Katie's First Piano Recital!

Katie started taking piano lessons from me after she turned 3, so it has been just barely over a month. Ever since she was born she has seen my piano students come every week and has wanted to have lessons like them! We started off really slow, not even getting to play songs for a little while. Then she learned the first two songs in her book and my students' piano recital was going to be in a couple weeks so we worked really hard on those two songs and practiced what to say for the recital and how to bow and everything. She was so excited to do it!

The week of the recital she saw all my students practicing saying the names of their songs and bowing at the end and she thought it was so cool that she was doing that too and that they were all going to play at the recital together. I was going to have her go first at the recital thinking she'd practiced over and over exactly what she was going to do at the recital and she knew that all my students and their families were going to be there and I knew she would do great.

When we started and it was her turn to go up she didn't want to. She asked me to help her so I stood up by her and started prompting her on what to say, but she got really shy. I helped her again on what to say but she didn't want to play right then. Maybe having her be first wasn't the best idea since she didn't see other people do it first. So I said maybe she would try again at the end.

The next two students went and I asked Katie if she would want to go next and she said she wanted to go after a certain two girls, which happened to be second and third from the end. So we went through everyone else and when the second of the two girls was playing I asked Katie if she wanted to go next and she said yes. So in between this girl's songs I snuck back and asked the girl who was supposed to be next if Katie could go before her and she said "Of course!" knowing that if this was the time that Katie was willing to do it, then we better have her do it!

So after the girl was done I got up and went to find my mom who was holding Lindsay but had taken her out into the hallway a little earlier because she was fussing. Lindsay was now asleep so I motioned to my mom that Katie was going to be playing next. So then Katie went up and again asked me to help so I whispered "My name is...." and then she took it from there! The names of her songs are "Right and Left" and "Left and Right." About half the time when she was practicing what to say she would say "Left and Right" and "Left and Right." So we worked on getting those correct and then I thought we'd just have to see what she said at the recital. She still said "Left and Right" and "Left and Right." Oh well, it was cute.

So here she is! It is hard to hear her talking so you might have to turn the volume up, but then probably turn it back down when she is playing. (I would suggest having the volume on your computer up high and then using the volume button that is next to the play button to turn it up while she talks and back down while she's playing.)



Everyone was really sweet and clapped very loud for her, knowing that she hadn't been able to do it the first time going up but that she did on her second try.

There was only one girl after her and after the girl's first of two songs Katie said somewhat loudly, "Now is it time for cookies!!?" Everyone laughed, it was pretty cute. So then the girl played her last song and Katie was excited to have a cookie at the end.

It went well and I am glad Katie ended up going! I had thought if she wouldn't go back up again that after everyone had left we could just record her doing her songs with no one there, since she had done it a ton of times at home and had no problems. But we didn't have to resort to that. Great job Katie!! We are so proud of you!

Pics From My Phone

Guess I should catch up some of the cute pics I've taken with my phone too. Here they are!

Katie with her cousin Luke watching a video on my mom's iPad. They came up here to visit at Christmas time.


A couple cute snuggle pics of Katie and Ben.


I really like this one.


Lindsay was laying on a black couch here. I like how it looks.


Katie loves snuggling her baby. She did a good job at not smiling while she was pretending to sleep. Usually she can't keep a straight face.


This was Lindsay's first smile that I got on camera.


I took this when we were at storytime at the library and sent it to Ben. He emailed me back asking if I had posed her hand and I didn't know what he was talking about so I went back and looked at the picture and she's signing "I love you."


Katie loves to clean. A lot. The living room hadn't gotten picked up the night before and we came down and she said "What a mess!" and while I was feeding and changing Lindsay she picked up the entire living room. I was feeding Lindsay on the couch and watching Katie clean and it was cute to see her pick up something and decide where she thought it should get put away. After she was done she was so proud of herself and kept saying "Ta da!"


Lindsay trying out the bumbo, and a pic of Katie in the bumbo too around the same age. They look a lot like each other!


I love this girl! I think she is so beautiful!


Her first real dentist visit. She did so good and was able to get everything done they wanted to do. Cleaning, flossing, a check from the dentist, and fluoride. She was a little worried about the chair leaning back, and off and on she kept asking if we were done yet. Oh, and she did not like the little saliva vacuum, it was too loud for her. But by the end she liked the vacuum and said it was her favorite part.


Lindsay chewing on Sophie the Giraffe. She's getting good at holding on to things and getting them to her mouth.


When there's nothing else to put in her mouth there's always fingers!


