Open mouth kisses

I haven't posted what Leah has been up to lately. She knows how to give kisses now with her mouth wide open. She leans forward and wants to slobber all over me. And sometimes in the process she likes to pull my hair right next to my ears. I don't mind the kissing, but the hair pulling can hurt. But it's fun that she wants to give me hugs and kisses. I'll have to savor it as much as possible before she grows up, becomes independent and thinks I'm just a silly mom that likes to embarrass her.

She thinks I'm the most important person in the world because I am home with her all day. She will even start crying if I leave the room for a second, and just today she has been crying when I put her to bed for a nap. Logan feels sad sometimes that he is her second favorite and prefers me a lot. I keep telling him that when she gets older and stops nursing that he will be her favorite because he will be at work all day, and she will be so excited when he comes home. I know this attachment and separation anxiety won't last forever. But it makes for some long days of not getting anything done.

My cookie-baking binge

As the days grow closer to our inevitable move, we are realizing that we must use the food in our cupboards or we will end up throwing it out or giving it away. And because we have five bags of chocolate chips still left in the cupboard, I decided to start baking my favorite dessert: cookies. I must admit that cookies are probably one of a few desserts that I can actually make, but nevertheless, my favorite.

On Saturday, it was cloudy and raining most of the day, and Logan was putting in long hours at school editing his project. Leah was taking her two-hour afternoon nap, and I could have taken the opportunity to pack at this time. But packing's not as fun as baking cookies. That excitement of licking the dough off the beaters, that aroma that fills your entire home, and the pride that comes when you have made a delicious treat was too much to pass up. I decided to make some chocolate chip cookies and bring them to Logan and his classmates. They were devoured after a couple of hours.

Then on Sunday the urge to make a delicious treat overcame me again. This time I made the chewy chocolate cookies from Logan's dad's recipe. I have made them in the past, and they usually turned out so tasty. This time I decided to add white chocolate chips instead of peanut butter ones, and we weren't disappointed. I don't have another cookie lined up for tomorrow, but I'm thinking of making oatmeal raisin cookies. And I will need to find other people to share them with so we don't eat them all and look like this.

Finally...some peace at night

We finally trained Leah to go to sleep at night, and I have no idea why we didn't try it earlier. I guess we are both softies and didn't want to hear her cry. As first time parents, we have learned a lot and will know what to try on our next little ones. Letting her cry when she woke up at night was the best thing we could have ever done. It only took about three days. Now she sleeps all night, and I don't have to get up anymore. If she does cry, she will usually find her binkie again and go back to sleep. It's amazing. I would recommend it to anyone.

Anything to keep her busy

I have been trying to begin packing since we will be moving next month. We still aren't sure exactly where we're moving because we're still waiting to find Logan a job, but we know we are moving. It's too expensive to live here and our lease will be up next month. So I have been trying to keep Leah busy while I try and box up our house, and here are a few things that have kept her busy.

The first picture shows her trying to take out all the dish towels from the drawer. Her walker allows me some time to get things done while she walks around. The next picture shows her chewing on a game piece from Triominoes (kind of likes Dominoes). It looks like a big fang coming down. The third and fourth pictures are my favorite. We just bought her a new convertible car seat since she was way too big for her infant one. The box just arrived yesterday, and I put her in it this morning to play. She seemed like she liked it. But each activity only buys me about 10 or 15 minutes before she wants me to pick her up or let her walk holding my hands (her favorite). Any suggestions on how to keep her busy?

The Baby Blogger

What you don't know is Leah has been secretly blogging. I always thought she was a smart girl but just this week, I found her at the computer typing away. There have been so many posts on our blog lately that I was feeling really blog savvy, but I couldn't always remember writing them. Now I know and so do all of you. Maybe she needs to go on The Today Show or the Oprah Winfrey Show as a baby genius. The first ever baby that blogs!

Thanks for the picture goes to Kelly Mahoney, Logan's classmate at Northwestern.

Standing up

Leah now thinks she can walk holding someone's hand or against the coffee table and loves to be standing up. She still hasn't mastered the idea that in order to stand she must always be hanging on to something. She will sometimes let go and try to grab for other things when she's not all balanced. I'm not ready for her to be cruising around our tiny apartment. I apologize that the video is turned to the side. I thought it would be easier to capture it that way on my camera, but I forgot that the video doesn't turn that way on the computer screen.

Raising her hands

Leah's new trick is she raises both of her hands in the air. She started doing it just after we came back from Texas, and I think she saw Dallin do it while we were there. I also practice for her quite frequently so she sees me do it a lot.

She also likes to raise just one hand up and lean to the side. The video shows her other trick which is picking up snacks and eating them while also raising her hand. She's great at multi-tasking.

It's so fun to tickle

Leah was laying on the bed so I took the opportunity to tickle her and catch it on video. She was being so funny rolling over as well. I hope you enjoy this video as much as I did. She just loves to kick her legs up in the air while she laying down, especially in the morning when she wakes up and waits for us to come get her.

Tickle tickle

I have a few videos of Leah laughing, and I finally got one uploaded so you all can see. This was at my parents' house in Texas. As you can see, she is only wearing a onesie because it was so hot that day. I love her little laugh when she gets tickled.

The pictures you've been waiting for...

Sorry for all the pictures but there were so many good ones, I just had to include them to show just how much fun we had.

I will try to describe each shot, but they pretty much speak for themselves. The first shows my nephew Dallin trying to hug Leah while we were eating at On the Border. He would try to hug her throughout our visit, but sometimes we weren't watching and he almost knocked Leah completely over. I was thankfully sitting close by to catch her just in time.

