What's in a name?

As soon as we found out we were having a girl, Shane let me know that he didn't even want to think about names until at least September. I expected this since that's how he was with Kaden and Alexandria. The way it works with us is that I will spend months and months putting a massive list together, then we go through it together when he is "ready" (meaning when he actually accepts we are really and truly having a baby). I remember it was July 4th, 2007 when we decided on a name for Kaden. We were shopping at Babies R Us and I think that got him in the mood. ;) We had gone through my list the day before and were trying to decide between 2 or 3 names. Poor Shane didn't get a say about Alexandria's name. It's a long story I should tell sometime, but basically it came to me in an extremely vivid dream a year to the day before I even met Shane. I knew I would have a daughter and her name had to be Alexandria. Anyway, I had NO idea where to start with Baby #3. I talked to some friends about it and they all agreed the name should start with an "A", keeping the "A" girl theme going. I thought about a LOT of names, but nothing felt right. Abby was the first choice on my list, until I asked my friend Shea about it. She said that the first "A" name she thought of was Ariana. I was immediately IN. LOVE. After hearing that name, I literally could not think of any other names that I liked as much as Ariana (and felt as right). I told Shane I had a name for our baby, but (of course) he told me to wait a few months. A couple of days later, he caved and asked what this amazing name was.

I told him.

He laughed and said, "I'm glad it was that and not a name that I actually LIKE. Makes it easier to not decide on a name yet."
Jerk.

I was crushed. I decided to suck it up and keep looking for names. I honestly looked. Promise. But I still couldn't think of anything else. I decided to let it go and wait a month, then come back to it with (hopefully) fresh ideas.

A week or two later, Shane got home from work and, after we had finished eating dinner, sat me down and asked to see my baby name list.
WHAT?! Really?! I was excited, then I remembered my list was not a list, just a name or two.
Crap.

I handed over the notebook. He looked and read out loud, "Abby. Ok, that one is okay. Tegan. Definitely not." *pause* "Is this your whole list?"

Um, yes.

I explained that I tried, but I just really couldn't think of any other names except Ariana. Then I asked him why he suddenly wanted to choose a name. He said that he had been thinking (and praying) about it and all day he'd felt really strongly that Ariana was the right name.

YAAAAAAAAY!!

No middle name yet....with Lexi we were literally in the hospital waiting to sign the birth certificate form before Shane finally agreed to "Jo". I'm guessing this will be the same way.

Some people aren't sure how to pronounce it unless I say it to them, so I'll do my best to translate:

AR-E-ON-A
(AR like a pirate (thanks M!) and A as in PicturekA...almost like UH)

Make sense?? Shane says AIR-e-on-a a lot of the time, which isn't how we are spelling it, but I decided to get over people messing up her name now cause I'm sure it will happen a lot in her life. (However, her dad shouldn't be one of the people messing up her name, so I'm pounding it into his brain now.) :)

I love shortening names when I can (hence all the options with Alexandria Jo), so we will probably call her Ari (AR-E), but we'll have to see if that matches her personality. :) As for middle names, I'm open to suggestions. So far, I've come up with Ariana Yvette (E-vett...it's my middle name and Shane has always liked it for some reason) or Ariana Nicole. Thoughts?


P.S. Ariana means "very holy" and I figure the way she came to us had to be "very holy." :)

Time to breathe

I love summer!

I love that every weekend until mid-August we are completely booked. :) It's SO nice to get out of the house and into the (finally) nice weather. This past weekend, we had my niece, McKayla's, 3rd birthday party on Friday evening. (Sorry-no pictures. I was ornery and having contractions, so not in a picture-taking mood.) Saturday morning I got to go to a baby shower of a good friend from high school, then we went to my best friend's daughter's 4th birthday party. I can't believe she's 4 already!! Halle is super cute and had a fairy themed party so all the kids came dressed up like fairies! (Kaden was the only boy and a handsome Peter Pan....not that he would have minded wearing wings, but Shane wouldn't go for that...haha).

Our handsome Peter Pan. :)

Adorable little Tinkerbell
(I had to hot glue and sew that dang costume SO much....Lexi is just too tiny for her own good)

The first activity was painting flower pots!

Kaden was quick to finish his, then he moved on to golfing with a soccer ball. :) He loves mini-golf ever since our St. George trip last weekend.

Can you see the concentration on her face? Too cute. :)

Focusing....trying to keep it on the pot and off her dress/out of her mouth. (P.S. She did sneak a taste of the paint....sneaky little girl)

Emily's husband, Jared, putting the flowers in the finished pots!

Next, they did a game of "pin the star on the wand." :) Super creative, M!

