Going by way too fast...

This year has gone by so fast, probably because I was pregnant from January to September, but I can't believe it's almost over. Thanksgiving is over, Christmas is almost here, Karlee is already 2 and a half months old, Mackenna will be 2 and a half soon, and they are both just getting way too big way too fast!

Karlee had her 2 month check-up last week. She did so good and only cried for a second when she got her shots. I also made an appointment for Mackenna at the same time so the dr. could check her eczema and I was so proud that I had a successful dr. appointment with 2 kids all by myself...until my shoe broke! I had flip-flops on (loving winter in CA) and the strap between my toes broke, which means there is no way to use the shoe at all. Needless to say, I got some pretty funny stares from people in the waiting room as I walked out barefoot.

Karlee's 2 month stats:

weight: 11 pounds, 10 ounces-65th percentile

height: 22 inches-50th percentile

She is such a happy, smiley baby and is on a great schedule. She sleeps 9-10 hours a night and takes 4 or 5 one and-a-half hour naps during the day. She loves to talk and is very vocal, especially with people she recognizes.

Her biggest accomplishment this week was rolling over!

She did it! Yay!!

Mackenna and I have been on a baking kick lately. Her favorite thing to make is sugar cookies, but mostly she just makes a mess!

The 'Paci Fairy" made a visit to our house about a month ago. I had her pretty much done with the paci (she only had it at bedtime anyways) before Karlee was born, but my mom decided it should make a reappearance when she was staying with us after I had Karlee. So, we finally boxed it up, told her the story of how the paci fairy would come and take it away and give it to babies who need it, and leave big girl toys in the box instead. She was so into it and excited about it and hasn't even asked for her paci since!

Bye bye paci's...for good!

Thanksgiving day at Steve's parents' house:

I made the rolls:

and the sweet potatoes (Ruth's Chris recipe-sooooooo good)!

...and we had a great time!

Karlee's Blessing and Month of November

Karlee was blessed on Sunday, November 8th. It was a beautiful day, Steven gave her an amazing blessing and we were so lucky to have lots of family and friends there.Karlee with her mom, dad, sister, grandparents, and great grandparents:

All of the family that was able to be there (a big thanks to our friend Tyler for taking these pictures):
Getting ready to go to church on her blessing day:

Grandma Kathy with her 2 granddaughters:

I love my two girls...and their matching dresses:

Karlee cuddling with Great Grandma Smith:

Aunt Ashley, Grandma, and Mackenna:

The night before the blessing, my little brother Kevin had his Eagle Scout Court of Honor. I'm so proud of him! My sister and I couldn't ask for a better uncle for our kids!
Hailey, Mackenna, and (my) cousin Danielle playing on the stage after the Court of Honor. These 3 are all only 2 months apart and hilarious together:

A little out of order, but this is our first Sunday at church when Karlee was 4 weeks old-in their matching red dresses (I've become a tad obsessed with them matching):
Oh...and here's another day they were matching:

Nana had to come over and see how cute they looked on her way to work:

Saturday, November 14th, Mackenna was in the Nordstrom fashion show with her little friend, Madison. She did so good and looked so darling!

...and here are a couple more of my precious girls:

Announcing...

One of those days

Today I broke a lot of things. It was just one of those days, I guess.
Broken item #1: To start off, I got the girls all buckled in and ready to go on my morning walk in my fabulous new BOB jogging stroller (love it) and as soon as I started pushing, I noticed that the front tire seemd a little flat. I checked it out and noticed that there were a bunch of little stickers in the tire (you know, those little sharp thingy's that fall of a bush or tree). So, being the brilliant person that I am, I decided to start my walk off with a trip to the gas station to fill the tire up with air. I got there, put my quarters in, and filled the tire up with as much air as possible thinking that there were still little holes in the tire and that the air would escape at a slow rate on my walk home. About 2 seconds after I put the cap back on, the whole tire exploded!! It sounded like a ballon popping times 20-which was scary because my 2 babies were in the stroller and I thought little pieces of tire were going to hit them like shrapnel! They were ok, my nerves were shot, and we walked all the way home doing a "wheelie" because I had no front tire...at all!

Broken item #2: After having a nice dinner out as a family, I decided I would leave Steven home with the girls while I "quickly" dropped off a plate of cookies to my friend who is celebrating her birthday today. Well, let's just say that I shouldn't have done it so "quickly" because as I was backing out of the garage (in Steven's car, not mine) I got a little too close to the garage door and hit his rearview mirror, bent it back completely, and scratched it up nice and good.

Broken item #3: Upon returning home and notifying Steve of his broken mirror, we took the girls upstairs to give them baths and put them to bed. Steve got Mackenna in the bath first so I was going to wait until he was done so I could bathe Karlee. Well, Karlee got a little fussy because it was past her bedtime, so I decided that I would just bathe her in the sink instead of waiting for Mackenna to get out of the bathtub (don't know why I didn't think to use one of the other 2 baths upstairs). I pulled up the lever to plug the sink so I could fill it with water, but it wasn't holding the water very good, so I asked Steve what to do and he just says to pull the lever up all the way. So I reach for it, pull it up, and POP! Out comes the entire lever from the sink!

