A birthday tea party

Roxie had her very first friends party yesterday for her birthday. She requested a "very grown up, lady like tea party". We invited a few ladies from the area and even a few gentlemen, to be the "handsome prince" as Roxie described.
The food was delicate and perfect for little hands. Sandwiches cut into butterflies, pink tea and perfect little tea cookies. After tea time we played "pin the crown on the princess" and no party is a party without a pinata.
Roxie was sure to wear her prettiest and most fancy dress, even for the breaking of the pinata. If you are throwing a kids party in the future, may I suggest a pinata. The kids love it and nothing is funnier than seeing them try and hit it.
Once Matt got home from work we opened presents and had Roxie's favorite meal, spaghetti and meatballs. She's easy to please.
Duckie practiced for Christmas and his own birthday which is fast approaching. Can you believe it!?
We finished off the day with cake and games with the family. Roxie kept saying, "This is my best day ever!!" Success.

4 years

Four short years ago, I held this little bundle in my arms.
A year later, I held this curly headed lady on my lap (when I could get her to sit still long enough to do so).
A year went by and was spent chasing this toddler all over the neighborhood on our daily walks around the block.
The next year, we learned how to play dress-up and discovered pink, princesses and fairies.
Now I look into the face of a 4 year old little girl. I can't believe how amazing this girl is. I couldn't love anything more.
If the next 4 years is anything like the last, I can't wait. Roxie is definitely the joy in this home. She is a never ending ball of energy that brings love and happiness wherever she goes. Happy Birthday Roxie!
(Photos of her big, grown up tea party soon to follow!)

Roxie's big debut

Roxie has been in a dance class for a few month now and had her Christmas recital yesterday. A few notes.

Thank goodness for the sweet girl next to her that actually knows the dance by heart. I love how at the end, she helps Roxie remember to sit down. Classic.

Roxie had a few troubles. First, having the girl on her left get in front of her. I think she managed quite well. Second, those darn reindeer ears just wouldn't stay on her head. She was so worried they'd fall off. It was a close call but she avoided a costume malfunction.

Our favorite by far is at the very end when she sits down on the floor with her partner. I think the teacher was holding her arms up to remind them to hold on to the others shoulders, not necessary for Roxie since she was in front, but she did it anyway. Good girl.

We're so proud of our little dancer. New York Ballet here we come!

This Thanksgiving...

I am thankful for these two.
Even if they both got sick today. Which is why I am home right now blogging. Not with Matt's family and cousins. Not with pumpkin pie. Oh, how I love them so.

A tale of a tail

There was a mouse... who dared enter our house. I was sitting peacefully on the couch reading books to Roxie when I heard it. A shuffling noise. Something in the pantry. I got up on the couch to see over the kitchen counter and that's when I saw it. I saw it's beady little eyes. I immediately took control of the situation and called my sister to come save me. In tears I told her that there was a mouse and she came to my rescue. Did I mention she's like 7 months pregnant. That's right. I'm tough. I saw the evil creature run from the pantry to behind the fridge and I think remember yelling something to the effect of "get out of my house you mean mouse!" He's lucky that's all I said. I decided to show the mean mouse who was boss and trapped him behind the fridge using decorative throw pillows and my guest towels. That'll show him! He promptly crawled underneath, over and around my trap. I kept yelling mean words every time he came out so that at least kept him behind the fridge, with hurt feelings nonetheless. That's right.

My sister came and then the fun began. She chased him all over the house trying to trap him. I needed to stay put on that couch with my feet up. Peter needed to be protected and someone had to do it. My sister was able to chase him to the garage where we think he'll be smart enough to go out the slightly opened garage door. HA! Now he can go tell his other mice friends about the house on Rivermist where he got trapped by a very scary woman and how no mouse would dare come back. At least not when my sisters here.

Peter's check-up

I took Peter to the doctors yesterday for his 9 month check-up. I've always known he's smaller than the average 9 month old and was expecting the usual 10th percentile in weight. He's been in the 10% his whole life. The first time the doctor told me he was in the 10th percentile I was shocked. Naturally, I questioned my mothering. Have I been feeding him enough? What am I not doing? Well, yesterday he was weighed and I was expecting much better news. Maybe he would get into the 20th percentile or even the coveted 50th. He's been eating solids and eats all the time. I figured we were golden.

