Music for all!

So Russ introduced me to grooveshark 2 months ago.

And my life has been changed.

I was able to make a playlist of all of my favorite songs. It has every song! There was not one I looked up and couldn't find. Now all of my fav's are in one place. It's like 3 awesome mixed cd's in a row. (like an ipod, but without having to pay to download the songs, which I am waaay to cheap to do)

I'm in love.

You should go make your own playlist.
Or listen to mine. It's now on the sidebar --->

Carly lately

Yes, this is just a compilation of a bunch of facebook statuses (stati?) from the last 2 months. And yes, most of you are my facebook friends and will be totally bored reading this. But my blog is bound & printed, and my facebook page is not. And these are the cute moments I want to recount later on and share at Carly's wedding. So here you go:

- One rainy day, Carly asked if we could go play on the playground. I explained that it rained today, so the sand would be all wet. She brought me a towel and said she would dry it all off before playing in it.

- Carly is starting to explore her girly side. I have caught her, on multiple occasions, standing on the toilet so she can see in the mirror while applying my makeup, or a chapstick, or one time it was brushing her hair with a fork (too much little mermaid?). The funniest part is that she doesn't know I'm watching, but will talking to herself about how very pretty she is.

- I love that Marshall paints Carly's nails. Fingers and toes. He has done it 2 or 3 times now, and she is so smitten with him for it. I hardly have the patience to do her nails, and am too OCD to even do my own.

- I love even more that Carly snuck up on Marshall while he was sleeping and managed to paint a few of his nails. Marsh woke to Carly informing him he now had pretty nails, and on closer inspection, she was right!

- One day Carly was whining, so I did my usual "you want some cheese with that whine?" She immediately proclaimed "I do want some cheese with my whine! You go get me cheese!"

- Carly is now a self-feeder. Meaning she doesn't wait for me to get her food. If she wants to eat, she'll go to the fridge and eat whatever she can reach. On at least 3 occasions in the last couple months I have found her gnawing on the block of cheese. Usually hiding in her bedroom. This week it was her + a carton of chocolate ice cream on the kitchen floor. Another time it was a cold hotdog. Apparently she didn't want to wait for dinner. Or for me to cook it for her.

- Carly is starting to love weddings. She talks all the time about how she is going to get big, and go to the temple, and marry daddy, and wear a pretty dress, and have flowers, and dance! And then repeat. She'll talk about her imaginary wedding over and over, more excited each time.

- She is so darn smart. I have this little book my mom made for me when I was a baby. It has a picture of me, and my crib, and my cat, parents, grandparents, etc. Carly loves looking at it. And telling me all about how I used to be a baby, but now I'm big! And how that is the crib I slept in when I was a baby, and that was my pet kitty. And that was my mommy, but now she is grandma. And that was my daddy, but now he is grandpa! And those other people are my grandma's and grandpa's. I think we looked through it once together and I explained it to her. But I never thought she'd get that concept or remember who the people really were in the book.

- I put Carly in time-out yesterday, and explained to her that she was going to sit there because she had kicked Wes in the head. She quickly corrected me, "No I didn't! I kicked Wes in the FACE!"

- Today during the passing of the Sacrament, I leaned over and said something to Marshall. Carly loudly hushed me and then whispered "You have to be very quiet! We're supposed to think about Jesus right now."

11 months

Wes turned 11 months 2 weeks ago. This has been a bad blogging month. :(

Anyway, here's the update!

- Wes is now walking! Yay! He took his first independent steps on May 25th, and here is a video I took that day. He now mostly walks, and will toddle after me from room to room.

- Wes has been working on breaking the top 2 middle teeth all month.

- Wes is mostly on finger foods. He still has 4-5 bottles a day, but enjoys eating just about everything we eat, from burritos to scrambled eggs, toast, to sandwiches.

- Wes' hair just keeps getting more curly! And he is still totally blonde.

- Wes is talking more and more, but it is still a lot of babbling.

- Wes is pretty easy going and will go to anyone. But he prefers daddy to just about anyone and lights up when he sees him.

- Wes is pretty fearless. He enjoys climbing on things that are entirely too tall for him to be on top of. Lately he's been crawling up onto Carly's bed, and then from Carly's bed onto the toy box, where he'll sit and cry until we get him down, or he'll fall off with a giant thud.

