Introducing: Charlotte Rae Butler

Well, we've been home since last Monday, & I decided that it's time to get on here, put pictures up, and introduce the newest member of the Butler family. I knew she was going to come sometime conference weekend, but I wasn't sure if it was going to be Saturday or Sunday. (Mother's instinct  is how I knew, I guess... but I still wasn't able to get everything on my list done... and it's still not done for some reason!) I'm not going to give out all the details, but I'll just sum it up a bit for you. (I'm not one to share all that info with the whole world, anyways...) Friday night, this is one thing we were doing:

Little did we know she would be with us soon to see what's out here!

So I guess this shows you how big I got... because I'm sure I didn't get any bigger over the next few hours! I had no idea she'd be coming so soon. Babies come when they want to, I guess... The Sunday before, I'd been talking with James' aunt about having babies, and she was telling me how her water broke with most of her kids and I was like, "Oh that doesn't happen very often, that's crazy!" I think I also told her that I really wanted the baby (who was without a name at the time) to be born in October or that I thought it was going to be a conference baby. Can't remember which, because I don't remember when I made that prediction. Moving on... so we went to bed that night, and at about 3:30am, my water broke. I was glad I knew it wasn't just pee :) because I was originally getting up to go to the bathroom. I woke up James (after going potty) and told him it was time... "I think my water just broke." He got up, we got things ready and headed out the door. James' mom met us at the exit to take Kiely for us, and then we had to stop & get gas (that was my fault... never again!) We got to the hospital, and James didn't even have to fill out the paperwork first. They brought us straight to a room, and we got things ready for baby. (I think this was around 5ish that we got to the hospital.) Charlotte Rae made her debut at 6:57am on October 1st. Things went so quickly, and I can say that I am so grateful for hospitals, doctors, and nurses, and modern medicine. What a blessing! (Both Baby Charlotte--of course, and the modern medicine/hospital.)

 Nothing like sweet, brand new baby cheeks to kiss!

She is so sweet!

Momma can't get enough of her

Charlotte Rae Butler
5 lb 15 oz, 21 in, beautiful angel from heaven :)

Proof that she is our conference baby!

We were able to relax for a while and enjoy Baby Charlotte before conference came on. It was kind of nice just relaxing there to watch conference. Things were lots better for me this time, and by the time the epidural wore off and conference was over, I was up, showering and walking around. I felt GREAT (especially compared to how it was with Kiely) and James had to tell me to act like I just had a baby. haha. After conference & cleaning up, Bryce & Ruth brought Kiely to meet her baby sister...

Momma's holding another baby... ?

Ok... I think I like her.

Hmmm...

Ok, I guess this might be okay. As long as mom's not holding her.

This picture was important to me... I don't think I got one of James with Kiely at the hospital! He's such a great dad and husband! :)

Some of James' family couldn't come on Saturday, so some of them came back on Sunday. Kiely came with them, again, of course!

Another important picture. When Kiely was a baby, she was probably a couple months old before Jake held her. He asked me if he could hold her and told me he hadn't yet. I was so surprised! I was glad he got to come see Charlotte and hold her at only a day old. :)

James had to take Kiely to the snack fridge and get a treat. I think she liked it!

She does love Baby Charlotte!

Sweet hands... Kiely is SO big now!!

Love.

Happy to be holding her baby sister.

We stayed at the hospital until Monday. We were SO ready to leave by then. Charlotte's bili-count was high, so she became our little glow worm for a few days.

Our glow worm at the hospital.

Ready to go home. (I added the little ruffle to her shirt, and made a headband to match... the headband was HUGE, and well, the shirt is a little big, too. :) )

We sure are grateful for our new little addition. She is so sweet and precious. Charlotte has been sleeping really well... almost too well! There are times I have to wake her up to feed her, and of course that's hard for me sometimes with my lack of sleep!... But we're adjusting. We were able to take her off of the bili light Saturday morning, and after all the little pokes she'd had in her feet, I can definitely say we're glad that's done! (It's also nice to not have the machine in our room...) Kiely is doing... pretty good. She's adjusting to both a new baby sister and her new bed, so it's been a little tough, but she's getting better with things. We are a happy little family, and couldn't be more grateful to have a little piece of heaven in our home. :)

