Lydia is Two and a Half Years Old!

I stopped doing the monthly blog posts on Lydia when she turned one, but decided it would be fun to do a 2 1/2 year post on her now because she really is a funny girl.  She makes me laugh every day by the things that she says.  Here are some things that she says and does:
 **Lydia's most used phrase is: "That noise mom, hmm?"  She will ask this all day long about every noise that she hears.  Sometimes I ask her what she thought the noise was and she will tell me something completely different from what I thought she was referring to.
**When Lydia says something she repeats it over and over and over again until you have acknowledged what she has said.
**Lydia loves to drink milk from little cartons that we get at Gossners.  She insists on having one almost every day.
**Lydia likes things to be done the same way every day.  If we do something once, you can count on doing it every time the same way.

**Lydia only likes to get her hair done half of the time.  She likes to have her hair done, she just doesn't like me doing it.  When it is done she always says that she is: "Pretty for grandpa."  I guess I told her once when my dad was coming over that we needed to do her hair so she would be pretty for grandpa and it has been that way ever since.

 **Lydia is very independent and likes to do everything by herself.  She wants to pick out her own snack.  She wants to pick her own clothes.  She wants to climb into her car seat by herself and do the buckle up by herself.
**Lydia works best if I give her choices about what she can do.  She will sit and look at both choices forever before she decides.
**Lydia is a typical two year old and has her melt downs occasionally and often times decides that she needs to pick on poor little Brooke.
**Lydia loves to wrestle.
**Lydia loves to be chased around the kitchen and the living room.  She comes and says, "Chase me mom chase me,"  and holds her little hands up like she is going to tickle you.
**Lydia loves to takes baths and play in water.  She loves to go swimming.
**Lydia is starting to talk non-stop.  She always has something to say and usually repeats everything that I do say.
**Lydia loves to play games.
**She has started to play pretend.  She likes to play restaurant and take people's orders.  She asks what you want and then bring it to you.  After she hands it to you, she says, "money" and once I hand her money she puts it into her pocket.  She also pretends that she is a little puppy dog quite a bit too!

**Lydia makes great facial expressions.
**Lydia is a tough little girl.  She can fall and get hurt and she just jumps right back up.
**Lydia has liked helping Brooke learn to walk and wants to pretend to walk too.  Lydia will take a couple of steps and then pretend to fall on the ground like Brooke does.
**Lydia loves animals of all sorts.  When she sees them she gets very excited.  When we go on our morning walks we have to walk a certain path so that we can see the neighbors baby goats (or baby doats as she calls them) and the other neighbor's horses.
**Lydia always wants to help.  She says, "Help me daddy," or Help me mom," when she is asking to help us.  She says help me because I always ask her if she wants to help me and that is probably what she thinks that is how she should say it.

**Lydia loves going to visit GGma and GGpa (Grandma Norma and Grandpa Dick).  She often asks if GGma and GGpa are going to be places we are going.  We have been trying to go to their house once a week to visit.

**Lydia always tries to take care of Brooke.  If Lydia wants a toy at the store she knows that she needs to pick one out for Brooke first.  She always shares her food with Brooke too.  However, she doesn't like sharing toys with Brooke very much.

Lydia has the cutest little personality.  She is so much fun to have around.  She makes me laugh everyday by the things that she says!  She keeps us on our toes, but I know we are blessed to have her in our lives!

Brooke is 11 Months Old

Our little Brooke Brooke has turned eleven months old!  I can't believe how fast time has gone by.  She is getting so big and she is so cute!  Brooke thinks that she is grown up and that she should be able to do everything that Lydia does.  Here are some things that she has been up to:
**Brooke can stand by herself and can take multiple steps
**Brooke has three bottom teeth and two top teeth and one tooth poking its way through on the top and the bottom.
**Brooke loves to play peek-a-boo.
**Brooke loves to crawl all over the place and play with toys.
**Brooke is good about playing toys by herself.  She will crawl from one thing to the next but she can entertain herself.
**Brooke also likes to be held and to have someone play with her.

**Brooke loves to play on the rocking horse.  She will go to it and hug it and give it kisses and whine until we put her on it.  Once she is on it she sits there forever and gets mad if you try to take her off.
**Brooke loves to play in the Cozy Coupe car.  She can climb into it by herself.  She can open and close the door and she also stands behind it and pushes it all over the room.
**Brooke likes to sleep with a little giraffe that plays music.

**Brooke loves to wrestle.  Brooke will come and climb all over us if we are sitting or laying on the floor.
**Brooke wants to be right by Lydia.
**Brooke is a good little eater and will eat pretty much anything we feed her.  She still likes people food the best and she knows if you are giving her something different from what we gave Lydia.
**Brooke loves to make noises.  She copies most noises that Lydia makes and Lydia copies the noises Brooke makes too!

**Brooke likes the tall mirror in our bedroom.  She stands up by it and dances and kisses it.
**Brooke loves to dance.  Anytime she hears music she stops what she is doing and bounces up and down.
**Brooke loves to look through books.
**Brooke likes to look out windows.
**Brooke will wave out the window when Justin is leaving for work.  She will wave whenever she hears a car starting up.
**Brooke won't hold still while we are changing her diaper.
**Brooke has to have toys to play with while she is eating her bottle.

 **Brooke likes to take baths but just wants to play and doesn't want to hold still to get her hair washed (Justin gives the girls baths almost every time).
**Brooke likes to play the piano.
**Brooke loves Daisy.  She climbs all over her.

**If I make a kissing sound Brooke will open her mouth and give me a kiss.

Brooke really is a happy baby.  She has her moments here and then when she gets pretty fussy, but for the most part she is a happy girl.  She loves when people talk to her and play with her. 

 

Brooke really is a blessing to have around.  She knows right when she needs to crawl up to me and give me a big hug!  She is a little sweetheart.

