull the pumpkin out of the pumpkin patch.
For all you Twilight fans, Mr. Plott, Kylie's teacher was dressed as Jacob Black. He said he was a werewolf (currently in human form) and he had on a hole-y t-shirt that said "I love Renesmee" on it. Funny stuff!
Trick-or-treating was lots of fun. Cooper got the hang of things pretty quickly. He kept saying, "doorbell," like "darbell." He knew that each time we rang the doorbell, he was going to get candy. Smart kid! He would go get a large fistful of candy, come put it in his bag, then go back to the person handing out the candy, wait until he got his or her attention, then wave and say "bye!" in his cute little high-pitched voice. Adorable! I didn't think to take pictures of the kids actually trick-or-treating. I know I should have.
So, that was our Halloween this year. The kids got way too much candy, so we're still eating it!

Cornbelly's Corn Maze & Pumpkin Fest

2008-11-09T15:00:00.010-07:00

I just wanted to let you all know that, in spite of having a very sick mommy, my kids did get to have a little bit of Halloween fun last month. I'm just now feeling somewhat well enough to post this and some pics. I decided that I needed to do it now, before it becomes REALLY old news.
So, I took the kids to Cornbelly's at Thanksgiving Point one Friday afternoon. My sis, Jill, was so good to come with me and help me play with the kids and take pictures. I couldn't have gotten through the day without her. Thanks, Jill!
The first thing we did was go through "The Haunted Creature." It was this big inflated animal that made all these different scary noises as you walked through the "maze" inside him. At the end, it "farts" you out of his behind. Ha-ha! I don't know if you can tell from the pic, but Cooper is crying and Kylie is clinging to me. They did not like it at all! Thankfully, from here on out, it was all fun and games.Next, we jumped on the giant pillows. It was very bouncy! We didn't have to do a whole lot of jumping ourselves. All the crazy kids already on there were making it plenty bouncy.Next we pedaled karts around a racetrack...Kylie playing in the playhouse in Kiddie Courtyard.Jill, Coop, and Kylie sitting in the Pumpkin Princess' pumpkin carriage.We listened to the Pumpkin Princess tell a story about Spookley, the square pumpkin.Taking a picture with the Pumpkin Princess.We spent a lot of time in the Kiddy Courtyard. We played with the water pumps, pumping ducks across the pipes..."Milked" a cow...Played in the corn kernel pit...Played on the wooden train...Played on the slides...And "worked" in the country store...Next, we went through the kiddie corn maze. There were all these black and orange plastic eggs along the way with little prizes in them. Kylie found one with vampire teeth in them--she thought they were so cool.Next, we watched a little bit of the chicken show, where some animated chickens sing songs, tell jokes, and share interesting facts about chickens.Riding the cow train was a highlight. Cooper couldn't wait to get in and go. He kept saying, "In, in, in, in!" Aunt Jill was a good sport and took him, while I stayed out and took pics, of course.We then had dinner. Kylie and Jill went over to play on Cornbelly Mountain, while Cooper and I finished eating. Then we went on the hayride, where Jill and Kylie proceeded to snap "goofy pics" with my camera. (Yeah, we can clearly see who's the wacky one in our fam. And she's passing on her talents...)Of course the night couldn't be complete without a balloon hat from the balloon man, some pumpkins from the pumpkin patch (sorry, no pictures; my camera started to die), and a final picture in the giant Cornbelly's rocking chair.

Tuna Fish?!?!

2008-11-01T12:47:00.005-06:00

I know, I know, it's been two weeks since I last blogged, but I have a good excuse. I have been so sick and pukey. At one point I weighed 9 pounds lighter than normal. Now, I'm just 7 pounds shy of my "normal" weight. I can say there does seem to be a light at the end of the morning sickness tunnel. I have not had to throw up for the last two days. Yay! Maybe I'm finally getting a gist of what my stomach will not tolerate or maybe one or all of the three drugs I'm taking are finally working for me. While I do still feel like crap much of the time, I can't tell you how nice it is to not have to see what I just ate come back up in the toilet.
There are only a few foods I can eat where I don't feel like I need to hang around the bathroom toilet after eating it. One is chunk light tuna out of the can. Who would have thought? I just tried it out one day after searching the pantry for something to feed my starving body and growing fetus. I remember thinking, "If this comes back up, it's not going to be good." After mixing the tiniest bit of mayo in it and slapping it on a half slice of bread with a thin slice of cheese, I ate it; oh, it was so good! I waited for the icky, fishy taste to surface in my mouth as my stomach prepared to send it back up, but it never came!
I have since had a half tuna fish sandwich just about everyday for lunch, and sometimes for dinner. I've added three pickles slices, and it's my little slice of heaven for now. The time after I have my tuna sandwich is the time where I can feel "okay" for a few minutes after I eat and not feel like I could just lay down and die. And, thanks to my funky eating habits, my kids are hooked on tuna now, too. Kylie actually requested to have a tuna sandwich for lunch today. Cooper ate all of his half-of-a-half tuna sandwich as well.
I'm hoping I can venture away from my "tried and true" morning sickness foods in the near future, but it is good to know that I can always have a tasty, healthy tuna sandwich, if nothing else!

Shoes, Dresses, Jewelry, Make-up, & Babies

2008-10-18T08:55:00.009-06:00

There's a certain someone who loves putting on dress-ups, necklaces, and jewelry, and can be found hunkered down in my closet trying on shoes. This certain someone knows what to do with make-up if he gets his hands on it. Yep, it's not Kylie, it's Cooper!
My sister watched my kids last night while Scott and I went out. She was telling me how he put on Kylie's pink dress-up shoes and walked around in them while he took care of his "Beebee." He actually plays more with Kylie's dress-ups and girlie things than Kylie ever did.
Here's my little man getting in touch with his feminine side:Oh, he's got his male traits too, thanks to Daddy...

Just Because

2008-10-08T09:07:00.003-06:00

Look what my darling husband brought home for me! I think he likes me! No, actually, I know he loves me...I've been shirking my domestic responsibilities lately, because I can't seem to do anything productive for longer than 5 minutes before I have to go kneel in the bathroom and hug the toilet. So, my wonderful husband CLEANED the entire house from top to bottom, toilets, tubs, sinks, floors, kids' rooms, everything!!! He also did ALL of the laundry; he sorted, washed, folded, and put it all away. AND he's made dinner pretty much every night for a few weeks now. I seriously have the best husband in the world and I love him so much!

First Doctor Visit

2008-10-02T09:02:00.002-06:00

Well, I'm now 8 weeks along and sicker than ever. I went to my OB on Monday and he actually looked to see if there were two babies in there. Thankfully, there's only one! The heart rate was 173. I'm thinking it's a girl. I was this sick when I was pregnant with Kylie. Or, maybe I just feel sicker because I don't get to lay in bed all day like I could then.
Anyhow, can I just tell you how much I love my OB?!? I think I have a crush on him...okay, I do have a crush on him. But how can I not? He's this cute little Japanese guy, Dr. Yamashiro; we call him "Yami" or "Yamo" at work. He calls me "girl"...like, "what's going on girl?" He always tells Scott, "Good deposit," every time we go in for our first pregnancy visit. Once, he told me I needed some pelvic rest, (meaning no sex), because he was "just wrecking the cervix!" (Like my husband needs any more of an ego boost in that area! Ha, ha.) Most of all, he was there for me when I lost my two pregnancies. He's just the most caring, concerned doctor I've ever had. I couldn't ask for any one better!

6 Weeks Pregnant=Sick & Emotional

2008-09-20T12:14:00.012-06:00

Yeah, so I'm 6 1/2 weeks pregnant and I'm so sick! It's so much harder to do this being pregnant thing when you have to get up in the morning to take care of your kids.
I had an especially crappy morning that started with a 5 minute vomiting/dry heaving session, followed by a pounding headache, and an overpowering, crippling sense of nausea not relieved by the aforementioned puke session. I barely made breakfast--pancakes for the kids and a piece of dry toast for me, fed Cooper his pancake, and then went outside to eat my toast.
As I sat there, I started thinking about how I seemed to get more miserable and sick with each passing day and how I still needed to take care of the kids I have. I wondered why God made it so that women have to feel like crap when they get pregnant. Wasn't there some way He could have made the hormones, or whatever other bodily changes that occur during pregnancy, not affect us so much? Why does it affect some women and not others? And after thinking about all of this, feeling miserable, and being riddled with pregnancy hormones, I started to cry. I mean, like a real sobbing, hard cry...
I had left the door open, and Cooper came walking out. He saw how sad I was and immediately wrapped his little arms around my neck and pressed his chubby cheek against mine. This made me cry even more, so he held me tighter for probably a good two minutes. Then he pulled away and looked at me with his big brown eyes, said "Momma?," and then smiled his contagious little smile. I had to smile back. Who would have thought that a 19-month-old toddler could be so empathetic and caring?!? Could he really understand my feelings in his little egocentric, self-centered world? Maybe for that one little moment, he did. I so appreciated that precious little moment, and it made me feel better emotionally, though not physically.
I have since decided, today, to try to do as much as I would have done had I not been sick. I have a husband and kids to love and take care of, a house to clean, a job to work, friends and family to talk to, church callings to attend to, and a slew of other reponsibilities. If I have to puke and cry the whole way through it, then so be it.

