Princess Malea is 3!!!

My sweet little Malea turned 3!!! I can't believe she is so grown up! We had such a fun weekend full of lots of fun festivities.

On Saturday (her actual birthday) we had a Princess Party with some of her friends. It was SO fun! It was a little chaotic at times, but I think everyone had fun. All the kids dressed up like princesses/princes. We had pizza and then all the kids decorated a little foam crown with jewels and with sparkly letters to spell their names. It was really fun! Then we had cake & ice cream and presents. She got so many fun things, including a really fun slide/basketball hoop toy that was a combined gift from us and her grandparents. My aunt made this AMAZING cake, everyone loved it! She is so talented.

Now this is the part where I get sentimental and you can stop reading if you want :)

The day before her birthday, I came across a movie on TV called "Motherhood" (it has Uma Therman in it, I had never heard of it before that day but I guess it came out in 2009). Well the movie was just okay, but there was a part in it that really struck me. Uma Therman's character was preparing for her daughter's 6th birthday party. She looked out the window to see her daughter playing outside, and stopped to watch her. She put her hand to her chest and said, "today is her last day of being 5." Well I don't know what it was, but I burst in to tears! That sounds so silly, but it really hit me that Malea was turning 3 and this day was the last day of her being 2. She was never going to be 2 again. It just really made me think about how fast kids grow up, and despite how frustrating or difficult it can be sometimes, we should just cherish every minute of it!

Malea is just such a joy. There are so many things I love about her. She is very energetic, has a great sense of humor, and loves to have fun. She can be a little drama queen sometimes, but that's just Malea. I wouldn't want her to be any different. She is SO smart. I am just amazed at the things that come out of her mouth sometimes. She loves to do arts and crafts, which I just love. I will be sad when she doesn't want to do crafts with me anymore. She loves to get out of the house and do things. She is very motherly and is so sweet to her little brother Isaac. She is always watching out for him. The other day at church she was in nursery and heard a baby cry out in the hall. She said, "that's my little brother! I need to go help him!" and she ran out of the doors and almost in to the other ward's sacrament meeting before the leader caught up with her! She just loves him so much.

I just can't believe how fast these 3 years have gone by! It seems like I just had her yesterday and now she is a big 3 year old. That sounds so cliche, but its true. I'm so excited to watch her grow up and so proud of the girl she is becoming, but I can't help but get a little sad when I think of how fast she is growing up. There are times when I am busy with something or pre-occupied and Malea will say "play with me mommy!" I am trying really hard to remember that cleaning the house can wait, and its more important to spend time with my sweet little girl.

I LOVE YOU MALEA!!!

Under the Sea

We went to the Living Planet Aquarium back in December and I realized that I never posted about it! Malea was so excited to go, and we have been wanting to take her for a while.

She loved all of the animals and was talking about it for days! She especially loved the penguins and sea horses. It was a fun little family outing!

Isaac had fun too :)

Keith petting a sting ray (minus the sting).....he was much braver than me, I was too big of a wuss to do it!

Our little penguin :) Malea loves penguins....she loves the movie "Happy Feet" (much to my dismay....I cannot stand that movie!) and she will pretend she is a penguin sometimes (soooo cute)

Peekaboo!

Isaac - 4 months

Isaac is 4 months old!

He is growing up so fast. Here are his stats from his 4 month check-up:

Weight: 13 lbs 6 oz (17th percentile)
Height: 24.5 inches (30th percentile)
Head circumference: 16.5 cm (37th percentile)

He is kind of small but that's okay, he is so dang BUSY that I'm not surprised! Pretty much if he is awake he is moving constantly! Everyone that holds him says "he is so wiggly!" I'm scared for when he starts crawling/walking, I have a feeling I'm going to be chasing him around all over the place!

An interesting little tidbit, I checked Malea's growth charts from when she was 4 months old and she was a pound heavier, an inch longer, and her head circumference was in the 90th percentile!

Isaac just started rolling over from his back to his belly right before he turned 4 months, so he is now rolling both directions. He is also starting to reach/bat for things and when he lays on his back he plays with his feet. He is so smiley and loves to laugh. He is also ticklish (which he inherited from his mommy). I can already tell that he is going to be our "class clown". He has a great sense of humor. He is just such a joy!

