1 Year Birthday, Easter, and Everything Else.

Wow, it's been forever since I posted! A ton has happened, as it usually does. We celebrated Lilly's first birthday on the 19th,, a Saturday, since her birthday fell on Sunday this year. We had yummy Costco cake and a few other party trays from there and then had a few of our friends and their kids over from our ward here. It was really fun! Lilly got to try her very own chocolate cake for the first time and she wasn't too sure about it at first. It was hilarious! Then she ended up with it all over in her hair, on her face and eyes, eyebrows, all over... RIGHT as Dev was going to pick her up from her high chair. She had been fairly clean up until that point, and she thought daddy was going to wipe her face, so she rubbed her hands all over her face like she does when you get ready to clean her off. Needless to say, daddy had a fun time giving her a bath and scrubbing all the chocolate off. Then she came downstairs and opened the few gifts that people brought for her and the couple gifts we gave her. We told everyone not to bring any presents, but who listens to us!!! :) It ended up being a really fun day. Lilly was quite overwhelmed by everyone who was here, so she just sat and watched for the most part. :)

At 12 months (ish) Lilly can:
- Walk all along furniture.
- She loves to stand up and just stand there...lol.
- We gave her a walker for her birthday and she loved it! She didn't know how to work it at first, so it kind of got away from her and she ended up running to hold on to it. Really cute.
- We also gave her a cute rocking horse that she liked. She wouldn't rock on it, though... she only wanted to bounce. lol.
- She has taken a few steps up until this point, but won't walk.
- Shortly after we gave her her walker, she started walking on her own! She started off with about four steps and then a few days later she did eleven. Then she was walking all over the place! She is getting quite fast at it now.
- She can say a bunch of words and sounds. I'm teaching her to say please and thank you. She says "peas!!" and "ta to!" Pretty cute. She can also say cheese, banana, daddy, mommy, night night, grandpa, grandma, book, and uh oh! They come out more like, keez! nana, dada, momma, nigh nigh, papa, mmmmmma (for grandma), booh (for book) and uh oh sounds pretty close! She knows some animal sounds... what does a snake, horsey, sheep, cow, puppy, say?? She'll do the sounds, SSS! Neigh neigh! Baaa! Moo, Owwww!!!
- She HATES grass! We took her to the park on May 1st, and took the dogs with us as well, and we sat her down on the grass and she stayed rooted to the spot. She wouldn't move, so I laid her down in it and she kept lifting her legs up and arms up where it was touching her bare skin. She kept making uh uh uh! Sounds. Really cute.
- We also let her play on her first swing! She was very hesitant at first, but she LOVED it! She was grinning and giggling after a minute. She had a lot of fun. :)
- She still has six teeth... the two bottom and two top middle ones... then off to her left on the top, she has one more tooth, and off to the right on the bottom she has the other tooth.
- She loves taking her naps... if you ask her if she wants to go night night when she's sleepy, she'll say, "Nigh nigh!!!" All pitiful. So funny. Then when we lay her down, she gets this huge grin on her face and sticks her legs straight up in the air waiting for her favorite blanket. :)
- She suddenly has to have her bink... she won't sleep without it. She doesn't want it if she's crying really though, so that's good that she can sooth herself. But yeah, she went from never ever wanting it, to having to have it to sleep. If she loses it and can't find it at night, she'll most of the time cry until you go give it to her again. Lil stinker. :)


We had my parents here for a visit for a week. We went to La Conner Seafood and Prime Rib restaurant and they all had yummy halibut that they get every time. :) We all took the ferry over to Friday Harbor and drove all over the island. It was really fun. We found a llama farm place that was really neat and we got to show Lilly. She was interested, sort of, but definitely kept her distance! Lol!! We went to Pikes Market in Seattle, which was a lot of fun. Devan had never been there before, so we went there and met up with Janis and Sara Lewis (old friends from Federal Way) and had yummy food. My dad helped Devan build the rest of the GIANT doghouse in my back yard, so that was fun. They also got to go golfing a couple times and my mom and I went shopping a couple times. Lots of fun!
They left on Easter Sunday, and didn't get to stay for church or anything. We went to church and Lilly got to shake some Easter eggs that I put a couple little candies in. She had no idea that candy was in them, but wow, once she found it and tried it, she was hooked! Maybe that was a bad idea?? I cooked a ham with mashed potatoes and we had a nice dinner.


