May 2013

May was a beautiful month and we enjoyed spending most of our time outside.  My sister and her husband (Jen and Jeff)  went to Havasupai for a few days and we got to watch and play with Sadie while they were gone. It was fun to watch Lydia and Sadie together, now that they are getting old enough to actually play together. For the most part, they were even on the same schedule.

Lydia and Sadie having fun on a wagon ride (they really did like it, their faces just don't show it in these pics)

We also enjoyed the park, although Sadie was a bit unsure about going down the slide. Lydia was running around the whole time, so this was the best picture I could get. One of the days, Caleb (Lydia's friend) came over to play for a few hours as well. They loved pulling everything out of the toybox together. Top right pic: We biked to the library and while crossing the parking lot, I told Lydia and Sadie to stay together. They grabbed each other's hands and walked through the parking lot together. They didn't want to let go in the library either, so they walked up and down the isles together holding hands. It was so cute! 

Of course, there was plenty of time for eating and drinking! Lydia has always loved her food, but it was even more noticable when Sadie was there as well. I think Lydia ate 3 times as much as Sadie. Definately my girl. The days went by quickly and before we knew it, it was time for Sadie to go back home. We need to get together more often to play!

Lydia got some new bath toys (rubber ducks) and had fun playing with them in her little pool outside.

Such a big girl! Helping sand grandma and grandpa's playset. Lydia loves to help me with whatever I am working on. I was surprised at how long she stayed and helped before wanting to go play.

April 2013

April was another fun and busy month. Lydia is learning lots and always on the go! She is really starting to talk and jabber a lot, and many of the words we can actually understand now. :) She only has one speed... fast. She rarely walks anywhere, but prefers to run. I'm not sure how she doesn't fall and get hurt more often, she must be more coordinated than me. :)

She still loves to eat. Whenever I ask her what she likes to do, she replies, "eat." In this picture we were having homemade pizza for dinner and she learned to say "pizza" It's pretty cute. I'll try to remember to come back and post a video.

Mommy daughter date. :) I decided it would be fun to take Lydia out to lunch before Neal and I left for a weekend. We had Subway sandwiches and then went out for frozen yogurt. She loved it and we had so much fun!

Neal and I were able to take a weekend and go to L.A.  We had enough miles saved up to use them for the airline tickets as well as the hotel (for one night, the other night we spent with Neal's aunt and uncle). It was great to get some sun and some time away from the daily routine. Our first day we spent some time at the L.A. temple and visitor center. The grounds there are so beautiful and immaculate, full of all kinds of flowers and greenery. I think it is one of the most beautiful and breathtaking temple grounds I've been to.

More pictures of the temple grounds. For some reason, we didn't pull out the camera again for the rest of the trip, so these are the only pictures we have. After the temple and visitors center, we went downtown and met up with friends for lunch. It was so fun to see Jake and Tricia again (Jake was Neal's roommate and Tricia was mine while we were all dating and got engaged) and their cute little boy. We drove to the beach, but it was cold and windy so we didn't stay long. After checking into our hotel, we tried to play tennis, but the only racqets they had were for raquetball (although they don't have a raquetball court). Oh well. It was nice to just have some time to relax and not have to worry about being on a schedule.
After breakfast the next morning, we drove to the beach again. Neal wanted to rent a boogie board and play in the water for a while, so I hung out on the beach and read a book. The water was still freezing so it wasn't long before he was done and we played frisbee for the rest of the morning. Neal loves Olive Garden so we decided to go there for lunch on our way out to his Aunt and Uncle's home. We had the evening and the morning to spend with family before heading back to the airport. Neal has a cousin (his age) who just moved back East with his wife, and they happened to be there the same weekend as us, so we also really enjoyed hanging out with them (Ryan and Camille). We went swimming in their pool, played games, went to a soccer game (for his cousin, Kaitlin), played some more frisbee as well as tennis, and just enjoyed being together. Before we knew it, our time was up and we drove back to the airport, and were home again a few hours later.

Lydia wearing her flower lei from Hawaii 

The Tuesday after we got back from California, we watched 5 kids (friends of some friends) for a week (until the following Monday) while their parents went to Hawaii. It was definately an adventure. :) They were good kids and we had some fun times together, although it was a bit stressful always trying to keep things caught up, homework done, lunches packed, kids to school and activities on time, dinner made, etc. Lydia was also not used to sharing so much of my attention with other kids, so she was a bit put off for a while, but did just fine. They live just up the hill from us, so it was easy for us to run back home and grab something if we forgot it. Neal was home in the evenings and on the weekend and was great with the older kids! I was especially grateful for that as I was feeling rather nauseous and sick most of the week. Before we knew it, Monday had come, and their parents were back. They were so thoughtful and brought us some chocolates and some fresh flower leis as well. 

Just a random picture from the month. Neal's parents turned his(and Brent's) old room into a playroom, so we went IKEA shopping with Stephanie to get some shelves for it. Lydia enjoyed running around and riding on the big cart.

Just enjoying a nice Sunday afternoon after church. 

March 2013

And here goes March in  a nutshell...

top left: Lydia and Caleb playing in the back yard. It's so nice now that she's getting old enough to actually play together with friends and they can entertain each other!

top right: Lydia loves playing with her friend Jonah. For a while, we'd watch him once a week and she would ask all the time when "no nah" was coming. So cute!

bottom: We discovered the fun cars at the grocery store! Never mind the crazy hair and outfit... she likes to pick her clothes out herself and doesn't like to leave her hair alone. :)

Easter came early this year, so we celebrated it in March. Lydia is ready to go to Neal's family easter egg hunt!

