Hugs

Last week we were all sick. Little A had another ear infection (the 5th one this year, although it may have been 6; we can't quite remember). I had a bad virus that went around, and Allan got the virus too, although more mildly because he hopped himself up on airborne (that stuff is so nasty, but it works). And my poor mom had pneumonia for the second time this year.

We took A to the doctor so we could get some antibiotics for her and got her weight, and then I measured her a little later at home. She is 31 and 3/4 in long and weighs 22 lbs 4 oz.

And she looks absolutely adorable in overalls and pigtails. They make her look way too much like a little girl though. It makes me sad. We need another baby.

Because we were all sickies we watched a way too many movies. Mostly Winnie the Pooh. A enjoyed wrestling with the pillow and snuggling the afghan my Grandma made for Allan and I when we got married. She has officially adopted the afghan as her own. She is especially thrilled when we let her sleep with it. It's amazing how just putting that blanket in her crib will calm her right down.

I did manage to get our food storage room organized and work on some memory books for little A and her birthmom.

Little A loves to crawl into the center of her toys in the mornings. She nuzzles in and plays for a while and then starts tossing her toys around, because the bigger the mess the more fun it is.

We had some really good snuggles this week. She likes to sit in between me and the couch with the blanket and pillow over her. I have to be super close to her though. So close that she is really squeezed in there. If she's not squeezed in then she is very unhappy.

Little A pooped and peed in the potty! Hooray!!! I was giving her a bath one day after dinner when she started pushing. I pulled her out as fast as I could and sat her on the little potty we bought for her and she went! (I was SO grateful for that potty in that moment!) I read some stories to her about going potty in the potty. She was very proud of herself. Since then she's gone in the potty once or twice a day. She goes every time I put her on. She is pretty timid about things so we are going slowly. She still isn't to the point where she tells me she has to go.

Allan worked really hard and got some baseboards put in! A's room is finished and he has done most of the hallway and half of our 3rd bedroom. He did a really good job! He also got the basement ready for painting! We had the Elder and Sister missionaries over to help us paint and got over half of it done. We would be finished, but we ended up having to do a double coat. We are so grateful for all of the help we had! We are hoping to finish it up this week, and then we can focus on baseboards throughout the whole house. 

When we were feeling a little better I took A out for a walk. She headed to the rocks that are by the nursing home. She LOVES rocks. She had a ball sitting in them, picking them up and showing them to me. She went on a walk with Allan a little earlier in the week as well and met one of our neighbors dogs. This girl really loves dogs, except when the lick her, or when they drool on her. We stopped by to talk to K6 for a minute one day and her boxer, D, came over to say hi to little A. A was freaking out she was so happy and then D shook his head. Drool flew everywhere. A went really still, got this disgusted look on her face and then turned and walked away. K6 and I laughed so hard.

Little A loves to tear up Kleenex. While I was cleaning up after lunch one day she discovered the Kleenex I'd stashed in the diaper bag for church. She had a ball tearing it up and having the occasional taste. She was very upset with me when I cleaned it all up.

Dance classes have started up again! Yeah! I took little A this week, and she had a lot of fun. It took her a little while to warm up to everything, but once she did she enjoyed it. One of the little girls saw that A was holding onto my finger to walk. She offered A her finger and then walked/ran around like that for a little while. That is what helped A warm up. After that she felt like she had a friend. Little A holds on really tight so after a little while the girl ripped her finger away and shook it. She had this pained look on her face, poor thing. A kept trying to grab her finger, and the girl kept pulling away. They were still friends though. A liked walking across the balance beam the best.

We had a little play date with K6 and P. P and A are so funny. They are always so excited to see each other and then either fight or ignore each other. P will often tell little A "no, it's mine, don't take it" and A usually isn't doing anything, lol. Then A cries, P gets in trouble and has to apologize to A. K6 told me that on the way home the other day P pretended to call A and she said "A, I sorry. I so sorry." Ha! So funny! At the end of the play date little A started crying because I took her out of the swings and P immediately started apologizing to A thinking she had done something wrong.

We had to take little A to get her ears checked by a specialist because she has had so many ear infections. It went really well. She was actually really comfortable, which is very unusual for her. It made me wish he was our regular doctor. While we were waiting she made friends with a little old lady in the waiting room. She eventually gave the lady a great big hug. She cried while the doctor looked at her ears but settled down as soon as he was done and then crawled around the room while he talked to us! He told us that she certainly meets all of the qualifications for tubes, but there isn't any emergency or anything and really it's up to us if we want to do it or not. He also said that he feels the main concern for her is how frequently she's been on antibiotics. So, we are thinking about it.

