The Daniels Family

Christmas

2009-01-20T21:26:00.000-08:00

Abby's pink car!

A Cinderella tea party in the princess castle!

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. Abby was a lot of fun because she actually knew what was going on this year. Jeff and I hosted Christmas Eve at our house with both of our families, about 20 people. We had a nice dinner and then did a white elephant gift exchange. Lots of fun and it was great to be able to have both of our families. We spent the morning at home opening and playing with presents. Abby LOVED the Cinderella tea set that Santa Claus brought her and Nathan loved his gumball machine (not real gumballs, but plastic balls). Then we headed over to the Daniels for more presents and some breakfast casserole. Yum! Val got Guitar Hero Aerosmith from the Daniels and is so glad. I was getting tired of the Guitar Hero 3 songs. We then headed out to my parents' house. It was snowing and the roads were pretty bad. Once I hit my parents neighborhood, the snow was deeper than my car and I got completely stuck. One of the neighbor boys had to hook me up to his jeep and tow me up the road. At my mom's, Santa left Abby a pink car, which is the one and only thing she has been asking for Christmas. She was definitely not going to get one until Santa happened to get the very last Barbie Jeep at Wal-Mart the day after Thanksgiving. What a spoiled little girl. We had a great Christmas and Abby is so sad it's over now. She cried when we took the tree down and kept putting the ornaments back on the tree as I was taking them off. Can't wait for next year!

Nathan's Stats

2009-01-20T20:53:00.000-08:00

Our little Nathan is now 16 months old! I can't believe it. We went to the doctor about a month ago for his 15 month check-up. I thought he was going to pass up Abby in weight this time, but he surprised me. He weighed in at 23 lbs. 8.5 oz. and dropped to the 35th percentile. I was shocked but the doctor said it was okay because he is SO active. However, his height is still up in the 70th percentile. He does not say any words yet, stubborn little guy. He grunts and whines a lot to get what he wants. He is just starting to use a couple of signs now, which makes things easier. The doctor says that whenever he points to something we should say this is this. Can you says this? I try to do it, but he usually just screams at me cause he wants me to give him whatever it is. Oh well hopefully someday soon he will start talking. Then I probably won't be able to keep him quiet.

First Santa Visit

2008-12-19T20:57:00.000-08:00

I took Abby and Nathan to see Santa this week for their first time. Abby has been so excited all week and she's been telling me exactly what she is going to say and what Santa will say back to her and so on. So we went down to the mall and waited in line. She was so excited she could hardly contain herself. So we get up to Santa and she sits in his lap and says. . .NOTHING! He asked her what she would like for Christmas and she just stared down at the floor. Then he asked her if she would like some toys and she stared down at the floor but said "mmm-hmm". And then that was it, we couldn't get anymore out of her. Nathan, of course was so distracted by everything that we couldn't get him to look at the camera. Then after we left Abby says, "Mom, I want to go back and see Santa. I'm not gonna be shy now." Oh well, I guess we'll try again next year.

Fall...and Winter Fun

2008-11-20T12:29:00.001-08:00

Can you believe these pictures were taken within a few days of each other?! The week started out with some nice warm fall days and then less than a week later we were hit with a blizzard. We had TONS of leaves in our backyard. The kicker is that we also do not have any trees in the backyard. However, our neighbors do happen to have lots of trees in their backyards. Abby saw all those leaves and wanted to go out and walk around. I raked up a small pile and she had a ball jumping in them. We went out a few days later and got them raked up. Nathan loved walking through them and hearing the crunching noise they made when he stepped on them. Then the blizzard hit. Abby was so excited for the first snow of the season. As soon as Nathan went down for a nap, we bundled up and went outside. She wanted to make a snowman, but the snow just wasn't sticky enough. She had fun sliding down the slide and into the snow. We made snow angels and Abby loved the footprints we left behind ("look mom I'm making feets in the snow!"). We had a fun time and then when she finally got cold enough, we went in and warmed up with hot chocolate. It was fun but I am glad it has warmed back up for the time being!

