My little lover, Stevie, is 9 months old today! I just want to squeeze him all day because I love him so much! He is my cuddle buddy and I cant get enough of it. He lays his head on my shoulder or chest and will just chill with me even if he's not tired! It makes me so happy!  I hope he never ever stops.

At 9 months old, Stevie is eating all real food (except nuts and honey) and he eats whatever we are eating for any given meal. Not only does he eat with us, he eats more than Ty! I will make them the same amount of food and Stevie will eat all of his and sometimes some of Ty's. It is so funny to me the love he already has for food! (I don't understand it at all... ;) ) He screams and waves his arms up and down until I give him whatever I'm eating. I kid you not, I will be in the kitchen and he will be in the living room and he will hear me unwrap a starburst and will come charging in to beg for some! He says "mm mmm mm!" and licks his lips til it is in his mouth. It is so hilarious! I love it. Good thing he's got a fast metabolism. Well, for now :) He has been able to gum anything I give him and has never had a hard time figuring out how to eat whatever is in his mouth.

He never has enough. He's obsessed with food! He also has this death grip. I can't get anything out of his hands and he always has left over food in them when I get him out of his high chair. Funny thing is, he never chokes on food. But any time I try to give him a sippy cup, he sucks until he is out of breath then takes a huge gasp of air when he is done. I always figured liquids would be easier to swallow! The good news is, yesterday he drank 3 WHOLE bottles!

Learning how to hold his own bottle, this kills me! He is so funny

 I couldn't believe it. I was seriously giddy all day! I can't tell you the amount of relief this gives me. I wouldn't normally push a bottle on a baby but if you read this post: may contain TMI, then you will remember that I have been bit so hard that I was dripping blood and had slits in my nipple! (yikes!)  He would not drink any kind of bottle or formula whatsoever. So for the last 4 months I have been trying bottles, sippy cups, cups with straws, and regular cups (you know, just incase he bit my nipple off and I needed to be done nursing on a whim) and he would never drink more than a couple of gulps of anything. He stopped biting me after that one post but recently he got 2 new teeth on top (how cute are they??)

 Unfortunately, he wanted to test out his new chompers and he bit me a few times. It was nothing too bad until one night he bit hard enough for me to bleed again! It was so painful and I just wanted the freedom of a bottle. The sad thing is, when he bit me, I screamed and jumped and he was so scared and sad that he just bawled and tears streamed down his face. It was almost as if I had hurt his feelings or that he was trying to tell me he didn't mean to. It broke my heart! If he had been biting me and laughing I would have cut him off long ago. But he just didn't really understand. I have loved nursing him but I also don't mind having the option of someone else feeding him. It's also a bonus that I don't have to live in fear every time I feed him! So this was a HUGE milestone! I am really excited about it but there is a part of me that is sad that I'm going to be done nursing again! I can't believe how fast time is passing by.

Stevie is a Super fast crawler and is standing up on everything. Every once in a while he will let me balance him and he'll stand alone for a few seconds.

 workin' it

He has started finding his binky and putting it in all by himself. I LOVE when this happens! It is the cutest thing to watch him do and plus he has become a good self soother. It took a while for me to figure out Stevie's routine; but as a 9 month old, he likes to wake up, eat, play for a while, and then go to sleep on his own.  I never thought Id have a baby that would just lay down and go to sleep on his own (without a bottle or nursing first.)  He also falls sleep in his carseat at church, in the stroller, or on my lap. The only bad part is, if he falls asleep somewhere besides his crib, then when you move him he wakes right up and there's no going back down!

He is finally getting a little peach fuzz on top of his head but from afar he still looks pretty bald. I love it though. He is happy to be held by anyone and looks at you like you're the coolest person in the world! He has a gift. Sometimes he will be playing and will just start laughing. It is my favorite thing. He likes being thrown in the air and tickled and tackled onto the bed by John. He dances when he hears music and loves when we are singing. I get comments from people all the time saying what a happy baby he is. I got the same comments when Ty was a baby. Im so blessed to have happy kids!

silly boy

exploring:

Just chillin at the grocery store

Love you baby boy!

