Monkeys all around me

A couple of days ago I found some cute clothes for Leah at Kid-to-Kid, a store that sells used children's clothing and toys. One of items I bought was a Curious George shirt that was just her size (I actually looked for sizes 3T and 4T because her 2T and 24 month clothes are getting a little small). She loved it from the minute I showed it to her. She always points to it and makes her little monkey sound. I think she's worn it two days in a row now so I'll have to hide it in the dirty clothes hamper.

(I also found this skirt from the same store, and she loves it almost as much as the shirt).

Plus when she woke up from her nap today, she made the monkey noise too. She remembered that the Curious George cartoon comes on TV when she wakes up from her nap, and I will usually let her watch it since it's only 3o minutes long. Leah also found a monkey book at the library the other day that she loves to have me read to her at bedtime.

And if that's not enough monkey references for you, I'll just add another one. Earlier this month, I went to the Utah Valley Women's Expo and enter lots of drawings to win free stuff. Last year I didn't really win anything except for some discounts on laser hair removal, which I never really planned on using. This year I won a free baby sling from Hugamonkey.com so I ordered one right away. All I had to pay was the tax on it, and it even came with free shipping. I only used a Baby Bjorn with Leah and really didn't use it as much as I should have. So I'm excited to use it with our next baby.

Her new favorite thing

This week Leah and I have been playing our our bed with the pillows. And her new favorite thing to do is fall down onto the pillows, and we always say "Plop!" when she does it. So here are two videos of her doing that. The second one features her running from the living room to where I am in my bedroom to fall on the pillows. Hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

"Take my picture, mom"

I might have mentioned in one of my previous posts that Leah likes having her picture taken now. She'll actually sit still long enough for me to take one. She thinks it's so fun for me to take her picture or record a video and then watch it on the digital camera screen. She likes to try on my socks or shoes and then puts her hands up to her eyes. I quickly figured out that this means she wants to have her picture taken.

Here are some photos I've taken of her this week. She has also figured out that she needs to smile when I take her picture, and she's usually smiling anyway because she is so excited to see her picture on the camera afterwards.

Our first bread batch

For my birthday this year, my mom surprised me with my very own Bosch mixing appliance with a new blender to make home-made bread, cookies, smoothies and other food items. She bought one earlier this year and has loved using it in her kitchen. We were quite surprised and thrilled to use it as well. My mom gave us her bread recipe, and we tried it out this morning.

The recipe was great because it went step by step and explained every little detail so even I could understand it. The Bosch makes it so easy to prepare the bread, and it's fun to watch the dough spin around in the bowl.

We are proud to report that our first batch turned out amazing - soft, thick, and so yummy.

It was so exciting to see the finished product come out of the oven and then taste it. Maybe this will be the end of store-bought bread. All we need to do now is buy a few more bread pans so we can make four loaves at a time and store them in our freezer.

My belated Mother's Day post

Here it is almost Friday, and I haven't even blogged about Mother's Day and my birthday (it was the same day this year). First of all, I just wanted to let my mom and my mother-in-law know how much they mean to me. I talk to my mom at least every day or every other day, and she always wants to know how I'm doing and shows her love and support for me. I'm so glad that she's always been there for me and has been one of my closest friends as I've gotten older. I'm also glad that I have mother-in-law who treats me like one of her own. She likes to stay updated on our lives, especially Leah's, and she is always there when we need to talk.

I don't know what I would do without these wonderful examples in my life. I'm learning how to be a good mother from them, and I'm so grateful to have them in my life.

Second, I would like to say that I have a wonderful husband who made my weekend so special. He got me a new watch because I lost one of mine and the battery was dead in my other one. I think it's so cute. We went to eat Saturday at Red Robin, our favorite restaurant, and saw "Iron Man" at the movie theater which rarely happens for us. He made sure that my gift from my mom stayed a secret, and he even wrapped it up for me. He fixed breakfast for me on Sunday (french toast using french bread - so yummy) and he also made me my favorite cherry cheesecake on Sunday when we celebrated with his family. I am so blessed and was so pampered. Thanks honey!

I'm back

I have attempted to blog sooner than today, but I have been having troubles using our laptop so now I decided to try our desktop computer. It seemed that every time I tried to upload a photo, there was some error with Firefox. So I'm hoping that I actually can add photos and update you all on our lives.

The past few weeks have been a little busy, but most of my non-blogging was due to laziness. We've also had a change in our schedule since Logan has temporary assumed the position as one of the metro editors at the Daily Herald. He was asked to fill in for a few months until they can hire another editor. His hours have since changed a little bit and will continue to change every other week when he works nights. We both thought he would receive good experience and decide if editing was something he really enjoyed.

Leah is now 20 months old, and she is getting so big. I look at old videos and pictures of her when she was an infant, and I can’t believe how much she has grown. She definitely takes an interest in what she wears each day and what color they are. She has a blue pair of shoes that Logan's mom gave her that I haven't been able to get her to wear. And she asks to wear certain shirts that are always in the wash because she always wears them (like her one with a dog on it and another that has a mother pushing her baby in the stroller).

She likes to do things on her own, but she also wants to be held and wants extra attention at certain times. She loves to grab our hands and pull us to where she wants to go. We finally have her sleeping at night a lot better, and she has been taking wonderful 3-hour naps during the day (a much needed break for her mom).

She has tried on my socks and shoes and then she points to the camera because she wants her picture taken.