LIfe with a Little One

So I have found that sometimes it is challening to come up with activities to entertain a little 14 month old but I actually have realized that there are many ways Savanna and I can enjoy our time together. I thought I would share some of the things I have come up with and see if any of you could add activities to my list. Savanna and I are always looking for fun things to do together. Anyway, here is the list I have so far.

Out of the House Activities
1. Kindermusik class (please see a previous post dated a few weeks ago entitled "Kindermusik for more info).
2. Jump on It (They have Mommy and Me time every Wednesday from 10:00-11:00 a.m. for just $3 and then each additional child is $2. It is a fun place!)
3. Story time at the library
4. Play groups with friends and rotating houses
5. Playground at the mall
6. Children's museum
7. Zoo
8. Feeding the ducks at the pond
9. Going for a walk or jog (if you have a jogging stroller)
10. Playing at the park
11. Throwing a ball around outside
12. Water parks (check out seven peaks season passes!)
13. Disney Land/World! (obviously something you can't do on a regular basis but one that is a good trip. We had so much fun when we took Savanna to Disney Land.)

At home activities
1. Reading books
2. Working on her flashcards (We have purchased and made some flash cards to teach Savanna various things such as animals, instruments,etc. We are following a program by Glenn Doman. Let me know if you want more info.)
3. Playing with toys
4. Dancing to music
5. Playing the piano
6. Playing Savanna's musical instruments

Anyway, I have also come up with a list of certain activites that are more challenging with a baby.

1. Temple Open Houses: We decided to go the Draper Temple Open House last night and it was a bit of a challenge for Savanna-maybe it was because she was tired. She couldn't understand that she had to stay on the plastic but wanted to run wild. She also wanted to get a drink out of every drinking fountain that we passed even though we explained to her that they were not working. And there was no where to go when she was crying and it felt weird to have her crying in the temple
2. Church-I do love taking Savanna to church because it is so fun to dress her up but it definetely can be a bit of a challenge. I swear Savanna is more hyper at church than anywhere else-I am not sure why. Maybe it is because we make her stay in the area of the pew through sacrament meeting. It is definetely more difficult to concentrate on the instructors and we spend a lot of Sunday School and Relief Society and Priesthodd running after her. A few weeks ago Savanna was wandering around searching through a couple moms' diaper bags looking for snacks. You'd think I didn't feed the child (but those of you that have seen her recently definetely know that is not true!) Then a couple weeks ago she spilled her Cheerioes everywhere in front of the Sunday Schoo class. It was embarassing and distracting. Nonetheless, Savanna seems to have fun at church some days. We hope she enjoys nursery in a few months-we shall see.
3. Movies-we have never tried because Savanna doesn't watch tv and we don't want to pay for a movie to stay out in the hall the whole time.
4. Concerts-Never tried this either and don't plan on it until Savanna is a lot older
5. Seminars or speakers-any type of event where Savanna has to sit still for awhile and we are supposed to sit and listen becomes a challenge (guess this falls under a similar category with church)

Anyway, but despite its challenges, parenting is a wonderful thing. I love being a mother to Savanna! I treasure the days that I am able to spend with her. She is my little friend who follows me around right now but I know that it won't always be this way so I am loving every minute of it while it lasts! I know that I will be one of those moms bawling her eyes out when I send her off to kindergarten!

Estrogen Fest!

