VOTE FOR JULES!!

Hey folks, we need your help! Please go to http://www.kosy.com/pages/disney_on_ice/vote.html and vote for photo number 228. We're trying to win the Kosy 106.5 Disney on ice vacation, and the one with the most votes wins. It's kind of a pain to go through the images, so here's the photo we put up there. It's only 1 vote per email address, so use multiple addresses if you can. Spread the word and get as many people as you can to help! We'd greatly appreciate it. Hurry, we only have until November 9th! Thanks so much!

PS - It might not work in Internet Explore, so feel free to use any other browser, such as Firefox.

Potty training

-I love that Jules had to check the potty to make sure she went poopies before she could proudly announce that she did if fact go poopies.
-I love that Jules cheers for me when I go potty.
-I love that I don't have to buy her any more diapers.
-I love that she likes to wipe her own bum.
-I love that Jules just goes into the bathroom by herself and goes without my help...most of the time.

Halloween!

Isn't his car a beauty? 2006 Hyundai Sonata. Great condition, 50K miles, only $9,500, anyone, anyone? Yup, we are trying to sell our car. Reason #1: Our registration is up this month and we don't want to pay to register it again. #2: We want a van. Now I know that some of you are thinking that we only have 2 kids and don't need a van and it's true. It was either a van or a truck because we always need something bigger for some reason and a van just seems more practical for now. So, if anyone wants a great car, let us know.
We carved pumpkins. We had my cousin over with her 2 kids and they helped out and we even made some Halloween cupcakes. It was a lot of fun. Brett's is the face, mine is the ghost, and that small one up there is a princess crown...sort of. I should have given Brett more instruction of what I was really thinking.

We finally finished our wall...mostly. We have had these frames on the wall for about 2 months now and finally filled them with our family pictures that we took 2 months ago. We still need to fill in the space under the "W" but at least it has pictures now. Kim, I'm waiting for a Mount Timpanogos picture.
On Saturday we threw a bridal shower for Brett's cousin once removed, Rachel, it was really last minute and we didn't get a ton of people but it was still fun.
Jules enjoying a red velvet cupcake at the shower.
Brett loves to take long, hot showers. So one day he was having fun and spelled out our names in the shower. Remember his is a 30 year old house. The people who remodeled the house decided to just paint over the old tile to make it "look good enough to sell". So obviously paint over tile doesn't last too long and Brett just scratched it off to spell our names.
Last night we had a ward Halloween Carnival that the YM/YW put on every year for the primary kids. This was one of my favorite costumes. 2 years ago when we were in the ward the mom made them into the Monsters Inc. characters and did a fabulous job. This year, she did the "Aladdin" theme. Aren't they adorable. I wish I got a picture of the dad and their 1 year old. He was Jafar and the baby was the parrot...so cute.
This is Jules looking all traumatized as Snow White. Grandma Wilson got these cute shoes that go perfectly with the dress. Jules loves the shoes. Unfortunately Jules woke up sick today so hopefully she will feel better by Saturday. I totally forgot to get pictures of Brett as Napoleon and Libby as a "princess in training". Stay tuned and we'll get some pictures on Saturday.
Libby is 5 months old today. I have been able to feed her at least rice for a month now, but haven't until yesterday. This is her today eating it up. My baby is so big. Time goes by so fast. She is so much fun, but the time is just passing way too fast.

Fall

So a couple of weeks ago, I was downstairs working on some primary stuff, Jules was upstairs watching some princess movie and Libby was sleeping. Everything was peaceful and quiet until I heard a loud pounding on the door. I quickly ran upstairs and didn't see Jules on the couch and Libby was screaming bloody murder, but I couldn't hear it downstairs. I quickly thought that Jules opened the front door and was found outside on the street or something and some neighbor was returning her to me. I opened the door and it was a cop. He wasn't dressed up and so I was a little hesitant when he started asking me questions like what my name was and wanting to see my drivers license to verify it was me.

