Catching UP

My girls have been growing and its been a lot of fun! We had a pretty crappy winter with all the cold weather and both the girls got RSV. Carys missed Pre-School and Dance for almost a full month and was not happy about it. Saryn, that poor kid. She had double ear infections, RSV, and AND was getting her molars all at the same time. It was awful. We had to take her to the hospital every 8 hours or so to get her suctioned out just so she could breathe! It was pretty scary but we all made it through. With that being said, we finally made it outdoors a few weeks ago to let the girls get some nice fresh air. It was still a little chilly but it was good for them to be outdoors.

Saryn hanging out in her chair next to Carys

Saryn probably meaning to say something like "OH COME ON"

Carys with her long beautiful hair, haning out in the chair

My Carys Marie - getting so big!

These girls LOVE each other :D

Saryn Update

Here is my blue eyed Saryn Kate. She is now 13 months old! Here is her attacking her birthday cake on her actual birthday. She is TOTALLY bald and her features are so different than Carys. She has blondish hair in the front and it gets darker the further back you go.. Carys is all brown hair. Saryn obviously has the blue eyes and Carys has hazel. Saryn has a lighter complexion like her daddy and Carys is more olive like me. Opposites. But they 100% love each other!

Saryn is a super DIVA. She has learned that by crying she can get Carys in trouble even if she isn't around her. Okay that is our faults as parents, but still.. She is a MOMMY'S GIRL!!! YAY! Carys LOVES her daddy way more than her mommy. I know that. I have no shame in it. But Saryn, she's all about her mommy!

Saryn is tiny. She looks like a 9 month old and is even in 9 month clothing! Shes like this little tiny person but stuck in a super small infant body. At her 1 year check up she was in the 5th percentile for her weight and only 15th for her height! Good thing she's so darn cute!

The girls love to play together. Carys is usually in charge and doesn't want to share her toys, but everyonce in a while they get in their giggle moods and it melts my heart to watch them together. As I said about Carys earlier, she loves to cook with her kitchen toys. So she has all these fake kitchen utensils. One of which is a can opener. Saryn was crying hysterically one day and when Carys appeared before me and I asked why Saryn was upset she held up the can opener and said so nonchalantly, "I'm just cuttin' baby sisters toes off." I froze and said, "Excuse me?" To which she replied, "Just cuttin' her toes off." At that same moment Saryn came crawling in and I looked at her toes. Indeed, Carys was trying to cut her toes off with her plastic play can opener. Every single one of Saryn's toes was RED in the middle because of Carys' surgical brilliance. She has even put Saryn under a laundry basket and sat on top of the laundry basket so she couldn't get out and "choke and die" by playing with her littlest pet shop toys, which Rob and I have explained are not allowed to be played with by Saryn because she is too small. They keep me on my toes for sure! I love these girls!

I am SURE that Saryn will be the handful, NOT Carys. Carys is a bit bratty here and there, just like a three year old anywhere would be from time to time. She is mainly pretty calm and easily entertained. Saryn.... Different story. Always moving, always into everything, always crying, always wanting up then down then up then down... Accident prone and fearless! I can't wait to see how things go over the next few years and see how the girls develop into their own personalities! So exciting! And... Draining :D

Carys Update

Its been about a year or so since I have posted any pictures of the girls, so let me start with Carys. She started Pre-School this year! She is my big three year old and she is such a helper. She goes to the same pre-school that Rob went to when he was a little kid so its special for him. She loves going every week and always tells me she is going to go see "all the kids that are my friends." I'm happy that she enjoys going and spending time with other kids her age while learning!

She also started taking Dance this year! She LOVES to dance and always shows me her "super spins." I am sure that she didn't learn super spins from dance but from her former favorite TV show, Little Einsteins. The Little Einsteins have been replaced by Tom and Jerry. I'm totally okay with it because I'd watch Tom and Jerry ANY DAY over the crap they play on TV now!

She really reminds me of my friend who passed away while I was pregnant with Saryn, Meghan Veronie. Sometimes I look at her and swear that she could have been Meg's kiddo. I'm blessed that she is my baby girl and brings so much joy and love to my life. However, when it comes to dance, she has the SHORTEST attention span of any kid in her class. I was able to go and sit in on one of the classes and most of the time I couldn't even tell you what she was looking at or thinking about. At least she loves to dance!

She is such a happy girl! She loves being a big sister and every time she sees Saryn she is all smiles. I will say, having two has its downs, but I am so happy that the ups out-weigh them! After dance one day I caught her trying to show Saryn how to walk on her tip-toes like in dance class. She was not very happy when Saryn sat on her bum and looked at her crazy!

One of my favorite new things that Carys LOVES to do is cook. She will play with her kitchen and play kitchen toys ALL DAY LONG! I bought this super cute apron from Swiss Days this year and didn't know she would like it as much as she does. For the first few days she would keep it on constantly. I would have to pry it off of her before bed time! She loves to make real food with me any time I'm in the kitchen and loves it when she gets to bring food to the table for the family. She is so wonderful! I can't wait until she can make all the dinners...