So this weekend totally turned into a girls weekend though it wasn't really intended to pack it into one weekend but it ended up being a lot of fun! I haven't been able to spend much time with TC this weekend though because of all the activities and then he ended up working a lot of overtime because they got backed up this week-he is working right now. It is good for the extra money especially since he hardly ever works overtime but a bummer to not be able to hang out. Anyway,here is a synposis of my girls weekend. I love all my girl friends and am so grateful for their friendship! First off, Friday night I met up with my good friends, Cassie and Joyce, from grad school for dinner and afterwards Joyce and I went to the movies. On the way up to meet them, I got rear ended on the freeway. That was an unexpected detour! Anyway, I got to some traffic and had completely stopped and so had the guy in the car behind me but then he thought he saw the car in the lane next to him almost hit him and got freaked out. He let go of the brake and hit me. He wasn't going very fast so we both were ok though my neck was a little bit sore that night but feels practically fine today. (Thank goodness Savanna was not in the car with me). Anyway, the craziest thing was that while we were pulled on the side of the interstate we saw another car get totally smashed and the cops came and everything. Their wreck looked a lot worse than ours! So anyway, I just ended up meeting my friends about 20 minutes late and we were still able to enjoy our time together after I settled down. So I totally took a picture of us at the restaurant but realized when I got home that my memory card wasn't in. So no picture of that-sorry. Anyway, this morning continued with the estrogen boost as we discussed birth, breast feeding, etc at my house during a baby shower my friend Naomi and I threw for our friend, Ashley. We had a great time and hope Ashley did too. We love you Ashley and are so excited to meet your baby girl in May. I actually did get some pictures of this event. (Well mostly not taken by me but another shower guest-Lori who also is having a girl in July-Yeah for girls!!)

Some of the guests chatting

One of the cute moms, Ashley E., doing a swaddling demonstration with Savanna's Laugh and Learn Puppy as the dummy (Sorry I know all the Ashleys can get a bit confusing-it is not our fault that our parents chose the most popular name in the 80s for us. The truth is that the name is quite pretty if I didn't feel like every other person had it. Anyway, I hope Savanna's name isn't the new "Ashley" during this era. Sorry that was a bit of the a tangent-back to the shower).

The guest of honor-Ashley L. opening up presents

Doesn't she looks great? You could be a pregnant model Ashley just like Aubrey said!(Hope that doesn't embarass you!)

Then in the afternoon I ended up going to see another chick flick with some friends-"Confessions of a Shopaholic." Very cute-I highly recommend it! Though it kind of stressed me out because she got herself in such a big mess (though what doesn't stress me out?)

Then later on that night Savanna and I went and visited Naomi since her husband, Devin, is out of town and TC is at work. We always have a great time visiting. Anyway, hope everyone had a great weekend as well! If you have not a girls night out for awhile I would highly recommend it. It is very refreshing and reengerizes you to be the kind of woman you want to be whatever your role in life is right now. We as women need each other right?

Valentine's Day

So I was thinking that I should post about our Valentine's Day. Though I was lame and didn't take any pictures. So this post may be Boring, so I won't be offended if you don't read it! This is like an online journal so these posts for me to keep updated as well. So Friday night, TC and I were able to go out on a date together while my friend, Lori, was nice enought to watch Savanna. We went to the movies, used our gift card at Chili's, and ate at Red Mango. (Red Mango is very yummy!). Saturday TC surprised me with a new wallet and I got him a couple books. Saturday night we went to our stake Valentine's Day Dance. We had a lot of fun learning the waltz and the cha cha. Savanna hung out for the nursery for awhile before we heard a page from the dj "Would Savanna Perry's parents please report to the nursery?" We went to the nursery and she seemed ok but aparently she had been crying for a half an hour. We left her for a few minutes and then we checked on her again and she saw me walk in and ran towards me crying. Poor little thing-we hope nursery goes well in 4 months. She is usually fine with babysitters, but she was sad that night. We took her out to dance for awhile and she cheered up some! Anyway, we had a fun weekend. Hope you had a great Valentine's Day as well!

Tag of 25 things about me

Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.

