Festival of Colors

After 7 years of living in Utah Valley I finally made my way to the Holi Festival of Colors at the Hare Krishna temple.

Loved it.

We got there 20 mins early and were still able to park right at the temple.

Huge crowd.

Beautiful weather.

Crazy people.

This is before the actual 'releasing'/throwing of colors

And this is after:

Avatar anyone?

Here's a video about it. We were to the left of the people that were throwing their colors early. You can tell from our own video below.

Oh and traffic wasn't bad by the way. It was like maybe an extra 10 mins.

(releasing of colors around 1:45)

Sunday

The weather is getting so warm so Livy got to wear this cute spring outfit. I can't get enough of those tiny leggings!

I also can't get enough of these two together...

Daddy was bouncing her up and down and she was giggling up a storm!

As much fun as she was this morning, she had her hardest day yet at church today. She was teething and tired, and would NOT stop squirming. And to top it off she peed through her leggings.

Even though I missed the majority of sunday school and relief society, It just felt good to be there.

stats and surgery

Liv had her 6 month visit to the Doc on Friday. She had two shots and I wish that we had filmed it because her pouty lip it is the saddest and cutest thing ever.

She is a pretty and petite little bee

10th percentile for weight/height

-13.14 lbs

-24 in.

75th percentile for her head

She is developing right on track! When the doc was doing an overall check up with his instruments (eyes, ears, breathing, heart rate) she was just staring right up at him with her big blue eyes. He thought she was really cute. I know because he said so {and I'm just sure he doesn't say that to all the babies ;)}

I remember being nervous that I wouldn't love my baby as much as everyone says that you do. Now I understand that you just do.

I LOVE this girl so so so much.

Every day I can't even believe it, but I love her even more.

I know that is painfully cliche, but it is also {in a way} painfully true.

I don't ever want her to hurt.

As most people know, and others may have noticed, she has a small spot on the back of her head where there is no hair. We found out it is called aplasia cutis congenita, and literally means that her skin didn't completely form in that one place. It is very rare, but hers (there are 9 different types) is not associated with any other complications, except that she will most likely have to have the scar surgically removed when she's a little older (about 4- just before Kindergarten).

I know this is something so silly to worry about compared to other complications that could have occurred, and I don't want to sound ungrateful for her health. I am SO grateful that she is healthy and strong, but like I said, "I don't ever want her to hurt". And also I'm a mom. Isn't this what moms do? The dermatologist won't even see her until she's 4. So I guess I'll just have to stop worrying until then.

Perfection

These little booties are perfection, and I NEED my baby to have them.

and these...

and while I'm at it, how bout this headband too?

OR, if my lovely talented sisters could figure out how to crochet or knit (i don't know the diff) them for me/teach me how that would be even better.

Otherwise, Brady is in trouble with two girls who have a passion for accessories/clothes (rather one who has enough wants for them both), because one way or another my girl will have those booties!

Just finished

this:

Loved it!

The perfect easy read/thrill/escape from school for someone like me who can only read on the weekends.

Now for the next one in the series! Can't wait to see what happens

Happy St. Patty's Day

from our little drunk leprachuan.

*disclaimer: no babies were drunk in the making of this picture.... for that matter, no adults were either :)

6 months

The babe is 6 months old today!

What she's up to:

-puts her blanket (burp cloth, fist, etc.) in her mouth

-HAS to have her eyes covered when trying to fall asleep. She loves to look at what's going on. I usually have to drape a blanket over my shoulder and her until she falls asleep.

-giggles when I tickle her

-loves mashed bananas

-spellbound by jewelry

-still scoots backward, but can also inch forward or spin around and can basically get any toy she wants (this has helped immensely in her ability to play for a while on her own while I do the dishes/fold laundry/pick up around her)

-talks ('dadadada')

-touches and grabs our faces

-SMILEY smiley smiley when either of us comes home

-scrunches her nose and breaths really fast (like her mommy did when she was a baby)

-leans in and touches her forehead to the mirror when she sees herself

These are her main nicknames at the moment:

-Tinkerbell

-Honeybee

-Singer

-Scooter

-cute face

-pretty

- (livy) loulou

You may be thinking 'really? that many nicknames' and the answer is yes. If you are my family then you completely understand, and know that the buck doesn't stop there. We (meaning I) do variations of those little nicknames, which creates a whole new slew of names (ie tink, honeybeetle, singer girl, baby singer, etc). If you were ever wondering you could ask me and I could explain the reason behind every single one of those. I hope that one day she'll learn her real name... or maybe she'll grow up thinking her real name IS tinkerbell.

