Pictures of my new haircut!

Laci did it once again, bless her heart. My hair needed a different haircut. It just wasn't working for me! I just hope I can get it to look this good everyday!?!?

can't get enough of this little girl

She always seems to be filthy in these pictures. In my defense, I loved how her hair looked after she woke up, so I didn't bother to clean her up. Also I think I may need to wipe Conrad's fingerprints off my lens cap after looking at these pictures.

But I sincerely can't get enough of her sweet voice, her soft skin, her excitement for doggies (or deer or elmo- whenever she sees any animal of any kind she squeals out "doggie!"). She has the sweetest sweetest sweetest disposition. She loves to be cuddled. She loves her binky.

It's indescribable, my infatuation with her. Do I need to mention how I hope she just stays this age? She's at the perfect age. She sleeps for 13-14 hours at night (yeah, you read that right!) and takes 1 good 2-4 hour nap during the day. She doesn't have tantrums yet. She's learning about all the cool things in the world, and gets so excited to see trees and animals. She doesn't walk around that fast yet, she's still pretty cautious, so I can pretty much keep an eye on her. She OBEYS when I say "no no" or "uh-uh." (Though she does like to test it out sometimes just to see my reaction, she looks at me, smiles and says, "uh-uh.")

I sincerely think to myself, "there is no way I can have another child as cute as her!" (seeing as how Conrad is at that age where everything is a battle- he is wearing me out.)

Having this darling daughter and no family close by to share her with is really making me homesick. I am finding myself aching to have connections with family. And it is the summertime, I'm missing out on lovely Utah backyard family parties.

Josh leaves on Sunday night to start his first rotation. It'll be in family medicine. It's a month long, but it's 3 hours away from us so he'll only come home on the weekends. I have no idea how I'll handle it. There's a chance I might be stranded without a car (depending on how Josh's '88 Pulsar handles the drive.) I am being a wimp, lots of women have done this before.

It helps me to get all that out there. All my complaints. Sorry. And thank you for humoring me by reading my blog still!

Fortunate sequence of Events

Conrad has an idea...

Amelia wants in on it, too.But got stuck.So she's off to something else. Conrad stays with his idea...And has a darn good time.

He's too gentlemanly to forget completely about his sister.

what smoochers!

Calling the Family to repentance

Dear Family Members,

I love you and I miss you. In fact, I love you enough to send out a message from the mid-west asking you to repent from not blogging more frequently. I'd really like to see a picture or two from something that's happened recently. For those of you that post about once a week, you have my blessing. For those of you who don't post for weeks and months on end, I am talking to you.

Signed,

The wrath of Ali

Reflecting

Things around these parts are looking up. I am a happier mom. I have more patience lately. I have relaxed a lot about small things. (Hence the picture of Amelia and her filthy shirt in the "wigs" post. Yeah, I'm a little embarassed. Oh well. I changed it later! All was well!)

I found this poem on http://www.mormonmomma.com/ and HAD to post it on here. I want it on my wall.

I saw a young mother with eyes full of laughter
And five little shadows came following after.
Wherever she moved, they were always right there—
Holding onto her skirts, hanging onto her chair,
Before her, behind her—an adhesive pair.

“Don’t you ever get weary as day after day
Your five little tagalongs get in your way?”

She smiled as she shook her pretty young head,
And I’ll always remember the words that she said:
“It’s good to have shadows that run when you run,
That laugh when you’re happy and hum when you hum—
For you only have shadows
When your life’s filled with sun.”

a little heat relief

About 2 weeks ago Heidi invited us over to escape from this awful Missouri heat. We couldn't say no!

Chloe and Amelia (btw, No, we did not plan to both get pregnant around the same time, nor did we have any control over the fact that we both had girls... isn't it neat!??! how fun for us and the girls!) not so sure about those crazy boys in the pool.examining the water hose gun

ahem. um, I figure he learned this from somebody else. not me. Luke took matters into his own hands, though...Shortly after this picture was taken Conrad grabbed the hose and it sprayed Chloe.
We got rid of the hose and the boys came up with something else: taking a nap in the water. They were snoring and closing their eyes and everything. All they said they needed were their blankets.Oh, and Conrad on this day did not want to take his shirt off because he didn't want to be naked. I seriously don't know where he gets these ideas in his head. This week he doesn't want to wear a shirt. Point reiterated.

