Tiffany & Alex

Oaklyn's 2nd Birthday

My little niece, Oaklyn turned 2 just 3 weeks after Jade did. We were so excited to be invited to come celebrate with her and their family for the occasion! It was fun to hang out with my equally pregnant sister and watch our kids play and make memories. My sister made a cute Ice cream themed party that didn't disappoint! The kidlets loved all the sugar, party hats and decor! We had a dance party, opened presents and had a great time! Jade LOVES her cousin Oaklie! They will be life long friends and I can't wait to see what each year brings to their cute little friendship. In this video, Jade is either really jealous that the party wasn't about her this time or scarred from her birthday song when she ate the flame on her cake instead of blowing it out and caught her pigtail on fire. Either way, it makes for a really funny video. Oaklyn is just too much cuteness to handle! Happy Birthday Oaklyn! We feel so blessed to live so close and to be able to celebrate these moments with you! Keep shining sweet girl!

Jade Turns 2

We just finished celebrating Jade turning two....TWO!!! On her birthday, she had a play-date with a friend in the morning and after nap we took her to McDonald's. We got her her first burger and let her play in the germ infested playground. She was IN HEAVEN! We love our big girl and can't wait to give her a sibling! Then this past weekend we celebrated with friends for her birthday party. She is just a little obsessed with Minnie Mouse, so I couldn't help but make the theme all about her favourite character. The party was so much fun despite some mishaps that still haunt me. Poor Jade ate the flame on her cupcake instead of blowing it out because her pregnant, brainless mother thought she knew better. Then minutes later that same mom lit the candle again to get a "good" picture and watched as her daughter turned her pigtail into the flame. Yes, it was legit up in flames. Luckily I can still put her hair in pigtails but the one side is slightly shorter and it makes this momma so incredibly sad. Jade opened presents and enjoyed every ounce of attention she was given. She received, a stuffed puppy, kinetic sand, playdough, a magnetic drawing board, a doctors kit and she also got a potty doll in honour of her potty training success lately. It has taken a lot of sweat and tears on my part to potty train her but we can now say she is home potty trained. She can't be trusted in public, other people's homes or during nap-time and bedtime but during the day she is a complete pro. I'm not worrying about nap-time and bedtime until she slowly does that on her own. I can handle one diaper a day until she can do that. I will however have to start working on the public places training because I would love to drop her off at nursery without a diaper and go do errands without having to change her into a diaper. We are so blessed to have sweet two year old Jade in our family. She is growing up so fast. She can now say complete sentences and surprises me everyday with a new one. She will say stuff like, "Mommy, open this please, thank you", "Bye bye Daddy, love you", "I want _____", "I went pee in the potty, yay", "I'm sleepy", "I'm cold", "That truck is blue" and so much more. She also babbles a lot. I can make out certain parts of the sentence but I know there is a lot more to it that i'm just not understanding but they get more and more clear each day. She knows a lot of colors,shapes, animals, their sounds, songs, and more. It's an amazing stage we are getting into and i'm loving it.

Jade's favourites:
Her potty
Minnie Mouse
Bubble Guppies
Sliding
Jumping
Learning time with Daddy
High fiving
Singing let it go
Her blanket
Pretending to sleep
Juice
Baths
Brushing her teeth
Dinosaurs
Books
Friends
Sleeping
Dancing with Mommy
Cleaning
The mail
Holding hands
The library

Jade's dislikes:
Diapers
Wiping her face
When you don't understand her, this causes extreme melt downs :)
Being told no
Having accidents. She doesn't have them much anymore but she used to scold herself. "No yucky, gross, pee goes in the potty", "No candy"

Jade's personality qualties:
Driven
Happy
Polite
Obedient
Cautious
Smart
Not shy
Determined
Teachable
Helpful

I can't imagine what another year with Jade will bring but I can't wait to see. She is constantly amazing me and blessing our lives.

For a video of all Jade's birthday shenanigans…here is a link..
Birthday Party

Pregnant East Coast Sister Week.

A couple months ago, I was able to go visit my sister Natalie and her family for a week! Alex was a trooper and let us party while he suffered his week away at school. Natalie picked me up because we are a one car family, and Alex picked me up at the end of the week. I'm so lucky!

Landon celebrated their 100th day of school by dressing up as the cutest old man I've ever seen!!

Natalie and I potty trained our two girls all week and I think the girls enjoyed their extra attention while sitting on the potty together :)

It wouldn't be a trip if Jade didn't get sick right? Poor girl got the flu for a couple of the days we were there. I was glad she had some distractions with all her fun cousins around.

The whole week was so fun! We went shopping, went for daily ice cream runs, hosting dance parties in the living room for the kids and waddled around pregnant together :) Can't wait to get our two new babies together very soon!

Steven's Christmas In Bend Oregon

I am back blogging..a lot. I have been extra lazy and I am attempting to make up for lost time. I have been meaning to document this last Christmas..so here I go!

We just love going to Oregon to visit Alex's family! It's so beautiful there! His family always gives Jade all the attention she lives for and we get to see all those wonderful people we don't see enough! We were able to get some good dates in with all the willing babysitters around! We always love to visit the spot where Alex proposed to me along the river!

Jade was in heaven with all the cousins around to play with! Jenny, Steve and the gang surprised us all and arrived before Christmas Day instead of after like we all had thought. It was a great surprise and we enjoyed the extra time with them! We even got to catch up with our good friends the Morgans from back at BYUI. Alex's parents treated me to a professional massage that made this pregnant girl extremely happy! Alex was able to go snowboarding, we played volleyball at the church gym, played board games, went to movies, went out for ice cream, went sledding, shopping, ate out and enjoyed watching Demi and Jade giggle and play.