Splash Park at the Zoo!

Lorelei cooling off in the water!
Getting McCrea's feet wet!

We decided to take McCrea on his first outing to the zoo! We brought a picnic and had lunch. We then started to go see the animals until we realized it was too HOT and humid. After walking for awhile, we realized we were all miserable and ended up heading over to the splash park where we could cool down. Lorelei got in her swimsuit and was off running to every sprinkler that popped up. I decided to take McCrea for a little splashing too. I think he enjoyed it for the most part and even kicked his legs in the water. It was cute. So much for seeing the animals this time, I guess we still need to wait until it cools down some more. I sure can't wait until winter time!

WHO SAYS BOYS CAN'T DRESS UP?

Lorelei was so thrilled when Devin moved to the neighborhood. They became fast friends at church and now go to Young Kindergarten together. They sit next to each other in the classroom and have been enjoying play dates together after school.

Lorelei talks about wanting to marry Devin. Her first real crush, besides her daddy of course. She was very upset that she couldn't marry her daddy, because daddy was already married to me. She has now moved on and has chosen her new marriage companion. It is so cute and sweet.

Devin is such a cute boy and always asks to come play after school. Every play date, they can't wait to dress up. Although we do have pirate costumes, he wants to be a princess just like Lorelei. Here are the darling princesses coming to model their outfits for me. I think Lorelei likes Devin even more, because he likes girl things too. They have so much in common. They love playing with barbies, polly pockets and dress up too! They are two peas in a pod!

WHERE, OH, WHERE DID MY CAMERA GO?

Don't you hate when you are looking for your camera and you can't find it anywhere? Somehow it just disappears from sight! You look and look in all the right places and it's not there. Luckily, my camera turned up and is still in working condition. The great thing about a camera, is that they can reveal what happens to them. The evidence here is overwhelming. I know what happened to my camera and I had a great laugh as I discovered the little thief who stole it. These are classic pictures of Lorelei trying to take pictures of herself with the camera. I can only imagine as she viewed these pictures how happy she was to take such silly pictures of herself. Lorelei does have her own camera but I guess she wanted to surprise her mommy with such beautiful photos of her eyeballs, nostrils and tongue. She finally got a full picture of herself at the end. Thanks Lorelei for the darling photos! I'm sure glad my camera still works!

I'M NOT A MERMAID, I'M A MERMAN!

Lorelei believes she is a mermaid! She loves swimming in the bath and swimming pool. She even tries to swim like a mermaid too. Originally, she wanted a little sister so she could play princesses and mermaids with her. She was somewhat disappointed that she was having a baby brother instead. Luckily, we turned it around and said that McCrea can be your prince and your "merMan." She was thrilled about this idea and wasn't so sad anymore. We are happy to see that McCrea is taking to his baths so well as Lorelei believes he will be a perfect "merMAN." Lorelei already puts him in her arms like superman and pretends he is a swimming around like a "merMAN." She even says it perfectly, "MerMANNN!" Although right now she is calling him her "merBaby." We are glad that McCrea hasn't protested about this and is still willing to be Lorelei's "MerMan/MerBaby," without too much crying!

6 WEEKS OLD!

McCrea is starting to interact with us more and more. He responds to us and we are loving all his smiles. He is also starting to be more fussy and needy. He wants to be held a lot. Although he continues to sleep until 5:00 in the morning, he us up most of the day. It sure makes it hard for me to accomplish anything during the day. I guess this is the joy of motherhood, the good and the bad.

He still enjoys his swing, but doesn't like his bouncy seat as much. He loves to ride in the car and so far doesn't mind going out shopping either. Maybe we should venture out and plan to take some trips. He usually is content when he's being held, eating, in his swing or in the bath. My brother, Steve, and I were trying to get him to be quiet. I would sing him songs, say, "Shhhhhh," over and over in his ear and rock him back and forth. Steve suggests, jokingly, "Why don't you try saying, Moo?" So I did and it worked! It was so funny, we had a good laugh. Now if all else fails we will try "Mooooooo!" He seems to calm down with that one!

FIRST SMILES!

THINKING ABOUT IT! ALMOST THERE!
AND A BIG SMILE FOR DADDY!

