It was merry!

We had a wonderful Christmas! We spent the night at my mom and dad's house (this is the last year we'll do that. Lucy was a poop). It was fun to be with everyone!

Lucy woke up at 3:30 am, and wouldn't go back to sleep. I don't think she knew what was coming, but she was excited about something. It was not good news. We finally got everyone else up at about 6:30.

Lucy was so excited. She kept trying to sneak up the stairs, and when someone would grab her she would yell "No! It's time!! It's time!"

When she finally got to go up the stairs she was so excited. She got a tent. She loves it. It even has "pin-cesses" on it.

Lucy really liked opening the presents. She helped everyone else open their presents. Luckily, everyone was fine with her helping. And she started handing out the presents that were under the tree to whoever she wanted. Here she is helping Gran...

My mom goes through about 1 can opener a week. It's a mystery what she does with them, but they never last long. So we each gave her a can opener (one from Kyle, me, Lucy, Mark, Mark's roomie Amol (who stayed with us for Christmas because his family is in India!), Chelsey, Megan, and John. Yup. 9 can openers. It's probably a whole month's supply.

Love this picture of Lucy and Bampa.

After about an hour and my mom and dad's we hurried over to Kyle's parent's to be there when they opened presents. It was so fun!

Here is Lucy with Kara and Tevin.

She was super excited when her Ellie arrived!

The most exciting thing at the Johnson's was this:

Yup! They got a Wii. Something Tevin never thought was possible! He was pretty dang excited!

Anyway, it was a really great day! Kyle spoiled me, especially with this cutter he actually designed!! It's amazing and I can't wait to get sewing (mine does not say Suzie, but it is customizable!!)! He also got me a really cool ruler and huge cutting mat to go with it!

Lucy also got a darling baby doll set from Grandma and Grandpa Johnson. It has a stroller, high chair/carseat/baby swing, and bed. She loves it! She can't hardly sleep, she just wants to play with it all the time. It's so cute! I'll get some good pictures of it up in a few days.

Anyway, it was a really great Christmas! I can't believe it's already over!

Christmas Countdown...

Yes, I know Christmas is over.

No, I haven't started counting down to next Christmas yet.

But I still wanted to show off this CUTE Christmas countdown I made for my aunt and uncle's family this year!

It turned out so cute, and was really simple to make.

So, you use a mini muffin pan (I got mine from Walmart for $3.94). It should have 24 holes in it. Then you need some magnet strips (enough to completely back all 24 of the 2 inch covers). Get the strongest kind you can find. Mine was from Roberts and it worked great. And you need your lovely scrapbook supplies and some creativity! (I also got a little picture stand to display it on from Roberts for about $7).

Put it all together and voila! you have a Christmas Countdown!

You can put anything inside the spots: scriptures, small toys, candy. I just did chocolate. You can't go wrong with chocolate.

(p.s. the other day, Lucy came up to me and said, with a very serious look on her face, "I need some kocko-lat." It was awesome. She knows when it is a need, not a want.)

Be careful, those little muffin holes are smaller than they look.

Anyway, it was a big hit at the family Christmas party when I gave it to them. I need to make one for myself for next year! They are so fun!

Last year

I've been trying to finish up some projects before Christmas and accidently got looking at old pictures instead. Oops!

Anyway, this is a picture of Lucy from last December and then one of her now. Isn't she cute?! I can't believe how much she's grown, and I'm getting so excited for our new little one (even though we're still 3 months away).

Merry Christmas!

There are more of these pictures on my photo blog, but here are a few pictures of the cute little stinker this morning. :)

Kid History

I'm so doing this someday.

You have to spend 6 minutes of your life watching this little gem. It's the funniest thing you've seen all day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80entLldZOg

Funny little Lu

A few funny things Lucy is doing these days:

