Happy New Year

Last week a family member invited me to join them in a daily blogging challenge. I thought it was a great idea at the time, but the more I think about it the more intimidated I am by the idea.  Most days I feel like I have a lot going on,  but how much of my daily life is really worth blogging about? I am just hoping that this gets me back in the groove of documenting our life.

Lacey is at such a fun age and I don't want to forget how fun she is right now. She is really starting to figure out how everything works. In just the last couple weeks she has gotten much better at communicating (or trying to communicate) what she is wanting. She can say a couple of words, but mostly she just will point and use the sign for either "please" or "help." I always wonder how much she really understands. I ask her  questions all day and she will respond with a yes or no but sometimes her answers don't always match her actions.

2015 really was a wonderful year. I learned that being a mom is hard pretty much all of the time. I learned that being a mom is one of the most wonderful things in the world. I learned what it feels like to be needed. I learned that I don't do as well with very little as I used to a few years ago. I learned that I can do hard things. I learned that I will always be worried about how well I am parenting Lacey. I learned how much a little human can change everything. I learned that you can love someone so much that you feel like you don't know what to do with it. I learned that it's financially hard to be married to a student and be a stay at home mom. I learned that being a stay at home mom is what I want to do. In 2015 I learned a lot of new things. I loved 2015, I love where we lived, I love the friends that we had, I love how much fun Lacey was during 2015.

Here's to 2016.

Here's to keeping a better record of our wonderful life.

Here's to making new memories.

Here's to learning new things.

11 months

11 Months

Clothes: The 6 month clothes are starting to get a little snug, but I'm in denial that my little girl is growing up. How is she almost already a year?

Sleep: She will have a couple great nights and sleep until 3 or 4 in the morning and then nurse back to sleep, but then she will have some terrible nights and be up every couple of hours or get up and want to play in the middle of the night. I'm hoping that one day soon the whole sleep thing gets better.

Milestones: She walks all over the place. She says "woof" "moo" "quack" "ooo-ooo" (monkey). She can sign eat, milk, all done, and we are working on please. She tries to mimic me when I make sounds. Waves hello, and bye.

Firsts this month:

• Walking
• Pointing to everything she wants
• BYU football game (gotta start them young) 
• Trying to use a spoon to eat food by herself

Likes:

• Reading books
• Being outside
• Taking baths
• The vacuum cleaner
• Getting into EVERYTHING
• Watching Curious George
• Climbing onto everything
• Watermelon, Nectarines

Dislikes:

• Going to church for 3 hours
• When I leave the room, she is fine when she leaves the room
• The blender
• Wearing a bib

Things I want to remember

• Lacey always scrunches up her nose and squints when people try to talk to her when we are running errands. She is super playful and waves at everyone she sees. 

10 months

10 Months

Clothes: She is wearing both 6 month and 9 month clothes. She will probably only fit in the 6 month clothes or a little longer.

Sleep: Sleeping is the one thing that I don't know if we will ever figure out. She will have a good night followed by a few bad nights. I'm really hoping that this whole waking up a few times a night is something that she grows out of sooner rather than later.

Milestones: She pulls herself up to stand everywhere she can and is starting to let go and stand by herself. She is crawling all over the place and she is quick. I look away for just a couple seconds and she is in another room. She took her first couple steps. She will give High Fives if you hold your hand out.

Firsts this month:

• Babysitter
• First Steps
• First PB&J sandwich
• Finger Painting with Yogurt

Likes:

• Reading books
• Being outside
• Green Beans and Peaches
• Taking baths
• The vacuum cleaner
• Swinging at the park

Dislikes:

• Going to church for 3 hours
• When I leave the room, she is fine when she leaves the room
• The blender

Things I want to remember

• Lacey was in the tub, and I had to run out of the room to grab something. I came back in 15 seconds later and she was out of the tub playing with the spring on the back of the door. I guess I need to be more careful.

It's been a great 4 years!

It's hard to believe that it has been 4 years since I jumped all in and married my best friend. I remember waking up early and trying on my wedding dress. I remember how nervous and how excited I was that I was getting married. I remember the chaos of getting pictures done, being late to our luncheon, and rushing around trying to get our reception set up before our guests arrived. I remember stopping at Taco Bell on our way to our hotel... and then realizing that Taco Bell probably wasn't the best idea on our wedding night. I remember thinking back on the day without any complaints, and being overwhelmed with the feeling that I had the perfect wedding day. I got to marry the person that I loved most in the world and still love with all my heart!

The past four years have lead us on an adventure that I could have never imagined, and this last year together has been my favorite so far.  We were blessed with the most beautiful little girl and changed from being a family of two to a family of three. We were able to make a couple trips back home to Utah and have some people come out to visit us in Milwaukee. We were able to move into a new (bigger) apartment. We were able to officially reach our half-way mark with Scott's schooling. 

