House and more!

Yes, you can see a ticker. I am expecting our third baby. I won't know for a couple more months what we are having, but we already have our feelings as to what we are having. We are making progress on our house. We got the front sprinkler system back working again and planted grass seed. Now we are moving onto the back. We are just a little bogged down some other things but we are getting there. Plus it is getting darker earlier and so that shaves time off of what we can do, and also it is cold so we don't want to go outside in the cold.

Lil Steven is talking more and Nathaniel is actually saying words too now. He can say Mama, Dada, Papa, shoe, milk, more, thank you, and a few others. For a child who wouldn't say anything, we are showing improvement.

Moved, and more!

Hi everyone,
We have officially moved into our house. We have new paint, new kitchen/dining room floors, curtains, and carpet. There is still more work to do in the house such as doors, showers, etc, but this little house it sure cute. There are a few issues such as layout of kitchen cabinets, and their interior height (this is very important to me), but other than that, I'm starting to really enjoy our house. We have more furniture to purchase, but once we do, we can finally unload a massive amount of boxes. Steven has quite a large church book collection, and I have quite a large food storage collection. ;) Once the house is done then we will move onto the yard. YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, since we moved, Steven and Nathaniel share a room, and it has been comical finding Little Steven with a wardrobe change, possibly no diaper, with extra toys in bed such as his mega blocks tow truck. It is large. By the way he is always asleep when we find him. So of course little Steven has adjusted to sleeping in his toddler bed and loves it. Nathaniel is fine with Little Steven's old crib (he was sleeping in grandma's crib, since I had two boys in cribs at the same time). I'm not sure what else to share tonight but this gives me a start at blogging again.

Time to move up.

Okay, here it goes. I got the toddler bed out of the garage, cleaned it off, and said to little Steven and of course tried to hype it up, "Here's your new bed". Once I cleaned it off I let him lay on the mattress on the bed. I asked him if he wanted it upstairs in his room and he said yes. So once I put Nathaniel down for his morning nap, I got little Steven started. We moved a couple of dressers, and put sheets on. He wanted his pillow and little stuffed things. He got in laid down, asked for his pacifier and was ready to go. Mind you I did this first thing this around 9 am so he has already gotten up a couple of times so I don't think he'll sleep this morning, but I hope this afternoon nap will be done in the bed. Hopefully we can get him to work on it and stay in bed. I thought, I had nothing else to do this morning and thought "let's just do it"!

So here is a little update. He kept getting out during nap time today even though he was thoroughly exhausted so he gets to sleep in his crib. I don't think it bothers him, but hopefully we'll get him to sleep in the toddler bed. He loves it but I knew the break from the crib would be hard.

What's a girl to do without her computer?

I hate to say it, but my computer crashed! I don't know how bad the burn is yet but hopefully I can save what's on there, especially photos. Since we will most likely be moving in a few weeks, the computer has been on the back burner, and things like picking paint colors and curtains, and what repairs to start off with are top on our list. Oh, and I also broke our camera. So that is on the wish list too.

For those of you who don't know, we are buying a house in a quiet little suburb of Lancaster called Antelope Acres. The move also means we have to change wards but I'm used to that. I will miss my cute Beehives though. It's a cute little house on an acre and it will be nice to have our own place. I have plants picked out for our yard including fruit trees, and I might even have the idea to get some chickens for laying eggs. We'll have to see about that and see if I can get them ready before winter. Of course winter is not too bad here compared to Denver but it still gets pretty chilly.

Our current events since I haven't been able to keep up with my blog will be a shorter summary than usual.

For Steven's birthday, we went and saw the show KA, a Cirque du soliel show in Las Vegas. It was absolutely amazing, and we had a really good time. We definitely recommend it for anyone to see. The stage and set were absolutely incredible. It put us in awe and is an engineering accomplishment.

My garden is actually starting to show the fruits of its labors. I can see squashes starting and tomato flowers, and even my green beans are coming. I went to a class put on by the County of Los Angeles and they somehow convinced me that having a worm farm would produce great mulch as well as the best natural, organic pesticide/fertilizer. I also will start composting when we move. I never dreamed in a million years I would have these things but they are bringing me great joy.

Also I took a great little bread baking class and have started baking bread off and on. This makes Steven happy. He thinks I make good bread and I think it is a great skill to have especially in times of need. I made no-knead sourdough bread from the San Francisco Sourdough starter, and white and 1/2 white 1/2 wheat bread just this last week. Both were moist and very delicious. I have some tools to recommend. A Danish dough whisk from breadtopia.com is a great alternative to trying to mix with a wooden spoon. It is a great item. It mixes the dough very fast and is actually easy to clean.

