Steven & Ellie Stott

Holy Moly

2011-06-03T10:36:00.000-06:00

I know... it's been a long time... yikes...

UPDATE...
Steve is doing awesome! He's been the Senior sys admin AND the Junior sys admin at his job for the last several months.. they've been trying to hire a guy but just haven't found one yet.. we pray every night that they get some help so Steve isn't so busy and stressed at work... But although it is stressful he is learning a ton! Good for him!

I WAS super busy. I had my concert that was amazing. I had some really good parts in it and it was a fantastic opportunity. Our company went to Vegas for RDA and performed Foxhole and rocked the house! Since then I've been sitting on my couch and playing with Lilly! We are having a grand ol time... That and more and more photos! As far as my photography goes... I decided I LOVE dance photography... and I meander at other types of photography... which excites me... I've had some awesome people do shoots with me and I learn something every time.. I really need to work on my timing so my poor dancers don't have to do things a million times! Figuring out timing is like playing a video game... it has to be perfect!

Lilly is doing great! She is loving the time at home! She told me the other day that she had a crush on a boy at daycare... She got all giggly and quiet and smiley... she told me he was cute!! WHAT?!?!?! But it was short lived. She was done with him a few days later. She's a girl!

We've done some fun things in the last few weeks including the zoo and discovery gateway! But by far the best thing this summer is going to be...... (drumroll please).......

DISNEY WORLD!!!!!!!

Yep! We are going!July 15th! The Stott clan are going to have a blast!! We are preparing by watching lots of disney movies so Lilly knows the characters. So far she loves Beauty and the Beast (my favorite) and Aladdin... but her ALL TIME FAVORITE.... Cinderella! She just loves the little mice! Gotta love sharing our memories from our childhood with our kids...

Favorites

2011-03-30T11:34:00.000-06:00

Here are just a few favorites from my recent photo shoots....

For more, Lilet - Foto

Have another shoot tomorrow morning!!! YAY!

Healthy again!

2011-01-30T15:14:00.000-07:00

Ahh... we have endured another round of "catch the cold" in our house. I think we were sick for about 3 weeks... but alas... we are all healthy now. We love daycare, but man we better have buff immune systems once we are done!

Steve's doing great at his new job. We attended his company party last week and I got to meet all the people he works with and a lot of people that he didn't even know because he's so new! We had a lovely dinner and were entertained by a magician! (or rather by the couple we were sitting across from who made fun of the magician the whole time!.... what... we were too far away to actually see the magician... )But we had fun! Thanks to Mom and Dad for babysitting our sick baby that night.

Steve's new job is interesting... it's definitely an adjustment.... meeting new people, getting used to how their work environment works... especially being brought into a company that is actually stable and has been around for a long long time. You enter not knowing the years and years of history between these co-workers and all the politics of the past... to be honest we are still settling in and seeing if it's a good fit.

I've been dancing away at school! We've been working with some guest choreographers the last couple of weeks and it has been an adventure... It's weeks like these that make me look back on where I was a few years ago right after my injury. I never believed that I could even seriously take class again. And here I am doing all sorts of crazy contemporary choreography and partnering and things I honestly still have a hard time believing I can do. Life changes... It's wonderful.

Lilly went to Nursery after several weeks of not going due to sickness... and she's standing here telling me about it right now... She went potty while in nursery, then told me that she drew a picture, and that there is Jesus Christ in nursery.... (cue breaking heart!) We love this girl so much!

Baby.... I mean..... Big Girl!

2011-01-16T21:06:00.002-07:00

Oh I'm awful and keeping this thing updated.... oh well...

Lilly is big and potty trained...
She isn't accident free, but they are few and far between... usually because Steve and I weren't paying attention or something. Freaks me out a little bit... I remember thinking I didn't really ever want 2 kids in diapers.. but I never contemplated having no kids in diapers for a long time. We still have a while to go before another one comes, so when that does happen we will be like new parents again.. oh the joys of creating a family.

Anyway.... random thought aside, the point is that Lilly is big. She's getting bigger and older every day (duh smarty pants...) but I guess when you have a baby you wrap your head around the idea of having a baby... kinda having a hard time wrapping my head around having a little girl. But alas, I have one, and she happens to be the best thing God ever made. So we are enjoying her sweetness. And her boogeryness.... but mostly just the sweetness.

Her hair is getting long. It's comfortably at her shoulders, On a good day they'll stretch out the loose curls and go farther... and her bangs lay comfortably past her nose... I thought the longer her bangs got the easier they would just sweep to the side, but no... she likes them to tickle the top of her lip. Can't stand clips to pin them back or pony tail holders... what's a mom to do... I have to be sneaky by putting on a favorite show. Among her favorites right now are Strawberry Shortcake, CareBears, and Pink Kitty-Kat (pink panther and friends). All on Netflix.

Anyway, she's lovely.

We have some bad habits that we would like to get rid of though... I know these bad habits are completely 100% my fault... can't be a perfect parent.... but we can try.

Lilly has really crappy eating habits. They started because she was always such a small girl. She has only been above the 10th percentile in weight once since she was born. The doctors had always told us to make sure she eats, even if it's crap... that girl needs food. So when we put veggies in front of her, and she said no, we put french fries and breaded chicken nuggets in front of her. And she ate.

Then when we were busy and didn't even give her the choice of veggies, we just put french fries and breaded and fried chicken nuggets in front of her... and she ate.

(side note... Lilly is naked from her bath today, and standing on top of a really tall chair doing the Lilly shake dance right now... oh I love her...:)

Anyway, then we fed her sugar, and candy, and suckers, and chocolate with the holidays and the potty training... and she ate.

... don't judge us....

Now, although everyone had always told me she was tiny and that she needed to eat... I never really felt like she was unhealthily small... just that that was the way she was and it was fine... who knows... maybe everyone elses kids are just fat? (no.. I'm not calling your kid fat. calm down... sheesh.) But since the doctors said give her what she will eat, I did.

Now I've finally come to the conclusion that my baby is small and that's just fine. I would so much rather her be small and have healthy eating habits later, than normal now and crappy eating habits later.

sad story... she already has bad eating habits.

Any ideas on how to change this? Just never give her fries again? no more candy on the face of the earth? the only option we have is brussell sprouts and grilled chicken and you eat it or you starve? I know what your're thinking though... she wouldn't starve, she would break down and eat the good food... but you dont know that... she's kinda extreme... she would probably resort to eating and thriving off of her boogers. (which I'm sure are salty and creamy... it's the only green thing she will eat!) ewwww... don't be gross....

Although I can't complain a ton... She will eat almost any fruit. And she loves green juice which has lots of fruit and veggies in it... so maybe she is getting it somewhere...

Anyway, any ideas on changing eating habits? I hope one day I will put down a plate and she will go... MMMM.... I love the cucumbers!! and she picks out carrots to eat out of my salads rather than the croutons...

Someday.

Our Holiday

2011-01-03T16:21:00.001-07:00

Oh ladies and gentlemen... we had a lovely holiday...

Lately our parents have been visiting us quite a bit and it was lovely to leave Lilly with them on Christmas Eve to go finish my shopping. We have decided we love spending time together... we should do it more often.

After shopping we did our tradition of making cornflake Christmas wreaths and I got fancy this year and made starburst candy canes and ribbons... they were delish!

We enjoyed Christmas movies, baked chicken, cokes, treats, martinellis, new pajama's, and big truckload of Christmas spirit! Steve and I slept out in the living room and waited for Santa. And man he delivered!

Christmas was lovely... It lasted forever. Lilly would open a present and then need to play with it... it easily took 3 hours to open all our presents... Santa kinda spoiled her... we saw the "brat-o-meter" hit extreme heights the more presents she opened. Gonna have to talk to Santa about that and make next year a little easier.

We spent a few hours playing with our toys and then headed up to my sisters to talk to my bro the missionary extraordinaire! We had a great time hanging out and playing!

Steve started a new job the next Monday... It's a transition but it is a step up and he is very excited about the challenge and the opportunities! Wish him luck!

We took a trip down to Vegas to visit our friends for new years... we've spent the past 2 new years with them and we've had great years so they might be our good luck charms...

Ex Caliber... The big Castle

Freemont Street!

Spongebob sighting...

Las Vegas Dice.... Adorable until they took off their costume and lit up... killed the magic...

This Elvis dude... holy cow... made a snide comment about Roy's fancy green pants... but don't worry... Roy dished it back, I mean, who's the dude walking around making a living in an Elvis jumpsuit.... and who's going to make fun of whose clothes?

The freemont street video thingy... it was like a bad acid trip... not that I would know but it was weird.. We couldn't decide if Lilly was scared or amazed...

Then we went home and Roy and Steve played video games...

After we left we spent some time in St. George with Brandon and Heather! Got to play around with her new light kit! This is Heather and her adorable Lucas!

And then we drove home... to a nice clean beautiful apartment... wonderful holiday!

Book Wreath

2010-12-23T13:55:00.000-07:00

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

2010-12-22T09:52:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-11-21T18:07:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-30T22:13:00.001-06:00

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....

2010-10-25T20:58:00.001-06:00

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...

2010-10-14T15:38:00.001-06:00

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.....

2010-09-25T15:02:00.000-06:00

Beep Beep... These pictures rock.

Lilly's 2nd Birthday Party!

2010-09-21T22:55:00.001-06:00

Lilly's Turning 2!

2010-09-09T20:19:00.002-06:00

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

Lilly's New Best Friend

2010-08-09T14:07:00.000-06:00

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....

2010-08-06T15:17:00.001-06:00

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.

2010-07-28T13:08:00.000-06:00

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

2010-07-18T11:25:00.000-06:00

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

2010-07-17T18:21:00.001-06:00

3 years ago....

2010-07-07T16:24:00.003-06:00

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...

Giant picture test...

2010-06-30T20:44:00.008-06:00

TESTING GIANT PICTURES

We miss Daddy

2010-06-26T23:10:00.000-06:00

Daddy's on a trip. Now this is not anything new to us... but this time we really miss him!

We've been trying to keep really busy while he's gone so we don't end up just sitting in the house and turning into hermits... So Thursday we walked... yes walked to scera pool. It's about 9 blocks south so it's not that bad... but in almost 100 degree weather... it's pretty tiring. We stayed at the pool for about an hour before beginning our trek home. Then yesterday we crafted a little bit.. made a cotton ball bunny with white pom poms, cotton balls, and pipe cleaners... Poor Lilly just cried at it though because the cotton kept getting torn off. She got over it though and now even though it's just a couple of white pom poms glued together with bent ears... she still wants to carry around her "boken bunny". I made a really pretty butterfly out of felt and pipe cleaners and rhinestones and some leftover pretty pink chiffon-type material... but she wanted nothing to do with it... she didn't even look at it. She was too busy crying over her bunny!

Then we headed out for some bubble fun, which didn't end up being very fun. Lilly wanted to make a game out of pouring the bubbles into the bubble pan and then dumping it out... And I had to go and ruin the fun... what's a mom for though right?

Today we woke up at about 6:30. We started the day off with a 2 mile run, which even though my time was RIDICULOUSLY slow.. (22 minutes) I was still very proud of myself for running 2 miles after not having ran for about a year! In high school after a whole semester of working on it.. I still couldn't even run half a mile without stopping... I must have been really out of shape back then... Cause I still feel out of shape even now!
Anyway, Lilly was a little confused about this early morning Stroller ride since we were moving much faster... But she loved starting the day that way!

We went to a family members baby shower today and Lilly loved running around like a crazy woman so pretty much I just chased her around and snapped a few pictures of the shower when I could...
Then we went shopping for a little bit. Old navy had a great sale on and we got a few things that I LOVE!! Including a new swimsuit for Lilly and some floaties..
We came home and chilled for a while and then headed off to the pool again! I know you aren't supposed to use floaties on a child under 3.. but she loved them so much!!!! It was so cool to watch her figure out what she can do and just get confidence in herself... I took her out in the water and tried to hold her as little as possible, she didn't realize the floaties make you float so she was freaking out a little bit.. so we went back into the shallow part and I just let her run around. She fell a couple of times and by doing that she figured out the floaties kept you above the water! She ran around purposely falling and figured out how to tilt her head so the water didn't get in her face! Once she got confident in that she started walking out to deeper water and just testing her limits...she eventually got to where she couldn't touch and she was so excited that she was still above the water!! She actually started kicking and swimming around!! We were both so excited! She then saw some kid jumping off the edge of the pool. She has seen kids do this earlier and has even tried it, but it always ended up her just sitting down and falling into my arms. But today she did it all by herself.. should wouldn't even let me catch her cause she wanted to do it all by herself.. like a big girl! So proud of my little swimmer!
She got so worn out by all that swimming that we went home and she ate dinner, asked for a diaper change and asked if it could be bedtime... What a sweetheart!
Unfortunately that means I'm laying on the couch with nothing to do but blog and say how much I'm missing my husband! It's easy to let him go when I have an INCREDIBLE amount of work to do, but when all I have to do is enjoy my family... it's hard to not have one of them here...

