Shasta's 10 Months!

Here are some fun things Shasta's doing!

• Knows how to give kisses and she's either really stingy or really generous in sharing them.

• Loves to dance/bounce whenever she gets excited. The best is when she does it while I'm holding her!

• Started pulling herself up to things. It started off with low to the ground things like our banana chairs and a stepping stool, but now it's the kitchen chairs and the couches.

• Loves to eat and will try anything. Whenever she sees me eating she heads straight for me and stares at me until I share with her. I think she's learned that from Wedge!

• Started taking shorter naps.

• Got another tooth. That makes a total of 6; 4 on top and 2 on bottom.

It's not very easy trying to tickle her, snap a picture, and keep her from trying to take the camera from me!

• Thinks she needs to stand in the bathtub. It's a never ending battle every night.

• Has decided a sippy cup isn't the worst thing in the world. If I hold it she'll guzzle it down and in the last 2 days she's started to figure out that when she holds it she also has to tip it up. (We started a sippy around 6 months and she did pretty good with it, but then decided she didn't like it anymore. Now we're finally back to her liking it and figuring it out on her own).

Don't mind that the sippy's upside down. She only lets me snap one picture before she's crawling to me to get the camera, so this is the best we got.

• Loves to play with Wedge. She laughs and laughs when she's doing something she thinks is sneaky, like taking his toys from him!

• She likes to follow me around.

• Has started showing some interest in the stairs. She'll crawl over to them, but doesn't actually try to climb them. She'll just pull herself up to a standing position while holding onto the bottom step. I've tried a few times to teach her how to go up and down the stairs, but she's not interested in trying.

• Played with Play-Doh for the first time. I left it in a ziplock bag because I knew she would try to eat it and sure enough that's all she wanted to do. Eventually, I took it out of the bag for her to hold and again it went straight for her mouth and she got frustrated with me constantly stopping her. Maybe I should just let her eat some and she'll decide she doesn't like it and won't try anymore.

• Started using a curling iron to style her hair.

She started off sitting on the counter with her feet in the sink and eventually wormed her way into this position! Looks pretty cumfy! All I can say is it's a good thing she doesn't know how to turn on the water!

• Ate an entire bowl of Easy Mac in one sitting. She loves it!

• Understands the process of getting dressed by putting her arms in the sleeves or pulling her shirt down over her head to uncover her eyes.

• Understands getting out of her carseat by moving her arms to get out of the straps.

• Loves pulling all the shoes off the shoe shelf.

Maybe I should move her toy box so the shoes aren't a temptation on the way to the toys!

• Not quite ready for 6-9 month sleepers. This picture is to show she crawls right out of the legs!

Notice she just got done pulling out all the shoes.

• This girl has the longest hair on top. I think I say this every month, but seriously look at these pictures. This month the sides have really started to fill in. I also trimmed the extra long hairs around the sides for the 2nd time now since she was born!

• Has the cutest chub. I'm sad she always has to have pants on because her chubby legs are so darn adorable. (I'm also sad to always put socks on her because I just love her cute little feet!)

I took her pants off just to get a picture of her cute legs!!!

•  Has taken a liking to walking while holding my hands. Before she couldn't figure out the whole stepping process, but now that she's catching on she enjoys it a lot more.  

•  Pictures of her with Bree. Posed pictures are nearly impossible to take now. I set the camera to motion pictures so it snaps like 10 with one click and cross my fingers that at least one turns out. These are as good as it gets.

It's hard to remember if some of the things she's currently doing are new in the last month or just a continuation from the previous month. These are some of the fun things she's doing that are noteworthy, but may have been mentioned before.

• She clicks her tongue all the time and makes frog noises in the back of her throat.

• She tries to copy me when I make faces at her.

• She can be so happy and smiley when we're out shopping, but the second someone approaches us she gives them a death stare as if she's saying, "that's close enough". Then once they leave she's all smiles again.

• She gets so excited to see her dad and reaches for him when he walks in the door from work (when he comes home for dinner).

• She wakes up at 6:30 every morning to eat, is back in bed by 7, and will usually sleep until 8 or 8:30 before she's up for the day.

I forgot to put this picture up last month and I just love it! Nick put my galoshes on her and she thought that was the funnest thing. Seriously, look at that face! I love it! She's just the best!!!

