March In Review

Maybe one day I will be on top of blogging enough to do posts about specific events rather than periodic marathon posts. But today is not that day. So here goes the March in Review marathon post! I love March because it is my birthday month. I know you have no control over when your birthday is, but if you could pick March is a wonderful birthday month. It is a long month when just about nothing else is happening. Perfect time for a birthday! We celebrated this year very similar to last year by going to my favorite Provo restaurant - Bombay House!

 Mike, Wade, Nate, Scott, Me, Emily & Richard at Bombay House.

This is one of those pictures where we had a stranger take it and 

even though it didn't turn out great we felt too inconvenient to ask them to take another.

 Emily made me an awesome gluten-free cake! Yellow cake with coconut is my favorite.

 Scott thought it was his birthday again. He was THRILLED about singing happy birthday and eating cake!

 With our siblings! So fun we can all be in Provo at the same time.

 My favorite little boy!

 Nate also invited Caroline and Ellen and their husbands over for cake after dinner! It was so fun to see them on my actual birthday. 

That night Emily and Richard put Scott to bed so Nate and I could catch a movie. It was perfect. 

I felt so loved by friends near and far and had a great birthday!

 This month it also finally started to warm up! Scott got a scooter for Christmas, but it has been too cold for him to learn. 

We took him to the park one day to ride it and he did great!

It was cute to watch him get really focused on trying to ride it. He picked it up pretty quick!

Riding with Daddy!

 We ended the scooter ride by playing at the park!

 Such a maniac, this one...

 Other things of note in March included: lots of bringing dinner to Nate at his office. I haven't seen Nate during the week for almost a month now because things have been so busy at their office. But we always have fun visiting!

 Hanging out with Broc and Phil when they were in town!

 Wade got his mission call to the Brazil Fortaleza Mission! We are so excited for him!

Aaron's birthday is in March too, so we all went up to Benihana one night to use our birthday certificates. So fun! Except Scott had a meltdown because he was getting sick. Poor guy (let's be honest public meltdowns = poor Nate and I too). We didn't know he was getting sick until we got him home and he had a fever of 103!

 

We had a little Easter Egg hunt with our playgroup the Friday before Easter. Scott loved it!

 He kept yelling "Eggs where are you?!"

 I had a girls night with Caroline and Ellen while Nate took Scott up to a soccer game with some friends.

We all brought things to eat dinner together (I brought these fajitas), then went up to the Traverse Outlet Mall. 

We ended the night with strawberries and hot fudge at Ellen's. You always know it's a good girls night when you laugh so hard you cry. 

This past Saturday we took Scott to the BYU Easter Egg Hunt. It was INSANE. I was highly suspicious any free children's activity in Provo would attract huge crowds, but this surpassed my expectations. We let Scott get 2 eggs, then got out so he wouldn't get trampled! He didn't know any different though and was excited about getting M&M's in his eggs.

 Easter morning!

On Easter we had some family over for dinner. I love Easter. 

The weather was warm and it was a beautiful day. A perfect reminder of the new hope and joy the Savior's sacrifice brings for us.

My Easter boys!

Thus concludes our month of March!

More Songs!

Scott is quite the singer these days. 

He loves to listen to songs in the car and in between every song he asks for MORE SONGS!! 

I caught these 2 videos of him singing. 

Probably the cutest song he knows the words to is "You Are My Sunshine". It is so sweet to hear him sing it!

He also loves that song "Say Hey (I Love You)" and always asks me to play the "Hey Mama Song!" 

These videos are of him singing the ABCs and I Like to Eat Apples and Bananas...

Scott's 2nd Birthday Party - A Dog Party!

We celebrated Scott's 2nd Birthday last Saturday with our friends and family in Provo! We had a dog-themed birthday party because Scott loves doggies. I'm not sure if Scott totally understood the concept that it was his birthday party. But he had a great time! Every time we told him it was his birthday party he would say "Happy Birthday! Happy New Year!!" or start singing the song Happy Birthday and say yay! He is just always up for a good time :)

The spread...

Dog silhouettes...

The menu consisted of:

Dogs in a Blanket

Paw-sta Salad

Paw-blano Queso Dip and Chips

Fruit Skewers

Puppy Chow

Cupcakes

and of course Scott's mini smash cake!

(All gluten-free!)

My Mom used to make us all mini cakes for our birthdays. We are keeping the tradition alive.

 We also had "doggie treats" as party favors.
Aka gluten-free pretzels with mini marshmallows dipped in chocolate.

We were lucky to have so many of our favorite people at the party!

Mike, Emily and Richard

My brother and I!

He sang the whole Happy Birthday song to himself! It was really cute.
Then he wanted a spoon to eat his cake. This boy does not like to be messy!

 He didn't really go crazy eating the cake. Like last year, he just ate some them wanted to get down to play with his friends.

