Baby (rain) Shower

A couple weeks ago I was able to throw a baby shower for my good friend Nicki!  It's always fun chatting with her and I had fun planning the shower.  I can't wait to meet little Hudson!!
 

   Here are pictures from that day

We had fruit pizzas and the "sauce" was a whipped cream - cream cheese mixture! 
It was really yummy!

It says:
Hudson
Jordan Gilbert
Come on with the rain
I've a smile on my face

                                  The favors say:
                                      thanks for
                                    dropping by!
                         Oh what a rain that will be
        (so that is why its lemon drops and gum drops)

Look at me me me, I'm three three three!

Although Dani turns 3 on August 2nd, we decided to have a birthday party for her about a week ago because my parents were in town.  She told us she wanted a pirate themed party... so that's what we did. Tyler and I had a lot of fun making decorations, food, and creating this party for her.

I made the vest, shirt, and tutu, and the rest of the outfit was bought from haloheaven.com

Shortly after this picture, Dani didn't want to wear the vest or the tutu anymore... and didn't the rest of the party

Here are the decorations in the front room:

Decor on the wall (above Dani in the top pic)

Tyler made an awesome and huge treasure map

 

 

 

 

(you couldn't actually see the thermostat as well as you can in this pic... ha!)

Decoration/food in the kitchen:

 

(this was above the food table)   

Squids

Every time I read "Shark Bait" I couldn't help but say, "Shark Bait, ooh ha ha"

(Cyber high-five if you can tell me what movie that's from)

 

 

 

It was a lot of making little pirate outfits for the kids

 

 

 

My wonderful parents!!  It was so great to have them here for a week

 All the nieces and nephews that are here in Utah (there are 4 more in CA)

Job Perks

I'm feeling super-mondo sick today with a dumb little cold.
I complained about it on facebook, saying "Dude, moms need Sick Days."

While downing some Day-Quil this morning, I was thinking about how I wish Tyler was here; not because I'd rather be sleeping right now (although I would love that), but because I just want his company.  It also got me thinking about all the nice perks that Tyler's job gives him (specifically PTO). 

It made me realize how much I love the perks of being a mother. If being a mother was a job, I guess you could say I work for my kids... that they would be my employers. Yes, sometimes I have a very bossy two year old "boss," but my kids give me lots of wonderful perks as well.  I began to list them in my head...

• Free artwork
• Free comedy shows - although, now when Dani says she wants to tell me a joke she just whispers in my ear "I love you"
• Lots of affection
• No need to pay for a gym membership (ok, that's not entirely true... I still need major help in that department, but you should try holding Talmage for more than 4 seconds and then tell me that's not a workout)
• Free entertainment - oh, the entertainment!!
• I could sing all day and no one gets sick of it... in fact, they smile and I believe they actually enjoy it. (Especially if I remember the songs from Busytown Mysteries)
• Lots of smiles
• Always feeling wanted (although sometimes this is hard, I do enjoy being the one to calm a crying baby or watch their faces light up when they see me or hold them on my lap)
• A colorful wardrobe - spit up and spilled juice make any outfit so much more colorful
• Seeing holidays through a child's eyes 
• A great excuse to get up and dance crazy... or just be crazy (and no one looks at me strange)
• A great excuse to sit and play with legos
• Making fancy meals means using a cookie cutter to create new sandwich shapes or making a "sushi" sandwich
• Free wake up calls... yeah
• My own personal cheerleader... even when I go to the bathroom.  Now who gets that with their job??
• Getting to squeeze and kiss and hug and tickle baby rolls whenever I want
• Receiving tons of cuddles when they are sick


Of course there are tons more. 
Between mine and Tyler's daily routines, I think I've got the better end of the deal. 
Sorry you have to go to work today Tyler! (Yabba dabba dooo, iiiiiit's Friday!!)

Real Salt Lake

Tyler works at Xango and Xango sponsers Real Salt Lake.  At the end of April, Tyler (and some of his coworkers) scored some free tickets to a soccer game.  We all sat in the front row!  It was totally awesome and they won!  It was a lot of fun chillin with just Tyler and no kiddos. 
Here are some pictures.

                         We've been to a couple games and                 See... front row!
                          this band is always playing in the
                        stands.  What crazy fans!... But they
                      totally make the game more enjoyable

Half a year

Talmage is 6 months old now (as of June 4th).  It's so crazy for me to think about because time sure has flown, but at the same time the beginning of December seems like forever ago!

