Every single day, I ask myself where my baby went. Honestly, my baby is a total toddler on her way to preschooler before I know it. She can communicate so well, and her vocabulary is increasing exponentially every day. She pulled out the word  'snake' today, and I don't ever remember teaching her snake. Her memory is incredible. She remembers EVERYTHING and talks about it for hours, days, weeks, or even months after the fact. Little things like when I bumped my head a month ago, she still talks about it. She's so funny. Her new thing is to tease us. She was holding one of her hair bows and I asked her what color it was. She said 'blue', and yes it was blue. I said my 'good job'. Then she held it up with a smile on her face and said 'purple'. And I said, "What? That's not purple!" And she just started giggling. So, I asked her again, "What color is it?" and with that same smile and look in her eye, she said "purple!" So, I laughed with her and told her she was teasing me. So, every now and then, she tells me something that is different than it is, giggles and says 'tease'. She kills me. Enjoy these few pictures from the last couple of days. Baby Girl loves to have her picture taken. When she's doing something that she thinks is cute, she points to the camera, gives a cheesy smile, and says 'picture' (which sounds a lot like pickle). All of these pictures were taken at her request.

I honestly feel like summer is finally here. We have temperatures in the high 90s this week. Wow, it's hot! We are trying to enjoy the warm weather while it is here. We've been doing a lot of yard work. I threw a Bridal Shower for one of my friends a couple of weeks ago, and we had it in our back yard. Which means: we needed to get the back yard cleaned up for the shower. We still have a lot of work to do, but it looks about 200% better than it did when we moved in. And our little garden is growing (minus the corn: the birds keep eating it). We're also grilling a lot more - which I love! That means Morgan does more of the cooking, and I get a little bit of a break! We tried grilling pizza - and we had great success. It cooks a lot faster than in the oven, and it doesn't heat up the house! 

We are starting to go biking. Well, Morgan works with the Young Men and Scouting, and for mutual they have been doing a lot of biking. They get to go on a High Adventure outing for a few days, and they have to go 50+ miles on their bikes. It's absolutely crazy. So, we got Morgan a better mountain bike for Father's Day. And we found a bike trailer to haul Baby Girl in. These things are expensive, and hard to find used. Luckily, we found a good deal on a used one and snatched it up before anyone else could. My favorite thing about this is that it can convert into a jogging stroller. Now, all I have to do, is pick up jogging! So, now we can go on family bike rides. There is a trail right by our house that is perfect for walking and biking. Maybe that will help us get in a little bit better shape.

We are loving being outside - in the shade when it's too hot. Yesterday, I gave BG a popsicle. She loves these. When we are inside, I usually hold them and give her bites. But we went outside, so I let her hold her own. I stripped off all her clothes, so I wouldn't have to worry about stains. BG says "nakey" when we take her clothes off. It's really cute. After she was done with her popsicle, I asked her if she wanted me to put clothes back on her, and she said "no, nakey". Alright then. Then we decided to blow up the kiddy pool and let BG play in the water. Brrrr, it was cold at first, but BG got used to it. She loved splashing in the water. She wouldn't sit down in the water though. I might be pretty mean, but I told her to go put her hair in the water. So, as any obedient child would do, she bent over upside down, and put the top of her head in the freezing water. She let out a huge gasp and popped her head up as fast as she could. Then cold water ran down her face and back. She did a little whiny cry, then started giggling and did it again! It was pretty entertaining.

Baby Girl and I had quite the adventure yesterday. We attend a weekly Play Group with other moms and kids in our ward. BG still hasn't figured out that she can play with the other kids. Oh well. Yesterday, our Play Group went to a local exhibit that had farm animals. They had goats, chickens, turkeys, cows, horses, pigs, and ducks. Baby Girl LOVED it, but she didn't like to get too close to the animals. But she enjoyed looking at all the animals. I think she had two favorites: the pigs and the ducks. The pigs were boring and just taking a nap in the shade, but she liked looking at them! Then they had a duck pond with lots of ducks and geese. We could hear the geese "honking", so BG tried to copy them. It was cute.

