A Much Needed Update!

Man, life just seems so busy and crazy right now! We have had lots of goings-on, thus the need for a long update!

Isaac's 9 Month Check-up


Isaac is 9 months! HOLY COW! Life just goes by way too fast. I can't believe I'm going to be planning his 1st birthday at the end of the summer.

Here are his 9 month stats:
17 lbs (4th percentile)
27 3/4 inches long (32nd percentile)
17.9 cm head circumference (55th percentile)

He is still just a little guy. I am actually kind of glad he is on the small side sometimes, because I feel like he is trying to grow up too fast so he seems younger than he is. Isaac is just as busy as ever! He is pulling himself up and walking along things, and he can stand up against the couch or whatever and will stand with only holding on with one hand. He also climbs stairs which has been an adventure because he hasn't figured out how to go down yet so we have to keep a gate up all the time. He is so smiley and fun, and is SUCH a mommy's boy. I love it but it can be exhausting at times. I can barely even walk out of the room sometimes! He is just such a treasure. Isaac's favorite show right now is Sesame Street ("Play with Me Sesame" to be exact)....every time it comes on he will stop whatever he is doing, crawl over to the TV and watch it. It is so cute! I think I might do a Sesame Street theme for his 1st birthday.

Isaac is such a little climber!


Swimming lessons

So ever since I had Isaac I have had anxiety about taking both kids to the pool by myself. I took Malea to the pool all the time, even last summer when I was big pregnant. But now that I have two of them, I have just been nervous about how I would balance both kids. Malea is too brave for her own good and I can just see her jumping right in without waiting for me! Because of that I decided to put Malea in swimming lessons. I don't imagine that she will be swimming laps any time soon, but she is learning some basics like putting her head under water, blowing bubbles, floating, kicking, etc. We got 7 peaks passes (which we have yet to use because the weather hasn't been nice enough!) so I'm looking forward to going to the pool and letting Malea try out her new skills :)

Malea is in the "Frogs" class :)


Art City Days

Well it wouldn't be summer without Art City Days! This is one of my favorite family traditions. We have been going since I was just probably Malea's age. We went to the $1 night at the carnival (it was SUPER busy but still fun) and got a delicious scone of course. Then we all met up for the parade on Saturday and had lunch at my mom's afterwards. It was really fun!

(Malea and Grandpa Rick going down the slide)

Isaac's hand :(

Speaking of Art City Days..... Like I mentioned, we went to my mom's for an outdoor picnic lunch after the parade. We were just all eating and visiting and Isaac was crawling around on the grass. He came over to my chair and pulled himself up to the chair begging for food I think. :) Well he dropped to the ground to move on to the next thing, and when he fell he scratched his finger on the metal lawn chair. He started to cry and I couldn't figure out why at first. Then I saw that his finger was bleeding. It wasn't deep or anything, but it was bleeding so I took him in the house to wash it. I put a bandaid on it but that only lasted about 5 minutes. He seemed fine and life just continued on. In all honesty, I kind of forgot about it, because Isaac also had a pretty bad cold so I was distracted by dealing with that. Well about 5 days later I noticed that his scratch had scabbed over but it was a little pink around the edges. I didn't think much of it, but put some neosporin on it and again tried to put a bandaid on it (he pulled it off within a few minutes). The next night I noticed that it was a little bit worse, and again I washed it and put neosporin on it. Well the next morning (so a week after the cut) I looked at his finger and could not believe my eyes. It was so infected, it was super swollen and red and he couldn't even bend it! It looked like there was a blister on it. Well we called the pediatrician's office and luckily we were able to get in to the last appointment of the day (it was a Saturday so they closed at noon). We took him in and the doctor told us that it was a good thing we brought him, and that it was definitely infected.

This was the sad part......the doctor had to drain the infection (aka puss) out of his cut so he peeled off the scab and squeezed his little pinky so hard! It was like he was popping a blister. Needless to say, Isaac cried VERY hard. It was so sad :( He took a swab of the infection and said they were going to test it and that he would have the results on Monday. Because of Isaac's age and his resistance to keeping a bandaid on it, he told us we would have to wrap his whole hand to keep a bandage on it. He gave us a Rx for an antibiotic ointment that we had to put on twice a day for a few days. Isaac did surprisingly well letting us do his bandage each time. We had to put the medicine, some gauze, and then a tender wrap over his hand with some tape to keep it on. Well Monday came and the pediatrician's office called. Turns out he tested positive for a Staph infection! I couldn't believe it. I felt like a bad mom, naturally, and wished that I would have been more diligent about cleaning it and keep a bandage on it. Live and learn I guess. It was just such a small cut and I kind of just forgot about it. Now we have to continue with the ointment and he has to take an oral antibiotic for 10 days. Hopefully that will help him get all of the yucky infection out. Poor Isaac! I swear its always something with that kid!

Bee's game

Keith got tickets to the SL Bee's baseball game from his work at Nu Skin. It was so fun! We took the kids and just sat in the general admission section (on the grass). The cool thing is that they do fireworks after the games on Saturdays, and we got tickets to a Saturday game! It was really fun other than the fact that they went in to extra innings (I think there was like 12 innings!) so the fireworks didn't even start until like 11pm! Malea was a trooper and stayed awake through the whole thing, but Isaac was starting to get a cold and wasn't in the best mood so Keith took him out to the car.


Auntie Kenzie times two

I became an aunt again....twice! First my sister-in-law Sherri (my husband's brother's wife) had baby Cambrie on June 1st. She is so tiny and cute! We helped out with Nathan (big brother) the couple of days she was in the hospital, and then they had to go and move to Montana for the summer. :(

Then on June 13th my other sister-in-law Kelsie (my brother Dan's wife) had baby Miles! Poor Kelsie went over her due date by 8 days! Miles is so cute and its soooo weird to see my baby brother with a baby of his own! I'm so excited for them.

