Does anyone know where March went?

How is it already April? The whole month of March flew by and I still haven't filed taxes, mailed my census forms, or slept enough for an entire month to have passed. I apologize in advance for the overwhelming amount of photos in this update, but really the only reason you're looking at this is to see pictures of the Monsters, so apology rescinded. While all of you have been enjoying Springtime, and the pending summer months, this is what we've been living in.

Yes. That is snow.

This Easter was an exciting one. We all had a grumpy cold, that put everyone in a foul mood. It was a blast, to say the least. Saturday evening Lillian dyed eggs. I was pretty hesitant to dye eggs, since she's still pretty young, and loathe all things crafty...it's not one of my skills, but Lillian loved it. Not very surprising considered her Grandmothers are just about as crafty as one can get, it must skip generations.

Sunday morning the kids woke up at 6:30am. !!! I know people like KJ are reading this and thinking 'Give me a break' But when your kids usually don't get up until 8, and you're all sick, 6:30 is a nightmare. They had fun finding Easter Eggs, and Lillian kept stealing Johns out of his basket while he wasn't looking. I wish I could show you videos, but I filmed the whole ordeal on our "Holiday Camcorder" (It only comes out on holidays) and I don't have the proper wires to upload anything from it. And the evening ended with a huge Prime Rib Roast stuffed with Garlic... oh at lots of Bundt Cake from Nothing Bundt Cake. Ian has already gathered up all the candy and hidden it, probably in the garbage, Holidays lose half the appeal when you don't have a sweet tooth.

Anyways, let's back up some more, about 2 weeks ago we met up with Kelly and Shaylie at the aquarium, to see the new penguin exhibit that didn't open until the next day of course, the kids had a great time, John even touched a sting ray. Despite being the world's smallest aquarium, we managed to blow about 3 hours there, so overall it was an extremely successful outing.

In other exciting news, if you haven't seen "How To Train Your Dragon" You should. It was fantastic, and we're hooked for life. Walmart has so much garbage as soon as Ian sees my stash he will murder me. And to make matters worse McDonalds is in on the action! I'm pleased to announce that after gaining ridiculous amounts of body fat we have gathered all the dragons! That's how we roll.

And now, on to the cute pictures...

Lillian finally posing for a decent picture.

Does this picture gross anyone else out. Milk and spaghetti is bad enough... but strawberry milk...

Lillian dresses herself.

Have you ever seen someone so happy about Sunflower seeds?

Prior to the Target lockdown (We can't go back until Lillian goes poop in the potty) Lillian picked this outfit out all by herself, and kept saying 'Thank you Mom! I love it! It's so cute!'

Yumm. Yogurt.

Please note that John is wearing a Monsters Inc. shirt, it's his favorite, so mom made him a shirt for it. He get so excited every time he puts in on.

We're adding new costumes to the dinosaur stock.

John posing...he learned from his father.

Lillian "Turning into a Frog" Can you tell we've been watching The Frog Princess a few hundred times?

The Dinosaur and The Climber

I swear that I don't actually like John more than Lillian, he's just the only one that let's me take pictures of him. The other day we bought John a forward facing car seat, not that he wasn't happy in the backwards facing one, he was totally content (unlike his sister who had to be turned around at 11 months) Regardless, we turned the box into a tunnel, which the kids loved. Seriously, what is better than a cardboard box? You can imagine my joy upon finding this place: http://thislittlepiggyshouse.com/cardboard.html Now all I have to do is find a place bigger than our cardboard box condo to live so I can build a whole city of these!

When he tired the forward facer for the first time... he was in heaven. I'll never be able to switch him back.

Lillian also is officially on a dinosaur costume kick. The other day she got her old Halloween costume out of the bin and demanded to have it put on, and didn't ever want to take it off. She even wore it on the airplane to AZ. The other night I threw it in the wash while she was taking a bath and she continued to have a fit when she got out and couldn't find "Baby Dinosaur" anywhere. To make matters worse she seems to have had some sort of a growth spurt in the past 3 weeks, so now I have to order he a new one, that doesn't give her the worlds biggest wedgie.

In other terrorist news we went to McDonald's today and (this will give my mother a heart attack) John did this...

I think it's safe to say, he will out terrorize Lillian.

Some other adorableness... John watching his favorite movie, Monsters Inc.

John just relaxing while Dad feeds him.

One of John's temper tantrums.

John giving a kiss back, he's starting putting his face up against your mouth and saying "muuuhh" when he wants kisses.

And my little China Man, he always squats instead of sitting.

12 Months

I know that I am terrible at updating. I went to Texas and figured that I would have all the time in the world to write blog entries, instead I laid around and read tons of books. Anyways, first things first. John is officially 12 months old (as of a month ago). To celebrate the occasion I thought I would make a note of some of his more memorable habits. Starting with his wake up routine, which entails him yelling and chewing on the rail of his crib until someone comes and gets him strawberry milk in hand. I wanted to post a picture of the gnaw marks, but Ian got tired of walking up to the sound of scraping wood and addressed the issue accordingly.

A more recent personality trait are his temper tantrums. They start over everything from hunger, to Lillian picking on him, but most commonly, absolutely nothing at all. He attempts to climb up my legs to no avail, at which point he puts his head on the floor and wails until some one pays attention to him.

