ALLI

This is just for me so I can remember the funny little things about Alli because this is the main place I keep everything and since she seems to change so fast I didn't want to wait until her birthday to put an update. Lately it's so much fun having Alli because her little personality just keeps coming out and it seems like everyday she tells us new things so I wanted to make sure I don't forget. Tuesday Ryan told her she was cute or smart or something and she said "I know that" but her inflection makes us laugh because the emphasis is on know. She loves playing with playdough and will often ask for the playdough to be made into small balls or horse shapes. We just bought a tub with 100 cookie cutters and she's a big fan of those. She also LOVES to draw and it's even better if you will draw for her-horses are her picture of preference. She also loves singing songs and with often bust out a random song she makes up or will sing parts of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" and "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep" (never when asked, just randomly). "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep" usually comes out as Baa Baa (humming) Yes Sir, Yes Sir (more humming). She gallops, runs, jumps (both feet off the ground even) and dances around the house. She thinks most things are the color green, and when given one treat will ask for "two?" For the last month and a half her favorite movie has been "Monsters Inc" In fact we may be close to wearing out our new copy we got for Christmas if that is possible. Today she wanted to watch "Ruff Ruff -UP" so we may be able to watch either for the next little bit :). Her favorite food is pizza, but she also loves peaches (the bottled ones are what we've had lately). She is always surprising me with the new words she has learned, one night she said she wanted something on the table and then the counter and she is getting better at articulating her words so we can understand pretty much everything she says. And this week she had her first hair-trim. It was getting kinda long in the back (resembling a mullet) which made for great pigtails, but when it was just curly it looked ratty so she got bribed with 2 m&ms and sat still enough for me to do some quick cuts.

And she's kind of potty training herself (I totally lucked out). We haven't changed a poopy diaper in a week and she's getting pretty good at letting us know when she needs to go pee as well. It's so nice, she'll tell me when she needs to go and she'll go in to the potty (sometimes she likes for you to sit on the big potty while she's on the little one) but if it's poop she wants the door shut and she'll let you know by her excited "I did it!" when she's done. Her favorite place to sleep is still in with Mommy & Daddy and as long as she stays in her place we don't mind that much. For some reason I feel like when she's in her room she's so far away since it's on the other side of the living room and kitchen. She loves to say thank you (and if you don't respond she'll continue to say it until she knows you heard her) and often says please without being reminded if she really wants something. She likes the doors closed when she's going to sleep, and our favorite thing is how often she tells us "I love you." If you say it she will say "love you more" and if you say that back she'll say "Love you most." She is super compassionate and if you (or a character in a show or some random person) looks sad she is very concerned, and if you are by chance crying she'll wipe your tears away. I love her so much, so glad we have our Alli girl!

Something a little more lighthearted-Scott

I couldn't leave that last post up at the top for too long because there really are way more wonderful things in life than a little pity party day. But I did learn from it and I ended up with some great discoveries. And I found out what great friends I have to encourage me and let me know that it is not abnormal to feel those things. So thank you for building me up, I am truly blessed! I realized that I never put up the pictures from when my brother and his wife and their little boy were here for Christmas! It was so great to have them out here, Alli loved playing with Scott, they play so well together! I am sad that I don't have more pictures, but for some reason the pics are scarce. It was funny because when they first got here we went over and Alli was super shy and she would not look at Scott or my brother. It took about 3 minutes and then they were both warmed up to each other. This meant they would look at the book my mom read and interact together, after this though there was a hug fest (rumor has it, Scott gave his first initiated hug to Alli) where they actually ended up falling on the ground in their exuberant hug. It was pretty funny to watch. I guess that hug was a bonding moment because from then on they were best buds. Poor Scott put up with a lot of requests to "come me" or "by me" from Alli, but he was a good sport. Alli was thrilled as can be when her carseat got moved in by Scott to go somewhere, she thought the world was perfect. So here are the few pics that I have, and I guess we'll just have to go visit them soon so I can get some more pics of these two playing!!! :)

Alli got a fishtank lamp for Christmas and they were both pretty entranced with it, mostly turning it on and off, but still it was pretty exciting.

Being the Mom

This is a really long post, mostly just because I wanted to record some of my thoughts in a place I would be likely to remember them better. And I also wanted some certain people (close and one far away friend, fabulous neighbors, family members, sisters-in-law) to know how thankful I am that they are in my life.

