The Talley Family

Cute Sydney

2012-02-08T18:46:00.000-08:00

I have a few cute pictures of Sydney that were taken last month. They are totally random.

Sydney got her first Texas Longhorn shirt. We finally found one on clearance. She is trying to do her hook em horns hand signal in this picture....just like Daddy & Colter.

She is quite the social butterfly at preschool. She has so many friends. I LOVE watching her interact and participate in all the preschool activities. She takes preschool very seriously.

She loves to play Colter's game system. I found her in the corner by herself the other day. She looked so cute!

She loves her Daddy and she loves reading books and doing puzzles with him.

This was her first trip to the dentist. She was very timid and not very happy during the appointment, but they were able to do a quick cleaning. She was very happy after the appt when they gave her princess stickers, a pink shirt, and a princess toothbrush.

A few Sundays ago, my sister Tracy took out her extensions and put them in Sydney's hair. You looked so adorable. I have to admit, I like her with long hair. She looked like a little woman.

Whisker Shaving

2012-02-07T18:54:00.000-08:00

For Christmas, Colter got a Captain America grooming set. It came with shaving cream and a fake razor. Colter took shaving his whiskers VERY seriously. Of course after Colter shaved, Sydney had to shave her whiskers. They were both very cute!

Cousin Reunion

2012-02-05T22:09:00.000-08:00

So I'm STILL catching up on blogging. I want to get caught up before Colter's birthday which is this week so I can start fresh with his birthday stuff. I'm almost there!

My sister Amy and her family moved to Arkansas this past July b/c her husband Marcus got into PA school there. Her daughters Bailey (6) and Livvy (almost 4) are super super close with Colter & Sydney and my kids absolutely adore baby Blake (1). Bailey & Colter have always been best buds. They can get into some crazy fights, but they also have an absolute BLAST together. Since Sydney has gotten older, she has also grown close to Bailey & Livvy. They are so cute with her. They treat her like a little princess and are so sweet to her. I've been able to chat on the phone with Amy on a regular basis, but I have REALLY missed her kids. They were able this past Christmas to drive here to AZ for the holidays.

Colter was counting down the days. He was beyond excited to see them. We planned on seeing them for the first time on a Saturday, but when we heard they were going to be in earlier on Friday night, we surprised the kids last minute. We met at my parents' house before they arrived. All of the grandkids wanted to wait outside so they got in the back of Papa's truck and waited. A picture says a thousand words. This is how excited they were!

Shortly after, the Webbs arrived. When Colter first saw Bailey & Livvy he was almost in shock, he didn't know how to react. Within 5 minutes, they were back to exactly where they left off: running around, playing, laughing, and no fighting. Colter & Sydney were all over Blake, kissing & hugging him. It was a dream come true seeing them together again. I could tell Colter was in heaven. It made me sad that night thinking about them leaving and the kids not being together for another year...they were having so much fun and I didn't want that to end.

Sydney wanted to ride in her cousin Kaimen's wheelchair. She looked so cute in it.

They were here for 3 weeks. Even though we had to share them, we got to spend a lot of time together. We were shocked that the whole 3 weeks, they didn't get in one fight. One night we had the Webbs & Faivas over to hang out. The kids spent the whole night dressing up and singing karaoke. I love watching all the cousins together having fun.

Sydney thought she was really big singing with her older cousin Bailey.

It was a sad day when they had to leave. Bailey & Livvy were very emotional and Colter was just quiet. I could see how sad he was, but he was trying to hide it. He seemed down the whole rest of they day...it broke my heart. He loves them so much. I'm soooo looking forward to reunited again with them & watching the kids together.

Christmas Day

2012-01-26T21:16:00.000-08:00

So I'm finally posting about Christmas day. It was a perfect day. Shopping for the kids this year was so much fun because they are both so into certain things. The last couple months, Colter has become obsessed with superheros. He never has really been into the Toy Story characters or Cars so it's fun to see him get excited about Captain America, Thor, Hulk, Spiderman, etc. Sydney is into anything and everything girly. She loves dolls, dressing up, barbies, princesses, etc. Her latest fascination is Tangled.

The kids were in great moods and had so much fun. Sydney was the first one to wake up so we had her hang out in our room until Colter woke up. They surprisingly didn't have much reaction when they first walked in the room. Colter was still half asleep. It didn't take long for them to get excited though. They opened their presents at the same time. Colter got a handheld game system, a captain america grooming set, a couple dvds, art stuff, & a race track (which we ended up taking back b/c it didn't work). He loved all his presents. Sydney got a magnetic doll set, art stuff, Tangled figurines, & a few other girly toys.

I think this picture is hilarious. They are both so out of it....especially Colter.

Sydney got a chocolate Santa in her stocking and b/c it was Christmas we let her eat it at 8 in the morning.

The kids played w/ their toys for a while and then we got ready for church with Jeff's family. After church we went to Jeff's parents house for a wonderful lunch, opening presents, playing the Luke 2 pass present game, and visiting. We had a relaxing, enjoyable, fun time. Colter loved his art kits & play dough sets and Sydney got a Aquadoodle kit which both of the kids love and still play w/ all the time.

After the Talley's house we went straight to the Brown's house for another great time. We spent about an hour and a half opening presents since there are so many kids and grandkids (which I love doing). Sydney loved the dolls she got from her grandparents and her cousin. Colter got a Captain America shield from his cousin Bailey and a matching mask from his grandparents. He was absolutely thrilled! We hung out and ate dinner and then headed home and just relaxed for the rest of the night. Such a great day! I love Christmas!

This was a book that a couple of my siblings put together for my dad. Every once in a while my dad will say something that completely shocks us so my siblings starting making a list of some of the things he's said. They transformed it into this scrapbook type thing. It was pretty funny.

Here is one video of xmas morning. After every present Sydney opened, she said, "I want to open it."

Polar Express

2012-01-26T07:40:00.000-08:00

The Wednesday before Christmas we decided to head up to Williams to go to the Polar Express. This was our first year going and the kids were soooo excited. They luckily were in the BEST moods. They could not even hold still for a picture they were so excited. I thought Sydney would be super clingy the whole time, but she was bouncing off the walls.

The kids loved riding on the train and we had a fun little conductor. We sang Christmas songs, drank hot chocolate, ate cookies, and drove to "The North Pole" to pick up Santa.

When Santa came on the train, Colter was so excited. Sydney was absolutely terrified of Santa. Santa came around to each kid and gave them a bell. Colter loved his bell and kept talking about it the rest of the trip. Overall, it was a fun little experience. The kids had the time of their lives and it was worth it just to watch them and see them get so excited.

That night we stayed at a motel. Sydney decided at 2 in the morning she wanted to get up and color, read books, and eat pretzels. She was wide awake for about 3 hours. On the way home we stopped by to play in some snow. It was really hard snow so we couldn't really play in it, but we still had fun. There was an already built snowman that Colter was trying to finish. Then we headed home. This was a fun little trip to take right before Christmas. It got the kids even more excited for Christmas day.

Preschool Christmas Program

2012-01-12T16:17:00.001-08:00

The Tuesday before Christmas we had our preschool program. It was a lot of work, but the kids were so cute and did great so it was totally worth it. Colter was probably the loudest singer and was super hyper. I was actually glad because last year he was the opposite.

The kids told Christmas jokes at the program. It was pretty cute!

After the program we had a special guest....Santa Claus (aka my dad). The kids were thrilled. Colter & Bailey (my niece) were on to him. Colter was sitting on his lap and giving him a weird look like, something isn't right here. He told me later that Santa talked just like Papa and looked like him. Later Colter & Bailey thought they were so funny calling Santa 'Papa.'

My sweet nephew Blake w/ Santa. He loved him!

I hate this picture of myself.

Sydney's Ballet Class

2012-01-09T20:21:00.000-08:00

In November I found a Baby Ballerina class for 2 and 3 year olds through Gilbert Parks & Rec. It was only $15 for 5 classes so I figured I would try it out. If you know Sydney, you know she likes anything girly. She loves pink, purple, dolls, dress-up, princesses, and dancing. I was eager to get her in something, but it was definitively a little too soon. I stayed in with her for the first class. The next 4 classes she was without me. She didn't cry or try to get out, but she also didn't participate. She just sat in the middle of the dance floor with a blank look on her face. It was actually really adorable. By about the 4th class she discovered the floor was really slippery and would slide around on her belly for most of the class. The last day they had the parents come in for the last 15 minutes to watch the girls perform. Once again Sydney didn't do much, but it was still really cute. I love this girl to pieces! She just cracks me up. Ever since then she talks about ballerinas and always wants to dress up as one. I know in about a year she will love to be in a dance class. I guess I'll try again when she's a little older.

Bass Pro Shop

2012-01-05T07:50:00.000-08:00

Every year since Colter's been young, we've gone to Bass Pro Shop to participate in their free Christmas activities & a free picture with Santa. The kids usually love it until it's time to meet Santa (depending on how old they are). This year we went with a couple families in our ward for family night. The kids had a ton of fun. This year they had a few more activities like snowball fights and a merry-go-round all for free!

Here are the pictures taken with Santa throughout the past 4 years.

2008: Colter was 1 1/2 here. As you can see he was terrified of Santa.

2009: Colter 2 1/2 and Sydney 4 months. Colter warmed up a little more this year to Santa and Sydney was too young to be scared.

2010: Colter 3 1/2 and Sydney way too scared to get even close to Santa.

2011: Colter 4 1/2 and very excited to tell Santa his 4 favorite superheros. Sydney is 2 & fine with Santa as long as he doesn't get too close.

Thanksgiving weekend

2012-01-02T21:15:00.001-08:00

For Thanksgiving this year, Nate, Emryn, Austin, and Dallin came to town (Jeff's sister's family). We were so excited to have them here. Colter & Sydney love playing with their cousin's Austin & Dallin. We had a fun filled and busy week with them. Wednesday evening we took family pictures which turned out pretty good. All the kids were great until we tried to take one with just them.As you can see that didn't really work out. We ordered this picture just so we would remember it. This was the best one. We then went out to dinner.
Thursday we had Thanksgiving at our house. The kids had a blast playing outside for hours after lunch/dinner.

Friday we spent the day at the zoo and then back to our house for a early birthday party for Austin. We were sad to say goodbye to them, but luckily we'll probably get to see them again in a few months!

October

2011-12-31T10:35:00.000-08:00

Once again I am WAY behind on blogging. Even though I should be blogging about Christmas right now, I still have all of October & November to do. So here is a recap of October....

The middle of October we took a field trip for preschool to Mother Nature's Farm. The kids loved it! We went on a hayride, hung out at the petting zoo, went through the hay maze, had snacks, picked out a pumpkin, and played in the bounce house.

Later that month, my parents' neighborhood had a little halloween carnival. Colter got to ride a pony (Sydney would not b/c it was "too scary"), there was a petting zoo, a fire truck, and a bounce house. We had a lot of fun!

