Holy Moly

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

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







For more, Lilet - Foto

Have another shoot tomorrow morning!!! YAY!

Healthy again!

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!

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

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

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

Adventures in Potty Training

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


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

Not cool....

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I'm Famous!

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

Halloween at UVU

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



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

Lilly now-a-days....

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

Lilly is an extremist.... In everything.

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



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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

Beep Beep... These pictures rock.

Lilly's 2nd Birthday Party!

Lilly's Turning 2!

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

Lilly's New Best Friend

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

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

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