Halloween Scene

I love our ward for Halloween parties. They really go all out for this event, and its fun every time we go! But I am getting ahead of myself. Before we even got to the church, our fun began. Getting them ready was part of it. Grant was soooo excited to be an elephant! He loved wearing his costume. Whenever we would ask where the elephant was, he would point to himself. Too cute! Audrey was our little skunk this year. It's funny how different siblings can be. When Grant was a skunk, he did not care too much for the costume. He did not seem all that wonderfully happy in it, and it was hard to get him to crack a smile! This is Audrey's expression:

Complete opposite! She was so fun. She seemed to not mind her costume, and we could stay for a little while for Grant to do some games. Grant did really well this year. Last year, we had to leave early because it was too overwhelming for Grant. This year, he participated in the games, and seemed to enjoy himself more. We left after Grant played a few games. This was our Halloween! We didn't take kids out trick-or-treating on Sunday. James and I were content to just stay at home with our babies. Grant got plenty of candy, and we stayed warm in our house! Couldn't ask for much more than that!

Something kind of funny: Grant has speech therapy twice a week, and on of the activities she brings is this farm book where you can put your face in the hole and become the animal. Grant is so serious and has yet to smile during this activity:

Where to Begin....

I so need to catch up on my blogging! I have to admit...I have let my blog fall by the wayside. But with my two little ones running around and working part time, when I do have free time, reading a book usually wins out. So I will catch up as best as I can. So here goes...

When Grant gets tired he can just fall asleep anywhere. I envy this talent. This happened in mid July. I would begin to notice Grant getting tired, and pull out the secret weapon: the ending credits and instrumental music at the end of a movie. He would watch the names at the end of the movie, and fall right to sleep. Too cute!

Six months the charm:

These pics were taken when Audrey was just six months old. At this time she had cut her two bottom teeth. She weighed 20 pounds and 8.5 ounces and was in the 100th percentile for weight, and 97th for heighth.

...

I still need to catch up on our summer. This past July, after my sister moved to Evanston, my parents surprised me by stopping by and staying with us. I adore the times my family gets to come and see my babies. It is time well spent. They dropped by at about 8 in the evening, and stayed till 10 in the morning. James and I got to serve them breakfast. It was fun to have them in our home to love on our babies. Even though it was a quick trip, it was time well spent.

Audrey Update (Audrey at 10 months):

Audrey loves to crawl. She is everywhere these days. She is such a fun baby! She loves to eat oatmeal, and those Gerber Puffs. She eats them by the handfuls. I think she would turn into one if we let her! She loves to "dance." When we sing a song, or hear a funny song, she will bob her head around to the music. It is so cute! Also, she loves the song The Wheels on the Bus. She can move her arms around like the wheels whenever we sing it. Her brother also loves this song, so it gets sung a lot at our house. It's way fun, and I love it! Audrey is getting more hair on her head these days. When she was eight months old, I started to put little clips in her hair. They barely hung on to the few strands of hair that were long enough to keep it in. She looked way cute in it though:

Grant and Audrey are also playing more together now than they used too. Of course, Audrey was just so little, so now that she is getting bigger, Grant is noticing more this little person with a lively personality! They love to laugh together, which has to be my favorite sound. Now, don't get me wrong, Grant and Audrey don't always get along. Sometimes Grant plays a little to rough, or sometimes he just plain hits her (which he goes directly to Time Out, whenever he does), but when they do play together, it's fun to see. These pics were one of the first few times that Grant decided to have something to do with Audrey:

Now that Audrey is bigger, she is definitely out of the infant tub, so we have been bathing the kids together. I'm sure they will LOVE these pics when they get older:

Cooper and Audrey seem to get a long much better than Grant and Cooper. I think it may be bacause when we brought Grant home from the hospital, Cooper was exiled from our bedroom at night to the living room. I don't think he has ever forgiven Grant of this. When we brought Audrey home, he still could come in our bedroom. Cooper is very nice towards Audrey. He has never pounced on her (well, he never did with Grant either) he just seems to have more to do with Audrey than he did with Grant if that makes sense.

