Easter Dress

I get new dress clothes for the kids every Easter, but seeing that next weekend is Conference weekend and they won't be able to wear them to church, we decided to have them wear them yesterday. They looked so dang cute all dressed up :).


I can't believe how much they have grown since last year...especially Leah. So cute :).

Leah at Two

Seeing that Leah is now two, I thought that I would write down a few things about her at this time in her life. It's fun for me to look back and read what she was up to...the time passes so fast and it's true that you forget as the time goes by. So, here are some highlights of Leah, right now...

~ She is little! She's a little string bean because she is so tall and skinny. I have the hardest time buying close for her because they are either too long or they won't fit around her waist!

Her two year stats are: Height: 36" {94%} Weight: 25 lbs. 9 oz. {35%}
~ She is a very picky eater. She will eat breakfast just fine, but every other meal is a challenge. I have learned not to get frustrated with her and just let her eat at her own pace. Noah was, and still is, such a wonderful eater, so dealing with this with her has been a bit of a challenge. At least she is still growing, although I worry that she isn't getting everything that she *needs*. I'm sure she'll grow out of this at one point, right?
~ She is starting to talk so well. She is constantly saying words back to us and is doing a great job at putting words together. It's funny because she will talk tons around Doug and I, but hardly at all when people are around. SO, it's hard to show people how well she is speaking because she won't speak in front of people!
~ She still loves to read and she is especially interested in reading books with animals in them. Her other favorite book, which she insists that we read every night, is Goodnight Moon. She pretty much has it memorized...it's fun to read with her.
~ She's LOVES music and singing. We have some music set up and Noah's room and she is always climbing on Noah's bed trying to turn it on. She especially loves to listen to the Children's Songbook. Every night, before we go to bed, she asks me to sit on the chair in her room and sing songs to her. She picks them out by showing me the actions to the songs, and then she trys to sing along with me. It is so cute and she can't go to bed without singing songs first.
~ She is such a little cuddler, and I think that I love this more than she does :). She loves to cuddle on our laps, especially when she is tired. Doug and I LOVE this because Noah was never a big cuddler.
~ She loves her Mommy and Daddy and she is very attached to us. I call her my "little shadow" because she follows me around the house all day long. She will cling to Doug and I whenever we go somewhere with people that she doesn't know. She likes to be close to us and doesn't like it when we leave her places, which, thankfully, isn't very often.
~ She is also very attached to Noah. She LOVES her brother SO much. Sometimes it kind of drives Noah nuts because she always wants to be close to him, and he doesn't always want to be that close to her. It's funny to watch. If she is ever apart from Noah, she'll constantly ask for him until he is back. It's nice to know that she trusts him and likes to have him close by :).
~ She has recently came up with a nickname for Noah that we all get a kick out of. She calls him SAUCE, or SAUCY. Now, we have absolutely no idea how she came up with this. She just started calling him Sauce a few months back and it has just stuck. When she's irritated with Noah she yell at him and say "SAUCY!!". It is SO funny! The only thing is that Noah doesn't like it...at all. He's always telling her that his name is Noah and NOT Sauce! Now, she can say Noah plain as day, but she refuses to. Funny girl!
~ She is such a girlie girl. She loves shoes, dresses, necklaces, earrings, chapstick or lip gloss, bracelets, and the list goes on... She loves to have her hair done all pretty and she is pretty particular about what she wears. She has recently started to undress herself and bring me new clothes to wear...like 4 or 5 times per day! If I don't put her in what she wants to wear, then watch out! She's definitely a girl :).
~ She can be quite the little fire ball at times. If she doesn't get her way, then the temper comes out...and it is bad! That scream...oh...that scream is SO loud! I can't even explain it! I can eventually reason with her, but it's not always the easiest thing. The worst is when we are in the car and she has one of her little temper tantrums...that is the hardest place to deal with them sometimes because I literally can't do very much to calm her down. I'm hoping that she'll grow out of it soon. I'm hoping!
~ She is the BEST sleeper. She sleeps in until 8:30 or 9:00 every morning, then she'll take a 3 to 4 hour nap, and then she'll go to bed without a fuss around 8:00. I'm not complaining one bit :).
~ She can be a clingy little girl, but she is also very independent and wants to do what she wants to do WHEN she wants to do it. Lets just say that if she doesn't get her way then she will let you know how she feels about it.
~ She LOVES babies! She is such a good little mommy :). She loves playing with her little babies and wrapping them up and feeding them. She also points out every baby in sight, every where we go. She is also aware that there is a baby in Mommy's belly and she loves kissing my belly and saying "Hi baby", over and over again. It's so, so cute to watch. She is going to be so excited once she has a baby of her own :).
~ Amazingly, she is a good sharer. Well, most of the time she is. I guess it just depends on the toy or what is being shared. If she and Noah are playing and Noah wants something more than her, then she will easily give it up. BUT, if it is one of her babies or girlie toys, then no way! It just depends, but most of the time she is pretty good about sharing with others, which is a good thing.
~ She has the best sense of humor and is constanstly making us laugh. She is doing something silly every day and we just get a kick out of watching her.