6th. That's right. 6th percentile. And the 16th for height. What?! It's gotten worse! I'm very familiar with my doctor and know him quite well. When he told me Peter was in the 6th percentile I screamed LIAR! Not really, but I did suggest maybe he redo his calculations. I'm troubled. Is Peter destined to repeat my past. Always being mistaken for a younger version of himself? I understand that now it's not so bad but when you get pulled over by a cop and get asked, "how long have you been driving?" and I respond "about 3 hours" and he says (quite aggressively) "in general! What are you 16?"

I was 20. In high school I was nicknamed double stuff, fatso, and biggie. Get it? Get the humor? Hysterical. My children will look back at what people wrote in my yearbook and assume I was overweight. I know I'm lucky. I have a crazy fast metabolism. All my family does. It turns out, Matt has the same gene. No matter what he eats or how little he exercises he will stay the same weight. In fact, he joined a weight loss team at work and lost a decent amount of weight. He did nothing. Maybe Roxie will be more normal but I doubt it. She and Peter will most likely always be mistaken for being younger. I guess it can have it's advantages. I'm almost 30 and could probobly get a high school discount. If those exsisted. Blurg!

Token Halloween Post

We had a great Halloween...and now it's over. It's so strange to Roxie that in one day it's finished. All that build-up, the anticipation and in a few hours it's over and you're parents are prodding you off to bed. Roxie was Alice in Wonderland this year.
She insisted that I straighten her curly hair so that she could look just like Alice. It was so weird to see her hair straight. I'm sure this will not be the last time I straighten her hair. Why is it that everyone that has curly hair wishes it was straight. I would have killed for a little curl in my hair. The grass is always greener...
Peter was our little monster. It's a little less inventive but it was also easy. I figure when he's a little older and has an opinion on what he wants to be we'll spend the time and money. Until then I choose and this was easy.
He had to endure so much to get into this little get up and was quite kind about the whole ordeal. I only kept him in the costume for a few snapshots, it was quite warm in there.
Now on to Thanksgiving!!!

Baby it's cold outside

This has been the scene in our backyard for the last few days.
A few things to point out. Yes, that is Roxie's pic-nic table. Nope, we have not put away the grill. What's that by the stairs you ask? Indeed those are bubbles in that big, blue bottle. I'm in denial. How could this be? I'm outraged! I've been in a funk for a few days now and this blasted snow is the culprit. Why does it seem that Autumn is always the shortest of seasons? It also happens to be my favorite of all seasons so I'm always disappointed when snow starts falling. But it's still October for sake of pete! It's about now that I get incredibly homesick for those warm, lovely days in California. Oh, how I miss Menlo Park! Going to the park in January? Fantastic! Yes, I had to live in a tiny apartment where I would have been putting Peter to nap in the bathtub but I would have been warm darn it!

To try and rid me of the winter blues, Roxie and I made these.
They were tasty and raised my spirits for a moment... until I looked outside. Blast!

An Affair to Remember

I have a love affair with music. For as long as I can remember I've been obsessed with it. A night or two ago, I was talking with friends about our first concerts. I have stocked up so many memories going to concerts. When Matt and I were dating we went to Built to Spill, it was then I knew he was marry worthy. I saw U2 in concert in Vegas with my brothers and sisters. I've seen Led Zeppelin (well not quite the whole band but almost) and Parliment. A highlight was seeing Radiohead (my favorite) and meeting some of the band, including lead singer Thom Yorke. (Sorry to all that don't know what I'm talking about).

However great these moments were, none were so great as my first. I was 15 and my older brother invited me to go to see The Grateful Dead. This was quite an honor. He only had so many tickets and he was a huge fan. I felt privileged that he wanted to share with me. Why on earth my parents allowed me to go still baffles me. Our first stop was Walmart, to buy yo-yo's to sell in the parking lot before the show. It was the craziest thing I've ever seen. People everywhere, music playing, items being sold. Everyone was so kind and sweet. I felt safe. We were able to sell enough yo-yo's to buy something to eat before the show started. But after tasting a bite or two of the burrito, I thought it best not to proceed. Something was fishy about that burrito.

We filed into the concert hall. My brother had bought tickets with all his friends, most of whom I knew. They were an interesting group of friends for sure but they all protected me like their own little sister. When the lady next to me started smoking something in particular, I was shuffled around and put in the middle of the bunch. Then there was the music.

