18 months with miss Lila

A little update on my Lila girl. She is such a doll! I don't know how it's possible but she just keeps getting cuter, funner, more darling, and I love her more and more every single day!

She loves: shredded cheese, "cookies" (aka crackers such as gold fish crackers, pub mix, or real cookies like the organic Annie's graham bunnies), her "baba" first thing in the morning and right before bed every night (she drinks about 8 oz and is warmed for 45 seconds), string cheese, gogurt or any type of yogurt (she's a yogurt monster!), any type of fruit but specifically blueberries, strawberries, pears, apples, applesauce packets, (especially the ones that include spinach or kale), sometimes bananas, watermelon, any type of "nandy" candy (ugh! haha.. she has such a sweet tooth!), mandarin oranges, peanuts, and she loves to drink water. 

She hates: almost all vegetables (ugh), and hardly eats her food. She's definitely a grazer and is more likely to eat when she's not sitting in a high chair.

Her favorite toys are: her little stuffed animals "pup pup, woof woof, eep, and bok bok," her baby doll, play dough, stickers, playing catch with any type of ball, using sidewalk chalk outside, and 

She says: mom, mommy, mama, dad, daddy, dada, dew (drew), baby, nonnie (nollie), eat, wawa or water just depends, num num, nummy, apple, nana (banana), nandy (candy), cookie (cookie or cracker), cheese, all done or sometimes ah eee, ee you (love you), bye, hi, hello, see ya, pleash (please), day tu (thank you), here you go, look at dis (look at this), bubble, all animal noises including cow, horse, cat, dog, owl, snake, sloth, sheep, chicken, duck, gorilla or monkey, (can't really think of any other animals right now but she knows A LOT!), bug, ew, spida (spider), amen, poop, pee, pee-you, yucky and yuck, sssshhh, Lila, gamma, gampa, gunna (konner), nam (kam), ty, and she makes up names for Kinsley, Katie, Shay, and will mimic most anything we ask her to say. She's the cutest!

She wakes up around 8 am and goes to bed around 9 pm. She loves bubble baths, just recently started showing interest in laying on her tummy in the bath tub, and she eats a yogurt and sometimes a spoonful of peanut butter every night in the tub before bed too! Ha! And she loves looking at herself in the mirror. Sometimes I catch her dancing in the mirror too haha!

She absolutely loves to draw or paint, really likes stickers right now, enjoys watching youtube kids, loves to swim at our pool, likes to play at the splash pad and at the park, and loves all types of animals! 

Her favorite shows are: The Wiggles, Moana, Secret Life of Pets, Trolls, and sometimes other Disney animated movies like Finding Dory or Monsters Inc.

She'll sit on the counter with me when I get ready for the day and loves to brush her hair, and pretend to put makeup on. She also loves getting her nails and toenails painted and surprisingly sits still long enough for me to do them! She is a big help around the house (haha) and knows how to put clothes in the laundry basket, likes to dust or wipe things off, and also likes to watch me cook. She knows that pots and pans are "hot!" and also likes to pull toilet paper off the roll... but we're working on that. ;) She seems to have some social anxiety around big crowds but doesn't think a second about running away from me in Walmart so who knows!? She is definitely a mommy's girl and is very very VERY attached to my hip. I love it! But it is also tiring sometimes :)

She is so bright, brilliant, smart, intelligent, cute, funny, and lovely! We lucked out big time with this girl!!

Love you Lila Jane!

Love,

Kate

July & August.. Summer's flyin!

Life has been so busy! This blog post may not be very detailed but I want to write down as much as I can remember before too much time passes!

JULY 

We went up to Richfield the first weekend of July not only for the 4th of July but also to get Kambry's bridal photos taken up at Fishlake and for Kambry's bridal shower! It was a really busy weekend to say the least, but it turned out great! 

