My baby is one!

What a sad week. I don't like seeing my baby girl grow up so fast. Seriously, can a year have come and gone already? Having Ariana in our family has been THE BEST! On Saturday we celebrated her first Birthday with a party. My mom, sister,and I had been planning her party for over a month. Last month, I took Ariana and Jace grocery shopping. We needed to buy some time so I decided to go browsing down the baby toy aisle to see what kind of toys Ariana would go for. Anyways, I showed her a little bit of everything. She had no interest in the noise makers or electronics. However, we came upon a big tower of rubber duckies and she immediately grabbed the first one she could. I decided to buy it for her since it was less than a dollar. She absolutely giggled and smiled and hugged that thing. So, that's how we came to the idea of having a rubber ducky Birthday party. We began googling and searching pinterest for every idea we could find. I don't know why moms plan such big parties for their one-year-olds. It's not like they're going to remember it. Anyways, we did lots of preparation and I think the party was a success. I wish I would have done better with pictures. My sister did all the desserts which included the Birthday cake, cake pops, cupcakes, and lemon bars. We did blue foamy punch. The idea was to put some rubber duckies on the top to make it look like they were floating in a bubble bath. We made the punch and didn't put the ducks on because we didn't know how dirty they were. My mom made some salads and we put together sandwiches and wrapped them in wax paper with yarn around them and a rubber duck cutout on top. We had a couple games that I put together that included pin the bill on the duck and a beanbag toss with a duck's mouth cutout so it was like feed the duck. Then we did a relay. Anyways, the games didn't go as planned because we didn't have as many kids as we planned on come and it was raining cats and dogs through the party which blew the games down. We had the party at the park, but luckily we had a pavilion to keep us covered from the rain. I didn't plan a backup place for the party, so I'm very glad the pavilion worked out and kept us pretty dry. Anyways, that was pretty much it. It was a successful party despite it raining so hard.

Yep, I went all out and even put curlers in her hair to get ready for the party (even though it didn't really stay curled).

Showing off her Birthday outfit. The shirt and hairbow was made by yours truly (with a little help from my mom and sister).

My baby is a doll!!!

The cake and cupcakes

Eating dinner

Pin the bill on the duck. Jace was excited but he kind of freaked out once I blindfolded him. He didn't understand why he wasn't supposed to see.

Ariana is an eater! The second I put the cake on her tray, she started picking at it. I seriously don't think I've ever seen a baby go at a cake the way she did. Jace was completely opposite. We had to feed him his cake.

The kids having fun catching the rain.

I seriously love this girl!

Ariana really got into her presents. She was very interested in what was in each bag.

Today was Ariana's one-year checkup. She now weighs 21 pound-50% and is 30 inches long-90%. She's tall and skinny. As always, they asked about her head. She's had a big head since birth. She looked really good. She's been crawling for a couple months, but it was a really awkward crawl where she'd push her head into the ground and scoot. In the past 2-3 weeks, she has finally learned she can be up on her hands and knees and get around like that. She can pull herself up to things, but doesn't do it a lot. I think it's a security thing. She worries about falling. I've said it from the beginning, but my baby is a slower bloomer. She does everything at her own pace. Hopefully in the next few months she might be walking. Ariana has turned into a real babbler. She's talking nonstop. I have no idea what she's trying to say. She's still a good sleeper and a very good eater. We put her on whole milk a little early, but she's taken to it really well. She's also been on a sippy cup and has done well with that. She still loves anyone and will let anyone hold her, although she really loves her mommy. We sure love having our little girl in our family!

Jace's favorites

So, Lance and I are sitting downstairs asking Jace some of his favorite things and it's kind of fun getting his answers.