Steve gets home on Wednesday and then Thursday we fly out to New Jersey for the Annual Stott Family Vaca! We leave New Jersey on July 6th and then July 7th is our 3rd anniversary.... So maybe what we will do for that is rest!!!

I haven't taken many pictures these last couple of days... but here are a few from this last week.

Motivation..

2010-06-21T18:50:00.002-06:00

Thank Heavens I had it today.

It's been months since our bedroom hasn't been covered with books and shoes and clothes... clean and dirty! But today.. somehow... I found the motivation to fix that.

Ahhh.... Even a made bed!

Wait.. who is that fox in the back?? ;) jk

Yes.. I know it's quite bare... I need to do a little decorating in here now!

And guess what we have now..

5 bags of clothes we are donating to DI... and probably more after that!

And it's not just our bedroom.. but for the past several weeks now, I've somehow found the motivation to:
1) Do my laundry.. including folding the clean clothes, putting them away and even ironing things almost every day..
2)Do my dishes... My sink is shining and I like it that way!
3) Clean my bathroom..I"m talking cleaning the toilet, countertops and mirror.. and here's the kicker.. EVERYDAY! And guess when I do it... Right when I wake up in the morning..before I even go to school! it's been a good thing too because Lilly has discovered the "potty" and the fact that her stuffed froggies and ducks like to go swimming in there, as well as her toothbrush... We cleaned all of that stuff (not the toothbrush.. we just threw that away) But every time this horrible incident happens I am SO completely happy that I cleaned the toilet that day!
4)Just a bunch of random things that I have always had a hard time doing.. like even if I did clean an area of the house we would find it messy about an hour later. You know what the difference is?

The phrase "Do it NOW!"

I don't know if anyone knows about FLYlady but she is amazing! I love her system! All of the mothers that read my blog should go check her out here! Your life will change! Anyway, one of the things she says is that you don't need to wait till later to deal with something. It won't be easier, you won't be less tired... just deal with it now and it will be done! I love it!

So whenever I see a mess start to creep up and I groan to myself and start to walk by it... I hear the words in my head "DO IT NOW!" and I just think... Heck yeah!! Love it!

Not only that but I think I'm finding my groove over the summer! Lilly and I have so much fun! I'm going to miss her so much when it's time to go back to school full-time!
ahh... better enjoy summer while I can!

Daddy's day!

2010-06-21T12:09:00.000-06:00

What a wonderful day it was yesterday. A day where we get to celebrate the men in our lives that make us feel safe, comfortable, and happy...

Lilly and Daddy have such a special relationship... she loves her daddy so much. Sadly, Steve travels an awful lot and she misses him so much while he is gone, but I think that grows her heart a little bit every time because you never see a happier girl than when we see Daddy come home from the airport...

The more we raise our daughter the more I understand the need for a girl to have a great daddy. Steve treats me so well and loves me so much and works so hard for his family... and someday when Lilly is looking for her husband, she'll look for someone who loves and cares just as much as her daddy!

The great thing about Steve as a dad is that he is so well rounded... I always thought he would be the guy that would just play with our kids.. and not discipline them or do a ton of the work like changing diapers or anything like that... but he is so good. He doesn't let Lilly get away with bad things... he changes diapers just as much as I do.. and he is still the funnest one to play with. We are so lucky to have him!

We started the day off with scrambled eggs and cheese, Cinnamon streusel muffins, and yummy fruit smoothie juice in bed. Then... in order to give Daddy exactly what he wanted for Fathers day... we left and let Daddy have a morning to himself to sleep in and relax! I know that sounds weird.. but Daddy gets worked to the bone and both of us have been CRAVING a day where we don't get out of bed... we used to do that all the time before we were parents... just lay in bed and watch movies and cuddle all day... haven't done it in a very long time due to the little one who won't stay in bed that long. Anyway... When we came home we had naps and let Daddy play his video game. Another thing he NEVER gets to do without some sort of interruption.

For Fathers day meal, I caved on my "never-eat-pizza-again" policy and we made homemade pizza. This particular pizza requires 2 things that I just can't do... roll out pizza dough.. and Steves famous sesame garlic chicken. So Steve did have to do quite a bit of cooking on Fathers day... but when it's pizza.. Steve LOVES cooking.. in fact, when I try to do it myself he usually butts me out of the kitchen.

We love you Daddy!

We also got a chance to talk to Papa Eldredge on the phone. I love my Dad... Our family has been through some hard times, but I'm glad that Lilly gets to have her Papa. She loves you so much!

The only thing we didn't get to do is talk to Papa Stott. They recently moved to Abu Dhabi and we don't have a way to talk to them on the phone so we just sent Happy Fathers Day vibes out into the world for Randy! We love you and can't wait to see you in a couple of weeks!

The rest of our lives...

2010-06-14T17:38:00.002-06:00

When we are kids... we are asked what we want to be when we grow up... and as a child... we can only give 1 answer....

I was talking to a friend today who was making a very important decision. One based on pure speculation, having no experience in what she was choosing, which didn't bother me at all. We all have to make decisions like that.. it's completely necessary. What intrigued me was how absolute she was on this decision. She wasn't happy the way she was and could never be happy the way she was, although she is doing wonderful things. And she was convinced that this new lifestyle she has chosen will make her happy "for the rest of her life." See the interesting thing to me about that phrase is that I don't think people understand how long the rest of your life is! How can someone do one thing for their entire life?

I am 23 years old. If I live till sometime in my 80's that gives me some 60 years left of my life. I've just begun on my journey! I'm just barely getting started! I am young! There have been no decisions that I have made that will keep me from doing anything I chose to do in the future..and I truly believe that!

I have been a ballet dancer for a very long time. I started at age 8 which puts me at 15 years of ballet. Now I love it beyond all belief, and I don't believe I'll ever really quit, but that doesn't mean I HAVE to do what I'm doing now for the rest of my life. I love jazz... I am finding a love for modern dance.. who knows... maybe I'll continue with ballet for several years... maybe I'll stop after graduation... maybe I'll audition for a bunch of companies and make one... maybe I'll start acting... maybe I'll be a modern dancer... maybe I'll decide to have 10 kids.... maybe we'll pack up and move to Europe...maybe I'll write a book... maybe I'll become a famous choreographer, photographer, or performer... maybe I'll start my own company...maybe I'll go back to school to become a doctor or physical therapist... or you know what.... Maybe I'll do all of those things. I have the time... I have 60 years... surely I can do whatever I want. This is my life and I can be more than one thing if I want to be...

and do I want to be!

Now with that said I realize that some decisions cannot be undone... well... I guess they can.. but these are decisions that I have made for myself that WILL not be undone...

1) I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day saints.

(no... I didn't take this picture... I wish!)
I will try to live up to the standards the Lord has set in everything I do. That being said...I will make mistakes... I am human...but I will fix those mistakes along the way.

2) I am married to a wonderful man.

He is my other half... I love him very much and every decision I make will be based upon his support and with him in mind. I will be faithful to him for not only the rest of our lives... but for eternity... Forever baby.. thats how we do...

3) I am a mother.

I have one child right now.. but that will change eventually... we will have more kids... and as we have talked about the timing of our next child or subsequent children... we have agreed that our children deserve as much of us as we can give them. I will not make any decisions in my life that will take my motherhood away from me.. or take away the attention my children need and deserve.

4) I am a dancer...

Yes... if you noticed this is the only one that deserves the "dot dot dot's" .... and this is why.
I am a dancer. I have tried to get rid of this part of me in the past and have failed miserably. It's in me. And I believe it will always be in me... no matter what I'm doing. That doesn't mean I will always be a ballet dancer... but it means that movement and the dance world will always be a part of what I'm doing. It will affect me in every aspect of my life... and I know that I will never be able to stop moving... So whether I'm choreographing, teaching, dancing ballet, dancing jazz, dancing modern, dancing ballroom.... this art form will always be a part of me.

So there it is... this is the basic outline of "the rest of my life".... the rest hopefully will be filled with really-high highs... and hopefully not-too-low lows..and they will change and morph and develop and lead me down different paths that I never expected.

So that is the new title of my blog... The rest of my life... Hopefully I'll be able to write down the things that I choose to fill "the rest of my life" with here in this blog.

Who says you can only grow up to be one thing.......

The rest of your life.

2010-06-14T11:04:00.000-06:00

What an ominous phrase....

I've been thinking about it lately... and haven't quite put my thoughts together... What does this phrase make you think of?

Summerfest

2010-06-13T17:27:00.000-06:00

Ok... fine... I'm a huge fan of Summerfest!

We enjoyed the festivities to the fullest!

Starting the festivities off on Friday with two African dwarf frogs that Lilly "won" by ~~tidying up the~~ throwing a ball into a cup!
There was this Shakespeare Troupe that came to do a show of Romeo and Juliet and it was really fun while we were there.. but the weather was too bad for us to stay so we ditched out on the rest of the show.

We went back on Saturday and enjoyed so many fun things... I wasn't expecting them so I didn't bring my camera but I am kicking myself now!

Lilly got to do the kids craft section.. she chose to make a hat! She got an orange hat and put flowers and leaves and stars all over it! It was so "pitty!"

Steve got to put beer goggles and race a razor scooter around cones... his time was 00:20.... just 4 seconds short of the fastest time. He looked great though... it was hilarious watching everyone try!

Lilly got a balloon animal bear which I got a picture of later at the parade.. she has since bit it so hard that it popped the ear so the bear is no more.. but she loved it while she had it!

Then Lilly got her face painted! My "Pitty Boo-fwy!"

Lilly got to go on the Merry-go-Round with me... and then down the huge slide with Daddy... and then she went on some cars all by herself! So proud of my baby girl.. going on rides all by herself... I think Steve and I enjoyed making fools of ourselves trying to get her attention more than she actually enjoyed the ride!

We then enjoyed some amazing carnival food... ahh... I'm a sucker for carnival food.. even though it IS way overpriced!
Then we got poured on! The rain came down in serious ways! We ran and hid under the pavilion where we ~~endured~~ enjoyed some music from a local theater while daddy ran home to get the car to pick us up.. He seriously was probably only out in the rain for less than 5 minutes and by the time he got home he was COMPLETELY drenched... like... you could ring out his clothes they were so sopping! We are lucky enough to live so close to the summerfest that we had a nap at home and about 10 minutes before the parade began we headed out to center street! Love parades!

And I don't care who you are... these next two pictures are HOT!!!

Yep... I took them... thank you very much!
And then there were just some cool things we saw at the parade!

Daddy took this picture.. whoa... I'm actually IN one on my posts! We waved to a LOT of "pinthethes" (princesses)

It was CRAZY cold out there and we weren't as prepared as we should have been so we went home to have dinner and get some warmer clothes on. Then we headed back out to watch the "pitty fy-woks"! Which happen to be my new favorite thing to photograph! (besides Lilly of course!)

Oh I love summerfest! It's Magic!

My Family

2010-06-08T14:59:00.000-06:00

We've been lucky enough to spend some time with my family lately! My cousin Jason got married which brought lots of my dads family that I hadn't seen in years! We had a picnic and it was just nice to catch up!
That and we just spent some time up with my sister at her house with her cute kids!

Sick House

2010-06-08T14:49:00.000-06:00

Let me just preface this with 2 words... I'm crazy...

If you don't understand that... then this post will be weird to you.

A few weeks back, on a Friday, Lilly was at Amandas house in the morning. I was in class and wasn't able to check my phone, but when the class was over I checked my phone and I had a text message from Amanda telling me that her son was sick with a 24 hour throwing up virus and I should come home to pick up Lilly. I rushed home to pick her up and felt terrible because I couldn't even stand in front of their door... (I'm a horrible friend... ) I snatched Lilly... held her out in front of me.. and we went straight to the bathtub. She got a bath and her clothes got washed... we sanitized anything I could think of that might have germs on it... and then we sat down and begun the longest 2 and a half weeks ever.