For Halloween, the kids dressed up as Spiderman and a ballerina. We had about 3 different costumes for Sydney, but the pink bunny and cat were both "too scary." I didn't get a lot of pictures this year. We started out trick or treating in our neighborhood. The kids had so much fun with that. They were so cute and polite at every house. Sydney was really into this year. Then we visited Jeff's grandma and then went to Jeff's parents' house. Grandma Talley had put together a cute little scavenger hunt for the kids to find their goodies. They LOVED it. They didn't really care about the treats, but wanted to do the scavenger hunt over and over again. Last we went to my parents' house. The kids got to trick or treat at a few more houses on my parents street and then we called it a night!

This picture was in my October picture folder and I thought it was worth posting. Sydney was very excited to be matching her baby doll.

Through the month of October and beginning of November, Colter was in a basketball class through Gilbert parks & rec. He loved this class! He made some new friends and loved the competition. This is a picture with his couch on the last day.

Sydney's potty trained

2011-11-06T17:04:00.001-08:00

I am way behind on blogging. I just remembered I never posted about Sydney being potty trained. It took me a while to figure when she finally mastered it. She started showing a lot of interest in it back in May. We tried off & on. At that time she would go on her little potty (aka cute potty) all the time, #1 & #2, but she would have accidents all the time. I decided to put it off for a little bit until she was a little more ready and mature. She still went on the potty off & on. October 1st, I decided to try it again so she was 25 months. Within 2 days she was in panties in public with NO accidents. Ever since than she has done perfect. She goes #1 & #2 on the big potty w/o me needing to ask her. She wipes herself and washes her own hands. She's so independent. I'm so proud of by big girl!

Goodbye Dixie

2011-10-23T22:14:00.000-07:00

Colter saying goodbye to Dixie.

Wednesday was a very sad night for us. We had to say goodbye to our sweet Dixie. I don't really know where to start with everything, so I'll just pick up where I left off on my last post when Dixie was sick. Last week on Mon, Tues, & Wed she was doing okay. She was still not eating and in pain, but she seemed like for the first time she was making a little bit of progress. I started to think, maybe she really could get better from these meds and everything will be great. Wednesday, right before Jeff got home from work, she had urinated blood on the floor. We called the vet and they said to bring her in b/c that was not a side effect from her medicine. After she urinated, she was doing horribly. She was going down hill really fast. We pretty much knew this was it for her and that we would be taking her to the vet to put her down. We told the kids that we are taking Dixie to the doctor, but if we can't get her better, she is going up to heaven tonight. The kids were really sweet and gave her hugs and kisses. They didn't cry...they seemed okay. Right before Jeff left to take Dixie, Colter asked, "Dad, can we say a prayer together before you leave." Of course we did that. After they left, Colter said he was sad that Dixie might die. I told him I am sad too and I started to cry. He told me, "Mom, it's going to be okay if she dies. I am going to be here and I am going to be with you for a long, long time." That really did make me feel better. He was right, it was going be okay. Even though we would be losing our dog, at least I have my husband and kids. I left after Jeff to take the kids to Grandma & Grandpa Talley's so I could meet Jeff at the vet. When I got to the Talley's they told me they'd talked to Jeff and we were going to be putting her down. I got to the vet's and Jeff & Dixie were in a room. Dixie was on a blanket laying down, and for the first time in 2 weeks she looked so peaceful. We sat with her and cuddled with her for a while. We just kept telling each other we can't believe we're actually doing this. Jeff had told me that the vet did a quick check and just said, this is not looking good and that she should be getting better by now. He said it could be something else other than the disk like something neurological or a number of different things. The vet completely agreed that it was time to put her down. It made me feel better to know that we were definitely making the right decision. A dog shouldn't have to go through that much pain for that long. I was in some ways relieved that she wouldn't be in pain anymore, but so so sad that she wasn't going to be with us anymore. Before we put her down, we talked about what an amazing dog she was and how happy and energetic she used to be. We couldn't believe that only a couple weeks ago she was healthy, happy, and full of energy. We knew this day would come sometime, but were not ready nor prepared to put her down at only age 6. I also hated that she had to spend her last week of life living how she did. I wish she had one more day to run around and play with the kids b/c she loved doing that. The time came when we had to say goodbye. We watched the whole procedure b/c we didn't want her to have to be alone. It was really sad, but we were okay. We knew we were doing what we had to do.

We went back to the Talley's to pick up the kids. We talked about how much we were going to miss Dixie. We told the kids and they seemed to be okay. As I put Colter to bed that night he broke down crying. He said he wants his Boxer dog back. I told him I understood and I wanted the same thing. I told him maybe someday we could get another dog. He said he only wanted Dixie and he wants her back. We let him stay up for a little bit and he just bawled on my shoulder. It broke my heart. I knew it had finally hit him and he was completely heartbroken. Dixie has been there since Colter was born...he has never know our family without Dixie. Dixie had been a best friend to Colter. Jeff and I talked about how bummed we were that we lost such an amazing dog. She was the friendliest dog I know. Our kids or any other kids could do anything to her and it never would seem to bother her. I NEVER have worried about her hurting the kids even as babies. She would be running full speed and if a kid would come in her way she always was able to miss them. Sydney and Dixie developed a close bond this past year. She always wanted to feed Dixie and let her out of her crate and hold her leash. Sydney was so sweet and so concerned when Dixie was sick. She would sit by her crate and pet her head and tell her that she loved her. Dixie was full of energy. She would run and flip and chase. The kids had so much fun with her. She was great with other dogs and people. She was very obedient and very affectionate.

Jeff was definitely the person Dixie was closest to and looked up to. Jeff is one of the best dog owners I know. He took Dixie on runs or walks every day, he greeted her every time he came home, he cuddled with her, he took her to the dog park. I really don't think I've seen a dog & their owner so close. It breaks my heart to know Jeff won't have her around. I was definitely the more emotional one, but I know he's probably hurting the most. Some of our best memories with Dixie were camping. She's been on almost every camping trip with us since we've been married. We loved talking her camping. She had so much fun during the day running around and being free and then at night she was worn out and would lay by the fire with us. I'm really going to miss that. I'm also going to miss her eating crumbs and food off the floor that the kids drop. I guess I might have to start sweeping now. haha.

Dixie has been through so much with us. She was there when we took home both of our kids from the hospital, she has moved to a new house with us, and been there when we've been sick. Jeff & I got Dixie 7 months after we got married. We weren't planning on it, but one day we went to look at puppies just for fun at a breeder's house. There were 2 female dogs there and we just fell in love with Dixie. She was so so cute and she was so sweet and angelic. She was a lot of work at the beginning, but we are so happy we got her b/c she has brought a lot of happiness and fun times to our family.

Since all of this has happened, we have actually been pretty good. We really miss you and it feels weird without her, but we know we are going to be okay. I was watching old video of the kids the other night and most of the videos had Dixie walking or playing in the background. I hope our kids remember how sweet and special she was. We have amazing family and friends who have been so caring and sympathetic towards us. It has made us feel really good to know so many people care. I know this post is really long and I maybe have been a little dramatic, but this post and last are probably the only posts I will do on Dixie and I wanted to record all the things we remember about her. I found a bunch of pictures I liked of her and here are some of them. We really miss Dixie and we are so grateful for the happiness she brought into our family. We loved everything about this sweet dog and we are so glad she doesn't have to suffer anymore.

I dug up some pictures I had before we got our digital camera. Here are some of her as a puppy. She was the cutest puppy ever.

This is with Shelly and Buddy camping before Buddy got giant.

Dixie's first play date with my parent's dog Roxy. Roxy was jealous of Dixie and was really annoyed.

Dixie's first play date with Jeff's parent's dog, Sparky. I love this picture...they look so cute together.

This is before we had kids on one of our day camping trips.

Camping.

I wish I could cuddle with her like this again. This is before we had kids.

This is when it snowed in Scottsdale several years ago. Dixie had a blast.

She liked watching the dog shows with Jeff.

Sydney loved Dixie right off. She loved to play with her tag.

Colter's 3rd birthday.

Grandpa & Grandma Talley's backyard. Playing with the hose

Colter when he was only a couple days old.

The day after Dixie died, we received a package with this cute little stuffed animal boxer dog in it. Jeff's sister Emryn had sent in from NM. I cried when I saw it and just wanted to hold it, but Sydney didn't let me do that b/c she wanted to hold it and has been pretty much holding it every since. She calls it Dixie and tells people she's sick. She gives it kisses and sleeps with it. It is so sweet. Thank you Emryn and Nate, we love it.

Here are a few videos I found showing how energetic she used to be.

Dixie

2011-10-16T17:47:00.000-07:00

So this has been a REALLY emotional and hard weekend for us knowing we might lose our sweet dog Dixie who is only 6 years old. It all started last Sunday when she was not feeling well. Just laying around and acting weird. We didn't really think much of it. Monday she was still sick and that night my dad came over to help finish the doggie door (which she has not used yet). Tuesday when she was even worse and more lethargic we thought we'd better take her to the vet to check it out. The vet said it was probably a bulging disk and they could give her 5 days of pain killers and see if it goes away on it's own or do xrays for $300 to see what was going on. We decided to try the pain killers first. Every day after that she got progressively worse. We couldn't get her to get up and she stopped eating and was in excruciating pain. Friday we decided not to make her wait all weekend so I took her in that morning to the vet to have the xrays. I picked her up that afternoon and the vet told me she has a bulging disk in her lower neck which might be able to be treated w/ steroids. She said if the disk ruptures the only option is surgery for $5000. I hate to put a price on Dixie, but there is no way we would do that. Obviously, the money is an issue, but I don't think I would want to put her through surgery and the recovery of it. She told me to keep her in her crate 24/7 for 2-3 weeks. I was thinking, okay great this is going to be a pain, but we can at least fix the problem. We weren't allowed to start her on the steroids until Saturday night b/c of her previous medication. The vet gave us some pain killers to hold her over. Well after that she got worse and worse every hour. It was extremely painful just watching her...it made me sick to my stomach. When she got up to go to the bathroom it took her about an hour because it is so painful just to take a step or any type of slight movement. She would stay standing up for 1/2 hour to an hour just to avoid having to lay down and have all of that pain. We left Saturday to buy her a new dog bed so she could at least be comfortable for the next 3 weeks. When we got home that early afternoon, Dixie had been in the living room and there was diarrhea ALL over the carpet (which is only 6 months old). That about did it for me. One, I really didn't want to clean it up and two, I started to realize this may be it for her. The whole rest of the day I was extremely emotional. I hated thinking about her being in this unbearable pain and I hated thinking about losing her right now. We aren't ready for her to go...it was so sudden. Jeff held it together better than me, but I know how bad he must feel b/c him & Dixie are best friends. Jeff is so good to her. He cuddles with her, takes her on runs every day, kisses her, etc. From then on she seemed almost paralysis. She wouldn't eat and would stand up for hours and not move. She was drooling and seemed liked she couldn't ever get to a comfortable position. I called the vet to ask her a few questions. I asked her what are the chances of it rupturing and she said 50/50. I had no idea it was that great of odds; I was originally under the impression it probably wouldn't happen, but we had to be careful just in case. That devastated me. I thought if she's doing this horrible plus the odds of her living are 50/50...it's not looking good. We gave Dixie her first steroid that night. A couple hours later, after the kids were in bed she became even worse. She would try to stand up and just fall over, and she was panting really hard. It was awful, we didn't know what to do with her. We then realized it was probably time to put her out of this horrible misery. We talked about waking the kids up to say goodbye and going to the 24 hr urgent care. We were so upset. We can't believe she was so happy and healthy just a week ago and now we're talking about putting her down. We called the urgent care to talk to someone to make sure that's the right thing to do. They kind of agreed w/ us, but said sometimes that can happen w/ the steroids. We decided when she was acting a little bit better, that we wanted to at least give the steroids a chance for a couple days before we gave up. That night and today she is still doing bad, but better than she was. I still keep thinking we shouldn't put her through this and if she does recover, will she ever be the same? We are going to see how it goes. Dixie is such an amazing dog. She is loyal, so great with all kids, happy, energetic, obedient,& she never barks. She is definitively part of our family and we would be devastated without her. However, we would be able to get through it and be okay. Any good dog owners would understand the emotional connection you gain with a dog you love. So besides being a great dog, we would miss her and her sweet personality. We are not giving up hope on her, but we have also accepted the reality that we might have to put her down. Jeff & I are doing good today...I think we're cried out from yesterday. I appreciate all the people who have been sympathetic and caring towards us. It really makes us feel better.

