The Bennetts

Dear Baby Luna. 18 months old today!

2012-02-09T21:25:00.001-07:00

I can't even believe you are 18 months old! Time is truly going way too fast! I often hear people say that they have all there babies fast and close so they "can get it over with" but I have a hard time understanding this, I feel the complete opposite. I don't want it to be over. I want life to freeze and stand still forever. I love you bring little and am so grateful I don't have to divide my attention. Someday (maybe when you're 5) you will hopefully have a baby brother or sister but for now we just want to enjoy life with you.

As we were walking to a friends house this morning Sid tried to sneak in someone front door that was cracked open. I said "Sid, come! Don't you dare gone inside. No more being naughty, I've got my hands full". For the rest of our walk you kept saying " No more naughty Sid, no inside - naughty. Naughty Sid."

Your talking is amazing. You are saying three and four word sentences all the time. Some that we hear often are "open please mama", "no thank you mama", "good girl Sid", "oh baby oh baby", "Luna toy room", "Luna downstairs please", "Help you please", "night night over hear".

We went to the hot springs last night and you started asking for a "bobo snack" but I told you that you couldn't have one right there because all the guys would see my bobos. You got a really serious look on your face, put your hands up as if motioning someone to stop, shook your head no and started telling all the guys "no mama bobos guy". It was so funny! But you totally understood and weren't about to let all those guys see my bobos. :)

It has been a very abnormal winter here in Bozeman. It has been in the 40's and 50's since we moved here. There has been nothing but blue skies and sunshine. Such a bright sun in fact that we have to wear sunglasses everywhere we go. You absolutely love yours and most days insist on wearing them all day. Whenever we look or go outside you say "ouch eyes, bright moon!" (so cute! Even though we have explained that the sun is up during the day and the moon at night several times you still insist that the moon is very bright at 2 in the afternoon :)) The mountains are nearly bare and we haven't really had hardly any snow at our house. The whole town is in a frenzy. Even though it has been warmer than normal I'm ready for summer! I just signed us up to be working members at an organic community farm. I am so excited! We will get a box of fresh vegetables every week for 18 weeks!

We have run into several people from our birth class. It's fun to see all the cute babies that are as big as you and to exchange our beautiful birth stories from the birth center. Speaking of the birth center, we went there to visit the other day. Being there felt so peaceful and warm. There is no where else in the world that feels quite as special.

You have been showing a lot of interest in baby beds lately. You even saw a bench in the park that your cute, innocent and creative mind saw as a baby bed. You crawled up there and said "night night" as you laid your head down. I think this might be your way of showing that you are ready to sleep in your own bed. We are having a friend build you one just so that you have the option if you want it. It is a very bitter sweet feeling for me. It's so beautiful that you are transitioning yourself, the way I always dreamed and knew it would happen, but also a little sad. I love sharing sleep with you and wouldn't mind snuggling with you every night for the rest of your life but I know that following your lead towards independence is the best thing to do. So I am very excited.

We are planning a few trips and are very much looking forward to them. I had this realization that you are going to be two before we know it and we will have to buy you a plane ticket so I want to get some traveling in before that happens. In a few weeks we are drive to SLC, flying to Seattle to visit my cute granny, returning to SLC, driving to St. George for a week and then you and I will fly home so your daddy can work in Utah the next week. We are also getting ready to buy our tickets to Europe. I think we will towards the end of May. :) And then no more traveling until next winter, I don't want to miss a second of summer here. Well, except for camping and other get aways that we can do around here.

You love singing and oh goodness.... It's soooo cute! You sing "oompa, oompa, oompa dee doo" (even though you've never watched tv, you know several songs like this), "tinkle tinkle lil star", "rock a bye baby", "the wheels on the bus" and "head shoulders knees and toes".

You turn everything into a baby: baby balloons, baby rocks, baby teddy bears, baby carrots, baby soap, your baby toothbrush, really everything. You wrap whatever you have in a "banky", sing to it, give it kisses, hugs and rock it. You say "ohhh, cute baby!" :) You are a truly natural born little mama.

You have a few obsessions right now. One is "baby wawa boons". You say "Nuna needs it" and insist on having a water balloon with you at all times. Another obsession is "stickies" otherwise known as breath mints or vitamin C. You know I only allow you to have one of these little organic things a day but you tell me you need more. I don't budge and eventually you move on to your other obsession. Which is "e-pops", otherwise known as vitamin e. You like to eat the little capsule and pop it in your mouth. You also really enjoy sitting in your "hot tub" (the kitchen sink), going to the "swings n slide", looking at pictures of "Nuna" (yourself), brushing Sid, trying to get yourself dressed, feeding your fish and "doodling" (watercolor painting). You really love when I fix your hair. You point at the drawer where I keep your little elastics and say "Nuna, piggy tails please!". Oh where oh where has my baby gone?

Life is so much fun with you. I love you so very much little Lu. Thank you for teaching me what it is really like to live each day to its fullest.

Sleepover

2012-01-31T21:44:00.001-07:00

One of my favorite parts about living in Bozeman is being surrounded by good friends. I have talked a lot about my friend Pele in other posts, she is truly my best friend. We were neighbors when we lived here two years ago and hit it off right away. I have never met someone so much like myself. She makes me feel normal. Ty jokes that she shouldn't make me feel normal, I should just feel good knowing there is someone as weird as I am. :) I swear we were identical twins in a past life.

Anyway, her husband is doing some work out of town too so after going on a beautiful hike up Triple Tree Lu and I came over for dinner. Lu played with the kids while I went on a run, we all did some yoga and then had lentils and rice for dinner.

Their house is so cozy I just didn't feel like leaving. So we didn't. Sid is snuggled up with their beagle and Lu and I are all cozy in the guest room. I wasn't prepared for a sleepover but it didn't even matter because Pele has all the same natural tooth paste, face wash and lotion that I use.

Ah... I feel right at home. There is nothing better than sleeping in a cozy, warm house full of good people and sweet animals! Good night.

Sid

2012-01-30T22:59:00.001-07:00

Sid is such a great addition to our family. She is everything we need in a dog. She is a mamas girl and follows me everywhere. She prefers to not go anywhere without me. It took her awhile to warm up to the idea of walking alone with Ty. For the first several months when he would try to take her they would make it as far as the driveway before she would run back to lay at my feet. Now she will happily go with him but spends most of her walk looking over her shoulder to see if I'm coming.

She is so sweet with Lu and let's her climb all over her. We have never seen her be aggressive but she is very protective of her baby Lu. She always places herself between Luna and potential danger like the stairs, strange men and other dogs.

How awesome is it that we have a 165 pound dog and our one year old holds the leash and walks her every morning? She really is the biggest gentle giant we've ever met

Sid lives and loves solely with her heart. She is more happy with a belly rub than most people are with a million dollars. We love her and are so grateful she joined our family when she did. It has been so much fun starting our new lives together in Bozeman.

She loves the snow more than anyone I know. She gets so excited, tucks her butt and runs in circles as fast as she can. Except you wouldn't want to hold your breath because Sid running fast is the absolute slowest thing you've ever seen - like a polar bear trying to spin I circles or something. It makes us laugh every time.

Sid has grown and changed a lot since joining our family. She has grown to love her daddy as much as me. She truly seems sad when he leaves for work. She has lost a few pounds and with those pounds shed a few years - she acts like a puppy most the time. And her once raw, callused elbows are almost all healed. She has also learned that we aren't as strict as we probably should be. She has let herself into 2 people's houses that we didn't know!!! (oops, that was embarrassing!)

Something else has happened to Sid since moving to Bozeman, she has fallen head over heels in love with our Saint Bernard neighbor, Buster. Those two are something else. I mean they truly are so in love. Sid watches at the window for him every waking second and we don't go on a walk now without stopping at Busters.

I have never met such a loyal dog. She truly lives to please us. If we are sad, she's sad, if we are scared, she's scared. She doesn't ask for much - just love and affection. If she had to pick between a belly rub and food she'd definitely pick a belly rub.

We love you miss Sid. Thanks for accepting us as your new forever family. We can't wait to share the many years ahead with you :)

Luna 15 month pictures.

2012-01-28T22:20:00.002-07:00

I am still trying to catch up on old posts I never got around to. Here are a few pictures of Lu at 15 months.

Luna tales.

2012-01-25T20:41:00.001-07:00

Luna seems to do something every single day that surprises me. Since this blog has turned into our family memory book I like posting about these things.

Today was another one of those days where every time I turned around Lu was doing something to amaze me.

We went to Costco this morning. Lu knew exactly where we were ... When we pulled up she said "yeah, piggy bank!". There is a huge advitising sign in Costco that has a piggy bank on it. Lu noticed it last time we were there (a month ago) so I told her it was a piggy bank. We haven't talked about a piggy bank since but she somehow remembered the name and that it was at Costco.

She insisted on wearing her sunglasses inside Costco. She kept doing her princess spins though and they would fall off so Ty put them in his pocket. After doing several gracious spins we were ready to shop. As we started walking down the aisle Lu was pointing at her spinning spot crying "glasses, glasses, glasses!". She remembered those glasses and she was not about to forget them. Ty showed her they were in his pocket and she said "yeah! glasses!".

When we got home I dropped several rolls of toilet paper from over the railing to the bottom of the stairs. I asked Lu to help me by putting them into the bathroom. To my surprise, she put all six rolls not only in the bathroom but nicely under the sink.

Tonight when we were taking a tub Lu pointed at her foot and told us all the different parts. "toe, toe nail, foot, heel, ankle".

As we were reading Brown Bear Brown Bear before bed Lu turned to the last page and yelled "Children!!" like she always does. I counted the children: one - nine. There are nine children. But after I said nine Luna yelled "Ten!!", closed the book and said "all done, night night".

Sometimes I don't wonder where she learns all this stuff. It's absolutely amazing! It is unbelievable that she was born just 17 months ago. Everyday is so much fun with her. But my goodness, time is going too fast. I want little Lu to be my innocent baby forever!

This is Luna tucking Sid into bed :)

Lunas first skiing adventure

2012-01-23T22:12:00.000-07:00

We took Lu up to Bridger Bowl today. She absolutely love it! The whole way up there she kept saying "ski boot, ski, ski boot, ski" and pointing at her stuff.

I held her between my legs and took it pretty easy. She yelled "weeeeeee" all the way down the hill.

Then we went to the lodge for some hot tea - Lu loves tea! After warming up Ty and I were ready to call it a day but Lu started crying "ski, ski, ski" so we did a few more little runs.

We all took a very nice nap and then headed to the gym. I ran and met Ty and Lu there. We swam and soaked in the hot tub and then ended the day with delicious homemade chili pizza! Yummy!

What a great day! Can't wait to take Lu skiing again on Saturday!

Come home!

2012-01-20T14:11:00.001-07:00

It's been a rough day. Ty has been in Phoenix since Sunday for work. He was supposed to get home today at 3:00 but he is flying on Alaska Air which has completely shut down due to weather conditions in Seattle. He is tentatively on a flight that will get him home tomorrow at midnight. That is if the airline is back up and running.

I am beside myself. I need my love home with us. Being a single mom is really hard and demanding. I have mentally prepared myself for short periods of time but this has thrown me for a loop.

Poor Ty is sitting at a hotel that he had to pay for out of his own pocket with nothing to do for at least 2 full days and you can only imagine how much he must miss his baby! We would buy him a new ticket home but everyone must being doing that, there is nothing under $1200!

Warning travelers: NEVER FLY ON ALASKA AIR!!

Anyway, I started this post to write about how sweet Luna has been. I was crying when Ty told me the news this morning and Lu just hugged me. I am trying my very hardest to be patient and just accept this but let's be honest... I'm a little burned out and I need a break! I feel guilty for having a short temper. It's not Luna's fault. I just yelled at her for the first time ever. She has been screaming "no" at Sid for days and I'm sick of it. I yelled at her to stop saying that word. She didn't seem to be bothered much by the yelling but sweetly put her head on her shoulder, said "nice" and nodded her head.

She really misses her daddy too. We were at the store this morning and she was looking around, patting her belly saying "mere daddy MUAH MUAH MUAH" (like you would call a dog to come) When nothing happened she started yelling "Ty, mere! Ty, mere" :)

When we walked out of the store the sun was shining pretty bright. She looked at, squinted her eyes and said "bright moon". I love her! How can I not feel bad when I am grumpy around her? She is just so beautifully sweet and innocent - I don't want my grumpiness to contaminate her!

My mom just called. She is coming over to save the day. Thank god!

Life in November.

2012-01-18T21:00:00.000-07:00

November was a great month. From settling into our new home to reacquainting ourselves with Bozeman, we managed to stay very busy.

We are always up for a new and fun adventure and we want to explore more of Bozeman so we made a goal of doing a new activity every week for 10 weeks.

Week 1: Hike up Triple Tree

It was absolutely beautiful!

We love walking in our new neighborhood! No matter if its 4' our 40' there are always kids playing and dogs running around. We fit right in.

Luna and Sid have become quite a pair. Sid always stands behind Luna when she is playing on this little ladder. You know, in case she falls. In many ways Sid acts like Lunas mama.

We LOVE our neighborhood park...

This is Luna and her cute friend Talia. We met her family at the Birth Center when I was pregnant with Luna. It is so much fun watching our little babies grow!

Luna wore her snowsuit and played in the snow for the first time. She learned very quickly that eating snow is one of the greatest things ever.

Luna tucks Sid in every night. She gives her a big hug and kiss and says "I love you" :)

Beautiful little lovey

Where on earth has my baby gone? Pig tails? Already? So bitter sweet. She is so stinkin cute - I want her to be little forever!

She LOVES the snow!

We went to visit Ty at work one day. He works at a coffee shop for a few hours a day on his home weeks.

Love those little boobies!

Morning is our favorite time of day around here. We usually sleep in, snuggle, read a few books, take a family shower, have breakfast, walk Sid and then start the day.

This is Luna after a long hike up Bozeman Creek Canyon. She fell asleep half way back to the car, stayed asleep the whole drive home and then slept for another 3 hours! Gloves, coat and all! She woke up very sweaty :)

Meet Buster! This is our sweet neighbor Honora and her beloved Saint Bernard Buster. When he and Sid met it was true love at first sight. They have since become love birds and sneak over to each others house everyday.

Luna insists on getting in her "hot tub" (the kitchen sink) every morning. She sits in there while she eats breakfast. One morning I was folding laundry and tidying up and Lu happily sat in her little hot tub for 1 hour and 45 minutes!! Silly little girl loves it in there!

