Boo hoo I officially have no more babies...MiaJolie is a TODDLER! Well, we celebrated anyway and had a good time doing it. My mom, dad, and brother, Cameron drove over 1,500 miles from Michigan for it- and we had a lot of other great family come to her party too. It was our last 'big' birthday party since we usually only invite extended family for their first birthdays. I had a LOT of fun making a girly party- pink and purple cakes & balloons, hearts and star sprinkles...have a look for yourself!

In the morning we went swimming as a family at the aquatic center- she enjoyed watching the kids but was super annoyed she couldn't crawl in the water without drowning.

Kaden showing off his muscles

Kyson doing his 'angry' face. Woah, right?

This is the present Mia received from her loving Uncle Cam- she has SO much fun in it!

Here she is at her party opening gifts- she pretty much had the hang of it after learning at Christmas, but like all 1 year olds she didn't care about new presents once she had opened the first couple!

She loves to ride on her car from Grandma Carolyn!

The Seaman cousins gave her this stroller- she loves it! Here she is trying to figure out how to push both things at once...multi-tasking already!

This is us singing to her- the thumb sucking began because she was getting pretty tired by now. She was so dainty with her cake we didn't even take a pic because there was NO mess. She just stuck her tiny fingers into the frosting and licked them.

Happy girl getting a ride from her awesome big brother!

Here is her smash cake- confetti with pink homemade butter cream frosting and heart sprinkles!

Purple and PINK!

Here is her 'official' cake that we served at the party- same ingredients. The cupcake was SUPER yummy and moist because I froze it the night before and let it thaw during the day. (A secret Ty's mom taught me!)

Here are her balloons- I don't know why but we started getting them balloons to have when they woke up on their birthdays. She was really freaked out by them at first but the fear gradually faded to complete apathy- oh well they were cute!

Here's the party! I think we counted 27 guests. Thanks everyone, for making her day so special!

Awe, sibling hugs! He is my "little" brother :)

Here is the family minus my other brother, Garrett (stayed in MI for work).

And here are 4 generations of women on my mom's side- we took the same pic when she was born!

2011

2010

And that's it, our little girl is growing up!

Tyler and I have been going to LifeLong Fitness now for a little over 4 months (our trainer is Ben Flint, he's the best!)

When we started back at the end of August we looked like this (ouch I can't believe I'm posting these!)

At 7 MONTHS post baby I still looked like this! (Losing weight while nursing is BS!)
Weight: 114.5lbs
BodyFat: 29.7%

Tyler was not a bum like me- he went the gym daily and also ran on his lunch hour

Weight: 184lbs
BodyFat: 21.3%

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>





January 2, 2011

Weight: 103lbs
BodyFat (on 12/11/2010): 16%

Weight: 171lbs
BodyFat: 11.4%

And we're not even done yet...cool huh? I am now working on toning muscle and maintaining weight (my trainer would love for me to pack on more muscle but I am not going for that look!) Tyler is going through a cutting phase before he starts building more muscle. If you do the math on our body fat vs. weight loss it shows we were SHREDDING fat while building muscle...so we didn't go from fat to skinny and then have to build back up- it was like a crazy metamorphosis going on inside! VERY cool.

It has been really tough to change the way we eat (eating clean and often) as well as get into the daily lifting/cardio routine but it has paid off. I would say it's 100% worth every penny too...I never would have expected these results this quickly. I know I sound all like an infomercial but it's for real. I'm really happy with the lifestyle change we've incorporated and look forward to learning more in the months to come...

Another ginormous post...though I actually didn't get too picture happy on Christmas day, there was too much going on! First was our new tradition of going to Layton lights and Sill's Cafe:

On the hayride with MiJo (she was not super excited but humored us anyway):

This year we had our friends, the Parkers along!

Here is Kyson looking skeptical and Kaden with a sweet expression...he has the most Christmas spirit of anyone in our family I think.

At Sill's afterward eating hot chocolate and scones (next year we're sharing- no one finished theirs!)

Ty & Darc on Christmas Eve- this day we went bowling and had Christmas with the Kents

Christmas Eve basement sleepover time! (Silly Kyson)

Ok I attempted to sleep right between these two- next year I think we will invest in another air mattress!