This is her sick, but before she got really bad.

happy times...

She was always so good with Colter & Syd when they were babies.

This is before she stopped eating. Sydney has been so concerned and sweet to Dixie.

Kare for Kaimen

2011-09-19T21:57:00.001-07:00

This is my sweet adorable nephew, Kaimen. Kaimen was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy which has prevented him from walking and sitting up. He just turned 3 and the doctors were really unsure how to treat Kaimen. After fasting and praying, my sister Kristin heard of a organization in Utah called, Now I Can. They really felt like this is the treatment he needs to progress. Insurance does not cover this so they decided to put together fundraisers to make this possible for Kaimen. This past weekend we did a benefit garage sale for him. It was amazing how many people helped out to make this possible. There were so many generous people who donated stuff, there were people who donated money, people who helped put together the garage sale, and people who came to garage sale and supported Kaimen. It's amazing to see everyone's generosity. The garage sale was a huge success and a whole lot of work. My family and Richard's family and some good friends were there pretty much all night long. We picked up a lot of items that night and had no idea we had that much stuff. It was just never ending sorting and pricing. We were worried after all this hard work that we weren't going to have enough people come to the garage sale and have to figure out what to do with everything. Well, to our pleasant surprise, we had a lot of people come and most of the stuff was sold within the first few hours. It was really an amazing experience and we were all so happy to be helping Kaimen out. Thank you sooooo much for everyone's donations and support. We couldn't of done it without you!

Tracy & Kaimen

Me & Kaimen

Sydney is 2

2011-09-05T21:21:00.001-07:00

Last Saturday, my sweet Sydney turned 2! We had a fun day with her. I think she knew it was her birthday. She was loving all the attention. Around lunch time we had a small party for her. Her guests were, Grandma & Grandpa Talley, Grandma & Grandpa Brown, Tracy, Kristin, Rich, Kaimen, Danika, Shelly, Mason, and Noah. We ate lunch, opened presents, sang to her, had cake & ice cream, and went swimming afterwards. Sydney got a lot of fun presents from her family and friends.

Later that night we went to Ihop for dinner for free kid meals. Sydney decided she wanted to try the raw onions off my sandwich. She seemed to really like them. And yes, her breath was horrible that night.

Sydney is such a sweet funny little girl. I look forward to seeing her cheesy little smile every day. She has brought our family sooooo much joy!

Here are a few things Sydney is doing at 2:

-She knows most of her colors.

-She talks a ton; saying full sentences.

-Syd is almost always in a good mood.

-She loves to hang out with Colter. Her favorite thing to do at bedtime, is run into his room and jump on his bed. They are best friends! They play so well together.

-She loves to scream in public with no warning just to be funny.

-She is a total girly girl. She loves getting her toenails painted, loves babies, loves barbies, loves loves loves shoes. The babysitters at the gym say she sits by the cubby and tries all the kids' shoes on. She loves acting like a mom and talking on the phone. She also has to pick out her own outfits and shoes everyday. It's so fun having a girl and seeing how different she is from Colter.

-Syd does not like television or movies. She has never really liked it, which is actually really nice.

-She continues to be an awesome sleeper. She goes to bed at 8pm and wakes up around 7:30am and also takes about a 2-3 hour nap. It's wonderful!

-She is obsessed with baby Callie, baby Dallin, and baby Blake. She talks about them all the time. When we are looking at pictures of them on the computer, she tries to take them out of the monitor so she can hold them.

-she loves dogs, and especially loves little dogs. If we ever see one, she gets a super high voice and says, "I want to kiss that cute dog" or something like that.

-She is a great eater. She loves veggies, all kinds of fruits, breads, meats, and anything else we give her. She actually has some pretty weird things she likes. She is in love with shrimp. We don't get it very often, but when we do her & Jeff chow down on it. Her favorite foods are probably fish, orange chicken, green beans (with ketchup), sour cream (usually we catch her eating it plain), all kinds of berries, and of course all kinds of treats.

-A few months ago, she took a lot of interest in potty training. I wasn't really ready, but I thought I give it a try. She did pretty well at home, but I didn't feel like I could take her out in public. I kind of gave up on it, but she has recently wanted to start up again. When we're at home she usually doesn't have accidents. She goes all by herself without me asking her or helping her.

-She loves to look for airplane and helicopters.

-As far as her personality, at first she seems to be quite around people, but I think it is just an act. She's never had a problem with me dropping her off anywhere. She has done great from day one with Nursery and the gym.

Stats at 2 yrs:

Height: 3 feet (92nd percentile)

Weight 27 lbs, 12 oz (65th percentile)

Head Circumference: 19inchs (70 perc.)

Preschool

2011-08-24T21:21:00.000-07:00

Since my sister moved to Arkansas, I am now teaching preschool with my mom. We started a few weeks ago and I love it! Our students are so cute and so well behaved. I love working with my mom. We get along so well and she is a lot of fun. I like the schedule because I feel like I have something to keep me & the kids entertained without feeling too busy. Colter is doing great. He has a lot of friends and he fits in well with all the kids. I thought because I am the teacher he would misbehave a little, but he has done really well. Sydney has been perfect. She just plays with toys and walks around. She never asks for me to hold her or get her anything. She has definitely exceeded my expectations. I'm so proud of her! Here are some pictures of the first day of school.

This is me when I was in Preschool. Couple years older than Sydney, but I think she looks a lot like me.

Saying Goodbye

2011-08-18T22:26:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago we had to say goodbye to my sister Amy and her family. Amy's husband, Marcus, got accepted to PA school in Arkansas. Amy's kids, Bailey, Livvy, and Blake are all so close to Sydney & Colter. Colter & Bailey have been best friends since Colter was born. They fight a lot when they're together, but they're each others favorite person. Bailey and Livvy are so sweet to Sydney. They treat her like a little princess. I loved watching them play with her...so sweet. Colter has always adored baby Blake. He talks about missing Blake the most. It's sad that the next time we see them, Blake's not going to be a baby anymore. I'm used to seeing Amy all the time so it's been sad not being able to hang out with them. Luckily, it's only for 2 1/2 years.

Since Colter isn't a big phone talker, Bailey and Livvy came up with an awesome idea on how to keep in touch with their cousins. They sent letters and pictures to Colter & Sydney. They were both sooo excited. I was surprised to see that Sydney was even excited. Colter spend the next hour after opening the letters, drawing pictures to send back to them. And then I helped him write letters back. He usually would not be excited about doing this, but he got totally into it. He told me exactly what to write. Sydney drew some pictures too, but I didn't get a copy of them. Thank you Bailey & Livvy for starting this. We love you guys!

Letters to Colter from Bailey & Livvy

Letters to Sydney from Bailey & Livvy

Pictures colored for Colter.

Pictures colored for Sydney.

Colter's letters to Bailey & Livvy (he wrote his name on the back instead of the front)

Pictures from Colter to Bailey & Livvy. The letter explains what it is. ha ha.

Letter to Blake from Colter. After we finished the letters to Bailey & Livvy he realized we needed to write one to Blake. While writing to Blake he realized he forgot to draw him a picture. It was really cute.

Summer Recap

2011-08-14T14:42:00.000-07:00

Besides our family trips, I haven't blogged much this Summer. Here are some of the things we've been doing this summer. This summer was the first time since I've had kids that I haven't worked at all. It was awesome! I have loved hanging out with the kids these past few months. At the end of May I joined a gym. It has an amazing daycare center. Colter & Sydney LOVE going there. In fact, they get mad at me if we miss a day. The beginning of the summer was swim lessons. Colter did great and Sydney liked it at first, until she figured out she had to go under water. The last week of the class was her arms around my neck the whole time.

The kids have also had friends and family over to play and hang out.

We've been swimming a ton. It feels like almost every day. The kids loved sunblocking each other. It was really cute.

As much as I didn't want to, Sydney kind of forced me to start potty training her. She started showing a lot of interest and trying to go by herself and refusing to wear a diaper. So I have been kind of trying to potty train her this summer. She does pretty good at home, but is no where close to be ready for out in public. I really just need to stay home with her for a month and work on it, but that's been hard to do.
Last month, we went to Chick-fil-a for cow day. We all got free value meals for dressing up like a cow. The kids had a lot of fun!

I've really enjoyed this summer, but I love now that school has started and we're back into a routine. I will be posting about Colter & preschool in the next couple days.

Trip to New Mexico

2011-08-14T13:55:00.000-07:00

Emryn(Jeff's sister) & Nate blessed their new baby Dallin last weekend and we had the opportunity to drive up there to go to the baby blessing and also meet Dallin for the first time. He is absolutely adorable!! We also got to see Austin again and see Nate & Emryn's new house. We had a great time. We left Saturday mid morning and arrived to Nate & Emryn's that evening for dinner. Colter and Austin hit it off right away. They had soooo much fun hanging out together. I was shocked to see how well they played together. Sydney played with them too, but she was mostly in to Dallin and doing her own thing. Sunday we went to church and Nate & Emryn had us over for lunch & dinner. We stayed at the same hotel as Grandpa & Grandma Talley so the kids had fun visiting them at night before they went to bed. Monday we went to the Aztec Ruins. The kids loved it. Colter couldn't stop talking and asking questions. We met Emryn & Austin that afternoon at an inside water park, and then the whole family met at Red Lobster for dinner. The next morning we drove back to AZ. The kids were incredibly well behaved on the way home. They watched only about 15 mins of tv and were nearly perfect even w/o the tv. Overall the trip was great. It was relaxing and fun to hang out with family for a few days. I'm glad Colter & Syd got to spend some time with their cousins.

