Happy 3rd Birthday A!!

I am constantly amazed at how grown up this boy has gotten! He is incredibly witty and fun, and I'm so grateful to have him as part of our family!

We kept his birthday pretty simple this year because almost all of his little friends are ones we've met here through M's MBA program... and a lot of families went out of town for the school's Christmas break. But he always says that E is his very best friend, so I think he was perfectly fine just celebrating with family.

We also had a little party in Idaho with my family and another little party here with M's family. Three parties for a 3-year-old seems like a pretty perfect deal. All in all, I think he had a fantastic time!

A at 3 Years

I love this handsome little guy so much and can't believe he's already THREE!!

His 3-year-old stats are:

• Weight: 31.5 lbs.
• Height: 39 inches
• Diaper Size: 97% Potty Trained!
• Clothing Size: Tall for his 2T clothes but his 3T stuff is a bit baggy.
• Likes: Repeating letters to spell words, counting to 20, playing all sorts of silly games with E.
• Dislikes: Being tired, being told what to do.

He is such a clever boy! I love watching him work on things and see his eyes light up as he solves his projects. He still enjoys doing puzzles and lately has been doing amazing well at large 24-piece jigsaw puzzles lately!

He has also found a love of building with blocks, particularly with his Legos. He has always loved organizing, playing by sorting his toys into lines and patterns, so it's been fun to watch his methodical habits transform into creating well-planned, symmetrical towers and buildings. I've started to wonder if he'll grow up to be an architect!

Recently, he has also started showing more interest in art projects. It's been fun for me to spend time drawing or coloring together. He especially loves painting and is fascinated in what colors are made by mixing together other colors. He doesn't draw particular things, such as people or toys, but his artwork is always a specific arrangement/lines/patterns of colors in a systematic version of creativity.

For Christmas, Santa brought our family two new iPad Minis. I am amazed at his ability to navigate the apps as well as his skill level with any of the preschool apps!

Speaking of preschool, we decided to get A involved in a little co-op group with our MBA friends. It is music based and the moms take turns teaching simple topics such as the seasons, shapes and colors, etc. It has been really fun to help A socialize and get involved with other kids, but one of his favorite parts is that E gets to come and sit right next to him each week! It's so cute to watch them make new friends together.

He loves to spell small words, he knows how to spell the names of our family as well as a few other short ones such as "no," "go," and "stop." He constantly wants to know how to spell more words but doesn't fully understand how to figure it out phonetically, so he will ask us how to spell more difficult words and then repeats the letters proudly.

Our MBA friends also organized a kid's soccer league, so A played on a soccer team this fall that M helped co-coach with another dad. It was so much fun to watch. He loved practice and I think it was because it was fun for each kid to have their own ball, running around and kicking it together. But as soon as the actual game started, A didn't like having to compete with everyone to get the one ball on the field. Most games, he would come sit with E and I on the sidelines and refuse to play. A couple times, he willingly gave it a try but came out crying within the first few minutes because someone pushed or kicked him. Yet by the time the team treats came out at the end of each game, he was suddenly happy to be on the team again.

As E has continually become more and more fun, he continues to develop into such a fantastic big brother. He loves to tease her but is also very protective of her when anyone else is around. He also loves to make up silly games and includes her in everything, to the point that sometimes he causes problems by demanding she play his games constantly.

This has been a really busy time for our family with M going back to school, and selling our home and moving to a small apartment. I was worried about all the changes, particularly how A would handle them,  but he has done really well adjusting to the move to Provo. He and E now share a room and they LOVE it. Each night, it takes at least an hour for them to fall asleep because they're busy giggling and playing together. I feel like it has really helped their friendship blossom in ways it never would have before.

The world fascinates him! Although sometimes it makes me crazy that he asks a million questions each day, it's fun to see the world through his eyes. He is my little shadow and also enjoys being involved around the house. He takes great pride in being a helper!

He has been so excited for his birthday! He really loves numbers and counting, so it's become a big deal to him that he'll be three because he's starting to realize that bigger numbers means growing bigger too. He's so cute and I love seeing how logically he grasps concepts.

I love being his mom and he is growing up to be such a sweet, smart and helpful little boy! We are so lucky to have him in our family.

