June

We have had a fun and busy June.  Seeing as it's been HOT already this summer we've spent lots of time in the water.  We've also gotten to spend some time with friends and family.  So far our summer has been good with just one exception.  Mia has started taking herself potty sometimes.  While it's nice that she's becoming more independent, it can have disastrous results.  At the beginning of the month Mia had taken herself to the bathroom and plugged the toilet.  She has managed to do this a time or two but with a little plunging and sometimes a little wait we manged to clear the problem...Not this time.  We still have no idea what she put down there but it took a massive plumbers snake (thank goodness the neighbor's dad is a plumber and let us borrow it), two people, and two passes to finally get the thing to clear.  It was really GROSS!

Like I said it has been really hot so we have spent some time playing with the neighbors on their awesome slip and slide.

Mia would typically just run down it and manage to slip and fall but she didn't care

She was having a great time and it was a nice way to cool off.

Of course every water girl needs some water goggles.  Hurray for the dollar store!

We also pulled our pool over so the kids has some other water options.  This particular day we had 8 kids out playing in the water.

This month was our ward swim party at the Roy Aquatic Center.  There is so much to do there and Mia had a blast playing in the water.  She's doing pretty good this year and wants to swim "By self" most of the time.  Thank goodness for her puddle jumper.

 After about a dozen times of us taking her up to the slide on  the kiddie structure Mia decided you could do it all by herself.

 Monty tried out the speed slide.

 Mia and I stuck to the slower slide.  She kept begging to go down the "Humongous slide."  It was really cute.  Her little teeth would chatter as she waited in line but she didn't seem to care.  It's really funny because now when we drive by the aquatic center she gets all excited and tells me over and over that she went down the humongous slide.

Trying to get Mia to look at the camera isn't so easy anymore...but hey we got pictures of Monty this month.

 Mia also checked out the slide in the toddler area but she definitely preferred the bigger slides.

Mia has decided she really likes corn on the cob.  It was really funny watching her eat it at Chili's one night.

  Two days after the ward swim party we went up to Park City for a BBQ with Mia's birth mom's family. Of course that involved playing in the water some more.

 Mia had lots of fun playing with everyone in the pool and it was great to see and spend time with Mia's birth mom and her family.

 Brings new meaning to 4-eyes

 The following weekend we went to the Families Supporting Adoption (FSA) BBQ.  It was lot of fun to meet other families who have adopted and/or are in the adoption process and hear their stories.  Mia's favorite part was the play ground.  They had a bounce house again this year and she played in that for a little bit but seemed to prefer the play ground this year.

 She was brave and tackled most of it all by herself.

 Mia would live at the park if we let her.

 This month was also the NICU (Newborn ICU...where I work) Summer Reunion.  It's a chance to see the kiddo's who have graduated from the NICU and see how they've grown.  Also, it is a whole event geared toward little kids...what could be better!  Mia had lots of fun on the bounce house slide.  She was a little nervous the first time but then decided it was a blast!

 They had face painting.  Mia held so still to get her face painted.  The she wouldn't eat her mac and cheese at lunch because she was afraid she would her face dirty.

 She waited so patiently in line to get her pink doggy balloon.

 Then we ate lunch and watched the Little Feather Dancers

 They were very talented and great lunch time entertainment.

 The last dance was the inter-tribal circle dance and they invited everyone to join in.  Monty took Mia to dance with them.  She didn't quite get the concept but had fun dancing around.

 After the NICU reunion it was off to a baby shower for Monty's brother's wife (who had her baby on the 4th of July).  I don't have any pictures from the baby shower but it was fun to see friends and family and get to see all the fun stuff Megan got for baby Sophie.

 I mention early that Mia likes to take herself to the bathroom and how I have learned that it's a bad idea.  Well, apparently I hadn't quite learned my lesson after the toilet plugging incident.  Part of it is if I go in to help her too soon she gets mad, won't go, and then ends up having an accident.  Anyway, after she had been in the bathroom for a few minutes on her own I went to find her and this is what I found.  She had climbed up on the counter and gotten nail polish off the back of the counter and somehow got it open and proceeded to paint her nails.  She had one hand and one foot done.  She's a quick little painter.  Ironically her shirt says "Always an Angel."  Anyone who knows Mia knows she's got a devil streak a mile long but I though it was extra ironic in this case.

