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Friday, July 5, 2013

June

Seeing as I've kind of been a slacker this month with keeping up with blog, I figured I would just take the June post from our adoption blog and put it on the family blog.  Enjoy and maybe I'll be better this month!

We have had a fun and busy June. Seeing as it's been HOT already this summer we've spent lots of time in the water. We've also gotten to spend some time with friends and family. So far our summer has been good with just one exception. Mia has started taking herself potty sometimes. While it's nice that she's becoming more independent, it can have disastrous results. At the beginning of the month Mia had taken herself to the bathroom and plugged the toilet. She has managed to do this a time or two but with a little plunging and sometimes a little wait we manged to clear the problem...Not this time. We still have no idea what she put down there but it took a massive plumbers snake (thank goodness the neighbor's dad is a plumber and let us borrow it), two people, and two passes to finally get the thing to clear. It was really GROSS!
Like I said it has been really hot so we have spent some time playing with the neighbors on their awesome slip and slide.
Mia would typically just run down it and manage to slip and fall but she didn't care
She was having a great time and it was a nice way to cool off.
Of course every water girl needs some water goggles. Hurray for the dollar store!
We also pulled our pool over so the kids has some other water options. This particular day we had 8 kids out playing in the water.
This month was our ward swim party at the Roy Aquatic Center. There is so much to do there and Mia had a blast playing in the water. She's doing pretty good this year and wants to swim "By self" most of the time. Thank goodness for her puddle jumper.
After about a dozen times of us taking her up to the slide on the kiddie structure Mia decided you could do it all by herself.
Monty tried out the speed slide.
Mia and I stuck to the slower slide. She kept begging to go down the "Humongous slide." It was really cute. Her little teeth would chatter as she waited in line but she didn't seem to care. It's really funny because now when we drive by the aquatic center she gets all excited and tells me over and over that she went down the humongous slide.
Trying to get Mia to look at the camera isn't so easy anymore...but hey we got pictures of Monty this month.
Mia also checked out the slide in the toddler area but she definitely preferred the bigger slides.
Mia has decided she really likes corn on the cob. It was really funny watching her eat it at Chili's one night.
Two days after the ward swim party we went up to Park City for a BBQ with Mia's birth mom's family. Of course that involved playing in the water some more.
Mia had lots of fun playing with everyone in the pool and it was great to see and spend time with Mia's birth mom and her family.
Brings new meaning to 4-eyes
The following weekend we went to the Families Supporting Adoption (FSA) BBQ. It was lot of fun to meet other families who have adopted and/or are in the adoption process and hear their stories. Mia's favorite part was the play ground. They had a bounce house again this year and she played in that for a little bit but seemed to prefer the play ground this year.
She was brave and tackled most of it all by herself.
Mia would live at the park if we let her.
This month was also the NICU (Newborn ICU...where I work) Summer Reunion. It's a chance to see the kiddo's who have graduated from the NICU and see how they've grown. Also, it is a whole event geared toward little kids...what could be better! Mia had lots of fun on the bounce house slide. She was a little nervous the first time but then decided it was a blast!
They had face painting. Mia held so still to get her face painted. The she wouldn't eat her mac and cheese at lunch because she was afraid she would her face dirty.
She waited so patiently in line to get her pink doggy balloon.
Then we ate lunch and watched the Little Feather Dancers
They were very talented and great lunch time entertainment.
The last dance was the inter-tribal circle dance and they invited everyone to join in. Monty took Mia to dance with them. She didn't quite get the concept but had fun dancing around.
After the NICU reunion it was off to a baby shower for Monty's brother's wife (who had her baby on the 4th of July). I don't have any pictures from the baby shower but it was fun to see friends and family and get to see all the fun stuff Megan got for baby Sophie.
I mention early that Mia likes to take herself to the bathroom and how I have learned that it's a bad idea. Well, apparently I hadn't quite learned my lesson after the toilet plugging incident. Part of it is if I go in to help her too soon she gets mad, won't go, and then ends up having an accident. Anyway, after she had been in the bathroom for a few minutes on her own I went to find her and this is what I found. She had climbed up on the counter and gotten nail polish off the back of the counter and somehow got it open and proceeded to paint her nails. She had one hand and one foot done. She's a quick little painter. Ironically her shirt says "Always an Angel." Anyone who knows Mia knows she's got a devil streak a mile long but I though it was extra ironic in this case.
Really she did surprising well for a 2 year old.
Luckily she only got a little on the counter and on the tile so it was easy to clean up. Shockingly she had none on her clothes. I count myself lucky there!
Towards the end of the month Monty's mom, sister, grandma, and grandma's sister came up and we all went to Antelope Island for a picnic. After our picnic we wandered around the old ranch. Mia showed Nana how to ring the dinner bell.
Mia had fun playing with the dishes in the old wagon.
Mia riding the barrel horse with Nana and Aunt Gina.
Although you were supposed to try and rope the calves, Mia thought it was more fun to sit on them.
Where the ranch hands went "nigh nigh."
Pumping water into the bucket was not an easy task but Mia tried her hardest.
We saw some real buffalo but didn't get any pictures of them so had to settle for the metal one.
A trip to Antelope Island wouldn't be complete without a picture with the antelope. Aunt Gina is much better at looking at the camera than Mia is. While we were there we also got a buffalo burger and all shared it just so we say we had it. It wasn't too bad. Mia was more interested in the fries that came with it though.
The last weekend in June was Heritage Days. We took Mia to her first parade. We found a nice spot in the shade and started our wait. Mia got restless and wanted to go back to her house.
Once the parade started and they were throwing candy Mia forgot all about going home. She had lots of fun waving at the people in the parade and picking up candy and Frisbees and all kinds of goodies.
She rapidly realized all the candy wouldn't fit in her little pocket.
It was a great first parade!

