Packing and moving and moving and packing

Moving. Is. Hard. You never know how much crap you've acquired until you have to pack it up and move it all. 

I have a lot of crap. 

We started on Saturday (much later than we thought we would...sleeping in is kind of important). Many carloads and truckloads later, all of said crap was in giant piles around our new house. I could've done a better job labeling where the boxes went...I've learned that lesson now.

Sunday we moved the last of everything over and started unpacking the boxes.

I think I'll be unpacking boxes for the next several days. 

Sunday night we noticed the hot water heater wasn't turned on...we actually even read the instructions on the side of the thing to try to get it to work, but- it didn't. Monday morning came around and the water was frigid...like...no chance you could pay me to get a shower in that temperature of water frigid. We called the hot water heater repair guy and he came over, looked at it for all of 30 seconds, held the button down just a little longer than we did, and charged $55 bucks for it. I guess he felt justified in doing so because he said, "Well now you know for next time. At least you learned something today!"

I have a feeling we'll be saying that a LOT over the next year. Aye aye aye. 

Jillian is NOT liking this abrupt change. She usually is the happiest, most content baby and will play by herself with her toys for SO long. Ever since we've been in the new house, she'll cry as soon as I put her down or walk out of her sight, and won't go to sleep unless someone is holding her hand. EXHAUSTING. Hopefully she gets used to it soon, cause I'm worn out. 

Michaela is living with us for the next couple of weeks until she can move into her apartment in Provo, and she's been helping out a TON with Jillian (thanks Mich!!). 

Much more unpacking ahead! I don't dare put up pictures now..someone might submit my name to Hoarders..

AAHHH!

Dear Jillian (8 months)

Dear Jillian,


When did you turn into this grown-up, interactive little PERSON?! It's hard to still consider you a "baby" when you act so much older! This progress has really happened over the past two weeks (before that I was thinking I wouldn't have much to add this month's post!) 


You make so many new noises! You like to blow spit bubbles and make motor boat sounds with your lips and tongue. Sometimes I think you're having full out conversations, because of all the sounds you make. I think you get the idea of how to make words, because you know how to work that tongue to make all kinds of noises! 

I keep saying you're days away from crawling...I'm still saying that...but you really seem so close! You'll get up on your hands and knees and rock back and forth, and lately you'll sometimes even scoot both knees forward at the same time! (then totally face plant...) A couple of days ago you even pulled yourself up to standing BY YOURSELF! You did dig into Michaela's arms pretty deeply, but it worked! Then you did it on the bottom step, then even using the stair railing! I wonder if you'll skip crawling and go straight to cruising? 

You also have started reaching for people and lifting up your arms when you knew you were about to be picked up. This WAS really cute, until we moved into our new house and you didn't want to be put down at all. 


Just like your Dad, you're a stomach sleeper! I always put you down on your back, but somewhere in the middle of the night you always find your way to your stomach. Sometimes when you wake up at night, you get a little confused by this and forget to roll over, so one of us will come to your rescue and flip you back over, then all is well again in the world.


Wiggly is an understatement when it comes to trying to hold you. You like to fling yourself backwards or try to crawl across other legs and arms. You also love to be spun around. You'll either lean backwards and laugh or grab on tight and snuggle up close (still giggling of course).


You LOVE when people "getcha" or play peek-a-boo. You SCREAM with laughter, just like you did this time when Nana was playing with you: 

I also love that you grin! You'll stick out those two little bottom teeth and stretch those lips into the widest smile. I think you know what the word "cheese" means, because you automatically do this when a camera comes into view. 

You also ate snow for the first time when we went skiing last week. Here's what you thought of that:

I love your happy and bubbly personality! (Now if only we can get you used to our new house your new room so you'll start to sleep normally again and not be ssoo clingy!!)


Love,
Mom

"Wedge...WEDGE!"

I figured since I've lived in Utah for like 4 years, I might as well give skiing a try. My legs HURT. Spencer really wanted to go snowboarding for his birthday (a choice he would later regret), so off we went. Michaela and I went skiing (because we knew that was a little more forgiving for first timers). 

We geared up in ridiculously heavy, tight boots and waddled our way up the side of the mountain with hands full of skis and poles towards the bunny hill. Fortunately, our ski instructor was pretty patient with us. I think I caught on fairly quickly (after a near-death experience with the tow rope...). 

