Rose at 4 Months

Rose is 4 months old now! I can't believe it!

I took pictures of Rose at 3 months... but then never wrote a blog post about it, so here are a couple of those:

Rose at 4 months is pretty much the cutest thing ever. She just rolled over for the first time a week ago...she showed us by rolling right out of the swing... I'm not sure who cried more, me or her...we always buckle her in now. We learned our lesson!

Rose is also becoming quite interactive. She has a lot more to say these days. She laughs sometimes, but refuses to keep laughing when I try to get a video of it to show grandma. She's stubborn like that. But I promise, it's really cute when she does laugh.

She started teething in the last month as well. I don't see any teeth yet, but she's got all the signs of teething, like drooling a lot, putting everything in her mouth, getting fussier and more clingy, etc. She also has this cute face she makes:

She got her 4 month shots the other day, which was a bummer, but she handled it really well. We found out that she's in the 85th percentile for height and the 30th percentile for weight. So, she is really long and skinny.

She gets really mad at me when I leave her on the ground for too long. She loves standing up (with help, of course) so that she can look around at everything.

She's pretty much just all around our favorite little person to have around. Watching her learn and grow is such a blessing. It's pretty amazing that God trusted someone as imperfect as me to be her mom.

I LOVE this picture. 

Aren't they just the cutest duo you've ever seen???

Peach Days, Chocolate, and Home Depot

I keep having these grand plans to write like two or three blog posts a week so that I can just write about one week at a time, but then it doesn't end up happening and I have TWO whole weekends to write about!

(I know, you are probably thinking, "Why does this matter?" Sigh, it just does. I think I have a fear of forgetting things. I take millions of pictures. I post them on Facebook, Instagram, I back them up on Google drive AND on an external hard drive. I have a study journal, a regular journal, and my blog. This blog is the easiest way to combine all of that into one...so, there you go. That's why I have to write about my last two weeks.)

Two weekends ago, we drove up to Brigham City to stay with my family and to go to Peach Days. This blog post has been a draft for two weeks titled "Peach Days". Ryan and I were going to put Rose to bed at my aunt's house and then go to the Peach Days carnival on our first date in months. And because she was already asleep there would be no rush to go back because no one needed to watch her or calm her down and she didn't need to eat. I had visions of romantic pictures by the Ferris Wheel and eating cotton candy and just having a wonderful time. (We went on one of our first dates to Peach Days about two years ago, and I was hoping it would be terribly romantic and nostalgic.)

This is from our first time at Peach Days... These are my cousins with us...they were our chaperones... They followed us around the entire time and made gagging sounds every time we kissed or held hands. 

Our date night did not end up exactly how I pictured it. First off, we spent $20 on 20 tickets. We were so excited to go on all of the rides, until we were in line for our first one. Then we both kind of nervously laughed about how much fun it would be, but thinking in our minds, "Are we too old for this? Because that doesn't actually look very fun..." The ride we went on made me feel kind of like I was that fish in the bag of water that Darla shook up in Finding Nemo. With the addition of ridiculously loud music and strobe lights. So, after that we thought we would just stick to the carnival games. Which only took cash and we didn't want to pay for those since we had already paid for our tickets. So, we wandered around getting bumped into by the throngs of people who came from who knows where (Brigham City is NOT a big town!). We smelled more alcohol and smoke than we have encountered since we served our missions in Washington. And at one point someone nearby threw something away that smelled VERY STRONGLY like egg salad... (?!?! Who brings egg salad to a carnival???) We gave our tickets to someone else and took off, sad that we have gotten too old to enjoy carnival rides and worried that we may not like roller coasters as much as we used to either...)

I only got one picture at Peach Days this year... and it's not a very good one, because Ryan had a headache and wasn't very cooperative. (Shocker, I know... Ryan is always so willing to get his picture taken... ;) haha)

This blog post is important, because hopefully next time we are in Brigham City around Peach Days we will remember to just bring cash for the games and only go in the morning before all the annoying high school students and beer come out.

