Stylish...one of the cool things you learn in preschool

Emmie has been loving her first year of preschool!

She is Little Miss Confident, and going to school only boosts her in this area.
She is 4 going on 14, that is for sure!
 I love that she's so excited to try new things and adapts to them easily.

She was so proud to be "Star of the Week" back in November. I got to go to her class and tell them about some of her favorite things. I was relieved to see that she wasn't embarrassed to have me there. I guess I have a few more years before those days arrive....

  She's learned alot, including the new vocabulary word, "STYLISH".
I know, because I hear it used, in all different contexts, all day! Who knew they taught such things in Preschool? ;) She goes around saying things like, "Wow Mom, that's stylish!", or after coloring a picture, "Super stylish!". Or after putting the finishing touch on her wardrobe with a scarf or a final fluff of her hair, she'll say with relief, "Okay, NOW I'm stylish". Or often times, she just gives the simple approving raise of the eyebrows and a purse of the lips, followed by a nonchalant "STYLISH", & walk away. And  my personal favorite, when someone hasn't behaved the way she wants them to, like Cinderella's evil Stepsisters, she'll declare, "Ohhh, they're NEVER going to be stylish".
Which to her, is the ultimate punishment.
Watch out!
So if you want to know whether you're stylish or not, just ask our little Queen of the word, Judge of the Style.
 Truth be told, I suspect she doesn't  really understand it's true meaning, but I have no plans to burst her bubble anytime soon.
Are you kidding?
I've never been so "stylish" in all my life!

 

Soccer catch up

 

What better time than January to document Fall soccer? ;)

 

BLUE LIGHTNING!

 

Parker has played on this Fall/Spring team with some of his favorite friends for the last three years. Our two awesome neighbors are the coaches this year. Chris would love to coach, but unfortunately he works almost every Saturday, so I am usually toting the kids solo to the games (no complaints!:).

 

 

Parker took some soccer camps over the summer (I think I already blogged about them), & they really helped to improve his skills this year! He's a fast little guy, sometimes causes me to cringe with his aggressiveness in getting the ball, and at times quite wild and goofy on the field.
He really loves playing and I really love watching him develop a skill that doesn't involve anything electronic. :)

Here he is with two of his very best buddies. He loves and looks up to these guys so much! And for the record, Parker's not as tiny as he looks - Owen and Baden are just really tall for their age!
P's excited to start up again in the Spring! 

Thanksgiving

Is it just me, or do these 2 Wild Little Indians look so grown up?....

 

They had their school Thanksgiving "Feasts" on the same day and were so proud of their feather hats and macaroni necklaces. I just barely (it's January) got away with throwing them out.

 

Thanksgiving Day...
The ritualistic holiday picture before running out the door to our holiday celebration!

We spent Thanksgiving with my Dad's side of the family, at Aunt Jamie's this year.
 I wish I would have gotten a picture of her tables, they are always so nice and fancy.  I dropped my camera a few months back, and ever since I've been irritated with it's performance, and I've been turned off to taking pictures (I'm sure our family has been super relieved;). I mostly snapped pics of the babies....
Note that Lexi and Cousin Jack are the same size (actually - he's a little bigger!) and Lex is 8 months older! I guess my chants of  "Grow Lexi, Grow!", aren't working so well...
 They enjoyed one of their last play times with each other on Thanksgiving before Jack, Steve and Kylie move to San Diego (which happened Dec 27th)...Sad!
I made and brought my usual must-haves for Thanksgiving...Molasses cookies (I wait for this time of year, all year, to make them!), Orange Sherbet Thanksgiving Day jello (only time of year I break out and make jello - I love this stuff, and I'm not a big jello fan), and "Festive" mandarin orange and pomegranate green salad.... my only other mandatory Thanksgiving food would be mashed potatoes! (and of course we had those) I am just fine without turkey and Chris and I just don't care for stuffing....at all!
It was a quick but good Thanksgiving!

Minus 4 teeth in 3 months

This little Handsome lost his first tooth on September 12.
I remember, because it was the day after September 11th, which was picture day. :) Two weeks later he lost his other middle bottom tooth. He was thrilled to get 2 gold dollars per tooth from the Tooth Fairy!
 Over the next few weeks his new teeth tried their best at growing in, but didn't quite have enough space. On a visit to the dentist, it was confirmed that the next two on both sides of the middle guys needed to be pulled to make more room...resulting in this smile:  

 

 P was very brave getting those next 2 pulled! When those teeth start growing in (in the next year or two), he will have to do the same thing- have the next two pulled, and then get space maintainers, then of course braces.