*Side Note: I'll be catching up blogging the next few days, so bare with me....lots of pictures.

*also, does anyone know why all the sudden I can't move my pictures around on blog posts. I used to be able to cut & paste them. Does anyone else have this problem?

Oceanside/Sea World trip- Part 1

2011-06-30T20:41:00.001-07:00

This past weekend we got to go Oceanside, CA for a little family vacation. We had soooo much fun and it was great to be able to spend so much time together. Just to warn you there are a ton of pictures, but I didn't know how to narrow it down. I don't know where to start telling about our trip so I'm just going to break it up into days.

Friday: We went to Oceanside beach mid morning. The kids didn't get as into as I thought they would. The last 2 years Colter loved it, but this year they both just played in the sand. I was the only one brave enough to get in the water. I have always loved the beach and couldn't pass up the one chance I have all year to get in the ocean. We then walked on the pier and enjoyed the gorgeous weather. We went back to the condo and all 4 of us took naps (it was wonderful). That evening we went a trip down memory lane and visited the house in Oceanside I grew up in. I lived there until I was about 8 1/2. We then went to a park my mom used to take us to. That day was fun & relaxing.

Thursday: We left in the morning to go to Sea World. Colter was so anxious & excited to go. The kids were awesome in the car ride up. We got to Sea World mid afternoon. We didn't realized how worn out we all were from traveling til we got there, but we still had a ton of fun. The kids immediately fell in love with Sea World. It was the perfect theme park to take them to. Both Colter & Sydney loved all of the exhibits. I was happy to see how into it Sydney was. She loved every second of it & didn't complain once. We went through most of the exhibits the first day and saw about 3 shows. We left around 7ish that night because we were all so tired and Sydney didn't end up napping in the car. We then got to the condo in Oceanside. We got it for an awesome price from a friend. It was awesome not having to share a room with the kids and having a kitchen.

California/Sea World trip- Part 2

2011-06-29T13:36:00.000-07:00

I had trouble downloading my pictures 1/2 way through this post so this is part 2 of our trip. Sorry it's backwards. Hopefully, I'll get part 1 figured out tomorrow.

Saturday: We got to Sea World right when it opened. It was awesome b/c until about noon, there were hardly any lines for the rides. Colter was tall enough to ride all the rides. Colter rode a few big rides. Sydney got to ride a couple toddler rides like teacups & a airplane type ride. She loved them! One of the rides Colter rode was a roller coaster that was pretty fast and had a couple big drops. I took him on it first, then Jeff. After every drop he would say he's never going on that ride again and then shortly after he would change his mind, until the next drop. We revisited some more exhibits that day. We feed the sea lions. The kids loved the dolphins. At the dolphin exhibit, you can put your hands in and every once in a while a dolphin comes up to someone. Jeff was the lucky someone the dolphin came up to. He got to pet it for a little bit. It was really cool...we were all jealous. I got it on video, but you have to ignore my annoying, load voice on it. We left that afternoon. That evening we went back to the beach to walk around & play at the park. It was so relaxing with the wonderful weather and the view & smell of the ocean. I loved it.

Colter got to walk a giant lizard. Super cool!

Sunday: We packed up & left that morning. On our way home, we stopped by the San Diego Temple. It is so gorgeous there. I love that temple. The drive home was okay, but not great. Sydney was pretty antsy and hard to entertain, but it could of been worse. Overall, we had an amazing time. I couldn't of asked for a better trip. I was sad to leave the weather and all the greenery in California.

Braves game with dad

2011-06-12T23:26:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago, Jeff took Colter to a Braves vs. Diamondbacks game. Jeff is a Braves fan and he thought it would be fun to take Colter to a game. Colter had the time of his life! He LOVES spending one on one time with his dad. Colter & Jeff were on the big screen while eating hot dogs and Colter thought that was the coolest thing ever. They also had a small baseball field where the kids could play. When Colter got home he was ecstatic. He was talking a million miles an hour and was telling me all about him being on the big TV and playing baseball and eating hot dogs. Even though it was way past his bedtime, he was completely wired. It took us a while to get him to bed b/c he couldn't stop talking. I love when he's like that; it cracks me up.

Hip Hop dance performance

2011-06-12T22:59:00.000-07:00

I know it's been about a month since I've last posted, but I actually have a good excuse. In the last month we've only had the internet for about 1/2 of it. We've had viruses like crazy this last month on our computer, but now we got a new one so hopefully this is the last of our problems. Anyways, I'm going to be playing catch up for the next couple days.

A couple months ago I posted about Colter's dance class. On his last day (which was a month ago) they had a little performance. Because it was only a 2 month class there wasn't any type of routine it was just pretty much free style. Colter did great and loved it. I loved that he did so well in front of everyone. Usually he would be pretty timid in a large group like that. I loved that the dance class helped him open up a little more and I'm glad he was able to make friends and get along with the other boys so well.

Colter and his best friend, Mason, who also took the class. They had so much fun together!

Shrimp

2011-05-18T16:32:00.000-07:00

Jeff was eating shrimp the other night and Sydney decided to join him. She LOVED it & was chowing down on them. I think she had about 10. Here is a video of her enjoying them!

Mother's Day

2011-05-15T21:31:00.001-07:00

I had an amazing Mother's Day this year. My kids and my husband were sweet & wonderful to me. The kids & Jeff got me some super cute shoes and a Texas Longhorn shirt. For those of you that don't know, both Colter & Jeff are huge Texas Longhorn fans and they both have their own Texas shirts so now I finally got mine! I'm so grateful to be a mom to my 2 wonderful kids. It is such a blessing. I'm also grateful to have an amazing mother. She has always showed me she loves me so and she is always there for me. Here are some pictures from that day.

Fathers & Sons campout

2011-05-15T21:25:00.000-07:00

Jeff & Colter went on our wards Fathers & Sons campout. They had an absolute blast! Colter loved hanging out with his dad and some other kids in the ward. Saturday morning they made bottle rockets & Colter loved it. On the way home they stopped by Tonto National Bridge & took a few picture.

Easter 2011

2011-05-15T21:11:00.001-07:00

Well, I'm finally posting Easter pictures. We had a great Easter. It was fun to watch Sydney get so into it this year. She got very involved and took finding Easter eggs very seriously. And of course, Colter loved it too. The Saturday before we went to Grandma & Grandpa Talley's for an egg hunt. The kids loved every minute of it. They had so much fun that they decided to re-hide and re-find the eggs about 5-6 times.
Sunday morning we had our own family hunt. The kids had a lot of fun. They got a bubble machine from the Easter Bunny. Later that day Colter helped me make croissants for our dinner that evening.
We went to my families' house for dinner and an Easter egg hunt. The kids liked having a little competition this time.

4 new posts

2011-04-12T23:23:00.000-07:00

Once again, I haven't updated my blog in over a month. Tonight I played catch up. I have 4 new posts not including this one.

All boys hip hop class/ Reptile show

2011-04-12T22:59:00.000-07:00

Colter has been in an all boys hip hop class for the last month. It might seem weird that I put my son in a dance class, but I can explain. I was looking for something besides preschool to put him in so he could interact with different groups of kids. I saw this 9 week dance class & I thought it would be hilarious. I told Colter about it, thinking he would say he wanted to do something else, but he immediately said he wanted to do dance. When I talked to Jeff about it he said no right off (he would not have his boy be in a dance class). I later convinced him that Colter is only 4 and it's only a 2 month class. I couldn't believe he actually agreed to it. Colter's best friend Mason also signed up. Colter absolutely loves it. He gets along and has been really social with the other kids in the class. He loves being able to run around and burn off all that energy. Watching him though the window, I've noticed he is constantly looking at himself in the mirror while he's dancing. It's pretty funny. The last week there is going to be a performance, so I'm sure I will be posting a video soon. Here is Colter & his dance teacher.

This week Jeff met us at the class to watch Colter. After his class, they had a reptile show in the same building that was free so we went to that. Colter LOVED it! The guy with the reptiles was hilarious and Colter couldn't stop cracking up. He had all sorts of reptiles, but the coolest was his 16 foot python that he let the kids pet. It was really cool.

Colter laughing hysterically.

Some random kids that Colter made friends with.

More laughing hysterically.

Sydney's 1st haircut

2011-04-12T22:45:00.000-07:00

Sydney had her 1st official haircut last week on Friday. I've trimmed her hair before, but this was the 1st time I took her somewhere. I took her to my friend Jen Ray & she did a great job. Sydney was just perfect and looked so stinkin' cute. I loved how it turned out. ADORABLE. Here are the pictures to prove it.

The end result! Can you stand how cute this is!

Airplane Teeter Totter

2011-04-12T22:27:00.000-07:00

I was at a friend in my ward's house a couple weeks ago and she had the coolest toy in her backyard. It was a airplane teeter totter that could hold 7 kids. Colter was going crazy over it. We looked it up online & found one for a pretty good price. We decided to use some of our tax return $ & buy it. We received it last week and put it up Wednesday night. The kids love it!

Look closely at Sydney's face. It's too cute.

Grandma even had fun on it!

His cousins came over & tried it out for the 1st time today.

I love to see the Temple

2011-04-12T22:11:00.001-07:00

We had a trip planned to Utah to see conference with my parents and brother & sister this month, but we had to back out last minute b/c I got pneumonia the day before we were suppose to leave. We were TOTALLY bummed. We even tried to still go, but we decided it would be kind of dumb since I was suppose to rest for a few days and with the higher elevation. The weekend was kind of a drag b/c we were all stuck in the house and wishing we were on our trip. That Sunday Jeff took the kids to the temple in between conference sessions. My kids love walking around the temple. They love the flowers, the Visitor Center, and the running up and down the ramps. Colter is fascinated with the temple and is always asking us when he can go inside the actual temple. Today he told me when he is 8 he gets to be baptized and when he is 12, he gets to go inside the temple (Jeff told him he could go when he was 12 for baptisms). Jeff took the camera and got some cute pictures.

Sydney 18 months

2011-03-06T20:33:00.001-08:00

My little Sydney turned 18 months last Sunday. We had stake conference last week so today was her first day of Nursery. Syd has been super clingy to me lately so I thought for sure she'd at least cry for a few minutes when we dropped her off, but to our pleasant surprise she was perfect. She ran right in & did not cry once the whole 2 hours & played great with the kids. We were sooo proud of her. She was so happy to see us when we picked her up. Here is Syd before church today.