We went to the Temple and took A with us. She had a blast walking around the visitors center and the temple grounds. Mostly though she liked to show her shoes to everyone. She would run up to anyone that went by and lift up her pant leg to show them her shoes. Most people didn't notice, but the few that did really made her day.

At story time this week A took a real liking to the story lady. Afterward while I was looking for books, she walked (that's a big deal right there because she will usually only walk to me) to the story lady and hugged her legs. The lady picked her up and little A wrapped her arms around her neck as tight as she could and wouldn't let go! And now the story lady is absolutely in love with her, ha! This cute girl really knows how to wrap someone around her finger. It really was adorable though.

After church on Sunday little A snuggled me while I read the Ensign, and later while Allan was reading the Ensign she came over and flipped through a different Ensign with him. She loves the Ensign. I'm not sure why, but she  loves to flip through it.

"Chicken"

Labor day started out nice and relaxing. We just hung out in the living room as a family in the morning until A went down for her first nap. I really enjoyed watching Allan and A play together. A is really getting into wrestling and has started trying to get Allan. It is the funniest and cutest thing to watch. She is always full of squeals and giggles when they wrestle.

Allan got all of our doors hung up and the door knobs put back on! I have been celebrating all week! It is so nice to have doors and door knobs again!

That night we went to the park and played. A loves to play in the wood chips and climb up and down the steps of the play set. We took her down a slide, and she burst into tears. She really hates slides. I went down one a little later, and she burst into tears again. After that we decided we'd just stay away from the slides. There is another part of the playground that has swings, teeter totters, and merri-go-rounds. We headed over that way and decided to try the teeter totter. A HATED it. It really scared her. And, it didn't help that she had seen the swings and was extremely determined to go over to them. We headed over, and she sat contentedly in the swing for the rest of the evening.

Little A made her first craft. There is a craft at story time every week. I tried to do it once before and she had no interest in it. She still has no interest in it, but while she was eating the cheese stick the librarians had given all of the children I traced her hand and made the craft. It was rough going since she hates to have her hands touched, but we did it!

We played with some friends at the park after story time too. She had a lot of fun and was completely exhausted when we got home.

A has discovered a new game. She likes to throw the couch pillows on the floor, walk over to them and face plant into them! Ha! Then she likes Allan or I to grab the other pillow and make a little A sandwich (squeeze her in between the two pillows). She thinks this is the best game ever invented. We have played it several times a day every day this week. If we are busy doing something else she will play it by herself (minus the sandwich part). It's been nice because it helped her start playing by herself a little bit again. And it's just super fun to hear her squeal and giggle. Now whenever she sees the pillows she bursts into giggles.

Allan and I were making dinner one evening. While I was stirring something on the stove she got into the pasta, found the macaroni, pulled it out and screamed with delight. She then tried to give it to Allan and I until it was time to eat. This girl LOVES her macaroni.

Our microwave died this week so we headed out to the nearest city to get a new one. While we were there we went to Panda Express to eat lunch. We went there last week too and little A fell in love with their Orange Chicken. When we pulled up she got super excited and started waving her arms and legs all around. Then she yelled "Chicken!" Ha!

Last week all she would eat was the orange chicken. She refused to eat anything else. This week though she discovered the chow mein. She was so excited about the noodles that she would grab a hand full in both hands, squeal and wave it all around, and then stuff the handfuls in her mouth! She made a pretty big mess. We left them a nice tip.

We had looked online to make sure someone in the city would have a microwave the size we needed, and it said that Home Depot had one, unfortunately when we got there, they didn't. We ended up buying one at Walmart and got home to find that it was .2 inches too big. So we called around that night and found one in another nearby city and went to get it the next day. Allan dropped me off at Hobby Lobby and took A with him to run the errands. While they were shopping A walked through the stores saying "Mom. Mom. Mom" over and over again while looking for me. She was SO happy when she finally found me in Hobby Lobby, she refused to let go of my hand. She makes me feel really good about myself. :)

I braided A's hair for the first time. It's been long enough for a long time, but she is so wiggly, and I am so bad at braiding hair, that it has never worked out before. However, we have been watching the Winnie the Pooh numbers and letters episodes while I do her hair in the morning. This keeps her still long enough for me to get her hair up. She was so enthralled with the counting that I decided to try a braid. It took me forever, but I finally got it. 

Allan finally got to get his garage organized. He has been wanting to do this since before we moved into the house. ;)  For our date this week we went out and organized everything. It looks really good and now we can see what we've got and what we are going to need. We wrote a nice Christmas list while we were in there too, ha!

Today in church little A was playing with someone behind us. She would snuggle into my shoulder, then peek up, and if the person was paying attention she would grab my hair and hold it up to show it to them. Funny girl.