~ She is very friendly to everyone around her. Whenever we go somewhere, she is constantly waving at people and saying "hi". When we are leaving people's houses, she will give everyone hugs before we leave. She also loves to blow kisses and wave "Bye, bye" when we are leaving. She really is so friendly.

Well, that's all I can think of at the moment. I know that there is more, and I'll add them as I remember them. We just love this little angel so much and I just love how unique her little personality is. She definitely adds a lot to our family and we can't imagine it without her :).

Fowler Family Easter Egg Hunt

We had our annual Fowler Family Easter Egg Hunt this weekend. I really enjoy going to this little family event because we have had it every year since I can remember! It is so much fun to see my kids participate in the same egg hunt that I did as a kid :). My family makes it really fun by hiding TONS of treats around the yard, and then at the very end, my Grandma Fowler throws candy for everyone to dive after. What makes it even more fun is that I still have some older cousins that are *forced* to participate...makes for a good time during the candy toss :). Doug helped Noah get lots of candy, so I think that we are good to go in the candy department for the rest of the year. We all had a wonderful time and it was great to be with family.

My cousin just got a puppy and Leah was SO fascinated. She just loves animals...just like her brother.
I had to throw this in for kicks...Noah really isn't crying. They were about to start the hunt and Doug grabbed him for a quick picture. Makes me giggle.

Noah had a great time finding all the goodies. There are SO many places to find them in my Grandma's huge yard!

Leah had a grand time admiring all the goodies in her basket. She wouldn't let that basket out of her sight!

The candy toss was so much fun! Doug made sure to get lots of candy for the kids...well, lets be honest...Doug made sure to get lots of candy for HIM! Haha.

Noah showing off his basket FULL of treats. I love the look on his face :).

Good job, Noah :).

Leah's TWO

Leah is TWO! We had a wonderful weekend celebrating this little girl. She is such a joy and we are thankful every day that she is in our family. She adds a little spice to everything that she does...which makes for very interesting days :). We can't imagine our lives with out this little angel!

We started off her birthday by making some yummy pancakes, and I made Leah's in the shape of a "2" and covered it with whipped cream and strawberries. Of course, she pretty much just ate the berries and whipped cream, but that's just how it goes with picky eaters!

After a nice nap, Leah let me cuddle with her for a bit, which was very nice :).
After dinner, we opened gifts, and I honestly think that Noah was a bit more excited than Leah was. She got some bottles for her babies, a bubble blower {which was a huge hit}, and...
...some Pretty Princess dress up shoes. Here's Leah waiting patiently while daddy opens them up for her. The girl LOVES shoes, so I'm not surprised one bit that this was her favorite gift. She has been wearing them pretty much every moment since she opened them. Very cute!
Cake time!! We sang Happy Birthday to Leah SO many times today and she would just light up every time we would sing it. She was even more excited when she got to blow out her TWO candles.
This is one HAPPY Birthday Girl! She had so much fun having on the attention on her today!
She was even more happy when we let her eat all the cake that she wanted, which included finishing off Noah's serving!
It was a wonderful day! I still can't believe that this precious little girl is 2...she is growing up way too fast for me! We need to make sure to cherish every precious moment with these little ones...the time flies!

