Thursday, January 13, 2011

Okay . . . Here We Go!

I realize that we don't have any new pictures of the girls since August, which makes me feel horrible.  So, this post is going to pretty much be filled with pictures.  I am so sorry for those of you that rely on this blog to see our family grow up.  I'm honestly going to try to do better!

 
Birthday Girl


Halloween




Zoey was so excited to be in the highchair instead of her bumbo for Thanksgiving 
Enjoying a marshmellow!

Telling Santa she wants a dress for Christmas










All Zoey wanted for Christmas was to eat the wrapping paper








Saturday, January 1, 2011

New Years Resolutions

As the last hour of 2010 wanes, Amy and I were talking about some of the things we would like to work on. Losing weight (baby and holiday), updating the blog, and doing several other things we've been meaning to get to. We looked and beheld that our last posting was in August. August?!
So much has happened since then. How are we going to justify skipping that much time? I certainly can't remember all the milestones our girls have reached, or the memories we would have had if only we would have digitalized a record on the internet... I mean an entire semester (that still isn't over for me - cause I didn't finish two key assignments in Ed Psych) has come and gone in that time. Wow!
I must qualify the fact that I have been living on this computer since the semester started... although that's not unlike any other term prior to this one, except that I took way too many education credits, which are way more intensive than any others I've taken. I had what seemed like 10 projects per class, per week, for 15 weeks in a row. This, compounded by a weeklong visit from our Bostonian crew (which we love and miss and wouldn't trade spending time with for anything in the world), which gave me a valid reason to put off homework in order to hang with, another entire week spent sick in bed instead of attending class and doing regular, not to mention catch up, homework, and then the usual procrastination problem I exhibit around crunch time, it has been crazy!
Enough about me (for a while)... In about an hour, Zoey will officially be 9 months old. She has two front teeth on the bottom, and two more teeth coming in on the top, although to the outsides of the lower two. She is just an older version of the same little cutie. She can sit up (almost entirely on her own), stand up (with some help in the balance department), and loves eating any solid food you put in front of her. She has the most adoreable smile, laugh, and wiggly jiggly dance moves you've (never) seen. She doesn't like spending time on her tummy. She would rather skip the crawling phase and jump right on up to running, so she doesn't miss out on keeping up with her big sister. We've tossed nearly all the rules that we maintained with our first one out the window, since we now understand how "unfragile" babies really are. She's definitely taking her time with certain things though. We're not pushing for her to advance, just not inhibiting her progress per say.
Lily is 3+ now and has changed a lot (we think) since our last post. She says some of the most hilarious things I have ever heard, because she picks up so much of the dialogue she hears - verbatim. "Daddy you're the best in the whole world." is one of my personal favorites. When she's ticked, recently she'll mutter, "No talk about anything!" She is so sweet to her little sister AND is definitely still a pill. She has almost mastered potty training (for the millionth time) - wearing underwear to bed tonight for the first time. We ended up switching her doorknob around, so that the lock is on the outside, since she was successfully prolonging her bedtimes by as much as 2 whole hours. Amy almost bought her another crib. It was that unnerving to her! She has such an amazing imagination. While she pretends to be different princesses, a cook, a dragon or monster, and many of the typical things girls at this age do; she also loves imagining she's Joseph Smith, or other prophets from antiquity.
Amy has been going crazy with the Scentsy thing. She did her first UVU boutique this month, investing some money into stock and upgrading her presentation displays. She hasn't strayed too far off the safety leash we initially set up. It's been fairly profitable for her, not stellar, but a great investment for her! I'm just glad she's enjoying it, and the fact that she doesn't have to try to force our friends and relatives to do anything awkward or unethical, like with some businesses. She still has time to do an amazing job at all of her motherly and homemaking responsibilities, for which I am unable to adequately express thankfulness for! How she does what she does and still finds time to make me lunch or take a shower is awesome!
I am still a lump on a log. I'm unemployed, needlessly stretching this semester out for forever, coasting along with my church calling and fatherly responsibilities (or at least that's how I feel about my roles). Obviously others think I'm doing at least an okay job at managing things. I'm preparing for yet another grueling semester of school. One more insane block of classes and then student teaching in the fall and I'm done with my degree... I really hope all this schooling helps me have some clout to back up all the enthusiasm and "talent" that I've been developing over my lifespan. I'm set up to officiate in another tournament in St. George before the regular season picks up again. I've been loving this hobby job. It's been rewarding in ways I'm only beginning to see... Although I don't know why, I honestly enjoy being one of those people that everyone loves to hate, but can't get along without.
Well, that is enough writing for now. I'm trying hard to stay focused on this task at hand. There's just too much stuff to try to relate and not enough time to spill my guts before going to bed... Since the girls never sleep in past 7, and Zoey still gets up to eat several times during the night, we try to get as much sleep in when we can; so this is tonight's blog. I will sincerely try to make this a more regular habit. At least once a month. Amy said she'd try to keep the same goal, so maybe between the two of us, you may get an update every two weeks, if not more often. It's a New Year's resolution though... It might only last for a couple weeks or days for all we know... Happy 2011 to all! (Pics and more to follow shortly)...

