the diaper duo

having two children in diapers is awesome, let me tell you!

i have been seriously considering potty training max to cut down on diaper costs + stinky diapers but i've gotten mixed reviews on when to start with a boy.

{don't you get mixed reviews in all areas of parenting??}

i read this awesome post + she had her son trained before he was even two! amazing. but, a lady in my ward pointed out that as nice as it is having them out of diapers, it's not nice when you have a grocery cart full of food, a crying baby, and a toddler that has to go "now!" when you put it that way...maybe i'll wait until he's four :)

i'm interested to hear when your take on potty training is...what secrets have you heard/tried? what worked for you? when would you recommend starting? i'd love to hear.

until max upgrades, having two children in diapers makes for some great pictures!

i love our little diaper duo:

oh, and in the picture below--max figured out how to take his diaper off!! what an accomplishment :) last time i put him down for a nap in just his diaper...

family pictures 2011

whew! family pictures are exhausting! while my brother + his family were in town during august, my mom wanted to get some family pictures since it has been over a year and a half and two little girls have been added to the family. my mom's brother todd took the pictures and he was fantastic!! he was excellent with the kids + worked fast which is what we needed with five little ones. we took them at nielsen's grove/park in orem and i love the way they turned out!! besides the fact that our children have their fingers shoved in their mouths...haha i laugh every time i see that picture :)

todd captured some priceless pictures. some of my favorites are: the very top picture, the group shot directly below, tallest-shortest, and the picture of me + my sisters. we took a picture almost identical to that one over eight years ago...i need to find it and compare :)

which ones do you like??

our county fair...

..."is the best county fair! don't miss it, don't even be late!"

one thing we've come to love about our little town is the sense of togetherness + the traditions that are so prevalent throughout the community. the fair is one of those traditions that the people talk about + look forward to all year long.

and now that we've gone, we know why! we had such a good time seeing all the animals + craft/food entries, going to free rodeos, riding around on the little train, eating fair food, watching juab's county idol performers, going to the dutch oven cook off, seeing the little babies race in the diaper derby, and best of all, going to the DEMOLITION DERBY!

before the derby started, everyone had to clear out of the arena because of a natural emergency. it was SO windy + it looked like it was going to rain all night long. they told us to wait in our cars until the storm blew over but after about twenty minutes, we thought it would be called off for sure. we took the kids home, gave them their baths + then we heard the announcers back on at the arena! so we packed into the car with jackets and set out for our evening entertainment.

we felt slightly white trash...but we had way more fun than expected!

our friends natasha + jeff invited us to sit in their box seats with them + they definitely added to the overall greatness of the night. their kids look forward to the derby all year long, and from the looks on their boys' faces...you can tell! it is awesome. to top it all off, avery slept through the entire derby!! i have no idea how that happened. if you've ever been to a demolition derby, you know that they are anything but quiet. but she slept like a log and max was glued to the cars the whole time. sadly, i didn't get any pictures but it was a wonderful and very late night. if you've never been to a derby, you might want to try it out :)

st. george

a few weeks before school started up again, we packed our little family of four into the car and headed down to st. george, utah. it was a wonderful little getaway. not as relaxing as we had initially imagined with two children {under two!} but we tried to make the most of it! we got a deal at the townhouse suite marriott and, besides having to put max's bed in the bathroom, the set-up couldn't have been better. max's favorite part was the closet that connected to the bathroom + the kitchen area. he ran through the closets constantly!

our trip basically consisted of eating, sleeping, hiking, and swimming. not to shabby, huh??

we could see the swimming pool from our room and max would run to the window saying "water! water!" however, whenever we finally made our way down to the pool he would get terrified! we would hold him and swim to the center of the pool while he cried for the stairs. after three swimming sessions, we thought he'd warm up to the water...but he never did! any advice out there on how to help your little ones not be terrified of water?? he wasn't scared of running around the pool though! i almost had multiple heart attacks but the biggest wound was from the pool chairs. somehow max wedged himself between the chairs, and walked away with a fat lip + a very interesting cut. can you see it in the picture? poor boy!

we were able to go to snow canyon and do a fun--but extremely sandy!--hike. since we are super smart, we decided to hike around noon when the sun is highest in the sky...so we had to cut the hike short but we still had a great time. snow canyon is absolutely beautiful and it was fun to think that the last time we were there i was pregnant with max! crazy how time flies.

poor avery was not happy! max wasn't at his best either :) after getting in our cool car + getting some water in us we felt a little better so we decided to try and find the splash pad/merry-go-round i saw on-line. thanks to danny's internal gps, we made it! we all got a little dizzy on the merry-go-round, but we had a hard time pulling max away from all the water! {i guess when he's not completely surrounded he loves water...silly boy}

the next day, before heading home we walked around the st. george temple grounds. i always forget how extremely WHITE that temple is!! it is absolutely breath-taking. i'll tell what's not breath-taking though--a baby having a complete blow out in white pants...with no diaper! yeah, we are awesome parents! :) luckily, there was a wedding going on and we asked someone for an extra diaper. it was a little big, but it did the job!

and we ended our trip with one last swim at the pool. it was hard to leave beautiful st. george with the blue skies, red rocks, and warm weather but luckily it's not to far away! we'll for sure be back.

my baby girl

sometimes it is unreal to me that i have TWO children. seriously?! i never would have even dreamed of having two kids at the age of twenty-three. but here i am with an almost two year old, energetic, happy, little boy and an absolutely beautiful, tan, sweet, 4 month old baby girl.

it is crazy to think about.

life can get crazy sometimes. very crazy. like yesterday morning, for instance. avery woke up three times last night and decided she was up for good at 7:30 am. i thought i'd be able to slip in the shower real quick before max woke up but just as i had avery content with her binky...i heard max crying for "nope" {aka milk} in his room. so i rushed to the bathroom, put my contacts in, and threw on an outfit before rescuing max from his crib. only to find out that he definitely woke up on the WRONG side of the bed. he demanded a fruit-by-the-foot for breakfast {which was at least one year old!} and when i wouldn't give in he threw himself back on the floor. after five minutes of him crying, avery started crying...and i considered putting all of us back to bed to start the day over. however, after saying our morning prayers + some definite miracles the rest of the day turned out much better.

luckily, not all mornings are like that. some are quite the opposite. when i snapped these pictures of my sweet little avery, max was sleeping in + all was quiet in the house.

i absolutely love this baby girl of mine. she is sweet. she makes the cutest little noises. she curls her toes up so tight it looks uncomfortable but she does it all the time so it must not hurt. she smiles so big at max. she can get her legs kicking super fast. she loves chewing on mortimer the moose. she falls asleep in the bike trailer in about two seconds flat. she instantly calms down the second we lay her in her tub. she can roll over.

oh, and she has the most beautiful skin i have ever seen. when people see her for the first time they usually make one of three comments:

1. "you know, you shouldn't take your baby to the tanning beds."

2. "it's not good to set your baby out in the sun."

3. "i have never seen two white people with such a tan baby."

it is pretty hilarious! we love it though. and we love our avery. she has added so much light to our family and we are forever grateful that we get to be her parents.

so, even though life is crazy-hectic-busy-filled-with-crying sometimes,

i wouldn't trade being a mom to max + avery for the world.