Now up to date... we are in the process of getting a backyard put in! Our deck is almost finished. Got to have our friend finish the boards across the bottom halfway and then put the railing up. Then we're planting grass and putting gravel on the dogs' side of the yard since they'll tear grass up anyway. We also put in a raised 4'x8' garden and on the other side of the house, we're putting a berry garden that will have raspberries and strawberries and such in it. SOO excited for it to be done! We've got a ways to go, though.

Next week we get to go see my family (all except Stu :( ) and we all rented a lodge in Island Park for a long weekend. Should be a blast! :) So excited for that, too!

This post is too long already, so I'll put a few pics up and call it good!

I'll post pics of birthday later. I do have them on Facebook, though! The main photo for my blog is from her birthday. :)

Update: REALLY long! lol

Wow! Lots has happened!! I need to be better at blogging. Okay, let's see... Lilly is now 11 months old! She just suddenly started shooting out teeth! She currently has 5 teeth that are all the way through and it's SO dang cute! Her hair is getting really long, and I love it! It continues to lighten, but I hope it stops soon! I love her darker hair. Lilly isn't walking yet... just along the couches still. She can stand on her own, but is afraid to do much else. We are planning on getting her a walker for her birthday, so hopefully that will help her not be so afraid. I'm really excited for her birthday!! I'm not planning on doing a big ol' shindig since she won't really know what's going on anyway. I plan on inviting just a few people with children who are all the same age as Lilly. I think it will be really fun! Yay!!!

Lilly and I went home to Wyoming for a week Feb 11-17th. It was a lot of fun!! We went home to Lovell for one night and my friend Nicole dyed and cut my hair for me. Then Nicole and Lindi and I went to brunch the next morning. Lilly wasn't diggin' all the new surroundings so she was pretty crabby (sorry guys!!) but it wasn't too bad I guess? After that, my parents and Lilly and I drove over to Sheridan so we could be there for Shannon's son's blessing day on sunday. Christian is SUCH a cutie! I just loved spending time with them. I wish we could spend time with our families more often... it's sad only seeing them a couple times a year or less. Sad!


Christian...CUTIE!!!!!!!! Blurry pic, but still cute!


Poor Lilly on the drive...so sleepy after her plane ride!


Me and Lilly at Black Angus.

Since being home, it has SNOWED a TON! We got at least two feet of snow over a two day period. It was totally crazy! I couldn't believe it. The dogs have totally loved it... they've frolicked all through it and eaten it and played in it. We are currently trying to build a back fence in our yard to be able to let the dogs stay outside longer, and the snow has definitely not helped that. We are planning on using our tax return and Dev's bonus in March for a backyard. We are so excited! We plan on putting in the back fence, a garden, a deck, and grass! Yay!!! So excited! Dev is also in the process of building a doghouse for our dogs. I've decided they are no longer strictly inside dogs... I can't do it anymore! My house is slowly being destroyed downstairs. lol. Sorry pups! You're outta here!


Double the amount of snow you see in this pic...this was the first snow of the two days...

This morning was eventful... I have been super tired lately, so I was trying to catch some extra Z's before the Comcast guy was supposed to come between 10-12 today. It was a little before 9:30 and the guy starts ringing the doorbell...which made the dogs go NUTS barking... I jolted out of bed, threw on clothes, and had to let the guy in. As he was setting up stuff, I let the dogs outside for their morning routine... they go outside, eat, go potty, play a little, and then come in. I let the guy do his thing and then I went upstairs and woke Lilly up because she was sleeping too late. I fed her her morning food and then we went downstairs to let the dogs in. Only Angus was out there. Bella had magically escaped and I had NO clue where she was. I drove all around our development area calling her name, and she never came. To top it off, I went out to the garage to put Lilly in the car and get ready and the carseat wasn't even in the car... Dev had left it sitting on top of the car. So I had to put the base in and get that all strapped in and then get Lilly in there. Grr! To make a long story short, I finally just went on a walk with Angus and Lilly and we happened to see Bella at one of our neighbor's houses snooping around the back. She was in BIG trouble! She heard me calling her and didn't come. Little stink! Then we got home and I noticed the Comcast guy left his touchpad thing on my floor, so I had to go through all the automated stuff to get a hold of a rep to tell them to send him back. EEsh! Crazy day! Lol!

