Reaching new heights

Ever since Molly was old enough to stand, she has been a climber.  I'm sure some of you know exactly what I'm talking about.  When she was little, I couldn't let her get out of my sight or she'd be climbing on some potentially-dangerous toy...or table...or chair...or whatever!  She went through a time in her life when she always had a bruise on her forehead-which was always a result of falling off of something that she had climbed.  I guess I'm a negligent mother...if it wasn't too high, I would let her experience the fall and then she'd know not to do it again!  Well, old habits die hard and she still loves to climb.  However, she is much more stable and I don't worry about it as much as I used to.  Long explanation for a short story...last week I was cleaning up the dinner dishes, Justin was working on some project in the garage and Molly was "helping" him, which she is so good at doing.  I don't know when she got bored of helping but the next time I walked out, this is where I find her:

Yes, she is on top of the car.  No, Justin did not put her there.  She had climbed up to the top all by herself!  Doesn't she look so proud of herself?  And yes, I made her get down-I didn't think she needed to "experience" that fall to learn her lesson!

Baby Update:  7 days and counting!  I am scheduled to be induced on June 25th, if nothing happens sooner.  We can't wait to meet this baby boy!

Movin', movin', movin'

Last week Justin and I became homeowners. An exciting adventure! Justin has put in many hours over the last week painting and hauling boxes. He hasn't gotten home earlier than 11:00 in the past seven work days. I haven't helped him much but look forward to putting our home together in the next few weeks! I figure I'll be so busy until the first of July that the last month of this pregnancy will go by fast...wishful thinking? Blog posts will become few and far between until we get Internet set up or until I get to my parents to post. No Internet will probably be a good thing for me considering how much time I waste on the computer each day! So, farewell for now, and wish us luck!!

Mommy/Daughter Date

Okay, so I spend every single day with Molly and she pretty much goes everywhere with me. But this was a special day, just Molly and me on a "date." We saw cows,pet baby lambs,and fed ducks.We went on a wagon ride.We ate corn dogs and shared a snow cone while watching a dancing group.(Molly should have joined them on the stage...she was dancing right along with them.)

And I let her pick out a princess crown to take home.Molly's gone on a few "dates" with her dad but I've never really done this before, probably because I figure we do enough stuff together. But this felt different. We were unhurried, had no errands to run, and we were able to just enjoy each other. I loved walking around in the sun, feeling her hand in mine and seeing her excitement over little things. Being a mom is definitely a great privilege...

Kentucky!!!

Last week we paid a visit to my sister and her family in Louisville, Kentucky. We spent a few days there seeing the sites, celebrating a couple of birthdays, and just hanging out. We had a great time and only regret that it went by so fast!

Molly loved her new Princess backpack. It was stocked with toys for the flight-I think she had more fun pulling it around and zipping and unzipping it!After our layover in Vegas, we got on a plane to take us to Louisville. Molly wanted the window seat; I thought she would get scared but she loved it! She was never scared, instead she watched out the window during take off and landing.Probably the one thing that we were all looking forward to the most was the look on Ali's face when we all showed up. You see, she thought it was just my mom and dad coming to visit, not the whole family. We had kept this secret for so long and we knew that she had no clue that we were coming. Jeff picked us up at the airport and took my mom and dad to their house. The rest of us piled in the rental vans and drove around for a few minutes before going to the house. We gathered on the doorstep and rang the doorbell. Ali answered the door, and I think she was pretty surprised!

Here we are at the Louisville Slugger Museum. This is where all the bats are made for the Major League players. We were able to look around at the museum and then take a tour and see how the bats are actually made. Justin could have stayed there for hours!Justin with a bat actually used by Lou GehrigBabe Ruth's batWe took lunch to a park along the Ohio River. It was hands down the best park that I have ever been to. We need parks like that in Utah! Molly ran around with Ben the whole time we were there.The Ohio RiverChurchill Downs was a really cool place. For those of you who don't know what Churchill Downs is, it's where the Kentucky Derby is run. For those of you who don't know what the Kentucky Derby is, there's no hope! Thanks to our own special tour guide, Woody from Guest Services, for our tour. He took us to the places where only the trainers and jockeys are allowed. That means we got up close and personal to the last race of the day.

