TWO SWEET

MARLEY ELIZABETH

Baby girl. Oh, how you've grown in the past few months. It has been a complete joy to watch you start understanding the world around you. At two years old my favorite things are:

-you absorb everything your brother does and mimic his every move. I don't love this, but it is adorable to watch if it isn't throwing toys or something naughty.

-we often have dance parties as a family and when ever we dance around, you HAVE to be held by me. You want to lay down (and you always give our backs a pat when you hug someone) on my shoulder and dance with me. It is the sweetest.

-When you say "yes" to something, it is "yay". Again, the cutest.

-you can't say "Noah," so you call him "whoa whoa" - you run around all day yelling "WHOA WHOA" - if not hits you, you'll run over and hold where it hurts and mumble and jumble, but you manage to always get "whoa whoa" out. haha.

-you can say so many words and often tell us 3 word sentences, which i'm so impressed by at two years old -- perks of being the second child.

-you are living your absolute best life when you are outside. You don't care what you are doing, as long as you are outside.

-you love water. You love baths, playing in the water table, splashing in puddles, you love it.

-you love bugs. More than i've ever seen any little boy love bugs. If you are riding your little scooter, or on a walk with dad, you HAVE to stop at any moving thing on the ground and yell "OH NO! BUG!" and you just say "bug bug bug" over and over as you watch it. You aren't afraid of them either, will try right away to pick them right up.

-You have no fear baby girl. You climb, jump, run, hop, jump on the tramp as high as the big kids - you challenge Noah often and you are his little sister. You love adventure and you are so independent. You love when Noah is around, but you are perfectly fine finding something to entertain yourself. You are the sweetest.

-your dad and I are in complete awe of you. You are beautiful and light up the room wherever you are. Your brother loves you and we all love to smother you with hugs and kisses. 

-you love to be held, but you don't like to be cuddled with. You like your personal space, but you still love being close to others - does that even make sense? if I try to cuddle hard with you, you want OUT. But if I hold you gently and pace myself, then you'll stay for a while. haha you are so particular.

-you love "snackies" -- you add "ies" to everything: ballie, snackie, blockie, etc. It is so random and funny.

-you love to cheese grin at us. From across the room if I make eye contact with you, you will give me a massive smile and then go about your day.

-you love anything that revolves around a ball. You see a circle anywhere and you'll yell "BALL!!!"

-you sit patiently and let me do your hair, but if I take too long, you let me know it.

-you'd rather wear Noah's buzz lightyear costume than your princess costume. You'll wear it and you are happy, but usually it isn't your first choice.

Baby girl. I cannot wait to watch you continue to grow. You start school for the first time tomorrow at a Montessori school. I'm so excited for you to be around friends and play. You love that. Dad and I have been able to be home for 2 years with you and i'm so sad to let you go. You've been my baby and my sweet little girl I protect, but now you get to go understand a classroom and being with friends. I'm happy for you, but it is still a bittersweet moment to let you do that.

Love you with my whole heart, Marley. Forever and ever.

2 year checkup: weight 25 lbs (23%), height 34 (52%), head 18.7 (46%)

and just like that, he's 4.

My sweet baby Noah. The world will never been the same since you've arrived. Your perfect, innocent little soul has filled every expectation i've had of being a mother. I crave to be with you constantly and need to hug and kiss you 1000x a day. The love I have for you only continues to grow and I would do anything to just to hear that infectious laugh (that everyone always comments on) and that beautiful smile. You are one in a million. You are:

-sensitive

-emotional

-loving beyond anything i've ever seen for a 3 year old. You walk up to random babies and will say things like "well look at this cute little baby! Hi!!"

-You love to cuddle and get extremely sad if i'm not around to hug and kiss you goodnight

-you thrive on routine and get very stressed if we are out of sorts

-you love to learn. Oh boy do you love to absorb new information. You are so smart because you work SO hard at learning by asking a million questions and then trying to implement what we teach you. You really take in the entire world around you and I watch so happily from the sides as you grow.

