Two crazy kids

Makiah Jaiden

Makiah is now 1 and she is changing so much. She is now 19 lbs and 7 oz and she is 28 5/8 inches long. She definately isn't a baby anymore, she loves so many different things now. She loves stuffed animals and dolls and she loves pushing her stroller. Today she discovered a friend's purse and now loves my purses (that I usually don't use anymore). She likes clothes and she tries to dress herself. The other morning I found her with the panties to her dress on her head. She likes hats but she has to put them on herself and she gets frustrated when she can't get them off again. She officially can walk and hardly ever crawls! I am so happy for that :) She'll crawl outside, but when I tell her to stand up she'll get up and walk. She still loves to eat, but she wants to do it on her own. I guess it's about time. She hasn't figured out the spoon yet, she just digs in. She smacks her lips when she eats and I have to say that she is sure funny to watch when she eats spaghetti :) She likes to wave and point at things, when she points it sounds like she says "what's that?" She also likes to shake and nod her head and she thinks it's a game when we do it with her. Another cute thing she picked up is folding her arms when we pray before dinner. She doesn't do it every time but when she does it makes her happy and she claps for herself.

Evan John

Evan is 2 1/2 now and I am pretty impressed with all he has learned in the past little while. He is now 29 lbs and 12 oz and he is 37 inches tall. Evan knows all of his letters, colors, numbers (up to 10), and he loves shapes. He loves to say his prayers and if Dallas or I say the prayer he gets pretty sad that he didn't get to say it. At some meals we end up having more then one blessing on the food. He randomly starts singing songs or starts talking to himself. He likes to pretend to do things, especially cooking. His favorite thing to do inside is play with his cars, trains and his car mat. He likes to line up all his cars in a row. His favorite thing to do outside is ride is bike. He is always asking to go out to ride bikes with his friends. Evan loves all his friends and he watches out his window for them. He loves to go to nursery and we love that he loves it! I wish I could see what he is like while he is there :) Evan started a funny game that we usually do every night. When Dallas plays the piano in the evening Evan likes to run around the downstairs in a circle; through the kitchen and living room and back around. Makiah likes to join in and Evan insists that I go run with him. When Dallas stops playing Evan tells him "more music!" Weird, I know but he LOVES it and I guess I get a pretty good workout when I join in. He also has a really cute run, he uses his arms and has his hands in fists. It's really funny. I like this picture below, Evan always has his arm around his little sis.

I love these two, they are the sweetest kids!

Photo Preview

I finally found a good time to take some pictures. I wanted to get some 1 year photos of Makiah and 2 1/2 year photos of Evan. They both kept getting bumps and bruises so held off for a week. Saturday I woke up sick and it was rainy :( By that evening it cleared up and I was feeling up to taking some pictures. It was a nice evening! The pictures turned out cute too. I am super excited about these pictures because I started to use picnik.com to edit my pictures. Thanks to Colleen for telling me about Picnik! I really love it and recommend it to anyone who likes to do photo editing. Here is a preview to my photo shoot, I love this shot!

I'll be posting more on this blog and on my photography blog. I am getting so excited about my photography blog ever since I've been using Picnik. I am also excited because I came up with a cute name for my blog. Dallas helped me come up with the name "Pics 'n Giggles" and I love it! (the URL changed to http://picsngiggles.blogspot.com/) I couldn't use Photos by Jess because there are just to many Jessica's out there. So I am excited to use my fun new name. Hopefully one day I can go pro :) Click on the link above or the Pics 'n Giggles photo on the side bar to view my photography blog.

Last week

Last week we spent a lot of time outside, as usual. The weather this summer has been wonderful! The kids have had a lot of fun with the wagon and Evan's bike. We usually meet up with Evan's friend on the playground in the morning before it gets too hot.

Evan and Carly

Lydia, Evan and Carly

Makiah and Joseph, they can't wait till they are big enough for the bikes!

On Friday we went to a play group at Julare's home and the kids had fun playing outside. They loved the water, snacks and the cool tractor. Evan's big thing right now is tractors, Diggers, trucks, cars etc. He was having so much fun with this tractor! We had some construction going on at our complex last week and it totally made his day to see the concrete mixer right outside our window. I think that is his favorite truck of all time! Anyway I thought these kids were so cute playing with this tractor.

