18 MONTHS

Lou hit the 18 month mark back in April.  It has been so fun to watch her little personality start to shine through.  It has also become more difficult to get a picture of her because she hates to hold still.  I am pretty sure five of us were on the other side of the phone for the two pictures below, saying her name and trying to get her to look and smile.

 

In this picture you can see the cute gap between her top two teeth and the surprise molars on the bottom.  

 

In this picture it looks like she is winking...

Don't let this picture fool you...she is not the best sleeper.  She continues to get up several times a night.  She also loves to be held until she falls asleep.

 

 

She is 35 inches tall (100th percentile) and weighs 24 lbs 8 oz (74th percentile).  She is still wearing 18 month clothing, but I am starting to pull out the 24 month/2T clothing for the summer.

 

She is finally old enough for nursery at church!  We can often be found out in the hallway during sacrament.  She prefers to be there or wandering up and down the aisles inside the chapel.

 

She loves to color/write/scribble.  I have had to get after the older kids about leaving writing utensils in her reach.  She has done a few scribbles on our walls...and on her pants.

 

She loves going to school.  She also LOVES when I come to pick her up and gives me the cutest greetings when I arrive.

 

She insists on getting out of her car seat when we are waiting to pick Phin and Millie up from school.  She loves having free reign of the car.

 

Her school has been sending home more and more art projects that she has done.  They sent me this picture of her doing watercolors.   

 

She LOVED playing on the jumping pads at Cross E Ranch this month.  Phin was more than willing to help her get the hang of the jumping pads.

She also adored the baby animals.  I think the calves were her favorite.  She was saying MOO over and over again as we watched them.

One of her favorite spots is in the rocking chair next to the piano while her siblings are practicing piano.  She also loves to turn their piano pieces into duets.

 

She adores her cousin Andrew and he is absolutely adorable with her.

 

It was fun to see her hunt for eggs with the older kids.

I love how her nose scrunches up when she smiles.

She has a fun relationship with her Daddy.  Here he is teasing her about being dramatic.

 

Proof that older siblings left markers in her reach.

 

She loved exploring Devil's Garden with Seth.

 

She continues to love her binky.  I think I may need to attach it to her crib so that she only has it when she is sleeping.

 

She loved all the attention at the cabin from Nona and Nona's friend Rebecca. I can't believe I didn't manage to get a picture of Lou and Rebecca.  The next time Rebecca is visiting from Tennessee that will be at the top of our to do list.

 

Seth is a really good sport about sharing with her...he even lets her have her own spoon.

 

Lou loves to feed herself.  

 We are so lucky to see this sweet smiling face each day.  Happy 18 MONTHS LOU!

APRIL

Our April was jam packed with fun.  Here is our busy month in reverse...we went to see the Cherry Blossoms at the Capitol with the rest of Utah.  I think social media has made these Spring Blossoms a little too popular...I don't remember these kind of crowds when I lived across the street from the Capitol building.

These four are our world.

I loved watching Silas and Millie walking the path hand in hand.

 

Lou loves getting rides on the wiggle cars with the older kids.

We are all loving the warm Spring weather that has finally arrived.  Lou is probably the biggest fan. She would prefer to be outside all day and cries when we have to come inside.

We went to Bring Your Own Cup Day at 7-11.  This may be an annual event for our family.

Millie had a Let's Play Music Year 2 recital.  She played the song "If I practice every day." 

I made my first batch of sourdough bagels.  They were so good...they will for sure be on repeat around here.

Phin and Millie each invited a friend to join us at Red Butte Garden for their free day.  Millie was terrified

 

Seth's friend Sarah invited us to her wedding reception and Seth was able to get together with many from his High School group.  Paul, Preston, Matt, Seth, Chad and Justin.

Sarah and her husband are moving to Minnesota.  Their reception was designed to give guests the Minnesota Fair experience.  We received tickets when we arrived and could use the tickets at various food trucks...World's Best Corn Dog, Bruges, Fiiz and Donut Kabob.

 

Nona made Millie a new dress and she couldn't wait to wear it the next Sunday.

 

Millie got her final cooking subscription box.  This one was to China and included shadow puppet theater.

 

We got season passes to Cross E Ranch's Baby Animal Festival.  We went one rainy Friday afternoon and pretty much had the place to ourselves.  We loved the new location of the barrel train.

 

Both sets of KIDS were adventurous on this particular visit.

 

Lou LOVES the calves.  She says MOO when we visit them.

 

We walked around the Capitol the week before the Cherry Blossoms were at their peak...and enjoyed the nearly empty path.

