Zoo Trip

Last week, Ross was off work for spring break. Even though we didn't go away on vacation, we did manage to do some fun things while he was home. One fun thing was our trip to the zoo! This was Leah's first trip to the zoo and I think she had a good time. Here is Leah and her daddy checking out the elephant exhibit... This is the zoo's baby elephant, Zuri. She was having a grand time taking a mud bath while we were there...

My mom, Lyndsee, Jason and Makynlee (Baby J) joined us for our trip to the zoo. The girls really liked the animals that were big enough and moving around enough for them to see. The monkeys were a particular favorite. Makynlee also really liked the sand cat that ran all over its cage the whole time she was watching it. But if animals just sat there, they weren't interested.

This giraffe was going to town just licking this pole. My mom couldn't stand watching it. Its big slimy tongue was grossing her out, but I thought it was funny to watch.

Here's our little animal having fun at the zoo...I thought she would fall asleep in her stroller, but she stayed awake the whole time we were there.

The tigers weren't all that exciting...

Isn't she a cutie!?!

We had a good time with this turkey. Jason was making gobbling noises while we were watching him and whenever he did this turkey would puff up his feathers and make himself look really big. I told Jason the turkey thought Jason was hitting on his girlfriend (who was also by us at the fence). What an ugly creature...no wonder I don't like to eat them!

Look! Leah is as big as an infant gorilla! Her arms just aren't as long.

Here's a picture of my mom to prove that she was there with us...She enjoyed being there with the little girls and seeing all their reactions to the animals. At the end of our trip, we took the girls on the carousel. My mom wasn't really excited about getting dizzy on the ride so she stayed off and took pictures. Here's Lyndsee and Jason on the animals in front of us. (Jason has Makynlee on his lap.)

I didn't think I could get on with Leah, so I just stood beside her. I probably could have, but it was fun to be able to see her face as she was riding. She was really antsy waiting for the ride to start. She didn't want to sit on the polar bear and kept wanting me to hold her. I was afraid she wouldn't like it. But once the ride started and she started going up and down, she smiled so big and loved it! Then we put the girls on together for a photo afterward.
We had a great time at the zoo! I'm so glad that we decided to go and that my mom and Lyndsee's family were able to come too. I'm also glad that the weather was so pleasant that day! It was the one really good weather day during Ross's spring break.

5K Run for Cheryl Edvalson

http://love4cheryl.com/

Cheryl Edvalson is a long-time family friend who recently was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. Her family put together a charity run to help supplement the expensive health care bills. (It is so sad that such life-saving/prolonging measures have to cost so much.)

So naturally, my family did what we could to help out. From what I heard, there were about 350 runners signed up to run/walk the race. There was a great turn out despite the weather. That morning was SOOO cold. There had been a lot of rain in the days before and even later that day, but that morning was dry. However the wind was biting cold. So me and my sisters and these two cuties spent as much time as possible inside a little building by the high school track where the race was held.Here's Ross running toward the finish line. Since it was more for fun than competitive, Ross took it pretty easy with his run. But he still ended up coming in 4th overall. My parents started out volunteering at the check-in station handing out t-shirts and wrist bands. Then after the race started, they walked the route with my brother, his wife and kids. We were a little worried about how they would do since they didn't do much training for race, but they made it back without any problems, but they were definitely sore and tired later that day.Here's my brother nearing the end of the race.This is where my sisters and I hung out. After my parents left, we took over for them in the check-in station. It was definitely much warmer in here.This is how my brother walked most of the route. When my sister-in-law decided to run ahead, Kaylynn didn't like seeing her mommy running away and Marcus ended up carrying her most of the way to keep her happy. What a nice daddy!Here's a couple more pictures of the cute babies we were trying to keep warm. What a ham! Leah had a much harder time trying to stay happy in the cold. I think she's a little more like her parents and doesn't handle the cold very well. When we left she was really fussy. I thought it was because she was tired or didn't feel well. But when we got back to the warm house, she was all smiles and happy again

This is such a sad thing for the Edvalson/Peterson families to go through. Cheryl seems to be taking it all in stride and is a great example of "enduring it well." I'm glad we could be there this day to help her family feel our love and support.

