On your mark, Get set, GO!!!

See this picture? It means 2 things. Can you guess?
1) It means that Lydia figured out how to crawl on Monday (at 9 1/2 months). She is having lots of fun just exploring the living room (and occasionally she'll try to sneak into her brother's room, but that is a bit scary for me since there are a lot of legos). It's so funny how she was so content just sitting and playing, so it is very exciting to see her take interest in more things.
2) It means she is not sleeping. I guess since she has figured out that she can have so much more fun being awake and exploring she hasn't been going down for her second nap. I guess 1 is good enough for her now.

Say Cheese

I got an early anniversary and Birthday gift and I'm SO excited about it! I have been wanting a new camera for awhile. We had a nice point and shoot camera, but I just felt that I should be getting better pictures. Smoke would billow out of the camera when we would take a picture, so I think we were going to need a new one sooner or later--I guess I just chose sooner. I was telling someone at church (who deals a lot with photographs/cameras) that I was thinking about getting a new camera, and she sealed the deal in my mind when she said "Your kids are too cute to not get good pictures of them." And I thought, "That's right--I do need a new camera." Thanks to my amazing friend Melissa (who has amazing pictures that you can see here), we were able to figure out what kind of camera would be best. I am IN LOVE with this camera. Grant has taken to it as well. Lydia hasn't quite figured it out. When she would see our old camera she would instantly ham it up. I don't think she knows that it is taking a picture of her yet. So here are a few of my favorites that we have taken so far (and FYI Ben is still around--just been a little camera shy). I'm excited to take a couple of on-line classes next month on how to use my camera with other settings besides the auto function.

The Garden (Phase 2)

With the holes dug, we were ready to fill them up with suitable dirt and build the boxes. So that's the fun we had on Saturday. Karmin was a great helper to Grant all day. It was beautiful outside--perfect working weather. Karmin had no need for sun screen from a bottle because she had it in the natural form--dirt. And this picture was taken only half way through the day. Yep, that shirt didn't survive. By the end of the day we had all 6 boxes built. It's getting there!

The Making of a Garden (Phase 1)

We are expanding our garden this year. We had a small one for the last several years, but we decided we could use a larger one. A much larger one. Much much larger. Our last one we could squeeze in a couple tomato plants, a couple zucchini, beans, and carrots. We are expanding this one to include corn, potatoes, peppers, etc. Probably we'll be able to open our own Farmer's Market.
Saturday Grant and the kids worked outside. (I stayed inside with Lydia and continued my project of moving rooms i.e. Karmin's room is now in our old room.)
The kids loved playing in the large dirt pile. I had to take this picture of Trev before I told him to stop.

Just Venting (feel free to skip)

I took Lydia and Trevor into the doctor's on Monday for their check-ups. Trevor grew 3 inches this last year! Which was a relief since he had only grown 2 inches in the 2 years previous. He is just over the 25th percentile. Lydia is hovering around 10% for weight and height, but her head is in the 95th percentile. My kids have big heads and I cannot lie. (: The doctor wanted me to take her into a speech therapist because she doesn't talk and she gags when she eats anything but applesauce. We also had to take her in to get tested for allergies (they came back negative--nice!).
Today I took her to the speech therapist. I'll start with the eating. She gags every time I feed her anything but applesauce, and this is not a stretch. So I fed her bananas while I was there. Did she gag? No. Did she have any problems eating? No. The ST said that really at this age Lydia should be eating more solid foods (not pureed baby food). When she chokes on liquids, why would I give her solids? This doesn't make much sense to me. I asked for ideas on what to feed her. She gave me a list of crackers that I could feed her. I can't even eat crackers because she can't tolerate the ingredients. If I am supposed to be giving her solids, what can I give her? I basically eat cereal for 2 meals a day and chips and salsa for the other meal--every day...7 days a week. She can't eat cereal and you can't feed a baby chips or even salsa. She doesn't have teeth, so how can she chew? Besides bananas, cooked carrots, and mashed potatoes, what is solid enough to eat without teeth that doesn't have milk, soy, or eggs?