• Lucy is the queen of throwing all out fits. I am afraid the terrible 2's have already begun.
• If I tell her to go to time out, she will walk herself to the time out area and sit down.
• She doesn't like to sit in the high chair anymore. She sits on our bar stools (don't worry they have high backs), one wedged on either side of her so she doesn't fall off (she is very closely supervised). She eats much better that way.
• She has an unnatural love for Dora the Explorer.
• She thinks she needs every single blanket she has in her bed when she naps (i have to hide blankets so she doesn't realize we have so many).
• She loves to put "toys" on the Christmas Tree (aka ornaments).
• She loves to color, and sings "color color color" the entire time she does.
• Lucy has watched me multi-task too much. Instead of holding the phone to her ear and saying "hello", she wedges it between her ear and shoulder like I do. Except she can't put her arm down. She when she talks on the phone she walks around with one arm sticking straight up. :)
• It depends on the day, but usually when we ask Lucy if she wants a new baby at her house, she sweetly says "noooo".
• I taught Lucy that whenever something awesome happens, she should go "ka-ching!" and raise her arm up. She now does it whenever she's excited about something.
• Lucy is really good at her animal sounds. I'll have to post a video for this one. But I've taught her some good ones. :)
• Lucy is afraid of scarecrows and Santa. She wont go into Grandma Johnson's house until all the decorations from the doorway to the kitchen have been moved.
• Lucy starts to fake cry whenever I tell her her cousin Capri moved far away.
• The other day I was driving home from school and on the phone with Kyle. I was telling him how concerned I was that if the new baby is anything like Lucy I didn't think I would be able to handle it. "She's a nut case!" I said. Then Kyle started laughing. Right when I said that, as if on cue, Lucy (who was in her bedroom with the door shut, supposed to be sleeping) started loudly "whoooooo"ing like an owl. Gah!
• She loves to call Gran (my mom). As soon as my mom answers, Lucy says "Hello. Don Don?" She loves her uncle John.
• Lucy gets really mad when we put her in her car seat, because she wants to be squished into the rear-facer again.
• She's gotten into the naked stage. Anytime she is getting changed and especially before she gets into the tub, she tries to run for the hills. I love seeing that little naked bum running around. I think it's really funny.
• Lucy loves nursery now. She has to take her baby and her bink, but she's always so proud of herself when we pick her up at the end.

Sorry for the poor quality of the pictures. They're from my iphone.

It's been forever...

I haven't blogged in about a month, and I have a good reason for it. It's because Lucy turned 18 months a while back and I've been wanting to get some cute pictures of her to put up with her doctor's appointment info.

So I've been waiting for these cute new clothes that I ordered online to arrive for the pictures.

And the company for some reason sent them to our OLD apartment in Provo.

And the people sent them back to the company after they had had the package for a month (because I was happily waiting for it to come here!!).

So now we're waiting for them to send it back to us. And I'm mad about it. But be excited for that post if the day ever comes.

On a different note:

We loved having season tickets to the BYU football games this year. Kyle gets so into the games, so that's what he got for his birthday in June. We got seats with Kyle's parents, so we had friends to watch with. Lucy totally got into the spirit. She loves to pump her fist and yell "GO! GO! GO!". She also likes to clap with the fight song, and then roll her hands and yell "Cougars!". It's really cute.

Watching the game with Aunt Kali (she's clapping while everyone sings the fight song).

View from our seats.

Lucy is getting so smart, I can't believe it! She can sing (and people can recognize the tune) "Once there was a snow man", "ABCs", "I love mommy, she loves me", "The Hello Song", "Ring around the rosies", "The Clean up Song", "I'm so glad when daddy comes home", and several others. It's adorable!

She also loves the temple, which she calls the "bun-kle". The problem is, that she when she wants to jump on the tramp at grandma's she says she wants to "bunk-a-bunk". So, there has been some great confusion when we drive by the temple and she tells me she wants to "bunk-a-bunk at a bun-kle". I don't know what she think goes on in the temple, but it sounds pretty exciting.

She talks so much now. She picks up a bunch of new words every day, it's amazing to me. Seriously, how cool would it be if we could learn a language as quickly as young children can? I would totally be bi-lingual.

New Car, round 2.

Yesterday was a good day. We went to the BYU game (which was awesome!! BYU 55 - UNLV 7). Then we went and got me a NEW CAR!!! My other one died about a month and a half ago (the engine went out and would cost more than the value of the car to replace), and we have been having to deal with only one car ever since. But we found this great deal on KSL.com, and we ended up getting it. It's a 2003 Honda Accord. We feel so fancy in it!

The inside looks like this, except with leather seats:

I love it!

After we got the new car, we went and finished a project we were doing at my mom's, redecorating my sister's room (we started it on Friday)! It looks amazing! I'll post pictures later. I didn't take any last night.

I have a lot more things to blog about, but don't have pictures for yet. But be excited for more posts coming soon!

We're having a...

GIRL!!

We were so surprised when we went to our 20 week ultra sound. I was positive it was a boy! In fact, I was a little embarrassed, because the technician said "we've got a trend going on today! You're having a little girl!", and I said "wait....what?!". :) Totally was not expecting that. I tried to act more excited after that.