Imaginary Friends

This post is mostly for my sake... memories of our little Bug... but I wanted to write it down while it's fresh in my memory (and even happening as we speak). Kiely has quite the imagination. She even has an imaginary friend already. The other day, she pulled out the hymn book (which is done often anyways) and was singing--with her friend. They were sitting on the couch and Kiely told her, "Wanna sing ith me? n-kay. Ready. Set. Go." And then would proceed to sing the hymns (in her own language, of course). Then she says, "scoo-over a li'l bit. Scoo-over a li'l bit. That's MY spot! That's MY spot!" She makes me laugh. haha. SOOO funny! (I tried to record it, but of course she quit doing it once I pulled the camera out...) Right now, she is sitting on the couch (apparently with her friend) writing. She said, "Don't bite me. Don't bite me." Then growled/grunted, clearly annoyed at the situation that was going on with her friend. (Apparently I need to be more aware of when I'm talking to myself... or grunting when I'm home alone with her... and don't tell me that you other stay-at-home moms don't do the same thing, too... After all, we can't tell our children don't really understand everything, so we have to vent to ourselves. :)) I love her little... or more like BIG imagination! Kiely is so much fun, and I can't wait to see what it's like when our next little girl is here! (And for when they can play together!!) Just over 5 weeks left till she's supposed to arrive! We'll see if she is stubborn like Kiely was (a week late) or if she decides to come closer to her due date. Either way, I'm going to soak up the time I have left with just Kiely... and work on a few projects, as well!!

One Year Older and Wiser, TWO!

Yes. I meant to use two instead of too. That's because our little Kiely Bug is now TWO years old! We can hardly believe it's been that long since she joined our family. Time passes much too quickly! Kiely had a great birthday this year, complete with swimming, pizza, cake, ice cream, and presents. During the day, I made the cake and the dough for the pizza (that way we could put the toppings on and pop it in the oven when we got back from swimming) and also played with Kiely. We read books, and I think even sang some songs together. She loves singing and will get the hymn book off the shelf and even sing by herself sometimes. I caught her doing this today, and when I decided to video it with my phone, she quit. Just believe me that it was cute, because of course it was! Okay, back to her birthday...
After James got off work, we headed to the pool down the street from our house and swam for a little while. She'd say "simming pool!" lots and loved to splash in the water. Kiely also enjoyed watching her da-da jump off the diving boards. We talked her into going off the little slide a couple times, and then she'd want us to go down, but we didn't because we were too big for the slide. lol. I'm glad she wanted us to have fun, too! :) We played with some balls and threw them back and forth for a while, swam around, and James and I would each chase after her (while the other was holding her). Oh yeah! One of my favorite parts was watching her try to walk in the water. They have a little 2 ft section and she'd walk and walk, then when she started going the wrong direction, she'd start going down the slope of the pool... I don't know if she really ever caught on to what was going on completely! Although we were originally going to have our families come, we had fun with just our little family at the pool, then headed home and ate some chicken, tomato, olive, 1/2 ranch 1/2 bbq pizza. YUMMM! After we ate, some family came to celebrate with us (my family couldn't come, because my parents were out celebrating their anniversary which was the next day... yep. The little Bug's birthday falls between both grandparents' anniversaries, and then ours is 4 days later!) We ate some cake and ice cream, which turned out... ok. It was good, just not how it was supposed to be. I wanted to make one with the pudding/bavarian cream in the middle, but it didn't work out so well, and the pudding pretty much ended on top. It was a chocolate cake, and then I colored the pudding so that it was pink (her FAVORITE color). Kiely then opened her gifts. The Butlers gave her a teddy bear, notebook, and crayons. We got her a hoodie, some play dough, a microphone :), pink nail polish (which I'm pretty sure she thinks she got from Audrey, because Audrey painted her nails with it that night. haha), a book- Just Go to Bed (One of the Little Critters books by Mercer Meyer), and a hex bug. I don't know if you've heard of the hex bugs, but James thought they were pretty awesome, and put one in the cart when we were shopping for Kiely's presents. I wasn't so sure about it, and kind of rolled my eyes... well, she LOVES it! She thought it was so funny watching it crawl around, and still loves playing with it a week later. (It's a good sign that you did a good job when they aren't wanting to just play with the boxes or something a week later, right?!) You should look them up, because they really are pretty cool... I just wasn't sure how our 2 year old would like it! When Kiely opened her card from Great Grandma & Grandpa Andrews, she was ecstatic to find MONEY in it. She "counted" it carefully, then picked it up again and exclaimed, "Money!!" Kiely also got a new dress & t-shirt from "ANae & Kef-vin" (DaNae & Kevin), a stroller for her babies, 2 shirts, and a skirt from my parents. She was pretty spoiled this year, and loved everything that she got. Little Kiely Bug is growing up so fast, and we are grateful to have her in our family.
Here are some pictures from her birthday:

 Eating lunch. She didn't make me hold the sandwich for her at all, which is an accomplishment... :)

 The fancy cake I made for her. Oh. she said fancy today, too. It was pretty cute & funny.