Between spatial issues, his sweet tooth, and Grandma H's confession of bad oral health genes, I think we're going to be spending a lot of time in the dental office over the next decade.  

Post nap 'do

Bedhead.
She gets it from me.
 It's pretty impressive at our house.
 

Halloween in January...

Halloween 2012

 

These little munchkins picked out their costumes themselves this year. (Well, the older 2)

 With absolutely no persuasion, hints or help from me.

 Or Chris.

{ Although, once Uncle Steven showed P that they had Super Mario costumes online, there was no going back...thanks Dude, I owe ya.}

I was just happy that the extent of my "work" on their costumes this year was to simply click in their orders on my computer and have them show up on my doorstep.

Oh, how I love shopping online.

 Smartest thing I did in October.

 For sure. :)

And even better, I didn't feel one ounce of guilt for it.

 

Mario

 

 

Cinderella

 

 

Our little lady bug!

 She loved her costume...

 

The OTHER Lady Bug, Roxy... not so much! She hated it. We got her getup back when we lived in Arizona,

 and we were "those" pet people, you know the kind.

 The ones who buy their animals outfits and Halloween costumes,  who have health insurance plans and special seat belts for their dogs, and whose mutts faces are the only face to adorn the family Christmas card.

Yep. That was us.

Once upon a time.

 It's really kind of embarrassing now.

That was back when we didn't have real babies to take care of and had the time and patience to actually be good pet parents.

Wow, how times have changed...;)

That poor dog has been dethroned 3 times. Sometimes I wonder why she sticks around, but I know she's fiercely loyal so I suppose that's why she hasn't run for the hills yet. Yet...

 

 Chris had to work on Halloween night, but it was okay because the Hansens came to the rescue to help pass out candy while I went Trick or Treating with the kiddos, Uncles Zach came along too with his UP house (minus the balloons in case that wasn't obvious- he came straight from a Final) and even second cousins (Chris' cousin, Lara and her husband Jose's kids) came to join in the fun!We had a great time and it was one of the warmest Halloweens I can remember ever having.
 It was a good night!

 

Wedding bells!

Dustin (Chris' brother) and Sarai got married back in October!


We just love Sarai and feel so lucky to have her join the family!
Dustin turns the big 3-0 in a few weeks, so it was a long time comin' (just sayin'! Love ya D!), but definitely well worth the wait for this cute sister in law! ;) We adore her!
 

 

October 27th... It was a beautiful, sunny, Fall day at the Salt Lake Temple!

 

 
{Of course I have to insert my own fam photo snapped that day... they don't happen very often!} :)

Sweet Grandpa Lonczyna passed away 3 weeks after the wedding (Nov 15) at 97 years old. It was so special that he made it to the entire day of wedding events. He hadn't been doing well leading up to it, but came the entire day and we even had him dancing in his wheelchair that night at the reception! He was such a trooper and I just felt that he was determined to make it to this event for Dustin, whom is named after him (middle name), and whom he also baptized. We miss Grandpa but feel so blessed for the long and abundant life he lived and I know he is closeby watching over us all... I can hear his raspy Ukranian accent in my head and it just brings a smile to my face. I adore that sweet man...

The Hansens not only did the entire wedding dinner the night before, but also the reception! The above picture is from the dinner... it looked AMAZING! They did it at Chris' parent's church, but I've never seen a church transformed like this... not even close! It looked incredible! Not to mention, the food was great! Eric and Brett (brother and bro in law) stayed up almost the entire night smoking all kinds of meat. The Hansens are serious about good food, in case you wondered!

The Reception....

This is the only group pic I got of us all right before the reception, but right after taking it we realized that Bethany and Brett weren't even there yet! I'm still including it because it's the only one I have! Sorry B & B! :) It was a little chaotic right before because like I said, the Hansens did all of the decorating, set up, etc.... crazy, BUSY day!

The reception was at this little barn in Draper and turned out so cute! My sis in law, Sarah made the awesome cake.  Lots of love went into the reception and it turned out perfectly.The dancing at the end of the night was soooo much fun! My hubs doesn't dance (it might be hereditary because his brother Zach  apparently doesn't either ;),so ya know that song, "I'm gonna party like it's 1999"....yeah, well, it came to mind because it's basically been about that long since I got my groove on! I might have looked like a complete idiot, but who cares, it was still so much fun! :)

Congrats Dustin and Sarai!
Our kids are looking forward to the beautiful, brunette cousins you're going to provide them!
xo

San Francisco

In October, we got a little crazy and braved the big city of San Francisco with three kiddos. To say I was having big time anxiety leading up to this trip is an understatement. Of all the places to tote around three kids, I wasn't sure San Fran was even on my list of desired possibilities.
Much to my relief, the plane flight there couldn't have gone smoother, and miraculously everyone behaved. Little Miss L didn't make a single peep, and by the power of modern technology (I-phone games) (okay and a few M&M's), the older two earned their gold wings that day as well.