New Floors!

2008-09-15T14:40:00.005-06:00

Yay! We got a new laminate floor put in last week, hence the reason I haven't been able to blog until now. We ripped up our crappy, cheap carpet that came with our house and put down this:So far, it's been a piece of cake to clean. i.e. It's so much easier to wipe up Cooper's mashed banana off this floor than to scrub it out of carpet! The kids love playing on it. We all got our socks on one night and slid back and forth across it before we put all the furniture back in. (Dang! I forgot to take pictures!)
Now, we just need new couches, new carpet upstairs, mud room furniture, bar stools, new furniture for Cooper's room, etc., etc., etc.!

It's The Forever Kind of Love

2008-09-01T10:03:00.018-06:00

I copied this directly from my sister-in-law's blog (including the blog title), because I was so touched by what she said about her belief in eternal families. The things she said also hold true for me as well. I'm so grateful to KNOW that our family is forever. I'm so grateful to KNOW that no matter what happens to us or our children down the road, we will be together again someday. My heart breaks for this couple who lost their baby boy just 2 days before his due date. But it's true, as mentioned on the blog, they learned so much from him from the short time he was here on earth. His mission in this life was fulfilled. I know that their loss is made more bearable with their knowledge of the Gospel and the knowledge that their family is eternally bound through sacred ordinances.
This is what Sarah, my sis-in-law, wrote:
"So my friend, Meagan, posted a link from her blog to another blog. She doesn't know these people and neither do I, but their story is amazing and very humbling to me. Watch the video on their page & read the background to it. It has truly made me grateful for many things. Specifically my family. I am so blessed to have Amber. I know I don't recognize that every day and I don't always feel 100% blessed but I truly am. Even more so, I'm grateful and blessed to be sealed to my family for eternity. I do know that families can be together forever. I don't know how I could go through life not knowing if I'd ever be able to see the ones I love again. It'd be to painful to not have that knowledge. I'm so grateful to my Heavenly Father for giving me that blessing and that knowledge. And I know that not all of you have my same beliefs and that's ok. But I just wanted all of you to know that it's true -- families are meant to be family forever. But please, go this link and seriously -- no matter what religion or faith you have or don't have, you're going to be touched. And it WILL make you cry so grab some Kleenex."

Here's the link: http://www.babymckallister.blogspot.com

(You'll have to copy and paste the link. I can't seem to make it active.)

I Got Tagged!

2008-08-29T16:00:00.001-06:00

Thanks to my friend, Dawn, for this fun tag. Here goes!

20 years ago:
1. I was 10 years old and starting the 5th grade in Mr. Wood's class. It was a fun class. Susan Williams, Hilary Jennings, Mike Hales, Brandon Rasmussen, & Tyler Okerlund were all in it.
2. I was known as Kimbo, thanks to Mr. Wood's crazy song, "Kimbo the Clown." It was embarrassing! I hated that song!
3. I started to wear just one contact. I had one really bad eye and the other one was a perfect 20/20.
4. My youngest sister, Leslie, was born in February. I had lots of fun playing with her.

10 years ago:
1. I was attending Southern Utah University and had just decided that I wanted to go to nursing school.
2. I was dating my husband-to-be, Scott.
3. I was working at Cedar Breaks Lodge in Brianhead as a server/hostess.
4. I started a difficult cross-stitch that I ended up working on-and-off for the next ten years. (See "This Year" list.)

5 years ago:
1. We were living in Paradise Valley, AZ while Scott was attending Scottsdale Culinary School.
2. I was working full-time nights at Mayo Clinic Hospital on the Neuro and GU/Orthopedics floors.
3. I had an almost 5-month-old daughter.
4. We were the Sunbeam teachers in our ward. We had 10 rowdy, rambunctious kids in our class.

3 years ago:
1. We were living in an apartment in Murray, Utah.
2. I was working full-time nights at St. Mark's Hospital on a GI floor and working mainly with gastric bypass patients.
3. We were saving for a house.
4. We suffered the loss of our baby boy after 17 weeks of pregnancy.

1 year ago:
1. We bought our first home in Daybreak, Utah.
2. I had a 4-year-old daughter who could read 3rd-grade level books.
3. I had a 6-month old baby boy.
4. I was working nights at St. Mark's Hospital in OB/GYN.

This year:
1. I ran my first half-marathon in April.
2. I finished that dumb cross-stitch that I started 10 years ago, but never finished prior to this because the picture and the cross-stitch pattern didn't match. I ended up finishing it solely by looking at the picture. It was time-consuming and a huge relief when I finally got it done. (Now that it is done, I don't know what to do with it. It doesn't match any of my decor!)
3. We went to Disneyland--the kids' first time going.
4. I read all of the Twilight books in 1 1/2 weeks.

Yesterday:
1. I got Kylie ready for school, took her to school, and picked her up from school.
2. I worked out to my "The Firm" video.
3. I studied for my Neonatal Resuscitation certification class and completed my adoption case study assignment for work.
4. I worked a 12-hour graveyard shift after taking Kylie to "Skate Night" at her school.

Today:
1. I wrote this blog.
2. I went to Target to shop for a birthday present and to Harmon's for food for dinner. Then I went to Hobby Lobby to spend more money!
3. I cleaned up after Cooper's string of messes, until he finally went down for his nap.
4. I washed the Durango.

Tomorrow:
1. I will take Kylie to a birthday party.
2. I will take Kylie & Cooper to the library to check out some new books.
3. I will practice the piano for the Stake Baptism next Saturday.
4. I will paint Kylie's letters white for her room and finish some more hair clips.

Next year:
1. I will run a marathon.
2. I will be vacationing in San Diego in July with Scott's family.
3. We will add baby #3 to our family. (Don't get any ideas. I'm NOT pregnant! This is called family planning!)
4. Our basement will be finished.

I tag Sarah, Gail, Jennie, Karen, & Becky.

Park City Fun

2008-08-22T18:07:00.024-06:00

Whew! Between work, Kylie's school, reading ALL of the Twilight books (they were fabulous by the way), watching the Olympics, and keeping up with the daily grind, I've had NO time to update our blog. But, I'm going to try to do that this week...Soooo, two weekends ago we went to Park City with my fam. The parents rented a condo up there and we spent a few days playing around. It was lots of fun. Per Freitas family tradition, we rode the ski lift up the mountain to ride down the alpine slides...strolled along Park City Main Street, stopped at the bookstore and Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory to get fudge and ice cream...Check out Scott's new car! (Yeah, right! Dream on, baby!)Scott and I went to Yuki Arashi for sushi. We tried octopus and Ahi tuna! It was yummy!Grandma Net bought all the grandkids cute overalls and shirts.We made breakfast the first morning we were there--Scott made Eggs Benedict...and I made raspberry jam-stuffed French Toast. Yum!Hanging out at the condo...Jill trying on her new bike helmet to go with her new bike she got for her birthday.Have you ever seen the PBS kids show Boohbahs? Little Marlayna looks just like one! Boohbah Marley!On Sunday, we went to church, then had a picnic at the park.If looks could kill...Kylie dipping in the pickle jar...Here's Sarah, my fellow blogger.Family picture time! Here are the sisters (& sisters-in-law)...Silly sisters.The Freitas Five. (Yes, I'm the oldest and the shortest!)Come on guys! This is supposed to be the funny picture!This is what Cooper does when you ask him where his nose is. Hilarious!We took the kids over to play on the playground.Some of the grown-ups are still "kids" too!Uncle Adam digging in the dirt.Aunt Jill swinging with Amber.We had lots of fun! Thanks Mom and Dad!

Twilight

2008-08-16T10:16:00.008-06:00

Alright, so I finally jumped on the Twilight bandwagon. My friend, Jennie, let me borrow the first book in the series. I took it to work on Thursday night and started reading it between patient rounds and I got SUCKED into it! I was actually annoyed when it was time to do rounds or somebody put on their call light. I came home and read it all day on Friday. It was so dang good I could NOT put it down! I didn't even take a nap; I skipped lunch, and read it even when I had to pee. I finished all 498 pages by 10:30 last night. It was soooooo good! Loved it! Can't wait to see the movie in November. The actor who plays Edward better be H-O-T! (So, Jennie do you have the next one?)

