Visit from my Mom.

The Friday before Easter, Lydia and I were lucky enough to be able to spend the whole day with my mom. We went shopping for some new clothes and looked at lots of pretty home decor items. Lydia even convinced her Grandma to buy her this little purple bunny. She loves it! She carried it around for the rest of the day.  (And lets be honest, the rest of the week she was inseparable. She still loves it.) 

Her pants look a little big, because this was the day that I decided (with my mom's help) to tackle changing out Lydia's winter clothes (6-9 months) to her summer clothes (12-18 months). The only problem is that she doesn't quite fit. Oh well. She is still too cute. AND she is walking! We had a great time walking around the stores following grandma and playing with that pretty purple bunny. 

We finished our adventure with a couple of cupcakes at The Sweet Tooth Fairy and then came home and my mom helped me work on organizing Lydia's clothes/room.

My mom stayed over the night and then headed back home the following afternoon. Before she left, we  took a few pictures in front of our house. 

This is the first picture of our little family in front of our house after we moved in. (Notice the lack of blinds in the window? Yeah, my posts are a little out of order. But blinds are up and we are happy!)

I'm in love with these cute pictures of my mom and Lydia. I think they are so special. 

People always say that you appreciate your mother more after you have your own child. I hate to admit it... but it is totally true. I wish that I could say that I've always appreciated my mom (and shown that appreciation) as much as she deserves... but I appreciate her more and more every day. She is so smart, and whenever I need advice - she is the first person I call. In fact most of our conversations during my college years started with "Hey mom, hypothetically, if I were to ____ what would you suggest?" She has made so many sacrifices for me, things that at the time I didn't even realize were sacrifices. As I watch Lydia grow, and think about all the crazy things that I do for her (hold her while she is throwing up, sit in the back seat of the car so I can block the sun with my hand because she doesn't like the blanket covering the carseat, rock her multiple times in the middle of the night because she is crying, etc..), I think about how many things my mom has done for me. Many of my waking hours during the night are spent thinking about my mom and how wonderful she is. I was so grateful that she was able to come down and spend some time with us. I always miss her so much after she leaves. (I'm subtly trying to convince my parents to move closer. I don't know that it will ever happen, but a girl can dream!)

Not only is my mom a great mother, she is an excellent grandmother. The majority of Lydia's clothes have come from her, that she buys from a lady in Morgan who had twins two years ago around the same time as Lydia - so they are all in the right season. I really don't know what we would have done without her. Lydia certainly wouldn't be dressed as darling as she is.  But not only that, my mom loves Lydia so much, and it's so cute to see how much Lydia loves her back.

We are blessed to have this amazing woman in our lives. I love you mom! I hope you know how much I love and appreciate you. (Please come down again soon!)

Blinds

After tons of research, four bids from local blind people, and comparison shopping at least two online companies (and several weeks of no blinds in the windows), we finally made a decision and ordered some blinds! 

We decided on Select Blinds because of their quality and their cost. They were the cheapest by far and when I saw their connection with Extreme Home Makeover, I was all but sold. (Haha. Just kidding.) We saved about $500 by installing them ourselves. We measured and remeasured each of our 16 windows and then placed our order. 

Less than two weeks later, these beauties showed up on our front steps. 

They were pretty heavy, and it took me several trips outside to drag them inside. Lydia wanted to come with me, which was problematic because she doesn't understand the concept of "falling down stairs if you aren't careful". I brought her out and set her on the driveway, but she tried to climb the steps. I set her inside and she tried to climb out the door. Finally I trapped her in the living room. She was NOT happy. I had to laugh because she could have easily crawled around the coffee table and made it to the door in a matter of seconds. But she was so upset that she couldn't make that connection. She tried to climb over the box, got down on her knees and tried to crawl around the box (into the wall), then stood back up and cried until I finished bringing the boxes in.

Haha. I know it's probably bad to laugh. And in the moment, I really was hurring as fast as possible because I hated to see her cry. But now I look at these pictures and think they are so funny. It's interesting because Lydia is learning new things every day, but this is a good example of the fact that she still doesn't understand some basic things (like being able to crawl around the coffee table). 

When David got home, we pulled out one set of blinds to check them out. Yay for pretty blinds! 

The following Saturday, we started hanging. 

Yay! Our first window done. Lydia didn't love the sound of the drill, but between the two of us she did okay. We started with the smallest window in the someday-nursery to give ourselves practice.

