Happy 1st Birthday, Mace!

Now that Mace is 14 months old, I figured I should post about his first birthday. We had a party at our house with our friends and he had his first taste of cake. Yum!

1 year stats:

23 pounds

I can't remember his height, but he's a short, chubby little thing.

12 teeth

Loves to dance (bobbing his body up and down)

Loves to snuggle

Favorite song for Mommy to sing is Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

I can't express just how much I adore my sweet Mace. He is just so perfect for our family and such a special person.

I love you, Mace! I can't believe it's been a whole year since you graced us with your presence! Thanks for joining our family!

Happy birthday, Claire!

It's hard to believe my baby girl is 3. She's growing up so fast.

She can:

Count to 10.

Distinguish between singular and plural.

Speak in full small sentences.

Repeat pretty much everything you say.

A lot more stuff that makes Mama think she's so smart.

She is so good at helping her little brother and following instructions. She is an absolute joy to have around and I adore her. Happy birthday, darling Claire!

We're here

Do I have an excuse for not blogging? Not really. I have a lot of time on my hands. We have been in Utah for just about a month now and I am currently unemployed. Thank goodness for tax refunds, so we can pay our bills. We are enjoying it here so far. I'm definitely homesick, though. I haven't been away from San Diego for more than 2 weeks, so this is very different. The people here are great and we really enjoy our ward. All in all, things are going well. Enjoy a picture of the beautiful mountains from our home:

We're moving!

We've been thinking about this for a while and we've decided to move to Utah (never thought I'd say that.) We'll be moving in early July. I won't give a lot of details on a public blog, but I will give you the two main reasons we've come to this conclusion:

Lots of friends and family in the area

and

Cheaper housing.

We want to do what's best for our little family, but will miss tons of people here. If you wanna hang out, you'd better make it quick. :)

The 1/2 year old

Loves:
nursing
rolling over
scooting backward
smiling
water bottles
my phone
snuggling
bouncing
standing with support

Does not love:
rice cereal
being restrained in any way
having his nose wiped

He has 2 teeth on the bottom and 1 on top. He weighs 19 lbs 6 oz and is 26 inches long. He wears size 4 diapers, size 12-month clothes, can sit up and grabs anything and everything within his reach. He is such a happy baby and loves attention. I sure do love this little chunk.

The 2 1/2 year old

Loves:
showers
flowers
playing dress-up
Mickey Mouse
Disney princesses
cheese
shoes
Grandma, Papa and Uncle Jared
Kung Fu Panda
Finding Nemo
car rides
swings
slides
dolls
bunnies

Does not love:
tomatoes
raspberries
leaving people she loves

She has an ever-increasing vocabulary. Some words she pronounces correctly, but others not so much. Some of my favorites:
guck (cookie)
muck (milk)
f--- (frog)
sowah (cereal)
Kuh (Claire)
Guh (Jared)
Sanny (Sandy)
hum (phone)
meh (banana)
pick (pig)
eck (egg)
teetee (tv)
peez (please)
Gamma (Grandma)
gusses (glasses)
camma (camera)
yuch (lunch)
showah (shower)
towah (towel)
bun (spoon)
pie-yay (potty)

She's small for her age and very active. She very affectionate with her baby brother (sometimes a bit too much) and is learning to share. She can count to 2 and can say every letter in her name. She's actively going through the terrible two's, throwing several temper tantrums a day. Her favorite words are "no" and "mine." She is very much loved and is such a blessing to have around.

Siblings

Claire loves her baby brother. She is so good to him. She gives him hugs and kisses all the time. Mace smiles and giggles at her, too. I wonder how long this sibling love is going to last. For now, I'm just going to enjoy it.

Christmas, etc.

Christmas was celebrated all month long, so I'm just going to put it all in one post cuz I'm lazy. Plus, I have 2 sleeping children at the same time and I don't know how long that's going to last, so I've gotta make this quick. I love Christmas and all the joy that it brings. Especially with young children. This Christmas, Claire had the flu (on Christmas Day - yuck) so that kinda put a damper on things, but we celebrated nonetheless. I wanted Mace's first Christmas to be special, so I made sure to really put a lot of focus on him as well.

Mace with "Cowboy Santa", aka Awesome OB/GYN
(There are more pictures taken with 2 more Santas, but one hasn't been e-mailed to me yet and the other was given to me as a hard copy [actually there are like a dozen] and I have yet to figure out the scanner part of our printer)

Helping Mommy wrap presents

Opening presents at Grandma and Papa's a week early (since Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa were going on a cruise over Christmas)

More presents

Christmas Eve, with an extra present under the tree

First Christmas

Incredible homemade bear for Mace - read the note attached

*Love*