Easter

Easter was really fun this year. Alyssa was so excited  about it. She went to 4 Easter egg hunts. One at Riverwoods (total waste of time, 1000's of kids and the hunt lasted 10 seconds). One at each grandma's house and one at our house. For the week after Easter she wanted to play hide and find the Easter eggs over and over again. We would take turns hiding and finding them. At Easter dinner she asked almost everyone to play this with her, when that person got tired she moved on and asked someone else. We also tried to teach her about the true meaning of Easter. She basically understood that it was about Jesus. We also have a Sanders kids (and spouses) hunt, there is money involved so it makes it more fun. This year our newbie found the jackpot and came out with the most, Every person gets to find 10 eggs, if you touch an egg it is yours. Not all eggs have money. Every year Adam only finds 9 eggs, this year everyone found 10, Adam had 7 or 8. We all went searching and helped him find all 10. (He still came out with the least amount of money).

Getting ready for the hunt,

My Grandpa playing " hide and find the eggs"

Out hunting for the eggs

Easter picture of the girls (Kate's life-being smothered by Alyssa)

2 months

Kate was 2 months old on the 24th. I seriously can't believe it. I love having her in our family. She is a great baby. She has slept through the night a few times (2 nights in a row last night and the night before!) She normally wakes up about 5:30 to eat then goes back to sleep. We will see if sleeping through the night is going to continue. She smiles and is almost laughing. Today she laughed in her sleep, it was so cute. Alyssa is still totally in love with her. She wants to hug and kiss her all the time. She wants to help with everything. I am really enjoying the baby phase. With Alyssa I was always excited for her to get older and do more things. now that I have Alyssa who can play and do a lot of fun things I like having the baby to cute and be tiny. I know it goes so fast and I am trying to soak it up. I love how she fits perfectly in my arms and how I can do most things one handed. Today we had her 2 months check up. She is 10.1 lbs (20%) and 22 1/2 inches long (40%). I was surprised I thought she was bigger than that. Alyssa was 10.7 at her 2 month check up. I am going back to work next week. I will be part time working 2 1/2 days (wed-fri). Alyssa is excited to go back to day care. I am sad to leave Kate but I'm sure it will be fine. My babysitter is awesome and is so excited for my girls to come.
I have adjusted being at home full time. At first it was really hard for me, plus Alyssa was acting out. Alyssa is behaving much better now. I didn't know how hard being home all the time was. To be a good stay at home mom is actually harder than going to work. 

We go to the tulip festival at Thanksgiving Point every year. It is beautiful and there is every color of tulip imaginable.

Trying to capture a smile

Noelle's married!

Noelle and Eric were married yesterday in the Timpanogos temple. They were sealed by Eric's Grandpa. It was a wonderful and special sealing. I am so happy for them. Here are a few pictures from the wedding day. I don't have Photoshop right now so unfortunately I can't edit any of my pictures :( Alyssa has been so excited for Noelle's wedding and asking about it forever. She was disappointed that she couldn't go inside and she didn't really want to take pictures. The reception on the other had, she had a blast and cried when it was over. I didn't take many pictures at the temple and didn't take any at the reception (I was too busy with the kids and talking with family).

Kate and Alyssa

We got professional pictures of Kate and Alyssa when Kate was 2 weeks old and the day before Alyssa's 3rd birthday.

Bride

My sister is about to be a bride in 2 weeks. This week we went and took some bridal pictures of her. She looked beautiful.

1 month

Kate is 1 month old today. I can't believe it has already been that long. It seems the more children you have the faster time goes. I feel so lucky to have her in my life. To have 2 healthy kids is a real blessing. Kate at one month: Is a pretty content well mannered baby. She doesn't cry too much unless she is tired or hungry. She sleep pretty good at night. She wakes up usually about twice to eat and then goes right back to sleep. Actually I have to work hard for her to get a full feeding before putting her back down. Right now she is having a hard time falling asleep to go to bed initially. Once she is fast asleep she sleeps very well.  I am trying to follow a sleep plan from the book "Baby Wise" which tells me to put her down awake and let her fall asleep by her self. She does this pretty well during the day but when it is time for bed she cries and cries. I let her cry for about 10 minutes at a time before going to soothe her. After about an hour she still isn't asleep I rock her to sleep and then put her down. The book discourages this but I think that maybe is too young to cry to sleep. She has slept in her crib since we got home from the hospital.  This is much different from Alyssa who still sleeps in our bed most of the time (we will work on that at some point).  She eats about every 2 1/2-3 hours during the day. She looks like she is growing to me although I don't know how much she weighs. At 2 weeks she was 7 lbs 5 oz (almost back to birth weight). She doesn't like tummy time but I try and put her on her tummy every time she is awake. I swear yesterday she smiled when I was playing with her. She is darling and I am in love. Alyssa is in love with her as well. She kisses her, hugs her, holds her a lot, puts her binky in when she cries, crawls in her crib when we wake her up to say good morning.
The hardest part of having a second child so far is dealing with the disobedience of the older child. Alyssa seems more defiant since Kate was born. This maybe not be the case, but I am home full time right now and so it seems like she never listens to what I ask her to do. We have created a star chart to encourage good behavior. The days that we have things planned like library class, gymnastics class she seems to behave better. We are all use to more structure than we have now and I think this is an adjustment for us. I try and plan things to do everyday. I am home for 9 weeks and then will go back to work part time. Here are some pictures.

one month picture #1

Alyssa feels way to comfortable holding Kate. she will pick her up and move her around. She has even tried to pick her up out of her swing

one month picture #2