Abrie's 4 month stats

This little girl is growing up way too fast! I haven't written a single thing in her baby book, and I don't feel like she gets enough attention. She has a little bald spot on the back of her head from being on her back side so much...but she doesn't complain! Thank goodness, because her brother sure is a demanding boy! Abrie is so social! She just loves being around people, so much that it makes daytime naps a little difficult. She's getting it though, and she sleeps for 12 hours at night, so that helps! She's a little chatter box too. It's so cute! I love waking up in the morning hearing her coos! (And thankfully, Landen and Abrie wake up at the same time now!)

Abrie LOVES her brother! Her favorite past time is to just sit and watch him run around the room like a lunatic. She just smiles and lights up when he comes over to spend some time with her, and he's so sweet and tender with her...most of the time ;). He's not ever intentionally mean, he just has his spurts of energy that are a bit much for her. She's rolling from front to back and back to front, but not all the time. I have to strap her in her swing now (pictured above), because she will roll over on her tummy, and I'll look over and her legs are hanging over the swing! Yeah, that's enough of a panic attack to strap her in!

(chillin' in the swing)

After her well baby check-up, we decided to start her on rice cereal. Our new NP's suggestion wasn't to start her until 6 months, but because I have completely run out of breast milk, we decided to go ahead. And she loves it! She's definitely started the teething process too, because she wants to chew on everything (lets just say I'm glad we're not breastfeeding anymore!). She is such a happy baby. She only fusses when she's hungry or tired, but she will get full on pissed if she stays in a poopy diaper too long for her standards (like 5 seconds ;). Really hoping this one will be a lot easier to potty train.

(Yummy rice cereal)

The numbers:

Weight: 13.23 lbs (about the 28th percentile)

Height: 24.61 in (about the 52nd percentile)

Head circ.: 40.4 cm (about the 30th percentile)

Military health care is a new adjustment. We don't really pick our providers (we can, but I didn't know any of them), so we were assigned some. Abrie, because she's less than a year has to go down to base at the pediatric clinic, and Landen and I go to a different clinic up closer to us. Kind of weird, but I really can't complain too much for free health care!

Landen's birthday (part 2)

So on the 17th (2 days after Landen's actual birthday and Jayden's birthday), we went to Sea World since it was Saturday and Brian actually had the day off to go with us! IT WAS SOOOO MUCH FUN! Yes, it was still hot outside, but it was an overcast day that was threatening to rain (very rarely have we seen rain since we've been here, in fact there's been a horrible drought all summer that has us on water restrictions...but back to the birthday), but it did help cool it down a bit, and had a nice breeze. We actually got to get in for free because they have a promo going on right now for all service members called "Here's to the Hero's". Pretty awesome, because otherwise it would be a bit ridiculous to get in! Anyway, here's some pictures:

My favorite of the day: Shamus family members performed to music for us. Don't worry, I won't bore you with the videos I took, but I loved it!

The Sea Lions and this HUGE walrus put on quite a cute show for us. It was pretty funny, and nice to stop and sit for a minute.

Of course we had to stop and see all the penguins! Here's Landen and Brian checking them out.

They have a whole Sesame Street area with a water park and a GINORMOUS play area. We didn't even go on it, because we were dumb and didn't wear any swimsuits (plus, Landen wanted to see more animals instead of play...weird!). But, we did run into Cookie Monster and Grover, and Landen just had to give Grover a hug ;). They had this cute 4D Sesame Street show that would spray you with water, blow air on you and used lights to really get you involved. Abrie wasn't a huge fan, but Landen seemed to enjoy it.

Here's a cute little Sea Lion. Their bark is seriously like a dog's! There were some cute babies too, but the "head" Sea Lion cracked me up, he was sitting up on "Pride Rock" (I named it that) acting like he owned the place! You can buy fish to feed them too, and I felt bad for the other guys, because everyone kept throwing the fish up to the big guy on the rock! Again, I won't bore you with the video ;)

Overall, I'm pretty sure Landen had a blast, and we were all pooped out when it was said and done! We didn't get to see the Sharks or Dolphins because it started to rain and we were hurrying to get out of there, so maybe next time. Oh, and not so funny story, when we got the stroller out of the car, we realized one of the tires was flat, so we asked them to air it up for us. They literally BLEW our tire! Rim and all is broken, so now we have to order a new one (tire, not stroller), which is also out of stock! So, we're not going anywhere anytime soon that requires a stroller!

Landen's 3 (Part 1)!

Yup, my big boy turned 3 on the 15th! I'm not going to lie, with everything that was going on with Jayden, it was really hard for me to focus on a birthday, but I knew that it was important to set my grief aside (or ignore it), and put myself into planning Landen's birthday. Since we only know a few people, and they were either all busy or out of town for his birthday (I know, pretty sad ;), we just did a family party this year, but still tried to make it fun for him. So, we started off the the ideal day in the life of Landen! First off.......

Doughnuts and bacon for breakfast! Really, is there anything better ;). After we got done with breakfast, we had to get cleaned up quickly and headed over to the doctor for Landen's 3 year old check up. I don't have the exact numbers, but Landen is in the 2nd percentile for weight (woo-hoo he's on the chart!), about 25 1/2 lbs, and 10th percentile for height (about 36 inches). The doc says he's proportional for his height and weight, so not to worry. That's my little man!

After the doc, we headed to Blockbuster to rent a "Thomas movie", then headed over to McDonald's for lunch to "get a toy"
Oh, and playing in the play place isn't so bad either.

