Land of Disney - 2011

Disneyland! We had tons of fun and I will refrain from making this blog into a chapter book but there are enough pictures to make it plenty long...

Right after we walked into the park we saw Snow White. Navi was still in a little bit of shock and was scared to get a picture with her. Our cute Godfrey cousins Payzli and Ayda showed Navi it wasn't scary to get a picture with princesses and that was all it took...

Casuse when Ariel came walking around the corner she all but jumped out of my arms! We watch Ariel at least once a day, and sometimes more, so she is no stranger!

She looks a little scared, but she's really just possessive of her favorite princess!

After seeing Ariel, she was a little braver to go back and see Snow White. Although, she still wanted Mommy to hold her.

Cute Harper Ella. She and Trevi were such good babies the whole trip!

Navi slipped back into scared-diness when we saw Fawn and Tinkerbell. But I think it's mostly cause she was tired and hungry.

Then we found the carousel and the world was at peace again.

Minus the fact that Navi thinks she needs to smile with her eyes closed. It doesn't matter how hard we try to get her to open, she usually just closes them tighter. But in a funny way, it's kind of cute.

And our favorite ride was the new Little Mermaid ride. Although Navi doesn't look very happy, she really did like it and we went on it more than any other.

Thanks to the fast passes and stroller passes, waiting in line wasn't too bad. (ok, and lots of snacks for the girls)

Trevi and Harper were both content to take naps in their strollers. Thank heavens for good babies!

We fondly call this the "Buttars smile".

And one of the highlights of the trip - lunch at Ariel's Grotto with all the princesses! Grandma has the only picture of all the girls with Ariel though, whoops.

Navi loved the bumper car ride because she got to drive all by herself.

World of Color was awesome! Waiting for it to start for over an hour, was not so awesome, but what can you do?

And since we were right up front next to the water, we got a bit wet. But Trevi was asleep in her stroller and Navi was a good sport. And Mom got a churro so she was nice too.

Trevi was a bit surprised by the flash on the Toy Story ride. :)

We waited in line to see "Punzel" forEVER. When we got in line it said it would be around 20 minutes. 20 minutes later we were just about to the front of the line and then it quit moving. We couldn't figure out why but by that point we didn't want to leave when we were so close. After another 20 minutes, when we were just about to give up and leave, the line started moving again and we found out it was because there had been a "suspicious looking box" that had been left next to Rapunzel's house. So they had to bring in special dogs and everything to sniff it out. It's probably a good thing that we didn't know all of this before! By the time we finally got in to see her, Navi was tired and ornery, and I don't blame her. But Punzel was really nice and talked to us for quite awhile so it made up for it.

THEN came Mommy's favorite people to meet. :) We were walking towards Tower of Terror when Nate started tapping me on the shoulder. I figured it was because Navi was whining and he wanted me to help her so I kind of ignored him. :) Finally he said, "Look!" and pointed a bit behind us showing me Kasey and Vienna from the Bachelor/lette. (yes he noticed them, and sorry Nate but it's funny) I was so bummed that I had ignored him and they had passed us. But luckily when we got over to Tower of Terror they came just a few minutes later. They sat down on one of the ledges and all of the sudden I felt a twinge of braveness and decided I should go over and ask for their picture. On the show, they were always kind of annoying, but seeing them in person was a different story! They were really nice and gracious to get a picture and shook my hand. I really wanted to ask Kasey to show his "guard and protect you heart" tattoo in the pic, but let's face it, my brave limit had been reached. Anyways, they were really nice and it was the closest I've been to a real celebrity...if you can call them that.

Our Kingston cousins were able to drive down from Bakersfield and meet us for a swim day.

It's amazing how many times Navi can create a goofy smile but they make me laugh every time.

And I can't say enough how good Trevi was. She is our little sweetheart.

How can you not have a fun vacation with these cuties? Yes, Nate too.

Girls' Room Mini-Makeover

Before Trevi was born, I wanted to add some things to Navi's room so it would both of their rooms. I had seen a few pictures on pinterest (best site ever) and started collecting the stuff I needed to make them. But in true Laci fashion, 6 months later, I finally finished! I can't wait until we finish our basement and the bedroom down there so I can go crazy again!

