LSM: placement break-ish

Each semester at BYU Law, there is a week long break that is a time set aside for students to go on interviews for future job offers or externships. Well, since Dan is a first year and already has his externship lined up for the summer, we will be just taking this time to hang out. He will do quite a bit of homework during the day, but only until about 4 or 5 and then we get to play!

We originally wanted to go somewhere warm for the break (Vegas, St. George, Moab etc.), but that was before we found out we wouldn't be getting our tax returns back in time AND before Dan realized that he has a large brief due on Monday and about 30 pages of outlines he needs to start. Lame.

So a nice relaxing week in Provo sounds just perfect...

+swimming at the Rec Center--CHECK! did that today for about 3.5 hours. Stori finally mastered the water slides all by herself, and Sylvie got herself a nice shiner on her left eye from the same water slides. poor baby. AND I saved a drowning infant there! True story! she was under the water trying to reach her head up… and I have no idea why I thought to go over by the slides, because my kids were in the big pool, but I ran over as fast as I could, and lifted her up held her tight until she started breathing. No mom in sight!!! She was Syvlie's size! about a minute later the mom came running over to me and thanking me. every time she saw me, she made a point to come up and thank me. Makes my legs weak just thinking about that girl and if I hadn't seen her! (and there were lifeguards there the whole time too)!!!
anywhoooo… other things on the list that hopefully won't be as dramatic...

+spring cleaning--to happen on thursday while Dan is busy writing.

+running together each morning outside---if the weather cooperates. So far so good.

+family dates---to Target, possibly Hogle Zoo, and Chic fil A

+Storytime at the library

+Park days with a helper (pretty excited about this one)---the kids will be so spoiled because he is way more fun than me.

+Plasma donating--once dan gets his lab results back and once I get my physical completed.

+Exploring Utah Lake--Check! did that yesterday! It is so beautiful! My only ward friend just moved out there and we got to help her take stuff to her new house by the lake and drool over how pretty the houses are!
+planning a baby shower and a YW lesson
+play dates with the Foresters.

+and possibly hiking the Y if we have a good weather day!

any and all visitors are welcome to join. :)

and yes, I do realize that all my pictures are at the "yellow park" but it is only because the temps have been in the 60's and we are there all morning and all afternoon/evening. Pretty much the only time we are home, is for Sylvie's nap… so park pictures it is!

top right is SDR! how cute!:)

18 Months

• well, 18 months is her age.
• flipping through books, page by page.
• eating is still her specialty 
• loves everyone, especially me.
• says a few words here and there,
• gets lot's of compliments on all the red hair
• loves to climb on anything
• plays outside all day, like it's Spring
• Get's her picture taken all the day
• copies a lot of the things that we say.
• bath time is fun when Stori is there
• you are by far, the easiest girl to scare
• looks for lot's of planes in the sky
• but doesn't like to be thrown very high
• said goodbye to her only binky
• and eats her yogurt with fingers and pinky
• napping is just once a day
• allowing for the max amount of play 
• dances and sings to any tempo
• my favorite word she says is 'Bempo' (temple)
• she loves to cuddle and to hug
• and she is by far, our FAVORITE JUNE BUG!

Happy 1.5 years baby girl. You make everyone around you so much happier! Your sister thinks you are pretty darn amazing, and looks out for you wherever we are. Sometimes, when she thinks I'm mad at you, she will come up to me and ask me to talk nice to her sister…then she goes to you, gives you hugs, and tells you it's gonna be all right. Even though the only reason you are fake crying is because I wouldn't let you unload the sharp knife from the dishwasher. But it's still nice to know that no matter where you go, you will always have an instant friend looking out for you. It's pretty darn great to watch!

bathtime besties

Stori comforting her after the little boy knocked Sylvie down

Sylvie is such a love bug. She hugs Stori even when they are in the stroller 

I get asked on a DAILY basis if the girls are twins! Yes, just one of them grew much faster??

Loving on Daddy after our favorite park day ever! Daddy raced with them,  did tricks with them, played for a solid 2 hours, and spun them until they were dizzy! It was so much fun!

June bug turned 18 months ON Valentines Day. these are the only pictures we took sadly. We went for a run in the morning, fed the ducks, went to lunch with a bunch of Radfords and met baby Dresden, came back home and took the kids to play! It was perfect. Ended the night with some Parks and Rec and some yummy cheat meals! :)

 Stori doesn't like sweets so she got some $3 bunny slippers and some stickers. Sylvie got some fruit snacks and a Minnie coloring book.

Sylvie LOVED baby Dresden! I wish I would have taken more pictures. She thought she was her little mommy; fed her her bottle, gave her the bonkers, wrapped her in blankies, and tried to hold her every chance she got.

