Standing on Her Own.....For a Bit

Lydia has started to get very brave lately and has been testing her limits.  She is letting go of us and the couch to stand on her own.  She is getting pretty good and can stand for a few seconds now before she loses her balance.  We caught a bit of this on video finally.   I kept trying for a while but every time I would pull out the camera she would get shy.

Last night Lydia and daddy had some fun when he got home from work.  It was so cute I had to get a picture.  She would hold onto his hair to keep her balance while sitting on his shoulders.



 Lydia also had her Dr's appointment today and the Dr said that she was doing things (standing, walking with help, etc) that a nine month old would be doing.  She is doing very well apparently and is still 90th percentile in her height and 25th in her weight.  The Dr is not concerned at all with those stats because she has been consistent with her Dr's appointments.  The one thing that he was a little worried about is how much solids she eats.  Apparently she should only be having 1-2 meals a day of solids and she is getting 3.  I asked if this needed to be cut back and he said no just don't increase them for a while.  So I am now going to try to push the bottle a little more.  I don't know how I will do that considering that she doesn't like it much anymore.  She has been the one pushing to get on solids and I find it a little funny that she is doing things so fast.  She is just impatient I guess.  I'm not going to worry much though because when she is ready for things she lets me know and she has been very ready to keep moving forward.  So a few tweaks here and there and she will be just fine.  He was very impressed with her little "carotene glow".  That's the slight orangy color that babies get in there faces when they are getting enough vegetables.  So at least she is eating right and getting what she needs. 

 Speaking of eating right, we have been trying to eat a lot better here and I had a challenge on my hands.  I have been trying to feed meals with fruits and vegetables in the season and cutting way back on the meat we eat.  Well, Kelvin informed me that he would not eat squash, zucchini, or any other gross vegetable.  I told him that I would find way for him to eat them and so my challenge began.  I made ratatouille last night and we both really liked it.  Our friend Matt came over and he really liked it too.  Guess what?  It has squash, zucchini, and egg plant in it.  He loved it!  All it takes is a few recipes that cater to his particular liking and we are off and running with the veggies and fruits.  After he develops a taste for certain veggies, I can start trying more creative things and get him to eat them almost raw.  It's beautiful!  But it has been making a difference.  I already feel so much better after we have cut out a lot of refined things and added back in whole grains and organic produce.  This is only after a few days.  I have also noticed that I feel like I am losing weight just by eating right.  It's wonderful and we are both getting hooked.  Kelvin has actually lost a little weight as well and we are both doing well.  There really is something to this "every fruit in it's season" thing! 

It's Getting Cold...

It was a little chilly yesterday so before we headed out to my parents for the October birthday's party, we got into some comfy hoodies.  What was so funny was when they all turned out to be "U" hoodies.  We just had to take some pictures.

Looking pretty good!!!





When Lydia is tired she will place her arm over her eyes.  (We don't know why, or how she got started doing that but it's cute nonetheless.)  But with her new found hoodie, she just moved the hood over to cover her face.  When we found her she had her hand holding the hood to keep it covering her face.  She had just moved before the picture was taken but so you know, her face is towards the camera.


And then this morning we woke up to snow.  Yep, that's right.  It is officially winter and I am not too happy about that.  The heater is on for the first time and I am wearing a sweater.  These last few years have had horrible Fall seasons.  It only lasts a week maybe two and then it's on to winter.  I get so frustrated because Fall is my favorite time of year and I haven't even had a chance to enjoy it in years.  Oh well.  Maybe we will have better luck in Texas.

Quiet Sunday Afternoon

After we visited the Hospital on Sunday afternoon we got to spend a quiet Sunday evening by ourselves. It's been a while since we have done that and we really enjoyed it.

Lydia is getting better with her balance everyday and I'm afraid she will be walking sooner than we think. I will definitely be having a little shadow when this happens.


She likes walking with daddy.


