2nd Christmas!

I am soooo done with presents!!!!

Christmas was great for us this year...it was Linnea's second Christmas and mine and Derek's second Christmas together...kind of crazy. We had a great time

at my parent's house. We went up on Christmas Eve and had Enchiladas? What? Ok so since it's Dane's last Christmas before his mission he got to choose dinner on Christmas eve and he picked to have a south of the border Christmas...ok whatever works. Anyways we had fun we played games then Katie and Eric arrived and we watched A Christmas Story... Linnea took her first steps on her own, well like she took her own steps without me having to urge her she just got up and started walking...she still for some reason prefers to walk on her knees, but we're working on it. On Christmas morning I was awakened by my over excited sister who was wandering around at 6 in the morning asking if she could wake up Linnea...I told her it is never a good idea to wake up a sleeping baby :) anyways I got up and talked with katie until like 7 then we decided it was time for everyone else to get up...I'm pretty sure my parents were hoping their kids had grown up and wanted to sleep in, but I'm afraid we've all gotten worse as we got older. Anyways we had fun and opened presents.. Linnea was

Auntie Katie!

spoiled rotten, she got a vaccum, a barn, a rocking horse that neigh's and makes galloping noises and wags it's tail, Derek got he princess bride audio book (he's obssesed with the movie) and I got a RUNNING STROLLER from my hubby...o man I love it I can't wait for warmer weather no more excuses for me not getting into shape. Anyways I hope everyone had a spectacular holiday and has a great new year.

Derek and his new book

Playing with her new barn, it has shapes animals and letters

Black eye anyone?....

Ok another advice post. So my adorable, sweet Linnea enjoys...well hitting, scratching, and pinching...it's not cause she doesn't know what she's doing, I ruled that out real quick. She does do it out of frustration or she thinks it's a game. So anytime I don't give her what she wants she'll go straight for the face or now the neck ( who knows why she likes to pinch my neck) I'm a little torn on how to handle the situation...how do you disipline a 1 year old without doing the "NO, NO, NO," all the time ( I've just been told being negative is not always the best way to go), but obviously that is my first reaction everytime. I have tried to show her the correct way to touch, by slowly moving her hands on my face, or I've held her hands and said " no" of course. I've tried to set her on the ground and ignore her for a few seconds, but it doesn't really seem to be doing anything...I know kids do this, I know she is little, but I also want her to know that it is not ok to hit others, animals, but especially mom and dad! I don't know I'm pretty big on not letting your kids hit you. Any good tips would be great, she's little, but she does hurt. She likes to honk our noses, I don't know if maybe that is where the pinching came from because we made it seem like that was ok, so anywhere else must be ok, I don't know. Anyways we'll see how it goes.

Bye for now Louie Louie!

Sad day...My family's puppy of 9 years had to be put to sleep...he had kidney failure. Louie was a unique dog, but so loyal and part of the family. It always seems like our dogs like to leave the world around Christmas, our last dog, Abner, died on Christmas eve...it may seem silly to some people that I post about a dog, but I loved that puppy and it's not ever going to be the same when I knock on my parents door and don't have him rushing to see me!!! I'll miss my lucy-goo!!!

Happy Birthday!!!!!

Happy birthday Nea!!!

She loved the candle so much and kept reaching out for the flame My enemy...the lady bug cake!


Pushing her school bus...