I'm not the biggest Dead Head in the world. I don't know many songs. It didn't matter. The energy was fantastic. I had never experienced something so great. I was in love. In awe of everyone being here together, singing the songs they loved, seeing their idols on stage. It was a moment I'll never forget. It started something for me. Thank you, big brother, for sharing your world with me.

So, what was your first concert?
For instance, Matt's first was Kris Kross. How cool is that?!

Love Notes

I love it when Roxie gets a note in the mail. She loves it too. There's something so exciting to a child when they get something special. It's like magic to them. It's amazing that they can send a note to someone and in a few days, they get a note back. I love their language and they way that they dictate to you. Like good old fashioned pen pals.
It makes me wonder the last time I wrote a little love note. The last time I sent words in the mail. Email is wonderful and so efficient but I miss getting a little surprise in the mail. Writing notes is slowly dying. Did you hear that some schools don't even teaching cursive anymore? I'm resolved. I'm going to find some nice stationary and get writing!

Catch up

It's been a while since I've posted anything. We've been crazy busy. We've been traveling... traveling to Europe and back. Oh, no we weren't. How I wish we were. I don't know what we've been busy with but we've just been busy. Here are a few things we've been doing.

We've been going to Midway a lot. The weather has been beautiful and we've enjoyed watching the leaves change. There is nothing like Autumn in Utah County. I'm sorry, I'm a little biased having grown up here.
Roxie, Ruby and Grandpa. We were lucky enough to have a visit from our California Cousins just in time for Swiss Days in Midway. We went to the parade and ate a "Swiss" Navajo Taco. Delicious. Who knew the Swiss were so adept in Navajo cuisine?
Feeding the horses in the backyard with our favorite Aunt, Amy. I'd love to say that Roxie jumped up there in line and fed those horses with gusto. Nope. It seems that I have handed her my genes for being nervous around animals. Especially big ones, with big teeth and those hooves that could just kick whenever they please. Gulp.
We also had a wonderful visit with Uncle Jim. Who's not so much an Uncle but one of my best friends for just about 10 years now. The kids know him as Uncle. Thankfully, Jim has been wise and bought a season pass to BYU's season, we'll be seeing a lot of Uncle Jim and we couldn't be happier. As it turns out, we're all happy that we have a spare bedroom now and Jim can have some space and not have to bunk it up on the living room floor. Maybe one day we'll get an actual bed for that guest room.

I don't keep in touch with many High School friends anymore. Those whom I do stay in contact with are those that share a bond that can't be broken. We're known as the Super Troupers and we love to roller skate. Almost every Saturday night for 4-5 years was spent together Disco Skating. It might sound lame but I don't care! It was what brought us all together and keeps us together still. They know me better than most. And how lucky that we all married super cool spouses as well. We get together every so often, this time with the kids.
Can you guess which belongs to which? From left to right: Joshua (Jake Andersen), Roxie (I hope you all figured that out), Maggie (Lilly Nielsen McDowell), Millie (Kyle Reeder), and Scarlett (David St.Julien). There were a few babies missed in the shot but here we are all represented. I also don't know what was sooo interesting about that rock.

And what has Peter been up to? A lot of this.
Peter has been crawling everywhere, eating everything and in general being a perfectly normal 9 month old. I'm having to babyproof again and watch him constantly. It's all good fun.

A litte craft project

I needed a bag for Roxie to put all her ballet things in and found this cute idea from a very cool blog (that I suggest you all check out). You make these clever bags using freezer paper as a stencil. It's super easy and only took maybe an hour from start to finish.
I liked it so much, I made another one to use as a church bag.

A word about Peter

For one thing, he loves his sister. I swear, it is her and only her that can really make him laugh. I will be breaking a sweat doing all kinds of silly and nonsense things and along Roxie will come and say something ridiculous like, "captain" and away he'll go! I can get him to giggle but only sister can really get him laughing.

He rolls around constantly and is minutes away from crawling. Soon we will need to baby proof this entire house. He loves to growl, spit and still sucks on his two fingers. I love sneaking in his room after he's fallen asleep and watch him there, peacefully sucking on those fingers. I love those fingers. I think I can credit them to his early sleeping through the night. They deserve an award.

Peter loves food. He's eating all kinds of baby food and loves it all. You'd think from all that food he'd be a chubby little thing but he's not. He's a good size mind you, just not chubby. He's very wiley. He takes after his Dad.

Peter is still called Ducky most all the time. Or Duckman, The Duck, Duckmeister, Pete Stank, The Stank, and many more. We're fond of nicknames around here. Peter is the sweetest boy to be near. I'm more and more grateful for him every minute.