I was so thrilled to get my first smile! Although I had to work for it and use any silly voice and silly face I could come up with. Just before I was about to give up for the day, I finally got the first smile I had been waiting for. It was so precious and I couldn't be more proud to be his mother. Finally, it is the moment I had been waiting for. It was so darling and adorable. We have noticed he definitely has a dimple on his right cheek and possibly a very small one on his left side too. I just love those gummy smiles! It just melts my heart!

"WHAT ARE YOU SO SCARED OF?"

Having a newborn, I knew my sleep was going to be jeopardized. I was definitely prepared for little McCrea to get up several times during the night. However, McCrea is sleeping a continuous 6 to 7 hours and like clockwork wakes up around 5:00 a.m. I have been so happy and feel lucky that he is sleeping so well.

Lorelei, on the other hand, has been getting up several times a night. She comes into our room climbs into our bed and complains of how scared she is. So instead of a newborn waking me up, I get my four-year-old waking me up instead. She is even scared in the daytime, too. She doesn't want to go into her room unless I go with her. She is also very concerned about whether the doors are locked in our house. I always tell her that they are and that she has nothing to be afraid of because mommy, daddy and even Uncle Steve are here to protect her.

After days and days of trying to come up with solutions, like leaving the lights on all night, leaving the music on, putting her stuffed animals all over her bed to protect her and praying for the bad dreams and nightmares to go away, we decided to start punishing her for coming into our bed every night. We thought if she loses privileges she would stop. We would give consequences, like no TV, no movies, no play dates, no dessert. Nothing seemed to work.

I finally asked, "What are you SO scared of?" She went into a long, detailed, explanation about the "shadows" that she keeps seeing at night. It was a little creepy and scary as she told this story. She talked about these shadows in such vivid detail. They had no eyes, they were small like her and they were grey. She described them like a ghost from a Halloween costume. She went on to explain that they looked like the shadows from your body cast by the sun on the ground. She even showed me as she walked by the light and pointed to her own shadow on the ground. However, these types of "shadows" float in the air. She said there were sometimes two, sometimes three of them. Sometimes they stayed in the hall watching her or sometimes they would come into her room at night. Okay, I was scared for her too! I had no idea where this was coming from.

She has never seen anything scary besides Disney movies, like Nemo or Monsters Inc. But this was nothing like her nightmares about "Bruce the Shark." This was serious! She was talking about ghosts! Where does a four-year-old come up with a story like this? How are we to protect her against ghosts? It was a little freaky hearing my little girl explain about these shadows. I guess I won't be punishing my little girl anymore. What do we do in this situation? How do we get rid of ghosts? What can we do to make her feel safe and sleep in her room again? I don't know where she could come up with such a story if it wasn't true. But I wasn't completely convinced about it either and didn't believe it could be ghosts. I knew she wasn't lying, but thought these shadows were something cast by the nightlights in our house.

Well, two or three nights later she came into our room around 2:00 a.m. She was so scared, she said, "Mom, the shadows are in your room." I asked, "Where are they?" She said, "Over by the closets." I looked but couldn't see anything, but decided while I'm up I'm going to go to the bathroom, so she followed me in there. As I was sitting down to go to the bathroom, she hid herself in my shirt. Right then I saw the "shadows" too. I couldn't believe my eyes. It came towards me and then disappeared. It was a good thing I was already sitting on the toilet, I probably would have peed my pants. Was I going crazy? I know I was wide awake at that point and blinked many times to make sure this was true. I saw a ghost! It was exactly how she explained it, no joke. It was the consistency of Jello and kind of transparent. It was a strange feeling. Although it startled me at first, I was grateful I had the experience to see it. My daughter was being haunted by ghosts and I didn't believe her, UNTIL NOW!

We then went back to our bed and said a prayer. After that she said she didn't see them anymore and fell fast asleep. I finally went back to bed too. I didn't wake Chad up yet. I waited until 5:00 a.m when McCrea woke up for his next feeding. He couldn't believe it and couldn't go back to bed after that. We were all very disturbed. Chad called our church leaders and discussed with them what we needed to do. Chad blessed and dedicated our home and then gave each one of us a Priesthood blessing. We finally felt at peace. It has been about a week now and Lorelei came to me yesterday and said, "Mom, I don't see the shadows anymore." What a blessing it is to have the Priesthood in our lives. I hope we will not have any more encounters with spirits or ghosts, but if we do, we know we have the power to overcome it.

