This time around

Being pretty much done with the first trimester on my second pregnancy I was thinking about similarities and differences between the two. Both times I have been sick and very tired, but I'm not sure which one has been worse. I can't remember the first time very well. (My terrible memory is to blame.) I do think I'm throwing up more now, though. I do know this time, however, that I've been so much hungrier! I know you get hungry more easily when you're pregnant, but this time I feel like I can't satiate it and I feel really sick if I don't eat in enough time. I can't make it through the morning before my lunchtime before having a snack, and I always have to eat a snack during the last hour of work or I feel terrible. This doesn't seem too bad, but I know last time I could work all day and only eat during lunch time and feel just fine. There were days where I would get hungry, but not everyday. I also don't really remember having any intolerances last time. There were times that something wouldn't sound particularly appetizing, but I could eat everything. This time, from about 6 to 12 weeks I could not eat chocolate. It would make me SO sick. Now I can, but only a little bit and I can't have too much junk overall. This baby does not appreciate junk food. ;) I guess that's ok. 

I'm also pretty certain that I'm showing earlier this time. I personally feel like I was showing at six weeks even though I hadn't really gained any weight. I think it was all in my head though. I'm definitely showing now, but I just look fat. :) I've only gained 4-5 lbs. I don't say this to brag (that isn't anything to brag about), I'm just surprised by how much bigger it makes me feel. I have no idea how much I gained last time in my 1st trimester so I can't compare the two. Last time I thought I was showing at 15 weeks, but I was actually 16 weeks, I just didn't know it yet. This time, 12 weeks came around and even Micah said I was beginning to show. 

There are some cool things that come with being pregnant for a second time. For example, over the past week I have already started to feel the baby move, because I know what it feels like and what to expect. It's really cool to know that my past experience has already helped me recognize things this time around. I'm also going to get more maternity clothes this time. I mostly just wore what I already had last time and stretched things out, but I decided it's important to still feel cute so I'm going to do that this time. 

I'm excited to see how the rest of this pregnancy pans out. We find out what we are having on February 19th, and if you're wondering, we have no idea what we are going to have and we honestly don't care. We'd be completely happy either way. It's still a ways off, but I've just decided to post a poll where you can tell me what you think. Will it be baby boy Brighton or little lady Lucy? (That's right, we already have names!) 

In with the new...

Our lives are moving quickly around here. It's out with the old and in with the new.

Lila had her 18 month appointment on Tuesday and she has definitely continued to grow. Slowly, but surely her height is coming up, while her weight and head size are staying pretty consistent, only going down slightly. Here are her stats:

Height: 31.25 inches 27%tile

Weight: 22 lbs. 49%tile

Head: 18.25 inches 51%tile

The doctor also said that she is incredibly healthy and he was very impressed by it. I guess they can tell by looking in their ears a lot about their health. She has never had any infections or any reason to see a doctor and he said that is very rare for a child of her age. She has no scarring in her ears and I guess that's how he knows. I'm not too surprised as she has only had two very small colds in her life. I was surprised that it is so rare, however. He also said that she has very healthy lungs and that she has "big" lungs... whatever that means. Finally, Lila doesn't say a whole lot of real words, but he said that her repeated babbling is her putting meaning to objects. He did think it was really cool that she can say two or three word phrases already such as "what's that", "what is that" (I know the same thing, but she can say it both ways), "stop it", and "that's a baby". She obviously doesn't say them all as clearly as we do. "What's that" is pretty clear, but she says "top it" for stop it and "that's a ba" for that's a baby. 

Once again we are reminded of what a beautiful little blessing our little girl is.

Another change around here is in our house. Since June Micah and I have slowly been decorating and reorganizing our front room. It isn't perfect and it is not done, but we've come pretty far. This is what it looked like before... (Obviously no real attempt at making it look nice)

... and here it is now! 

A lot better right? Not perfect, but definitely a huge improvement. It looks a lot better in person, too. We're still hoping to get a big clock to put on the wall near the shelf and hopefully replace the random family on our picture wall with a picture of my side of the family. :) There are a few other changes that may be made along the way as well.

Finally, the last "in with the new" for our family is to change from a family of three to a family of four! Micah and I are so excited to be welcoming our next little angel into our family on July 2nd. We are looking forward to our newest adventure!

Busy, Busy, Busy

Our lives have been very busy lately and so blogging has definitely fallen by the wayside. With both of us having pretty busy callings (Micah is now Assistant Executive Secretary) and life in general just being crazy there's not much extra time on our hands. This post is going to be quite the mix of things.

First, our Halloween was so much fun this year! We only went to my parent's trunk-or-treat, but Lila LOVED it and it didn't take long for her to get used to taking the candy and putting in her bucket. The only problem is that she would take from my sister's bucket and then put the candy in strangers' buckets. She almost had the right idea though. :)

We were Cleopatra (me) and Tinkerbell (Lila).