Next, I purchased a french rolling pin from Vic Firth (who makes drum sticks) from Amazon.com. What a beautiful, easy to use rolling pin. I prefer it to any rolling pin I've used. Plus, I've been using a cup so it is a huge step up from that.

I've been attending the Stake Preparedness classes and so I've been trying to get back on track for being "prepared." Can you ever be fully prepared?

Next is Little Steven. He is starting to talk more and more. He repeats more of what we say. He has learned how to say Sorry, and if he gets hurt by someone else, he will say sorry. I think he understands its purpose. He also can say pretty, plane, bird, and is starting to speak in 2 word sentences. He was a little slower in his speech development but we are optimistic. He looks so grown up, and can do so many more things. He is able to pedal his little tricycles on his own, and loves to get his own water from the water dispenser. He even loves helping Mommy water her garden. He is getting better at pretend play, and is very much about organization. If something is out of place, he will pick it up, put it back, or get me to do it. Thank heavens he is like this.

Finally, Nathaniel is about 28 lbs. He gets to go to nursery this next month, (he has dropped in a couple of times since brother already goes), and so it will be nice going to church and not have to fight him for the last two hours. He can climb up the slide by himself, but is not really aware of the dangers of going up and down the slide by himself so we had a very good nose scrape. Remember camera's broke, so I don't have a picture to show of it. He is definitely the outdoor boy. He's going through a phase right now that I remember little Steven went through which is being a little bit whiny. Well, okay, a lot! But I know it will be gone soon, (hopefully).

We were able to go to the 3rd Street Promenade with the boys and walk on the Santa Monica pier. They have a great merry-go-round and the boys enjoyed going on it. Little Steven was better than Nathaniel who kind of wigged out when Big Steven took him. They loved seeing the people, rides, birds, and the boats in the ocean. They truly are about having fun and being where all the action is.

Steven and I were looking at baby pictures of him the other day. We know that Little Steven looks a lot like me, but we know for sure that Nathaniel takes after his Daddy. These are pictures of them around the same age.

This is what happens....

when your Two-year old gets your camera when you don't know it and takes it to bed with him!

Lil Steven took about 100 pictures and was able to even take 4-5 little videos. He is quite the little electronic, gadget oriented little guy. However, I do have to say that he is so sweet and he loves rules, and order in his life. No chaos for this little one. If his little brother isn't doing what he should be doing, Lil Steven takes it upon himself to try and fix the situation.

March Madness!

We are not basketball fans, but I still like to use the March Madness theme because that is exactly what this month has been. I can't believe that we are in the final days of March. So much has happened this past month let alone year. Every day seems like something new with the struggles of parenting and just life in general. We went to the beach with the boys last weekend and really let them play. Both were covered head to toe with sand, and Nathaniel wanted to eat the sand as well as run off to explore other places. Both our boys are quite independent. Afterwards we stopped at the fruit stands in Fillmore and got oranges and later that weekend started to make orange marmalade and then I canned the extra orange juice. By the time I got done juicing oranges we were up to at least 8-9 qts of juice. It is A LOT OF WORK to juice that many oranges.

This week, lil Steven has seemed to just take off with his talking. He mimes me more, and the favorite word now is "Poo-Poo." He then proceeds to walk around to everyone else and say Poo-poo? Which of course I'm sure the adults haven't pooed their pants (hopefully not). He also puts his hands on the sides of his cheeks and says "Oh NO!" When we are at stoplights or stop signs he says very loudly, "Go, go," and I have to remind myself that he can't understand colors or any traffic rules, so we will just let it be for now.

Nathaniel's favorite new thing is to sit at the table like a big boy in a chair and have his snacks. Maybe I'm wrong to let him but he climbs right up and looks so cute sitting there ready to partake of his graham crackers or "cookies." He LOVES being outside and throws huge fits if he is made to come in. The brothers love to ride their cars and Nathaniel is getting so good at getting on and off them himself. Washing hands seems more like fun, so I'm glad it accomplishes cleanliness and fun all at the same time.

We are staying busy. I've started seeds and went to the Stake Gardening Class which was great. It gave me hope that I can have a decent if not great garden here in the Antelope Valley. I will work on attaching photos, hopefully in the next day or two.

The happenins at the Reeds!

Yes, time flies by when you aren't really looking. We have had some huge milestones in our family. Nathaniel has decided to join the world of the walkers! YEAH! He started about 2 weeks ago with a few steps here or there but now can walk across rooms, and even if he slightly slips he rights himself and is ready to keep on going. He also can clap. He does it just a little bit but we are excited to see him do that.

Little Steven is starting to say more words. We are all working so hard to get him to watch us talk and then to repeat the word we'd like him to say. His favorite words so far are Hi, Bye, Daddy, doggy, and ball. He said the words together, Bye Daddy, the other day which was awesome. We took a walk yesterday since the weather has been so beautiful and he was so good holding the stroller as we walked. A definite sign of maturity. He loves to throw trash away, help cook in the kitchen (we made no-knead artisan bread the other day), and he enjoys sitting at the piano playing and singing at the same time.

Happy Birthday to the Boys!

Well we were finally able to celebrate the boys birthday's. Steven turned two and Nathaniel the Big One. They looked so cute in their Birthday boy shirts from their Aunt Sharon. Steven wasn't sick, but the weather turned so we couldn't have our big park party. But they had so much fun with their cakes which were little trains. Nathaniel smeared his everywhere and Steven got through about half. We'd like to thank all of our family, grandparents, aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews who helped to celebrate the birthday of these two sweet, wonderful little boys.

A New Year Begins!

Yes, we are into the new year of 2009, and I'm a little behind getting my posts started. We made it through Christmas and the New Year's. I have to say I enjoyed the holidays this year. I wanted to just relax and not be so much on the run and I do have to say that I liked doing it that way. The past two years I of course couldn't travel to see family and ready to give birth to our boys, but I wouldn't have changed that either.

I feel like I should backtrack a little with what happened with the boys this past month that i haven't been blogging the way I wanted to.

Nathaniel went from having two teeth to eight teeth so quickly. Because of that he can eat so much food. We call him the bottomless pit. There is very little that you could put in front of him that he won't eat. He also got taken off the bottle cold turkey last week. He loved the bottle but I was running out of liners and thought this was as a good a time as any to try it. Of course he would rather have the bottle but he is officially ONE Years old now and so being a big boy comes with big boys privileges. He is our child who has NO FEAR! I will repeat that, NO FEAR! He will climb on absolutely anything including us. We call him monkey because he does climb everything, so he even got a Curious George monkey for Christmas. He is such a daredevil and so luckily his older brother keeps an eye out for him. I get the boys dressed on our bed a lot because it's easier, and Steven was watching a cartoon, and Nathaniel was the one getting dressed. Well, I of course had to move away from the bed for a minute, thought Nathaniel would sit still, but he was on the move (like usual). So, I hear Steven yell at Nathaniel, "Thaniel, No!" This stopped Nathaniel in his tracks and gave Mommy enough time to address the situation herself. Steven also tries to get Nathaniel out of the cupboards that he shouldn't be in. It is incredible to see how mature little Steven is getting. He is learning so much so fast.

But, let me finish with Nathaniel first. Nathaniel loves to blow raspberries, and can also give kisses now. He sometimes likes to have his teeth brushed, and is starting to go down stairs backwards, since he has thoroughly has mastered going up them.

So, onto Steven III. My little baby is turning into a little boy. He started to unlock doors and open them so now all our door handles have the safety knobs. He can climb up on the piano bench and loves to play the piano and sing at the same time. He has realized how good junk food is so we have been trying to teach him to eat what is on his plate and then he can have treats. This is super hard to do. He also can raise his eyebrows up and down comically. Grandma Reed says she has never seen a child do something like that before. Of course he still loves going outside and is getting so fast on the little scooters. He can even climb up and go down the slide by himself. He still needs Mommy of Daddy to catch him though. He hasn't quite mastered landing yet. He has just been switched to a booster chair for eating, and may soon be losing his pacifier. I think that that may be a hard few days. He has gone down to one nap a day but I feel like he needs more. He is so independent and can do things for himself. He puts on his own sandals to go outside and can undress himself when it is bath time. He is also so loving and kind to other children. He will get toys for Nathaniel when he is upset and give hugs to others. He easily shows affection for people and loves to give hugs and kisses.

So this short recap has brought us to Christmas. The boys this year were able to eat breakfast first and then open presents. They had some toys set out that they enjoyed playing with. Lil Steven was more than happy to open presents (only after a couple), and Nathaniel just wanted to play with the toys. He really didn't have any interest in ripping wrapping paper off them. They both gave out though and had to have naps, and then proceeded to open presents later. I know little Steven didn't understand yet the traditions so I am looking forward to next year.

We went to Apollo Park last week and saw the ducks and geese. The boys just loved seeing the birds and ever since then, Little Steven has noticed planes in the sky. He points up at them and says something. I'm sure he knows it is a plane.

We have a wonderful family and have been blessed so much this last year and I am grateful for the things I do and do not know of in my life that have happened to me and my family.