Happy!

This little angel is such a joy.  I just had to grab the camera because I wanted to capture this moment.  I was getting Avril ready for bed and sat McKel down on the chair.  McKel was soooo happy and kept making happy noises.  Today she seriously laughed for a full 10 minutes.  It was the most precious thing.  She was laughing at her sister, who was dancing around the room and singing at the top of her lungs.  McKel thinks her sister is pretty hilarious.  I have never seen such a happy baby.  McKel's natural inclination when paid any attention to is to smile.  She is so happy all the time and I LOVE it!!  I LOVE YOU, BABY KEL KEL.

 

 

Her happiness is infectious.  It just makes my heart burst with joy.  I'm just feeling grateful for my family.  Good night my loves.

Disney On Ice

Nana and Papa got Avril a very special birthday present this year... tickets to see Disney on Ice!  We drove down to Salt Lake last weekend for the occasion.  The girls were VERY excited :)

This is one excited two year old!

We were surprised that McKel got so in to the show.  Her eyes were glued to the arena.  She LOVED it!!

Avril had never seen anything like it in all her two years.  She LOVED it too!!

Nana and McKel, so happy together :)

Couldn't get McKel to avert her eyes from the show, so only Mama is looking at the camera.

So fun!

Today I tried something new.  I have been baking a lot lately and have found that I really enjoy it.  I have never made any sort of bread or rolls from scratch before so I wanted to try.  I made the whole family (Yargers and Parkinsons) some delicious meat ball subs.  The subs and the sauce I made from scratch.  Everyone thought they were so tasty!  Well, everyone but Jesse who would not eat the meatballs, since he got food poisoning from meatballs last time he ate them.  Now he has a meatball aversion.  He missed out.

I'm so proud of my yummy subs.  So they don't look perfect, but they get eaten anyway, right?

Oh, and my mom and I made some scrumptious Heath bar cookies for her lesson at church today.  Mmmm...

Bless "Pliget"

Phew.  Kids both asleep.  Finally some alone time and I can play a little catch up on the blog.  I just have to write about the latest and greatest Avril funny that happened tonight.

So... I was rocking Avril before bed and helping her to say her prayers.  "Please bless dada at work, and please bless mama, and please bless Nana and Papa, etc. etc.... Name of Jesus, Amen!"  Then Avril laid her sweet head down on my shoulder for a minute, before popping it back up to say, "And please bless Pliget!!!"  (this is what she has decided to call McKel for some reason).  It made me just burst out laughing... and believe me, I needed a good laugh after the past several days.

The terrible two's have reared their ugly head and its taking its toll on mama.  Avril has never been much of a sleeper.  I gave up on her taking naps quite some time ago, and if Avril sleeps through the night its once in a blue moon.  Now that she is in a big girl bed she can get up as many times as she pleases.  And she pleases a LOT!  This, however, does not please mommy.  Last night it took me over 30 times of putting her down until she finally fell asleep.  Then she got up at 11:45 and came in to my bedroom crying.  This woke up McKel.  I think I put her back in bed another 30 times throughout the night.  Finally, around 3 am she went back to sleep.  Then, of course, I had to get McKel back to sleep since Avril's screaming tantrums had kept her up.  Around 4 am McKel fell back asleep.  You would think the kids would want to sleep in after being up through the wee hours of the night.  Nope!  Not my girls.  Avril came in around 7:30 (which actually is sleeping in for her, I guess, usually she's up before 7 am) and was asking for her chocolate bunny (chocolate milk).  I wish I could say this was a one time thing, but Avril has been doing this all week.  I have about reached my breaking point.  Being a mom is HARD!

But then... you get to experience things like this, that just bring a smile to your face:  Avril was feeling the hot air coming out of the vent from the heater.  She kept saying, "its hot!  its hot!  Don't touch it, its hot!"  Then she says, "you have to blow on it!  You have to blow on it!" as she proceeds to blow little puffs of air in to the vent (as she does when blowing on her food that is too hot before putting it in her mouth).

And you get to experience things like this:  McKel was lying on the floor getting ready for her bath and Avril came up and started petting her hair.  She then said, "It has curly hair!"  Then she pointed to McKel's eyes, and exclaimed, "It has brownie eyes!"  Next she pointed to McKel's eyebrows and smiled saying, "It has ice brows!"  Haha.  Yes, McKel has curly hair, brownie eyes, and ice brows :)

And if you're lucky, you get to experience the love of an AMAZING husband, who showed me he loved me today by surprising me by cleaning the entire house till it was spotless!  I was over at my parents' house today, thinking my hubby was at home sleeping since he'd worked a grave the night before.  I thought we'd give him some quiet time to sleep so we were away for most of the day.  When I left our home this morning it was a disaster (another result of the terrible twos) and I just was too exhausted to do anything about it.  When I returned home later, it looked like I walked in to the wrong house.  Either the cleaning fairies did some magic, or I married a keeper.  I'm pretty sure its the latter.  Thank you sweetie, you're sooooooooooo my favorite!!

Oh, and our latest news is that this AMAZING guy of mine, was accepted to grad school at Auburn University, and just gave them his acceptance of their acceptance to attend :)  This means that our little family will be moving to ALABAMA!!  What a big and exciting change for us.  This really is bitter sweet for me because I don't want to leave our nana and papa and other papa, and great grandma behind.  The girls are so close to them now.  I love our home here too.  I have worked so hard to decorate it and make it feel like a home.  I know this will be a blessing for us though and we are excited for this new adventure.  We already found the PERFECT family to rent our house to.  I couldn't feel better about the renters.  We have so much in common.  Both our hubbies LOVE football, and we both have babies the same exact age!  We are already blogging buddies now :)  So... we will be moving out of this house by the end of the month, and in to the parents' basement until we leave for Alabama.  This way we can save some dough cuz well, lets face it, we're gonna be broke in grad school.