I was freaking out.. Steve was out of town and we were supposed to go down to St. George that weekend anyway so we packed up and went down early. If Lilly was going to start throwing up.. I didn't want to be alone. While we were in St. George, Lilly got some nasty diarrhea.. We changed 8 poopy diapers in 1 day. She was acting fine though.. and she still had her appetite... By the end of that weekend I was pretty sure that that was the form that the virus took and that she had gotten over it.

The rest of the week she had some random crazy diapers.. but nothing that indicated she was sick. Thursday night I went to go teach my classes and while I was there, Steve texted me and told me that Lilly was sick. She had thrown up twice and I needed to bring her sprite. That's when the panic attack started... I immediately called some family members because they had some essential oils that were supposed to help with a few things.. I borrowed some from them (Thank you again Matt and Lauren!) and ran to a gas station to pick up sprite. Steve called me and told me to hurry... she had thrown up again. Panic attack got worse.. As I headed home, I used the lavender oil and it stopped my shaking.. so that was nice.. but I still was so scared I didn't know what I was going to do when I got home. I'm sure that house had germs that was going to make both Steve and I sick as well and I just didn't know how I was going to make it through.

This was the low point. Forgive me... it still hurts me to think of this. My poor daughter... sick as can be... scared and just needing her mommy... I couldn't even hug her. I couldn't even look in her direction. I sat on the other side of my bedroom door bawling because I wanted to comfort my baby girl.. she sat in daddy's arms crying for me to come hug her and tell her it's all going to be ok... but I let her down. I couldn't be there for her... ugh... This cannot go on.

This is when I decided to get help. I've been haunted with this phobia for years and years... but it has only affected me in the past. Sure it's been crappy living with it... The measures I have to go to to keep myself from going into a panic attack... screening every movie I ever watch... checking to see which way shoes are pointing in public restrooms... throwing away food sometimes even before the expiration date... avoiding (sometimes rudely) sick people even if they are friends... and much more... But that only hurts me...Sometimes Steve for having to deal with a panic attack or putting up with my crazy habits... but up until now it hasn't hurt anyone besides me. But I can't live like this anymore. I always thought therapy would be extremely expensive and quite honestly I've almost been just as scared of therapy for some reason... but I looked into therapy at UVU and a session only costs 10 bucks... I don't know if they deal with stuff like this, but I have to at least try. When I was in high school I looked online for what the treatments were and they were basically exposure therapy. They had an online program that I tried.. basically you were supposed to look at pictures.. starting with one that was supposed to be funny and as soon as you are ok with those you move onto more real pictures and basically desensitize yourself ... the first one was an egg that had a face on it and it was cracked open with the insides coming out of the crack... I looked at that one picture and got a panic attack. The stupid egg picture made my phobia worse... So since then I have kind of felt like therapy wasn't going to work on me so why try... but really I'm sick of living this way and maybe this time it will be different to work with an actual person instead of just photos online.

So anyway... moving on. Lilly was able to go to sleep that night... and so was Steve... but I don't think I slept all week. Lilly went all night without throwing up and so Friday morning we figured she was all better. She was acting really clingy and tired but fine overall. She had some more diarrhea.. but that was all for Friday. Saturday I went to a FCDA party and while I was there Steve texted me and told me Lilly threw up again...

She was acting perfect after that. Still had diarrhea... but she was so happy! Sunday night... Steve and I started feeling crappy. Steve was able to sleep after a while in the bed... but I was up all night... Neither of us threw up... but we were definitely sick. It wasn't until Tuesday morning were we feeling mostly better... we went back to work and school... just so happy that the crappiest long weekend was over! And we were greeted Wednesday morning to yet another crazy diaper. We were beginning to wonder if this would ever end but that was the end of it... finally!

We thought Lilly could use some fresh air so we opened the door... she usually runs out and down the stairs but this is as far as she would go... she just sat on the doorstep and watched the cars!

Daddy was amazing this week... He had to deal with everything and was there for Lilly when I couldn't be.

Our bathtub took a beating... so much that Lilly had to take a bath in our kitchen sink once...

Summer.... ahhh

2010-06-08T13:43:00.000-06:00

Since coming back from RDA summer has officially begun! I'm still in school... not much though. I only have 1 class a day and it's a modern class. I've been working so hard on this because I think it will help my contemporary dancing so much! Plus... I think I'm really starting to like it! Maybe it's just cause I have an amazing teacher though...

Anyway... So I go to dance every morning and then head home to pick up Lilly from our neighbors house. We decided to let our neighbor Amanda watch Lilly for the first part of the summer instead of Denise because she only needs to be watched for a little over an hour a day and so we didn't want to drive all the way down to provo and back twice a day for only an hour. Amanda has a son named Benjamin and Lilly has been having so much fun over there every morning! They are friends... most of the time!

After I pick up Lilly, we usually just hang out for a little while... have some lunch, watch a movie.. just dink around. Lilly takes a nap... which has been a struggle lately.. but what do you expect.. she recently moved to a toddler bed and lost her dee-dee (pacifier). But when nap time works out we celebrate it! I am able to shower, do my dishes, fold my laundry, do homework... all the things I have never had time for before! When Lilly wakes up we have a snack and then usually head outside... we haven't made a trip to the pool yet (very soon) but we have just put on our swim suits and lounged around outside... We like to take our sidewalk chalk and draw sunny days... and starry nights... we draw numbers on the steps so when we walk up and down them, we count!

And then there is our stroller rides... Lilly LOVES stroller rides! We go to the store... we go to the library... we go to the park... sometimes we just walk the block... but she loves being in her stroller! And then we wait for Daddy to come home when we just enjoy our evenings together! Oh I love summer...

Sidewalk Chalk + Ice Cream Sammich + Tantrum =..........

2010-06-04T18:35:00.000-06:00

Life as of now...

2010-06-03T18:20:00.002-06:00

You would think that as I am no longer the busiest person in the world that I might actually have time to blog huh...

You would think that!

Anyway... We haven't been up to too much. We had a crazy bug for about a week and a half in our house. Steve was awesome and cleaned up all the mess every time. He's pretty awesome about that stuff...I don't want to write too much on this... it's kinda ridiculous and I have some stuff I need to deal with! Anyway... other than that... I'm just going to put a bunch of pictures up here... Ones that I've probably had for a while and just never posted!

Steve knows how to make me feel special

2010-05-09T15:33:00.001-06:00

Lilly wasn't feeling very well last night.. same symptoms she had when she had pneumonia. Breathing fast, fever, really letharigic... nasty cough... so instead of putting her in her crib.. we made a faux bed in our living room and we all slept out there last night. Daddy woke up and cooked up a storm in the kitchen... eggs, sausage, strawbabies (as Lilly calls them!) and pancakes! He gave me flowers and a card and then turned on his computer to show me this....

I love my husband!
(btw... Lilly has been feeling ok on and off... we don't know what's wrong so we will take her in probably tomorrow... but we are keeping a close watch on her to make sure she is ok!)

Sleeping angels

2010-05-05T16:43:00.000-06:00

Cousin Greyson... or Bayson if you're Lilly...

Counting to 10

2010-04-30T08:28:00.002-06:00

Lilly: "1...2...3...4...5...7...4...Daddy...2...4...7...10!!!!"

The Plane to Ohio

2010-04-29T06:45:00.000-06:00

Thank heaven for angels..

Completely serious....

I wouldn't have made the entire day of flying without my angels to help me.

I was NERVOUS to do this trip. First time flying by myself... first time flying with a toddler.. no idea where I'm going and completely scared about Lilly screaming and crying and other people hating me because I brought the annoying toddler on the plane who won't let anyone sleep. I did not want to be that woman that everyone holds their breath as I walk down they aisle and then gives a sigh of relief when I walk by because they don't have to sit by me... but I was pretty sure it was inevitable... plus throw on that I'm always afraid of planes and especially other people getting motion sickness... Seriously I get really nervous when I even just look at a barf bag... I usually thouroughly inspect my neighbors to see if I think they will get sick... cause that many people in a tiny room with the possibility of sick... does not do good for my nerves...

Start the day of flying with several snide comments from TSA workers and ticket officers and many other airport people.... yay.. exactly what I was afraid of... getting treated crappy because Kids can be "inconvenient" and "stupid woman control your child".... blah.....

Up until the first flight.
Nancy... my first angel.
I can't believe how helpful she was! She was nervous so she held my hand through take-off and all the CRAPPY turbulance... it was a terrible flight.. we got pushed around so much! Even though she was holding MY hand cause SHE was nervous... it got me through it. Cause I was really nervous too....
She held my drink, she entertained Lilly (who was a perfect angel by the way... she was so good it was unbelievable!) She talked to me about children and work and life and I didn't mind when she said a prayer and she didn't mind when Lilly and I said a prayer... Oh this woman was honestly sent from heaven to make this first flight bearable...She even walked me to my next gate to make sure I found it alright.

Once we found my gate, we really needed to go to the bathroom and grab something to eat. I wasn't paying attention to the time and barely made it back to catch the tail end of boarding. It was wonderful though because once we sat down we took off! This time we sat in between a middle aged woman and an older man. The woman was just in raptures over Lilly... she was just leaving her own grandchildren and so she was feeling all sentimental and LOVED Lilly. Lilly however, had a major crush on the grumpy grandpa next to us.. (he wasn't mean... it was the cute funny grumpy grandpa-type man) These two were wonderful to sit next to. They were completely helpful, holding my drinks... picking books and binky's off the floor... and even though that woman loved Lilly so much, she moved to another seat so that Lilly and I could spread out and go to sleep. The grumpy grandpa gave me a piece of gum on the descend so my ears would pop and helped me with my bags off the plane.... oh sweet angels! I had been lucky enough to have 2 wonderful flights... one more... I can do this! I had been blessed with wonderful angels who had saved me when I was in distress... and as long as I kept praying... Heavenly Father would keep sending me angels!

This next one is terrible, but here goes... we ate a cinnebon before the next flight... cause you have to eat a cinnebon when you are in an airport! We got on the plane and I had to sit by this man.... who had the worst BO I've ever smelt... That... combined with the cinnebon was making me quite nauseous... I kept looking around to see when my angel would come and save me from this moment of distress... was I really to endure this odor for another hour and a half??? YUCK!!! But right before we took off, a man offered his seat to me so that I could have a row to myself... Yet again... proof that angels exist.

Still nauseous.... and sitting by myself with my daughter... wondering what angel was going to save me from this... there was noone around but that stinky man who was across the aisle.. who kept giving me dirty looks so I was pretty sure he wasn't going to help... but who??? And quite honestly what were they going to do... was the flight attendant going to walk down the aisle with little airplane samples of pepto bismal.. .NO! It took me a minute but I came to terms with the fact that I was by myself and I was going to have to just be strong and deal with it. I looked down in my arms at my beautiful daughter who was fighting slumber... she was wonderful today... man do I love this girl... through this hectic day she was the one who kept me lighthearted and happy and kept me from going crazy all day... She is the sweetest, cutest lovable creature and I couldn't imagine flying without her. Then I realized I felt better... no nausea... Lilly... my sweet girl.. was my angel this time. She distracted me with her loveableness.

The last angel I'll talk about is the US Airways worker who even though they NEVER do this, leant us a car seat free of charge upon promise of return because when Steve came to pick us up he forgot to bring a car seat.. and who saved Lilly from opening and closing doors and crashing her stroller into walls while I filled out the paperwork for the carseat... And there were many others.... mostly older people, who offered to help me with bags... who picked up stuffed animals that fell off the stroller... who played with Lilly and made her feel comfortable and welcome.... who through just smiling let me know that they had been there before and that I will make it... My angels.....

Oh dear....

2010-04-26T23:11:00.000-06:00

Wow it's been a while... quick update before I start regularly blogging again...

The concert was amazing... it went really well and I absolutely love performing! The first piece I did of the evening was SLAM which meant I had stomach cramps the rest of the show cause that dance kicks my butt... Love it though... that dance is awesome!

