Princesses

We hit up a fabulous sale today that had tons of princess dresses for only $7! After we got home Lucy and Lylah had a blast trying them out. They are the cutest girls. And don't judge Lucy's hair. This was at the end of a bad hair day. :) 

She does all her own posing now, so that's great news.

 

Lone Peak Marching Band

We love this time of year for lots of reasons, but one of our favorite things is watching the Lone Peak Marching Band shows. My youngest brother John is the only one still in high school, so we just go for him now. Lucy loves watching the band (ever since she was tiny) and can't wait until she's old enough to do marching band herself.

Kindermusik

This fall, Lucy and Lylah are taking Kindermusik. We adore Kindermusik (find more info about it here.) and we especially love their teacher, Miss Leda. Lucy took her class last spring and it was the best. Being a former Music Therapy major, I understand the value of music in a child's development. It is amazing what the program has done already. Even Lylah can sing several of the songs by herself! It's so cute! 

So Lucy is doing Kindermusik and dance instead of preschool this year, and Lylah's doing a mommy and me Kindermusik class as well! 

First day of school picture... 

Just dance!

Lucy started dance class this week. She's been counting down the days since July and inviting everyone she knows to her dance concert (in December...) Lucy's doing dance with her bestie Larkyn. These two are two peas in a pod. It's hysterical listening to them talk to each other while they're playing. :)

See Lucy on the far right side? 

halloween '11

This year for Halloween Lucy and Lylah were Lady Bugs (or as Lucy called it- 'waga-wagas'). They looked so dang cute.

This was the first holiday that Lucy remembered from last year. It was so cute, and helped her get so SO excited! We spent Halloween visiting my Grandma Stout, going Trunk-or-Treating with my parents and then Trick-or-Treating with cousins Ellie and Tommy. It was such a blast!

Lucy, Great-Grandma Stout, Lylah:

The little chunky monkey:

Just eatin'.

Lylah...

Sad baby

Lucy can always get Lylah to stop crying. They adore each other.

Aww, the little Waga-Waga's!

I just think she's the prettiest little thing!

Grandma, Lylah, Ellie and Lucy

Two girls.

Tommy, Ellie, Lucy and Lylah

the terrible twos...

When Lucy went to the doctor's for her 2 year old check up the doctor told me he didn't know why they called it "the terrible twos". In his experience, two year olds were charming and a joy. After we left my mom and I were laughing about it. Apparently he's never been the mom of two year olds. :) Two year olds are so fun, but that rotten little independent streak is in full force at our house.

We're loving having a two year old. Most of the time.

4 months!

Lylah turned 4 months on Thursday! I don't even know how that's possible, but it's true.

She gets cuter every day. Often I can't take the cuteness and I just have to kiss and snuggle her. It makes it hard to get anything done around here.

Anyway, here are her 4 month stats:

Weight: 13 lbs. 15 oz. (59%)

Height: 24.25 inches (51%)

Head: 16.1 inches (49%)

And because I want to be fair, one from our photo shoot last night of this little beauty:

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

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.

-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!

Busy busy busy!

I can't believe it's been almost a month since I last posted on this blog. Opps. Our lives have become insanely busy! Kyle's working hard and loving his job. We're so grateful he has one.

Lucy is busy as ever. She runs, not walks, everywhere she goes. She's trying to give up signing (which makes me so mad. She knows probably 45 or 50 signs now, but refuses to do them!), because she thinks she can talk now. And talk she does. Just not in english. Oh dear.

I've become super busy with my photography, and I'm loving it! I've been averaging 3-4 shoots a week, and sometimes even more. We're so excited that things are going so well with that. I'm also super busy with school. I am 2 weeks into a 10 week internship. It's really fun to be able to dress up and get out of the house. I love being able to talk to adults (not just my 1 year old). But I really miss being able to stay home with my baby all day. Luckily I only have to be gone 8 hours a week and I have a wonderful mom and mother-in-law who are helping out. But I still feel a little guilty making someone else watch her for so much time each week. Anyway, kind of mixed feelings on that. :)

Anyway, those are the basic reasons why I haven't posted in a while. But we're super happy and loving life!

Totally unrelated, but here are some cute pictures of Lucy from recently.

Playing guitar with Uncle Mark.

Being cute. :)

Both her Grandma's recently got kitties. Lucy adores kitties. Poor kitties.

Jewelry

I really like jewelry, but rarely wear more than my wedding ring and maybe a pair of earrings. Lucy, on the other hand, loves anything pretty-headbands, necklaces, anything! Case in point:

She currently thinks that dishtowels look pretty on her head. She wears them all day long.

She also loves her bow collection. She will wear as many as possible.

(she's just sad cause she didn't want her picture taken)

Anyway, back to jewelry, my good friend and cousin-in-law is Lucy's favorite at church, because she always has the most amazing jewelry on. She makes it all herself and great news for all---SHE IS HAVING A GIVEAWAY!!

Check out her blog here. You could win.

Another post.

I've been wanting to post something for a while now, but just couldn't think of anything interesting enough to post about. Then I realized, who needs interesting? I doubt anyone reads this anyway, so it's more of a journal for me than anything else. (:

Well, I probably shouldn't, but I take great pride in the fact that Lucy will let me do anything with her hair. If I tell her something is "sooo pretty!!" then she loves it! Some of the recent hairstyles include:

One pony shooting out the top with a big bow:

Down with her bangs out and a headband:

Scrunch curls (from the back):

(and the front):

Straight down:

Two piggies on top:

Two piggies on the side:

She has her hair blow-dried, pulled, yanked, etc. And last night for the first time (we had family pictures taken) I actually curled her hair with a curling iron! She never fusses or cries. She loves to have pretty hairs!

He's back!!

My cute brother Marky got back from his mission on Thursday! We were so excited to see him again!

Anxiously waiting!

Left to right: Chelsey, Mom, Davey, Dad, Grandpa, John, me, Kyle, Lucy, and Megan (Grandma was taking the picture)

There he is!! (You can just see his head, he's wearing a blue tie.) At this point I start screaming and bawling.

He blasted through everyone to give Mom a hug very first thing!

Then he gave everyone else a hug.

Mark meets Lucy.

All of us with him! We are so happy to have him back!

Spring Break

I'm not sure if Lucy and I are legal to call last week spring break. There were actually zero changes for us-I still had school, Kyle still had work. But my family was on spring break, so we got to do some fun things with them.

We went up to Salt Lake with my mom, Megan, John, and my aunt and her kids. We just walked around temple square, went to the beehive house, etc. It was a lot of fun, and the weather was really nice!

We call this look ^ the "cheese ball" grin. She does it to everyone. It's weird. But really cute!

She's so cute!