Pictures

Hey all... I've been posting quite a bit. Doesn't mean I actually have time to though... Anyway, we had some 1 year pictures taken for Lilly last weekend and they kinda turned out to be family pictures too.. These are just some of them but I love them so much! Enjoy!

Grateful

*WARNING - may be whiny.

Lately I've been having kind of an "off" time.

We have this big evaluation coming up on Monday to become part of a ballet association which means in May we would be traveling to go to a conference in Washington! I'm doing a variation by myself as part of the evaluation. Shayla doesn't seem like a crazy person but (and I'm not being modest, I'm being perfectly honest) there are other people in the class that can do the variation better than me. I've been nervous because I've been working really hard on it and it still isn't where I want it to be.

I'm finding out that Steve is traveling a whole lot more than we thought he would. It's good and bad... the money is nice but I really miss my husband. I used to tell myself when he was gone that it would all soon be over and I would have my husband back and everything would go back to normal but I'm finding out that him being gone is sometimes just as normal as him being home.

I know this is kind of gross but my bunions have been killing me this last week. We have a new choreographer this week and it's very difficult to do your best and impress the choreographer when every time you go up on pointe you want to scream! Plus Lilly had a fever on Tuesday so I wasn't allowed to take her to daycare (even though it turned out to just be a teething fever) so for one of the days of choreography I was basically sitting in the back playing with my daughter.

So there you have it... whinefest 2000.... and yes I would like a little cheese with my whine.

The only thing that has been getting me through this is gratitude. I can't believe where I was just 6 months ago. My husband hated his job and I was sitting on my butt. We both have such amazing opportunities before us. Steve is doing seriously amazing at his job. And he LOVES it. And it's totally ok for him to love to travel. Sure he misses us a lot! But there is something about Steve that most people don't find too hard to understand...He is the friendliest person on the earth and he loves meeting new people and making friends all over the place so this job is really cool for him. Plus he is doing SOO good at it. The only reason he is gone so much is because everyone always requests Steve to go because he is the best one! And even though he has been gone a lot I feel like our relationship has gotten a lot better in general (due to a few attitude changes that we have both made lately!) Even though he is gone he still makes a point to talk to me AND Lilly EVERY day. Even if that means I keep him from an hour of sleep! I'm so grateful I have the best husband ever.

And as far as my dancing goes.... 6 months ago I believed that I was still done dancing and that I would never go back. I have to look back and see what happened to get me where I am right now... I'm sitting here complaining about my feet and how bad they hurt when really... when I look at the big picture.. I am grateful for that pain... well really I'm grateful for the opportunity to have the pain. Because 6 months ago my feet were perfectly fine...And I was bored. My life is so exciting now! And my foot pain is a part of the ups and downs of the best roller coaster ride!

Even though I still think she is crazy... Shayla has given me such an opportunity with this variation. She sees something in me that is worth showing to an evaluator... I'm so grateful to have such an amazing teacher!

And I am seriously grateful for my family... Lilly and Steve have made so many sacrifices to make this work and are happy to do it and I just think, man, I'm going through a rough time right now but I seriously think I'm the luckiest person ever, and when I really look at my life... I'm the happiest person ever as well!

The Mall

We went to the mall yesterday with some people from RBE and we stayed a little while longer to do some shopping for some upcoming family pictures! We ate at the food court and I captured a little bit of what it's like to go places with Lilly. She has started doing this new thing.. .She is learning how ot do a pirouette! (a ballet turn!) Really she just turns around in circles and makes herself dizzy. And then she wanders around to meet all the people that are around us. It's pretty fun.

Fun story about the mall. We were right by deseret book when Lilly looked at us very intently and asked us for milk by signing. We realized that she hadn't had her afternoon milk yet so we ran into deseret book and bought her some milk... then we ran all the way down to the food court to find her a straw... asked a few different people for one, finally got one.. found a table, sat down opened her milk and got it all ready. She took one good sip from the straw... looked up at daddy with a smile and signed, "All Done!" And she was...shewouldn't have any more of it! Gotta love her!

Progress

Weight - 17.66 lbs. 5.22%
Length - 29.7 in. 71.62%
Head - 17.5 in. 32%

My baby is a super model... she needs some meat on her bones!

