Andy.Courtney.Joie.Berkeley.

New years

2012-01-03T17:05:00.000-07:00

On New years eve we were really excited to go up to the roof and watch the fireworks from Disneyland. Unfortunately, about an hour before the fireworks, it got really overcast so you couldn't see the fireworks very well. So we went home and just enjoyed each others company and watched a bunch of super hero movies and ate milk duds and popcorn! Since the holiday was on a Saturday and Sunday every one got Monday off work too which worked out perfectly because it was a BEAUTIFUL day. It was 82 degrees so we decided to spend the whole day at the beach. It was a perfect day. We just all played together and ate snacks and enjoyed each others company.

While we were at the beach I just had one of those mommy moments. I was sitting up a little ways on the beach and watching Joie play in the water by herself. She was just splashing and laughing and every once in a while she would bring up a seashell to show me. I began to cry(just a little)watching my not so little baby. I wanted so badly to freeze time and just watch my babies play for forever. I love every day I spend with them and I love watching them grow but it's all gone by so fast that I know the next 17 years will be gone before I know it. I love watching my girls grow up I just wish they would do it a litte slower.

Christmas 2011

2012-01-02T21:56:00.000-07:00

This year for Christmas we had planned to stay home because Andrew wasn't really getting anytime off work. On Thursday Andrew suggested we leaved Friday afternoon for Vegas. We also decided it would be a good idea to surprise my mom. My parents were out when we got to their house so we had bought a huge gift bag and made Joie hide inside with a bow on her head and pop out to surprise Gigi when she walked in the door ( I have a video perhaps I will post it later). It was hilarious and, according to my mother, a wonderful surprise.

We had a fun Christmas Eve where we rode a Carousel close to my parents house and did all of our other Christmas Eve traditions. We ate DELICIOUS pizza at a place called Grimaldi's, opened our Christmas Eve jammies, made reindeer food (oatmeal mixed with glitter so the reindeer can find it), and Pop Pops read The Night Before Christmas.

I thought the picture of Joie torturing Berkeley was hilarious. Sometimes she just loves her a little too much.

Santa came and apparently Joie and Berkeley had been very good girls this year because they pretty much hit the jackpot. Joie got a scooter, tons of toys from Toy Story (Woody, Jessie, Bullseye, and Slink), tons of My Little Pony toys from pretty much everyone in the family, and tons of other fun things. Berkeley got the Elefun busy ball popper, Leapfrog Fridge Farm, and a ton of other fun toys. The kids are pretty much spoiled rotten.

One of my favorite people on earth, my aunt Marrietta was their for Christmas with her husband and sweet baby boy and it was amazing to see them. My dads parents came by a little later Christmas day with my cousin Hayley (one of my other favorite people) who just got back from her mission 5 days before Christmas. It was amazing to see everyone. We had our traditional Tamale dinner and put the kids to bed and started to settle in. Then disaster struck. At 10:00 I got super sick. Like vomiting every 30 minutes and super high fever sick. I wasn't surprised because Berkeley seemed to have the same bug 2 days earlier so I knew it would probably pass in a few hours like hers did. But no. Around 3 AM while I was still awake vomiting, I heard my dad, my brother Ben, and Andrew all start throwing up at the same time. It was disgusting. The next day we all spend the entire day writhing in pain on the couch. My mom called my Aunt and her husband at the hotel and she got sick at exactly 3 AM as well and went to the hospital to get fluids because shes 8 months pregnant. Around 4 in the afternoon Joie started vomiting and got a really high fever as well. Thank goodness my mom was around to help with the kids because Andrew and I were completely out of commission. Andrew had to go home that night because he had work the next morning but Joie and I were way too sick to travel so we stayed. We woke up feeling so much better but my poor mom was sick then. It was basically the stomach bug from hell and needless to say we probably wont be feeling up to Tamales for a very long time.
Besides this, Christmas was absolutely lovely. This time of year went by WAY too fast. I had such a wonderful time this year helping Joie really understand the true meaning of Christmas. She fell in love with The Little Drummer Boy and loved going outside at night to see my parents light up nativity. She would pick up baby Jesus from one of our nativities every day and she would say softly, "Look Mommy, baby Christ". It was very very sweet. I hope I helped her understand the true meaning of Christmas this year and hopefully every year she wont just be excited for the presents and Santa but she will be excited to put out the Nativities and remember our Lord Jesus Christ.

If I had my child to raise all over again

2011-12-09T14:25:00.000-07:00

If I had my child to raise all over again,

I'd build self esteem first, and the house later.

I'd fingerpaint more, and point the finger less.

I would do less correcting and more connecting.

I'd take my eyes off my watch, and watch with my eyes.

I would care to know less and know to care more.

I'd take more hikes and fly more kites.

I'd stop playing serious, and seriously play.

I would run through more fields and gaze at more stars.

I'd do more hugging and less tugging.

I'd see the oak tree in the acorn more often.

I would be firm less often, and affirm much more.

I'd model less about the love of power,

And more about the power of love.

by Diane Loomans

When I read this poem on my friend Erin's blog I began to tear up. This is a subject that had already been weighing heavy on my mind. I just want to cherish every single second that I have with my kids because I know that before I know it they will be grown. I want to spend more time recording their childhood so I can look back and remember every day. I regret so much not keeping a better journal when Joie was younger and I've already forgotten some of the adorable things she use to say that melted my heart. I know its not New Years yet but I figure anytime is a good time for new goals and resolutions. I want to spend every day playing and loving my kids and hopefully find time at night to record our experiences. I want to be able to print off my blog books and have it read as a journal and the story of my kids lives.

These are some totally random pictures that are not related to each other or this post but I thought they were all pretty cute.

A few little Joie-isms

2011-12-09T13:59:00.000-07:00

Well little 3 year old Joie may be more like her momma than I previously thought. She basically never stops talking. If she is awake, she is talking. There are days where I bribe her with treats and toys if she will be quite for 30 minutes. However, most of the time I adore her little voice and I adore most of the things that come out of it. I want to write down a few things that Joie has been saying lately to make sure I remember them.

We went and visited my parents for Thanksgiving. Andrew and I took advantage of the free babysitting and went on a couple of dates. While we were gone my mom discovered that not only does Joie love having books read to her, she also likes hearing stories about people she knows. I guess my mom told her some stories about a "little girl" that Joie knows very well. Joie thought this story was so funny that she has been telling me the readers digest version for days.

"Once upon a time there was a little girl named Courtney. She got the chicken pox. It itched so she used pink lotion (Caladryl). The End."

She really loved playing with her gigi. First she wanted to "sleep" on Gigi's back then she thought it would be funny for Gigi to "sleep" on her back.

A couple of Sundays ago Andrew and I laid the kids down for their afternoon naps and continued with our Star Wars marathon. We were only about 5 minutes into the empire strikes back when Joie sneaked out of her room and informed us she had a good nap and was awake now. I told her she could stay awake as long as she just sat on the couch and watched our movie with us. Joie actually loves "big girl" movies, as she calls them, so she got really into it. When it was over she spent about 2 weeks saying "Mommy, I'm Darth Vader ' I AM YOUR FATHER'". She also said this to everyone she encountered at the playground, the grocery store, and anywhere else she could find people to listen to her. We had a similar experience with Harry Potter as well. We were at Chick Fil A and she was playing in the play place with some other kids and I heard her yelling something. I went in to see what was going on and saw that she was using her straw as a wand and pointing it at kids and yelling "peliamus". What she meant was Expelliarmus and I don't know why she was trying to disarm all the other kids at chick fil a.

She loves talking to her baby sister. Joie always wakes up before Berkeley and when she hears Berkeley babbling in her room she always says "(Gasp) That kind of sounds like Berkeley" and she runs into her room and turns the light on and says "MY BERKEY BOO" and then baby talks and over and over compliments her chubby cheeks and says "Your my sweetheart!". This is my favorite time of day because as soon as Joie opens that door Berkeley's face lights up and she just smiles and giggles and laughs. This morning Joie was sick and she was in the bath when Berkeley woke up so I went to get Berkeley and when I walked in Berkeley stood up at the edge of her crib just staring out the door and I knew she was looking for Joie. So I shouted to Joie to tell Berkeley good morning and Joie yelled from the bath "GOOD MORNING BERKEY BOO" and Berkeley lit up just like she always does. Watching the two of them play and interact is so much fun.

I love these little girls so much. I just wanted to make sure I wrote down a few of these things so I dont forget them :)

Apple Pie

2011-11-06T16:13:00.000-07:00

While we were in Vegas my mom decided to make a couple Cranberry Apple pies and she asked Joie if she wanted to help. I remember so vividly when I was younger that any time my mom was using apples for cooking she would always get out the apple peeler and let me peel the apples for her. I thought it was so much fun and I would eat all the long strands of apple peel. Joie obviously loved it as much as I did!

Halloween 2011

2011-11-06T16:01:00.000-07:00

The weekend before Halloween Andrew had to work on Saturday and Sunday. I decided it was a perfect time to go visit my parents with the girls. Since Andrew had already seen them all dressed up when we went to Mickey's Halloween Party I decided it would be fun to stay in Vegas for Halloween so Gi Gi could go trick or treating with us. We had a total blast! Even though Joie had fun trick or treating last year she liked it even more this year. After she would get her treat at the door she would say "thank you" and run down the drive way screaming "LETS GO TO THE NEXT HOUSE!"

Joie decided months ago that she wanted to be Cinderella for Halloween. She also decided Berkeley needed to be Belle so they could "all be princesses"

Trick of Treating at my parents house where "Uncle Ben" was handing out candy. She saw his mask and said "Ben take it off. It's a little bit scary".

We had so much fun and got way too much candy! By the last 5 houses or so Joie asked me to carry her bucket for her because it was too heavy. That thing was over flowing with candy. Joie is already planning all of our costumes for next year!

Sisters

2011-10-09T18:24:00.000-06:00

I have two girls. I am fully aware of the future issues I may have because of this. I definitely do not need you, random lady at the grocery store and everyone else I encounter, to tell me about how much they are going to hate each other some day. I know that as these girls get older they will probably fight like crazy and most likely even claim to "hate" each other at some point. I only have one sister and I am 11 years older then her so I don't know what it will be like for these girls but I can imagine. However, I also know that most sisters grow out of that phase after they leave the teenage years and frequently become very very close friends. I will cherish this time because right now my girls adore each other. Berkeley is completely obsessed with Joie. Joie is the only person who, without fail, can always get Berkeley to smile and laugh. She loves her so much. Joie also loves her baby sister. The only time she doesn't like her is if Berkeley grabs her blanket and slobbers on it. Multiple times a day for months now Joie will hug Berkeley, which of course makes Berkeley laugh and smile, and says "Look Mommy look" and I always say something like oh how cute, or you guys are so sweet and then Joie always say "take a picture!". So we have about a million pictures like this.

I literally have at least 20 more of these on my cell phone. I've embraced the fact that these girls might not always like each other but at least I've got the proof that at one point they were very best friends!!