I hope not though.

p.s. I am disgusting

Universal Healthcare...good idea, right?

Right now the folks up in DC are pushing around ideas about the current hot topic: Healthcare Reform. President Obama seems pretty dead set on doing something... but he's kind of reminding me of a certain Toyota Prius Hybrid. Im all for IMPROVING our healthcare system, but I am scared to death about what Universal Healthcare WILL do to us if we let it pass. Someone needs to at least tap the breaks...

I want to explain what Government run healthcare is in plain terms just so that we can all see what this type of system means.

If the government ran the system... doctors would have to request permission to treat each patient from a politician who will probably be hundreds of miles away. Yep, a politician will tell the doctor if treatment is really needed. And you know how we always hear the sad story about the mean old insurance company that denied some needed service, guess who the #1 Denier of healthcare services is: Medicare. The government turns down almost 50% of its claims...this is way more than anyones insurance.

Next, now that the government is paying for everyones healthcare, which will cost about 100Billion/year they will have to work to stay in budget. In Canada, where this system is in place, the government did this by decreasing the number of doctors and closing MRI and other imaging centers on weekends and the holidays (when do most accidents occur again?). Can you imagine breaking an arm, having a relapse of cancer, having an appendix burst etc over the weekend or the holidays? its a nightmare.

did you catch that? by decreasing the number of doctors, they are making healthcare less available. Even though everyone *has* health insurance, they dont want you to use it because it will cost them money! In some areas in Canada there is only 1 radiologist in 500 miles, serving almost 100,000 people...100,000!

As youll see in the video, the average wait time in Canada for an MRI is 13 months! CT scan 7 months! To even see a specialist, 17 weeks! To even see a specialist, you need to have a referral from your family doctor. The average wait time to get a family doctor in Canada right now...are you ready?...5 YEARS!

**this is the exact system that Democrats are trying to ram through the legislature right now. And Canada has only 30million people, while the US has over 300million** think of the congestion WE will see with 300million people all trying to get their cough or sniffle checked out because its free.

I could go on and on, but I dont want to bore anyone...so just check out this video. The full thing is 20 min, so if you dont have the time, watch for 5 min from min 10 to min 15 or so...it shows actual Canadians telling you how it is in their real life (and yes, the guys are a bit wacko, but if you can get past that the point they make is a good one):

To finish up my post here I want to make a final point. Does our current healthcare system need improvements? Most definitely! But this would be making things much worse. We need more doctors, which would drive the costs down, and HSAs which gives each person the power to choose what they need and the incentive not to be frivolous.

right now

8:40pm

Brady comes home, on the phone with his little sis, takes one look at me, gives me an extra sweet smile and whispers that it smells good. Then he makes a point to tell her that I made dinner and how it smells good and how nice it was of me to do so.

Me: That's weird that he's talking so much about dinner to Haylee. Nice that he's being so appreciative though.

I can tell he's all the sudden cutting the convo short with, "I think I need to go now because dinner's sitting here warm and its time for us to eat"

Me: I guess he's just dang hungry.

Hangs up the phone walks over with a smile and outstretched arms, so I give him a hug.

We're hugging in silence for a while, and just as I'm about to ask him if something bad happened to him today he says,

"So tell me why you've been crying...."

Whaaa???

Then I realize that I was crying.........while I was cutting the onions.

After telling him this he replies,

"Oh, you have black streaks down your face"

And I did. Have racoon eyes. And thick black streaks down my face.

And it had been over an hour since I cut the onions.

Good thing we eat late, I have absolutely no life during the weekdays, and saw no one.

Life lesson: Look in a mirror once in awhile.

random

just a random video for you.

And despite B dressing her in mismatched clothes, she looks cute :)

And a random pic.

I was doing laundry and needed to move to another room, so i put her in the basket.

She loved it i promise.

She was smiley until we got the camera

And I just got out of the shower which is why my hair is like that.

Although these days it doesn't look much different even when its dry.

I'm in desperate need of a hair cut/style. Any ideas?

this is what we do

When we're bored, we find videos on youtube.

Or when we want to procrastinate.

We thought this was cool. It's a mash-up of Billboards top 25 songs of 2009.

It's kind of fun to hear all the different songs.

And of course, more Charlie... autotuned. Need I say more?