Yesterday was a little bit of a rough day for me. I was thinking about a lot of things and getting pretty frustrated about some of them. It just seemed to me like my loving husband was able to leave on a business trip (to Vegas so it's a pretty fun place for a business trip) with a group of fun guys from work without a thought as to how that impacts me and Alli here at home. I guess I should feel good that he knows I can take care of everything at home and that if anything would happen I would be able to handle it, but without him voicing his feelings on anything-including the fact that he would actually have more fun if we were coming with him- before he left, I was left to have a pity-party by myself. I LOVE being a mom, I loved teaching, but I would hate leaving my sweet little girl everyday! I couldn't do it. I also could never do his job, he does great at it, but it is pretty stressful (it's complete commission so he knows that it's ALL up to him) and although that is stressful for me at times, I'm positive it's harder for him. With that being said I know that the weeks Alli throws up for a week straight, there is no way he'd trade me, and really I don't think he'd enjoy being home taking care of things all day either. So when considering a package trade-neither of us would trade. We'd both go nuts in each other's worlds. But at times it is too easy to take part of each others world and think that is the whole thing, creating jealousy-me thinking he gets to do more things than I do after his work day is over (which is true), and him thinking I look at other people's blogs all day and just watch t.v. (not so true at all, which anyone at home clearly knows) or me thinking that his trips are so exciting (which maybe they are, but really I just want to go with him, not without him or Alli-I wouldn't know what to do all by myself). When I am gone from them, I just want to be back home with them so I think my wish is just knowing he feels the same way. All right, therapy session done. Back to yesterday, I have some fabulous friends, I have fabulous family members who are also my friends, and I have wonderful women around me who are most definitely friends. These wonderful women were able to make me feel much less alone, and help me be soo glad that even if I were in L.V. sitting in a hotel room with Alli, that is really where I want to be. I LOVE all of her funny antics and I would not want to miss any of them. I like seeing them in first person, not hearing about them after the fact. I like being able to make a delicious dinner that Ryan really appreciates when he eats it, and I love knowing that I am able to create a house that he wants to come home to and even more than that, that it is me he wants to come home to. So I'm not sure if any of this makes sense, but thank you to those sweet women who reached out and gave me companionship (even just an offer through the computer) and helped me realize that 1-the feelings I had were normal, and feelings that at one time or another everyone has felt-but they didn't allow the feelings to stay and control their actions and lives, 2-I don't want to compare my life with anyone, not even my husband, and 3-Just enjoy the blessings in my life right now! Now to get the little muchkin dressed and convince her that only certain colors are green, there are also pinks, yellows, and purples in her world that is often filled with only green (is kinda the only color she knows, but yellow's coming). Since she makes me so happy, here's a trick from a couple weeks ago, and the dress that is too small-it's one of the random outfits she found while I was doing laundry one day and for some reason she loves it???

Sledding

I think I am almost done updating this blog! This winter has been so much fun because Alli is old enough to enjoy the whole snow thing. The day after New Years (makes it sound like it's some sort of holiday??) we took her sledding. My mom has a pretty decent hill (for little kids) at her house. We thought it would be a lot colder that it was so she originally had two beanies on, but as she saw me and ryan stripping of hats and gloves she thought she needed to as well. Ryan made some pretty great tracks on various parts of the hill and Alli thought it was pretty cool until she realized she could go inside to say hi to grandma or play with the tractor on the porch. We're hoping it'll get cold again and then make our tracks super slick :)






Last night Ryan took his group of scouts sledding and I'm pretty sure their trip was a little more high risk than ours. They went to a different place and the right before the end decided they'd do two more runs, I think they were really seeing how many times they could go before everyone had some sort of injury. The second to last run ended up in a big pile up since they found that riding as a train was more fun and they could go faster. And the last run ended up with Ryan flipping off the "train" (landing on ice=crazy bruises and pains = telling me about his pain the rest of the night) and the scout holding onto him also flipping off and landing with his breath knocked out. I think they all ended with a nice assortment of "injuries" but they had a lot of fun as well. After the sledding they came back and had donuts at our house (nothing fancy, I did the easy version, but they were still really good) and kept explaining all the crazy things that had happened while they were sledding. Ryan does such a good job with the boys, they are able to relate to him so well and really listen to him, and he really likes doing the activities with them.

Exercise Queen

I know you were hoping this post was about me based on the title, so sorry to disappoint but it's definitely not. This title is reserved solely for Alli. Last week we got a new exercise video and it's quickly become her favorite movie. Sadly I have only done the movie once (and that was only the first half) but ever since then she's gotten the dvd case, said "this one" wanting to watch it. So sad is it may be, she's gotten more exercise and use out of the dvd than Ryan or I have. But we sure are entertained watching her get a workout, and I've got to hand it to her, she does a fabulous job copying the moves. In this clip (if ya can't tell) it's a warm up of moving your hips backward and forward (pushing them forward and back) and then moving your arms (being held together) from side to side to warm up your waist. This little girl is so much fun, she is always entertaining me with her singing (new favorite song to sing is Mary had a Little Lamb-melts my heart everytime she sings it), dancing and galloping around the house, and the new funny phrases she comes up with everyday.