See? Proof.

Anyway, the baby is measuring about 2 weeks small, but they didn't change the due date (Lucy measured small the whole time too).

The baby was being a stinker. Super wiggly, with her face turned into my back the whole time. We were in there a long time and didn't get many good pictures.

We are going back for another ultra sound in 4 weeks (this will be the third one). They want to be able to see her face to check for a cleft palate and they couldn't really see a few other things this time either. I also have placenta previa, which means that the placenta is way down low, blocking the opening where the baby will have to come out. They're not really concerned about it right now, but the midwife wants an ultra sound every 4 weeks until the placenta moves out of the way (which it usually does). If it doesn't, that means c-section. But we still have plenty of time!

Here is a picture of her little foot and her legs.

We're so excited to have another little girl! Lucy will (hopefully!) love having a little sister.

What the wedding crasher?!

Okay, so we had an insane week this week:

Monday-Bridal Shoot

Tuesday-Engagement Shoot

Wednesday-Wedding (Reception) Shoot

Thursday-Wedding Day Shoot

Friday-Hosted a Halloween Party with sister-in-law (full post to come later)

Saturday-All day Wedding Shoot

I'm all pictured out. For like a week. :)

Anyway, we had pretty much the most awesome experience ever yesterday. We were at the buffet dinner for the wedding yesterday. Kyle and I sat way in the back so we'd be out of the way. Well, at one point I noticed this man come in.

*A little background, this wedding was for a cute hispanic couple. Pretty much all their guests were hispanic. This man that came in, he was this 60-something white man with a grey beard. And by himself.

So, when he first came in, I pointed him out to Kyle. He stood out so much, and I thought he looked like some crazy college professor. So he came in and put a card on the gift table, then went and got himself some food. He then went and got an alcoholic beverage from the open bar. And then, he came and sat at our table. Which was weird, because there were tons of seats.

Well don't worry. After he ate his food, he stood up, went back and got his card, and left. And he never came back! You can imagine my excitement! We were probably the only ones who noticed the real life wedding crasher!! Isn't that cool?! Oh, and he stole the cup his drink was in.

Yeah, it totally made my day.

Dear Blog...

Dear Blog,

Today Lucy was a very bad baby. She woke up on the wrong side of the bed. She fell off of our bed. She made as much mess as possible before nap time. After her nap, she re-messed all the placed I had cleaned. She figured out how to open lids that twist. We very nearly avoided catastrophe when I found her painting her face with nail polish (which took 20 minutes of screaming and scrubbing to get off, but luckily none on the floor). She found and emptied all of my face make-up onto her own face. She dumped an entire package of chips on the floor, then stepped in them to make them tiny crumbs. She found a chocolate Easter bunny and happily ate half before I found her (umm, where has that been hiding the last 6 or 8 months. Gross!). Then, just before dad came home, Lucy was trying to retrieve an empty bottle of hair spray out of the garbage can, tripped, and blackened her right eye. After dinner, we had to take pictures at a wedding reception. Lucy was whiney for mom the whole time. On the way home, I looked back to discover the grand finale to the day. Lucy had kindly taken the poop from her diaper and rubbed it all over her face and arms. Can I say SICK?!?

Dad is currently bathing Lucy himself, so that I don't barf. I have a nice husband.

Oh, the glamourous life of a mom.

Sincerely,

Rachel

The Zoo

It was Fall Break for my siblings last week, so on Friday we went to the Zoo. My grandma was babysitting a couple of my cousins, so they came to. It was a lot of fun! Lucy loved the giraffes and the elephants. The dumb thing? The Zoo didn't have hippos, zebras, lions, bears, or penguins. Rip off. It was still fun though.

This picture just makes me laugh.

Sooo....

Yeah, it's been a long time since I updated this blog. Sorry about that.

It's because we're going to have another one of these:

And I have been sicker than a dog.

Yup! We're expecting baby number 2! I'm 17 weeks along, due March 25! We're super excited!

We find out if it's a boy or a girl the end of this month. We're guessing boy, because I've been so much sicker this time. Anyone else have a guess?

Nursery

Yup! Lucy started nursery last sunday! I can't believe she's already old enough. Neither can she. As long as mom was with her, Lucy did great. As soon as mom left to go help dad with the Sunbeam class, Lucy flipped out. They'd bring her back to me. She'd settle down. And then we'd head back.

