Catch Up on the Big Events

So here we go. My new resolve is to blog more often so I don't have to have these big catch up posts on the major events of our lives, but since I still haven't done LJ and Ryan's birthdays I need to do one of those posts with lots of picture and little captions to give you an idea of all that went on. First though speaking of catch up (or actually Ketchup), does anyone else have a child that would probably drink it if you watered it down a bit and put it in a sippy cup?! Lorilyn if allowed can eat spoonful after spoonful of the stuff! She wants it with the usual stuff like french fries, but then she also asks for it with her breakfast nutrigrain bar or her yogurt for snack! Anyway, I digress, now without further adu we'll begin with LJ's 2nd birthday. Nana and Papa came to visit and we had a wonderful weekend full of LOTS of food, fun, play and football (it was super bowl Sunday:) Then the next weekend we had some of our cousins (unfortunately many from the family were sick) over to celebrate again and watch Jimmer play a game:-) Me being my forgetful self forgot to take many pictures of any of it, but here are a few cute ones...

Nana made a gorgeous princess cake and cupcakes to go along with it. Lorilyn LOVED the princess cake but more liked playing with it...the cupcakes however were devoured:-)

Look at the pretty frosting dress!

Yay for birthdays!

Look at my pretty yellow princess dress I got!


Nana and Papa gave me my own play kitchen and I LOVE it!

Waking up from my nap to find a new kitchen assembled:-)

LOVED playing with Nana in the kitchen.


Look at these handsome Stoianowski boys!


I love my Papa!


Here is a picture of all the food we made...yes this is just 2 days worth...we love food what can we say!


Saying hi to the camera:-) Such a precious face!

Unfortunately this is the only pic I got when the cousins were here. It was sooo much fun having them, hopefully we can plan it again soon!

LJ's first night in a big girl bed, since she is such a big girl, 2 and all:-) We got this bed from Aunt Kori. Her girls used it and now it was passed to us. Thank you so much Aunt Kori, we LOVE it!

Helping mom do some baking:-)

No we move on to pictures at Nana and Papa's for Ryans birthday weekend. Unfortunately Lorilyn had the flu so she wasn't herself, but she was a super good cuddler with Papa!

Look at that sad sick girl:-(

Danny had the time of his life rollin around on their super soft carpet...Daddy gave him a MI football to play with and he loved it:-)

Such a big happy boy!

Love this face...and the beautify blue eyes! I always wanted a blue eyed boy!

Feelin sick just playin with her dollhouse Nana gave her...

What you lookin at...so what my diaper is sagging!:-)

We had so much fun playing with Aunt Melissa!

Feelin a little better with Papa...she has a MI cheer leading outfit on...too cute:-)

One happy boy:-)

I also wanted to let you know that Grandma and Grandpa Bird sent Lorilyn a birthday package with 2 beautiful pairs of shoes that she adores. I took a video of her opening them and wanted to post it, but its not letting me today:-( I feel so bad that most all our picture are with just Nana and Papa and not Grandma and Grandpa Bird also. We miss them sooo much and can't wait until we get to go out to visit them in Utah in the summer!!

Where do They Learn These Things?!

So yesterday Lorilyn found one of Dad's hard hats in the garage and brought it in to play with. We were sitting on the couch when she came up to us wearing it saying, "Boss, I'm da Boss!" Both Ryan and I looked at each other with the did you teach her that look. Ryan then asked her if the Boss is the one who wears the hard hat and she said "Yep, so I'm the boss!". I think there is something every single day that this girl just randomly says that we have no idea how she knows it. I absolutely love watching the process of her brain learn things. She amazes us every day.

She also LOVES her some crayons. Not always to color with, but just to hold too. Well we shortly found out maybe its just that she is not coloring on PAPER, but she is coloring with them. Its hard to see but if you look closely the helmet has her artwork all over it:-) Then she found a nice place to store the crayons when she was done.

So last night the storage area was the helmet...this morning she decided they didn't belong in the helmet, but the lamp instead...

Waiting with her "Church bag" in hand for Daddy to finish tying his tie so we could go to church:-)

Just thought I would add a couple more pics of the boy to end this post. He doesn't seem to have many interesting stories that I can share about (unless of course you like stories based around spit up and poop), but he sure does take some cute pictures!

