Changing it up

So I'm sure you've noticed by now that I like changing my blog a lot. I'm yet to find the perfect template and the perfect color scheme for me, but I do enjoy changing it up every once in a while. I guess I'm saying that you better get used to the fact that when you click on themaryspecial, you never know what you're gonna get!

Cheezy face

I'm sorry, but there is just something so incredibly cute about a child doing a cheezy smile. I think smiling is something we have to learn to control for pictures because (at least our family) it's more nature to cheese it! Here are some cute cheezy faces I caught.

My first PONY TAILS!!

We have finally arrived! After months of looking like a shaggy orphan. . . Sophie's hair fits in a pony!! Considering that this is what I do, it's been a little hard having a little girl without any hair, but it is really coming in now. I know it's not great, but at least it fits. Oh ya, and for all you Moms out there with baby girl hair to do, I found some awesome pony tail holders at Walmart in the baby section. They are really stretchy so they are easier to get in and they totally stay. They also come in a 400 count variety pack with every color you could possibly want for only $1.88. Don't we all love Walmart!

Day with the girls

My sister is in town from New York for a few days. I always love it when she comes to visit and I try to spend as much time as possible with her before she leaves again. So today Mom, Jenny, and Laur came up to my house for a little girls day. We met at Old Navy (it wouldn't be a true girls day without a little shopping right?!) and then got take out and came home to eat and chill. I always love spending time with my girls. They all inspire me in so many ways. In my Young Women's lesson this week we talked about preparing for the temple. I used Jenny as an example because she goes to the temple to do baptisms with her school friends. How awesome is that! Which means that she has a temple recommend and will be prepared when it's time to go through when she gets married. My older sister is AWESOME at reading her scriptures and teaching her children. I always see her sitting down with her scriptures and journal to study. And I know that she reads gospel stories with her children. What a great example. Then there's my Mom. She has devoted so much of her life to the Church. She serves in all her calling so faithfully, she studies the scriptures and prays daily, and she never hesitates to share her testimony with us. I can't believe I'm so lucky to be surrounded by such wonderful women. I hope I can someday be as great as they are. I love you guys.

We're back. . . . and we had a great time!

Let me just start by saying, you're in for a treat when you take a 2 1/2 year old to Disneyland. My mom had to keep reminding me that there's a reason they call it the "terrible 2's"! Despite that, we had a great time with our family. We got there on Monday night and headed straight to be. We stayed in the Embassy Suites where you get the most incredible breakfast so we were excited to wake up and start the day. They have all the cold stuff- cereal, toast, donuts, muffins, etc. . . but they also have omelets made to order, french toast, waffles, pancakes, bacon, sausage, and hash browns. It is absolutely delicious, and one of the best parts of the day. Then we headed off to the Magic Kingdom for a day full of fun. Right when we got in Papa got the boys an autograph book so they could get the character's signatures. We spent the day trading off between kid rides and adult rides. Everyone was so great about taking turns with the kids so we could have a chance to ride the fun ones too. We also had everyone on Ayden watch out, considering the "code adam" at walmart the day before. I could go into details about the trip, but I think I'll let the pictures speak for themselves!

Daddy and Sophie on the bus to Disneyland!

In front of the upcoming Nemo ride

Ayden by the Monsters Inc. ride

Nana giving Ayden an "Obuba"

Meeting Lightening McQueen!

Meeting Tow Mator!

A little too much fun

Meeting Mr. Incredible!

They had a great big hug!

Connor and Ayden on Winny the Pooh

Sophie being mesmerized by "Small World"

Our happy little girl! Always happy!

Connor and Ayden in the Mad Hatter store

Sleepy kids at the end of a long day

Somebody had to wear the Mickey ears!

The kids in their new Disneyland shirts and ears!

Papa and the girls on "Small World"

Ayden and Connor entertain the crowd while we waited for the parade

Watching the Parade with Daddy

Meeting MICKEY MOUSE!!!

