random photos and first steps

Wes has taken a few photos with his phone in the last 8 months or so and I finally got ahold of them so here are a couple, the pictures in the campground are from the Waters Reunion last Aug and they go from there up to last night when Piper took her first steps alone!

more pictures

thanks to everyone that came to be with us on this special day of Piper's first birthday!

she quite enjoys the rocking giraffe, thanks uncle Blake and Abby of course with all the toys around she had to play with the bottled meat sent from

Grandma Bonnie.

PARTY

So Piper will celebrate her 1st birthday tomorrow but with it being on a week day we decided to have the party on Saturday. We did a very low key gathering with close friends and some family. Basically we all got together to watch Piper entertain us and have a reason to eat chocolate cake and ice cream. Then of course we enjoyed watching Piper open her presents.

Utah

We went down to Utah last weekend. We had a blast and were able to visit family as well. Thanks so much to Uncle Garrin and Aunt Stefanie for letting us crash at you house and for the fabulous visit we had with you.

My mission president and his wife returned from their second mission, they were MTC president and Mom in Bogota Columbia for the last 2 years. We went to their homecoming, visiting with lost of mission friends and then met up for lunch with my MTC companion. With it being our 4 year anniversary this month we also have a tradition on going to Build a Bear every year and adding to our little family. Most of you have already seen pictures of Taylor (1st anniversary), London ( 2nd) last year being 9 months pregnant at the time of our anniversary we did not go anywhere but we did add to the family. 13 days later Piper was born. So this year while with my old Comp we went to the Gateway Mall and built our 4th, Lily Pad Jones. When you see the picture you will more fully understand the name. Piper picked her out, she then was able to pick out her heart to go inside, she did not want to let her go to be stuffed. After they handed Lily back to her and asked if that was enough stuffing Piper would not let her go so we figured she was going to be the soft/cuddly type as opposed to our others the strong silent type. Anyway, next we gave Lily a bath and fluffed up her fur. Then to the clothes section. We had so many choiced and like so many of then that Piper again had to decide. She has demonstrated that her favorite color is blue so after choosing the out fit we held up one more option, a blue shirt, she of course choose the blue one so we changed the outfit. My comp enjoyed the process so much that she decided to do it herself. We were able to go through the store again and document the process of it.

Getting out of town, visiting loved ones is sooooo great!

walking or running

We have always said Piper will not walk she will run! She is not stable enough on her own just yet but she has figured out how to "walk" with the help of her push cart.

swimming

Aren't they soooo cute! We took Piper swimming with the neighbors and they had so much fun. We also took our new water proof camera and had to try it out so we thought we would share some pictures of the fun.

Yes, this is the same friend from before they are 9 days apart and seem quite smitten with each other:) Piper loves being tossed up in the air and loved it even more landing in the water, though she still does not like water on her face.

Mom and Dad got into the Christmas spirit UPS style. They got Piper this adorable outift complete with hat and socks. She also got a UPS delivery truck penny bank and we got a UPS monopoly. Just thought we would share with everyone, don't you just love those bright blue eyes!

911...

So we had Piper's first phone call last night. Yes she has talked on the phone before and loves playing with the phone. She is now 10 months old and trying to start walking. The last few weeks she has been pulling her self up in the crib and found the shelf in the living room with all the picture frames on it. She does not have any interest in crawling anymore as long as she has someones hands to hold onto.
So on to the story. Piper was sitting on my lap in the family room. As I said she loves the phone and wanted to push buttons. I made sure the key pad was locked and double checked that the numbers 9 and 1 were also locked. My friend had told me that when the key pad is locked those number do not lock in case of an emergency. No, those numbers were locked so she was able to push buttons. I have the LG shine which is a slider phone. I slide the phone closed and handed it to her. The next thing I see when I look down is 911 and ringing. I immediately canceled the call and prayed I had done it fast enough. No such luck! Seconds later my phone rings and it is 911 dispatch. They had received a hang up call from this number and wanted to make sure everything was okay. I explained the situation, told him my 10 month old daughter got a hold of the phone and managed to push some buttons. He understood and said no problem and make sure next time to lock the key pad. I told him the key pad had been locked and still she was able to call them. Okay no problem and the call ended. Then I look closer at my phone. I then see and understand how the phone call happened. When the phone is locked and closed there are still 2 buttons that can be pushed. One button (the left one) is to unlock the phone, the other button (right) says emergency. Oh shoot, when the phone is locked she only needs to push one button and the emergency dispatch in on the phone. Needless to say she has not touched out phones since. Wes has the same type of phone.