After we saw all the animals, we took the kids on a pony ride. Yes, that's right. What little kid would not want to go on a pony ride? My child would NOT. She was scared to death. I had to pry her out of my arms, just to get her to sit on the pony. Then she would cry and say "all done". I told her, "one more, then we can be all done." So, we made a little loop around the carousal a total of three times, before she just jumped off her pony into my arms. You can see from the picture the death grip she has on my arm. She never let go of me. It was probably a pretty traumatic experience. Afterwards, we had a picnic in the shade, and she forgot all about it. What a fun day with friends!

It kills me how fast Baby Girl is growing up. I have mini panic attacks when she throws a massive tantrum and I realize that she's entering her 'terrible two' phase (even though she still has 3 months until she's 2). On the other hand, it is so much fun watching her grow into a little girl. Her vocabulary is HUGE. She repeats EVERYTHING I say. Yesterday, in the car, I yelled "green arrow" to the car in front of me - who didn't realize that the light had just turned green. Sure enough, BG yelled 'green arrow' just like me. Luckily, it wasn't anything profane.

Yesterday, we were hanging out on the couch. Baby Girl wanted to play her 'small' guitar. It's actually a ukulele, but she just calls it 'small'. Then she points to Morgan's guitar and says 'big'. She was sitting there, strumming the strings and singing her songs. It was so cute. It looks like she's actually playing chords. What a smart girl.

Yes, our child has 2 binkies in her mouth in this picture. I thought I boxed up all of her binkies months ago. She never really took a binky when she was a baby. Evidently, there were 2 binkies left in the bottom of her toy basket that she found the other day. Sometimes, she's not a genius baby - because you don't really need to have 2 binkies in your mouth at the same time. It made for a cute picture, anyway. Baby Girl has learned the number 2. Well, sort of. She can recognize the number 2, and say 'two', and she tries to hold up two fingers (but she actually holds up eight fingers). But whenever there is more than one of anything - she says there are two of them. Sometimes she's right, and there are only two. Sometimes, there are seventeen, but she says 'two!'. We're working on it!

She's getting pretty good with opposites too. I'm pretty impressed with the opposite words that she knows. Her new favorite word seems to be 'NO'. (yes, we've entered that phase). Whenever we tell her 'no', she always finds something that she can say 'yes' to. For example, she always tries to open our cupboard in our kitchen with cleaners and chemicals. We always say No, No, No. Then she points to the other cupboard and says "yes". She also knows 'on' and 'off'. She's great about using them especially with her shoes. She knows 'hot' and 'cold'. She also loves to say 'hello' and 'bye' - especially when she's talking on her phones. About a month ago, she learned 'huge'. So everything was either 'huge' or 'small'. Since then, we've taught her 'big'. So, now when she sees things, they are either 'big', 'huge', or 'small'. She eats her eggs for breakfast according to size. As she eats them, she has to tell me whether it is 'small', 'big' or 'huge'. She also can say 'open' and 'up', but she hasn't learned the opposite words for them yet. She's such a cutie!

Last weekend a good friend of mine was married in Salt Lake City and we were fortunate enough to be invited. Mike is from Wisconsin living in Texas just recently returning from Iraq; his lovely bride, Nadia, is from Peru and graduated from BYU. The evening before the wedding they had an informal get together in the Sugar House area. Baby Girl made quick friends with a girl slightly older than her at the party, she simply called her "guul" and would follow her all around. It gave Jen and I some time to mingle and eat the great Peruvian food. Nadia's brother prepared the feast, he even made Ceviche -- raw fish marinated in lime juice. It almost burned a hole in Jen's tongue; however, I thought it was great.

Nadia's family didn't speak much English, or at least very little, and because of the little bit I picked up in Mexico I started up a conversation with her father. I realized very quickly two things -- my Spanish is VERY rusty, and I can't understand Peruvian's very well, or at least they don't speak like Mexicans (which could be a good thing). After a a few minutes however, it got much easier and we had a great time talking.

