"We are a happy family"

Okay...these are old but Braydee has been so buggin' because she wants to see how they came out since she flew back to good ol' UT before we got them back. These were taken a couple weeks before Marley was due...I know, lame right? Who takes family pics when you know a new addition is only weeks away? Well, its rare that we have the whole gang in town so we shot a few at my in laws thanks to my amazing father in law, we got some pretty nice shots.

The whole gang...

The Nana and Papa (soon to be Nanny...trying to change a name is a bit difficult when your two year old is already used to the old one...and corrects you every time you mess up by calling her "Nanny")

All the kiddo's...left to right Brayds, Me, Bran and Bri (p.s. could I be any more enormous with child?) Father and son...Mama and her girls...do you like how I cropped out as much of my fat as possible? The guys...who's that sneaking into the back left corner you ask? A possible new addition to the Papavero clan...Brayd's boyfriend, Jeff...(we approve :)The ladies, including our sis in law who's obviously gorgeousThe grandkids...minus Marley of course. Left to right it's Aisley, Brielle and Dyl...I loved this pic because he's laughing, one of the few where he wasn't totally fighting it.Brano and his fam

If you don't know this next one...stop stalking my blog...

The happy couple
Here we are again...p.s. do you love Dyl's face in that last one? That's pretty much how he was the whole time...when he wasn't running away, refusing to take them at all.

Here you go Brayds...this was my fav one so I played with it a bit, here's the original...

cropped

black and white

Okay, that's pretty much it, do you like how many times I said "p.s." in this post? Oh well, at least now Braydee can finally sleep at night. Jk Brayds, I love ya!

Terrible Twos

A few weeks ago Rick had to go to Fresno for work, so we decided to come along for the ride. It was pretty fun, the kids did really well in the car, we stopped a lot so that helped. Everything was going pretty smoothly until he had a meeting to go to and decided to drop us off at the park until it was over. Dylan decided to have a complete meltdown because I wouldn't let him stand out in the middle of the skate park while millions of teenage boys jumped rails and flipped over curbs and stuff. Oh yeah, it was extra fun when I had to run out, infant in hand to retrieve him when he got up and bolted to the middle of the ramps and stuff while I was breastfeeding Marley and couldn't jump up immediately to stop him...clever little devil. Pretty sure I was extra cool when he kept running away from me, laughing in the 105 degree weather so I'm getting hot and sweaty and ready to beat my child.I finally got him with the help of a "skater boy" (the only one not shooting me dirtly looks for allowing my toddler to ruin their sweet you tube videos of their killer moves) and dragged him back to the picnic tables where he decided to roll in the dirt, kicking and screaming for over an HOUR and wouldn't let me touch him...so, what did I do? Well...first I videoed, then I took pictures. Did I mention the meeting went long and the park trip was 2 1/2 hours? Awesome.

Marley's Room

Here's a few pics of how Marley's room is comin' along. I'm not even close to done yet but here's the colors I'm workin' with...green (I love green) hot pink brown and white. I still have to make and put up her hot pink curtains, buy a rug, put up the white picket fence, hang the watering cans and flowers and put up the pails of grass. Little girl rooms are so much more fun to do than boys.Those bins on the left were supposed to go under the crib but...they barely wouldnt fit. Bummer. They'll probably end up in the closet. Gotta love that dollar bin at Target though.

These pics are kinda old, I took them when Mar was only about a week old. Luckily I had gone out and bought all the stuff the day before I went into labor. Here's a close up of her bedding that I got an AWESOME deal on at Target. I found these pillows in the home decor section and fell in love with them. You can't really tell in the pic but they are sewn all sloppy stitch with fat thread. So they look kinda like a little kid made them.
It came with different sheets but I didn't like them as much so I found these hot pink polka dot sheets and also some brown polka dot sheets in a different aisle and grabbed them.
Anyways...I promise I'll post with more recent pics soon. Life has been crazy, as usual and I need to get my camera cleared out so...I thought I'd post these to hold you over.

Say Cheese!!

