Shelby is TWO!

So our little baby girl turned two a week ago today. We cannot even believe she is already two. I mean, where does time go? It's crazy!

Well, I thought I'd write a little list like I usually do about them on their birthdays. It may sound silly but I really can't put in words how awesome we think she is and just how much we love her!

1. Shelby loves her pacifier and blanket. She only gets her pacifier during naps and at night because we're honestly afraid of the excruciating time we're going to have getting rid of the pacifier. It's not going to be pretty! She cries "Want patter! Want patter!" for at least 15 minutes after I take it when she wakes up.

2. She is 36-1/2" and weighs 30lbs. I might actually have her weight wrong I can't remember, but I know she's 95th+ for height and 75th for weight.

3. She talks all the time! She can even talk in multiple word sentences. The other day she came up to me and goes "Mommy I found a penny!" and proudly showed me the quarter she had found.

4. She loves coins. She begs for them. She finds my jar of coins and cries until I hand her one. She carries them around and cries if she loses on. It's really quite ridiculous sometimes!

5. She hates getting her diaper changed and is incredibly interested in the potty.

6. She LOVES to dance and loves Ben's impromptu dance parties at night before bed.

7. She loves pretty much everyone. Especially if you play with her. She will grab you by the hand and make you her best friend. I guess we'll work on the whole "don't talk to strangers" when she's a little older. I have a feeling it will be a problem!

8. She loves Harry Potter. She's sitting in my lap right now going "Harry Potter! Harry Potter. Potter Potter. Harry Potter!"

9. She can identify some letters and numbers.

10. Laughs maniacally at herself all the time. She finds herself hilarious!

11. She is not a big eater at all but her favorite things to eat are chicken nuggets, goldfish, noodles, Fuzzy's potatoes and black beans, and of course french fries.

12. She could live outside. We need a back yard!

13. She loves Toy Story, Bolt, and Nemo. Ben got her a Nemo stuffed toy for her birthday and she is obsessed with it.

14. She likes to scream. And boy can she scream when she is mad!

15. She loves Cat in the Hat and Phineas and Ferb. She also loves Star Wars (thanks to you know who).

16. She is quite polite. She says please, thank you, sorry and bless you.

17. She does NOT like to share.

18. She LOVES her dad. Still. He is like the Shelby whisperer!

19. She has nightmares at night and wakes up screaming uncontrollably. The only person who can calm her is John. He had to work past 10 one night last week and she woke up screaming around 9:45 and I could not get her to calm down. So she screamed until John got home and two seconds after he walked in her room she was calm and falling back asleep. It's such a sweet little relationship they have.

20. She loves to have her nails painted. If they aren't painted and she finds a bottle nail polish she'll bring it to me and yell NAILS!!!! until I paint them.

21. She will actually wear headbands and clip in bows. She hates the elastic kind now.

22. She has hair! Lots of hair. It's not terribly long, but long enough to clip in a bow or put in pig tails (which she absolutely hates).

23. She still steals my necklaces. One of my favorites is currently missing 'cause she snuck it out of my bathroom drawer and who knows where it is now!

24. Recently learned how to flush the toilet. I'm just glad she didn't discover that sooner!

25. She rubs her ear with her little dog or blanket when she's falling asleep or if she's really tired.

26. She still takes about a 2-hr nap every day. Most days she cries for a while, other days she goes down without a peep. Some days she only sleeps for an hour. But at least she still naps!

27. She still prefers boy toys over girl toys.

28. She is a typical 2-year old that throws tantrums in stores, screams when you take a toy from her, cries when you don't let her sit on the counter all afternoon, plays with things she's not supposed to, climbs on the chairs and table when she shouldn't and can be a real terror.

29. But she also loves to give hugs and kisses, snuggles with me on the couch after she wakes up from a nap, is perfectly content in John's lap any time of day (and especially at church), idolizes and terrorizes her big brother, knows and loves each and every one of her family members (including most of her extended family), loves her little friends in nursery and talks about them at home, and is incredibly loving and sweet.

30. Seriously we just love her to death!

I haven't taken her 2-year pics yet but here's one of her and Ben on Easter! She will only smile for John! I mean, seriously, are they not the cutest things EVER??

Read more...

Ben's Current Favorites

1. Driving me crazy. I hate to put this as #1, but man, this kid drives me absolutely nuts sometimes! I know it's just his age and him thinking he is completely independent, but wow, 5-year-olds are feisty! He talks back, questions me when I tell him he's incorrect about something, uses what I can only describe as a neener neener neener voice when he doesn't want to do something, and whines all the time! We're definitely working on it and correcting behavior we know he picks up at school, but it's frustrating at times!

