January 2016: New Year, New Friends, New Fun

January was a pretty low-key month for us, which I'm glad for as we've been spending most of our month preparing for this little boy's arrival (less than a month away now!) and relaxing before the craziness of having a newborn sets in again.

December 28 David's grandpa passed away. He was such a sweet man and I'm glad that I was able to spend time with him and get to know him. He was a great example of a lot of things for both David and I, and I'm glad that Kollyn now has some memories of him. Even if she won't be able to fully remember as she grows up, we have pictures and will be able to share those memories with her.

All of David's siblings were able to fly in for the funeral. It was so nice. They haven't all been together in a really long time (not totally sure how long but it's been a while) so it was fun to see them all even if it was for a sad occasion. We're lucky to have the knowledge of eternal families that we do, which made it a little less sad. 

It was a beautiful day for the funeral. Not cold, and not windy. David was one of the pallbearers along with his brother and cousins. Kollyn was very well-behaved during the funeral (minus one outburst where she yelled about something) and the graveside service. 

Kollyn and Luke had a lot of fun playing together while the Dynes siblings practiced their musical number for the funeral. :)

We spent a day with the Dynes cousins and Kollyn had a blast playing with Jane and Miriam. David challenged Jack and Paul to a Lego spaceship building contest and they were entertained for hours, so I got to watch these three interact and it was so much fun! Jane and Kollyn are only a few months apart in age and Miriam is so kind and gentle with them. I love that K has cousins so close that we can interact with and she loves looking at the pictures of her and Jane and Miriam. 

Once a week, David meets with the start-up company he is helping start. We were definitely led to these people and it's so much fun that our kids are all so close in age. K loves Lily and Sarah and May and when I tell her David has a meeting, she gets so excited and asks to go play with her friends. Even though May and Lily are both a year younger, she loves playing with them. I love watching her interact with them. She and Sarah have some similar personality traits and it's fun seeing how they play together since they're the same age. She just loves people and is so social so I'm glad we have the ability to be around these friends. And I love being able to get to know Jacqi and Amy and Gwen. They're amazing women and I'm blessed to be able to have them as friends.

She is a silly girl this one. :) She loves her Batgirl hat, but it's still much too big for her so when she wears it, it definitely looks a little funny. She likes to put her hat on and then find David's had and make him put it on. :)

This is her "alligator Halloween". She was going to wear it for Halloween this last year, but decided that she didn't want to. Now she asks me to help her put it on at least once a week and she just sits around and plays while she's wearing it.

We've been preparing for little boy to come. We decided it was time to change Kollyn over to her new bedroom (previously known as the toy room) so that she didn't feel like baby was replacing her and had time to adjust before he gets here. My parents had her come spend the night and David and I spent that evening and the next day moving things, putting up her name and pictures up, and making sure it feels similar but different. She helped pick out a new rug, a lamp, and helped move some stuffed animals in there. So far, the transition has been good. :) She did have a hard time with just a mattress on the floor, so once we got the toddler bed delivered and set up, we were a little nervous but she's had much more success with that. We think she likes feeling a little more enclosed, similar to the crib, since that's what she's use to. She loves being a big girl. :)
We took away her binkies the same night we moved her into her new room. We'd been telling her for a while that once she moved to her big girl room, she'd have to stop using binkies because they're only for babies. We took her to Toys R Us and let her choose a stuffed animal to replace her binkies. She choose a penguin that is almost the size of her and she loves it. She makes sure she has it every night. She calls it her "big penguin" because she also has little penguins she loves. The only downside that we've had since taking the binkies away is that she no longer takes naps. She has quiet time instead for about an hour an a half, sometimes two hours, where she just plays in her room. She actually loves it. :) I was pretty worried about the transition and how she'd handle it, but she's taken it like a champ.

I've been wanting to put this up in her room for a while, but decided to wait until she was in her big girl room. She loves to point out the letters and tell us what each one is whenever we're in the room. I also love that I now have a place to share her artwork as well. She loves to paint and color and I feel bad just kind of putting them on the fridge and then throwing them away. This way she can choose to save one or two (it'll be more than that haha). She loves to point out her pictures to us. She is especially proud of her pumpkin she painted around Halloween.