Katie and her cousins Mariah and Rylee doing the Lite Brite together. My sister's family came up for Spring Break and stayed with our parents. It was fun to go over there every day and spend time with their family.


I had to post all of these because I love how much Katie loves Lindsay.












Happy Katie in the car


Snoozy Lindsay in the car


One Sunday before heading to church


More things for her to figure out how to get in her mouth


Katie helping feed Lindsay.

I have been breastfeeding Lindsay and since she was about 2 months I have not had enough milk for her. She would cry when she had drank it all and wasn't full yet. I thought maybe she was going through some growth spurts so I just kept at it. Almost a month of that went by and we were at Katie's 3 year old doctor visit and I asked about Lindsay and my milk and he gave me some suggestions on increasing my milk supply and said it was probably also a lot due to exhaustion and stress. (Check and double check) I tried and tried and tried everything and I still was not making enough milk and Lindsay would cry every time I finished feeding her (talk about stress, hearing your baby screaming because she's still hungry when you're the sole provider of her food). I wanted to keep at it and hopefully get my milk supply back and not resort to formula. Well, after 1 1/2 months of her not getting as much as she wanted to eat (good thing she started at 98th percentile for weight, she definitely had some reserves), I finally accepted that I wasn't going to make any more milk than I already had and am now supplementing with formula. I'm a little sad about not being able to nurse her exclusively, I absolutely love nursing, but she is happier now when she eats and is actually sleeping longer for naps and at night, since I'm sure it's because she has a full tummy.

In a dress I wore when I was a baby. Man, I think she is just the cutest baby!


And the happiest baby!


And one more of that happy little baby.

Catching Up: Part 1

So I'm just going to jump in to it!

Here are Lindsay and Katie, both at 4 weeks. Lindsay has a slightly bigger head (try 92nd percentile to Katie's 38th percentile) and was not very happy with me at the time I took these pictures.


Both the girls at 1 month, again, Lindsay not very happy. She is quite the good baby so you wouldn't know from these pictures that Katie was the one that cried all the time the first few months.


Sweet little chunky baby... (she's almost 6 weeks here)


I laid Lindsay in Katie's bed and Katie thought that was so fun. Here she is giving me a silly little smile.


Then I had her pretend she was sleeping.


Looks like they are smiling at each other except I think Lindsay was asleep.


Katie loves her baby sister.


Lindsay started smiling around 6 weeks. Here's one I caught.


A silly little face from our 7 1/2 week old.


Some of Ben's students gave Lindsay this Valentine's outfit, so here she is on Valentine's Day.


Happy two months Lindsay!! Lindsay's two month stats: 13 lbs 14oz - 98th percentile, 24" - 95th percentile, and her head was 92nd percentile. She's quite the big girl!


Showing off how high she can hold her head.


Oh my... I was upstairs with Lindsay and I came down and saw Katie hurrying to hide her hand under the coffee table. From where I was standing on the stairs I could see her hand under the table. A very blue hand. I asked her what she did and she said "nothing." She knows she's not supposed to color on anything but her coloring books. Finally she showed me her hand and she had quite thoroughly colored both sides with a blue (washable) marker. I'm sure she'd have gotten the back all done if I hadn't come down when I did. But it all came off, so that was good.




Going to church one Sunday. Katie's 2 weeks from being 3 years old


and Lindsay is 2 months and 1 week old.


Playing together on the floor. Katie was telling her stories, most of them sounded something like this: "Once upon a time there were two people, and liked each other very much, and got married in the temple. The end." It was very sweet.


March 6th, Lindsay's blessing day!


She's in the same dress my sister, her girls, myself and Katie wore!


Our little family!


With Grandpa and Grandma LaDow


With Grandpa and Grandma Larson


With Bryan, Stacie, Claire and Mia Pratt


Katie and Claire, two cute girls!!


The whole bunch that came to the blessing.


I just have to show off her rolls. She's got a roll in the middle of her upper arm and forearm, as well as the middle of her thigh. And she almost always have her fists balled up like she's ready to brawl. I think she's saying "You want some of this!?"


Oh yeah, and don't forget her calf roll too. Also, you can see that where she wears socks it's smaller and is pushing all that fat up... looks a little weird. When the weather gets warmer and we don't have her wear socks all the time maybe that will even out.


Lindsay just loves to smile!


Cute little outfit from a teacher that used to work with Ben.


And thought I'd throw this one in. This is Katie. Lindsay has such dark hair that everyone asks if Katie's looked like that and I tell them that it wasn't nearly as dark. I found this picture and had forgotten how reddish Katie's hair looked sometimes!


Stay tuned for pictures from Katie's 3rd birthday party!