Let me assure you that at this point I knew Jules was fine and was playing with Libby because I could hear her in Libby's room, so I knew nothing was wrong with her. The cop then began to question me about the previous person that lived in our house. I was extremely relieved and told him everything I knew about the person and sent him elsewhere to someone who would know more. I guess this person is in a little bit of trouble which is sad because I did know them. I was very relieved to know it had nothing to do with me and a dead child on the side of the road. Once we got that all straightened out and he left I went in and found this...


Yup, that's Jules without a diaper in Libby's crib. You can't see it from this picture but Jules had also pooped in her diaper, taken it off, and then sat on Libby or something because there was poop on Libby's bum. Fun!

That was before we started potty training her. I am proud to say that Jules is 80% potty trained. She is just having troubles pooping on the potty for some reason. The funny this is that pooping on the potty once, is how the whole thing got started on us potty training her. So, we have had a few poop accidents but didn't have a single pee pee accident. BTW, I never knew it would be so hard to try to decide on words for "poop" and "pee pee" and "fart". We just use "stinky" for that one. Although when she smells that someone has passed gas, she says that person is poopy so what do you do?

Just a fun picture of Jules playing with Libby. Don't worry, Jules is most likely laying on top of Libby while this picture was taken. Hey, it's better than yesterday when she actually rolled Libby off the couch.
Growing up we never had FHE. I always said that I would do it no matter what from day #1 of being married. Well, 3 1/2 years later we finally started doing them. It was so hard with just the 2 of us so we would do something together but it was usually just watching TV or something like that. Last week we went up the canyon and learned a little about the creation and that Heavenly Father gave us ducks and trees and a few other things we saw around the park. Here are a few pictures from that outing.
Feeding the ducks.
Notice the really pretty red trees in the background. It was so beautiful. I'm sure it's all covered by snow now.
Jules showing dad how to go down the slide.
Good job daddy!
Kicking the ball around.
So another exciting thing happened. Last Tuesday night there was a big storm. I woke up with Libby at 5 that morning and looked outside the window to see if it was windy or raining and I saw branches right in front of her window that shouldn't be there. This is the surprise we woke up to.
It just blew right over. There wasn't any damage and it ended up not being too bad. We didn't like the tree for one, and our neighbor needed some fire wood, for another, so he came and cut it all up and took it to heat his house. There is still a big stump and all the roots that we still have to deal with but it could have been a lot worse.
Brett's "sort of aunt" passed away last week and this is her and her husband's headstone. It's huge!
Libby strutting her stuff at the funeral.
What happens when you leave the grand kids downstairs for too long without supervision. That's a treadmill btw.
At least Libby and grandpa were having a good time. She didn't look very comfortable at all but was so happy lying there with grandpa.
This was FHE this week. We made carmel apples. They were a little messy but of course it was fun.
I also put these pictures up so Brett might learn to smile in pictures.

Today, we went to a park because I've walked there a few times and I wanted to know how far away it was. We got there and I saw the park and realized it had been a while since we had gone, and I didn't have anything planned that I needed to get home for, so we stopped and ran into some of our really good friends, Daryl and Katrina, who we haven't seen forever. It was so funny because their trip to the park was unexpected too. The kids got to play together and this is them on the swings. The kids got along great and it was so fun to see them again.
We fit Jules and Libby in the swing. Libby loved it. I love this pictures because it makes Libby's head look ten times bigger than Jules'.
We had Libby's 4 month appointment last week and everything is looking good. She is growing and weighs 15 1/2 pounds which is in the 79th percentile or something like that. Jules was in the 2 percentile at this age so it's been really interesting having the extremes.

I just love this picture I took of her tonight because you can pretty much count the fat rolls on her. Poor thing just wanted to eat and go to bed.
Thanks for hanging in there for this extremely long post and update. We are loving the fall and the fact that things are slowing down a bit.

Boring Us!

Things have been busy and frankly I just haven't had a desire to blog. Ever since Libby was born I barely even have a chance to read other blogs so I apologize for my lack of comments on your blogs. Here are a few things that we have been up to since I last posted:
Heidi, Brett's cousin once removed, moved in with us. I have loved having the extra help around the house and the kids just love her. Even though Jules looks totally drugged in this picture, she really does love Heidi.