I want to list a few things about Sydney at 18 months. We LOVE having this girl in our lives. She is the sweetest little girl and she is always making us smile.

-She is talking a TON. The past 2 weeks I feel like she says 5 new words every day. She says more words now than I can keep track of and has recently started to say short phrases like, "Where'd Daddy go?", "I love you", "go in truck", "that's Jesus", etc. She calls Colter, coco and her sippy, bibby.
-Her favorite 2 words are thank you. Says them ALL the time. Every time we give her something, it's immediately followed by a thank you. If we don't say your welcome right away, she continues to yell thank you until we do. It's hilarious.
-She knows most of her body parts (head, nose, eyes, teeth, ears, hands, feet, & belly button)
-Syd is always trying to help wipe everyone including herself.
-She loves dipping things in ketchup. She even dips her green beans in ketchup.
-Syd is obsessed with shoes. She spends a lot of time each day going through my closet and trying on all my shoes. She always has to pick out the shoes she is going to wear for the day & is not happy if I try to change them.
-She also likes to pick out her own outfits.
-After she goes #2, she usually comes up to me & says, "I poop."
-She is such a girl. She loves sparkles and anything pink. She loves dolls and dressing up.
-She is an awesome sleeper. Ever since she was born, she has been so easy to put to bed. We just lay her down & that's it. She even gets excited about going to bed.

Here are some more recent pictures of Syd....

Our kids always have the cheesiest smiles in pictures. This one cracks me up of Syd though.

Here are a couple videos I though were cute of her.

Colter is 4

2011-02-22T21:51:00.000-08:00

My sweet Colter turned 4 years old on the 11th (I know I am way behind on blogging). I can't believe we have a 4 yr old. His birthday weekend was kind of a drag thanks to all of us being sick. Colter, Sydney, and I all got sick the day (Thursday) before his birthday. So the day of his birthday we stayed home most of the day. Luckily Colter has wonderful grandparents who made his birthday special. Gma & Gpa Talley came by to visit and bring him presents that afternoon. He was so excited about his shirts, shorts, and huge art kit. That was the 1st time I'd saw him excited that day. Later on my mom came & picked him up to go to the mall. Which he was thrilled about b/c he got to ride the merry-go-round. The next day we had planned to do his birthday party. We thought about canceling b/c I was feeling crappy and since the kids were getting over being sick, they were both in bad moods.
We decided to go ahead and do it. We just had it at our house w/ a pinata, cupcakes, ice cream, and snacks. We invited our families and a few close friends. Colter had a good time, but you could tell he still wasn't feeling great. He loved all of him presents and plays with every one.
We are so grateful to have Colter in our lives. He is such a sweet and tender hearted boy. A couple weeks ago I had the sweetest conversation with him. We had gotten in a little "fight." He was sent to his room for time out & later came out to tell me he was sorry and he won't yell at me anymore. He then asked me why I am mad at him and then he started bawling. I was trying to comfort him b/c I knew he got his feelings hurt. I said, "Colter let's each say 3 things we love about each other." I went first and said I loved his smile, I love that he's funny, and I love his kisses. He then said, "I love you, I love that you make me laugh, and I love that you love me." I definitely got a little teary eyed.

Some of Colter's likes and interests right now are playing games, playing on the computer, helping mom cook, riding his bike, singing songs, playing with his friends and doing art projects. He loves going to preschool and hanging out with his friends. Lately, he has been showing off a little bit and telling "jokes" to his friends at preschool and acting super goofy. He loves getting the attention from them and making everyone laugh. He loves his little sister and is always watching out for her. I love watching him talk to her and play with her. I can tell he adores her. We love watching Colter grow up and develop his personality. We look forward to this next year with him.

side note: I lost my camera that was only a few months old. That's part of the reason I haven't blogged in a while. I finally got a new one. Thank you Shelly for letting me use your camera for the party!

Colter's first dentist appointment

2011-01-16T20:05:00.000-08:00

This past Monday, Colter had his very first dentist appointment. Last year, my awesome friend Shelly let Colter come to Mason's appt so he could get familiar with the dentist. It worked b/c he was really excited to go. He loved that there was a movie theater in the waiting room. He did awesome at his appointment. He was a little timid b/c is was something new & a little scary, but he was so cooperative and answered all the hygienist's questions. It was so cute to watch him b/c I could tell he was a little bit nervous, but he also felt really cool that he was at the dentist. The hygienist telling Colter about flossing.

The assistant started to take xrays, but decided to do it next time b/c Colter was gagging. It was sweet though, because he was trying to be so well behaved & cooperative during it. He thought he had to keep his mouth wide open the whole time. It was cute. While Colter waited for the dentist, he got to play video games in the clinic. He LOVED that! Then the dentist saw him & said he looked great. Then they gave him a t-shirt, a bag of goodies, and tokens to buy prizes. He was so excited & decided that he LOVES the dentist.

Weekend Getaway

2011-01-11T19:49:00.001-08:00

This past weekend Jeff & I celebrated our 6 year wedding anniversary. My wonderful parents offered to watch the kids & Jeff's parents took the dog for a couple nights so we could get away. We wanted to go somewhere close & not cold so we decided to go to Tucson. Not the prettiest place in the world, but we didn't really care. We didn't have any crazy plans, we just hung around the resort & went out to eat & shopping. It was so much fun! We left Friday late afternoon and went to BJ's for dinner for the best pizza ever!! Saturday morning I slept in & Jeff picked up donuts for us at Safeway. Later we found out about the horrific shooting. The Safeway that the shooting was at was a quarter mile away from our hotel and Jeff had been at the same Safeway 1 1/2 hours before. It was so scary to think we could have easily been there when it happened. We had talked the day before about getting showered & ready and then going to get donuts, but Jeff ended up going while I was still in bed. All of the news vans were parked at our resort b/c the road was blocked off. It was such a sickening thing to hear about. We still managed to enjoy ourselves for the rest of the day. We drove down to an old catholic church building that was about 300 years old. That was kinda cool. (ugly Tucson scenery)

Then we did a little bit of shopping. That night we went to Red Lobster for dinner & stuffed ourselves w/ cheese biscuits & coconut shrimp (some of my favorite things). The rest of the night we enjoyed hanging around the resort. We worked out at the gym, used the massage chairs, and went to the hot tub. It was so much fun just hanging out as husband & wife.(our Martinelli's that we couldn't drink b/c we didn't have a bottle opener)

Sunday morning we hung out around the resort & read by the pool and then headed back home to get our cute kiddos.
Overall, the week was soooo much fun. We loved being able to spend time w/ each other without the kids (even though we are crazy about them). I can't believe we've been married 6 years. It has been an awesome 6 years. I love my husband so much & so happy I married him. He is an amazing husband and dad. There are so many things I love about him, but I think my favorite thing about him is he has always put his family first. I know he'd rather hang out with me & the kids than anything else in the world. I love what a great dad he is to Colter & Sydney. I know he adores them & they adore him and I know we are the most important thing to him. I appreciate that he works so hard so I am able to be home most the time with the kids. That is has been a huge blessing for me. I feel so lucky to have him.

Christmas 2010

2011-01-02T14:34:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it's been over a month since I last updated my blog. I have a lot to catch up on, but I'm just going to talk about Christmas. First of all, I am so sad b/c ALL of my Christmas pictures & videos got erased. Kind of a long story, but I was playing around on my computer while my camera was connected & it erased all of the pics off my memory card. I was just sick about it, mostly b/c I lost the videos. I had the cutest ones of Colter opening some of his presents. I guess it's not the worst thing in the world to loose. The past couple of days, I have been trying to take pictures of the kids with some of their favorite presents to make up for what I lost.
Christmas was amazing this year. I think this has been the best Christmas yet. I think the older your kids get, the more fun it is. The whole month of December we did a lost of Christmas activities. Colter met Santa about 5 times. He had his Preschool Christmas program the week before Christmas (lost the pics & videos for that too). We've had several family parties & a ward xmas party. The Tuesday before xmas we had a party on my mom's side of the family. The kids put on a Nativity story. Colter was Joseph & his cousin Bailey was Mary. It was so dang cute. They took their parts very seriously (of course I don't have a video of it).

Now to Christmas morning, it was such a perfect day. The kids were in great moods and it was just a relaxing, joyful day. Jeff & I woke up xmas morning at like 6am. I couldn't go back to sleep b/c I was so excited for the kids to get up & see their presents. They didn't get up until 8:30. They walked out & were in shock. Colter ran right to his presents & was so excited. He was so excited w/ every present he opened. From Santa Colter got his first bike, some Buzz Lightyear wings, a Leapfrog reading system, and a few other small toys. Sydney walked out with her mouth wide open. She got more excited than I expected. Her theme of presents were dolls & mom stuff and she has been acting like a mom ever since. It's so cute! From Santa she got a kitchen (which I got at a garage sale for $5), a tricycle, and some doll accessories.

Colter & I got a small wooden rocking chair at a garage sale a while back and we sanded it & painted it white. This was from Colter and he was so excited to give it to Sydney. He felt so good when she saw it & was excited about it. Jeff & I got each other xbox kinect. We love it & play it all the time. Later that morning we went to my parents house. We had so much fun. All the kids were happy and loved their presents! Colter got a table air hockey game, which he loves & plays all the time, and a camping chair. Sydney got her very own shopping cart and a doll and doll carseat. She pushes the cart all around the house & puts her babies in it. (the cart if from Gma & Gpa Brown and the doll is from Gma & Gpa Talley)

That evening Jeff's family came over to our house & we had dinner and played games and opened presents. We were lucky to have Jeff's sister Emryn and her family in town from Colorado. We also had Jeff's grandma join us. We had a really nice time. Colter was thrilled about his new guitar. He also got a guitar shirt & craft box. From Aunt Emryn & Uncle Nate he got several Toy Story games. Sydney loved her new Tea Set & baby dolls. She carries her baby around ALL the time and absolutely loves it. By the end of the day I was so happy with the whole day and we had so much fun, but I was also really glad it was over. Thank you to all of you who made Christmas great for us. We love you!

Sydney

2010-11-30T17:43:00.000-08:00

I know it's been so long since my last post. I'm going to be playing catch up over the next couple weeks. I first wanted to post these videos of Sydney. I can't believe how big she's getting. She just turned 15 months. She's acting like a kid now rather than a baby. Sydney is so much fun to be with. She is the sweetest & funniest little thing. I wanted to list a few things about her that I want to remember.
-She is an awesome sleeper. She usually sleeps from 8pm-8am. She usually tries to climb in her crib when she's ready for bed and NEVER cries when we lay her down. When she wakes up, she usually spends about 1/2 hour talking to herself until I come get her.
-Sydney is not a cuddler & has never been.
-She loves to close doors, drawers & cabinets (it's kind of an obsession for her's)
-She has been talking a lot more lately. Her vocabulary consists of about 10-15 words. Her latest words are baby, cheese, thank you, I love you, mine, & monkey.
-Ever since my nephew Blake was born last week (that will be on another post), she has been fascinated with all babies. She says baby about 10 times a day. It's really cute.
-She smiles all the time & gives us lots of kisses.