Really she did surprising well for a 2 year old.

 Luckily she only got a little on the counter and on the tile so it was easy to clean up.  Shockingly she had none on her clothes.  I count myself lucky there!

Towards the end of the month Monty's mom, sister, grandma, and grandma's sister came up and we all went to Antelope Island for a picnic.

The last weekend in June was Heritage Days.  We took Mia to her first parade.  We found a nice spot in the shade and started our wait.  Mia got restless and wanted to go back to her house.

Once the parade started and they were throwing candy Mia forgot all about going home.  She had lots of fun waving at the people in the parade and picking up candy and Frisbees and all kinds of goodies.

 She rapidly realized all the candy wouldn't fit in her little pocket.

 It was a great first parade!

 



May

It's only June 2nd and I'm getting the post done for May!  Is anyone else as surprised as I am??
This month Mia has learned how to ride a Big Girl Bike.  She's now cruising around the neighborhood on 4 wheels instead of 3.  Occasionally she'll still ride her tricycle but most the time she gets in the garage and tells me she wants to ride her "Big Bike."  Initially she had some trouble getting started from the stopped position if she wasn't headed down the drive way but she has gotten pretty good and needs very few pushes now.

 We've even had a couple days warm enough to run in the sprinkler with friends.

 I thought this was hilarious. I was doing laundry one day and Mia was watching "Buzz" (her favorite movie, or I guess movies because we get away with switching between the 3 of them). I came out of the laundry room and she'd dumped the clothes out of the basket and had climbed in to watch the movie.  It doesn't look very comfortable but she enjoyed herself.

 The March for Babies was in May and I was a walker for our unit at the hospital.  Of course the weather was cold and rainy the day of the walk but we all bundled up and faced the elements together.  May 15th was our wedding anniversary so we had stayed in Salt Lake the night before the walk.  Mia spent the night at home with Aunt Trina and then Trina brought her to Salt Lake before the walk.  It worked out well because Trina had to be in Salt Lake the morning too.  Because we headed down to Salt Lake the night before, I didn't know it was supposed to rain, and we had no umbrella.  We all ended up a bit soggy but we had a good time.

 They handed out Creamies half way through...Mia and I shared one.  Monty was too cold for one...They should have done hot chocolate.

 The walk was at This Is The Place Heritage Park so after the walk we went to see the animals.
Mia thought the little horse was pretty cool (it was a donkey but hey I figure a little horse is good for a 2 year old).

 They had a whole bunch of baby chicks.  They were huddled together trying to keep warm.

 We even got to hold one of the chicks and Mia got to pet it.

 Mia chased this poor duck all over until he took off into the cage with the donkey.  I guess he thought it was safer with the donkey than with Mia.

 We even got to see some of Santa's Reindeer.

 We stopped in at the school house to learn about what life was like for kids when Utah was being settled.  Mia liked being able to color on the chalk boards.

 Of course we had to take a ride on the train.  However, as we were sitting on the train we realized we could see our breath so decided it was time to head home after the train ride.  Maybe next year the weather will be better so we can do some more exploring.

 One evening in May the power went out and ended up being out for about 5 hours.  We went to Subway for dinner and had a picnic with our sandwiched on the front lawn and then hung out outside until it was about bedtime.  After spending all evening outside Mia was in desperate need of a bath.  We were getting ready to do a bath by candle light when I remembered that we have a big window in our bathroom.  There was just enough sunlight left that with the blinds open we could see.  Mia was pretty excited to take a bath in Mom's tub.

I don't remember how it happened but somehow we discovered Mia loves the song Drive By by Train.  She dances all around the living room and sings to it.

Memorial Day weekend my mom and brother came down from Idaho.  Mia definitely loves her Uncle Shawn, and the fact that he rides a bike with one wheel made him even cooler!  Shawn actually has about a dozen unicycles ranging from little ones to one that the seat is about 18ft tall.

