Yeah! New Foods

I am so excited...I just have to share it... It has been so hard to get Parker to eat food. It took WEEKS to get him to eat the baby cereals and once he started doing that it took a long time to get him to eat anything else too. I started by slowly adding small amounts of pureed veggies and fruits to his cereals. I can now add quite a bit to his cereals. He eats cereal 3 times a day because that is all he will eat and he is hungry. I have been getting him to try other things now. He loves Cherrios (finally) and Gerber Lil' Puiffs. My grandmother fed him Jello and he loves that. He ate egg yoke the other day and now loves that. I have been working on cheese and cottage cheese too. He is not so sure about it yet. BUT TODAY, he just ate his Barley cereal with pureed sweet potatoes, then had more than half a small jar of pureed turkey (first time eating it) and then I decided to try a banana. I cut up some little pieces and he LOVED it. He wanted to pick it up himself but those suckers are slippery! I wasn't sure he would eat the turkey because Staucie, who would eat anything, did not like the pureed meats, but Parker seemed to like it okay. I will try more for dinner. Anyway, I am so excited he is trying new foods and liking them. I can't wait to keep adding more foods to his menu. Maybe he can have some avacado for dinner! Oh the small things that make a mother happy! And I added a picture of the kids playing with aunt Tyne in the bus yesterday so my post is less boring (but exciting for me and Parker!).

He Is Sitting!

My kids do not like to sit, they like to crawl. Staucie never sat, she kneeled. We have been practicing our sitting and now Parker is sitting! I think sitting babies are so cute and I am glad he can sit now.

Staucie joined him.

Coloring Easter Eggs

On Saturday we had a BBQ in the afternoon outside with some friends that live in our complex. It was a lot of fun to be outside and visit while the kids played. We did get burned though! Ha ha. When we came back in we colored eggs. Staucie liked it for a little while and then got bored. She kept licking the eggs too. Parker ended up in the Jumperoo because he kept crawling under the table and chairs and getting stuck. I don't know why he likes to be under the table all the time. We made some pretty eggs though.

Staucie is coloring an egg with a crayon before it went into the dye.
Parker was jumping happily by us.
We had spaghetti for dinner. Staucie likes to make "art work" on the table with her noodles. She learned this from her naughty Aunt Tyne!
And Parker (with his eyes closed because of the flash)

Easter Morning

The Easter bunny came to our house and hid eggs and left presents for the kids to find Sunday morning. Staucie had fun finding eggs and eating candy for breakfast!

Yummy Smarties!
Parker got a little piano that he LOVES to pound on.

Happy Easter!

Easter Sunday

The kids are sporting their Easter outfits that Grandma Randall bought for them when she was out here. Parker looks like a little man and Staucie is just pretty!

Parker hates the flash
What a cutie!
We are grateful for the Savior Jesus Christ, for the Atonement in our lives, and we are grateful to know that Christ was resurrected and that He lives.

Easter Hunt at Grandma's

For dinner on Sunday we went to Grandpa and Grandma Dougherty's for dinner. They had yummy food and LOTS of candy. Mark hid Easter eggs in the backyard for the girls to find. Staucie had a lot of fun searching for eggs and playing with Lindsay, Jason, Ashley, Brad, Kylie, Emma, Hannah, Sadie, Grandma and Grandpa, and her Daddy. Mark, Katie, Spencer, Jared, Bethany, Andrew and his roommates, and Parker were all there too. Thanks for dinner and the fun times!

Ashley's body and Staucie
Mark's body, Staucie, and Kylie

We hope everyone had a great Easter Sunday.

Big Sis & Lil' Bro

Yesterday when we were getting ready to go play outside (the weather has been sunny so we have been outside everday this week) Staucie decided that she needed her sun glasses and decided that Parker needed some too. I laughed really hard and Parker thought it was funny to wear glasses. I think he may even like the pink shades, ha ha!

Staucie thinks she is pretty chic.

Then last night I went to the grocery store BY MYSELF because I had tried to go earlier that morning before my visiting teaching appointment at 11:00am and ended up abandoning my cart and carrying both kids out of the store. Staucie is now 2 and thinks it is fun to throw fits and thrash around screaming in the cart. I love the stares we get. It was becoming impossible to continue my shopping trip so I left. I was not a happy mother. Anyway, I called Kristin, my visting teachee, and told her we would have to reschedule because Staucie was not a happy two year old. The rest of the day was better. I don't know what was going on with her when we were at the store. She has become a lot more moody lately and I look forward to her teenage years, ha.

So, after dinner last night I went shopping again by myself while Daniel put the kids to bed. I was successful this time. While I was gone the kiddies were cute and Staucie played on the floor with Parker while Daniel finished doing the dishes. It is rare to catch Staucie playing with Parker. She is usually trying to keep HER stuff away from him. Daniel took some pictures because they were being so cute. Parker just LOVES Staucie and is always glad to have her pay attention to him. Staucie does love Parker and is always concerned about him and excited to get him out of bed, but she doesn't always play with him. Hopefully she will more when he can do the same things as her. I love my kiddos, even when they throw fits at the grocery store.

