Happy Birthday Emely!

My top 5 favorite things about my niece Emely who turned 19 on the 19th of September:

5. Her contagious smile

4. She's so great with kids- especially with mine!

3. She's so loyal to her family

2. Her awesome backrubs;)

1. She's one of the most generous people I know and would do anything to help her family out!

I love you Emely!

Joaquin 9 Months Old September 13, 2008

*Wears size 9 months or 12 months, 3 or 4 diaper depending on the brand, and size 5 Wide shoes

*Has been crawling and cruising a few days after he turned 7 months old

*Is taking a few steps

*Loves to eat anything!

*Loves his sippy cup with juice

*Is a total momma's boy

*Waves hi and bye always accompanied by a big smile!

*Can say "more" and sometimes "please" in sign language

*Can say "momma," "dadda," and "la-la" (all the grandkids on Rob's side of the family call their grandma Wayla or La-La) intentionally

*Nurses about 6 times a day

*Takes naps around9:30-10:00Am and between 2-4PM every day

*Wakes up super early around 6:30-7ish, whenever I wake up (I run at 6:30 in the morning n0w) and is a total morning baby

*Gets fussy around 5:30 and stays that way until it's bathtime

*Loves taking baths with his sister

*LOVES throwing balls and has a really good arm and aim already

*Still sleeps in our bed and wakes up like 3 or 4 times at night to nurse and it NEEDS TO STOP, but I'm a pansy and can't stand the crying

*Is almost always smiling except for his fussy time during the day

*Laughs a lot- especially at his sister and his dad

*Is starting to stick up for himself with his sister and already holding his own

*Plays pretty rough with hitting and pinching

*Has 2 bottom teeth and no sign of any other ones any time soon

*Loves to pull down all the DVD's

*Always peeks in when I'm showering (not cool)

*Loves to clap

*Loves music and dancing

*Is my sweet little teddy bear that can get away with anything when he stares at me with his big brown eyes!

Blessings

My 366 Blessings from September 2nd to the 30th:

#246- Baily's pre-school teacher Mrs. Jen

#247- Having fun friends in my ward

#248- My sweet, sweet Baily Bug!

#249- Alex buying my Breaking Dawn

#250- Birthday Party memories with my Brown family

#251- Getting to do Sharing Time in Primary about prayer

#252- Having all my limbs with no handicaps

#253- Cub Scouts

#254- Getting help to be able to have my dress altered for Emely's wedding

#255- An awesome RS Presidency

#256-My ability to be a good cook

#257- Getting my mom's stuff and relishing memories with her

#258- sugardoodle.net

#259- Joaquin clapping

#260- Bailyisms

#261- Getting to visit some of our sweet Primary kids who are inactive

#262- Being able to find rides for Baily's Pre-School

#263- My sweet niece Emely

#264- Emely and D's wedding

#265- The child's hymn "A Child's Prayer"

#266- Joaquin's kisses

#267- Baily taking a much needed nap

#268- Feeling watched and cared for through the Visiting Teaching Program

#269- Sister Social Enrichment Activity

#270- Missing my Baily Bug and gaining an even greater love and appreciation for her

#271- Feeling the Spirit so strongly and having my testimony strengthened at the RS General Broadcast

#272- The commandment to read the scriptures daily

#273- Starting a running routing to prepare for Half-Marathon in January!

#274- Beautiful sunrises

Baily 3 Years Old September 4, 2008

*Wears 3T pants, 3T or 4T tops, 2T panties and 7.5 shoes

*Knows the sounds of her letters

*Goes to Pre-School 2 times a week and LOVES it!

*Loves books

*Is a great little artist- can color in the lines and draw people, flowers and rainbows

*Is super moody at times!

*Doesn't eat as well as she used to- not picky just not much of an eater

*When she does eat she loves pb&j sandwiches, pickles, apples, grapes, any kind of berries, chocolate, popsicles, juice, chocolate milk, shrimp, etc.

