Look who's TWO!

Its official... I have a 2 year old!! WOWZA! It seems like Kinsey should still be crawling around and eating baby food :( Her birthday this year was so much fun to plan because I knew she would love it!  We went the the Sesame Street theme and focused more on Elmo since he is her favorite. 
The morning of her party she woke up to balloons EVERYWHERE!! Brandon and I stayed up late the night before filling tons with helium and blowing them up as well.  Her face was priceless and made it all worth it :).  I also cooked her favorite breakfast, eggs, bacon, and pancakes! YUM YUM!
We kept her party simple this year with just close family, but geez louise my house was still packed full! Kinsey has so many family members that love and spoil her.  At her party we served some of her favorite afternoon snacks, they were all kinda random but I didnt have any left overs so they all must have been good ;).  We had little smokies, 7 layer dip, fruit with the marshmallow and cream cheese dip, popcorn, and some of her favorite candies. Her cake this year was AMAZING!! I am so glad I paid someone to make her cake haha If you ever need someone to make a great themed cake that also tastes yummy I highly recommend this girl.  You can check out some of her work here and here.  Kinsey was a spoiled little girl and had tons of fun at her party! Thanks to all of you who came out to celebrate with us :)

Grandma and Grandpa Sullivan got her this dress and if I could I would have her wear it every day!! She loves wearing it and I love seeing her in it!

So happy she FINALLY got the Elmo from mom and dad.. she had wanted it since Christmas!

So this was one of those $1 toys at Target and I thought it was a good idea when I saw it... but I am kinda regretting my decision lol she LOVES to play it all day!!!!!

4 generations :)

I am THE luckiest wife and mommy in the world!! I love my family :)

On the actual day of Kinseys birthday we decided to take her to the Living Planet Aquarium since she loves water and fish!  She had such a great time and didnt want to ever leave lol.  When we first got there I whipped out my camera to start taking pics and guess what... my freaking batteries were DEAD!!! Just my luck.. so we went to the little gift shop they have to get some batteries and they only sold AAA and my camera takes AA.  Brandon, being the amazing husband he is, decided to run to a near gas station to get some and the first one he went to was completely out of batteries so he had to walk further to another one and finally got some LOL! What a man! Her favorite station, by far, was the sting ray pool.  I dont think she liked the sting rays as much as she loved playing in the water ha! After dinner we took her to Texas Road House.  I wanted someplace fun and somewhere I knew they would make a deal out of her birthday :) They of course put her on the saddle and gave her a big "yeeehaww!!" :)

playing with the sting rays..

what a life :)

I LOVE her so dang much!!

So she got an otter pop when we left the aquarium and of course dad picked the bright red one that would have stained her shirt pretty good.. so he made a nice bib out of a napkin LOL It actually worked quite well and she only got a little bit on her sleeve!

She did NOT want to leave the aquarium..

YEEE HAW!!

2 months, and 2 years!

Wow my girls are growing up so fast right before my eyes!  I love them to pieces and I KNOW I just have to be the luckiest mom ever to have these 2 munchkins in my life.  They are healthy, happy, smart, and just perfect.
I scheduled their appointments back to back since their dr is CLEAR out in Pleasant View and they needed to be seen around the same time anyways...

Harper is doing so well! Here are her stats:

Height: 22 inches (25%)
Weight: 10.3 lbs (25%)
Head circumference: 36 cm (3%)
She is a well rounded girl with a tiny small head :) The MA was laughing because her 36 cm head is barley touching the line so technically she is not on the charts but since it was touching she said she is in the 3rd percentile haha
*She is now awake longer during the day and I am loving it! She is such a chill baby and doesnt require a lot of attention.  She just likes to lay and watch her sister play or watch the family be goof balls that we are lol
*Her middle of the night feeding is more of a chit chat session so I have a feeling we will be getting rid of that feeding here in the next few weeks.  She will nurse for about 5 min on one side then just sit and talk and smile at me and wont eat any more!
*Harper is wearing size 0-3 month clothes and size 1 diapers.
*Her toothless smile is THE cutest thing ever and it melts my heart every time she does it!  Her whole face just lights up :)
*Kinsey has a way with calming her down and it makes me so happy! She can get to be one onry girl and as soon as her big sis comes to see her she smiles and it happy again lol