There is an awesome dog park here. The city donated 70 acres of beautiful land. They groom it for cross county skiing in the winter and have made a wonderful path for the summer. The loop is a little over 2 miles. We take our sled for the worlds best sledding. We walk up to the top and sled down the other side. Are you kidding? 1 mile of sledding? Yep, thats right! Luna LOVES it and yells "weeeeee" the whole way down while Sid runs along next to us.

Now that Lu is up and walking we have invested in a few new pairs of shoes for her. Look at those adorable little Keens! She has really small feet. Size 3

Lu loves to "rax" (relax) and read books to her babies.

This is Luna pretending to be a tiny baby. She grabs a blanky, hands it to us and says "Nuna baby". So cute. A baby pretending to be a baby has got to be the worlds sweetest thing!

Another picture of her being a baby, eating an apple.

Love pictures of her sleeping!

Luna has been really into taking herself to the potty. One day I walked into see this.... her sitting on the potty, concentrating and grunting the word "poop". What a big girl!

Silly baby! She loves to itch her ears like Sid :)

Some friends and I have started a Kundalini yoga group at my house. We just move out the dining room table and wa-la, yoga studio! Alakhi is an amazing instructor! Some weeks there are 7 mamas and babies! Its so much fun! This picture shows how serious Luna and Sid take this yoga business. They both enjoy it and make sure to join in on all the poses!

We had Thanksgiving at our house. It was so much fun having my family over. The best part was having our neighbor and Buster over. Sid and Buster kept sneaking rolls off the table. Ha ha.

Lu is just like her daddy, obsessed with olives and pickles!

Luna tales.

2012-01-15T13:05:00.001-07:00

Luna is at a very independent stage. She does not like us doing things for her and much prefers us just giving her directions so she can do whatever it is on her own. She is surprisingly good at following directions. I was sweeping this morning while Luna was having some blue berries. After letting Sid lick her empty bowl she brought it to me. I asked her to put it in the dish washer. She left and came back empty handed so I assumed she did it. Well I was obviously way too distracted because I didn't even notice where she really put it. I just went to put a load of towels in the washer and there was her bowl. Tucked deep into the washer :) What a smart baby! I love her beautiful innocence. I wonder if she thought it was weird I wanted her to put a bowl in the washer. Haha! :)

Please respect our informed decisions.

2012-01-12T21:03:00.002-07:00

I am writing this post out of respect. Respect for myself, my family and for all of you who might wonder.

I am going to start by asking whoever you are to stop sending the Mormon missionaries to our house. We weren't Mormon when we lived in SLC and we aren't Mormon now that we live in Bozeman. We weren't interested then and we aren't interested now. In fact not being Mormon is a huge reason we chose to move away from Utah. Being a minority sucked and growing up non-Mormon in such a predominantly Mormon society was really hard. We don't want Luna to grow up as an outcast or feel the awkward pressure I felt my whole life.

We have not made this decision out of ignorance like many of you may assume. We have in fact met with the missionaries on several different occasions to better understand. And while we fully respect everyones decision of being Mormon, it is simply not for us.

All we ask is that we are not judged, looked down upon or treated differently because we don't share your religion. We ask that you respect our decision and boundaries the way we do yours. We would never send someone to your house telling you why you should try to not be Mormon - that would be very rude.

I am very frustrated and annoyed right now. Whoever is sending the missionaries over here probably thinks they are doing "the right thing" but they aren't. We deserve the same respect we give others and we would NEVER ask you to change. So please stop. They just pounded on our door for the second time in two weeks. Both times they came at 9:00 at night and woke Luna up.

We are good people, doing good things for this world. Please let us live in peace and accept us as the simple, independently good people we are.

Thank you.

Dear Baby Luna ....

2012-01-11T23:58:00.000-07:00

Part of me can't believe you have already been in this world for 17 months while the other part of me can't even remember what life was like before you came along. You are at such a fun stage right now. It's true - just when I start feeling like life couldn't get any better it does. You were so much fun 17 months ago, 6 months ago, even yesterday but you were somehow even more fun today!

At 17 months old you are pretty silly, very talkative, energetic, happy and smart. Poor little love, you are getting 8 new teeth right now. You are handling it very well but they seem to bother you pretty bad at night. You have been tossing and turning a lot and constantly asking for bobo snacks :) It's so cute and sweet but phew - I'm tired! I am trying to be as patient and understanding as possible but a tired mamma is never a good thing. So we joined a really nice gym! I have been going everyday and even though I'm tired, it makes me such a better mamma. Thanks for letting me go!

You love to sing. You turn everything into a song and you literally sing all day long! Here are a few of your favorite songs you sing on a daily basis and repeat over and over: "pee poop, pee poop", "miss you bye, miss you bye, miss you bye", "up down, open close, up down, open close", "mamma, Nuna, daddy, Sid" "Three blind mice", "the wipers on the bus" and "if you're happy and you know it".

As I said in my last post, you are all the sudden able to say the entire alphabet almost all by yourself. It's amazing and so cute!

On Christmas you watched a few of your cousins wear their princess dresses and dance. As you watched, with your mouth hanging wide open, they did spin after spin. After they left that night you started practicing your spins. Well, now you have them mastered. You spin and dance all the time. You especially love spinning while holding a balloon. It's so silly. Speaking of silly, you have been doing this hilarious fake laugh. Out of no where you break out in a chuckle that is totally forced. It makes us laugh really hard so eventually your fake chuckle turns into a sincere belly laugh. Ah - there is nothing sweeter than your laugh!

You have so many friends in Bozeman. You love having so many different babies to play with. But your very best friend, the person you consistently name when we ask you your friend is, is Aegean. You call him GG. You truly love him. He is 6. But you think he is the worlds greatest thing. You talk about him in your sleep, before you fall asleep , first thing in the morning and you even talk to him on your pretend phone. You see, you got a cute little wood kitchen for Christmas and it has a phone. You say "ring ring, hello, GG!! (the excitement level in your voice is almost like you can really hear him talking to you)". Your love for him is adorable!

You love having jobs. When I ask you to throw something away or put a book back on the shelf you shine. You feel so big and get so proud. You live to help me sweep, wipe up Sids slobber and bake. You listen really well. If we ask you not to do something you almost always listen the first time and rarely test our limits.

You have been kinda mad at Sid lately. I think it's because now that you are walking she accidentally knocks you over sometimes. She tries to be very gentle with you and give you space but if you hear her coming you tuck your head and say "uh uh uh huh".

Your favorite food is still spinach but you have also grown a huge love for blue berries and grapes. Your favorite thing to do right now is walk. You love walking! You also love going to the park, reading, coloring and brushing Sids hair.

I know I'm ending this letter rather abruptly but I need to catch up on sleep. Im exhausted! Your daddy and I are so in love with you. Good night my sweet little Lu.

Lunas alphabet.

2012-01-08T22:09:00.000-07:00

I woke up this morning to Luna singing "O P Q R, O P Q R" and then saying yeah while clapping for herself. When I opened my eyes she smiled and did it again. I asked her to sing the alphabet from the beginning and she did. She got to F before she needed a little help. With only a few reminders she made it all the way to Z and then started kicking her legs and squealing in excitement. God she's cute, smart and funny! I love every second of life with her.

Luna 14 month pictures.

2012-01-01T20:55:00.001-07:00

Look at those adorable little teeth. She is so cute!

Life in October.

2011-12-29T19:57:00.024-07:00

Isn't it amazing how much life changes in such a short period of time? I mean October was only 2 months ago but looking through these pictures makes it seem like a life time ago. We finally got the computer fixed so I am ready to dive in and do some picture updating. Here it goes...

Luna is 14 months old in these pictures

We watched Millie for a few days while her mom had a baby. We all love Millie. Lu and Sid especially enjoyed her company!

Silly girl, always posing for the camera :)

We got me a new car and phew ... it took all day! Lu was exhausted by the time we were done.

Cutest grumpy face I've ever seen...

Cheese

Lu is a total girl. She always has been. She is such a natural born little mama and always takes the best care of her beloved babies.

Her hair is getting so long and wild

Look at those adorable little boobies! Love her naked little self!

One day she found this swim cap in our closet. She calls it a hat. She demanded I put it on her and she literally wore it for three straight hours. Then she found Mimi's Halloween teeth and popped them right in. We were laughing so hard. The picture on the right is Luna saying "hmmmmm" and thinking while rubbing her pretend beard :)

Sid is the worlds best dog!

Hiking up Milcreek. Sid loves the water...

Getting ready to start packing...

Enjoying the warm October sun in Mimi and Papa's backyard. Lu loves all their fun toys!

Saying bye to one of my best friends, Taissa.

And we're off. This is on the way to Bozeman.

We went straight to the house. I hadn't seen it since we put our offer in so I was SOOO excited. Lu was so excited to play in her new rock garden.

We didn't close for another week so in the mean time we stayed at a hotel and Pele and Dominics. Lu was a trooper and happy as a clam.

This was on my birthday

We went to the house everyday before we closed. We were so done with the transition and ready to be in our new home. Lu enjoyed walking around the neighborhood and checking our all the tractors.

Sid was in a Halloween costume contest. She went as an angel ballerina.

She gets more beautiful every day!

Sid was so sweet and patient during the move. I know it was really hard on her but she didn't show it.

We got to take a tub in Peles wonderful claw foot tub! I dream of one day having one of those! Lu loves to lean back in the tub and "lax" (relax) just like I do :)

The first night in our new home! We don't have blinds yet so we are very in tune to nature. We know when it is a full moon or if its snowing. On the full moon nights it is like day light in our bedroom. We actually really enjoy it.

Good morning beautiful! This was our first morning in the house. Even though Ty and I stayed up really late unpacking we were all very excited to wake up.

Sid is such a gently giant. She is so good with Luna.

Moving is exhausting!

Luna started standing and balancing for a few seconds. She is smart though - she started on the bed, you know, to make sure she had a soft landing :)

This is our neighborhood park. Lu LOVES it! She says "swing, slide?" all the time. Meaning she really wants to go there. We love it!

So big! Can I just tell you how glorious it is to have a master bath? Ty and I have always shared the worlds smallest bathrooms and had to squeeze around each other. Well all those years of squeezing were worth it because now we have the worlds best bathroom! We each have our very own vanity! Ty, Lu, Sid and I can all be in there and we still have room to move.

Lu asks us to take a picture of her every morning :)

So cute! Ty is such a good daddy!

October was a good month. We are so happy to finally be in Bozeman and for the fun winter ahead!

Luna Tales.

2011-12-27T22:31:00.001-07:00

Whenever Lu seems to be struggling with something I instinctively ask "can I help you?" So now whenever she needs help she says "help youuu". It's is so cute and sweet!

She still loves the word no but is using it less and less. It is okay to voice her opinion but sometimes she repeats the word over and over, even if she doesn't mean it, just because she is grumpy. Being grumpy is also okay but we often remind her that she still needs to be nice even when she's grumpy. So now when she says "no" she catches herself, tilts her head onto her shoulder and says "nice" :) you know, to remind herself.

Life is good. Really good. And it just keeps getting better!

Dear Baby Luna.

2011-12-18T08:05:00.001-07:00

Here we are... On our way to SLC for Christmas.We started tidying up the house and packing last night. I packed snacks for the drive and your dad packed up the car. We told you we were going to get up really early to drive to Mimi and Papas. You took 45 minutes to fall asleep because you were singing "mommy-daddy-Mimi-Papa mommy-daddy-Mimi-Papa" over and over again. You would occasionally throw in nana and Sid. You usually fall asleep in minutes and you ALWAYS sleep through the night. Even if you want to nurse you just roll toward me and don't wake up. But last night, phew, was a different story. I'll admit - I was quite irritated during the night but now that I am wide awake and coherent, you are so goddamn cute!

You were up all night long talking about your rocking horse, teddy bear and blanky and singing about Mimi and Papa! When the alarm sounded at 5:00 this morning you were the first to pop up with a happy, giddy smile on your face. You usually sleep until atleast 8:00, most days 9:00 and take about 20 minutes to slowly wake up. But not this morning - you were ready to go! So we got dressed, made the bed, turned out the lights and locked the doors. When we were walking out of the bedroom you said "neigh, bye bye" and waved bye to your rocking horse and then said "mims-you" (miss you). Your dad and I looked at each other in disbelief. I apologize for underestimating you but geeez, I know you are really smart but you keep surprising me. As we made our way to the garage you conitued to wave bye to everything in the house - including the "teee" (christmas tree). We piled in the car and you fell fast asleep looking up at the moon.

You are sweet and special Luna! And wooo-weee ... you sure do love and are really excited to see your Mimi and Papa. :) Let's just hope that we make it safely. I know we will but hmmm.... Your daddy was up all night listening to you so he is very tired to say the least. Thank god for coffee and pretzels!

Luna Tales.

2011-12-16T13:42:00.000-07:00

Lu is getting so big. While I was wrapping some presents she was playing in her toy box. At the very bottom she found this cute wood dog that has wheels for feet and a long leash for walking that my dad gave her for her birthday. I heard some thumping so I looked over and she was taking that little doggie on it's first walk. She was smiling so big and was so proud :)

I was cleaning up my wrapping mess when I heard her patting her belly saying "mere Mullie Mullie Mullie" (come here Millie Millie Mille) and smacking her lips :) It was the cutest thing ever! Apparently she has decided to name that dog Millie. Maybe it's because the dog is short with big ears but I think it's because she loves Millie so much :)

She is saying sentences like this all the time. Another example that she just said before her nap; "book mama one peas!" (I always say we can read one book before her nap and she always says please:)). She chose "Bron Bear" (Brown Bear Brown Bear What do you See). She loves this book and has it memorized. She makes the sound of the next animal before she even slides the little window open. My favorite part of the book is when we get the the end. It says "Gold fish gold fish what do you see" and the book says "a teacher looking at me" but Luna yells "MAMA!!!" everytime. It's so cute and sweet.

tough baby.

2011-12-14T09:58:00.001-07:00

Our poor little Lu is sick with the stomach flu. That alone is enough for a sweet baby to go through but she also cut all four molars over night. I know you're probably thinking her fever, throwing up and diarrhea are caused by the teething and I know it doesn't help but she most certainly has the flu as well. She is tired, throws up 15 minutes after she eats and has never had these symptoms with teething.

She has been such a trooper! I have heard the molars are the worst but I didn't even know she was teething.

As far as the flu goes... We are just staying warm and cozy in our house. Lu wants to do nothing more than to snuggle with her mama and daddy, nap, drink tea and read books :)

New Family Tradition.

