Christmas and the End of 2013

The last few weeks of 2013 had it's ups and downs, but mostly ups. Here's a recap:

On Christmas Eve Adam we went and saw our city's Christmas lights with the Craguns. It took all of 7 minutes to walk through them. I felt kind of bad, but it was much more convenient than going to Temple Square and the girls had fun anyways. We went to dinner afterwards and of course the girls sat by each other and had a blast. It was a nice night.

Marcus wasn't sleeping through the night anyways, but then for two nights in a row the week of Christmas instead of crying at night, he would scream and I knew that something was wrong. Finally, the next night, he developed a fever and I guessed he had an ear infection in his right ear (since he didn't want to lay on that side to nurse). So the next morning, Christmas Eve, I took him to the doctor and sure enough, an ear infection in his right ear. Poor little guy! Layla has never had an ear infection (knock on wood), so this is a first for us. Thankfully within 24 hours he was back to his normal, happy self, though he still isn't sleeping much at night, but what's new there, right? I am just glad that he was still able to enjoy his first Christmas despite being sick.

My sick boy at the dr.

Christmas Eve day was great after the dr visit. We spent the day visiting Mitch's grandparents and then spent the evening at Mitch's parents' house. We had a yummy ham dinner and then the gift-opening began. Layla was SO excited and loved all of her presents. Of all the neat things she got, she said, "This is just what I always wanted!" when she opened her box of Princess fruit snacks that Brandon gave her! Ha, ha!

She wanted her hair straight for Christmas.

That night, however, all hell broke loose when we got home and tried to put a certain three year old to bed. Oh.my.goodness! She is one stubborn little cuss! You think she'd be so excited to get to bed so Santa could come, but no, not Layla. We very nicely asked her to go potty before bed (like we do every night), but of course this night it was a power struggle that ended in a lot of tears a few cuss words from me. After asking her nicely several times, we eventually told her Santa wouldn't leave one of her presents for her if she didn't listen and she said she didn't want any presents at all. She absolutely refused to do what we asked. Extremely stubborn, I'm tellin' ya! Anyways, after about 1.5 hours of this power struggle, she finally realized we weren't caving in, went potty, said she was sorry, and then we set out cookies and carrots for Santa and his reindeer. So, while it was ugly for a while, it ended on a good note.

Santa left her a letter and asked her to be a good girl
so he can come back next year.

Christmas morning was fun! (Seems we all needed a good night's rest after the night before.) Layla was so excited that Santa came. She quietly examined everything he left her before diving in to play with all her new toys. The one thing she asked for consistently this year was watermelon, so there was a huge watermelon with an even bigger red bow on top of it waiting for her in the morning. (Don't buy watermelon in December, by the way, it's nasty, ha, ha!) Marcus slept through most of this since he wasn't feeling well, but when he finally woke up we showed him what Santa brought him and he liked playing with his toys too. He's so freaking cute.

Lots of toys!

We all got ready and headed to my grandma's Christmas brunch. It was delicious! Then we opened a few more gifts and the kids were spoiled, of course. We also went to my grandma Miles' house for a bit and visited with her. Grandpa Kermit stayed in St George this year (not that I blame him!), and we missed having him here, especially Layla. The rest of the day was spent playing with all of the kids' new toys! Layla could not get enough of all her new stuff and she has had so much fun playing ever since. The same for Marcus, he loves his toys!

Next year I want to do more to help us focus on the true meaning of Christmas. I'm hoping to involve Layla in the "giving" part more and I would love to do an angel tree.

This year Mitch has two solid weeks off of work between Christmas Eve and New Year's. YAY!!!! It's been awesome and the best Christmas gift for sure! I love having him home and wish he could work from home, though it's good he doesn't because he wouldn't get any work done if that were the case. He spent the last few days installing our kitchen backsplash. I can't believe how much it changes the look of our kitchen! I love it so much. I will have to post a pic when it's totally done.

Our new table and chairs.

We are going to the temple together on Thursday. That hasn't happened for a while! Seems like either we don't go at all, or I go by myself. It will be nice to go with my hubby. We're also going on a real date this week! I'm looking forward to it.

