Halloween & Thanksgiving

Well it's been over a month since I've posted, and lots has happened! I've been wanting to post for a while, but my computer has literally been falling apart, so I didn't feel like trying to transport all my pictures on there and organizing them to post them. I was waiting for Black Friday to try to find a new computer, and I did! This is my first post using it, and it's so nice to not have my screen being held up by duct tape (literally). Anyway November was an eventful month for us.

Well first I guess was the end of October, which was Halloween! We first had a party at our church, which was fun. We had the family cowgirl/cowboy theme going on. C was in charge of pumpkin bowling, so A just wanted to keep taking the pumpkins lol. Then on actual Halloween, we went to our cousins' house, who live in a really nice neighborhood. C had the idea to take A trick-or-treating, but that lasted for like 5 mins haha. So we stayed inside and helped hand out candy while the older kids braved the freezing cold night! It was fun hanging out with them though.

 The church party

  The church party 

  The church party

  The church party

before trick-or-treating for 5 mins

Somewhere in there we had some gorgeous weather. We took full advantage playing outside, throwing frisbee, and making leaf piles! The fall here was really nice for the most part.

 on a mission

 frisbee lessons

So the first exciting event in Nov was that A got a really bad fever. In the middle of the night on Sat night she woke up, and I thought she felt hot, but she just went back to sleep, so I thought she was fine, but in the morning she was still hot and really crabby, so we didn't go to church that day, and I figured she had a fever (we had a basically useless thermometer at that point that was impossible to use because we were supposed to keep it in her armpit for like a whole minute- that didn't happen). So she was crabby the whole day, but she slept ok and seemed a little better Mon morning, so I thought she was ok. I went and got a nice head swipe thermometer (which is great!) Mon, and she had a little fever, but I thought it might be from teething. But that night she woke up with like a 103 degree fever, and was burning up! So she was miserable for the next few days (and so were we), with a high temp of 105. We took her to the doc twice, the second because of possible urinary tract infection. That was negative though, and we thought she had roseola because of no other flu-like symptoms, but we never saw the rash. It still could have been that, and her rash was unnoticeable, or it could have been some other weird virus! Anyway, it was a huge relief when she finally felt better. It was 4 or 5 days of misery for everyone! The next event happened on the very next Sunday I believe. Daddy and A were playing, and he was flipping her upside-down by holding her hands, when she started crying. I thought something was wrong, but we knew for sure when we asked her, "What does a chicken say?" Usually she makes the sound and does the chicken wing motion, but she would start crying hard when we asked her. So we had to take her into urgent care. They suspected milkmaid's elbow, which is basically a dislocation which is very common in toddlers. However, she had to get x-rays just to make sure. The x-rays were MISERABLE. They had to do 4 different ones, and they had to move her arm to a different position each time, and she screamed bloody murder the entire time. Ugh it was the worst. Luckily though, it was just the dislocation, and the dr  popped it back into place in 1 second. She was still a little sore for a couple hours, but was back to her normal self by the end of the night, thank goodness! It was ironic because over her first year of life, she never went to the dr (besides check-ups), but it seemed the tables had turned shortly after her first birthday! We'd had her in the dr office 3 times in 2 weeks (plus a check-up in between that had been scheduled for months!). Anyway, that wasn't fun, but she's been healthy since!

 sicky day!

in urgent care with dislocated elbow

Actually, the couple weeks between then and our Thanksgiving vacation, she was seriously testing my patience! Her sleeping patterns were really spotty for a while, maybe because of being disturbed from being sick or something? But the sleeping troubles lasted for like a month afterwards.  I don't know. Oh or it could be because she is getting too big for her bed, which is a pack-and-play lol. I don't think it's very comfortable for her anymore, and we just ordered a new bed for her that will hopefully help. She has actually been doing better since we've been home from Thanksgiving, but before we left, there were a couple days in a row where she decided to nap for like 30-45 mins! Ahhh!! She already went to one nap really early, so only taking a 30 min nap was driving me nuts! But her sleeping habits have mostly settled back into normal, and with a new comfy bed hopefully she'll be sleeping like a log. Anyway, the other thing that was driving me nuts was that she wouldn't eat! I would go through a lot of trouble to make something I thought she liked, and she would just throw it on the floor and not eat any of it! Oh it was driving me nuts. There would be days where she barely ate anything, but she seemed totally fine, and didn't have any interest in eating, so I don't know; I guess she knows if she wants to eat! Anyway, she was just overall being really crabby for a couple weeks, so I was at my wit's end. I know her molars have been coming in for a while, so maybe all of those troubles were because of teething.

