July Fun

A couple weeks ago we had planned to go camping with some friends, but ended up staying home so we could get some much needed items checked off our "To-Do" list.  We got a lot of it done, if not all of it, and got to have some fun over the weekend just as our little family of three.

Blowing bubbles on the play ground - a huge hit!

 For only being 18 months, Aurora is really pretty good at blowing bubbles

 Probably way too many bubble-blowing pictures, but I can't resist that adorable face!!

 She was sad because we wouldn't let her hold the bubble bottle

 But she got over it pretty fast :)

 

 

 

 We're working on weaning off the binky.  She only gets it for nap and bed time now.  We count to 3 and she throws the binky in the crib where it stays all the time, and then she gets a treat for throwing it in the crib willingly.  Skittles are the treat of choice right now and we had to catch a shot of her blue tongue :)

 We attempted the SF splash pad again, but with the occasional afternoon storms we've been getting it was SUPER windy, so we ended up not playing around in the water

 

 The water blowing sideways--it was pretty chilly too!!

 So we played on the cool playground instead

 

 

 

 They have these cool seats that spin and spin and spin, just using gravity.  Pretty cool!

 The bumpy slide :)

 We all live in a yellow submarine, yellow submarine, yellow submarine.

That song kept running through my head when she'd play in the bubble window.

 Giving her daddy some smoochies

 Dar attempted the extremely difficult climbing wall thing.  It was a good attempt :)

 They did the rope course together

 And the rings :)

 

 By the time we got home the wind had died down and the sun came out, but we weren't going to drive back to SF, and since we were already in our swim attire we went to our clubhouse pool.

 Just chillaxin' :)

 A favorite pasttime

Notice how she can hold onto her tube all by herself?  We don't even need to hold onto her so much anymore--although we're always close by :)

 

 1...2...3!

 

The weekend was SO nice and much needed, although we were still very bummed about not going camping with our awesome friends...you know who you are, and we love you!  We're glad you still had a good time without us :)

44% increase

Last Monday we had a new cabinet installed in our kitchen.  Ever since we bought and moved into our condo (which we love. . . most of the time) we've talked about needing more cabinet space because every time we move our kitchen gets smaller.  (Note to self: bigger kitchen with the next move.)  So, we finally took the plunge and got a new cabinet.  We didn't want just any old cabinet.  We wanted one that would match as close as possible and look like it was there all along.  We're hoping it will help us sell our condo when the time comes (which is not any time soon, by the way).  We signed on with Sears, and we're pretty pleased with the result.  I'll be even happier when it's paid off in a few months :)

Before

 After

Being the scientific guy he is, Dar took measurements of all our cabinets and found we have 44% more cabinet space than we had before.  Suh-weet!  I've finally been able to take all my dishes out of our pantry so I can actually use my pantry for food like it was meant for!  Yay!

 Another perk is that they gave us new crown molding for all of our cabinets, which is nicer than the stuff we had before.  I'm totally okay with that.

Yeah, I'm pretty happy with it.

Nursery!

Since Aurora turned a year and a half last week, she gets to go to nursery at church now.  I was so excited!  I really wasn't worried at all about leaving her for two hours at church while Darwin and I go to our meetings.  She's such a friendly girl and loves to be with other kids, especially when there are toys involved.  I thought she might cry for a minute or two and then be just fine--I was mostly right :)

She went right into nursery and immediately started playing with a puzzle.  I was hoping she'd just keep playing even if I said goodbye and that I'd pick her up later.  She started crying and didn't want me to leave so I stayed and played the puzzle with her until she got distracted with something else and I quickly sneaked out.  I checked on her several times through the window and she was doing great every time I peaked.

When I went to pick her up from nursery after church she didn't want to leave!  Her nursery leaders were blowing bubbles for her and she cried when I tried to take her out. Silly girl.  Her leaders said she didn't cry at all after I left though.  Yay!  I'm glad she enjoyed it, and I hope we can pick right back up with it next time.  Good job, Aurora!  I can't believe how fast you're growing up!

7.11.12 - 18 months!

Believe it or not, our baby is a year and half!  Wow!  I feel like I can't really call her a baby anymore, but she'll always be our baby.

