Book Wreath

I visited my sister the other day and she had one of these awesome book wreaths... I loved it! I decided I wanted to make one, but didn't have any books I wanted to rip up, so went to Savers and found this wonderful old world atlas. Steve, Lilly and I had a blast looking through the book, looking at places that we have been, that we treasure, and that we wish to go. This wreath really means something to us now... a wreath of treasured places. Cost: $3.00... Time: Priceless (but really only about 1 hour)

Adventures in Potty Training

Warning... we are talking about bodily functions a lot in this post...


Recently and increasingly Lilly has become more sensitive to wet diapers. Usually in the day she is distracted enough that she could go on with a little wet diaper, but NOT at night. She would need her diaper changed SEVERAL times before going to bed... our record was 5 diapers in one hour before bedtime. Then she would wake up several times at night needing her diaper changed.

Not cool....

She was smart enough to learn how to be potty trained. We had introduced panties to her a couple of times just so she could feel how nice they were and had her sit on the potty with her tinkerbell transition seat just so she could get used to it... but we hadn't tried REALLY potty training yet. Like I said, she was smart enough she could get it, but she really just didn't WANT to. She loved her diapers and I think it was kind of like her pacifier... a comfort thing.

Until she started to realize that a dry diaper is comforting, but a wet one is nasty.

She still resisted using the potty or sitting on it at all, but I was NOT going to buy diapers like that... so we decided to try to push it a little bit more.

Monday, December 13th: Lilly's first time peeing in the potty. A big step. I knew if I made a big enough deal about it it would catch on. I was right. We shouted, we clapped, we paraded around the house, we sucker'ed... that girl was happy!

Tuesday, December 14th: Lilly went pee pee in the potty again... again we made a big deal about it!

Wednesday, December 15th: Lilly went Pee pee in Our potty, and Denise's potty. And again in our's later that day. It continued like this on Thursday. We lessen the reward from a sucker to a jellybean.

Friday, December 17th: Commence Serious Potty Training. Panties on and no turning back. Successful trip to Costco... no accidents out, but 3 accidents at home, including a poopy accident... no fun. And Lilly doesn't like Jellybeans that much, so we either find a good one, or give her a sticker, but she doesn't really see the correlation of potty training and stickers.

Saturday December 18th: Trip to Brick Oven... parents too scared to go with panties so we did a diaper.... forced Lilly to sit on the potty twice with no avail... but she came home with a dry diaper. 3 accidents at home. We find a potty treat that works perfectly. Strange.. but they are little chocolate filled cookies we get at the Asian market. She loves them.

Sunday, December 19th: Again, went to church with a diaper, but after sacrament she successfully went potty in a public place. Took her to Nursery (with no tears... finally)... then picked her up (dry diaper) took her to the potty and she went again! 2 accidents at home that day.

Monday, December 20th: This is where I learned the most. I needed to go Christmas shopping. We got dressed and it had been about an hour and a half since Lilly had gone Potty. I decided that once she went one more time we would go. I asked her if she needed to go, she said no... but I didn't believe her and put her on the potty anyway. She screamed. After a half an hour of waiting for her needing to go, I just decided we would get in the car and go to the first store and sit on the potty there. Which we did. I asked her if she needed to go, she said no... I put her on the potty anyway. She screamed. This repeated the entire day. Seriously we were out for like 4 hours. Nothing. I was completely nerveracked cause I knew she was just going to pee right in the middle of a store, and frustrated cause she still said she didn't have to go... and at that point I had started to believe her cause it had been 4 hours since she had gone... and she wasn't lying any of the other times she said she didn't have to go. hmpf.... We head home cause I'm going crazy... and Lilly falls asleep in the car. I take her out and put her in her bed, she wakes up immediately and tells me she needs to go potty, which she then does. This is the day I learned to trust her. 2 accidents at home today... one peepee, one poopy.

Tuesday, December 21st: Only 1 accident today. If I ask my daughter if she needs to go, I can trust her answer. It makes the whole thing so much more pleasant. I know this sounds terrible, but Lilly's naps have been crap lately, so she fell asleep on the couch naked after her bath. Yes... Lilly loves naked time after her bath.. especially since I don't want to put another pair of panties on and risk them getting dirty since we put a diaper on for bedtime anyway. I woke her up to get her dressed for bed and she wouldn't let me put a diaper on her. She didn't want it. I trust her...So I made sure her bed had a mattress pad on it and said here we go. Put her to bed with panties on.

Wednesday December 22nd: 3 in the morning... Lilly wakes up and tells us she needs to go potty. Which she does. She goes back to bed. Still dry. Lilly wakes up at 8:30... tells us she needs to go potty, which she does... still dry.