Sorry this was so long! Had to catch up!


This was Lilly this morning. CUTE girl!

Christmas/New Years/ Lilly 9 months

Wow, got a lot of catching up to do! So Lilly turned 9 months Dec 20, and she is so fun at this age!!! She can say some jibberish... it's fun! She says mama, dada, yayaya. Lol those are just a few. It's soooooooo cute! Sometimes I think she actually says mama to me, but I think it's just wishful thinking. :) She is a mad-fast crawler! She can stand on her own from anywhere between 5-15 seconds. She walks all along our couches. She has a lot of fun bouncing up and down, whether standing or you bouncing her. She claps her hands really well. She can wave hi and bye. Now she sounds like she tries to say "cheese" when I take her picture. :) She loves to pull my movies off the shelves. She absolutely loves my cell phone. Loves technology... like the laptop... :) Any time I'm on my laptop, she comes over and pulls the screen towards herself to see if grandma is there... or anyone else that she talks to. Grandma and Grandpa Fowler, Auntie Melissa and Uncle Jaffe, Grandma and Grandpa Bagley, Auntie Shelly and Uncle Kellan.... She LOVES to talk to them. She just hams it up for anyone there. Absolutely loves the attention. :) She is getting better with being able to sit with other people in church if we both are singing in the choir. She isn't so scared of "stranger danger" anymore. She loves big people food. Mashed potatoes, stuffing, bread, bananas, crackers, and cheese to name a few. I have been trying to practice using utensils with her, so I'll put some mashed potatoes on her spoon and she'll feed herself. Pretty cute. Her favorite sound to make right now is her Gremlin sound. She hears the dogs growl or wrestle and she growls at them. It's soooo funny. She growls a lot.

Right before Christmas, we acquired a new dog in the mix. Her name is Bella and she is a purebred harlequin great dane. She has gone through two owners already... the first one couldn't afford to take care of her anymore, so he dumped her on another guy when she was only 6 months old. Then this second guy probably thought he was going to breed her because she still hasn't been spayed. He only had her 4 months and he moved to a different house that has a smaller property, and since he wasn't as attached to her, he got rid of her. We told him we could try her out with our family for a week and see what happens, but he said if we take her we have to keep her. He was kind of different... I wasn't too impressed with him, and the fact that he had two other danes and a boxer and just made them all stay outside 24/7 and never spent ANY time with his dogs. Bella was very very neglected. ANYWAY, that's all I will say about him. :) Bella and Angus just love each other. If one of them is in their kennel for being bad or something, the other is just laying right outside and never leaves them. So cute. She needs some definite training... she needs to learn obedience and leash training mainly. And sometime soon we need to get her fixed. Luckily, Angus is already fixed! :) She is wonderful with Lilly too. I was nervous about that. She is a little rough, but Lilly loves it. She's kind of used to being knocked over at this point.

For Christmas, we bought her just a few little toys and Grandma Fowler and Grandpa Fowler bought her some board touch and feel books. She tore a couple little pieces off of the wrapping paper, but then got bored. Maybe next year! It was still a nice, relaxing morning. We just stayed here in Mount Vernon this christmas. We didn't have a white christmas, but it snowed a bit AFTER. :) Better late than never! I really have been missing the snow. People here can't really drive in it though... they were abandoning their cars and walking. Pretty sure we only got a couple inches??

For new years this year we had our friends, the Thunes over and we all played a game of Settlers of Catan and watched the new Robin Hood movie. We ate lots of junk food and got all fat and happy. It was a fun night!

Devan has been enjoying work...he actually gets to do some new stuff now instead of the same monotonous stuff... Right now, the refinery had something happen and the whole plant shut down. So Dev is on 6am-6pm shift through the weekend into Monday or Tuesday of next week. No fun. :(

Sorry about the novel! Had lots to catch up on! :)