March 2012

Well peeps we made it!!! I finish this post and we are all caught up! Whew!! I can't believe how much Dani has changed and grown in the last few months. We finally got a booster seat for the table. She will not sit in her high chair anymore. She eats her own cereal for breakfast and sometimes snack. She knows what kind she wants. She has a vocabulary of about 60 signs and I don't even know how many words. A lot of them still need to be translated for others but she tries really hard to communicate and her pernunciation is getting lots better! She likes to be the one to say the prayer even though she still needs help.
It is so amazing to see her little personality come through. She LOVES Tangled, Elmo and Winnie the Pooh (Grandma Todd is just cringing at that I bet.) ;-) She tells me what she wants to watch, positions my hands around her waist when she wants to cuddle. She teases Travis and I all the time by sitting in "our spots." She counts to 5 and sometimes 10 all by herself. She recognizes about 10 letters all on her own. Just amazing what a little sponge she is!

I always forget to take belly pics! This is 28 1/2 weeks. I can't believe how fast it has gone this time. It started slowing down as we hit the third trimester because the insomnia and aches amplified but we've still been able to deal and Travis has been a HUGE help with things around the house.

Dani's first purse. She LOVES this thing. She was so funny walking all around the store with it on her wrist. Trying to figure out if she should fold her arms or hold it in her hand. She was showing it to everyone. It was hilarious!
When we were down in St. George for our Costco trip this month I had the opportunity to have lunch with an old friend from High School that just moved there, Becky Stewart. It was so fun to see her and catch up!
We went into town and had dinner with our friends the Judd's. We even got away with having a decent double date when the kids played downstairs and watched a movie while we played a game. It was good to get out of the house and hang out with some friends. Things are going to be crazy in a couple months and we won't have as many opportunities for things like that.
Travis had a couple of different farm related meetings. He always enjoys going to them and meeting new people. Gives him a chance to get off the farm and run around town a little bit without his "nagging wife" on his arm. ;-)

This is one of the pictures that I took of Dani for the Style n Sass blog. See what I mean about her being my little model? She is so funny. I never know what I am going to get when I pull out the camera!

She has also developed quite a fondness for balloons over the last few months. She likes to play the "keep it in the air as long as you can" game. Her record is about 5 bumps. She has so much fun.

She likes to help me when I crochet. She holds the hook and then I put my hand over hers and she lets me move her hand around. The other morning I was getting everything ready to make a blanket and she jumped in my spot when I went to grab something else and I came back to this! She had grabbed the yarn and the hook and was wrapping it around the yarn and moving the needle trying to pick up more with the hook. It was so so cute!
We also had our 30 week ultrasound this month. I can't believe we're getting so close! I still have a million things to do... Well I'm sure she'll get here whether we're ready or not. I just have a few busy weeks a head. :-)

February 2012

These are mostly just some fun pictures from February. Dani figured out that Daddy makes a good horsie! I have no idea who taught her to ham up for pictures like this. They came over and she was already smiling cause she was having fun of course. I told her to look at me and smile and this is what I got! I could not stop laughing!! It was hilarious!!!

These next couple are from Valentine's Day. We had a fun family day together. Dani joined Mommy and Daddy on our date. ;-) She's a good third wheel. She was having so much fun playing in the snow before we left. This is one of the 2 big storms that we got this winter. She didn't really get much opportunity to explore snow this year. She loves it! Every time is snows she gets so excited watching it fall. Just wish more of it would have stuck around so she could play more.
We spent the day running errands and getting things we needed for the house and then went out to dinner at Denny's which has become our tradition. It was a great day! Good to have a family day. :-)

We have a little tradition that we started when we were pregnant with Dani. Whomever is right in guessing the baby's sex gets to pick out the first outfit. Since Dani was the one that was right she got to pick the first outfit for Charleene. She happened to pick a dress that had one in her size too so we got matching ones. I'm going to be one of those crazy moms that makes her girls dress matchy matchy on occasion. ;-) 
Jacque and Justin came down for a weekend in February. It is so fun to see the girls together and what is better is we'll both be having girls again! It'll be so fun to watch this next set grow up together too.

