Mmmm...Salsa!

She's a little timid at first, but it doesn't take long for her to realize that salsa is delicious!

Weekend in Houston...

We were in Houston this past weekend for a quick trip to visit Josh's extended family! We had such a great time and it was so nice to get away for a bit and spend some quality time with the Houston crew!

On Saturday morning, we took Lucy to The Houston Zoo! It was Lucy's first time to the zoo and she absolutely loved it!

She pretty much ran around for a solid 2 1/2 hours...

Pink flamingos...

The children's zoo...

Lucy had so much fun petting the lambs and goats (poor animals)!

Lucy and Maci watching the prairie dogs!

Nasty snake...yuck!

Aunt Leisa, MacKenzie and Maci pushing Lucy through the zoo during a little snack break...a girl has got to eat!

Checking out the giraffes with Aunt Janet (aka: Squeezie!)

Squeezie, Josh, Lucy and Granny...

The elephants were so close!

She was a little timid with the elephants...I think they were a little too big and close for her liking!

Family pic...

A very large iguana...

The seals were a huge hit!

After the zoo, we had lunch at Jason's Deli and then headed back to Granny's for nap time! I thought Lucy would CRASH...but nope, she only napped for maybe 1 1/2 hours. She was just having too much fun...can't waste her time sleeping in Houston!

So after nap time, we headed out to Katy to see Janet and Greg's new house! Lucy had a ball blowing bubbles in their backyard...

Granny and Grandad (Lucy's great-grandparents)...

While Uncle Greg and Grandad grilled steaks, we ran to the park to play and watch MacKenzie take pictures with her friends for the Sadie Hawkins Dance!

Beautiful MacK and her date, Collin...for Sadie they dress alike in matching t-shirts!

Lucy and dad had fun playing on the playground during pictures!

After the park, we came back to Janet and Greg's for an amazing dinner outside on the back porch...it was the perfect night! Lucy was great even though she stayed up way past her bedtime!

Happy girls with full tummies!

What a fun weekend!! We are truly blessed with amazing family...and they sure do love our Lucy Kate!!

Fun Play Date!

Yesterday, we met 3 very special friends and their kiddos for a play/lunch date! Jenn is in town from Virginia Beach for her brother's wedding....it was so good to see the Michael family, especially their 2 sweet girls! I've been friends with these girls since freshman year of high school...I love that almost 16 years later we're still good friends and now have little ones that can play together!

Liz and Reed | Jamie and William | Me and Lucy | Jenn, Reagan and Aubrey
Playing with pinwheels...

Lucy was trying so hard to get her pinwheel to spin...she just learned how to blow!

William and an apple...

Aubrey and Lucy...

Busy moms!

17 months...

I've been HORRIBLE recently about taking pictures...totally not like me. So, this precious picture will certainly work for Lucy's 17th month post....It was taken 2 weeks ago (and she still looks the same)! I can't believe our little love bug is 17 months old...SLOW DOWN TIME. It really is hard to believe that Lucy has almost been in our lives for 1 1/2 years! I can't imagine our world without her in it...what did we use to do with all of our time?!

The biggest change/update is Lucy's nap schedule. A couple days before she turned 16 months, she dropped her morning nap, so she is now napping only once a day. Most days I'll get 2.5-3 hours out of her. She typically goes down around 1pm and wakes up around 4pm. It took several weeks for her to adjust, but I think we're finally there...thank goodness. About 2 weeks ago, she started waking up 1.5 hours into her nap and crying really hard (so I knew she was still tired). After a few days of this, I stopped going in her room and just let her cry it out. The first day she cried for about 15 minutes and then she finally went back to sleep and slept for another hour. Now if she wakes up during her nap, she'll cry very briefly and go back to sleep. Now that she is taking only one nap, she's going down at night around 7:45/8pm, which is nice. When she was napping twice a day, she usually went to bed around 8:30pm. She is still sleeping 12 hours at night. It's been an adjustment for me as well now that she is a once a day napper....I've had to rearrange our schedule some and make sure that we have a morning activity. It's nice that our schedule doesn't revolve around 2 naps a day anymore....but I'm still getting use to it. Some days 8am-1pm seems very long, but it's getting easier!

Lucy's vocabulary has really increased over the past month. She can repeat most words that we say (although it doesn't always sound the same)! Words that she knows and says regularly are...dada, momma (finally!) dog, doggie, duck, please, more, all done, eat, wa-wa (water), milk, snack, stuck, baby, book, walk, bye-bye, hi, no, up, help, outside, bubbles and blocks...I know there are more, but those are the main ones. I just love hearing her talk!

Lucy loves going for walks, playing outside, feeding the ducks, "reading" books, playing with Chloe, watching videos (her favorites are Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Baby Einstein's Baby MacDonald), Kindermusik, and play dates! Right now she doesn't like baths, taking medicine or getting dressed...we're pushing through and hoping these too will pass! :)

She is still a great eater (most days) and milk drinker. She weighs 24.5 lbs. Not sure on her height, but she's a tall one! We recently switched to size 4 diapers and she is wearing 18-24 month clothes.

Happy 17 months Lucy Kate!! We love you so much sweet girl!!

Buddies...

Lucy and Chloe are quite the duo these days...they love playing together!

Bath Time Blunders (again)

Lucy is in her second phase of not liking bath time. This first happen back in October, when I put bubbles in her bath (thinking she would love it)....she did not like the bubbles and therefore decided that she did not like bath time. After about of week of screaming through bath time, she finally got over it and went back to her normal self...LOVING her bath. Well, almost 2 weeks ago (out of nowhere) it started again. It's awful...and this video really breaks my heart. But sister girl has to have a bath.

We really don't know what to do about it. Today, we played in the bathtub several times (with no water) to try and make it a "happy" place. She had a great time as you can see here (although, I'm not sure if Chloe felt the same way)...


Tonight when it was time for bath, she immediately freaked out. I even got in the bath with her, but that did not help. Maybe she is afraid of the water? I have no clue. I'm just hoping this phase passes soon. Life with a baby/toddler is a constant cycle of phases. You make it through one and another one starts. Ugh.

This little light of mine...

Clearly, my voice is horrible...so please just pay attention to how cute Lucy is!

Lucy Preview...

Last weekend we took family pictures with Josh's parents and brothers...this was Julie's Christmas present from all of us. Scott sent me a sneak peak of Lucy today...based on this picture alone, I will consider the photo shoot a success! I can't wait to see the rest!

{Scott Hollrah Photography}

Fun at the park...

Yesterday morning we met the Rector crew at Andy Brown Park to let the girls play and work off some energy before lunch and nap time!

Having fun at Kid Country...

Feeding the ducks...I think the girls ate more bread than the ducks!

Tripper boy watching the girls....before we know it he'll be running around with them!

Playing chase...

Gotcha!