Sydney Sue

Most times I call Sydney "Sydney Sue" not "Sydney Jo"- not sure why, but that's just how it is. Sydney is growing up. I can't believe all of the things that she can do now, and how her little personality continues to develop. Sydney is a light hearted, fun loving, little girl! She is very independent and will play by herself for hours, but she does love to play with Cooper and me. She is developing quite the imagination. She loves "making cookies," she loves to play with dress ups, and she loves to play with 'Little People' and dolls. I often find her telling her dolls or stuffed animals to "go potty" or "take a nap." I am afraid she will have first child syndrome and be a little boss (not unlike her mom). She loves to wrap her "babies" up, just like we wrap up Cooper, and gives them bottles. Her imagination has taken new heights... she has named our vacuum "Bubbles." She likes to give Bubbles hugs and talks to her. She will tell me, "Mommy, Bubbles is Loud!" "Bubbles scares me!" If the vacuum is out, she will talk to it... "Bubbles you have long hair" (while stroking the hose part) "Don't be sad bubbles, it's ok, I will come back."

Sydney is also loving Cinderella. She wants to watch it all the time! I never let her watch it more than once a day (and it's a pretty short movie actually). Most of the time she will watch a little bit of it, then go play, then go back and watch some more, unless she is tired, then she'll just sit and watch. But all day she pretends she is "Cinderelly." Daddy is the king, and Cooper is the prince. She isn't quite sure who I should be, but Matt always tells her I am the queen. Maybe she is confused since there isn't actually a queen in the movie! She likes to tell me about how Stepmother is "so mean" and about the "big pumpkin!"

Sydney has just started a phase where she always wants to wear a dress. She loves to twirl in dresses and look at herself in the mirror. We only had 2 dresses for her (pretty nice church ones) so yesterday we went and bought her a few dresses. Her Cinderella dress ups just don't quite work for outside of the house :) Sydney is very interested in 'girly' things, but I think she's pretty well rounded actually. She also loves cars, trains, balls, sports, and very boyish things. The other day Matt had a football game on, and told her to go play in her room and she said, "no, I watching football!" She also says, "Mommy, I want to go to beam (nursery) and play with boys!" And she LOVES playing with blocks and building towers!

Sydney LOVES to dance and sing! She is always saying, "mommy, dance with me!" We made her a cd with all of her favorite songs on it... she loves Disturbia (bum bum be dum to her), Party in the USA, Goodbye, and Pokerface. Yes, a very refined taste in music, I know! Whenever we get in the car, she asks us, "Dance, Daddy, Bum bum be dum please!" She always tells us if she likes a song or not, and will ask us to change it or turn it up. "Mommy, I like it this song!" Sydney also likes to sing I am a Child of God, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Rock-a-bye Baby, I Love to See the Temple, We Did It (from Dora), and Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam. Here is a video of her music skills... please excuse the bed head, Sydney has horrible cases of bead head!

Sydney is such a "Big Girl" now! She is pretty much potty trained (half way I guess). She still has accidents sometimes if we leave the house, and has a hard time with pooping, but we are working on it! I think it just takes time, but she is pretty much understanding it for the most part, which is good. She is also pretty close to counting to 20- gets a few of the teens mixed up, and sings the ABC's pretty well! And she can recognize the letter "S" for "Sydney!"

We sure love having Sydney in our family! She definitely makes our lives so much more fun! By far my favorite memories of her right now will be the times I put her down for naps and bedtime. We sit in her bed with Cooper on my lap and read books! Tons of books! Sydney's favorites are Fancy Nancy; Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Did You See?; The Very Hungry Caterpillar; Chicka Chicka 123; and Ten Wishing Stars. We have so much fun reading together! Then we lay Cooper in his crib, and lay in Sydney's bed talking about our day. Sometimes we match animal noises with names, sometimes we sing, and sometimes we just giggle and laugh. And we ALWAYS give each other lots of hugs and kisses! It takes a lot of time out of my day, but I sure love having those moments twice a day with her!

I know that I go a little overboard sometimes with blogging and pictures, but I just really want to remember and cherish these precious memories!

My First Attempt

I have been organizing pictures and doing basic editing (red eye & cropping) with all the pictures on our new computer. This was my FIRST attempt at red eye with i-photo. It is quite different from our old program! Don't worry, I figured it out! Do you feel left out Kelli and Code???