I taught my Valiant 8 class for the first time today. There was one boy. Poor guy. The first thing he said to me was "Hi. You look nice." We had fun and he enjoyed some of the lesson, but that class time was FOREVER. A lesson goes by really fast when there is only one little 8 year old boy. We played almost 20 minutes of hangman.  Hopefully the girls will be there next week.

Shoes

Little A loves shoes. I think it is in her genes because she has liked them from the time she could see them. Her birth mom and birth grandma also love shoes.

She definitely doesn't get it from Allan or I. Allan doesn't really care about shoes, as long as he has some he's good. I care a little more than Allan, and that's it. Shoes are good, they can be super cute and occasionally I find some I love...the end.

Little A is obsessed with them though. She really likes to show people her shoes, and she will "tell" people if she likes their shoes.

For example, we went to a company dinner the other night. Our babysitter fell through at the last minute so we ended up taking little A with us. She spent most of the night walking me around lifting up her pant leg so people could see her shoes. They would obligingly say how cute/sparkly/awesome her shoes were and then she would go to the next person who would pay attention to her and do the same thing! Ha!

Another day we were at the chiropractors office waiting for my appointment. The girl sitting next to us had some neon orange tennis shoes. A was in love! She went over and stood in front of her and repeatedly gestured to the girls shoes making big smiley faces and excited sounds and gestures until the girl paid attention to her. At which point I told the girl that A really liked her shoes. Then A tried to pull up her pant leg to show the girl her shoes. Only she was wearing footie pajamas. She didn't notice at first and kept pulling her jammies up (which pulled her leg up too). Eventually she looked down, looked very confused, and then laughed at herself. Too cute! She is such a funny girl!

This week she decided that she MUST play with her shoes on the rug in the living room. All of her shoes are in a tote on a shelf in her room. She has been trying really hard to push/pull that tote to the living room for several days with no success. After a while she always just grabs a couple shoes and brings them into the living room. I finally took mercy on her and taught her how to hold onto the handle so that she can pull the full tote of shoes into the living room. She is so delighted! For the last two days she has excitedly pulled each shoe out for me to put on her foot, look at, snuggle, and talk about.

I guess it's a good thing she has a lot of shoes.

Stubborn

I finally have a calling again! (It was really weird to not have one.) I am teaching the Valiant 8 class, which is children who are 8, turning 9 this year. It's a small class of mostly girls. Hopefully it will go well.

We just finished Allan's last 8 day work week. I am so glad we don't have to do that again for a while, hopefully never again. Little A hates it as much as I do. By the end of the 8 days she is super clingy and wants nothing to do with Allan; I think because she thinks he's just going to leave again. It always takes a few days for her to warm up again.

We had a lot of dance parties this week because dancing makes A and I happy.

We had a fun impromptu play date with our neighbor and her little girls this week. We were out pushing the stroller around when she came to send her oldest daughter on the bus to kindergarten. We went on a walk and then played at their home for a while afterward (she has two other daughters and A is right in between them age wise). It was nice to talk to her and a nice distraction. We hope we can do it again soon!

I went to take a nap one evening and Allan was really tired so he turned on some football highlights and started watching them with little A. She watched for a couple of minutes and then started to leave. Allan knew she would come to find me so he told her to stay with him. She sighed and grumbled and then watched for a minute. She tried to leave again so he told her to stay and she sighed and grumbled again. Ha! That happened a few more times. Little A is not impressed with football.

We have been working with A for a while to get her to fold her arms during prayers. This has proven difficult since she hates to have her hands touched. But this week she finally got it! Whenever we say pray or prayer she folds her arms! She isn't pleased about it though so she folds them with a really annoyed look on her face. It's pretty adorable! She'll go through the prayer alternately folding her arms, unfolding them, yelling in frustration because she knows she should be folding them, and then folding them again. It cracks me up.

At church today she kept folding her arms randomly through Sacrament Meeting. I think she felt the Spirit and reverence of the meeting and related it to the reverence of praying. I have been praying a lot that she will feel the reverence of the meeting, and that it will help her to be reverent. Today she seemed to get it. 

Little A is a very obedient girl except when it comes to two things: walking on her own, and throwing her food on the floor. A couple of days ago she was brushing her food across the table onto the floor. Allan had told her repeatedly to stop, and she would look at him with a stubborn expression on her face and just do it again. We took her food away. Allan commented that she was very stubborn. She said in her little girl voice "stubborn" and smiled. We laughed, but Allan did wonder what he was ever going to do with his girls.

We made a trip to the nearest city to stock up on food. It was a long day, but little A did a really good job. She had a blast at the restaurant we ate at. She waved and squealed at all the people who came through the door. Allan had to leave that night to go on a scout camp out. A was SO upset that he was leaving. She cried and cried, poor girl. She was so upset that she didn't sleep well, so it was a long night. It's always a long night when Allan is gone.

