Little bro's bday

So let's all be honest - my little bro did not come to see me rather to get his favorite cake - a crumb cake made with a special family recipe. However here are a few of the fun moments we enjoyed while they were here...

Yes Mom he got and enjoyed his presents from you!

I threw her in his lap - thought he needed a little practice (and he did great!)

he regained his manliness and saved us from the enemy (and poor J had to suffer playing the afternoon away with him - it was his birthday after all!)

The girls thoroughly enjoyed their aunt!

We of course sang "Happy Birthday" and he even blew all the candles out!

And once the girls were in bed we had a very entertaining game of Mario cart...we won't say who won (or who lost!)

Thanks for coming bro - we love you guys!!!

Halloween Preview

LAst night was our church's trunk or treat Halloween party. Unfortunately Mg and I are still sick so we stayed home but the big girls had a GREAT time. E was a princess (thanks for the cape grandma!) and M was a fairy.




Hair is not my thing. My sister has all of the beauty genes and talents. But my girls wanted to be princesses with beautiful hair. Luckily the internet is a wonderful thing and I found some pictures and M decided on one and then I added some ribbon and flowers and was quite proud of myself!


Mg is back to terrorizing her sister this morning so I will take that as she is finally feeling better so hopefully she'll get to dress up Wed too. Enjoy!!!

Life

So we've had the sickness bug hit. First M had a 103 fever all day Thursday, E and M had a 101 fever Friday and M started in with the stomach bug, E was fine Saturday but M was still sick to her stomach. Sunday E went to church and I hear did FABULOUS in the primary program...last year it was like pulling teeth to even get her to go up and sing and do her part but this year she went up without a problem and even said her part! YEA!! Luckily I got to go to the practice on Saturday and got to see her since I was home with M. She was feeling much better but really weak after 3 days of fevers and stomach bugs. Monday M was still really weak so she stayed home from school and E had a sore throat and since we had been put on notice the strep throat was going around her class I kept her home. By the end of the day E was fine but little A definately had the cold and poor M had it too!!! So she missed day 4 of school today. This morning Mg and I have the cold. Oh well. Get it over now, right!


My sister sent me this link - a bedtime song...enjoy!!! (I fixed the link by the way...)(these are both in loving tribute to those of us who talk fast!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uISuvTiTYJA

Also if you haven't seen the "mom" song yet here's that link...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anSpBUxsgAU&mode=related&search=

Impossible Acres

There is a fantastic pumpkin patch just down the road from us that we have loved going to since we first arrived in Davis. It has a barn and outside are haybales that form a rectangle. Inside the rectangle is a cage holding baby animals that the kids can hold - rabbits, chickens, ducks, etc. There is also a horse to brush, a baby cow, and baby goats "just kidding around" as Daddy taught the girls :) Here are some pictures of our latest trip there...

E LOVES to sit and hold the quiet kitties and have them curl up and fall asleep in her lap

Mg enjoyed all of the animals (here with a baby duck)
M enjoyed the kitties - she really liked moving the string around and playing with them - we got quite a few smiles from people around as the girls were in hysterics laughing as the kitties played with them!
"PLEASE can we have one!!!!!" It is quite dangerous to take this one to hold the kitties...if we could we would get a kitty...one day I promise!!!!!
Our children's baby books would not be complete without several pictures of them taking a nap with Daddy :)

This little one does NOT usually like her picture taken so I had to put this one up :) I found a horse costume M wore for Halloween and Mg had a lot of fun being a horse - she especially liked the tail on the back :)

Mg is doing so much better with this new stupid diet of mine. I'm grateful for that and slowly giving in to finding better snacks and such since it looks like this might be my diet for awhile. Now we have to switch her timing - she has discovered she gets attention at night and now likes to stay up until midnight - not being fussy or anything just wide awake and alert and enjoying attention. Grr. She is SO cute though! We kept her awake a lot earlier though tonight and it's 10:00 and she fell asleep so we'll hope it's for the evening and go to bed!

Here I am again...

at midnight with a cranky baby. Things had been going SO well - I've been SO good to stay off of the major gas causing foods since Sunday and have been thrilled to see such great improvements. She has been smily and so adorable and wonderful. I was even happier to note that I have been eating all the chocolate I can handle and it didn't seem to affect her :) Then I blew it. Thursday I had a little bit of scrambled egg - something we had earlier suspect was a problem. Sure enough the next day she was a little fussier than normal, but not too bad. Friday as soon as Daddy got home the 2 big girls and I ran away to go shopping by ourselves without any crying babies, temper tantrum throwing 2 years olds or Daddy's that don't like to show. To kick off our evening we stopped by their favorite restaurant - Taco Bell. We all ordered the same thing - bean burrito, no sauce or onions, add sour cream. Hmmm, now I've had 1 1/2 burritos full of beans, cheese and sour cream. And guess what!! It's 12:37AM and I am up with a fussy baby! What a surprise. You never know until you try it out though - right! The dumb part is that I had beans AND dairy - so which one is it? Or is is both? Or is it a coincidence? Oh well. I managed to find another weeks worth of meals without dairy, beans or broccolli and it's not exactly the same as last week and I found a few other snacks (besides chocolate) to eat. It was quite depressing actually - I finally started walking last week (after finding a double jogger on Craig's list - YEA!!!!) yet I probably gained weight from eating lots of chocolate since I couldn't have most of the food that I like last week. Oh well, my little one has been SO incredibly adorable the last few days and I've really been enjoying it and REALLY wish I had tried this diet thing a little harder a lot earlier!!! Opps - she just woke up again screaming!

