I did it!

I cut my hair! I was really afraid I was going to wimp out and only get a couple of inches off, but I was brave, and I got 10+ inches off (which I'm going to donate to Locks of Love). And I also went back to being a blonde, which makes me very happy. I've been wanting to be blonde for awhile now. I went to this really awesome place in Snohomish that was recommended to me by my friend from church, Jen Poston. It's called Salon Solos, and Rick was the guy that did my hair. He owns the place, and his son Dave works for him (in case anyone is interested). Anyway, now for the pictures!

Decent before picture. This was during Christmas. It was getting really long.

 

And now...
   
Ta-da!! Short and blonde, and happy!

I also like the following picture. Ben told me he needed some sass-

This also shows off my growing baby belly. I really feel like I'm showing so much more and quicker with this pregnancy than when I was pregnant with Lily. I guess it's just cuz it's my second, and I'm already all stretched out. I'm 17 weeks here.

In Lily news (cuz how can I blog without mentioning Lily?), she's been talking/signing so much more lately, and it's really awesome that we can understand each other so much. She's even done a couple three word sentences with her signing, such as "Eat more please." And she'll sign "more" after we tickle her! It's so cute!  And my favorite... she's been saying Mama all the time. I love it! Yesterday when I was gone getting my hair done, she kept pointing to the door and saying and signing "mama" and "bye-bye". Made my heart melt when I heard that. She's pretty much the sweetest little girl ever.

And there's more to tell, but dinner just got out of the oven, so I'm gonna go eat. Sheppard's pie, mmmm. Happy Sunday everybody!

Yummmm

So Saturday I made the yummiest Pico de Gallo and Guacamole recipes I've tasted in awhile, and it's all because of Ree. Who is Ree? Recently I've become a little bit obsessed with her blog, thepioneerwomen.com. It's amazing. She has tips on cooking, photography, cool stories about her everyday life on a ranch. Ben has been getting on my case, actually, cuz I'm on her site so much. But it's that good. So go check it out! :) And in case you're interested, her recipe for Pico and Guac is here. The only thing I did differently is used about half the amount of jalapeno and no seeds, lots of lime juice, and some garlic salt in the guacamole. It was fantastic... if I do say so myself. ;)

I should have bought enough ingredients to make it again today.

Happy Happy Birthday Lily Dear

Happy days will come to you all year! So Lily turned one year old!! Actually, more than a week ago now, but it's taken me awhile to decide  to just sit down and blog about it. So I am now.

This is Lily on her actual birthday, Jan. 7. We didn't do anything really special on that day though, because we knew that we were celebrating on Saturday with some friends and again on Sunday with my family. We figured a one year old doesn't need three parties. Though I'm sure she wouldn't have minded.

Lily got a birthday present from the tooth fairy, you could say, on her birthday night - her 11th tooth popped through! Which was good, she had been kind of grumpy for a few days. She actually has 12 teeth now! How crazy is that?

Again on her birthday. Ben's not a fan of the blinking pictures, but I think they're just so cute!! We'll say "Where's your blink, Lily?" and she starts blinking in a really exaggerated fashion with a huge smile on her face. It's very entertaining. Especially to all the people that sit behind us at church. :)

This was the day after her birthday. She was very proud of herself that she got inside her basket. She's a fan of getting inside things lately. Whether it's our dirty laundry basket, or the shelves in her changing table (where she almost always gets stuck right  away), she likes finding places that she can squeeze her self into. Again, highly entertaining.

See?

She got this bubble toy for Christmas, and she's finally starting to really like the bubbles. She doesn't really try to grab them or anything, but she enjoys watching them float around. It's fun to watch her.

This is what Lily's cake looked like before she got it. I was very proud of myself.

Lily started out slow...

Then started getting more excited about it...

Cousin Rachel wanted her to share!

Lily was really getting into it after just a few minutes. It was lots of fun to watch her eat and very hilarious! After awhile, she was just having fun digging her fingers into it and feeling around.