Halloween

2008-11-17T21:33:00.001-08:00

Aunt Lindsey and Nathan

Nathan and Great Grandma

Abby and Aunt Lindsey

So I finally got around to posting some Halloween pictures. Nathan was the cutest little elephant EVER! His costume was so adorable, it just made me smile every time I looked at him. Abby, of course, was a princess. She loved to be able to wear her beautiful dress outside of the house. We went to visit my grandma in the morning. She lives in assisted living, so there are a lot of other ladies there who oohed and ahhed over her and made her feel special. I took her trick or treating for the first time this year and she loved it. We only went to a handful of houses around the neighborhood, but she still managed to get a ton of candy. Plus the weather was so perfect, we didn't even need jackets. It was a fun Halloween and Abby is already looking forward to next year.

Pumpkin Carving

2008-10-27T17:00:00.000-07:00

One of our favorite Halloween traditions is carving pumpkins. We have been getting together with our friends Mike and Stephanie Geist for the last five years to carve pumpkins. It has been more difficult as we've added kids into the mix these last couple years, but still lots of fun. Stephanie has a 2 year old son, Tony. We let Abby and Tony paint their pumpkins while Jeff and Mike played Star Wars Battlefront on the PS2 (that is their favorite tradition!). They had lots of fun mixing paints and making a general mess of things. They insisted on covering every inch of pumpkin with paint. We then had them make Halloween jell-o jigglers. They loved that and we had so much fun watching them. After entertaining the children, we finally got started carving our own pumpkins. Of course by then the children were getting tired so we called it a night and I finished my pumpkin later. So now here it is all finished up and now sitting on our front steps. In case you were wondering, Jeff was trying to match the face on his pumpkin in his picture. Silly guy!

A Day at the Park

2008-10-26T14:25:00.001-07:00

This week I took the kids to the park with my friend Stephanie and her son Tony. This was our first time at the West Jordan Park. Abby loved it! When she first saw it she said, "Mom can I play in all the little houses?" She loved running in and out of all the little buildings and swinging on the swings. I think Abby would swing all day long if I let her. Nathan loved having some rough terrain to practice his walking skills. He wore himself out and promptly fell asleep on the way home and took a four hour nap. Maybe we will have to do this more often!

Stats

2008-10-25T14:53:00.000-07:00

Abby and Nathan had their 3 year and 1 year check-ups this month. Abby is now 36 3/4 inches tall (40th percentile) and weighed in at 23 lbs. 8 oz. and is in the 25th percentile now! This is good news because Abby has been underweight since she was 6 months old and this is the first time she has made it on the charts so the doctor and I were glad. I was surprised because Abby still never seems to eat much, but apparently she has been gaining weight. Yeah Abby! Nathan weighed in at 23 lbs. 3 oz. (60th percentile) and is 30 1/2 inches tall (70th percentile). So he is still our big boy, but that growth is slowing down. I thought he would catch Abby this time, but not yet. They are both healthy and developing normally. I couldn't ask for anything better!

Heidi's Wedding

2008-10-22T21:33:00.000-07:00

Jeff's sister Heidi got married on September 26. It was a beautiful wedding and it was so much fun to be a part of it. While we were waiting outside for Heidi and Winslow to come out of the temple, Abby was spinning around and around. She loves to watch her dresses spin. Then when Abby saw Heidi come out of the temple she said, "Oh mom! Heidi is a princess!" She later made Heidi spin around so she could see her dress spin. Then that afternoon, I spent TWO HOURS doing Abby's hair for the reception, but it turned out so cute. She loved her fluffy green dress and spent most of the evening spinning around. When we walked into the gym for the reception Abby said, "Oh mom! Is this Heidi's princess castle?" She was enthralled with everything and wanted to stand and hold Heidi's hand all night. And now she has been staging weddings at home ever since. What a funny girl. Anyway, it was a great day and we are so happy to welcome Winslow to the family. Congratulations you two!

Heidi's Wedding

2008-10-22T20:17:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Nathan!

2008-09-28T14:09:00.001-07:00

Nathan turned one last Sunday. I can't believe it has already been a year. He is turning into a real little boy. He is always smiling, loves trains and balls, anything that moves. He loves to bang on things and make noise. He is starting to walk and babbles a lot. He is such a sweet little guy and I thought I would list my 10 favorite things about Nathan for his birthday:

1. His smile. He has a big heart-melting smile and he knows it. He loves to smile at people at the the store to get them to talk to him. And it works. He loves meeting new people and loves it when they talk to him.

