A new trick

Meredith really loves to color! We probably spend about an hour a day, if not more, coloring! Lately she is starting to draw things that actually look like what she is trying to draw. She gets so excited when she figures out how to draw something new. She draws fish, whales, sharks, alligators, circles, "M"s and her new thing is drawing a face. Granted all of these things look like they were drawn by a 2 year old, but still, you gotta give the girl credit! :)

I got a picture of one of the first faces she drew and thought I would post it. So cute! She even gave it some hair! I also posted a couple of other pictures of her coloring for fun.

the face!

lots of circles!

coloring in her pj's

coloring with her cousins at grandma's house

Aspiring actress?

Meredith loves to look in the mirror and make funny faces. She is such a little crack-up. She has her "sad" face...her "mad" face...her "mom, I'm being defiant" face and so on. The other day after our morning walk she was having a lot of fun practicing all of her faces...so I got the camera out and captured a few!

The "mad" face

the "monster" face

the "sad" face

the "i promise i'm not in trouble" face

the "defiant...i'm not listening to you" face

the "duh, mom!" face

My sleep deprived baby!

Most of you already know that Meredith is not exactly a great sleeper. Unfortunately, she never has been! She didn't sleep through the night until she was 14 months old and she has never been a good napper, either. Luckily her naps have been a lot better lately, but as you can see from the next few pictures...she is definitely still not getting enough sleep at night. As soon as little munchkin turned 2, she decided she wanted to stay up and play instead of going to bed at 7:30. So now she goes to bed at 8:30...even 9:00...but still gets up at 6 a.m!! Can you blame her for being tired? Poor thing...maybe someday we'll be able to get her back on schedule???

Here are 2 pictures from conference Sunday. She was so tired, but of course refused to nap because there were better things to do. A few minutes later, she completely dosed off while sitting up next to Papa. It was pretty funny...her little head was bobbing all over the place for a minute or two!

Here we are after our morning walk. She usually stays awake the whole time and plays/fights with her partner-in-crime...Jordan, but lately this is becoming more common! This girl really needs to learn how to sleep-in a bit...for both of our sakes!! Note that she actually fell asleep in her sunglasses...how cute is that?

Prehistoric birthday party

Our friend, Aaron, had a surprise birthday party last Friday at Prehistoric Pets in Fountain Valley. Happy birthday, Aaron! We had never visited before and Meredith absolutely loved it! Aaron's wife, Sarah, planned the whole thing and did a fabulous job! After some yummy pizza we got to sit down and enjoy a presentation at the store. They brought out a bunch of different snakes and lizards...even a tarantala and a scorpian. Meredith loves animals, but I was still surprised how brave she was around all of these reptiles. She wanted to hold and touch everything...except for the spider and scorpian, luckily! We are so proud! :)

Monitor lizard

Python

Can't remember what this one was...I think a king snake?

Frilled lizardMeredith and her friend, Jordan, checking out a big lizard!

Back to the beach!

The weather has been pretty nice lately and we finally made it back to the beach this last Friday. Our friend, Rachael, has been in town...so it was fun to meet up with her and with Laura, too! Meredith LOVED playing in the sand, as always. Ava and Carter had a lot of fun playing in the water, but I couldn't get Meredith to go in. She said it was too cold! I usually want her to get in, but I was glad this time because the water really was FREEZING and I didn't really want to get in either!

Home sweet home!

Robert has been extra busy with work lately, so we decided to catch a ride with my parents back to Arizona. We were there almost a week, and aside from all the illness, it was so nice to be home! Meredith had so much fun with all of her cousins and loved all the attention from Papi and Tutti! We miss everyone already, but hopefully we'll be able to visit one more time before the baby comes! Here are a few pictures of all the cousins hanging out!

Meredith on the swing

Meredith and Daphne (on her new bike!)

Jaycie, Meredith, Ellie & Daphne eating popsicles and riding bikes

Daphne & Meredith checking out the bell on her new bike

Happy Easter!

We had a great Easter this year! Papi and Tutti came out from Arizona to celebrate and it was so nice having them around. Although, we were sad that Papi got sick!

On Saturday morning, we went to our ward's Easter breakfast and egg hunt. The kids got to take pictures with the Easter Bunny (aka Bishop Price) and then they had a great time trying to find all of the eggs!






Our nephew, Grant Holmes, got married on Saturday morning! So that night we drove out to Corona for the reception. Congratulations Grant & Julia! Here is a picture of Meredith with her Uncle Phillip & Cousin Kate that was taken at the reception.



On Easter, we were planning to meet up with my Aunt, Uncle and cousins...but Papi wasn't feeling well so we decided to stay home. We took a few pictures after church and then my mom whipped up a yummy dinner!


Here are some of the pictures we took after church! Doesn't Meredith look like such a little doll? It's so fun having a girl! I can't wait for baby girl #2 to come along so I can dress them both up alike!



Here are also a few pictures of Meredith after she got her Easter basket!

Merry Christmas plus lots of Happy Birthday's

Alright, so I have a bit of catch-up to do! Life has been busy lately and I find myself especially exhausted thanks to this exponentially expanding "bump" that I am carrying around! Speaking of my "bump", everything is still looking great and we are still planning on another little girl come the end of June! I can't believe how quickly that date is approaching! Thanks to the holidays and 3 birthdays, I haven't even thought about preparation for baby #2! I have about 15 weeks left and I have so much to do to get ready! I don't have much to buy, it is more about cleaning out closets and re-organzing things so we have room for another baby and all of her clothes, blankets, etc. Wish me luck!!!!

So, onto the catch-up session. I'll keep this quick since there is a lot to catch up on! Christmas was great! We stayed here and enjoyed spending Christmas Eve with Robert's entire family...and then we had a nice quiet Christmas morning all to ourselves at home! Robert and I decided not to get each other anything, but it was so much more fun to watch Meredith open her presents! A few days after Christmas, we headed out to Arizona to have "Christmas" with my family and celebrate an early bday for Meredith. We had so much fun in Arizona, although, I'm realizing we didn't take very many pictures...whoops! We were there a little over a week and I am hoping we get to go back again soon! Meredith misses her Papi & Tutti!

January and February were busy months...Meredith's 2nd birthday was January 10th. Robert's birthday was January 11th...Valentine's day was February 14th and my birthday was February 18th!

I can't believe my baby is 2 already! I love watching her grow and it is so fun seeing how quickly she is learning, but it makes me sad that she has gotten so big SO FAST! She is still my baby and sometimes I wish this whole growing-up thing would slow down a bit! Lately, I'm trying to enjoy every minute because it just seems that before I know it all my kids (however many that will be?) will all be grown up and married and having children of their own. Weird thought, but I'm sure you all know what I mean! I just want to really soak it all in, ya know?

Here is a slideshow of some of our pictures from Christmas and the January birthdays. I still need to download pics from February...so that will come later!!