Merry Christmas!

This Christmas season has been so much fun! A & E both loved seeing the Christmas lights everywhere and their excitement made the holiday seem magical.

When we went to see Santa, they were both nervous. A tried really hard to be brave and sat on Santa's lap like a big kid; E, on the otherhand, couldn't conquer her fear and was terrified when we tried to give her to Santa!

A comprehends the basics of things like the story of Baby Jesus as well as Santa Claus, but I'm grateful he is still sweet and unselfish in what gifts he wants—all he wanted was "the Hippo Game." And I especially loved how he was thrilled and grateful when Santa brought it for him!

This year, we decided to follow an idea where the kids ask for four items: something they want, something they need, something to wear, and something to read. I love the simplicity of this idea and allowed us to talk more about gifts to get for other people rather than constantly thinking of more and more toys they want for themselves. It turned out that the majority of their gifts were from each other and it was fun to teach them about the joy of giving instead of receiving. As we mommas do, I worried it would seem like a sparce Christmas morning but the kids seemed to think it was great and didn't seem as overwhelmed by all the new stuff like they have in the past.

We still managed to fit in our annual trip to Temple Square, although this year we did it on Christmas Day instead of Christmas Eve. Unfortunately, it was below freezing and soooo cold!! But it still helped us remember the real meaning of Christmas.

I'm so grateful to have this cute little family to share the holiday season with!

Annual Family Christmas Lunch

Today, we had our second "Annual Family Christmas Party" with my family. On my mom's side, the majority of the cousins and aunts/uncles have ended up spread throughout Idaho and Utah. A couple years ago, we realized that Brigham City, Utah was a pretty good middle spot for almost everyone and the tradition began. It's fun to get to do something Christmasy with my family and I especially love getting to see a lot of my cousins all in one place!

Happy Thanksgiving!

It was our year to do Thanksgiving with the Bennett side—and it turned out my dad's family was throwing a huge family celebration, so we spent the holiday with most of my extended Bennett family clan! My grandpa Bennett had been really looking forward to hosting Thanksgiving dinner in his home this year.

His house is historic and the room where we ate used to be the Lehi mayor's office! My grandpa is an artist and has a great eye for details and balance. He has been working on a lot of renovations with my Uncle Steve—and the house looks amazing!!

My parents and Kyle came down from Idaho, and Brandon came to dinner too. I think my grandpa really enjoyed having the house full with everyone again. Five of his eight kids were able to come as well as 15 of the grandkids plus his two great-grandkids! It's been awhile since I've seen some of my cousins who were able to come, so it was fun to see everyone!

Halloween

For Halloween this year, A really really wanted to be "a brave knight!" And since E is young enough that we can still make her have a costume to match her brother's, we figured it was only fitting to have a ferocious dragon that the brave knight could slay! They both looked so cute!

We had a fun little Halloween party at Grandma Shaughnessy's the week before; then the night before, we went MBASA's {the MBA Spouse Association} Halloween party and Trunk or Treat. The kids thought it was so awesome to get candy just for wearing a costume! These two make holidays magical.

E at 15 Months

It's pretty much official that this little doll is not a baby anymore! Our life has been so busy with selling our home and moving to a new city... and I feel like I blinked and suddenly she is so grown up, intelligent, and spunky as ever.

Her stats are:

• Weight: 24.0 lbs.
• Height: 31 inches
• Diaper Size: Still wearing the Size 3's.
• Clothing Size: Fits best in 12 Months outfits but wears 18 Months also.
• Likes: Singing and dancing to music, talking, exploring, doing anything with her big brother/best friend.
• Dislikes: Being tired, when she can't do what she wants.

She is adorable and so much fun every day. She and A have truly become friends and are able to interact like two little humans. Her personality is strong and still continuing to develop, particularly how she loves to make everyone laugh, but is also so dramatic and stubborn when she doesn't get her way. Her tantrums are an entire level above anything we ever experienced with A and make me laugh out loud as she flails on the floor with a tantrum worthy of a theater stage.