We had a great trip! Thank you so much Nana and Papa, for giving us a fun memory! We love you!!

Magic Kingdom, here we come!

So we are leaving tonight for Sunny California!! We're going to have an absolute ball! We went to Disneyland 2 years ago, when Ayden was 6 months, and it was fun for us but of course he didn't get it. This time, he gets it! He keeps telling me who he wants to see: Mickey. . . Minnie. . . Donald. . . Pluto. . . Ariel. . .and Belle. But not Goofy, he's scary. I'm so excited to see the look on his face when we get there and he begins to understand just how much fun it's going to be. He's been a little grumpy lately so I hope he snaps out of that pretty quick. I'm nervous because he ran off in Walmart today and they had to call a Code Adam- lost child. I didn't quite get to panic mode before I found him, but I'm that much more worried about him running off at Disneyland. It will be nice to have Connor there though, because Ayden stays with him and Connor doesn't run off. I guess this means this is my last post for a while, but I will have some fun pics to post when I get back! I can't believe it, in only a few hours we'll be at the Magic Kingdom!

Crawlin Girl. . . . . . . . Dancin Man

It's so interesting to see how your children develop at such different speeds. Ayden was crawling at 8 months. He started with the army crawl but quickly got to his hands and knees. Sophie has taken her sweet time. (which, for the record, I am perfectly fine with!) She decided that rolling was getting her around just fine. Well, the day finally came. . . she learned to crawl! It's official. Now 10 months and a week old, she is on all fours and movin. She's still pretty slow, which is nice for me, it gives me a chance to adjust to having a crawler again. She seems really happy with herself though, and it's always a joy to see your kids learn something new.

Ayden has always been a fan of dancing. From the time he could stand, he loved to move to the beat. He started really picking it up when we lived at the apartment and he fell in love with the Backyardigans. Well, if possible, I think he loves it even more now. Multiple times a day he asks me to turn on music so he can dance. He got a "my pod" (a toy that plays nursery rhymes) from his cousin Connor, and he loves to carry it around the house and dance. Whenever we go anywhere that there's music, he loves to show off his moves. The funny thing is. . . he's actually really good. He has different moves for different music. Just tonight we were at our Ward Party and he had a whole audience watching him instead of the performers. What can I say, the kid just loves to dance. I guess you could say, like mother, like son!

My sweet husband of 5 years

So I had another migraine last night. I don't get them nearly as often as I used to but when I do, they are so bad. Logan came home from work to me laying on the couch moaning with a pillow over my head. He is the best husband in the world. He sent me straight to bed. Ayden kept coming in to check on me asking "you feelin better, Mom?" "Not yet" I had to keep telling him. He also kept coming in to say "I sorry Mommy, I sorry you ouchy". What a sweetheart. Finally I had to take more medicine and a couple melatonin pills to knock myself out. I woke up for a minute at 9 to find the kids in bed and the house totally clean. Then Logan came and gave me a back massage to help me get back to sleep. So yes, I got about 11 hours of sleep last night! I don't know what I would do without that guy.

It's our anniversary today. We have been married for 5 years. That seems like a long time, and yet not that long. It has been the best 5 years of my life though. He means everything to me. I always say that I don't know what I did right to deserve that guy. And I feel like I need to live up to this great blessing. Logan is the perfect husband, he really is. He is so kind and thoughtful. He is generous with everything he has, including his time. He never likes to argue and he's always the first to apologize. He is such a fun Dad. The kids love him so much. Every time Ayden hears something that even remotely sounds like the garage door he says "Daddy's home!!" Sophie lights up when she sees him. She knows she's in for a treat when daddy's home. He works so hard to provide for our family and I know he will be a successful person. I couldn't be more happy with my choice in a companion and I can't believe I get to be with him forever. I'm the luckiest girl on earth!