Brent and Annie currently have a HUGE yard where they live, and were nice enough to let us have the easter egg hunt there. Neal's parents hid the eggs while the rest of us hung out inside and ate pizza. Lydia loved taking her basket around and filling it with the bightly colored plastic eggs... until she discovered that there was candy inside. Then, she just wanted to open all of the eggs instead of finding more. The rest of us took off running to find the most eggs that we could. Some were filled with candy, but the ones we all wanted had numbers written on them. With each number on the eggs, we got to  choose a prize from the prize table, so they were in high demand. There were so many places for the eggs to be hidden, that it took us quite a while to find them. Even then, I think there are probably still a couple out there. 

For whatever reason, there is also a fake deer in the yard. Lydia had fun playing with/on it and was so happy when Brent helped her "ride" it.

Best of all, there was also a small slide. Lydia LOVES slides and was thrilled to climb up and slide down over and over and over again.

Feb. 2013

 Slowly but surely, I'll get somewhat updated on my blog. :) Here are some fun pics from February.

Lydia loves being outside and going on walks. She would be more than happy to stay out all day!

She also loves to walk around in mommy or daddy's shoes!

Who knew that balls made fun  chairs!

She is always very busy and on the go. If things are quiet for too long, I know that she's into something she shouldn't be... like the bathroom!

And of course, Valentines day! I grew up with my mom making us a big heart sugar cookie every year, and it's a tradition that I have been keeping in our little family as well. How can you go wrong with a big, yummy cookie! One for each of us: Neal, Becca, Lydia, and baby Johnson (coming in Sept. 2013)

Christmas 2012

This year for Christmas, we headed up to Rexburg to be with my parents. My sister, Jen, and her family (Jeff and Sadie) were there as well, but none of my other siblings could make it (at least not while we were there). It was a small group, but we had fun and enjoyed our time together. We didn't take many pictures, but here are a few from Christmas morning.

Jen and Sadie with the Christmas tree.

Lydia loved the stockings full of yummy things to eat!

Eating our Christmas oranges.

Sharing crackers and cheese with Dad.

This year I also made some stockings for our little family (with my friend, Heather) It was a fun project and I liked how they turned out. While I was at it, I also made some for my sister in law (Annie) for her Christmas gift. I liked the colors I used on Annie's better, but I was happy with both.

Our stockings

The stockings I made for Brent and Annie

Stuck in the Shower

I keep meaning to sit down and write this story, but almost 8 months later, I'm finally getting around to it. I didn't think it was very funny at the time, but as I look back, it is pretty amusing and I know I don't want to forget it. This happened last December (I'll back date it, so the post stays in order). It was one of those busy days where lots was happening. My mother-in-law offered to watch Lydia while I ran to the gym, so I dropped her off and headed out to run. After my workout, I picked up Lydia and hurried home to shower before my visiting teachers came over (in about 15 min). Lydia was happy to play while I took a quick shower. However, as I was about to get out, she came and opened one of the bathroom drawers. Big problem! The shower in our bathroom is a small standup one in the corner behind the door. There isn't much room between it and the vanity and when the vanity drawers are open, the shower door can't open. The drawers are fairly heavy and I had no idea that Lydia could open them by herself. I was stuck and there wasn't a whole lot I could do! Meanwhile, I could hear the doorbell ringing(visiting teachers), but I couldn't go answer the door. I tried convincing Lydia to shut the drawer, but either it was too hard for her to do, or she just wasn't that interested in doing so. The shower door was too high to climb up and everything was too wet and slippery anyway. The only option I could think of was to try to shut the drawer myself. After trying and trying, I finally managed to get the shower door open a crack- enough for me to squeeze two fingers through. The most I could do was the slowly inch the door shut (like millimeters at a time). Because of the angle, I couldn't push the drawer straight, so I had to push one way, and then the other. By this point, I was beyond frustrated, not to mention freezing cold! Normally, Neal would have been getting home within a few minutes, but it happened to be on a day where he had a late shift and wouldn't be back for another hour and a half. Not knowing what else I could do, I went back to work inching to drawer shut. It took me a very tedious 45-50 minutes, but I finally got it shut! Freedom!! It never felt so good to get out of the shower!! Luckily Lydia had stayed close by, so I could hear and talk to her the whole time. She had entertained herself by pulling out everything in the bathroom and bedroom that she could get to. What a disaster! After getting dressed and combing my hair, Neal got home. Work had been slow so he'd left early. I didn't give him the best greeting and he could tell I was upset about something, so I explained what had happend. He thought it was hilarious! He did, however, help me find some dowels to put through the drawer handles for next time, so Lydia couldn't do it again. What a day!

October 2012

I'm sure you're all amazed that I'm actually updating something on the blog! It's only taken me 6 months to do so. :) Hopefully I'll get enough up to date that I can keep on top of things again. Here are some pictures of last October.

Natalie, our neighbor, invited Lydia and I to go to Hogle Zoo with her and her 3 little kids. It was a bit chilly and not all of the animals were outside, but we enjoyed being there and seeing many of the animals. Lydia especially loved watching the elephants and seeing the monkeys. We had fun exploring and also enjoyed lunch together. After lunch we packed up and came back home for naps.

Watching the elephants, a grizzly bear swimming, climbing in an eagles' nest with friends, and watching the monkeys!

October also brought lots of leaves, pumpkins, and of course... Halloween!

Lydia enjoying the beautiful fall flowers and showing off a few of our pumpkins we grew in the garden this year.

 Helping rake and play in the leaves.

Family fun! Carving our first Jack-O-Lantern together. Lydia thought it was fun to play in the seed and pulp.

Our little kitty cat. Lydia was old enough this year to really enjoy trick or treating at Neal's work. She was a little leary of going up and meeting so many new people at first, but once she discovered that they all had a bowl of candy, she ran up to everyone!