Kinsey is growing into a WOMAN! She is 2 going on 15 lol

Height: 33.25 inches (40%)
Weight: 22.9 lbs (5%)
Head circumference: 46.5 cm (25%)
Kinsey is tall (well kinda lol) and skinny! She will be the model of the family for sure! :)
*She likes to be independent and is getting quite good at doing things on her own.  We are working on not getting so angry when she cant get something the first time.. but its rough when you cant accomplish something you want!
*DIVA is this girls middle name. Holy Cow! She is a champ at throwing "drama" tantrums to try to get her way.
*She imitates just about every word you ask her to say or say to her.  Brandon and I have really learned to watch what we say around her now lol
*Kinsey loves to eat! Im surprised with as much as this girl eats that she isnt higher in the percentile for her weight.  Its very rare for her to not have something in her hand to eat.
*Bedtime is between 8-830pm and she will sleep until about 730 or 8am.
*When tucking her in at night I HAVE to tuck in Elmo, Grover, and her bebe as well or else she will NOT lay down ha! Its a good thing she is sleeping in a twin bed now so she has room for all those "extras" :)

I LOVE being a mommy to these two little girls!!!!

My new hobby

Since I am now 22 years OLD I decided I needed to get a new hobby since I dont really have any others besides being a mommy to 2 perfect lil girls. Well my new hobby is something that I have always HATED doing.. crazy?! just a little bit.. I have picked up on the whole running thing! I dont know if its because I always hated running days in gym class because they made me get a sweaty and gross for the rest of the day or if its because I have never been good at it.  Either way I LOVE it now! I have started the Hal Higdon training program and plan to run my very first half marathon in April.  Again, I am just a little crazy but I am bound and determined to do this and do it for ME! So far it is going great but I am only in my second week HA HA!  I ran my first 3 straight miles last week and felt amazing afterwards... NOT! Every inch of my legs hurt but I know it will just get harder.. I am looking forward to the day when I can say "honey Im going for a quick run" and bust out doing 10 miles around my neighborhood :). That day is far away but I WILL get there!! Thats a promise :) 
I have really been doing some soul searching because I have been in quite a "funk" lately.  I wasnt enjoying things I used to and just basically felt like a machine everyday.  I am so young still and should NOT feel that way.  I should be living life to the fullest and making the BEST out of each day.  I am so lucky to be able to enjoy my girls 24/7 and focus on school without having to work.  But for some reason I just havent felt "complete".  So I have made myself a promise to do something I enjoy doing by myself for at least 1 hour a day.  Either working out, taking a very long bath, watching my favorite movie, or just going for a drive and wondering around a store.  I mentally need this time to myself and so far it is fixing what I feel like I have been missing. My house is not near as clean as I would like it to be, I am NEVER going to be caught up on laundry again, and not everything gets done in the day that I would like to get done but gues what, I DONT CARE!  There is never enough time in the day and before I would have a clean house and caught up on everything but then there was never any time left over for ME.  So I know its a little late but my New Years resolution is to run my heart out (because I really do enjoy it), and spend more time on ME.  Sound selfish? I think not! haha

boo hoo.. im 22!

Well I am now 22 years old as of January 28th.  This was the birthday when reality hit that birthdays are not going to be the same as when I was a kid.  I used to LOVE my birthday but now it is just another day (kinda lol).  I woke up the morning of my birthday to a VERY onry 2 year old who didnt sleep that night and who was not feeling well at all.. :( I tried to take it and make the best of my morning because Brandon even made me breakfast before he went to work and there was flowers with multiple chocolate bars on the table as well! After breakfast I rushed to get myself and the girls ready to meet my mom for our manicures and pedicures.  They were much needed and I had so much fun just hanging out with my mom :) I even went wild and had them paint my finger nails and toe nails BRIGHT blue!  why not?! lol Then for the rest of the day it was just the girls and I hanging out at home relaxing. 
Brandon was supposed to get off work at 3 so he had time to get home (he works clear out West Valley now... UGH), get dressed and ready and help me get the girls ready so we could make it to our dinner reservations by 6.  Well.... he didnt leave work until 4 so he didnt get home until 10 to 5 and we needed to leave by 5 to make it on time.  So instead of rushing (which I had NO energy for) and getting ready to make it in time, I had an attitude and called everything off! I was so mad and quite onry so instead of making the best of the situation I threw a fit haha.  I refused to get ready and went to the store to buy stuff to make for dinner.  Then I came home trying to forget it was even my birthday and cooked dinner for my family.  Which Brandon didnt even eat and I didnt eat either because I was so onry and my attitude was in full swing lol So Kinsey enjoyed what I spent time cooking.  After I put the girls to bed I went downstairs to pout some more and watched a movie by myself haha! (total PITY PARTY!) My brother Colton did drive clear to my house to come visit me and my awesome neighbors had me come to the door and threw confetti all over me so it wasnt a total waste of a night ;) 
I could have had a great night and just accepted the fact we were going to be late to dinner or gone somewhere else but I let my stupid attitude interfere and ruin my night.. .I REALLY need to learn to let that go... one day maybe Ill mature LOL!

