9 Months!

Happy nine month birthday Lucy!

So you are now nine months old Lucy bug. You are doing so many fun and exciting things. Last night you had your first sleep over with grandma and grandpa. I missed you a lot but I know you had such a fun sleepover. Daddy and I watched the movie Into the Wild last night and afterwards I told him how life seems so much more enjoyable if you create some type of adventure, big or small. And I said how I feel I'm living life so much fuller now that I wake up everyday with a new adventure with you!

You are such a happy little girl Lucy. Every morning when I get you from bed you are smiling up at me and in the evening when Daddy tucks you in you give your sweet, quiet baby smiles. We have had so much fun laughing and mimicking each other. I love that you are figuring out so many new things and can interact with us so much more. As I say always, you are my best friend.

You are such a big girl to sleep in your big girl crib now. I'm glad that we can still cuddle together for naps during the day but you love your bedroom and your own bed. It is so fun to watch you with your own things like your toys and your clothes. You have such strong preferences for what books we read and what toys you want. Your new dolly for Christmas has turned into a snuggly for you and every day we have to read the book Babies at least once. I love that you are a girly-girl and you will let me dress you up in your stylish, fun clothes. I know you'll be a much better shopping partner than daddy!

Beautiful girl, thank you so much for making every day so special. Thank you for making me a better person. You have filled all of our lives with so much love. I'm so excited to start a new year with you and see all of the happy adventures and moments you will take us on.

Love you bug, love mommy

Christmas 2007

Lucy's first note from Santa - he loved his cookies and milk

Our house Christmas morning - we had to rouse Lucy out of bed and she was excited but a little sleepy

When we arrived at my parents house it was a different story. Lucy was so excited and had such a fun time. Everyone told me Lucy wouldn't really "get it" this year but she really did and we all had so much fun enjoying it with her.

What little girl gets a pony her first time asking?! Lucy and all of us must have been really good this year because we were spoiled by my parents and Santa

We want the snow to melt so we can try this fun toy out from Grandma

Elves


jolly elf

Blake got a gift on his own for Lucy. When he pulled out a blue Tiffany box I hoped it was for me, but the bug girl scored again! She got her first (he said Lucy will be getting a blue box each Christmas) keepsake, a silver teether rattle. What a good dad!

Baby shades!


Our cutie ready to start her Christmas visiting

Christmas snuggles with aunt Beth


Christmas bug!

We had such a fun day with family and a good time opening gifts and playing with toys but the most important gift of all was having our sweet Lucy and realizing how special and happy she makes all of our lives.

My Princess girl...

This week my sweet princess really is showing me how she's growing up. I'm a little sad at the thought that she is turning 9 months in just over a week but I'm excited too at how far she has come and that she's well on her way to a long, healthy, happy life. Last week we saw her pediatrician and he gave us the go ahead to start rice cereal. He said if she handles that well to introduce weekly a new 1st stage food. She did quite well with her cereal so this week she tried bananas. It is so funny how bananas can turn into such a huge event for us and can make me so proud and happy that I even cried a little over them. Lucy wasn't sure of them at first but today she seemed to like them a little more. It is so exciting to move onto this stage.
Also this week Lucy has been sleeping in her big girl crib. By no fault of her own she has still been sleeping in her bassinet in our room (about 15 inches away from our bed). I have just not felt ready to move her out but we knew it was getting time. So for the past four nights she has slept wonderfully in her crib. She is such a good baby, we can put her in the crib asleep or awake and we turn on her lullaby rainforest toy and she falls asleep. She's been sleeping much longer in her bedroom because it is darker and quieter in the mornings. I thought I wouldn't be ready for it but it's been great and I'm happy Lucy has her own room to enjoy.
Lucy seems to mature almost daily. She is getting more of her own personality and the developmental specialist from EI came this week and said she's at the age where she is deciding who and what she likes and what she doesn't. It is so fun to see her little (or big) personality shine. She is such a cute girl and I love every piece of her!

such a happy girl!

having a laughing attack

I'm a little impatient with her natural curls so we tried curlers this morning!

yummy nanners

mmm, so sweet!

