Utah Visit!

We had such a great time visiting family in Utah this year. It is so great to see everyone and to get all the cousins together. James grew so much while we were away. He got so good at crawling and pulling himself up. Everywhere we went, he tried to get into everything. He also became obsessed with eating table food. He will not give up until we give him something that we are eating too. 

It was so fun to get all of these babies together. They were so wiggly!

Herding babies.

Leslie LOVED the trampoline. She wanted to be on it all the time. 

Fun in the pool with cousins and Leslie's favorite dog.

Fun at Thanksgiving Point. Leslie talked about riding ponies for the whole rest of the trip.

Leslie was so cute with Razz. She loved her so much. She would walk around the house calling her and would put a blanket on her to keep her warm. :)

Everyone loves pizza!

Playing dress up at Grandmas.

One night we attempted to camp out on the trampoline. We made it to about 9:30 before Leslie wanted to go in. :) But we had lots of fun up until then.

We spent a day at City Creek in Salt Lake visiting my brothers. The girls were so cute with Leslie.

James is blurry because he wouldn't stop jumping up and down. :)

Playing in the fountains.

Brothers are great!

James' first time jumping on the trampoline. He loved it as you can see.

Hiking at Silver Lake. Leslie is going through a phase right now where she hates to get dirty so she didn't want to walk on the dirt. Silly girl! But we ended up having fun anyways. She loves to climb on rock so that motivated her to get out of the stroller. 

While we were in town, we also got to catch up with some great friends and get the kids together. The kids had so much fun together.

Roommates together again!

Half of the BFFTAAE's back together again. I just loved these girls!

Bell Canyon hike. We totally wimped out half way up.

We spent a night in Park City and rode the gondola up the mountain. It was so beautiful. Leslie loved the ride.

 Playing in the river.

Grandma's back yard is the best.

Everyone wants to play on the phone.

4 wheeling in Saratoga Springs.

The perfect end to a summer trip!

Feed Me Mommy!

James loves to eat! He is so cute. He does really care about baby food though, he just wants what everyone else has. He had barly just had rice cereal and he ate a breadstick! He didn't gag at all. He just downed the whole piece we gave him. He is so persistent to get food from the table, he makes me laugh. He keeps surprising me what he can eat, and with only two ity bitty teeth. Here are some pictures of his first solid food. He was so excited. He would grab the spoon and pull it to his mouth.

Summer in Florida

Florida is a wonderful place; Beautiful beaches, warm winters, awesome thunder storms, and lots of sunshine, but the summers are hot and humid!! Leslie loves to play outside and is always begging to go out so I have to be ready with a bunch of activities to keep her occupied. Thankfully we have some wonderful friends here that she can play with. We have been going to the beach every week which has been great. We've made butterfly feeders, gone to the mall playground, eaten lots of frozen yogurt, but mostly played and played in water. Leslie and James both love the pool! Summer is great, even if it's 95 degrees with like 90%humidity! 

Father's Day

I wanted to make Bryson something special for Father's Day this year. I took some cute pictures of him with the kids and made some presents. I asked Leslie some questions about her Daddy. Her answers were so cute. According to her, he is 5 years old, loves beans, and My Little Ponies. From James I made a hand print thing. Bryson served his mission in Louisiana, so for dinner I surprised him with some fried shrimp Po Boys. He loved it! I am so grateful to have such a carling, thoughtful, hard working husband. Our family is so blessed. 

Easter

We had a wonderful Easter weekend this year! We dyed eggs and Leslie loved it. She was so cute watching them as they changed color. Of course she wanted them all to be pink! She is such a girly girl. After dying eggs we went over to one of Leslie's best friends house and had an egg hunt. She got so excited when she found one. It was fun to watch the two girls. Leslie just wanted to find more eggs, while her friend stopped and ate the candy in each egg she found. :) On Sunday, our ward had a wonderful meeting. I love the music of Easter time. I can always feel the spirit so strongly through music. I am so grateful for my Savior Jesus Christ and His love for me. 

                             

General Conference

This past weekend we had the wonderful opportunity to hear the words of living prophets and apostles. It is such a marvelous opportunity to learn. Now when you listen to Conference with a two year old, you definitely don’t hear every word of every talk. You try to listen while you color, get snacks, change diapers, and chase your little one around. Although I didn't hear all of the Conference, I felt it. I could feel the spirit stirring within me as I watched. I am so grateful to have the light of the gospel in my life; for the knowledge of my Savior, Jesus Christ, and the cleansing and enabling power of His atonement. I have personally felt its power in my life. I know the He lives and is at the head of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  He speaks to us through the Prophet, Thomas S. Monson.  I know these things to be true and want to share this message with my family, friends, and all those I meet. 

Kids Are So Fun!

 I love being a Mom!! Sometimes it is hard and it takes a lot of sacrifice but it is also incredibly fun! Leslie and James are amazing kids with such wonderful personalities. They make me laugh every single day. Here are some fun moments from the past month:

Here's Leslie and Daddy decorating the King Cake cupcakes we made for Mardi Gras. 

When Mommy isn't looking....

James is getting so big. Isn't he such a cutie!

I pulled out the walker toy for James to try out yesterday and he loved it. He was so cute playing with the toys. And of course once James was playing in it Leslie had to play with it too. Thankfully we have two so she got to play too. :) Silly girl.

Our Big-Girl

We finally did it! Bryson and I have been talking about having Leslie get rid of her pacifier (or "Mine Mine" as she calls it) and we did it a few weeks ago. She hadn't had it during the day for a few months but she always had it when she slept. And she was pretty attached to it.I was worried we were going to have some really rough nights when she didn't have it but she did pretty well. The first few nights she woke up a few times but it was a lot better than I was imagining.We decided it would be the best if Leslie decided to give away her pacifiers herself so for a week or so we talked to her about being a big girl and giving away her mine mines to babies who needed them and that if she did she would get a big girl present. We had her collect all of her binkis and put them in a bag and them in the mail box to send to the babies who needed them. She was really excited about being a big girl. While Daddy took her out to mail her mine mines, I got her big girl present out. Lesle loves My Little Pony so we got her a backpack with a few coloring books, crayons, stickers, and the movie Frozen in it.  She loved it. She was so excited. That night when we put her to bed she cried about her mine mines but she calmed down when we reminded her she gave them away. She woke up that night two times but she calmed down relatively quickly with some singing. The next night she was better and she is doing great now. She still talks about giving her mine mines to the kids who needed them but she isn't sad about it at all. I am so proud of her but this step also makes me a little sad. My little girl is growing up so fast! It is crazy. I am so glad to be her Mom. She is such a special light to our family. She loves giving hugs and kisses at random times throughout the day. She brings so much joy! Even though it is sad to see her growing up so quickly, I am excited to see the wonderful girl she is becoming. 

Spring Time Fun

We had so much fun playing in the backyard this weekend. Leslie has such a fun personality. She is so independent! She loves wearing her sunglasses.

Sitting Up

James is growing up so fast! He rolled over this week and he loves sitting up in his Bumbo. What a cutie!