Pictures of the Day

So, it's the afternoon. I should be folding the mountain of laundry upstairs, but I got distracted from checking to see if anyone has commented on my blog. Nope. Bummer. So I thought I'd look for a photo of my mom that really showed her true colors so you could see the similarities between Amelia and my mom. (The previous post has got me excited.) She looks SO MUCH like my mom. It just makes me giggle! And tear up. Amelia seriously lights up my life. I still cannot get enough of her. (Well, some days I do, but those days are rare). Anyway, this was the first picture I came across. This picture was taken at my baby shower for Conrad. Almost 3 years ago. In the picture is Ari (on the left) and Sophie, my adorable nieces, who are growing up way too fast.
Then I came across this picture of my Grandpa Woodbury. My heart melted. If I wouldn't have married Josh, I would have married my Grandpa. What a kind soul he is. With a sense of humor that makes your jaw drop. Maybe I'm a little homesick, but I sure miss him. Love you Grandpa. Here's a hug!

Then I came across this picture of Josh I promised I wouldn't post on my blog. But that was 2 years ago. Now he can laugh about it. I had just purchased a swim suit, and he took the hard plastic thing that the swimming suit came on (kind of like a mini-mannequin, with girl parts) and stuffed it up his shirt. You can make up a funny caption to go along with it. I bet you'll get it.And that was the night of our 7-7-7 party! What fond memories. I miss family. Sniff. Sniff.

Comments always welcome!

wigs!

they are just a guaranteed laugh!

Guess what!?!?

My kids are growing up! Watch Amelia's first steps!

And... in other news, Conrad is reading the JAMA again. (as seen below)

He is not potty-trained, but he would love to be so he could get a tricycle, not a bike, because that is too big for him (he tells us this). And a Batman Scooter. I don't know that he really knows who Batman is, but he has a Batman Computer (Thank you G.G. W) and also from hanging around his Texan cousins who dream they could be Batman.

For those of you inquiring on how his potty training is going, I've kind of given up for a little while. Reason: He never wakes up dry from his nap or in the morning. But during the day he LOVES to go potty just to get a treat. I suppose if I stuck with it for more than 1 day he'd figure out how to hold it longer and if you will, let more of it out. But after 20 hours of potty training he pee'd on our couch, and pooped in his underwear twice. So I just don't think he's all the way ready yet. And I am not ready to bunker down for a whole week just to potty train. It's SUMMER! I'll wait until winter unless he potty trains himself. Anytime he says he needs to go potty I definitely take him. BUT, it's annoying the times he remembers he needs to go potty b/c it's usually when it's naptime or bedtime. In fact right before I started this paragraph I was upstairs helping him go potty because he came out of bed with that excuse. How much did he go? Maybe half a teaspoon. It's annoying.

Sorry, I know you really don't care, but I'd like to remember this down the road. So it's for documenting purposes solely.

But, great news! Amelia's finally walking! 14 months and 1 day old. 'Atta girl.

my Mr. D(elightful) is returning

and potty training, too!

he is sleeping in past 6:30 am. Today I wasn't disturbed until 8:45 am, and yesterday it was around 8:30 am. This is probably the main reason for his return. It's been heavenly.

He is happy. He asks lots of questions. He is silly again and not because he is tired, but because he's in a good mood.

I don't know if this is a temporary thing, but I'll take it.

I'll take him.

peek

at this blog. I am the Blog Specialist for KCUMB's SAA club. Basically the wives club for med students. But there are also a few rare husbands.

Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences Student Associate Auxiliary

If you have any suggestions or notice any problems let me know. This website address will be going out to the med students beginning school this year. So I think I might get a bit of traffic to it.

Many thanks to Josh for helping me with it. And also to my friend Krista S. for helping me with the buttons.

It is linked on my sidebar if you ever are bored and want another place to check out.

And the cloud was lifted...

Conrad has started going poop in the potty!!! The last 3 out of probably 5 poops have been in the potty, and the other 2 times he's told me that he needed to go poop, but once we got to the potty he was already poopy.

Sorry if you're offended by the word poop. That's just what we call it around here.

Anyway, he only poops like twice a day, so that's the record for the last probably 3 days.

We are totally ecstatic around here. Now, we just need to OFFICIALLY start the potty training. ie. BUY UNDERWEAR.

Probably a personal favorite part about this is that Conrad's 2 buddies are doing well at potty training, too. Luke just started this week, and is doing great. And Will has been going for I think a couple of weeks. It's been fun to discuss with the mom's how it's been going.

I never knew I could get so much joy out of the number 2.

We are ruined for life!

You can't beat fireworks like this right outside your front door.

Here is a family picture! We haven't had one for what seems like a really long time. I'd like to caption this photo with how Amelia takes after her dad with her love for fireworks, but she really was just flirting with someone smiling at her.
Conrad had to keep his ears plugged. Amelia was overwhelmed, but exhausted and thus was happy to just sit and snuggle.

Conrad and Luke had a lot of fun playing together. Luke has been gone for a couple weeks, and their reunion was absolutely priceless. Conrad was ecstatic! Here they are just watching some fireworks.It's blurry, but you can see how cute they are.

Here's a taste of what our night was like! These were lit off 20 feet in front of us. And there were other fireworks just like ours, some better, around the townhomes parking lot. It was pretty awesome.

You all need to move here!!!

Look at the heat coming off the cake!

That is a lot of birthday candles. All atop my chocolate cake stolen from nieniedialogues blog post. Which was displayed in full detail on cwac's superduper blog. You have to go see the pictures to see how I was sold on this cake. And posted SO close to my birthday, I couldn't resist to attempt a cake with mascarpone filling and ganache frosting. I did it. The cake DID fall apart when I was placing it on the cake plate, but the mascarpone mousse filling held it together. And the frosting kind of dripped off the cake until I refridgerated it overnight, then attempted to clean it up the next day. It turned out nicely. I had to put sprinkles on it, so I did. Love sprinkles!

I had a great day! I am loving planning my own birthday stuff. Then I REALLY get what I want. I WANTED and NEEDED to get my hair done, and so I did. Thanks to Laci!!! Love her! Next, we went out to eat at Cici's Pizza for lunch. I originally wanted to go somewhere like The Cheesecake Factory, only because I have never gone, but that just wasn't in the cards for us today. Our lunch hour got pushed back a little due to a minor issue with my hairdo, and Cici's cinnamon pull-aparts were calling my name. And our kids practically get to steal from there. (They eat free under 3 years old). And it was delish.

Then home for naps. Really long ones for the kids. I got to rest on the couch answering phone calls from well-wishers. Since our kids woke up so late from their nap, I got a spontaneous idea to help them get worn out so they would go to bed at a reasonable hour to go to the kiddie pool at our YMCA closeby. We went there, but it was closed! So, me and the kids just went to the park right by the YMCA and played for 45 minutes. And it was fun! My kids are a dream come true for me.

Josh gave me wonderful presents. A new cell phone! A hairdo! And treasures, nuggets and whoppers! He knew exactly what I wanted. :) Can't go wrong with the gift of talk, the gift of beauty and the gift of chocolates.

We had a fun night eating chocolate cake and playing some games after the kids went to bed. I laughed my head off. What a wonderful birthday. Now I am blogging. Oh, it is not my birthday anymore. It was a wonderful birthday. Bring on the Fourth!

