Fun Giveaway!

My friend has an adorable little shop and she is doing a fun giveaway today!  Head on over to littlelulusnest.blogspot.com for a chance to win!  I am DYING for her cute wreath!

A day in the Kiddie Pool

One of my friends, Laura, has us over every once in a while to run through sprinklers and play in their kiddie pool.  Carly and I went over and met some other friends in the ward there.  The kids had a BLAST! We also had a great time enjoying some girl talk :)

Eleni

Maggie

Daci, Kate, Eleni, Carly and a new little boy in the ward

Annie with Maggie, Daci and Kate

Annie with Daci and Eleni.  She is so good with the little ones!

Annie and Eleni

Our Rained Out Air Show!

Chicago has an amazing Air Show every year.  We went last year right after we moved here and it was one of the highlights of our year.  We have all been anxiously awaiting the show this year and were excited to take Carly and Micah with us.

The morning was looking pretty overcast and gloomy and we were nervous it was going to get rained out. We decided to be optimists and head down to the city anyway.  We got there early and got a good spot on the beach and waited for it to start.  It started at 10am and we saw three little prep routines to get us ready for the big show.  They were really cool and we were excited for the big events to start.  But then....they announced a 30 minute halt in the show due to weather.  It started to sprinkle and we decided we could wait out a 30 minute drizzle.  Boy, were we wrong.  The drizzle turned into a 3 hour downpour with a ton of thunder and lightening and caused the show to be stopped until the late afternoon and thus, ruining our fun day.  We waited the storm out for about an hour.  In fact, we were one of the very last people left on the beach.  It got really scary with big thunder and lightening right around us and the lake.  We finally decided to make a run for it to a nearby freeway overpass.  By that time though we were all soaked to the bone and miserable.  We went back to our car to wait it out, thinking it would pass quickly.  By 12:30 though we were all freezing, Daci was soaked to the bone and we were exhausted.  Poor Rick. I felt so bad for him.  He was SO excited for the show and had been talking about it for weeks.  I felt awful that he was going to have to miss it!  We decided to head back home.  The traffic was awful and we were miserable in our cold, wet clothes.  When we finally pulled in at 2:30pm the weather cleared and it was beautiful.  They started the show back up about 10 minutes later :(  What a bummer!  We were so sad to miss it, I think Rick still isn't over it :)

Despite it being a lamesauce day, we did get some fun pictures before we got rained out.  Enjoy!

Daci anxiously awaiting the start of the show, with her box of Wheat Thins of course :)

Gloomy, but beautiful lake front

The first little "teaser"

Rick watching

This was really cool.  They let parachuters out over the water and they did all these cool maneuvers with smoke and stuff.

The parachuters coming down onto the beach

These planes came back out and did some amazing passes.  They stay in this tight formation the whole time!  I can't believe they don't crash!  

After these, they called for a pause in the show.  We snapped some family pics while it drizzled a bit.

 I promise Daci was really happy!  She just kept pulling the WIERDEST faces when we tried to take pictures :)

Then, the storm happened!  We stayed on the beach in the storm for about 30 minutes and then decided to head to the underpass.  It was like the apocalypse or something.  There were a TON of people all huddled up and freezing.  We all looked homeless :)

Daci was soaked to the bone.  She was such a trooper though.  She never cried, but you could tell she was miserable!

So a sad day, but an entertaining story!  We hope next year is much better :)

My 2 1/2 Year Old!

My Daci Bug turned 2 1/2 on Sunday the 21st!  I can't believe it. Seriously wasn't she just a tiny baby in my arms?  It blows my mind.

We went to her check-up today and everything is looking great.  She is 30 lbs 5 oz (70%), 37 inches (80%), and her head circumference is 19 inches (50%).  She got to wear her underwear to her appointment and the doctor was very impressed :)  She also got a free spinny toothbrush because I filled out a survey.

