Foto Friday

(taken 9.29)

Even Paul asked me if this picture was staged. Umm no, that's just our daughter. I was trying to get a few things done in the kitchen and she had found the cans in the pantry and was making little piles and moving them around so i thought i would just let her to keep her busy while i finished what i was doing. A few minutes later i hear her whining a little and find her like this. Stuck in the shelf with cans everywhere. I just had to take a picture before i got her out; and then as soon as i did she was trying to climb back in!

for Cassie

We are missing aunt Cassie! Hopefully she will take a second out of her crazy busy and adventurous schedule to check our little blog and keep track of her favorite niece.

So Cassie...remember this shirt? (hard to get an attentive picture of her these days)

(bought while Cassie was a senior in High School on Spring break to France and we found out while she was there that we were having a little girl! She came home with this T-shirt and a darling little stuffed bunny.) I can't believe the shirt fits now!

We love you and miss you. I've had a few specific things lately that i've seen or that have happened that have made me think of you and wish i could call or text you about them and laugh together. I'm so glad that you are having so much fun in Jerusalem but know that you've got some people excited for you to get back!(i know it's only been a month.. still excited)

pink purchases

best things that i have bought in the last week:

 

i often ask myself if i would have as much of an impulse spending problem if i had a boy baby instead of a girl? probably not. then again, quite possibly.

told you she was wild..

So church has become quite the adventure lately. We are trying to improve every week with keeping Caitlin in check and juggling her between the hours and our callings. Sacrament meeting is an adventure and a workout. Then I usually take her into primary during singing time for the 2nd hour while Paul teaches his Sunday School lesson then Paul takes her during the 3rd hour while I teach my primary lesson. This was the case yesterday when Paul had her during the 3rd hour and she started getting loud so he took her out of class into the hallway. He was walking around letting her look at and touch things on the walls (pictures, bulletins, the wall itself...) when they came to the fire alarm. So in our building the fire alarm is under a clear plastic cover and then you pull on the actual alarm. Paul was just letting Caitlin look at it, then all of a sudden she went for it and pulled the clear plastic cover off. Paul tried to stop her from not pulling the whole thing not knowing that it's actually a 2 part alarm: step 1 is pull up the plastic cover and this will sound the alarm in the building. step 2 is to pull the red part to actually call the fire station. So, Paul found himself standing in the foyer holding Caitlin while the alarm started blaring throughout the building. He thought about running out entirely and fleeing the scene. But it didn't take very long for people to start coming out of rooms and the next ward started pouring out of their Sacrament meeting! Paul was trying to do some crowd control and tell everyone it was a false alarm. Someone came and asked if everything was ok and Paul explained what happened and he said that the alarm will sound for 5 minutes but the fire station wasn't called so it's fine. Paul hardly ever gets embarrassed but he said for the next 5 minutes, waiting for that alarm to finish ringing and for everyone to go back to their rooms and continue their church activities, he was embarrassed. Caitlin i think was a little proud of herself in the inside, but we will definitely not be making that mistake again!          

The Dirty Dash

Saturday, September 24th we did THE DIRTY DASH up in Midway at Soldier's Hollow. Paul and I did it with Steven and Jayme Young and Mike and Jenna. It was so fun to do it was a group and we laughed the whole way through. It is a 10k race full of exciting obstacles including: mud pits, mud walls, wood climbing walls, snow makers blowing on you, climbing nets, climbing through corrugated plastic tubes, trudging 1/4 mile through a lake, up and down ravines, a rope swing, jumping through tires, a slip-n-slide... It was awesome. I only wish I would have been able to have my camera with me to document it all. We took it easy during the running parts but went all-out for every obstacle and i can safely say i have never been that muddy or dirty in my life. Everyone did great and we were absolutely covered from head to toe, and we had so much fun doing it! We also saw Moses and Kaylie from Biggest Loser there! Paul gave Moses a hug.
Here is our "before" picture:

Here is after:

Jimmer's Game

Thursday night we went to"Jimmer's All Star Basketball Game" at the Marriott Center. Basically both teams were made up of top college NBA draft picks that came to play a exposition game. Paul and I got to go with the Taylors and the Packs and it was really fun to see all these great athletes playing together: Kemba Walker, Kenneth Faried, Kawhi Leonard, Isaiah Thomas Jr, Chris Singleton, Tyler Honeycutt, and of course Jackson Emery and Jimmer Fredette to name a few. A few of them were so HUGE too it was unbelievable how high they could jump. The game was very fast paced and high scoring so it was really fun to watch. At the end they just started dunking for fun on both sides as the time ran out. There was also an...unforgettable... half time show by Jimmer's rapper brother TJ. There was a great sense of showmanship and comradery so it made it a great game, and of course it was awesome to see Jimmer play in the Marriott again.

Foto Friday

I was putting it off but...we now have locks on our cabinets.

