Pose for the Camera

Auntie Erin sent the girls some matching outfits for Cara's Birthday. She requested pictures and I tried my very best. The post from yesterday was part of Cara's outfit and here is Ryann's new pretty dress.

I have about 7 other pictures and this was the best shot Ryann would let me get.

I wasn't able to get a clear shot of the pink highlighter that Ryann took to her face. I think she was bowing her head in shame for getting in trouble because of that.

Yeah right. She isn't upset she got in trouble. She is just a stinker.

Happy Birthday Cara Kay

My sweet baby girl is 1 today. I haven't made her 1 year appointment, but I don't think she has made the weight for a forward facing car seat... so rear one it shall stay.

She has 4 teeth and walks about 3-6 steps before she falls. She loves walking and gets so excited when she does. She makes funny faces and has just discovered her tongue. She clicks and twists and turns her tongue all over funny ways.

She loves all of her clothes and toys that she has gotten from her birthday and she even had birthday cake today from Miss Mary at daycare. (somehow Miss Mary knows I don't have enough time to make a cake!)

We didn't party today because I had an interview, but we will party soon and post lots of pictures!

Hot Dog Man

Ryann ate this little hot dog man right up.

I saw someone do this on a blog and it made me laugh so hard that I thought I would try it with Ryann.

Are you impressed with the likeness to a real person?

Child Labor Laws

I really hope no one investigates me... look... I not only make my 3 year old wash my car but I make my 1 year old do laundry! The nerve.

Happy Birthday Zach

Happy 19th birthday to my little brother Zach. He is getting ready to leave for his mission for our church to Texas, speaking Spanish. I am so excited and proud of him.

Someone asked me the other day if I had already said goodbye to him (since I won't see him before he leaves) and it was a hard answer. Because, yes, We did say goodbye on our trip to Utah, but he hasn't left. I can still talk to him and skype him and post funny pictures of him on my blog.

I am so proud of my little brother Zach. He has always been such a good friend and example to me. He was one of my best friends my senior year of high school and that is when I really learned the importance of family. Whenever I came home from college he was never too cool to hang out with me. And then when Rich came along he always tried really hard to pretend like he liked Rich. :)

Another thing about Zach is he is such a great uncle. Even after making this silly picture of Ryann she has always held Uncle Zach in a special place in her heart. She constantly asks to talk to him and even when we talk to Grandma she is asking for Uncle Zach.

Zach really means a lot to Rich as well. Rich has great brothers but it means a lot to him that Zach will be serving the Lord for 2 years like Rich did. They will both speak Spanish at the end of this and I am sure they will spend a lot of time laughing at Zach's Texan accent.

Rich has also made it a really big point to make sure I know we will be writing Zach a lot of letters while he is on his mission.

I love you Zach, more than words can say. I want to be a better sister because of you. I want to try harder and do a little better because of you. I want to be a better mother so that someday I can have a child who grows up to bring joy into such a wonderful family, just like you.

You are the humor, the love, the light, and part of the glue that holds our family together to be such great friends. There is never a dull moment with you and everyone is a little happier when you are around. Thank you for being such a great brother.

Here is my post from last year!

Picnic in the Park

Yesterday we went to a picnic in the park for the Arizona Birth Network. There was a canned food drive, raffle prizes, baby clothes swap, and a potluck. Rich I think turned into the professional babysitter because he was almost always surrounded by 4 or 5 kids.

Ryann showing off her feather. How do you get kids to not play with feathers and rub them all over their faces? It is gross because of all the germs from a pigeon feather that has been on the ground, but trying to get that thing away from her was not fun. We had to make her "hide" it so no one else knew where it was.

And here is my cute almost 1 year old (aak!) trying to convince her daddy to give her more apple juice. She is pretty convincing.

Bundle of Joy

This bundle of joy woke me up at 6:15 this morning to tell me that she wanted Grandma to come play with her.

But this happy look on her face is sort of like the one on mine... I have a pretty good possibility on a new job... only part time though... keep your fingers crossed for me!

Happy Anniversary

Why do I always want to write "aniversary"... I almost always forget the second "n". Does anyone else do this? I digress...