Libby will be 4 months old next week. She is getting so big so fast. She is totally opposite of Jules as far as weight goes. Jules didn't even weigh 11 lbs at 4 months. Libby on the other hand weighed 12 lbs at 2 months and even started out smaller. She's our little rolly polly baby.

Just a funny picture I had to add of Jules with a snot bubble one morning. Gotta love the bed head too.
Jules loves Libby. Sometimes a little too much. These are just some fun pictures I took of both of them playing together.
This picture makes me realize how much they look alike. I think Libby's head is just as big as Jules head.
Another fun picture of Jules.
Brett's group singing at a benefit concert that about 20 people were at. His barbershop group is now over because one of the members is moving. Sad days. Now he's back to trying to get an acappella group together.
Our very first FHE. We taught Jules about temples then we went to the Provo Temple and took some really cute pictures.
We had to include Libby.
Over Labor Day weekend we went up to Sun Valley Idaho for a car show. Brett's dad sold this car. It was really cute.
Libby is so happy and smiles and laughs so easily.
Tammy came over the other day and when she got here Brett looked outside and noticed she drove all the way over here with a lid on her hood. Hmmm, I'm thinking Kyle put it there when he was packing his car. So this picture is for you Kyle. Hope you don't need this lid.
On Friday I decided to do some canning. I was pretty proud of myself because I did it all by myself. Heidi did help a little I guess. I did grape juice, peaches and tomatoes. I already did some salsa a few weeks ago too. It's really not a lot I guess, but I had never done juice or tomatoes before. I've kind of helped my mom in the past I guess but didn't really pay that much attention.
This was Libby last night. I propped her up on the couch while I got Jules ready for bed and this is how I found her a few minutes later. She spits up a bunch and is still gaining weight like crazy.
So that's what we've been doing. Staying busy and getting ready for fall. I'm ready for things to slow down and keep hoping that will happen once it starts getting colder.

Family Pictures

Yay, we finally got our family pictures taken with all 4 of us. Thanks Kellie, my fabulous sister-in-law, for taking them for us.



Jules had a hard time smiling for us.

Jules' Hair

I could say:
-That Jules found some scissors and cut her own hair
-That we went to a salon and the stylist did a horrible job
-That Brett cut it
-She woke up and it was all of a sudden short
-Or I could just admit that I cut it myself.

People have been telling me for a while that she needs a haircut and bangs, to get her hair out of her face...and for some reason I actually listened. I didn't think it would be too hard to do it myself, so I did. I got out my sewing scissors, which are huge, and went to town. I really thought I wasn't cutting off that much so I could have something to work with if I messed up. Well, it ended up being a lot shorter than I planned and wanted.

Disclaimer: This picture was taken right after a nap where Jules did sweat a lot and it got a lot worse looking.

Luckily my cousin is a stylist so we took her in and she fixed it up. It's still shorter than we wanted but we are getting used to it. At least now it has some shape and order to it.
Here is Jules and Libby. Libby is now 7 weeks old and doing really well. She is gaining weight like crazy which makes me sad because she's getting so big too fast.

I do love this stage though because she is really responding to us and smiling like crazy. She's so much fun.

Aren't these smiles priceless?

What A Week

We had a very busy week so here are some pictures to show some of the highlights.

