Sometimes it's important to document the little things...

We went to the ward party. It was outside and chilly and she didn't want to wear a jacket or socks. She's way too used to Las Vegas. But She's pretty darn cute. We totally ran out of candy this year. whoops.

Aria made these cute little glowing jars with her friend Katelyn. So cute! and They actually were able to do more than I thought they would. I cut out the faces, but she placed them where she wanted, and She pasted all the tissue paper on them. We got the idea from this post. Highly recommend this craft... We did it with just stuff we had around the house and they turned out SO cute! At least bookmark it for next year.
Aria had her first sleepover with her friend Juliet. Her family is moving to Washington and while they were scouting out houses, we got to dance: Aria's sure going to miss her


Then we went to Calico Basin with Katelyn, Erin and Megan. They both decided that this natural 'rock slide' was better than any playground. I'm not sure how their pants fared, but they sure were all smiles.

And I just wanted to point out that there are some fall colors not that far out of town. I love this little girl's smile.
Finally to top off the week. Grandma and Grandpa Radmall came to visit and brought lots of fun with them. A 'Christmas' present from their next door neighbors of a jungle gym. The first time going down the slide on it. She landed flat on her booty. Ever since then she's had a hard time braving it again. The memories are still too fresh.

For a real Christmas present, Nate and I got to go to...
So much fun! Nate loves this band (mostly)... disclaimer: not all their songs have clean lyrics. But it was so much fun! There were some bad smells, drunk people and 3 hours of standing, but Nate's permagrin was well worth it. They really do have some good music. Check out 'bonfire' or 'Sharp knife' on their new album. Those are our favorites. We also got to hear Nate's all time favorite 'motorcycle driveby'.

While we were at the concert. Aria stayed home with Grandma and Grandpa and made these. I think they're really cute. The ones in the bottom of the picture are what Aria calls 'costumes'... ?
The next day I went shopping with my Mom to pick out some baby boy fabric. It was merely short of a nightmare.... Even things that are blue are girly... But I found something that I loved even if we had to pay extra for it. Thanks Mom! Then in the afternoon we went to go see the Thunderbirds.
Aria's new thing lately is pretending to be Mary. She LOVES it. Even at the air show.
They were again incredible. Crazy how these guys fly.
This year we were at least prepared with earplugs, water, and snacks. Yay for learning from our mistakes.
Finally we went to a Birthday party on behalf of our good friend Jason. A few days later they gave us this leftover balloon that was still floating. Aria wanted to take it to bed with her so we let her. As we were going to bed we went in to check on her and here she was... still holding onto the balloon. Totally out. Two year old behavior has been even more prevelant lately. I'm really struggling as a mother trying to figure out how to handle it. Hopefully she'll just grow out of it because I'm totally at a loss. But little moments like this make everything worth it.
Hope you all have a happy Thanksgiving!

fall colors

Aren't quite the same in Vegas that they are everywhere else, but I still feel like we get BEAUTIFUL weather. We LOVE fall around here.

Now that the weather's cooler we spend many many hours riding this:

We got a fun 'silly' pumpkin from Grandma. Aria thinks they're awesome! She even shares her 'juice and milk' with them (during the tea party.) She invited them along with Minnie Mouse. Wish I was invited...

Yes, a belly shot... I feel huge with this little boy. I feel like I started to show almost instantaneously after I found out. We're still discussing names... Logan... Clark... Lucas... I really struggle with boy names. Any suggestions? This was taken at 21 weeks.

Now that the weather's a little cooler we spend many many hours outside riding this:

or playing basketball on her 'new' hand-me-down basketball hoop:

with daddy:

or we just make faces for Mom, I love her sweet little look here....:

Nate and I got to go to this cool stake activity based on Tonga, where he went for his dental service trip. John Groberg came to speak. It was good to get out without Aria for a change.

And last but not least, we went to the gilcrease orchard to pick a pumpkin and buy some of their fresh squeezed apple juice. LOVE! We bought a whole gallon. So yummy... it actually tastes like an apple... weird. We went with our good friends the Hatches. Aria loves Katelyn.

I'll eat you up I love you so...

On a side note: I'm SO excited to see Where the Wild Things Are. LOVED the book... still do. Extremely fond childhood memories.... sigh....