1. I secrely love doing these tag things and am flattered when someone chooses me for a tag. ( I guess it is not a secret now!)
2. I am a bit of a hypochondriac.
3. I have an extreme phobia of iguanas.
4. I hate flying.
5. When I get nervous or really hot, my hands sweat.(It seems to be where 90% of my sweat comes from even when I work out my hands sweat before my face-weird I know.)
6. I am a bit obsessed with American Idol.
7. I am also obsessed with the color orange.
8. I get in a bad mood if I feel like I haven't been productive enough or did not accomplish as much as I should have in a day.
9.I love the t.v. show "The Office."
10. I am adopted.
11. I do not like being alone for very long. I start going crazy and crave social interaction. Even after Savanna has napped for awhile I am ready for her to wake up so I can talk to her.
12. I am very attached to my pillow.
13. I have a very guility conscience and often worry incessantly when I think I may have hurt someone's feelings. (This probably isn't a surprise to most of you reading this!)
14. I love country music.
15. One of Savanna's and I's favorite activities is to dance around the house.
16. I used to have a problem with cursing but am doing much better now. (I know I am a sinner!)
17. I love bowling.
18. I am left handed.
19. I sadly must confess that I am a "Twlight" fan.
20. I love going out to eat.
21. One of the most important things to me in my life is to be a good wife and mother.
22. I am really bad at keeping my own secrets. ( I tell myself I am not going to tell people something about me and I often do anyway).
23. I love anything to do with human behavoir, social work, or psychology. (my ares of study). If you get me on any of these subjects, I will talk to you about it until you tell me that you need to go home!
24. I love the months:October-December. I love the holidays and everything about it!! I get extremely giddy on October 1st.
25. I am not a competitive person until I feel someone is competing with me first and then that streak comes out.
I tag Kristin and anyone else who reads this!

Savanna Update

I also felt like writing about Savanna and everything she has been up to lately. She is now 13.5 months old. Time is just flying by!! She is our little sweetheart and gets cuter and cuter everyday! Some new adorable things that she has been doing lately include the following: 1. giving us a cheesy, squinty smile when she is being silly 2. laughing when other people are laughing like she is in on the joke 3. folding her little hands under her chin when it is time for prayer (She will even anticipate a prayer before we say it. For example, after the sacrament hymn on Sunday she folded her hands under her chin, and then we went out to eat with some friends on Friday and when we got our food she did the same thing. She also will fold her hands underneath her chin after her story and song at night because she knows we will be saying a prayer! It is so cute!) 4. Saying uh oh about 40 times a day whenever she drops anything 5. A couple of times this month when she has fallen she will say, "Baby, baby!" Apparently I have said this when she has fallen before-lol.

Savanna is on her way to having 5 teeth and is practically running around the house now. Oh one more cute story. The other night we were at our group Family Home Evening activity and TC and I were talking in the kitchen. I looked around for Savanna because I saw her wander and here she was walking to me carrying both of my shoes! She found my shoes out of all the other shoes that were at the front door and brought them to me to let me know she was ready to go. Then she walked and got her hat. It was really cute.

We love our sweet little, Savanna and love being able to watch her grow every day. Here are some recent pics. Enjoy!

Here is Savanna playing at the mall! She has a blast.

Savanna especially loves walking outside recently. We will let her walk around before going to get the mail.

Welcome Carlie!

So as some of you may know several of my friends are pregnant right now. (No and I am not included on this list!) Anyway, the first baby of 2009 out of this group was born today! One of my best friends, Candace, had her baby girl, Carlie this afternoon in Texas. She was born at 2:02 p.m., weighing in at 6 lbs 11 oz and is 18.5 inches long. She and Candace are doing well. She has a proud older brother, Garrett, who is almost 3, and her proud father, Nathan. Congratulations to the whole family! TC, Savanna, and I are so happy for you all and are so excited to meet Carlie! We are so grateful for your friendship! Isn't she a little cutie? ( I figured it was ok to post this post labor pic, Candace, since it is on your blog as well!)

Good Luck James!

We just had a great week long visit with TC's brother, James. He is leaving for his mission on February 17th to South Africa. We wish him the best of luck. We had a lot of fun playing games and hanging out. We went to the temple, bowling, out to eat, and James treated TC to a full day of skiing. Enjoy the pictures!

Savanna and Uncle James (Not the best picture, she is attempting to get down and walk as usual!)

Eating out at Chipotle:Savanna, me, James, and April

Aunt April and Savanna hanging out and eating Cheerios

Uncle George and Savanna reading a book

Savanna attempting to help Uncle James with his laundry

This was the first time we actually let Savanna bowl (well push the ball off the ramp). She had such a fun time and clapped almost every time she let the ball go. She also clapped for us on multiple occasion after we bowled. It was so adorable!

The night before James left, just hanging out and taking pictures

Just a cute picture of Savanna we took yesterday. We have put all of her stuffed animals in one corner of the living room and she likes to go and visit with her friends often!