The following day A and I went to the Parade of Homes with K3. We had a lot of fun looking at all of the houses. The homes my mom and K3 designed turned out really good, and they have gotten a lot of really good feedback on them. A did fairly well. She was not happy about being in the car all day again, but she loved seeing all the people, and I let her play in the rocks a couple of times and that just made her day. On the way to my mom's house for dinner A got upset because I had turned the radio off. She yelled at me for a second and then I asked her what she wanted. She said, "A song". She has really started to use her words more and more. We went to my mom's house for dinner afterward and got to talk to K3 and C, and K5 and CW for a while. A was a little trooper, but she was sure exhausted.

She slept in this morning and cried a lot today because she was so tired. She also yelled at the primary president for talking to me about my calling (and delaying us from going home to take a nap), and took one look at the 1st counselor in our Bishopric and shouted angrily at him. He hadn't even looked at her yet, lol! He's a Dentist. Maybe she could tell...

Today Allan and A and I were having a family snuggle and she reached over and patted Allan's face and said "I love you". Aww.

The last couple of weeks she has been choosing a picture of someone and will carry it around the house and give it hugs and kisses. It is so darling. For the three days before SB left on his mission she carried his picture around. She has also given hugs and kisses to Grandad and Grandma H, Gram, Grandma and Grandpa, Nana and Pops, her birth family, K5 and CW, and B and C and their boys. This girl really loves her family.

Little A is 18 Months!

 

Our photo shoot was kind of difficult. All she wanted to do was get the camera. :)  But, we did get a couple cute ones.

Little A is such a sweet, beautiful girl. We are so grateful that we have her in our lives. She brings us so much joy. She makes us laugh every day. It has been such a pleasure to watch her grow, learn, and discover.

She said her first phrase! She was pooping, and she tends to get distracted and stop before she's done; then I end up changing two poopy diapers in a row. So, I kept asking her if she had more poop and to "get it all out". Eventually she looked up at me and said "I got it out!" Ha! So funny! It sounded like "I aw i ow" (she said all of the vowels and none of the consonants). She was very proud of herself!

She is a very snuggly girl. She loves to snuggle and give hugs and kisses. She really likes to snuggle her stuffed animals and blankets. One of her favorite games right now is for her and I to take turns snuggling a stuffed animal.

She is very good at sharing and rarely gets upset if another child takes a toy from her, but she struggles with being soft. She likes to give "love pats" to people. Unfortunately when she gets excited they get really hard really quickly. We'll continue to work on it.

No one told me about the 18 month sleep regression. Eesh. It was bad. She has always been a really good sleeper and then suddenly at 18 months (almost to the day) she stopped sleeping. She would wake up screaming mad. She wasn't scared or sick, just really angry that she was in her crib. We would find her standing up, wide awake, yelling at the top of her lungs. As soon as we took her out of her room she was fine and wanted to play. Allan and I took turns for a week sleeping with her on the couch. Then we decided to put our rocking chair in her room so that we could stay in her room and she wouldn't think she could come out at night every time she cried. It lasted for about a month and then she started sleeping 14 hours at night instead of 12! However, she wakes up about 4:30 every morning and plays in her crib for about 30 minutes, so I think she's sleeping the extra 2 hours to make up for the interruption in the middle of the night.

For those who don't know what the 18 month sleep regression is, the few things I read said that for some children at 18 months if they were a good sleeper they will start waking up at night again, and if they still haven't slept through the night they will start sleeping through the night. It lasts for a month or two and then they will go back to their old schedule.

This is how our photo shoot ended: little A throwing the bunny and knocking over the picture frame in excitement.

Little A has had several ear infections since we moved in January (4 or 5). The doctor thinks that she gets them when she is teething. Since she has almost all of her teeth he wants to wait to consider tubes. Then when she's done teething we can see if she still gets infections. We are happy to wait.

The last time she was weighed, which was a couple of weeks ago, she weighed 20 lbs 6 oz. I don't know how tall she is though.

Her favorite food is BBQ sauce. Ha! She loves it, on pretty much anything. I couldn't get her to eat one day so I finally gave her a corn dog (she'll usually eat those), and she still wouldn't eat. So, I dipped the corn dog in BBQ sauce. She sucked the BBQ sauce off of each bite and spit the corn dog out! Funny girl.

Her favorite toys are books. She loves to flip through the pages, have me read to her, chew on them, and give her favorite pictures kisses. We got her a book about pottys to help prepare her for potty training. She loved it so much she took it to bed with her and looked at it in her crib for about 30 min. (I know because I kept checking on her until she finally went to sleep.) There is a page in the book that shows the parents shouting "Hurray", she likes to give this page a lot of kisses.