10 Months

Look at our baby girl! She's 10 months old now. How did that happen?

Here's what she's up to lately...

Her hair is getting longer. This is what it does after some of her naps... She crawls all over the house getting into everything! Her favorite things are climbing stairs, opening doors, and spreading papers all over the floor. She also tries to stand up to EVERYTHING! She can stand on her own for a few seconds (longer if she doesn't realize she's doing it - like in this picture). She walks along the furniture and will walk if someone is holding her hand. She can take a few steps by herself, but that's it so far. It won't be long before she figures it out though. The down side to this is that she gets hurt and needs comforting about once a day. Last week her bottom 2 teeth cut through. So she's a bit cranky sometimes. But usually she is more like this... Everyone loves this cheesy smile with the wrinkly nose! And how can you resist these big blue eyes and round cheeks!

Leah loves to eat, especially things she can grab and eat herself with her fingers, and so far eats just about everything we give her. But by far her FAVORITE thing to eat is cheese!

She likes to clap her hands and raise them up in the air. She's still a momma'a girl, but loves her daddy more and more each day. She smiles really big when he gets home and sometimes even crawls over to get him.

Here she is on one of her adventures at Ross's aunt and uncle's house. She climbed over the rails under this bench to get back behind it and play. She was pretty proud of herself.

Since she's started eating more things on her own, feeding time has gotten a lot messier. Here is a video I took one night after she had been eating pancakes and bananas. She had it all over in her hair! What a mess! But she was having a great time...

It's hard to believe that this little one will be 1 year old in a couple months. She's definitely not the little baby we brought home from the hospital, but she is so much fun these days. I know I always say it, but it is so true...we LOVE this little girl!

Some Cousin Time

This past week Leah got to see several of her cousins. On Monday we went to a birthday party for my nephew, Caleb who turned 5! (or as he used it so cutely say it "fibe") My brother and his wife recently bought a house. Caleb was so excited to have his birthday party at his new house. Here he is swinging at his pinata. I got pictures of a few others taking their turn at the pinata too. Here's sweet little Megan.Aunt MoMo helped Leah bang on it.

Little Makynlee (or Baby J as I call her) got a turn too.

Not everyone got a chance though because this little powerhouse wasted no time breaking the pinata. Good job, Caden!

Here's the free for all! There was so much candy and toys! What a fun birthday party.

On Friday, Ross's mom came over to watch Leah while Ross and I went to the temple. And she brought these two little cuties with her...

These are Leah's cousins, Alex and Isaac. They were so excited to come with Grandma to watch "Baby Leah" (they never call her just Leah). They LOVE Baby Leah! And from what we heard, they all had a great time together. It was so nice for Ross and I to have some time together and it was even better to find out things went well while we were gone! Thank you Alex, Isaac and Mom for taking such good care of Leah!

Little Miss Busy-Body

Now that Leah has learned to pull herself up to things and how to go from crawling to sitting, she has been on the go!

This is now a common site at our house. Our front room gets pulled apart a couple of times a day. She likes to pull everything out of the diaper bag and throw it about. She even empties the bag of spare clothes I keep in the diaper bag. And she likes to pull out the magazines from the entertainment center. It is so funny to watch her be so deliberate about throwing things to one side of her only to pick it up and throw it to the other side of her. She'll do this over and over again. Silly kid!

Her pediatrician labeled this age as the "Indiana Jones Stage" because they are always exploring and on an adventure. This definitely fits Leah lately. She is exploring all over the house and tries to pull herself up to anything she can (although she still hasn't really learned how to get back down though). I definitely have to keep a closer eye on her these days, but I love seeing her learn all these new things. She's such a cute little miss busy-body!

February & 9 Months

When people have asked me lately what our family is up to, my initial thought is "Not much. February has been a pretty boring month." But now that I've thought about it more, February has actually been pretty full for the Leslies.

We've been to a few birthday parties. One for this little cutie (my niece, Megan) who turned 2.One for this little cutie (my niece, Kaylynn) who turned 1. We also went to a party for another cutie whom we forgot to get a picture of, Ross's nephew William who turned 9.

