Update Round #2--Let 2011 Begin!

2010 ended great, and all of a sudden it was 2011! As I've mentioned before, I'm not a big fan of snow, but in January, we had a great time sledding with our family! Alex's parents, siblings, and nephews (and Alex and Mya and I) had an awesome time enjoying some of the best powder on earth...

That same month, we were lucky enough to go to a Jazz game, also with Alex's awesome family. Mya loved seeing the Jazz Bear dressed up as Santa Clause (and actually still talks about it!), and she did a great job shouting at the two teams along with the best of 'em.

Alex and I would LOVE to go to Disneyland, or better yet, a Disney cruise, one of these days... But we figured that it'll be more fun when our kids are a little older and will enjoy it more. So we're planning sometime in another 7 or 8 years--we better start saving!! In the meantime, Disney on Ice came to Salt Lake City! I'd say that's a pretty dang good alternative. We got a sitter for Max, and Alex and Mya and I had a GREAT time at the show. And what was nearly as good as the show (or better than the show, if you ask Mya) was taking TRAX to and from the show... the simple joys of a 3 year old : ). We also learned that the "2 hour parking" sign on 5th South is in fact not bluffing. Don't mess with the SLC Parking Authority; unless of course you want to chase a parking ticket down the middle of 5th South because it flew off the windshield before you noticed it. That was fun. And it was raining. And windy.

On a much less fun note, 2011 has not been good for animals in our house. Pictured below are our sweet cats, Rudy (left) and Moki (right). We've had these felines for most of our marriage, and they really had become part of our family. Unfortunately, Moki was diagnosed with diabetes a couple of years ago. We treated him with insulin shots twice a day, special food, and lots of extra TLC over the next 1 1/2 years.... but the time had come that his medical needs were getting more and more demanding. It was really only a matter of time before his disease took his little life, so we decided to put him down. That sucked, bad. Over the next couple months, sweet little Rudy didn't adjust as well as we had hoped. Long story short, she got super depressed and wouldn't eat or bathe. She was deteriorating pretty quickly, and her body was literally shutting down. So, we had to put her to sleep too. Yes friends, it's not only possible for a cat to get diabetes, but it's also possible for a cat to die of a broken heart.

Mya's first hair cut! She wasn't too sure about being on that chair, but chilled out after I bribed her with my ipod. What did people do before such great technology?

In the late spring, we bought a cool family present--a playground! Mya really loved helping her daddy build the playground, even into the cold hours after sundown.

Over a handful of days, and about 30 hours (give or take) of manual labor, the work of art was complete! If more people in this world had the patience of my dear husband, this would be a better place, that's for sure!

For April Fool's Day, I had fun making these goofy cupcakes that I saw on another (way better) blog (Our Best Bites). Don't worry, all of the toppings are candy ; ).

Max's first haircut! This was a little more tricky than Mya's : ). At 9 months old, Max's hair was already shaggy enough to need a buzz. So, I set up his bath seat in mine/Alex's bathtub, sat Mya in front of Max with some snacks and toys, and went to town with our scissors and buzzer. You can see the pile of hair on the edge of the tub--I was impressed with how much came off! I was especially happy with how the haircut turned out, and I couldn't have done it without Mya's help!!

I just ADORE this picture of Max and Mya. They really do love each other (if you can't tell!)

HAPPY EASTER!!! We had a great time dying Easter eggs with Grandma Nola!

Some yummy Easter treats that I made.

We all had a great time at Grandma and Grandpa Berndt's house having an Easter egg hunt!

The grandkids LOVE taking silly pictures with Grandpa on his iphone ; )

Easter morning

I could just eat these two up, they are so stinkin' cute (most of the time...)

In February of 2011, my mom suffered from a pretty bad pancreatic attack. She ended up spending a total of 3 1/2 months in the hospital. I'm thankful to say that she's is home and doing phenomenally well at this point (August). Pictured below is an Easter afternoon spent at the University of Utah hospital with Grandma Diane.

My oldest nephew, Josh Bertagnole, graduated with his GED in May of 2011. Mya and I made a quick drive up to Casper, along with my other nephew Ben, to show our support for Josh's accomplishment. It was a fun, quick trip!

Mya's first sports group--Salt Lake County Spring Soccer!! She LOVED every minute of it, and felt super cool in her 'team shirt' and cleats.