Talmage is a growing boy.  He is such a happy boy too.  He's always smiling and even smiles at strangers (Danica took longer to do that).  He LOVES his sister.  Dani can make him laugh like no one else can.  He is just captivated by her.

He started on rice cereal at about 4 months and is now eating some veggies.  He loves squash!  It seems he wont be as picky of an eater as Dani, but time will tell.

He sleeps from about 6:30 or 7:00 to 6:00 or 6:30... so about 11 1/2 hours. If we're lucky, he also sleeps about 3-4 hours a day.  He goes to sleep really well... staying asleep through the whole night had been a big problem, but he recently has started sleeping through the night.  Hallelujah!  Although that has sort of taken a break because he's teething right now.

Talmage has been extra fussy and clingy lately.  The poor kid is getting some teeth right now, but they're not the bottom front teeth, that typically come in first.  I think it's his incisors that are coming through!  That might look funny for a while.  I believe all four are thinking about making an appearance soon, but his bottom left is almost here.

He is often called a Drool Monster or The Drool King around here.  He drools so much!!  It's like he's a leaky faucet.  I believe he's been teething for a while now... we weren't sure if that was the case because it wasn't the bottom front, but it's been confirmed by his Dr. and very obvious to us now too.  That explains all the drool.

Different than being clingy, Talmage has always been a very cuddly boy.  He always nuzzles and I love it!  I hope that continues for a long time. 

Tricks...He is really good at tummy time now.  Half the time he rolls straight to his stomach though.  He's sitting up on his own really well now too.  He occasionally still needs someone or something to catch or protect his fall, but he's getting the hang of it.  He does well at picking things up and examining them... or sometimes looking at it for two seconds before sticking them straight to his mouth.  At his 6 month appointment I filled out a questionnaire of the things Talmage is doing at this point  and The Dr. said he's above average for his age.  Which makes us very happy. (Hey, I'm allowed to brag)  Talmage is holding his bottle all on his own now and that makes us really happy too.

He seems like he's starting to wave.  I want to say it's too early for that, so it's probably involuntary, but it's fun to see him do it at appropriate moments.  He's also making mama and dada sounds and I love it when I get him up from a nap or something and he's saying "mamamama" like he knows that's my name.  It also sounds like he's saying, "Hi" when we first greet him.  I'm sure he's just copying my sound, cause I say hi to him a lot.

We love having Talmage around :) Things are definitely harder and busier with two kids, but it's so much fun to see little Talmage learning new things all the time.  He's growing so fast!  It's bittersweet.

It's about time I do some updating...

I have often been thinking about posting on our blog, but then I'd always think... there's nothing to update!... So I haven't... obviously.  Well, I looked at my phone the other day and realized there were a ton of pictures on there of things we have done lately.  So yeah, we have been busy.  I have some pictures to prove it.

One thing we did lately was go to a yummy restaurant called Emmett and Ethel's.  At Emmett and Ethel's they have a couple food eating challenges.  If you know Tyler, you know he can't pass up a good food eating challenge.  (See here)

We go out to dinner about once a month with our good friends the Gilberts, so Jordan and Tyler decided to both do the Man VS Emmett challenge, while Nicki, Danica, and I watched on.  (Talmage didn't watch... he enjoyed crying instead... and I believe he must have enjoyed it because he did it basically the whole time. He had enough fun and fell asleep right before we left).


Man VS Emmett.... or Man VS 6 quarter pound beef patties, 6 slices of cheese, 6 pieces of bacon, lettuce, tomato, pickles, mayonnaise, and ketchup piled high.  There's also the "healthy" 1 lb portion of fries.  Eat it all up within 45 minutes.

Before you see a bunch of pictures of the evening, I want to show you the difference between a regular sized meal (mine) and the Emmett Challenge meal (Tyler's)

An Avacado Bacon Burger Meal... which was still a good sized meal... I couldn't finish it. 

The Man vs Emmett meal

Tyler and Jordan vs Emmett

They had to eat the burger in two sections just to get their mouths around it

Cutiepie Danica enjoying her hotdog

They had to stand up to finish their food

The last bite...

(for some reason I can't embed the video so you can

check out (my deep manly voice, blah, and) the last bite

HERE

(Talmage wasn't that whiny the whole time we were there... don't worry)

All gone!
He had to eat all the lettuce and stuff that had fallen onto his tray as well.

 He's da "Man"
(and man!... with no parenthesis)