Little Lady Moments

Abigail hates nursery, but she loves the songs they've been singing in there. She's even figured out where each one is in the songbook and will flip to them before she sings. These are also her most requested songs before nap and bed. Today she combined "Follow, Follow Me," "Follow the Prophet," and "I'm Going to the Temple"  into a cute little song that she sang on repeat for a bit: "Follow follow follow the prophet. I'm going there someday!" 

We're out in the backyard and she runs up with a stick and pokes me in the leg with it. She looks up at me and says, "You're dead." 

"Good job, Mommy! You got dressed! Good girl!" - This came after probably two weeks of me living in my pajamas after her baby sister was born.

"I'm wearing your shoes. I'm a superhero!"

This girl is a talking machine and talks incredibly well for her age. She has excellent fine motor skills and is generally very mature for her age. She loves singing songs, loves dancing, and will often request songs or music to dance to. She is becoming quite the boundaries tester and loves picking on her older brother. Despite this she is very lovable and loves giving hugs, kisses, and 'snuggows,' She's very mothering to her stuffed animals and has been in heaven with her new baby doll from Christmas. 

General Update

Thanks to life, morning sickness, and the hectic summer, I have fallen very behind on documenting what has been happening with our family. The last thing I posted was a catch-up for March, so, you're in for a whirlwind of a catch-up.

April
Garrison and Gabi got married in St. Louis. Abigail and I flew out for the event and had a wonderful time. I was only able to get phone pictures because adding the camera to the luggage felt like punishment. I guess I also missed getting pictures of the couple on my phone, but I did get some of the travelling.  FYI: It's a little claustrophobic getting to the top of the arch. My sister about had a panic attack.

May
Mr. Mitchell and I celebrated our sixth anniversary with a date night and temple sealings. No photographic evidence available.

We do, however, have evidence of our trip to Zoo Boise with Grandma and Grandpa Holdaway. Sprout was king in his wagon, and Little Lady loved the ocelots.

June
In June we had a visit from Grammy and Grandpa Earls who picked up mommy's morning-sickness slack and made up for daddy being gone so much with the start of fire season. They got us all caught up on yardwork and planted our garden for us.

During the summer we spent one afternoon a week at the lake. This tradition started in June with the warmer weather. Both of the kids LOVE digging in the sand. (Little Lady usually preferred to be sitting in the water up to her armpits to do this.)

July
We spent the 4th of July at home. We went to the parade and festival in Buhl, made fun treats and crafts, and enjoyed fireworks at home.

We spent a day driving the Thousand Springs Scenic route and stopped in to dig up some fossils in the middle of nowhere.

We spent the 24th of July in Mendon so Caleb could experience the holiday. It's a great small-town experience.

August
Mr. Mitchell was gone on a long assignment in August, but he was only a couple of hours away, so we were able to visit him for a day. We played in the river, rode a gondola, saw where Daddy is working, 'flew' the helicopter, played in a fountain/mini-splash pad, ate lots of food, and had a great time with Dad in Ketchup (as Caleb called it).

September
This month we finally got to celebrate the newly weds on our side of the country with a cute open house.

Our Sprout turned 4 years old! We celebrated with a little birthday party with family after the open house, and on his actual birthday we opened presents. He was very insistent for a few hours that he wasn't four years old yet because he still didn't reach the '4' on the measuring stick. We were finally able to convince him that height and years are different and rarely the same.

Hopefully I do better in the future of keeping our long-distance family updated with our doings.

Little Lady Turns 18 Months

I'm a little late in posting this because I forgot my camera at my sister's house, and then I forgot the blasted camera again. We're moving ahead with the photos I have available because who knows how long it will take me to get my camera home again.

At 18 months this girl is a talker. She speaks quite well and can put together two or three word phrases. She has four molars in and is starting to figure out how to run or go 'wewy fatht' as she calls it. She loves to play with her brother and snuggle with her mom and wrestle with her dad. She can be quite the drama queen and is starting to scream when things don't go her way, but for the most part she is very happy and easy to please. She enjoys eating most fruit and broccoli, but no other veggies are allowed past, or even on, the lips. Pancakes and yogurt are breakfast favorites, hot dogs and peanut butter sandwiches are lunch favorites, and any type of pasta is a dinner favorite. Everything else is pretty much a no go unless she's in a 'giving' mood and decides to make meals easier for mommy. She is starting to sing (her most recognizable song is 'You Are My Sunshine'), loves to dance to almost any music, and enjoys playing on the piano. She knows most of her body parts, loves saying animal noises, and likes to pretend to count objects ("Fwee, fwee, fwee! Five, five, five! Counting!"). She is a much bigger colorer than her brother ever was and enjoys sneaking crayons out onto the back patio to color the concrete with. She loves to be outside and asks to be out several times a day, and she loves to be in water so long as it's shallow enough for her to sit down. She sleeps through the night unless she gets thirsty and needs to ask for water. She's so fun to watch, and I'm excited to see her grow.