Let's be honest, there's lots of "interesting" people to check out in this city. As I was trying to keep myself from staring at many of them this day that we visited Union Square, I came to the realization that lots of people were actually staring at US! It quickly became clear that WE were one of the biggest spectacles of all in this city, with three kids under 6 and a double stroller! I was quite amused at this revelation, especially as I'm staring at what was once a man, strutting his her stuff in stilettos, sporting a mohawk and mini skirt...and she is staring at us with wonder. It hit me in that moment that we in fact were the ones sticking out like a sore thumb...LOL. No judgement from me onto anyone else's lifestyle, but just appreciation (?) & maybe some amusement for the colorful world we live in... ;) We just blend right in in good old Utah, so it's funny to turn heads and summon stares in a new place. :)

The reason for our trip was a family reunion!
This just never happens in my family! I come from a very tiny extended family on both sides, the majority whom live either back East or in California. My only girl cousin growing up just had twin baby girls last December, and with my little brother having had his first baby last June, and my cute baby turning one, we felt we couldn't pass up the opportunity to get all these babies together!

The main catalyst for the get together though, was that my maternal grandfather would have turned 100 this October, so Aunt Suesan thought it would be great to get together in honor of him. He served in the military throughout his life, and it was Fleet Week in SF- a week of honoring and thanking those who serve and have served for our country in the United Forces. The combination made it the perfect storm for honoring my grandfather, who passed away when I was about 12.

 Megan, my cousin, and her husband and daughters, live across the street from Golden Gate Park, so we had a big picnic (several) there. What an amazing park! It was so much fun to see her sweet baby girls and her amazing true SF townhome and spend some time in their neck of the woods. Megan and I are only 3 months apart in age, and she being an only child, and me not having a sister, we loved to visit each other growing up. Often after Christmas, my Grandma and I would fly out and stay at her home in Palo Alto, and Megan would come out to UT for weeks in the summer during which time we would both "live" at our Grandma's home. We would rollerskate our way through the sidewalk chalk cities we sketched on Grandma's big driveway, play competetive games of Skip Bo and Rummikub, and romp through the Salt Lake City Cemetery which she lived across the street from. We loved to swing from the big cherry tree (& partake of it's fruit), put on plays with my older brother, and we loved it when Grandma would give us money to walk to what we named "The Little Store" down on the corner to buy some treats. Ahhh, the memories.

 I have to brag a bit about her... this brilliant cousin of mine is a Stanford alumni (both Bachelors and a Doctorate), and is currently faculty of Harvard and doing research (long distance) for them! She is also a professor at Sonoma State.

Back to the trip...
We were the first of my fam to arrive in Cali, so the first night there we stayed at my Aunt and Uncle's home. My Uncle Barr is a Professor of Psychiatry at Stanford University and so they live in a beautiful area right on on Stanford Campus. Barr took Chris on a tour around campus that night starting at 10 pm while I stayed back with the kids and slept. Chris was super impressed and loved it! The next day, Aunt Suesan made us some delicious whole wheat blueberry pancakes and we did some more site-seeing at Stanford and visited the Junior museum and had a lot of fun checking it all out before my Mom's flight got in. The campus is so beautiful! I can't believe that with all the times I went out there growing up, that we'd never actually walked around the campus!

My Mom arrived and we picked her up from the BART Station and headed over to our vacation rental condo. It was SUCH a nice place! It was immaculate and it was great that we had plenty of room for all of us. Reed, Steven, Kylie and Baby Jack were coming in the next few days..

Meanwhile, Wednesday was Lexi's first birthday! I felt terrible for traveling on her big day, and decided it would be a fun way to remember it by taking her to the beach. Suesan & Barr recommended Stinson Beach....it was quite a long drive but off we went!

Lexi had her first feel of the sand, Emmie couldn't dig enough, and Parker almost got swept away in the shark-infested waves after taking a face plant while trying to chase his lost flip flop into the water. Aghhh! There was a sign warning to stay out of the water because recently someone had been attacked  by a shark in just 6 feet of water there. If you know me, you know I am TERRIFIED of the ocean because of those rubbery gray people-killers with fins on their backs. TER.IF.FIED! Thankfully, crisis was averted, and Birthday Girl had her first taste of the beach.