Her favorite thing to do is walk, holding onto my finger. She thinks it is my job to walk around with her all day. Everything is better with a friend, right?! She also likes to skip, hop, and run.

She likes walking so much that she thought the boy who was passing the sacrament to us was there to walk her. Lol!  We were visiting Allan's family and little A was sitting with her Aunt and Uncle. I looked over after passing the tray to see her holding the hand of the boy! He was not quite sure what to do, ha! We all got a good laugh out of that one!

We sure love our sweet girl!

Happenings in August

We started August by updating our homestudy. Since we moved into a new house we had to have another one. It went well, and now all of our certification is current.

We went to Raspberry Days with AG and her mom J. It's always a lot of fun to go to Raspberry Days. The craft fair always has a lot of cute stuff. I always want to buy most of it. I did buy some cute fall decorations though. : )

We took little A on her first pony ride. We were a bit nervous about how she'd like it because she is pretty timid with new things, but she loved it! She kept giggling and squealing and bouncing up and down.

We had a lot of fun visiting with AG and J. They had just gotten back from a trip to Florida, and it was fun to hear all about it. We also had raspberry shakes and visited my mom in her store.

We had a fun family play one night. Little A showed Daddy how she could climb the steps all by herself, and we played with bubbles. She had a lot of fun trying to pop them. We've tried bubbles a couple of times before, but this was the first time she actually liked them.

A finally walked on her own!!!! We are SO happy about this! She will only walk between Allan and I or from me to the couch, but this is a HUGE step! Hooray!!!

It's funny because she has amazing balance and rarely stumbles. She can stop, change direction, and when she's feeling brave she can even run and skip! If she wasn't so scared of falling down she would really give me a run for my money.

We have always told her that if she walked to the computer by herself then we would let her type on it. She was THRILLED to finally have a turn typing on the computer.

We had a family day at the fair. The county fair where we live is free. We watched some of the rodeo, saw all the animals, listened to some of the entertainment they had there, walked through all of the booths,

and let little A ride her first ride.  She thought the ride was boring. It went REALLY slow. My cousin T rode with her because she was the only one small enough to ride it. She was really bored too. A decided she would stand up and jump up and down to make it more fun.

A made a new friend every place we went: my cousins L and T, a baby about her age, a little old lady who she decided had to have hugs, a little girl about 8 (they had a grand old time watching the chicks), and a little boy who was sitting on one of the horses in the stable.

Some of Allan's family came up for a quick visit and he took them on a tour of the mine he works at. He really loves his work and enjoys showing his family what he does. He took A and I on a tour a couple of days ago. I love seeing where he works and hearing him talk about it. He is always very excited about what is going on.

We finally got a water softener. Our water is really, really hard. It tested at a 30! We've already had to replace 2 toilets because of the hard water, and the sprinkler system is kind of plugged up from it. We have a lot of work to do on that. Also, the dishwasher died last night and from the looks of it the hard water corroded some of the insides. Awesome. Allan installed it and did a great job. Hopefully it will save our plumbing.

This is what happens whenever I use the phone (imagine the screaming and complaining that goes along with it). After about 20 seconds of that she tackles me. Quite literally. She dives into my arms, or onto my legs if I am standing, and flails about while she complains. It can be frustrating, but quite honestly I usually laugh because it's so funny.

Speaking of laughing at misbehavior.

I went to change the laundry the other day while A was playing. She usually follows me, but she must have thought that I had gone to use the bathroom. I came back from changing the laundry and heard her pounding on the toilet. I usually leave the bathroom doors shut all day, but I had forgotten to shut the door to the master bathroom. I walked in, laughed, ran to get the camera, and took this picture. It cracks me up that she looks so guilty! Then I picked her up and said, "A, that is not a good thing to do. It's naughty to roll the toilet paper off like that......but (snicker) it was really funny too (followed by more laughing)"  She didn't know what to think about my response. When I told Allan he shook his head and said "Our kids are never going to get it". Ha!

The cute outfit in this picture is from A's birth family. We love them so much! You can also see A's favorite book about the potty on the side there. She was reading it. 

Little A had her first E.L. Fudge cookie. She loved it and cried when I put the cookies away.

I bought some little barrettes for A's hair because her hair is long enough now that it is in her eyes, but she really hates ponytails of any kind. I was hoping that I could just sweep it back in a barrette, but no such luck. She pulls them out and eats them.

Little A has also discovered that using the stair railing to walk is a lot of fun.