K enough of my pity self and onto better things! Sunday my mom and Rob made me yummy lasagna for lunch and even some DElicious lemon cupcakes.  My mom always spoils me :)  I had a great day just hanging out with my family. 

Overall I had a good birthday except for my attitude issues... I just had high expectations and that was my first problem lol.  Next year will be better!!!! :)

Christmas Festivities

Christmas crept up on me way to fast this year! Having a baby at the first part of December really makes those last few weeks before Christmas really FLY by lol  I was still able to finish my shopping and pull it together.. kinda.  Since Harper was still so young I didnt dare take her out to anyones home so on Christmas Eve Brandon took Kinsey to his grandma's house.  They do lots of fun games for kids and I didnt want her to miss out just because she had a little sister.  So she got to go have fun and didnt miss out :)  We even dressed her up in a fancy dress and made her feel SOOO special!  While they were gone I cleaned and wrapped gifts and got things ready for the next day. 

When they got home we got the girls dressed in their Christmas jammies and set out cookies and milk for Santa!  I love having kids for so many reasons and this is one of them!  It makes you re-live your childhood years when you used to do certain things.  Plus it makes the holidays that much more :)  After Kinsey went to bed Brandon and I set out the "Santa" gifts and we had so much fun displaying them and eating the cookies haha

Christmas morning was a blast! Kinsey was so excited and she kinda understood the whole Santa thing.. Next year will be better!  She even laughed when she saw the plate of cookies because there were crumbs everywhere (Brandon's idea)  We opened gifts and just enjoyed time with the family.  Harper was cute as can be and just laid on the couch staring at the wrapping paper.  Brandon spoiled the crap out of me this year, he got me a new iPod (mine from last year died.. its sad), clothes to work out in, a new pillow, a new cookbook, lotion, and other neat little things.  He is such a turd and wasnt supposed to spend a lot on me, we had set a limit and I think he quadrupled it....

Instead of getting everyone ready and going to Brandon's parents, my dads, and my moms, we decided to have everyone come to us this year!  That was the best thing I could have ever thought of lol  We were able to lounge in our pjs and eat breakfast and play with our new toys and people started to come over after 12.  I made chicken tacos and a winter punch and everyone just enjoyed themselves.  I am so thankful we have a big enough house to accommodate our families now!  Kinsey and Harper got SPOILED!!! Poor Kins started to get a little overwhelmed after a little bit and had to take a break.. Our living room was packed with wrapping paper, boxes, toys and LOTS of clothes haha

This was such a GREAT Christmas and I know they will just keep getting better :)

Miss Harps is 6 weeks!

Holy cow time is in super speedy fast mode around here!  Harper is 6 weeks old, Ill be 22 in a week, and Kinsey will be 2 in 2 weeks!

Harper has been so much fun to have in our family!  People always told me you love all your kids equally and I always had a hard time believing it, as bad as that sounds.  BUT it is so true!!!!!  I love my girls so much and it is a much different love then I have ever felt.  Having Harper has really made me realize how fast kids do grow up.  I look at her sometimes and feel like I am holding Kinsey when she was this age, and now Kinsey is a busy, active, talking toddler! 