The best birth date ever

I am 26 years old today. I got waffles with whipped cream and strawberries for breakfast, my hair done (! yay!!! that's my favorite activity to do on my b-day), lunch out with the family, and we'll see what the rest of the day brings. I'll post about it later.
Happy Birthday to me!

blog marathon

I just got done posting 3 posts about our past week. It doesn't do our week justice, honestly. I didn't take enough pictures. But this is a collage of photos I gave to our Father's for Father's Day. Just bragging rights for me. :)
We've had a lot of visitors the last few weeks. First my uncle Boyd, who received a mission call a week after his visit here. He and my Aunt Dianne are going to Helsinki, Finland to be Institute Outreach Coordinators. Crazy! (Not them on a mission... what the heck is in Finland?!? And Finnish??? boggling.)
Then my cousin Eli was here off and on for almost 2 weeks. It was great getting to know him again since I haven't really seen him for about 5 years.
Next my parents-in-love came and stayed here for about a week. They were here during a week of weather that Al Roker described as OPPRESSIVE. Also, Conrad had some sort of a bug and was not much fun to do anything with. We did get out, though. Cindy and I went shopping for a NEW Sunday Dress! We scored big. I got spoiled. We went and saw UP. Cute show! Amelia even came along and did better than I expected. I still had to go sit outside the theater, but not until it was well into the story. We went to the water fountain at Zona Rosa. And the other places you can read about in posts below.
During the week Scott and Cindy were here my parents stopped in Kansas City with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. My dad is a retired singer from the choir and now serves as Personnel Manager. What more could he ask for!? He loves it. So, I went and picked them up from their hotel in Overland Park, came back for dinner at the Corner Cafe, Scottie drove them back to their hotel (I was exhausted, and didn't want to drive the downtown Kansas City drive another time). The next day we went to their hotel and swam a little until they had to go for sound check at the Sprint Center. (Conrad wasn't cooperative and didn't want to get in the water... one of his whiny moments). Later that day we went to the concert. I was in heaven. Oh man what a feast for my soul. It's been a few years since I've gone to a choir performance. I was thrilled. I got goosebumps repeatedly. It was just awesome. Stirring spiritual songs, thrilling cultural songs, traditional songs, sentimental songs... it was just perfect.

What more could I ask for?!? I've been blessed to see lots of family recently. The concert was the icing on the cake. Josh is determined to get a residency or AT LEAST practice in Utah so I can sing with the Tabernacle Choir. I just laugh my head off. He's hilarious, isn't he? Normally he isn't so exaggerating with his compliments. Anyway...change of subject.

We have an exciting weekend ahead of us, hopefully I'll be better about taking pictures than I was when family was here. (Lame, ali.)

Both sets of grandparents visiting

Here are my folks the day they arrived in Kansas City loving their grandkids. Josh's fun parents! We had a splendid grand time with both grandparents at our house for an evening.

Just some pictures that don't have any necessary theme. Grandpa snuck Amelia a cookie. Little did he know that when you sneak a 1-year old a cookie there's no sneaking about it.

Conrad just wanted his picture taken. :) He was jealous of Amelia getting all the photo attention. The dirty shirts are just water from Conrad getting his hands washed in the sink. (I SHOULD HAVE DRIED THEM. ohwell.) Conrad is sure handsome anyway.

luv my family. :)

Train Ride

On Saturday we went to the Kansas City Northern Railroad. You get to ride about 1/2 mile on a train for 50 cents. It was our first time going, and I've been wanting to go for the last 2 years, but have never gone. (Plus, we live so close to it, so why did it take us so long to ever go!??)

Anyway, I thought Conrad would have died and gone to heaven. When we first got on the train, though, he almost died of shock.
I recorded a video of him screaming our of sheer terror, but I doubt you'd really want to watch it. Once the train started moving, he settled down and enjoyed the ride. But that minute and a half we waited to get going seemed like an eternity.

Cindy really enjoyed herself. I just love this picture of her.

I don't know what made her do it, but halfway through the ride Amelia started crying.
We made it through.... !Conrad got to go ring a train bell. That sealed his fun.

Grandpa doing what he does best. Investigating to make sure they were running things smoothly without him there to help.