Zoo

A few weekends ago, the weather was surprisingly warm for February. Jeff's mom got up and said, "It's a great day for the zoo." She gave us some money and off we went. It was a perfect day. Not too many people. We were warm in the sun with jackets on and Jeff and I were so excited for Rayne to see the animals. She was perfect!
Above is a picture of what they call a cavvy. They had lots of them in different shapes and sizes. It was a cute little guy who posed at the window for a picture... that is of course, like Rayne, as soon as I was ready for the picture, they both turned around. Oh well. You can at least see how close we were able to get to some of the animals and exhibits.

Rayne talked for several days about the giraffes and their long necks and eating the grass. From her point of view, we were at eye level!

I think the tiger exhibit is all new. Or maybe it's just been a long time since I've been to the zoo. At one part, the tiger was just on the other side of the (dirty) glass. I wanted to pet him.

There were more tigers on this side. Fortunately for Rayne, she has a tall, strong Daddy who could lift her up to see. The tiger in front seemed to pose for all the people. The sign on the post warns that tigers "spray." I was impressed by the size of the animals. I don't remember seeing tigers so big and strong looking. It was kind of awesome.

One of the first animals we saw were the elephants. Rayne, at first, was more excited about the big red ball. There's a baby elephant in there somewhere who eventually played with the ball, rolling all over it. It was really cute and made us laugh.
I really wanted to take Rayne to the zoo for her birthday last year. We finally decided she was still too young/little and it was too expensive anyway. This year, I'll probably be a bit busy on her birthday- at least too tired to walk around the zoo (wink, wink). So, this was a perfect day. We had so much fun!

Catching up on some pictures

This is at Uncle Georgie's. Notice how Rayne likes to hold ALL the toys at once. This is frustrating for her at times, when they just won't cooperate with her.

This is one of the first day's at Kelsey Grandma's new apartment. She wasn't sleeping, but she likes to play with little towels and blankets. She lays them out, folds them up, sits or lays on them.

This one is just cute. Rayne has become quite good at the stair climbing thing. It scares mommy.

Having tea with Kelsey Grandpa!

Last August/September Rayne's grandma brought home this little house. She loved it!

Christmas

I didn't take as many pictures at Christmas as I thought I would. We had a lot of fun though. Rayne is old enough to be excited by lights and Santa Clause and learning that reindeer can fly and young enough to not expect too much for presents etc. Luckily, Jeff worked for a while in November and I was able to do some fun things. And, Rayne has very generous grandparents. Above: Rayne's first coloring book. She got some kid friendly markers in her stocking, but they didn't turn out to be the greatest idea. We have since bought some washable crayons and she LOVES to color!
Santa brought a farm. Rayne knows a lot of her animals and animal sounds. The farm makes sounds when certain doors are open. She loves to line up the animals to watch Daddy play games or lay them on their noses so they are "sniffing" the ground.

This is Christmas morning. I had planned on her bathing and wearing some cute red jammies that she has, but we were out late the night before and she fell asleep on the way home. Thus, the dirty (but cute) clothes.
The quilt over the snowman box is one I started making probably just after I finished high school, just for fun and mostly during General Conference. It was fun, and felt like quite an accomplishment, to finish it for my daughter. A lot of time and dreams went into making it!

This one's just cute.

Rayne's great grandma gave her this buggy and a talking, singing dog.

Those farm animals and Rayne have come to help. I better push post before this all disappears...

Purple

I'm having technical difficulties and this picture was supposed to be at the bottom. Oh well, you wouldn't know if I didn't tell you.
Rayne is learning to smile on command. I have friends who have kids that immediately pose and smile as soon as they see a camera because they are so trained by people taking their picture. Not Rayne. It's impossible to catch her smiling. Not that she doesn't smile a lot. She just shies up for the camera. Anyway, this is her first "smile" for the camera.

On Saturday, Rayne insisted on wearing purple. Grandma (my mom) had given her this sweater, but we did not yet have anything to wear with it. The only thing I could find was this summer outfit. Luckily, the weather was spring like enough that I was able to put together what I think is quite the cute, preppy little outfit.

