love.

Pure and true love.

missing out

For those of you who may not already know, I'm at a blogging conference in Salt Lake City this weekend called SNAP and I'm having a blast. I've met great new bloggy buddies, I've learned so much, and I'm enjoying a little "me" time. My days have been filled to the brim with logistical seat saving, craning to take pictures of amazing speakers, and quickly scrawling notes of all the gems that these geniuses have to offer.

But if I'm being 100% honest, I feel like I'm missing out.

I received a phone call from Keith last night during our dinner letting me know that Reagan went on the potty for the first time ever. And I missed it. And I know what you're thinking: why are you sad about poo? It's really not the poo that I'm sad about -- I can guarantee you that! I'm sad that I wasn't there to celebrate her new accomplishment.

I feel awful that I missed such a big milestone. I miss my kids and husband terribly and this has helped cement to me that as much as I love and adore blogging, I love and adore my family WAY more. One of my goals for the Sweet Rose Studio blog that I'd set awhile ago was to attend more conferences so that I can learn and grow this fledgling business of mine. Now that I've had to leave the state to attend one, I'm determined that I will only ever being leaving my family for this once a year from now on.

The message that is the theme for this conference is Be Authentic; Be You and I'm certain that in order for me to be that person, I need to remember what my main focus is: my family.

I fly home on Sunday and can't wait to squeeze the beejesus out of the three most important people in my life, but until then, I'll enjoy myself and keep missing them.

four

It's really hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that my sweet Luke is four today. He has brought us innumerable smiles since he made his entrance into the world and it wouldn't be right if I didn't share his goodness with you!

This picture was taken April 12, 2008, 10ish days overdue. Yep, you read that right. I was in my dear cousin's wedding that far overdue. It was rough and painful and beautiful and memorable all in the same moment. The wedding took place on a Saturday and I was induced the following Monday.

After 19 hours of back labor, our little man arrived and we were over the moon. He has been such a sweet baby from the very beginning. His pregnancy was cake (minus being tired all.the.time.) and he started sleeping solidly through the night at 8 weeks, as soon as we let him. For his first two years, I could count on one hand how many times he woke during the night and how many times he screamed.

During his first year, he was able to experience snow for the first (and only) time. He was such a cute little bundled baby! And in case you were wondering, that is a toddler size hat on his head. His noggin has always been on the huge size.

Okay. Don't laugh, but Luke's birthday falls on April 15th which meant that right when the whole Tea Party situation was going on, that was Luke's first birthday. He attended his first (and only) Tea Party rally that day due to his proud Daddy being in a total politically charged phase at that point. Wasn't he just so precious?!?

Our little man near his second birthday. I feel bad that I can't find pictures from his actual birthday that year, but in my defense, Reagan the princess had just been born and was in the process of turning our worlds upside-down.

I love Disneyland, so any excuse to go for me is a good one. We started the tradition with Luke that we'll take the kids for their third birthday. He loved every single second of it; from the characters to the rides (minus the dark ones), he was one happy birthday boy.

Which brings us to four. Four. I'm honestly having a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that our little man is now four. He has brough so much joy, so many smiles, and so much laughter inti our lives.

I feel like celebrating another birthday of my child is such a contradiction in my heart. On one hand, I couldn't be happier to celebrate such an amazing boy and how he's grown. On the other hand, I'm sad that he's growing up so quickly and that he's leaving the baby and toddler stage so fast. What's a momma to do? Love my little man and support his growth, his learning, and his loves.

Happy birthday to my sweet little man. Momma loves you more than you know!

this kid

This kid will have my heart forever. Love.

egg-citing

It's a tradition each year for Keith and I to color Easter eggs with Andrea and Andrew and now that the kids are old enough to understand the process, we included them plus Andrew's cousin Adam. I always love getting to hang out with some of my fave people {yes, that's you too Andrew} and Easter egg hunting holds a special place in my heart.

See, every year either Andrea of myself forgets to buy the vinegar. And each year we always have a goal to dye one egg black for Andrea's dad, Tom. I'm not even sure why we do that, but it's always funny to see how it ends up.

The kids were super excited; this was a completely new experience for them. We did have some difficulty with the logistics though...

Reagan had a really tough time understanding that she couldn't a.) eat the eggs right away, and b.) drink the "pink" water.

She eventually calmed down and we got to coloring. Reagan lost interest pretty fast because she was too impatient to wait for the color to set, but Luke was a champ.

I'm pretty sure he ate up every.single.second of being the center of attention. He basically ran the show.

He even put Keith to work drawing on the eggs with a white crayon.

Luke and Andrew made a decision to put multiple eggs in the cups to speed up the process.



