Lillian - 7 Months

While we were visiting my family, it felt like time stood still.  I kept telling everyone that Lillian was 6 months, but when we got home I realized she turned 7 months on our trip!  Crazy!

This cute girl is sitting up, wiggling all over the place to reach desired objects, smiles up a storm, is a trooper to tag along with whatever adventure her family is up to, and just brings us so much joy.  She's getting better and better at this eating thing, but her sleeping schedule is still one to be desired.  She just won't sleep through the night.  I know I need to just let her cry it out, but I just don't want any one else's slumber to be disturbed.  (And for the record, I've tried to let her cry it out multiple times during the day--she'll cry for over an hour and still not fall asleep...so I'm not sure when this sleep thing is going to improve.)

But her cute little antics make up for everything.  She gets excited anytime someone walks by, she warms up to others pretty quickly (which is not typical for our kiddos, so it's been fun to watch her interact with others!), and she is just an all around pleasant baby...as long as you're  not trying to get
her to fall asleep.  ha ha!

She loves to be sung to, be in the center of all the chaos, and would be held 24/7 if she had her way.

Lillian continues to grow like a weed, it is so hard to keep clothes around that fit her!  Pretty soon I'll be passing Eliana's clothes straight down to Lillian at the rate she's growing!

We sure love this cute little thing!

Mother's Day 2017

I had a special treat of spending Mother's Day with my Mom this year!

Mom continues to bless me beyond measure, even though we are miles apart.  I call her multiple times a week (okay, sometimes it's multiple times a day) and am always grateful to gain her insight and hear how she and Dad are doing.  Mom is a constant example of commitment, hard work, living what you know, and giving to others of her time and talents.  She is talented in so many aspects.  Mom's music, art, baking/cooking, sewing, creativity, and ability to teach (to name a few) bless the lives of all who know her.  Now that I have my own children, I appreciate even more how well Mom taught me the gospel and how to be true to your testimony of Jesus Christ.  Thank you, Mom, for giving me opportunities to grow, for your nurturing, love, and example of how to do things right.  I sure love you and aspire to be as strong as you are.

And I sure love being a mom.  Hylie, Eliana, and Lillian are such blessings in my life.  At the end of each day, I'm usually pretty exhausted, but I turn to Geoff and tell him how I wouldn't trade this for the world.  I'm a lucky mom and an extremely lucky and blessed wife.  Thanks, Geoff for being the best hero this sidekick could ever ask for.

My First Quilt

My good friend's daughter graduated from High School this year and I offered to make Sidney a quilt as a graduation present.  Sidney picked out a pattern (I made sure she picked what I thought was a simple pattern) and the fabrics.  I was pretty excited about her choices.  Before I went to PA, I cut out the fabric and sewed a few blocks together and was pretty proud of myself.  I thought I was on the home stretch.  Ha ha!  Not even close.  Mom helped me out each step of the way and even spent quite a bit of time ripping out stitches...ugh.

But when it was all said and done, I was thrilled with the outcome.  I had NO idea how big of an undertaking this was.  I believe the next quilt I do will be when there are no babies, toddlers, or needy children at home.  Ha ha!  

Thanks Mom and Dad for making this quilt possible.  If  you weren't tending to the girls, I would have never been able to get the 10+ hours of sewing every day.  And if Mom wasn't constantly guiding me along, this would have been a huge mess!

May Trip to Grandma and Grandpa's

Geoff's company was making arrangements for him to go to a conference in Vegas in May so I thought that would be a great time for me and the girls to visit my parents.  It ended up that the business trip fell through...but we went anyways.  Truth be told, I believe Geoff enjoyed life as a bachelor for a week.  Yes, he worked a ton, but he also got his fill of Cocoa Puffs and scary movies.  The house was also completely spic and span when we returned--so Geoff didn't sleep nearly as much as he should have!

