1st Grade

Brooklyn started First Grade on Thursday. I cant believe she is old enough for elementary! I still think she is 3 years old sometimes (more like wishful thinking, while she's cute now, that was by far her cutest and sweetest age). A few days earlier Brooklyn and Daddy went to the bookstore and found a fun book about starting first grade. Brooklyn said she was going to be much more brave than the girl in the story. I don't doubt she was bc she isn't afraid of much especially when it comes to being out going with strangers. Brooklyn had a great first day and said she had a lot of fun and met a lot of new friends. Hopefully she continues to enjoy school through out the rest of the year... Here is Brooklyn on her first day

Three Months

It has once again been another month with our sweet Lola. Like last month this one seemed to go by faster than the one before. How does that work? It must be because we want so badly for it to go slow :) Lola is moving right along with her developments and personality. She is such a little sweetheart and the worlds best baby. Everywhere we go she just hangs out and enjoys the scenery. Everyone comments on how good a baby she is. Of course she's good, she's mine ;) She still hates doing her tummy time and whines after a few minutes of it. Since she can already hold her head up really well I dont push her to do it that often. She does love her little Bumbo though. Shell sit in it next to someone and just hang out. She likes it because she can see everything going on around her. Over the past few weeks Lola has acquired a few nicknames. Some that I dont really care for but well see which ones end up sticking for good. So far they are Lo, Los, L, Lolers, Lola K, Lolapops, and Lolakins. In July we went to Denver and Idaho making the number of states that Lola has been in 7 (She has also been to California, Nevada, Arizona, and Wyoming) She is quite the traveler already.

Listed are some of her milestones and progress over the last 5 weeks:

Lola's eating schedule is every 3 to 5 hours. She sleeps between 7 and 9 hours a night with a 2 hour nap first thing in the morning, another 2-3 hour nap midday and then a 1/2-1 hour nap late afternoon. I am really lucky that she is a such a good sleeper :)

Week 8-
2 Month check up and 4 rounds of immunizations. She did really well, just slept a lot the following two days.

Week 9-
Started taking a pacifier again. She refused them at around 6 weeks and I tried relentlessly for weeks after to get her to take one. I tried every style of every brand and even tried dipping them into sugar water to get her to like them. Nothing seemed to work and then out of nowhere she agreed to like them. She now loves her Binks and has to have it to fall asleep for naps and bedtime. She has even figured out how to hurry and suck it back in when its starts falling out. Silly girl!!

Week 10-
Took an (entire) bottle for the first time. Up until then she would take a sip or two, then cry and close her gums tight so we couldnt get it back in. This was a huge milestone for us and such a relief for me. Dont worry that I cried tears of joy for this wonderful moment!

Lola found her hands and fingers. She is non stop playing with them and sticking hand, fist, or fingers in her mouth. Just recently she has started to really grasp at things so that she can feel them against her fingers and also trying to get whatever is close to her face into her mouth.

Week 11-
Started smiling at me in the middle of feedings. She'll stop and give me this huge, wide open smile and then go right back to eating. She does it a few times a day at least. It is so stinking cute and I love it!! Another cute thing she does while eating is if she's tired, she'll cover her face with her arm over her eyes. Its her way of saying "Dont bother me, Im eating" :)


Week 12-
Started crying when we put her in her carseat. She used to be fine once the car started moving but now she cries all the way to the freeway and sometimes longer (until she's too tired to cry anymore) :( She will also lean way forward and grunt and squirm like she is trying to get out!

She has officially grown out of her 0-3 month jammies. The sleeves are 3/4 length on the arms and she cant fully stretch out her legs. I was determined to get my money out of them so I made her wear them until she hit 3 months, however, she can still wear 75% of the rest of her 0-3 clothes. I know Luke is going to have a heart attack at the thought of my buying more clothes already!! Haha. Poor Dad.

This past week she has been trying really hard to laugh. Before now she would laugh silently but now when she opens her mouth to laugh a little cough or squeak comes out too. Its adorable of course but Im not sure if that constitutes a real laugh yet?!

We have started doing the drowsy tuck in at bedtime and so far she's done great with it. She sucks on her binki and soothes her self right to sleep. Have I mentioned that my Lola is such an angel baby?! I am one proud Momma. I can not be more in love than I am with her. She is amazing and beautiful and all mine and being her Mom is sooooo much fun!!

