Pictures for GG

 It took me to long to take these pictures---and I didn't get one with both of them looking at me with a smile. I had to pretend to cry for Crew to even sit still...he is only smiling because he thought my crying was funny:) Also, teething is the pits. I forgot how hard it was! Only I don't remember Crew whining all day and not eating/sleeping that well. I'm sure he did that though. Laney still only has 1 tooth. (by now Crew had close to 3) Getting her 1 tooth to grow all the way in has been a challenge. Poor girl! I think she is cutting her "fangs" now. They are so swollen and I can see white poking through. Yikes. Wish her luck with that!

I let Crew brush my hair today and now I remember why I have never showed him how to do that before. He got it stuck in my hair and pulled hard..but I was laughing because it hurt so bad! We both fell over just laughing our heads off. He is totally owning me lately.

Life Lately

Life has been crazy around here with these raccoons. Currently while typing this Crew is climbing all over me and putting his hands down my pants. He thinks bums are super funny...he is so gross and such a boy! Totally unnecessary information.

Living in such a small space has been interesting with them. I work so hard to clean it in the mornings, and then BAM a tornado comes through and it looks like I never lifted a finger. The joys of motherhood. I do miss our big loft. I'm not one for toys in my family room, or anywhere that I can see them--I know, so mean.

Here are some phone pictures over the last few days. I am totally aware that I am one of those "over-instagrammers" but I'm totally cool with it. Doesn't bother me. I could post a lot more--but I'll hold off. Crew has been a little hard for me lately. He seems to love getting reactions out of us, so now we don't give him one--but he is Crew, and he still continues to push our buttons. Like when he dumped out all of my raw almonds on the carpet. or hit Laney in the head a thousand times at Target causing her to scream ever so loudly. or took out all of the clothes out of his dresser and tossed them into Laney's crib. Sunday before church I made him a hot dog for lunch and raw carrots. (he loves those) Right when we were about to leave, I noticed that his plate was missing from the table. I had to change the clothes out of the dryer so Alex could wear his white shirt...guess what was in the dryer? HIS HOT DOG, CARROTS, PLATE, and FORK. I'm not sure what his little brain is thinking these days. (you guys, I do watch him, but when I'm busy for more than 2 minutes he takes that opportunity to become mischievous)

He does cute things too. Like when he took the bottle scrubber and made a car wash all on his own. Zero help from me. I love his little brain. Even when it doesn't tell him to make the right choices. He is always wanting to facetime family--and I would a lot more, but I figure we better hold off because they actually have lives! We just sit around all day...which is why we like face-timing.(and why the blog posts are so similar) Entertain us people!

Crew and Laney are trying to play together more--but neither of them are really in favor of it, they just want each others toys! It's so funny. Laney has been growling so much lately. When she wakes up in the morning, she growls, doesn't cry. We love it. She isn't crawling a ton, but can sure get around just fine! She is starting to army crawl and then rolls a lot too. She got stuck under the table, and of course I took a picture.

I love Crew and Laney. Being a mom is a lot harder on me than I thought it would be-my 21 year old self comes out a lot, and I forget that I have to be a grown up sometimes, and brush my selfish desires away, but I love doing all of this for them. Making sure that they have a good life and that they can be successful in whatever they choose to be/do.

XOXO little children

"I love you, a Bushel and a Peck..."

I never posted these photos of Crew making play-doh. It was actually really fun. I think if I had a bigger kitchen and and area designated for these types of messes--then I would have been less stressed! He loved choosing the color of jello to make and loved mixing the ingredients together.

He loved kneading the dough and would say when it got sticky, "Oh need more flour." He's just my little chef. 

*******Fast forward a few days*******

Today was pretty rough over here. Days like this always start with Laney not sleeping well during the night, or waking up way too early for the day. I missed my workout this morning--I have been doing pretty good and that wakes me up for the day. Today was a different story. I skipped the workout to sleep in a little longer. I was sluggish all day long! The weather didn't help much either.

Laney learned how to pull herself up onto things today though. That was fun to watch. It's so fun having a little 8month old around again. Now we get to start worrying about all of the bumps and bruises she will get from falls! We have had a few close calls...I need to move the darn killer coffee table tomorrow!