I had the camera out taking some pictures of a pattern I was working on and before I could put it way, Dani stopped me and asked me to take a picture of her. Look at that face! How could you refuse? ;-)

Dani's 2nd Birthday

Happy Happy birthday to our sweet Little Miss! Who can believe you've been in our lives for 2 years now! I can't believe all that you've learned how to do and what a big help you are to Mommy and Daddy!! You are so obedient and kind. We are so happy to have your special spirit in our home and we hope you always know how much we love you!

She got a few things, shoes, books, outfits from Grandma and Grandpa Todd and Laub. Aunt Lauren and Uncle Ben sent her a book. She went through everything so fast it was hard to get pictures of it all. At the end though, Daddy went out of the room and came back with this -

She had played with her cousin Jaycee's a couple weeks earlier when we were up visiting and we were so excited to see how much she enjoyed it because we already had it in the closet. ;-) When Travis wheeled it out she squealed and ran right over and hopped on. It was so cute! She knows that she should be able to peddle it and gets frustrated when her feet are where they are supposed to be and she can't make it work. I think the carpet is too thick in our front room but it is too cold still for us to take it outside. She does walk around on it or give her teddy bear rides. ;-) Which is really, really cute. Hopefully when Spring finally shows up she'll get some good practice outside. :-)

Eh, I don't know, maybe we should have gotten her something else... ;-) What do you think?

January 2012

Happy New Year!!!!
We rang in the new year with Travis' family. We went over after church and had a fun family day with those that were able to make it. Milt and Roni and kids, Kevin and Sara and kids, DJ and Whitney and Travis and I and Dani were all there. We had some great food, played games. We all had a really good time. :-)

One morning I left Dani in the front room while I ran back to the bathroom. Usually she follows me and I was surprised (and a little relieved) to have some "alone time." Found out only moments later why... Dani had figured out how to unscrew the cap on my mascara. The most impressive part to me is that she actually got it relatively close to the right place! Luckily there wasn't much of a mess other than her face and a couple spots on her shirt that came out fairly easily. Silly girl!

Grocery shopping has gotten tricky lately. Dani really hates riding in the cart. Front, back, it doesn't matter - for some reason it's no fun. When she wants to walk it's not big deal, when she wants to be carried - not so much... I have a toddler game on my phone that she LOVES and she can't get into "trouble" doing things she shouldn't. So on this particular occasion she played it the WHOLE TIME we were shopping and I had to stack everything around her. It was really funny all the looks and comments we got. Mostly from Grandparents that were wishing they could have done that with their kids. ;-) Poor thing, it wasn't so fun anymore when I took the phone away to take the picture! Haha
Travis and I also had the opportunity to attend the Young Farmers and Ranchers Leadership Conference put on by Farm Bureau. It was a lot of fun! We got to meet quite a few interesting people and they had some great speakers including Baxter Black who is a western lifestyle comedian. We really enjoyed it!

We had our 20 week ultrasound on the 10th. We got some pretty good shots considering this little one was shy just like Dani was. It was really funny because both Travis and I thought that we were going to be having a boy this time around. We asked Dani what she thought we were having (her first response was Elmo..) Haha. We decided leaving it open ended wasn't the way to go. So I asked her, "Do you think it's a boy? Are you getting a brother?" She kind of paused and said, "Ummmm." So I asked her, "Do you think it's a girl? Are you getting a sister?" And immediately she started babbling jibber jabber! So I egged her on with it and kept asking and reaffirming that that is what she thought and she never stopped.
When we were at the doctor for the ultrasound Travis and I were both shocked when the ultrasound tech told us it was a girl. We just looked at Dani and she had the BIGGEST smile on her face! It was so cute!! Over the last couple of months she's been talking to my tummy more. Saying "hi" to sister and telling her she loves her. It's really cute! I can't wait for them to meet!!

Girl shot. 

Hi baby girl! It took us a few months to settle on a name we both like but we've decided to name her Charleene Ruth. "Charlee" for short. We both like names that can be cutsied and then made a little more elegant if the girls choose that when they get older. Ruth has a lot of significance for us. It is part of Travis' mother's first name and it was the middle name of my Grandma Todd and is the middle name of Travis' Grandma Laub. We like the idea of giving our children family names and we both have a strong attachment to Ruth. :-) Hopefully this little one will like it.
January was also the month that my sister-in-law Roni invited me to blog with her about the craft stuff that we do. She is an amazing seamstress and creates a lot of fun things. I have been knitting and crocheting for a LONG time now and just recently started writing my own patterns which I really love doing. We post patterns and pictures on our blog www.stylensass.blogspot.com and in each post is a link to our Etsy site where all the items can be purchased. If you haven't yet, come on over and look around. Let me know what you think of the patterns I've posted and follow the blog for more updates. :-) We also have a facebook page under Style N Sass and we post pictures and links to the blog every time that we update it. It has been really fun to have a creative outlet. Dani is my little model and with as much as she loves the camera, she doesn't mind. ;-)

Christmas 2011

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!! Dani really got into the whole "opening presents" tradition. She LOVED it once she got the hang of it. She opened all hers and most of the family gifts. Then she couldn't get enough of playing with the paper. ;-) These were her special Christmas jammies. She opened them on Christmas Eve and slept in them. Sorry, there aren't any pictures of the actual present opening process. We got all that on the video camera.

Dani's "take." She "inherited a lot of my old stuffed animals. Grandma Laub got her a dolly that is just right for her little arms. She loves it. She was a little irritated that I pulled her away from her toys and made her sit there for a picture instead of playing. ;-)

Travis got some games, pj pants and a Lego set that he had been wanting for about 6 months! It was worth the wait though. He has really enjoyed it. :-)

I got some pj pants and a new alarm clock since mine didn't keep time anymore. ;-) Travis also got me a dehydrator that was half my birthday, half Christmas. We forgot to put it in the picture. I am so excited to use it this summer and get some healthy yummy snacks floating around. I really miss my Grandma Bates' dried pears. Now I can make my own!

This is the "family take." We threw in the gifts from Trav's parents too. My favorite is the Elk FAMILY sign there in the middle.

This is Dani's Santa gift. It is a small key board that teaches colors, numbers, shapes etc. She can play with it alone or we can set it up to interact with the TV. She's really gotten some enjoyment out of it over the last few months.

We actually did all of our family "Christmas traditions" and opening gifts a couple days early because we spent Christmas Eve and Christmas day with my family. All of the opening of gifts and things is on the video camera as well. It was a nice visit. We got to skype with Levi and enjoyed a really nice long day together. There's a lot of us to coordinate now that we're all getting married and having kids so it is always great when we can get together. It was a wonderful Christmas!

December 2011

This is when Dani discovered blanket capes. It had to be this pink John Deere one and she had to be able to still walk around and carry her teddy and blankie. It was so cute!

We stopped at Cabela's to do some Christmas shopping on one of our trips to Salt Lake. Dani got to play in the arcade! :-)

Roni, Sara and their kids, Mandy, Whitney and some of her friends kids and Dani and I all got together to go sledding towards the end of the month. We finally had enough snow to go! Dani was really, really nervous about the going down the hill and leaving mommy at the top but was always laughing on the way up and towards the end she was chasing the kids on the sleds hoping to get a ride! :-) Thanks to Aunt Whitney and Aunt Mandy that were willing to take Dani up and down the hill so many times! 

Belly photo shot - 20 weeks

Christmas photo in front of the tree. Next year we'll have one more. What a crazy thought!!

One of Travis' Christmas presents was a new Cabela's hunting game. Dani sat with him for a while and "helped" him play till she was pretty sure she had the hang of it and then ran off with the gun and just started firing it at the TV (or the floor or the ceiling..) Every time she "pulled the trigger" it would make a banging noise even if it wasn't pointed at the TV so she had a blast!
We went to temple square with Tom, Natalie, and my Dad. I think it would have gone a little better if we hadn't taken TRAX. We didn't want to try and find a place to park so it seemed like a good idea but all the people squished into a teeny tiny space really overwhelmed Dani. It wasn't a good start for the evening. She was really clingy all over the grounds and didn't really have a good time - till we left and rode an empty TRAX train back. Then she all over dancing and singing and playing with Grandpa. Silly girl.

