Speaking. By Holynd

Holynd is getting better and better at talking all the time. She's forming sentences and it seems like everyday she says something new. She makes an attempt at saying any new word that she hears. It's pretty entertaining, especially with Halloween right around the corner. She hears a lot of new Halloween words each day.

Some of the most memorable phrases:

"Sloanie, air are you???? Oh! Found you!"

"Mommy! Bunny is lost!"

"Let's go on walk."

"It's ok Sloane... Need to go a night-night."

"Say prayers. Haley Favor, Amen!"

"Com'on Sloanie. Time to go!"

"Oh mommy! Punkin so cute!"

"Mommy! See the scare-ney!"

***And my ultimate favorite!****

(After getting up from her nap.)

"Daddy! Air are you!? Daddy? DDDDaaaaddddddyyyy?! Oh mommy, daddy still at work!"

Itches!!!

First things first, did you hear about this?!? Matt got me this gift for our anniversary. It's our blog, in book-form. Pretty snazzy! I was really surprised, especially since I've picked out most of my anniversary gifts myself. ;) Thank you husband!

****

It just wouldn't be Halloween without a trip to Gardner's Village. I love the shoppes and Matt loves fudge, so it all works out. Holynd kept calling out "Itches!" and pointing to the witch on her shirt. It's a lot of fun to have her get excited for Halloween.

We went on a hayride to the witches' house! It was a lot of fun, but Holynd mostly loved the goats. The fact that women were walking around completely decked-out in witch-attire had no affect on my little Holynd. Go figure.

(Goats are way more interesting then witches.)

Sloane remained completely unamused by the entire trip, but it was fun to have an excuse to have the girls wear fun Halloween shirts.

****

We've had a hard time deciding what to do about Holynd and her birthday. Since it's three shorts days after Christmas, we feel bad that she only get gifts once-a-year. We're thinking about having a half-birthday celebration when she gets a little older, but for now, we've just decided that a random gift here-or-there can't hurt her. ;)

She loves her new kitchen.

Survival of the Fittest!

We went to Arizona over the weekend for Aunt-T's wedding open house! It was a quick trip, drive down Friday, stay over Saturday and drive home Sunday. It was difficult, but not nearly as hard as we thought it would be. The girls were actually pretty awesome through the whole thing. We did have one carsick-incident, in which our rental car got covered in vomit, but after re-grouping in Page, AZ, we were back on our way!

Sloanie has become an avid thumb-sucker. I have a love-hate relationship with this habit of hers. It was especially nice on our trip because she could suck her thumb when she would get upset during the car ride. However, her thumb is getting really red and even has a blister... Not sure what to do about it. :)

Anyone a fan of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives???? WE ARE!!!! We had to visit one of Guy's picks and so with a handy "Guy Ate Here" app on our phones, we were able to find somewhere Guy Fieri had visited! We chose Joe's Farm Grill! It was amazing!

I got the Grilled Vegetable Pizza, which was one of the best things on the planet!

Matt got an Ahi Tuna Burger with Garlic French Fries! Oh my mouth is watering just thinking about it!

This picture captures one of the miracles that occurred during our trip! The girls slept through our little Joe Farm Grill visit! Pretty sure it's the first time something like this has happened in the history of double-strollers!

We did visit the Mesa Temple while we were there! It's very pretty and seems to have a lot of history. We went to the Distribution Center nearby and bought Holynd her first CTR ring. It lasted about five minutes and hasn't been seen or heard from since. :)

There were Orange Trees all over the temple grounds! That would be so cool to be able to pick yourself an orange after attending a session.

Holynd kept putting blankets over her head to block out the sun during the long car rides.

****

The following videos are just somethings I captured around our house. Holynd loves to help me clean and I tried all morning long to get a video of her "mopping" and singing the "Clean-Up!" song. This was all I got.

Then after I gave up trying to capture the cleaning, she ran to the window because she thought she saw Matt pull up. Whenever she sees him, she wants me to open the deck door for her, so she can run out and greet him. So this video is of her begging to see her dad. Oh, by the way, she is now calling Matt by his first name. Matt hates it, so no one is aloud to call him "Matt" in Holynd's presence. He must be called "dad" at all times! :)

Lastly, today is Matt and I's 3rd wedding anniversary... Three years of marriage, two kids and way too many blessings to count! I love you husband!

Two Weeks of Learning

I'd like to record a few things that I've learned the past few weeks. My babies are only 17 months apart, but when Sloane was born, I felt totally overwhelmed and confused all over again. I had forgotten what a newborn baby was like in a short amount of time. Hopefully if I record these experiences, I will remember them better for future reference.

*Babies will always looks very angelic on their blessing day.

