Time Capsule #1

I was reading how leap year is a good time to make a time capsule, so four years later you can see how much everything has changed. I’m too lazy to make an actual time capsule, so I thought I’d do a blog every leap year instead! Fancy, I know.  Annnnnd you get some random facts about all of us. A win/win.

Daniel

Favorite animal: Honey Badger
Favorite color: Purple
Favorite number: 12
Best friend: Chelsea
Favorite food: Everything! (Thai Food is probably the closest to being the favorite)
Favorite Football Team: BYU
Favorite book: Ender’s Game
Favorite movie: A Walk to Remember
Favorite superhero: Superman

A little more about Daniel. He is flying out to Texas A&M on Thursday for the interview portion of his application for graduate school. He wants to get a Masters of International Affairs. He is currently working at 4life Research in the legal department. He also currently has the biggest man crush on Stephen Curry. He was on the computer all night looking up facts about him… They both like the movie, “A Walk to Remember” #soulmates. Daniel is currently sporting a SAWEET beard, that I initially didn’t care for, but since he keeps it well groomed, I approve. He has also recently taken up running, at least until I get this baby out of me and can make him do p90x with me. 😉

Chelsea

Favorite animal: Puppies, kittens, pretty much all cute fluffy baby animals!
Favorite color: Purple
Favorite number: 13
Best friend: Daniel
Favorite food: Pizza
Favorite Football Team: BYU
Favorite book: What to Expect When You’re Expecting is probably the book I read the most these days… So I guess that makes it my current favorite.
Favorite movie: Its a tie between Pride and Prejudice( the one with Keira Knightley) and Emperor’s New Groove.
Favorite superhero: None. I’m just not a superhero girl…

More about me. I am beautiful, wonderful, and all things lovely… haha Ok, ok, so in reality I’m 25 ish weeks pregnant, and looking the part more and more everyday. A lady at Costco asked me if I was around her age, she was 43. I have some crazy hair issues going on because baby girl is stealing all my beauty, but I’m coping. 😉 I’ve recently had the desire to sew, which is not me at all. Nonetheless, I am sewing some pillows for our bed, and a new cover for our rocking chair. I also have been really into baking, and have actually been successful and baking gluten free cookies and muffins! (Miracles happen people!) I currently crave all things sweet and bad for me and wouldn’t be surprised if I developed diabetes this pregnancy (I’m trying to do better). All in all most of what is me right now involves growing this baby, which is definitely no walk in the park, but a blessing for sure!

Carter

Favorite animal: Bear
Favorite color: Red
Favorite number: Three and C (lol)
Best friend: Brooklynn ( I was slightly offended he didn’t pick me :p)
Favorite food: Strawberries
Favorite Football Team: The red team, aka the UTES (gasp!)
Favorite book: Beauty and the Beast
Favorite movie: Paw Patrol
Favorite superhero: Kylo Ren “The New Darth Vader”

Carter is such a character! He has a crazy good memory and is able to remember even the slightest detail of any conversation, but is pretty selective about what he admits to remembering ie. only when things he likes/wants is involved. He asks a MILLION questions a day because he wants to know and understand everything.  He is currently obsessed with Lamanites and loves all the scripture stories about fighting. His favorite right now is probably the story of Ammon because he chops off all the bad guys arms. He also really loves the new star wars villain (even though he hasn’t even seen the movie), because he has a cool “triple light saber”. He is our negotiator boy, but is still figuring out the ins and outs of what a good deal entails. haha He is also our goofball. He does random weird things, like crossing his eyes or making up words during conversation, to make us laugh.

Sammy

Favorite animal: Elephant
Favorite color: Blue
Favorite number: 3
Best friend: Daddy
Favorite food: Goldfish
Favorite Football Team: “No football” -Sammy
Favorite book: Finding Nemo
Favorite movie: Monsters Inc.
Favorite superhero: Iron Man and Hulk Smash

Sammy refuses to be called by any other name besides “Hammy”. He is our opinionated boy who loves to say no to everything just because he can! When he turned two he “turned the corner” on potty training and went almost a month without any accidents! He likes to do everything that Carter can do and without any help from Mommy or Daddy. He also is the family sweet-heart. He knows how to make our hearts melt with just one hug or a little smile! He has recently become more of a cuddle bug, which I love. He is still a Daddy’s boy, but I am slowly working my way into his adorable baby heart. His hair is still as red and glorious as ever, and it just goes with his personality so well. He talks a TON now, but is still hard to understand the majority of the time. He is a jokester like his brother, and loves to be tickled and when we try to steal his “Bee-Bow” (belly button) from him.

