Every Day is Something New

Since I've slacked on the blog (sorry!) these pictures range from the last couple months.

Oh, Seoul had her 15 month appointment and she's HEALTHY!

Stats:
Weight - 22 pounds, 14 ounces (50th percentile)
Length - 31 1/2 inches (80th percentile)
Head - 18 inches (50th percentile)




Seoul can go up and down steps on her own. She had a ball going up and down the play structure by herself. This marks the first park visit that warranted a fit when it was time to go home. Poor baby has a hard life :) It was funny to watch her squat down under the structure and "spy" on the other kids.






My little helper/shadow. Some days I can't turn around without her being under my feet. Other days she goes off on her own to play. She always wants to help me do my tasks whether it's helping with the dishes, standing on the open dishwasher door (no picture!), throwing my clean lids on the floor (or the garbage), dusting, or working.






Some of Seoul's rainy day activities are coloring with crayons (when she's not eating them!) and playing the piano (or as she calls it the "da da").




Like most little kids she loves other kids, although she calls them all babies :) This is with our new little friend Landin Springer - she liked patting him on the back. Then there is our little friend Blake Steyskal, who loves to give her kisses!




Story time is her favorite time of the week. We go to Wilsonville Public Library Baby Time and now all the kids are walking so she toodles around and plays with the toys and kids. Peek-a-boo with the sheer handkerchiefs and that square toy is her fave. From the beginning she loved these rubber poky balls. They gave one to each kid for participating!




I feel like I also say no to going outside because it's raining lately... but she loves going out. Says "bye" and plays with the door knob. We just walk around and get the mail (at her request) and hang out. With all the rain she discovered mud puddles and thinks the rain drops are bubbles on the surface of the water. She also loves collecting rocks - there are some in every room of our house :)





Here's our little "mommy" - she likes to feed her "babies" and give kisses. She hated the dolly at first but then learned to love her. One day she put her in her cradle and threw a blanket on top of her for a nap.

She loves to climb... onto the dishwasher door, up the step ladder if it's open, up the armrest of the couch, and this one is the stroller. She crawled up and down and was so pleased with herself.

She LOVES socks and shoes! She would wear them all day and all night if given the choice. It's fun that she gets her shoes and jacket out of the closet when she wants to go out. Sometimes she also takes them back to the closet if we tell her to. She also loves our socks... funny: one day she was "helping" me fold laundry (which entailed running away with all my socks). I had mismatched socks for a while and one day a couple weeks later found the matches in our DVD drawer. Thanks Seoul!

She discovered grass isn't terrible and roams freely now. She loves to go visit the strawberries in our garden and touch each one. I'm going to have to fight her to share with me when they are ripe!

She can feed herself with silverware (even soup and big people cereal with milk). She's also mastered using a cup. She loves spaghetti and as you can see... sometimes she uses alternative methods. (I happened to have the camera in the restaurant :)

Her first spoken phrase was "daddy's home!" (and now says it when he gets home while going to to the door or standing and waiting for him). Every once in a while we go to visit Kelley at work and have lunch with him (Chipotle - YUM!). She likes to sit in daddy's chair.





MISCELLANEOUS PICTURES AND BLURBS that don't necessarily correlate, just mixed together.


As most little children, Seoul is into reading the same book over and over. One night we read our before-bedtime story and she wanted to read it again. I told her I would read it again in the morning and leaned it against her dresser. SO, the next morning after breakfast she goes to her room, gets the book, and brings it to me in the kitchen. She gets my attention and hands me the book with the look "You PROMISED you'd read it to me in the morning. Stop what you're doing!" And so we read the book.





She throws things in the garbage when we ask her to. Just a couple times she has thrown non-garbage away but fortunately I've caught her and pulled the goods out of the trash.

If we're laying on the floor she comes over and "body slams" us - says "body" and throws herself on top of us. What? This sweet little face doing that? Yep! Especially when we're not expecting it!

We love it... every day she does something new that makes us laugh and smile. She brings us such joy!


TO END...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDPA!! (Seoul can say 'happy' and 'grandpa' and a version of 'birthday' although we have to prompt her with each word to make the phrase.)

Happy Mother's Day!

This is an old picture! I have few pictures of Seoul and I together and I try not to duplicate pictures on the blog.

I have a full heart after such a wonderful day!

I must give a shout out to my mom to thank her for all the great things she's taught me. She is a great example of living close to Heavenly Father. Also, she tried to teach me how to cook when I was younger, and I admit I didn't learn then, but it instilled the great principle of homemade food and family dinners at the table.

Then a shout out to Kelley's mom to thank her for raising a great son. She is a great example of loving unconditionally. Kelley is a fantastic husband and one of the first things I noticed about him after I met him was how much he loved his mom. She is generous to a fault.

Without our moms we wouldn't be who we are. We are very grateful and love them very much!

Now that I'm a mom, I realize you don't know what you're missing until you are a mom. Don't get me wrong, life can be so fabulous without children, but for me, Seoul (and future children) complete my life. Seoul is so unique and beautiful and has taught me more than I could possibly have imagined. Things such as:

• Love - 100% unconditional, would do absolutely anything for this child, love.


• Patience - when I'm tired and cranky and selfish, I still have to meet her needs.