Lexi hanging out.
Kaden didn't want to be blindfolded, so he just walked up and stuck the star on there. Even looking, he still missed. hahaha Lexi wasn't tall enough, but tried to put her star up there (not blindfolded, either), then just wanted to take everyone's stars down. :)

I tried to hurry and get a picture of the finished board, but the kids started pulling their stars off SO fast so that they could all go again.

Next up, decorating sugar cookie wands!

Kaden, of course, didn't want any frosting (it sticks to his fingers/mouth/everything else and he is a too neat and tidy to be that dirty), but he LOVED the sugar cookie. He kept saying, "Mmmmm!" after every bite. :D He wanted a picture with his cookie, and this is how he holds things when he wants a picture with them. Yeah. RIGHT in front of his face.

So, I had to be sneaky and get a picture with him eating it. Super flattering, I know.

Halle (the birthday girl) LOVES sprinkles! She literally took both jars of sprinkles (with the filtering lid thingys off) and dumped them at the same time on top of her cookie. It was awesome. :) I'm totally going to do that for my birthday.

Close up of the cookie. :)

I know this picture is dark, but I don't know how to use Photoshop to fix that....BUT it's such a cute picture of Halle! Look at that cutie smile! She ate all the frosting off of her cupcake, then threw it away. :D My kind of girl. haha

Halle getting ready to open some of her presents. :)
It was a really fun party!

After that, we headed straight to my dad's house for a BBQ (since we didn't get to see him for Father's Day). On Sunday, we went to church, then over to our friend's house (Danny and Stephanie) to make some homemade cinnamon rolls! YUM! They totally hit the spot. I think I ate 3. Big ones. ;)

The last time Kaden ate bread (or anything close to it) was right before he turned one. He had a bite or two of a roll and has refused any sort of bread and/or pasta ever since. Seriously. Not one bite, even though we constantly offer it to him. He is just too picky to even try it, otherwise we know he would like it. BUT after we made cinnamon rolls, Josh (he is 22 I think, and Kaden loves him) had a roll without any frosting on it (he can't have the cream cheese in it). Kaden saw Josh eating one sans frosting and immediately asked for one. I knew he wouldn't eat it, but gave him one anyway.

HOLY CRAP! He's eating it?!

Yup! He ate the WHOLE cinnamon roll!!

Shane and I were freaking out and telling him good job and all sorts of praise. Shane was like, "I knew he would like it if he would just try it." Uh-huh. Getting him to try it is the battle. I told Josh that from now on we will need him to eat a lot more in front of Kaden. :D

After a round or two of Rook, we all headed over to Danny's mom's house for dinner (I swear we were invited and didn't just follow them over there....). :D It was a great, fun, busy weekend! Now it's time to get caught up on dishes and laundry before another busy weekend begins! :D

Family Reunion!

This past weekend was my side of the family's reunion (the Ozminski reunion....and yes, I was thisclose to being stuck with that name). We have one every other year and switch out where we have it. This year it was in St. George. Back in February, I was volunteered to be in charge of the entire reunion this year. Why, you ask? Because we missed a month of Family Home Evening at my grandma's house, and since we weren't there, we were nominated. Nevermind the fact that we missed it because I was having MORNING SICKNESS and could barely get out of bed....no excuses in this family. :) My cousin, Stephanie, has a timeshare and had enough points or whatever saved up that we could use the timeshare and just have to pay a cleaning fee for each room. SWEET!! We headed down early Friday morning and made a side stop in Fillmore to see our friends and let the kiddos run around. After that, we continued on our LONG drive (the laptop with Mickey Mouse Clubhouse saved us) and got there just in time to get everything started for dinner. I reserved a park and we B-B-Qued and let the kids run wild on the playground (that was covered! Shade=heaven). I didn't get any pictures of this because I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off.

There were enough rooms that we ended up being able to have our own. We weren't the only ones, but Shane asked me, "You think we deserve to have our own room?"

Um, YES I DO!

I planned this whole dang thing, we have TWO toddlers, AND I am preggo!!
There were two rooms, one was the master with a king sized bed and a master bath with a jetted tub, and the other room had a queen bed (and there was also another full bathroom that became the kid's bathroom). The rooms both had BIG walk-in closets, so, unfortunately for Lexi, that is where her pack-n-play went so that she could still have the peace and quiet of her own room.

She seriously LOVED our king sized bed.

