Six a.m. and I'm wide awake

Oh, how true..... anyway,
Ezra is half way to one. Boy is he a cutie!

He's turning out to be quite a good baby. He still wakes up twice in the night. However, it's been better than before when it was three times as well as a rather consistent one to two hour awake time around 4am (sigh). After a little training he has learned to fall asleep on his own at bedtime. Naps are another story but I remember Roman crying through many a naps before he got good at that, so.... we're still working on that. At least he's so tired that the early morning play time is all but gone.


Ezra doesn't get sitting up. He topples right over. But he's a master at rolling. He worked really hard at rolling all the way around for about a week and then once he figured it out, he's been really good at it. And surprisingly, he really enjoys being on his tummy (a first for my children).


Ezra is super strong. He's always been hard to hold because he wiggles so much and now that he's bigger and stronger, it's even harder. My arms are going to break! Seriously, I was curious about how much he weighed so I held him while on the scales the other day. 20 lbs!!! It's not official because we haven't gone to his doctors appointment yet but what a porker! I shouldn't be surprised with all those nighttime meals.


He has started to enjoy his almost daily meal of oatmeal (yum) and he loves to watch Roman play boxing on the Wii. And who wouldn't? Roman goes through all the motions, including falling quite theatrically when his mii gets knocked down.

And... he's up for his 10:00 p.m. meal, so I will end it there :) There is only one good picture of him with his stuffed monkey because as you will see, if he came within reach, Ezra tackled him.

one and one is two

So, like I was saying... This girl is finally two! Why am I excited about having a two year old? I don't believe it can get any harder. Seriously, this girl has been through some rough patches in her life. Or at least it would seem that way. Nothing seriously wrong with her, just very emotional and easily overwhelmed I guess.


I complain, probably so that I don't go insane. But seriously, I love this girl. She makes me laugh all the time, she is SO expressive, silly, girly and at only two, she rules this place. And even though she cries a lot, she really is a pretty good girl and does what she's told... most of the time (it's a tough act to follow Roman)


She has started to speak in sentences. Here are a few:

I'm hungry mommy
I don't want to
Mommy, where are you? (often said right to my face, she thinks it's pretty funny)
I want ________ (fill in the blank)
go potty..... snacks (I know, not exactly a full sentence, but I'm glad she's picking up on the concept)
I'm sleepy

She can say just about any words you ask her to say.

She loves to sing songs and does surprisingly well on the tune but usually only gets the first and last words of the phrase.
She can put on her shoes (sometimes on the right feet)
She loves going on walks and runs (she calls them silly walks because we are going fast). She still loves reading books but has started playing a few other things. She likes playing with Roman's trains while I run on the treadmill.

I still can't interest her in anything T.V. related. I know it's a good thing but sometimes you just need a good distraction so you can get something done.

She loves fruit and strawberries are her favorite. She likes animals but is often scared to actually touch them.


Like I said in the last post, she is learning her colors and gets most of the basic colors right. Green/blue and yellow/orange sometimes get mixed up but she is leaps and bounds ahead of Roman who we were afraid was color blind for a while. (he's got them down now)


That's about it. I'm so glad she is in our family. I can't imagine life without her.


And if you want more to read. Here is her birth story. Hers is by far my favorite birth story out of the three.

Birth Story:

I started having contractions that kept me awake a lot of Tuesday night but weren't horrible and definitely weren't regular. Wednesday I kept having contractions that were bothersome and took a little concentration but were more than 20 minutes apart and didn't last very long so I just kept going on with life, cleaned my sewing room, took Roman to Mc Ds to play etc. Wednesday night around 7 p.m. my contractions started coming about 15 minutes apart. They hurt, but I could stand them. They continued that way until bedtime. It hurt to do anything but stand and walk, so I went to the basement so that Shane could sleep and I paced the basement. My contractions never really got regular. Sometimes they were 2-3 minutes apart, sometimes they were 7-10 minutes apart and they never really got over 45 seconds. So I was thinking I was in for another LONG labor. I decided to call the hospital at 1:30 am and see what they thought I should do. They said "you can come in if you want" So... I decided I would wait till 2 to wake Shane. At 2 am I woke Shane because I was starting to get nauseous and he called Bruce to come stay with Roman.
I had planned to go without meds, but at this point I was thinking that I could not take any more, thinking I was in for at least another 4 hours.
We got in the car and Shane was saying he didn't have any cash. I told him to stop at the bank ATM on the way, but he decided not to (good thing)
The hospital was a 20 min. drive and I cried just about the whole way because the contractions hurt so much while sitting. The pressure was so intense. I complained that it would be another hour and a half before I would get an epidural.
We got to the hospital and checked in, walked upstairs. I got out of the elevator and had to stop for a contraction and this one took me to my knees. Right there in the hall my water broke. The nurses came running down to get me and they took me to a delivery room and started setting things up to check me etc. as soon as I got in the bed I said. "I HAVE TO PUSH" the nurse says "no, don't push".... Yeah right. She checked, and yep... there is baby, all ready to come out.
So, the nurses quit trying to find a heartbeat etc. and got ready for baby to come. Not three good pushes later and Marisa was born about 8 minutes after we got to the hospital. Just imagine if we had stopped at the bank. I joked a few days before that it would be awful if we didn't make it in time and that was nearly the case.

She was chubby and cute with her little pink bow and what a cute girl she is still.

It takes Two

Marisa is Two years old! What a fun day we had. My main goal for the day was to have her cry as little as possible. It went well.

She woke to pink balloons tied to her highchair, some pink flower garlands on the windows, a stack of pink presents and a pink strawberry cake.


The girl likes pink, but more than that I think we are just celebrating the fact that she knows many of her colors. A concept that took a lot longer for Roman to grasp as a toddler

That morning as we were getting ready for church she came to me and said "mom, I'm hungry" "hmmm... I want cake"

We had a small get together with cousins that night where she opened presents, ate cake and played with the presents.

Talking to Grandma on the phone

The big one.... The aforementioned roller coaster. The kids love this thing and has already had hours of use and hundreds of rides. By the end of the night Marisa was doing it all by herself and being a daredevil and riding with her hands in the air. It's big but we have lot of room in the basement for it. SO worth it.

Roman had a two-on-one basketball game with his cousins.

Other presents included a backpack filled with a baby doll care set for her dolly from her cousins. She loves pretending to feed her dolly so this was perfect. She also got a my little pony, a book and a travel doodle-pro. Roman bought her a coloring book with his own money.

What a fun day. I'm just glad that she seemed to enjoy it.

Part two: her two year pictures and latest accomplishments coming soon!

A tisket A tasket

Easter was a huge high point for Roman this year. He loves hunting for Easter eggs, he often wants to re-hide the empty eggs just to find them all over again. He could not wait for Easter.

The Easter bunny visits our house while we are away at church. Roman the silly boy knew the baskets were in the living room but he needed to go to the bathroom when we got home so he closed his eyes and ran past the living room so that he would not spoil the surprise for himself.

Marisa was thrilled that there was pink grass in her bucket

Both R and M were thrilled with their buckets. (These adorable buckets cost just as much as the absolute cheapest ugliest baskets I could find, so I...I mean the Easter bunny, went the bucket route this year)


That rabbit sure was good to my kids. They got bubbles, a fishing game (cheap but fun), Roman got a game for the DS which is really meant for even younger kids than him, but he likes that he can play and have fun and it's not hard (the kid likes to win). Marisa got some sunglasses and some glow in the dark stars for her room. Ezra got some baby food to try out one of these days. And he was especially fond of the Easter grass.


After buckets and a quick change of clothes, they hunted eggs. It was a perfect day to be outside. I love spring! Except for when it snows.


The kids have been good about not eating all of their candy at once and they are still enjoying their prizes. It was a good day.

Tumbling down

In an attempt to beat the clumsiness that I seem to have passed on to Roman we signed him up for a little community Gymnastics class this spring. He loved it! and he was surprisingly pretty good at it.


