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Oh hello there,

Long time - no see. Turns out... after you have a baby, spare time tends to be in short supply.  Actually, thats not true I have all sorts of time to relax - just no time to blog. Lydia has proved to be quite the little cuddle bug. (And by cuddle bug, I mean "Absolutely is not content unless being held at all times even while sleeping.") So I hold her and love her and read lots of good books. Any computer time that I can steal while she is in her swing has been spent working on wedding announcements. However, Lydia is miraculously content to be swinging in her swing, David is reading on the couch, and I am ready to detail a few of the things that we have been up to around here.

--Lydia is two months old! She has been growing like crazy and I can't believe how big she is. She can hold her head up like a champ and has been learning how to make sounds with her little vocal chords. It melts my heart when she smiles up at me and gurgles her little words. We can have quite the conversation. Most of it includes me saying "tell me more".... but many people will attest that Lydia can say both "Hi" and "Hello". I realize these aren't real words - but it's amazing how close they come to sounding like real words. She was crying while David was holding her the other day, and after a big breath, she made a rather loud noise that sounded just like "mommy". David and I both looked at each other with wide eyes and then laughed. But when I picked her up she calmed right down. She is going to be talking before we know it. (And yes, I realize these aren't real words... but I can still share our language development adventures can't I?)

--------- Insert note: As soon as I finished the above paragraph, Lydia woke up and refused to calm down until I cuddled up with her to feed her. So there went the rest of my night. However, she is again in her swing now and we are waiting for David to come home from work - so I figured I would pick up where I left off last night. ------------

--Towards the end of June, David flew out to Chicago for a work training for a week. He learned some good things, ate some awesome pizza, and other than missing his girls... he had a great time. (Post with pictures to come.)

--A couple of days before David left on said excursion to Chicago... I got a breast infection. (TMI?) It was pretty bad, but was made worse by my stubborn refusal to go to the doctor. At first I thought, "I'm just a little dehydrated/sunburned so I'm tired and fevering." Then I thought, "I'll just nurse through it... it will be okay." And finally, "It can't last forever, i'm sure that i'll be better tomorrow." But after a solid week and a half of painful feedings, terrible headaches, and fevers/cold chills all through the night, I called my doctor to get some medicine. Well, actually... I probably would have kept going, but as soon as David got home from Chicago he set me straight and made sure that I got the help that I needed. (In my defense, if I had realized that I didn't actually have to GO to the doctor to get the antibiotic, I would have called much sooner.  Anyway, that mis-adventure concluded just days before Lydia's blessing.


--Lydia was blessed on July 1, 2012. It was a beautiful day, no thanks to my horrible preparation. After finally getting over being so sick, I realized I hadn't done any of the things that needed to be done to prepare for her big day. I finally got to work, and through the kind love and support of so many family members - it all came together. I can't believe how beautifully it came together. But... more on that to come in another blog post. 


--Also while David was in Chicago, we had a major plumbing leak in our house with water leaking into the apartment below us. This was on the heels of a fairly large fire a mere twenty feet from our house that burned up the entire strip of brush between our house and the freeway for a good half mile. Luckily, no damage was done. We have been extremely blessed to be protected even in light of these misfortunes. 


--My mom has been making trips down about twice a week to visit with Lydia and I.  I have been loving all of the time to spend with my mom. My dad has come several times as well. Really, we have a pretty constant stream of visitors who love to spend time with our little one - and me... I think. 


--I haven't mentioned it yet, but David and I are well into our search for a house! We are really excited to be able to be buying a house, and are ready to go as soon as we find something that we love. We've been looking for a while now, and have even put in a couple of offers - but so far nothing has worked out. I'm holding out hope that the perfect house is mere days away! I'm sure it will pop up on the market any day now. It will be love at first sight, and we'll be moving in within the month! Or maybe we will end up building a house. Or maybe we will just stay in this little apartment forever because we can't find anything that we like. *sigh* House hunting is tricky business. Wish us luck! 


--Red Ladder Design has been booming. Seriously, i've had to start turning people away because I just can't handle all the business that is coming my way. I probably should have turned more people down than I did. This week alone I delivered a set of business cards, sent one folded announcement/insert cards to print, and have been working on designs with four other clients. It's really great in a way, but hard to get anything other than Red Ladder things done when I have a break. Luckily I have a wonderful husband who knows how much I love him - even though the kitchen is a disaster and the bathroom hasn't been cleaned in weeks. 


There are tons more things that have been going on, but thats a fairly good list to get me back on the blogging horse. I always feel like I can't blog about what I want to at the moment, because I have so many things to catch up on. But now i'm back in the saddle and you can expect lots more updates coming soon!

I'll leave this photo for your viewing pleasure: