5.30

Memorial day. We were all signed up and ready to run the "Run to Remember" 10k in American Fork... my first official 10k and first official race to check off my goal list. But alas, when we woke up at 7 AM it was 33 degrees and there were patches of snow on our rooftop and in our back yard and on-and-off rain. Call me a softie, but i'm not haulin' my buns across any finish line in that kind of weather. I would be miserable. We were actually really disappointed that we didn't get to do it but going back to sleep for a couple hours made it a little better. The weather luckily got better throughout the day but Paul and I both agreed we just weren't feeling too "festive". Mike and Jenna had spent the night at our house in hopes of also running in the race so we had breakfast with them, watched "swamp people" and hung out for awhile. The boys cleaned their bikes. Then we met up with friends at Tucano's and had a huge lunch (Caitlin was very enticed by the ice cream dessert):

We also went to the Barnes' house and hung out there for a little while, the kids played in a little tent:
 
Then we went to Chelsea's and hung out for a little while, and went home. Paul decided when we got home that he still needed to go for a run but i was too bitter about the horrible weather we've been having and missing my run that morning, so instead i stayed home and i am now typing this. I'm still bitter, if the sun ever decides to show it's face around these parts, my skin will welcome it's rays but inside i'll probably hold a grudge.

how does your garden grow?

The ONLY good thing about all the rain we've had lately is that its helping our garden (especially on the days that i forget to water!) We have a few promising plants and a lot that are just holding on. I do NOT have a green thumb, i wish i did. I'm trying to be better, and i'd like to think that it's turning from black to very dark brown but.. we'll see how our garden really fares for the rest of the season. Paul is doing a great job with the lawn, he loves being out there doing yard work. I admitted to him that one of my top 5 LEAST favorite things to do in life is pull weeds and I also really hate the smell of freshly cut grass (gasp! i know everyone loves that one) However that still didn't stop him from asking me to "come out and pull a couple weeds in the front yard really quick" aah the joys of home ownership.

 

 

 

 

9 months old

Our little miss is 9 months old. She is getting to be sucha big girl!
-she is LOUD! containing the happy shrieks is almost harder than quieting the sad cries. She just has this high-pitched loud yell that she does. I'm glad she's happy but.. take it down a notch girl.
-she is so messy. It makes me so sad... she has the cutest outfits and by the end of the day they are almost ruined with spit up... food.. drool... anything she can get her little hands on. She definitely doesn't mind being dirty or making a mess and i just can't seem to keep her clean! I've kinda just given up on it. "Resolve" stain remover has become my lifesaver.
-She crawls everywhere and pulls herself up on everything. Her favorite things to stand with are her toy basket, her walker toy and our kitchen stools or people's fingers. But she'll take anything.
-She cruises around holding onto things. She can also walk by herself pushing her little walker. She's getting really good at pushing it and walking behind it.
-Her first tooth poked out on May 5th. It is her upper right side one. It took forever to get it out of those gums! She's had some rough days and moments, baby tylenol and baby oragel have been our friends. And so far she's stayed sleeping through the night, just not as good of naps. She got three within two weeks: the bottom two and one top one, and then a week later her other top one broke through so she has four total, with more closely on the way i'm sure. Her top tooth that she got first is getting really big. We call it her snaggletooth (which will be cute for a few months until it becomes not cute at all if it keeps growing like that).
-She's in between baby food and normal food now and she always wants to feed herself with her fingers. I'm trying to get creative because she has gotten a little picky. She loves her oatmeal in the morning.. she would have oatmeal for every meal if i let her. (She gets that from me) She also loves sweet potatoes and pizza and her baby cheeto snacks.
-She now uses a "big girl binkie" (instead of the soothie kind) we switched while she was teething because she just seemed to like the different shape better.
- She is very cautious when it comes to trying new things, like letting go of fingers to stand by herself or move around. She is also cautious with big groups of people she doesn't know as well. She gets a little scared and has to warm up to it first. Then she usually does ok. Sometimes she'll have an outburst when she realizes someone she doesn't know is holding her. With teething she became very clingy (which of course i secretly loved). However she loves other kids. They make her giggle and get excited. She wants to touch them and climb on them and would probably slobber all over them if i let her.
-On the other side of that though, she can also be wild and aggressive. Once she does something and likes it, she wants to do it all the time over and over again and she loves it. She gets a little bit aggressive with people sometimes and just wants to grab everything. She is a climber and if you are laying on the floor.. she will have her way climbing all over you.
-Some things she likes to do everyday around the house are: play with the doors. She likes to open and close them, we caught her doing it to our bedroom door the other day and she was chasing that door like it was her job! She also likes to pull herself up on her dresser knobs and open the drawers and pull all her clothes out. Getting dressed is definitely an ordeal. I can put a pair of pants on a crawling child backwards in record time.
-I truly love her more and more everyday. I know that sounds so cliche and obvious but the little moments i have with her throughout the day make me just want to kiss her all over she is just the cutest thing to me. I love being her mommy. Every night before we go to bed i go in and check on her and every night i have to convince myself not to just crawl in her crib with her and snuggle her all night. And then i have to convince Paul not to scoop her up and bring her in bed with us. Seriously, every night we have that conversation.
Her stats: Weight: 19.47 lbs. (70%) Head circumference: 18.25 in. (96%) height: 27.54 inches (44%)

Foto Friday

i've had a hard time feeding Caitlin lately because she's in that stage between baby food and real food. And she wants to eat everything with her fingers by herself. So i've been trying to think of finger fods that are still nutritious and will fill her up. If you have any experience or ideas, send them my way. In the meantime, i did find out that she LOVES pizza. Cheese pizza. She couldn't get enough of it. True: not very healthy but it was desperate times.