-You love spider-man, jack skellington, mickey mouse, disneyland, reading, coloring, playing, laughing, watching tv or a movie, eating snacks (you eat so painfully slow, haha), going on adventures, and like I mentioned before, just learning about everything. You are SO inquisitive 

-You say things like "WHAT YOU SAID?" when you didn't hear what someone said

-you call watching a movie, watching a "movie show"

-You say "what my heck" instead of "what the heck"

-you mimc mom when you are frustrated and say "gosh dang it" -- my bad

-you are a perfectionist and often get so frustrated if something isn't perfect. Really worried about this one and try to let you know it is okay to mess up and not be perfect. Your response "but mom, it breaks my heart. I want it to look great" You are the sweetest and pour your heart into everything you do.

-Your dad was asking you today to be careful jumping off the stairs and you said "oh, you want me to be so careful because you don't want me to break my tibia and fibia bones??" (HAHA so funny you said tibia and fibia, but so cute you are learning what types of bones are in your body)

Man. I could go on forever really. So proud to be celebrating this little boy. He is my best friend (next to his dad and sister -- I love them all!)

Happy 4th, my little sunshine.

4 year checkup: weight 37 lbs (57%), height 40.4 (47%)

what a year, 2020.

Excuse my language, but what in the actual hell, 2020. This year has been an absolute nightmare. Let me list is out for you:

2020:

1. Australian fires that took over almost the entire country burning down animals, livestock and people: This one took over the news fast. Many people scared for Australia as fires swept the country killing almost everything in its wake. 
2. COVID-19 aka: Coronavirus: Chances are, you know what coronavirus is, unless you've been living under a rock. This literally rocked our world. Every single nation in the world was dealing with it, quaratined in our homes, as we watched with horror on the news and tv as it took life after life. We couldn't go anywhere without wearing a mask, most companies forced their workforce to work from home and those that didn't or couldn't went out of business or laid of thousands of people. This isn't over -- we are 3 months in and this virus has shook what anyone in this world has ever gone through. Schools closed, business closed, pretty much everything at one point was closed due to a mandatory stay at home order, except grocery stores. It is eerie to go out and to feel normal. I went through a massive mental transition phase with working from home with two small kids around. Travis and I almost lost our everloving mind until my mother-in-law came to the rescue after a month of quarantining. Coronavirus has rocked our world and it will fundamentally change how so many do business, or operate moving forward.
3. Earthquakes - Okay, UTAH. Two weeks into quaratine, Utah experienced a 6+ earthquake that made Travis and I run to our kids rooms completely panicked and from there on felt after shocks for a good few weeks. It was so stressful.
4. Killer hornets: yep, you read that right. Apparently these massive wasps somehow made it into the United States and was killing people in Washington. NO thanks.
5. Murder of George Floyd: This one is huge. This instigated riots, violence, looting, protests from ALL around the world. The black lives matter movement have come to the forefront of encouraging people to have a voice when it comes to black lives. I've educated myself and listened to what others have said during this time. It has opened my eyes. There has to be a shift in how colored races are treated in this world and I plan to teach my children to love every single person no matter what they look like. It all starts in our home.

I can't wait to see what else 2020 brings. The good things that we've done during this crazy time:

-lots of fun art projects with kids

-paint fireplace

-wallpaper Marley's room

-paint Noah's room

-went on lots of bike rides

-went to St. George with family (this felt especially good because this was the first time that I had see my side of the family in two months!! flipping quarantine)

-went to Bear Lake with the Siebenhaars 

I'm praying for the entire world to get some peace after this year. It has been one of the hardest and scariest yet.

Noah Wolfgang

It has been an absolute treasure watching our Noah learn and grown. When the saying goes, "the days are long but the years go by fast" -- man, that saying couldn't be more right. I just feel like i've blinked and he's grown up so fast. Noah has so much spunk and personality. He talks our ear off whenever he has the chance and is the most inquisitive kid as he wants to learn and know everything. He is really understanding behavior and as we've navigated a year of tantrums, but our hard work is paying off and for the most part is extremely obedient. Noah's asthma hasn't been too bad this winter. I've gone a few weeks without administering his inhaler, which is big news over here! I've been really diligent in the vitamins i've given him and it all really seems to help his immunity stay strong. I am a huge believer in elderberry, b12, and liquid turmeric. Really, liquid gold!

