Valarie Violet

So it's been a very long time, too long, since I've blogged. Not going to lie, I got bored of it. My life got very boring and there wasn't much to blog. When things aren't going on, I don't have the motivation to write about nothing.

Anyway, it's a month into the new year. I'm 25 years old now, and I feel like blogging. So here I am, blogging about my boring life. . .

. . . Actually, no. I don't want to blog about my boring life. I want to blog about my beautiful little 1 and a half year old.

Valarie is now speaking sentences.

"What is that?"
"What are you doing?"
"Nice to meet you."
"Go to work."
"Oh no, what happened?"

Valarie loves to dance and is very good at shaking her booty along with the music. She'll be starting dance in the Fall and I can't wait.

Sprouts is mine and Val's new favorite store. It is the only place I've grocery shopped since it opened. We have always had such a great experience there! I love that the main focus of the store is produce, it really helps us to make better eating choices. And every time we go they give Val some fruit to eat while we shop. She loves that part!

Val sleeps in a toddler bed. . . in our room. Halfway through the night she always ends up in bed with us. Not only is she a loud snorer, but she has night terrors. They're so sad. Several times during the night she begins screaming  and crying, but she's not awake. The only way we can soothe her without scaring her more is softly talking to her. Sometimes it can take up to an hour to calm her down, and she has no memories of these happening the next morning. She has them less when she's in our bed, and we've been wanting to move up to a king size bed soon. . . So call us crazy, but in the next few months our queen sized bed will move to her room and become hers. We're hoping so badly that'll help her night terrors AND help her stay in her own bed.

Valarie is in nursery and loves it. Shane and I were nursery leaders all last year, and this year they moved us up to the CTR 6 class. We were worried about Val being in there alone since she's ever only been babysat by her nana, papa, or aunt Brooklyn. She definitely surprised us! She says goodbye to us every Sunday and happily greets her teachers. We're so happy that she does so well in there!

One of Val's favorite things is animals. She loves watching youtube videos of animals being silly, she loves singing about animals, she loves making animal noises, she's close to obsessed. My mom took Val and I to the zoo today, she hasn't been since she was barely a year old. She loved it! The monkeys were definitely her favorite.

 "Mom! Elephants!"

 Hugging the sea lions.

 Watching the bears.

 She wasn't a fan of this gorilla.

 This zoo worker was telling us about this orangutan. Her name is Acara and she is the sister of the new baby orangutan. Both their parents died so they're training her to be a mother to the baby. The baby should be ready for the public in the next month or two.

 Mmmm. . . Fry sauce for lunch.

It was a beautiful and not crowded! We had so much spending the afternoon at the zoo with nana!

10.31 and Little Family Update

Happy late Halloween! My parents went out of town so we were solo this Halloween. We answered the door for trick or treaters at my parent's home and took Valarie trick or treating for the first time, (to five houses.) She didn't really understand what was going on, but she was getting candy so she was happy.

Valarie was Boo from Monster's Inc for Halloween. My mom and I had to go through several blogs and youtube videos to figure out how to make this, but two full days of working on it later and it was done! It was super difficult since we had no templates or guides, but we figured it out and I think it turned out pretty well!

 I know this is blurry, but it's one of my favorites I took that night.

 

And now for a Randall family update.

Shane is still job hunting, he has been for a while. His current job is fine for now, but it's not what he wants to do for the rest of his life. The biggest problem is he doesn't know what he wants to do, so his job search isn't really narrowed. The good part is we're in no rush, so it's ok if it takes a little while for him to find something. Other than job hunting, he's just been watching Val at night while I work. We're not very exciting people.

Candice - I am still serving at Sizzler, (and loving it,) but I'm also helping manage it. It's not that exciting, I just make sure guests are happy, the store is running smoothly, and I close the store down at the end of the night, but I enjoy it. I really find it fun and since it's so new still it's refreshing having new responsibilities. A couple of the managers have become my best friends at work and I love working with them. That's really the only new thing going on with me, I said this before and I'll say it again, we're not exciting people.

Valarie is growing and learning new things everyday. She's talking like crazy, it's mostly mumbling with the words she knows thrown in the middle. She loves to play "If you can hear me," which is a simple version of Simon Says that we play in nursery all the time. She loves to play with her dolls, and she sings a lot. Her singing is the cutest. She gets so excited when she sees animals and babies, and she's a just a big sweetheart. She's such a happy girl to be around, and brings joy to everyone who meets her.

We're still teaching nursery at church and we enjoy it most of the time. We're going to Park City for our last vacation of the year in a couple weeks and I can't wait! We're just enjoying each other's time, taking every day one a time.

 

16 Months!

16 months! My baby girl is 16 months old! I can't believe how fast she is growing and how quickly time is flying by! Call me crazy, but I am ready for Val to have a baby brother or sister, (I just need to convince the husband now.)

It's crazy how much can happen in a month. We took our baby gates down because Val can be trusted to go up and down stairs on her own now. She also has started saying things like, "all done," oh man," and "I love you," along with the other 25 or so words she says. She's a little chatterbox!

Valarie loves being independent, she wants to do everything on her own and on her own terms.

She loves wearing shoes and will constantly ask us to put them on her.

Val's favorite movies right now are Yogi Bear and Monster's Inc.

We love our little stinkbug and are so grateful for her everyday. What an amazing blessing she's been for us. She really is a good girl for the most part too, a little hyper, but isn't every one year old?

And now, ladies and gentlemen, I present to you some photos of the cutest little miss ever:

 Helping dad take the garbage out.

 She wanted to carry the bag.

 She was very upset she couldn't eat the plastic grapes at Hobby Lobby. . . 

 . . . VERY upset.

 Obsessed with Monster's Inc.

 Not really enjoying City Creek with Isobel.

 Oh Val.

We're working at Dura-Tuff today because they needed a little extra help. We're super happy for waking up before 6am, (We're used to getting up at 8:30am.) It's been 5 and a half hours that we've been here and she's doing amazingly well, (and napping right now.) What a good girl!

Climbing Fun!

A few weeks ago we went to Classic Skating with the Pikes. We had so much fun going through their jungle gym! I think the adults had more fun than the kids most of the time!

 She was really scared in the beginning, but by the end was fearless!

 Burying Sean!

 Oh just letting the boys traumatize my child. . . 

We had such a blast and can't wait to go back!