Lovin' life!

I'm feeling pretty blessed today.  I taught a young women's lesson (I'm the Mia Maid adviser) and the girls participated really well and it felt very spiritual in there and they even taught parts of the lesson which is the new way we are supposed to teach.  I was so proud of them and of the good girls they are.  I truly love and admire them.

Then, I also played the organ like a rock star today!!  I have been taking lessons locally from a professional organist and it has made all the difference.  I finally know a lot more what I am doing and my chorister is finally happy with the way I play and said I played fast enough.

We have just paid some debt we had hanging around and boy did that feel wonderful!  I feel so grateful to my Savior for His love and care for me and my family.  I thank Him publicly for all I have.  His name be praised.  Thank you.

Moses is 10 months old!!!

 For the record.  I am OBSESSED with babies sleeping.  I don't know what it is but I have a theory that Heavenly Father wouldn't just drop us to earth cold turkey so when we are little (until we are 8 perhaps) he lets us come back to the pre-existence in our dreams.  I mean look at him.  He is positively ethereal.  Please don't quote me on this though.  I can't believe our little munchkin is 10 months old now.  I adore him so much.  He is always ready with a smile and here are some fun stats on him this month:

• He is finally crawling frontwards and backwards!!
• He can pull himself up on short things like stools and bathtubs and he is so proud and we are so proud!
• He loves to eat broccoli finally (they say it can take up to 17 times for a baby to learn to like a food)
• He doesn't love avocados yet
• He really likes yogurt and food in general
• He is still the smiley-est boy ever and loves to bob and bounce to music
• He adores his sister
• His giggles are adorable

Paleo diet

Yup that's my new thing.  I'm fascinated by it and I'm trying to adopt its habits.  Basically, a protein with a ton of leafy green veggies and some fats.  So it's your chicken with tons of kale and green salad stuff and then a lot of avocados and oil and balsamic vinegar.  I'm just testing out the waters but I gotta say it's really fascinating stuff and I am a believer.  It kinda goes hand in hand with the Crossfit mentality which I also really admire and intend to do again once our baby girl is born (oh yeah 23 weeks already!  I am so excited to meet this little girl o mine.  

So anyhoo, paleo is what I'm in to and I'm liking it.  I will keep you posted...

We got a minivan!

Yeah baby!!  What do you think?  A Dodge Grand Caravan for our driving pleasure.  It's a house on wheels.  I didn't ever think I could get this excited about having a minivan but I LOVE LOVE LOVE it!  And I know it'll be in our lives for a long time.  It's not a perfect car and needs some repairs (the windows don't work) but we paid for it in cash and have no car payments and man does that ever feel incredible!!  I am one happy mama.  Still getting used to driving it around but Lizzie sure loves it.  Paul put a lot of time and effort into researching it and getting it and it has four wheel drive which I think is so necessary.  I am really grateful for him for his help.  He is a great man and husband and I appreciate him so much.  I need to tell him that more to his face.  So yeah, minivan.  : )

Moses is 9 months!

What a happy little lad isn't he??? He is always like this.  I am so glad I was able to catch his smile.  We took him to the doc today and here are some updates on Moses at 9 months:

• He weighs 22.5 lbs (80th percentile)
• He is 29 inches long (also 80th percentile)
• He needs a new car seat desperately (side note, I am getting a new car!!!  I am beyond excited because it's gonna be a three row car so I'm not gonna have to scrunch three kids in a back row all together, whew)
• He smiles and giggles when you play ball with him or tickle him
• He has an awful, awful case of face ezcema.  It gets worse by the minute.  The doc recommended I layer on three creams, one of them is prescription.  It still looks bad.  There is even an open sore on one side.  Poor baby.
• He loves people.  Is always happy when he is around others but hates to be alone.  I get that.
• When he has a good nap, he is a happy little clam.  When his nap was too short, he is on the grouchy side.
• He is not taking after his big sis who walked at 9 months.  Nope.  He is presently doing the scoot/slide backwards thing but not really crawling either.  I'm not really worried.  I would have been more worried with my first born but I do know that he will walk one day.  That's for sure.
• He says "amama" a lot.  So cute. 
• When he is super, duper happy he kicks his legs in delight like he just can't help himself.  What a good boy.  I am soooo grateful to my Heavenly Father for him.  I love you baby Moses.  
• He really enjoys his Music Together class which he takes with Lizzie.  It's adorable the way that Lizzie tries to show Moses how to "play" his instruments.  He loves to bounce up and down as the music plays.  
• He finally has one cute bottom tooth!  It pokes up just an itty bit.  I love it.
• He makes the most incredible baby purrs and gurgles.  They sounds like something out of a cartoon. I love having a real baby in the home.  

It's a girl!!

We're gonna have a cute little girl.  I felt that it was gonna be a girl.  So excited to meet her!!

The Christmas Wrap - up

Pun intended ha!  Cause we wrapped a lot of stuff up.  Ya know, I think picture dumps make me lazy cause I just want the pictures to speak for themselves.  Lizzie loves getting into Moses' playpen these days and snuggling so those are some of my fave pics.

 Lizzie and her daddy also love to snuggle and read comics or "tomics" as she pronounces it.  She can't really enunciate her "c's" yet.

 Paul and Lizzie had so much fun playing with Bryan's train at his home.  She loved that.

A few days before Christmas, we took Lizzie and Moses to a play place in Park City called Monkey Mountain.  They had a ball. Oh yeah then we have actually begun a family tradition!  For the second year in a row, our family went for a snowy Christmas Eve hike that was fabulous.  Beautiful blue skies.  Afterwards, we blissfully ate at Dairy Keen.  Food tastes extra good after a great and happy hike.  Moses and Lizzie loved it when Paul pulled them up in the sled and they especially loved sledding down the hill.  Moses was so stinkin cute.  He just sucked on his binkie as we pulled him down.  We also ran into some people going bobcat hunting.  Every few minutes we would hear a gun shot from some random place.  Crazy, huh?

 How cute is Lizzie in her little freebie Dairy Keen hat she got??  Also, Lizzie and Moses are so cute together and they just love on each other all the time.  I love it!

 Paul made THE most delicious Christmas Eve dinner - gnochii with tuna and parmesan cheese.  It was delectable.  It's another new tradition.  So, what else did we do over the holidays? Well, Moses is getting better at pre-crawling and my car got hit and totalled on Christmas night after I went to the movies with Jenny and Jessica but I was okay (we are looking for a new car now). On New Years Eve Eve we invited friends and family up and checked out the ice castles.  That was so fun and Lizzie just kept on saying "wow wow" all the time in the most wow-ish way like she was truly impressed and not like it was just an expression.  Man I love seeing life through her eyes.  Well, all in all it was a lovely holiday and I am very grateful for it.