I made this quit for her as her "big girl blanket" that she has on her new bed. She loves it and that makes me happy. :) I've never done one before and with the help of my mom (and David) I was able to get this one tied and sewn in just a couple hours. Kollyn helped pick the fabric (kind of, these were the two she didn't say no to) and they do match the "theme" of her room, pink and brown. She loves to snuggle with it and makes sure all of her stuffed animals (there are about 5 of them every night) are tucked in with her at night under this blanket. I'm glad she likes it. I was worried it would just be another blanket for her, but she seems to really like it so I feel like I did a good job. Even though I did make a few mistakes.

Now that she's out of the "nursery", we have been setting up everything for baby. She has finally accepted that this is "brother's room" and has seemed excited to help us get things ready for him. She seemed to enjoy helping me put his clothes in the dresser and get his crib ready for him. She likes to point out that there's "brother's room" and "Kollyn's room" and she'll point to each room. I'm glad she's kind of getting it and doesn't seem to be upset about the room change. She liked showing me his clothes while we were putting them away and got really excited when she saw the few that have sharks on them. :) I hope she's this excited when she sees him and we bring him home. I am a little worried about that transition, but hopefully getting her a new baby doll to feed and play with will help her. And I definitely plan on having her help me with whatever I can to help her feel like a big girl.

And since it's the winter, free day at the Zoo is back! We love going to the zoo, even if it's kind of chilly. That's what blankets, coats, and gloves are for, right? Kollyn loves the zoo and has not stopped talking about it even though we went almost 2 weeks ago. We saw the elephants paint using a special brush (also we saw them poop and she will tell that to anyone who asks). We saw the lions right up by the glass, and she was loving the tigers, polar bear, and zebras. It was too cold for the rhinos and giraffes though, and she is very quick to say that as well. 

That lioness was assessing Kollyn. Luckily she decided K wasn't what she was looking for. ;)

Since we got in for free, it was totally worth it to pay the $2 for the carousel ride. She didn't want to do it alone, so I got on the anteater with her, and after that she was fine. She said "Wheeee!" and pointed out how it "goes around and around". She likes carousels once she actually gets on them.

Thanks to Mountain America Credit Union (funny enough, we do not bank there, I just follow them on Facebook for the contests) and their "Name a Penguin" contest (the name we submitted didn't win, full disclosure) we are now the proud owners of a year family membership. :) We've been twice since we got it and K loves it. We went and saw the shark feeding, but weren't able to see too much so we'll try to go on a different day when it's hopefully less crowded. She was enthralled by the penguins, the poison dart frogs, and the jellyfish. She runs around and says, "Ohhhhhhh!" at everything she sees, even if she has no idea what it is. She's always asking what something is and seems to remember because she'll come back to a tank a little while later and very matter-of-factly tell us what it is, like she thinks we don't know. They also do penguin feedings every day and we are excited to go see that sometime. They also have piranha feedings and archerfish feedings, both of which I would be interested to see.

David has found a new job working for a company based out of California called Well. They are a tech company that has a software that matches physical therapists with patients needing in-home care. He is very lucky to be able to work from home until they build an office out here, which will be at least 6 months, if not longer, and I am very thankful for that. This pregnancy has been really rough and I've definitely not been fully functioning so he's been able to help out with Kook on the days when I'm just feeling so nasty. I get random fevers (we aren't sure why) and am still very nauseous and lack an appetite, so having his help is invaluable. K is LOVING having her dada home with her and it makes me just so happy to see the bond and relationship that they have. I predict she and he will have a very special bond the rest of their lives. He is a very involved and amazing dad. I honestly couldn't have asked for a better partner in parenthood and life. Seriously. He's amazing. I've been feeling pretty anxious about adding this new baby to the mix and figuring out how to adjust to everything, and figuring most of it out on my own most of the day. This job came at the perfect time and knowing he'll be here for the first few months to help out has really helped lessen my anxiety.

