Take me away....

I must say that coming back from a relaxing vacation makes reality... daunting. Miss Peanut stayed with grandma for a week, which was wonderful. However, she had a little more freedom getting to hang out with her Aunts Emorey and Mackenzie and she does not want to be any kind of little anymore. I've lost track of how many meltdowns she's had this week readjusting - but I'm telling you its ridiculous. So between the meltdowns on my part and Miss Peanut's and the pile of laundry I've unburied myself from, we've been exhausted. So to catch up here are a few of our favorites from our trip to the Bahamas.

Lucayan National Forest Freeport, Bahamas. This a small area that didn't burn down just two weeks before we arrived. The rest of the forest was still smoldering. We went there to see one of the worlds largest underground cave systems - but we were kind of restricted where we could tour, but we did spent a few hours at Gold Rock beach and an area/resturant known as Banana Bay.

That was where we both got to nap in a hammock for a while - just doesn't get much better than that.

Nassau, Bahamas Port and street shops.

The view leaving Nassau.

We spent one day on this private island.

We both had had enough UV exposure at this point so we hid under umbrellas when we weren't in the water snorkeling. The umbrellas don't really give you any real shade so we covered them with our beach towels which did a great job of keeping us cool.

This was our view from our chairs. We snorkeled out and around that large "rock" in the middle of the picture and saw some great stuff.

With underwater cameras it's kind of hit and miss, but this picture of an eel turned out pretty great considering that Officer dove 25-30 feet down to take it.

Coral and Fish

Officer diving; I didn't feel the need to post diving pictures of my pregnant self trying to defy buoyancy; I had a ton of fun, but seriously not worth preserving on film - thanks anyway Officer.

School of Fish

Surface of the water from underneath

Coral, fish and Sea Urchin.

Blow fish.

Last sunset of the trip.

This is how you look after 6 kid free days, where you get to sleep through the night and you don't have to cook or clean. Bliss. I did miss Miss Peanut terribly though - there were lots of little kids around and you can't help but miss your kids.

A little something growing around here.

We've kind of kept it quiet at least on the facebook/blogger world of things, but many of you, mostly our family, know that we are expecting baby #2. For those of you who didn't know - we're finally filling you in. Here's a picture from a couple months ago of our little "Squirt," as Officer has already nicknamed this one. We'll be halfway here in just a couple weeks, and so far things are going pretty smoothly. We're debating somewhat, but we'll most likely find out what we're having at our next appointment in just a couple weeks. We're due October 13-ish , and with any with luck this little one will wait long enough for officer to go on his annual hunting trip and come home (Hunting season opens October 10). Odds are in his favor seeing that I was overdue 1 1/2 weeks with Miss Peanut, only time will tell.

so busy, busy...

Miss Peanut is getting to be a handful - could I expect less - not really, but she always has us laughing. We bought her a toddler bed a few weeks ago and although we haven't really tried having her sleep in it much, she is learning that she can climb it and reach new heights in her dresser - the second drawer. Of course that is where I have all of her wipes and diapers stashed...this is her caught in the act (Cheez) of emptying the entire wipe container onto the floor one wipe at a time - wipes are way more fun than kleenex. I, of course, had a hard time keeping a straight face, but she was so good to help me put them all back in the box afterward - what a big helper!

Her next fascination has been with Q-tips - for whatever reason. This cracks me up because the camera didn't even faze her, this was when she realized that daddy had caught her.

Aparently her artistic ability is most inspired when she is not clothed.

Miss Peanut's new favorite spot to play; the basket in her closet.

Her favorite "chair" when we read our scriptures, it's actually our empty bookshelf(empty because she has also discovered that shredding paper is really fun). I tried to get it all on video because she will put her snack on the shelf and her drink and then get her cute little bootey up there and sit - its hilarious. I probably shouldn't let her do things like that, but oh well. Sorry the video is a little dark.

She has so many aunts, uncles, and cousins that we've been trying to teach her to say their names when we point to pictures on the wall. She does really well with the ones she sees all the time, but the ones that are far away are harder. Here's just a couple, but then she got distracted by daddy and the lawn mower.

Her cousins taught her how to jump this past weekend, I was impressed at how well she did for being just 17 months.

We're goin' to the zoo, zoo zoo!

My friend and I took our girls to the zoo yesterday because Spring seems to have finally arrived and we were in need of a day out of the house. She took a bunch of cute pictures, so I'm sure I'll post more when I get them from her, but here are a few.