Pony girl

2011-10-09T17:36:00.000-06:00

Last night we were all winding down after dinner and we started getting ready for bedtime. We had a little extra time so I asked Joie what she wanted to do. She responded "I want to take pictures". So I said "okay do you want me to take pictures of you?" and she responded "no. I want to take pictures of my ponies!!!". Joie is OBSESSED with My Little Pony (weird right? a My Little Pony come back?). There is a new My Little Pony cartoon and of course there is a ton of new merchandise too. Everyone caught wind of her newest obsessed so for her birthday she got a lot of my little pony toys. She has at least one pony with her every where we go including the bath and when she goes to bed. So last night I helped her use my camera and helped her set up her Ponies and pose them for pictures.

So I'm sure you can only imagine how thrilled Joie was when I went to a pumpkin patch with my sister in law and her kids and she got to ride a real pony.

This ponies name was Shorty but Joie renamed him Pegasus. She was petting him and kept screaming "Giddy up Pony". It was pretty much the highlight of her entire life. I am very aware how boring this post will seem to pretty much everyone however I find it so adorable to see the things that mychildren decide to become attached to. I have never encouraged ponies or horses and they were never my thing when I was a little girl. This is all just 100% Joie.

Mickey's Halloween Party!

2011-10-04T16:49:00.000-06:00

On Friday we headed over to Disneyland with our friends the Purles' for Mickey's Halloween Party. We had such a blast (besides the ridiculous crowds) and the girls all looked SO cute!! They had an adorable Halloween parade and the best firework show. They had trick or treating on every corner and all of the characters were out taking pictures. It was an absolute blast and so worth every penny! We didn't even go on any rides we were having so much fun doing the rest of the Halloween stuff. We will definitely be making this a tradition!

Joie was just practicing her princess wave before we headed off to the party

If you can't tell by the pictures Joie was VERY excited and thought she looked beautiful. She also insisted upon being called Cinderella for the rest of the night.

Joie and her friend Alexis both dressed up as Cinderella. They are only 3 days apart in age.

Sometimes Jessie just has to do the Robot.

We had such a blast and I should have taken more pictures but we were just having too much fun running around and letting our kids eat candy and stay up until 11:30. If you noticed poor Berkeley's lack of smiles its because she has been sick for about a week now with a yucky runny nose and cough. I think Andrew made such a cute Sheriff Woody. We went out to eat right across the street from Disneyland before hand and the whole time kids kept saying, "Oh my gosh Mom look its Woody!!" and he would wave and tip his hat at them and totally played it up. We had so much fun and we are excited to be able to dress up again in a month for real Halloween.

Warning! Joie's first bloody nose

2011-09-23T00:12:00.000-06:00

Ahh the joys of motherhood!! There is nothing I love more then catching dripping blood with my bare hands! Today we had my friend Janica and her two girls, Emily and Allyson, over to play for a couple of hours and Joie and Emily were just playing around and getting a little crazy. Joie was trying to give her a huge bear hug behind and Emily was trying to squirm out of it when Joie got a nice bonk to the nose. She gave a whimper and ran to me with her hand over her nose and like the good mom I am I said "Its okay Joie, don't cry, you're fine". Of course she uncovered her nose and there was blood everywhere. Poor Joie got my bloody nose genetics. When I was younger I got horrible bloody noses all the time so I'm sure Emily barely tapped Joie's nose but it was enough to turn on the faucet. It was pouring out pretty good for the first 10 minutes or so and since I'm such an amazing mom I grabbed my camera and took a picture before cleaning it up. Sorry for the graphic image.

On another note, I am feeling SO blessed right now. I don't mean to be one of those corny women who gushes about how amazing her life is or anything but things are pretty great! I am a pretty social person and even though I definitely need some quite time I also love spending time with people and I was really worried when we moved I would spend all day alone with the kids in my apartment. Since we have moved here, however, I have met so many women that I would already consider to be my good friends. There are a handful of women from church, some wives of Andrew's co-workers, and I have an amazing neighbor too! All of these people have kids close to the same age as my kids and it has just been so wonderful and so much fun. I also get to see my Grandma (whom Joie has renamed Gumi Gumi) at least once a week. She has practically turned her house into a little nursery with a pack and play, toys, a bouncer thing for Berkeley, a swing in the back yard, changes of clothes, and about a million other awesome things. Life still has trials but I must admit that in general, things are pretty awesome right now!

Since my last two posts were mainly about Joie I just had to throw in a little picture of my Berkey too!

Here are a couple little pictures I snapped at the beach yesterday too. My sister in law took some really cute pictures so when she gets me the disc I will have to post some of those too!

Love her little baby boobies!!

My date with Joie

2011-09-21T11:37:00.000-06:00

Yesterday Joie and I went on a little mommy daughter date to Disneyland! I was so excited to spend a little alone time with my baby girl!! While we were driving to Disneyland I heard a huge gasp come from the back seat and Joie screamed "OH NO, Where is my Berkeley Boo?" and was in a panic that Berkeley wasn't with us. I never put much thought into it but I never go anywhere without both of the kids and I never thought it would make Joie sad but she asked me tons of times last night where her baby sister was and if daddy was going to bring her to Disneyland so she could be with us. It was so adorable!

Once we got there we met up with my friend Darrien and her little boy Blaise. Joie and Blaise are BEST friends and love to play together. We had such a blast hitting up a few rides and watching the parade.

It was an absolute blast to go out with just Joie. I LOVE spending time with both of my kids and you better believe I missed Berkeley (and Andrew of course) like crazy while I was there but I miss spending time with just Joie. We laughed and ran and we didn't have to stop to make bottles or nurse the baby or anything like that. Even in the drive home while it was dark she kept telling me it was okay for her to be loud because Berkeley wasn't sleeping in the car. We had so much fun. I also can't wait until Berkeley is old enough for her to enjoy mommy daughter dates too! I love this little girl! She helps me remember to make life fun and enjoy all the crazy little moments.

(as some of you may have noticed, Joie has a new favorite dress. It is this zebra dress. Her pink dress use to be her favorite and its about all she wore for 6 months. I believe in letting your kids pick out their own outfits because I feel like its one of the few ways they can express themselves so get use to seeing the zebra dress because it is her newest obsession)

Berkeley Girl

2011-09-20T10:16:00.000-06:00

Well I meant to do a 6 month post for Berkeley and I got busy and now here we are and girlfriend is almost 8 months old. Woops! Better late then never I guess.

Berkeley is doing SO wonderful. She is an absolute joy! She is now crawling, pulling up to standing, waving, clapping, giving kisses, and sleeping through the night (most of the time). She is such a sweet baby girl. She is so content and happy. She ADORES little kids. She will give smiles to pretty much everyone but when any kids get close to her, especially her big sister, she just laughs and laughs. This is typically her reaction to dogs as well. When Joie was a baby we had a more strict schedule and I pretty much always made it home so Joie could take her naps at a certain time of day but since I now have a 3 year old my life can't really revolve around Berkeley's nap schedule. This little girl is SO good about being flexible. She is perfectly happy to take a nap in the car while we run errands, in the stroller if we are out and about, sometimes I can still even get her to fall asleep in my arms at church, and yesterday she even fell asleep in the wagon while I was bringing groceries up to our apartment. She is a MAJOR mommy's girl, however, her favorite person is still Joie. If Joie is in the room she doesn't even care about anyone else. I love this little girl so much and I am SO glad that I am her mommy! The girls are about to have well child check ups so stay tuned for Berkeley's weight. Last time she was weighed she was 16 lbs but I'm willing to bet it is a little more now. As you can see, girlfriend is chunky!!

Can you ever have too many naked bath pictures?? I think not!

I told you this girl will sleep anywhere. This was at Disneyland.

While I was at work the other night Andrew put a bunch of the girls toys in the wagon then let them play in it. He snapped this picture and when I saw it I thought Berkeley and Joie looked so much a like!!

Joie's third birthday

2011-09-18T22:50:00.001-06:00

I absolutely cannot believe that my baby girl is 3 years old! We headed to Vegas last weekend because my mom planned a big surprise 50th birthday party for my dad. We decided to have a birthday party for Joie the day after my dads. She wanted a unicorn/my little pony party so we gave her one! I took a lot of video clips of the party and my mom took most of the pictures and I forgot to get them off her memory card (stay tuned). It was so much fun because she was finally at an age where she was so excited for her birthday. She knew what presents were, she knew she was going to get to eat cake and blow out candles and do all the fun birthday stuff.

Joie is such a fun little girl. She loves to dress herself these days and always in dresses or skirts. She loves to be super girly and play princesses and unicorns and dress up but she is also the toughest little girl I know. She loves to go kick a soccer ball and/or play catch with her daddy. She is absolutely fearless at the playground and her legs are always covered in bruises but she is super tough and very seldom cries because of getting hurt (however, she cries for plenty of other reasons). She is extremely independent and wants to do EVERYTHING by herself. Sometimes this is very helpful and sometimes this drives me absolutely crazy. It is really nice, however, that when I'm really busy she is fine with spending an hour or two in her room by herself playing. I could gush about how amazing I think she is for hours but I will spare all of you. She is such a good sister and such a sweet daughter. She makes us happy everyday (even the days when she also drives us crazy) and I can't imagine my life without her in it. I love you Joie Low! Happy 3rd Birthday!

Since most of the birthday pictures are on my moms camera I won't be able to post them for a couple weeks until I can get my hands on her memory card so here are some pictures I have of Joie lately.

This one is actually from her birthday. She wanted a "bike" just like the one my mom has so we found one that is pink and got it for her for her birthday and of course we had to get her the unicorn helmet because she is beyond obsessed with unicorns right now.

Looks like someone is ready for fall! Joie loves to dress up in my Uggs (and don't judge my super messy apartment I promise it is normally not like that).

Joie finally got to meet Cinderella at Disneyland and she was SOOOO excited. She loves going to Disneyland and so do I! We have had so much fun taking advantage of our Disney passes!

Home sweet home

2011-08-02T13:29:00.000-06:00

So we moved to Southern California about 6 weeks or so and saying that we are loving it would be a HUGE understatement!! Andrew started his new job with Hensel Phelps construction company as a field engineer and is working on a huge hospital in the Anaheim Hills area. We moved into a big apartment complex about a block and a half from the hospital so he pretty much has the best commute in all of Southern California. I've been staying home with the kids and just exploring the new area. We have been to the beach a few times and the girls absolutely love it.

It was nearly impossible to get Joie to stop playing in the sand to pose for a picture. She was just having so much fun digging her "hot tub"

We are exploring and discovering fun new things pretty much daily. As soon as the summer is over we plan on taking full advantage of the fact that we live 7 miles away from Disneyland by buying our season passes. Our kids are doing great and both thriving here. Stay tuned for more of the Low's California adventures.

Half Birthday!!

2011-07-30T00:33:00.000-06:00

Guess who is 6 months old??

This girl is!!! I actually have a 6 month post in my drafts I will get it up soon! (please forgive the crappy cell phone picture)

Sorry I've been absent as of late. Moving with two kids has been much crazier than anticipated! Stay tuned because soon a 6 month Berkeley post is coming, a "we are loving California" post is coming, and in about a month a 3 year Joie post is coming (holy cow can you believe she is almost 3??) and lots of pictures.

Fun at Grandma's house

2011-06-20T16:32:00.000-06:00

So today I headed on over to my Grandma's house (because I'm only 15 minutes away and I can do that anytime I want now) to hang out for a couple of hours. Joie was throwing a ball to my Grandma's dog and as you can see Berkeley thought it was hilarious. Check it out.