We made 6 runs down the bunny hill, then rode the lift up to the top of the hill (where I also biffed it trying to get off of the lift). Coming down was pretty fun. I only fell twice! Once because I would've tripped over Michaela anyway, who was already looking up at me from the ground, and another time because the move I learned to STOP failed.

If all else fails, fall. Then you'll stop. My mom video recorded me coming down the last slope. I thought by that point I was looking semi-legit and going at on okay speed...but watching the reply was more of an..."Oohh...is that what that looked like? Dangit..." 

Michaela was pretty hilarious to be with. She was having a harder time mastering the stop maneuver,  which is essentially putting the front of your skis in a "wedge" shape. If she started going to fast you would hear, "Sweet baby Moses, ohmygosh AAAHHHH!!"

Later we met back up with Spencer and my Dad, who had very defeated looks on their faces. My Dad described his first snowboard experience as "the worst experience of his life." See, apparently skiing IS easier. 

Jillian had fun with Nana just walking around and looking at everyone. We put her in her snowsuit towards the end and sat her down in the snow, which was her first time actually being out in it! She wasn't too sure...but she looked pretty freaking adorable in her massive marshmallow suit. 

Time...I found some.

Having a student teacher is both wonderful and exhausting at the same time. Oh, I have a student teacher now. She'll be here for another two and a half weeks and is planning/teaching everything. Which. Is. Wonderful. I'm finally knocking out my "to-do" list that I've had for my classroom since umm...October? 

Well, I've been squeezing in my list between everyone's lists they've decided to pile on me. (Scut-monkey, much?)  

I got around to making this super huge pencil writing chart to keep track of where the kids are in their writing (super convenient):

Made this "fast-finisher" chart to hang up that is dry-erasable (aka changeable) so they can never come up to me and say, "I'm bored, what can I do now?" Fabulous. 

And swiped this idea from Pinterest for "synonym rolls" as a center idea. 

Next up on the list: (in between my recently acquired secretarial work) an Easter egg center and start making writing journals for next year! WOO for productivity!

Packing and squash

Packing /SUCKS/. The goal this weekend was to get the house mostly packed up 

 (did I mention we're buying a house? This is it!)

...ha..haha. I didn't even know where to start. Let me rephrase...I DON'T know where to start. 

I figured I'd do something easy, like all the DVD's and board games. After I did that, James heard a song while we were in Red Mango (avoiding packing) and said, "That makes me want to watch The Italian Job." "Sorry...you can't...it's packed in a box." "Did you tape the box?" "Yeah." "Crap." 

I suppose we'll be having lots of those conversations over the next week.

I also seem to think that since we are in a state of packing, cleaning is moot and eating out all the time is acceptable. It works, for now. 

I also had to post this picture of Jillian. She HATES squash. 

I'm kind of weird in that I fix Jillian one fruit and veggie each day (even though if she had it her way, she'd eat bananas at every meal). Well, squash was in the refrigerator, thus on the menu. I managed to make her eat 4 bites of it. On that fourth bite, she promptly leaned over the tray of her high chair, and spit it out...then of course looked up at me and smiled. Message received, baby.

Goal the rest of this week? More packing, less avoiding...less squash.

Leap Year Day

How are you spending your extra day this year? I'm spending mine in a meeting...aallll...ddaaayyy...loonngggg...

So much for extra time. :-)

Dear Jillian (7 months)

Dear Jillian, 

Happy 7 months to you! You are now closer to 1 than you are to..none..And even though you're still 5 months away from that landmark, I have the majority of your birthday planned out in my mind. I'm just a little excited.  

The other night I was feeding you somewhere around 2am and I looked at you laying across my lap and thought, "Are you REALLY this big?" It's true. You are.

 
Your little personality comes out more and more each day. You're definitely the happiest in the morning. I love going to get you when you wake up because you get so excited to see us- you smile so big and kick your legs and start thrashing around. It's adorable. 

You can balance really well sitting up and even on your hands and knees! You can pull your knees under yourself sometimes, but I like to put you there to help out a little..then you rock back and forth and get so frustrated that you can't actually go anywhere.  

We finally got around to getting you a highchair- I even put it together myself (one day you'll see how big of an accomplishment that is for me because I HATE following instructions to put things together). I think you really like it. You also don't try to flip out of it like you were starting to do when you are in your Bumbo chair...so that's better. 

