{Life is Sweet}

Every day I watch my kids play and interact with each other and us and every day they amaze me with something new!! i can honestly see them growing physically and mentally EVERYday!! i LOVE my girls so much and i am trying to cherish each day...i couldn't be more happy than i am right now.. able to stay home with my girls and PLAY all day :)


Mia.... 15 months

-can say a few words... including, Hi (my favorite.. she sounds so sweet when she says hi :), bye bye, dada, mama, more (she signs this one), ball, that (dat), baba (for drink), Ta Da (like you'd say after a trick), and wow.... i could be forgetting a few.
-LOVES her stuffed monkey :) at night all we have to say is "you want your monkey?" and we hand it to her.. she gives up a big grin and a little giggle, and then we put her in her crib and she plays with him untill she falls asleep. Mia is sooooo good about nap/bed time!! i can just put her in when i know its time and she will either play for a bit before she falls asleep or lay right down and snooze :) THANK YOU MIA!!!
-Mia is deffinately a paci girl... she will do almost anything to get her hands on one of those bad boys .. haha! i really have to hide them when she is awake because if she catches her eye on one.. it's all over :)
- mia still prefers crawling, but we are thinking she will walk anyday (we have been saying that for 3 months now :) .. but really.. she took seven consecutive steps at church the other day and keeps taking a couple here and there at home...
- mia's favorite foods would be... BANANAS!!!! pasta with red sauce, cafe rio tortillas, any drink, she likes waffles in the mornings, and she will pretty much devour ANY fruit , oh and how could i forget otter pops.. the must have for a st. george summer :)
- i can't look at mia without falling in love all over again..
-she dances to the music.. super cute
-when i point a camera at her and say cheese she tilts her head and smiles.... what a good girl! maddie still hasn't quite mastered that one.
-mia takes one good nap a day in the afternoon.. this is when i get some good sun laying out in my back yard.



cute little sisters..


Mia with her 2 favorite things.... Monkey and paci! what a happy camper :)


cheese...

cheese...

and one more time for mommy, cheese! (notice the head tilts on all 3)


sick baby... mia had a fever for a couple of days (we think teething) so i made her a bed on the floor and she was so content to just lay there and watch movies and nap all day .. sweet girl!
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Maddie.... 3 1/2 yrs old

- Maddie just started gymnastics :) she is sooo cute when she goes.. i feel like she is getting sooo big but when i watch her at the gym she is sooo tiny compared to all the other girls... guess she's still my baby :)
- some cute phrases that commonly come out of mads mouth... "i know what we can do..... we can play hide and seek!!!!" (said with rolling enthusiasm)... " let's go get mia together... because we are both mommies and we are BEST FRIENDS" ...
-likes to dress herself!
-loves to ride bikes with all the neighborhood kids
-puts on my makeup almost daily!!!! aahhhhh
-favorite drink is root beer (any brown soda is root beer) and chocolate milk
- loves to make and drink protein shakes with daddy in the morning :)
-has been changing her identity lately to a different princess each day...
- Sings and performs all the time!!! She Sings at the top of her lungs and LOVES to show off.. haha!
-is a great artist... she draws people all the time with eyes and eyeballs, ears, arms, legs, hair, a nose, and a smile... i seriously am impressed by many of her drawings :)
-recently hung onto the garage door as it was going up... all of a sudden i hear.. "help mommy help!!" and i look over to see her hanging from the garage door like 5 feet off the ground.. haha! i quickly grabbed her down and she was holding onto me soooo tight.. i think the whole ordeal may have scared her a bit :)


goofy girl


goofier girl...


goofiest girl?!....


we LOVE this girl !! she makes us laugh


here is our re-inactment of maddie's ride on the garage door today :) needless to say i wasn't able to ask her to "hold that pose while i grabbed my camera"... so i thought to give you the idea of what happened i would just re-do it :) Funny huh !!... i just wish i could have seen the whole thing... slowly riding up !

Hi, my name is Squishy Baby :) i was given to my best friend Maddie for her first christmas! i have been her FAVORITE baby/toy since :) Maddie is such a good mommy!! she loves to take me everywhere she goes so i don't miss out on anything... i go to church, wal-mart, target, grandma's, camping, and many other places!! My clothes are lost somewhere but that's okay because maddie puts me in silky jammies at nighttime :) as you can tell i am super LOVED !! xoxo Squishy Baby

I have been BEGGING shawn to take me on a beach vacation just the two of us and we finally had the chance!! YAY!!! so we planned a trip to Playa del Carmen... (it's near cancun in mexico). We had soooo much fun! Having two spunky little girls we sometime have a hard time focusing on each other... we were so lucky that my Mom was able to take them for a week!!!... so we were able to RELAX... and celebrate our 7th anniversary in style :) we have both been here before so we didn't care if we did any of the touristy things and so we just woke up at our leisure.... walked 100 ft to the beach... layed out, swam, ate... repeat.... around 6pm we would head in from the beach to get ready for walking around 5th avinue... which is sort of like playa's "strip" :) ... and i swear we did this EVERYday and i probably could do that for the rest of my life :) well here are a few fun pix of our second honeymoon :)... hopefully we will have a 3rd and 4th honeymoon very SOON!


