August 2014

This month was pretty fun. K turned 9 months, we drove from Texas back to Utah, David started school and a new job, and we're learning more and more about being parents and watching her grow up. It makes David sad a little that she's growing up. He misses his little girl some days, but I know he also loves the way she is now.

She loves to explore. Everywhere. One day before we came back from Texas I heard her screeching in the living room so I came in from the kitchen to see this. She was trying to push herself under the chair to get to an empty plastic water bottle....and me, being the caring and loving mother I am, snapped a picture (or 5). She wasn't happy that I was doing that instead of immediately helping her get out from under there.

We got to have such a fun playdate with our friends Tiffany and Pippa. Pippa is only a few days older than Kollyn and it was so cute watching them play together! Kollyn kept trying to "share" her receipt with Pippa, and by share I mean shove in Pippa's mouth. And I was really happy to get out of the house and hang out with Tiffany. Too bad they lived like an hour away so this was the only time we were able to go up and see them. We're definitely missing our friends!!!

Kollyn has become quite the foodie. She eats anything we give her. Her current favorites are chicken, cheese (of course), strawberries, and sausage. She gets sausage most mornings for breakfast with either toast or pancake, and then dessert for all her meals is a bunch of fruit, usually strawberries but she loves pretty much any fruit (except bananas. She only tolerates bananas.). She loves to feed herself, so we just cut things up into little pieces and let her go to town. She just loves eating. She drinks less formula and will only drink it during mealtimes or right before bed or nap (though the last few nights getting her to drink her bedtime bottle has been quite a challenge) so I have to make sure she's drinking the right amount, but we're going to go talk to her doctor next week (FINALLY after fighting with Medicaid as well as my and David's health insurance for a month) so we'll see what he says about that. :)

 

This is her at our favorite restaurant in Houston, Lankford Grocery. We saw it on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives and it's labeled the "Best Burger in Houston" and it definitely lives up to the name. It's only open for breakfast and lunch though, so finding a time to go was a real challenge. We loved it! We will go back whenever we're in Houston for sure. She liked that we shared a lot of our meal with her and loved playing with the straws. We liked them because they're in plastic wrap so she couldn't slowly disintegrate the wrapper as she chewed on it. We may or may not (but definitely did) have taken a few to put in her diaper bag to keep her entertained. We went to Lankford 3 times and each time it didn't disappoint. We recommend it to anyone looking for a delicious place to eat in Houston!!! 

I couldn't help but share this picture. I love it so much. She never sits forward in the cart, she always turns to her right and watches things that way. This one I love because of her arm. She looks like she's just chilling in the cart, waiting for Mom and Dad to be done grocery shopping. That, plus the look on her face, make me laugh whenever I see this picture. I can just hear what she'd be saying, "Mom, Dad, that is the thirteenth box of stuff you've looked at. Put it in the cart and let's go home. I'm sure it's delicious."

K had a great time meeting her cousins Addie and Avery (and their bunny). She kept trying to play on their computer and follow them around the house. She has never seen a bunny before either, so seeing him was a big deal for her. She kept trying to pet him, but she hasn't quite got the "be soft" concept yet, so we tried to stop her whenever she went for it. It was a lot of fun being able to go up and spend time with them before we left to go back to Utah.

I just love her little sunglasses!!!

The Saturday before Kollyn and I left (August 9) we went to the Houston Zoo with our friends Kat and her husband Kevin. Kollyn had a good time looking at all the animals, drinking out of the lion, standing on the ladybug, and (something that David wanted to do all summer) feeding the giraffes. You pay $5 and get 3 leaves of lettuce. Then you go up onto a platform and the giraffes come over and eat the lettuce out of your hand. Kollyn was fascinated and couldn't take her eyes off the giraffes, even as we were walking down the ramp away from them. It was a really great experience and I loved that we were able to do it!

This kid reacts to absolutely nothing. That's a lime. And she has no reaction to the taste at all. She's also had lemon and not reacted to that either. I don't know if that'll continue, but it's sure funny to watch for now!

Will we ever make it through a whole sacrament meeting again??? I think not...Oh well. At least most foyers have comfortable couches (if they aren't taken up by other people). Also, K LOVES drinking water. She has two straw sippy cups (she doesn't like the regular kind) and would drink water all day if I let her.

This is my favorite thing! I love that crinkle nose smile so much! I finally was able to get it on camera and I HAVE to share it because whenever she does that, you know she's really happy and it's just so adorable!