Rori's 18 month stats:

Weight: 19 lbs 13.5 oz (15%)

Length: 31.5 in (41%)

Head: 44 cm (5%)

At 18 months:
-Aurora is the friendliest little thing you'll ever meet.  She loves to shake hands with anyone and everyone who'll shake hands with her.
-She loves to wave "hi" and "bye" to pretty much everyone.
-She says over 50 words!
-She knows over 20 words in sign language!
-She loves water and loves to stick her face in it and blow bubbles.
-She's very tender-hearted and pretend cries when she hears another baby crying to let us know she's concerned about them.
-She's a little whipper-snapper and extremely smart.  It helps that she is very curious and extremely observant.
-She's a thinker like her daddy and I love when I can see the wheels turning in her cute little head.
-She loves other babies and likes to give them loves and smoochies.  She's going to be such a great big sister, whenever that happens :)
-She loves her "Bampa" and knows she always gets a cookie when we go to his house.
-She is still very much a snuggler.  She loves her comfort things: blankey, binky, bottle and Mommy :)
-She's been calling Dar "Momma" also for the last few months but is finally starting to call him "Daddy" again.
-She can go up and down stairs on her own by holding onto the wall or our hand.  She's really good at going up, but still working on coming down.
-Her favorite show is Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and she can say all the names of the characters except for Pete and Professor Von Drake.
-She's a blast and at a super fun age.  We're loving this stage (minus the temper tantrums starting to come out) and can't wait to see what's in store for us next!

Happy 18 months, sweet girl.

Thanks for being our princess!

Long weekend get-away

It's 5:45am, and I've been up since 4.  Yuck!  I just can't sleep for some reason.  Aurora woke up a couple hours ago, and although she's soundly sleeping in her crib again, I couldn't get back to sleep.  I just finished our ward newsletter and I'm still not sleepy, so why not blog? :)

This past weekend we were able to spend a nice 5-day weekend in St. George at my cousin's condo (thanks again, Spencer's!).  The same place we stayed for spring break right after we delivered Nastassia.  At first it was a bit hard for me to be there, bringing back all the memories and sadness of losing our tiny little angel baby.  After a while I was determined to have a nice weekend and make some new, happier memories.  That we did!

Dar's best friend from childhood, Bard, baptized his little girl on Saturday so we went down to attend Natasha's baptism and support the family.  (We love you guys!)  It was really nice to spend so much time with them on this trip because our visits with them are few and far between because of the distance.  We had a lot of time to ourselves though, and that was nice too!

First thing Dar likes to do when we get there is sweep the deck.  It is nice to not have stuff sticking to the bottom of your feel the whole time!

 And Aurora likes to play around and be cute so Mommy can take a gazillion pictures :)

 Singing to her heart's delight. . . and ours

 Beautiful smile!  She looks like her cousin, Dakoda, in this picture.

 She and Daddy were being silly

 

 She spent lots of time admiring her reflection in the window and munching on ice cubes

Mouth full of ice

More reflection admiration

 We spent as much time as we could relaxing on the porch swing, but it was really hot while we were there (108 degrees on Monday when we left!), so we only spent as much time out there as we could stand.

Me and my babs

(You can see her indented scar on the left side of her forehead from falling onto the edge of the firepit a couple weeks ago.  I wonder if it's going to be permanent. . . )

We spent LOTS of time at the pool.  I couldn't get in past my waist because my arms are still healing from my surgery so no pics of me in the pool and that's totally okay by me, but at least I could get in that much this time.  Last time I couldn't get in the water past my ankles!

 Aurora had a blast sticking her face in and out of the water. . . all on her own accord.  I'm so glad our munchkin loves the water!

 Aurora and Bard taking turns putting their faces in the water

 

This tube was a great purchase!  She could walk around the kiddie pool on her own

without us having to follow her around so closely the whole time.

So nice!  She especially loved the freedom it gave her.

 

 Observing something "cool" on the ground.

One of her new favorite phrases is "Oh, cool!" but it comes out "Oh, coo!"  Love it!

Later we stopped by a hotel some of the family was staying at for the baptism, but we didn't know they were swimming when we left and didn't have Rori's swimsuit so we had to improvise :)

 

 

 She really loved it, although her face doesn't show it in this picture :)

 Our sleeping beauty ended up in bed with us every morning so we could all sleep in a little longer

 Ready and headed to the baptism

 And of course more pool time!

Our baby does have some hair...see?

 We had beautiful sunsets

 Sunday morning we taught Aurora how to eat raspberries off her fingers.  It was pretty cute.

 

Monday we did some shopping at the outlet stores in St. George and then headed home and we're back to the grind stone already.  Dar had to teach Tuesday morning and I'm back to watching Delilah.  I'm especially glad to have Aurora back on her nice sleeping schedule since being home because I was having a really hard time acknowledging that her schedule was pretty much non-existent all five days we were gone.  Our weekend vacation went by way too fast, but we're looking forward to getting away with some good friends in a couple of weeks.  YAY for summer vacation!