crawling, and now walking

Mia started crawling in January, and was attempting to walk by mid-February. Life changes fast, I guess! I thought it might take her a while to move around, since she is rather chunky, but she surprised us and was walking at 10 months. It's so cute to see her round little body waddle around the house and Jonah is very excited that they can now chase eachother. We have to remind him that she still is a baby, even though she's moving around more. She's starting to say a few words, "da-da" for daddy, and "hi". She seems to think that the word for telephone is "hi" because that's what she says every time she sees one. It's so cute!

i'm a big boy now!

Jonah successfully potty-trained last month, and we all have enjoyed having less diapers to change in our household. It took him 2 days to get the hang of going on the potty, and then he just had a few accidents after that throughout the following 2 weeks. He now insists on going "all by my belf!", so he's feeling his independence! His reward was a big boy bike. Chris picked it out, and I was shocked to see that it is fully suspended and wondered what my 2 year-old might be doing on his bike to need front and rear suspensions. Jonah is sure enjoying it and we love seeing him grow-up. Yeah for Jonah!!

a fun project

I forgot to post pictures of Jonah's Christmas present this year. It began as a $20 garage sale table with peeling paint and mis-matched train tracks. Chris jokes that this was Jonah's present, but Mom's pride and joy. I did spend a lot of hours on it, but it was fun having something artistic to do, plus I love taking things that look ugly and making them look better. Once we decided how to arrange the tracks on the table, I began by staining all the tracks so that they would be the same color--it took a few trys and a few mistakes to get it right. Then I painted the landscape on the table top and tacked all the pieces down with screws. I varnished everything to protect it from a crazy 2 year-old and so far it's held up. Chris was in charge of reinforcing the wobbly table. He and my dad did a great job of making it look so much better and sturdy. My dad tested the table out by jumping on it, so I think it's going to hold up =) They sanded it and then painted it black and that was the final touch! Hopefully it will last through many kids! Grandma and Grandpa Rapp supplied some of the tracks and the buildings along with the infamous "Thomas" Engine which is battery operated. Jonah sure loves this and will play with it for years to come.

preparing for #3

I'm so happy with how the baby's crib turned out. My biggest fear was that we wouldn't have any room for him, but I bought a "mini" crib, which is about 2/3 the size of a real crib. It was a perfect fit. I made the crib bedding from a matching comforter on Jonah's bed. If you know me, the fact that the crib matches the room decor is a BIG deal. I have a huge list of things to get done before the baby comes which are not directly related to the baby, but atleast I have the baby's crib set up and the baby boy clothes are in the drawers, ready for the big arrival. We are anxious to see this little guy, but I'm glad we have a few more months to prepare ourselves and our kids =)

P.S. Jonah is potty-training and doing great, so when the baby comes I'll only have 2 kids in diapers. I'm thrilled to be done changing his diapers atleast! Yeah!

happy holidays

2007 has been a busy and exciting year for us! The most significant event was welcoming our daughter, Mia, into the world in April. She has been such a joy to have in our home. Mandi enjoys having another girl in the house and Mia is definitely a girl. We can already sense her tender and emotional nature. She has such a joyful personality and our favorite part about Mia is that she always wakes up smiling. She brings a lot of peace to our home with her happy disposition. Jonah has really surprised us and is a wonderful older brother to her. It didn't take long for him to accept her and now he always wants to include Mia in his activities, especially taking their nightly baths together.

Shortly after Mia was born, Mandi found out she was pregnant again! The babies will be just under 12 months apart, and no, this was not planned. Mandi is due in April, and we are excited to be able to welcome another child into our family. Jonah is thrilled that it's going to be a boy! Mandi is now feeling better and is enjoying these last few months of just having 2 kids to chase after. Life will get busy without a doubt! Mandi is still serving as Primary President, so free time is hard to come by. It's been a good learning experience for her and has helped to prepare her for our own little nursery of children at home.

Chris finished his 2nd year of dental school and took his National Boards. He passed! Yeah Chris! He immediately started his 3rd year, which consists of working on patients in the clinic. He sure enjoys the clinical aspect of dental school a lot more. He's still busy, but we do get to enjoy Daddy a lot more this year.