Other than Peach Days being a bit of a bummer, we had a great weekend.

On to the next item of business...Chocolate.

Krista, my friend, texted me a few weeks ago to tell me that National Chocolate Day was on Thursday, September 13th, and asked if I'd like to make/eat chocolate cake with her that day. Nobody in their right mind would ever turn down an invitation like that, so OF COURSE I said I would love to. We made the most beautiful chocolate cake I have ever laid my eyes (or mouth) on and had tons of fun. Rose was a little bored by the time we were done and was mad at me for making chocolate cake for myself when it is obviously my job to feed her/pay attention to her/meet her every want and desire first and foremost. But little does she know, that I am sacrificing myself for her, by eating this chocolate cake, I am making sure she gets the proper nutrients that she needs as my offspring. (The women in my family thrive off chocolate, and for now she'll just have to live vicariously through me.)

This is a funny picture I got of her while we were making the cake. She was bored. 

I took the most professional pictures of the cake I possibly could, because a beautiful cake deserves the time taken to capture how beautiful it is. Here they are:

I ate my half of the cake for breakfast, lunch, and dinner the next day. And realized that I would be a much happier person if I made myself a chocolate cake every week unfortunately, that involves making a cake every week and I just don't think Rose will allow me to do that.

Okay, last few things I have to share:

• On Thursday night, after the cake, I went to a Relief Society Garden Party that was "Decade's" themed. I'm on the committee, so I had to dress up. I forgot about it until that morning though, so I had to figure out something that wouldn't look completely awful. I decided it would be easiest to ask my mom how she dressed in high school, so it would be more authentic. I couldn't quite manage it because it's difficult to give uncooperative, thin, flat hair a perm without getting a perm, but I was determined, so I did my best.

Maybe I really will get a perm. ;)

Last thing:

Over the weekend, Ryan and I had some time to just relax and do whatever we wanted (as long as it was mostly free), so we went to the farmers market. I think I need a new farmer's market buddy because Ryan always walks super fast past the first half of the booths which have all the things I want to look at and the samples (he won't eat the samples because he says it will just make him hungry, but I LOVE samples.) and then stops at the stuff at the end and wants to buy things we don't need like MORE giraffes ("But THIS one is from Africa, Kinsey!"). This time on the way there we decided that whoever saw the most yellow cars would get cotton candy. (He was teasing me because he was way ahead of me and he knows that cotton candy is one of my weaknesses, and I would be devastated if we got cotton candy for him and not for me.) Jokes on him though, because the cotton candy booth was probably at one of the many other festivals going on in Utah this weekend. :)
We ended up not buying anything because we are poor and went to Home Depot to find our "true color." (This comedian jokes about not being black, but "chocolate indulgence". It's a funny video and a fun idea.) We found out that I am not "White" but actually "Paper Heart." Ryan is not "Tan" but actually "Artist's Copper." Lucky for me "Paper Heart" was just slightly closer to my skin color than "Pumpkin Essence" because who wants to be described as "Pumpkin-y"???

Then, miracle of all miracles! Home Depot had FREE cotton candy and hot dogs. That's a food miracle if I ever saw one! (I love cotton candy!) Ryan just shakes his head at me, but he loves me and puts up with me despite my quirks and love of free things. I am so lucky. :)

So, there you go. That's our last two weeks. And don't forget (this goes for me too) to keep noticing your simple joys. Have a great weekend!

Simple Joys

Yes, Rose is eating her cardigan in this picture. She likes chewing on her blanket but I guess her cardigan was just easier to get to at the moment. 

Lately, I've been trying REALLY hard to study my scriptures every day, and not just to read them every day, but to really study them, to pray before, to take notes, to write whatever comes to mind down, to think about what I read, to pay attention to what comes to mind, to talk about what I read, etc. One reason I'm putting so much emphasis on this is because lately I haven't felt as close to God as I did as a missionary. I was trying to figure out how to make Him a priority in my life again and one thing that came to mind was that I need to pay attention to tender mercies.