Lilly has started communicating lately! We got some signing videos and Lilly LOVES them. She honestly could watch them all day long. She stands about a foot away from the tv and just stares at the screen. She doesn't really laugh or smile or anything like that too much, but she won't take her eyes off! I started to worry about it cause she wasn't picking up the signs yet and I was kind of afraid I was turning her brain into mush, but she actually is signing now! She is signing a bunch of different words and she is starting to speak too. She says mama and dada... but it's still really random and i'm not sure she always means mama and dada when she says it...So her first real word was KITTY! We went down to Grandma Eldredges house this last weekend and she chased her kitty around for hours... She was so excited about that cat! Everytime we saw the cat we would sign it and say "kitty". Well one time the cat came around and she actually said the word "Kitty"! And everytime the cat came around after that she would say some form of kitty... ticky..... kiki......kitchee..... keessee.... titi.... I'll buy all of them! She even started pinching her cheeks which is her version of the sign for cat! But she signs a bunch of things here they are:

-Mommy
-Daddy (Daddy was actually gone this last week on a business trip... every morning when she would wake up she would ask for daddy and I felt so bad that he wasn't there... so towards the end of the week when she would ask for daddy I would show her pictures of him and she would smile and laugh! )
-Kiss*
-More
-All done
-Milk
-Eat
-Juice (I think.. she did it for the first time today)
-Banana*
-Kitty
-Puppy
-Frog

*She hasn't signed these words yet, but she understands them when I sign them to her.

I know I haven't gotten a good video up of this yet, but she is a walking maniac! She doesn't crawl at all anymore unless she is really close to something. She always prefers to walk. I can't always contain her in a grocery store anymore cause she wants to be down and walking around. I let her a lot of times cause it's ridiculous to try to hold her.. she going to jump right out of my arms one of these days. And she'll stay in the cart for a little while but she gets mad and starts screaming. So I'll take her out and let her roam around if I'm gonna be in a section for a little while. Of course she tries to pull everything off the shelves so I've become one of those moms that runs around the grocery store saying sorry to everyone cause my child is in the way! It's a pain but it's kinda fun too. She has even tried to start running lately, but she usually only gets a few steps before she tumbles over. She knows this so she will only run to us if we are pretty close... she gets excited and bolts for us so she can fall into our arms! (We love her!) This usually comes about when we play the "I'm gonna get you" game. Usually when this game is played with a child, the child runs away to stop from being tickled.. Lilly does the opposite...We say "I'm gonna get you" and she runs head on for us! It's pretty much the only way we can keep her out of places we don't want her to go like the kitchen or the bathroom.. all we have to say is I'm gonna get you and she completely forgets about what she was going for! It seriously works better than picking her up and moving her or trying to distract her with toys!

Another thing that we have started doing is playing imagination games. Grandma Eldredge got Lilly a baby purse for her birthday... it came with a mirror and car keys and a bracelet and fake lipstick. I showed her a few times how to use the lipstick and now when I pick it up she puckers her lips and sticks out her chin so I can put lipstick on her! She carries her purse all over the place and loves it when I put the keys in the pretend car and drive her around the house!

Sorry no pictures! I gotta get my camera out!

Lilly's First Birthday!!!

I know it's been FOREVER since I've blogged. I have been so ridiculously busy. I honestly didn't realize I could be this busy. Literally every minute of my day is occupied and if I get a spare moment it is always stolen by trying to relax a tiny bit so I don't fall apart!! School (especially a Ballet Major) is tiring with a family.... but I am totally LOVING it! Anyway, more about that later.

Lilly turned 1 on September 30! My baby girl is growin up!

The weekend before her birthday we went down to St. George. Steve's Dads extended family had a huge get-together and we were able to celebrate Lilly's birthday with everyone there! And since we were in St. George my Momma got to be there too! I tried to upload the video but it was taking FOREVER, so sorry!

We were glad we were able to have that little celebration then because since like I said, we are crazy busy, we weren't able to do much for her on her actual birthday. We brought cupcakes to daycare with her so all of her daycare friends were very excited for Lilly's birthday!

Lilly has been such a blessing to have in our lives. We love her so much! She is such a smart little girl! From the moment she looked at me I knew we had a very special relationship. She has always been such a determined girl. She has a very strong personality and we love her for that. We couldn't be blessed more! Steve and I wanted to make sure that our kids were confident children and they understood how loved they were and that they would know their worth and we feel like our little girl is so confident that I think she will be able to do anything she wants to do with her life. She will grow up to be someone who makes lemonade out of lemons, she will grow up to be someone who doesn't just sit around and wait for things to happen for her, she will make things happen for her... we are certain she will be a good example to her friends and her family. Lilly, 1 year ago, September 30, was the happiest day of our lives because you came to live with us! I can't wait to see who you become! We are so lucky to have you! Love you angel!