My baby is a year old today!!! Unbelievable. One year ago she was so tiny, so helpless and she slept all the time and didn't move hardly at all...now she is a bouncy, outspoken, independant red-head who has the entire world to conquer!!! She is such an adorable baby, I'm not biased I just say it how it is. She loves everyone and she LOVES to learn and discover. It's so funny to watch her see something new and then try to duplicate it herself. I love it when she does something and she knows she did something great you can see her face light up because she knows she succeeded. She has taken about four steps by herself up to this point, we've been a little slow going, she loves to walk alone and loves the praise she gets, but is just a little nervous to let go all the time, but we're getting there. She loves to dance, sing, throw everything, she loves peanut butter and bread, rice cakes, she loves spaghetti, mashed potatoes, kiwi, bananas, carrots, and now of course she loves cake and ice cream!!! She loves to give hugs, she'll reach her little arms up and wrap them around my neck just to give me a hug, she waves bye-bye, walks on her knees everywhere, she loves to read stories, she loves jingle-bells and the ornaments on our trees!!! We love her so very much, I can't explain how much she adds to my life. Derek and I were talking the other night about how different our life would be if we hadn't had Linnea so fast, I can't picture it, what would I do all day? Kind of crazy. We love her and hope she always knows that she is our joy and happiness!!!

She had a great birthday party, I attempted to do a bug theme, since she is out "little bug" don't judge the cake I spent a long time on it...it didn't turn out like the picture I had, but it tasted good. She got so many wonderful toys, she got a school bus, a push car, a new carseat (front facing baby, yay!!!) blocks, books, clothes, a puzzle a huge teddy bear so much...it was funny the night after she had all these new things, but she wanted to play in her carseat box, Derek made it into a tunnel and she would chase him through the box, I decided I'm never buying any more toys she more in to like tin foil and stuff like that :)

A Great weekend!!!

Well we had a GREAT Thanksgiving weekend. We went to my sister-in-laws house for the actual dinner. They actually weren't even there...they had the opportunity to go to Chile for the week so Derek's parents came up to watch their kids so we still had it at their house. It was such yummy food...I was in charge of making all the vegetables...I get really nervous cooking for people, but I think it turned out ok. We then ran up to bountiful to get family pictures taken with my grandparents and cousins from Washington. I hadn't seen my aunt and uncle since Derek and I got married so it was so great to go and spend some time with them...they are so awesome. I have so much to be Thankful for, especially my beautiful daughter and amazing husband. I'm grateful for holidays like Thanksgiving that give you a constant reminder of the things you may take advantage of. I hope every year to not just be a grateful person at this time of year, but all year long.
Anyways, on friday we went with Derek's family again to the living planet aquarium for all the kids...I think I had more fun than they did. I love to see animals, I feel bad they are in captivity sometimes, but they are amazing. They have a Utah fish exibit, not so exciting, but then you go to the ocean and south America. Linnea loved the HUGE river fish that are from South America...it was so much fun. We also got to pet actual sting rays...I was so excited that I just stuck my arm in the water and forgot to role my sleeve up...kind of embarassing. It was awesome, I think Linnea shares my enthusiasm about animals though...we'll have so much fun.
Then on Saturday we made our way to Morgan so my mom could teach Katie and I all the christmas cookie recipes that I grew up with. It was alot of fun, because some of the cookies are our family's Swedish recipes that my great-grandma Linnea used to bake. Also, my mom taught me how to make just basic chocolate chip cookies...you may laugh and say that everyone can make cookies, but you would be wrong...I have never, NEVER made a good batch of cookies. I was very concerned because when my kids ask to make cookies it was going to consist of hopping into the car and going to the store to buy them...It was alot of fun to get together and actually hopefully be a successful cookie maker!!! I'm way excited.
This weekend has been so relaxing and so great to have Derek for four days straight...I am not ready to go back to the busy day to day, but I am so ready for the rest of the holiday season...it really is the most wonderful time of the year!!!!

Lots and lots of cookies!!!

Me with my wet sleeve and boob apparently...

11 Months...

Dad won't let me use the drill mom!!!!

Nea working with dad


Our escape artist...she tries to run and hide now!!

Well we are officially in the last month of Linnea's first year...unbelievable she is soooo adorable and such a little genius!!! I can't believe how fast it really has gone. I remember when she was first born I kept thinking that I couldn't wait for her first birthday to come so she could be a toddler and I just thought it would be so much more "fun" now it's like if the years keep going as fast as this one did she'll be all grown up before I know it sad :( Some fun stuff about our Nea,

-She loves to dance...all the time it is so much fun

-she loves to mimick EVERYTHING...

-She loves to sing as she dances

-She loves reading stories

-She loves puppies...and loves to make her barking noise

-She loves to do her picture routine in the morning...I have to pick her up she points at her Jesus picture then she points at herself then she points at our family picture...then we can move on

-She loves to be chased and tickled

-She loves to try and walk, she gets very nervous on her own but she can stand unassisted for a long time...she falls only when she realizes that she is doing it without holding on to anything

-She loves to sleep with her bunny at night and play with her puppy in the day

-She loves to play her piano

-She loves to scream at the top of her lungs when we "displease her" (our princess)

-She loves to cuddle

-She loves to take naps in mom and dad's bed

-she trades off days on who she likes better...mom or dad

-She loves to discover new things and figure out how things work.

We absolutley love this little girl she is so smart and so funny...her personality is developing so well. I am so proud of her and am so excited to be the one to help shape her and direct her...it is going to be such an amazing experience...these last 11 months have been such a joy...I wouldn't ever have it any other way...We love you Nea...

St. George Trip

This last weekend we made a trip down to St. George to watch Dane and Landon play in the varsity football game against Hurricane, so we also made a stop and stayed with Derek's parents. Linnea had a great trip she went to a park and got to experience those wild things we call slides and she also went on her first horseback ride...I mean she rode a horse for over an hour and she loved it...it was so much fun. So here are some cute pictures

Getting Ready to go sliding!!!

Linnea isn't too sure about those slides...

My future softball player...the fun thing is is she was so into those fields and thats where my old team from high school used to play in the St. George tournament

Linnea and Dad getting ready for the "big" horse ride. I never caught her smiles and laughs on the still camera I wish I could figure out how to post video from our camera cause she was just laughing so much on the horses

Linnea telling the boys to leave her alone and let her do it

She liked the manes of the horses...she's getting introduced for the first time

St. George just became alot more fun with a little girl who is so into anything that is new...she is just like me that she takes such an interest in any type of animal. We're going to have so much fun together!!!

HALLOWEEN!!! Bedrock style

Well we had a great Halloween. We were the Flintstones it was so cute. Linnea was the inspiration since she has her adorable red hair. We woke up and I made orange and somewhat black pancakes. I usually make pumpkin pancakes with this homemade apple cider syrup, but this last week I have really had a hard time remembering ANYTHING so I forgot my ingredients. Anyways then we went to a classmates house for a Halloween party... it was way fun they had all these real animal parts that we had to guess what part it was and which animal it came from. Derek was able to take a tongue for a souvenier :) then we went over to Crystal and Charles' house because they were Betty and Barney and little Asher was bam-bam so we had to get pictures. We finished the night by watching a weird version of sleepy hollow. It was a fun night. I love halloween, all the costumes and junk food. Such a blast. I hope everyone else had a great time.

School...

Well I wanted to do a post about my school program so far, I am doing Occupational therapy at SLCC... It's been really fun. Ocupational therapy is kind of like Physical therapy, except in PT they really get people strong again, in OT we get them strong again, then we teach them how to take their new strength and make it functional in life again, and help them do just basic Activities of daily living! It's really cool we get to use all these fun little gadgets alot of times. It's a neat field because some people who like are quadraplegic or had a really bad stroke most people just give up on them and say they won't ever be functional again, thats when OT steps in and really helps them get to a level of functional independance again. My classmates are really fun too, I've made some good friends already, we all say we're going to hate eachother by next year, but right now it is really fun.