At that point, I just had to lay on the floor and laugh...luckily both Mackenna and Steve started to laugh with me and made me feel a lot better about my crazy day. In a matter of 12 hours, I broke 3 pretty expensive items (All night, Steve has been saying "you broke your stroller, my car, and the house). A little exaggeration there, but somewhat true. Glad tomorrow's Saturday and we can spend the entire day fixing the things I broke!

p.s. I do have a couple things to note that I'm very proud of: Karlee slept for 8 uninterrupted hours last night! For the past 2 weeks, she has been doing 8pm-2am(nurse for 30 mins) then 2:30am-6:30am, but last night she slept from 8pm-4am (and I had to wake her up to nurse for 15 mins) then back down until 6:30am. Also, Mackenna is doing very good at her dance class and has not hit or pushed anyone for 3 weeks straight! Big accomplishments around the Paul household!!

Halloween 2009

This year, my niece Hailey picked out costumes for all of the kids-she pretty much just woke up one morning and told my sister what she wanted everyone to be. It took the work out of coming up with costumes for me, so I went along with it! We got the kids' pictures taken in their costumes a couple days before Halloween.
Mackenna: Snow White
Karlee: Sleepy (one of the seven dwarfs)
Hailey: Cinderella (or "Ciner-bella" as Mackenna would say)
Colton: Gus Gus (the little mouse from Cinderella)

Unfortunately, we booked the picture appt. at Karlee's feeding time, so she wasn't too thrilled. Also, I know she looks like a boy with blue and brown on, but those are the colors that Sleepy wears in the movie!

For our ward Halloween party, Mackenna was Tinkerbell and Karlee was a pumpkin-(poor little thing wasn't a fan of dressing up this year, can you tell)?Halloween morning-making pancakes with Dad:
Karlee in her Halloween day outfit with Grandma Jane (Steven's grandma):
My in-laws throw the most amazing Halloween party every year, so my sister and her family and my parents and grandparents all came. My mom (the witch in the middle) decided to dress up this year and scare these poor little girls to death! She had to bribe them with suckers to even come near her after they both ran away screaming and crying when she first showed up:

My Grandpa Smith and Karlee-they sat like that for a good half hour, so precious:

My Grandma Smith with Karlee and Grandpa Smith holding my nephew Colton:

Grandma Smith and Karlee:

My little Snow White...notice any difference in the dress she's wearing in this picture and the dress from the professional pictures above? Yeah, an hour beforet we left to go to the party, I looked through the bag with the girls' costumes and realized that the snow white dress was not in there. We searched forever, even called the store to see if they had found it, but had no luck. I came to the conclusion that I had dropped it somewhere in the parking lot after the photo shoot. Luckily, my friend Jolisa has 2 little girls and had a Snow White dress that fit Mackenna perfectly (and she never knew the difference).

Mackenna with Aunt Ashley getting ready to go trick-or-treating:

The girls in their matching Halloween PJ's-poor Karlee-it was a long weekend for a newborn!

Baby Shower #2

I was looking through pictures this morning and realized I never mentioned the wonderful (church) shower my darling friends Michelle, Darla, and Veronica threw for me. It was on September 10th at Darla's house and was so much fun! Darla, Michelle, Veronica and I are/were all in the primary presidency (Darla has since been released) and we have so much fun chatting in the back of the primary room for the last 2 hours of church-It's definitely my favorite calling so far. Here are a few pictures that I snapped before the shower started. Of course, I set my camera down and completely forgot to take any once it started (so mad at myself)!
*on the left is a bouquet of baby sock flowers that Veronica made and next to it is the darling picture frame that my friend Heather made-they are so creative!

*The beginning of the gifts-I was spoiled!*The yummy food-everything was so pretty and I'm so lucky to have such sweet friends and such a great ward.

The girls' rooms

Mackenna started sleeping in her (little) "big girl bed" about 4 months ago and absolutely loves it. Her room looks a lot bigger without the crib in it and she loves the extra room she has to play. Here's a picture of her room now. She's become very particular about what can go on her bed. As you can see, her big stuffed teddy bear is not allowed and must sit on the floor. Glow worm, on the other hand, is not allowed to ever leave the bed, even when she's sleeping. I also had to clear off a lot of the decorations I had on her dresser because she can reach them and get out of her bed at any time (thus the reason for the stuffed animals all over the dresser-should've cleaned those off before snapping the picture-oh well)!After 9 long months of planning, designing, shopping, decorating, changing my mind, etc. here is Karlee's nursery. I picked out the fabric and designed the bedding and curtains and I'm so happy with how they turned out. I've never decorated a room all on my own before, so I was very nervous about it all, but it came together great in the end and I love it!

*on a side note: took Karlee to her one month check-up and she is now 9 lbs. 2 oz. and 21 inches. She's in the 50th percentile for height, weight, and head and is doing great! So fun to have a baby that fits into newborn clothes!!