The big 2 for Jane!!

On this past Sunday, Jane turned two years old...I cannot believe I have a two year old!! Jane is such a wonderful little ball of energy. I'm not going to lie and say that she doesn't totally wear me out sometimes, but we just love her outgoing, adventurous, funny personality! Jane was lucky enough to have two birthday parties. First, here are just a few family pics we took on Jane's birthday when we drove up the canyon to see the fall leaves...so beautiful!!
Ryan and I threw a party for Jane with my family on Friday.
She loved her presents. Jane loves to cook with mama- so Jane got her very own apron (so cute) and her very own cooking set with food! Her favorite thing to do was cut her toy fruits and veggies. We were impressed at how well she caught on!!
The theme of her party was balloons...because she is absolutely obsessed with them :) When she woke up from her nap there were balloons all over out house and she had her very own balloon cake!! She was thrilled!
Of coarse, she got to eat it, too!! YUM
Then, on Sunday we had a cute little party with Ryan's family at his sweet parents' house!! Here she is opening her presents...way too carefully for her boy cousins who were watching very intently :)
She got a baby doll (whom she loved) and a baby blanket! The boys weren't that excited about Jane's gifts but Jane wrapped and unwrapped her baby over and over again.
Then, she got cake number two...lucky girl!Jane enjoyed eating cake number two as well!!
Well, Jane had a great birthday and we just love her to pieces and can't believe how fast she is growing up. Here are some of Jane's accomplishments up to now:

*She is so imaginative- she loves to cook and be a mama to her dolls and really just has no problem figuring out how to do anything she puts her mind to.
*She knows all her colors and shapes!
*She can say just about anything you ask her to and says 4-5 word sentences!
*She knows her age and counts to two quite well (we just can't seem to get her to to move on to three :))
*She knows the alphabet to G-(That is a work in progress)
*She sleeps in a big girl bed with no problem at all!!
*She pees in the potty every night (Also a work in progress)
*She is an excellent sprinter (I have learned this the hard way as she runs away as quick as lightning in grocery stores)
*She is very independent and loves playing with other kids!!
* She loves to laugh and make jokes!!
* She is such a girly-girl. She loves to have bows in her hair and to wear new clothes and mama's shoes :)

Overall, Jane is just a great kid and so much fun- she brings joy to anyone she is around- especially her mom and dad!! We love you Jane so much and are so proud of you!!

So Long Sweet Summer...

Summer is officially over :( We had so much fun over the summer- but now it is back to reality...school, work, long days etc. The plus side, however, is that I love fall and all the fun that comes with it. So, I am sure the adventures will not end here. Here is a run down of some other fun things we were able to do this past summer!

My sister and her husband opened a massage and oxygen bar over the summer called Solace- it has been doing so great and is such a unique and fun place. They were able to get lots of supporters to help promote Solace during the Orem parade. It was alot of fun to go a watch them all in the parade! PS the oxygen bar is so cool- you should go try it!!
Ryan, Jane and I were able to have a fun day when we took Jane to the Children's Discovery Museum in Salt Lake. She loved it and had so much fun! Here she is playing with balls- her favorite!!They could be sent down long tubes, put in holes, sucked up tubes, collected and done all over again! Jane was in heaven :)There was also a whole little city, just Jane's size that she loved to explore! Here are Jane and Ryan in the house where they found a mouse hole with a mouse family livivng inside...Here they are in the kitchen...
Jane loved finally having the fridge at her own level. It was just too bad that all the food was fake- she would have had a hay day :)
Jane loved the little duck pond!
And playing in the water was especially fun for both Jane and Ryan!
After the museum and lunch, we went to the fountain to let Jane run around in the water! Of course we had to show up on the day where bus loads of school groups and summer camps had to show up as well. Jane was way overwhelmed by the thousands of kids and pretty much hated it...oh well, it was worth a shot!
On another outing, we were able to go to Park City to enjoy the Alpine Slides!! Jane yelled, "weee" the whole way down and loved her first big ride!! I had to sit on the sidelines the whole day and watch...ahh pregnancy, it sort of puts a damper on summer. But, there is always next year:)
Jane also loved to ride on the merry-go-round!! Any time we see one Jane has to help herself to a ride...she loves horses!!
We got a little pool this summer and Jane just has a blast in it!
On yet another adventure, we went to the Thanksgiving Point petting zoo on a day that was entirely too hot. But we had fun anyways. This goat actually bit Jane's finger and she was traumatized for a while, she will still talk about that goat that bit her finger to this day!!
She got over the trauma quickly once she was able to ride a real horse!!
She loved those horses so much! She watched them intently for a good long while before we pried her away from them :)

One last picture of Jane, Ryan loves to do stuff like this :) What a great summer we had! I'll start planning the summer fun for next year when I will no longer be huge and we will have another fun little addition to our family!! Life is so great!!