I already had the bedding from when Navi was born and the walls were already painted but I added the ceiling "mobile" and the wall hangings.

I wanted Navi's toddler bedding to match the crib so I found some fabric online and my awesome aunt made her the quilt. She even made Trevi a different quilt as well. Lucky little girls!

Grandpa Buttars' 60th

My father-in-law is one of my favorite people for many reasons.
Just a few reasons being:

He is always happy
He would, and often does, do anything for you
He is a loving husband and has always given Nate a wonderful example of how to treat your wife
He is FUNNY! Anyone who knows Darrell, knows he has a joke on hand at any moment...and most of the time they might be a little dirty. :)

and perhaps my favorite:
He is an awesome Grandpa and makes each grand kid feel like they are his favorite

Darrell turned the big 6-0 on July 4th so were able to throw a big birthday/4th of July celebration

Grandpa with all the grand kids. 16 now! 8 boys and 8 girls

 At the end of July we had a Buttars reunion with all of Nate's siblings and their kids. One night Navi and Trey (a little more than a year apart) Were tired of all the chaos and commotion and wanted to watch Dora on Grandpa and Grandma's bed. I tried to sneak this picture but they looked over when they saw the red light.

Memorial Day 2011

 These pics are clear back from..dare I say...May! (gulp) But I forgot that I hadn't blogged about them yet, and I want them on here for memories (memory's?) sake.

My family went to the Clarkston cemetery for Memorial Day and I was able to be there with both my girls for the first time. We have tried to teach Navi about Grandma Sandy and have told her she lives with Jesus. I have hung a couple pictures of my mom in their room and when we ask Navi who she is, she tells us, "Grandma Sandy with Jesus". The other morning right after she woke up, she told me she wanted to go on a walk with Grandma Sandy. I like to think she was having a dream, or even something more real than a dream, and she was still remembering it when she woke up.

Google

I woke up from a bad dream the other night and began to try to figure out if it was really happening. (you know those times when it's hard to separate reality from dreams, even when dreams are ridiculous) and in this particular dream, there was a gang from Ogden, Ut who were big drug dealers. The leader of that gang, aka the "Drug Lord" would kill anyone who tried to stop him. So wouldn't you know, who got put in charge of stopping him? Yep, Nate. Of course I was worried sick, and soon enough the gang, and more importantly the Drug Lord, found this out and were coming for Nate.

At that point, I woke up.

Later that afternoon, while talking with Nate, I remembered my dream and began to tell him about it. I got to the end and the part when I "woke" up and said something to the effect of:

"Around 5 AM, in a panic, I was trying to think of all the things we needed to pack to get out of Dodge and make a run for it." (formula and diapers were the first two things I thought of, naturally)

Then all of the sudden I had a distinct memory that I hadn't remembered earlier.

"Oh my heck Nate, I think I googled it!"
"Googled it?" he questioned, confused.
"Yeah, when I woke up. I think I googled it." I said as I picked up my phone and began looking for the search history on my internet.

Sure enough, there it was. "drug lord Ogden, Ut"

As soon as I read it, the memory came rushing back to me.

When I woke up, I realized my worries might have been a dream, and rather than rolling over and asking Nate if he was in fact the new leader of the good citizens trying to stop corruption, instead, I very rationally decided to "google it". Yep, google it. Because surely, (according to my groggy brain) if I googled "drug lord ogden, ut" and it pulled up any news stories of drug lords killing innocent citizens, then I would need to worry.

Shockingly, there were no such stories. (a few involving drug busts in Ogden, but none too scary) This apparently sufficed me, because I put down my trusty iphone and easily fell back asleep.

And there you have it...(and yes...I heard Beyonce was prego, and I was watching Karate Kid that afternoon) :)

As you can imagine, Nate was all but rolling on the floor in tears. As was I.

Moral of the story:
1. Don't watch "Border Wars" (the show on A&E about the U.S. Border Patrol trying to keep illegal immigrants and drug smugglers from coming into the U.S.) before bed, and
2. Google does in fact have an answer for everything.