Jonah is now 2 1/2 and talking better and better all the time. Our favorite phrases include, "That make you happy Momma?", and "I can not believe it!". We are working on potty training and as soon as we decide to really tackle it, we're pretty confident that Jonah will be ready too. It will be nice to get one of the kids out of diapers before the new baby arrives.

We spent Thanksgiving in Montana this year a had a great time with Chris's parents. Jonah got his Christmas present early from them, which was a motorized train set. He loves nothing more. As parents, we are really excited for Christmas morning since Jonah is now understanding the concept of Christmas and Santa. We'll be spending Christmas at Mandi's Parents home in the Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri, with most of her siblings and their kids. The cousins always enjoy being together under one roof, and us adults will waste lots of time with the Nintendo Wii.

We hope you have the happiest of holidays. It's been such a blessing to have children and get the opportunity to teach them about the importance of this special occasion. We are so grateful for the knowledge of a Savior and the chance to dedicate time to celebrating the blessed event of His coming into the world. Merry Christmas!

it's a boy!

We got a very definite view that a little boy will be joining our family in April. We are excited to add another boy to the mix, but it will be sad seeing the girls get out-numbered so quickly! Jonah will have such a fun time with a little brother. They will be just under 3 years apart, so I'm sure they will be great friends. Mia will have a brother to protect her on both sides =) I'm still trying to figure out where we're going to fit the new baby in our home, but I think he will share a room with Jonah right off. I have plans to make matching crib bedding to go with Jonah's sporty room, but there's no doubt it will be a tight squeeze. I still remember when I was growing up and 3 of us girls shared a room that barely fit the queen-sized bed. Those were some fun years for me, so I'm sure the boys will enjoy being so close. We're sure excited to meet this little boy soon!

happy halloween

This year was Jonah's first experience with Trick-or-Treating. He now tells us that "Jonah loves trick-or-treating", but what kid wouldn't? He was very good at "bouncing" just like Tigger's do, so the costume was perfect. Mia was just fun to dress up. I can't take any credit for the adorable costume--it's from my sister Melissa, but she sure looks like a princess in it. She enjoyed watching Jonah trick-or-treat from the stoller and I'm sure she'd love the candy if she got a chance. Jonah caught onto the idea of Halloween really quick and even approached the doors, rang the doorbell and said "twik-o-tweet" all by himself. As parents, it was so fun to watch. Happy Halloween!

family photo shoot

Getting a family ready for a photo shoot is stressful! First of all, it took me forever to come up with something we could wear, and stick to some sort of color scheme--How do I match my son with Mia's exclusively purple and pink wardrobe? Then I had to find a shirt that would fit my 11 week pregnant belly--that's a pain! Then of course we had to time the naps and the meals with the setting sun because that's the best time to shoot pictures, I guess. It was extremely humid, so the time I spent curling my hair was a waste, but we were very relieved to see some pictures that turned out. We really had such a fun time at Hodge park last night taking these photos. My friend, Lori Garcia, did a fabulous job. She was so good at keeping the kids' attention and entertaining them too! Jonah earned "marshmallows" from her for smiling in the pictures. We couldn't have asked Mia to cooperate better! It's fun to see pictures of our growing family.

feeding mia

I started feeding Mia for the first time last week. She was really "eyeing" our food and anxious to give it a try, so, of course, I made her some oh so yummy rice cereal. Fortunately, she doesn't know what she's missing out on yet. It didn't take her long at all to figure out how the spoon worked. By the second feeding, she was a pro, with audible gulps and all. Now that she's realized that there is more to life the the bottle, she will never be content drinking it while we are eating real food, so I always have to feed her when we're eating dinner. She inherited her Dad's love of food for sure!

summer fun

Thanks to our friends who own a very nice home in a great neighborhood with an even greater pool, we spent lots of time swimming this summer. Chris spent most of the summer studying for his National Dental Boards, so we were anxious for the test to be over with and done. On August 15th he took the 8 hour test, and PASSED! Once we got the letter with the good news, we didn't waste anytime and took the kids swimming! It took Jonah just once in the water to decide that he had no fear and he swims on his own with his "water-wings". He does more jumping-in than he does swimming. Mia enjoys the water, but her mom doesn't like to waste the swim diapers for the 3 minutes that she stays in the water. So, she just gets a little dip from time to time. It was a great past time for a very humid climate. Thanks Jones family for the use of your pool!