My grandparents also have turtles and Joie is obsessed with/terrified of them. She spends most of her time over there just staring at them and feeding them. My favorite part of this video is when she says "Hi boogers, I'm Joie". That girl cracks me up.

Berkeley rolls over

2011-06-19T14:52:00.000-06:00

So Berkeley finally rolled over. She did it once so we pulled out the video camera really fast to see if she would do it again and she did! I'm sure this is very boring to most of you so you do NOT have to watch but I know Gigi and Pop pops will really want to see.

Lots of change!

2011-06-07T22:43:00.000-06:00

I haven't posted in FOREVER!! Things have been seriously CRAZY around here!

1. We moved out of our house and moved in with our really good friends Josh and Whitney Larsen in Orem. It pretty much is a non stop movie watching party and it has been the funnest 6 weeks ever! Since I started working a few months ago we have been so so busy (hence no blog updates). Andrew and I are both working a ton and Andrew is finishing up his last semester of school. All of this work is in preparation for...

2. We are moving! We are leaving a week from Thursday and heading to Southern California. Andrew got a job with a commercial construction company out there and we are so excited! We sold our lease back in the end of April in preparation for the big move which is why we moved in with friends. We are so excited to be embarking on a new adventure!

3. My camera is BROKEN!!! We have been saving pretty much all of our money for our move so I've put off buying a new camera but that is why we have basically no new pictures and all the new pictures are from my phone...sorry! I promise I will purchase a new camera in about 2 weeks and a million pictures will be posted.

So between all of these things the Blog has kind of fallen to the back burner! I swear as soon as we move and get settled a million updates will follow!

This was taken at Andrew's graduation back in April. It was so exciting and I am so proud of him!

A couple weeks ago we gave Berkeley girl solids for the first time. She pretty much hated it at first but she is doing much better now. A lot of it still ends up on her bib but she opens her mouth in anticipation when she sees the spoon and gets very excited!

In case someone out there wasn't already VERY aware of this Joie is addicted to all things Zebra. She insists on sleeping with her Zebra blanket, pillow pet, and slippers. Its pretty darling

This is my darling baby just laying out side and looking like she is day dreaming. I just want to eat her cheeks!!

and this is my little sweety just laughing away in the bath!!

I promise new updates will happen as soon as we move and settle down a little!

Becoming a mother

2011-05-08T15:31:00.000-06:00

I just couldn't let a mothers day go by with out talking about it. Just the word "mother" chokes me up. Becoming a mother has changed my life in every possible way. The day I became a mother I was so excited...this word may even be an understatement. I was literally laying on the operating table just giddy with a huge permanent smile on my face and every 5 seconds asking Andrew "is she out yet?" and "can you see her". I was so excited to finally hold that baby that had been in my belly for what felt like 3 years. The first time I heard her cry tears started streaming down my face.

The first time I saw and held my little girl my entire life changed. There is no way to describe that feeling you get the first moment you become a mommy but I know everyone of you who has children knows exactly what I'm talking about. I was so excited and thought I knew what I was getting in to but I had no idea. She became the center of our world and everything I did revolved around her. I felt a new kind of love. With the birth of Joie came the birth of me as a Mother.

Not long after I had Joie I knew that at some point I wanted another child. I knew that I had even more love to give. When Joie was about a year and a half we felt ready to bring another child into the world. We got pregnant right away and I was so excited. We didn't tell anyone we were pregnant until we were about 14 weeks and we only told our families until we were 20 weeks and we told everyone else by announcing that we were having another little girl. After that my elation quickly turned to fear. I was afraid that I wasn't going to be able to love another baby as much as I loved Joie. Then I was afraid the new baby would be so fun that Joie would feel neglected because I spent so much time with her sister. I was just terrified all around about being a mother to two children instead of one. I was certain they would both suffer and not get the attention the deserve because I would be too busy with the other one all the time. My fears grew and grew. The night before my c section I was so terrified that I couldn't even sleep. I was up all night sick to my stomach because I was so afraid. The next morning came and the anxiety lessened some and I felt a little excited. This time as I laid on the operating table I just had a million thoughts going through my head and the anxiety came back worse then ever. A minute later I heard my child cry and every one of my fears disappeared instantly and were replaced with love...just as much love as I felt for my first child.

I had nothing to fear. I love my daughters both so much. I get to spend so much time with both of them and I don't feel like anyone gets to neglected (except sometimes Andrew...and the laundry).

At that point I got to experience one of my favorite things I've ever done as a mom which was introducing my daughters to each other. It was so fun and so special and one of my favorite moments in all my life.

I just love being a mother. I just feel so extremely blessed that the Lord has trusted me with these two little girls. This mothers day I don't want to celebrate by going and getting a massage or having someone else take care of my kids so I can rest. I want to celebrate by playing my with babies and just doing mommy things all day.

Joie and Berkeley,

I hope someday you can read this and know how much I love you and how privileged I feel to be your mommy. You two have made my life better then I ever knew it could be. Thank you for teaching me how to be a mommy. I will always love you with all my heart no matter what!

Love, Mom

Bumbo!

2011-04-20T10:50:00.000-06:00

Girlfriend got a Bumbo and she LOVES it. She hangs out in it on the bathroom counter the entire time I get ready and stares at herself in the mirror and frequently she just lays her head to the side and falls asleep. Berkeley will be 3 months on Saturday and she is just getting sweeter every day. She is so low maintenance and is happy as long as she can see Mommy or Daddy. She weighs almost 12 lbs and she is adorable and amazing and we are obsessed with her

We don't have anything too exciting to report on but I just can't stand going too long without putting up pictures of my kiddies!

The sniffles

2011-04-10T16:12:00.000-06:00

Poor baby Berkeley has got a yucky case of RSV. She started getting stuffy around Sunday or Monday but it wasn't anything too bad. We were at a friends house on Wednesday night and she started having horrible coughing fits where she couldn't catch her breath and she would cough so hard she couldn't stop vomiting. So Wednesday night we took her to the doctor and they said since she was still eating and oxygen levels were good that she was alright and they wrote me an order to go to the Respiratory Outpatient Clinic to get a deep suction and an Albuterol treatment as often as we needed to for the next 7 days. So we took her to get suctioned a few times and we all noticed she was getting a little worse every time we went in. On friday when I got home from work she was in pretty crummy shape. She wouldn't really eat and she definitely wouldn't sleep. So I took her to the ROC to get her deep suctioned so she would eat again. As soon as they hooked her up to the monitors they noticed her oxygen levels were about 82% so they admitted her to the hospital. In the first few hours she got worse. Her oxygen levels dropped lower and she wouldn't eat at all. After hours on oxygen and many many deep suctions she would finally eat a little. A few hours later she was able to keep her oxygen level at about 90% so she was able to get off the oxygen. The next feeding she ate almost normally. That night they said she was good enough to be discharged as long as we brought her back to the ROC every few hours to get suctioned and have her oxygen saturation levels checked. Since then she has been doing so much better. She was so exhausted from having such little sleep those few days that since she has been home she has pretty much just been eating and sleeping. She gave us quite the scare but she is doing much better now. On a sad note, Joie DEFINITELY caught the virus from Berkeley and she is completely miserable now with a fever, cough, and sore throat. I have decided that I'm NEVER spending another winter in such a cold miserable place where the sick season is so long and dangerous.

friday

Today

Another Courtney Low favorite

2011-04-01T16:02:00.000-06:00

Alright peeps, does anybody else HATE plastic wrap?? Maybe it is just me but I don't even think it sticks to anything but its self. Unfortunately, it is basically the only thing you can use to cover things you are putting in the fridge. Well one day my best friend Whitney introduced me to Glad Press'n Seal plastic wrap...and that day may go down in history as one of the best in my life. It sticks to everything! It makes me so excited that I find myself looking for ways to use it. It is pretty affordable too and I think wal mart has a generic brand of this same product as well, but I could be mistaken. Go buy this now and thank me later! It has become a must have in our house!

Berkeley's Blessing Day

2011-03-26T16:53:00.000-06:00

Andrew's brother Bob and his wife Erika had their second baby about 3 weeks before we had Berkeley. We decided it would be really fun to organize something and have their baby blessings done together. Today we had a small ceremony with just family and a few very close friends. It was so sweet and wonderful. Both of the babies did awesome and looked so adorable! It was just one of those experiences where I was simply overwhelmed by how many wonderful people we have in our lives who love us and who love our kiddos.

please excuse my scary squinting face. It was very very bright out

I can't lie, we have some pretty awesome friends.

Proud Dads

The main attractions...so cute!

Love this little girl

I just love how sweet and innocent she looks :)

It was such a great day. By the time we got home both of the kids DESPERATELY needed naps but I really want to take some good ones of both of them so hopefully I will have some more to post later!

All smiles

2011-03-20T20:35:00.000-06:00

I just love staring at this little face every day!

Sisterly Love

2011-03-07T15:47:00.000-07:00

Joie has found a new favorite toy to play with. I was so nervous that when I brought home the baby she would be insanely jealous but she hasn't been at all. She is the sweetest big sister and she always wants to hug and kiss the baby. Berkeley hates having her diaper changed and every time I change her Joie stands next to her and holds her hand and says "It's ok baby Berkeley" and kisses her until I'm done and the baby stops crying. It's pretty adorable how much she loves her sister.

First Vegas trip of 2011

2011-02-27T15:50:00.000-07:00

Well I worked up a little courage and decided to fly alone to Las Vegas with both children. They were both ANGELS and we had so much fun. It wasn't super warm while we were there but it was still way warmer then Utah so we were pretty pleased!

If any of you are ever in Vegas with your kids and you want something fun to do go to the Secret Garden at the Mirage. They have Lions and Tigers that were so awake and got so close to you from the exhibit and they had the coolest Dolphin exhibit. There were hardly any crowds and we got so ridiculously close to all the animals. I have never been to any zoo or aquarium where you could get so close to the animals and the animals were so active! It was incredible and needless to say Joie thought it was amazing. As you can tell from the picture it was basically the brightest day in history.

While we were gone this little girl also turned one month old!

as you can see she is starting to get super chunky! She has started smiling a lot and I will post some pictures of that soon!

She also got to meet her Great Grandma for the first time. Isn't my Grandma a total babe? She looks WAY too young to have great grandchildren but she has 3 now!

We had so much fun but we are very very happy to be home with Daddy again!

True Love

2011-02-14T11:22:00.000-07:00

In honor of Valentines day I just want all of us to remember the One who taught us HOW to love. On this day where we celebrate love, let us spend sometime thinking about Jesus Christ and how he is the One who taught us how to love one another. A friend of mine shared this video on her Facebook today and I thought it was the perfect message to share with everyone on valentines day! Love you guys!

One fortnight

2011-02-06T22:06:00.000-07:00

This little girl is 2 weeks old today!

This little girl is pretty much the cutest big sister in the world

I took out one of her big totes full of toys for her to play with the other day and she found the hat, the purse, and the shoes and that was all she wanted to play with. She is 100% girl.

Life has pretty much gone back to normal since the baby came. Which means Andrew is gone at school and work for most of the day everyday and my girls and I just get to play. I was so nervous that life was going to be so stressful and overwhelming and hard with two kids that I wouldn't even enjoy it but it has been AWESOME. We definitely keep very busy but we are seriously having a blast!!

Don't mind that I'm in my robe...I just LOVE this little girl so much!