Luckily our Thanksgiving vacation came just in time! C had a week off of school, so we were able to make the drive to PA to be with my family for the break. The 8-hr drive there wasn't bad until the last 2 hrs, when a lot of screaming happened.. (mostly from A, haha). The week so so great though. We spent a lot of time relaxing and just hanging out with family. C and I went on a date, which was great because we hadn't been in like a month. We pretty much had babysitters whenever we wanted! A's favorite is my 11-yr-old sister S who is great with her! Actually a couple nights because of different reasons A slept in her room, and if she woke up S would get her back to sleep, and get up at like 7 with her in the morning- what a great aunt! Anyway, Thanksgiving was spent with like 20 members of my extended family, and it was a ton of fun! Lots of delicious food too =) A is in kind of a shy phase right now, so she wasn't really into all the new people. In fact, it took her all week until she would let my dad touch her! We stole this picture when she finally let it happen =)

We had a lot of fun though. A got to play in the snow for the first time when we were there, which was cute. On the drive home A was a perfect angel. She seriously didn't cry once, for which we were soo grateful! It went pretty quickly, so that was awesome. We were really bummed to come home, but only a couple more weeks until we have another, much longer break, for Christmas! We put up our tree yesterday, and we are in the Christmas spirit!

 The most adorable thing- when she's tired she rubs her piggy or bunny on her nose!

 with aunt S!

 her nap on Thanksgiving b/c we were at our cousins, and there was nowhere for her to sleep- love those moments!

 I lovvve this adorable pic

 let's guess how long this will stay up.. ;)

so glad I could snap this when her neck was getting tickled!

We've been home for a couple days now, and she's been so good. I think she's happy to be back in her own terrain. I love her so much! She is such a character. My mom can't believe how packed with personality she is (and she has 6 kids!). She is so vibrant and full of life; we love her to pieces! I just want to kiss her little face! And it doesn't hurt that she's taken an hour and a half nap the past 2 days ;)

birthday weekend

       Last Friday was a special day, C's 25th birthday! His parents actually flew in from Utah to spend the weekend with us. It was so nice. They got here Friday morning, and we went to campus where C showed us around and what building his program is in. We went to a yummy sandwich place for lunch. Then we came home and let A take a nap before we did anything else! Then afterwards we ran to the mall for a bit because they wanted to get C something for his bday. He got some sweet basketball shoes (because he's been playing on campus a little bit). We also got some cute clothes for A at Old Navy.. I love that store! Oh and they bought me a gift for C's bday lol. Aren't they sweet?? After that we met C's cousin and his wife for dinner at this restaurant we decided to try called Old Chicago. Oh my goodness, it was soo delicious! I got a chicken bacon alfredo pizza, and it was amazing. Anyway, afterwards we went over to C's cousin's house, and we hung out with them and their 5 kids. It was fun, a little rowdy, but that's to be expected with 5 kids! When we got home we put A down for bed. then C opened his cards and his present from me. It was a few shirts because he's been asking for some nice ones for working out and playing bball. Not the most exciting, but it's what he wanted! We also had his birthday cake that I made, which was a yummy brownie, oreo, pudding, cream cheese layered cake. It was pretty good, I must say. He always asks for something like that for his birthday- the chocolate king himself.
       So the next day was Saturday, and C and his dad went golfing in the morning (though it was super cold), while his mom and I went shopping! We can't resist buying baby girl clothes; they are so cute! Afterwards we hung out at our place for a while and let A take a nap. Then we went to this orchard and pumpkin patch place. It must be the place to be; it was jam-packed. It was a really cute place to go though. Then for dinner we went to TGI Fridays. On Sunday we went to church, came home and had lunch, relaxed and visited for a bit, then C's parents had to get going to catch their flight. Oh actually before they left we skyped with C's brother and new wife, and they told us they are expecting! We were all shocked but obviously super happy for them. We are so excited for A to have her first cousin on the Bednar side! Yay! Overall it was a fantastic weekend. The best times are always with family. We always look forward to when we get to spend time with our families. Here are some pics from the fun weekend

 A and her cutie cousin just playing the way toddlers do!

 follow the yellow brick road!