Scott, I love you so much! Thank you for choosing me to spend the rest of forever with. Thank you for sticking by my side through thick and thin. Thank you for always supporting me, believing in me, and encouraging me to be my best self. Thank you for being such a wonderful daddy to Lacey. I can't wait to see what the next year brings us! I love you! Happy Anniversary!

9 months

9 Months

Clothes: She is finally out of her 3 month onesies and is now wearing both 6 and 9 month clothes. She is a little shorty so the 9 month bottoms are still too long for her.

Sleep: Sleeping is the one thing that I don't know if we will ever figure out. She will have a good night followed by a few bad nights. I'm really hoping that this whole waking up a few times a night is something that she grows out of sooner rather than later.

Milestones: She pulls herself up to stand everywhere she can and is starting to let go and stand by herself. She is crawling all over the place and she is quick. I look away for just a couple seconds and she is in another room.

Firsts this month:

• Brewers Game with Grandma and Grandpa Wright
• AJ Bombers, Sobelmans
• First step all by herself, but she hasn't done it since...
• Eating chicken
• Swimming in a pool

Likes:

• Reading books
• Being outside
• Green Beans and Peaches
• Taking baths
• The vacuum cleaner
• Swinging at the park

Dislikes:

• Going to church for 3 hours
• When I leave the room (She is fine if she is the one that leaves the room)
• Loud Noises
• Peacocks

8 months

8 months

Clothes: Carter's 3 months clothes still fit her, but I think that she will be growing out of them in the next couple weeks. She fits pretty well in 6-months clothes too.

Sleep: Every time I think that she is progressing in the sleep department we all get sick again. I am pretty sure we have been sick just as much as we have been healthy over the last 3 months. We are definitely going to have to do another round of sleep training. I need more sleep.

Milestones: She is starting to pull herself up into a standing position. She is crawling around and getting faster at it every day.

Firsts this month:

• Eating green beans and she loves them!
• First move to a new apartment
• Crawling
• Starting to clap, still will only do it 50% of the time
• First time pulling herself up by herself... on everything she can reach
• Going to the the splash pad

Likes:

• Standing up against things on her own, she is so proud of herself
• Being outside, she always calms down the second we open the door
• Going on walks in her stroller
• Riding in the toy car outside
• Any attention she can get from her mommy and daddy 
• Kisses from her mommy and daddy, she giggles and squeals the whole time
• Taking baths, now that she can sit really well on her own bath time just got more fun
• Feeding herself
• Loves the vacuum, if she is crying all I need to do is turn on the vacuum

Dislikes:

• Going to church for 3 hours
• When I leave the room, even if I wasn't playing with her at the time
• Sleeping longer than 2-3 hours

Things I want to remember

• When she gets excited she claps her hands or slaps her leg
• She is starting to understand anticipation and she gets so excited and squeals when you when you say "I'm going to get you"

7 months

7 months

Clothes: Lacey still fits really well in Carter's 3 month clothes, but I have been slowly adding her 6 month clothes into the mix because I am tired of her 3 month clothes.

Sleep: We recently just went to Utah to visit, which threw off Lacey's sleep schedule. We are working to get her back on track. I feel like our battle to get Lacey to sleep a decent amount is never going to end.

Milestones: She is great at sitting up all by herself. She is starting to "crawl" if you can call it that. She is also doing really well eating solid foods.

Firsts this month:

• First tooth
• First time eating cheerios
• First time eating watermelon
• First time sitting by herself in the tub
• First time meeting her uncle Parker, uncle Steve, and aunt Heidi
• Meeting her great grandma Nevada

• Playing soccer

Likes:

• Looking at herself in a mirror and giving herself kisses
• Being outside
• Being in her stroller as long as the sun isn't in her face
• Any attention she can get from anyone
• Eating food all by herself

• Kisses from her mommy and daddy, she giggles and squeals the whole time
• Sitting in the tub by herself and splashing. 

• Walking around, holding mommy's fingers
• Eating in her big girl chair (making a mess, I haven't let her get this messy since, haha.)

Dislikes:

• Going to church for 3 hours
• Green baby food
• Being held by other people when her mommy is standing there
• Being sick

Things I want to remember

• We watched our neighbor's little girl one day. Lacey was asleep when they brought her over, and when she woke up I put her down next to our neighbor. This was her reaction, she did this for like 10 minutes straight. 

• Lacey thinks that she is one of the big kids. Every time she sees any kids playing she starts kicking her legs, smiling, and giggling. She is so ready to be able to run around with all the big kids.
• Lacey absolutely adores our neighbors, Max, Luke, and Jack. Sometimes we can hear them in the hall when they are coming in from outside and Lacey will get a big smile on her face and start kicking her legs. 

Max, Lacey, and Luke

Jack and Lacey

Luke and Lacey

My Laundry Helper