Kylie's First Day of School

2008-08-05T13:02:00.010-06:00

Kylie went to her first day of kindergarten today. She was so excited last night that she didn't want to go to sleep; then this morning she woke me up at 6:45 a.m. to ask me if she could get dressed for school. Her class doesn't meet until 12:37 p.m., so I told her she had to wait until after she ate breakfast and lunch so that she didn't get her new outfit all dirty. I ended up getting up at 7:00 anyway because Coop decided to wake up and poop in his pants. :P
We had French toast for breakfast (thanks to Nana for getting my kids hooked on French toast!). I spent the morning slowly getting Kylie ready and I didn't realize time had gone by so fast when I looked at the clock and saw that it was already 11:30. Kylie was still in the bathtub, I hadn't taken a shower, and I needed to feed Kylie lunch. The next hour was a whirlwind of trying to find a decent pair of shoes for Kylie to wear, doing her hair (I had planned on doing something really cute, but I ended up doing the same thing that I always do with her hair--stick a flower barrett in it. At least it was one she had never worn before.), fixing her lunch, coaching her to eat it as fast as she could, and taking some pictures. I took a shower, but I went to the school with my hair wet and no make-up. I looked fabulous! :P
Anyway, I had gone the whole morning without a single "Oh, my baby's going to school for the first time," or a "Oh, she's growing up too fast," thought going through my head. I thought I would be able to drop her off at school without a sniff or a tear running down my face, but when Mr. Plott, her teacher, told all the kids to wave 'bye' to their parents and to tell them that they'd be back, I totally lost it. I watched her march in her class line into the school without even glancing back at me. So sad. For me. Oh well, I will get over it...soon.
Here's Kylie eating her lunch of a peanut butter sandwich, string cheese, pears, apple juice, and princess gummy vitamins. (Oh, did I get all of the food groups in there? Oh, yes I did! Such a good mommy!) She ended up eating lunch WITH her new clothes on. She did a really good job of eating really fast and not making a mess on her clothes by eating over her plate. You should have heard her when I was telling her to not mess up her clothes, "Oh mom, I'll just eat over my plate," like she was this expert on how to eat properly. I had to laugh.In her new school clothes from Nana and Papa.So excited!Here's Kylie standing in her class line. Look how big the blonde-haired kid is next to her! The red-headed kid on her other side ended up crying and running back to his mom when the kids walked into the school. Ha! My kid didn't even look back at me! *sniff*She looked so little out there! At the same time, though, I was thinking, "She's getting too big too fast."
I'm going to miss you Kylie! Have fun at school! Love, Mommy.

Papa Vern's 90th

2008-08-04T13:52:00.015-06:00

We went to my Grandpa Freitas' 90th birthday party on Saturday. (He's Papa Vern to all of the great-
grandkids so they won't get him confused with their other grandpas.) It was lots of fun. I saw cousins I hadn't seen in, like, 10-12 years. I didn't even recognize my cousin, Nick, who had grown two feet and a beard since the last time I saw him. Crazy! We had good food, played fun games, and chatted it up. I just hope it's not too long before we get together again. I want to be able to recognize everyone next time!Still lookin' good at 90!Leslie and Kylie.Amber, Adam, Sarah, and Becky.Becky, Nathan, and baby Marlayna.Trying to get Cooper to eat something! Anything!Ah-ha! Watermelon! Cooper does love his watermelon.My sis-in-law and I made an awesome team playing water balloon volleyball.Sick of the "Sarah & Kim water volleyball pics" yet? (Scott took like 10 pictures of us! Geez!)Here are the great-grandkids lined up to hit the pinata.I didn't think Kylie would be able to hold the bat, but she did pretty good.Gramps opening presents.Happy Birthday Papa Vern! We love you!

Kindergarten Ready

2008-07-31T15:37:00.003-06:00

I took Kylie to her kindergarten testing appointment on Wednesday with her new teacher, Mr. Plott. She got to see her classroom, the seat where she would be sitting, and where she would hang up her backpack. I filled out a ton of paperwork while Kylie tested with Mr. Plott, who does not look like your typical kindergarten teacher, by the way. He's tall, kind of barrel-y, and has a pony tail! I have to admit I was a little nervous about this guy, but he seems to be really nice and I've heard a lot of really good things about him.
Anyway, he was really impressed with her reading skills. He mentioned that she reads with good voice inflection, and not in the monotone of younger, just-starting-to-read readers. He said she was confident, smart, silly, happy, and laid-back. (All character traits she inherited from her mother. He-he. Okay, she probably got the silliness gene from her father.) He also said that he asked her what her favorite book was and she told him that she didn't know because there were too many that she liked. Does that not just tell you that she loves to read and that she reads a lot?! She'll be put into an advanced reading group with some other kids who are reading as well. I was so glad to hear this, because I didn't want her to be bored while the rest of the class was learning the letters and their sounds.
She is so excited to finally be able to go to school next week. However, seeing her excitement makes me feel a little sad...My little girl is growing up, stepping out of my secure, little nest into the big, sometimes scary, world. It makes me proud, too, to see that we've prepared her to where she wants to try something new and is not afraid to do it. I'm so glad she's got a good start in reading. I hope she can be successful in everything else, too.
Here we go, Kylie!

New Haircut!

2008-07-19T11:26:00.007-06:00

Kylie wanted to get her haircut yesterday, so we did. She really wanted to have bangs again, so I let her. She looks so cute. It's so easy to manage. I really don't have to do anything with it because it stays out of her face. I'm wondering if her hair is even long enough for the flower barretts I just made. We'll have to try them out and see. Here is a before picture:And after:And here's silly Cooper (who needs another haircut, by the way):

The Dairy Man

2008-07-17T09:13:00.009-06:00

There are only a handful of things I can get Cooper to eat. He loves bananas, but he won't eat them cut up; it has to be whole with the peel peeled halfway down. He'll bring it to me when he's ready for the peel to be peeled down some more. It's so cute and funny to see how he prefers to have certain things done, or he gets very upset with me! Sometimes I like to NOT do things the way he likes because his temper tantrums are so cute! He'll storm away to the nearest wall and smack both of his hands on it and then look at me with his "mad" face to make sure that I know that he's mad. I need to try to get it on tape and post it on here.
Anyway, the purpose of this post was to highlight Cooper's finicky eating habits. I know that I've blogged about his eating habits before and I keep doing so because I'm so confused at why he's such a picky kid. It bothers me that he was well in, and even over, the 50th percentile for height and weight in the first 6 months of his life and now he's in the 10th percentile for both. And I know it's because he does not eat enough food!
So, here's some of Cooper's fussy eating habits: He really doesn't like picking up his food with his fingers. He prefers that it's stuck on a fork or a spoon; I usually stick the food on there for him and he takes the fork from me, puts it in his mouth upside down, and then hands it back to me and we do it all over again. When I do put food on his plate for him to eat with his hands, he plays with it like it's finger paint and not a single bit of it goes into his mouth! What a stinker! He doesn't eat vegetables or meat and I can only get him to eat a few fruits. But, thank goodness, he loves anything dairy! Eggs, milk, cottage cheese, string cheese, yogurt, and ice cream! (I guess he's getting his protein, right?)

4th of July

2008-07-09T09:02:00.012-06:00

I'm sure some of you are dying to hear about our fun, exciting 4th of July...how about our disappointing, sad, depressing 4th of July? Yup, Kylie and Cooper both came down with the nasty flu on Wednesday. I spent both Wednesday and Thursday trying to get Cooper to throw up in either the sink, toilet, or barf bucket, cleaning up puke, doing laundry, and trying to get some sleep. (I worked both Tuesday and Wednesday nights). By Friday, Cooper had been having 3 days of raging fevers, so I finally took him in to our pediatrician who happens to belong to a clinic that has holiday hours. (How awesome is that?!) It turned out that he'd also been battling an ear infection. He had lost 5% of his weight, and the doctor said that if he lost 5% more, then he would be getting IV fluids. Poor kid! He was miserable. For the rest of Friday and Saturday, I really thought he'd end up getting IVF because he had absolutely no appetite, threw up just about everything he tried to drink, and had only two wet diapers where his urine was practically orange because it was so concentrated. Kylie was semi-better on Friday; she wasn't throwing up, but she told us about 50 times that her tummy hurt.
Anyway, for the 4th, we hung around at home: Scott and I had BBQ burgers for dinner; we played some soccer in the front yard, and set off a few cheap, lame-o fireworks. We were able to watch 4 different firework shows going on in the valley from our sidewalk, which was okay, I guess. I really like to watch fireworks up close. I was sooooo bummed. I had been planning an awesome 4th of July BBQ dinner and I had planned on taking the kids to a carnival, the parade, the pool, and the Riverton fireworks show, and I didn't get to do ANY of it. I felt like crying so many times. Scott could see my disappointment, so he PROMISED me that I would get to watch a fireworks show up close on the 24th of July. We'll see, though; there had better not be any sick kids!
Illness update: After a few days of complaining of a upset stomach, Kylie has made a full recovery and is eating very well. She is thoroughly enjoying the watermelon she wasn't able to enjoy last week.
After 5 days of Amoxicillin, Cooper finally perked up on Tuesday. He was back to his happy, busy, old self again. It had been pretty depressing watching him sleep so much and thinking about how miserable he probably felt. He wanted to be held almost constantly, which I gladly did. But, now I'm glad he's running around the house, making messes, and getting into mischief. (See below.)
Here are some pictures of us playing soccer outside. Sadly, these are the only pictures of our 4th of July I got. I was too tired and bummed out to get into the picture-taking thing.Kylie is a natural. She can dribble a soccer ball better than I can!We were playing one-on-one with Kylie and I playing on the same team. At one point, when it was me playing against Scott, Kylie got frustrated with my soccer-playing skills and my inability to score a goal, so she yelled out, "Come on Mommy, you runned a marathon!" Ha-ha! We had to stop playing and laugh.

Saturday Fun!

2008-06-30T08:41:00.044-06:00

It looks like Saturdays are turning into Mommy-kiddie outing days for us. I feel so guilty for not being able to be with them Tuesday and Thursday nights. And then sleeping half the day on Tuesdays and Wednesdays means I miss out on even more time with them. So, lately, I make sure we go do something fun on Saturdays. This last Saturday we went to the Daybreak North Shore Grand Opening where we looked at the 22 new homes built by various builders for the new addition to Daybreak. I absolutely loved a lot of the houses and would totally look into buying a new house out there except we've only been in our own new house for a year. (Maybe in another year or two.)
After looking at the houses and participating in some of the activities, we went and saw Wall E with the free tickets we got from the Daybreak Association. It's such a cute movie! Kylie absolutely loved it and Cooper sat through the first half of it. The last half, he climbed up and down the stairs and tried climbing up the back of my chair and the chair next to us. Hopefully, he didn't bother too many people.
Here are some pictures of cute stuff I saw in the houses... I never thought of hanging beadboard from the ceiling down. This is way cute and I am SO going to do it in Kylie's room!
I loved this kitchen with its cupboards, tile floor, stainless steel appliances, and dark counter-tops.
This is the view of a living room from above.
I love windows and light! How about 2 stories of windows with long drapes! Love it!
I thought this was a cute idea: framing a familiar quote and hanging it over a window. (I don't really care for the curtains, though.) We found a girls' room the same color as Kylie's room, but I have to say Kylie's bed and bedding are so much cuter. I might steal the hanging posts along the wall idea, though. That with beadboard from the ceiling down...so cute!
We got stuck in the Dr. Suess playroom complete with kiddie-sized chairs...
a ball jump area in a tub...
and a reading area. Cooper loved the car room.
Kylie and Coop had fun playing on the furry, hot pink-colored, beanbag chair. Kylie wants one just like it in her room. Do you think we could find a pastel yellow one? Cooper was fascinated with the rock walkway in front of one of the houses. He walked up and down it for awhile, until I stopped his fun and snatched him up to go into the next house. He was not happy with me.
Some of the houses had food from some of the local restaurants, so for lunch we had salmon salad, breadsticks with marinara sauce and cream sauce, pizza, smoothies, and ice cream! Yum!
The kids got to ice and sprinkle their own cupcakes for a fun kids activity. Sprinkle, sprinkle, sprinkle!
Pat, pat, pat!
And into Cooper's mouth we go, just like that! (He, he, I should be children's book writer!)
Yummy cupcake!
Good job Kylie!

So, does anyone wanna come look at houses in Daybreak? If you do, let me know, and we'll make a day of it!

South Jordan Country Fest

2008-06-25T09:48:00.048-06:00

We went to the South Jordan Country Fest last Saturday. It was pretty fun, except it got REALLY hot. I had a fabulous farmer's tan to wear to church the next day. Kylie was in a tank top, so she ended up with a nice tan all the way up her shoulders. Poor Cooper just got a little burn on the top of his head.
We first went to the South Jordan parade. Cooper would run out into the street every time he saw something cool, like the policemen on their bikes with their lights flashing, the clowns and mascots, the fire truck, and the horses. He actually thought the horses were big doggies that he could go pet, so he would run over to pet them. I had to keep running out there to get him. Everyone thought he was cute so they kept throwing him candy. After the parade, we went to play in the kids' play area, where Kylie pumped duckies across a PVC pipe with a water pump, while Cooper tried pulling them out as they went across. Kylie showed off her strength by pulling up bricks attached to pulleys. She discovered that the one with three pulleys was the easiest to pull up. Then, both Kylie and Cooper signed their names on a giant piece of canvas. (I think Cooper looks so much older in this picture. He looks like he really knows what he's doing with that paintbrush! Yeah, well he ended up getting it on his shirt, his hands, my face, and in my hair!)We played on the swings. Kylie got a ladybug painted on her face, which she almost immediate-ly started rubbing off because it was "itchy."Finally, we went and rode the dinky little carnival rides which I think I paid too much for, but when it's about spending a day with your kids it's all worth it, right?

Weekend at Grandma and Grandpa's House

2008-06-18T21:17:00.035-06:00

We spent Father's Day weekend at Grandma and Grandpa's house in Salina and we had so much fun! Be prepared for lots of pictures!Cooper discovered the trampoline. He loved it! He didn't jump really, but he loved getting bounced. He would also run around the perimeter and fall down while giggling the whole time.We had picnics outside...
...after which Scott, Kylie, and Leslie looked for crawdads in the irrigation ditch. They were disgusting-looking things! UGH! Scott was talking about fishing them out and cooking them up for dinner. Gross!Scott had to try out the old rope swing. I sadly realized that my tomboy days of playing in the trees and swinging on rope swings are days of the past. I could barely hold onto the thing; I felt like I was going to drop right in the middle of the ditch. Such a wimp!I love, LOVE my parents' backyard. Besides being green and pretty, it is the place of many wonderful childhood memories for me. If my parents ever move from this house, I will be very, very sad.This is the view of the sky and trees while laying on the trampoline. So pretty and peaceful.On Monday, we got sandwiches from Subway and went to Salina City Park for another picnic.Kylie played on the swings......climbed up the playground structure,...went down the slides,
...rode the merry-go-round,while Cooper took a nap in his carseat.We were going to be on our way home by the time Grandpa came home from work, so we said 'bye' to him at the park. Cooper was never too fond of going to Grandpa during this visit; however, he did go give Grandpa a big hug and I took the opportunity of getting a snapshot of it. He's such a good little hugger!After the park, we went home and put the kids in their swimsuits so they could play on the slippin' slide! After a few attempts to make it nice and slippery, Grandma concluded that it was time to go get a new slipping slide for her grandkids.Cooper loved being with Grandma. Here he is sitting with Grandma and playing with her sunglasses.We made water balloons and tried to make them pop on the trampoline. Cooper loved his water balloons, but couldn't quite figure out why they would pop when he dropped them on the grass.
Here's Scott showing off his juggling skills.Here's a "few" more pictures of Cooper playing on the trampoline and exploring the backyard.Look at that belly!Thanks to Grandma Net and Grandpa Pete for a fun-filled weekend! Can't wait to do it again!

"I Am NOT Going To Like It!"

2008-06-08T20:50:00.012-06:00

Friday was a busy day for us. The kids both had doctor's appoint-ments with immunizat-ions due. I prepared Kylie for the dreaded shots by telling her she couldn't go to kindergarten without getting them done. Kylie then told me, "Okay, Mom, but I am NOT going to like it!" Yeah, well she really didn't like it. She was hysterical the minute they brought in the syringes. We decided to do Kylie first and she was very uncooperative. I tried to lay her down on the examining table, but she had tucked her legs in and wouldn't straighten them out. The nurse gave her a sucker and she finally put them out and I folded her arms over her chest and leaned over her so I could look in her face and keep her upper body still. It was absolute torture to watch her face scrunch up and her cry/scream escalate every time they stuck her. The nurse wasn't very good either. I've seen nurses give 2-3 shots at one time. This nurse gave Kylie's five shots individually and it seemed like she took her sweet time. After what seemed like forever, it was all over with.
Then it was Cooper's turn. He had a sucker and was happily sucking on it. He laid on the table willingly and smiled up at me while I held him down. He cried with each of his two shots, got up and promptly threw his sucker down on the floor. He was so mad! It was kinda cute though. Cooper was done crying within seconds after the last shot was given. Kylie, on the other hand, cried and whimpered the whole way home.
The next day she was fine, but she told me, "When I am 30, I will be happy to get shots, but not now or ever!" Silly girl. I took her to Wal-Mart so she could pick out a toy to make up for the trauma she had to go through.