Maybe Someday

Today Matt started yet another semester of school. At the beginning of every semester it seems like we are still not any closer to finishing school... how long have we been saying "about 2 years left"???? Why is it that school has to take so long and cost so much? Why does it take up so much of our time? Many days it doesn't seem worth it, but I know that it is! Matt will be taking 2 or 3 classes this semester (whatever ends up working out). He has to take very early classes, because of his schedule at Comcast that he CAN NOT change. But I guess when you lose a job, you take what you can get. Comcast has been a great job, except for the fact that they are not flexible with scheduling AT ALL! We are trying to change Matt's schedule to "part time" at work, but it takes a few months to get approved. I am amazed by this incredible man. Twice a week, he will leave our house by 6:00 a.m. at the latest, and get home at 9:00 p.m. He has to work 40 hours a week AND go to school, and still gets decent grades. And he comes home to a stressed out wife who has been potty training and taking care of crying kids all day with no car in the middle of winter, so no opportunity to get out. And he doesn't take his stress out on anyone. He gets home with plenty of hugs and kisses for us. He helps me get the kids to bed. He reads with us and says prayers with us, and is very present in our kids' lives. He is a great dad! I am so grateful to have Matt in my life. I know that he has a testimony of the family because of how much he does for our family. We have been so blessed for all that he does, especially for giving me the opportunity to be a stay at home mom. One thing I have learned is that the right thing is not always the easy thing! Thank you Matt for all that you do!

I know that we are supposed to enjoy life as it is, and not always be wishing for the future. And I think I do, for the most part. But on this one thing, I can't help but think... maybe someday we will be DONE with school!

Cooper's First Swim

This past week we signed up for memberships at a gym. Matt and I are both wanting to get in shape and we have had a lot of fun going to the gym together. We are able to take both the kids to the child care at the gym, which is really nice. We get up to 2 hours of the child center a day. Both kids seem to enjoy it, and they are very good about germs (my two main concerns). I have been amazed at how much the little break of working out and not having to take care of the kids has helped me. It is true that you have to take care of yourself in order to be the best mom that you can be. We took the kids swimming one of the days this week, and they really enjoyed it! It was Cooper's first time swimming. I was actually surprised by how calm he was. He liked to kick his feet, just like in the bath tub. Sydney enjoyed running around in the water. For some reason cameras aren't allowed in the pool area... we snuck in one picture and also took one in the locker room. I usually am a rule follower, but I really wanted to document his first swim time! So fun!

2010 Kickoff

Our 2010 got off to a great start! On New Year's Eve Chris and Lisa came up to our place. We pretty much played Super Mario Brother's all night and even decided that playing was more interesting than watching the ball drop. But we did take a quick break to drink some sparkling cider at midnight. Other highlights of the night include watching Travis Pastrana jump a car over 250 feet, playing with Sydney and Cooper, pizza, and chips and dip. It was fun to just relax and enjoy a night together. This picture is not from that night, I didn't take any, but I love it! So funny that we all ended up matching!


On New Year's Day, we went to the movie, "The Princess and the Frog" with my family. Sydney really enjoyed the beginning. Before the movie even started it showed a little segment of Mickey Mouse on the tug boat. Sydney was so excited, "Allie, MICKEY MOUSE!" When Sydney watches movies she loves to point out all the things she loves or recognizes, like "horse!" "frog!" "princess!" For the first 15 minutes, she kept this up. Then, she watched for another, maybe 15 minutes, and then she was restless. She changed laps a few times, had a little bit of popcorn, and drank half our drink. When that phase was over, she was ready to leave. Luckily, she was being quiet, so we got her to sit still long enough that she fell asleep. Matt also fell asleep. But I, myself, loved the movie. Disney needs to do more of the old school animation!

On Sunday, we had a little party with all of my old roommates. We drove up to Kelli's place in Centerville, and had some delicious soup with Kelli's rolls of course, italian sodas, and yummy desserts. Food is ALWAYS a big part of our parties. Which is very appropriate, because the menu itself reminds me a lot of these girls! I have to say, we have a lot of fun together. We reminisced about old times, played some fun games, and just enjoyed each others company! It's been a long time since we've all been together, luckily Stacie was able to make the trip! This party was definitely a highlight of my holiday season!