July

Baby L is a pretty good sleeper, so we were able to get into a good routine pretty quickly. Little A and I made breakfast together most mornings. Her favorite is berry pancakes. She especially loves to put the butter on all by herself.

We tried to get outside as soon as possible in the mornings as well, to take advantage of the cool morning air. We had a lot of picnics in the backyard, blew bubbles, weeded the garden, etc. Little A thought it was great having Baby L around. She loved showing her everything.

Little A's favorite thing to do this summer was pick food from the garden. She especially loved eating fresh strawberries and peas. She was so excited about the first strawberries that she squashed them in her little hands, lol!

Daddy used up all of his paternity leave in CA so he got in as many snuggles on the evenings and weekends as he could. Little A was ecstatic having us all together.

Allan's work had a picnic. Little A loved all of the yummy food. They had a lot of games too, but she only played one of them. She loved telling everyone all about baby sister though. 

Little A loved to lay on the playmat next to Baby L and rattle the toys for her. Unfortunately I had to ban her from it not long after this because she pushed L off of it onto the hard wood floor. She was devastated. (I was a little as well because it was so darling seeing them play together.)

So far Little A has had no jealousy issues at all. She loves Baby L so much! She always wants to hold her, kiss her, and show her everything. She is very concerned that baby be included in everything we do. Although, she does insist that she is baby and Baby L is sister. Ha!

We had some fun play dates catching up with friends.

These two are so funny! They were so excited to see each other on our first play date back that they ran around holding hands and squealing for about 15 minutes before they played, lol! They really missed each other and talked about each other when we were gone.

Since Little A is no longer allowed on the play mat she lays beside it and plays with sister. :) We've had a few incidences when I've left the room and come back to find Little A dragging L across the floor by her arm saying "Come, sister! Play!" Followed by me having a panic attack, lol! Thankfully L hasn't been harmed, and A is learning that she can't do that to her. 

Baby L is the sweetest little thing! She is a very calm and peaceful baby. She is very social and is always upset if she is not right there with us. She loves her sister, likes to coo at herself in the mirror, eats like a champ, and loves to be sung to. She's also a really good snuggler! And she can roll over! Her doctors have been very impressed by how strong she is and how well she eats.

We started going to speech therapy again. It's a nice walk in the mornings. Little A really loved this huge puddle on the way there the other day. We played and splashed in it for a long time. She was also very insistent that sister splash too, so I ran the stroller through the puddle as well, ha!

Grandma came to help us for a while. It was such a blessing to have her! She made us a whole bunch of freezer meals while she was here. Those meals have been such a wonderful blessing. Making dinner has been tricky because Baby L eats every two and a half hours (sometimes every two) and takes an hour to eat! It's hard to get anything done between feeding her and helping little A! It's been so nice to be able to dump a meal in the crock pot in the morning and call it good!

While Grandma was here we had a family night about feelings. Little A helped me make English muffin pizza with faces on them expressing different emotions. We had a ball making the faces and mimicking them.

We made chocolate covered frozen bananas for dessert, rolled in different candies. Little A loved making them, especially eating the candy.

She looks like she loved eating them too, but really she just ate off the candy and left the banana because it was too cold, ha! It was a really fun night though!

We went to the county fair where little A got the traditional enormous corn dog. She shared it with Daddy because it was too big.

She rode the carousel. She was absolutely terrified to ride it at first. It took a lot of convincing to get her on. At first I just had to stand by the horse, holding Little A, and she would reach over and pet it every now and then. About 3/4's through the first round she sat on it. The nice Carny let me just give him my other ticket instead of getting off and back in line so that she could stay on the pony and enjoy a full ride. 

Baby L drank her milk all scidiwampus in Allan's arms, and then slept through the rest of the fair.

They had a spot where the kids could color on some huge coloring sheets. Little A loved that!

We always go see all of the livestock. Allan loves to see the pigs, I love to see the horses (they have some really huge quarter horses here that are so friendly),

 and little A loves to see the chicks and other birds and bunnies.

A few days later we went to visit Grandad, Grandma H, Great Gram, K1, K4 and their families. They live about 4 1/2 hours a way. It took us FOREVER to get there lol! We stopped at a park along the way so little A could swing while we fed Baby L.

When we got there Grandma H and Grandad enjoyed some baby snuggles. 

 

Baby L got passed around and loved on until she was completely exhausted!

So did little A!

Little A had a ball swimming in the pool,

playing with her cousins,

playing with all of her cousins' toys,

and snuggling up with some cousins and Aunties for a movie.

We got to visit Great Gram as well. She was thrilled to meet her new great granddaughter. She now has 9 granddaughters, 5 great granddaughters, and two great grandsons who are always overwhelmed with all the women surrounding them lol!

We had a lot of fun on that trip. When we got back we had a lot of family time. Playing games, having picnics, and just trying to get settled in. At some point in this time we lost Little A's stuffed cow. :( It was a toy that AG gave to her, and AG has a matching one. Little A wandered around the house for several days saying, "Moo? Mooooo?" It was so sad. After calling around everywhere I could think of and not finding it I bought another one. It isn't quite the same though. A was a little confused when cow came in the mail looking different.

When I brought Little A home from CA at the beginning of the month I got a call the next day asking if I could do the choreography for our stakes dance for the upcoming Temple Celebration. I was already helping to teach the youth the other dances. After a little hesitancy I said yes, because really a chance like that doesn't come around very often, and it was the first time in my life I could use that talent to help build the kingdom of God. I immediately felt a little overwhelmed knowing that I would have an infant with special needs to take care of.  That made this time even more busy. I worked on the Temple Celebration for 15-20 hours a week! It was a lot for our little family, but we were so blessed! I'm so grateful that I had the chance to do that and for my amazing husband who made so many sacrifices so that I could be a part of it! We are so blessed!