Spring Fever/Daddy Fever

We've experienced a little of Daddy and a little of spring these last 2 weeks which has made us want them both to stick around longer. Aaron came home for a quick visit over Presidents Day weekend and boy was it ever fun!!! All of us just love having him home, but as always it never is long enough, this time saying good bye was so much harder since Aaron may not see the girls until he's done in May. I'm probably going down with him to Sierra Vista at the end of March to look at homes, so that is our next date to look forward to.

I've been hit with spring fever pretty bad this past week. I honestly have just been loving this weather and don't think I can handle one more cold day, which is not good considering it is supposed to snow on Sunday. I honesly feel like these past 2 months have been the longest and coldest months I can remember (yes, it may have to do with Aaron being gone) but really I can't remember when the last time was that Utah was hit with this much snow that would never go away!!! Anyways these past few days I've felt like a new person. There is just something so theraputic about the sun and fresh air. Between the kids being sick and the freezing weather we just haven't been out a whole lot. I've decided being a Mom and a kid in the winter is hard, when the weathers nice there are so many more options. During these beautiful days we've gone rollerblading, parks, Zoo, trampoline, feeding the ducks, Maile's trying out her new tricycle, and Emmy's loving all the new places to explore and new things to put in her mouth.

Yesterday was free zoo day, so us along with everyone is else in Utah decided to go, but how could you resist on such a gorgeous day! We had a great time and the animals seemed to be feeling the spring fever as well cause they were really entertaining. It was so fun to be outside all day.

Happy Valentines! Day!!

I took a bunch of pictures for a little Valentines project for Aaron and even though we had to have a few photo sessions and treats inbetween each picture we managed to get a few good ones, here's some of my favorites. I probably should have done this as a slide show but I couldn't figure it out.

I love my Maile Girl

I know these pictures are absolutely hidious of me, but they just captured the fun time Maile and I had yesterday outside. The last couple weeks have been bitterly cold, so we hardly spend anytime out there besides running to and from the car, but these last couple days have actually been pleasant enough to be out there for more than a couple of minutes. We definitely needed some fresh air and a change of activity. We haven't been able to do our usual winter activity of swimming, because of Emmy's bum, so it's been a long week of being inside the house way too much. Anyways, I just have to share this moment as cheesy as it may sound I always want to remember it so I'm recording it. I've been a bit fet up with Maile and her sleeping routine cause if she takes a nap which is always a battle and doesn't occur near as often as I want, then when bedtime comes it is so much harder to get her down. However, when she doesn't take a nap, then 2-6 she is on the verge of tantruming at the littlest things and it drives me crazy!!! So, anyways somedays I get so upset if she won't take a nap especially Friday cause I was so tired and I wanted a nap so I thought her and Emmy would go down and I could take a little nap as well. Nope didn't happen, so I was really bugged. Ok to sum it up we had to get out of the house, but Emmy was sleeping so we got what snow clothes we could find since our real ones were in the room Emmy was sleeping in and ventured out to go sledding in my parents backyard which isn't much of anything then we jumped on the tramp, but had to go in when Emmy woke up. We actually had a good time, so that night she made her usual request for me to make a deal with her, (it always starts out if you go to sleep right now without coming out of your bed then.........) this time I said we can go play outside tomorrow. Well, that was the first thing she said when she got up in the morning. Timing wasn't right, so I said later, as the day continued there were more requests for outside time and when the nap didn't work again I said ok lets go outside. While we were out there instead of being mad that she didn't nap, I had this overwhelming love for her and gratitude that I had this time to just focus on her and have some solid quality time without being distracted with Emmy, phone calls, making dinner, cleaning or whatever, it was so much fun to just play and be silly with her she is such a fun little girl, at that moment I realized how blessed I am to be able to spend every minute of every day with her and I need to look for these moments more often where we can spend that quality one on one time together without any distractions. I find myself getting so caught up in routine and schedule sometimes that it drives me crazy when things are off, but our little outing helped me realize I need to soak these moments in cause she won't stay this age for long. If things don't happen the way I planned oh well, just make the best of it. I love being a Mom as hard and exhausting as it can be at times it has brought me the most happiness I've experienced with anything I've ever done in my life. I feel so blessed.

Emmy update

Yeah! Our smiley Emmy is back! I must thank you all for your prayers and concern for Emmy. She is doing much better, almost 100%, the only things that are not back to normal are sleep during the night, she has been awful since the hospital and she is very clingy (I think because so many strangers had to poke her, hold her down or just do things she hated, it even took her a little while to trust me again). I had so many calls, emails, comments, prayers and even dinner brought over, so thank you to everyone it really meant a lot to know that people were thinking of us during a trying time.