On to talking. Before today, I could count on 1 hand how many times Lydia has said the "B" sound, and that is the only letter sound I have ever heard. But she was all about talking when we got there, saying "b b b" constantly. But basically I haven't given her the opportunity to talk. I know when she wants to be picked up, so I pick her up. I don't wait for her to ask to be picked up. Etc. Etc. I'm supposed to give her more opportunities to communicate. It made me start thinking that I have probably not expected her to do much. But on the other hand, it's weird to think that she should be doing more. She is still in the top part of her crib because she doesn't crawl, she doesn't stand up, I have no worries that she will fall out. She still eats pureed foods. It's been hard to think that she should be waving bye, blowing kisses, and saying "MaMa" and "DaDa" when all she really does is sit there and be content playing with her toys.
But on the other hand, who cares because she is just so darn cute!

And One More Celebration (ya know for good luck)

They celebrated Trevor's Birthday at school today. Karmin, Lydia, and I went in to sing Happy Birthday and bring in a special snack. We got there early enough that we got to have inside recess with them. The girls in the class took Karmin under their wings and kept her very busy. Lydia and I hung out with Trevor and Noel. Ben told Trevor that he had to take "Gripz" in. They are just very small cheeze-its, but they are the new rage at the Elementary School. Everyone seemed to enjoy them and it was fun seeing Trev at school.

Happy Easter

On Saturday we got to go to the annual Easter Egg Hunt at a person's house in our ward. Winter decided to make it's appearance these last few weeks so Grant stayed home with Lydia, and I took the other 3 kids down. It was in between 2 sessions of conference (where the prophet and apostles talk to us about the Gospel and the Savior), so there weren't as many kids this year so the kids really made out well.

Sunday the kids went on their hunt for their Easter basket. We enjoyed watching more of Conference on tv, and then we went to Grant's sister's house for dinner. (Surprise Surprise--we got to celebrate Trevor's Birthday again.) It was a VERY nice weekend, busy, but very relaxing.

No Foolin'--Trevor's 6 & Lydia's 9 mos!

Today Trevor turned 6 years old! I cannot believe that he is really that old. I feel like I just brought Ben home from the hospital last week--let alone having Trevor be 6. Trevor got to celebrate all day long (and last week, and next week).
Morning celebrations:
For my Birthday and Mother's Day, I usually get breakfast in bed. Last year Trevor was pretty upset that he didn't get breakfast in bed for his Birthday. I was pregnant last year and so I told Trevor he got up way too early for me to make him breakfast in bed. All year he has reminded me that he wanted his breakfast. So I got up (early) and went into the bathroom and there was Trevor. He told me not to worry, he was going back to bed. He got pancakes with strawberries and whip cream, apple slices, and juice.
Afternoon celebrations:
Every year my Grandma, my Aunt and her girls come out to McDonalds and we celebrate Trevor's Birthday. We are able to do it because his Birthday falls during Spring Break so he is privileged. I totally forgot to take a picture at McDonalds, so here he is with one of his new toys that he got.
Late Afternoon celebrations:
My dad came down for a little while to visit. He also brought some Easter things for the kids. My Dad's Birthday is a couple of days after Trev's so we gave him his present too.
Evening celebrations:
When Grant got home, we celebrated with him. Trev got to blow out a fire starter. (You know one of those stick things that you use to light a candle with, by this time I was too tired to get out an actual candle, and just so you don't think he is deprived he got to blow one out at Chuck E. Cheese--I know, I know, I'm not winning mother of the year awards.) He got to eat Top Ramen for dinner (his request--good thing Grant and I had left overs), and open up Birthday cards people had sent him.
(And Gretch--he LOVED his stickers!! I think it was the most exciting part of the day!)