 Armed with experience and a good understanding of the process of blind-hanging we moved downstairs and worked on the living room window. (Which is the only main floor window open to the street.) I was so excited to get some blinds up.

We busted out our awesome red ladder to help us in our blind-hanging efforts. This was the first time that it was actually used for something other than display/advertisement. We hung these two windows during the break between General Conference. We figured that was a good start. However, the following week, I decided that I was ready to have blinds up in all the rooms and so over the course of two days... I hung the rest of them by myself. I was so proud. I mostly worked during Lydia's naptime, but towards the end, she wasn't as afraid of the sound of the drill and she crawled around the room while I worked on hanging the blinds. At one point, I could feel her holding onto the small step ladder by my feet. (It's just a two-step ladder, but it was tall enough to reach the windows upstairs.) After I finished drilling the hole, I looked down and Lydia had figured out how to climb up on the bottom step and was holding onto my legs on the top step. I was impressed and a little concerned. I had to turn the stool/ladder around so that the steps were facing the wall to prevent her from climbing up them.

I was so proud of myself for hanging the rest of the blinds (and super grateful for my parents who gave me an awesome power-tool set for my graduation present). However, the following morning I could barely move! The muscles in my arms and back were so sore. Luckily, David watched Lydia while I mustered up the energy to get out of bed. After he got home from work he gave me a nice backrub while we watched one of our TV shows.

Moral of the story: We now have blinds and we are SO excited. It's amazing that such a simple thing can make such a big difference in the feel of the house. Things already look so much more finished and lived in. (Where before, the open windows made things look really... "we just barely moved in".) Next up is a curtain for the sliding glass door in the kitchen, hanging our temple picture in the living room, and buying an entertainment center for the family room. Yay!

Easter 2013

I know that this is a little late, but better late than never right? Easter came really early this year, it was March 31st. I think that Easter is the most random holiday date-wise. We started discussing how the date of Easter is determined, and the only thing we knew is that it had something to do with the moon. After some Google-searching, we discovered that Easter is held on the first Sunday after the first full moon occurring on or after the vernal equinox.  How is that for complicated? Regardless of how the date is determined - it is such a wonderful opportunity to think of our Savior and his atonement and resurrection. We are so blessed in so many ways, but none greater than through the blessings of the atonement and resurrection. 

Lydia had a pretty yellow Easter dress and she played with her little purple bunny all day. We had quite the busy week and so we decided to forgo the Easter basket this year. We aren't sure exactly how we want to celebrate Easter, and I'm glad that we have another year to figure it out before Lydia really knows what is going on. The holiday centers so much on Christ, that it's hard for me to see how to fit the Easter Bunny into everything. But, I also think that it is important to incorporate fun family traditions into holidays. I like what one of my friends said, to do Easter Baskets and an egg hunt on Saturday and then celebrate the true meaning of Easter on Sunday. 

I felt a little bad as I saw so many friends doing cute Easter egg hunts with their little babies. I'm sure that Lydia would have loved it, because she is definitely in that inquisitive stage - but regardless, we spent Easter together as a family and it was wonderful.   

We went to church and then came home and we all took naps. (Remember, we had quite the crazy time the week before - naps were very much needed.) After we woke up, we headed to West Jordan for a delicious Easter dinner. Most of the rest of the night revolved around this little girl: 

She is totally spoiled whenever we go anywhere, because she is always the center of attention. She is always surrounded by people who adore her and watch her every move. I love these pictures because it shows a true picture of how things are - all the adults seated around her and Lydia in the center, soaking up the attention. She managed to get every single person clapping with her, laughing at her, and loving on her at the same time. 

After we put her to bed, we got out some games and played those until it was time for us all to head home. We are grateful for the chance that we had to spend our Easter with Davids parents, both his grandmas, Bruce, Amy, Jeff and Kaylee.

More than anything, this Easter was a beautiful reminder to me of the love and joy that knowing and believing in Jesus Christ brings. We all go through hard things. Some things are harder than others, and some things seem like they can't be overcome - but I truly know that through the atonement of our Savior ALL things can be overcome. That 2,000 years ago, a tomb was found empty. It is empty because he is not there, he truly lives. And because of this we will also live again. It is a beautiful and joyful thing. I live everyday in gratitude for that blessing. 

Happy Easter!