Fishlake was beautiful. It was perfect weather and so much fun! We spent the day at the cabin with our family + Parker and Lindsey. We ate pizza (Papa Murphy's -- thanks Kinsley for your custom creations!!) for dinner and then got Kambry all ready for her pictures. We drove up towards the look out point over the lake and stopped for their "first look" photos in a beautiful grove of aspen trees. I spent the evening attempting to video (HAHA) and we ended up getting some really good shots! I fell a couple times and my video skills are definitely needing some practice but I came out happy with the footage I received and I also just died at all the shots Lindsey got of them!! It was such a gorgeous night and a gorgeous photoshoot!

We stayed the night at the Hansen cabin with just us kids while my parents took Lila back down to Richfield. We got up and ate breakfast at Bowery on Sunday morning and then made our way back home to Richfield. The next day was Kambry's bridal shower at my grandma Micki's house. It was a fun afternoon with lots of yummy food and good company! We got Kambry a really cute bed set, pillows, a throw, sheets, and I drew her a funny picture of a llama to put on her bedroom wall. It was cute and she really liked it!

Later that night (because it was the 3rd of July) we went to the city park and registered Lila for the diaper derby! Because she wasn't quite 18 months she was able to race in the "walking" portion instead of the toy pull. She got to race against Alyssa and Barry's daughter Hayden and they both did so good-- they both ALMOST could have won! But Hayden ended up turning around and running back and Lila stopped right before the line where I could have grabbed her. Dangit! Ha ha it sure made us all laugh really hard though! It was so fun to have them race together!

The next morning/day was the 4th of July. We sat outside of my dad's work to watch the parade. Lila loved all the candy that was thrown at us. We didn't stay very long at the park because it was getting warm and we wanted to make sure we made it to Grandma Carol's before Lila and Hayden needed a nap. We ate lunch up at Grandma's and let the girls play in a pool they had set up in the backyard. It was a fun simple afternoon!

Later that evening we went to a BBQ at Ariane and Dion's house. Then we went back to Grandma Carol's for the fireworks. We had homemade icecream and Lila LOVED the fireworks! But oddly enough she fell asleep during them and even slept through the finale!? It was crazy!! Ha silly girl!

July 22 Kambry received her endowment in the Payson Temple. We drove a rental car all the way to Payson that morning because our Saturn Vue was in the shop getting the transmission fixed (long story, and $4,000 later it's finally fixed). The temple was absolutely beautiful. I loved being there surrounded by so many family members. It just feels right! It's the place to be!! Oh and we left Lila in St. George with Bill and Linda for the weekend! We are grateful for their help and support but we sure missed Lila!

July 25 was Kambry's bridal shower in St. George. My family came down for it and my aunt Christy threw the shower for Kam. It turned out to be a fun evening, but definitely a fast trip for my family!

The next weekend however, we went back up to spend the weekend in Richfield with the fam! We had looked forwared to this weekend all summer as it would be our only "stress free vacation" haha! (With really nothing to do except enjoy ourselves). It was an awesome weekend. We looked for deer one evening and we all crammed into my dad's truck. It was hilarious! We were bumpin and jumpin all around inside the truck and Lila loved it!

Drew, my dad, and Konner went to Lake Louise to fish one morning and so my mom and I and kinsley and Lila spent some time at the lake. We found some trees to hang up a hammock and did that for a little while. Lila loved throwing rocks in the lake and enjoyed being outside! Later we took Lila on a fourwheeler ride around the "donut" (just around our little cabin's neighborhood circle) and she was so happy!!! She absolutely loved that too. She is just in the funnest stage right now! Everything is fun and funny with her! She makes life so good!!

And that concludes July! Such a busy month and super stressful with car problems (and money because hello -$4,000) but it's over and we are past it.