Daci is definitely in a stage right now.  The only way I can describe her is: HANDFUL! She is seriously testing my limits!  She is so smart and knows exactly what she should and shouldn't do and loves to push me to see how far she can go.  Like I've said before, my fuse is definitely a lot shorter since I got pregnant and I am having a hard time keeping my cool.  As hard as she is right now, she is also so much fun.  I just love her spunky and determined personality.  I only hope and pray that we can learn how to channel it for good :)

Some things about Daci right now:

-She loves eggs
-She loves tacos
-She loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
-She loves all the classic Disney Movies
-She loves to play at the park
-She loves to quote movies
-She LOVES nursery
-She loves all her friends and especially loves it when we go to play at other people's houses
-Unfortunately she likes to bully her little cousin, Eleni
-She has to do everything herself.  I can't do anything for her anymore.
-When she is sad she has to bring me her blankie and lay on my shoulder
-She loves music and has to know the title of EVERY song that comes on in the car.  I usually don't know them so I just make up a title for them because she won't drop it until I tell her one :)
-She says, "Whatchu doin ner?"
-"What you say, Mom?"
-"I miss my daddy mom, will he come home safely?" We pray for Rick to come home safely if she goes to bed before he gets home so she always asks me if he will come home safely :)
-She loves her grandparents and aunts and uncles and is constantly asking if she can go to their houses
-She compliments my cooking at the dinner table, "Mmmmm! This really good mom!"
-She tells me I'm pretty. "You so beauful Mommy!"
-She loves to dress up.  She always puts bows and dresses and makeup on and then runs to Rick or I and says, "I so beauful!"
-She loves her princess potty and potty trained in just one week
-She loves her crib
-She loves to read Dr. Seuss books
-She loves to look at my scrapbooks
-She can't wait for the twins.  She says, "You have two babies in your tummy.  A baby boy and a baby girl. When they comin mom?!"
-My favorite, she knows her full name now and anytime you say something like "Daci your so silly" or "Daci why you being so crazy?" She'll say, "I not silly! I DACI PARAS ROBERTS!" "I not crazy, I DACI PARAS ROBERTS!"
-She loves to know everyone's names
-She twists her hair with her fingers and I'm so afraid she will go bald!
-She loves to push my buttons :)



After her nap today I took her out for a little "photo shoot". Here's my Bug:

16 Weeks and Doing Great!

I'm 16 weeks and I had a great doctors appointment today!  Everything is looking really good and I am so grateful that my babies are healthy so far.  Since I am in my second trimester now, there is something called heart block that the babies are at risk for because of my Lupus.  Because of this, I have an ultrasound every week and they check the heart rates and make sure everything is okay there. Todays appointment went great and my doctor said their heart rates are completely normal.  The ultrasound tech was laughing when she was doing it though because they were both so active, they wouldn't sit still long enough to get an accurate reading.  It took a while but she finally got it.

I had my in depth Level 1 Ultrasound when I got back from Utah at 13 weeks, 5 days.  Here is an excerpt from my journal because I am too lazy to re-write the story :)

"They did an in depth Level 1 ultrasound today and everything is looking wonderful!  The heart rates are good and so are all the organs.  I asked the ultrasound tech (who wasn’t very friendly, by the way) if she could tell what they are yet? She said quite rudely, “No, its way too early”.  She spent about 20 minutes taking pictures and checking out every little thing and then my Dr. came in.  It was the first time I had seen Dr. Moran since I met with her for a consult before we even got pregnant.  She was so excited to find out I was having twins and was just so much fun to talk to!  She started doing her own ultrasound and she said, “Are you going to find out what you are having?” I said, “Oh yes! I’m dying already.  I wish we could tell now what they are!”  She said, “Well, I am pretty sure I know what they are if you want me to tell you!”  I was like, “Of course!”  She said she thinks Baby A (the one closest to the cervix) is a girl and Baby B is a boy!  I asked her how positive she was and she said, “Well, I’ll put it this way, I can’t always tell this early what they are, but when I can tell, I have only ever been wrong once.”  I was so excited!  I was hoping for a boy and a girl all along.  