 

 


Next, came Thanksgiving. It was so good and the food was DELICIOUS. Not much to report on there, but we were able to spend this Thanksgiving with my family which was a lot of fun.

Over the last little while Lila has been quite the little toddler. I'm sad that she's no longer a baby, even if it has been a while. Anyway, she started nursery and did amazingly well! We'll see if it continues. She loved all of the toys, other kids, and snacks. She did not cry at all and didn't seem to miss us too much. That's how I was, so it's good to hear that she did so well.

Lila loves making things that aren't toys into toys. For example, she loves holding cuties in her hand and playing with them throughout the day. The problem is that she can peel them on her own now so we have to be careful about when she has them. The first time she peeled one was so funny. I could suddenly smell orange so I checked on her only to find that she had peeled almost the entire thing. After watching a little bit longer, she finished peeling, pulled the orange apart, ate it, then proceeded to throw each piece of peel away in the garbage. I was so proud of her! The throwing away was a bit of a surprise, but it really shouldn't have been as she has chores and one of them is to throw her diapers and a few other things away. I love that she is so capable and that she loves to help out with little things around the house.

The next big thing I did was the Santa Fun Run in Provo. It's not that big of a deal seeing as it is only a 5k, but it was a lot of fun to get dressed up as Santa and do it along with two of my sisters and my mum. Thanks guys! They had cookies and milk along the way, but the thought of having those things while running sounded terrible, so I didn't have any, but I did save a cookie for my mum after the race. I was going to push Lila in the race, but then she got a cold that week and I really didn't want her out in the cold so here is just a picture of her little bit of Santa costume. :)

    

That Saturday with the Santa Fun Run was a long one. I had a meeting for YW for the first 2 hours of the day, then I made the Santa sacks, then the Fun Run, then I went to the Forgotten Carols. With a HUGE amount of help from a few of my sisters and again my mum I was able to make our family's Santa sacks. (Sorry Micah that it's taken me so long.) What a Santa sack is for those that don't know, is a Christmas pillowcase that you sleep on throughout the month of December dreaming about what you want for Christmas. Then, on Christmas Eve you take it off your pillow and lay it at the end of your bed for Santa to fill with gifts. This is one of my favorite traditions growing up! I LOVE how they turned out! Can you guess which one is Micah's? This was before they were entirely finished, but they still look great! Now the Santas have eyes and Rudolph has a shiny red nose, and finally the angel has a cute little gold halo around her head.

 

We've had such a great time over the past little while and there is so much more I could post about, but this will be good for now. I'm sure I'll be posting again soon about some things that are coming up, but I can't even remember what will be going on soon. One thing for sure is that I will be posting about Lila's 18 month check-up. It's not until she will be 18 1/2 months. 

My lovely, little Lila

So if you've been around Lila lately you have probably noticed how social this girl is. She LOVES everyone and every day she becomes more and more independent. My little girl is just like I was at her age, or so I hear.

At church Lila really likes to go and sit with other people, even if I don't really know them. I don't mind  because she never goes very far and she's always willing to come back when I need her to. I also make it clear that they don't need to let her sit with them if they don't want her to. It helps me know she is really secure and knows that we're always there when she wants to come back to us.

Anyway, today at church things were particularly interesting. Lila decided that she wanted to go and sit with another little family today that were in the row just in front of us. They have a little 3 year old boy who is just adorable. Well Lila sat nicely on the mother's lap and played with her bracelets. It was going well and Lila and the little boy were getting along just fine. Every once in a while she would lean over and give him a hug or a kiss and then continue to play. It didn't take long, however, for things to get a little out of hand. Lila suddenly could not seem to stop hugging the little boy and kissing him. He was really sweet and would try nicely to get away, but she just kept going for it. At one point the little boy even said, "I'm not a toy!" It was hilarious to watch them. In fact there were several people around watching them and laughing. It was a little distracting.

After that I went and got Lila and things were fine again. I felt a little bit bad, but right after sacrament meeting the boy came over to say hi to her again and so I realized he really hadn't cared. He never got mad, but I think just a little overwhelmed. :) What am I going to do if my little girl is already boy crazy?! There are a few boys that she enjoys hugging in our ward. It really is quite adorable to see.

Halloween Half

Yesterday my sister Jessica and I ran the Halloween Half Marathon in Provo. We started up at Sundance and ended at the Riverwoods. I'm so glad that we did it, even though I'm still sore today. :) We don't know our times yet, but we paced at about 5 mph. We didn't end at exactly the same time, but were close enough that our timing is about the same.

My sister Jess, her friend, and me before the race hanging out in the tent.

Me running... I don't know what mile this was. Probably early on... I LOVED the first five miles. I look funny because it was through her phone running case.

Micah and Lila met me at the end of the race. It was so good to see them and hear them cheer for me. It made it that much more worth it. Thanks for coming, Micah!

(They brought me flowers and attempted to get a picture of me at the end. There were a lot of people standing around and in the way, and he was trying to hold onto Lila at the same time.)

