THE MANY ADVENTURES OF MOLLY

Molly is into so many things these days. I wanted to update the blog with a few of our many adventures.

When I wear sunglasse Molly has to have hers on too.

Sometimes its so funny to see how fast Molly falls asleep in the car. On this occasion she didn't have time to put down the sippy cup

One morning I came into my room to find Molly like this. I think she was trying to act like me a Fred because she kept saying Mommy Daddy and pointing at her bunny. When I showed Fred the photo he pointed out that "Daddy" had no covers. Very accurate.

Molly is in love with Elmo. I turn on Elmo's World and she turns into a zombie. This is Molly trying out new positions to sit. 

Molly came down with the chicken pox last week. It was scary at first until I talked to her doctor. Kyla never got  the chicken poxs thank goodness and Molly was just tried and had a mild fever. I was surprised to see that chicken pox was still around.

Along with Elmo, Molly loves Minnie Mouse. She has two minnie mouses, mickey mouse, and donald duck. She loves to play mommy and wrap them up in Kylas blankets and put them in Kyla's bouncer when I am not looking.

One of the hard parts of potty training is teaching Molly to wash her hands. This picture is Molly having some fun "washing her hands"

Molly also likes to dress herself. I think if I let her pick out her own outfits she would look like this everyday.

KYLA'S Blessing

Kyla's blessing was almost a month ago and I am now finally writing about. The day was great is so many ways. We had lots of family and friends come and support us and we could really feel the love all day long. Because we have a small apartment Fred's uncle Sam graciously lent us his house for a few hours. The weather was beautiful and we enjoyed a lovely luncheon on his patio afterwards. What made the day even more fun was that it was Fred's birthday. He got his favorite homemade cake: yellow cake with chocolate icing. It was great to celebrate Kyla and Fred. In all of the excitement of the day and all the planning leading up to the day we completely forgot to take any pictures. Oh well I guess

Kyla's blessing Dress:For Kyla's blessing I struggled for weeks deciding on what I would do for a dress. I have a dress that I was blessed in and I used when we blessed Molly. I kept debating on whether I should use that dress or buy a new one. I looked online and didn't really like any of the styles but more importantly I was not going to pay 100 bucks for a dress she would wear once. Two weeks before Kyla's blessing my grandmother asked what I was doing for a blessing dress. I told her I was considering just using the one I already had. She told me to be careful because when she was blessing her two daughters she used the same dress for both and when it was time for her daughters to bless their girls they both wanted the same dress. That convinced me not to use the same dress. The more I thought about it the more I wanted to make the dress myself. In my mind I already had a pretty specific idea of what I wanted the dress to look like. I knew I wouldn't be able to find a pattern for the kind of dress I wanted. So I decided I would design and make the dress. It was quite a scary thought, although I have made a dress without a pattern before in one of my college classes. I sold back the book that showed how to make your own pattern so I knew I would be completely on my own. I sat down one day and made a practice dress. After I made the practice dress I was convinced that I could make her blessing dress. I made the dress while we were visiting fred's parents. I knew I would need help with babysitting if I wanted to get it done and Kathryn was a huge help with the kids. I designed and made the whole dress in about 6 hrs. I am so happy I made the dress because now my girls will both have dresses that were special.

HERE ARE THE PICTURES OF KYLAS BLESSING DRESS:

PRACTICE DRESS

                                                         I MADE THE BOW TOO!

THIS ONE IS FOR BABY VOGUE :)

Camping Trip

We are all recovering from our much anticipated first camping trip of the year. It was especially exciting because we went close to home for a change instead of resorting to places in Davis or cache county. We had no idea how competitive camping is around here. We thought we would reserve a campsite online but turns out you need to reserve a spot 5 days in advance! I called the forest service about unreserved sites and they said they were all full and we would have to take our chances with first come first serve. So, Friday morning at 8AM Sara headed up the canyon with the kids (very early morning for them by the way). The campground people told her she could be added to a waiting list and they would notify us if it was available. Waiting list -can you believe it! We were most shocked. Back in the glory days of Logan we would drive up to Franklin Basin, pull off the road somewhere and set up camp. We had to make our own firepit, smooth out spots for tents, and bring all our own water - oh and there was no waiting list. At 11AM they called to offer us the last spot available which we gladly took. It was quite a relief to get a site because we invited Craig & Becca to come with us before having these reservations in hand.

