the Jorgensens

Invasion of the Budges: Part 2 - The 6 pound milkshake challenge

2011-10-01T17:30:00.000-07:00

Stephane deserves a post all his own. Chick and Ruth's Diner was featured on the show 'Man vs. Food." How he managed to eat, in an hour, a pound hamburger and then fit 6 pounds of creamy, peanut buttery milkshake into a stomach that is supposed to be the size of his fist is beyond me. Yet, he did it. He got a T-shirt and his picture on the wall. Here is a picture story of the feat.

Doesn't look so bad.

Second thoughts?

Scarfing the hamburger down.

Tasting the milkshake for the first time.

Almost done with the hamburger.

Feeling full already?

Suddenly the milkshake seems 10 times bigger.

Gulpity-gulp-gulp-gulp.

He finished half pretty quickly.

Hazel was looking cute as always.

Two thirds done and he had to start standing to make more room.

Meanwhile, William was eating every pickle in the restaurant.

And, Meagan decided to attempt drinking a 6 pound milkshake herself.

Sipping slowly.

And, the rest of us decided to share a single 6 pounder. We're smart.

It was so good and we enjoyed it more because we weren't trying to fit the whole thing into a single belly.

So close, yet so far.

Mina liked our milkshake.

The glass is almost as tall as she is.

Meagan is about ready to give up. She got cold.

The empty cup.

Our waitress poured the last little bit into a regular cup to make it seem more doable.

William is still going strong.

Still going.

Back to those pickles.

Back to the milkshake. I really think this kid could have done it on his own.

The face of a champion.

Dalia at 6 months

2011-09-30T20:44:00.000-07:00

Dalia continues to be an angel of a baby. Seriously, she is the type of baby that makes you want to have more right away. She is so sweet and so good. She can't help but smile at anyone who smiles or talks to her. When she is mad, she can't help but smile if you smile at her. She just can't help it. She has the sweetest spirit. She is taking after Mina as far as sleeping goes, too. She is a GREAT sleeper. She and Mina go to bed about the same time each night and despite waking up to eat during the night, she sleeps as late as Mina, as well. I am so blessed to have such good sleepers. (And for all of those who told me to not expect to have another good sleeper, what now?) Haha. Dalia has been rolling over for a while now. She sits up with a little support. I'm surprised she isn't at least army crawling by now. When she's sleeping she moves all over the place. She's been eating rice cereal and oatmeal consistently since 5 months. So far that is all that she likes. We've offered her peas, bananas and apples and she spits them all right out. She practically inhales the cereal, though. She loves to look in the mirror at herself and to sit in her bumbo and play with toys. She grabs at anything that looks interesting and wants to chew on everything. She's been teething for a while, but no teeth have made any appearances yet. She adores Mina and loves little kids. Mina loves Dalia, too. She loves to make her laugh and it's so much fun seeing her copy the things we do with Dalia. She is so good when we go anywhere. She rarely fusses when we are out running errands and such. At 4 1/2 months old, she weighed just over 19 pounds and was 26.5 inches long. She is literally off the charts.

3 months

4 months.

5 months.

(6 month picture to come.)

We are in love with Dalia and that love grows everyday. We are blessed to have two beautiful and wonderful little girls.

Invasion of the Budges - Part 1

2011-09-30T20:15:00.000-07:00

The Budges decided to take their family vacation this year to Maryland! They stayed with us for 2 weeks and we had a blast. We didn't do too much that first weekend they were here. We made some air rockets and did some crafts with the kids. On Labor day we headed to a local beach. It was a nice day and the beach was not crowded. Despite the water being a tad cold and a few gusts of wind that almost blew our tent away, we had a lovely afternoon.
Tuesday we headed to Washington D.C. for the day. It was a little wet that day, but not wet enough to make it miserable. We stayed cool and avoided crowds by being out there on a not so pretty day. We walked by the Capitol building, the library and lots of other buildings. We visited the Air and Space museum and the Natural History museum. We rode the MARC train into the city and were also able to take a short ride on the Metro. The kids loved riding on the trains.
Wednesday the Budges headed up to Philadelphia for the day while Mina and I headed to do some arts and crafts. Mina created some beautiful paintings. They were supposed to use straws to blow paint around on some paper, but Mina was having trouble with that. So, I told her to use her hands. She got really excited, but wasn't sure she heard me correctly and asked, "you want me to use my hands?" She asked a couple of times before she actually did, but she was thrilled to be painting with her hands.
Thursday we didn't have big plans and hung out at the house until Dru got up. Once he was up, we all went to the bowling alley for dollar Thursdays. Everything is a dollar. Even the food! It was fun!
Friday, we headed back into D.C. We walked around the monuments and took some pictures. We also visited the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and the National Archives. The sun was shining full force that day which made the city a bit more crowded and us a bit more hot. We were beat when we got home.
Saturday we went to the Maryland Renaissance Festival. The kids got to go on pony rides, a really cool slide and we all got to watch a very entertaining juggling show. We also got to eat some very tasty, but very unhealthy food.
Sunday we stayed home and called all the grandparents for Grandparent's day. Monday we headed to Annopolis to eat at Chick and Ruth's. If you've every watched "Man vs. Food" you'll understand why. Stephane wanted to attempt the challenge of eating a pound hamburger and drink a 6 pound milkshake. He totally did it! Meagan attempted to drink a 6 pound milkshake herself, but couldn't quite do it. All of us, including the kids had fun drinking so much milkshake.
Tuesday was William's birthday. We went to Romp-n-Stomp, out to lunch and then the Budges took Mina with them to a petting farm in a town nearby. They all had so much fun. I was sad to have not gone with Mina, but I know she had so much fun with her cousin. I had to go to scouts that night, but when I got back we had birthday cake and sang to William.
Wednesday the Budges went to Mount Vernon and Arlington National Cemetery. I took my girls to arts and crafts again (by the way, Mina refers to it as 'arps and craps') where Mina got to use scissors for the first time. When the Budges got back we all went to dinner and came home to pack up. They left the next morning.
All in all, it was a wonderful visit and we wish it could have lasted longer. We made lots of treats to eat, made our favorite meals and watched a lot of the show, '24.' Meagan and I made bows and took some cute pictures of our kids.

Capital Building

National Library

Hope Diamond. I want this.

Dalia in the butterfly garden.

Mina in the butterfly garden.

On the MARC train.

I would like this, too.

Washington Monument. We weren't allowed to walk up to it because of damage caused by the recent earthquake.

The first thing we did at the Renaissance Festival was the pony rides.

William was a little scared.

Mina was a pro.

The really long, fast, bumpy slide.

I made Dru and Mina go twice because I fogot to take pictures.

Watching the juggling show.

Mina juggling the gatorade bottle lid. Haha.

Tahdah!

Mina and her best friend, Teresa.

Meagan's normal face.

The light is hitting my face in a weird way.

Mina eating an Italian ice in an orange after throwing hay everywhere.

She was such a mess!

Playdates

2011-08-20T10:35:00.000-07:00

Mina has had lots of fun play dates this summer. We got her a little blow up pool to play with in the backyard and it has proved to be tons of fun. She has had lots of her little friends over to play with her.

Regi comes over quite a bit. They love to play with each other and get so excited to see one another. This particular day we were babysitting Regi and we blew some bubbles out back and then got Mina's little sprinkler mat out. Regi was a little hesitant at first, but once he got used to it, he had a blast. It was fun to watch them try to drink the water. We ended the fun out there with some pop-sicles.

(If you click on the group of pictures it will give you a bigger view.)

On another occasion, we had Jaiden and Theresa over to play in Mina's pool. These 3 girls are so funny to watch play together. At one point they all started chasing each other for a particular toy. Jaiden brought some watermelon to share and they all had a great time!

