January

January was a good month for us. We mostly stuck around at home and rested after going through such a busy holiday season. I know it sounds sad to say that January was a recovery month for us, because I don't think that the holidays should be so stressful and overwhelming that you have to take a whole month just to recover - but in all honesty, we did a lot of recovering and it was really nice. 

Some highlights: 

-Lydia started preschool! I have some pretty strong opinions about Preschool, mostly that children are being pressed into academics too early and that as preschoolers they should be focusing on play - but after a lot of discussion, and Lydia asking if she could go to the preschool that we walked past during her gymnastics, we decided to put her in for the last few months of the year in hopes that it would be a good transition to kindergarten next year. It took a little bit to get used to, because it's 9 hours a week and that is loonnnng and I miss her. But she loves it and is doing really well. I'm amazed at all the things that she is learning and she seems to be really absorbing everything. I'm glad we didn't put her in sooner, but I think it's been really good for her to be here now. 

--We went to a carwash because our car was realllyyyyy dirty, and although during normal life, things being dirty don't bother me - when I'm pregnant it drives me crazy! Is that weird? 

-Austin sits on the counter and helps me get ready every morning. Apparently the hair-dryer is too loud for him. 

--David made an incredible sledding path for Lydia/the kids in our backyard. They love it. 

--I've been trying to spend some good one-on-one time with the kids before baby boy gets here. A friend invited us to go ice-skating and it was so much fun. Lydia has been practicing her roller skating in the basement and I think that it really made a difference in her ice skating. You would never have known that she'd never been before. 

-David was working at a client pretty close to our house and one day he picked up some McDonalds and brought it home for lunch. I wanted a picture of us, but the kids were rolling around on the floor - so we joined them. Love this family of ours. (And, I wish David worked in Draper every day.) 

-Did I mention that we renewed out Thanksgiving Point Passes? I'm really excited about it. We haven't had them for about a year, so everything is new and fun - and hopefully will be a really good thing to get us out of the house after baby comes. 

--We went to music time at Thanksgiving Point and it was really fun. I'm going to definitely try to go back more often.

-I call this: Family Home Evening Piano Playing. 

-Austin likes to sit on the counter while I get ready in the mornings and unscrews and screws back on the lids of all the things. I try to keep him from putting it on his face and usually say "Just practice!", which means to only pretend  to put it on. But some days I don't supervise enough and he ends up with his own version of a makeover. Honestly though - he's really good at it! He's basically as good at putting mascara on as I am (I'm a mess when I put on my mascara most of the time, but still). Look at those lashes though! I realized what had happened right before it was time to go to church, so we just went like that and worked on his eyes with a wipe after we got there. I was so amused.

-Our friends/neighbors across the street - the Avrahami family asked if I would help make a Bar Mitzvah invitation for their son, Ron. In return they brought over a bunch of super yummy Israli chocolate/candy/treats. It was so thoughtful of them. We were able to attend the Bar Mitzvah and it was so interesting and neat to be a part of. I'm so glad that we have the opportunity to be exposed to different cultures and I hope that our children will grow up with a love and respect for people of all religions and beliefs. It's important to me to teach them that God loves everyone, and that although we believe that it's important to live and act a certain way - other people may live and act differently, and that we can still love them, be friends with them, and work together to create a peaceful world.

--Roller skating in the basement. We're working to get a bigger space cleared out - but for now, there is a path that is good enough and both Lydia and Austin are loving it. (Although, it's cold down there - so I don't love it as much as they do.)

-Lydia asked for the "play-doh you can eat" and I just happened to have a half-bag of extra marshmallows, so I whipped up some marshmallow fondant and she had a wonderful time making "cookies" for everyone. I've been so impressed lately at her creativity and ability to create things.

-Ummm... we like apples. And I like these kids. And sometimes I set Austin on the counter to keep him contained.  The end. 

-Morning snuggles. Don't let the amount of natural light coming through the window + the fact that we are snuggling in bed fool you, we'd been up for hours already and had just come back for a minute or so. The kids are waking up SO early and I don't know why. During the summer I get it, because it's so light so early. During the winter I feel like there is no reason for them to be waking up at six (or before six). 

-I have good friends in the neighborhood and I'm grateful for that. 

-I love this girl. 

Happy January! 

He, She, We

A little family update.

He: Austin

Pulls all the books off of the bookshelf every. single. time. and is so proud of himself. 

Keeps an eye on Lydia all day. He might be doing his own thing, but as soon as she starts doing something interesting (or looks like she might be willing to play with him) he makes a beeline for her. If she's laying on the ground, you better bet that within seconds he'll be right there trying to climb on top of her. 

Laughs at everything. Even things that shouldn't be funny like Lydia manually rolling him over or laying on top of him or swatting his face with a blanket. I tell her to be soft with him but he just keeps on laughing and she says "He likes it!" Which he apparently does, but I don't know why. 

Started clapping (so cute!) and today he climbed up the whole first half of our stairs all by himself.   