Love Is In The Air

I'm anti-Valentine's Day as far as doing any kind of gift exchange. I would much rather my husband do something romantic for me because he WANTS to and not because he's OBLIGATED. We acknowledge the holiday, but don't do any type of celebration for it. This year I thought it would be fun to post about how Nick and I met since Valentine's Day is all about love! Aww!

Our story is a little crazy since he lived in Bountiful, Utah and I was from Gilbert, Arizona and we met in Nauvoo, Illinois. Nick was in Nauvoo because at the time he worked for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints at the Conference Center in Salt Lake as a Master Electrician. How's that for wordy?! He helped with the lighting for all the shows performed in the Conference Center and the local pageants around Utah. In 2005 he was asked to go to Nauvoo for 6 weeks to do the lighting for the Nauvoo Pageant.

I had spent the last 5 summers in Nauvoo because my parents owned a Bed and Breakfast there and after I graduated high school I moved there to go to school. I worked in a restaurant where Nick's crew ate breakfast every morning and then I volunteered at the pageant site every night. Needless to say, we crossed paths several times.

Nick wasn't one for coming to the restaurant for breakfast so it was rare that I saw him there. He had two roommates that convinced him he needed to go to breakfast with them to come check out this really cute waitress. It turns out the cute waitress was my roommate who also worked with me. Sad for me, but it was okay because sure he was cute and all, but I was interested in another guy.

*Nick claims that they went to check out my roommate, but he found me cuter than her. I guess he married me so maybe there's some truth to it, but she was dating someone so he didn't have much of a chance with her! :)

Towards the end of the summer, Nick and his two roommates asked me and two other girls if we'd like to come over for dinner at their condo. It was a casual group date, but Nick and I got paired off together for the game we played. It was probably planned. Boys are sneakier than we give them credit for!

*Random side note: I took the most awful dessert to the dinner. I used half and half instead of whipping cream. BIG DIFFERENCE! Ha! I'm surprised Nick was even willing to date me after learning I couldn't even make a simple dessert!

Anyway, he decided to try to get to know me better and started inviting me over to his condo after the pageant was done each night. I took him up on his offer once or twice, but I had it in my head that I liked someone else so I tried my best not to be interested. Then there was one night that my world came crashing down on me. All in one phone call I found out my mom had to have a major surgery, my grandpa wasn't doing well and probably wasn't going to live much longer, and my uncle was diagnosed with terminal cancer and given 6 months to live. I found myself feeling very sad and alone. My only family was 1600 miles away (in Arizona) and 3 of them were suffering.

Nick called me that night to see if I wanted to come over and I told him I wasn't feeling up to it. I informed him of the news I had just received prior to his call and he responded to my heartache by asking me if I would like a blessing.

Wait, what? Who is this guy? He hardly knows me and here he is offering me something so sacred and special. I was taken by surprise. I had only been give a handful of blessings up to that point in my life and all of them were something I had to ask for; never offered. I turned him down because I had an unrealistic understanding of what Priesthood blessings were for and I felt like my situation wasn't important enough to be bothered with a blessing. Sure the 3 family members facing their hardships could use blessings, but not me. But in that conversation it dawned on me, someone willing to offer me a blessing is someone worth getting to know better.

I decided I didn't want to sit at home and sulk so I showed up on his doorstep with some movies and hung out with him the rest of the night. From there we hung out every day until he had to go back to Bountiful. Then we dated long distance with several plane trips back and forth while I still lived in Nauvoo and then back and forth when I moved back to Arizona.

He proposed to me a couple days before Valentine's Day in 2006 (only because that's when I flew to Utah... otherwise I would have been very against the coincidence), we got married that May, and the rest is history. The proposal is another great story, but I'll save that one for another day.

Shasta's 9 Months

Shasta had her 9 month appointment today.  I can hardly believe I have a 9 month old. We've been given the go-ahead to feed her whatever we think she can handle which is pretty exciting. Any time I say we're not going to start giving her sweets the response I get is always, "good luck". I don't know if  there's any truth behind our theory, but we don't want her to only want snacks, so our goal is to avoid candy and sugary treats for as long as possible. Right now she'll eat anything I stick in front of her so I know we can avoid it for at least a little while. We'll see how long it lasts!

Here are her stats at 9 months:

Weight: 15lbs 8oz (4th %ile)
Length: 27.75 inches (58th %ile)
Head: 17.5 inches (66th %ile)

Over the last 3 months she moved from the 5th to the 4th percentile in weight, 23rd to 58th percentile in length, and 64th to 66th percentile in head circumference. Her Hendricks genes are apparently kicking in as far as height goes. Due to being a premie she'll probably always be petite, but now she's going to be tall and thin it appears! Nick couldn't be happier to have a future volleyball player in the family.