Baby Turley #3

 Sorry you still don’t have a name baby. Girl names are impossible to pick out, seriously. Baby girl is a big one, she is measuring right on track but I swear she feels heavier than the last two. Late night acrobats are her specialty, but I’m still the only one that can feel her moving and kicking in there. The other day, Carter stepped on her and she kicked him back, which only ended up hurting me, both ways. She loves all things sugar and carbs, especially late at night. She also hates exercise, which I’m trying to convince her is a good thing, but to no avail. We recently switched doctors, so she will be my first baby not born in the Riverton Hospital! I’m finally at the stage in pregnancy with her where I feel more energy and sometimes even forget I’m pregnant… until I try to put on pants. Did I mention how much she hates pants? lol

Happy Leap Day!!!

p.s. I took all the pictures today, right after family night! Which is why we look so good!!! 😜

Two: From Sammie to Sammy

Today as I put Sammy down for his nap I was thinking a lot about how fast time has flown by. It’s a little bit surreal to think that my baby is already two. Has it really been that long? And then I started thinking about how my sweet baby Sammy is not even going to be the baby anymore in less than 5 months! I can’t really imagine him NOT being the baby, you know? haha Anyways I’ll probably be super sentimental as I write this post. #sorrynotsorry Also, most of these pictures are from my phone and of a wild boy who never stops moving, read: blurry. Sorry!

So last Sunday our Sammy boy turned two!!! It’s so funny because I think in my mind I already had him turning three. I seriously almost made him a cake with the number three on it! I feel like Sammy has grown up so fast, in such a short time. He wants so much to be like his big brother, that sometimes I would forget that he was only one!

Anyways we started out the birthday festivities on Saturday because Sunday was going to be really busy and I wanted him to feel like he had a special day. I decided to make lasagna for his birthday dinner, because picking a food that is his favorite is so hit and miss. Some days he loves spaghetti and some day he ends up on the floor like this:

Did I mention that he’s two now? lol

I also wanted to make him a special cake. When I asked him what kind, his favorite response was “CANDY!” but when I looked up candy cakes online there weren’t really any that stood out to me. So I ended up just baking a 9×13 banana cake and was gonna cover it with candy. But it just felt too boring! ha! (Disclaimer: I LOVE making cute cakes, it seriously brings me so much joy!) So I took the 9×13 cake and cut out a big number two. Then I used the left over cake to make another two for a second layer. It worked out perfectly and there was hardly any extra cake. I filled the middle with chocolate buttercream and frosted the outside with regular buttercream.

I was seriously so proud, I took a million pictures of it. No joke. Especially because I was planning on letting the kids help decorate it, so I wasn’t really sure what the finished product was going look like. There was obviously a lot of candy eating rather than decorating, and I probably wouldn’t serve the cake to a group of strangers (not because it wasn’t cute) because some of the m&m’s were questionable as to whether or not they had been “tasted” first. LOL But when you consider it was a two and three year old decorating. It was pretty much the greatest!

I also wanted to surprise Sammy with decorations when he woke up from his nap. Sammy’s favorite color is blue, so we bought blue streamers and a bunch of blue balloons! Daniel hung the streamers and I’m so glad he did because he made it super fun and SO different than I would have done. 😉 (Isn’t it funny how differently men and women think?) Me and Carter were in charge of balloons! Carter was such a good helper, especially when he had to be super quiet while Sammy was napping. Do you know how much self control it takes a three year old to not run around like a maniac when there are tons of balloons and streamers to play with?!? I’m guessing a lot! haha

Here’s Sammy with his birthday lasagna. I think it came our fantastic, but really, how can you go wrong when there is so much cheesy goodness involved!!Then we had cake!!! Sammy was a little unsure at first about blowing out the candles and I literally had to cover Carter’s mouth so he didn’t do it for him. The cake was huge and we actually just finished it off two days ago. But I think Sammy’s favorite part was everyone singing Happy Birthday to him! This kid was born to be in the spotlight!!! He’s just so cute!

