A Jumble of Stuff

Oh hey. . yeah, I used to blog. Often. Somehow that has just slipped by the wayside. One of my new year's resolutions is to get back into blogging! (Not really, I actually hadn't thought about it until right now. But maybe I will try and stick to it. We'll see.)

So, it's obviously been months, so I'm just going to throw down a bunch of pictures and give you, dear reader, a little update as this goes along. If you continue to read this through to the very end you are either my mom, sister, or someone who is very bored and needs something to do.

Alright, let's get this going!

Back in October we decided to take a little hike during one of the last really nice days of the year. We went up some trail in the mountains that I can't remember, but it was fun. And Lauren loves being in that backpack carrier thing. And look at her gorgeous big brown eyes.

Looks like I'm jumping around a bit with these pictures. . my apologies.

We also went to Temple Square the weekend after Thanksgiving. It was PACKED but once again a pretty warm evening. Lauren did like it, but didn't like being strapped into her stroller. Pretty sure her cry echoed all around the square. She seriously has such a loud cry. Maybe this means she'll be some amazing singer. . or just continue to be a loud crier.

Right before Christmas break my high school bestie Rachel stopped by for a few minutes on her way to family. I haven't seen her in over a year and so even 5 minutes was heaven! Luckily she and her family just moved back to Utah and are a lot closer to us! Yippee! Best news ever.

And now these are pictures from my phone. . I believe this was when we did an awesome surprise party for my Mom's birthday back in the beginning of December. She really had no idea! My dad "stole her away" Friday night and stayed at a hotel nearby so that we could all arrive and set up for a little party the next day. We made her a music video to her favorite song "Allstar" that you all should go check out and give us more views on Youtube. It's called "AW Birthday video". Ha ha.

I'm trying to document when Lauren actually lets other people hold her. It's getting more and more common so that's a good thing. She is actually pretty chill with other people if she isn't tired or hungry. Plus I love Tonya's face in this picture. A classic for sure.

And blogger is being stupid and won't let me center this picture. But just more proof of her liking other people besides us now. She's letting Grandpa read to her. So cute.

 This above picture is of Broc from our ward! This was his little mission farewell party. We miss him! He was great entertainment for Lauren during sacrament meeting.


This was from one of those days we desperately needed to get out, so I took her to the mall to walk around. We ended up in Sears looking at all the Christmas trees. Great free entertainment! By the way, she totally won't wear that hat anymore. :( She's figured out out to take things off her head. So when I do put something like a headband on her, I have to distract her so that she forgets it's on her head. . it works about 40% of the time.

This is from Thanksgiving. We celebrated with Paul's family this year. It was a lot of fun. Lauren is playing with her Grandma Siddoway in this picture and I love it.

Here she is letting Uncle David and Allie entertain her at Thanksgiving. This was one of the last weeks with that walker. :( She became too tall for it and almost started tipping over as she would reach for things. I still miss that thing sometimes. . it was great entertainment for her, and for me to watch her cruise around our house in it.

This was either over the Mom birthday weekend or Christmas. . I can't remember! Lauren with her cousin Addy. They are already becoming good friends! And Addy's hair is the bomb in this picture. Lauren kept trying to grab it, I remember.

One thing Paul got me for Christmas was an eblisceiver (SP!) pan! That was our Christmas dinner growing up, and I'm glad I now have one so that my kids can have these. I made a batch New Year's Day and they turned out great!

Last one: This I snapped a few weeks ago when I was doing dishes and she was really quiet, so I went to check on her and found her "reading". So so cute.

And so there was my feeble attempt to catch up. This little lady is already 10 months old, which is insane but also SO awesome. She is in such a fun stage. She jabbers at me all day, can mimick some words we say, like "uh-oh", 'ho-ho-ho", "all gone" "night night", and "bye-bye". She waves at the door every time we get ready to go somewhere. She does Pat-a-cake and loves to "Throw it in the oven!" And keeps her hands up forever afterwards. She LOVES Baby Einstein and when she watched the Old McDonald one and they sing the song she sings "e-i-e-i-o" in her own little language, it's hilarious.

I'm trying to wean her off of baby food mostly for my sanity because she's still so picky with being spoon fed. Some days she's all for it, and others she just swats it away and it goes flying all over me and the floor. Boo. But she's really picky about textures of table food. I think it's just going to take her some getting used to for some things. She already loves most carbs and fruit and cheeses and stuff like cottage cheese and yogurt, but veggies she's not super interested in. She finally ate some peas by themselves last night and didn't just chuck them on the floor. I've been disguising her veggies in her cottage cheese, which is super GROSS but she doesn't seem to notice so I guess what works I'll do! For now. . tomorrow could be a completely different story!

Let's see. . as for a me and Paul update. . .we're right now doing a little "fitness" challenge to help us stay healthy. We made a sticker chart and the goal is to each get 60 stickers. You can earn a sticker for exercising, drinking 64 oz of water, and staying within your calorie goal on My Fitness Pal. If you do all three of those in one day, then you get a bonus sticker. The prize is a one hour massage! Right now I'm winning, but barely.

Also, I made a new resolution to get back into my hobbies this year, even if it's just for a little bit each week. I set weekly reminders to focus on one thing that week, like crocheting, painting, etc. So far I've done ok, but this is just the first week I've started. Ha.

Also, Paul and I decided to make some nights a "screen free" night, like 4 nights a week after we put Lauren to bed at 7 ish, no more screens. We have to do other stuff. So we've gotten back into puzzling and doing a lot of reading. It's really been great and I hope we can keep it up!


And that's that. Thanks Mom and Tonya for reading this to the very end. Ha ha.