I found some nesting blocks in my old teaching stuff, and Grant and I stacked them up. I think it's funny that he is just the same size as the blocks when they are all stacked! Too funny!

Summer

Yes, kind of way late in the year to finally be posting about summer. Been busy being a mom of two wonderful little ones, and going to work part time...still no excuse for not documenting this exciting time in our lives. I need to be better, and so with that being said, it is time to catch up!

My little Audrey is so fun to take pictures of. This summer was full of fun photo-ops. I have a trillion of them. Of course, at the time these were taken, she was still not sure about crawling around...now she is an avid crawler.

James and I have also noticed that Cooper tolerates her more than he does Grant. I don't know if this has anything to do with him not being exiled from sleeping in our bed when we first brought Audrey home (like he was with Grant). Cooper loves to lovingly lick Audrey, and he is never way over-the-top with it, which I love.

I love Audrey's baby feets. I thought they were picture worthy.

I also love that this summer I got an impromptu visit from my parents. They traveled all the way to Evanston to see my sister, Stephanie, and decided to make the 5 hour trek to come see us. I love any time my mom can come and love on my babies. It was a short trip. They came on a Saturday night and left Sunday morning, but we took tons of pics. I'm lucky to have a family that realizes the importance of keeping in touch! It was way fun to see my mom, even if it was only for a short while.

Grant update:

Grant is now saying a few words. James and I are starting to hear sentences. One that we have heard quite a bit is, "I did it!"

This summer I also bought Grant a table and chairs to work with him on. The developmental specialist in Denver recommended that we up his Speech and Occuupational therapy to every week, so we were able to do that, and James and I have started to see an improvement in his speech, and fine and gross motor skills. For example, he can lace small beads onto a string, color pictures and draw on pages, he is starting to match colors, he can pull and play with putty, and of course, he still loves his books! We have been delighted in his progress, and are excited to see it continue.

Audrey update:

Audrey is now crawling, as I have mentioned before. She is also turning out to be quite the shy little girl! When someone tries to talk to her or offer her a smile, she buries her head into the shoulder of the person who is holding her. Silly girl! She used to have a smile for everyone, but now, you have to work a little harder to get it!

Also, Audrey has decided to wake up a few times in the night. Part of this is my fault. In order to keep nursing, I have to pump at night, so when Audrey would cry, instead of just ignoring her (which is what you are supposed to do, so as not to interrupt important sleep patterns) I would just feed her and go back to bed. Unfortunately, she had been waking up two or sometimes three times a night. Not to worry, though. I have her back on a schedule, and she is sleeping through the night again. I just had to let her soothe herself, and it has proven to work.

Crawling...

Audrey just rolled over by herself for the first time today! So excited! She is almost 6 months, and right on target with this milestone. Grant was rolling over 2 weeks after the 6 months mark, and the doctors called him "behind." Now he is a motor monster!
I put Audrey out in the middle of the floor on her blanket and practiced with her a few times. She tried a couple of times, and managed to get rolled over within ten minutes of her being on the floor! She seems to catch on pretty quick!

(I had some trouble with Blogger...she actually rolled over the first week of August!)

