Summing Up the End of 2014

After a few months, I'm due for an update. I'm not even sure where to start, but we'll see where this goes.

For the sake of memorabilia, we celebrated Paul's first Halloween, which is a holiday I don't really care to invest in at this stage of my life. Maybe when the kids are older, but now, all I care to do is document them in their costumes.

This isn't what Lucy wore for Halloween, but it might as well have been, because all we did was put her in one of her Sunday dresses and said, "She's a princess."

Paul got to be a pumpkin, Lucy's first costume, and I think he shares my sentiment regarding Halloween.

In November, we finally had Paul blessed. We took the opportunity once we realized nearly everyone was going to be in Utah around thanksgiving. So we took care of it at David's grandparents' home.

Our little family.

 

When we returned home, I made an effort to catch Paul smiling on camera for the first time.

 He has such an adorable smile. It makes me want to hug him and squeeze him all day long.

If you look closely, you can see he has a dimple.

 At Christmas time (yes, I know I'm speeding through the past few months) we went David's mom's where we spent the day at the zoo. Lucy got to feed a giraffe.

She at least gave it a couple of leaves until she saw the tongue. Then she decided she didn't want to feed it anymore.

It was kind of chilly, but overall it was pretty pleasant weather to be outside. I didn't wear a coat most of the time.

Here David is showing Lucy the flamingos.

If you're wondering where I am in all these pictures, here's proof I was there. Always ironic that the person taking the pictures is never in any pictures. But I spent the whole day lugging this kid around, who had gone through a growth spurt and my arms hadn't had much time to adjust to his new weight. Thank goodness for baby carriers though.

David spent most of the time carrying Lucy. At one point, it was obvious she needed a nap when she couldn't seem to keep her eyes open. So we tried putting her in the stroller to get some sleep.

Looking at the sting rays.

David was trying to get Lucy to pet one with him. I don't remember if she ever did. But she seemed fascinated anyway.

All in all, it was a fun day at the zoo. And I will return to make another update, hopefully soon.

Donna's wedding

My sister Donna was getting married and it was going to take place in Idaho. Of course, I love any excuse to visit my family, but I was definitely excited for this trip. On the other hand, it would be the first time traveling with a newborn and nursing was going to lengthen our drive quite a bit.

My sister Irene was tagging along with us since most of her family couldn't leave because they had school. She brought her youngest who is just a month younger than Lucy. They kind of entertained one another on the drive, but Lucy spent the majority of the time whining and screaming. It was very unpleasant to listen to several hours at a time. Paul was relatively well behaved most of the drive, and stopping to nurse became a minor inconvenience.

Then it was wedding time. The ceremony was beautiful, as were the bride and groom. Directly afterward I had to nurse. I chose not to wait after the pictures because those generally do not go quickly and I knew I would be pushing my luck to hold it off for that long. However, this time was different because the photographer ended up being crazy fast and I missed the majority of the pictures. Once again Lucy got left out of another neices and nephews photo with the happy couple. Paul did as well. I still got pictures of them though.

Can't always get a happy picture.

And it is so typical that I would miss getting any pictures of the newlyweds. I don't what it is about the presence of a photographer that makes me feel like I don't need to take pictures of things. Just because someone is documenting things doesn't mean I have access to those pictures. But this is what I did capture.

Evidently I caught David while he was stretching his neck.

Later was the luncheon with the groom's family and then the reception. Once again I didn't get any pictures, because my phone happened to be providing the music. So I borrowed my brother Jared's phone so that I could at least snap a shot with Donna and then he sent it to my phone.

Me and the lovely bride.

And we were then photo bombed by my sister Lora.

In addition to the music, I also put together a DVD of Donna's pictures along with her new hubby's. David helped me finish because I struggled to complete it while also taking care of the baby. But in the end, it turned out very well if I do say so myself.

Too soon, the celebrating was all over. We attended my family's ward the next day, and the day after that we were on our way home. Once again, we were treated to my daughter screaming most of the way home. But when she wasn't screaming, she was laughing with her cousin. Too bad those times were few, but I did catch it on camera. Can't post it on here, but it is on Facebook. Overall it was a good trip and I can't wait till the next one.

Lucy's 2nd Birthday

I can't believe I have an actual 2-year-old. No way have I been in this parenting thing for that long. I won't go into a running list of all of Lucy's talents and personality traits, but I will say she is a crazy happy kid. Sometimes it's upsetting, especially when you don't want her to be happy, like when you're trying to discipline her for example. All I can do is pray her happy attitude will help her when she's older, because I'm sure she's going to need it in this world we live in. 

As for Lucy's birthday party, it starts with inviting her family to come celebrate. Next is opening presents.

She received a lot of clothes...

...a couple of books...

...can't forget eating utensils, such as a hello kitty sippy cup, plate, bowl, fork, and spoon...

...and of course toys, such as Legos.

I would like to say Lucy built that herself, but I think she had help.

Then it was time to blow out her birthday cupcake. Her daddy spent the night before decorating them.

Then she had to get a picture with her great grandma C.

And before Grandma C left, we had to show her how much Lucy enjoyed the rocking horse she bought her long ago.

Unfortunately, Lucy did not want to cooperate. She actually enjoys it quite a bit.

Here, Lucy is showing off one of her birthday outfits.

Yeah, she knows she's cute.

And what was our first act as a two-year-old?

Why visiting the urgent care of course. It happened when I was helping Lucy over the bottom of the baby gate. I did it by lifting her by one arm because I was trying to keep myself from doing so much bending and lifting. She started crying uncontrollably and I couldn't see the reason for a while. It wasn't until I sat with her on the couch and watched closely. Eventually I narrowed the source of her pain to her right elbow, which she refused to move. Luckily, it was close to David's time to come home, so I texted him what happened. We contacted a pediatrician to see what needed to be done and he told us to bring her into urgent care.

The assumption was her elbow had been dislocated. The doctor attempted to pop it back in, but it didn't work. Poor Lucy cried while he tried and I could tell it really hurt. He decided she needed an X-ray so he could determine what the problem was. I was glad David was there so that he could accompany her while they took the X-rays. I was unable because of the pregnancy and had to watch behind a glass instead.

She was very brave and only cried when they had to turn her arm to get pictures at a different angle.

The X-rays showed it wasn't dislocated, so they figured it had been sprained and recommended some child medicine to help with the pain. They said it should probably feel better sometime the next day. We got the medicine and gave it to her. The next day, she climbed out of her bed as though nothing had happened. I honestly didn't expect it to heal so quick based on how much pain she had been feeling the day before.

I hope I don't have to make a lot of visits to urgent care in the future. Either way, I'm glad it's close by. 

Happy 2nd Birthday, Lucy!