Londyn is 3!!

Happy Birthday Londyn!!

Cinnamon Rolls is a GREAT birthday breakfast!!

Birthday Princess





Time for presents!!

Already texting! ;)
She LOVES these boots!

Blow out the Candles!

Lightning McQueen couch

Dressing her new dolly in her new clothes

All of her Lighning McQueen gifts!

What amazing and learning experience 3 years they have been. 3 is most definitely the INDEPENDENT stage. Londyn does everything by herself. Reading, bathing, eating, getting dressed, etc. If you even try to help her with anything (without her asking for help of course) you get the wrath of Londyn!! :)

She loves to dance, sing, and learn. We have a section out of our day that consist of all of these things. Carter joins in when he wants!!
Londyn's has always been diverse with the things that she likes, but lately she's been really enjoying Princess stuff. Her favorite princess is Ariel (what can I say the Apple doesn't fall far from the tree!). So this year we did a Princess theme for her birthday. As you can tell from the pictures the rest of the family didn't get the memo so she got A LOT of Lightning McQueen things, which is just as much her favorite as Ariel, so she's not complaining!! :)

Milestone for Car-Car Man!!

Car-Car and his cars!! ;)

He LOVES to help his Daddy and Pappas!

He is my drummer!

He LOVES FOOD!!! :) He really enjoys Looking out this window!

Silly Face!!

He really likes to play the piano, especially when I'm playing, he kicks me of the bench so he can have his turn!

Always CLIMBING!!

Our little man is 18 months old today!! How fast that went!! What an amazing addition he has been. These last few months his personality has just Sky Rocketed!! He is definitely a climber!! Any high place, he WILL figure out away to get up there. Even if he falls down/off, he gets right back on the horse and keeps trying until he figures it out!! He likes to snuggle, but it has to be HIS idea, so it's a NO GO!! He is JUST like Bradey in EVERY WAY!! He really enjoys his solitude. I am always finding him doing his own thing. He stays in his comfort zone, and if anyone interrupts that zone, it's not fun for them. Everything has to be HIS idea, reading him stories, snuggling, or just being near him. If he doesn't want it, it's not happening!

He has some lungs on him, and last Sunday our ward family got to experience him exercising them!! We took him to nursery I stayed the first 1/2 hr, then Bradey came for the next 1/2 hr. Apparently Daddy left because I could here him ALL the way in the Primary room with the piano playing, and 60+ kids filing in the room!! Wow!! Bradey had left and about 5 mins later Carter realized that Bradey was gone and FREAKED OUT!! Like I said, if it's not HIS idea, it's a no go! We're just going to have to be patient for him to get use to nursery! (cross your fingers!)

When he throws his temper tantrums (which mostly are over not getting food in his mouth fast enough, all the food is gone, or him wanting MILK, the boy LOVES milk), I'll tell him to go to his room or that he is excused. Then he heads to his room and shuts the door. He comes out still upset, turns back around and goes back in his room. He does this until he's calmed down. It is SOO hilarious and adorable that I totally forget why he got in trouble!! :)

Another thing he does that I LOVE is he grabs my hand and pulls it to his back so that I'll rub/scratch his back. Or he'll pat his tummy so I'll rub it!! :)

WE have mommy/Car-Car time every day while I'm making dinner. One of Londyn's favorite shows is on then and Bradey is taking a shower, so he comes and sits at the table and plays with his favorite cars and "talks" with me. It really is a priceless moment each day! He has his list of vocabulary, but his favorite words are Cookie (of course), Go (after we say Ready, Set, he ALWAYS says this!!), and DAD (EVERTHING is dad, Dad, DAD!!).

Londyn properly nickname her little brother. He is a car man! Very rarely will you see him without a car in each hand! HE loves to play with anything that has wheels! He also enjoys bath time. Whenever he hears the faucet running, he comes running like there's no tomorrow! He enjoys splashing, sticking his face in the water, and playing with the knob that turns on the shower! After is bath he has to go streaking for awhile. He does a few laps around the kitchen and living room, NAKED, before I can finally get him into clothes! ;)

He has the best smile, it melts my heart each time he gives me it! And I am truly bless to have this handsome blond haired car man in my life! :D

I'm READY for SPRING!

The past few months are a bit a blur! The days seemed to run together. But I guess I can catch everyone up on what I do remember.

At the first of the year I started RE-potty training Londyn. Yes I said RE! As in she was before and decided she wasn't ready! So we took a wack at it again. And were SUCCESSFUL!! All I can say is my method was LOTS of bribery and PRAYING, seemed to be what worked best for this little girl. She has been really turning into a little girl. I painted her finger nails about a month ago for the first time. And she LOVED it. The next time we did it a couple of weeks ago, she wanted her fingers and toes done!! She's really enjoying dance class. The girls had a "recital" just before Christmas. It was too funny to watch her spin around, and then a little boy had a Lightning McQueen car. She stopped dancing and tried to take it from this poor boy, who is just a little older than Carter!! :/

Another thing we started working on this year is getting prepared for Pre-school. I've been going back and forth whether I wanted to teach her pre-school or take her somewhere else. And with the loving council of my husband, we've decided she needs the social aspect of school already!! And I've notice she learns more quick when someone else is teaching her. Anyway, she now recoginzes almost ALL 26 letters in the alphabet, all her colors, and we're still working on which number is which. Although she can count to 20 (skipping numbers here and there) by herself.

Poor thing is getting Cabin Fever along with me. She's asked me many times if we could WALK to the library. The weather has been nice enough here and there that I've taken her and the dog on a few walks to the elementary school.

Carter has been keeping me on my toes as well, but I'll tell you more about him in a couple weeks when he turns 18 MONTHS!! WOW!!

