Splish Splash

We met some friends at the South Davis Rec Center this afternoon. I was very impressed with their pool - well, actually, there were multiple pools. We started in the outdoor wading pool. Sandy sat on her bum and scooted. At the edge, she could scoot in water up to her waist. She kept going deeper and deeper until the water covered her mouth. She didn't mind, though, because she could still breathe through her nose. I can't believe how daring she is! A couple of times her arm slipped and she went under water. It didn't even faze her - she kept wanting to be in the deepest water she could get to.

The big kids were going up the stairs to a pirate ship and then down slides into deeper water. Of course Sandy wanted to follow the big kids so she climbed all of the stairs into the pirate ship. I was right next to her, of course. When we got to the top, I put her in my lap and we went down the slide together.

Then we moved to the indoor pool. They had a lazy river and we played in that for awhile. I definitely want to go back!

Here's a picture of the two of us.

A few pictures of Sandy.



Sandy and her friend.

I'm so glad Jennie had her camera and took pictures!

ABCs of Me

This was going around Facebook and I thought I'd fill it out.

A - Age: 28
B - Bed size: Queen
C - Chore you hate: vacuuming
D - Dog's name: Sage
E - Essential start your day item: thyroid medicine
F - Favorite color: purple and brown, although not necessarily together
G - Gold or Silver: gold, although I have more silver items
H - Height: 5’4”
I - Instruments you play(ed): piano for a very short time and not well
J - Job title: mom
K - Kids: 1, Sandy is 11 months old
L - Living arrangements: live with my husband and daughter
M - Mom's name: Sherri
N - Nicknames: Megs
O - Overnight hospital stay: two nights for a thyroidectomy, two nights for Sandy’s birth
P - Pet Peeve: people who don’t return their shopping carts and leave them taking up a parking space
Q - Quote from a movie: Several lines from “The Importance of Being Earnest” such as: “35 is a very attractive age. London society is full of women of the very highest birth who have, of their own free choice, remained 35 for years”
R - Right or left handed: right
S - Siblings: 3 sisters, 1 brother.
T - Time you wake up: 6 a.m.
U- Underwear. Yes (not sure what this question is asking)
V - Vegetable you dislike: okra
W - Ways you run late: waiting for my husband
X - X-rays you've had: teeth
Y - Yummy food you make: german chocolate cake – it’s the homemade coconut pecan frosting that is incredible
Z - Zoo favorite: bears, giraffes

Memorial Day Weekend

It's been a very busy weekend!

Saturday afternoon we went with Bill's family to visit graves. That was the main event of the day, but we also worked in a trip to the temple, a stake women's conference, and a ward activity.

Here is Sandy in front of Grandpa Krantz's grave (Bill's maternal grandfather).

Here is Sandy in front of Grandma & Grandpa Buhler's graves (Bill's paternal grandparents).

Sunday we went to Doug and Jaydene's house to celebrate Jared's birthday. Here's a cute picture of Jared blowing out his candles with help from his son, Christian.

There was also a photo shoot with Jaydene and her grandkids. (Left to Right: Enoch, Jaydene, Sandy, Lily, Christian, Bea. Not pictured: Autumn, Shawn)


Then, Sandy discovered Grandma's piano...


Bill's family has lots of musical talent. It looks like it's passing on to the next generation. (Left to right: Enoch, Lily, Sandy).


Today we went to North Ogden and visited more graves.

Here is Sandy at Grandma Shupe's grave (my maternal grandmother, Sandy is named after her).


This is the grave of my great-grandparents.

Then we stopped by to see Grandpa and Gayla. Here is a picture of Grandpa and Sandy on the swing. It took Sandy a little while to warm up to Grandpa, but by the time we left they were great friends.

Here's a picture of Sandy and I.

Gayla found some fun toys for Sandy to play with.

And, of course, they went straight into her mouth.

This afternoon we went to a friend's house for a barbeque. Elise is 21 months and she and Sandy are great friends. Elise has a dog with wheels that Sandy uses as a walker. They decided to share by Elise riding on the dog and Sandy "pushing" from behind.

Here they are playing in the sandbox.

