Family Update

Well this week has not been as busy as some in the past but there are a few things that have happened.

Mark has been called to be the 1st Counselor in the Elder's Quorum for our branch. We are excited for this calling and for the many experiences that we will have. It will keep Mark even more busy but I know that the amounts of blessings that come are way will be worth it.

We got a very unexpected surprise in the mail the other day. It was a refund check from the hospital in Logan. I guess we over paid. It was sure a nice surprise!

This week Vanessa has been telling everybody that comes over that she is two and that Owen is six months. She also has become obbessed with wearing her Little Mermaid pj's and watch the movie. I have to wash those pj's nightly so she can wear them in the morning.

I also had fun taking some pictures of Owen. Regis and Kelly are doing their annual Beautiful Baby Contest so I decided to enter Owen and Vanessa. They are definitely beautiful babies!

I love this picture! Owen gave me the cutest smile!

My Little Personal Trainer.....

VANESSA!!

The last few days, I have been getting up to exercise in the mornings. Vanessa usually is awake by this time and has fun exercising with me.

I don't want to admit that yesterday I felt like slacking off. But, Vanessa was just not having it! She grabbed the DVD, put it in the DVD player, turned on the TV and pushed play. Then she grabbed my hand and took me to the front room and said, "Mommy, time to exercise!" Needless to say, I had a great workout. She is definitely my motivator.

Vanessa has a lot of fun exercising too! She found my rubber baking mat and used it as her exercising mat. She likes to get into it and even grunts while trying to lift the tubing up. It is so cute and funny!

Fun Pictures

The kids and I really love to play and have fun together. Here a just a few fun pictures of some of our fun.

Painting the Bathtub

So I have been trying to find new ideas to keep Vanessa entertained at home. I bought a book called 365 Activities for Toddlers and one of the ideas was to let them paint the bath tub prior to bathing. I was a little nervous about this but then thought "What the heck?!"

Vanessa and I had so much fun painting the tub all sorts of colors. We also loved making hand prints and foot prints. It is a messy activity but well worth it. It also motivates you to clean the tub. It entertained Vanessa for about an hour which was great! I think this will become a regular activity at our house.

Another activity that we are going to try tonight before bed is called "Jungle Hunting." You hide the kid's stuffed animals around the house and then turn off all the lights. Using a flashlight, you go through the house trying to find the animals. The end of the activity will be in the kid's bedroom. I am excited to try this one. I think it will be a hit!

Busy Weekend

It seems that most of our weekends have a common theme...busy, busy, busy!

To start the weekend off, I made a sand castle cake for a wedding. It took a lot of time to build and apply the brown sugar but the end product was definitely worth it. It was really fun seeing the end product.

After setting up the cake, I rushed off to Pleasant Grove to my friend, Dani's, baby shower. She looks so darn cute pregnant and I am so excited for them to have their first baby boy! I can't wait to meet the little guy.

Today, Sunday, we woke up early and headed to Logan for our friend's baby blessing. It was so foggy the most of the drive except for in Sardine Canyon. Logan was so cold and it made us glad to not be living there anymore. We do miss it though. I loved Logan and how close everything was. It definitely was a great time in our lives. While in Logan, we went and visited the Jones family. They will be moving to Colorado in a few weeks and we are sad to see them go. They are such great friends and we will miss them terribly. We are excited though that they were able to find a good job!

We got home early today and just relaxed. It felt so good to not have to do anything and just relax and enjoy our family and home. I did find time to sit down and make some beaded bracelet watch bands. They turned out so cute and are so easy and fun to make. Here are a few that I made.

6 Months Old

Today, baby Owen celebrated his 6 month birthday! I can't believe that he is a half a year old. Time has just flown by!

He is growing up so fast! Here a few things that he can now do.

He is starting to become mobile. He can't crawl quite yet but he gets around by scooting and rolling on the floor. He can get up on his hands and knees and it is so darn cute to see him rock back and forth. I am predicting that he will be able to crawl within a month.

He knows his own name. When we say "Owen" he will lift up his head and find who said his name and smile.

He is becoming more active and curious about everything. Especially what his big sister is doing.

He is such a lovable little boy. When we give him kisses, he gets excited and tries to give them back to us. He will open his mouth and give us the biggest and wettest kiss while putting his hands on our faces. So cute!

