Playing Catch Up

i'm not dead. my camera chord isn't missing. i really have no excuse for not blogging. i need to do this because i quickly forget the cute things my kids are doing! you think you'll remember, i don't even remember what time sofia was born. anyway, a lot of things have happened...so i'm just going to type.

lucas you're 9 1/2 months. you still only have two teeth! sofia got teeth early, so this is new to me. you're also super tall. your 9 month appt is coming up...when you turn 10 months. oops, bad mom, forgot to schedule an appointment. i'm over it. yes, that's a leaf in your mouth. you eat about ten a day. apparently non toxic. you're still a mama's boy 100%. if i'm in the room, you have to be next to me. you flap your arms like a crazy boy when i come in to the room. makes me feel good because sofia was never a mama's girl. you think you can walk, but you can't. i'm so glad you can't.

every morning your pj is soaked. apparently you pee A LOT at night.

you two don't get along that well. sofia takes every toy away from you. she sits on you. she pushes you. she hits you. i'm so sorry. she does love you though. i can tell because she's always trying to make you laugh. she is also happy to see you first thing in the morning. i really love this picture.

you have really nice eye lashes, which isn't fair because both sofia and i don't have any. i love your face, and i kiss you a little too much.

sofia, you are two going on 15. you are so tall. everyone thinks you're 4. i love how tall you are! and you are so beautiful. you only like to wear dresses. to get you dressed every morning i have to tell you i'm putting on you cinderella's dress, or aurora. then i put some jeggings on underneath. although you'd rather not have clothes on. when we come in to your room in the morning, your pj AND diaper are usually off. we don't know exactly when you take them off. you also have stopped napping, which is completely driving me crazy. you're only 2!! not even 2 and a half! you shouldn't give up your nap till your at least 4! sorry, lot's of exclamation points, i really miss your nap. i guess maybe since you're the height of a 4 year old, and you act like a 15 year old you think you don't need naps anymore. you still have to be in your room for a while so mom can have some time without you.

lucas, you love the camera. you will laugh and smile whenever i tell you to. sofia loves to make you laugh by blowing this train whistle in your face. for some reason, you both think it's hilarious.

my best friend since 7th grade, amanda allred, visited me from korea! and her entire family was here too. i am in love with this family. i looked up to them so much in high school. amanda was my best friend through my really ugly, awkward, awful years and still stood by me. that's love. i'm so grateful for technology that lets me skype with her at least 2x a week.

just to show you how big lucas is right now...compare him to the pretty girl to the left. ellie is amanda's daughter who is almost 1. lucas had just turned 9 months here. see how big he is? also, sofia and claire (the beautiful toddler all the way on the left) are only 5 months apart. again, she towers over everyone her age.

i think you can tell which holiday we are celebrating here...

although the community festivities were no where near as amazing as last year, we still made the best of it. thanks to grandma queen, my kids were spoiled. i feel spoiled because i don't have to do anything as a parent. she sent them both easter baskets. a few weeks ago jeff said to me "why hasn't your mom sent sofia an easter dress yet?" i scolded told him we shouldn't "expect" my mom to do everything for our kids, but then told him "she has. she sent two. and shoes. and baskets."

we tell sofia to smile with her teeth...and this is what we get...

and this...

and this...

she's not so good at smiling with her teeth. it'll come with age. here she is in our yard hunting for eggs.

the next three pictures i had to post because in this first one, lucas is making a weird face...

and in this one, jeff is making a weird face...

and then this one i finally got good smiles!

we don't know what we're going to do in texas without tia ash! sofia loves her bi-weekly visits. and i love them more. she's the only one that'll play ring a round the rosies over and over and over and over with her. spoiled.

The Month of Love

i have really been loving some of the things sofia has been doing lately. kind of. you love it until you have to do it with her 100+ times in a row. here are some of the things she loves:

1. aladdin. we used to sing "i feel my Savior's love" every night to her. not anymore. she makes us sing "riffraff street rat, i don't buy that..." you know, that song. we also have to finish with the dialogue aladdin has with abu right after the song.

2. also from aladdin: she'll go under the dinner table, poke her head out over the bench, make you say "do you trust me" then she says "si" then together you say "then juuuuuuump!" while pulling her over the bench. remember that scene? again, cute, until you've done it 15x in a row. doesn't get old to her.

3. we listen to disney pandora at least 1-2 hours per day. she know every disney princess song and will dance with the specific princess figurine that is singing (thanks grandma queen, she LOVES them). she knows which princess is missing and we all have to stop what we are doing to find her, or she freaks out.

4. she planks. if you've seen the office, then you know what i'm talking about. the last picture below shows her planking randomly in our living room...and jeff put lucas on top of her for a quick photo.

grandma queen came to visit last week while jeffrey was in michigan for a phd interview. we love when grandmas come to play. so spoiled. everything they are wearing, including the socks, were thanks to my mama. come again soon. like next week?

did i mention how much i love this little man? he seriously is a mamas boy and i can't get enough of him.

Our First Trip to WY

for some reason, my best friends like to move away from me. maybe it's me. who knows? the pretes moved away from us almost a year ago, and somehow, laura and i get to see each other every other month. i love it. we decided to go to wyoming and spend the day with them! thanks to my mom (and carmy), my kids have snow gear...