2. His hugs and kisses. He is the cuddliest baby EVER! He always wraps his arms around my neck and lays his head down on my shoulder and then he opens his mouth and gives big, wet kisses.

3. His walk. He is just learning and wobbles around like a drunken sailor.

4. How much he loves his sister. His face lights up whenever Abby walks into the room. He loves to play with his sister.

5. His dance. Whenever music starts, he starts bouncing up and down to the beat and it's so cute.
6. The fact that he said mama before dada. He is truly a mama's boy.

7. How much he loves toys. He LOVES toys and will just play and play all day. He especially loves to crawl after his train and balls.

8. His determination. When he gets his mind set on doing something or getting something, he doesn't let anything stop him. Just today at home there was a ball that he wanted to get, but it was blocked by the end table. The end table has a magazine rack underneath and he pushed himself right through it to get to the ball. Of course then he discovered the ball was too big to fit back through the magazine rack; silly boy

9. His chubbiness. He has the most chubby thighs and cheeks and they are SO squeezable.

10. His laugh. We call it his old man laugh because he chuckles like a little old man and it is so cute.

We love our little man and we are so glad to have him in our family. We love to watch him learn and grow. We are looking forward to many more fun years with him! Happy Birthday to my little man!

Nathan's First Haircut

2008-09-28T14:01:00.000-07:00

Nathan had his first haircut this last week. It was getting very long and starting to curl up at the bottom, so we had to cut it. After that first haircut, it just seems that they're not babies anymore. It's official that he's growing up. Aunt Heidi did the cutting and it was quite a chore. We started out in the high chair but he kept turning his head trying to figure out what was happening on the back of his head. Then we tried putting in a movie for him, but as soon as the music started he was dancing. It took about an hour and a half, but we finally got it done. Thanks to Aunt Heidi for a job well done!

Chocolate Baby

2008-09-17T09:26:00.000-07:00

I had to add this quick little post because I thought this was just hilarious. We were at Sam's Club a few days ago and the people behind us had a doll that was black in their cart. Abby says, "Hey mom look at the chocolate baby!"

More Birthdays

2008-09-17T09:04:00.000-07:00

Abby and Nathan both have birthdays this month. Abby on the 10th and Nathan on the 21st, so we had a little family party on Sunday the 14th. Abby has been begging for a Cinderella cake and so she was thrilled to have one for her birthday. Nathan also got to stuff his face with cake, but he wasn't as interested as I thought he would be. Abby got lots of dress-up clothes and has been playing with them ever since. She also has been dressing me up as well. Jeff and I gave them a bounce house (I know they are SPOILED, but we got a good deal at RC Willey!) which Nathan especially loved. It was fun, but I am tired of birthdays this month! Of course, now I have to start thinking about Christmas...

Happy Birthday Abby!

2008-09-10T20:32:00.000-07:00

Today is Abby's third birthday. I can't believe my baby girl is already three! The time has flown by. Can you believe she used to be that tiny baby? She has turned into her own person and has such a sweet and funny personality. She is now going through her princess stage. She absolutely loves Cinderella, pink, jewelery, shoes, clothes (especially dresses!), anything girly. She is definitely a girly girl. My mom asked her what she wanted for her birthday and she said "I don't know." Mom says, "Maybe a new toy?" She says, "Yeah", with some indifference. Mom says, "Or some new clothes?" A very definitive, "Yes. New clothes. I love new clothes." Jeff is already worrying about her becoming a teenager. So I thought I would take the opportunity to tell some of my favorite things about my Abby:

1. The way she gets excited about the littlest things.

2. The look on her face when she is being shy.

3. The fact that she loves the Disney Princesses, possibly more than I do.

4. Her singing--especially my personal favorite 'Once Upon a Dream'

5. The cute dances she makes up while I play the piano.

6. When she calls her dad "Jeff." He does not think this is so cute. One of my favorite stories:

Abby: Hey mom, where's dad?

Me: Down in the family room.

Abby proceeds to walk to the top of the family room stairs and yells, "Hey Jeff. Come here!"

7. Her helpfulness-- she is always volunteering to get diapers, pick up things I drop, help mop the floor, etc. She loves to be my little helper.

