Tradition, Tradition!

This evening Julie came up to me looking like this.

 My first thought, "Fiddler on the roof".  Who does Julie say she is?  Little Red Riding Hood. Um... ok, sweetie.  She has been loving role-playing characters from books and movies lately.  Of course, she brings all of us into the role-plays, too, including Kallie.  We are loving her imagination.  :)

Valentine Butterflies

Here's a craft we did today.  Julie liked it so much, she decided to make two 

Gearing Up for the Olympics

We are so excited for the Olympics.  I admit, usually I only watch it for the figure skating.  Arek is the opposite - he prefers almost anything BUT figure skating: the snowboarding, hockey,skiing events, etc.  Luckily, we've both educated each other over the years, and now we are happy watching most any of the events (Arek corrects me... he still doesn't like the figure skating, but he loves me enough to tolerate it).  We rarely watch t.v. (we're more movie people) but I think the t.v. will be on most evenings for the next week and a half.  

     Julie is even pretty excited for the Games.  We've been talking to her about how amazing the Olymipcs are; the fact that so many countries around the world come together to play sports and celebrate. Last night after watching some of the qualifying snowboarding and skiing runs Arek broke out his snowboard for Julie to "try-out".  It was adorable... I think Arek has her convinced that she needs to do snowboarding with him sometime.  On a side note, Julie is such a thrill-seeker, I am a little nervous for the kinds of sports she'll want to try when she gets older!  But really I love how full of life she is, and how much she loves adventure.  

Arek modeling his boots and snowboard with the girls

French Braids

Every day this week I have done two French braids in Julie's hair.  And every day Julie has complained about how I pull her hair while braiding it.  Then the next day when I ask her what she wants me to do with her hair, she tells me French braids again.  So I guess the pain is worth having a hairstyle that keeps her hair out of her face! 

"J"s, drama, and love "bombs"

The other day Julie was drawing on some paper when she turned to me and said, "Mom, I drew a J".  I looked and she had indeed drawn the letter J.  She is so proud to be able to draw the first letter in her name, she now writes it all the time.  We're still working on what other letters are in her name... she always forgets U.  Still, for not being 3 1/2 yet, I'd say she's doing ok. :)

Kallie has recently decided to try out her dramatic side.  Whenever she is upset with me (usually because I set her down so I can actually get something done around the apartment) she flops her body onto the floor and pretends to cry.  It is pretty comical, and I have a hard time not laughing out loud... don't want to encourage this behavior too much! It usually only last a couple seconds, but the other day she did it for long enough that I was able to snap this photo:

Totally different subject, but now that it's February, it's time for Valentine's crafts.  I'm not sure why, but I LOVE Valentine's Day.  It probably has something to do with my ultra-romantic father.  Arek is not so out-wardly romantic, but I still like to plan fun crafts for Julie and fun heart-or-pink-themed foods for Valentine's.  We haven't begun to make her cards for friends and cousins yet, but yesterday we made our first craft.  Normally I have to come up with my own material, but now that I have the internet (and pinterest!) at my disposal, this year we're trying out some new ideas.  Here's a play-by-play of our Explosion of Love craft, (or Love "Bomb" which I found on Pinterest)

1. Julie helped me cut lots of confetti from scrap cardstock I had

2. I taped a heart onto cardstock

3. I put glue all around the outside of the heart, then spread it around with my fingers so it came to the edge of the heart

4. Julie had a blast sprinkling confetti all over the picture - and the table and floor!

5. We took of the heart and - Viola! - Explosion of Love :)

Random photo of fun Daddy-daughter time from the weekend.  These girls love their daddy!

We're Still Here

Alright, so I am realizing that enough is enough, time to get back to blogging.  It has been a full year since my last blog update (minus 2 days) but since the only people who read my blog know me, I'm not going to really recap much.  Let's just continue moving forward, only highlighting the biggest events.

#1 - Kallie!  My sweet baby Kallie is 11 months old now.  What a cutie she is!  Oh what to say???  I could go on all day about her.  Here a few of my favorite things about her:

• Her smile and laugh.  She is more serious than Julie was, and not so smiley, but when she does smile or giggle, it's precious.
• No thumb-sucking!  We are still trying to wean Julie from her thumb, but without even trying, Kallie never latched onto a binkie or her thumb.  Hurray!  It has, unfortunately, meant that she does not sleep as well as Julie did at her age, but in the long run it will be heavenly.  She does, however, like to have a blanket (any blanket... she's not picky) when she sleeps, though, so she can suck on that. 
• Blue eyes.  Kallie has beautiful dark blue eyes.  When she sits with Arek their shared eye color makes me think she looks like him (even though I know right now she mainly resembles me as a baby) 

       Other things about Kallie:

• She can walk great, although her main objective in doing so is usually to get to Arek or me.  She is branching out, though, and occasionally lets go of furniture and walks of her own free will.  She is very pleased with herself her walking skills, and who could blame her?  She gets a hardy applause from Julie every time she walks.  
• Now that Kallie is 11 months it's time to start weaning to milk.  Ugh.  That is something I am NOT looking forward to.  With Julie is was so easy; I just replaced a feeding once a week with a sippy cup of milk and by twelve months, VIOLA - she was weaned.  Kallie, though, is must more particular about what she eats... she wouldn't eat ANY solid food until 10 months, and even now she is very picky about what foods she will eat.  Plus, she has never taken a bottle of pumped milk or formula.  This little girl LOVES nursing.  So what's a mother to do?  I am terrified of stopping cold-turkey, but I am afraid that's what it may come down to.  Hopefully, though, she'll come around to liking milk soon.  Fingers crossed!  Otherwise, it's going to be a miserable journey for both of us!