She also has her daddy completely wrapped around her little finger. The other day, he came home and she started crying so he would cuddle and adore her. I was cracking up and pointing out that she was completely faking it but he didn't believe me and felt so sorry for her sad little cry... until she tried it again a little bit later and he could see how well she was switching the sadness on and off like a switch! I'm nervous how well she'll be able to play these games on him when she's 16! But the way they adore each other is so cute.

She is very creative and it's fun to watch her play. She loves to draw and color and create. We have toy blocks that she and A play really well together. They love to dump out the entire bucket and play building towers and patterns for a long time. She is very curious and determined, which makes her surprisingly good at building and figuring out how things work.

She also loves to play with stuffed animals and dolls. She is so nurturing and loves to hold and snuggle the toys like a baby... but drives us crazy when she holds her baby dolls because they "cry" {which means she screeches "wah wah wah!" at the top of her lungs until we stroke the baby's head and say "it's okay baby, don't cry!" which makes her giggle every single time!}

Last week, she found one of her old binks—which she hasn't used since she was only a couple months old—and pretended it was a bottle to feed her toys. She was holding it to their mouths and saying "mmmm!" She has such a big heart and loves to take care of everyone.

Her big brother loves to be the recipient of her kind heart by inventing games such as suddenly falling down and telling her that she needs to come save him, so she drops what she's doing and runs over to help him back up. And he does it over and over; and she helps him up again and again. I love seeing their friendship developing and how much they adore each other. Don't get me wrong, they still fight like crazy and I spend {what feels like} the majority of my day refereeing their battles! But they both constantly refer to each other as their "best friend" and would do anything to help or protect one another. I'm so grateful they have each other and recognize what a great opportunity it is to have a best friend/sibling friendship!

She is beginning to show more interest in talking, but usually only says "dad," "mom," and "ayn-en" plus a variety of animal noises such as "moo," "baa," and "meow" {plus when we ask her what dogs say, she makes a panting noise instead of barking!}

Her level of comprehension is really advancing too. She understands things we ask her to do, even if they are somewhat complicated and involve a couple separate steps of instruction.

Similar to her brother at this age, she really likes music! But while he liked pretending to play instruments and conduct, she loves to sing and dance. They both love the show "Little Einsteins" but she is much more active and excitedly follows all the directions {such as singing along or clapping or jumping to the music} and it's really fun to watch her interact with the characters in the show!

She loves bathtime and if anyone so much as mentions the word "bath," she instantly tries to remove all of her clothes and run to the bathroom immediately.

She loves books! When we moved to the new house, we put our old bookshelf in their room to stack toys on and filled the bottom shelves with the kid's books. Now she loves to run to her room, grab a book, run to the front room where she plops down and reads the book, then jumps up and gets a new one. Over and over again.

Playing outside is so much fun for her now that she's very stable on her feet. She loves slides and climbing on everything at the park; she gets bored in the swings and never likes to do it for more than a minute or two unless A is the one pushing her.

She is a good sleeper and has adjusted to sharing a room with A better than I anticipated. She knows when she is tired and likes to sing herself to sleep, especially at nap time.

She loves discovering her body parts and points to everyone's nose, eyes, mouth, ears, head, hair, tummy, fingers, hands, toes, feet, legs, and arms. She especially likes to do this when she wakes up too early in the morning and I'm trying to rock her back to sleep... but instead she wants to poke my face and tell me all about things like my "eeeeyyyyeee" and "nooooose!"

If anyone has food or something she wants, she says "pitttty peeeessseee" {pretty please!} over and over again until we share. And it's so cute that it's hard to ever tell her no!

She loves to help in the kitchen and seems to constantly be underfoot when I'm trying to make meals. She knows which cupboards have her favorite things to play with and she loves to help get things out of the fridge any time it opens! She loves milk but has been really easy to transition away from a bottle to a sippy cup. She also has never really cared for a bink or anything like that; she does sleep with her blankey every night and wants to carry it around with her—but I think it's to copy A {who is extremely attached to his blanket!} more than an actual need to have it with her.

She is great at eating anything we serve for meals and is not picky at all. I can't even think of a single food she doesn't like. She is very aware of her appetite—she pulls out her chair at the table when she wants to eat! And as soon as she's had enough food, she very adamantly refuses any more bites!