Our little safari wagon - love the shades on these chicks!


Little dudes are just eggs, leave 'em on the beach to hatch and then...coo-coo-ca-choo, they find their way back to the big ol' blue (Crush the tortoise -- Finding Nemo - ahh)


Everything was a kitty to Miss Peanut and when this big kitty walk across and sat right in front of her her eyes just about popped out of her head.


Taking a ride on the Komodo Dragon

Miss Peanut's new favorite thing to say is "I got it" and that is all I caught on video before the memory on my camera was full, but it makes me laugh everytime she says it cause its so stinkin' cute.

Aside from Miss Peanut's mini-meltdown when it was about time for a nap, the day went pretty smoothly! Thanks for a day out Nick!

Easter

I really loved Elder Holland's General Conference message, so for the Easter season and any other time, I hope you will take time to read it. Any words I could say would fall far short.





How cute is this little princess? I loved this dress when I found it, but like most Easter dresses it is sleeveless and hello it's not all that warm here yet, so I needed to find some kind of little cardigan to go with it. Gotta say - I don't love them together, but it worked because seriously I couldn't find anything to match closer without having to buy one that came with another dress. I just love that she pranced around in it like a little princess and loved being all dressed up! I even got her to hold still long enough to curl little ringlets in the back of her hair. So fun to have a little girl!

Side note: My daughter - does not know how to smile for the camera - I just get the cheese face a lot. She's still such a cute little stinker, but I'm going to try to have my sister take some professional cute ones and hopefully get some smiles with her eyes open - but we'll have to see.

We had a little basket with eggs for her in the morning, and I guess with Officer busy working all weekend we kind of forgot about things like dying eggs and stuff, but the highlight of her Easter was an Easter egg hunt at Grandma's house after dinner. We had several of the cousins (and Aunts) all together and the Dad's had just as much fun hiding all the eggs. We weren't sure how quickly Miss Peanut would catch onto the concept, but she went out there like a pro.

This is the before shot:

And the after shots:

She seriously did not want to part with those eggs after it was all done and she figured out what was in them.
This is Miss Peanut in action:

A smattering of things...

I am amazed at how quickly Miss Peanut's vocabulary has expanded the last month or so. She is just such a sponge. Here's just a few:

dad - dad da
mom - mamma
grandpa - pa-pa
hi
bye-bye
up
down
open
shoe (totally has a show fetish already)
sock
shirt
pants
home
ball
cracker - kacker
cookie - cooey
water - otter
cheese - cheez
strawberries - berwies
blueberries - usually comes out boo-bies you can thank dad for that one.
shower
chair
car
beep-beep
vroom-vroom
keys
dog
kitty
bear
turtle
baby
belly

She still signs: I only taught her probably 5-6, but she talks enough now to usually get her point across.
- more
- please
- all done
- toilet - it's been so helpful with potty-training.

I finally uploaded a whole bunch of videos from the last few months. I tried to shorten it down to just a few, but because our far-away family hasn't seen Miss Peanut in months (like 8, or some like ever) there's a lot. Don't feel like you have to watch them, any or all of them. They're just silly stuff, that most parents catch on video, but we think she is super cute!

Animal Sounds

Officer will play coo-coo with her rather than peek-a-boo. You have to kind of listen for it, but I love that she says coo-coo. And Officer taught her to make "poo-poo" faces - lovely I know, but hilarious. If you're offended that she is on the toilet - sorry - don't watch then.

This was outside yesterday. She LOVES to be outside and has explored every inch of our backyard. I need to take her to the park more, but the weather doesn't seem to cooperate for very long, so the backyard has worked for now. She loves to stand/sit/bounce on the cable box - we don't care - we don't have cable and we don't particularly care for the fact that most of our neighbors cable comes through our backyard - maybe they'll move it.

It's finally Spring!

Even if it is still freezing outside here my cute little girl was so springy today and I just had to capture this little ray of sunshine.


And this is my eye!



This totally girly girl love clothes and shoes (I don't really consider myself too much of a girly girl - at least I wasn't when I was little so I'm still trying to figure out where she gets it from), so today was her day and we went shopping for an Easter dress. Pictures of the dress to follow - although we did play dress up in it today to make sure it fits - hello she's 16 months and she now fits in a 3T. I tend to buy a little big anyway so she can wear things longer. And this picture just makes me laugh - we really had a fun shopping trip.

