10 Months and Mr. J Counts

 Justin is 32 months old or 2 1/2.  Justin is working on his numbers and will count along with me all the way to 15. He is quite the handful and is always wanting to play with his sister, who is not quite big enough yet!  He loves to do puzzles and spend time with his Daddy.  He has discovered the delights of play places when we go eat, he always requests to go to Leo's Place.  However when we go to Leo's, he is not responsible enough yet to stay where he is supposed to.  Like my brothers, he wants to go down and play with the electronic games (they cost money).  He keeps it lively but he can be oh so sweet and we are so glad he is a part of our family.

Daphne is 10 months now and is a little delight.  She loves to play and eat and be held.  She actually says a lot of words for her age, Mama, Dada, and Nana.  She even mimics kitty when I call them.  She is attempting to walk and takes a few more steps all the time.  I took her for a day at the mall shopping and she was great!  Seems like I am going to have a new shopping buddy.  I just love her!

Ready, Set, GO!

Ready...,Set..., GO!  Were my sweet Justin's words as we were happily on our way to Utah.  On the way there I was able to feed Daphne (while she was in her carseat) by sitting my own hi-knee down in the way back.  While I was there I discovered that my our daughter had finally cut her first tooth! Yay Daphers!

     The way there really was delightful and the kiddos were very good.  Once at Thanksgiving point Justin immediately wanted to run.  Our favorite room in the Museum of Ancient Life was one that I couldn't take a picture of because it was too dark.  It was made to be like the heavens full of Stars.  It was dark and there were tiny lights in the walls.  Justin kept going back to that room. He really loved all of the activities that were hands on.  It was the perfect place to take such a busy little fella.  He enjoyed playing with the bones that you could build dinosaurs with (magnetized on a sheet metal wall).  He enjoyed building a dino out of the stuffed dinosaur parts.  But most of all he liked the gift shop.  My silly little boy...sigh.  We take him to a dinosaur museum and does he want to take home a stuffed dino? Absolutely not.  He wanted a stuffed Meercat!  We then went on to Joe's Crab Shack for dinner where there is an indoor play area, like McDonalds, for the little people.  That evening I ran to the VF factory outlet, which was right behind our hotel, and found some screaming deals!  After that very quick shopping trip I took Justin for a swim and then it was off to bed.  We all sorta slept...a two year old in a new place is tough!
     The next morning we got up and headed to Hogle Zoo.  It was pretty fun, but Justin was really tired and the zoo was extremely busy.  Hard on Nate who is not so keen on that large of a social group.  Justin especially seems to enjoy the monkeys and I was able to see my two favorite animals, the giraffes and the camels.
     After the zoo we found a Taco Time and had lunch.  We then went downtown to Temple Square and found that parking was free for the day!  I was really excited about that!  We went into the North Temple Visitor's Center and saw the Christos Statue.  Justin delighted those around us throughout the center as he kept pointing to pictures of Jesus and saying, "Jesus".  I must admit that it was super cute.  Then we went into the tabernacle, walked the grounds, took some pictures and headed for north.
     We stopped in Garland, Nate's old haunt, and went to see an old neighbor of his.  They have two llamas and an alpaca which Justin enjoyed seeing.  Overall it was a great trip.  I am so glad that we were able to go.  I now want to take Justin down at Christmas time to see the lights.  It would be so fun!

Time Flies When You're Having Fun!

