Tea time!

Well I decided that I am ready to start to let Lydia grow up a little. Saturday Chris and I went to Ikea and found her a little table and chairs. And I also found this cool organizer at my neighbor's yard sale (Thanks Donner's!) So it was out with the rocking chair and in with my toddler's play room. I was sad for about 2.5 seconds thinking about all the time I spent in the chair nursing and reading to Lydia but my sadness was quickly swept away with Tea time. Lydia is constantly playing with my china which is in the worst spot ever. So she was so excited to have her own tea set. Even Chris was really getting into pouring the water and doing cheers. She had so much fun. The first thing she did this morning was immediatley go and sit in her chair and play with the tea set, I had to trick her into eating breakfast. Anyways I am excited for all the fun that she will have but now she just can't get any older!

Fantastic Fridays!

Well since I have Fridays off I have tried to do something fun with Lydia which has now gotten the catch phrase "Fantastic Fridays!" Last week we went to the beach @ Daybreak that is. And this week we had quite the day. We went to the mall and rode the merry-go-round. Lydia absolutely loved it. The entire time she went "doggy...oof oof oof!" She still thinks any animal that has 4 legs is a doggy (horses, cows, kitty's, even sting rays. You name it she thinks it a dog!) Then it was off to the Living Planet Aquarium. The last time I took her she couldn't walk yet so this time was a lot more fun as far as being able to see the aquariums and the fishes up close. She absolutely loved it. She was super scared of the sting rays though. It was a little funny. After spending quite some time at the aquarium we went up to the Ream's on Highland to get the best snow cone you will find in the Salt Lake Valley. They do the cream and honestly it is amazing. We then went and visited Grandpa. I feel so blessed to have this time to spend with Lydia and seriously I have so much fun watching her grow and learn. So hopefully we will be able to share a few more fantastic Fridays in the future!

YEAH I love the aquarium!



Playing on the boat in the Utah section

copy, copy 9er 9er!

Look mom a swimming doggy.

No fears captain Liddy is here!

Happy Birthday Madre!

Well my mom turned 55 on the 14th and I just wanted to wish her a very happy birthday! I wish I had time to think of 55 reasons why my mom is so amazing but I will just say a few. First of all my mom is the ultimate mom she does it all she cooks, sews, gardens, she is extremely bright and when I say that I mean she knows everything. She is an amazing teacher, she is the kind of teacher that I only hoped I could be one day she truly has her students best interest in mind and she works so hard. She is an amazing mom, she always taught us by example. So many times I remember seeing my mom reading her scriptures in the living room. She is an example of a truly stong woman of god and she has taken her role as "Nana" and she is giving it %110. I feel so lucky to have such a great mom to look up to and I hope you know the number may say 55 but you look 29! Love you mom!

I love my mom
Tyler reading about his favorite birthday for our family history...it was the day he was born (ha ha ha!)

Liddy of course demanding all the attention...as usual!

Mom and dad...caught off guard for that pic for sure.

Derek reading his entry for the family history...Derek definitely got all the writing skills in the family, he is one amazing writer.

It was the cutest thing ever, when Derek tried to leave Lydia just bawled. Derek had to come back three times so she could give him loves it was pretty sweet.

Neighborhood Party and the Cabin

Well we had quite the fun weekend. To start it off Friday night we had dinner at my Cousin's house. They just moved here from Chicago and Chris had helped them find a house in which they fixed completely up. It was fun seeing them. Then Saturday night was the much anticipated neighborhood party. It had been scheduled for June and we had come home early from Lake Powell only to have it rained out, so we were pretty excited. Chris rented a huge bounce house for the kids which was a total hit. We also had the chance to meet some new people and put some names to faces now. We absolutely love our neighborhood and really feel like this is where we are meant to be. So many things just fell into place when it came to buying and selling as well as the studio and everything else and I've got to be honest we love our neighbors. We were saying that night how great it felt to feel apart of a real neighborhood. Needless to say our old neighborhood wasn't very friendly and we didn't make as big of an effort as we should've. Anyways it was a great time and hopefully we will make a bigger effort to get to know more of our neighbors before the next party.
That night we snuck away up to the cabin. We didn't get there until late and Chris parents and Justin and Linds were already there. But it was such a nice little retreat. We had some great food and slept in way later then I ever have (10:45 am) that is a miracle for me but also tells ya how tired I was. We played on the ATV's and Lydia had an absolutel blast on the trampoline. Always a blast.

P.S. These pictures are in backwards order, for some reason my comp. wouldn't let me move them.

Playing in the hammock with Grandma Knudsen

Rolling on the tramp
She went from happy to...


sad! She was absoltuely scared to death of the ATV's even if she heard them in the distance she would start to shake and cry, it was pretty sad.

Liddy with Grandpa Knudsen

The Rosecreek neighborhood PARTAY!!! This was right as it started it was packed by the time the night was coming to an end.

