Hello.....its been a while!

Its been over 3 years since I've last posted anything to our blog.  I guess you could call me a slacker!  I prefer to think that maybe I've been having more fun raising my kids than to write about it!

A lot has changed in that time.  I'm not even sure where to start so I'll just stick to the basics.

Aaron and I have now been married for 9 years!  It has really flown by!  We still live in the same house.  I switched to driving a van a little over a year ago.  I can't see myself going back to anything else right now.  Vans are soooo much easier with little kids!  We took an Alaskan cruise back in June and left the girls with my parents for 9 whole days!  It was weird without the girls but so much fun!!

Aaron has been traveling for work alot.  He's gone to Calgary, Canada a handful of times, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil a few times, and Chengdu, China once.  He's been enjoying being able to get outside of the office and away from Salt Lake for a while.  He wants to be able to go to alot of other places.   

Madi is 4 and is in her second year of preschool.  She loves it and has made lots of little friends.  She starts kindergarten in the fall.  This makes me sad.  I can't believe that she's old enough for school.  She is way excited and is always telling me that she'll have a new teacher and will be learning lots of new things!  She is a great artist and loves to draw all sorts of things.  She's a sweet little peace maker but she does have a bad temper at times....sound familiar? Mostly she is a go with the flow, easily excited and fun kid.

Lyla is 2 and when I stopped posting things wasn't even a thought in our head!  Her birthday was Feb 1, 2012 and she just celebrated her 2nd birthday.  She had a bit of a rough start and spent her first 5 days in NICU with respiratory problems.  She weighed 6lbs 15oz and was 18.5 inches long with a head full of hair (that shocked us!).  She wasn't a very happy baby and cried ALOT her first year.  We discovered shortly after her 1st birthday that she has a lactose problem.  Her personality seemed to change overnight from a discontent, clingy baby to a rambunctious, stubborn happy toddler.  I still blame myself for not figuring out her problems earlier and sometimes wonder how she would be if we'd made some changes to her (and my) diet back then. 

Now for some random pictures! 

This was the morning we went to the hospital to have Lyla.  She was so excited to go to Grandma and Grandpa Grandy's house. 2.01.2012

This is one of the last pictures taken of me pregnant with Lyla. 2.01.2012

 Here is baby Lyla....look at that hair!  2.02.2012

Lyla sleeping in the sunlight.  She looks so happy! 2.26.2012

Madi making a 'roar' face.  She has such a fun personality!  3.20.2012

Aaron on some hike!  Sorry I'm not sure which one this is.  Maybe Antelope Island?  3.24.2012

Aaron and Madi in the cool tree at the duck pond we like to go to.  Madi loves climbing this tree! 3.25.2012

 

Lyla and I snuggling.  Montpelier, ID.  3.31.2012                                                                                   

Aaron and Madi at Kennecott Mines.  5.05.2012

Madi at the top of Butterfield Canyon.  She had just made up the 'butterfly' song. I'm pretty sure you can find the video on Aaron's facebook page if you're interested in seeing her cute and creative song. 7.06.2012

Lyla mastering her crawling skills.  I loved those jammies.  So cute!  1.12.2013

Lyla shortly after getting a haircut from her sister.  Madi's hair didn't fair very well either! 1.22.2013

Christmas 2010

Christmas is such a fun time of year. Even more so now that Madi is getting older. I don't think she really understood what was going on but she was all for opening the presents. Aaron and I woke Madi up around 9. She woke up so happy. She got even more excited after we let her open her presents. She kept trying to open them up before Christmas! She wanted to play with all her toys before going on to the next item so we finally gave up and let her run wild. She slowly opened her remaining gift through out the day.

Madi right after she woke up. She definitely takes after her Daddy when it comes to that! Happy, Happy=)

Her Christmas jammies are a little big on her. You might notice in this next picture that her pants were falling off!

We eventually gave up and let her run around without them!!

After breakfast we took Madi to the school yard to play on the slides.

After being cooped up for most of the month she loved being outside. Even though it was very chilly!

The rest of the day was pretty relaxing. I talked with my family on the phone on and off for a couple of hours. Madi took a nice long nap, she was worn out after all the excitement. Aaron's parents came over for a little while and we visited.