 I cannot believe that it has been four months since my last post!  Seriously this sweet baby is growing so very quickly and I attempt to take pictures everyday, which really makes Nate think that we will have too many pictures.  However I have never heard two things from any parent 1) I spent too much time with my kids 2) I took too many pictures of my kids.  I think that kiddos are always fascinating to watch, and my dear husband knew how much I love to take great pictures so for my March birthday he bought me a digital SLR.  It is a Nikon of course! So I have been clicking away taking literally hundreds of pictures of my beautiful children. Any friends or family that want to have professional quality pictures taken with their own style, give me a call!  I would love to do some more of what I used to do so often!
     Over the last five months Nate and I have really been discussing buying a mini-van so that it would be easier to take the kiddos and other family members with us everywhere we go.  We attempted to take multiple trips with family members in my little Malibu and it was not so comfy.  Discussing it was important!  Weekend before last we had Grandma Thomas babysat for us and we went and test drove every mini-van that we were interested in.  Then Nate found a screaming deal in Ogden, UT and we were able to recruit Grandma Meek into babysitting last Friday so that we could go to Utah and check it out.  We ended up buying it and I have had a super fun week cleaning it up (it was a repo.) and driving it everywhere I went!  It makes me want to take a trip really soon!
     As for our sweet children, they are my little weeds.  They are both growing so very fast.  Justin is 27 months old now and he is full of spunk!  He keeps me running all of the time.  His new love is to spend every second outside, which works for me now that Nate has the fence that he put up in April finished.  It looks so nice and I no longer have to worry where Justin is!  I know that he is stuck in just the backyard and he will be relatively safe.  He really loves his sister and always wants to play with her and get her to laugh.  He is really good at getting her to giggle whenever he comes around.

     Personality, personality, personality!  Gotta love this cute little tongue hanging out, on Nate's side of the family it is known as the Thomas tongue.  Our dear daughter, Daphne, creates such a fun home for us.  She lays back, hangs out, and makes life for Mom very easy!  No colic here.  She sleeps through the night, takes great naps usually while Justin is, and loves to be played with.  What a wonderful blessing she is to our home.  We sincerely love her.

Beautiful Talking Baby

There are my kiddos! I attempted to upload a video, but couldn't get it to work.  My beautiful little girl is smiling and attempting to talk to everyone who will stop for a minute and talk to her.  It warms my heart and sends butterflies through my stomach when she smiles.  She is so beautiful.  It is fun!
     Justin is saying more and more everyday.  It is almost as if something has clicked inside his head and told him that he needs to start using words to get what he wants.  He will come and sit next to me while I feed Daphne and point to things, when I say what he is pointing to, he does his best to say that word.  I think it is so much fun!  He is such a fun little man.

Not Much, Just Pictures

Leah and Justin

 I had a horrible night a week and a half ago...I took care of Leah later that following day.  Needless to say I was so tired and didn't think that I could handle having an extra kiddo, but she ended up being a HUGE blessing!  She kept Justin busy and I was able to do a few of the must do chores that I needed to do.  We love having that little girl in our home.  She is such a sweet little spirit! 

      Justin in the picture above is so cute! He was attempting to take apart his cash register with his plastic screwdriver.  Nate and I were laughing and watching him play.  He then went around trying to find screws that he could play with all over the house.  Last of all the super cute teal outfit on Daphne was a gift from a dear friend, Laura Haddix.  It is still too big, but she is growing and she looks so good in these colors!

sleeplessness and sickness

This week has been very hard for the entire Funk household.  I was sick last weekend with a pretty painful head cold.  Then by Monday morning the rest of my family was ill, even our sweet little Daphne had a runny nose.
     I found that Justin was the worst, for as the week went on he got the tummy flu as well.  He wasn't eating or drinking, and that of course made me completely freak out.  On Thursday morning I babysat Leah and Justin was so happy to have somebody visiting that he almost did a complete turn around.  He started to feel better.
The adorable little blue had that you see in the pictures above was a gift to Daphne from Aunt Nancy.  It is so adorable and she is finally big enough to wear it.  She looks so super cute in it.  The Christmas dress and hat came as a gift for Daphne from her Great-Grandma Elizabeth Meek, whom she is named after.  I understand that this dress was made by a dear friend that Grandma knows through church.  It was so fun to take these pictures.  I love being able to dress up my little girl.  Justin also wants to be right there and help with the dressing of his sister.  He just wants to love on her, sometimes a bit to roughly.  We are having so much fun with a girl in this household.