Elise burying Sandy with sand. Sandy didn't mind, she thought it was funny.

Bill and I rode our bikes to the barbeque - and that was 12 blocks up 1700 South (and when I say up, I mean straight uphill!) - with Sandy in a bike trailer behind Bill. She fell asleep on the way home.

Sandy is 11 Months Old!

Sandy is 11 months old today. She is 19.4 pounds (according to the Wii Fit) and 2 feet 4 inches (according to Bill's tape measure).

She is so much fun to be around and I can't even imagine not having my little shadow around. She is really good to play with toys by herself, but she always knows exactly where I am. I will leave her in her room playing with toys while I take a quick shower. I leave the door ajar so I can be sure to hear how she's doing. Before I finish my shower, I usually see a little head pop around the corner of the shower curtain as she comes to see what mommy is doing.

Sandy is happy most of the time and I love to hear her giggle. I also like to listen to her chatter. She chatters a lot to herself and when I ask her a question, I almost always get a long response although I'm not sure what she's saying. She says mama and dada and mum (which means give me that, usually food). She also loves to blow raspberries and will sit and do that for long stretches of time. Bill thinks she'll be a french horn player. One of her favorite places to blow raspberries is in church or other meetings.

She loves our dog, Sage. Sandy gets so excited when she sees Sage each morning. She loves to feed her - and sometimes teases her with food. She also loves to get into the dog water and food dishes. She doesn't eat dog food - she tried that a few times and decided she didn't like it - but she loves to put dog food in the water dish, spread dog food all over the kitchen floor, and sometimes even lap out of the dog water dish like a dog. I know, it's gross. Sandy has a sippy cup of water on the floor all the time now so I can quickly grab it and encourage her to drink that instead.

Sandy pulls herself up on everything. She loves to walk - as long as she has something to hold on to. She goes from person to furniture to dog - around the house. Yes, she will even pull herself up on Sage as she walks by. She also uses her high chair as a walker. She just grabs on and pushes it in front of her. She'll even hold on to our pant legs and walk next to us.

She learned how to climb stairs earlier this month. On May 9, we had some friends over and we were playing in the back yard. Sandy decided to climb the back concrete stairs. She goes up stairs great! She hasn't figured out how to come down yet, though.

She has two teeth, both on the bottom, and she is a great eater. She's willing to try everything and she likes almost everything. Some of her favorite things are string cheese, fresh fruits, vegetables (she eats frozen corn and frozen peas, it must feel good on her gums), and chips.

I love my little girl!

Zoo Time

Sandy & I went went to the zoo this morning with our friends Laurel and Elise.

Sandy quacked back at some ducks. I couldn't get her to do it again so I could record it.

Here is a picture of Sandy & Elise in their strollers in front of the owl exhibit.


Feeding time at the zoo. You might have to click on the picture so you can see that she has crackers in her mouth and both hands. We took a picnic lunch to the zoo.


Riding the train.

Cousins

Tonight we got together with Bill's extended family. Sandy had a lot of fun with her second cousins, Gabby and Katherine. Here are some pictures of them playing.

Sandy and Sage

Yesterday I took Sage to the vet for a yearly checkup. Sage is 8 years old and 83 pounds, which translates to 80 years old in human years!

When the vet came in, Sage was sitting and Sandy was holding her leash. He really got a kick out of watching the two of them play. The veterinary technician thought she was adorable, too, and took Sandy in back to visit the other staff and dogs.

I didn't have my camera with me at the vet's office, so I decided to put Sage's leash on again today and see if I could get a picture of her with Sandy.

Aaron's Birthday Party

One of Sandy's friends turned one and we went to his birthday bash. (Aaron is the son of my old roommate Jen who married my third cousin.)

The party was fantastic - food, games, decorating cupcakes. But the best part was the pinatas. There was a regular pinata for the older kids and a special pinata just for the babies that was made out of paper. Sandy dove right in, ripping paper. Then, she ripped off a paper chain decoration and proudly crawled back to daddy with her loot.



Once it was opened and she realized there were toys, she crawled back into the fray.

Here she is with her loot from the pinata.


Here's a couple of pictures of Sandy with her daddy.