I am starting to get really nervous about baby, since my due date is less than a month away. With baby boy being breech, there is the possibility that we will induce at 39 weeks. I've been seeing a chiropractor that specializes in pregnancy and Webster's Technique to help flip babies as well as my regular chiropractor, and while he hasn't flipped down yet, we have a couple weeks before we will try the manual inversion. So in about 2.5 weeks, we could possibly have this little boy. Thinking about that has really started the mini freakouts and I'm anxious, but excited as well. I'm eager to see his personality as he grows to see how similar he and K are. I'm eager to see how she takes to being a big sister. I think she'll do great because she LOVES babies and our biggest issue might be her loving him too much, but I am nervous that she'll start acting out to get attention as well. We will hopefully be able to figure out how to make her still feel loved and that she has our attention. It'll be interesting to see and I honestly can't wait to see how they interact as they get older. Hopefully we can encourage them to be friends. :)

December 2015: Selfies, Christmas, and Snow, Snow, Snow!

December was busy, as it always is with the holidays and visiting family and friends.

On the 12, we had my family Christmas party. Kollyn sang Twinkle Twinkle for everyone and was so proud of herself when she finished (though she never really finishes because she just starts over once she gets to the end). She loved watching the girls do their gymnastic routine, listening to them play the piano and violin, and listening to the boys' poem.

She likes to play the piano whenever she sees one, so naturally she had to sit there while Kayla played and "play" the piano right along with her. She loves music and I love how excited she gets by it.

She's gotten really into the selfie function on my phone. She loves watching herself while we take a picture. She says "Hi" to herself while we're waiting for it to count down and asks to take more pictures right away. She's even starting to actually smile for pictures and I think it's so much fun!

December 17 was the Sirviso Christmas party. We are blessed to be involved with this company, it has definitely been a blessing for us even though it hasn't started paying off yet. I haven't seen David so excited about something in a really long time (I honestly don't know if I have ever seen him this excited about something that isn't Kollyn) and I love that he has something to help him feel productive and like he's contributing and doing something good. He loves being a part of it and has put so much effort into making it succeed in whatever way he can and I am really excited to see it take off. I definitely believe in the product and I love the friends that I've made in the other wives during this journey. It's definitely a special camaraderie that we have developed and I have been very lucky to now call these ladies friends. :)

Naturally, David had been counting down to Star Wars Episode 7 since its release was announced and was so excited to go see it. We had tickets to the midnight showing but I wasn't able to go to that. He ended up giving my ticket to a friend and I'm secretly (though not very secretly) relieved because I don't do well with midnight showings, they make me grouchy and tired and I will never see their appeal. haha. Luckily though, I'd won tickets from America First Credit Union for their private screening the next evening (Friday) and we were able to go that night with Adam and Carlee. It was a lot of fun and the movie wasn't bad, which made me happy. I may not be a huge Star Wars fan, but I do like Harrison Ford. ;) It was fun to have a nice date night (Thanks Melissa for watching K for us!) and go see a movie together. :)

December 20 we had a fun Christmas party with David's family. His parents flew in the day before and we had a great time eating dinner, making and eating donuts, and letting the kids run around wild for a while and visiting. It was fun to get together and watch Kollyn interact with her cousins. I'm always so intrigued by how social she is and how much she loves being around other people. 

Christmas Eve we spent the day at my parents' house and K was very excited about it. We played games, made cookies, and decorated said cookies. She had so much fun putting on the frosting and sprinkles and it was fun to see her get so into it and try to execute what she saw in her mind on each cookie. She was very engrossed most of the time and did not want to stop when we ran out of cookies. 

Her frosting the cookie. :)

Christmas Eve we also were invited to attend Aunt Mariolina's annual Christmas Eve Italian feast and as usual, it did not disappoint. She makes such amazing food (I really need her to teach me how to make some things) and K clobbered her meal and even ate seconds of several things, which is pretty unusual for her. She even pet their dog and that was a big deal because usually dogs scare her. We definitely ate too much and don't regret it one bit. :) Then we headed over to Karin and David's house to spend the night. David took his Xbox One over and after about an hour trying to set it up, we all played Perfect Dark for a while. It was a lot of fun. :)

Christmas with kids is so special. I love watching her get so excited about things. Each present was the best thing ever for her and she was so excited about them. A magnetic Elsa and Anna dress-up, shark socks (courtesy of our amazing friend Tiffany) that she wears as much as possible, new clothes from Sierra and Michael, and a Peppa Pig house and family. David's mom bought that for her and she has loved playing with it pretty much every day since. We take it with us when we go places and she loves it. She had never seen Peppa Pig before, but now she adores it and asks to watch it all the time.

