connor walks!

for about 3 weeks this guy was on the verge of walking and i thought everyday was going to be the day. finally about 2.5 weeks after his birthday he decided to go for it (i think it was august 14 when he finally took the plunge)!

i think it is so fun to watch the transition from crawler, to taking a few steps but still mainly crawling, to walking a little more than crawling, to full on walker! connor is totally bowlegged and pigeon-toed, which makes him a cute and fun little guy to watch walk. people love watching him walk and always make comments to me about how cute he is! he's trying to run a little more (to keep up with those big kids), but his legs can't always keep up! i still carry him from place to place when we're out in public and he is becoming less and less content with that and is constantly trying to squirm out of my arms. he is a kid on the go! he is also becoming more and more like a little boy and less and less like a baby. it's hurting my heart a bit, even if he is just getting more and more fun. 

facing forward!

we moved each of the kids up a carseat and this kid got a whole new view with his new carseat. i think he was happy about it! i loved watching him stare out the window. when i looked at these pictures there was something "familiar" about them and i went back and looked at logan's pictures from when we turned him around forward facing and they're wearing the same outfit! a total coincidence! and in case there was any question, these 2 boys do not look alike!

 

these 2 wanted in on the picture action

logan's last day at EMP

at the end of may (may 23rd), logan had his last day of preschool. the year went so fast and it is hard to believe it is over (first day post). he couldn't have had a better year or a better teacher! we all loved mrs. maggie!

 

logan decorated a card and envelope to take to her on the last day. i love the picture on the envelope is he and mrs. maggie walking in the rain together, holding umbrellas!

logan's 2 favorite girls from class: lily and kara

kara stole his heart! she told her mom one day, "logan is my crush and i am logan's crush!" which is totally true! she is a darling, sassy, spunky girl. at least we know logan has good taste! here's a note his TA sent home earlier in the year of a conversation between logan and kara:

mrs. maggie made the sweetest scrapbook that included artwork and pictures from the year. i loved getting of glimpse through the pictures of what school was like for logan. and logan has loved looking at it too. on the valentine's page below, mrs. maggie wrote the things that logan loves. my favorite one was that he said kara! 

this totally looks like an engagement picture! ha!

on the last day of school they had an ice cream social especially for grandparents. logan was so lucky that gammy and pappy could come (nana and papa were in utah). we were so happy they could make it. 

emma loved mrs. maggie! you could think she was emma's teacher too. each morning when we would drop logan off, emma would go into the classroom and make herself at home, playing and painting. i'm so grateful maggie was so sweet to her. then emma would make a silly face at her, pretend to be a monkey hanging on the door and we would be on our way.

and these were logan's guy friends, noah and sebastian.

emp class picture

back row (L-R): mrs. maggie, connor, taylor, noah, logan, mrs. jenn

front row (L-R): mason, miriam, lily, kara, aurelia

i have to share this hilarious story about cute aurelia. on the last day of school while they were eating snacks they went around the table and said what they wanted to be. kara said she wanted to be a superhero. when it got around to the other side of the table where logan was sitting he said, "i want to be whatever kara is!" and then aurelia, who has a huge crush on logan (she would get dressed in the morning in pretty dresses and say, "this is for logan"), said, "but we're getting married! and we're going to have 5 kids. and after we have our first baby, we're going to visit my parents." isn't that hilarious! apparently logan seemed a little shell shocked! 

mrs. maggie lives near both of logan's grandparents and logan is sure we're going to run into her at the grocery store over there! hopefully we'll be that lucky!

connor crawls and other milestones

on may 8th, while we were at emma's gym jammers class, connor crawled for the first time!  it was so exciting! we were sitting on the floor in the gym where her class met and suddenly he was crawling. i watched stunned for a minute before i jumped up and got my phone. it took a little coaxing to get him to do it again for the camera. since then he's been a crawling machine and he is so happy with his newfound freedom! i love seeing the predicaments he gets himself into! and i have been very  aware of how dirty my floors are, as he seems to find even the tiniest crumbs and everything goes in his mouth!

for the sake of memories, i also wanted to record that on april 6th i weaned connor. it was months earlier than i had hoped, but with his 6 teeth (and especially the top 4 teeth) and his affinity for biting me, i couldn't do it any longer. he had started biting a month earlier, but by april 6th it had gotten so bad i just couldn't do it anymore. even though it was too painful to continue, it made me really sad to stop. it's been pretty cute watching him hold his bottle though! 

and this sweet guy has started saying "mama," and sometimes it's even in relation to me!

the end of speech therapy

a few months before emma turned 2, she started speech therapy. we were so lucky to be assigned mindy as our speech therapist. we all instantly loved her. she came to our house once a week and emma loved it! mindy was wonderful at making it fun, pushing emma in the areas she struggled, but also knowing when to back off if emma stopped responding. and i loved mindy, not only as a speech therapist, but also as a friend and looked forward to seeing her every week. emma was so excited for speech and she and logan would watch out the window for mindy. as soon as they saw her car, they would start yelling her name out the door until she finally arrived and then she was greeted with hugs. our services with mindy ended when emma turned 3 and her last appointment was the day before her 3rd birthday. emma has improved a lot and although there are still some sounds she struggles with, she is a great communicator and quite the chatterbox. i had to take a few pictures to remember our wonderful time with mindy. 

reading a book about emotions and making faces in the mirror to represent those emotions.

emma loved the art projects that mindy would bring. she loves to do arts and crafts!

emma made this card of her and her cousin kate (kate is the the blonde girl). and kate got the big crown because it happened to be her birthday that day.

saying goodbye :(

 

 

i had to include a picture of this card mindy sent to emma months ago. i don't know if you can tell, but it has been loved. for awhile, emma slept with it and carried it with her everywhere. she loves mindy so much and loved this special card from her. 

potty training rock star

near the beginning of last month i decided to potty train this girl. this wasn't the first time i tried, but i had high hopes since she was 8 months older than the last time and mainly because she had been going pee in the toilet about once a day for about a month. and let me say this time was soo much better [i'm a big believer in waiting a little bit longer (and paying for those dang expensive diapers a bit longer) and having them potty trained within a few days, rather than potty training for months (and months) because they weren't ready]. this girl was ready and she rocked it! 

excited and proud to be wearing big girl undies!

her treat and prize for going potty in the toilet the first time

love those little buns in undies

she got jasmine for her princess castle for going poop in the potty

there's really not too much to tell. she did fantastic and only had a couple of accidents while potty training and they were while she was sleeping. and it didn't take her long to start staying dry in bed. the last couple of weeks she has started waiting too long before going to the bathroom and so she makes it to the bathroom, but not to the toilet. let's just say we're trying to put an end to that quickly! i'm so proud of her and can't believe what a big girl she is! and she is so proud of herself. she loves to tell people that she's a big girl. and it's really nice to only have to buy diapers for 1 kid now!