Berkeley Elizabeth Low

2011-01-28T12:56:00.000-07:00

Well folks I don't have some crazy dramatic birth story to share...sorry to disappoint. I had both of my children by cesarean section (I won't bore you/gross you out with the details of why I have to have c sections) so Berkeley's arrival was very undramatic. I walked myself right into the operating room and BOOM, 2 minutes after they started she was here! She weighed 6 lbs 12 oz and was 17.5 inches long so she was pretty teeny. She is seriously an angel and has been so much fun so far.

Berkeley is the sweetest baby ever. I know I'm going to sound so sappy but this is definitely the best time of my life so far and I can't even imagine that it gets better then this. It has been so amazing to watch my husband and daughter fall in love with this little baby. I feel over whelmed with how much love I feel for my little family. Life is loud and crazy and sweet and amazing!

This was the first time I held my little princess. It was so fun to experience this part again.

This may have been the funnest part of having a second baby. Joie was so excited to meet her baby sister which I'm sure you can tell from the pictures.

Happiest daddy ever. People always ask me "does Andrew just want a little boy so badly now?" and I'm sure he would love a little boy, but he tells me all the time how much he just loves having little girls. He is the sweetest dad.

We were lucky to get visited by my sweet grandparents too.

I'm really not a fan at all of being photographed without my make up on but this moment of her snuggling me just needed to be captured because it was so sweet. Goodness I love this little girl.

Ready to go home!

We are absolutely in love with her!!!

She's here!!!

2011-01-25T20:19:00.000-07:00

Berkeley Elizabeth Low

She arrived on Sunday January 23rd at 8:00 AM on the dot. She weighed 6 lbs. 12 oz. and was 17.5 inches long. She is so sweet and darling and we are so excited to welcome her into our family. More details to come later...right now I have a brand new baby to go snuggle

ONE

2011-01-17T09:58:00.000-07:00

Only one more week!! 6 days to be exact! Next time you hear me talking about this hopefully it will be accompanied by pictures of the new sweetie pie!

2011-01-14T16:50:00.000-07:00

I know about a million people who have done a blog post about their favorite product which I think is a fun idea and I may just have to do...but that is not what this is. I just want to share ONE product with everyone out there because I think it is the most innovative thing EVER INVENTED (ok maybe not but its amazing and I'm obsessed). Now I know most of you are like me and either can't afford to hire a house cleaner at this point in life, or even if you could afford it you're pretty sure you would do a better job yourself. I have spent years trying every product on the market to try and find a bathroom cleaner and that removes hard water streaks on the tile in the shower AND one that can fully remove rings and nasty dirt build up that stains the bottom of your tub. I swear I have never even found ANYTHING that did more than scratch the surface...until maybe 9 months ago and I found this bad boy.

I have always been a big fan of the original Magic Eraser so I was so excited to try this. The first time I used it I was in disbelief that anything worked that well and it was SOOOO easy. I deep cleaned the bathroom today and the tub/shower was long overdue for a scrubbing and it took me maybe 15 minutes to clean all the shower walls and everything in the tub and now it basically looks brand new. I think it only costs 4 dollars and it comes with two. Go buy it! I promise you won't regret it! Feel free to let me in on any awesome products you use that you feel like you can't live without too!

TWO

2011-01-10T14:28:00.000-07:00

Yup only 2 weeks left. We spent the entire weekend getting things set up and today I pulled out all the baby clothes and blankets to wash them and put them away. I can't hardly wait!

THREE

2011-01-02T14:06:00.000-07:00

Only 3 more weeks until the little miss makes her debut!

Let the countdown begin!

Our wonderful Christmas

2010-12-28T19:14:00.001-07:00

Christmas this year was so wonderful. I love spending holidays with family and friends but it was so nice to have a little quite time just the three of us. We have been thinking a lot about traditions we had as kids and ones that we want to have with our kids during Christmas time so I'm sure we will try a few out before they become real "traditions". This year was the best Christmas I've had since I was 8 years old and got a pogo stick (yes that was my favorite Christmas present of all time) just because it is so fun to watch your children get excited and experience the magic of Christmas.

On Christmas eve we spent the day just hanging out before Joie took her nap. We decided it would be fun to go to the movies every year on Christmas eve so this year we all went and watched "Tangled" which was absolutely darling! Joie loved every minute of it. After that we went to Andrew's Aunt Janet's house for a little get together with the siblings and cousins who didn't go out of town for Christmas. We came home after that and put a pizza in the oven. We always did Pizza on Christmas eve when I was a kid. While the Pizza was cooking Joie and I made Reindeer food. Reindeer food, for those of you who don't know already, is made with Oatmeal and glitter and it is so the Reindeer and can eat something while Santa is in your house. It also helps the Reindeer find the house because of the glitter.

After we spread the Reindeer food on the yard and ate our pizza we gave Joie a bath and read the Nativity story out of a couple of Joie's books and we took the little baby Jesus figurines from our Nativity sets and let Joie hold them to try to help her understand the real reason we celebrate Christmas. After that it was time to open our "Christmas eve present". When I was a little girl my grandma on my mom's side sent us a present every year that said "open christmas eve" and they were always pajamas. My grandma actually still does this but now she sends two pairs. One for me and one for her grandson in law. So my mom has decided to continue on the tradition and sends jammies for Joie now.

This year they were Minnie Mouse jammies. Needless to say she was thrilled. After that we assembled a plate of cookies and a glass of milk for Santa. I told Joie we should write Santa a note and I asked her what she thought we should say and she said "hmmm....Santa, here's is your cookie!" I asked if we should also thank him for the presents and she said ok.

She went to bed after that. When she woke up in the morning I went to go get her and she was so excited that she started reciting her list of things she asked Santa for. I took her out of bed and told her to run and go find her toys. I think she was a little shocked at first. We had been talking about Santa coming for so long and he finally came. She then was so excited after that, especially when she realized she got everything she asked for. This big difference between this year and last year is this year Joie was so excited to tear into the presents. It was just so fun to see the magic of Christmas through my own Child's eyes again. Christmas is definitely better as a parent than it was as a kid.

This picture was Joie's entire Santa list. When people asked her what she asked Santa for for Christmas she would always say "Hanta bring a "weee" (which means slide). Hanta bring a choo choo. Hanta bring a kitchen." She received all the things she asked for.

She got tons of other fun presents too. My favorite of Joie's presents was Princess Potato Head. I think its pretty cute! It was such a wonderful Christmas.

The Low Family also got a wonderful belated Christmas present. Our newest little nephew Landon Jacob Low was born today and he is an absolute doll. We went to go visit Landon and his mommy Erika and Joie loved him so much. She kept kissing his head and saying "my Joie's baby" and she cried and cried when we left him. It made me really happy because I have been really nervous that Joie won't like our new baby or will be jealous and mean but after seeing her today I think she is going to be a very overprotective wonderful big sister who will have to be watched very closely because she may smother the baby to death.

a sweet joie-ism

2010-12-08T16:09:00.000-07:00

I think every mom is guilty of this. Our kids say the cutest stuff and we think we will always remember and of course we don't. Joie did the sweetest thing this morning and I want to remember it.

With this pregnancy I have spent the past 2 months waking up at 4 in the morning and about half the time I can't fall back asleep at all and the other half of the time I fall asleep about an hour before Joie wakes up. I function alright on little sleep but after a while it still wares on me. Last night I was exhausted and needed a good sleep and of course I only got about 3 hours. So by the time Joie woke up I had been awake for a long time and I was so exhausted that I wasn't acting very happy. I got Joie out of her crib and poured her a bowl of cereal and sat down at the table at put my head in my hands and started to cry (yes I'm pregnant so sometimes I cry over things like being tired). When Joie realized I was crying she came over and rubbed my back and said "you ok, momma?" and I said, "No honey Mommy isn't ok right now, but I will be". I guess she didn't understand this and all she heard was no and she started crying. So of course the mom instinct took over and I took her in my arms and said, "Honey, whats the matter?" and through her tears she said "YOU OK MOMMA??" in the most concerned heart broken voice I've ever heard. Of course I responded that momma was ok. The tears immediately turned into a smile and she said "Ok momma!" and gave me a hug and went on like nothing ever happened. I felt so blessed at this moment to be a mommy that I knew I couldn't spend one more moment feeling bad for myself and I spent the rest of the time playing with and enjoying my sweet little girl.

I know this post isn't too exciting but it was a moment that melted my heart that I didn't want to forget.

Day 4

2010-12-02T11:38:00.000-07:00

Well Joie is on day 4 of wearing only big girl underwear. We had a few accidents the first day or two but yesterday we only had 1 little accident and so far today we haven't had any! We have gotten brave and even left the house a few times! Why don't these little ones come with an instruction manual? It would make times like this so much easier.

Tis the season

2010-11-29T14:22:00.000-07:00

Well it is indeed the most wonderful time of the year. As soon as Thanksgiving was over I couldn't even wait a day to pull out all the Christmas decorations. As an extra special treat we also got snow this weekend to make everything seem even more like Christmas. It is the only month of the year that I enjoy the cool weather and snow. This is definitely one of the best times of the year and always seems to go by way too fast...I'm kind of hoping it feels that way again this year because as soon as the holidays are over we will only be weeks away from having the baby.

We had a blast playing in the snow. In the top pictures Andrew was teaching Joie how to make a snow angel...it was pretty cute.

Here is a belly shot. It was taken between 31 and 32 weeks and will probably be the last picture I post because I'm feeling like a beached whale!

Here was us decorating the tree. I can't believe Christmas is only 27 days away!

my girl

2010-11-09T14:10:00.000-07:00

Oh how I love this sweet little face. We have been having so much fun lately. We have been playing with play doh, coloring on huge rolls of butcher paper, painting our nails, playing in the leaves, building (and destroying) humongous block towers, watching princess movies, baking lots of treats, and about a million other fun activities...but I know that no matter how much we play and how much attention I give her, her world is about to be turned upside down. I know once the baby comes that I won't be able to give her the same attention that I give her now. I just hope we can get in tons of playing time before the new arrival!

My little Minnie!

2010-10-31T16:53:00.000-06:00

I couldn't resist the opportunity to put up a few pictures of Joie in her cute little Halloween costume. She has been asking to wear it for weeks so when I finally told her it was Halloween she screamed "MINNIE DRESS" and wanted to put it on immediately. She loved Halloween and loved Trick or Treating. It's crazy to think I will be taking two little girls out trick or treating next year!

Although you may not be able to tell, she was so excited to be in her Minnie dress that she wouldn't hold still or pose for me to take a cute picture! She just wanted to stand in front of the mirror and twirl.

Potty time!

2010-10-22T09:26:00.000-06:00

What have we been up to lately??

A whole lot of this

and NOT quite as many of these!

and LOTS of these...

and this!

That's right people! The potty training has begun! Joie has done so well! We have had a few accidents but its only ever a trickle and than it scares her and she runs to the potty to finish her business! Its been about 5 days since we have had an accident. Joie just hangs out in big girl underwear around the house. I'm not brave enough to take her out in public without a diaper yet. She still sleeps with her diaper on too. I will update on progress made because I know this is just the very beginning of the potty training process. Its so funny how excited you can get over someone going pee pee in the potty...there is just nothing like being a Mommy!

25 weeks

2010-10-09T15:34:00.000-06:00

Many have asked for a pregnancy picture so here it is. Just so you all know once I start getting really fat I will not continue to post pictures of myself.

