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.  

We've Got a Climber on Our Hands!!

Lily has recently acquired the skill to climb things.  And she couldn't be prouder!  Even if it is a lid to a plastic tub, she stands on it as if she couldn't be cooler.  Unfortunately, she also likes to get on higher things too.  Here are some photos of what she has climbed up lately:

A cart at IKEA (She was treated to a trip around the store which ended in her just rolling off onto the ground...)

The ladder - She's very helpful.

She got on top of this empty box and then fell into it.

She loves to get on her strollers and "ride" them like a chariot. 

The wagon she got for her birthday.  She gets in it and then rocks back and forth to move it.  So dangerous. Luckily she's never fallen off.

This is a little blurry but she loves to get up on the couch now.  She'll run from one end to the other.

Her high chair - minus the tray.

And finally, with a little help from her older cousins, she was able to climb onto Grandma and Grandpa Duitsman's chair.

So far she hasn't really hurt herself - she is one tough cookie.  I just hope she learns how to get off of things once she's up there instead of just walking off the edge, or rolling off.  

Some Fun Facts

Well, Lily is over 13 months now.  She's getting so big!!  A few fun things she has been doing lately:

-Blowing on everything she eats - whether it's hot or not.
-Dancing to any and every kind of music.
-She wants to get chased all the time.  I'll get on the floor to pick things up and she'll start walking away and then turn back and smile as if I'm chasing her.
-She now runs up to mine, and Brady's, legs and wraps her arms around them - this usually means she wants to be picked up.
-When I go into the bedroom to work on schoolwork, if we open the gate that lets her into the kitchen, she comes immediately to knock on my door.  She's a smarty and always knows where mama is!

I know she does more funny things.  If I can remember any more I'll post them.

Halloween was a great success.  We dressed up as '50s people.  Lily was a ladybug.  We stopped by one of the places Brady does some work for for their Halloween party.  We didn't stay very long.  After that, we went trick or treating in down town in Provo.  Then we went to our single's ward Halloween party for trunk or treat and the making of candy apples.  We did a lot of walking but it was really fun!  I'm excited for the holidays this year, but even more for next year when Lily will actually know what's going on!  But she loved seeing all the other kids dressed up today.

You Know You Want To

I'm not sure if this is lame or not but I am good at making all sorts of things so perhaps someone wants a surprise from me??  


Here are the tagging instructions: The first 3 people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you. This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make. 
2. What I create will be just for you.
3. It'll be done by the end of the year if you're local, I'll give myself til the end of January 2012 if I need to mail it.
4. You have no clue what it's going to be. It may be a story. It may be poetry or an article on properly cleaning your face before a masque. I may draw or paint something. I may bake you something and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure!
5. I reserve the right to do something unusual.

The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must re-post this on your blog and offer the same to the first 3 people who do the same on your blog. OR, since I know there are some people who read my blog who don't have a blog of their own, you can win if you are willing to make something for three random people. The first 3 people to leave a comment telling me they will win it forward get a fabulous homemade gift by me! Oh, and if you have a blog, be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it.

I feel like I should write something

I know all of my readers wait on the edge of their seats to see my next blog post.  I'm sorry to keep you waiting so long ... haha.  Anyway.  Life in the Redfearn household is always fun and a little crazy.  Lily is awesome.  She walks like a pro, now, even with shoes on when we go outside or to the store.  She loves to watch music videos and dance.  She has some sweet moves including head bobbing, knee bending, and some arm movements.  She is eating all sorts of things now - and liking most of them.  She still sleeps pretty well.  I'm down to only nursing her at night and I'm ok with doing that for a while longer.  She loves it still and I feel sad to let my baby grow up so quickly!  She loves to get on top of things.  Short boxes, the plastic lids to her toy bins, anything.  She tries to climb everything - she can't quite make it onto the couch but she's getting close.  She gets into all sorts of mischief.  Take today for example.  I gave her a sealed mini chocolate candy (she loves to chew on them) and she had been sitting quietly for kind of a long time.  A little too long.  I lean forward and look at her face and this is what I see:

She's loving that chocolate!  haha.  So funny.  She loves to come into the kitchen and make a mess.  She takes the V8 cans out of their box so she can get into it.  And we have this box of peppermints we always get from Sonic and never eat.  Well she loves to chew on those and carry them around.  And the fridge magnets.  She is basically destroying those but I wasn't really using them anyway and I can glue them back together if need be.  Here's a shot of her in the kitchen:

Notice the V8 everywhere, the peppermints and even an upside down magnet!  She's a rascal for sure.  I took her to the library story time last Friday and she liked it, although she was squirmy and I still think she might be a bit young.  Every other kid was just sitting nicely on their mother's lap.