She: Lydia

Asks for a popsicle every morning as soon as she wakes up. She knows that she only gets one a day, but that she gets to choose when she can eat it. I always remind her that she only gets one, and ask if she really wants it right now or if she wants to save it for later, and she always chooses to have it first thing in the morning. 

Says thank you over the sweetest things. "Thank you for helping me get my shirt on, mom!"

Decided that she wants to ride in her carseat rearfacing again. I think it's because she can see out the back window better (rearfacing on the side). So we flipped her around and she's happy as can be. I love it because that means I can eat candy in the car without her knowing, but it is much harder to hear what she's saying, which is a bummer because she gets frustrated when I can't understand her. 

She's so big, physically and intellectually. I can hardly believe it. It's like she turned 3 and then decided she just wanted to be a grown up. I'm holding tight to the little-girl-things she says and does. One of my favorites is that she says "little" as Lidder. She'll say "I can't do that because I'm too lidder. But when I'm a mom, I can do that, too!" 

Started dressing herself. She picks out her clothes for the following day when she's supposed to be in bed sleeping. I almost never find her in her same clothes/underwear when she wakes up from her nap as she was wearing when I put her down. I'm still able to manipulate things so that she matches decently when we are going somewhere important - but for the most part she wears what she wants. (long sleeves included). 

Such a social little girl. She wants to play with friends all the time. She puts in requests for Henry, Carson, Elsie, or Aubrey on a daily basis. We just had some new neighbors move in and they have a seven year old daughter. Thankfully she's super sweet and seems to like playing with Lydia, which means Lydia is in heaven. She continually asks if she can go next door and see if "her friend, Sammie" can play. 

Loves nursery. She's got some great nursery leaders who she really connects with. If you ask her what her favorite part of nursery is she'll say "We eat snacks. Like fruit-loops."  

I love these two, and they love each other. It makes me so happy. 

We: David and Shantel

We both have new callings. I was released as the Secretary in the Primary and called as the 1st Counselor, still in the Primary. I love working with my presidency and have enjoyed the change in responsibilities. I'm now over the nursery and activity days organizations, which is right in my wheelhouse. 

David was just called as the Secretary for the Elders Quorum. We are both a little sad for him to be leaving his calling as a primary teacher, but it will be a great experience for him. Now we are left with the task of scheduling both of our presidency meetings so they don't conflict and trying to juggle Austin during the block. 

I've been reading a whole bunch of books this summer as part of the Lehi Adult Summer Reading Program. It's been awesome. I've enjoyed reading books outside of what I'd normally read and for giving myself the excuse to sit and read. "I know there are a hundred other things to do, but this books will mark off my 'Read a book that was released in 2015' box." 

David's been anxiously awaiting the opening of NBA Free Agency. Or something like that. I'm not sure exactly what it is except apparently players are released from their contracts and the whole sporting world gets together to talk about where they'll choose to go... and it's a big deal.  

After David surprised me with Parade of Home tickets for our anniversary, we made every attempt over the few weeks that it was open to hit as many houses as we could. It was a fun time and we took about 100 pictures that need to be downloaded into a "Home decoration and improvement ideas" folder for future reference. 

The home prices in our neighborhood are skyrocketing. Houses similar to ours are selling for a full $100,000 more than what we bought them for just two years ago. Although we love love love our house, we've played around with the idea of moving to a different neighborhood, if only for the financial benefit that it would give us. (Note: This is not actually happening, so no freaking out.) We have some friends moving to Bluffdale and they keep talking us up onto the ledge of buying a house in their neighborhood. Then we discovered our close-to-dream home floor plan, the Silverton. With the crazy increase in home value here (which we think is a bubble and won't really last), there was a possibility of being able to get into that home and being able to add on all the things/changes we'd want to make, like a 3-car garage (David) and a bigger laundry room and loft (Shantel). We even went and talked to the home builders a couple of times. But there weren't any lots open, and when they open new lots there will be a price increase which will bring it out of our budget. PLUS, we love our house and could probably use the extra (imaginary) money just making changes to this house instead of squeezing ourselves into a house that is wayyy bigger than we need right now. 

With the conclusion of White Collar and the decline of Doctor Who, we've been missing having a show to watch together in the evenings. My sister Jenna introduced us to Chopped, which opened up a whole new world of Food Network TV. We both love joining Alton, Bobby, and Giada on the numerous shows that they appear on. After the kids are put to bed, you can probably find us curled up on the couch, bowl of popcorn in hand, watching Cutthroat Kitchen, Food Network Star, or Beat Bobby Flay. It's pretty awesome. (Or Castle! We are still catching up on all of the previous seasons. We love Castle.) 

Lately...

