I've been tagged!

If you haven't seen these before then you just don't look around on other people's blogs enough. My friend Emily tagged me recently and I've had a hard time limiting my quarks. So here are the rules. I have to list 6 of my quarks (and yes, only six which is the hard part), then tag 6 other people who then have to do the same. So sorry if I tag you and you think this stuff is totally lame. It's actually really fun to read about everyone's quarks, we all have them.

1- I'm a horrible speller. If you've ever played a game with me that requires my ability to spell, you know how bad I am (Boggle). Also if I've ever left you a hand written note or wrote you a hand written anything, you know that is true. My mom has told me it is because they tried some "creative reading" program with my grade in our school district and now none of us can spell. That actually might be true because even my smartest friend with a 4.0 at BYU can't spell to save her life. I grew up with her from 1st grade on. Spell check doesn't really help people like me either because all I ever do is find what I meant to say and move on, not trying to learn as I go.

2- I get way too excited around cute things. Let me explain. As long as I can remember if I'm around something cute, I clench my teeth, really hard, or I bite my lip a little and shake. I would do this around my baby siblings, and around cute puppies. It really became a problem when Lucy was born. I'd clench my teeth so hard that I started to worry myself about my teeth. I also can't kiss babies enough, especially Lucy. She is actually very similar to me, and I wonder how much of this is because that is all she knows.

3- I'm obsessed with earlobes. So weird, I know, but you are about to learn I am a weird person. I don't know when this started, but I love grabbing earlobes. It isn't uncommon to see me biting my lip a little and shaking when I grab an earlobe too. I think it is a texture temperature thing. I love how they always feel cool, and they are so soft and squishy. The bigger and squishier the better. Sorry Shawn. Since Shawn and I started dating, I always am holding on to one of his earlobes when ever possible. I'm the same way with Lucy, and I did it with my siblings too. I take comfort in the fact that Shawn's sister did they same thing when she was little, but she outgrew it. I know that's totally weird.

4-I'm a horrible back seat driver. Shawn is so patient with me. But I am learning that this might just be a female thing thank goodness. I always try really hard to hold my tongue and I think I am getting better. I will say that our last trip up to Idaho I saved us about 6 times from missing crucial turns with my backseat driving. I was proud of myself. But usually I'm freaking out about stuff that is silly. Like I always think Shawn is going to hit the construction cones on my side. Or if someone in front of us taps their brakes on the freeway I always gasp and grab on to something. I'm so paranoid all the time. Shawn is so patient with me, I really think that I am way worse than most people.

5- I'm obsessed with checking Craigslist. I can't stop! I've had phases where I go several months checking Craigslist, and then I lose interest. But I'm having a hard time getting out of this one. About 5 months ago I started checking Craigslist again looking for a cradle for this baby. Well I found and bought a cradle about 2 months ago. But I was also looking for a piano at the same time. I got a piano for free I might add (at least this quark pays off) a couple of weeks ago, but I can't stop checking Craigslist even though I have nothing to check it for. I get there and I can't think of stuff to look for, but I just look through my usual lists.

6- This one is gross, and I hate to admit to it, but my family all knows that I'm obsessed, and I've seen this on other friends quarks too so I don't feel too weird. Anyway, I'm obsessed with popping things. I guess it's not everything, I just really like popping pimples, blackheads, and especially ingrown hairs. Once I see them I have to go after them. It's totally gross, but it is so satisfying to me. I did learn the hard way that you shouldn't go after an ingrown hair on your stomach just before you pop out when you are pregnant. I have a nice stretched out scare from that one. Oh well, you live you learn.

Ok, so basically from this I've learned that I am really quarky. I guess I can't make fun of Jeff for having to wash his feet before bed anymore, because I just might be quarkier than he is. A special thanks goes out to Shawn for putting up with my quarkiness. So here is who I'm tagging now: Krista, Tara, Jamie, Amanda, Heather, and Tracie. Have fun guys!

Lucy's 2 Year Pictures

Obviously Lucy is 2 now. I realized that I never had her one year pictures taken. We took some when she was 6 months old, and some more when she was like 15 months, but I don't know where the 15 month pictures are, and they weren't that great, Lucy was in no mood to have her picture taken that day. But I got the 2 year pictures done, and hopefully I will be more on top of things. Now that I think about how often I'll have to have pictures taken, I wish I were having all my kids in the same month so I could get it all over with at the same time each year. Hope you all enjoy these. I just put them all up or it would have taken me twice as long to decide which ones to put up and which ones not to, and then I'd have nightmares about not including the ones I didn't.

Lucy came up with this pose all on her own. Then we really started having fun.

What more can I say? She had so much fun.

So if I knew they were going to be taking pictures of her little toes, I would have given her a fresh pedicure. She was desperately in need and has one now, fresh pink paint and all.

Just Lucy. I love that even in her real pretty smile, that tongue has to be sticking out a little.

She kind of has a funny face in some of these, but it's cute anyway. I love the one with her shoulders up. She is such a ham. You know, I'm always amazed by these photographers and what they can do. Every picture we have taken of Lucy for the last 3 months (that she knows we are taking) she has the cheesiest smile ever. I love having some with her pretty little smile.

Just a few more. The one with the Soccer ball was Lucy's idea, she saw the ball and had to have it. She had so much fun getting these taken.

Lucy's 2nd Birthday

Our little girl is two!!! I cannot believe that it has been two years since we welcomed Lucy into our family. She is so much fun and we are so blessed to have her in our lives. Let's just say she makes sure there is never a dull moment around here. But she is a heart melter and we wanted to make sure she had a special day, so here are some highlights of our day. She didn't have a moment of bordem, but it might not seem like we did anything too big. I didn't want to go too far out because Lucy tends to lose it when we try to do too much. So busy and simple was best for her.