On another day, Emma and Mary came to play. These girls are so sweet and Mina had a ton of fun playing with them. It's so funny how much kids copy one another.

Sisters?

2011-06-13T09:17:00.005-07:00

I kept looking at this picture of Dalia thinking it was an old picture of Mina. So, I found that old picture of Mina so I could compare them. They sure do look like sisters, don't they?

Dalia

2011-06-10T18:09:00.001-07:00

Minutes old.

5 days old.

1 month old.

2 months old.

2 months and 1 day old.

Dalia is SUCH A GOOD BABY! Pretty much from day 1 she has been a good sleeper. Last week we decided to give sleep training a try. Now, I know I just said she was a good sleeper from day one. The only thing was that she had to be completely conked out before we could lay her down, otherwise we had to hold her or have her in the bed with us. That was fine with me because I was still getting sleep. I wanted her to start sleeping in her own bed, though and to be able to lay down without being in a deep sleep already. So, after making sure she was fed, burped and dry and half asleep, we laid her in her bassinet. It took about 45 minutes of crying on and off and me going in a couple of times to help soothe her before she fell asleep the first night. She slept for between 4 and 5 hours before waking up to eat. She then went back to sleep for another few hours in her bed on her own. The next night took less than a half hour and the night after she didn't cry at all. Now we can lay her down whether she's completely out or on her way and she sleeps for 6 hours before waking up to eat at night. Then, she sleeps for another 3 hours and then I just put her in bed with me for another couple of hours and wait for Mina to wake up. Mina went through a little phase of waking up around 6 for a couple of weeks. It was annoying, but luckily Dru was really helpful with that. We found out she was cutting 2 of her 2 year molars and now that they've cut through, she is back to sleeping in until between 9 and 10.

Dalia smiled for the first time at me while awake at 2 weeks old. It melted my heart. From that day on she has smiled more and more each day. Now, she sits and stares at me while she nurses and waits for me to look at her. As soon as I do, she stops what she is doing and just smiles. It's adorable. She rolled over right at 2 months old from her tummy to her back. She has come close to doing it several more times. She loves going places and riding in her carrier with me. Normally she just falls asleep in it, but lately she has become so much more interested in the world around her and just looks around for as long as she can until she falls asleep.

We love Dalia so much. It's amazing that you can love yet another little person just as much as you loved the first. Our little family is just as happy as can be.

Dalia's blessing day

2011-05-10T10:34:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, May 8th we were able to bless our little Dalia. It was really nice to have some family there and especially to have another family member, Mikey, be able to stand in the circle. The Roberson's attended as well and that really meant a lot to us. It was a special day and a beautiful blessing. Dalia, just like Mina, wore my blessing dress that my grandma Tuttle made for me.

She even smiled for me!

Okay, so it is so incredibly hard to get Mina to cooperate for a photo. The one time she does, I look retarded.

Just a couple of cute pictures. Mina likes to sit in and play with her old toys. I thought it was hilarious!

Busch Gardens

2011-05-09T19:23:00.000-07:00

On May 7th we drove down to Busch Gardens in Virginia to spend the day there with Harlow and Sam. We had so much fun. Mina had a blast riding whichever rides she was allowed and all in all, Dalia was a doll. Only towards the end of the day did she get really fussy, which was totally understandable.

We all took turns sticking our heads through this hole. That sounds weird. But, we had fun.

Dru

Mina

Dalia

Amy

Aaron

Harlow

Sam

Mikey

Lanie

Mina's 2nd birthday

2011-05-07T19:06:00.000-07:00

Mina turned 2 on May 5th. I just can't believe 2 years have gone by already. I made Mina chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast on her birthday. They're her favorite. We pretty much let her do whatever she wanted that day and we ended the day off with ice cream. Later that night Mike and Alayne arrived with their baby, Aaron, and we were able to have a little party for her the next night. The Roberson's came over, along with Sean's mom and step-dad. Mina was such a hoot as we sang happy birthday to her. She got really shy at first, but soon realized it was more fun to cheer and scream, "yaaaayyyy," while waving her hands in the air. She had fun eating the m&m's off of the cake. We all enjoyed some homemade pizza and some Pictionary after she went to bed. Sean and Becca got her some crayons, bubbles and dry erase crayons as a gift. Mina has had fun with those.

Welcome, Dalia!

2011-05-05T09:17:00.000-07:00

Little Dalia Mei. She looks so much like Mina did as a newborn.

She has a great set of lungs.

So beautiful!

Finally calming down a bit.

I know I'm behind on posts, but what else is new? I want to blog about Dalia's birth before I forget anything interesting or important.

So, this whole pregnancy, I was told by my doctor that I would probably deliver a few days early and that my baby would not be a big baby. This pregnancy went by very quickly and I didn't have any problems. My back hurt a little more than it did with Mina, but I blame that on Mina. Chasing and cleaning up after a toddler constantly would make anybody's back hurt. Basically, there's nothing interesting about the pregnancy. 2 weeks before my due date I was dilated 2 centimeters and 30 % effaced. Judging by that, I thought it would go a little how Mina's birth went, meaning I would have her that night. With Mina, at my doctors appointment on my due date, I was 1 centimeter dilated, but no effacement. I went into labor that night with her and she was born the next morning. But, no luck with Dalia. At the appointment a week later, I was 3 centimeters and 50 % effaced. I thought for sure it would happen soon. Nope. I scheduled an appointment for a week later which would have been 5 days past the due date. That entire week was spent at the mall, the park, cleaning and chasing Mina around the house. Which just goes to show, babies will come when they are ready. There's nothing you can do to hurry it along. Nothing happened and nothing happened. Thursday morning, April 7th, 4 days past due, was different, though. When I woke up at 10:30 (my mom was here to entertain Mina) I started having mild, not painful, contractions. But, they were consistent and they gradually became more frequent and painful in the next few hours. I warned Dru who was sleeping because he works from 7 at night to 7 in the morning. Sure enough, around 2 pm they were getting to where I had to stop whatever I was doing during each contraction. I started timing them with a nifty iPod app. They were consistently 2-3 minutes apart and lasted an average of a minute each. They were still growing on the pain scale. At 3:30 I made Dru call the nurse to see if I should go in (I knew I should). She said to head on over to the hospital. We arrived around 4 and had to check in and fill out some paperwork. We finally made it to the delivery room (I had to stop every 2 minutes for a minute while I had each contraction so it took a little while). I laid down on the delivery bed around 5 and the contractions were still getting more painful with each one. The doctor came to check me a little while later and I was fully effaced and dilated to 6 centimeters. I asked for an epidural probably a little before 6 pm and I was given a spinal block in addition to the epidural. The spinal felt wonderful almost immediately, however it wore off after about 15 minutes and the epidural hadn't made its way all the way up yet. So, once again, I was in tons of pain. The nurse decided to check my progress again since the contractions were so frequent and intense and sure enough I was fully dilated and ready to push. They called the doctor who wasn't the doctor I had seen the entire pregnancy, but it was okay because she was really nice. Anyways, 3 pushes later at 6:35 pm Dalia was out of there and crying. I think because she came out so fast and ended up being 9 pounds 4 ounces huge, I tore a bit, so I had to deal with stitches again. Grr. Oh well. So my doctor was wrong about her being early and wrong about her being an average sized baby. Haha. Not that either is really all that predictable. At least it was a very fast labor and delivery.