Later that day, we met up with Aunt Suesan in Golden Gate Park who brought a bunch of Kara's Cupcakes in honor of Lexi's birthday. It was Lexi's first bite of sugar! She ate a little, but didn't quite know what to think. Some passersby even shared in on the cupcakes and asked to take pictures with us and the cute birthday girl!

One of our favorite days there was spent down on Fisherman's Wharf. Everyone else went to Alcatraz (you can see the island there in the picture), but we stayed back since it's not exactly something you take small kids to. The kids loved checking out the stinky seals and watching the big ships that were sailing into harbor for Fleet Week. We rode the carasoul and ate lunch overlooking the water. This is where the action started...

 

The air show rehearsal for Fleet Week began right while we had prime seats overlooking the harbor at the restaurant. It. Was. AWESOME!! Such perfect timing and it was soooo fun to watch! One of our favorite moments of the trip, for sure!

My favorite place that we ate was Boudin Bakery and their upstairs restaurant, Boudin Bistro! The Smoked Chicken Waldorf salad was THE BEST in all the land and the COOKIES WERE AMAZING! Totally my kind of restaurant!

Another fun outting was our visit to the CA Academy of Sciences, right there in the middle of Golden Gate Park. This place was HUGE and was not only a natural history museum, but also a planetarium and aquarium (and much more!). It's all about exploring, explaining and protecting the natural world. Each floor represented a new ecosystem, beginning with the aquarium underground on up. It was amazing! Unfortunately we only had about two hours to go through it. Definitely NOT enough time, but we all thought it was such a fascinating place and would love to go back.

And of course -- you don't visit San Fran and not go to Ghiradelli Square, Union Square,

& China Town!
We really had a great time and the kids keep asking when we can go again, and I'm wondering that myself! I was pleasantly surprised at the ease of the trip (thanks Mom and Reed for the great place to stay!).
San Fran with three kids... a success!!!

The 12 months of Lexi

Our sweet little Lexi turned one the first week of October!
This year flew by in a flash!
It has definitely been a year full of ups and downs (more the latter), but Lexi has been such a bright spot through it all! She has truly been the best baby, with such a sweet and loving countenance. It's been an honor to have her precious spirit enter into our family. She and her brother and sis make my joy so full! My grandma has reminded me numerous times how these are 'the good days' and that someday I'll look back on these days with longing. I really have been trying to remember that wisdom and enjoy the here and now amidst the moments of chaos and craziness that inevitably come with three small kiddos.

The summer prior to my being pregnant with Lexi, I had this strong feeling on several occasions that we would be pregnant with our next child the following January. I shared this with Chris and told him to 'be ready', because I just knew that her little spirit was waiting up there, and that that was the timing for her to join our family here. Low and behold,  that January I became pregnant with Lexi (we were not trying prior to that month). Chris was somehow shocked, which amused me  as I had given him fair warning. I was extremely sick with this pregnancy. We didn't tell any family until I was about 14 weeks along, which was hard with how sick I was. I basically lived in the bathroom for almost 6 straight months, and Emmie, 2 1/2 at the time, would make us laugh with her imitation of me vomiting. It was lovely. I could hardly move in the afternoons I was so incredibly nauseous, so Parker and I would lay out our game of Skip Bo on the ottoman and we would play cards every afternoon while Emmie napped. And yes, Parker had pretty impressive Skip Bo skills!
Before we even knew we were having a girl, I suddenly had a strong liking for the name Alexis. This name had never even crossed my mind as a possibility before and I thought it was funny that I suddenly loved it so much. I talked to Chris about it, and miraculously, he loved the name too! I was nervous to ask him about it because with our previous pregnancies he was always quick to veto my names. But I had a very strong feeling feeling that this should be her name, and so from the minute it was confirmed that she was a girl, we knew she would be Lexi. We didn't really tell the kids because we didn't want them announcing it to everyone. So they came up with their own name... they were set on the name McKenzie, and Chris and I still had our backup name of Brooklyn- just in case- but inside we pretty much knew Alexis would be her name.
 Alexis' middle name is Faith, named after my paternal grandma, Faye (whom we call Mimi). Yes, we got creative and added the "th" to make it "Faith".
 Lexi has made our lives even that much more enjoyable with her special presence in our home. I know she was meant to be in our family. She is such a sweetheart and has been such a blessing to us all!

