Blast From the Baby Past

It's hard to believe that a little over a year ago this is where my life was. We've come so far and I'm so thankful Heavenly Father sent this precious little girl to me. I can't imagine my family without her.

Random thoughts for the day

1. I was sitting on the concrete outside taking pictures of a project I'm doing. Shasta found a golfball and threw it in my direction. It bounced on the concrete and hit me square in the forehead. Nice aim baby!

2. I'm feeling a little sick thinking Fall Semester is right around the corner and Summer Semester isn't even over yet.

3. I get tired of people complaining that they have to press 1 for English when they live in America. Uh, hello, do you really want to sit through the entire spill of every language the directory is provided in before it continues on in English for you? Think about it. At least you get to press 1 and move on. It could be that you sit there as it goes through all the languages alphabetically and English fall as number 27 or something. I'm pretty glad to just press 1 right at the beginning!

4. Furthermore, I understand that the American language is English, but this is the land of the free and mixed cultures. Who cares that people have businesses that are named in another language. People are here for a better life. That doesn't mean they should have to give up everything that makes them who they are.

5. I think it's silly that there's a picture going around on Facebook that says "Click 'Like' to send a prayer to our troops". Um, how about we just pray for our troops. I'm pretty sure it'll be more effective.

6. Every 2 years life gets a little bitter at our house because we don't have television so we can't watch the Olympics. Such a shame. But then the Olympics end and I no longer feel the need to have cable. If it were up to me we would go the rest of our lives without tv, but Nick doesn't feel the same way so we'll see what happens. Heaven forbid we go the rest of our lives without sports playing in the Family Room!

7. I'm really tired of all the politics on Facebook. I thought who you choose to vote for was supposed to be private.

8. I'm extra tired of the gay rights talk that I see floating around Facebook. I've read through some of the comments on those Chick-Fil-A posts and I get really huffy about how ignorant some people are and how hateful people can be.

9. We're tolerating more and more sin lately. I love The Office, but how many times is the Lord's name used in vain in a single episode? It's normal to have sex scenes, adultery, crude jokes, gay couples, drug use, violence, and language on regular television. The more we see it, the more accepting we become and the less we notice it. I think we need to learn how to turn the channel. I started watching a tv series on Netflix that was about 3 different couples and their lifestyles. One couple happened to be married for 10 or so years and their relationship was struggling. They decided to try an open marriage. Each were allowed to pick one person to sleep with to help spice up their lives. I watched about 5 episodes before deciding it wasn't a show worth watching. The other couples were fun stories to follow and there were 2 actors that I like, but I didn't like the way it made me feel and it didn't agree with my standards within my own marriage, so I turned it off. Enough is enough. We have to draw the line somewhere and I think a great starting place is with what we watch on television.

10. I think I need a vacation. Maybe just a vacation from Netflix and Facebook. They seem to make me irritable. 7 of my 10 random thoughts were about tv or Facebook. 8 including this one! But I wouldn't mind a real vacation. Disneyland would be nice.

Picture Overload!!!

These pictures were taken at the beginning of May and I am FINALLY getting them loaded onto my computer. My little laptop doesn't have a disc drive so that's my excuse why it's taken so long! They're Shasta's 1 year photo shoot taken a week after she turned 1. She wasn't quite walking on her own yet so there aren't really any of her standing, but the last one is one of my favorites because it shows her trying. It's easy to forget she wasn't always an expert at walking!

I have to admit... Looking through the pictures I got a little carried away with adding them to my blog. I love them all! She was SO tired during this photo shoot and yet there are so many great moments captured.

Take note of the backdrop. I love Logan! It's so beautiful here. Nothing about these backdrops are staged. It's all natural beauty baby! According to my sister who has been here once, we live in the picture on the Hidden Valley bottle (the salad dressing).

The first set of pictures with the mountains in the background are taken at Elk Ridge Park in North Logan. The second set of pictures with the tulips in the background are taken at the Logan temple. Both backdrops are SO beautiful. I can't say it enough that I'm SO SO happy with these pictures and I love the way they dress up the walls in my house.

If anyone is looking to have some awesome pictures taken for really cheap, you should use this photographer. He lives in Roy and is willing to travel (probably depending on the location) to take pictures in your hometown. We have over 400 pictures with no copyright. So awesome! I promise you won't be disappointed.

MuzoGul Photography (801) 668-1390 (He answers to Muzo.)

15 Months

I can't even begin to describe how much I love these two! This picture is so precious. All that's missing is Wedge. He was actually in Nick's legs, but Nick's shirt was up and I didn't think he'd appreciate me posting a picture of his belly!

Shasta was puking and fevery on Monday. Luckily it only lasted a few hours, but it was miserable for both of us all the same. She had her 15 month Doctor's appointment today so I asked him about it and he said we're probably in the clear for Hand, Foot, Mouth so thank heavens for that!