But for the most part he likes to wander around and check everything out. He's always just taking in his surrounds and pretending not to hear you when you talk to him. It's pretty adorable. He's slightly over 20lbs, and has teeth crooked enough to give Lillian run for her money. For the most part, he's a pretty fantastic kid.

Lillian has caught on to how much more he comprehends and take full advantage of it, saying things like "Gohn, don't do that." or "Gohn, I'm talking to you." or my personal favorite, "Gohn! Don't touch me, I sick!"

Grandma and Papa were able to come up for his birthday. Which was uneventful and consisted of cupcakes, a cute stuffed sleeping pal from GiGi and Gampaw, and (at a later time) Viking Hats from PwoPwo (Yaaah!) And then staying 3 days with Grandma and Papa while Mom and Dad went out of town. They both handled it well (big surprise) and probably were disappointed when we got back.

As I stated previously, we went to Texas for about a week and 1/2. The kids had so much fun. John fell in love with Aunt Jenn and cried every time she was around and not holding him. He's such a flirt. And Lillian terrorized with the help of Uncles Stevie and Matthew.

And surprise, it snowed. So they got to enjoy that with PwoPwo and Granddad.

For the most part it was a successful trip, I got to see my HSBFF for the first time in years and all my other TX friends...except for Brandon, who had to work. I read the entire Sisters Grimm series, which is fantastic and I would recommend it to absolutely anyone. Of course while we were in Texas the kids got a nasty cold that was passed all around the Fuller Household, and we all got to listen to Lillian scream "NOSE HURT!" every time her nose started running.

And I almost forgot the best news of all, Thursday Lillian and I bought her a toilet because she told me she had to have it. When we got home she sat on it for about 20 minutes to no avail, but after she woke up from her nap... she peed in the potty! Of course nothing has happened since then, but at least it's a step in the right direction!

Now it's just enduring another few days of Utah and then we'll go to Arizona to warm up for a bit.

Trouble Makers.

As an infant Ian used to take Lillian's car seat by the handle and swing her around. She went crazy, as soon as she was old enough to be held and support herself she made a point of slinging her weight backwards so she was upside down. You could never throw her high enough or spin her long enough. She has always been our little thrill seeker. The older she gets the more daring she becomes, always finding new places to hide and climb, and constantly balancing on top of things.

When John came around he was the exact opposite, if you try to throw him in the air his entire body freezes up in the most awkward poses and he bursts into tears. If you pick his legs up too high while changing his diaper he completely melts down. Dad seems to think he's a little bit of a "Mommy's Boy" and we often joke that he's the one that will be "grounded" in comparison to his crazy sister.

Needless to say, I was completely astounded to walk in on this...

We officially have another one.

Babies No More.

Last weekend hours after I finished my antibiotics for mastitis, I got another case, so I gave up and weaned John completely. Of course this was at exactly the same time that I got a 24 hour bug, and so did the kids, all while Dad was out of town, making it was an awesome week.

John did not appreciate being weaned, and I now have a son who is addicted to lactose free strawberry milk. I tried to give him a bottle of regular milk today and he literally knocked the bottle out of my hands and reached for the nesquik on the counter. The weaning along with the slow but certain transition from the crab crawl to a full time walker, has made my baby no longer a baby. : ( Not to mention the fact that he's probably grown 2 inches in the past two days.

Lillian got her bangs trimmed the other day, extra short, I guess it just saves me the effort of having to do it again for at least another month or so.

She has started to organize her toys, she lines up all her dinosaurs and asks me to take pictures of them as she individual introduces them.

She is getting better at interacting with John every day... unless he touches her dinosaurs or movies, which he makes a point of doing whenever she isn't paying attention. He likes to read books and pretend like he doesn't see/hear you when you're around.

("No more pictures Mom")

Tonight he suddenly discovered his tongue and kept sticking it out, which led to him and Lillian licking each other and laughing like it was the funniest most sanitary game ever. It ended like all games do with Lillian climbing somewhere John cannot and him throwing a temper tantrum about it. Such over dramatic children, who knows where they get that from.

John will be 1 year old in less than a week, where does the time go? They're both growing up way to fast for my tastes.

Tax Season

Tax season is in full swing, which is a headache. But we're definitely pushing through it better this year than last. The kids are growing like crazy, Lillian is talking more and more each day and John is starting to walk; although he usually only makes a few steps and then ends up on his face... using their hands to brace falls is not a skill my children have acquired. Both of them love to sing and dance, which is how we generally spend the majority of our afternoons. John also inherited the climbing gene, although his balance is not quite Lillian's, he's still pretty nimble. He can usually be found in the DVD drawer, since DVD's are his favorite toy.

The other day he climbed into the washing machine, and then got a little distraught when it started moving on him.

Then Lillian had to try because she can never be upstaged. The other day she jumped off our head board and over extended her landing, she ended up using her face to catch her fall. Luckily no need for stitches, and no broken bones, just a fat lip and a black and blue nose for a week or so.

Lillian still refuses to be potty trained, but every time she puts panties on she insists on John wearing them too. Needless to say, I clean up plenty of potty puddles.

Aside from all that it's just trying to avoid cabin fever despite the winter weather. And Lillian and John posing/being adorable.