I went back and read through my blog yesterday and sometimes I am such a downer! I want this blog to be real but I also want to go back and read all the good stuff, not all the bad stuff. This summer was so chaotic and I couldn't seem to get over it until now, (welcome fall!! How nice is it being back on a schedule?!) but looking back I really wish I wouldn't have let my life get so out of control! It's so important to take care of yourself first so you can take care of your family properly! I have so many blessings. This post is dedicated to all the good in my life!
I am so blessed to:

-have a husband that works hard and loves me and my kids for who we are. He's so optimistic and never seems to get stressed. That's why I try to be stressed enough for the both of us ;)

-have a house and to have had a house since we were 21! The timing that we bought this house was just perfect. The interest rate was pretty low and the house wasn't over priced. Then thanks to John being a genius we've already refinanced for a 15 year loan and should hopefully have it paid off when we are what? 37? Not too shabby!

-have family SO close by. Walking to johns parents house takes 3 minutes and walking to my parents house takes like 10! If you are talking drive time it's even faster! I love that when we are bored we can get together with family and just hang out any time we want!

-have 2 running cars. We used to share a car back in the day and the other day it hit me again how lucky we are to not have to work around each other's schedules and see who needs the car that day. I take for granted how easy it is to get in the car and go somewhere anytime I want or need to!

-have temples so close by. I KNOW I take this for granted. We are 10-15 minutes away from a temple in either direction. We are so lucky to be so close and to be able to go so easily, really anytime we want.

-have grocery stores so close by. We used to go to maceys like 4 times a week! We've been a lot better at only going once a week, sometimes less. But I will always have fond memories of going to maceys! Ty already knows when we go there that they have ice cream cones and treats at the check out. I think he will have fond memories of that place too! Sounds silly, but grocery shopping is one of my favorite things to do as a family!

-have so many good examples in my life. Im so grateful for all of my friends and family who have always been there for me!

-have such amazing, beautiful babies! They are the light of my life! One time a lady I visit taught said that life doesn't even start until you have kids. I didn't have any kids and was like, sure sure. I was married at the time and felt like our life was pretty happy. And it was. But giving birth to our babies has been by far some of the coolest experiences we've shared together. (Well at least I think so!) I've never experienced as much joy as I have since I've become a mother. It has brought our marriage to a whole new level and I'm so grateful to have been able to share these experiences with John and become even closer to him. The day Ty was born was so cool and I couldn't imagine life without him (still can't, and don't want  to!) & I wanted another baby in no time! But I was afraid having another baby would ruin the love I had for Ty. How could I love another baby as much as I loved him? I don't know how, but your capacity to love just grows. It's amazing the love I feel for both of my kids! The reasons I love them are so different, but the amount of love is the same! Being a mom is the most amazing thing in the entire world.  I think it gives us just a glimpse of how Heavenly Father could love all of us. I'm already baby hungry and my baby is only 9 months old. How does that happen? There is something really special about being pregnant and giving birth. I feel so blessed to have been able to experience it twice so far!

I've been thinking a lot today about my role as a mother and how incredibly grateful I am for my babies and how much I've been taking them for granted lately. It's Interesting what stress and chaos will add to your life and do to your brain. I've been craving more order in my life and now I think I understand why. When I stop letting myself feel stressed and start counting my blessings instead, I feel overwhelmed by all of the many  blessings I have and then I feel awful for not recognizing all of my blessings during the stressful/hard times. Yesterday I took more time to hold Ty instead of making him walk everywhere or having him sit on my lap instead of next to me on the couch and I'm surprised how quickly his attitude changed from a couple of days ago. He kept coming up to me in sacrament meeting today and saying, "I want mommy." And he just sat and colored with me and laughed (I've missed his cute laugh!) and he didn't want anyone else.  I'm sad I haven't taken more time to just be with him the last few weeks. He's a different kid when I show him more love. And then there is Stevie. That kid is so sweet and has always loved me so much. He already wants my approval. He's so connected with me through his eye contact, he knows how to read me already.  He looks at me before doing things and when he makes me laugh it makes him so happy. He was playing with toys in relief society today and kept banging one on the wall and looking at me and laughing and one of the women sitting next to me said, "Look how much he loves you." And it's so true. He loves me despite all my imperfections.  He's so loving and sweet and laughs all the time! It's the cutest sound in the world. It's interesting when my life is crazy how hard it is to calm it down and see all the sweetness around me but once I get over that hump I can't understand how I couldn't see or feel it the whole time! I'm grateful to have the gospel in my life and for the peace it brings and the understanding I have of a Heavenly Father that loves me unconditionally and has sent me children who help me understand His pure love a little bit better. I can't imagine my life without these sweet spirits and I'm excited for a time when I get to meet even more of them! I needed the peaceful spirit I felt today and  just wanted to write down how Im feeling because my heart is full and I want my kiddos to always know how deeply I love them and I wouldn't change anything about either of them, good or bad. They're the best! Love you boys.