Syd has been really independent lately. She can now do this little roller coaster by herself. It's the cutest thing to watch her do it over & over and love it every time.

Halloween

2010-11-02T23:07:00.001-07:00

The kiddos had a lot of fun this year for Halloween. Colter has been in to Toy Story lately so he dressed up as Woody & Sydney was Jessie (from Toy Story 2 & 3). The costumes turned out better than I thought. I was excited this year b/c I only spent about $6-7 total on both of their costumes. Sydney's costume made her look like a boy, but she looked so dang cute. Colter loved being Woody...especially since he got to wear cowboy boots. We did most of our celebrating on Saturday night. We dressed the kids up around 4pm and went to Jeff's grandma's place so she could see the kids & then to Jeff's parents. After that we went to our ward Trunk or Treat. Colter was a little quite, but he had fun seeing his friends from church all dressed up. All his friends liked his costume & I think he felt pretty cool. I was very impressed at Sydney. I thought for sure her wig would only last a few minutes and I hoped she would keep it on long enough for her grandparent to see, but to our pleasant surprise, she kept it on the whole night. She looked hilarious. After the Trunk or Treat we stopped by my parents. Colter & Sydney had a ton of fun. Colter was excited when he got home & could look at all his candy. I'm bummed I didn't get more pictures of the kids together. This was the best shot I got.

Preschool & Soccer

2010-09-23T23:00:00.001-07:00

Colter has been keeping busy the past couple months with all of his activities. He loves preschool. Especially yesterday because it was career day. All the kids dressed up of what they want to be when they grow up. Colter decided to be a handy man. A police officer came to talk to the kids & brought his dog. The kids were so excited & loved every second of it. They got to ask the officer questions, learn what he does, see his dogs do tricks, and even see the inside of his police car.

Colter is in a Soccer class one day a week. They don't actually play games; it's more drills and teamwork. He absolutely LOVES it and always looks forward to it, and I love it b/c it gets some energy out and gives him something to do. The only thing I don't like about it, is they don't let the parents watch until the last 5 minutes. It's kind of a bummer b/c I'm sure they are super cute in there. His cousin Bailey is also in the class. Amy & I have fun hanging out while Livvy(Amy's daughter) and Sydney play.

Sydney munching on an apple during Soccer.

Family Pictures

2010-09-18T20:05:00.000-07:00

We just got our family pictures back. I'm not totally happy with them, but we got one pretty good picture. I hate that the photographer only takes 2 pictures of each pose. We didn't have a lot to choose from. These are the few that did turn out okay.

Happy Birthday Sydney!

2010-08-27T21:41:00.000-07:00

Today is our sweet wonderful Sydney's 1st birthday. I can't believe it's already been a year since we had her, but it also seems like we've had her forever. We have adored every second with her. She is such a joy to be around and is almost always in a happy mood. Every time I even think about her it makes me happy. I wanted to list a few things about her so I have record of it. She took her first step on July 24th, and is now pretty much walking, but still prefers to crawl. She is a great little eater. She isn't into baby food anymore, she pretty much eats what we eat. Her favorite foods right now are peas, corn, raisins, ground beef, and cantaloupe. Sydney loves hanging out with her older brother and his friends. She absolutely adores her cousins, her Gma & Gpa Talley, Gma & Gpa Brown, her aunts & uncles, Shelly, Colter, and her mom & dad. Right now Sydney has 6 teeth that I know of. I never really noticed her teething b/c she never got overly cranky. Sydney is really into climbing now. She loves climbing on the couches and fireplace. She has never been into watching movies, she prefers puzzle pieces and her toys. Sydney is an amazing sleeper. Ever since about 2 months she has slept through the night almost every night. She is super easy to put down for naps & bed- she goes right to sleep or she will just talk to herself until she falls asleep. She loves giving kisses and high fives. She only says a few words like mama & dada. I'm sure she'll be picking up on that real soon.

We had her birthday party tonight. We just had cake & ice cream at our house with Jeff's parents, my family, and the Hubers. Sydney got a couple toys which she LOVES, a hooded towel, a book, and a ton of ADORABLE clothes. Thank you to everyone for the gifts. They were great. After she opened presents, she did a cake crawl. She got into it a little bit, but didn't want to eat it. Afterward, we hosed her off in the sink. Later that night she modeled all her clothes (which was about 5 outfits) and was such a great sport about it. After we put them on, she would do a little runway walk to show it off. It was adorable! I was so impressed with how happy she was the whole party (even though it was bed time) and how much she loved the attention. Here are some pictures from her party.

P.S. Thank you Kristin for taking all the pictures. My camera broke today & she saved me. By the way, I need to buy a new camera. Does any one have suggestions on a good camera to buy? Since I have kids that are always moving, I want one that takes fast pics. When I get the new camera I will post pics of her new outfits b/c they are so stinkin' cute.

Dancing & Singing

2010-08-23T21:25:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday, we had a party for my Grandma & Grandpa Crawford. My grandma turned 85 this year & my grandpa 90. Quite of few people came from out of town and a lot of extended family were there. After dinner, there was a short program of singing & piano playing. We thought it would be fun to have the kids put on a performance. We kind of knew at the beginning Colter would shy out of it, but to our pleasant surprise he went right up there & was loving all the attention they were getting. The first performance was by Colter and his cousins Bailey & Livvy singing a song they learned in preschool. The 2nd was all the cousins (except Sydney) dancing & performing to Lollipop. I think everyone really enjoyed the kids. I posted these videos b/c there are a few family members that wanted to see them.

P.S. I only could post the first video. It keeps giving me an error on the 2nd video.

California

2010-07-20T19:47:00.001-07:00

This past weekend we took a trip with my family to California. We had a BLAST!! We drove up Thursday & got to our hotel in the late afternoon. My parents got an awesome deal on our hotel & it was amazing. I wish I'd taken more pictures. The kids were on cloud 9 when we first got there. They were so excited to be in a fancy hotel w/ their cousins. The first night we went to the beach in plans to just sit & hang out, but the kids were way too excited about the beach. It started out w/ rolling their pants up & putting their feet in the water. By the time we left they were wet from the chest down. Friday we spent a few hours at the beach. The kids mostly played in the sand. We dug giant holes, buried each other, & made sand castles. Even Sydney loved it. That night we went out to Claim Jumper to celebrate my sister Tracy's B-day. Saturday we had planned on going to Knotts Berry Farm all day, but since the temp was going to be 105 degrees we decided to wait until 4:00 & get the cheaper tickets. The weather was awesome shortly after we got there & we were so glad we didn't go all day. The kids loved the rides. They had a mini roller coaster that Colter rode several times w/ his cousins Bailey & Livvy. My parents stayed w/ the kids for awhile while the adults rode some big rides. It was a lot of fun. Sunday morning we left to go home. I was so sad to leave because we had such a great time & it was really relaxing. Hopefully we'll be able to visit Cali again soon. Thanks Mom & Dad for taking us!

P.S. I wish I would of taken more pictures. My dad got a lot on his camera so I might be posting more.

Summer Fun

2010-07-08T16:15:00.000-07:00

This summer so far has been a blast. This is the first summer I haven't really worked & I'm really enjoying it w/ the kids. Colter & Sydney have been doing new and exciting things everyday.

Colter pretty much lives in his swim suit. Between swimming in our backyard & swim lessons, he has developed quite the tan. I put sunblock on about twice a day, but it doesn't seen to do much. All summer he's been taking swimming lessons through City of Mesa. He did his first session w/ his best friend Mason. The other sessions we did at a closer pool. Besides the first week, he has LOVED it! He looks forward to it everyday. As of a few days ago, he can swim w/o floaties. He can swim about 10 feet w/o help. He hasn't mastered the coming up for breath yet. We were all super proud of him. This summer we have also been practicing writing letters & spelling words. He is getting really good at writing his name. The other day I walked in from the other room & he had written his whole name by himself.

Sydney is getting so big...I feel like she's not a baby anymore. As of last month, my milk supply went away so I am done breastfeeding. I am very sad about that- I really enjoyed it w/ Sydney. Like most 10 1/2 month olds, Sydney is getting into EVERYTHING. She especially loves the toilet, dog bowl, & under the sink. She says a few words like...dada, mama, yeah, & hi. Her new thing is standing up by herself. She catches her balance & then looks around & waits for everyone to praise her. She smiles all the time & loves attention.

I'm looking forward to the rest of the summer, but also excited for preschool to start next month!

Camping

2010-06-21T15:18:00.000-07:00

I finally got around to posting our camping trip that happened the weekend before last. We went up to Pinetop area with Nate, Emryn, & Austin (Jeff's sister & her family) and the Hubers. Jeff's parents met us there during the day on Friday & Saturday. We had a ton of fun, but it was a little crazy with 2 kids. Especially when Sydney is at the age where she wants to get in to everything. The weather wasn't in our favor. On Friday it was super windy, Friday night it rained, and Saturday night was freezing. Despite the weather, we still had a ton of fun hanging out with family & friends. Nate & Emryn live in Durango so it was fun to be able to spend time w/ them & see there adorable son Austin. Colter had fun hanging out w/ his grandparents and doing boy stuff w/ his best friend Mason. I didn't take a single pic on the campout, but thanks to Shelly and everyone else, I have a ton of pics to post.

The Graduate

2010-05-26T08:20:00.000-07:00

Colter had preschool graduation last night. Of course he is not actually graduating (he still has 2 more years), but they still did a little graduation program. Colter called it "gradulation." It was so so cute. The kids sang 3 songs, then a video presentation, and then they gave out awards. Colter won the "Nutrageous Award" for his fun & outgoing personality.

After that they gave the kids their diplomas. I think that was my favorite part- watching Colter walk up & get his diploma.

Then all the kids received a dry erase activity book to practice their letters over the summer. It was a super fun night. Colter was all hyped up & thought he was really cool. Thank you mom & Amy for being awesome preschool teachers & taking such great care of Colter.

I had to add a pic of Sydney b/c she looked so cute last night.

Sleepy Head

2010-05-13T19:42:00.000-07:00

My friend Shelly got these cute shots of Sydney last week when she fell asleep in the highchair. I love them!

Sydney's First Time Swimming

2010-05-07T18:44:00.000-07:00

Sydney went swimming for the first time on Wednesday. She looked so stinkin' cute in a swimsuit.

Mother's Day Program

2010-05-07T17:49:00.000-07:00

Colter's preschool had a special program today for the mothers. It was so sweet. My sister (one of the preschool teachers) made a video early this week asking the kids questions about their moms. Then they sang 2 adorable songs. Colter wasn't doing the actions to the songs as well as when he practiced, but it was still really cute. Then the kids had a special gift for their mothers- they painted pots with homemade bath salts and a pedicure set in them. Colter was excited to give it to me. The program was a perfect Mother's Day gift. I loved it!