Seeing these two new little babies makes me realize how my Isaac is growing up too fast! He's going to be 1 in just under 3 months! Its makes me sad but not enough to have another one any time soon :)

Things to look forward to

Well we have a fun-filled summer ahead. We are going camping for the first time this summer up to the Jolley's ranch in Hobble Creek canyon. Then the next weekend we are going to Washington to visit Keith's parents for a week over the 4th of July. Its going to be weird not being in Provo for the Freedom Festival, but I guess they have a lot of fun festivities up in Washington too. We also got the 'Pass of all Passes' (which includes 7 peaks passes), so we are excited to use it for all the fun activities.

A Great Reminder

A friend of mine posted this on facebook and I just wanted to share it here! Its such a great reminder that our children are only young for so long and we need to enjoy it while we can!
(I found the poem here.)

Babies Don't Keep

Mother, O Mother, come shake out your cloth,
Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
Hang out the washing, make up the bed,
Sew on a button and butter the bread.

Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I've grown as shiftless as Little Boy Blue,
Lullabye, rockabye, lullabye loo.
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
Pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo

The shopping's not done and there's nothing for stew
And out in the yard there's a hullabaloo
But I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo
Look! Aren't his eyes the most wonderful hue?
Lullabye, rockaby lullabye loo.

The cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow
But children grow up as I've learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down cobwebs; Dust go to sleep!
I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

- Ruth Hulbert Hamilton

Its so easy to wish our children's lives away, to say "I can't wait until they are ____ age, it will be so much easier then".....I catch myself saying/thinking that regularly. It may be true, but I also need to ENJOY them at the age they are at now! I get teary when I look at pictures of Malea as a baby, and how FAST it has gone! And here Isaac is, almost 9 MONTHS OLD, and going to be 1 soon! I just can't believe it. Being a mom is so hard sometimes, but I will try to remember this poem when times are tough!

Here is a picture of both of my sweet angels as babies, I love them so much!!!

Malea Mary

Isaac Asay

My Big Girl!

Malea is potty trained! Yay!

I never thought the day would come! She was so resistant to it for the longest time. We tried potty training her once before a couple of months ago, and it did not go well. She was defiant about it and just kept having accidents. There was one point where I put her on the potty and she started kicking and screaming, and I decided that was not effective! We decided to take a break and try again in a month or two. Well one day she just woke up in the morning and said "I need to go potty!" and ran to the bathroom and went! It was a piece of cake after that. The only accidents she had were during naps or at night (which we are still working on). Other than that, she pretty much just potty trained herself! I've decided that it is so much easier to just wait until your child is ready than to force them to do it when you are ready. SHE had to be the one to decided. I'm sure every kid is different, but that was what worked for Malea. I'm excited about how much money I'm going to be saving!

Here she is getting some prizes from the treasure chest :)

Way to go Malea! We're so proud of you!

Isaac's 1st Zoo Trip!

Wow, I've been a major blogging slacker! Life has just been so busy!

I have so much to catch up on, but I'll start with our trip to the zoo. We went to the zoo back on May 6th. We try to make it to the zoo at least once a year, and we couldn't have picked a better day! The weather was PERFECT, not too hot and not too cold, with a little breeze, and it wasn't too crowded. Malea was at such a fun age this year. Last year she was just barely 2 years old when we went (and I was just a few months along in my pregnancy with Isaac). She knew most of the animals and had her favorites that she wanted to make sure we saw (giraffes & elephants). It was fun to have Isaac with us this year too!

I'll just let the pictures do most of the talking :)

Looking at the monkeys

I remember getting pictures as a kid in front of the "Do you measure up?" wall too! So weird to see my own daughter doing it in this picture!

Malea LOVES the carousel....she went on it twice :)

Malea was so excited to see the giraffes! When we walked up to the giraffe exhibit, she said "Wook (look) mommy! I found them!" So cute!

(You can see one of the giraffes in the background on the left)

We got so close to this giraffe! You could practically reach out your hand and touch it (we didn't of course! haha)

Love this picture of Malea in the turtle shell :)

My two little cuties!

Mommy and Malea on the train ride

Until next year!....

Happy Easter

We had a great Easter this year! Malea was at such a fun age this year with all the festivities.

We started out our week by making Easter cookies. Malea was a great helper :)

Doing a fun little Easter bunny craft

On the Saturday before Easter we had a little egg hunt with the neighbors in our complex, it was really fun! The weather was kind of stinky but that didn't stop us!

Malea's loot

Can't be Easter without dyeing eggs!

Malea & Isaac's Easter baskets this year

Isaac's 1st Easter!

Every year at this time I get so wrapped up in what I'm going to do for Easter baskets, what treats I'm going to make, and what we are having for Easter dinner, so this year I wanted to make sure that we focused on the real purpose of Easter, which is Christ's resurrection. I came across this cool thing that I want to make a tradition in our family, and I found it HERE. Each egg has a different scripture reference and item that represents that scripture inside, and it tells the story of Christ's death and resurrection.

On Easter Sunday we went to church for the last Sunday in our student ward. :( The Church decided to do away with student wards, so that included us. We are going to miss our ward but we're excited to start going to our local family ward and get to know new people.

After church we went to my Dad's for our first Easter dinner. Then after coming home for naps we went and did round two at my mom's. After dinner we did a little egg hunt in my mom's backyard with all the cousins. It was really fun!

My mom made these darling little rice krispy treat bunnies for everyone! You make rice krispy treats, and then dip them in white chocolate and coconut with green food coloring in it, and then you stick a peep marshmallow on the front. She is so creative :)

Happy Easter!