When dad got home, we opened presents, and he was super excited to get some in the mail. The little spoiled boy kept asked for more...Christmas will be really fun this year ;)

Then, per Landen's request, we had Mac n' Cheese n' hot dogs for dinner. He was in heaven! But finally, we got to the cake! He had been wanting to devour this thing all day! (he even stuck his fingers in it a couple times). Oh, he also requested the "cars" cake, and picked out the type of cake (rainbow sprinkle). As opinionated as this little boy is, it's also kind of nice to be able to give him exactly what he wants because he gets SOOOO excited about it! I love it!!!

Overall, I think he had an awesome birthday, which continued onto Saturday....but that's for the next post ;)

Food Creations

It's amazing how creative you can become just to get your child to eat food. Here's an example of pancakes I made with some cookie cutters, that actually turned out better than I thought....and he actually ate the WHOLE pancake! SUCCESS! Landen's become a lot less picky, since we have a you have to try everything on your plate rule, and unless you finish your food you're not getting any treats rule...it's seemed to help. He actually downed some Talapia the other night (he called it chicken, but who cares, HE ATE IT!)

I am very aware of the fact that I am SOOOO behind on blogging and intend to catch up this week since Brian will be gone for about 2 1/2 weeks for some "field training". So, be prepared for more posting.

Jayden Dale Sharp

(Stole picture from my sister)

Jayden was born September 17th at 7:42 am weighing in at 1.5 lbs and 11 inches long. He left his tiny, failing body sometime shortly before birth. I love this picture of Jayden, and I love that there are amazing people out there that dedicate their talents to giving families a gift of remembrance for their loved ones. In case you can't tell, the picture is showing BOTH Katie and Cory's hands holding their sweet angel. They have been so amazingly strong through this whole experience...I am in awe! Sure they're grieving and missing their beautiful little boy, but their faith in the process has helped boost my own.

His funeral will be this coming Friday (23rd). Abrie and I will be flying out. The military was kind enough to give Brian Friday off so he could stay home with Landen. Little Jayden, I promise that I will strive harder to love my children more, and not take them for granted. Enjoy every minute. Continue on your journey that Heavenly Father has planned for you, we will see you soon!

Today

Today is the day they're going to start inducing my sister. She's 25 weeks. They're expecting Jayden's arrival to be sometime Saturday or Sunday. My personal wish is that he will survive labor and be able to stay on this earth long enough to look at his mommy and daddy. My heart is breaking...please keep them in your prayers!

A Day at the Park

Last week it was finally "cool" enough to venture out into the neighborhood and do some exploring (by cool enough, I mean the high in the 90's instead of 100's). There's some sweet nature trails right by our house, and once you get done winding around in there, it opens up into this even sweeter, astro-turf playground with awesome equipment. Landen was in heaven! He even made friends with this cute little boy that looks like Corbin Bleu (sp?) from the High School Musical movies...can I just say, I love having diversity again!!!

Anyway here's a couple of shots from my phone of our little venture out. We're hoping it's going to cool off again here soon so we can do this again!

Abrie's first time on the swing! She was more tired than anything, so I'm not sure she really cared what was going on
Landen loving the swings! He could swing forever! (oh, notice the difference between the green turf and the real, dead grass in the background...gotta love droughts!)

2 Nephi 10

Ironically (or maybe not), I was reading 2 Nephi 10 from the Book of Mormon this morning while eating breakfast, and Jacob, the elected King at the time is speaking to his people about America from a revelation given to him by God. On today of all days, these 2 verses jumped out at me the most:

12) And I will fortify this land against all other nations.

13) And he that fighteth against Zion shall perish, saith God

What a great reminder! I'm sure all of us remember exactly where we were and exactly what we were doing on that horrible day, but these scriptures give me comfort in knowing that even though many nations will come against us, that God will protect and provide for us as long as we are striving to be a choice nation (at least this is my interpretation of it).
Today, I'm very grateful for men like this and my husband who willingly sacrifice so much for a country that they believe has been ordained of God.

Baby Jayden

A few of you have asked how my sister is doing, and I thought I would just post a link to her blog since she says it so much better than I can! I hope she doesn't mind. Little Jayden has touched so many people already. I think about him everyday. It makes me grateful for eternal families (which you can find out more information here for those of you not of my faith). It makes me not take a single moment with my children for granted, even when they're cracking eggs on the floor, missing the pan trying to "make breakfast". I'm trying harder to savor these moments instead of give cause to growing grey hair. Thanks Jayden for helping change my perspective!

San Antonio Zoo

Wow! It's been a month since we went to the Zoo, and I'm just now blogging about it! Photo's are courtesy of Katie (she was in town still after helping us drive out here). It was a stinking hot day, and I don't know what we were thinking!!! Actually, we were trying to find something to do since our stuff hadn't been delivered to our house yet. Landen had a blast, the rest of us had fun too, but were more uncomfortable from the heat. Quite and adjustment coming from Idaho!

Well at least Brian is half smiling. You can see how red our faces are already, and we only just got there!

We rode the train when we got there. Landen was scared at first (which he seems to be scared of everything lately), but enjoyed it when we finally got going.

Cute little train

Abrie looks so tiny in this picture! Landen usually rides in this seat, and Abrie in the back, but since he wanted to walk, we put Abrie up front so she could see more....so stinking cute!

Dad and Landen chatting about the monkeys

There's one of the more entertaining ones we saw

If you look closely, that's not just rocks in the water back there...there's 2 hippos!

Better shot of them. It was cool how they'd stay underwater FOREVER and come up occasionally for some air!

We didn't even get to see all of the Zoo before we pooped out and went home, but what we did see was awesome, and Landen loved the elephant. He really wanted to see a giraffe, but they didn't have any at this zoo. There's an "African Safari" ranch out here that has giraffes, so we'll have to go check it out sometime.