Having a Body really helps you to grow.....

Man, its been a long week for me. Not one of my best, to say the least. But its over and I'm doing great! I've had a lot of help and a lot of great pick-me-ups along the way!

Julia and I have been listening to "My Turn On Earth" this week in the car. She loves to listen to the song where Jesus and Satan present their plans to everyone in heaven. Its fun to have her listen and then ask questions about each song and at least we get something spiritual out of the day :)

Well, the song that hit me this week was the one about your body. It goes a little something like this:

"Everybody ought to have a body, a body is the only way to go.
Oh everybody ought to have a body, having a body really helps you to grow!"

NO KIDDING! Having a body is great when you are healthy and strong but man it can beat you up when you are sick! I've had my fair share of illnesses and it truly is amazing what your body can deal with and go through. And it's true what they say, "What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger." When things get a little rough for me Layne always says, "well, its why we came to earth. You wanted to come to earth to get a body!" Sometimes I wonder, if I really knew what my body had to go through and endure I don't know if I would have shouted for JOY so quickly?! But no really, everything I go through puts things into perspective once again. Why we go through what we go through is to learn and appreciate life and health and your body. It helps us develop Christlike qualities that we could only gather and appreciate because of our hardship.

I do appreciate my body! I do appreciate my health a whole lot more when I have it. I am able to hear and see all that is around me. I am able to walk and have the use of my hands. I can do so many things with my body and I am so grateful for it. It teaches me to stay humble and take each day as a gift. I am glad I was able to come to earth and get a body!

Another thing Julia loves to ask after hearing that song is this: "Mom does everybody have a body?"
Me: "Yep, everybody you see has a body."

Christian 15 months

Man, this kid just gets bigger everyday! He does something new everyday! They just grow up so darn fast! But I must say Christian has been a great baby and is doing great growth wise. We went in for his 15month check up last week and the doctor said everything looked great. That's always good to hear! Here are his stats for 15 months: Lenght: 29 3/4in  Weight: 22.9 lbs  Head Circum: 49cm (still in the 90% for that stat.)

Between 12 months to 15 months it seems like he has changed so much. He finally started walking at 14 months. He just decided it was time and took off! He gets better and better everyday. He is becoming more independent too. He loves to just play in his room either with Julia or without her. He is always pulling the books off the shelf and looking through them. He usually will bring me something out of his room for us to read or play with.

Loves to look at books

Besides walking he still loves to dance! Anytime he hears music he just turns his head and starts moving. His new move is to bend his knees up and down while he waves his hands over his head. It looks like he is directing the music instead of dancing. He loves to sit on daddy's lap with a bottle of milk and watch the singing programs we have recorded.

Whenever I am changing Christians diaper or just getting him dressed he loves to tickle his own feet. He will grab on to one of them and make the tickle sound with his mouth. Its cute! He loves to try and put on his own socks and shoes too. He is beginning to talk a little and can say 'go' and tries to say 'bye' but it just sounds like the 'b' sound. He is signing a lot more though. He can sign, milk, fish, bath, please, doggie, and shoe. One thing that surprised me was one night we were going to say family prayer and Christian folded his arms all by himself. Every time we have a prayer or we are at church I will just fold his arms for him but he just started doing it on his own. I was so happy and just couldn't believe he caught on to that concept so quickly. Its so fun to watch them grow and to see what they will learn and do each day. I love this stage. 12-24 months is a fun stage. They start to walk and talk and say and do the funniest stuff. Can't wait to see what the next few months will bring!

I said say "cheese" and Christian pulled one of his funny faces

Christian is such a charmer and a flirt (must take after his daddy!). He will look at people and then snuggle up against me. Or he will tilt his head and give you a smile. He has some of the funniest faces too and does a good job imitating you if you want him to make a face. Christian loves to wave goodbye, every time he goes to bed or someone is leaving the room or the house he is waving. Whenever we are walking in the parking lot to or from the store he just has his little hand waving at all the cars that go by.

Christian is sleeping better and will usually only wake up about once in the middle of the night, usually around 3:30-4:30am. But occasionally he does sleep through the night. We give him a morning bottle in bed and he usually goes back to bed for an hour or so. We are trying to wean him off the bottle at night. No more bottles at bedtime. He eats before bed, brush his teeth and then off to bed. He cries for about 10-15 mins and then talks to himself and then will fall asleep. Its so cute to hear him playing in bed.

He is doing so well at eating too. He usually eats one good meal a day and snacks the rest of the time. But he will try anything you put in front of him. If he doesn't like it he just spits it out. He is now wanting to try and feed himself. Layne and I have been letting him help us use his spoon. We help him hold it and we let him try it. He gets really mad if you do it for him. And when we finish up our dinner he will be signing 'bath'. He loves bath time and thinks every time we eat dinner its time for a bath afterwards!

Ready for bed

We love this little guy so much. He has been such a happy go lucky boy and we are so grateful he is a part of our family. He adds so much to our lives. He makes me laugh everyday by something he does or one of his funny faces. He loves his big sister and they get along really well, so far, anyway!

LOVES being outside. Ready to go to the park!

LIKES:
Bath time
Pulling off his own socks
Dancing
Being outside
Milk
Reading books

DISLIKES:
Being told no
Being left behind if someone is going outside
Sitting still in church
Having the door shut on him in his room

Preserve Your Memories.......

Describe my favorite winter activities.

