Happy Easter!

Easter this year was a bit crazy for us. We were preparing the house all week to paint it that weekend. We had planned on painting eggs for family night but then realized that we needed to do it closer to Easter so we could do an egg hunt with Little A. So, we ended up painting eggs the family night after Easter. Eesh.

I started putting bows in A's hair again and she leaves them in! Yay!

Cheer Bear has become A's favorite toy lately. She loves to chew on her nose lol! The green outfit is from Nana. I also finally went and got some hair ties so I can put A's hair in a ponytail. The first day I did it I decided to do pigtails. It is so darling on her! She hates it though so I only do it a couple times a week.

A has officially outgrown size 0-3 month infant shoes! Sort of. She can still wear most of the size 1's she has and can fit into a few of the size 2's. But, she outgrew (and wore out) our favorite pink tennis shoes. I loves these shoes! There were so easy to get on her feet and looked adorable with everything. I sent them to AG as part of her Easter package.

Allan's dad came down over Easter weekend to help us paint. K3 and her husband C came too! It was SO nice to have all of the help! We used KILZ oil-based primer to get the smoke out. That stuff has got some MAJOR fumes! It made Allan and his dad sick. We had to go and get respirators so we could finish! We were able to get all of the upstairs done (primer and paint) except for the paint in the kitchen, laundry, and bathrooms. 

Allan's dad brought a whole bunch of his tools and that was a huge help as well! We are so grateful for all of his help and know how. We tinted the primer in hopes that we wouldn't have to do two coats of paint. When I came the first morning after dropping A off at a friends I took one look at the primer and thought "Oh no! That isn't even close to the color it should be!" We chose a light grey and it was a bright blue. We hoped and prayed that the actual paint color was correct and thankfully it was. I was determined to just live with it since we couldn't return it, but I was so relieved that it was the color I wanted.

We usually have Easter baskets on Saturday but since we needed to be at the house we did them Easter Sunday. The Easter bunny brought little A some Peeps and a chocolate bunny, a stacking ring tower, and a dress. She LOVED eating the candy and has enjoyed chewing on the rings and tossing them in the general direction of the tower. We've been working with her at getting them on the tower, and she is getting closer and closer!

She wasn't a huge fan of the dress. It's kind of poofy and she hates poofy.  It was so cute on her though. Grandpa took a family picture for us.

We snagged a picture with Grandpa that morning too.

We colored eggs the next day with the intent of doing an egg hunt the following night. A goes to bed so early that it's hard to do much in the evenings. We usually have to split things up into two nights. Unfortunately we never did do a hunt with her. We were so busy at the house that we forgot. We ended up barely eating the eggs before they were bad. Better luck next year.

Little A was really bored at first but when she saw how the eggs changed color she was mesmerized. She looked at me, at the egg, at me, at the egg with big wide eyes, ha! It was so cute and so funny!

The sweater A is wearing in this picture was crocheted by my Grandma (my mom's mom) for my sisters and I. It is so cute on A! It's perfect for the cool mornings here. My Grandma passed away a few years ago so things like this are so special to me.

Laundry here is quite the ordeal. When we first moved here Allan did it for me. After the snow melted and it warmed up a little, I figured out how to do it while he's at work. I load up A in the stroller and give her some snacks. Then I load the laundry, laundry detergent, quarters, and dryer sheets into the stroller basket. The laundry doesn't really fit in the basket though so I end up balancing it on the basket with one hand while I push the stroller with the other hand. We go over to the laundry room I get it all loaded and we go on a 30 min. walk. Then we go back to the laundry room and change the laundry to the dryer. I put A down for a nap and after 45 min. I go add more quarters to finish drying the laundry (it never dries in one cycle, and it won't let me add more quarters after it starts, lame). When A wakes up we go get the laundry, me balancing it on the stroller basket again. It sits on the bed until A goes to sleep and I can fold it. I think the thing I am looking forward to the most is having a washer and dryer in my house again where I can do laundry at my leisure!

Egg Hunt

Little A is getting so big and continues to get closer to walking on her own. She is too smart for her own good though. She will no longer let me hold her up; she has to be the one holding onto me. After I let go twice she refused to stand unless she was holding on! She loves to walk as much as possible. And, I like to walk her because then she sleeps really well at night. If we don't walk enough during the day she wakes up at night trying to practice.