On August 11 Kollyn and I left Texas to come back to Utah. My dear friend Tricia (we knew each other in elementary school, high school, were roommates in college, and we STILL love each other to death) flew down to help me drive up so I could get some stuff taken care of before David got home. We took three days to get home. The first day was 10 hours of driving and Kollyn was very unhappy unless we stopped, took her out of the car seat, and let her play, which we tried to do as much as possible, but she still was SO done by the end of the day. We stopped and stayed the night in Clovis, New Mexico and drove 6 hours the next day, to Farmington, New Mexico. The hotel in Farmington was really nice! And with the company David worked for over the summer footing the bill, we stayed in style. They had free pizza for dinner, free laundry, which was great because someone decided that it was ok to have a massive explosion a few hours before we got there and got all her clothes nasty (I'll give you 3 guesses and a hint as to who it was, it wasn't me or Tricia), and the breakfast was awesome! They had a little sitting room that was sectioned off so that K had a little room to sleep in, but that didn't stop her from waking up and being mad at me at 4:30 in the morning. I brought her into bed with me for a few minutes to calm her down, and then she was fine being laid back in the pack and play to sleep the rest of the night. She's a silly one, but a great sleeper and we won't complain about that. We got back to Utah on the 13 of August and we were all so happy to be out of the car. (The picture of her in the mirror was right after she gave herself about 6 kisses).

She has been exploring non-stop since we got back. She has been getting herself use to the house again and getting into EVERYTHING. She tried to "help" me unpack my clothes, be "helpful" and rearrange the food on the shelves, and "help" me and Tricia lower her crib to the lowest setting. She is also loving the grass here. The grass in Texas was very stiff and hurt her legs so she never wanted to be on the grass, but here she will crawl on it. She still prefers to crawl on the sidewalk though, for some weird reason. We call her our little explorer because she is so curious about everything and loves seeing what things are and how they work, what noises they make, how they feel, she's just so curious and loves to experience new things. She crawls all over now and is standing up on things, walking around while holding onto stuff, and can even stand by herself for a few seconds too. She gets this look of pride when she does it and smiles this big smile because she knows that we're excited. She also loves holding people's fingers and walking around that way. David thinks she'll be walking by 11 months. :) We'll see. I think so too, but I'm not going to put those expectations on her. It definitely wouldn't surprise me though.

Kollyn LOVES playing with new friends. She and Tricia's little 2 year old, Wyatt, have a lot of fun playing together. She likes to play with (and by play with I mean munch on) his toys and he likes to have her chase her purple ball across the room. They play games together like fight over Tricia's lap (he tried to push her off once so she pushed him back, with her head) and make the door stops make their weird noise. He'd flick them and she'd crawl to the one that was making the noise, then he'd make the other one make noise and she'd crawl to that one, all excited. It was so cute to watch them play together! We've also been watching my friend's little 3 month old Oliver. Kollyn doesn't have as much fun with him because the things she wants to do, he can't do yet, but I'll be babysitting him most of the school year so I have a feeling these two will be finding mischief together before two long!

She was so excited to see her Brown cousins when we got back, and they were really excited to see her too! I love that she has so much fun with them and that they love playing with her! It's so fun to watch!

One of her newest favorite toys is the Pringles can. There's nothing in it, but she still loves carrying it around and shaking the crumbs around. We taped the lid shut so it can't open and let her go to town. She gets joy out of the smallest things, it's really a big wake-up call for me and helps me to remember to get joy out of the little things too.

On August 22, I got to go to see the musical Wicked with my best friend Christina!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She called me a few hours before the show and asked me how fast I could get a babysitter and I said "David's home, what's up?" and she said, "I have an extra ticket to Wicked and I want you to come see it with me and my family." Of course I couldn't turn that opportunity down. I've been dying to see it since it came out when I was like, 14, so David watched Kollyn and I got to go up to Salt Lake to see it. It did not disappoint, at all. It was literally a dream come true and I couldn't have seen it with anyone else, since Christina and I have talked about seeing it together for almost 10 years. And it finally happened! I was singing the music all the way up, and all the way back. It was a magical experience!

We went up to Swiss Days in Midway on August 29. I worked with my sisters in the "Swiss" Navajo Taco booth and that was a lot of fun. Then David and Kollyn came up and we had a lot of fun walking around, looking at the booths. Kollyn (who we call Kooky or Kook a lot now) liked the Swiss chicken sandwich we got her for dinner and ate a bunch of the berries and cream (since she loves berries). She liked the scone from my "Swiss" taco, and ate pickles for the first time. Neither David or I like them so she probably won't get them very often, but she does like them.