After the race the jockeys walked right past us-we even saw the jockey who had won the Derby the week before!Barbaro's graveWe spent one morning at the Louisville Zoo. I was really impressed with the zoo-it was beautiful and green everywhere. When Molly's grandpa asked her what she saw at the zoo she said rhinos and lemurs.The train ride was a highlight for all the kids, with a pretty cool tunnel. Although, we didn't really see any animals on the ride, only fence...Ali got pretty up close and personal with a bird.Justin did too, but it didn't climb on his head!My personal favorite was the lions. They were pretty impressive.

We were able to celebrate Ali's birthday and Gavin's. Gavin got a slide for his birthday which the older kids immediately took over.He also got some help opening his presents.And he didn't like his birthday cake.Of course, you can't stay in a hotel without swimming in the pool.We took an afternoon off from the touristy stuff and just went bowling, always a hit with the kids and family. The kids were entertained by rolling the bowling ball back and forth.Molly helped me bowl. Maybe I should let her help me more often. We scored a 111 which is pretty good for someone who never reaches 100! Okay, those bumper lanes probably helped a little... Justin, on the other hand, didn't have the best game ever. If you look closely, you can see that Ben beat him by one point. And Ben did it all on his own, no help from his dad or anything. The boys were able to take off one night for a Reds game in Cincinnati. After a few days of going, going, going and fun, fun, fun it was time to fly home. We had a long layover in Phoenix but not to worry, we found plenty of fun things to do...We had 4 flights and Molly slept on 3 of them. On our very last leg of the journey, she slept from take off to landing. I guess the week had finally caught up with her.

A Day of Hiking

Some highlights from our day in Zion's:

The Upper Emerald Pool

Weeping Rock

Court of the Patriarchs

All part of growing up

1. Asserting her independence...

While I want to encourage this aspect of growing up, sometimes it sure does slow things down. Molly is in that stage where she wants to do practically everything by herself...all I can say is good for her, but it sure is easier to get it done myself!

2. Making fashion choices...
For our morning walk:yellow and pink pajama top, purple leggings, black velvet dress with a snowman theme along the bottom, socks with sandals, Hello Kitty necklace

Playing outside on a Sunday afternoon:pink jacket, red skirt with brown polkadots, brown tights, purple crocs, Hello Kitty necklace
(I did make her take the skirt off...too nice to just play around in outside)

3. Potty training...
She's trained, I'm happy! No more buying diapers (for a couple months at least) and I think I'll take back that box of Pull-Ups to Costco (man, those things are expensive!).

4. Making new discoveries...
Meet her friend, the worm. She named him Bubba and then changed his name to Chloe. He was her constant companion all afternoon.

She even helped him down the slide. Notice the water bottles? They provided just the right amount of wetness to help Bubba/Chloe down the slide.

5. Fun new games...
Yes, that is a baby under her shirt. Hmmm, wonder where she got that idea? She called it "playing prem-mant." (I credit Tiana for teaching her that word.)

6. An obession with anything girly or princess-y...
The first thing she asks in the morning is if she can be a princess. She has no dress-ups so she wears dresses that no longer fit. The only rule is that they can't be worn outside. She prances around all day in a dress waving her wand. And forget about calling her Molly. It's either Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Ariel, Jasmine, Belle, Cinderella, or Tinkerbelle. The odd part is that she's never seen any of the movies-remember, she won't want TV that long!

7. Bye-bye to naptime...
So sad to see it go, but it was necessary. It's not that she won't take a nap, it's that when she does she doesn't go to bed at night. For example, on Saturday I gave her a nap because I knew we'd be out late. Still, she didn't fall asleep until 11:00! She's just not tired at night when she naps in the afternoon.

Oh, we have so much fun, I can't wait to see what she does next!

Our Dancing Princess

Molly has never been a big TV watcher. Her attention only lasts about 10-15 minutes and then she's done. I suppose I should be happy about this...but sometimes I sure wish I could pop in any old movie and she'd sit and watch it for an hour or so. Never happens. This would be nice now that she is no longer napping (sigh...that's a whole different story to tell). The one thing I have found, though, that she will really sit and watch are some silly movies called Kidsongs (Ali, does that ring a bell?). Okay, so she doesn't actually sit and watch them but at least she stays entertained enough that I get a little break.