Now Aria likes it too. I took her out for a little photo shoot. These are the ones that I want to remember of her even though they're not the best edited, or the best photographs.... They capture the expressions she makes. For the best actual photographs that still capture her check my other blog

Little facts about Aria:

*She loves being a butterfly

*She loves Cinderella and Peter Pan. As much as I thought I could keep her away from being influenced by commercial princess stuff, I couldn't help it. I love Cinderella myself. We've also discovered that playlist.com has versions of the Cinderella soundtrack songs and Peter Pan songs so she often asks to listen to Jack-Jack and Gus-Gus

*Her jobs include picking up her toys, sorting her own laundry, and putting the silverware away out of the dishwasher. She can also put her own dishes by the sink after dinner.

*She loves to go get the mail on her trike. We spend a good hour every day riding that thing. She LOVES it!

*she is SO independent. Does not want to be helped... EVER We had to put her cup on the bottom shelf in the fridge so she can open the fridge herself and get it out.

*Talks a ton! Has just started whining sometimes and because her vocabulary is so large I feel like I understand her less than I used to.

*Her favorite songs are 'I am a Child of God', 'Cinderelly, Cinderelly', 'Following the Leader', 'A Dream is a Wish your Heart Makes', 'A,B, C...', 'Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star', 'Baby Beluga', 'If you're happy and you know it.', 'Follow the Prophet'...She often makes up her own words though.

*She loves sesamestreet.org

*2 scriptures memorized working on the 1st article of faith

*Loves reading and has a really long attention span for a two year old.

*Still LOVES story time...

*Smart as all get-out... knows all her letters and the sounds they make... knows all her colors, numbers up to twenty..

*Cried the other day when we tried to take her home from church because she really wanted to stay in nursery.

*POTTY TRAINED!!!!! She just decided she wanted it when she was ready. Mommy tried to do it WAY too early.

*Says prayers by herself

*LOVES to climb she's getting higher and higher on the playground and I often have no idea how she got there.

*I don't know another toddler that likes puzzles as much as she does.... seriously.

*Due to the increasing amount of pumpkins she LOVES this time of year.

*Favorite foods: Cheese Tortillas, Fruit Snacks, Carrots/Broccoli with dip, grapes, apple slices, cherry tomatoes, MAC AND CHEESE!!!, Peanut butter and honey sandwiches, chocolate chips, ritz and goldfish, ICE CREAM and of course milk.

In Aria's words...

"I have baby bruvver."

We are so thrilled to be having a boy. I'm actually really excited for this little babe to make its way into our world. I'm starting to feel him more and more.

We took a little trip to the as my Dad says 'redundant' corn maize.I think Aria really liked it, she got to ride the whole way.

They had other activities there for kids too... like this makeshift 'merry-go round' She LOVED this!

and Super tall swings.

She's become an expert at the tricycle... please excuse my mess of a garage...

and! I've been working on Halloween costume~ Pretty sure she thinks it's the best thing in the world...

crazy, crazy, CRAZY!

Seriously! I feel like I've been running like a chicken with my head cut off or rather with my head in the toilet. I'm finally past the 1st trimester blues... in case you had to read that sentence again... yes, we're expecting! and we're so thrilled. I'm about 16 weeks along and here's a little picture of the lima bean at 8 weeks. I'm due Feb. 28... We find out boy or girl in 3 weeks! yay!
Daddy has been super busy in more ways than one. Aria would tell you 'He be on Tonga!' He had an incredible experience. Ask him about it if you get the chance. Here's a few pics of the beautiful island. And no you can't have my handsome husband.
Don't worry, he's proud of his super cool glasses.... They get to host a $900 loops light that he won at a dental fair. Yay for winning something super awesome!
I'm used to seeing the red rock natural arches and bridges... this one looks super cool too.
What Nate calls the 'natural bellagio' - blowholes. Yes ladies, he's mine.
We had a lot of fun as a family over the break when he wasn't in Tonga too. I planted this beautiful garden in June and it was really starting to flourish before we left. We got this beautiful little tomato that Aria enjoyed thoroughly and a cucumber that I took to my Mom's house, but when we came back we had a whole day of mourning for the loss of my garden. It was officially the driest thing in Nevada... which is saying something. So sad....
Daddy went with us to the splash pad....
We went to San Diego to visit Grandma... she took us to the zoo...

Aria:'Hello Mr. Goat, How are you?'
Goat: 'I don't think I like you that close to my face. That pony tail is looking pretty tasty though...'

She picked strawberries with Grandma which she LOVED LOVED LOVED
We went to the beach... click on the picture to make it big... the expressions are awesome!
And fed the ducks at the local lake.
This summer was incredible... how was yours?