8. The way she treats her brother. His face lights up whenever he sees her because she loves to play with him and make him laugh. They share a bedroom and I have to put them to bed one at a time or else she gets up and gets him laughing so hard. It's hilarious to listen to over the monitor, but neither of them would ever go to sleep if I out them down together.

9. Her love and open affection for me. She is always giving kisses and hugs and saying "I love you mommy" and it just melts my heart every time.

10. Her curiosity for the world around her. She is going through the "why" stage and it is driving everyone crazy, but she is learning so much by questioning things.

Last, I thought I would share one of my favorite Abby memories. One night a few months ago, I was playing the piano and Abby was dancing around in the living room to the music. I got into my playing and after awhile, I noticed Abby was no longer there. I stopped and called out her name. No answer. Dead silence, in fact, which all mothers know is never a good thing. I got up and started looking for her. Then I saw the light and heard a little noise in the pantry. I went over and opened the door and this is what I found:

She looked up at me and said, "I'm just playing with the flour, mommy." I couldn't decided if I should laugh or be angry. I said sternly, "you stay right there." She got her wide, scared eyes but then I came back with the camera and she knew she wasn't in trouble. Now we have a fun memory to share! It has been another fun year with Abby. I just love to watch her learn and grow and I am looking forward to many more memories with her. Happy Birthday to my little princess!

Summer Vacation

2008-09-09T12:53:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy summer and I haven't been very good at keeping up with the blog. We went to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina last month for a beach vacation with my family. My parents rented a house on the ocean and we spent the week relaxing in the sun. Nathan loved crawling around on the sand and we were constantly pulling seashells out of his mouth. It took Abby a few days to warm up to the ocean. She was scared and wouldn't go anywhere near it at first. She was walking with my dad on the beach and whenever the waves would start to get close she would yell, "Grandpa, hold me! The beach is going to get me!" Abby also flew a kite for her first time while we were there. She loved it! I went boogie boarding for the first time in about 12 years. It was a blast, but much more tiring than when I was 13. We also went to the Wright Brothers National Memorial and the aquarium while we were there. We had a great trip and I enjoyed being back on the East Coast with all the green trees again. Scroll down for more pictures!

More Beach Pictures

2008-09-08T13:35:00.000-07:00

Nathan's Stats

2008-07-01T22:12:00.001-07:00

We went to the doctor last week for Nathan's 9 month appointment. He weighed in at 20 lbs. 12.5 oz (55th percentile) and 29 inches (70th percentile). His weight gain is slowing down, thank goodness, but so far it looks like he is going to be tall. His health is better. The doctor is keeping him on a medication called Singulair to help prevent his lungs from getting inflamed. It seems to be helping since it's been over a month since he's had any wheezing--a record! We are hopeful he will grow out of this within the next year or so.

Cousins!

2008-07-01T21:45:00.000-07:00

Last week lots of Jeff's family were in town for cousin Jennilynn's wedding, so we got to spend lots of time with them. Abby and Nathan had a ball getting to know their cousins better and playing with them several times this week. My cousins Stephanie and Kari have babies a few months younger than Nathan and girls the same age as Abby. I think we enjoyed spending time together as much as the kids. As the oldest and most mobile of the babies, Nathan kept poking, prodding, and climbing on the other babies. I think he was happy to be doing the poking since Abby is usually the one bothering him! Abby loved having some other girls her own age to play with. She is still talking about her cousins and asking to play with them again. We had lots of fun playing with cousins this week!

Nathan Scoots

2008-06-23T22:11:00.000-07:00

Nine Months Old

2008-06-08T12:11:00.000-07:00

Nathan turned nine months old on Saturday! Our doctor appointment got cancelled today, so we don't have his new stats yet. He is scooting around now and very fast at it. He hasn't quite got the crawling, but he looks like he is swimming when he scoots. He also is climbing stairs now and pulls himself up to sit and to stand. I don't think the walking is too much farther away. He's got two teeth on the bottom now and two more coming in on top. He was sick again a couple weeks ago, but we have discovered he is allergic to milk and soy. He is now on a hypoallergenic formula. It has helped to clear up his constant stuffiness. We are keeping our fingers crossed that this will help do the trick.

We took Nathan swimming for the first time out at my mom's on Saturday. I'm not sure how well he liked it. He definitely didn't like sitting in the baby tube. He wanted to be held and even then, he wouldn't stay in very long. Abby, of course, had a ball and was in and out of the pool all day. You can watch a short slideshow of pictures. My favorite is the one of Abby after she put her swimming suit on all by herself.