I went home that day and Carly and I made a two layer cake and dyed one layer pink and one layer blue.  We frosted it a pretty green color and covered it in sprinkles in the shape of a question mark.  We were gong to skype with our families when Rick got home from work and have him cut open the cake to see what we were going to have. 

"I didn’t want to tell Rick that I had found out, I wanted the whole thing to be a surprise so I just had to wait til he got home.  He was supposed to be home at 630pm that night but unfortunately he got caught up and didn’t get home til around 830pm!  We were all dying and anxiously waiting til he got there!  It was so fun to see him walk in the door and see the cake.  He looked at me and said, “No way. No way you know already!” We got everyone on skype and he cut in to the cake.  I strategically placed the pink layer on top because I wanted him to be nervous if there was a blue layer too (he wants a boy SOOOOO bad!).  After the first cut he let out a goofy “AH!” just to tease everyone on skype because they couldn’t see it.  On the second cut he yelled out a real, “YEAH!”  He finally saw the blue (he told me he only saw pink on the first cut and got nervous)!  He was so excited and so am I!  I hope her prediction comes true.  I think it would kill Rick if she was wrong and there isn’t a boy.  Poor guy :)"

Well, I had my ultrasound today and both the ultrasound tech and the doctor confirmed that Baby A is a girl and Baby B is a boy!  We are SO excited!

Baby A from straight on.  You can see Baby B right above her.  She is facing head down and her little brother is laying side ways across me.

Our little boy sucking his thumb.  Awww!

Potty Training!

Okay, I kept saying that when I got back from Utah that I would start potty training Daci....for real this time.  Well, the day came and I so did NOT want to start.  I had started a few times before and it just didn't click and by the end of the day I was just too frustrated to try again the next day.  I have been doing a lot of reading and a lot of people suggest getting them their own little toilet that you just dump and clean each time they go.  I didn't want to do that originally because of the clean up and got her a little toilet seat that sits on the big toilet instead.  Since I haven't had the best of luck the last few times I tried, I decided to go let her pick out her own potty and see how it goes.

We made a special trip to Target and she picked out a pink princess potty that sings songs when she "goes".  I made a big deal about that.  Then, we went to the fruit snack section and I let her pick out the fruit snacks she wanted for her prizes for when she went potty in her princess toilet.  She picked "Tangled" and "Toy Story" snacks.  We also bought a posterboard to decorate so she could put stickers on every time she went. She was so excited and wanted to open the toilet box as soon as we got home but I told her we would wait until the morning to start potty training. "Ok", she said.  The next morning the first thing she says when I go in to get her is "I want to start potty training, Mommy!" That had to be a good sign, right!?

The first two days I just left her naked, without a diaper and put the toilet out in the family room and gave her fluids around the clock.  She pretty much just sat on her toilet and watched movies all day :)  It worked though!  She would just go when she needed to while sitting.  I think this was good because she started recognizing what it felt like before she needed to go, and since she didn't have a diaper on, she knew she needed to put the pee somewhere.  The third day I put the toilet in the bathroom and had her tell me when she needed to go potty.  She didn't even need to tell me, she would just run back there herself, go, the music would play and she would yell "I did it, Mommy!"  After two days of running to the toilet herself I decided to try to put underwear on her.  I was nervous that since I put something back on her, she would think she could go in it.  But, I made a very big deal about how we shouldn't pee on Elmo or Abby because he would be sad (she has Sesame Street panties).  The first day in panties she was dry all day!  I still put her in diapers at nap time or at the grocery store, in case there is an accident but she has done great and has gone most of her naps waking up dry.  She also holds it while we are at the store and goes as soon as we get home! If we are at someone else's house she will tell me she needs to go and we will just use their big potty.  I am so glad that she has adapted so well.  I think the little potty was a big key.  She was too scared to go on a normal toilet before but after getting used to using a small one, she has no fears on a normal toilet.