(Long story about our Saturn Vue: the transmission went out, we got a quote from a place here in St. George for about $3,500 to $4,000 to get it fixed so we decided to take it up to a place Drew's buddy recommended to us in Cedar. They had it in their shop for FIVE weeks!!!!!!! But apparently fixed the transmission for about $2,800. Well we picked up the car and headed to Fishlake for the weekend and noticed our AC wasn't working...??? So we were feeling like things were fishy and wondered why it went out after not having it for 5 weeks... so we took it back to the shop in Cedar after Fishlake [ps. Lila ended up throwing up on the way home from Fishlake because of how hot she was! Poor girl!!!] The shop said the AC wasn't their fault and fixed it for $300 something later. DUMB DUMB. Well then we get our car back to St. George eventually. A few days later on a Sunday we went to go to church and the car wouldn't start!!?!?!?!? WHAT!!! So we jumped in the prism, went to church, and afterwards tried to jump it.. hoping it was just the battery. Didn't work. So eventually Drew took the battery in to Autozone to have it checked. It was completely bad. So we got a new battery with the warranty we had [thank goodness] and tried that! We were really hopeful that was the answer! Nope. Still nothing. So because we had Kambry's wedding in a couple days and we needed our car to travel we decided to call my cousin Jordan to see if he could help us out. After about 3 hours later looking at our car and stuff still nothing worked. He even pulled the starter out, he and Drew took it to Autozone to be checked too, it was bad, so $180 later they bought a new one. Jordan installed it and it didn't work. Jordan felt really bad he couldn't fix the problem but it was such a mystery?! Why wasn't our car working!?!?!? Our last resort was to call a Tow in the morning and take it to Big O. So we did just that. 5 hours later of trying to diagnose the problem and another $300 later Big O somehow fixed the problem and said it was an incorrect connection of a wire that happened when the transmission was being fixed. They gave us a receipt to take back to the shop in Cedar to see if the shop would reimburse us for their "mistake." We went back up to Cedar and tried talking to them but they just shut us down. It was such a stressful month emotionally and financially. We're sick of dealing with it so we have decided to just put it behind us and move forward hoping that now everything works and will work for a while. But trust us, we will definitely be selling and buying a new vehicle maybe/hopefully next year!)

So now it's August, the heat is not as bad as it has been (thank goodness), and I've been busy working on some big art orders. Kambry's wedding was August 12 and so Lila and I went up a week early with her and Tyler to spend time in Richfield doing last minute preparation. We ate at Munchies one of the days, hung up yard lights, did some last minute artwork for decor, and was blessed with people bringing us or providing dinner for us all week! It was awesome! We ate dinner at grandma Carol's one night, Staci and Summer brought dinner one night, we ate dinner at the fair for free one night, and grandma Micki brought over breakfast for everyone for the morning of the reception/wedding! The reception was on Friday and the wedding on Saturday. The day turned out to be cloudy and kind of stormy... we were so stressed out! We didn't have any type of backup plan! We just prayed REALLY hard that the weather would work with us and spoiler-- it did!!!! It turned out to be a beautiful night. Perfect weather, great temperature, and just beautiful all around! The decor was awesome, the treats were fun and yummy, and I loved being surrounded by all our family! It was a fun night.

The next morning we got ready to go to the temple. Turns out there were a billion other weddings that day so there were people everywhere on the temple grounds! Which wasn't the best for pictures, but they made it work somewhat. The sealing was at 1 pm and Lila stayed with Kinsley and Konner in the waiting room inside the temple. The sealing room was gorgeous and the sealing it's self was beautiful. Afterwards however was kind of stressful again haha.. it was SO HOT outside and just waiting for them to exit the temple seemed like forever and we were all dying. There wasn't any shade and we were all hungry and thirsty and Lila especially was miserable, but it all worked out. We only got a couple pictures because we had to wait around for all the other wedding parties and plus it was just too miserable to be outside in the sun. So we went straight to the luncheon place and enjoyed a delicious lunch!! 

It was awesome to be able to enjoy our food at the luncheon without worrying about getting back to prep for a reception. I loved having the reception before the wedding! We sent Kam and Ty on their way and then made our way back home to Richfield. 

A week later my family came down and we had the open house reception for Kam and Ty here in St. George! Although my family stayed for literally 24 hours, it was fun to be with them and the reception here was really enjoyable too! They had Kilo's cater and it was soooo yummy!

