Happy First Birthday Mia!!!

Mia's one!!! Wait, what?! How is that possible?? It's so hard for me to believe that an entire year has gone by since this spunky little lady joined our family. And it's impossible for me to imagine life without her. She's got an incredibly strong will and is extremely effective at communicating what she wants without actually speaking. Let's just say she gets her point across multiple times a day. She's great at telling me "no." Every time I'm holding her and tell her that I need to set her down for just a second she immediately shakes her head and holds me tighter. She likes to spoon feed herself, and will shake her head at us if she's done with a particular food and wants something different. She makes her sisters laugh when she puts food in her hair. She puts headbands around her neck and likes to wear necklaces. She gets passed around at church like crazy. Everyone wants to hold her. I love earning giggles from her. It's one of my favorite sounds. So feminine and catching. Makes me giggle right along with her. I've found her standing at a barstool just giggling to herself. Also, she loves books. She'll flip through them, hold them and listen to them as we read to her. She doesn't like me smoothing out her hair and getting it out of her face at night as I'm rocking her to sleep. She messes it up if I try. She also has serious FOMO. She fights me daily when it comes to nap time. If she can hear her sisters I have absolutely no chance of succeeding in getting her to sleep. She needs to be in on whatever action is going on. She's recently discovered our toy room above the garage. It's a little bit of heaven for her and she often darts for it if ever given the chance. When the girls are getting in pajamas in the evenings and she's dressed she'll head for the room. I've found her crawling up the stairs multiple times before realizing the gate isn't up and it's suddenly too quiet. She's actually really good at climbing the stairs, but memories of Soph tumbling down them keeps me on top of her. She's not walking on her own yet, but loves to walk along furniture and around the house pushing her little walker. She's great at standing up on her own and I'm sure it won't be long before she's running after her sisters.

This girl loves her blanket, her sisters more than just about anything, Gatorade bottles, garden strawberries and ChapStick. Which, incidentally, she is officially banned from. This beautiful little girl loves holding on to big girl things. She seems to need to hold on to something. Always. Things like ChapStick, lip gloss, markers, spoons, etc. Well, we were taking a drive the other day and Mia had a ChapStick in each hand when we started off. When we made it to our destination she was covered in blue, gooey ChapStick. As were her clothes and her favorite blanket. BLUE EVERYWHERE!!! Also, the ChapStick lid was in her mouth. I panicked and decided she was going to choke on it before we could get it out of her mouth. Fortunately that didn't happen, but since then it's been a real struggle to keep her from her beloved ChapStick. But a battle I'm determined to win.

This picture of her was one that I took for Father's Day. I LOVE it. I think she looks so cute and grown up. And I owe Aunt Sarah a big thank you for editing it for me and getting it back to me so quickly.

We've all been really excited to celebrate Mia's big day. Jon made her awesome bear cake (which, incredibly, we didn't get an isolated pic of) and we talked about what she might like to get as a gift and what color balloons would be best. Unfortunately she got pretty sick in the three or four days leading up to her birthday. She was burning up with fever, her birthday included, which finally broke but left her with a pretty intense rash. We found out the day after her birthday that she had a viral infection when we went in for her 12 month checkup. We also found out that she's in the 13th percentile in length, and the 1 percentile in weight. The doctor said she looks great! Healthy (he's not worried about her) but her assignment is to eat more. It was nice to find out what was going on with her fever, but such a bummer that she was sick on her birthday. She was more subdued and clearly not comfortable.

Fortunately, she had the best gift opening assistants anyone could wish for.

And big sisters' skills didn't end at opening Mia's gifts. They offered to blow out her candle too. Mia really wasn't much into the evening's events. I would love to have seen her reactions when she was feeling well. It's so hard to see her sick. So lethargic and not herself.

She didn't much care about her cake.

Though we tried to entice her.

Grandma got her excited about her tea set though! For sure this gift is a win. The bright pink tea cup may prove problematic though, as it appears to be the favorite among the sisters.