She has such a great smile. I know every parent is in love with their baby and thinks that they are the smartest and best kid in the universe, but I think mine really is the smartest and best in the universe. ;) Well... if not that... then she is still pretty darn cute.


"I will karate chop your face daddy!!" This was taken a few days prior at my parents house while she was playing with Matt. I can't help but laugh at it, especially the little pinky sticking out on her hand.

In Loving Memory

My dear friend Heidi and Jennifer's step-mom ,Vee Ann, passed away yesterday morning at 10:56am. After battling cancer for 2 1/2 years, it came back in droves. She slipped into a coma last Wednesday, had emergency surgery to remove a hemorrhage in her brain and was starting to show some signs of improvement. We were all hopeful for a full recovery but she never woke up after 10 days. The family decided on Saturday that they needed to let her go so they took her off all her life support. She could still breathe on her own so the Dr's said it would probably be a couple of days. They moved her out of ICU on Sat night at 9pm and she died 14 hours later. I never got a chance to say goodbye because they don't let anyone other than family in the ICU. Kelvin and I were planning on going to visit her on Sunday after church but I kept getting a nagging feeling we needed to go sooner. We had to speak in Sacrament meeting so when it was over I called Heidi and was told that Vee Ann had already passed on. We immediately left church and went to the Hospital in Provo. I expected to cry when I saw her but all I saw was a body, not Vee Ann. She is in a much better place having the time of her life seeing loved ones who passed before her. Regardless of this knowledge, she will be missed by all of us left here. We love you Vee Ann!

I'm So Glad When Daddy Comes Home

Lydia loves it when daddy is home and so these past two days she has had a ball. Gregory is on Fall Break this week and only had to work on Monday and Tuesday to get all his hours in. Yesterday she was so excited and then this morning she was even more excited that he was there in the morning. When I was feeding her breakfast she wouldn't take her eyes off him and would only take a bite when daddy would take a break playing with her. It's so fun to watch them interact and how excited she gets. And while she is turning into a little daddy's girl, she will always come back to mommy. It's cute how after she is done playing with him, she turns right back to me.








I just had to include these pictures because I thought they were so cute. She is starting to get pretty decent balance when she is standing and has even been trying to let go of things and stand on her own. She will be independently standing for a couple seconds and then have to grab onto something again. I think it will be a little while before she starts walking even though she has been starting to get better pretty fast.

Banana Monster

Ever since Lydia could eat solid foods, she has loved bananas. The funny thing is that she doesn't like them cut up and put on her tray, she wants 1/3 of the banana so she can hold it and eat it all on her own. This tends to get a little messy as you could imagine, but she loves it so we let her do it. This morning she ate almost an entire banana by herself and was happy as a clam the entire time.

Weekend Happenings

For our anniversary on Sat we took the baby to my mom's house and had them babysit while kelvin and I went out for a nice lunch. After about 2 hours we got the baby and went home. After a long month and a half of little sleep we were pretty tired so we canceled our babysitter for that night (sorry Adrian) and decided to stay home. We put the baby to bed about 6:30 and then we opened a celebratory mini cake that Kelvin had brought home the day before. We got in bed turned on Harry Potter ate a little of the cake then fell asleep at about 8pm!! You can laugh all you want (I sure keep laughing about it) but it felt really good. We both agreed that that was the best way to celebrate our anniversary. Lydia even went right back to bed after eating at 5am and slept until 7:45am. It was her little gift to us.

Sunday morning we had a great time being a little lazy. Kelvin got out his remote controlled helicopter he got from his dad for his birthday. He was flying it around the living and Lydia was quite transfixed. She has seen it before but it always scared her a little. If I was holding her and it was flying around she was usually ok for the most part. On Sunday she was just fine and loved watching it. Kelvin decided to fly it closer to her and see what she would do.

Curious...


I want that dad!


It crash landed right next to her.


Then she got it and Kelvin had to make a dive to get it before she broke anything off. She got pretty brave about it after she was able to touch it.


