good times :)

Thinking Pink

2012-02-07T11:03:00.000-07:00

It looks like Aaron will be outnumbered for awhile... we're having another girl! We would have been thrilled with either, but it was kinda fun to find out that we were right after everyone telling us there was no way it was another girl. Aaron's side of the family is 99% boys so they were sure Eliza was a fluke. But now we've got two flukes! Like I said, I would have been thrilled with a boy, but I am really relieved financially that it is a girl... we'll only have to buy diapers! We are so excited and blessed to have another baby coming to our family. We pray everything will go well and hope to meet her late June!

Smartie Pants

2012-02-01T20:35:00.000-07:00

Eliza is at SUCH a fun age right now. Over the past two months she has just sky-rocketed with learning things. She's into animal sounds and words and we love it!
Just a couple nights ago as we were driving, I randomly thought about reciting the alphabet and was surprised to hear that she wanted to repeat it all. We think it is adorable. We especially love "h" because she always says "house" instead (it's a current favorite word!), the "x"., and how she says "thanks" at the end. She rocks our world. :)

Also, our ultrasound is next week... what's your guess?!

Our Extended Christmas

2012-01-11T17:53:00.001-07:00

Ready for a holiday recap?!

We had a wonderful holiday season! We LOVED seeing Christmas through Eliza's eyes. She was so excited about everything... the Christmas tree, the ornaments, the jingle bells, the presents, the nativity set, etc.

If I asked where "baby Jesus" was, she'd run and grab him. Pretty much melted my heart.

Aaron's parent's came the week before Christmas and we had a good time with them. We went and saw the lights and Eliza LOVED them.

We also went to a BYU game. Eliza loved sitting in her own chair.

We had our own Christmas morning. Eliza ran to her present when she saw it and was so excited to open it! She really caught onto ripping the paper off... so much that she wanted to open every present she saw! By the end of the break I had wrapped up fake presents many times to prevent huge breakdowns when other people opened presents and she didn't have any. :)

We gave her a doll in a stroller. She was super excited to see it, but a little shy. I've been planning on getting her a doll for probably over six months so it was fun to finally give it to her.

It took maybe a minute and she was off pushing her baby around!

And giving her kisses. :)

After church we went to my parents and spent the rest of the day. That night we got to skype with my brother on his mission! We were also able to get my two brothers who weren't there in on the conversation! Technology is pretty great. :)

Eliza's Christmas gift to me was that she decided a couple days later to FEED HERSELF!!!!!

The week between the holidays was spent with extended family and then the week after New Year's, my brother and his family came to visit from Minnesota!
I got to meet my niece Norah!! And Eliza got to meet her cousin!
We were curious to see how she'd do because she's VERY nervous around other kids, but she did really well and even gave her hugs. (putting her forehead on her)

She's pretty nervous about holding her, but we did get one smiling picture nonetheless!

And here's the fam altogether. I love these peeps!

It was such a wonderfully exhausting three weeks of vacation!

And for some great news... we're expecting our 2nd child! I'm 16 weeks, due June 28th, and we are thrilled. We are so dang blessed. I have been as sick as I was with Eliza, if not more, so we're both pretty sure it's another girl. We'll have our ultrasound in a few weeks... we can't wait!

Meeting Santa

2011-12-03T20:21:00.000-07:00

Eliza met Santa last night.

We got just the reaction we knew we'd get... and hoped we'd get. :)

Go ahead and call us terrible parents for making her sit in his lap... but these pictures make me super happy. :)

Off We Go...

2011-11-07T21:55:00.000-07:00

So. Big News. We’re moving. To Albuquerque.

Aaron has accepted an offer with a public accounting firm there and we plan on moving down next spring after he graduates.

Crazy.

Am I excited? Excited to choose an apartment I’ll never see before living in it? Excited to leave my family and friends? Excited to be pretty much alone in a city I don’t know? No, I wouldn’t say excited is the word. I would say accepting is a better word. But I am THRILLED that Aaron has a job and am hoping that it will turn out to be a wonderful adventure for our family.

Happy Halloween!

2011-11-01T18:05:00.000-06:00

We had such a fun Halloween! My sister, Laurie, made Eliza and her matching Gwendolyn (the good witch from the Wizard of Oz) costumes. They turned out fantastic!!! Eliza's has been done for a few weeks and the first time I put it on her she cried and cried and cried! There are little beads on the wrists that terrified her. So from then on, Eliza wouldn't touch it! She'd cry if I touched the fabric to her and would run away any time we brought it near her! It was REALLY funny, but also sad after all the work Laurie had put into it! Over the past couple weeks, we've had the dress hanging where she sees it all the time and have even dressed her stuffed animals in it.

Laurie invited us to her work lunch so I decided that I'd put Eliza in it first thing in the morning to see if she'd be okay with it by lunch. There was a lot of morning screaming and walking around like a zombie because the sleeves made her act like her arms were paralyzed, but it worked! And for some crazy reason she let me even put the crown on her head and she would hold the wand!! I don't know if seeing Laurie dressed like her made her feel cool about it or what!? But anyway, she performed perfectly and it was so much fun. She was so cute and just soaking up the attention at Laurie's work!

At night, our ward had a Trunk-or-Treat that we went to. She had been so good with the dress all morning that I wasn't going to force her to keep it on. She's in love with these hand-me-down boots so I let her wear those. She got the little cowgirl outfit for her birthday from some friends of ours. I think it is SO cute.

Eliza really can't talk and she doesn't eat candy, but that doesn't mean that I didn't want to see what she'd do. :) And, holy cow, she was cute!! Once she figured out that people were giving her stuff, she was in heaven! She figured out how to put the candy in her bucket and figured out that you went up to the person with the big bowl. It totally melted Aaron and I! She was just so cute!
When it got a little heavy, she started swinging it over her shoulder like a purse.

Aaron took this video of her with her first piece of candy. At the end she puts it in another kid's bucket and then is sad when he takes off. So funny!

I'm excited for more Halloween's... Eliza definitely made it so much fun!

Berry Picker

2011-10-04T21:15:00.004-06:00

We have a lot of raspberries where we live. As in we pick 6+ cups every other day. Yes, a LOT of raspberries. And a lot of deliciousness.

Eliza has watched us for months and last week it all clicked and I looked down to see her picking one and putting it in her mouth. I melted and ran to get the camera.

It is ADORABLE. See for yourself.

*Disclaimers: I do not normally put two clips in her hair. I had found one on the floor and didn't want to lose it so I just put it in her hair. :) Oh and yes, I know I sound like an idiot. :)

I think her great-grandpa who planted these (and who her middle name is after) would be quite tickled and proud.

Summer Hikes

2011-09-19T15:04:00.000-06:00

We LOVE the outdoors so we tried to get outside as much as we could this summer. Here's a re-cap of our summer hikes.

Trail to Timp Cave with Hayley & Ben

(we forgot her hat so we gave her a sunscreen mohawk!)

(freaky!)

Midway with my extended fam

Cecret Lake with my fam

Grandier Peak with Aaron's fam

Temple Quarry Trail with my fam

Oh and I should have mentioned quite awhile ago that she walks! She picked it up at exactly 13 months. I love it; it's adorable.

My Kid is Cool

2011-08-24T08:05:00.000-06:00

This seriously makes me so happy to watch. I think it is ADORABLE that she LOVES cars!

Working Women

2011-08-08T21:25:00.002-06:00

You may or may not know that I have continued working since having Eliza. And I took her with me. Just as of the past week we quit going in.

People constantly told me, "oh you're so lucky that she's just like that and will go". That was partially true and I KNOW we had help from above to make it work, but it's also all she knew. She went to work since she was six weeks old so it just became her life.

The long and short of it: It was HARD, SO HARD, but it was also a great blessing to be able to continue to have some income and to keep me busy because that is important for my mental health.

I really think that more employers should give this a try because it worked really well for us. The reason it even came up was because I suggested it to my boss when I was pregnant and asked if he would be willing to give it a try. He said yes but, of course, said we'd have to have a trial period (which we passed) :).

So my tips for having it be possible are to work for a small company so that your boss can make decisions like that and to be nearly irreplaceable. That may sound prideful, but I have worked really hard over the past 6+ years to make it so that my boss would not want to lose me and would give this a try. And the most major tip would be to go with the flow. Every month brought a new challenge of how to make it work and with a lot of prayers, I was able to come up with new ideas to make it last just that much longer.

I had planned on it ending once she crawled, but we were able to stretch it a couple months past that though those were the worst and hardest months. All in all, I would definitely not suggest going in every day like I did. It was incredibly stressful on me and Eliza hated it by the end. (Can you blame her? 5 hours of being sweet in a 5 foot by 5 foot area? Definitely not.)

Anyway, here's just a little recap of our working life together. :)

At first it was pretty easy since she slept a lot and would sleep in my arms. I became really good at one-handed typing!

I would take her out to the car every few hours to eat. When she refused to nurse, I would take her into the bathroom with me while I pumped and she'd sit in her swing.

After she refused to sleep in my arms, we used this little bassinet.

But then that quit because she is such a light sleeper and sometimes it was pretty loud. So then we tried the swing which helped her to sleep through some of the noise.

That worked for a few months, and then she quit doing that too because she has an issue with me seeing her fall asleep (?!?) but I was able to get her to sleep in her carseat under my desk by letting her get really tired, giving her a bottle until she would drink no more, put the shade over her, and rocking her like crazy. And luckily that continued to work until we quit going in.

While she was awake, it was all about change. The past few months have definitely been the hardest since she only slept for about an hour of the 5 hours we would go in. After she quit using the bassinet, I used it to store her toys and any bit of trash she seemed to like. I would lay a blanket on the floor and sit her on it and she'd usually entertain herself with the toys for a short while.

Once she started crawling, she found that sucking on the casters on my chair was fun. :)

Once she was able to pull herself up, she would play under my desk a lot.

(Weird face, eh? She went through a stage where she made it A LOT. She still does it occasionally, but definitely not as much.)

(love those eyes!)

I also emptied a file drawer and filled it with stuff so that she could empty it all. She'd stand there holding onto the edge and reach in over and over and over. I occasionally would set up the swing and she'd play with it. I'd also give her a stack of papers and ask her to make a huge mess of it. (30 minutes of mess making for her = 29 minutes of me being productive + 1 minute of cleaning up after her!) Every day was a new challenge of helping her make it through.

Now I'm working from home 4 days of the week and going in 1 if my mom is able to watch her. The past week has been DIVINE. Words can't express how much being a stay-at-home mom is a luxury! We love going on walks daily and spending time working in the yard and such. To put it simply, we love it! It's so nice to finally work on getting her on a dependable schedule (which DEFINITELY suffered) and do what I've always dreamed of doing--being a homemaker.

I'm so grateful my boss was willing to work with us and that I've had the opportunity to continue working, and I'm excited for the future of working at home and being able to be more of a mom.

Project: Eliza's Presents

2011-07-28T08:57:00.001-06:00

For Eliza's birthday I decided to give her some homemade gifts. I love reading the blogs with great ideas and I love making things myself so it turned out great. :)

Gift 1: Beanbag Letters

I made her first and last name.

