Utah Trip

A few weeks ago Hazel and I drove to Utah with my parents for a long weekend. My brother-in-law Jake was graduating from BYU and we couldn't miss the chance to see family and friends. We had a wonderful trip and Hazel was a total angel the entire time! Seriously, she was totally off her schedule, didn't nap anywhere but the car or the stroller, and was up late sometimes, but she just went with the flow. That's my girl! She totally crashed once we got home though, haha.

She was excited to start our trip:)

Gabby and Jake at graduation. Jake graduated in Construction Management and already has a job with a woodworking company. Congrats Jake!!!!

Unfortunately it was raining pretty hard after the graduation ceremony so we didn't get many pictures, but here's a cute one of Hazel and Harrison.

We met up with Uncle TJ at In-n-Out for lunch:)

Hazel with Uncle Harrison shopping for his mission. He's going to the Halifax Canada mission! Hazel made sure he would be styling:)

It was a great trip! We were sad Mike couldn't come with us, but he had school. The best part of the trip was coming home to find the house clean and dinner waiting of the table for us. Mike's the best!

Screaming and Lovies

Hazel LOVES going to church. She loves seeing all the people stare at her, smile, and wave. She loves seeing her friends and playing with them (aka- pulling/poking eachother). Hazel especially loves the family that sits behind us during sacrament meeting. We are thrilled of course that she loves going to church so much, but there is one problem. She frequently gets so exciting she screams with joy! I'm not talking about quiet happy noises. I'm talking about scream-so-loud-the-whole-chapel-can-hear noises. Haha, it's pretty funny actually and we're always torn as to what to do. You can't really take her out for being too happy right? We're working on teaching her some reverence. Until then, Mike has pointed out that we are THAT family in the ward with THOSE kids, noooooooooo! I don't want to be THAT family. Hazel let's get your screaming under control please:)

Hazel has also found her favorite toy. She is obsessed with her "lovies." They are like mini blankets that bunched in the center were the head of an animal comes out (my description makes them sound terrifying, but they're pretty cute). Anyways, Hazel loves them and won't sleep without them. The other day she was trying to knock over the laundry basket that was on top of Kiara's kennel. I kept stopping her and she kept going back to it. I wondered if she was being deliberately misgivings until I saw one of her lovies in the basket, haha. She just really wanted it. When we realized how much she liked the pink one she had we tried to buy another one exactly like it, but of course they don't make that kind any more. Luckily, we got her a different kind and she likes them both equally so we can always have one for nap time and one to wash:)

Today she had both of them at once and it was too cute.....
Look I can crawl even with one in each hand:)

9 month stats

Hazel had her 9 month check up today. We knew she'd grow a lot in the past few months, but we didn't realized just how much. At 6 months she was only 14.5 lbs and 26 1/4 inches. Now at 9 months she is....

18 lbs 5 oz
28 1/2 inches tall

She's growing like a weed!

Hazel signing

Hazel has been signing for about a month now. At first she would just imitate our signs, but now she actually will ask for milk.

Today in church she looked up at Mike and signed milk. Since there was only 10 minutes left in the meeting, he just told her to wait a minute. She then screamed at him and signed milk again! Haha, the girl knows what she wants:)

Here's a video of her signing....

Late Easter Post

We had a wonderful Easter weekend. General Conference was wonderful! Mike and I enjoyed watching all the sessions at home while Hazel played around the house. I'm SO glad you can now watch Conference online (in ASL no less!) It's wonderful and I know that if we'd been at the stake center I would have missed half of it out in the hall with Hazel. Yay for technology!

Mike's mom, Teri, made Hazel an adorable Easter dress! Doesn't she look so cute in it:)


On Easter morning we scattered a few plastic eggs around the bedroom and let Hazel crawl after them. She LOVED the eggs!

We attempted to take a cute family picture, but this was the best one we got. It's okay, but nothing special. The sun was bright and Hazel was a bit grumpy while we were trying to take it. Oh well, maybe next year.

Here's Hazel just looking super cute!

It was a great Easter. Most of all we enjoyed the time as a family to remember the resurrection of our Savior. We are so thankful for our membership in the church and the truths we know!

What are naps?

Hazel has recently decided that some days she just doesn't need naps. Yesterday she slept to total of 20 minutes from 6:30am to 8pm, yikes! She tries to go and go and go until she crashes.....


Notice the cracker still in her hand, haha! Needless to say, I am anxiously awaiting my delivery from Amazon ("Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child"). Thanks to this book, which I borrowed from a friend, Hazel was on a great sleep schedule until last week. I decided I need to own a copy myself. Wish us luck!

Ready for Summer!

ASL Temple Sessions in Denver!

Last Saturday was the first ASL Endowment session at the Denver Temple! It was a wonderful experience. There were 6 deaf members who came out for the session and lots of other people connected with the Deaf community. Best of all, we are able to be part of it! Mike is an ordinance worker and I am a volunteer (women with children under 18 can't be ordinance workers).

We have missed working in the temple ever since we moved from Utah. Then one day the temple President (who was my stake president when I was young) came and spoke at our stake conference. After the meeting, Mike approached him about the possibility of having ASL sessions. Earlier that week a temple worker (Bro. Roberts) who has deaf parents had approached him about the same thing. Needless to say, he felt impressed that it was something that needed to happen. Brother Roberts got everything coordinated and the first session was a huge success! There will now be monthly ASL sessions at the Denver temple!!!! We are so excited!

Brother Roberts and his wife will be leaving to serve a mission next month and so they called Mike to the the coordinator for the ASL sessions. He is very excited, but he keeps saying like he feels too young, haha. I know he will do an amazing job, and that deaf members here will be SO blessed by having a session in their native language.

8 Months and Crazy!

Hazel was 8 months on Monday. She learns so much everyday I can't believe it. Just within the last week she learned to sign "more" and "milk." She is so cute when she signs and she uses them in the appropriate setting! Also, she's starting to understand the difference between "da-da" and "ma-ma." Today when I left the room she said "ma-ma, ma-ma" until I came back, and yesterday when she say Mike she said "da-da" for almost a minute. She's so cute!

To top it all off, we now have a full blown crawler in our house. She's everywhere, especially in Kiara's food, haha. She's messy, but we love her to death.

Bits and Pieces

I've been meaning to post a blog for a while, but what can I say, the Olympics have been on and I've been glued to the TV. I hardly ever watch TV and I never voluntarily watch sports, but there's something about the Olympics that I love.

Anyways, life around here has been chugging along. Mike is super busy with his 18 credits for school. He has some pretty hard classes; luckily he has a good Biology tutor (aka me). I'm busy at work, but I love what I do. I finished my last class towards my BCABA and now I'm getting my mentored hours done before I can apply to take the test. I need to log 1000 hours so it will be a while yet before I'm ready to test.

Hazel gets bigger, cuter, and more fun everyday. Here are just some highlights....

Hazel in her bath towel. She likes to make scrunchy faces now.

Hazel is so close to crawling. She sometimes is able to make it about 5 feet forwards, but other times she's stuck going backward and gets frustrated.

Hazel's latest thing is escaping from her PJs at night. I don't know how she does it, but I often find her like this in the morning.

Just being cute:)

Her hair is long enough now for a Pebbles ponytail:)

Kiara and Hazel are becoming better friends, mostly because of this.....

Kiara's no dummy - she loves the hands that feed her!