We stayed in the hospital until Saturday morning. Mina and my mom didn't get to come until Friday morning because visiting hours were over at 8 which is also Mina's bedtime. It was nice to actually have Dru with me the entire time this time, too. And, Dru got to bring us home from the hospital. He didn't with Mina. I don't want to talk much about the hospital stay because while everyone was genuinely nice, I was annoyed the entire time. Every 5 minutes it seemed as if someone was knocking on the door wanting to take my temperature, give me medicine, take pictures, take the baby, bring the baby back, make sure I knew how to nurse and on and on. I didn't get any rest and I couldn't wait to get home.

Once we got home, Dalia proved to be a good eater and a good sleeper. She still is and there's only been one day that I've been exhausted enough to get a throbbing headache. Mina is excited to have a little sister and is sometimes a little too sweet and helpful. She's learning, though.

Anyways, that's our laboring story.

Grandma came to visit!

I look lovely. I know. Don't be jealous.

Mina found some buttons to push and ended up disabling all the controls on the bed.

Love at first sight!

Mina is such a sweet big sister.

We are a happy family!

Dalia's first bath

2011-04-26T09:17:00.000-07:00

Dalia's umbilical cord stump fell off after 6 days. However, it was still kind of bloody for about a week after that. Once it was fully healed we gave her her first real bath. Of course, Mina wanted in on the fun, so she sat in the tub on the outside of the baby tub. Mina loved taking baths when she was little, but Dalia didn't like it quite as much. Dalia hates being cold at all, so having her clothes off and being wet didn't settle well with her. But, once we got the warm water flowing on her and a washrag to help cover her up, she quite enjoyed it. Then, when we took her out, she got a little upset again until we got her clothes back on. Mina decided to jump in the baby bath after Dalia got out, too. She calls it her boat.

Pregnancy progression with Dalia

2011-04-25T19:31:00.000-07:00

Here's a look at my growing tummy during the 9 months Dalia lived in it.

15 weeks

20 weeks

28 weeks

29.5 weeks

35 weeks

36 weeks

39.5 weeks

Easter

2011-04-24T10:34:00.000-07:00

The week before Easter, while my mom was still here, our neighborhood hosted a little Easter egg hunt. It was supposed to be held outside on a big lawn, but it rained. So, they moved the whole thing indoors and it became a madhouse. We got there early, so that we could be first in line, but there were already so many people there. Luckily they had several different egg hunts for different age group. Mina was in the youngest age group and that group went first. They covered the floor in a tiny gym with fake grass and laid out hundreds of eggs. On the count of 3, about 50 or so toddlers ran out to collect all the eggs. Mina had a blast and got so many eggs. The whole hunt took about 5 minutes or less. Haha. Each egg had a little prize in it. The prizes were things like stickers, candy, yoyos and other little toys. Mina didn't care about the toys. She emptied them out when we got home and just played with the eggs. Silly girl.

The next weekend was Easter. My mom had gotten a few things to put in an Easter basket for Mina and she enjoyed everything. She looked so beautiful in her Easter dress, too. Dalia slept all through church. What a good little baby. I love my little girls and I love Dru. I wanted to get at least one good picture of each the girls. Dalia, of course, cooperated. Mina, on the other hand, refused to look at the camera and smile for me. She eventually looked at me and smiled and, although, it's not her best smile, I got one!

Dru's birthday

2011-04-17T10:34:00.000-07:00

Dru turned 27 on April 16th. Wow. 3 more years until 30. Haha. He got an iPad 2 and he loves it. I probably should have thought a little more before agreeing he could get one. He loves it a little too much. Oh well. I love to see him enjoy things. We had a few friends over to help celebrate and even had an ice cream cake from Friendly's, which my mom loved and hadn't had one in years. We played some Pictionary and had a fun, fun night. Dru ordered his cake himself and specifically had them do this to it. People spell his name wrong all the time. Haha.

Dru spent a little time cuddling with Dalia on his birthday:

The day before Dru's birthday, we were able to take a little trip to the Washington D.C. temple to see our friend Luke Skiff after he was sealed to his bride, Sallie! Dalia was 8 days old and I was still in recovery from her birth, but we all did very well. It was wonderful to spend a little time at the temple, even if it was just on the grounds and the visitor center. I loved watching Mina enjoy looking at the flowers and I loved that Dalia slept almost the whole time. It was great to see Luke and I'm glad I had my mom there, too. It was just a beautiful day.

New house

2011-03-26T10:33:00.000-07:00

A few weeks after returning home from our trip to Texas, we were able to move into a bigger house. March 17th was the lucky day we got the keys. We were very excited to move in, but being 8 1/2 months pregnant presented a bit of a challenge. I couldn't lift much, but luckily we didn't completely unpack when we first moved in AND Dru is AMAZING. When we have a task at hand Dru works so hard. We weren't able to get a hold of many moving boxes, so we would pack up the few boxes we had and Dru would load them into our little trailer and haul them to the new house. I don't even know how many trips he made by himself. All I know is I am so grateful for a husband who is so strong and hardworking. We had 5 days where we had the keys to both houses. The first couple of days were spent with Dru hauling things over by himself. I would go over occasionally to put things away so we could bring boxes back to unpack. On the third day, we rented a UHaul and had several able bodied men come help haul the big furniture over. What a blessing those guys were. Then the next day Dru made more trips by himself and on the last day we cleaned and cleaned. Of course, after that we spent the next week or so unpacking and setting up the new house in preparation for Dalia's arrival. We love our new, roomier house and only wish the housing people here would have just saved us this trouble by letting us move into a 3 bedroom when we got here. We begged them and promised we would be having our next child soon, but no luck. Oh well. We're happy now. This house has 2 1/2 bathrooms, 3 bedrooms, 2 huge storage closets, laundry room and garage. We love it.

Here's our new house!

Looking in the front door.

Living room.

Another view of the living room.

Dining room.

Computer/piano room.

Kitchen.

Mina's room.

Baby/guest bedroom.

Mina 22 months

2011-03-10T15:55:00.000-08:00

Here are a few little facts about Mina at 22 months:

She can recognize all of the letters of the alphabet in uppercase. We're working on the lowercase letters. She's obsessed with letters and anywhere she sees them, she points them out and names them. My favorite is when we walk down the hall at church and we walk by the cabinets that are all labeled with a letter. She doesn't know how to talk quietly most of the time, so she loudly names each letter on the cabinets as we walk by them.
She LOVES to jump. She is always wanting to jump down the stairs and jumping over anything in her way.
She loves to line things up. She lines up her blocks, magnetic letters, crayons, marbles, any random items, pretty much just anything there is multiple of. She is very particular, too. There can't be any space in between the items.
She loves to stack blocks. She also loves to stack cans in the kitchen.
She loves to count. Recently she has started counting to 7 in English and then switches to Spanish for 8-10. It's really funny. That's as far as she can get in order. After that she says random numbers in the teens that she knows or just starts over.
She talks all the time. A lot of the time, she rambles on and on not making sense until the very last word. That's what we really have to pay attention to in order to get any idea as to what she is talking about. She has started to string more and more words together to form simple sentences and she has started to describe things, like she'll refer to her Dora hat or the yellow stickers.
She does speak with the typical toddler Boston accent.
She really likes to be funny and when she thinks she is funny or something else is funny she will say, "it's so funny!"
She thinks it's funny when she farts and when she does, she'll say, "it's a fart," and then laugh.
She likes to change her stuffed animals' diapers.
She is a whiz on the iPod. She loves to play puzzles on them and to watch videos of Dora and Elmo. She usually doesn't need any help from us at all.
She can, and generally will, repeat anything we say so we have to be careful. My favorite new word she has started to use is "gross." But, she pronounces it, "GA-ROSS!"
She's obsessed with buckling things like seat belts and her high chair belts. She'll do it over and over and over again. And, she has to do it herself. We are not allowed to help her.
She weighs 30 pounds and is almost 35 inches tall. She hasn't gained any weight since she was 18 months old, but has grown taller.
She loves yogurt, but refers to it as "hoagie," and asks for it everyday.
She loves anything with cheese, but her favorite meal is spaghetti.
She goes to bed at 8 every night without a fuss. She wakes up around 9 each morning. Sometimes a little earlier and sometimes a little later. She takes a 2-3 hour nap each afternoon as well.
She LOVES our friend, Jesse, and kind of forgets about us anytime he's around.
Dora is her absolute favorite.
She's all around a GREAT kid and can keep herself entertained for long periods of time as long as she knows where we are. It enables us to get things done when we need to.
She loves to learn and to do things on her own.
She rarely has meltdowns and when she does, they don't last long.
She likes to help with chores, like dishes and laundry. She will help pick up her toys, but is very, very slow and usually ends up getting distracted and playing with the toys.
She loves animals, especially dogs. She recently decided that dogs are horses and tries to ride them. It's funny.
She has a wild imagination.
She has huge feet! Footie pajamas that fit her body just fine are way to small for her feet. Her big toes end up poking holes in the ends. She's just about to outgrow size 6 shoes.

