It's my Birthday!

I always forget how old I am every year, and when I realized I was turning "29", I didn't want to believe it. That is just way to old and I refused at first. But, the more birthday's you have the longer you live, right! Anyways, it was a pretty good day, the only mishap was when Julie smashed her face pretty good into the coffee table. When I heard the sound, I quickly grabbed her and thought for sure I would see tons of blood, but didn't see any blood, just a mark on her cheek where she hit and lots and lots of crying. She cried for a good half hour before I even called Rob at work, he came home and held her and went outside where she fell asleep, still doing her little sob while she slept. We laid her down and Rob kept going in to check on her before he left. She didn't sleep as long as she usually does and woke up crying. Kept crying for a while. My sister called to wish me a Happy Birthday while Julie was crying in the background. After we hung up, I got Julie some bananas, and Kiwi and some Yogurt since those are pretty soft. She did fine with those, and my mom brought over some strawberries which she enjoyed as well. She was a lot happier after that. Earlier before Rob came home she kept wanting milk but when I gave it to her and she would go to drink it, she would just start crying. I realize now that from her teeth being so sore, she couldn't bite down on the straw to get the milk out. So, I gave her one of her disposeable cups with a straw, and she was able to drink a lot easier. By now she was pretty happy and back to her normal self.
She did better at eating dinner(except for her croutons). I am still hoping that she does not get a bruise, as of right now it is just a little red spot on her cheek.
After dinner we went to my mom and dad's for cake. We got there about 7:30, and once everyone was there I lit the candles with some help, and then everyone sang, I made a wish, and blew all the candles out. The cake was wonderful. Thanks Mom! Lime Jello Poke Cake, so refreshing and yummy.

 I love how Rob got half the candle blown out and half weren't yet.

Thanks everyone!

This girl Loves her Hat!

Isn't she a Beauty!

Julie has never really worn a hat before, and KEPT it on! But this one, she loves and keeps on for long amounts of time. On Saturday my mom called me about a garage sale that had TONS of Gymboree clothes for cheap, all new. I think they had a store and were getting rid of everything. So, I went after feeding and putting Julie down for her nap at 12:00, the sale went until 1:00, and even at 12:00 there were still tons of stuff. Most everything still had tags on them and were 3-4 dollars. I got a bunch of 3T clothes, a swimsuit, some pants. I really didn't get too much, I never know what she will fit into. But I only spent 38 bucks and got some fun stuff. One of which is this hat, so I put it on thinking it wouldn't last too long. I wanted something so that when she was outside her little head would be covered. Well, she kept it on and we went outside to get the mail, something she loves to do. She will walk down the steps and once at the bottom she will stop and sit down on the bottom step while I get the mail. 

Then she will wander around and eventually head to the southwest corner of the yard where the slope of the ground isn't so steep and we will go on a walk around our little block. She just takes off and I follow, she loves doing this and has done it now whenever we go out in the front. Today she got two walks around the block, I took her and then we were still outside when Rob got home from work, and she got another walk with Daddy, while I cooked us up some food. She will stop and pick up a rock or stop and admire our neighbors flowers, and then continue on, just admiring the beauty all around her. Can't forget those birds either, she loves to hear and point out birds. Birds is the sign she does most when she is outside. In these next pictures, I was ripping some grass out of the ground and I held my hand up in the air and let the grass fall to the ground, she got a big kick out of this.

 And trying to get a picture of both of us is pretty  fun, especially when you are the one taking the picture. I never get any pictures with this kid and so this is what I got.

This girl sure keeps me on my toes!

17 Months!

17 months, that means one more month until she goes into nursery(without us), we still take her in during Sunday School and then she goes with either Rob or I into YW or Elders Quorum. I think she is ready for nursery and will do fine once she is in there without us. She doesn't want to leave after Sunday School. So exciting!
-She is really into coloring right now, she has been using a bag of old crayons that I have had that are all broken, and so I pulled out her new crayons and she had the best time. I went off to make dinner thinking that she would be following after me in a few minutes. Well, I pretty much made all of dinner without her even moving from her chair, which was like more than an hour. She would occasionally start whining because a crayon fell on the floor and she needed me to pick it up for her(since she didn't want to get off of her chair to get it), then I would go back to fixing dinner. After I got done making my spaghetti sauce and had it simmering I went in to check on her and found her putting all the crayons back into the container, all facing the right way. She had the box pretty full, she was so content just playing with those new crayons. She would carry as much as she could to another room until they were all in their with her, and then move them to the next room, or if I was in the bathroom, they would be in the doorway and she would sit down on the floor and just sit there so happy with all her crayons. 