Birthday Wishes For Grandma

Happy Birthday Grandma Randall
We love you and miss you!

Happy Birthday Mom! I love you and wish you were still out here. Thanks for being such a great mother and grandmother. We loved having you out here. Thank you for taking care of ALL of us and just spending time with us. Staucie still asks for you all day. Have a great day!

Love, Daniel, Sheena, Staucie, and Parker

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We started off our morning by trying to wear some green. Staucie had no green clothes (I am sure Tyne is disappointed since green is her favorite color right now). Anyways, I put green clips in Staucie's hair and gave her lots of shamrock stickers. I made a green poster for Staucie to color on. She wanted to color right away this morning. We were waiting for Bethany and Sadie to come over this morning (Bethany and I take turns working out at our clubhouse) while we were coloring and then Bethany called from her car and said as soon as she got here Sadie threw up. So, she decided to just go back home. We were sad to not play with Sadie today and feel bad that she is sick and that Bethany came all the way here to just turn around and go back home! We hope Sadie feels better tomorrow.

Parker kept rocking back and forth.




Staucie is eating string cheese while coloring at 9:00 in the morning. She will eat cheese anytime!

Getting Around

Parker is very much enjoying being able to get around the house. He likes to go wherever he can and is getting pretty fast. I will look away for a second and he will be somewhere else. He hasn't started crawling yet and is still doing the "army crawl," but I think he is getting closer. He loves to go into Staucie's room the most so he can play with all her toys. While I was making dinner the other day he decided to go eat the lamp cord (don't worry, he didn't eat it).

Happy Birthday Great-Grandma Mortensen!

Have a Happy Birthday Grandma Great!

We Love You!

Already Eight Months!

Parker is eight months old today. He is growing too fast. He is such a sweet baby and so much fun. I am sad to see him grow so fast. The time has just flown by with 2 kids. I am not ready for him to be so old already. He is such a happy smiley baby. He always has a smile on his face and he loves to laugh when you are laughing. He loves to be kissed and snuggled. I have really enjoyed that about him since Staucie has never had time for kisses and hugs. He is also a very busy little boy. He has very good hand-eye coordination and can do lots of things well with his hands. He is army crawling all over the house now and likes to go into the kitchen and Staucie's room the most. His favorite toys to play with our Staucie's, of course, so when she is napping we make sure to play with them so she doesn't know! This first picture is of Parker under a chair one morning. :) You can see Staucie running by in the background. Parker is still working on trying new things (wonder where is gets that from). I have been slowly adding fruits and veggies to his cereals and he is getting used to the flavors. I started giving him Cherrios and Gerber Lil' Puffs this week and he LOVES them. He loves being able to pick them up himself and get them into his mouth. He whimpers when he needs another one.
He also likes to suck on teething cookie/biscuits. I usually give him one after he eats his dinner so that I can finish mine. He likes to suck on it and bang it on the tray. If he ever loses it he gets very upset. It makes a fun mess to clean up because by the time I do, it is starting to dry to him, but it makes him happy so we can all eat dinner together :)

Mommy's Little Cookie Monster

This picture is dark because he kept squinting because of the flash so I turned it off.

Parker is such a sweet little mamma's boy and we are so happy to have him in our family. We love you Parker! Happy 8 months!

Today, Jared, Bethany, and Sadie came over to play. Actually, Jared brought his ladder over and worked. Daniel had him hook up the surround sound speakers from Mark that are now mounted to our ceiling. Our living room was pre-wired for them. Jared did a great job and Daniel is super excited! He is already watching a movie (while the kids are napping). I am also making him clean and sanitize Staucie's potty chair because somebody peed ALL over it (Lindsay! ha ha, j/k), and Staucie has NEVER used it yet. He is disinfecting the potty in our bath tub and running out to watch/listen to the movie at the same time. So, thank you Jared and Mark for making DANIEL happy!

Tonight we are going to a ward party that doesn't start until 7:00pm so Lindsay and Jason are nice enough to come over and put our kids to bed for us so we can go. We are playing Family Feud at the party. They surveyed us at church so I am excited to go and play. And I am excited that Lindsay is willing to come over and stay with our kiddies because come 7:30 they will be tired and ready for bed.

We are so grateful for all of our siblings. I am so close to my siblings and it has been fun to marry into a family who is also close and willing to help each other out. Now that most of the siblings are married we now have 15 siblings between the 2 of us and are grateful for each one of them. We just need Brittany and Matt to move back here, Mark and Danielle to move up here, and Shea to move here, then we can all be by each other! We look forward to being in the temple with Daniel's parents and ALL of his siblings (12 of us) for the first time the end of April. We love you all! and our parents, who are the reason for it all :)