Favorite Color: Black and brown (at least for today. Tomorrow it will be different)
Favorite Number: 20
Favorite Person: Dagny and Brynn
Favorite Food: Breadsticks and Cereal
Favorite Song: Wiseman Built his house on a rock
Favorite Blankie: Cars blankie
Favorite shirt: Angry Birds and Lightning Mcqueen
Favorite Drink: Strawberry milk
Favorite book: A cars book
Favorite Movie: Cars 1
Favorite TV show: Caillou
Favorite Fruit: Strawberries and Grapes
Favorite Word: Porcupine, toot, and stinky
Favorite Game: Cars and Toy Story
Favorite Candy: Smarties, suckers
Favorite Ipad game: Price is Right
Favorite sport: basketball

What's up

So, I know I always say that I'm going to be better about blogging more, and I know it never happens. Oh well....I guess I'll just stop saying it and do the best I can. Does anybody even read my updates anyways? Anyways, I just wanted to give an update on life for my personal record. Maybe one day I'll put my blog into a book.

Let's start with Jace. Jace is our funny little man. He just finished his second year of preschool. Sadly, he still has one more year left. He was born in October, so he's one of the older children that has to endure one more whole year of preschool. It's okay though because he loves preschool. He is so happy with his teachers and he's always enjoyed the other children in his class.
Jace showing off his certificate. Jace and his teacher, Ms. Kay. Jace and Ms. Maria.
And this one, he said he had to have his picture in front of the playground. I think he must have liked preschool because he was smiling in all of these pictures! That's pretty rare.

Jace is very polite. He's always saying "please" and "thankyou" for everything! Sometimes it can be a pain because I'll ask him to do something for me and he'll say "No Thankyou." It's like he thinks that since he's being polite, he doesn't have to do it. Today, we were driving out to grandma's and Jace was sitting in the middle seat in the backseat of the car. He put his feet up on my armrest while we were driving. As soon as we got to grandma's house, he said "Thank you mommy for letting me put my feet up right there so that they could feel the cold air." He's just the sweetest little buggar.

As I said earlier, Jace is our funny boy. Sometimes, he just comes up with the funniest things to say. If you're ever on twitter (I don't do the twitter thing, but my husband does), check out stuffjacesez and you'll see a lot of the things he says. Here is just a sample of some of them.
*(At the hospital) Hey lady, do ya know? My daddy has an owie on his bum bum!
*Ariana, okay little Missy you better not fall off the bed again!
*I'm lightning McQueen, m Mommy is Phin McMissile, Ariana is Francesco, and Daddy is Mater because he can drive backwards
*Mommy, I didn't sleep at all last night. I couldn't get my eyes to shut.
*Are you kidding me? I'm mortified!
*Nicole: Jace drink the apple juice, it will help you get your hard poop out. Jace: I already did and its not working!!!
*I got a Lightning McQueen from Toys For Us!!!
*Jace (after hearing the dog fart): That's just like Scooby-Doo!
*Its hard to play on the iPad ... I need to take my pants off so its easier
*Do you know about blue grapes? They turn into blueberries!
*Jace: There's a lot of bugs there Me: Yeah there's a lot of ants there huh Jace: No they're not ants they're bugs cause they're on the sidewalk
*Ya know, when I was asleep my armpits were dirty and I needed deodorant
*Jace: Why are we going this way? Nicole: Cause this is the way home. Jace: But we're going to get lost in the future!