I'm done with school! The semester is over sans 1 little final which will probably be more like a party, and my trip to Washington! (state...not dc) And oh how bitter-sweet that is. I was all psyched for the break but now I have this overwhelming feeling that I need to be doing something. I have decided though, that I do have something to do.. and it's important.. along with spending time with Lilly... (that's not the hard part) I need to get myself into habits that will make the next year easier... like good eating and cleaning habits... not wasting my time that sort of thing. That's my goal before I start school again end of June.

Steve just got back on Thursday from a monster trip.. one that was supposed to last like... 3 days that turned into 8. It was a long week and he worked something close to 140 hours in those 8 days. Yikes! That and he's leaving me again on Wednesday to go to Kentucky to help his parents move to Abu Dhabi... yeah... I know. Steve didn't think I was going to be able to go to Kentucky with him due to finals so no reservations were made for me... only I actually can go so now either we will have to pull out something like 600 bucks to go or I sit at home alone another weekend... It's ok though... I tend to get a lot done when he isn't home cause I don't have as many distractions! Like on this last trip I completely redid our living room. I slipcovered/reupholstered our couch... which is almost done sans finishing cording on pillows.... redid the walls, painted a table and some frames and a few other things... once everything is completely done I'll take pictures and post them so you can all see my beautiful front room!

Lilly is doing amazing.. it's such a treat to have her home. She's a doll and growing up so fast! She's teething right now and I swear this one tooth is just as bad as her 4 molars coming in all at once was.. At least she is pretty easy going about it... she's not a terror when she's teething just a little moody!

So there you have it... update from the Stotts... now let the blogging continue!

RBE!

2010-04-12T07:48:00.002-06:00

Hey my company is in concert this week! Come see our show! Wednesday, Thursday, Friday at 7:30!

Normal....

2010-04-11T13:01:00.002-06:00

It's an interesting thing. So many times it is looked at as being boring... unoriginal... bland. And quite honestly it's true... If things are normal, they aren't exciting or different or changing... and it is boring. I am usually this kind of person.. get out of your normal... be creative... do something new.

But if you look at normal through different eyes.. it changes.
When someone looks in the face of something that could take away your normal...your normal situation, your normal energy, your normal day, your normal looks - whether they are beautiful or not, and most importantly... your normal relationships.... it changes. Normal becomes the most beautiful and desirable thing. All they want is for things to continue to be as they are...

Sorry if this post is vague... it's because I don't want my normal taken away from me....

Daddy is cooking!

2010-04-10T23:27:00.000-06:00

Yes... that is right...

I am a busy woman. I go to school full-time which means I am at school from 9am to 5:30 pm EVERYDAY. And if that weren't enough.. I still have TONS of homework and extra things that I do. So when the "dinner" task comes up... it's a difficult thing to spend my precious time on. So here are some of the vicious cycles I get into.

I get on this kick about saving money and being a homemaker, yet don't properly plan for meals so for a few days I spend my evenings figuring out something to cook, getting the ingredients and cooking, and doing the dishes after. Then... it's bedtime.. I have spent my whole evening worrying about dinner. A couple days of that pass and then by the end of each meal I'm too tired and too stressed out about other things and let the dishes go.

After several days of that... I come home from a particular exhausting day and either 1) the dishes I need to cook in are dirty... and I don't have it in me to spend MORE time washing them before I use them 2)I either don't have the ingredients I need or they have gone bad or 3) I just cannot muster up the energy to give my evening to the kitchen... so we get on a take-out round. Both Steve and i are taken back by how easy it is and we end up doing that for several days because we can't muster up our energy to start this viscous cycle again.

But no more...

I am a good wife, for many reasons... but in the 1950's there is no one who would marry me. I'm just as busy as Steve so why should I have to do all the house work as well... So I revolted... I told Steve he had to either start cooking... or start cleaning.. He was fine with that... my wonderful husband is so agreeable . I love him. After a short discussion... we figured out a plan.We would take turns... On the nights I cook, he does dishes and vice versa.
Monday: Steve cooks
Tuesday: Our 1 night a week to get food to-go because we both have comedy sportz and lets be realistic... cooking isn't gonna happen.
Wednesday: Steve cooks again (I teach dance Monday and Wednesday and don't get home till 7)
Thursday: I cook
Friday: I cook again
Saturday: Steve cooks
Sunday:I cook

Oh I love it. We've been going strong for 3 weeks now. Don't get me wrong.. a schedule like this rarely ALWAYS holds up but even when we do end up having to grab something on the way to something, we don't have to fight about who has to choose or whatever... It's just nice. And I must say... Steve is a great cook... I've had almost 3 years of practice and he is showing me up like nobody's business...I try to keep up with him sometimes but I have fallen flat on my face (I don't know why the spinach-stuffed portabello mushrooms sounded good... they were awful!)

Ups and Downs

2010-04-05T21:47:00.002-06:00

Recently I've been more and more aware of the ups and downs of motherhood... mainly because until recently I've been on a down. Not that I was way down... I wasn't hating being a mom or anything..I had just been letting the stress of being a full-time student and a mother get to me. Which is ok.. it is very difficult.. and I do have a right to feel stressed out. And I actually think it's important to acknowledge those feelings... they are real and honest and natural... motherhood is difficult sometimes. But lately I just can't seem to get enough of my daughter... I love her so much! I find myself thinking about her while I'm at school and wondering what she is doing. I miss her when I'm at home for lunch and she isn't here. I usually end up tiptoeing around my apartment because it feels like she is here but is just taking a nap.. but she isn't. I even miss her when she is asleep. And when she is awake I can't stop hugging her and kissing her and playing with her. I just can't soak up enough Lilly!

I was reading a book today called "The Happiest Toddler on the Block" and it was talking about temperaments of toddlers and it said that most children can be categorized in 3 ways... They are usually either easy, shy, or spirited. Lilly is 100% spirited! And I love it so much. I try to take life everyday with a passion... I believe if you are going to feel something... feel it all the way and explore that feeling... I believe you learn more about yourself if you do that. So I'm thrilled that my daughter is the same way.

Of course this means that her downs are way down... we deal with it all... moodiness, tantrums, screaming, misbehaving, rebellion, crying, drama, drama, drama.... and not even just a little bit. When she is unhappy EVERYONE knows it and she will tell the world about it! But it also means that her ups are WAY up! She is the happiest child I know! When she is happy she giggles and sings and dances and kisses and loves... it brings me so much joy!

Today when we got home I couldn't help but bundle up my little and take her outside to splash in the puddles. Daddy was worried about dirty socks and shoes, but they can be cleaned so I don't worry about those little things.

There is something intuitive in a child that sees a puddle and naturally splashes in it.

Some Good News....

2010-04-04T21:51:00.000-06:00

I got a scholarship! Yay me!

How many of you thought I was going to say I was pregnant?

Some fun things we've been doing...

2010-04-04T21:46:00.000-06:00

Some fun things we've been doing lately:

Aquarium! Super fun!

Sucess!

2010-04-03T15:36:00.000-06:00

Our party was a blast! Pictures and SEVERAL posts coming soon!

Easter Party Change!

2010-04-02T18:45:00.000-06:00

Hey everyone that is planning on coming and will check this: We are changing the location! The weather isn't looking so good so we will move it to the cultural hall of the church on 710 E 800 S in the East building. If on the off chance that the weather is lovely than there is a park right next to the church so we'll hang out there! Have questions?? Call or text me! 801-400-9772

Easter Party!

2010-03-28T11:38:00.004-06:00

Hey! We want to throw an Easter Party for anyone with kids! We will have an egg hunt, egg dying, lunch and treats! Just come and chase your kids around the park for an hour and eat some food!
When: April 3rd 2010 at 12:30pm

Where: The City Center Park (by the Orem Library)
If you would like to bring a side dish/salad/chips/drinks/treats... GREAT!

You can RSVP in a comment, or on my facebook event!
Any questions email or text me!
abc_ellie@hotmail.com
801-400-9772

Dance Competition

2010-03-21T20:43:00.000-06:00

FCDA had their competition yesterday! Seniors took High Gold and Juniors took Gold! So proud of my girls!

2nd Impromptu Photo shoot: Tanner and Sarah's Engagement Photos

2010-03-20T11:49:00.000-06:00

Tutu making skills

2010-03-18T13:56:00.002-06:00

Blast them...

A fellow RBE company member asked me to make her a tutu so she could get pictures taken in it. I said yes of course. I've been doing little else since spring break started and it's kind of consuming me at the moment. Am I making any money on this? Not at all. In fact I think I've spent more on materials than I'm getting paid. Definitly eating it on this one, although it will be my best tutu I've ever made and the first time I'm attempting a platter.

I initially started making tutu's for my students who were on extremely tight costume budgets and as a teacher I knew they would never be able to buy a tutu on that kind of budget. I looked at one and said... hey.. this looks simple and I can probably do it. Which, by the way, is my motto when it comes to crafts... see something you like, and then go home and figure out how you can make it.. So I started my tutu adventure. I've made probably over 50 classical style tutus and each one of them I have been unhappy with. I learn something from every single one of the tutus that I've made. They have evolved from 4 layers of way-too-soft-tulle sewn on elastic, to 7 layers of stiff netting on a basque and panty complete with darts and everything with hook and eye closures, snap platter on top with trim. And with this evolution, something has also evolved... a hatred for sewing tutus.

I DON'T like sewing tutus. It is tedious and difficult and messy (there is netting and a TON of little tiny black strings all over my floor) and EXTREMELY time consuming.

The last time I made a set of tutus was when I realized this hatred. I decided that over the summer I would learn how to make some extremely professional looking tutus and made 20 classical tutus and 20 romantic tutus. all in white, and then I would NEVER make a tutu again. I would just rent them out to students and whoever for something ridiculously cheap (tutus are not money making for me.. it;s really all about giving people the opportunity to wear a tutu) and be completely done.

But now.. I'm not sure I have it in me to do that. I'm considering just going completely ignorant and pretending like this is not one of the skills I have and just going to back to not being able to get tutus...

Of course I am currently in the middle of making one right now... and it is EXTREMELY likely that when it's completely done and we get to see beautiful pictures of the thing I'll feel this overwhelming sense of accomplishment and charity (i know it sounds stupid but a LOT of me goes into these things) and I'll fall in love with the results and then then next time someone asks, I'll say yes.. and the cycle will continue.. such is life I guess.

Here is the tutu almost completed... now I just have to add the trunks and make the platter and I'll post pictures of the finished product when I get them. The tutu's owner is getting professional pictures taken in it but I think I'm going to ask her to model for me too so I can get some photography practice in

The amazing closure system... are those bra hooks?.. yes they are.. and they work wonderfully when I don't have time to order the real closures.

First Impromptu photoshoot: The Wayts

2010-03-14T21:26:00.002-06:00

It was cold... it was extremely windy... and my camera overexposed every single picture... but I did what I could... we were only out there for like.. 10 minutes. Probably because none of us believed we could get a good picture.. I got several that were close.. but there is always a hair covered face, or someone wasn't looking.. or a shadow on a face... but it was my first shoot so I'm happy with results.

BTW - These are Steve's aunts family! Jonathan had just returned from his mission and it was his homecoming today and they were planning on taking some random family pictures with a point & shoot so I offered to shoot some...

BTW #2 - if you click on the pictures you can see them better... go ahead.. I dare you to click!

SLAM

2010-03-11T12:36:00.001-07:00

wow.... I'm shocked.

We had our big adjudication this last Saturday and we were lucky to be one of the last to be adjudicated. (FYI this means that the guy that runs this festival we are going to in Washington in May came out, and watched some dances and he gets to choose which dance we perform when we go.) We initially were going to adjudicate Heathers ballet which you saw if you went to my concert in the fall, and Flash, which is Shaylas piece she choreographed for Choreography Design Project. We had some issues with some members of the company that made us unable to perform Heathers piece for adjudication which really sucked... especially since we had spent so much time cleaning it. At the last minute, Shayla had to change which pieces we were adjudicating. She chose 2 pieces that are really cool. (btw... they sound like they are coming from a comic book, but I think it's pretty cool.)
1) SLAM. This piece is choreographed by Chris Petticort. (sp?) He is an emerging choreographer and and old friend of Shayla's who she brought in to set this choreography. This dance is 4 girls. Only 4 girls. I am one of them. We are on stage 100% of the time. And it is CRAZY intense movement.. It practically kills me every time I do it! It's very cool...

2)Flash - Shayla's piece... jaw-dropping amazing. Neon costumes, black lights, live music, and absolutely AMAZING choreography. I'm in this piece as well and it is seriously the COOLEST dance you will ever see. It's fast and exciting and the theme is so original and well done. This dance includes 8 female dancers and 1 male.

