Lila's 1st Birthday

1 Year stats:
weight: 20lbs 33% percentile
height: 31 inches 96% percentile

Lila turned one year-old while in San Diego so we were able to celebrate with family and friends.

It was a cake only birthday because we are waiting for Grandpa to come next month and give me my first ice cream cone (it is a tradition that he does with his grandkids).















This was Lila's only futile attempt to open her presents before Ellie tore into them, but Lila liked what was inside so she didn't care if sister unwrapped.

I made the cake before we left for San Diego. It is supposed to look like a toy block. My color flow was a little larger than I anticipated so the cake was hard to stack and I used cream cheese frosting instead of butter-cream so it didn't really hold up, but as you can see above it still tasted good.

April Fools

One of Ellie's favorite tapes to listen to is about the holidays and it talks about April Fool's Day and the song happened to play while we were out running errands yesterday so we made a few special purchases for the occasion.

Yes, we bought a Whoopee cushion (it is self inflating so perfect for Ellie). She hid it in her room, but then showed Daddy while I was at mutual last night so the surprise was ruined, but they still had fun playing with it. And we bought some crazy straws.
However it turns out the real April Fool's joke is below.























Steve wanted another pair of jeans so I found this pair that looked good at Ross bought them and brought them home. Only to find out they are tapered. What do you think?
They are going back. :)

Motherhood Moments

This week has been filled with moments that make me so grateful to be the mother to my two very special daughters. Here are a few of the moments:

ELLIE:
Ellie showed Steve the postcard Lexie sent from NASA with a shuttle on the front. So Steve got online and showed her a video of a shuttle launch. She thought it was so cool and said, "Wow Dad you are so smart."

She also can do some simple math like 2+2=4 or 4+1=5 -- it is so fun. (I think some of those smarts are rubbing off. )

She loves helping me cook and stirred the syrup all by herself. We have made two batches of cookies this week for special deliveries.

During a trip to the zoo she could identify all of the animals and some of their characteristics. She also noticed when one of the polar bears was not visible. (Okay so we frequent the zoo, but we all love it!)

I love watching her interact with her friends and grow up into such a big girl.

A few nights ago she asked Steve when Lila was going to get another sister. I think she wants Lila to start bothering a new sister, but what she doesn't realize is that another sister would only mean two sisters to bother her.

LILA:
Lila is at this adorable stage where her personality is blossoming so quickly. She likes to put on necklaces and crawl around the house.

She knows that dropping food off of her tray will bring Zoe, our dog, and she likes to feed her (little stinker).

She can cruise really good now and even stand up in the middle of the room without holding onto anything.

She makes the most adorable noises.

She is a snuggle bug and I love it! Matter of fact I'm going to go snuggle with my girls now. :)

Luck of the Irish

Yesterday Ellie and I built our first ever Leprechaun trap. I got this idea from a friend. The goal is to catch the Leprechauns with their gold. If you don't catch the Leprechaun with the gold then I guess it turns to chocolate. Ellie has no idea what Leprechauns are so we tried to explain, but in the end it didn't matter if she understood because the project involved artsy/crafty things like cutting, gluing, and painting which she loves.

We started simple. This trap has two very attractive slides on either end and once the Leprechauns slide down they would land in the large holes which Ellie filled with paint and glue hoping they would stick.
They managed to escape by making holes in the walls of our deep holes. Can you see their footprints? As you can see we didn't catch the Leprechauns so their gold turned into fake coins and chocolate.

One last trick, the Leprechauns turned our milk green so our waffles were green too.

On the menu for tonight is corned beef ham, mashed potatoes, and cabbage--a traditional Irish meal. We are having fun and hopefully starting some memorable traditions.

Course II Final Cake

I enjoyed taking this class with my friend Melanie. It is nice to be learning a new skill away from the house. When I signed up for the class we had nothing going on and then Steve started a parenting class on Thursday evenings, I was called to Young Womens with mutual on Wednesday, and this class was on Tuesdays with FHE on Mondays, and trying to hold Family Fun nights on Fridays--life got a little busy. So I will be taking a little reprieve from the Wilton courses, but hope to be able to participate again after things settle down, well at least after Steve's class ends.

I really like the rope outline on the cake--it is easy and so cute. My flowers are a couple of weeks old and have traveled back-and-forth several times, but overall I learned a lot and enjoyed the class. I also learned color flow which I completed several shapes that I plan on using on Lila's birthday cake.

This cake also has the basket weave which I had a hard time ending where I started so I was going to make that the back of my cake, but got so excited to be adding my flowers that it ended up in the front so you get to see the flawed side, but still cute.
This is my friend's adorable cake. She used the large muffin pan and turned it into a flower basket. She also had the idea to do color flow eggs and turn it into an Easter basket. SO CUTE!

My Monkey

In an attempt to get the spoon on the other side of the chair.

She was literally suspended and didn't know what to do, but kept smiling for the camera.

After finding her in a similar position a couple of times after a nap or in the morning--I tried relentlessly to capture it on camera, but to no avail. So I finally posed her for this picture.

