Elizabeth at 18 months old

This has been in my drafts for two months.  I finally added pictures and I want the details for my records because I forget them all too quickly. :)

Little Miss Elizabeth,

You are 18 months old.  You are a delight and a joy and a tease and oh so adorable.  You are clever and curious and keep us all smiling.  You are determined and tenacious. You know all the body parts and pointing out everyone's eyes is your favorite.  You'll say a word a couple times and then not want to say it again.  When we try and get you to "use words" to tell us what you want, you look at us like we are crazy because you know that we already know what you want.  Your favorite words are: dog, doll, cheese, hat, shoe, booberry, jei jei, please, more, nandy (candy), de de (cracker), bath, brush, Jesus, baby, book, fish, hi, bye, ni-ni (night night), bar (z-bar or granola bar), and ball.

You readily go to nursery and you love it.  I think it's because snack time is first.  You have the appetite of a teenage boy.  You can be picky about what you'll eat but when you like something like oatmeal or fresh salsa we can't get you to stop eating!  You probably eat twice as much as your big sister most days.  You will stuff your mouth until it's so full and then you have to spit it out.  Once you stuffed 7 pistachios with the shells in your cheeks before Samara alerted us.

You help remind us to pray before a meal or bedtime by folding your hands and saying "plaray".

You are always on your toes trying to reach for something or getting into mischief.  You can turn spotless into a disaster zone in no time at all.

You scream with excitement and rush over when you see one of us come home.

You love dolls and especially babies and get so excited anytime you get to be near one.  You want to point out the eyes, ears, hair, etc. and shower him/her with kisses.  You say "hi" and smile at new people but get shy if they give you much attention.

You hate the sun in your face while we are driving but do well in your car seat (you hated it when we first moved back and you had to be in one for the first time in your life.)

Opening and closing things, taking things in and out of boxes and taking lids on/off is a favorite activity.  You get frustrated when things don't fit how you want them to. 

"Ba bas" (PJs) are your security blanket.  You carry them around everywhere.  There are some you refuse to wear as PJs.  You have a little meltdown if you are helping with the laundry and see a "ba" that is going in the washer/dry.  The only non-pj "ba" you like is the soft little lovie that Heather made for you.

You love wearing big shoes but very rarely keep your own shoes on once we are in the car.

 

You love balls, hats, and the bunny at Samara's pre-school.

You love music and dancing (wearing your sister's leotard in this) and your sweet giggle.  Oh my.

You love drawing and doing anything your big sister is doing.  You call her "Jei Jei", which is mandarin for big sister.  You pronounce cracker "de de", which sounds alot like "da da", which we think is evidence of your first insult and how clever you are, lah?!

 You LOVE to give kisses.  You can get quite rough with biting, pinching and hitting but follow up immediately with a kiss.  You are always ready with a kiss to say sorry even when it's kissing a chair or something you aren't supposed to be climbing on.

You love baths and go crazy as soon as you are nutified.  You chase Samara around trying to tickle or eat her bare skin.

You don't like to be scolded or told no and have an adorable fake cry.  You still cry very LOUDLY when you are sad or mad.  Your lungs have got power!!

You still go to bed at 6PM and are an early riser.  You aren't the best napper but after you turned a year you finally started napping for more than 30 minutes at a time.

Little Lizzie Bean, we think you are most adorable and sweetest little ruffian!  We are so grateful that you are ours.

Five

Five.

 

Five?

 

Five!

F-I-V-E.  Where does time go? While I love that Samara is learning and growing and maturing, something about her turning five also makes me a bit sad.  Five seems so permanent and old.  From now on she will be out of the home more and more.  Outside influences will be greater and friends will play a larger role.  I miss my cooing baby who never slept, her 2-yr old words and cuddles, and my 3-yr old travel buddy.

Here are some of the things I want to remember about Samara at this age:

Witty and Quick

Samara does not miss a beat.  She speaks her mind and remembers everything.  Samara is always ready for a quick response.

Me:  Samara, cut the attitude!

S: Well, you better give me some scissors then.

Me:  Samara, you are destined for greatness.

S: No mom, I am destined to have a friend over!

One Sunday, she wanted to go to the store and I explained that we take a break from shopping and other things on Sundays so others can have a break too.  Samara says, "Well, once we went ward shopping on a Sunday."

When we pulled up to do these photos, she exclaimed, "There are broken windows here."  Then we pulled around to the other side and she said, "This place looks like the junk yard.  Why are we doing photos here?"

Thoughtful

Samara is always drawing pictures for others and is very thoughtful about gifts that she gives others.  She is often telling me what she wants to do for or give someone.  She also loves taking photos and has quite a knack for composition and backgrounds (except she didn't think much of this location:)).

She is a little leader and is IN CHARGE!

She has a "girls team group" at school.  At church we are known as "that little sunbeam's/Samara's parents".  

A few weeks ago, we had some friends over for lunch.  There was an incident and I sent Samara into the other room for a time out to cool off.  I told my friend, "In case you haven't noticed, Samara likes to be in charge."  From the other room she yells, "I don't like to be in charge.  Mom, I AM in charge!"