WOW

I can't believe its been almost a year since I've blogged! Main reason? My computer is a dinosaur and it takes HOURS to post pictures and navigate the site. We are supposedly getting a new one very soon (fingers crossed) so I will be updating more. Side reasons: having two kids and working and maintaining a marriage is tiring!!!!! I'm sure most of you already know that!

I'll post pictures as soon as I can! My girls are getting so big and we are loving every minute of it! Carys just started Pre-School and Dance this past week and Saryn is going to be 1 on Thursday! She is walking but acts like she doesn't know how - D I V A!!!!

More to come.. I PROMISE!

The Pumpkin Patch

Yesterday we went to the Pumpkin Patch and let Carys pick some pumpkins for the family.

She wanted to sit next to the tractor..

Rob and Carys with two pumpkins she found.

Carys, Saryn and I at the pumpkin patch :)

Carys holding Saryn at their first Pumpkin Patch.

She didn't know what to think of all these pumpkins to choose from at first!

Once she realized she was allowed to touch them and pick them up, she was all for it!

"Here Daddy, I found one!"

"Orange pumpkin!"

She found a little yellow one that she wanted to show us. Then she began to count them for us!

Fall Party

Connie, my mother in law, always has the cutest little get-togethers for the family. We had one last Sunday afternoon, and it was so fun! Here are 7 of the 10 grand kids playing Hot Potato. They were having so much fun!

Okay so this was my favorite to watch.. Here are the kids lined up, each holding a marshmallow on a spoon. When Grandma says "GO!" they were suppose to run to her and the first one there wins!

So Grandma Connie yelled "GO!" and the kids took off...

Most of them... Carys and Ryan were SOO funny! They just stood there eating their marshmallows!

Maybe next year they would get it.. :0)

My Saryn Kate

Just a few more picture of this cute baby girl. Her eyes are very blue like Robs. Who knows if they will stay or not. Carys' eyes are hazel with a lot of green in them, so only time will tell!

Even the binky looks gigantic in her mouth.

The Bling..

Here is Saryn before we added a bit of bling to her life..

I pierced her ears when she was two weeks old. She didn't cry too much, and since I had already gone through it when Carys was 3 weeks old, I made my mom hold her. Then I took her back when she was done so that I wasn't the bad guy :0)

They look so huge in her tiny little ears!

Better to do it earlier though so I can be in charge of making sure they don't get infected. Plus she looks so cute and now nobody can mistake her for a boy!

Going Home

Leaving the hospital - on our way home to start a crazy journey!

Carys wanted to hold her every minute of every day! We figured the easiest way to let her do it on her own was to let her use my boppy pillow. It works wonderfully!

Once again, giving her sweet kisses :0)

more Saryn...

Saryn about 3 hours old.

Bekkah now lives in Croatia for the next 10 months, but she sent her new niece a cute Longhorns hat for her first little piece of Texas:0)

The little newborn diaper just swallows her whole!

Carys stopped by the next day to say hello to her little sister. In fact, that is what she calls her, "Where's Little Sister?" or "Where's baby?" And she always says, "Hold baby? Please Mama, hold baby?"

She LOVES her!

Saryn Kate Monsen

I know its been forever since I have updated my blog but I'm finally making time now!! I was induced on September 16th, one week before my due date. Labor was about 4-5 hours by the time the actual contractions started. My sister in law Melanee told me that I wasn't allowed to have an epidural until I experienced real contractions, so to humor her, I lasted as long as I could. I made it to 7cm dilated before I was crying uncontrollably and begging for my epidural! When they gave me the epidural, it was only working on my right side for a couple minutes so I had to adjust the way I was laying to make some of it go to the left side. The epidural was wonderful once it started working on both sides, however it was somewhat pointless because 30 minutes after I had it administered, I was fully dilated and ready to push. The nurse told me to do a practice push and when I did she said "STOP PUSHING!" So I stopped and looked at her confused and she said, "That was a great push, the baby is about to come out let me get the doctor." So a few minutes later he came in and one push later Saryn was born!

Saryn Kate Monsen was born on September 16, 2009 at 6:50 pm weighing in at 6 lbs 13 oz and 19 1/2 inches long. When she came out, she looked JUST like Carys!

She was so tiny! I felt like I was going to break her! Carys was 7 lbs 6 oz, so this little baby is the smallest I've ever held! But she is so adorable!

Yes, I cried a little :0)

Rob was so good the whole time I was in labor. He always surprises me at how good he can handle things. He was an excellent coach, and was wonderful as he held my hand through those agonizing contractions! Here he is with Saryn after she was weighed and measured.

DONE

I am so done being pregnant. It has been forever since I made a post, and I'm not even in the mood to! ME! I love to blog. I'm just so tired of being the size of an orca whale. I have no patience, I have no desire to do just about anything, and to top it off - the damn grocery store didn't have the chips I wanted to go with my XXX Vitamin water.

Just a bit of venting before I go to bed...