We got Little A the "My LDS Quiet Book" for church. She has really enjoyed discovering all of the fun things in it. It will occupy her time for 30-45 min. I only pull it out at home if I haven't had a moment to read scriptures, otherwise it is an at church only toy. We're hoping she will stay interested in it longer that way.

A loves to brush her teeth (really she just loves to eat the toothpaste and alternate throwing her toothbrush in the sink and picking it up, ha). In the mornings we brush our teeth together and then I brush her hair. It's become a really fun routine for us. She also loves to give kisses to the baby in the mirror. :)

Lately she has decided that both of her feet should be out while she is in her highchair. Gratefully she always lets me take the tray off and put her feet down. She always giggles when I do it; she thinks its a really fun game. She continues to be a really good eater. She loves spicy food and other foods with a lot of flavor. The only things we can't get her to eat are bread, cottage cheese, peanuts, and avocado.

We had the air ducts and the rest of the house cleaned this week in preparation to start painting. We also ripped out all of the carpet - upstairs and downstairs. It is currently sitting in our garage. Allan was a champ and did most of it himself. I helped with the basement. The house already smells so much better! We also took down all of the blinds, light fixtures, and outlet/light switch plates. We'll start painting next weekend!

We took little A to an Easter Egg Hunt. K6 and cousin P were able to come too! It was fun to have the girls together. I am also really glad that K6 came because I walked out the door without A's Easter basket and didn't have anything for her to put her eggs in. K6 came to the rescue though. She had a little purse in her car (a toy of P's) and a plastic bag. Between the two we got all of A's eggs.

I really liked how the city did the Easter Egg hunt. You had to sign up before hand so they knew how many kids were coming and what ages. They set up different spots for different ages. Every child could pick up 15 eggs and then you were done. Some of the eggs had pink paper in them. If you got some of those you got extra prizes. This way it wasn't a blood bath, and everyone got something. 

Little A really enjoyed watching the other kids and picking up eggs. She put a couple of eggs in her little purse but preferred holding them and tasting them. P ran around, got a few eggs, and then wanted to play on the play ground, ha! 

It was really windy and both P and A had just recovered from ear infections so Allan took all of our pink papers and got the prizes while we got the girls settled in the car. 

We did manage to snag a quick picture with the Easter bunny though. A loved her! She petted her fur, ha! I thought she might be afraid, but she really enjoyed petting the fur. K6 took A for us, and Allan and I went over to the house and got all of the staples out of the floor so we could lay hardwood down. We got a lot of work done and are so grateful that K6 could watch A for us that day. K6 told me that A decided to crawl up the stairs! She has never really been interested in the stairs. She started out terrified of them. A week or two ago she finally let me walk her down them but absolutely would not crawl up them. I'm glad she got over her fear. I have yet to see her do it though.

We spoke in church this week. We were asked to prepare 20 min talks, and we did. Then there was a baby blessing and two confirmations! I ended up giving my whole talk because Allan made a deal I could not refuse. He ended up only speaking for a couple of minutes. My talk went well and someone came up to me afterward and said it was just what they had needed to hear. My mom came and took care of little A for us, and that was such a huge help!

I also celebrated my 31st birthday. We celebrated by speaking in church, ha! We went to my Nana and Pops after church, and she had dinner for me and home made cheese cake! Yum! For my birthday I wanted to work on our house and replace all of the doorknobs, and Allan obliged. He still cannot believe that that is what I wanted. :)

Home Owners Again!

We closed on our house! We are so excited to be home owners again! We have some work we need to do before we move in though. It will be another 2 months before we move, but we're excited to get started and make the house our own. I forgot to take pictures when we went and looked at it after we closed. We'll be in and out this week a lot though, so I'll get some up soon.

We had little A with us when we signed all of the paperwork. The agent at the title company had her two girls there as well (they were waiting for their grandparents to come and get them). It worked out really great that they were there. They played with A while we got all of the work done. A had a ball! She loves playing with children, especially older children that will fawn over her. The girls helped her walk all around the office and fawned over A enough that she didn't want to leave. This is something that I love about small towns. People sometimes bring their kids to work :)

Little A has moved from walking with full assistance to walking with partial assistance. She likes to walk around with one hand patting the wall, couch, chair, etc. and someone holding the other hand. We have to hold her left hand and her right hand has to be free to pat or she won't move, ha! She also likes to stop and pick things up and shake them around for a while. We make as many laps around the house as she can convince me to do.