Killpack Reunion 2010

Every year the Killpack's have a reunion, and this year it took place on July 1st through July 5th. We went camping in Huntington Canyon in Utah. I have to recall last years reunion...we went camping at Ferron Reservior. Grant was about 15 months old. He had just learned to walk, and he was everywhere. This year, being one year older, things were not too much different. Oh wait...I guess things were different... he was much faster this year than he was last. James and I were busy keeping track of him pretty much the whole time we were there. Relaxing in chairs while surrounded by trees, and chatting with family? Didn't happen too often. If one of us wasn't chasing after Grant, we were caring for Audrey! The Killpack's were so nice and let us stay in their trailer. If it weren't for that, I don't know that we would have gone!
Anyway, the ride down was interesting for the first few hours. The kids were ornery that first little bit. I moved to the back to entertain them, and that seemed to help. After that, they were just fine! Grant's really easy to entertain in the car. And Audrey is loving her frog toy these days. We stayed our first night at James' brothers house in Lindon. So glad we got to break up the trip a little, and stay there. And their kids were super cute with Grant and Audrey. It was so cute to see them try to entertain my babies! Such cute kids!
We woke up as early as we could, and packed up the car. I'm always amazed at how much STUFF we have to cart around for just one night. James ends up unpacking and packing it all. It is a job! The ride up was fine, and then we got there and things got interesting! Grant was so hard to manage. He just wants to run! He's not really one to do what he is told yet...it's that communication thing. He ran everywhere. James and I were exhausted chasing after him. The first night there was interesting as well. Grant usually has a bath, vitamins, milk and has a story read to him, and then he goes to bed. Well....Grant really wanted nothing to do with the routine. James and I had the toughest time getting that kiddo to go to sleep. James and I were so tired chasing after him... James mentioned later that we almost went home after that first night. For James to say this, he must have really been done!Grant was everywhere. Robert volunteered to walk after him, so James and I could sit and enjoy the mountains for a bit. Needless to say, this only lasted for about 5 minutes, before it started to rain. Oh well...
Of all the places Grant wanted to walk, he picked the bathrooms. Yuck...
One of the ways we survived being up there was taking long car trips in the day. This was our only time for James and I to relax. We had sleepless nights up there, and chasing after Grant was tiring to say the least. So...we packed up the kids and drove. One of the places we went to was this lake. I had James get in there with Audrey.
When we first arrived, I grabbed the camera and had Audrey sit with practically everyone. I love her bald head. She wore a hat most of the time.
Our trip wouldn't be complete without Grant's first ride on the four wheeler. James just went around our campsite. I think Grant enjoyed it...He pretty much looked the same the whole ride! Oh well...many more four wheeling rides to come.

Audrey has a cousin who is her age. She's a month older, and my goodness! I loved taking pictures of the two of them. Sooo cute! Her name is Madison and she is James' sister Julie's little girl. Two sweet girls! We had fun on this reunion even though we didn't get much sleep. Word to the wise next time...we are only camping for two nights. That's about all we can last!

A Good Kind of Hard

Grant is getting along much better with Audrey these days. I wonder if he can remember what life was like without her...hmmm. I have been trying really hard to include him in every aspect dealing with Audrey. Diaper changes, bath time, reading time, tummy time. He has been a part of it all. It seems to be working. The other day he gave Audrey a kiss! Having two young kids right now at this point in time has been fun. It has been hard, but a good kind of hard. It has tested my patience, made me exhausted, and is having me do things that I never thought I would do. I love it. I love looking around my living room and seeing toys everywhere. I love the hugs that I get around my legs at any random part of the day. I love the sticky wet kisses. I love the smiles first thing in the morning. There are things about this time that are not so appealing, but right now, I am truly happy being a mom to two awesome young spirits. It has been amazing so far!
I will try to remember this moment when we are camping this weekend...heaven help us! :)

Robbed

So it happened too fast...my Audrey cut her first teeth on her five month birthday. I can hardly believe it! Grant was seven months before his first tooth popped up-I feel a little robbed. I feel like I didn't get to enjoy her toothless grin for very long. So I took some pics of her while she still has toothless smile.

First of all, Audrey has the best smile! She can smile with her eyes-her whole face just lights up, like she can hardly contain herself. It makes my heart sing whenever I see it! It honestly is soooo cute. I can't explain it! She also is really easy to get to smile. All anyone has to do is say hello to her, and she can turn on the charm in a heartbeat! I love it!

Since she is teething, she has been drooling a lot! I feel glad that so far for getting teeth, both of my kids have been pretty easy. Both have drooled incessantly but that has been all. We just have to keep putting bibs on her! That's what we had to do with Grant!Too help with Audrey's teething, she has been gnawing on this star on her Baby Einstein saucer.