P.S.- The reason Colter is cut off for some of the video is b/c I wasn't really looking at the screen when I was taping. I wanted to look at him instead.

Catch up

2010-04-28T14:41:00.000-07:00

Sydney turned 8 months yesterday. I can't believe in just a few short months, she will be walking. I'm not ready for her to grow up. She continues to be a super happy baby. This past month she has been army crawling and as of last week she can officially crawl. Sydney's new best friend is Dixie(our dog). She gets really excited when she see's her & loves to play w/ her dog tag. If Sydney is in her walker when we feed Dixie, she runs over to watch her eat. It's so cute! Luckily, Dixie is an awesome dog & lets Syd do whatever to her.

Last Tuesday, Jeff had surgery on his right shoulder because he had a torn labrum. His shoulder has been bothering him for about a year now & he decided it was best to go ahead and get it done. Once the surgeon got in there, he realized the tear was a lot less than the MRI showed. So the recovery time would be a LOT less. We were both very excited b/c Jeff is very active & wants to get out & do his regular activities ASAP. This week has been fun b/c he is feeling better & still has the week off work. We've been able to hang out, run errands together, & watch movies. Too bad it's going to end soon. This is a picture of him before the surgery...

A couple weeks ago, Colter was invited to his 2nd cousin's, Aiden's, 5 yr old birthday party (Aiden's also in preschool w/ Colter). Colter felt really cool & old that he was invited. It was at Golfland & Colter loves watching golf on TV so he was ecstatic. I stayed at the party since Colter is only 3. He had a blast. They played miniature golf, ate pizza, & played the arcade games. It was really fun for me to watch him playing with the "big" kids. Thank you Aiden for inviting us & being so nice to Colter.

This morning before preschool, Colter and I decided to be brave and go swimming for the first time this year. It was cold, but we had fun. I'm so glad we have a pool to take advantage of this summer.

Mommy & Sydney

2010-04-12T08:45:00.000-07:00

I thought it would be fun to post some of mine & Sydney's baby pictures to compare. I think she is starting to look a lot like me. What do you think?

Sydney

Me, my mom, & 2 older sisters

Easter 2010

2010-04-05T15:30:00.000-07:00

We had a really fun Easter this year! The whole week was filled with activities.
On Wednesday Colter had a easter egg hunt at preschool.
These were the kids "silly" faces...

Wednesday night we went to the Easter Pageant as a family.Colter got really into the story. He was very concerned when Jesus was being beaten and crucified. He was holding onto my neck and saying, "It's okay mom, I got you." When Jesus was being hung on the cross, Colter looks at me & Jeff and says in a very concerned and sad voice, "Is Heavenly Father going to help Jesus off the cross?" Jeff explained to him that Heavenly Father was going to make him alive again. It was neat being able to have this conversation with him and that he was able to understand a little bit. Later the next day he was telling me all about how the bad guys hit Jesus and baptized him (I guess he thought being dunked in water was a mean thing to do). Then he told me it was okay b/c Jesus came alive again. I'm really glad we had the opportunity to go & have that neat experience w/ Colter.

Saturday between conference sessions we went over to the Talley's for an easter egg hunt. Soon after we arrived, we had a surprise come to the front door...... It was Nate, Emryn, & Austin (Jeff's sister, her husband & their son). We were all very excited!! They came down from Colorado to buy a car. We also went over their on Sunday night for dinner & to visit.

This is Grandma Talley getting Sydney to laugh.

Sunday morning, we of coarse had a easter egg hunt when Colter woke up. Jeff hid them all in the backyard earlier that morning. The easter bunny brought Colter candy and the "UP" movie. After the hunt, we picked oranges from our tree and made some orange juice along with french toast & sausage.

Later that afternoon we went to my parents for the cousin easter egg hunt. The kids had a blast hunting for their eggs. Unlike the other 2 easter egg hunts, this one there was competition so the kids made a mad dash for the eggs. It was cute!

I hope everyone had a great Easter. I am so grateful for this time of year that we are able to honor our Savior Jesus Christ and remember his atoning sacrifice. Being a mother & having a family of my own, I am especially grateful for his sacrifice & that I get to live with my family forever. I can't think of any greater blessing.

My 2 kiddos

2010-03-27T22:55:00.000-07:00

I love love love having 2 kids! It has been so much fun watching them together. I love how sweet Colter is with Sydney & how he talks to her & how he gets so excited when she gets up in the morning or from naps. I love how Sydney lights up when she sees Colter. She is constantly entertained by him and is always admiring the crazy & weird things he does.

One of my favorite things he does with her is his "Sydney voice." It's a high pitched, squeaky voice he uses to talk for her. The other day we were in the car & he wanted to call Jeff on the cell. So he talked to Jeff for a minute & then insisted that Sydney talks to Daddy. So he puts the phone to her ear & tells her to say "Hi daddy." Then in his Sydney voice he says, "Hi daddy." He continues to tell her to say a few more things and then he repeats it in his Sydney voice. He also will ask her questions and then answer them in his Sydney voice. It probably doesn't sound that funny, but it is super cute.My kids have hit some milestones the past few months that I wanted to record. Two weeks ago I finally decided to potty train Colter for good. It only took him a couple days to really get it. He does really well right now. He goes w/o being asked & usually doesn't have wetting accidents. We still have a way to go w/ the #2. We're getting there though. I'm so proud of him. Sydney got her first tooth a couple weeks ago. She now has 2. She is getting so big. She started sitting up a couple weeks ago and is getting up on her hands & knees. She loves baby food & eats a ton. The past week she has loved saying, "ga ga ga ga" and "da da da da."

Music to my ears

2010-03-19T07:45:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite things is to hear Colter sing. It's so sweet. Here are a few songs I got him singing on video.

Sydney- 6 months

2010-03-02T21:09:00.000-08:00

Sydney turned 6 months old this past Saturday. She is growing up so fast. We are obsessed with this little girl. She is always happy and so easygoing. We can't look at her without smiling. She has brought so much joy into our lives and we are so grateful for her. She is now rolling all over the place (she thinks she is so big). Her new thing is sticking her long tongue out. It's so cute! She absolutely adores Jeff. Every time she see's him, her face just lights up. She is going to be a daddy's girl for sure! At her well check visit yesterday, she weighed in at 16 lbs, 10 oz (60th percentile). She is 26 1/4 inches tall (70th percentile).

Baby Austin

2010-02-27T22:24:00.000-08:00

Last night Jeff's sister Emryn and her adorable baby Austin came into town from Colorado. Austin is almost 3 months old & we got to meet him for the first time today. We had been talking to Colter about Austin for several months now so he was excited to meet him. Colter got to hold Austin & Sydney played on the floor with him. It was sooo cute seeing them together. We got some super cute pictures of the cousins.

This one's my favorite...

Poor Colter trying to juggle two crying babies.

Colter's Birthday Party!

2010-02-21T16:32:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday we had Colter's birthday party. This year we thought it would be fun to rent a bounce house for Colter's party. My niece Livvy's Birthday was the same day as Colter's party so my sister & I decided to do both parties at my house & just use the bounce house for both parties. It worked out great! The kids at both parties absolutely LOVED it! It entertained them for hours.

This year since Colter is in preschool and nursery, he had a lot of friends he wanted to invite. He had so much fun having all his family, friends & cousins in one place. It was really fun to see him interact with all his friends and he got so excited when each of them showed up.

My mother-in-law & Sydney

My dad having more fun on the bounce house than the kids. ha ha.
(this was actually at Livvy's party)

The kids played on the bounce house for awhile & then we had lunch. After lunch we opened Colter's presents. He wasn't as excited about the his presents as I was hoping he'd be, but he still had fun and played with them for hours the next day.

All the kids were gathered around Colter trying to give him the present they had brought. It was really cute.

The last thing we did was sing to Colter & let him blow out the candles. He loved that part and of course the eating cake & ice cream.

Overall, it was a great party. Colter had a ton of fun! Thank you everyone who came & for making Colter's B-day a great one!

Happy Birthday Colter!!

2010-02-15T21:25:00.000-08:00

Colter turned 3 years old this past Thursday. Unfortunately, Thursdays are the one day I work so I worked that afternoon. Luckily, Colter has amazing family and friends who love him & made his birthday awesome! I seriously think it was the best day of his life. He was so happy and hyper the whole day. This was the first Bday that he really understood it was his day. He loved getting all the attention.

His day started out with his morning cartoons & his breakfast of choice(french toast & eggs). My mom came by mid morning to take him to Build-a-Bear! He had been looking forward to this for weeks! He was soooo excited when it was time to go. After he got into his carseat, I was saying goodbye & he kept grabbing my face to kiss me & telling me he loved me, but also wanting me to leave so they could get to Build-a-Bear!

After Build-a-Bear, Colter went to Shelly's house while I was at work. Being the amazing friend she is, she had a little Bday party for him! She had made a basketball cake and had balloons & decorations! He had so much fun as you can see in the pictures below!

After Jeff & I got off work we went to Texas Road House. We had a GC & we wanted to do something with him that day. He continued to be super happy & talkative. He got to ride the saddle & the waiter announced to everyone it was his birthday. He was a little confused, but loved it!

After Dinner, Grandpa & Grandma Talley came over to visit & bring Colter presents. They also brought gifts form Colter's great-grandma Harris & great-aunt Gail. He got clothes, a movie, playdough, & silly putty. He loved all of it!!

I know my child is totally spoiled. Thank you soooo much everyone for making Colter's birthday special. It meant so much to me & Colter.

We are so lucky to Colter in our family. He makes us laugh everyday. We love his sweet and funny personality. I love the way he interacts with Sydney. I love the funny things he says. I love how affectionate he is, always willing to give us hugs and kisses. We love you Colter! Thank you for being you!

I'm back...

2010-02-14T22:06:00.000-08:00

Wow! I haven't updated my blog for almost 2 months. It's been a busy couple months & the weeks just seemed to fly by. I am way behind & I don't even know where to start. Instead of writing a super long post, I'm going to be catching up through out the week.

Here is a short recap of the past couple months...

Christmas was a lot of fun with Colter this year. He understood & got excited about the whole Santa thing. It was so much fun for us. Christmas Eve we decorated sugar cookies for Santa & read Christmas stories. Christmas morning Colter was super excited about all the toys Santa brought him. We spent the rest of the day at our families' houses. It was busy, but we had lots of fun.

This is Colter riding his new scooter from Gma & Gpa Brown with his glow in the dark Mickey Mouse shirt form Gma & Gpa Talley. The safety gear he got w/ his xmas money form his great-grandma Talley. He looks kind of dorky, but very cute!

Jeff & I celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary last month. We cashed in our credit card rewards and went on a mini getaway to Sedona. We have not been anywhere alone since before we had Colter, so this was a much needed trip. We had a lot of fun. It was so relaxing and the scenery was beautiful.