After the first time I left her, we came back in and her nursery teacher said she was super impressed by how well Lucy could talk. Huh? She talks a lot, but not in English. Or so I thought. Apparently, after Lucy realized I had left, she started bawling. When they asked her what was wrong, she yelled "I WANT MY MOM!!" What the?! She's been holding out on me.

Hopefully it gets better. I've heard the first month or so is a little hard on the little guys.

A few other funny things from the first two hour nursery block:

-Kyle came in to see if I could come back and help him. When he closed the door, Lucy started crying for "DAD!". Then all of the other kids in the nursery started crying for their dads. Classic.

-Lucy was the only friend who sang during singing time. Only she liked to sing loud solos at the end, after the song was finished.

-Lucy refused to color with only 1 crayon. She wanted more. The kid next to her colored her picture.

-Lucy doesn't like animal crackers or goldfish. But she nicely shared hers and another boy's with one of the other girls.

-Lucy is getting "thank you". She said thank you to her teachers every time we left the room.

Family prayer

If you're getting tired of hearing about Lucy, then stop reading now.

Still here? Okay. Lucy is getting so big-I can't believe all the things she's doing these days. She's become a huge trouble maker, and you can always tell she's doing something naughty if you say her name and she looks at you with the most guilty expression on her face and then hurries and folds her arms (umm, okay?). She doesn't like dirty diapers. So she takes them off herself. When I ask her if we can put a clean one on, she says "NO!" and runs away. I think it's time to try potty training. She's the biggest chatter box. Only she doesn't speak English most of the time, which is unfortunate. When she's done eating, she signs "finished" and says "allllll dud!". It means "all done". It's cute.

One funny thing she did tonight (I can't stop laughing when I think about it!):

We were ready for family prayers. Lucy came and sat on my lap on folded her arms. Then Kyle started praying. Apparently she had better things to do, because once he started she slowly stood up, kept her arms folded, and quietly sang her "sneaky song" (which we sing when we sneak up on dad and he says "boo!") and she tiptoed away. Kyle grabbed her and kept talking, but I had a hard time focusing after that. She's a smart little one. And apparently she likes her own theme song music. :)

Last one: Lucy's been having a hard time with morning naps lately. She still needs them, but I think it might have to do with my internship and her being sent to grandma's every other day all summer.

Anyway, she was in her bed, not having a rest the other day. Finally I went in to try to lay her down again. What I saw was amazing! Lucy had artfully draped all of her blankets around the edges of her bed. It was so decorative and she was so proud. Instead of trying to go back to sleep, she got her picture taken and got to get up and play. She might be an interior designer someday.

(And don't worry, when we moved here I arranged all of our furniture so that it could have optimal lighting for pictures like this one. I'm a little bit pathetic that way.)

Okay, moving past that obnoxiously grumpy last post. Here are some recent funnies from Lucy:

Lucy got to name the new cat my parents got. She named it "Mow". As in "Lucy, what does a kitty say?", "mow". She has consistently called him that for several months now. Lucy couldn't imagine anything funnier than Mow. She picks him up and carries him around. Picks him up and tosses him in his water bowl. Throws blankets on him. And throws things down the stairs so that he will go get them. It's hilarious to Lucy. Poor Mow.

This photo pretty much describes their relationship:

Lucy is afraid of people coming to the door. There is not a particular reason why. But when anyone knocks or rings the doorbell, Lucy starts screaming and running in circles with the most terrified look on her face. It usually takes me a minute to open the door. I have to compose myself, because it makes me laugh so hard.

Today, I was asking Lucy if she was a baby. She said no. I asked if she was a big girl, again "no". I asked her if she was several other things and she kept saying "no". Finally, she told me she was a kitty. Then she sat there for a second thinking. Then she corrected herself. "Bampa kieee". Apparently, my child is a Grandpa Kitty. Lovely.

It's late, and that's all I can think of right now.

Whew!

My goodness. The last two weeks have probably been some of the hardest I've ever had.

I've been busy with school, and with an internship thats practically taken over my life. I have to go 2-3 times a week. It wouldn't be so bad, but it's at least a 1 hour drive each way. So it takes up basically my whole day when I go. I'm tired and feel so guilty about leaving Lucy with her grandmas so much. They've been so nice about it, but it's not their job to be her mommy and it makes me feel bad. Poor little thing has been so clingy when I am home that she doesn't even want to nap because she's afraid I'm going to leave.