They have their two very seperate interests, sharks for her (thanks Erika for the stuffed shark, she literally has to take it everywhere with us) and cars for Luke, but they play really well together for the most part,, even if she does annoy him (usually on purpose) by taking his cars. It's so fun watching these two grow up together and I can't wait to see how their relationship grows as they get older.

All bundled up and ready to go sledding! :) It snowed about 12 inches Christmas Eve night and so after we opened presents Christmas morning, we bundled K up and went out to sled down Karin and David's driveway.

She LOVED it! It was so fun watching her get so excited about it and run back up saying, "Again! Again!" over and over. She kept asking to sled and had so much fun. We tried to build a snowman for her but the snow wasn't quite sticky enough. She had a lot of fun throwing it around though! This was the first time all winter we've actually been able to play in the snow and she was so happy and didn't want to go back inside.

Now, for your viewing pleasure, some adorable K in the snow videos. ;)

Me and her sledding

Her and David sledding

Last one, I promise. ;)

Her throwing "snowballs" :)

We spent Christmas Day with Karin and David as well (and stayed that night there as well) because of the amount of snow and  us not trusting our car to get out of their driveway and back to our house since the roads weren't super cleared. Kollyn was not unhappy about it at all and had a blast playing with Luke all day. We are so lucky to have them so close and that they're always so willing to let us essentially invade their home. :)

We had friends over for New Year's Eve and rang in the new year with games, dinner, and plenty of snacks. :) We love having so many great friends that we love getting together with as well. We have been truly blessed in so many ways to be able to call these people friends. And we especially love that so many of them have little kids around Kollyn's age and that she gets along so well with them. It makes it so much fun to get together and do things because the kids love to play together and usually entertain themselves really well which leaves us all free to play games, chat, and snack on  delicious things.

We've had a very busy December, and we're really glad that the season has wound down because it was really crazy, but it was also so worth the crazy and we love that we have so much family so close that we get to celebrate with. :) Thanks to all our family and friends for making 2015 an awesome year and we look forward to everything 2016 has to offer! 

November 2015: Birthdays, Thanksgiving, and Birthdays

November is the month of birthdays in our family. Not only do we have several siblings/cousins/nieces/parents with birthdays during November, it's also David and Kollyn's birthday month as well. So we were definitely busy with birthdays and holidays and spending time with friends.

But we've also had our fair share of downtime too, which has been really fun. :) Currently, K is all about her dollhouse and books (always books) and we spend hours upon hours with those in the living room while she arranges and rearranges the furniture in her dollhouse and has me read books to her while she plays.

David's birthday is November 5, and per tradition, we went to Tucano's with our friends Brook and Amy, and Colin. Colin's wife was going to join us, but she wasn't feeling well. K spent the whole time trying to eat the ice that was in my glass, and ate nothing on her plate, until right before we left she started eating a roll and asked for more, but by then we'd already left and she couldn't have another one. It was really weird because she usually loved and chows down like it's going out of style. Oh well, more food for us. ;)
As far as David goes, I am constantly amazed by this guy and how lucky I am to be able to watch him tackle life. He is so hard working and so ambitious. He started a company with his friends Brook and Colin (Sirviso, check it out on Facebook!) and has been working so hard trying to get it off the ground and make sure it's successful, while working a full-time job and going to school. And he always makes sure to take time for K as well. He is amazing with how he juggles things and he usually handles it pretty well. There have been a couple times where he has had to step back, but he regrouped really quick and was back in it. He is loving it though and wouldn't change it for anything. He's wanted to start his own company for a while and this has been the perfect opportunity for him. We also realized that if K hadn't been born when she had (albeit about 2 years before we would've originally planned) he never would've met Brook and gotten involved, so we have her to thank for this amazing opportunity. :) David keeps saying he owes her big-time. haha