 A and her daddy about to go down the big slide!

 Love her so much!

 I'm a lion!

 Reading with grandma

 And just for fun some adorable A pics

settled in and a 13 month old

Well we've been settled into our new place for about a month or so. We've really been enjoying it here. C is liking school, and A and I have been having fun at home! Here is a little look at what we've been up to the past month!

Well first of all, A is all over the place. She is now 13 months, and she has always been super busy, wanting to be moving or doing something since she was a tiny baby. That's why she started doing things really early, like pulling herself up to standing at 6 months and walking well at 11 months. Anyway, her absolute favorite thing to do is go outside, or "ide?!" is how she says it in her adorable little voice! We hear that about 312 times a day. It's just so tempting with the sliding glass doors in our living room and the huge park to run through right there! So yea, she lovvvves it. One of her favorite activities is seeing and chasing the squirrels- it's a squirrel paradise because there are so many trees right outside. When she sees them she makes her little animal noise that is soo cute. Anytime she sees C or me putting on a jacket or shoes she flips out with excitement because she thinks she is going outside. It's pretty cute, I have to admit.. And it's also adorable when she grabs your hand and pulls you to the door so you'll take her out. Today C was on the bed, and she grabbed his hand, pulled for him to get up and proceeded to take him down the hallway, through the living room and to the door. It's been really chilly and windy the past couple days though, so we haven't gone out much. But before the past couple days, the weather had been perfect for a couple weeks, and we were out side a few times a day while C was at school, and then we usually went out again with him when he got home! Mainly she just loves walking around to her little heart's desire and picking up flowers, leaves, and especially sticks. She also loves going down the slide at the playground right by our apartment. Here are some pics of our outdoor fun.

 Just enjoying and exploring our back yard

 I went to this fun orchard place with a kid's play area with some friends from church, and she was loving (or maybe mauling) this cat. 

 With friends from church

 Her favorite was playing in this huge puddle after a rainstorm!

She loves the great outdoors! I'm happy with that though; I hope it continues. I think it's super important for kids to play outdoors for all aspects of their health! We've done some other fun things here too. We went to the farmers market here one Saturday, which is supposedly one of the biggest in the state! That was fun. Also, we have already made lots of friends at church here. We have done some fun things with them.

 Farmer's Market

 We had our friends over to watch the BYU game, and this little girl is a couple days older than A. They are adorable together!

We are really loving life right now! Everything is going great. And oh my goodness our love for our little girl grows every single day. She is just a blast. In my opinion, she is more fun now than ever. She is so vibrant and full of life. She makes me laugh all the time. She is becoming a lot more independent. When we're outside she loves to just walk and walk, and she really doesn't care if we follow her. haha. Inside she is a lot better at entertaining herself and playing with her toys. She is so smart. If we say bath, she will stop whatever she is doing and basically start running toward the bathroom. She is saying more and more now too. Some of her favorites are ide (outside), dnk (drink), hi, yay (especially when she's watching Barney and he comes alive), and dad (which she calls both mom and dad). She is also jabbering in her adorable language. It's sooo cute. She puckers her little lips out when she does it, and she loves to do it to herself and to us. She is such a little goofball too. In church she is always just doing silly things and making people laugh. One friend from church remarked how much of a clown she is! She is so fun! One thing lately though is that she has been super picky with eating, and her appetite has decreased. I know she is teething, so I don't know if it's because of that or just because she wants to be playing instead! Two things she will always eat up to this point are grapes and smoothies. Oh, and she is also transitioning to only one nap a day, and it's only about an hour! She is doing great though. We are loving being her parents, and seeing her now, how amazing of a little person she is makes everything worth while. It is truly the biggest blessing to have and be with your family, and what brings the most joy- more than anything else ever can!! Here is a little look at our babe whom we love so much!

 The normal daily activities..

 chillaxin

 She loves going into the closet, getting C's hats, and putting them on backwards. It's hilarious..

Silly girl!!

First ponytail!

Last of all, we got our family pictures taken a couple weeks ago. It was an adventure, trying to get A to go where we wanted her to for half a second, but in the end, we got some good ones! Here are a few of my favorites.