It made me feel really bad to have to put her in here every night:

It really is bigger than it looks here, but I still felt bad putting her in the pack-n-play. It can't be as comfy as a mattress. Lexi was SUPER glad to see her crib when we got back on Sunday. :)

Kaden's bed. Yup, we brought his Thomas the Tank blanket and pillowcase. And he did GREAT sleeping! I was worried since his toddler bed has little rails, but he never fell off the queen bed. He wasn't too happy about going back to his tiny toddler bed. :)

My boys relaxing while watching "The Incredible Mr. Limpet."

Saturday morning, after a delicious pancake/eggs/bacon breakfast, we all headed over to the Fiesta Fun Center! There was a ton to do there, but we stuck close to where there was A/C. :) My mom found out that kids 3 and under were free for mini-golfing, so Shane and I just helped them and didn't bother getting our own clubs. I loved not having to golf and just took pictures.

Shane showing Kaden where the ball goes.

Lexi got her very own Lexi-sized club. :)

She didn't care about golfing at all (that's my girl), but she had tons of fun walking around saying hi to random people.

Shane helping Kaden. What a cute father/son moment! :D

Kaden got so into golfing. He loved every minute and did not want to stop. The nice lady even let him keep his red ball (it was actually fuchsia, but Kaden called it red, so we'll go with that).
After that, we headed inside to the "soft play" area (which we found out that our kids also were free for that! SWEET!!)

I think Shane was more excited about it than Kaden. ;)

The baby next to Lexi is my cousin's little girl, Sophie. Sophie is a year younger than Lexi and weighs 3 lbs less and is the same height as her. Yup. Sad for Lexi. Lexi was obsessed with Sophie the whole trip. She just LOVES babies! Good thing, right?

Lexi was trying to feed Sophie her bottle.

I'll have to explain this next picture. My uncle Aaron always, ALWAYS brings deviled eggs to Christmas dinner at my grandma's house. When we had my mom's surprise party last month, I was pressed on time and asked him to make deviled eggs when he got to my house. For some reason, now he is known as the official deviled egg maker. There were about 2 dozen eggs left over from breakfast, so we boiled them up and let Aaron know he was in charge of making deviled eggs for dinner. :)

(Clockwise from the left: my Aunt Ellie, Uncle Aaron, Aunt Kathy, and cousin Stephanie) They all helped peel the eggs. :)

Putting on the finishing touch of paprika. The master at work.

While everyone else was in the pool (my kids hate pools and I wasn't going to fight them on it when I feel look like an albino whale), Kaden and Lexi took great naps, then Ellie saved the day with her computer since the only show Kaden wanted to watch was Super Why. They were both glued. :)

Then Kaden grabbed a towel that was on the couch by him, arranged a pillow, and said, "Nigh-night mom," turned over, and pretended to sleep. hahaha Of course, Lexi wanted the towel within seconds.....ah the joys of toddlers.

After dinner, we had a talent show. For those of you wondering, no I did not participate. I got out of it because 1) I planned the whole reunion dang it! and 2) I'm pregnant. Plus, apparently my talents are making babies and pushing them out really fast....and for some reason no one wanted to see either of those.

My mom and her twin sister, Debbie, singing.

To keep Kaden quiet, I let him steal the camera for a bit. My mom was sitting close to us and he kept saying, "CHEESE, GRANDMA!!!" And would take her picture. Here is one that he took:

My cousin Stephanie, baby Sophie and big girl Lexi! :)

After another good night's sleep (thank you Children's Benedryl!....Lexi has never slept through the night away from her crib, so I asked her doctor about it and she said to drug her. It totally worked!), we had a yummy breakfast and said bye to everyone for another two years....or one month, depending on who it was.

This is my 8 year old cousin, Rachel. Lexi LOVED her and Rachel loved Lexi, too. There are 8 (no, really, EIGHT) kids in Rachel's family, but she's the youngest and has always wanted a younger sibling. Rachel seriously carried Lexi around like that the whole time. I'm pretty sure Lexi weighed the same as Rachel. And LOOK at her LONG hair! I hope Lexi's grows that long someday (although with curls it might be a pain in the butt to maintain). Anyway, Rachel told her mom (my Aunt Kathy) that they were taking Lexi home. Kathy (super mom who has had EIGHT KIDS! Including TWINS) was like, "okay great!!" hahaha

