Wednesday, April 1, 2015

WAPUPS!

Lilian is really in to flowers right now.

I take that back, she's really in to EVERYTHING.

 

Today after finishing dinner I wiped my brow, threw my hand on my hip and took a deep breath.
"There is stuff everywhere."

I spun a slow circle and realized that there was, indeed, stuff. Everywhere. Every surface of our small house was covered in all the things.


I know Lilian needs to get in to things and play and learn but she does not need to get in to the kitchen cabinets, in my opinion. Spices, glass bowls, brown sugar, and cleaning supplies never did a kid good.

I needed a solution and I needed it yesterday so I ran to the Home Depot and got two dowels. I ran the dowels through our cabinet handles. Problemo Solved.

The best part (other than less mess) is that Lilian loves it! Why? Well, see for yourself.




 A place to put her beautiful flowers all in a row.


p.s. Don't worry, I know she'll figure out the dowels soon enough. Well I'm one step ahead of her. You'll see.

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

March 20th

Robert and I are on a reading streak. The genre is non-fiction. Epic. Survival.

First, we read Endurance an account of Shackleton and his crew's Antarctic expedition and their struggle to live with nothing but floating, melting ice flows and fatty seals. Then we got in to Unbroken, the biography of Luis Zamperini, an Olympic athlete turned bombardier who survived a downed plane, weeks at open sea, and lived to tell about being a Japanese prisoner of war. I recently finished Miracle in the Andes, the first hand account of a Rugby team's story of survival and escape from an uninhabitable nightmare after their plane crashed in the Andes. That one was pretty dark on account of the cannibalism. Eeesh. And I just started The Lone Survivor. ...Pretty self-explanatory.




Talk about page turners. 

It's been an experience. Each book was different, each challenge unique, each individual affected differently, but to me each book was the same experience.

First, I'm horrified at what people are put through.
Second, I'm blown away by the resiliency of the human body, mind, and soul.
Third, I wonder if my own body, mind and soul would survive     (fill in the blank)    hardship.
And lastly, I breathe a ginormous sigh of relief when (spoiler alert!) Shackleton reaches humanity, WWII ends, Parrado sees a man across the river, etc. It makes you wriggle down into your nice soft clean bed and love that your belly is full (of NOT your friends) and your fingers aren't frozen.

I have never been through something so traumatic but every year I experience that emotional sigh of relief. Every year I am sucked in to a dreary place, as are we all, where there seems to be no warmth, no sunlight, color, happiness, or hope for better. That place is called Winter. Now, I can't complain, this winter has been mild and, dare I say, magical thanks to a Christmas storm. But after marrying an Arizonian cyclist I see that winter holds next to no happiness (unless you have the time and money to enjoy winter sports. Ain't nobody got time for that.) and it's hard to see him suffer.

Last week Robert opened our front door and just stood for a while on our tiny front porch. He looked around, took a deep breath, let out that sigh of relief that says so much in so little breath, and with all the fervor of a lone survivor whispered, 

"We did it."

Winter is over.


Monday, October 6, 2014

October Conference

It was a beautiful Conference weekend full of inspiration and renewed determination to do what is right. 

It was also full of delicious food, birthday dinner, Halloween decorating, and baby play time. Lilian had a blast playing with Stagg cousins, Papa and Grandma, and Grandpa, Gram, and Uncle Michael...of which I took no pictures.

But here are a couple of Lilian in our back yard, and a few pictures from our epic trip to the Cabin in August. 




















Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Lilian is 10 Months Old!

**UPDATE** I obviously started working on this post a couple of weeks ago when Lilian was actually 10 month's old. Now she is nearing 11 months. Oops.

My baby is 10 months old.

She can crawl, pull herself to standing,

feed herself avocados, pick grass and eat it, pull her books off the shelves and flip through the pages,

and she is incredible at imitating sounds and inflections. She's even learning to whistle! True story.

She loves reading and getting out of the house on errands. All animals make her laugh, and she's in love with Daddy.



She is always happy. Her first tooth erupted on my birthday, July 30th, and her second one just popped out on her 10 month birthday. We love her so much!










Monday, June 23, 2014

Seven Months Young

Lilian is 7 months!
 She FINALLY got sick. The three of us all caught a cold and Lilian experienced the misery that is sinus congestion for the first time in her short life. In true Lilian fashion, she powered through it with a smile on her face (most of the time..).
 For Father's Day we went to Heber City to see a working bomber from WWII and although it was fun for Dad and Papa, Lilian wasn't overly impressed.
 Last night she slept from 8 pm to 7:30 am. Haaaaaaallelujah!

She is somehow scooting around. I never see it in action but I'll leave her in one spot, do some dishes or something, and when I come back she is far from where I left her. Time to start baby proofing.



She's had carrots, sweet potatoes, and prunes (oh. my. goodness. Diaper=destroyed). Along with whatever we think would be funny to let her tastes, including but not limited to: crepes, jell-o, watermelon, mustard, sprite, and a little bit of guarana.

She's still just as happy as ever and is the perfect little companion. We love her more than anything!

"I don't want to be a hipster!"




We also love our new corner chair. It's kind of funky but it's perfect for our little Tree House.


Saturday, June 7, 2014

Carrots

Lilian is getting bigger and stronger!

She can roll over both ways, pivot, and she's trying to do the wounded soldier crawl. She wants to move!




She loves playing with daddy. I walk in from doing yardwork or switching the laundry and Robert is always doing something new and making her laugh.

She's eating baby food now and loves carrots. . . well, she's only ever had carrots. We haven't really branched out from carrots yet.