November 2011

I am so grateful for cell phone cameras! I can't believe how few pictures I have for some of these months! I broke my camera at the end of August and I forget to take Travis' when we go places. Mine was just in the diaper bag. It did have a good long life of almost 7 years but I sure miss it. Oh well, at least I had something I could pull out at a moment's notice. ;-)

This picture above is of Dani hanging out in her little self designated "spot." She would climb underneath the foot rest of Trav's chair every time he reclined. It complicated things when Travis needed to get out... but she LOVED it under there. She has gotten too tall for it now so it doesn't happen so much anymore. 

Dani LOVES books! She doesn't really care what they are about as long as someone will read to her. Travis was looking at a lego magazine and Dani decided that she needed to be involved so she plopped down right next to him. She has become more and more attached to her Daddy lately and it is so cute to see them play together.

For our little neighbor and friend Christmas gifts this year I made a bunch of fabric wreaths. Shredding all the material is what took FOREVER. Luckily I had a super duper helper when it came to mixing them all together. She made the BIGGEST mess I think I've ever let her make. She just kept throwing handfuls in the air. We were finding them on the entertainment center and mixed in with her toys for a couple days after this. It was so funny. She got to play and mix them all up for about 15 minutes and then helped me pick them all up and put them in baggies so that I could use them for the wreaths. What a great helper! :-)

We didn't do much in November because I was pretty sick and not much fun to be around but we did enjoy some family time at home.

We didn't get any pictures at Thanksgiving it looks like... Sorry.. We had dinner with Travis' family this year. They did an oven turkey AND a deep fried turkey (Mmmmm). We had some really good food and good company. Dani loves hanging out with her cousins and had a good time running around while Daddy hung out with Grandpa and his brothers and Mommy got to play some games with Grandma and the other girls. We had a pretty good day. :-)

October 2011

Dani was finally getting big enough to be trusted with Daddy's legos! She loved to run her hands through them and pic out some of her favorite ones. Her fingers are still obviously too tiny to put them together but she would play with the ones that her Daddy would put together for her.
Dani was still struggling with adjusting to nursery at this point and the little kid legos were her favorite to play with with him. He would stay for the first hour then sneak out.

This is Dani all dressed up to take Daddy out to Boulder for the elk hunt. There just isn't enough room for us in the camper and between my "all day morning sickness" and knowing that Dani doesn't fall asleep well with us around her, we decided it would be better if Dani and I stayed home this year. So that we would have the truck and a way to get around for the week that Daddy was gone, we all rode up together and then I took the truck and Dani home. Travis stayed with his parents and his brother in his parent's trailer.
We didn't end up with an elk this year but a few weeks later we were able to buy a cow from the dairy across the freeway so we did get some meat in our freezer. YAY!

Jacque and Justin came down again in October. They were here with some friends of theirs when we got the call about the cow so thankfully Travis had a lot of help when it came to killing and cleaning it. It helped a lot on cutting down the cost at the butcher. Thanks for your help guys! This is the mommy's and the kiddos ready to go for a walk to see the horses. Dani and Rachel had to stand in the middle because they had to hold each other's hands! So cute!!! :)

This was Dani's costume for Halloween. I can't believe this is the best picture we have of it! :-( She picked it out all by herself and she looked so cute! Some of the women in town put together a sort of "block party." There was s chili and corn bread cook off, a bunch of games and crafts for the kids and then a trunk-or-treat at the end. It small but a lot of fun!

We had our 10 week Dr appt and ultrasound in October. (Just one baby - HOORAY!) It always amazes me how much of their tiny little bodies develops so quickly!

18 Month-ish Photo Shoot

I had been wanting to take pictures of Dani out in the corn and hay all year long. So in September I decided to do it for her 18 mo photos (a month or so late). She was so cute! We actually got really lucky because I didn't think to check the camera before we left the house and it was so dead it wouldn't even turn on! I had to take all these with my phone! They still turned out pretty good. For the most part Dani was her usual happy, model self. She has always loved the camera.

This next one is my favorite!! I have had it on my phone ever since I took it. I love her sly little smile.