cuddling with my arm on different occasions. I love their cute little hands

My Stevie babe turned 8 months old yesterday!! I cannot believe how fast time is going. I remember hearing other moms say it was sad when their babies got older but I didn't understand,  I was excited for my babies to get older and be able to do more stuff! But I totally get it now! It's so fun to see them get older and keep learning new things but it's so sad how fast time is going. I feel like these precious days with them are slipping through my fingers. I'm kind of excited to only be working 2-3 days a week so I can cherish these times as much as possible!

8 month old Stevie:

Steven has been crawling (not just army crawling) for a solid week & a half. He's quick! He gets anywhere he wants (time to start watching out for those stairs again) and eats anything he can find. I'm a little worried about things he may have already found and swallowed without me seeing! But he's happy that he can move around and play. Ty on the other hand, isn't loving it. "Stevie don't touch!.... No no!.... My toys!" I hear this daily but I'm hoping he gets used to it soon. Stevie still wants to eat everything we do and squeals like a little girl til I give him what he's asking for! He's eating a lot of Cheerios and baby foods these days and is finally warming up to a sippy cup. So far he will only drink water out of it but that gives me hope for when he's a year old and can have real milk. He is such a happy baby and loves everyone.  I've been training him to say mama and dada and he will say both words, I'm surprised  how much he can do right now. (Maybe because in my mind he is only 4 months old?)  he's only 16 pounds right now and seems really little to me! Ty was a lot chubbier. I've loved it both ways though.  He loves when I tickle his legs while he is falling asleep and he loves cuddling up close to me and being held. Ty still doesn't like cuddling and never cared to be held. He was always too busy playing and his binky was comfort enough! I can't get over how different they already are! I love them both so much.  I'm starting to worry, though, that their personalities will be so different that they won't ever get along. But Steven loves Ty so much so I think it'll be up to Ty to be a good older bro!  I'm so grateful for these sweet little spirits that have joined our family! They are so fun.

Almost 2.5 year old Ty:

(sorry, blurry)

Ty has been so funny lately with all the new things he is learning to say. I've been writing them down so I won't forget what it was like when he first started talking. He's so sweet and funny. Here are a few (a bunch of) things I've written down:

"You have owie? Sad... I kiss it better... Need a bandaid?" (melt my heart why don'tcha! He loves bandaids, he wants to put them on everyones owies and is constantly sneaking them and putting them on himself.)

"I wanna drive, mom." (give me 14 more years will ya?)

"I want the keys!"

"Why??  'Cause." (He was asking me "why?" all of the time and when I didn't have an answer I would just say "'cause." Then he started asking why and then answering himself  saying "'cause."

"I need to washes hands in the bathroom." (yes that's how he says it. He loves washing his hands!)

"Holy crap!" (I've really gotta watch what I say! Little parrot)

"Thank you so much." (I guess he listens to the good stuff too :) )

"See ya tomorrow."

"See you guys."

"No no, Stev-an." (I don't think he can say Steven without adding an a in there. It's cute)

"Sorry!" (He will do something without meaning to and will say "sorry!!" So sweet)

"Alright?" (He will add this on to any sentence where he is telling me what we or he is going to do. sassy pants.)

"I wanna monana." (for some reason he can't say banana)

"Dear Heavenly Father, thankful for this day; dear Heavenly Father, thankful for this day."
 (He has started wanting to say his own prayers but this is all he can remember on his own so he said it twice one night. It was really cute and made me laugh)

"I don't want to!"

"I want to get down you guys, alright?"  (From his high chair. I think it's funny he will call us "you guys")

"Hold on a sec." (funny at first, but then really sad when I noticed how often I said it to him! Working on that.)

Love you Ty buddy!