Guess what the adjudicator chose.

Of all the crazy... who would have thunk it things that could happen, Nicholas Ade of PNB chose SLAM to go to festival in Washington. And not only that, but put our performance in the most honored spot he possibly could. It's sort of an "unsaid" tradition that the best pieces perform either first or last. Well, we are performing on Saturday (the last performance) and we are the 2nd to last performance of the evening. (FYI the host company which is the company that is in Washington gets to choose for themselves where they want to be in the performances and they chose to be very last....)

can we say STRESS????????

Car Troubles....

2010-03-10T21:44:00.002-07:00

Ok... our cars are the epitomy of our stress right now! We currently own 3 cars... 1 is working at the moment.

We have the Yukon. It was a great car for a LONG TIME. It has major transmission problems and has reached the point at which fixing would cost more than the car is worth.. it just needs to be junked. Now, I am all for calling a junkyard and having them come pick it up tomorrow.. but Steve on the other hand is not ready to give up his baby. It has (apparently) a really nice sound system in it and he can't let it go with it in the car, but he doesn't know how to take it out and Best Buy won't do it for him. I keep pushing him to figure it out, but I think he's just feeling a little nostalgic about letting his car go.. which I understand!

We have my car, a Suzuki Aerio SX... never heard of it? Me neither till I bought it. A little advice.. if nobody knows anything about a car you are thinking of buying... DON'T BUY IT! I was dumb and thought that no news is good news.. and that I was getting a really good deal, but that's not really the case. It has had some RIDICULOUS problems and it's been hard to fix even just regular things on it because nobody has the parts. Currently it is our only running car, but it needs some work on the breaks VERY soon.

We have a Honda Accord... Now this car is a champ! We love it! It's fairly new to us, but it's been VERY reliable for us so far! It is older than the suzuki so there are things that are going out on it just because of age, but I would expect that... Right now it's the starter that needs replacing which is what Steve is working on right now. Wish us luck with it!! We really like having 2 working cars!

2 working cars = more sleep!

**Update**

Steve fixed the car!!! It's running now and I'm so proud of my husband! He fixed it all by himself! YAY!

Our Sunday.. in Pictures

2010-03-07T22:37:00.006-07:00

We went for a walk outside today.. a very quick walk because she LOVED splashing in the puddles and slipped in one of them! It was still fun to watch her walk around outside though. I can't wait for spring to come so we can spend more time outside!

We made cupcakes... we like cupcakes at our house! I like to get the plain white frosting and then change the color and put some flavoring in them. The blue cupcakes are lemon, and then the brown ones are just yummy chocolate!

I made Lilly and I matching aprons today (you can see it in the cupcake pictures) Lilly sat on my lap for a lot of it and tried to change all the buttons and even got under the sewing table and pushed the pedal.. (I was quite surprised)

We're Staying... sigh

2010-03-06T12:39:00.000-07:00

So our contract is up in our current apartment and we have been dead-set on moving up until Thursday.

The thing is that this place is so small! We seriously have NO storage and it's just difficult to live here. The rent is amazing... we are totally getting a good deal, but it's just SO small! We have neighbors, and they usually aren't a problem for us, but we would really like to turn up our music really loud, or watch a sweet movie that blows your ears out, but we can't because Lilly's room is so close to the sound system and our neighbors would complain. We wanted to move to a place with no shared walls and we even put in an application for a place on Thursday... and then as we were driving home we started to rethink it.

When we moved into this apartment, we were in quite a bit of debt and I was about to quit my job to be a mommy. We moved to this apartment because it was cheaper and space wise it was ok and we would be able to save a little money and get out of a lot of debt. We did that. Our position now is a LOT better than it was when we moved in here because we aren't paying a ton in rent! The new place we wanted was going to be about $200 more per month and although we can afford that... it's just too difficult to say goodbye to that much money when we could be using it for other things. Our apartment is small but we have dealt with it for the last 2 years and we can do it for 1 more. We aren't planning on having any other additions to our family in the next year so as long as we don't become major hoarders we aren't going to completely grow out of this place. We are being responsible... (bleh... sometimes I hate being responsible.)

So instead of putting down an $800 deposit, we are going to spend a little money and get our apartment to it's maximum space saving efficiency and it still needs to be a beautiful place too so we are going to start renovating soon... first thing ( I hope to do it tonight) Lilly needs new crib bedding. I'm gonna make them myself. It doesn't look too difficult and I'm not afraid of diving into something and learning along the way.

Here are some other things I want to do.
* Light gray slipcovers for both couches
*Fabric Panels for the walls
*Paint picture frames for color and find a place for them all!
*Painting our furniture
*organizational tools for what little closet space we have
*Mount cabinets on walls (we've had these for probably 6 months and they are being used, but they are just stacked on the floor.
*Get rid of computer desk (we don't use it.)
*Figure out solutions for Entertainment center/bookshelves
*redo lilly's room almost completely including painting furniture and new bedding and wall art. (this is EXTREMELY exciting to me!)

There are others I'm sure but we'll start with these.. I think it will be fun to do and I love crafts and projects so I'll keep you updated on how these things go! And if any of you have ideas or anything please feel free to let me know!

Saturday Mornings.... ahhh

2010-03-06T11:36:00.002-07:00

Yeah...Usually on Saturday and Sunday mornings we have eggs, sausage, toast, sometimes pancakes even. We go all out for breakfast when we are home cause on the other days we have granola bars and protein shakes! But today we decided to take the easy way and just get Mcdonalds! That, and the fact that we are watching Princess and the Frog for like.. the millionth time (it's the only movie Lilly will actually watch... she LOVES that movie) it makes for a pretty wonderful morning with my family!

A little bit of dancin for ya!

2010-03-05T20:28:00.000-07:00

So IF (big if) I wanted to get into professional photography.. I would REALLY want to do dancing photography... I think it's priceless and dance photographers are VERY hard to come by.. dancers make the best ones because they actually know what looks good.. so anyway.. I was just hanging out in the dance studio watching Satomi dance and snapped a few. Here you go!

Here it is!

2010-03-03T21:28:00.000-07:00

Got my camera today!! First picture taken with it:

ummm..... let's try again:

Ok... a little better! I'm so excited for this I haven't put it down all night.. even when Steve went to go get his haircut tonight, I brought the camera along to document this momentous occasion!
Steve likes to go to Sports Clips. They always do an amazing job there!

Steve Before....he tried to grow his hair out and it looked really good for a while, but then it just started to look messy so I made him get his hair cut!

Why is Mommy holding a camera and not me? That was before I showed her some pictures of herself... then she didn't mind so much.

And the After.. I think he looks much cleaner now!

Who knew getting a haircut would be so fun! Just need a nice camera!

Pictures coming soon

2010-03-02T12:35:00.000-07:00

I get my camera tomorrow.. and you can be sure that there will be plenty of pictures coming!

In the meantime.. I got a part in Shayla's ballet called Flash! I'm so surprised that I did because I missed some of the rehearsals last week due to Lilly's sickness and by the time I had come back she had cast most of the ballet and had assigned everyone an understudy.. I had nothing to do so I just picked someone and understudied them (one of the parts that hadn't been chosen yet) and yesterday Shayla cast me in that part! Complete surprise! But I'm excited because it's a VERY fun ballet to do! I love it!

Back to Normal

2010-02-27T09:11:00.000-07:00

Lilly has been doing a lot better now. She (finally) went back to daycare yesterday and she was SOO excited to see all of her friends and Denise! We are so glad that we have good daycare! It's seriously priceless! They are like family to her!

I'm glad to be back to school full time too... I miss a lot when I'm not there 100% of the time. For example I caught that we were taking headshot pictures on Friday... but I didn't catch that it was going to be after rehearsal and I would need to plan for someone else to pick Lilly up from daycare. We only have 1 car right now cause Steve's car isn't starting. He got a ride home from work and I was going to pick her up from daycare when I was done with rehearsal.. but we didn't get out till 6:30.... ugh...

Anyway, we got our refund and have purchased our toys... We are currently enjoying Steve's toy, a 50 inch plasma screen tv (sigh.. roll eyes) and my toy is purchased and will grace our presence on Tuesday! Other than that we are paying off debt, and saving quite a bit as well! Just looking forward to another easy weekend!

I'm getting ansty....

2010-02-24T12:20:00.000-07:00

Remember when I said this. Well.. I lied to you. I did a lot more research and now.. I'm getting me one of these!

What's the difference you ask? It's about a thousand times better for only $100 more! It's brand spankin new... so new I can't get anyone to tell me when it will be released to the stores.. but I've heard rumors about it coming in on Friday... which is the exact day we should get our refund.. It's fate! I've been dying to get one of these and hopefully I will have one on Friday!!

Good Day

2010-02-23T21:49:00.000-07:00

Lilly is doing better today! And she was in a good mood too.. probably because she didn't have to see a doctor today! She seems to be hungry more, but the only thing she will eat is soup and applesauce and little tiny bites of other things. She isn't coughing as much.. and she has a lot more energy, but she is still breathing fast. I didn't count today, but I'm guessing it's somewhere in the 50's. Anyway, it looks like we are getting better..and almost out of the woods! And I got to finally sleep last night! I still have plenty I need to catch up on, but oh... sleep is wonderful!

I love this I-get-my-daughter-all-day thing. She is such a sweetheart! She loves to sing songs to us, and she loves to read books to us, and she also loves to count things. She loves to point out noses and eyes and ears, and just in these last couple of days has started telling us when she goes pee-pee! She'll say pee pee and grab her diaper.. we were so surprised when she started doing that cause we haven't started any sort of potty training or really taught her anything about going to the bathroom!

Today I went back to school for a couple of classes.. Quite honestly it was nice to worry about something else for a couple of hours.. And to get some exercise. The next couple of days Steve needs to go to work so I'll be missing school which I'm not really happy about, but at least I get to spend it with my sweetheart!

Apologies for the ramblings...

2010-02-22T20:53:00.000-07:00

I have a confession... I LOVE to stalk blogs... especially this last week or two I've been doing it more and more.
By the way...blog stalking is not creepy at all.. the blogs I follow are more professional than personal. (even though the professions they have have a lot to do with their personal life.. cooking, sewing, photography, design, crafts...) these people are more writers than anything...

I've done it in the past... but not a lot.. only when I was working on a craft or looking for a recipe.
A couple of weeks ago I was doing a LOT of research on finding the camera I wanted to buy. There is a lot of money going into this camera so I wanted to be sure I got what I wanted. I did research on all sorts of review websites and then I got into the photography forums and then I found my way into blogs. A lot of photographers have blogs and I have found myself looking at them whenever I'm on the computer.. Not only photography blogs, but there are furniture blogs and sewing blogs and cooking blogs that I love to read! I have several that I read but this one is my favorite.

I know it sounds like a big waste of time, but these women inspire me! I know I'm busy but I don't take that as an excuse to ditch out on my motherly and wifely duties...And in reality I love to cook, and to bake, and to sew, and I love to craft and make things. Reading these blogs and reading the stories they tell of their busy crazy lives gives me the confidence and the motivation to get into my own little apartment and make something beautiful... cookies, photos, a tutu for my girl, an organized closet.. whatever it may be.. but I have really been inspired to love what I have, and make the most of it.

I know this is a random post in the midst of my daughters sickness and everything, but this is why I bring this up. I stayed home from school today to be with my daughter, as did Steve. Normally, I would sit on the couch, and watch tv, and think of it as a break from my life, and not get anything done that would help my family.

But instead, today I made a giant pot of homemade chicken soup (without a recipe... I have it tucked away in the back of my head for such an occasion) baked chocolate chip cookies from scratch, as well as some muffins for breakfast the rest of the week WITH my daughter who LOVED watching me stir the mixes and helped me pour the ingredients in the bowls, helped Lilly draw a picture for daddy with a pencil, a blue marker, and some glitter pens (we really need some toddler crayons or markers or something, her hands are covered with the blue marker) did some laundry, and caught up on my dishes. Plus I looked up some plans for some things we will be needing in the near future... (this does not mean I'm pregnant.. keep dreaming!) I think I'm going to make Steve build us an entertainment center... I'm too cheap to buy one and I think we'll love it so much more if we make it ourselves.. and I think it will be good for Steve to do some work with his hands! That and I'm looking into making/buying-if-making-is-too-hard slipcovers for our couches. Our space needs more color! And I found a way to get color on the walls without painting... here's a sample:

Only I don't think I'll do as many and they will probably be bigger so they have more of a wallpaper effect than a small picture effect. We'll see how it goes. I'll do pictures when/if I actually do them.