February has been a crazy, busy, sickly, SHORT month for this family! With church calling for the both of us. I don't think I have posted our calling on here, we've been in them for awhile now. Bradey was put into the Young Men Presidency as the 2nd Counselor (which is also the Scout Master in our Ward) around Thanksgiving timish. I've been one of the Achievement Day Girls leader for over a year now. And sometime Sept/Octish I was put in a the Primary Chorister. I tell you I LOVE both these callings, and want to keep them FOREVER!!

We also had an issue with Londyn a few weeks ago. She's was having some weird symptoms for Strep throat. When we first went to see the doctor he thought she might be leaking protein from her kidney's (Uhhh...Yeah totally freaked me out) but come to find out it was only strep! THANK GOODNESS!! The kids have had mild coughs, we had one night of throwing up with Car-Car, and now we're dealing with runny noses and coughs!! Ugh!! Maybe SOME DAY this house will be without sickly viruses!

Also for Valentine's Day Bradey sent Londyn and I flowers. Then came home with a golf game for Carter. He's teaching him early so he can have a golf partner around ALL the time!! ;)

Then that weekend after Bradey took me out for a dinner and a movie. We went to Texas Roadhouse (YUM!) and watch "Just go with It" SO FUNNY!! We really enjoy most of Adam Sandler's movies.

Hopefully I won't go so long between post!! ;)

"BEST CHRISTMAS EVER!"

December was a VERY busy month for me. With decorations, putting Christmas presents together, and being REALLY sneaky about them, December kind of disappeared without a trace!!

Let's see where shall I start. The beginning of December we took the kids sledding. It was Carter's first time, and he really enjoyed it. We were only out for an hour or so because it was REALLY cold!

Christmas came a little early for Bradey!! It was ONE of the BEST parts of my Christmas. After we had a few intense days of snow storms, Bradey had been talking about getting a snow thrower. Well being the sneaky wife that I am, I went a bought him one. Since its a bit hard to hide an enormous machine, I just let him open the trunk of the Yukon! I NEVER have been able to surprise him, EVER!! So I was really excited to give him this gift!

We got a REAL Christmas tree!! We had one our first year we were married, but the only reason we did was because I was pregnant and got whatever I wanted! ;) Last year our fake tree was really falling apart on us, so we decided to get rid of it, and enjoy the WONDERFUL smell of a real tree!! The kids of course helped Bradey put the tree up, and helped remove all the ordaments off the tree (at least all the ones they could reach!).

The rest of my month was booked with being sneaky with Bradey's side of the family. All the kids redecorated my in-laws living room. It was a chore keeping it quiet, but we managed to do it. And it was fun. I don't have any pictures yet, but I will at another post.

Then Tesha and I received an old window from my grandparents home for my mom's Christmas gift. It going to make a fun decoration for my mom's den. Again I don't have pictures. THEN Mom and I tried to have a photo shoot with ALL 4 grandbabies for my dad's gift, but none of the photos turned out. Thankfully I have an amazing sister in-law that took pictures during Thanksgiving and picks up my slack!! ;)

Then of course CHRISTMAS!! Christmas morning my sweet little Londyn decided to wake up at 3 o'clock in the MORNING!! When she saw that Santa had come, she refused to go to bed. I think she might of had an hour nap sometime in between waking up and going to bed after the day was done. You can find out Christmas morning video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRtBHd8y-gw

After our Christmas morning excitement wore down, be headed to Bradey's parents home for Prime Rib and Ham!! YUM! It was a great time. I had to leave for a bit because ELDER LEONARDSON called Mom's house!! It was wonderful to hear his voice and to talk to him!! He told us his testimony in Spanish. IT was CRAZY awesome!!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! WE sure did!! :)

Some how the Turkey gets you FULL!

This Thanksgiving was AMAZING!! We had my family get together for dinner at our church house. I think we're starting to do a new tradition of just doing my immediate family, instead of the entire extended family. Which there is A LOT of people in my extended family. Everyone was there minus our wonderful missionary Elder Leonardson, but he's doing good work, so we'll excuse him this year and next!! ;) But we did enjoy our local missionaries at dinner!! NO one wanted to be photographer while they were eating, so I started taking pictures after dinner.

This is how the men work off dinner

This is how the little ones enjoy their time after dinnerOur clean up crew! :)Carter really enjoys his Aunt Susan!

After their movie, the Grandbabies really became ACTIVE!!

I love this picture, it shows both babies personalities very well.

Carter- ON the Go Always!

Jessa- So sweet and calm!

Abbi is always the best play buddy!!

Playing Balderdash is the BEST!! Especially with Dad and Jesse!!

The kids found a fort to play in!!

I had to get evidence, YES that is my Mom and Dad talking TOGETHER!!

I didn't get a pictures of the rest of the weekend. But we sure did have a lot of fun as a family. We went sledding, trap shooting, and played at Outer Limits all in one day (Friday)!! Oh it was a GREAT day!!

I spent the night at Tesha's house, because Dad had to catch a plane at 9 AM in SLC!! But it was totally worth loosing sleep!! We talked all night with Dad, got 2 hours of sleep, talked for 3 hours on the drive down, then had the best sisterly bonding talk on the ride home!!

When I got home, I got kids ready for Bradey's family Thanksgiving dinner, then I was able to get a couple of hours of sleep, and headed for some in-law bonding!!

I am so grateful for the wonderful family that I have been blessed with. We have come a long way in the past few years, and it LITERALLY has been a miracle! It's interesting because through ALL of our trials, we have become closer as a family. I am a truly blessed wife, mother, daughter, sister, and granddaughter. I wouldn't be who I am today if it weren't for my family!!