2. Saying prayers. He says the BEST prayers. Even when he doesn't want to at night if he's too tired, or at dinner if he's "too tired" we have him say them anyway. But he always makes us proud throwing in some little tidbit that makes us smile.

3. Reading. He's a great little reader and can read up to Level 3 in some books (the ones that you buy like at Target). He also loves reading the Book of Mormon with us and gets so annoyed when it's late and we're in a hurry and we don't let him read a couple of verses.

4. Harry Potter. Our trip definitely renewed his interest in Harry Potter. He's now having a Harry Potter Party for his 6th birthday and I am already thinking of photoshoot locations for his pictures like we did for his Star Wars party last year! It's gonna be so fun!

5. Legos. Duh. He has a mess of legos on his little desk in his bedroom that I have no idea how to keep organized! But he creates all kinds of cool stuff! He's getting a big Star Wars Jedi Ship for Christmas that was 50% off clearance at Walmart. My mom found a small Hogwarts Castle for half price too so he's getting that for his birthday!

6. Twinkies. Ben has never been a huge fan of sweets. A couple of weeks ago my mom bought some Twinkies for dessert for Sunday dinner and to say Ben loved them would be a complete understatement. He begs for them all the time now! I'm not sad they won't be making them anymore!

7. His Lego Star Wars belt. I bought him this little wallet and belt set on clearance at Target and he LOVES this belt. It has Lego Darth Vader and some Storm Troopers on it and he wears it every single day (except to church of course).

8. Holes in his jeans. This kid cannot keep a pair of jeans from getting holes in the knees! I guess he's on his knees a lot at recess and during school 'cause it only takes a couple of weeks before a brand new pair of jeans will get holes in them. The only pair of jeans he has without holes in the knees has a hole in crotch. I don't even wanna know!

9. Karate. He's taking an after school class once a week for Karate and he loves it! He is convinced he is a Karate Master now and he's only been twice. We can't afford real Karate classes, but I'm glad he's having fun!

10. Being a daredevil. He's always been somewhat skiddish about doing crazy stuff until we introduced him to roller coasters. Now he throws himself everywhere, flips and rolls around the house, jumps off everything at the playground, spins and spins in swings and, well, acts like a normal 5-year-old. I'm actually kind of grateful because I didn't want him to be afraid of things! This video is of him discovering how to spin on the swing at the park. I should probably feel bad it took him so long to figure this out! This day he did it about 9 times in a row and almost puked. I'd have called it a right of passage if he did. :)

Read more...

Shelby's Current Favorites

1. Cars 2. She LOVES anything to do with Cars the movie. She plays with the cars all day and she says Cars 2 (by rolling the two like you roll your r's). It's the strangest thing but a-freakin-dorable!

2. Her blanket. She has two of the same blanket and has to have them all the time. In the car. On the couch. Playing on the floor. And if I don't hide one then she wants both at the same time. It's a little ridiculous sometimes! She sleeps with her blanket next to her head and she rubs it on her ear till she falls asleep. She'll even do that when she's snuggling with me on the couch watching a movie when she's tired.

3. Her pacifier. It's just about time to get rid of it, but since we've waited so long it's only going to make it harder on her and us. But I mean when she'll just come lay on you with her blanket and pacifier and is perfectly content snuggling it's hard to take that away. If she's without it she even walks around going "Where patter? Where patter? Oh dere is!" when she finds it. Right now she just realized she didn't have it in her mouth and is running around with her blanket going "Patter?!! Where PATTER??!!!" We have created a monster!

4. The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That and Curious George. They're her two favorite TV shows (besides maybe Mickey Mouse). It's funny how much she picks up on these shows. When Cat in the Hat comes on she goes "It's hat!" During Mickey Mouse Clubhouse when they ask for Toodles she goes "Where toodles? Oh dere is!" It's so cute.

5. Her Daddy. She's always been super concerned about where John is at all times. She is still very much that way still! In the morning the first thing she asks me when I go get her out of bed is "Where Daddy?" If I put her down and don't say anything she knows he's still home and runs straight to find him. If I say he's at work she pouts and goes "Daddy work? Work?" like I'm just kidding and he is going to appear at any minute.

6. No! It's mine! She chased her cousin up and down the hallway at my mom's house on Sunday going "No! It's mine! No! It's mine!" Funny...and yet not...

7. Thank you! Your welcome! Bless you! She's said "tay too" for a long time but has added "you welcome!" to her repertoire recently and will even say besshyou when you sneeze! It's really freaking cute (as you can imagine!)

 8. Pooping. She poops so much it's ridiculous. That's about all I'll say about that.

9. Hugs. She will hug pretty much anyone I ask her to hug. It takes like 10 minutes to leave anywhere because she wants to hug everyone! We kind of encourage it, especially when it's family members, but the other day I was at a friend's house and she insisted on hugging everyone before we left.

