yep, she's two

this face describes our general mood around here lately...

packing, cleaning and moving is tough.

but it's that much worse with a two year old with 

attitude

and who has given up sleep.

Lucy has been up past 11 or 12 the past four nights.

she's stopped taking naps.

and this morning I walked into my room and she 

was jumping on my bed shaking our her sippy of milk -

it was flying everywhere and I said "Lucy-stop!"

and she let out some type of growling "nooooo"

and yes, it kind of scared me.

oh well.

it's normal - i hope.

and i think she along with Suki (who's been hiding and whining)

sense that something is going on.

but if all goes as planned we should be moved and settled 

(somewhat)

in about a week.

for the most part she's still our happy, sweet girl.

I promise.

Procrastinator

We have two weeks left to 

pack up all of our house and we've

yet to find our new digs.

We have a garage full of boxes and we're trying

to weed out some stuff so I don't carry around

my 11th grade English papers for another 15 years.

So what do you do with a time crunch and 

stress stomach aches??

Figure out your scanner and reminisce through

old pictures of course!

I only talk to one person from this pictures still (other than

Blake) but I had to include it -

look how hard I'm rocking the pyramid hair?!

And Blake, puttin' on the ritz!

It's sad to think how excited he was about this outfit.

Back to packing!

(and I think we'll hang on to these)

emotional roller coaster

So after 11 months on the market it looks like our house (our home, our normal, our comfort) has sold.  We were just a couple of weeks away from giving up and taking it off of the market and then bam! two offers in one weekend.  So I have to tell myself it was meant to be.

Nothing was ever wrong with our house or our neighborhood or Woods Cross but we always knew we'd be short-timers.  While we have loved our time here we've always known we'd like to settle in Salt Lake.  I love old homes (when they've been renovated by someone else) and tree-lined streets.  Our doctors, jobs, restaurants and families are in Salt Lake and we usually drive in many times during the week.  So you'd think I'd be thrilled that this finally happened.  But of course I can't make things that easy.  This past week everything has happened so quick, too quick.  I've cried, wondered, made lists, gotten myself sick and cried some more over this move.  

Part of it is our memories.  This is the house we brought Lucy home to, the house we had built for us, put in all of our own yard, became close friends with our next door neighbors, celebrated holidays and milestones.  The four walls of my bedroom held me in when I cried myself to sleep most nights during my pregnancy.  Our back patio is where Blake and I have had some of our best conversations late into the night.  And Lucy's darling room is where she can sit forever as long as we're reading her books or looking out her window from the glider.  The other part of this being so hard is we're not quite sure where we're going to live - amazingly, that is the easier of the two for me to handle right now.

We aren't rushing into anything so we're going to find a house to rent for a year or so and then hopefully move into our permanent home.  That part will work itself out soon, I'm sure.  Leaving this house is the hard part.  But like Blake has told me, no matter where we would have lived our memories would have happened.  This home is just a shell that contained everything but it didn't really affect the outcome of anything.  We will always have our memories and moments long after we've left this house.  

I've started packing today and I woke up with an attempt at a better attitude - "time to clear out and start fresh!" "this is our new exciting adventure" and "the most important thing is that the three of us (and the dogs) are together".  And yes, we ASKED for this.  It was our decision to move.  We're fortunate that we've owned this home, we're not losing it and we're not experiencing the hardships so many people are dealing with right now.  So I'll try to embrace it and be excited.  It will be an adjustment but I have to believe it is for the best.  

So if you see me and I'm teary it's just because I'm sad about leaving my backyard birds or my walk-in closet.  And if you're not a fan of helping people move just keep an eye on your caller id - it might be us! 

zoo pass

The great thing about a Hogle Zoo pass is that you can always go again.

It's so nice to just pop in for an hour or two first thing in the morning

before the crowds arrive and the animals go to sleep.

This past Monday we saw most everything at the 

zoo and enjoyed a lovely morning with 

Team Lis and Croz!