Layla is grounded tonight and tomorrow. The power struggle we had on Christmas Eve happened again tonight, only worse, all because she didn't want to take a bath. I don't know what we're doing wrong or what to do differently. She takes a bath every night, so this shouldn't have been a big deal. I told her a few minutes before so she would have a warning since she's not good with changing activities. We asked her very nicely, several times, to come get in the bath and she absolutely refused. She went in her room and put her pajamas on with the idea that she wouldn't have to bathe since she thought she was already for bed. We calmly and nicely asked her to get undressed and in the bath. When she still refused, we took away a few of her favorite books. That did nothing. So, we went big and took away her beloved Kitty, telling her she could have him back when she got in the bath. She screamed, "But he's my best friend!" (broke my heart!), but still refused to get in the bath. We took away her pillow pet and two princess dresses. The princess dresses were what finally got her in the bath. But once in the bath she kicked and splashed water EVERYWHERE and was a total demon child. It was ridiculous. When it came time to get her pjs on, we had to literally pin her down and put them on her ourselves before turning out the lights and putting her in bed with no books and no snack. This is after an hour of her kicking and screaming at her bedroom door. RIDICULOUS. But I am so proud of Mitch and I for keeping our cool. We didn't yell, we were nice and calm. (Trust me, we've tried yelling in the past, it doesn't work.) We still have not spanked her. Perhaps we need to. We thought about it tonight, but I just can't bring myself to use physical force with my child. So, she went to bed without kitty, her books, or her pillow pet, and her princess dresses are still in our room. She can earn them all back tomorrow if she's good, but she doesn't get to play with friends tomorrow, which will kill her and probably be the death of us too (ha!) but I really hope she'll learn something from this. I'm not really sure what to do. She wants to be in charge. Usually, she is really well-behaved. But then a flip switches and she is this wild, dramatic teenage girl who refuses to do anything we ask. I'm all for giving her choices and try to do so as often as I reasonably can, but things like brushing her teeth, getting dressed, bathing, etc. are non-negotiable. So, if she's in one of those moods when it's time to do those things, then we get locked in a power struggle. And Mitch and I always win, I just don't know how long it will take her to understand that. I think it's partly a phase that most kids go through at this age, partly due to her also refusing to take naps so she's over-tired, and partly due to her stubborn personality. It's exhausting. Seriously, it makes me tired. And also really scared for her teenage years. I feel like we have to get control of this now or else she'll be rebellious teenager who walks all over us. That can't happen. She's stubborn, and emotional, but she's also sweet and funny and I just love her guts even after nights like we had tonight.

They play together really well most of the time.

Pushing Marcus in her doll stroller!

Well, if you're still reading this novel then you can now hear about Marcus. My little man. He sits up like a pro now and doesn't seem to mind tummy time quite as much. He has his two bottom teeth! Adorable! He says, "Yayayayaya" all the time. And he says everything full volume. He is always yelling, "Ah!" but he's not mad, he's just super loud. He whispers, "Da da" for some reason and it's hilarious. His favorite thing in the whole world is bath time. He loves water!

 He won't eat any baby food at dinner except for butternut squash. Little stinker. I've started mixing other things in with it just to get him to eat something else. His second favorite food is applesauce. I'm doing a different approach to sleep training now. Instead of letting him cry it out, I go in his room and pick him up and try to rock him back to sleep. Sometimes I still have to nurse him though. He's still waking up 4 times a night, but he's not awake as long each time. He also can fall asleep on his own when I put him down for naps and at bed time (he just wakes up in the night). So, he's still not sleeping like he should be, but it's definitely improving. Baby steps I guess.

Mitch got an A in his class last semester.  Also, his professor loved the project he did for the class and asked Mitch if he could try to get it published in some engineering journal. We'll see if his gets picked, but even if it doesn't I am still so proud of him! He's doing awesome in school.

Three cheers for 2013! It was a great year with Marcus joining our family and settling into our new home. It was also challenging with Marcus' acid reflux and awful sleep habits. I'm looking forward to next year! Yay for 2014!

I Am No Longer 20-something

It seems so weird to be 30 years old. Not because I think it's old—I don't—but because for the last decade I have referred to myself as a 20 something year old. While it seems weird, I'm okay with it and it wasn't hard for me to reach this new milestone. In fact, I quite enjoyed it.

