8 months

Daryn turned 2/3 of a year old last Thursday! We spent part of the day doing her physical therapy and part of it playing at the cousins' house. The big kids had a lot of fun:

 I feel compelled to mention my Worst Mommy Moment of the year, when I loaded a struggling Reagan into the car and then got in and drove away, leaving Daryn sitting in her carseat on the driveway. I didn't even notice until a couple minutes later when Genevieve called me. Let's move on. 

Daryn had a pediatrician appointment this morning, and her stats were great.

Weight: 14 lbs 4 oz

Length: 24.5 inches

Head: 16.7 inches

Weight and length were right on her curve, just below the charts, and her head was about 20th percentile! Yay!

Daryn has learned to do so many awesome things in the past couple months. She can sit like a champ:

 She rolls front to back very easily and is so close to rolling back to front. She can scoot around on her back and loves standing while holding on to something. She takes 3 naps and sleeps 10 straight at night. She wears mostly 6 month clothes, but some 3 month and some 9 month. She is very happy and smiley and screechy. She says several consonant sounds including mamama. She cut her very first tooth on the bottom yesterday, and bit me to prove it. She loves to play with her little toys, especially on her play mat. Reagan is her favorite person, and always makes her laugh, even when she isn't very gentle. She loves to read books and hates her baths (a recent development :( ). She has given up her swing in favor of her door jumper and she loves to bounce. She loves to eat and feed herself. Her favorite foods are bread, pepper, cucumber, carrots, asparagus, strawberries, banana, mango, broccoli, and sometimes meat.

Her mind moves faster than her body and she gets frustrated sometimes when she can't sit up on her own or turn over or reach a toy. She will squawk in an insulted, attention-getting tone if she is around other people and thinks she isn't being admired or smiled at enough. She loves looking in the mirror having her picture taken- she sees me pull out my phone and instantly starts smiling. She is so entertaining and I love to just sit and talk to her and kiss that cute chubby little face. Irresistible.

P.S. On an unrelated note, last night Lance was sharpening and oiling our kitchen knives and one slipped and gashed his thumb open pretty bad. Ouch. Since the girls were in the middle of bedtime, he opted to drive himself to ER. 8 stitches, several hundred dollars, and a couple hours later he was back home. Tough guy.

Winter Fun

To combat our post-holiday January blues, we decided to get out and have some fun for the 3 day weekend! First stop: tubing in Park City!

 We were a little worried that Reagan wouldn't be old enough to appreciate it, but our fears were unfounded. She loved it! I think she's a little adrenaline junkie.

Daryn was not such a fan of the cold, but she faced it bravely.

 (In reality, she was only outside for about 5 minutes. After that, she was inside with either Lance, Meagan, or myself.)

Lance and I even got one ride together down the big slopes while Meagan watched both our girls.

Best. Birthday. Ever.

According to Lance, anyway. He turned 32 on Friday. I planned out an elaborate surprise evening for us. He thought I was going to a a girl's night and leaving him with both girls and bedtime (no easy task). Like the wonderful husband that he is, he didn't complain and actually insisted that I go. Little did he know, I had other plans. Meagan agreed to watch the girls, and I showed up at Lance's work at 6 pm for our first alone-date in nearly 10 months. I was so nervous about leaving Daryn but she was awesome and Meagan was even more awesome and now I feel a lot better about it. Anyway, so I showed up at Lance's office and he was very surprised to see me, but he was in the middle of a call, so I waited and talked to his partners and waited some more and finally let him know via sticky note that our dinner reservations were in 10 minutes. He was finally able to get off the phone and we were off! Dinner at Ruth's Chris (yuuuum), shopping for new jeans and shoes that he wanted with the gift card I got him (P.S. Shopping with boy is soo easy. I think we were in each store for like 10-15 minutes.), hanging out and having fun, and then going to see Hunger Games: Catching Fire to wind up the night. We didn't get home until 2 am, but it was totally worth it, even if we were exhausted the rest of the weekend. So wonderful to be able to spend some fun quality time together! We were so busy I didn't even take a single picture. Surprise, surprise. However, I did get some pictures of the rest of his 2 day birthday celebration. 

Starting the big day off right with breakfast bagels, presents, and two pies (apple and lemon meringue, as requested)

He loved his new bluetooth and survival daily desk calendar. I feel like I'm finally getting good at getting him gifts!

Saturday was Birthday 2.0. We took the girls and went shooting on Stansbury Island in the Salt Lake, and lots of fun was had by all. 

 We all got to wear our new earmuffs.

 And Reagan got to practice shooting her gun, too.

  POP!

After a little while, the girls got a little cold/fussy, so I sat in the car with them while Lance finished up practicing. I didn't mind the view. Nothing sexier than a man with a weapon, and he's a pretty good shot!

After shooting, we went to Tucanos for a delicious meal and then home for more pie. And that winds up a prefect birthday weekend celebrating the #1 man of the house (not that there's much competition).