 1: trying it out 2: loving it 3: get your hands off my pizza bites!

(taken 5.24)

it was a good one

We had a lot of fun this weekend celebrating Paul's birthday. He got to spread it out and do lots of things. He says this is his first birthday that he actually feels like he's getting older. At least we celebrated in style for this old man.
-Friday we did an overhaul on the garage. Got a whole new organization system and cabinets. We cleaned out everything and organized and it put it all together. I felt like a little handy-girl out there helping in the garage (which is definitely NOT a natural habitat for me) But the end result looks great:

A nice place for Paul to keep all his tools and yard stuff and build things or whatever he plans on doing out there. He loves it.  
-Saturday we went for a run in the morning and then went to Subway for lunch to visit Mike and then went to the Provo Beach Resort to meet up with friends to celebrate. We played shuffleboard, skeeball (i had a personal best for skeeball that day) and played some arcade games. Then all the girls went on the ropes course. I'm not gonna life, i was a little scared up there. Especially the higher level, things got a little wobbly but it was fun. After that we went to Malawi's pizza for dinner (and dessert pizza of course).
-Sunday we had to got to speak in church. Both our talks actually went well so that was ok then after church we took some much needed naps and then headed over to Chelsea's for dinner! It was fun to get together with the siblings and have a little b-day dinner for Paul and Tyler (his b-day is the 28th). Little Miss Caitlin had a hue blowout in the car on the way there that i discovered once we got there and of course i didn't have extra clothes in my diaper bag so we had to put her in the tub and she spent the night in just her diaper. Although i think she was actually quite happy about it. We had delicious chocolate pudding/molten lava cake for dessert.
-Monday was the actual birthday. Paul took the day off work and got to hang out with us in the morning. We let him sleep in and then had french toast for breakfast. After that we played with Caitlin and and finished up a few things for the garage. Then we got ready and Mike and Jenna were so nice to come over ad babysit for the afternoon/evening. Paul and I got to go up to Park City where we did a little damage at the outlets (we got some awesome deals) and then we went to dinner at Ruth's Chris. It was my first time to go to a Ruth's Chris and can i just say: WOW. Everything we had was amazing. Definitely some of the best food i've ever had... not an overstatement. We had calamari, salad, sweet potato casserole and asparagus and of course the meat. The meat! We both had filet mignon and shrimp and it was indescribable. Paul was in another world as soon as his meat came out. He might as well have been alone with the meat as his date. Every bite he was like moaning and groaning and commenting and saying it tasted like candy. They were so nice too.. they even gave him a birthday card and we got cheesecake for dessert. It was a really fun date. We then returned home and got to hang out with Mike and Jenna and Paul opened all his presents: lots of stuff for biking and new binoculars and some Cabela's gift cards.

 

 Yup.. it was a good one.      

Paul turns 26 today. 

Happy Birthday to the best husband and daddy around! (at least according to us) 

Love, 

your girls

Foto Friday

The other day I came in from another room and was looking for Caitlin when I found that she had ventured into the kitchen and found the trashcan. We have a stainless steel trash can and she had pulled herself up against it and was looking at herself in it like a mirror. She would put her face really close and then pull away and then get close and give herself kisses in the "mirror". It was hilarious. Obviously I didn't want her playing with the trashcan for long but I let her long enough to take this picture:

 (taken 5.10)

home tour: master bedroom

For our master bedroom, i wanted everything to be fresh and clean. We got to start from scratch with this room so it was really fun to pick everything out. Since we did start from scratch, there are still a few things here and there that i need (the small wall under the two wedding pics is begging for the perfect little chaise) but overall i love our room and it's calming effect. Definitely never thought i would have antlers hanging above my bed, but somehow it works for me. And i don't care what anyone says, we have THE most comfortable bed in the world.

 

 

 credits= bed and round nightstand: Hooker Furniture, dresser and chest nightstand: Osmond Designs, duvet and two euro shams: The company store, middle euro sham: sewn by yours truly, front pillowcases: Pottery Barn, "&" pillow: Tai Pan, houndstooth pillow: The Quilted Bear, throw: Tuesday Morning, lamps: Savers, nightstand accessories: re-purposed, dresser accessories- boxes: Osmond Designs, pot and flowers: Hobby Lobby, frame: Gatehouse No. 1, large frames on wall: Hobby Lobby (just ask if there's anything i missed)

Foto Friday

 (taken 5.8)

i realized as i was getting her dressed for church that this outfit is more a shirt and pants rather than the dress and little pantaloons i was thinking. oh well, she pulls it off.