  She loves pretend playing with her bowl and spoon or fork that she has around the house. She will stir away and then taste it, while saying "Taste it", and so after her yogurt she always wants the spoon and container, although once she gets her hand inside the container and it gets all dirty, she complains for her hand to be washed. She will not even try to feed herself even when I give her the container full. She will sometimes use a fork to stab at things, but that is it.

 She has flip flops but she doesn't like to wear them for very long, she will usually end up stiff legged when we put them on her. The other day I put socks on her because the house was so cold and I didn't want her feet to freeze when I laid her down for her nap, so after her nap she wanted me to put her flip flops on over her socks, she kept them on for quite awhile. I just think they were so cute, and look so uncomfortable.

 She loves to play with our shoes and try them on, she always takes my Sunday shoes out of my closet and takes them through out the house and here she is sticking her foot with her crocs into Robs boots. She was having fun until her foot got stuck and she couldn't pull it out. So, being the mom, I had to get a picture before rescuing her.

 Still loves her baby signing time, and loves to sit and lounge in her new chair while watching, this is her morning ritual while I get ready!

 Funny thing, the other day we gave her a peanut butter and jam sandwich cut in slices. She started whining and we were wondering what was up. We check and find that she has a chunk of bread stuck to the top of her mouth that she can't get off. So we start to help her by sticking our fingers in to get it off, and it was stuck on there GOOD, we really had to pry to get it off. She was not very happy! Haha, it was kind of funny though! Hate it when that happens!
She still does not give kisses, when we ask for a kiss she will just lean her head toward you so that you can give her a kiss on her cheek or forehead. Although, lately if you ask her for a kiss, she will come to you and pucker her lips, but not always. And she loves to hug her dolls and stuffed animals. She also loves her "bankie", she sleeps with this every night and during nap time, it is the only blanket she has during nap time besides her sleep sack.

This is an old picture, but is shows the blanket that she "loves", she is not super attached to it, but she does prefer it, although she generally likes any soft blanket that she has. She will find the ones I keep under her crib and just snuggle with them.
Her favorite foods right now are watermelon(loves this), bananas, kiwi, noodles, wheat bread, and those are just some of her most eaten foods, she eats a lot of other foods as well.
We love this little gal, and it really is true that each stage of life just gets better and better.

Loves her Fruit

Julie loves fruit, she will eat tomatoes, peaches, watermelon, strawberries, grapes, bananas, and a little cantaloupe. When I am asking her what we should have for lunch, she will start signing off all her fruits. I think right now her favorites are grapes and watermelon.

This picture shows her laughing with her mouth open, it is kind of a fake laugh that she does.

She really is a good little eater!

Busy Girl and Signing Fun!

-Go, go, go, Julie always says this while signing "Go, Go, Go" accompanied usually with the bubble sign. Usually every morning before lunch we find ourselves in the backyard blowing bubbles while Julie runs around. She will run and run while I blow bubbles and half the time not even see the bubbles that I am blowing, so I put the lid on to put it away. She always see me putting the lid on, and say "bubbles", and so I get it back out and she run and runs again. Such a busy little girl. She really loves being outside!

Every time I tell her we are going somewhere, she immediately starts saying and signing bubbles. 