We love this sweet little girl. She's already hit so many big milestones and we look forward to getting to know her even better and seeing what life with her brings. 

We waited until her sisters were asleep to "measure" her on her growth chart. She got to hold her "big girl" spoon and seemed to be feeling quite a bit better at that point. We love little miss Mia.

Fathers Day Adventures

For Father's Day this year I really wanted to update the pictures we had of the girls above the piano in our home teacher room. Sophie hadn't even learned to walk when they were taken and has grown so much since then, but the fact that Mia wasn't even in them at all was starting to bother me quite a bit. I loved the pictures of Lydia and Sophie from a family photo shoot on the Frazier side taken last November, but Mia was so little at the time and has changed so much in the months since those photos were taken that I didn't want to use that one of her. So about a week and a half before Father's Day I decided that I would dress Mia up and take her in the back yard for a photo shoot. In an attempt to capture a fabulous picture of her worthy of our wall. A bit of a lofty goal for sure, but a more current photo of her was required and I was confident that I could at least get a picture of her looking happy. And if it turned out well enough I hoped to enlist Aunt Sarah's help in the process. I needed her eye and her mad photo shopping skills. I called her, talked to her about what I wanted to do and sent her a few pics of Mia as well as the pics of Lydia and Sophie that I wanted to pair Mia's pic with. She was awesome. She sent me back an edited version of Mia right away. She'd brightened the yellows to tie her picture in with her sisters and enhanced the color of her eyes so the blue popped. And it was perfect. I was so excited about printing these pictures and putting them on our wall! And I figured I'd replace a frame that held three of our wedding photos with a baby picture of each of the girls while I was swapping out photos. I'd been wanting to do that for awhile now, and this seemed like a really good time to make some changes. Before I get to the real Father's Day adventures, these (as well as those featured above) are the pictures now beautifying our home:

In addition to the pictures, this year for Father's Day we decided to get gift cards for Jon from each of the girls. Sometime over the next several months Jon gets to take each of them out for a daddy daughter date to get a treat. I think that this has the potential to become an awesome tradition and a really special time for the girls to spend with Jon. It was inspired by Lizzie's idea to get Grandpa Blackhurst a pie a month for each month of the year. Some of them will be homemade, but others will be an opportunity for him to take one of the grandkids or one of us kids (😉) out for a slice of pie if he doesn't just bring one home.  Anyway, I loved the idea and was super excited to take the girls on an outing to Salt Lake so we could treat Dad and Grandpa. I had no idea that our outing would be much much more eventful than I ever could have imagined.

We started out by heading to The Dodo. Nothing really exciting happened on the way there. We went in and got Grandpa a gift card after browsing some menus and were on our way to Penny Anns when I realized I'd entered the address incorrectly in the GPS. We didn't get too far when it became very apparent that we were heading in the wrong direction. So I got off the freeway and re-entered it (correctly this time) and we were on our way. By the time we arrived at Penny Anns I had a sneaking suspicion that they were closed. After our little detour, it seemed to be the way things were going for us. And I was right. They were closed. But only just. They were in the process of closing out the registers and the door was open. I just wanted to ask a few questions so I walked in with no intention of being difficult, but clearly I wasn't welcome. Despite that, I was determined to find out what their options were in the way of gift cards and specifically if they did them on-line. The woman working there told me they were closed. That she couldn't help me with the gift cards because their registers were closed. And finally that I could get a gift card on-line if I wanted. Thank you. Thank you very much. That's all I needed to know. Now I'll put my three cold and tired children (yes, cold. Cold in June. Cold in Utah's blazing hot weather) back in the car and head off for our next destination. The Pie Hole.

