Baby Girl is 11 Months Old?...WOW!

Can you believe it?  Or is it just me who's in disbelief over the fact that I have a daughter who will be a ONE YEAR OLD next month????  Holy cow!  Where has the year gone?  I love each new age and phase of hers, but I am a little sad that my tiny little wrinkly-skin newborn with the silky hair and sweet baby's breath is long gone...

Oh well, I'll wallow later...for now, here are Lucy's updates:

She FINALLY learned to crawl!  I was so excited for this because she was so late in doing so and I worried relentlessly over it.  With crawling came red knees and a new-found curiosity for anything and everything.  Now that she can see it, you can be sure she will get it.  Our wires are constantly being pulled out of their plugs, my pictures that are on book shelves that she can reach are getting knocked over, my cookbook pages (also on low bookshelves) are getting torn out, crumbs that I haven't picked up yet are getting swallowed, DVDs are getting pulled out and thrown across the room, Ruby is getting tackled while she tries to take naps, etc.  It is so much fun for me to see Lucy discover her "new" world, AKA- our living room.  She is "go-go-go."  There's really no stopping her!

She says "Hi" to people now.  It actually is "I" but she says it like a parrot would- over and over until you say "hi" back.  Love this.

She is sick of her baby food! We can't get her to eat it anymore.  We try and try just because I know it's so good for her, but she mostly just eats what we eat now.  She loooooves chicken, tofu, rice, steak, beans, yogurt, chips, steamed veggies, hot dogs....I don't know why I'm writing a list.  She likes everything- as long as it isn't pureed ;)

Lucy is trying to talk.  She has always been a vocal baby, but now she is speaking her own language that she thinks is real English.  She "talks" to us and looks at us as if she is really trying to communicate something and thinks we can understand her.  She uses hand gestures and all!  Quite the little character we have!

Our LuLu is such a joy!  She keeps me on my toes, keeps me tired, and keeps me happy :)

 

As always, Lucy, I love you more than words can say.
Love,
Mommy

Easter!

Easter came and went and it did not disappoint, for the most part. Sadly, we got some GREAT family photos taken, but I had my camera set on the wrong setting and they were all MUCH too bright.  You couldn't see the details in our outfits or expressions, which makes me very sad, but I did what I could to darken them and edit them, so what you see is what you get.

Other than that, we had  GREAT holiday! We dyed eggs with friends, and then as a family the day before.  On Sunday we went to Dan and Tiff's and had a fun Easter Egg Hunt.  We dressed up and enjoyed each other and the 75 degree weather!  It was a beautiful day, and I always love the Spiritual reminder of the Atonement and The Resurrection that Easter Morning brings.

Lucy got her first "kid" Bible from Grammy Gilley and I'm excited to start teaching her the Bible stories :)  It's a cute book with fun pictures and simplified parables. She also got spoiled by both sets of her grandparents and Shawn and I.  Her Easter was more like Christmas! Haha, she sure is a lucky baby!  

Shawn looked super handsome in his Easter pastels.  Tiff looked gorgeous (as always!). The Howard boys looked handsome in their linen shirts and ties, and Olivia looked precious with her ruffles and curls :)  Lucy was adorable in a frilly polka dot yellow dress.  Everyday I look at her and marvel at her beauty.  I sure do love my little girl.

She mostly just liked to dip her hands in the dye.  She had some colorful hands that night. It was so funny!  She also had so much fun squeezing and throwing all the eggs down to hear them crack.  It was "cracking" me up! Hehehe. I have so much fun with her!

Tiff said in her blog how hard it is to get a group shot...she was right!

Hope everyone had a very blessed and joy filled holiday!