The poor girl had two shots today and cried hysterically. She was SO upset and did her wheezing cry afterwards. It was so sad to watch. The nurse made me hold her arms while she held her legs down and with each shot I could see her legs and feet get so tense and she stared at me in desperation to save her. Heartbreaking. Once I picked her up she wrapped her arms around me and laid her head on my shoulder and snuggled the whole way to the car.

Here are her stats:

Weight: 18lbs 14oz (3rd percentile)
Height: 29.5 inches long (23rd percentile)
Head: HUGE! 18.7 inches (88th percentile)

Pretty much we make light-weight, shorty-pants with big heads! I thought for sure she was 20 pounds or more. When I weigh myself while holding her and then again without holding her it's around 20 pounds every time. Bright side is maybe my scale weighs heavy... good news for me! HA!

Shasta has been so much fun. Who knew motherhood could be so enjoyable. I love watching her learn and grow and I especially love watching her mimic things that I do.

• She still eats pretty good. She has her moments, but for the most part she will eat what we eat and when she doesn't she goes hungry. I try to include something with dinner that I know she'll eat, but there are times when even that isn't something she wants.
• She eats a whole slice of pizza by herself. That seems like a lot of food to me. Most of the time I only eat 1 slice, rarely do I eat 2. It's funny that she eats as much as I eat.
• She's learned to go down the stairs (finally). We've been working on it for MONTHS and she's finally mastered it. Now it's pretty much impossible to keep track of her.
• She says dad all day long and only says mom when she gets hurt, is sad, or needs to be comforted and I think I'm okay with that!
• She signs: milk, puppy, more, all done, and bath.
• She says: dad, mom, Shasta, Wedge, juice, shoe (which when not paying attention can be confused for juice), foot, ball, don't and no (yay for that)
• She will mimic an elephant sound, monkey sound, and lion, but she won't do them on her own if asked what sound those animals make. She'll only repeat it after she hears it.
• Saying "no" is usually her doing something she shouldn't be doing. She says no when she's about to open a cupboard, dig in the bathroom garbage, play with the toilet paper roll, and so on.
• Her nickname is "Tornado". She can destroy a room in seconds. She is so busy and into everything. I used to pick up after her as she made messes. Then I started picking up while she was napping. Now I wait until she's gone to bed for the night to straighten my house. It gets old when I feel like I pick up toys all day long, so I've learned to love the mess. I used to apologize when company came over unexpectedly and there were toys everywhere. Now I don't even do that. So I have a child... and our house is lived in... I'm not going to apologize for choosing to play with my child instead of clean up after her all day long!
• She has 11 teeth and is working on the 12th one. Technically she's still working on 4 of them, but 3 have broken through and the 4th one hasn't yet.
• One of my most favorite things that she does: she picks up her baby doll (and sometimes stuffed animals) and puts it on her shoulder, pats it's back and says "aaahhh". I LOVE IT! I do it every time I pick up her doll and I love that she's learned that from me and does it too!
• She's still rear facing in her carseat. She does pretty good in the car and I'm going to keep her rear facing as long as possible. I've decided she's still a baby being rear facing. Once she's forward facing then she's for sure no longer my little baby.
• She's completely done nursing. Super bitter/sweet for me, but she didn't seem to care one way or the other. She does fine with whole milk and doesn't seem to miss nursing.
• She's been to Utah (obviously), Arizona, Nevada, Idaho, Oregon, and next month she'll hit Colorado.
• She's so generous with giving hugs. I especially love when she pats my back and says "aaahhh" like she does to her babies. That only happens on occasion though.
• She's less generous with kisses, but she still gives them.
• She gives Wedge the most kisses. She'll randomly walk over to him, bend down and open her mouth to give him a kiss.
• She plays with my hair when she's tired and feeling cuddly. I love it!
• She loves to have her hair played with, but she HATES getting it curled. She doesn't mind having it put in pigtails or what have you as long as she has something to play with (usually her toothbrush and dripping water out of the faucet (because I sit her on the bathroom counter with her feet in the sink)), but as soon as I pull out the curling iron she wines and complains until I'm done. She also learned her lesson not to touch it...! She swatted at it to push it away and barely nicked her finger. Luckily it didn't leave a mark.
• We've had several bumps and bruises this month. It's always sad, but I love the cuddles that follow when she gets hurt.
• We go on a walk every night after dinner. There are nights that I'm not in the mood to go on a walk, but between Wedge standing by the door staring at me and Shasta banging on the door with Wedge's leash in her hand, it's a little hard to skip. I love that she knows the routine and even though I'm not always in the mood to go, it's good for us to get outside so we almost never miss a night.
• She recognizes when I'm about to lay her down for bed and knows that if she hugs me tighter I'll hold her a little longer because I can't resist her hugs! Some nights she'll even voluntarily give me kisses without being asked in an attempt to stay up a little longer.
• She's starting to get really feisty and opinionated. When she doesn't want something she swats at it and when she gets mad she throws her hands down to her sides and makes a noise that I don't know how to describe!
• She loves throwing the ball for Wedge. She also loves to tease him. She snatches his toys and loves it when he chases her to get them. Just today she would take his ball and wave it around in front of him in a teasing way and then throw it. It was SO cute!