Every night during our prayers, we pray to have the spirit and to have the Holy Ghost with us in our home. Lorelei objects to us saying this now. She does not want spirits or any ghosts in our home. Although I've explained to her about the Holy Ghost and the good spirit, I completely understand her protesting to this. I will have to rephrase that from now on!

5 WEEKS OLD!

We went to the doctor this week and found out that McCrea is growing at the speed of light. He is already 11lbs, 6 ozs and 23 1/4 inches long. He is already off the charts for his height and up in the 90th percentile for weight. He is just a growing boy. He is getting big and I'm loving all the chunky rolls I get to squeeze and kiss. We just love him so much.

ONE MONTH OLD!

Give me a little smile McCrea!





McCrea is growing like a weed! He has changed so much in just one month. He is already chunking up and is looking more and more like Lorelei. It's amazing how fast they grow in this first month. We went and got his pictures taken this week. I sure can't wait to get them back and get them posted on my blog.

One of McCrea's favorite things to do right now is Stretch. He loves to be put on his changing table and he just stretches those legs and points them out as he flails his arms in all kinds of directions. He really enjoys it and you can tell it makes him happy. It is so cute to watch. He also really enjoys his bath time and even splashes with his hands in the water. He seems so relaxed as he just kicks back in his little bathtub. McCrea is definitely a very noisy sleeper! He is already talking in his sleep. At night he makes all kinds of grunts and coos while he dreams. It's so cute to listen to, although I'm not getting sleep because of it. I'm still waiting for that heart-melting smile to come. I'm trying to be patient, but doing everything I can to spark a little smirk for his mommy. I want to be the first one to get that smile out of him, since I'm the one who sacrificed everything for him. My mom was the first to make Lorelei smile when she was six weeks old, so I don't want to miss the opportunity when he is ready for that big smile. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks.

LORELEI'S FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!

Going to Crismon Elementary School!

Ready for school!
Check out my new backpack!
Walking to school!
Waiting at the cross walk!
Here we go!

Yea, Devin's in my class too!

Finding my seat!Mrs. Weber helping me with the activity!

Lei Lei started her first day of "Young" Kindergarten! They call it "Young," because they have a separate Kindergarten for those who didn't make the deadline of full Kindergarteners. It is for all September thru December babies. So here she is on her first day of school. She is so excited and has been anticipating this day for a while. We live right across the street from the Crismon Elementary School, so it's just a hop, skip and a jump right over to her school. I love it! No more driving back and forth to preschool. She has watched the older kids out the window as they went to school and now it is her turn to go too. Of course I got all teary-eyed as we walked her to the door, I was trying to control myself. This is just the beginning of her education and it's hard to watch your little girl growing up. Chad and I walked her in and got her situated in her seat and made sure she was comfortable. It was sad leaving her behind. Her teachers names are Mrs. Hernandez and Mrs. Weber and they seem super nice. School starts at 8:25 until 11:10, so just half day for now, but it is nice to have a little time for McCrea and I. After school, I asked her what her favorite part was and she said she loves recess the best! As I went to check the mailbox I looked over to see my little girl at recess time, she was on the swing pumping as high as she could. It was so cute to watch my little girl from across the street. All grown UP! They are already learning so much and trying to get the routine down. On Mondays they have Computers, Wednesdays-Music, Thursdays-P.E. and Fridays-Library. They are working on a color book where they cut out magazine pictures that match that color. They even have a color day where they need to wear the color of the day. It is fun for her and now we don't have to fight what clothes she wants to wear. Just one less thing to worry about in the mornings. Hooray for school!

NOTHING GETS SWEETER THAN THIS!

Snuggling up with daddy!

Sweet Dreams!

I love capturing these sweet moments! It is so precious seeing a father snuggling with his two kids and enjoying the bonding time of sweet dreams together. It always brings a smile to my face to watch Chad interact with his darling little girl and now his sweet baby boy. They just looked so comfy as they fell asleep watching the Olympics together. It's too bad there wasn't any room for me on that couch we could've all taken a little nap together as a family.