Here's my thought process:

The scriptures say to love God with all your heart, might, mind, and strength. > How do I love God with every part of me? > It's easier to love someone who loves  you. > How do I know that God loves me? > By the small things that show up and feel like they are just for me, the tender mercies from a loving Heavenly Father. > Tender mercies feel like they tie into simple joys (which is what I'll write about next.)

So, anyways, I've been working on this for a few weeks now, and it's not easy, but I've been making progress. Something that helped me today was this blog post about simple pleasures. These simple pleasures are the little joys in life that bring a smile to your face and warm your heart. Some of the examples were: the smell of snow, a room with a view, baby belly laughs, etc.

After reading that, I wanted to make a list of simple joys for me.

• When the sun sets just perfectly to turn the sky and the mountains a hazy pink.
• When Rose wakes up in the morning and gives me a sleepy smile, OR when I'm watching her sleep and she smiles a little dream smile.
• When Ryan rolls over in the morning to cuddle with me instead of getting an extra 10 minutes of comfortable sleep. 
• When I have a conversation with a friend that I don't replay in my head for the next week thinking about all the dumb things I said.
• When the sink is empty.
• When there is leftover dessert that I can eat for breakfast.
• When my shampoo and conditioner run out at the exact same time (this hasn't happened yet, but I am hoping that one day it will, and I'm sure it will be glorious and joyful when it does happen.)
• When Rose falls asleep in my arms and I have time to just let her stay there for a while.
• When a book ends exactly the way I was hoping it would.
• When I find a super duper cheesy dad joke to share with Ryan and he laughs because he thinks it's so dumb but then tells me how much he loves me despite my poor taste in jokes. 
• When I go to drink out of my water bottle and there is still water left in it.
• The days when I have a chance to call and talk to my mom for as long as I want. 
• When a baby curls their teensy hands around your finger.
• When you come up with the perfect gift to give to someone you care about.
• Getting a real letter in the mail instead of the regular credit card offers.
• When your favorite snack is on sale at the store for a great deal. (Last week, peanut butter cap'n crunch was on sale for 99 cents a box. I got four boxes.)
• When Ryan get home from work earlier than I thought he would. 
• Using candles instead of light bulbs.
• When Ryan offers to let me choose a romantic comedy for us to watch at night.
• When I actually know what movie quote Ryan is quoting for once. 
• When you actually finish everything on your to do list in a day and have time to sit and relax.
• Those times that Pandora plays songs that you actually want to listen to.
• When we go on long car drives and talk the whole way without running out of something to talk about or being distracted.
• When Ryan grabs me a snack in the gas station because he knows how much I love eating, even though gas station snacks are way overpriced.

Wow! That went on way longer than I thought. There are so many things to be happy about! I could go on forever, but I won't because that would be a ridiculously long blog post. However, I would definitely recommend sitting down and writing a list of the simple joys that you recognize in your life! 

Also, if you have any other good ideas for how to love the Lord with ALL your heart, might, mind, and strength, please share. 

And, thanks for bearing with me and reading my whole list. I hope it helped you to feel a little more joy and a little more loved, as it did for me.  

Back to Reality

In my last post I mentioned that reality came crashing down around us when we came home from Lake Powell. It's lovely how that happens, isn't it?

We would prefer to just take naps instead of doing adult things. 

Lake Powell was this beautiful bubble that blocked EVERYTHING out. No cell service, no wi-fi, no phones, nothing. We were forced to relax and enjoy the water and sunshine. Unfortunately, a few minutes after we left our phones started buzzing, our emails popped up, and our "don't worry about until after Lake Powell" to-do list came into focus. It's really a bummer how life does that.

Ryan had to start school the day after we got back, go back to work a week later, and I had to start thinking about looking for a job. We had bills to pay, and we realized that we should probably start looking for an apartment with another bedroom so that we don't have to get ready for bed in the dark every night hoping not to wake Rose up. (Also, I have lots to catch up on for my blog! SO many pictures!)