I'm sure there's more, but the list is getting long and I'd be surprised if anyone is actually still reading. As a mom, I love to talk about my child and how brilliant I think she is, but all moms who have gone before me know how it is and know she's simply on track and all babies do what she's doing. Either way, it'll be fun for me to go back and read these posts when more babies come along and see how they compare.

Temples

When Nick and I first got married we decided that we would go to the temple every time we were on vacation in a new place. We did pretty good for a while, but our vacations usually consist of going to Arizona to visit my family so our list hasn't been growing as much as I would like it to. (Although soon we'll get to attend some new temples in Arizona.) But we added a new one to our portfolio a few weekends ago.

So far we've done temple work in the following:

Mesa, AZ (where I was endowed and we were sealed)
San Diego, CA
Nauvoo, IL (will always be my favorite and have special meaning to me)
Denver, CO
Bountiful, UT
Logan, UT
Salt Lake City, UT
We've tried to go to the Las Vegas, NV temple, but we couldn't find it (back in the day when we didn't have gps on our phones)
And now Manti, UT

We tried to attend Manti's temple 6 years ago, but we missed the last session by about 10 minutes. The Manti pageant is held on the temple grounds so the last session is at 3:30pm. We've been wanting to go back for years, but we spent the next two summers in Nauvoo, and since then we've been in Logan and in summer school.

I'm so happy that we finally got to go and we owe a BIG thank you to Nick's Dad for watching Shasta for us. Nick wanted to have Shasta come to Manti so he could have all his friends meet her, "show her off" if you will, so here's how our day went: We drove to Bountiful and dropped Shasta off, then drove to Manti and did a session, then met Nick's dad in Spanish Fork and picked Shasta up, then drove back to Manti for the pageant, and then drove back to Bountiful and stayed the night at his parent's house. All so Nick and I could do a session.

Without a session our trip would have been drive to Manti, see the pageant, drive to bountiful and stay the night. But Nick and I had a great need to attend the temple (for more than just adding a new one to the list) and so with much help from Nick's parents, we made it work.

Nick's parents are so selfless and I'm so grateful to them for allowing us a chance to attend the Manti temple when we could have done a session closer to their home that would have been a lot more convenient. The Manti Temple is beautiful and for us it was completely worth the hassle to go... although I don't know that Nick's dad feels the same way (Shasta pooped THREE times while in his care when most days she poops once or twice the whole day)!!!

Cache Valley Relay

Tonight Shasta and I made an appearance at the Cache Valley community Relay for Life. It started at 2pm, but we didn't get there until about 6:30 due to Shasta desperately needing a nap! We stayed for a little over an hour and a half and we would have stayed longer, but a storm was rolling in and I didn't want to get caught in the middle of it.

The sad thing is, in our hour and a half being there we only completed 2 half laps and 1 full lap. I say half lap because there is a trail about halfway through that allows you to cut across and not make a full lap around. The first half lap we did with some friends who I've been on the USU relay committee with for the past several years. After they left Shasta and I did another half lap which took us nearly 45 minutes to complete because I let her walk the whole way and everything is a distraction. Then we did a full lap with Shasta in the stroller. It went much quicker, but about halfway through the wind kicked in and it got a little crazy.

Going to the community event makes me REALLY want to do a team next year. It's such a different feel from the college relay and the mom in me makes me want to be around families more than college students! It looked so fun, and part of me wishes I was out there with them in this crappy relay weather rather than sitting here typing this post while listening to the rain hit the windows.

These pictures are from my phone so they're not the best quality. They looked better until I enlarged them. I don't know what's worse, a tiny picture you can't see or a larger picture that's blurry. I opted for blurry.

Shasta walking a lap. Can she get any cuter? She wore those sunglasses the whole way. Everyone seriously adored her and people LOVED that she had a on committee shirt. Thanks Erin for making it for her!

Still doing her lap. Now with crackers instead of raisins!

 It's kind of funny because my friend Erin took an adult committee shirt and made it into a onesie for Shasta. The funny part is she couldn't fit the whole "committee" word on the back so it says 'mmitt". If you didn't know any better you may think she's a Mitt Romney supporter! :)

Oh but wait, let's see what other snacks I can find...

Once the wind hit, this is what every campsite looked like. All team members holding onto their tents so they don't blow away. It was pretty much hilarious!

I'm hoping to do one more year on the USU relay committee, but then after that I may have to switch to the community event.

If anyone wants more information about relay, hit me up with your questions. I would love to help you get involved. Everyone can think of someone who's had cancer, therefore, Relay is for everyone!