This is me and baby at 25 weeks. We had another ultrasound this week and she must be the shyest baby ever. They were going to do a 3D ultrasound of her face but she has kept her face completely hidden behind her hands both times now so I guess we will just have to guess what she looks like until her arrival!

Our little helper!

2010-10-07T15:56:00.001-06:00

The other day my mom was making dinner and I decided dinner needed garlic bread (which of course I was only interested in buying, not cooking). So my mom said she would watch Joie while I ran to Smiths. When I came back Joie was wearing an Apron and cleaning my moms sink...and she was LOVING it. It was really darling!!

I love her big cheesy grin! Doesn't she look like such a big girl?

Joie turned 2

2010-09-28T20:01:00.000-06:00

I am a few weeks late on this post but my little angel turned 2 on September 10th. She is getting SO big and cracks me up all the time with the hilarious things she has to say! Right now Minnie Mouse is the love of her life (which tugs my heart strings a little because thats exactly how I was when I was her age). We are having such a blast playing together every day and just doing girl stuff. I'm not going to lie, we think she is pretty darn cute!

Every time we get out of the bath Joie wants me to put product in her hair and blow dry it. So one day I decided to straighten it and she thought it was the coolest thing ever. She just kept saying over and over "I'm pretty momma, I'm pretty"

Baby Low: The Sequel. Coming January 2011

2010-09-11T14:43:00.000-06:00

That's right people! Baby GIRL number 2 is coming in the end of January. I am a little over 20 weeks pregnant. We found out in May that we were expecting and found out yesterday that it is a girl. We are SO excited to welcome little missy into our family!

Vegas Trip!

2010-09-03T14:06:00.000-06:00

Well a couple of weeks ago we took a fun little trip to Las Vegas. My parents just moved there and we were excited to go spend some time with them before fall semester started. I was there for about a week before Andrew came down and during that week we mostly just hung out and relaxed but once Andrew was there we fit a lot into a short trip!

We got to see my brother Phil the day before he went into the MTC and as you can see Joie gave some great snuggles.

We got to play in Gigi's pool everyday, go to the Shark Reef Aquarium, go to the splash park, and do about a million other things. The highlight of Joie's trip was definitely going to see "Great Sphinx". The great sphinx was in one of her TV shows once and she has loved him ever since. She was so excited to see about a million statues that looked like great sphinx inside the Luxor and every time she saw one she would scream "GREAT SPHINX" at the top of her lungs. She now carries a picture of Great Sphinx everywhere we go and threw a tantrum the other night because I didn't let her bring her picture of Great Sphinx to bed with her.

MORE MONEY!

2010-08-22T17:48:00.000-06:00

Joie has a new favorite toy. It is called Money. It all started because she loves the movie Robin Hood (the disney cartoon, of course) and in that movie Robin Hood takes all the evil Prince's money and she just loves it. So now every day we have the joy of hearing Joie say, over, and over, and over......

MORE MONEY
MORE MONEY
MORE MONEY
MORE MONEY

People normally look at me like, "why is your 2 year old asking for money?". We don't give her money to spend on stuff! We just let her carry around a little bag of coins and she loves to count them and hear them jingle. It is pretty cute and I get a kick out of hearing her scream MORE MONEY with joy and excitement all the time.

Bad Mom award

2010-08-13T14:31:00.000-06:00

Although it has been a week since all of this happens, I would like to document it and PRAY that I never have a week like this AGAIN!!! I try so so hard to be a good mom. I try to make nutritious meals and teach Joie important things, and give her all the love and attention she needs...but sometimes I seem to fall short.

Early last week, either Monday or Tuesday, Joie and I were at Smith's and we were having the awesome battle that we have frequently at the grocery store called, "I refuse to sit in this cart". I don't care that she hates the cart because I know she is safe when she is sitting there buckled in but for some reason this one day I just couldn't handle her. I put her in the cart and she was screaming bloody murder and I swear people were giving me those looks like "you're her mom, can't you do something to calm her down" and "oh that poor child". For some reason on this particular day it was really getting to me and decided to let her get out of her chair and just stand in the cart. I justified it by saying I was just getting a 2 or 3 things and it would only take a minute. So we did our shopping and proceeded to the checkout stand and Joie handed me the things in the cart so we could pay for them. While they were scanning our items Joie started fussing that she wanted some candy and I said, "No, sit on your bum bum, you don't need any candy". That obviously wasn't what she wanted to hear and she leaped out of the cart to get chocolate and fell out on to the hard floor. Well if I was concerned about the looks people were giving me before you should have seen the looks I was getting now. I swear on my life people were considering calling Child Protective Services because they thought I was the worst mom. I learned from this experience that I know when I'm being a good mom and I was being a good mom keeping her buckled into the cart. I need to NOT care what kind of mom other people think I am. No bumps or bruises showed up right away but the next day she had an AWFUL black eye...poor baby.

So a mere 3 days later my "bad mom" streak got worse. I went to a friends house to help her pack because she was moving. I have gone over these few minutes again and again in my mind thinking I could have done things differently but I guess what I learned from both of my stories is that no matter how hard you try to be a great mom you can never just stare at your children 100% of the time and prevent everything from happening. So I'm helping my friend pack and we are figuring out where to start and looking at the task ahead of us and I glance over at Joie and she had found an open bottle of pills on the ground and had put a bunch in her mouth and was saying "candy". Needless to say I completely flipped out and ran over to her and fish hooked all that crap out of her mouth and throat immediately. I grabbed the bottle to see what my child had accidentally ingested and it was XANAX!!! Now I'm no drug expert but I have seen a half of a Xanax make full sized adults act crazy. I have also seen it act as a freakin rhino sedative and basically put people into mini comas. So now I'm even more freaked out. I was pretty sure I had gotten them all out of her mouth but I just felt sick to my stomach about it and decided to take her to the hospital just to be safe. I called my parents just to make sure I wasn't completely over reacting and they said, Oh my gosh drive straight to the hospital even if you aren't sure she swallowed any. So I'm not going to lie I feel so bad for little Joie because I was basically a lunatic and completely freaking out and I think I scarred her half to death. We got to the hospital promptly and they immediately admitted us. The doctor came in right away and I told him I was nearly certain she didn't swallow any but I wasn't 100% sure. The doctor said to me, "Oh it is so good that you brought her in. Xanax is so dangerous, especially for small children. Even if she didn't swallow one and just a fraction of one dissolved in her mouth it could slow her heart rate to the point that she couldn't breathe on her own and we would have to hook her up to machines to breathe for her". So now I feel a little better because he validated that I wasn't crazy for bringing her to the hospital when I wasn't sure she had even taken anything, but mostly I feel 100 times worse because now I'm afraid that at any moment my child is going to stop breathing! So they wanted to monitor her for 5 or 6 hours because she was too small for them to pump her stomach. She also wasn't allowed to sleep because that might be a side effect of the xanax and they wanted her to try and stay alert the entire time she was being monitored. Anyway, she was totally fine, her heart rate never got too low and I took her home later that evening. All I wanted to do was hold her and cry and say "I'm sorry" a million times because I felt like it was all my fault. When we got home and finally sat down I started crying, which I think was mostly because I was so stressed and I finally relaxed a little, and Joie came over and sat on my lap and wiped my tears and said "Momma's boo boo" pointing to the tears on my cheeks. I said, "oh it's ok, mommy just loves you so much" and I guess she just didn't like that I was crying because she started to cry and put her head on my chest and said "sorry momma". It was pretty much the sweetest thing ever and it made everything feel just a little better.

So now you all know who deserves the "bad mom of the year" award. It was a horrible week and I still haven't completely recovered and now I'm sure Joie hates me for hovering and never giving her a moments peace because I'm so paranoid something will happen to her.

Dear Mothers

2010-08-06T17:36:00.000-06:00

Dear Mothers,

I understand that these days we have it pretty darn hard. Not only are our children supposed to always look clean and be perfectly well behaved in public areas, but we are supposed to look like very calm super models who can juggle 100 things at once with ease. This makes me sad...not because society dictates it, but because we all buy into this crap. I know, I know, you're sitting there reading this thinking, oh I'm so not like that...but have you ever cried because you just had a baby and you feel fat and unattractive? Have you ever told your husband "Oh my gosh I'm so embarrassed, I just ran into (insert name) at Costco on the ONE day I'm not wearing any make up and Joie was acting like a circus animal"? Maybe I'm the only one guilty of this. It makes me so sad to see other people upset over things like this or so discouraged about their weight when I see them as being these AMAZING, BEAUTIFUL, LOVING mothers. I do see the hypocrisy in saying this because I know I'm guilty of it myself but when I see pictures of all of you right after you have given birth all I can see is pure beauty. When I see pictures of you trying to soothe a child who is throwing a tantrum, I see beauty and love. Please please PLEASE, forget about the stupid world and remember that what you are doing is the most beautiful amazing thing in the entire world.

Exhibit A. BEAUTY. This is my beautiful sister in law the day she gave birth.

Exhibit B. Not Beauty. Now I'm not saying she isn't pretty but this DEFINITELY doesn't make my heart melt.

I could go on and on but I'm sure you get the point. Beauty does not come from being 5'10 or fitting into size 2 jeans. Be healthy and be happy but know that your beauty comes from within and seeing you all be mothers, wives, and children of God is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.

Joie and Blossom

2010-07-24T17:00:00.000-06:00

So the other day my friend Whitney came over to hang out for an afternoon and she brought her adorable doggy Blossom. As many of you may know Joie loves dogs, but she was a little too excited to play with Blossom. This was Joie and Blossom after they had been playing for about an hour. The squealing was much more intense about 30 minutes prior to this video. Don't worry, Blossom wasn't hurt, I think she was having as much fun as Joie was.

Family Vacation!

2010-07-07T08:19:00.001-06:00

Well sorry that we have been MIA the past couple of weeks. We were out of town having WAY too much fun to blog.

We started the trip off by staying just one night in Las Vegas with my parents and my brother Ben and sister Tali. They were they on a house hunting trip because they are moving there next month and we are SO excited! Joie is OBSESSED with Aunt Tali and would copy everything she did for hours...it was too cute!

We went from Las Vegas to my grandparents house on the colorado river. It is right on the border of California and Arizona and it was SO hot but the water was cool and refreshing and AMAZING.

Andrew left from the river to go back to Provo because he had school and work so I went back to my grandparent other house in Irvine. We had such a blast. My grandparents have 6 turtles and 2 dogs so Joie was in heaven and my cousin Ashley is living with my grandparents this summer and she is one of my best friends so we had SO much fun!!

We had so much fun in Irvine...Joie was so excited to ride the Carousel, she basically begged me. So we got on and as soon as I tried to put her on the horse she freaked out.

So we just rode on the little bench instead...she still thought it was pretty fun.

Joie was quite terrified of the turtles for the first few days but she warmed up to them and asked to play with them pretty much all the time for the last few days we were there.

Joie was having a lot of fun playing with Grandpa and the dogs Sophie and Tyson. Every time she found herself in the kitchen without supervision she would go to the pantry and get doggy treats so she could hand feed the dogs...it was pretty cute and sneaky!

We had a very fun trip but we are VERY excited to be home!!

Meet my friend Sarah!