 He even let her take a turn on one of his unicycles.

 This one has a big wheel and is made for speed so it had handle bars to hold on to.

On Memorial Day we went out to Simpson Springs and went 4-wheeling with Monty's family.

 We all had a great time.

 Mia loved it and would go on a ride with whoever was willing to take her.

 Mia's cousins brought tents and sand toys.  They were a good distraction from the 4-wheelers at times.

 We roasted hot dogs and made S'mores.

 The 4 grand kids with Grandma and Grandpa.  The 5th grand kid was there too but she's still in her mamma's belly.  Only another month and we get to meet her!

 Mia got to try out both 4-wheelers.

 

 While we were there Lucy tried to teach Mia how to climb the tree.  Luckily they couldn't get very high and Mia refused to take her helmet off the whole time we were there.  You never know when you might get to go for another ride.

 Once again Mia managed to snag a ride.  This time with Grandma and Grandpa.

Our last ride

 Us with the desert as our background.

A few other random pictures from the month.
Mia had decided she'd rather put the potato head pieces on her than the potatoes.  The hat is cute...

 But the mustache is a little gross.

April

It's hard to believe May is already almost half over.  I usually update the blog while I'm at work and this is only my 3rd shift in May and the first two were BUSY!  April was another good month for us.  For the most part we spent more time outside and enjoyed our spring weather.
When we come in from playing outside Mia will very rarely take her jacket off. I think she thinks if she leaves it on maybe she'll get to go back outside.  This particular day Mia refused to taker her jacket off and instead sat coloring in her pop up tent.  She loves her tent.  It takes up most of the living room when we put it up but she will sit and there and color or watch movies and simply be in heaven.

The second weekend in April was "Guys Weekend" at the cabin so Mia and I headed up to Idaho for a long weekend with my family.  I had a great time and Mia had a blast!
We went to this AWESOME playground up in Idaho. There was so much to do and the best part was it had a rubber ground to it so no dirt or scrapes.  Mia showed off her dare devil side on one of the slides.

 She thought the Tee Pee was pretty cool

 As well as the train. She explored it with her uncle Shawn.

 There were drums to beat on and chimes too.

I told you she was a dare devil. She climbed all the way up the rope net all by herself. 

 No playground is complete without swings.

 Mia loved the spinning cups.  They were just off balance enough that when the kids move in them they spin around. What's really hilarious is watching the kids get out of the cups and try to walk away.

 Uncle Shawn also showed Mia how cool the poof pillow is.  He would throw her into it over and over. Mia never got tired but poor Uncle Shawn did.

 The day we went to the playground was the only nice day we had.  The rest of the days were cold and kinda rainy.  Mia didn't let that stop her though, she convinced Grandpa to come brave the cold to push her on the neighbor's swing set.

 Grandma was nice and got up with Mia in the morning and let me sleep in. One morning I came out to the kitchen to find this.  Mia, in her pajamas, riding around the island in the kitchen on her trike. Grandma said it was too cold to ride outside so she just had to ride in the house.  I've since had to convince her that we only ride bikes inside at Grandma's house....Silly Grandma.

 On Saturday I went to the spring book club lunch with my mom and Uncle Shawn babysat.  He took her to Wendy's for lunch and then they came home and made a massive fort.  Mia thought it was the coolest thing ever.

 Mia and her Buddy, Uncle Shawn.

 After a busy weekend, this is what Mia looked like less than 20 minutes into our drive home. It was a busy weekend for such a little girl.

Mia is quite the big helper these days.  Her favorite thing to do is help cook. As soon as she sees anyone start putting stuff on the stove she is right there with her bar stool to help.

 Netflix has become our friend and there are a few shows Mia just can't get enough of. One of them is Shaun the Sheep. She likes to dance to the theme song too.

 We've spent more time playing outside and playing with friends now that it's warmer.

 Mia cruises all over the cult-a-sac on her little tricycle.

 She just really cracks me up some days.  It was at her insistence that she wore her hat under her helmet and have her sunglasses too.

My goal for May is to get some pictures with Monty in them...we'll see how successful I am. :-)