Ice, Ice, Baby!

Last weekend Rory and I went to Disney on Ice with my mom and Nana. It was crazy fun!! Rory was soooo good. She went back and forth between mine and my mom's lap. She pointed, laughed, and clapped the entire time. It was ridiculously cute and almost made me cry. She walked almost the entire way from the parking lot and back holding our hands and pointing at the kids wearing costumes. I know it meant a lot to my Nana. She loves going to stuff like this, but all of her grandkids are grown up now. Luckily she's got a super cute great grandchild to share experiences like this with. It really was an awesome day. Rory and I look forward to doing it again!

Me, Rory, and my Nana waiting for the show.

Patty, Pudge, and Tee.

These our my little chatterbox's favorite words lately. She's really stuck on 'Pudge' in particular right now. Pudge is the name of my parents dog and Rory likes to call anything that barks this name. She says it ALL DAY LONG! If she gets close to a window - "Pudge!" If we go out side - "Pudge!" If she see's my parents - "Pudge!" This should be super cute and funny. I should be happy with her growing vocabulary, but somehow each new word makes me kinda sad. Not sad because I'm losing my baby. Sad in the sense that she doesn't EVER say 'mama.' :( She know's the name of my parent's dog (and the name for every other dog), but she doesn't know mine. Although I'm sad, I still want to celebrate all the fun new toddler things Rory's up to.

Let's go back to her talking. She can say patty, clap, and mark her hands playing patty cake. Every time she sees or hears the cat she can bounce, clap, and yell "TEE!! TEE!!" - this is how she says kitty. Cute, I know. She loves that cat sooooo much and is very good about being soft and nice when petting 'Tee.' Her first word was 'daddy' or 'da-ee.' She would yell it out the back door when Landon would go check on his garden. She only says it occasionally now. She also LOVES the word 'hello' or 'h-o.' She pretends to talk on the phone or anything she can hold up to her ear (I once saw her talk into a sock) and says 'h-o' in this funny, deap, serious voice. I've see her chase birds yelling 'bird.' She does say 'Oshi' alot when talking to me. I think this may be the name she has picked for me. This should also be cute, but it doesn't always sound like just 'Oshi.'

She's very expressive when she talks and likes to use her hands.

Rory loves to run around and sneak up on 'da-ee' with me. She even crouches into a sneaking position with me. She is getting speedier with her walking, but this leads to hard falls and lots of fat lips. I feel like her lip is always swollen and bruised. I was sure she knocked out her two front teeth a couple weeks ago. Thank goodness they're fine. She's also doing a lot of climbing. No big falls from that yet, but I know they're coming.

Last week we been spent a lot of time dancing around - it's less embarrassing with Landon gone. It was a big dance party for the two of us. She has so many different, funny moves. Her new fav is spinning in circles. I know they say TV is bad for your kids, but this is a move she picked up from 'Imagination Movers.'

Dress up is also a favorite around the house. Rory loves to get into laundry or her dresser and attempt to put clothes on. I caught her walking around with her bathing suit hanging down from her neck last week. She also likes to carry a purse with her toys around. Last week I was wearing a flower clip in my hair and she continuously tried grabbing at it. I finally put it in her hair and she just smiled and left it. This NEVER happens anymore. She hates her hair being messed with and pulls out barrets and pony tails. She snaps herself in the face with headbands. But that day, she left this flower clip in and liked it. Since then I put one in my hair when getting her ready and then move it to her hair when she's dressed. She does a pretty good job of leaving it in (most of the time). I'm going to take it as a compliment and think of it as she wants to be like me. This helps make up for my name being 'Oshi.'

You can see the shirt she's wearing on her arm.

She's getting so playful and is such a little copycat! I love it! She's getting pretty good at doing 'Five Little Monkey's Jumping on the Bed.' She pats her head at the bumping head part and waves her finger at the 'no more monkey's jumping on the bed' part. She surprises me everyday with something new and cute. Landon got to come home to her new trick of saying 'boo' when playing peak a boo.

Rory is so attached to my mom. They're best friends. LOL.

Rory is now 14 months and such a toddler. She's even looking like a little girl. She has such an amazing and outgoing personality. She's not afraid to go up to strangers and make them smile with one of her many cool tricks. I really am so thankful to have this spunky little person in my life. I'm so in love with her and amazed at what a blessing she is.

Projects and Babies!

I haven't been get many substitute teaching calls since school started in Benson. It's starting to pic up a bit with sports and flu season, but I've still had a lot of time on my hands. This has led to me taking on some new hobbies and continuing with those I've already enjoyed. I've never been one for sewing or anything like that, but there are a lot of cute things I want for Rory and am not willing to pay lots of money for. So, the sewing machine has been pulled out of the closet.

I thought these little ear hats are crazy cute. They're so easy to make. I've also made one in camo to see what it would look like. I love it. I think I'll do a camo with pink stitching for Rory.

My little model and her 'bear' hat.

My cousin just had a baby on the 7th. I've been super excited to have someone close to Rory's age for her to grow up with. These are some of the projects I made for little Paige.

