Courtney Allyson Giles

I wanted to share some thoughts about my precious little two year old, Courtney Allyson Giles. I am blessed beyond measure to have such a sweet baby girl. I really cannot believe how quickly 2 years has passed. I have loved every precious moment of her life. I especially cherish the time we have together before bed, as I rock her and enjoy sharing with her special memories of the day we spent together. Her gentle little spirit is full of such enjoyment for the simple things. She loves to show me on her wall how the giraffe licks the pole with his tongue (she doesn't really lick the wall) and how much the peacock, with his big beautiful feathers, liked her. She shares fondness about her brothers and sister. She talks about bunnies she had noticed outside the restaurant window.
I love that I am the one that understands her every word. I love her soft sweet voice and funny expressions. I beg her to repeat over and over again, "it's otay mommy!" and "tourtney needs mommy" and Mommy hold you me?!" and "I not baby-I tourtney (with her irresistible smile on her face) and "tank you"
I love that she is so quick to forgive and so willing to say sorry.
I love that she loves to read stories to me and always gets me to play chase with her every night as I am trying to put on her pajamas.
I love that she loves to carry around her purse and fill it with every girl thing she can find (or borrow from Sydney).
I feel amazing gratitude for her and cherish every breath she takes! I love her deeply with all my heart and soul!!!

Blake is 2 digits!!

We celebrated Blake's birthday this past Saturday. The day started out great for him with breakfast in bed. A great flag football practice and game. A yummy lunch and all chocolate birthday cake. We then drove an hour to Tanner's baseball tournament where Blake became very very ill. He spent the remainder of his birthday sicker than I have ever seen him. It broke my heart to see him so sick and especially on his birthday. Mike gave him two priesthood blessings. Finally, after the second one (3:00a.m) he was able to sleep.
We tried to make it up to him and took him to PF Chang's for his favorite Chinese food. I forgot to take my camera, to capture the sweet smiling face of a boy who re-discovered food. We had a really nice time as a family. Lots of laughs, smiles, and good old fashioned cherished time together. He has a birthday party scheduled for this Wednesday. I will keep you posted.

We had an enjoyable time at the Littleton Historical Museum. We went with Sydney's preschool class.
Notice the purse-Courtney carried it the entire day! :)

This was Sydney with her Cousin, Rachael.Here is a great shot (before my battery died :-( ). You can place crackers on their tongues-It is really cool!

Visitors

We really do feel very loved when anyone comes to see us. We have been blessed to have lots of visitors over the past 2 1/2 years. Our most recent guests were Mike's oldest sister, Shelly, her husband and 4 children (Jared, Jake, Rachael and Josh). John and Sharon (Mike's parents) hoped in with them and made the trip as well. We had a really great time while they were here. The boys loved playing some basketball with their cousins. Sydney loved having Rachael sleep in her room with her. Courtney wanted Grandpa all the time (sorry Grandma)

We went to Colorado Springs for the day and enjoyed Garden of the Gods and the Zoo. Unfortunately, my camera ran out of batteries before I could take any pictures at the zoo. We had a really great time with the Girafe's )Courtney still shows me how the girafe's have really long tongues. She loved that the peecock followed her around. She talks about how stinky the monkey house was. She loved being inside the bird house and watching them land on sticks feeding on bird seed. It really was a great day and is a really fun Zoo.

It was also really fun for Courtney that everyone arrived on her birthday!

Blake has just earned his "Bear" and now is officially a "Weeblo" . He especially loves that his dad is one of the weeblos leaders.

Follow the Leader

The boys are off track for 3 weeks. The weather was beautiful so we decided to go for a bike ride. Blake had a great idea to play follow the leader. We took turns deciding where we would venture to next. We went very far from home and had a lot of uphill on the way back home but had an abbsolutely fabulous time together. This is deffinately one of my favorite activities to do with my family.

Courtney celebrated her 2nd birthday with 3 other of her 2 year old friends (Ainslee, Jessica, and tate) and of course her sister, Sydney. We also let the boys come home from school for 45 minutes to enjoy Courtney's party.We played games, ate donuts, jumped on the trampoline, and played with toys. It was very fun. The cutest was when Courtney opened her presents. I had given her a pink trunk full of baby clothes, bottles...etc...When she opened the present, her face became real serious and then she started running up the stairs saying, "I have to get my baby" -It was priceless to see her so excited!
I can hardly believe she is 2 years old already. I love that I am her mom-I cherish her everyday-especially her smile and laugh!