2011-12-04T12:42:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a wonderful day. It all started after sleeping in until almost 9:00 to my sweet little Lu peeling my eyelids open, saying "hiii mama". The cinnamon roll pancakes that followed were quite spectacular and then my shower! Oh my shower! Its amazing all the things I took for granted before becoming a mom. But now the little things in life mean so much to me, a nice shower being one of those. Most the time I enjoy the shower because I am alone. Today was enjoyable for the opposite reason. Sweet baby told her daddy that she wanted her mama and nothing was going to stop her. So after Ty carried her downstairs she turned right around and brought herself all the way upstairs, into the bathroom, pushed the shower door open and crawled right in and said "MAMA!!!" with the biggest smile on her face. We took a long, hot shower together and I must say - it was so so so sweet!

Then we drove up Highlight Canyon with our best friends Pele and Dominic (and their 2 cute kids and 2 dogs) to find our Christmas tree. It was a blast! We drove up to the top of the canyon and then hiked in a ways. Luna and Sid loved it and we all had a blast! Our tree looked beautiful up there but now that we have it home it is the skinniest and most bare tree I've ever seen. But I dont even care - I think it's beautiful because we picked it :)

Bozeman is the greatest town on earth. Last night was The Christmas Stroll. They closed main street and Santa was pulled by to giant horses with caroles singing for blocks behind him. It was amazing! They estimated 10,000 people were there, that's 1/5 of all the people in Bozeman! It definitely got us in the Christmas spirit!

I love eventful days like yesterday! I am so grateful to be living this dream with the two people I love most and our sweet Sid :) I can't wait to do this every year!

We too lots of pictures from the days events- I will add them as soon as my computer allows me to!

Dear Baby Luna.

2011-12-02T23:29:00.002-07:00

I have never been one to love change. As a matter of fact I don't really like change at all. But there are some things you just can't stop from changing and one of those things is you. You are getting so big right before my eyes. I really can't stand it! Sometimes when I lay next to you in bed at night I get so emotional realizing that my baby is no longer a little baby and that this stage of my life is rapidly coming to an end. I know change is a good thing but it's hard.

Our move to Bozeman was a lot harder on you than i thought it would be. Between teething, fighting colds and being in a new place you have understandably been a little on edge and not quite your happy self. We have been here for a month now and I feel like a lot happened last week. You started napping really good again (2.5 - 3 hrs!!), are getting back on track with telling us when you need to pee and are enjoy being in the car. All of which we had been struggling with since we moved. You know, it's amazing what this whole diaper-free lifestyle has done for us and our relationship. Most of the time we are 100% in sync with one another but when one of us is a bit off or stressed your pottying tells me more than I would ever know if you wore diapers. For example; when you are stressed from teething, moving or anything really you seem to forget to tell me when you have to go. When I am stressed I either miss your cues or I ignore my intuition. I can also tell when you are getting sick - your peeing frequency and the color and smell change a few days before. Although it has been a rough month with a lot of pee on the floor and in your pants it has been totally worth it. I know it is no ones fault, we are never upset by a miss - we just change your pants and move on. Plus that's why we got all wood floors, no carpet and a little baby pee has never hurt anyone. But it does feel very nice to be getting back on track. I miss our subconscious, intuitive conversations.

Even with the stress of the move and everything else you have continued to learn a lot and are talking like a five year old and are becoming so confident in your walking.

At 15 months old you know how to count to three and love counting everything, recognize and say the colors yellow and purple, are learning the alphabet and say "a b c" when asked to sing the alphabet. When I say the alphabet you repeat every letter after me and when we get to z you clap and say "yeah" to yourself. You love the "If you're happy and you know it" song and get so excited to clap your hands and stomp your feet. You love pretending to be a baby. It's the cutest thing in the world - a baby pretending to be a baby! You are starting to put two to three words together (examples: "uppy peas" - up please, "mama bobo nak" - meaning you want to nurse). You have a huge vocabulary and are very good at remembering new words. Here are just a few of the words you say: uppy (up), drink, puppy, baby, banky (blanky), nak (snack), nigh nigh (night night), mama, daddy, honey, babe, swing, slide, tree, tractor, poop, bird poop, pee, snow, keys, hug, hungry, peeees (please), dank doo (thank you), brow (eyebrow), hat, boots, coat, socks, open, close, no, hot, tea, coffee, drink, more, yoga, read, book and the list goes on and on and on.

I really should have written a post on this 4 months ago. When you were 11 months old a little spark was lit in you and you all the sudden knew the sound of every animal on the planet. If we ask you what a sheep says, for example, you say "baaa". Or if you sees a picture of a bear you growl.

Here is a list of all the animals you know by both name and what they look like:

Dog
Cat
Fish
Frog
Rabbit
Mouse
Lizard
Snake
Caterpillar
Worm
Butterfly
Bee
Fly
Sheep
Cow
Goat
Pig
Goose
Duck
Bird
Parrot
Horse
Llama
Alpaca
Donkey
Monkey
Lion
Bear
Tiger
Hippo
Rhino
Ant
Zebra
Penguin
Dinosaur
Whale
Giraffe
Seal
Walrus
Elephant

You are possibly the sweetest little thing I have ever met. You hug and kiss everything, literally. You pick up rocks, leaves, buttons, blue berries, toys, Sids bones, snow, coins, dirt, seeds, EVERYTHING and nestle it into your neck while saying "hug" and then you dramatically whip it around to your mouth and go "MUAH". Then you push whatever you have toward me or your dad for us to hug and kiss it. Your innocence is the sweetest thing I have ever been a part of.

While you are cute and sweet almost 100% of the time, there are times when whooo-weeee, you are quite a stubborn sassy pants. Wonder where that comes from :) We have tried very hard to not use the word no around you but no matter how hard we have tried you picked it from a few of your friends and hmmm.... I think it is your favorite word. You say no about everything even when you don't mean it. We are trying to just ignore this no business in hopes that it will pass.

You love games. You cover your eyes and play peekaboo with us and yourself all day. When I am trying to get you to fall asleep and pretending to be asleep myself you left up my eyelids and say "BOO!" which gets us both laughing pretty hard. You have made up several of your own games and spend much of the day playing them. Your favorite is pretending to feed your baby everything you eat. You make a little nibble sound and say "baby hungry". You also love calling things to come to you like rocks, your baby, your dad etc. You say "here daddy, MUAH MUAH" and pat your leg - you know, the way someone would call their dog :)

You are something really special little Lu. You have given me such a greater appreciation of life. I don't want to miss a beat of it without you. I feel so emotion lately because I am so in love with you, your dad and Sid and sometimes life seems too good to be true. Thank you for sharing your love and innocence with me. I think I was always destined to me a mother - it is the best thing I have ever done! For the first time in my life I feel like I am really living everyday to its fullest.

I love you baby Lu. Good night

Bummer bummer bummer.

2011-11-29T22:00:00.000-07:00

We finally got the internet! You would think we live in the middle of no where in the 1990's with how cray difficult it was to get internet at our house. But it's all fine now because the installers came and it works great. I hurried and got all my chores done tonight so I could start updating this blog with pictures but you see, it's not quite that easy. Because some lovely person out there decided to hack my email and give my computer a nasty virus that won't allow me to view any of my pictures. Not to mention all those charming Viagra ad emails that were sent to everyone in my contacts (sorry if you were one of the lucky ones!). So there you have it... Another day has passed where I took several pictures of my wee little one and am dying to post them but can't. My blog-to-do list is getting very long.

My Christmas list: 1 new MacBook. Please!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving.

2011-11-24T20:46:00.002-07:00

What a beautiful day! I have so much to be thankful for. My wonderful, hardworking, loving husband, my happy and healthy baby, my family, Tys family, good friends and all the materialistic things that I am lucky enough to share with all those I love like our new house.

Today was the first time I have ever hosted a holiday get together. It was so much fun having all my family over. My mom, dad, his girlfriend and her mom, both of my uncles, my dads friend, our sweet neighbors and last but not least .... their giant St. Bernard Buster!

It was such a calm, relaxing day. My mom played with Lu all day while Ty cleaned and I cooked. I made everything vegan and my dads girlfriend brought everything else the meat eaters might want like the turkey. I made pumpkin coconut curry soup with brown rice, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, salad, cilantro lime hummus with veggies, an upside down pumpkin cake with coconut cream frosting and peppermint chocolate chip cookies. It was delicious!

Sid and Buster had a great time. We even caught them sneaking rolls off the buffet table :)

It was such a pleasure having everyone over. We are so grateful for everyone in our lives. We surely missed Tys family and are very excited to see them at Christmas!

Happy Thanksgiving! Thank you life for being so good to us! Hope you all had a beautiful day :)

Pictures to follow. We finally found the only Internet provider in our neighborhood. Crazy! We will have it Monday and I will do some serious picture updating.

more luna tales.

2011-11-21T21:11:00.000-07:00

About a month ago we were at an antique shop and Luna saw a Santa statue. I told her it was Santa and that he says ho ho ho. We haven't seen or talked about him since.

Today we were walking on main street and there was a jolly, plump man wearing a red sweater and had a long, thick, white beard. As we walked by him Lu pointed and said "HO HO HO". The guy was very nice and seemed to take it as a compliment. But I was dumbfounded. I couldn't believe she remembered our 2 second conversation about what santa says from over a month ago let alone was able to associate that statue to a real man. She is so smart and blows me away every day.

We took Sid on walk this afternoon. She has decided she enjoys eating deer poop every now and then. Today she took it upon herself to dig some up in our neighbors front yard. Not only is the digging naughty, the poop eating is disgusting! So with Luna in the ergo we ran over to stop her. I said "Sid! Stop eating that poop - you are being really naughty".

Apparently Luna was listening to me very intently and really took in two of those words. Poop and naughty. So for the rest of the day she kept saying "poop naughty". She even fell asleep saying it. Haha! What a funny and smart little lady we have here! I guess what I need to take from this is that her little brain truly is like a sponge. I need to be more careful about what I say.

Luna Tales.

2011-11-20T21:00:00.000-07:00

We have a really beautiful view of main street and the university from our bedroom. We call it the city because the lights look similar to the sparkling view we had at our old house and Luna learned to say city. I say this with a smile because the view we had in Salt Lake was of millions of lights, here we see maybe a hundred.

Anyway, luna looked out the window tonight and said "city". I said "it's so pretty isn't it?" and Luna said "whoot whoot city" :) so cute and funny!

Update

2011-11-12T19:52:00.001-07:00

My blog-to-do list is getting long! But all the posts are pointless without pictures and unfortunately we don't have the Internet yet. Hopefully we will get it next week and I can get all caught up.

We are all unpacked and settling into our new house. We absolutely love it! It feels so clean, comfortable, cozy yet big and best of all it feels like it's ours! I don't know what it is but wow - it feels so good to be in our very own house! It actually still feels very surreal.

We had our neighbors over for dinner last night - they are around our age and have a 13 month old. They seem really nice and we have a lot in common. My wonderful uncle Butch is spending the weekend at our house and my family is coming over for dinner tomorrow. It is so much fun hosting family and friends at our house. It is something I really enjoy doing but rarely got the opportunity to do in SLC.

Ty went on the road last week and it's the first time I can honestly say I wasn't counting down the hours until he came home. Lu and I had a great week playing with friends, going to yoga and the park, playing in the snow, hiking and spending time with my mom. I love it here so much! I feel so alive. I go to bed every night so excited to wake up the next morning.

Anyway - pictures to document all our adventures coming soon!

Baby Lunas first Steps!!!

2011-11-06T20:31:00.001-07:00

What a great day. We woke up and went for a beautiful hike in the fresh snow, completely finished unpacking our house, took a nap, had yummy enchiladas for dinner, took a tub and just as we were getting ready for bed LUNA TOOK HER VERY FIRST STEPS ON HER OWN!!! We got it on video - watch it here.

What an exciting milestone! Lunas dr. had a theory that if babies crawl for at least 4 months the two hemispheres of their brain will grow together and they will be very cooridated, better at problem solving and very smart. We didn't do anything to slow Lunas walking down but I think our dr. is onto something. Luna is so stinkin smart it blows us away every day!

Woo hoo Lu! We are so proud of you!

Luna Tales.

2011-11-05T21:27:00.002-06:00

We have a pretty set routine around here and both our girls really like to stick to it. Right when we wake up Lu starts saying "ereal" (cereal). Right after breakfast we take Sid on a walk. Phew.. Getting ready with all the layers is quite a chore but we somehow manage to do it. It's a good thing Sid is patient.

Anyway back to the " Luna tale". As we were walking this morning a neighbor came out to introduce herself. She said "hi, I'm Marry" and shook my hand. Before I could even respond Luna was pointing at herself saying "Nuna" as if saying "hi, I'm Luna". It was so sweet. She blows us away with how smart she is. :)

We have finally moved in.

2011-10-31T23:36:00.001-06:00

After a few unexpected delays we are finally in our new house! I hope this post does not come across as me bragging because this whole home buying experience has been rather humbling but I can't even try to contain my excitement. There is nothing quite like the feeling of signing a billion papers and being handed a set of keys to your very first home.

Right after closing we went to lunch to celebrate with Tys parents and then met my dad at the house. It felt different stepping into the house this time - it's officially ours! My dad and Ty unloaded the entire 26 foot U-haul in less that two hours. Ty took the U-haul back and the man was so nice -he didn't even charge us for having it for 4 extra days! That would only happen in a nice little town like Bozeman. Shortly after, Pele and Dominic came over to help us move furniture and unpack.

After taking a lovely tub with Lu and getting her tucked into our ever-so-big-and-comfy bed Ty and I got busy. I would say 75% of our stuff is already unpacked.

Our house feels huge. We thought it was a regular sized house but it seems to be swallowing all of our hobbit sized furniture! Even Sid looks like a little shrimp. We need a lot of new furniture!

It was a good day. A very very good day. Now I am exhausted. My body and mind feel so happy and at peace. The view from our bedroom is unbelievably beautiful. I couldn't ask for more in life right now.

Goodnight. I am so grateful to be lying here in our new house sharing the air around me with my lovely husband, sweet little Lu and our honey; Sid.

House update.