We stayed the night and helped at the parade the next morning. We got fancy t-shirts and were part of the parade committee. We basically stood around along the parade route and told the floats if they needed to go faster. Kollyn really liked watching the parade, especially the bands, horses, and the policemen on their motorcycles. Kollyn hadn't slept great the night before and David (being the amazing dad he is) woke up with Kollyn and got her back to sleep, so I let him sleep in when we got up. He met up with us on the parade route about halfway through it and walked up to the square with us after it was over. We got lunch, went back to my parents house, and then headed home because we were getting some family pictures taken that evening. We haven't had professional pictures taken other than our wedding, so we were really excited when I had talked to a photographer who was offering free sessions and scored it for us. We're still waiting on them to be finished, but we are really excited to see them. Kollyn was so cute and smiled all the time, which was what I was hoping for.

Kollyn is still very much a Daddy's girl. She loves all the crazy things he does with her and she's a total daredevil, probably because he does all kinds of things to mess with her and she loves it. She loves being held upside down, lifted up by her feet and legs, and tossed up as high as we can toss her. She loves playing with David's Xbox controllers still and has recently discovered that she loves his headset too. She also likes sitting with him and watching things. She never just sits with me, but she'll do it with him a lot. She especially loves watching us play Mario Party.

I love how much these two love each other. She loves her daddy and follows him everywhere. The other day she tried to follow him into the bathroom but he closed the door. That didn't stop her though and she stood up using the door, then would pound on the door saying "da da da da da da da" until he opened the door. Then she got this huge grin on her face and laughed. She is so happy when he gets home from school or work and just loves spending time with him. I just love seeing the bond that these two have. And it gives me some time to do stuff too! Like shower! :)

We are so grateful for how life has turned out for us. We were very nervous about our situation since David didn't have a job when we got back. He had several interviews, got offered a few positons, but we didn't feel good about them. He took one position, just to have a job, but had an interview the next week for a job he really wanted. It's working for Vivint, the home security company, doing exactly the same thing that he did during the summer for Goodman, and we were praying he'd get that job. Our prayers were answered and he was offered the position there (his first day was today) and was offered a really good hourly wage, which is a huge blessing for us. We were both interviewing and applying for whatever we could. I had several interviews and an offer too, but I was so glad when he got that so I could stay home with Kollyn. There are days I'd like to be the one to go to work, but I know I'd hate it and just want to be home with Kollyn so we're glad this worked out the way it did.

He started school the day after Labor Day. He's liking his classes, though he says Physics is pretty hard, and he's looking forward to being one step closer to being done with school. We are both looking forward to that. :)

We're re-adjusting to life here in Orem, having fun with Kollyn, and just enjoying life every day. :)

July 2014

This month has been a lot of fun. Kollyn is 8 months old today. She is learning and growing so much every day. I love watching it!

She pulls herself up onto everything she can. Chairs, the entertainment center, me, her car seat, me, and did I mention me??? I'm apparently the best jungle gym ever.

She's also started holding her own bottle, but only if she really feels like it. She's a pretty lazy eater and would rather us do it all. :)

We've started putting her in the cart in the actual seat, instead of bringing in her car seat. And she won't sit and look straight forward. She has to be turned around and looking at everything. She is so curious and LOVES to go shopping. Sometimes, when she's having a bad day, I have to go to Wal-Mart or Target because getting her into a store makes her happy.

Her favorite toys are things that we don't buy for her. She loves envelopes, especially the ones with the crinkly windows, water bottles, my chapstick tube, and anything I have in my hand that isn't one of her toys.

This is how much she loves her water bottle. She tried to force herself under the chair to get to it, then got really mad when I took a picture instead of immediately helping her get her "toy".

She loves watching David play video games. Mario Party 4 is a favorite of hers to watch, I'm assuming since it's really colorful, and she loves watching him play Mass Effect online. Not sure why, but I'm assuming it's because of the colors and the action. She tries to climb up and touch the people on the TV.

David mowed the lawn a couple Saturdays ago and since the weather wasn't too hot, Kollyn and I sat outside on her blanket while he mowed. She was enthralled. She isn't afraid of loud noises and is intrigued by the lawnmower. She just sat and watched him for most of the time we were outside. She tried to explore the grass, but she didn't really like the way it felt on her hands. She would get really upset if she touched it. I don't blame her. It's definitely not as soft as Utah grass.

While she didn't like touching the grass at all, she did like looking at it.

She finally figured out that she could get onto the the concrete driveway without going on the grass, she started bear crawling on it, since she was wearing shorts. She won't crawl on anything other than carpet on her hands and knees unless she's wearing pants, and even then it's iffy, so she does what I call bear crawling, up on her hands and feet.