(taken 9.17)

She's a wild one...

have you ever heard that Faith Hill song? the chorus says:
"She's a wild one
With an angel's face
She's a woman-child
In a state of grace
When she was 3 years old on her daddy's knee
He said you can be anything you want to be
She's a wild one
Runnin' free"
That's really the only part of the song that kind of applies but honestly those first two lines...is Caitlin. She is all over the place. The girl is wearing me out! But then she knows just when to turn on the charm and that little angel face. Yesterday was a big day: she had mini pig-tails for the first time, she discovered the slide in our backyard and loves it (i lift her up about halfway and she goes down by herself!), she took her first tumble down the stairs (rump over tea kettle but didn't even cry, just wanted to get up and go down more... she refuses to crawl down backwards). Give her a cup of ice and she is happy as a clam playing and eating (Sshe loves eating cold things). She dances when she hears music she likes (she bounces up and down whether she's sitting or standing). Whenever she doesn't ant something she says "na na na" and waves her arms. She loves being chased around and playing peekaboo. She LOVES her blankies more than almost anything. She's a daredevil and a stubborn little munchkin but she's mine. and I love her.

 

Just have to say.. no matter what adorable BYU getup anyone was wearing on Saturday night, the Cougars could not be helped against the Utes. It was pretty embarrassing. better luck next time.

Foto Friday

(on Saturday) 

This is what we wear around our house on Saturdays. Especially today. 

Go Cougs! Beat the Utes!

austin adventures

We got to do more in Austin than just go to the game of course. I got to stay for a whole week and it was so fun to have a break and spend time with Paul's family. It was really fun to just have people around all the time and to be able to spend (basically) 24/7 with Christine and Cason. Caitlin was completely obsessed with Lorraine and played favorites the whole time. Lorraine was so nice to stay with the babies a lot too so that Christine and I could run off and do things.

We went boating and Paul took Caitlin wakeboarding! She loved it. Then Christine and I took Caitlin and Cason tubing. Caitlin loved that as well. We also got to go out to dinner, celebrate Lorraine's birthday and Dickson's wedding anniversary, go shopping a lot, play games, go to the sprinkler park, go out to lunch, go swimming, go on walks, and mostly get to spend time together. Caitlin also took a tumble one night and got a busted lip! It was so sad but she was such a trooper and luckily it has healed up really well.







 
 

I'm so glad we got to stay for a little trip. Pretty sure Caitlin wrecked havoc in their house (broke a lamp, played in toilet bowls) but it was still fun. My in-laws are awesome. Cason is the sweetest not-so-little boy. Everyone thought he and Caitlin were twins! They loved each other. All they wanted to do all the time was race up the stairs. We were sad to leave and now that we are back home i think Caitlin is thoroughly disappointed with her selection of playmates (me).

BYU vs. Texas

We heard about the scheduling of this game over a year ago and since that day we planned to go. The epic showdown of the hometown growing up team vs. the alma mater. So, we showed up. I flew into Austin on Thursday and Paul came in Friday night. We donned our BYU and Texas apparel, got a babysitter for Caitlin and headed to the game. We had great seats with a large portion of BYU fans on the 10th row by one of the endzones. It was hot, it was sweaty, it was full of burnt orange and beavo. It was really fun.

It was a tale of two halves. The first half we found ourselves cheering for BYU as it looked like maybe they had a chance to win this thing! It was really exciting to see that the two teams were actually pretty evenly matched and everyone was playing well.  The second half we found ourselves confused at who to root for as Texas came back and stole the victory. However, we left the game feeling pleased overall. Both teams played well but the Longhorns came away with the W.

We made special shirts to reveal our feelings about the game and got a lot more comments than I thought we would (both positive and negative). We got to see a lot of friends, and my parents and grandparents also came, however we didn't get to see them at all at the game because their seats were so far away. It was fun to be in such a big stadium and UT has a really fun spirit, from the tailgating to the cheering.. although I wasn't surprised-- I would never doubt that Texans knows how to handle a football game. Although the outcome wasn't ideal for BYU, i'm so glad we came down for the game to have the experience!

 

 

 

 

 

i saw a quote today while i was pinteresting (of course i was.. what else would i be doing with my time?!) anyways i liked it:

said by none other than the great GBH. but anyways i just felt like i needed to see that today. I need to be better everyday. And i'm not saying it would be easy or that it will really actually happen, but i think i could be better in at least one simple way everyday. Lke reading my scriptures or saying more thankful prayers or being more considerate or attentive. Like today, i was sewing something and Caitlin got into one of my storage boxes in my craft room and started going through it and i just let it happen because i wanted to finish my project and she played for awhile then left it to go to something else and when i was putting it away i realized i had some batteries and staples in the box!! what?! she could have eaten those! (i admitted it, and i am ashamed so don't judge!) so tomorrow i will try a little harder to be a little better at paying attention to what my baby is playing with and not being so wrapped up in my own stuff. p.s. i was actually sewing something for HER so i'm not a horrible mom after all. I'm glad that i can have the words of inspired leaders to bring me back down to earth and give me a better direction.

Foto Friday

this is what happens when you let your child explore while waiting in the doctor's office:

She crawled into a cabinet and tried to stand up but obviously got a little stuck. I was laughing so hard.

(taken 8.29)