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!