Max: "Mom, have I been through a big change?"

Me: "What are you talking about?"

Max: "You know, metamorphosis."

One down....

...and a whole mouthful to go!

Jane at 15 months

(This picture is actually a few months old, but she looks so cute in it I had to put it up.)

Things Jane loves right now:

Shoes: She loves to have you put them on her feet and she loves to bring you your shoes and then wait for you to put them on. We try to hide them from her, but she's a pretty smart little girl and will bring them to you again if you don't hide them well enough.

Peek-a-Boo: This is her favorite game to play. The more you can startle her the funnier she thinks it is. I just love those deep baby belly laughs!

Her Belly Button: Jane loves to show off her belly button, and loves to have it poked. She'll even help you poke her belly button if she thinks you aren't poking it hard enough or enough times.

Dancing: Jane loves bouncing herself up and down on her legs to the music and "running" around the room while her siblings dance. She also loves it when you dance with her in your arms and will bounce in your arms squealing in delight.

Swinging: This girl loves to swing and can already use a big swing.

Being With the Family: Jane loves to be part of whatever is going on around the house. She loves her big brother and sister, loves to dance with them and to play in the play kitchen with them.

Her Thumb: I don't know what it is with our kids and their thumbs, but all three of them have been thumb suckers. Jane also loves to rub her hair while she sucks her thumb. Maybe she picked it up from Emily, who loves to twirl her hair while she sucks her thumb. (It makes a funny sight in the morning while I'm fixing the girls breakfast.)



One thing Jane still doesn't love is snuggling, but I still try to get her to snuggle with me several times a day. I am determined to turn her into a snuggler. This little girl definitely has her moments of fussiness, but on the whole she is such a sweet and pleasant baby and really just brings so much joy into our home. What did we ever do without our Baby Jane? I am so excited to see her little personality really come out this next year.

15 month stats:
weight - 25 1/2 lbs. (85%)
height - 33 1/2 in. (99%)
head - 18 1/2 in. (87%)

Over the last 7 months........

Jeff, Jane, and I went to Washington DC to visit Jeff's parents before they came home from their mission. (We also got to spend a day walking around New York City.)

We celebrated Easter and Jane just kept getting cuter!

I ran the Dirty Dash with my brother, his fiance, my sister, and my mom.

My brother got married, and we are so excited to be able to officially claim Jessica as family!
(I made four flower girl dresses, and they turned out so beautiful.)

My Dad turned the big 60 and we had a very fun party for him at our house.

Jane turned one year old, and started walking two months later.

Max learned to ride a bike.

We went to Bear Lake with Jeff's family and had so much fun in spite of the mice and bat in our cabin. (Actually, Sherry's reaction to the mice was half of the fun!)

Max started kindergarten and has loved it from day one.
(I guess I didn't need to worry so much last year!)

And we carved pumpkins and celebrated Halloween, which involved more sewing.

Now we are getting excited for the holidays and LOVING the fact that my sister just moved back to Utah and is only minutes away instead of a 12 hour drive. Max is on the verge of loosing his first tooth and I am not so excited that he is growing up so fast! (Too many big milestones in too short of a time!) And I'm hoping that maybe I will finally be able to stick with blogging again, although I don't promise anything. Having three kids has limited what I can get done in a day, although we would take Jane over the extras any day, she brings so much love and joy into our home. I am constantly looking at my little brood of children and feel so happy and content with our little family right now. We are definitely blessed!!

Happy Birthday to Me

I had a nice, quiet birthday this year. Per my request, Jeff made me a lemon cake. I could tell he couldn't understand why anyone would want a cake other than his mom's chocolate cake, but he made it for me anyway. Then he put the kids to bed while I got some alone time. Thanks for a great birthday, Jeff!

Cousin Weekend

The weekend after we got back from California we had my sister's three kids for the weekend. Max and Emily had so much fun playing with Ellie, as always. I love to watch kids running around playing, playing, playing. Dress-ups, barbies, running, etc. We made funny face pancakes and personal pizzas and just had a fun time. The only times that felt kind of crazy were meal times. Three kids in high chairs is a lot of work, especially after the meal is over. One of my favorite parts of the weekend was getting to hold and snuggle Brock and Isaac. Since they came to our family only three months before Jane was born I haven't had a lot of opportunities to hold them. I think you really bond with little ones when you have the chance to take care of them.

The Living Desert

Over the weekend we got date shakes, played outside, went to dinner at Chuck E. Cheese's (which was CRAZY busy), and played games. Monday was our last day of vacation and we decided to go to the Living Desert, which is the local zoo. We've been there before and always really enjoy it.

One of the favorite spots is all the miniature trains they have. They have so many and it's fun to watch them run through all of the different displays.

We always have to take pictures of the kids sitting on the wart hog statues. The statues are not nearly as ugly as the real live wart hog.

Emily loved petting the goats in the petting zoo. She kept talking about how all the goats liked her.

Malia and Max had so much fun playing together and got along so well. It's fun to watch them together and remember when Shannan and I were pregnant with them.

When we got to the camels, Shannan was pointing them out to Emily who responded, "Those aren't camels." Shannan told her that they were indeed camels to which Emily replied, "No they're not. They're dragons." There was no convincing her otherwise. To her they were dragons.

The next morning we left at around 5:30 am, California time, and headed back home. This trip felt faster, but was still pretty long. It is always so fun to get together with cousins and just hang out and play for a week. It was also so nice getting to spend so much time with my dad. It was so great to see all of the kids having so much fun with Grandpa.

Thanks for letting us come out to visit, Shannan. It's always so fun to go hang out in your nice warm weather in the middle of winter!