A Life of Charity: August 2014

18 months!

Our little lady is 1 1/2 years old! She's smart, pretty, funny, and just the best human being ever. She knows around 50 words and learns more every day. She'll just pop out with a new one every once in a while and I'm always amazed! She loves airplanes (will always point up to them in the sky) and swimming. She'll practically jump out of your arms and refuses to wear a life jacket or sit in a floaty toy. She's a dare devil! She's still a great eater. She'll eat almost anything I put in front of her. She still loves cucumbers! She's also getting much better at using a fork and spoon. Hattie's better with forks because the food doesn't fall off as easily. She climbs! She can now climb up onto chairs and the couch, but she favors our armchair. If Kurt or I sit in it she'll get upset saying "chair! chair!" and will come over and try to push us out. It's her chair. She still loves books, her blankets, riding the rocking horse, and her TV shows. She now has 5 different shows she likes to watch, so thankfully we're getting a bit more variety than just Jake and the Neverland Pirates. Hattie loves to dance and is just starting to sing! It's the most adorable thing in the whole world. One of her new favorite words is "AMEN!" She will often shout it and loves prayers because she gets to say amen at the end. She started nursery at church and it's going very well. The first week she cried for a while, but she's done great since! We love our little lady! She amazes me every day, even the rough ones. Being a mom is the best!

And some videos:

Hot summer!

This is by far the warmest summer I've ever had to live through. Hattie loves water though, so she's had fun :)

Downtown Ogden. She got soaked!

See? Why not just sit down in the waterfall? It was a super hot day, I'll give her that.

I had to remove all her soaking wet clothes for the car ride home and we stopped for some lemonade on the way! She wouldn't put it down.

Hattie also has fun playing in our little pool out back. Isn't her ladybug swim suit adorable?

Watch out!

Hattie's first pony tail! It didn't stay in for too long, but it was absolutely adorable.

Wild fire

One night, at about 12:30am, Kurt and I were woken up by a pounding on our door. I can't tell you how terrified I was for a moment. It was our next door neighbor. She wanted to let us know that the hill behind our homes was on fire! And indeed it was. There was lots of smoke, emergency vehicles, and flames. It was surreal. Didn't seem like it was actually happening. Luckily, they got the fire under control and we didn't have to evacuate. Only a few homes were required to do so.

A few days later Hattie and I took a walk up to see the damage- it as right along one of our usual routes. As we were walking up I thought I smelled someone smoking, but then realized it was just the burnt earth, still smoldering.

I'm glad it didn't reach the houses! It was a crazy night.

Photo Shoot

Megan organized a photo shoot! I'm glad she did.

The whole group:

G&G with the great-grandchildren! At least they're all in the picture :)

Four generations! Hattie has a great legacy of women that came before her. And apparently she finds that terrifying.

She looks a little happier in this one :)

Roasting

We went up to the hills for a hot dog roast!

We also had a puppet show! Each of us had to make our ourselves. The big kids loved it!

Hattie had fun for a moment...and then she fell off the chair. Whoops!

Bear World

We went up to Rexburg and visited Bear World! I was pleasantly surprised. Not only were there bears, but there was a petting zoo and little carnival with kid friendly rides as well. It was awesome!

Driving up- three generations in the back seat!