May 20th- May 26th 2012

Sunday was our Regional Conference and our stake was invited to go to the Conference Center. I was so excited for that. I love being there. It was interesting being there with two little girls. It was hard to keep them entertained and quiet and listen at the same time. But, it was still nice to have a change of scenery from the typical Sunday.

After the meeting, we walked through the temple grounds. It is always so nice to be there. It's so peaceful and is a change from the outside world. Once we were there I wished I would have prepared a lunch for us. It would have been fun to have a picnic there in the warm weather.

Ellie had her very first haircut on Monday! She was starting to grow a mullet so we decided it was time to cut it off. We took her to Cookie Cutters in Bountiful. She chose to sit in the blue car and they put on a Sesame Street movie for her. She wasn't too excited about it, but ended up doing alright. Her hair looks so cute now and I can feel better knowing that I am not that mom who lets her child have a mullet.

Kailee had her 3 year old Dr. Appt on Thursday. 

Along with her weight and height, they checked her blood pressure, pulse and BMI. They even used the big kid scale for her!

Her stats from this appt were: 

Weight- 30lbs, 4oz (50%)

Height-37 1/2" (50%)

BMI- 15.12% (25%)

Blood Pressure- 106/72

Pulse 94

Her weight and height have leveled. She used to be in the 90th percentile, but has moved to the 50th percentile. I thought that was pretty interesting. I thought she would take after Ryan's family and be tall, but maybe she will take after me and be shorter? We will see!

We also learned that Dr. Fruin will be retiring soon. She has had some health issues and has found it hard to maintain that along with working so much. I am sooooo disappointed. Dr. Fruin has seen both girls since they were born. She knows us and knows the girls. We know her, trust her and the girls were getting used to her. We have gotten used to how she is. I am totally bummed. I do hope the best for her though and understand why she made the decision. 

I hope we will be just as comfortable with whoever we choose to see next time. UGH!

May 13th- May 19th 2012

Happy 3rd Birthday Princess Kailee!

Kailee's birthday was on Sunday along with Mothers Day! 

How exciting to share a special day with her.

I can't believe my girl is 3 already. She is so fun and loving. She is so smart and learns something new every single day. Sometimes I have to remind myself that she is only 3. To me she seems to act older than she is. Right now she is all about Rapunzel. She watches that movie a lot. She loves to wear her poofy skirt and dance, sing and twirl. She is all girl right now.

She was a lucky girl and got a regular outfit (a shirt and skirt), a birthday shirt, princess skirt and jewelry, the Rapunzel Soundtrack, and of course, a Rapunzel dress. She was in heaven!

For church I had her wear her birthday shirt and her favorite poofy skirt.

After church we showed her the trampoline. We carried her outside with her eyes covered and sat her on it. She was really excited when she opened her eyes and saw it.

The nursery leaders had the girls make a really cute hand cut out with a poem that said...This is the hand that you use to hold when I was only 3 years old. Happy Mothers Day 2012 Love Kailee. I loved it. What a perfect gift. It even brought tears to my eyes. They tried to have Ellie make one too, but she wouldn't let them trace her hand.

After church Ryan had a cherry tree and some flowers set out for me for Mothers Day.

Grandma Colleen came up to celebrate with Kailee. She gave her a pink scooter that lights up and plays music. Kailee was very excited about that too! 

Kailee also had a visit from Grandma Carla and Aunt Steph and family. They gave her bubbles, a disc gun, and lots and lots of dance tights. The girls were excited to be able to play with their cousins for a little bit and share the trampoline with them!

Happy Birthday Kailee and Happy Mothers Day to me! What a special fun-filled day for us both!

After dinner and a bath we had an ice cream cake for Kailee. Of course, it was a Rapunzel cake!

Kailee's last day of PlaySchool was on Wednesday. Definitely a bittersweet day. I am so glad that we participated so she would have that time with her friends and to get out of the house, but I am so glad that I will not have to be in charge of it once every other month. I only had to do it 3 times, but that was for sure enough for me. 

For the last day they had a swim party at the Parkinsons. They had the sprinklers on and ate popsicles. Ellie and I stayed there the whole time. I visited with two of the other moms and Ellie went back and forth from playing with Kailee to sitting on my lap. 

From Left to Right: Kenzie Lawson, Kyson Hoggan, Andrew Hill, Chloe Richards, Sophie Bailey, Kailee Jamison, Jonah Knapp and Gus Parkinson.

Kailee had a dance recital rehearsal Friday evening at the Layton Conference Center and that was quite the experience. She acted so shy and didn't want to sit with her class. I was finally able to get her playing and running around with her friends, but she wouldn't let me leave her. I ended up staying in the dressing room with her until it was time for her to wait in line to go on stage. When her class got on the stage and the music started she went to the corner of the stage and yelled for me. 