One of my favorite things with this little guy is he LOVES faces. Whether you are feeding, playing with, or just holding him, he always find a way to get his hand up to your face and feel or pat it. I will miss his pudgy little hand on my face as he gets older and grows out of it, but for now I try and soak it in as much as possible.

My New Goal + Jesus and the Chicken :-)

So I have this new goal, and I am determined to accomplish it. I have been thinking quite a bit about personal history, journal writing and scrap booking. All are amazing mediums to save your pictures, thoughts and stories for posterity. The only problem with these for me is that I am NOT good any doing any of them. I have always loved the gorgeous scrapbooks that so many women do, but as I have tried so many times to get into it myself it always turns out to be way more of a hassle and frustration than good so it never gets done. I have also had a journal my whole life, but it contains entry after entry that begin with "I know I haven't written forever"...So what do I do? Then I realized guess what I do have that I don't mind actually doing?...my blog. I have used the blog from the beginning as a way to make sure the major events in our lives were documented with pictures and small captions. Now here is where my goal comes into play. Instead of just the major events I want to record even the small ones, ones that I don't want to ever forget and would love for my children to read someday. So here goes nothing. Instead of the huge posts of big events I want to do posts more often with a few pics and sharing my feelings and stories with you. So I apologize in advance for my lack of writing skills. I have always been very good at writing the school essay because I could have a format that I could follow and include the researched information...however, the classes that I always struggled in most was anything having to do with creative writing...Im just not very good at it. I read some of my good friends (the amazing Jenny in particular) and I just love hearing how they can put their thoughts and feelings into such incredible words. Unfortunately, that is not me, but I will definitely do my best and hope that the true feeling of my words and experiences can somehow get across. Also, I truly hope someday that the pictures you see can be of much better quality in both camera and knowledge of photography. I have always been interested in it but have never had the means or time to really do it. Now I REALLY want to, but the means to get that kind of camera is unfortunately not here yet for me. Someday....On that note though here is my first post with my new goal in mind. (Truthfully I am behind with even the major events, Lorilyn's and Ryan's Birthdays) but I will catch those up shortly also.

You may be wondering what the title of my post could mean. It was something I just had to get recorded. My mother sent us this incredible calendar with some of the most beautiful and moving pictures I have ever seen. The March picture depicts Jesus in the garden during the atonement. Instead of leaning on the tree how we have always seen he is being held by an Angel. I saw the picture and was overwhelmed with the most wonderful spirit testifying of the truthfulness of the great sacrifice HE made for all of us and that I could never have ANY idea of what He really went though, but I am so grateful He did so He could take my hurt away from me and make me whole again. I love this picture because even though He is God's son, He is also Mary's, a mortal. He felt all of the pain he was asked to endure...and how would there not be Angels in His mist loving and holding Him? Well, Ryan and I were looking at the picture and talking about it when our little innocent 2 year old, who actually LOVES talking and reading stories about Jesus all the time which makes mommy and daddy so happy, came in, looked at the picture and said, "Look! Its Jesus with a pretty chicken!" Soooo innocent and adorable. We did however explain to her the difference between chickens and Angels, but it was just so cute I wanted to save the memory forever. Here is the picture...I hope it can touch your heart as much as it has mine...

And now I'll leave you with a pic of my little sunshine...can't get enough of this kid:-)

December 2010 and into the New Year

My life is just incredible. I have 2 beautiful babies that I adore, an amazing husband, a wonderful supportive family both here in IL and then spread throughout the country, and many opportunities to travel and have wonderful times together. This December was awesome. We spent the first 3 weeks chillin at home with our kids and they kept us company with there ever evolving personalities (some evolutions we like more than others:) Then we got to go to Nana and Papa's house in MI and spend 11 days together eating LOTS of amazing food, jumping in the jump castle and overall just having way too much fun. Scott and Amy were able to join us for a couple days at Christmas and then back for New Years to ring in the new year and celebrate Ryan and my anniversary. Here is some of the month documented in pictures. Of course I forgot on many occasions (as I often do) to get out my camera, but you will get to see what I did remember to capture.

Early December and freezing outside, LJ found Danny's big Eskimo cover thing he wears in the car and thought she would try it on for size...

Lorliyn found this devil head band in her toy chest and thought that her brother needed to wear it:-)

Getting ready to go to our ward Christmas Party in a adorable dress we got from Aunt Kori.