Now for "#2"...the first 3 days she didn't have an opportunity to go on the toilet because she was in her crib when she went #2.  But the fourth day Daci comes up to me and says, "Mom I pooped on the floor." "What?!" Sure enough, there was a nice little gift on my nice, new carpet (don't worry I cleaned it thoroughly). I wanted to be mad but then I thought, "I haven't really explained that she should go #2 in her princess potty, just #1, maybe she is worried she would get in trouble?" So I told her we go in the pink toilet and if she does that she can have a sucker.  She was really excited about that!  We went back to Target and picked out her sucker for her #2 prize and ever since then she has gone in her toilet!  Wahoo!

Day One of Potty Training:

Day Two: She played lots of dress ups since she was naked :)

And here she is today in her new underwear and her success chart.  Doesn't she just look older!?

The Last of Our Utah Trip

My Mom, Daci and I drove down to Cedar City to visit Easton and Daysha and see Daysha perform in her shows at Tuacahn.  It was SUCH A FUN TRIP!

When we got there Easton and Daysha had a cute present all ready for Daci.  It was a Disney Princess bucket and shovel,  full of treats to eat during the show and some Little Mermaid momentos :) Daci was so excited!

 That night we drove down to St. George and had dinner with E and Daysh and then she left to go get ready for the show.  When we pulled into Tuacahn I was in awe!  It is so beautiful!  Its right in the middle of this beautiful red rock scenery.  Here is a pic of my mom, E, and Daci before the show.

 E, Daci and I in front of The Little Mermaid and Grease signs before the show



We saw Grease the first night and Daysha had the role of Cha Cha.  She was SO amazing!  They changed the role quite a bit from what it is in the movies.  Instead of being really sexy and hoochy, she was the comic relief of the show.  She had a thick spanish accent and did the funniest/craziest dance moves!  She was definitely the most entertaining part of the show and I was SO impressed with her!  Great job Daysh!  The show started at 8:45 so that most of the show would be dark.  Daci's regular bedtime is 7 so needless to say, she was exhausted once the 2.5 hour show was over!

With Daysha (Cha Cha) after the show

Mom ad Daysha

Daysha and her proud hubby

On the way home from the show Daci started coughing her head off.  By the time we got home (after an hour long drive!) she had a fever :(  Easton and Daysha ran to the store and got me some medicine for her while she slept in my mom's arms.  We finally got her in her crib at about 1:30am.  I stayed up with E and Daysh til 3 talking.  Daci and I shared a room and she coughed this scary croup sounding cough all night long.  She was snoring so loudly too!  She woke up at 6am so I got 3 hours of sleep and she got 4.5 hrs.  It was a rough night and I was so worried about her.

 I was thinking she would have to stay home with Easton the next day and miss out on the Little Mermaid show :(  Luckily, by the late afternoon she seemed completely better.  No cough, no fever, and she took a 3.5 hour nap.  She was playing with E and Daysh and seemed back to her normal self.

A cute Little Mermaid costume we got for her at the gift shop

 We took her to the show and I am SO glad we did!  She LOVED it!  It was so fun that she knew all of the characters.  She would get so worried when one of them would leave the stage.  She kept saying "Oh no!  Where Prince Eric go?"  or "Where Ariel go?"  Her favorite of the night was Flounder though!

We tried, but couldn't get Daci to look at the camera. Darn!

Mom, E and Daci before the show

Daci, Daysha and Easton after the show

Mom, Daci, Daysha and I after the show

The next morning we got up and drove back to my parent's house in Springville, but not without stopping for Squeaky Cheese in Beaver!  I was SO excited!  I love fresh cheese curd! :)

Daci loved it too :)

The next day I went and visited my cute friend from SUU, Megan.  She lives in Springville now and it was so fun to see her!  Can you believe I knew her when that little guy next to her was born!?  Time flies!

Cuddling with Grandma

The last night we were there we had The Roberts out for a little "Farewell BBQ".  It was so much fun for Daci to have everyone she loves so much all together for one last time!

Yia Yia Penny, Daci, and Sophie

Easton, Mom, Me, Daci, Dad and Dawson

Sophie, Me, Penny, Daci and Fred

It was such a fun trip and it gets harder and harder to say goodbye every time!  Love you all!