Insta-Tuesday {6.9.15}

So toward the middle/end of May, the camera on my phone stopped working. After some problem solving with LG Customer Care, it was determined that I needed to send my phone to a repair facility in Texas. I've now been without a phone for almost a week and a half and without a camera for almost twice that. This has obviously put a hamper on my instagramming. I realized this week that I haven't done a insta-tuesday post in a while and looking through these pictures is making me even more anxious to have my phone back! (Not to sound overly dramatic - but not having a phone for a week and a half is really rough.) 

#enjoy

{4.22.15}

These two were champs at the grocery store so we stopped and played on the little airplane before heading home. Its so fun to see these two together.#mybabies #grocerystoreadventures #sofun

{4.24.15}

Peekaboo and baby laughs. My heart is about to burst.#peekabooiloveyou #bestbigsister#helovesher

{4.27.15}

Lydia got a special letter in the mail today. #penpals#luckytohavegreatfriends

{4.29.15}

First trip to the dentist. 18.5 teeth, no cavities. Hooray. Also, a tv in the ceiling, sparkle fingernail polish, a balloon, and a token to choose a prize. All in all a smashing success. #iwishiwenttothisdentist

{5.1.15}

Tulip festival and Lydia's three year pics. I rented a camera at the door and i'm so glad I did! Much photo love going on here. #myheartmelts

{5.1.15}

After a long day outside, this baby is wiped out! #sleepybaby

{5.2.15}

Branding 2015 wouldn't be the same without a joy(ful) ride on the tire swing in grandma-great and grandpa-great's backyard. #wyoming#overallsforthewin

{5.5.15}

Late night birthday prepping.#turningthreeisabigdeal #balloons#therewillbestreamerstoo

{5.6.15}

This lovely girl turns three years old today. My mommy heart wants to cry and sing at the same time. I love watching her learn and grow and develop. I love that she tells me I am silly and that she loves me. I love that she sings songs and "reads" books and says "okay-okay". This adventurous little girl makes our world spin.#birthdaygirl #pleasestopgrowingup #excusemewhileigocry

{5.6.15}

Celebrating 3 years of parenthood with some popcorn and DWTS.#bestspotinthehouse #chaiselounge

{5.8.15}

{insta-david}

I love seeing them together.#bestfriends #hewasplayingwithitfirst #sometimesshesmusheshim

{5.8.15}

Just "hanging" out.#ithinkimpunny #sunshineandhappiness #austinscott

{5.8.15}

Happy Mothers Day to me.#ilovebeautifulthings #teapartyanyone#almostfree

{5.13.15}

This sweet sleeping baby. I came into him room to wake him up so we could go meet some friends and was overwhelmed with how sweet and special he is. I'm lucky to be his mama.#lovehimsomuch

{5.13.15}

Adventuring through the Gardens.#wishtherewasanelevatortotakeyoubackout #summerpicnics

{5.14.15}

Listening to Julianne Donaldson (author of Edenbrooke and Blackmoore) speak at a special author event at my library. So fun! I loved her and everything she had to say. Thanks@amypeaden1 for coming with me!#taketimeforwhatsimportant#nooneisgoingtogiveittoyou#blackmooreismyfavorite also#iwantmyhairtolooklikehers

{5.19.15}

You know it's an awesome morning when your mom lets you eat all the leftover panda cupcakes from the freezer.#pandalove #cupcakesarelikemuffinsright#winning

(Insert where my phone camera stopped working and my instagramming plummeted.)

{5.27.15}

Spent the evening with the lovely and talented @alexibullock learning how to work some Illustrator magic. It was beautiful and informative. (Seriously, how gorgeous is this.) #illustratorwithalexi@veryjane@juliasmithfloral

{5.28.15}

My phone is being wonky, and after three phone calls to LG customer service the only option is to factory reset my phone. I'm spending a massive amount of time that I don't really have trying to make sure everything (pictures, important info, phone numbers, etc) is saved to my computer. #lovemybackground#hopethisworks #iwantacameraagain

{6.1.15}

{insta-david}

Heard the right amount of noise, then lack of noise from downstairs while I was getting ready this morning and my daddy radar went off. Found Lydia with the ice cream and a bowl. #spumoni#iletherhaveonebite #independent#pinkprincessdress

Austin Scott: 7-8 Months

This has been the most wonderful May. The weather has been the perfect mixture of sunny afternoons and rainy evenings. We've spent a lot of time with family, started to enjoy the fun outdoor activities of summer, and Austin's personality has really started to shine. This is one of my very, very, very favorite stages - Austin is so happy, playful, and cheerful and he is learning so much. We went from barely rolling to practically mobile! More on that later... but we've loved this last month together.

