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