The second picture is of Leah playing on the floor with some toys that we played with when we were young. She liked playing with them and the tin they were in. The third picture is my mom playing the piano with Leah. She enjoyed touching the keys and hearing the sound, but not as much as Dallin liked banging on the piano.

These next set of pictures shows my sister Angie holding Leah at the bowling alley. She was being really clingy while I was trying to bowl so Angie had to take her around the bowling alley so she wouldn't see me. Angie loved the time bonding with her. The next picture is part of us at the bowling center. Drew was probably helping Dallin throw a ball. Every time Dallin threw the ball, he would run back to the group and throw his hands in the air and cheer. The third picture is me, my mom, and my sister-in-law getting the dishes cleaned after dinner.












Here's us at On the Border for my birthday lunch. Es muy delicioso! You can see more picture on our photo page.

Pre-birthday celebration

Before I left for Texas, Logan and I celebrated my birthday by going miniature golfing and then eating dinner at Red Robin. I got a free burger coupon by joining Red Robin's email birthday list, which I would encourage anyone to do if they like the restaurant. We got some cute pics of Leah while we were so I just wanted to show everyone.

You can see more pics at our photo page.

Reunited at last

My flight was delayed an hour last night, which meant we sat at the gate ready in the plane for thirty minutes and then sat on the runway for another thirty minutes. I was stuck in between two business men with a baby who had not slept all afternoon and was up crying the night before. I prayed throughout the take-off that she would stop crying and stop fighting me enough to go to sleep. Finally she calmed down and nestled on my lap, leaving me with an hour of silence to myself. I was exhausted enough to doze off with her laying there and could feel my head bobbing up and down. I had no energy left.

We finally arrived and found Logan despite the mass of people traveling at the airport. It's been hard to be away from Logan the past week, and I'm glad it's over. After a grueling half day of traveling, I never thought I'd be so happy to see the door to our tiny apartment.

And he must have known that I would be tired and worn out because when I walked into our kitchen, I found the dishes were done, the bed was made, and there was a beautiful bouquet of flowers and a homemade birthday cake shaped into an "H". He also suggested ordering Asian food from our favorite place in Evanston. It's good to be home.

Sorry, more pictures of our trip to come (when I have enough time to put them up).

Howdy Y'all!

I'm visiting my family in Texas this week, but haven't had a lot of time to blog this week. I tried to earlier this week, but I couldn't get the Internet to work at my parents' house.

Well, I just want to say that I'm loving this warm, summer-esque weather here. It's still a little to cool to go swimming, darn it. But I can definitely get ready everyday knowing that short sleeves and capris will be the appropriate outfit. We had a fabulous Girl's Day out with my mom, my sister Angie, my sister-in-law Lindsey, and my friend Emily who moved here from Chicago. We met for lunch on Wednesday and traveled to several stores searching for deals on baby items and shopping for my birthday (which is today, Horray!).

Then on Thursday, we attended a baby shower for Lindsey at her friend's house. It's finally setting in that she is having another boy, plus active Dallin. It was another fun Girl's Night, and so fun to see her new baby clothes and blankets. Leah loved to watched some kids playing at the baby shower, and loved being in the action. She was well behaved throughout the evening, except when it got to be past her bedtime.

I'll try and update later with some pictures of our festivities in Texas. Until then, see y'all later!

How about now?

First of all, thanks to those who commented on the previous post. I think I like these colors better, and I took the other picture off of the header bar and added this one. I like how the posts are wider now like Carolyn said. I don't have to scroll down as much to read other posts. I just wish I could put a box or some barrier around each post so it doesn't seem like all the words are running together. I don't know how to change that on the template. What do you all think?

P.S. Happy Cinco de Mayo!

We need your help

I have just changed the design and color of our blog. Logan and I have differing opinions on the colors and other elements of the design (even though I am the primary blogger of our site). So we would like to solicit your feedback. Do you like the colors? How about the picture at the top? What do you think of the template?

We would love to read your comments.

Just like old times

Like I mentioned in the previous post, Braden and Haley came to stay for a week with Haley's folks, and we were fortunate to see them three days (I actually saw them one other day while Logan was in school).

One of our favorite parts of getting together was seeing Braden and Haley playing with Leah. She liked them from the start, especially Braden. I was glad that she didn't get scared of him like she has with the missionaries. She actually felt right at home with him while Logan and Braden were playing with the Wii, which was another favorite part of getting together. Logan has been trying to talk me into getting a Wii, but I keep telling him that he needs to find a job first and then I might consider it.

They even cooked us a fabulous dinner at Haley's house that included butternut squash soup that was Delish! Last Monday they drove up to Evanston to see our humble abode and Northwestern. Although it was a blustery day, we had a picnic by the lake and walked out on the lookout point where you can see the Chicago skyline. We also saw the Baha'i Temple for the first time with them, the only temple on the American continent and located just north of us in Wilmette. We didn't know much about the Baha'i Faith so we took a tour of the Visitor Center and took pictures outside on the grounds (those pictures soon to come).

When we made it back home, we rounded out the visit with a rivalry game of Hand and Foot - girls versus guys. And as you might have guessed the girls were superior, scoring over 1,000 more points (I would post a picture of the score card, but the numbers were too small for the camera).

Overall we had a great time with them, and it seemed like old times when we used to live in Orem just five minutes apart. I hope we can live closer to them in the future. Check out more pictures on our photo page.