Make-your-own spring

This is what we did when spring refused to show up.  We brought spring inside and grew our own grass friend.  Actually my visiting teacher gave me this little kit for Easter, so we just planted it a couple weeks ago.  You're supposed to put it somewhere where it would get plenty of sun, which we didn't, but it still managed to grow!  Lucy has loved searching for our grass friend each day (I moved it around) and playing with its grass hair (when she isn't trying to totally destroy it and dig the dirt out).

"Side?! Side?!"

Lucy BEGS to go outside everyday.  She'll grab her shoes and a coat or a sweater and stand by the door asking "side?! side?!" for outside.  It's cute.  A few mornings ago, bright and early, it was raining but she was begging to go out.  As soon as the rain stopped we went outside.  I'm not going to lie, I hate dirt and getting dirty, and Lucy used to as well, but she's warming up to it pretty darn fast.  Even though she had just gotten dressed and ready for the day, I let her go at whatever she wanted while I cringed inside as she picked up handfuls of dirt and walked through mud puddles.  We survived. :)  And I'll take that problem any day over being stuck inside while it's freezing temps.  I'm SO happy that spring is finally here!!  We've definitely been spending most of it "side?!"

 This is Lucy bending over to smell the flowers. :)

 Then she decided she should just sit down on the wet ground.  Much easier than squatting down.

 Ryan and I planted tulips our first year in our house.  After that year, we decided we'd do them differently and thought we pulled all of the bulbs out of the ground.  We were definitely surprised when  a bunch of them still bloomed this year! I guess there were a lot more than we thought.  That being said, we're also not sad to see them quickly disappearing, thanks to Lucy (and one of our neighbor's kids).

Roseola

Lucy was sick.  Again.  This has been a rough winter for her health-wise.  Better luck next year, I guess.  Anyway, she woke up with a super high fever in the middle of the night last week.  At one point it read 106 degrees, but I think that was a fluke and it stayed in the 104's for a day or two.  After four days of a fever, it finally stopped and that lovely rash spread all over her entire body (including her face).  That only lasted a couple of days and then she was better.  My neighbor was talking to us and mentioned that even though sick kids aren't fun, at least they just lay around sleeping all day and night.  Ha!  If only that's how Lucy worked.  But that's okay because it only lasts a few nights.

She tried to eat breakfast but ended up just asked for her blankie.

 Trying to take a Sunday rest after church with dad.

Hilton Head Island, South Carolina

I knew Ryan had a conference in Hilton Head and I originally declined going since I was afraid I would still be super sick from being pregnant.  But then he sent me a picture of the resort and I quickly changed my mind!

I'm so glad that Lucy and I went.  It has been a long winter and I was ready for some sun, warm, sand, beach, etc.  It was the most perfect weather the entire time, totally sunny and between 72 and 77 degrees, which is warm enough to swim and be outside all day but not die of heat.  Perfect.  We got to the resort Monday and left Thursday morning.  Ryan's meetings were all day Tuesday and then until 3pm on Wednesday.  Ryan had 15 minute breaks here and there throughout the day and always came out to the beach to hang out with us for a few minutes, which was fun to randomly see him throughout the day.  Lucy and I really spent the entire day on Tuesday out at the beach, with the exception of lunch and nap time.  Despite putting on SPF 50 sunscreen every hour, the harsh sun still got to our skin and Lucy and I both got a little burnt on our backs, which is why she is wearing her little towel dress thing in most of the pictures.  Nicole and her kids drove from Beaufort to join us at the beach that afternoon, which was fun to see them again!  Wednesday, Lucy and I headed back out to the beach until Ryan was done.  When he joined us, we hit up all of the different pools and hot tub in the resort and even splurged on one of the fancy smoothies that I was craving!  We then went to the beach one last time with Ryan before heading in to shower.  The amount of sand on all of us was incredible and it did not want to come off!  We ended the evening with dinner at Outback Steakhouse.  We had eyed some local Hilton Head Island restaurants but eventually my pregnant mouth could only think about Outback (which was odd since I've only been there once in my life when I was younger, but it really hit the spot!).  Since we were in no rush to head out on Thursday morning, we slept in until Lucy woke up and then packed up and left.  It turned out to be SUCH a fun trip and I was so glad we tagged along because at least Lucy and I got to enjoy the full resort/beach experience the whole time.  I wish I was still there now that it's back to cold and rainy Columbus. :)

This was how we spent our mornings: eating cereal and yogurt on the bed.  Lucy felt pretty special.