*Some kids will go through a phase where they think their stuffed animals need to wear diapers.

*Iggy's gives a sundae with their Chicken Strips kids' meal. Holynd is now a huge fan of Iggy's, much to her dad's liking.



*Children learn, very early in life, how to take pictures of themselves with your camera-phone.

*Wood chips eaten at the playground will partially digest and cause much pain and crying about 12 hours later.

*Stuffed animals, which are completely submerged in the tub, can be saved by being immediately put in a spin cycle and then dried. (Thank goodness for my fancy Bounce Dryer Bar! "Bunny" came out of the dryer very soft and smelling amazing.)

*4 month olds, who are somehow fed raisins, will not be able to digest them. They will make terrible grunting sounds about 12 hours later.

*Wood chips will also cause terrible diaper rash, which will lead to children vacating their diapers and peeing all over the hallway.

*The people at Poison Control are very nice. They do not call and tattle on you to Family Services for accidentally letting your child eat your stick of deodorant.

*When children eat deodorant, they may get terrible stomach aches, until they are taken to Iggy's and given their free Sundae.

*Children who are not used to riding an escalator, may tumble down the escalator unless watched closely. (In our defense, Holynd insisted on getting on the escalator by herself.)

*4 month olds, will demand to be in their older siblings presence at all times. Older siblings are hilarious to babies.

The Day of the Jam

These pictures have nothing to do with "The Day of the Jam". I just thought they we're cute.



Holynd has decided that she needs to have a platform to stand on while she watches Diego. I'm still not sure why.



I have delegated grocery shopping to Matt for the time being. You may remember me mentioning that grocery shopping was a little difficult with two babies. But last week, it reached a whole new level.

You must understand, I have to have Holynd ride in the "main-cart" part of the cart and Sloanie has to ride on the seat in her carseat. It's a little difficult and takes a lot of talent to stack the groceries so that nothing gets squished by other groceries or Holynd.

The first thing I always get at Wal-mart is fruit. Now, Holynd loves fruit, so I usually have to have Sloanie "hold the fruit". (Meaning the fruit rides up on the seat with Sloanie. Don't worry, she thinks it's really funny to sit with the grapes in her carseat.) After, fruit and other produce, we usually work our way to the back of the store, saving diapers (we ALWAYS need diapers) for last.

This day however, the system completely collapsed. Holynd decided to throw a glass jar of jam out of the cart. I was so distraught when glass flew everywhere and jam spilled all over the floor that my logical thinking skills went completely out the window! Instead of just leaving the mess, finding an employee and reporting the mess. I decided to pick up as much as I could, with my bare hands, and clean it up myself. (HUGE MISTAKE). After I gathered up as much glass and jam as I could with baby wipes. I started stirring my car with my elbows, holding most of the jam mess over Sloane and the grapes. (ANOTHER HUGE MISTAKE!) Luckily, I held on to almost all the glass, but the jam kept oozing between my fingers and onto my baby/grapes. An employee finally spotted me and came to the rescue. (THANK YOU!) She helped me clean up as best as she could, but Sloanie had started to get upset and I knew we had to get shopping done quickly so I could feed her. Poor Sloanie was so sticky and so was the bag of grapes I had put up front with her.

I kicked into hyper-drive-grocery-shopping. I'm sorry to all those who were shopping that same day, because (I admit) I was rude and kept cutting people off with my cart.

At this point, Holynd also got upset and was begging that I open the box of fruit snacks. Deciding that I was beyond desperate I opened the box and gave her a package of fruit snacks. That kept her content for all of five seconds and she decided to spill the box of fruit snacks onto the floor. I was close to my breaking point, so I gathered up the fruit snacks that were close by and kept walking. Yes, I bought a half-full box of fruit snacks.

I finally reached the checkout stand. Sloanie had reached complete meltdown and Holynd had now decided she needed a bag of cheetos. I grabbed the bag of cheetos, asked the cashier to scan them and tore the bag open. Luckily, this kept Holynd happy for the remainder of our shopping trip.

The cashier, proceeded to scan all the groceries and finally got to the sticky bag of grapes. I had tried to clean off the bag of grapes, but it was a lost cause. After scanning the sticky bag of grapes, the cashier then began a 5 minute hand cleaning regime because of the sticky bag. (HELLO! Can you not see my infant screaming her head off?! It's just jam!) After the hand cleaning regime was complete, the cashier then thought it was necessary to call over another employee and state that, "Something has got to be wrong in the produce department, the bags of grapes are sticky or something!".

I. NEARLY. DIED.

I paid and walked out as fast as I could.

I have not been back.

Once the embarrassment finally subsides, I may continue doing the grocery shopping.