Everyday she amazes me with just how much she loves with dad. She doesn't sit still like this with anyone else the way she does with him. She snuggled with David's mom a little a few days ago, but mostly, only he gets the nice, still, calm Kollyn that you see here. Normally, she has to be going and going and going, like the Energizer bunny. These moments are very precious to me because I love seeing her sit still with someone, even if she won't do it with me.

Kollyn had her first official playdate this month. We drove up to Spring to see a friend of mine that has a little girl just a few days older than Kollyn. Kollyn loves being around people and was trying to share her "toy", again not a real toy, but her friend didn't want the receipt, no matter how many times Kollyn tried to put it in her mouth. We had a lot of fun up there. She crawled around and shared her toys with her friend and my friend and I got to spend some time together. It was a lot of fun! I'm glad we were able to do it!

She has officially learned how to feed herself so we have started doing Baby Led Weaning (BLW). She doesn't really let us feed her much anymore, except yogurt which she loves, so we've had to do what we hadn't planned on doing. She is a natural self-feeder. She started with puffs and yogurt bites from Gerber and now she eats pretty much everything herself. Her favorites are red bell peppers, blueberries, meatballs, cheese, black beans, rice, and bread. We tried French toast for breakfast today and even though it ended up mostly smashed between her fingers, she seemed to really enjoyed what she got in her mouth.

She is a ham and she knows it. She's constantly smiling her big smile, nose crinkled up and everything, but this is the first time I've been able to catch it on camera. She does it when I get her out of bed in the morning, she does it when I come into the same room as her, she does it when I smile at her, she just loves smiling. She also loves her mirror (typical girl, right?) and likes to lick it and give it kisses (great...). She's recently started giving kisses, but mostly just to me and only when she feels like it. They're big, open mouthed, tongue all over my cheek kisses and I love every single one. Even the one that ended up with her biting my nose with her two sharp little teeth.

We went to lunch a week ago or so at our favorite restaurant in Houston, Lankford Grocery. It's so good and really cheap! It's cash only so we have to know we're going, but we would go whenever we can. They're only open from 7 - 3 everyday though, so it's lunch or no dice. This is the second time we've been and the first time Kollyn came with us. She loved it. Everyone around us smiled at her, talked to her, commented on what a good girl she was, and she was smiling the entire time. She also loves playing with straws and Lankford is the only place we've found that has them in plastic wrap instead of paper so she's able to chew on them without having the wrapping disintegrate in her mouth. Everything they make there is amazing. Just a shameless plug for what we think is one of the best restaurants ever.

And that's been our month. David and I teach the 12 and 13 year olds in Sunday School and we love it. It's literally the best calling ever. David thrives in that environment and has so much fun with it. Having church at 9 is hard for us because Kollyn sleeps later than most kids (her normal wake up time is between 8 and 9 but the other day, and today, she slept until almost 11!!) so we have to wake her up which she doesn't like, but once we get to church, she's in her element. I am always amazed at how much she likes being around people. She loves people, loves being around them, and loves smiling at them because they smile back at her. She is more David's child in that way than mine, since I'm more of an introvert. I'm glad that she got that part of his personality. I want her to enjoy being around people.

Well, that's July. I've been keeping busy taking care of Kollyn. She's very active and loves getting to everything she shouldn't. David is almost done with his internship here and we'll be heading home soon. I am heading up in a little over a week because we have a few things that need to be taken care of with our apartment up there that won't get done unless I go in to talk to the management company in person. My friend Tricia, she is an amazing person who I love dearly, is flying down so that she can help me drive up. I seriously can't even say how great of a friend she is. And she just offered it and basically wouldn't take no for an answer. She knew I needed to get home early and I couldn't do it alone, so she insisted that she come and help me. She's an amazing friend and I am so lucky to have her in my life!! I love you Tricia!

David finishes up his internship the end of the week I leave and will come up a week after me. He's still looking for a job for when he gets up there, so I want him to be able to just focus on that and not worry about the apartment, hence why I felt it was the best option for me to go up early and get all that taken care of. He has learned a lot during this internship and has really developed his skills and the way he handles problems. It's been interesting to watch him grow and learn as he does this.

We are looking forward to our move back to Utah, and are so glad we've been able to be here. We are so grateful for David's parents who let us stay with them this summer. Kollyn loves them. She crawls around looking for his mom (Nana) and when his dad (Papa) gets home from work, she gets really excited and smiley. She loves looking at them during dinner and playing games with them. We are going to be sad to leave. It has been a great experience here and we are so lucky to have the support of our families!