Here she is playing with them when I first gave them to her.

She likes to pull them out of the bucket one by one and toss them behind her. Pretty awesome.

Gift 2: Church Books

I bought two of the Gospel Art books from the LDS Distribution Center and then some 'brag book photo albums' from Walmart for $1. I cut out each picture and put them in the book. Since Eliza LOVES flipping pages, I thought this would be a hit. Plus that, I like that I can point out things in pictures in church that have to deal with churchy stuff. :)

Gift 3: Her Baby Blanket

The baby blanket was supposed to be ready for her, oh you know, when she was born... obviously it wasn't. I had never appliqued and there are some definite errors, but I think it turned out pretty cute. For the animals, I googled something like 'nursery animals', looked at the images and sketched the ones I liked and then made a pattern for them.

The front was finished before she was born and I bought the backing and the binding the Saturday night before I went into labor Monday morning. When I bought the fabric, I assumed she would come late so I thought I would have at least a couple of days before she was born to work on it to keep me busy. Not so! Yay for babies coming! So Monday morning as I'm in labor I washed, dried, and ironed the backing and binding just trying to keep my mind off things. I took this picture of the wrong side of the front because I thought it looked fun. :) Who knew we'd have her in our arms late that night?!

I still wasn't quite sure how I wanted to bind it and then I had her and things got a little busy. I had the blanket in the back of my mind for months but never could figure a good way to quilt it. As a year started to approach I decided it was time to buck up and finish it. I decided to quilt around the animals and then quilt straight lines across it. I made a goal to finish it for her birthday and I finished binding it two days before. The back is a green vine print. I actually don't really like the way I bound it. So if you have ideas of how to make it cuter, let me know.

I'm not quite sure what to do with it since she really doesn't use blankets, so I hung it on her wall for now. As you can tell, she was thrilled to be in the picture. :)

I'm so grateful I've been given the talent to create. I love making things.

Brad & Janelle

2011-07-19T08:44:00.002-06:00

My brother Brad was married to the lovely Janelle from Tremonton, Utah on July 8 in the Bountiful Temple. It was a fun day. I love weddings. :)

Check out the bouquet, boutinerres, and corsages. I made them! I've never done anything like it before, but Janelle told me I could so I watched some videos on youtube and voila! I think they turned out really well. I loved doing them!

Have I ever told you I love my family? When the photographer lined them up with my parents Brad said the women should face one way and the men a different. So they did. :)

Here they are with their current niece and nephew. Eliza was SO tired and therefore VERY unhappy as you can see!

Eliza only wanted me (which makes me feel like a million bucks!) and even PUT HER HEAD ON MY SHOULDER! She is NEVER cuddly so this was pretty sweet! I asked my sis to take our picture and Brad leaned in. Love it.

Eliza did cheer up a bit and entertain us with her spit bubble-making! She does it when she's tired!

We had the luncheon and then a reception that evening in West Jordan.

We siblings, of course, did our part to bless their car! We had windowpaints, streamers, and balloons but also these little lovlies in the windshield wipers to ride off into the sunset together! (Notice they're holding "hands".) :)

We also had a good amount of stuff hanging from the back. Nothing says "Happy Wedding" quite like a spatula, febreeze, and a diaper box!

Eliza clapped as they left. :)

The next evening we had a reception in Tremonten. I love watching our parents with Eliza. It's so unreal to me that my dad probably tossed me in the air just the same way.

And here is my brother tempting Eliza with grapes. :)

It was a fantastic wedding! Congrats Brad and Janelle!

Birthday Bash!

2011-07-14T08:11:00.004-06:00

We celebrated Eliza's birthday on the 4th.

Doesn't she look adorable here? This may have been the only smile we got all day!

The weather was so perfect! Here is everyone who could make it. We had a Mexican Fiesta (on the 4th of July...) to celebrate. Aaron grilled carne asada. Yum yum. Doesn't the bunting look so festive?

She had a pretty rough weekend leading up to her party. She broke her 2nd tooth the day before and hadn't slept barely at all as a result. So here she is... It's her party and she'll cry if she wants to!

Luckily she cheered up enough to have some fun with the cake. When we were planning the party, the only idea we really liked was ducks because she loves this cowboy rubber duck she has. I looked online at Oriental Trading Company and found some cowboy ducks, but then found patriotic ones-- both of which sounded great. But then... we found these Mariachi rubber duckies!!! There was no looking back from that point on! It was just too perfect for our fiesta! We kept them a secret from everyone so when we brought them out, we got some good laffs! We think they're pretty awesome.

She pulled a few ducks off while we sang to her.

And then I gave her a cupcake of her own.

This video mainly cracks me up because of Tiff's serenade in the background!

Instead of picking up pieces to eat, she leaned down and licked it a few times. Definitely not something she usually does so it was pretty cute. :)

She mainly just had fun making a mess.

But that wasn't enough mess for me so I gave her another one... and she made a significant mess. :)

She started throwing it and we got a good laff out of it. This is a no-no any other time but her birthday. :)

"Yay" is the only word she's made a connection with thus far. You say "yay" and she claps. Love it!

As for how much cake she actually ate? No more than a teaspoon! I don't think she was in the mood.

And then she rubbed her tired eyes and made some good progress on the face. :)

And then came the presents! She loves being outside and we were willing to try anything that would result in no breakdowns!, so we gathered around to watch her.

Tiff gave her a toy first. She spent 5 minutes playing with the bow before Grandpa started ripping into it for her.

It ended up being a lego carriage so she wouldn't touch anything else! Both of our parents hooked us up with clothes (yay!) and my sister gave her some books. The books and the carriage kept her happy for over an hour. Woot!

And that was her party!
We are thankful for the gifts and that our families would celebrate with us.
The next night (her real birthday) I gave her a bath with her ducks. Happy Birthday E! We sure love you!

One Year!

2011-07-05T12:29:00.000-06:00

What a difference a year makes. We sure love her!

Lagoon!

2011-06-29T08:49:00.003-06:00

My friend Emily invited us to come with her to her work party at Lagoon last week.

A free trip to Lagoon? HECK YES!!!

We had such a fun time. We were there from like 2 to 6 p.m. and could have easily spent more time, but it was what worked best with work and baby schedules!

Emily was such a good sport and watched Eliza for us while Aaron and I went on all the roller coasters. It was the hottest day of the year thus far so the lines were only a few minutes long because everyone was playing in the water. It was AWESOME.

Eliza was SO intrigued by the rides!

The only rides she could go on were the train ride and the carousel. So of course we took her on them!

I took a picture of E while we were in the tunnel... and she was a bit... terrified. :)

"look ma, no hands!"

We got some Dippin' Dots. :) She LOVED them.

And then we joined everyone else in the water! This was her first time swimming so I was excited to see how she'd act. Also, I wanted to see her in a swimsuit. And she didn't disappoint!

What a cutie.

She thought it was okay fun, but was pretty tired and hungry by that point! We went to Emily's boss' house for a bbq. It was delish. They brought their dogs out and E went crazy. In the past few weeks she's started noticing other kids or small moving things. It's like she's thinking "HEY, you're small too!!" Super cute.

And Eliza got to ride her first roller coaster!

It was such a fun day! Thank you again Moo!

The Social Cough

2011-06-27T16:20:00.000-06:00

Eliza is a social cougher. Whenever she hears other people cough, she coughs back at them. And it's hilarious.

I love the cough at the very end of the video... the coughing 'in her mouth' is pretty new. She cracks me up.

Twin Falls Weekend

2011-06-21T21:32:00.001-06:00

We had a fantastic weekend last weekend. My brother Alan and his wife Alicia have been living in Minnesota going to school. He got an internship at the St. Luke's Hospital in Twin Falls for the summer so they're living there. Aaron ended a semester on Thursday and started a new one Monday so we had the weekend off. Plus that it was my birthday so we needed to celebrate! We had a fantastic time.

They had this funny Dr. Suess stuffed animal that they let Eliza play with. She kept digging her face into it and flattening herself onto it! Hilarious!

We didn't really have anything planned except to be together. So we just spent time with the bunnies near their apartment,

went walking on a riverwalk, (notice Alicia's belly... I'M GOING TO BE AN AUNT!!!)

played at playgrounds,

enjoyed the Twin Falls scenery,

saw an old Deere (Aaron has loved tractors since he was little and he helped his grandpa farm),

saw the Twin Falls Temple, (notice Brad & Janelle on the right... I'm also getting a new sister-in-law!)

saw Shoshone Falls, (which is running REALLY full!)

and also went to a bunch of garage sales in their complex! I got a humidifier, four hard books for Eliza, and two puzzles for $4.50. :) It was fantastic.

We also celebrated my birthday with some yummy bbq and cake and by them wishing me a Happy Day at least 1,000 times which is just what I wanted!

Oh, I caught a video of another of Eliza's tricks! (sorry about the bounce...we were in the car!)

So all there is to it is that it was a fantastic weekend.

Who She Loves

2011-06-20T16:24:00.001-06:00

This little lady is becoming QUITE a Daddy's girl. He'll come home from school or work and she'll shriek and crawl to him. She's constantly crawling to his legs and pulling herself up so he'll play with her. Talk about cute. Dad is super fun to play with.

I'm so happy that Aaron is the father of our sweet girl. Happy First Father's Day to him and a Happy Father's Day to both of our wonderful dads!

Project: Birthday Bunting & The New Trick

2011-06-07T11:40:00.006-06:00

I finally acted on my bunting obsession! I made two strands of triangle bunting (one is pictured) and a birthday banner. I think they're quite festive. :)
And it's been a big couple of weeks for our girl. She learned to crawl, pull herself up on anything, and balance while standing; we think walking is just around the corner! She also got her first (and maybe second... she won't let us see) tooth and here's her newest trick!

She'll do it for 10 min or so back and forth with us. A.d.o.r.a.b.l.e. Gotta love ever-present tongue. :)

then & now

2011-05-26T10:46:00.003-06:00

(I plan on doing random posts with pictures of Eliza. I got the idea from a photographer at http://www.willettedesigns.com/. She called it "the joy of love" and did a month's worth of unique picture ideas. Just had to give credit where credit is due!)

My First Mother's Day

2011-05-09T11:53:00.000-06:00

Yesterday was my first Mother's Day. Aaron and Eliza sent me on a treasure hunt to find some Snicker's ice cream. We also had dinner with my family and skyped with Aaron's family and with my missionary brother. So it was a good day!
I feel so lucky to be a mom. I received an email forward last week that made me teary eyed because of it's truth. I cut out the parts that I liked best.

Before I was a mom, I never tripped over toys and I didn't worry whether or not my plants were poisonous. I never held down a screaming child so doctors could do tests. Or give shots. I never looked into teary eyes and cried. I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin. I never sat up late hours at night watching a baby sleep. I never held a sleeping baby just because I didn't want to put her down. I never felt my heat break into a million pieces when I couldn't stop the hurt. I never knew that something so small could affect my life so much. I never knew that I could love someone so much. I didn't know the feeling of having my heart outside my body. I didn't know how special it could feel to feed a hungry baby. I didn't know that bond between a mother and her child. I didn't know that something so small could make me feel so important and happy. I had never gotten up every 1o minutes to make sure all was okay. I had never known the warmth, the joy, the love, the heartache, the wonderment, or the satisfaction of being a mom. I didn't know I was capable of feeling so much. But that was before I was a mom.

Family Vacation!

2011-04-28T08:12:00.011-06:00

A tax refund calls for a tax refund splurge! Aaron had his last final last Wednesday so E and I drove down to pick him up in Provo and then continue south. (Of course E always checked her blind spots.) We drove to Moab and stayed the night there. The next morning we went into Arches. Here are the 3 Gossips. They make me happy. :) I had done some research and we decided we were going to hike Devil's Garden and Delicate Arch. We headed to Devil's Garden and started going. The first arch was Landscape Arch. Eliza came here last year five weeks before she was born... it was fun to have her outside this time. :)
While snacking there, we met a little furry friend.
On the way to the next arch, we came across some pretty cool rocks. Getting to the end of the trail was not what I expected... you climb up quite a few rocks and then walk across the top of a rock fin!
It was cool but kinda scary! Here we are at the end of the fin.
Pretty soon after that we saw Double O Arch (it is hard to see, but there is another arch under the top o!) Super cool!
We stopped for a bit and ate. I thought our stuff just looked so picturesque sitting there. :) We hiked a bit more on that trail and headed back. On the way in it had been windy, but on the way back it got REALLY windy. When we were walking across the fin, we had to hold ourselves against the wind praying that we wouldn't get blown off. It was REALLY windy. I was pretty scared but we made it just fine.
We ate lunch and were trying to figure out what to do. The thing both of us was most excited for of the whole trip was climbing Delicate Arch which we were planning on doing then but it was honestly too windy. We were a bit bummed but then were able to come up with a plan of switching our plans for the next day to that day in hopes that we could climb Delicate Arch the next day.
So off we headed down to Natural Bridges National Monument. It was a scenic drive and I thought it was pretty cool that we went through the mountain.There are three bridges in the monument. (Bridges are formed by water sculpting them, arches are formed by rocks falling out of them. Thought you'd like to know!) This was the first one and I thought it was beautiful. The hikes to the viewpoints were relatively short so we just carried E. It was very windy down there too. At one of the viewpoints, you can look down and see these ruins hidden in a crevice in the cliff. So cool. We just drove around and took a few hikes and then drove back and stayed the night in Monticello. We definitely want to go back and hike in Natural Bridges... it is BEAUTIFUL!

The next morning we headed into the Needles section of Canyonlands. On the way we stopped at Newspaper Rock. Loved it. It was a pretty drive into Canyonlands.
E was super excited to get back in the pack. She LOVES being outside!
We took a hike to see a bunch of 'potholes'. It'd be super cool to see them full of water! It never ceases to amaze me how different nature can be all the sudden!And here's a view of the Needles. E was cracking me up when she started sucking on Aaron's camelpak tube! We then drove back to Moab and got ready to hike Delicate Arch. Aaron was feeding Eliza yogurt and it was a messy deal! And then we hiked to Delicate Arch. It was awesome!
(Someone got tired!) :)
Here we are under the arch. We got E out and she loved playing on the rocks. Aaron got sick of me taking pics of him so I told him he could take one of me with my poles. :) I totally look like I'm skiing here... minus the snow. My knee and hip hurt pretty bad when I hike so these help take off quite a bit of the pressure.On our drive to the hotel she figured out how fun it is to take her socks off! Gotta love it when activities like this can take up an hour or so! We stayed near Hanksville that night. We got up and drove to Goblin Valley State Park. It's super cool. A valley randomly filled with, well, goblins.We took a hike but found that the trail was really poorly marked so we ended up having to pave our own trail to get back. Aaron scoped it out while I waited for the okay (in case it didn't work so that I wouldn't have to put my knee to more use!). His path did work and it ended up being a pretty cool hike.
It's crazy how easily eroded that place is. This is what the rocks look like. And then I ran my finger down it. (Yes, I am a terrible person who contributed to the erosion.) The rocks are made of sandstone.Ande here we are in the valley playing among all the goblins!
(We held her upside down through an arch. Her face makes me smile.) :) We stumbled across a geo cache!
And then we headed home. We had SUCH a fun time. It was wonderful to be together and have no school or work on our minds---just playing. Eliza was fantastic. We thought for sure she'd be unhappy but she was probably the happiest she's ever been which was amazing! We were so grateful to get away and be a family in nature!

Happy Easter! (and the cure-alls)

2011-04-26T09:14:00.011-06:00

I hope you had a wonderful Easter! And that you had a visit from the Easter Bunny!(I got the hat from a baby shower and couldn't think of a more appropriate day to have her wear it!)
My mom got Eliza the sweetest dress.

(mmm... tulip!) You may have noticed the string cheese in her hand. String cheese and Desatin are her cure-alls. 95% of the time letting her hold one of those two items will calm her down. :) She goes wild over them. She just loves to suck and suck and suck on the outsides. Kinda weird. I love it. :)(Adorable capris, huh!?!) And notice her new car! We use our Discover Card for every purchase and then pay it off each month. They pay us awesome cash back! Besides getting gift cards or cash with the cash back, you can also get stuff from their 'merchandise center'. And this sweet car was on it! It is a 4-in-1. It has glides to put under the tires so it is like a rocking horse, it has a handle in the back so the child can walk and push it, it has a tall handle so the parent can push it like a stroller, and then you can remove everything and have it be a car that they can push with their feet! I'm really impressed with it; it's so easy to change out the different parts and so far, she loves it! We'll probably just call it her birthday present. :) Hooray for 'free' stuff.

We went on our family vacation last weekend... it was wonderful! Post to come!

Project: Mummy Bag

2011-04-16T11:37:00.007-06:00

Remember this little sleep sack (or mummy bag as Aaron prefers to call it)? Well, she outgrew it. But I LOVED it. I am so nervous about having her sleep with blankets so it has been such a good solution for us. So I made a new, longer one. I just traced the other one onto paper, added an inch width and added a foot in length. And it works perfectly. And for $5. Woot!

Originally I was thinking I should do gender neutral so we could use it for a boy too, but now I kinda wish I would have picked a girlier color. Oh well! I think she looks like one of the peas in the pod from Toy Story 3. :)

And here she is. Whining in all her glory. She does a lot of that. :)Is it lame that all I post about are things that I sew?! I find that it's my outlet.

Life here is pretty routine. Work and school over and over. Eliza is close to crawling, but isn't there yet. (And we don't approve of such behavior so we aren't encouraging her!) :) Aaron finishes another semester this week. It's been such a hard semester. (okay, hard 4+ semesters...) He'll be taking spring and summer terms too but with a lighter work load before going back for his last two semesters (unless he decides to continue on for a PhD...). So hopefully we'll be able to have some fun this summer and get outdoors! We're hoping to go on our first family vacation too so I'll let you know how that goes!!! :) I hope warm weather comes all of our ways soon!

I'm FAMOUS!!!!

2011-04-01T13:55:00.011-06:00

Oh. My. Goodness.
I was spotlighted on a blog!

Check it out here:
http://www.thisandthatcreative.com/2011/04/creative-spotlight-beckys-onesie.html

This is one of my favorite creative blogs because they seek out everyone and feature them... so it's just the hugest blog of fun stuff. I've found lots of the blogs I now follow from this site.

Just for randomness, one that they previously featured is http://www.aprettycoollife.com/. They featured the blanket below and I freaked out. I have a confession... I am so, so, so obsessed with bunting right now! :) I have not yet acted on my obsession, but I hope to very soon! Happy April to you! I'm super excited for Conference weekend... hoping for more and more sun... I soaked in the sun for hours yesterday... sooooooooooo yummy!

Luck o' the Irish

2011-03-17T21:15:00.002-06:00

We had one goal today: to not get pinched.
We succeeded. :)

Project: Bird Mobile

2011-03-01T08:12:00.009-07:00

I'm sure you've seen these out in the blogging world; I saw mine on "homemadebyjill". I just loved it and have been looking forward to making it.

The balancing of the birds is definitely the hardest of the whole thing, but it's kinda like a math problem really! And I refused to give up!

Check out these bulldog cheeks!
And, of course, a couple pics of the lady of the hour--
We are already having problem with her taking her phone to bed with her... Oh, looks like someone is sleepy! Goodnight Eliza!
I'm so grateful some people are so creative to come up with such fun ideas that I can make for my own!

Project: Onesie Extender

2011-02-16T08:33:00.006-07:00

I have a long child.
As a result, many onesies don't fit her. See below.

(yes, I let my child play with garbage.) (often, in fact.)

So I created a ONESIE EXTENDER! (insert trumpet sounds here!)

I made it from a onesie that was pretty badly stained up the back so I didn't feel bad cutting it up. :) It is DEFINITELY not the pretties thing and I was actually quite amazed at its ugliness, but it works and it doesn't show once she's fully dressed so it is just perfect!

Hooray for no scrunched body!!!

And here she is. All dressed and pressed and ready to go. (can any of you name where that is from?)
And one last pic of her goofy mouth! She is constantly playing with her mouth and tongue!

It Takes Two to Tango!

2011-02-14T20:28:00.008-07:00

We celebrated Valentine's in style! Here are my two loves Tangoing the night away!

And here is our fun game of chase!

We dressed up all festive for the day. :)

(ignore my freaky smile) :)

I hope you had a wonderful day too!

Aquarium

2011-02-02T08:33:00.004-07:00

I asked Aaron to take me to The Living Planet Aquarium for my Christmas present. So we headed there a couple weeks ago.
Our friends called a few minutes before we were leaving and asked if we could tend their son and we said sure and took him along!

The Aquarium was... okay. There were some really cool fishies, but it is WAY overpriced. Luckily if you mention Facebook you get $2 off so that made me feel better about it.
To be honest though, I'm spoiled. I've been to real aquariums in much bigger cities. As in like tanks as big as rooms that you walk through the middle of. So for Utah, it was as good aquarium and it was fun to see, but it IS really small for the price.

Anyway! The kids were perfect and just looked around. Here is Little E saying, "Gosh piranhas are the lamest."
Here I am touching the sting rays. The only reason I did it was because I saw a sink nearby. I went to wash my hand and found out there was no soap. In other words, I would not have put my hand in the cesspool of germs because who wants to touch babies after touching sting rays?! Gross!

We were really surprised to see that we had walked through the whole thing in like 30 min.... so we went back and did it all over again to make sure we got our money's worth. :)

Here is the biggest tank with the turtle who survived a fabulous shark attack!

And then a shark went behind them too so I had to get a pic of that too!
It was a fun little outing! We were happy to take Ethan along!

Christmas Recap

2011-01-04T17:56:00.013-07:00

Christmastime is always wonderful. I love seeing festivities and I love being with family.
December went by more quickly this year than I ever recall which made me pretty sad, but such is life!
This is post with pictures galore, but it tells our December story.

We went and saw the lights with my family. The pic isn't great, but you can see Eliza's head. Aaron wore the wrap and then zipped his jacket over it. We got quite a few aww's so we were pretty pleased with ourselves. :)
Eliza met Santa! I was pretty sure she'd be fine with him since she hasn't hit the stranger freak out stage yet, and she was! She just gave his beard quite a tug! Santa was trying to hold it on!