Crew and Laney have been "fighting" a lot lately. It's more just Crew taking toys away from her and she realizes that she does not like it at all. It's hilarious. When she is really mad she will grind her jaw together and clench her fists shut...all while screaming. I wish I could capture it on video! Today she started scooting faster (she still can't formally crawl..which is so fine by me) and took Crew's toys away from him. 

I can't believe she knows already what she wants! Feisty little chick. 

I'm realizing that I need to gear up for this next stage of life! Having another mover around the house is going to throw us all for a loop. I have to start worrying about what she is putting in her mouth...or what Crew is putting in her mouth...(had a few scary close calls with that)

Sunday's are getting crazy too. She can't sit still for the life of her and she just wants to babble her little voice loudly. I secretly love it though. Walking the halls with her isn't so bad. 

Before bed I saw them playing around with each other, which is a usual occurrence before bed. They suddenly become best friends. I love it. Laney gets in these giggle moods at night before bath (when we get her nakie) and Crew loves making her laugh.

Laney is so great for Crew

After I put Crew to sleep he poked his head out of his room and said, "mommy, sing song?"-so I put dishes down and sang him a few songs. He knows most of the words to "I am a child of God", "little bunny foo-foo", and "wheels on the bus." I got teary eyed singing, "I love you a bushel and a peck" because he started to try and sing the words with me. He was following my mouth and repeating what I said. I am so amazed at the things he remembers and tries to learn each day. He is such a sweet little boy and will always have a special spot in my heart! Man I love these two kids. It's really hard to imagine adding more kids into the family because it just feels so right and content with just them.

We are trekking along out here. I always forget that the first couple months are hard because of the weather. It's always storming or raining because of Tornado season---so it's super hard to get outside. Being cooped up with the kids is starting to wear on me, but August will come, and I'll look back and be amazed at the time and where it went.

What's on the Iphone? (lame title)

Some random pictures from the iphone over the last few days!

-Loved Laney's Sunday outfit.
-Crew and Laney were held during sacrament. Dream for us parents!
-Crew always climbs up on Al during prayers/scriptures and I think it's the cutest thing ever. (it's so rough when he leaves for work.)
-I decided to be fun for a minute and make homemade play-doh with Crew. It was so fun, and he loved it! I on the other hand? Not so much. It's so messy and sticky. He kept throwing flour everywhere too. In the end--I learned to just buy the play-doh. He doesn't know any different!
-Laney is becoming quite the little eater. It makes me so happy because Crew wasn't (isn't) this way at all. He was so boring at this age! He barely let us feed him puffs. Laney will eat everything as long as she is the one to put it in her mouth. (besides sweet potatoes..she loves those, and I'll feed them to her)
-We finally got the car today so we headed down to Nashville to hang out with Gramma T! The drive down was fine--but I would not do that in rainy weather. 2 lane highway-80mph-no guardrails & semi trucks galore. All of things I hate on one long stretch of road. I don't think we will be making it down there a lot...except that's where the Temple, Trader Joe's, and Costco are at. Very high priorities in our home! Anyways-we went shopping. Crew and Laney took turns in the race car..aka germ fest seat. I forgot to snap a picture of Crew! I have cute videos of him looking at some fish in the mall though. Maybe I'll post them later. Laney is the best shopping buddy--Crew was too at this age, so I know it will all come to an end soon.
-We are surviving out here! Al does well at work and he works in the same city right now that we live in, so he gets home around 9. Not too bad. Miss our home (where the flip is our home anyways? I could do a whole separate post on our situtation with renters and such, but I won't. All I'll say is that it's only getting more complicated and I feel that Utah is slowly gonna tug us back. Stupid.) and our things..as to be expected. Crew keeps saying, "go home? Ar-I-Zonnnnna?" and that about breaks my heart in two, right down the middle. Today he saw a plane and said that phrase after. Noooooooooo.

Nashville Tennessee

Alex's parents were in Nashville for some work meetings this week and we happened to move here last week so it worked out perfectly to meet up! (I'm not sure why my B&W photos are a different color...but I'm too lazy to figure it out) We went to church in Nashville and that was so great. Great lessons and talks. Crew also sat still all of sacrament because he was being entertained by two people that he loves a lot.

We then headed downtown to explore! The weather was so so perfect. We had planned to go to the country hall of fame museum, which would have been so neat, but the tickets were pricy and they were closing in an hour. So we just walked around downtown, and loved it! Tara chased Crew around the whole time. (thank you!) Lane held Laney most of the time so it was nice for Al and I to catch a break. Hence why most of the pictures are of the kids with the grandparents. I seriously love it when Alex and his dad are together because they just laugh the whole time. I love Lane's laugh. It's the best...and Alex seems to be the only person who can really get a good gut laugh out of him. I scored with these in-laws of mine.

We were so sad to say bye--but hopefully we can see them again this week if I'm brave enough to venture outside downtown with the kids! I'm grateful we get to experience new wards and places each summer, it really is so fun for us and such a neat experience.

Saturday Ramblings

It's so much fun having these two kids to be around all day long. I am so impressed with how fast both of them are learning new things and growing. Today is Saturday which means Al is working all day. We got up early with him to hang out before he left so that was good. We went to check out the park in our complex yesterday but there were about 5 wasps all over the darn thing. So I don't think we will be playing there. I don't want to jinx it--but both kids have been in bed every night by 8pm. Laney goes to be earlier but Crew will go down around 8. He stays in his bed if I leave the door open. He can hear me doing dishes/making dinner so I think that's why he stays in bed. We both love smaller spaces and feel safer in them! I don't think he likes being in a big 2 story house where he is so far away from us. So far we are loving the apartment living. It's a good change.(and it's not overwhelming to me to clean!) Laney sleeps in Crew's closet so they have to share a room, but it's working out well so far! I'm still in a workout slump. I know I need to eat clean and exercise but I'm just not feelin' it. I found some pretty running trails here that I do want to try out but I need a partner to keep me motivated...and I'm also not a morning person but I have to be if I am going to workout here. I can do it! I have to make myself become one.

Temporary Home

We finally made it to our home for the next few months Tuesday afternoon! We were all so happy to finally be there. The last hour or so of the trip poor Laney just cried her eyes out. She was done being in the car. It was a weird yet familiar feeling walking into our place for the first time. It was like we never left. All the apartments we have lived in have all been pretty similar I think. So this was nothing new for us! We are on the first floor this time (hallelujah) and have nicer carpet than in the past. All good things. I try really hard not to think of our little life back home on Henry Lane. (I changed the blog name...we'll see how long it lasts, needed a change.) This summer will be fun and good for us. Grateful I have these crazy, squishy kiddos to experience it with. 

Laney's face just cracked me up here. I'm thinking that her "fang" teeth will pop through first because they are really swollen and she is a grump...if that happens then I will not be posting pictures of her smiling ha ha That will look so weird and scary! Let's hope it doesn't happen.

Caught Crew crying here because I flipped when he bit my leg so hard. I didn't expect it so my reaction wasn't the best...but he sat there bawling forever with the mask on. So funny. He is so dramatic.

This summer will be fun for us. Last night we had a crazy lightening/thunderstorm and I'm growing to love those. It's fascinating to think about thunder and lighting I think. I'm totally a homebody so the summers force me to come out of my shell a bit more. It's hard to get out of the house right now since nap schedules are off and it's only been raining the whole time. Hopefully we will get out and do some fun things soon! We live by so many places here! Any food joint you name--I bet we have. We are basically in the parking lot of Walmart. So nice for me because I hate wasting time driving to my errands. That will be nice with kids. The mall is literally 1 minute away also next to Target and TjMaxx. I've made a goal to barely shop this summer...so that will be interesting. Not a big shopper anyway---but it's tempting when I'm home all day doing nothing! It's going to force me to get creative with our time, and only buy things we need. I'm wanting to spend money on experiences and not things this summer. Also-since we are home a lot, there will be lots of pictures of the kids on here just playing toys. I love catching them in their element.