We recently went to the zero-entrance pool, and he was equally as fearless there. He crawled all around the shallows, and would crawl out until his face was under water, and then turn around sputtering and laughing, and then do it again.

- Wes is starting to defend himself against Carly. He pulling hair and slapping. Not the best behavior, but I gotta say I am proud of him for fighting back!

- Wes can hold and use a sippy cup, though we are mostly still using bottles. He enjoys juice and water, though he mostly just gets formula.

- Wes has been coloring a bit this month. He now holds a crayon and will make marks on a paper if given the opportunity. He also eats crayons.

- Wes and Carly are in the same room!!! I can't explain how big of a deal this is. He used to start in her room, and then they'd wake each other up, and he'd come back to our room midway through the night. Now they have been sharing their room full time for almost a month. It has been so nice!

- Wes is still a great sleeper. He sleeps entirely through the night, and takes one nap during the day for 2 hours. I lay him down completely awake and he just rolls over and goes to sleep. He knows the routine.

He is so fun, and so sweet, and so very enjoyable. THIS is my favorite baby age. I say that with every stage, but I really do love the 1 year old phase. They are used to routine and pretty low maintenance, and don't yet talk back or willfully disobey. He's just a big ball of chubby happiness!

The best husband ever

I have blogged many times about what a great dad Marshall is. Because it's true. I've never met a guy who was a better dad than Marshall is to our kids. He is amazing. Which makes me a lucky girl.

But there are other reasons I am lucky too... he is an amazing husband.

I think amazing husband and amazing father go hand in hand. I am inclined to believe that you can't have one without the other. If your husband is a good husband, he is (or will be) also an amazing dad. I just can't see how a guy who has the status of "amazing" in his relationship with his wife would be capable of showing less love and adoration for his kids.

And in order to be a truly great dad, a man MUST be a great husband. To not be loving, kind, and faithful to his children's mother, is to not give the very best to his kids. I love the quote by President David O. McKay, where he says "The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother." It really says it all.

This last week, Marshall once again reminded me what a lucky lucky girl I am.

He had been telling me for a couple weeks that he had gotten a babysitter so that we could go to the temple on the 17th of June. I thought it was sweet that he had planned a date night. He had arranged for Russ to come watch the kids for a couple hours. When we were getting ready to leave, Marshall kept asking me if we needed to lay pj's out for the kids, or talk to Russ about bedtime. It thought this was odd because we were leaving at 2pm, and would be home by 7 at the latest.

We went to the temple, and had a wonderful time. Then he took me to dinner, which was also a very nice time. We started to head home, and Marshall wasn't driving in the right direction. I asked him where we were going, an he assured me he was trying to find an on ramp. I knew he wasn't going in the right direction, but he gets grouchy when I back-seat-drive, so I just kept my mouth shut. Just when I was getting thoroughly confused, he pulled into the Anniversary Inn in Salt Lake.

Talk about shocking!

He explained that Russ was staying the night with the kids, and that he had overnight items stuffed into his temple bag. I couldn't believe it! I am a such a planner, and I'm pretty nosey. There is not much that goes on in our home that I am not aware of. He had been planning for a month straight, had friends and family in on it, and managed to keep me completely in the dark.

We checked into the hotel, and the desk clerk asked what we were celebrating. (The Anniversary Inn is where people go for their wedding night, or for, well, their anniversaries) Marshall replied "a Thursday night in June."

What a guy!

We had an amazing night staying in the Jungle Safari room. Marshall forgot the camera, but we wanted to show Carly the crocodile in our room, so the next day we went back during their tour hours and took some pictures.

I am the luckiest girl alive. Marshall is an amazing husband and father!

Someone turned 3 last month

And I was a total slacker and took forever to blog about it. I think I was majorly overwhelmed by the massive amount of photos to choose from. Waaaay too many.

For Carly's birthday, we were lucky enough to have Marshall's immediate family all here. We had Londa and Steve, and Kiernan and Kalen all out from California. And Russ and Star, of course, came over for the party.

Marshall and I decided that Carly already has way too many toys. It's a bit ridiculous. So instead of adding to the madness, we used the money for her birthday to rent a bounce house. Good decision. She loved it!

We roasted hot dogs, had cake and punch, and had a pinata. We had a great turn out, and Carly had a fabulous time. What a great day!