Just another day of hangin out and goofing around. Lorilyn would wear her ballerina outfit (aka "lella lella") every single day if I let her...

Danny in his outfit from Grandma Bird getting ready to cheer on the cougars in their bowl game.

Me and my kiddos all in our Cougar gear ready for the game.

Now on to MI for our Christmas break!


The first day in MI Nanna took us to the mall to visit Santa. Danny was comfy and happy snuggled up in his arms...his sister on the other hand, lets just say this was the best shot we could get:-) Everyone needs their screaming on Santa's lap pic though don't they?

Seeing Santa Clause sure can tucker a little guy out:-)

Christmas morning with all our loot, we were all so spoiled! Lorilyn was a very sleepy girl because Amy had to leave by 9AM so we got up at 7AM for presents and Christmas Eve she was up playing until way passed her bed time. She shook it off though after a while and enjoyed the morning festivities:-)

We love our Papa and Nana:-)

Unkie and Danny...Scott is a great Uncle, he spoils the kids with lots of playing, gifts and most important is the first to volunteer to help me when I need it with the kids.

The aftermath...

LJ and her new Ariel trike from Unkie. What you don't know is it blows bubbles too!

The day after Christmas we spent some time in the snow...however Lorilyn refused to wear her gloves and the first time she fell in the snow and froze her hands she was done for the day.

The one trip down the hill we got:-)

Thank you so much Nana and Papa for an amazing time once again at your home!
Now we move to Jan pics back at our home in IL...

So we have an AMAZING lady in our ward named Jerriann Merideth. She is pretty much the 3rd grandma to our children and watches them for me whenever I need her to and wont accept any payment saying it is her pleasure. Well a week or so after our anniversary this year she offered to watch the kids overnight so Ryan and I could enjoy an evening together. it was so wonderful! The next morning when we went to pick up this kids this is how LJ's hair was done. It is a big deal for me because I don't even know how to french braid, let alone get it done on a wiggly 2 year old!

Our happy boy. This boy is so full of smiles. He honestly has a smile waiting for anyone who will pay attention to him. He's my little buddy and I'm so grateful for him!

Here is a little video of Danny's first rolling over:-)

There will be more of Jan to follow later, but here is a start. Life is crazy but we love it!

Months Flying By

So all I have to say is my little baby is growing way too fast! I can't believe he is 3 months old already. I guess time flies when you are having fun. Truth is we couldn't be having more fun. Life with our little family is pretty darn close to bliss. I have a beautiful healthy baby (who already sleeps 9 hrs/night), a adorable little girl who is quickly entering the terrible yet wonderful 2's, and an amazing husband who works so hard for our family then comes home and is such a wonderful daddy! I'm one lucky lady that is for sure. November for us was mainly comprised of work, football watching and capped off with wonderful trip to Baltimore to spend Thanksgiving with Scott and Amy. The month definitely flew by but we took some wonderful memories from it!

Bubba (which is Danny's nickname now since LJ couldn't say brother and that is what it came out as) has been eating his spinach!

Daddy's little MI man ready to watch the game!

So now begins the pictures from our trip. We began the trip by traveling to MI first, spending 1 day there then driving the rest of the way to Baltimore. Oh my it is fun being in the car for 13 hours with 2 babies!:-)

So the first night we were in MI we had another one of our "Stoianowski Fry Nights". These nights are incredible let me tell ya. With our deep fryer we fried pickles, mozzarella cheese, zuccini, onion rings, fries and cod (I still might be forgetting something). This picture was taken AFTER us 4 adults ate until we couldn't eat another bite...So bad for you but so delicious!

Papa getting ready to watch the MI game with his grandkids...

These were supposedly the lucky koala ears but they didn't bring MI much luck that day...Ryan still wore them well though!

Nana and Danny

Having fun in the basement:-)

LJ and her Unkie...

Cuddles...

This was after our turkey dinner on Thanksgiving...I was taking my turkey nap (or at least attempting to with a crazy girl running around)

Baron Dog loved giving Danny LOTS of kisses!

Examining his new discovery...his hand!

In his STOMP outfit

Brothers...

Me and Amy

We had such a wonderful time Unkie...thanks for letting us and our crazy kids crash your house for a week!