I get a kick out of how Jace is such a runner. He can't sit down long enough to watch a tv show or eat a big meal. He always has to stop what he's doing and run. I think it has to do with his aspergers because he always runs in the same pattern. He still loves his sister, sometimes a little too much. If she's sitting or laying down, he likes to pull her up onto his lap, which she hates. She really does love him too, except for when she's being dragged around by him. He's still the one person that can get her to laugh at him. When we're riding in the car, he likes to sit in the middle seat so he's right next to her and if she gets upset in the car, he'll say "It's okay sweetie. I'll take care of you." Or when he's leaving to go somewhere, he will go up to her and hug her and say "I'll be right back, okay Ariana?" in the sweetest voice. I really look forward to spending the summer with Jace. We have lots of plans like ride on the Trax train downtown, go to the aquarium (season passes, yeah!), swimming lessons. If I could afford it, we'd hop on a plane and hit Carsland in California Adventures. Jace has seen ads and has watched videos of it online and looked at pictures and has been begging to go. It costs money to do something like that though. Hopefully next year we can be smart with our money and afford to take him. Another funny story....last week we took Jace to City Creek (the new mall in Salt Lake) and took him to the Disney store. When we walked in he was like "It's magic. We're in Carsland!". I can't even imagine what it would be like to really take him to Carland. Jace is our crazy, funny, and sweet boy. I seriously can't get enough of him.
Now let's talk about this sweet face. She's my little sweetie. She's got the biggest bluest eyes that just pop when you look at her. Ariana is still my slow blooming baby. She is now 10 1/2 months old. She's still managing to do everything at her own pace. If you remember, she was very stubborn about learning to roll. Well, now we're past the 10 month mark and we're trying to get her to learn how to crawl. As we've worked with her on trying to get her to crawl, she's finally really discovered that rolling works for her. It's a little worrisome that she won't do it, but I've just learned that my baby does things in her own time. I love that now that she rolls, I'll go in her room and find her sleeping on her tummy. I actually think she might prefer to sleep that way now. She really wants to pull herself up to things but hasn't quite got the hang of it yet. Maybe she's just nervous about learning new things. If she doesn't figure it out in the next month or so, I will probably go get her checked out. Ariana has 3 teeth now, the 2 on bottom and then one of top. I haven't checked this week, but I'm sure another one on top should be popping in soon. Ariana loves taking baths with her brother. We've tried giving her baths alone, which she doesn't mind, but it's so much funner for her when her brother is in there with her. She sure is starting to babble a lot more. She loves to say dada and sometimes will say baba when she wants her bottle. I'm pretty sure she's said mama a couple times, but doesn't say it a whole lot. I'm having a blast as a mom dressing her up. It's so fun to put together outfits for her and get her dressed. She's not a big fan of me doing her hair, but I think she's starting to recognize when I'm doing it because she's learning to sit more still. She's at that very difficult age to sit through church. It's very hard to get through a sunday school or relief society lesson with a wiggly 10-month-old. She's very curious. If she gets her eye on something, she will wiggle and stretch to get to it. Even when she's laying down drinking a bottle, she's constantly got one hand reaching around for something to grab. She loves her solid foods, but it's hard to get her to hold still while feeding her. She looks right at you for a bite but the second the spoon touches her mouth, she has to look around for Jace. A couple months ago, I took her over to a neighbor's house and had her take some pictures of her all dolled up. They turned out great despite the fact she didn't want to smile.

As for life with Lance and I, nothing too exciting. Lance got a second job for a little while at JetBlue. It just became too hard for him with the hours and some of the Spanish calls he was taking, so he ended up quitting. It would have been super nice to get free flights, but it's okay. It would have been great to have it work out, but not everything goes like you want it to. I'm still busy work on call and just staying home with my kiddos. I love having time with them everyday and I'm so glad I get to be their mommy. That pretty much sums up our life. Oh, and to end, I'll post pictures we got taken at Fotofly last month. Jace was a stinkbug through them and again, Ariana wasn't into the idea of smiling for them, but with that cute face, she doesn't HAVE to smile.

What a Week

I'm going to write these things down because they are crazy things that I'll probably think about in the future. Don't feel like you have to read about it. This is for my own documentation.

Tuesday, laptop died. It seriously completely stopped working. Don't know what happened, but it made me upset. Isn't it funny how dependent on the computer we can be nowadays? I think our computer is still under warranty so hopefully it can be fixed.

Today, I asked Jace to put my cell phone in his pocket and take it out to the car for me. My hands were full carrying Ariana and the diaper bag and all of the blankets and stuff. Anyways, Jace decided that once he got outside, he wanted to run around in the snow. Well, he got in the car and my phone was no longer in his pocket. So, I don't know if it's in the snow or if it's in my car or where it is. No laptop and no phone....TORTURE! At least I have internet other places I go.