He is now eating food. He seems to like all the vegetables except for peas. I wonder where he gets that one from...his daddy, of course! He also enjoys fruit and rice cereal. He is so funny when we are eating. He will try and grab our food, cups, dishes, and silverware and put them in his mouth. I think he knows that he is missing out on some good food. He will also smack his lips when he wants to eat.

He can also sit up by himself and loves to play with his toys when doing so. He is just getting to be such a cute little boy and we are so excited that we get to see him grow up and reach all the milestones.

Happy 6 Months Owen!! We LOVE you so much!!

Playing Together

My sweet sweet little girl! I just love her cute smile!

Since Aunt Amanda is in Hawaii, I thought I would teach Vanessa how to do the Hang Loose sign. She thought it was so much fun and when she would do it she would scream, "Hang Looooose!"

Concentrating very hard on how to do the sign.

Practicing hold up the number 2.

For our snack we had Red Vines. Vanessa thought that was a great snack!

Giving her baby brother a big kiss!

I am so blessed to have two of the cutest kids!

No pants, yet again! Don't think that I don't try to get her to wear pants! We battle it out everyday and she wins most of the time. She does not like to wear pants and I don't know how to get her to like them.

Say "CHEESE!!"

Vanessa, Owen and I have so much fun playing together!
Owen loves to just sit and watch his big sister. He learns so much from her.

Chocolate!

This post is out of order but the pictures are just so much fun that I needed to post them. On New Year's Eve us Sorensen girls decided to open up a box of chocolates and savor them. They were delicious!

We started taking pictures of us devouring the chocolates and this is what we got!

Yes, I am feeding Amanda! It took us a few tries to finally get a good picture because we were laughing so hard. I had a lot of fun! Thanks to my awesome sisters!!!

LIPS ON!!

Vanessa is such a girlie girl like her mom. Today, we had a lot of fun putting "lips on" as Vanessa calls it. She picked the brightest red she could find. Which by the way, stains your lips. It is a good thing that I don't need to go anywhere today.

We giggled, posed, and took some fun pictures together. Putting lipstick on her is the only way we can get her to smile and pose for pictures. What a silly but very adorable little girl! I love her so much! She reminds me a lot of how I was when I was little. Like mother, like daughter, I guess.

Fun in the Snow!

For New Year's Day we decided to go have some fun playing in the snow. We haven't had the opportunity to go and play in the snow because of how busy we have been over the last few weeks. But we finally did it and we had such a great time with the kids and Mark's family. The kids looked so darn cute all bundled up in their snow suits. They reminded me of big marshmallows.

We had fun building a snowman and sledding down a hill in the backyard. Vanessa thought sledding was so much fun. After going down the hill, she would say, "I want to go sledding again, again!!" We took Owen for a ride as well and he was not sure what to think about it. He didn't last too long outside before he fell asleep. I guess it just was not that interesting to him. Not yet anyway. I have a feeling that next year, we won't be able to get him to come in.

Vanessa and I also went and played on the swings. She loves to sing and I even did an underdog with her and she loved it. She get saying, "More underdog." We love having our kids! They make life so much more fun and enjoyable!

I don't enjoy being out in the cold much but it was such a perfect day to play outside. We are glad that we took that opportunity to play with our kids.

The Nativity

This post is a little out of order but I thought I should include it. Mark, Owen and I were asked this year to play the part of Joseph, Mary and baby Jesus in the ward Christmas Nativity. What a neat experience it was to be able to a part of the Nativity! It really helped us remember the true meaning of Christmas.

Owen played a very realistic baby Jesus. He did not like to be wrapped in "swaddling clothes" and cried every time we were on stage. I was a bit embarrassed to have him cry but the audience loved it because it made it seem even more real. I guess even baby Jesus cried.

We had a lot of fun doing it and are glad that we were able to make some great memories!

Happy New Year 2010!!!

For New Year's Eve, we went to Mark's parents house to celebrate. We had a lot of fun playing games and the new Mario Bro. for the Wii. We ate one of our favorite meals, Dad's lasagna and for snacks that night we had a cheese and chocolate fondue. It was sure yummy!

The kids actually stayed up with us. I don't know why my kids will not go to sleep when they know that everybody else is staying up. We could not get them calmed down enough to go to sleep. Vanessa had a lot of fun playing the Wii Fit. She actually was quite good at it. It was so darn cute to see her lean and balance.

We are very excited for the New Year and for all of the new opportunities that will be coming.