Coloring & Reading

I mostly blame my Father for teaching Lilly how to color...all over herself!  She was coloring a Halloween picture and the next thing we know, she's all covered in marker.  Thanks Dad for teaching and encouraging this!

Lilly loves to read.  She has really started to enjoy it and actually sit still through books and books and more books.  She goes into her room, closes the door, and will pull out all her books.  She looks through them for hours.  I love having so many books.  We were able to start our big collection because of my friend Joanna; when Lilly was born she bought us like 50-75+ books.  They were in a big basket and it was so exciting to get so many.  The obsession of children's books have resulted in us having to clean up piles of books every night before she goes to bed.  It's so much fun though when she brings you a book to read and says, "book?"  She actually understands what we ask her now too, because I will tell her to go and get another book and she will!  We could sit for ages reading if there was time.  

Lilly's little painted toes.  I painted her toes for the first time and she was completely thrilled by it.  She keeps touching them saying, "toes...paint toes."  

Playtime & Bedtime

We've been really enjoying Lilly getting older.  Although it's kind of sad that she isn't a little baby anymore, it's so much fun doing things together and watching her little personality grow.  We got a bunch of dress up clothes from one of my nieces and Lilly loves to put all the clothes on and wear them all day.  She got the Minnie ears from Grandpa & Grandma Childers (because she might be Minnie for Halloween, if I get the time to sew the outfit) and she has found a new fascination with the Mickey Mouse Playhouse show, so she loves wearing the ears too.  She is just really enjoying her room more than she ever did.  She will just go in there, close the door, and start playing.  She is just so funny.  :)

One morning we woke up to the sounds of Lilly playing, but it sounded a little closer than usual.  Well, she had piled all her stuffed animals and toys into the corner of her crib and used them to help her climb out of it.  She was opening and closing her bedroom door and playing.  We thought we might take off the side of her crib and turn it into a toddler bed for a couple days to see how well she did sleeping in it.  We just didn't want her crawling out of the crib and hurting herself.  BUT we also really didn't want to have her in a toddler bed because it's so nice to have her in the crib where she can't get out and roam around our house doing who knows what.  We took off the one side and she just went crazy jumping all over the mattress.  She did not do well for her nap that day and we decided to just put the railing back up and see what happened.  Plus, she can't have so many toys in the crib anymore and she hasn't tried to crawl out since.  Phew!

Cousin Time

We got to have our nephew, Ansel, here for the weekend and spent some time at the park with Lilly and watched the BYU game.  We had so much fun with him and Lilly LOVED having her cousin here for a visit.

 

 

 

Mission Time!

My parents left on a 23 month mission for our church; they were called to serve in the Samara Russia mission and they will be spending 99% of their time in Saratov, which is about 4 hours from Samara.  We are so proud of them and the example that they are setting for us.  It is going to be (actually, already is) very difficult to say goodbye and we miss them terribly, but they are where they need to be at this time.  If I don't think about, I'm good; but that doesn't usually happen.  :)  We were able to spend a couple days with them right before they left and visited one of the parks here in Spokane, Manito Park.  It was a beautiful day.  We look forward to the adventure's our family is going to have the next couple years and to hear all about my parents.  

If you'd like to follow along on their journey, my sister-in-law Jen will be keeping a blog and I will be updating on Facebook.  So, check it out!  If you have any questions, let me know.  Love to you all.  :)

 

 

 

 

Blowing Bubbles

Lilly has been obsessed with bubbles lately.  And she becomes enraged when bubble-time is over.  So, we've been working on teaching her how to blow her own bubbles; because honestly, ever since I quit band, I just don't have the blowing power I used to...haha.  And since we're being honest, I've got to get Lilly's lung capacity up if she's gonna follow in her Momma's footsteps and be the worlds best Tuba player!

Our 1st Baby; Maggy

We had to make a really hard decision a couple weeks ago.  We had to find our first baby a new home; our puppy dog Maggy.  It was a really hard decision to make, but Maggy was not adjusting well to our move.  We started video taping her, and found that she would pace and pant and scratch and just go crazy for hours while we were gone.  It was starting to make me severely anxious whenever I'd leave the house.  It just broke our hearts that she wasn't happy here.  For those that have had a pet they love and is a part of their family, you'll understand how hard it is to make that choice that your pet would be happier somewhere else.  We were able to find her a home where the owners have other dogs (which she loves!) and they are home more.  Maggy just needs someone with her all the time, she doesn't do well alone.  There were some other reasons as well, but it really came down to me deciding if I was keeping Maggy just so I could be happy, or if Maggy would be happy somewhere else.  I've honestly cried my eyes out, but it was the right choice to make.

We dropped her off at her new home and Maggy walked right in, found a bone, started chewing it and then laid down.  It felt like home and we are at peace with our decision, even if it is still hard and we miss her so much.

Maggy has been the best dog though.  She's had her issues, but I will miss her sleeping on our bed at my feet.  Lilly would roll over her and snuggle up to her.  Lilly would also sneak food to Maggy.  Whenever she was in her highchair, she'd hold her hand out with food in it and say "Maggy?"  Then Maggy would come running over, grab the food and hide somewhere to eat it; she'd hide especially quick because they both knew that we didn't allow her to eat table food.  Those 2 were so sneaky.  Lilly would also try to ride Maggy like a horse and she'd yell "Yeehaw!"  Maggy would only allow this for so long until she'd get mad.  They were a funny pair.

 

Maggy did almost everything with us, she went kayaking, hiking (barely, she never got very far before she decided she was done), swimming.  If she saw a bird, she would be GONE.  One time in Eureka, CA; we were visiting my parents and she saw a bird fly right by us and bolted it into the ocean, she was out in the middle in at least 6 feet of water before I think she realized she was even in the water; at that moment we found out she could swim.  :)

Brandon assures us though, that as soon as we get a house (and some extra income, haha!), we can get another dog; and that way the dog will grow up with our kids.  We've already been talking about how much fun it will be to surprise the kids on Christmas.  We loved how Maggy didn't shed and didn't smell like a dog, so hopefully we will be just as lucky and blessed the next time around.

 Goodbye Maggy;

we love you and 

you'll always be missed.