5 Months Old Today

 

Some of the biggest mile stones for Lynlee this month include
-her ability to laugh at almost anything
-rolling over from back to tummy almost immediately after she gets put down on the floor--which is weird because I don't think she really likes being on her tummy, but she just can't help it
-sitting up almost all on her own
-she got a new bouncer from Grandma Smith! and she loves it...pictures to come soon
-sucking on her fingers almost all the times, oh and her toes too
-she has tried melon a few times, but almost choked on it a few nights ago, so that might have to wait...
-still eating and sleeping a lot!

Oh, how we love you, Lynlee!  The time has gone by so quickly. 
Last weekend, Grandma and Grandpa Smith came to visit, so I thought I'd include a picture from the weekend, just because they look so great:

summer nights

I know, we still need to post about our trip to Denver, but in the mean time I just had to share something that was too cute to wait. 

First, let me start with a story.  When I was young, like 9ish, my sister and I, and possibly my brother would steel leaves from our neighbor's tree.  These weren't just any leaves.  They were huge.  And our neighbor was a cop and we were totally afraid of him, so when we successfully got the leaves from his tree in the front yard, it was kind of a big deal.  The leaves were just the right size to be sewn together with pine needles to make little moccasin shoes.  We had great fun.

Now, fast forward to tonight.  Dane and I had just enjoyed a lovely bbq dinner with some friends and went outside to let the little ones run around on the front lawn.  There was a huge weed/tree growing in the front, so Mike, our neighbor, took the opportunity to hack it down.  I saw the leaves and my childhood memories took over.  I grabbed a couple of the leaves, some pine needles and made some little shoes for their 4 year old.  They were pretty cool until he walked in them and then they fell apart.  But that was ok, because it inspired something much cooler.  Hats.  We had a little too much fun and had to pick on Lynlee as our model because she had the perfect size head and didn't mind if we put anything on her.  So, I hope you enjoy (because we sure did!).

This is Jack with the first prototype hat on.

Then we had to make another, this time with the intent to be a hat.

But it really was the best when we wove two hats together. 

Lynlee didn't seem to mind it at all.

Happy Father's Day!

This is the first father's day that we have a chance to celebrate how wonderful our daddy is.  Dane has been so wonderful since Lynlee was born and I am going to take just a moment to brag about how lucky we are to have him in our family! 
From the day Lynlee was born, he has never hesitated to take care of her (and me) when she needs some help. 
He was by far the best stay-at-home-dad for 2 1/2 months while I went back to work to finish the school year.  During that time, he learned how to sooth Lynlee better than I can and just the right way to make her laugh.
Whenever he gets home from work, if Lynlee is asleep, he always makes sure to go in and see her before he goes to bed and give her a kiss...and then wants to be the first in the morning to go get her out of bed.

I am so grateful to have a husband who is such a loving, caring, father.  We love you, and hope you have a great father's day!!

Did you know that I have an art blog?

I know that a lot of those of you who read this might already know about my art blog, but I am thinking that my it might be one of the best kept secrets in Provo! Ha ha.  Just kidding, but really.  Sometimes I wonder if anyone really knows that I have an art blog.  So this post is dedicated to just spreading the word.  The address is bridgetsartworld.blogspot.com and there is a link to it on our side bar.




Here is a post that I recently put up just to wet your pallets:



This week I had a great opportunity to attend an art conference put on for elementary educators all over the state called Arts Express.   It is a conference that they put on every year with great keynote speakers and workshops all focused on using all of the arts (visual, drama, dance, music) to teach children more effectively.  This year, we had a great representation from Edgemont Elementary including 14 people! Myself, next year's art specialist 3 parents, our principle, and 8 other grade level teachers.  I think it was a really good way to get everyone connected and excited about using the arts more. 


Oh, yeah, side note-- did I mention before that they were able to hire someone for next year?  I know that I posted before about how the district had decided to no longer support the grant position in the school, but they changed their mind!


Anyway, I wanted to share a little project that I completed yesterday in a wonderful workshop.  This is a little accordion-style book designed to fit into the 4th grade core of teaching about local habitats in Utah, one of which is forests. 

This is the closed book.  The woman who taught the workshop had put the books together for us ahead of time so that we would have time to paint the pages.  She used this crazy "eyelash" ribbon to tie them closed.  Not quite sure how I feel about it...