Recognizable Words and Phrases:
paddo - piano
K-bear - Caleb
horse
bird
kitty
doggy
mingo - flamingo
cappelar - caterpillar
duck
piggy
Mommy! Are you? - Mommy! Where are you?
saddich - sandwich
dog - hot dog
juice
appow - apple
nana - banana
gapes - grapes
stawby - strawberry
siwwy - silly
dross - gross
yucky
Danks you! - Thank you!
shoes
dwess - dress
pants
dipey - diaper
shirt
ow
petie - computer
work - (used most often to say, "Daddy, bye-bye, work.")
Gabba - Grandma/Grammy/Grandpa
My turn

That's all I can recall off the top of my head, but she really is such a talker and very bossy. One of my favorite things she does is walk around saying, "Happy Abby, Happy Abby" to herself. What a cutie pie.

This is the most recent picture I have of her on our computer from April 2016. She already looks so much older!

Little Lady Update

All about our Little Lady:

• Our sweet girl is 15 months today. About a week ago she attempted her first steps and is progressing quickly. The silly thing tries to run already and takes quite a few tumbles. 
• She has eight teeth in (number eight finally broke through a couple of days ago) and it has been rough. Her teeth like to go in and out and cause her (and us) a lot of pain.
• She has got a big personality - she loves to imitate, she loves to do actions to songs (and will frequently demand that we sing them so she can do the actions), she loves to growl, she loves to tackle, she loves to dance, she loves to color, she loves to read books, she loves to pretend to talk on the phone, she loves to actually talk on the phone, she loves to play with whatever her brother is playing with at that exact moment, she loves bath time and will try and hide in the corner when it's time to get out.
• She will eat her weight in oranges and cheese. 
• She is a big time mama's girl, but she always has cuddles ready for brother and daddy, too.
• She is finally starting to grow hair back in on top of her head. She lost it all several months ago and has been rocking a skullet for far too long.
• She can identify most of her body parts and attempts to say them.

Words:

ana - banana

no-no (sometimes accompanied with a wagging finger)

book

cheese

Da - Dad

Mama

Kay - Caleb

wah - water

nigh (with a wave) - night-night

bah (with a wave) - bye-bye

shit* - shirt

up

ucky - yucky

gin - again

dis - this

baff - bath
oss - soft
pear - prayer
gape - grapes

*makes daddy laugh every time

All of the other words I can think of are complete jibberish to try and write, but she knows what she means when she says them, and we can usually understand them.

Little Lady Turns 1

Our Little Lady is officially a one-year-old! This first year of her life flew by in a fury. We celebrated her birthday in Boise at Grandma and Grandpa Holdaway's house, and I forgot my camera. I hate trying to do pictures with phones and blah de blah, so 'official' pictures had to wait until we were home. (At some point I will try and get the birthday party pictures over here.) Then, The Fever, struck. Our poor little girl had a very high fever for days. We took the pictures once it lowered, but she still isn't quite her cheerful self, as you will see.

This girl makes us laugh all of the time and is so cute with her nonstop jibber-jabber. She likes to point at everything and have us label it, to 'wrestle' with her brother (sometimes), any food that anybody else is eating, loud toys, tupperware, music, dancing, and plenty more.

Some favorites that we have picked up on:

Song - Wheels on the Bus
Book - The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Food - applesauce
Dessert - cake (as we learned at her birthday party)
Person - Mommy

We are delighted and honored to have this angel in our family!

Life Moments

I don't find much time for blogging lately, but decided to make time tonight to help calm myself. It's been a very rough toddler day, and I need to create something. This is the best it gets. Let's play catch-up with pictures and as few words as possible. (Ha. Is that possible with me?)

As I look at these I realize these moments are probably pretty meaningless for most, but they're my everything. 

Dierkes Lake

Faces I Love:

Silliness after our eventful river float:

Bedtime sillies:

Mommy's baking elf:

Not pictured: my exploding heart:

I love my Mitchell Munchkins, and I love my Mr. Mitchell. What a lucky girl am I.