A little about Brandon and I as adults.

So while we are obsessed with Cora and our lives revolve around her, here are a few things we are doing that don't involve her.

Did I mention I started a master's program? I did! I'm almost 6 months in, in fact. It has been hard but it is something that I want to do. I am getting my master's in special education. It is something that I feel will help me through these first couple of years of being a stay-at-home parent. It is hard sometimes, finding creative things to do. I just have one more paper to turn in by the end of the month.

I also have started teaching piano lessons for the ward. It has been a nice little job, and people have been SO kind as to let me work around Brandon's schedule as he is in the ER rotation. The only frustrating thing has been when people don't communicate when they aren't coming and I am left hanging. I feel badly because I have to have someone in the bishopric come and unlock the door. But it has been enough to make our car and credit card payments for the month! I am going to keep working as much as I can before we move,
While working with piano lessons has been a blessing, we were praying that I could find some job that I could work while we are in California for a few weeks after we leave Florida, and then when we are moving somewhere else. Well, a week or so ago a teacher I worked with reached out to me and told me about a job she started in the mornings teaching English to kids in China online. I jumped on the application and got hired last night! I just need to turn in a few more documents and I will be ready to go! The only tricky part is I need to work 7.5 hours a week during their peak hours which is 6-10 AM Florida time. Which means when we go to Utah for Dallin's wedding in a few weeks I would need to work an hour and a half a day between the hours of 4-8 AM. So I am trying to find a Starbucks or something nearby so I can have good Wifi. But this is such an answer to prayers!

I am crocheting again and trying to sell things online. I found a niche in the Pokemon stuffed animals market, so hopefully those sales pick up more!
https://www.etsy.com/shop/CamillesCrochet?ref=hdr_shop_menu

And Brandon got a job as a TA for the fall! It is only about 2 hours a week, so not much money but it looks GREAT on a resume.

We are just getting ready to fly to Utah at the end of the month for Dallin and Krystel's wedding!
And one more thing with Cora. We are going to Ecuador this fall! I got Cora's passport all ready, and we are so excited to go there and spend time with Grandma and Papa and Cole and see what they are doing.

Cora's mugshot passport picture.

Cora's Quarterly Report- 15 months

I miss doing the monthly updates on Cora. Even though I know I missed a few and I need to go back and see what I wrote about her, I like doing the little updates. So here is our little lovey at 15 months!
1) Cora is still afraid of the ocean. Stinker. She doesn't even like being held when WE are standing in the water. She is getting better and sometimes crawls down to the water, but she always gets knocked down and then this happens:

2) We are definitely getting more into the toddler phase of life. There are random tantrums everywhere. The hardest part is that it happens at church every week now. Which is rough when Brandon is at work (just for the last few rotations) and I am there by myself with her. But we survive!

3) Cora is walking EVERYWHERE. When we go to the park she usually doesn't even want to play, she just wants to walk and walk and walk and walk... she is a pioneer child. She is our only child to learn to walk on the beach. How sad! She is also beginning to run, which is even better. Those tiny chubby toes just can't move fast enough!

4) I will have to find a video, but Cora is obsessed with animals. Every time she sees a dog or bird or horse or fish or whatever she makes the same noise... it sounds like a pigeon. She is so cute like that.

5) She is really babbling a lot. Her favorite word is "wowowowowow", but she has found her tongue and throws random L sounds in there too. It is so cute. She only has 2 words that she repeats that we can understand- "Baba" (always whispered) and "Nuhnuhnuh" for banana. Her 2 favorite foods. She has said "Boo" for blueberry a few times, and has signed "more" and "all done" randomly. But never consistently... I don't know where she gets her strong opinions from.

6) She is definitely just 1 nap a day now. It is usually between 1 1/2-2 hours long in the afternoon, which is long enough for me to do some school work, or read, or clean, or do none of those and nap. Her bedtime is between 7:30-8 most nights, and she is working on getting off the dang "baba" and drinking out of a sippy cup before bed. But she can put herself to sleep just fine 95% of the time which is HUGE!

7) She laughs at herself! One of her favorite things to do is to lay her head back on the couch (she is so short she can do that while standing) and talk to herself with her hands and randomly giggle. "Heh heh". I NEED to get it on tape.

8) She is STILL obsessed with bath time. She runs over as fast as she can and screams with joy until we put her in the tub. And then she stands up in the tub and begins to walk around. Which is much more stressful than crawling in the tub.

She is so big now! My red-haired (still) child, who was so tiny and is now so big and tries to be independent but still loves to snuggle.

Cora's Car Seat Pictures- Month by Month

So when we got home from the hospital with our teeny tiny newborn, we put her down in her carseat and just laughed at how tiny she was. Then we took this picture.

Can we just notice the fail of how her leg is sticking through the arm hole? Man, we were the most clueless parents. She was SO TINY!

One of the things I wanted to do was take a picture month by month for the first year. Which is what the cute quilt pictures are. But I didn't take a picture of her when she was tiny on the quilt, which makes me so sad! Because she grew 2 inches and gained 3.5 pounds in those first few weeks. It isn't the same. But anyway, I decided to take pictures of her in her car seat to show her growth.

1 month:

2 months:

3 months:

4 months:

5 months:

6 months:

7 months:

8 months:

9 months:

10 months:

Believe it or not, she still has 3 inches and 10 pounds to go before she outgrows the car seat!
11 months:

12 months *Actually about 14.5 months, last day before we transferred her to her new carseat:

I can't believe she is already that big!

Mom and Dad's mission farewell.

Immediately after getting home from Washington D.C. we packed up to go to California for my parent's mission farewell.

 Cora insisted on feeding me on the airplane.

 It was so nice to just sit back and let Brandon chase Cora around.

Entertaining Cora with headphones.

 These cute babies are so lucky to have each other!

Cole and the babies.

 Before we went to the beach house for our "staycation" (what happens when you are trying to sell your house), we had to do a big Costco run!

  Cousin bath time. So cute!

 Cora let Papa read to her.

 The pack n play at grandma and papa's house was exhausting to try and fight.

 We got to go to the Irvine zoo and pet the goats again. Cora loved it! (But someone had to hold her up because she wanted to crawl everywhere and that was disgusting) 

We went to the Newport Beach Villas, which was beautiful and much more fancy than our hotels to and from DC.

 

 Cora got her first real taste of watermelon at the beach.

 Cora hasn't had much exposure to pools... she wasn't a fan.

 Cute little cousins!

The beach was beautiful! But a little bit colder than we are used to. 

Steve and Karen drove down to see us while we were down here!

 As always, Ruby's Shake Shack.

 We also had a free s'mores pit which Cora LOVED.

 The farewell was on Bethany's birthday, so of course we needed to embarrass her and wake her up early to sing.

Cora loved cousin Grace. And I think it was more than just because she had a fun phone to play with!

Happy birthday Bethany!

One of the last things we did was take some family pictures. Since Dallin and Krystel were getting engaged soon, we knew we had to have an updated picture before my mom and dad left!

First off, the grandkids:

 

   Grandma and Papa and the grandkids:

  the 6 originals:

 

 Grandma and Cora:

 We got a picture of the 3 of us: 

 And all together:

After that it was off to the airport. I really wanted Cora to get a nice smiling picture with my mom and dad but...

 

 I didn't take a picture because I was too busy trying not to cry. We'll be back to John Wayne in 3!