Ryan took this picture on his ipad looking out over the resort and to the ocean.  It was such a pretty view.

I'm so glad Ryan showed up on his breaks and was able to take a couple of pictures.  I didn't dare take our camera out to the beach with the way we (read: Lucy) got sand everywhere!  The funny thing was that every time we went to the beach, Lucy would be apprehensive about the sand at first and be upset when it stuck to her hands and legs and stuff.  She only wanted to sit on the towel and not touch it.  After a short while though she warmed up to it and eventually ended up literally rolling around in it and running around saying hi to everyone.  She even bent down on her hands and knees at one point and stuck out her tongue to lick the sand.  Yuck! haha.  This girl keeps me laughing!

She loved her beach toys... especially raking the sand.  I had to laugh at one point though because I was trying to show her how to fill her bucket with sand and she ended up just picking it up and putting her arm through the tiny handle and carried it like a purse. That and the fact that she demanded a bow be in her hair even at the beach made me laugh.

 Ryan was standing at the hotel's beach entrance with some coworkers when we were coming in for naps.  Right then, Lucy decided to have a nice little meltdown in the sand and stuck her face right into the sand.  She then took a whole huge handful and plopped it right on top of her head.  Needless to say, she required a good bath right before nap.

But don't worry, she was happy again a few minutes later when we let her climb up the stairs.  This girl is quite the drama queen sometimes!

This was when Ryan finally got to join us for good on Wednesday afternoon.

I hadn't seen Lucy this relaxed the whole trip. :)

 Ryan was nice enough to get in the pool with Lucy for a long time.  She was in heaven.

Lucy did not sleep more than 50 minutes on our whole drive down and we didn't know why because we gave her a blanket and made her all comfy.  Then we figured out that it was because she didn't have her blanket that she sleeps with as it was packed away.  Once we gave that to her, she snuggled up and slept for 4 hours!  She's got her preferences, for sure. :)

And we made it home safe and sound.  Lucy has been begging to go outside all day and now I'm dreaming of being back on a warm, sunny beach. :)

Beaufort, South Carolina

Ryan had a work trip down in Hilton Head Island this week, and of course Lucy and I tagged along on that one!  Our good friends, the Johansen's, live in Beaufort, which is just on the other side of the bay from Hilton Head.  I told them we were coming down and they suggested we come early over the weekend and stay with them before we had to go to our hotel.  They stayed at our house in Columbus a few times when they lived in Pittsburgh because their temple was the Columbus temple.  We always have a good time with them, so we looked forward to visiting them in Beaufort.

Since we drove, we got there Saturday evening.  We just stayed up talking for a bit and catching up and then hit the sack.

Sunday morning we got up and went to church with them (10am church on vacation is great... not too early, not too late), and let me tell you- the southern accents there were incredible.  After church, they made us an amazing lunch which was followed by naps for the babies and some sitting outside in the nice weather.  Next, we all hopped in our cars and headed to downtown Beaufort. It was pouring rain so we nixed our waterfront walk and got a historical tour of the city from Tyler and Nicole.  They've taken the real tour a couple of times and remembered a surprisingly large amount of info, which was definitely to our benefit.  There is a bit of historical significance there.  For example, the house where the succession began is right there.  Over 100 men signed their names with blood on the basement walls and now it's covered in glass and is only open to the public twice a year.  The homes in the area that we drove through were all big and fancy old homes with lots of pillars, wrap around porches, and "gentleman and lady stairs" which are the kind that spiral up to the front door on both sides.  The area was filled with tons of bright green vegetation and palm trees.  It's exactly how I picture the coastal south in the olden days.  Gorgeous.  After that, we came home and had another delicious grilled meal and then played ligretto until we went to bed.  True to my ligretto past, I won the first round and was feeling good and then got smashed the rest of the game and came in last.  Nicole served her mission in Germany and is one of the only other people I know besides the Martin family who has the actual game (and they have it because Craig served his mission in Hungary).