Yesterday Marley had a little photo shoot with Grandpa Dalton. She's almost four weeks old, I can't believe it! Here's a few cute ones...keep in mind he hasn't touched these up yet.

















too bad she spit up in this one, I love the angle!

had to get at least one bare bum shot in there, gotta love those little buns!

one of my definite fav times caught on film...when she's sleeping! Thanks Grandpa Dalton...we love you!

Miss Marley Marie

Okay...let me first start with a preggo pic since everyone was dying for me to post a bloated fat pic of myself throughout the pregnancy and I never did. Here I am large and in charge about 3-4 days before I went into labor. (taken at our new house)





Then we went to the Redlands temple one last time the night before I went into labor. I started having minor contractions during the session...

Here's Rick doin' what he did through most of the labor. He was there for the hard part and for the part that really mattered, but otherwise he was out cold. He even missed my water breaking! Which was so loud it woke my mom out of a deep sleep...it sounded like someone threw a huge water balloon up in the air and let it come crashing down.

This is the first time I saw her...right after delivery.


Here she is right after they cleaned her up. She was 6 lbs. 11 oz, 19.5 in. long. She was born August 21st at 2:47 a.m.















The proud Papa.



Chillin' in "the bucket"

A few family shots...as you can tell by the ONE with Dyl...he wasn't really feelin' it today. So we shot a couple without him.


Dyl was very excited to meet his new sister. When we held him up to look into her little bucket-bed the first thing he said was "Oh...gosh!" It was hilarious, we luckily got it on video. Then he insisted on holding her "hicks, hicks" which for whatever reason has always been what he says when he wants us to pick him up...so we let him hold her and he kept giving her kisses. Love at first sight.
Still at the hospital...with the puffy face. We ended up staying only a day and a half...she came at about ten to three in the am...so we stayed one more night and left the next afternoon.
Dylan loves to "help" with Marley...we have to keep a close eye on him. He especially loves to work the swing. I can tell already that they're gonna be buds.




We'll end with my favorite pic...this one looks the most like her...you know when you take a bunch of pics of a new baby and half of them look like a completely different kid? Well, this pic is definitely our little Marley.

So Big!

As Dylan nears the big number two we've noticed a slight shadow on his lower chin...so...it was time to break out the shaving cream. Okay...just look at his face and you will know just how big he thinks he is. Dyl cracks me up, he has to do whatever his dad is doing. I just love this age!

He held perfectly still the whole time Rick smeared the cream on his face.
I love how this pic shows how skinny his little waist is. He thought he was so cool when he realized his towel matched Rick's. Usually he freaks if I use a towel anywhere near him, if he had it his way he's air dry after every bath...but this time he couldn't wait for me to tie it around his waist while he looked for his razor on the counter.
Not the happiest face ever but the camera was getting foggy so I had to get what I could and get out. He was a little upset here because I was making him wipe it off (his sensitive skin reacts to stuff so quickly)...anyways...he still had fun being big like dad for a little while.