(if you look close enough, you'll see lucas' double buggers, like in dumb and dumber)

the kids had zero fear going down the steep hills.

i met these twins when they were 6 months old. 6 months!!! now they are 4, and all grown up.

i  get my hair done by laura, so i thought it would be way better if she trimmed sofia's bangs rather than me butchering it every month. give this girl candy and she'll do anything for you...

picnic dinner on the floor. ps. she's naked because she had a total blow out (which hasn't happened since she was a baby!) embarrassing.

sorry jeff and nathan that i didn't capture you two together. next time. we are definitely going up there a few more times before we leave provo, whether or not they want us to.

the texas cranes

they came a few weeks ago and i'm barely posting this! shoot. i'm sorry famille crane. i want to just take a moment and rave about the newest little crane, my beautiful niece, Millie. and by beautiful, i mean seriously gorgeous. she has the mama gene.

we came home from san diego early so that we could see matt, maddie, wells, and millie before they left back to dallas, and we are so glad that we did.

wells and sofia were quite fond of each other and i know this is just a picture, but I did get some cute video of them singing together here...ps. i think sofia is just getting so pretty and looking so grown up. pss. that is not well's shirt, thats a bib he's borrowing :)

ok i love this picture because his shirt is no longer existent... and the way his legs look...

here's millie! i love her. do i seriously have to wait til july to see her again?? maddie, i'm sure you're coming to SLC sometime before right?

i put two of the next picture because for some reason, jeff loves to photo bomb pictures...and here's proof.

guys, we really love you and miss you a ton. can we come to dallas?

He's My Son, She's My Daughter

i find jeff and i saying this a ton, "she is so my daughter...he is so your son...she is so your daughter...he is sooo my son." so, i thought i'd document a few things that make these kids our kids. am i making sense here?

she is so my daughter

• eats fruit like its going out of business
• eats super slow (jeff can eat 3x as much in one sitting)
• she has my nose
• likes to be outside when it's hot
• LOVES boots. wears them all the time, even inside (which bugs me bc we don't wear shoes in the house)
• emotional
• likes cars (i was obsessed with playing with cars as a kid)
• loves to cuddle/hug/kiss/touch

she is so your daughter

• same exact hair color
• prefers sugar
• loves to play in the snow
• never runs out of energy
• loves movies
• loves drinks (i only give her milk and water, so when she gets something else, she freaks out with excitement)

he is so my son

• thinks everything jeff does is hilarious
• doesn't like to be alone
• emotional
• will not eat cold food
• high maintenance
• always wants to be held

he is so your son

• easily entertained
• big feet and hands
• doesn't care so much about food (not as much as his sister and mom)
• farts way more than sofia did (i'm not saying jeff does this, i just think it's such a man thing)

here are some pictures of my little man, just because...

i know you might think, "he looks exactly the same in every picture." well i don't care. i took about 15 more shots like these, you're lucky i only showed 4 of them. seriously, look at that face. and that cardigan (thanks grandma queen).

Christmas 2012

christmas was spent in beautiful, sunny, san diego. jeff and i decided we really wanted to make this a vacation. especially after jeff's crazy busy schedule last semester. we packed in a ton of things that jeff has never done in my home town...

we started out going to the poinsettia bowl where BYU played SDSU. i mean where BYU crushed SDSU. it felt so good to sing our fight song so many times. thanks to our good friends, james and rachel lark, we got amazing tickets. shot out to james for being a great football player and for being our friend.

it had been a million years since i've been to the zoo. they say it's the best one in the nation. sofia went crazy, especially over the elefantes. my sister hooked us up with free tickets. i heart free stuff. thank mel!

sofia and alec are like peanut butter and jelly. they just loved each other so much. you wouldn't guess it, but in the Mexican culture, he is her uncle. weird huh?

my sister, candice, is having a baby in march. i am soooo excited, beyond words. i only wish i lived near her so i could help her! anyway, we had a surprise baby shower, planned by my other sister, Melody, and my mama. it was beyond beautiful...

the theme was a tea party...whimsical and classy.

this is my sister, sarah. she's the one right below me.

we wish we could've had ariel and ceecee in this sister picture :(

we just can't wait to meet baby eli.

we took my mama out for a girls day. started with mani/pedi, then went to dinner, out shopping to buy her a few outfits, and then saw les miserables. we went to a restaurant called slater 50/50 and it was amazing. i dream about the food. they have burgers that have bacon in them. not as part of the toppings, actually grilled IN the middle of the meat. you heard me. here are pics at the restaurant...

we sure do love our mom.

when i was in high school, a special memory i have is cooking every sunday with my grandma. i wanted to learn everything from her. how to make beans, rice, and most importantly, home-made tortillas. the image below seriously brought tears to my eyes...in fact, my grandma started crying after i took these pictures.

doesn't that just make you smile? well, let me make you smile again. here is my son, eating bacon. yep, my husband gave our 6 month old a piece of bacon to suck on...

sofia and lucas were spoiled beyond spoiled this christmas. they got everything from clothes, to shoes, to toys, to movies, to absolutely everything.

we had quite a few people for christmas dinner. lucky my mama's house fit everyone...

sofia chose tio joe as her favorite person in the house. she was obsessed with him. and now she demands to skype with them on the computer before going to bed. it makes both me and candice super jealous.

outside my tia mary's house she had a bunch of these plastic candy canes. sofia, of course, couldn't stop licking all of them. embarrassing, but funny.

we loved spending some time over at my tio joe and tia mary's house.

jeff had never been to sea world, so, again, melody got the hook up and we went for free! what is better than going to a place like sea world and knowing you did not spend 80 bucks (each) to get in.

isn't this adorable?

i think sea world should buy this picture from us. it's perfect...

sofia always makes friends...

towards the end of the day, mel saw our sis-in-law porcia instagram a picture of her and her kids at sea world. we immediately called her to tell her we were at sea world too! we were bummed we only spent a few hours together, and not the whole day.

i love diego's face in this one...

Christmas 2012 was memorable. thank you, mom, for so much thought you put in to our stay at your home. we love vacationing in sunny san diego and look forward to visiting again soon!