My other excitement for the week happened yesterday at my in-laws house. Lance and I had tickets to the Jazz game last night. The plan was to leave Jace with the in-laws and then I was going to take Ariana to my mom and go pick Lance up from work and we would go to the game. Well, things didn't go as planned. I unlocked my car doors and got Ariana in the car. Well, I went to get in my seat and the door was locked, along with every other door. Of course, the keys happened to be inside the car with Ariana. I didn't freak out much because I knew she had a blanket on her and was fine when I got her in. I tried calling Lance and he didn't answer. I knew he had a key. I tried and tried calling him with no answer. Anyways, it had started blizzarding pretty bad outside and was really cold. After about 20 minutes of trying him, I called the security officer at his building (luckily I work with security and knew their number), and asked him to go find my husband. It had started getting way too long and I knew that even if I did finally get a hold of Lance, I would have to wait another 30 minutes for him to get there. Ariana had started screaming by that point. So, I finally gave in and called the police. So, I went outside and stood in the frigid cold and sure enough, a fire truck and police car pulled up. They worked on the car for a good 10-15 minutes before it finally unlocked. Ariana was still crying hysterically. My brother-in-law had to get her out because my hands were so frozen, I couldn't unlatch her seatbelt. I got in and wasn't even able to hold her because I was sopping wet from standing outside. Anyways, I learned my lesson to always keep my keys in my hand. You never know when the car doors are going to lock automatically on their own. After all this happened, there wasn't time for us to really make it to the Jazz game. It worked out though. I'm kind of glad we didn't have to drive to the game in the weather. I wonder if Ariana will look back on this one day and think what a crazy mom I was.

7 months

Ariana is now 7 months old. Every time another month goes by, I get a little emotional. I just can't believe how fast time is going by with her. I want her to stay my little baby and it won't be long before she's out of that. Anyways, today she had her 6-month appointment. Yes, she's a month behind, but she got her 4-month vaccinations so late that she couldn't have her 6-month ones until later as well. She was such a champ for her appointment. They gave her stats and her percentiles, but I don't know if they're stats for her being 7 months or 6 months. Anyways, here are the stats they gave me.

Weight: 20 pounds-95%
Height: 98%
Head: Still Big! Still off the charts!

Ariana was so great during the whole thing. She was smiling and cooing at everyone. She didn't even cry for her vaccinations. What a girl, huh? I brought up a lot of concerns with the doctor. We talked about her eczema problem. She was put on 3 different prescriptions for it last month. He said that it's common during winter for eczema to flare up. We'll just keep smothering her with aquaphor and hope it clears up in time. We also discussed her head with him because she's always had a flat head from laying on her back so much. He said that as she learns to sit up more, it should reshape itself and the hair should grow in back there and cover it, so we don't need to worry about it. As I've said in previous posts, Ariana is kind of our late-bloomer baby. She's been really slow at rolling and doing things that other babies are doing at her age. I talked to the doctor about it as well. He asked about her grabbing things and rolling and sitting and stuff like that and decided that she may be a little behind developmentally, so he gave us information about a place called DDI that specializes in development in children. Lance and I need to discuss what we would like to do at this point.

Here are things about Ariana at 7 months.

*She LOVES her solid foods now. We tried for about 2 months for her to take interest in them and it was so frustrating getting her to eat them. A couple weeks ago, she decided she liked them. Hooray! So, after her morning nap, she'll have a container of fruits and after her afternoon nap, we'll give her veggies or some sort of dinner meal.

*She still doesn't have any teeth, but they're definitely trying to come in. She's been more fussy lately and if you look really closely, you can see the whites of the teeth trying to come through.

*She's starting to get the hang of sitting up. She's not very good at it yet, but she'll get there.

*People ask if she's crawling yet. No....not even close. She has no idea how to push herself up with her arms to get into that crawling position.

*She doesn't roll around. She has no desire to roll around on the floor. She likes to turn herself onto her side, but she doesn't like to go all the way over.