Which took us into the heart of downtown Salt Lake. I passed The Pie Hole on State Street and noted the construction before parking around the corner. The four of us hopped out of the car and Lydia and Sophie were enjoying running next to railings and along slippery brick paths when I requested they each take a hand so we could safely bypass the men working along the road and make our entrance at The Pie Hole. I knew something wasn't right the second we walked in, and should have suspected when I did a double take at the sign hanging above this establishment, but since we were already inside I held tight to the girls as I scanned the menu and asked the employee at the counter if they did gift cards. "We used to..." he said, as I realized they didn't even sell pie there. "Let me see if we have any left..."he said as I noted how many beer options there were to choose from. On second thought, never mind. If you don't have gift cards, well... then...I guess we'll figure something else out... Heck yes we will! Pretty dang sure that's not the place I want to send Jon and any of the girls and pretty positive that Grandpa would rather pass if given the opportunity to munch on a little something at The Pie Hole. So we made a hasty exit and the girls went back to slipping and sliding along until Soph slid a little too hard and landed on her backside. She took it pretty well, but I was plenty happy to get us all back in the car and on our way to The Lionhouse, where I knew exactly what I was getting into.

Once again we found ourselves parking the car and unloading. And it became rather apparent that these little ladies didn't have much left in them. So in my haste I didn't put Mia in the Bjorn, instead I carried her on my hip thinking (for some crazy and unknown reason) that that was a good idea and might somehow save us time. Well, I was wrong. And it was going to come back to bite me. We were parked on the wrong side of the road, but that wasn't such a problem until I realized that we were also more than a block away from where we wanted to go. Why is it that a block suddenly feels insurmountable when you're trekking it with little ones? Anyway, we talked briefly to a very kind woman in The Joseph Smith Memorial Building who assured us we were on our way, heading in the right direction (I wasn't taking any chances trusting that I might actually know where I was and what I was doing. I needed to be certain at this point that we were going to get where we needed to go and quickly) and she wanted to make sure we understood that we needed to walk down an alleyway to get to the Lionhouse. I truly appreciated her obvious concern. Well, we left The Joseph Smith Memorial Building with a smile on our faces and a spring in our steps. Which unfortunately didn't last long. Lydia fell down and scraped her hands when she threw them in front of her to catch the pavement that tripped her up. Her smile instantly vanished. Her hands hurt real bad. And Sophie suddenly couldn't walk anymore. I told her I couldn't hold her and Mia (remember how I left the Bjorn in the car??) at the same time and tried to get her to understand that, but the tears started flowing. And fast. Even holding both Lydia's and Sophie's hands was difficult because my hands weren't really free. I kept reassuring the girls that we were almost there, and was super relieved when we walked through the Lionhouse doors and were greeted so warmly and the girls were quickly offered some warm rolls. The tears dried up almost at once at that thought and after requesting two gift cards I reached in my wallet for my credit card when I realized it wasn't there. Gone. Unbelievably gone. My mind raced to where it could possibly be. I never put it anywhere but back where it belongs in my wallet. Could it have possibly fallen in the street? Was it somehow in the diaper bag? The car? The last place I actually used it was at The Dodo. But there's no way it was still there... was there? I pulled out our debit card and paid for the gift cards trying to hold back my panic and frustration. We followed this sweet girl around back for the fresh warm rolls which the girls accepted gratefully and which I knew I couldn't eat because first of all I had no appetite and second of all it would get stuck in my throat if I even attempted to enjoy it, but I was so grateful for them anyway for the girls sakes. And we once again left to return to our car.

