10 months!

Things about LM at 10 months old...

• she loves to growl and laugh
• she will smile at anyone who smiles at her
• she loves to roll around the house and has even started army crawling
• she already loves getting things she shouldn't
• she loves to eat baby food and has started eating finger foods
• she loves her family
• and most important... she is the happiest and cutest baby ever!!

priceless

After using the bathroom, CD was suppose to be getting into the bathtub. So she had taken off her socks, pants, and underwear and then went to her bedroom to get her pjs. She wasn't coming back as quickly as she should have, so I told her she needed to get in the bathtub. I didn't expect her to get in with her shirt on. But when I went to see if she had come back to the bathroom, I found her like this. Silly girl. It didn't even seem to phase her.

hogle zoo

For Spring Break we decided to take the kids to the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City one day. It has been at least 2 years since we have been, and we knew CJ and CD would enjoy it.

Here's a bit of background info for my first story - Anytime we go on a trip that lasts longer than an hour, we let the kids watch a movie. So they don't get tunnel vision and only watch the movie and get car sick, every once in awhile we will encourage them to find something outside of the car. Also, because of our business I visit FedEx at least 2 times a month usually with the kids in tow. So CD, even though she can't read, recognizes the FedEx logo and knows what it is.

Now here's my short story... At one point on our drive we were passing by a FedEx truck. CD had been transfixed to the movie, so I asked her to look at the truck and tell me what it was. She immediately says, "FedEx!". Then for the rest of the trip (there and back) CD somehow saw every single FedEx sign we passed. She kept saying, "I see FedEx!" and she would get so excited about it. It was just funny to see and hear how many times she found FedEx that day.

The zoo was a hit like we knew it would be. The first thing we had to do of course was ride the train. We waited way too long for such a short ride, but you can't go to the zoo without riding the train.

We saw lots of animals and did lots of walking. CJ and CD did awesome and never complained about being tired. However, by the end of the day I could tell both of them (especially CD) were done. LM was most awesome and amazing. She sat in her stroller, got in and out of her stroller, and never cried and never slept! She was definitely a trooper!

One more story.  We bought tickets for the kids to ride the carousal.  I knew CJ would love it and CD would be nervous.  Nervous doesn't even begin to describe it.  She was TERRIFIED!  But I was a mean mom and forced her to ride.  I told her that if she wouldn't and couldn't ride the carousal that she couldn't go to Disneyland. (which is something we are hoping to do in the future).  After it got going and she got used to the movement she did really well.  She was nervous the whole time, but she conquered her fear!  I think she even had fun.  As soon as we got off the carousal, what did she say?.. "Now I go to Disneyland!"

CJ's favorite animals to see were the elephants and the giraffe. CD's favorite animals to see were any kind of cats and the elephants. Both kids really liked seeing the baby elephant. Jon didn't have a favorite animal. As for me, I always love the monkey's and apes. I found one gorilla quite fascinating and could have stayed and watched it for awhile, but didn't.

We were glad we took the time to have some fun and take the kids to the Hogle Zoo. We picked the best day to go too since it was the only day that didn't rain or snow during our "spring" break.

lil roller

So my baby just keeps growing and learning more.  She is now rolling everywhere!  So that means the older two have to keep all their stuff off the floor that they don't want to end up in the lil one's mouth.  They are still learning.  Here is a little slide show of pictures I took of her rolling.  I need to make a video of it, but I wanted some pictures too.  After all, I can't put videos in my yearbooks.  ;0)

flowers & bows

While my mom was visiting last week we spent some time crafting by making some hair accessories.  It was so much fun!  And there are so many more I want to try.  I found a wonderful blog called Fabric Bows and More that links to tutorials of how to make all sorts of bows, flowers, and other girlie things.  There are quite a few I want to try.  But this is what I have done so far.

The top pink flower and wrapped headband are my favorite!  I especially LOVE the flower!  I plan to make 2 more as soon as I can.  ;0)  I turned the flower into a clip that I can add to the headband or just put in my girls' hair.  Click here to make your own beautiful flower and headband.

The purple flower I'd like to re-do, but I won't.  Instead I'll just make more.  ;0)  Click here for the instructions on how to make it.  Once again I just turned it into a barrette by adding a clip on the back.

