The Importance of "Just Because"

I've learned all too well from my other kids how quickly this baby stage is gone. Everyday "stuff" is what makes up the majority of my days and every now and then needs to be captured. I love looking back at random pictures that weren't centered around an event or celebration. Real life deserves photos, too! It's been a while since I took out my camera "just because," so Sunday I followed Lacey for a bit as she crawled around the living room.












She may drive me crazy on a daily basis, but at the same time I can confidently say there never was a more perfect little being.

Auto Expo 2012

I'm going to limit my commentary on these pictures and editing to a minimum. There's so many, I just want to get them posted.

This was our 4th year in a row attending the expo. It's a family-fun day we look forward to all year. We were there 5 HOURS this time which is CRAZY! The kids would've stayed longer, but Mom and Dad were done!

Once again, Matty's favorite thing was climbing in and out of trunks. He even scared the daylights out of one woman when she went to look in a hidden compartment he was hiding in to scare his dad. Good thing she thought it was funny! The next person did not see the humor when he did it again. Jossy of course had to click her seatbelt on in every car. Lacey refused to ride in her stroller as we walked, so we had the joy of carrying her around everywhere just to keep her happy. She may be a lightweight, but it's still a major workout to hold her because she's so wiggly!



Dan and Matty went on a Jeep "ride." Essentially it was an obstacle course to show off what the Jeep could do. The line was quite long, but Matty really wanted to do it. He was barely tall enough, and during some parts that whipped you around his seatbelt got him in the neck pretty good. The picture doesn't do it justice. He still loved it though.



Meeting Mater was another highlight for the kids as was spinning in an army truck and racing lego cars they built with Dan.

Oh what a fun place to dream!

9 Months

Little Lacey turned 9 months last week. Amazingly, she's been on the outside of my tummy as long as she was in it. She can now crawl, wave, climb a few stairs, pull herself up onto furniture, and a myriad of other trouble-making skills. She's excellent at finding the one thing I DON'T want her to get into, and she'll go for that. She's also great at emptying the dirty utensils out of the dishwasher and onto the floor if the door's open while mom's TRYING to do dishes. (Clean dishes are overrated anyway, right?) Baby toys have never really held her interest for long.


She still prefers her mom over anyone else, though she'll let others hold her as long as she can't see me. We went in for her checkup last week and learned she's a whopping 13 lbs 6 oz (with a wet diaper on) which puts her at "less than 0%" on the charts. Her height is in the 10th percentile and head size is around 40th. Her doctor says she's very petite but he isn't concerned since she's still got some fat on her and she's obviously developing fine. He gave us some suggestions of foods to give her to help her get more protein and fat. Trouble is she's not a fan of any of the ones we've tried so far. :/

She sleeps about 8-10 hours at night, wakes to nurse around 4ish, then typically will go back to sleep til 7 or so. She's got a horrible cold right now so she's not doing so in that department. Why is a baby's scream so much cuter when it's cracking due to sickness? :) Poor girl has been miserable.

35

Last week we celebrated Dan's birthday. Jossy and I spent the morning decorating his car at work with streamers, balloons, and a sign. He saw it from the breakroom when he was taking his lunch break and called to thank us. When he got home from work, we played a little Wii bowling as a family, enjoyed his favorite dinner, and opened presents.

The kids got him just what they've been wanting to for months now. We had fun playing with his new toy. Lacey was quick to demonstrate why she must be banned from being a ball retriever.


Glad we have a use for those ping pong balls Jossy got me for Christmas!

I decorated his cake to look like the Ubuntu logo. I've got an open source proponent in the house and wanted to show him I loved him. He saw it, smiled huge and said, "My wife loves me!!" Mission accomplished.




A few neighbors came over last minute to help celebrate and have cake. I put 35 candles on but thankfully our ultra-sensitive smoke detector in the kitchen didn't go off.

He had a great day, which made me very happy. He deserves it.

Second Christmas

We visited Dan's family in Idaho after Christmas. We got a picture of him with his siblings except his older half-sister who wasn't there.



The adults and one teenager went and played a game that night of something similar to paint ball but without the paint. You can see a few of the many war wounds here. Each little mark like on his brother's arm was a giant bloody bruise about 4 inches in diameter by the next day. SOOOOO glad I didn't play with them! Dan got a nail ripped off in addition to his other wounds. Sorry, but my idea of fun isn't doing something that will intentionally hurt myself. Guess I'm a wimp!


The kids rarely get to see their Uncle Joe but even little Lacey quickly warmed up to him and his girlfriend. He's definitely a favorite.