Day at the Zoo

Bill had the day off work today. He got a lot of woodworking projects done in the morning, and then we spent the afternoon at the Hogle Zoo.

Sandy loved the animals. Her favorite were the meerkats. She got right up to the glass and one of them came right up against the glass to check her out. We tried to get a picture, but it didn't turn out.

She liked the giraffes.

Here we are with the penguins.


The closest we could get to an animal at the zoo.


Time to go home.

What a fun day! Thanks, Grandma Sherri, for the zoo membership!

New Bike Helmet

Bill came home with a bike helmet for Sandy. We have a bike trailer and hope to take her out in it this summer. She didn't like wearing the helmet very much so Sage tried to make her feel better by licking her face.

Happy Mothers' Day!

Happy Mother's Day! We had a great day. Bill made me breakfast, we went to church, we called my mom and grandma, we went to visit Bill's mom and grandma. Here's a picture of Sandy with her Great-grandma Krantz.

Sandy

Here's a short video of Sandy. I was trying to catch her clicking her tongue, but I missed it. So, there isn't really anything special in this video but I thought my mom might like to see a short clip of Sandy.

Baby Shower

Today I hosted a baby shower for a friend in my ward. I was really pleased with how it turned out, so I thought I'd show off what went well.

First, there were several of us that threw the shower together. Having help really made the shower a stress-free experience. Well, I felt that way, at least. Of course, it wasn't at my house, so maybe Emily would disagree. Here is a picture of everyone that helped throw the shower and the mom-to-be (middle, white shirt).

Several people working together made the food easy. Basically, everyone brought one thing. So, Theresa brought chicken salad on croissants, Julie brought dessert (and went way above and beyond by bringing lemon bars and three kinds of cookies!). I brought a strawberry spinach salad with raspberry poppy seed dressing. Emily brought drinks--iced passion herbal tea and lemonade--and a fruit tray.


The biggest advantage to having lots of help was during the shower. Theresa greeted people at the door and gave them a game shower booklet and a favor. Emily focused on keeping the food full and moving. Julie focused on gifts - passing them to the mother-to-be, helping stow gifts and trash, and writing down gifts. And I spent the entire shower just taking pictures. I got a picture of every person at the shower with the mom-to-be. Taking pictures of everyone with Melissa had a side benefit I hadn't considered. Everyone got a few one-on-one moments with her. We just had people slide onto the couch next to her while she opened their gift.


Check out these adorable favors that Kathleen made:


The shower was an open house and so we decided to keep games really low key. We handed out game booklets that people could work on at their own pace, answers were at the bottom. Just two short games and a bio on the back page. I printed it booklet style, so it was four pages printed on one double-sided sheet of paper.


Game Booklet Cover:

Game Booklet Page 2:

Game Booklet Page 3:Game Booklet Page 4:


I was really proud of the invitations, I designed them and then printed them as photos at Costco.

We had a great turnout - 27 women (we sent out 35 invitations). Of course they all came to see the mom-to-be, but I do think there were a few things I did with the invitations that helped boost the turnout. First, I mailed them to people's houses. Second, I got them out two full weeks before the shower. Third, it was announced in Relief Society for two weeks prior to the shower. Finally, I included a picture of Melissa and Ryan on the invitation. I'm amazed at how many people in our ward know each other by face but not by name.

There were two things I wish had gone better. Anyone have suggestions? The first is the advice book. Emily put together this adorable advice book for people to write down tips and hints for the mom-to-be. Only one person (other than me) wrote in it, though.

I'm not really sure why this didn't work out better. On the back of the map insert, we included some information like where Melissa is registered. The top line said: "Please come prepared to share some advice with Melissa. We will have materials at the shower for you to write down your advice."

The second thing is that the guests didn't eat very much at the shower. Two reasons I've thought of: (1) the food was back in the kitchen and I'm not sure everyone got back to it and (2) the shower was 1 to 3 so maybe everyone had already eaten. Maybe next time we should include on the invitation that a light luncheon will be served.

All in all, I thought everything turned out great! I have two other ward showers I'm hosting this summer, and I hope they turn out as well.