*When she gets tired, she uses her voice. It kind of sounds like she's singing.

*She loves everyone. She doesn't mind if other people hold her.

* She lights up when anyone comes in the room, no matter who it is. If a new person comes in and talks to her, she gets so excited about it.

*She's got really long hair in the front of her head. It's growing in so fast. I've started trying to put little clips and stuff in it to keep it out of her face, but it's so thin, they won't stay in. Now we just need to get it to grow in on the back of her head.

*She's wearing 12 month clothing. Hopefully once she learns to crawl and stuff, her weight will even out and she can wear 12 month for awhile.

We still love our little girl. She's such a joy to have in our family!

Valentines Date!

So, I know it's not Valentine's Day quite yet, but Lance and I decided to avoid the craziness of the actual day and celebrate early this year. For Christmas, Lance had thought about sending me to a spa to get a pedicure and just get pampered for the day. It didn't happen, so for Valentine's, he made the proposal that him and I should go together to a spa. It was definitely a splurge, but we decided to go for it and do it. We called the spa and it just so happened that they had a Valentines special going on for this weekend where they shut the spa down and left it open only for couples. There would be rose petals and sparkling cider, candles, a chocolate fountain and we'd be treated like VIPs (okay, so they didn't tell us they'd treat us like VIPs, but that's kind of how we felt while we were there). We made a whole evening of it.

We started out by eating at the Brick Oven over in South Jordan. It was literally right next to the spa, so we decided to try it out. I think our eyes were bigger than our stomachs though and we ordered the first thing we saw, the pasta bar. I wouldn't say the food was bad. I just don't think we got quite what we wanted. We should have taken time to look over the menu before jumping into our decision of what to get. The rootbeer though, was delish! And the apple crisp was also pretty dang amazing.

After we ate, we headed right over to the spa. We got there and loaded up our plates with chocolate-covered goodness and went back to get our pedicures. I actually had my very first pedicure just a couple months ago and I thought that was pretty amazing. But this pedicure was really amazing. This time around, we got to sit in massage chairs while getting our feet pampered. We had people coming in to refill our glasses of sparkling cider and that were willing to go refill our plates with more yummies. The best part though was doing it with Lance.

After our pedicures, they took us to a private room where we got hot stone massages. I had NO idea what to expect. The thought of hot stones scared me a little. It was AMAZING! They told us that it was a relaxing thing. I really began to understand what they meant while getting it done. The atmosphere was so peaceful and it really was relaxing. I would have been happy if they didn't stop for another hour or so, but unfortunately, it had to end. We've decided that when we can afford it, we're going to splurge and go get facials together. For obvious reasons, we didn't take pictures of our massages, but here are pictures from our pedicures.

Lance getting his first ever pedicure!

And here we are together!

It was definitely nice having a night out alone together not having to worry about kids or anything. It's not very often we get to go out on dates.

Of course, a post just isn't the same without adding pictures of our beautiful children.


I love this little stinker! He's still my little wild child.


And this little sweetheart. Love how she has started sucking on her bottom lip.

Thanks sweetie for planning such a great Valentines date and giving me some beautiful children!

Never a Dull Moment

Having a 4-year-old can be quite challenging. There's never a dull moment in our house with Jace. He keeps us on our toes...well, at least me. He seems to behave a little better when Lance his home. I guess mommy's the one that has taken it more easy on him and he thinks he can get away with things easier with her. Something I need to work on, I guess. That kid likes to make mischief. I can't keep up with him!!! It can be overwhelming at times finding his messes. And usually, I don't even hear him doing it. That's what boggles me. He's so quiet and sneaky. And he's fast too! He usually makes these messes while I'm feeding Ariana or something quick like that. Here's what I mean:

The other day, while I was feeding Ariana, Jace came running into me telling me he had cleaned his floor. I was shocked he could do that because his floor was not exactly clean. Where did everything go I wondered...oh...here it is! In the bathroom. I screamed when I saw the mess, and then I laughed, and then I cried a little because I knew I would have to help him clean it up.