This is how the book opens "accordion" style.  there are paintings on each of the pages.  This type of book is great to make for kids because it is easy to put together and you can add info one one side of the pages like I did here, but then put more information on the other side.  If I were to teach this to students in an elementary class, we would use the other side to display our writing about our pictures.        This style of books is also really easy to display because it can stand up!

Believe it or not, 4th graders can totally do this type of paintings.  Our teacher taught us some great skills, like how to paint: realistic looking conifer trees, mountains, a sky with clouds, trees in the distance, trees with snow on them and other things.

This is definitely a lesson that I would love to teach to my students at home as well!

Introducing...food!

Well, we haven't really introduced solids into Lynlee's diet yet, but did give her a little taste of what's to come in the future.  (She is only 4 months, and I think that we are waiting to make the plunge around 6 months.)

We went out to dinner at Red Robbin tonight for Dane's birthday and Lynlee was starting to get restless.  My dinner came with a side of cantaloupe, so we let her try it.  She just sucked on it all throughout dinner.  And, I think she liked it!

St. George

Last week, we took a trip down to St. George to celebrate Dane's birthday and spend time with friends.  We spent time in the pool, went on a hike, walks and bike rides.

Even Lynlee got to get in on the swimming.  It was her first time in the pool and she was ready!  Outfitted with a matching hat, long sleeved rashguard (to keep her out of the sun), and ladybug floaty raft.

Daddy and Lynlee

 

 

"I crazy person."  Holland's favorite quote of the week. 

Katie and Evelyn Smith

Aleta and Holland Young

Max, Mike, and Jack Smith

We also spent time with Dane's Aunt Beth, who just moved into the house that Dane's parents bought.  As you can see, it wasn't hard for them to get along.  :)

our garden!!

For as long as Dane and I have been married, I have been waiting for the day when we had a place where we could plant a garden.  In that sense, it is hard being a renter--never knowing how long you will be in one place and never really feeling any ownership. 

Well, we finally decided to stop waiting this year.  We didn't have a place to plant a garden so we built one.  We are very proud of out little planter boxes that are behind our house. They are each 4'x4' and 12" deep.   Our neighbors who live underneath us helped us build them about a month ago and have put a lot of work in with us to find the soil and fill them, and then with the planing and care of our plants. 

We bought most of our plants from the Provo High School FFA club for a great deal as tiny little sprouts.  It is really exciting to see how far they have come!  This is really the first year that I have done anything like this, and really hope that we will be able to put some kind of fence around it before the deer find us.  As much as we love local wildlife, we would like to enjoy the fruits of our labors!

This is the first box:  On the left, from top to bottom,  we have 2 basil plants and 8 pepper plants (Anaheim, jalapeno, yellow and sweet).  On the right side, you can see our home-made tomato cages surrounding our 8 tomato plants (beef steak, yellow, purple, cherry, and tomatillo).  Those little white dots are pesky little seeds that are EVERYWHERE!  The wind brought them in and they are the source of all of our weeds so far.  Luckily though they are pretty small and easy to get rid of.

And for the second box: can you see the row of green beans along the back?  From left to right again, there is a cilantro plant in the back, next a tiny cucumber plant (we had 2 but one has already died so we pulled it out and this one is not looking so good either...) and in the place of the dead cucumber we have a roma tomato plant.  The middle column from back to front is 4 little onion plants (again, pretty sure one is already dead) and the 4 broccoli plants (I think the broccoli gets the growing award).  And the last column on the right you can see our 2 lettuce plants and 3 little cabbages. 

We still have a few more things to plant like watermelon, squash, zuccini and a pumpkin plant, but they all need a lot of space, so we are most likely going to need to build another box. 

4 Month Check-up

We took Lynlee in for her 4 month check up yesterday.  To be honest, it was a little rough.  We ended up waiting almost an hour and a half to see the doctor--so here you can read: tired, hungry baby.  And then we had shots.  Yikes.  I never want to do that again.  I am hoping next time there won't be such a long back up.  But the good news is, our little squirt is still growing really well!

Here are her stats.  She has moved up in %tile for both weight and head circumference but dropped about 20%tile in height.  She is evening out and looking good.  We love you, little baby!

wight: 13 lbs. 3 oz (36th %tile)
height: 24.25 inches (44th %tile)
head: 16.1 inches (43th %tile)



And here's a picture, just 'cause she's cute.