So long Santa Fe!

Taylor is at another interview and Sage is napping. I should continue cleaning up, but I need a break. Moving is one of the worst things in the world. It's right at the top of the list with a sick baby, throwing up, getting a ticket, roller-coasters, and sitting in traffic. With that said, we have loved our time here in Santa Fe. Our little apartment was the perfect set up for the three of us, close to shopping, met some great people and loved our ward. Things we are going to miss: good neighbors, our 2 minute walk to Target, our membership at the Cottonwood Rec Center, the fun park across the street with the fun splash pad and friendly faces at church. Things we will not miss: (mostly noisy issues- our girl is kind of a light sleeper) Wednesday lawn cutting days that always wake our girl from her naps, rude management people, the loud garbage truck that comes on a daily basis and sometimes a couple times a day (although Sage has learned to love that red truck- she always signs "stinky" and waves and blows kisses) and hearing sirens several times a day (remind us never to move next door to a fire station!) We have made a lot of good memories at this place. Sage crawled here, took her first steps, had a half birthday and first birthday, we had some fun get togethers with friends including a fun Christmas White Elephant Party, countless trips to Target to just walk around and get out of the house (Mondays are the day they do mark downs in their baby department!), lots of walks around the neighborhood, watching the Biggest Loser in the evenings while Sage was in bed. This is also the home where we found out that we would have another child bless our lives and this is also the place we came home to when we found out that baby would be our Harper girl. We really have enjoyed this last year here and are going to miss this place. However, we are excited for this next chapter in our lives! 

It's a GIRL!

We made the video to share the news with our family and then friends. We were surprised, but are as excited as can be! With all the many changes and surprises going on in our lives, we decided we needed a little "pick me up" and went to the fetal photo studio at the mall to have an ultrasound a few weeks early. The news sure did lift our spirits, which would have been lifted either way of course, but we are happy to know! Sage was as scared as could be and the ultrasound tech let her lay on the table with me. She cried for a few minutes and then rested her head on me and watched the screen. The tech said she was crying because she thought she was going to have a brother and stopped crying as soon as she found she was going to have a little sister. Two girls! We can't wait to meet our little Harper Lee.

A girl who knows what she wants

We have all been sick around here. It started with Sage's virus. A couple days later she caught a bad cold and now the three of us have been fighting it for over a week now. We do not get sick very often and it is a good thing because it is pretty awful. I was up at 3:30 in the morning and couldn't stop coughing and then got a really bad headache. So, when Sage woke up at 5:45 this morning Taylor got up with her and let me sleep.  I got up about 7:30 when Sage heard me sneezing and came to our door yelling, "mama mama" over and over again. Shortly after I dragged myself up she pointed to the TV, patted the couch (which means she wants to sit down) and did the sign for elephant. She loves animals. We have been putting Animal Atlas on for her from Netflix and she goes crazy over all the animals. When I told her we were going to play and watch it later she threw a fit. She then tried every trick she knew to try and get me to understand what she wanted. She made her train noise which is for Thomas the Train and made her monkey sounds for Curious George and then went back to elephant. She swung her little arm back and forth for an elephant trunk like I've never seen. I finally gave in, but insisted I got a big squeeze and a kiss first. She ran over and gave me a huge hug and lots of kisses. I then sent her to give her daddy loves too and she gladly obliged. I put her show on and when I came back she was on the couch with a bowl of Annie's Bunnies and a bottle of orange juice. Of course she had to have a snack too. She usually only has a bottle at bedtime, but Taylor couldn't find her sippy. She was in heaven. I think she would suck her bottle all day if we let her, which is why we limit it to naps and bed. ( And for those of you who think it is awful to give a bottle at bed, don't worry- we are trying to wean her off of it. We are slowly diluting her milk. We are about half milk half water now) And if you are wondering about her outfit... I put the blue leggings on her because her jammie bottoms were wet and then she brought me the shorts and tried putting them on herself. I asked if she wanted them on and she said, "ya!", which seems to be her new favorite word besides "mama" which she says over and over again all day long.

Because it's been a while... here is a Sage update!

Sage is a lover of Sonic Strawberry Slushes, drinking bath water and reading the same book over and over again. Sage's favorite song these days, is Popcorn Popping. She knows all the hand movements to it and everything. However, every time it gets to the part about "a popcorn ball that would smell so sweet" she always bring her little foot up to her face and smells her foot. I think she is confusing the word sweet and feet! "A popcorn ball that would smell so feet!" So, she smells her feet! She is too funny. I need to film her. She also loves to wash her hands. She does not like to eat her go-gurt from the tube any more but always wants to be put in her highchair and for me to put in a bowl for her to eat with a spoon. What she really loves is the colorful sprinkles I add to it and dipping a graham cracker in it. She is all about the dip. She had a grilled cheese sandwich today for lunch and had to have ketchup to dip it in. Her tantrums are becoming fewer and far between. We know there are a lot more down the road, but for a while our days were non stop crying and tantrum throwing. She knows close to 40 signs now, a good number of those are animal signs. She loves animals, especially farm animals. It is so fun that she can tell us what she wants and tell us about what she sees. The other day she was looking at a picture of herself, which she was wearing a knitted beanie with a flower on it. She signed "hat" and then signed "flower". At the doctor last week she weighed in at 20 lbs 10 oz. I hate that she has a runny nose but it is so cute to watch her get a wipe and dab her little nose. She keeps things fun and happy around here! We love our little bug.

Girls Trip to St. George

Jeanne planned a wonderful girls trip to St. George. Kristi was so sweet to let us stay at her condo. We left Thursday morning and didn't get home until late Friday night, so late it was really Saturday morning. We ate delicious food, chatted, went and saw the show Hairspray and the Tuachan, slept in, went shopping at the outlets and lounged at the pool. It was such a good time. Much thanks to Jeanne and Mary for making it such a fun trip! 

I didn't get many pictures. I'll have to upload the few I did get later... but I wanted to at least write about it for now...