Ruby Tuesday

Technically we got her on a Monday, but I like to call her Ruby Tuesday.  Who is Ruby? Yep.  Our new dog.  We decided to try again with a dog.  We welcomed a 1 year 3 month old Purebred Alaskan "Red" Malamute into our home last week.  We didn't mention it to anyone just in case it didn't work out.  Her previous owner said we could have a "trial" period with her so we thought we'd give her a couple of weeks.  But she stole our hearts right away and there's no turning back now!
Here's the story....I like to "window shop" for animals all the time.  I don't know why, but I'm always looking up dogs and cats and birds, etc. online.  I just like to see what's out there.  And I always look for Malamutes because I have wanted one for YEARS.  Well, last week I came across an add for a Purebred Malamute in Colorado Springs and the owner said he had to get rid of her ASAP because he was moving to Florida and couldn't take her (if you know anything about Malamutes, you know they are "wolf" dogs and in the winter when they grow their second coat, they get HUGE! Florida's heat would have been too hot for her). When Shawn got home from work at 7:30pm I said, "Shawn, look at this dog! She's so pretty and I want her!" (I usually say this to him about various animals about once a week and he always says No so I expected this night to be no different). He looked at her picture and said, "Ok, let's get her.  I'll go get her tonight."  Not only was I shocked that he so easily was persuaded, but I was thinking he was crazy because The Springs is an hour and a half away from us and it was almost 8pm already.  But the owner said he'd be up for hours and so we could go.  I asked Shawn why he agreed we could get a dog, and he simply said "I'm sick of not having one." So, off to The Springs he went! He didn't get home until almost midnight, but we were so excited to have her!  Her previous name was Roo, but I changed it to Ruby.  I LOVE the name Ruby (I have even contemplated naming a future child Ruby- obviously I won't now), and I figured she'd adapt quickly since the 2 names sound similar.  I was right.  She started responding to her "new" name less than 2 days later.  We got SO lucky with her because she is micro-chipped, current on all of her shots, knows how to sit, lay, shake, "high five", is potty trained, plays fetch, doesn't chew on ANYTHING, is super sweet and friendly, and sleeps all night- even when we walk right past her to go into Lucy's room in the night.  She needs to be taught not to jump when she's excited and also she needs to be leash trained 'cause she is SO strong and pulls really hard- Malamutes are "sled dogs". They were born to pull sleds and anything heavy. But other than that, we couldn't have found a better dog.  She is SO sweet.  She really is.
We had a HORRIBLE experience with our last dog, Jones, as you know.  He was the Worst Dog Ever (WDE)!! That is not an exaggeration.  After dog-sitting him for a week, my parents were so exhausted cause they said "you can NEVER take your eyes off of him or he will get into trouble." He couldn't be left alone for even a second, which was so annoying when I was pregnant and had to pee every 2 minutes.  I'd have to put him up every single time.  He dug through the trash, dug holes outside, chewed up anything and everything (wasted so much money on all the stuff he ruined in our house), ate anything and everything (seriously, everything.  We found the weirdest things and articles of clothing in his piles in the back yard daily). He scarfed his food down without even chewing- true story.  No matter what you fed him, he swallowed whole.  Including huge pieces of meat.  And if he ever found his big bag of dog food, he would literally eat it ALL in one sitting and it would only take him a matter of seconds. He was soooo sneaky, and he was an escape artist- could get out of EVERYTHING.  He was just SO naughty! Thinking about him still makes me shiver because he was just so awful!  I could go on and on about his bad behavior, but I'll stop myself.
Anyway, so after our experience with the WDE we said we'd never again get a dog.  I was scarred.  But lately, not only am I baby hungry, but I also was dog hungry.  I didn't think that could happen, but it did.  And Ruby was the best choice to re-introduce me to the dog world!  I know, I know.  You are thinking we are absolutely crazy to have a 65 lb dog in a tiny apartment.  And we are.  But our lease is up soon and we wont be here forever and it was such a good opportunity!  I know she is big and she will only get bigger within the next 9 months. And she sheds! But I was going to get a Malamute someday anyway, and at least with this one, she's young enough that we can have her for years and Lucy can grow up with her, but old enough to be past the worst part of the puppy stage.  Also, she was from an apartment, so tiny space is all she knows!  She doesn't know what having a back yard is like, so she is content to sit inside all day.  Luckily we live facing a huge courtyard on ground level so it's easy to take her outside. Plus we live by some awesome trails and parks, so we take her out and run her ragged everyday.
Also, unlike the WDE, Ruby only eats one bowl of food a day, so we won't break the bank trying to feed her.  She grazes.  We fill her dish up in the morning, and she takes a few bites at a time throughout the day.  And when you give her human food, she so delicately takes it out of your hands.  She must have been taught her manners!  She is SO gentle with Lucy!  It's like she instinctively knows to be soft with the baby.  She never jumps on Lu or tries to play rough.  She just licks her softly.  Lucy LOVES her! She laughs so hard at her, and she discovered that it's "fun" to share all of her food with Ruby from her highchair.  Ruby just graciously and politely takes all of the food that Lucy loves to hand her.  So we have Ruby Ru and Lucy Lu!  Shawn is surrounded by Women!

She is only 65 lbs now, but she will probably get to 75 by the time she is 2.  Also, she just shed her winter coat so she looks smaller.  In the fall it will come back and she will look like she doubled in size. I can't wait! I LOVE big furry dogs! Her outer coat will give her the "Wolf" look.

One last tidbit about Ruby.  She is called a "Red" Malamute.  That's what her papers say. There are gray ones, white ones, and red ones.  I wanted a gray one originally, but I learned that just because a dog is beautiful, does NOT make them good dogs (once again, this is a reference to the WDE).  So although she might not be as gorgeous as a gray Mal, she is still pretty and just the sweetest dog and I really do love her.  I heard from people that it sometimes takes awhile to get the perfect dog, but with Ruby, we finally found what we were looking for :)