Over all it was a great day filled with love and warmth. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

December 2010

December was a fun month despite everyone being sick pretty much the entire month!! Madi discovered her love for all things snow. She was (and still is) constantly asking to eat it! We made snow ice cream but for the most part stayed in (again we were sick!). I'm going to do a separate Christmas post so these next pictures are pretty random!

Madi playing with a Halloween magazine. She must have hid it at some point in October because I could have sworn that I had thrown it away!
Madi trying seafood for the first time. It was a shrimp and crab pizza. She liked the crab alright but was horrified every time she tried a shrimp!

Aaron went snowshoeing with a co-worker and his wife. He had a lot of fun despite getting more sick from it.

These next 2 pictures are of Madi playing peek-a-boo with the card table. She had just eaten spaghetti and was pretty messy!

November 2010

We didn't really do much in November. Of course there was Thanksgiving but neither Aaron or I took any pictures. We went to my parents house this year. For the most part everything was very laid back. We played card games, visited and over all had a good time.

These next few of pictures are of Madi having fun and causing messes. Enjoy!!

October 2010

Madi has discovered how fun it is to draw! She's still figuring out that it should be limited to paper and coloring books only. I've already had to wash the walls a couple of times of her happy wall scribbles!

Every October Aaron and I try to take some kind of vacation. It's our most favorite time of year. The leaves are changing, the air seems cleaner, it's not deathly hot or bone chilling cold and its the month we were married in=) We celebrated our 6th anniversary by going to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. Looking back a 15 hour car drive with a toddler might not be the best idea but thankfully Madi traveled like a pro!

Our first pit-stop was Durango, CO. We had to switch hotels when the A/C wasn't working in our room and the desk clerk told us our best solution would be to find a new hotel! After getting re-situated somewhere else we found a park for Madi to play at.

The next day we went to Carlsbad, NM. We spent 2 nights there, exploring Carlsbad Caverns and watching the bats come out at night! I was kinda afraid of getting hit by bat guano. Aaron probably wouldn't admit it but he was too! We are thinking about going back in 6 or 7 years so Madi can really enjoy it. She was a little too confined for her to really like the caverns. We didn't take any family type pics there (at least not ones where everyone looks ok), but Aaron took a lot of the cave itself. Maybe (no promises) I'll get around to doing a Aaron scenic picture post!

The morning we left Carlsbad we stopped at a the Living Desert State Park. It's like a small zoo for rehabilitated/injured animals. The entire exhibit was very neat and set up on a loop trail of 1.3 miles with animals (of course properly secured) spread throughout. Madi's favorite was the mountain lion exhibit where one of the lions was pacing the parameters of his cage. It's a good thing we went in the late morning. If we had got there any later it would have been too hot!!

Madi and I smelling the flowers.

Madi was still smelling them in this pic!

Aaron and Madi posing for the camera. Madi was holding onto Aaron for dear life!!

After that we made our way to White Sands, NM. We all had fun playing in the sand!

Made especially liked sliding down the dunes!

We were going to go camping that night but we missed the check in time at the campsite by about half an hour. Instead we made our way to Las Cruses, NM and stayed there for the night.

The next morning we stopped at Saguaro National Park in Arizona. We didn't stay very long because Madi (and I) couldn't handle the heat!! It was a pretty park but kinda expensive for just doing a quick drive. There are plenty of saguaros outside the park that you could see for free!

That night we stayed at Mingus Campground in between Preston, AZ and Sedona, AZ. It was an awesome place to camp and we both wished that we could have stayed longer. The next morning we made our way to Cedar City, UT.

We stopped at Marble Canyon Bridge on our way back to Utah. Madi had fun running over the bridge.

This picture was taken at a park in Cedar City. We stayed for a couple days and then went back home.

September 2010

Over Labor Day weekend we went camping up Navajo Lake in Cedar City Canyon. The next night we had a bbq at a friends. These next few pictures are from the bbq.

Alicia and Madi waiting for food at the bbq. The grill wasn't working so we ended up ordering pizza. The pizza took almost 2 hours to get delivered.....and we still had to pay for it!

Madi kissing the wired peacock structure thing-a-ma-bob.

Madi playing on the grass.

Later that month Aaron photographed a friends' wedding in Hanna, UT. Madi and I, before the wedding just hangin' out.

Aaron and Madi having fun before the dinner they had after the wedding ceremony.