I haven't been awesome at blogging lately, due to a combination of having too much to blog about - and having too much fun playing and making more memories to blog about. But here are some things that we've been up to lately:

--We've been reading some really good books lately. David's done with the Jack Ryan series and is working his way through the Jack Jr. Series. I read Brandon Sanderson's Words of Radiance in less than two weeks (which is no small feat considering the size of the book and the amount of time I have to just sit and read) - because there was a waiting list of people behind me and I knew I wouldn't be able to renew it. We enjoyed several evenings sitting on the couch after Lydia went to bed, reading together. That's one of my very favorite things.

--Jenna and Camille came to visit for several days and we loved it!  We were pretty laid back, and thank goodness they were willing to come with us while we ran errands and such, but we did make it over to the farm. We absolutely love these girls, and already miss them!

--I really needed to shower one morning, so I left Lydia downstairs watching a Super Why. A few minutes later she came upstairs into the bathroom and we played "put your hand on the shower door so our hands are in the same spot" for a minute. I told her that I was going to rinse the conditioner out of my hair and that she should go get a book to read from her room. As I was getting out of the shower, she came back in carrying her "HippoOpposites" book (her favorite right now), and I looked at her for the first time, gasped as I saw a large bump/gash on her forehead, dropped to my knees by her and said "Oh Lydia! What happened to your forehead???" Her smiling face immediately dropped and she started crying as she leaned into me. I think that I scared her by my reaction because she hadn't been upset before. I have no idea what happened, or whether it was before or after we were playing at the shower door - but this poor girl has another scar to add to her collection. It wasn't bleeding, and wasn't really deep enough to warrant stitches or anything, but it's another "head wound" to add to the list. She now has four scars within three inches of each other - all on the right side of her forehead/eye. I held her for a while, then she asked for some pretzels and a Super Why. She cuddled on the couch for a while, but didn't seem fazed other than that! I can't even imagine what happened, poor girl. 

--My baby brother Jacob graduated from High School! David had work, so he couldn't make it to the actual graduation - but it worked out for Lydia and I to be able to get a ride up to Morgan with Matthew so that David could just drive up afterwards. It was nice to be able to celebrate with Jacob and spend some time with family. The next day we celebrated my Dad's birthday and hung out.  

(Cousin bath time! Lydia loved it.) 

--Ashley and I love dressing up Elsie and Lydia in matching outfits, and even though they had no interest in posing for pictures - I still love these pictures of them (they even have matching hair). 

--Lydia is just really cute - and David is such a good dad. He brought home this notebook from work for Lydia to color in. I just love them both.

--This is one of our favorite games, one that we've played since Lydia first started walking and long before she started talking. Lydia hides on one side of my cedar chest and I hide on the other side. Then we take turns "rar-ring" and running to the other to "catch them". I love it so much. We finally got some pictures of it, and I'm so glad. 

--We planted a garden! And by garden, I mean we hauled in a bunch of topsoil to fill the back flowerbeds where the dirt settled, added some garden soil, and planted two zucchini plants, some pumpkins, and some watermelons. It was a ton of work and just a few plants - but we are starting small and will work our way up over the next several years. (You have to start somewhere, right?)  

So the story continues when we proudly turned on our sprinklers to make sure that all our tiny little seeds would get water and then walked back around the side of the house and saw water gushing from somewhere underneath the ground. David went to turn off the water while I frantically searched for the source of the water with my hand. Turns out... with all the settling dirt, the brown pipe for our plants had kinked (and we may have hit it with a shovel while we were moving the dirt around) and there was a hole in it. Just our luck - it was nighttime (we were finishing up after we put Lydia to bed) and David was headed to Fargo, ND for a work trip in the morning. But I headed to the sprinkler store the next morning, showed the guy a picture of my problem, got all the parts I needed and came home and fixed the sprinkler myself! It was awesome. There are a couple of different ways to finish it off, so for now we still have a lot of extra pipe and a random hole in the ground - but it's functional and I'm very proud of myself.  

--I mentioned that David was headed to Fargo ND for a work training. That meant that Lydia and I headed to Morgan to play with Grandma, Grandpa, and Dante (and Jake, of course). We went to the splash pad, the park, played with Dante all day, and then headed up to Idaho Falls on Thursday to celebrate Jenna's birthday. We had a fabulous time! 

--Last weekend we made it to our third annual Orem Summerfest. We love fun parades and boutiques and everything about summerfest-type things so we try to make it to a couple each summer. Randomly, we've only been to the Lehi Roundup once, but we've been to the Orem Summerfest every year since Lydia was born. It just seems to work in our summer schedule a little better. We don't usually eat there, but this year we had $20 that had been given us as a "date night" and we decided to use that to get some hamburgers, spiral potato-fries, and a snow cone to eat while we watched the parade. We had such a good time walking around the booths, then eating our food and watching the parade. I even ended up with a super pretty sun hat that I've been wishing for all summer. I love this little family of mine and am excited about the thought that next summer there will be four of us on our summer adventures. 

--We've had a great summer so far - so many wonderful things we've been able to do. I have two more things written down in my planner to add to this post - but I don't have any pictures yet, so you'll have to wait to read about the Museum of Natural Curiosity at Thanksgiving Point and our new Nursery chair.