 I told her to smile... There were lots of people around, and she kinda was laughing and being goofy.

 PLAYDOUGH! "Op-un, Op-un"

 She thought the microphone was pretty cool!

 Happy about getting a book

 The hex bug. SO funny to watch her with it. "It's gonna getch-you!"

 HOORAY for money from Great Grandma & Grandpa Andrews!

COLORS!!

Some things that she does and enjoys at TWO years old are:
-brushing her teeth (she does ok for a 2 year old... at least she's putting it in her mouth and sort of brushing around)
-singing songs -- her favorite at bedtime is Popcorn Popping and it's actually part of the routine. :) I've also been teaching her When Daddy Comes Home, and it's hilarious to watch her with her actions. She also loves singing the hymns at church, and usually has to have her own book.
-Puts her clothes away in the "top-un drawer" and "second drawer" don't know where the "un" came from, but she uses it quite a bit to start her sentences or just randomly... I taught her which clothes go where, and she gets it right almost every time, although I do remind her almost every time, she is getting the hang of it. I even caught her putting her clothes away without being asked recently. I had a pile sitting by her door from what I folded when she was in bed, and she just put them away without me asking!
-Knows her colors (red, pink, blue, green, yellow, orange, white, black, brown, purple)
-No longer uses a sippy, but big girl cups! Sippies get SO nasty after a while, and we decided rather than wasting money on another one for her that she doesn't really need (because she knew how to use a cup) we just got some good cups for her to use. She likes to pick the color each time, too.
-Loves to read/look at books... we're going to be starting on learning the ABCs completely within the next couple weeks, then we'll learn about sounds.
-Seems to be liking the idea more of us having another baby girl at home. She likes to feel the baby move sometimes, and others she says "Baby's sleeping" or if she is willing to feel it, she will say "Baby moof-ving"
-Can count to ten and sometimes even "elef-ven"
-Love, love, LOVES to play with her dad, and when James walks in the door, I love watching both of them Kiely "DA-DAAA!!" and James "KIELY!!!" It's pretty much the best!
-She is sadly not potty trained yet, but we continue to work on it. The biggest thing is getting her out of the crib into a bed she can get out of at night/naptime so that she can go when she needs to. (This will be happening soon, and I'll post pictures of the BED when James is done with it!!) She IS using the BIG POTTY now, though, so that's EXCELLENT for me! She also seems more excited since we started having her use the big potty, because now she's a "Big girl!"
-Her favorite color is pink, and also seems to like green.
-Her favorite fruit is probably raspberries, and her favorite vegetable? Broccoli. You got me! But she pretty much loves the stuff. Has to have the "leaves" on it, though, and it has to be cooked.
-Loves to pretend. Today she was on the couch talking to her imaginary friend, singing with her, and telling her to "scoot over a little bit"... and "it's my spot!" so funny!

Here are her stats for her two year old well-check:
-Weight: 25 lbs. 2 oz. (29%)
-Height: 34 inches. (56%) (If the theory is true that your final height is double your 2 year old height, she will be 5'8"... 4.5 inches taller than me, and I think 1-2 inches shorter than James! That's pretty tall for us!... Must have some Butler genes!)
-Head: I don't remember. I have the papers, but I remember her doctor saying "Her head is continuing to grow really well" or something like that... Not sure if that was supposed to mean her head is big for her height and weight, or what, but it looks to me like it's pretty normal...

I know our little Bug had a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY! and she continues to grow, learn and develop in new ways each day. We love you little Kiely Joy!!

**I haven't taken 2 year old pictures yet, but will soon, and will post those when I can... I have LOTS to do... especially in the next 6 weeks!