Back East

Warning: This post is pretty picture intensive, but all of them are well worth a look. My family took a trip to Boston/Vermont/New York/Ohio. We had a really great time with so many meaningful experiences. Our first morning there, the 6 oldest went to the Boston Temple to do a session. It was so fun to be there with Nate.That night we went to a Red Sox game. Aria thoroughly enjoyed the popcorn and the big green monster. She's sitting on the big green monster's foot in case you can't tell.
We walked around the ENTIRE Fenway Park to find this historic sign that Tyler really wanted to take a picture in front of. We never found it, but we found a lot of Fenway Park signs. My brother refuses to smile.

Nate got himself a Red Sox T-shirt. I love him.....
On the 4th of July we got up super early to make it inside the hatch shell to watch the Boston Pops Concert. It was SO much fun! Aria loved it... They handed out these little hats. She was quite the trooper.
If you listen closely... she's saying ' I'n a gangsta'... pretty darn cute.

We took Aria back to the temple the next day. It was awesome! She loves walking around the temple.This is the view from the Boston Temple.

On Nate's last day with us, we went to Salem to see the sights there. It was fun we saw Nathaniel Hawthorne's 'house of seven gables'. The picture doesn't even capture how beautiful the view was.
Love this picture... the Salem Witch museum...
That evening we spent some time making sand castles at the beach. Aria LOVES the beach. the water was a little cold to swim in. Jared was the only daring one.

Gotta love her beach attire, especially the saggy diaper.She LOVES standing in the waves, kind of a little dare devil.
The first day in palmyra, we saw the sights. Went to the temple. This is the view of the sacred grove from the temple. They told us that this is the only temple that has a clear (unhazy) window that looks out to the sacred grove. I thought that was really neat.


Jared and Devin did baptisms for the dead while we were there, this is how Aria was when we were waiting for them... :)
While in Palmyra, we attended the Hill Cumorah Pageant, I was not excited about it, I just thought it was going to be fake music, fake acting of a bunch of stories I've heard a thousand times. It was surprisingly moving and spiritual. We LOVED it, definitely one of the highlights of my trip. After Palmyra, we headed up to Canada to see Niagara falls. I have to admit that I think the view is MUCH better from the Canadian side, if you ever intend to go...

After that we headed down to Ohio to see Kirtland, but we decided to take a break from the church stuff and headed to an amusement park. Aria LOVED the kids ride. She just needed to be about 2 inches taller.


Our last day we went to the Kirtland temple. I LOVE Aria's face in this one.
We had a great time. We loved spending time there. We feel stronger spiritually and as a family. Hope you all get to experience something like this someday.

wow

It seems like it's been one whirlwind of events after another. I've finally been able to catch my breath. I don't even know where to start.

One day I went in to get her from her nap and this is how I found her. I call her my little reading lamanite queen.


My little/BIG brother graduated from SCHS at the end of May. Aria warmed up to all 3 of her great grandparents. Aria was so good, despite the fact that we got up at 6 AM... Aria usually wakes up at 9AM.
Isn't he handsome?
For those who don't know, we moved. In the process we broke the famous 'La Salad!' bowl. One of those wedding gifts that you can't take back so you just learn to laugh at it and use it whenever you're eating salad.... Pretty hilarious. I have a picture like this with my piggy bank, so I made N8 make a sad face while I took a picture of this memory. Next time you see him, compliment him on it. It took an insane amount of takes to get this face....
Aria LOVES her new house. I had nightmares that Aria would get to our new house and cry and say 'I want to go home...' and then I would have to say... 'we are home....' But anytime we're down by our old apartment's neighborhood, she freaks out and says... 'I want new house!' The stairs are definitely keeping me in shape.
Right before we moved in, we found out that an awesome buddy of ours passed away. He really meant a lot to us. Brigham was someone who taught us what life was really about. We are grateful for the time we got to know him. He was 14 and died from a lysosomal storage disorder. We still talk about his mannerisms often. I think of him every time we sing the primary song 'Jesus came to John the Baptist..' He sang it at the top of his lungs in the most beautiful raspy children's voice and accent I have ever heard. He loved singing time and pushing Ellie. I love my family. Thanks for letting us come and visit, Will and Tabi, Sam and Sarah. We had a great time with you.Shortly after we moved in... 5 days after... Mama and Papa Pettit came to visit. Aria warmed up to them really fast. We played peekaboo...



