A little update on Berkeley

Berkeley is just over 3 months now and is getting to be much more fun. She loves to smile and the Doctor said she was more verbal than most babies at her 2 month appointment. If you stroke her cheeks or neck she gets super excited, her eyes get all wide and she opens her mouth in this big smile. If you coo at her she also gets really excited and she laughs whenever we play pattycake. She LOVES her big sister and always gets sooo excited when Cheyenne gives her any attention. She is very close to rolling from her back to her stomach, because every time I set her down on her back she flips to her side and is almost to her stomach. She is very attached to me and starts to cry if she is in the swing or something and can't see me. I got a moby wrap recently and she loves to be carried around in that. She sleeps very well. I feel like she is never awake. She sleeps from about 8 pm to 7 am in her crib and then after I nurse her, she goes back to sleep for a few more hours. Cheyenne was the same way. I was totally convinced she was going to be a hard child, because Cheyenne was so easy, but she is just great! She is a little more fussy than Cheyenne was at times, but I think she gets gassy. The girls who watch the kids at the gym say that they can't believe how much they look alike. That surprised me because I think they look way different, but I guess you can easily tell they are sisters. Berkeley is so much fun and I am so so so glad she came into our family when she did, I can't believe the happiness it gives me just to see Cheyenne and Berkeley interact, that was something I was totally not expecting.

A little update on Cheyenne

Cheyenne has been so much fun lately. She is obsessed with counting. She always says, "let's count them!" She can count to about 14 in english and 10 in spanish. She still loves the ABCs and totally has every letter down. Sometimes she even says "B, buh buh." and makes the sounds the letters make. I am just waiting until I feel the time is right to start potty training. I am really nervous about it... I think I am scared to try and fail and then having her not have a good experience with it or something, but it would be sooooo awesome to not change poopy diapers anymore! However, I would rather have the poop contained in a diaper than in underwear or all over her room or something like some horror potty training stories I have heard. She loves to play patty cake with Berkeley and talk to her and hug and kiss her, it is the sweetest thing. She is still obsessed with Dora and any time I put her on something high, she yells, "I am on the tallest mountain!" and time we go over a bridge she sings, "I'm the grumpy old troll, who lives under the bridge!" and I still catch her throwing random toys saying, "you'll never find it now, he he he!" This morning Jeff went and got Berkeley and put her in bed with me so I could nurse her and Cheyenne woke up too... that is about the only time she gets jealous of Berkeley is when I am nursing. She snuggled up next to us under the covers and talked to me, it was so sweet, because she is not usually a snuggler. She loves breakfast more than any other meal and her favorite is pancakes, yogurt and berries or oatmeal, yogurt and berries. I go to the gym with my friend every day who has a 2 year old who happens to get along GREAT with Cheyenne, they are totally bffs... anyway, this little girl's name is Layla and she LOVES cars. Now Cheyenne loves cars too. haha. Even if Layla is not with us, when I drop her off at the gym she goes straight to the cars. Cheyenne gets along with most kids pretty well, she just kind of goes along with whatever other kids are doing and she doesn't really get to upset if kids steal her toys or anything. Hopefully, she wont be a pushover in life, but for now it is really nice that she gets along well with most kids. She is super sensitive and will cry if you look at her wrong, so she is pretty easy to discipline. However, we are still having a hard time to get her to nap at nap time. Some days she goes right to sleep and others she won't sleep the whole 2 hours. Sometimes I will think she is asleep and go in to get something and she is just laying in her bed reading books soooo quietly. Overall, she is such a sweetheart and I love her soooo much! We are so blessed to have her in our family.

owweee

My tooth hurts soooo bad, I just know I have some sort of cavity or infection... this sucks so bad! We just got dental insurance in July so it only covers check ups and cleanings for the first year, I DO NOT want to go to the dentist and have to pay for this to get fixed, but I may have no other choice, it is killing me!! On top of that, I have a sore throat and I think I am starting to get sick and we leave for Washington in 5 days... the last thing I want to do is travel while I am sick! Just needed to complain.

Georgia Juniors Volleyball

So I LOVE my job as a club volleyball coach. It is the perfect job for me. I can do it on the side, so I still get to stay at home with our kids. It brings in extra money that can helps us make enough so I can stay at home with our kids. The kids work hard and are very motivated to improve and be their best.

Since I am coaching again this year with a newborn, they helped me out by assigning me a "team nanny." One of the moms volunteered to do it and in turn they get a little discount of their daughter's tuition for the team. I didn't think I was going to need it, but then at the last minute Jeff decided to coach basketball again and it turns out I really needed her, so I am so grateful!

We had our first tournament a few weeks ago, which was a three day tournament. I was so nervous because Jeff had a bball game on 2 of the days so I had to bring the girls with me. It turned out to be wonderful. The "team nanny" is totally awesome and all of the other parents were as well, they all helped out. Even the girls on my team were so sweet and played babysitter during our breaks.