Saturday morning was the wedding ceremony, you could not have asked for a better day. Jen and I enjoyed spending time outside of Temple Square while we were waiting for the reception to start. The reception was held on the 9th floor of the Joseph Smith Memorial building, and was very high class. The reception was catered and they even prepared special kids meals for the young one's. Baby Girl especially liked the smiley face French fries. Jen and I had Chicken Parmesan -- it was delicious.

At the reception, I realized how lucky I am to know Mike. He is a great friend, an Eagle Scout, a missionary, a teacher, a graduate, a solder, a leader, and a husband to his great wife. I find myself very fortunate to be associated with such a great man. Congrats Mike and I wish you the best in your marriage

I think the video says it all. We have a genius! Especially since I recently read this: "Three-year-olds are beginning to learn colors. They can usually point to a color when asked and may be able to name four or more by midyear." THREE YEAR OLDS! Baby Girl is almost 21 months! 

p.s. Doesn't her hair look cute in a pony tail?

Here is our Top Ten List. This is the highlight of Memorial Day Weekend 2010.

10. Morgan's Stats Page. As you can see from the previous post, my husband is a genius (borderline geek). He got very excited about finding out all of the information from our blog. It was good for him to review his skills. All weekend I would hear Morgan hollering from the other room "Guess how many visitors we had on our blog on December 27, 2009." or "2.23! That's the average number of visitors per hour!" Anyway, needless to say, that was a highlight of our weekend.

9. My Sister's Birthday Party. We traveled to my dad's house on Sunday for my sister's 18th birthday shin-dig. Baby Girl's favorite part of the party was the balloons. She LOVED playing with them. BG had a massive panic attack when anyone got too close to her. She needs to grow out of that. Overall, we had a fun time eating food and playing games.

8. Walking to the Duck Pond. Monday was a gorgeous day. It was so warm and lovely. We went for a walk to a local duck pond. We brought Cheerios to feed the ducks (we didn't have bread). It was a beautiful walk. We loved spending time together. Baby Girl was so excited. She was warming up her throwing arm the entire way there. There were only 4 ducks in the pond when we got there, and they were swimming in a pond of floating bread. It was kinda gross, and they didn't eat our Cheerios. Baby Girl didn't even care that the ducks were no where near the Cheerios she was throwing. She loved it anyway.

7. Little Pink Tutu. Baby Girl rediscovered her tutu. After reading a tutu book with Grandma Kristy, BG loves her own tutu! She wore for a good portion of Monday afternoon. Every 5 minutes or so, Baby Girl would look down and smile and say "tutu". She loved it! 

6. Country Fried Steak. Every time Morgan and I eat out, I often order a Country Fried Steak. It's like my safety. When I don't know what to order, that's what I get. On Saturday, we made our own and it was so delicious. And so much cheaper than eating out. We made enough for all three of us to eat the meal twice for about $5. You can't beat that! 

5. Bird Feeder. A week or two ago, we got a bird feeder to put out our kitchen window. I love it. We sit at our kitchen table and can see all the birds eating the seeds. I'll have Morgan post a blog about all the different kinds of birds we have seen. The birds are pigs. It takes about a day and a half for the birds to empty our feeder. Its crazy. BG LOVES to watch the birds. She gets so excited when she sees them. It's cute.

4. Clean House. Monday morning, we cleaned our house. I love having a clean house. We even tackled our laundry room. This is a catch all room. We usually just pile stuff on our dryer when we don't know what to do with it. We cleaned it all off and I love it! It makes me happy every time I see our washer and dryer = because I can actually see them!

3. Our Garden is Starting to Grow. We decided to attempt a garden this year. It might be experimental. We don't know much about gardening, but we're going to try. This weekend, we noticed that we have onions and carrots that are starting to grow! Yay!

2. Baby Girl stayed in Nursery THE WHOLE TIME! Hallelujah! She has struggled for a while, and we weren't sure what we were going to do with her. They called a brand new nursery leader, and Baby Girl just attached herself to her. It was fantastic. Morgan was able to go to his Young Men's Class and I was able to do Sharing Time! It's a miracle!

1. Together as a Family. We just loved being together and being lazy. We slept in every day. Even BG let us sleep in. It was fantastic. We played together. We ate together. We loved it! We wish we could have a 3-day-weekend every week.