*Loves her brother and is a great big sister

*Loves Nursery but is pretty restless during Sacrament meeting

*Plays pretend all the time and has a pretty great imagination

*Is a daddy's girl except when she gets hurt and only wants mommy

*Show Low's her favorite place in the world

*Her favorite movies are "Calvin" (Home Alone), Veggie Tales, Max & Ruby, "Buzz & Buddy" (Toy Story 1 & 2), "the kid's one" (Cheaper By the Dozen), Looney Toons Easter movie (so annoying), Elf

*Her favorite tv shows are Elmo, Sid the Science Kid, George (Curious George), Super Readers, Clifford, Spongebob, "the girl's one" (Jon & Kate Plus 8), "her show" (Drake & Josh), "her tana" (Hannah Montana)

*She still needs one of us to fall asleep with her in her bed and then we sneak out and then she usually wakes up once a night and tries to sneak into bed with us and either stays or not depending on how tired we are

*Knows time-out well and spends a little too much time in there

*Loves her Grandparents (ALL of them!) and her Aunts & Uncles

*Loves her cousins

*Loves family dinner time

*Loves anything outdoors

*Loves books

*Loves singing songs-especially songs with actions

*Loves, loves, loves to dance!

*Is NOT a morning person and doesn't usually wake up until around 9

*Doesn't take a nap

*Tells us (her family) she loves us all the time

*Cracks us up with the things she says all the time (see Bailyisms)

*Loves showers and baths

*Loves to help me cook or bake (me... not so much)

*Can be very impatient

*Is SUPER sensitive and gets embarrassed very easily- she wants to be perfect at everything and gets mad when she's not

*Is SO independent

*Bumps into things all the time because she never watches where she's going

*Loves to snuggle occasionally

*Is my super sweetheart and we wouldn't trade her for anything in the world!

Happy Birthday Sweet Baily Bug!!

My top 10 favorite things about Bailiy Bug who turned 3 on September 4, 2008:

10. Her precious little toes

9. The way she giggles

8. When she talks baby talk to her brother

7. How smart she is

6. Her sweet prayers to Heavenly Father

5. When she snuggles with me

4. The way she looks when she's focused and concentrating on something

3. Her contagious smile

2. How she cracks me up all the time

1. Her sweetest, little spirit!

I love you sweet Baily Bug all the way to the moon and back!

September Catch Up #2

Here's my goofy kids. I think they're kinda cute;)

Joaquin is my little teddy bear. Don't you just wanna squeeze him and his no-neckedness!

Baily decided a while ago that her new favorite fruit is blueberries (any berries actually... thank you Max and Ruby!) and as you can see, Joaquin is rather fond of them as well.

Baily got some computer games from her Uncle Eyan while we were in Wisconsin to bring back home. Once Robert finally helped her (I'm a bad mom...) she caught on to it within seconds. She's so stinkin' smart. And wahoo!... another thing for her to do that takes up time so I can attempt to get things done!

This was my niece Emely's bridal shower that I got to put on for her. I made quite the spread of yummy food, there was fun games and she got some good stuff!

More of my silly kids. This was when Joaquin turned 9 months old. Crazy!!

This was my niece and her new husband D's wedding. Doesn't she look beautiful?! I got to be her Matron of Honor and Robert was one of the Groom's Men and Baily was the flower girl. Joaquin was a spectator;) So it was a full family affair. I'm bummed I didn't get more pictures. It was a beautiful ceremony and fun reception and I'm so happy for the new couple!Baily got a hold of my camera and was only able to take this picture before I confiscated it from her. Nice angle B!

Sick of seeing my kids yet? How could you be?! They're precious! Here they are just playing and Baily was sharing her drink with her brother. I figure I better enjoy that when I can.
This is Roberts being silly with Joaquin and enjoying some snuggle time while Baily was up in Show Low with her Grandparents.
And here's my turn to be silly with my boy.And this is the boy being the explorer that he is. He's bound and determined to discover every nook and cranny of this house!