Allan hurt his foot. He had an x-ray done with the family doctor, but there was no fracture, so he was referred to a foot specialist. The foot specialist gave him some pain meds, and Allan had an allergic reaction to them and had to go to the ER. Then the foot specialist put him on crutches for a few days to see if rest would help it. It didn't. Then he had another x-ray, which also showed nothing. So, we decided to go to the chiropractor that I've been seeing for my hip. He adjusted Allan's foot and did a couple of other things to it including laser therapy, gave him some stretches and exercises to do, and told him to massage it with an ice cube. And that is helping! We also got him some new soles for his shoes and that has helped as well. Yeah! (A's hair in this pic is awesome. She originally had pigtails in, but in our 3 hour car ride she pulled them and the barrettes out.)

And this is just a really cute picture of my two favorite people. : )

The other day Allan and I picked little A up from nursery and found A holding onto the nursery leaders finger running circles around her! It made us laugh because that's pretty much what I do when I don't want to walk anymore. I stand still and let little A run around me, switching fingers half way around. She's already got the nursery trained up on the way she likes things. Ha!

Little A's hair is long enough to put almost all of it in a ponytail. She looks very grown up when I do it this way. Makes me a little sad.

One of A's new favorite games is walking with Daddy while Daddy is crawling. She thinks it is hilariously funny and skips and hops in excitement.

We finally got little A to crawl up the stairs! Until now she has insisted that she walk up them like everyone else does. When we went to visit Allan's family we insisted that she crawl. It was so funny. The first three or four times she complained the whole way up. Not really crying, but moaning and groaning complaints. Ha! But she finally got it and discovered that she liked the independence of climbing the stairs by herself. The following weekend we went to visit his family again (and go to see "Wicked") and we taught her how to scoot down on her bum. I tried to teach her to crawl backward at first but that was very confusing to her so we switched to scooting on her bum. By the end of the weekend she had it down pretty good! A few days later I was helping my mom at a home she was designing and A started scooting down the stairs while I was on the phone (I was standing in front of her so she wouldn't fall down). She figured out how to put her hands to the side to help her scoot without going too far forward and falling. She's getting those stairs figured out!

So, like I mentioned in the last paragraph, Allan and I went to see "Wicked". His mom and sister were good enough to watch A for us. We are so grateful for the date! I had seen "Wicked" before, but it was Allan's first time. He loved it. I loved it too. The cast was great, and the show is just so fun. We ate at Cheesecake Factory before the show, and that was also wonderful! It was so fun to be together, share something that I love, and have a chance to talk to one another.

That morning before our date we went to the Temple with Allan's family to do sealings. I love going to the Temple and especially love going with family. The Spirit was very strong. One of SG's good friends watched A for us. She did a great job, and we are so grateful that she was available!

My mom is an interior designer. She got to design two homes for the parade of homes this year! Unfortunately the builders only gave her 2 weeks notice, so it was a bit crazy. K6 and I helped her. I brought the pack-n-play hoping we could stick our kids in it for a while so we could get some work done. That lasted about 5 minutes. They had a lot of fun for those 5 minutes though. 

There were a few catastrophes in applying the design to the houses. One house had an extra skinny door, and we could only find one piece of furniture on hand at the local furniture store that would fit through it. It didn't really match, but my mom, and K3 who designs with my mom, made it work. The homes turned out beautiful, and they have gotten a lot of compliments.

My mom also helped direct a local play and we went to that. It was about some of the history of the town. It was a really cute play, and they did a really good job. Allan had to take A out about 30 min into the show, so he didn't really get to see it. We won't be taking A to another show for a while.

Allan and I took advantage of his day off and painted the rest of the upstairs moldings, and the doors, and some of the moldings in the basement! Yeah! A huge thank you to our friend who watched A all day so we could do that! We should be ready for carpet in the basement by October! Although, we probably still won't buy any for a while.

This cute girl really knows how to make a mess : )

Happenings in July

Little A is just like her Daddy when it comes to mac-n-cheese. They both inhale it. It's pretty funny to watch. This particular time A was eating her mac-n-cheese when she saw Daddy eating it with the big spoon I had cooked it with. She got super excited and insisted that she eat with the big spoon too! She was extremely animated during the whole meal. This girl LOVES her mac-n-cheese!

We started the month of July by trying to get over the flu. Little A was super cuddly and clingy after I got back from the hospital. She wanted to sit and snuggle me; unfortunately it was pretty painful to snuggle her. We did our best though.

Allan had 5 days off in a row that we were planning on using to finish up a bunch of things on our house. Instead we used that time up being sick, so we still have a lot of work to do. We did manage to get K5's bridal shower together though.

It turned out really cute! K6 did most of it. We played a "Guess the Dress" and a "Madlib" game that were really fun and cute, and she had some great decorations! I made cinnamon rolls as part of the refreshments.

