SYTYCD at our house!

Last Wednesday we had our weekly "So You Think You Can Dance" at our house! The girls carpooled out to us and we had a blast! We ate Native New Yorker wings and fries and I made kazoos for dessert. I'm not sure if I spelled kazoos right, but I made big chocolate chip cookies for each of us and we topped it with vanilla ice cream. So good! On a SYTYCD note: my favorite dancers Joshua Allen and Chelsie Hightower are still in the running!!



Allie kept asking,
"Help you mommy?
Help you?"






Can you tell she likes
cookie dough?








She was very thorough
with cleaning up
afterwards.









She kept a close
eye on the cookies
while they were
baking.













She got a little antsy
waiting for the girls
to come, so Nick
sang to her on his
way home. She has tears
because I made the
mistake of taking the
phone away before she
was done. Silly me!



While we watched
the show, Allie poured
water from one glass
to another...needless
to say, we all got new
glasses.

Infant Swimming Resource

Allie's last day of ISR for this year was last Saturday!! She's quite the swimmer at 20 months! Last year she was barely 6 months old so she just learned to float on her back, but this year she actually learned to swim. She got it down in only 4 weeks, which I was grateful because you pay by the week. This year she learned the swim-float-swim sequence. She only cried the first two days and then after that she was fine! Allie's instructor, Kristi, has worked with my mom for several years, so I was always very comfortable having Allie swim with her...even when she didn't come above water as fast as I would have liked. One day during the last week she had to swim wearing winter clothes, tenni-shoes, and a regular diaper. She did so well!

Allie's 1st day!

Kristi has candy for

the kids to pick from

after they swim.

I think this was Allie's
favorite part.

She floats...

then rolls over...

and swims to the

step!

Allie's ready to swim! This was the day she swam

in clothes.

Allie and her instructor,

Kristi, on Allie's last day!

Don't pay attention to me talking. This was Allie's

last week of swimming.

This one is kinda boring, but it shows that she

can float for as long as she needs to, even with

clothes on.

She took off her sweatshirt and shirt because she

was doing fine with them on. She put the wet shirt

over her face to see if she could pull something off

of her face while still floating.

Bandaids

Are there any kids out there that don't love Band-aids?? Allie loves them! The other day I was blogging and Allie wandered over. She pointed to my elbow and said, "Owie mommy." I didn't think anything was there so I didn't think much of it. Later on I was wrestling with her on the ground. My elbow started to itch, so I asked Allie if I had an owie. I thought I could feel a mosquito bite and was wondering if it was red. She bent down to look at it and said with her furrowed brow (anyone who has seen Allie knows this look), "Dar it!" (darn it!) I guess I say this when she gets hurt? Then she jumped up and ran off. She stopped before she went around the corner and said, "A minute mom, a minute!" while holding up one finger. I followed her to see what she was doing. She ran down the hall saying, "A Ban-aid, a Ban-aid mom." I thought it was so cute of her to run and get a bandaid for her hurt mommy! I let her put it on me and then of course she had to have one too. She found a really big one and put it on her elbow, and then peeled it off and put it right on her bellybutton. She pulled it off and on several times and then ran off to do the next thing on her list. Before I had her I had no idea I could love her so much!!



Working hard to get that
Band-aid on just the right
spot.






Showing off her
"Ban-aid".

Garden Open House

Our hospital just opened the private garden for our OB floor! We are so excited! It is beautiful with trees, plants, green grass (shh, it's fake, but it totally looks and feels real!), a waterfall coming out of a rock wall in the middle of the garden, benches, and a playground area for kids. Banner Gateway was built using evidence based practice, so everything they have done in building it has been proven by evidence to enhance healing. From the outside structure to the rooms inside, everything is focused on nature. Nature has been found to have a healing effect. This picture is a view of the hospital from the front. It was built to look like mountains or rocks with a waterfall running down the middle. (The blue color in the middle is windows.) Our new garden will allow our moms and families to get out of their hospital rooms and into nature, and provide a place where the new brothers and sisters can get out some energy! Allie and I went to the open house on Thursday and got to hang out with my mom and Rick for a little while! (Plug for Banner Gateway: I know I might be a little biased because I work there, but seriously, this hospital is amazing! Every room in the hospital, not just our floor, is a private room. They have room service for your food so you can order what you want and when you want instead of everyone getting the same meal tray, large flat screen TVs in every room, internet access in every room, movie packages for like $5 a day to watch however many movies you want (our dads like this one!), huge windows and a fold out couch in every room (for family obviously), each hospital bed mattress is filled with air and adjusts to your body when you move or turn over (our patients love this!), and the rooms are huge! I could go on and on, but I think you get the point...)