At that moment I was definitely nervous for the actual recital!

Saturday was the Dance Concert. Before we left the house Ryan gave Kailee a blessing so she would feel relaxed and do her best. She was so funny with the blessing and didn't want to have one. But, Ryan did it with her fussing and moving. 

The concert started at 9am. Luckily, Kailee's class was the 9th number so we didn't have to wait too long. Just as the night before, Kailee didn't want me to leave her in the dressing room and didn't want to stay with her class. When it was time for her class to line up, her teacher carried her. Then, her teacher carried her on the stage. When the music started she just stood there and looked around. The poor little thing looked terrified. Before the rehearsal, she had never been on a stage in a large, dark room, with a bunch of strangers looking at her! 

I was a bit disappointed, but I was ok with her just standing there. I am glad she didn't run off the stage.

Now I am wondering, do I keep her in dance to get used to it? Take her out until she is older? What to do?

We told Kailee if she danced, we would fill up her pool and let her swim. That's what we did the rest of the day while Ryan worked in the yard.

My crazy Ellie has started to take off her clothes. I don't remember Kailee doing that. Sometimes I think these girls are exactly the same, but they are also complete opposites. Strange how that works.

May 6th- May 12th 2012

Kailee had dance pictures on Monday and it was soooo fun to get her ready for them. She was cute and sat as still as she could while I curled her hair at the kitchen counter. She looked so cute in her dance costume with her hair all curly. 

I tried to prepare her all day to try to help her so she wouldn't be nervous. But, as soon as we got to the studio and she saw all the people, she got nervous. 

I was able to get her to stand by her friends, but she didn't want to pose or smile.

Then came the individual pictures. At first she didn't even want to stand on the set, after a break and a bribe for ice cream, she stood on the set but again wouldn't pose or smile. 

That's ok. I understand how she feels. I love "real life" pictures and that's what we got.

We did get some really cute pictures before we left and when we came home. I love her little personality and one day everyone else will get to see it too!

My two girls. 

Occasionally Ellie will get her booster seat out and play in it. Thursday morning she decided that she wanted to sit in it on the floor and eat her cereal. I was a little nervous about it because she seems to spill everything, but I decided to let her have fun. She enjoyed sitting there and didn't even make a mess!

Kailee was perfectly happy eating at the counter. I am surprised because they usually have to have and do the same exact things.

On Friday Anna and Katy came to stay with us while Jolie and Sean ran a relay from Gardner Village to Roy. Kailee and Ellie were super excited to have them over and to be up really, really late.
On Saturday after I finished Kailee's scrapbook for her birthday, we packed a lunch and went to Layton Commons Park to eat and play. We stayed there for a couple hours and they all seemed to have lots of fun.
While we were at the park, Ryan was out running errands for Kailee's birthday. He went to a couple different stores to look for the best deal on a trampoline. It seemed like such a big and expensive present for her, but we figured both girls would enjoy it all summer. I am so excited for her to see it put up in the yard!

My original idea for Kailee's present was to take her to the Disney Store at City Creek and let her pick out a princess dress. But since we had cousins with us, and we got the trampoline, we decided not to do the City Creek date.  My friend Alison had told me that she had an extra Rapunzel dress that I could just buy from her so I thought I would just do that. Once we dropped off the cousins, we went to meet Alison and her family at City Creek to pick up the dress from her. We ate dinner with them at the food court and then headed home for long evening of getting things ready for Kailee's birthday! It will be so exciting to see her when she sees her gifts!

April 29th- May 5th 2012

Thanks to Steph, we spent the weekend up in Park City. Her neighbor had let them use their time share at the Canyons Resort, but because of car problems they weren't able to stay the whole week. So, we were able to use a night of it. We packed up and left when Ryan got home from work. 

Once we got checked-in and settled, we went to Kneaders for dinner. We stopped at the store for some milk and cereal  and snacks (just in case the girls wanted something to eat before bed) and headed back to the room. We thought about going swimming, but decided it was too cold.We thought about renting a movie, but didn't see any that we were really interested in. So, we watched a little bit of TV and then went to bed. 

When we got up in the morning, we thought about going swimming, but decided we didn't have enough time before the check out time. So, we got ready and checked out. 

We went to get some breakfast at Park City Bagel and stopped at the outlets to get Kailee her birthday shirt and an outfit as a birthday present. Both the girls also got new pajamas and they were both excited about that. 

Then we headed home. 

Hindsight tells us we should have just stayed home. It was nice to get away, but was a lot of effort just to go sleep somewhere else.

AND, before we went, Ellie was sleeping through the night in her bed. Now she doesn't.