By 9 months:

Started army crawling.

She actually started on Christmas day and over the last month has really mastered it. She gets anywhere she wants to go.

Can go from laying down to sitting up.

Will crawl a few paces on her knees before switching back to army crawling.

But by the end of the month she started full on crawling. She still army crawls, but she does her hands and knees more.

Grew 5 teeth. First her canines started showing signs of coming in, then randomly a bottom front tooth came in, then her canines popped through, then another bottom front tooth, and now a top front tooth, with the other top front one not far behind. And actually, we thought it was her canines until the front tooth came through and now it seems to be the teeth between her canines and front teeth because they're too close together not to be.

It's not very nice of me to put this picture, but you can almost see the top front tooth.

She's been an amazing teether. I didn't even know she had bottom teeth until I stuck my finger in her mouth. She has her grumpy moments, but I link it more to just being a baby and not so much to teething.

Started pursing her lips, scrunching her nose, and breathing in and out really fast. I've been trying to get her to copy me doing this for probably a month and I about died from laughter when she finally started doing it. It's seriously the cutest thing!

I think these pictures are SO cute and yet it doesn't even do the face justice. Tells ya just how cute it is to see her do it! By the time the flash went off and the picture snapped she wasn't doing it as well.

I love her eyes the most in these pictures. They're such a pretty shape.

Started sleeping with her bum in the air. Seriously so cute. But then again everything she does is cute!

She has the longest hair on top and fairly short hair on the sides. I've always said she has reverse old man hair, bald on the sides with a toupee on top!

 She likes to sit like a little cheerleader. It's fitting with her poofy ponytail!

  
All of that long hair on top makes for some pretty crazy bedhead after she gets up from her naps!

 And of course one with her cow, Bree.

Just For Fun

Before we went to Arizona Wedge got his hair cut.

After:

So skinny.

His Christmas Eve pajamas!

Little pin head.

And Before:

He looks so fat!

His feet look super funny!

He looks so much older when he isn't shaved. It cracks me up to see the difference!

2011 Recap

January -

•  Found out we were having a girl.
• 3 years of living in Logan.

February -

• 5 months pregnant.
• 3 years at our jobs for both Nick and me.

March -

• Baby Shower in Arizona.
• Saw my brother for the first time in 2 1/2 years.
• Celebrated my 24th birthday.

April -

• Made ID cards for kids through the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) at Baby Animal Days.
• Had our Relay For Life Event. All proceeds go to the American Cancer Society.
• Helped put together the Primary Easter Party.
• Spent Easter in the hospital having a baby.
• Shasta was born.
• Quit my job.
• Had a baby shower in Logan.

May -

• Spent every day at the NICU.
• Had a ward baby shower.
• Shasta came home from the NICU on May 19th.
• Celebrated our 5th Wedding Anniversary on May 20th.

June -

• Celebrated Nick's 33rd birthday.
• Shasta's due date was June 15th.
• I was released from the Primary Presidency.

July -

• I was called to serve on the Relief Society Activities Committee.
• Shasta continues to get bigger.

August -

• Shasta's baby blessing.
• Shasta and I went to Oregon with my family.
• Had our first outing at 2nd Dam with Shasta and Wedge.
• Had a family reunion in Idaho with Nick's family.
• Went to Mueller Park for a birthday party with Nick's family.

September -

• Wedge turned 2.
• Fall semester started.
• Started the Better Wives Club blog.

October -

• Celebrated Shasta's half birthday by piercing her ears.
• Went and visited my friend Alice in Eagle Mountain who is suffering from cancer and not expected to live much longer.
• Shasta started sleeping through the night.
• Had a bizarre missionary experience.
• Nick participated in his 24 hour video game marathon through Extra Life. All the proceeds went to a children's hospital of his choice.

November -

• Shasta and I went to Arizona (Shasta's first time).
• Had a new floor put in our kitchen.
• Nick was released from being the Ward Assistant Clerk in charge of Finances.
• He was also released from being a Ward Missionary.
• I was released from serving on the Relief Society Activities Committee.
• Nick and I were called to teach the Marriage and Family Relations Class (gulp)!
• Nick wrote a Christmas children's book that is amazing and will hopefully one day be published.