Roxie's room: before and after (part one)

As we get settled into the house, small little projects are starting to happen. Which excites me to no end. I love a good fixer upper project. Something that transforms itself. We've been renting since we've been married so I've done lots of little things but I'm so excited to work on bigger projects. But for now we're not quite ready to do anything major so Roxie's room comes first. We plan on putting up bead board, painting and putting mass amounts of girly butterflies everywhere but the first thing she needed was a nightstand. I found this nightstand at a garage sale for $15.
The main room colors in her room are going to be pink and green so I gave this nightstand a new look. The nobs are Roxie's favorite. She calls them her jewels. Before we put them on the nightstand she asked if she could sleep with them. She loves all things sparkly.
I'll try and post more pictures once we get her room finished. And since we're speaking of Roxie, look who starts ballet class tomorrow:
I can not tell you how long she has waited for this day. She has asked me for the last six months if she can take a ballet class. She's giddy with anticipation.

Look who came to dinner!

It's been somewhere around 10 since since I met John and Mimi at Ricks College. In those 10 years we've married, moved countless times and each had kids. We were so happy to see them last night and be able to talk and catch up. Roxie and Ellie connected like most little girls do. As we were getting ready for them to come Roxie asked, "Mommy do you think Ellie likes fairies and princesses?" I thought it was a 99.9% chance that she did. They were so cute together! They played dress-up, house, tea party, and all other little girl games. Jensen is a cute and very sweet older brother. And Mia, well she's too adorable to describe. It was great to see them again, I only wished we could see them more!

So much to say... so little time

We got back from Laguna exactly one week ago. Since then, we've pack up all our things, unpacked most of our things, until I got sick and so did all the kids. The unpacking has come to a very quick halt. We'll get to it, when all are feeling better. More on that later.
Our trip. We had a fantastic time. All the Hellewell kids were able to come and it was so nice to see them all. Roxie had such a good time with all her cousins and cried as we left. Some highlights:
We went on a trolley ride through downtown Laguna and stopped at the sawdust festival. We had a delicious lunch of hotdogs and got balloons for all. These three girls
were all born within a year of eachother. We've been waiting for them to fully interact with each other for years. It was worth the wait. They are all so adorable together and most times very loud. They loved hanging out of the trolley on the way home waving to all pedestrians and screaming. Ah girls.
We were lucky enough to sleep at Ruby and Cash's house. Roxie loved it so much. Every night she would ask me if it was all a dream. Seriously. She couldn't believe that every morning she could wake up with cousins, most days at 6 am.
We had lots of helping hands ready to help with Peter. He loved the attention.
We all went swimming, even Peter and his cousin Lincoln. They are only 6 weeks apart and are also destined to be buddies. In fact, in a few months there will be 5 boys born all within about 16 months I think. Can you imagine all these boys in 2 years?!
Roxie and Lauren getting ready to kill the competition in the three legged race for the Hellewell Olympics. There was a balloon toss, cherry spitting and much more. Roxie got an A for effort. Maybe next year.
These are the Cappello's. We've been friends since we lived in Orange County a few years ago. It was nice to have lunch and play games, like the good days.
And of course, THE BEACH! Most defenitely the highlight of the trip and the favorite thing to do. For hours Roxie amused herself with building, sculpting and running back and forth with her cousins. I miss the beach every day.
Frolicking
Peter's introduction to the beach. He loved the waves and would scream with all his might when they came near. Then would scream when the water got on his little feet, the ocean was pretty cold I guess.

It was a great trip. It was refreshing to take a break and enjoy the sun and family. By the end of the week we were wiped out and ready to move on to our next journey...

Vacation!!!

This is where we will be spending the next 7 days. A little nervous about that long, long drive with 2 kids but it's worth it! Laguna Beach, here we come. See you next week!

The house

We did it. We bought our first home. After something like 9 months of looking and 4 offers later, we finally got this house and we are so happy. I can't wait to be in a place of our own and officially be finished with the renting route. We should be moving the middle of August. For those of you with Utah know how, the house is the Lehi Traverse Mountain area. I tried to take a cute little picture of the family outside our new front door but it didn't turn out so well. Here it is anyway for your enjoyment. Once we get settled in and such, I'll try and take a few more pictures. In the meantime, start making your plans out-of-towner's, we're looking for visitors!