The good and bad

The good: I am completely convinced that A has started smiling. In the late late hours of the night when everyone but her and I have gone to bed she has smiled once or twice the last two nights. Yea! That certainly makes the late nights a little brighter and she is SO cute! I have been slightly concerned since she is 2 months old already and no smiles. It's not a surprise though because she has been SUCH a gassy baby - it's is what has been keeping her up until 2AM on a regular basis. She'll go to sleep and wake up 15 minutes later crying until the gas comes out and then she falls back asleep. These 4 hour a sleep nights have driven me to the bad part....I am on a no dairy product, no brocolli and no bean diet since Sunday morning. I LOVE DAIRY PRODUCTS!!!!!! I have half heartedly tried before but failed, especially when half hte family (including Jon) was sick and then all the family came. Sunday morning they left and I have been SO good since then! It has been so challenging, even just coming up with dinner ideas. I had planned to cut out chocolate but that didn't go so well :) Her doctor suggested trying no diary for a week. It has been 4 days and there has been so much improvement, and she started smiling. NOT GOOD!!!! Okay, it is, but I LOVE DAIRY!!!! She is usually SO cranky, especially in the evening but throughout the day as well and she has been in such a better mood the last 24 hours leading me to be very afraid that it is the dairy. She has her regular checkup tomorrow and we'll have a little chat with her doctor and next week we'll start to add things. I hope to figure out what it is and even if it is dairy at least I'll be able to enjoy my baby a lot more.

What do you do when the family comes...part 1

We loved having so much family here for A's blesssing last weekend. We had so many people and so many things to do...here's some pictures from our weekend (remember you can click on any of them to see a larger version of the picture)...


First everyone had to meet A (here with my father in law)

The girls had SO much fun with their cousins (my sister's kids)


Dress up and dance - does it get any better than that?!!!

We enjoyed the BYU football game the proper way - with lots of good food and a winning team! Of course no Ahlstrom party would be complete without J's famous homemade french fries and onion rings (my house still smells of the oil!!!)

And what better way to end the night than with a story from grandma (my mother in law)

What do you do when the family comes...part 2

You have a wonderful day blessing the sweetest baby....

first you must get beautiful :) (thank you grandma!!!!)


Then you enjoy the family...

You spend lots of time together and take too many pictures :) (never!!! thanks again Scott - you're awesome!!!!)

my parents
my inlaws with A
my parents, J and I with A (these initials are obnoxious!!)
you enjoy lots of food and togetherness time
and take a nap when you need it! (It's my party and I'll nap if I want to!)

What do you do when the family comes...(part 3)

You spend time together...

You learn about the girls school
you visit the Nut Tree (in Vacaville - my parents took me here as a kid and it recently reopened...wouldn't miss an opportunity for another train ride with grandpa!!!) M and Daddy also enjoyed the roller coaster!

You visit the Sacramento Train Museum (love those trains!!! we also went here as kids and with my grandparents)

You turn into princesses at Fairytale Land (in Sacramento - another place I went to as a kid...my parents have pictures of us at these places!!)

You are grateful the children didn't get thrown into the monkey cages (where they belong) at the Sacramento Zoo

(Here's daddy with the kids (Mg is behind doing bunny ears on daddy) and the Chilean national tree at the Sacramento zoo (daddy served his church mission in Chile)

You enjoy every minute of the animals at Impossible Acres (a great pumpkin patch in Davis) with grandma

And have LOTS of fun with Grandpa and Daddy in the hay maze (at Impossible Acres)

And when it's all done...you crash!!!!!
And sad to report - a few visitors were left behind. We're happy to send them back if the appropriate owner can be found (my family is strange - what can I say!)(there was a THIRD but he already made himself comfy in the house (he fit right in!) and was too shy for a picture).

(no - this one was not left ON her when it was planted - but after it was discovered by my oldest child they found out that the frog plays music and they thought it would be a great baby toy that A would enjoy - and they have lots of fun sharing it with her!) (they also had lots of fn discovering all of the frogs!!!)

We had a wonderful time with everyone and we love you all!

A's Blessing

We had such a wonderful weekend with everyone!!! I'll put more pictures of everyone else up soon but here are a few from the big day...courtesy of my incredibly talented and wonderful brother who is a photography major
(check out his website http://scottmosherphotography.com/