From drab to fab!

This bookcase was a gift from a neighbor. We thought we could put all of Molly's books in it and put it in her room. But we didn't really love the oak.

So we went to Home Depot and picked a color that is in Molly's comforter and one that we thought was fun!
It's called Pooh's Favorite Things. Molly even got a mickey mouse sticker from the man who mixed our paint! She was excited.

I put this guy to work sanding it :)

and priming it and painting it. I helped some too (really I did) but I also held the baby and watched Molly!

And here it is now! Much better.

Here it is in action!

Rice cereal

At Alison's appointment the doctor said to begin the solid foods (cereal and eventually baby food)! Last week we introduced rice cereal to Ali for the first time. It was a fun experience!

She pulled the faces we expected as you see here, but she really did quite well with it! I think she actually got some down! We slacked for a few days after first introducing it but we've been better the last few days and I can only hope that it will help her to sleep even longer at night!! 4 months was a turning point for me with Molly, I remember, since she finally went for a long stretch at night. Ali has been a better sleeper from the start (definitely better than Molly), but I can dream of uninterrupted sleep, right?!

Finally

Is it really mean to say that I'm glad that Casey went home on American Idol last night? I told Justin if he didn't go home I was done watching the show. His time was past due in my opinion! Doesn't it seem really obvious this season who the judges are trying to have voted off? Look at Tim Urban. Poor kid. They were trying to get him off for so long but it never worked. I'm sure it was all the high school girls calling for him. And I think a bit of that is what held Casey in for so long--all the girls thinking he is so 'dreamy'. I think it seemed quite evident that the judges got Katie, Siobhan, and a few others voted off.

My vote is for Lee. I hope he wins. But my mom had a good point. The top three this year didn't seem to have big personality. I get what she's saying. They were in their own way a bit reserved (I guess Crystal wasn't too bad). Anyway, we'll see what happens! We were trying to watch like 4 shows at the same time the other night. I'm hoping we get that dvr machine very soon!

Have any of you been watching (or seen) the show Castle? It's on Monday nights with Rick Castle (the writer) and Kate Beckett (the detective). It is really a fun show. Justin, my mom and I all really like it! We watched it together almost every Monday! It is really clean and they investigate murders and it's always interesting what they come up with. This week was the season finale. We were kind of bummed. Can't wait til next season for that show!!

Yesterday

Poor Alison. She had been fussy on Wednesday going into Thursday and we couldn't figure out what was wrong. She is always so happy and smiley, so we knew something was up. She had a well child check scheduled for Friday, but on Thursday I called and moved it up to 3:10 later that day.

First off the doctor couldn't believe how big she was! We were so proud of our little chubby cheeked, double chinned baby! She is getting rolls on her legs and we love it! Well, we came to find out that she has an ear infection in her left ear. Add shots to that too and she was not such a happy camper at the end of the appointment. However she did awesome with the oral immunization, no spitting up at all this time! She is on amoxicillin and already today she is acting so much better and happier.

She is making her move on the charts! Here are her 4 month stats:

length: 24 1/4 in. 46% (up from the 5% at 2 mos.)

weight: 12 lbs. 6 oz. 22% (up from 4% at 2 mos.)

head: 15.6 in. 13% (up from 2% at 2 mos.)

Last night for our anniversary we ended up eating at The Garden in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. We had never eaten there and had the early bird special. We both had steaks. Yummy! It was fun to have a view of the SL temple and think that 5 years ago we were getting married there!

First bike!

We decided to get a bike for Molly with spring hopefully coming anytime soon (please, please come soon!!). Justin set it up late one night and the next morning we brought her upstairs to see her surprise!

She was pretty excited. All smiles. We showed her how the seat opens up and she can put stuff in it and she sat down and turned the little key first thing.

A happy girl! Unfortunately her feet aren't long enough to reach both pedals, but that won't stop her from having fun on it anyway! She has learned to put her feet on the ground and push that way (thanks Major for showing Molly how you ride bikes like these!!).

5 years

Happy Anniversary Justin!

Thanks for sharing the last 5 years with me.

Love you so much!

Tonight we are headed to dinner. No other big plans. Justin got me a photography class for Mother's Day/our Anniversary and Justin leaves tomorrow for a golf trip in Coeur 'd Alene, ID with his brothers and dad for the weekend.

No fun

I've had a really lame cold for about a week and a half. It started with a sore throat, then moved to runny nose and finally to an awful cough a few days ago. Yesterday my mom suggested if I didn't feel better by today, I should get it checked out.

So off I went to instacare today since I think I slept for 2 hours last night! I had a cough attack after I fed Alison at 3 am and could not get back to sleep. Well turns out my mom was right. I have bronchitis and the beginnings of pneumonia. The doctor thought I might already have pneumonia but he would prescribe the same antibiotics as bronchitis. So three medications later hopefully I'm on my way to recovery! I've been trying to be so cautious about washing my hands and keeping the girls healthy, although Molly's had the runny nose for a week too.

Onto good news. Today Alison is 4 months old! I take her in later this week for her appointment. I'm interested to see if she's made it up higher onto the charts! I think she will. In a couple of 3 month outfits she already seems to be too long for them. But I hope this time she'll be able to keep the oral immunization down! She has kind of a bad gag reflex I think!

Happy Mother's Day!

Here is a little something to put a smile on your face.

