Day 41 (June 23) - FIRST BIRTHDAY!!!

Lena with Eva eating her birthday snack.

For Lena's birthday I labeled everything for my family (who baby-sat her on her birthday) with "Lena's Birthday (fill in the blank)".

Eva was awesome to get a picture of Lena in her birthday outfit. :) She was a little grumpy in the picture but still super cute!

This is Lena still in her pajama shirt on her birthday. I love that Eva captured her excitement AND her walking (she has just started walking "everywhere" without hanging on this week).

It is such a blessing to have my family there for me and willing to watch Lena when I need to work. I know that she gets the love and attention that she deserves from them and also gets to know them really well. Even though I was not with Lena for her whole birthday I was not sad because I knew she would be with my family. :)

Now more on reminiscing. I really cannot believe that it has been a whole year since I held my baby Lena in my arms for the first time. I look back on the day I met her while thinking about how much I've been able to get to know her and baffle at the fact that the tiny baby girl I held in my arms is that same full-of-energy, always-curious, alert little girl. I think of how I loved her with all of my heart from the first day and have felt so blessed to have the opportunity to get to see her learn and grow. She amazes me everyday with the new tricks she learns and the new things she understands, although, part of me knows she has understood LONG before I NOTICED that she has understood.

Day 40 - Read and Hide

One day I'll figure out how to get these pictures in the "landscape" view. But for now you can look at them like this. :) Today I was cleaning the kitchen when I came in the living room to find Lena hiding behind the recliner reading one of her books. I'm so excited that she loves looking at books and turning the pages! It was fun to see her find a book by herself and start looking at it. It only made it that much cuter to have her hiding behind the recliner. :) She loves sneaking behind there.

Day 39 - "Asleep before the bottom of the hill"

I mentioned that when we were getting ready to leave Jeff and Linda's house Lena was REALLY tired. Every body could tell that she really needed some sleep. This is when Jeff said "I bet she'll be asleep before you reach the bottom of the hill." And indeed she was and she didn't even need her binky. :) She was one TIRED baby girl. :)

Day 38 - Jeff, Lina, Grandma & Grandpa

Here is a picture we were able to get of Jeff, Linda and my grandparents together. It was really fun to see them again. Even though we may only see them once a year or so (however we are trying to make it more often since we live pretty close to them) I love that it is never awkward and always fun to talk. It's crazy to me that just having some matching DNA can create that bond between family members that keeps us from seeming like strangers, even if we hardly see each other. I love being able to see family. Randy was able to talk to my cousin Matt who just got back from his mission to Chile (where Randy went) so that was really fun for him.

Day 37 - Walking on the grass

While we were visiting my aunt Linda and uncle Jeff in Provo Lena had a chance to get to know their dog Jake. She had the best time watching this old dog mozy around the house. At first if he got close, she would squeal and giggle, then as the evening when on she got more and more brave and was walking up to touch him by the end of our visit. This was one of the first days where she really started breaking free from hanging onto furniture and walked on her own to chase Jake around. As we were leaving Lena got VERY tired and was pretty grumpy. While everyone was taking picture, the only thing that would calm her down was to hold her by the hands and walk her across the grass like my dad and Randy are doing in the pictures. :)

Day 36 - Nest

The other week Randy and I noticed birds flying around outside by our back door and noticed that they were starting to build a nest. Randy was ready to go out and spray it down but I remembered as a kid having bird nests in our back patio cover and it was always so exciting to hear the new baby birds chirping every year. I said let them build their nest at least for this year and if it became an annoyance I would let him tear it down after the birds were finished using it for the year. I was so impressed that they built this little mud nest right on the wall! These creatures are so amazing. I still have to decide weather or not I want to leave it up. I've heard stories about birds attacking you if you go outside and I definitely don't want that happening with Lena. :(

Day 35 - Balancing Cookie

So this picture may seem a little weird, but Randy and I thought that the story about it was hilarious. Lena was being really good one day so we gave her a cookie to reward her. After sucking on it for about a minute she decides to be her spontaneous self and throws the cookie from her high chair. Well it didn't bounce or roll or lay flat, it just went "splat" and landed on the ground just like it is in the picture. We laughed so hard and decided that it was picture worthy. :)