Holly Doll

Well I have been meaning to blog Holly's months for months now. So here they are. I can't believe how much she has grown.

11 Months

10 Months

9 months

8 Months

7 Months

6 Months

5 Months

4 Months

3 1/2 Months

3 Months

2 Months

1 Month

Holly's arrival 

Thankful

What could be more perfect then listening to Christmas music with my hubby next to me while drinking hot chocolate? Well maybe if a sleigh full of elves rolled up and cleaned my entire house, did my laundry, and did all my Christmas shopping. But right now it is perfect.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at my parent's house. My parent's house is seriously a luxury vacation spot. I had the entire weekend of Thanksgiving off from work. That has not happened in years. We had all the traditional Thanksgiving food along with a honey ham and we intruded the Skousens to Theda Lines turkey dressing recipe. I love that stuffing. Luke ate during the preparation and took a nap right before the big meal. Since it was all adults present (I guess I can sort of count my two youngest siblings in that category) we ate on my mom's china. I have secretly always wanted to eat on the china. My Aunt Barbara and Uncle Tanner can down from Idaho. Here are a few of the pictures I snapped.

We had German chocolate cake for my dad's birthday as if we hadn't eaten enough pie.

Yep, love birds.

It just wouldn't be a trip to Hyder unless my pyro build an enormous fire. 

 I got to go to one of Shanna's basketball games. It made me want to run out on the court and show those girls a thing or two. But then I realized I could only probably run up and down the court 3 times before I was spent. The life of a has been. I enjoyed watching my sister play.

  

Two Peas in a Pod

These two babes love each other. Luke drags Holly all over the place. He loves to wake her up from her naps and feed her things she cannot eat. I don't know why but I just love these pictures. If I ever forget I have two babies I just put them both into onsies. It seems to freeze them just for a bit.

These next three tell a typical morning story. You could almost insert any caption. I think it goes something like this:

"Hawee that's my bottle" I don't think you want to drink it.

No you really don't want to drink it.  

Holly why?

Halloween

I love dressing up. I was so happy that I convinced my dear husband to dress up with me exactly 15 minutes before leaving for the church. Costumes thrown together at the last minute always turn out the best.

 

Ticking Clock

I know all of my faithful readers, I have given up on my blog. That darn pinterest, perhaps if I looked at it less and devoted that time to blogging. Alas, the moans of a busy girl. Yes I still feel like a little girl playing a grown up game. I come home to a wonderful husband who kisses me everyday and a two year old who also demands his kisses. I have to tell myself all the time that I have two kids. Life has been so busy lately. My latest adventures include some leadership roles which are a little tough for me. I have never considered myself a natural born leader. I am more of the people pleaser and lets face it a push over. I will do everything within my power to avoid confrontation. I am learning the art of delegation and communication.
      I got a new calling in church a few months ago which I can finally wrap my head around. I am the Young Women's President in the Tempe Ward. I have such great girls and amazing leaders stacked into my organization that it make my job a breeze. Now that I have a calendar in place for the next few months, I truly feel better about life. They have brought some life back into me. We played volleyball on Wednesday for mutual. The girls had a great time and the 1st Counselor happens to be the Volleyball coach at Westwood High. At the end Chelsi offered to set me some balls to hit. I killed it! It felt so good. I think I even said something like, "Yeah I had two babies". Okay our net was extremely low because of the poor quality, but it was exactly what I needed. A little pick me up and Lisa you got this.  
     The next area of my life which I rarely expound on is my professional career. I sound so old and drab when I use the word career. I hate to even chalk it up to a career as my professional aspirations are to work 1 day every two weeks and stay home with my children. Let's call it my day job, that seems much lighter. We have been busier then every on the 7th Floor. Our unit has enough beds for 48 patients and it is enormous. I actually gave 7 units of blood products in one day on two different patients. 7 units!! That is absolutely nuts as the patient could have a severe reaction every time a new unit is hung. I have worked for Phoenix Children's for 3 1/2 years now. In the last few weeks I have trained to the Relief Charge Nurse. What is a relief charge you ask? Well it is a fill in for when the 3 regular charge nurses are not scheduled. It is usually not very often, but one of our Charge Nurses broke her wrist and is out on medical leave. So today I was in charge of the floor. I carried the phone and prayed all day long that nothing would happen. I had a fairly decent day filled with some problem solving and creative staffing, but I survived. Thankfully no patients were transferred to the PICU and no one coded.
     The other night my kids and husband were sound asleep at 9 o'clock. I had worked that day so my mind still desperately needed a wind down. I sat on my chair reading a book. I started to get annoyed at the clock ticking. I just wanted quiet. Then I thought to myself, when is the last time it was still enough in my house to hear the clock ticking. I was thankful for that little moment. Heavenly Father know our needs and knows what experiences will strengthen us. I am thankful for that little voice that tells me Lisa you got this.

As if crawling isn't enough

This week I have come to a realization that my baby is growing up. She eats all sort of foods and thankfully no teeth yet. I swear last week she learned to crawl and now she is climbing and pulling up on everything. She just turned 7 months two days ago.

Weddings

Every time I think about blogging another month has gone by and it seems like I have taken less and less pictures. I had two weeks off work in August and it was wonderful! Ofcourse I forgot my camera on our trip, but here are few snap shots of the festivities. Jacob and Stacey were married in San Diego on August 11th and Tice and Ellen were married August 15th in Mesa. Tice is my cousin that lived in Gilbert, whom Luke adores. Tice would play with Luke for hours in Aunt J's back yard when I was hugely pregnant with Holly. Now Tice is off with his new bride to Provo for school. 

At Jake and Stacey's wedding

   Tice and Ellen's wedding

For some reason I actually love these pre-pictures of our family. They tell the whole story of our crazies. 

 Emma. I love this girl! Really this one is funny. (And all of my other nieces I didn't get pictures of.)

 Bride and groom (I know, terrible picture)

 Luke in suspenders. Yep he loved those.

My Holly Doll is so sweet. I am so glad she picked our family.  

A relatively decent bride and groom shot.