We Love Our Molly

What a special little girl Molly has been, and a wonderful addition to our family. I love her more and more everyday. She's sweet, and lovable, and I just want to squeeze her. I still don't believe she's one, where did that year go?

We celebrated her birthday on Sunday and we're so glad that our family was able to help celebrate with us. We had Mark and Jordan and their family, and also Jay and Leah and their family. Elley was so excited to have a birthday party for Molly and couldn't stop talking about it. I thought she was going to explode waiting for her cousins to show up. We hadn't see our family in awhile, so this was a good excuse to get together.

A few weeks old...(look at those juicy lips)

One year old and still as juicy as ever!

Opening her gifts. She is one lucky girl. She got some pretty neat presents from her cousins. She didn't really like opening presents as much as I thought she would. I think she was a little overwhelmed with her sister who couldn't wait to get the paper off.

The cupcakes

Molly's own cake

She knew right what to do, I hadn't even set the cake down and already she has a handful of frosting in her mouth.

She figured that her hands were slowing her down and just went right in with the mouth

What a mess!!!

She ate quite a bit considering she had 2 pieces of pizza for dinner.

The party was fun.....family, pizza, presents, and cake!







The actual BIG day

Molly's actual birthday was just a normal day for us.....except for the doughnuts daddy got for breakfast!

Halloween...a few days late!

Okay, so I'm kind of a lame mom.....or maybe I just have a lame camera. This summer, while using my camera, the flash broke. Right in the middle of taking a picture I hear this pop as the flash goes off and then a little smoke. That's it.....the flash bulb popped and now I have no flash. I take it into a camera store to see if they can replace the flash....no big deal, right? Wrong! Replacing the flash will cost more than the camera is worth. Bummer! It was the summer though, and most pictures are taken outside that time of the year, and so I put it off. And I kept putting it off, and off, and off! It's now November and still no new camera. I hate buying things that cost more than a hundred dollars. Now I think I will wait until Black Friday and see what kind of deals I can get.

In the mean time, I have to be really creative when taking pictures. Mostly during the day, and with all the shades open and lights on.

Well as you all know, Halloween takes place at night. So today, while Molly was napping, I dressed Elley back up and had a little photo shoot outside. Later this evening, I put Molly's costume on but it was too dark outside. Every light was on in the house....a little blurry and dark, but you can still see how cute she is!!!

Molly hates headbands! She is giving me the evil eye with her finger all ready to rip it off. It's a miracle I got even one picture with her bow on
Isn't she a terrific poser...you'd never guess this was November 3rd.

The cutest Tinkerbell I've ever seen!!!

A is for Apple

The last time we took a trip to Kerilynn's house we took a little extra something for her whole family.....sickness! A few weeks ago we went to visit again, and decided that this trip shouldn't be any different than the time before! That's right....two trips in a row!

On the way there, Molly started to get a little fussy. When we were about half way there I felt Molly's head and she was a little warm. By the time we got to Kerilynn's she had a temp of 102.5! Anyway, to make a very long story short, I started getting sick that night and was sick the whole weekend....along with Molly. Fevers, aches, coughs, runny noses....I'm so sorry Kerilynn! We were there for 4 days and the day after we left her kids started dropping like files! The girls and I came home and continued being sick for a few more days. What a rough week that was. Well, we are all healthy now and hope that that was our hit for the winter.

One of the main purposes in making the trip to my sister's was of course to see her and the family, but also to pick some of their beautiful apples from their trees! My sister and her husband were lucky enough to build their house on property with 5 apple trees. What a blessing to go and visit her, but also to bring home enough apples to make about 20 quarts of applesauce and share with other members of my family and also some friends.

Here are a few pictures of that weekend.

Cousins showing off their caramel apples

Cousins taking a delicious bite

Elley and Briley....best buddies!

One of the apple trees

Pumpkins

I figured I better post these pictures from the pumpkin patch before November rolls around and Halloween has come and gone. A few ladies from our ward took a little "field trip" out to the farm a few weeks ago. Originally, Adam was not working that day so he could stay home with Molly. Well, he ended up working and I got to take 4 kids to the pumpkin patch. A huge thank you to all the great ladies in my ward who helped me keep track of them all.

If you're wondering who the 4 kids are....obviously Molly and Elley.....and I also watch 2 of my friends kids during the week, Ella and Ethan!!!

