Rainy Days

The past few days it has rained non-stop. And since it's not a cold rain, I have let the girls play in it. And now all their shoes stink as they are drying, but they have had so much fun. (And they are both love to make silly faces when I pull out the camera, can you tell? In fact tonight they were playing with a toy camera and seeing you could make the silliest faces.)

My sweet, silly Sami.

And Janie just loves the umbrellas. She loves umbrellas when it's not raining, so when it is actually raining, she can barely contain the joy.  

Babies just develop so quickly during the first year. It's amazing how they go from doing nothing but crying and sleeping to having such personality and doing "big people" things. My favorite thing Lucy is doing is feeding herself. I still spoon feed her the cereal and pureed veggies and fruit, but I can put her in her chair with some soft food while I get dinner ready, and she is happy until I have time to feed her. We both love this.

And she has learned how to pull herself up. She loves doing this, although it makes her nervous because she feels stuck not knowing for sure how to get down from things. 

Mostly I love what a happy baby she has become. 

Books I Have Really Liked Lately...

I know I've written before about how much I love to read when the kids are in bed. For me, it is very relaxing because the house is quiet and I can just sit in my pjs and enjoy a story. And because I read for fun and to de-stress, all the books I like are pretty light reads. I don't really want to read about world problems or wars, or anything else depressing, I just want a good, clean, fun story. And so I read a lot of books. Here are a few that I have read these past few months that are really good:

Drops of Gold by Sarah M. Eden

I love this author! But this is one of my favorite by her. If you like Edenbrooke (which of course you do, because everyone likes that book), I think you will like this book. This is a regency book that I had a hard time putting down. I really loved this one. 

A Change of Fortune by Jen Turano

This is a debut novel by a new author. This is a Christian, Regency novel. I was surprised at how charming I found the characters in this book. Definitely a fun read! 

 The Tutor's Daughter by Julie Klassen

This is another Regency book. (I just realized that all of these books are in the Regency era-it's a popular genre right now.) This is also a Christian author, and there is "born again" moment at the end. I like this author and I thought this was one of her better ones. I like reading Christian authors because they are usually so clean. You can actually buy this one at Deseret Book too. 

The Continuous Atonement by Brad Wilcox

Along with reading my scriptures, I like to read a book that helps me understand doctrine better. I find that this enhances my scripture study. This book was a book that I had heard a lot about and for good reason. It really changes the way I view the Atonement. I will probably read this one often. The message is so hopeful.  

So if you come by after 8 pm, you know what I will probably be doing. :)

January

I don't know what it is about these past few weeks, but I have been so tired.

Maybe the excitement of December has caught up with me. 

But after the kids are in bed, I do what I have to do and then pretty much crash. I am blaming the cold front that moved in here.

And our tv died today. That made me really sad!! Not that we have the tv on all the time. In fact, the tv dries me crazy when it has been on for a while. But the tv serves a great purpose, like letting me take a shower, read my scriptures, and make dinner. So we are going tv shopping soon! 

But the big changes have been around Lucy. She can sit up on her own and does so all the time, and she is a very fast crawler. She does the army crawl, where she drags her legs, but man, can she move! 

She loves being mobile too. The swing and excer-saucer are going down soon, because she doesn't like them anymore. Her favorite place to be is wherever her sisters are. 

Best. Day. Ever.

We did some super fun things in December. Sami and Janie had birthdays, we went to the "North Pole," we had Lucy's court date,my parents came twice, and Jonathan matched in a fellowship.

But nothing compares to last Saturday, when we were all in the temple together. We were sealed to Lucy, and it was so beautiful! I LOVED having all my children there. We were blessed to be surrounded by family and friends, and we felt the Lord's goodness and grace. It was truly beautiful. 

The girls gave each other this kiss on the temple grounds.

We did have some stress before the sealing. About an hour before we left for the temple, we pulled out Lucy's final adoption hearing paperwork because we had to show it at the temple so they knew that Lucy is actually ours. When Jonathan pulled it out, we realized half of it was wrong! Our lawyer mixed our case with another case. We were stressing big time. I took all our adoption paperwork and hoped for the best. We had a really sweet lady helping us at the temple and she could use the final paperwork requesting the adoption. Whew! So we learned, just because the lawyer and judge signed it, it may not be right, and we need to read the paperwork. Duh, right? The day of Lucy's hearing was so busy, we just filed the paperwork without reading it. But it's all good now. Our lawyer fixed everything, and apologized. :) So all's well that ends well. 

On the Sunday following the sealing, Lucy was blessed by Jonathan in sacrament meeting. My parents got some of the most beautiful pictures with Lucy. And we got none. After these pictures, Lucy put her bracelet in her mouth and I took it away, and she started crying. Then she calmed down and Janie started crying because Jonathan put her sock monkey on the ground. So no great pictures with us, but I adore these ones with my parents. 

And I love this picture. I took it last week and it shows how we all feel about Lucy. 

Janie thanks me all the time "buying her a baby." She gave me her baby doll tonight and said she brought it home from the airport for me. I will tell her again how babies come, and that most people don't bring babies home from the airport. But it doesn't change how much we love each other. We are sealed together now, and that's the most important thing. How grateful we are for the temple!