Around the middle of the month, our family got sick. We all had a cold of varying degrees. Leah probably had it the worst. She had a yucky nose that would run a lot and when she sneezed, big gobs of snot would shoot out her little nose. Gross! And she would cough a lot. Sometimes so much that she would throw up. This was her first time being so sick and we felt so bad because there wasn't really anything we could do for her. This definitely was NOT the highlight of our month.

On Valentine's Day, we had Ross's mom over for dinner and Family Home Evening. For dinner, Ross had asked for meatballs with mashed potatoes and gravy. I had never made meatballs before. They turned out more like meat lumps, but they tasted great. I think I figured out what I did wrong though, so I'll have to try again and see if I can get them to stay round.

It was so nice to have her come for the evening. Leah had a great time playing with her Grandma Leslie!February has been full of milestones for Leah. On Friday she turned 9 months old. At her doctor visit yesterday she weighed in at 15 lbs. 13 oz. and was 27 inches tall. Still on the petite side, but that's not surprising.

As I already posted, she started crawling. She crawls all over and if getting pretty fast at it. When I put her down to play, it isn't long before she starts following me or comes to find me. She also thinks it's funny when she crawls away from me when I'm trying to change her diaper or clothes. And she likes when I crawl after her pretending to chase her.

Now she has started pulling herself up to things. This is one of her favorite places to crawl to. Usually she just makes her way back and forth along the step, so I wasn't too worried. But yesterday she figured out how to climb up on the step to reach some papers I had higher up. So I won't be letting her play by the stairs much until we can get a gate to keep her from tumbling back down them. She already likes to hold our hands so we can help her walk around. She can also stand on her own for a few seconds if I help her get her balance. She'll probably be walking within the next month or two.

Leah likes books and magazines. She can turn the pages in her board books. And she likes to pull out the church magazines we have stacked in the entertainment center. But the scriptures are still her favorite thing to try and grab. She has started eating foods with her fingers. She has pretty good dexterity and hand-eye coordination already.She is so full of energy and seems to have a harder time sitting still. I'm not sure what she's so excited about here, but she may have learned this from watching Jimmer play. We have been to a couple BYU basketball games lately, but mostly we've been watching them on TV. Last Friday she went to her first BYU volleyball game. I was hoping that she would pay close attention and learn early how the game is played. I don't know how much she actually learned, but I was WAY excited to finally be at a volleyball game. She's getting to the stage where she is becoming the entertainment at church. People around us want to talk to her, play with her and hold her. People come up to us all the time to tell us how cute they think she is. I had a sister come up to me on Sunday and say, "You're not allowed to bring your baby to church anymore. She's so cute. All I want to do is watch her play instead of paying attention."A few other highlights in February included being able to go to the Mt. Timpanogos Temple when my cousin, Carter, and his wife, Jaime, received their endowments and were sealed to their cute little girl. It was such a special experience to be there with my aunt and uncle and all their children and their spouses. I'm so excited for them and all the great things they've done lately.

Ross had President's Day off, so on that day we went to play a round of miniature golf and to a Utah Flash basketball game.

As usual Young Women's has kept me busy this month. I was able to play basketball with them a on a few Thursday nights. Mostly they are just learning how to play the game, but it is so fun to play with them. They make me laugh!

Of course Elders Quorum has kept Ross busy. He had to teach on fast Sunday (something that always makes him anxious). Otherwise he has spent a lot of time attending meetings, taking care of home teaching and visiting the elders in the ward.

We got some exciting news in February. If you follow our blog much, you might recognize this cutie as my best friend Lesley's little girl, Hannah. Lesley sent me this picture of her to announce that they are expecting another little one at the end of August! Congrats Lesley and Brian! A couple more things about our little Leah...she's becoming quite the chatter box. She makes all kinds of jabbering noises including mama and dada. And if you stick your hand out, she'll slap it like she's giving five.

She has also started dancing already. She loves to do this cute little head bob thing. It is so funny. Here's a little video of her doing it...

Overall February has been a good month. But I think this little video sums up our family's feelings about it being over and spring getting closer...