on the go

Caitlin is mobile. It's so fun to watch her moving around and seeing her progress so fast. she's so happy to explore these new territories all by herself. 

here's a little snippet of crawling (getting faster and better at it every day):

and here's one of her pushing her walker:

and this is her favorite thing right now to pull herself up on:

and the other day she spent a good 20 minutes in my closet pulling off my shoes from the shelf and putting them back in:

home tour: Caitlin's Room

This may be my favorite room in the house. There is so much emotion wrapped into this room: the anticipation while picking everything out of welcoming a new baby, the memories of finding each little touch and perfect thing to go in the perfect spot, and now all these memories of Caitlin in her room and the cute things she does. I cried when I brought her home from the hospital and showed her her room. I just couldn't believe that after all the work and preparation, she was here and she was actually going to be living with us. She really knows her room. When we moved into this house, she was a little unsettled for a few days because she knew she was somewhere different, but one of the first things we did the night we moved in was set up her room as much as we could. As she saw her bed come in and be set up, she relaxed and slept soundly that night. I love how much she recognizes and loves her room. I wanted this room to be a little bit vintage and very girly, with touches of Beatrix Potter, (especially Peter cotton tail). It all stemmed off the three framed prints of Peter Cotton tail that I found at Savers years before we even thought about getting pregnant. I loved them and I knew I wanted to base a nursery off of them, and things went from there. I may eventually paint the walls a light pink above the wainscoting. (And I really had to give myself a pat on the back when I walked past Pottery Barn kids in the mall and saw THIS)

 

 

 

 

credits= crib: Target, nightstand and dresser: recycled and refinished w/ Martha Stewart paint and knobs are from Hobby Lobby and Zara, crib bedding: custom made by Lori Pelton, chair: Lee Industries in "Pippin Glacier" fabric from Gatehouse No. 1, pillow in crib: pier 1, lamp: Target, rug: pottery barn kids, most other accessories were re-purposed, made or found at Savers/D.I. (Ask about anything not listed)  

by George

This past week Paul's dad came in town and we got to hang out with him for a couple days then we took a quick 24 hour trip down to St. George for Paul's Uncle Dave's wedding.
Thursday night we went up the canyon and grilled hamburgers together with Mike and Jenna.

Friday afternoon we all left for St. George. We grabbed some Nielson's frozen custard (so delicious) and later met up with Jeff, Melissa and Madison when they arrived. It was so fun to see them! We made a little midnight run to Denny's Friday night.. i can't ever seem to turn down hashbrowns.
Saturday was the big wedding day! We attended the sealing in the morning, this was my first time actually inside the St. George temple. I love this temple, it's just so WHITE! I think it's beautiful and i love the way it stands out in the city. After the temple we went to the luncheon. It was such a nice day.. just sunny and perfect. Everyone was saying it was hotter than they were hoping for (it was in the mid 90's) but when you're coming from mid 50's, i didn't mind sweating a little. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the wedding festivities were over we went into Downtown St. George and got to see everything going on for the St. George Ironman which was happening on the same day. It was really fun to watch people cross the finish line. Every time someone would cross the announcer would call them by name and say "(their name) you are an ironman" what a cool feeling that must be! Those people were serious athletes. No, i'm not saying i want to be an ironman, but it made me excited to keep up with my little goals i've set for myself with crossing my own finish lines. After that we all went for dinner at Brick Oven then it was back in the car for the ride home! The whole trip was short but sweet. Glad to see Dave and Danielle happily married and glad to see the sun again and glad to get to spend time with family. 

the culprit

a tooth! 

(this is the best picture i could get... obviously it's a sensitive thing)

we've been waiting for this little sucker to appear for weeks now. consoling ourselves during those moments of intense screaming (from her not us) with phrases like "she's just gotta be teething" and "i wish it would just come through" and "grab the oragel!!" and finally, on May 5th her first tooth cut through. It's her top side side one. Hopefully we won't have such a long process with every tooth to come.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms in my life. To my own mom, to my mother in law, to my sisters-in-law and friends that are moms. How awesome is it that we have a day to honor and remember and appreciate these women in our lives! Thank you for your kindness and love and your amazing examples. to me.
My own thoughts on my first mother's day are: I absolutely LOVE being a mom. I'm not just saying that. I truly do. It is the hardest yet most satisfying thing I have ever been a part of in my life. I'm definitely not the best mom or perfect in any way, but i try to be the best mom that i can be and in my daily pursuit of that i am learning and growing so much. Absolutely nothing in life brings me more joy than my little family. I am so humbled and grateful for the opportunity that i have to be a mommy.

Foto Friday

 

 

(taken 4.28.11)

home tour

As our house is coming along, I wanted to do a little home tour room by room. We are definitely not 100% done in each room, but i just wanted to stay updated as our house evolves and each room comes together. So, once in awhile i'll be doing little "home tour" posts as our house evolves.
We are loving living here. It's amazing how fast I've felt at home here. I love having more space and rooms for people to stay and a place for everything. We feel like now we are moved in and settled, but not we've got projects to get working on. Of course these projects will not all be completed at once, but over time and over the years we'll grow into everything. 
So, welcome to our home: