Random mix

It seems like our lives have been a bit of a grab bag of activities lately, naturally all worth posting about.
Just kidding.
But perhaps you'll indulge me while I offer a smattering of Larson-ness from the last week or two.

A surprise trip to Hawaii
Not really. I wish. But I did give Derek a pretend Hawaiian trip for our Valentine's date (beach towel picnic in the living room, complete with Hawaiian music and decor. Teriyaki pork, rice, fresh pineapple and virgin daiquiris. For never having been to Hawaii myself, I must say it was a pretty good spread :)
Ironically, our ward also did a luau dinner around the same time. Fortunately, we own plenty of Hawaiian garb.

V-day Sunday
Lydia's cute Valentine's dress (courtesy of Grandma Grady) came with a matching dress for her doll. So cute.



Visiting Noma
I just loved this picture. Lydia emptied one of her favorite cupboards at Great-Grandma Noma's house and was thoroughly enjoying her tri-level "table."



Rockin' with Daddy
Derek played a gig at the Dixie State basketball game. Afterward, Lydia enjoyed her first basketball game. I am amazed how enthralled she was.




Entertaining family
We were so excited to have my Uncle Frank, my cousin Anthon and his wife, Melissa, and my Grandma Petty and her friend Lyn over for Sunday dinner. We don't see them often enough.



Family hike
We explored a portion of Padre Canyon Trail for President's Day with Lydia strapped to Derek's back. She did pretty well, until she got tired and cranky. Still, we had a nice time and look forward to more outings with the baby backpack.

Flannel boards and finger paints

I am having so much fun with Lydia lately. I am so incredibly grateful to be home more during the week (part time work is working out well for us). In the last couple of weeks I've used our time together to introduce a couple of new activities.

Flannel board
Did any of you have flannel board stories when you were growing up? My mom had this whole kit of stories with pictures we could put up on the flannel board and recently I acquired this kit. Sadly, most of what my mom had saved was tattered and worn, but it inspired me to make my own flannel board and add some of my own songs and stories to the mix.
Let me just say, it's been a huge success. Lydia loves it!

Here she is with pictures I made of weather elements and we sing a song about whether there will be sun, rain, snow or clouds today. One of her favorites (not pictured) is a story about turkeys with colored feathers. She's too young to sit still for the story, so she just sticks the turkeys on the board and tries to say "gobble gobble." It's hilarious!

When we're done I just slide the board under the couch and now Lydia knows where it is kept and she lays on her stomach by the couch and tries to reach it, jabbering in her special language about whatever story or song she wants.

As a side note, I have recently discovered that the fabric covering on the church pews acts as a great flannel board as well. The last 2 weeks I've taken some of her favorite flannel pieces and she sticks them on the back of the bench. It's successfully entertained her during much of Sacrament Meeting... for now.

Finger paints
I took a page out of an activity my niece did years ago at daycare and adapted it so Lydia could make her own valentines to give away this year.
First I created the base of the valentine cards.

Then I took Cool Whip and died it different shades of red and pink.

Then I brought Lydia in and let her go to town. I expected a bigger mess but she was relatively dainty with her finger painting. It was adorable, of course. Hopefully her cousins and grandparents get a kick out of the Lydia-made valentines.

Mi casa, you Picasso

First, I have to thank all of you who sent me your creative dating ideas. I used many of them for the story that is running on Friday in The Spectrum. As part of that story it was my task to test one of the ideas which we did last weekend when we added a little pizazz to an ordinary game of Pictionary by using some pudding.

Basically, you take the traditional game of Pictionary, swap out the pen for fingers and pudding and you're good to go. Some people might think this would make the game more childish but after giving it a shot, we all agreed finger painting with pudding actually made it more challenging to draw, thus making it better for adults than the traditional way.

I mixed up a box of vanilla pudding, then dyed half of it green, half of it pink so it would show up better on the paper. We hung sheets of blank newspaper on the wall in our dining room so we'd have plenty of room to stretch our artistic wings. Then, we divided into boys against girls and let the games begin.



Keeping with the alliteration I had going with the pudding Pictionary, we munched on different flavors of popcorn -- white chocolate, caramel and regular butter -- while we played. I like to think we put the "P" in party for the evening.

Sorry, the cheesiness of that line is overpowering but I can't help myself sometimes.

Thanks to the Neumanns and the Everys for being great sports and guinea pigs. In the end, it came down to a tie breaker but ultimately it was a girl's victory!

Emily Neumann, Lisa and Amber Every

Landmark birthday

This little angel is 18 months old today!
(and this is the only "smiling" photo I could get. I have no idea what her face is doing.)

In our church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, this is considered a landmark birthday. Not because of anything major in a spiritual sense, rather it is because children can attend nursery beginning at 18 months.
To any parent who has spent more time in the halls/foyer/mother's lounge than in any enlightening meetings over the last 6+ months, this is a landmark of no small proportions.
It's a wonderful day.
In the interest of full disclosure, Lydia has actually been attending nursery since mid-January because the nursery leader is a friend of Derek's family and they didn't have many children at the time. But now it's official and I thought it was worthy of a post.
So far, Lydia has been a champ about going into nursery. Today she barely looked back as Derek and I slipped out of the room. She was too busy playing with the other kids. I love that there is a one-way window on the nursery room door so I can watch her interacting and playing. It's adorable. And the peaceful serenity that comes from sitting quietly in Sunday School and Relief Society, well it's fabulous.

Also, she had her 18-month check up on Friday. Here are the stats:
Height: 33.17 inches (90 percentile!)
Weight: 26.1 pounds (76 percentile)
Head circumference: 18.2 inches (42 percentile)

Happy birthday sweet girl!
I love you!!!

Weekend "getaway" quick but long

We made a quick up and back trip to Salt Lake last weekend to see my cardiologist for the one-year follow up on my heart. (For any of you new to this blog who are dying to know what that was all about, you can refer back here.)

Somehow traveling up Sunday and back Monday with an 18-month-old makes a quick trip feel sort of long.

Lydia did pretty well in the car -- she just doesn't like to sleep very long so we had to resort to other things to keep her entertained, like me singing to her. My neck is still sore from craning around in my seat to do the gestures to "Popcorn Popping" (one of the more popular tunes this trip) and "Itsy Bitsy Spider." Whenever I finished the song she'd put her little fingers together doing sign language for "more." It was adorable and hey, when your fans demand an encore, you must provide!
We got a little creative later on when I grew tired of Old McDonald's farm animal noises so I decided it was time Old McDonald went on a jungle safari. Derek helped out with his ever-popular zebra sound effect and Lydia is always a fan of lions and monkeys so it worked out well.

But I digress. The trip's main purpose (my doctor's appointment) went great. I was given a clean bill of health and this time the exam did not require an IV. Both of which are always nice to hear.
In addition to seeing the doctor, we were able to visit my cousin, Bryan, and his wife, Lauren, and their cute new baby, Andrew. We also made time for a trip to IKEA and a little time at the mall. Sadly, it was mostly a window shopping venture.
Overall, a pretty good trip.

We stopped in Cedar Saturday night on our way north to see the grandparents. My Grandma Grady gave Lydia this cute toy dog (it barks and walks) in the hopes of satisfying her love of the "gah" (her word for my parent's dog). Sadly, nothing is as good as the real thing and even more pathetic is how disinterested my parent's dog is in Lydia. Still, the new toy proved to be an excellent distraction in the car.

Derek was waiting with the camera when I emerged from the cardiologist's office with my clean bill of health. I think he was pretty excited :)

Lydia and Derek found ways to entertain themselves at the motel while I was at the appointment.

Lunch at IKEA

Taking a break from "shopping" at IKEA to test out the kid's tables.

At the mall Lydia had her first taste of those kiddie rides -- you know the ones that you put in 50 cents while the toy jostles around a bit? Well, at her age, she doesn't even need the jostling. She loved this little bus even though it was at a stand-still.

My little Monet

Lydia completed her first painting project at Miss Gay's house the other day. Naturally Derek and I think she's a regular {insert famous abstract artist name here}.

It's just fun to see how much she is growing and the new things she gets to try.
With things like this, though, I wish I had seen her doing it myself. Would it be too much to ask for her pre-preschool teacher to photograph her every move? Maybe.

At least we have the finished product, which of course earned prime real estate on the fridge.


When she's not at school, we've been having all kinds of fun here at home. We took full advantage of last week's warmer temperatures by making several trips to the park.

Hidden Valley Park

Tonaquint Park

Cottonwood Cove

She's also enjoyed playing in a box. Seriously, it's amazing how long this entertained her.



And toting her Winnie the Pooh backpack around (thanks Grandma Petty!)