Anyway, I did all this stuff and I still had time to spend time sitting on the couch with Lilly watching Disney movies and just loving her like crazy!

And not only that but I had strength today. I'm sorry if this is weird (quick read of the quote on my header) I have been having a really hard time lately. Remember my crazy phobia... (if you don't know about it... look up the word emetophobia.. and that's me.. for real, I'm not exaggerating) well for the longest time I thought I had come really close to being normal.. to beating it.. but after our pizza incident back in the fall, it's slowly crept back. And it's been almost harder to deal with then it ever has before. I honestly can't explain why, but I've lost many a nights' sleep over it in the past couple months. And it's extremely shameful but over Christmas break when my daughter threw up, it was really hard for me to be in the same room as her for the whole next day. I felt like such a failure of a mother...

But today... oh glorious miracles among all the terrible things that happened this weekend... Lilly coughed so hard that she threw up... all over me. Now I'm not saying that was the miracle.. No no... that was one of the terribles... the miracle is this... I immediately looked at Steve, who was already on his way over to take care of it (wonderful husband) I stood up and left the room, stripping my clothes off immediately and by the time I was in my bedroom, I got a chance to think about what had just happened... I looked at my hands.. they were not shaking. I took a mental evaluation and found myself a little alarmed, but completely calm and..

strong...

I was completely surprised I wasn't in a full blown panic attack. Literally.. this was a miracle. I said a quick prayer of gratitude for the strength, got some new clothes on, and then went back out into the living room to find my daughter naked and crying because Daddy wasn't comforting her, but cleaning up the mess (this sounds bad.. but Steve knows that when throw up is involved, it needs to be taken care of REALLY quickly, or I'll go crazy.. was doing right by me.. like I said, good husband)...

She saw me and started walking to me.. I got a little nervous.. not because of the sick, but because I didn't know how I would react.. I didn't know how long this surge of strength would last.. but I knelt down and gave her a great big hug, and kissed her on the forehead. Together we went into the bathroom and I gave her a drink of water and brushed her teeth with a q-tip (didn't want to get her toothbrush dirty). I ran her a bath and put a towel in the dryer so when she got out she would be nice a toasty.. and I sat in the bathroom with her while she played in the water.

The strength didn't go away and even now I'm sitting here with my daughter (who is trying to blog too) knowing that at any moment she could start coughing and throw up again.. and I'm not comfortable with that, but I know that when the time comes God will give me the strength I need.

I've been taught, blessed, strengthened, by God and have been given wonderful examples who empower me everytime I read their stories.. and because of this.. I think I can handle this mommy thing.Anyway.. sorry for the rambling.. just what I've been thinking about lately.

Day 3: Doctors Visit #4

2010-02-22T14:32:00.000-07:00

Last night was rough. She was really tired but didn't sleep at all. We found out today it wasn't the antibiotics that gave her a boost of energy, but she was jusr restless from her condition.. poor girl.

Today Lilly has been doing better... Her fever broke.. which is a really good thing! What I like most about that is that now we don't have to pump her with tylenol to keep her fever down and we can really tell how she is feeling. Her breathing has slowed down a little bit.. it is about 45 breaths per minute which is still fast but it's better.
We went to the follow-up doctors appointment today and the doctor we saw (our regular doctor doesn't work on Mondays so he really doesn't even know anything has gone on) was happy to see improvement and told us to keep up with the antibiotics and we should see continuous improvement over the next couple of days.
He did say that they believe this started from just a regular cold... not rsv.. which means she could still catch rsv...and if she has any traces of her pneumonia leftover then it could be dangerous so the dov said we need to keep her home until she is 100% better (no cough, full appetite back, no fever at all.)

By the way this is my 100th post! I was hoping it was going to be something a little more upbeat... so I'll think I'll celebrate my 100th post a little later!

Day 2: Hospital visit #3 and Doctors visit #2 and #3

2010-02-21T18:41:00.000-07:00

Lilly's stats have stayed the same... no improvements.. but not really getting worse.. she constantly breaths fast (60 breaths per minute) but is just barely getting enough oxygen to not be admitted in the hospital.

I called the nurse in the morning and she said that they weren't going to be able to get us into the office till 1...and to just call if it got worse than it was and they would try to squeeze us in earlier.. but to cancel if she got better..

I was not a happy mommy.

I made the appointment and canceled it later cause she tricks us when she is on ibuprofen because she acts like a normal baby and her fever is down...Plus I was just really unhappy with that... my baby was sick and why was I the only one that could see that??? I knew they were just going to tell me to go back to the hospital to get suctioned again and I think I would blow a fuse if that happened again. I decided I would just wait and see how it panned out.

Of course as soon as the ibuprofen wore off she was right back down to barely moving and barely crying and steamy hot, and as always breathing insanely fast..
I called the doctors office again and (Thank Heaven) got the nurse that helped us last night. She had been worried about her and said that she definitely needed to come in. She said that since they were so close to admitting her to the hospital last night we had to really keep an eye on her and just hold tight till we could see the doctor.

Thank heaven for good nurses... personally I think they are more comforting than good doctors.

She called me back 10 minutes later and said that she rallied the on call doctor from last night and the on call doctor from today so we had a clear view of what has been happening. They decided Lilly needed to be seen right away and they had squeezed us a spot in the office. Doctors visit #2.

As we walked in, that wonderful nurse was just walking by and she ushered us quickly into a room they had ready for us. We didn't even stop at all in the waiting room. As that nurse ( I wish I knew her name) was checking stats she told us that she went home and told her husband about us and about Lilly and how sweet she was last night.. and even the little things like the glow bug that we had with us.. just made the whole thing so tender... she said her husband even started to tear up a little... how sweet is that?

So they found no change in the stats.. surprise surprise... The doctor found that she is getting ear infections in both ears. He also told us that it was unlikely that she has pneumonia, and if she did it would be very mild, but he wanted to see a chest xray anyway.

Finally!

So hospital trip #3! And probably the most traumatizing. Infant chest x-rays are like torture devices... it doesn't hurt them but it's like a plastic straight-jacket with their arms sticking straight up and just a little tiny hole for her head... it was awful! 45 minutes later:

Pneumonia in both lungs. At the base of her left lung and middle of her right. As long as she kept getting enough oxygen she wouldn't have to be admitted, but she would need some major antibiotics right away. We went back to the office (Doctors visit #3) to get an injection of antibiotics and then we went home. It's amazing how news travels... somehow.. I'm sure via facebook.. someone is friends with someone whose friends with someone... our home teacher found out about us and asked if they could bring us dinner tonight... life savers. I'm home and can actually cook.. but I haven't slept in a LONG time.. so that's where we are right now. Sitting at home, waiting for dinner, watching Lilly closely.. surprisingly unaware of how little attention has been spent on our own personal hygiene.. I hope our home teacher can breath in here.

Hospital Trip #2

2010-02-21T04:06:00.000-07:00

I'm tired.. but I don't want to not write this down so this is quick.

Lilly woke up about every 20-30 minutes coughing and crying. she got up to about 60 breaths per minute which is high. I called the number I was supposed to and got an on call nurse who told me I just needed to go back into the hospital for another suction. We did that... rolling our eyes the whole time.. it didn't help her last time.. why would it this time. The guy who did the suction last time was still there. Checked her oxygen levels and they were still ok-ish... 90-91. He didn't do a full suction, just a little one... but even he knew it wouldn't help. He was just a nurse so he couldn't tell us anything, but he was hinting towards the fact that she might not have RSV, but rather something like pneumonia, and under his breath cursed the doctor for not doing his job and ordering breathing treatments. So.. we are back at home.. .just waiting 4 more hours till we can call the Sunday on call doctor and have the whole situation looked at. Same thing... keep her fever down, have her drink lots of water, don't watch breaths so much, but rather if it is labored and if she starts changing colors then call someone or take her somewhere... But the guy said she'd probably be fine till morning... just breaks my heart... the poor little girl is completely miserable and there isn't anything we can do till morning.

Not mending very well...

2010-02-21T01:31:00.001-07:00

Ok... Crappy night of all crappy crap crap... excuse my language...

So you know how Lilly was sick, but getting better... load.. o'... (you guessed it)...

crap.

She was fine today.. not great... she just had a lingering cough from being sick on Tuesday and felt a little warm.. but she was fine. We went to our neighbors brunch (they are good friends of ours and just got sealed today.. we would have gone to the sealing, but didn't want Lilly to go to a babysitter since she hadn't been feeling perfect and our babysitter/brother has a newborn) and we also watched Daddy play 3 hours of ward basketball.. Lilly really enjoyed that! She was doing fine all day.. until about 7ish tonight. Her fever came back and she started breathing really fast and was VERY lethargic. We thought she was just tired so we gave her some tylenol (even though I said I wouldn't) and put her to bed. I went in to check on her about 30 minutes later.. figuring I hadn't heard from her so she was probably sleeping.. just wanted to check her breathing.. she was kind of asleep... but breathing really fast and every once in a while almost hold her breath for a second. Worried me so we took her out of her crib and held her for a bit.She started to get a little better so we put her back in. About half hour later I went back in to check on her and she was awake.. breathing super fast.. and just kept reaching down to make her glow bug sing constantly... probably the only thing that could comfort her cause she probably wasn't getting enough oxygen to cry very loud. I had a bad feeling so we got her out again and I called the after-hour physician. They had us bring her in and they checked her oxygen levels and temperature and concluded that she has

RSV.

She had a temperature of 103-point-something and they said we didn't give her enough tylenol for how big she was.. (btw... she has lost a pound from her 15 month appointment.) So they gave her more motrin. Her oxygen levels weren't good... but not awful either.. they were borderline. She bounced up and down from 82(which is really bad) and up to 90 (which is acceptable) and everywhere in between... they gave us an order to go to the hospital and suction her lungs out, and if it improved her levels then we could take her home, but if not we had to admit her and put her on oxygen. I freaked out... We have crappy insurance and a night at the hospital would cost us an arm and a leg.. I wanted to do it though because I didn't want to have her stop breathing in the middle of the night and not know what to do or not even know about it cause she isn't on a monitor or something. So we were hoping the suction would make her feel better.

We didn't go straight to the hospital, we went home first because I thought it was important that our baby got a blessing. We called our neighbor Jason who just recently got the Melchizedek priesthood and was just sealed to his family today, to come help with the blessing. It was cool because it was his first blessing ever given... We are grateful that he was able and willing to help us out.. We are glad for good friends.. and the Lords amazing timing. Steve gave a quick blessing, but a good blessing... Lilly didn't like having oil and hands on her head, and we wanted to get to the hospital. I love the priesthood... and I love my husband for having it!

Because of our CRAPPY insurance, we were sent to Timpanogos Hospital, got into the emergency room, then was told the system just changed and they don't take our insurance, and we needed to go to Orem Community emergency room... Went there and they sent us to Utah Valley because they have a clinic there and are much better suited to do a suction... I was about to go insane! But I did feel better about going to Utah Valley because we wouldn't be in an emergency room, but an RSV clinic where all they do is suction out babies! (cheaper... Steve was happy). The Motrin that the doctor gave Lilly helped her a lot and she was now awake and walking around.. she was still breathing fast but she was feeling better which was a little comforting. She got hooked up to the monitors and found her oxygen levels at a more consistent 89-90. That was better.. not amazing... but better. They suctioned her and hardly got anything out. It just ticked her off. Didn't help her at all either... so we called the doctor and he said that at 90 we should just go home and watch her closely.. which is where we are right now. We just have to watch for high fevers and really fast breathing. And give her lots of water and feed her anything she wants to eat.

Not sleeping tonight.

On the mend

2010-02-19T21:23:00.000-07:00

Alright.. as far as health goes, we are getting better. I am really glad I let the fever fight Lilly's sickness off because she woke up the next morning, kind of grumpy, but her fever was gone and she was feeling better. She's been not 100% since but MUCH better than that first day. I think I will do that from now on.. only give her tylenol or medicine when her fever gets TOO high.. or if she is REALLY miserable.. other than that I'll just let the fever fight it because she'll get over it much quicker. As for me.. I haven't had as much luck. I haven't gotten a fever for years.. I don't know why.. but I wish I did so I could actually get better. But I pretty much go on with my regular life feeling tired and crappy for weeks but not actually sick enough to take time off from my busy life. It's ok though.. I don't like to miss things!

Quite honestly I haven't been taking care of myself very well. Today during my lunch break, (instead of eating lunch) I went home to work on some music cutting and while I was home, my vision started to do something really strange(like how it gets right after someone takes a picture with a REALLY bright flash right in your eye... it was like that... for a good 45 minutes straight). I got really dizzy and nauseous and almost passed out a couple of times. It took me about an hour for it to pass, and then it just turned into a giant headache. Is that a migraine? Anyway, I figured it was brought on by 3 things... 1) Major lack of sleep (especially for how active I am.) 2) dehydration ( i realized that for 2 days in a row I forgot to bring my water bottle.. and when I dont have a water bottle I hardly drink ANY water at all. 3) lack of food. *this is where I get kinda crazy. (A child at lilly's daycare started getting sick yesterday afternoon... it was too early to tell what kind of sick, so I assumed the worst and guessed that it was the stomach flu and that all three of us were going to start puking our guts out anytime.. so I didn't eat anything that i didn't want to see come up.. which was nothing... )

Anyway, my dear husband was with me and made me lay down and drink water and eat something. After relaxing for a few minutes I felt better and went back to class. Hope I can start taking care of myself better or I might collapse!

Sounds like I'm complaining a lot, but really I'm actually very happy right now! I love what I'm doing, I love my family, and I'm glad I get to spend the time with them that I do. And quite honestly I love being exhausted and sore.. it's energy well spent! I'd much rather be exhausted than restless.. That's just me I guess!

Sicky...

2010-02-16T18:34:00.000-07:00

Yeah.. we aren't feeling great at my house. Lilly and I have some sort of cough/cold/flu thingy... She has had a little bit of a cough the last couple of days, but last night she was coughing all night. She woke up and as soon as she found out it was time to go back to day care and that we were leaving, she started bawling... Screaming... hysterically.. I thought it was because she didn't want to leave, but then when I held her, I noticed she was really hot.. When I tried to distract her by singing some songs.. she calmed down a little but I could tell something was wrong. Steve decided to stay home from work for the first half of the day so I could go to my technique class, then I came home and skipped the rest of the day to be with her. She was fine because we had given her some tylenol.. I put her down for a nap and when she woke up, like half an hour later (our downstairs neighbors have a drumset in the bedroom directly below Lilly's room) she was REALLY sick.. pretty high fever, really out of it.. just staring out into space, whining every once in a while. I felt SO bad for her.. I wanted to try and fight it off without so much tylenol this time, but she was so miserable.. I couldn't NOT give it to her. It didn't help as much as it had earlier, but it did give her some energy back. We watched tinkerbell together and then she took a bath and that helped A LOT. We had to go to the store to get some things for lunch and when we got back we ate and then I noticed the tylenol was wearing off again cause her fever came back. I put her down for a nap so the fever can fight the sickness and she can get some rest, then I sat down on the couch.. and started coughing, and feeling tired and woosy and achey... I'm thinking some tylenol might help me a little! Stinks but it happens! We have been enjoying our day of disney movies though.

Easy Weekend.

2010-02-14T22:34:00.000-07:00

I haven't had much to say in the last couple of days... mostly cause it's just been an easy weekend... not much to do! We went up to my sisters yesterday and had a blast! We went to boondocks and essentially spent $25 on a slinky, a smiley faced ball, and some pop-rocks. But it was worth it! Lilly loved playing some of the games and she loved the rides more. There was a little merry-go-round and she rode that thing over and over! It made me feel all nostalgic because she didn't need me to hold her on the horse... she could hold on herself and ride around like a big girl.. didn't even need me to follow her... oh she's growing up so fast!

Then today I finally got a chance to go to relief society.. it's been so long the relief society president didn't recognize me! I promise we still go to church! we just spend it out in the hall chasing Lilly around! They will let us take Lilly into nursery.. but they won't let us leave her there so today I spent the 2nd hour in nursery with her and Steve spent the 3rd hour in nursery with her. Oh it was nice!

Then I pretty much spent the rest of the day researching cameras and photography tips and such things... I really am having a hard time waiting for my camera.... I should be able to get it around the end of the month and then man... you will start to see a LOT more pictures!! For now.. I'll leave you with a video of my babbling daughter!

Results

2010-02-13T10:46:00.000-07:00

Winning Emerging Choreographer: Missy Seawright
Winning Pre-professional Choreographer: Roxanne Boden (i think that's her last name)
Winning Professional Choreographer: Shayla Bott

It was an amazing night! My piece looked really good and I am so proud of it. I don't mind that I didn't win... All the pieces were so different so really it just wasn't what the judges were looking for... I'm just happy that now i have a really good piece under my belt... a really cool thing to put on my resume... and a renewed ambition to create something even cooler next time!

Tonight... Tonight....(a little westside story for you)

2010-02-11T12:39:00.001-07:00

Choreography Design Project is TONIGHT!!! (and tomorrow... plus the awards are tomorrow) I saw all the pieces last night and they all look REALLY cool! It's gonna be a very entertaining show so if you can make it... come! My piece is opening it which I think is pretty cool!

Who I am.

2010-02-10T23:39:00.001-07:00

I was sitting in the hallway at school, sewing my pointe shoes, listening to Jimmy Eat World on my ipod, wearing a Starting Line t-shirt... and I thought to myself... this is a weird combination but it's totally me! It made me start thinking about the things in my life that define me. Here is what I came up with...

I am a ballet dancer/teacher, homemaker/somewhat crafty/, procrastinator-who-has-to-be-busy-all-the-time, rocker, popper, LDS, kind-of-taoist, hater-of-messes/hater-of-spending-precious-time-cleaning, over-and-over-movie-watcher, amateur cook/photographer/choreographer/seamstress/hair-stylist/improv-er/music-editor, family loving mommy!

Titanic...

2010-02-10T00:33:00.000-07:00

Went to comedy sportz tonight. Let's just say I'm getting a reputation there. Last week we did a game where we each had to say an animal in a certain order. (FYI there is only one other girl in my class.. and she is very cool and very good, but she isn't very girly..) So when my turn came up, the animal that came to my head was "Pony" and of course this is one of those had-to-be-there moments... but as soon as I said it, the whole room starting hysterically laughing.. I think it was just my high pitched girly voice after all these manly deep voices.. they thought it was hilarious... They all called me "Pony" the rest of the night and even when we showed up today they made jokes about Pony... I am the stereotypical girly girl at comedy sportz!

And they found another thing to tease me about this week... we played a game that required still shots from a movie... We chose titanic.. and let's just say that the few still shots we chose were... EPIC... It will take me a VERY long time to live down that game. Literally every game we played after that they found some way to talk about Titanic... oh well.. all fun and games! Definitely a good way to blow off some stress!

Relief

2010-02-08T21:35:00.000-07:00

Missy isn't mad at me anymore... it took her a lot shorter amount of time than I thought it would for her to get over it... THANK YOU! I'm so happy cause I love her to death!

And...

My piece is done.. and it looks good... Everybody knows when to run and where.. and are there on time.. and it is really cool! I like it a lot! ALL the dances are really different so it will be interesting to see who wins. I really don't care if I win or not but I think the judges will have a hard time comparing them because they are all so different.

Lilly and Steve came to rehearsal with me tonight and I loved watching her run around the theater. I love it that that will be something she will remember about growing up.. hanging out in theaters for rehearsals and stuff like that. Love my life!

I need my sanity..

2010-02-08T15:38:00.000-07:00

So I did something bad... I hate doing this..

At UVU the seniors have to use UVU students in order to choreograph a piece that they perform at the end of the semester. There are a few seniors in RBE and Missy has been trying to round up RBE members to be in her piece. I agreed to it initially because I wanted to help out, and not a lot of people were lining up for it...

This semester has been crazy and I've been having to find any way I can to save my sanity.. The difference I have noticed between me and other students there is that I CAN"T nor do I really WANT to fully commit to school... I can't give all of myself to UVU like the other students can.... I hate to say it.. but Its more important for me to have a life than others kids.. because I have a family that is higher priority. So anyway... the way this semester is playing out I am taking any extra time I can to regain sanity so I can fulfill my homely responsibilities... let's face it.. I'm not a machine and I get tired and worn out. So today I told Missy that I couldn't be in her piece. She wasn't happy.... she walked away from me without saying anything... I hate it when people are mad at me... but I did it for my sanity and for my daughter so oh well.. I still feel bad!

I'm gettin me one o' these!

2010-02-07T09:27:00.002-07:00

Thank you government for giving us back lot's of money!

Semi-anti-climatic day...

2010-02-06T17:34:00.001-07:00

CDP UPDATE: Finished my piece today.. yet was unable to have a successful run.. dancers are a little confused as to the timing of the ending and it's fairly clean.. but not quite as I would like it. I only have 1 more hour with them on monday and it's on stage so hopefully we are able to work quickly and well! Still though.. it's done and I don't have to choreograph any more... just make it look good!

Due to the craziest week ever, I had rehearsals scheduled on every day of my Anatomy class this week and I had a test I had to take today. After HOURS of studying 1 chapter, I decided I felt like I was ready.. Went to the CTC and stood in line for an hour before I got my test... and failed miserably... holy cow... I really need to get serious about this class if I'm going to pass it!

Good thing I have a sweet baby girl and an awesome hubby to go home to... otherwise I would have to call this a bad day..Instead it's just a semi-anti-climatic day... I think Lilly and I are gonna go for a walk!

I love my family

2010-02-06T11:39:00.001-07:00

I came home from rehearsal today to find this in Lilly's room

The sun will come out... Tomorrow!

2010-02-05T12:25:00.000-07:00

My dance is done...

My dance is done my dance is done my dance is done!

Today I worked with the pas couple and finished their stuff and really tomorrow I just have to piece the two together.. and make sure that nobody will get a pointe shoe in the face and tell the core when to run on and off... and then I just have cleaning to do... little things like arms and heads and things like that and then we start dress rehearsals and tech rehearsals!

Good Friends

2010-02-04T22:13:00.000-07:00

Can i just say I'm grateful for good friends...

For 3 nights in a row now Steve and I will tiptoe downstairs to and have a little party with our neighbors and it has been so nice to have a break from our life upstairs... ahh...

I have NOT been slacking!

2010-02-04T13:42:00.000-07:00

Just so you know! I am almost completely finished with my piece.. I have about 1:30 left of pas de duex left and then i'm ALL DONE!!! I'm so excited!!! A couple of days ago i got completely stuck. It was right after I finished my first movement.. I had NO idea what I wanted to do with my second movement and I completely blanked for like 2 days straight.. no sleep cause I was too worried about it.. and even if I did fall asleep I was dreaming in failed choreography... I finished my second rehearsal and got in my car... and thought... DUH.. this is what I need to do! so I came back the next day and whipped out like... 3 minutes of choreography! It's pretty sweet! Tomorrow I work with the couple and hopefully by the end of tomorrow it will all be done and I can just clean all Saturday! and on monday I can breeze through spacing and all will be well! I am also a lot happier with the costume choices that we made today.. instead of all black I will have a little bit of color on stage! You all better come to the concert! Feb 11-12 at the Ragan Theater!

Sunday Morning Hygiene... Very Important

2010-01-31T12:15:00.000-07:00

She wasn't happy when we turned the water off....

Scholarship Audition... and other fun stuff

2010-01-30T21:36:00.002-07:00

Today was a scholarship audition... It was seriously the strangest audition I've ever had. Yiqi was the teacher..and she taught this class like one of her regular technique classes... only paying attention to the best kids in the class... there must have been about 50+ kids in there and she wanted to go in 2 groups the whole time... made a few girls demonstrate each combo 3 times before we had a chance to do it... it was ridiculous... good thing all the people that are choosing scholarships I see everyday... Plus I don't really care if I get a scholarship.. it would be VERY nice but I won't be completely crushed if I don't get one.. probably because I've sworn off being completely crushed... "completely crushed" is not a good feeling.. and I kinda refuse to feel it very often... and for not very long..
anyway... Shayla Bott is one of the people that chooses scholarships and I saw this on my facebook today... maybe a good sign.. or maybe I just looked smokin in my new copper leotard..