The Wisdom, Thoughts, and Sayings of Kylie

2008-05-27T09:35:00.009-06:00

I've noticed that I blog way more about Cooper than Kylie, so I've decided to dedicate this post to Kylie

and the funny things she says.
Just yesterday she told me that she volunteered to say the opening prayer in her church class and I began quizzing her about what she said in her prayer...
Mommy: So, what did you say?
Kylie: I said, "I'm thankful for this day."
Mommy: You didn't say, "Please bless this food," did you?
Kylie: No, I said something else.
Mommy: Well, what did you say?
Kylie: Mommy, just eat your lunch, okay?
Mommy: !?!?!?!

Here's another:
Mommy: Kylie, you need to find something quiet to do on Sunday, like read a book, color, or play quietly in your room.
Kylie: Mom, reading a book is loud, cuz when you turn the pages it makes noise.

Another:
Mommy: Kylie, you need to be a big girl and clean up your own messes.
Kylie: But Mommy, I'm only 4! I think you should clean up my messes until I get a little bit older.

Scott is always making fun of me because I'm always looking for my keys when I need to go somewhere. Well, one day I was frantically looking for my keys when Kylie knowingly announced, "Mommy, you're going to be in BIG trouble when Daddy gets home and finds out you lost your keys AGAIN!"

Seriously, the kid cracks me up! There are so many other hilarious things she's said, but I can't remember them all. I really should just go and write them down as soon as she's said them. I know I'm going to do better with this now that I have a blog to write them on!

He's Such a Boy!

2008-05-26T10:14:00.005-06:00

Lately, Scott and I just look at each other, roll our eyes, and exclaim, "He's such a boy!," after Cooper does something that his sister never did or would ever do, like climb up on his bouncy chair backwards and make it bounce so hard that we have to hold it down or he would go flying into the air. He'll take things from Kylie and run off with them as fast as his little legs can go. He'll pull everything he can reach down off of shelves, pull out every toy he can find out of its proper place, and generally, he'll leave huge messes in his wake.
Lately, he likes finding things he can put around his neck like necklaces, purses, and anything he can find that would be cool to put around his neck. Well, one day, he decided to follow Mommy upstairs. On the way up, he found the diaper bag and decided it would be a fun thing to put around his neck. He found out, however, that it was really hard to climb up the stairs with the diaper bag hanging down by his knees. So, he stood up on the stair and was trying to get the diaper bag strap off of his neck when he FELL all the way down the stairs and ended up with this:
We don't know what really happened, because I was upstairs and Scott was on the computer downstairs, but Scott said when he got to him, he still had the diaper bag strap around his neck. So, we can pretty much assume that this is what happened. We really can't figure out what he hit on the way down that would give him such a nasty bump, but we also have to remember that he got the same nasty bump in the exact same place three weeks ago after he bumped his head on the coffee table. *Sigh* Boys will be boys, I guess.
The only good thing that came out of this is he FINALLY went down for his nap after screaming and crying for a good 10 minutes. I'm pretty sure he had a headache; he just needed to sleep it off...Poor kid.

On A Golden Springtime...

2008-05-22T10:13:00.006-06:00

Spring is finally here! Yay! We've been spending a lot of time outside. Kylie has been riding her bike and Cooper likes finding rocks and throwing them into the window wells. He absolutely loves doggies and will take off if he sees one. He's a fast little bugger too! We went on a nice, long evening walk by the lake on Sunday. Everybody was out that night enjoying the perfect weather. The splash pool is scheduled to open on Memorial Day and we plan on going there a lot this year. The kiddos are going to be little brown babies before too long!
Over the weekend we had a little get-together at our house. Grandma Net, Grandpa Pete, G.G. (Great Grandma Freitas), Grandpa Vern, Adam, Sarah, Amber, Nate, Becky, and baby Layna came over for a BBQ. I bought a pool for the kids to play in, but the water ended up being a little too cold for them, so they just splashed in the water with their hands and threw in bath toys. All the "old" people and the newborn stayed inside while Sarah, my sis-in-law, and I spent most of the time outside talking and playing with the kids. It was good to see everyone, especially my grandparents. I wish I had gotten some pictures with them in it...maybe next time.

Happy Mother's Day!

2008-05-11T18:05:00.008-06:00

Happy Mother's Day to all of the wonderful moms in our lives...our sisters, grandmothers, aunts, cousins, friends, and, of course, our mothers. I think so many of us think that the little things we do for our children and our families often go unnoticed. Thank goodness for Mother's Day, where we can truly thank our mothers for all that they have done for us and do for us. I know that I can never repay my Mom for all the things she has done for me and she doesn't expect it either. I don't know what I'd do without her; she is my friend and confidant. She is the first person I call when I have a crisis in my life (besides my husband, of course). She is a wonderful, sweet person and I love her so much. I also have an awesome mother-in-law; I don't even like adding "in-law" to the mom part because she is truly like another mother to me (in a good way!). She is fun to talk to and is a great Nana to our kids.
We put together a little picture show for y'all...so here's to all the wonderful mothers in our lives. We love you!

This Is What Happens When...

2008-05-08T08:59:00.023-06:00

Mommy's too busy blog surfing. Cooper had come walking up to me and as I picked him up I put my hand on his bottom. I could feel some crunchy little bits of...RICE CRISPIES!?!?! "Now how did you get rice crispies on your bottom, little man? I know I left the box of cereal up on the table, now how did they get here?" I looked into the kitchen and found the biggest mess of cereal I have ever seen. My first instinctive reaction was to scream and cry, but then I realized this was mostly my fault. I had left my toddler unattended with a box of cereal sitting on the end of the table. It was bound to happen. I then thought about the time Kylie dumped a whole bag of Malt-o-Meal Toasty O's on the floor...and I had to laugh. I wish I could post that picture on here too. Like sister, like brother. Ha-ha. (BTW, I had to put Cooper back in the cereal mess to get these pictures, and as you can tell, he wasn't complain-
ing! And, yes, this happened before we cut his hair so you can see how long his hair was!)

Cooper's New Haircut

2008-05-05T17:50:00.008-06:00

Yup, that's my baby's beautiful hair on the floor. The other day, we decided to get out Scott's clippers and shave off my baby's hair. His hair was getting really long and it seemed like I would have to cut it every two or three weeks; it just grew so fast. Anyway, I held him while Scott did the clipping. The thing I wasn't planning on was having him cut off ALL of his hair. I was thinking about just leaving his hair on top a little longer so that I could spike it and do cute stuff with it. BUT, Scott went for the top before I could say anything and when I did, it was too late. I almost cried. But, I've gotten used to it and, really, he could be completely bald and still be the cutest baby ever.

Kylie Is 5!

2008-04-28T22:09:00.009-06:00

Okay, I am really behind in updating our going-ons; probably most important was Kylie's birthday that occurred April 12th. We decided to have a spring-ish theme because Kylie really is obsessed with Springtime (she has asked me since the end of January when Spring was going to come), and we had to have a gender-neutral theme since she would be inviting boys to her party. (I couldn't picture the boys being excited about a princess party.)
We started the party by having the kids make dirt cups with chocolate pudding, oreo cookies, gummy worms, and paper flowers. We played pin the spot on the ladybug and musical stuffed animals, had a relay race with a plastic shovel and rake (the kids had to run a certain distance while trying to keep either a stuffed bee or frog on the shovel or rake). Kylie then opened presents and blew out the candles on her butterfly cake. After the kids had cake, they went on a treasure hunt to find their party favors. All of the kids got a party sack with popsicle bubbles, a kite, animal cookies, and sunglasses; the boys got sticky lizards, and the girls got fabric flower windmills that I had put out in our front lawn to help the partygoers find our house.
Kylie says she liked the ladybug game the best; she also enjoyed having her cousins, Peyton and Ashley, spend the weekend at our house. All in all it was a fun party and weekend. I am so glad to be done with birthdays and parties...at least for another 9 months! I never realized how stressful and expensive it can be to throw a party for a kid. (Thank goodness for Oriental Trading, Hobby Lobby, and the dollar store!) Even more stressful for me is realizing I am actually old enough to have a five-year-old daughter!

Happy Birthday Papa!

2008-04-24T10:27:00.010-06:00

I have a confession to make...I'm horrible at remembering birthdays; I'm even worse at remembering to get birthday cards. I was going to update our blog when I glanced over and saw that my father-in-law's birthday was coming up. But, then I thought, "Wait a second, what is today?" and put my cursor over the time in the corner...Nope, it's not coming up, it's TODAY! Crap, I didn't get a card. But, I think I thought of something better...
I asked Kylie what she loves about her Papa and she said, "I like when he calls me, 'My Girl.' I like talking to him on the phone. I like it when he comes to visit me. I like giving him hugs and kisses and I love him so much." I asked Cooper what he likes about his Papa and he gave me a sweet, wet kiss on the lips, (so Papa, I guess you can consider that kiss yours.) We hope you have a happy, fun birthday. Love you!