Noah is in school while we both go to work. He skipped a class this year and instead of staying with 2-3 year olds he got to jump into the class of 3-4 year olds. He is one of the youngest in the class, but with that has come a huge language jump. He is forced to keep up with the big kids and I cannot believe the words he knows, especially when he casually told us "my ear effing hurts." No, he did not say effing, rather, the full on F word. I just asked him where he heard that and he said school. 4 years old, people and kids are saying the F word! Just crazy the things they pick up at school. Anyway, we had such a fun 2019 year with Noah and watched him grow astronomically. 

Our favorite current things about Noah:

-loves to eat apple sauce and a fig (figga) bar every single morning

-his current favorite movie is Nightmare Before Christmas and he will sing the songs over and over and over again. I'm always so surprised at his ability to retain lyrics

-he has the funniest stories that make me crack up. The other day we were at the drive thru and the girl handing us our food looked as if she had botox injected right into her lips as I swear her mouth didn't move at all. I thought it was funny, but just said to Noah as we drove off, "she was nice, wasn't she?" and he said "yeah, but why was her mouth like a statue or a mountain? it didn't move." I couldn't stop laughing. I thought I was the only one who noticed it. Kids are so painfully aware of everything around them.

-he loves to jump, dance, and PLAY. He is a true boy through and through.

-he loves legos and can sit and build them for a long time.

-he loves to color and is very good at staying in the lines. I'm super impressed with his ability to stay patient and color as long as he does.

-he loves to listen to music, especially soundtracks to movies. Taking after his mom and dad that so similarly also love listening to movie soundtracks.

-Noah loves to read through books and I will often hear him reading to himself in different voices. haha

-Noah is scared of monsters and his imagination is taking on a life of its own. Sometimes it is really fun to watch and others it is sad when it is used in a scary way for him.

-he worships his aunt abbie who lives next door. Always wants to go play with her and is constantly asking if he can go over to her house.

-loves to drink "hot honey lemon water" that mom makes for him, especially when he is sick.

-loves to play with his sister. Can be rough with her, but they are really interactive with each other right now which is really sweet to watch.

-he loves his blankey's 

-really into robots and building things

-loves to eat and is still a really good eater

-loves going to his swimming lessons and he is doing so well!

-loves getting a special treat at Swig with mommy. He gets a small kid sugar cookie and always gets so excited.

-i've been very diligent in teaching Noah about 1) his private parts and boundries with where he can touch people/where people are allowed to touch him. He is so strong and will always say things like "only Noah can touch that, right?!" or "mom, let me wipe my bum. That's my private parts, okay??" and it has been great for me to watch him understand his body and have respect for it. 2) we've been working on being kind, but not so kind that you risk yourself to strangers, etc.. these lessons are really hard and for some reason emotional for me to go through with him. I don't like teaching him things like there are some bad people that want to hurt little kids, etc.. but he has been good and receptive. It is hard when I play legos and pretend to be a stranger and go up to his lego character and say "hey, I know your mom and dad and they want you to come in my car right now" he will respond "noooo that's not safe" and will do pretty good until I say "hey, come get into my car, I have a lot of candy" and he says "okay! can I have some?" hahaha. Fail fail fail. I don't want to scare him either, but it is my absolute greatest fear and I have nightmares about it. I just hate that he is at the age where we have to start talking about this stuff. But I am so glad I get to chat with him and help him understand.

We got to go visit my dad in Florida for a few days in January. We had so much fun going to Disneyworld (and getting onto Rise of the Resistance!!!!!!). We spent so much quality time together before crap hit the fan in February with COVID-19. So glad we got to getaway. Love my little sidekick.

We love our Noah Wolfgang and can't wait to see him turn 4 this year!