We went to story time with Aunt K6 and cousin P again. They came home with us and played for a while. I always love being with family. P cracks me up; she has quite the personality and literally never stops moving. A always tries to play with her, but she can't ever keep up with P. It ended up with A eating lunch and watching P while she ran around. K6 and I had a fun talk. I'm really glad they're close.

We had a lot of family play time this week. We also went out for Chinese to celebrate closing on our house. Little A has always been a good eater. The only thing we can't get her to eat is bread. She LOVED the Chinese food! She ate BBQ Pork, Cashew chicken, Sweet n sour pork, and pork fried rice, and some of her fortune cookie! Her favorite was the sweet n sour pork. She never ceases to amaze us at what and how much she eats.

A surprised me this week by standing up in her crib! I've been waiting for her to do this. She's been trying for a while but doesn't like how unsteady the mattress feels and always gives up as soon as it moves under her. The other day I heard her waking up from her nap. Usually she yells to tell me she is awake, but this time she was giggling and squealing. I went in to see what she was up to and found her standing up in her crib! She was SO proud of herself! She couldn't stop squealing in delight and jabbering all about it!

I also put her in a box for the first time. A box of diapers came so I thought, "kids love to sit and play in boxes, I'll see if Little A likes it." She hated it. It was like a prison to her. I took her out and set the box on it's side and put some toys in it to see if she would crawl into it eventually, but she avoided it the entire day! I guess not all kids like boxes. For A the best gift is definitely NOT a box.

We went and visited Allan's parents over General Conference weekend. It was such a great weekend. We love being with our family and listening to the Lord's prophets just made it better. This was a tough conference for us though. A didn't want to sleep, but she also didn't want to sit and listen. So, Allan and I took turns (alternating sessions) rocking Little A to sleep in another room and snuggling her all of conference. This was great except for that all the rocking and snuggling inevitably put us to sleep too, so we struggled with getting much out of the sessions we had to be with her. The snuggle time was great though!

A few quotes that I really appreciated from conference:

"Those who face their fears with faith have courage" - Elder Russell M. Nelson
"Gratitude should be a way of life independent of what is happening in our lives." - President Dieter F. Uchtdorf
"Love is the very essence of the gospel and Christ is our exemplar" - President Thomas S. Monson

I have enjoyed reading the talks over the last month. I am so grateful for our living prophet and apostles and the guidance that they give us!

While we visited with Allan's family Little A got to have a play date with her cousin J. Last time they played she wasn't mobile yet. He took advantage of this and gave her a good hefty pull of the hair. She wasn't a big fan. This time she was mobile, and he wasn't sure quite what to do about it! When ever she would talk to him or try to move to him he would run away and cry! Ha! It really was so funny. I felt bad for them both though. For J because he was scared, and for A because she just wanted to play!

I have to write a bit about A and her Grandma. She loves all of her Grandma's, but she is very attached to Allan's mom. While we were there she just wanted to be near her. All the time. When I set her down to walk she would walk straight over to Grandma and sit in her lap. If Allan came over to get Little A she refused to go to him because she just wanted her Grandma. Thankfully she would still come to me, so Grandma got a little bit of a break, ha! I am really glad that she loves her Grandma so much.

Pics From Phone

I finally took all of the pictures off of our phone and got them on to the computer. Yay! It only happened because I ran out of room on the phone, lol.

Little A loves to watch the screen saver. We have it set to our family pictures. After dinner one night we put her in her walker and were listening to music while we cleaned up the kitchen. When the screen saver came on she stopped and watched it.

This is what A and I did while our house was packed up and moved. We went to a friends house a little later, but we had a nice snuggle and watched some videos on LDS.org that morning. Best move ever! Although, I do have to say that it was really weird to have people working in my house and not help them.

The big truck that moved all of our stuff, including one of our cars. Right after this one of the movers got stuck in the car, ha! There wasn't enough room for him to open the door after they got the car into the semi. It was so funny to watch him climb across the front seat and squeeze out the other side.

This is A's FAVORITE thing to do! She likes to walk on, hold, rake, and eat rocks. She would play in them all day if I would let her! Allan and I decided that instead of getting a sand box we are getting a box of rocks :)

The day we moved from Arizona we stopped to have lunch at our favorite Mexican restaurant there. We got empanadas and A loved them! She also loved the beans and rice so much that she ate pretty much all of it. We eventually stopped giving it to her because we didn't want her to have a stomach ache.