We finished 2nd place in the tournament which is awesome because it is a big tournament and it was our first of the year. We were bummed when we lost the championship game and found out we would have won these awesome backpacks (instead of the usual t-shirt)... but more motivation for the next one I suppose. The team gave the girls the embroidered hat, sweatshirt and blanket as a gift and I LOVE them! It is their first thing with a volleyball on it:)

Jeff and Stacey had a little lamb

I found a link on my sister-in-law, Dana's blog about toddler crafts. I have been trying to do at least one fun, interactive activity with Cheyenne each day, since a lot of my time is focused on household chores and taking care of a newborn. We made these little lamb ears (they were supposed to be rabbit ears but they flopped when I connected them to the hat and resemble a lamb now). I thought Cheyenne would be all about it, but she did not like the cotton sticking to her fingers from the glue. I thought of Jeff's sister Jenny, because I guess she doesn't like the feeling of cotton balls either and I had never heard of that before. Jeff and I ended up having to finish the craft for her, but she did wear them for us and crawl around like a sheep (mostly because her leg was broken so she had to crawl anyway, but it was still cute).

National Championship game

Our friends Steve and Robyn came over to watch the National Championship game with us... Steve is a champion cake decorator and made this rad football cake. He also made Cheyenne a cake for her birthday, not only was it awesome, but it was sooooo soooo delicious! Jeff and I totally supported the pac-10 in our yellow and green. Jeff got an Oregon football shirt for Christmas so he wore that, while I sported my Sehome high school and Kearns high school green and yellow gear. Those who don't understand why we would want Oregon to win when we are Husky fans, listen up. Well, first of all, my Dad ran track at University of Oregon, so I actually have always liked them, but aside from that... the tougher the teams are in your conference the better it makes your team look and, therefore, the higher rankings your team gets and the more respect they get all over the country. A lot of people especially around here think that there is no such thing as football outside of the South, so we like the Pac-10 teams to do well do give the West coast some respect. Some would argue that we shouldn't root for Oregon, because if they do well then they will steal recruits from Washington, but whether or not they actually win the national championship, they made it to the national championship, so they are going to get recruits either way. Obviously we would have preferred the Huskies to be in that game, but if it can't be them someone from their conference is second best! Anyway, that was way longer than I meant for it to be, but it was a fun night with good friends:)

Broken Leg

So I got this amazing pass to a gym and it has been really great for me to get out of the house and get going early in the morning. I have a friend with a two year old who lives less than a mile from me so we carpool and our kids play together in the child care. It is only $40 a month for a pass which includes childcare, plus, every Friday night we get two hours of babysitting there for "date night" when we can drop our kids off and go out on a date, and that is included in the $40. One day they came to get me because Cheyenne had been sad for 2o minutes and they thought she had hit her head. I set her down to play with her and she totally colapsed. They said they didn't see what had happened but she definitely had a hurt leg. I thought she had sprained or rolled her ankle so I didn't take her to the doctor for a couple of days. Then I talked to a friend who said that breaks don't swell, and I had thought it was weird nothing was swollen. I decided I better take her in to prevent future damage. Turns out she has a greenstick fracture in her tibia. She had to wear this little cast and crawled around everywhere for a couple of weeks. She is now limping around, so I guess it is getting better. It was the saddest thing to drop her off at the gym and she would crawl in so pathetic looking. I hope it will heal with no problems!

Granola Mom

I got this shirt for Christmas and I love it! It is so bright and makes me happy looking at it. I posted this on facebook recently, so I am sure it is old news, but I coach a club volleyball team of freshman girls. They told me I was a "granola mom." I was totally confused and shocked. I tried to convince them that I was totally not, but they wouldn't believe me. It just got me thinking about how first impressions are often misconceptions and we should be careful how we judge people. Not that being a granola mom would be terrible, it is just really totally not me! I am still so confused at where they got that from, but I am curious to see if they will still think that at the end of the season, or if they will change their minds:)

Big Sister. Little Sister

a very good friend embroidered these shirts for the girls. I finally put them on at the same time... it was kind of hard to get a good picture, but I just love that Cheyenne has a little sister now. The other day I was holding Berkeley and Cheyenne was holding up the stuffed animals talking to her and Berkeley was totally into it and smiling. I can't believe how happy that made me feel! I also love how there is a big diaper above Cheyenne and a little diaper above Berkeley... that was totally on accident, but it is kind of funny:)

Mormon Blogging

I got this from my friend's blog, it is an article about Mormon Blogs... read it!

This article was very interesting and totally worth the read...

It is written by a young, feminist atheist who talks about why and how she is so addicted to reading Mormon housewife blogs.
The article is actually entitled, "Why I can't stop reading Mormon housewife blogs"