I Did It!!!

2008-04-21T09:19:00.014-06:00

I completed my first half-marathon on Saturday in 2 hours 7 minutes and 59 seconds. I did so much better than I thought I would. I had been training to run 11 minute miles, but I ended up running an average of 9 minute 46 second miles, so I think my training really paid off. I have to say this was one of the most exhilarating and fulfilling moments in my life. The spectators throughout the race and the crowds at the end were awesome. I saw Jill and my kids cheering me on. The "feel good" goosebumpy feelings I got are addicting! I think I'm going to have to keep doing this! I've already recruited my sister and Scott into doing it next year. Anybody else want to do it???
Not so exhilarating (more like excruciating) are the intense muscle pains shooting through my legs every time I move. This morning I forgot that I was still sore and hopped out of bed a little too fast. I had to brace myself on the dresser while my legs screamed in pain. Oh, wow, it hurts a lot! But it's worth it.
If you want to see spectacular pics of me running you can go to www.marathonfoto.com and bring up Salt Lake City Marathon, type in my last name, and my bib #7793. All of the pictures, including the one of me crossing the finish line should be up by Tuesday morning. The half marathon results are also posted on http://www.racecenter.com/results/2008/slchm08.htm.
Runners racing to the finish line through Gateway mall.
We ate at the Red Iguana on Friday night. Red Iguana is the most awarded Mexican restaurant in the state of Utah. It was very good grub.
Jill with Kylie the goof.

It's O-fficial!

2008-04-15T17:08:00.002-06:00

I am officially signed up to run the half-marathon this coming Saturday, so there is no backing out now! Unfortunately, Scott couldn't get the day off so my sis, Jill, is going to watch my babies and cheer me on while I run my little heart out. We got a hotel room in Salt Lake City right by the Gateway, which is where the race will end. We'll hang out, shop, and eat lots of pasta on Friday night, and then I'll be up at 6 am to head over to the University of Utah campus where the race will start at 7 am. I'm really excited, but nervous too. I just want to finish the race without getting sick, spraining or straining anything, or going the wrong way! The reason I say this is because I had a dream the other night that I didn't take the right turn to complete the half-marathon, so I ended up running the whole marathon. It was NOT a good dream!

Sweet Baby Marlayna Joy

2008-04-13T16:12:00.000-06:00

A new little one joined the Freitas family on April 10th. Little Marlayna Joy came into the world weighing in at 5 pounds 12 ounces. We went to go see her in the hospital on Friday. She is so precious and so tiny! She made my "baby" seem humongous. (And he is.) It was so fun to see the new parents being parents, especially my brother Nate. I'm so excited for them!
Baby Marlayna already has a slew of nicknames. They include Mara, M.J., Marley (or Bob), and Layna. I personally like M.J. and Layna. It's such a cute name! If you want to read about how they chose her name you can go to Nate and Becky's blog at nate-becky.blogspot.com. Here's Kylie holding her new little cousin. She said "Awww, she's so cute!" when I first put her in her arms.Here's sexy, beautiful Auntie Kim holding her new niece. (I debated putting this picture up for all to see, because I think I look horrible.)

Happy Birthday Daddy!

2008-04-09T08:36:00.007-06:00

Happy birthday baby! Can you believe we're 30? It's hard to believe that we were only 19 when we first met each other. Wow! It's been a long road. I wish I could have put some pictures from when we first got married on this slide show, then I could make you feel really old! Anyway,I'm so glad you're my husby. You're such a great daddy to our kids. It makes me so happy to see you spending time with them and I know they love you so much. I hope you can let this birthday be about how far you've come in your life and not about the number of years it is. I love you! And Happy Birthday!

This is something I pulled off of Becky's blog. I thought it would be fun to do in honor of Scott's birthday:

What is his name? Scott Michael Wilson

How long have you been married? 9 years on May 1st. Wowee!

How long did you date? 21 months. A really long time, I know. I was really glad when he finally asked me to marry him.

How old is he? 30, today! I'm 8 days older than him. He always jokes that he married an "older" woman. Ha-ha.

Who eats more? Definitely Scott.

Who eats more sweets? Depends on the sweets. If it's ice cream or Oreos it's him, but I've been known to eat almost a whole bag of candy or cookies (over a period of days) once it has been opened.

Who said I love you first? Scott. I think I cried. I remember that I didn't say it back. I think I was a little shocked and then it was too late to try to say it. I would have sounded dumb. ("Oh, by the way, I love you, too.")

Who is taller? Scott; he's about 5'9", at least that what he claims to be. He's probably shorter than that.

Who can sing better? Definitely Scott. I like it when he sings in my ear.

Who is smarter? I'm pretty sure I am. Ha-ha. No, it depends on the subject. He can kick my butt in Jeopardy, though. He's quicker with coming up with the answers.

Who does the laundry? He pretty much does all of it every week. I'm so lucky.

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? When we're laying in it? Him.

Who mows the lawn? We don't have to mow our lawn. The HOA does it. If we did have to mow our own lawn, it would be Scott.

Who cooks dinner? Scott. And it's always so good. I honestly don't like to cook, but I think I can whip up something good if I'm really in the mood.

Who drives when you are together? Always Scott. I think he gets scared when I drive.

Who is more stubborn? We both are pretty stubborn, but it's probably me. I always have to be right and I will go out of my way to try to prove him wrong.

Who kissed who first? He kissed me first, but I kissed him right back!

Who asked who out first? Scott asked me first. Our first date was interesting...I seriously thought for sure it would be the only date we would ever go on.

Who proposed? Scott.

Who has more siblings? I have 2 more than he does. He has two brothers, I have two sisters and two brothers.

Who wears the pants? I would say it's me; but he probably thinks he does.

Turning The Big 3-0

2008-04-02T09:01:00.009-06:00

Yay! I got a Cricut, I got a Cricut, la, la, la, la, la; I got a Cricut, I got a Cricut, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo. My husband bought me a Personal Cricut machine for my birthday. I'm sooooo happy! He got it brand new for $80.00 at Michael's, which I discovered was a steal because the thing normally costs $150-200.
Anyway, other than getting a Cricut and opening my presents and cards from my kids and hubby, I had a crappy birthday. I came home from work with an upset stomach yesterday morning. Thinking I just needed to eat, I had some toast and some orange juice. Bad idea. It all came back up. Everything I tried to nibble on or drink came back up, even the Pepto-Bismal, which, honestly, wasn't so bad coming up. I pretty much laid on the couch the entire day burning up with a fever, barfing, and feeling miserable. Kylie, seeing how miserable I was, asked if she could say a prayer for me. It was so sweet. I cried (half because I felt like crap and the other because I saw a glimpse of my little girl's sweet spirit). Kylie was very helpful, entertaining her brother and keeping him out of trouble, and getting me drinks from the fridge.
So this is what turning 30 is all about, then, huh? Getting older...getting sicker. What a cruel April Fool's joke.
I just went out and got my mail and I got a wonderful birthday card from my girlfriends from high school. It was so stinkin' cute. They all wrote messages to me, highlighting some of the memories they have about me. They brought up things I had totally forgotten about, like the time I forgot my bloomers and we were at an "away" game, so it wasn't like I could run home and get them or have my Mom bring them to me! I remember going out there with my blue-green underwear on, which sort of matched the blue bloomers we were supposed to be wearing. Some memories are best left forgotten! J/K. I am so grateful that I grew up in Salina and had such a great group of friends. Thanks to my girlfriend, Dawn, who has a knack for putting together creative projects like this. She is awesome!!!

"You're soooo smart!"

2008-03-31T20:51:00.009-06:00

I forgot to mention that Kylie gave another talk in church last week. I told her that she needs to stop volunteering to give talks, because then Mommy has to do all the work of writing a talk and helping her read and memorize it. I told her next time to just volunteer to say the prayer or something easy. I'm horrible I know, but seriously, this was like the 4th talk she's had to give in the last year. Anyway, she gave a talk about Easter and blew everyone away when she got up and read it all by herself. I had some pictures for her to hold up to show some of the miracles around us that help us to remember the Resurrection of Jesus. The other day I overheard this "conversation" between my two kids (Kylie was using her pictures from her talk):
Kylie: Cooper, what is this? Tell me what this is. (Holding up picture of a cocoon).
Cooper: Da-da. (Points at picture).
Kylie: That's right! It's a cocoon. Now what is this? Tell me what this is. (Holding up a picture of a butterfly).
Cooper: Da-da. (Points at picture).
Kylie: Wow, that's right Cooper! What is this? (Holding up a picture of a nest with eggs).
Cooper: Da-da. (Points at picture).
Kylie: Wow! You are soooo smart Cooper! You're going to be smart just like me someday.
Kylie had used all of her pictures before she actually said the last line, so this was quite a extended conversation and one where Cooper was actually involved the entire time. I had to go into the other room and giggle quietly so I that didn't interrupt. Kylie is such a good big sis (most of the time). She certainly loves her little brother.
Kylie and Cooper reading books together.