Playing a game on the iPod before church...

Singing and playing the piano.

Her attempt to smile when I asked her.

I think she was singing.

She decided to get up and twirl.

And twirl some more.

And a little more!

Drawing on her magnadoodle.

Putting on a bracelet. She really likes bracelets, but not so much to wear. She likes to put them on and take them off over and over again.

Probably watching an Elmo video.

She loves any chance to brush her teeth and she'll even ask to on occasion.

Haha, she was watching something on the iPod as she brushed her teeth.

She looks so cute in this outfit!

After church looking adorable.

Eating a snack.

Trying to get her to look cute and smile.

Almost!

She just can't help it. She is the offspring of Dru!

Jump for Fun

2011-02-21T09:43:00.000-08:00

Like I said in the previous post, Mina got to go to Jump for Fun on a couple of occasions and had a blast. Here are some pictures of her enjoying that place.

On our way to Jump for Fun. They were so cute in the car together holding hands. Sometimes Mina was a turd, though, and would push William's hand away. Usually it was because she was tired.

Aunt Meagan helped Mina go down all of the slides. I was a little too pregnant at that point. Haha. Meagan was a trooper. William was scared for most of the time we were there but he eventually warmed up and had fun.

The next time we went, Dru was able to come. Boy did those two have fun. Aunt Lanie came, too, and had fun enjoying helping Mina on the rides. Towards the end of our time there, Mina got so tired, but still wanted to slide, but she made Dru carry her all the way up each one. Haha.

February in Texas

2011-02-20T10:32:00.000-08:00

I feel like right after we got back from our Christmas vacation in Texas we were back to Texas again. Dru had to go do some more training in San Angelo for a few weeks, and rather than spend those few weeks alone with Mina in Maryland, we flew back. We surprised my mom and flew in on her birthday on January 25. She had no idea we were coming. So, right away we got busy planning my mom and my aunt Janeals surprise 50th birthday party. We had also sent them to Medieval Times to celebrate. Anyways, tons of people showed up to their party. It was made to be like a funeral. We shared memories, had pictures and flowers and even an obituary. The twins were very surprised.

We got to see a lot of this little guy while we were there. Mina and William are best friends and they have so much fun with each other. They love to give each other hugs and kisses and to play ring around the rosies.

We also got to see a little bit of this little bundle of cuteness. Aaron was still pretty young and slept a lot, but it's so fun to see him smile and show off his sparkling blue eyes!

Mina, of course enjoyed hanging out with daddy when he came home on the weekends. They truly are two peas in a pod.

On February 4th, Whitlee had her baby, Jasmine Victoria. She weighed 9 pounds 4 ounces and was 21 inches long. She is such a cutie and I'm so glad we got to be there when she was born.

We got to spend lots of time with family, but unfortunately, a huge snow/ice storm hit one week and we were stuck in the house. The roads were completely frozen over and the temperature didn't get above freezing for a few days. I happened to be at Meagan's house with Mina on the first night of the storm and we did brave the road for the short drive to my parents' house. It took about 45 minutes to make a trip that would normally take about 5. Haha. So, we all stayed at my parents' house until everything melted up. We had lots of fires in the fireplace and played a lot of Farkle. It was fun, but I was glad to get out of the house when it finally melted. I was upset about it because Alayne, Dru's sister, and her baby Aaron were visiting at his parents' house that week and so the time I was able to spend with them was cut very short.

Dru was able to come home on the weekends that we were there, which was wonderful. I hate being away from him and he really enjoys any chance he can see his family, as well.

Meagan and I took William and Mina to Jump for Fun. Kids under 2 get in free so it was a super fun play date for them and it didn't cost a thing. Pictures will be on the next post. We also took them to the Cheesecake Factory afterwards. That was more for Meagan and me, but they enjoyed the food as much as we did. The next weekend that Dru came home, we were able to go to Jump for Fun again. Dru hadn't been able to come with us the few times we've gone before. He and Mina and Alayne had a blast! It was so fun to watch Dru with Mina, too. He's such a fun dad.

Whitlee was such a happy new mom and Josh was glad to have a tv to watch the super bowl while at the hospital. Haha. Mina slept through our entire visit in the hospital.

We wanted to do a little photo shoot of Jasmine before we had to leave. It was a little difficult with William and Mina. They kept tearing our back drop down. Haha. Mina eventually got William all wrapped up in the sheet. It was really funny. But we did get some cute pictures of little Jasmine.

Well, half of our February was spent in Texas with family. It was a blast being able to spend so much time down there, but it's always good to get back to our own home and back into our routine.

My birthday 2011

2011-01-24T09:17:00.000-08:00

We weren't home from our Christmas vacation in Texas very long before we headed back down there, but we were there long enough to celebrate my 26th birthday. We had a few friends over for pizza and ice cream cake and we played some games. Dru bought me flowers for the first time in our knowing each other. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see all of them bloom before we had to leave to go to Texas.

Christmas 2010

2011-01-04T07:20:00.000-08:00

We left Maryland December 15th in our little car to head to Texas for a couple of weeks. We wanted to make the 22 hour drive without stopping, so we invested in a little DVD player for the car to help keep Mina entertained. It worked. Besides a couple of times where Mina was extremely tired and whiny, she was good the entire way! All I had to do to help her relax and fall asleep was reach back to her and rub her little leg. There were no diaper blowouts or leaks. I did regulate how much liquid she could have in between each gas stop, though. We ended up making the trip in about 21 hours. We stopped by the Jorgensens' house to visit for a few hours and then headed to my parents' house to unpack the car and get a little rest. We were pretty darn tired. It's always so nice to be able to go back to Texas and be so close to both families. But, it's also stressful at the same time. It's hard to pack up every day or so to go the other family's house. It's a lot of work, but it's worth it to see everybody. With that said, I can't say it was a relaxing 2 weeks, but it definitely was a lot of fun. We were able to get all of our Christmas shopping done the first week we were there. We spent Christmas Eve at the Duncan home, as well as Christmas morning.

Everybody got their traditional matching pajamas on Christmas Eve and we also gave William and Mina each an early present. Giant Cookie Monster and Elmo pillows.

Uncle Stephane had fun playing with Mina.

She was laughing and smiling like crazy.

William thinks it's cool to put tape on his face. We all think it's pretty cute.

Of course they needed to play with some bubbles before bed.

What is it about bubbles?

They're just so fun!

Grandpa Duncan just had surgery on his neck so he had to wear this neck brace most of the time.

Mina had a blast opening presents and really loved the Sesame Street wrapping paper my mom wrapped her and William's presents in. (a few days before, Mina unwrapped one of William's presents just because she wanted the wrapping paper.) We had a yummy lunch consisting of my mom's DELICIOUS ham!