View from the plane... can't wait to land and jump into that beautiful water!!!


When we got there we quickly checked into our hotel room and headed to the beach for some sun, sand, water, and ceviche :) mmmm.. yum!


My sweet boy!


i LOVE the colors in his picture.. the water was AMAZING and probably about 80 degrees!


Our home away from home... this is where we spent the majority of our time.


No words needed :)





our hotel had a deal with this hotel so we could lay out on their chairs... super nice hotel, and super $$$$. we took a slightly cheaper route :).


The love of my life! i am so lucky to be married to my best friend :)


In Mexico and out to dinner at an Italian place :)


us in front of OUR hotel... we LOVED it!! we would totally go back :)


Our room was tucked away in a little garden area...




The pool at our hotel..


mmm... sushi dinner!


I love to take kissing photos... i just wish shawn did too! haha.. i kissed .. he bit!


GQ baby!


They had a bunch of gelato places that were soooo good! this was my favorite :)


our last lunch before we had to fly out...





Poor shawnie didn't feel so good on the flight home... he thought he better just be prepared :)


checking out our escape ... better safe than sorry!


THE HAPPY COUPLE!

Happy seventh anniversary babe!! i love you sooo much and am so happy to be married to you :) thanks for such a memorable trip.... but PLEASE take me back soon!!!

being absolutely ADORABLE!!! ... Mia has started to stand up on her own lots more recently and has taken a couple of steps on her own... hopefully she will be walking like a champ soon.... her pants and baby legs are getting trashed!!


we have been gardening!! one saturday we took the whole day and played in our back yard planting trees, flowers, and a square foot garden!! ...

here is our cute garden! i can't wait 'til i can cook with my fresh tomatoes, and other veggies!! we have already been using our fresh basil!! mmmmm!!


another family favorite lately is Hide and Seek :) Maddie requests to play this frequently!! it is sooo much fun to play with her... and everytime she finds me she instantly hides in my same hiding spot and tells me she will hide there and i should go count and try to find her :) haha.... kids are fun!!


My beautiful girlies in their easter dresses. Sadly this is the best shot i got of them in them.

Here is our cute Target kitchen that Maddie and Mia absolutely LOVE!!! so i decided it needed a minor makeover....


i thought it was in need of some ruffles :) and then the high chair didn't match so of course it needed to be covered in a matching fabric... and what would their kitchen be without a matching pot holder?! just another fun project i had fun playing with :)

I was soooooo excited about my latest shopping experience!! i got a call from my friend who said she had gone to albertsons and with just the coupons in the store she got boxes of cereal for about 17 cents a box!!!! i literally jumped in the truck and went straight to albertsons!!! this is what i filled my cart with!! and just take a guess at how much it all cost?!!!......................wait for it........................

wait for it....................


wait for it....................the suspense must be killing you :).........


10 DOLLA HOLLA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

so we may be eating the same cereal for a while but for 25 cents a box WHO CARES !!! i was soooooo excited :)

we were able to go down to california to go to one of my good friends wedding!! Erin has been my friend since we were born:) (our moms were pregnant together)... and we have had so much fun in years past!! Erin is crazy fun and i hadn't seen her in about 7 years and i am so happy to say that she has only gotten more fun, if that's even possible!! i loved seeing her and i am so glad that we have been able to stay in touch all these years! she was such a beautiful bride!! and her wedding was at the crystal cathedral followed by an amazing reception at the grand california hotel at disneyland :)


Me and Erin, 2010 :)........and our place cards to find our seats at dinner each had a personalized photo on the back of it.... here was mine....

Me and Erin (girls in the middle) at Joy school in prob 1986?! ohhh..... how cute, our moms thought it would be fun to put matching bowls on our head :) oh wait , that's our hair! haha!! okay, and my second favorite part of this picture is the shoes i chose to wear to joy school :) this picture totally reminds me of maddie's personality!! she would totally wear her ballerina slippers everywhere... so fun!!


Shawnie hanging out at our table :) we later danced for an hour or so (this is NOT usual behavior by my husband!! i can usually only get him to dance for about a minute in our kitchen before he gets bashful and then heads out to his garage to feel more manly:) .... so i was SUPER excited to get him to dance with me!!!!


Maddie was painting in the kitchen when all of a sudden i noticed that she and her paints had dissapeared from the kitchen counter... hmmm... where are you maddie? oh, okay.... you are just painting your face black, FUN! haha... she was so proud!


SWEETEST little girl!!!! LOVE HER!!!


my own real life little dolly :)

we were lucky to have the jensens visit from salt lake ... they came to our annual neighborhood easter egg hunt and they LOVED seeing each other again!! here they are in 2010........


and a year ago in 2009.... BFF!


Mia had fun picking up candy in the grass and eating through the wrapper and of course making a HUGE mess :) gotta love oxy-clean!!


business :)


the neighborhood.... where's maddie?!


Mia's basket....


I have soooooo much fun planning special days for my girls... it is way too much fun shopping for them and i finally understand when my mom always told me that she would rather buy something for her daughter than herself :)


On easter sunday we had our friends the pratts over for dinner and an easter egg hunt :) we love the pratts and always have so much fun with them :)


Mia with her boyfriend Brooks..... they are the cutest couple :)!!!!!