We didn't stop on the way home and the kids slept right from the start (we left right at nap time). But after they woke up, we drove another two hours and Lexi had had enough of the car. She hates car rides that last more than 15 minutes. For real. I kept giving her licorice, but she was still screaming. Shane said we should stop at In-N-Out for dinner and to let the kids run around, then he remembered it was Sunday and said nevermind. I (being the devil child) told him that he can't take back In-N-Out from a pregnant woman and the kids really needed a break. We got to Draper and, literally, as he was pulling into the parking spot, I heard Lexi puke. I looked back, saw it, then said, "Oh man, Lexi just threw up," and started putting together a game plan of how to clean everything up as fast as possible. Shane put the car in park (thankfully), turned around to see Lexi, saw the puke, started dry heaving, and BARELY made it out of the car before HE puked! I was laughing so hard at him. He was like, "Um, hello? I just THREW UP!" He wanted sympathy that SO wasn't coming. I said, "Yup, so did your daughter, but SHE didn't make it out of the car. Go inside and get me some paper towels." I'm a super nice wife. ;)
45 minutes later, Lexi was changed and clean (which Shane did and didn't puke again) and the car seat was as clean as it would get without putting it in the washing machine. I told Shane he was still buying me In-N-Out. His response? "You can EAT after that??"
Actually, all I wanted was a chocolate shake. :) And we got fries for the kids.

Mmmmmmm. Delicious!! I thought we were being cursed for going out on a Sunday. Shane thought we were totally blessed that she didn't puke sooner (like while he was driving on the freeway). I'll go with his assumption that it was a blessing. :)
Five minutes after we were back on the road, Shane spilled a MASSIVE bag of Skittles ALL. OVER. the car. We started laughing and he said, "Well, the fries were falling, so I was trying to save them!" LOL At least he has his priorities straight.
All in all, it was a great weekend and made me feel like someday we actually might be able to go on real vacations again!! YAY!!

Kicks and giggles

Just a couple of movies to get you through the weekend :)

Lexi is my little dancer. Which is good since she doesn't have a choice and will start dance lessons at age 3. :D Shane was always worried that I would try to make Kaden into a ballet dancer, but a) I probably wouldn't ever put my son in ballet classes unless he really wanted to, and b) Kaden isn't into dancing AT ALL. Good thing Lexi loves it. :) Anytime you say, "Dance Lexi!" She busts out the moves. hahaha It helps if there's music, but it's not required.

She usually gets more into it than just shaking her little bum, but (thankfully) she was holding onto the TV stand while standing on the chair. :) I will have to post a video sometime of her going to town when she isn't on a chair.

Kaden is hilarious. He will repeat ANYTHING and EVERYTHING we say, whether we want him to or not. ;) He has problems with a few big words, but for whatever reason, he cannot say his own name. Ok, not cannot....WILL NOT. He can say "Ka" and "den", but try putting them together and you get, "Nynys."

HUH?!
Where does that even come from?

I had to start off with him saying something else (grandma) because he was being a little turd when I asked him to say his name. He knew what I wanted and refused to do it. Such a toddler. haha

Here was my first attempt to get him saying his name on camera:

I was seriously laughing so hard. He'd never done that before. I love my kiddos. :)

Have a great weekend everyone!!

Death

I found out this morning that a friend of mine from high school died. His name was Sean and we met while both playing the trombone in junior high. He has a wife and 6 month old baby boy. It breaks my heart that he would be so unexpectedly taken from them. He was found at work, unresponsive and not breathing. He couldn't be revived. They are suspecting an undiagnosed heart condition. He was in great physical shape, so everyone is shocked. I know that God has His plan, but it still rips my heart in two to imagine losing my husband so young and with a new baby. Another friend of mine from high school committed suicide a few months ago. She was the second one from high school to take her own life. The first one was November 23rd, 2003. Every time someone so young dies, whether by their own hand or by God's, it makes me pause to think about my amazing life and all I have to be grateful for. We don't know how long we will have with our loved ones, so please don't ever hesitate to let them know just how much they mean to you.

I truly hope you rest in peace Sean, Jessica and Megan.

Please keep Sean's family in your prayers. I am sure his wife is needing all the comfort in the world right now.

It's raining, it's pouring, the lion is snoring.....um, wait, what?

Our super fun weekend was ruined by the rain.

Awesome.
Where's that sarcasm font when you need it?

Shane's work Lagoon day was last Friday. We decided to take our chances that a miracle would happen and the rain would magically stop when we got there. It didn't. We went on the train ride (of course), then headed over to the pavilion for a free meal.

Freezing our boo-tays off on the train.

Lexi was freezing by the end of our stay. Her little hands and nose were SO red, but if anyone tried to warm them up (i.e. confine her) she threw the biggest fit. She just wants to be free, people!

haha I took this picture in the middle of the dark tunnel. Lexi wasn't sure what to think.

ROAR. Shane told Kaden to roar at the lion. Have you seen The Lion King where Simba tries roaring? Yeah. EXACTLY like that. It was adorable. :)

A camel braving the rain for some grub.