Today (August 21st) was a pretty cool day in history. There was a complete solar eclipse! Lila and I sat outside and waited until it happened (around 11:30 am), and it didn't really get very dark here in St. George. It was a strange lighting outside but not as dark as I expected and trust me-- I made sure to not look at the sun at all because I had read so many things about how dangerous it is to your eyes!! But we obviously survived the eclipse (haha) and although it wasn't really cool here in St. George, I have really enjoyed watching other peoples' videos and seeing their photos from their experiences! Mainly people who were in places like Idaho, or Oregon who actually reached "totality" where the moon completely covered the sun. It looked like it was 9 pm ish!! It looked so cool!

And that pretty much wraps up August too. Although the month isn't over quite yet that is where we are at. I have 16 orders to do from my Christmas in July Sale that I'll begin once September hits. And I'm also working on selling my booth for Pinner's Conference. It is scheduled for November 3rd and 4th but I'll be 9 months pregnant by then and to relieve stress I've chosen not to go through with it... so cross your fingers I can sell it! Plus the money will help with paying off some of our car problems.

Until next time,

Kate

May & June!

Since finding out about my second pregnancy I have been sick sick sick! I do, however, feel like I have been able to manage it better this time around! I am now 17 weeks pregnant, due November 27th! And I am finally feeling good!!! I started feeling better around 15-16 weeks (YAY!) and it has been awesome!

In the beginning I was so exhausted. I'd fall asleep so fast when I sat down and although I am still incredibly tired all the time, it's doable.

I (tried to) control the nausea in the very beginning by eating a handful of almonds every night before bed. Now I can't stand to eat almonds, darn it!! But the small bit of protein definitely did help. As did protein/breakfast drinks, peanut butter, and lunch meat rolled up + pickles!

I have loved all sour things! The more sour the better!!! Lemons, limes, sour gummies, etc. I've also absolutely loved protein-- such as steak or hamburgers! ha!!

My beginning pregnancy weight was the exact same weight as right before I delivered Lila. UGH!! And I don't even have an almost 9 lb baby in my belly yet!! haha man!!! Drew insisted it is just the "muscle weight" I've gained since having Lila. (Thanks Drew ha!) We'll just say that I guess.

May flew by. Drew's buddy Dallas got married over Mother's Day weekend so we attended those festivities. It was a lot of fun but I was so tired by the end of the day! We spent Mother's Day in Cedar that Sunday. Drew got me some fun things to treat myself such as lotion, and face masks. It was sweet!

I went to Richfield for a week with Lila during the week of my mom's birthday. That was so fun!!! We had a blast celebrating her birthday! We had donuts for brunch, enjoyed dinner at South China, and spoiled her with some presents. It was a blast! The week was so good. I just can't get enough of Richfield or of my family! It was the best week! But Lila and I definitely missed Drew and it was nice to be back with him again over the weekend :)

June came faster than I realized. Before we knew it Drew and I were sitting at dinner celebrating our 4th year anniversary! Bill and Linda came down to tend Lila for us so we could go see a movie (Wonder Woman), and then we had dinner at Anasazi Steakhouse! We cooked our steak on the hot rock and enjoyed chocolate fondue for dessert and it was awesome! Delicious food and a great time spending some one on one time together. We reminisced over  the last 4 years and couldn't believe how fast time has flown by and that now we have a beautiful little girl and another one on the way!!

Girls camp was next. It was absolutely incredible! But getting there was definitely stressful. Monday and Tuesday before camp I had to go into the museum to cover for the Makers Gonna Make class. And although I had done that class for the past two years and was confident in my ability to teach and connect with the students, the curriculum was not my own this time and the teacher did not leave anything prepped for me! I didn't know where any materials were and the lesson plans were very vague. Luckily I pulled it together and the class turned out great. But man the stress was real! ha. I was glad to have that responsibility over because then I had to worry about packing not only for myself for girls camp, but also for Lila to stay at Gma Linda's for the week! Needless to say, it was all a LOT of work.

