Busy Month!

We spent the last month away from Greenville. My poor sister in law was in a horrible car accident when a driver did not tie a ladder down and it flew off his car on the freeway. Unfortunately, she ended up hitting his parked car after trying to steer away from the ladder in the road. I am so thankful that none of her 3 kids were with her because the other driver's truck went right through the car where the kids would have been sitting. My sister in law broker her pelvis, several ribs, had a partially collapsed lung and broke parts of her vertebrae. I am so thankful she is alive and will hopefully make a full recovery. This has been such a trying time for her and her family though. The doctors have said that it will probably be 6 months before she can walk with her full weight on her legs.

Halle and I flew to Utah to help my sister in law and her kids during the day while her husband worked. Halle had so much fun visiting her cousins and I was happy I could be there with them. Taking care of 4 kids was definitely challenging, but it was fun to see my nieces and nephew in a different environment and get to help with homework and the day to day activities. Honestly, most days I felt so inadequate. Her church was providing meals and taking her kids to after school activities. I only had to get them lunch, babysit, get them showered and get them ready for bed. I felt overwhelmed by just that! I left with a fuller appreciation of all my sister in law does. She works from home about 30 hours a week, takes her kids to all their activities, always cooks dinner, is an awesome budgeter and has a great food storage. She is also in the Relief Society presidency all while caring for 3 kids which is a full time job by itself. I don't know how she does it. I wish I were half the mother she is.

We were also able to spend some time with my mom, dad and Carley. We had so much fun! It was nice to just relax and I always enjoy seeing how much my mom loves Halle. Unfortunately I have no pictures from the break. I will have to get some of the videos my mom took of Halle. Some things Halle learned over the last month:

- At 10.5 months she started walking! She is hilarious to watch. At first she was so cautious, but now she kind of just fearlessly throws her little body around.

- Our pediatrician told us we could give her ice cream. Well that was a big mistake because once you start, you can't stop giving her some until your bowl is gone. If you try to ignore her standing there staring at you, she gives you a loud growl to remind you she's there waiting.

- She has started mimicking us more and tries to say a lot of the things we do. Her favorite word is baby (it sounds like buby). She has an obsession with babies and won't leave my friend Mary's baby alone. She has the same obsession with dogs and gets so excited if you bark or say the word dog.

- For the past several months she has been on the best schedule! I feel so blessed to have such a good sleeper and she was even good while we were on vacation. She sleeps from 8:30 pm to 8:00 or 9:00 am and then eats and goes back to sleep until 10:00 am. Then she naps from 12:00-1:30 pm and then from 4:00-5:30 pm.

- She loves the bath and will try to climb on my legs and push herself over the ledge of the bath so she can get in.

- She officially has 4 teeth now.

- She still gags pretty easily when she eats and often still pukes. She's getting better though. She loves peas, beans and cherrios.

- She won't eat more than an ounce of her bottle unless she is in a dark room with no noise. She is very easily distracted and would always rather be playing than eating.

- She can't figure out how to drink out of a sippy cup. She bites the spout and then smiles and sometimes giggles like she is hilarious.

- She loves to push around the stroller we gave her for Christmas.

- She still loves books. She starts to whimper whenever we hold a book because she is so excited to read it.

I love my little girl and am having so much fun seeing her grow. There are definitely challenging days, but she brings so much love and joy to my life.