This girl has been such a blessing to our family. I feel like she really completes us. Her dad is smitten with her, her big brother adores her, and I absolutely love to be around her. She is happy, silly, and so much fun to be with!

Little Miracles in Life

I have a testimony of the gospel and I know my Father in Heaven loves me. I don't talk about it as much as I could and I definitely don't write about it here as much as I should. Yesterday was one of those miracle days that solidified my conviction in my beliefs and I want to write my experience.

Our house has been on the market for 43 days. We decided selling it would be our best way to finance the next chapter in our lives. When we first contacted our realtor, she told us how hot the market is right now and that she was selling practically everything within a month of the listing date. We excitedly listed our house, watched that "For Sale" sign go up in our front yard, cleaned like crazy for showing after showing, and waited for the offer we were hopeful would come. After a month, we were still desperately waiting and decided to drop the price. This brought even fewer showings and, obviously, no offers.

With M starting school in just over two weeks, we have been stressing over our plans and the lack of progress. We've been praying our little hearts out and decided to fast on Sunday that we could figure out our housing situation. Shortly after starting our fast, our Provo friends called to tell us they just found out our ideal apartment—not just the complex but the exact unit, the apartment directly above our friends—was coming available. All day Sunday, we deliberated if we should try to get the apartment even though we still have our house too. Having both a mortgage and a rent payment while surviving on student loans seemed terrifying!

Finally, we decided to jump in with both feet and apply for the apartment. We are officially first in line for it and they are processing the application. This was the same day M had already been planning on turning his two-week notice that he will be leaving his job. Needless to say, our tensions were running pretty high!

An hour after applying for the apartment, our realtor called to ask if we could do a showing that evening. I don't believe in coincidences so it seemed rather amazing that the day after fasting our apartment was hopefully lined up as well as a showing. I got the house ready while trying desperately to not get my hopes up since there was a good chance it would be yet another "thanks but no thanks" experience. We were getting ready for bed when the text came through that they liked the house and were considering an offer; and a couple hours later we got the official offer. It is such a good offer we won't even be negotiating and even the closing date fits perfectly with our apartment.

Within 24 hours of our fast, everything for our housing is falling into place.

It is amazing to me this is all suddenly working out. It probably isn't that important in the grand scheme of eternal things, but because it is important to us and we are important to Him then these little things work out so that we can have happiness and feel His love for us. My heart is so full of peace and gratitude today!

(This cute little apartment is where we will call home for the next two years. I'm so grateful for the miracles that are making this possible!!)

Happy 1st Birthday E!!!

I can't believe this little sweetheart is ONE! Time has flown by way too quickly. It seems crazy that it has already been a year that we were holding our precious baby girl for the first time!

This lucky little doll got to spread the parties out over an entire week to celebrate!

We celebrated together with our little family on her actual birthday. Her day was themed Pretty Purple Polkadots. I made some decorations and we had polka-dotted cupcakes as well as her very own cake.

She loved that she had her own cake... but hardly ate anything and just enjoyed making a mess with all that frosting!

The next day, we had a family party with all of M's people. It was so fun for E to have her cousins to play with and celebrate her day. I felt guilty that we didn't have a huge friend party for her like we did for A... but whenever I thought about who to invite, I realized her very best friend is her big brother and her two other favorite friends are her cousins. So having a family party was exactly what she would enjoy! {Of course, her BFF assumed that meant he got to help her open every single present... even though it was things like fingernail polish and jeweled sunglasses!}

The kids had a blast playing together! It especially makes me happy seeing how E has such a great and adoring relationship with her big brother.

Unfortunately, my paternal grandma passed away a few days before E's first birthday. My family was able to come celebrate with E a few days after her birthday due to funeral arrangements—but we were happy to have them whenever they could! It was especially fun because my dad's birthday is only a few days after E's... which means we celebrated their days together with him on his actual birthday! He loves being a grandpa and it's fun to watch him with my kids so it seemed like a perfect way to have the parties!

I know this little girl helped to heal her grandpa's heart at least a little bit after just losing his mom. She is a sweetheart and has been such a great part of our family. I love this little lady so much and hope she had the greatest birthday a one-year-old could ever ask for!