Wednesday morning came and I was very emotional. It was so hard to leave my little Lila!!! I knew I wouldn't have any service or any way of communication with her or Drew so I think that is what was the hardest for me. But I survived and they survived!!! Camp was absolutely beautiful. The weather was great and at this point I was 16 weeks pregnant and feeling good!! (YAY!) So that was a major blessing. It was also nice to unplug from the world for 4 days. No service, no phone, no distractions. The spirit was so strong and I literally loved every minute up there! I am so happy I went! Even though I got scared to death from a skunk that walked right behind me during testimony meeting and I was the only one to jump up and run away -- made for a good story-- I am glad it happened! The bishop ended up saying some closing remarks/bearing his testimony and he used the skunk experience as a way to relate it to temptation. How we should run away from temptation but if we get too close sometimes we get stinky. So it was funny experience and a memorable lesson! :) Going back home to Drew and Lila was priceless though. I cried and cried tears of joy and happiness! I missed them both so much!

Fathers Day was that next day (Sunday after coming back from camp). However we mainly celebrated it on Saturday with Drew's entire family. We ate yummy food all day long and enjoyed each others company. Later that evening we got snow cones with Drew's buddies and then came back to the house and had a spikeball tournament with everyone! It was soooo fun! And Drew and I ended up winning everybody ha! I got a kick out of that because for one, I'm PREGNANT and had to take it easy, and for two, all his buddies are super competitive!! Ha I guess we just make a good team ;) ha.. it was a blast though!

The next weekend was Gpa June's 93rd Birthday weekend. We were planning on going up but we had problems with our Saturn Vue :( It was CRAZY because I met up with my friend Suzanna for brunch on Thursday. On my drive home I noticed the gears didn't seem right. I felt like I was driving at the top of a gear that wouldn't shift. I was so nervous I drove slow the entire way home and called Drew. He told me to pull over and turn the car off and turn it back on again so I did just that. It seemed fine, but once I began accelarating again it did the same thing with the gears shifting. Also, when I'd go down hill it would bump me into a lower gear and it would slow me down a ton! Something definitely wasn't right. (Also side note-- we had just paid about $800 towards our little geo prizm car for new tires and a tune up so we were already stressing over that...) Well I made it home, Lila fell asleep on the way, and it was blazing hot outside. We're talking like 110. Bleh! I took her in and laid her down and Drew went out to see what was going on. The car wouldn't even budge! He put it into reverse and it wouldn't move! It was a miracle we got home that day. Such a blessing! Because now after getting the car to a transmission service place, we just found out that it is going to be an almost $5,000 fix :( So we are pretty upset. We chose not to go home for the weekend and we missed out on Gpa June's birthday and I was really sad about it, but it will be okay because we will see everyone next weekend for the 4th of July. Car problems just stink. Period. And we swear that whenever our prizm has a problem the Vue does too!? It's ridiculous. But that is our latest news and now we are going to see if we can find anything a little cheaper than $5,000 to fix it. Then we're going to sell it. Wish us luck!

*Kambry had emergency surgery just a few days before girls camp and that was also nerve racking for me because I couldn't hear how she was recovering. Turns out she did just fine and has recovered well! She had appendicitis! Glad that is over with :)

Love,

Kate

April April April

The month of April flew by so fast! I don't even know where to start. Well, I guess I'll just start from the beginning of the month.

April Fools Day: Kambry was over so Lila and I went into her room first thing in the morning and woke her up. I told her Lila has fallen and broke her arm so we were going to take her to the ER. Kam's face was PRICELESS. She was so worried! (She was still half asleep and her eyes flew wide open!) It was so funny!

Dad's Birthday Weekend: We surprised my dad by going up to Richfield the weekend of his birthday! We went straight to his work, snuck into the building, and sent Lila in to his office with a balloon tied to her wrist! It was perfect and so cute!! He was happy and surprised and we were all so happy to be there! We enjoyed the rest of the weekend with good food, good company, and some easter fun! We celebrated Easter there because we wouldn't make it up the next week for the actual holiday so we had fun having a little Easter egg hunt around the house with everyone. I actually didn't feel the best over the entire weekend (felt pretty nauseous all weekend) but nevertheless it was a great weekend with family!

