ABCs

I can never get Sadie singing on video, because she always wants to look at it, but I did come really close to getting the ABC song. She did all the ABCs, but was too impatient to sing the ending (now I know my ABCs....)

She could sing the ABCs when she was 22 months.

Girls trip to San Francisco

A girls trip with my in-laws to San Francisco.

Here are the facts:
two buses with 50 women on each bus
drive straight through the night
Arrive in San Francisco the next day
sight seeing
arrive at hotel
See "Wicked" (awesome show)
back to hotel for much needed, but very little sleep.
wake up early for shopping all day
board bus and drive through the night back to Utah.


This was an exhausting trip, but way fun, and I would do it again in a second! (anyone??)


This is us after driving through the night. (Wait- why am I posting this picture?- we need some help!!)

Pheasant Hunting

Here's some pics of our new hunting dog, Mya. We got her as a puppy in the fall, and Drew's been working with her. She's an English Setter, and has actually turned out to be a good little dog. I was very skeptical at first, because having a second dog just didn't sound like a good idea to me, but luckily I was wrong, and she's turned out great. I can let her out and she stays right in the yard, she no longer jumps on everyone, and she's great for Drew to take hunting. Plus, Mya gets along great with Katie, our other dog (a boxer).



Sadie kept saying "I want to shoot the birds". (oh, great)
A beautiful early spring day in Cedar Valley

Drew and Mya
This is my dad's dog, Rumor, and Mya, both pointing a pheasant. (The dogs are holding as still as possible with their noses pointed at the bird. We then walk up and scare the pheasant out.)

Delinquent

I know, I've been very delinquent in my posting. My mother tells me my blog has gotten boring. Was my last entry really the end of December? Sorry, I will commit to do better. This is my least favorite time of year. I'm just ready for spring to get here. Although, we have had a fairly mild winter this year. But I'm of the opinion that if it's going to be cold- we might as well have lots of snow. Which is not so much the case this year. Anywho, enough about the weather- let me give you an update!

Christmas was excellent! Sadie was mostly spoiled by her grandparents and Aunt Cami Jo.

We couldn't make it to the cabin for snowmobiling over Christmas break, because Drew and I were working, but we did make time for some fun in the snow! (snow pics soon to come- I have to get them from my mom)

These are all of Sadie's cousins in their Christmas pajamas.

Sadie got this bike from grandma and grandpa Berry that she loves!

After Christmas, we realized that Sadie has way to many toys and they were overtaking our family room, so we took the room that we use the least, which unfortunately is the exercise room, and turned it into a play room. Here's a picture before we moved all the toys in. I think it turned out great!

Sadie and I came home one night to daddy clearing the snow in the driveway, and Sadie kept saying, "I help daddy, I help daddy, pleeeese!" so of course I gave in- got her bundled up and sent her outside to help daddy. Drew would do donuts out in the road in the Ranger and I could hear Sadie giggling the whole time. She was not happy when I had to take her in the house to get ready for bed.

Drew's dad, Bert, gave his oath of office as the new Mayor of Lehi City. (By the way- Lehi is now a city of 46,000. It's crazy how fast it doubled in size.) And yes, this makes him my new boss. In case you didn't know, I'm the Executive Assistant to the Mayor and City Administrator (basically a fancy title for secretary). I've been in this job for 3 1/2 years, and I really enjoy it. It's great working for Bert. He is such a good person and has some great ideas for the City, so I'm really happy to be working with him on those ideas.

Sadie is doing great. I can't believe how she is such a girl! She loves loves loves to do my hair. Not her dolls hair, but my hair. She tells me to "hold still" and "lean back" and she even says "sorry" if I say ouch when she polls my hair too hard. This can entertain her for a very long time, but I don't have a very long time, so she'll compromise after a while and move on to her doll. Sadie loves to wear jewelry and pretends to put on makeup. Her favorite thing to play is "babies" and "barbies". She has really likes watching the Tinkerbell movies, which has given me a much needed break from Elmo. Speaking of Elmo, Sadie can now count backwards from 10-1. She learned it from Elmo in one of his movies. I can't believe how quickly she learns things. But she's become more shy around other people, so she doesn't preform (or is that called child exploitation?) as often as she use to. Oh, one of these days I need to video record her running, I'm a little nervous about her coordination skills. Her arms and legs are flapping everywhere- I don't know how she keeps her balance, because she looks so awkward. I know people tell me that it's okay for her age, but I see other kids her age run, and they are way more coordinated. Sadie looks like a duck trying to waddle and run for the first time. I'm really not that worried about it- maybe if she gets to 10 yrs. old and still runs like that, then I'll start to worry.