2011-10-29T08:09:00.000-06:00

Well things haven't gone quite as planned. We arrived in Bozeman on Tuesday with the plan of closing on Thursday. Thursday came and went but we thought for sure it would be Friday. But unfortunately Friday also came and went and we were given the news that due to a delay in paperwork we won't be able to close until next week. It is really frustrating because our beautiful house has been sitting there ready for us since Thursday morning with our giant uhaul sitting in front of it. Tuesday - Friday afternoon we were staying in a hotel. It was very nice but an already small hotel room feels even smaller with a go-go-go one year old and a 165 pound dog. On Friday our best friends offered to let us stay at their house and it's great. We are all so much happier and relaxed. Being here is a big reminder of why we wanted to move back here so badly. Luna LOVES their kids and Sid is starting to warm up to their dogs. Some people might feel uncomfortable sharing a 1500 sq. foot house with 4 adults, 3 kids, 3 dogs, a cat and a hamster but we love it. We feel so cozy and comfortable here. Pele and I must have been identical twins in our past lives because I swear our entire DNA is exactly the same. Most people think I am crazy so it is so nice having a friend that understands me. Ty and Dominic also appear to share the exact same DNA. It's so fun when we all get together because looking at Pele and Dominic is like looking in the mirror. I am so excited for a lifetime of memories with them. Thanks Pele and Dominic! We love you!

We're on our way.

2011-10-25T09:17:00.001-06:00

We are off on our next adventure in life. We are already more than half way to our new home. We left Salt Lake at 5:30 this morning and are cruising right along. Lu is still sleeping - things couldn't be going any better. Love my little Lu but traveling is much easier when she's sleeping :)

My mom came into town a week ago and has been so much help. There is no way we would have been ready to move without all her help. Thanks mom!

Luna, Sid and I are riding in the Subaru with my mom and Ty is about 20 minutes behind us in the 26 foot U-haul (it's huge!). Ty's mom and dad are going to drive our Range Rover up to Bozeman on Saturday and then fly home on Monday. We are so excited to have them up here and so happy they get to see the house.

I am so grateful for them. We have absolutely loved living so close to them. I really couldn't ask for better in-laws! We will miss them terribly!

Ty's mom threw us a going away dinner on Sunday. It was delicious and so nice to see all the people we love one last time before we moved. I couldn't believe how many people came. It really meant a lot to us - thank you everyone.

I started this post with the intention of updating our move progress but it it seems to have turned into a thank you note. I guess that's because there is no way we would have been able to pursue this dream of ours without all the love and support of those around us. So while I am saying my thank you's I must thank Tom, Matt and Brian for helping us load up the U-haul for the 7th time in 4 years. We really appreciate all your help and owe you big time!

I am getting so anxious to see the house. The last time I saw it it was just sub flooring, drywall and dirt!

Introducing Luna Tales.

2011-10-20T22:32:00.001-06:00

Babies and kids are so funny! Their huge imaginations come up with the kookiest things. Luna has hit this stage and she makes us laugh so hard. I don't want to forget all the silly things she does so I am going to start blogging short posts about the funny, kooky and quirky things she does. These posts will be called Luna Tales.

The first tale I would like to write about took place on Tuesday at Sages Cafe. We had just picked my mom up from the airport (she is in town helping us pack) and were enjoying delicious pizza for dinner. Another baby came in about halfway through dinner. Luna loves looking at babies - no matter their size or age. If she sees a tiny infant or 5 yr old in a stroller or in its mamas arms she points and says "ooohhhhh baby!" and blows kisses. So after "oh babying" and blowing hundreds of kisses to this baby that was much older than Luna she decided she wanted to share her pizza with her. She held out her pizza, started saying "baby, baby" and clicking her lips and tongue. It took me a minute to understand what she was doing but once I figured it out I couldn't stop laughing. Luna was trying to share a "treat" with the baby like I do with Sid. I say "Sid, Sid" and kiss my lips for her to come. Then I asked Luna what she thought about that cute baby and she said "hhhmmmmmm" while rubbing her pretend beard. Haha. Love my baby Lu!

Second tale.... We were at Sweet Tomatoes for dinner tonight and Lu met her first crush. A little boy was sitting in the booth across from us and Lu loved him! She turned around in the highchair to stare and talk to him. She waved and said "hiii" to him several dozen times. Then she started saying "hiiii honeeey, wuv you". It was so sweet. She had us laughing so hard - I dont know where this outgoing little lady comes from! She is everything but shy. She smiled and said hi to everyone that walked by. Then as we were leaving she grabbed my head, turned my cheek and pulled me in for a hug, said "wuv you" and gave me a kiss. She melts my heart!

Dear Baby Luna

2011-10-09T22:09:00.000-06:00

My little Lu you are becoming a little girl. You are such a smart and funny little ham. We went grocery shopping today and you literally said "hhhiiiii" and waved to everyone in the store. One lady started laughing because you are so cute so you started chuckling back at her which made her laugh harder and you chuckle louder. Pretty soon we had a whole group of ladies and cute old men flocking you and laughing. It was quite a show. All the men in the store commented that you are the least shy baby they have ever seen. What a life huh?!? Something as simple as grocery shopping is so much fun these days.

Your vocabulary is huge. Here is a list of all the words you know at 14 months:

mama
dad
Luna (Nuna)
Sid (id)
Mimi (may-may)
Papa
Nana
Millie (Mulay)
Jack (ack)
Shoe
Boot
Sock (ock)
Rock
Caterpillar (ater-illlar)
Flower (wower)
Water (wawa)
Seed (eed)
Prune (une)
Watermelon (waler-welon)
Tea
Snack (nack)
Boobie (bobo)
Nose (no)
Eye
Ear
Hair
Knee
Teeth (tee)
Toes
One (on)
Two
Bread
Baby (bay-bow)
Dog
Cat
Bird
Bee
Bug
Duck
Goose (goo)
Poop (poo)
Pee (dee)
Vitamin (ya-yamin)
Swing (schwing)
Yellow (lellow)
Blue (bue)
Purple (dur-dle)
Green (eeeen)
Banana (ba)
Apple
Ball
Walk
Pickle (day-dole)
Honey (honnneyyyy)
Bone
Bye
Hi
Hello
Tractor
Toot (too-too)
Bike
Stinky (inky)
Down
No
Up
Shampoo (sha-poo)
Hike (hie)
Ouch
Thank you (day-doo)
Book (ook)
Eat
Cheese (eeeeeese)
Bubble (bubul)

I know i have forgotten a few - i will add more as i think of them. It's like you know what everything means. All babies are different, most are probably walking by 14 months but don't talk as much. Everyone has their strengths and my goodness baby, you have brains! Don't worry- you are so close to walking. You love walking with our help. You reach for our fingers and say "walk". When we give you our fingers you smile so big and squeal in excitement. You can stand and have great balance but only do it on your own when you are distracted. You could totally walk on your own but are a little scared. You will be running in no time though so don't worry and take your time.

We are getting ready to move into our new house! We will sure miss your Mimi and Papa being so close but we are also excited to have our own space. Life has been very good to us since you came along. I am so excited for you to call this new house home. You are going to be in absolute heaven ... There are lots of stairs to climb (that is your favorite thing to do) and a great park less than a block away. Oh and all the neighbors have dogs. I always knew I wanted to own a home with our family but I never expected it to be so exciting, feel so perfect and be brand new! I am so excited for you to grow up in Bozeman. It is the perfect home for our family. We aren't moving because we dislike SLC, its just that we love Bozeman.

Up until last week you were taking two naps a day. It was a rough transition but you were ready and after only a few days of playing with your schedule you are officially down to one nap a day. I love it! We have such big chunks of time to do fun activities. And now that your daddy got us our very own car we have a busy and fun week planned out. I absolutely love going out with you. You love the big windows in our new car and point to everything you see.

Your teeth are coming in fast and intense. For the last 2 months you have had at least 4 teeth trying to break through the gums. You have two on bottom with two more on the way and four on top with two on the way. You are usually really happy and easy going but man-oh-man, these teeth sure put you on edge sometimes! I don't blame you but my goodness you just don't tolerate nonsense right now.

I have to get to bed now but want to tell a funny story really quick. We went to dinner with a some of my BSW friends last night. We were early so got a table and sat down to wait. The guy next to us had his headphones in and was bobbing his head to the music. I could see you stating at him for awhile and then all the sudden you just broke out your moves. You were bobbing your body up and down so big it even made the guy laugh. Once you were done dancing you decided to grab the soy sauce before I could stop you and put some in your hand and started washing your hair with it while saying "sha-poo sha-poo". It was so funny, sweet, smart and maybe a little messy. Haha.

Well baby Lu, I sure love you. You keep me young and fill my heart and soul with love. Good night beautiful.

Our New House!!!

2011-10-05T22:37:00.000-06:00

This is what it looked like when we first saw it and put in our offer...

It is underway... Our realtor sent us these pictures today! We are so in love and so unbelievably excited! We move in less than 3 weeks!!!

the entry

the office

top of the stairs

patio at top of stairs and off master bedroom

master bedroom

hallway upstairs, stair landing off to the right

The rest of Sepember

2011-10-05T22:16:00.000-06:00

September was a great month. We....

Went to a delicious vegan lunch with Danielle and Lu decided she wanted to wear her sunglasses the whole time. Our server fell in love with her so treated her with all sorts of snacks. Every time she brought her something Luna would say "day-doo" (thank you) which actually sounds just like thank you when she says it. So cute!

Went to Red Butte Garden with Amanda and Jack...

It is so cute watching them finally play and interact...

Went to hiking up Milcreek a bunch...

Went to Discovery Gateway Children's Museum with Jamie and Mikah...

(can they just call anything a children's museum? Maybe it is more educational for the older kids but I personally would call it more of an overcrowded play house than a museum)

Took lots of bubble baths in the sun in this wonderful bucket...

After swimming Lu decided to climb out of the bucket and explore her Mimi and Papas backyard naked :)

Look at this cute big girl... reading a book while on the potty :)

Luna says "eeeeeese" (cheese) now. Whenever my camera has the flash on she has always done this cute cheesy face but now its even more funny because she says cheese the whole time and then takes my camera away to look at her picture and says "oooohhhh" when she sees how stinkin cute she is ...

We are getting really excited to go swimming at all the hot springs in Bozeman so we got Lu a few new swimsuits... Look at that adorable belly!

We went shopping at Old Navy and Luna fell in love with the manikins. I mean head over heals in love! Especially with the dog! She stood their saying "hhhhiiii honnneeyyy", petting it for literally 20 minutes. She also liked holding the girls hand. What a goofy baby!

One day Lu insisted I put her swimsuit on her. It was chilly out so this is the compromise we made...

Sid got lucky one day. A nice person on our walk gave her a bone. I have never seen her so proud or move so fast. She walked all the way home with it in her mouth telling me to hurry up! Ah we sure love her!

Acorns, Pumpkin Seeds and 4 New Teeth!

2011-09-30T12:02:00.000-06:00

Sid** has been sneaking out to the mailbox, which happens to be under an acorn tree. I couldnt figure out what she was doing so one day I snuck up there and she was eating the acorns! She totally cought me spying on her so now she must think "what the heck, she saw me eating them" because now she eats several of them on our walks and when we are all outside. What a goofy dog! She chews the really good, eats the middle and spits out the shell.

Luna is equally in love with pumpkin seeds. I get the organic, deshelled, unsalted ones in bulk at whole foods and she goes crazy for them. She chews them pretty good and eats them by the handful. She even says "seeeeeed" when she wants some. Soy nuts come pretty close but pumpkin seeds are by far her favorite!

I have some pretty silly girls here! I love that my baby asks me for seeds though rather than something unhealthy :)

On another note, it has been a really long week around here! Lu has gotten 4 teeth in the last month and one tooth leads to tears, frustration and a hard time napping let alone 4 teeth at one time! The good news is now she has 6 teeth and I dont see any others surfacing the gums so hopefully we will get a little break. Phew! I'm exhausted! When Ty is out of town it is really hard when Lu isn't able to nap very well.

** I have decided I don't like the way Sydneys name is spelled. I have never liked it. After thinking about it I decided that now I am her mama I can spell her name however I want. I would actually prefer to change her name all together but Ty doesn't think that would be very nice. So Sydney it is. But from now on it's Sidney with an i instead of a y. Sidney ... Much better :)

Luna 13 Month Pictures

2011-09-22T21:19:00.000-06:00

13 Months

2011-09-21T23:06:00.001-06:00

Time goes so fast, it's hard to wrap my head around the fact that Luna is already 13 months old. She is so little yet so big at the same time. We have full-on conversations these days. Here is a funny example... We were in the tub last night and Luna tooted.

Luna: "toot toot"
Ty: "does your toot smell good or is it stinky?"
Luna: "stinky" "phewyyyy" and she waved her hand as if trying to fan the smell away.

It was so funny! She is growing into this little girl that is so full of life, quirkiness and spunk. She makes us and herself laugh all the time. No matter who her audience; the waiter, checkout girl or her papa - she loves to show off all her words, colors, animal noises and climbing skills. My mom was playing with Luna and Syd at a park one day while Ty and I went on a bike ride. My mom told us that a couple rode by on their bikes and Luna said "mama, dada?" and pointed at the couple on the bikes. When you ask Lu a question she answers by nodding her head yes or no. She honestly has a vocabulary of well over 100 words.

Lu really wanted a pickle today. She crawled all the way from our bedroom to the kitchen twice saying "day-dole, day-dole, day-dole" while I followed her trying to figure out what she was saying. When she pointed at the fridge I opened it and then she pointed at the pickle jar like "see mama, day-dole!" How cute is that? She knew she wanted a pickle and she sure got one! So smart!

Lu and Syd have become absolute best friends in the last few weeks. I couldn't count the number of kisses Lu gives Syd in a day if I tried. She often crawls over to Syd and says "hhhiiiii honeyyyyy, MuuuaaaaaahhHHHH" and gives her a big hug by throwing her whole little self on top of Syd and squeezing her". Syd is such a good dog and just lays as still as she can to make sure not to hurt 'her baby'. Luna has a thing for all dogs. She loves them, I mean really loves them, especially little ones. We were on a walk and some grumpy dogs were barking like they might kill us but Lunas sweet little self saw right threw them and knew they needed a little love. She barked back at them and blew them a thousand kisses. We were at the Co-op one day and there was a cute little puppy. Lu insisted on getting down to play with it. The little puppy gave Lu millions of kisses, knocked her over and sat on her. All the while Lu was laughing so hard she could barely breath. It was quite a show because Syd kept nudging the puppy out of the way to make sure Lu was okay :)

Luna is a nature girl. She has a few passionate loves that you might call an obsession. She loves flowers, rocks, water, dirt and pinecones. Everywhere we go she insists on finding a rock and carries that thing clenched in her little fist for hours. If she accidentally drops her rock she waves bye, blows it a kiss and looks for a new one :) Her heart is so tender and sweet! The house we are buying is still being built so there is a large pile of rocks out front. Luna sat on that pile and played for what felt like hours and was in absolute heaven! I am trying to cherish this. I love that the most simple of things in life bring my baby the most joy of anything.