We celebrated with my family over Thanksgiving weekend since Jordan and Tenley were here and I can't imagine not celebrating my bday with my youngest brother, as his bday is just two days after mine. It was a nice celebration complete with our traditional Coldstone ice cream cake. Yum!

30.

We also celebrated with Mitch's family and Kevin made me an awesome, and HUGE, chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting in the shape of a music book. It said, "Happy Birthday To You" and it was delicious. And I really like books.

On my actual birthday I was able to spend the morning at the temple, which was very nice and Kathy watched the kids and they all had fun. Mitch was flying home from a work trip, but he made it home in the afternoon (we were worried he'd miss his connecting flight, but thankfully he didn't). He literally walked in the door, set down his suit case, said hello and got a bite to eat, and then we loaded the kids in the car and headed to my parents. Poor Mitch, he's always SO busy! We dropped the kids off so we could enjoy dinner to ourselves. Mitch took me to Christopher's Steak House in downtown SLC, and it was sooooo good. The best part was when the waiter heard it was my birthday, he gave us a free dessert in addition to the one we ordered, so we ended up with key lime pie and caramel cheesecake. They were both favorites. It was so nice to have a real date with Mitch and enjoy each other's company.


This year I asked Mitch to write me a sappy love letter for my birthday. Cheesy, I know, but romantic, right? He one-upped my idea and wrote me a poem. It was sweet. And cheesy. And romantic. Just want I wanted. Oh, Mitch got me an awesome present this year, too. A new kitchen table and chairs! Yay! I love them. The chairs are a little bold and took some getting used to, but they are very, very easy to clean, which is a plus with kids, and I love the way they brighten up the room.
 

We also went to the ward Christmas party during my bday weekend. It was very nice with a delicious dinner and beautiful program. Layla's friend Elsie's oldest sister, Riley, sang a solo for the program. During her song, Elsie and Layla kept standing up directly in front of the stage and giving her a thumbs up. Then Layla started giving her a thumbs up and saying, "Right on!" really loud. It was hilarious, and I was mostly glad that they weren't too distracting for Riley while she was singing. She did a great job despite the distracting encouragement.

Layla dresses up like this every day and even wears her princess attire
out in public when I let her, which I usually do to avoid arguing with her.

The Sunday after my bday, Mitch made me a pancake cake for breakfast. It.was.huge. I think we ate it for almost a week afterwards. Ha, ha! I love pancakes though. The kids (or Mitch) each gave me a present that day: a remote for my camera and some really nice sports ear phones. I was excited and felt loved and spoiled.

Marcus was my dad's little buddy the other night.

We couldn't stop laughing at him in his tuxedo bib.

It was a great birthday and I'm so glad I got to spend it with my favorite people.

Also, in case I don't get around to writing about this later, I wanted to remember that last night Layla and I delivered plates of cookies to all of our neighbors. We got all bundled up and loaded our strollers (my jogging stroller and her little pink doll stroller) up with all the goodies and walked up and down the street to deliver them. At every door I would hand Layla a plate of cookies and make her stand in front of me. When they'd open the door they would first look at me, but then Layla would say, "Merry Christmas!" and they'd look down and see her all bundled up. She was cute and had so much fun. It was a good time, and she stayed nice and warm while I was freezing and wanted to go home. Ha, ha!

Unfortunately, once we got home, Layla had a melt down and was a b.r.a.t. at bedtime. She can be sooooo dramatic and such a girl. It wasn't fun or pretty and we finally got her to bed. Which reminds me, the other night she was having a power struggle and after we tucked her in bed she kept saying, "I'm still awake! I'm still awake!" over and over again until I finally got mad enough and she went to sleep. She is so very cute and sweet and also such a drama queen at times. Good thing I love her guts.

Guess who can sit up like a big boy now?!? My little man! He still goes konk, but overall he sits up so well. We're also weaning him off of his medicine and that seems to be going well. Still not sleeping through the night and it's frustrating. Someday.

And, in case I don't write about it later, tonight we are taking our friend, Neth, from Cambodia to dinner. She has to go back to Cambodia next month and we will miss her. Also, next week we are going to a Christmas party with the neighbors on our street and playing Minute to Win it games. Should be a fun time. Tomorrow we have the Miles Christmas Party. And next weekend we'll hopefully go see the Christmas lights near our home that our city sets up every year. Lots of fun things going on, I just don't always manage to write about all of them. But we do lead pretty busy, exciting lives! :)

November 2013

Seems like it's getting harder and harder to keep up with this blog! I've been busy lately, but I have been keeping a running list of things I wanted to remember. And sorry, but most of these pics are off my phone so they're not great, but man is it ever convenient!