Decorating eggs, hunting eggs, a pretty princess, and the true meaning of Easter

We had a great Easter weekend. Molly was sick with RSV last Easter and wasn't able to be around any other kids so this was the first year that she was actually able to participate in all the fun activities. We kicked it off on Saturday morning with coloring eggs. Grandma boiled 4 dozen!!! It probably took the kids about 10 minutes to get them all colored; Molly thought it was great!Molly's not afraid to get dirty and her hands are the proof:I was thinking that the blue hands would go great with her Easter dress the next day, but Grandma used some "magic water" to get all the dye off.

We next moved on to hunting eggs.Molly caught on quick. She ran around picking up eggs and saying, "It's Easter-time, it's Easter-time!"When Justin got home from work we headed to PC for some more fun, fun, fun! Another hunt...More yummy treats and fun toys...Fast forward to Easter Sunday. Molly would have been happy with her Easter dress and that is all. She thought that she was a princess, and she looks like one! She paraded into the chapel when we got to church and if anyone said anything to her about how pretty she looked, she had to stop to show them her dress, the flowers in her hair, and her bracelet. She knew she looked good!The Easter Bunny did come while we were at church and left a very small, modest Easter basket. Molly really had no clue who the Easter Bunny was or what he did and Justin and I weren't in too big of a hurry to tell her. We figured that she'll find out soon enough so we tried not to focus on the Easter Bunny too much. It helped having all the activities the day before and not on Sunday...I was a proud Mommy when after all the hunting, all the candy, and all the toys, Molly actually remembered the reason we really celebrate Easter...
*Don't mind Justin's background noise; he was watching the Master's*

And to end this post, a picture of the cutest 2-year-old out there:

Camping: the Good and the Bad

A couple of weekends ago we headed south to the San Rafael Swell for a short overnight camping excursion. This was the last weekend before Justin went back to working Saturdays with Mondays off (not a schedule conducive for camping) so we were pretty excited to go, Molly especially. It didn't go exactly how we planned...

Bad: We got a late start and had to set up camp in the dark. Well, Justin set up camp in the dark, not me.

Good: Molly slept the whole way there.

Bad: Our camp had been previously occupied by cows, or some sort of animal, so we had to watch our step, if you know what I mean.

Good: It wasn't fresh.

Good: Dinner cooked over the campfire.Good: Peach cobbler.

Bad: It was really cold at night. I didn't get much sleep because I kept checking to make sure Molly was warm enough.

Good: It warmed up and was beautiful on Saturday.

Good: Breakfast. Pancakes, eggs, bacon, hot chocolate, orange juice, fruit. Food usually tastes great when you're camping. Eric and Heidi did a spectacular job!

Good: Exploring the hills around the campsite.Good: A pretty clean bathroom.

Bad: Eric and Heidi's trailer (that carried all their gear) breaking down as we were pulling out of camp.

Bad: The girls and kids piling in the Suburban and waiting 2 hours for the boys to go buy a new trailer.

Good: The Suburban came equipped with a DVD player so we watched Madagascar 2 and started Flushed Away.

Good: The Subways the boys brought us; we were starving!

Bad: Getting home way later than we expected to.

Good: Molly slept the whole way home!

Good: Molly had a great time. She still talks about camping-hiking, sleeping in a sleeping bag, and seeing a rabbit on the trail. Okay, she also talks about the cow poop. We're glad she had fun and once we've recovered (and the snow melts), maybe we'll attempt another trip!

Dinosaur Park

Molly has awesome Grandma's; because of them we'll be spending many summer days at the Hogle Zoo and the Dinosaur Park. Grandma April has a pass to the zoo and Grandma Kay has a pass to the Dinosaur Park. What would we do without them?

We made it to the Dinosaur Park when it was warm outside, before the snow arrived. I had never been there and thought it was great! I actually preferred it to the big Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point because most of it was outside. Maybe I liked it so much because it wasn't crowded on this particular day. If you've never been, you should go.

For Molly, this was another great day to run around outside, chasing cousins.And, of course, swinging.We loved seeing Gavin and how big he's gotten. He seemed a little wary of everything going on, but we did get a smile out of him on the swings. What kid doesn't like to swing? (Okay, maybe Chloe who says it's too bumpy on her knees. Whatever that means.)We look forward to returning as soon as the sun comes out!