#2 - Graduation!  Arek graduated USU with his master's of science in Structural Engineering.  I am SO proud of how hard he worked in school, and how well he did!  Just trying to understand the things he tells me about his classes the past several years makes my brain hurt!  I am such a lucky woman to be married to such a hard-working man.  It is such a blessing to me that he was willing to work the extra amount to support us while studying so that I could be a stay-at-home mom.  Out of the 4 1/2 years we were in school up at USU I only worked 1, so we really have been so incredibly blessed.  

#3 - Employment!  With graduation came job-hunting.  Arek applied for jobs all over the country.  To be honest, we were hoping to be able to get a job outside of Utah, and stretch our wings a bit.  Not that we don't love Utah - or family! - but we thought it would be great to experience something new.  However, we were SO blessed to be offered a job at ARW Engineers, in North Ogden, which we accepted.  We are so glad this is where we ended up.  Arek LOVES working there.  The people, the work, everything.  He has been working there over a month now and he comes home happy and excited every single day.  They are a fantastic company, very family-oriented, and very good at what they do.  You can read more about them here:  www.arwengineers.com

So my plan is to update often, hopefully at least once a week.  Now that we are employed we have the internet at home, so I shouldn't have anymore excuses not to keep this updated.  Anyway, please check back often for more about what we're doing!  

4 Weeks and Counting

Well, we are through January which means we have less than 4 weeks until our little baby is due (Her due date is Feb 28).  We are all so excited to meet her!  We had our 36 week doctor's appointment on Thursday and baby girl is officially in the heads down position - hurray!  So if all continues to go well, we should be able to have our VBAC like we've been planning on. 

We keep forgetting to take weekly pictures, but here is one my SIL Jenny took a few weeks ago when she was here. 

I LOVE how much Julie already loves her baby sister.  She talks to my belly multiple times every day, gives it snuggles, and loves to tell everyone that it is her baby sister in mommy's tummy. Can't wait for them to meet!

A Very Merry WHITE Christmas

We have had a wonderful Christmas season.  Arek finished up another successful semester of school.  He now only has 1 year left before he has his masters degree in civil engineering.  He's been working like crazy on his thesis paper and model, and probably will be able to defend in the spring, a full semester before he graduates.  We are so proud of him, and are so excited to be done with school. 

Arek's sister and her family have come home for a visit over Christmas.  Their little girl, Lilly, is just a few months younger than Julie so we drove down to Grandma and Grandpa's house to spend time with them.  They have had so much fun together.  Hardly a tiff or squabble between them (until Christmas day when there were a few sharing arguments over new toys) and they played hard from the moment they woke up, to the time we made them go to sleep.  SO glad these two little girls love each other so much.  Here is some of what they have done together the past week: 

Once the grade schools got out for their Christmas break, we took the girls over to the playground for some outdoor time.

 

 Our family at the Christmas lights.  Julie LOVED all the animals

 Running back to the car with Grandpa and Uncle Tiffer

Tea Party Time!

1. Pour

2. Stir

3. Enjoy

 

Although we had nearly a foot of snow at our home on Christmas morning, Grandma and Grandpa didn't have very much until the day after Christmas.  Julie spent so much time riding on a sled behind the 4 wheeler, and finally convinced Lilly to ride with her.  Her Grandpa, Dad, and Uncle Todd took turns driving them all around the front and back yards

 Can you tell my little girl loves to get her "thrills"?  I don't think she stopped smiling from beginning to end

Merry Christmas!

Belated Halloween

We had a great Halloween this year, complete with Halloween party hosted at our own apartment.  Arek and I decided to dress as Shrek and Fiona and I worked for several weeks on Arek's and my costumes.  I think they turned out pretty good.  Unfortunately the picture of just the two of us turned out super blurry.  But we got a good one of us with Julie, who loved wearing the same Snow White costume that I wore when I was her age.  

Aren't we adorable?  :)

 
He'll hate me for spilling the beans, but I have to brag about Arek's fantastic job at the detail work on my dress.  That's right... after I sewed the gold trim around my waist and neckline, Arek glitter-glued the amazing flower/swirl pattern onto the front and back of my dress. It turned out so well, and made the dress look just like Fiona's.    

Julie with her best friend, Gracie, at our party before the girls went to bed

The night after our Halloween party was our ward trunk or treat.  Julie had a blast and got tons of candy, both that night and on actual Halloween.  They definitely learn fast how to work the candy system!  Here she is again in as her cute "Snow White princess" as she called her costume

Julie LOVED her pumpkins this year.  Here are the two she got to help carve. 

And here are the three Arek and I carved while she was sleeping

Hope you all had wonderful Halloweens!