went to the park...
Ate out, went shopping, saw phantom which was AMAZING!!!! and Papa Pettit made us a gardening planters box. It's so AWESOME! I already have cucumbers and cantaloupe sprouting through the soil. My tomatoes are starting to thrive and I'm so proud of my garden. Come over and I'll show it off any time you want. At my old apartment, I tried to do tomato plants in pots at my old place and I got one cherry tomato from my efforts. This is Aria, right after she ate it while it was still green. I just love that face.
Two of my good friends had their babies in the past two weeks. I've been baby sitting a lot this week. I took Aria and Juliet to the Lied Children's Museum. We had fun. A little bit difficult having two independent 2 year olds, but they were very good about sharing and loving each other.
finally, Nate got his board scores. a 91! I'm so happy for him. He worked so hard! He deserves every point he earned!

in the front seat again

He made it, he finally did it, and I'm so proud of him. He studied so hard and he deserves each and every point he can get. We don't find out for a few weeks how he did, I know he passed it's just a matter of how well he did beyond that. I'm truly thankful to our Heavenly Father for the blessings he's been pouring out upon us. We couldn't have dealt with this better, thanks to Him.
I finally have my husband back. We missed him so much! Welcome back Daddy!

And guess what, we're moving!
Here's a few pics of our new place. Should I keep the blue wall in the master bed? MORE SPACE!!! Yay!
Here's what my bedroom set looks like now... or this.... so change the bedroom set, or change the wall...

To celebrate we went to our favorite restaurant
Then we ate peanut m&ms and snickers for dessert, mixed in with a little chocolate chip ice cream.
Aria threw a royal fit in Cafe Rio, it got so bad, we had to leave.... I don't think I've ever seen a temper tantrum quite like this from her. eek!


Does anyone have a kid that LOVES to wear underwear, but doesn't ever quite make it to the toilet in time? What do you do? Force them to wear diapers, or just keep cleaning up the messes?

busy busy busy

Life has been SO crazy recently, this is the first time I've actually had time to think. I wanted to get a few of these things down on paper while I still remember them. A few weeks ago, Aria's best friend Juliet celebrated her 2nd birthday! Aria just adores Juliet and they've known each other for their whole lives. It's so cute how they hold hands pretty much everywhere they go. I wish I had a picture of that. Happy birthday Juliet!!

Aria's new boyfriend is Boyce. Isn't he cute? I just want to squeeze him. I tried to tell Aria that he's too young for her, but she just wouldn't listen. Her heart is speaking too loud to hear me. :)


I had very few pictures of Juliet where her tongue was in her mouth. She's gonna be the next Michael Jordan

Sarah, Boyce's Mom, pushed Aria so I could get some cute pictures of our kids. Aria can't go anywhere without these sunglasses... it's pretty hilarious how attached she is to them. I suppose it's good for her eyes.

Over the break, we went to visit my Mom for a week. One day I saw Aria out in the yard like this: Just walking around aimlessly with a blanket over her head.


Sometimes I wonder what she's thinking.When Uncle Jared's pushing this is how high she goes. She's always saying 'faster'.


Then she see's Chelsea and yells 'CHELSEA! Faster!' Then she says 'See Jared, this is how it's done.'
When Chelsea and I got back from Knott's berry farm, she didn't even acknowledge me, she ran straight to her Aunt Chelsea and said 'Chelsea!' and cried for 10 minutes after she left.
Chelsea and I went to Knott's Berry farm last weekend. We could only do the classic self portraits, but I definitely have some fond memories with Chelsea at Amusement parks. Hard to explain why we did all these pictures, but I think Chelsea will remember. Love you babe!

Happy May!

peacocks

I had heard that Floyd Lamb park was a fun place to go in Las Vegas, but we really lucked out. I went, just to take pictures.... but we got mating peacocks! Making really bizarre screeching noises and the males shaking their feathers out whenever a female was within 100 yards. Which happened pretty often. Aria thought it was AWESOME! They let us get right up close to them - within 5 feet. Crazy! I'll caption these other pics so you get a feel for how our outing went.

'Come and get it....... SQUAK'


'ring around the rosie'
'I wanna take a picture'
'Where's Aria? .... Oh.... here is.'

'Cary.... (in reference to almost everything)'
My whole point in coming out to this park was to take pictures of Aria though for her '2 year' birthday. I uploaded these to my other blog. Comments on these pictures are appreciated.

festivities!

About a week ago some friends invited us to come on a tour of the Andersen Dairy plant, notice the cow? I think you have to sign up to go, but here's their website. It's geared toward preschoolers and Aria loved it!





She's becoming quite independent and LOVED, Did I say loved? the ice cream.









This is her friend Katelyn who invited us.









Aria and I have been having fun exercising together. I think it's hilarious... Just a moment before she was attempting to do push-ups with me. This puts an all new meaning on 'Child's Pose'.










