Genome of a Book Worm

Tessie recently suggested that staying up late reading may be genetic. I'm starting to think she is right.

If that is true, then perhaps sleeping in funny positions is also genetic, since Jordan, Lily and Lucy all have some funny sleep habits.

Lunch Time!

Proud to be a Gerber Baby!

Lucys' first taste of fruit! 

But who wants fruit when you can have plastic?

After taking so many pictures of Lucy, Lily wanted a turn to be the star. Why is she in her panties? Well, At the beginning of March I got brave and attempted to potty train her for 2 days. You can see the pile of books we were reading while she sat on the potty and the towels on the sofa for the accidents. And boy, were there accidents. 7 in just the first morning. In fact, in 2 days time, she only peed in the potty once, and she never even realized it. I think we'll try again later. 

This is it. After taking literally over 1000 picture since Lucy was born, this is the first picture with both girls looking at the camera and smiling. And, of course, it's blurry. I have failed.

"Chug, Chug, Chug!"

Sunny Day

I am totally behind on my blog, and this post is going to be completely out of order, but I just love this picture of these 3 friends! And the best part, is they all live within 20 feet of each other. 

The best part of the day was when Lily Diane kept pretending to hiccup :)

Chloe and Lily Sophia were being exceptionally gentle with Lily Diane, but I think that may be due to the fact that they were treating her like their personal doll. 

Once There Was a Snowman Tall, Tall, Tall

At the end of February Jordan had a whole week off of school! We spent the majority of it in Provo while Jordan studied, but we did manage to go down to New Harmony and Cedar City for a few days. 


The trip started off rough when I lost my keys the night before take off. After 6+ hours of searching and 1 hour spent getting a new set we were on our way. However, once we passed Parowan, we both realized that we forgot to pack underwear! Well, with stops at the dealership, locksmiths and the distribution center, we got everything taken care of and had a wonderful, relaxing stay. Just so you know, I found my original set of keys 10 days later under the sofa, where I promise I had looked 4 times! 


During our stay was the biggest snow storm Jordan and I had seen all year! The two polar bears in the family seized the day and built a snow man!

While they only gave the poor snowman 1 arm, they at least were considerate enough to provide him with a walking stick. 

Although it's apparent by my and Lucy's footwear (or lack of) that we didn't participate in any part of the snowman building, we wanted to come out and ride on the coat tails of their success. 

While You Were Sleeping

Let's change that title to "While you were Supposed to be sleeping." Naps for Lily have basically ended- and so have my life. Just kidding. Kind of. Okay, maybe I wasn't. I'm still mourning the loss of my clean/lunch/break/SANITY time. I was still trying to put her down for "quite time" But instead, this is usually what happens after just 20 minutes.

You can't see them, but there were also 2 books a teddy bear and several Little People figurines that had mysteriously appeared in Lucy's crib. Lucy was supposed to sleep for another 70 minutes.

If you need me, you'll find me curled up in a ball hiding under my covers.

Cuteness

Look who's sitting up all by herself!

Family Home Evening

I took these pictures to prove to my kids 10 years down the road that we did actually have family home evening. Jordan is teaching Lily about something. I was too busy taking pictures to pay attention to the lesson ;)

Valentines Day Past and Present

 I love Valentines Day!!! This holiday is right up little Lily's alley, since pink is her favorite color and hearts are her favorite shape, and snuggling is her favorite activity. 


We have several valentines day traditions in our house. To start off,  let me tell you about our first valentines day together. It was traumatic on my end, and Jordan had no clue. Setting- we had discussed marriage one week prior and were supposed to both be praying about it. Then, suddenly, Jordan dropped off the face of the earth. He claimed he was "sick". He might as well have said he was "washing his hair". 


He scheduled for us to celebrate valentines day a few days after the actual holiday due to his said "illness". Come Valentines Day, I was a mess. At the same time I knew I desperately wanted to marry him, he was strangely distancing himself. Alone in my apartment, on Valentines Day, I finally broke down and called him. This should have made me feel better, but, after a short, common "how was your day" 3 minute conversation Jordan said, "Well, I don't have anything else to say to you. Talk to you later." 