A few weeks ago, K and I were in an accident. My car was rear ended at a stop light by a guy who thought our light had turned green, when it very much hadn't. It definitely could've been a lot worse and we were very lucky that it was such low impact. Both she and I are fine, baby boy is fine, and the only thing she really remembers from it is that her bucket fell down onto the floor of the car and she was not pleased about that. So we were very lucky and blessed it wasn't that bad at all.
My car however, may not agree. There was some pretty severe trunk damage (when we were trying to get the trunk shut and shaking the car is the only time K cried during the whole ordeal) and a cracked and chipped bumper. So the guy's insurance provided us with a rental car and we have loved driving it around the last few weeks. We had to return it yesterday because my car was repaired and it was a little sad. One day maybe we'll be able to afford a new car. In any case, I am glad that my car was fixable, that the damage wasn't as much as the car (though it was pretty close), and that it took them a little while to fix it so I could feel really fancy driving around in a fancy shamncy car. ;)

K came to me asking if we could have "cute hair". She would hand me a clip and tell me to put it in my hair or her hair. So naturally, we had to take a picture afterwards. She has really gotten into me doing her hair lately, which has been a learning experience for me because I'm not very good at doing my own hair, let alone someone elses. But she loves it and gets so excited about it. She shows everyone she sees her "cute hair" and just seems to happy

She loves pomegranates. We haven't tried them in a while, I was worried she wouldn't really know how to handle them, but she munches like a champ. She ate probably close to half a pomegranate by herself. She did love to share them with us though. She'd put one on the table by David, one by me, and then eat one herself. Then she'd repeat that until all the seeds in her bowl were gone. :) She is sometimes good at sharing!

The week of Thanksgiving we decided to bite the bullet and take the front off her crib to prepare her for a toddler bed, because when this little guy comes, I do not want two cribs. She has done amazing! We were really nervous she'd just get up and play and come out of her room and we'd be up all night trying to keep her in bed, but she has only gotten out of her bed for two naptimes and never comes out of her room. Even in the mornings, she waits until I come in to get out of bed. She loves being a big girl and will always tell us how she's a big girl because she stayed in her bed all night. The first night, I told her if she stayed in her bed all night, we'd go get a donut for breakfast so that definitely helped I think. haha. But she hasn't needed any bribing since then. We did have to put her front back on once when she kept getting out of bed at naptime, but she hasn't done it since then and has even napped in an actual bed twice without getting out! We lucked out, that's for sure and I just have to hope she keeps it up! We are so proud of her and how quickly she has caught on. Definitely less stress for us this way.

I didn't get many pictures of Thanksgiving, but that was because we were having too much fun and I didn't think about it until later on. We spent Thanksgiving day at Karin's house with them and Adam and Carlee. It was a lot of fun for K to be around so many cousins and have so many people who play with. She and Luke and Jane just have so much fun running around together. And Miriam is so sweet with them. She was following them around, carrying the bucket, playing with them, and was making them laugh a lot. It was nice to not really have to worry about her and spend time playing games like Heads Up (My 90s and Superstar knowledge are definitely rusty haha) and Pandemic. David was in charge of cooking the turkey and he had been talking about it and researching how to make the most moist turkey for about a month, if not longer, and was SO excited about it. It turned out really good, even if no one there was super proficient in how to carve a turkey. The meal was all awesome and we were definitely well-fed. It was a really fun day with family and good food. I can't really ask for much more than that.