Opening presents! He loved all his presents, but Emily and Richard got him a cool mini leaf-blower that he opened first.
All he wanted to do was play with it after that. Luckily he had lots of great helpers to finish opening presents :)

My birthday boy and I! 

He got to eat chips and drink Fresca the whole party which I think made his birthday.

Happy Happy Birthday Scotty! We love you!

All About Scott at 2 Years

2 Years?! Can you believe it? It seems like just yesterday I was taking pictures of Scott with his elephant for the monthly updates I did about him during his 1st year. Oh how the time flies when you become a parent. I can honestly say that every age is fun when it's your baby. Of course every age definitely has it's challenges too! But watching Scott grow and learn new things is so exciting and fun. I love being a Mom. Not to be too cheesy, but I honestly feel so fulfilled by it! Like any path in life, it has it's challenges and some days you just have to do your best. But to raise a little soul that loves you is wonderful. There is nothing I would rather be doing with my life. Scott brings so much joy to Nate and I's life everyday!

Scott definitely has that little personality he has always had. He is silly, happy, social, curious, very busy, and at sometimes stubborn. He loves to try and make people laugh which is cute. He can also get very intense and focused about things. He likes figuring out how things work and taking things apart/putting them back together. Nate's parents said he loved doing that same thing when he was little! Maybe Scott got a little of the engineer in Nate. He got his love of stuffed animals from me ;)

This is what saying "cheese" looks like this. It is impossible to get a good picture of him these days....

Scott also loves music and can sing so many songs! It is so funny to hear his little voice and I am so amazed that remembers all the words. My favorite song he sings is the Sunbeam song because he jumps and laughs at each of the "-beams" in the song. Scott's other favorite songs include the ABC's, No More Monkies Jumping on the Bed, Happy Birthday, I Like to Eat Apples and Bananas, and many more. We listen to the Baby Einstein Pandora Station a lot and I swear he knows all the songs on that station.

 Scott has a lot to say as a 2-year-old. I can't believe the things he remembers now! Just yesterday we were reading "If You Give a Pig a Pancake" (part of the If You Give a Mouse a Cookie series which he is obsessed with - like won't let me read him anything else right now obsessed) and he noticed the wood in a picture where they were building a tree house. He told me "Wood! Fire at Grandma's!' Then he started asking me about Santa and his cousin Alice. That all happened 2 months ago! I was shocked. A few weeks ago we went to Wade's intramural basketball game. Last week Nate came home and ate a snack then went to play church basketball. Scott asked me "Where did Dada go?" and I told him he went to play basketball. Then Scott said "Go Wade!" and told me about the BEEP from the scoreboard and asked about Uncle Mike (who came to the game with us) and the stairs. He even told me about "number 2 on chair?" because the chair he was sitting in had the number 22 on it. WHAT?! Maybe this is normal. But I can't help but think he is such a smart little boy! He already knows most of his numbers and letters.

Funny things that Scott says these days are "Come Mama!" or Dada, Mike, Wade, etc. when he comes and grabs my hand to have me look at something. He also has started waking up in the morning and yelling "Mommy where ARE you?!" from his crib until I come get him. Scott still doesn't like to snuggle with us unless he is sick or tired. He gives great hugs where he runs and hugs you legs though. I guess we'll have to take what we can get ;)

In-N-Out with Dada. He freaks out whenever we drive past it asking for "french fies?!"

He loves all kinds of food. Favorites include, berries of all kinds, beans, meat (for some reason I think it's hilarious when he asks for "meat!" such a boy...) french fries, bananas, chips and salsa, "trees" - broccoli, "white trees" - cauliflower, asparagus, fruit snacks (duh), sweet potatoes, and many more! He also drinks a green smoothie with me everyday. He really likes things that have flavor and doesn't mind spicy food which is fun. We have always just given him what we eat and I think that has helped expand his palate. Partly, because I can't have a lot of the typical toddler snacks like goldfish and chicken nuggets in the house because they have gluten!

 Eating Almond Flour sugar cookies on Valentine's Day. He has a sweet tooth like his Mama ;)

 I had to post this one.

Scott is still HUGE for his age. He is off the charts for height, in the 99.8th percentile, and is bigger than all the 3-year-olds in nursery at church. The problem with having a huge kid is that people have high expectations for their abilities. People at the store or cashiers at the grocery store will ask him elaborate questions sometimes - probably because they think he is a 4-year-old. He is right on track for a 2-year-old, but would be a very slow 4-year-old ;)

If Scott could pick something to do for a whole day it would be to go to IKEA. It is seriously the happiest place on earth to him. Here he is playing with the only computer he is allowed to touch.

 

We love this little guy so much! Happy 2nd Birthday Scott! 

Life with you really is the greatest adventure of all :)