Cousin Day

We had a day of crafts and fun with cousins. Otis adores them all.

More Christmas

I think the highlight of Christmas for Otis was meeting Santa (Santa Joe). Santa came to my parents house, ho ho ho-ing with jingle bells and presents for the kids. Otis tells everyone that he met Santa.

Otis saw some puppets at a friend's house and LOVED them. So I decided to get crafty and make some for him. I've never done anything like this and decided to stitch them together only by hand. It was a fun project, but a lot more work than I thought it was going to be. He was trying to rip the eye off the elephant today so I don't know how long they'll last.

My parents took us all on the Polar Express train in Heber. It was so fun. We saw the North Pole, met Santa and Mrs. Clause and drank hot cocoa on the train.

Christmas 2010

Christmas morning

Milly's stocking was done just in time for Christmas

Milly loving her new "happy " jammies

got these cute mini skis used on ksl

We had such a fun time with Owen and Sadie while they were in town, even though it was a serious love/hate relationship for the boys. We miss Sadie's mini voice calling for "Milly June" all the time.

Chickens

After seeing how much Otis loved the chickens that a friend of ours has, we thought we should get some to join our family. Meet Goldie and Kevin (now we have Kevin II) since the first Kevin was sick and is now in chicken heaven:(

admiring them on their first day with us

O loves to share his leftovers with them and tries to use it as an excuse to not finish his meals. "But Goldie wants this! I have to go check on Goldie", are common phrases at mealtime now.
Our first EGG!!! We got them when they were close to laying age, but not laying yet. I had checked the coop every morning with so much anticipation. The one morning that Ty goes out first, of course an egg is there. But Otis was with there and so that made it great. I was so excited about it all day and even shared it as my "good news minute" in Relief Society. The fresh daily eggs are so delicious!

I had big dreams that having these hens would teach Otie life lessons about food and where it really comes from, you know, the real "circle of life". But he doesn't care one bit. We made pancakes with the first egg and I kept telling him how exciting it was that we got the egg from Goldie and Kevin, but he just looked at the pancake and said, "where is the egg?" It has been such a fun thing for our family.

Family pics

My friend Mandi from www.loulouphotography.com took some family pictures of us awhile ago. I love how they turned out, she did an amazing job getting some good pictures in just 10 minutes.

It's fun to have fun friends

I love having friends that like to do fun things. We had a "Pomegranate Promenade" in November where everyone brought their favorite pomegranate dish and we voted on our favorite. I didn't have a pomegranate so I just brought pumpkin bread and sprinkled it with someone else's pomegranate and called it "Pompkin" bread. I didn't win.

Then for December Danielle hosted a fun Christmas Masquerade. And I did win best mask of the night. It was just an old mardi gras mask from my mom's costume closet, and I think I only won because I wore it almost the whole night.

It's nice to look forward to getting out of the house some nights- no kids allowed. Yesterday I thought I might die if I heard one more "NO WAY!" or "MINE!" Sometimes it feels like I'm in a constant battle of wills all day. And the best part about it is that as soon as Ty walks in the door Otis says, "Come on in, welcome home Dad, how was work?" Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde.

6 months and potty training update

This was Milly at 5 months, I think I forgot to post this one

At 6 months Milly is as lovely as ever. She seems to be very laid back and mellow- slightly different than her older brother. She chews on anything she can get her hands on and is absolutely repulsed by any type of food or formula. She refuses to take a bottle and spits out food with disgust. Other than that, she goes with the flow and seems to be happy just to go along for the ride in whatever we do. She has good stretches of 10-12 hours of sleep a night but will occasionally wake up to eat a few times some nights, which is always fun.

15lbs- 30th%

26"- 60th%

44cm- 90th%

I think it's safe to say that it's a go with potty training. We're in big boy underwear all day everyday now (or just nothing as this picture shows Otis' favorite lounge wear).

Potty training was my worst nightmare- like the time groceries were loaded and both kids just in car seats when Otis told me he needed to go potty. Of course you do, my sweet child. So I get him out and am helping him pee by the side of the car when he looks up and me with a proud smile and says, "My poo poo is coming out". Bullets. Sweating bullets. But we got through it. Anyone who frowns upon a toddler peeing in a parking lot or anywhere in public has never attempted potty training. I'm still hoping to witness someone else tucked behind the door of their car with their toddler trying desperately not to let the pee run down onto their shoes so I can look at her with a smile and say "I salute you, I've been there and I survived".