Not much to report here, for now. I did receive the following email though the other day and thought I would share.

The Price of Children

This is just too good not to pass on to all. Here is something absolutely positive for a change. Have repeatedly seen the breakdown of the cost of raising a child, but this is the first time have seen the rewards listed this way. It's nice.... !
The government recently calculated the cost of raising a child from birth to 18 and came up with $160,140.00 for a middle income family. Talk about price shock! That doesn't include the cost of post-secondary education.

But $160,140.00 isn't so bad if you break it down.
It translates into:
* $8,896.66 a year,
* $741.38 a month,
* $171.08 a week.*
A mere $24.24 a day!*
Just over a dollar an hour.

Still, you might think the best financial advice is: don't have children if you want to be 'rich'.

Actually, it is just the opposite.

What do you get for your $160,140.00?
* Naming rights. First, middle, and last!
* Glimpses of God every day.
* Giggles under the covers every night.
* More love than your heart can hold.
* Butterfly kisses and Velcro hugs.
* Endless wonder over rocks, ants, clouds, and warm cookies.
* A hand to hold usually covered with jelly or chocolate.
* A partner for blowing bubbles and flying kites.
* Someone to laugh yourself silly with, no matter what the boss said or how your stocks performed that day.

For $160,140.00, you never have to grow up.
You get to:
* finger-paint,
* carve pumpkins,
* play hide-and-seek,
* catch lightning bugs,
* never stop believing in Santa Claus.

You have an excuse to:
* keep reading the Adventures of Piglet and Pooh,
* watch Saturday morning cartoons,
* go to Disney movies, and
* wish on stars.

You get to frame rainbows, hearts, and flowers under refrigerator magnets and collect spray painted noodlewreaths for Christmas, hand prints set in clay for Mother's Day, and cards with backward letters for Father's Day.

For a mere $24.24 a day, there is no greater bang for your buck. You get to be a hero just for:
* retrieving a Frisbee off the garage roof,
* taking the training wheels off a bike,
* removing a splinter,
* filling a wading pool,
* coaxing a wad of gum out of bangs, and
* coaching a baseball team that never wins but always gets treated to ice cream regardless.

You get a front row seat in history to witness the:
* First step,
* First word,
* First bra,
* First date,
* First time behind the wheel.

You get to be immortal. You get another branch added to your family tree, and if you're lucky, a long list of limbs in your obituary called grandchildren and great-grandchildren. You get an education in psychology, nursing, criminal justice, communications, and human sexualitythat no college can match..

In the eyes of a child, you rank right up there under God. You have all the power to heal a boo-boo, scare away the monsters under the bed, patch a broken heart, police a slumber party, ground them forever, and love them without limits, so one day they will, like you, love without counting the cost.

That is quite a deal for the price!!!!!!!Love & enjoy your children & grandchildren & great-grandchildren!!!!!!! It's the best investment you'll ever make!!!!!!!!!

Poor thing!

Peanut spiked a 104 degree temperature last weekend. That's uncharted territory for us - we've had pretty much everything else, but that's the first time she's ever really had a fever. Luckily it only lasted through the weekend and she is finally healthy (knock on wood). It was a fairly nice weekend and we would have loved to get out more, but it was me and her on the couch with little einsteins most of the weekend. Such a sad picture of my little monkey - she's never that lethargic.

You've had birthday!

Officer turned the big 29 last week and to celebrate (and spoil myself a little) I took him and we got couples' massages. If you've never done that - do it sometime - it's so nice. Of course we would rather have been on a beach in Mexico having them, but we'll take it. He's never been a cake man, so I made him his favorite Lemon Meringue Pie - only one candle - 29 won't fit on a pie.

Just Like Dad!

Miss Peanut just has this thing for her Daddy - the whole primary song I'm so glad when Daddy gets home - yep pretty much sums it up. She has just wanted to be with him and do everything he does lately.

We always get home magazines when we go to the grocery store, not that we're going to move anytime soon we are just always looking. Miss Peanut will just sit, perfectly content, on daddy's lap and flip through them - ocassionaly eating/ripping a page or two until he is finished.

She will go in our closet and try to climb the walls so that she can use Officer's pull-up bar. We literally let her hang from his pull-up bar and she did for probably 3 seconds without help before her little arms gave up, but we couldn't believe it! Next time we'll get it on video.

That's just a couple pictures, but it really is so cute that they are great buddies.

