All about Miss lately

** This is an extremely boring post. Warning! If you don't care to read about the development of a toddler, its not worth reading this post!! You've been warned. **

Scarlett is just a few weeks away from being 18 months old. Why is that such a big deal!?!

Because she gets to go to NURSERY!!! at church.

We are primary teachers together, but one of us is always on Scarlett duty - which means following her around the halls. Today I took her into nursery for the last 20 minutes to see how she does, and I can tell this will be a very easy transition for her. Scarlett rarely shows signs of separation anxiety. It's one of the pro's to working part time during the week. So I am hoping she will love nursery.

She still isn't very coordinated. No... I don't see a future in sports with this little one. At least, she has a long way to go. She likes to climb on anything, which she's alright at. But she is a bit klutzy. She is quite vocal. It seems likes she's adding words to her vocabulary faster than we can track or be excited about. We talk to her like she can understand everything we say to her, or ask her to do. If she doesn't get it, we'll repeat it or say it in a different way and she usually gets it.

Scarlett's words include:

Hi
Bye (bai-bai)
Hello (when she's talking on the telephone)
Thank You (Tink Yuuu)
Juice (Juss)
Uh oh
Baba (milk - bottle, but she drinks from a sippy cup now)
Please (sign)
more (Sign)
Baby (baybee)
Dog (doggie)
Raja or Meow for Cat
I love you (Ieeuuu)
Teeth (Teees)
Eye (like hi)
Daddy and Mommy or mom
Hi dad (hi daaaah - especially on the phone.
Num nums (food)
Banana (nana)
Cracker (kha kha)
cookie (cooookie)
Peek- a- boo (Peeboo)
Shoes (shu shus)
No/Yessss - or she'll shake her head no
Hot dog (ho dog)
Book

She mimics us all the time, but these words she has used w/o mimicking - on her own throughout the day. It's really fun to hear her mimic though. If she's in the right mood she might just try to copy anything.

She's very expression-ate. She'll grunt, sigh, "uuugh", "umph" when she's trying to carry something or open something. It's pretty funny, sometimes she'll even grunt for you if you're opening something for her.

Scarlett finally has the close mouth kiss down. Which actually kind makes me sad. I'll miss the open mouth, plant face on mom's and get her slobbery kisses. She gives Seth more kisses now too. But she has to be in the mood, all on her own time.

She loves her baby doll lately. She'll bring me a baby blanket and her doll for me to wrap it up in. Then Scarlett takes it from me and paces, she even pats the baby to "soothe" it. It's adorable. She loves her accessories too. She's very observant of others accessories. Hats, sunglasses, jewelery, etc. She's such a girl!

She has her favorite drawer in the kitchen. We always find random cooking utensils at any room or space in the apartment. She likes to open her baby wipe containers so she can wash or dust off furniture, the carpet... Raja... etc.

I wish she would be able to fall asleep anywhere other than her crib or car seat, or that she'd stay asleep when we transport her anywhere. But I can't complain... she goes to sleep at 8:30 and generally wakes up between 7:30-9:00. If she wakes up unhappy I'll take milk in for her and she'll go back to sleep after a good drink. You know it will be a good day when she wakes up just talking to herself and is content staying in the crib for a few minutes. Sometimes she is extremely happy and she is jumping up and down like a mad-lady screaming. It's pretty funny.

She has started to interact with movies, she loves Tangled and the Baby Einstein videos a lot more. Ok... I know this is really getting boring now. She's doing great! She's no longer a baby, she's our little girl. It's really fun to be able to talk to her and see her trying to process it all. Often she just jibber jabbers to us, and we're left trying to process it too :)

We love our little Scarlett!

Vinyl with my cricut

I got out the cricut machine last night and tested it out with vinyl, it works great! I thought I'd have to get one of the strong "deep" blades, but it cut just fine on a high pressure and slower speed. I have been thinking for months now, about quotes for our walls. This is the only one I have come up with that I wanted to do.
You like? It's just above Scarlett crib, under the loft bed.

This is my cutepie this morning. Ugh! She is so cute I cannot stand it.

IOWA (another catch up post)

This is my 9th catch up post I've done today. Wow. I was behind. There is more to catch up on, I'm sure... but this is my last for today, I hope.

On July 4th Scarlett and I flew to Iowa to visit my family for a week. We used my Grandma and Grandpa Hartley's 60th wedding anniversary party as a reason to get back there.

We flew out of Provo. Yes, Provo Airport. random, right!? It is the smallest airport I could ever imagine. They just opened a flight with Frontier that goes to Denver. It was almost $100 cheaper for us to fly out of Provo than the usual Salt Lake City. It flies into Des Moines though, so it's a 2 hour drive for someone to pick us up. Scarlett was amazing on flight out there. The flight wasn't full so she got to sit in the empty seat next to us. We had a 45 min layover in Denver and then she slept the whole 2nd flight. Seriously, it was perfect. I can't believe she did so well.

My parents picked us up. I love my mom and my dad. I love going home still, and it is getting kind of different since I have a daughter of my own... Life has changed a ton since I lived in my home 10 years ago! It was July 4th, so that night we went out to watch the fireworks in Coralville.

Tuesday my mom kept Scarlett, took her to work down at the Dental Lab. I hear they had a fun day all together, mom, dad, and Scarlett. I went with my sister, Kara, to Prairie Du Chien WI to get my older sister Alicia and her two kids. They spent the rest of the week in Iowa City with us. I'm pretty bummed I didn't take pictures of them all out in the kiddie pool on the deck. But they had fun out in the humid hot days in the water.

My brother Aaron and I. . . he is growing out his hair... to donate.

