May 2015 - Friends, Cousins, and Books

May was a pretty eventful month. David and I spent a week back East with some of his family and I'll do a separate post about that because it was an adventure for sure. :)

The beginning of May, one of my dear friends came home from her mission. We met when we were both singing in the Salt Lake Children's Choir and she is seriously one of the most amazing people I know. I love Emily to death and was so excited that I was able to leave Kollyn with David for a few hours and go to the choir's spring concert with her. We had dinner at Red Iguana in Salt Lake before heading over to First Presbyterian Church for the concert. It was so great reminiscing about our years spent together and remembering all the songs we sang that are still part of the rotation. And being able to see Mr. Woodward again was so great. I was noticing the other day that when Kollyn dances it looks a little like how he conducts music. ;) And that brings back so many awesome memories. :) Those 4.5 years were some of the best years. I sang some great songs and I met some amazing people I still consider good friends. :)

We have a small "garden" on our balcony. We're growing peas, spinach, carrots, basil, and mint. Kollyn loves to "help" me water them and will do it multiple times per day (minus the water part). She likes seeing our plants and has gotten so excited to see them get bigger. It'll be fun to show her that we can eat some of these things and use them in some of our cooking (even though it won't be much). I love watching her soak up information. She watches me water them and wants to do it too, so she does everything I do when I water them. She even shakes it the same way I do. :) She is such a quick learner and it's so fun to watch.

The middle of May my friend Dawn came to visit us. She's from Canada and we last saw each other 5 years ago when she graduated from CEU and went back. We had been in some of the same classes my freshman year and she really helped me with the Math and Physics problems I was having, and since I spent so much time in the Math Lab, we became good friends. :) She came down to do a field study with her Geology professor as part of her Master's program and came in a few days early so we could catch up. She stayed at our house and Kollyn warmed up to her almost instantly, giving her hugs and kisses. Dawn brought her some blocks with a little wagon and she loves those. It is good that we were able to have her stay because I have missed her since she left. :) I'm sad I won't be able to fly up to Canada for her wedding next year, but I am glad that I was able to spend a few days with her before her adventure to Southern Utah. :) 

Kollyn turned 18 months this month, which meant she got to start nursery. She loves it! We started taking her in a few weeks before and stayed with her to make sure that she would adjust well and she has had a blast pretty much every week. The first week there were some little boys throwing a ball around and it kept hitting her, so she took it when it came close and ran away, holding the ball up so they couldn't get it back. Needless to say, when she finally gave it back, they threw it the opposite direction. I think she got her point across. ;) But every other week she has had a blast and is getting better and better about sharing and interacting with the other kids. :) I love to see her social side come out when she is around other children. She doesn't care about age and just wants to play with everyone.
They do bubbles for the last five minutes and I can tell you, as much as she loves snacks and coloring, her favorite time is bubbles. She yells "Bubble!" the whole time she's running around and through the big storm of bubbles from the bubble blower. It's so much fun watching her get so excited. This next week will be the first week we leave her alone there so it'll be interesting to see how she handles that. I'm going to bet she doesn't even really notice we're gone. :)

Too cute not to share. We went to Ikea for a few things and she got super excited about this stack of rugs. She would climb up on it, say, "Two, THREE!" and slide off. She is getting pretty good at counting and is so proud of herself when she is able to do what she wanted to do. She also really likes to slide. :)

The day before we left for our trip (Kollyn stayed with my parents the week we were gone), we had Kollyn's first haircut. She wasn't a big fan. She cried when the girl sprayed her hair with water and again with the blowdryer. It was an interesting experience but probably not one we will repeat in the next little while. :)

But, she did get a balloon and she was very happy about that.

This little girl LOVES books. They are probably one of her favorite things in the whole world. She is perfectly content to sit and have you read books to her for HOURS. She'll bring me books randomly during the day and will keep bringing them to me if I let her. She has to have at least 4 books read before nap and bedtime (more if she can get you to read them) and will sit by herself and "read" for quite a while which makes it easy for me to make dinner or breakfast. :) She also loves to have "Poppa book" whenever she goes to their house. She knows exactly where the books are kept and will run over there yelling, "Poppa!" and then hand him a book as she climbs up onto the couch so he can read them to her. This is one thing I hope never changes. I love that she loves to read so much! We signed up for the 1000 books before Kindergarten program at the Provo Library and we have easily read 1/3 of that (and that's just the ones we've marked on the chart, so I know we've read way more than that). She is a bookworm and it's so much fun! :) It has encouraged me to start reading again. And I'm really glad.

