Sunday, April 15, 2012

Silly lil goose!

Any of you moms out there with toddlers can relate when I say they keep you going CONSTANTLY!!!.. Kinsey is so active all.the.time! She has discovered she can now run, and run fast!  We go for a walk daily and now instead of asking her if she would like to go for a "walk", I ask her if she wants to go run.. and of course her response is always "YES!!!"  I take the double stroller just in case her little legs get tired but that very rarely happens lol.  On our "run" she stops at all the flowers to smell them.. every single one of them ha, and will yell at the dogs when they bark at her, and recently there has been a cat that is always sitting on the corner we pass and she loves to play with the "kitty tat". She also loves to pick up the rocks and throw them and dance and jump on the water and sewer drain covers. We only go around our block but it usually takes 30 min or so because of all the fun things Kins likes to do!  Yesterday on our walk she even stopped and talked to a neighbor I havent met yet and was telling him about the cars and a big truck and just kept talking his ear off lol, then at the end of the convo she said "love you!" and took off running!  I was laughing so hard!  This girl makes me laugh at least 50x a day with things she says or does. 
Kinsey is becoming quite independent and wants to do everything "myself!!!"  She can dress herself, with a little assistance with pulling her pants up all the way, and if you take to long to get her something, she will find a way to get it herself.  One morning I was getting ready and she kept asking for her binkie that was on top of our dresser.  She knows she isnt supposed to have it unless she is going to bed so I kept telling her no.  Well then she quit asking me and I thought she was just playing in her room until she came in to the bathroom, grabbed her potty (also used as a step stool), took it in to my room and put it right up against our dresser and was reaching as far as she could to get her binkie! What a lil stink haha!!!!  She finds all sorts of creative ways to get things she wants, climbs onto the oven drawer to get silverware, puts boxes or anything she can find next to something tall so she can reach, and she can now climb in and out of the crib.  This has made me full aware that we need to "toddler" proof our home...
This girl absolutely LOVES to jump!  She will jump forever on a trampoline, or even just on the ground.  She likes to get our outside place mats out and place them all over our floor and jump from one to another haha.  Oh and jumping on beds is probably her favorite! 
Kinsey has an attitude with a capitol A!! Holy smokes!!!  She has the fake cry down to a "T" and has even started to give me the pouty lip with the sad puppy eyes if she doesnt get what she wants.  I have noticed if you get to her level and explain in simple terms of why she cannot do or have something, she takes it a little easier.  But we do still have our melt downs.  I used to be embarrassed when she would have a melt down in a public place... but now I just realize I have a NORMAL 2 year old haha
Reading is one of her favorite things to do.  She will pick out quite a few book for you to read and sometimes makes you read them ALL!  Sometimes she like to take the books and read to me and Harper and thats my favorite :).  She puts so much expression into reading and will even point to the pic and tell us what they are.  We read at lease 1 book every night and then our day consists of reading a lot.  
Kinsey prefers to play, eat and probably if she had the choice, sleep outside.  She is such a girly girl at times and loves to dress up and paint nails, but other times she like to play in the dirt and look for "piders".  She flares her top lip when she says "ewww" and it is thee cutest thing!  
Snuggle bug should be her middle name!  Kinsey LOVES to snuggle while reading, watching a movie, or just sitting down playing.  This morning I was folding laundry as we were sitting on my bed and she insisted on curling up into a ball and laying in my lap.  I love it when she is calm and will snuggle with me :) Whenever we are winding down for the day and watching cartoons or a movie I usually have Harper on one leg and Kinsey on the other.  They both love when they sit on my lap and are so content! One of my favorite times of the day.
This girl will eat just about anything I put in front of her, and she eats all day long... We have to stay stocked with string cheese, fruit snacks, crackers, apples, oranges, carrots, and cucumbers because those are her favs and what she usually asks for.  If you give her crackers, you must give her cheese to put on top, and if you give her carrots, she has to have ranch to dip them in lol.
Bedtime and naptime are the same as usual.. nap at 130pm and bedtime at 9pm.  She has gotten into some bad habits that I am not quite ready to break.. She asks for wa-wa (water) before she will go to bed and that will be a huge problem when it comes time to potty training :/...  She also will wait until you are out of her room and call you back in to put socks on her, or get her another "baby".  Other than these few little things, she is a piece of cake to get to go to bed.  She is usually telling me she is "tired" and wants to go to bed ha. She does this by yawning and telling me "mommy I tired!"
We havnt really cracked down on the whole potty trainnig yet even though she is more than ready.. The reason why is we are driving to St. George at the end of next week and to make my life easier I would rather have her in diapers.  Plus, part of the fun of road trips is drinking juice and eating junk food, and I would be too hesitant to give her anything to drink while on the road. So when we get home and back to normal life, we will be in full swing potty training mode!
Kinsey is such a big help around the house!  She helps with cleaning, taking care of Harper, and just putting me in a better mood when she knows I have had a rough day.  This morning she helped me use the Shark on our kitchen floor and she felt like such a big girl!  She had to call for daddy to come watch her :).  Sometimes I will find the broom in the middle of the floor and when I ask her she says she was "seeping".  I can also hand her a wet rag and she will go to town dusting or cleaning anything in sight. 
Her vocabulary is amazing and I always get comments from strangers telling me she talks really well for her age.  This makes me a proud mommy :).  Kinsey is always asking me "whats this?" "Why?" and "where did it go?" She is so dang smart!
She is finally gaining some weight!! WOHOO!  She has been stuck at 22lbs for the longest time and a couple weeks ago she went on an eating kick and was eating more than I do.. not even over exaggerating. Then Brandon weighed her and she was 24lbs!  She still wears size 24months or 2T and some of her summer clothes size 18months fit her this year.  
Last but not least, Kinsey ADORES her little sister.  I was so worried I would experience jealousy but luckily I dont even have to worry about it!  There are times when I notice she needs special one-on-one time so I do an activity with just her and I or she spends a special time with dad.  But for the most part she is always trying to include Harper when she is playing, making sure she is ok, shares MOST of her toys with her, and likes to check on her while she is sleeping haha :).  Kinsey even helps me change Harpers diapers now!