Grandma playing with

Allie in the play area.

Allie loved the waterfall

(on the left in the pic).

Rick picked her up and

let her splash the water

and she loved it!

She tried to crack the

combination to see

what was in the safe in

Grandma's office.

Allie's face sums up how

much she loves Rick!

He can always make Allie

laugh! He was making

his Vocera (kinda like a walkie-

talkie for all the employees)

make funny noises.

This is what happens after

spinning too much...

Allie is keeping her options

open. In case she decides to

not be a nurse, she could

always try her hand at being

a sumo-wrestler. She spreads

her legs wide and shakes her

hips while slowly lowering

to the ground. Goofball!

Allie loves washing her

hands with the hand gel on

the wall.

Zazoo's Garden

My inlaws planted a garden in their yard and it is absolutely thriving! Nick and I have toyed with the idea of square foot gardening and have decided to do it. Hopefully it will be done in the next couple of weeks and I will be sure to post pictures! Anyways, I couldn't believe how much Allie loved playing in grandma's garden! Her and Emma had a fun time finding and then picking the ripe veggies...and some that weren't quite ripe, too. FYI: My nephew Jayden couldn't say Susan, my mother-in-laws name, so he called her Grandma Zazoo. The rest of the grandkids have picked up on this and she is now known as Zazoo. Allie loves playing with her and Papa. Last Wednesday Allie and I went over because we haven't seen the family in a few weeks. Allie got to play with her cousin Emma. She has really been missing her! When we were walking inside Emma said, "Allie, hold hand?" So Allie gave Emma her hand and said, "Yes, hand." and they walked inside holding hands. So cute! I wish I could have had my camera out! Allie is lucky to have her cousins so close!

Grandma taught Allie

how to pull out the

carrots.

Allie picked some carrots

and Emma picked a

tomato!

Aunt Kristi was showing

the girls how to find and

pick the red tomatoes

and not the green ones.

Emma and Allie look

anxious to find them.

Allie found some!

And Emma found some

bell peppers!

Oh what do you do in the summertime...

when it's blazing hot outside?? You fingerpaint! I'm trying to be more creative, because it's too hot to go outside and our poor Lady and the Tramp, Winnie the Pooh, and Fox and the Hound 2 DVDs are starting to wear thin...and so is my patience with watching the same movies over and over and over and over.

So what do you do in the summertime?

You remind your

great-grandma

Powell how much

you love her and

miss her in Utah!

You dress up in a

garbage bag and

paint your face?

You spice up that

plain 'ole plastic

bag!

You concentrate

very hard on

which colors to

mix...

and where to put

those cute little
hands!

You show off your

colorful hands.

And you pretend

like you know how

to use the timer

on your camera!

A Triple Happy Birthday!

June 24th is a popular day for birthdays! My cousin Caitlin turned 15 today, my friend Melanie turned 23 today, and my friend Jaime turned 22 today! Happy Birthday girls! Yesterday we celebrated Caitlin's birthday at her grandpa's house. We had fun cooling off in the water and eating way yummy gluten-free cakes. I'm telling you, we are perfecting those gluten-free recipes! My aunt Wendy made a gluten-free Texas sheet cake with marshmallows and chocolate fudge on top and my grandma made a gluten-free chocolate pudding/whipped cream cake with a nutty crust. Both so good! Even the family members without celiac disease liked it! Allie loved splashing everyone in the pool and got to show off what she has learned so far in her ISR swimming lessons. She was playing with rings in the pool and they fell onto the step that was too low for her to bend and pick them up, so she started picking them up with her feet and bringing them to her hands. It was so cute to watch! Poor Nick was working hard at work and didn't get to come. But we missed him and I appreciate what a hard worker he is!

She loves

the water!

Picking up rings

with her feet!

Lynsey and Grandpa

I love this pic of Josh and

Grandpa laughing.

The birthday girl!

The big 1-5!

Love that

breadcake!