Lunas favorite foods at 13 months are avocado, prunes, pureed spinach and broccoli, Indian food (she is crazy for curry), salsa (she seems to think the spicier the better!), all kinds of nuts and seeds, beans, berries, bananas, tofu and noodles. She is a muncher just like her mama and daddy. She calls everything a "nak" (for snack) and asks for them throughout the day by saying "nak" and doing the eat sign. Luna continues to nurse. We love it! My plan is to just let Lu ween herself whenever she's ready. It's pretty funny though because she know what she wants when she wants it. She also calls my milk "nak" so when she wants it she points at my boobs and says"nak" :)

Life is beautiful right now. Luna is a little/big bundle of joy. We love her so much and can't imagine life without her. We are really looking forward to our move back up to Bozeman and can't wait to start our lives together there.

September Happenings

2011-09-18T20:55:00.000-06:00

We have been staying very busy, trying to spend as much time enjoying the city before we move to Montana. We are sure going to miss all our family and friends but will be back to visit often. :)

Luna is so funny lately. She loves to wear accessories and totally knows shes cute. She puts necklaces, headbands, underwear, hats, pretty much everything on her head and says "whoot whoot" while spinning a circle. Isn't she beautiful?

Playing at Bogart Park in Bozeman with Syd

This is how we keep ourselves busy when we are stuck at home without a car :) Swimming in buckets! Luna loves water - in the sink, in a cup, in Syd's water bowl or in a bucket! Really, water is just fantastic in her opinion.

Isn't this the best baby CHEESE face you have ever seen? Where did she learn that? I mean she started doing it when she was like 4 months old! And it just keeps getting better!

Lu loves watermelon. Mostly hugging it though so most of it ends up all over her :)

Her hair is getting so long and pretty!

Another example of her "whoot whoot"!

We totally scored at the Patagonia outlet Labor Day sale! Lu got this adorable snowsuit and coat! It will be perfect for the cold Montana winter we have ahead of us!

This is Luna's friend Solaira. They love each other :) They are riding a cute little train in Bozeman.

They are so in love! I have never seen a daddy and daughter have such an incredible relationship. I love it and feel so lucky to be married to such a wonderful husband and father. We were having lunch at the Co-op downtown Bozeman after a fun morning of house hunting. Look at Lu's cute sunglasses on her head :)

This is the all mighty pile of rocks that is in front of our new house. Lu could have played on it for hours. She was in heaven!

We stayed at my dads. Lu loved this quilt. She would point to the yellow and say "lellow" and the green and say "eeen". She blows us away.

We went to the Livingston farmers market with my uncle Butch. What a good dog huh? She loved Butch and especially loved his BBQ Pork sandwich she ate right our of his hand. (oops)

She is the cutest little sleeper! Look at this adorable kissy lips :)

Lu loves flowers! She points at them and says "wower" and when we pick one for her she smells it and then blows it to get the bugs off :)

Lu is the sweetest little thing when she is sleepy. She rubs her eyes just like in the movies. Its hard to miss her tired signs....

Ah... I feel like the luckiest lady alive waking up to this every morning. Every time I open my eyes during the night, under the glow of the moon, I get to see the two loves of my life snuggling like this. So romantic you might think? Well yes, and Syd makes it even more so by topping it off with a rhythmic snore. Lu loves it when her daddy is home. She loves to snuggle up right next to him all night :) Oh I love my life so much!

So beautiful... inside and out!

August Happenings

2011-09-13T23:15:00.001-06:00

In addition to celebrating Tys birthday, Lunas first birthday and our 4 year anniversary we stayed very busy all month.

My sweet sister came to visit...

And then she had her wisdom teeth taken out - how adorable is she?

After taking my sister to the airport I crashed our new car! I mean we still had the dealer plates on the car! Sad day. But everything turned out okay. Luna and Syd were in the car with me but no one was hurt. Thank god for insurance!!!

Luna and Syd were troopers... Lu played in the dirt and mud for over an hour while the police came and the car was towed. I didn't even have a collar or leash for Syd. Good thing she is such a good dog, she just laid there like this the whole time!

So once again we were stuck at home without a car. Ty was out of town and so we had to be creative with our time. You see, only having one car worked well for us for a long time. But that was when Luna nursed and slept all day. Now she is a busy go-go-go girl and lets just say that staying at home all day is really hard! But we managed...

We played dress up

Rocked in her rocking chair

Tried on her life jacket, which started our good - smiles and all...

but quickly turned to this...

so we decided to move on to better things like playing in the garden and taking everything off all the shelves in the whole house. Syd even joined in the fun

Phew.. we were really happy when Ty got home! We spent the rest of the month going to concerts, dinner, relaxing and loving life together...

Moving and House Update...

2011-09-10T21:39:00.002-06:00

Let me start by filling you in... When we were in Bozeman this last June we decided we want to move back. We fit in, have really good friends and would prefer Luna grow up there. We started looking at houses for sale but we weren't quite ready. But we found an incredible realtor and started working with a lender to get pre-qualified etc. Since June we have thrown around all sorts of options: old fixer-upper close to down town, build on a big lot way out of town, buy new/already built house pretty close to main etc. Well we are ready now and just made a trip up to Bozeman to make a decision.

I love house hunting and had so much fun! With all the help from our wonderful realtor we finally found our house! It is in a new subdivision about 2 miles south of main street. It's perfect! The house is almost finished being built and we found it just in time because we get to pick all the finishes from the exterior color to the hardware and wood stain etc. The neighborhood is beautiful, I would say all the houses kind of look like California craftsman beech homes. Bozeman is a pretty small town but has over 60 miles in trails that loop all through the town. Ty and I rode our bikes on a trail that starts basically at our front door and rode it 2 miles and ended up right down town. The trail felt like we were in a tropical jungle. You can take that same trail 1/4 a mile north and you are at the elementary school or a 1/4 mile south and you are at the middle school! How awesome is that - Lu will get to take a trail to school! One neighbor has a Saint Bernard just like Syd and another neighbor has a beautiful Newfoundland :)

This house feels perfect. It is the perfect location for us and it basically feels like we are building our own home except we don't have to wait several months for it to be built. I have never lived in a new home before and am so excited!

We put in our offer on Thursday the 8th and are officially "under contract"!!!! The builder set the close date based on his building timeline and I can't even believe it .... It's my birthday!!! Which just so happens to be the same exact day we moved to Bozeman last time. October 27th it is! The best birthday present ever! I can't wait to own a home and share it with the love of my life. This whole home buying journey has been so much fun and I am so grateful I get to do it all with Ty.

New Tooth!!! Finally! and New Words

2011-08-17T21:17:00.000-06:00

Little miss Luna got her first top tooth today! This makes for three total. This one has been a long time in the coming. It has been sitting right under the surface for about four months now. We are all so happy it finally decided to pop through the gums.

Luna has also learned some new words in the last few days. She says "oot" for tooth, "nac" for snack, "nana" (my mom), "may may" for Mimi (Tys mom), "papa" (both grandpas), and "ni ni" for night night. When I say tooth or teeth she points to her teeth, mine and Syds and says "oot". Lunas favorite word is snack. I love it too. She does the eat and more signs whils saying "nac" and nodding her head yes to let me know she either wants to nurse or have a real snack. The other night we were at dinner with Tys cousin and Luna started pointing at my boobs and yelling "nac nac nac"! It was so cute, funny and maybe a tad bit embarrassing :) She started saying "ni ni" and waves at all the pictures in our house on our way to bed - I think her favorite part of the whole day is waving, blowing kisses and saying night night to all the pictures.

It's amazing how fast babies learn. I am sure other babies are very smart too but I have never really been around any others so I feel like Luna is amazing. She blows my mind every single day. I can't wait to see what she grows up to be. :)

Happy First Birthday Luna!!!

2011-08-11T22:47:00.000-06:00

What a bittersweet day. It is amazing to think that one year ago my baby girl came into my life. Part of me feels like it was just yesterday but the other part of me feels like she has been apart of our lives forever. One thing is for sure- Luna has completely changed our lives. She has taught us so much about ourselves, life and love. I never knew what it was like to love someone so much. She has taught me the importance of life and I don't want to miss a single second of it with her. In the past few weeks I have felt like if I blink I could miss something. She is getting so big and is turning into a little girl. I love her more than I ever imagined possible.

We decided a Tuesday was as good of day as any for her birthday party so we decided to celebrate on her actual birthday. The party was perfect! So many special friends and loved family members came. It was so much fun celebrating our sweet babies life with everyone we love. The party was perfect! I made a cute birthday banner with pictures of Luna over the past 12 months, a super special birthday girl hat, cilantro lime hummus (which was delicious!), guacamole and watermelon from the farmers market. We ordered a beautiful and delicious lemon coconut cake with raspberry filling and butter cream frosting from the best vegan bakery in the world- City Cakes. Luna got so many great books and gifts. Best of all Luna had a wonderful time :) My sweet sister is in town and helped out a lot. She took pictures at the party and got some really great ones. Sydney came to the party and was awesome. She was off leash the entire time and enjoyed getting attention from everyone. All the kids loved her. She is such a loyal dog - we didn't notice until we were looking at the pictures but she was next to Luna pretty much the entire party. We love her!!

Happy birthday my baby. I love you so very much! Thank you everyone for coming and loving our sweet baby girl!

4 years!

2011-08-10T23:23:00.000-06:00

Happy anniversary my love. I can't believe it has already been 4 years. I never knew what to expect with marriage but I never dreamed of it being this good. I feel so lucky I get to spend every single day of my life with my best friend and love of my life. Thank you for taking such good care of me and providing us with such an amazing life. I am so in love with you and the life we have together. We were truly meant for one another. I love you so much and can't wait to spend the rest of my life with you!

It has aready been a year?!?!?

2011-08-09T00:14:00.001-06:00

I can't sleep. My mind is too busy reminiscing about the past year. It's funny how significant events in life mark your timeline.

Right now I am lying here awake because I know tomorrow is my babies first birthday. But one year ago to this very moment I remember lying awake in bed wondering if I was ever going to have my baby. Little did I know that it was my babies very last night in my belly.

My contractions started at about 3 am on August 9th. I remember that night like it was just last week. I tossed and turned trying to get comfortable with my giant belly and made over a dozen trips to the bathroom to pee. I thought I had painful gas, turns out those were contractions. They were slow and irregular for awhile but picked up pace around 5 am which is when I woke up Ty. We made our way to Bozeman and met our midwife who confirmed Luna was really on her way out. After soaking in the tub for 7 hours and feeling more alive than I've ever felt Luna was born into the water at 2:22 pm.

What a beautiful moment that was - the most beautiful of my life. I would pay endless amounts of money to experience that again. I felt instantly overwhelmed with love and proudness for birthing my baby naturally.

Now, exactly one year later, I am lying here next to Luna who has gone from being an innocent 8.8 pound infant to a beautiful, smart and funny little girl who is full of life. I love her more than words can say and I can't believe how lucky I am that I get to be her mom forever!!

Dear Baby Luna; My little free spirit

2011-08-03T12:22:00.001-06:00

My goodness... my life is changing, and I mean really changing! My sweet little dependent baby you, are now a very independent, adventurous free spirit who is off to explore the world! It's like all the sudden, pretty much over night, you are this little girl who is having conversations with me and getting yourself into EVERYTHING. You have been crawling for a few months but up until now your only motivation was to get to me so I would hold you. But now, well you see, you want to explore everything. Let me just tell you about the last 24 hours...

After dinner last night while I was cleaning up you made your way over to Syds water bowl and started screaming "wa wa wa" while splashing and smiling. You were so proud but I was nervous not being able to see you from the kitchen so I brought you in, closed the door and gave you your own bowl of water to play in. After putting your face in the bowl to get a drink like Syd you decided to pick the bowl up and dump the water on your head. I stopped doing the dishes to help you and clean up the water. Well while I was busy cleaning up the water you had moved onto bigger and better things. In a matter of seconds butter knives were flying and crashing into the walls. You had climbed up onto the dishwasher and were hucking all the utensils over your head as fast as you could, well after tasting each dirty one of course! It's not like I am preoccupied or not paying attention - you are just fast!

I finally got the kitchen clean and we made our way to the bedroom. While I was getting Syd ready for a walk you decided to unpack my suitcase that I have been neglecting. I looked over and you had put my underwear on your head!

On our walk you talked the whole time. You pointed flowers and said "wower", rocks and said "ocks", any water such as a pond, sprinkler, puddle or a water bottle and said "wawa", trees and said "rees", dogs and said "dee dee" etc.

When we got home we brushed our teeth and got in the tub. While brushing our teeth you put your toothbrush under the water to rinse it, spit, and tapped it on the counter - just like you have been watching me do your whole life. In the tub you tooted and said "too too". I told you to kick your legs and you did. Then I said to blow your bubbles and you did. Then we rehearsed all the animal sounds you've been learning. After every animal you told be the sound it makes (fish, duck, dog, cat, elephant, lion, horse, cow, sheep, goat and bear). Then we talked about your body parts. I asked you where something was and you pointed to it. You currently know knee, toes, head, ear, mouth, nose, eyes and fingers. Then I asked you what color your rubber ducky is and you said "lellow"! While the tub was draining I asked you how old you are and you said "one" and put your one finger up :)

By the time we went to bed at 7:30 you were exhausted and fell right to sleep. This morning you woke up and pointed at your rocking chair. You rocked in it for about 10 minutes while I made the bed and got dressed. In the mean time you got yourself off and decided to get yourself dressed for the day. This is what you picked out.... Not one this time but two!!!! You were so proud!

I love you Luna! I always said I wanted a free spirited child and my goodness, that is exactly what you are! I am one lucky mama! Let the adventures, fun times and exhaustion begin!

PS. Your dad is out of town this week, if you couldn't tell :)

A new record...

2011-07-31T10:41:00.000-06:00

We got home from Montana at 2 yesterday. Luna slept 5 of the 7 hours we were in the car. This bug has really wiped her out. When we got home we ripped into all of her new toys from the party but Luna was exhausted. We all were. We laid down for a nap at 3:30 and I cant believe it, it wasn't a nap. She didn't wake up until 8:00 this morning! She slept for 16.5 hours!!! She still nursed in the night but never woke up - just like she always does. Apparently she really needed it! She woke up so happy this morning. I woke up to her touching my nose saying "na" "na". It took me a minute but I finally got it and said "nose" and she got the biggest smile and said "na" it again. She gets so proud and excited when you know what she is saying. God, she is so smart and cute. I never imagined that being a mom would be so fabulous.

Montana and Luna's First Birthday Party

2011-07-30T22:56:00.000-06:00

We went up to Montana to throw Luna a birthday party with my family and our friends and to look at some houses. As you already know from my last post, the trip started out a little rough but it turned out to be wonderful and totally worth it.

We stayed at my dads. I have never felt so comfortable there. My dads wonderful girlfriend Sandy moved in with him and she has turned his house into a home. I love her and am so grateful my dad met her.

Luna was very sick the whole time with soaring fevers and threw up about a dozen times but she was such a trooper. She has been exhausted and slept a lot. When she was awake she was happy but not herself. She has been nursing a ton - which is good!

We got to my dads on Wednesday night, just relaxed and hung out at my dads and visited with my mom on Thursday and had a big day Friday. We got up early and took Syd to Petes Hill in Bozeman. She fit right in and loved it! Then we met up with our realtor. We love her!! We looked at a few houses and a few lots and have decided we want to build a house. We will spend the month of September up there to get things going :) We drove around for nearly 4 hours. Luna and Syd were great and just in it for the ride. Luna slept most of the time.

Then it was party time! We got pizza from a yummy, healthy pizza place and met everyone at Bagart park. We had a great turnout and had so much fun seeing everyone. Luna scored with gifts. She's a very loved and lucky little lady! My mom made a delicious vegan lemon cake with raspberry filling and cream cheese frosting. Luna wasn't too sure about it. (Good job baby! We'll stick to broccoli!) My wonderful and oh-so-cute uncle Butch was there. We danced and held hands pretty much the whole time. He introduced Luna to everyone as "his baby" :) At one point he overheard me talking to someone about moving and seemed confused so I said to him "I'll tell you a secret, we're moving back here buddy!" He froze for a second and I could see his wheels spinning. He yelled at the top of his lungs "Excuse me everybody! My buddy is moving here!" then he looked at Ty, flexed his arms and said "I've got muscles!". He was implying that he would like to help us move :)

My friend Pele made Luna this adorable dress :)

What a life! I love it and am so excited I get to live it every single day!

I can't believe a year has already passed. Luna is growing up too fast but I have to admit, everyday is so much better than the last and some how my heart miraculously loves her more every single day! You're incredible Luna! I love you!

Thank you everyone for coming to Lunas party and celebrating her special life with us.

ENOUGH!

2011-07-28T01:31:00.000-06:00

My god! Enough is enough and this is crazy. Syd is a good dog but she's terrified of two things; thunder and fireworks. She kept us up for hours every night at the lake because all the neighbors felt it was completely necessary to celebrate the 24th with useless, loud fireworks. Today was a long and awful day. We all need sleep. Well guess what, it's thundering! So Syd just woke us up for the third time. The first time it was funny, the second time it was fine but this time I've had it. To make matters worse Luna woke up this time. Which on a normal occasion would be fine - she's a good sleeper and would typically go right back to sleep. Well it's not a typical night, she's had the damn flu for 3 days and she just threw up everywhere. I'm ready to go home. Please baby, get better soon! And please Syd, so help me god, let us sleep!

Poor sick baby

2011-07-27T22:20:00.000-06:00

Having a sick baby is one of the worst things in the world. Luna got some really awful flu bug. We are out of town and I forgot my thermometer but she is burning up. Her whole body feels like it's on fire. And that's after taking advil (you know it's bad if I break down and give her that stuff!!) She threw up in the middle of the night and at lunch today. We had to drive from Idaho to Montana today and we were in the car for 8 hours way too long. All my sweet baby wants to do is snuggle and sleep. I feel so helpless. Babies shouldn't get sick!

Big girl

2011-07-19T22:39:00.001-06:00

It seems like there is one day every month where Luna grows and learns a lot. Today was one of those incredible days. All the sudden she knows where all her body parts are. I will ask her "Luna, where is your head, nose, toes, ear, knee, belly button" and she points to the right place and mimics my words so clearly you can totally understand what she is saying. After everyone body part she claps for herself. When I was putting her to sleep she insisted on talking to her beloved baby doll. So I laid here and smiled to myself while listening and watching her teach her baby doll where all it's body parts are. She would point to her toes and say "ttt", to her knee and say "eeee" and to her ear and say "eeeeer".

Luna is also starting to explore her voice. I'm not sure if it's something she learned from her friend who screams really loud all the time or if it's just part of being a little girl but my goodness... this little lady knows how to scream! Happy screams, sad screams and mad screams. I am trying really hard to not react to these screams but it's hard. Every bone in my body is laughing hysterically.

Luna hasn't gotten a tooth for a few months but it sure seems like one might be on it's way! Let's just say that our sweet little miss was very on edge today. For instance, I put her toothbrush away before she was finished and my goodness, someone listening might have thought I dropped her on her head by the way she screamed! This same scream followed just about everything that usually wouldn't bother our easy going little girl like if I hugged her too tight or put her down.

Oh how we love this girl. She makes our lives so much fun and fills us with love. Even hard days are good because in between screams she kisses us, laughs and smiles.

She is growing up way too fast!

Cute Girls

2011-07-17T21:51:00.000-06:00

Luna is 11 months, 2 weeks old in these photos

Meet Beautiful Sydney

2011-07-14T22:02:00.000-06:00

Sydney is a beautiful 5 year old, 165 pound Saint Bernard. We went to meet her on Tuesday just to start getting a feel for what kind of dog we wanted and it was love at first sight. We went home Tuesday night to talk and think about it. On Wednesday Ty went and met a Great Dane and felt Sydney was a better fit for our family. I told Ty he could pick out our new dog because I picked Olive and because my heart is so soft I would take anything, even a monster. Ty said Sydney had been on his mind ever since we met her so when he got off work we headed straight over there to pick her up.

Sydney is a retired show dog so she is very well mannered and is the most well behaved gentle giant we have ever met. She is just what we needed and we already love her so much. She is so much like Olive but so different at the same time. She seems to already know I am her mama and she followed me around all day today. Sydney will never replace Olive, she is just a new member of our family and Olive would have loved her.

We had a very fun and eventful first day with Sydney. We woke up, had breakfast, went for a walk and then Olive's best friend Millie came over to meet Sydney. When Ty got home from work we all had dinner together and went to the park to let Sydney play.

Thanks for joining the family Syd, we look forward to years of fun with you!

Luna 11 months

2011-07-14T21:45:00.000-06:00

Luna is quite a hoot. She is very outgoing and is not shy in the least bit. She loves playing, both by herself and with friends. She is a girl that knows what she wants when she wants it. She has a few favorite foods: avocado, blueberry, peanut butter, mango, broccoli, spinach and bananas.

Luna is also very good at communicating. She smacks her lips and points at chap stick when she wants to put some on. She says ball, bee bee (baby), ba (banana), ah (olive), mama, dada, vroom vroom when she wants to ride the little four wheelers and if you don't understand what she wants she will tell you until you get it.

One night at dinner Ty was blowing on his bite of food. Ever since then Luna makes sure to blow on everything before she eats it :)

She is getting more and more stable on her feet and loves to pull herself up and stand all the time. When we were in Bozeman Luna was naked on the grass and started crawling on her hands and knees. Now she does a mix of regular crawling and her army crawl. She loves finding things on the floor, inspecting them, showing us and then putting it in her mouth really fast before we can get it. She has always been a little snuggle bug but in the last few weeks she just wants to hug, kiss and snuggle us all the time. It's so sweet and we love it. She nuzzles her little head in our neck and pats our backs :)

Luna sweats like crazy in her sleep. This is how her hair looks when she wakes up from naps :)

She loves feeding herself and exploring the texture of all her food. Dinner is quite an event. We love it!

Isn't she getting so big and beautiful!?!

What do you do when you're bored, it's hot, you don't have a car and you're stuck at home? Well of course, you fill up a pot with water and play in it...

Luna loves sucking mango out of these things

The Monday after Olive passed away Ty had to go on the road for work. Luna and I didn't want to stay at home and be sad about Olive so we went and stayed at my wonderful friend Jamies house because her husband and dog were out of town too. It was so much fun and Luna loved all of Mikahs toys!

This is the first bath Luna has ever taken without me. So sweet :)

Ashes

2011-07-12T22:22:00.000-06:00

Olive was cremated today :( very sad! I miss her so much. The thought of her going up in flames about tears my heart in pieces. But it feels much better than her sitting in that freezer at the vets that she's been in since Saturday :( I had a thought of breaking in and stealing her back. It will feel nice to get her ashes back so I know where her remains are and that that are safe.

What to do other than reminisce?

2011-07-12T07:54:00.002-06:00

What is a broken hearted mama supposed to do when she wake up several times a night thinking about sweet Olive? Well I guess a good place to start would be to just write about it. So, here I am...

Anyone who knew Olive knows she was more human than hound. That girl was more sensitive than me, had more feelings than anyone I've ever known and loved us like most people wished their children would love them.

We always had to be very mindful of Olives feeling to ensure we didn't hurt them. If we didn't drop everything in our arms the second we got home so we could say hello and give her 10 minutes worth of loves she would wonder off very sad. And remain very sad for several hours. We had to plan for this because a simple hello wouldn't do it, she had a big ritual: sniff us, wag her tail so happy, stand up on her hind feet to hug us and stretch, lay down and get a belly and ear rub, shake her head and run straight to the kitchen. You see, Olive had a HUGE Dingos obsession, the more affordable generic brands wouldn't do. And for those of you non-dog-owners, Dingos are comparable to lobster when it comes to price. And Olive expected several a day. Not only was she expensive and high maintenance, she was the most stubborn thing I've ever met! If she wanted a Dingo she would sit in front of that cupboard for hours until you broke down and gave her another one. She could happily eat a package a day. If we ran out she would whomp that Dingo cupboard until we went to the store. Lets just say we made several special Dingo runs.

I think most people thought we were crazy because of all the things we did for Olive over the past three years. But we not only accepted it as life, we loved every single minute of it. Olive was our baby and best friend. We felt that the least we could do for her was to help he feel good, be healthy and live as long as possible.

Poor Olive was born with some serious health complications. After spending thousands of dollars for hospitalizations, oxygen treatments and tests we never did get an answer for her respiratory issue. You see, Olive lived her whole life on antibiotics. If we skipped even just one dose she would develop pneumonia. She was very healthy when we lived up at Sundance and in Montana. It lead us to believe she had weak lungs that had a hard time tolerating the pollution. When we moved back to Salt Lake Olives health turned a new corner. She stopped eating and was very tired. We put her on antidepressants, ran thousands of more dollars on tests, made her homemade food and did everything possible to keep weight on her but again, never got an answer. Cancer came as both a relief and a stab in the heart. It was finally a firm diagnosis which meant we knew what to expect but it also seemed very unfair. Olive fought so hard all her life to fend off that darn respiratory thing and then to be diagnosed with a very aggressive form of cancer just seemed unfair.

Through all of this, Olives personality shined through. She claimed our bed as hers. She helped us graduate from a queen to a king and seemed to think we got it solely for her so she could stretch out even bigger. She snored louder than a train. Maybe that's why I can't sleep, Olives snoring was like music to my ears. She loved to sleep in, sometimes until 11 or 12!!

Olive was such a good friend. I have so many great memories with her. I told her I was pregnant before I even told Ty. I confided in her with everything. She never judged me and just looked at me with her droopy face and said everything would always be okay.

I better try to get some sleep but I'm sure this is the first of many posts like this. I miss my honey hound so much!

bye bye my baby

2011-07-10T21:00:00.000-06:00

On Thursday night Ty and I sat down to have the awful conversation of putting Olive down. Her health has been deteriorating for the past year, seemed to speed up when she was diagnosed with cancer and got really bad in the last 10 days. She wasn't eating, was dry heaving, was pooping nothing but bloody looking water, didn't have very much energy and just wanted to sleep. But Thursday was a good day for Olive; she ate a cup of food, went for two walks and seemed to be feeling a little better. So we decided it would be so much better for Olive and for us if she could die feeling somewhat okay. We set a day; Saturday.

Ugh... Friday and Saturday came and went way too fast.

Friday was another good day. Olive ate a little, had a visit with her best friend Millie, went for a few walks and had a big juicy steak for dinner. At dinner we told Olive and Luna what was going to happen and why. Olive knew. Her eyes were crying and she didn't want to die but was too tired to fight any longer.

We woke up Saturday morning and got ready to go to Tanner's park. Olive had another juicy steak in bed and we got in the car. We were at the park for over an hour. It was like Olive forgot she was sick. She ran, fetched, swam and played like she was a baby again. We haven't seen her like that in over a year. Every time she jumped in the water to fetch a stick Luna screamed "yeah ah" and clapped for her.

I woke up on Saturday feeling really strong. I was in the now mindset and just wanted to enjoy my time with Olive and not think about what was about to happen. I did really good until a sweet lady at the park asked me if Olive was a baby. I lost it, started sobbing and said "this is her last outing, she is really sick". The lady started crying and hugged me. Before I knew it I had everyone at the park crying. But it was beautiful. Olive was so free and happy, the way she deserves to be every single day.

After the park we made a pit stop at 7'11 for some jerky and made our way to the vet. Ty's mom met us there so she could play with Luna outside. The vet had a room all setup for us with a blanket on the floor. The technician came in to put an iv in Olives arm. Poor baby was so scared. She was shaking, slobbering foam and her hair started falling out by the hand full.

Apparently Olive was so sick that all her veins had collapsed and they couldn't get the iv in. It was awful. After four different people trying and an hour later they finally took Olive into the back so we didn't have to watch. Olive came back with the iv finally placed in her arm about five minutes later. We hugged her and cried hysterically for a few minutes and just kept telling her how much we loved her. Then the vet came in. She took one look at Olive and started crying. We all sat down on the floor, olive laid on our laps. We hugged her while the vet started administering the medicine. It happened so fast. One second she was there with us and the next thing I knew the vet was saying "she's gone, her heart has stopped". We sat there for awhile and held her so tight. But she was gone. She wasn't breathing, her head was heavy and limp and her heart was dead. I couldn't believe it. Our baby was gone.

I knew it was going to be hard but not like this. I have never felt this sad. My heart hurts more than I ever knew was possible.

Olive is going to have a private cremation and we will get her remains in about a week. We also got a bronze impression of her hind foot.

Luna had so much fun with her Mimi and was exhausted by the time we were done. She was asleep within seconds so we decided to go up to Sundance because Olive loved living up there. We had lunch, walked around and reminisced about the good old days with Olive up there.

When we got home it felt like my heart broke again. Olive wasn't here to greet us. I went around and got rid of all her beds, toys and dishes. And then I went outside and stood in the rain. It was 85', the sun was shining and it was pouring rain. I think it was Olive crying and saying goodbye.