One to Remember

Every day, I wake up, or maybe I should say get up between 6:45 and 7 (sometimes I'm awake before that, and sometimes I don't end up rolling out of bed until a little after 7). Maybe it's not so much rolling anymore, though, as it is hefting myself/awkwardly sitting up/throwing my legs over the side of the bed to get out of bed with this big baby belly. (Nope. No pics this time.) Anyways, I am a wife who gets up with her husband, makes his lunch and sometimes breakfast (I haven't been the greatest at cooking breakfast this week) and sends him off to work with a kiss. For the most part, I enjoy getting up and doing this. It's one way to show my James how much I love him. Many times for his lunch, I'll send leftovers along with a couple of other things. Today it was hawaiian haystacks. I put the tomatoes, pineapple and chinese noodles separate from the rest so it doesn't get nasty by lunchtime. While I was putting the sauce on the rice, it looked a little different then I remembered... I had put some chicken in with it, but wasn't really seeing it. I found it odd, but managed to move on, making the rest of his lunch, and going about the morning routine. Well, lunchtime came around for me, and I had the same thing. As I started eating, it tasted a bit... sweeter than usual. I thought, "did this go bad already?! Couldn't have." I looked in the fridge and remembered! OOPS! I had made some pudding a few days ago... yup. That's what it was. That's why there was no chicken. And it was sweet. I sent James a message, apologizing, and also laughing at myself. He laughed, too, and said, "different..." This was definitely something to remember so that we can keep laughing about it later! :) And if you were wondering, it wasn't horrible. Just... sweet. haha!

Smart & Imaginative!... and Kiely's first big OUCH!

SMART
It's been a while since I've done a post on our little Bug. (Or at all, I guess.) I don't have pictures on this computer to add to the post, but hey, at least this is something. Maybe I'll add some pictures later. Kiely is getting smarter and smarter each day... and she makes us laugh with the things she comes up with. She can count to 10, which we think is awesome and amazing for her age. She also likes to ask me what I'm doing. "Mom, doing?" (or she'll say "Mom... [mumble mumble] doing?" I tell her what I'm doing at the time, then ask her what she's doing and she'll usually say, "Ummm, stuff." Love it. James loves her little mumbles she does when she doesn't know how to say the words. It's pretty cute, and at least she's trying! I have also been helping her learn how to say her prayers for the past few months. It's part of her bedtime routine, which she is also doing great with! (Although there are times she doesn't want to go to bed, so she tries to find excuses like, "milk? milk?") She took FOREVER to sleep through the night, and I am DEFINITELY going to do things differently with this next one so that she'll sleep through the night sooner... Now we actually catch Kiely kneeling, folding her arms and saying, "Heavenly Father... Amen." when she's pretending. It always makes me happy. Oh by the way... potty training, yeah... that was put on hold for a little bit because of how busy we were with things, and I was gone Tuesday thru Friday last week. We are trying to get back into things now. Sorry so random, but maybe most of this is for me to remember things later... Kiely no longer calls every kind of drink "lala" although she sometimes uses that still, she knows: sippy (surprise to me when I got home last Friday), milk, "watey" (water), and juice. By now, she definitely has a favorite color: PINK! Of course. She's so girly! We got her a swimming suit about a month ago and when we were looking for it, that's how I talked her in to being happy while we were shopping, "Let's get Kiely a new swimming suit... Maybe we can find a pink one!" Good thing I found one!! Now it's "Kiely's pink soup." Our little Bug is also somewhat of a tease and plays teasing games quite often, "No, it's-a Kie-y's!" or she'll just pretend to do little things and it's pretty funny. We realize how much she is learning from us, and she definitely catches on quickly. She loves shutting the door to the laundry room, and our door doesn't shut sometimes if you don't shut it exactly the right way. As she was trying to shut the door, she got frustrated because she tried and tried and it wouldn't shut for her. We heard her say, "shoot." Uh-oh! Not sure if she got this from us or one of her relatives, but we decided that we'd be extra careful about even saying things like that especially around her... besides, that's not really necessary anyways! (So, whenever you're around her, we'd appreciate it if you try to be careful about the things you say and do... she's catches on so quickly and we would like to only teach her good things as long as we can help it. Thanks!)

IMAGINATIVE
Kiely loves to play games with James when he gets home from work. They have their own special games that they play-- wrestling, "eating" Kiely, etc... Well, within the past few weeks, Kiely made up a new game. The sun was shining in the window making a spot on the floor, and she'd say, "Uh-oh, Kiely in the hot..." when she stepped in that spot, then she'd get out of it and try to get James in, etc... It was so cute, and I'm glad she can come up with her own games to play.