Stats: Wearing size 2 diapers and solidly in 9 month clothes (not 6-9 months).  No teeth. Starting to get a little bit of hair on the crown of his head. 

Some things I want to remember about this month: 

--He is physically developing like crazy. He can barely remain sitting because he's so anxious to be mobile. He'll lean forward onto his knees (or, lean forward onto his toes - then after working his legs for a bit finally get to his knees) and rock back and forth. By the end of the month he figured out that he can push himself back from his knees to a sitting position. Now he can get from his bum, to his knees, to laying on his tummy, back to his knees, and back to sitting! He's not "crawling" necessarily but he is definitely mobile. With all the moving to his knees, tummy, and pushing back to a sitting position, he rarely stays in the same place. He'll end up several feet away from where he started. He also learned how to pivot himself when he's on his tummy so he can aim himself the way that he wants to go (even if most of the time he ends up pushing himself backwards). I love to watch him try to get to something by pushing himself forward, realizing he can't quite get it, laying down on his tummy and stretchinggg his arms out, and doing all he can to maneuver his body towards it to get it.  

--He has such a funny sense of humor. He thinks things are funny and he laughs about them all the time. I can't believe how smiley his is and how much of his day is spent giggling about something. It could be Lydia running around and playing a game with him, or even just reaching out to grab something that he finds amusing. (Like, the other day I was holding him and standing by a wall. He wanted so badly to touch the wall and when I leaned forward so he could reach he laughed and looked up at me with a smile, and laughed while touching the wall again.) It doesn't take much, just tapping on his tongue or dancing with him will get him to start laughing with you. 

--It's so fun to have him have such a developed sense of humor. Sometimes while I'm rocking him before bed and he isn't quite ready to fall asleep yet he likes to play a game with me where he bites on his pacifier and I tug it out really fast. He laughs and I put the pacifier back in, he bites down, and I pull it out again. It's silly, but I love to hear him laugh so I play with him even if I should be getting him calmed down and ready for bed. One day he grabbed the pacifier from me, then tried to put it in my mouth. When I grabbed it with my lips, he pulled it out and laughed and laughed. I loved it so much! Now we take turns with our little game. I'm obviously impressed that he grasped the game and turned the tables on me. I have a hundred examples of his clever little sense of humor but can't possibly record them all. But I definitely want to remember how funny and humorous he is. 

-He discovered his tongue and for almost a week and a half it was out all day every day. He thought it was so funny and interesting and couldn't get over how cool it was. He also took an interest in everyone else's tongues (most people who saw him with his tongue out also stuck their tongues out at him, really, it was hard to resist). If someone stuck their tongue out, he'd perk up, smile, stick his tongue out even more, and try to grab their tongue.  So funny! Even now, all you have to do to get him to stick his tongue out is to show him yours and smile. He'll show you his tongue right back. 

--Austin made his first appearance at the annual Walker family branding festivities. He wasn't sure about the whole thing and spent the majority of the time observing everything with a skeptical look on his face.

-I don't have any great pictures of this, but he's started to pull himself up to a standing position. He needs something pretty sturdy, but if he can get a good grasp he can pull himself up with his arms and push with his legs. He's always so proud when he makes it up and he practices as many times as he can in a day. 

--He's super ticklish. I [not so] secretly love it. 

--He grabs at EVERYTHING. Absolutely nothing is outside of his reach. I can't hold him while I eat or we both end up with food all over us. Really, I can't hold anything else while I'm holding him. I think I've set things out of his reach and he always proves me wrong. I'm continually pulling important documents, random wrappers, paperback books, and a hundred other objects away from him. I don't know how he manages to reach things that are obviously out of range - but he does.  

--With the happiness of summer, we've started to get a little less structured with our naptimes. He's such a trooper and is pretty good about just hanging out wherever we are, even if it's naptime, and just taking a short nap in the car or taking a longer/later nap. Sometimes we do three one hour naps. Sometimes we do two longer naps. Sometimes, I keep him out way too long and he only gets one real nap and he just sleeps here and there. Through it all he's a cheerful, happy baby and glad to just be with us wherever we are. 

-I love this baby. He is pretty good for other people, but I love the way he smiles and reaches for me when he sees me again. There's nothing like your own baby to make you feel loved and needed. I've started leaving him with babysitters a little more now that he's a little older but I miss him while I'm gone. I'm pretty content to just bring him with me wherever I go because he's such a happy camper. (Also, no picture of it - but we are quite the babywearing team. He loves it. I love it. I wear him almost everytime we leave the house.)  

--I don't know if you can really tell in the picture above, but I think Austin takes after me and my side of the family a lot. He looked almost exactly like David when he was born but he's definitely started showing a lot of Walker. Actually I think he looks just like my little brother Matthew when he was a baby, but it's definitely that Walker look. I love that both Lydia and Austin have their daddy's blue eyes and blonde hair, but I kind of love seeing so much of myself in him. (What do you think? And also, my parents! I love this picture of them. And me.) 