When we headed to eat, Kaden (unlike Lexi) didn't mind being all wrapped up and warm.

Soda? Check.
Fruit snacks cause he doesn't eat anything else? Check.
I love that he has a blanket across his lap like a granny. And double coats. lol And Lexi was mad when we put one coat on her. :)

We left after dinner, but on the way out Kaden made sure to jump in every. single. puddle he saw. And there were lots. He was really happy to get in warm p.j.'s at home.

Saturday morning we were supposed to go to the zoo with Shane's family, but since it was still pouring we decided to just go to Ihop. :) We were celebrating Father's Day early with them. After that, we headed over to our friend's house to watch the World Cup (soccer, for those of you non-sports fans) and have some yummy taco soup. :D I love that stuff. As long as there's plenty of sour cream and cheese on the side. ;)

Sunday was just a relaxing, stay at home day, which was nice after having crazy weekends for the last month and a half.

Lexi had her 18 month appointment this morning (Kaden never had one, but we've switched doctors since he was that age...). Her stats:

Weight: 21 lbs 8 oz. (15%)
Height: 30 3/4 inches (20%)

Um, yeah. She did NOT get her short genes from me. I blame my mom. Or Shane's mom. Or both. ;) So, in the last three months, she grew 3/4 of an inch (sad), and gained 1 lb 4 oz. She seriously eats anything in sight so I have no idea what the deal is. There is no food she won't eat. Maybe she has a good metabolism (crossing fingers).

Hope everyone has a great week!

All this in one weekend?!

I love summer! We have been booked every weekend for the last few weeks and it's not slowing down anytime soon. :) Sunday's are nice because after church and naps, we get to spend family time outside. There has been lots of time at the park....

Can you see that duck actually hissing at Kaden?! Holy cow momma! He's just trying to feed you! I understand the instinct to protect your babies, though.

Kaden loves seeing the baby ducks and will just want to follow them around the whole time. :)


In other news, Lexi has found out that she is Super Woman and can knock grown-ups over with her bare hands.

:) Think she's having fun?

The guy in the video is Jared. Our friend's 18 year old brother who my kids ADORE. He is in the process of turning in his mission papers and I am sure Kaden and Lexi will miss him. He plays the guitar, which Kaden loves, and he cuddles and tickles Lexi, which she loves. :) I love that he is a great babysitter! haha

Oh! Also, this past weekend my friend Stephanie and I had a girls day out and got hair cuts and color, then went to lunch. She had a drastic change (wish I would have gotten a before/after of her), but mine isn't too drastic (which made Shane happy).

My before:
Shane asked me why I didn't straighten it like normal. Um...because I was going to get it CUT and colored?! Men...ugh.

Back view

And after...

I know I look like a chubby preggo woman. Probably because I am. ;) I just had her take an inch off the length (I really, truly want to grow my hair out), but she also fixed the layers and gave me some fun summer highlights (there were 3 different colors she used....love her).
We tried out a newish Salon in Layton called Salon Tantrum. They have been open three years and I could not have been more impressed with them! I had Mysti working on me (if you click on the link, she is in the 2nd row from the top) and Stephanie had Chaunsey (third row down) working on her. Both of them were AMAZING! The whole experience was so relaxing. They have a baby grand piano in the front lobby and the owner's 80-something year old dad comes in every day and plays (he switches off with another woman-since he is 80-something years old after all). Let me tell you-he is REALLY good! I thought it was a CD player at first until I asked about it. And there is a TV above where you get your hair washed with really cool animal/nature images playing...combine that with the soothing piano music and it's a little slice of heaven! OH! AND about every 30 minutes or so, someone walks around offering frozen grapes or trail mix (and you can have all the Coke product drinks you want while you're there). Dang. I should be getting paid for this, huh? :) Anyway, their prices were a little more than average, but you definitely get what you pay for. Both Steph and I LOVE our hair and will totally go back. :)

Anyway, also on Saturday my friend's daughter got baptized! Holy cow! I can't believe she's 8 already!! I remember holding her after she was born (I was 16 years old). Crazy how time flies.

The beautiful Tamison.

Lexi was obsessed with Tamison. It was adorable watching them play together. :)

Tamison loved playing with Lexi, too. :)

We look kind of funny cause we weren't sure which camera we were supposed to be looking at. Do you see Tamison holding Lexi's hand?? SO CUTE!! :) The other little girl by Tamison is her little sister, Skyla. She said the most adorable prayer after the confirmation. They are both so stinkin' cute!

We have another fun and exciting weekend coming up so I will look forward to telling y'all about that next week! :D