Anyway.. a few fun things. We finally got Lilly another Glow Bug... she puked on her last one so we had to throw it away... She has been carrying it around all night, rocking it to sleep... I love it! She's funny like that.. she will find 1 activity and do it for hours. Tonight, before the glow bug, she found a soda bottle and dragged it around for probably 45 minutes. Then she came upon my boot and figured out that the bottle fit perfectly in the boot.. that kept her busy for about another hour... Silly girl!

Oh and something else really freaking awesome.. our house has been on the verge of being completely picked up for a while, but we just haven't had it in us to put in the hour or two to put away all our laundry and go through all the piles of random things that don't have a home. I came back from my audition and one room was completely done.. Steve let me sit on the couch and watch Glee while he finished our bedroom, the kitchen and the bathroom. I finally decided to pitch in and do Lilly's room and help with finishing touches... we now have a REAL clean house. I love my husband!

5 minutes

2010-01-28T13:41:00.000-07:00

So I have 5 minutes choreographed of my piece... that's a little less than halfway! And I'll be perfectly honest with you... It looks COOL! I really like it and I'm excited to see it on stage!!! YAY!

Trying Something New

2010-01-26T22:04:00.001-07:00

So Steve is in the intermediate classes at comedy sportz and so many time Lilly and I will go to watch him. I love watching all the players and always have a critique about each one.. and I always give Steve advice and lately I've been thinking.. man... I really can't say anything about it because I've never done it before. So I asked Steve if I could take the beginner workshop and he said he thought that would be really fun! And I started today! It was so much fun! I am not a very quick thinker so it was really hard but I loved it! Everytime you're playing a game and you mess up the whole group says "AHHOOOOGA" and Lilly even started to pick that up! We are a little family of Improv-ers!

By your side

2010-01-25T22:29:00.000-07:00

This is a video of me in jazz class.. I'm the one in the back. Watch this video at least twice though. Watch me first and then watch the girl in the front to the right with the "stylish ballerina bun". She's amazing! Please no one try to copy this choreography... I trust you all!

Love this girl!

2010-01-25T22:07:00.000-07:00

I'm a mom..

2010-01-25T19:17:00.000-07:00

When you find yourself watching Finding Nemo with a half eaten peanut butter and jelly sandwhich in your hand, and your daughter is ripping up a book.. and you kinda don't even care anymore.. You know your a mom.

CDP 2010

2010-01-25T08:18:00.000-07:00

Just kidding... I'm a finalist! The concert is February 11-12 so ALL of you that can better come! AHH!!! I ran around my house this morning screaming for like 15 minutes... My neighbors probably don't like me. And my husband laughed at me forever.. Lilly thought it was funny but I think I started scaring her.. so I stopped.

Nursery

2010-01-24T16:37:00.000-07:00

So Daddy took Lilly to nursery today! He didn't leave (on my orders) but just took her in there to see how she would do. He said she did a lot better than some of the other older kids in there! She wouldn't let go of the balls and she even rolled over one. They sang Head-Shoulders-Knees-and-Toes and Lilly loved the nose part.. So much so that she stuck her finger up Daddy's nose and gave him a bloody nose! She is getting so old! Meanwhile, Mommy is (finally) almost done with laundry. The last load of whites is in the washer now and I have a GIANT pile of clothes to fold on my couch. By 10 pm tonight my house will be COMPLETELY clean.. I'm determined!

New blog direction

2010-01-24T16:36:00.000-07:00

So I have been a little unhappy with my blogging lately. I don't get the fun details of our lives down.. It's been mainly events and special circumstances. I'm going to blog a lot more often and about lots of things! That means less pictures but I'm ok with that!

Block talk

2010-01-24T13:14:00.000-07:00

I walked into Lilly's room yesterday to find her holding a lego up to her ear and having a VERY interesting conversation with whoever was on the other side of the "block" call. I love my daughter! She does stuff like that all the time! She loves talking to us! She will talk our ears off on the way home from daycare and she will read us books... she signs constantly and can say most of the words she signs.. plus lots more. She imitates us all the time! One thing I'm glad I took time to teach her was to sit down... She was such a pain in the butt going out to restaurants and grocery shopping cause she just wouldn't sit down. When we got her the table and chairs for Christmas she stood up on those all the time too and had a couple falls that she wasn't too happy about. So I took her into her room one day and we stayed in there and played with the chairs for probably about 2 hours and she learned how to SIT DOWN! Now I can grocery shop and eat at restaurants with NO problem! I tell her to Sit.. and she says Down as she does so! She still has very short hair that sticks up in all the craziest places and I LOVE it! She has 12 teeth and has for a while now.. waiting for more to come soon I'm sure! She loves brushing her teeth and sometimes even throws tantrums when I take her toothbrush away. I had to hide it a couple of days ago and I kinda forgot where I put it so she's been using mommy's toothbrush.. gross eh? Anyway.. I'll have to give a full update with pictures and everything soon!

Dance Update:
I went in on Friday to choreograph and I thought it went VERY well. I loved the outcome and got 2 minutes of choreography done! It was such a cool experience and I loved every minute of it! I was supposed to hear back yesterday if I was a finalist but I still haven't heard anything either way so I'm guessing I didn't make it but that's ok. It is still a little bummer but I was glad I got the experience!

As for Chris's ballet... I got the part! Which surprised me cause this is the 2nd contemporary ballet I've ever done so I'm pretty proud of myself! You'll all have to come to my concert now!

CDP

2010-01-17T21:46:00.001-07:00

*See post before*
Well, I am a semi-finalist! I have a week to work on my piece and then I get a little over an hour to set some choreography on a professional company... then we'll see what happens after that... I'm nervous!!!!

Update

2010-01-16T16:46:00.001-07:00

No pictures this time.. sorry... I did take some cool videos of me dancing but I can't share those due to copyrights... but they are pretty cool...

Some things that are going on with me... (I really shouldn't be posting this because none of it has actually happened, nor am I sure that it will, but it's still fun!)

Since starting the semester we are beginning to learn new dances and audition for parts! This is always fun and of course nerve wrecking but I feel like I've gone into it with a good attitude this time. We are doing La Sylphide (i think... if not it's les sylphide) and I *think* I got one of the demi roles! I'm not sure yet cause no one has told me that, but in the *preliminary* rehearsal she set Sarah and I as demi-soloists... so we'll see if that sticks! I'm quite excited about that!

We also had a guest choreographer come in this week and he is setting a piece on 4 girls... he called back 9 girls (I was one of them.. which surprised me A LOT). 2 out of the 4 parts are still open and for this last rehearsal he set a whole 4 minute piece and he used me as one of the parts... but he still hasn't said flat out that I've got that part... He may still go back on it.. he has done that before... but I guess we will see... I really would like to do this dance but at the same time, I'm proud of myself to have gotten this far in the process! So we'll see how that plays out on Wednesday.

Thirdly, in returning to school this semester I found out there is a Choreography Design Project where new, pre-professional, and professional choreographers can apply to be a part of a choreography contest. First round is just a paper round... resume, application, and choreographic plan... 2nd round.... work with professional company for 1 hour, third round (only 2 per category make it to the 3rd round) set entire ballet on professional company which they perform.. one winner is chosen out of the two and receives a cash prize. I decided to put another 10 lbs. on my plate and apply! I turned in my application yesterday and find out tomorrow-ish if I made it past the first round... It will be exciting to get to work with a professional company, but if I don't make it past then oh well.. I don't have time for it anyway!

Foam Soap

2009-12-29T20:44:00.000-07:00

We gave Lilly some foam soap for Christmas... and we used it all in one bath... waste of soap but it was totally worth it!

Christmas 09

2009-12-29T16:41:00.001-07:00

What an amazing Christmas!

From Steves parents:
Comfy Cozy sweaters for Steve and I
A WII!
A ton of Gift Cards
A ton of clothes and books for Lilly
Blocks for Lilly that she loves!
A really cool stuffed Monkey.. It's quickly becoming an essential for Lilly.
- crap.. i knew i should have made a list earlier.. There's tons more I promise.
Matt and Lauren had us for Christmas and they got us the really cool cranium and some movies! I'm so excited to play it!

Christmas Morning:
I made Lilly a stocking late Christmas Eve and we brought it in to her when she woke up... inside?

- 7 new binky's (or deedee's as Lilly calls them)
- A sippy cup filled with hot chocolate
- A chocolate covered marshmallow Santa Clause already opened... cause Santa knew that Lilly couldn't open the package
- A Glitter Ball - she has always wanted one.
- A tradition in my family - bubble bath in the girls stockings... she also got some foam soap which was a hoot.. wait for the pictures to come!
- Several stuffed animals!

We brought it into her and then left and she played with everything for probably about 45 minutes.

Then we took her out to the tree and It was a good year!
Lilly got from santa SEVERAL wooden toys. Including a table and chairs.. they have been her favorite of this christmas.
We gave her a bunch of toys, including a shape sorter which she loves.
Steve got me a car charger for my phone and my ipod.. maybe he is tired of me having dead electronics?? and a homedics back massager.. I sat on it for an hour the other night. It was amazing.
I got Steve a beard trimmer, a bunch of new clothes, and "the game of things". We got ourselves a few family gifts too.. Some Wii games and accessories, and the big gift to ourselves was and is a home theater surround sound system. Which is still somewhere in the mail system.. I'll be excited to get it!

It was such a great Christmas and I can't wait till next year to do it all over again! Thanks for all the gifts Family!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

2009-12-29T16:14:00.000-07:00

Ok so we did celebrate Christmas last year but it was more of an afterthought than an actual celebration.. this year I have enjoyed all the wonderful things about Christmas!

FCDA went to Festival of Trees... that has become the event that usually kicks off the Christmas season for us for the third year in a row! It's a tradition to do the show and then Steve and I go buy a pound of yummy fudge... mmmmmmm. This year since Lilly is older we got to have fun in the kids section of festival of trees and we got her an "Elf Wand" and a candy cane... she loved both of those at the same time which made the elf wand VERY sticky.. as well as her cute clothes... what's a mom to do. :P

The other thing we do every year for the 4th year in a row (I think) is sing Christmas Carols at the Live Nativity in Alpine with Steve's Aunts family. It's always REALLY cold and it was even more so this year I swear, but we stuck it out until almost the end before we (or rather I) got frozen out. Lilly wasn't too happy either because I think her wet diaper was frozen to her bum... :) But she loved looking at and petting all the animals that were there!

Thanksgiving

2009-12-29T15:56:00.001-07:00

Some pictures from our wonderful Thanksgiving getaway down to St. George

Sorry.. they are in no specific order and I'm too lazy to fix them! Brad took most of them with his new amazing camera... someday I will get one!
This is Wyatt playing with some branches on a hike that we went on. It was a beautiful photo!
Mom and Sarah. Love my mom and sis!
Me eating pumpkin pie... I must have devoured one whole pie while I was down there... but that seriously is the best thing about thanksgiving!
Lilly was such a daddy's girl while we were down there... she loves him so much!
The poor girl got pink eye over thanksgiving... I later got it and am still fighting it off...it's a booger.
Candid family portrait... Brad's a good photographer..
Beautiful girl..
Sexy hubby!
Sexy Hubby eating pie!
Super Hero's!
Love my mama
And the whole family together... well... minus Cas, Max, and Zach... Miss them all!

Long Time No Post

2009-12-29T15:48:00.000-07:00

holy.... it's been a while.

Ready for excuses?

Finals kicked my butt... only in the dance department... finals does not consist of just 1 grueling week... but rather the entire last month of school is spent pulling your hair out getting ready for the last day of class... and then you get to party during finals week.. Here's what happened in school:

I PERFORMED!!! We had our concert and oh my goodness it was amazing! It was the first time Steve had ever seen me dance and it was the first time Steve had ever LIKED watching dance!

Our company got accepted to RDA to we will be going to Washington in May for the Ballet Festival! We'll perform there too!

I finished my comp and fundies class... hallelujah I don't have to retake them!

And I am getting ready for next semester, which... I know I'm crazy... will be probably even more intense than last. I'm taking 14 credits, and one of those classes is ANATOMY... oooo... it's really hard at UVU. But then I just get to take a lot of dance classes that will be a lot of fun and not a lot of homework... so excited!

RBE photoshoot!

2009-11-07T15:22:00.000-07:00

These photos were taken by Hancock Photography.