2010-06-17T18:24:00.000-06:00

Alright guys listen up, I have a friend named Sarah and she is BEYOND talented! She can literally take any piece of clothing and alter it to be ADORABLE! She is auditioning for "Oprah's search for the next TV star" and you guys have to check HER out! Watch her video and vote for her because she is so amazing! Make sure you watch her video before you vote because you seriously wont be disappointed!

Ahhh...Summertime!

2010-06-16T09:13:00.000-06:00

Oh how I love summertime. We have just been having so much fun enjoying the warmth! For some reason during the summer I just spend more time thinking about all of my many blessings. I'm so grateful for all the beauty of the earth; how the sun feels on my skin, how the beautiful green grass feels between my toes, and even how beautiful the chirping birds sound at 5 in the morning. I love to just sit at the park and watch all of the beautiful children play (including my own of course) and see how carefree and happy they are. No offense to all you winter lovers out there, but I'm pretty sure you never see children that happy during the cold months!

Enjoying some time with daddy!

Fun day at the splash park!

Cheetos

2010-06-04T12:34:00.000-06:00

Cheetos happen to be Grandma Nancy's favorite snack. They are found in her house at all times (as many of you know). Obviously she has passed this on to her grandchildren.

This is Joie and her cousin Summer. Last weekend we were at a basketball tournament for most of a saturday and of course cheetos were there as a snack. We realized Joie and Summer had stopped playing and were being very quite. We turned around and found that they had each found a bag of cheetos and had found a quite place to enjoy them for about a half an hour. Grandma was so proud!

Pictures with my baby

2010-05-25T14:15:00.000-06:00

I'm sure I'm not the only one who has experienced this, but I feel like since I have had Joie I am always the one behind the camera and I have only been in a handful of pictures in the past couple of years. Now, this doesn't really bother me because I don't really enjoy being in pictures that much, but it did make me sad that I have almost no pictures of me with my baby girl. So over my birthday this weekend I made Andrew take a few pictures of me and my Joie. I may be the least photogenic person on earth and these pictures make me cringe but every mommy needs pictures with her babies!

We all went to Dippidee, my favorite cupcake place, for my birthday. It was so fun and Yummy

Bubbles and sacrifices

2010-05-13T18:54:00.000-06:00

I have been feeling a little under the weather all week so this afternoon Joie and I went out to run some errands. I had a list of things I needed and a small list of things I would like if I came across a good deal. We spend a couple hours out and about and Joie was getting a little antsy but she was still being a good girl. Our last stop before we went home was TJ Max. I normally don't shop much at TJ but once in a while they will have a cute pair of shoes for a good price or cute home decor...its just very hit or miss. I had found some new sheets there that I really liked and I decided to get them because 1. they were a really high thread count and felt amazing and 2. they were a really good deal. I put them in the cart and continued to browse a bit. We walked by the toy section and I saw a cute little spill proof bubble container and I picked it up to look at it and see how much it was. As soon as I picked it up Joie went crazy yelling "BUBBLES BUBBLES". The Bubbles were only 5 dollars (quite a bit less than my sheets might I add) but I'm still on a budget and really didn't want to buy both. As I stood there watching my daughter clutch to those bubbles like she had just struck gold I knew I couldn't say no. So, grudgingly, I put back my sheets, paid for the bubbles, and left. At first I was regretting my decision because Joie cried the entire way home. She wanted to blow bubbles in the car and I would not allow that. We arrived at home, I brought everything from the car into the house, and finally sat down and opened Joie's bubbles for her. As I sat there and watched my daughter on cloud nine because of a little 5 dollar bucket of bubbles I knew that watching her smile like that would bring me more happiness than any sheets...or anything else I could buy for that matter. Sometimes motherhood is really hard and really trying but its small moments like these that I realize that every sacrifice I make to make my daughter happier or to give her a better life ends up making me happier as well. Sometimes its something small like letting her buy what she wants instead of me buying what I want, but sometimes its something bigger like sacrificing having a career so I can raise her. Whatever the sacrifice, big or small, if it will bring a smile to that girls face and make her giggle than it was completely worth it.

Aquarium, Zoo, and Basketball

2010-05-12T13:45:00.000-06:00

Last week we went to the Aquarium and the Zoo. Joie loved the Aquarium and probably would have loved the Zoo except all the animals were either sleeping or moved to another zoo...so Joie got a little antsy. Her current obsession is Finding Nemo, so the aquarium made her so excited. We went around and saw all of the exhibits about 3 times. She got to touch a sting ray and she thought that was so cool. I'm sure we will go back soon.

The Jelly fish were one of her favorites...I'm sure its because they are also in Finding Nemo. Every time she saw them she would yell "BALLOON", which is what she thinks jelly fish are.

I'm not kidding you, this girl was in Heaven.

She loved the Elephant at the Zoo. It was so cool, the Elephant just had a baby and it was so adorable.

Joie also wants to be just like Daddy. She loves Basketball. She loves to play basketball, she loves to watch basketball on TV, and she loves to watch Daddy play Basketball...I don't think he could be more proud of his little girl.

Spring time with my sissy!

2010-04-22T10:51:00.000-06:00

This week my sister in law Liz came for a visit with her baby Vivien. We had so much fun! We are best friends and every where we go people think we are sisters and since I never had a sister close to my age. We had the best time ever and I'm so sad she isn't here anymore.

Spring is here and everything just seems a little brighter. I'm sure a big part of why I haven't taken a lot of pictures lately is because I think the winter is ugly. So hopefully now that its pretty outside again we will have a lot more pictures!

Lows lately

2010-04-11T19:54:00.000-06:00

What a fun weekend!! We had the awesome opportunity of having Pop Pops come see us (thats my daddy). It was such a blast and Joie just loved him up! He is just the cutest Grandpa ever.

I also learned this weekend what little girls do with little boy toys. Andrew and I have some Power Ranger walkie talkies and Joie found them the other day and thought they were so fun. This morning when she woke up I put her down in her room because she wanted to play with her toys and a moment later she came out with both of her Power Rangers in her stroller. She took them for a walk all around the house and then pretended to feed them...it was so adorable.

This week Joie also had her first SONIC! It was a small lemon slush and she loved it!

Thats about all thats going on in the Low household these days!

Camera Shy

2010-04-05T13:19:00.000-06:00

Well I never ever thought I would see the day, but my little Joie is going through a camera shy phase, so I've had a hard time getting her to even look at me when I have the camera out. So I apologize for the lack of pictures!

Even if she won't look right at me or smile for the camera, I still think she is pretty darn cute!

Letter to Joie

2010-03-23T13:45:00.000-06:00

Dear Joie,
There are so many things I want to say to you that you just can't understand. I guess first of all I just want to thank you for letting me be your mommy. I spent my whole life dreaming about getting to be a mom and having children but I never imagined I would have one as amazing as you. The second you came into my life, everything changed. The second I met you I knew I would do anything for you. I would give my life for you in a heart beat. I just wish you could know how much I love you.
I want to thank you so much for helping me finally understand how much Gigi (my mom) did for me. I know someday you will finally understand how much I love you when you have a baby of your own. Hopefully you will also someday realize that everything I do for you is because I love you, even when I discipline you.
Thank you so much for loving Daddy so much. He isn't as lucky as Mommy and he doesn't get to play with you all day long and it makes him feel good when he comes home and you are so excited to see him. He needs that Joie, because he loves you so much too.
I will never know what I did right in life to be blessed with a child like you, but I thank the Lord 100,000 times a day for letting me have you. You have made my life bright, full of laughter, and full or perspective. Once you and daddy came into my life, nothing else mattered as much, and everything I did revolved around the two of you.
Last of all Joie, please forgive me. I promise I will try my hardest to be the best mommy ever but I know I'm not perfect and I know sometimes I will stumble but please forgive me. Help me to be the best mommy I can. Please remember that NO MATTER WHAT, I will always love you.
Love, your mommy.

Like Daddy Like Daughter

2010-03-17T14:53:00.000-06:00

Andrew was stretching before we left to exercise and as you can see, Joie wanted to do everything that daddy was doing...it was so darling.

Joie Lately

2010-03-16T10:52:00.000-06:00

Here are just a few recent pictures of Joie. She is now 18 months and is cute as can be! She loves to talk, run, play, watch Mickey, and sometimes we get lucky get lucky and she wants to snuggle!

Stew

2010-03-08T23:24:00.000-07:00

We are making Joie stew...there will be plenty to go around! Any takers?

Important information!

2010-03-04T16:54:00.001-07:00

I saw this on someone's blog while I was blog hopping the other day...it is my favorite thing in the entire world!

Tomatoes

2010-03-03T15:42:00.000-07:00

Intelligence is knowing that tomatoes are a fruit,
Common sense is knowing NOT to put them in a fruit salad.
-Ben Reber

I got this text from my awesome little brother Ben yesterday...I wish I was that funny when I was 14!

For my friends!

2010-03-01T13:22:00.001-07:00

This is for all of you! I have the best friends in the entire world! I'm sure I don't express all my love and gratitude enough but this is the prayer I constantly have in my heart for all of you!

I said a prayer for you today
and I know God must have heard

I felt the answer in my heart
Although He spoke no word.

I didn't ask for wealth or fame,
I knew you wouldn't mind.

I asked Him to send treasures
Of a far more lasting kind.

I asked that He'd be near you
At the start of each new day,

To grand you health and blessings
And friends to share your way.

I asked for happiness for you
In all things great and small,

But it was for His loving care
I prayed the most of all!

Sneak Peak

2010-02-23T09:48:00.000-07:00

Just a sneak peak of Joie's darling photo shoot!

First Haircut!!

2010-02-21T21:40:00.002-07:00

Tonight Joie received her first haircut, given to her by her mommy! She did really good at first but then got really wiggly so Andrew had to hold her head for the last snip or two...and she did not like that. I just cut a little bit off the back so it didn't look so much like a mullet. I waited until the front of her hair was down to her shoulders to cut the back...I just can't believe her hair has gotten so long!

Momma's pride and joy

2010-02-09T17:06:00.001-07:00

Everyone knows this is the reason all women want baby girls! It is just too fun to play dress up!

how great thou art

2010-02-07T18:28:00.000-07:00

My very favorite hymn of all time is "how great thou art" because I just can't sing it without feeling my saviors love so much. I think it is so easy to get so caught up in your trials and sorrows that you forget that Christ is always there for you. Every time we sing this song I cry...a lot. Today we didn't even sing it, I was just reading the words to it and I felt like my heart was going to burst because I was so overcome with joy. The third verse reads "And when I think that God, his Son not sparring, sent him to die, I scarce can take it in, that on the cross, my burden gladly bearing, he bled and died to take away my sin" I especially love how this says "I scarce can take it in" because that is exactly how I feel because it is so overwhelming. I sometimes think of how I feel so undeserving of all that Christ has given me. It is so hard to express the gratitude and love I feel for my Savior...which is why I love the last verse of this same song. "When Christ shall come, with shouts of acclamation, and take me home, what joy shall fill my heart! Then I shall bow in humble adoration and there proclaim, 'my God, how great thou art!'" Do you know what my favorite part of this verse is?? Well I love all of it, but I especially love how it uses 2 exclamation marks because if it were me saying this I would be exclaiming it too. Today was just one of those days that I was so blessed to feel my Saviors love all day and think of all he has done for me. As I grow I find myself longing for Sunday so that I can go and feel the spirit of the Lord and "recharge my battery". I just hope that everyday I can wake up wanting to exclaim, "my God, how great thou art!"

i LOVE these girls

2010-02-06T16:10:00.000-07:00

So I was in Arkansas all last week and I had so much fun! This is probably my favorite picture EVER! This is Joie and my niece Vivi. Joie absolutely loves to read and Vivi liked the entertainment. Joie is now obsessed with National Geographic.