Anyways, so all that just to say that the last few weeks have been a lot of adult stuff.

I'm feeling awfully proud of myself because one of the adult things I did was research car insurance and I found one that would save us $360 a year! In one day, I cancelled our old car insurance, signed up for this new one, took our car to Jiffy Lube for the emissions test, AND registered the car. (This is all Ryan's stuff, to make it up to me he bought me chocolate raspberry Magnum bars.)

I still haven't found a job, but I have an interview on Monday, they said it could potentially be a job I do from home, so we'll see. (fingers crossed). It's difficult to find a job that I can do from home while watching a baby. There are jobs where you teach English to kids in China, but I found out when I started applying to those that the camera on my computer doesn't work. So, until I get webcam or fix that, those jobs aren't going to work. If the job interview works out, then I'll be set. But if it doesn't, I'm probably just going to do small jobs here and there to help supplement Ryan's paycheck.

Is it too much to ask to find a job that allows me to get out of the house for 4 hours a day, that is helping families (so it uses my bachelors degree in family studies), pays a salary instead of by the hour (because why else did I pay for college????), and allows me to take Rose with me??? (Probably, but one can dream.)

We aren't seriously looking at new apartments until I can find a job, because 2 bedroom apartments in Utah County are pricey, and we really like our ward and our apartment.

It's a bummer that Ryan is back at school and work again because we really enjoyed spending all day, every day with him. I am hoping that we will be more creative with the way we spend his time off now though because it is so limited. We went to Mount Timpanogos Caves with his sister on his day off last week.

That view!

  It was actually super fun, and it's way more affordable than some of the other cool attractions here in Utah County. (I'm looking at you Thanksgiving Point!) The hike was a little painful, and my husband, Mr. Long Legs walked as fast as he possibly could because he didn't want to be late for our cave tour. Me, Mrs. Short Legs nearly died and keeled over, off the mountain. Also, we were 35 minutes early. Lucky for him, I didn't actually die, otherwise he would have felt bad.

The caves were beautiful and exciting! For me AND for Rose. Rose loved looking around, I could tell it was one of the most exciting moments of her young life. The tour guide was impressed that she was so calm, she said that normally babies cry in the caves. One really cool part was that when you get pretty far in, they'll turn all the lights off and it's completely black. You can put your hand right in front of your eyes and still not see. In the Book of Mormon, when Christ dies and the world is black for 3 days, I imagine that's what it was like, and now that I've experienced it, I can understand why they were so devastated! Pure darkness would be miserable and terrifying!

It was a really fun experience, I'm glad we did it. Next Summer, Ryan has decided that we should hike Mt. Timpanogos caves every day for exercise. (I think he's slightly delusional, but if he really wants to do it, I'll do it too, as long as he carries Rose.)

Fun Fact: Tressa is in the MTC now preparing to go to the Tacoma, WA mission. (The same mission that Ryan and I served in and where we met!) 

Side note: Writing the caption for the picture of Ryan and his sister reminded me that I am upset that both my sister, Emily, and Ryan's sister, Tressa, will be gone for the next 18 months on their missions because they are the two who would be the most excited/willing to babysit for us for free! How rude is it of them to just up and leave like that?! (I'm mostly kidding, it's so awesome that they are both on their missions right now. Serving a mission was one of the best experiences I ever had and prepared me so much for what I'm doing now. We will miss them though.)

Rose is waking up from her nap so I'll have to finish this up quick. Pretty much, since Ryan started back up at school two weeks ago, we've just been playing catch up and trying to get back into the swing of things. I miss vacation, but it's always good to be home.

Six Week Summer

We had the best Summer ever!

