Bartholomew Family: playing catch up!

Playing catch up on the blog!

This post is going to be FULL of pictures of the kids (because lets be honest they are my life)...and random moments from our last few months. It is going to be my lazy attempt to catch up on the blog :)

Here is a quick update on our fam:

Nate: He is the fruit fly king! He has thousands of fruit flies he sorts, collects and mates. He tests all sorts of drugs on them in hopes to one day develop safer anesthetics. I joke with him about his second family and how he spends more time with them than us. He has even named some of his flies. Thor the alpha male fruit fly made it to 65 days of life, sadly he passed away and left 5 generations of grandchildren to be tested. I laugh but really it is so interesting! He has spent countless hours in research lab doing amazing things. He is a research scientist testing all sorts of drugs on fruit flies and mutating their genes. Pretty legit stuff people! He is doing great in school and working his little tail off. We don't get to see him very much and he has timer that he brings home that rules our family time... but we can't complain too much. He is a rock star and does an amazing job balancing school, flies and family :)

Kayla: I have been keeping busy with the daily chores and taking the kids to their few activities. We have been to play group, music makers, library day, and dance lessons over the last few weeks. I have also become a professional poop cleaner upper! Having sick kids for over a month makes for a lot of clean up. Nate and I have had a lot of fun playing volleyball every monday night with a group of friends. It has made for a great work out as well as some much needed adult interaction. We let the kids go wild and run all over daddy's school grounds. I have started to go hiking in the mornings early and it has really made a difference in how I start my day. It's beautiful to watch the sun rise and look over the new Phoenix temple. I have really been trying to work on myself and do some soul searching. It has been a good spiritual journey and I think the beautiful morning hikes has made it easier for me to clear my head.

Lexi: She is getting an opinion. She asks to do some of her favorite activites and if we don't do them she gets an attitude! She loves to go to Desert Ridge and dance to the live band. She asks almost every day. This little girl LOVED Rapunzel and The Little Mermaid. She also begs to watch them both daily. She is going to be Rapunzel for halloween and has tried on her princess dress daily. Lexi loves her daddy... but what's new? He has always been her favorite. She is so full of life and keeps us laughing!

Nixon:My handsome little man turned 8 months old this month. I could eat him up...seriously! He is so happy and so much fun. We are only slightly obsessed with his silly personality and contagious smile.

Lexi loves her brother and each morning when she wake's up and sees him she says "hi bud, you sleep good?" then she rubs his head and says "mom, I love him!"

It's the best. I love watching my kids together. Nix also loves Lexi. She is the only one that can get him gut laughing so hard he cries!

Lexi has also caught on to a few of my phrases... one of my favorite is when she calls Nixon a "little runt" puts a smile on my face every time!

Nixon at 8 months!

Crawls like a pro, loves all baby food, size 4 diapers, 18 pounds, has the biggest and best gummy smile you have ever seen, has an adorable dimple on his right cheek, loves his big sister and follows her all around the house, loves to play with toys and pulls up to standing on any and all furniture, gives the best wet kisses, sleeps 4-5 hours at a time (we are hoping he will sleep through the night and surprise us all :), can hold his own bottle, loves his mama, can say dada, waves, loves sitting in a high chair like a big boy, loves soft blankets and toys, and has the sweetest personality. We are loving this baby boy!! We are so lucky he is ours.

Look at that dimple?!

Nixon finally has a little bit of hair on the top of his head. Can you see it? Looks like he will be a blond like his daddy!

Nixon melts my heart. I love having a boy. We have such a special bond and I am loving doing the boy stuff. He is my little bud and I couldn't love him more.

Lexi girl-

My sweet little Lexi has been sick for about 6 weeks now! It has been a LONG few weeks trying to figure out what is going on. It all started with her throwing up one night after we put her down to bed. She has now consistently thrown up and had diarrhea for 6 weeks... no fun. We are all a little exhausted and are praying for some answers and a healthy girl. Luckily she has happy moments and phases in between these sick spells and we are able to get out of the house and enjoy a little bit. We have done some testing and all of the scary illnesses are coming up negative... so that's good, but we still don't have an answer. We continue to see the doc and will keep you posted!

My Lexi is a little sponge lately. Her vocabulary has exploded and she can talk in full sentences. She cracks us up will all of her silly phrases. A few of my favorites lately:

While in the tub I poured water on Lexi's head to wash her hair, she immediately starts to cry and says "mommy Lexi ssoo ornery"

She talks to herself all of the time and uses her name every time she talks:

"Lexi is hungry"

"When Lexi wakes up she wants to watch Ariel"

"Lexi play with friends later"

She knows her name is Lexi!

Nate: Lexi what's mommy's name?

Lexi: Mommy Kayla

Me: Lex what's daddy's name

Lexi: hhmmm best friend!!

(darn. I didn't make the best friend cut)

She is currently obsessed with the song Roar from Katy Perry and watches the music video at least 5 times a day. She can sing it word for word.

We have found some awesome free deals lately. One of them being a little dance studio by our house. It was offering a few free trial classes for 2 year olds. I was so excited to have Lexi try them out. I have been looking forward to her first little dance class since the day I found out I was having a girl!

Luckily she LOVED it and it was darling. The teacher used props, mats, hula hoops, and taught them ballet vocabulary. I only wish we had the money to sign her up for the classes!

My adorable dancer!

haha I loved how Lexi grabbed her head and shook her hips.

These adorable girls are in our ward. I love that Lexi has SO many friends.

Another fun activity we did with a few friends was visit the Deer Valley Airport. They have a little seating area with tables and chairs right in front of the landing strip to watch the planes land and take off. The kids loved it! We packed a lunch and watched the planes for 2 hours. Lexi pointed out all of the planes colors and got so excited when they pulled right up to us.

My Lexi wanted to be one of the boys and take her shoes off. She begged and begged and when I finally gave in she complained about the hot cement on her feet... she is a girly girl after all!

Beat the heat!

It is still hot here in AZ. The mornings and Evening are feeling wonderful but during the day we are still looking for activities to cool off a bit. We visited a new splash pad with a few friends. It was Nixon's first real splash pad experience. I let him wander free and he loved it.

These cute friends are moving next month. I might just cry thinking about it. I have become SO close to their mama and am going to miss them so much. We are soaking up every chance we get to play with them.

Everyday moments

These two little buds love to play together. With the sicknesses the past month we have been spending most afternoons indoors. Nixon will watch Lexi for hours.

I just dump a pile of toys on the family room floor and they entertain themselves. We also got Nix this awesome jumper toy. I decided it was worth the money when he used one at my sisters house over the summer and loved it. It has saved my life lately. I put him in there to shower, make dinner, do dishes and get anything done that involves me leaving the room. It helps my anxiety so I won't worry about him crawling away or getting into something he shouldn't. Luckily he loves it and can jump like a crazy boy! I have asked if he could get shacking baby syndrome from that thing! He will jump, jump, jump himself right to sleep and it's the sweetest :)

That smile :)

Nixon had his first taste of a Popsicle. It was hilarious. His tiny tongue couldn't get enough! He loved it and would stiffen up and beg when we pulled it away. It was a fun 15 min break Nate had from school.

Monsoon Season

Watching a monsoon in Arizona is such a thrill. I have never seen a rain storm like the one's here in AZ. A giant storm can roll in within the matter of a few minutes. Massive amounts of rain falls to the ground and fills our parking lot full of the best puddles little kiddos can imagine. One afternoon after a good rain storm we let the kids run wild and play in the puddles. It was hilarious to watch these kids dip their heads in the puddles, roll around in the parking lot and have races. We laughed and let them play, get dirty and best of all make some good memories!