Saturday, May 25, 2013

March for Babies and This Is The Place

Last weekend was the March for Babies for the March of Dimes.  I was a walker for our unit this year and managed to raise $110 toward our unit goal of $3000 this year.  Needless to say the weather was much less than ideal.  Monty and I had stayed in Salt Lake the night before to celebrate or 6 year anniversary.  Aunt Trina brought Mia down to Salt Lake in the morning (she had to be at Temple Square at 8am) so it worked out great.  The problem was, I wasn't planning on the rain.  Luckily everyone had sweatshirts but we didn't have any coats or umbrellas. 
 We definitely ended up pretty wet but not soaked so I guess that's a good thing.  They had Creamies for us half way through the walk...we were kind of wishing it was hot chocolate.
 The walk was at This Is The Place Heritage Park.  As part of being a walker we got into the park for free afterwards.  We promised Mia that after we went for a walk we would go see the baby animals.  She was so excited to go see them and kept asking for the animals all through the walk. 
Mia and the Donkey.
 They had a whole bunch of baby chicks.
 Mia even got to pet one of them.  It's hiding in my hands if you look really close.
 This poor duck just couldn't get away from Mia.  She was chasing it everywhere.
 It was pretty cool to see Santa's Reindeer.
 The poor sheep had already had their summer shave.  They looked so cold shivering in the rain.
 We went through a few of the buildings there too.  Mia got to color on a chalk board in the old school house.
 After Mia saw the train there was going to be no leaving the park without a ride.  While we were riding around the park on the train we realized we could see our breath and decided maybe we should head home.
 When we loaded Mia in the car and took off her muddy shoes her socks were soaked and her poor little feet were ice cold.  She didn't want to leave but was much happier once she was toasty warm in the car.

One night last week the power went out for about 5 hours.  It was on the hottest day of the year so we spent the whole evening outside.  We went to Subway to pick up dinner and had a picnic in the front yard.  After being outside for hours on end Mia was filthy by bed time.  We almost gave her a bath by candle light before I realized we have a big window in our bathroom and there was just enough sunlight left that it wasn't dark in there yet.  Mia thought it was pretty cool to get to take a bath in Mommy's tub.  She wanted to stay in there all night.  I have to say I am very jealous of her tan lines...and it's only May!

Sunday, May 12, 2013

What a BIG girl

I can't believe how fast Mia is growing up.  Everyday she is doing or saying something new that surprises me.  She's definitely a bossy little girl who knows what she wants.  One of Mia's favorite things to do is help cook.  I used to try to keep her away from the stove but quickly realized the more I tried to fight her away the greater chance she stood of getting hurt.  She knows not to touch the stove or the sides of the pan and really does pretty good.  My stove top gets much more messy when she is "helping" but she's getting better at not splashing when she helps to stir.
 This used to be how Mia would cruise around outside.  Not anymore.  Now as soon as we're outside she asks for (more often demands) her big bike.
Look at her go...Cruising in style.
 We have a neighbor who has been nice enough to let us borrow one of their bikes. Mia is getting pretty good at it. She usually needs a little nudge to get going from the stopped position but other than that she is all over.
 We even have had one day that was warm enough (according to the dads) to run through the sprinklers.  Mia was frozen solid by the time she was done but had a great time.
 Every kid has their favorite movie and lucky for us Mia's favorite movie is "Buzz." I don't know if she realizes there are 2 different "Buzz" movies or if she just doesn't care but I find it nice that at least we have 3 movies to watch over and over instead of just one. It adds a little variety. When watching her movie she is usually in one of 3 places, in her tent, standing at the TV stand right in front of the TV or curled up on the chair.  This day was laundry day so I had the baskets out.  She dumped the clean clothes out of the laundry basket then climbed in, blanket and all, and stayed their to watch the movie. I thought it was pretty funny.