Temple Square

Earlier in December we had a great time going to Temple Square to look at the lights with some of our good friends. Alli got to enjoy the evening in the comfort of my mom's warm home and we got to enjoy a baby-free evening-worked out great for all of us! :) We ate dinner at Buca Di Beppo (a new favorite restaurant) walked around Temple Square (in a lot of lovely fog) and then took a little drive up in some foothills to go get a cool view of the temple from up above all the fog/smog. So even though this was our "date night" here it is on the blog because sadly these dates are a little too few and far between (guess we just like taking Alli with us most places). So here ya go, Ryan got some pretty cool pictures of the temple through all the smog.





I guess we've lucked out lately though on the date nights because we got together with some other really good friends last Friday night to have dinner (which was delicious!) and play games! We should have taken Alli with us since another couple had their adorable little girl, but alas we'd opted not to without knowing she'd be there! We had a lot of fun catching up and hanging out with these friends, we'll have to do it again soon! I didn't take our camera so sadly there aren't pics. :(

Christmas and New Year

So I'm super late putting up all of our Christmas fun, but I guess I've just enjoyed reading about everything everyone else did. Alli was so much fun Christmas morning. We told her Santa had come and brought her some things so when we brought her downstairs she first saw her horse, but after about 2 seconds she stated looking for Santa and wondering where he was, I guess she thought he was going to stay to play with her??? Pretty quickly though she got happily distracted by all the fun surprises in and around her stocking.

It was fun because my mom and little brother and our fun neighbor Glenna came over to watch her open her presents. She got lots of fun things that we are still having a great time playing with so as she opened each present she wanted to play with them and see what it was.



She really enjoyed this cheap guitar that we got her. She thought it was so much fun to play with all the different buttons and hear the songs it would play back.

Ryan also thought Christmas was pretty sweet, he got a surprise pressure washer (that he finally got to use for real yesterday!) some basketball shoes (a staple for him), golf shoes, etc etc And I got a lot of new pants (I love that now when I'm picking pants I get to wear "cute pants" everyday!) cute shirts, and an IPOD TOUCH! I still am working on adding all of the apps I want, but it's been fun so far. We also got some fun stuff for our kitchen and emergency prep and it's been fun to try it out!
Then we got to go over to my mom's and have a whole other Christmas morning with more stockings and presents. I felt like a little kid again since most of that was a surprise to me. We always have a big Christmas breakfast and this year (I think it's a new tradition) we had delicious crepes.
My mom got all the girl grandkids matching outfits as part of their Christmas present. So here is Alli in hers (gotta love that insane cheeser smile, maybe she'll grow out of it???).


Then we just relaxed at home and hung out with family. My brother James and his family came out for Christmas so that was really fun to see them and hang out (that deserves its own post). So Christmas Day we had almost my whole family together (we missed Bryan and Annie and their adorable little girls)! But of course in my excitement, I think the camera got "lost" so the pictures are few and far between :(
After Christmas, my aunt and some of her kids from Arizona came up. I didn't get any pictures :( but it was really fun to see them. I haven't seem them for over 10 years so it was nice to hangout and catch up a little. They were here for New Years Eve and New Years Day. Every year on New Years day my mom has a yummy clam chowder party. This year was no exception. There was so much delicious food and great football games to watch on tv. Mostly though we spent a lot of time hanging out at home just relaxing and watching Alli play with all of her new things. We hope you all had a fabulous Christmas and New Years as well and we are excited to see what this new year will bring!!!

Phil Vassar Concert

So maybe we don't get the award for being best parents, but we took Alli to a Phil Vassar concert with us about a month ago. She LOVED it though. We really liked it too! The only problem was that it was super loud and she didn't want to use the earplugs we had for her :)
She kept dancing to all the songs and clapping. She was getting really into it. Unfortunately the videos we took of it look pretty lame because they are so dark. The tickets were pretty cheap for good seats so we bought a bunch for some of Ryan's local customers and then we bought some extra so we could go. Phil Vassar is amazing, he has written so many incredible songs, and the pre-performers were really good. Bucky Covington was kinda crazy looking

, but was soo entertaining! It's kinda hard to hear in the video, but he's singing "I'll Walk" one of my favorite of his songs.