Mina was very excited to see everything Christmas morning.

She did a great job unwrapping all of her gifts.

She finally got a toy car with moving wheels!

She was so excited!

What's this?

Elmo! I think she thought it was supposed to talk or make some kind of noise. But, she loves Elmo either way.

Finally some black dress shoes that fit!

I think she was about to play with the dogs.

She's got the tennis ball ready to throw!

Playing with her car again. She loves it!

She's still obsessed with the alphabet so this book was a big hit!

Dru got a foot massager!

And a robe! Now he doesn't have to run outside in his underwear. Lol.

Christmas afternoon we packed up and headed to the Easter's home (Dru's aunt and uncle) for a DELICIOUS Christmas dinner. Dru's aunt is a professional caterer. She catered our wedding, so I am excited anytime we get a chance to eat at her home. I ate way too much. We also had a white elephant gift exchange which was themed "a big Texas Christmas." Dru's mom was so kind to do some switching around when we got home and let us take the yummy Almond Roca's, chocolate and pear cider she stole from me at one point. Haha.

We then went to the Jorgensen house where we spent the night and would finish the Christmas festivities the next evening when the Mealeys arrived. Sunday evening, we had dinner, celebrated our niece Angel's birthday with a cake and a few gifts and then we had the traditional Jorgensen talent program and gift exchange. Mina had already gone to bed, so she opened her gifts the next morning. The highlight for me was surprising Dru with an hour and a half full body massage. Well, when it was my turn to open gifts, Marina had surprised me, by turning Dru's massage into a couple's massage so I could go with him and get a pregnancy massage! They were scheduled for the next morning and it was WONDERFUL!!!

Mina once again enjoyed opening gifts and has enjoyed everything she received. However, aunt Marina got her a little Dora fleece blanket that she absolutely loves. She takes it to bed every night and can't leave her room without it in the morning.

The Dora blanket was one of the first presents she opened. She loves it!

She had to try it on.

In between opening the other presents, she would lay out the Dora blanket and admire it.

Oooh! A book! She still loves books!

And a cool light up toy!

The rest of our time there was spent seeing friends and family and making the most of our time. We were able to meet our newest nephew, Aaron Michael Mealey, and boy is he a cutie! We got to see Whitlee's ginormous belly. We spent time with the Bartels, the Reinhards, the Berrymans and we got to see a ton of friends when we threw Whitlee's baby shower, which turned out very nicely.

We dreaded the day we'd have to pack the car back up and make the LONG drive back home. Luckily, we were able to convince Dru's brother, Harlow to help drive back and we would fly him home. My back was bugging me and I had come down with a cold on New Year's Eve so I was incredibly grateful I didn't have to do any of the driving home. Once again, we made the trip in under 21 hours and we were so glad to be back in our own home and on our own schedule. Dru took Harlow out to explore D.C. a little bit before he flew home the next day.

Larsey enjoyed lounging in Mina's Elmo chair. Mina loves Larsey so she didn't mind at all.

Whenever Grandpa took a break from his neck brace, Mina promptly decided it was her hat! Hilarious!

We made cookies for Uncle Harlow while he was here and Mina made sure to test them out first.

She decided they were delicious.

And very satisfying!

Making sugar cookies

2010-12-18T13:31:00.000-08:00

I was really craving sugar cookies after church one Sunday and I had recently bought some Christmas themed cookie cutters. So, while Mina was napping I made up some dough and put it in the fridge to chill. After she got up I rolled some dough out and summoned Mina to come help me cute the cookies out. She thought it was pretty cool and was a very good help. That is, until she discovered the cookie dough was edible and it tasted really good. I couldn't stop her from sneaking pieces to eat after that. Haha. She took a little break to play some learning games on the ipod as they baked and then enjoyed the cooked cookies just as much as the dough. (Please excuse how unattractive I look in these photos. Just look at Mina. She's the cute one.)

Christmas parties

2010-12-17T13:09:00.000-08:00

Our neighborhood office is really good at throwing parties for the residents. We wish they were as enthusiastic about helping us out regarding living arrangements as they are about throwing parties, but oh well. They threw a wonderful holiday party early in December complete with horse drawn carriage rides. Mina really loves animals so she was thrilled to see the horses stroll on by. She was also thrilled to see the fire trucks pass by. In fact, she kept trying to run into the street after them. Dru had to continually run after her to bring her back to the sidewalk. We got to ride in one of the carriages and it was pretty neat. Mina actually sat still for the ride. Then we made our way inside to the kid craft room and Mina made a Santa Claus slap bracelet. She really loved it and didn't ever try to take it off. She actually kept giving Santa kisses. We drank hot chocolate, ate hot dogs and cookies and chatted with a few friends. Santa Claus was there for children to visit and have pictures taken with, but the line was ridiculously long. Luckily the next weekend was the ward party and Santa would be making an appearance there as well. It was really cold and windy so we ended up not staying for very long, but we enjoyed our time there.

The next weekend we got up early to attend our ward's Christmas party. It started at 8:30 in the morning. Mina sleeps until 9 or later most days, so we had to wake her up to go. We all went in our pajamas. We started the party off by decorating sugar cookies. Mina just wanted to eat the decorations, but Dru helped her to get the idea of what to do. Her cookies turned out pretty cute. We then made some paper snowflakes, ate breakfast and then waited in line to see Santa. The night before we had gone to Bass Pro Shop where they were doing free pictures with Santa. We thought Mina was going to enjoy it, but she proved us wrong. She had been so obsessed with Santa the weeks prior, so we just thought she'd like seeing the "real thing." We sat her on his lap and she was okay until the photographer told us to get out of the picture and then she freaked out. So, at the ward party, she sat on the steps of the stage waiting her turn and she looked as if she was going to be okay sitting on this Santa's lap. But, as soon as her turn came and we walked her up there, she started screaming! She didn't even want to look at him. Oh well. She got a bag of goodies and as soon as she calmed down, she lay down in the middle of the floor to enjoy a Hershey kiss. What a goofball. We had a lot of fun despite the Santa experience.

Snow in Maryland

2010-12-15T12:52:00.000-08:00

We got our first snow in Maryland early in December. As soon as I noticed it was snowing, I got Mina all bundled up and took her outside. She was excited to go outside, but was even more thrilled about the snow. It snowed quite a bit in Texas last winter at one point, but Mina was so sick then and she didn't enjoy it at all. It was fun to watch her enjoy this first snow, but it stopped literally the moment we came back inside. Oh well. She was so curious and tried to explore everywhere, from the swings to the backyard, the trees and to the slide.

A few weeks later we got another little snow storm. This one produced a bit more snow and was much more fun to play in. Mina had a lot of fun experimenting with the snow. She kept hitting our neighbors' inflatable Santa and loved when the snow fell off him. She of course ventured down to the slides. It's never a complete trip outside unless we visit the swings and the slides. Mina's face got so wet and cold, as did her hands. I don't know how long she would have stayed out there if we didn't make her come in. She loves being outside no matter what.

She kept looking through the holes in the tube connected to the slides. If I came over to peek in at her she would push snow out of them at me and laugh. She thinks she's so funny. We also decided to blow some bubbles outside in the freezing weather. It was really cool because the bubbles froze. We could actually bounce them off of our hands and they didn't pop! They also looked really cool when they did pop. We're hoping to get a little more snow before the end of winter, but we hear it doesn't actually snow all the much here. I think Dru is the most disappointed about that, though with Mina's new love of the snow I'm sure she is, too.

