All about Charlize!

As promised, this post is going to be all about Charlize.  She will be 2 1/2 years old this week.  We cannot believe how fast she has grown up but we have enjoyed watching her grow and learning from her.  She is such a sweet, happy little girl and she brings us so much joy. Here is what she has been up to-

After moving into our new house in September, Charlize had a little adjusting to do when we switched her to a big girl bed.  For over a month, she struggled with the change and ended up sleeping on the floor at nap time and bed time.  Luckily, Nick was skilled enough to move her to her bed without waking her up.  

After finally convincing her it is more comfortable to sleep in her bed, we had to train her to sleep under the covers, instead of upside down and on top of the covers.  Now, three months later, she is finally sleeping in her big girl bed without any trouble and with minimal crying.

Charlize has spent the last few months learning to ride her trike. 

This video is from some of her first attempts.  

She is much better now--she doesn't need any help getting started and she can go up our drive way all by herself.   She loves to spend time on her bike, even when it is cold outside.

While teaching Charlize how to ride her bike, I also had to teach her how to steer. She had a tendency of driving off the road so I was continually telling her to watch where she is going.  

The next day we were in the car and driving over several speed bumps.  After going over a few, Charlize yells out, "Mom, watch where you are going!" 

Charlize also enjoys playing with her doctor bag.  One of her favorite cartoons is Disney Junior's Doc McStuffins. Her Grandma Warren got her a Doc McStuffins doctor bag and she has mastered the art of giving a check up and she knows all the names of her tools.

Note: She only told me I had stinky breath because on one of the cartoon episodes the dinosaur had stinky breath and they were trying to teach the importance of brushing your teeth, not because I really had bad breath :)

However, she did give me a check up while I was pregnant and this was her comment, 

"Oh, I see the problem.  You have something in your tummy."

In October, Charlize went to her first dentist appointment. She was such a good girl; she didn't cry or fuss the entire time. . . it did help that there were cartoons on.  

Happy girl on the way to the dentist 

 Letting the hygienist brush her teeth

 Say cheese. . . waiting for Doctor Sam

 Going through the goodie bag that Doctor Sam gave her

She got a new Dora toothbrush, gum, and a handful of toys.  She was a pretty happy girl. . . and cavity free!

Charlize had her toe nails painted for the first time this past spring and was pretty obsessed with keeping them painted all summer, but I never took the time to paint her finger nails.  She finally figured out that if she can get her toe nails painted, why not her finger nails. . . 

She convinced Grandma Warren to paint them for her and then she asked if she could paint Grandma's-

Charlize's nails look great; Grandma's could use a little touch up :)

Playing Nintendo with daddy:

We are waiting for the day when she realizes her controller isn't actually plugged in :)

In the middle of October, we finally had a Saturday where Nick could stay home with us all day so we took advantage of it and went out to Country Merc for some fall fun-

So cute!!

 Enjoying the kiddie hay bale maze with daddy

Off to the petting zoo:

I can see her trying to decide if she wants to pet the cow. . .  

"Okay dad, I'll try it." 

Hanging out in the pumpkin patch-

Nick took Charlize to the top of the hay bale pyramid but she was a little unsure about crawling through the tunnels-

Charlize's favorite part, by far, was riding on the carousel- 

. . . and we did get lost.  

At first it was kind of exciting but it quickly turned into frustrating and then annoying.  

I was never happier to be out a corn maze.

Carving pumpkins for family home evening with Grandma and Grandpa Wright:

I couldn't resist putting in this cute, silly face 

Grandma and Nick each took their own pumpkin and went to work-

Nick chose to do a Micheal Jackson silhouette and it got pretty intense.

Yes, he is using an electric drywall saw.  

"It cut through it like butter." 

So you can see it looks exactly like Micheal Jackson-

It looks a little better when it's lit up

Grandma's big pumpkin on the left and Nick's Micheal Jackson on the right:

 While Grandpa and Charlize were waiting for the carving to be done, they set up the teepee in the living room.

We just think she is the cutest!

Grandma Warren had us over to make Halloween sugar cookies.  