We got a few packages early so because she is so young, I decided to let her open one present from Grandma early. she loves it!

Then Daddy and I took her out to get her favorite meal for her birthday... Macaroni and Cheese and Ice Cream. I have to say that my favorite meal isn't much different.... They brought her out a sundae and sang to her. She blew out a candle for the first time on her own. I can't believe my baby is two!

New trike from Grandma...


Blowing out candles and eating mac and cheese.









I love this picture of Aria and her Daddy.


















This is Aria's best friend. She loves spending time with Juliet. They ran around like crazy in the wind at her party.

I made these little cupcake lady bugs. I got the idea from the today show? I think where they did a giant cake in the shape of a lady bug, so I did a little research. They didn't have eyes or anything, but I think they turned out cute. I used chocolate chips for the spots... upside down and I used about 1 and 1/2 little containers of red dye to get it this red.
I let her have treats... TWO suckers... because she's two!
Here they are singing happy birthday to her! It was so fun, despite the wind.
Aria has lately had an obsession with babies. she's always making sure that they're okay and giving them loves, toys whatever she thinks they need. This is baby Alexis. Thanks for the photos Jasmine.
Despite the EXTREMELY windy conditions, I think the party was a success. I had a good time and I know Aria did.

two years ago...

I was having contractions - we had just finished watching Will's new ESL movie 'Turtle's Curse' and I was lying on the couch in my living room, waiting for Nate to finish writing his paper, so we could go to the hospital at 2AM. We had just finished watching conference and I will always remember that weekend - that it was different from any other. Here are a few momentous birthday pictures. I love my sweet baby.


Because of this I have the most beautiful thing on the planet in my life. Happy Birthday love...

It's Baby Minnie!

We had a Fabulous Time! Our muscles have never been so sore though. Aria was a dream! Here we are waiting in line.... it was surprisingly busy there.... This is Devin's favorite ride Autopia...

We heard great things about this Nemo ride. It was fun, but not my favorite... Definitely not worth the wait... unless your kid is really into Nemo.While we were eating lunch, goofy came out to greet the kids right next to where we were eating in Toon Town. He gave Aria a High 'Four' She thought that was so awesome. After that she saw all the kids giving him hugs and she wanted to give him a hug too. She would just sit there and stare at him and occasionally turn around with....this huge grin on her face and say 'GOOFY!'
The whole reason we were able to come was because of Jared's Jazz Band... here he is playing.


Aria loved dancing to the music! You can't help but LOVE the hair.

These are two of Aria's favorites! She LOVED LOVED LOVED the horsies... and we discovered a trick that helps her ride it twice in a row! She specifically picked the RED teacup...She's her Mother's daughter.













Here she is after 'it's a small world.' They've redone it and I think it looks awesome. They included little people from all of the movies... so fun!
Devin HAD to have his picture taken by the sword... pretty awesome face... huh. Looks pretty tough to me. We spent day two morning do all sorts of Aria stuff... Bugs life movie... I especially liked the glasses.

We are sitting in our own little GIANT raisin box... about to be lifted into the sky by a sour cream container. Aria really began to have a connection with her Aunt Chelsea. I love this smile.
The 'bugs life' version of the teacups... better because it spins you and you don't have to turn the wheel. Aria LOVED it. Possibly because they were in the shape of RED ladybugs too.
Also in California Adventure... they also had a great adventure 'nature' park. Aria had a good time splashing in the puddle... I think she got a boyfriend too...

The other great new ride was the Toy Story ride. Aria realized after 3 times on this ride that she could see more clearly if the glasses were on her face, not in her lap. If one pair of glasses is better than none... than surely two is better than one. Luckily Uncle Devin got them back before the ride started.

Here we are waiting to see the Tiki Room. This nice lady gave her a cute little button.
Finally, the best thing about Disneyland is this face. It was so fun to be with her on her first visit. I loved it all the more while looking at it through Aria's eyes.

Someone's in their late 20's

Grandma Julie always sends us mountains of green stuff for Nate's birthday. I have to say, she didn't disappoint this year! I think I have the most St. Patrick's Day things of anyone I know! I love it! It's a good thing that Nate actually likes the color green.

We're getting older and this cake proves it. We love our newfound maturity.... if only it could last for more than a day. Aria's just learning to say full sentences... this is her 'Happy Birthday to you'... and yes... the loud voice... that would be my brother bragging... you gotta love him.

Dancing Queen!

Aria has officially found her dancing partner.... My Grandpa and Grandma Radmall gave me this doll when I had my gall bladder out many years ago. Aria loves to dance and love to sing!