When Shawn and I heard Lucy that morning, we went into her room together (at 7:00 on a Saturday which we were a little bummed about) singing happy birthday. We thought Lucy would be so excited but she had no idea what was going on and was actually really scared. She reached for me and when I pulled her out of bed she clung to me while her eyes leaked little tears. She was a little scared of the happy birthday song all morning. But she cheered right up when we showed her the Minnie Mouse Cake which I had finished the night before. She loved her cake so much! She spent all day talking to the cake and telling Minnie about everything that was happening as the day went on.

Shawn and I were performing in church the next day and we had a practice early this morning. So I knew we would need a way to keep her entertained while we were practicing, so we let her open her first present early that morning. She got to play with it the entire time and loved it. She got a thing called "Puppies in my Pocket". It's basically a Littlest Pet Shop thing.

The second present Lucy opened was some finger paints. I know that sounds dangerous, but I am getting pretty desprate for ways to keep this little girl entertained. Now that it is getting colder I don't know what I am going to do all day everyday without little things like this to keep her busy. I must say the paints were a huge hit. After she opened them we let her paint a picture. She had so much fun. Later in the day, after her nap she wanted to paint another one, so she did. Who is going to say no on her birthday?

Notice her tongue? She totally gets that from Shawn. She might be a little bit of a spaz because of me, but she cannot control that tongue when she is concentrating because of Shawn. That was one of the first things we noticed about this little girl the day she was born, and it hasn't changed since.

To spice up the day a little, and since you can't really wrap a fish, we did a hunt for her fish. Shawn took some yarn and went all around our apartment with it while I was doing Lucy's hair. Then he left on end of the yarn in the bathroom door so Lucy would find it when we finished. She picked up the yarn and Shawn helped her follow it through the house, into the garage, through the car, and through every room in our apartment until she found the other end, which was under the fish bowl. She was SO excited! We got her reaction on film, but I don't know how to upload it from our video camera onto the computer yet.

After Lucy found the fish, we moved the fish into her room where Lucy decided to feed him. She is so excited to have this little fish and to be honest, Shawn and I were more excited than we should have been too. Mostly because we knew how excited Lucy would be, but also because this little guy is our first official pet. Isn't that weird that after being married for 3 years we've never had any kind of a pet?

Opening last few presents.

After playing at the park for a couple of hours and having a picnic there, we came home and let Lucy open her last few presents. Shawn got her a new baby, to replace one of her original ones that she has worn out and colored all over the face of. I got her this DVD about spiders, frogs and Dinosaurs, since she is so into all of those. I paid like $1.50 for it, so I knew it would be painful, but it is so much worse than I ever could have prepared myself for. It is horrible. Oh well, she can watch it while I'm showering or some other times when I don't have to be around at all.

Time for Cake!

Shawn thought this was the worst part of the day. He didn't know how I was going to cut this cake. I'll be honest, it was kind of sad.

She actually didn't want to eat very much cake, and she didn't get messy really at all. But she LOVED her cake, not so much for eating, but as a friend.

Fall Drive

On Saturday last week, October 11th we decided to go on a drive up in the mountains. We have been trying to do this for the last couple of weeks because we wanted to see the trees changing. I wasn't too thrilled when Shawn said that he found a drive for us that would take about 4 hours. I was like great, 4 hours in the car, and we end up right back at our house, how do I explain that one to Lucy? But I decided we'd give it a go on the condition that we could stop and get out and walk a lot so it didn't feel like a drive to Idaho. But I was pleasantly surprised by it. The drive was suppose to be about 4 hours, but it really only took like 2 1/2 and it was GORGEOUS! There weren't as many aspens as we had hoped, since those are the trees that get really bright this time of year, but the mountains are just so pretty! I love to two pictures at the top, especially the one with the cabin, I felt like we ripped that one out of a catalog. From the gorgeous rocks to the surprise old rail road tunnel we got to drive through, this is our new favorite drive down here in Colorado Springs.

I must say, not a flattering view of me. I'm clearly pregnant now, but with that sweater on, and maternity pants, I just look really fat. The side view doesn't help my cause. But when I'm wearing shirts that fit better I don't look quite so ridiculous. Lucy had to stop can climb on some "Big Rocks!" but is was freezing, so we didn't stay long. Too bad about the graffiti on the one rock too.

Lucy's Wipe Out

So a few days ago I had just finished cleaning my bathrooms, and the floors were still wet. Well I got Lucy up form her nap and she started running away from me since I wanted to get her dressed. She ran into the bathroom and you know what happened. She slipped and fell. So after comforting her since she fell pretty hard, I set her down, and she started telling me what happened. When she finished her story she turned to run away and I noticed something interesting about her diaper.

Apparently she fell so hard that she split her diaper. Who knew that was even possible? I guess I did have her diaper on backwards now that I look at it (it's a pull up, give me a break!), but being a pullup that shouldn't matter. I think this is so funny!

Related to Luke?

Lucy's cousin Luke is known for being a goofy boy. He is always saying things that melt us, and always saying things that make us crack up. He is one of the funniest little boys of all time. Anyway, he is 5 years old and for the past couple of years he has taken the job of trying to dress himself, including picking out his own outfits. Well every time his mom Tara lets him choose his outfit he comes up with some of the craziest, hilarious outfits. To see what I am talking about, see Jeff and Tara Hammond's blog in my links to the left. Anyway, a few weeks ago, while it was still warm, I slipped this dress on Lucy (so that she wasn't naked anymore, which has been her new habit lately) and she got really excited and ran and got her shoes. Then she decided that she needed a hat to go with it, and insisted it be a BYU hat. So this is the outfit that Lucy came up with for herself. It's like she has been in training with Luke. At least everything is pink right? It matches kind of?