Monday morning came around and we just packed up and got ready to head out but before we did we went all piled in Nicole's van and headed out to the military base, which is wear Tyler works as a dentist.  We had to drive around for a few minutes before Tyler could meet us, which was really cool to see.  There were groups of marines marching around everywhere and it was cool to see boot camps going on.  Once he came out, we headed into town to go eat lunch at a really good, trendy new restaurant called Fat Patties.  We then said goodbye and headed to our resort in Hilton Head.

 There is a national cemetery in Beaufort.  It was cool to drive through.

 There are all of these super long piers everywhere for the boats to dock because the tide rises and lowers 8 feet each day.

Just hanging out reading books Monday morning.

 Obviously at the military base now.

Check out how they have all of their guns in a teepee over their bags.  Crazy how they are so precise... and that they all stay up like that (I'm sure there's some obvious way that I just don't know about).

When you ask Caleb what his dad does, he says "marches." haha.  He doesn't do that anymore though since he's a real dentist now.

 Eating lunch at Fat Patties.

 The kids had been in the car for a while and were hungry too... so they were a little wild at this point.

 Remind me never to take a picture at this angle again.  But that food was SO good and once it came out, Lucy sat there and fed herself the whole time.  It was great.

 This was Ryan's huge burger that was topped with pulled pork and bacon and all sorts of stuff.  Crazy.

And that was the end of our Beaufort stay.  Ryan and I were so glad that we had gone down early and spent time in Beaufort.  The Johansen's were great hosts and it was fun exploring a new area!  Now on to Hilton Head.

GC weekend

These are just some funny things that happened over conference weekend.

I was in the kitchen cleaning some dishes and Lucy was pulling on my leg and begging for something.

Me: "Lucy, what do you need?  I can't pick you up, I'm doing dishes, but point to what you want."
Lucy: More noises I don't understand and more tugging on my leg.
Me: "Okay well I can't help you right now, but go ask dad for what you need and he can help you."
Lucy: Ran around the corner and into the living room to Ryan.
Ryan: "Come here, Lucy.  What do you need?"
Lucy: Points to me in the kitchen and says "mama."

*****

Then later on in the morning, Ryan and I were talking about goals and trying to apply some things in conference.  He said that we should come up with our own goals, and couple/family goals, and then go over them together and help each other, etc.  Great idea.  But this was how his example went:

Ryan: "For example, I don't think we eat enough candy so our goal could be to eat more candy."
Me: "What if our goals clash?  Like, I think we eat too much candy and we should try and eat less?"
Ryan: "Then we compromise."
Me: "So what would be the compromise for this situation?"
Ryan: "We eat more candy..... It's an Obama compromise."

*****

Lucy understands the word "funny" and that it is associated with laughing.  The problem with it is that if we tell her not to do something because it's "not funny" then she starts laughing more.  Anyway, Lucy sat down with Ryan on the couch after conference ended and Ryan America's Funniest Videos came on.  He asked if she wanted to watch something funny and she just started cracking up.  She stared at the tv and laughed and laughed, even though nothing funny had started showing yet.  It was hilarious, so I busted out our camera after a minute to video tape but as soon as she saw it, she stopped laughing.

Cooking with dad:

She just leaned over and started licking the edge. Ha!

Trying on dad's sweatshirt was super fun.

So was his work coat.

More cooking with mom.

 Lucy has been fascinated with her new Fancy Nancy bag from Grandma and Grandpa.  She put things in and out of it all weekend.

 Lucy took the liberty of climbing on the kitchen chair to get herself a chocolate chip cookie and then proudly showed us her messy hands when we found her.