Today, I was in the bathroom getting ready and walked out to find all of his toys lined up outside the bathroom door, toys that had been downstairs. Somehow, he managed to carry his toys from the basement and get them upstairs before I got out of the bathroom. There weren't just a few toys. There were about 20 different cars, 2 racetracks, a toy piano, etc.

How does he do it??? Let me tell you....being a mother can be a little overwhelming at times. I get really frustrated and wonder how I can do it, but I just keep trudging along because I am reminded daily from my little boy that he loves me and those are the moments that I love the most.

I just have to post this as well because I love it. About a month ago, Jace had a pen and paper and I managed to get him to write his name.

I can't get over it! I love it. Then, today, I brought him into my work for a little while where we met Lance. I looked over at the board to see this:

This is honestly the first thing he's ever drawn that you actually know what it is. It's a picture of his daddy. The little scribble on his head is his hat and he also gave him a little beard too. Is that not cute? I love my kids!!!

6 Months!

Ariana is 6 months old. Did I really just say that? Can it already have been 6 months with her part of our family? Time goes way too fast! These have seriously been some of the best 6 months in my life. I absolutely LOVE having a daughter. I love having a son too, of course. There's just something so special about this little girl though. Here are some things about this little girl that I would like to remember at 6 months.

*She's sooo happy. The only time she cries if she's really really hungry or if she gets really tired.

*It took 5 months, but she has finally turned into a binky baby. It has been seriously the GREATEST thing! I don't think she is attached to the binky, but if she gets really tired, all I have to do is stick her binky in her mouth and she's out like a light.

*She loves to sit up. As long as someone is holding her, she's pretty happy.

*She loves to nurse, and I honestly love nursing her, but sadly, I think my nursing days are about over. I nursed Jace up to 6 months and I couldn't do it anymore. Sadly, the same thing is happening with Ariana. I don't think I'm destined to nurse past 6 months. No matter how much water I drink or what I do, my body just stops producing enough milk at 6 months. It's been an emotional time thinking of stopping with her because I've nursed her since birth and I love it.

*We're still working on solid foods with her, but so far, it still hasn't been going very well. I've been adding breast milk to her cereal and I think it helps maybe a little, but she still isn't too interested in it. So far, I've also tried feeding her sweet potatoes, carrots, squash, peas, and even bananas and she hasn't really gone for it. She spazzes out everytime I give her a bite. I think it might be a texture thing rather than a taste thing. We'll just keep working at it.

*She has finally rolled over once from tummy to back and once back to tummy. She still just doesn't understand it very much. She's just kind of a slowpoke at picking up on it.

*She sleeps through the night and has been for awhile. She wakes up pretty early in the morning, but after a feeding, she's back to sleep until like noon.

*She's my cuddle bug. Jace would only go to sleep in his crib as a baby. With her, I can wrap her up and give her a binky and she'll fall asleep in my arms. I love it!

*She's still ticklish.

*She loves blankets and dresses, whatever she can grab and pull up over her. I put a dress on her for church last week and the entire time at church, she laid on the floor with her dress pulled up and nuzzled to her face. Everyone was so concerned about it, but she was happy as could be.

*She lights up whenever someone walks into the room. When daddy gets home or Jace gets home from school, she gets so happy to see a new face.

*She's getting really close to sitting up on her own. She doesn't quite have it, but we're working on it everyday.

*She's still my little chunkeroo. Her 6-month appointment isn't for another month because she had her 4-month appointment so late, but I know she's chunky. I took her to the doctor for eczema a couple weeks ago and she weighed I think 18 3/4 pounds, something like that. I don't know the percentage of that, but I'm pretty sure it has to be in the 90's at least.

*She currently has no teeth, but I know she's teething. The way she drools and chews on things constantly, I know a tooth has got to be popping up sometime soon.

I have a girl in our neighborhood taking pictures of her this week, so hopefully I can post those soon after getting them taken!