Aviary

While we had Brooklyn this week we took her to an aviary in Salt Lake. It was pretty cool for all of 2 hours. We saw all kinds of birds including eagles, vultures, owls, and flamingos. It was really hot and Brooklyn hates the heat, it turns her into such a whiner pants. She would go up to a cage find the bird in the trees and then run up ahead to a shady spot and wait for Luke and I to catch up. She is a funny one. At the end her and Daddy got to feed the Pelicans and she thought that was pretty neat. Sadly I forgot the camera for all our other activities this week which included Kangaroo Zoo, Seven Canyons Park, Cowabunga Bay Water Park, and Snowbird Resort for the Alpine Slide, Bungee Trampoline, and mining for "special power" jewels. It was a great week with Brooklyn, we had a lot of fun and we were so excited for the chance to spend some real time with her this summer. Our little (but really a big) girl is off to First Grade at the end of the month :)

Brooklyn enjoying some time in the shade :)

Lola's Blessing

We blessed our sweet baby girl the first of August. Almost all of our family was able to come out. We also had a lot of our extended family and friends come too. It was an amazing day with perfect weather and the most beautiful blessing given to Lola Catherine by her Daddy. She was such a sweetheart all day and looked like a precious angel in her pretty white dress :) We are so grateful for the gospel and the opportunity it gives us to be able to have eternal families and also to give our children wonderful blessings that will help guide them through their earthly lives. Lola has a beautiful spirit and she brings so much love and happiness to all those around her. We are in complete awe of our beautiful baby girl that we have been blessed with just 3 short months ago.

Auntie Paige

Long time family friend Justin Mikelson

Brittany Seastrand

The entire Gray family in one place at the same time. This rarity deserved a picture.
Steven, Lorraine, Breecia, Alexis, Dylan, Sydney, Lucas, Brooklyn, Lola, Paige, Nathan,
Taylor and Ally (Nathans girlfriend)

Heads up: She was such a smiley girl that day so of course I took way too many pictures and could not just pick a few for the blog...

Bear Lake

We went to our family cabin in Bear Lake at the end of July. We mostly hung out and went to the pool. We also went to the Lake one day and to the Minnetonka Caves another. What fun we had...

At the caves. Lola stayed behind with our previously
mentioned Bubby :)

Luke, Brooklyn, Syd, Alexis and Taylor

Lola had a fun filled day at the beach and wore her little
self right out!

Misc. Pictures From Lola's 2nd Month

August 6

August 5

July 27

July 26

July 24

July 23

First Time At The Pool

We took Lola to the pool a few weeks back. It was her first time. She did great. She was tired that day but didnt cry once and seemed to really enjoy the water. We put her toes in at first then sat with her in a baby pool that was only 6 inches or so deep. It was fun to watch her face as the kicked in the water. Since then we have been a few more times and she loves it. Its like a huge tub for her and she sure gets those legs and arms splashing!!

My tired little Lola

Love her face- looks just like her Daddy :)

Trip To Bonka and Bubby's

With Lola turning 3 months I wanted to catch up and blog our events during her 2 months.

Mid July we went to Denver to visit my parents for a long weekend. My mom was being a cry baby bc it had been a whole 2 weeks since she'd seen Lola and thought she was going to die if she didnt get a Lola fix ASAP. The trip started off awful as we decided to drive and when we got to the top of Spanish Fork Canyon our car broke down. Being in the canyon we had no cell service and Luke had to flag down a car, at 10 at night, in the dark. The Tow to get us back to Spanish Fork city was 300 and we didnt even get there until 1:30am. Poor Brittany had to drive from PG to come get us. We went back home to get some rest before beginning our journey the next day in our other car. As soon as we got on the road, Lola cried. For 3 hours!! We kept having to stop and try to console/feed/play with her. It took us 3 hours to get to to Price (it should only take 1) Argh! I so badly wanted to give up and go home. Then in the middle of screaming Lola quieted right down, went straight to sleep and slept the entire rest of the way there (another 6 hours). The rest of the trip was great. We spent the weekend hanging out and having a good time with the family. Side note on the title: We call my Dad Bonka bc when my nephew, Dylan, was little he couldnt say Grandpa. Instead it came out sounding like Bonka and it has just always stayed. We used to always call my Mom Grammy but recently she saw the movie Pineapple Express and when she did not find the humor, saying it was a ridiculous movie, we started calling her the Grandmas nickname in the movie--Bubby. She HATES it. So we try our best to keep it up :)

Lola hanging out on Bonka's lap

The cutest sneeze ever!

A random Owl that hangs out on my parents neighbors roof. I dont think Ive ever seen an owl in the wild, let alone in a city like that. Creepy.