Squeaky Wheels

There's nothing wrong with being a squeaky wheel - sometimes it even pays off! After 9 months of appealing our insurance company for coverage of Peanut's helmet - we finally won! It was great news!

Happy Day!

I haven't posted Valentine's or President's Day, but today is a happy one nonetheless. I mentioned in my last post that we had been sick, but on the mend. No such luck - we've all had another miserable round of some winter cold and we're looking forward to Springtime in hopes that winter colds will be left behind.

We traveled to Ogden Canyon last week to meet up with Officer's Brother and family for a few days. It was nice to just hang out with them because we don't get to see them very much. Peanut thinks she is so grown up and loves to follow her big cousins everywhere. We went to The Treehouse one morning for a few hours and I'm not sure if the Dad's or the Kids had more fun. Miss Peanut did not stop the whole time - there was so much that she could do and mom didn't have to say no. She was really fascinated with a giant chess board and a wheelbarrow full of wood pieces, but she also painted, attended a tea party, a puppet show, saw a dollhouse museum, climbed through tunnels, crossed bridges, drove fire trucks, played music, and sat in the oval office.

We made a stop to see some old friends in Pocatello before heading home. It was a quick stop overnight, but so good to see them. Of course I didn't pull out the camera, but Miss Peanut was hilarious to watch learning to play with their dogs.

Officer works weekends, so we didn't plan anything for Valentine's, which is okay. We've been swapping babysitting with my siblings a lot lately which is nice. We were able to go to the temple Friday night and in turn we offered to watch my sister's girls on Valentine's Day. I made Officer one of his favorite meals after he got off work and when my sister and her hubby got home we played a little Rockband. Not real exciting, but it doesn't change that I love him. We always reminisce around this time of year because it's when we "fell in love."

We blinked and here we are 6 years later. We'll get a chance to celebrate next week - a little late for both Valentine's and Officer's birthday (we are teaching the youth in our ward for the dance festival on his birthday - so I've got to make it up to him.) Anywho - that's what's going on here.

We're still here.

It's been a little busy lately and Blogging hasn't been a priority, but for our family far away I thought I should post at least something.

So since finishing the helmet Miss Peanut has become even more adventureous. She is climbing anything and everything. I turn around and she has climbed onto the kitchen table, or the kitchen counter. Today in Young Women's she climbed on top of the keyboard - laying on top of it. She uses blocks and toys to stand on constantly and has discovered if they are close enough to the couch she can climb up onto it and slide off the arm rest and do it again...and again...and again. Her energy is nonstop most of the day. Here is a video it's a little long, but I won't feel bad if you don't watch it all - it's mostly for grandma and grandpa.

A few highlights of the last few weeks:

• We've all been sick...twice, but we're on the mend.
• We started learning the choreography for the upcoming dance festival becasue we are the instructors for our ward.
• We've loved waking up to more snowy days - that means it's warming up - it has been so cold!
• We got to see brand new babies from two of our friends - so precious.
• I've been taking Miss Peanut to the Library "Baby Bugs" book/singing time every week. She loves being with other kids, but I'm guessing that's where we caught the other "bugs" we've been dealing with.
• I cooked Moose Stew - Officer thought it was great, I had a hard time getting over the fact that it wasn't a cow.
• I started taking a Parenting Class with my mom and sister.
• I spent 8 hours at Pow-Wow for scouting. It really was a lot of fun and I can brag that I learned how to tie knots.
• After I got home from Pow-Wow, that night in fact, the bishopric came and released me from scouts and called me to the Young Women's Presidency.
• We're actually doing pretty well on our New Years Resolution's, thus far.
• Officer's Chruch-ball team won their first game.
• I finished reading The Last Lecture, Harry Potter #3 and Officer and I started reading Angels and Deamons.
• Officer's Football team just won the superbowl.

Here's another quick video. Peanut use to squeal when we would say prayers at dinner or bedtime. Now she is starting to say her own little prayers. So cute - it's absolute jibberish, but so sweet.

Coming up:

• I'll be having my last den meeting at my house this week. I'm going to miss scouts, but I'm really excited for young womens(YW).
• I'm teaching my first Lesson in YW next week - gotta admit I'm slightly nervous, I haven't taught anyone above 8 years old in a while.
• We're heading out of town to meet up with Officer's brother and family next week - it will be good to see them. And we'll be making a side trip to see Officer's friend Lou and family.
• Of course Valentine's Day
• Officer will be turning the big 29

That's probably it. I'm not making any promises for a next post soon, we'll see how the next few weeks go.