 On Memorial Day (2 days after we got back from our trip) we went to the Discovery Park in Pleasant Grove with Karin, Luke, and David. Kollyn had a lot of fun running around with Luke. It was so cute to watch them give each other hugs and kisses and play together. I think it's awesome that Kollyn has a couple cousins her age that she can play with (Luke and soon Jane will be here) that are at the same stage in life as her. She loves all her cousins (She calls them all Car Car after my niece Carli) but it's fun to see how she reacts to kids her age and how they play together. :)

We had a BBQ that night with Karin and David and Luke, and our friends Book and Amy and their daughter. Kollyn kept trying to sit in Luke's Bumbo and it was cute to watch her and Luke go to the fridge together to play with the magnet animals we have on there. They would take them off, hand them to each other, laugh, and then put them back on the fridge before going off and doing their own thing for a minute, and then come running back to the fridge to start all over. :)

Kollyn loves Lilli. She's so excited when they come over and keeps saying, "baby" and trying to share toys with Lilli and trying to feed her. It's fun to see her be gentle with babies and how much she wants to help. I think she'll be a great big sister someday. :)

This little lady is learning and soaking up things like a sponge. Her 18 month appointment was today and while she's quite petite (She's 21 pounds (9%), 31 inches (29%)) she learns things SO fast. She talks and says more words than most kids, in fact she's on par with most of the 2 year olds our pediatrician and his partners see (the doctor was amazed at the amount that she talks and how much of it is totally clear and understandable) and she has very little fear of new experiences. Having her in our family challenges us and makes us grow, and it's been great! :) 

Easter 2015 (and some more random pictures)

 I realized after looking through my last post that I totally forgot to put in the information about Easter.

But that's ok....because now I can put in way more pictures without it feeling like overload! ;)

Before the Easter madness though, a few other pictures I forgot to put in that I love. :) 

She loves playing the piano at my parents house. She likes to turn pages in the music books, bang on the keys, and then gently press them to make sound. She's a natural already. ;)

She also loves helping me get the mail. She has her own set of keys that we got (at Lowe's they let us go through the box of messed up keys and pick out some to put on a ring for her since she always wants to hold our keys) and she'll go to every single mailbox and try to use her keys to open it up. We can spend, easily, 10 minutes at the mailbox.

Now, Easter.

 She had a lot of fun Easter egg hunting. We went to the Easter egg hunt in Karin's neighborhood with Karin, David, and Luke and she had so much fun running around and finding eggs. She got quite a few and was really excited about it. She still loves to "hide" eggs around the house, say "Where go?", and then go searching for them. She would barely hold still when I wanted pictures because she was so focused on finding eggs. Even when there weren't anymore to find, she was running around trying to find more. It was really cute to see how excited she was bout it all.












On Easter Sunday, we had a small Easter egg hunt at our house for her, since she had so much fun the day before, and had a lot of fun watching her go around the house looking for them. I have a video of her going around our house, but it's apparently too big to put on the blog. Just know that she was running all over looking for eggs saying, "OH!" whenever she found one, and throwing it in her basket triumphantly, grinning the whole time.

After looking for eggs, we sat down, read the story of Christ's resurrection, and then watched General Conference. I felt like it was the perfect way to spend Easter with our little family. It was quite, low-key, and focused on what we believe Easter is all about, with a little fun thrown in. :)

It was a great holiday and I loved that she was old enough to enjoy it, and even slightly understand what was going on. :) We were glad we got to spend it with our little family, and with some of our extended family as well.

April 2015: REAL Monarchs, Videos, and Baby Friends

This month was eventful for sure. The first two weeks of April David was super busy with school. He had three tests the first week, and the next week he had his big Intex project. He and his group had to design a working website in 5 days. They got the info on Monday and turned it in at noon on Friday, then presented Friday afternoon. That week of his big project, Kollyn and I went up to my parents house so we didn't distract him. He spent over 50 hours that week on the project, but it was definitely worth it. :) Kollyn got to hang out with her grandparents (even if it was only for one of the days we were there since they got home from vacation a couple days after we went up) and David did a great job on his project! I'm so proud of him and the dedication he puts to things!