To top it all off, I've been insanely busy with photography. I can't even begin to express how grateful we are for it all! I love doing it and feel like I've progressed so much in my personal knowledge! I feel like I'm becoming successful, and it's taken a long time to get to this point. But I've had 4-5 shoots a week (all in the evenings after I get home from my internship. Poor neglected family!). Gah! I have to learn how to say no. The shoots themselves only take about 2 hours, but then there are hours and hours after of editing, which I have not really had time for. So I'm getting behind, and then I get stressed.

I've also had a bunch of projects and papers due for school in the last 2 weeks. It's killing me. Kyle's been a saint. He is the best hubby ever. I couldn't have done any of this without him!

Can I just say I'm glad that today was my last official day of the internship?! Yup. I sure am.

Sorry to be grumpy. Happy post next time. I promise!

New Photography Blog!

I'm so excited about my newly designed photography blog! Check it out! I think it looks really professional and clean-with a little fun! What do you think of it?

That's all I have to say right now.

-eia

Lucy has started doing the funniest thing ever! She is a very dramatic child. She always has been. So lately, when she wants something, so will add an "eia" to the end of it. For example:

"Bink! Binky! Biiinnnkkkeeeiiiiaaaaaa!!"

It's so funny. She adds it to everything. "Binkeia", "Ellieia", "Daddeia". It's awesome. Our whole trip to St. George (post on that to come soon!) my whole family kept adding the "eia" to the end of their words. So funny! Sorry, no pictures today, just wanted to share.

P.S. Check out this blog. She gave my photography blog a blog award! I feel so fancy! And, stay tuned to my photo blog, because I just hired someone to make a custom blog design for me, and I'm so excited to see it when it's finished! It will probably be a while longer, but I'll keep you informed!

Rain Storm

We had a rain storm last night! It was amazing! Anyway, I was supposed to have a shoot last night, but because of the rain it was postponed. But I still felt like taking some pictures. So I took my own handmade model, Miss Lucy out for a couple of shots. I never get tired of taking pictures of this baby! I want to get this printed up on canvas (so it's huge!), what do you all think? Is it worthy?

and one more, just for fun:

Garden

Kyle's so cute. He has been dying to have a garden since we got married, so this year he worked it out with my dad so that we could use some of their land to plant some stuff. He loves it! He gets so excited when things start growing and just to get in and get his hands dirty (he says he doesn't get enough of that because he works in an office). Anyway, today he picked his very first crop! It's a summer squash! And don't mind the fact that he looks super tired. I forced him to take this picture at like 11 at night. He is so proud! I'm sure I'll post more on the garden.

Family Vacation!!

We got to go on a little vacation last week with Kyle's family. It was wonderful! I found out that I really needed a break. No cell phone reception, computers, or anything else like that for 4 days. I loved it.

We went river rafting up in Idaho. Our brother-in-law Mikey has all the rafts and equipment (or his parents do), so he was the boss. He goes out of his way to hit the biggest part of each rapid. It was awesome. And the second day there were enough people up there that we needed two rafts, so Kyle got to captain the one Mikey wasn't on. He did an awesome job!

Me and my two sisters-in-law took turns staying behind with the three babies. Lucy loves her cousins. She was so excited to play with "Prie!" (Capri), and was constantly walking around calling to "Ellieee!". In fact, Lucy would be by our tent and would yell "Ellie" and then Ellie would yell back "Ellie!". It was really cute!

This is how we contained our young:

This is so grainy, but I love how they were holding hands!!

Lucy in her long johns:

Cute little Ellie:

Darling Capri:

And some on the river!

Close up from the last shot. Check out Kyle's mom's face. :)

Right before a massive rapid. Scary!

Slow Cookers

Ever since we got married, I have loved my Crock Pot. I usually use it at least once a week. Well, since I started my internship, we've moved up to slow cooker dinners 3 times a week. And I'm so into it that I really just want to cook with it on the other 2 days too! If you're not a crock pot fan, you really need to give it a try. What could be better than being gone all day, then walking into your house smelling delicious and a home cooked meal ready to eat. Yum.

Anyway, I only had maybe 6 good slow cooker recipes before. But that's just not enough these days. So, I found this fantastic blog:

A Year of Slow Cooking

She used her Crock Pot every day for a year (in 2008) and blogged the whole thing. She still posts new recipes regularly. And she has category tabs on everything! It's wonderful. Try it.

Some of the ones I've tried this week are:

Slow Cooker Green Pepper Chicken

Crock Pot Tamale Pie

Barbecued Chicken and Cornbread

And tonight I'm going to try the Slow Cooker Puffy Pizza. Hope it works!