September Catch Up #1

Here's some stuff we've been up to in the past month in no particular order.

This is my hot little boy with his cute mohawk. I style his hair like this ever so often but his dad's not too crazy about it. I think it's dang cute... don't you?!

Here's Joaquin with a bottle not knowing quite what to do with it. My poor kids don't know much about bottles!

Here's Baily with her pink glasses that she had been wanting forever and FINALLY got. It may take us a while but we do keep our promises!

And here's J enjoying some pizza. Yep... he's definitely one of us!

This was Baily's actual birthday. She got to take cupcakes to her pre-school class with M&M's that spelled out Baily Bug and had a flower and butterfly on them. She got a little party hat that she brought home and let her brother wear.

We went up to Baily's favorite place in the world, Show Low, for her birthday weekend and here we are just hanging out enjoying my Abuelita's house.

While we were there my brother Alex dragged (sorry we were such punks bro!) to his friend Chelsea's to play Mario Kart on Wii and RockBand. The kids were pretty restless and fussy but after J fell asleep and Chelsea so very kindly gave Baily all the attention she could ever want we had a blast. I so want a Wii and Rockband. Add it to the list right? But yeah, we had a blast that night!

This is Baily's official birthday party. It was a Spongebob party complete with crabby patties and a pineapple since Spongebob lives in a pineapple under the sea. Tia Franci made an awesome Spongebob cake and Alex and my Abuelita decorated so cute. However, asis a tradition apparently with Baily, she was a grump! She really takes to heart the saying "it's my party and I'll cry if I want to!" Like when it was time to do her birthday cake she was being a touch-me-not with this little girl Gerald and Rachelle brought over and my Grandma was telling her to stop. So she got mad and screamed at my Grandma. So I had to put her in Alex’s room for time-out and she threw a major tantrum in there while we all waited to sing happy birthday to her. Nice. When she finally calmed down we brought her out and sat her front of the cake. We lighted the candle and she immediately blew it out. Everyone was like “wait a minute Baily-let us sing to you” and we lit the candle again. No one laughed or yelled but she got so embarrassed so she threw a fit again. Nice. So we waited again for her to calm down and once she did we lit the candle and sang to her and she blew out the candle and because I helped her blow the candle out when she couldn't get it herself she got offended again and was crying. She's one sensitive little girl! I don't know where she could get that from... But besides her attitude the rest of us had a good time. Everyone still gave her presents which was nice and she made out big time. She got lots of coloring and art stuff, clothes, board games and all kinds of fun stuff. It was all in all a great party and I'm so grateful for my Show Low fam!

August & Earlier 2008 Bailyisms

8.2- (we were having cheeseburgers and she was blessing it) Hen'ly Fadder, and please bless the crabby patties, amen. (apparently she watches a little too much Spongebob!)practically everyday- mom, I'm gonna go to school 'morrow and you can't come. you stay home mom and I'll go to school ok.
7.31- (she was mad at me for not letting her build a fort and had remembered that I told her I was going bye bye a little later) I think it's time for you to go bye-bye now mom!
7.31- (after Joaquin ate spaghetti) oh my goodness! just look at this mess!
7.26- (in the car after I asked her if she was tired) I don't want to talk 'bout it mom.
7.24- (after I told her to get out of Joaquin's crib) I'm so very tired mom. I just need to rest a minute k?
7.23- (after taking a picture with me) lemme see dat mom. awww... dat's so sweet huh?
7.20- (looking at herself in my vanity mirror in the bathroom) Oh my gosh mom! Just look at these wrinkles under my eyes. What am I gonna do about it? (she obviously spends WAY too much time with mom!)
7.20- (during a prayer after church) please bless the puck-cakes (cupcakes) and that they'll be chocolate, amen?- (during a family prayer a while ago) Andre! (her cousin) close your eyes and be reverent!
?- (while in the car with her dad and she was getting in trouble for something) Don't worry 'bout it dad. (in a very raised voice) I said I'm sorry! Gosh!
?- (while in the drive through at Taco Bell and she was tooting one right after another) (whispering) Hear dat mom? (me... what?) Butt bubbles! (followed by a lot of her giggling and then saying all the way home...) butt bubbles, butt bubbles, butt bubbles (I have no idea where she came up with that one!)

