Happy Birthday Lucy!!

Lucy turned one on Saturday, and I can't believe how fast time has gone. It really does seem like just yesterday we were bringing her home from the hospital, and I was scared to death, wondering, "what in the heck am I supposed to do if she starts crying!" It was a lot of responsibility and I didn't know if I was capable to be her mother. I was pleasantly surprised how natural it was to comfort and please her as she needed. What a special innate blessing that is that comes along with each expecting or recieving mother.
We had a fun time celebrating with family and I wanted to get some pictures posted as fast as possible. But I can not tell you how much I love and enjoy this girl. But let me tell you about some of my favorite things that she is doing right now.
1. She loves her books. She chooses to play with them before her pile of toys. But now she will go through them and pick her favorite and crawl over and put it on your lap and demand you read it to her. We know very well her favorites, because she brings them to us regularly. It is adorable, and I am so glad that she loves reading.
2. She has been walking for a few weeks now but she doesn't always choose to walk. She is still very wobly but it is so fun to watch her get braver and braver and take more and more steps.

3. Lucy refuses to eat from a spoon anymore. I blame childcare for this, because they have been giving her finger foods for a couple of months now. It's not a bad thing, just that meal time is ALWAYS messy. I do love watching her eat. It is so funny how she picks and chooses what she will eat and pick through on her tray.
4. Lucy loves climbing on the couches. We put one of the couch cushins down on the ground so she can climb up and down easily. She will play there for hours. Going up and down, and back up again.
5. We got Lucy a cheep baby doll for her birthday. She loves to squeese the doll as hard as she can. She will pretend to brush the baby's bald head with her brush and poke at her eyes. Hopefully she will grow out of this when she is a big sister.
6. And now Lucy is awake.... so I will have to complete this list later. But I do love her and I love watching her grow. Thank you Lucy for all the fun and joy you've brought to our family. We love you! Happy Birthday!!

January 2012

I apologize for not posting more often, but we don't have Internet at home and by the time I am done at work, I'm done and ready to be home. Like now. I am at work it is the end of a long busy day and I would rather be home but I have some super cute pictures I wanted to post and lots of fun and exciting news to post about, so I am obligated to stay at my computer just a little longer and get this post out into the blogging hemisphere.
First of all, what a crazy month. James started student teaching, and I don't like the new schedule. It would not be so bad if I was not a working mother, but because I am, I have to plan for extra time for everything. I wake up anywhere from 5:30 to 6:30 am, to make sure I have enough time to go to the gym and get ready before Lucy wakes up, because she is not very tolerant of leaving her alone while trying to shower or dry my hair. So getting out the door and to work is the hardest part of my day. In addition, we can only afford 20 hours of childcare per week, so I have to plan my schedule very carefully and it is always Lucy-centered and focused. We are very thankful for Anna who is so kind to watch her one day a week as well. Thanks Anna, we owe you.
Work has been crazy busy since coming back from Christmas break. Not only did I spend a significant amount of time catching up from the holidays, but Playgroups and Sibshops started back again, and I planned and held my bi-annual Transition workshop for parents getting ready to enter the scary school district world. Needless to say I was glad to see January come to end. And it was capped off quite nicely with the CHICKEN POX! Yes, you heard me. Lucy brought home the chicken pox from childcare. Actually she handled it like a champ. And it really wasn't that bad. I tried to take pictures but the pox were so light they would not even show up on camera. She was contagious, however, and unable to go to childcare. So that left me either at home or searching for someone to take care of her. (Thanks mom, for driving up and watching my spotted child for a couple of days). She is fine now and stronger than ever before, because of it.
And now for the most exciting news..... JAMES GOT ACCEPTED TO GRADUATE SCHOOL!!! We will be headed to Henderson, NV sometime in the middle of June to start our new journey at Touro University. James interviewed there just a week ago, and was very impressed with the program and faculty. He had made up his mind that is where he wanted to go. So off we go to sunnier weather, and hotter climates! Woohoo! James will study Occupational Therapy for two years, graduate, and then who knows where we will go from there. I am just excited to have this step figured out.
Lucy's big news is that she took her first steps! It was Sunday. We were celebrating Anna's birthday and she was standing up to the couch and just decided to let go and move. She took about 4 steps and repeated that again a few times that night. I think she quickly grew tired of us prodding her to keep walking and so she has been more reluctant to try again since then. She can do it, but like everything else, it's on her time, not ours. (We have to keep learning that). Lucy is proficient on going up and down the stairs now, which I couldn't be more grateful. We have a lot of stairs in our home and it always made for a very watchful and panicky mother. We are over that completely. Thank you Lucy.
That's life for now. Its been an extra mild winter here in Provo, and again, I could not be more grateful. I am sure there are many disappointed snowboarders and skiers but you guys get the snow every other year, this one is for us, the snow-haters. It is a good note to end on my time in Provo, UT.

Our Fun Christmas Break (Prepare yourself for a major Lucy fix)

We traveled down to Silver City NM for the first part of our break. We got there early so Lucy could have Grandma and Grandpa all to herself. She loved it.
We ate some fantastic Mexican food. (I ate so much and it burned so bad, but I couldn't get enough)

Lucy enjoyed all of our outings.

She loved reading books with Grandpa and especially love being around all her cousins.

We visited Deming on Tuesday. We went to the park where James and I had our first date. ...OH.. Special! I know.

So Cute!!

We went swimming with the cousins.

Natalie and Lucy

Christmas morning was a lot of fun. I made James a book with all his mission pictures.

Lucy got these "cool keys" for Christmas. She loves them.

Lucy was happy for this hour of the morning and then had a spiked fever for three days straight... Oh well. We still had a good time.

I don't have many more pictures, but we had a really good time hanging out with family and friends the entire Christmas break. I will post more on our time in St. George soon.

Merry Christmas

I love this picture. And had it been taken before the Christmas cards were sent out, it would have been our card this year. So Merry Christmas! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season. We sure did!

Another One, this is the one I really wanted to post.

Her eyes are a little irritated and she had been rubbing them a lot, just in case you noticed. But she is still happy as can be.

A Funny Video

I love when I can get this girl to laugh.

Thanksgiving Break

A little picnicing at town square with Jimmy Johns and beautiful St. George weather.
We didn't make it to Disneyland, but we did get to ride the new carousel at city center. Lucy loved it, until it started moving... maybe Disneyland wouldn't have been such a good idea.

Lucy didn't ever cry but she was very nervous once it started moving.

We visited the library while we were there. Notice there are no books on the bottom shelf. Smart. Except she can reach the other books just fine... so not helpful for us.

We tried to get our princess to kiss the frog prince but she wasn't having it.

We love Grandma Sullivan! Always good to be in her home.

James took Lucy out every morning with him, to shoot some hoops. She loved it! James loved wearing shorts again.

We spent as much time outside as possible. The weather was absolutely gorgeous. Unfortunately my camera ran out of battery half way through our trip so we don't have that half recorded in picture.

We got to be there for the lighting ceremony at the St. George temple. It was a nice short program. This was the last of our pictures, due to poor planning. But we went hiking up on the red hill. Lucy loved climbing around on top of the big red rock. We also had a good Thanksgiving dinner with family and friends. James and I stayed far away from the Turkey and stuffing. We ate ham instead. I wanted enchiladas. Maybe next year. We did put on a Mexican spread for my family on Saturday night. We played games with cousins, did a little shopping. Visited my Aunt's craft show that I look forward to each year, and I even ventured out on Black Friday to help my brother get in line for a couple of big buy items at Walmart. Our efforts were successful, and I don't know that I really ever need to do it again.

We are back in the swing of things and anxious for school and work to wind down so we can start our next Christmas Break. Until then, life is so so good. We are more blessed this Christmas season than we could ever imagine. James has applications in and we will be hearing back early next year from them. Lucy is growing up so fast and getting soo funny. She babbles a ton. And has learned lots of great tricks that she will never do on command. (Usually about 10 minutes after all the coaxing and prodding, when no one is looking, or so she thinks). We miss her when she goes to sleep, but we are so glad she is such a good sleeper. Makes for happy parents!