If Mina had Dru's hair

2010-12-01T13:26:00.000-08:00

I got the urge one day to try and curl Mina's hair. I knew how dangerous and unsuccessful using a curling iron would be, so I attempted to put all of her hair into little twisted buns after she got out of the bath. She surprisingly sat still the entire time. I left them in while she took a nap and when she woke up only one had fallen out. I proceeded to take the rest out and boy was her hair curly. It was just crazy until it had time to settle down for a bit. Then she just looked way too cute. I was a little disappointed that the one had fallen out as she slept because it wasn't as curly as the rest. But, it was cute, nonetheless! And, this is what she'd look like if she had inherited Dru's curly hair!

November

2010-12-01T06:29:00.000-08:00

November was a fun-filled month. The first exciting thing that happened was that we found out on the 10th that we were expecting another baby girl!

We experienced many silly Mina moments and just laughed and laughed. She loves to ride around in her little car we found at a garage sale. We let her drive down the street to deliver a Christmas card to our friends one Sunday. She looked too cute.

She loves to wear anything and everything on her head as hats. Our friend who served his mission in Russia let her wear the furry hat for a while. Then, whenever Mina is finished eating anything she will put the bowl, plate or whatever she might be using, on her head and tell us it's a hat.

Grandpa Duncan got her the cutest pair of winter boots and she's started to get some real use out of them as the weather has turned to freezing. She looks super cute in them and they keep her feet and legs toasty warm.

Later in the month we had a nice Thanksgiving with our new next door neighbors and a few of Dru's friends from class. We started the day off by decorating our little 3 foot Christmas tree. Mina was a terrific help besides occasionally trying to eat the ornaments. We had a deep fried turkey, which was good, but can't compare to the turkey a friend of Dru's made at our house last year. We had mashed potatoes, a corn casserole, rolls, fruit salad and much more. We ended the day by roasting marshmallows in a fire pit out back. It was a delicious and fun day and we enjoyed leftovers for the rest of the week.

Trunk-or-treat

2010-11-04T11:22:00.001-07:00

Because of Mina's hair, we decided to dress as the Flintstones this year! It was a lot of fun making the costumes and I think they turned out all right. We had a lot of fun dressing up for the ward trunk or treat and our only complaint is that it was cold! Mina had to be covered up most of the time. I only took her sweater off when we were taking some of the pictures.

We had frito pies in a bag, hot dogs, caramel apples, hot apple cider and lots of candy. They had a little parade to show off costumes and then the trunk or treating began. Mina caught on quickly what to do when trick or treating. She would stop occasionally to inspect her candy and would throw things out she thought she didn't want and then hand us a piece to open for her. We had to push her along at first. When someone let her grab her own candy from a bowl, she took enormous handfuls and tried to go for seconds. She acquired quite a bit of candy, which we actually gave a lot of away on Halloween night when kids came to our house. Haha. Mina doesn't really know what she's missing out on right now, and we'll keep it that way for a while.

I was standing on the bumper so she copied me.

She decided to sit in the middle of the road to drink her juice.

I don't know why she decided it was cool to sit in the gutter.

Too cute!

This is the look she gave us when we asked if she wanted to hold our hands. She didn't say anything. Just gave us this look. Funny.

She tried wearing her bucket on her head during the parade.

After a while she would squirm her way up to the front of the crowds to get candy.

She practically cleaned Dru out at the end. Haha.

Halloween

2010-11-04T11:19:00.001-07:00

On Halloween night, we decided to take Mina just around our little street to trick or treat since she had so much fun at our wards trunk or treat. We had a warm ladybug costume that Dru's mom had gotten at a garage sale a while back and I wanted to get some use out of it. Mina had a blast and was so funny. She just loved knocking on doors. We only got her to say trick or treat a few times. Most of the time she would only say bye after she was given candy and was walking away. We also got her the little car you'll see in some of these pictures at a garage sale the day before. She's obsessed with it and climbs in it every time we go outside. Dru has been pushing her around the block in it every day when he gets home from work and Mina just thinks it's the coolest thing ever.

Fun outside

2010-11-04T11:13:00.000-07:00

Mina still loves to go outside any chance she can get. We try to take her out at some point each day, whether it's with me while Dru's at work or with Dru after he gets home. She still loves to swing so we're still so glad we have a swing set right next to our house.

She loves to look at our neighbor's dog through the windows from our house so, of course, she ventured over to their yard to see the puppah when we went outside. She stood at the fence just laughing and saying hi to the dog and when it was time to go she would walk a few steps, stop, turn around and say "bye, puppah" while waving to it.

Oodles of noodles

2010-11-04T11:08:00.000-07:00

Mina has recently grown to love noodles. She just loves to slurp them up. If they're not too messy I'll lay her blanket out so she can sit on the floor to eat them. I do this because it's so funny to watch her. Although I don't have pictures of her doing it, she will normally lay down to eat them. She'll roll to her tummy to pick one up and then roll to her back to slurp it up. It makes me laugh every time she does it. It's so funny.

Whenever she eats at the table she always props her leg up either onto her chair or actually onto the table. She likes to push on the table so that her chair rocks back. We can't put her chair too close to the table because that allows her to actually tip her chair all the back and fall to the ground. It only has happened once and I caught her on the way down. It was kind of funny, but scary because occasionally I'll walk away from the table while she eats to do something. If we're having a messy dinner, like the noodles in the pictures below, we strip her down and then just bathe her after dinner. She likes to rub food on her belly and legs and in her hair. So, it's a good thing she loves baths so much.

Bath time and ponytails

2010-11-04T10:50:00.000-07:00

Mina loves to take baths. If you just mention the word, bath, she runs upstairs to the bathroom and tries to get in the tub. Whether it's a bath by herself with the tub filled with water, or a shower with mom or dad, she is all over it. She really likes to take bubble baths because she loves bubbles, and Elmo is on the bubble bottle. The only thing she doesn't like too much about bathing is rinsing her hair out. She tries to climb up the side of the tub to get away from us. Haha.

When Mina is brushing her teeth, I like to play with her hair. I've tried putting it into a single ponytail in the back lately. Most of it is long enough, but I still have to pin the front of her hair back with a clip or bow. I think it looks super cute and it makes her look less like a baby which is kind of sad. I really can't believe how much she has grown. She really isn't a baby anymore. She's starting to form small sentences and copies everything Dru and I do. She's a whiz on our ipods. She knows how to turn them on and scroll through to find her games or videos and she knows how to play the games! It's amazing how fast she picks things up. She's so smart. I just love her so much!

One more cute story about Mina. She has three stuffed animals she sleeps with every night. 2 bears and a puppy. For the longest time, she wouldn't get out of her crib unless she had all 3 animals with her. She would bring them downstairs and just throw them on the floor until it was time to go to bed again. She'd gather them up and take them to bed with her again. Well, Dru and I got kind of tired of hauling them up and down, especially because she would never play with them. So, one morning, Dru decided that the animals needed to stay in the crib to go night night. He and Mina laid them each down on the pillow and put her blanket over them so they could go to sleep. She was totally okay with it. Now when she wakes up, she lays them each on her pillow and covers them with the blanket and says, "night, night, bear and bear and puppah!" It's so cute.

Pumpkin carving, painting and eating

2010-11-04T10:43:00.000-07:00

We wanted to carve pumpkins this year and to let Mina paint one. She was very excited when we went to pick the pumpkins out. She calls them apples, though. At first we couldn't tell if she was saying apple or, a ball. The more she says it the more it sounds like apple. Below is a picture taken a week or two after our carving and painting session so the carved pumpkins had already started decaying and the paint on Mina's pumpkin had flaked away. Oh well.

This was right after she had put a glob of blue paint in her mouth. I showed her what to do before I handed her the brush, but she still had to find out if it was food or not.

She got the hang of it very quickly though. After the taste test and then trying it out on her shirt and foot, she actually painted the pumpkin.

