my mom put goop in Lily’s hair
Lily didn’t mind Santa- probably because he sounded alot like her grandpa.
Lily was happy when I flattened her hair.
Ah, what is that shiny bright orb?
Jared was in that tram
awwwww
descending back into the gunk:
This will now make 3 posts in one day. Can you tell that I have christmas wrapping, card addressing, and neighbor gifts that I’m procrastinating?
By the way, I had a dream last night that somehow I got a beet stuck in my hair, and when I washed my hair, it turned bright pink. I don’t know which is less realistic: me getting a beet stuck in my hair, or me washing my hair.
Every year Jared and I have the same disagreement. I want a skinny tree without alot of branches, and he wants a big full one. Jared- for the record, you got your tree this year; I get my charlie brown tree next year! 
I gave Lily her chrismas present early; I was too excited about it to wait.
We went and saw the Temple Square lights:
Who is that crazy man?
and of course, did alot of online shopping. Alot. Like, 10 packages on our doorstep a day. Ignore Jared’s nasty mustache.
I had a free pass for the “mountain coaster” in park city, so we took a little trip up there to ride the coaster and do some mountain biking. I was very excited that I talked my dad into doing it with me.
And then I found out that Jared could ride with me for free, so he hopped on. It was really fun.
Then we went on a hike/bike ride
It was fun. I wish it would snow.
Jared and I had a groupon to try indoor surfing, and we trekked up to Ogden with Jared’s parents, and Casey and Alisa to try it out. It was fun, but surprisingly painful! Underneath the wave is a concrete slab, and at the top of the wave is a hard plastic grate. Every time I fell, I’d slam into the concrete, and get hurled hip-first onto the hard plastic grate. Once I finally figured it out, it was a blast! If it wasn’t super expensive and way far away, I’d go all the time. It’s almost the opposite of surfing, but it is SO fun!
Don’t worry; Jared ate it a few seconds later
Way back in October, when the weather was warm and the days were long, we headed down to Moab with Jared’s parents. Prepare for 31 pictures:
Jared and I biked some new trails, and they were fun!
(I was trying to spell “WOW.” I was very excited.)
Lily didn’t want to miss out on the biking fun, and so she came along when we rode the monitor and merrimack. For the record: I was nervous about taking Lily biking, and insisted on her wearing a helmet. We took the helmet off halfway through the ride, when it became obvious that the risk of her strangling to death from the helmet was higher than the risk of her hitting her head. It was a very easy trail, and Jared is a very good biker.
We took a break halfway through so Ed could do some climbing
and so that Lily could get a break
We had fun showing Jared’s parents one of our favorite trails
Although, I’m guessing that Susan’s favorite part was not the part where she fell into the sticker bush. She’s tough; I’d have made a way bigger deal!
Jared and his dad tackling the last of the sand:
We enjoyed some pool time:
The pool was FREEZING! Lily insisted on getting in, but I’d only go in as far as my feet. I swear she’s immune to the cold.
We took our little skeleton on a walk,
and found a really cool parrot.
We took a quick hike to Corona arch
Despite all the fun, I think Lily’s favorite aspect of the trip was all of the quality time with her Grandparents!
So wild! We had a family party for Lily at my parents’ house, and Lily got showered with presents. She now has so many toys that she won’t have to walk over to Alisa and Casey’s house to play.
It is amazing how Lily has transformed over the past year. The spunky personality that she was born with has only intensified. She knows what she wants, and won’t take any substitutes. Although that can make things difficult at times, it is a trait that will serve her well in the years to come.
Lily is already throwing little tantrums. When she is upset about something, she’ll crumple to the floor and lose it. The really amazing thing is how quickly she can transform into a happy, smiley girl in less than a second. You guys, parenting is hard! I’m trying to figure out when to give in, and when to hold my ground.
Lily isn’t walking on her own, but she loves to walk around pushing toys. James built her a little cart thing that she absolutely LOVES to push around. She’s also turned into quite the crawler. Her most favorite thing is going up stairs. She does this funny little military march where she’ll lift her straight leg as high as possible to reach the next step.