A sunny morning enjoying one of her games. The cute boy from her team is Mya's best buddy Jaxson. They are pretty much inseparable, and mostly liked chasing each other around on the soccer field (versus actually kicking the ball). They are in the same primary class at church (which I teach), and a couple weeks ago they started kissing each other. On the LIPS. I thought I'd have more time... But the good thing is, the affectionate little darlings listened to their parents when we said 'no more kissing.' : )

Our cute little flying squirrel.

Mya turned 4 in June!!! Crazy how the time goes by so quickly. For her birthday, Mya wanted a 'Tangled' party (didn't every little girl get a Tangled party this year??). Her party turned out great. She had a few friends over and had a great time playing, opening presents, and eating cake and ice-cream. I would like to take a moment to point out the cake in the background of this photo. I MADE IT!!! And I'm still quite proud of it.

After Mya's party, we took her to McDonald's for lunch. It was a fun outing, and I got this picture of the 3 loves of my life... precious.

Also in June, we got to go to a Bee's baseball game. I'm not sure what was more fun: eating this entire foot long hot dog (that should have been my first indication of something happening inside my body... but I'll talk about that in a minute), going on the cute train with Mya, or Max oohing and aaaahhhing at everything at the game...

Oh wait, here's the highlight of the night. Don't worry buddy, I think mascots are horrifying too.

On Father's Day (6/19), Max turned 1!!! Lots of fun birthdays in June. Here's our little one year old thoroughly enjoying his gift from Grandma and Grandpa Berndt!

Look at that face. I know I'm a little biased as the child's mother, but come on--he is CUTE, I don't care who you are. We all had fun celebrating Max's first birthday and reflecting on the sheer joy he has brought into our lives. And Max had fun destroying his very own cupcake with chocolate frosting!

Happy America Party (or as some might call it, the 4th of July)!!!

We couldn't allow our little Cinderella to have too much fun at the party, so we made her sweep up the fallen rose petals.

And then there's that face again ; ).

A beautiful picture of Mya with Grandma Diane. One of the things that makes this picture so great is that my mom is not only out of the hospital, but also felt well enough to drive herself to and from our house to come to a party. AWESOME.

On July 1st, Alex and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary. We were lucky enough to spend a long weekend up in Midway, Utah. We'd like to thank Aunt Ruth and Uncle Dale for letting us use their condo (which is right across the street from the beautiful Zermatt Resort for those of you familiar with Midway), my mom for watching Mya, and our cousins Taylor and Rachel for watching Max. Everybody's generosity gave Alex and I the chance to enjoy this little vacation, and we really did have a great time!!

Mmmm, gelato...

Here's what Max was doing while we were in Midway--giggling and playing with his cousin Emma at Taylor and Rachel's house ; ). They are so cute!

Alex got laid off from the Wing Coop in July. The owner decided he was done being a restaurant owner and basically jumped ship and closed the place down... Anyway, we are incredibly thankful that Alex wasn't unemployed for too long (he's now managing a Cafe Zupas), and we also enjoyed having him home more for a little while before the new employment began. Here we are taking a trip on the Frontrunner train up to Ogden. It was quite the adventure ; ).

At the end of July, we celebrated Alex's birthday! We got to go see the new Captain America movie, and had an appropriately themed Captain America party for him. I love this Daddy/son photo from the party!

With all the fun of the evening though, I would have to say that this was probably the highlight for most of us there. I hear Mya's sweet voice from outside: "Mom, I need a tissue." 'HOLY CRAP! Uh, eww, hold on, don't touch it, let me get the camera first!' She's already agreed that I can put this in her wedding video, and her high school year book. She better watch herself over the next 20 years, or I just might do it! But for now, I figured that blogging the photo is harmless enough : ).

We had some portraits of the kids taken. (Photos by Kristen Spencer. To see the rest of the darling pictures, go to my Facebook page, the files are just too big to blog them all!). I particularly love this picture because it basically epitomizes Mya and Max. So sweet, so spastic...

The same photographer needed some baby models for a boutique, so here's Max doing a little modeling for some leg warmers.

And here's our latest news. Ready or not, here comes BABY BERNDT #3!!! We're excited that our next little peanut is due in March of 2012. Here's the next question--can I survive the first trimester of this pregnancy???