After cake we opened presents. Sammy made out like a bandit! He also was super possessive of his toys which was really new. I think his favorite present was a truck that had dinosaurs in it from G-ma & G-pa Martinez. He carried those dinosaurs around the whole night, and wouldn’t let Carter so much as look at them. haha Carter of course was ticked because he didn’t get any new toys, (he was also born to be in the spotlight) but it was a really good opportunity to help him learn that sometimes, it’s just not all about him. It also has him super excited for his birthday, probably just so he can get present and not Sammy (lol), but we’re working on it. *sigh*

On Sunday, we went up to G-ma & G-pa Turley’s house and had a special dessert after dinner. Banana splits!! I thought it was a genius idea, I mean this kid LOVES bananas, and who doesn’t like ice cream with delicious topping too?!? Survey says… Sammy! (And actually Carter strangely enough…) I don’t even know you guys, sometimes my kids stump even me. In their defense we don’t eat a ton of ice cream and they’ve never actually had ice cream with bananas. I guess they are just purist when it comes to bananas. Sammy ended up eating like four cuties instead of his banana split and was as happy as a clam, so we’ll count it as a win. (For the record I loved the dessert and was even nice enough to eat Sammy’s and part of Carter’s. Just another motherly sacrifice. lol)

Now for some fun facts about Sammy. First off he’s so cute. Like its painful how cute he is. Seriously. As a result, he sometimes ends up doing things that in any and sometimes all circumstances is not ok. And he gets away with it because I mean, look at him!

Case and point. This boy loves to put his feet on the table. We laughed so hard the first time we were all eating, and one of his chubby feet appeared next to his plate. Buuuut now it’s a constant battle trying to get him to keep his feet down. (I still secretly laugh about it though, I cant help it, it’s so hilarious to me.) So here’s hoping we can break that habit sometime before he goes to college. lol

One of my favorite physical characteristic of Sammy’s (besides his chubby cheeks), is his hair!!! He gets so many compliments on his hair and its so long and shaggy! I LOVE it! He 100% needs a haircut but I cant do it! I just need to figure out a way to trim it so it looks nice, but is still wild at the same time. Is that possible???

Sammy is also my sleep anywhere boy. Carter was always a good sleeper, but he always fell asleep in his bed. Sammy on the other hand cannot miss  his nap or he will fall asleep….

literally…

anywhere!

He has even been know to sleep-eat dinner. His eyes are completely closed and he just keeps putting his food in and chewing. We’ve had so many great laughs on account of this kids sleeping habits. Moral of the story, Sammy needs his nap!

In other news this little boy is finally turning a corner on the potty training business. I say that while knocking on all the wood in the universe. Transitioning to underwear has been somewhat of a nightmare and I think most of the blame for the that can be placed on me. From morning sickness to busy seasons (aka the holidays), I would just put him in a diaper on and off for weeks at a time. My excuse: he’s not even two yet. But even with my shortcomings he is really doing awesome!

We still have hard days, like a week ago when he flat out refused to even look at the potty ALL DAY LONG! But most days he does awesome! And it’s so nice having a little break in washing diapers. I like to say he’s about 90% potty trained, which (at his age) is good enough for me. 😉

All in all Sammy is such a character and I’m so glad he is part of our family! We call him our little sour patch  because he can throw a fit like nobody’s business and then follow it with the sweetest of apologies and hugs! He’s my silly, passionate, red head and I wouldn’t have it any other way!

Happy Birthday cool dude! I love you to pieces!!!

P.S. To explain the title, Sammie looks like such a baby name, don’t you think? So I’m gonna try spelling it with a “y”. Sammy is way more grown up (lol), but not TOO grown up… I could just be crazy. I have a history going back and forth with my love of the letter “y”, like is college when I started signing my name, Chelsey. haha Anyways, we’ll see if it sticks! 😉