Easter Sunday

2008-03-26T11:44:00.007-06:00

Easter Sunday was a beautiful day. It was fun to go to church with the kids dressed in their new Easter duds. I got Kylie a blue Easter dress after my mom and I finally decided to get it after carrying it around Wal-Mart trying to decide whether to get that one or a pink one. I could only get a couple of pictures of her in it before she changed into her outrageous stripes outfit. (See pictures above). She really thought she matched because they were both stripes! I let her go outside and use her sidewalk chalk; Cooper enjoyed walking around outside. There's only been a few times where he's actually been outside walking on his own, so he loves being outside. He'll try to step outside every time the door opens, and if he doesn't make it out, he gets very sad.

Easter Egg Hunting

2008-03-26T10:25:00.007-06:00

On Easter Saturday, we went to the South Jordan Community pool and the kids "dove" for Easter eggs. I was lucky to have Jill helping me. I don't think I would have gotten as many cute pictures because I spent most of the time trying to keep up with Cooper who wanted in and out of the pool. The kids enjoyed swimming in the warm water and got bags of Easter treats after the egg dive.

We then went to Grandma and Grandpa Russon's house in Lehi and had another egg hunt and Easter dinner with the fam

IcE cReAm!

2008-03-21T15:16:00.005-06:00

We were at Harmon's the other day and they were giving out free ice cream cones. The lady insisted on giving Cooper his own and now he's hooked. He will have a fit if you try to take it away from him. He'll sit down, put his head on the floor, and start crying. It's really kind of cute...yeah, even his tantrums are cute.

Blog Readability

2008-03-15T22:01:00.004-06:00

TV Reviews

I got this from my sis-in-law's blog. When I first did it, it said my blog was only at an elementary reading level; it kinda made me feel dumb, but then I realized I'm not exactly writing college level research papers on here...just everyday family stuff. I tried it again today and I got bumped up to a high school reading level. Whoo-hoo!

Disney On Ice

2008-03-13T11:52:00.006-06:00

We went to Disney on Ice last night. It was uber fun! We went to dinner at Baxter's American at the Gateway Mall. It turned out that Scott knew two of the cooks that work there, a chef that helps out there, and one of their servers. It seems that once you've worked in the downtown restaurant business, you know EVERYBODY, or you find someone that knows the people you know. Scott definitely knows a network of people that work in the fine restaurant business. Hopefully, it will help him if he ever decides to venture into that world again.
After a very good dinner we went to the show. Kylie loved every minute of it. She says her favorite part was "The Little Mermaid." It was pretty amazing. There were lots of lighting effects, fun ice skating tricks, superb music and sound, and fire! The finale was cool. All of the pincesses came out with their princes, Tinkerbell came out in her cool little carriage, and Mickey, Minnie, and Goofy all came out at the end. Unfortuntely, I didn't get great pics. (I posted the best ones.) Kylie wanted us to buy her an overpriced princess toy, but I wasn't about to pay 12 bucks for a dinky princess cup, so she cried all the way back to the car. She finally settled down when we started talking about her favorite parts of the show. All in all, it was great to go out together as a family.

Daddy, Cooper, and Kylie. Aladdin and Jasmine: "Let me share this whole new world with you."Belle: "Little town; it's a quiet village; Every day like the one before."

"Be our guest; be our guest; put our service to the test."

"No one's gloomy or complaining; While the flatware's entertaining." Mickey and Goofy.Ariel: "When's it my turn?; wouldn't I love; love to explore that shore up above; out of the sea; wish I could be; part of that world." King Triton punishes Ariel. The finale. Sad Kylie. Prince Cooper is pooped.

Lazy Sunday

2008-03-09T18:58:00.007-06:00

I love Sundays. I love that my family is together. I love that church is at 1:00 in the afternoon. I love eating Sunday dinner made by my wonderful husband. (Tonight, it was jambalaya. I'd give you all a recipe except there isn't one.) I love just lounging around, relaxing, reading, and talking.
I prepared an Easter family night lesson and we taught Kylie about the true reason why we celebrate Easter. It was funny because she really had no clue. I asked her if she knew why we celebrate Easter and she said, "So we can find Easter eggs." Now she knows about the Atonement and Resurrection. (She read and learned about two very big words!) It is such a fundamental part of our religion to know this story, but I love reviewing it and reminding myself that it is through our Savior, Jesus Christ, that we are even able to return to live with our Heavenly Father.
After the kids went to bed, we watched "Return with Honor," an LDS movie about a return missionary who dies, but is given 60 days to come back to earth and finish his work. It was pretty good; not as corny as so many of the other LDS movies out there.

It was a beautiful day. Dare I say that Spring is finally here? I took the kids outside and took pics of them out on the porch.

Banana Man

2008-03-03T21:47:00.008-07:00

Cooper is one picky kid. I thought babies this age were supposed to be pretty much eating everything you put in front of them! Not so with Coop. You may be interested to know that this kid did NOT like any of the pureed foods we started trying to feed him at 6 months. Nope, he didn't want any of that. So, basically, he was exclusively breastfed for 12 months. Once that 1 year mark was up, though, I was done, DONE!!! He took to cow's milk okay. Though, we realized he was getting way too much milk after a couple of episodes of severe constipation. (I could talk about all of that in another blog post).
You would think the kid would like the sweet tasts of fruits, like applesauce, peaches, pears, etc. Nope, not really. He does like bananas, though (see pics below). He likes some weird stuff like scrambled eggs, refried beans, ice cream, and um, there's really not much else. Oh, he'll eat other things, but only like 1 or 2 bites. When I told our pediatrician about this, he told me I needed to stop giving him snacks in between meals. What? I thought we were supposed to give snacks between meals and the only reason I do it is because the kid does not eat when it IS meal time!
Cooper started out around the 75th percentile for both height and weight in his first 4 months of life, then he was a "text book baby" at 6 months when he was right on the 50th percentile for both height and weight. At his 1 year check-up he had dropped down to the 25th percentile for height and weight. I'm starting to think his picky eating habits are affecting his normal growth patterns. If any of you have any tips or comments about getting kids to eat, let me know!

Under Construction

2008-03-03T21:24:00.010-07:00

Okay, so I'm having a difficult time deciding on the template of our blog. I've tried several templates and I really don't like any of them. Also, in the process of changing them, I discovered that my links and some of my pictures disappeared! If only I was smart enough to make up my own...Sarah, Lacie, how did you change yours? Anyway, until I get this all figured out, you'll have to deal with my almost daily blog changes.

Running a Half-Marathon

2008-02-26T13:25:00.011-07:00

So, I've signed up to run the Salt Lake City half-marathon in April. I'm crazy, I know. Thing is, I've had a desire to run a marathon ever since I helped out with the St. George marathon while I was in nursing school. I remember thinking all those people were nuts. Half of them looked like they were about ready to pass out and it was only like 5 miles into the race. But then I began to admire all of those people, running their little hearts out, faces all sweaty and red, jaws hanging open...running a marathon is definitely no small feat. So, in my ambitious, gotta-do-everything, gotta-show-everybody-how-tough-I-am attitude, I put running a marathon on my mental list of things I wanted to accomplish in my life.
And here I am, training for a half-marathon. I ran 8 miles yesterday; I think it's the farthest I've ever run in my life, and I felt like I could have kept going. I feel really good; I feel like I can finally get back to my pre-pre-pregnancy weight (my weight before I got pregnant with Kylie). I have that whole-body soreness where it hurts to get out of bed in the morning, but at the same time it feels good to hurt like that because then you know you've worked your butt off. Hopefully, it will be literal before long. ;)

My Baby Is Growing Up!

2008-02-19T15:49:00.032-07:00

I can't believe my "baby" is over a year old! It's crazy to think that only 1 year ago Cooper was a helpless little infant whose only wants in life were to be fed, changed, and rocked to sleep. Now, Cooper's a complicated little fellow. (Okay, not so much, but compared to 1 year ago...) I'm constantly amazed at how much a baby can learn after being on this earth for only a year.
Just the other day, when Kylie and I were playing "school" in her room, Cooper took off towards the stairs saying, "Da-da" over and over again. Neither Kylie nor I realized that Daddy had come home, but Cooper knew the sound of our garage door going up to mean that his Daddy was home. I walked over to pick him up before he reached the stairs and started telling him that Daddy wasn't home yet. I was wrong. There was Daddy walking up the stairs!
Cooper also loves playing "Catch Me If You Can!" He'll run away from us as fast as his little legs can carry him whether we're in the grocery store, at home playing, or when Daddy comes home. Sometimes he'll try to climb all of the stairs before we can get to him. We'll say, "I'm going to get you!" and he'll squeal and start running or climbing as fast as he can. Soooo cute!
Our little man is also starting to expand his vocabulary. Besides "da-da," "ba-ba," "ma-ma," he says "dahnk goo" for "thank you;" "mah" for "more;" "bah" for "ball;" and "yah," for "yeah." He knows when to put things away and when Mommy's says it's time to shut the fridge door or dishwasher door, he does it all by himself! I swear, everything he does is so gosh darn cute and I constantly have to restrain myself from picking the kid up, smothering him with kisses, and squeezing him to death! Man, I love my baby!