My Grandma S made the BEST cinnamon rolls. They are the only ones I have ever liked. When she passed away my uncle gave a talk at her baptism comparing eternal life, and temple marriage to cinnamon rolls. That talk had a great affect on K5; she always remembered it. So, for her shower I made the cinnamon rolls as a tribute to our Grandparents and the great example they gave us. 

Grandma's recipe directions weren't extremely clear, so they didn't taste quite like hers, but I did my best, and they were really good.

There were a lot of people at the shower and K5 was given so many nice gifts. It happened the day after Independence day, so we were grateful that so many people took time from their holiday weekend to celebrate her.

We didn't do much for Independence day. It was the first day we were kind of feeling normal again. Allan had to work, and I took Little A to the parade and then went home and crashed again. She loved the parade, especially when she figured out that she could pick up all the candy. After that I had to watch her close because she would try to pick up the trash too. Ha! She also really enjoyed waving and talking to all the people that were close by.

This cute dress was a gift from some of my family. It finally fits her, and she looks adorable in it!

We went to visit AG and her family. It was so much fun to see them again. We had planned on going swimming. A loves the water and it's hot so it would have been the perfect activity. However, it rained so we went shopping instead. The Children's Place was having a super good sale, and we got A a TON of clothes and a few pairs of shoes! The outfit pictured below is one of the ones AG and her Mom got for little A. I love how bright it is! It's super comfy on her too.

Grandad and Great Gram came for a visit. Grandad installed central air while he was here, and Allan helped as much as he could. We are SO immensely grateful that we have central air again! How I hate the heat! It was getting really hard to sleep at night.

While they were visiting K6 and her husband K and their little girl, P came for a visit. P and A played so good together. They took turns pushing each other on the little car. We went out to eat and had a really nice evening together.

Little A took a couple of steps without holding onto anything! She was walking along the couch to get to me and Daddy stuck his foot in the way. First she looked at him like "Why! Why would you do that!?" Then she stared at his foot with a concerned look on her face, looked at me, looked at his foot, and then calmly lifted her hand in the air, took two steps around Daddy's foot, put her hand back on the couch and walked to me. Lol! It was so funny! She was so adamant that she not touch his foot that she actually walked by herself. And you know what. She has perfect balance. She wasn't wobbly at all. One day she will walk. One day.

We did make some big improvements in that area this month though! I got her to push the stroller, the grocery cart and her little car, without help from me! This is HUGE! She is getting a little braver.

One day we were out in the yard. Allan was working on something and A kept going over to the stroller wanting to push it. I finally got it out, and we walked around a little: me holding one of A's hands and pushing the stroller with my other hand. That got old pretty fast. So, I put both of her hands on the basket and started moving her legs for her. She was so mad at me at first, but then she realized that she was pushing it by herself. We pushed the stroller in a circle in the grass for a long time. We went to the store later that night, and I had her push the cart. She was so proud of herself!

The car goes a little faster than she is comfortable with so she doesn't really like to push it by herself, but I make her do it for a while whenever we play with it. I tried putting some weight in it to make it slow down, but it didn't work.

We babysat for one of our friends so they could go on a date. It was a lot of fun. Their kids are very cute and A plays well with them. They have a 2yr old and an infant. A loves the infant; she thinks it's so fun to squeal at him. He is not so sure about her though.

It was a really hot day so we brought the slide inside and the girls played on it for a long time. Then we read books and played with A's toys. And of course had a lot of snacks :) A is going to be a really good sister one day. So far she hasn't ever been very jealous of me being with other children. She has mostly thought it was a lot of fun.

We spoke in church on the 13th. Oddly enough we spoke in our last ward on the 13th (of April) too. My birthday the first time, and K1's birthday the second time. K1, K4 and their boys, and my cousin T all came to church with us. Our talks went really well. After church we had a BBQ and brownies and ice cream for K1. It was so fun to have so much of our family in our home.

Nana got a little bit of time to play with the grandbabies.

Happy birthday K1! We sure love you!

K1, K4 and their boys were down for the whole week to help with K5's wedding. We tried to make the most of it. We went to the lake with K6 and her family that Monday. First we visited Nana in her store and had lunch. Then we headed to the lake. K6's husband's family has a cabin and private beach, and a boat! Yeah! It was so fun! I took A tubing for the first time! She loved it and kept trying to jump off to play in the water. A would be in the water and sand all day if I'd let her.

I actually got A to keep her hat on! Woohoo!

K5 and I. A storm came in and blew us all back to the cabin. Allan had to work that day, so he brought A and I dinner, and then we headed home. A also loves the porch swing. She likes to sit and swing in it, and push it. But, she hates when it comes back and pushes her. ;) She had a good swing with K1 and cousin B.