Little A snuggling Nana. She is also wearing the dress that Nana gave her.

Nana is helping little A ride the horse. A got a big kick out of it.

This is how A spent much of the first couple weeks after we moved into our apartment. I would set her up on a blanket with a basket of toys, and she would play while I unpacked.

Here she is again in all the boxes. She really was a trooper. She played so good while I worked. She wasn't very mobile when we first moved so she didn't get into anything but the toys I put by her.

This was the night before A and I flew to stay with our family while Allan and his Dad drove our 2nd car up. We stayed at a hotel close to the airport. A HATED this crib. She kept bumping her head on the bars. It was a rough night. She also pooped in the middle of the night, but didn't wake up to tell us and had a bad rash the next morning. Poor girl.

Little A loves BBQ sauce. She will only eat potatoes if they are covered in it. In this picture I had made home made french fries. She wouldn't touch them. Then I dipped one in BBQ sauce just to see what she would do. She LOVED it and kept eating until she fell asleep in her chair.

We went and stayed with Allan's parents while he was on a business trip in Canada. While there we went to Costco with them and got A a new car seat. When little A rides in the cart she puts her arm around the back rest and looks behind her (like she's backing up a car)! It always cracks me up! I couldn't get a picture of her looking back, but I got the arm on the back rest.

We went to play with little A's cousins while we were visiting Grandma and Grandpa. While we were playing M walked backwards and fell into this box! Ha!

It was so funny that E had to do it too! ;)

Little A and Grandma. A loves her Grandma so much. When we visit them she wants nothing to do with anyone but Grandma. The only other person she'll go to willingly is me. I love that they are both wearing purple in this picture.

A in her new car seat for the first time. She wasn't sure what to think about it at first, but soon decided that being able to sit up all the way was awesome!

A and I were playing with the cookie cutters. She loves to play with them. I put a heart on her head, and she didn't know what to think about it. She froze and stared at me like this for quite a while before I finally took it off of her head. I put it on my head and demonstrated how to tilt your head to make it slide off. She thought that was funny. K5 and her fiance gave her this cute dress!

My sweet girl reading stories. She loves to look at books, especially in the morning. For a long time I would get her up and change her clothes and then we'd walk into the living room, and she would stop at the books, sit down, and look at them while I ate breakfast and did a few chores. K5 and her fiance gave her this cute outfit too.

Little A also loves Macaroni and Cheese, home made or out of the box. She gobbles it up! I think she gets this from her Dad because it's his favorite too!

This was taken when A was sick with a cold and double ear infection. She was not a happy camper. She hadn't slept in a couple of days and hadn't eaten much either. She also had some molars coming in and was drooling like crazy. I had to change her shirt half way through the day because she was soaked.

A and Allan playing. I set up the chairs and ottoman like this so she could cruise around them. It gave me a break from helping her walk and allowed me to get a little work done. When Allan came home from work they started playing. She cruised over to him, and they were laughing at each other. She grabbed his hair right as I took the picture, ha!

When she was first starting to move around I sat her down in the hall one day to wash my hands after I changed her bum. She got down on her belly and started pushing herself backward. She eventually got stuck on the doorway to her bedroom. She couldn't figure out why she couldn't go anymore.

This was the first time A discovered the door stop. She wiggled her way over there one day while I was getting ready for the day. I suddenly heard boing, boing, boing. I went to look and she was playing with the door stop. Too cute! Those things are great entertainment!

This was taken in the airport on one of our trips. A and Allan were having a great time playing with each other.

Little A's first time behind the wheel! Don't worry. The car was off and in park. She had a great time standing there though.

This is the first time that A ever sat on this car. It was a toy at Nana's house (she later got one for Christmas from Grandma and Grandpa). She loved it and was so proud of herself as she rode it and played the music. Her legs couldn't quite reach the floor well enough to push herself so she just rocked herself back and forth on it.

Allan and I went to a Jane Austen Ball while we were in Arizona. It was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed doing all of the period dances. My dress was borrowed to me from the dance director.

Little A loves to help me fold the laundry. Her job is always to fold the socks. She usually folds them by first eating them, second shaking them out, and third throwing them away from her. And she also likes to pull them over her head.

A LOVES to play with her toes, and her shoes. I love this picture of her. While she was helping fold the socks she toppled over and decided that while she was down there she should eat her shoes. I was okay with this since it gave me time to finish folding and putting the clothes away. ;)