We got a new dishwasher this week, and the man that installed it brought the box up after he installed the dishwasher. He said that he thought my girls would like this! :) He had made a door and 3 windows. It was so cute and he was right--the girls do love it! :)

CHECK.

I have probably 30 things on my 'Provo Bucket-list', and I am doing pretty good at checking them off! And on Friday, I crossed off a pretty big one. Not only did I see NieNie (Stephanie Nielson, the Mormon blogger who was burned in an airplane crash), but I actually talked to her!
Well….. I guess, she talked to me and I nervously responded.
We pulled into Target at the same time, shopped all the same isles together, and when we got close to the Valentines isle, she came up to me and told me how cute my kids were! SHE came up to ME! I was a little star struck and smiled at her and just said, "he he, Thanks so much he he"
 REALLY? That was all I could say? She took the time to approach me and I could have at least commented on her cute kids also! Or tell her what an amazing example she is, or that I love her inspiring story, or that she had a really cute coat on? Nope, not my style.
I texted Dan about the situation and he said:
"Really?? That was your chance to become her best friend! Why didn't you say anything else? Silly Melanie! You know what's going to happen…Her next blog post will be about meeting a lady at Target who had really cute kids, but wouldn't talk to me because of my condition…"
Haha I laughed pretty hard at that text!

Anywho, not sure why this needs a whole blog post, but it does. Her story is truly amazing!

Other local celebrities I have met since living in Provo:
Cjane (NieNie's sister and blogger) also at Target
Taza (another mormon blogger from NYC with about 285K followers) at cafe rio
Mindi Gledhil (mormon indie singer) at Walmart

These are all my stalker photos of NieNie. I'm not ashamed.

My poor little lamb(s)

Miss Astoria Rose has been struggling with stomach pain for quite a long time…months actually. Every time I would go to make a Dr. apt, she would start feeling better. When she complained of it hurting, she would be on the floor flailing and crying, and I would feel so bad. I knew it wasn't bathroom issues, or hunger pain because she is regular, and a regular eater. :)

THEN, she started getting these awful hives all over her arms and legs, and sometimes her stomach. They get so bad that she scratches them until she bleeds. They usually last 2 weeks, then she has a few days without them, then they strike back again. 

The night of the Superbowl, she began complaining that her stomach hurt again, and I also noticed that the hives were in full force. So I decided to call the Dr. and get her an apt for that next morning. He gave her a full check up and suggested we do testing. So my poor little lamb got blood drawn and an ultrasound. Both of which, came back normal. Which was definitely good news…but I kind of hoped we could figure out what was causing at least one of her ouchies. We were referred to a Dermatologist, but we don't go in until the 17th. I wish it was sooner, in case the hives temporarily go away while we are there, and then come back after we see the Dr. If the dermatologist can't explain the hives, we will have to go to a specialist. ($$$$$$$) 

so I'm really hoping we can get this figured out soon.

here are some shots I took to show the Dr. in case they go away before the Dr can see them

getting her blood drawn was pretty sad to watch. They let her sit on my lap while 2 nurses worked on her and one nurse entertained Sylvie. They did great.

she told me she wanted to be done with her ouchies and that she would be happy if they went away. So here is her "fake it til you make it" happy face. (with "water" still in her eyes)

I let her pick dinner that night since she had to get all the testing done and she picked 7-layer dip. Ate at least half of it! That's my girl.

a view of the kids watching Tinkerbell while the adults watch the Super Bowl! :)

my other poor little lamb. He did homework til 1:30am almost every night this last week. He started feeling sick, so he went to bed at 10 on Saturday night and slept for 12 hours. Stori said she knew how to make him feel better. So she put her hat on him and gave him his phone. :) He woke up feeling much better---which I'm sure it was from the hat/phone.

 Love waking up to the cute pitter patter of her feet, walking down the hallway to our bedroom  each morning. She always asks if it is 'eight zero zero' yet. So I will show her my phone so she can check the time---if it's before 8 she will go back to bed, but if it's after 8 she celebrates in bed with us! :)  I need to just get her her own clock for her room.

On one of our hundred walks from last week, we noticed all the cute duckies. Stori said, "here ducky ducky ducky…" 2 seconds later they swam over to the path and walked right up to Stori. She was so excited and fed them all her goldfish snacks! :)

Dan bought all of us girls BYU LAW shirts, and Stori was very excited to model hers. She was born for this ^^Backpack, scarf, belle apron, glass slippers, and gunther eyes.

Can't quite put in words how much I love these stinky cheese-string cheese faces