Earlier today I was working on my computer. She always loves getting in the drawer where the pens, pencils, etc. are in the desk. Today she found our little orange stapler. (You know the kind that's nice to take to class with you because it's so small...) She pulls it out and starts sort of chomping it at me saying, "rawr, rawr!" (Good thing she's not strong enough to push it in all the way yet...) It was stinking cute how she recognized and thought it looked like some sort of monster or something!

Kiely's first big OUCH!
I didn't really want to do another post on this, so I'm just combining it... Monday Kiely and I got groceries. I'm not sure if anyone really loves grocery shopping. Especially with an almost 2 year old. Especially with an exhausted-almost 2 year old. That was what our Monday grocery shopping trip was like. Kiely was pretty grumpy and tired because the only nap she'd had was on the way to Winco. Good thing I had my grocery list. She did pretty good for the most part, but at a point wanted me to hold her. She was getting more & more tired. I told her I couldn't hold her & push the cart, and we needed to be fast, so she wasn't going to walk until it was time to get the milk. (It takes her spot in the cart...) I gave her my arm to snug for comfort. Soon she was asleep, and I was unsure how I was going to get the rest of the groceries... I did my best as long as I could, but eventually had to take my arm back and she woke up. We made it to the milk and she got out and walked, helping me push the cart. After checking out, she helped me push the cart again as we walked out to the car... Well, I'm not sure exactly what happened at this point, but here's my guess: There's the spot on grocery carts where they weld it together. Kiely must have tripped over something, her thumb got caught on the welding, and then she fell and was flat on her belly. I went and picked her up, and asked her what hurt. She showed me her left thumb. It was skinned pretty bad and bleeding-- kind of on the side of the knuckle & inside knuckle. I wasn't really sure what to do, because that's all I saw. We didn't have a first aid kit in the car, (which I decided is a must after this occurrence) so I grabbed a diaper wipe and cleaned it as best as I could, and held it on for a minute. I figured it would be okay until we got home where we had some good stuff to take care of her. Kiely wasn't so happy when I put her in her seat, but I told her we were going to go home and put some "bes" or "mess" (medicine) on her ouch. I packed up the groceries into the car and we were on our way. She was asleep soon after we got on the road. (Thank goodness.) When we got home, I let her sleep in her car seat as long as I could while I took groceries in, and then brought her in with me when I had them all in. We washed her ouch with soap & water and I attempted to put some Melagel and a bandaid on it... It didn't work so well... I held her as much as I could while putting groceries away/starting to make dinner. James got home finally. I told him what happened and he looked at her thumb. He was concerned that it might be broken because it had swelled up and was kinda red & purple. (I hadn't noticed the swelling before we got home from grocery shopping.) We decided it would probably be best to take her in and have it looked at. Thank goodness for Urgent Care! (Although it did take a while, it was probably better than going to the emergency room...) The first nurse that saw her only cleaned it with sterile water. (I think I probably cleaned it better with my faucet water and soap...) Another nurse apparently chewed that nurse out, asking her how she thought it would clean the wound... then came in and cleaned it with betadine. She told me she had had a similar experience with one of her own children. Kiely ended up having some x-rays done just to make sure it wasn't broken. No fracture! Hooray! She was so patient the whole time we were there, and I was grateful. I couldn't get her to hold still for me while I tried to take care of it at home! Although it wasn't broken, I was glad we went in... much better to know and be safe than to wonder and possibly be wrong and regret it later. Kiely came home with a pink bandaid, pink sucker and a Clifford sticker. (She said thank you to the dr. for all of them.) She also continued to say thank you on the way home. "Thank you, pink." (sucker) "Thank you, princess." (bandaid) I am so grateful for modern medicine, and that Kiely is okay! (By the way, they measured and weighed her when we went in, and she was 33.25" tall and 25 lbs! She's getting so big!)

Sorry again for no pictures... I didn't take pictures of the OUCH when it happened because well, honestly, I'm not one to document every little detail like that...

Twenty-one minus two

Thirty-three months plus 2 days ago, James and I were married. It was a beautiful summer day.

Three months, two weeks, and five days later, we found out-- for sure-- that we were expecting our first little one. We were so happy to be starting our family, even though we weren't sure how it would be going to school with a baby... but we knew it was right. Little did I know that the toughest times for me in school actually were probably before the little one arrived.

Fourteen weeks and four days later, we found out that we'd be having a little girl.

