Pretty Piggies

A few days ago Mike needed some quiet time to study (is this a running theme in my posts?) so Logan and I locked ourselves in the bathroom and did some pedicures! I love having a little girl at this age--she's so into doing all things girly and fun. When I asked her if she wanted me to paint her piggies her response was, "woooooooow, color my piggies? yes!" It's hard to tell because the color is a very, very muted pink, but it's on there! As for mine, I probably would have had better luck getting a nice, even pedi if I had asked my two year old to do it. Oh, pregnancy.

We got L an easel for her birthday to keep all of her coloring supplies organized and so she'd have her own space to color/etc. once the baby arrives and it has been such a hit. It's the one activity I can tell her to do that she'll drop everything and go to.

"No pipures, mommy, I color." She said as I whipped out the camera.

It also has a magnetic whiteboard which has been fun to use with her letter magnets. However, she did find one of my whiteboard makers from our food calendar and quickly realized how wonderfully it works on the board...this has made for some interesting clean ups and I'm having to come up with some seriously good hiding places for the rest of the markers.

Nona

It is SUCH a blessing to live in a community that is going through the same thing at the same time. I have such a strong support group of other seminary wives here who know exactly what it's like and can relate so well. When Mike works nights, Logan and I usually go and hang out with Lindsay and Noah to help make the time pass. Noah wears Logan out and she sleeps well and I get to have some interaction with another mommy/wife.

Logan and Noah play really well together. When you ask her where we're going at night she says, "To Nooooo's house." However, today, when we were there and she was trying to get his attention she kept screaming "Nona" or "Nina!" I think when she's saying it quickly she has a harder time with that "uh" sound.

Monkey see, Monkey do:

Smile, guys! ...or stare at each other, you know, whatever works.

Noah teaching Logan the ways of the boy. He's preparing her for a little brother.

P.S. I was a bad blogger tonight and forgot my camera so these pictures are all courtesy of Lindsay!

36 Weeks!

Only FOUR weeks left! Typically they tell you that at 37 weeks they won't stop labor, but our Dr.'s seem pretty confident that this little man is big enough and strong enough that if he wanted to come today they'd be ok with it. Me? I could bake him a little longer. :) I love the idea of having him in March...though, if he decides to come in February, we're definitely ready.

Logan was running around pantless all afternoon so that's why she's cropped out of this picture (minus the crazy action shot of her leg). She's SO ready for this baby to be here. She constantly tugs at my stomach and tells me her brother is stuck and he needs to "get out and pay" with her.

I'm still pretty productive. I sleep well at night but am thankfully able to get a lot done during the day. I deep cleaned the kitchen this week and will be working on getting the living room (particularly the nasty rug) in good condition this week...anyone recommend a really good, high powered spot cleaner I can use? I'd love to just rent a steam cleaner but it's out of the budget right now.

This week I crafted this guy:

We moved the changing table from L's closet into the bathroom. The kids' bathroom has a jungle/animal theme so I wanted to have a pad to match and couldn't find one on target.com so I went ahead and made one myself. It'll be nice (and should make life a little easier for all parties involved) to have it in the bathroom so I can change him at night without waking Mike or Logan up and it makes for some nice, extra storage in there, too!

Speaking of making life easier...I wish I could make one of these: (here's the link to the ergo)

Can I tell you that I can carry my 2 year old on my back with this thing at 36 weeks pregnant? And I don't feel the weight? It's insane! I'm definitely a baby wearing mom and this is one carrier I think I'll use this go around. And I can use it with both of my babies. I borrowed it at the beginning of my pregnancy from a neighbor for a few weeks to use to help me carry Logan around and it was quite the life saver. I have a moby that I love for that newborn stage, but to be able to carry my toddler around and not have any stress on my back is fantastic.

We finished the nursery today, too! Unfortunately, baby boy's name is plastered over quite a bit of it so I'm going to have to refrain from posting pictures this week...though, I'm dying to show it off! I may have to try and get creative with my photography skills (or lack thereof) and see if I can take some without the names or blur them out...

The Dimp

There are a few places Logan and I frequent every week and so when we go to walk out the door, if you ask her where we're going, she'll go through the list....

"Tar?" (target)

"Tols?" (Kohls--where we go when we need to get out of the house)

"Chur?" (Church)

and "Ribry?" (Library)

Today was library day.

We make this trip whenever the books I've been reading during her naps or after she goes to bed (when Mike works) are running low....or when I get tired of reading the same 4 books over and over and over again to Logan. Today Mike was at home studying and needed a quiet house and I have less than half a book left (and I think I've read the Curious George books we got last week at least 1,000 times) so Logan and I packed up and headed over to the library. I love that she loves to read and that she asks to go to the library to get new books. Her favorite part about going, though? The "dimp." That would be what Logan calls the hand stamp they give her every time we go. She talks about it for the rest of the day and shows it to anyone who will look. Then she will ask when we can go back to the library for another dimp all week long. I've thought about getting a small set of stamps for the house but I really love that it's something thats special to the library so I think I'll leave it as a treat she gets when we go there.

After the library we headed off to sonic so that we could get Logan a cup of crushed ice. She loves to chew on it and it's a great way for me to get some water into her body without having to force her to drink it.

I'm trying to really enjoy all of these precious moments that Logan and I get together because I know it's going to get a lot harder to do some of them when we have #2. We're really looking forward to having him here, but I want to love every second I have with my firstborn before we add another.

Look Who Just Turned Two!