This was Charlize's first time cutting out sugar cookies and she did a really good job placing and cutting out each one.  She is so smart!

She also did a good job of sneaking dough periodically.

Thanks Grandma! We had lots of fun and the cookies were delicious!

For our ward Halloween party I had to blow up 100 balloons.  I finished while Charlize was taking a nap.  When she woke up I told her I had a surprise for her and took her out to the living room where 100 colorful balloons sat waiting for her in a perfect pile.  

She had so much fun playing in all those balloons.

Occasionally she'll ask for another balloon surprise. 

For Halloween, Nick really wanted Charlize to be Albert Einstein because of her crazy, curly hair.  She was the cutest mad scientist I ever saw.

Enjoying the games at the ward Halloween party-

Plinko game

Small bean bag toss

They let her get really close so she could win a prize

Taking inventory on the prizes she won

Calderon toss 

What a cute Albert Einstein!

Dancing with Daddy:

Nick was just about done with another daddy-daughter music video and then our little Brooklynn arrived three weeks early. He hasn't been able to work on it since she arrived.  But, I promise you it is coming and it will be worth the wait.   

Can you spot the snake?

On a cold fall morning, well after these little guys should be hibernating, we got a surprise in our driveway.  I knew we would have snakes in our yard, but I tried to be optimistic.  Now I know they will be hanging around later.  We spent a lot of time inside that day. . . until Roger tracked down someone who was willing to come take it away.  I'm glad he took care of us! Thanks dad!

When the snake guy came, I took Charlize out to see it. She was sad to see it go; I was not.  

Right now Charlize is learning to pray by herself.  She is getting very good at it and understands what she needs to say, and what to be grateful for.  She said her first Prayer without any help just last night.  She is such a smart girl.

Funny Story: In October, we were watching General Conference as a family.  It was time for prayer so we told Charlize to fold her arms.  The prayer started on the television and Charlize sat quiet with her arms folded.  Finally she said, "Mommy, are you going to say it?" I leaned over and whispered to her, "No, he's saying it," and I pointed to the television.  She got a confused look on her face and asked, "On the TV?"

Charlize really likes chicken nuggets, reading, coloring and singing.  

Here are a few of her best songs-

She also loves learning about Jesus.  She enjoys reading the scripture stories out of the animated scripture books and she loves going to nursery.  Recently she has been asking a lot of questions about Jesus, like where He is at and if He loves her.  We have enjoyed teaching her about Christ and learning from her.  She has finally realized that although she cannot see Christ, He is there and she can feel His love for her.  While sitting in Sacrament meeting a few weeks ago, Charlize was being so good, just looking through her church books.  Then she looked up and said, so sweetly, "Mom, I feel Jesus in my heart."  I am so grateful I am her mother and get to learn from her sweet innocence.

Charlize learned a lot about patience this past year.  We have learned not to tell her about anything new or exciting until the morning of because if we tell her too early, it is just too difficult for her to wait.  But there was one event we just couldn't ignore--the arrival of "baby sister."  We wanted to prepare her for it and once my tummy got big, she started asking questions.
Here are some of my favorite quotes:
"Mommy, I want baby sister to come out."  (She said this almost daily)
"I'll hold her and kiss her and wipe her nose."
"She won't cry, she'll just play with me."

Other cute quotes from our cute girl:
While trying to decide where we were going to send Charlize to preschool next year, Charlize over heard us and got really excited about going to school.  Then she got a really sad look on her face and said,
"Mommy I'm going to miss you; will you stay with me when I go to school?"
I'm glad she still wants to hang out with me.

Nick likes to put Charlize in her BYU jersey and have her watch BYU football games with him.  One time when we were out to dinner, the restaurant had a football game playing on the TV in the corner.  Charlize jumped up and said, "Dad, it's BYU. I need my BYU shirt on!"

Charlize is able to carry on real conversations and can put full sentences together.  Although she is very good at this, there is still one thing we are working on-- the use of the words she and her.  We hear a lot of things like, "She in she room." and "She want she blanket."  We think it is pretty funny, but we have been trying to work on it.

We are so grateful for our smart, sweet, beautiful little girl!