Little A came down with another ear infection so we took the next couple of days off so she could feel well for the wedding. K5 asked me to be her escort when she received her endowments, so that Tuesday I went through the Temple with her. What a wonderful experience that was! It makes me so happy that I can finally share such a sacred beautiful thing with one of my sisters. The Temple is so wonderful, and I am so happy that she chose to receive those blessings!

Allan took K1, K4 and their boys on a tour of the mine that he works at. He loves showing his work to his family. The boys loved the big trucks.

The girls and their boys and P went on a hike on Thurs, but A was still not doing the best so we stayed home. We did stop by to visit for a while before they left and had some yummy rice crispy treats. Well, I did. A refused to taste them. Funny girl.

Friday K5 and her fiancee C2 had their reception. It was beautiful, and so fun! They had a live band, and Allan and I danced the night away!

In our rush to get to the reception on time we left our diaper bag at home. Sheesh. Thank goodness we had packed extra diapers, wipes, bottles, and sippy cups in our suitcase! Unfortunately I had put my drivers license and temple recommend in the diaper bag thinking, "we definitely won't forget that." Bleh. Bad day. Thankfully the Temple president was able to just call my Bishop and I was able to get into the Temple just fine. Phew! (But really of all things, the diaper bag?! Why?!)

There was a mix up with my Dad and Gram's hotel, so we ended up switching hotels with them. That mix-up got me out of a long night of clean-up, for which I was partly grateful and partly felt bad.

Funny story about A. She had a hard time going to sleep that night because of all of the excitement. The next morning she was still exhausted and still having a hard time getting to sleep. I showered and got ready and then Allan showered, all while A rooted and wiggled trying to get to sleep. When Allan was ready he came out of the bathroom. A sat up and gave him a big smile and then fell over asleep and snoring! HA! I laughed SO hard! It was so funny!

The next day K5 and C2 were married (sealed in the Temple). It was a beautiful ceremony and I got to be her escort again. :) She looked absolutely gorgeous and so, SO happy! He was obviously very happy and contented too.

We stayed for their luncheon and then rushed out to go to Allan's brother SB's endowment. He is getting ready to leave on a mission to Chile.

We had about an hour drive to the next Temple, and we were really pushing the time. When we got there Allan jumped out of the car and ran in. I got little A out and grabbed her the cooler with the milk in it. I was going to also grab the plastic bag we were using as a diaper bag, but saw Allan's Temple bag and grabbed that instead because I knew he'd need that. I met him half way to the Temple, gave him his bag, and he ran back in. I got all settled in the waiting room to feed little A when she pooped. Ug. So, we went back to the car and got the diapers and wipes and headed back to the Temple. I felt really weird going into the Temple carrying a cooler and a walmart plastic shopping bag. Little A drank some milk, and then we headed back to the car to drive to Grandma and Grandpa's house. Allan, Grandma and Grandpa, and SB came back later that night. It was a very busy day, but I am so glad that we could be there for both of our families.

SG, who had been serving a mission in the Philippians, came home from her mission the next day. It was so fun to see her again! We have all missed her! She left right after little A was born. A loves her!

The following week Allan was able to take a day off of work to celebrate Pioneer day with us! We went to a parade and little A got a bunch more candy. They throw a TON of candy at the parades where we live.

She had fun at first picking up the candy and then putting it in the diaper bag.

When there was a good pile she sat down in the middle of it and played with the candy. She would pick up as much as she could hold in her hands and hug it and then wave it around excitedly. Ha!

Everyone really liked to throw candy to little A. We started getting so much candy that we told the kids next to us (who were being very polite and only picking up candy that was right in front of them) to go ahead and take any candy that was thrown to us.

At some point she put a caramel in her mouth, wrapper and all. I had given her a tootsie roll earlier so we thought she was sucking on that. When it seemed like she should be done with the candy and wasn't we checked and she had that caramel stuck to the roof of her mouth. Thank goodness she didn't choke on the wrapper! She was very mad at me when I took it out of her mouth.

We broke down and bought a small paint sprayer so we could finish up the baseboards and doors and get them in. We still aren't done with the doors, but we did finally get the baseboards done! Allan did a great job!

While he worked A and I played on her slide. She finally got brave enough to climb the steps on the slide by herself! A week or two before this we had been playing with the slide and kiddie pool. It was time to get out so I stripped her down to nothing so she could air dry for a minute and then dumped the pool out. While I was dumping the water she decided she was ready to climb! I looked over and she was climbing up the steps! She had no problems at all. I got her dressed and had her do it a few more times. She likes the slide a little better now!

A thought the paint was a lot of fun and kept wanting to step in it.