I'm lame, I know

Okay it's been ridiculously long since I last posted...but boy have we been busy! I swear I have a few pics of the Dyl but have yet to be organized enough to get them posted...my apologies. I will TRY to put them up after this post. I promise. Everyone wants an update on where the heck I disappeared to for the past almost two months so...here goes:
We FINALLY closed on the house, WAY later then expected (I think about a month or so). To make a long story short it was a very stressful closing and we had to get carpet laid before they would let it be officially livable (but who wants to lay brand new carpet BEFORE they paint, right?) So we snuck in to paint first and luckily the woman before us had decided wallpaper was definitely the way to go so first we got to strip a million pounds of wallpaper (still not done yet!) and paint as quickly as we could before the carpet layers came the next day. Then we had to get it appraised in time or else the deadline would not be met and they could back out of the deal...with our upgraded carpet and paint job. Needless to say we spent many late backbreaking hours getting it done and the loan went through. Now we just need to get the downstairs flooring taken care of so we can get our furniture sent down from our storage in Utah (which takes two weeks) which we want done before we leave for the Bahamas (which is in just a little over two weeks) so...the crunch time never ends.
Meanwhile Rick has been overwhelmed learning the ropes with his new job and trying to not get too far behind while trying to deal with the house mess and a pregnant raging wife who doesn't want to strip wallpaper anymore but has to because it's really the only thing she can do to contribute because she is pregnant. Somebody buy that boy some ice cream.
Dylan is loving not having our full and complete attention 24/7 as it enables him to get into anything and EVERYTHING he shouldn't. I never proudly announced that he is completely over his biting phase, has been for months and now doesn't even hit or push except for on rare occasion and usually only if instigated by the victim. I am a true believer in time out. I know that he's really technically too young for time-out but that's only if you want him to sit on a specific chair or something and really understand he's on timeout and that he did a no-no. If you're like me and are fine with just traumatizing your child for 30sec to a min (I swear that's all it takes) then just pick any room in the house (the safest most child proof would be my choice, after all, we're just traumatizing him...we don't want any serious injuries that require ER visits where we have to account for our bad parenting) and shut them in. I promise you it could be their most favorite room of the house with the most toys and as long as it's not their idea to be in there...it will do the trick. If you are as desperate as I was to end the bully baby syndrome, this took less then a week to enforce. Now all I have to do is ask if he wants timeout and he wises up immediately. I think it's the thought that everyone else is out playing and he's by himself that drives him crazy, but honestly, this punishment makes sense to me...you can't play nice with others so you have to be by yourself. The punishment fits the crime. Afterward we always open the door to his little tearful face and tell him why he was in there and ask him to say sorry and he always wants to hug you to show he truly is...it makes me sad to hear him cry but I can't argue the dramatic change it has brought. We no longer have to follow two steps behind him at the park or be on his back 24/7 when he's playing with his younger cousins. It's a miracle! Even if someone hits him or takes his toy away (nursery) he doesn't fight back anymore. Well, most of the time anyway. He did manage to back my grandmother's car down the long driveway into ours though...that was a lot of fun. Long story short you really can put a car in neutral even if it is turned off and in park...and if you are parked on a slight declined driveway your car will roll on it's own with your grinning toddler inside and no matter how hard your 80 yr old grandmother pushes it from behind as it almost rolls over the top of her while she's screaming to you who are inside (I swear doing something important), it will still continue to roll down the longer then necessary driveway and right into your car, which is thankfully parked at the end of the driveway, keeping your grandmothers vehicle from crossing the street and crashing through the neighbors living room.
Dyl's paragraph is so ridiculously long I'll just attempt to wrap this up here. Baby girl is growing right on schedule, she is just as busy as her brother was in the womb so you can imagine that combining that with insane heartburn makes for a really good night sleep. Big shout out and thank you to my ADORABLE beehives back in Michigan who sent me a beautiful blanket they made for our little one on the way. I loved the pictures you sent along with it and keep them in my wallet. As soon as Rick gets our scanner up and running I promise to scan the pic of you all holding it up and post it on here for everyone to be jealous. Today I get to go out to Upland to visit my dad in the hospital and hopefully take him home. He's been very sick for over a month now and has been in the hospital for over a week but even with all the antibiotics his fever keeps spiking and his head hurts and coughing and vomiting, etc continues. After a bunch of CT's and X-rays and blood work the docs are officially stumped and have agreed to let him go home with IV's and meds to let my mom take care of him till they figure it out. My dad wasn't made to stay in a hospital - he's done. So that took a lot of the time we didn't have this week. I was glad to get to go visit and sit with him to help pass time and take care of him when my mom wasn't available.
So yes, to answer the simple questions that didn't require all this other babbling, we are still living in Pasadena with my grandparents, still working on the Fon-tucky house and still trying to get this parenting thing figured out before our trouble doubles in August. I'm sure there's a million more things that have happened that I failed to mention but frankly this post is way too long, even I don't want to read it. SO...with that...take care all and let me know how YOU are.