I LOVE the korker bows too!  And they were so easy to make!  Click here for the instructions on how to make them.  I definitely need to do more of these.

red hat, blue hat, yellow hat

Today CD came home with a book from school that she decided to read to me.  She did an awesome job and was oh so cute!  To add to the cuteness, LM started babbling this morning!  So she decided she needed to be heard too.

yum, yum - part 2

the new favorite dessert as of yesterday - hot chocolate!

yum, yum

first taste of baby food - squash... and she liked it!

one of the best sounds in the world

LM loves laughing at CJ.  He can get her laughing like no other.  Unfortunately, almost every time when I get the camera out, it becomes a distraction and she doesn't laugh quite as much.

And here's another one just for fun.

a little adventure

** Here's a little background to help my story make a bit more sense.  CD started preschool in December.  Last week they started helping her potty train by making her wear underwear during school.  She has enjoyed wearing the underwear so much that she asks to wear it on top of her diaper while at home.  And here's our adventure...

Yesterday we decided to do something fun and spontaneous as a family - something that Jon wanted to do since he doesn't get to do too many things he wants being away from home so much.  So we decided to go down to Salt Lake to the Auto Show at the South Towne Expo Center.  It probably has been about 5 years since we have gone to the show and obviously we have never taken three kids with us.  We knew it was bound to be an adventure with 3 kids - we just didn't know how big of an adventure.

The kids weren't too entertained by the cars, especially since when we first walked in we happened to be by a place where playground sets were available to play on, there were scooters to ride, and many basketball tosses set up.  The kids just wanted to stay there instead of look at cars, so I convinced the kids to go on a treasure hunt.  I encouraged CD to find a pink car (not knowing if we'd find one) and told CJ to find all the blue cars he could.  So off we went on our treasure hunt.

And lo and behold, look what we found!  --all our pictures were taken on our phones and didn't turn out too well.  sorry--

a blue car for CJ

and a pink car for CD!

Jon liked this one - a Jeep Wrangler - and I happened to love the color of it

And here is where the real adventure begins.  I had to stop looking at the cars to feed LM, so we sat down in the back of the building by some restrooms where I could be out of the way to feed LM her bottle.  So while I fed Jon took CJ and CD to keep looking.  This is what they found.

Bumblebee from Transformers

and a Corvette Jon claims is on Transformers too

 After Jon took the picture of the Corvette, he turned around and CD was gone.  GONE.  She had disappeared on him.  He quickly looked around him and then immediately phoned me to tell me that CD was missing.  I hurried and put LM back in the car seat on the stroller and headed off to look for CD.  We frantically walked around the building for about 10 minutes looking.  We told the security people there and they called everyone on their walkie-talkies and gave a description of CD.  Jon and I both kept thinking that we needed to check by the bathrooms.  I quickly looked in the one I had been in - after I left the area - and didn't see anything.  After looking around separately Jon and I both ended up back at the same bathroom where I had been.  Just as I was arriving Jon was asking a lady who had been cleaning the bathroom and was leaving if there was a little girl in there.  We heard her say, "your daddy is out here looking for you."  And then CD appeared walking around the corner of the bathroom.  What a relief!

Now believe it or not, but this is where the story gets interesting and kind of funny.  After finding CD we were going to start looking at cars again when CD kept telling me that she wanted to sit on the potty - she never does this at home and remember, she still wears diapers.  So I decided I may as well changer her diaper and we went into the bathroom.  We went into a large stall wear CD proceeded to pull down her pants.  When she did this I discovered she had her underwear on wrong - both legs in one leg - and she had on NO diaper.  Apparently when she disappeared she took herself to the bathroom, went in a stall (which is why I probably didn't see her when I looked for her), took off her shoes, her pants, her underwear, and then her diaper.  Before leaving the bathroom she put her underwear back on (wrong), her pants on correctly, and put her shoes back on.  Had I not decided to take her in the bathroom to change her diaper, I would have had no idea she had done all of that.  As we were leaving the bathroom, I saw her diaper sitting on the floor of another stall.  Silly, silly girl.

Before leaving the Auto Show we stopped and let the kids play with some Legos.  They were suppose to create a car and then race it.  CJ made a very cool car and actually won a race against a much older kid.  He didn't get anything for it - he was just able to have a moment of fun.

We finally decided to end our adventurous evening with one last adventure.  So we took the kids to eat at the Mayan Adventure.  They seemed to like it and we had a good time.

Overall it was a good day - even if we didn't get home until after 8pm.  We were just extremely grateful that we found CD safe and sound after disappearing in such a large place with lots and lots of people!  What a blessing!