Mommy Memories

I don't remember Maddy being as messy as Kaelyn is when it comes to eating. Her favorite thing is to chew on her bib in between bites and then jerk her head away just as I put the spoon in her mouth which makes the food fly everywhere. Then when I am trying to wipe her face off she turns her head 90 degrees so I can't see her chin. She sure has fun eating this way, but as you can see from the picture not much ends up in her tummy.


I was doing the dishes a couple of days ago while Kaelyn was laying in her swing. When I turned around to check on her she had pulled herself up into a sitting position and was smiling as she was holding on to these two handles. It reminded me of riding a ride at an amusement park. Watching her swinging back and forth and laughing. Such a big girl!

French Braids

I am so excited that Maddy's hair is long enough now I can do fun hairdo's ! Here is our latest.

Corn Syrup in Infant Formula

I primarily breastfeed my children, but because I work a few hours each afternoon and for convenience I occasionally have given them infant formula when I am out in public. I also use formula when I make infant cereal.

This morning as I was preparing Kaelyn's cereal I just happened to glance at the ingredient label on the side of the can of formula and to my surprise the first two ingredients were CORN SYRUP and SUGAR!! AHHH!! Here I am trying my hardest to not buy any products that contain High Fructose Corn Syrup for the rest of my family and would have never guessed that BABY products would be allowed to contain corn syrup.

Wanting to learn more I went online and found this article "Corn Syrup in Formula" .

I have been using Sensitive and Soy-based formulas because Kaelyn spits up a lot, but now I am going to change back to the basic MILK-BASED formula that contains lactose rather than sugar and corn syrup. Who would have thougth?

Cute Kaelyn!

Being our 2nd child Kaelyn sadly has been abused when it comes to us taking pictures of her. We have hundreds of pictures of Maddy when she was an infant and only a handful of pictures of Kaelyn. I am sure we are not the first parents to fall into this trap. Here are a few pictures that Jay took of Kaelyn yesterday. She is such a smiley baby and a joy to have in our family.

Adventures of Potty Training

I have been slowly introducing potty training to Maddy over the past few months and this last week I decided to increase my efforts and see how she would take it. Here a few pics of one of our many activities to keep her sitting on the potty. She loved that she had little buggies all over her legs and it kept her on the potty for a long time.

I Love My Mission President!!

So tonight was the adult session of our stake conference. Jay had a performance so I went with my really good friend Kim. We were so excited because Elder Robert D. Hales of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles was presiding at our conference. As he was walking into the chapel at the beginning of the meeting right behind him was an Elder from the Quorum of the 70 and who was it?My mission president, Presidente Martino (now Elder James B. Martino)!!! I was so excited to see him (Kim pointed out that it seemed that I was more excited that he was here than the member of the 12)!!!

The meeting began and the spirit bore testimony of the restored gospel and the truthfulness of the principles that each of the speakers were teaching. The talks were outstanding! Afterwards I quickly walked up to the stand to greet my mission president. He totally remembered who I was, when I left the mission field, and that I gave the closing prayer when Elder Richard G. Scott came and spoke at our mission (what a good memory).

Then as we were talking Elder Robert D. Hales came up to us and my president introduced me to him and I got to shake his hand. WOW! What a night! Not only did I get to see my mission president who I absolutely LOVE, but I got to shake hands with an apostle of the Lord. Am I a lucky girl or what?!

I am so grateful I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I know that it is the Lord's true church here on this earth. I know that because the Holy Ghost has testified this to me in several occasions throughout my life and tonight was one of those occasions.

Support Suzi Hyte

A friend of mine for the past few years has been battling Hodgkin's Lymphoma. A website has been created to support her during this time http://supportsuzi.com. Please pass the word on to anyone you know. We are trying to raise money to help her with some of her financial obligations with school and medical responsibilities.

Weekend in So. California

This past weekend we loaded the girls in the car and headed down to So. Calif. to visit my mom and celebrate the August birthdays in my family (me, my sister Collette and brother Jason). It was so nice to get a break from the weather here and spend time with family and friends. Here are a few pics of our adventures.

New Pictures & Videos! of Maddy and Kaelyn!!

For those of you that aren't subscribed to Jay's blog go to http://jmdougherty.blogspot.com/ to see new pictures of the girls and a few videos that Jay has recently made. My favorite is "The Bird Lady" Video!!! The shades are fabulous!!!

My Birthday Present!!

For my 30th birthday my husband surprised me with a one night getaway to a resort here in town. It was the perfect present! I had actually told him a day before my birthday that all I wanted was to have some alone time with him without the girls (and he already had booked the little getaway. He knows me all too well).

The resort was absolutely beautiful! Very modern and spacious! The pools were beautiful. They had a couple of kiddie pools so we decided the next day to pick up the girls early from the sitters and take them swimming before we had to check out. I told Jay as we were leaving the resort that we shouldn't wait another 4 years to treat ourselves to something like this (the last vacation we had was our honeymoon). It was so nice to have us time!! Thanks Jay for a great birthday present!