Leah ~ We love you to the Moon and Back!

MESSY!

The other night I had the idea of letting the kids play with some pudding. I was thinking of using vanilla, but what's the fun in that?!?! Noah helped me make the chocolate pudding, then we were off to have some fun{?}. I stripped them both down, and I was incredibly amused by the confusion on their faces...they had no idea what tonights activity consisted of. I put some pudding down in front of them and told them to go at it...have FUN! At first they were a bit hesitant, but then the fun began...

Noah just smeared it around with his finger at first...I showed him how he could write letters and then erase them and start over.
Leah went and got a spoon out of the drawer and started eatting it! I don't blame her...it was pretty yummy :).
Then...they figured it out! They started to really start smearing it everywhere and started giggling like crazy!
Then they started to smear it on themselves...it was so funny to watch!
Cute, messy, kids!
And the fun continued...
I was actually surprised at how well they kept the pudding on the table, thank goodness! The clean up was so easy. Cleaning them up, on the other hand, was a bit more work. I put them in the shower and hosed them down for a good 15 minutes! It was definitely worth it and we'll definitely be doing this again soon :).

St. Patty's Day

We hope everyone had a fun day of wearing green, and pinching those who weren't ;). Noah made sure that Doug got plenty of pinches last night for forgetting!

Out of Energy

We went to the park the other day and after about 5 minutes of playing, Noah comes up to me and tells me that he is all out of energy! I asked him what we should do about that, to which he replied "If I eat a rice krispie treat, I will definitely have more energy". He knew that he couldn't have that treat until after lunch, but I couldn't resist. I thought that it was a pretty good reason to have it early :). Talk about manipulative...and I totally fell for it!

Snow Day

So, we went from having a nice sunny day at the park....to....a day of playing in the snow!

Yes, we woke up to tons of snow of Friday morning, and the joy on Noah's face when he saw the snow made my longing for spring disappear {just a little}. Doug was home today, so we decided to get everyone geared up in their snow clothes and go play in the, what may be our last, freshly fallen snow. Thankfully it wasn't too cold outside, so they were able to play outside for a good amount of time before coming in. Good times ;).

Love this look on Noah's face...total excitement. This was just seconds after coming outside to play.
Leah didn't really know what to think, but she went along with what brother and Daddy were doing.
Taking a walk to see the doggies. Leah wanted me to come along, but I good just watching :).
Ahh...love these boys!
Noah had fun EATING the snow {only the white stuff ;)}...
...and Leah had fun trying to take of all of her snow gear! Here's Doug putting her boots and gloves back on. Silly girl.
All bundled up.

Hello, March!

I am so, so, SO happy that it's March! That means that spring and summer are just around the corner...yay!

After going to storytime at the library today, we decided to go to the park and play. The sun was out and everything was dry for the kids to play...we spent close to an hour there running around and playing. This outing really made me more excited for warmer weather so that we can go outside and play much more often!

Noah was so good to hold on to Leah down the slide. She could have done it on her own, but he insisted that he go down with her, and she didn't mind the company!
Peek-a-Boo!

Noah had fun getting WAY dizzy on this spinning toy! It was funny to watch him when he got off...he couldn't even walk straight. He thought it was pretty funny too when he fell down and couldn't get up!

Full of Energy

I don't know where kids get ALL of their energy. It wears me out just watching them play sometimes. On Sunday night, they were jumping on our bed into a pile of pillows for a good 30 minutes...non-stop! They were having so much fun with one another, which is pretty apparent in this photo. Those smiling faces make jumping on the bed so worth it!