Part of the schooling is doing fieldwork with real clinicians, today is the last day of mine for this semester, it's been pretty interesting, the only bad thing is my field work is at a hospital and alot of patients have alot of contagious viruses and staff infections...so sometimes I don't like to go there and then come home and handle Linnea...I promise I clean before, but it still makes me nervous. I am almost done with my first semester in the program, now only two more class semesters then one internship semester and I'm done!!!! I've been talking to the U and seeing how easy it would be to go on and get my Masters done in it someday...I may not be able to right after I graduate (We have to get Derek through school too) but maybe someday after all my kids are in school I could, I think I would like to, but who knows by that point I'll probably say I am not going back :)

Here are some pictures of our lab class...My sister Katie is actually my teacher for this class...it really is the best class because it puts us into disabled people's shoes for a few hours and teaches us how to transfer and gives us the hands on part of lectures that we get prior to the class...In this lab we were all people who had a total hip surgury...they have a lot of precautions they have to follow after surgury, basically they can sit in a wheelchair at 90 degrees and not move. So Katie wanted us to put on shoes and socks...good luck. Then we were stroke victim who lost funtionality in our hand, so she wanted us to put on a bra...Also since alot of the patients out there are the elderly we had to practice our bedside manner with an individual who is hearing impaired! Fun times.

Katie Teaching us how to stand from sitting to a walker as a person who had a total hip replacement! (there are more rules than you think)

Using the grabbers and sock aids, to get our socks, without breaking rules

Putting on our bras with one hand (ok he's cheating, but cut him some slack )

Working with the hearing impaired!

10 Months old!!! Holy Cow

Our sweet Linnea hit her 10 month mark last week....I know I've been super slow at posting, but better late than never. Some fun facts about Linnea:

-She loves to explore every corner anywhere.

- She is such a fast crawler and loves to have races

-she loves to stand up and take steps, while holding on (sometimes she tries to let go, but she is very tentative)

-she loves, loves, loves to mimick everything I do!

-she sings to songs, especially hymns still, it's sounding prettier

-she loves to clap her hands

-she loves to feed herself off her own little plate in her own little chair (huge mess after)

-she loves ice cream and knows when it is out

-she throws a mini tempertantrum if we don't give her what she wants or we take something away

-she has a glare that could kill, and she loves to use it when you don't meet her standards

-she loves to be outside

-she only wants mom in the mornings (it makes me feel great)

-she is taking an interest in the dishwasher

-she loves to talk

-she likes to bite things (i wish the top teeth would ma k e their way in

-she loves her family

-she loves her toys that make noise and her animals

-she loves to snuggle when she's tired

We love Linnea so much, I can't believe she's almost a year. She is such a joy! We love you cuddle bug

Sad Good-bye's....

Well last night Derek and I were able to go out to dinner with some of my good friends from high school. We were having one last get together before one of my best friend, Katie, leaves with her hubby, Morgan, to move to Washington D.C.!!! Morgan is going to be entering the MBA program at Stanford in 1 year 1/2, but they defer their students to get work experience so he was offered a job in D.C. I am so excited for them they will have so much fun out of state and they will be living in one of the coolest cities in the country!!! It's just really sad because once they are done there they'll head straight to California for the MBA program!!! I have a hard time when we all change and head out with our own lives...it's sad! It made it harder because people in our condo complex really keep to themselves so it's been quite a challenge to get to know people in Eagle Mtn. so now Katie is leaving :(. I did really good until we left and got into our own cars then started letting loose with the water works!!! I love all my friends from high school and am so grateful we are still in touch and still get together from time to time!!! Katie and Morgan I'm so excited for you guys it will be soooooo much fun and such a great experience! You've always been an awesome friend!!!! Don't forget about the small people in Eagle Mtn.!!!! WE love you guys!

The Girls, Kelsie, Katie, Me, and of course Linnea

The group, Brock/Kelsie, Morgan/Katie, Derek/I & Linnea

9 Months!!!

Well Linnea hit her 9 month mark a few days ago...but things are kind of busy so I'm a little slow at posting. Some things about Linnea...