Here she is through the first 12 months of her life:



Lexi is always on the go! As I'm writing this she is coming up on 14 months and is yet to stand on her own, however, she has such a finely tuned crawl as this has been her mode of transportation for a good 7 months now. Just in the last 2 weeks she is finally pulling herself up on furniture to a standing position but is still too wobbly to stand alone. She has been taking little steps this week as she pushes Parker's old firetruck ride-on toy, and Emmie's old stroller walker. She is so proud of herself. Hopefully by Christmas this little peanut will have the muscle development to stand on her own! She is getting close!

Yesterday she crawled up the stairs for the first time. Parker was so cute to stage himself behind her to make sure she didn't fall. She was very proud of her new trick. Me- I'm a nervous wreck until my kids learn how to go DOWN the stairs, so I guess that will be our next endeavor.

Lexi's mind is really sharp. She picks up on new words and concepts really quickly. I think she looks so small that sometimes I forget that she is capable of more than I think.
She is so easy to put to bed. She is my first baby that I don't sit and rock before bedtime. I just put her in, she lays down, watches her glow worm, sucks her thumb while simultaneously stroking her eyelashes with her opposite hand and usually goes right to sleep. She just started sleeping in her crib in her room about a month ago. She slept in the pack and play in our room for a whole year! Pathetic, I know, but we only have 3 bedrooms on the top floor (2 in the basement- but I'm not about to have my kids sleep on a different floor than me - and P wants nothing to do with that either), so having Emmie and Parker sleep together on P's bunk beds was more work than it was worth there for a while. But-- we finally made the transition and everyone is happy. For now!:)

Back in October, we were at a children's clothing store, and not having a stroller, I put Lexi down for a minute. She was crawling around and this lady came over and and was astonished at how young and tiny my baby was to 'already be crawling'. I just kind of smiled and laughed, and kept from sharing the fact that my 'baby' was actually ONE, so not only is it normal that she's crawling, but it'd be totally normal if she were walking too!
But it's true... our sweet little Lexi looks like she's about 6 months old...

Lexi's Stats:
9 month visit in July:
Height: 25.5 inches; 0.49%ile
Weight: 14.59 lbs; 2.29%ile

 12 month appt in October:
Height: 26 inches; 0.08%ile
Weight: 14.99 lbs; 0.96 %ile

She hardly grew in 2 1/2 months, and has been in the bottom 3 %ile since July.

I remember saying months back that I just want to "freeze" Lexi the way she is because she is just so sweet and perfect. Now for the irony in those words! Over the summer I bought some clothing anticipating that she would grow into them, and she never did, and never has. Part of me just loved having such an itty bitty baby (no back aches plus the cuteness!), but in the back of my mind I wondered why she didn't seem to be getting any bigger.  At her 9 month appointment the doctor was concerned with her little growth, but said that her 12 month appointment would be a big indicator as to whether there was a problem. At her 12 month appointment the second week of October, the doctor's face just fell and I could see and hear his concern right away. He told me that it's one thing for her to be tiny and petite (which, with a 5'1 mom, plus short and petite grandma's is feasible), but that she had grown alarmingly very little since her previous appointment three months earlier and that she was no longer following her own curve. He assured me that it had nothing to do with nutrition since her height and weight correspond perfectly, and told me not to increase her caloric intake as that would just make her short and fat, which wouldn't do anything but add to a potential problem. He told me that it's very likely that she has growth hormone deficiency. He wants to reevaluate her at 15 months, and at that time if she has still had little growth, he'll send us up to a specialist at Primary Childrens for further testing. We've been concerned about it, but have been trying not to worry too much about it before we have to! I think she just went through a little growth spurt, so I have high hopes that she's somehow catching up. I have a few other concerns that go along with possible causes of GHD, but figure there is no sense writing them down and getting all worked up about them before we know if there is even an issue. So, we're a little anxious for mid- January to get here and to get some answers, but are trying to enjoy the holidays and the here and now too!

Meanwhile, we're just loving our precious tiny baby!
She is definitely something to celebrate, and celebrate her
 1st birthday is what we did in
San Francisco!

It was cold, but we braved the beach.

 I love these genuine smiles.

I felt awful to be traveling on her first birthday, so it made me feel a little better to make a birthday banner and  try and make her day special.

 A cupcake picnic in Golden Gate Park! My sweet aunt (whom we were visiting in Cali) picked up some cupcakes and they even got shared with some passersby.
On a side note, I look awful but it's okay because the birthday girl's cute smile makes posting the picture worth it.;)

... And the little cupcake girl, digging into her very first bite of sugar, on her very first birthday, in Golden Gate Park!
We sure love you cute Miss Lexi!!!