2014 So Far

This is what have been up to:

Snow. Lots of snow.

 Gymnastics in a new leotard!

Working on new skills

Including drawing portraits.

Reagan spent forever dressing up her magnetic dress up doll just right, and then settled in to draw her. You can see how focused she is. She took it very seriously, and then showed off the final result for me! I think she really captured the essence of her :).

Welcome 2014

Lance's parents, grandmas, and uncle drive up from New Mexico to spend New Years with us! So we totally partied it up. New Year's Eve was spent snacking, opening presents, eating at Cracker Barrel, and doing sparklers and pops! Reagan and I excelled at all of those things :). Lance and I made it to midnight, but just barely, and only because we were watching Man of Steel.

 New Year's Day was spent lounging, cooking, taking a walk, and eating. Lots of eating.

 Also, this girl got some bouncing in.

It was so fun to see most of Lance's family since we didn't make it there for Christmas this year! Daryn got to meet her third great-grandparent, Mimi, which finishes off the living ones. It was the perfect way to start a new year for our family. With so many unknowns in our future, it was comforting to be surrounded by the familiar. 2013 was certainly a year for our family. So many ups and downs- literally a roller coaster. So different than 2012, which was practically picture-perfect. But I wouldn't change a single thing about this year, because it gave me 2 things: my beautiful, amazing daughter, and a much stronger testimony of my Savior. And those are priceless. Here's to an incredible 2014!

Christmas in Colorado

I don't have time to write a bunch of separate different posts, so this is all going to be in one giant blog. We left for my parents' the Friday before Christmas and stayed for a week. It was such a blast with all the siblings and cousins. I was so worried about being away from home with Daryn or forgetting to bring something she needed, but everything went great! 

Reagan really held her own with her older girl cousins. She jumped right in (around, over, etc) and was her usual semi-aggressive, get-er-done, self.

Daryn, of course, won everyone over with her sweetness. 

 She had an especially great time with Grandpa Claus.

And Grandma.

 

And Aunt Sharon.

And Mommy.

(ok that happens all the time.)

And of course, we were all excited to see this stud, fresh off the mission! He was playing with my phone and taking pictures, so he has no one to blame but himself.

There was lots of down time, so out came the games and puzzles. My do-not-disturb face.

Reagan loved the piano and treated us to several "recitals". Look at that form!

 I wanted so badly to finally get a good picture of both girls in their Christmas dresses, but alas. It was not to be. They took turns being so silly!

 Monday afternoon, we went on a fun outing to the rec center. Everyone loved swimming, but it made me a little sad when I remembered taking Reagan 2 years ago, when she was 6 months old, and there Daryn was, 7 months old and watching from the sidelines. She was a good sport, though. Afterwards, we stopped by the rock climbing wall where I used to work, and Reagan had her first try at it. She did so great!!

Waiting (not so patiently).

 And up she goes!

 Wow! She got so high with very little assistance.

 Chiara also wanted to try, and she did even better. What brave girls!

 Bffs for life.

On Christmas Eve, we decided to swing by the new Cabelas they built recently. Good thing, too, because we picked up a couple last minute gifts that we didn't even know we needed, but were a big hit!

 We also stopped by my great Uncle David's house in Denver and got to see his beautiful tree. Merrill tried to pretend he wasn't impressed, but he couldn't hide it.

That evening we were able to reenact to the Nativity with a very full cast of characters, although I didn't get any pictures. Not too surprising, considering that nearly half the cast was under the age of 5. Then we sang hymns. Reagan and the other girls danced and twirled.  

Then it was time for pj's, cookies and letter for Santa, and stockings! 

Try as she might, Reagan could not get out a smile for this picture. It's an ongoing struggle- she can't smile on demand. 

 We had to settle for this. If you spend any time with her in person, you know she's doing her weird nose-blowing thing.

 Daryn wasn't afraid to cheese it up for the camera, though.

 Daryn's first Christmas- very early in the morning. That sleeping through the night went right out the window when we were sharing a room.

 And a little later that morning.

 Reagan was awesome and slept until 8:30, when we finally went to get her up.

 So excited!

 Arghh, matey. Look at all me booty!

Opening her first present- a pink camo pop gun (from Calebas :) )!

 And then later on, (coincidentally) matching earmuffs, for shooting. We are a little redneck sometimes.

Daryn opening her first present. 

 A new hooded bath towel!

This one is the best Christmas present anyone could ask for :).

Reagan showing off her OCD tendencies. Of course, one turtle never made it home to the bathtub.

And one of the biggest hits, a red wagon from Santa! I can't say it was the favorite, because Reagan is pretty in love with her new kitchen from Aunt Genevieve and Uncle Stuart. What generous gifters!

It was so nice to be able to spend some time with family and celebrate the Savior's birth. It went by much too fast, and before we knew it, we were back in the car, heading home. Thank goodness for pictures!