Decorating the basement

3 weeks after we moved in we had Sophie's blessing and open house. I was so stressed about decorating the house that by the time I was done, I was so burnt out that I didn't do anything to my basement. Here we are- 9 months later and it's still not done. So I've started thinking about some simple decorating I could do to make it more comfortable down there. I saw a family sign somewhere and I got an idea of how to make something cute to put above the fire place. I still want to add a few things, but I was so pleased with how it turned out that I had to post it!

Why every woman should have a son

Today Ayden played outside for about an hour by himself. One of our neighbors has a slide and another has a tramp. He just goes back and forth between them. I was watching him through the window and I saw him bending over in a flower patch. Then he headed for the house. When he walked with 2 flowers in his hand he said "Mommy, a flower for you". I just about died, it was so cute. I took it graciously and said thank you. Then he said "where's Sophie? this one for Sophie". Literally my heart skipped a beat. How cute to think of him out there picking flowers for his girls. What a great guy, I love him so much!

Easter Outfits

My sister posted pictures of her kids Easter outfits and I was dying at how cute they were so I had to run out and find some. Ayden got the same shirt as Connor, just in a different color. Then I found this dress for Sophie that totally matched Ayden's shirt so I had to get it! They looked so darling cute, it was ridiculous. I love having 2 kids to dress in matching outfits. I always remember having matching outfits growing up, and I think it's fun. Plus you can get the best pictures. We had a really great Easter, and we were lucky to spend it with all of our family and so many friends.

Easter Morning

Bright and early Easter morning, at the crack of 6:00, Ayden decided he wanted to get up. He wanted some cereal so I thought that if I kept the lights off maybe I could grab some and take it downstairs so we won't have to do the Easter bunny thing so early. Well, as soon as we walked out Ayden yelled, "Oh, my basket!!!" To which I replied, "Oh Crap, we better go get daddy!" So we woke daddy up and headed out to see what the Easter bunny brought. We didn't wake up Sophie though, she got to see her basket about an hour later. Anyway, all the fun was over so quickly and then we just had to get ready for church. Ayden is a little confused because he believes that only Santa brings presents so if he gets a present, it must be from Santa. So no matter how many times we said it was from the Easter bunny, he told people he got a present from Santa.

Egg Hunt

I'm sure this is the first of many posts today because we had a fun and crazy weekend. When we moved into our house last July, we talked to our neighbors about putting in a fence. They didn't say anything right away, but after we said we weren't going to anymore, they sighed with relief because every year they throw a huge neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt in our combine yards. They were really hoping that we would want to be in on it. Well the time came and man was is a blast. We took flyer's around asking everyone to bring 12 filled plastic eggs for each child coming, and a bag of wrapped candy for each family. I made signs and we taped off sections for the different age groups. It was an absolute riot! So many people came and it was a great chance to visit with our neighbors. Afterwards, some of the closer friends stayed and we had a huge pizza picnic. We are so lucky to have such a great neighborhood and most of all, to have the Flittons. Ayden had a blast, except for when he got in trouble for eating the candy faster then we could put it out.

{Ayden and Sophie}

{Some of our neighbors}

{Getting ready for the Hunt}

{craziness}

{Our little family}

{Ayden's full basket!}


{Sophie and her chocolate}

My First Tooth!

We have been waiting patiently for Sophie to finally break that first tooth, and today was the day! She will be 10 months on Saturday and she finally got her first tooth. She's such a big girl now. She's still a little ornery but I'm hoping that will go away once it's all the way through. Now we just need that hair to come in a little more so she can have a pony and she'll officially be a big girl!

Daddy's Girl

I was talking with someone the other day who agreed with me that most moms have a soft spot in their hearts for their sons, just like fathers do for their daughters. I know that when it comes to Ayden, I am far more sensitive. I don't like it when Logan teases him or when he gets sad. I'm a little tougher when it come to Sophie though. We compliment each other well, because Logan is exactly the same about Sophie. They have a special bond. Her face lights up when she sees him and when she hears his voice. She knows she'll be getting some serious love. It's so fun to see them together!