The bounce house...we couldn't keep Lydia away!

The cool cars bounce house, it was so much fun...for the kids that is!

Who needs the ocean when you've got Daybreak?

For any of you who have ever wished that there was a beach close to home...look no further. The beach at DAYBREAK is the bomb! We tood Lydia there after Chris got off of work. It was so much fun. They have this amazing beach with soft sand and little docks that the kids can run and jump off of. And to make it even better there is an amazing playground right by the lake. Needless to say Liddy was in HEAVEN!

She also turns 16 months today. My little toad is getting so big. She is learning so much that it amazes me. She doesn't walk anywhere she now RUNS everywhere. It is the cutest thing to see her come flying down the hall. She is talking more every day. She can communicate quite a bit which makes life so much easier. She also UNDERSTANDS so much. We love to tell her to go and get things like her blanket, or her baby, or a ball and she will go running around to find the item you asked for. She loves to have you READ to her. We will sit in her room literally for an hour each night reading books before she goes to bed. She loves it so much that during the day I will catch her on her rocking chair, she has pulled the pillow and the teddy bear off and she is blabbering with a book in her hand like "I know what I'm doing mom!"She has also become quite the ESCAPE ARTIST, on Monday I put her down for her nap, which she wasn't happy about but that is pretty typical for a Monday. So I went into the family room to clean up and I hear a huge THUD. I run in her room to find her crying on the floor. She had gotten her leg up and kapowee, got out of her crib. Thankgoodness she is alright, and also thankgoodness that it scared her enough she hasn't tried it again. I now wait right by her slightly opened door until she is sound asleep because I am so paranoid about it. She is still a SOCIAL BUTTERFLY and has to say "HI" to every kid she see's. It is almost like a magnet is pulling her to them, she then will blabber on like they know what she is trying to say and some act like they do. She loves to look at our PHOTO ALBUMS. She would spend hours in the den going through the photo albums yelling "Dada", "Nana", "GMPA" whenever she sees there pictures. It is so dang cute. My favorite is she is starting to point things out. You can ask her where her nose, and ears and mouth are and she will point to them. She also wants to point them out on your face as well it is pretty cute. Anyways I could go on for hours about how my baby isn't a baby anymore, and how she has given so much meaning and joy to my life. But for now I will stop and save it for another post! Anyways enjoy the pics and hopefully some of you will get to go and visit Daybreak's own North shore!

Motor boat, motor boat...step on the gas!

Lounging in her chair

You can tell by her hands she wasn't sure about how the sand felt, but she got used to it.

Stealing other kids sand toys...ha ha ha I promise we gave them back.

Who would've thought we would find a beach so close to home.



Such a daddy's girl!

Everyone must earn there keep...even Lydia!

Well we have given Lydia some chores...you could say we start em young (ha ha ha!) Every morning after Lydia has breakfast she is in charge (Obviously with my help) of feeding Che'. She actually likes it so much she tries to do it all day long. I now have to keep the pantry door closed at all times because if I don't she will get a handful of dog food, and when I'm not around to open the back door she makes dog food piles in places that I find at a later time (i.e. stairs, couch, bed, seat in office...) It is pretty dang cute, she will hold the food out in her hand and Che' eats it right from there. They are becoming the best of buddies, she plays in the backyard with him all the time, he basically ignores her and she follows him around going Doggy, woof woof, and then pants like a dog. Anyways I have caught her lately trying to mimick some of my other habits!

She is pretty good at getting the food all in the dish (NOT!)

Getting ready for her dismount.

Running around ready to feed Che'...mind you this is after nap that is why her shirt if off when she eats yogurt needless to say she makes a mess of her clothes.


Talking on her sponge phone.

Cleaning, cleaning, cleaning...we have our very own cinder-liddy!

Sunday at the park!

Well Chris found a fairly secluded park over below the Oquirrh temple and we decided since there aren't any homes built by it yet we were safe to bring Che' along. It was a lot of fun, I played with Liddy on the playground while Chris threw the stick in the canal for Che' we had the most fun though with Che' on the playground.

Che' being a good dog, bringing the stick back only to have to go and get it again!

Lydia getting fed up with the fact that she couldn't get in too, notice the mud on her face she was having a grand old time.

After the canal we decided to have a little fun with Che' he loved going up but had to be pretty much pushed to get him to go down the slide.


It was so funny because Che' would shake off and it drove Liddy crazy. I love the stream of water coming off of his tail in this picture...that is one wet dog!

More pictures!!!

Ok so Andee uploaded some more pics to her photo blog and I couldn't resist sharing them. She does such a good job, I love all the pics and can't wait to get the C.D. and see what else is in store!

I think that one is so precious...so Lydia looking a little pouty!

mischevious!

My little 50's girl!

Love the lipstick on the cheek!

This is by far my favorite picture!

Don't forget to check out her blog, there are pics of my S-I-L and her family as well that turned out just as well www.andeesphotos.blogspot.com