Also, Sadie finally got her first haircut, at 26 months! She has the weirdest hair. Sometimes it's blond, and sometimes it has a red tint to it. I don't know what color it's going to be. And the hair that outlines her face- from forehead to ears- does NOT grow! It's so strange, but the rest of her hair is growing and needed to be cut, so Kira did the best job with what she had to work with (Thanks Kira- it looks great!). Sadie loved getting her hair cut, so watching her was so fun!

We all got the flu, even though we had our flu shots. Poor Sadie got the worst of it. She was so sick and even lost some weight. She's our little chunker, so the weight loss really wasn't a big deal. It was just hard to see her so sick.

I just finished a photography class. Drew bought me a Cannon Rebel last year for Mother's Day, so I'm excited to finally know how to use more than just the auto features- I hope this summer and spring to have some good photos to post. I'm mostly excited about taking pictures on our trips this fall (the ones we have to go on for Drew's work). This year the trips are Prague in the Czech Republic, and Hawaii. I hear Prague is the most beautiful European City, so I can't wait to take pictures there. But I also learned that I need a tri-pod, new lenses, new covers, and more, so I'm crossing my fingers and hoping for the best this Mother's Day!

On a sadder note, a 6 year old boy in my ward, (he actually lives a few houses down) was diagnosed with bone cancer and began treatments last week. Tyler has always been my favorite neighborhood kid. When he was four, he would ride his scooter as fast as he could make it go with a superman cape on. His mom serves in the Primary Presidency with me, and is one of most amazing people I know. Their whole family is! Tyler is such a strong and very brave kid, so we are all very hopeful!

That's kind of the gist of it for the last month and a half. I promise I do better at posting!

Daycare Gifts

Sadie goes to daycare Monday-Thursday from 7 a.m.- noon. I then pick her up and take her to my mom's where we eat lunch, play, and then I put her down for a nap, then I head back to work from 1-6 p.m. It makes for some long days with little time to do anything else, but it's so worth it to have a three day weekend. I'm just really lucky to have such a great job that's close to home and a wonderful mother and sister that give her all the attention she could ever ask for! Sadie's daycare is great too, because they are wonderful people that truly love her and it gives her a chance to interact with other kids. They had a Christmas party yesterday, and Sadie had a blast. They made these cute reindeer ears, made her a stocking full of yummy goodies, gave her an Elmo toy (her favorite) and gave us a frame that Sadie had painted with a picture of her in it. They also frosted cookies, and ate pizza. Sadie loves to go there and I know she's well taken care of. Sadie also loves to go to grandma's house and play with her aunt Cami! Poor Sadie is left with boring ol' me Friday-Sunday :)

Santa Scary

Santa Clause Encounters: 5

Actually siting on Santa's lap: 0

Barely getting close enough to get a present: 4

Sadie loves Santa (from far away)- she talks about him all the time. Sometimes she says "Santa scary", and we told her "no Santa is funny and nice". So now whenever Sadie says "Santa scary", she quickly follows up with a smile and says "no Santa funny, nice". She also figured out pretty quick that Santa gives her a present, so by the time we got to the 5th Santa Clause, she wasn't as nervous about it, but she was still all business- no talking or sitting on his lap, just grab the present and get out!

Crazy month

I love this time of year, but it's so crazy! Here's a few things we've been up to....

Drew had surgery on his ankle. Apparently, he had an old injury that was causing him major problems. He has yet to figure out what the "old injury" was exactly, but it caused some serious problems in his ankle joint. After the surgery the doctor informed me that is was "really ugly in there". Apparently there was a lot of scar tissue and cartilage just floating around in his ankle joint, so hopefully whatever the doctor did will work, and Drew's ankle will start feeling good again.

We went to the NFR in Las Vegas last week. Lots of fun! It makes me miss rodeo. Check out our awesome seats!

And finally, this is what happens when I'm at work, so Drew has to pick up Sadie and get her ready to go to the festival of trees....

You can never go wrong with just throwing on a hat when your hair isn't quite right, but come on...did it have to be that hat??? j/k honey. Thanks for all your help with Sadie!