That is until she touched it while it was moving. Poor little thing tried to grab it and the propellers caught her fingers. She was not very happy after that.


That night we went to my parents house for dinner and Uncle Dave did a new trick with her. She wasn't sure what to think at first but she really liked it later.


And finally this morning I was on my laptop while Lydia was playing on the ground when i found a sight for Sesame Street videos online. I started to wonder if she would be interested in something like that. So I pulled up the video on the computer and sat her down to watch. This was her response.

Completely amazed!!!


She just stared at the screen and wouldn't look away.


Then she started to get excited and would clap and talk and sing along.


"Are you seeing this mom?"

HAPPY ANNIVERSAY!!

Today marks the third year of marrying the most wonderful man alive! Happy Anniversary my love! You are the perfect man for me and I thank my Heavenly Father every night that I have you in my life.

More Pictures

As promised here as more pictures of what this little independent baby can do.

She sits up like a champ now!


She can hold her own bottle (when she wants too).


First introduction to a sippy cup. "What's this mom?"


Starting to get the hang of it.


Smiling pretty for the camera.


And finally, she is eating finger foods. She loves being independent and so when she can do things on her own, like feed herself, she is very happy. So far Cheerios and banana's have been a hit.

My Hunter

On Thursday Kelvin went hunting with Aaron and his dad. He was really excited!! Kelvin had been talking for a while about learning how to hunt and I have encouraged it because I think it's a skill you need to know. You never know when you will need to use it, especially these days. So he got up at 4am and got all ready to leave at 4:30. They had a great time and he learned a lot and was grateful he was able to go. Lydia and I spent the day at my mom's house and had a great time there. My mom was really happy to have Lydia there and spend time with us.

Aaron all ready to go!


Boyd, Aaron's dad.


One of the places they went. Isn't it beautiful? I am REALLY going to miss the beauty here when we leave Utah.


Let's go hunt some dear!


Lamb Stew anyone?


It took a little while for the sheep to move out of the road. There were hundreds of them.


When the weather got to this point they decided it was time to go home. They didn't get home until 10pm. It was fun to hear all the stories when he got home.

Growing Up So Fast

So Lydia has a few new tricks that she has figured out. One is clapping which she now tends to do all the time and the other is supported walking. Yes, my 6 1/2 month old baby is walking with us holding her hands. She is getting really good at it even though she still doesn't have great balance yet and wants to walk every where in the apartment. I will be happy when she can walk or crawl so I don't have to be right next to her every second of the day! It's so fun to watch how much she is growing and learning every day. I promise I will get more pictures of her doing these things soon but I wanted to post what we had.

She likes to walk on daddy's feet too!


She's growing up so fast! While this video only shows her walking for a little bit, she loves to walk everywhere in the house now.

Birthday Celebrations

Happy Birthday to the most wonderful husband ever!!! Kelvin turned 26 on Tuesday and we had a great day. Lydia was kind enough to go back to bed right after she ate and slept until 7 so he got to sleep in. After a yummy breakfast of pancakes we got ready and headed up to the University of Utah where the career fair was going on. He went around talking with different companies and they all told him that he was VERY impressive and had a great resume. LOTS of places were interested in him and in fact he had an interview with one company the very next day before they left to go back to Seattle. He came away from the career fair feeling pretty good, especially now that we had a few options regarding employment and where we want to be.

Kelvin's friends wanted to go out to lunch for his birthday so we loaded everyone up in the van after the fair and went to pick up Aaron. This is where a van comes in handy! We fit 6 people plus Lydia in the van and headed out together to have lunch at a small hamburger joint close to the school. We had a lot of fun with everyone and seeing old friends was quite nice. After lunch Kelvin and Aaron played Star Craft for like 3 hours until Adrian got off work and joined us. We ate dinner and watched a movie and had a great time.

Kelvin got a lot of presents and was quite excited about how good of a day he had. Sorry there are no pictures. We have been really bad with the camera things lately. But just know that he had a great big smile on his face all day!!