-She loves to chew on her tongue

-She likes mom and dad food, not baby food

-she loves to crawl up and down the hall really fast chasing after mom and dad

-She loves to play copy games, like I slash water then you splash water

- She loves it when mommy and her play the sharing game (super cute, I hand her something then I put my hand down and say can I see it, she holds it out and I snatch it really fast and say thank you, she thinks it hilarious)

- She doesn't like to be put in her crib when she's not ready

-She has decided it is needed in the house to use a very shrill scream/cry because she thinks she will get her way

-She loves creamy bites of ice cream

- If mom and dad are eating while she is using a bottle or something she thinks she should have grown up food

-she loves to go for the cords and power sockets....o boy

-She loses interest in her toys and loves to play with mommy's decorations or whatever else may be close by that is supposed to be off limits

-She loves to pull herself up to the coffee table and practice standing.

- She loves to throw things from her chair or knock things off the tables all the time

Linnea is such a joy!!! I miss her so much now that I am in school, I miss her sweet smile, and her little laughs and all the play time we used to have during the summer. She is my little angel baby I absolutely can't get enough of her and I look forward to the weekends more than I ever have before!!! WE LOVE YOU BABY!!!

Stress relief....

Ok well to just update, Derek found a job...Thank goodness. It's a good blessing. My brother-in-law said his work was a little short handed, so Derek went in for an interview and they took about 5 days to call back, but he got the job. He started yesterday and he said that everyone who works there was super nice and he thinks he will enjoy it. I hope they are flexible with school for him when he starts. I think he has changed his direction from Electrician. As of right now he is looking into Mechanical Engineering. I think he will enjoy that, he's not for sure 100% but at least he has a direction, so hopefully he can start school in the spring and go from there. He's never been to a regular college it's only been tech schools, so he's a little nervous, but I know he'll do great. Thanks for all the support and caring from everyone. I'm really thankful it was such a short time for a job loss....the Lord always, always, always, takes care of you and really knows how much you can handle!!!

Any help.....

Hey I just was going to ask for some job search help from anyone....Derek got some bad news today...we experienced our first lay off. Derek's company that he worked for hit a rough patch so some apprentices were let go. It was quite a shock when he called me, I had a short cry at school, luckily my sister is one of my teachers so she was around, but I didn't feel panicked surprisingly. We feel ok though. This has made Derek think to make sure this is the direction he wants to go he has been looking at some other career choices and now isn't so sure he belongs in the electrical field...I know we'll be ok...I kind of just wish this happened when I was done with school. I know the Lord is going to take care of us though, but if anyone knows of any job openings in the Salt Lake/provo area it would be much appreciated.

Great day together...

Ok so I started school on Wednesday full time...ouch...ya so on Tuesday I put all the cleaning aside and my work and decided from sun up to sun down this was going to be Linnea's day, we had lots of fun, practicing crawling, shopping together, reading stories, playing with toys, going for several walks. School is going to be really busy, but when I got in there and met my teachers I really felt like I needed to be there, I need to finish. Linnea loves being with her cousins, (my sister-in-law watches her during the day) so that helps me alot, but man do I miss her and Derek, my binders are plastered with her beautiful face!!!! I love this little girl and I can't wait until these few semesters are over and we see much more of each other!!!! Here are some pictures of our day together

Eating some bananas for breakfast

Taking a walk with mommy and daddy

I want that camera mom!!!

Lots and lots of books to read

A Poopy story...

Well our little explorer made a discovery down south the other day that I had to share...Derek and I were sitting and eating our dinner and Linnea was sitting on the ground playing with her toys, I looked over to check on her and I noticed she was putting her fingers in her mouth eating something...so we hurried over to take whatever she had found on the ground out of her mouth and Derek saw that it wasn't anything she had found on the ground she had discovered it in her diaper!!!! She had a small explosion and decided to eat the brown chocolate stuff that was coming out!!!! Disgusting, the thing that gets me is she kept trying to eat it, it wasn't gros to her...unfortunately I didn't get a picture obviously because I immediately wiped her hands and got her in the tub and brushed out her mouth, but that is our curious girl, always game for new flavors!!!!

Family Pictures....

My sister-in-law Crystal is a great photographer and she was nice enough to get some fun family pictures done for us...I can't tell you how hard it is to get a baby to smile at the camera at the same time we do :)

Adorable little girl!!!!