Here is my cute hubby 6 years ago... with hair... thinning hair... but hair none the less. His brother Lee on the left has a lot more hair now... and his brother Phil on the right has a lot more facial hair now... I digress again...

My Rich is pretty cute and wonderful and smart and patient.

Even when he gets mad and then I get mad at him for being mad I still love him.

Does anyone else do that? Get mad at someone for getting mad? Very pointless and very unproductive.

Tonight we are going out for a date. (Thanks grandma mingo!). It will be nice to get out with all this stress and hopefully de-stress. And then tomorrow we will go to the Temple which will also help us to focus ourselves and be happy.

And Happy Anniversary to this cute couple below. Here they are at my wedding reception and then just 2 years (minus 1 day) later they were married. And soon they will give me another niece or nephew!

And happy anniversary to my Grandparents who will be celebrating 55 years today!

That seems like forever and a lifetime... I will get there someday. There is no one I would rather spend forever and a lifetime with but my sweet husband.

All Her Glory

We tried to put Ryann to bed tonight in her PJs but she threw a little fit because I haven't washed her clothes in awhile and there weren't any pajama's that she wanted to wear. So we got some pajama bottoms on her and she wanted to sleep without a shirt. Okay. Whatever.

Then we tried to get her to fall asleep but she was giggling and in all her naked glory she kept saying, "Naked. hehe. Naked. hehe. Naked. hehe."

We knew we weren't getting her to sleep without a shirt on so we went back in and found something for her to wear.

Unrelated to the story...

Here is a little picture of her on our daily walk to the mailbox. She is wearing daddy shoes because she thought that was pretty awesome.

Love Sac

So we have a giant bean bag, called a LoveSac. It is one of the first pieces of furniture Rich and I bought when we got married 6 years ago (on Friday!) and we have kept it where ever we have lived. This weekend we pulled it out and put it in front of the TV. This might be too close... take a look below and tell me what you think.

And here is a cute video of Cara trying to say, "Hello Grandma." We took about 5 videos trying to get the one that sounded the best. Hope you enjoy her. We sure do!

Blurry

My favorite photographer is at it again. Look at this sweet one! The blurriness is awesome!

But then my better half took this gem... why did that have to turn out blurry too??

I made it small so you can't tell how blurry it really is.

:)

ps- today was a good day. I really feel like the Lord has lightened my burden. It is still there- but I am appreciating all the wonderful things in my life a whole lot more.

Baby Wearing.

Many of you know that I like to "wear" my babies. Recently in the news there has been some unfortunate stories of babies who have died when being in baby slings. Slings aren't bad when used correctly... but that is a different story. This past week I went to a meeting with a group of women who also wear their babies. I looked at wraps: didymos, mayas, ring slings, ergo and more. It was awesome and I realized there are so many cool ways to wear a baby.

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Here is my first attempt to recreate one of the ways to carry a baby on your back.

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I think I need to watch the youtube tutorial a few more times.

I will give you one guess of who took the picture below.

If the finger print smudge, angle of the picture, or the fact that that only one other family members is missing from the picture then this is probably the first time you have looked at my blog.

Happy Birthday Grandpa Great

With all the craziness of a long birth last night for one of my patients (baby girl in case you were wondering)... I wasn't able to blog or call my Grandpa Wagner and tell him HAPPY 80th BIRTHDAY!

I did find a quick second to call my sweet sister Erin to tell her thank you for these AMAZING flowers. Just the special pick me up from my depressing couple days.

So thank you sweet sissy and happy birthday Grandpa. I know that when Ryann wakes up from her nap she will be calling and singing "Happy Birthday" because that is one of her favorite songs and Grandpa Great is one of her favorite people.

Cara will opt out of singing this year. She might contribute a couple "uh ohs" and "no no no", but no signing yet.

Rough Day

I edit a lot on this blog.

I don't write about my job, my struggles, my bills, my personal trials.

I write about my beautiful babies and my wonderful, supportive husband.

