Callie the Counter

I'm not quite sure when or how it happened, but a month or so ago, we realized Callie could count all the way to 6. Shortly after that she learned the rest of the way to 10. Today I caught her counting while she was playing with her hair things, which she calls bracelets. She makes a huge mess with them every time, but they entertain her for long periods of time, so I let her. Anyway, this was too cute. She was so involved in her little game, that she didn't ever notice that I was recording her.

Madison is officially 2 months old today! She's such a cutie--smiling and cooing. She's becoming much more active for longer periods of time. She also started waking up just once a night this week, which has been so nice!

I have been packing like crazy. Well, at least it feels like I'm packing nonstop. Between taking care of my babies and packing, I only get 2 or 3 boxes packed each day, but I've made great progress over the past week. 

Yesterday, it hit me how sad I am about leaving Utah behind. I've lived here for 6 years minus about 8 months (one summer in between semesters at BYU and Jason's internship). I met and fell in love with my husband here. I have almost spent all of my married life here. I went to college here. I had both of my babies here. I gained a second family here, my in-laws, whom I love and am close with. My parents are close to Utah. Since my parents moved to Idaho, I have been able to spend a lot of time with them, which has been so wonderful. I can't even imagine being so far away from them again. I love my ward and the life we have made for ourselves here.

But, at the same time, I have been excited to get back to Texas for years. I now have both of my sisters in Texas, which is a dream come true! I have always looked up to them and admired them for their many talents and wonderful personalities. I have always looked to their good examples and wanted to be just like them. I'm also excited to start out fresh in a new place with new people, even though I know it will take time to feel like home and to be comfortable there.

Just one more week and about 11 hours until we move...

Family of Four

Here are some recent pictures of Madison:

 Madison at 7 weeks:

>She is doing better with eating and sleeping these days. Not sleeping through the night yet, but I usually get enough sleep.

>She's started smiling quite a bit, which is adorable! 

>Unlike Callie, Madison hates her car seat. With Callie, even if she started out crying in her car seat, we could count on her falling asleep after very little time. Madison will scream with no end in sight. She screams and screams until her face is bright red/purple and her body is covered in sweat. It's pretty sad and it makes shopping, car rides, and walks difficult (I've just started putting her in a baby carrier for walks).

>She now loves her swing (she didn't for the first month of her life).

Two young kids are quite a handful, but I really love our family of four.

Madison's Blessing

Last Sunday Jason blessed Madison in church. It was a beautiful blessing and it was such a wonderful day. I have really grown to love the people in our ward, so I really enjoyed having the blessing at church. We blessed Callie at my in-law's house so she could be blessed with her cousin, Sadie. We were all in different wards and just having family there made a large gathering.

Madison was an angel that day. She slept through Sacrament Meeting and slept afterward while we had family and friends visiting. She even kept her pretty dress clean!