I'm hesitant to write a post about this because it seems that everytime I blog, whatever I say in my post becomes the opposite of what I've said! I don't want to jinx all my new found sleep :) but here goes.
       Our house only has 2 bedrooms upstairs. There used to be one for Ty and one for us. Then Stevie was born and that meant he would need to sleep in our room with us. I mean, how do you trust your 21 month old (at the time) to be alone in the same room as your newborn baby? That means Stevie has  been roomin' with us for the past 7.5 months. I knew eventually we would have to move the baby in with Ty, but when? I was afraid Ty might try to share his bottle or try to get in his crib with him and land on top of him or that one of them would cry and wake the other one up. But lately none of us have been sleeping. Our typical night goes as follows: We go to sleep and about an hour later Stevie will wake up to eat, then as I'm falling back asleep Ty will wake up to go potty.  Then Stevie will wake up again a few hours later and then Ty again. Then John will get up for work then both kids wake up an hour later and I feel like I have been up the entire night! I just want ONE good night of sleep!
I had asked Ty a couple of times if we should move Steven in his room and every time I asked he would say no. But I've been realizing lately that it is harder to wake Ty up then to keep him asleep. Apparently he is a heavy sleeper like me! So one day we just switched his room around to fit Stevie and laid Stevie down for a nap. It's much darker in Ty's room so he slept longer than usual. I told Ty that we had moved Stevie in there and he didn't say much. Then he came up to me and said, "I want to go to bed." It was cute but I said, "Sorry bud, we need to let Stevie sleep." He kept asking me if he could go in there. He was so excited that the baby was in his room. It was sweet. So that night I got the baby down for bed then went in a little later to get Ty down and told him we needed to be really quiet so we didn't wake him up. He kept saying, "shhh..be quiet." Then he got in bed and went right to sleep! I thought for sure the first week or two would be a big adjustment with even longer nights but I've never had so much sleep! They've both been napping awesome and sleeping though the night! Last night Steven slept for 12 HOURS. TWELVE. He has never slept more than 6 or 7 and that was on a very lucky night!  This is a miracle. I keep kicking myself for not doing it sooner! It occurred to me today that Stevie probably woke up so much in the night because of me! I've had the worlds worst allergies since march which means I've been super congested and cannot breathe. So at night I've become a super loud snorer! The poor thing, I hadn't thought of that being the reason before. He's probably loving all this sleep. He's been so happy. And Ty loves having  his brother in there with him! He's been such a good listener and been so quiet and he has been sleeping all through the night also. He probably hated being alone in there. I feel bad for all of us that it took so long to make the switch! I feel so blessed this week! I love my babies. I can't wait for them to be able to really play together. Ty will love having a built in buddy! Love you boys!

This week we went to Cherry Hill and Lagoon. We went on this vacation every single year as kids but it'd been a few years since we went last so I was excited to go and I knew Ty would love it! Everyone who asked where we were going had no idea what Cherry Hill was, (its a water park/campground) so I figured when we got there it wouldn't be busy like it used to be but it was super packed! Lots and lots of trailers and people. We came prepared to camp in a tent but when we checked in for the 2 nights it was almost 70 bucks. We were both surprised it was so much for just a patch of grass, so John figured it'd still be cheaper to drive back and forth every morning and night. At first I was like heck no, I'm not driving an hour back and forth every day (twice a day). But it ended up being only 45 min each way, both kids fell asleep for the night 45 seconds into each drive, and I was able to get further into my book. (how do mom's ever finish books?? I get interrupted every 5 minutes) So it ended up working out. We got there on Monday around 4 pm, had dinner and just hung out and then we hooked up a projector and watched Madagascar 2. We drove home and came back then next morning and got an all day splash pass. Ours included all the pools, waterslides, lazy river, mini golf, a maze, little water boats for Ty, and a little jungle gym. It was a really fun day for Ty and it was fun watching him. We had fun, too, but this was our first year that we didn't go for ourselves; we went for our kids. It's an interesting switch! Couldn't do as many things with a baby and toddler as we used to, but it was really good :) I didn't get too many pictures the first half of that day since we were swimming, but after lunch before we went swimming again, we took Ty to the maze and little boats and the jungle gym. He was in control of his own boat so he kept going around in circles. It was so funny, he couldn't straighten it out.

 

 

They had a ball pit so we put Ty in there and he had no clue what was going on and wanted to get out. On his way out, he reached down to grab a ball to take with us.

 

 

(Had to put it back of course)

 

There was a room with little air guns and tons of balls that we went in and tried out, it had amazing AC so it felt good to be in there. There was a black light so we glowed like crazy!