Trevi: 3 months (ish)

It's really more like 4 months, (haha, and now 5 by the time I posted it) but I just like to say 3 cause it sounds like I'm actually on the ball. But who are we kidding? (I'm still learning how to be on time with 2 kids!) I just took a few pics in the living room one day and tried to edit them the best I could but....I gave up and just asked my photographer friend to spruce them up for me. Thanks Nicole! :)

Here is our SWEET Trevi Girl at 3 months :) I am crossing my fingers that she stays as chill as she is now for quite awhile! She is such a good baby!

Some of Trevi's 3-4 month milestones:

height: 24.5 inches (55%)
weight: 14 lbs 4 oz (70%)

-started eating rice cereal, and more recently oatmeal, and loves it!
- half way rolling over
- smiling and cooing all the time
- loves her big sister
- sleeping through the night (!)
- wearing 3-6 month clothes

We sure love our little TJ!

Girly Girl

I took dance for a few years when I was young. I didn't hate it. However, I didn't love it. Then one year, my mom signed me up for the notorious blue-and-yellow-jersey soccer league, and I was hooked. From then on, I was always involved in either soccer or basketball until my sophomore year of high school. Unfortunately, I was too intimidated of the stupid soccer and basketball tryouts in high school to try and play. Dang teenage self-confidence! But that's another story....the point is, I've always leaned towards the "tom-boy" side of life.

Fast forward about then years to my first pregnancy and first ultrasound when we found out Navi was a girl. Unlike many other moms, I didn't rush out and fill her nursery with pink bedding and flowers. As usual, I went the other direction - blue. (well, turquoise if you want to get specific) But I also didn't buy too many pink outfits either. In fact, when faced with a shirt or outfit with two color choices, 99% of the time I'd purposely pick the one with less pink. I don't really know why. I can't recall any embarrassing childhood memories of being dressed head to toe in pink frilly dresses...

For whatever reason, I have even steered away from most the "girly" toys with Navi as well. For example, when my mother-in-law asked me if she should get the princess "Little People" castle for Navi's first birthday, I told her I'd prefer the farm set. Again, I don't have anything against princesses, in fact the Disney princess movies are some of my favorites to this day! I just think that subconsciously, I was trying to avoid raising a stereo-typical toddler with pink tutu and princess crown.

I've even gone as far as having discussions with Nate, arguing that the only way I would put one of our girls in a dance class, is if they were horribly uncoordinated and needed to learn some balance to help them play other sports. He, of course, just laughs and jokingly responds that there isn't a chance that any of his kids will be athletically challenged. Let's hope we haven't jinxed ourselves...

So you might be shocked to learn that in the last little while, I'm absolutely loving seeing Navi's girly personality start to show through. Somehow (no thanks to me), she is becoming quite the girly girl! It just goes to show that kids are wired with their own likes and dislikes.(or maybe she's beginning to realize the girly world I've been protecting her from)

Some of her girly quirks that I love:

-she makes me laugh on a daily basis because not a day goes by that she doesn't ask me to "paint my fingernails pretty" or at least show me her "pretty nails". Even if 9 out of 10 nails are chipped and there's barely a spec of polish left, she still thinks they are pretty.

-she gets so happy when I put a dress on her and exclaims, "Yay! My pretty dress! Thanks mom!" (usually twirling at the same time)

-she always wants to wear a bracelet and gets upset if I put one on Trevi but not her

-she found a shopping bag of lotion I had just bought, opened it up, and grabbed two bottles of lotion hugging them and exclaiming, "Oh, thank you mommy!"

-she LOVES her cousin's dress up clothes and especially the fancy "high heels" she got for her birthday

-if she ever catches me putting on chapstick, she demands that she has to have "stick-stick" too

-I rarely paint my toenails and when I do, the polish usually stays on until it's all chipped off before I will paint them again. So one day after I had gotten a manicure and pedicure gift certificate I came home and Navi walked by, did a literal double take at my toe nails, and then said, "Oh! Cute toes mom!"

-and of course, her favorite colors are pink and purple!

Let's just say I'm eating my words and I'm pretty sure I will be writing a check for dance lessons much sooner than I expected....