Our time with Grandma and Grandpa was absolutely wonderful.  Mom tutored me on my first quilting project and while I sewed Grandma and Grandpa entertained the girls.  Here are a few highlights from the visit:

 For some reason, the magnets on Grandma's fridge bring loads of entertainment to the grandkids.  Here Hylie and Eliana are 'playing' the violin magnets.  ha ha!

 This cutie was a TROOPER during our long car rides!

 I was super excited to see Janna's new home.  She moved into a Group Home in February of this year.  She is quite happy here but I'm glad she took some time to come visit at home while we were in PA.

 The girls had a few surprises to give Janna and Eliana couldn't wait to sing "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" with Janna.  Eliana thought it would be funny to sing, "And on that farm there was a Janna".  Well, Janna thought it was a hoot as well and joined in on the silliness when she chimed in, "with an eek awk here and an eek awk there."  Now I hear Eliana singing this version ALL the time!

 In addition to Grandma and Grandpa time, we also got to hang out with cousins...but I wasn't the best at capturing those moments.

Thanks for a great trip!

Take Your Kids to Work Day

At the end of April, Geoff's company participated in "Take Your Kids to Work Day".  We decided to join in on the fun since I hadn't seen Geoff's office or met any of his co-workers with Sentinel.  It was a fun (but rushed) morning.  We went on the tour and then had to hit to road to make Eliana's eye appointment!

While we were there, many individuals came up to me and expressed so much gratitude and praise for Geoff.  He truly has made an impact at Sentinel--I won't ever be able to fully grasp what Geoff does, but his company loves Geoff's approach in making Statements of Work and Quotes a much quicker and more accurate process and Geoff has also been extremely successful in presenting their BSC (Business Solutions Center).  They love having him there and Geoff has definitely risen to the challenges they have thrown his way.

Our family is blessed beyond measure by this hard-working guy--he's a super hero at the office and at home!

Painting Pots

I love planting flowers in the spring time--even though I don't have the best track record for keeping everything alive, I always approach each warm season with hope and optimism that this year will be a success, ha!

I also love painting pots!  I haven't done a ton of research on what paints I should be using, I'm finding the pots last about two years before they really start looking shoddy...

but it just gives me an excuse to paint more every other year or so, right?

Hylie really gets into craft projects...Eliana is still on the fence.  The day we painted pots, Eliana decided it was more fun to get on the playset, but we managed to get hers done in between climbing and sliding.

Then recently, the girls really enjoyed picking out which bloom was going to occupy their works of art.

Eliana's pot and flowers

Hylie also had to include a little sign in her pot so everyone knew her flower was a daisy.

I'm grateful to live in a world where we are surrounded with such beauty!

Eliana's Glasses

Shortly after Hylie got her eyes checked out, Eliana had an evaluation for her speech and gross motor skills.  During that evaluation, one of the therapists made a comment that Eliana's eyes may need to be looked at--Eliana held a sewing project super close to her face and they were also surprised that Eliana was still crawling up the stairs as opposed to going upright.  I made an appointment for Eliana and when we took her, the doctor was grateful we came in.  Eliana is severely far-sighted (which means she can't see anything up close).  Her eyes are a +7, but her prescription is a +6 right now since children her age are typically see at a +6.

Eliana was an amazing patient while in the doctor's chair.  She was very calm when they put the drops in her eyes, she would open her eyes every time Dr. Rabiah asked, and she was pretty excited when we were at the frame shop that we were picking out glasses for her!

Trying on a few frames

Ever since she's started wearing her glasses, I've noticed that she's lengthened her stride, she stays interested in things like coloring longer, she will point out little details on fabrics or on the wall, and she is definitely more adventurous at the park.  We are so grateful we were able to get this vision correction for her now, and only wish we would have known sooner.  Needless to say, Lillian will be visiting the eye doctor soon!

Grandma and Grandpa Nelson got Eliana a Hello Kitty (with glasses) of her own, but Eliana was convinced it was Hylie's until she saw the two little toys together, then she was excited to have her own glasses-wearing friend!