Once there I searched the diaper bag a bit frantically and flipped through the menus we'd taken from The Dodo. Nothing. I wasn't really surprised, but I'd be lying if I didn't confess to being severly disappointed. I wondered if I should call Jon right away and cancel our cards or if there was still hope for finding it. I was silently praying this whole time and wish that I'd prayed with the girls as soon as we were back at the car finally realizing that if it was anywhere promising it would be at The Dodo. So I scanned the menus and couldn't find a number printed anywhere. My phone only has data at home so I couldn't look it up. Instead I texted the sisters right away and Aunt Abby responded promptly with the information I needed. I let them know that I had left my card (I hoped anyway) at The Dodo and it wasn't until Aunt Sarah texted that I realized it came across that it was just the gift card I'd left. I sure appreciated her understanding and empathy when she realized what really happened. Then I was on the phone and put on hold multiple times before finding out that they did, indeed, have my card. Hallelujah! We said a prayer of thanks and then we returned to The Dodo. I don't need to mention the part where I lost it at Lydia and Monster Mom came out, do I?😩 Not a proud moment. Once there I nursed Mia in the car while Sophie slept a bit longer (such an exhausting afternoon, can't say that I blame her for falling asleep) and Lydia enjoyed sitting in the drivers seat. We then retrieved our card and got Jon a gift card there too. The Pie Hole was a bust (I'd originally hoped it would be one of the places for a daddy/daughter date), but I thought Lydia specifically, would enjoy a date with Dad at The Dodo. While they were running our card for a second time I rushed the girls to the potty, relieved and grateful that nobody had an accident with all our stops and running around. I also found out that my card made it into the pocket of one of the managers. What?! How does that even happen?? When I'd paid for Grandpa's gift card they'd taken my card so they could run it in their machine, but I thought I'd remembered them handing it back to me with the menus. I guess I just assumed that that was what happened. The problem with that was that I knew I would have placed it in it's spot in my wallet. And it absolutely wasn't there, but that didn't matter anymore. What was lost was lost no more and I was feeling a whole lot better at this point.

So much better that I promised the girls they could pick something out at the store (we needed to stop for some groceries on the way home and I was feeling awful about turning into a monster earlier) and it had been a really long, exhausting day. I felt pretty good about that decision. And pretty good about the Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella dolls that the girls picked out too. And that crazy day ended much better than it could have, and I worried it might have, and for that I am so grateful.

Here are the cute cards the "girls" (Lydia actually did a fabulous job on her own) made for Jon to hold the gift cards for their dates.

Lydia's card, "Dear Daddy,

I like you playing with me and reading books to me. And I like to eat with you (especially family favorite casserole). And I like you making pancakes for me. I like going on trips. I think we should plan to go to Disneyland. I like you going to the Dinosaur Museum with me. And I like watering the plants. And I like (do you know what I like best of all?) to sleep with you.

I'm really excited to go eat pie with you on our daddy/daughter date. I think we'll have so much fun. I love you and you give good hugs."

Love,

Lydia

Soph:

Dear Daddy,

I like you playing with us. I like you doing races with us. I like you playing King Candy (Candy Land)  with us. I like to go to Lagoon with you. I like to ride the Merry-Go-Round with you. I love you! I like being in the yard with you. I want to have a choo choo train on the slide.

Love,

Sophie

PS I can't wait to go on a daddy/daughter date to eat some pie!!

Mia:

Dear Daddy,

I love you so much. You're really good at rocking me to sleep. I like it when you hold me. Thanks for helping me climb the stairs. I like it when you make me laugh. I like eating with you and our family. Thanks for being an awesome daddy. I cant wait to taste some yummy pie. You can bring Mom with you on our date. 😉 Even Lydia and Sophie can come too!! I love you Dad! Happy Father's Day!!

Love,

Mia

Happy 5th Birthday Lyds!

Incredibly, I have a five year old. It's unbelievable to me. She'll be starting Kindergarten in just a few weeks and it's rocking my world. This sweet, thoughtful and mature (in so many ways) little girl is growing up. I'm sure I've mentioned this a time or two before, and will surely mention it again, but it feels like we just brought her home from the hospital.

The Sunday before her birthday (May 22nd) we got to celebrate Lydia and Uncle Lance at Mom and Dad Frazier's. Aunt Stacey had set Lydia's gift by her plate at the dinner table and Lydia couldn't stop talking about it all through dinner and long afterward. She absolutely loved the little poof ball that Stacey used to decorate the gift.  And she was really excited about the nail polish inside too. She's excited to try out the soccer goals she got from Grandma and Grandpa Frazier too!

On her actual birthday Lyds picked out what she wanted to eat for each meal that day. I stayed up a little later Saturday night to make her cinnamon rolls for breakfast while Jon decorated her impressive Dalmatian cake.