What a cute little artist.

She concentrated very hard and had me open more colors of paint the further along she went.

I held the camera up close to get a picture of just her hand painting the pumpkin, but then all of a sudden her cute face appeared on the screen. What a little ham.

Beautiful use of color, Mina!

She really had so much fun!

This is the face she makes when she is really concentrating and determined.

Time to paint the hand!

She was helping me pick out the seeds and I looked up at her to see that she was tasting the pumpkin guts. See it all over her mouth?

I think she actually liked it. Eww.

I finally pretended to eat some and said it was yucky and spit it out. Then she started copying me.

I held some up to her to see if she would still eat it and she did.

Medieval Times... again, but this time with Mina

2010-10-15T14:14:00.001-07:00

Our friends called us up last Thursday night and randomly asked if we wanted to go to Medieval Times with them. Tickets were half off and my best friend, Jennifer, was in town. We thought about it for a few minutes and decided that since Mina was so good during the jousting tournament at the Renaissance Festival that she would love Medieval Times as well. We were just worried that it is a 2 hour show that would go an hour past her bedtime. We decided to do it. And, we all had so much fun. Mina was amazing! She loved watching the horses and cheering with everybody. She never tried to get away from us either. She just kept going back and forth from me to Dru. She had to sit on our laps to get in for free.

When the knights brought flowers out to throw to people in the audience, Dru held Mina up really high and I stood up next to them waving my arms and our knight threw Mina a flower. She thought it was pretty cool and we thought it was so cute. She waved her flower around as well as a couple of banners we had gotten.

Towards the end of the show she started getting tired, so she laid down on my shoulder a few times, but as soon as the audience started cheering she was up again watching. She also just had to have her crown on the whole time. She still likes wearing it around the house, too. It's cute.

Maryland Renaissance Festival

2010-10-15T13:54:00.000-07:00

The first weekend in October, we ventured over to the Maryland Renaissance Festival. Supposedly it's the most beautiful festival of its kind in the United States. And, the least expensive. That's what some friends of ours who frequent them told us, anyways. It was very beautiful. There was so much detail everywhere and everything was surprisingly inexpensive. It made for a very fun day. Mina was fabulous, too! There were only a couple of things that bugged me about it. The smoking everywhere and the clothing a lot of the women were wearing.

Dru the queen and Mina the king.

Now the way it should be. Mina the queen and Dru the king.

Mina got to ride a pony! She seemed a little confused at first, but by the end she was petting it and loving it!

Still unsure what to think.

Daddy telling her it's a horse and to pet him.

She's so brave!

We got to watch a jousting tournament and Mina had a blast cheering on the horses, or "soes" as she calls them.

She was cracking us up with her little cheer moves.

She'd point to the horses and ask, "what's that," and respond with, "a soe."

She looked at me randomly at one point like this and said, "I see see!"

I asked her to look at me and smile and this was the ADORABLE face she gave me!

Dru had a rough time trying to tackle this game. Mina cracked up when he fell off!

Mina the artist

2010-10-15T13:50:00.001-07:00

Mina really likes to color. She knows she's supposed to color on paper or her chalkboard, but any chance she gets she'll color on the walls, the couch, herself or any other thing she's not supposed to color on. Stinker.

Mina the Rock Star

2010-10-15T13:38:00.000-07:00

Our friend, Sarah White, had a birthday in September and decided to throw a rock star themed party. She wanted people to dress up, but other than herself, Mina and I were the only ones to dress up. I didn't get a picture of myself, but Mina's the cute one anyways. She had a lot of fun playing with all of the other kids that were there and hiding in the cabinets. I think she just looked way too cute.

Maryland State Fair

2010-09-27T11:07:00.000-07:00

The first weekend in September we went to the Maryland State fair. Mina got to play her first carnival game, ride a carousel, pet a baby cow, see lots of other farm animals and help us eat a corn dog. Dru spent too much time trying to win a particular game with circle discs. And I just enjoyed watching them.

Yay! Mina caught a duck!

She got to pick a prize.

Mina just loved petting the baby cow.

She didn't want to leave it and, in fact, screamed when we did have to leave.

I see see! That's how Mina says I see you!

Her first time on a carousel.

She loved it!

Of course, it wore her out so she slept on the way home.

Mina is a nerd

2010-09-27T10:54:00.001-07:00

Mina loves to wear glasses. She makes the cutest little nerd I've ever seen. She's super smart, too. She can draw circles and snakes. Her vocabulary is expanding tremendously through the weeks, she figures puzzles out very quickly and is a very good problem solver. She loves to sleep, so it's very easy when it's time for bed. She's started potty training. She just loves to learn new things. She's always on the go and really only ever slow down when it's time for bed. She's so much fun. Her excitement for life is truly evident and contagious.

These are the words, names and animal sounds I can think of that she knows.

bye, hi, nose, mouth, eye, baby, pupbuh (puppy), ball, baba (bottle), tay-tu (thank you), burr (plane or bird), mama, dada, night-night, boo (book), tat (cat), shoe, tee (teeth), moo, Jshee (Jesus), me, cookie (for both a cookie and Cookie Monster), cracker, Grandma, Becca, Meagan, Whitlee, outside, go, uh-huh, circle, bubble, bite, seat, toe, Mina, Maymee (Amy), Dru, juice, bear, snack, shoo (bless you), bath, byy (butterfly), home, wee-wee-home (as in this little piggy), two, uh-oh, ow, whoa, sssss (what a snake says), rarrr (tiger sound), meow (cat sound), ah-ah-ah-oh-oh (monkey sound), owf (dog sound), uuuhhh (elephant sound), pee, poo, yay, I see see (I see you), help, Dora, Elmo, so (horse)

Number 2

2010-09-27T10:52:00.001-07:00

In August we found out we're expecting baby number 2 and we had our first ultrasound! This little blob will be entering the world sometime around April 3. We are very excited!

Meagan and William's visit part 2

2010-09-26T21:18:00.001-07:00

We did a lot while Meagan and William were here, but I realized I didn't have a lot of pictures on my own camera. So, I just stole a few from Meagan and decided to post them. The first weekend they were here, we drove down to southern Maryland to see the Johnson's and Uncle Rick. Unfortunately, Candice was the only one there, but she took us to a really cute and fun water park. Mina and William loved going down the slides! At first, I let Mina go down by herself with Dru at the bottom to catch her. Well, she went so fast she hit her head on the slide, so we went down with her every time after that. She still loved it. Also, you'll notice Dru is wearing a shirt. It's not just for protection from the sun. Mina freaks out when Dru has his shirt off in the pool. It's really weird.

Dru, Mina, Candice, Meagan and William.

We also went swimming a few times at the pool in our neighborhood. The babies both had a blast. William saw Mina stick her fingers into those holes in the cement so he had to try it over and over and over again. What a goofball.

Mina loved the fountains and William loved the holes in the cement.

Dru has a friend whose baby had a birthday. They were having a picnic and invited us out. The babies enjoyed the baby toys and snacks while some of the adults played a fun game. Meagan and I kind of hid in the shade because it was incredibly hot outside. We both get kind of crabby when we're hot.

Checking out the baby toys.

Looking cool with her awesome glasses.

The babies knew how to keep cool. They played in the ice chest about 90 percent of the time we were there.

Sharing a seat and a snack.

Meagan thinks William really looks up to Mina.

Mina is always checking up on William.

I'm the cruel aunt who puts bows in his hair and hikes his pants up as high as they'll go. He loves me anyways.

Mina taught William how to draw on the chalkboard.

Meagan and I had a blast at Medieval Times. Our Knight won! Go Red Knight!