So. We have successfully completed Going number 1 in the potty... leaving the house and staying dry... using public potty's... and staying dry during naps and at night. 2 more hurdles to go... a big one coming up. Lilly still hasn't gone number 2... she knows she supposed to, and she tries, but I think she gets a little freaked out about it... So I imagine it will go something like, maybe another accident or two, but she'll feel bad about it and then muster up the courage to go poop in the potty.. and then we'll make a HUGE deal about it again and then she'll be sold on it.

The other hurdle is staying potty trained while in other people's care. We tested this out on Friday with my parents as Steve and I went on a date... she she was fine. And we tried it again at nursery on Sunday, but she wasn't wearing panties... not this Sunday but next, we will send her with panties, and then when daycare starts up again... we'll see how it goes but I don't foresee it being a problem.

Right now we are just enjoying our big girl and trusting her!

I'm Famous!

Well... not really... but I happened to be on the poster for RBE's Concert!

These posters were up all over town. They handed out little flyers, it was on the program, and it was on the ticket!

Then Shayla, the artistic director of RBE got a press release, and then it really was everywhere... It was on the schools website under the arts section

Then it showed up on the UVU home page... I got a screen capture of it.



It even showed up in the Daily Herald. I haven't gotten a printed paper yet, but my parents are making me go to the Daily herald and see if I can get a copy.

Apparently there were other blurbs about it in other newspapers... but I don't know of them or where they are... Fun though eh? Thanks to Hancock Photography for taking such a sweet picture!

The Concert went well BTW... you really missed out if you didn't go... it was tons of fun!

Halloween at UVU

I'm the gorilla... and yes it was hot!



Ps we learned this in like an hour.... It was a blast!

Lilly now-a-days....

I haven't actually talked about my daughter for a while.... how about an update for her!!

Lilly is an extremist.... In everything.

She has NOT learned how to share... she will not share.. nor has she learned she doesn't get her way all the time. And if she doesn't get her way she will scream. We have tried everything... time-outs, talking to her, ignoring her, etc... nothing works. It's not like we give her things when she screams... we really don't. And not only that, but she still doesn't listen to us when we try to tell her no. It goes in one ear and out the other. And one more thing to add to this... she still will not sit quietly through sacrament. It's not that she screams or cries or anything... She just talks especially loud. I think it's because she likes the way her voice sounds when it's quiet. And she will still not go to nursery. I have to stay in there with her. I swear my Relief society doesn't even know who I am! Strange I know cause she goes to daycare every day... but I think it's just cause she doesn't have a real relationship with anyone there since they change the nursery workers every week.



That's the bad side of Lilly though... and although it drives us crazy... there is an absolutely amazing side to Lilly... That we love so much!  Again, extreme... but so good.
Lilly has an EXTREMELY large attention span for her age. She has the ability to sit down and focus on one thing for a very long time. When she find an activity that challenges her but that she can do, it's not unusual for her to do that activity for over an hour. And because of this... she is VERY smart. She knows all of her letters. Really.. you show her any letter she can tell you what it is. Many letters she can also tell you what sound they make. We often take small words like Cat and break them down into letters, then sound them out, then read the word. This may be hard to believe but we are teaching her how to read. And I'm really not exaggerating. She can read 3 words as of now. Moo, LaLaLa, and Snuff. They are all from a book she was reading with Daddy once. I can write one of those words on a piece of paper and she will tell me what it says. Can pick out one of those words from a group of words. And we are still working on lots more, but they aren't quite as solid as these.

She puts puzzles together over and over... she plays on this website... she gets an assortment of objects and "sorts" them into different places while counting them. She counts everything... fingers, grapes... whatever she has. She points out letters wherever she sees them. As far as her voice goes, she speaks extremely clearly most of the time, but sometimes when we are having a conversation she talks in gibberish except for just a few words that let me know what we are talking about "yayayayayayyaya pumpkin soap yayayaya washa hands yayayayaya pumkin soap yayayaya every day!" She is still a parrot... will copy every thing you say. Most of the things she says are just copied from whatever I said last!

Lilly loves to sing songs. Among her favorites are Book of Mormon Stories (with hand actions), The Wise Man (again, with hand actions), Popcorn popping, ABC song (traditional version as well as superwhy version), Mickey mouse clubhouse song, Itsy Bitsy Spider, I don't want to Live on the Moon, Dream, You are my sunshine, I am a child of Gobs (God), Happy Birthday, and many more.

She is very excited for Halloween... I've never seen her so excited for a holiday or season... her favorite? Pumpkins. She is so happy that pumpkins are everywhere! Pumpkins and spiders and ghosts (BOO) and she believes skeletons to be pirates so when she sees one she says "ARRRG". I think it might be her favorite holiday!