Here you can see her squeaky shoes. Yes, that means that squeak when she walks. Squeak like a dog toy. It's pretty funny (thanks to her other grandma).

A short hello

We are down to about 2 1/2- 3 months to go with this pregnancy. It's been rough but SO much better than the first time. I got over morning sickness and have only had a few leg cramps, only one or two that actually got me out of bed in pain. I've been pretty sore lately. My lower stomach is so tight it's hard to walk. But other than that, I'm doing okay. Rayne keeps me moving and I think that most the time, that's a good thing.

Rayne sometimes calls me JoNanna. It's pretty darn cute. She doesn't say it like in place of Mommy, but she knows it's my name. She also called her Daddy, Uncle Jeff over the weekend because her cousin was here and kept saying it over and over and over and over again.

Rayne and I went with Aunt Nini (Khrys) and Kelsey Grandma to Karen's house on Sunday for the Super Bowl. I didn't think we were going to go- she lives a long way away. But it worked out and we did. I was pretty excited. It was really great to spend the day with my mom and sisters. We can talk about anything. Watching football for the first time in a long time was fun too. And then, because it was so late by the time we got back in town, Rayne and I slept and my mom's and left Jeff at his dad's. Nobody got a very good night's sleep, but it was nice waking up and talking to my mom for two hours! How long it's been since we've done that! And being away makes coming home and being with Jeff just that much sweeter.

Rayne insisted on Ramen noodles for breakfast. Am I a bad mom? But now she is done and saying "Mommy up please." The sweet asking won't last so I will run. Hello to everyone in blog world! I miss you!

Rayne's 1st Joke

Rayne has been doing more things lately that make other people laugh or, more importantly, that make her laugh. She's also been doing a few things that are more like pretending- making her toys go to sleep and wake up for example. I don't know when kids learn to do these things, but it's a fun development to see in her little mind.

One of Rayne's favorite things to do is look for toe jam. She discovered it one day and said "what is that?" So I told her. Ever since, whenever we take off her socks or footsie jammies, she looks for toe jam. Because of what I say when she makes me look, she often says "ew, look at that one."

Today while looking for toe jam, she handed me her foot wanting me to look and said, without any hints etc, "peanut butter in there!" I couldn't stop laughing. I've tried to say "jelly" when I'm talking about what's on her toast so as not to confuse things. I'm not sure where she made the connection, but it sure was funny.

Ketchup

If you haven't heard, we're pregnant. 15 weeks now. I am huge. Seriously bulging already. I am sick. Not as sick as I was with Rayne, but it's been very hard. It's different this time. The first time, I wanted to tell everyone personally, I counted every week, every trip to the doctor was fun and exciting. This time, I suppose I'm too busy with the first to think much more than about just not throwing up. It's kind of sad and yet, I have these moments where I glimpse the future and I'm so excited and so happy that it really feels good.

Jeff started a new job this week. He's excited and so far liking it. It is stuff he wants to be doing. I'm so glad for him. It's been really hard on me and Rayne having him gone all day and getting up so early with him, but I also feel good. I'm starting to feel hope again. His step dad, who we live with and helps us a lot, made us promise that we'll focus on getting an apartment. An apartment of our own again!!! The thought makes me cry. It's been so long.

It really has been a long hard stretch, these last two years. Sometimes I'm surprised we've survived it as well as we have. But sometimes I just think that it's been necessary and now we will somehow be better off. Quitting my job and being home with my baby was the best step I could have taken. Jeff now feels it's important for me to be home with the kids! I'm SO glad he's been able to see and experience that. Our finances are improving. Thank goodness for that! And hopefully we learned something from that as well and will do better in the future. Hopefully :)

And now I'm a mom. It's the greatest thing ever. I still have at least a moment everyday when I look at my daughter (MY DAUGHTER!) and feel like I will explode I love her so much. I went to the doctor today for the new baby. I have a great doctor. He's done ultrasounds both times I've been there. Today just because he couldn't get the angle for the heartbeat. When I see the picture of a real baby growing inside of me, I get this feeling of peace and joy and fulfillment. I feel very excited today about my little family. (P.S. and then I looked at Benny's blog and saw his pictures and that makes me VERY happy too.)