10. Screaming. This is my least favorite of all of them. Even more than pooping (even in the bathtub). She screams when Ben has something she wants. She screams when Ben touches her. She screams when I'm on the phone. She screams for no reason when she's playing. She screams in her cart at the store. She just screams and screams. I have no idea how to stop her and even giving her the pacifier doesn't make her stop!

She also loves going to the park and screams and screams when we have to go home. Hopefully she will get better with that! This is from a couple weeks ago at our favorite park that no one ever plays at but us! Lots of little nature trails, swings and that's about it. But it's always vacant so who needs a slide when there aren't 20 other kids to fight over them with?

Read more...

Butterbeer

I've never been much of a fan of butterscotch. I'd eat the hard candies sometimes when I was a kid, but I always always preferred chocolate. I especially hate butterscotch chips in things like cookies or brownies or blondies. They just don't belong!

So one thing John makes that he's kind of known for is Frosted Chews. Really easy to make, incredibly addictive and delicious. They're just an all around great bar dessert. I decided to make some the other day for the people I visit teach since one lady has known John before his mission and she loves his frosted chews. The ingredients call for butterscotch chips and frankly the chocolate on top isn't the same unless you use the butterscotch chips! I can eat handfuls of chocolate chips, but I've never been one to snack on the butterscotch ones. That is, until we went to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and I got to experience their awesome butterbeer.

Butterbeer is like fancy cream soda with vanilla and topped with this magical creamy deliciousness that expands as you drink it. You cannot ask for extra topping because they'll get all worried that your cup will overflow if you don't drink it fast enough (that's not a problem for us!) because of how much this topping expands. Trust me, we asked numerous times for extra topping!

When I was making the frosted chews on Monday I grabbed a few chocolate chips and then I popped a couple of butterscotch and it was like that scene in Ratatouille when Ego's memory is transported back to when he was a kid and his made him ratatouille. But it was me being instantly transported back to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and drinking butterbeer. It was awesome!

I love butterscotch chips now. I still probably won't ever like them in cookies or brownies, but on their own they are the perfect little memory of our trip!

Read more...

This Week

1. I came to realize that my last post was a little insensitive. I didn't mean for it to sound that way, I promise! Hopefully the girl I was writing about won't see it since not many people even read my blog anymore, but I didn't want to take it down.

2. I was really grumpy last week.

3. I'm still grumpy this week.

4. I LOVE MY HUSBAND.

5. Shelby can eat an absurd amount of strawberries. It's great because she hasn't been eating a lot lately so I'm just grateful for anything that she will actually consume!

6. It's been a What the? week for me for some reason. Adele is only 23? What the? American Idol started again? What the? Life can be hard sometimes? What the? Realizing we switched Ben's crib to a toddler bed when he was 22 months old. Shelby is 21 months old. What the? People.com has news headlines in the order of Etta James Dies, Tom Hanks's Dog Dies. What the?

7. I laughed myself silly with this clip (it wouldn't let me embed it) from Big Bang Theory. It's probably my favorite episode ever (minus the bazinga ball pit episode). I love this show! And I want my hair to look like Kelly Cuoco's has been looking this season so I'm still growing it out.

8. Shelby has learned words like "remote," "buzz," "berry," and "donut" this week. Or "nonuts" as she likes to call them.

9. Ben is on day 5 with no pull-ups at night. I mean, come on, he's 5-1/2 and it's just time for him to be night trained! When he was 4 our pediatrician told us not to worry about it till he is a little older and we feel like now is the right time. He's been dry 2 out of the 5 days... So it's a work in progress.

10. I've been working on Shclby's nap schedule because 10-10:30 to lay her down was just too early. But waiting till after lunch meaning she'd only sleep for an hour (maybe). So we're at 11-11:15 when I lay her down and she usually sleeps till 1. She's still in there yelling so hopefully today will be one of the 2-hour days so I can shower in peace and watch a little American Idol. Yes, I still watch it. ;)

11. I have not looked forward to a weekend being here more than I have this week. I just need a break!

12. I got a super cute gray ruffle sweater at Sam's on clearance for $9. I love this stupid sweater! You can ask John how much 'cause I've probably worn it 3 out of 5 days this week. I'm going back today to buy a pink one if they still have them.

13. I've gotten into the really bad habit of leaving my computer open. This means I now have something wedged under my V key and Shelby ripped off the K key and now I can't get it to stick back down. It makes it really hard to type when you have to take a second to force the K down.

14. We started over reading the Book of Mormon this week using this chart I found on Pinterest. Ben loves coloring in the circles every night and I think it'll be great to keep us going.

15. You're now picturing me having to look at my keyboard and force that stupid K down every time you see a K huh?

16. Happy Weekend everybody!

Read more...