I am the worst mother in the world...

On Monday of this week, yet another dramatic episode unfolded at the Dick household. I had been grocery shopping with Jane, which I am ashamed to admit...I loathe completely. Shopping is unavoidably traumatic with Jane. She feels she is too independent to sit in the cart for longer than five minutes, however, when I let her out to walk and instruct her to follow me she can't seem to keep up with my speedy pace resulting in her being a constant 10 yards behind me. This stresses me out, what with all the kid-napper psychos running around and all. So this process of me putting Jane back in the cart and Jane screaming and crying to be let out rolls forth for the hour and a half I am shopping...not fun!

Naturally, by the time I get home I am tired and rushed to get in the house, put the groceries away and just sit for a few moments. Once I pull into home, with a huge sigh of relief, I get Jane out first and run her into the house, wash her hands and set her up with some books or toys to keep her occupied. Then, I run back out to the car, carefully making sure the door is unlocked behind me, to grab several loads of groceries...always consisting of one bag too many. This inevitably makes me curse my decision to attempt to load as many bags as possible onto my arms as I am running into my house, my arms unconsciously lowering with each step on the verge of an involuntary unload all over our porch...

This particular day, however, as I got to the door of my house I noticed that the door was locked. "No, I am positive I unlocked this door." I thought to myself. So I tried again, sure the first attempt was a fluke. To my slight panic, the door was locked- Jane being inside ALL BY HERSELF, and me outside with my rapidly decaying groceries in the hot sun. "Stay calm, Mary..."I chanted to myself. I dropped the heavy load onto our deck and ran to my car to get my extra set of keys from my purse. My panic increased as I noticed that I had already brought my purse inside and it was now locked, uselessly, inside my house.

After several moments of dumb founded shock, full blown panic set in and the inevitable freak out commenced. Insta-tears flowed from my eyes as I imagined Jane getting electrified some how, or diving head first into an open toilet bowl. I knocked on the door frantically, trying to get Jane to come over by the door, in an attempt to keep her from exploring her new found freedom. Sweet little Jane came and knocked back, I could hear her inside laughing. Several moments were spent trying to get Jane to unlock the door from the inside, which she has recently taught herself to do. That feeble attempt was folly...

Frantically, I called 911 not sure if this would count as an emergency. "What's the address of your emergency?" the lady asked. Weakly, I attempted to explain the situation to the operator, hoping she wouldn't laugh and turn me away. I was not surprised, however, when she said she would send a cop right over. I'm positive all this lady heard was the frantic sobs and sniffles that I was unable to hold back as I talked and simply had to assume several lives were in immediate danger.

I sat draped in front of my door, pathetically sobbing and talking to Jane through the door to keep her calm as we waited for the cops to come. I can only imagine what my neighers were thinking as they watched this rather ungraceful and terribly unheroic scene play on as I cursed my own name outloud... After awhile Jane started to get scared and started to cry as she begged sweetly "mama hug, mama hug." This brought me to the absolute max panic mode and my sobs could no longer be demurely concealed. I felt like the most horrible mother in the world...

The cop eventually came and was absolutely zero help. However, luckily, but to my complete horror, one of my bosses, who owns the park I manage, happened to be at the park and was drawn to my house by the cop car and the sobbing that certainly must have been heard around the park at this point. He whipped out some McGiver tricks and pulled the whole window out and saved the day. Jane and I were reunited. The decaying groceries were put away in enough time to salvage them. And as luck would have it, we still have a job!! Even after I was seen at peak freak-out mode by my boss.

Just another day at the Dick house...(sigh) the drama never ceases!! PS. Jane has forgiven me :)