I had some fun with her while I decorated our little trees. I gave her the garland to play with and she didn't put it down for over an hour so I just left it off and put it in her toy basket for the month!

(those cheeks just kill me!)

My cousin gave me some awesome hand-me-downs which included these slippers. They make me happy. :)

My mom gave her a dress as a gift. What a pretty little doll!
I love this tights pic. :)
Uncle Doug came from China for a visit!
We headed down to Pagosa for Christmas on Wednesday. The drive went pretty well, but she didn't sleep more than a couple hours any of the nights we were there which was really hard. But oh well! It's good to be with family!

Eliza got plenty of love!
We went on a walk so we stuck her in a hoodie. I just love the little hat! Pretty dang cute. :)

And then came the presents! We thought it would be fun to stack up all the presents and put her on the top. And it was. :)
She thought it was pretty fun to be up there and got giggly which was a fun treat for Aaron's family. (We tried numerous times the rest of the break for my family, but without luck.)

She had the most presents of everyone. :) I guess it's obvious who is the favorite!

Aunt Tiff helped her out.
After a few, she was way overtired so we put her to sleep and had her finish the next morning. She got some pjs and toys which is exactly what she needed!

On Christmas Day, some of Aaron's extended family came over. We spent the day talking, eating, and playing games.

We left that night to make the trip back up for my brother's mission homecoming which had unfortunately been rescheduled to that next day. We went 5 hours that night and stayed in Green River.

We watched the sunrise the next morning which was beautiful.

Here's the little one in the big bed. :)

And here she is in her prison cell! I laffed out loud when they brought it up... I had no idea it would look like that. Crazy thing is that she slept better in her cell than any of the previous nights! Oh well!

We finished up the last 3 hours and were entertained by these on the way...

Monday morning we had our own little family Christmas. My cousin who handed me down some stuff also gave us what is wrapped here. Are we cheapskates or what not getting our kid a present?! Oh well. :)
I gave Aaron this backpack carrier. I watched the ksl classifieds for quite awhile and found this one.

We took it for a walk that afternoon. (love the tongue!)

It was a lot of fun. Hopefully we'll put some good miles on it this summer!

Aaron gave me a promise for a date to the Living Planet Aquarium and got my rings re-plated.

My brother and sis-in-law came into town late Tuesday from Minnesota. Since my family knew we would all be together then, we postponed Christmas a few days and had it when they came.

By this time, Little E was a champ at opening presents! (She was in clothes but it was really hot in the room so we took them off. Opening presents in the buff is always more fun, right?!)

Here is my brother Brad. He decided to wear everything he received as gifts... :)

See that mouse in his pocket? I have this weird tradition of wrapping up random things and giving them to people. That mouse is a Christmas decoration my mom has so I wrapped it up and gave it to him. I also like to wrap things up that obviously belong to someone and give them to someone else. Good times. :)

It was really great to see Alan and Alicia. They haven't seen Eliza since she was a few weeks old. They loved playing with her.

They gave her this Minnesota beanie. Every time Alan would say "GO GOPHERS!" she would smile or squeal.

It was a marvelous week and a half. We're glad we got to see both families. We're glad we have Little E. We're pretty dang lucky.

I hope your holidays were fabulous as well!

project: scrapbook

2010-12-10T08:20:00.008-07:00

A few years ago, my friend Jordan showed me her scrapbooks. I was so impressed. They were beautiful. They were wonderful memories. They were just plain cool!
I had never scrapbooked before. But when we got married I decided that I was going to make one. And I did. And it took two years to finish... And I'll never make another one. :)

Yes, I am really glad I did this one because it will be a fun memory of all the details, but I decided scrapbooking just really isn't my thing. I am a photo book person. All the paper and cutting and stickers and ribbons and stuff are cute, but just too much for me.

So in case anyone cares, I took pictures of some random pages. (Sorry the photo's aren't cropped... call me stupid, but I don't know how to crop them!)

(cover)
(each of our versions of the engagement & the announcements)

(engagement photos)

(details and pictures of the bridal showers)

(some of my favorite cards from the showers)

(picking the dress & bridals)

(making the skirts & receiving my endowment)

(heading to nauvoo & getting the marriage license)

(first husband & wife photos)

(random wedding party pics)

(hotties)

(more faves)

(heading out to take pics around the flats)

(around the flats)

(wedding dinner)

("honeymoon")

(reception prep & colorado reception)

(utah reception & "signing book")

(our first apartment)

So yeah, another project done. I hope that if nothing else, our kids will enjoy looking through it and seeing mom and dad as young bucks. :)

sitting pretty

2010-12-03T09:21:00.002-07:00

Practically overnight, she became a full-time sitter at 4.5 months!!!!

billy

2010-11-30T17:17:00.002-07:00

Have you ever heard a funnier word?!

(It is dark because she was supposedly taking a nap.... I'll take giggles over naps any day!)

Uncle Dan is definitely going to be missed. He's headed to serve a mission in Guadalajara Mexico!

We'll see if Uncle Brad (who comes home from his mission tomorrow) can take the place of Uncle Dan!

leaf girl

2010-11-19T15:29:00.004-07:00

Isn't this jacket just unbelievably cute?!

Love her.

cereal 2

2010-11-15T14:30:00.004-07:00

For some reason this wouldn't upload yesterday.

Here is Eliza eating yesterday morning. Talk about a mess!!!

cereal yum yum

2010-11-14T09:41:00.008-07:00

I thought for sure I'd be one of those "absolutely nothing but milk for the first six months" type of moms, but I found out I'm not. (At least not yet!) I've been wanting to give rice cereal to Little E for awhile now mainly hoping it would help her sleep longer and better. So after our 4 month appointment and the go-ahead from the pediatrician, we gave it a go. And it's been fun . :) She has been sleeping better but who knows if that is the reason why!

Side note: 4 month stats-- 14.5 lbs (68%ile) and 26.25" (98%ile). Poor girl is going to be a lerp just like her mom!

Here's a video of the first time. I love the look of absolute disgust!

We've been giving it to her once a day and she's started getting the hang of it. It is a VERY messy process though!

We discovered what happens when she sneezes with food in her mouth... :)

I'll go ahead and admit that that pic is DANG CUTE. :)

au naturale

2010-11-06T10:43:00.002-06:00

I came across this blog while I was pregnant and enjoyed reading the birth stories of these women. Hearing so many different stories really helped prepare me.

I thought I would post the link in case any of you are wanting info on a natural birth.
And some of you may wish to add your stories to it.

http://naturalbirthstories.blogspot.com

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-30T11:47:00.005-06:00

It's been a good Halloween season!

Some of you know Ueford. Ueford became mine my senior year. I got him as a white elephant gift. And I can't part with him. He's a good friend. :) We thought we should introduce Eliza to him.

And as you can see, it went REALLY well!

(Yes, we're weird.) :)

We also decorated cookies. I'd add more pictures... but they're not very flattering so I didn't. Yum yum!

We carved our pumpkin! I chose the pattern in memory of Willie the Cat who died last week. I've decided I love to carve pumpkins. Kinda random.

And of course Halloween means dressing up!

We had a fun ward party that we went to!

We love our little flower! Thanks to Great Aunt Sue for the costume!

And, as you can tell, she thought my joke was funny!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Rogaine?

2010-10-21T09:26:00.003-06:00

I'm not the only one losing hair around here these days...

That's a pretty sweet bald spot/stripe if I do say so myself. :)

Jotting Random Thoughts

2010-10-17T10:20:00.004-06:00

I have a much longer commute these days which leads to a lot more thinking time. Not sure if it's a good or bad thing... I'm not sure why I'm sharing them, but then again why not?

1. This move has been wonderful. It's amazing how the Lord watches out for us. For months we'd been trying to find an apartment manager position so that our rent expense could decrease and so hopefully I could stay home with Eliza. We applied and tried for multiple things but they all didn't work out. We were so bummed because we couldn't think of another way. Then, out of the blue, we were approached asking if we would be caretakers of this home. WHAT!?! We couldn't believe it and are so grateful for Him watching over the details of our lives. Initially we were just excited to move out of our 600 sq ft place and have room to move around! But now that we've been here a few weeks, we are THRILLED. We were content and felt blessed to have been where we were, but moving here has just made us feel like real people! We have closets, a normal size fridge, a front room and sofas, a tub, a kitchen, and windows that look to the world... all things we didn't previously have. We hope things work out and we can be here for a long time.

2. When it comes to dates, we're different. A date to us is sitting together for a few minutes, going on a walk, cooking a meal, or playing a quick game. We rarely go out for entertainment or even go out to eat. Truth be told? I LOVE to go out to eat. And in the future if we have the funds to go out weekly, I'd love to do it, but for now, cooking together will do. Date time can even be defined as being in the same room... even if he's doing homework and I'm working on a project. It's just nice to be near each other since we rarely see each other. Don't take me wrong, we do occasionally go out together to the temple or for our anniversary, but for the most part we're okay to have our dates at home.

3. This "outrage" over President Packer's talk is, in my opinion, a bit ridiculous. Nothing he said was new news and plus that, he was in his own church building sharing his beliefs. When I was young I wouldn't have put any thought into the debate because I didn't know anyone personally who was gay. Now I know a gay person very closely and have thought about his lifestyle quite a bit. And in all honesty, it seems like a lonely and more of a selfish lifestyle because all time and money doesn't go to raising a family... it goes to himself. He is a wonderful person, but I feel he has missed out on many wonderful things this life offers. Comments have been made that we need to accept this lifestyle because it is the way of the future. How can the death of our civilization be a good thing? I am so grateful to have the Gospel of Jesus Christ in my life that brings me such happiness because of temples and eternal families. I have nothing against the sinner, just the sin.

4. I love Little E. At times I just want to get stuff done, but then I think about missing these moments and try to focus all my attention to her. The moments where I look down and she's staring at me, when she holds onto her links with a deathgrip, those bulldog cheeks, each little squeal and occasional giggle, the way her life revolves around her binky (especially since she couldn't suck for the first 1.5 days of her life!) and the ever-growing thighs. I'm still checking on her 10o times a day. I hope we will be blessed with more sweet spirits.

5. And speaking of Little E... this girl has opinions. Mainly on sleeping and eating. For sleeping... sleeping is really not that cool-- especially through the night. And for eating, she refuses to nurse. For the first couple months, it was occasional fits. But starting at two months, she started to scream and refuse to eat from me more and more often until it became every meal. I kept trying but the stress of the screamfest was just not worth it to me. So for now I am strictly pumping and she is much happier. I'll occasionally try and am greeted with the same hate. At first I was really frustrated and almost mad about it, but now my focus is on how grateful I am that I am still producing milk for her and I hope that I can continue to do so.

6. We are so dang blessed. We have each other and we have a daughter. We are taking care of a home. Aaron is in a good program at school. I am able to work a few hours a day to provide for us. People have been so incredibly generous with giving us hand-me-downs for Eliza that we've barely purchased anything but necessities so far. But of course, we are also nervous for our future... will Aaron do a PhD?, will he be able to get a job?, will I be able to stay home with hopefully more children? But we are doing our best to focus on faith. We've been watched over so far; we need to trust He'll continue to bless us.