She is a dawdler also, if I tell her we need to change her diaper and I go to pick her up, she will giggle and run the other way. Her laugh is just about the cutest thing EVER, and finally I just run after her and snatch her up, to which she fusses and whines.
-I absolutely love that Julie can sign, it has made life so much easier. Although now she can basically say the word of what she wants, but she will also sign it as well. We were outside in our front yard this afternoon just enjoying the weather. Julie loves to sit on the steps up to our house, she will get to the bottom and then sit, or she will keep backing up until she feels the bottom step with her feet/legs and then sit her bum down(sometimes she misses), and she will stand up and sit down over and over while saying/signing "up" and "down", and then she will get up and start running down the sidewalk which is kind of sloped, so it kind of scares me. I will sign "walk", which she in turns signs/says "run", and we will just go back and forth doing this. She usually will slow down when I tell her to walk. I don't know how long we sat out there, watching all the birds that came by. She loves "birds", it is so funny to watch her sign "bird". You use your finger and your thumb at your mouth facing outwards and open and close them. Well, Julie does that but they face toward her lips, and now she basically squeezes her nose, and says "bird, bird". So funny. Since she knows her alphabet pretty well, I decided to test her ability to say the letters that I sign. She was able to tell me each letter of the alphabet that I signed to her. All of them, minus a couple. Way to go, Julie! I didn't know she knew all of them.
-She also had a pretend conversation on the phone with Daddy after grabbing my phone off the counter. She held it up to her ear and said, "Hi, Daddy", and then said something about her shoes, and then I told her to day bye, and she said "bye", and then I took the phone. She has never done this before, and I just thought it so cute. And also, tonight when Rob came home from riding and he opened the garage, Julie kept saying " Hi, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy" until he came inside. She doesn't usually say it so much like that.
-She has found my Bobby pillow, and it is her new toy that she loves to play with and lay on.

3rd Molar!

Her bottom right molar is coming in, like just barely poking through. I was playing with her in her high chair at the end of dinner helping her poke her tomatoes and ham with her fork, and we were making noises with our mouths! I could see in, and there it was, and again, no swollen gums, no crankiness, just a little white dot coming through.

ABC's and Twinkle, Twinkle

Julie loves her ABC's, we sing the ABC song all the time, and she likes to help with the letters, and then at the end of the alphabet when you sing "Now I know my ABC's..." I stop after my and she says the ABC part and then at the very end she will say, "me". 

She loves the Dr. Seuss ABC book, that is probably her favorite book right now. Anytime she sees it, she will bring it to me saying, "ABC's ABC's" and also she is now saying "story" when she want to be read to. Cutest thing ever, and while reading the Dr. Seuss book, she can say each letter, some are better to understand than others. I will point to the letter and she will say it, and when we get to "I", the next page says, "Icobod is Itchy", she says the itchy part. I think after only reading this to her once, she was flipping through the pages all by herself and when she got to "I", she pointed to the word itchy, and said it. I was kind of shocked! She really does love this book and will flip through it quite frequently. Whenever she sees something with letters on it, she will say "ABC", or she will point to a letter and tell me what it is. She also loves the letters, M, W, O, I, and Z, oh and also P. Those are some of the ones she really knows well.

She will also help us with the ending of each phrase of "Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star"

She is trying new words all the time now, some of her recent ones are "Open, or Open It", when she wants a door open(since she loves to open and close doors now, although she hates it when they actually latch shut, and she can't continue to open and shut them anymore, meaning she gets stuck in the room and starts whining for us to come help). She says "I do, I do, I do" whenever she wants to be picked up, or lifted over something. I am not quite sure what she is actually trying to say on this one. Darn, that is all I can think of at the moment, I really need a notebook with me all the time to write down her cute sayings and words!

"Garbage, Garbage"

I got my Kohl's Magazine in the mail with a 30% off, so since I couldn't use it for a few days, I stuck it on the counter next to my purse, and then on the 8th I went searching for it. I searched everywhere I thought I had put it, and then searched again. I asked Robert when he got home if he had seen it and he said that he saw Julie grab it. So I searched the front room and still couldn't find it, she could have put it anywhere. So, I didn't end up going shopping that day. On the 10th, I still hadn't found it, but I went into Julie's room to print something off. I have to hook my computer up to the printer with ta USP cable. So I am on the floor, Julie comes up beside me to get around me saying,"garbage, garbage", I was trying to let her past and she hit her head on the counter that is in her room. She started crying so I grabbed her and gave her a hug, she kept saying "garbage, garbage" and had this crumpled piece of paper in her hand, I didn't think anything of it but opened it up anyways to see what she was wanting to throw away. I opened it and there was my 30% off coupon that I had ripped from the magazine. I hugged her and was so excited. 