OoMpA LOoMPa!

My poor grandma fell last week in front of her house while trying to move a huge branch that fell. She broke both wrists and dislocated her elbow. She had surgery last week and has had to be pretty much immobile at home. On Saturday night Blake was at the Jazz game so Lucy and I headed to my grandma's to help out on a shift. Caitlin and Brinton came too and my cousins Haylie, Aspen & Meg have pretty much been living there. Us cousins hung out to help my grandma; I don't know how much we did to help her but we sure had a fun time hanging out. I brought gingerbread houses to make and we had such a great time laughing, joking and singing to the radio. We listened to Christmas songs for awhile but then "Saturday night Showtunes" came on and the girls went cuckoo. I'm not one for showtunes but after I saw how excited Caitlin and my cousins got for one of the songs I might just have to rent Seven Brides for Seven Brothers! These girls are the best and I haven't laughed that hard in a LONG time. I hope we brought some comic relief to Nani and filled her house with laughter and love. Thanks for a fun night girls!

Our wild Saturday night!

We took this project pretty seriously, but I DID keep an eye on my grandma and Lucy. Brinton visited with Nani most of the night and Lucy was not interested so she napped.

our masterpieces

The only low-point of the night was convincing my cousins I am turning 30 in a few months (groan...) hopefully they'll still want to hang out...

A missing elf?

This last pic was on Tuesday at my mom's birthday dinner. You can really see how much hair Lucy is getting. Now we just want curls. Please.

Favorite song?

I hate the question, "what is your favorite song?" For me it is impossible to answer. I have loved music since birth and that is thanks to my parents. Growing up we would always listen to music. My parents enjoyed a variety of music but some of their favorites we listened to a lot: The Beatles, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, James Taylor, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, and many others. Us kids would all go through our stages of other current, trendy music and our parents always let us listen to what we wanted. Nothing was banned or told to be turned down. I went through my New Kids on the Block stage, my sister loved Eminem, my brother loved and still loves a lot of different music (even the nightmare that is Daft Punk). Now that we're older we all have our individual tastes but are drawn together by the classics my parents brought us up on.

Concerts are a big deal to us. Blake and I want to keep up our concert going habits but not a lot of great bands have come through lately. But when concerts do come around they usually are a family affair. I remember Blake and I saw Stone Temple Pilots with my PARENTS when we were dating. I love that my parents like the classics but know a lot of current stuff too. James Taylor is a family favorite with extended family too. Many of our Sunday dinner conversations are about bands we hope come in concert or reminiscing about concerts past. I'm glad we have this in common and Blake and I can't wait to take Lucy to her first concert. My first concert was Willie Nelson and I think I was 3 or 4.

So back to favorite songs. I love so much music I could never come up with a favorite. So many songs have meanings at certain times. Some days I'm into Jack Johnson or Bob Marley and others I love James McMurtry and Paul Simon. The Rolling Stones are my mom's favorite, The Beatles are my dad's (specifically John Lennon, every year my dad gives him a mini tribute). Blake loves Oasis, John Denver, Death Cab for Cutie and Depeche Mode. I'm very obsessed with Tom Petty every summer and I love Sarah McLachlan in the winter. So whenever I'm asked my favorite song or band (usually by Blake) I just refuse to answer. I do know though that one song will ALWAYS get me to dance, put a smile on my face, drive happier and I'll belt out in the kitchen for Lucy. This song is one of the greatest songs ever and should be played at every social event or party - because it really gets things started - or at least gets me started! Enjoy.

O Christmas Tree...

We woke Luce up for the tree outing; she wasn't as excited as we were for her first tree.

We are very excited for Christmas with the bug.

Not too happy about mittens and hats.

A "Lucy size" tree

The finished product!

