February 2014

February snuck up on us quickly...as does every month.  I can't seem to slow time down.  So in the meantime I'll just appreciate each moment as it comes.  That's what February was full of, lot's of good moments.  Despite other negative forces in our lives, it was a great month. 

Of course the most important event of the month.  Tristan turning 18 months old.

Weight: 24lb 8oz  50%

Height: 32 1/4"    47%

Head: 18 1/2      48%

Smaller percentages then my last son...but he definitely doesn't lack in bulk.  This kid keeps us entertained all day long!  Such a great personality.  As an 18 month old Tristan has already said words such as; (16 months) go, cookie, jesus, nana, ow, doggy, binky, cheese, hot, yucky, more, mama, dadda, and at 17 months, the words; YES!, thank you. and bird.  And adding to his vocabulary by 18 months he started saying; please, shoe, sock, go walk, babba, wawa, eat, all done, my binky, hi, bye bye, bear, bum bum, poopy, pee pee.

He is great at understanding my directions.  He will go and get stuff when I ask, throws things in the garbage, puts clothes in the laundry.

He can also throw a ball, roll his eyes to be funny, give high fives, loves cuddling.  Is by far our most flexible kid and a great dancer like the rest of his family.  Hos favorite things are doing the family cheer, giving hugs and kisses, being tickled, playing the pointing game..he knows where his teeth, mouth, tongue, nose, hair, ears, cheeks, belly and eyes all are at this point.

He sleeps about14 hours a day. That includes a 3 hour nap. He has 3 front teeth and his two back molars on the top row.  The bottom row he has 4 front and two back molars. A total of 11 teeth for this kid.  And he takes his shots like a champ...He also likes to create mischief in the waiting room at the Doctors..

What do you expect when you strip down a kid to get his weight and then leave you in there for almost an hour?!

As I mentioned this kid has quite the personality...he shakes his finger at us and says repeatedly and calmly, "No, no no no no no no." 

The rest of the month consisted of

lots of trips to the store..

and the mall playground....

and playdates with friends. 

and dance parties

Field Trips wth Dad to the fish hatchery and such...

Going through a phase believing we were actually puppy dogs.

Learning to drink in a big kid cup.

Proud of our heritage and where we came from.  Talmage with Preschool teacher Mrs. Sinaie.  Talmage had a to give a small presentation about his family.  We created a box full of things that described his family and covered it in our pictures.  I'm pretty sure he had a baseball to represent our excitement over physical activity and sports, a harmonica to represent our love for music and dancing, an empty match box to represent outdoors and camping, a surgical mask to represent Daddy is a doctor.  A picture of Jesus, a Book of Mormon and a picture of President Monson to represent our core beliefs and culture.  I can't remember the other things in there, but he was so proud to show his friends and teacher his box.  He did a great job...and the more he is in school the less shy he gets..It's been really good for him to be in school so much.

We have also been hanging out a lot with some new friends (update: still great friends probably safe to say best friends now)

Teaching little brother the alphabet.

A lot of family movie nights.

Always cleaning up and dejunking the yard and house.  I may have thrown away a few important items.

First time in nursery for Tristan.  He did great for the first few weeks then got really clingy for awhile.  Little cutie sitting all by himself.  No one is taking advantage of his great personality...oh well, their loss.  :)

Talmage is now a CTR4.  What a handsome little stud..growing up way to fast.

My kids are getting too big!  AHHHH 

JANUARY 2014 What?!?!?

What can I say...I need to catch up on 10 months of our lives.  I've been a bit swamped for some reason...and now I'm mad at myself for not staying caught up, because my memories of everything are either blurry or vaguely familiar.  I'll do the best I can.  This is for my own journaling and family history, so I feel the responsibility to remember events and certain times in my childrens lives.

We'll start with January 1st, 2014

It was a late New Years Eve...  We woke up piled up on top of eachother.

January was full of walks.. Because you can do that in Fresno.  The sun was exceptionally bright that day...Tal gives that away.

Tristans eczema started clearing up. But his curiosity for my things flared up.  

You see we started attaching his binky to his shirts...BAD idea...next child I'm not making that mistake.  Even though the binky in his mouth kept other things out i.e. bandaids, bugs, dirt etc.. but to have it so close at hand all the time..was not a smart move because he got way too attached and his teeth were being pushed up and it was putting holes in his clothes.  

I got my hair cut again.  I was the most happy with this hairstyle then any before it.  But I am getting sick of having to do it..at this point it would be nice to pull up into a ponytail.

Not a ton of pictures of Cody because well...he was working a lot in January doing a trauma rotation  at CRMC.  He has a lot of horrible experiences at work that he comes home and tells me, but I am not supposed to share any of it on my blog, because well ya know....he could get in a lot of trouble if I said the wrong thing. blah blah blah...let's just say work is TUFF, CRUEL and UNFAIR most the time.  But on some good days, his LOVE for the operating room and desire to provide for his family always pulls him through.

I started working as an unofficial, non-professional personal trainer to one of my friends out here.  I say unprofessional because well, I don't have a degree or certificate and I had her coming to my house where Tristan would dance around us as we worked.  I do have SOME knowledge and skill in the exercise department though.  I've taken multiple college classes to work towards my exercise science major (although I was 37 credits away from graduating which probably would've meant 3 more semesters ...some day right?) I also have Zumba and Strength Training course certificates.  I've also worked at multiple gymns, teaching body conditioning and Zumba, and as a fitness consultant at Curves for the last couple years.  It was fun working with my friend here, it brought me back to my working days.  I've taken a hiatus since Tristan was 2 months from being born.  So a total of 19 months without work (besides my most important job of course being a mommy).   