Its funny how different each child is....I thought when I was pregnant with him that I was a pro now since we already had one, but boy was I wrong! He keeps us guessing all the time. Things that worked with Malea don't always work with him. It just goes to show that every one is born with different, unique personalities!

He absolutely loves his sister. He smiles when he sees her, and loves when she plays with him. Now that he is getting a little bit older it is fun because Malea can entertain him. I have also noticed that she is a little bit rougher with him since he is not a newborn anymore, and we are constantly reminding her to be gentle. I'm interested to see if they will still be buddies when he is able to follow her around and steal her toys though!

Merry Christmas!

Our 2010 Christmas card

We had a great holiday season this year! It was so much fun because it was Isaac's 1st Christmas. We have so many fun traditions, especially now that Malea is a little older.

Of course we had to go see Santa (Malea is always so excited until she gets up to him and then she is all serious lol)

She asked Santa for a Jessie doll for Christmas (from Toy Story)

We went to see Santa with our friends The Dinkel's and she also got to ride the train with Maddie and Zach!

Trying to get a picture of both kids in their Christmas jammies

Another fun tradition is going to see the lights at Temple Square!

A picture of the kids in front of our tree

It was fun this year being able to do Christmas crafts with Malea! We made a paper plate snow man, paper bag reindeer, and homemade Christmas cards that Malea colored and put stickers on. It was so fun :)

Isaac had fun too!

A picture of Malea and Daddy with our Gingerbread house, another tradition of ours (I'm too lazy to do homemade ones so we just always buy the kit lol)

A new tradition this year was taking Malea to the Festival of Lights! She LOVED it!

Malea helping mommy make Christmas cookies for the neighbors

Christmas Eve
This picture cracks me up, I was trying to get a cute picture of both of the kids but Malea pulled a face and Isaac wasn't too happy....oh well, good memories!

I bought this blanket for Malea's 1st Christmas, so I had to get a picture of Isaac with it too :)

Only 1 more day!

Christmas morning
We had Keith's parents, Grandma & Grandpa "Dub" (Walker) over for Christmas morning

Keith got the Blu-Ray player he wanted!

And Malea got the Jessie doll she asked for!

Both kids with their loot

Merry Christmas!

6 years!

1 guy + 1 girl + 2 kids + lots of love = 6 years of marriage!

Keith and I have been married for 6 years today! I can't believe how fast it has gone! I love you babe, here's to 60 more years!

Baby Isaac

(Isaac - 8 weeks old)

Isaac is such a joy to our family! Here are a few fun tidbits about our sweet baby boy:

He is so smiley! He started smiling very young and hasn't stopped since! He is turning out to be kind of a ham, and has a great sense of humor. He loves to smile and laugh, and it doesn't take much to get him to do either of those things. You can't help but cheer up when you see him smile.

Everyone that holds him makes the same comment...."He is so wiggly!" He is a very squirmy, wiggly baby. He knows how to roll from his stomach to his back already. He is also doing well holding his head up when he lays on his stomach, and has a strong back. He is constantly moving. If you put a blanket on him in a bouncer or a swing, he will have it kicked off in about 10 seconds! His new favorite thing lately is to stand up on our laps with us holding his hands.

He has turned out to be a pretty good-natured baby. He started out being pretty fussy but is doing much better. He also started out not being the best napper, but with some training has been doing better. He is doing great at night though, I feed him at about 11 or 11:30pm and then he makes it until 7:30 or 8:00am! It is wonderful! He eats about 4-5 oz every 3 hours.


He loves to talk and coo at us. The other night I was feeding him, and I said "I love you Isaac"....he stopped sucking on his bottle, looked up at me, and said "ah-goo" right back. It was so cute!!!


He loves his big sister. From a young age, he would smile when he saw her and he recognizes her voice. She is so sweet with him and very helpful. I hope they will be good buddies someday!

We are looking forward to celebrating his first Christmas!

I am excited to see Isaac grow and see more of his personality come out! It is going by too fast though!