So every Tuesday morning for ten weeks we went to the Mapleton community center and he ran around like a monkey set free for 45 minutes. He was especially good at the front and back rolls. He never really got the balance beam, but at least by the end he would do it without help.


Last week was their final "performance". Where they just basically did everything they learned in front of anyone who wasn't able to go watch during regular class time. Roman stole the show by doing a front flip off of the platform on to a lower mat. I tried to take a picture, I was too close and he was going fast, but there you have it. (He's been practicing doing that from our piano bench on to the bean bag)



Anyway, It was some good exercise and maybe... just maybe he won't be afraid to climb on the playground in Kindergarten like I was.

Roman Comparing medals with his friend Hayden. (he insists that Hayden's had a #4 on it while his had a #1... not very likely)

Gym class was really fun. We're going to miss it.

They say it's your birthday

Yes. One more year and I will be the dreaded 30!!!! I know, I know... big whoop. But I don't wanna be 30!!!!!!

I started to feel sick the day before my birthday and by the time Sunday morning rolled around, I couldn't stand up without feeling like I might pass out. So much for any of my plans for lots of yummy food.

I love cooking on Conference Sunday. If I sit to watch conference, I end up falling asleep. Something about the old men's deep voices just puts me to sleep so quickly. So I planned of having scones for breakfast and a nice steak dinner as well as cake etc.

Well since the scone dough was made the night before I gathered the strength to fry a few up, but more than half of the dough ended up in the trash because I could barely fry it, let alone eat it.

I did start to feel a little better later in the day so we went on a walk to see the baby goats, who were not so little anymore but still just so cute! Baby goats are so playful, soft and cute. We walk the half mile to see the new batch of babies many times every spring. There was another goat who had not had her babies yet and I felt bad for her. She was so big and heavy looking. I felt bad for the already mommy goat too and her HUGE swollen udder. Uggg... I could relate (Only 7 more months!)


I also managed to make some cakes in my new mini bunt cake pan that I got on clearance for $2. (I love a good deal) They turned out cute.


I'm slowly getting better but Since Saturday it's been off and on fever and chills mixed with pain in my ears and throat and nausea. So much fun. I think it must be some kind of infection, but it seems to be getting better on it's own, so unless things get worse, I'm not going to waste my $ on a doctors visit.

I got my birthday presents over a month ago because I wanted some new jeans and running shoes. By the end of February all my jeans had holes in the knees and my shoes had holes in them too, so I got my birthday presents early so that I would not look quite so homeless. Oh, and I bought myself the camera :)

Anyway, two weeks and we've got Marisa's b-day, then two more weeks and it's Shane's b-day then one more month and it's Roman's b-day. Lot's of partying going on here.

I've also got a lot to blog about so hopefully I continue to get better so I can get it done.

Where a kid can be a kid

Grandpa came to visit for our nephew/cousin's baptism and we had a fun week.

We went to Chuck-e-Cheeses for a night of fun. We spent lots of $ and Roman had a blast. Marisa started to have fun after about 2 hours but still would not really do much. I didn't take any pictures because we've been about three times now, maybe four, and all the pictures are the same. Roman spent 70 of his 1100 tickets and got some puzzles, a sucker and a silly straw. Marisa grabbed me by the hand and took me to the prize counter and pointed to a pink bracelet. How she remembered or knew about the prizes is beyond me. She's only ever watched Roman get his prizes and it has been 10 months since we've been there.

Saturday was the baptism. Roman enjoyed watching the event and was excited for his cousin. I took advantage of everyone looking nice to take lots of pictures although I haven't mastered taking pictures in the church gym with all the florescent lights and brown backgrounds bleck!



The rest of the time was spent eating yummy food and playing Wii etc.




Marisa did a lot of this, but she did warm up to Grandpa and allowed Shane and I to leave her for an hour to have dinner by ourselves. Thanks to Grandpa and Carmen and everyone else involved who helped keep her and the others entertained.


And, we are looking forward to the vacation to Ohio in June. Just not looking forward to the airplane ride. Anyone have a double umbrella stroller they want to lend or sell me for the trip?


Extra photo: If you ask Roman to do his hair, you either get this, or a smeared down alfalfa look.