Meagan and William's visit

2010-09-26T18:30:00.000-07:00

After Dru's mom left, Meagan and William came to visit for a couple of weeks. Stephane was in Afghanistan so I was able to convince Meagan that coming to visit would help pass the time away. And boy did the time fly by! We had so much fun shopping, visiting friends, going to Medieval times again, and just hanging out.

This was when they first got to our house. William spotted the toys.

So, he made his way on over to them.

William loved to play with the wheel on the stroller and it gave Mina opportunity to steal his bottle and sit on the stairs to drink it and watch him.

It was fun getting them all dressed up for church on Sundays. William is a stud!

I just love Mina in pigtails. Especially with big, cute bows.

I just can't resist this cute face.

We went to feed the ducks. Note to self- if you plan on taking pictures of 2 toddlers feeding ducks, bring an adult for every toddler plus one. It was so hard to try and take their pictures and chase both of them around.

Such a boy moment.

They are so sweet together and they just adore each other.

I'm super glad I was able to catch this moment of Meagan and William. They're so cute!

July

2010-09-26T18:02:00.000-07:00

After my mom left, Dru's mom came to visit for a couple of weeks. While she was here the last 2 weeks of July, we visited the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum and we drove up to Hershey, Pennsylvania. On the way to D.C. to go to the Smithsonian we came across a wonderful sight. This picture doesn't do the actual sighting justice. Driving along the highway, we drove around a curve and uphill and out of nowhere this is what we see appearing to rise out of the ground. The Washington D.C. Temple. It was awesome!

The Air and Space museum was pretty cool and Mina was pretty good. Aside, from losing Dru's mom and spending half of our time looking for her, we really enjoyed it. I actually chased Mina around most of the time, but she was having fun so I didn't mind.

A small glimpse of the museum.

This was how Mina decided she wanted to ride in the stroller. Goofy girl.

This was Mina's favorite part about the museum. The corners of the fencing around the planes. She would run to them whenever she caught sight of one, but she picked favorites even though they were all identical. We'd walked a ways away from one she favored and then she'd run off, and know exactly where to go to get back the exact one.

We rode an elevator up to the observation tower and Mina had a lot of fun looking at the airplanes fly by.

She also had a lot of fun making everybody laugh.

By the time we left, she was pooped.

The following weekend we drove up to Hershey, PA. It took a little less than 2 hours to get there. We went to the Zoo, the Hershey Museum, Chocolate World and the Hershey Gardens.

Mina just adores animals so she had a wonderful time at the zoo.

We did let her walk a lot, because she is very independent. It's a lot of work for us, but she enjoys the freedom.

This was at the Hershey museum. Mina walked herself around the museum and I followed her. This was her favorite part. A picture of a cow on the wall.

This was on a ride at Chocolate world. It was a little tour of how chocolate is made. Mina loved the singing cows.

Finally, this was at Hershey Gardens. There was a butterfly house. Mina had been asleep, so Dru and I walked through and decided Mina would love it so we went back out and woke her up. There were so many butterflies in there. It was amazing.

Mina calls butterflies, "bies."

Fun with friends

2010-08-11T11:26:00.000-07:00

We live 10 minutes from the Medieval Times in Maryland. We have a few friends who we knew in California living here, too. When my mom came into town we asked her to watch Mina and our friend's baby, Regi, so we could all go to Medieval times! It was a blast! Our knight didn't win (typical). But, we were able to get free royalty upgrades so we sat right in the front and had a couple of other added bonuses. It was fun and Mom I promise I'll take you one day!!!

We decided to go bowling one day and when I went to get Mina to go, I noticed she had a pen and was drawing all over her foot, shoe and leg. What a nerd. Told you she loves to draw. We had a lot of fun bowling. Mina had a blast. They had little slides for kids to set there balls on to push so that the ball goes straight. Mina would push the ball then quickly run to the side so she could see. It seemed as if she would lean to the side that she wanted the ball to go and then she'd say "ooooooooh." It was so fun to watch her bowl!

When she wasn't bowling she was either "helping out" with Regi or trying to steal stuff out of his diaper bag. Never leave a bag unattended when Mina is around. She loves Relief Society meetings because there are so many purses to go through. Oh Mina.

We decided to test out Mina's ability to sit through a movie in the theater. We took her to see Toy Story 3. She did well for the most part. Aside from getting red slushy all over my mom and dropping her sippie cup to have it roll down under three rows of seats, we only had to take her out twice. As long as there was action taking place on screen, she was good. But, we probably won't be taking her back any time soon.

We spent the 4th of July with my mom, the Roberson's and the White's. We had a barbecue and then walked to a field near our house to watch the fireworks show. Mina had been asleep so we woke her up to walk over there, but she was not disappointed. She watched the whole show and was so good.

We've gone to Annopolis a few times to walk around and eat. Mina loved the balloon we got from a restaurant. Unfortunately on our way into our house after returning, it got caught in our rose bush and popped. Oops. That darn rose bush. Mina fell into it once and got pretty scratched up. Poor girl.

Mina loves to play on the piano. She moved her little seat over to it to stand on and play with a spatula.

Our short time with Brian

2010-08-11T11:08:00.000-07:00

My parent's dog Larsey had puppies shortly before we left Texas. I wanted so badly to bring one with us. Dru said no. But, he said if he passed a couple of tests he would be taking then we could figure out a way to bring Brian, the male puppy, up. Well he passed his tests so we talked some about ways we could get him up here. I really didn't think we ever would. One night Dru left to go help someone from church out, but was really picking Brian up from the airport. My uncle Rick had traveled to Texas and Dru had arranged to have him bring the dog back with him. Dru walked in the door and then in walks this adorable little puppy! I was so excited. I couldn't believe Dru had arranged all of this for me when I knew how much he did NOT want the puppy or any dog. It meant so much to me that he had done this. It still does. We woke Mina up to see Brian and she was even more excited than me.

After a week or so I realized again how much Dru didn't want him. I realized that a dog has to be loved by everyone in a family or it just can't work. It's not that Dru hated him or anything, but he didn't love him. It brought a lot of tears to my eyes and it was so hard to do, but I called my mom to tell her my decision and arranged to have her fly out here to visit and also to bring Brian back home.

It was so hard to send him away, but I know things are better this way and I enjoyed every minute we had with Brian. He was so sweet and such a good dog. He loved playing with Mina, too. And Mina loved playing with him. We miss him and I love Dru for letting us have the opportunity to have him in our home even for such a short time.

Visiting Uncle Rick and the Johnson's

2010-08-11T10:42:00.001-07:00

I was very excited to move to Maryland because I know several people who live here. My uncle Rick is here and so are the Johnson's! We've been friends with the Johnson's for over 17 years. They live a couple hours south of us so one day when Dru was off we ventured on down there. They took us to show us some of the beauty down there. We went to this lighthouse and even got to climb up to the top of it. We also visited the little museum and gift shop. Mina loves mannequins for some reason. There was a little mannequin boy in the museum and Mina would just not leave him alone. She always runs to the mannequins in Old Navy when we go, too. They kind of freak me out so I have no idea what her fascination is with them.

It was SOOO HOT! I ended up wiping all of my makeup off with a baby wipe. Despite the heat we had a good time. Candice later on took us to a little beach where Mina had a blast playing in the sand, flirting with some guys and wading in the water with Dru. It was so good to see Uncle Rick and the Johnson's and it's comforting to know we have some family and great friends not too far away!

Of course this was the first thing Dru did.

Keith and Wanda and their daughter, Candice.

The water felt nice on such a hot day.

Mina's new friend.

Dru's new friend.

Mina being Mina.

The tour guide, Mina, Wanda, Uncle Rick and Dru.

She loves playing in the sand.

She was talking to Candice about something. Who knows what.