The Move

Like I said in a previous post, we really didn't have to do anything on this move, which was awesome and really weird.

The movers came on Monday and packed up our house. Little A and I went and spent the day with a friend while our house was packed. Allan stayed and watched our house get packed. I am so grateful for my sweet friend who let me spend the entire day at her house. She is a baby whisperer. It's amazing to watch her get fussy babies to sleep. While we were there I helped her go through all of the old Relief Society binders. We threw as much away as possible. There were about two binders full left when we were done, and they got stuck in the Relief Society closet. No more toting around a bunch of binders, yay!

This is what I found when A and I got back home that night.

Poor little A did not know what to think. She's been a bit out of sorts since then. They didn't take her crib down until the next morning so she slept in her room one more time.  I rearranged some things in our suitcases that night, and Allan got a picture of me among all the boxes.

The next day the movers came back to load everything up. While they loaded up our boxes in the front of their semi A and I went and visited another friend. I watched her little boy while she ran her little girl to preschool. A and he had a good time playing together.  Allan called me to come home when they were about to drive our second car into the back of the semi. I am so glad he did! The movers were two large Samoan men. The one who drove the car into the semi was the biggest. When he tried to open the door to get out of the car he realized that he was stuck! There was no way he was going to get out that way, lol! He crawled over to the passenger side and barely got out! I was laughing so hard! It was so hilarious to see this big man try to crawl over the seats and out the passenger door! He let the other guy get the car out when we got to our apartment in Idaho.

When they were finished the maid came to clean up, and we went out to eat and then met with our realtor. We drove to Mesa that night, and then Allan took little A and I to the airport the next morning. We had a smooth and easy flight. A and I walked around the airport until she was tired, read a few stories and talked to a sweet grandma, then boarded the plane. Once boarded she drank her bottle and went to sleep. Before she fell asleep she did try to pull the hair of the woman sitting next to us and tried to type on the woman's keyboard, but she fell asleep pretty quickly.  She didn't wake up until we started to land.  The only time she cried was after we landed when I was changing her bum in the restroom, she really hates those changing tables.

Allan picked up his dad from the airport a couple hours after we flew out and they started their drive. It was such a blessing that his dad was able to do that for us. They did the drive in a day and a half and really enjoyed the time together to talk.

A and I stayed with Allan's mom for that day and a half. We had a lot of fun with Grandma and had a fun visit with some cousins too. A was super excited to see her dad again though. We gave Allan a couple hour break before we finished the drive up to Idaho. Little A got to open some birthday gifts from Grandma and Grandpa. They got her two really cute outfits. Little A really liked the tags, ha!

We stayed with my mom and step-dad for a night and the next day the movers arrived and unloaded all of our stuff into the apartment. Allan went that morning to sign the lease and watch the movers unload. A and I went up that night after everything was done. 

I have to admit that I almost cried when I saw the apartment filled with boxes. I think it finally hit me that we weren't on vacation, we had actually moved. Going from a house to an apartment kind of stinks. It's a nice apartment, but it's not my beautiful house. I'm getting used to it though.

Allan worked really hard the next weekend to get everything in order and once everything was in it's proper place it wasn't so bad. The only bad thing is we have to use the laundry mat. Ug. It's a good thing Allan has three day weekends because I don't know how I'd do it myself.

Our house had an offer after one day of being on the market. We declined that offer and got another offer a few days later that we accepted. Since then we've been going back and forth with our realtor and relocation company trying to get everything in order to close on the sale. It should close by March. Yay!

Happy 1st Birthday Little A!

Our sweet girl turned 1 year old! She is such a delight! She brings so much joy and happiness to our lives.

 She is a chatter box and likes to try out new sounds. Mostly she sticks to Mama, Dad, ma, dada, ooh, and aah, but she also says B, D, T, and "ya". I love it when she says "ya". She always says it after we ask her a question. I don't think she really understands what it means quite yet, but it sure is cute!

When she is super excited she tenses up, grunts, and puts her hands out a little. You can see it in the picture really well. This is how we know when she really likes something.  I had her monkey, Momo, and was making monkey sounds. She loves monkeys and was so excited to get a hold of Momo.

We just had a little family party for her birthday. When Allan got home and cleaned up he took her outside to play for awhile so I could get dinner ready. They had a good play; she loves to play with her daddy.

