Lily Turns 2

Lily is now officially two years old!  I can't believe how big she is getting.  She talks all the time.  Basically non-stop.  She loves to go outside or on walks.  And she begs to go to the park - which is hard sometimes because it has been rainy a bit making the park not so ideal.  She has found two shows she likes to watch: Barney and Blue's Clues (which she calls "clues").  We don't have cable so she has to watch whatever is online, so that's why she likes the older shows.  She recently learned to count to 10 and it's probably because of Barney and then us counting with her a little.  She also has started singing a lot.  She knows most of the words to twinkle twinkle little star and a few others.

A huge milestone that I didn't think would happen so soon was the end of the paci (pacifier).  She has loved that thing since birth, and I mean it - since she was less than a day old she has loved her paci and I thought it would be horrible taking it away from her.  It actually could not have been easier.  One night Brady had the pacifier in his pocket and when he put her down, she didn't ask for it and she fell right asleep.  When he came out and showed it to me we were like "this is it."  So we hid it away and decided to be strong.  The next day she asked for it maybe twice and only when she was tired.  But I got her to nap without it and without a fight, even.  The few subsequent days she would occassionally ask for it but we would just say "oh paci is sleeping" or if we were out of the house we would say "oh, paci is at home, sorry" and she would accept that and move on.  So now her front teeth are straightening out and not looking so paci-fied.  I was very happy with that because getting rid of it before 2 years old is definitely good.  Now we just have to potty train (I doubt that will happen anytime soon).

Lily can be so sweet, and sour, too.  She says "love you" now without being prompted and will just come up and give me a kiss sometimes.  She's a pretty picky eater, basically a vegetarian because she won't try anything she doesn't like the look of and she doesn't like the way meat looks, so she eats a ton of fruit, a few types of veggies and then lots of rice and pasta.  That's about it for now on Lily.  I'll take her to her two year appointment sometime soon and we'll get to see how big she is.

Virginia!

When we flew into Virginia we were about 4 hours away from Blacksburg, where we live, but we were near Brady's parents and they ended up giving us a ton of furniture to use in our new place!  We got a couch, a dining room table and chairs, a large dresser for our room and a side table.  We ended up not leaving for Blacksburg until late Friday night and didn't get to our new place until after midnight.  The next day we had a few guys from our ward come help us unload our stuff.  I made a floor plan for Brady's brother who is on a mission and wanted to know what our place looks like.  Here it is:

Virginia so far is good.  The one thing I hate is how big the bugs are.  I had the unfortunate experience to discover a huge wolf spider in our bathroom our first week here and I still haven't recovered.  I haven't seen one since (Brady has but not in the house) but I can't get it out of my mind.  I despise spiders.  And then there are just a ton of other new bugs I've never seen or heard of before and it makes for squeamish-ness on my part.  But the people are all really nice and some of them even have southern accents.  Our town is tiny - it has a grocery store but that's about it.  Luckily, the town 10 minutes away has more, like a Walmart and Target and a small mall.  Still, I am missing Provo where everything was all so close!  The closest Costco is 3 hours away!  And we love Costco!  But we are surviving and probably saving a lot of money, too.  

Time with the Duitsmans

At the end of July/beginning of August Lily and I were able to go to the beach with my family.  Brady had to work, and we needed the money, she he stayed behind.  He also had to pack us up as we had to be out of our apartment the day after Lily and I would get home.  The beach trip was a ton of fun although I will say, even with just one, I would never want to be a single parent.  Lily definitely gave me a run for my money.  She slept awesome every night, though, so that helped.  In fact, the bed we slept on was my on the normal bed and her on a trundle bed beneath me and she would be so sound asleep that she would roll off the bed, despite my sturdy barrier of pillows, and be sleeping on top of clothes and books.  I'd even pick her up and put her back and she'd still be asleep.  Anyway, I put a ton of pictures up from that trip on facebook so you can go there and look.  Here's a cute one of Lily and Chloe, though, because why not?

After we packed up and moved all of our stuff out of the apartment, Brady and his dad (who flew in to drive the van/u-haul across the country) left for the four day trek to Virginia while Lily and I got picked up by my parents to spend 4 more days with the family before we eventually flew out to meet Brady.  We had lots of fun with cousins and family and it was very sad to leave.  But Lily missed Brady, not as much as me though, so we were happy to be reunited with him.  Our flight went great.  Lily was awesome.  She ran around and said hello to everyone before the flight and then once we were in the air she fell right asleep and stayed asleep the whole flight.  It did help that the flight was a red eye.  She did get a little upset near the end but as soon as I took her out of her seat and held her, she went right to sleep and slept on me until we landed.  We made it to Virginia Friday morning around 7 on August 10th!