A couple days ago Molly gave me a great big hug. It was so sweet and I said, "I love you, angel!"

She said, "I love you too, princess!" What a sweetheart.

~Enjoy your day~

My girls

This cute dress was given to Molly and yesterday Alison wore it. I made sure to get some pictures because I wanted to compare my girls wearing the same cute dress!

Here's Alison. She is so smiley these days! Such a happy girl. (sorry about the shadow in the pic)

Here is Molly

What do you think? I've had a lot of people recently say that Alison is starting to look like Molly.

Cute sisters

I had some thoughts about the girls that I wanted to record for journaling purposes, so feel free to skip this if you want!

Alison is such a good baby! I don't think I could ask for a better baby, really. She is very routine and I know exactly what she wants to make her happy. She looooves to be held. Molly was never this way. Ali is such a little snuggler and it is so fun. She loves her binky and is pretty content sucking away while she's sitting or laying down if you can't hold her. She likes the bouncer and lately has been very interested in looking at the TV when it's on.

At 2 months I switched to all formula because I wasn't producing enough to just nurse and the whole pump/nurse/supplement process was getting old after 8 weeks! For about a month she was kind of fussy and gassy. I tried several different kinds of specialty formulas (along with gas drops) but nothing seemed to make a big difference. Once she hit about 3 months she seemed to be much better. I don't know if was just an adjustment for her or what, but now she doesn't seem to have that problem and it's a relief for all of us!

She sleeps really well at night. She loves to be swaddled up nice and tight like they do in the hospital. When I want her to take a nap or I know she's ready, I'll swaddle her and then walk around with her or rock her. She loves it and she goes to sleep more quickly if I do. She goes to bed about 9 or 10 pm and sleeps until about 3 am, then she will go 3-4 hours again after that. She takes 2 really long naps in the day and cat naps in between. She knows her mom and dad's voices and loves to give great big smiles when you tell her hi with a smile (and for Molly). We go in for her 4 month check up next week...I can't believe it!

I feel so much more calm and relaxed with a new baby this time around. I'm sure it has some to do with experience, but I also think that she is overall less fussy than Molly was as a baby and that makes a big difference. I also wonder if her rough start has made me appreciate more of the little things. Also, bottle feeding can free you up and I think that has been pretty nice for me, although I do plan to nurse in the future, I just couldn't get it to work out quite how I wanted for Alison.

Molly has so much personality! Justin and I talked a bit about her last night and decided we have to be so careful what we say to her and how we tell her things. She is so observant and although I'm sure she doesn't understand every word we tell her, she gets the gist. I was told yesterday at church that she is so expressive. And she really is. I think she may have a career on broadway one day. She looooves to sing! We catch her singing all the time on her own and she'll ask us to sing her favorite songs with her. If she likes a song you sing, she'll have you sing it over and over and over until she learns all of the words.

She still takes naps here and there in the late afternoon and I'm hoping to keep them around as long as possible! She sleeps in her big girl bed at night but takes naps in her crib.

I have a hard time that she doesn't seem as obedient as I would like! She often runs away when I ask her to come or does the opposite of what I say. It is so frustrating to me, but I know that she is two and she thinks it's funny, or she gets more attention that way.

She is really pretty good to Alison. She loves to kiss her head and lay her head on Alison's head. She calls her "sissy" and says, "how are you" in a funny, low voice. She is very polite and will say "thank you mommy" and "sorry mommy". When adults compliment her she always says thank you.

Molly loves to put her baby dolls to bed and says "sleepy tight" and kisses them on the head and says "I love you"! She has learned to play pretend the past few months or so and can really entertain herself for a lot longer.

She is still quite a picky eater, but we are working on it. We finally got her to eat corn last week and that was a huge breakthrough! She hates for me to do her hair and I often have her in tears by the time I finish putting a ponytail in! So silly! And we have recently discovered her fear of heights. If I change her on a changing table in a store restroom or at church, she cries the whole time! She is scared of being up that high.

We are so blessed to have two beautiful, healthy girls.

Bummer

Yesterday was sad for a couple of reasons.

First, my brother Ryan and his wife Becky moved to Colorado :( We are sad, but it will hopefully be a good opportunity for them with Ryan's work primarily there. Molly's best friends are her cousins Lexie and Shay, so she will be sad but with summer coming hopefully we will be more entertained being able to go outside more!

Second, Justin didn't get the job he wanted for the summer. However, they did say that he was "one of the strongest candidates" and that they would keep his resume and contact info on file because they will have some changes in August and will probably be looking for one or two more clerks. So we hope they will call him and put him to work then! After your first year you are allowed to work part time, so this would be an excellent experience.

Justin's summer plans are to clerk for a judge this summer and take classes. He got the clerkship on the same day he was asked to interview for the job. He will clerk 15 hours a week for the judge in addition to his classes, so all is not lost!

Family Pictures

We had family pictures taken when my niece Emery was blessed. Considering how many there were of us and all of the kiddos, I'd say they turned out quite well!

Grandkid picture. Don't you love pictures like this? So much personality!

We took a little family picture. I'm not loving me in it, but oh well.

Pretty darn cute of all of us, don't you think?! I hear she did head-swap like 12 of us! Ha ha! Makes sense. It was quite crazy getting all of the kids to cooperate. This was BEFORE lunch :)