That did it. I knew for sure he was going to break up with me and my life was going to end. After composing myself, I called him back and told him I needed to see him. I drove to his apartment where all his roommates had dates and were all watching a very un-romantic war movie. After just 30 minutes of watching the movie, he said good night and went back up to his room. 


Worst. Day. Ever. My roommates came home that night to find me on my bed curled up in the fetal position. I cautiously waited to see what he would do the coming weeks, ready for the , "It's not you, it's me" talk at any minute. Instead, he started paying more attention to me. Apparently he really was sick. Who would have thought? 


On February 23rd I went to the temple to pray about him and got a resounding "YES!". I felt it even stronger the next day during Sacrament Meeting on February 24th. It had only been exactly 3 months since our first date.


Being unable to contain it, I cowgirled up that evening, and blurted out while we were sitting in my apartment living room that I got my answer and I wanted to marry him. Not very lady-like, I know. However, to my relief, he said that he had gotten his answer a whole month before our marriage DTR. We got secretly engaged that night, and he slipped his large CTR ring onto my finger. 


That valentines day was by far the most drama our relationship has ever seen - and he didn't see any of it. 


Now we celebrate each valentines day with Papa Johns Pizza, home made New York style cheesecake and a volume of Lord of the Rings trilogy, extended edition. Chill, relaxed and awesome. The very opposite of our first valentines day. 


We also started a family Valentines Day tradition 3 years ago of making sugar cookies and taking them to our neighbors. This year Lily got to help! I even broke down and bought heart shaped cookie cutters so Jordan wouldn't have to jimmy-rig one out of card board like he has in the past. 

Watch and Learn

Darling apron thanks to amazing Aunt AnnaJune. Seriously, who doesn't love AJ?

Let's be honest. This is what Lily did most of the time while we were cutting out the cookies. Which naturally lead to....

A Sugar Rush!!

Which of course lead to....

A Valentines Day Ball

I knew he was funny, HOT, even tempered and wonderful 4 years ago. Yet I had no idea just how perfect for me he really is. Just 4 years later I find myself in a solid, sweet relationship with the love of my life and 2 of the sweetest girls ever to be on this earth and wonderful family and friends. I don't know if life could get any better, not even in Harry Potter Land with Grasshopper Cookies. Happy Valentines Day!

Valentine's Day Playgroup Party!

Valentine's Day Playgroup Party! Chloe, Gracie and Lily played games, and best of all, frosted, decorated and ate Brittany's yummy sugar cookies. Lily just licked the frosting off all her cookies. That's my girl! In college I used to eat frosting for lunch - oh wait - I still do.

Good Night Lily

Lily loves music. From pretending to play the piano on her headboard, to dancing (as you previously saw) and singing. The other day I asked her what song she wanted to sing and she replied with, "The Duck Song" When I started to sing the only duck song that I know, she responded with, "No, no no, Mommy, the other duck song" She then began to sing her very own duck song, "duckies, duckies, duckies, quack". 

While visiting Grandma's she insisted on sleeping with polly pocket's pool house.

Lily loves her princess figurines! Except, she doesn't know what a princess is, so she either calls them her "friends" or they are "Mommies" and we play house with them (Lily watches while I make one princess talk to another). In fact, it's the first thing she requests in the mornings, "Mommy, want to play with me?" I guess it's similar to the puppet show at story time.

Lily loves to help do the dishes!

Lily recently turned 2 1/2 years old!!!! This little girl is my snuggly koala. However, don't let that make you think she's mellow. She is an active 2 year old. The only time she sits still is for snuggling, reading or playing with her doll house.

+ She loves to be a mommy. She helps me water the flowers, do the dishes, laundry and her dollies go down for naps at the same time as Lucy. Her dollies are all very well fed as she goes "shopping" at her own personal costco almost every day.

Family Bonds

Signing Time bonding! Lily moved down from the sofa to sit by Lucy when she saw Lucy's concern for the sad teddy bear. If I could draw your attention away from the darling girls in the picture to noticed the duckies in the flip flop to the right of Lily :) 

 Lunch Time Bonding! Even if Lucy doesn't like eating, she loves to distract everyone else while they're eating - usually by pulling your plate to the floor.