For this trip we stayed with my college roommate Sandi who lives just a few blocks from my in-laws. My older kids quickly made friends with Sandi's 3-year-old as they bonded over jumping on the beds, which I failed to get a picture of since I was busy trying to get them in to the bed.

Sandi has a little boy just older than Lacey. They got to meet in the morning and quickly became cohorts as they worked together to conquer a dead laptop. Such cute mischief makers! (Sandi, let me know if you want me to e-mail you these pictures in full size.)


Kind of fun to get pictures of those two together since we once visited when Jossy and Sandi's daughter were about those ages, and they got pictures together.

3 Years Ago

Back at Grandma and Grandpa's house, the kids got to open more presents. I think it's safe to say that Lacey was by far the most excited for this. I mean, the look on her face says it all, doesn't it?! ;)

Later when I put Lacey on a blanket on the floor to play, I thought it was funny that the cat decided the risk of being near a hair-pulling baby was worth it just to sit on that soft blanket. The cat stayed there for hours.

Is it just me, or does Lacey look older in these two pictures?? Maybe it's just the angles and smile, but I can see her face changing. She started crawling a few days before Christmas. Anyone know how to stop your baby from growing up so fast?? :(

Christmas Morning!

We had church at 9 AM Christmas morning and needed to get there early so I could set up things to play my flute. So the kids woke up to presents, but we warned them we didn't have time to open them until after church. A little begging convinced Mom to let them open ONE gift before church. I should have made them get dressed first because it was a bit of a fight to get the big kids away from their new toy long enough to put some clothes on.

Once home from church, I asked if they wanted to change into play clothes first before opening gifts. Stupid question, Mom. No way were they going to wait even 2 more minutes before tearing into their presents! Fine by me since it's probably the only time we'll all ever be dressed up this nicely for opening gifts.

Matty gave the best reactions. He was so excited over everything.

Lacey was a typical baby; more interested in paper and bows than her toys.

When I asked Dan for ideas on what the kids should get him, he said he wanted something he can do with them. The kids and I first searched for a little ping pong set to buy that would hook onto the dining table, but all the ones on sale were sold out everywhere. But then I had the brilliant idea of s'mores. So they got him s'more supplies instead. It was well received.

My kids gave me the best gifts ever. Matty wanted to make me something "with these hands" as he told me a week before. I knew it would be something only a mother could love, but that works out perfectly because I'm a mom!! When I opened his present to me I found a piece of paper which he took from me and shyly performed his original song titled "The Christmas Mom." He had even written down every little "Mmmmm Hmmmm" and "Dum dum da dum." Oh, melt my heart!!!

Jossy had two gifts for me. One was a box of candy, and the other was . . . ping pong balls. I looked deeper in the bag for some paddles or something. I said to her, "Are there paddles with it? Where are the paddles?" She said, "Ummmm, I don't know. I didn't buy any." I asked, "You just wanted me to have the balls?" She replied excitedly, "YES!!!" Dan said when he took her to the store to pick out a present for me, she wanted to buy me ping pong balls and since they were so cheap he let her. What a funny kid!! She must have been thinking about how we were going to buy a set for Daddy but couldn't find them. It gave me a good laugh. I'm sure we'll find some creative use for them. (Pinterest, here I come!)

After playing with their new toys for a bit, we spent some time at my parents' home where the kids got more presents. Jossy opened her princess book from Grandma and said, "I always wanted this!!" She'd been checking it out at Costco for months and was so excited to have a copy for home.

We enjoyed an evening of yummy dinner, continuous snacking, and visiting with family. Lacey of course was happy to further demonstrate her paper-digesting abilities.

And sweet cousin Emi showed us what real beauty is all about.

Lights at Temple Square

On Christmas Eve we made our yearly trek out into the cold to view the lights at Temple Square. It took about 5 minutes for Jossy to begin asking when we were leaving. I think it was in the 20's outside that night, and she was ready to be done. At least there was no snow to contend with this year, but I still had the kids wear snow pants to help keep them warm. (Those are LOADS of fun to get off in a hurry when a 3-year-old needs to go potty. Twice.)

We went with a few members of my family. It's always nice to have helping hands with the kids. Matty stayed entertained just hanging on his aunt and uncle who were with us. Jossy pretty much stuck to the stroller eating crackers since she was so cold and we hadn't had dinner. Lacey was only happy in the stroller til we took her out for a picture. After that, she just wanted held of course.

Half the fun for me in visiting is taking pictures of such beautiful scenes. Unfortunately with a freezing family, there's not much time to stop and get all the shots I want so I was only able to take a few quick ones as we walked past. One year I'd LOVE to go up there all by myself and just spend a whole evening taking pictures of the temple and the lights. (And perhaps go when the weather is warmer if possible!)