Pictures and the little happenings in our lives lately:

Samantha is still growing like a weed! She was almost 16 lbs. at her 6 month check-up, and like 26 inches long, and just healthy as can be. She seems to have grown out of the newborn phase of life twice as fast as LucyMae did. Is it like this with all second children? Does it just get worse with each one? It's just going so fast, I feel like I'm missing everything, even though I'm with her all day, every day. Samantha continues to be a pure delight of a child....just happy, cute, and cuddly!
LucyMae is shooting up like a weed too....at her 2-year check-up, she was in the 90th %ile for height. My mom gave me a box of some of the dresses I wore as a child...I actually still remember wearing this dress....I loved it! Doesn't LucyMae look cute in it too? I think my mom actually made it....way to go mom!
LucyMae is also getting long enough hair to do pig-tails finally! She LOVES having them in...just like mom. And she is even pretty good about trying not to mess them up, like when we're at church or something.We have made some great friends in our ward out here, the Baums, and have enjoyed the fact that their 2nd is just older than LucyMae, and that this cute little Zaila is 2 weeks older than Samantha. We have a great time together as families! Amberly, the mother and my friend, has inspired me in many ways as well....first and foremost, to just do it when it comes to planting a garden....that's what I should post some pictures of....but I am a little scared....of failure. So, we'll see how it's doing in a couple weeks, and then maybe I'll be brave enough to post some pictures of my first gardening efforts.
Mother's Day turned out to be a BEAUTIFUL day here in Rapid City. I was excited that it was warm enough to break out the cute matching dresses that I got for the girls when I was in Utah. Aren't they adorable? We almost got a family picture, with Sam, out of this photo-shoot, when a neighbor offered to take some....but LucyMae refused to pose for a picture with dad in it that day for some reason....silly girl!
Don't you love the way LucyMae gives Samantha kisses? She really can do it normal.Lately our funnest family-bonding time has been in the mornings in our bed...we go get the girls out of bed, when dad is not already at work, and snuggle and jump and laugh and giggle in our bed for a few minutes. I think it might be Samantha's favorite thing ever!In May we also got to take a little trip to Billings, Montana. We wanted to take a temple trip (Bismarck and Billings are both about 5 hours away), and since I have 2 cousins living in Billings, and we just had some friends from here move to Billings, we thought it would be the better place to go for sure! And we sure did have a good time. My dear cousins, Natalie and Alyson, were gracious enough to host us, entertain us, AND watch our girls while we attended a session. We seriously had such a good time! THANKS NATALIE AND ALYSON!!!!...and families!

This is at the park in some little, tiny town we stopped in for gas and to eat lunch...the perfect break for LucyMae....and Samantha....but, seriously she is just so easy-going, she wouldn't have cared if we had stopped or not.As we're driving out in the middle of nowhere, in Montana I see this guy with a jogging-stroller on the side of the road, and I was pretty sure there was a sign on his stroller that said "coast-to-coast"....I made Sam turn around so that we could go talk to the guy and see what this was all about....he really was running from coast-to-coast!...with a jogging-stroller to carry his gear/food/water/etc. He is from Sweden...and here is his blog if you want to check it out: www.suneson.se. Just click on the "in English" link in the upper-right corner. We gave him a couple apples, wished him well, offered our place to stay when he hit Rapid City (he declined), and kept on driving. He said that he runs here in America as opposed to Europe because even if people like us think he's crazy, we don't say it....we tell him he's cool and give him food! Look at the legs on that guy....he's gotta be 50 or 60! He averages 33 miles/day, and is finishing coast-to-coast in 100 days!
My cousin, Natalie, has an awesome kid-yard, complete with trampoline and fire-pit! We had such a great time...and I think LucyMae thought she'd died and gone to heaven. She loved doing BUMS....she was out there for literally 3+ hours just as happy as could be! And believe me...she slept REALLY good and long that night!These are 2 of my cousins little ones....they were so sweet with LucyMae. She loved getting so much attention from big kids.Sharing a bed for a moment....until LucyMae started shoving Samantha over...we're still working on the whole sharing thing.These are some bat-pajamas that Andy and Amy gave us back in September...and they were way too big for LucyMae....now they are way too small for her, but she INSISTS on wearing them almost every night (I have since sneaked them away into a box in the basement...). But look at that belly....she was quite the sight in these beauties.

Samantha has also been introduced to solid foods. She didn't love her very first experience...but she has gotten much better and accepting of this strange new taste in her mouth. My baby is growing up way too fast!
Custer State Park does a free weekend every May...and we got to cash in on it this year. These 2 are the other Baum children...the middle one is Decker...and he and LucyMae have such a cute little love/hate relationship.....they must be betrothed or something. The kids got to go on free pony-rides........which LucyMae LOVED...and I mean LOVED! She had a full-on tantrum when it was time to get off....watch the video below. I can't wait to take her to the Evans' cabin this summer to ride horses....PLUS I got her some awesome cowboy boots for her birthday ($2 at a garage sale!) She wears them non-stop...as you'll see below! Samantha had a good time too, even if she didn't get to actually ride the ponies.We also got to go on a "hay-stack" ride, as they call it. A wagon with straw in it, and an awesome entertainer, drawn by a big, duallie truck, through the wild-life loop of the park. It was really cool....and way better to do free than the $30+/person it normally costs.The dads also wanted to do a little fishing with their kiddos. LucyMae was NOT very interested in helping dad fish, but she did like watching these little ducklings!And THEN...LucyMae turned 2! She had a fabulous birthday, and I think she even understood that she was particularly special that day. We had told her the night before that it was her birthday the next day, and that we were going to have a special breakfast for her, we'd sing her the birthday song, and that we were going to have a little party for her. The morning of her birthday she woke up and started calling from her room, "bir-day, paw-dy", over and over again. She LOVED people sing "Happy Birthday" to her all day, and she had an absolute ball with her party. (Really, it was just play-group that I happened to be in charge of planning for the month, so why not have a little party in our backyard?)It was a good thing Sam was around that day, because he got the lawn mowed, set up all the fun water toys, and entertained the kids the whole time, while we mommies ate and visited!She loved blowing out the candles on her cake, and eating it too! She loves saying "TWO!" when asked how old she is...and she does a fairly decent job of holding her fingers up.Some of the kids forgot their swimsuits, so they borrowed some jean shorts I got at the DI....when those jean shorts get wet, they sag man!We saved opening presents until that evening. I hit some awesome garage sales the Saturday before and found some great toys for her (as well as a futon for our basement that company can sleep on!). She loves her new kitchen set, big legos, sit-'n-spin, cowboy boots, roller skates, and the tricycle that Grandma Clair and Grandpa Mark sent her!This was her face when she saw the bike! She was purely delighted. The pedals are a little too big of a reach for her legs still, but she'll grow into it, and in the meantime she just pushes on the ground.




Just one of the many moments that I love with this entertaining little 2-year-old these days. She is a laugh a minute! I have a hard time getting the boots off of her at bed-time! She is READY for the rodeo and horse-back riding in July in Utah!
And some fun videos for your viewing pleasure!