 Friday we spent at my parents house doing Thanksgiving with them and my sister's family. Kollyn is so lucky to have so many awesome cousins on both sides of the family that just love spending time with her. The girls always get so excited when she comes over and she loves being the center of their attention. She also loves being treated like a big girl, and they do a great job of including her in everything they do. :)

It was a lot of fun watching her play the dog game with the girls, try to play Old Maid with us, and eat all the popcorn that she could get her hands on, even if most of it did end up all over the floor. She just really loves being big. I sometimes forget that she's only 2 and think she's older than that. Most people who meet her assume she's 3 or almost there, and I think sometimes I feel the same way. She just loves being big. :)



Speaking of birthdays, November 30, K turned 2. It's hard to imagine that 2 years ago, we were adjusting to life with a newborn and now here we are with a toddler and expecting another one. So much has changed, but for the better. :) In the days leading up to her birthday, I kept remembering what I was doing 2 years ago, not knowing that sooner than expected (I was expecting to hit my induction date because I hadn't progressed at all) we'd have our little girl.

Saturday the 28, we went to Airborne in Draper with Karin, David, and Luke. She LOVES to jump and is always bouncing around on something, whether that's her bed, the couch, the little trampoline at Karin's house or at my parents house, the big trampoline at my parents house, or just bouncing around the house, she just jumps all the time. So this was a no-brainer. We were there about an hour and a half and when we left, she was not happy about it and glared at us the whole time we were getting shoes on, getting her into the car, and driving home. She did not want to leave. We'll definitely need to get her in a gymnastics class as soon as we can. :)

Sunday we had a little party with the cousins, just cake and ice cream at our clubhouse, and Kollyn had a lot of fun running around and playing with all the cousins. We love having so many family members so close!! And because she is obsessed with sharks, of course it was shark "themed".

She hasn't put down the inflatable sharks since, and it's been almost a week. haha. She takes them everywhere, even to my physical therapy appointment. But everyone there thinks she's the cutest thing ever and the fact that she loves sharks makes her even more adorable to them. :)

I'm really pleased with how the cake turned out. :) David and I were a little nervous about how it would look, but it turned out better than I even imagined! :)

She was really excited about all the sharks on her cake, and that it was a "hammer head shark" on her cake.

She wasn't sure about the candle though, and so David had to blow it out for her.

She loved opening her presents and being the center of attention. :) I love how she has her little tongue stuck out while she concentrates on opening the present. She got a bunch of new books and she has been loving reading them all!

So, because of her love of sharks and other marine life, we were really excited to find out that the Living Planet Aquarium was free on Monday, her actual birthday!! And it's right by my chiropractor so we were already going to be up there anyway. Talk about the perfect timing. :) So we went over after our appointments and got in line. Naturally, because it was free day, the line was long, but it only took about 10 - 15 minutes before we were inside looking at all the fish. She'd been asking me if we could "watch fish" since I told her we were going that morning and she was very excited. Sadly, David couldn't join us, but it was a fun outing for the two of us and she was so fascinated that we were there for almost 2 hours.

It was cold so she sat in the stroller most of the time with her hands in her pockets to keep them warm. :) 

The otters were definitely one of her favorite exhibits. She loved watching them dive and jump and swim around. She is still talking about how the otters "jump the water and swim!" and gets really excited about it. We watched them for about 10 minutes because they were so active and playful. She didn't want to leave.

She also loved watching the penguins swim around, especially when they got right by the glass so she could see them better. 

She started yelling when she saw the Megladon jaw, "MAMA! BIG SHARK! LOOK! BIG SHARK!" so naturally we had a stranger take a picture of the two of us in the jaws of the giant. She was really excited about it and talked about it the rest of the day. When I put her down for her nap later, she kept saying her favorite thing was the "big shark picture".

This was her watching the actual sharks. They didn't have this exhibit the last time we went, and so we were both amazed by it. The stingrays and sharks would come swim right up by the glass and she was so fascinated. We sat there watching the sharks and fish and stingrays and the sea turtle for 20 minutes. She would get so excited when she saw a shark swim by and honesty could've been there for a lot longer than 20 minutes, but it was getting late and we needed to get home.

And for your watching pleasure, this is a snippet of the time we spent at the shark tank. :) I love how curious she is about things! She loves to learn and picks things up so quickly. It's so much fun watching her learn and grow!

It's been a busy, yet really fun, month. I still can't believe I'm the mom of a 2 year old, but I also can't believe she's only 2 because it feels like she's been in our lives forever. We have so many good things happening in our lives right now, and more to come. We are definitely blessed in many ways!