• Fun - crawling around on my hands & knees making silly noises and funny faces is SO rewarding when she giggles or flashes me one of those just-for-you smiles.


• Beauty - it truly does come from within since babies are not always the cutest when they are babies (you know what I'm saying... although as Seoul's mommy I totally think she was the most beautiful baby ever!). Every little thing she does adds to her beauty.


• Skills - making baby food from fresh veggies so she can be as healthy as possible; learning to sew because I want to make her holiday dresses; cake decorating - it started with her first birthday cake and now look... Easter and Mother's Day cakes!

I love being Seoul's mommy. I love being Kelley's wife. Those roles make my life joyful and I'm so very very happy.

It does help I got spoiled with this...

... a brand new RED lap top! Woohoo! What a fun toy! It's just for me to do my journal, couponing, and blogging while watching TV! What a posh life I lead :)

As for the days activities we got to see our friends the Springer's. Kelley got to participate in baby Landin's blessing at church, which was a special experience. Then we visited with them and their family during a great BBQ. We held our own family BBQ to celebrate Mother's Day. Lots of family, stories and laughter, great food = good times.

This morning I decorated a cake for dessert. It turned out cute, I think.

Happy Belated Mother's Day to all the moms out there! I hope you had as good a day as I did!

The LiFe of owning a HOME... and LOVING it!

See the post title? Owning a home, not just a house! It has felt like our home since day one and Seoul now says "home" and nods her head when I ask if she likes to stay at home. When we're in the car and I say we're going home she gets excited. When I said "Daddy's home" the other day she yelled "Daddy's home!!" and toddled as fast as her little legs could go to the front door to greet him. It's such a blessing to own a house. It's such a gift to own a home that we can call our own and feel safe.

Here is our lovely yard. Seoul has become courageous and attempts to walk on the grass now - yay! The far end is destined to yield delicious corn, cucumbers, strawberries, blueberries, and all other goodness we decide to plant. We have no idea what we're doing but we're having fun doing it!

Starting the garden! Kelley is trying his hand at rototilling (is this a word?). That's my big, strong man! I appreciate that he's willing to don work clothes and work out in the yard after a long, hard day at work.




My brother hooked us up with a deal on a lawn mower and my awesome nephew Trevin tried it out for us :)




One day we were out working in the yard. (As a side note, we realize we will never have a free weekend again - HA!!) We are getting rid of the red lava rocks slowly. Is there any purpose for those? Not in our world so rocks, be gone! We had just decided to get rid of the 3 bushes in the front of the house. So Kelley pulls out his handy dandy pruning shears, albeit small ones, and starts trimming branches so we can slowly get rid of the unwanted branches in the yard debris bin. My brother rolls up and asks what we're doing. Without hesitation he volunteers his quicker method: 1, 2, 3, DONE.

Step 1: borrow a chain from our neighbors

Yes, we don't own a chain. What are our trusty little Honda Civics ever going to pull??

Step 2: wrap it around the base of the bush



Step 3: drive away and it's outta there



Yep, no hesitation and no time for second thoughts. Kelley is just glad he didn't have to do it all by hand! We love it... totally opens up the front area. Now we just have to be creative and replace the area with something we do want. Hm - maybe we should apply to be on that show on HGTV, Curb Appeal (or whatever it's called)...



I checked to make sure my lovely flowers were still intact. (I know, they weren't flowers I planted personally but I worried for them in this perilous adventure.)

Most recently Kelley started working on the overgrown hedges. We so do not want to be the homeowners that people hate the site of our property because it's unkempt! Kelley did a fabulous job. Somehow he eye-balled it to get it straight across the top... better him than me because if I did it we'd have wavy hedges... and short ones cuz I can't reach too high! Thanks to my dad for the cool hedge trimmer - works perfectly!

Last Saturday we tackled the garage. Beautiful morning. We pull everything out in somewhat organized piles. We start putting things back in an organized fashion. Then... it rains. Hard. We are hustling to get everything back inside. Now it's worse than when we started. Our stuff is wet. We are wet. Seoul is crying wanting attention and I think a bit nervous because we're running around frantically. We're frustrated. So we take a break...

This is the result the next day. Beautiful. So we think we can park the car in the garage. Remember I have a Honda Civic Hybrid. Compact car. Kelley pulls it in slowly... and then realize we can't open the side door to get Seoul out. So Kelley backs it out slowly...

The stuff on the left is garage sale piles so that will be gone soon. The bins on the right hopefully we can put in the rafters once we get some sturdy boards. Then we'll try again.... unless we acquire more stuff that will replace that soon-to-be-empty space...



This is how Seoul helped... she found a sleeve of Ritz crackers on our food shelf and attempted to eat them through the wrapper because I didn't open them the instant she wanted.




Last but not least, what home doesn't have a BBQ? We are now the proud owners of a home AND a BBQ (that also smokes and rotisseries. Intense, I know!). Kelley had been pricing them for weeks now and finally devised a plan to get it home. He happened to "run into" my brother, who has a Suburban, at Home Depot. Haha... just kidding! First, we planned to get one with our tax refund. Second, he called before he purchased it to make sure it was OK. See? We communicate :) I say yes, then they roll up with this bad boy. Oh, the quick, delicious meals one can make with a BBQ.



We are having fun and keeping busy. We are blessed.