Remembering Oscar

Our little cockatiel passed away on August 10, 2012.  We adopted him from Justin's parents in March of 2009.  He has been such a fun part of the family.

 We always knew when Justin was almost home because Oscar heard his truck and would start chirping non-stop until Justin came into this house.  This of course, got Daisy all excited because she knew that Justin was coming home.  Oscar and Justin would also have competitions to see who could be the loudest....it often ended in a tie!

 

 Even though Oscar could be pretty grouchy, he loved getting out of his cage and playing.  Lydia loved feeding him treats and playing with him on the couch and the table.  Daisy was really good with Oscar and wanted to play with him too.

 

 

I couldn't find any pictures I had taken that had Oscar and Brooke in them too, but it was so fun to watch the girls watch him and interact with him.  Lydia asks often where Oscar went.  I know that she misses having him around.  It's funny how such a small little animal can become such a big part of the family.  We are going to miss our little friend Oscar!

Camping

We decided to go camping!!  The camp site wasn't very far away and everything was so conveniently located.  We decided to camp out in the backyard!  Well, only Justin and Lydia technically camped.  Brooke and I slept inside.  Lydia was in charge of helping put up the tent.

 Brooke was in charge of playing.  She helped mow the lawn and then moved onto playing on the slide.

 

 Lydia got distracted after awhile and started playing on the slide too.

 

 Then she went back to helping put up the tent.  She was so excited about it.

 

 

 Brooke liked playing on the air mattress.

 Lydia carried out the sleeping bags all by herself.  They were actually pretty heavy for her so it was funny watching her carry them out.

 The girls loved playing in the tent.  They thought they were getting away with something.

 

 After the tent was set up we went and put Brooke to bed in her crib.  She's been teething and off her sleeping schedule so we thought she would do better inside instead of being in the tent too.  We put the monitor outside so we could hear if Brooke woke up and then went and roasted marshmallows back by the garden.

 

 

 Lydia kept stealing the marshmallows as we were getting them ready.

 

 

 

 Lydia ate a couple bites of the smores and decided that she just wanted the marshmallows and the chocolate separate.

 We were letting her stay up past her bedtime and we could tell she was getting tired when she started to snuggle with Justin.

 While we were setting up the tent we had told her that she go to sleep in the tent.  She kept asking if "Woowee Buzz come too?" and if "duck come too?"  I think she was afraid she wasn't going to get to use her pillow, Woody and Buzz, and her little yellow duck blanket in the tent.

 

 It was so much fun watching how excited Lydia was to get to sleep in the tent with Justin.  She had so much fun.  Justin said she just laid in the tent looking around for awhile before she fell asleep and then was all excited again in the morning when she woke up!  Justin is such a good dad for taking her camping, even if it was just in the backyard!

Happy Birthday to Me

It's official.  I have turned the age that most people seem to stay at forever.  I am now 29!  My birthday morning didn't quite go how Justin had planned, the girls were a little grouchy so instead of making me breakfast like he wanted to, he helped me with the girls.  He had also put balloons and a banner up in the kitchen.  Once we got the kids all settled and fed he gave me my presents.

Lydia is very helpful in making sure people can open the gifts and cards by themselves.  She thinks it is so much fun!  Justin spoiled me rotten this year!! 

 My dad had training in Salt Lake at 7:30 that morning and after he finished he came and took me and the girls to breakfast!  It was perfect timing because the girls were still fussy and him coming just made the whole morning better.  I don't have pictures at breakfast though.  I was also able to go to lunch with Justin and the girls.  It was very nice too!  We ate dinner at home and then met up with my grandparents and my aunt Jenny at Leatherby's for icecream!!!  It was wonderful.  I hadn't been there in a while so I was excited to go.  Brooke liked looking at the menu.

 

 Lydia was all over the place.  She loves GGma and GGpa so much and is always so excited to see them.

 

 Here's Justin was his happy face because he knew he made my birthday perfect!!!

I really am blessed to have such a good husband and daughters who went the extra effort for my birthday!

Hogle Zoo Again

Having an annual pass to the zoo is going to be awesome!  We were able to go again and this time we went with Jillian, Xander (or Baby Amder as Lydia calls him), and my mom!  We had a lot of fun.  The temperature was cooler and it wasn't as crowded since it wasn't a Saturday.  The animals were more active too!

 

 Lydia was posing a little better for pictures this time than she was last time.  I love when I can get pictures of both girls together!

 Jillian and Xander.

 My mom and her friend.  We told her to go pose on laying on it.  I didn't think she would.  Sure enough she did.  I seriously have the coolest mom!

 Brooke and me waiting for the bird show to start.  The bird show was awesome!  The birds fly right over your head.  At one point I thought a bird was going to hit Brooke in the head.

 My mom taught Lydia how to take pictures.  She loved it!!  She took pictures pretty much the entire show.

 My mom and Lydia being silly! 

 Of course, we needed to ride the carousel.  Lydia loves it.  This time we took Brooke and she was so excited she got to go.  She really is just a little sweetheart.

 

 Brooke absolutely loved it!

 Lydia normally rides the elephant, or Dumbo, but someone was already on it so this time she rode the bear.

 My mom and Lydia outside the snake house.  Lydia loves snakes.  We tried to walk past the building without having to go inside because it is a little stinky, but Lydia recognized it and started yelling "Nake, nake!" So we went inside and she loved it!

Lydia was being silly in front of the giraffes.  However, Brooke was exhausted and had fallen asleep in the stroller.

 

 Brooke didn't want to take another nap after we got home, she was too busy trying to get to Xander and his binki.  Lydia was asleep though so that is why she isn't in the picture!

 We had a lot of fun at the zoo!  It was a great early celebration to my birthday.