December -

• Taught our first Marriage and Family Relations class. Shasta was extra grumpy and I ended up having to leave about half way through to feed her. It's right during her morning nap, so it will be interesting to see how it goes. We've only taught the one time so far because of the holidays and being in a student ward, but we'll teach every other Sunday from now on.
• Went to Arizona for Christmas.
• Shasta turned 8 months old on Christmas day.
• Nick ate a chicken heart and cow tongue.
• Fall semester finally ended!!!

We had a really good year. It was filled with ups and downs and the unexpected, but I wouldn't go back and change any of our experiences. Everything we went through strengthened our testimonies of the gospel and helped us recognize the Lord's hand in our lives. It's bitter sweet to see 2011 end, but here's to an even better 2012!

Shasta's 8 Months

This post is way overdue considering Shasta hit 8 months on Christmas day, but here it is anyway. I've been holding off because I never did a size comparison with her cow, Bree, but now it seems pointless since she's been 8 months for nearly 3 weeks. Shasta doesn't have another appointment again until the end of January so I don't know her stats, but here are some new things she started doing this last month.

By 8 Months:

Finally sitting on her own!

In her super cute Christmas dress!

Caught onto the concept of eating from a spoon. Feeding her is SO much easier now that she actually opens her mouth intentionally.

Feeding her left handed while trying to take a picture is not the easiest thing to do!

She thinks it's funny to fake cough!

I decided to combine her 3-6 and 6-9 month clothes. All of her warmer clothes are 6-9 month sizes and although they're pretty big on her I didn't want to go out and buy a bunch of clothes for her.

She's ready to be switched to size 2 diapers, but I haven't ordered any since we have so many size 1's. I'm hoping to keep her in size 1 for the rest of the month just to run through some of the supply we already have.

Took a trip to Boise for the Potato Bowl. (We hung out in the hotel room while Nick and his family went to the game). Shasta and I had been to Oregon and Arizona, but Nick and Wedge didn't come with us so this was our first family vacation.

Shasta (left) and her cousin Meili (right) on our way home from Boise.

Shasta and Me in the hotel room before everyone left for the game.

Shoshone Falls in Idaho (we stopped on our way home to give the girls a break from the car).

She had her first Christmas in Arizona.

Christmas day after church. I love this picture because of Wedge. Shasta's always trying to eat him and lately he just takes it!

Opening her first Christmas present. Church was at 10:45am so we waited until after to do presents.

Wedge was so helpful. He loves opening presents!

She did pretty good opening gifts for only being 8 months old and never having done it before.

But for the most part she was only interested in getting the paper off so she could eat it.

Thursday the 29th we had Christmas at our house.

Sunday on New Years Day we had Christmas in Bountiful with Nick's family.

Sat in the shopping cart without a car seat. For the most part I still prefer to bring the car seat into the store because she's really wobbly when the cart is moving, but it was still fun to see her sitting in the shopping cart like a big girl!

Shopping cart cover courtesy of my sister Kiley. It was really nice that it strapped her in like she was wearing a backpack so she didn't wobble as much.

She learned the sign for puppy (patting her leg)

Started eating bread.

Started trying to feed herself, but she has a hard time actually getting the food out of her fingers and into her mouth.

Loves playing peek-a-boo.

Loves playing with her toes.

Loves playing with toys.

Slams her hand on the floor when she's excited. It looks like she's a wrestling referee calling a pin!

Makes a frog noise in the back of her throat when she's tired.

New Floor

The last day of November we had a new floor put in to replace the laminate wood floor that was water damaged in places. These were the best Before pictures I could find and all the After pictures were from my phone so they're smaller.

Before

Wood in the kitchen.

After

Vinyl Tile in the Kitchen.

Before

Wood in the Dining Area.

After

Vinyl Tile in the Dining Area.

Before

Carpet in the Hallway/Reverent Room. Also wood at the base of the stairs, in front of the garage and into the half bathroom.

After

My favorite part. We cut back the carpet and added a hallway. No more tracked on carpet with snowy, dirty shoes!

Before

Carpet in the Reverent Room and wood in the Entry Way.

After

The new shape of the carpet in the Reverent Room.

We love our new floor! It's so fun to have a fresh new look to our house and have that added feeling of wanting to take pride in our home. I was worried that cutting back the carpet would make the room feel smaller, but it did the opposite. The part I'm most happy about is we can stick to the rule of no shoes on the carpet. Before it was pretty much impossible because it was too hard to take our shoes off between each trip to and from the garage while hauling in groceries. Now we don't have that problem!