Olive was such a good dog. She saw us through a lot over the last three years... she moved with us seven times and happily accepted every home as hers. She helped make every one of those houses feel like a home. She held my hand all through collage and studied with me every night. She helped us through job losses and times of hardship she saw me through pregnancy and took the best care of me. She was there when we went from a family of three to a family of four and helped greet baby Luna into this world. Although it took awhile, she warmed up to Luna and loved her as much as we do. She lead us to where we are in life and most of all, she made us a true family full of love and happiness.

From the day we got Olive to the second she passed she was stubborn as hell. She was the sweetest hound I've ever met. We couldn't go anywhere without being stopped - everyone loved Olive. She will be very missed by everyone who ever met her.

Love and miss you girl. Thanks for being our best friend.

Dear Olive

2011-07-08T21:57:00.001-06:00

Tomorrow is the day your daddy and I have been dreading for a long time. It's not fair honey, but for whatever reason, it's time for you to go to puppy heaven.

You have been the most incredible hound daughter, companion and unconditionally loving friend we could have ever asked for. Our hearts are shattered. This is the hardest thing we have ever had to do. But in our hearts we know it's what you need. You deserve to be healthy.

I can't fathom the thought of you not laying at my feet tomorrow night. I'm not quite sure what we are going to do without you. We weren't prepared for you to be taken from us so soon.

I hope you know we are doing this for you and we have tried to set ourselves aside. If we were making the decision for ourselves we would keep you here forever.

We will be sad and cry for a long time. My heart hurts so bad. I have never had something so near and dear to my heart die. But don't you worry my sweet girl, we are going to be just fine.

We will always love you more than words can say and you will be missed every second of every day. But you go and enjoy yourself. You go and chase those deer and bunnies. And dig for gophers all day and night. You swim across a lake and eat chocolate ice-cream with steak and dingos on top. But be careful, I heard those bears are just as scary in heaven. And if something falls or makes even the quietest but unexpected noise you be sure to scream, tuck your butt and run for dear life - just like here on earth. Don't you waist any time worrying about us.

I feel like i owe it to you to forewarn you that we might have to get a new dog someday soon but it's not to replace you, that would be impossible. It's just to help our hearts mend a little. I feel much better now that I told you that - I surely wouldn't want you to feel betrayed. And just so you know - if I had it my way, I wouldn't ever want a new dog because I just want you.

I am proud of you Olive. You have been so strong through all of this. Thank you for being so sweet and gentle with your sister. She really looks up to you and it doesn't seem fair - I had plans of the two of you growing up together. But thank you. Thank you for teaching us what is important and how to love.

I miss you already and am dehydrated from crying so much. I love you baby. Good night.

Love, your mama

4th of July Weekend

2011-07-08T21:52:00.000-06:00

We went to Millie and Jack's house.

Olive and Millie got some quality time together :)

We went swimming at The Tennis Club and packed a picnic

We also went to Wheeler Farm to look at the animals and have a picnic

We aren't really into fireworks so we called it a night around 8. It was a great weekend.

June Happenings in Montana

2011-07-04T23:05:00.001-06:00

We had such a wonderful time in Bozeman. Everyday was a new and fun adventure. We only took one car so when Ty was gone for work Luna and I rode our bike and walked everywhere. We spent a lot of time with good friends and made some new ones. Ty and I have decided we want Luna to grow up in Bozeman so we are on the market for a house. We plan to buy and move there by January. We are total outcasts in Utah and Bozeman is pretty much an entire town of people just like us. We can't wait and are very grateful that Ty's job allows us to live wherever we want.

Luna loves standing. And man oh man... I love her cute little butt!

There was a little pool at the house we rented. Luna LOVED it. Olive even enjoyed it :)

This is Luna's really excited face. She blows in and out really fast and loud. Its so cute

Ty found me this beautiful old vintage cruiser bike at an antique shop for $40.00. We attached the Chariot to it and had a great time commuting around town with it.

Whenever Luna sees the swings now she points and starts doing her excited breathing and then cries when its time to leave.

We had a BBQ with some friends. We met most our friends at the Birth Center and prenatal yoga so we all have babies around the same age. Its so cute watching them play together.

Luna maybe the only baby on the planet that loves wearing accessories. We love it. And she loves everything from glasses to necklaces and hats. :)

Cute baby first thing in the morning

You may be wondering where on earth Ty and Luna are in this photo. Well they are no where other than the most awesome coffee shop in the world. Its called Wild Joe's. They not only serve all organic beverages but they have a community bike shop co-op where anyone can go and work on their bikes. The shop is fully stocked with all the tools you would ever need. Lets just say Ty was in heaven! Luna also enjoyed helping her dad tune up his bike.

We borrowed this walking wagon from a friend. Luna loved it. We need one.

Olive is so dang cute and sweet with Luna. We can't imagine life without her.

My dad and his girlfriend Sandy came over for breakfast on Father's Day. Sandy is really nice and it's always good to see my dad happy.

Luna's first parade. The Bozeman gay pride parade. It was great and Luna really enjoyed herself. So did Olive, as you can see :)

She has become quite a little monkey in the last month. She likes to climb everything.

We went to The Museum of the Rockies with my mom. When we move back to Bozeman we will definitely get a pass. Luna has pretty much never watched TV and has never seen a movie so she was pretty excited about the star movie. It was so funny watching her. She liked it for the first 3 minutes and then got scared so we moved on. I love having Luna. She makes me young again.

Luna has become quite a daddy loving little girl. Every night she cuddles up next to him like this. Even after she nurses she rolls right back over to be by her daddy :)

Olive loved spending so much time at the park and took her job of supervising Luna on the swings very serious!

Here is Luna's beloved baby doll. She is so sweet with it. Whenever she picks it up she hugs it into her cheek so tight and then gives it her cute open-mouthed kisses. She is such a natural born little mama. She melts my heart. When its time to go to sleep she points at her baby and says "bee bee" until we hand it to her. She snuggles with it while she falls asleep :)

This is Luna with her friend Solaira. They have matching dresses.

Little froggy!

skin and bones.

2011-06-30T22:44:00.000-06:00

Olive has always been a head turning hound. Everyone has always flocked to her and marveled over her healthy, shiny and soft coat, her adorable droopy face and her beautiful long ears. We have met some really wonderful people through Olive. So needless to say, we have become very used to all the attention she draws. But as Olives health continues to diminish the kind of attention and comments we receive have changed immensely. People still stop their cars, run out of shops and go completely out of their way to see her but its different. They still say how cute and sweet she is but they don't comment on how healthy she looks. In fact it's the opposite. In the last month it feels like thousands of people have commented about how skinny and sick she looks. We know she's skinny, it's more than obvious that she is only 50 pounds and should be over 100. I know these people don't mean any harm or understand the extent of our situation but maybe if they knew how much we have all fought physically, emotionally and financially trying to keep her alive, or that for three years I have been cooking her luxurious meals that even humans would drool over just trying to keep the weight on her bones they would spare their comments and not stare at us like we are starving her.

Although it has been a relatively short life fighting one illness after the next, Olive has lived a beautiful life. She is one royal hound who owns a king bed and graciously shares with us, she rides shotgun in the car and roles the window down as she pleases, she has always been very stubborn but the sweetest girl you've ever met.

She is dying. Our first daughter, best friend and life companion is dying. This is the hardest thing we have ever had to do. I hate it more than anything in the world. I feel so helpless. My heart is shattered. This isn't fair. Not for Olive and not for us or anyone who has ever met and fallen in love with her.

Luna's Beloved Baby

2011-06-28T22:53:00.000-06:00

Who knew such a little girl could have such a HUGE love, passion and obsession with baby dolls? It started when she was about 7 months old. She saw one for the first time and went crazy. But me being the health nut mom that I am refused to let her have one. We bought her organic cloth ones instead - which she loved (for a day). But everytime we are in a store or at a friends house she goes straight to the plastic baby dolls and starts loving them.

My mom showed up here this morning with one of those baby dolls. You know - the cheap, unhealthy plastic baby dolls that are made with toxic chemicals and paint from China? Well when Luna saw it her eyes lit up bigger than I have ever seen them, her little body started shacking and she was literally screaming "OOOOHHHHH, OOOOOHHHHHH" for nearly five minutes. I try not to cringe as she kisses the heck out of this new baby of hers but I can't help but think how toxic that thing must be. But that's beside the point because I guess what really matters is that my sweet little babies heart is now content.

She got the thing around noon today and hasn't let it out of her sight. The baby doll ate lunch with us, rode in the chariot downtown and to the Museum of the Rockies. It was very strategically placed with love right between Luna and I at nap time and also tagged along in the ergo to the farmers market. Luna held the baby like I hold her. At one point she accidentally dropped it and I have never seen her cry like that before. She scooped that baby up and hugged it the way I would her if I dropped her. When we got home I am pretty sure Luna thought her new baby needed to come in the tub with us so I finally had to preoccupy Luna's sweet little mind with Olive's help, sneak the baby out of the bathroom and under the bed. Luna didn't enjoy her tub in the least bit because she was too busy looking around for her baby. She usually falls asleep within minutes after the tub but not tonight... she refused to go to sleep until I took her baby out of hiding.

I think our little family just grew a little. Whether I like it or not Luna loves this baby doll more than anything in the world. I will post some pictures when i get them.

10 month pictures in Bozeman

2011-06-28T22:33:00.000-06:00

My mom, Luna, Olive and I went over to this beautiful barn and took some cute pictures the other day. Luna is 10 months old here. She is very curious and independant...

Bozeman

2011-06-17T20:59:00.002-06:00

When Ty and I moved back to Salt Lake we felt jipped... we completely missed the summer in Bozeman. We said that in our dream world we would be able to spend summers up here. Well little did we know, Ty got his awesome job that allows us to do just that. So we have rented a house downtown Bozeman for all of June. We have been having a fabulous time. We love Bozeman more than anywhere else we have ever been.

Luna and Olive sure love it here too!

The hikes here are absolutely beautiful!

This is Luna exploring the house right when we got here...

Best Friends...

We have been spending lots of time at the park and the girls LOVE it!

Luna loves the swings and screams "weeeeeeee" the whole time :)

We got the bike attachment for the chariot and we all enjoy biking as our primary mode of transportation. This is Luna helping her dad put it together

Luna can't seem to get enough of Olives ears. Olive is really sweet and patient with her.

Cute baby! Eating lunch at the Chickpea Mediteranian. Yummy!

Luna has been an awesome napper since we've been here!

She has found her belly button. We say "where's your belly button" and she grabs it like this so she can get a better look. Its very serious business...

Luna is getting so big. It looks like she might just skip the whole crawling stage. She still does her army crawl but has started pulling herself up on everything and prefers to stand all day. She is walking along all the furniture.

She really enjoys kicking back and reading...

One of her new favorite things to do is pushing this

This is Luna and Olives favorite hang out... Looking out the window :)

This is Luna's new favorite way to eat a "ba" (her word for banana) ... the big girl way!

Dear Baby Luna (10 months)

2011-06-10T11:30:00.000-06:00

At 10 months you are one adventurous little lady. It seems like you have learned a lot in the last few weeks. Your vocabulary is already growing tremendously every day. Here is a list of words you say consistently in the order of how you learned them:
1. mama
2. dada
3. ba (banana)
4. die-eee (dogie)
5. hi-eee (hi)
6. bye-eee bye-eee (bye bye)

You love saying hi to people. I can see your little mind thinking and when you hear someone say the word "hi" you start enthusiastically waving and yelling "hi-eee hi-eee hi-eee". You did this today when your grandpa was talking about how "high" the river is :) You also love waving and saying "bye-eee, bye-eee bye-eee" and man, do we get a crowd of people waving bye to us everywhere we go or what! It's so cute.

There are a lot of dogs here in Bozeman and every time you see one you make sure to let everyone know there is a "die-eee! die-eee!" :)

If you see a banana on the counter, at the store or even in a book you say "ba" and usually insist on eating it.

You have a book full of baby farm animals. Your dad and I think the book is pretty lame but you love it so instead of reading the words we just make the sound of the animals. The first page is a lamb. While I was brushing my teeth yesterday I sat you on the floor with this book. You opened the front page and started saying "baaa baaa"! Later on I wanted to show your dad so I opened the book, showed you the lamb and you did it again!

You also make a buzzing sound like a bumble bee every time you see one in a book. You have made up a funny game where you point your finger and touch us while buzzing. We scream and you laugh hysterically.

The list of words you understand and recognize is getting quite long. Just to name a few: strawberry, toes, nose, smile, peanut butter (don't judge - I know everyone says to wait until 1 yr. but you don't seem to be allergic and LOVE it!)

It's interesting, you don't seem to have any type of stranger anxiety and are not shy by any means. You love talking to people and spend much of the day blabbing away. I love listening to you talk.

You like most foods but still don't seem to have much of an appetite for solids. We eat breakfast, lunch, dinner and munch on snacks throughout the day together but you reach for my boob and say that you are more interested in nursing. Which is just fine by me. I love nursing you.

It's fun being here in Bozeman with you and hanging out with all the other moms and babies we met through the birth center when I was pregnant. Your dad and I have been talking and are leaning towards the idea of you growing up here instead of Utah. We'll see.

Anyway, life continues to amaze me with how my love for you miraculously grows every day. And how every single day literally is so much more fun than the last. I love being a mom. And am so grateful to be your mom.

bad news. sad day.

2011-06-06T12:03:00.002-06:00

Olives biopsy results came back today. It's really bad. It's something they call Ameloblastoma. Which is one of the most aggressive types of tumors. We don't really have any options. Olive is going to die. I can't believe I just wrote that. But that's what the vet just told me. She said Olive is going to die very soon. We maybe have a month or two left with her before the tumor begins to rot, become extremely painful and so big that Olive won't be able to eat. We are going to have to make the decision to euthanize our best friend in the weeks to come so that she doesn't die in absolute misery.

How did this happen? Olive doesn't deserve this. She is so sweet and loving and by far one of the most loyal companions on earth. She is our very best friend. I can't wrap my mind around this. I had plans of her growing up with Luna and being apart of our family forever. It's a very sad day here. We are going to take Olive on a big hike in the beautiful wildflowers and kiss her long, soft ears now and just let her live happy for as long as she can.

Hawaii

2011-06-02T23:26:00.000-06:00

I will warn you right now... this is a very long post! It was my babies first time to the beach, what can I say. Anyway we went to Hawaii with Ty's family and had a fabulous time.