I mentioned the last time I wrote that Ryan got six weeks off from Sam's club because he's a new dad, and we took full advantage of those six weeks! He did work for his aunt for two weeks, but only in the morning. In the time that he had off we:

• Went to a wedding for my cousin.
• Went to my brothers wedding.
• We had Ryan's sister come to stay with us for a few days.
• We went to visit my aunt and uncle in Brigham City.
• We spent a week down in Southern Utah camping with Ryan's family.
• We blessed Rose down in Cedar City.
• We spent a week here with my parents who came up for my brother's wedding.
• We lived on a houseboat at Lake Powell for a week. 

and then reality came crashing back down when Ryan started school and went back to work. But before that, we had a blast and wore ourselves out to our limit. 

I used to hate Sam's club, but their paternity leave is awesome, so they are definitely not at the bottom of my list now. 

I love this picture. Every time we go to visit my aunt and uncle, it is for a big occasion of some sort and there are a ton of people and lots to do and never enough time to sit and talk. I was so bummed to find out that the weekend we decided to go up, my aunt and uncle would be at a wedding, my grandparents were going to California for a week, and everyone else had to work. On the day that we were planning on leaving we decided to stay a little later, and we ended up finally having a chance to sit on the porch, during the sunset, and just relax and talk, almost like the adults used to do when I was a kid and we had our family reunions. This may seem silly, but it actually meant a lot to me and was one of my favorite summer nights this year. 

Rose's Blessing Day

 Jared's wedding.

 My grumpy little girl, also at Jared's wedding.

I think this picture is just the cutest! The UVU library has THE coolest stained glass installment. We took Rose to see it and she loved it. (Until she realized that she was hungry, then the bright colors weren't interesting anymore.)

Pictures from Camping near Navajo Lake... I tried to limit it to only a few, but I have this amazing power to take way too many pictures in a short amount of time... so it's not just a few...

Those eyebrows!

One of the best things about Navajo Lake is that it has FROGS! You just don't really get to see frogs very often in Utah.

This one is at Duck Creek. 

Aunt Megan putting Rose to sleep. 

We left the campsite a night early because the rain was extremely persistent and our tents were filling up with water. This rainbow was a beautiful way for Navajo Lake to say goodbye to us on our way out. :) 

Here are pictures from Rose's Baby Blessing. We had lots of family come all the way to Cedar City to support us and Rose. :) We are so blessed.

Also, the dress Rose is wearing is the dress that I was blessed in as a baby. :) We waited a little longer to bless Rose so that both of our dad's could come and I was worried it would be too small, but it was perfect. :) My grandma made that dress for me 23 years ago. Isn't she darling???

Four generations. :)

Doesn't he make a handsome dad? 

Family Reunion t-shirts

Here are pictures from when my parents and Carson were visiting before Jared's wedding. We all went to Bridal Veil Falls for dinner and a walk. Isn't Carson a cutie? 

Pictures from Lake Powell:

We had so much fun at Lake Powell with my cousins. Rose is a natural and did way better than I thought she would. She didn't scream every time she went in the water, and she got plenty of naps and sleep at night even though there were 20+ people on the boat. Ryan and I even had a couple of chances to go off on a jet ski to go hiking without her.

Ryan wanted another swimsuit for the trip, so the day before we went to Walmart and he was going to get something boring like solid dark blue or grey. I tried to convince him to pick something fun, so he told me that I could pick WHATEVER I wanted for him to wear. ;) This was my pick. He wore them all week like the good sport that he is, until they "mysteriously" got a hole in the back on one of his hikes and they had to be thrown away. :) 

That's me. :) I can do headstands on solid ground, so I thought I'd try on a paddle board. The first try ended with me in the water, but my second try was much more graceful! 

This is Ryan and I attempting our Goga trick on a paddle board. Definitely not as successful as my headstand...

We had the best summer this year. Last Summer we both worked full time at different hours of the day so we didn't have a chance to do very many summer-y things, so we wanted to take full advantage of his paternity leave. Also, growing up in Florida, summer meant spending as much time as possible in a swimsuit in the sun as possible. So, we tried to do that this year, and I think it worked out pretty good. :)

It'll be fun to see what we do with his next paternity leave. (Which will NOT be coming for a while, so don't get your hopes up.)