"When I Become a Mom"

James came across this envelope after I had cleaned out one of our closets. I guess I wrote this (probably at a church activity) when I was 14. 

James said it was cute and nice, but that we needed to sit down and "negociate" the 6-8 kids. Ha!

Breakfast of champions

Dinner at Costco

One of those non-cooking days.

FHE at the pool

We had a blast at the pool last night with the Carter's and Linds! Poor James had to work, but it was fun to have non-family non-home evening.

Linds had a digital water camera and it was so much fun to play with.

It's suprisingly hard to take a good underwater photo.

Thanks, guys! We had so much fun!

Thank You Cards

You may recall last year this time I tried to use paint to make a print of Lily's feet. Well, it turns out I didn't learn much. I did it again this year but with squirmy 1-year-old hands and red paint.

The reason for this ridiculous move was because I wanted to send birthday thank you cards to everyone saying something about keeping her little hands busy with the great toys we received.

We started out with the two hand card.

It got ugly pretty fast, so we went to the one hand card.

I think they came out cute, so it think it was worth it! Love those little fingers!

65 Years Strong

Today was a momentous day in my family history. My grandparents celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary. AMAZING! My aunt Sharon planned a little get together to help them celebrate! We got together at the rehabilitation home where grandma is staying. Lots of family came and it was a wonderful gathering!

Grandma had to go eat and rest a little way through the party, but Lily had to do the same thing!

It was wonderful! Congrats, Grandma and Grandpa Stephenson! Hope I'm surrounded by such love on my 65th wedding anniversary!

CRAWLING!

Oh my goodness, I'm so excited. Lily finally crawled this week! She's been getting more experimental but she actually got on her hands and knees and moved forward several feet. Funny thing, she actually did a lot of her first moves in the bath. I think the soft bath mat we have and the lightness of her body help her to have more courage.

She's also FINALLY able to sit up by herself. She even started to pull herself up on her crib. This may seem like a minor thing for people with more timely children, but this is a wonderful breakthrough. The only problem is that she can't be still! She's a wild woman! 

Moms, how do you get your child to go to sleep when they start moving around and playing in their crib!? She was up "playing" and fussing for almost 3 hours last night!

Non-digital prints

I asked my grandmother if I could help her with anything several weeks ago and she if I could get prints of her pictures off of her camera. She loves having a digital camera but she doesn't know how to print or view them. I printed over 100 pictures for her and she was so excited. I was so pleased to see that she had taken some great pictures of us, too! She gave me copies and now I'm not sure what to do with actual printed pictures. :)

So I scanned them to post!

Story time

Lily loves to read before bed. James is so good at this. We have such wonderful evenings together as a family. I hope that never changes.

Test 2

Testing...

This is the second mobile blogger software I have downloaded. The first was defective. While this one doesn't have great reviews, hopefully if will improve since google made it. The other options had worse reviews...minus the one that didn't work right.

So, this is a test of the blogger mobile app. Hope it works.

Anyone have experience or recommendations?

Ps the pictures are just to test quality. They are Lily playing in the sawdust at my work party. She got fruit snacks and $.75! 

Evans Cousins

We spent some wonderful time this week with the Evans cousins who were in Provo for a soccer camp for the boys.  I'm so glad they love Lily so much. She can see that they love her and she loved them right back!

Abbylee, Lily, Matthew, Sam and Joseph. I love these kids!

12 months

Lily and I visited with wonderful Dr Harrison yesterday. Lily is still on the curve showing that while she's thin and tall, she's just right. 

We're getting some assistance for her gross motor skills, but her language, fine motor skills and eating habits are great. It's SO fun to see her learn and grow! She's at such a squirmy, active, and fun age. I love her more and more eat day!

Recalled Crib Debacle

We were getting ready to buy a crib because Lily's was totally broken. We went to Babies R Us to compare in person and we noticed that there weren't any drop-side cribs there. I asked an employee and he said they don't make them anymore because most of them have been recalled. Light bulb! If they've been recalled, the one we have (from James' sister) might be among those. 

Sure enough, I searched the US Consumer Public Safety Commission and they released not only one recall for the drop side, but also another later one for the metal frame, that can break. Ha! Good to realize after using this crib for 10 months.

The web said these cribs were sold at Babies R Us, Walmart and Target. The manufacturer (Simplicity) was out of business so it instructed us to contact the retailer.

Here's the reason it became a debacle: I called Babies R Us and they said to call the corporate Customer Service. I called them and one guy said the crib wasn't recalled. I knew it was! Frustrated, I called again and another woman was much more helpful. She created a ticket and said even though she didn't see it as recalled, someone would look into it and get back to me within 10 business days. Ugh. And she said not to use the crib anymore. Riiiiight. Where is my baby supposed to sleep. I don't know why I thought to call Babies R Us first. I asked Leathra and she said she had purchased the crib at Walmart. I called the Springville Walmart and they said it wasn't on the list of recalled cribs. Ahh! I called the corporate Walmart and they said it was recalled and if the location had issues, the CSM could call corporate to confirm. I then called the Orem Walmart and they said they had it listed as recalled and that I had to bring the whole recalled crib into the store. Ok, sucks, but will do.

I packed up the crib by myself and put it in the car. When James got home we had to take two cars to Walmart. I looked up what cribs they sold at the Walmart stores and they had way better options at Springville. Too bad cause Orem was way nicer on the phone. Whatever, we wanted more options so we went to Springville. We waited in line for 30 minutes and then another 20 to have the person confirm that it was recalled. Man, the Customer Service Manager was a beast. He did not care about anyone but himself. Grrrr... but after almost an hour, we got a gift card for $129. Woot!

For Lily's birthday, Grammy gave us some money to get a new crib!

 So, we decided to splurge on the crib and dresser/changer combo. It was only about $40 more than the crib alone. Sweet!

We didn't get it home until Lily's bedtime...8pm. We put her to bed in the 25 year old crib that Lily slept in in our closet. (Had to bring it up from the basement and reassemble that one, ugh.) Then, we got going.

Woot! Then, we put together the dresser. That took FOREVER.

At midnight, we finished! Unfortunately, we forgot to put the nightlight back. Lily woke up freaked out at 2 and then again at 4. New room, no light. Poor mom.

In the end, we are so grateful to have such wonderful family to help us get Lily such nice things! She loves them!

Day at the pool!

Lily LOVED the pool. She'd never been to a real pool until this week. It was so wonderful! She did get cold and her lips got blue at the end. I also think she had a weird reaction to the chlorine cause her skin got really red and puffy. But we had a great time!

PS What kind of crazy person thought it was a good idea to make a bikini swimsuit for a baby? Not only was it rolling up the entire time, but her swim diaper also sticks out. We love cute hand-me-downs, but this one is going to be retired.