The Name Game

Okay everyone...naming a baby is so hard! I think that girls are definitely the hardest (probably because I already had a boy and had a pretty good sized list going when I found out I was preggo again since I swore it was going to be baby boy #2.) The funny part is that when I found out I was preggo with Dyl I thought it was going to be a girl (I guess all I have to do is go with whichever my gut doesnt tell me it is!) and I had the LONGEST list of girls names, all of which I really really don't like anymore. I totally had the name picked out for this one if it were a boy, it's the name I voted for Dylan to be (Rick won that one obviously) and the name that our next baby boy definitely will be - Gavin. I just love that name! I always have but unfortunately it's not really one of those gender neutral names so I'll have to hold out. The only name so far that I even like a little bit is Marley (Marlee?) and I'm kinda on the fence with that one. Anyways...any help would be great! Thanks everyone! I have a list coming from my beehives in Michigan which I'll post for votes. The top name for Dyl was going to be Jenna...I'm just not crazy about it anymore but it doesn't totally bug me so I'll throw it back into the mix...if you all want to send your ideas I'll post a little poll just for fun (I guess more fun for me then you, most of you probably don't really care especially since half my friends are all preggo too and need to think up names of their own but for those of you who want to, send me any and all you like!) Okay...I'm gonna try to post some pics now - bye!

More Easter Fun

I mostly wanted to post this because I love this pic of the three cousins. Left to right it's Aisley Kay, Elly Jean and Dylan Richard. These were pics Megan took, I don't have my Easter pics downloaded yet but thought I'd at least put these two up.

Here is my masterful hiding job since I was on egg patrol this year. Laugh all you want to (everyone else did) but it WAS the last egg found! Booyah!

Ward Hunt - Upland style

Here's just a few quick pics of Dyl and his cousins at the ward egg hunt. Dylan was still trying to figure out the whole concept at this point. He finally got the hang of it near the end but the big kids were not shy to run up and grab an egg right as his fingers were about to touch it. If I didn't really want him to have candy I probably would have said something...he was just as happy with me taking them out of his basket and putting them on the ground for him to put back in the basket again. Here he is waiting in line for them to let the kids out to hunt.
Gotta love the truck basket I found on sale at Target. Not really Easter-y but, oh well!
After a few pointers from Dad he started catching on.
He and Ais decided to look out for each other and block the big kids while the other one filled up on eggs. The were cute to watch, Aisley would give Dyl an egg and they would both say "tay-too" then Dyl would hand it back to her and so on.

After it was finally over Dyl and Elly sat to compare their prizes and enjoy some yummy cookies. It was so cute, Dyl walked up and sat next to Elly on one of those cement things in the parking lot at the head of each space. Megan quickly snapped a pic while they sat and giggled together. It was a fun morning.

Oh yeah...

Sorry to keep everyone waiting! I finally got a chance to put some pics on Rick's comp so hopefully I can catch up a bit this week...Im tired and headin to bed but thought I would end the suspense that I'm sure you're all in...now you can all go back to eating and sleeping. I was trying to think of some cute way to tell but I'm outta ideas and short on time and just want the word out. Anyways...

Looks like most of you were truly inspired...I sure wasn't...I posted the first vote just for fun and mine was boy...so me and three others (I know Adri was one 'cause she fessed up) didn't see the pink comin'. Any name ideas would be most appreciated. Lets post a bunch just for fun, everyone can comment on how cute or lame they are - keep in mind our last name is Dalton and for tradition's sake the middle name will most likely be Marie (not my fav) unless something else is just so cute I can't pass it by. Goodnight all!

Little Fish

Dylan has really gotten into swimming lately and holds his breath really well. The second you even mention swimming he starts getting overly excited and searches for his swimsuit. The first 10-15 min or so he refuses to let his feet stay on the step any longer then .5 seconds which drives me crazy because I keep insisting he needs to stop and catch his breath between swims but he refuses. He was born for the water. He's gotten to the point now where he can swim a few feet by himself, he was even better about using his arms and legs and swimming horizontally but ever since we went in Nana's spa the past few times he can reach the bottom and has developed some bad habits. So, for the first few attempts here he keeps trying to put his feet on the bottom and then ends up doing more of a doggy paddle type swim. Anyways...here he is!

This next one is Dylan doing a belly flop. He just loves to climb up on the side of the spa and make a big splash.