*When we got back from the weekend with my family, I couldn't wait any longer. Monday morning I took a pregnancy test while Drew was away at work. POSITIVE!!! I quickly threw together a cute little way to surprise him and was able to video him as he opened up Easter eggs that said "We're so excited we just can't wait... December is going to be great! I'm going to be a big sister!!" He thought I was kidding but no! Best surprise ever and we are so happy and excited! I had known I was pregnant for maybe 5 or 6 days before I finally took a test. I felt so sick and every time I brushed my teeth (tongue) I would gag! Which I hardly ever gag when I brush. So I had a very strong feeling and sure enough I was right!!! YAY!!

Easter Weekend: We stayed in St. George for the weekend but it turned out nicely. We went out to Sand Hollow one evening to eat dinner and visit with some of my extended relatives. The Jones family always camps out at Sand Hollow every Easter weekend so it was fun to go out for a couple hours and see some of them! Sunday morning before church we woke up to see what the Easter bunny brought. Lila was so excited to see all the fun new little toys! It made my momma heart so happy to see her so happy. It was fun! Later that evening we went to the Peterson's for Easter dinner. It was fun to be with them on this special day! 

*We made a onesie for Lila to wear under her clothes that said "BIG SISTER." Then we would ask her to show us her belly button -- she would lift her shirt up so you could read her onesie! That is how we told my family, Drew's family, and the Peterson's! It was so fun and cute!

***NOTE: I was never able to fully finish this post because life got in the way! Hoping to do a better update in a future post.

Loves!

Love,

Kate

March in a Nutshell & (Snapshots)

March seemed to be a longggg month. However, I must say it did go by fast because it's already over! Honestly I am glad it's over. It's not my favorite month of the year, but it always turns out to be good weather for sunny St. George so I guess that's a plus. There just isn't much to look forward to in March, ya know? So we made our own fun this month!! We went to a movie, we had some play dates, we went to a neighborhood BBQ, we went mini golfing, we made yummy treats, and we simply made it through this month, ha! Here are some snapshots from the past couple weeks:

^Lila found a book at Barnes & Noble with her name as the title! Also pictured is Lila and Winston at the movies together.

^Last hair bun photo before I chopped my hair| Winston & Lila at the movies| Gpa Bill reading Lila a book about dogs and Max getting jealous

^Mini golfing with Kam & Tyler| Non stop snacking on popcorn| Yummy breakfasts| Seeing the baby ducks.

^Random snaps from every day life| Fun night out at Sand Hollow with Kam & Tyler!

^All I can say is Lila is such a funny girl!! We get a kick out of her!

^I made those personalized rocks for my young women for a lesson I taught about forgiveness.

^Picture perfect moments that I never want to forget!

^Pictured is the dirtiest Lila has ever been!! She had been crawling and climbing all over the cement sidewalks and asphalt behind Menchies one evening| Also pictured is her being adorable and loving her bellybutton. 

^More pics from the lake| Feeding the ducks one evening| Drew surprising me that he cut all his hair off too!!

^Church snaps| Yummy treats| Mom photobombing Lila while Tyler held her there, haha.

I chopped off 17+ inches!! It feels amazing! 

As for updates let's start with Lila. She is cruising these days!!! Still a bit wobbly sometimes (but mostly just when she wakes up), and falls down hundreds of times every day, but it doesn't stop her from getting up over and over again. It's quite inspirational to be honest! It doesn't get her down and she always keeps trying! (Think about it. We should be more like her!) She is still not a very good sleeper but is starting to only wake on average once a night. So that is doable! She definitely sleeps better when she has a full tummy... so typically if she doesn't eat very much dinner I will be sure to feed her rice cereal made with whole milk while she's in the tub- right before bed. Ha! She's great at napping though! She LOVES her "baba." She has tons of fun spending time with her buddy Winston. We tend him Tuesday-Friday every week, but I usually end up actually tending him every single day. It's amazing how well they get along though! It's been a wonderful experience and they are the cutest pals. It make my momma heart so happy! (She and Winston are 5 months apart.) She has recently started to express negative emotion lately :( When she gets frustrated or sad she will hit herself in the face! UGH!! I hate it, and I try to stop her but I really don't know why she does it!? I hope it will pass! Crossing our fingers. She is the sweetest thing though. She is smart, funny, witty, and adorable and we just can't get enough of her!

