All the fun stuff in winter

"You need to update your blog"....Here it is!




What have we been doing lately? Actually we were recently sick with a cold and a fever (two different illnesses) and are now feeling a little better. Julz is trying to be more independent in moving around and thus falls down and bumps her head more often, or crawls under a chair or table and tries to stand up and bonks herself again. She is making some animal sounds (roar for a lion, duck, neigh, moo, raspberries for elephant and a few others) and labeling "dada" and occasionally other people. Oh and she can says mom when she cries/ It is amazing how naturally "mamama" it fits in with "wawawa." We went to the zoo for her to meet the animals, she was enthralled. She definitely loved the cougar the best (that probably means she will be a cougar someday. She can almost say "Go BYU!"). She can make sounds, but still feels out of sorts when she hears an unexpected sound (like a noisy toy). even when she pushed the button, she pouts out her lip and cries like she has been stung by a bee (not that she knows how that feels!) She does like to smile and talk to people whenever they will let her.

What else have we done lately? Well, we stopped babysitting our little friend (3 mos old). It was a great 2 month adventure to help us survive the long cold winter, now we are ready for spring. The little girl got into the daycare at her daddy's work (after being on a 11 month waiting list!). Now that she feels "better" Julz crawled around all day looking for someone besides mom to play with. We will definitely look forward to play dates with that little girl and all of our other friends. Actually we had a few friends over today for our mom and kids playgroup. It was at our house, and Julz enjoyed sitting amongst the older kids and trying to take the toys they had from them.

We had two of daddy's sisters over for a yummy dinner to celebrate our 3 year anniversary this week. Daddy made some really delicious food, the prize winning bacon wrapped scallops will have to be repeated sometime soon. We also got lots and lots of food storage in case of any emergencies (drypack items like wheat, oats, pasta, dry milk, rice, amalgamated sugar, potato flakes, etc) (www.providentliving.org ). We are planning dinner in 30 years when it expires-- we are also looking forward to relocating it whenever and everywhere we move in the next 30 years. It is just a start, but we are glad that we have done something. Soon we will form a 72 hour kit and get extra foods to spice up and add variety to our emergency foods....

So, that is a little of what we have been doing lately. Daddy is still being a great student and getting lots of good scores on his exams and working hard at work. Julz often gets all giddy when it is evening and she hears someone making noises in the hallway. She always wants it to be her daddy coming home, and when he does she starts bouncing and smiling in excitement.

Following directions

This is the beginning of a whole new world. We didn't realize Julz was really paying attention to what we told her until we asked her to kiss the baby in a book we were reading. She innocently looked at us like, you really want me to? and then leaned over and kissed the picture of the baby. What a great way to celebrate Valentines Day. I guess we better be aware of what we tell her, cause she's taking it all in. Here is a short video clip of her following that direction. She is pretty cute.

Julz and Ron Paul

She was almost as excited to meet Ron Paul as she is when daddy comes home from work!