You LOVE eating solid food. So far you've tried rice cereal, oatmeal, peas, bananas, apples, pears, squash, and sweet potatoes. Just this week I started giving you little dissolving baby cereal puffs. You have a hard time getting them from your clenched fist into your mouth, but when you do you love chomping them with your two little front teeth. Even though you love your food, you HATE the sound the Baby Bullet (blender) makes when I puree it. You truly get scared and start waving your arms and yelling. It's the saddest thing I've ever seen, so usually your Dad has to take you downstairs for that part.


You don't like when anyone takes a toy away from you. You just recently starting doing this pouty face where you close your eyes tight and pout your lips out and make a very whiny noise. It's almost funny. 


I'm probably most proud of your latest accomplishments in sleeping- YAY! You've slept 10 straight hours through the night on several nights lately. Your naps are also starting to get longer, between 1-2.5 hours! Let's keep that up, I think it makes everybody happier. 


You also love playing in the bathtub now, especially with your rubber duck. You also like when I wring out the wash cloth over your hands, it makes you giggle. But you do HATE getting your pajamas on after your bath. 


Today I gave you a metal bowl and a whisk and showed you how to bang it to make noise. Of course you loved it- you love to play with most things that aren't meant to be toys. I should probably just buy you remotes, keyboards, and items with lots of tags and you'll be as happy as a clam.


You babble a LOT more than you used to. You make sounds like "ma-ma-ma" and "da-da-da" among lots of over goos and coos. 

Every month I think, "There is NO way you can get ANY cuter." I love that every month I'm wrong, and you do. 


I love you!


Mom

Oh..my...heavens..

I think I gained 5 pounds last night. Of those 5 pounds I think I only regret 1 one of them. We finally celebrated Valentine's Day by going to the Melting Pot in Salt Lake. Hol-E CRAP. SO good. No place like the Melting Pot to make you feel extremely large and glutenous.

We got spinach & artichoke cheese fondue, then a variety of meats to cook in our little pot- sirloin, chicken, shrimp, and tuna- then finished off with milk chocolate fondue swirled with crunchy peanut butter and pureed berries served with fresh fruit, brownies, cheesecake, pound cake, marshmallows, and rice krispie treats. Yeah. You gained 5 pounds too just reading that.

I'd do it again. Soon.

Thanks for babysitting Michaela, that was seriously our first date in MONTHS. :-)

Valentine Goodness

If I see one more piece of chocolate I'm literally going to vomit. This might do my diet some good. I'm literally grossed out by it. I'm thinking this is a good strategy though...gorge on little heart-shaped chocolates the entire day of loveyness and then avoid it for the next 6 months.

I even ate the cheap nasty chocolate this year just because it was there. Geez. Where have my standards gone?

Anyway. It was a fun day.

I made these little goodies for the kiddos. Mostly because I was feeling crafty...only partly because I like them. *wink

Every year I also have a "Valentine box competition." They decorate boxes to hold their Valentine cards from each other. These were a few of my faves...the creative little boogers:

James also sent these lovely things to my place of employment. They came in a box (thanks 1-800-Flowers!) and one of the kids asked, "Are those flowers fake? They came in a box..."

Flowers in boxes MUST be fake. Der. Every 8 year-old knows that. *wink

The rest of the night was super chill. Heart-shaped pizza from Papa Murphys, a baby who wasn't interested in an early bedtime, and Zumba. :-) 

Hope your day of love was full of it.

...love that is. 

V-day

"Valentine's Day is on Tuesday! Tuesday is February 14th, which is Valentine's Day! This Tuesday is Valentine's Day!" says the annoying man on the radio. Wait...when is it again?

I'm pretty excited about it. No big plans really (although we are going to the Melting Pot thanks to one of my student's parents who gave me a $50 gift card; that I am definitely excited about). Chalk this holiday up to another "first" for Jillian. Not that she can eat chocolate...or appreciate the pretty scent of flowers. But she would probably appreciate me letting her try to eat the flowers (anything goes in that mouth these days).

I've found a TON of CUTE V-day stuff on pinterest. (Check it out here). Gosh that site is like crack for your eyes. It inspired me a little to make cuter than usual goodies for my class (because the usual is a cheap little card with a sucker stuck through it or something). I'll put the final product up on Tuesday (I left some supplies at school...).

They're inspired by these adorable printables over at Pumpkins and Posies.

Also made these for my young women's group at church (although unfortunately didn't get to printing them out- burned by my procrastination).

May you get lotsa lovin'...and chocolate. And if you get neither, you should at least buy yourself some chocolate. But don't buy yourself some lovin'. Because that's illegal.