Logan started her morning with her breakfast of choice (waffles!) and we got to enjoy them as a family because Mike, thankfully, had the day off.

I carefully pin all of her hair back when she has anything with syrup, otherwise, we inevitably end up with a clump of hair full of it.

Mike headed off to class and Logan and I went on a mommy date to build-a-bear for the morning. She picked out her very own bear:

Waiting to get stuffed:

Picking out a heart for the bear. Logan thinks everything should come in twos now that she's two years old and insisted that the bear needed "TWWWWOOOOOO" hearts, not just one.

Having the process explained to her:

Helping stuff her bear:

Checking for it's "huggability":

Warming up the bear's heart:

And then putting the heart in the bear to bring it to life!

Then she went to give the bear a bath and fluff her up:

She picked out an outfit and we were on our way! She loved the experience, it was so much fun to see her get so involved. She's been carrying the bear around non-stop since we got home with it yesterday. It's name? Baby bear. I think everything she owns right now has the name baby in it.

Her big two year old outfit:

We headed out after her nap to pick up her tup-takes. She insisted on taking her new backpack and bear with her:

I felt far too pregnant this year to try and attempt another cake and we saw these cute cupcakes at target a few weeks ago and went ahead and ordered some. The cupcakes were Logan's request, she and I looked through cakes and cupcakes and she insisted she needed the cupcakes. She also got to pick the flavors of the cupcakes, the lady at the bakery really was sweet and let Logan look through pictures and pick exactly what she wanted.

She thoroughly enjoyed her cupcakes this year, which was nice since last year she wouldn't even touch her smash cake! She did keep very, very clean, though.

We learned our lesson at Christmas not to try and make her open all of her presents at once so we opened a few every couple of hours. It was perfect because it allowed her plenty of time to play with whatever she had opened and then she got something new when she was done! Here are some of our present pictures:

Logan requested "fren fies" (French fries) for lunch, so I made some for her and then requested we take her for pizza for dinner. Here she is saying "Shu-shu" (thank you) daddy for my pizza!"

This was her reaction when she realized the massive dessert they brought out after dinner was for her eating enjoyment:

Notice the change of pants? Logan pulled the top off of her apple juice and spilled it on her other ones. We fully intended on teaching her a lesson (because we CONSTANTLY tell her she needs to keep the tops on her cups) and we were going to leave her in the wet pants until before we left. Her reaction to that was, well, I'll teach you guys a lesson and she got out in the aisle of the restaurant and began to strip her pants (and everything else) off....so she won and we went to the bathroom and changed. So much for that lesson.

This was our last big family event as a family of three! Our next big event will be welcoming #4 to the world!

2 Years Old!

Logan is TWO years old today! Here are some of the things she's up to:

- She wears a size 2T in her clothes and she wears a size 5 shoe.

- She can count to 10 with some prompting and knows the numbers in the right order.

- She can sing songs like Jesus Loves Me, My God is So Big and today she learned "Happy Birthday to Lo Lo." Sorry if your birthday comes and she sings happy birthday to herself...she's learning ;).

- She remembers story books she reads and can retell stories by looking through the pictures.

- She recognizes her name and when it's spelled out will tell you, "That says Lo Lo!"

- She's got quite a vocabulary and knows more words than I can count. She's speaking in sentences now and you can have quite the conversation with her if you work hard enough at it. Her favorite word? No. It's quickly becoming my least favorite word.

- She's very sensitive and when Mike or I are visibly upset she'll give big hugs and say, "I so shorry mommy (or daddy)." She's also taken to saying that right after she comes out of her room from time out so it's hard to stay upset for too long with her.

- She likes to dress herself. She (thankfully) still lets me pick her clothing but she puts most of it on herself. And most of the time she does it correctly. She does not like to be helped in any capacity so we have to start getting ready to go out a good hour ahead of time because we know it'll take a while to get all of her stuff on.

- She LOVES to swim in the bathtub and will call out for the world to hear that she's "FIMMING."

- She's a sweet little mommy to her baby dolls. She loves to change diapers, put them to bed, change their clothes and tote around a "dia bag (diaper bag)" for them. She'll be a big help when the baby comes, I'm sure.

- She's very good at following instructions. She'll get the things we ask her to get and can follow a series of instructions, too. We can tell her to do numerous things at once and she'll go get them all done.

- She loves to clean! She makes her bed every morning, helps straighten her room at night and does a very good job of helping me with odd jobs around the house.

- She is COMPLETELY potty trained! She wears big girl panties all day long, even through her nap, and only wears a diaper at night because we've had a couple of accidents happen. She's making it longer and longer, though, so maybe by the time the boy makes his appearance we will truly only have one in diapers.

- She uses a spoon and a fork and does it correctly. She's gotten to the point where she doesn't make too much of a mess when she eats, and when she does, she cleans it up herself.

- She still uses sippy cups mainly for my sanity because she does pretty well with regular cups.

- She's very into pretend play and will make all kinds of foods in her "chichen" to feed people. Then she'll walk around the house and ask every doll, stuffed animal and living being if they "wan shum?"

- Knows the colors pink, green, yellow, red and blue. Can identify pink every time, the other ones you have to prompt her.

- Knows that a green light means go and a red one means "top, top!" We had to teach her this when she'd scream "GO GO GO GO GO" like crazy any time we pulled up to a red light.

It doesn't seem like 2 years ago we were in the hospital getting ready for the crazy ride that parenthood has brought, but we also can't imagine a life without our sweet girl. We have been so blessed with such a wonderful child and are so excited to see what the next year brings!