Lila Lately

Lila is growing up way too fast! She will be one-year old in a month. She is now really good at pulling herself up and balancing-still not really interested in cruising, but will take a few steps while holding Daddy's hands. Lila is also making lots of noises and letting her voice be heard especially when someone else is talking or the TV is on. She has started saying Dada which Steve loves of course. She knows what the camera is and shows a great smile any time she sees it (you can probably tell from all of the great grins below).

Helping Mommy with the laundry. By the time I got the camera her legs had started to slide out from under her.

When she is done eating she shoves the food in that handle area at the top of the tray. She thinks it is so great. I remember Ellie doing this too--is it a natural instinct to hide your food if you don't want to finish it?

We had pizza on Saturday and we noticed Lila sticking the olives on her finger and then eating them. It was so cute. She has tried to stick her fingers in cheerios before, but something about the olives made us smile.

Here she is putting her food on the spoon and then taking it off and eating it. She knows it should go on the spoon, but hasn't figured out that she can put the food in her mouth with the spoon.

Mental Pictures

Have you ever had one of those days where you should have taken several pictures, but didn't and then try to make mental notes of what happened? Well here are some of the pictures I want to remember from today.

(1) During Lila's morning nap Ellie and I played with frosting. I am taking Wilton Course II and made a huge batch of frosting last night for my class so we decided to play with it this morning. I did some color flow images for Lila's birthday cake and Ellie decorated three graham crackers. She loved it! It was so fun to do something with her that we both enjoy. Towards the end I caught her sucking the frosting out of her bag--mental picture.

(2) I found Lila playing with the baby dolls and after rummaging through their diaper bag she found a bottle nipple that she tried to shove into the baby's mouth--mental picture. (They figure things out so fast!)

(3) After Lila discovered the baby stuff, Ellie put on this cute doll backpack my Mom made and carried her doll around for hours--mental picture.

(4) Ellie has not been feeling well and she was playing quietly in her room while Lila was taking her afternoon nap so I quickly hopped in the shower. When I got out things were a bit quieter. This is what I found when I checked on her:

It has not been the easiest week, but I'm hoping these mental pictures will give me the strength to carry on!

Saturday Adventures

We decided to take the girls to the zoo to see the baby zebra since last night's Family Fun was postponed so that Mommy and Daddy could go to the temple. I love our zoo and we had a wonderful time eating a picnic lunch at the zoo and watching all of the animals. The zebras are Ellie's favorite and the baby zebra was hiding behind a hill the whole time we were there--we kept sending Steve to check the zebras and finally after an hour-and-a-half and at the end of our visit the baby zebra was out.

Did you know that each zebra has a unique stripe pattern, like a person's fingerprint (I learned this from our zoo).

Isn't he cute?
One of our favorite activities is feeding the fish or ducks because they hog all the food, but the kids love it.

Ellie was tired because she had also attended a friend's birthday party that morning. She wanted a lollipop and would not even let go of it in sleep. I tried taking it, but she would wake up looking for it in her lap thinking it fell out--crazy girl.

Our Valentine Guests

Steve's parents are trekking across the country with two of our nieces and dropped in to visit for a little over a week. Ellie loved playing with her cousins and we enjoyed sharing some of the Tucson sites with them.

Lexie, Ellie, and Katie

Lila--what can I say . . . we were eating lunch at the museum discussed below and Ellie had to go to the bathroom. The rest of the group had not caught up to us yet so I threw our lunch in the other-side of the stroller rolled Lila right outside the bathroom door and gave her this bowl of avocados and tomatoes while I quickly ran Ellie into the bathroom. When I came out seconds later this is what I saw. Good thing I had a change of clothes with me. :)

We went to the International Wildlife Museum. Which is fun because they have these life size taxidermied animals you can touch, climb on and this fun cave to crawl around in. The kids had fun exploring.

Steve took them to Kartchner Caverns which they all enjoyed. These long strings are rocks formed by drips of water and are hollow in the center, they are called soda straws. There is one that is 21 feet long. (I'm looking forward to going with my folks when they come since it isn't really appropriate for young kids.)

Our traditional Valentine's dinner, fondue. We had it Saturday night so we could celebrate with everyone.

I made sugar cookies and the girls decorated them with Grandma while Steve and I attended an Elders' Quorum Activity. When we came home I noticed the cookie covered with red hots and jokingly told Steve it was his cookie to eat. Carole quickly told me that Ellie specifically said she made that cookie for Mom and she said, "Oh my Mom is going to love all these hots." The next day when Ellie got up she pointed out the cookie, "Mom I made that cookie for you. Don't you love all the red candies." Every time she went by the cookies she would note that she made that cookie just for me--how sweet is that.

Valentine's Day group shot before church--they left right after sacrament meeting so this was when we gave hugs and kisses.

LOVES!

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

The girls are at this adorable stage where they are starting to play together--okay really Lila just plays next to Ellie, but we have come a long ways from Ellie hording all the toys whenever Lila got close and Lila screaming when she doesn't get what she wants. The last couple of days I have had peace as they have started entertaining each other--I LOVE IT!