When we checked in the prices seemed a tad high. They asked for 22.00 for the site, 8.00 for an extra vehicle, and then Kyla and Molly had to armwrestle in the backseat to see who would lose the arm and who would lose the leg. It was a fierce battle - Kyla has a pretty serious death grip and massive thunderthighs but in the end she lost the arm. Okay that's a slight exaggeration but it sure felt like we paid an arm and a leg!

The site was pretty nice (not 22.00 nice I might add) and we had a good time. Per Lillywhite tradition we did leave some items behind (tent poles) but luckily we lived close enough that Sara went and fetched them. We had our illustrious buddy heater for a friend all night long and the kids slept relatively well until the the sun came up at 6:15. Who doesn't like getting up to screaming kids at 6:15 huh? Molly had a blast playing with, rolling in, and eating the dirt. Kyla was packed really tight in what we call the eskimo suit. It is similar to the snowsuit Frankie wears in Christmas Story. So she didn't move much.

Kyla in the "Eskimo Suit"

After a greasy slippery deliciousy breakfast we went hiking to donut falls. A ranger dude told us that we probably wouldn't be able to park at the trailhead because it is always so busy. Instead he recommended that we walk a mile on the dirt road to the trailhead then hike the trail. I instantly had a wonderful vision of carrying 2 kids on a dirt road dodging cars... and then we drove all the way to the trailhead. When we got there the parking gods smiled on us and we got a spot for our 2 cars. There are only maybe 20 parking spots at the trailhead and we passed probably 50 vehicles parallel parked on the dirt road. I don't think there can be anyone happier to see an empty parking spot than us at that moment. The hike was short - about 30 minutes to the falls and it was really busy - tons of people sprawled out and taking pictures. This is also when I discovered that the term donut falls is very deceiving. There were no donuts, bagels, donut holes, or any other pastries with which to satisfy my hunger. And there sure wasn't anything close to it falling! Turns out its just where some water falls in a hole in a cave like thing. Weird huh?

At Donut Falls

Molly loves to play in the dirt!

This is why we got out of the tent at 6:15?

 We got home and cleaned Molly up and this is what the bathtub looked like after the first rinse (there were 2 rinses).

Molly brought this dirt home all by herself

Now THAT is a sign of a good camping trip! Thanks for coming Craig and Becca!

The Petting Zoo!

Yesterday we had the opporunity to go to a fun petting zoo in kaysville. Molly had such a blast.


Molly went for a ride on a Horse. She wasnt smiling but wasnt crying either so I think she was a little scared and excited. I can't believe how well she did, I was scared when I first rode a horse and I was sixteen.

Here is Molly with a cow. All the kids were feeding the cow hay so Molly picked up a clump of dirt and tried to feed the cow too. She couldn't understand why the cow wasn't going for  it.

Here is Molly holding a duck.

Here is Molly holding a bunny. She enjoyed holding the bunny more than the duck. She was so gentle too.

Here is Molly in a Bouncy Castle. I was so nervous waiting in line because all the kids going in were so much more older than Molly. The only way out was through a slide with a really high latter.

But Molly surprised me as she always does and held her own in the castle. She also came down the slide all by herself.

This was a proud moment for me. I realized yesterday like I do everytime Molly does something new by herself that she is one awesome little kid.

Kyla's Name

Many people have been asking how we came up with Kyla's name and I don't think I have ever written down her full name so here it is: KYLA MARY LILLYWHITE

KYLA: We decided on this name probably 3 days before Kyla was born. Around the beginning of march I was really starting to get worried because we couldn't agree on any names. From the beginning Fred has loved the name Jaclyn, which I never liked. I was really in love with the name Lauren, which Fred didn't really like. So one night we finally decided that we would completely start over with name picking and went online to search for something we both would like. After looking at a couple dog name sites (Molly is the number one dog name) we saw the name Kyla on a baby name site and it stuck around since then.

MARY: Once we found the first name the middle name wasn't to hard. Molly's middle name is Susan which is my middle name but more importantly she was really named after my mother. We both wanted a family name and since we have my mom's name for Molly we went with Fred's Mom for Kyla. Fred mother is Mary Kathryn and although she has always gone by her middle name we really liked Mary for a middle name as a way to honor her.