Because if I wrote about how I am going through one of the greatest trials of my life right now then I wouldn't take enough time to realize how much I am blessed.

And I need my blog to be happy because I am not ready to share my struggles because they are too fresh and I am too upset. And in the whole scheme of things they really aren't that bad.

Maybe next year. Maybe next year I will write a book. It won't be a book like twilight. Because this book isn't full of dreamy vampires. This book will be full of mean people who want to make life harder for those around them because they are unhappy with themselves.

I don't know why I am going through these things. I just know that it will pass and there is a reason for me to be going through this. Maybe preparation for a future trial. Maybe someone can learn from me. Or maybe because there is something awesome on the other side of it.

I like that.

There is something awesome for me at the end of this and I will work as long and as hard as I can until I get there.

And trust me- when I get there I will let you know.

Silly Cara

Love this cute video of my Cara running all over the house.

And so it begins

Multiple pig tails at daycare has started! They used to do this all the time with Ryann and now they are starting with Cara too.

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Count 'em. We got 4 today!

Play Nice

Some days I feel like all I do is tell Ryann to play nice with Cara.

And sometimes she listens.

Easter Dresses

Some days it takes a lot of work to get a good picture of the girls in their Easter Dresses.

I also want to say this is AFTER church... hence the messy hair and crazy kids.

Well, we would have had crazy hair and messy kids even if it was before Church.

But in the end we always win... and get at least one good picture... or a decent picture.

Happy Sunday!

We're Back

So I guess we had a loose connection on our internet box on the outside of our house... go figure...

My question today is what should I put underneath my poor baby's nose? She has had a snotty nose (allergies? teething?) for the past couple days and it is making it raw.

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But first you have to admire the piggy tails!

phone post

Little post to let you all know that our internet went down yesterday and a technician should be out later today.
I am posting this from my phone and I will try to post a picture.
You will know I am successful obviously if there is a picture.

At the Car Wash

We believe in hard labor for our children from a very young age. Even better if we can get their friend's involved.

It always helps when it is something fun like a CAR WASH!

Ryann had to change her clothes after the car wash... but that is part of the package deal of getting these kids to pull their own weight I am sure.

disclaimer- we do not believe in hard labor for children and if you don't believe me come to my house and you will see we don't even believe in hard labor for ourselves! It is a task in itself to get Ryann to clean up her toys!

Blog Neglect

This face could care less if her big sister has more pictures on the blog than she does.

All she cares about is if someone feeds her on time.

And maybe someone to smile at and clap when she stands up all by herself.

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Last night we discovered she likes garbanzo beans and refried beans. We will now add that to the list of Macaroni and Cheese, french fries, veggie straws, and goldfish crackers.

Easter Videos

Hunting for Easter Eggs is always fun...

watching Ryann hunt is even more fun!

So is listening to her sing the "itsy bitsy spider"

Garden for Grandma

Rich tried to teach Ryann the value of good old fashion manual labor this weekend. He and his brother built a garden area for his mom and Ryann was really interested in it. But only the good parts- like when they had the nail gun. Other than that it was her running around in the grass/ weeds.
Which reminds me that I should probably get my garden started too.
You up for it Rich??

Happy Easter

Some day we will make it to the annual Wagner Family Easter Egg Hunt with the Easter Bunny (aka my brother Cory)... but until then we will happily enjoy the Baker's Easter Egg Hunt and amazing crepes for breakfast.

Ryann really did ask for a side pony tail.

She was running so fast I couldn't get a good picture of her Easter bucket.

I hope everyone has a happy Easter and takes some time to remember the real reason we celebrate Easter- the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He truly loves each and every one of us and because of him we can repent and daily strive to become better people.

Serious Business

Dyeing Easter Eggs is serious Business. I was surprised we got Ryann to look at us long enough to get a picture.
I think she just liked sticking her fingers in the dye and watching everyone freak out.
More pictures of East Festivities will be coming.

We Miss you

How come I already miss Zach? He hasn't even left for his mission yet but I already miss him.

Ryann has no idea how much she will miss him. She will be 5 when he gets home??!

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Ack!

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Zach when you are going to post on your blog?