We tried Lucy's wagon out and they both did pretty well -

but these two are movers and shakers and feel

better about outings if they can walk around and explore

things on their own.

this guy put on quite a show

Lis & Luce

the zoo has a new Madagascar exhibit and this is one of the guests - a fossa -

apparently it is the largest mammal on Madagascar.  

Too cat-like for me - I was a little creeped out.

staring at a tortoise

we LOVE carousels!

on her "bug"

Let us know if you're up for a zoo visit.  We have a pass and snacks!

p.s. we are done with the "small animal exhibits" for awhile so we'll 

wait outside. :)

i'm bragging

I don't think bragging is a good trait to have - but I guess I have it.

I can't help myself though - every day (well, some days more than others)

I am in awe of this little girl.

Maybe her skillz are normal and I just am not around many kids

but either way - she entertains and impresses me like nothing else.

So her counting and alphabet skills have

surprised me - she picks up on everything so quick.

But this past weekend on vacation I was sitting on the balcony with my

coffee and magazine - Lucy wanders out and says

"hi mom, coffee?"

like she's literally asking to have her own cup.

I tell her "no buggy" but lift her up on the chair next to me as she

eyes my UsWeekly.

I fully expect her to start chatting about the latest celeb gossip

and weigh in on the Jon & Kate drama

but instead she stares at me and starts counting -

in Spanish!

"uno, dos, tres" - yeah, I don't know any Spanish so I don't know the rest -

but she did - all the way until ten!

I asked her how she learned that and she answered "Dora" -

yeah I promise she doesn't watch that much tv.

It's almost scary how well she communicates with me.

She really almost has no baby left in her. In the morning we wake up and I ask

what she wants for breakfast - she puts her index finger to her chin and says, "hmmm,

stwawbewwies, eggies, cake".

Some of her favorite books she'll pretend she's reading the words but she can tell me the

story - "Zoey is sad - Elmo is cwy-ing". It is so sweet to see how intently she studies the pages and figures out what is happening and she's so happy to share with me.

But I think the very best is how she can convey her emotions. The other morning on our trip

I pulled her out of the crib she was sleeping in because I heard her stirring.

It was about five in the morning and she snuggled in with me face to face.

She touched my face and gave me kisses and just smiled,

then with her sleepy eyes and scratchy morning voice she said,

"mommy, I happy"

melt.my.heart.

viva

We started off our summer early with a trip down south for the long weekend. Blake's younger brother Clint and his girlfriend (now wife) Abby got married in Las Vegas and it gave us a really good excuse to go to a warmer locale!

We decided to beat the holiday traffic and leave on Thursday. Nothing too eventful

happened in St. George except pool time, lounge time and too much money spent at the Gymboree outlet

(this is the trip that made me realize I do have an addiction buying clothes for Lucy -

an addiction that Blake does not support).

yes, we lounged

Lucy has an addiction too - rocks. Everywhere we go she seems to find
a pile of rocks and they end up in her pockets, in my purse or all over the back seat.

It was cute for a minute but now they are taking up a lot of space and she's starting to take them from our flower pots on the patio. Blake spends a lot of time arrange them "just so".

We arrived in Las Vegas on Friday and had a full day of pool time and then some shopping (H&M kids' department - OMG!)and eating al fresco. We went to Town Square in Las Vegas. It's away from the strip and they had a darling little toddler/kid land outside. Lucy could've spent hours there -but after awhile my swine-flu paranoia set in and we headed back to our hotel.

in her "vegas" outfit - she looks too old for my liking in this pic

running through the hedge maze at dark

Saturday we did some more of the same and then headed to the Hilton for the wedding. Abby is such a sweet girl and I'm happy she's now legally a part of the family.

congratulations to the newlyweds!

blake & brothers (kyle, clint, brad)

yeah, she won't even get to attempt to catch a boquet for about 25 years!

It was a fun weekend getaway and I didn't even get that bad of a sunburn. Lucy was such a good girl - even though she constantly was chanting "wanna walk awound".
Viva las vegas and viva summer time!

living traditions

trying new yummy food - check

dancing barefooot to some good tunes - check

not so discreet people watching - check

yep, she is my daughter!

(living traditions, slc, city & county bldg)