"Da Pooh"

Laralei has taken up a great friendship with her friend "da Pooh". You can view a video of her first time meeting her friend on facebook. Also, she has a stuffed Pooh that she is now carrying everywhere, sharing her pacifier with, putting in her highchair and feeding milk and raisins, as well as singing and dancing with. She has also tried diapering Pooh and puts him to bed next to her. It is all very sweet. I love to see her imagination at work as she kisses Pooh and insists that Shawn and I do the same. It is exciting to see her playing pretend and modeling behavior with her new little friend.

New

What's new with Laralei?

She helped set the table for the first time today. She drank out of a cup (not a sippy cup)

She also helped me make cupcakes for the first time. She tasted the flour, and looked at me funny. After spilling eggs and chocolate all over the chair, her feet, shirt, the floor etc., she finally tasted the batter again just before the cupcakes went into the oven. Her eyes got big and she looked up at me in amazement. She said ummm, as though it were magic that what had once tasted like flour was now chocolate and yummy!

Yesterday Laralei started to say her name for the first time...lalalalalalaralei! She is now saying it on a regular basis.

For about a week now Laralei has been counting to three. Usually daddy would tickle her or act crazy somehow when he would count and finally reach 3, so Lee acts accordingly and tries to make something big happen when she reaches the big THREE!

Tending my garden

This must be one of my all time favorite pictures of Lee to date. Some friends of ours babysat for us, and took this lovely picture of Laralei. Thank you so much for sharing your talents Brother and Sister Dye and for sharing this picture with us.

Hi Pluto!

Thanks Nana for making me these great new pajamas!

They are soooo soft!

Today Lee created a new game. Right now we have a mirror in our living room that is the right size for a full length Laralei mirror. Lee has discovered her friend in the mirror. She babbles to her, shows her toys and new tricks etc. Today Lee created a game where she ran screaming all the way to the mirror, laughed at her friend and then turned and ran away screaming. She ran all the way to her bedroom. A few seconds later she would repeat the whole process, over and over! It was so funny to watch her play with her friend in the mirror!

Laralei also tried singing "Winnie the Pooh". It comes out more "Da Pooh". She was singing "Da Pooh, Da Pooh, Da Pooh" and brought me a video tape. This is the first time that Lee has requested to watch a specific movie, so we sat and ate oranges and watched "Da Pooh" together. Precious moments!

Baby # 2

Well, here are some of the clearer pictures of our first ultrasound. They are still not very clear, but they are the best that we have at this stage. It is still fairly early to have ultrasound pictures at all, so we are very excited to have these early pictures of the baby due July 26, 2010, just two days before Shawn's birthday!

I keep showing Lee pictures of babies and then point to my stomach and tell her that there is baby in there, but she really does not understand and just looks at me strangely. I do not think that she has noticed the changes to my body yet. Today we saw a baby at the dr. office and she was very excited. We talked to her about being a big sister. It is hard to see what she understands and what she does not, but she was very curious about the baby and excitedly repeated her new word over and over "baby, baby, baby" pointing all the time! I think that she will be a great big sister!

A Ride on the Carousal

Laralei loved the carousal at Disneyland.

I looked out the window and what did I see?

Shawn captured these great shots of Lee looking out a window at Disneyland.

With Cousins at Grandma's House for Thanksgiving

Everyone had a lot of fun at Grandma and Grandpa Bennion's this year for Thanksgiving. It was a special treat to play with cousins, see grandparents and great grandparents as well as Aunt Jackie!

Future Concert Pianist

Balloons and Cotton Candy

The local senior center held a fair. Lee loved the cotton candy and her balloon. She also went for a train ride!

Halloween with Cousins!

We went to St. George and spent Halloween with Keb, Melissa, Sam, Rachel, Jared & Nathan. It was a blast! First we went to Melissa's Halloween concert. Laralei loved the music and so did we. Then, on Halloween we made Mummy pizzas, Bone bread sticks, and Witches Brew (root beer poured over dry ice in a cauldron). The kids all dressed up, and so did Shawn and Keb. Shawn dressed at a handsome Robinhood and Keb was a stick man. Check out the pictures of everyones' costumes below. Keb's costume was particularly creative and a lot of fun. He was moving when I took the picture so the arms aren't just perfect in the picture, but you get the idea. Outside in the dark you only see the glowing stick man walking down the street!

Laralei loved her ladybug costume. From the time she was dressed, she knew something was up and took off running down the street! It was difficult to get pictures because she did not want to stand still. She also started saying "thank you" for the first time! Being handed candy at every door was a great reinforcement for the newly acquired manners. Laralei loves her cousins, and so far, loves Halloween!

Some more pictures...

Sorry it has been so long. I am trying to catch up here....Laralei's first birthday...family party!

Emergency Essentials

Shawn and I have been working on building our food storage and I found out about this really neat calculator by Emergency Essentials. You input your family, and then the food that you currently have stored. The calculator generates and estimate on how long the food would last. It makes recommendations on nutrient areas that are deficient in your current supply! So neat! There is a link to the calculator on the side of my blog!

Disneyland 2009

This year we all went to Disneyland for Free on my birthday! We had a lot of fun introducing Laralei to the Tiki Birds, Carasoul, Pirates of the Carabean, Dumbo, It's a Small World, Peter Pan and Neverland etc. Her eyes were wide and she hardly made a noise, blinked or moved. When the rides were all over she clapped her hands. She was a good baby all day and I believe that she had a good time. I had a wonderful birthday. Thanks Disneyland!

Laralei on the Carasoul.

Laralei liked the tea cup music...

"A Very Merry Un-Birthday to You!"

Fun at the beach

We had a wonderful Friday on the beach with Grandpa Mike and Grandma.

Laralei kept putting her face in the sand to make nose imprints in the sand. Consequently she was covered in sand from head to foot. She loved it! She ran in the water, dug in the sand and chased seagulls.

Post-It Baby!

Shawn figured out how to smuggle Laralei into class with him!

Birthday Movies

More Birthday Pictures