Evan and Cameron playing on the tractor

Makiah and Joseph

Evan doing some chores...

Makiah, Jora, and Evan

Off she goes...

Just in the last few days Makiah has gotten a little more daring. She looks like a little puppet as she walks around :) She is still so small and wobbly.

Makiah's 1st

I had so much fun spoiling Kiah on her birthday! We got her this pool and she and Evan had fun swimming. It hasn't really been warm enough since to go for a swim until today (I really don't mind the cool weather- It's great!) It was a fun way to celebrate her birthday.

Grandma and Grandpa Johnson and Aunt Cami got her this wagon. We all love it and have had a blast with it. The kids in our neighborhood also have enjoyed it. Thanks so much Mom, Dad and Cami! Kiah enjoyed her spaghetti dinner...

and loved opening presents...

She got some fun presents: a glow worm, shape toy, puzzle, Little People school house, and of course the pool and wagon. Candi sent her a popcorn tree shirt and a mirror for the tub. Thanks Candi, she really likes it a lot! I made her this super cute giant cupcake for dessert and it was yummy! She wasn't afraid to dig right in just like she was supposed to. She LOVED it!

Maybe she had a little to much...On Saturday we had a party for her and invited other little babies to join us. We had a lot of fun. It was just us moms and our babies, which was nice!

Me and my little girl! She is growing up, crazy! We sure have had a great year!

1 year later...

One year ago today was really a wonderful day. It's funny how most of the painful memories of that day are pretty much gone and now most of what I think of are the good things. I had both of my kids by C-section and I have to say the second time around was so much easier! It was planned and I knew what was coming. The best part that differed from Evan's Birthday was the fact that I got to hold little Makiah right after she was born. Rather than having to wait a few hours I got to hold her during the rest of the surgery. I think the first thing I noticed about Kiah was her cute little nose and the crease right above it. She still has that crease when she is thinking and it makes her look so serious.

One month old, and still so tiny. I LOVE this picture, Candi took Makiah's 1 month pictures and they are beautiful! At one month Kiah took her first plane ride to our new home in Indiana.

Two months old, smiling and was as beautiful as ever!

Three months old, by now Makiah had the cutest little giggle. She was getting ready to roll over. This wiggly girl couldn't wait to move.

Four months old and rolling over...

Five months old and crawling, well an army crawl at least. She sure knew how to get around.

Six months old. By now she was defiantly crawling up on her hands and knees. She loved to follow Evan around everywhere. She started to babble saying dada. The only way we could get her to sit up was to sit her by Evan's mini piano.
Seven months old. Not quite sitting up on her own but she could stand! She would pull herself up by the couch and then not know what to do with herself. She had two little teeth pushing their way through.
Eight months old and finally sitting on her own! She had two teeth and two more coming in. She loved to babble saying dada, mama, and baba. She loved her family and she loved playing with her Daddy and brother.
Nine months old and this girl loves to eat! She really would eat anything we would give her, and she would eat a lot! She loved to swing and play outside. She still had a hard time sleeping through the night mostly because of those darn teeth coming in.
Ten months old and she just loves her family! Makiah got to spend a lot of time with extended family on our trip to Utah and Wyoming. She loved her grandmas and grandpas. She was learning to wave, play peek-a-boo and she loved to flip through books. She was also getting better at night and started to sleep till about 4 am!
Eleven months old and sleeping through the night! Yeay! She makes it to about 6 am now which is great! She could stand without support and loved to clap for herself. On July 8th she took her first step! She loves puzzles and her little kitchen. She does not like it when Evan gets in her way or when he bosses her around and she lets him know it!

Twelve months old...

One year old! She has grown so much and I have to keep reminding myself she isn't a baby anymore. Sometimes things she does surprises me because I still expect her to be the little baby she was only a year ago. Some of the things she loves to do or is learning are:

• learning to say Mama and Dada
  
• cleaning up
• learning to walk
• hugs
  
• pointing
• clapping
• waving bye bye
• talking on the phone
• peek-a-boo
  

She is such a sweet heart and every night Dallas and I brag to each other about how wonderful our kids are. They really are great and we are so lucky to have this little girl in our lives!