Monday, August 30, 2010

Lately . . .

With the chaos of raising children and starting a new business I haven't found much time to blog, so I'm sorry there haven't been any updates for a while.  I actually haven't taken many pictures of the girls, which makes me feel even worse!  Here are some of the few I've managed to take the last few days:

Lily with my cousin Vanessa at her reception.  Lily was so excited to see the "princess"!
I am so in love with this chunky little baby!  She is going to be 5 months old this week and I can't believe it; time flies.

Lily is such a loving little girl
Going down the slip n' slide at our ward party; I had to just let go and let her get her clothes wet

Getting excited about facepaint

Lily and Zoey have entered into a new chapter in life; they are now sharing a bedroom.  Zoey is loving all the room she has in her new crib compared to her tiny bassinet.  We promised Lily that if she potty-trained that she would get a big girl bed, so she is now in a beautiful new toddler bed.  Lily has been so good about sharing her space with Zoey!  When they are taking naps and the baby cries, Lily will either try to comfort her or she'll just ignore her and keep sleeping.  They are definitely bonding more and I love to witness that.

Tobby is reffing soccer like crazy!  He has had a soccer tournament every week for the past couple months.  He takes such good care of our family and makes sure that he spends as much time with us as possible.  He started school again this past week and it's going to be a tough semester with all the homework that he's going to have to do, but he is very determined and I know he'll get through it with flying colors!

Like I said above, I started a new business last month as an independent consultant for Scentsy.  It's a company that makes beautiful and safe warmers that melt candle wax so you don't have to have a lit flame to have your space smell great.  If you want to check out the product you can go to my website at http://www.amyharward.scentsy.us/.  I've used them for the past couple years and love them, so I decided to try my hand at selling them.  So far, it's been really fun!  The best part is that I get to work, but still stay at home!

It's been a little crazy busy around here, but it's also been a ton of fun to experience all these new and unknown adventures as a family.  And I wouldn't trade that for anything! 

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Patriotism

I don't have much time to blog, but I need to share some cute 4th of July pictures. We always enjoy dressing up patriotically and going to the parade. This year was especially nice as the space was already saved for us, (thanks Scott and Sherry), so we just showed up, sat down, and watched. God bless America!


This is the face Lily makes when we ask her to pose for a picture

Ahh . . . that's better!


The Parade:




This is the only family picture we could manage to get . . . at least the parents are still smiling!


Sunday, June 13, 2010

What a Blessing

Today we blessed our dear, little Zoey. It's days like today that make me remember how thankful I am to be a mother to two beautiful and lively girls. My absolute favorite part of the day was after Zoey was blessed. She came back to hang out with me and Lily proceded to make Zoey's arm move in a "horray" motion and said, "Good job, Zoey. You did it! You get blessed!" Then as she held up her sister's arm with one hand she gave her a little high five with the other hand. It was hilarious! Lily is such a good big sister and still wants to smother her sister with kisses every time she sees her. She seems to be adjusting back to normal behavior after the shock of the baby's arrival. Zoey is now sleeping through the night, which makes me want to cry with joy. She is so happy and really only cries when she's hungry or tired. Even though by the end of the day I am exhausted and usually have spit up on me in one place or another, I am so thankful that I am able to stay home and help my girls learn and grow.


Recent pictures of the girls:





Blessing day picutres:




Monday, April 19, 2010

Newly-Trained Thumb Sucker

Not only is Lily obsessed with sucking her thumb, but she's trying to get Zoey hooked too. Silly girl!

It was so funny to see how excited Lily was to share something she loves so much with her younger sister.

Hair Tales

Lily's hair has been looking a little shaby as of late, but we've been waiting to cut it until she grew more hair on the sides of her head and not just the back. Last week her hair transformed from . . .


mullet, to . . .

marvelous!


She looks so grown up now!