Shillig 4 Family

The other day Aimi Lark was having a hat obsession. She insisted on putting on just about every hat she could find. Here are two of her "looks" courtesy of Jake's patrol cap, her beanie made by Aunt Audrey, my mickey mouse ears from Disneyland, Momm'a Easter hat, and daddy's beret. (don't mind her too small pajamas haha) (she is also doing the motion of "come here" or "let me hold mali su" in this picture)

So tonight I attempted something I don't think I will be doing again anytime soon. I took both my girls to the pool ALONE! Our friends Sarah and Victoria invited us to go swimming with them and since Jake was off helping the Turner family move I figured it would be fun. Mali Su was awesome and just laid out on a lawn chair and sunbathed/napped. She was absolutely adorable! Aimi Lark did not quite understand the concept that if she stepped off the steps she would DROWN so I was constantly stopping her from drowning and she just kept getting angry because she wanted to be with the BIG kids. It was all and all a very fun adventure. Next time I think I'll bring Jake :) (Mali Su chillin' on the carpet while I shower Aimi Lark) (Caroline and Aimi Lark after their shower to get off the chlorine and sunscreen)

Last night was our last dinner for who knows how long with the Sarager family. We went to dinner, had ice cream, and finished the night with a movie (and conversation til 2am). Thanks for a great night of fun and plenty of AWESOME memories!!

Today we worked really hard on Mali Su's repositioning and stretching. This week at her physical therapy appointment they told me (right) side (here she is watching baby einstein for encouragement) and tummy time would do wonders for her so today we worked on that. She did so great at tolerating all these new positions. She is now exhausted and tuckered out. I am sad that our insurance is "special" but I know that with the effort we put in and the Lord's help it will all work out for the best. We will keep y'all posted on her progress.

Today has been a fun one. These girls are up to NO GOOD! I have never minded all that much when Aimi Lark takes things out of drawers or off shelves because she seemed to do it in such a way that it was easy to pick up behind her... but NOT ANYMORE! Now she has a knack for leaving hurricane style destruction in her path and today there are two destructive toddlers so I ended up doing this...

As my sister in law Ashley put it "Aimi Lark has a death wish" because today while I was making the bed she was playing on Jake's side of the bed and over there there are only books. Today she figured out how to open his nightstand drawer without me realizing and in a split second put just about every piece of military "flash" (lapel pins, ribbons, medals etc.) in her mouth! I looked over at her and she stood up and looked at me like a deer in headlights and opened her mouth and they all started to fall out. I tried to get them all out and as I did she made a swallowing sound and then burped... shortly after this she got the hiccups. I was not sure whether or not she had actually swallowed anything but I called Jake and then the Dr. The Dr. said to bring her in and he would order an x-ray to make sure "if" she did swallow something it wasn't "stuck" anywhere. We went to the Dr. and then to the hospital and the x-ray went well and s...

Aimi Lark celebrated 17 wonderful months of her life yesterday. It was memorial day so we spent the day with the Furstenau family and then Madilyn came over to play that night. Aimi Lark LOVES to play with other kids! Lately I think she is bored at home with just me and Mali Su. I hope to get her outside to play more and more as the weather FINALLY begins to warm up. Tonight I watched her as she took off her sock and then proceeded to pick the sock lint from her toes ever so methodically. It may sound icky but it was adorable to see her concentrating so hard on a small task. Today we had some time to kill before picking up Jake at work so I stopped at McDonald's to grab a "redbox" and then a shake for Jake. Aimi Lark LOVES to drink out of the shake cup so I got her a kid's water cup and gave it to her in her carseat. This was her first time having her own cup. You could tell she was super excited! Well as we drove over bumps in the road the ice would hit the s...

Ok so today is a day to beat all days... BUSY! is what I am... I have not stopped since getting up this morning. I am one to stay home and tend to my home and children and not one to "run the roads" as my mom would say. Today I had no choice. The long weekend caused EVERYTHING to fall on TODAY . "Terrible Tuesday" is what I would like to call it. 1. Physical Therapy for Mali Su. This went well and she is such a trooper! But what didn't go well was the fact that I found out today that my insurance (good insurance is why Jake works full time and goes to school full time) does NOT cover the HELMET Mali Su will need if the stretching/repositioning does not work. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!? 2. I then went to the post office (Luke I mailed your book to Taiwan today) got gas, and went to the grocery store. Dropped salad off at a ward member's house who had surgery. Picked up Jake from school and then took him to the dentist (I am going tomorrow instead of t...

