How fast time flies!!!

This is Linnea at 6 months a year ago...Look how much she has changed...unbelievable!

Linnea is 18 months old today...that means in 6 months she will be two years old how can that be??? What a huge blessing she is in our lives. This small little girl has taught be more about life and trials and myself than I feel I could have taught myself in 22 years! Linnea has grown so much in just a few months I am blown away I can practically have a conversation and we're almost to the point of explaining why we don't do things not just saying no...to me thats a big landmark. Some fun facts about Linnea:

She has widened her vocabulary, consisting of the words: Hi, Hello, flag (pronounced lag), dog (dot), meow, moo, neigh, no, hi dad, bee, mama, dada, nana, pupa, dane (day) katie (titi, yes she said it yesterday katie it was cute), stars, yeah, balloon, ball, bubble, more, eat, choo choo, beep beep, and she blows a raspberry for a helicopter noise, and just today she said the word mouse when I brought out her mini mouse there are other words that I know I'm just not thinking off, but these are the most used.

Linnea loves to read stories, either to herself or with mom and dad. She loves to cuddle right up with you and show you pictures or tell you what it says

She loves to be outside, after our walk every morning her highlight is to go to the park and play with all the kids.
She loves animals and loves to point them out, especially dogs.
She loves to hold the dog's leash while we walk.
Linnea loves to be incharge of her life, she enjoys playing with her own shoelaces and doing her own hair, feeding herself, etc.
She loves to play in mom's make-up
She loves jumping on the pillows
She loves milk with a passion!!!
She loves Mary Poppins and the Little Mermaid
Barney is her hero
She loves to dance and color
She loves to be thrown around by her uncles
She loves noodles and pasta
She loves to give kisses and hugs....

We love Linnea so much, this is such a fun stage of life for her and us. It is sad to see her grow so fast, but I love every minute of watching her adorable, independant personality come out.

St. George Trip

We had the chance to go down and visit St. George this weekend. Derek has been doing a job in Cedar City so Linnea, Gracie and I decided to go down there this weekend and visit Grandma Childs and go on a mini vacation. It was great, not too hot, but still warmer than up north. We went hiking, Glenda and I went to What Women Want, we played games checked out the horses, went to dinner...and took a good break. Gracie loved hiking with us in Pioneer Park. She would go nuts when she saw a lizard...she would dart and jump into the bushes after it or chase it into it's hole even though she would crash into the rocks while doing it. We were able to see some old friends from the ward that we used to live in that was great, and also Derek's best friend and his wife were able to come down and play games with us. It was great to see everyone again. I love vacations it is so nice to just relax with your family. I am so excited for our disneyland vacation in two weeks it will be a blast!!!

Linnea was our little mountain goat the whole time she wanted to climb up the rocks all on her own.

Playing ring-around-the-rosies...a new favorite game

Dino-museum

This was apparently a prehistoric shark...they had a comparison to the Great White and it was a lot bigger

Derek and Linnea playing in the water and sand!

We had our niece and nephews spend the night with us last weekend so we decided to haul the kids to thanksgiving point to go to the museum of ancient life! It really is an awesome museum, very educational. I wanted to spend my time reading all the plaques and learning about space rocks and dino's but no...not with kids :). They had an area where they could play in sand with water so they could understand how water carves out canyons and how that brings up fossils and dinos. At the very end of the museum they were able to dig up dinosaur bones with the brushes and everything, not the cheapest outing but it was worth it I think.

New Additions

Well as many of you know I grew up with pets and finally after our disaster choice of buying a St. Bernard Derek agreed to fill our house with more animals :) We got Mo, the cockatiel awhile ago my mom's friend wanted to get rid of him totally free cage and all so we thought that would be easy to handle, then another member of my parents ward couldn't handle their Boston Terrier anymore. They have two and they just fought and fought. They just gave her to us for free her name is Gracie and she is 3 years old and housebroken...much easier to manage than a puppy.. So welcome summer and welcome new pets :)

Shopping Trip

Ok you guys might think this is lame of me for posting my grocery trip, but I had to... I felt that it was a really good trip. This is all from Smith's, I was going to get some things at other stores, but I think Linnea was done shopping so maybe tomorrow. Anyways here is what I bought...