And those are my thoughts.

Blessing Day

2010-10-05T09:22:00.006-06:00

It has been a month, but things have been bizzay! Between working and school and moving on short notice to a wonderful house (pictures to come) and having had a terrible internet connection at our apartment, I am finally posting. Hopefully I'll be able to catch up on all of your blogs and my posts will be more common now. :)

Aaron blessed Eliza on September 5th. It was such a wonderful and special day!
Aaron and I both wanted to keep the blessing small so we only had our immediate families and one set of great-grandparents there. Her dad, grandpas, an uncle from each side, and her great-grandpa were in the circle. We really enjoyed it.
I made her little dress and I thought it turned out beautiful. It is silk and cost $15. Not too shabby! I saw a picture on The Lazy Organizer (I think) that gave me the idea for the look and then I just took some of her clothes and made a pattern off of them. I feel really blessed that I was able to make it; it made me happy.
I know that these pictures are a bit overkill, but I might as well just post them instead of stressing over which ones to delete. :)

Great Grandpa Jack

Uncle Ryan

Favorite Uncle Dan (I swear she has a crush on him!)

(You can see Dan's head at the bottom... he was trying to get her to smile and then ducking!)

Great Grandma Donna

Two Months

2010-09-11T18:00:00.000-06:00

At two months, Eliza....

*is finally really smiling and melting us with each one

*has a crush on Uncle Dan and smiles more for him than anyone

*sleeps four hours at night

*is VERY alert

*has her tongue out of her mouth probably 75% of the time

*takes cat naps

*is nearly always pleasant as long as she's fed the exact amount she wants (yes even an ounce makes all the difference)

*hates being burped

*LOVES her binky

*will put herself to sleep about once a day

*was blessed last weekend (pictures to come)

*got her first shots yesterday

*weighs 11 lbs, 11 ozs (67%ile) and is 23.5" (85%ile)

Summer Fun

2010-09-02T09:12:00.007-06:00

We went on two fun little outings with peeps from our ward before school started.

Outing 1: Lamb's Canyon

Abigail and Eliza. Awesome pic.
Trunk changing table!

:)

Outing 2: Utah Lake Beach

Cam and Eliza. Future lovers?

So good looking! She was so chill with having them on!

We really love Matt, Camille, and Cam, Aaron, Katrina, and Lilah, and Craig, Jennie and Abigail. They been such good friends to us!

T T with Little E

2010-08-25T10:42:00.002-06:00

Tummy time with Eliza makes me laff. She'll be super chill and just lay there for a few minutes and then switch to workout mode. Within seconds she's fussing and flailing and moving. We tell her "no pain; no gain" and cheer her on. After a bit comes my favorite part--the part where she's pretty mad but then realizes there is something under her and she gives it a lick. Then back to fussing; then back to licking. Cracks me up!

Newborn Photos

2010-08-14T12:09:00.022-06:00

One of my friends, Deann Hadley, asked if she could take pictures of Eliza to build her portfolio. I was thrilled because I couldn't justify paying to have them done. She did a great job and it was a fun time. You can't even tell that Eliza was super ornery a lot of the time. :)
THANK YOU DEANN!!!Sorry about your carpet Emily! :)

One Month

2010-08-06T15:47:00.005-06:00

Its been one month since our Spanish Senorita came to us!

And she's growing!

Here she is at two days--

And here she is one day under a month!

Love her!

24th

2010-08-05T17:22:00.007-06:00

We got together with three families from our ward on the 24th. We went up Milcreek Canyon and spent the morning. It was super fun to get into the mountains and be with friends!

Aaron and Little E

The Herd Family

The Tanner Family with Eliza

Beautiful Lilah

Stinking Cute Cam

Doesn't that look like the perfect summer picture?!

Three mommies with their daughters all less than three months apart.

The three girls! So cute!

It was a ton of fun to get into the mountains like we've been dying to do!

Cookies

2010-07-20T15:51:00.004-06:00

Last night I had a craving for Oatmeal Raisin Cookies. I didn't have a single craving while I was pregnant (which was a pretty big disappointment to me!) so I decided I should definitely answer this craving!

So this morning Eliza and I made cookies. (See her in there?)
She was a champ at helping me do the measuring.
(I can neither confirm nor deny that I pose my child for pictures.)

The result? Well, they looked pretty nasty (I can never seem to make cookies look good!; I wish I knew the secret!), but they filled the craving nonetheless. :)

Eliza

2010-07-12T18:12:00.005-06:00

A week ago tonight our lives changed! Our first child came to earth.

If you are interested in the birth story, keep reading. If not, just know that we had our baby. :)

Last Sunday Aaron and I walked quite a few miles hoping it would get labor going. Monday morning about 5 am I woke up feeling different and after a few minutes realized I was having contractions. I was thrilled that my body had gone into labor on its own and also anxious knowing that this meant that I had to birth the baby! Around 11 I called the hospital to pre-register and told them that I was in very early labor and wouldn't come in until I couldn't walk or talk through contractions because I had previously decided that I wanted to do everything in my power to have an unmedicated birth. A few minutes later, my doctor called me and asked what was going on. I told her and she told me to go walk for an hour and then come up the hospital to be checked. We had lunch and then took off on the walk. After a few minutes of walking, we decided we should just walk to the hospital since we assumed it would take about that long. So we did! We got there and they said I was at a 3+. They had to monitor me in another hour so Aaron and I walked around the Labor and Delivery floor for an hour. They checked again and I was same. They asked what we wanted to do and I said we wanted to go home and labor there. My doctor didn't agree and came in and told me that I could be in early labor for days and asked suggested she strip my membranes to see if it would speed things up. We agreed and soon I was at a 5+, and then after another two or so hours of walking around the floor, was at the same. We were given a couple of choices and decided breaking my water was the best idea. At this point (5:00) we were admitted so Aaron called a friend from the ward to pick him up and take him home to get our stuff since we had walked there not expecting to stay! Luckily we had everything pretty pre-packed so he was able to get back quickly. My doctor broke my water and the contractions came harder almost immediately. Laying in the bed was the most uncomfortable and made me really nervous so I asked to continue to walk. Soon I couldn't walk during the contractions anymore and had to put my arms around Aaron's neck and sway back and forth breathing as hard as I could. I was getting to the point where I didn't know how much longer I could make it when I noticed that I felt like I had to push to make it through parts of the contractions. I mentioned it to the doctor. She was a bit surprised and checked me and I was at a 9.5! I had never heard better words in my life! I had almost made it! They told me to turn on my side and that they thought one more contraction would complete me. It did. They had me push when I felt like pushing (10:30). It was the hardest physical labor I've ever performed in my life and at times incredibly painful, but I knew there was nothing else I could do. After over an hour her head came out. I had no idea we were that close. It was thrilling and so relieving to feel her come out. She was born at 11:40 pm on her due date July 5, and weighed 7 lbs and 10 ounces and was 20.5 inches long. They put her directly on me and let me hold her for quite a few minutes. She screamed for about the first two hours of her life. When Aaron got to hold her he looked back and forth from her to me and said, “Holy cow, she looks like me.” A couple hours later when we were taken to postpartum, we just kept staring at her and saying over and over that we couldn't believe we had done it. I feel so blessed that Heavenly Father allowed me to have the birth experience I had wanted and prepared for. I am also incredibly grateful for the hospital staff and my doctor who were 100% supportive of me and never tried to talk me out of an unmedicated birth.

We named her Eliza Rachel. Eliza because we think it is beautiful and has ties to pioneers and Nauvoo. And Rachel in memory of my grandpa who passed away two months ago. His grandmother was named Rachel.

This past week has been wonderful. Tiring, of course, but wonderful. Aaron took the week off of work so we have been together 24-7. The baby was not getting enough food from me so we have had to use supplemental nursing. Aaron helped with each feeding and we felt it was a special bonding time for us.

It's been a fabulous week and we've just tried to soak in every minute. We are on Cloud Nine with our little doll who we get to dress up and bathe and show off. She is incredibly beautiful and we can barely take our eyes off of her.

We are so blessed.

Funny

2010-07-01T11:14:00.005-06:00

My father-in-law sent me this picture:
His caption-- "This is how your mother-in-law is spending her summer. Anxiously awaiting for that phone call!"
Aaron and I both got a good laff out of it.
As of this morning, it is official that she will be a July baby! Tomorrow is Grandma Penne's birthday and she's hoping to share her birthday... we'll see!

Nested

2010-06-24T15:15:00.005-06:00

I knew we needed a dresser for the baby and would have liked to have had a bookshelf and changing table, but decided the dresser was all we would end up getting because of our lack of space. One day I was checking out ksl.com and saw this beauty come up. I couldn’t believe it. A changing table, dresser, and bookshelf all in one!!! And the price was ridiculously good. And it is in near-perfect shape. We feel super lucky and really like it. So here is our baby spaced all nested and ready to go! I've washed the newborn clothes and they are anxiously sitting in the drawer awaiting a little girl to wear them!

Also, you'll see a couple more of my sewing projects in there. I had a little pad that I decided to make into changing table pad so I made a little cover for it with a monkey pattern on it. And I wanted a boppy but couldn't bring myself to pay for one so I asked for one on freecycle (thank you Evelyn for teaching me about it!) and a woman offered hers. It looked like the below picture (it was quite dirty) but I washed it and made a new cover for it too. (not animals though, surprisingly!)

Obviously our baby didn't come last Sunday like I told her she could but it's fine; she can come on her own time! We'll see if she listens to Aaron... he told her to come next Monday. We haven't hit the "angry at the world" stage yet, we're just ready to have her safely and hold her and see what she looks like!

Growing, growing, growing!

2010-06-15T11:02:00.001-06:00

Here I am at 37 weeks! Yesterday I had the brilliant idea to wear a skirt to work. Why in the world has this not occurred to me before!? I was the most comfortable I've been in a long time!

The good news is that I don't feel as big as I look. :) All-in-all I am feeling pretty good. Of course there are many uncomfortable moments, but I keep telling myself it's all in my head of how miserable I want to make myself feel. And miserable doesn't sound fun, so hopefully I can keep convincing myself I'm fine. :)

The first 20 weeks were really long, but since then time has gone quite quickly. Aaron finishes his semester this week and I have told her that she can come on Sunday. We'll see how obedient she is... ha!

Hello, June!

2010-06-15T10:45:00.002-06:00

My walk to work is quite pleasant these days with all the flowers!

Future lilies... maybe this week!

Hooray for a beautiful earth!

Proj 2 Continued: More Sewing

2010-06-11T10:21:00.007-06:00

Adding on to my other sewing post, here are a couple other things I've been working on.

In the past monthish we have been been incredibly blessed with hand-me-downs! My cousin gave us this bassinet.

Really there was nothing wrong with it, but I have this weird thing that makes me want to make hand-me-downs "ours". For most items all it takes if for me to give it a good washing and we're good, but for this one I wanted to change it a little bit more than that. I used the original fabric as my pattern and made this cover.