Moments from the High Chair

So many pictures of a baby's life are taken in it's high chair. Maybe it's because cute faces are even cuter with food on them? Maybe it's because they are so happy when they are eating? Or maybe it's because it's the only time they are holding still?

Elley being a great big sister.

Daddy gave Molly a taste of his smoothie

Noodle head. She really put the noodles on her head. This was the first time we gave her spaghetti noodles, and she didn't know what to do with them.

Trying to get some lunch in her before her nap.

Do you want to take a nap?

"No nap today momma, I'm not tired" said Elley.

Three 2 year old milestones

My little Elley is becoming such a big girl. I'm excited for all the new things she is doing. This past summer we have accomplished 3 big milestones for this big 2 year old.

For those of you that know Elley well, you know that she loved her binky. I've even posted cries for help in getting rid of that thing. Like any mom, I wanted to do the right thing and take it away at the right time...but when was that? First of all, I just want to note, that I said I would never give my kids binkies....but that was before I had them. They day Elley was born the nurse that was testing her hearing stuck a binky in her mouth and that was it! She loved it so much that we caved and she became a binky baby!

So, back to my question.......when is the right time to take away a binky? At one? After the baby comes? At two? After our vacation that requires a 7 hour car ride?

Well, one seemed too young, and I didn't want to take it away before Molly came along....in case she had a hard time adjusting to a new baby. At age 2...it was my only saving grace, and that car ride would of been a living hell without it.

So, after that 7 hour car ride this summer we decided that it was time. My niece Jordan came and stayed a week with us this summer and she had the great idea of letting her buy something with the binky. One night we went to the mall and made our regular stop into the Disney store. Of course Elley went crazy looking at all the princess stuff. She found a Sleeping Beauty make up bag with all sorts of make up, nail and hair accessories. She loved it and didn't want to put it down. That night we talked about that princess toy and how fun it would be to bring it home. I told Elley we could go to the store the next day and she could buy it with her binky. I talked to her a lot about this, explaining that she had to give the lady her binky for the toy. Elley seemed to understand and even put other binkies in the garbage. The very next day Elley asked about the princess toy and again we talked about giving the lady the binky for the toy and Elley seemed okay with it.

That night we put the binky in a baggie and took a trip down to the mall. She immediately ran to the toy she had seen the night before and said, "let's buy it momma." It was a miracle, this was really going to work. we walked up to the counter and I told the check out lady what Elley was doing, and this lady really helped with our process. She scanned the toy and then said to Elley, "that will be one binky please." Elley loved it! She handed the baggie to the lady and the lady handed her the new toy which was like a purse and needless to say, Elley carried it around the whole mall and even to church the next day.

Now I'm not going to sugar coat this whole situation and say that it worked perfect or that there we no tears later that night, because it wasn't tear free! That night, when all the excitement of the mall and the new toy was coming to an end, reality set in for this big 2 year old girl. As I was putting her to bed she asked for her binky. We then talked about her toy and how she gave her binky to the lady. I gave Elley her blanket and even let her sleep with her new toy. At one point she even told me she didn't want her new toy anymore and she just wanted her binky. It was a rough couple of nights and a lot of talking about buying the toy with that binky..... but we made it and she hasn't asked for it since.

Here are a few pictures of Elley with her binky in the baggie

Getting ready to go into the mall




Another HUGE milestone for us was potty training. This one has been a long process. It's nice to look back and have it all behind us. Don't get me wrong, she still has her accidents but it's so nice only having one girl in diapers

We "started" potty training when she turned 2. What I mean by "started" is we talked about it, got books about it, and tried sitting on the toilet. We really started getting serious about it in late spring/early summer. It was nice potty training in the summer for those days when she went #2 in her paints, we could just hose her off outside. The joys of potty training...yuck!


And now the last........A BIG GIRL BED!!! What an exciting night this was! Molly has been sleeping in a port-a-crib in our closet since she was born. There really wasn't a rush to get Elley into a bed. In fact, a friend of mine gave us a toddler bed but Elley didn't really want to sleep in it so I never pushed it. This summer I bought Elley a bed frame at a garage sale but never got a mattress. Elley wanted to set up her big girl bed but mommy and daddy kept putting off buying a mattress. Well, it was time for Molly to move upstairs so we went down to Costco and got Elley a mattress. She had so much fun putting her room together with me. She loved moving her toys around and making her new bed. I even got a little choked up just looking at her new room. After we made her bed she said to me, "okay momma, you turn off the lights and get out because I'm tired."

Here are a few pictures of her new room

I love this little girl!!!