LILLYWHITE: Although we know she will only be having this name for hopefully 25 years (I can dream). Kyla like Molly will be a champ at writing her Y's and L's.

Comparsions

Here is a fun comparsion. This is Molly

And this is Kyla

I Consider them complete opposites in looks and personality but people keep telling me how similar they really are. What do you think?

The Big Labor Story

So now that we are home and everything is starting to settle down its gives me time to write down what happened with Kyla's birth before I forget. It all started Thursday night around 8pm. Fred was getting ready to play racquetball with some guys in the ward. I was having some light contractions but not really paying any attention to them because I had contractions everyday for the past week. Fred said he would have his phone just in case but probably wouldn't hear it until after the game. Just as he left maybe 2 minutes or so Molly had to use the potty and when I stood up to go help her I felt a huge contraction.

The Contractions came fast and hard after that and became so painful I couldn't stand(way worse than anything I felt with Molly's labor). I started to panic because Molly kept wanting me to do things for her like get juice or a snack or help with the potty. I could barely even stand so I called my mom and said: Mom I don't know if I am in labor but I can't take care of Molly can you come help me. Well of course she came, I think I could even hear the car door slam as I was getting off the phone. I then tried to call Fred, I ended up calling his phone three times, the first message was a little worried and then by the third I was crying in total panicked mode. I then decided to call my friend Mary who lived in the complex but was in the processing of moving. I wanted to see if she was in the complex and could go fetch Fred for me. I remember taking a minute and thinking okay I need to call Mary but I need to not sound panicked. Well it didn't work Mary later told me that all she could understand from the conversation was Mom, Fred, and Hospital. She said she was at her house and not at the complex but not to worry because she was coming over right then.

So I sat in the house crying over the contractions and begging Molly to not make me get up again to cut her a piece of cheese. Out of nowhere Fred came rushing through the door(it was quite a Knight in Shining Armor moment) and said to go down to the car and he would take care of everything else. I made the mistake of not taking my phone or keys and sat in the car just shivering while Fred packed up the car. Just as we were about to pack up Molly and leave my friend Mary showed up and took Molly for us til my mom could get there. So we road off to the hospital with my extremely painful contractions coming every 1-1 1/2 minutes.

9 pm we got to the hospital and I was literally holding on to Fred for support as we walked in the hospital. We got checked in and they checked me. I was dilated to a 2. We were in complete shock to say the least. They said they would check me in an hour but chances were we would be headed home. After an hour(still having painful contractions) they checked me again I was still dilated to a 2. So they started prepping us to go home. I was so nervous because my pain was so bad, they gave me a shot of some kind of pain killer that was suppose to slow my contractions and stop the pain. They check me one more time before getting us ready to go. My temp had jumped up to 102 and Kyla's heart rate jumped 170. The nurse then ran and called my doctor came back and said we needed to get ready for a c-section and probably would be having this baby within the hour.

3am after the nurse talked to us about the all the things they were going to do for the c section and after talking to anesthesiologist getting ready for the epidural my doctor came in to talk to us. He went through all the risks that come with a c section and gave me one last option. He said that everything was happening because I had some kind of infection which caused me to have such painful contractions even though my labor was not progressing. He said it was too dangerous to do a vaginal birth with Kyla's stress levels so high. He said we could either go into the c section right now or he could give me some Tylenol wait an hour and see if that helps anything. He also said that he didn't know which option was better and left it up to me. I quickly said Tylenol and after the hour my temperature went back to normal and Kyla's heart rate went down to 135.

After all this excitement the doctor decided it was now okay to do a vaginal delivery, he broke my water and start me on pitocin. He then left and I finally got my epidural. 2 hours after that I was pushing, my epidural must not have worked last time because pushing Molly out was so painful and this time it felt kind of nice in a weird way. I only had to push for a half hour and by the end the doctor was asking me to push half as hard as I was pushing and pop out came Kyla. Kyla was perfect and never got any part of the infection which was in the amniotic fluid . I had to be on antibiotics for 24 hrs but other than that we both came out of the hospital happy and healthy with no other complications. It was crazy and completely different than Molly's birth: Molly's birth started out easy and ended very hard, Kyla's birth started out very hard and ended up easy.