I heard her room is decorated with lady bugs and stuff, so I made her a lady bug tutu!

Here's a close up of the matching bow.

This 'bear' cap was so tiny. I wasn't sure if it would fit, but it was perfect.

Some of my non-slip barrets using my favorite ribbon and a little bling.

I also made a diva 'P'. It was so pink and sparkly. And every baby girl needs a giant flower headband with some bling.

I also wanted to try out making stacking blocks, but only got the big one done. Paige came a few days earlier than expected, so I still have to finish this project.

I've been thinking about making some stuff for boutiques that are held around this season. I feel like my head is all over the place wanting to try new things, so it's been really hard to focus on just a few things. Any suggestions on what I should focus on or what you would want to buy at a boutique would be greatly appreciated. I really want to try out a framed barret holder and some gift card holder ornaments. I'll post pics when I get them done.

Snowflake

Landon's brother moved to Snowflake at the end of summer. We went to visit him and his family Labor day weekend. The drive was horrendous. Rory was crying half the time and we had to listen to "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz over and over and over again. I swear I've heard that song over a million times now. For some weird reason it calms her down. Always has. I even remember singing it to her in the hospital - maybe that's why. I'm not sure. Anyways, she did not enjoy being in the car that long. We packed a lunch and stopped at the civic center in Historic Globe to eat. We stayed for a while to let Rory stretch out some and play. She stalked and yelled at other kids and then came the swing. I didn't think we were going to get her out of it. She loves to swing and feel the breeze. She was definitely not exited about getting back in the car.

When we finally got to their house, we were greeted by their three year old Peyton. "Hi, I'm Peyton" and "Do you have any kids?" or "Do you have any other kids?" made me realize we don't see these kids enough. They were soooo excited to have us visiting. Landon and I changed quickly and left for the Temple. Jill and Cameron were kind enough to watch Rory for us. Thanks guys! Landon had just been to the Omaha temple the month before. He said it's almost identical to the Snowflake temple. It was definitely the smallest one I've been to and was COMPLETELY packed. They even had to bring out some folding chairs. It seemed like it took forever and I was super tired, but I'm happy we were able to go.

Rory did not want to sleep that night. She cried and cried and so did I until Landon took her for a 2:00 am drive. He really is the BEST! The next morning we were greeted by some yummy french toast. After breakfast, we headed to a desert race that Landon wanted to see. Apparently this was the 'real' reason we made the trek to Snowflake that weekend. We got there towards the end of the class he wanted to watch. I felt really bad that we didn't get to see more.

Before it started raining on us at the race. She's such a daddy's girl.

When we had to retreat to the car. It was fun getting to wear sweaters.

After we left the race, Landon drove around for a couple hours while Rory and I napped. We spent the rest of the day hanging out with Cameron and Jill and Jill's parents who were also visiting. It was a nice relaxing day. We stayed up late talking and sharing funny stories with Cameron and Jill. Rory didn't sleep again that night and we decided to cancel any near future road trips/vacations with Rory. We left the next morning and gave Rory some Ibuprofen beforehand. I guess kids get sore riding in a car for long periods of time. It makes sense. I was pretty sore myself. The drive home was much more pleasant. Rory caught up on sleep most of the way home. It was a pretty fun weekend and I'm thankful for the time we were able to spend with Jill and Cameron. Thanks again for letting us crash!

Catching Up

It has been forever since the last blog. Time has completely gotten away from me. I would really like to keep this updated, so I'm going back in time a little to catch up. I wrote about Rory's birthday party, but completely forgot to write about her actual birthday. My in laws were in Utah the weekend of the 23rd, so the party got bumped a week. It actually worked out for us because it rained like crazy on her birthday. We got all dressed and ready to hit the town, but had to wait out the weather for a couple hours. After it stopped raining, we figured the temperature was nice enough to take a stroll around the zoo. Unfortunately the batteries in both my camera and phone were dead, so I don't have any pics. :( It was crazy fun. We got to see the anteater pretty close up. Rory's face was priceless. She looked so puzzled. She didn't really care to notice many animals after that until we ended at my favorite, the tiger. The big 'kitty' was pacing back and forth against the glass. We pushed Rory right up to it and her head followed the tiger's pacing. She was mesmerized and still looked a bit puzzled at first. After a while she started to scream (with joy) and point at the glass. I'm pretty sure the tiger was her favorite too. The zoo was perfect! Neither of us had been there for years and it's the perfect size for small children.

After the zoo, we went pinata shopping. I'm pretty sure party stores don't care if they ever sell a pinata or not. They keep them on the very top of the shelves without any visible pricing and nobody around to help. After we were done at Party City, we went to Fuddruckers. Rory had her first burger/slider. She only wanted to eat the bun. That girl loves her carbs! lol. I thought about having them sing Happy Birthday to her, but everyone around us was there for a birthday too. I decided to give their vocal cords and break and just buy Rory a sundae. We all shared it despite Rory wanting it all to herself. It was a perfect little day. I'm am forever greatful to have Rory in my life and can't wait to see what this next year brings!