 

 

We went mini golfing and I, of course, lost. But it was super fun. Ty loved it too even though he was pretty bad, like me. :) It was so hot and we were all dripping sweat, so we got back in the water and played. Then later that night we went on the water slides again and again and again. I think that was the best part of the day. Ty loved it every single time and didn't want to stop. He was so happy all day despite not having had a nap the last few days. It was so fun to see him have such a great time! We played another round of golf, but the sun was down so it wasn't as hot when we played. I lost again but it was still fun! We drove home and then back in the morning to Lagoon.

 

Waiting to get in:

 

I was really curious to see how Ty would do on the rides. He absolutely loves big water slides and never wants to get off so I was hoping this would be the same. The first ride he tried was this one:

 

 For some reason he was trying not to smile, it was so funny cause you could tell he was loving it but he was trying to keep a straight face. I didn't know two year olds knew how to do that! Hilarious. He finally cracked a smile and said he liked it and wanted to go on another ride. John wanted to take him on the mini rocket, I thought for sure he would hate it and it would ruin all the other rides for him.

 

He loved it and laughed and even waved! It was cute. We found this little roller coaster called bombora (I think?). It was big enough and fast enough to give me butterflies, it went up and up then down really fast and then all around and he just laughed. His little head was shaking and moving all over because it was so fast but he had this huge smile the whole time. Every time it ended he'd look disappointed and say I wanna go again! We probably went 7-8 times throughout the day. The last few times all the people in front of us put their hands up and waved them around in the air so he put his up too. It was really cute :)

Again it was such a hot day so a couple of hours after lunch we all wanted to go on rattlesnake rapids. For some reason Ty hates getting his clothes wet. He will spill a drop of water on his pants or shirt and say, "It's all wet! I need new shirt." So I knew even though he was hot and needed to get wet he would hate it. And he did. It was almost 5 o clock so way past his bed time anyways so he was already more touchy than usual. But we had his trusty binky so it helped him be happy. Him and Stevie chilled in the stroller while we got some ice cream.

 

that cheered him right up!

Messy messy ice cream in the heat, trying to help him keep it clean:

 

We walked around for a bit and he saw all the balls, then all he wanted was to do was play basket ball:

 

All 4 babies, Stevie, Lincoln, Annie, & Russ (April decided last second on Monday to pack the boys up and come join us! She's super woman! We're so glad you came!)

 

Dad, Mom, and their 8 kids (well almost. We miss you sarah! excited to see you in 6-ish weeks!)

 

 

Love my sweet boys:

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks mom and dad for the fun trip!

 

 

 

We got to go to Lake Powell a couple of weeks ago, I love that place! This year was way better than last year. Last year I was pregnant so I couldn't cliff jump or go tubing or do much else and it wasn't great weather. This year I could do all those things and the weather was awesome! We rode down with John's parents and Mary. We took out one of the backseats so we had the whole back to ourselves. It was pretty nice! Very roomy. My legs were all the way extended most of the ride!

The water was super cold, but it was nice once you got used to it. It was really hot outside for Stevie so he cried a lot on the houseboat, but he loved the freezing water. I was surprised! He let me put him in all the way multiple times and never once cried. He did more of a laughing scream, it was so funny. He also loved taking a ride on the little boat. He cooed the whole time and fell asleep right as we pulled back in. It was cute :)

(look at that smile!)

 

 

 

This picture is pretty blurry, but these were the 4 babies down there this year. (Blake, Stevie, Nora, & Link) They were all so great! Stevie cried the most. :)

 

 

We had such a great view of the lake. Its so amazing down there!

 

Me and my hunny. Love him

 

It was so nice when he'd actually fall asleep, his naps were only 30 min long but every little bit helped him be a little bit happier.

 

This kid seemed to be starving while we were there. I keep waiting for another tooth to pop through! He loved sucking the juice out of my apples.

 

We got kid duty while everyone finished cleaning the house boat. They were all so cute throwing bread to the fish. There were even a few fish that swam up and ate the bread. They all did great waiting in the heat!

 

It's always sad to say goodbye. But I was anxious to see my Ty buddy. We had to leave him behind. We didn't want to lose him in the water or on land! He did have a blast at Shannon's house though, THANKS shan!!You're the best!

 

 

 

 



Until next year!