And we had been invited to the REAL Monarchs soccer game that Saturday, April 11, by Kaylan and her fiance Tim (Thanks for inviting us!) and it was a lot of fun! It was a great way to blow off the steam from the week and my parents got to play with Kollyn and put her to bed at their house, which they love doing.  We went to dinner, Buffalo Wild Wings, and my contact ripped in half while in my eye, but it was such a fun night, that didn't even matter! We were really glad that things worked out so we could go and have some fun! (Even though the Monarchs lost)

The classic Dynes picture pose. ;) I love it.

Kollyn LOVES the outside. Going on a walk in her stroller, running around at the park, gathering sticks or rocks (she really loves rocks and will say "rock, rock, rock" really clearly whenever she sees one); it doesn't matter what it is, if we're outside, she's totally content. And she sleeps better so we make it a priority to have her run out all her energy outside. :) And she loves it! Some days it's kind of cold so we wrap her up like a burrito and she cracks up about it.

We are so lucky to live close to a lot of family. We have the Pass of All Passes and have fun going to the Trafalga in Lehi with my sister Melissa and her girls. Kollyn adores her cousins and loves to chase them around, give them hugs and kisses, play with them, and try to be like them. The last time we went, we rode on the carousal a bunch. She wasn't sure about it for the first minute of the first ride, but after that, she was all over it, saying "Wheeeeeeee!" as the horse went up and down. She wanted to ride it all afternoon. She's too small to ride any of the other rides there, so we ride on the carousal a lot and she loves it every time. :)

This was a hard one for me. I hate reptiles....they creep me out, scare the living daylights out of me, and just overall make me uncomfortable and scared. But, I try to put aside my fears and expose Kollyn to all kinds of things. She loved seeing all the snakes and lizards and turtles. She hissed like a snake and stuck her tongue out like a lizard whenever she saw one. I almost had a panic attack being so close to snakes, but it was worth it seeing how excited she got seeing the animals. The picture doesn't do it justice. She just laughed and shrieked and tried to touch them all, but never actually wanted to touch any of the ones that the keepers were holding.

This little girl really loves to stand on the balcony and watch and wait for Daddy to come home. And when she sees the garage door open, she gets so excited. It's definitely one of the best times of the day for her, having her Daddy come home to play with her.

She is just a curious little girl. She loves putting on people's shoes (these shoes belong to our friend Mark) and then walking around in them. And she walks really well in big shoes. She also loves that children's laptop. It plays quite a few songs and she knows exactly how to get it to play the songs she loves.

This is one thing I love. I've been rewatching all the episodes of The Big Bang Theory and this is what happens whenever hears the theme song come on, no matter what else she's doing. :) She loves to dance and bounce when she hears music. It's so cute and I love it.

David has indoctrinated her well. She'll bring me her Batman shirt, her Batman toy, or her Batman books and say, "Bama". She very much knows who he is, she sees him a lot (we have a big poster of Batman in our front room) and is a big fan. She pointed to him on each page of this book and said, "Bama" at each one.

We were lucky enough to be able to go to the Payson temple open house last week. It was so beautiful and I am excited for it to be dedicated. We were a little nervous that Kollyn would be upset or cry while we were there, but she didn't make any noise. She didn't fuss when they put the covers on her shoes, she held our hand while she walked, and didn't squirm or anything when we held her. I'm sure she knew how special this place was and what it is going to be and I love that we were able to experience this with her.

Kollyn really enjoys playing with other kids. This was her new friend that she made in Relief Society last week. They played on the floor and on the chairs next to us and kept themselves entertained most of the hour. It was awesome to be able to pay attention to the lesson and know she was occupied. This week they're going to let us start getting her use to nursery and we're really excited about that. She's so social I think she'll love being able to play with the other kids for a couple hours instead of having to sit with us in our classes.

Currently, she is obsessed with babies. Whenever she sees one she goes crazy saying, "Baby, baby, baby" and pointing until I acknowledge it and even that usually doesn't stop her incessant chattering about babies. Our friends have a little six month old baby girl and when they come over, Kollyn goes nuts. She likes to hold the baby's hand, "help" the baby play with her toys, and try and feed the baby the food from her tray.  She loves to jabber to the baby, smile at her, and laugh like they have some private jokes that no one else knows about. I love that she is really into babies, hopefully that means that when we do have another baby, she'll be more excited than jealous. I'm sure we'll go through the jealousy stage, but I hope that her love of babies and smaller kids helps make that phase shorter.