Monterrey Bay Aquarium

We also happened to be very close to the Monterrey Bay Aquarium so we went there too.  Lily made the day almost impossible to enjoy but we ended up having a ok time.  Hindsight makes it seem not so bad but at one point she was throwing such a huge fit that her little umbrella stroller fell backwards and she hit her head on the ground.  Anyway, here are a few from the Aquarium and then a few when we met up with Brady's Aunt and played at Dennis the Menace Park.

This was taken after Lily fell asleep in the stroller and we got a little time to ourselves!

Watching the ducks.

OK, I thought there were more pictures but I guess that's it!

Santa Cruz Boardwalk

From our position in Morgan Hill we were only about an hour away from the Santa Cruz boardwalk.  So we just had to go before we left the area, even though we knew Lily probably wouldn't be awesome.  It turned out pretty well and she even enjoyed some of the rides.  Although I will say that she HATED the carousel.  The workers even came over and asked me if I wanted to stop the ride.  I reluctantly said yes...

From the fisherman's wharf - you can see the boardwalk in the background.

Right before we left.

On the carousel - don't let her fool you.  This was before it started.

She liked this ride.

She LOVED this ride - we went on it with her 3 or 4 times.

Driving the Pepsi truck.

Around Morgan Hill

So for all of June basically we just hung around town and played outside a lot.  Here are a few random pictures of our time there.

She loved taking her ball outside and running around.

Some much needed sunscreen for the California summer.

One night before we went to dinner with a bunch of Brady's old friends.

I posted this on Facebook but it's too cute not to post again.

Lily LOVES popcorn - but only if she can hold the whole bowl.

Wearing my hat around town.

She has a thing for my clothes.

We were actually able to visit my campus.

Just reading and enjoying a snack.

I could have had a baby in the time since my last post!

So I'm not awesome and blogging but I'll try to be better, at least once a month or so.  So since Christmas a lot has happened!  In April we found out that we would be moving from Provo to Morgan Hill, CA because Brady got a job working for IBM.  So, with three weeks to pack, find a place to live, and set up all the moving stuff we were off to live in California - both of our home states, by the way.  We lived in a two bedroom apartment that was pretty nice but super pricey - dang California!  But it was the perfect place to spend 3 months because the grounds were really pretty and it was close enough for Lily and I to walk to the library several times a week.  Here are some photos from that time:

The view from our sliding glass window (yes we had a pool!)

This serves as a shot of our living room/dining room/a little bit of the kitchen.  And also a shot of Lily "running errands"

Playing outside.

More outside.

I have a lot more from summer but I'll write more in subsequent posts.  Gotta keep it tidy and not too much in one post!

Christmas

Well, it's been a while but I'll be writing some posts to update!  We spent Christmas in Virginia with Brady's parents.  It was a fun trip!  We spent the first week helping his parents do some things in their kitchen.  They are remodeling it and needed Brady's strapping muscles for some projects.  We went to an art gallery that first week too.  Christmas was really fun.  We went to Church for an hour and then came home and opened the presents.  Lily kind of got into opening them, but she still didn't really know what she was doing.  I got Brady a really cool techie jacket and the big present I got is a food processor!  I LOVE it.  I also borrowed a book from my mother-in-law called the Sneaky Chef.  It just gives you ways to incorporate veggies and healthy stuff into everyday recipes.  The food processor has helped a ton with making the things for that!

Lily's first plane ride!

There were these cute little carts at one of the grocery stores.

 Nap time!

 Christmas!

 Brady's techie jacket.

 We went to the National Zoo the day after Christmas

Lily really liked the small mammal house because their cages were lower so she could see them really well.  

Brady and I were able to go on a date while we were there.  We saw the new Sherlock Holmes (awesome!) and went to this cool restaurant that had great chicken sandwiches. We also got a present from his parents for Christmas to go to Much Ado About Nothing - a play that was going on in DC and set in Cuba.  It was actually really awesome!

 It was a great vacation!  We spent a lot of nights watching recorded Christmas movies (which I love) and just hanging out.