Now onto some other non-Lily items (as if there are such things).  I'm half way through my first grad school semester.  It's been going well!!  So far my grades are awesome and I'm managing to keep up with my word (barely).  I know now, more than ever, that going into Library Science is the perfect place for me.  Brady has been really looking into grad schools now.  So far the top picks are Penn State (in Pennsylvania) and Indiana.  I think there might have been another one but I'm not sure.  He's really liking Indiana right now, but he's only half way through the list.

 

What the crap was that sound?

So we had quite an adventure at our house the past couple of days.  I love to read in bed.  It's sort of a ritual that I have to do every night or I can't sleep.  So Tuesday night, after I was done reading in bed, I turned off all the lights and was trying to fall asleep.  There are usually noises in my bedroom because our bedroom shares a wall with one of our neighbor's rooms so I can usually hear him opening drawers, that sort of thing.  So, when I first heard the noise I thought it might have been my neighbor.  But it sounded way to clear to have come through the wall.  It sounded like scratching on cardboard or paper.  So, needless to say, I was way freaked.  Brady was still up in the living room - working - so I got to the edge of the bed and prepared to make my escape.  I put one foot on the ground and with my hand I yanked open the door and ran out.

I told Brady what I heard and sent him in to investigate.  I was outside of our room standing on a step stool while he was inside with the door closed looking around.  After a few minutes I heard him jumping on the bed, then yelp, then finally yell "It's a mouse!"  He opens the bedroom door and says that it ran under my closet door.  We then proceed to get one of those big plastic tubs and slowly open the door and cover the opening with the tub.  We added towels to make it more secure.  We took out all of my shoes, one by one, trying to chase it out and into the tub so we could go set it free.  At one point, we disturbed it and it came flying at us through the air.  We screamed pretty loud!  (I think about this time Lily woke up from all the ruckus so I had to go get her.)  After that, we took every shoe out of the closet but somehow the mouse had escaped.

We locked the room up and went to Smith's for some mouse traps.  Lily really enjoyed running the aisles in her jammies.  We got home and put peanut butter on them (everyone says this works best for some reason).

Lily and I went to the couch to try to get back to sleep while Brady locked himself in the room trying to find the mouse.  All I could hear was the broom hitting the walls and periodic yelping.  He said that he saw it several times but it wouldn't run into the tub or over any of the traps.  Lily fell back asleep so I put her back in her room and Brady and I slept on the fold out couch.

The next morning, the traps were all free of mice and Brady couldn't find the mouse at all, even when we emptied our entire room out of stuff it could be hiding under/behind.  We then put the traps in every room of the house because we figured either it had left our house completely or it was still hiding out somewhere.

Flash to Wednesday night at around 2 in the morning.  Many who read my blog will know that Lily has had terrible sleep troubles and we've had to do cry-it-out to get her to sleep normally.  Well since the last couple nights she had been off her normal sleep patterns, when she woke up at 2 we decided to just let her cry a little and go back to sleep.  Unfortunately, the next morning, Brady found the mouse, with it's butt stuck to the trap from her room, just coming out into the hallway from Lily's room.  It had probably crawled 10 feet from where the trap had been in her room to make it into the hallway.  Lily had probably heard the mouse in distress and woke up to it.  I feel so horrible!!!  But, at least we know the mouse it gone now.  I feel bad that it had to die but we really did try everything to capture it so we could free it.  Anyway, that's our mouse story and I pray we don't have to deal with it again for a long time!

Eh, so it's not one of my strong suits.

Blogging. A great concept. Except it is really hard for me to keep up with it. I have lots of funny things to share, what with an almost 11 month old baby around. I just always put it off and then forget what I was going to say. But I suppose I'll give it a try; let's see how much I can remember.

Lily now has 8 teeth. 4 on top and 4 on bottom. She is not the best teether, she gets very cranky when new teeth are coming in. But she looks super cute with all those teeth! We just got back from vacation in Caprinteria, CA with my family. It was an awesome trip other than the fact that Lily sleeps terribly when we're away from home. So she was always a bit cranky due to lack of sleep. But she loved the beach - and loved eating the sand. The good thing is that now that we're home and she's actually getting a good night's sleep she's been in a fantastic mood. Very cute. Talking, smiling, laughing. She's adorable.

There is an area around Brady's desk that she is not allowed to go, and she knows it. Today she has been crawling at warp speed toward that spot and when she sees/hears me coming to get her she starts laughing hysterically. So funny. She is so mischievous - she knows she's not supposed to be doing it and she likes it. She is finally showing Brady some love. For a few months now she has been a total mama's girl but since we've been home from vacation she's napped with Brady several times and even goes to him because she wants to play with him. She's still a mama's girl but she allows daddy to play too.

There are pics from our trip on facebook if you want to see them.