Once it was decorated Lucy decided she LOVES gold lights!

Dogapalooza!

Okay so my family loves dogs. Growing up I had one dog Yankee and then we got our maltese poodle Tandy. Tandy was the best dog ever and unfortunately on the day I graduated from the U we were having a get together at my parents house and Tandy was attacked in his own yard by another dog. He died an awful death. I loved Tandy very much and it was hard on all of my family when he was gone. Awhile after Tandy was gone my parents got Marley. Marley is sweet but he loves everyone just a little too much. I think he is so fun but Blake calls him a Tasmanian devil. Marley loves Lucy and loves when it's her day to come over. He has a hiding problem though, he takes Lucy's binks, socks, toys and doesn't ruin them but hides them throughout my parents house. He's odd but cute.

Blake and I got our shih tzu Suki for our one year wedding anniversary. The traditional gift for 1 year is paper and we thought it would be cool (and a good excuse) to get a "papered" purebred pup for each other. Suki is a sensitive, moody but loyal dog and he loves me more than Blake. After we moved into our house we considered getting a friend for Suki. I found someone in Duchesne who had a few puppies available and we fell in love with one of them from an email picture. I had to work but one day Blake had off and decided to make the drive and get our Wedge. When I got home and saw Wedge I cried and told Blake to take him back. I still feel guilty for how I first treated him. It wasn't that I didn't love the cute little ewok pup, I just felt bad for Suki that he wouldn't be an only pup anymore. I know, I have issues with change. So anyway, we obviously decided to keep Wedge - the happiest, BEST dog ever.

Wedge in the snow

Suki worrying about the snow

brothers

In addition to our dogs Caitlin and Brinton have Niko and Wintston - two (kind of :) shih tzus. My grandma has a little teacup poodle Missy (kind of a pest). My uncle Tracy and his family just got a Golden Doodle and her name is Wrigley Beans - cutest thing ever! Blake's mom has Daphne who is 14 and we last heard was sick (poor thing). Blake's brother Clint has a bulldog named Dozer and his girlfriend Abby has Paisley. We just love all of the dogs in our families And obviously they are a lot more popular than kids!

Last Sunday we had our dogs, Caitlin's and my mom's at my parents. We called it dogapalooza and for some insane reason we thought it would be fun to get a picture of all of them together. These are the results:

Caitlin and Blake tempting them with pumpkin pie and whip cream

the crew

Caitlin creepily hiding - it's kind of sad how much effort we put into this

what cute boys!

Be safe and have fun!

My brother Coleman left yesterday for another one of his adventures. He left for Argentina for about four months to lead climbing tours. My brother is truly a thrill seeker. He has done more extreme sports and adventures than anyone I know. Coleman has been spending his springs and summers in Alaska leading climbing tours and usually has worked at Alta in the winter. But this winter his passion is taking him near the bottom of the globe. I had to look at a map just to figure out how far away he is going. I'm so proud of my little brother because he is one of the few people I know who truly does what he loves. Sometimes Blake and I will talk about how lazy we are when we can't even take a mini hike in the summer and we think about everything Coleman has done and we both feel we're probably missing out on a lot. Hopefully some of his enthusiasm for the earth and outdoors will rub off onto Lucy and she'll get us outside more! If not, I'm afraid our little bug will have to be hiking around with her uncle Cole and that could be a bit extreme for my liking. I have a feeling we're going to have a little thrill seeker on our hands.

Coleman is such a wonderful uncle and he loves Lucy so much. I know she will miss him as we all will but he will be back in the spring for awhile before he's off on another adventure. Until then, we wish him a wonderfully exciting and SAFE trip!

the dogs bidding Coleman farewell

Coleman and his cute girlfriend Calah

Coleman has been living at my parent since August so he's been around on the days my mom watches Lucy. I'm so happy that they've been able to become fun friends. The bug girl will miss her uncle. We love you Coleman!!