I have been horrible about taking pictures of Sydney. She is getting so big. She is 5 1/2 months and is such a blessing in our home. She makes us smile every day. She continues to be an exceptionally easy baby. We have so much fun making her smile & laugh. Colter still adores her and is really sweet with her. I love being home with my kids & enjoy every minute of it (well...almost every minute).

This pic was a couple months ago. Colter wanted to cuddle w/ Sydney while watching his morning cartoons.

Sorry, this post was longer than I thought. This week I will be posting about Colter's Bday & his Bday party.

Trip to Flagstaff

2009-12-21T18:59:00.000-08:00

Jeff's cousin, Clark, returned home from his mission last week. We decided to go Flagstaff to hear his homecoming talk. We went up the day before to play in the snow. The last time we played in the snow, Colter was barely one so this was a new experience for him. He had a blast! He would of played all day if we let him.

Saturday night we went over to Jeff's aunt & uncle's house to hang out w/ family. Colter hit his head really hard on the pool table & it left a HUGE bump between his eyes. After a few minutes of crying, he was back to his normal happy self.

2009-12-16T14:27:00.000-08:00

Monday night was Colter's Christmas Program for Preschool. All the parents & grandparents were invited to come. It was so dang cute. On the first song, Colter did nothing but stand there. After that he warmed up to the crowd. After the songs, the preschool students had a surprise guest....SANTA!!! My brother-in-law Marcus dressed up. The kids were super excited. Colter was the first one to sit on his lap, but didn't say much. Afterwards we had some yummy Christmas desserts. Thank you sooo much Mom & Amy for being amazing preschool teachers. You definitely go above and beyond. Colter always has so much fun & is learning so much. You guys did an awesome job with the program!

*I wanted to post all of the videos I took. I know most of you won't want to watch all of them, but there were a few parents & grandparents that missed the program. So I wanted to make sure they get to see as much as possible. If you are going to watch one, watch the 2nd video. That's the one Colter is participating the most.

Colter & Mommy's Date Night

2009-12-05T21:34:00.000-08:00

Jeff had a VERY important football game he wanted to watch tonight, so Jeff stayed home w/ Sydney while Colter and I went on a date. We went to the dollar theaters and saw G-Force. After we went through the drive-thru at Krispy Kreme. We had sooo much fun. Colter was so excited. When we were waiting to get our donuts, he started clapping and said, "This is so much fun." I'm glad we got to spend some one on one time together. I love this kid!

Here are some pictures we took on our night out:

Colter eating his donut in the car.

Sydney laughing

2009-12-02T15:23:00.000-08:00

Last night we got a lot of laughs out of Sydney.

I'm obsessed with this little girl.

Pics of Sydney/ Colter's Preschool

2009-11-24T14:51:00.000-08:00

Our sweet little girl will be 3 months on Friday. She is growing up so fast. I am so enjoying having a baby. Especially one like Sydney who always so happy and easygoing. Here are a few recent pictures of her:

She now sits up in her bumbo!

My cute friend Shelly did a post of Sydney on her blog. She painted Sydney's toenails & took some cute pictures while she was babysitting last week. If you want to check it out, go here: http://thehappyhubers.blogspot.com. Thanks Shelly for being so sweet with my kids! Everyone LOVES Sydney's blue toenails!

Yesterday, the parents were invited to stay after preschool to watch the kids sing some Thanksgiving songs that they have been practicing and to have a thanksgiving feast. It was really cute to see Colter participating and doing all the actions to the songs. The kids had so much fun & us parents really enjoyed watching them.

Halloween pics

2009-11-03T16:22:00.000-08:00

Our gorgeous little fairy.

Colter wouldn't keep his mask on.

Olivia, Bailey, & Colter (this is the best one we could get of them).

I thought it be fun to post some Halloween pictures from the past couple of years:

Halloween 2008- Peter Pan

Halloween 2007- Scarecrow

Family Night

2009-11-03T15:04:00.001-08:00

Last week our neighborhood had a little Halloween carnival on Wednesday night. Even though it was freezing, we had lots of fun. Colter got to do a cake walk (and was so excited when he won), he went fishing, jumped in a bounce house, and got his face painted. We ended the night by coming home & playing our new game Twister. Colter enjoyed practicing his colors and his left & right(see video below). I love nights like these. I love hanging out with my family!

2 months old

2009-10-28T16:01:00.000-07:00

Sydney turned 2 months old yesterday. She is such a good baby. She rarely cries & is really easygoing. She had her well check visit today. She weighs 12lbs 7oz (85 percentile) and is 24 inches tall (95 percentile). Here is a picture of her at 2 months.

This was Colter at 2 months. He weighed 11lbs 14oz and was 22 3/4 inches tall.

Colter has been great with Sydney. I love watching him interact with her. As for with me, I started working about 6-7 hours a week doing marketing for the ortho office. I LOVE LOVE LOVE being home with my kids. It is such a great blessing. I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Colter thought she needed some toys to play with. He kept running back & forth to his room to get more stuff.

Cousin Pictures

2009-10-24T12:36:00.000-07:00

Last week my sisters & I took our kids to JCPenney's to get cousin pictures taken. It actually went pretty good considering there were 6 kids under the age of 4. The pics turned out super cute.

Sydney's blessing

2009-10-11T16:56:00.000-07:00

We blessed our sweet baby Sydney today. Everything went perfect. She looked so beautiful. She was an angel the whole Sacrament meeting. We had a luncheon afterward for our family & friends who came to the blessing. Thank you to everyone who came. We appreciate your love and support. Here are a few pictures:

Daddy holding Sydney.

Family picture in front of our house.

I'm usually not a fan of the "goofy" pictures, but it was fun to do with Colter.

Daddy & Colter

This is my cute cousin Kale holding Sydney. He absolutely adores
Colter & Sydney (and they adore him). He's such a sweetheart.

Fire Trucks & Halloween Costumes

2009-10-07T20:26:00.001-07:00

This past Saturday in between conference sessions, Colter & I went to a neighborhood party by my parents house. They had firemen and fire trucks there that the kids could get inside and tour. Colter thought it was really cool. I love his face in this one.

I found this really cute costume at Once Upon a Child for pretty cheap. By the way, if anyone is looking for kid halloween costumes, they have a ton of really cute used ones at Once Upon a Child. Colter LOVES Shrek so he was super excited! I think he looks hilarious.

Catch up

2009-09-26T14:07:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a really long time since my last post. Sydney will be one month old tomorrow. We are all doing great. She is such a sweet little baby. Colter has been so cute with Sydney. He is constantly kissing, hugging, singing, talking & playing with her. He has his jealous days, but overall he does great with her. We did have a bad day last week where he jumped on her head. I was at my parents house, changing Sydney's diaper, when Colter got excited about something & jumped up and landed on her head. He landed pretty hard so we were definitely worried with her being so young. I ended up taking her to the doctor's to have it checked out just in case. She is fine (such a relief). Colter & I had a talk after that and I'm pretty sure he knows NOT to do that again. I LOVE being home with my kids. It's been nice being able to spend more time with Colter.

Colter singing to Sydney! So sweet.

Here are a few pictures of Sydney. I don't have any recent ones b/c she has had really bad baby acne the past couple weeks.

This year Colter started preschool. My mom & sister teach it and he absolutely loves it! He is learning so much and having a lot of fun. I love that he gets to get out of the house a few times a week and do something he enjoys. I also love the break. We also have been working a little bit on potty training. It's not going so well. I don't think he is ready, but I still going to try. If anyone has potty training tips, I would love to hear them.

Pics of Baby Sydney

2009-08-30T12:28:00.000-07:00

This is Sydney Rachel Talley. She was born on 8/27/2009 at 5:58pm. She weighed 7lbs 7Oz and is 20 inches long. She is such a little angel. Everything with the labor & delivery went very quickly and smoothly. I had my first contraction at 3pm; by the time we were on the way to the hospital (around 3:30) I was having very strong contractions one minute apart. We arrived to the hospital at 4pm & they took care of me right away. At that time I was already dilated to a 7-8. I was in a TON of pain, but luckily they were able to get me an epidural within 1/2 hour. After that life was great! Before I knew it, I was completely dilated & she was born at 5:58pm. Colter loves her so much and is so cute around her. He loves to hold her and kiss her. Sydney has been such a good baby. Right now she is sleeping all the time. Last night she went to bed at 10:30, I had to wake her up at 3:00, and then she slept 'til 7:00. It was great!! It's hard to comprehend how much you are going to love them, until they come. Sydney is just perfect. She has these chunky cheeks, a button nose, and big puffy lips. I could just look at her all day. We are so lucky to have this sweet little girl in our lives. Thank you everyone for the phone calls and visits and comments.

Sydney is here!!!!

2009-08-28T11:13:00.000-07:00

Well Lindsey had her first contraction at 3pm yesterday and Sydney was born at 5:58pm. She was 7lbs 7oz and 20in long. She has dirty blond hair and took to nursing right away. Lindsey is doing great and is her happy self. Sydney's brother Colter loves holding her already and is very excited that she is finally here. We'll post pictures tomorrow.

Pregancy Update

2009-08-27T13:55:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to let everyone know, I am still pregnant. On my last post I said I had lots of energy. That quickly changed, but I am still feeling pretty good. My last day of work was yesterday. While I am anxious to not be pregnant anymore, I kinda want to enjoy life for a few days with no work & one kid. I went to the doctor's today, and I am 4 cm dilated & almost 100% effaced. So I'm almost there! We'll make sure to do a post when she arrives.

Quick Update

2009-08-20T13:28:00.001-07:00

I haven't posted on my blog for awhile & I just wanted to give a quick update. I have about a week and a half until my due date. I am feeling pretty good. The last couple weeks I've had a lot of energy. This is me at 9 months (Not getting any smaller).

We decided to name the baby Sydney & maybe go by Syd for short. Colter is really excited about his new sister coming. He talks about her all the time. He agreed that he is going to help hold her and feed her, but is NOT going to change her poopy diapers b/c "that's sick." I put up letters of her name in her room. Colter always wants to go in & spell her name. This morning we were playing w/ playdough & he wanted me to make Colter & Sydney's name w/ playdough. I got it on video of him spelling her name (he usually doesn't let me tape him so I was excited).

Wiggle Worm Preschool

2009-07-31T13:13:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to let everyone know that my Mom Tricia & sister Amy have an awesome preschool they do at my Mom's house in Gilbert. They still have openings for more students & would love to hear from you if you are interested. This will be their 3rd year doing preschool and they love it! My sister Amy has taught Kindergarten and 2nd grade. Take a look at their blog at wigglewormpreschool08.blogspot.com. It will tell you more about them and more about the preschool. You can also call Tricia Brown 480-558-6125 or Amy Webb 480-330-0808. If you have any questions you can call me or post a comment. Thanks!