We finally graduated from the helmet! YEAH!

After just shy of 7 months, we graduated today from the helmet! My advice to anyone who may need to consider a helmet for their child - Do it! The longer you wait the slower the progress. Peanuts case was considered severe - even the day she was born I talked to the Pediatrician about it because it was noticable from the start. I had hoped that with my education in Physical Therapy it would work itself out, but it would not have on it's own. Of course not every child needs one, but if you've had it suggested to you by your pediatrician talk to an orthotist and they can help you decide. It really is better not to wait! And if you need to do it - be strict/consistent with it. Because we were consistent, Peanut's results were the best our orthotist had seen, for starting with an older infant(6 1/2 months). Her head was wider than it was long when we started and today her measurments were only 2 mm wider and 14 mm longer. Here is the final scans from before (on the left) and after (on the right). It really is amazing - we're so happy with the results.

These are her first non-helmet piggy tails, love the bump on her eye - that was before the helmet was off

And this is my very favorite "cheese" face, had to add it.

Finally Catching up!

CHRISTMAS
Christmas eve was quiet, Officer volunteered to worked until late, so it was just me and Miss Peanut opening Christmas Pjs together. The camera was more entertaining than opening the gift - it always is.


It was just us Christmas morning, just simple and reasonably quiet. This has to be my favorite picture from Christmas morning - Peanut got a car from Grandma. She thinks she is big stuff now.





We spent Christmas afternoon with my family and I have to brag a little that I successfully made Christmas dinner. My Dad was leaving the next morning to visit family in Salt Lake and wouldn't have anyone to drive with him on the way home, so I volunteered to go. Officer has worked about 50 hours of overtime in the past week. He worked 10 hours Christmas eve, 5 - ten hour shifts and then worked a grave shift for new years eve. Tomorrow he starts back to his regular work week. Needless to say - I haven't seen much of him so I decided that a trip out of town would allow him a little extra sleep and Peanut and I got to visit family we hadn't seen in a while. That's also why it took me a while to post Christmas. Peanut is still a great traveler. No one there was used to little ones, so nothing was Peanut-proof - I felt like all I did was say no-no all weekend. Every home we went to had stairs and although Peanut had mastered going up - I was a little nervous about going down. She had it figured out almost immediately. We did have one little mishap - the poor girl - even with the helmet she managed to fall and hit her cheekbone on a shelf. Lucky for me, we were staying with my aunt who is a nurse and she had her fixed up in no time. It was quick trip, but we enjoyed it.

NEW YEARS!

Now that we're home and wholly invested in our new years resolutions, I haven't been on the computer much. I know we all make resolutions, some we'll never keep but one of the resolutions Officer and I decided on for this year was to actually LIVE the budget. We've had a budget for a long time and it changes of course, but we've never had to stick very rigidly to it, but we decided that we needed to stick to it and save a little more and spend a little less this year. And for at least this month was to go without using our credit card. Some of the best financial advice I was ever given was to pay credit cards off at each statement, so you don't incure all the crazy interest. Now I'll pat us on the back becasue we really are good with using our credit card and we have always paid it off each month, but we decided we're going to be using it a little less. My sister in law asked a couple months back if either of us have a slush fund - or our own little bit of fun money. We've never done that, so we're giving it a try - I'm hoping that by allowing each of us the set amount we'll use the credit card less and when the fun money is gone that month - that's it. I think that by telling all of you and writing it down - I'm more determined to follow through, I'm sure I'll let you know how it's going. Good luck to you all in your resolutions!

MISS PEANUT
Miss Peanut has got moves, I'm one of the clumsiest people you'll ever know so she must have gotten her moves from her dad. As soon as she could sit up she has been able to keep a beat and now that she has walking figured out her moves get funnier all the time. In the evening we let her watch Baby Einsteins after she gets out of the tub - it's one of the only ways we get her to hold still long enough to get her dressed. This is a video of the other night.


I think that just about catches us up. This week is possibly our last week with the helmet - it's going to be a tough transition for Miss Peanut - who is pretty much fearless and up until now the helmet has deterred many bumps and bruises. Wish us luck! And we should receive a reply soon from our never ending appeal with the insurance company for coverage of the helmet - it's been quite a battle, but we're trying to be the squeaky wheel that finally gets greased. We hope you're all well - it's been fun to recieve your Christmas cards and read about your holidays!