 

 

Thanks to Andrea, Andrew, and Adam for sticking it out with the two kidlets and us! We had a great time with you guys!

all grown up

School is going so well for Luke. He is loving all of the activities and fun things that he gets to do plus he's learning so much already. I need to take a picture of how he writes his name already. It makes a Momma proud.

Yesterday was Luke's favorite day ever: he was able to ride the bus home for the first time. Ever since we found out he would be attending a public school in our district, he's been asking to ride the bus. When he ran to me with a giant smile on his face after getting off the bus yesterday, I was just as excited as he was.

Here's hoping today goes just as well!

payback

Oh my dear, Reagan. Should you continue to "spice" our lives in ways that we could have never imagined, be prepared for your Daddy and I to save pictures such as this one to share with any and all future boyfriends.

See, when I go to pick you up from preschool and I think that you've had your face painted by your teacher and you've really just colored a fair portion of your exposed skin with "washable" markers, you've brought this on yourself.

Yes, you are cute.  Yes, you have more spunk than I've come across in a long while. Yes, you keep every part of our life entertaining. And yes, I love your sweet little personality more than I could have ever imagined.

But all is fair in love and parenting, sweetheart and hopefully you'll consider that before you head off to complete your next sneaky act of cuteness.

And yes, I did drive her all the way home from school so I could take good pictures before I attempted to scrub it off of her. Who could blame me?

take that

Enough said. :)

cake makes everything better

This past weekend we attended my sweet niece Parker's 2nd birthday party. The kids were in love with the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse theme and the piece de resistance of the shin-dig was the gorgeous Minnie Mouse cake. Both of my kidlets may have stuck their fingers in the back during lunch -- that's how excited they were.

Well, life doesn't always work out in your favor. See, I was sick. And Reagan has this fear of men and there were plenty to go around at the party that she had never met before. And it was crazy windy which didn't help my inability to breathe and Luke's asthma. And then there was the incident with Luke.

My brother Randy was a champ at helping out with the kids. It's tough when they run opposite directions and you are the only parent there. Randy stuck with Luke and was pushing him on the swings as Reagan was having a meltdown near the bounce house. When I looked back a minute or so later, Luke was gone. I carefully checked the playground, the pavilion where everyone was eating, the bounce house, the grassy area. No Luke. At this point, I'm now running around the park trying to find him, shouting his name.

As I pulled my phone out to call the police, I got a phone call from Randy. It turns out Luke had needed to go to the bathroom, so he took him back to Beth's house so he could go. He made sure to call me as soon as they got there and I appreciate that, but at this point, my nerves were shot and I was seconds away from bursting into tears.

Needless to say, we didn't make it much longer.

We high tailed it out of there right before the singing of Happy Birthday and the cutting of the cake. Randy was nice enough to bring us some slices in the car before we left.

We ate our cake at home after nap time. Reagan was excited for the cake, but so sad when she realized that we weren't going back to the party.

At least she had cake.

first day of shool

Now, I know that at this time of year, most kids and teachers are counting down the days until summer. Here at the Waltemeyer home, we don't play that way. :)

Because Luke now qualifies for speech services, he gets to attend the elementary school in our neighborhood. Reagan has also reached the age where she can attend a mini-preschool class once a week through the Gilbert Parks & Rec. Monday was the first day for both of them. And let's be honest: Momma barely held it together.

Luke and Reagan were champs. Neither of them took a second look back or had any kind of struggle. Myself, on the other hand, had the tears well up and made the sappy phone call to Keith so he could keep me in check.

My sweet babies are growing up so fast. Too fast.

the girl is two

It seems like it was yesterday that our sweet girl was born. She came out just as sassy as she'd been when I was pregnant and hasn't let it stop her one bit since then.

We've experienced lots of smiles...

...lots and lots of scream filled moments.

The girl is still obsessed with her food. And Luke's food. And everyone else's food.

In fact, she's gone from being in the 20th percentile for her weight at her first birthday to being 28 lbs. and in the 80th percentile at her 2 year check. She's also half an inch shy of being 3 feet tall, which puts her in the 90th percentile for her height.

Each day she surpirses us with new and hilarious things that she does and says, and while on the topic of her speech, it has been improving by leaps and bounds the past few months. The girl who had to have her speech evaluated is now right on track with her speech development. Reagan is attempting new words every day and becoming more fluent with the words that she already uses.

I am more in love with this little ball of spitfire than I ever thought possible. Sometimes I take a moment to thank God for blessing us with such a wonderful, beautiful daughter.

Reagan: Momma and Daddy wish you the happiest of birthdays and we are so eternally grateful to have you in our lives. We love you baby girl!