One thing that has helped a lot: Ellie understands that if she has something she absolutely wants to do by herself then she gathers it up and takes it into her room, shuts the door and plays--which also gives Lila some time to herself.

A funny story: Ellie loves to pretend cook things like, pasta (necklaces), caviar soup (who knows where she got that idea), eggs, etc. I found her one day dipping a spoon into her pretend food and then putting it to Lila's mouth. Of course Lila opened her mouth--she'll chomp anything. After a while Lila got frustrated because she wasn't getting anything, after all it was pretend. So I asked Ellie if she could pretend feed her Teddy Bears instead. Her response, "My teddy bears don't open their mouths like Lila."

Lila has figured out where Zoe's bed is so she will crawl back to Steve's closet poke her head in and Zoe, startled, will run out into the living room. Lila will then crawl into the living room until she gets to close for Zoe's comfort and then Zoe will trot off to another location with Lila in close pursuit. It cracks me up--their own little cat-and-mouse, but baby-and-dog.

Here are my gems hard at play:

Teething

Lila's first tooth broke through a week ago and now the one next to it is really close to coming through also. Unfortunately she had a little fever and a runny nose both weeks before the tooth breaks through--I don't know if it is coincidence or part of her teething process, but for now I'm associating new teeth with a needy Lila (poor thing--I'm sure it hurts).

If you click on the picture it will enlarge and you'll get a good look at her bottom right tooth just poking through. You may also notice her bottom left tooth (on your right) is ready to come through. Also note her cute dimple.

A Sunbeam

Ellie is now a sunbeam. I was able to enjoy the first couple of Sundays with her as I was serving in the Primary Presidency--it was so fun to see her in Primary and she would wave and say Hi Mom as she would walk by and then quickly fold her arms to be reverent. Well I was released last week from my calling in Primary and I miss the children. It is nice to have a break from all of the activities and events that Primary entails but the interaction with the children and studying the wonderful lessons established by the General Primary Presidency brought such a joy to me. I have not yet received a new calling (shh . . .) and feel blessed by my Father in Heaven with the opportunity to spend some extra time becoming a better wife and mother. With this in mind I decided that for Family Home Evening we would practice the new song they are learning this month, "I Know That My Savior Loves Me" and discuss when Jesus blessed the children. We had a great little discussion and then I began reviewing the song with her and to my amazement she knew quite a bit of the song from only 3 weeks. It made me grateful for such wonderful teachers who share their time and talents in Primary to strengthen our youth.

She did not want to hold the cute little item they made in Sunbeam class, but wanted to hold the beautiful bouquet of flowers the new Primary Presidency put together with the Senior Primary as a thank you to the old presidency (it made me cry).

Family Fun Night

About a year ago we started "Family Movie Night" to be held on Friday evenings. We did this to cut back on the amount of TV Ellie was watching during the week due to my weakened state during pregnancy. Any time she would ask for a movie we would explain that we were waiting for Family Movie Night which she was excited for because we would all watch a movie together and pop popcorn--one of her favorite snacks. Now that she is older and we are reestablishing routines we started holding "Family Fun Night" on Friday evening (not to be confused with Family Home Evening which we hold on Monday evenings and discuss gospel principles). On the 7th we had a game night where we played Moono (it is really called Uno Moo) and started teaching Ellie Skipbo. We made cookies and had a good time. Last week while at Michael's they were clearancing gingerbread kits and I thought my crafty cooking daughter would love that. So this week we ordered pizza and made a grand gingerbread house for "Family Fun Night". We also had banana splits for dessert. Ellie loved it--she spent a couple of hours decorating the house and said, "I LOVE Family Fun night--it is so much fun!" I guess the tradition is a keeper and I hope we have lots of memories spending time together as a family.

Look at them go--even Lila got in on the action chewing on the gingerbread.

Enjoying the final product.

Lila Lila Lila

She missed her morning nap because of Ellie's dance class. We came home and I fed her lunch while working on a project and next thing I knew--she was asleep.

She found sister's juice box on the table and mmm . . . it tastes good.
And yet another unsafe toy for the chomper.
(If you cannot tell this is a little squishy basketball.)

Ringing in the New Year

We are only 5 days into the new year, but as a family we already have a lot of new things happening.

Last night for family home evening we discussed and wrote down some family rules. This is the first time we have done this and I love it. They may be simple, but it helps to have a reference that Ellie helped create and she knows the consequence is to lose a toy if she does not obey the rule.

Lila is crawling very well and can now get back to a sitting position after crawling and today started to pull herself up. She is growing up way too fast!

(I know it is that same silly chair she could get herself upside down in--now she pulls up herself up into it.)

I am working on getting us back into a routine and have set a personal goal I will strive to incorporate in my life of being more patient and empathetic and not so quick to judge. I believe because of our human nature this will require me to be more in tune with the Spirit and I have laid out specifics in helping me reach this.

Here's to a New Year and all the adventures that are ahead!