Joaquin Dancing

This boy LOVES to dance and I LOVE to watch!

A Fresh Start

Monday September 1, 2008

As I may have previously mentioned, I love fresh new weeks and months. I don't know why but I always feel so motivated by these "fresh starts." I woke up with a determination to stick to my planned routine for the day to and to make sure to instill a few habits that need to be daily happenings. It's nothing new and they're habits I've been working my whole lifeto conquer. I've made another commitment to be more diligent with kneeling in prayer every day and night and am DETERMINED to never miss a day of this again. Also I am not going to give up on my goal of reading at least 1 page but with a goal of 2 chapters a day in the Book of Mormon. I've also continued my schedule of reading a talk a day from the last General Conference (I've read more than half of them already and they really are so beneficial and uplifting) until I finish next week sometime. So I woke up with that strong motivation and even though I was so tired all day (4 hours of sleep is just not enough!) I was determined to have a great fresh start to these fresh new desires and goals. I've also felt so much lately about my great responsibility to instill these habits in my children's lives. So as part of their daily routine I will make sure to help them with their personal prayers day and night. And after a lot of thought about the best way to approach helping them develop daily scripture study habit, I've felt the best way would to be to read at least one page a day to them from the Book of Mormon Stories. Yesterday our morning routine went very well and it felt great to start the day and week and month off in a good way. I truly know that these daily habits will not weigh me down or just add more stressful responsibility but bless me and my family in abundance. The talk I read yesterday was Pres. Monson's talk called Looking Back and Moving Forward. It was his first talk as the newly sustained Prophet and wow was it powerful! In Elder Holland's talk I read today he talked about being grateful to witness the miracle of seeing the prophetic mantle rest upon Pres. Monson and as I read this talk I remembered feeling that same gratitude and having had the Spirit whisper and testify to me that he truly is the Lord's new chosen prophet for this time. It was such a great talk and really gave me a boost for the day and I'll try to keep it my heart always. The day was full with cleaning up a way too messy house and lots of laundry. I had to take a nap though or I was gonna crash and burn and I'm glad my kids gave me that chance. After Robert got home we sat down to a nice family dinner. Even though I really wanted to watch the first episode of the new season of Prison Break while we ate I insisted that we shut it off. I kept thinking in my head the phrase "all your kids want for dinner is you." It was for some reason a really nice dinner, nothing special, but just sweet and I'm glad the tv was turned off. After dinner the kids had a bath and as with all things, it's always funner when daddy's involved. All he did was put bubbles on their head but we were all cracking up- especially Baily. Good times. After that we had family scriptures and prayer- another habit I'm committed to making an every day occurence around here. They're such simple things but it's really amazing how much they make things so much more peaceful and the Spirit so much stronger in our home. Then while I was putting the boy to sleep Robert helped Baily with her first homework. She was so excited. After they were done I had Robert give Baily a Father's Blessing to bless her school year. I know it's only Pre-School but I still think it's a great tradition to start and establish and it's not like she couldn't use a blessing. It was such a sweet, tender moment. I felt so grateful at that moment to have a husband who worthily holds and uses the Priesthood on our behalf and also for a beautiful, healthy daughter who's so smart and learning and growing so very well. I truly am so blessed! After we got her to sleep Robert and I watched our recorded (we so need a DVR!) Prison Break and it was sooo good! This is gonna be an awesome season! It was a simple day but a very good day indeed!

366 Blessings:

#245- Robert giving Baily a Father's Blessing