My friend and I worked really great together and she was showing a lot of progress (she had a lot of work to do.. physically and mentally and that's why she needed me).  She needed someone to tell her what to do and how to eat.  Which is exactly what I am pretty decent at.  BUT, she was also pregnant...  eek..so our time together would be cut short.. but UPDATE:  she re-hired me after baby (and a few other surgeries she needed) and we will be working together again starting in November 2014.  It's nice to pull in a few bucks around here...especially knowing how hard Cody works...and how crappily he gets paid (a new complaint for another time maybe).

On to these kids of ours, they sure are something else.  You can tell what their personalities are like just by looking at the pictures.  Tristan is so quirky and funny.  Talmage is silly and goofy.  Tristan is 17 months old and Talmage is just over 4 years old and still in his first year of preschool.  He has a schedule that is every morning, Monday through Friday from 8:25 am to 11:25 pm.  It's a lot of driving and a lot of battling to get him to school in the mornings...but everyday at pick-up he is always so happy and tells me about the fun stuff they did and all the friends he has.  So I know it was a good call to put him in the daily program.  His teachers are the best to.  I hope Mrs Sinaie is still teaching when Tristan is ready for preschool.  We will never forget her.

My kids make me laugh every day.

Talmage is (sometimes) really nice to Tristan and plays with him and keeps him entertained...which in turn enertains all of us.  In this picture I heard them giggling and pitter pattering around our house and I found them like this.  Talmage said, "Look mom, we have girl hair. ha ha ha."  He thought it was so funny.  So he then tried to pose daintily for me as you can see in the picture.

At this point Talmage just pushes Tristan around on whatever they can find around the house, horses, blankets, boxes, toy cars.  I love having two boys.  They really play well together and "sometimes" make my life easier.

Tristan is starting to really get good at walking..swings his arms around crazily like a drunkard, and doesn't quite walk in a straight line all the time..but I love his new found independence.  The videa may not work.  But here's a preview if it does.

The End of 2013

We stopped at Casa De Fruta on the way home it was the cutest pit stop we have ever made!  Great way to start Christmas Eve.

We got home and eventually got the kids to bed and then Santa wrote his letter, ate his cookies and left the stockings and presents.

Cody and I snuggled by the fire.

It was a glorious morning.

 A fun afternoon.  Trying out the new scooter.

 And a Showy Evening.  Candy Cane Lane in Fresno was CRAZY COOL!

Then for our new years eve, we went "hiking" at the hidden homes trail.

Mouse (hole) home

Eggs home (Nest)

Eagles (Home) Nest 

Owls Home

That wraps up 2013.

Scotts Valley with Cousins

It was a few days before Christmas and we did something crazy.  The day started with us going to Talmage's Preschool Christmas program.  It was so cute.  they sang so many fun songs.  Talmage had a part, he said, "We are singing Christmas Day."  He has such horrible stage fright but I was very proud of him for standing up and doing it, and he spoke very clearly.

I was a bad mom and forgot to take his gum out of his mouth before the program started, so the entire time he was chewing.  He pretty much didn't sing the entire time, because of the blasted gumin his mouth.  But he was still adorable, especially when he got upset at himself because his red scarf came off half way through and he couldn't put it back together.  It was a large crowd and he was scared to do anything!  Notice poor little 16 month old Tristans cheeks.  It was diagnosed as eczema.  Poor kid was suffering for months with this stuff. 

After our celebration we packed up and drove to Scott's Valley, where my cousin Steve and his wife Tamara and their 6 year old son live.  We stayed with them for 4 days. and drove home Christmas eve.  Cody was working crazy hours and we wouldn't have seen him anyways.  Poor guy.  But the trip was a blast and it is best explained through a million pictures.

Saw the Local Ballet Company showing of the Nutcracker.

Boys just wanted to climb trees instead of watch the dancers.

Went to a skate park and Tals first experience on a scooter.  He did so good!

Tristan totally took to Cousin Steve.

Watching youtube clips "What does the fox say?" and other silly things.

Going to Kingdom Hall with Tamara (Jehovah's Witness Church).  It was a nice meeting and the people were so nice to me.  Tristan came with us and the boys went to the park.  Does Trist look like Yoda or what?

Henry Cowell Redwoods Park

Steam Trains...so cool!

Beautiful Redwoods forest walk

Showing Tal the ropes.

Tamara and Tristan also got attached.  She thought he was hilarious all week.  She also helped us figure out a natural way to eliminate his eczema.  We took him off cows milk, citrus fruit and eggs and used coconut oil and Eucerin cream and in 5 days his eczema went away!!!!

Our nightly hang outs and chats by the fire and Tree.  They have a Christmas tree because Steve likes the tradition, even though Tamara doesn't celebrate the Holiday.

Capitola Beach near Santa Cruz.  So warm for it being December 23rd!  This was the BEST day ever.  The kids had so much fun.  I laughed my head off for a million different reasons and at one point or another we had a naked baby photo shoot on the beach.  Enjoy!

The other Adults.  Aunt Diane, Steve and Tamara.

They called this "Ocean Mail."

"Cheeeeeeeeeeeeese."

Do you see me and Tristan?  Ya, his first time in the Ocean EVER! a little terrified of the waves now.

Sand in the mouth. blgh!

Yum Sandy pizza for lunch

Care free boy! Absolutely no worries!  I love this!

We found Grandpa Burt's old Hat and had to try it on Tal.  We also ran out of pull-ups so Gavin loaned his and Tal looked tiny in it.  WE are weird I know. 

And then we took off the next morning which was Christmas eve and so excited to see Daddy!