Jilly's favorite books

In Jilly's room we have a basket full of books and each night before bed we read 3 or 4 (or 5 or 6 or 7, depending on how persuasive Jilly is that night.)  There are quite a few books in there but Jilly has decided on a few favorites that seem to show up every night.

Ladybug Girl Dresses Up by David Soman, Lulu is a little girl that likes to play dress-up.  Our favorite part is when Lulu dresses as a pirate; Jilly gives a great "Arrr!" every time we reach that page.

Pat the Bunny by Dorothy Kunhardt, This is an old classic.  Jilly loves to "put her finger through Mummy's ring," "touch Daddy's scratchy face," and especially to "smell the flowers" by exhaling very deeply.  She then pushes the book into your nose so you too can appreciate the fragrance, which smells exactly like every 86 year old woman I've ever met.

Peekaboo! by Matthew Price and Jean Claverie, There is nothing special about this book except that it's a popup book (which makes it amazing to Jilly.)  The thing that irks me is that when you go looking for mommy, you find her in bed.  It sounds fantastic, but what are the chances of a mom really being able to escape to bed without kids?

The Going to Bed Book by Sandra Boynton, I'm not a huge fan of most of Sandra Boynton's books, but I do love this one.  We all crack up when the animals "go upstairs to exercise," and the last lines are so soothing "the moon is high, the sea is deep, they rock and rock and rock to sleep."

Temple Walk

We are so lucky to live just 10 minutes away from the Sacramento Temple.  We went there yesterday afternoon for a Sunday walk on the beautiful grounds.  

five on friday

1.  We came home from the library the other day and Jilly immediately sat down like this to read her books.  It was one of my proudest moments (but please ignore the mess!)

2. I got this cup at TJ Maxx for $4.  Best. purchase. ever. Especially since we've had 105+ temperatures for the past week.

3. Jilly has become quite the little diva.  Some friends gave us these boots and despite aforementioned temperatures, she insists on wearing them.  She also doesn't go anywhere (including early morning walks in her pajamas) without her purse, cell phone, and bracelet.

4. Lisa and Blake came for a lovely visit this week.  Pretty sure these two could not be any cuter-

5. I ordered a case for my phone without realizing that it would be coming from Taiwan and would take 1-4 weeks to get here.  I bought this $2 case (also at TJ Maxx) to hold me over.  So for the next few weeks I'm a huge University of Georgia fan.  Go Bulldogs!

Cheese

When I was pregnant with Jilly I pretty much ate all the time.  This was partly because I was hungry, and partly because if I stopped eating, I started to feel icky.  And the thing I wanted to eat the most was cheese.  While my students were testing that Spring, they got a snack of American cheese and pretzels every day.  Those stacks of American cheese on my desk each morning looked divine.  After passing the snack out to my students I'd always snag a square of cheese for myself.  Gross, I know.  But on many occasions it was that slice of cheese that got me through the morning.

Apparently my love of cheese passed on to Jilly.  Repeatedly throughout the day she'll open the fridge, grab the block of cheese, and get a spoon (she can't reach the knives.)  I have become very proficient at slicing cheese with a spoon, and then we share a little snack together.  I love that Jilly and I share such a refined palate.

Roxy

Last week my neighbor called and asked if we'd be willing to watch her dog for the weekend.  My inclination was to turn her down since I am most definitely not a dog person.  But I thought about how much Jilly would love it so I decided we could handle an animal around here for a few days.

Turns out it was a great decision because we all thoroughly enjoyed Roxy.  If there is such thing as a perfect dog, Roxy is that.  She hardly barks, she doesn't shed, she's little, and she's potty trained.  She'd follow us around the house and then snuggle up whenever we sat down.  She was patient with crazy Jillian who could not get enough of her new furry friend.  Don't get me wrong, we're not about to run out and get a dog of our own, but we'd be happy to dog-sit Roxy every once in a while.

Jilly trying to feed Roxy with a spoon- didn't work very well

 taking a walk (before having her hair done for the day)

 I asked my neighbor where Roxy usually sleeps and she said in bed with her.  I thought, "no way, not happening at my house."  The first night Roxy was crying and begging to get on the bed so softy Bryan let her up.  Luckily she just stayed on the end of the bed, but sometimes I would forget she was there and kick her in the night.  Poor little girl. 

 going in for a hug

We all kind of miss Roxy now that she's gone!

new phone

As I mentioned last week, my phone broke while we were in Utah.  For a week I shared with Bryan which was fine because we were always together.  But then we came home and he went back to work. And I needed a phone.  Immediately.

I decided to take the plunge and join the rest of the world and get an iPhone.  I never stopped smiling as we entered the store, purchased the phone, and left for home.  That night Bryan and I sat on the couch playing with and figuring out our new phones (he got a new smartphone as well) and after an hour I burst out, "Bryan we can't become those people!"  "What people?" he said.  "The people who don't talk anymore and only sit playing on their phones!"  He laughed and promised he wouldn't let us become "those people."

While I am determined to not let my phone consume my life, I am loving my new toy.  It's so handy and so fun.  Jilly also loves the iPhone.  I showed her one day how it takes pictures and now repeatedly during the day she'll grab my phone and say, "cheese!"  Which has led to lots of pictures like these-

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The rest of Utah

This was seriously a marathon trip- I can't believe how many things we did in our two weeks in Utah.  And yet, there are so many people we still didn't get a chance to see!  Here is a photo dump of the rest of our Utah trip.

On Pioneer Day we hiked to Ensign Peak.  Bryan hadn't arrived in Utah yet so my Uncle Scott volunteered to carry Jilly.

I love this hike and the great view at the end

Always living on the edge- Jilly's favorite thing to do was climb back and forth under this railing.

We went down to BYU to see Bryan's brother Chad and meet his cute girlfriend Kylie.  It was so fun to watch Jilly run around campus.  Hopefully she enjoyed it so she'll remember to head back there in 17 years.

One night at my Grandma's house I was giving Jilly a bath and it looked like so much fun so Tyler ran and put his swimsuit on and got in.  Jilly loved having her fun uncle in the bath with her!

 Seven Peaks- we went down this slide approximately seven thousand times

 We went to Snowbird one day and took the tram all the way to the top of the mountain.  It was an amazing view, but very stressful because Jilly was dying to run around and I was having visions of her tumbling 11,000 ft down the mountain.  Finally we went inside the lookout room so she could be free.

 There were also some fun bouncy toys up at Snowbird- the older kids took turns going down with the Jillster.

Bryan made some awesome friends his freshman year, and we were lucky enough to get together with a lot of them on this trip.  We had a barbeque up in the canyon then came home and put the kids to bed and stayed up until 3am playing games- that's something we definitely hadn't done since college!

Cute Adelaide and Jilly had so much fun playing together

We went up to my cousins' cabin in Midway for a day.  There were lots of wild 4 wheeler rides.

 Jilly and my cousin's daughter Abilynn had a blast playing in the dirt together.  They were covered in dirt by the end- the bath water was disgusting.

 My Aunt Jodi put together our very own Olympic competition.  These three were the weightlifters.

 and their weight turned out to be Abilynn!  The poor girl was a good sport.

And that's the end of our vacation re-cap.  We're already counting down the days until we get to see all these people again!