Lily is a ham! She loves to get people to smile. Usually when she’s sitting in my lap at church, she’s wriggling around, unable to sit still. However, sometimes i’ll notice that she’s stopped moving. I’ll look down at her, and she’s leaning over with a huge grin on her face, smiling at somebody. She is such a little schmoozer!
Lily LOVES to be outside. No matter how upset she is, I can take her outside, and she’ll cheer right up. Whenever we walk out the front door, she immediatley heads over to Alisa and Casey’s house. She’ll either go to the swingset, or their garage to find Millie’s car that she loves.
Lily also loves books. She doesn’t let me read them; she just likes to turn the pages. Occasionally she’ll stop long enough to point at something and squawk, but she mostly likes to flip the pages back and forth.
Lily is sleeping a bit better at night. She usually wakes up around 10:30 when her binky falls out, and then again around 1:30 am to eat. I’m still nursing her, but have cut my pumping down to once per shift. Maybe someday I’ll quit pumping altogether. Oh, that pump. Love hate.
Lily is definitely allergic to kiwis, and maybe allergic to dairy. I don’t really want to deal with her not sleeping if she is still allergic to dairy, so we haven’t really given her much. Lily is a pretty weird eater. Sometimes she’ll eat a ton, but other times, she’ll not be interested in food. When she does eat, she sure does love a variety of food! She definitely prefers foods that have alot of flavor. Her favorite is still Chicken Tikka Masala. We went out for Pho last week, and she loved that too.
Lily’s birthday was a nice evening with both sides of our families. We had the party at my parents’ house. My mom did such an amazing job decorating it all Halloween-y. My parents made some YUMMY chili verde. Here are some pictures that Casey took from Lily’s birthday party:
Playing with her cousins Ethan and Morgan:
opening presents:
checking out the remote controls that we gave her:
her cake:
Oh, her cake. What a sad story. Lily hasn’t had any sugar, so I figured she wouldn’t mind a sugar free cake. I found a banana cake recipe that looked pretty good, and didn’t have any added sugar. I created a banana chocolate glaze for the top, and figured she’d love the cake, since she LOVES bananas. It was disgusting. She had a bite, and recognized how bad it was. I felt bad, and gave her a real piece of cake, but surprisingly she wasn’t all that interested. She had a bite, and then threw the rest on the ground. Maybe next year…
Hm. That looks suspiciously like a shark fin. Shark? Shark!!
But because we’re brave, we jumped in the water. Jared was prepared to fight:
I lost all fear when I discovered that there were fish that you could pet. Friendly grouper!
I think I’ll follow you for awhile
within minutes, we were totally relaxed. What, there’s a shark swimming over our heads? No big deal.
Well, maybe Jared was a little afraid, but I assured him “I’ll never let go Jared, I’ll never let go!”
Dave had an awesome underwater case for his camera, and he took alot of pictures.
we all made it out alive:
but only because we practiced our survival skills first:
It was such a cool dive! On our second dive, the dive master brought down fish and fed the sharks. They were swarming us; it was crazy! The divemasters said that after the sharks ate, we could swim around and look for shark teeth, since they shed them every few days. I had a handful of shark teeth, and was so proud of myself, until Jared informed me that they were actually sea urchin spines. Whatever. Close enough.
Only one of our 5 days in Nassau was spent hanging out with our shark buddies. The other days were spent doing alot of nothing. Our place was great, but I was a little bugged that Wendy hadn’t booked us this room at the Atlantis that costs $25,000 per night, with a 4 night minimum stay. The nerve.
Jared and I showcased the mad dancing skills that we now posess, thanks to our anniversary dance class:
Our condo was connected to the main island by two huge bridges. To get slightly less overpriced groceries, jared and I rode our bikes over the massive bridges:
and to make up for all of that hard work, we spent alot of time here:
doing alot of this:
(although I’m not quite sure what Jared’s doing. Possibly showing of the awesome pair of swim trunks he found?)
We enjoyed alot of quality time together.
Thanks for the great trip, guys!
Sorry that there aren’t more pictures. Dave only gave me 2,000 pictures, so I didn’t have much to choose from.
James, Jared, and I went on a short bike ride while my parents hiked with Lily. It was a great afternoon!