She has mastered jumping off the ground. And it is her preferred mode of transportation.. we often still carry her when we go somewhere because she won't walk with us... she will slowly hop in our general direction!
She's a monkey. She will push our kitchen chairs up against the counters and climb up to get what she wants. She has learned how to open her bedroom door which has been a good thing and a bad thing. There have been a few nights she will surprise us in the middle of the night, but not usually. She is a pretty good girl and stays in bed.

She is still teeny. Last time we had her weighed she was in the 5th percentile for weight. The doctor said to give her absolutely anything she wants to eat... but if she had her way she would just eat butter day in and day out. She likes butter more than she likes ice cream. But the doctor said butter is one of the best foods for her right now because of the fats in there will help her brain development... but I still can't bring myself to just put a glob of butter on her plate. I think she's fine and would rather get her in the habit of eating good healthy foods. She eats some veggies but she loves fruit and any kind of fruit so we eat a lot of that in our house.


We love our baby! And as for another baby... it's still not in the cards anytime soon. Steve and I have talked about it and we both agree that when we are ready for another, we will feel it and it won't matter what we have going on, we will make it work...For now we love our little family and are enjoying everything we are doing!

ok... ok... let's do this...

Alright...I gave in... I think it's time to actually take pictures of other people than just my baby... and for that... I have a photo blog. Now I know most of the pictures on this blog are my family... so what... That will change cause I just did a shoot and a few more are upcoming... Go check it out.. there are some sweet pictures of Lilly up right now!

So with that... if you or anyone you know wants a shoot... let me know! Christmas cards are going out soon!

I'm not one to toot my own horn, but.....

Beep Beep... These pictures rock.

Lilly's 2nd Birthday Party!

Lilly's Turning 2!

Let me know if you can make it to her birthday party!!! Can't wait to see you there!

Lilly's New Best Friend

Yesterday, we went up to Sandy to visit Steve's Grandma Stott.

Upon arrival, she gave us the option of paying 8 dollars to eat at her home (she lives in a retirement home and guests have to pay 8 bucks to eat there) or paying around the same and going out somewhere else, even though it was Sunday. I don't think it's breaking the Sabbath if your grandma asks you to... is it? Anyway, we let her take us out to Mimi's cafe and while we were there, she picked up a crayon and drew something for Lilly... instant best friends... Poor Grandma Stott couldn't eat her meal because Lilly was asking her to draw her a kitty cat, a doggie, a bunny, a flower... she loved Grandma Stott! It was so adorable to see her take to her so easily!

We went back to Grandma's apartment and Lilly loved it. We brought a bunch of books with us and again, Lilly wouldn't leave Grandma alone... she kept bringing books over to her and asking her to read them to her... oh it was so much fun to see... Thank you Grandma for letting us come visit! Love you!

Road work ahead....

Does it ever seem like this sign is stuck in front of your life...

personally, I don't think mine will ever go away... and that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Drowning... but loving it.

This summer, I've been taking some classes... The first semester I took a modern class, this semester I am taking ballet and ballet pedagogy (teaching methods) and I'm also retaking anatomy online. I'm DROWNING in homework every day! no really....

For my ballet pedagogy class, we are creating an entire 8 year curriculum. Every Tuesday and Thursday we have a level to turn in. Each level packet usually turns out to be anywhere from 9-13 pages of material. Each packet usually takes me 6-8 hours to complete. I'm trying to be very thorough with them, but every step we do has to be perfectly notated including accents and french terminology... it takes forever to do but man... it's so good! Do you ever have homework you enjoy doing?? This is definitely fun to put together, and not only that, but the end result... an entire 8 year curriculum including a lesson plan for each level... that's priceless right there...

Anyway If that wasn't enough, we also have random readings, and vocabulary quizzes. For ballet we have journal entries and vocab quizzes...plus I'm behind in my anatomy so I need to do a lot of catch up for that class...

In other words... sorry I haven't been blogging... and I hope to pick it up soon, but I can't promise anything!

Lilly's Stott-ish Cousins

Foam Rollers and Fairy Wings....It's gotta be a good day!

3 years ago....

This happened....

 Steve and I always fought about this picture because he didn't like the way his nose looked in it.... but for me... this is probably my favorite picture of our whole wedding. Because I look exactly as I felt. Pure and wonderful happiness that I married the man that I did.

Guess what... I still feel that way today... three years and one baby later... I still am as happy as the day I married him... He's an amazing man and I can't wait to spend the rest of our lives together... oh the adventures that await us!


Love you man...