Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Playing with Daddy

Today we got some easter eggs and a muffin tin. Who knew easter eggs are great musical shakers? Milah loves them.
She just pulled herself up completely on her own!
Danny is a great Dad who LOVES spending time with Milah. Every day when I come home from the gym, he's been helping her with tummy time and she makes progress daily.


Our Sweet Milah

Today I sat with windows open, soft light shining in on Milah who was curled up on my lap; arms and legs spread eagle with her chest against mine. Her head lay on my chest just resting there completely happy and at peace. It was such a special moment where I remembered to slow down and take joy in her. She is such a special little girl (and she feels much more like a little girl than a baby now) who is growing in intelligence and spirit every day. After she rested on my chest, she started playing with my apron tie, showing me how to put it in her mouth and blow out and then putting it to my mouth for me to try. She made up a game! I can’t believe how fun she is as she becomes more able to interact! I cannot wait for her to be able to talk and to express what she's thinking out loud. She already says "mama," "dada," "yeah," and "hello" in her own ways. 



 She loves eating anything with her hands or our food. If it's blended there's no chance she'll eat it -- unless it's from my bowl and then she loves it. Haha. She crawls for puffs or corn chex :) One of her favorites foods is our morning juices or smoothies, which are so simple but healthy: 60% kale; 40% mixed berries, strawberries, and hemp milk (sometimes alfalfa sprouts or romaine lettuce too). She loves the taste of greens most of all!



 We made homemade pink playdough yesterday and Milah loved it! Her attention span is about 15 minutes, but we had a lot of fun in that 15 minutes! She especially loved squishing the playdough balls between her fingers and breaking off teeny pieces...then at the end she threw it all on the ground :)

Milah is back to loving the bath! Yay! I am so glad :) We have fun playing with all her toys, turning on the little space heater, and listening to Raffi (childrens songs). She loves experimenting with the water that comes through the holes in the plastic bowls in the pictures. She tries to grab the water as it flows in a little stream through the holes :)
I used to make this EXACT face. I didn't think she looked much like me at all until I saw this picture -- now I see the resemblance!





Monday, February 25, 2013

Fun things as of late...including family updates

Eden is so nice! She watched Milah so we could go to a BYU Basketball Game. It was such a fun time. BYU was up almost the whole game, but then at the end it was tied. We were about to go into overtime and BYU only had one play left. BYU set up a seemingly lame play and the ball didn't go in. With .3 seconds left on the clock, a player tipped it in for the winning point, saving us from overtime! We brought home some good 'ol Dairy Queen shakes and enjoyed them with Eden and Jake (oh the memories of piano lessons when we'd go to Dairy Queen while we waited :)). That was Wed night.

Thursday night was another TON of fun! Nikki Zirkle and I spent most the day together and then the boys took us bowling at BYU. The bowling balls and lanes were oiled so well several of us almost fell over! Needless to say those weren't the best bowling scores (I only scored 67 points one game! I loved the gutter balls :)).

Dan and I have been taking turns working out. It takes up a couple of hours of our day, but we are loving feeling fit and in shape!

Then Eden watched Milah again this last Friday night so Dan and I could go to Cafe Rio for a date night out. It was such a fun time! Afterwards, Eden took me to Living Legends. I loved how it portrayed the pride cycle in the Book of Mormon. It gave me a lot to think about, including how neat it is to be involved in things where you feel part of a group where everyone uplifts each other. I remember being so worried that my Folk Dancing shoes cost $65 dollars but for the experience, it was completely worth it! What a little price to have such an amazing experience and to learn so much. Same with floral design. That was one of my favorite classes at BYU and I almost didn't take it because there was a fee for the flowers. I need to remember to encourage my children to go to fun performances at BYU and not to worry so much about the cost of tickets. I also thought how I can do well to remember the lessons of the Book of Mormon. While we are in a time of prosperity, remember to turn to the Lord and to know that we did not get to this point on our own, but only with His help.


Last night we went up to Layton to visit Dan's family. It was so fun to see Mia and Taylor (her boyfriend). We played a rowdy game of Texas Dice and had a great time talking and getting to know Taylor. We also walked around the neighborhood and saw the feet of snow piled up. Surprisingly, it was such a nice warm day that we enjoyed a sunny walk!

Oh, one more great thing -- Dillon (Elder Brown) had Andrey get baptized! While they had been working toward baptism for a while, Andrey's circumstances changed and he was ready to get baptized right away! We are so excited for him to start his progression on the path to Eternal Life.

My mom compiled a great list of Courtship Quotes from Prophets and Apostles for our family to have. We are so excited to share this with our kids when they get to the appropriate age.

We are looking forward to running a race in the Salt Lake Marathon (though we will not be running the marathon itself :)) to celebrate Dan's mom overcoming breast cancer!

Savannah is a hero in my mind. She has been working really hard to get a Congressional Award -- she sets goals in every part of her life including service and personal development etc. She's on the mayor's youth council and just so involved with the library volunteering and she is an awesome babysitter. Well this Congressional Award banquet will be on Sunday so she won't be going. What a bummer! It's taken so much hard work.

McKay has been working so hard and has almost gotten his Eagle award! He just went on an overnight Klondike excursion and braved the cold.

Finally, my friend Nikki and I are starting a health food blog with all of our favorite recipes! Here's a sneak peek:




Visiting Cheyenne

We LOVED visiting Cheyenne! We went for walks/ripsticking along the greenway and went bowling. Dan bowled the high score at 164 points!!!! What a pro :) Milah got a push-along walker and we found out she could walk between us using its support. She's so talented! It is her favorite electronic toy. There is a little door and she likes to open it and close it so it makes a "creeeeak" sound; she then copies the sound sucking in her breath. It gave us all a laugh!
She loves bowling!

Happy Valentines Day!

Eden and Matt came over for dinner and to play scrabble and eat chocolate covered strawberries. They are so fun!