Look how happy! The bottom layer was white, but the top layer was chocolate because we knew she would mostly get into the top and we wanted it to be as messy as possible!

Extremely contented.

Oops.

 
Hi!

 
She decided she wanted to play peek-a-boo.

She was so covered in cake. We had to give her a bath to get it all off. She had it on her tummy and legs, and on her back and in her hair... pretty much anywhere not covered by a diaper. I was glad we had opted to take all her clothes off and not just think the bib would catch everything. Cuz that wouldn't have worked! :)

Then it was present time! Pretty much after I showed her how to open the first one, she started remembering from Christmas and had fun helping unwrap her gifts. She definitely understood that underneath the paper was something that she wanted.

She was pretty excited to get her books. She got a couple Dr. Seuss books, and even though it'll be a little while before I leave her alone with them (they're not board books), I'm glad she's excited about them.

I don't have pictures of all the presents she got (which is probably a good thing, I don't think everybody wants pictures of all her presents in the blog). But she got a fabric book for church, a bucket of shapes, a cute sleeper, some other clothes, and the book I Can Do It.

But I'm pretty sure her favorite present was this:
Not that she looks overjoyed in this picture, but she really was very happy about this riding toy. She wouldn't get off it for a long time afterwards, and it was definitely a hit with the other kids there. She's really enjoyed it this last week too, even though the music has already started having problems.

So that was Saturday's party, with friends from the ward, previous wards, and Ben's brother's family there to celebrate. Thanks everybody for coming, and Lily says Thanks again for the presents!

Sunday's party was a little more laid back, just my parents and brother and sister there. Lily fully enjoyed her cupcake (not another whole cake this time) and getting another chance to open presents. This time she got some more books, clothes, a puzzle and legos! The Legos have been very enjoyed this past week as well.

 

 
Hehe... my sister Anna and I might have had a little bit of fun playing with Josh's hair. He was a good sport about it.  He has very fluffy curly hair that's very fun to touch and play with. :)

 

And that's one happy little One Year Old!

For those who like this stuff, at her 1-year appointment Lily weighed 21lbs, and was 30 inches long. Which puts her in the 50% for her weight, and about 85% for her height. She also got 4 shots this time, which was not so much fun, but she did pretty good. She has a great Doctor, Dr. Chaput at the Lakeshore Clinic. She's awesome.

Here she is! Lily wasn't super happy cuz this was right after her shots. But Dr. Chaput is really great with her.

Happy Birthday Lily! Thanks for such a wonderful, unforgettable year!

Oops

Lily had her first piece of gum today! Oops. Remind me to zip up my purse next time I leave it out. She's getting too curious for her own good. :)

New Year, New...

Baby!!! That's right, I am pregnant and Lily is going to be a big sister this summer! Ben and I are really excited, though of course Lily is too little to know what we're talking about. I am about 14 weeks right now, so I just finished my 1st Trimester. I am due the very beginning of July, like July 2nd, I think. I still haven't scheduled my ultrasound, but once I do and I have it, I will definitely let everyone know what gender it is. (There's no way Ben and I could wait until the baby is born to find out what it is - we're just not that patient.)

This pregnancy so far feels pretty different than when I was pregnant with Lily. With Lily I didn't have a lot of morning sickness, but I just felt nauseous all the time. This time has been a lot better, hardly any nausea at all. Though it does seem like my cravings are a little stronger and harder to ignore, but I could just be forgetting. I do feel like I'm starting to show a lot earlier with this one, which is a little frustrating cuz I just feel fat, but I've heard that it's fairly common to show earlier with subsequent pregnancies, which makes sense.

Anyway, so that's our big new year's news! Two under 2 years old, wish us luck!!

Back in November, right when we found out (not that you can see that it says pregnant, but anyway). I had actually been fairly positive for a few days that I was pregnant, and when I felt really icky the day after Halloween, I took a test and voila! I was right! :)