I have a bunch more videos of her doing super cute stuff like welcoming Daddy home, going through her list of animal sounds (She knows so many animal sounds and so many words that it's getting so much easier to communicate with her and I love that!!!!), and going down the slides by herself. Sadly, they're too big of files for the blog. But just know that they're super cute and I may or may not (but definitely do) watch them at least once a day to remind myself just how lucky I am to be this girl's mom. Some days it's hard to remember, like this last week she's been getting her molars and not sleeping as well as she's use to, and I need to be reminded that she's such an amazing kid and that we are beyond lucky to have her in our family. :) We love this little girl.

And that's pretty much the month. :) 

March 2015: Short, Sweet, and to the Point

March has been really relaxed. We've been finishing up the organizing of our new place, and by we I mean David because he likes doing that kind of thing and always ends up redoing it after I've done it, so I figure I'll let him do it in the first place. ;)

We did St. Patrick's Day with my parents. We made corned beef for the first time and it turned out really well, a lot better than I imagined it would. :) Next year I want to continue my family's tradition of dying foods green. And pink/red for Valentine's. I always had fun with that as a kid and would love to incorporate that into our traditions as well.

We got on a a walk every day after breakfast. It helps Kollyn sleep better (3 hours naps instead of no hour naps) so that in and of itself is incentive enough, but it also helps me a ton, especially since I went off my anti-depressants at the end of February, so getting outside has really helped me cope with that change. Luckily, I was on the lowest dose already so, while the process was difficult, it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I had a few days where I was super nauseous and had no energy, but pushing though that helped it not last so long, thankfully.

And I have that ability to push through because of this adorable little face!

She is starting to really like swings. She'll say "Wheeeeeeee" and smile and giggle now. Before she was stone faced the whole time. If there is one thing this girl can do, it's have a stone face and no reaction. She'll do it a lot, especially when she knows we're wondering what her reaction is. David will drive the stroller all crazy trying to get any kind of reaction and she is stone faced. Silly little girl.

But there's no doubt she loves her Daddy. This little girl is 99% David. I'm pretty sure the 1% she got from me was liking Thin Mints ;) But in all seriousness, she is very much a Daddy's girl and has him wrapped around her little fingers. She runs to the door when he comes home and yells "HI DADADA!" and gives him a huge hug. She loves holding his hand, sliding down the slide with him, and snuggling with him on the couch. I love their relationship and I love watching it grow more and more as she gets older. I'm so glad she has been able to develop that bond with him. I know it means a lot to him that she loves him that much. 

These last few weeks at school have been really hard on all of us. He's been gone a lot of late nights doing projects and homework and has missed out on bedtime, which is normally Daddy time. Kollyn will stare at the door and say "dada da dada dada da" over and over, waiting for him to come. It breaks my heart, but it's only for a few more weeks. It makes David feel really bad he's not there for her when she wants him to be, but we both know it's unavoidable. He is just so ready to be over and can't wait to graduate, though now there have been some complications with that we're having to work through. But oh well. Soon school will be over and she'll have her Dad back. 

This girl is such a ham! She knows exactly how to make people laugh and will keep doing it. Once you start laughing, she starts laughing and her laughs are so contagious you can't help but keep laughing. It's a never ending circle of cute laughter and smiles. This is one of her current favorite things, putting a travel pillow on her head, and then trying to put it on my head. It makes her crack up and I have no idea why. She is just so cute and loves to make people feel better. I've had a couple days this month where I've been so upset and she'll come up to me, pat my shoulder (she watches me rub David's back so I think that's what she's trying to do), give me a big hung, a big kiss, and say "mamama." while giving me this huge grin. It's hard to be sad when that much love is coming your way. She definitely knows how to brighten a room, that's for sure.

And that's really about it. We go on walks all the time, can't wait for the pool to open (It looks like they might open it earlier than Memorial Day, since it's been so warm, because we've seen them taking the cover off and workers working on it so fingers crossed they open it soon!), and we're all ready for summer to be here. :)