Snow, snow go away!!!

2008-02-15T09:20:00.004-07:00

Snow, snow go away; come again another day. (Or better yet, just don't come at all)...I can't even begin to tell you how much I'm starting to hate snow. I hate playing in it, I hate driving in it, and now I'm starting to hate looking at it. Sure, it's all nice and pretty when it first comes down, but then it gets all dirty and slushy after the snow plows come through and push it all up on the sides of the road. I know we're supposed to be thankful for all of this moisture, but sometimes when we're saying our prayers I feel like saying,"We're thankful for the snow and moisture we've received, but please don't send anymore. We're good, thanks." I mean, we're not in a drought anymore, are we???
I almost cried when the snow started coming down Wednesday afternoon. There was so much I needed to do that day, but I had to put it off because it was really windy and it was coming down really fast. For those of you who didn't watch the news that night, they said that it took about 2 & 1/2 hours just to drive 12 miles in many parts of Utah County, especially around Point of the Mountain where traffic was pretty much at at standstill. I was soooo glad I didn't have to go to work that night. Instead, I stayed home and ate some yummy stroganoff made by my DH (dear husband), watched "A Bug's Life" with Kylie, did some scrapbooking, and went to bed early.

Hoppy Birthday Cooper!

2008-02-10T16:31:00.034-07:00

Cooper's 1st birthday was on January 30th. We had his birthday party on Friday, February 1st. It was a frog party complete with a "pond" with lily pads, beach ball frogs, blue, green, and light green streamers, a frog cake, and guests dressed in green. We sang "Eight Little Speckled Frogs." Someone had to jump into the "pond" with each round we sang. Then we played musical lily pads with Scott playing songs like, "It's Not Easy Being Green," and "Who Let the Frogs Out?" on the computer.
The party dinner included bug dip with crunchy bug wings (7 layer dip with tortilla chips), frog-eye salad, frog log mix (chex mix with extra stick pretzels), and swamp water (frozen punch with ginger ale mixed in). Dessert was frog cake with homemade buttercream frosting and green fly ice cream (mint chocolate chip).
After dinner Cooper opened his presents. He got a lawnmower, two dump trucks, a bus, legos, a new hammer (he lost his last one), a Leapfrog
fridge farm, clothes, an Elmo phone, a stuffed bear, a horse light, and a Pooh outfit. A funny moment was when he opened a present from his Nana and Papa that had the exact shirt he was wearing inside it! He lost interest in opening presents about halfway through when he found a hanger to play with.
After all of the presents had been opened we brought out the frog cake and sang Happy Birthday to Cooper. Mommy blew out his candle for him. Everyone had cake and ice cream while Cooper and his cousin, Amber, played with all of his new toys. We took some family pictures and then everyone went home. Everyone got a green gift bag that had a frog beachball, frog bath squirts, a green frog bath fizzy, frog suckers, frog bubbles, a party blowout, and "toadally" gross gummy toads.
To right: This is Cooper's cute little cousin, Amber. She was putting on a show, dancing to the Elmo jingle on Cooper's new phone.

Cooper with his Mommy. He was not feeling well. He had been throwing up all day long. But he was still a happy, sweet boy, just for his party.
To right: Cooper and Grandpa Pete.
Aunt Becky, Uncle Nathan, and soon-to-be new baby girl cousin!
Aunt Sarah, Uncle Adam, and Cousin Amber.
The Freitas and Wilson Bunch.
Funny faces everyone! Grandpa Pete must already think he has a funny face!

Our Magical Adventure in Disneyland

2008-02-10T10:02:00.003-07:00

So, we went to Disneyland!...thanks to my parents, who got our entire family three-day tickets to Disneyland for Christmas. We left for Disneyland Wednesday, January 23rd, with our fam, Jill, and our cousin, Elizabeth. I have to mention that Cooper did really well in the carseat for 9+ hours. I was really dreading having to entertain and keep him happy for so long, but he was a good, happy baby. It wasn't until the last hour of driving that he started getting tired of being in his carseat. While we were driving in, it was pouring rain and we were beginning to think that our Disneyland adventure was going to be really wet. Lucky for us, it only sprinkled a few times, and it only started to really rain on the last night we were there.

The first day Scott was really sick; he rode the Disneyland Railroad over to Fantasyland and then ended up deciding to go back to the hotel for the rest of the day. We never did figure out what made him sick. I blamed it on IHOP's greasy fare we had the night before.

It was a different experience to be able to "do Disneyland" with two kids in tow. Last time we went, Scott and I had only been married for a couple of years. While it was certainly less stressful then, (think no diaper bags, no strollers, no one to watch out for, no changing diapers, no having to look for a bathroom right in the middle of Disneyland parade...), I thoroughly enjoyed coming to Disneyland with our little family. It seemed so much more magical and exciting this time around. Seeing Kylie get all excited about going made me almost giddy! We all agreed, however, that while California Adventure Park was cool, it didn't hold the same magic as Disneyland.

I enjoyed spending time with my family and it was nice to get away and forget about work, bills, the house, and all of the other responsibilties that come with being a grown-up. It was really nice to be a kid for a few days! It was, as Cinderella would say, "completely wonderful," and I can't wait to come back in a few years!

Here are our individual memorable moments and favorite rides, shows, etc. I also want to make a note that if you click on the slide show above and then put your cursor over the lower part of each picture you will be able to read the captions I wrote for them. Not all of the pictures have them, but most of them do. You can make the slides move faster or slower using the buttons in the left lower corner. To see more Disneyland pics, you can click on Adam & Sarah's and Nate & Becky's blog links on the left.

Kim's Memorable Moments/Favorites: Soarin' Over California; Hollywood Tower of Terror; the Aladdin show; Pirates of the Carribean; the cheddar broccoli soup in a bread bowl at the French Market restaurant (yummy!); watching Kylie's reaction with every new ride, show, or Disney character we saw; Scott not being sick for the last two days; trying to see who could make the funniest face for the Splash Mountain camera; watching the Disneyland Parade of Dreams; exploring California Adventure Park for the first time; and having a churro for dinner.

One memorable moment that was not my favorite was when I was told by one of the Soarin' ride workers that I did not need to loop my seatbelt through the middle loop. It was only for smaller riders; this I knew, but I just wanted to feel like I wasn't going to fall out! Everybody was sniggering at me. Embarrassing!

Scott's Memorable Moments/Favorites: Not being sick for the rest of the vacation; Hollywood Tower of Terror; Space Mountain being open (last time we went, it wasn't); the Muppet show; and getting to ride Splash Mountain three times in a row without having to get out.

Kylie's Memorable Moments/Favorites: The Dumbo ride; Gadget's Go Coaster; Goofy's house; Minnie's House; Mickey's House; Chip 'n' Dale's Treehouse, (okay, so Toon Town in general); Buzz Lightyear's ride; getting her picture taken with Mickey and Minnie Mouse; Soarin' Over California; Heimlich's Chew Chew Train; Ariel in the Disney parade; the Aladdin show; and picking out her baby Minnie as a souvenir to take home.

Cooper's Memorable Moments/Favorites: Getting ice cream from Aunt Jill; getting pushed around in a stroller; falling asleep in the stroller; riding Dumbo and Astro Orbitor with his Mommy; and walking around in his new shoes.

To Blog or Not To Blog?

2008-01-15T12:28:00.001-07:00

So, I finally got this blog up and running. I got the idea to start doing this when I saw my cousin A.J. and his wife's blog. I found out later that my sister-in-laws Becky and Sarah both do blogs. I got a kick out of reading their blogs and looking at their pics. Some of them made me laugh so hard (Becky's blog about the space heater and Sarah's Christmas morning picture with her sister holding her dog and everyone else holding their kids). Sooo funny!!!! So, to avoid feeling left out of the whole crazy blogging world, I decided to finally start the Scott and Kim Wilson family blog. I actually started working on it back in June 2007, but I always neglected to actually write a blog. There was always something else to do and now I wish I had started this a lot sooner. Anyhow, here it is, and hopefully, there will be many more blogs and pictures to come.