Life has been pretty busy with this little munchkin around. She loves being active and getting together with friends. She also loves walking around the dog park and shopping--and no, it doesn't matter what we shop for. :)
But no matter how trying she can be as a little two year old, I just adore watching her interact with Zoe. If Zoe's sad, she'll always let me know. If she notices Zoe smiling or cooing, she'll go over and talk to her. I am always finding princesses in Zoe's carseat. (Though I'll be honest and admit that often LaNea will share a toy but then decide she wants it back yet can't quite reach it. That's always real fun! )
I didn't tell LaNea I was going to take a picture but she's always ready. This was her small attempt to put her arm around Zoe's shoulders. Its hard to get Zoe to ever look away from LaNea once she's spotted her.
I had tried to capture Zoe waking up from a nap. This kid is just so happy ALL the time. She does get a little upset when she's forced to take a nap, instead of her just falling asleep on her own, but I'm not complaining. I promise.
And she's also a pretty good sleeper. She is getting better at sleeping during the day hours and does FABULOUSLY at night. I can often get a straight 5 hours of sleep before she wakes up. Its amazing.
We've been having so much fun since Zoe joined us. It all started with Grandma Shauna coming to visit. She took pictures of LaNea and Zoelle which was so sweet. I love watching the girls together. We also had the Williams and Youngs come visit as well.
I just love her eyes and how focused they look.
Aren't they just so sweet? Zoe is so patient with LaNea and LaNea tries so hard to be a great big sister!
Lots of trips to the park to get release some of her built of energy.
This is my favorite picture of LaNea and Ashlyn. Love that becoming such great friends.
Zoe has been such an angel with sleeping as well as she does.
While Eric was up interviewing in Wyoming, LaNea talked me into letting her have a movie night, complete with popcorn and treats.
LaNea loved spending time outside coloring with Grandma and will be demanding more now that the rain has erased all their pictures.
With my mom here, we tried going again to Music Makers on Friday. Its a weekly activity put on by the wards here. Its only an hour long but was so full of fun activities. It started with singing songs with puppets.
Playing in the gym with a small parachute! They also did story time and marching time. I'm definitely going to have to go more often as both LaNea and I enjoyed it.
And we were able to get a great family photo of us. I haven't downloaded photoshop on my laptop yet so it isn't perfect but we all were looking at the camera which with smiles! Not bad for our first family shot right!Thank you everyone who has come to visit us. Its been such a huge help having family here to keep LaNea happy and cuddle with Zoe!
LaNea is in love with her little sister! She is so gentle with her and is so willing to share with her. I love watching her give her so many kisses and just rubbing her head as she watches a movie.
I love her eyes in this photo!
LaNea saw that I was taking pictures of her so she decided to pose for the picture.
Just an example of how much LaNea loves to be around Zoe.
I know I feel pretty lucky to have such amazing girls. LaNea is just so loving while Zoe is just so easygoing about it. So for now, I just keep praying it will last...forever!
So Eric took Zoelle to her 1 week appointment today with the Dr. She is weighing in at 8lbs 15oz. Gaining weight wonderfully! She is also just over 21 inches.
So let me apologize in advance, LaNea managed to get her finger on the lens before we started taking pictures. Sadly I didn't notice until I got home.
We went to the hospital at 11am on Tuesday. They started Pitocin at 12. I didn't notice the contractions right away but by 2pm I was feeling them. When the dr checked to see how I was going I was still dilated to 2cm and about 50% effaced but the baby was higher up then before. Already feeling the pain I kind of immediately started to lose faith that I'd make it without an epidural. I did manage another couple hours but I ended up with one and it was still wonderful. The epidural had mostly worn off by the time I delivered. It was so painful but it was so fun to know what was actually happening. The recovery should be super easy. I move around just fine and am able to do just about anything. Still cramping and still have back aches but other than that, I'm doing wonderful. Zoe arrived at 9:41pm weighing 8lbs 12.9oz. She was also 21 inches long which is the same as LaNea was. All the drs were amazed by her pink coloring and her "bright eyed" look. LaNea was always very aware of what was going on but unlike LaNea who always tried to focus on everything, Zoe tends to focus on one thing and stare till she's satisfied.
This would be one of the few times she was crying. She wakes up silently, goes to sleep silently, tells me she's hungry quietly and only cries when she's changed. Yes, I feel very lucky!!!