enjoying the warm weather :)

lil monkey!

Happy girl going to dance!

sooo silly :)
gorgeous!

She snuck her bubble tape into bed with her one night and this is the mess I  found on her head when she woke up LOL


She loves her daddy

fake crying...

Drama Queen ;)

too impatient to wait for mommy to help lol
This is a long post, but I could just go on forever with things this little girl does!  She is so much fun and we never have a dull moment! I LOVE YOU KINSEY BEANS!!!!

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Harper is 4 months!

Well our baby girl is growing up faster and faster every day! I am just glad I am able to stay at home with my girls to watch them grow up :)

Harper is doing amazing as always.  We took her in for her 4 month well child visit and these are her stats:
Height: 24.5" (50th percentile)
Weight: 12.7lbs (15th percentile)
Head circumference: 38cm (no longer on the charts lol she has a tiny lil head..)
She is so much taller than Kinsey was lol I started to notice when she was growing out of some of the clothes that used to be Kinseys because the pants were floods.. Kinsey NEVER had that problem! So Harper is our tall skinny girl and Kins will be short and skinny.  At her appointment the dr noticed she has a little bit of thrush so we have her on nyastatin, poor thing! Harper is going through things that I never even thought about with Kinsey.  Harper has been sick 3x already!!! I feel like a horrible mom when she gets sick but I wash my hands so much (they are always cracked and bleeding) and keep her away from sick people, but she still ends up catching little colds.  I guess her immune system is just growing and thats a good thing!  She still is THE happiest baby EVER!  When she is awake she is always squealing, smiling, and waving her arms and kicking her legs.  She loves life and is just so happy to be alive :)  Harper reminds me daily to enjoy the small stuff and to take the good in everything! It amazing what we can learn from our little ones... The dr also said he would like Harper to start on some rice cereal since she is old enough now. I have been putting this off because it just means that she is growing up!  She seems to be just fine with my milk so I want to baby her as much as I can lol but we will be introducing her to rice cereal on Sunday.

*Harper eats 5x a day and is taking 2 steady naps with a 3rd nap that varies.  She east at 730am, 11am, 3pm, 630pm, and between 830-9pm. Then naps at 930am, 1pm, and then the third nap is usually in her car seat while I am running errands or when we are on a walk.  Her bedtime is 9pm and not a min later! If she goes to bed any later she doesn't sleep well at all and I pay for it the next day lol
*She is still not rolling over all the way.. she has rolled to her side a few times but she has no desire to roll all the way over yet
*put this girl in a room with her sister and she is content FOREVER!! she loves to just sit and watch her sister play and smiles so big whenever Kinsey talks or even just looks at her
*Miss Harps has discovered her vocal cords and loves to test out all the different notes she can hit :)
*she loves to be in on all the action!  if we are in a crowed place or outside playing, she must be able to see everything.  She likes me to hold her on my hip with her facing out
*Harper is a low key baby and doesnt require a lot of attention (as long as she is in the same room as everyone) but when she wants to be held she makes sure you know!  She has a certain cry that just melts my heart and makes me rush over to her to pick her up.  She probably knows this gets my attention fast and uses it to her benefit.  Never underestimate your children, no matter how young they are hahahaha

WE LOVE YOU MISS HARPS!!!
always sticking that tongue out ;)

getting ready for the bath..