This picture melts my heart.
The other day I caught Layla singing "You are My Sunshine" to Marcus
and I almost cried it was so sweet!

Thanksgiving was nice. We spent it with my family this year. Jordan and Tenley came in town and announced they are expecting their first baby in July! We are excited for them! The food was delicious as always. My favorites are my grandma's homemade stuffing and Natalie's yams that taste like dessert. Layla kept calling it a "feast" and it made me laugh. For preschool the week before Thanksgiving she learned about the holiday and made a paper turkey. She wrote five things she was thankful for on the feathers. Her five were mom and dad, a nice house, friends, snacks, and tickles (we tickle her a lot). On the morning of Thanksgiving I asked her if she knew what I was thankful for (intending for her to say, "Me!" meaning her). Instead she said, "Jesus!" I was surprised and said, "Yes, I am thankful for Jesus, but what else do you think I am thankful for?" She said,  "Me! And Daddy! And Marcus! And Harvey!" Cute! And I'm thankful that I've taught her enough about our Savior that she knows I am thankful for Him. :)

The other day she played at her friend Rylee's house and she came home with a pen mark on her face. I asked her about it and she said, "Rylee drew on me with a pen and I told her, 'Don't do that again or I will poke you in the eye!' " Oh, wow, my first reaction was to laugh, which I did, then I told her it's not nice to poke people in the eye, no matter what they do to you (but I was proud of her for sticking up for herself).

She's still working on her Halloween candy.

So, we let Marcus cry it out in November in an attempt to get him to sleep through the night. The very first night we said we would let him cry for up to one hour before going in to rescue him. He cried for 58 minutes. No lie. It was tortuous! But then the next time was only 30ish minutes, then 15ish, then less and less until he slept the whole night through. It was hard to do this, in fact, Mitch physically pushed me down when I tried to get out of bed to rescue Marcus. He didn't push me hard, it was pretty funny to tell you the truth, but I really have a hard time letting him cry. I just do it because I know it will pay off in the long run. While this method worked awesome for Layla when she was a baby, it was and wasn't successful for Marcus. It was successful because it only took a couple of nights before he was sleeping 10+ straight hours. This lasted for almost two weeks. It wasn't successful because then he got a cold and now he is getting his two bottom teeth, so he's no longer sleeping through the night. BUT, he does fall asleep on his own much better than he did before, he is taking longer naps, and he wakes up far less than before the torturous "cry it out" began. Once he gets his teeth (should be in the next few days I'm thinking) I will give him a few nights before I let him cry it out again.

I've been spiking his hair like this lately.
It takes his cuteness to a whole new level.

Speaking of Marcus, I cannot believe he's already 6 months old! He is THE.MOST.FUN baby ever. He thinks everything is hilarious and he gets hyper every evening and is super loud and crazy. It's impossible to be sad or upset when Marcus is around because his happiness is contagious. He really is a little ray of sunshine in our home. I pray every day that he will keep his happy disposition throughout his life.

At his 6 month checkup he weighed 16 lbs 11 oz, 50th percentile. I can't remember how many inches he was, but he was 45th percentile for height. (Much different than Layla, who from birth has always been 90th percentile or higher for height.) Marcus got two shots and took them like a champ. The second I picked him up after his shots he stopped crying and was fine. Tough boy, just wants his mamma to hold him. Layla, on the other hand, was a mess! She also had to get two shots, which I did not tell her about because I knew if I did I wouldn't even be able to get her in the car to go to the doctor. Once she realized what was going on she literally curled up in a little ball on the chair and starting sobbing, "I don't want a shot!" It was the saddest thing ever. Seriously way harder than watching a baby getting a shot because the baby has no idea, but Layla understands now. I had to pry her off the chair, pull her pants down (the shots were in her thigh), and restrain her arms so she wouldn't try to grab the needle. It was awful. Then she is extra dramatic on top of the sadness, which meant she cried the entire way home (which made Marcus laugh, which made her cry even harder, but it was really funny for me to witness), and then she literally limped into the house, which was weird since she stopped limping when I offered her some candy! And of course she was fine the rest of the day. Ha, ha! Anyways, I am thankful, once again, for two healthy kids!