Alicia and I spent some time organizing family pictures and getting them printed for frames to display at the wedding anniversary party. I worked on a few old small 3x4" photos that were from the 50s when they were married. I was able to blow them up, clear them with different contrasts/exposure using Adobe's lightroom and photoshop. I even added some color to a black and white so the maid of honor's dress was yellow, grandpa's suit was navy, they had red rose boutonnieres and bouquets. It was pretty neat, if I do say so myself.

The party was awesome! They had the bakery up the street make a replica of the original wedding cake. It was delicious too! My aunt Joette gave me a few journal entries to share about stories of the kids growing up and memories. I think that was my favorite part. They had a display of my grandpa's airplanes (he built them after flying them in the war) and my grandma's quilts. She does amazing, amazing work. I would say about 100 people came. 40 of us were family. It was a great night, I'm so glad I could be there for it.

I drove the 3 kiddos home ... it was a 45 min drive. It went pretty well, and they were asleep by the time we got back to Iowa City.

The bakery my parents ordered the anniversay cake from gave us a dozen baked goods for us to sample, Scarlett enjoyed them...

Saturday we had a Hartley Family dinner, so we were with all my cousins again. We played mario kart and visited a lot. My parent's basement flooded about 2 years ago and they have completely redone it. Dad has a very nice set up going on down there now! It's a home theater , a nice big screen with surround sound, grandma-made curtains. The carpet is as plush as carpet can be, and there are big love sacks to just plop down into and watch a movie or play the Wii. Then the other half of the basement is a kids play room. Scarlett loved that!

Scarlett and mom with GiGi Hartley and GGPa Hartley.

Sunday after church and dinner Scarlett and I drove to Waterloo to visit with GGma and Pa Oesterle. Also, Seth's parents - Grandma and grandpa Burke came down from Michigan just to see us! Scarlett loves to play with her grandparents, it was so nice to see and visit with them. We spent Monday going to the pet store and Mcdonald's for chicken nuggets. Scarlett wasn't feeling well all day and had a very hard time napping. So unfortunately she didn't play much as she usually does. But I hope it was worth it for Seth's parents to come to see us, it's quite a drive from Michigan. I tried to take a ton of pictures, which are all on my ipod, I need to figure out how to get them off.

We went back to Iowa City late Monday night. On Tuesday we tried to make the most of our last day with my parents. We went to the pet store to see the cats, dogs, rabbits, etc. I have never been to a pet store as awesome as the one in Iowa City by sycamore mall. You can hold a lot of animals, and they always have a great selection of cats and dogs. It was raining off and on, but we went with my parents to the ped mall downtown and Scarlett ran through the fountain. Iowa City has 3 or 4 random pianos placed around downtown for the public to play. I think it is pretty cool! Scarlett had a fun time plunking down on the ivories. We got some yummy gelato and headed back home for Scarlett to get a nap in.

Later that night we went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner with my parents and Brian and Gloria. On the way to the restaurant Brian told us he had proposed to Gloria!! And they are getting married!!! We are soooooo excited to have Gloria in our family, I don't barely even know her but I think she is so great. I'm excited to have another wedding in the family too! Very, very exciting.

After dinner we went and fed the ducks at City Park. Too bad it had been raining so the mini carnival/train wasn't open. But the ducks were a hit. There were a ton of them and we were just barely parking when they all flocked to us for some bread. Scarlett loved it.

Wednesday morning with grandma...

Wednesday morning hanging out at the lab before heading out for the airport.

Wednesday we headed to the airport early afternoon. Scarlett didn't have as great of a time as it was when we flew out to Iowa. But we survived. It was nice to be back with our dad/husband. we sure missed him. It was a fun mommy/daughter adventure.

APRIL!!!

April...

Seth's parents came and visited for a week! They stayed with us half of the time, and stayed with Aubrey and Davin the last half. I really enjoy spending time with Seth's parents. It was fun to have them see what life is like around the clock with our sweet Scarlett. Aubrey had planned a daily activity, so we didn't waste any time doing fun things and making memories.

They flew in on Thursday, We picked them up at the airport and met Aubrey w/ Preston at Cabella's. It was fun for the toddlers to run around and see the fish and animal exhibits.

The employee watching over the gun room was so kind to give these two a sucker. I know Scarlett loves suckers... but they are SO Sticky. And Scarlett can't keep her saliva contained in that sucker overloaded mouth - so we needed to use her jacket as a bib.

We also went to the zoo! That was a big hit. Scarlett went on the carousel for the first time, twice!

The gorilla played peek-a-book with us, we saw lots of reptiles and fun birds. The elephants ate... ate sticks. We also found out Scarlett is just about the size of an Elephant's femur. We saw giraffes and monkeys. It was a good time.

Easter! We took a lot of photos of Preston and Scarlett looking for their eggs. Preston caught on pretty quick! Scarlett... it took her a bit longer to be interested in what was going on. It was a very nice, peaceful, family Easter Sunday.

One day we went on a drive up the canyon. Seth and I enjoy driving up the canyon and finding new roads, dirt roads, to "explore". Vivian Park is a popular stop along Provo Canyon, if you continue driving up through the mountain it is a perfect road for a motorcycle ride, which worked out great for Aubrey and Davin. There was just a small hiccup in the adventure when they ran out of gas on the way. :) The kids loved the little park, and we took a little walk down another path that led to this fun bridge they could look out over the creek. Lots of "oo's" and "ahh's".

We spent an afternoon at IKEA. It was fun to test out their merchandise.

The Burke side of the family were getting together for Easter one night. We went for dinner, and it was a party! I think there were about 20 kids, they definitely outnumbered the adults. It was a good visit. Here is a picture of us all together at Seth's cousin Hillary's house in Springville.

It was overall a very fun and eventful week. We spent the nights getting frozen yogurt, visiting the duck pond, playing cards, etc. We are very grateful Grandma and Grandpa Burke could come visit us for a week!