I like it. It's plain and gender neutral. And animals. This seems to have been the pregnancy of the animals... I am really into them! I had just enough fabric to make a sheet too. The fabric was just too perfect--the animals are both ways so the fabric is upside down and right side up everywhere!

I also mentioned that I wanted to make a doll. I got an email from "You Can Make This" and saw this doll on it.

And I thought to myself, "yes, I can make this!" I drew a picture on a post-it and went home and made my own pattern and made one. (It was a longer process than that, but it's all good!)
Here is what mine looks like.

I think she's pretty cute and she is 100% scraps I already had.
So that's my sewing update for the day. And no, I'm not done sewing. :) I almost finished a car seat cover last night and I am still working on a blanket and also a changing pad. Sewing = nesting = :)

Moabites

2010-06-02T13:52:00.011-06:00

We were able to spend Memorial Weekend with my family as Moabites!

We drove down Friday night. Saturday morning the boys left early-ish to go bike "slick rock". None of them wanted to take a camera therefore there are no pictures, but they all said it was really hard but really cool. We girls drove into Arches National Park and explored while they were out.
Here is Sheep Rock:

And the Windows:

And Balanced Rock:

We walked around Balanced Rock and saw a Sego Lily and large lizard who we named Spotty.

Alicia decided to carry the rock. She's buff.

We then decided to "hike" to Landscape Arch. It was about a mile walk and very do-able. Check out these beautiful cactus!

And here are all the girls minus my mom under Landscape Arch! An entire football field can fit under it!

We all met up back at the hotel (Aarchway Inn--HIGHLY recommend it) and some went swimming.... and had best-looking leg contests. :)

That afternoon the younger, more-able bunch hiked to Delicate Arch. I would have loved to do it again but there will always be a next time! Aaron took these pictures.

While they were climbing, the rest of us hiked to a viewpoint of Delicate Arch instead. We met back up after they finished and all went together to one of the Window Arches.

These are all views from the hike. This one is Double Arch... SO cool!

Sunday we went to church and even talked about the actual Moabites. How fitting. :)
After church we had a bbq at the hotel and then took off to see Canyonlands National Park.
We went to a few viewpoints including "Island in the Sky".

This is called "Upheaval Dome". It was so different from anything else we saw. They think either it was caused by a meteorite crash or some old salt sea earthquake. Or something like that. :)

I liked our last viewpoint best. It was fun to see the jeeping trails and watch the sun setting. It was so beautiful!

Monday morning the boys took another bike ride and we girls went around town. Our first stop was "Lin Ottinger's Rock Shop". This guy, in my opinion, is a bit weird. He was selling dinosaur gizzards for $10 and huge pieces of petrified wood for hundreds of dollars and chunks of a dinosaur bone for $1. I just wonder if he really has the legality to do that!? Or if any of it is real...
Just in case you're interested in saving your money for something special...
Or are in need of a neanderthal skull...
We also went to a local museum. Around noon we met up and packed everything up and started heading home. We did get stuck in quite a bit of traffic in the canyon but that meant we got to see this beautiful barn which makes us think of Anne of Green Gables. (We're all pretty into her right now...)
We had Brick Oven Pizza for dinner on our way home. Delish!

It was such a fun trip and a perfect getaway. I just love Utah and the uniqueness we have so close. Also, the weather was perfect and not too hot. And of course the company was the best!

Grandpa

2010-05-04T10:43:00.007-06:00

My grandpa passed away last weekend. All-in-all it was kind of a shock. I'll miss him a lot. His grandpa-loupes, raspberries, and millions of pink hibiscus flowers are some of my fondest memories of him as well as his constant testimony of the gospel and his cheery attitude and smile. I'm so grateful for eternal families.

C. Merrill Greenland, 83, passed away Sunday, May 2, 2010 in Murray, Utah. He was born October 9, 1926 in Highland, Utah, to Clarence and Maud (Miller) Greenland.

He attended the Utah State Agricultural College in Logan, Utah, and served as a medic in the U.S. Army during WWII.

He was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He served in the Southern States Mission where he met Florence Poulsen. They were married September 26, 1949 in the Salt Lake Temple.

Merrill loved the Gospel of Jesus Christ and bore a fervent testimony of the Savior throughout his life. He lived his testimony through his service, especially as a Bishop and as a Jordan River Temple worker for 14 years.

He was raised as a farmer and loved gardening. As a Master Gardener he was famous for his generosity in sharing his flowers, cantaloupes and raspberries. He spent 50 years at Mineral Fertilizer Company and greatly enjoyed his association with the farmers and business associates. He was known as “Merrill, the fertilizer man.”

He is survived by his wife Florence; daughters, Suzanne (Wayne) and Marjorie (Mark); son, Douglas (Cindy); 16 grandchildren; 12 great-grandchildren.

Visit to Pagosa

2010-04-28T11:49:00.008-06:00

Aaron finished Winter Semester last week and started Spring Semester this week which meant a weekend trip to see his family!

I don't know if you remember last year how there was some sort of old car show in Moab... well what are the odds that we ran into it again!?

Saturday we went to his brother's track meet.

Besides cheering him on, I spent a bit of time testing out our new camera (our tax refund splurge!). I thought this pic turned out pretty sweet!

And this is Willy the cat.

And this is Aaron making twice-baked potatoes. (Had to try out the food setting!)

After church on Sunday we drove to Pagosa Junction, the old train station. It was a bit of a drive but I thought it was awesome. I've always had a like for ghost town stuff, but have never been to one.

Here is Mama Penne and the outhouse out back! It was a two-holer... we didn't dare look down the holes!

This was in the pump room. I thought it was cool.

And a fabulous old Catholic church nearby...

Other than that, we just spent a lot of time talking, eating, and playing games. It was great to see them since it has been quite a few months. And they were happy to see my growing belly!
As we drove back on Monday, we saw this sign in Monticello. I found it quite random and funny.

And Price Canyon trains... love them.

It was a fab weekend and of course went by SO quickly.

Project #2

2010-04-19T11:34:00.006-06:00

I mentioned forever ago that I had "projects" I was working on. One of them is sewing. At my work, we sell fabrics and occasionally when they get discontinued I'll take the memo samples because I think they are a cool pattern. I've been collecting them for a few years and last fall decided it was time to get them all out and see what I could come up with. I made schemes for both boys and girls but worked on the boy ones first because I thought we would have a boy. After we found out we're having a girl, I quickly put those away and started the girl ones.

I thought it would be cool to make "floor quilts"... you know, quilts for the floor at church, home, or wherever. These aren't really blankets to snuggle to sleep with (in my opinion) but hopefully they'll be useful somehow!
Anywhere, here they are. I had four schemes pulled and had different layouts on each one. I thought it would be fun to try different ways of sewing with each one.

Here's a fuzzy one:

And here is a stripe-y one.

(Here's the back; I decided to try machine quilting and just did it along the lines from the front. I thought it turned out kinda cool.)

When I finish making the boy ones, I'll post them. But they're not on the list any time soon. :)

Also, our Relief Society cleaned out the closet and found some fabric to toss. I took it because I'm all about free fabric. (Obviously.) :) I made these burp cloths and did various stitching around the edges. Aaron did make a comment that he hopes we get some that are a bit more manly. :)

I am also making her a blanket that I hope she'll love and a doll. Hopefully they'll turn out and I'll post them.

Pics

2010-04-15T09:37:00.003-06:00

We had aonther ultrasound yesterday. Things look great! She is growing exactly like she should. YAY!!!

She was incredibly cooperative this time. :)

Her cute little profile

Her fist

A big foot

Yeah, she's cute. We're excited.

Belly 2

2010-04-06T10:27:00.006-06:00

Well hi!

Sorry for the lack of posts but things have been pretty routine for the past couple months. Me working and growing and Aaron schooling. I have been spending a lot of time sewing and working on finishing our wedding scrapbook and planning and executing Relief Society Activities. I have been feeling really good since week 21 which has been wonderful. Our baby seems to be getting more and more active which is so fun! There is this funny 'pitter patter' thing she does where I wonder if she just alternates pushing her feet back and forth quickly on the side of my belly. It's so fun (and funny) to feel. We have a follow-up ultrasound next week and I'm really excited to see her again. Hopefully she'll be a little less shy this time and we can see her profile! I think I am entering a nesting stage but am not sure how much I'll let myself react to it. I do plan on completely cleaning our apartment in the next monthish. And of course I'm getting nervous about not having anything for our baby but I'm hoping random items will show up on our doorstep somehow?! The only thing I want to purchase new is a car seat and other than that, I've been browsing the ksl classifieds for cribs and stuff. I'm still nervous to buy though; it's weird! Other than that, school ends for Aaron in a couple weeks and then he'll start the next semester the next week! We also have a couple quick trips to see family planned soon. We're hoping for the best with the driving... we haven't gone anywhere since Thanksgiving because I got SO sick and the drives were miserable for both of us. We're hoping the insane car sickness left with those first 20 weeks of sickness. We'll see!

Anyway, here we are at 27 weeks! Our power was out last night so I think they turned out pretty decent for taking them in the dark!

And I thought I'd compare myself to a soccer ball...

And I know it's April and therefore snow pictures aren't that exciting, but it is pretty and no amount of complaining will change it so therefore I decided to just focus on the beauty as I walked to work. And hopefully this is the last storm. :)

So life is good. And I hope it is for you too.

Belly Pic

2010-02-23T10:07:00.005-07:00

First off, thank you all so much for your kind words and prayers for us with the appendicitis deal. We feel so watched over and the recovery seems to have gone really well and our little girl is being so tough. Every time I feel her move I thank Heavenly Father for protecting her (and me).

And now here is a belly pic of 'us' at 21 weeks! I've been meaning to put one up for a couple weeks but stuff kept happening (appendicitis or throwing up) and I wanted a true picture. :)

Go ahead and think "Wow, she's showing a lot more than I thought she would".... because we think the same thing. :) We find it absolutely incredible that bodies can do this!

A Few Ounces Lighter...

2010-02-15T09:57:00.006-07:00

Last week turned out quite unexpectedly!

I didn’t feel that great on Monday before and after our ultrasound off and on but assumed it was indigestion. I hurt pretty badly in my abdomen late Monday night but was able to sleep for the most part. I woke up Tuesday with a pain again but went to work still thinking nothing but indigestion. I didn’t feel well and threw up but that didn’t take my pain away. My lower abdomen was throbbing and growing harder and hurting more and more.

Aaron was at work until 11 and then would head down to Provo. I texted him and asked him to stop by quickly before driving down and give me a blessing to help it pass. He stopped by and after a few seconds of seeing me said, “We’re going to the doctor.” I told him no and that I was fine and that it was just indigestion. Thinking back, I looked ridiculous as I was bawling, writhing in pain, barely able to move, and telling him I was fine!

Luckily my doc is very close to my work. We drove there and I had Aaron run in and ask what they thought. I thought for sure they would say to wait it out. He came back out and said my doc was not there but that another nurse could see me. I hobbled in and they took me back. The pain came hard and then would relax and then would come again. The nurse came in off and on giving me blankets for warmth and water for dehydration and told me my doc who had just delivered a baby at the hospital would be back soon. She kept talking back and forth with my doc and came in again and felt my stomach and abdomen and then stuck her hand into my right side. I flinched like crazy. She left and came back and said that I was to go to the hospital, show up at Labor and Delivery, and they would be waiting for me. They were testing me for appendicitis.