We gave her her first cupcake. She was pretty hesitant at first, like she is with everything, but after a while she really went for it. She really liked the frosting, but mostly just squished the cupcake. We lit the candle and that made her really nervous. She doesn't know how to blow yet so we blew it out for her. She wished for a baby brother or sister. ;) The ice cream was a big hit. She is a girl after her Daddy's heart, and she ate plenty of ice cream.

 She had a ball playing in the kitchen after dinner. I loved how her tutu looked in the walker. It cracks me up! And the bow is hilarious too! It's about the same size as her head, lol! 

After dinner we opened presents. We got her the Melissa and Doug Noah's Ark shape sorter and a few books for church. She has really enjoyed the Noah's Ark (she doesn't sort the shapes, instead we play "The prophet Noah had an ark" to the tune of "Old McDonald had a Farm"). Her favorite animal on the ark is the monkey. It delighted her that there were two. :)

At 12 months little A weighed 19lbs 7oz and was 28 1/2 inches long.

She hates having her arms, hands, and feet touched. Helping her fold her arms for a prayer is not popular. When people try to tickle her or touch her feet she growls at them, lol!

She loves to dance and loves all sorts of music, especially those that have a good clear beat to them. She also loves to watch me dance.

She loves to read stories and makes sure we have some good reading time every day. When she's ready to read she walks me over to the rocking chair, and we sit and read until she starts to fall asleep.

She is a good eater. Her favorite food right now is beans, of any kind.  She hates bread and anything with a texture similar to bread. She still won't drink anything except for milk and thinks that sippy cups are like teething rings.

Her favorite toys are the Fisher Price Nativity, Momo the monkey, and Cheer Bear.  She loves to chew on Cheer Bears nose!  She also really enjoys emptying baskets and buckets.

She still sleeps 10-12 hours at night and takes 2 naps during the day, usually 45-60 min long. Occasionally she'll take a third nap or sleep an extra hour longer on her second nap. Those are really good days! She's a really happy camper, and I get a lot done in the house!

She can pull herself up on things but doesn't like to do it. She rolls both ways now and will move her right leg when she's trying to crawl. The left leg still doesn't budge though so she still doesn't really get anywhere. 

Goodbye/Happy Birthday Party

The weekend before we moved we threw a going away/happy birthday Little A party. I made a bunch of cupcakes and Allan bought some ice cream. The cupcakes turned out really cute. I was relieved because the only other time I've made cupcakes I made them from scratch, and they turned out horrible! And the recipe made about 100, lol! We had nasty cupcakes coming out of our ears. This time I bought a couple boxes of Betty Crocker and called it good. My friend showed me how to decorate them. I am happy to say that I can make cupcakes from a box successfully. Ha!

Little A and I had a great time playing outside while we waited for people to come. The weather was beautiful. We took as much advantage of it as we could before we moved to winter weather.

It was a busy weekend in the community, but most of our close friends still managed to come by. We also got rid of most of the cupcakes! Another big thanks to our friends for that, ha! The few we had left we brought to friends later on.  It was so great to see them all before we left. I am so grateful for their friendship. They all took such good care of us while we were away from our family. We felt like we were leaving home. 

Last Few Weeks in AZ

Moving was quite a different experience this time around. We only packed one small box and a couple of suit cases. We hired a maid to clean our house. I had nothing to do to prepare for the move. It was really weird, and really awesome.

I do have to admit though that not packing and cleaning made the move harder for me. Because I wasn't doing all those things you do to prepare for a move it didn't really seem like we were going anywhere. It felt like we were going on vacation.

Little A and I had a lot of time to play and say goodbye to our friends. Because we moved to a cold, snowy area I made sure to be outside more often. Little A loved it! She loves to be outside as much as possible. One day while we were walking to the mail box she discovered the rocks in our front yard and decided that she wanted to walk on them. From then on that is all she wanted to do: walk on the rocks, stand on the rocks, kick the rocks, and try to eat the rocks. When I would bring her inside she would scream, and if I tried to keep her away from the rocks and walk to the mail box she whined the whole way there and the whole way back, lol. One day when we went to the mail box the mail lady was still putting the mail in the boxes. Little A had a good time talking to her while we waited for our mail. She was sad to see her go until the truck started up. Then she was terrified and couldn't wait for the truck to leave.