As for Drew and I, nothing too different around here. We are just busy working; me tending Winston and doing projects and commissions when I can find the time, and Drew busy at the museum. I helped out during spring break at the museum this month and did not enjoy it. I am definitely happier being home and doing my own chosen work. ;)

^Tyler brought his little brother Parker and little sister Megan along with us to the lake. It was tons of fun!

^And adorable woodland animal order I received this month for a baby boy's nursery!

^Having fun at walmart

^Perfect night. Cotton candy skies!!!

^Spotted my work on this lady's instagram feed. I did this for Petal Lane and it is being sold at the Baby Cubby up north.

It's a good life. We are learning and recognizing more and more each day that we MAKE the happy life. Love the life you live, live the life you love. It is doable!

Love,

Kate

February Snapshots

Walking around the St. George Children's Museum on a nice February day!

  

^Screen shot of my aunt Katie's collage wall. She printed Lila's drawing! So cute!^

  

   

  

^Best Valentines Day Treat EVER!

^And of course our traditional Chinese food for Valentines Day!^

Lila is a happy girl on Valentines Day!

Life update:

Drew- He is very happy working at the Children's Museum. They are so good to him and he loves the people he works with. 

Katelin- I am enjoying being in the YW presidency in my ward as the YW Secretary. I have become really good friends with the ladies I work with. Lila and I have actually started walking with the president (Megan) and her son Winston at the church a couple times a week. It's a lot of fun! We take our strollers and try to walk around the gym a couple times but the kids have short attention spans and want to get out and play. So we typically park the strollers in the middle of the gym and set out snacks, drinks, and lots of toys and watch them play as we continue to walk around the gym. I love it!

I also opened up my etsy shop this month. YAY! I keep busy doing lots of projects for people, but it makes me happy and I love doing it. I've also started tending Winston a couple times a week too! It works out great because he and Lila play so well together. Megan brought over his pack'n'play so it is set up in the extra bedroom upstairs for him to nap in. We have dance parties, play with all the toys, read books, color, watch movies, have naps, eat snacks, and have so much fun! I love it!

Lila- She is so close to walking on her own! She'll walk along any type of furniture and with any helping hand, but not quite by her self yet. She continues to practice standing up on her own and she is so proud of herself! So are we! It's awesome. She's the cutest thing ever. She is a master at asking for "more" in sign language, as well as telling us she is "all done." She has switched over to whole milk now and takes it like a champ! She is on a huge popcorn kick and eats it like her dad does-- handfuls at a time! It's hilarious! She's smart and happy and perfect. She is seriously a dream!

It's been an awesome year already marking off new years resolutions (opening up my etsy shop), and doing a spontaneous Disneyland trip! Plus throwing Lila's big birthday party and the awesome cabin trip too. What a life we live!! We are so blessed!

Love,

Kate

Snowboarding with Shay & Drew

My cousin Shay drove me and Lila down to Cedar on Friday after being in Richfield for a week. We met up with Drew at his parents' house. We dropped Lila off and headed up to Brianhead to spend the day snowboarding! It was Shay's first time and Drew and I hadn't been snowboarding for 2 or 3 years so we were all pretty excited!

It was a beautiful sunny day but the temperature was below freezing! Especially the higher we got up the mountain... it was so cold!!! Luckily we warmed up as we snowboarded down the mountain, but after falling a couple times my gloves weren't very "water proof" and I was FREEZING! 

We enjoyed some yummy cheeseburgers for lunch and by the time we were done boarding, all of us were exhausted! We got back to Cedar with good time to spare. Shay drove back to Richfield and Drew and I were happy to be with Lila again.

It was a fun day! Drew is so good at snowboarding. I may need to look into snowboard gear for him for next year so he can go more often! And I was impressed with Shay too. He is a natural and picked it up so quickly!

Love,

Kate