Now that we have Luna with us our journeys begin when we leave the house. Luna loved the airplane and spent most of the time flirting with all the old ladies around us. Other than sleeping for 2 hours she spent the entire time waving and blowing kisses

Once we finally made it to Kauai we were all exhausted and went to bed. Luna slept like a rock, even through the roosters screaming good morning. Ty and I were antsy to get up though so we woke her up at 6:30 and headed to the beach. It was beautiful!

Later we took Luna swimming in the ocean for the first time. She loved it!

She also loved playing in the sand. I'm pretty sure she would have eaten all the sand in Hawaii if I had let her...

We went on a beautiful hike...

and then back to the beach...

Our schedule in Hawaii was awesome. Luna woke up every morning at 6:30, we would go straight down to the beach and play. Luna would fall asleep in the Ergo baby carrier and sleep for about two hours while I just walked on the beach and Ty surfed. When she woke up she would play with Ty while I surfed. Then we would head up to town and get an acai bowl for lunch. By this time we were all exhausted so we would all go back to the house and take a nap together and then hang out with the family for the rest of the day. We would get in the tub and head to bed around 7:00.

When Luna napped, she really napped... she was so exhausted from all the sun and fun activities...

Don't judge... the wave felt HUGE!

This is only safe in Hawaii :)

Luna loved acai!

Unfortunately this is the only picture we got of Luna with her cute cousin Abby who is only 3 days older. They were so cute playing together.

This is on our way to the airport. This is what you get from a week full of fun...

And the trip wouldn't be complete if someone didn't get sick. Luckily it happened on the last day. But sweet baby Luna caught a really nasty bug. She had a cough and really bad boogers. She had been up for 8 hours and was beyond exhausted. But still smiling...

And thank goodness... she crashed the second we got on the plane. It was a red eye flight, which by the way, I will never do again! Luna slept the entire way home but it took us two full days to recover. Maybe this had something to do with the flu that we all caught but ugh... it was not a very fun way to end such a good trip

This is what we all looked like for three days after getting home... tears, tears, and more tears

But despite just throwing up and having a fever, Luna still pulled some cheesy smiles for the camera :)

She had a day where all she wanted was her dad. So they snuggled and loved each other all day :)

While all of this was happening, Olive was up in Montana with my mom camping, hiking and lounging. Enjoying life to its fullest...

THE END

olive. tumor.

2011-05-31T21:34:00.000-06:00

We found a lump in Olives mouth. We thought it was a really bad abscessed tooth. We were wrong. It's a tumor. She goes in for surgery first thing tomorrow morning. They will remove the tumor and get a biopsy. Either way, weather it's malignant or benign, the vet says it's not looking good. Please send your positive thoughts our way. We love this hound like our child. She completes our family.

home.

2011-05-29T20:15:00.000-06:00

Ah. We made it to Bozeman safe, sound and happy as can be! Luna and I just got out of our lovely tub and are off to bed. She fell asleep within minutes so i am going to go enjoy the slice of vegan chocolate cake we got at the wonderful co-op with my chocolate loving husband :) At dinner Ty and I looked at each other at the same time and said "I feel like we are home". We love it here and are so excited for this month. Our house is perfect, cozy, clean and in the heart of town. We couldn't ask for more.

Dear Baby Luna ...

2011-05-28T20:19:00.002-06:00

Hi baby. What a fun summer. Well, relatively speaking. Most the time it's summer right now, but not this year. Oh well, we are still enjoying ourselves.

You are getting so big Luna. You could probably set a record for the worlds fastest army crawl but you don't seem the least bit interested in crawling on your hands and knees. I don't think you know that it's an option. It's okay though, the army crawl serves it's purpose and doesn't seem to be slowing you down at all.

You have been sick with the flu. What an awful feeling it is, as a mom, to hold you while you cry and moan in pain and discomfort. But I must admit that it melts my heart when you army crawl to me and nuzzle your little head up in my neck and hold my hand for dear life while you try to breathe through these god awful boogers and fall asleep. You have been so sensitive, just like I get when I have a fever. You want both me and your dad within arms reach at all times. We were playing, I put your sock on your stuffed hippo and you started crying. You were playing with pretend wipes, I took your pretend, invisible, made-up wipe and you started crying. Your dad turned the page of your book before you were ready and you started to cry. I can't help but smile because you are so cute and pathetically sensitive. Everything is the end of the world right now. I love you.

You are such a little love bug. I love how you stare at me with amazement and love in your eyes. How you occasionally stop everything you're doing to give me one of those big, slobbery open mouth kisses that I love oh so much! How you reach for your dad and say "dadadada". How you tickle my face and arms at night. How you sing "mama mama mama" all day long. How you point at your mimi when you see her coming and reach for her with your big smile. How you totally pull a 'cheese' face for the camera. And most of all how you snuggle with me.

I think most babies do something like suck their thumb or binky for comfort. But not you. Do you want to know what you do? You twiddle my boob between your little fingers and thumb. This started a few months ago. You used to only do it when you were nursing. But now you like to do it all the time. Through my shirt, down my shirt, anyway is fine by you. This is pretty sweet and cute but hmmm... Let's just say I try to distract away from this when we're in public. The funny part is you do it totally subconsciously like most babies do when sucking their thumb.

We leave for Bozeman tomorrow. I can't wait! I can't wait for you to be able to play with your granny all the time. To visit, hike and run with Pele and her kids. To go to Kundalini baby/mommy yoga. To get all our produce at the organic farmers market. To grocery ship at the co-op. To play with all the moms and babies from our birthing class. And most of all, I am excited to be with Olive again. (She has been up there waiting for us since we left for Hawaii)

Today you hit a huge milestone. Every single day for your entire life you have only wanted to fall asleep with me and no one else. Today you have been a total daddies girl and haven't wanted much to do with me. Even when it was nap time you cried for your dad. He laid you on his chest, rubbed your back and you fell asleep within seconds. You went 6 hours without nursing today. This may have something to do with you having the flu but wow! This all made me realize a few things; 1: you are growing up way too fast, 2: I am very grateful you have such a good dad and Love him as much, as you do and 3: that you aren't going to need me forever and i need to cherish this time.

I know every mom feels this way but my goodness, you are the cutest stinkin little thing I've ever seen. I love you baby Luna and I am so proud of the little person you are becoming.

we made it.

2011-05-19T01:16:00.001-06:00

What a day! It started at 7:00 this morning. I got up, showered, made pancakes, finished packing, got Luna ready and we were out the door by 9:00.

For whatever reason my phone has not changed time zones with me. It currently reads 12:51 am. Which is the correct time if I were back at home in Salt Lake. But I'm not. I'm lying here next to my amazing baby where the frogs are ribbiting, the wild chickens are clucking and the air smells like sweat salt water. Reminiscing about the days journey.

Luna's first airplane travel could not have gone better. She took two little naps and was awake the rest of the time flirting with all the cute old ladies around us. She is a ham! She has practically been blowing kisses all day long.

She also spent much of the day squealing "ohhhhhhh" at everything she loved. At the stuffed animals at the airport kiosk. At the giant Hawaiian hibiscus flowers. At the palm trees. And at the little birds hopping around on the ground.

I love this little baby of mine. I am very excited for this week and to show Luna all the amazing things this island has to offer. Being a mom makes the little things in life so exciting. I feel like a kid again.

Here's to a good week in Hawaii.

Mothers Day

2011-05-17T11:04:00.000-06:00

My first mothers day was wonderful. How could it have been a bad day? I was spoiled rotten and got a Petunia Pickle Bottom diaper bag. We went to my favorite restaurant, The Vertical Diner for breakfast, went on a family hike and ended the day at dinner with Ty's family.

Here are a few pictures we got of me and my sweet girls in our cute matching outfits made special by my friend Pele. Luna is 9 months old in these pictures.

This is Ty's mom with all the grandkids :)

Hope all you moms had a wonderful day and feel as appreciated as you should :)

bear lake.

2011-05-15T19:50:00.000-06:00

We met my mom at Bear Lake last week. We had so much fun playing and hanging out. Luna had a super growth spurt while we were there. She is so fun and silly! My mom and Luna had such a great time playing with each other all day long every day.

Luna usually takes these cute glasses off the second I put them on her but she decided she likes them I guess. She wore them for most the trip. :)

Luna loves everything that moves and she can ride. She screams "weeeeeee" and kicks her legs in excitement everytime Ty puts her on his shoulders.

Oops this is a picture from St. George but it's so cute I had to include it.

Olive loves walking and exploring up there.

Luna got her second tooth while we were there. (bottom left)

Olive is such a good travelcompanion. She likes to sit up front with Ty when I sit next to Luna :)

This is us getting packed for the lake. Luna thinks sitting in her suitcase is maybe the coolest thing ever.

She is getting so big! Almost too big for this car seat! We can't wait for a forward facing one!

One night Luna went to town with her dinner and let's just say it was a serious mess. So Ty put her in the sink. She loved it and played for an hour!

First, look at that cute butt would ya? I'm not sure where she gets it because both Ty and I have the beloved flat butt that doesn't seem to fill any type of clothing and leaves that flattering sag where you don't really want it. Second, look how big she is! Her legs are still a little wobbely but she loves standing and walking along furniture.

nine months.

2011-05-09T22:23:00.000-06:00

Luna turned nine months old today! It's so hard to believe I gave birth to her nine months ago. It feels like it was yesterday. I remember every detail about that day like it was yesterday. I am a different and better person than I was nine months ago. Becoming a mother has changed my perspective of the world. I love being a mom.

At nine months Luna is a bit quirky and silly. She is a sweet, happy and playful baby. She is not shy and is fine being with other people but sometimes wants no one other than her mama. She says "mama mama" all day long :) She found a baby doll last week and sings to it and gives it kisses like we do to her. She just figured out how to softly tickle and tickles my neck and face as she is falling asleep the way I have always done to her when she is falling asleep.

She pays very special attention to detail and can stay focused doing very simple tasks for extremely long periods of time. This morning she played with my eyelashes for 10 minutes before I finally had to stop her. She is always very excited and up for an adventure. We went to look at new cars the other day and they gave us a ride in the golf cart. Luna squirmed, hoot and hollered in excitement the entire time, the hooting got even louder as we went around corners. She gets excited about stuff like this all the time. She can be doing simple things like sitting on the edge of the sink splashing water with her feet, sitting in the chariot while we run, swinging in a blanket or sitting and being carried around in a basket etc. all the while giggling and and screaming weeeee.

She seems to already have quite an imagination. She can be fussy and bored sitting on the floor, you put her in a basket and she's content for hours. She gets frustrated because she knows what she wants but cant get it on her own. But she's getting closer. Her army crawl is picking up speed everyday.

She loves mimicking people and really loves when people mimic her. When you mimic her she claps for you :) She is pretty dramatic and has this pathetic fake cough she uses to tell you she is getting sad. She chews on her cheek all the time, mostly when she's thinking. She got her second tooth last Friday (bottom left).

I can't believe how much she has grown and changed in the last nine months. This picture is of her today. She does this smile every time I pull out the camera :) and yes... that is Olives tail in her hand. She loves that thing!

She is getting so big and independant. She used to nurse for a long time at night and fall asleep in my arms. I would have to wait a few hours before I laid her next to me or she would wake up. Now she nurses and wants to be laid down before she is asleep. She lays next to me and practices all the new things she's learning. She sings, claps and whispers to herself for a couple minutes and then she's out. She puts herself to sleep! Tonight sets a new record... I was able to clean my kitchen, sweep, unpack my suitcase, fold and put away laundry, give Olive loves and post this without her waking up. Its been over two hours. I heard her moving a little while ago so peeked in. She was looking around for me, noticed I wasn't there and plopped her head back down and fell back to sleep. She has never done that. Usually she cries for me to come back to bed when she wakes us and I'm not there. This is amazing! She is growing up to be so secure! I am so proud!

morning.

2011-05-07T21:57:00.000-06:00

Every morning that Ty is away for work I take a picture of Luna the second she wakes up to send him our good morning love. She is so cute and silly. I literally took this the second she woke up and this is what I got. I feel like the luckiest mama alive waking up to this every morning.

Ty said his cheeks weren't quite this big when he had his wisdom teeth pulled. Haha :)

April Happenings

2011-05-07T21:52:00.001-06:00

beautiful baby

getting ready for bed

making mothers day gifts at color-me-mine

big blue eyed girl

cheese

she loves feeling her new tooth

little miss someone got tiny organic baby panties!
farewell diapers!

her new thing is chewing on her cheek. she does it all day, especially when she's thinking.

she gets these adorable fishlips when she's sleeping

"whatever"

we got our new bikes! Ty was one happy man!

my friend Pele made Luna this cute shirt and pants...

sumo baby reading :)

Inch worm

2011-05-05T22:16:00.000-06:00

Luna figured out the army crawl this morning. She is zooming around finding as many crumbs as she can before I get them! Sometimes she forgets what to do to make herself move and gets really frustrated. Her face turns red and she reaches for me "mama mama" but then it clicks and she remembers and takes off again. :) Her only motivation right now is finding little things on the floor to eat! Haha. I love having a baby!

Zion and St. George

2011-05-02T22:23:00.000-06:00

I am so grateful for Ty's job. He works from home every other week making phone calls and working on the computer. Which means he can really work from where ever. So we have been taking full advantage of this and have been fortunate enough to travel a lot in the past few months. We get so much time together as a family - it is really special that Ty gets so much time with sweet little Luna. She sure loves her daddy!

Anyway we went to Zion and St. George two weeks ago. Here are some pictures...

Driving through Zion. (notice the nice bike sign. we don't want to risk forgetting about our new bikes on top of the car... it has already saved us twice!)

We stayed at Ponderosa Ranch. The cabin I had reserved for us was a bit shy of your standard accommodations. It was a room with nothing but a bunk bed. I was fine with this but the second Ty found out we had to use a community bathroom he went to the front desk and asked if we could upgrade. Luna is quite the little traveler. It doesn't really seem ti matter where we are, she still sleeps soundly from 8-8.

We only stayed in Zion for 1 night and then headed to St. George. We had a great time hanging out with Ty's family, going to the pool, running and riding our bikes.

Luna loves swimming!

and playing with the grass

Luna also loved using her cousins umbrella stroller. It was her first time in one and she screamed and kicked her legs in excitement the entire time. She is quite the little thrill seeker lately. She thinks everything is a roller coaster.

Tulip Festival

2011-05-02T10:09:00.000-06:00

We went to the tulip festival with Jamie and Mikah. It was not the endless fields of tulips I had anticipated but it was beautiful. We had a great time and will really miss Jamie and Mikah this summer!