My days feel like hours but I am trying my best to take everything in and just enjoy my life :)  I will admit I feel into a bit of deep depression right after delivering Harper.  When we got home I was expecting everything to be perfect and run smoothly but it was quite opposite.  Kinsey got VERY sick, then Harper got sick, then the holidays were so busy and then I started school just 3 weeks after delivering so I just had ZERO time to relax and enjoy MYSELF.  I finally feel like I am coming back to my normal self and feeling pretty good :)
Our daily routine is very organized and I am quite proud how smoothly my day goes with school, the gym, 2 kids, a puppy and house to take care of lol. This is a typical day:
5am: I get up and go to the gym
6am: I come home and get in the shower and start getting ready for the day while my coffee is brewing lol
7am: Harper starts to wake up and this is her first feeding of the day
sometime between 730-8 Kinsey wakes up
745am: Im out the door on my way to school and Brandon gets some one on one time with the girls
945am: I get home and clean up from the morning and get some chores done
10am: Harper eats and Kinsey gets a morning snack, then I get the girls dressed and ready for the day
1130am: Harper lays down for a nap and Kinsey and I play
1230pm: Lunchtime for Kinsey and I
1pm: Kinsey lays down for a nap and Harper eats and then her and I snuggle and play :)
2pm: Harper lays down for a nap and I run around trying to clean house or do homework
3pm: Kinsey wakes up and we watch Sesame Street while she eats a snack
330pm: Harper eats
5pm: I start cooking dinner while Kinsey plays and Harper lays down for a nap
545pm: Dinner time for Kinsey and I
6pm: Harper eats then we all play together as a family
7pm: Harper gets a bath
730pm: Harper lays down for a little nap
8pm: Kinsey gets in the bath and goes to bed
830pm: Harper eats and this is her last scheduled feeding for the day, then goes to bed. This is when I finish homework, or housework
9-930pm: I go to bed!! lol

I am quite busy during the day and dont have much time for anything else but I love it!! I get to spend so much time with my girls and I wouldnt trade that for the world :)

Here are some things Harper is now doing:
*this girl has a smile on her face ALL the time :)
*she is very talkative and will keep me up for hours in the middle of the night if I allow it
*she is so laid back..she doesnt require a lot of attention
*her favorite thing to do is lay on her back and play with her sister
*heaven forbid if I leave her on her stomach for too long, I get yelled at for that lol
*she sleeps 7 straight hours at night and sleeps SOOOO good, she is quite noisy though haha I cant turn on the monitor or else I would be up all night.
*Harper is a champ with a bottle.  She will drink 3+ oz in about 7 min or less lol I started her on a bottle sooner then I did with Kinsey so we wouldnt run into any problems... I learned the hard way with Kinsey!
*She is now wearing size 0-3 month clothes. (I still have her wear size newborn onsies because they still fit and I just cant accept the fact she is growing up...tear.)

She is such an easy and happy baby and is loved so much!

smiles

she loves this spot on the couch ha



binkie Queen lol



smile!

Leo the Lamb



she loves to slide down the lovesac...



and usually falls! but she gets up and goes right back to it

silly goose eating her snack and watching Sesame Street ha



BFF



she takes such good care of her sister.. it melts my heart!

Kinsey gives her about a million and one kisses a day :)

Welcome 2012!

Yes I know its 19 days into 2012 and I am JUST posting about our New Years, but give me a break haha I have been so so so very busy..

Our New Years this year was very simple.. We went to Brandon's parents house for dinner and just hung out as a family.  We were party poopers and came home at 9 o'clock to get the girls to bed and I went to bed shortly after lol.  I cannot remember a single New Years that I didnt stay up for the count down, its amazing what becoming a mommy does to you :).  Brandon and I did know when the countdown began because our nice, courteous, respectful neighbors went outside and yelled at the top of their lungs. (by the way, those neighbors are NONE of those nice words I just said haha) So I rolled over, looked at Brandon and said "Happy New Years" and went back to sleep hahahaha!

2011 Was such a great year for us.  We bought our first home together, I was able to quit my day job and become a full time mommy,  Kinsey turned 1 and took her first steps, took a fun family vacation to San Diego,found out we were pregnant with our second little girl and Harper joined our family, Brandon got promoted to have his very own store, and we got our family dog Leo!  I am so excited to see what 2012 has for us, so far its been busy busy busy but thats ok :)

Miss Harps hanging out on New Years :)

I absolutly LOVE my family!!!

Kinsey Beans hyper on "juice" (thats what she calls soda lol)