I did let her throw it in the garbage and then retrieved it afterwords. We are going to have to start checking her garbage can for things that are not really garbage, but that she thinks is garbage. I was so grateful to have that little piece of paper. So small and insignificant, but it was what I was going to use to get both of us some sandals for summer, and to save a little money is always a good thing!

Binki

 This is one of her new things lately, she will stick her binki in her mouth and carry on playing! I don't think she is actually sucking on it, just holding it there.

 She also has been loving playing with her bowl/plate/spoon and fork. She will stir, stir, stir, and then say "taste it" and then she will stick the spoon in her mouth and then want us to taste it as well.

 And here is one of her getting frustrated at something, don't know what!

So fun to see her personality come out!

Playing in the Rain

With the rain that we have been having lately, there have been MANY chances to play in the rain. This is Julie's first time, and she was having a ball. She loved the water coming out of the rain gutter, her feet got soaked.

 She LOVES bubbles and so we took the bubbles out with us. They just stuck to the lawn, since it was raining, they did not pop for awhile. Julie would try to grab them and since her hands were also wet, the bubbles would also stick to her hands without popping. It was kind of fun!

  She kept getting water on her head because the awning was right where she was at, so I stuck her hood on and that helped.

 Trying to look up inside, and she stuck her hand in a few times like she was trying to grab something out of there.

 I love how little kids can sit like this for forever, my knees would be killing me!

 I was getting her to say "Hi, Mommy" in these photos, it was so cute.

 What a cutie!

 These were some shoes that I had gotten at a garage sale a while ago, and pulled them out today to see if they fit. They do for the most part, she broke them in quite nicely from the rain shower they got.

 She would go out into the rain, and try to reach the handle on the trailer. Every time she would look up the rain got her in the face, so her she is trying to get it while looking down and away!

 I might have mentioned this before, but our garden is finally planted, and that tree in the picture here is going to be removed next week, and the three trees next to this one are going to get a serious pruning, as in we are not going to have apples this year. We had hardly any blossoms last year, and this year every branch was covered to the brim, and I do not want to be picking up all those apples in the fall every time I mow the lawn. We will get them pruned early the next year and sprayed so that we can get apples with no worms. 

Our garden is doing well so far, we planted about a week ago and half of my beans are coming up already. I planted 5 rows, half of all 5 rows are coming up. The half that are in full sun just poked up yesterday, the other half are shaded by the tree, which is why it is going. And we also planted 4 tomato plants. I have yet to plant my zucchini, and onions. I will plant those after the tree comes down. Don't want to risk my zucchini plant dying. I think next year if Rob will let me, I am going to do the Square Foot Gardening (my sister in laws have done it and love it), I was reading this website www.mysquarefootgarden.net, and really want to do it next year. Also, Shandra on Deals to Meals just started one this year and having no weeds is the big plus for me.

 I finally had to drag her inside to warm up and take her wet clothes off. After taking them off, she headed for one of her favorite cupboards.

I loved watching her play and have fun in the rain!

Happy Birthday Robert!

 It was Rob's 33rd birthday today! Very low key, we went to Robs parents house for dinner, Robs mom made homemade pasta. Rob loves homemade pasta! It was really yummy, and then she made him his favorite Angel Food Cake with Whipped Cream and strawberries. Rob's mom made the recipe from "Our Best Bites" a book that I need to get. Everything was awesome, don't you just love the 33 candles, and he blew them out with one breath pretty quickly. Fast enough that I barely got this shot of him blowing out the candles. Julie was pretty sober while sitting with her Dad. And Julie loved the angel food cake and strawberries, she had a bowl of strawberries and after she finished that she ate some of my cake as well. When it was all gone, she kept signing "more".

 Some of the family that came for the fun! My little nephew who is such a happy little boy, I can always get a smile out of him. With his mom, and Grandpa Taylor.

 The Birthday Boy, one year older and wiser too!

Love ya, hope you had a great day!

Mommy, Mommy!

 Some of this going on right now, she wants to be held a lot! Whenever she wants to be picked up or lifted over something or onto something she will say "I do" over and over. I am not quite sure what she is trying to actually say, that is just what it sounds like. And she always wants me to pick her up after she is done and cleaned up eating, but I am still eating. I usually just tell her no, mommy is eating. It is really cute though to have her wanting her mommy!

I love how she just burrows her head into my legs and holds on!