 Jess and me after the race. We got medals that we are both so proud to have.

Overall, it was a really great experience. The worst part? For me personally, it was standing around for THREE hours before the race. My feet started hurting then. We were bussed up to Sundance and packed into a heated tent. It was nice and warm, but because there were so many people they wouldn't let us sit. If you sat down someone came around and said that you needed to stand. Three hours standing on asphalt wasn't the most comfortable, but hey, I survived and I was still able to complete my goal.

My favorite costume of the day... Yzma and Kuzco

When I began my training at the beginning of August, I thought that I would never be interested in doing a full marathon. I even told people that, but now that I have successfully completed a half I do have a new goal. It will not be any time soon though. I'm happy with this accomplishment for now. My next race is actually going to be the Santa Fun Run 5k in Provo on December 1st. I'm really excited. You pay $35 to do it, but they give you a Santa suit that you HAVE to run in. It sounds fun. Anyone who wants to join me is more than welcome! The website is RunSanta.com. Take a look.

Fall Break 2012

Last weekend was Fall Break in Alpine School District. It was wonderful to have a break from work and I did some fun things and some necessary things. Overall I think I was pretty productive.

We went to Gardner Village to see the witches and Lila had so much fun. I know that she is not smiling in any of the pictures, but that is because she was "talking" to the witches or the pumpkins. She especially loved the petting zoo and feeding the goats and sheep. In the second picture I was trying to keep her head forward, because she wanted to look at the witch on the bike behind us. I guess I was somewhat successful.

 Lot's of people from my family came as well. Sydney didn't want to smile. Ha. 

I deep cleaned and organized my kitchen, bedroom, and family room. I labelled the remainder of my canisters that are on my kitchen counter. I had already done the flour and sugar ones. Now I just need one for my whole wheat flour.

I "created" several things starting with Lila's Halloween costume. It was supposed to be a Tinkerbell dress but she was not having it. Now it is just a skirt, but it looks super cute on her. I tried a new chocolate chip cookie recipe and now it is our favorite. I made whole-wheat rolls that I LOVE and an apple pie that is always a hit. We also carved a pumpkin for our front porch. I know it's a little early, but it was the best time for us to do it.

Finally, we went hiking up Battlecreek Falls. It was beautiful and fun and Lila was very excited to go at first, but it seems like she became immediately tired right at the beginning of the hike. :) She was even too tired to chew her string cheese. These pictures are not in order as you can tell from Lila's face.

           

 String cheese hanging out of her mouth. :)

This was her by the end of the hike. So cozy. 

It's been a while...

I have been crazy busy over the past few weeks. I have literally had something going on every single weeknight and every Saturday morning for the past 4 weeks. The weekends have been my only somewhat free time and I've become pretty lazy concerning blogging. I have loved keeping up with other people' blogs, but have not kept up with my own. It's really been reserved for me to spend time with Micah and the babe. I'm sure you all understand.

Even though I have been so busy I don't know that I have a lot to report. I'm really starting to enjoy my calling in YW even though I initially felt somewhat out of place. This past week we went to the BYU Women's soccer team for our Laurel activity and it was a LOT of fun. We won! It was good to be on campus for a sporting event again, even though I am grateful I live in Pleasant Grove and not Provo. (It's nice to be in a quieter, calmer area. :))

Lila's progress has been incredible over the past few months. That is the only thing that I really wish I would've kept up with blogging about. Good thing I record things in her baby book. I just want to put on here a few things that I love that she has been doing. A lot of these she has been doing before she turned 1 or at least for the past couple of months, but the amount that she does them now is so fun!

Her spoken vocabulary consists of just a few words still, but what she understands is amazing. Her favorite word is "hi". She also says "daddy" (not mommy anymore :(... I've heard of a lot of babies doing this, but it still kind of makes me sad), "mama" (she started again today),"what's that" (my favorite thing that she says), "who's that", "wow", "oh", and "ow". I think that's it. She also loves to blow kisses, walk back and forth between Micah and me giving us a kisses, being held by pretty much anyone (she is super friendly), waving good night, climbing on everything, building things with her blocks, going on walks where she actually gets to walk, being outside in general, and spinning in circles to make herself dizzy. It is hilarious to watch, because she always starts by walking backwards and I just feel like that is harder, but she loves it. There are many other little things that she loves to do, but either I can't explain them or it would better if I showed you a video. There is one thing that she started to do today that I hope I can catch on camera sometime. It is SOOO funny. She did it for about 5 minutes and was laughing hysterically because she thought that she was so funny.

Well she will be 16 months this coming week. I can't believe how big she is getting. She is GORGEOUS and she continues to be such a wonderful reminder to Micah and me about our loving Heavenly Father. We're so grateful to have her in our lives and count ourselves truly blessed.

This was a few weeks ago.

These last two were today.

She really wanted to hold the camera. :)

A few random pictures of her latest hairstyles... and one of her crying, but I love her eyelashes in it.