We drove to the hospital, got to Labor and Delivery, and they gave me a wristband and a room. They came in and told me they would come get me for an ultrasound soon. My dad showed up soon and was there with us for the day which was wonderful.

The ultrasound people came and took me. They had me lay on a table and took the device many times along my right side jamming it in (ouch!) trying to find my appendix for about 15 min. I went back to my room and the surgeon’s assistant came after a bit and said they were unable to locate my appendix via ultrasound so a MRI had been ordered.

A bit later the MRI people came and took me there. That was a loud experience. :) They did give a cd of the images as a ‘keepsake’. Ha. It was mainly painless besides having to lay flat and still for so long.

A few hours later the surgeon and my doctor came and said the MRI showed my appendix was fine and that they refused to perform surgery because I was pregnant unless I threw up and got worse. They said they’d be back in a couple hours. I hadn't been allowed to eat or drink because I had surgery pending so they put an IV in. I was so dehydrated that they had three people try unsuccessfully to get it in. Finally they numbed my arm and then poked away as they wished!

Within a half hour I threw up! When they came back and heard that, the surgeon said, “I’m kind of mad at you right now!” He carefully reviewed the MRI results again and saw that they had found my appendix next to my colon and said that when the appendix is in that location in pregnant women that all the typical signs don’t show. (Like I could move my legs and that is not typical.) Right then everything changed and he said, “We’re taking you in for surgery in two hours. You and your baby are safer going in for surgery now than waiting to see what happens.”

We were scared and nervous and prayed like crazy for the Spirit to be with us and the surgeon.

At 1 a.m. they came and got me for surgery. I’ve never been in the operating room and it was scary to see all the prep and I just kept praying they’d put me out so I wouldn’t see it! But overall I felt very calm. Next thing I knew they were telling me to wake up and breathe. They had just pulled the breathing tube out and put the oxygen on my face and I couldn’t get air. I tried to be calm but I really couldn’t breathe and started throwing up. They put some anti-nausea stuff in the iv but it took a few minutes to get into me. I struggled for air and kept convulsing and finally the anti-nausea medicine got to me and I was able to breathe. I stayed in recovery for a bit and then went back to my room around 3 a.m. The next few hours they had to monitor me for contractions (the biggest fear). I did have some but luckily they subsided.

My mom came and stayed with us that morning and around noon we were allowed to go home. Of course I have incision pain (I have three of them; let me know if you want to see them!) :) , my throat hurt very badly for a day (I ate like 100 popsicles!), and my back and neck are very sore from all the hunching to compensate for the pain but all-in-all the recovery has gone remarkably well.

We were so well taken care of. Yes there was pain and fear, but overall, there was so much calm. The doctor’s office didn’t send me home and the hospital staff immediately took care of me. I felt so well-treated by almost everyone and genuinely felt cared for by people who had never seen me before.

More than anything, as I’ve reflected on the experience, I am overwhelmed by the tender mercies we’ve felt. I am a daughter of God and He was watching out for me, Aaron, and our little girl the entire time. He sent the right people and signs and also made sure we were cared for via calls, visits, and meals afterwards. We are so blessed.

The Results Are In....

2010-02-09T09:38:00.006-07:00

We had our ultrasound yesterday! It was so cool to see our baby and see that it has arms and legs and everything. I had a dream that it was a dog so thank goodness it is HUMAN!

I had wanted to post pictures of its profile and all that stuff... but we seriously didn't get any really good pictures. It had its arms and legs in front of its face pretty much the entire time. The most adorable thing though... it grabbed its foot with its hand while we were watching so that was super fun.

What did we think it was? A boy. 100% boy. Though about a week and a half ago it dawned on me that it might not be. And that is when we started trying to call it it, instead of he. We didn't do well!

According to our poll, we had about 60 for boy and 30 for girl.

So what is it?

A girl. :)

I'm definitely throwing "mother's intuition" out the window. :) We're thrilled and quite surprised and hope she forgives us for calling her a he!

Poll Time!

2010-02-01T11:22:00.003-07:00

Thank you all SO much for your sweet comments. I'm so lucky to know you.

We have our ultrasound scheduled for next week! Take the poll on the left and make your guess!

Life is good for us. We're daily amazed and feel so blessed to have been given this opportunity to see the miracle of a baby growing. Other than that, Aaron is back doing constant school and I've gotten back to working on some of 'my projects' now that some energy is coming back!

sitting in a tree... k.i.s.s.i.n.g...

2010-01-05T10:18:00.003-07:00

First comes love.

Then comes marriage.

Then comes...

the baby in the baby carriage!!!

Due July 5th.

We're so stoked and feel SO lucky.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas!

2009-12-21T10:06:00.004-07:00

(By the way, we feel so stinking cool to have had so many people send us Christmas cards! THANK YOU!!!)

MERRY CHRISTMAS to you. I hope it's fab.

a bit o' Christmas

2009-12-07T11:36:00.003-07:00

Seriously, Lloyd Newell has got it going on!

This was part of a MoTab broadcast and I loved it:

"As we look forward to Christmas this year, let's look back to Christmases past and appreciate what makes a holiday memorable. Some memories may involve less-than perfect circumstances--and that's all right. Few real-life celebrations resemble the slick ads and scenes in holiday movies.
In fact, sometimes the most cherished Christmases take place in conditions that are not quite ideal. Of course, it's easy to feel discouraged when things don't go according to our plans. But in time, families often look back and laugh about the mishaps: the year the tree fell over, the time they forgot to turn on the oven, the school program when everyone forgot their lines.
Other times, families weep when they remember more serious hardships: the year when someone was in the hospital, the year there were no presents because times were tight, the first Christmas after a loved one passed away.
As such memories fill our hearts, we would do well to recall that original Christmas night. It was not without difficulty. Mary and Joseph were far from home. No room could be found in the inn. Few comforts were available. And yet, love was born. Heavenly choirs sang. A new star lit the sky, and shepherds came to worship.
Unrealistic expectations for a picture-perfect Christmas may be misleading and actually keep us from appreciating the holiday's more subtle yet more satisfying blessings. Everything does not have to be just right for wonderful things to happen.
No matter the circumstances for Christmas this year, cherished moments are within reach. Hold a child in your arms. Pause to look at the night sky. Welcome friends and family into your home, and listen to heavenly choirs. Give the love that only you can give, and you will have a memorable Christmas: a Christmas that recalls that first holy night when, in the lowliest of circumstances, a King was born."

I just love this because life is rarely perfect. We often think of what we wish we had instead of being thrilled with what we do have. But Christmas isn't about that. It's about spending time together and loving each other and focusing on our blessings. Aaron and I were so lucky to go see "A Christmas Carol" at Hale Theatre this past weekend. I don't think I can ever tire of that story; I get something new from it every time I see or read it. The story really is all about how the Atonement can change our lives, if we let it. Really, our less-than-perfect lives don't matter that much. It's such a blessing to be alive, to have someone to love, to have supportive families, to have Christ in our lives. There's so much to be thankful for.

Masonic Temple

2009-12-03T09:39:00.005-07:00

A few weeks ago we were able to go into the Masonic Temple in Salt Lake City. A banner went up saying the doors would open to the public so we put it on our calendar! I've looked at it zillions of times since we live very close to it and wondered what it was like and now I know! We went with our friends, the Merds.

One of the rooms had a Colonial flare. They told us the decor really had nothing to do with being a Mason... more of just looking to the past and remembering. I want one of these benches. :)

These stairs were in the "ritual rooms" and each word relates to part of the ritual.

This was the Egyptian room... though I can't lie... I was least impressed with this one!

Here is a close up of the framed picture. I love the phrase "We have seen His Star in the East and are come to worship Him."

To be a Mason, you don't have to actually work with stone, you just use similar principles of building a 'true' building to build a 'true' man. Here is a rough stone...

and here is a polished, carved stone. Just like our lives... we can polish our rough edges and make ourselves shine.

There was a large theatre room with this stage. They said the sets are used in the rituals. Again learning that building a building is like building our lives.

And here is the old-time stage stuff. We loved the huge knobs and stuff! There even was a steering wheel! :)

Here is the Gothic room.

There was also a Moorish room but it appears I didn't upload any of those pictures. The main thing that was different was the pointed-top doors.
We also visited the cafeteria in the basement and were entertained by these friendly creatures who watch you eat!

Check out these folding chairs! They just don't make stuff like they used to!

And a couple other random pictures... Cool old telephones!

And an insanely large comb we found in a drawer! (Yes, we're annoying tourists!)

We had a lot of fun and learned a lot and are so glad we went!

That evening, we went to the LDS temple and Aaron mentioned that although the Mason's seem to be a great group for men, there is nothing like going to the real temple!

The Day of Thanks

2009-12-01T12:55:00.004-07:00

We spent the Thanksgiving Weekend in a tiny city called La Jara with Aaron's family. All-in-all it was a relaxing break.
I got a kick out of all the small towns we drove through on our way there. This is at a gas station in Gunnison, CO. Yes, that garbage can is wrapped up. :) And yes, there is tinsel on the gas tubes!

This side of the family is quite blessed with boys! They spent time hauling hay and grain,

playing paintball,

and, of course, EATING!

And my goodness, they sure know how to eat!!! Thanksgiving Dinner included a turkey, ham, pork roast, twice-baked potatoes, mashed potatoes, yams, stuffing, homemade cranberry sauce, rolls, shrimp, three different kinds of veggies, two different kinds of fruit salads... and that's all I can remember right now. NO ONE went back for seconds!! Farmers know how to cook! I enjoyed spending time with this side of the fam and getting to know them. Oh and of course we also enjoyed a good win from the Y!

Our trip home started snowy and icy (and gorgeous), but it cleared up very quickly. (This is the top of Chimney Rock near Aaron's hometown--I'm pretty sure I've posted pics of it before. The clouds were doing some pretty awesome stuff!)

We stopped at Wilson's Arch near Monticello and walked up to it to give our legs a rest!

Good times! The holidays are here!!!

A Small Trip

2009-11-12T11:55:00.003-07:00

Last weekend we randomly were able to go to Denver to see Aaron's fam!

How it happened: State Cross-Country was supposed to be the week before. Although Aaron had REALLY wanted to go, he had tests the following week, so playing in Denver was definitely not an option! What happened? Denver got like 18" of snow so they pushed it to the next weekend, right after all his tests would be over! What are the odds!!!??

We flew out Friday night and his fam picked us up. The whole thing was a surprise for his little bro who was running in the meet. The meet was Sat morn in a big field. They all ran for 5K. Ryan ended up coming in in the 30's out of over 100 peeps and shaved a minute off of last years time. Not too shabby. I (surprisingly!) didn't take many pics at all.

Here is the beginning of the race. I really liked the bunting (is that what it's called) that lined the path. So festive. :)

And there is Ryan! We were able to find a spot where we could see him like five different times during the race.

Other than that we ate, we chatted, and we played games. It's always great to be with fam and it always goes so quickly.