Four months, three weeks, and five days later, (four days before our first anniversary) our little Kiely Joy joined our family. She was a beautiful newborn. I don't think I've seen a more precious, truly beautiful baby.

Three weeks and one day later, fall semester started-- James' last first day of undergrad school and the start of my last fall semester. That was a TOUGH day and made me wonder how we'd get through it. But I still knew it was the right thing to do.

Three months, one week, and two day later, James graduated from Brigham Young University - Idaho with his bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering. We were proud of him and his accomplishment.

Three weeks and three days later, James started his first "real" job at Spudnik. (If you didn't know, that was also the day Haiti had the big earthquake!) I was SO nervous to have him working an hour away, and to not have him with me throughout the school week (during the day while he was at work)... but of course with the help of friends, family, and ward members, it was okay. James was also a big support to me when he could be, and I was so grateful that he had a job to support our family. That semester, I actually got some of my best grades!

Six months, one week, and four days later, I graduated with my bachelors degree from Brigham Young University - Idaho in Art with an emphasis in Photography. I know that Heavenly Father helped me through that time because it was important to me, and we had made the choice to follow His plan for us to bring our little Kiely Joy into the world.

Three and four days later, with the help of my mom and some people in our ward, I packed up and cleaned our little one bedroom Rexburg apartment so that we could make the move to Blackfoot. No more hour-long drives for James! :)

Three weeks and two days later, Kiely had her first birthday. (She learned to crawl and walk early-- at around five months for crawling and nine and a half months for walking.) Kiely is such a smart girl, and I can't believe how much she still learns every day! (This is on her birthday with her gifts.)

Four days later was our second anniversary... I've been told that the first two years of marriage are supposedly the hardest. Well, I don't remember them being too difficult, so forever will be perfect! :)

Three months, one week, and two days later, I turned twenty-three. I'm not sure why, but that birthday I felt older than I had felt for previous birthdays. Maybe it's because of the transition I had made (and am still trying to somewhat figure out) of being a stay-at-home mom instead of a full time student and a mom. I love being able to be at home with our little Bug, though!

Three weeks and two days later was Kiely's second Christmas. It was so fun with her... even if it took her a while to open some presents because she wanted to throw each piece of paper in the garbage before she ripped another piece off!

Oh wow this is getting long, and you're probably wondering what the point is of me writing these different events down... You're probably saying, "Seriously, Crissa! Get on with your point!" Well, I didn't mean for it to be this long, but oh well I guess... moving on...

One month, two weeks and two days later, we found out that we were expecting our second little one! :)

Three months, one week, and six days later, an ultrasound was done, and we found out that another girl will be joining our family! It will be so much fun for Kiely to have a sister to play with, and we are happy that she is healthy and things are going well.

What does this have to do with twenty-one minus two one you may ask? Well, that is how far along I am right now. Twenty-one weeks minus two days. (Twenty weeks and five days,) We are expecting the arrival of our baby girl on October 7th. Things have been a little tough this pregnancy with morning sickness, but I think I've learned some things, and it has been quite a bit better than my pregnancy was with Kiely. We are so happy to have our family growing and for all the blessings we are given! (Sorry no belly pics... maybe someday... but it is getting big!)

My "Crafts"

It has only taken me like forever, but I'm finally posting about this. A few weeks ago, we took a little "trip" up to visit my friend Danyel and her husband Jordan. Our plan was that Danyel and I would work on crafts, while James and Jordan played outside. (Kiely ended up hanging out a lot with Jordan's little sister, Macie a lot that day, which was kind of a nice break for me!) Danyel had the idea for one project, and I also told her that I would teach her how to make fabric flowers. Although I'm not a super crafty person, that is one thing I've learned how to do... haven't done a lot of it, but I've made a few for Kiely's hair. Danyel helped me get my project most of the way done, and all I had to do was get some foam and grass stuff to put in with to make it look good. So... DUM DA DA DAAA! Here's how it turned out:

Sorry it's so dark, but I thought it looked better than just sitting on my counter ... you get the idea, though! I was pretty proud of myself, and apparently got myself a little motivated, so I made a little bow for Kiely's Easter dress (which I also made... well did the sewing, by myself!) Here's what it looks like. I know. Bad lighting, but I think it was night or something... I thought it turned out really cute!

And just for the fun of it, since I haven't posted any pictures from Easter (ours was pretty simple... nothing too fancy.) here's Kiely's Easter dress! My mom helped me with reading the pattern and cutting it out, and James' mom helped me do the gathering of the skirt and the zipper. I think I could maybe make one on my own now!