LaNea is in love with her little sister. She kept trying to make Eric go visit us again. She has tried several times to allow us to let her hold Zoe. She loves her so much though and will even leave me to sit next to Eric if he's holding Zoe. :)
Its amazing how on top of things I can be when I have a large enough incentive. We're still hoping Zoe comes this year so we have done our best to get everything in order for the "just in case." My doctor is still very positive that she'll be here this year but probably not before Christmas. Darn! Regardless, we've been having so much fun helping LaNea find her Christmas spirit.
Of course, we always start by decorating the Christmas tree. She wasn't able to put the ornaments on very well but she enjoyed trying. She has also been perfect in not touching them now that they are up there. Its her job alone to turn on the Christmas tree lights, don't even think about doing it without asking her first! After the first few days, she's been very good about not touching the presents too. We may have to have another review after my birthday but we're still really proud of how well she's done.
Her favorite parts of Christmas have been Santa, snowmen and Christmas tree. I believe she's figured out reindeer a little too. Fortunately she doesn't seem to understand what they actually mean. Its nice that she still doesn't have any crazy expectations of Santa this year and hopefully by next year she'll actually get to experience what its like to build a snowman! I think my favorite part of this Christmas time has been getting to experience the holidays through her eyes. Its so much easier to embrace the holiday spirit when you have a little munchkin to lead you.
One last funny thing about LaNea. She's really started to like joining in on our prayers. She doesn't really need to say the whole thing but when it comes to what she's thankful for...that can go on FOREVER. She's been extra grateful for Santa and snowmen but she's also really good about reminding Eric and I of the smaller things that we really don't think of being grateful for.
Sorry my pictures are pretty randomly placed. Sometimes Blogspot doesn't make things easy. :)
My mom was fascinated by Izzie and LaNea's relationship. They are best friends and so good to each other. Eric and I were just proud of Izzie though. She only freaked out at my mom on her arrival and after that, just treated her like the rest of the family. Maybe it helped that she could never say no to offering her part of her meals?
LaNea loves having someone join her in her adventures. As soon as Grandma made it to the top she received a cheer with clapping to let her know how good she had done.
Trying to get LaNea to actually focus on a boring camera when so much else is around isn't easy but we did want to get a few good shots of my mom with LaNea. 
And we did succeed a few times! My mom came out for a week to help me around the house since I've been moving so much slower these days. LaNea loved to have someone to play with and talk to. Grandma brought her a ton of toys that she's collected over the years and LaNea was instantly in love. She is now very dedicated to a large baby that's weighs about as much as she does. She loves to dress it in baby's cloths (wears 3mons) and change it diapers and she will share her snacks and such. Its fun to see as I know she'll make an excellent big sister.
It was so much fun having my mom here and its always fun to have someone love your child almost as much as you do. I enjoy being the proud mother of such an amazing little girl. And yes, she does miss her "maama" already and has asked repeatedly that she come back! :)
We FINALLY took my mom's visit as a perfect excuse to visit the Renaissance Festival. It was just as we hoped it would be. So many people were there and the majority were dressed in the most crazy outfits. We got to watch a few of the shows like the jousting tournament and a bell player. We mostly just walked around though with our mouths open at all the amazing things to see. One of the craziest was the elephant rides they offered. Not baby elephants either but the really tall ones. LaNea wasn't brave enough to do that but she was brave enough to do a pony ride as long as I held her hand the whole time. Not easy keeping up with a pony while 8 months pregnant but it was worth it. LaNea didn't stop talking about those horsey's for the rest of the day.
All the girls, this was obviously taken at the beginning of the day before we were exhausted and my ankles completely missing.
One of my favorite parts of being a Primary teacher is getting to know all the younger kids.
Not that I have any favorites but if I did, it would definitely be Brieanna. I've never known a sweeter girl who gets along with everyone. I also love that she's shy as we totally relate!
While Eric and my mom took LaNea trick-or-treating, I stayed at the car to pass out candy. Loved seeing all my kids in their costumes and my mom took many pictures of all the different cars so I wouldn't miss anything.
Trick-or-Treat!!
LaNea was invited to a fun Halloween party on Friday so she and I were able to dress up early.
Isn't she a gorgeous princess. She wouldn't keep the crown on but she loved her poofy dress!
One of the many adventures we did was the pumpkin patch. LaNea is always ready for any adventure and has fallen in love with pumpkins. She especially loved the maze that this patch had out of cardboard boxes.
We also went to a barnyard the college puts on. It was fun showing her all the animals that she knows so well. Unfortunately daddy is becoming too successful at teacher this monkey how to climb. I kept having to pull her off of all the gates.
The baby chicks were easily her favorite. They were only 3 days old and she was so gentle with them.
This was a wonderful week and it was fun to try so many things that we hadn't done before. Thanks for coming out mom, we all loved having you here!
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