 

--I talked a little bit about naps. As far as nighttime goes, we haven't started sleep training because I haven't felt good about it. I usually nurse him till he's tired, lay him in bed and hold his hand while he sucks on his pacifier until he falls asleep. (Thank heavens for David taking care of Lydia in the next room.) When he wakes up in the night I go in and fall asleep with him until morning, waking up frequently to adjust and nurse. We are both pretty tired in the morning and I know that he'd sleep better if I just made the effort to help him sleep in his bed all night, but I don't know how to do that when I'm so tired. Working on that this next month. 

--I know I said it before, but I love seeing this little boy's personality shine through. He's so happy and funny and sweet. We love him and are excited (and also a little nervous) for him to learn to crawl and all the other things that come with being mobile. It's going to be a great summer.

Happy 8 months Austin! 

Wednesday & Taking Stock

Wednesdays are such wonderful days. I've usually gotten all of my grocery shopping done for the next week or two, I've probably done most of the laundry for the week, and we've probably spent much of the day playing with friends. Monday and Tuesday are behind us (which are nice days in their own right, but being at the start of the week is a major bummer for them), Thursday and Friday are right around the corner and I can't help but feel the excitement for the weekend stirring already.

This week I've felt really productive. I've done some decluttering upstairs, finished up some big Red Ladder Stuff, kept my kitchen fairly clean, and spent some time with my little ones out in the sunshine. I've been wanting to blog, like just sit and write, for a long time - but I feel like I'm always trying to get through my never-ending to-do list and my "later" just never comes around. I also don't have anything I want to blog about specifically, but some of my favorite posts are just the random posts about nothing specific at all. My friend Ali occasionally does this "Taking Stock" post and they are always so fun to read, so I'm stealing her idea today as a way to scratch my blogging itch.

Taking Stock:

Making : superhero capes with good friends for some (hopefully) great imaginative play.

Cooking : potato supreme. David's favorite food = a sure way to his heart.

Drinking : lots of water after a long excursion to the gardens today but seriously considering putting our last can of Dr. Pepper in the fridge for later tonight.

Reading : more books than I have time for. (And next on my list is As You Wish by Cary Elwes)

Researching : the best way to hang a quilt on a wall. Attach a quilt sleeve? Use clamps? I don't know!

Wanting: Austin's room to be decorated beautifully, now. I have all sorts of ideas and I just want them to come together perfectly and be finished like, today. (My patience is wearing thin.) 

Hoping: Lydia and Austin don't wake up from their naps until I'm done blogging. :)

Looking: at the 28 tabs I have open in my browser window and hoping my computer doesn't explode.

Playing: tickle monster with Lydia might be my favorite thing right now.

Wasting: time on Facebook and it is driving me crazy.

Sewing: an apron and hot pads for Lydia to use in her play kitchen. She's been helping me by climbing on my back while I sew and pulling all of the thread off my extra bobbins.

Wishing: we had an extra $3,000 to spend on fancy cooking pans because obviously every one needs titanium no-oil, no-water cookware in their lives.

Enjoying: my free platinum no-oil, no-water pan that makes vegetables more healthy and allows you to bake a cake on the stovetop.

Waiting: for David to get home. It's everyone's favorite time of the day.

Liking: the sunshine. (Summer, we love you!) 

Wondering: exactly how many days until the swimming pool opens.

Loving: having good friends who are so much fun to be around.

Marveling: at how fast my babies are growing up and how lucky I am to be their mom.

Needing: to finish making the above mentioned potato supreme.

(still) Smelling: the cup of forgotten milk that Lydia put in the cupboard who knows how many days ago until I knocked it over and spilled it all over the floor. gag. gag. gag.

Wearing: my favorite pair of jeans that tragically ripped at the knee but were miraculously saved by cutting them into shorts. Still mourning my lost pair of pants, but excited to have such comfy shorts this summer.

Following: David around like a little puppy dog whenever he's around.

Noticing: how much TV I let Lydia watch when I'm busy with Red Ladder stuff and wishing I could find a better balance. 

Knowing: that my baby girl is three years old and absorbs every single thing around her.

Thinking: about the popcorn and ice cream we are going to eat tonight as we watch the DWTS semi-finals!

Feeling: at a loss to know how to help the people we love as they are encountering seemingly impossible challenges in their lives.

Pinning: yummy recipes to try for dinner and lots of fun ideas for kids in the summer.

Opening: a new business banking account that is much closer to where we live. (After 4.5 years of living in Lehi, I won't have to drive 25 minutes to deposit my RLD checks anymore.)

Giggling: at the funny things Lydia says now that she is communicating her thoughts even more.