They were looking at a lady bug. Kiely was a little scared of it. :) It was right after church, so she was ready for her nap!

And here is Kiely modeling her dress. I didn't make it so it's that poofy. There's a little tutu underneath helping it out, but we thought it was so cute, and also helps keep the dress away from her feet so she can walk better.

I haven't worked on anything else real recently, but I have some things in mind that I'd like to do. We'll see when I get to them... I have lots going on in the next month and a half!

Not So Bad... Almost done!

I just have to laugh about my post last week, now. I seriously was almost to the point of wanting to quit this potty training stuff. I was pretty much beyond sick of the whole thing because she wouldn't tell me "potty" till after she went. Well...two days later, on Friday, I was still hoping things would get better. They did. While Kiely was down for her nap, I was reading all sorts of articles about potty training, and almost wanted to buy the eBook "3 Day Potty Training" by Lora Jensen. It seemed legit, and I knew that although Kiely isn't older than 22 months, she seemed ready. (She had done well that morning before her nap, too.) Kiely didn't stay dry through her nap. However, she DID tell me EVERY time she needed to go potty and only had one tiny little accident, only because we didn't get her to the bathroom quite quick enough. I was one proud mama! We even went to the bank and Wal Mart that day with no accidents! The next day, she was in a diaper most of the day, because we went to the temple, and James' younger siblings were watching her (I didn't want them to have to deal with taking her to the potty, and cleaning out panties if she did have an accident). While we were at home, and she was in panties, she did great. I wasn't sure if she was going to continue to do well with the whole going potty thing, but she's done GREAT! We had her in a diaper during church, because we weren't sure how that would go, but the rest of the day, she did well on Sunday! So, I would pretty much say she's potty trained during the day! WAHOO!!! (She only goes on her potty chair, so we may either have to take her potty with us when we go places, or we might have some interesting experiences...) It's actually getting to the point now where it's almost like a game for her or something when she's bored... She'll tell us she needs to go potty and only go like a teaspoon or so. But hey! At least she definitely knows how to do it, and tells me! Now I just have to get the courage up to let her try to sleep through the night... that's the tough part, because I know there will probably be some accidents, but I think she'll get over it pretty quickly! I am SOO happy about it being so close for Kiely! She is growing up and getting to be such a smart little Bug! :)

Calling all Moms!

Ugh! I've been trying to potty train Kiely for a while now... She's 20.5 months, so many people would say she's too young, but I really think she's ready, and want to get this done! I can't say I've been super serious about it for a long time, but the past few days, I've been trying to get more into it. She even went without peeing the bed during her nap yesterday (almost 3 hours!) HOORAY! However... I feel like it's starting to go downhill somewhat. I know she knows what pee and poop are, as well as the potty, but she forgets to tell me BEFORE, instead, after she pees she says, "Potty!" (I have been trying to take her about every hour, and if she sits on the potty for 5-10 min without doing anything, I let her off.) We also sometimes have a hard time figuring out how to handle it when she pees (or poops... usually it's pee, though) in her panties. We don't want going potty to be a negative thing, but at the same time, want her to know that it's not right and not good to go potty in her panties. Not really sure how to approach that one. Sometimes she just starts crying when she pees her pants. haha. Anyways, if anyone has advice on this subject (positive if you can, I've heard all about the digression, stages when potty training is good, etc...) PLEASE HELP!!!

Kiely Lately

Kiely seems to be having more and more personality lately. She makes us laugh so much! From the things she does while she's playing by herself, like pretending and disciplining her kitty, "NO, NO, NO! Kee!" (stuffed animal, not real)--to the little things she does that make her who she is, like needing to snug on my arm "Awm!" when it's time for a nap or bed, being very organized and not liking anything to be open "Shut!" (cupboards, milk jugs, water bottles) or holding her hands together really tight when you put lotion on them because she doesn't want it to get away-- she is quite the character! I love the big imagination that she has, and that every time I have something to do, I don't always have to turn to the TV to entertain her! Our little Kiely Bug really is so much fun, and I'm glad I get to be home with her-- even if some days aren't the easiest. Sometimes when I'm cleaning in the kitchen (doing dishes, etc) she will bring her toys in the kitchen, and make her own little spot so that she can be with me still even though I can't be playing with her.

