The Moving Blues

So our move is this weekend, and I'm not really looking forward to it. I know that it's just across town and will be A LOT easier than moving across country, but I'm still stressed. I have done some things along the way, but I still feel like there is a ton more to do. You know all those random things that you collect around the house that you don't know what to do with when you're moving, yeah, they are bugging me. I just don't want Saturday to come along and still have all these things to throw in a box. I know it will be hectic even if we have everything packed already, but it would give me a little more piece of mind if I could just say some magic words and the house would be boxed up for me.

In the mean time, here are some funny pictures of Leah that I've been meaning to post. She is just crazy as ever running all around the house, and she's getting more independence and attitude where she wants something and won't stop saying it until she gets it. We used to be able to distract her and tell her "no, we're not watching kitty cats right now," but now she just doesn't give up. In sacrament she kept saying "ball, ball, ball, ball, etc" and pointing to the door because she knows that when we walk on the basketball court at church, there is usually a ball.







Here's Leah with pigtails in her hair that actually stayed in her hair throughout church. And to the right is Leah trying on my gloves. The bottom two show her smiling and eating yogurt with it all over her face.

Leah's tricks

I haven't really updated our blog about Leah's tricks these days. She is getting more interactive at 16 months and is so fun to play with. Although she doesn't say many words, she makes sounds and does some sign language so we can mostly figure out what she is trying to say.

Here are the things she can say:

• Ma, ma
• Da, da (she loves saying this over and over when we go pick up Logan from work)
• Uh-oh (her new favorite one)
  
• Meow for cat
  
• Ru, ru for dog
• Tee sound for brushing her teeth
• Ball
• Bear
• Bub, bub for bubble
• Gogo for yogurt
• Cra, cra for cracker (sometimes it sounds the same as yogurt)
• Nana for banana and my mom who goes by Nana

Signs:

• More
• All done
• Drink
• Baby
  
• Folds her arm for prayer
• Popcorn (she actually makes the sign for milk)
• Bath
• Bird
• Fish
• Monkey, sometimes
  

She can also point to body parts like her nose, eyes, ears, hair, tongue, arm, feet, and leg. She just started playing with a coloring book and crayons, but she mostly just likes to dump all the crayons on the floor. She also likes playing with baby dolls, books and the toys she got for Christmas. She loves to get on our laps as soon as we sit down to the computer, and she starts saying "meow, meow" because we let her watch funny videos of cats and dogs online. She loves to run around the basketball court and look for balls during church. We're getting excited for her to be old enough for nursery so we can finally pay more attention in church.

Looking Great in 2008

So for Christmas, Logan bought me a Gold's Gym membership. It was the only thing I wanted, and it's really come in handy during our snowy winter. We live two minutes away from the gym right now, so it makes it easy to go right after Leah's goes to bed. But we'll be moving farther away, so I'll have to make the extra effort to go. My ward is also participating in a stake basketball league. I haven't played basketball since I was three or four months pregnant, so it's been awhile.

There are some good girls in my ward that play with me and so far we've won both games. However, I don't know if they'll allow me to continue playing after we move. I hope they do or I hope I can find another group to play with. It's been so fun getting back into shape and playing the game. I'm just hoping all this hard work pays off so I can shed the rest of the baby weight.

Logan is also playing in our men's stake basketball league, and he's enjoyed getting back into it. Except for when he comes home afterwards, he is exhausted. I sometimes wish I could play with the guys' team because our games aren't always that competitive or challenging, but they are still fun.

Two weeks and counting...

We finally have some news to share on this blog. We found a bigger apartment to move into in February. We had been searching the last couple of months to find something we could be more comfortable in. The first several places we saw weren't much to talk about and didn't feel right when we walked around in them. But we saw this new place in north Orem, and we knew we couldn't let it slip by.








Here are some things that we like about it:

• a huge yard (see the picture to the right)
  
• a garage with shelves
  
• central heating and air conditioning
• three bedrooms
• newer kitchen
• next to a church
• extra storage closets
• cable already hooked up
• rent is reasonable

The place we are currently living in has been great for us, but we knew that we wanted to move to something else. We just took our time looking. We won't be as close to Logan's brother and sister or to his work as we are now, but we can make that sacrifice of driving a little more. Now we feel anxious about packing and moving again, something we've done now three times in our three year marriage. But we'll be living in this new place for at least a year so we won't have to move again for awhile.

As you can see, Leah is really excited about moving to our new place, especially because it has a short set of stairs she can crawl up and down. Each time we've gone to the apartment, she makes a break for the stairs and is so happy when she's reached the top.

Back in action

So I started writing this post on Jan. 1 right after we got home from the holidays. I was going to document all the fun we had while visiting my family in Texas and then, I never finished writing the post or putting up pictures. I'm a slacker, what can I say. I started reading the The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series of books (I'm currently on the fourth one) and so my spare time was spent doing that and all the other random household duties I have.

After our trip, it took a few days of sleeping in to get back in the flow of normal life. Leah finally got back to sleeping through the night, which she didn't do at all in Texas. Logan came back early from Texas so he could go back to work. I stayed four days later to spend more time with my family. My brother Drew and his family were coming back from their Colorado Christmas so I wanted to see them before I left for Utah. We had a wonderful and exhausting Christmas, and we're all glad to be back home sleeping in our own beds. Both of our families and Santa were very generous to us this year. We must have been good. I could tell Leah was an exceptionally good girl this past year because she came home with tons of new toys and clothes.

I know this picture would probably embarrass my dad and Logan, but I couldn't not put it on this post. The next picture is me Christmas morning showing off my new shirt. The last couple of pictures were taken at Drew's house where we opened gifts with them and laughed as Dallin and Leah wanted to play with Dallin's gifts. Leah was more intent on ripping off the paper and seeing the next present (that's my girl). And Dallin would spend more time playing with what he got and was a little slower to want to open another one. But it was fun to spend time with them and see how big little Benjamin is growing up.

Man, that was close

Please read what happened to me this morning on Logan's blog. I would have written about it but he beat me to it. I was so glad the cop decided not to give me a ticket. My luck in the past (before marrying Logan, he's been a good influence on me) wasn't so good in the Provo/Orem area. Good thing my other tickets aren't on my record anymore, and good thing I barely escaped a speeding ticket today.