(2) pampers diaper packs
(4) Wheaties cereal
(4) Kellogs Cereal
(2) Tide laundry detergent
(4) Nabisco 100 calorie snack boxes
Apples
Bananas
(2) bags of baby carrots

Grand Total: $27.00!!

Maybe some people do better than me, but for me that's good especially with the diapers and everything. If I would've gone to Target I would also have two Schick Hydro Razors, but not a different price, thats right I'm getting them for free. Coupons are a lot of work and planning but they are sure helping us out right now!

Holy Cow...it's been forever

I'm sorry it has been soo long since I've updated with pictures, but I found the right cord and figured out how to use this camera that we are using now so here are some pictures and updates on our life. First I took Linnea to Disney on Ice... I was so excited to take her I figured she would love it...She hated it! The music made her scream and cry so for the

first half we were out in the hallway walking around and I missed the Lion King and Little Mermaid. Finally Grandma Childs was able to bribe her to sit through the second half with a sucker. So I was able to see the new tinkerbell movie skaters...I didn't even get it because I'm all about my classics :). Maybe next year. Linnea has never really liked loud noises, I've finally desensitzed her to the vaccum (by getting her a vaccum) and the blender so we're making progress.

Linnea walking the halls

We celebrated Derek's birthday and Easter. Linnea wasn't too sure about her dress since it was conference and everyone else was in their pajama's but I bought her a dress so I was going to get a picture of her in it at least. I think she looked cute even though she doesn't like to smile for me anymore. She really loved the outdoor easter egg hunt, anything outdoors Linnea is there. Derek turned 24 and we had a fun party for him with lots of junk food and ice cream cake. I love him so much and am so grateful for him. It seems like we've been married longer than we have because he was 21 when we got married it just seems like 21 to 24 is a big gap but it's really not...crazy huh.

Derek is finally done with his first semester at UVU....ahhhh it seems like we'll be in school forever. I'm beginning finals this week and it's stressful if you don't do well in your class you are "dismissed" from the program. They haven't called me in to talk to me yet so I'm hoping that's a good sign. I am only doing online this summer so I get to be HOME!!! Yay I am so so so excited I have missed my home and my girl all year! I am trying to complete my AS and my AAS of OTA at the same time so this summer I have to take METEOROLOGY what?!?!? That will be the lamest part of the summer I assure you.

Linnea is almost 17 months old and I can't believe it, she has the BIGGEST attitude I have ever seen, bigger than mine and that's saying something. She loves to shake her head and say "no, no, no" then when she wants me to do something she holds it up and in the sweetest voice she will repeat "mama, mama, mama" until I do what she wants, and if I don't she throw it down and screams no! It's super funny, but I am tired of the word no :) In her defense she does say "yeah" alot too and it is adorable when she does, she has three different tones so we can always tell her mood by which tone she uses. She loves to give kisses and she knows what she wants and nothing any of us adults say is going to change her mind! I love her so much attitude and all. She is such a joy. She is also the biggest goof in the world. She loves the cheese smile it all the time and then sniff really loud, I'm not sure if I described that good. She also does "Flash dance" thats right she does the "Maniac" dance, and twirls and jumps now. Her favorite animal is a "Dot." (dog) and whenever she hears one she yells "dot, dot, dot". She loves to babble in her own language and loves to read mommy books now, not the other way around. I love her to pieces. I hope this is a good update for now I'll do better now that I will soon have more time on my hands!!!! Hope all is well with everyone else

Baby contest

Hey everyone so I just wanted to let you know that I entered Linnea into a baby contest. I'm usually not all about this, but the grand prize got me...if you win you get a new nursury set and diapers paid for for a year! Anyways I would love you all to vote for her and spread the word. What you do is go into www.971zht.com and type in the keyword "baby" in the search box. It'll take you to the vote page and just click vote now and follow the instructions. Linnea's number is 767. I think you can vote once per email. So spread the word. The first section is just to get the top 10. So I would love diapers for a year so any help would be AWESOME!!! Thanks guys!!!