 Kiely's spot on the floor in the kitchen while I was doing dishes. I thought it was so cute, and she's done  this a few times!

After we give her lotion, she holds her hands together so tight that her fingers turn blue sometimes! Funny kid!

Kiely is also learning so much- She says amen "men" when the prayer is over, knows the order of things during sacrament meeting (song, prayer, song, sacrament, etc.) and gets ready for each by either folding her arms or getting the hymn book and leads the music with the chorister (one of my favs). She is also learning her colors, letters, and numbers, and is becoming more familiar with her aunts' and uncles' names. (Grandma is "Ba-kah" and Grandpa is "Pa-kah" usually.) She is also starting to just say "mom" and "dad" more. She'll say, "Mom!" and then go on to tell me something in her little language. When James is at work, she'll ask, "Where's Dad (or Dada)? Where'd he go? Work?" and recognizes that when he's gone, he's usually at work. Kiely is just so stinking sweet and cute and we are so grateful to have her as our little one! (Oh, and just so you know... of course she's not perfect, we see those terrible two characteristics starting to come... Oh joy!)

I love conference!

I love it when conference time rolls around. When I can be rejuvenated and hear the words of our Prophet and Apostles as well as the other speakers. I think I was looking forward to this conference even more than I usually am looking forward to it. Maybe it's because we didn't have to teach the 8 year olds, or maybe it's just because I especially needed that extra boost. Either way, I thought it was fantastic. One of my favorite talks was the one given in the Sunday afternoon session by Elder Richard G. Scott. I love hearing about the love between a husband and wife. How precious they are to each other, the sweet things they do, kind words and acts of service, and how they learn and grow from each other. It's truly a beautiful thing. I find it even more precious to hear after they have grown old together, and the wisdom that comes with age and experience. I also loved his message of how we can treat each other as husband and wife, and realizing that important, eternal bond between us. I am grateful for my eternal marriage with James, and look forward to growing and learning with him.

I feel so refreshed. I have goals in mind on how I want to improve and do better in many areas, and am excited for them. We are truly blessed to have the knowledge that we have! Hope you all enjoyed conference, too! What were some of your favorite talks?

Today...

Kiely and I went on a walk. And I loved it! :)

I've been having a hard time exercising and getting out pretty much ever since we moved to Blackfoot, and it's been tough for me... I went from walking to class every day (or running...) to pretty much nothing. I did go on walks a little and we went on a few bike rides after we moved here, but with winter, it's been harder, and I haven't really had anything to motivate me. (No classes that I have to go to, etc.) I've really wanted to, though, and I think today I motivate myself a little... The weather wasn't completely perfect. There was a slight breeze when we started, and then the wind picked up pretty good when we were about 1/3 done, but it was nice.

I'm really looking forward to spring/summer... So here's to warm weather!

This is from when James & I went to California last summer just over 2 months before Kiely was born.

Haha... I had to put something with Kiely in, and this is the best I found from spring. You can see the beautiful sun shining through, and she was in a t-shirt, so obviously it must have been pretty warm! (It was last April.) She slept in some strange positions... still does occasionally! :)

Can't wait for it to stay warm for more than a couple days!

Happy V-Day a little late

I know this is only almost a month late, but I haven't sent these to mine or James' parents yet, and I know that some people would like to see some pictures of Kiely. So, here's what I did for James and also for our parents for Valentine's Day. I emailed some of them to James while he was at work on Valentine's Day, and never got around to emailing them to parents. (Oops! Sorry!) Well, here they are! It was kind of hard to get Kiely to hold still (and obviously to even look at the camera sometimes) but we had fun! Hope you all still remember how much you love your sweethearts as well as your families! :)

Checking out the pictures she had been "taking" on the camera.

She hasn't quite figured out which direction to hold it to take the pictures.

Sweet smile for her daddy! :)

She doesn't look too enthused anymore, but she loves her grandmas, she was just getting sick of posing for me!

And a big kiss for her grandpas! MUAH!

Some of My Favorites

These are some of my favorite photos I took for Blackfoot Jr. Miss. I felt like overall, it's been pretty successful. I've learned a lot, and look forward to learning more! :)

What do you think? Which one's your favorite?

**These images are for viewing only, please do not take for your own use for any reason unless you have gotten consent from me. Thank you.

P.S. Anyone have advice on how to upload images to the internet so that they look good without them being super huge? (Kelsie Christensen?...) Oh, and they do look better if you click on them...