Saturday, November 17, 2012

Mark's 1st Birthday...

Mark turned 1 years old Friday, November 16th. He had his first cake and he didn't know at first what to think about it and then he really liked it. You can see it all over his face in these pictures. He loved his first birthday.







 That was great!!! (it looks like he ate it all)










35 weeks with Aliza!

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Happy Halloween!

We had our ward "Trunk or Treat" and we were the M&M family. We had a lot of fun. A lot of people got why I was the yellow M&M and it made them laugh lol! We had a potato bar, fun carnival games and costume parade for all the families to enjoy. This is Mark's first Halloween. Last year I looked the same as I do this year pregnant. My ward knows me as being pregnant lol! 



 

I am 32 weeks with our baby girl Aliza
 





Last year "Truck or Treat" October 2011

Monday, October 22, 2012

Mark is 11 months old


Mark turned 11 months on the 16th of October. He is now crawling up on his knees, but if he wants to get somewhere fast he will do his army crawl. Mark is now pulling himself up on everything even the wall. At 10 months old he had no desire to even try to pull himself up on things. I was getting concerned, so I bought him a sit-to-stand-walker to help him to walk and I was hoping that it would help him to try to stand too. Mark has to have something that intrigues him otherwise he won’t try and he will cry if I try to help him. He loves this toy walker because it has so many things to play with and music to listen to. Then a week later he pulled himself up on the toy walker while I was watching him. Then a couple days later he pulled himself up in his crib (I got it on video). Now he is pulling himself up on everything with no fear. Mark was the same way with rolling over. He was 6 months old and had rolled over maybe a couple times but then wouldn't do it anymore. He hated to be on his tummy, he would just cry and cry. I started tummy time early with him and at 6 months he still hated tummy time.  So I went online to find some answers and there was someone that said that her son was the same way so she bought this surfboard tummy mat and within weeks he was rolling over.  So I bought this mat to see if it would help Mark. He loved it because he wasn't flat on his stomach and it had toys and fish to play with. After 2 weeks (7 months old) he was rolling over everywhere. It took him longer to get him to crawl on his knees because there wasn't a toy or something to intrigue Mark to learn how to crawl. I would work so much with him and he would just cry. He hated to be up on his knees, but now at 11 months he is crawling. Mark is such a fighter. He fights me with everything. He has to want to do something or he won’t.  He fights me when I put him in his high chair, car seat, shopping cart and stroller. He fights me when I change his diaper and his clothes. He is so strong willed. Mark needs something that grabs his attention or he will fight and he can fight. So I give him a toy or something that he can play with and then he will work with me (but it has to be something that he hasn't studied in a while or at all). I know that these strong willed spirits can do so much good in life if you can just get them on the right path. Mark is a smart boy; you just have to find what works for him. He keeps me searching and thinking to figure out how I can help him to learn and grow. I just love this little boy; he keeps me learning new things.

 Mark's favorite toy is his cowboy rubber ducky bath toy. He takes it with him as he army crawls around the house.


This surfboard mat that came with toys helped Mark to learn to roll over and to enjoy being on his tummy.

This walker helped him to start pulling himself up on things and hopefully it will help him to start walking.

This walker has music so Mark will stop walking and dance to the music while holding on. It is so cute!
      

 He is pulling himself up on everything







Mark's top 3 teeth are coming in at the same time.

 He likes to read his books.

 My friend whose husband use to be in Bret's class has a girl a month an half older than Mark. They live close to us on base. Bret was working & Mark loves to get out so I went with her to annual church carnival fundraiser. The money goes to help a orphanage. It was fun and Mark loved it. 




 They had free hot air balloon rides, but we got in line to late and they stopped when it got dark. They don't go very high. I think that Mark would of liked it.



Tuesday, October 9, 2012

It has been a couple months since I last updated this blog. I started and then never posted it, so here is a load down especially for all family that miss seeing Mark. He is really growing up and his personality is really coming out. He loves to make all sort of different sounds and he dances to music.

Here is our up date: Bret got his orders to Bangor Washington. He was suppose to graduate September 28th and be moving to Washington about now, but things are getting held back for everyone and we now will leave sometime in November. At first we really wanted to get to Washington and get settled before Aliza comes in December, but now I can see the Lord's hand and this is a better plan. Things are falling into place and will be better this way. This way, there are better chances that Bret will be there for her birth, but we don't know for sure until we get there. It will be cutting it really close to Aliza's due date, but I am determined to have Aliza in Washington. We will make it there even if its a week or 2 before her due date. I get my determination from my mom. She was determined to have one of my brothers with her mom there and she waited to have my brother until her mom got there, even though my brother was ready to come. She had him after her due date, but my grandma was there. I don't know how she did that, but she did.  I am feeling so much peace about everything right now. I know as we press forward with faith all things will work out. I am so happy to be having a little girl. I hope she is ready for her very active one year old brother.

Mark is now 10 months old (Sept 16 -Oct. 15th 10 months old), but on October 16th he will be 11 months old. Here are lots of pictures of Mark growing up.



We exercise in the morning and Mark loves it. Lately its been feeling really good in the morning. Summer time was harder to exercise because it was so humid, but now its feeling really nice.



This night he was in a really funny mood. 


Mark was being really funny this night so I got the camera out and started taping and then soon found out that he could stand up in his crib. We now lowered it to the lowest setting. We just got back from the temple. He had taken a 3 hour nap that day and then slept 1.5 hours to the temple and 1.5 hours home. So when we got home at 11:30pm he was ready to play and didn't want to be in his crib. I am glad that I found out that he could pull himself up while I was in the room. He is such a funny boy.







He loves to hold things with his feet

Mark has three top teeth coming in at the same time


Its hard to see the 3rd one in this pic, but there are 3 teeth coming in. 

Spending time with dad, while mom was gone. I just walked in the door and had to take a pic. So cute!

Here is a video of Mark's army crawl and wearing his army pants (My friend gave me a bag of clothes and it had these army pants in it). This one is for Grandpa Gary and Uncle Matt.

22 weeks (6 months) with Aliza

29 weeks (7 months) with Aliza
I am feeling really good this pregnancy. I wasn't as sick this time as I was with Mark and I feel like I have more energy. I am really glad for that because Mark keeps me very active. He needs to get out of the house every day. He loves being outside and going places.