She is a girl with a plan!

Her favorite days are when we have something going on every hour.  As soon as she is done with one thing she wants to know what happens next.  She is never idle and hates when we don't have something planned.  I hear every day "the day after tomorrow I have dance, it's movie night,  I have a playdate, etc. " She has her whole life planned.  There is a boy at pre-school, whom she wants to marry because "he talks so nice and is shorter than me."  They will live in Texas then Singapore then back in Texas.  They'll have two TVs in their bedroom--one for each of them.  And their kids can each have a TV in their room if they want one.  Today she told me if he died she'd re-marry Ammon.  Her house will have double doors--one red and one green.  Says the miss, "then I only need a wreath to decorate for Christmas."

Loves her "mei mei" and stuffed animals

 

Lizzie was eating and wanted a hug.  She would fuss unless Samara was hugging her.

Every morning Lizzie wants to get into Samara's room to wake her up.  Samara occasionally sleeps on the floor on her "cat bed" surrounded by all her stuffed animals.   She LOVES her stuffed animals and really missed them while they were in storage.  One night she came into Ben after he'd put her to bed.  She asked if she could lay on our bed for a while.  With big teary eyes she asked, "how will we get my stuffed animals out if there is a fire?"

Her laughter and zest for life

Our house nearly burst from all her birthday excitement.  When I don't have little ones in the house anymore, I'm going to look into a rent-a-5-yr-old-for-a-birthday program because it's way too much fun!  Samara Louise, we sure love you!!  Life would not be complete or nearly as interesting without you.

House pics...finally

We've been in our home for 2.5 months.  Wow!   We are slowly settling in and that feels wonderful.   It's been a much bigger pain having all the touch-up work done and little kinks worked out.  Who knew subs wouldn't want to do the job right/get it done after they've been paid?!  It's been many frustrating days wasted waiting around for someone to come do something for 15 minutes, not do it right, and have to come back.  I'm very good at hovering and being bossy now.

I have to preface this post by saying these pictures are lousy.  I most definitely do not have a career in real estate photography.  It took me a month and a half after moving in to find my battery charger.  Then I realized I didn't have a wide (enough)-angle lens so I ended up using Samara's little camera.  I should have just done that in the first place.  The house looks better in person so you'll just have to come visit to see what it really looks like!

Samara's Room

 

Her room is probably my favorite color.  It's the perfect shade of pink.

 

We love the shelves we added to all the closets.  We highly recommend this to anyone who is building.  They are inexpensive and add so much in organization.

 Master Bedroom and Bath

 We really feel like grown ups because we bought our first real bed frame. :)

 

Love this reading nook, bench and book shelves. 

 

Our closet is on the other side of the bathroom and we love it!  The shelves make it so we don't even really need to use our dresser.

 

Do you see the board and batten tub surround?   It's the same off white color as all the trim and the bench seat.  But I'd like to paint it an espresso like the vanities and to match the oil-rubbed bronze trim on the shower.  Opinions?

 Guest Room

 

Lizzie's room and the guest bedroom are the same.  They are both over the garage.  The have a unique shape that made getting a photo of the whole thing impossible.  I'll get a pic of her room when we decorate it.

 Living Room

 

Our living room and office are pretty small rooms but we don't need them to be big.  Love that I have a room that always stays cleans and it's fun to have a place to display the knick knacks from our travels.

Office

 

The gray looks way better in the photo than in reality (it's too purple).  The color scheme for this room will be light and dark gray and yellow.

 Stairway

 

 Bonus area/loft/playroom

 Family Room

 

That couch perfectly describes what this build has done to our relationship.  Ben thinks the couch should be up farther and he moves it forward a foot every night.  I think it should be further back and move it back every day when he goes to work.  And we are OK with the arrangement as long as we feel like the other is not in control. Ha!

 Kitchen

 

LOVE our kitchen.  The 132 hours I spend laying it out and changing it and trying to get a hold of the cabinet guy were worth it!  I feel so spoiled to be able to cook and not sweat and to have counter space, a dishwasher, and a place to store food.  We still need to put in a backsplash.  We are planning on subway (3X6) tiles but don't know what color/material to do.  Any suggestions?  Our island is espresso color and so is our sink.  I wanted to do an espresso colored tile but worry it will be too dark.

Mud Bench

Our mud bench is great but we wish we could have done a bigger one--recommend going as big as possible.  We had planned on the bench extending further to the right, but needed to fit in a return air duct for the furnace in the basement.  [P.S. The day I happened to take a picture is the one and only day it wasn't neat. :)]  That cage is Samara's class rabbit we were babysiting for the weekend.  We won't be getting pets anytime soon.  We have it plumbed for a little drinking fountain to the right of that wall.

 Views

The views are the best part about our place.

 We forgot how amazing sunsets/sunrises are in UT.

 

Good ol' Mt. Timpanogas

 

The "city" lights at night are lovely.

 

Lot below us.  Per the PUD rules they are supposed to keep the trees.  Hopefully, no one will build here for a while.  We plan on do a little camping trip in the summer.  Judging by the copious amount of deer poop, it's a popular place for them to hang out.