Virginia!

Well here we are in Virginia. Ryan is busy at his affiliation and we have lots of weekend plans for when he's off. Cora and I have been keeping busy while he's gone during the day by helping Grandma pick strawberries, making new friends, blowing bubbles, sewing, cutting new teeth and being ridiculously grouchy. The first weekend we were here we went to the zoo with Papa and CW, which wound up being more of an adventure than we planned on, but it was also pretty fun.On Mother's DayWith her new friend CraigAfter a visit to the bread store, where Tim gave her a cookie. Yes, she got a little haircut - trimmed bangs so we can see her eyes, since she hates having her hair done and won't leave clips in. It turned out a little shorter and more uneven than I'd like, but I guess that's what happens with a very wiggly toddler.The responses we got from asking her to share a bite.Blowing bubbles

I should be packing instead of blogging

Twin falls

This weekend we headed up to Twin Falls to see Jonah's soccer tournament. It was kind of a last minute decision to go, but we couldn't pass up the chance to see Elise's family and only have to drive 1 1/2 hours. It seemed like Cora remembered her cousins and aunt and uncle this time, which was cool. She loves those guys. (So do we.) We had a fun little getaway. We watched two of Jonah's games, played in the hotel pool, had an adventure camping out in our car with Cora, and went to the new temple and Shoshone Falls.

Cora thought we were crazy for trying to get her to sleep in the car - what? it's 1 o'clock? night-night time? but we're still in the car, mama and dada! She was wandering around, playing, trying to climb into the driver's seat, sitting on our heads, looking out the window, until she finally fell asleep at our feet. Luckily she's used to sleeping in even when the sun is up so we managed to sleep in til about 8:30.
At the Falls - it's called the Niagara of the West. It was beautiful, even though the flow was low, they said. It was a very bright and windy day.

Here is Cora at home being nervous from the vacuum; lifting up her feet so it doesn't get her. I know, my daughter afraid of the vacuum - what are the chances? Cora's favorite place is the playground just outside. She is always begging to go "bye" at the door and bringing me her shoes. She is getting more and more adventurous, climbing up by herself and going down the slide by herself. She's always been kind of a floppy girl though - she can never sit up going down a slide, she just falls back and lets herself go. When there are bigger kids at the playground though, she will hardly do anything - I have to hold her hand and make her go up the stairs to go down a slide, otherwise she will just stand there and watch the other kids play.

She loves playing peek-a-boo in the tunnel.

Here is Cora trying to go down the slide that isn't a slide at the playground.

Then she fell on her bottom.

Hope this isn't inappropriate to post - we thought it was kind of funny. She's learning all kinds of new body parts, like elbow and bottom - for that one she usually pats her lower back.

This is the newest top I made Cora - I've had this idea in my mind for a while. It seems like you see these kind of color-block tops and dresses everywhere. I was very tempted to just buy the cute one at Wal-Mart last night that was $5, but since she really doesn't need any new clothes, I just couldn't justify it. So I came home and cut up some t-shirts and stayed up late sewing this. Now that I've tried it on her I need to make some adjustments to fit, but I'm pretty happy with it. I think I've had enough of sewing ruffles though, next time I'm going to try a project with less gathering and thread strings hanging everywhere. Or maybe I'll just try and do my sewing earlier than midnight. Again, I had to turn on the TV to get a still photo of her. I think the next project is a romper - may be a little more difficult to draft my own pattern for that but I'm going to give it a shot! I also found an easy tutorial for making a sunhat that I need to try - pretty sure we'll be spending a lot of time outside in VA.

Yellowstone and other happenings

Ryan had an awesome chance to go to Yellowstone a couple weekends ago on a bike tour with the ISU Outdoor Adventure Center. He was able to bike and also cross-country ski. Yellowstone wasn't open for cars yet so they were the only ones on the road. He saw a lot of elk and buffalo, including one that almost charged him. We have a lot more pictures of his trip that we will be posting on Facebook soon.I realized Cora's hair is long enough for pigtails the other day - it's my favorite now! She's not a big fan of headbands or clips, so about all I can do is something tied on that she can't take off. She's wearing another new dress/top I made her - took me a while to figure out how to sew with elastic thread in my machine but now that I've got it down, I think I'll be playing with this technique more.She doesn't usually get to snack on Waffle Crisp - that was a one time thing.She looks awesome after we take out the pigtails too. I look kind of drunk in the second pic but she's pretty cute so I included it. I don't usually post many pictures of myself so I'm trying to do it more.We got to see a lot of family in the past few weeks too. Eric and his family came by the day Ryan got home from Yellowstone and surprised us - they were on the way home from Salt Lake. We were lame and didn't take any pictures, but we had a fun few hours with them. Then Mom came the next weekend before driving back with CW to Virginia. She helped us get ready to move in a couple weeks by starting to pack up. Cora got pretty comfortable with her which will be nice when we get out there in a couple weeks. This is the best picture we could get of Cora after church and before lunch. Cora likes getting into small places.She is also a little magpie, always collecting and displacing things and trying to carry around more things than she can actually carry. She wanted to wear the hat and carry her "purse", a.k.a. her Easter basket I crocheted. This is the newest dress I sewed for Cora. I just finished it this morning. She was not being very cooperative with photos this morning so we'll have to get more the next time she wears it, probably on Sunday. I'm really getting into making clothing for Cora, even though she really doesn't need a bigger wardrobe. I think toddler dresses may eventually be something I try to sell on my Etsy shop, it's fairly fast, doesn't take a lot of material, and it's very rewarding. I also want to get into quilting more.This is a little neck pillow I made for Cora, to support her head when she falls asleep in the car. It looks ridiculously tiny but is actually the right size for her little neck. She always wants to have it on her neck when she gets into her carseat.

Cora started nursery the week after Conference. We are so excited to be able to actually listen to the lessons in church now. So far she hasn't cried or clung to me, although I didn't really give her a chance to cling. But according to her leaders she didn't really play, just stood there and watched the other kids. Hopefully she gets used to it and starts interacting a bit in a couple of weeks.
She's been talking a lot more lately. She loves books and she has been learning a lot of new words lately. Although, I think it has made her a little frustrated, being able to communicate a little but not as much as she wants. Today at dinner she kept repeating a word over and over and I couldn't tell what she wanted and she was pretty upset. But in general she is pretty happy and loves identifying all the new words she can say.
Well there you have it. A super long post to update the past couple weeks. Now we're gearing up for the end of the semester, finals, and right after that getting ready to move out of our apartment into a storage unit for a couple of months while we stay with my parents in Virginia for a clinical affiliation. We may have another semi-long break in blogging until all that is over and we're settled in Virginia. In the meantime, we'll try to post the pics from Ryan's trip on his Facebook profile.