She wanted sloppy joes for lunch and Grandma Blackhurst asked what she wanted for her birthday dinner and promised burritos once the request was made. At church she was sung to in Primary and got some birthday gumballs reminding her to "chews" the right. Her regular primary teachers were gone, but she loved her awesome substitutes. Jon measured her on her growth church after we got home and then we headed to Grandma and Grandpa Blackhurst's.

We got to Google Hangout with Uncle Nate in Suriname, Uncle Jon (whose birthday is the 31st) in DC, Aunt Jess and Uncle Derek in Oregon and the Heiselts in Brooklyn. It was awesome to catch up with everyone and spotlight the birthday girl and boy. Lydia opened Auntie Abby's gift in front of everyone. Strawberry gum and $5.00. A dollar bill birthday!

Lydia helped Grandma get dinner on and just before we sat down to eat Lyds got to open her presents on a special chair that Grandma let her choose. She was so excited and loved opening her presents. She was sweet with all of them and is especially excited about Lucky (a new addition to her Dalmatian collection), some Littlest Pet Shop toys and her ballet clothes. I guess I'm the one who's excited about her ballet clothes and the classes she'll be taking in the fall. Yay!! She loved the puzzles from Aunt Cathy and family. She's an incredible puzzle put-er together. :)

And the cards from Grandma and Grandpa and Isaac and Amber were spot on and so appreciated. After dinner we sang the special (extended version) birthday song, Lyds blew out her candle (after making a wish) and we enjoyed some funfetti Dalmatian birthday cake. When we got home that evening Lydia got to open one more card from Grandma Steed. A great way to end the day. She requested we wait to read her new book, I had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew because she really wanted to stay up and see what happened and she knew she was supposed to go to sleep, but we did read The Berenstain Bears and The Truth. Another gift for the birthday girl. It was a lovely day and we loved spending it with family.

Tuesday Uncle Tophe stopped by to make a special delivery to Lydia. A troll from FROZEN! It's super cool. It rolls up like a popple (remember those?!), or actually like a rock (which makes a lot more sense) and all three girls LOVED it!! Mia left her mark on it (a slobber spot) once given the chance and the girls promptly took in outside to play with on the playground.

Other noteworthy things about this growing girl is that she has Hopeless Opus love. She heard Imagine Dragons and fell in love with the cherry bomb song. We love singing to it in the car. She also perks up when she hears Firework by Katy Perry. She loves Madagascar 3 and Firework is featured on it. She has a great ear. We were shopping at Kohl's weeks after we'd seen The Peanut movie and she heard a snippet of it and knew it was from the movie. I had no idea, but was duly impressed. Her favorite primary song is "Jesus Wants me for a Sunbeam." Her favorite bedtime story is Hop on Pop. She plans to name her daughters, Olivia, Molly, Passa and Nema (incidentally Sophie wants to name hers "Lucy, Wilma and some more..." she says). Lydia loves her Primary class and her teachers. Each week she takes a little tiny friend with her to class. She says that it comforts her. With a class full of boys I'm sure it helps. ;) Last Sunday her little dog, Fancy, lost it's tail. Lydia had been wiggling it back and forth and it eventually couldn't take any more. One of her teacher's texted me last night. "just checking in to say how cute Lydia is and wondering how Fancy is doing without her tail?" It made my night. Happily I let her know that Fancy's tail had been repaired and all was well with the world. Jon is pretty awesome to mend things like that and the girls sure appreciate it.

Lydia has also been having the time of her life at Lagoon. I'll for sure be posting more about that another day. She got to ride some rides with her Pyne cousins the other day. Seeing Conner, Eric, Lydia and Sophie spinning on the teacups was adorable as well as nauseating. I got to ride on Bombora with Lydia the first time we dared try out a big kid roller coaster and she LOVED it! And then she sat by Conner the second time. They were in the very front of the train and the music was blasting and she wished it hadn't been. When we rode together we were much farther back and didn't really notice any music at all. Riding with Conner was awesome. They'll for sure be doing that again.

We love Lydia and look forward to this years adventures and making more memories with our little family.