And Phil Vassar just has way too many good songs of his own and that he has written for Tim McGraw and other country singers. Seriously almost all of his songs were ones I'd heard numerous times and loved so it was lots of fun "dancing" and "singing" along with him. We really had so much fun at this concert, kind of a random thing, but I am now a fan a big fan of both of these singers.

And here is one of Alli. If you look on the right side of the screen you can see some arms moving in and out, that was her chosen move for that song. Sorry it's so dark, wish we'd had a flash on the video part :(

White Rose poems/Comfort for those who have lost a baby young

I have loved these poems and through learning of a recent experience I wanted to share them because I love them, but mostly I wanted to have them kept in a place where I knew where they were.
THE WHITE ROSE
All the Earth's mothers and fathers were gathered together at God's garden of flowers. Those beautiful budding spirits, who would someday come to Earth, were nurtured and tended in the garden. A loving Father spoke to the Mothers and Fathers: "See the works of my hands, someday you will be the parents of these radiant spirits."

The garden glowed with mixtures of all kinds and colors. "Choose Ye." He said. One by one mothers and fathers stepped forward. I want the blue-eyed curly haired one, who will grow to maturity and be a mother in Zion. Yet another chose a brown-eyed, brown haired boy, full of life and love who would someday be a prince in a grand country. The garden buzzed with excitement as the others chose their own special spirits, those whom they would soon welcome into the warmth and love of an Earthly home.

Now in the East corner of the garden, pure white roses stood as sentinels. They were not so colorful as the rest, but glowed with a kind of purity which set them apart. As these beautiful roses were left unchosen, the Father spoke, "But who will take the white roses, the ones in the East corner of the garden? These will return to me in goodness, perfect and pure. They will not stay long in your home, I must bring them back to my garden, for they belong with me. But they will gain bodies as was planned. You will miss them and long for them as you complete your mortal journey, but I will personally care for them. "

"No, not I," many said in unison. "I could not bear to give one back so soon." "Nor I," said others, "We will take those who will remain and grow to maturity and live long lives."

The loving Father looked out across the multitude of mothers and fathers with love in His eyes for someone to step forward. Then He said, "Silence! See the most pure and perfect of all the white ones, I choose Him. He will go down and be a sacrifice for all mankind. He will be scorned, mocked and crucified. He is my own. Will not anyone choose like unto him?"

A few mothers stepped forward. "Yes, Lord, I will."

Then a few fathers, "And I as well."

"Yes, we will Lord."

Soon all the pure white roses were taken and they rejoiced in the choices their mothers and fathers had made.

The Father spoke again. "Oh blessed are you who chose the white roses, for your pain will be a heavy cross to bear, but your joy will be exceeding beyond anything you can understand at this time."

The white roses embraced their mothers and fathers, and so complete was their purity and love that it filled their souls with peace, courage, and faith. Each mother and father knew they could endure this task. And the greatest of all the white roses gathered them as a hen gathers her chicks, and an outpouring of love surrounded each mother, father, and child. Together the Father and His chosen one, prepared these mothers, fathers, and their white roses for their special mission. And together, each mother and father who would bare the mortal pain of the white roses felt God's overwhelming peace and love as they all shouted, "Thy will be done."

What Makes a Mother"
by Jennifer Wasik

I thought of you and closed my eyes
And prayed to God today.
I asked what makes a Mother
And I know I heard him say...

A mother has a baby
This we know is true.
But, God, can you be a mother
when your baby is not with you?

Yes, you can He replied,
With confidence in His voice.
I give many women babies
When they leave is not their choice.

Some I send for a lifetime,
And others just for a day.
And some I send to feel your womb,
But there's no need to stay.

I just don't understand this God,
I want my baby here.
He took a breath and cleared His throat
And then I saw a tear.

I wish I could show you
What your child is doing today.
If you could see your child smile
With other children and say:

"We go to earth to learn our lessons
Of love and life and fear.
My mommy loved me oh so much
I got to come straight here.

I feel so lucky to have a mom
Who has so much love for me.
I learned my lessons very quickly,
My mommy set me free.

I miss my mommy Oh so much,
But I visit every day.
When she goes to sleep
On her pillow is where I lay.

I stroke her hair and kiss her cheek
And I whisper in her ear.
Mommy don't be sad today,
I'm your baby and I'm here."

So, you see my dear sweet one,
Your children are not blue.
Your babies are here in MY home,
They'll be at Heaven's gate waiting for you.

So now you see what makes a mother,
It's the feeling in your heart.
It's the love you had so much of,
Right from the very start.

Though some on earth may not realize you are a mother,
Until their time is done.
They'll be up here with Me one day,
And they'll know you were the best one!