Another day we had been pretty busy and hadn't had a chance to go on a walk yet. Eventually A couldn't take it anymore. She fussed until I came and got her, then she promptly walked me to the door and laid her head on it with a very somber look on her face. When I tried to re-direct her so I could get some more things done she sighed heavily and looked so sad I decided we had better go outside. As soon as we got outside she bolted for the rocks.

Little A got a pretty bad diaper rash. She rarely gets them and they usually go away within a day or two. This one was pretty bad though and wanted to linger and linger. So, one day I decided to let her go naked for a while. I put her on a water-proof pad on our rug in the living room. At that time she still wasn't moving much and preferred to sit and play with her toys. I went into the kitchen to put her bottles away. She was playing really well and then it went really quiet, followed by a giggle.  I went in and she had layed down on her belly, scooted to the edge of the rug, and was swinging her feet back and forth on the wood floor. I moved her back to the center of the pad, got her laying with her toys again and went to finish up her bottles. She played for a while and then got really quiet, followed by another giggle. I walked back in and she had done the same thing but had scooted far enough that her belly was on the floor too. I scooted her back onto the pad, got her playing, and went to finish her bottles. When I heard another giggle I walked in to find little A lying on the wood floor in a puddle of pee, splashing and giggling happily. It was so funny, I burst out laughing! It stunk to have to clean her and the floor up, but it was just so hilarious too. She was so thrilled to splash in her little puddle, and she loved the bath that followed, lol. Thankfully none of the pee got on the rug,so it was a pretty easy clean up.

A also discovered the clothes spinning in the dryer. She had a ball watching all the colors move around and around.

A has started dancing to music. She has waved her hands and kicked her feet since she was born, but now she rocks and shakes too! She is so funny. If she's sitting she rocks back and forth to the beat of the music and waves her right hand like she's conducting. If she is standing she swings/shakes her right foot back and forth to the beat and bounces every now and then. She also loves it when Allan or I hold her and dance to the music. She loves it when I turn in a circle and leap in the air.  She pretty much likes all music. If she's tired and something soft and lulling is on she whines though. It makes her more sleepy, and she doesn't want to take a nap.

Little A has gotten really good at playing peek-a-boo. She doesn't do it with her hands though. She likes to put a blanket over her head and then pull it off. It is endless hours of entertainment. She loves to pull the blanket off of my head too, but her favorite is when I put the blanket over both our heads and then she pulls it off.

She has started saying Mama and Dad more often. She'll follow me around the house in her walker looking at me and saying "Mama!" until I acknowledge her. Then she smiles and sometimes giggles, and we go on our way until she wants to tell me something else. She says "dada" a lot now but when she's really talking to Allan she either says "Dad", or "dada" in a certain tone (like she's saying "Oh, dad.")

Lately she has been turning around in her crib. We'll tuck her in at night with her head laying towards the wall and find her the next morning with her head towards the door (half a circle). She also likes to lay with her head on the bars on one side of the crib and her legs on the bars on the other side.  She is never in the same spot, with is unusual for her. Ha!

We spoke in Sacrament meeting the week before we moved. We both really like speaking in sacrament meeting. I know we're weird. We enjoy the study that goes with preparing a talk and we enjoy speaking. I think we both learned to enjoy it while we were serving missions. We spoke on "The Godhead - Who am I? Who can I Become?", which is what the youth were studying that month.

While Allan was speaking little A got a little restless. I stood her up so she was holding onto the bench, and she started playing with the little girl behind us. To get closer to the little girl, A started cruising along the bench! It was the first time she's done that, and I was SO excited! I wanted to clap for her, but since we were in Sacrament meeting I restrained myself. The attention would have made her stop anyway.

One of the sisters crocheted Little A a monkey puppet. She LOVES it! It has quickly become a favorite. A has always loved monkeys so it was the perfect gift.

I went to a girls night with some of my good friends. It was old lady themed. I dressed up in my best old lady outfit, added some wrinkles to my face, and put baby powder in my hair. You can't see it very well in the picture. The make-up melted off pretty fast and the baby powder disappeared too, so then I just looked like a librarian, ha! It was a fun night though. We had a lot of yummy treats, played phase 10, and chatted a lot. I sure do miss those ladies.