Noah's Birthday Prelude :)

Noah had his birthday party on Saturday, April 14th.  He didn't turn 3 until the 17th, but that was a Tuesday and not a good day for a party. ;)  Of course it had to be a "Lightning McQueen" party.  He is still obsessed with the movie Cars.  I will post more about the party later.  But I just wanted to show his first three birthday's and how much he has grown!  I can't believe he is more like a little boy now and not so much a baby.  It's been an awesome three years! :)

Easter

This Easter was a lot of fun!  We started it the Friday before Easter with a barbecue and Easter egg hunt with our friends.  Noah and I hang out with the same bunch of mommies and their super cute kids a couple times a week.  They have fun together and enjoyed their Easter egg hunt and had a great time at the park.  I like how Makenna is putting her hand on Noah.  When all the moms got up to take the picture and the kids started gathering around Makenna, she started freaking out.  I hollered for Noah to sit by her.  Upon seeing her brother, she quickly put her hand on his leg as if to say, "Oh good, I recognize you.  Please don't leave me too."  Her protective big brother was there to help her.  :)

Then on Easter Sunday, we were sure to document MKs first Easter with a picture and then took one of both kids with their baskets.  The Easter bunny was very good to both of them!

After we opened our baskets we headed to Tucson to spend Easter day with Grandma and Grandpa Starits.  Cousin Morgan was there and Noah had fun having another Easter egg hunt and getting more fun stuff.  It was a great day!

And since I didn't blog for the first years of Noah's life here is his Easter shot from last year.  He sure has grown since then!

Makenna 7 months

Makenna is getting bigger and more fun.  She will wave and clap her hands.  She smiles all the time!  She is a super great nap taker and has just begun to sleep continuously through the night.  We are so lucky to have such an easy baby.  Here are her stats:
16 pounds 4 ounces
29 1/2 inches long
45th percentile for weight and length

Noah ranged from 6th percentile to 25th percentile.  Shes definitely bigger than her brother so far. :)

Makenna's Blessing Day

I have recently realized that I never blogged about Makenna's blessing day.  So this post is definitely out of order date wise, but nevertheless extremely important!  I would rather not include the following family picture because I still look like a huge whale, but at least I know I've lost lots of weight since this picture was taken! ha ha  I truly wish that I could just gain the sparing 15 pounds during pregnancy and have nothing, but a super cute belly, but unfortunately that has not been the case now for two pregnancies of mine...I am sure my next ones will be the same too.  Erika pregnant = Erika super huge and fat.

But anyways back to the blessing!  It was a wonderful day.  We had church at 8:00 in the morning and since Tommy is the Executive Secretary at church right now he has bishopric meetings before church.  So I had to usually have to get the kids and myself ready for church super early in the morning.  Especially when church was at 8:00 I think I was more late than on time...but since January we now go at 10:00 and my track record for being on time is much better.  Well because my baby had to have her super adorable, white blessing dress with matching bow, and we all had to look extra good I was running late.  Tommy was freaking out, pacing and perspiring by the door.  He was sure that I would be late to Makenna's blessing, but I made it to Sacrament meeting in the nick of time.  Tommy gave her a beautiful blessing, in which I was able to catch most of.  Kind of hard to wrestle a two year old in church and hear every word that's being spoken, but from what I caught it was very nice.  I even went up and bore my testimony, nevermind I looked like Shamoo the whale, I was able to express my gratitude for the precious new blessing we received in Makenna among some other things.  I ended up cutting my testimony short as Makenna started crying, loudly, making it hard to concentrate. :)  Afterwards everybody came to my house and since it was still morning time we served our guests breakfast.  I made a yummy bacon and potato breakfast casserole and french toast.  I think everyone enjoyed themselves.  I know that Noah did, or at least he definitely found interesting ways of entertaining himself!

Here is Daddy and Makenna.  We sure love her and are so happy to have her in our family and that we could share this special day with her!

Zoo Trip

Not too long ago we were able to go to the Zoo with Grandma Starits and cousin Morgan while visiting them in Tucson.  It was a blast!  It was the first time Noah had gone and he loved it and has asked to go back multiple times since then!

We started off with a very nutritious meal at McDonalds! ha ha :)

Then it was off to the zoo!  Look how cute the kids are holding hands!

Trying to stand like the pink flamingos!

Noah loved the giraffes!

Jaguar and Tiger! 

We had a blast and hope to go back soon! :)

Kid update!

My baby girl is six months old! At six months she started eating fruits and veggies to go along with her rice cereal and oatmeal.  I am pleased to report that I have made all of her baby food.  I worked with Noah and did not even want to entertain the idea of homemade baby food.  But now that I stay home, I've made lots of baby food and have realized it's not so hard and saves money!  Whew hew!
At six months Makenna began to sit up for long periods of time... without someone constantly ready to catch her and she's getting big!

Noah is as cute as ever.  Here he is ready to go to Grandma Timmons house.  He puts all of his cars in a bag and takes them to her house every time.  He likes to then go play in her back yard with his cars.  It's one of his favorite things to do!

Here is just a super cute picture of my kids!

 I love them soo much and truly feel so blessed that I am able to stay home with them.  I have to admit I struggled with staying home at first.  I knew I wanted to....I had such a hard time leaving Noah with a babysitter all day while I went to work.  Although he was in amazing hands with his babysitter...I wanted to be the one to care for my baby all day! lol  I started staying home when Noah was one years old.  At first I felt like I was not accomplishing much compared to my days as an overworked, professionally busy elementary school teacher.  However, I have come to absolutely LOVE staying home with my babies and feel like I am right where I am supposed to be, and accomplishing PLENTY every day.  I am able to keep my house in order and be the one to play with, take care of, and teach my children every day.  I feel so thankful that we have just enough money that I am able to do this now, especially because I know time goes by quickly and soon my kids will be grown up and way too fast!
So I went from lesson planning to meal planning and family activity planning.
I went from 7:00 AM - 6:00 PM days...to 6:15 AM - 8:30 PM days (and sometimes every few hours during the middle of night!)
I went from being tired, but well slept.  To being tired and sleep deprived! LOL
Instead of educating and creating wholesome learning and social experiences for 25 + of other people's kids for 7 hours day, every week day.  I get to do the same thing for my own two, sweet babies every day, weekend included!
I went from professional meetings to Barney, library story times, parks, and play dates.
Adult conversation to finger plays and nursery rhymes.
Teaching all day to cleaning all day! :)
Getting paid in money to getting paid with kisses, hugs, and dirty diapers.
And although there are times when both kids are crying and I feel like I'm going slightly insane...I have also been given a feeling of comfort, peace, and knowledge that I am RIGHT where I am suppose to be, day in and day out.  I love just being "mommy" to my babies and "wife" to my husband.  And of course I will return to the career driven girl I was before.  I will eventually return to the professional working field.  But for now, I get to be right there for teaching moments whether educational or having to do with building my children's character, every single day because I am there day in and day out to do it.  I am still teaching...just at home!! The career driven girl I was 4 years ago would have never imagined! ha ha  But little did I know, I would soon have the absolute best job in the world very soon!
And I might add that if you have a true desire to stay home and do everything in your power and sacrifice and save here and there, Heavenly Father will help make it possible.  We may not be rich (by no means!) but we have just what we need for me to be home with the kids and we are very thankful! :)

Potty Trained!

We are happy to announce that we finally have one less kid in diapers around the Starits' house!  Noah officially started wearing underwear in February and is officially a potty trained big boy now. :)  Look how happy he is to be a big boy.  Of course he had to have "Cars" underwear!

 Front shot!

Back shot...with excited tongue! :)