Valentines 2014

For Valentine's, we helped Jennkia make a finger paint picture for her grandparents.  I saw the idea on Pinterest and they turned out really cute! Jennika lost interest after a little while, so we had to hurry through it a little bit. But, she did really good with it! Only tried to eat the paint once. :)

For Valentine's weekend, I thought we would just celebrate at home and do something fun, but Dane decided last minute that he wanted to take us to Las Vegas! He got us a room at THEHotel at Mandalay Bay. It was probably the nicest hotel rooms we've stayed in. It had a living room and a separate bedroom. That was a nice surprise... we didn't have to share a room with Jennika. Usually when we go to hotels with her we all have to go to bed at the same time and be SUPER QUIET since we're sharing a room. But not this time! The room even had 1.5 bathrooms! You know, for all our guests. ;) Pretty crazy!

We went to dinner at California Pizza Kitchen and walked around the Town Center outdoor mall for a little bit. When we were done there we went back to the hotel. We took the long walk down to where the Shark Reef Aquarium was at and decided to check it out! It was fun to walk through and see Jennika get so excited about everything. She loved running around from one tank to the next. We all had a good time there.

The next morning we woke up and went to breakfast with Drew and Clarissa and the kiddos at the Santa Fe Station. Their breakfast buffet is seriously the best! And, if we would have remembered our card to get it, it would have only been $5 each! But we paid $7, which is still worth it for all the awesome food. The only bad part was that it was so crowded! We waited in line forever to get in and then the lines to get food were way long too!So that was kind of a bummer, but we still all got PLENTY to eat.

Then we all went to the Premium Outlet Stores and walked around for a while and shopped. It was way busy there also, but I loved all the stores they had! We're definitely going back... but maybe next time on a weekday. We found Jennika this way cute dress for church for $3 at OshKosh and Dane got a new pair of pants.

Jennika was getting restless in her stroller and only wanted to run away so we wrapped up our trip to the mall and headed home. Awesome baby girl slept the whole way home! She's the best. We had a lot of fun getting away for the weekend and seeing Drew and Clarissa! It was a fun trip!

Jennika Update Time!

I keep thinking that I'll remember all of Jennika's cuteness and milestones forever... or at least until I feel like writing them down. But when it hit me that I already don't remember how old she was when she started crawling, I realized it was time to start making time to write it all down! So here's a big/random list of updates about Jennika:

• She sucks on her two fingers all. the. time. I have pictures of her doing it since she was a few weeks old, so this has been happening for a while. It's the cutest! She usually sucks on her fingers when she's chilling out watching tv or when she's sleepy.

• She got her first tooth the week of her first birthday. We were wondering if she was ever going to get any teeth!
• She was [probably] 8 or 9 months when she first started crawling. Before that she just rolled everywhere she wanted to go.
• She started walking when she was 16 months old... right around Christmas. 
• Her 2nd tooth came in ON HALLOWEEN. She was not a happy camper for a few days. All the pictures I have of her from Halloween she just looks so miserable. 

• She has consistently taken 2 naps everyday at 10:30 and 3:30 from the time she was 6-7 months until 15 months. After that nap time changed a little bit.

                                      

• She is the best sleeper! I was worried after the first 6 months of her life when I was still getting up 3 - 4 times to feed her still. I thought I would never sleep again! But ever since she turned 6 months old she has slept through the night (8 - 8) every night. 
• She now fights me at bed time. Not because she doesn't want to sleep, but because I don't put her in her crib and leave quick enough. I know... parents-of-a-good-sleeper problems.
• This is a weird one, but we still always change her diaper and get her dressed on her changing table. I would have thought we'd outgrow it, but meh. I guess not!
• Jennika has been in the 1st percentile for weight her whole life. No rolls here!

• She's always worn her clothes for a really long time before growing out of them. For the longest time she was still wearing 3 month stuff. She's now in this weird in between stage of clothes. The 12 month shirts are too short, the 18 month shirts are gowns. We pull it off with leggings... I think. :)
• She loves dogs and she'll woof whenever she sees one. She really started getting into them 3 or 4 months ago. We showed her 101 Dalmatians on Netflix and she loved it! She was sitting on Dane's lap watching it and every time she saw a dog she would start "woofing" and jumping up and down. It was awesome :)
• She can tell us what a dog, cow, lion, bear, snake, monkey and cat all say. And when we ask her what a Jennika says she plays/says peekaboo!
• Right now her favorite word is NO and we hear it all the time. (Crossing fingers that she grows out of this very soon! Or at least learns a few more words to mix in there with it.)
• She loves being outside! She likes to play in the dirt and rocks. She also really likes exploring at the park. 

• I'll admit it, she LOVES playing on our iPad. And she's really good at the games she plays. She loves playing on Endless Reader, putting together puzzles and listening to "I Am a Child of God". It blows my mind how good she is at using it. 
• Her favorite show, by far, is Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood. She could watch him forever I think! 
• 
• She loves going to get the mail with dad. When he gets home from work he'll pick her up and she'll pick up the mail key and off they go! It's a nice 30 second break for me :). 
• Her favorite food is probably macaroni and cheese. She also really likes apples, peaches, applesauce and cereal. 

• She doesn't like mashed potatoes. So weird!
• She's seen Despicable Me 2 and Frozen at the movie theater so far. 
• My favorite is when she blows kisses and gives kisses to people! 

• She got to go to nursery for the first time 2 weeks ago just to try it out and she was a natural. She loved all the toys and treats and kids to play with! She definitely didn't care if mom left. :( 
• She used to do so well going shopping and out to eat with us but now that she can walk she gets super restless in the cart. Going shopping takes a lot more planning and strategizing now. 
• She loves her aunts and uncles and cousins. Mostly it's the attention that she loves, but she loves them too. ;)

 

• She loves her grandparents and always gives them kisses! She especially loves playing with each grandma a few times a week when they babysit. 

• She loves reading all of her books! She calls them "Bah's". We read "Are You My Mother" and these cute little finger puppet books that Grandma Fergie gave her a lot.

We sure love you Jennika!!!