For Andrew

2010-02-02T16:13:00.000-07:00

This is the reason my husband fell in love with me.....I don't mind getting a little dirty. This particular outing turned into a southern version of Splash Mountain!

This is my totally awesome little brother Ben. He was the only brother who loved me enough to hang out with me while I was home!

Old Pics

2010-02-02T13:55:00.000-07:00

I found a bunch of old pics on my moms computer that I don't think I have ever seen....oh I love these people!

AIR SUPPLY!!

2010-01-24T14:32:00.000-07:00

I must say that as of this weekend I can now check off one of my life goals....I attended an air supply concert! I am aware that many of my dear friends (who happen to be my age) may not be familiar with air supply since they are a late 70's early 80's group but my parents raised me right and made sure I was familiar with some of the best love ballads ever written! My amazing husband took me to see them in Wendover...yes I know how ghetto that is....but it was AWESOME!! This weekend we also took Joie sledding for the first time.....she is certainly my daughter because she hated it. I think she just hated it because she was so tired but I like to think she just takes after me!

a seuss-ism for the day

2010-01-19T14:37:00.000-07:00

As I have explained before, I adore Dr. Seuss...he speaks straight to my heart. Here is the seuss-ism that has been on my mind a lot lately.
“How did it get so late so soon? Its night before its afternoon. December is here before its June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon?”
This is the feeling I have literally every day of my life. When I was young Monday always felt like torture because the weekend was so far away, but now my weekend is always just lurking around the corner. In the sense of days and weeks I don't really notice as much how fast the time goes but in the larger sense the time has "flewn". How do I have a one and a half year old??? She was such a tiny little baby just yesterday! Did I really meet Andrew 3 years ago?? Have I really lived away from home for almost 4 years??? Don't you remember when you were young and school would start in September and thinking about being in school until May felt like forever? I just wanted time to go by so fast...but now all I want is to slow everything down. I want to enjoy my baby so much before she becomes a teenager and is too cool for me and thinks I'm embarrassing. I just want every day to last longer. I want my weekends to slow down because its the only time I see Andrew. I know it seems so silly but when Seuss said "Its night before its afternoon" he took the words right out of my mouth. Does every body feel that way?? My days are always just ending so fast that I feel like I'm crawling into bed 2 hours after I wake up. Time, please slow down. Please let me enjoy and cherish the full 16 hours a day that I'm awake.

Joie, you look so pretty!

2010-01-15T11:28:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I was on the phone with my mom and I was getting ready. I stepped out of the bathroom for a moment to grab a diet coke and when I came back I found Joie, who has learned how to unscrew the top of everything, putting black mascara on like it was lipstick. I absolutely can't stand when kids have messy faces so I said "Mom, I have to go! Joie is putting mascara all over her face". So my wonderful mother said, "STOP! Go get your camera, you will like having pictures of stuff like this later on". Thanks Momma!

my favorite seuss-ism

2010-01-13T01:07:00.000-07:00

My whole life I have absolutely loved Dr. Seuss. As I have gotten older, I have begun to appreciate so many of his simple rhymes for all of the amazing principals they have behind them. I think a lot of people think of "Oh the places you'll go" when they think of Dr. Seuss being inspirational but I've found so much inspiration in his other stories. I don't know what Dr. Seuss' beliefs were but when I read his work as an adult I can't help but feel we may have believed many of the same things and that his books were for adults as well as for children.

I think the one that has touched me the most is The cat in the hat. There are so many things about this book that I love but there is one part that just parallels my life. The house is trashed and the cat is gone and mom is on her way home. The cute little fish who is always trying to stay out of trouble looks around and says, "This mess is so big, and so deep, and so tall, we can not pick it up, there is no way at all". I one day read this and started to tear up. How many times in our lives have we felt this way? So many times I have felt that my mess is so big and so deep and so tall that I just can't pick it up. Of course since I was already starting to tear up as I continued reading I completely lost it. Without being asked the cat comes back and said "Have no fear of this mess" and it goes through the list of how he quickly picks up everything with such ease and says "that is that, and then he was gone with the tip of his hat". I read this and couldn't help but think of Jesus Christ and how every time my mess feels too big for me to handle, I don't even have to ask...Christ is always right there, picking up my mess with such ease, telling me not to fear. Although it was Christ who taught me, it was Dr. Seuss who helped me to remember that no mess is too big, too deep, or too tall...the Lord will always be there to help me pick it up.

New Year=No More Bottles!

2010-01-04T22:09:00.000-07:00

So this week we took away the bottle! I had been thinking about doing it for a while and I finally decided to because she learned how to push the nipples down into the bottle and it would spill milk every where and this week she also learned how to unscrew the lids....so we are done! Its only been 2 days but thus far she hasn't even acted like she knew it was gone!
Right after Christmas we left to Spokane to go to our friend Staci's wedding. Andy couldn't come so it was just me and Joie and we had a blast!Joie carried around my make up bag the entire time we were in Spokane. She would cry if we didn't let her take her "purse" everywhere we went.We just had SO much fun on the plane! No body sat next to us so Joie got her very own big girl seat Joie had fun playing with her corn popper and wearing her cute new outfit from Great Grandma Betsy!

2009-12-29T00:45:00.000-07:00

It was the best of times it was the worst of times....

Charles Dickens, what was on your mind when you wrote this? I like to imagine sometimes that you were a mother who was home by herself all day with children. Daily you would cry because it was too much for you to take and you were sleep deprived and behind of everything you needed to get done. As you feel the exhaustion about to consume you, your child does something to melt your heart and just like that, it was as if you had not a care in the world.
I like to imagine that you didn't have any money and it felt like you could never get on your feet...but you had a family who loved you more than anything.
I like to imagine that you were so alone...that you didn't have one friend. No one knew you and no one talked to you and it appeared as if no one care and it was so hard....but you knew how much the Lord loved you so it made everything else seem so small in comparison.
You knew what it was all about, didn't you Mr. Dickens? You knew that every time life feels like it is the "worst of times" that really it is the "best of times". You knew that later on you always look back on those times you thought were so hard and end up seeing such amazing things come from it. Mr. Dickens, thank you for constantly reminding me that my worst of times can ALWAYS be my best of times.

Products you NEED

2009-12-28T22:41:00.000-07:00

Here is a product I LOVE that I would certainly recommend to anyone with even a little bit of wave or curl to your hair. It is called Round Trip by Paul Mitchell, the Express style line. It not only has amazing hold and memory, and isn't sticky and doesn't make your hair crunchy. It also makes your hair curlier and curlier the more you use it!! Put it in your damp hair (i actually don't like to brush my hair before "scrunching" it because it helps it look curlier) and scrunch it! Remember when using product it is rarely intend for use on your scalp or root area...it is intended for mid-shaft and ends. Tip your head upside down and either scrunch your hair with your hands or use a diffuser. Blow dry until your hair is pretty much dry and if you so choose you may set it with hair spray! Seriously, if you have wavy or curly hair you NEED this product!

Our first christmas...just the three of us

2009-12-27T11:45:00.000-07:00

What a lovely Holiday season! Our little angel just made our Christmas so much fun. I was kind of sad because this was the first Christmas I ever spent away from home but I realized that when I am with Andrew and Joie I am home. Watching Joie get so excited about the silliest little present was the best Christmas present I have ever received! I just hate that Christmas always comes and goes so quickly...I just hope I can keep that spirit of Christmas and the love it brings in my home all the way until NEXT Christmas.

Joie opening her Christmas Jamies

The only toy Joie cared about all day!

Deck the Halls

2009-12-07T17:13:00.000-07:00

Oh I love this time of year!! Any one who knows me knows that I HATE winter with a burning passion. If fact, around February every year I hit the tanning bed every day and take a trip to Arkansas for a few weeks just because I hate being cold and stuck in side all day. In spite of my deep hatred for winter, I love it from the last week of November until New years. I just love the Christmas season for so many many reasons. Of course I love to decorate my house and I love how pretty the snow looks against peoples Christmas lights. I love seeing how it brings out the charitable side of so many people. There is a man who lives on my road and he owns an ATV with a snow plow attached to the front and he goes around and plows the whole street and everyone's drive ways! I know so many people hate the commercialism of Christmas and all the advertising when it is a time we should be celebrating Jesus Christ but I love it. To me, it is just a huge way of celebrating Christ! I think all the gift giving, both of material things and of your time and love and such, is an amazing way of honoring Christ's teachings of charity. I just love this time of year!! Of course, here is my newest reason for loving it.......

mothers

2009-11-12T15:47:00.000-07:00

"Any mother could perform the jobs of several air traffic controllers with ease." Oh, thanks Lisa Alther for taking exactly how I feel today and putting it into words!

This is Joie's huge smile face that normally only comes around when she is being super mischievous.

My little unicorn

2009-11-01T21:01:00.000-07:00

Since Joie wasn't even two months old last Halloween we didn't make a very big deal out of it but this year we were so excited to dress her up...as a unicorn! She was such a good girl and she let us take her out trick or treating to all our friends houses for hours! We are pretty stinkin' lucky!

Unicorn on the Go!

Loving Fall!

Joie and Summer are only 2 months apart....Joie needed a matching soothie for her Halloween costume.

Joie with her cousins, Amber, Summer, Jackson, Thomas, and Carter

First sucker of the night

Giving lots of snuggles to Uncle Craig

College Gameday

2009-10-24T16:02:00.000-06:00

We had a total blast this morning going to college game day. Since we live so close we just put Joie in the stroller at 5:45 and walked down to the football stadium parking lot to wait in line. It rained until about 6:30 and was kind of freezing out but the masses of people made it much warmer. We got past the barricades at about 7:30 and unfortunately Joie was already not very happy at this point. We stayed until about 8:45. Once the show started, Joie just sat on Andrew's shoulders dancing the whole time...she also had a brief cameo on ESPN! We also made a sign for Renie that said #70 Mammoth that also made a few appearances on screen! It was really fun despite the rain and cold!

Us crazy women

2009-10-22T09:20:00.001-06:00

I had an experience at the grocery store the other day that serious cracked me up!

So Im sure you have all been to those grocery stores where they have those machines that print out in store coupons that are applicable for the things you are purchasing. Example; if you buy diapers they may print out coupons for formula. If you buy spaghetti they might print out a coupon for marinara sauce or french bread or something. I think they have these machines at Albertsons and Smiths. So I was at Albertsons the other day buying ice cream with my dad who was in town for like a day in a half. We had eaten a huge dinner and weren't ready for desert right after but after a half an hour to digest we were ready. After much deliberation we decided on Loaded Chocolate Fudge Brownie. So I went to go check out and I used the self check out machine. The ice cream was the only thing we was buying and after I scanned it the crazy little machine printed out a coupon for me. I grabbed it with my receipt as I was leaving and I looked at it while I was walking out the door....I seriously laughed out loud in the middle of store. The coupon machine printed off a coupon for Always Infiniti Maxi Pads. After looking at it for a moment I realized that coupon machine, or whoever programed it, thought that whoever was buying Loaded Chocolate Fudge Brownie ice cream must be a menstruating woman. I have thought about this many times now and just thought it was so funny and had to share it with all of my lovely friends who did go buy crazy ice cream during that time of the month and inspired Albertsons to just go ahead and give us all a deal!