 

Millie has been loving Activity Days.  She came home from one activity with a plate full of sugar cookies that she had decorated herself.

 

Our school custodian is AMAZING.  One morning she had some ducklings and dropped by my room to show them off to Phin and Millie before school started.

 

Speaking of furry creatures...Phin was delighted to hold our neighbors new bunny. 

He also loved their punching bag and thinks we need one too.

 

Phin performed in the 4th grade program this month.  They sang all sorts of songs about our great state of Utah.  Phin played the tambourine for the final song.

 

A little shot of our fairy garden.  We have a migrating fairy garden that moves around to the prettiest spot in our yard.  This time of year that happens to be our front flower bed.

 

I am figuring out this whole Sourdough bread thing.  This was a loaf of Orange Cranberry and it was delicious...I am pretty proud of the scoring on this one too.

 

Millie had a Marilyn Monroe moment after church one Sunday.  She got a kick out of her dress poofing up.  It reminded me of winter mornings standing over the heating vents in my nightgown when I was growing up.

 

Our little weeping willow tree was uprooted in a recent wind storm.  Seth spent a good chunk of a Saturday morning chopping it down. 

 

I had a very strong helper when I took down the Christmas lights.

 

We also went to the member preview night at Cross E Ranch.  It was so nice to have a night without big crowds.

 

Lou LOVED the jumping pads.

 

They added a huge ropes course area and my kids could not get enough of it. 

 

Millie has been terrified of the baby goats since they tried to eat her hair a couple years ago.  She cautiously watched us from outside the goat pen until she felt comfortable coming in. 

Seth's work rented out a theater for the Mario Brothers Movie.  We were able to take our Activity Day boys to the movie.  Silas and Millie also dressed up in their Halloween costumes.  I loved hearing Silas laugh during the Donkey Kong and Mario fight.

 

Our nephew Max received his mission call.  He has been called to serve in the Bolivia Cochabamba mission.  We all gathered together at Nona and Papa's for some pizza while before he opened his call.

 

We had a wonderful Easter.  We got a new house for our Fairy Garden.

 

The kids also got a little airplane gun launcher.  Silas looks a little panicked here...but I promise he loves it.

 

Lou loved searching for Easter Eggs.

It took a little coaxing, but I was able to get some Easter photos of each of the kids.

Seth's boss gave us AMAZING tickets to the last Jazz Home game.  We invited Seth's best friend Matt and his wife Tonnie to join us.  This is a photo of Seth right after he caught a free hat.

We spent Spring Break down in Escalante.  We joined my parents and my Mom's dear friend Rebecca for a few days and then our friends the Newbold's joined us.  On our way home we stopped and hiked the Mossy Cave outside Bryce Canyon. 

A photo of all of us in front of the waterfall.  Curtis and Jackie were the very first people to come up and welcome us to the Seneca Ward when we moved to South Carolina.  They just had Macie and Maddie back then.  We had the best time catching up with them.

 

Our kids got along so well with their kids and loved playing Werewolf each night with their family.

 

They also played some Nintendo Switch together.

 

We took them to one of our favorite spots...Devil's Garden.

 

 

 

We did Spooky and Peekaboo slot canyons with them.  Out of the two slot canyons, Peekaboo was a little more our style.

 

 

Lou was pretty cold after Spooky slot canyon and Chloe was kind enough to lend us her coat so Lou could warm up.

 

Spooky was very narrow.  We didn't make it all the way through.

 

In this photo you can see just how tight it got...it actually got quite a bit narrower than this.  

 

 

 

It was so fun to see our kids get to know our friends.

We went to the Visitor's Center before our friends arrived to make sure that Hole in Rock road was open and that the slot canyons would be safe.

 

We have a tradition of having the kids kiss the lizard out front.

 

When we were at the cabin over Christmas break we hid a Geocache box.  Jeff hid the box in a different place and we had a fun adventure trying to find it.  We even had to cross an ice bridge.

 

Kim totally spoiled our kids the spoils in the Geocaching box.

 

 

Here is the map that Jeff drew for us to find the treasure.

 

 Phin getting a "bear hug."

 

Nona counting doing "This little piggy" with Lou.

 

Lou and her friends the bears.

 

We hiked near the property one day and found the hieroglyphs.

 

In the background you can see the cabin.

 

The kids loved testing out the slingshots Grandad made them on his 3D printer.

 

Phin loved checking on the fort he built over Winter Break.

 

Lou found a comfy place to take a nap.

 

 

 

 

We walked down to the waterfall.

 

We had a great time listening to conference in the hammock.

 

My girls...pretty in pink.