So here's to positive change!  And you know what they say about change:  Change is inevitable - except from a vending machine.

McKel 3 Months

McKel 3 Months

Here is our littlest sweetheart at 3 months.  3 months ago today we received this miraculous gift from God.  We love you so much already baby Kel!

Family Updates

Avril:  Avril has graduated from her crib and now sleeps in her big girl toddler bed.  Mommy bought some adorable material to make new toddler bedding for her.  The sheets and pillow are finished and on the bed, thanks to the seamstress Nana for making them.  We are currently working on a quilt as well.  I will post photos as soon as its finished.  I wanted to have it done for Avril's birthday but, well, life happens and not all goes as planned.

Avril was so excited to sleep in her new bed.  In fact, too excited.  The first night she wouldn't settle down she just wanted to "pretend" sleep and jump on the new bed.  After the excitement wore off and she realized she was no longer caged in with no escape, she started to get out of bed, open the door, and come find mama.  The first night this happened I counted 32 times of putting Avril back in her bed.  The next night I think it was like 10.  We are still working on this.  Now, after a couple weeks of this I can get her to bed on the first try usually, but she still gets up a couple times during the night and comes to mommy and daddy's bed.  Between Avril and McKel, Mommy usually gets up at least 5 times a night.  It is starting to wear on me.  I am EXHAUSTED.  I am forcing myself to get through these blog posts so I am not behind anymore.  As soon as I finish these, I'm hitting the sack!

Avril is also becoming very independent.  If you try to help her with anything AT ALL, she will scream at you, "let Avril do it!"  So we stand by and watch as Avril misses her mouth and her noodles fall to the floor.  Still, no matter how many failed attempts, we must "let Avril do it."

Here are some more of Avril's cute quotes:  I was rocking Avril before bed one night and she started petting my hair.  She looks at me with her big brown eyes and says:  "Mama so pretty."  She then pets my hair again and exclaims, "Its furry!"

She also took off her pants and diapers the other day and I got excited that she was ready to start going on the potty.  Instead, she went pee pee on the floor and shouts out, "It spilled!"

Also, for some reason Avril started referring to McKel as "pliget" (this is how she says Piglet from Winnie the Pooh).  We think its because McKel usually wears pink sleepers.  She will point to McKel and say, Pliget!  Its Pliget!  Good thing McKel is not old enough to be offended by this yet.

McKel:  This little girl is definitely mature beyond her years months.  McKel will just look at you with her beautiful blue eyes and you feel like she can see straight in to your soul.  All you have to do is pay attention to her and she beams with happiness.  If you talk to her she automatically breaks in to a smile or starts making her cooing sounds.  I swear she understand what you are saying sometimes.  McKel LOVES music... I think she will be the musician in the family.  She responds instantaneously when she hears a song.  Often she will scream and make attempts at singing.

McKel already loves her big sister.  Sometimes, though, she looks at mommy like... save me, save me!  Avril can be a little overwhelming with her affection and now is not always so gentle with baby McKel.

McKel rolled over on to her tummy for the first time a few days ago!  I set her on the bathroom mat while I ran her bath water and I looked down to find her on her tummy!  Surprise, mama!  Don't underestimate me.  I'm a big girl and growing up so fast!

McKel is also able to sleep through the night now.  She usually gets up once or twice to nurse but can go an 8 hour stretch of sleeping.  This is nice for mama because Avril, now at age 2, still does not sleep through the night.  Avril usually comes in around 6:30 in the morning every day to wake up Mama and McKel.  So nice.  Thank you Avril.

Dada:  Jesse has big news.  Today he received a letter of acceptance for a graduate program at Auburn University, in Alabama!  This is for his Masters in Psychology, specifically Applied Behavior Analysis for Developmental Disabilities.  We are all very excited.  We are still waiting to hear from a school in Boston, and Utah State though, so we're uncertain of where we will be come this fall.  I'm so so so proud of Jesse.  He can somehow do it all.

Mama:  Tired.  But loving being a mama and wife.  Good night.

Swimming

McKel had her first experience with swimming today.  The whole family went to the pool at the Sports Academy and had an absolute blast.  I was surprised at how long McKel was content to be in the water.  Avril just loved playing with her dada in the water.  It was so sweet.

McKel's first time in a swimming "soup", as Avril says.  So cute.

Dada and his little munchkin had sooo much fun!

Nana's Birthday

For Nana's birthday (March 2nd) we did the traditional Sizzler dinner with all the family.  Unfortunately, all could not be there... but we still enjoyed the good company.  Dada was all the way in Alabama for a grad school interview, so mommy sent this cute pic of Avril to let him know we're thinking of him:

And another cute girl pic:

McKel sported her first ponytails in her hair for the occasion

Avril lovingly tries to feed her sister finger foods

Ripping apart the straw wrapper is wildly entertaining

I'm ready for the food.  Get in my tummy!

Here is the beautiful birthday girl.  To learn more about this amazing woman, click here

You'll notice that McKel is wearing a different outfit than the original one she came in.  I'll give you one guess as to why...

Papa with his newest granddaughter

Avril loves her Uncle JJ

Happy Birthday Nana!  We sure do love you.

And here is a video clip of our pre-bedtime routine.  Avril is in the bathtub, while McKel happily makes cute baby noises and kicks her legs.