13 months

2009-10-14T21:52:00.000-06:00

It has been far to long since my last blog post (besides the one I posted like ten minutes ago). Joie is asleep and Andy is at the library so I figured this would be a good way to wind down before I head off to bed.
My little Joie is 13 months now! I remember when I was younger and it really annoyed me when babies turned 1 and the parents wouldn't say they were 1 they would say, "oh he is 15 months" because before you have your own children that means nothing to you! But it seems that ever since Joie was about 8 or 9 months she literally growns and learns all kinds of new things every single day....so now I understand why people continued to count in months after the first birthday because there is a huge difference between 12 months and 13!
When Andrew and I first started dating I always would joke with my mom that since we both have so much energy that if we every had kids they would be OUT OF CONTROL....and I was right. Joie literally runs all day long. She gets into EVERYTHING! She also learns like 5 new words a day and has full on conversations with herself (but she uses her fake phone and she thinks she is actually talking to someone) She just cracks me up!
After I had Joie I seriously thought it would be years and years before I wanted another baby. Pregnancy is so hard, delivery is so hard, nursing is so hard, and i thought those first 3 or 4 months were so hard because that little baby can't do anything for its self. Now I keep thinking that if I could just pop out another kid thats about Joie's age, I wouldn't hesitate for a minute!

Im Sneaky Mommy!

2009-10-14T21:35:00.000-06:00

Joie has found a new favorite activity....sneaking! She waits until Im not looking and gets into everything she knows is a "no-no". I know I should probably be a little more firm with her but it just makes me laugh so much!! I swear I dont give my child diet coke, but she just loves to drink anything from a straw

Mother Teresa

2009-09-20T22:41:00.000-06:00

I have spend a bit of time thinking about charity and service. I think of what it is to truly serve someone with no selfish motive what so ever. Mother Teresa said "The world today is hungry not only for bread but hungry for love". This reminded me of a story that my mother told me, that she had heard from someone else. I can't recall the name of the woman in the story but for now we will refer to her as "Debbie". Debbie ran a humanitarian mission in India for many years and she was inspired to do so by the amazing work done in that area by Mother Teresa. In the beginning, Debbie's mission dealt mostly with lepers. They had a few doctors who came and volunteered to help and basically remove all the infected areas on the lepers body. This is an extremely time consuming task and so they had most of their volunteers cleaning out the wounds and prepping them for surgery. The first time I heard this story, Debbie seemed as much of a saint to me as Mother Teresa. I didn't think I could imagine a more Christ like way to serve somebody...but I was so mistaken.
After Debbie had been running this mission for a few years she decided it was time for her to meet the woman who inspired her to do all of this, Mother Teresa. She had heard she was going to be in the town for something on one specific day and so Debbie set out to meet her. There was a hoard of people around her and she left before Debbie got to see her. She asked a woman there if she knew where Mother Teresa was going. The woman said their was an orphanage close by where Mother Teresa spent much of her time and there would be a good chance of catching her there. The woman headed off to the orphanage and when she walked in she saw tons of extremely sick children laying all over the floor. All the workers were standing around and Mother Teresa was in the middle. As Mother Teresa walked through the masses of sick children she would occasionally stop and point to one and one of the orphanage workers would go over and pick up that child and sit and a rocking chair and rock them. All the sudden, before Debbie could even process what was happening, she herself was sitting in a rocking chair rocking a sick child and watching Mother Teresa leave out the door before she ever got the chance to meet her. She leaned over to the woman next to her rocking a child as well and asked, "If you don't mind my asking, why are we rocking these children." The woman responded, "Mother Teresa will come in as often as she can and walk though all the children. She will find the ones who she can tell are about to pass away. She points to those children and we go pick them up and rock them until they die because Mother Teresa feels that every child deserves to leave this world feeling loved."
Although Debbie never got to meet Mother Teresa she gained more from this experience then she ever would have by shaking her hand and saying hello. This story has truly been the best example to me of pure charity and service.

Happy Birthday Joie Low!

2009-09-13T22:54:00.000-06:00

Well it is official...my baby is 1! Her birthday was on thursday the 10th but we celebrated it on saturday the 12th with a party for her at our house with some friends and family. It was so much fun! I also would like to take a moment to boast and tell everyone that I didnt shed a single tear! I definately ADORE my little girl but I love her so much as she is right now that I dont miss the baby stage!

Well I know that every parent on this earth feels this way but I just feel so incredibly blessed. I am humbled and honored that the Lord intrusted us with such a sweet and amazing little spirit. She teaches me so much daily. She teaches me how to be patient when she cant move quickly because she is barely learning to walk, or when she wants something but doesnt know how to ask for it. She teaches me how to enjoy simple things like a cute puppy walking by in the park, or just sitting in the grass eating a chicken nugget. Most importaintly she has taught me how to love unconditionally.

I remember when I was little I would always ask my mom which one of us she loved the most and she always said she loved us all the same, of course. But I would ask her about that all the time because it didnt make sense to me. One day she told me that when she married my dad she thought her love capacity was full. Then when she had my brother Jared she realized she felt double the way she had felt before. When she was pregnant with me she found herself wondering, "can I possibly love this baby as much as I love my first". Of course I came out and she realized it was possible to love all of us the same. She expressed this to me in a way that I have always loved and it is exactly how I feel right now. She told me that since her heart was full of love for my dad that every time she had a baby she grew a new heart that was filled to the top with love for that child. That is how I feel right now with my joie, and interesting enough my love for Andrew grows as my love for Joie grows because I see so much of him in her every day and I see how much he adores us both! I just want the Lord to know how grateful I am for the AMAZING family that he has intrusted me with.

swiss days...take two

2009-09-05T17:25:00.000-06:00

So I found this picture today and thought it was fun to see how different our lives are now than they were last year! I was literally ready to give birth last year at swiss days when we went and now our little girl is about to turn 1!.....you may also notice Andrews gradual clothing improvement....ive been working on it for years now and finally we have polos instead of just t-shirts!!

swiss days

2009-09-05T12:19:00.000-06:00

Yesterday Andy's dad's band was playing at swiss days so we went up for a few hours to hang out. We look forward to swiss days all year long and we had a blast (mostly because of the navajo tacos). We also had a fun morning today and discovered that Joie takes after her mommy is her love for....pickles!!

Beauty Tips

2009-09-01T13:06:00.001-06:00

Beauty Tips

"For attractive lips,
Speak words of kindness.

For lovely eyes,
Seek out the good in people.

For a slim figure,
Share your food with the hungry.

For beautiful hair,
let a child run his fingers through it once a day.

For poise,
Walk with the knowledge you'll never walk alone.

People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed and redeemed. Never throw out anybody.

Remember: if you ever need a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of your arm. As you grow older you will discover that you have two hands. One for helping yourself, and one for helping others."

-Audrey Hepburn

my baby girl

2009-08-30T01:46:00.000-06:00

So oh my goodness, my baby girl is about to turn 1! Where has the time gone? I swear I felt like I was pregnant just yesterday...

Worlds best daddy/hubby

2009-07-09T23:41:00.000-06:00

As I sit here at midnight, fighting sleep as best I can, I can't help but feel so bad for Andrew. He is literally going to school from 8 AM until 12 or 12:30 and he comes home and changes for work and than works from 1 until about 4:45 when he comes home right as I am running out the door to go to school. He puts Joie to bed at 8:30 or 9 and stays up until 11 or later doing calculus homework. He must really love us or something to put up with so much crap. I stay up almost every night with him for moral support but I just wish there was more I could do to help. I just don't think there are enough words to tell him how much I love him and how grateful I am for all that he does.

Old cell phone pics

2009-07-06T22:41:00.001-06:00

These are some old pictures that I have had on my phone for so long. I keep meaning to put them up but I always forget! The first one makes me laugh every time I look at it. I one day asked Andrew to give Joie a bath (she was probably about 5 months at the time) and I walked in and found her like this and Andrew's explanation was that he was trying to wash her back. It was so funny! I know these pictures are really random but they just make me smile so much. I love when she falls asleep sitting up in the stroller. I think it is absolutely adorable! The last picture we just took a couple of days ago. My uncle just moved to Spanish Fork with his family and Andrew and I went over to help them with some stuff. We had been there for a few hours and Joie was getting really fussy so I gave her a bottle and rocked her for like half and hour until she finally fell asleep. This was such a treat because it has probably been 4 months at least since she has fallen asleep in my arms. I enjoyed it so much that I fell asleep with her. Andy came in and snapped a quick little picture of us.

Saturday finally came!

2009-06-27T16:11:00.000-06:00

I must say today was very needed. Andrew and I both started school this week and things have been crazy. We woke up this morning and decided it would be fun to go hike the Y. We went to the store and bought one of those baby carries than you wear like a backpack for Joie, packed up some water bottles, and away we went. Joie absolutely hated her carrier so we didn't bring it and Andy just carried her on his shoulders the entire time. She had so much fun! She would get so excited when she would spot a lizard or a big grasshopper. By the time we got to the top and came back down she was exhausted and immediately fell asleep. It makes me wonder what kinds of things she will like when she gets older. We were talking about it today and we really want to expose our kids to a little bit of everything in a positive way so that they can form their own opinions and their own likes and dislikes.

FINALLY

2009-06-17T20:58:00.000-06:00

I know this may seem silly to many, but I must express my feeling of mass excitement! Today my little girl said MAMA for the first time! She has been saying DADA since she was like 5 months old and I have been feeling a little left out! I was so excited I spent about 45 minutes trying to get her to say it again, but she wasn't having that! I know this sounds silly but I'm going back to school on Monday and I just felt sick to my stomach about leaving her, even though I knew she would be in the very capable hands of Daddy and hearing her say MAMA today seemed to magically soothe my nerves! Thanks Joie!

Long live the Brotherhood

2009-06-13T15:47:00.001-06:00

Today we had a fun Brotherhood gathering. The Carters were in town for a week or so, so we got together for an afternoon hamburger BBQ. Don't let the downpours fool you, no amount of rain could dampen this groups spirits. We did all the usual Brotherhood activities, as you can see, including spooning...it just wouldn't be a b-hood get together without it. We also did something new. All of the boys have been asking who Joie's Godfather is (because we have Godparents in our religion and all). We decided it would be cute to give Joie a brotherhood Godfather since they really are as close as family. We wrote up a really funny Godfather contract (including donations to Joie's college fund and approval of Joie's future spouse) and put everyones name in a hat and chose by process of elimination. We drew one name at a time and the last name in the hat would be the Godfather and the second to last name would be the runner-up in case the Godfather could not be there for some reason or another. Matt Reynolds was chosen as the Godfather, which makes Brianna Reynolds her Godmother. Craig Swindlehurst is the runner-up Godfather which will make his future wife Godmother runner-up whenever they get married. I know its silly but thats just how we roll....we really are closer than family. I want to move so badly whenever Andrew graduates but it will be so hard to leave such amazing friends. Love you guys!