She wears "a princess dress" over her clothes nearly every day.
I even let her wear them to the store because it's not worth the fight.
And she looks pretty dang cute.

Marcus has also been chowing down on his baby food now. We got the go ahead to give him baby food three times a day, and he loves it! His favorites are sweet potatoes and applesauce. I haven't found anything he doesn't like yet since he learned to like avocados. I do need to branch out more, I've just been really busy and keep feeding him the same things because I haven't had any time to make new baby food. But I'll get to it soon. Also, he is just days away from getting his first two teeth and from sitting all on his own for longer than one minute at a time.

Seriously so happy almost all the time!

We got a new car! We sold the Hummer and bought a 2008 BMW 328xi. It only had 35K miles when we bought it. I am so glad we bought it because I like it so much more than the Hummer. The Hummer was fun, I just prefer a car over an SUV. It's easier to get the kids in and out, gets way better gas mileage, and the BMW rides incredibly smooth and quiet. I always heard people say how much quieter and smoother luxury cars drive, and I never really understood, but now I do and I am in love. It also has all sorts of crazy options like a leather heated steering wheel, which is lovely on a cold winter day! I am very pleased with it and hope it drives forever! Mitch's poor Subaru has had all sorts of problems lately and Mitch has spent hours working on it. If we would have known, maybe we would have sold his instead of the Hummer, but of course it happened afterwards. Hopefully his will hold out until he graduates because he wants to buy himself a super cool car when he's done with school ... he'll sure have earned it!

Layla "driving" the new car ... only 12.5 more years! Ahhh!

My little photography business exploded the last few months! I have done two high school senior sessions, two engagement sessions, and and five family sessions. Fun! I am also photographing my first wedding next month and I am excited and nervous! With the money I've earned I am going to buy a nice hot shoe flash to replace my cheap one. My goal is to eventually be a wedding photographer, but for now the family sessions help me gain experience too. It has been quite stressful at times trying to finish editing everyone's pics since they all needed them back for Christmas cards, but I have learned so much and am having a lot of fun. After I finish editing the other engagement session and the wedding, I will focus on updating my photography blog and advertising some more. Hopefully next year I can start getting more into wedding photography!

He laughs at everything Layla does.
They have a lot of fun together.

Mitch and I went on a spending splurge the last few weeks ... I guess we'd been saving all year and finally decided to make some purchases. We bought a new Christmas tree, a new kitchen table and chairs, tile for our kitchen backsplash, a new TV, and Mitch's Precious, the Xbox One. (The Xbox was kind of a sore spot for a while with me because I thought it was expensive and unnecessary, but I must now admit that it is super cool. It basically makes the TV a smart TV and it even does voice commands! And the voice commands actually work! It has a really neat fitness app and other things that I like too, so now I'm not mad about it anymore, which is good for Mitch! Ha!) We still haven't found any bar stools that we love, so we will keep our eye out for those. And we should probably slow down with the spending for now, but I'm not gonna lie, it was fun!

Now Christmas is right around the corner and I am so excited for Layla! She loved seeing all the Christmas decor around our house and I even put some in her room, which she thinks is fun. (Harvey has already jumped in the Christmas tree! It makes me so mad. He jumped in it today, ironically while I was teaching Layla's preschool and the topic was pets. You better believe the kids all thought it was hilarious that he jumped in the tree while I was talking about him!) I talked to Layla about the Nativity and tried to teach her the true meaning of Christmas. We set up a Nativity scene on the fireplace mantle. We also wrote a letter to Santa today. She dictated and I wrote. Here's what it says:

Dear Santa Claus,
I am a good girl. I wish I could go to the North Pole with you! I wish you could come through my front door, not down my chimney. Come through my front door. Please bring me a Minnie Mouse puzzle, and can you bring me a marshmallow robot? A kitty toy. Thank you! Layla 

She also drew "a map of the North Pole" and put an x where the North Pole is located. So funny! Oh, and I have no idea what a marshmallow robot is ... I'm not going to worry about it. The only consistent thing she has said that she wants for Christmas is watermelon, so we'll make sure to get her some of that. :)

Merry Christmas!