I totally feel like I am stuck in a Soap Opera right now. You know how on drama TV programs there is always some underlying "stress or drama" going on? Even if it isn't constantly talked about it is always there and you can feel it. Well that is my life right now and the underlying DRAMA/STRESS is this medical bill that is from SEPTEMBER 2007! It turns out that even though my insurance company told me TWICE that day that I had coverage I DIDN'T and so I have been working with them so THEY would pay the $1000 bill but on SATURDAY I got the medical bills AGAIN! and here I haven't heard from the billing people in two months so I thought it was taken care of... NOT!!! So I had to think about it all day Saturday, Sunday, and Monday and now I have to take care of that today on top of Physical Therapy for Mali Su, dentist for me etc. well I am realizing more and more that I am a total homebody and enjoy doing all my wife/mom duties AT HOME way too much and this wh...

From our family to yours we hope y'all have a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend. To all those servicemen and women out there THANK YOU for all you and your families do!

On Saturday Jake's home stake had a reunion here in Utah. It was nice to meet so many people. Jake enjoyed it so much! He was able to see so many families that had long ago moved out of the ward. It was quite an enjoyable afternoon. Jake and Anna Larson Jake and Jason Erikson

Tonight we had a great, healthy, inexpensive dinner at "MAX AND CHEESE" with Nate, Ashley and Madilyn. It is a "kid friendly" restaurant and it is perfect for Aimi Lark and Madilyn, Jake even tried to entice Mali Su with some toys. They had so much fun with all the little tables and toys. It inspired me to have a play room like that someday... ahhh someday...

Mali Su sits in my lap while I play on the computer so I decide to take a picture... Jake does Mali Su's neck stretches with her before bed. She was and has been very cooperative with the stretches. You can tell she is uncomfortable but she has yet to cry like she did when we first practiced the stretches at the Physical Therapist's office. I think we are making progress! Jake is such a sucker... I hear Aimi Lark last night but I had just got up to feed Mali Su so I sent him instead. She was not even crying... but she ended up out of her bed and in ours... ahhh daddy, she has you right where she wants you (in the middle of the bed!)

My Grandma Amy Lee Sellers made many many crafts when I was a girl. One of my favorites were SOCK BABIES! She took a girl's lacy sock and turned it into a little baby doll. I loved these babies! I found one the other day in a jewlry box that my mom gave me. I had no idea I had it! I pulled it out and it made me so happy! I wanted to give it to my girls right away to play with but I feared they would destroy it. I am hoping I can somehow figure out how to make more so they too can enjoy this baby doll. I did give it to Mali Su the other day and it was so perfect for her because it is small and soft and she could hold it perfectly!

Yesterday Mali Su went to her 1st physical therapy session for her torticollis. While there the physical therapist evaluated her situation and taught us stretches to do with her at home. Upon evaluating her he found that her head was off by 11mm (avg is 4mm), her ears are off (one more fwd than the other) and that one eye is higher/lower than the other and that the top of the left side of her skull is elevated. NOW I know this makes my child sound pretty funny looking but in reality NO ONE is completely symmetrical (no matter what Hollywood tries to tell you) So now we have weekly physical therapy sessions to evaluate her progress. We will see how this first month or so goes and if there is not enough improvement they will want to try more methods than just repositioning and stretching. As you can see in this picture I took while typing this she is PERFECTLY beautiful!!!

When we went to pick up Jake from school tonight (which he sadly got out early and b/c my phone is crazy lately I didn't know he called me) he was standing on the curb waiting for me. In his hands he had a planter box. He opened the door to the truck and presented me with this amazing HERB GARDEN! that he researched, planted, and put together himself! (He then told me he felt like a little kid again who's mom forgot to pick them up after school) Lately I have been expressing my desire to grow a garden. We only have a tiny porch/balcony on our third floor condo so space and sunshine are limited, as is my gardening experience. I do remember helping my Nana and Papa dig up potatoes, pick beans, shell peas, and snap beans and always wanting to pick the big ears of corn but that is my extent of gardening. (Unless you count snapping off the tips of my Grandma Sellers' aloe vera plant as "harvesting.") Jake helped me to begin my "city" garden tonight an...