She LOVES to be naked!!!

lovin life


this pic makes me laugh.. we are all such goof balls and I love my family!!!!

pretty girl!


Easter 2012

We had such a fun filled Easter with LOTS of family and candy and food.  Holidays are usually stressful with our family because my parents are divorced so we always have at least 2 different houses to go to so they can all see the girls, then Brandon's family.  I start to get bad anxiety and stress big time whenever I know a holiday is coming up because I know what my family and I are going to have to go through... We spend a couple hours one place, then drive to another, spend time there, drive to another house, and so on.. it is SOOO draining.  I think I am going to start hosting holidays at my house so family has to come see us! lol ANYWAYS, enough about the "bad" stuff...



I will start with the Saturday before Easter Sunday because we went to the annual Kaysville City egg hunt.  We went last year and Kinsey had a blast, so we just couldnt miss out this year :).  They separate the different fields into age groups (sooo smart!) and then they count down, 3-2-1, and the kids all run out to the field and pick up as many eggs as they can.  It lasts maybe 30 seconds before all the eggs are gone!  Kinsey knew exactly what to do and was running and hurrying so fast this year she even fell and dumped her eggs a few times.  Brandon and I just laughed and were amazed that she actually knew what do to and went along with all the other kids.  Big Sis even picked up an egg for Harper to have :).
scouting out all the eggs.. haha
run, run, run!!!
my cute girls!!!
Later Saturday night we dyed eggs.  I got the idea from Pinterest to use Kool-aid instead of normal egg dye and boy am I glad we did that this year.  It is so much cheaper, smells 100x better, and I didnt freak out when Kinsey started to lick the eggs and drink the "dye" haha.  Kinsey had so much fun deciding what color to put the egg into.
messy face, crazy hair, perfect "egg dying" attire lol


yep she drank the dye and licked the eggs...

Harpers first egg dying experience :)
Easter morning was just our little family and we did our own egg hunt for the girls.  The Easter bunny brought Kinsey a Radio Flyer Trike, and some other fun little things, and Harper got a new outfit, spoons (since she will be eating solids soon!!) and a few teething toys.  They got spoiled if you ask me lol ;)  Kins thought some of the hiding places the Easter bunny put the eggs was pretty funny!  She had to jump up onto the couch and squeeze in and out of things to get to some of them haha


collecting all the eggs :)

Harper excited about her spoons!


First Easter!!!

she thought it was silly the Easter bunny put an egg in the dirt  haha

Miss Harps loves life!

Ok.. so this girl LOVES tic-tacs.. and asked for a bowl and spoon, dumped them all in the bowl and started to eat the with the spoon! Crazy girl :)

getting a spoon all by herself because mom and dad just were not fast enough haha

Happy Easter morning :)

lol this pic makes me laugh.. it reminds me of the YouTube video  "charlie bit me!" 

After the girls' naps we were off to all the festivities!  We started at my Grandma's house for my Dad's side of the family.  She did an egg hunt and she even puts money in her eggs $$ lol.  Then we ate, socialized for a little bit then headed to Brandon's parents house.  We ate some more there, and Kinsey had another egg hunt!!  Brandon's brother Taylor was walking around hiding the eggs and trying to do it without Kinsey noticing but she would go around and pick up the eggs and yell, "I found it!!!" and take the egg to Taylor.  We were all laughing so hard! She is too dang smart!!!  Brandon might be mad that I am putting this in the blog post, but he dropped my camera while we were at his parents and I was so upset!  I have had the same one for over 3 years and I want a new one so bad!!! I was excited that he dropped it because that meant I would be getting another one, but I was so sad because it wouldnt even turn on and I wanted to take more pic of the girls.  Well after he messed with it for a little bit it turned back on and I was able to take more pic but I STILL think I deserve a new one :).  So if anyone knows of a good point and shoot camera that isnt too pricey and I want it to be on the small side so its easy to pack around, let me know please!
After his parents house, we headed over to my mom's so she could see the girls in their outfits.  I had them in matching dresses and they were so stinkin cute!! I love having two girls that I can dress alike :)  Then after visiting for a little bit it was time to head home, FINALLY!!!! We didnt get home until close to 830.. talk about long day!  We had so much fun and the girls got spoiled so I guess in the end it was all worth it!
all the grand kids ready for the egg hunt!

Harper with her Great-Great Aunt Janette



she kept trying to open this egg.. it was chalk shaped like an egg lol


me and my girlies


My dad and Miss Harps

Kinsey with just a few of her Aunts lol

tired lil one..

Eating at Grandma and Grandpa Kunz's


trying to carry as many eggs as she could over to her basket 

my family and I :D

Harper and her Great-Grandma Swartz