My sister came into town for the 4th of July. She got here Friday, June 26th and just left on Monday, July 8th. Brett went out of town on Tuesday so she came to keep me company and keep me busy so the week wouldn't be so hard. Since she was here we decided to bless Libby. The problem is that we decided on Friday to bless her 2 days later. We made a bunch of phone calls to let everyone know and everything worked out. It was great because I didn't stress about it before hand because I didn't have time to stress about it. We did it in my parents back yard as we have done for most of the grand kids.
I couldn't decide if I wanted to use the same dress that Jules was blessed in or not. After shopping around and not finding anything nearly as cute as Jules' blessing dress, (and they were all $50+) I decided to just use the same one. It is so cute and very special because Brett's mom made it.
What a proud daddy and happy girl. She didn't cry at all but she did spit up on a few hands during the blessing...oops!
The happy family.
All the family that came to support us.
Some of the kids.
Jules feeding Toby, my sisters dog.
So the blessing was on Sunday. On Monday we went to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House. It was beautiful and Jules did pretty good while we were in the temple. Afterwards was another story. This is her pouting because she did not want to take a picture.
A face that I saw many times this week. It was just a little too busy for her.
Brett had to work so it was just me and my sister and our kids.
Tuesday morning Brett left for Anaheim, so I went to the SLC Temple with Cheryl and Kellie. It was a lot of fun and nice to get away from the kids for a bit. I forgot my camera so I'm hoping Kellie will post the picture she took so I can steal it from her blog.

Tuesday night I had my 4 oldest nieces sleep over so I wouldn't be alone. Around midnight I was checking the garage door to make sure it was locked and discovered the freezer had stopped working and everything in it was defrosted. I hurried and cooked all the meet I had in there to re-freeze so I wouldn't loose it. I did lose quite a bit still and didn't get to bed until 2am.

On Wednesday my parents took the day off from work and we all went to Cowabunga Water Park. It was pretty fun but not so much for toddlers. It's great for kids 8+. There is water constantly being poured on you and sprayed on you and it just isn't all that pleasant. It gets old really fast. We paid for the half day which is 4 hours and that was plenty of time.
On Thursday, my parents took the day off again so we could all go to the zoo. This is Jules crying because she was terrified of the train...that is until it started to go. She was scared it was going to be fast or something but was fine after it started.
Kellie and her kids came too, so this is all the kids with the big gorilla.
Taking a break on the big wall.
Thursday we also had a BBQ with the Wilson's. Cousin Keri and her family were in town and wanted to see all the cousins so that was fun.

On Friday we went to the Kennecott Copper Mine. I have lived in Utah my whole life and have never been there. Same with everyone else except Sterling who built a few things up there. It was pretty cool. One of these tires cost $25K.
On Saturday we woke up early to go watch the balloons take off. It had been such a long and busy week that Jules wasn't too happy at first.
Luckily she got better. Here she is with my dad.
After the balloons, we went to the parade. We totally lucked out with great seats. This is Cheryl with Tyler and Jules wanted to sit on Tyler's lap.
Libby was really good for the whole parade.
How Jules watched part of the parade. She loved to wave at all the people waving in the parade.
Love Libby...
Holding my girls.
We then had another BBQ at the Wilson's and got to spend some time with Brett's family which was nice.

Later that night we went to the Stadium of Fire. We go and sit outside by the cougar and watch the fireworks every year. This year we had a few of our own fireworks to do which included some sparklers. I took a pictures with Cheryl and Jules and we switched because I wanted a picture with Jules but the sparkler died right before they got the picture taken. Afterwards, I was holding Jules and she decided to reach out and touch the sparkler and got burned. She wasn't too happy after that.
After getting sympathy from me she had to go get some from grandma. She did really good during the fireworks...as long as grandma was holding her close.
Libby enjoyed watching the fireworks as well. I put some padding of blankets around her hears so it wouldn't be so loud.
The fun didn't end on Saturday night. We got together again on Sunday to celebrate birthdays and Cheryl's daughter got knocked off the slide and broke her arm. It was a very eventful and exhausting week. I'm glad to have it over and Brett home and things back to normal. We had a lot of fun. Thanks for coming Cheryl!