Well the dreaded day finally came today. Jake never wanted to buy a crib because of the fact that kids' body parts can become stuck in the slats. This evening while Jake was at class the girls were napping and I was finally able to put away our COSTCO load. I hear Aimi Lark whimpering so I go in to check on her and automatically see her leg stuck out the side of the crib all the way to her thigh! I go over and sure enough it is stuck. I do not want to push around on it too much and hurt her. My first thought was that a friend of ours (the Wood family) the dad broke the crib slat to get out his daughter's leg and I thought I can't do that! I'm too weak. I turned around to leave the room to call Jake and as I did I said a prayer in my head to help me to know what to do and the thought popped in my head "PAM spray!" and so I got it out of the cabinet and went back in and in two quick sprays she was FREE! and went right back to napping. She does have som...

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Today was a bit of a crazy(due to customer service morons) and overbooked day for me (because I am "special" and cannot plan things correctly) and my husband was so amazing once again and took care of me in my time of need. He took MALI SU to class with him tonight! After class I asked him how it went and he said that the professor seemed happy about it but that some student made a comment that "if that baby starts crying I'm leaving class" and Jake responded "Well maybe you should transfer to another University that does not encourage having children." YES! GO JAKE! is my response. When we went to pick him them up from campus I told Jake we should let Aimi Lark play around on the grass on campus for FHE. Aimi Lark LOVES the grass and FLOWERS! We ended up following her EVERYWHERE as she EXPLORED! BYU campus is GORGEOUS! I love it! Jake said she was just checking out the school for when she applies in the future. It was so nice to let her play...

Aimi Lark gets quite excited when I pull out the camera or video camera. She gets all smiley, says "HI!" over and over as she gets closer and closer to the lens... But the point of this post is that I wanted to share how cute she is. Lately she has become very good about saying her prayers and by that I mean she wants to say them ALL THE TIME! It is so adorable! She will come up to me and fold her arms and I will then proceed to fold mine and bow my head and close my eyes and say a short prayer. During the prayer I peak and see that she too has her eyes closed and her head bowed. I LOVE IT! such a sweetheart! I wish I could sneak a picture but today when I tried she of course did the above instead of pray :) my dear sweet photogenic child will not let me capture "candid" moments because she is excited to say "hi" and smile for the camera.

When we went to Rock Canyon Park on Mother's Day it made me think back to when Jake and I were dating. I had never seen snow actually fall from the sky. I had seen snow on the ground that was left over once when we visited Washington D.C. Well when Jake and I were dating it snowed! It was Halloween 2003. He took me to this park to play in the snow. I realized a couple of things during that winter and they were 1. I did not like the sound the snow made when I walked on it and 2. I did not like snow flakes falling on my face so I would constantly be blowing and shaking my head to keep the snow off my face and eyelashes. Jake thought these things were extremely cute/funny and he still does because those things about snow still drive me bonkers! My poor husband didn't even own a coat when I met him. When we dated he always wore the jeans he has on in this picture and a blue button up shirt and ball cap from is best friend kenny. In this picture he is actully wearing his ...

Aimi Lark is such a funny little thing. She is constantly changing and learning so many things. Here are some examples... 1. She is an excellent photographer when she sneakily gets her hands on our camera: 2. She so kindly shares her snacks with her baby sister: 3. Jake's vanilla shake is all she wanted tonight. Jake got a few sips but only because he forced her to share: 4. Today I brought in a step stool to organize the shelves in her room (because I'm short) well she also discovered that she could stand on the step stool and reach things too (but to destroy them of course.) I found her at one point sitting on the stool and trying on hats. These are mickey ears from the summer I worked at Disneyland. Needless to say the step stool is now hidden. But on a side note she did discover today that she can open and reach in the silverware drawer...I guess we will be childproofing the drawers and cabinets... (and yes her bib is somehow turned around like a superman cape) I...