I do have a small, gross story to share. :) On the flight there, we were on a tiny, tiny plane. We got over the mountains and hit MAJOR turbulence for quite a few minutes. And I got to use a barf bag. :) One thing off my bucket list!

Project #1

2009-11-04T13:40:00.008-07:00

I was told by a few people who have graduated from the Accounting Program to expect constant homework once Aaron started school. I chose to believe them and I'm glad I did because it's true! I began making a list of stuff I wanted to do... such as finishing the wedding scrapbook, going through magazines (church-related and not) and keeping the good stuff, sewing, food storage, and cooking. Aaron often sees me in a mess and says, "Oh, you're working on another one of your projects, aren't you?" So now they're called my projects. :)

Here is "Project #1". (I'm fore-seeing a series...)
I have been trying to be all cool and get into food storage and have found these three fabulous websites:
http://funwithfoodstorage.net/
I found this page about building your own rotating can racks (http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/2009/02/16/build-your-own-can-rotating-rack/) and seriously freaked out. They are so genius and cheap! I used their instructions and sizes for the most part, but did add a little bit of space in case I messed up. My first one was hot-glued and duct-taped but I decided they'd be stronger if I cut slits in the side to slide the cardboard into and then hot-glued them. I made the rest that way and think they'll last longer.

Here is what they looked like before I spray-painted them. (You definitely can leave them un-painted, but mine are out in the open so I felt slightly ghetto.)

And here is the finished product!

Cost? cardboard from dumpster diving :), duct tape, hot glue, a .96 cent can of spray paint, and a bit of time.

I'm totally asking for canned goods for Christmas... I can't wait to have these bad boys filled up! :)

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-30T09:33:00.003-06:00

Some friends from the ward, Craig & Jennie (a.k.a. Jennie Craig), invited us over last night for a "pumpkin disemboweling night". :)
Here are the knives:

Obviously there was some anger to get out!
And the bowels. :)

And here are the finished products:

Left is Jennie's, middle is ours (Aaron did the eyes, I did the mouth), and right is Craig's. Obviously Jennie Craig are a bit morbid...
Good times! Thanks so much for the invite!

I hope y'all have a great Halloween!

Cleaning With Becky (a new show!?)

2009-10-21T09:52:00.009-06:00

This is totally random, but I taught at a "Relief Society Activity" last night mainly on cleaning with vinegar. I thought I'd share with you in case you are interested!

First off--why clean with vinegar?
1. It's inexpensive. 2. No harsh chemicals or fumes. 3. It's an effective sanitizer.

How to do it?
Get a spray bottle. I fill it about 1/4 full with vinegar and the rest with water, but a lot of websites say to use a 1:1 ratio. It really doesn't matter.... just use the amount relating to how dirty the thing is you are cleaning!
Then you simply spray and wipe clean!

As far as I've found, the only surface that vinegar is harmful to is marble. One site also said to not use full strength on tile grout, but I've never tried. Of course, just like every other substance, test on an inconspicuous area.

In the Kitchen--
Spray on countertops and top of stove and wipe off. It's an effective degreaser.
To deodorize or unclog a drain, put in 1/2 c baking soda, then 1/2 c vinegar and let it sit. (Volcano effect!) Then run water through it.
To clean the microwave, combine 1 c water and 1/2 c vinegar, bring it to a boil in your microwave, and then wipe it clean. Not only will it degrease, but it will get rid of the smell!
You can also clean your oven, fridge, and floors with it. To make a scouring cleanser with 1/4 c baking soda, 1 TBSP dishwashing liquid, and then add vinegar to make it creamyish.

In the Bathroom--
Great glass cleaner.
Spray it in the shower to prevent mildew.
Pour undiluted vinegar in the toilet and scrub with the toilet brush. Let it sit if there are stains; it will get rid of them!

Other Uses--
supposedly kills weeds, keeps ants out of your home, removes stickers, and will help remove armpit stains in the laundry, cleans pots and pans, polish silverware, carpet stain remover (I haven't tried all of these, but they were listed on the websites so do a little research if you're interested).

Besides the first three reasons of why to use vinegar, two others that I think brilliant are that 4. Because it is non-toxic, you can have your kids clean with it and not be nervous about them ingesting it or whatever! And 5. It can be your 'food storage' for cleaning... buy a big bottle of vinegar and big bag of soda and you're set for months of cleaning!

The two best websites I've found for hundreds of ideas are www.vinegartips.com and www.armhammer.com.

The only con I've found is the smell. I thought I would hate it, but it seriously disappears and just smells clean very quickly. A friend who didn't like the smell said she would cut a lemon or orange in half and rub it over the top of her countertop after cleaning to have that smell instead.

So that was my little spiel on vinegar. I was introduced to it earlier this year by my friend Stephanie Hansen and I've really found that I love it. I have not yet made it the only product I use, but from everything I've read, it sounds like it can be! Other than the vinegar I shared a couple other random things.

My "Golden Rules of Cleaning"--
1. DON'T HATE IT! You need to do it for the rest of your life so why not enjoy it!? Enjoy the time to think and do a mindless activity! Enjoy seeing what you've accomplished.
2. Spend about five minutes every day tidying. It is amazing how if you do this, that you only have to do a quick, deep clean every other week.
3. Keep cleaners handy and organized. Keep a spray bottle of the vinegar under your kitchen and bathroom sink so you can just pull it out and quickly spray and wipe.
4. After finishing the dishes, quickly spray the vinegar mixture around the sink, faucet, and counter and wipe it up... it's amazing how clean it stays.
5. Clean from top to bottom. Dry to wet.
6. Make your bed daily! It's amazing the difference it can make in the feel of the room and in your attitude!
7. Get yourself in the habit of putting dishes directly in the dishwasher instead of the sink first. If you don't have a dishwasher, simply rinse them as you put them in the sink. Then you pretty much never have to scrub!
8. Dust weekly with a microfiber cloth. You will never have dust buildup and it goes so quick every time!

And a list of how to make your home look spiffy in a jiffy! (ex. when someone tells you they're coming in 15 min!)
1. A quick vacuum
2. Clean your chrome. Take a rag and spray and shine the faucets... they look fabulous!
3. Organize your clutter. If you've got junk on your counter, straighten it. Or grab a laundry basket and grab all the things that you don't want seen, throw them in it and hide it somewhere they won't see it and put it away later. If you have kids, people expect to see toys on the floor, but if you have a bucket specifically for toys, you can scoop some of them into it.
4. Spray something fresh, open the windows, or light a candle.
5. Check the trash to make sure you don't have a huge pile or a stinky pile.
6. Quickly clean the bathroom, just in case!

And last, some "Green Tips"--
-Instead of using paper towels, use thin rags like this to clean up.
Some people use their dish rags, but I think my dishrags are cute and don't want nasty spaghetti stains on them! I don't care about these ones though and you just throw them in the wash and they work fabulously!
-I never fill up my garbage can before it starts to stink... and I hate tossing the big bags when it's not 143% full! Whenever I forget my 'green bags' at the store, I take home the plastic ones and use one of them a day... I put my chicken strofoam, food remnants, etc in it and then toss it daily. Also, when you've got an empty cereal box, fill it with the junk instead of the bag. (I don't have the ability to recycle.)
-Last, if you've got a baby, make your own baby wipes!
Take a roll of paper towels (the nicer brand) and cut it in half with a knife or whatever. Find a container that will hold the half in it and place it inside. Combine 2 to 2 1/2 cups water, 1 TBSP baby oil, and 1 tsp baby soap and mix them. Then pour it over the paper towels and down the middle. Wait about 5 minutes and pull up on the cardboard in the center and the paper towels will come out of the middle following!

I wouldn't say I'm a clean connoisseur or anything; it's more that I'm OCD. :) I really loving having things fresh and clean and feel so much better about myself when they are.

60 years!

2009-10-09T09:55:00.003-06:00

My grandparents celebrated their 60th Wedding Anniversary!

(Getting them to smile was obviously not the easiest thing.) :)
They have three children, sixteen grandchildren, and currently twelve great-grandchildren.
We had a nice dinner with them to celebrate. I love them and the hilarious memories I have with them.
We even pulled out my grandma's wedding dress and my sister and I tried it on. Way cool. :)

I'm so glad that my grandparents have been part of my life for so many years. I hope we make it 60 years!!

Experiment

2009-10-05T10:53:00.005-06:00

I have always had a liking for Science Fair Projects... except when I had to do them myself because then I could never come up with anything to do! Ha!

Remember that table quilt I made back Easter time?
Well as we've spilled on it occasionally I've spot cleaned it and some of the red squares have bled onto the white. I was way sad. (Yes I did wash the fabrics before I made it.) Well fall is now here and it is time to put it away. But it definitely needed to be washed for real before going into storage. I was so, so sad at the thought of my hard work being ruined and turning all pink so I thought I'd look online for ideas. I found websites that said that salt would seal the colors, that vinegar would seal the colors, and that neither of those would seal the colors...

So I set out for my Science Fair Project! I got out four bowls, cut up some of the scraps from that quilt, especially the ones that were bleeding, and set up the test!

First Bowl: Cold Water and Salt
Second Bowl: Cold Water and Vinegar
Third Bowl: Cold Water
Fourth Bowl: Warm Water

Within minutes the warm water was turning red, then a few minutes after the cold water. The vinegar and salt stayed clear. A couple hours later the vinegar had started to turn red but the salt was still clear. So I washed my quilt with salt water and detergent and dried it immediately and it worked. Phew!!

After a whole day, these were my final results:

Salt still clear. Vinegar the most red!?!

Waters both a little red.

I was grateful I was able to find a solution (the internet is amazing in that way!) and I thought that maybe some of you craft-doers might find it helpful. The other thing I found while searching that I thought was helpful is to throw a piece of a cut-up white t-shirt into the washing machine with your fabric when you are pre-washing it to make sure that there is still not dye in it... sometimes it can take multiple times to get the dye out (and sometimes it may never all come out!)

Home Improvement

2009-09-30T09:51:00.003-06:00

I used to love that show back in the day!

Anyway, we've had a couple exciting improvements at our little abode that have made me pretty giddy!

1. Thonet Bentwood Rocker.

I found this beauty at a garage sale for $10 a couple months back and couldn't resist. The only problem with it is that it creaked with every rock. After about an hour of adjusting screws, it doesn't creak anymore! I was stoked! I still find myself going over to sit in it every day just to check and make sure I am not imagining that it doesn't creak. :)

2. Wall Hooks

Our apartment has no closets, no shelves, no storage whatsoever. We've dealt with it well enough but when we were up in Logan I saw some some hooks on a wall and I was inspired. It's kinda lame always having jackets draped all over stuff, so I found these little hooks and installed them just inside our doorway. I love them!

3. Armoire
Like I said, we have no storage. Therefore, this is what my 'craft spot' looked like.

And then a previous roomie announced she was moving and selling some of her furniture. I jumped at the offer and was able to get an armoire at a ridiculously good price. It did require a bit of fixing but I was so up for that!

And here is the craft area now! Oh so clean and friendly. Love it!

Small things like this make me pretty excited. It's so fun to have small things that make such a huge improvement!