4 Weeks

Life has been a little busy adjusting to 2 kids. Jules is still acting up a lot more and is a lot more needy and demanding. Libby on the other hand is an angel. She is growing like crazy and I almost can't stand it. Why can't they just stay tiny for a little bit longer? She will be 4 weeks old tomorrow and the time has flown by so fast. Here she is at 2 weeks.
Here we are at Libby's 2 week appointment. Jules was having a rough day and Libby was being a little camera shy.
She has this big head and big belly but tiny chicken legs and arms. Her 2 week appointment went really well. She was at 8.5 pounds which was up quite a bit and grew 1/4 of an inch. Not sure on the percentiles because I forgot to ask for them.
More 2 week pictures. Notice her eating her hand...again. I really do feed the kid.
Here is a miscommunication problem Brett and I had. Jules was upstairs watching cartoons and Brett was downstairs with Libby when I ran to Wal-Mart. I yelled down the stairs telling him to put Jules to bed while I was gone and he thought I said I was putting her to bed. So the whole time I was at Wal-Mart, Jules had free reign to the whole upstairs. Usually that's not a huge deal because she's pretty good and usually doesn't leave my side. Not the case this time. Brett called me as I was leaving Wal-Mart asking me where the camera was. I got home to find this...


That would be a whole tub of Bed Head Manipulator stuff. I use about a pea size amount when I use it. It just teases and seperates the hair a little. Jules always wants to play with it when she sees me using it but I have never let her. So, beeing as she had the place to herself she opened it and did what she thought mommy did. Looks like she even tried to use my flat iron. It was such a mess to clean up and get out of her hair. When I discovered what had happened I couldn't stop laughing, too bad Jules didn't have the same feeling after getting in trouble.

This is me and a mission friend Elisha. She was actually due about 2 weeks before me but ended up having her baby 3 days before me. She went over and I went early but he still looks about 2+ weeks older because he was big. I don't realize how dark Libby's skin is until I put her up to someone else with not so dark skin. It was fun meeting baby Harrison and seeing the proud parents.
For Father's Day we went over to Brett's parents to have dessert. Jules was so excited to get some ice cream. She stuck the ball of ice cream on her fork and went to town...and it went all down her dress.
Here is Libby about 30 minutes ago. She and Jules have some similar features like their noses and lips; the head shape is totally different though which makes them look completely different.
Libby is definetly growing much faster than Jules did at her age. Jules spit everything up and had a hard time gaining weight. Libby is not having a problem in that department at all. She does spit up a bit but nothing like Jules.
Here is one of many pictures that we got of Libby on Monday night. I still haven't seen any of them, I had to steal this on from Kellie's blog. She took a bunch of naked pictures of Libby outside and she was so good. We actually wanted her to sleep so she wouldn't move so much but she stayed awake the whole time. Comparing the picture above and this one below it's hard to believe it is the same baby, they look completely different.

Updated pictures of Libby

We have been busy adjusting to the new addition. Jules loves to hold Libby and Libby is usually pretty good when Jules is holding her. Jules loves to take her binki out of her mouth and put it back in. It's great fun. This was while we were still in the hospital.
This is last Sunday after church. It's funny because the first couple of days Jules forgot all about Libby in the mornings. She would wake up and after a while say, "Oh ya, baby".

One of Libby's favorite things to do is cover her eyes.
This is her one week old picture. Isn't she an angel?
Daddy, Jules and Libby
This is Jules during another one of her naps. Who can sleep like that? She was completely out and didn't wake up or budge while I took the picture.
Grandpa loves Libby too. I went over there the other day and pulled Libby out of her car seat and he was really surprised because he had forgotten that I had a baby. He was just so excited to see Jules.
Libby's first real bath. She actually loved it and didn't cry once.
Our failed attempt at taking a quick family picture. Libby was screaming and Jules was so serious...What do you do?
Libby covering her eyes again.
This is Libby today. She also loves to eat her hand. She started this right after she was born and I had to call the nurse in to give me a binki because you can take binki's away but you can't take fingers away. I do not want a finger/thumb sucker.
Jules has been pretty needy and not quite as good of a big sister as we had hoped. She loves Libby but needs lots of attention. Too many new things all at once and she just hasn't known what to do about it all.
Libby has been an angel baby. She only wakes up at 3 am and then again at 7 am for feedings. It is very different having 2 kids but we are doing pretty good. Brett got 5 days of paternity leave so he was home most of last week which was really helpful. I have recovered really quickly and feel great. I didn't get any stitches again so I really haven't been sore at all...except the "twins". Gotta love adjusting to breast feeding. We love our little Libby and couldn't be more blessed.