Nathan gets sick...again!

2008-05-13T10:01:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday, Nathan started getting wheezy again. By Thursday, it was getting worse, and by Thursday night, he sounded like he had just run a marathon. I called his pediatrician and spoke to the nurse who heard him over the phone and sent us straight to the emergency room. Jeff and his dad gave him a blessing and then we headed up to Primary Children's Hospital. They gave him a giant dose of medicine that he had to breathe in and it took almost an hour! Plus he cried almost the entire time. Luckily he didn't have to stay over night and we were able to go home after a few hours. We went in to see the doctor on Friday morning and she gave me a bunch of allergy medicine and a new hypoallergenic formula to try. Hopefully these will help! The poor guy always sounds phlegmy and we just can't seem to figure out what exactly is causing it. On the upside, he seems to like taking his medicine with the little mask now and no longer cries throughout it. And he has been sleeping through the night for about a week now. So I guess we'll take the good along with the bad.

Down on the Farm

2008-05-05T11:20:00.001-07:00

My mom took Abby to Wheeler Farm for the first time. We thought Abby would just love it, but not so much as it turned out. She didn't like the smell. She walked around the whole time with her hand over her nose. And she refused to milk the cow because it was too smelly. Three days later, she is still talking about the smelly farm. However, my sister Lindsey did milk the cow. What a brave girl!

On another note we have discovered that Abby is not as strong as she led us to believe. Nathan can in fact get himself out of his swing. I have not actually witnessed this myself, so I don't know how he does it. But I think we will just quit using the swing altogether. He's almost too heavy for it anyway. He has slept through the night 4 nights in a row now, so we are keeping our fingers crossed and hoping it will continue:)

Super Strong Abby

2008-04-20T15:39:00.000-07:00

So this week I was trying to balance the checkbook while sitting at the computer with the online banking. Nathan was asleep in his swing and Abby was watching a movie. All was calm in the household while I hurried and tried to get this done before Nathan woke up. I heard him start to fuss and I turned to look at him and saw he was waking up. As it wasn't yet a full blown cry, I kept going so I could finish. After a few minutes, I got up and walked over to the swing--EMPTY! There he was rolling around on the floor. And this is a full size swing, not one of those portable low to the ground swings. Abby was sitting on the floor next to him and I asked her, "Did you take Nathan out of his swing?" "Yes, mommy" she says. I have no idea how she managed that considering they're practically the same size. He is 19 pounds and she 25. She can't even carry the Sunday paper inside for me! Needless to say, it is time to start strapping him into the swing properly. But he really hates it. But as you can see in the picture, sometimes I do strap him in :)

The First Post

2008-04-15T15:23:00.000-07:00

So I have decided to come online and catch up with the rest of the world. Here goes my first ever blog post. I decided to start this blog so I can keep anyone interested up to date on the happenings in our lives..since we're such very interesting people :) At least Abby and Nathan keep things interesting. Lately, Abby has been yelling at the sun in the car. She does not like it when it shines in her eyes. She has now taken to wearing sunglasses and a hat almost every time we get in the car. As you can imagine, this alone is a very hilarious sight. A couple weeks ago, I was strapping her into her car seat in all her get-up and she turns to me says, "I'm lookin' good, huh mommy?" To which I could only reply "Absolutely!" She is a funny girl. For more Abby hilarity, check out the Star Trek Dance. Jeff has been renting seasons of Star Trek on DVD and every time she hears the theme music, she will drop whatever she is doing and come running to dance. It has evolved over the months and this is the latest. Our little Nathan or should I say big Nathan, keeps growing and growing. He is now almost 7 months old and is pushing 19 pounds. He and Abby were even in the same size diapers (Thankfully, she is now potty trained...mostly). To put this in perspective, Abby did not hit 19 pounds until she was about 18 months old. He is slowing down, though and moved from the 80th to the 70th percentile at his last doctor appointment. He is rolling all over the place and can sit up for long periods of time. I am now waiting for him to crawl, but he doesn't seem to be in any hurry. At any rate, he is very a content and happy baby, super cuddly and always smiley...except when it's time for food. Then he has no patience whatsoever. Oh well we love him anyway.