28

Zack turned 28 at the end of July.  Usually I stick to our budget when it comes to gifts and Zack receives some lame presents.  Then he goes over the budget and gets me awesome presents and I feel kind of dumb. Well, he did pretty well sticking to a lower budget for my birthday so I was able to scrounge up some money and get him this.

It goes with the trimmer he got for Father's Day.  He's been complaining about our old used lawn mower since we bought it from a friend for $30.  It's pretty crappy.  So I was excited to surprise him with this one but Berkley ruined the surprise when we talked to him on the phone at lunch time.  Oops.  Oh well, now at least he can more adequately mow our dandelion field. 

For dinner Zack wanted steak (a rarity in our house) so I went to Don's Meats and they picked out some awesome ribeyes and seasoned them for me free of charge.  I was planning on baking a delicious cake but it was over 100 degrees that day and I really didn't want to turn on the oven so I decided to try some gourmet cupcakes from this cute shop that my neighbor recommended.

They were pretty yummy.  Berkley loved the funfetti one that she picked out and my favorite was the raspberry lemonade.

4 Months

This little girl turned 4 months old on July 27th.

• She's getting too big too fast.  She weighed in at 13 lbs. 6 oz (50%) and was 25 in long (80%.)  Still very healthy and strong.  
• In fact, I finally came to terms with the fact that she's growing and stopped trying to squeeze her into 0-3 month clothes.  It's always sad to get out bigger clothes and put the small ones away.  
• On July 9th (Not quite 3 1/2 months old) she rolled from her tummy to her back.  She didn't do it again until the 24th when she rolled over and over.  A few days later she rolled back to tummy.  Here's a video of her on the 24th.

And, of course, Berkley had to do it too.

The things Peyton has to put up with.

• She generally sleeps for a 7-hour stretch at night.  I don't really count 8:30pm-3:30am as sleeping through the night though.  Especially when I work from 3-11pm and don't get to bed till midnight.  I'm hoping that rice cereal will work its magic and help her sleep longer.  

• Let's talk about this girl's hair.  It's so long that she used to grab it and then cry because it hurt.  She is getting bald spots on the back and sides but the top is still super long.  It sticks straight up and then curves to the side.  Sometimes it reminds me of Jef from The Bachelorette.  

• In fact, the top is so long I couldn't resist giving her her first little ponytail already.

• I'm pretty sure I'm her favorite (as I should be) and she has already had a few stranger danger moments.  
• She loves being outside and just staring at her surroundings whether she's just laying there or riding in the stroller.  
• She also loves the breeze.  If she's fussy in the car all we need to do is roll down her window and she calms down.  
• She's generally just happy and content.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Entertainer

I thought I should post the videos I've taken of Berkley over the past few months.  I had a cute video of me interviewing her at age 2 1/2.  She says how old she is, spells her name in sign language, tells her favorite color (which happened to be dark blue that day) but something happened when I uploaded it and the sound disappeared.  I'm really pretty sad about it and I can't do another one because now she's closer to 3 than two and a half!  Oh well, here are a bunch of videos for your entertainment (mostly dancing and singing) which I'm sure only her grandmas will really watch but that's ok. 

Dance party in our dungeon basement.

Singing Call Me, Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen.

Singing Go to the Bus. A song taught to her by Aunt Rylee.

Singing I am a Child of God.

A really fast version of Ours by Taylor Swift.  This was her favorite for a while.

Singing We Are Young by FUN.  This was also her favorite for a while. 

Singing When I Am Baptized.

Putting her bouncy ball in time out.  She said it was hitting Daddy.  She's gotten pretty bossy with her toys (and her sister) lately.

This dance was pretty funny.  Especially when she dances like Daddy. 

This one has some sweet break dancing poses. 

And, finally, she was singing You are my Sunshine in a demon voice and this was my attempt at capturing it. 

I wish I could upload videos of myself singing and dancing at this age too because they are pretty much identical to these.

Two and a Half

As of July 21st Berkley is officially two and a half years old.  What can I say to adequately describe Berkley at two and a half?  She's smart, stubborn, hilarious, clever, silly, and adorable.  A few things about her lately:

• She loves music.  We have lots of dance parties at home and in the car.  She memorizes songs like it's nobody's business and sometimes makes up her own.  
• She has the best memory and is acquiring quite the vocabulary.  Everyone always thinks she's older than she is because she talks so well. 
• She's a great eater.  We went through a phase where she asked for toast with peanut butter and honey for every meal.  She's the only 2 year-old I know who asks for quinoa and recognizes almost all fruits and vegetables (asparagus, avocado, beets, you name it.)
• She's been struggling with keeping her panties dry.  She can, she just doesn't.  But she only does "a little drip."  We're working on it.  
• She can spell her name (including in sign language) and a couple other words.  
• She's going through a phase where she doesn't seem to like her Dad very much lately.  She basically ignores him, especially if I'm around.
• She wants to help me with everything.  Especially in the kitchen.  Any time I'm making anything she asks to help (not listening for an answer) and pushes one of the dining chairs up to the kitchen counter.  She loves to help stir, dump things in, and especially taste all of the ingredients.  She has found a lot of things she likes (brown sugar, mustard, orange juice concentrate, etc.) and some things she really doesn't (vanilla, cocoa, raw onions *my favorite reaction*).  
• Over the past 6 months she's learned how to turn the light on and off, open doors, get ice and water from the dispenser on the fridge, and basically get into anything she wants.   
• Her favorite TV show is Dora the Explorer.  

Here are a bunch of random pictures from the past 6 months.
I couldn't resist taking this one.  She just kept taking her pants off.
 
nutella and smoothie

Love this picture of her and my dad.

My cleaning helper.

 Getting out baby clothes.  Can't believe she used to fit into this onesie.

Peyton's car seat is a comfy place to hang out.  In fact, that car seat says it can be used for children up to 35 lbs and Berkley is still less than 30...

Loves playing the piano at grandma's house!  (And jumping on the mini trampoline.)

Checking out grandpa's beehive.

Treehouse museum

Aunt Lori introduced her to muddy buddies and she was in love.  When we made them she told me she would eat the whole bowl all gone.

Whenever I'm taking pictures of anything she'll say, "Take my picture Mommy!"

Straight hair.

Trying to put on one of Peyton's diapers.  She went through a phase where she put them on her stuffed animals too.

I love her imagination.  One minute she was pretending that this piece of pack n play was an ice cream cone and the next it was a vacuum.  

In her jammies with her favorites.

Love this girl!

A Couple Little Crafts

I have so many crafts that I would like to do.  The trouble is, between taking care of two small children, a house and a yard, being the primary president, and working three days a week this summer I've rarely had time to do normal things like fold laundry, go grocery shopping, or shower.  So craft time is pretty much non-existent. Fortunately, Merrisa and I were able to find a little time here and there over the course of about a month to make some decorations for the girls' rooms.

I've been feeling bad that Peyton's room is still decorated like Zack's office.  Especially since Berkley's was all decorated before she was even born.  So I finally made her name to display.  I think it looks pretty cute.

I also did collages in both of the girls' rooms.  We spray painted frames that I already had and a few that I got at a thrift store.  We cut out the animals with the cricut and mod podged them onto the plaques from hobby lobby.  The printables I got from here.

Now I feel like Peyton's room is starting to look more like a nursery and Berkley's room has a little less empty wall space.  If we could only get their walls painted...