Happy Birthday Dallin!

Let me introduce you to my brother Dallin. He doesn't get mentioned very often on my blog (a fact that he had to point out, that is once he realized I had a blog...).

23 years ago my baby brother was born into the world, and I would never again enjoy being an only child. In fact, I would never remember being an only child. Dallin has always been a part of my life. Many of you know him, but I would like to tell you about the Dallin I know.

When we were younger he loved: Power Rangers, hockey, Mighty Ducks, pretending to be a tap dancer in Mom's high heels, climbing (trees, walls, bookshelves, etc), video games, dancing and music, and his big sister. ;)

As he got older he had many "phases." There was the: skater phase, BMXer, Cowboy, mechanic, Masonry, and military... am I forgetting any? Funny enough, a little bit from each of these stuck and now you have one interesting person...

He has wanted to be many things: hockey player, drummer, tap dancer, policeman, truck driver, fireman... the list goes on.

He loves his sisters (of course, he wouldn't be the same without us), his parents, his beautiful wife, his friends, and his PS3.

He lives his life passionately. Dallin is an all or nothing type of person and is so passionate about everything that it is sometimes exhausting to be around him. He loves being an uncle and my kids love him.

Dallin and I are like night and day, I don't think you could possibly be more opposite than we are, but I love him. He is my brother and we've shared so many things together, that he has helped shape me into the person I am today.

Bronte Sisters Power Dolls

This made me laugh so hard. I just HAD to share:

Bestest Big Brother Ever

I had pictures to accompany this post, but someone (aka the bestest-big-brother-ever) has run off with my SD card and I cannot find it. So, you will have to just make do with my descriptions.

Samuel and Lillian love to play together. When Samuel wakes up in the morning, Lillian is the first person he seeks. Lillian has recently started to do this army crawl thing through the house and Samuel gets down on the floor with her and army crawls.

They love to play with the light-sabers (yes, from Star Wars, a relic from Carlin's childhood). Samuel gives Lillian the blue light-saber, because he is always green. While she slobbers the handle of the blue light-saber Samuel hits the green light-saber on the floor thereby making the effective noise to go along with it.

Samuel also loves to play cars with her, he surrounds her with the cars and then pushes her so that her body makes the cars go. This goes well until she gets a hold of one of the cars and puts it in her mouth, because everything goes into her mouth. At this point Samuel no longer wants to share his cars.

He also loves to push her around in the walker-thing-a-ma-jig. They often play in his room in which I am effectively kicked out, because Mom is just not cool enough for their games. They kick, squeal, and laugh together. It's so much fun watching them get along and I keep my fingers crossed that their friendship will continue as they get older.

Alright, I'll stop taking pictures...

And take the giant flower off. But you're so cute!

Power 90

So, Carlin and I have committed ourselves to Power 90.

We are in our second week.

We stop eating 3 hours before bedtime, have cut out all junk food, eat whole grains, have only one serving, and get up to workout at 6:30am six days a week.

What sold me on the program was the healthy diet. It doesn't restrict what you eat or how much you eat, but guides you into healthy eating decisions and informs you about appropriate portion sizes and explains why some food are better than others.

It's kicking our butts into shape (literally, you do kicks to workout your butts and thighs) and I'm officially sore.

Hopefully in 82 more days I will have some amazing before and after pictures to show you.

Wildflower

So, I heard this song on the radio a few months ago. I just loved it.

Let me introduce you to the JaneDear Girls:


Sorry, you have to go to YouTube to watch it...

6 Months Old!

Lillian is 6 months old and a little chunk. I call her my rolly-pollie.


Her milestones, thus far are:
Not one but two teeth! She let everyone know that she was getting them, and now loves to smile and show them off.
She can almost sit up by herself, and can bring herself up onto her knees... now we just have to get the whole hold-yourself-up-with-your-arms thing down (at the same time, she can do them separately, but not together).
She holds her own bottle, mostly.
She rolls over and laughs, a lot.
She follows you around the room with her eyes and will contort her body into weird shapes so she can keep watching you.


Other things about Lillian. She absolutely adores her brother. I know I've mentioned this before, but it's true. He rolls her around, puts toys and blankets on top of her, and she just sits there and laughs.
Whenever she gets excited those little legs get to kicking. You can tell how excited she is by the speed and force of those kicks.
Embarrassing story: she has this unique talent of blowing out her diapers. I have to change her outfits several times a day and am constantly doing laundry.


Oh - and Happy Independence Day everyone!