Well, when I was younger I loved to play outside in the snow. I usually found myself trying to build some type of snow fort or making snow angels. When we would visit my grandparents house (which later became our house) I loved to go sledding. I remember a few times when all of us, including aunts and uncles came out to the 'big' hill and took the toboggan down for a ride. It was so fun and we would get going so fast. You couldn't really steer the toboggan and often times we would be headed toward the big pine tree at the end of the run so we would have to bail off before we would hit it. Lots of times we would also venture off onto the back hills of our property where the hills were a little more steep and a little more dangerous. There were times when we would definitely catch some air and you certainly had to make sure to clear the big rocks on those hills. Often times we came back with broken sleds due to our runs down those 'scary' hills. It was a blast though and we always had so much snow in Michigan. Every winter you could count on a few snow days and that made playing outside even more fun!

As I grew up and got older I found that skiing was the ultimate winter activity! Once I moved to Utah it took me awhile to get up to the mountains for my first skiing experience but once I tried it I was hooked and picked it up pretty easily! I got my sisters to try it and they became my snow buddies. We would go to Brighton and ski at night because it was cheap, COLD, but cheap. Once in awhile we would save our money and spend a Saturday hitting all the runs. After every ski trip it was tradition to stop at 7-eleven and get a hot chocolate. I still wish I could ski but after a few knee surgeries my doctor told me I didn't have a 'ski' knee anymore. I was pretty bummed out but I might try it out again one day to see my knee could take it!

Leap Year

Here are some fun tidbits about Leap Year.

When is it? An extra day is added to the month of February every four years. This year, Leap Day is on Wednesday, February 29.


Why we need Leap Day: Usually, our year is 365 days long. Except that it's not: A full cycle of seasons is actually 365 days, 5 hours, 49 minutes, and 16 seconds long, or about 365.25 days. Over time, the extra quarter of a day adds up, and without Leap Day, the calendar would be one day out of sync with the seasons. After 30 years, it would be about a week off, and after 100 years, it would be nearly a month off. Bing Quock, the assistant director of Morrison Planetarium at the California Academy of Sciences, explains, "Leap Day is added as a correction to the calendar so that it stays in sync with the seasons ... that way, the seasons start on the same day from year to year to year."


The history of Leap Year: Leap Year has been around for 2,000 years, since Julius Caesar created the 365-day calendar, although Caesar's astronomer, Sosigenes, get s credit for adding an extra day in February every four years.

How to celebrate: Fans of Disney parks will be lining up to take advantage of "One More Disney Day" at Disneyland in California and at Magic Kingdom in Florida, which will be open for 24 hours, from February 29 at 6 a.m. until 6 a.m. March 1. Michele Himmelberg, a spokesperson for Disney, said it's the first time in recent memory that theme parks on both coasts will be open to mark the quadrennial event. She confirmed the rides will run all night. Hey, come in your PJs.

5 Fun Leap Year Facts


1.People who are born on Leap Year are called leapers or leaplings.

2.If you are born on Leap Year, you are automatically invited to be a member of The Honor society of Leap Year Day Babies.

3.In Scotland it is considered bad luck to be born on Leap Year

4.In Greece it is bad luck to marry on February 29th.

5.Leap Year was named after an Archbishop Oswald of York who died on February 29, 992. It is also referred to as St. Oswald’s Day.

Leap Year’s Greatest Tradition
An old Irish legend that has been widely adopted throughout time says that Leap Year is the one day when a woman can propose marriage to a man. This was the premise of the 2010 movie Leap Year. By the way, ladies, if he refuses the proposal he must give you an expensive gift.

Boppin to the Music

Every time we get in the car and Christian hears music he bops along with it. This particular time he is bobbing up and down. Sometimes he will wiggle back and forth or kick his legs and shake his head. I love to watch him dance to the music. He has some pretty crazy moves for sitting in a car seat. He loves music and loves to dance. I think car dancing is another one of his favorite things to do!

Christian can Walk!

I thought it would take forever for Christian to walk but once he decided he was off and going. As of Monday, Feb. 13th, Christian walks. For the longest time he would just walk along the furniture and stand all by himself but Monday he just took off. He was only taking a few steps if we made him walk to something or someone but now he just walks everywhere. Layne said that he just came walking out of his bedroom and walked all the way out to the living room. And ever since then he just goes! I'm glad, it just makes life a little easier. He still has some balance issues and sometimes he just gets going to fast but that is a part of learning. I got him on tape showing off his new skills :)

My Nephew Miles

I don't know what it is about my little nephews but they are awesome, funny, sensitive, unique and so smart! Today I have to give a shout out to my nephew Miles. First of all this kid is a crack up! He does and says the funniest things. He's very subtle and quiet about it but he can certainly be a big ham! I love to just sit and listen to him talk. I'm also amazed at how 'techy' this kid is. He can run the Wii and the Iphone like nobody's business!

Miles kept on hamming it up  for me every time I had the camera out!

Over Christmas we got to see Miles and spend some time with him. I was so totally impressed with his new ability. And that is to name pretty much all of the temples just by looking at a picture of them. And he has also made up hand signs for each one too. His mom made a little book of some of the temples from Utah, foreign temples and temples from different states. All he has to do is look at the picture of it and he can tell you which temple it is. What a great idea! I told Miles some of the temples I had been to and he could point out which temple it was from his book. You could just seem him light up when he recognized which one you were talking about. He told me he wants to get married in the Logan temple someday!

Showing Uncle Layne his temple book

Such a funny, sweet, little boy! A great cousin too! Love ya buddy!