Christmas Morn'
MiJo enjoying a candy cane. Up until this moment she'd only had wrapped-in-plastic candy canes to gnaw on. I took pity on her and opened this one up...she looks like a vampire!

Kyson with his gift from Nana and Papa...I think it may have been misplaced already (J/K!)

Kaden with his spinning double bladed light saber from Nana and Papa...you can never have too many of these.

Mia watching her Beauty and the Beast movie Christmas day (btw this is my favorite activity- watching all the kids' new movies on Christmas day!)
Kaden crashed the day after Christmas (my kids NEVER do this...it was a Christmas miracle!)

Enjoying pillow pets from Grandma & Grandpa Kent

And that was Christmas...fun while it lasted but I'm SO glad my house is put back together and the kids are occupied with new fun toys!

The last couple of days I've been getting stressed out really easily with the kids- it seems they're ALWAYS hyper and running around screaming. I know they are not- but a lot of the time they are! They must have cabin fever from all this smog and rain. But when I uploaded these pictures it reminded me they are sweet sometimes :) and I love them so much and am so grateful for the chance I have to stay home with them- even when I don't know it.

Homemade play dough!

Kyson gives the long, hard kisses. He is sooo funny. He says, "I'm daddy, you're a princess!" This little guy is hard to stay mad at.

Lola is the newest addition to our family! She is a 7 week old bull-mastiff (bulldog x English mastiff) We have been deciding for a long time to get a bull-mastiff and when we saw a local breeder had the coloring and gender we wanted at a good price, we couldn't wait. I know you're thinking we couldn't resist the puppy face- but really I'm in LOVE with these dogs as adults too. They're so gentle and sweet and lazy (yet great protectors). I'm also sooo excited because we also got a FENCE for the yard finally- to keep her in and the kids safe too.

Here she is in her crate the first night- she LOVES it.

She also LOVES to cuddle- the logistics of this will become more complicated as she gets bigger, but I don't mind :)

Here's a short clip on the breed:

This December marked our 7th anniversary! The time has really flown by and I can't imagine it with anyone else- I'm a lucky girl to have snagged such a sweet and supportive husband, and loving father to our kids. He works so hard to provide for us the things we need and want- I don't express appreciation to him enough! Once I wrote him a list of all of the things I like about him- I hope he will take it out and read it again, they're all still true.

Here is a vintage Polaroid photo circa the morning of Dec 6th 2003- taken by the creepy bed and breakfast lady:

...maybe I should back up a little- don't think I've ever told our story here. I'll make it kind of brief. I met Tyler through a group of Bountiful friends- at the time he was rooming with "my missionary's" brother, Matt. A few of them were going to Vegas- at first I said I didn't want to go ( I was dating a couple other people at the time). Then at the last minute I decided to go. On the trip there were "the girls" (Emily, Laura & Me)

And "the boys" Tyler, Josh, & Matt.

It was all fun and games- Tyler and I pretended we accidentally had a real margarita and got married. I think the other kids really believed the drunk part :) Tyler said he knew this trip he wanted to marry me.

I took a little longer to figure it out, and poor Tyler got dumped a couple times (our friends didn't even believe we were really engaged when we finally were!) We dated for 6 weeks, only about 2 of which were exclusive before he proposed, but 6 months later this was the end result:

When you know, you know :) Love you, Ty!

At the first of the month Papa came to visit after a work training in Vegas. It was nice to see him and the kids had a blast with their papa. It's amazing how Kyson remembered him (they haven't seen him in over a year- so Kyson wasn't even 2 last time), we think it is because they get to talk on the web cam. On the first night the boys were so excited to have him they wanted to have a sleepover in the basement- the only catch is the guest bed is only a twin...a long and memorable night for all of them I'm sure :)

It was the first time Papa met miss MiaJolie, I think they like each other though. Here she is kicking back watching Clint Eastwood with him.

Sunday morning- tired but happy.

It was SO hard to get them to sit still- we'll have to take another when Nana and Papa come in January!